Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

Jin Shenghuan's army launched a full-scale attack on the city. More than 20,000 men charged in, their battle cries deafening and their momentum overwhelming, even temporarily drowning out the deafening roar of the cannons on the city walls.

All four walls of the city were attacked at the same time. Although the Xingfu Army was strong, the defenders of Qianshan City numbered only four thousand, which meant that each wall had only one thousand men on average.

Jin Shenghuan had a large force, with more than 4,000 men even in the feint attack direction, making the Xingfu Army's forces seem stretched thin in comparison.

Zhou Lei's method for allocating troops was simple and brutal: four thousand troops were evenly distributed among the four city walls, with one thousand troops on each wall.

However, the troop deployment was somewhat different. The north gate was the enemy's main attack direction, and all three hundred new-style musketeers were placed there. Four new-style cannons and three captured Hongyi cannons from Zheng's army were also placed there.

The force attacking the North Gate was clearly Jin Shenghuan's elite troops, so the North Gate faced the greatest pressure, and Zhou Lei also allocated the strongest forces to deal with it.

There's not much to say about the Restoration Army's methods of defending the city. Faced with the enemy troops surging in like a tide, they first used cannons, breech-loading cannons, and tiger-squat cannons to bombard them. They would kill as many enemies as possible before the enemy rushed to the blind spots below the city walls.

The more Jin troops there were, and the more concentrated they were, the greater the firepower of the cannons on the city walls. The various cannons on the city walls fired continuously, and the Jin soldiers fell one after another.

The Jin army was also fierce and brave. After being bombarded by artillery several times and leaving hundreds of corpses on their way to attack, they continued to pile people up under the city walls.

The artillery alone inflicted thousands of casualties on the Jin army, but this did not stop the Jin army's offensive.

Zhou Lei and Yan Huidong felt a chill run down their spines as they looked at the densely packed enemies below the city wall.

This time, the Jin army was much better prepared than the day before, with tall wooden carts to block the molten gold poured down from the city walls and the stones thrown down.

They had tools for digging into the city walls, including pickaxes, shovels, hoes, hammers, chisels...

There were all sorts of siege ladders, including tall wooden ladders that could be directly used to climb the city walls, and ladders made by stacking wooden crates...

On the other side of the city gate, the Jin army also brought in giant logs, and dozens of men carried them and kept ramming them against the city gate.

The Jin army's methods of attacking cities also broadened Yan Huidong and Zhou Lei's horizons.

Ultimately, the Jin army's goal was to send more troops to the city walls, or to quickly breach the walls so that the Jin army could engage the Xingfu army in close combat and defeat them with superior numbers!

If it were any other ordinary garrison troops, they would easily have been defeated by the Jin army's ant-like swarm tactics.

But the Restoration Army had already planned for this scenario.

As the Jin army continued to surge towards the city walls, the Restoration Army bombarded their rear with artillery, keeping the Jin army, whose blind spots were constantly being fired upon, at a manageable level.

Although the Jin army had wooden carts to block the molten gold and stones from the city walls, the number of people who could hide under the carts was limited. For the enemy who could not hide, they were like live targets for the musketeers.

The musketeers used a "three-volley" tactic, continuously firing downwards. Faced with the immense power of the new muskets, the Jin army's wooden shields were easily pierced, and the number of Jin casualties rose rapidly.

The enemy, who were digging at the city wall from under a tall wooden cart, was met with a deadly weapon from the Restoration Army – the exploding shell!

The cannons couldn't reach the blind spots under the city walls, but the exploding shells from the new cannons could be ignited and then thrown down.

The exploding shells, filled with gunpowder and iron filings, were lit and thrown down from the city wall. They first shattered the Jin army's wooden carts, and then were thrown into the crowd, exploding in large numbers.

After a series of deafening explosions, the smoke cleared, leaving behind countless wood chips and a pile of corpses at the foot of the city wall!

This scene not only shocked the Jin army, but also deeply shocked the Xingfu Army, who had never seen a bursting shell explode up close.

The exploding shells were fired by the cannons and exploded in the distance. From a distance, it looked like the exploding shells instantly wiped out a group of enemies. But when the exploding shells exploded under the city wall, not only could you hear the deafening roar, but you could also see the limbs and broken bodies scattered all over the ground after the explosion!

The visual impact of this scene is extremely terrifying!

The timid Jin soldiers were so frightened that they unconsciously retreated, but after dozens of them were cut down by the supervising troops behind them, the Jin soldiers gritted their teeth and continued to attack the city.

The exploding shells of the Restoration Army could not be used indefinitely; each use required Zhou Lei's personal order, so the battle was once again at a stalemate.

Even during the stalemate between the two armies, the Jin army suffered far more casualties than the Xingfu army. This was because, firstly, it was the natural order of things for both sides, and secondly, given equal numbers of troops, the Xingfu army was far more powerful than the Jin army.

Those Jin soldiers who were lucky enough to climb onto the city wall were either stabbed to death by the Xingfu Army's spears, shot to death by muskets, or knocked off the city wall and fell to their deaths before they could even stand firmly. There were all sorts of ways to die!

Therefore, if this continues, the Restoration Army has a high probability of exhausting an enemy force several times its size.

Seeing this, Zhou Lei decided to add fuel to the fire!

Zhou Lei carried the sniper rifle to the observation window below the city gate, placed the rifle, and carefully adjusted the scope's scale and magnification.

With everything ready, Zhou Lei said to Yan Huidong beside him, "Ready? Where's the first target?"

This time, with precise target guidance, Yan Huidong did not use drones.

Having learned from past experiences, drones should be kept out of public view as much as possible when not dropping bombs, thus reducing their visibility and enabling them to achieve a surprise effect when used to strike the enemy in the future.

Unlike now, drones have become "famous". Not only does Zheng Jun know how powerful drones are, but Jin Shenghuan has also heard that drones can drop bombs, so he intentionally hides himself.

It's a bit late to try to fix things now, but it's better than doing nothing.

This time, Yan Huidong only used the drone to mark the approximate location of the enemy general from high altitude. To guide Zhou Lei to the target, more detailed location information is needed.

Holding a telescope, Yan Huidong aimed at the target through another window and pointed it out to Zhou Lei: "The first one is one of the enemy generals commanding this attack. His rank is probably a lieutenant general? Anyway, snipe him first. Location: 11.346 degrees north of east, distance: 557 meters. It's the one wearing armor and carrying a sword..."

No sooner had Yan Huidong finished speaking than a loud sniper shot rang out from Zhou Lei's side.

The adjutant commanding the attack on the north gate was shot through the chest by a sniper bullet. The iron armor he was wearing not only failed to stop the bullet, but the iron plates on the back of the armor were shattered by the bullet, and the fragments spread. The bullet and the fragments of the armor tore open a bowl-sized wound on his body. Bullets, iron fragments, and internal organs sprayed out from behind. This adjutant was beyond dead!

Ignoring the dead target, Yan Huidong pointed out six more valuable targets, all of whom were killed by Zhou Lei with a single shot!

When the first general was killed, the Jin army thought it was caused by a stray bullet from the muskets on the city wall. Although they did not understand why the stray bullet was so powerful, they thought it was just an accident.

When the second general was killed, he sensed something was wrong. Then, when five more centurions were accurately sniped, he finally realized something was wrong!

Without unified command, the Jin army attacking the city began to panic. Zhou Lei ordered the use of exploding shells again, and then casually killed the commander of the supervising team.

The second use of exploding shells finally shattered the Jin army's will to attack, and more and more Jin soldiers began to retreat out of fear.

The supervisory team, which had just been in a panic because of the death of the commander, saw more and more deserters fleeing back. At first, they were able to kill a few deserters, but later, the supervisory team members who took action were hacked to death by the deserters. The Jin army's supervisory team no longer had any deterrent power.

Before Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren, who were watching from the rear, could react, the Jin army attacking the city from the north gate retreated like a tide.

Jin Shenghuan was furious and hurriedly ordered an attempt to stop the retreat of the attacking army, but was informed by a messenger that the two adjutants who were commanding the attack at the front line had died.

Jin Shenghuan, who had been full of vigor and chatting just moments before, slumped down, his expression complex, and remained silent for a long time!