Chapter 3 Wheat Grabbing

Since the Chongzhen period, locusts and droughts have been adherent, and then the soldiers and thieves have been plagued, and the people have no livelihood.

But the situation every year, there is still some emphasis, Chongzhen's thirteenth year focuses on natural disasters, while Chongzhen's fourteenth and fifteenth years, but mostly man-made disasters, of course, this man-made disaster not only refers to the righteous army, but also the official army, or the various armed forces active on the ground in Henan.

It's just that they don't feel it themselves.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, not much wheat was planted, that is, some were planted near the prefectures and counties. The vicinity of Kaifeng is probably the largest winter wheat planting area in the Central Plains. It is not because of the natural disasters in Henan that they cannot be planted everywhere, but only Kaifeng can be sown.

But the place where the Ming court has the ability to maintain and control order is only Kaifeng City, which is near this provincial capital.

Outside of Kaifeng City, more than ten miles away, it is a barren.

However, even so, this tens of miles of wheat fields was an extremely important treasure in this era of famine.

Even though the rebels looted the Guide Mansion, the grain and grass were not too sufficient, not to mention the Kaifeng City, the catastrophe of previous years, if you did not get the food supplement of this season, there was no need to besiege the city, and the city would starve to death.

Therefore, this battle for wheat is a battle of life and death.

Yuan Shizhong and Zhang Xuan stood on a high place, and they could see the situation clearly within a radius of several miles.

The battle for wheat is divided into two parts. Part of it is a rush to collect.

Among the rebels, the young, the strong, the old and the weak went into battle together, lined up, desperately harvesting wheat. And it is not from the periphery to Kaifeng City, but directly a few miles below Kaifeng City, cutting off the wheat field from the middle. Naturally, the officers and soldiers refused and sent people to stop it.

The rebels also sent men to stop them.

The men of both sides fought in the wheat field.

Because it was in the middle of a wheat field, the brigade was useless. It's all based on squad fighting.

Vast expanses of blood were sprinkled on the wheat, and the two sides followed each other one after the other. People who don't go hungry never know how far they can go for a mouthful of food.

However, the combat strength of the officers and soldiers was still not comparable to that of the rebels.

Among the officers and soldiers, only Chen Yongfu's department can be called a strong pawn, while the other departments are similar militia forces established after Li Zicheng's attack on Kaifeng. These people were brave and inexperienced, and there were some rangers who recruited other officers and soldiers on the battlefield. These people have experience, but their qi and blood are declining, and they don't even have the courage anymore.

After all, since Chongzhen's fourteen years, the righteous army has won one battle after another, and the official army has naturally lost one battle after another, and some armies have even been reorganized once or twice.

This battle was extremely widely distributed, and seemed to spread all the wheat fields outside Kaifeng City. But the fighting was small and tragic. Tens of thousands of armies clashed, and many times the ones who really fought were just those in front of the battle, and many people followed the flow of advances and retreats.

I don't know how to win, and I don't know how to fail.

And this kind of squad fight will not happen at all, and there is no room for escape.

There is only one end for the loser, to become the fertilizer of this land.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and the day passes. The brutal fight has also come to an end.

The officers and soldiers were confined to a distance of one or two miles outside the city, and within this distance, they could get the support of the city's artillery, so the rebels did not dare to be presumptuous, and those who were bombarded by the artillery in two showed the deterrent power of the city's artillery.

In a one-day battle, the casualties on both sides were not small, but the officers and soldiers could not support it.

On the second day, the two sides had a tacit understanding.

The soldiers on both sides held each other without fighting. Once one side occupies a certain wheat field first, the opposite side avoids the wheat field, and there seems to be no fight except that both sides are desperately trying to harvest the wheat.

The battle for wheat is just a prelude.

The fourth day of the fifth month.

The earth was so clean that there was not even an ear of wheat left. It's all cleaned up. Li Zicheng gave an order, and the three battalions rushed to the city.

The sun is hanging, and the earth is like steaming.

Tens of thousands of soldiers in the Xiao Yuan battalion lined up. It can't be said to be neat and solemn, but it is also distinct. Zhang Xuan and Yuan Shizhong's main formation was behind, and it was the most well-organized military formation, and then tens of thousands of horses, each following behind their leader. Each pushed the siege equipment built by Zhang Xuan.

Countless shield carts, trench carts, were pushed by these attached soldiers, little by little close to the two-zhang wide trench outside Kaifeng City.

These large and small Henan poles all respect Yuan Shizhong as the leader, but in fact they are also a small warlord. In the team, there were not no people who dared to fight, and Yuan Shizhong did not give any harsh orders, just let them fill in the trenches.

But just filling in the trenches is not an easy task.

"Boom, boom." Above the city, artillery roared.

One shell after another hit the trench and hit the crowd, and although these people were scattered, several people were still overturned. It's just that people in this era are much more tolerant of death, but after a while, calm is restored again.

The group of men and horses still stepped forward slowly and dullly.

There was no sound except above the city, and above the artillery from time to time.

After all, the trench was still a little far from the Kaifeng city wall, so except for some cannons, the small cannons couldn't reach these people at all. And there are not many such cannons in Kaifeng City. I had to save on it.

And at this moment, the horses are coming and going.

Li Zicheng and Cao Cao both wanted to see what tricks Xiao Yuanying played, and breaking into the camp and Cao Ying's side, although the momentum was huge, it was just a feint. Anyway, like Xiao Yuan's side, the real efforts are all the people who are scraped near Kaifeng, and the real main force of the two battalions can not be used at all.

And in Kaifeng City, Gao Mingheng also discovered this, and sent his cronies to the north gate to observe, once there is a change. Report now.

At this moment, on the battlefield, there was an instant commotion. The sound of crackling explosions, like firecrackers.

And this is not the sound of firecrackers, but firecrackers, rockets, and small cannons such as tiger squat cannons, which fired in an instant.

This is not the fire on the walls of Kaifeng. Instead, the guards on the sheep and horse walls under Kaifeng City opened fire one after another.

Both sides were not far from the trench, and in an instant, several shield carts were overturned. And the shield car at the front had already been prepared, and for a time countless small cannons were exposed, and the two sides were bombarded by hundreds of paces. The smoke of gunpowder was filled, and the battlefield was filled with the smell of gunpowder.

In fact, as far as defending the city is concerned, it is really time to defend with the city walls, and it is already in the second half. The really powerful defenders are all fighting according to the city. There are many fortifications outside the city to defend and counterattack, such as the sheep and horse wall, the sheep and horse wall is at the foot of the city wall, a low wall, no more than a foot high, and the soldiers are arranged behind the sheep and horse wall, counterattacking with bows and crossbows, and here you can also get the support of the city's artillery.

"Quick. Fast. Fast. "A big man is viciously urging a group of people." Whoever dares to take a step back, not only you are dead, but your family members are also dead, think clearly, I count to three, if any of you don't step forward to fill in the trenches, don't blame me for being unkind. ”

This group of people, some old and weak, some young and strong, all of them were pale and trembling. These people used to be ordinary people, but now they have to fill the trenches with a bag of dirt for a meal, braving the artillery fire of the officers and soldiers.

This big man may feel that this is a bit heavy, and said: "The shells of the official army do not have long eyes, a little sooner, a little later, they can't escape this experience, die early and reincarnate early, and they don't have to suffer in the world." ”

Under the urging of the Great Han, these people rushed out and ran desperately to the trench, piling bags of soil into the trench. The bag must also be brought back and continued to be used for soil.

This trench is two feet wide, and a bag of soil may be of little use. But tens of thousands of people took turns piling up dirt in the trench, which was visibly shrinking. Even the soldiers behind the sheep and horse wall desperately opened their bows and arrows and released their guns, but they couldn't stop this trend.

After all, the firepower density of this era is far from enough to block the flow of people, not to mention, there are rebels not far away who are bombarding them.

Zhang Xuan stood on top of the watchtower and looked at it from a distance, although he couldn't see it really, he also knew that in this case, the trench was filled in, and it was only a matter of time before the sheep and horse wall was captured.

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