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The next day, when the fire was still burning there, it spread throughout the whole city of Wuchang, and it was the Han people who set the fire.

That's right, it's Han Chinese!

Not only is it spread like this, but even on the most conspicuous wall at the entrance of the general soldier's office, I don't know who wrote a sentence.

"Everyone who is a traitor will be punished!"

The characters were written with a brush, and each word was the size of a person, and it was very eye-catching and conspicuous on the white brick wall, but it only took a moment to spread throughout the city. And when Liu Tiren saw the slogan written on the wall, his face instantly became waxy.

And Su Tao, who was beside him, tried to lead the troops to extinguish the fire last night, which made him already gray and black, his eyes were red, and he shouted through gritted teeth in annoyance.

"Get out of here, fuck off!"

At this time, the onlookers made an uproar and scattered. Then Su Tao ordered people to go around to find out who burned the grain, and at the same time ordered people to calm the street, and all the people were not allowed to leave the house. At this time, all the houses in the entire granary and the rice grain in it were still burning, and everyone knew that the grain in this silo would definitely turn to ashes, and for the side defending the city, the lack of food was the most annoying place.

After hearing the news, Liu Fangming's whole person fell into silence, so that he didn't see anyone for several hours, didn't speak, and didn't even need to be passed on, he also knew that this granary was burned.

"Everyone who is a traitor will be punished!"

After hearing that someone wrote such a sentence outside the yamen, Liu Fangming did not feel angry, he knew his identity, he was not afraid of others saying that he was a traitor, nor was he afraid of retribution, but he was unwilling to endure such an insult.

After all, in his opinion, this is simply insulting him, stepping on his face and urinating, and this word is written on the gate of the yamen.

When Liu Tiren came, Liu Fangming, who was choked by the choking smell of smoke, asked.

"Did you find out?"

"That can be found out,"

Liu Tiren said helplessly.

"I really saw a ghost, saying that the fire was like a warehouse guarded by people, one after another, and it was rumored that it was a ghost fighting fire in this army."

Ghost fire!

Because the fire in the warehouse was so weird, I didn't see anyone, I only saw the fire, and the fire was like someone lit there, one after another, and such a strange fire naturally became a ghost fire in the mouths of ordinary soldiers.

"It's all about retribution......

"Bullshit, if there were ghosts in this world, your father and I would have died a long time ago......"

First, there was a violent coughing sound, and then Liu Fangming looked at his son and said.

"This is a fire deliberately set by someone, and it is our own people, outsiders, outsiders can't release such a fire, they are afraid, they are afraid that Lao Tzu will defend in this Wuchang City!"

Thinking that someone is starting to fall into the well now, Liu Fangming is even more angry and ashamed, he feels that this fire is not strange, it is not even necessarily a fire set by the Ming army, it must be a fire set by his own people in the army, if this fire is not ignited, it will not be so big at all.

"Dad, you mean? Say...... Someone wants to dedicate the city! ”

Liu Tiren looked at his father in horror, he hadn't thought about it at all.

"Some people want to exchange our heads for their wealth, these mongrels, they think I don't know their minds!"

Liu Fangming, who seemed to be dying, seemed to be connected when he could speak, but he was panting, and Liu Tiren, who was standing next to the bed, hurriedly stepped forward and said.

"Dad, don't be angry, who do you say, my son is going to kill him!"

"Kill?"

Sneering, Liu Fangming shook his head and continued.

"It's useless to kill, there is more than one person who set the fire, but this person's position is definitely not high, he burns food not for anything else, he just wants to mess with our military heart, I estimate, next, there must be someone who wants to find an opportunity to sacrifice the city, after all, there is no food, this city must not be able to hold, this Wuchang can not hold it anyway, even if this granary is not burned, it is estimated that once the fight starts, maybe someone will still sacrifice the city, now that the food is gone, people's minds will come alive, when the time comes, that person will definitely stand up and connect others, At that time, there will definitely be someone who will open the door and dedicate the city for their net worth, and when the time comes, the heads of our two masters will be the credit for their advancement! ”

For Liu Tiren, who has experienced the changes of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, he naturally understands these things well, if he has the opportunity, he will also do this kind of thing, in order to protect himself, everyone has their own choices, and they also have their own methods.

"Dad, if, if that's the case, this, what can I do?"

Hearing what his father said, Liu Tiren immediately realized the danger and hurriedly asked in surprise.

"You do it first......

whispered to Liu Tiren, and then, Liu Fangming said again.

"This matter, do this first, first stabilize people's hearts temporarily, as for the rest, we have to take a look again, you can rest assured, our Liu family's head must not become a stepping stone for others!"

In the afternoon of the same day, while the fire in the granary was still burning there, in front of the gate of the general army's yamen, more than a dozen soldiers who were tied up with flowers were tied to wooden pillars, all of them drooping their heads, and they were actually dying. And the front of the yamen was also crowded with the officers and soldiers of each battalion.

Later, Liu Tiren announced their crimes, the fire was caused by them drinking in the camp and knocking down the oil lamp, and the decay of the well rope was because the grain depot officer was incompetent and failed to inspect it every day, so the well rope rotted, and such a crime naturally could not survive, and he should be beheaded according to the military order. Although the dozen or so soldiers couldn't stop shouting that they were wronged. But he was still cut off his head.

More than a dozen heads were then hung in front of the yamen, but the fire was still burning. The fire burned for two days and three nights, and when the fire burned, the white ash flew all over the sky, and a thick layer of white powder sank into the roof tiles and yards of every house. After the flame was extinguished, the unburned grain pile still revealed a scorching red light in the night, and the entire Wuchang City was filled with the smell of burnt steamed buns. A sudden rainstorm completely extinguished the embers and washed the dust from the roof tiles and leaves.

And after the ashes of the rice burned fall into the ground, it is the best fertilizer in the crop field, to determine the rice fields outside Wuchang City, there will be a bumper harvest, but this does not seem to have much to do with the people in the city, at most some business-minded businessmen, quietly spent silver to buy the ashes in the granary, after all, the ashes of those rice burns are the best fertilizer, can be sold for silver, as long as the city gate is opened, it can be bought at a high price to the nearby farmers......

A few days later, a terrible "rumor" spread throughout the city that the city had run out of food! However, this news does not seem to need to be spread, nor is it a rumor, everyone knows that after this granary is burned, there will definitely be no food in this city. When the price of rice rose to a dozen taels per stone, news spread in the city, and some people starved to death at home because food was too expensive......

No one knows how many days this city will be encircled, no one knows how many days this city can be defended, but the soldiers of Ningxia Town on the city wall, when they looked at more and more Ming troops outside the city, their faces became more and more pale, and without food, how many days could this city be defended?

Wuchang City must not be able to hold it!

There is no need to ask, everyone knows very well that without food, this city will naturally not be able to hold it, the question is how many days can it be held? Also, when will the Ming army attack the city?

When the Qing army on the city wall stared at the outside of the city, they all thought about when the Ming army would attack the city, and even they began to worry, worrying, the Ming army should not want to starve them to death!

Just when some soldiers were even thinking that it would take a few days, it was estimated that they would start killing the people in the city, and then eat human flesh to satisfy their hunger, there were more boats on the river, and the entire Jiangnan was almost filled with river boats, and the main force of the Ming army finally arrived at the city of Wuchang.

On August 21, Li Ziyuan led the main force to finally arrive in Wuchang, thousands of warships of different sizes, suddenly covered the river outside Wuchang City, from Hanyang to the Hankou Town around the river, warships are densely packed, looking east and west, there is almost no end in sight, just look at its grand occasion, even not inferior to the original Zheng Chenggong Northern Expedition gathered in Nanjing more than 100,000 Northern Expedition troops, although compared with Zheng Chenggong's fleet, these ships are mostly small boats, but even so, still make the Qing army in the city frightened. also let them know that the Ming army is afraid that it will soon attack the city.

"Liu Fangming's grain and grass are gone!"

Long before coming to Wuchang, Li Ziyuan had already been informed about the fire in the city, and although he didn't know how the fire started, he still laughed.

This fire burns so well!

This fire not only burned Liu Fangming's grain and grass, but also burned the possibility of his fortress defending the city. If it were someone else, it was estimated that he would order the army to besiege the city, but Li Ziyuan had his own ideas, and he would not waste too much time in Wuchang.

After all, his eyes have never been on Wuchang, of course, he will not hope to pin his hopes on the siege, a more important reason is that as early as when he was in Jiangyin, he learned a little from Zhu Mingzhong - long nights and dreams!

The most taboo thing for the besiegers is to besiege the city day and night, so they will only dream a lot at night! Who knows what will happen if it doesn't drag on for a long time?

Just like in Nanjing, why did the Qing army try to use the strategy of delaying the army to paralyze the country's surname, isn't it just to wait for reinforcements? If it weren't for Zhu Mingzhong, who pretended to be reinforcements, opened the gate of Nanjing, and then captured Nanjing, I'm afraid that it is not certain who will win and who will lose in this Northern Expedition.

Because of this, under the influence of Zhu Mingzhong, Li Ziyuan will never delay even a day under the city, before coming to Wuchang, he has already made up his mind, once the main force arrives in Wuchang, he will immediately attack the city, of course, before the siege of the city, the soldiers need to rest for a day or two, after all, the siege of the city requires them to devote their most energy to it, like Zhu Mingzhong's bloody battle in Tongjimen, it is simply to take the whole army as a bet, for Li Ziyuan, who regards the army as the foundation, naturally does not have his courage.

After anchoring in the middle of the river, Li Ziyuan immediately ordered the guards to send an order, and the water and land generals would come to the ship tomorrow to deploy troops to attack the city, and then he stood on the deck to watch the huge lineup of sailors. When the division was out of Jiujiang, the warships stretched on the long river, and now they are crowded together to berth, and they are more and more numerous, and unconsciously, Li Ziyuan only felt a stirring, and said to a few cronies around him heroically.

"With such a dignified sailor, why can't we control the river and choke the lake, make the Yangtze River my forbidden area, make Dongting and Poyang my inner lakes, and the cities along the river are all in our bag."

As soon as his words fell, Zhao Jiquan smiled over there:

"But no, when we left Nanjing, how could we have thought that there would be this day!"

Leave Nanjing!

When they left Nanjing, they were all bare, and most of the soldiers under them were pulled away by Zhu Mingzhong.

Zhao Jiquan's words immediately caused a burst of harmony, when they were in the Houjin camp, they never thought of today, and when they left Nanjing, they were even more panicked, but now, they are all generals in the army, what a majesty this is.

Li An, who was standing on the other side, said on the side.

"Of course, it is unthinkable to have today, but, Junmen, we are now soaring, but it is absolutely impossible to rely on this sailor to control the river and the lake, just our small boats, how can we be the opponent of the loyal and righteous army sailor?"

As soon as Li An's words fell, he suddenly saw a multi-oarled gunboat hanging the red background of the Loyal Army, and slowly sailed over, and the sailors of the Loyal Army on the ship roared from time to time to let the ships in front of them avoid, in fact, they didn't need to shout, when the surrounding ships saw this big ship, they all avoided it, the hull was as high as Zhangxu, and the captain was more than ten zhang. Several Hongyi cannons could be clearly seen on the side of the ship, and at the stern of the ship, an officer of the Loyal and Righteous Army stood motionless, and when he passed Li Ziyuan's ship, he only turned his head slightly, all looking indifferent.

"What the hell is this Sun Anming, when he was under the master, he was just a group of leading soldiers, and when he saw Lao Tzu, he had to kneel, and now he has to get up!"

Zhao Jiquan looked at the rude look of the person on the boat, and immediately shouted indignantly.

Sun Anming was the commander of the left wing of the Yangtze River Water Division of the Loyal and Righteous Army, and was a subordinate of Zhao Jiquan.

"Hmph, these loyal and righteous soldiers are all lords who have their noses up to heaven, and there will be us in their eyes!"

Listening to everyone's words, Li Ziyuan smiled and waved his hand,

"They have the capital to be proud, you look at the warships sent by the Loyal Army Sailors this time, 6 multi-oared ships with 16 guns, and 10 multi-oars boats with 10 guns, this is 200 Hongyi cannons, plus more than 200 Franc machine fast guns on 20 multi-oars fast boats, one sailor is worthy of our entire sailor! What are you doing all this year? It's strength, people are stronger than people, so they naturally don't look down on us! ”

As soon as Li Ziyuan's words fell, Zhao Jiquan complained over there:

"There's no way, who makes Jiangbei rich, the two Huai salt farms are in the hands of Zhu Junmen, not to mention anything else, just the salt, it's millions of taels of silver a year, and with the silver, you can naturally get as many Hongyi cannons as you want."

As soon as Zhao Jiquan mentioned the two Huai salt farms, some people around him complained about the high price of salt in recent months, and attributed the high price of salt to Jiangbei's control of Huai salt.

The Yangtze River Naval Division was invited by Shao Sima to come to help in the battle, and the siege and land grabbing along the way also relied on the sharp artillery fire of the Yangtze River Naval Division, but all the cities along the Yangtze River were simply vulnerable in front of the naval artillery. Thinking of the arrogant words before, Li Ziyuan's brows tightened slightly, and his face became ugly.

"With such a dignified sailor, why can't we control the river and choke the lake, make the Yangtze River my forbidden area, make Dongting and Poyang my inner lakes, and the cities along the river are all in our bag."

I am afraid that this sentence is more appropriate to describe the loyal army!

What a dignified Yangtze River sailor this is, I'm afraid that even Prince Zheng's sailors can't be compared with it, after all, most of Prince Zheng's sailors are sea boats, but the Yangtze River sailors of this loyal army are all river boats.

If you want to sit firmly in Wuchang, you have to run a water master!

Thinking like this in his heart, Li Ziyuan suddenly smiled.

"Zhu Junmen's sailor is indeed mighty, when we take Wuchang, we will build a military ship in Wuchang, when the time comes, we will not only build these sixteen-cannon centipede boats, but also build twenty or thirty guns, with the wealth of Huguang, if you want to run a sailor, is it not easy?"

The next morning, the battalion commanders gathered in Li Ziyuan's cabin, and Zhang Mingjin, who was also out of the battalion, shouted as soon as he got on deck:

"Junmen, the sailor hit Wuchang this time, I guess there should be nothing wrong with them. The brethren have been sitting in the boat all day long, so it is time for us to go ashore and be in good spirits, right? ”

Zhang Mingjin's words made Li Ziyuan laugh.

"When attacking the city, of course, you need to go ashore to attack. But don't think that the sailor is fine, when the siege comes, you have to point to the sailor to use their dozens of pounds of heavy artillery to bombard the Wuchang city wall, if the Wuchang city wall collapses, our brothers can't just hit it? Besides, there are still Yuezhou and Jingzhou that need to be recovered, and only in this way can the periphery of Wuchang be consolidated. Many cities around Wuchang are now in the hands of the Qing army, we have to send troops to sweep, and then we will divide troops to garrison, Wuchang is only the first step, if you want to stand firm in Wuchang, you have to sweep the surroundings, how can this be separated from the water division? ”

Zhang Mingjin smiled on the side:

"Junmen, I'm just coarse, I only know how to use brute force, this march to fight, or you are doing it, it seems that this sailor can really come in handy."

Li An on the side sneered on the side.

"This water master can come in handy, but that water master is not ours, maybe we will take Wuchang down here, and they will go back to Anqing over there, don't forget, Shao Sima just asked them to help us defeat Wuchang."

Li An's words made Li Ziyuan's brows frown slightly, but then he smiled:

"The sailors of the Loyal and Righteous Army are gone, we don't have a sailors, I expect that after this battle, Hong Chengchou will definitely establish a water battalion to compete with us for the Yangtze River and Dongting, so our sailors must be strengthened, with large ships with multiple pulp, which can carry heavy artillery and a large number of soldiers, and also have mobile and flexible multi-pulp boats to facilitate the charge. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to select brave brothers who understand the nature of water from among the Lu teachers to go to the water camp. The land camp and the water camp are like our left and right wings, and if one of them is missing, we can't fly into the sky. ”

Zhao Jiquan squinted his eyes and snorted, as if he was thinking about something, and said after a while.

"Junmen, I figured it out, two wings, one can't be broken. My subordinates also understand water, and my surname is not selfish, so let's choose from my army first. ”

As he was talking, several officers in red military uniforms got on the boat, led by Pan Ziqin, the commander of the Yangtze River Naval Division of the Loyal and Righteous Army, he was born in the Cao Gang, although he had no old grudges with Li Ziyuan and others, but because he knew that Li Ziyuan was born as a rebel general, he was naturally not pretended to be colored, and he was followed by the wing commanders of the left and right wings, and Sun Anming, the leader of the left wing, because he was a veteran of the Loyal and Righteous Army, was naturally full of dissatisfaction with Li Ziyuan, Sun Xingping, Wang Jiaoquan, Zhao Jiquan and Li An and others who had betrayed the Loyal and Righteous Army. There was even a little indignation on his face.

After they got on the boat, everyone naturally stopped complaining as before, and saluted Li Ziyuan, and then asked in a steady tone.

"Li Junmen, I don't know what the military gate has planned for the siege of Wuchang this time, and how will my sailors cooperate with your army to attack the city at that time?"

For Pan Ziqin, all he needs is to complete the task, as for whether the Western Expeditionary Army can capture Wuchang is not what he considers, all he needs is to cooperate with the other party to fight, but although he is extremely dissatisfied with Li Ziyuan, he will still help him conquer Wuchang as much as possible.

"You're welcome!"

Li Ziyuan clenched his fists and said.

As the saying goes, the way of using soldiers, attacking the heart is the first, and the siege is secondary. We came all the way, the Qing prisoners were already frightened by our army, and the soldiers of Ningxia Town were all northerners, after they arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, because of the water and soil dissuitability, half of the soldiers in the army were injured by dysentery, and the current morale is extremely sluggish, who is willing to defend the city with his life? If you want to attack this city. It is only necessary to attack the city with the collapse method, wait until the tunnel is dug, and then as soon as the gunpowder sounds, this Wuchang City will naturally be broken, and there is no need for a large army to attack the city. However, in order to avoid the Qing reinforcements to reinforce Wuchang, I am ready to send another division to capture Yuezhou, Yuezhou holds the mouth of the Dongting River, if Yuezhou is in the hands of our army, then the flood thieves naturally cannot reinforce Wuchang, in this way, Wuchang will inevitably be light, so I hope that the Admiral can send a sailor to help me capture Yuezhou, I don't know what the Admiral thinks? ”

For Li Ziyuan's order, Pan Ziqin naturally couldn't refuse, after all, Li Ziyuan said very clearly that the capture of Yuezhou was to prevent the reinforcements sent by Hong Chengchou, which was also within the scope of capturing Wuchang.