On 17 July, the Qingzhou Army had advanced to less than 30 miles east of Zhujiazhuang.

On this day, Xu Shiyang met Zhu Long in his camp, who had come to make money, and he brought 300 pieces of cloth, 300 stone of grain, 20 pigs, and 50 sheep.

As soon as they met, the two sides had not yet formally negotiated, and so many meeting gifts were sent, which was enough to show how rich the Canal Dock Fort was relatively speaking.

In fact, Zhujiazhuang is much richer than Xu Shiyang imagined.

This can be seen from the conditions for the withdrawal of troops proposed by Zhu Long:

As long as the Qingzhou army retreats, the Zhu family will offer 2,000 stones of grain, 1,000 bunches of forage, 500 pigs and sheep, and 2,000 coarse cloths!

In addition, Zhu Long said that if Xu Shiyang agreed to marry the two families of Xu Zhu, the Zhu family would give another sum of money and food, as well as ten maids to marry.

At the same time, the Zhu family agreed that the Xu family could indirectly participate in the trade on both sides of the canal and make a profit from it.

When Zhu Long came, the master once told him: Among the conditions offered by his family, the last one is the most tempting - according to the master's estimate, the Zhu family can get about 3 to 50,000 yuan a year through canal trade and fiber pulling and other work.

The reason why the Qingzhou army was in a hurry to come and beat themselves was probably because of such a large amount of money, right?

As for Xu Shiyang's external propaganda, the so-called "Zhujiazhuang Yin helps the Tartars, which is like rebellion" is simply a joke.

In this world, isn't the Great Zhou court the most helpful to the Tartars?

Xu Shiyang quietly listened to Zhu Long's conditions, and carefully read the reconciliation letter he sent.

After Zhu Long finished speaking, Xu Shiyang folded the letter in half, folded it in half, and then gently tore it in half.

Zhu Long, who was still talking just now, was stunned for a moment.

After a long time, Zhu Long asked with a gloomy face, "My lord, what do you mean by this?" ”

"I'm curious, what gave you the illusion that I led the army to grab some money and food to go back?"

Xu Shiyang replied coldly:

"The Tartars have plundered the Qing and Lai mansions several times, and even the Dengzhou Mansion has suffered disasters, all of which have passed through the canal from your side! It's all because of your family's Yin Gang Tartar! ”

"You Zhu family is helping to fight the rebellion of the Tartars! Traitors! Everybody gets it! ”

What a traitor means, Zhu Long doesn't know, but it's not difficult to understand the word literally.

Zhu Long retorted angrily: "My family is rebellious? Carrying a job for the Jurchens is rebellion? The biggest rebellion is the Great Zhou court! You have the ability to fight the Great Zhou court! ”

"Yes, sooner or later, there will be such a day."

Xu Shiyang sneered:

"Don't think about a good end for traitors, whether it's you or those bigger ones in Jiangnan, I will settle accounts with you one by one!"

"As for the Zhu family, go back and tell your father, now open the door and surrender, welcome Wang Shi, I can give you a fair trial!"

"If you fight to the end, I promise you won't end well!"

Zhu Long knew that there was no room for maneuver in this matter, so he could only use knives and guns to decide the winner.

So he also sneered and said: "My family, the Li family, and the Hu family are jointly guaranteed, and tens of thousands of Ding Zhuang can also afford it, so they may not be afraid of you Qingzhou!" ”

"If you continue to be obsessed, then I have nothing to say to you." Xu Shiyang stretched out his hand: "Send off!" ”

……

On July 18, the Qingzhou Army advanced 25 miles and set up camp.

Since the Zhujia army was completely cowering inside the dock fort, and had no intention of taking the initiative to attack or camp outside the wall, the progress of the Qingzhou army was very smooth, and by the end of the day, they were already close to the point where they could directly see the wall of the Zhujia Dock Fort.

On July 19, the Qingzhou army began to collect timber and make siege weapons in a step-by-step manner—after obtaining a large amount of grain from Jiangnan, the Qingzhou army's cycle of fighting abroad also became much longer, and Xu Shiyang had enough time to eat away at his opponents little by little.

July 21 is the scheduled day of the general attack.

Early in the morning, before dawn, the whole army in Qingzhou got up, and the auxiliary soldiers in charge of logistics distributed the prepared food and hot soup to the troops.

After breakfast, the sun had just jumped over the horizon, and the infantry battalions of the new army entered the attack positions in the predetermined order.

At this time, standing on the top of the dock wall of Zhujiazhuang, you can clearly see countless spear tips surging behind the low earthen wall of the Qingzhou Army camp.

At this time, except for the second child of the Zhu family who went to Yanyun for temporary refuge, the other Zhu family cores all stood on the top of the dock wall and looked at the Qingzhou military camp not far away.

Zhu Chaofeng forcibly suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and asked Zhu Biao: "When will the Hu family soldiers arrive?" ”

"It should be these days." Zhu Biao replied: "Brother Hu has promised that the child will definitely send troops to help the war, and the old lady Hu also agreed to the marriage between the child and Sanniang, saying that he repelled the Qingzhou soldiers, no, the Qingzhou thief can complete the marriage!" They won't fail to come! ”

"Well, that's good, that's good." Zhu Chaofeng muttered in a low voice as if comforting his own son (or himself): "Li Ying, the head of the Li family, is also a good man, he has promised to come to help his father, let's unite the three villages, tens of thousands of Dingkou, and it is unknown who will kill the deer!" ”

"Master rest assured, now is the day of the busy farming, and the Li family can't gather tenants to help in the war in a hurry, it's too late."

Han Tao, the head of the gun and stick sect, comforted:

"As long as our family lasts for three or five days, reinforcements will arrive, and when the Qingzhou thieves are tired, we will win!"

"In this case, everything is left to ......"

Rumble!

A loud thunderous bang interrupted Zhu Chaofeng's words of buying people's hearts.

On the position of the Qingzhou Army, the 4-pound general artillery with a long range fired the first test-fired shell.

This 4-pound iron bullet dragged a long scream across a distance of about 3 miles, landed more than 100 meters in front of the dock wall in Zhujiazhuang, splashed a piece of dust, and jumped up violently, just like a water drift and flew more than 100 meters, only then did it run out of kinetic energy, and it could stop at the foot of the dock wall.

A panicked cry sounded on the wall of Zhujiazhuang dock:

"What is this?"

"What's this?"

Some well-informed people had heard of the wooden cannons that were prevalent in Qingzhou, so they quickly explained: "This is a cannon!" Don't be afraid! It's just a matter of throwing a few rocks! Let's hide behind the wall, these pebbles are useless! ”

If it was the wooden cannon that Qingzhou Dock Fort was commonly equipped with before, or the slightly more advanced god machine gun, it really could not pose a real threat to the rammed earth dock wall.

However, the general cannon is a real field artillery, the air leakage problem is much lighter than the god machine gun, and the projectile is heavier, and the muzzle velocity is much higher than that of the god machine gun and the wooden cannon, so this weapon is very effective against the common dock fort wall in Jiangbei.

In this regard, Xu Shiyang has done some experiments.

The results showed that at this distance, if more than five shells hit the dock wall, it would make the dock wall very vulnerable and easy to open the gap.

If more than 10 shots hit the same spot, the dock wall will collapse, creating a ramp that soldiers can rush directly through.

Therefore, Zhu Jiajun made a big mistake!