In the camp of Emperor Guan's army, dozens of steaming cauldrons were placed, many of which were boiling a whole pot of horse meat.

Every time there is a battle, the Guan Emperor army participating in the war can always let go of their stomachs and eat meat, because there are always many dead and wounded military horses on the battlefield.

Even, Qin Chuan showed mercy and gave each of the thousands of captives a small bowl of broth......

He only brought 15 military rations with him on this expedition, and now he has eaten most of it, and there is not much food left, so those prisoners can only drink gruel, but Qin Chuan gave them a small bowl of broth in order to make them have the strength to go to Lou Fu, so he regarded him as a good person.

Among the captives, the elite of the old battalion, or the traitors, have all been taken out and their heads have been cut off, firstly because he has saved some food, and secondly, he does not have so many troops to escort these old battalions to Lu'an Mansion.

After cutting down a group of people, there were 5,000 captives left, and if these captives were released, they would either starve to death or continue to take refuge in the rogues for a bite to eat.

Therefore, they will be sent back to Lou Fu, just like the prisoners they have captured before, and then placed in various villages.

In the past month that Qin Chuan came out to suppress bandits, the population of Jingle Lan County has increased dramatically, and with the addition of these 5,000 captives, it has exceeded 65,000 people.

Although there are many rivers in the hinterland of Luliang Mountain, there are many fertile fields on the riverside, but it has always been a mountainous area, and the Jingle County, Lan County and Loufan County in later generations are all small counties with a small population, and the three counties have a total population of 450,000.

At today's agricultural level, these three places can accommodate up to 100,000 people.

Not counting the grain brought by the iron trade, and not counting the incident that Qinchuan came back from the robbery, it takes at least 400,000 mu of arable land to feed these 100,000 people.

However, even if the farmland is constantly reclaimed, the cultivated land in Qinchuan is only 150,000 mu.

In other words, the population is overloaded, and the more food is being eaten, the less it is eaten.

After this battle, Qin Chuan will no longer deliberately come out to recruit hungry people and captives, so he can only go with the flow and let the population grow slowly.

It's time to expand next year.

It is also necessary to take the food in the pacification of the city.

……

When the person who spoke for Yan Zhang was brought to Qin Chuan, Qin Chuan was gnawing on a large piece of meat and eating it with his mouth full of oil.

After listening to the words of the visitor, he smiled and said, "I have always spoken with sincerity, and when the hour comes, and I still can't see the food I want, before dark, I will go into the city and get it myself." ”

The messenger ran back in a gloomy manner.

Yan Yuzhang and the others were waiting anxiously at the head of the city, and when they saw the messenger running back, they all stretched their necks and looked down.

When the messenger arrived at the city, he raised his head and shouted: "Lord Yan, Lord Shao, the surname Qin said that he is full of words, and when the hour comes, if he can't see the food he wants, he will personally go into the city to get it before dark." ”

Yan Zhang's face turned pale.

Shao Anxian was furious: "Hmph! He is a small guerrilla general, so ignorant of what to do, do you really think that his 1,000 soldiers and horses can attack Pingding City? ”

"Come, transfer the firearms of the other city gates to the west gate, and then notify the hometown gentlemen, and ask them to send more young and strong guards to help defend the city, and when the rampant rebel surnamed Qin comes, he will definitely teach him a hard lesson."

Shi Chengliang on the side hurriedly said: "Lord Shao, if the firearms from other city gates are transferred, what if he attacks other city gates?" ”

Shao Anxian frowned unhappily: "If he turns to attack other city gates, and then transfers the firearms, do you still have to watch him turn to attack and sit idly by?" ”

Shi Chengliang hurriedly lowered his head: "The lower officials are just afraid...... I'm afraid that the soldiers will be tired and tired, after all, the weight of those Fran cannons is not light. ”

"Humph! What's so tired? It's just a few hundred catties of iron, but it's just a few more people, not to mention, the surname Qin came from afar, won't he be tired when he turns in? ”

"This ......"

"Shi Qianhu, shouldn't you be afraid of the person surnamed Qin, and be afraid of the battle?"

"The lower officials don't dare."

"Ahem."

Yan Yuzhang, who had not spoken for a long time, cleared his throat and said: "Lord Shao, what Shi Qianhu said also has some truth, now that the city gates of the south gate and the west gate have been burned down, and the moat has been filled, it is better to leave two Franco machine guns at the south gate, just in case." ”

Seeing that Yan Zhang also spoke, Shao Anxian pretended to ponder for a moment, and then nodded: "What Lord Yan said is very true, then leave two Furlong cannons at the south gate." ”

Immediately afterwards, Yan Yuzhang, Shi Chengliang and others rushed to gather firearms and arrange defense.

After the gentry in the city learned that the negotiation with the surname Qin had collapsed, they sent almost all of their families to assist in the defense, and the city of Pingding, which had finally quieted down, was once again in a mess.

There was also a bustle outside the city, the prisoners who had just been captured were busy collecting wood everywhere, and the Guan Emperor army was also busy using wood to build shield carts, large shields and other equipment.

The city gates of the west gate and the south gate have been burned down by the Liukou, Qin Chuan didn't want to bother to make a cloud ladder to enter the city, according to the Liukou's method, just push the shield cart to the city gate and dig out the bricks and stones in the door hole.

When Qin Chuan arrived earlier, the rogue who was besieging the city had already pushed the shield cart back, and now it was placed outside the city.

All you need to do is repair and reinforce them.

Before setting out on the expedition, Qin Chuan deliberately brought a lot of Mawang nails, which were large staples that could quickly nail up the wood and were extremely strong.

The great shield of the rogue was also used, and four wooden wheels were added to the bottom, so that they no longer had to carry forward, but directly pushed forward, thickened and widened, increased legs, and all of them were supported by logs, which could resist the bombardment of the little Franco's cannon fifty paces away.

There was also a small hole in the middle of the shield that allowed the musketeer to hide behind and shoot.

In addition, Qin Chuan also made four wooden towers, two feet high, as high as the walls of Pingding City, and thick planks were erected at the bottom to prevent the feet from being hit by artillery.

From time to time, they will pick a few sharpshooters and shoot them on a high platform with the best flintlock pistols.

When his subordinates were busy, Qin Chuan had been holding binoculars to observe the situation at the head of the city, and Zhao Wu and Liao Sangun were also observing the city gates on the north and south sides.

When Zhao Wu came with the news that some of the bird guns and tiger squat cannons at the south gate had been removed, and only two Franco machine guns were left, Qin Chuan divided half of his troops and horses, and asked them to rush to the south gate, and build siege equipment there, making it look like they were going to storm the south gate.

The defenders in the city had just moved a few tiger squat cannons, bird guns, and ammunition to the west gate, and after discovering the south gate of the division surnamed Qin, they hurriedly moved those firearms and ammunition back.

However, the part of the troops surnamed Qin ran back to the west gate, and the defenders in the city hurriedly moved their firearms and ammunition to the west gate, and not long after, part of the troops surnamed Qin slipped to the south gate, and the friendly troops in the city hurriedly moved their firearms and ammunition back to the south gate......

Shao Anxian's face turned green.

Shi Chengliang shook his head behind him and sighed helplessly.

He has seen too many of this kind of civilian officials who don't know the soldiers, but have to point fingers.

Yan Yuzhang really couldn't see it, so he cleared his throat and said, "Lord Shao, those firearms should be left at the south gate." ”

Shao Anxian nodded with a stiff face: "Lord Yan is Jining Bingxian, everything is up to Lord Yan." ”

The big-headed soldiers who carried firearms and ammunition and the village warrior guards finally had to take a breath.

Qin Chuan also took all his troops back to the West Gate.

In the afternoon, just after the hour, Qin Chuan rode alone to the west gate a hundred steps away, looking up at Yan Zhang, Shao Anxian and others in the city.

"All the lords in the city, Qin only asks you one sentence, the granaries of many village gentry clans in the city are full, but why are they starving all over the city?"

Hearing this, Yan Yuzhang opened his mouth, but he couldn't say a word.

Shao Anxian snorted angrily: "Hunger is a natural disaster all over the wilderness for many years, and the rogues are raging, what do you have to do with the squires in the city?" ”

"Huh."

Qin Chuan smiled and said, "This adult seems to have a bit of truth in what he said, according to what the adult said, Pingding City was besieged by rogues, what does it have to do with me?" ”

"In order to pacify the city, Qin's soldiers died hundreds of people in battle, which is owed by Pingding City to Qin, and Qin went in to get food to pay off the debt."

With that, Qin Chuan turned his horse's head and slowly walked back, and raised his hand with a wave.

"Siege!"

"Kill!"

At the sound of an order, hundreds of Guan Imperial troops shouted in unison, and two shield carts the size of huts, materials on four high platforms, and dozens of large shields slowly advanced towards Pingding City, followed by twenty tiger squat cannons and six small Fulong machine guns.

The road ahead has been flattened by the rogues, and not only all the trenches, but even the moat outside the city, have been filled in by the rogues.

The heavy shield cart creaked slowly forward under the impetus of dozens of Guan Di troops shouting trumpets.

The high platform was not easy to move, so only half of it was put together, and the rest of the materials were carried forward by the soldiers, and when they reached a hundred paces, they were quickly nailed up with horse king nails.

Qin Chuan's siege tactics were very simple, suppressing the city head with fierce firepower, so that the people in the shield car could smoothly dig out the opening, and then blast the artillery into the opening.

His Tiger Squat Cannon and Franc Machine Gun have a range of about twenty or thirty paces farther than the equivalent artillery of the Ming army, but the Ming army is condescending at the head of the city, and the firing range is also farther than that of flat ground, and the artillery strike distance of both sides should be about the same.

However, at the west gate of Pingding City, there are only a dozen tiger squatting cannons, two small Francophone machines, and the number of artillery in Qinchuan is twice as large, and there are ruler sights that Chen Zhan learned from the Francophone man, which can be shot more accurately, and there are also fixed propellants, and the rate of fire is faster.

Coupled with two hundred flintlock muskets with a range of more than 100 paces, they could overwhelm the defenders at the head of the city.