"Newspaper"

"Eight hundred miles of emergency military situation!"

A fast horse with a command flag quickly rushed into the city of Nanjing, and rushed in the direction of the imperial palace, a herald of a large army on the front line, bringing urgent military information from Shandong.

On the 21st day of the fourth lunar month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng's general, Liu Zongmin, the former general of the Dashun Dynasty, led an army of 80,000 to capture Dezhou, Shandong, and arrived at the city of Jinan and began to surround the city of Jinan.

"Supervisor, Liu Zongmin's army suddenly appeared under Jinan City, and now it has been surrounded by our Jinan City, and it will attack at any time." In the city of Jinan, Lu Yanshou, the deputy commander of Shandong, came to the governor's palace and reported to the superintendent Shi Kefayu.

"Didn't you just arrive in Texas yesterday? Why was it possible to come to the city of Jinan in one day, and it was difficult for the city of Daozhou to fall so quickly? Shi Kefa stood up in shock and said angrily.

Dezhou didn't hold on for even a day before it fell, and without even a person to report the news, Liu Zongmin's army came to the city of Jinan Mansion first, which made Shi Kefa not angry.

"Back to the superintendent, the Texas defender surrendered, so there was no news coming back, I didn't expect Liu Zongmin to invade Shandong this time with three red-coated cannons and more than a dozen general cannons, and even the Texas defender surrendered directly without opening the cannon, it's really cowardly." Lu Yanshou said disdainfully.

"Damn, the Texas guard dares to betray the Ming Dynasty, and this governor must ask the emperor to behead him all over the house." Shi Kefa gritted his teeth.

"Immediately follow this superintendent to the castle tower to have a look." Shi Kefa got up and walked outside.

Outside the city of Jinan, Liu Zongmin is in the big tent of the Chinese army.

"It's a pity, I didn't expect to be alerted by the defenders of Jinan City and close the city gate in advance, otherwise Ben Hou would have led the army directly into the city, instead of waiting for the slow-flowing red-clothed cannon."

"Where is the redcoat cannon now?" Liu Zongmin asked.

In the face of the muzzle of the red-coated cannon and his own prestige, Liu Zongmin conquered the city of Dezhou, which was garrisoned by 5,000 people, and the troops were under the city of Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, which made Liu Zongmin a little complacent, leaving behind the slow-moving red-coated cannon to lead the army to attack overnight, thinking that he could take advantage of the unpreparedness of Jinan Mansion to capture Jinan Mansion in one fell swoop, take the entire Shandong, and sweep the road to attack Jiangnan Remnant.

It's a pity that the defenders of Jinan were alerted in advance and closed the city gate, and now they can only wait quietly for the red-coated cannon and more than a dozen other general cannons to arrive.

"Back to Master Hou, there are still more than thirty miles of land." A staff member replied. After Li Zicheng became emperor in Beijing, Liu Zongmin, as Li Zicheng's confidant general, was named Marquis of Ru.

"Although the red-clothed cannon is sharp, it is too heavy, desperately transported, and it can only go forward for twenty miles a day, too slow, if it can have the usual speed of the army, Ben Hou has already taken Jinan City at this moment." Liu Zongmin sighed.

The size of the red-coated cannon is very large, the entire cannon body weighs thousands of catties, and it is already extremely amazing to travel more than 20 miles a day, which is still in the case of sunny weather, if it rains, it is basically difficult to move an inch.

Jinan City is the provincial capital of Shandong, a strategic location, garrisoned by 50,000 troops, Liu Zongmin only has 80,000 troops, and if the red-coated artillery does not arrive, he will not rashly attack the city and increase casualties.

On the city wall of Jinan.

Shi Kefa took his own soldiers and deputy chief soldier Lu Yanshou to the city tower and looked at Liu Zongmin's army under the city.

"Inspector, Liu Zongmin is the general of the thief army, known as the ability to command the army, not to be underestimated, should we ask the imperial court for reinforcements?" Lu Yanshou looked at the neat appearance of Liu Zongmin's army under the city, and his morale was not low, and he was slightly worried.

"Humph! If the 80,000 thieves attack our Shandong, the Governor will ask the imperial court to send more troops and horses, then once Li Zicheng leads hundreds of thousands of thieves to kill, shouldn't the Inspector immediately abandon the city and flee? Shi Kefa snorted coldly and said angrily.

"It's the subordinates who are cowardly." Lu Yanshou lowered his head in shame, a moment ago he was sarcastic about the cowardly surrender of the Texas garrison, but at this moment he actually said such weak words, he was really ashamed.

"Look at the appearance of the thief army, there will be no siege today, let's go back first." After Shi Kefa finished speaking, he ordered several generals to pay attention to vigilance, and then took the lead in going down the city wall.

On April 23, the red-coated cannon that Liu Zongmin left behind him was finally transported to the city of Jinan, along with twenty old-fashioned general cannons.

"Hahahaha, the cannon has finally arrived, and immediately push the red-clothed cannon up for Ben Hou and bombard Jinan City." Liu Zongmin laughed domineeringly, and commanded the soldiers to push the red-clothed cannon forward, together with the old-fashioned general cannon, a total of twenty-three cannons.

"Overseer, the thief army is about to attack the city." A herald quickly came to the Governor's Mansion to report to Shi Kefa.

"Go to the walls." Shi Kefa hurriedly hurried to the city wall.

"The defenders of the city, hurry up and surrender to the city, my marquis can spare you your death!"

As soon as Shi Kefa climbed the city tower, he heard someone shouting under the city, and when he looked down, it turned out that it was a thief army who ran to the city wall to show off his might, and wanted to shout for him to surrender? It's really ridiculous, he is a dignified governor of Ming Shandong, even if he dies in battle, he can't suffer such insults.

"Shoot this thief with arrows at this overseer!"

A rain of arrows fell, and the thief under the city could not dodge and was shot to the ground.

In the distance, Liu Zongmin saw this, and immediately became furious: "What a Ming dog who doesn't know what to do, order, all the red-clothed cannons are fired, and Benhou will attack Jinan City before dark!" ”

"Boom!" Three red-clothed cannons fired at the same time, three iron balls weighing more than ten pounds pierced the air, roaring, in the middle of the front of the city wall, smashed several pieces of masonry, broken bricks and stones scattered in all directions, a Ming soldier on the city wall was a piece of gravel in the middle of the door, immediately fell to the ground and screamed, blood stained the whole face, extremely miserable.

The other Ming soldiers next to him turned pale with fright, and some of their legs trembled.

"Order the cannons on the walls to fire back!" Shi Kefa ordered expressionlessly.

There are four city gates in Jinan City, with a total of thirty-two cannons guarding the city, and there are eight on the walls of each city gate.

"Boom!" As the herald passed down the order, the eight cannons on the city wall all opened fire, and eight iron balls weighing several pounds fell on the open space hundreds of meters away under the city wall, splashing a large cloud of dust, but unfortunately, all the thieves were out of the range of the city wall cannons at this moment.

"Supervisor, the other party fired the red-coated cannon just now, and the range is farther than ours, and the general's cannon on our city wall can't reach it at all." Lu Yanshou said aggrievedly.

Shi Kefa gritted his teeth and reluctantly ordered the cannons on the city wall to stop firing.

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