The Mongols were not good at defending the city, but the chief general Su Bude, who guarded Guihua City, was half a Han Chinese. His 3,000 defenders, of which 2,500 were Han Chinese herd slaves. Most of them were former Ming border troops in northern Shaanxi. Due to drought, some of them were unwilling to escape from the thief's garrison border troops and defected to the Tumotes and became Muslims. Li Hong selected a group of military households from the Muslims and joined the Tumotes army. This time, these Han people came in handy.

Li Hong once received the city defense technology taught by Li Guodong. As early as the past few days, he had ordered the creation of various city defense weapons.

At the head of the city of Naturalization, piles of bonfires were lit, with iron pots on it, and boiling hot gold juice was boiled; winches were placed on the head of the city, and the winch was hung with yaksha squats, wolf teeth slap and other cities; turret tanks and lime bottles were placed on the ground; tiger squat cannons, ferry machines and other cannons were installed behind several battlements near the city gates. In order to strengthen defense, large wooden shields were stood on the top of the city, and knife chariots were also arranged on the city walls to prevent accidents. Above the city gate, heavy rocks were arranged to destroy siege rushers.

Of course, compared with Li Guodong's city guarding equipment, Li Hong guarded Guihua City, and there were fewer heavy city guarding weapons, such as trenchers, heavy artillery and other weapons, and there was no bastion. That was impossible. The Mongols were not good at defending the city. Guihua City was located on the grassland, lacking wood and stone, and lacking gunpowder and heavy artillery. Li Hong was unable to create more city guarding weapons. The only eight tiger squat cannons and four light squat cannons were fired when military households escaped from the frontier. The Tumotes did not know how to cast cannons, and there was not so much iron to cast cannons. Fortunately, Guihua City only had two gates north and south, and four tiger squat cannons and two Folang cannons were placed at each gate.

Zeng Tao, a confidant of Li Hong, stood at the top of the city and looked at the Qing army camp outside the city. He knew that the Qing army would start to attack the city early this morning. Zeng Tao was originally a Ming army clerk from Yulin Guard, but later came here with a group of military clerks who escaped from the pass and were taken over by Li Hong. Because he knew how to command the battle, he was promoted to a Qianhu of the Han army clerk of Tumote. He had more than 200 Han soldiers under his command holding three-eyed guns, all of which were firearms brought out by the fugitive military clerks.

Chen Xu, a hundred households, stood behind Zeng Tao, and looked at the Qing army camps that were bounded outside the city. He was a little worried, not knowing whether he could defend Guihua City. Like every Han shepherd slave who came to Naturalization, he did not want to see Jiannu break through Guihua City. When the Han people came to Tumote tribe, they could still keep their net scarves and hair tied with Han people's clothes. If Guihua City was broken and they were forced to surrender to Jiannu, they would be forced to shave their hair and change their clothes, shaved them into Jiannu's rat tail, and put on Jiannu's clothes. This is a necessary condition for Jiannu to surrender.

At one o'clock in the morning, Zeng Tao heard the sound of gongs and drums and horns sounds in the Qing army camp. Then he saw the gate of the village open, and a cannon was pushed out by Wu Zhenchao Ha soldiers. Then Baoyi Aha and others pushed shield chariots slowly towards the city. Behind the shield chariots were followed by Wu Zhenchao Musketeers and Manchu Eight Banners archers. The Korqin Mongolian cavalry rode on horseback, holding riding bows. Although the range of the Korqin people's archers was very close, they could ride horses and quickly approach the city wall, shoot a round of light arrows at the top of the city, and then quickly rode their horses away.

To be honest, the Tumotes had very poor equipment. Except for Li Hong and several officers who had thick armor, most of the other Mongolians and Han people were not wearing armor, and the better-conditioned only had one piece of leather armor. For defenders with such equipment, Mongolian cavalry and shooting with the help of war horses to shoot at the top of the city can cause great casualties.

"Jiannu is going to fire, be careful to hide himself!" Zeng Tao shouted.

The small flags on the top of the city were shaking, and the officers of the small flags of each general flag reminded the soldiers guarding the city to pay attention to avoid Qing army artillery attacks.

Balls of white smoke rose from the Qing army's positions, and the roaring cannons sounded, and the southern wall of Guihua City was immediately shrouded under the Qing army's artillery fire.

Looking down from the city tower, the dark siege Qing army seemed to spread to the end of the horizon. From Chen Xu, the entire front of the south of Guihua City, to the corner of the east and west of the city, were running and howling Korqin Mongolian cavalry everywhere.

The number of Qing army artillery was beyond Li Hong's expectations. He had known that Li Guodong had cooperated with him to sneak attack Wuzhenchaoha camp halfway through and destroy some Qing army artillery. However, the artillery brought to the city of Guihua by the Qing army was still as many as 200! Among them, there were twenty-six general artillery, one hundred and thirty-one field artillery, and seventy-three Folang machines. This cannot be blamed on Li Guodong. Li Guodong's attack had destroyed all thirty red cannons of the Qing army, as well as half of the general artillery and nearly half of the field artillery, and also destroyed twenty-seven Folang machines. If Yue Tuo had not sent people to rescue him in time, Li Guodong could have destroyed the artillery team of the Qing army's Wuzhenchaoha camp.

The artillery in Guihua City only had pitiful twelve guns, and Li Hong told the gunners not to act rashly, so as not to be destroyed by the Qing army's artillery fire without exerting their maximum power.

More than 200 artillery guns in the Qing army roared, and each round was filled with more than 200 solid iron balls of different sizes roaring, majestic and shocking.

Even the city walls transformed by Li Hong were solid and about two meters high were covered with large blue bricks. However, the city walls were bombarded by these solid iron balls, and the bricks and stones caused by splashing, making people worry about whether the city walls would be bombarded by the Qing army.

Under the fierce artillery fire, there was almost no one standing at the battlements. Many officers and soldiers in the south of the city were injured by the gravel caused by dense artillery fire on the battlements of the city walls. The artillery soldiers in the city did not dare to fire and counterattack. As long as they dared to put the cannon out, they would be immediately covered by the overwhelming artillery fire of the Qing army.

The number of defenders was only 3,000. After the invention of artillery weapons, the casualties ratio of siege and defending the city decreased significantly, and it became increasingly difficult to defend the city. Li Hong was worried about whether he could defend the naturalization for one month as Li Guodong's request. It was necessary to defend for one month. After one month, the Mongolians in the northern desert, Chahar Mongolia and Li Guodong's Ming army joined forces to have a way to deal with the Qing army.

Hanggao, hiding behind the city wall, shivered and kept chanting "Blessings by Buddha". Seeing Li Hong passing by, Hanggao grabbed him: "Brothers Subud, can we defend it? The Jurchens' artillery fire was too fierce."

"It takes as long as you can, and try your best to help the Khan hold the Jurchens back. If we really can't hold on, we will surrender to the Qing Dynasty." Li Hong sighed and said.

Hang Gao was shocked: "I heard it right? Brother Subude, don't you hate the Jurchens the most? How could you think of surrendering?"

Li Hong laughed: "It is better to live than die. Anyway, it is worthy of the Khan. If you really can't hold on, you will surrender. I believe that the Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty wants to recruit us Mongolians. If we surrender, they will not make things difficult for us."

A glimmer of hope appeared in Hang Gao's eyes: "Okay, then when brothers Subude decide to open the city to surrender, don't drag me down, I will join you in the imperial examination."

"But we can't open the city and surrender now! At least we have to help the Khan delay time so that he can safely go to the north of the desert. If we open the city and surrender now, our Khan, Khalkha and Chahar will be harmed by us! We still have to have this loyalty. So I blocked the city gates. Without my orders, no one can open the city gates."

In the two city gates in the north and south, there are long stones on the town behind, and a brick wall is blocked behind. Even if someone wants to collude with the Qing army to open the city and surrender, it is impossible to open the city gate. Unless the brick wall is smashed, the long stones can be removed. Then it will make a noise to attract the attention of the city.

The fierce artillery fire of the Qing army made the female walls on the Nancheng city wall crooked the corners of the female walls like dogs gnawed. The female walls in many places had collapsed, revealing the city behind.
Chapter completed!