Zhaoqing's geographical location determines its importance. Since the 43rd year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the Liangguang Governor's Office was moved from Wuzhou, Guangxi to Zhaoqing, and it was not until the 11th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty that it was moved to Guangzhou, which lasted 182 years.

It is precisely like this, according to the situation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The closer to the roads around Zhaoqing, the more flood soldiers are stationed, and there will be guard towers every two to six kilometers, with various flags floating on them, which look very majestic.

In fact, there are only a few to dozens of green battalion soldiers in these guard towers according to the importance of geographical location, led by the general and the thousand respectively. Zhang Zhishan and others at that time were also the thousands of people with these flood soldiers, so they also understood the specific situation.

The green battalion is divided into towns as the highest strategic unit and battalions as the most basic units.

The official ranks of the Green Battalion from high to low are Commander (Province/Standard), General Soldier (Town), Deputy General (Assistant), Staff General (Battalion), Guerrilla, Metropolitan Division, Garrison (Local), Thousand General (Station), and General General. ①

The bandit army went all the way to Zhaoqing, and these guard towers were either touched by the scouts in advance or surrendered directly. Seeing that so many men and horses of the bandit army were approaching, there was no defender who was stupidly ready to fight.

For the surrendered Xun soldiers, Zhang Rui's approach was to take them to Zhaoqing City. One can protect the news from leaking so quickly, and the other is that if the siege does not go well, they can still be on top.

Due to the rapid advance of the bandit army, it was not until the bandit army approached that the defenders of Zhaoqing City reacted.

Zhaoqing City used to be the "accompanying capital" of the Southern Ming Dynasty Yongli and the location of the palace, and its defense is naturally not bad.

I saw that the circumference of its city wall was 742 feet long, 8 feet long, 1 zhang 5 feet thick, 2 zhang 2 feet high, and the city had four gates, namely Song Chong, Zhennan, Duanxi, and Chaotian.

The whole city wall is built with a moat, a water gate, a suspension bridge, an urn city, a city tower, an enemy platform, a corner tower, an enemy tower, a point general platform, a horse road, a battlement, a parapet wall, and a series of city defense equipment and defense facilities such as lacquered wood, ring crashes, fork rods, flying hooks, etc.

There are also more than 20 large and small forts and many military rooms in the city. In the west section of the north city wall, there is a cloud tower that can overlook the inside and outside of the city and monitor the enemy's situation.

At this time, the bandit army came from the west. The school field outside the west of Zhaoqing City was taken down by the bandit army before it could fully react, and nearly 1,000 green battalion soldiers were captured again.

According to the captive Green Battalion soldiers, there were less than 2,000 defenders in Zhaoqing City at this time.

When the bandit army approached the Duanxi River at the west gate of Zhaoqing City, a small moat could be seen, and the moat was directly connected to the Xijiang River.

The speed of the bandit army's march was completely beyond the understanding of the Qing army, and Zhong Shengjia, the deputy general of Zhaoqing (2), who was standing on the city wall and looking down at this time, couldn't help but worry. Although the facilities of Zhaoqing City are perfect, there are too few soldiers who have no choice but to defend the city.

"If only a large number of soldiers and horses hadn't been sent out before, even if there were twice as many people as many as these thieves, I wouldn't be worried." Zhong Shengjia hammered the female wall and said

"General, it's okay. Although these rebels are powerful, they are only mud-legged people who have just gotten up, and they have no siege experience, so they can't afford to suffer many casualties. As long as we can wound their men and horses, the danger of the siege will be solved. Li Guangli, a staff general who followed Zhong Shengjia, comforted

"What about the prefect Niu Fenfang? I asked him to find more people to help defend the city, did he find it? Zhong Shengjia asked the people around him while looking at the continuously gathering bandit army under the city through the female wall

"I've found it, but the wall to be defended is too long, and the people I found have to be divided into other places." Zhou Dasheng, another staff member beside Zhong Shengjia, replied.

"What about others?" Zhong Shengjia was very annoyed that he didn't see Niu Fenfang.

"Back to the general, Governor Niu went down to the nearby City God Temple to ask for blessings. I guess I'll be back in a while. Zhou Dasheng said

"Blessed? When has this been, yet..."

"Forget it, don't talk about it. Let the brethren all work hard, and when this battle is over, all will be rewarded. Zhong Shengjia said loudly

"General Xie."

The people around Zhong Shengjia knelt down and thanked one after another

"Well, pay attention, the anti-thief has made a move. When they get closer, let the cannons on both sides open fire. Zhong Shengjia ordered.

"Yes, General." The flag officer next to him immediately knelt down and answered, and went to the back to convey the order.

There are two towers in the Duanxi Gate of Zhaoqing City, and there are two artillery guns in each of them, a total of four. The artillery is a stationary cannon, which is difficult to move, but even so, it is still a rare weapon for defending the city.

General, it doesn't seem right on the thief's side. Li Guangli pointed to the bandit army outside the women's wall and said.

Zhong Shengjia, who was still discussing with the people around him, heard Li Guangli's words and hurriedly looked over. I saw that sixteen large ladder trucks were slowly pushing towards the city wall, and then the ladder truck stopped about 110 zhang away from the city wall.

Behind the tall ladder trucks, followed by arrow blockers, artillery, and siege vehicles. Then came the captives who were ready to fill the moat.

At this time, the drums of the bandit army sounded.

A piece of the baffle on the stopped ladder car was exposed, and rows of muskets were seen coming out of it.

Due to the distance, Zhong Shengjia and the others only saw the ladder car of the bandit army stop, and they saw a figure in front of them, but they didn't know what they were doing and why they stopped.

"Boom..."

"Knock knock..."

"Knock knock..."

The drums began to beat rapidly.

"Bang..."

The musketeers lined up on the ladder cart fired the first salvo

As soon as Zhong Shengjia heard this voice, the pores of his whole body couldn't help but stand up. Immediately nervously shouted: "All people pay attention to hide." ”

As soon as Zhong Shengjia finished shouting, the musketeers of the Bandit Army had already fired a second shot.

"Poof..."

"Puff..."

"Puff puff..."

At this time, many of the defenders on the wall were knocked down by bullets before they could understand what was going on.

Many people were killed when they saw that the ladder truck, which was slightly taller than them, had just stopped.

Especially the gunners of the turrets on both sides, Zhang Rui named them to concentrate their firepower to hit them first.

When the musketeers of the anti-bandit army fired the third platoon of guns, the arrow blocking vehicles were in action. As the arrow-blocking vehicles advanced one by one, the captives who were hiding under it and carrying sandbags found that everything was not as dangerous as they imagined, and nothing was shooting at all.

True, due to the fact that the gunners were hit hard by the musketeers of the anti-bandit armies. There is simply no one who can go up to it to load and open fire, talk about any danger.

As for those archers, they can only shoot blindly, and it is better not to shoot at all