Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

Night fell, and a cold wind whistled.

The Xin'an River has many tributaries in its upper reaches. The main force led by Yan Huidong took the remote trails on the northern route, wading through four tributaries in succession to avoid Qing scouts. By the time they arrived north of Huizhou City, it was already past midnight.

A cold wind blew, and Yan Huidong shivered from the cold. Although the tributaries were shallow, after wading through four tributaries in succession, the lower bodies of every soldier in the Xingfu Army were soaked. They hadn't felt too cold while marching, but now that they had stopped, they were all shivering from the cold.

Some people took off their pants, wrung them out, and then put them back on. People followed suit, and more and more people took off their pants and wrung them out, including Yan Huidong.

But it didn't really have any effect; the clothes were still wet, and they were still freezing cold when worn!

Yan Huidong looked at everyone shivering from the cold and thought to himself: If this continues, everyone will definitely catch a cold. There is no effective medicine for colds in this era, and it is easy to develop into a serious illness. It seems that we can't wait any longer. We must launch an attack on the city immediately, and after we take Huizhou City, we will start a fire to dry our soaked clothes!

Yan Huidong then contacted Chen Shaoping, who was stationed southeast of Huizhou City, via walkie-talkie, and ordered Chen Shaoping to launch an attack on the city immediately.

On Chen Shaoping's side, all the soldiers of the Restoration Army slept fully clothed in their armor, ready to fight at any time.

This was both to guard against night attacks by the Qing army and to prepare for an attack on the city at any time.

After hanging up the walkie-talkie, Chen Shaoping ordered: "The troops shall assemble and prepare to attack the city!"

In the silent, cold night, a sharp whistle rang out in the Xingfu Army camp. This whistle not only woke up all the sleeping Xingfu Army soldiers, but also the garrison of Huizhou City, a mile away.

The garrison of Huizhou City was awakened by the distant whistles. With sleepy eyes, they looked at the Xingfu Army camp a mile away and saw that the Xingfu Army had lit countless torches, illuminating the dark night sky.

The Restoration Army, chanting resounding slogans, quickly assembled.

Upon seeing this, the soldiers guarding the city wall hurriedly ran to inform the brothers Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu.

Before long, Zhang Tianlu and his brother also climbed the city wall and looked at the Xingfu Army in the distance, which was already in neat formation and marching towards Huizhou City.

Zhang Tianlu sneered, "They're truly courting death, daring to attack the city in the middle of the night!"

In Zhang Tianlu's view, the fact that the Restoration Army dared to launch an attack on the city with a small force was already overestimating its own strength, let alone launching an attack in the middle of the night, which was a major taboo in military strategy!

The attacking side is naturally at a disadvantage. At night, visibility is low, and soldiers often suffer from night blindness and poor eyesight, which further amplifies the attacking side's disadvantage.

Compared to the attacking side, the defending army does not need to make complex tactical deployments or constantly make tactical relocations, so the night has a relatively small impact on the defending side.

In Zhang Tianlu's view, the Restoration Army's move was either courting death or being arrogant and conceited!

Because Zhang Tianlu suffered some losses during the day when he tried to stop the Xingfu Army from crossing the river, he dared not underestimate the Xingfu Army and urgently mobilized two thousand troops to deal with the Xingfu Army's attack on the city!

Thanks to the fact that the Qing army dared not leave the city, the Restoration Army calmly pushed the four new cannons forward slowly. When they were about 250 meters away from the city wall, they calmly set up the cannons, loaded the shells, and the artillerymen pulled the ropes to ignite the gunpowder with flint.

The dark and tranquil night sky was shattered by a flash of fire and a loud bang.

Cannonballs loaded with shrapnel bombarded the defenders on the city walls, forcing the Qing troops to keep their heads down.

There were also cannons on the city wall, but they were all old general cannons with fixed positions. The range of the cannons could only be adjusted, not the angle.

Zhang Tianlu quickly ordered the general cannons on the city wall to return fire, but the general cannons on the city wall were under close scrutiny and were being targeted by the new army cannons. The new cannons first used solid shot to blast open the crenellations, and then fired explosive shells to destroy the general cannons' gun emplacements.

While the cannons suppressed the defenders on the city walls, the musketeers of the Restoration Army calmly arrived at the moat. Without even crossing the river, they aimed at the crenellations breached by the cannons and unleashed a volley of fire, causing heavy casualties to the Qing soldiers who had no time to take cover!

Faced with the powerful firepower of the Restoration Army, Zhang Tianlu was shocked and furious, but there was nothing he could do. The Qing army was facing the Restoration Army's brand-new tactics, which made full use of their firepower advantage, simple yet effective.

This simple tactic was invincible against the Zheng and Jin armies! The only way to break it was to gather several times the number of troops and advance with lives on the line!

Zhang Tianlu, with his rich experience, naturally saw the solution. He hardened his resolve and ordered, "Gather our forces and prepare to leave the city!"

Zhang Tianfu loudly advised, "Brother, we can't do that! Look, no matter how powerful the Restoration Army's artillery is, it can only blast open the parapet at most. The city wall is tall and thick; they can't do anything to the main body of the wall. Let's withdraw all the defending troops first, and then we'll go up when the Restoration Army gets on the wall!"

At this moment, Zhang Tianlu calmed down. He had been stunned by the cannon fire of the Restoration Army and felt that he would be defeated sooner or later if he was passively attacked. In his anger, he only thought about counterattacking.

Under Zhang Tianfu's persuasion, Zhang Tianlu finally realized: Why must we hold the city wall? We should withdraw our troops first, and once your Restoration Army has climbed the city wall, we can organize several times the number of troops to attack. The Restoration Army is also on the city wall, and they will be hesitant to use their firearms. At that time, everyone will be using cold weapons, and it will be a battle of numbers!

Seeing that the Qing army had withdrawn from the city walls, Chen Shaoping ordered: "Spearmen and musketeers shall take turns scaling the city walls in a zipper-like fashion, with spearmen dealing with the enemy infantry and musketeers prioritizing the enemy archers!"

The Restoration Army had already prepared long wooden ladders, which were placed over the moat to serve as temporary wooden bridges, and then they quickly crossed the river.

After crossing the moat, place the wooden ladders on the city wall and begin climbing!

The Qing army had already withdrawn from the city walls to make way, so it would feel like a disservice to the Qing army's "humility" not to attack the city.

The Restoration Army quickly scaled the city walls and formed ranks to counter the Qing army's counterattack.

Just then, a bright flash of light came from the north, illuminating the night sky, followed by a deafening explosion that shook the entire city of Huizhou.

A huge fireball rose from the site of the explosion, and billowing smoke filled the air, as if the end of the world had arrived.

The soldiers and civilians throughout Huizhou City were all stunned by the explosion, their heads spinning and their ears ringing. For a moment, everyone was momentarily lost in thought.

It turned out that when Li Chengming and others were discussing the siege plan, they found that even using conventional tactics, it would take at least two hours to breach Huizhou City.

Anything could happen in those two hours. If the Qing army set fire to the supplies, the Xingfu Army's plan to march on Hangzhou would be completely ruined, and they would have no choice but to turn back or occupy Huizhou City on the spot.

Because it was related to the success or failure of the restoration plan, we could not hope that the Qing army would not burn the granaries, no matter how low the probability was. We could only speed up the attack on Huizhou City.

The final solution was to blow up the city wall directly. A regiment of over a thousand people, each carrying one pound of gunpowder, would have a total of one thousand pounds of gunpowder.

Mixed with 100 kilograms of gelatinous bombs, which are several times more powerful than gunpowder, even the thickest and strongest city walls could be blown down.

So they simply dug a large pit under the city wall, then put gunpowder and gelatinous explosives into a large iron box, buried it, and set it on fire to detonate.

After a massive explosion, a gap of nearly twenty meters was blasted into the stone-built city wall, which even cannons couldn't break.

After the explosion, before the smoke and dust had even cleared, Yan Huidong led a main force regiment to quickly enter Huizhou City through the collapsed gap.