There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 446 The Recapture of Xuzhou
The city wall slope was narrow, and although the Han army launched an attack, they still maintained a small-scale mandarin duck formation.

This formation is both offensive and defensive, and it is still quite modern even today. It can also be used to fight in narrow terrain.

The Qing troops on the slope were already in complete disarray, utterly unable to resist the Han army's Mandarin Duck Formation attack.

The Qing army was the Qing army. Even though they could suppress the White Lotus Rebellion and the White-Headed Army in Henan and Shanxi, they immediately showed their true colors when they encountered a regular army like the Han army.

The breach in the city wall's slope is rapidly collapsing.

Not only the Qing troops on the breached section of the city wall, but also the Qing troops on the other sections of the city wall were caught off guard by the Han army's all-out attack.

The Han army had prepared ample siege equipment, including cloud chariots, trench bridges, and various other siege weapons, leaving the Qing army completely on the defensive.

Even if these Eight Banners troops from the north did have some fighting ability, they were poorly prepared, lacked sufficient supplies for defending the city, and couldn't be transported in time, so they simply couldn't fight.

The Han army didn't even need to use many methods; they simply hung the chariots on the city wall, and the iron hooks easily caught the parapet, leaving the Qing army completely helpless.

They couldn't push it down, nor could they cut it down; they could only watch helplessly as the Han soldiers climbed up.

In their panic, the Qing army simply poured the dung pot, which hadn't been boiled for days, onto the cloud cart as if it were molten gold.

These aged golden juices had been stored for a long time, and since it was summer, the hot weather had caused them to ferment completely.

If you pour that whole pot of poison down there, the person is basically beyond saving.

Many unfortunate Han soldiers, faced with this utterly disgusting method of city defense, were still drenched in water even if they sustained no serious injury, and some couldn't withstand it and fell off the cloud chariots.

They won't die, but most of them have broken bones.

And that's all there is to it.

The Han army's siege force was actually less than one-fifth of the Qing army's. Even if all of them were used to attack the city, it would still be too few compared to the Qing army's garrison.

But it's okay, it's still the middle of the night, which is normally rest time, and it's still rest time in the barracks.

Due to the haste, the Qing army could only manage to assemble troops in the camps near the city walls; the troop assembly efficiency of the remaining camps was extremely low.

This wasn't just a difference in organization and discipline between the Qing and Han armies; the Qing army also hesitated to assemble too quickly. They feared that a hasty assembly might ignite the soldiers' volatile emotions, leading to a mutiny.

Once the chaos erupts, there's almost nothing that can be done. The only option is for another, more organized army to fight until the disorganized troops stop on their own.

The Qing troops that managed to catch up and gather support were less than half the strength they had during the day.

That's normal. Anyone who's sleeping soundly and is suddenly woken up and told to get ready for a tough time is unlikely to be able to keep up.

The Qing army's defenses on each section of the city wall were collapsing rapidly, even faster than the arrival of reinforcements.

Several sections of the city wall collapsed before reinforcements could even reach them.

The disorganized soldiers collided with the approaching reinforcements, and together they fled in a chaotic and disorganized manner.

When they were winning battles, these Qing soldiers were all incredibly brave and fierce, each one a reincarnation of Lü Bu.

Now that we're fighting a losing battle, a losing battle where defeat is already evident, what's the point of playing?

slip away!

When Yinghe heard the soldiers report the damage to the various sections of the city wall, a chill ran through his heart.

Although the collapse of the Xuzhou city wall was sudden and the Han army seized the opportunity to launch a general attack on Xuzhou, he still had nearly 50,000 troops.

That's an army of 50,000! They shouldn't have been defeated so quickly, right? At the very least, the two sides should have been locked in a stalemate for a few days before finally surrendering Xuzhou when neither side could hold out any longer.

Having listened to the battle reports throughout, and glancing at the torches constantly rising from various sections of the city wall, Tie Bao thought for a moment and said, "General Ying, the Southern army has breached the outer city defenses. If we wish to continue defending the city, we must first retreat to the inner city of Xuzhou. Moreover, please forgive my bluntness, but of the army you brought, only the Eight Banners troops from outside the pass and the Solon army are somewhat capable of fighting. The rest are a rabble and cannot engage the Southern army in a fierce battle!"

Kang Jitian also said, "The outer city wall can no longer be defended. Even if we manage to hold back the Southern army now, this section of the wall is missing, so it is definitely impossible to defend. Blocking it won't help. If the Southern army can destroy one section of the wall, they can naturally destroy the second section as well. The tunnels dug in the previous two months must have been dug for this purpose. The only way is to retreat to the inner city first. There are no tunnels of the Southern army in the inner city wall, so we may be able to rely on them for some defense."

These three officials were no longer the foolish, pseudo-Qing officials they once were; or rather, they no longer cared about shifting blame and dared to seriously consider how the Han army actually destroyed the city walls.

The specific methods may still be unclear, but at least it is known that they are related to tunnels; otherwise, the Han army would have blown up the city walls and attacked the city long ago.

Ying and the other man adopted their advice and retreated into the city with their personal guards.

The Qing troops still fighting on the city walls were all abandoned by Yinghe. For him, the Eight Banners were not important; the Eight Banners and the Solon Army outside the Great Wall were the assets he could not afford to lose.

Fortunately, it was late at night, and even though Yinghe ran into the inner city, most of the Qing soldiers on the city walls were still completely unaware.

Of course, whether you realize it or not makes no difference; the defense line has completely collapsed, and those that haven't collapsed yet are being dragged down with it.

The Qing army was either already defeated or on the run. Those who were barely fighting desperately were unable to even take a few of their own down with them when faced with the Han army's Mandarin Duck Formation.

What's so great about the Eight Banners in cotton armor? A single thrust of their spear formations would take them all down.

Within an hour of the siege, the Han army captured the southern wall of Xuzhou, killing and killing over a thousand Qing soldiers. The ramparts along the city wall were littered with corpses.

Most of them were Qing soldiers, with a few from the Han army. Attacking the city late at night, and facing Qing troops who outnumbered them several times over, casualties were inevitable.

The Han army wasn't composed entirely of war gods; there were always times when they were caught off guard or died from exhaustion during the siege. The southern outer city wall was breached by the Han army, and the various city gates were gradually opened.

(Note: In normal city defense, the city gates are not blocked. Blocking them would actually lower morale, unless it is an isolated city like the Anxi Protectorate...)
The main force followed with torches and filed into the city through the gates. Some, in order to speed things up, simply skipped the gates and entered the city directly along the ramp leading to the breach.

The main force of the Han army entered the city, and Yinghe had just led more than 10,000 troops into the inner city to prepare for another defensive push.

Within the city of Xuzhou, the streets were brightly lit, or rather, they were on fire.

In order to hinder and delay the Han army's pursuit, Ying and the other two set fires and created chaos along the way as they led their troops back.

After the Han army entered the city, they found that the southern district was in complete chaos, with flames everywhere and many local ruffians taking advantage of the confusion to loot. There were even some Qing soldiers who had fled from the city walls earlier; instead of running away, they were killing and robbing.

Yang Fang was both angry and helpless, and could only say to Bai Nan, "Brother Bai, I trouble you to lead your troops to quickly quell the chaos in the southern city and at the same time put out the fire and comfort the people. As for the inner city of Xuzhou, I will personally lead the army to attack it. Do you think that these mere pseudo-Qing Tartars can hide in the inner city and there is nothing we can do about them?"

Bai Nan had no objections. He was only there to join forces and provide assistance. The command of the Jiangbei war zone was under Yang Fang's control, not his. He also didn't like to steal credit from others.

The Han army split up again, with Bai Nan leading his men to quell the chaos in various places and arranging for people to put out fires and rescue people.

Yang Fang personally led the remaining two thousand troops and swiftly marched towards the inner city of Xuzhou.

"Boom boom boom!"

Yang Fang did not blindly fill in the lines and launch a strong attack. Instead, she waited until all the cannons were deployed before firing a volley at the inner city wall.

Ten cannons fired, and several sections of the inner city wall's parapet were blasted away.

The inner city was ultimately not as well-defended as the outer city; it was easily damaged by even a slight cannonball.

Yang Fang was about to order the vanguard battalion to carry the cloud carts and, under the cover of artillery fire, forcefully attack the city.

Suddenly, the city gates opened.

(End of this chapter)