Taiyuan City has been bombarded for five days.

The north gate has been completely smashed, and the bricks and stones blocking it have also collapsed a lot, and most of the walls above and around the north gate have been severely peeled off, and in one place a large piece of rammed earth has collapsed.

There was no longer a single intact female wall on the city, almost all the battlements had been blown down, and the city was full of potholes, broken bricks and cannonballs, and it was difficult to find a place to stand.

In this case, it is difficult for the defenders to organize an effective defense, and if Qin Chuan attacks the city, he can attack it at any time.

But Qinchuan did not attack the city, because there will inevitably be a large number of casualties when attacking it, Taiyuan City is the Jin king's feudal country, and the officials inside will inevitably resist desperately, there will be certain casualties from entering the city, and after entering the city, they will face fierce street battles, and they will also attack several other city gates, attacking Jin Wangfu, Ninghua Wangfu, Hedong Wangfu, Yining Wangfu and many other palaces, as well as various gentry and big families in the city.

Qin Chuan only had 3,000 soldiers and horses on hand, and if this amount of troops poured in, he might have to fall into the quagmire of street fighting.

You must know that there are more than 10,000 defenders in the city, and if the city officials and gentry pay more money to mobilize the people, it will not be a problem to gather 20,000 or 30,000 defenders to come out.

Moreover, it is difficult to give full play to the maximum power of artillery and muskets in street fighting, and the enemy hides in a corner and throws bricks, or fires cold guns and arrows, which may cause casualties to the Guan Emperor's army.

Taiyuan is not Qinchuan's strategic goal, and it cannot be lost here.

Preserve your strength and sweep all the way to the south, and the harvest of money and food is no less than the looting of a Taiyuan city.

Therefore, on the sixth day, Qin Chuan still didn't say anything, and directly pushed out the cannon to continue to bombard the city.

The people in the city couldn't stand it anymore.

Before the bombardment began, Wu Fu hurriedly summoned the guards and officials in the city to discuss countermeasures.

Because news has just come from the east: Shouyang City has fallen.

Zhangjiakou Fort Fan family and several other merchants were attacked in the north of Shouyang City, Liu Liangzuo led the troops to rescue, unfortunately ambushed, defeated, Liu Liangzuo led the remnants of the army to retreat to Meng County, Qin Chuan's general Liu Youzhu immediately waved Shouyang City, only half a day to break the city.

Zhang Yixiang of Shouyang Zhixian County, Cheng Tao Zhishu of the county, Wang Shiying, general of Shanxi East Road, Wang Youyi of Zhangjiakou Fort, Zhai Zheng of Zhai Jia, Tian Shengqi of Tianjia, Shouyang Jinshen Mengniu, Yin Lili, Li Yi and others were beheaded, and their heads were hung above the four gates.

In addition, there were as many as 1,000 soldiers, officials, gentry, and family guards who were killed or beheaded in battle, and seven gentry and merchants in the city were looted, and more than 7,000 stone of grain, more than 30,000 taels of silver, and countless pieces of cloth and silk, cattle, sheep and horses were looted.

However, Emperor Guan's army left 100 taels of silver and 100 stone of grain for each of the gentry and merchants, saying that they were leaving a way to live.

Moreover, Emperor Guan's army did not commit any crimes against the ordinary people in the city, neither killing indiscriminately nor looting at will.

Not only that, but they also killed all the ruffians, gangsters, gangs, and villains in the city, and slaughtered them all without leaving a single one.

This move made the people in the city who were originally trembling applaud, and when Emperor Guan's army left Shouyang City, many people took the initiative to pack up their belongings and follow them away.

There are also tenants, long-term and short-term workers in the families of various official gentry, etc., who have also been coerced and taken away by various means such as coercion and inducement.

In the end, there were more than 7,000 people who left Shouyang City with Emperor Guan's army, which was more than half of the city's population.

Now, those Guan Emperor troops and ordinary people are coming towards Taiyuan City.

Wu Fu knew that he could no longer sit still.

When the Guan Emperor army converges with Qin Chuan, the other party is likely to attack the city immediately.

The north gate has been bombarded with holes, and it is impossible to defend it at all, and it is impossible to defend it.

Therefore, early in the morning, Wu Fu's face was ugly, and after everyone arrived, he asked with a dark face: "Now, what should I do?" ”

Everyone hurriedly lowered their heads, looked at their noses and noses, and no one dared to squeak.

"Humph!"

Wu Fu was a little annoyed: "Wang Zhong, this matter started because of you, what do you say?" ”

"This ......"

Wang Zhong's face was also ugly, so he hurriedly got up and bowed his hand, and said, "Lord Futai, I'll wait...... As long as you hold on for another three or five days, and wait for reinforcements to arrive, you can solve the crisis of Taiyuan. ”

Wu Fu slapped the table: "Hmph! Reinforcements, where are the reinforcements you are talking about? ”

"Shouyang City fell, Liu Liangzuo avoided Meng County, Yanmen Pass Jiang Hao had 2,000 troops but said that he was ill, and ignored Benfu's urgent orders three times and five times, Ni Chong and Zhang Dechang had 4,000 troops stationed in Jiaocheng and Wenshui, but they lied that Emperor Guan's army was pressed by Luliang Mountain and did not dare to rush to help Taiyuan."

"Where are the reinforcements you are talking about?"

"This ......"

Wang Zhong was speechless, so he had to lower his head and dare not say anything.

"Humph!"

Wu Fu slapped the table again.

Xia Zhixian, the prefect of Taiyuan, said cautiously: "Lord Futai, it is better to let the gentry in the city give some money and food, recruit the people in the city, gather 20,000 troops to go out of the city to fight the Qin thieves, and defeat them in one fell swoop." ”

"Out of the city to fight? Don't you know how sharp the Qin thief's firearms are? The 20,000-strong army went out of the city, and I am afraid that it was crushed by his artillery before even the army was arrayed. ”

"Besides, the Qin thieves have 2,000 soldiers and horses who are plundering everywhere south of Taiyuan, if we go out of the city to fight, those 2,000 soldiers and horses will inevitably run too far again, who will resist when the time comes?" Reading Temple

Hearing this, Xia Zhixian also hurriedly lowered his head and stopped talking.

"Lord Futai, it's better to ...... Let's make peace. ”

In the tense atmosphere, a cold word came from the corner.

Everyone present turned their eyes over, only to find that the person who spoke turned out to be Du Yingtang, the commander of the Shanxi capital.

Since Wang Zhong entered Taiyuan City with thousands of soldiers and horses, Du Yingtang has gradually withdrawn from everyone's field of vision, with Wu Fu and Wang Zhong here, he can't speak at all in terms of military affairs.

"Peace?"

Wu Fu frowned.

"That's right, negotiate peace."

Du Yingtang stood up, bowed to him, and continued: "Lord Futai and General Wang have just arrived, and they may not know Qin Chuan very well. ”

"This person is completely different from the leader of the Liukou, and he is also different from the Guanwai Tartars, Dongnu, etc."

"Qin Chuan, this person, pays the most attention to two words, one is profit, no profit can not be early, no time to take profit, he does anything, if he does not get enough benefits, he will never give up."

Another word...... It's mighty. ”

"Will?"

Wu Fu frowned again.

Everyone present was also puzzled and looked at Du Yingtang in confusion.

Du Yingtang cleared his throat and continued: "That's right, the second word he pays the most attention to is the word Wei. ”

"Back then, he commanded Wei Shijie and others, and he robbed the military land in Ninghua, and killed his people, and the result was ...... The heads of Wei Shijie and the three hundred personal soldiers he brought were hung outside Taiyuan City. ”

"Zhen Wuwei commanded Xu Tingrong, the son of Xu Yijie, to eat empty wages in Ninghua, and also collided with Qin Chuan in public in Xinzhou City, Qin Chuan said that he would take Xu Tingrong's life, but Xu Tingrong died outside Xinzhou City under the protection of hundreds of personal soldiers."

"King Ninghua...... cough, when Xu Dingchen and Lord Xu were still the governor of Shanxi, Zhang Zai, who praised Zhang Zai, had contacted all forces, mobilized hundreds of elites to pretend to be merchants, and went into Lou to assassinate Qin Chuan, but he didn't expect that the heads of those people were all hanging outside Taiyuan City. ”

"When the two hundred Jiannu elites infiltrated Lou Fu to attack and kill Qinchuan, he put the heads of Jiannu at the feet of Lord Xu, saying that he wanted to shed a river of blood, and later it really flowed like a river."

"Including Jiannu, two hundred Jiannu wanted to kill him, but not long ago, there were no less than 20,000 Jiannu who died in his hands."

"From the three hundred head trees to Xu Tingrong's death, what Qin Chuan did was to Liwei, just to tell everyone that he was not easy to mess with, and whoever provoked him would be a situation of never dying."

"Now, Liu Liangzuo, Zhang Yixiang, Wang Shiying and others robbed him of silver, but Liu Liangzuo was seriously injured, and Zhang Yixiang and Wang Shiying were beheaded and hung in public."

And Mr. Wang ...... cough, General Wang killed dozens of his Guan Emperor soldiers, arrested his people, and robbed him of his property, how could he give up? ”

"Everyone knows that he is attacking the Hetao recently, probably because he doesn't want to lose his troops in Taiyuan City, otherwise he would have attacked it early."

"But, if he can't get enough benefits, he can't kill people...... With his temperament, I am afraid that no matter how big the casualties are, he will attack and kill a river of blood in Taiyuan City. ”

"Therefore, we can only negotiate peace with him."

"It's just that the condition for peace negotiation is that he must be given enough benefits and a chance to kill people and establish his authority, that is, he must be given money, food and people, and the amount is not small, and the grain is likely to cost more than 5,000 stones, and more than 10,000 taels of silver."

"For Lord Futai, this number may be very large, but if it is evenly distributed to the gentry and heroes in the city, it is not too much at all, and it is enough for each family to take a few hundred dollars of grain."

"As for killing people......

Speaking of this, Du Yingtang glanced at Wang Zhong, and then said: "His people died at the hands of General Wang Bing, and his property was also robbed by General Wang, so this matter has to be solved by General Wang Bing." ”

"Master Du, what do you mean by this?"

Wang Zhong frowned and stood up.

Du Yingtang was not afraid, and only smiled lightly: "What Du means is that if you want to negotiate peace, you still need to hand over a few people to pay for your life, otherwise you can't talk about it." ”

"This ......"

"Master Du, are you sure to make peace with the Qin thief?" At this time, Wu Fu suddenly interjected and asked.

"I don't dare to say that I am sure, but I have dealt with Qin Chuan in a humble position, and I can say a word or two with him, and I am willing to give it a try."

"Hmm."

Wu Fu stroked his beard and nodded, and did not ask any further questions, but lowered his head and fell into deep thought.

After a long time, Wu Fu suddenly slapped the table: "Okay, that's it, Master Du, you will go out of the city today to negotiate peace with Qin Chuan, and strive to let him withdraw today." ”

"General soldier Wang, you hand over the people who killed and robbed Qin Chuan's subordinates, and let him vent his anger."

"As for the money and food for peace talks with him...... All of you here, this matter will be handed over to you, as long as the gentlemen of Taiyuan City are mobilized to donate so many hundred dollars and grain, it will naturally be enough. ”