"Jinan is not taken? From Yidu Province to Jeju and Huaibei, there are mountains in the middle, and the road is inconvenient, whether it is to deliver news or mobilize troops. ”

"Jinan is not easy to take, why bother? Isn't it the same after taking Jeju, as long as it can help the army restore the Central Plains? ”

"It's different! If Jinan Mansion could not be taken, the Shandong Righteous Army would be separated from the Suzhou Army, and it would be impossible to put pressure on the Jin Army from the north through Jinan Mansion, and it would not be possible to cooperate with the restoration of the Central Plains from the north. In addition, if we divide our troops in Tai'an and then enter Jeju, the mountain roads will be difficult to travel, and we will not be able to return to Zizhou and Yidu in time, and Jinan or other Jin troops will take the opportunity to attack Shandong, and we will be in danger. ”

"Don't fight, according to the established strategy, take Jinan Mansion and build a city on standby!" Shen Jin stopped the two from continuing to argue.

"How to fight in Jinan? The city is high and the walls are solid, and it is necessary to die if you fight hard? ”

"Can you fight without dying? When we first arrived in Shandong, we had already determined the strategy, Jinan Mansion must take! Only by taking Jinan can we cooperate with the plan to restore the Central Plains, this matter is non-negotiable, even if Zizhou and Yidu Mansion cannot be saved, Jinan Mansion must also be taken! Shen Jin's attitude was resolute, and there was no room for negotiation.

"Then we're going to kill a lot of people." Luo Cong replied.

Yao Chang also agreed

"No matter how many people die, we must take Jinan Mansion. How can it be possible to restore the Central Plains without shedding blood? We have 100,000 people, isn't it more powerful than the 30,000 defenders and 60,000 people in Jinan City? Besides, most of the 60,000 people are old, weak, women and children, and if they want to pick up knives and guns, can they pick up knives and guns? ”

Shen Jin looked at Luo Cong and Yao Chang, and said in a deep voice: "We have paid such a big price to raise so much grain, grass, weapons, and armaments, not to let them eat white rice, we must capture Jinan Mansion within a month." The siege equipment has been manufactured, as long as you dare to fight, it is not a problem for 100,000 people to take Jinan Mansion at all. ”

"What if we attack Jinan City and the surrounding Jin army comes to the rescue? Once we are flanked from the front and back, we will definitely lose. ”

"As far as I know, there are only more garrisons in the west of the Daimyo Mansion in the two hundred miles around Jinan Mansion, which has always been a battleground for soldiers, and there are not many available troops in nearby Enzhou and Binzhou, and Tai'an in the south is close to Jinan, but the strength is only two or three thousand people. As long as we are fast enough, before they transfer troops from Zhendingfu, we can only retreat obediently, they want to embankment the rebellion in the direction of Yanjing and the Song army in Huaibei, it is impossible to hold on to us under the city of Jinan, once the attack is unfavorable, they will give up immediately. Shen Jin dispelled their concerns.

Luo Cong and Yao Chang no longer refuted.

"If there is no objection, leave within ten days, Zizhou and Yidu Fu will each leave 5,000 defenders, and you can take all the other troops with you. Remember, we have only one goal, to capture Jinan Province and help realize the plan to restore the Central Plains! Shen Jin emphasized again.

"You go back and see, what else do you need, report it directly, and I will prepare as soon as possible."

"Yes."

Luo Cong and Yao Chang agreed.

Then the two left the Yamen of the Jiedu envoy and returned to the left and right mansions to discuss the specific siege plan.

The right house of the Shandong Righteous Army.

"Is our big brother stunned? Now let's directly attack Jinan City, without killing or injuring tens of thousands of people, how can we take it down? Even if tens of thousands of people really die, they may not be able to take it. You and I have finally gathered 100,000 troops, and I am afraid that if we fight like this, we will die and run, and in the end there will not be many people left. ”

"I vaguely guessed what he meant, last year he came out like this, and put the entire righteous army under the Yamen of the Jiedu Envoy, I am afraid that it was prepared for today. We have too many troops, 100,000 people, and the garrisons of Xuzhou, Suzhou, Bozhou, and Chenzhou combined are probably not 100,000, and we have 100,000 troops, and the imperial court will not be happy. ”

"So what do we do now?"

"What can I do? Who but him can feed our 100,000 troops? Now, except for the imperial court, no one can afford to raise the 100,000 troops in Shandong, the Jin people can't do it, and we can't do it ourselves, as long as the imperial court is there. He is an official of the imperial court, representing the imperial court, and he wants to restore the Central Plains like a demon, and leave a name in history, can we not listen to him? ”

"It is true that he will be famous in history, but it is not the blood of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people to leave a name for him. But then again, without the grain and grass of the imperial court, our 100,000 righteous army really can't sustain itself. If he wants to fight, then let's fight, everyone is gone, and then let the court pay for recruitment, and then it will be him who is in a hurry, not us. ”

"Okay, then listen to him, ten days later, we will each bring 40,000 troops to fight Jinan City."

"How to fight, we still total, these brothers were recruited by us one by one, it's a pity that they died."

"I think so too, it's best not to kill so many people. No matter what happens in the future, we have these 80,000 troops, and no one dares to underestimate us, maybe when the world is about to be in turmoil, we can still control our own destiny by relying on them! ”

In the eighth year of Southern Jin Zhenglong, the third year of Northern Jin Dading, the first year of Song Longxing, on the fifth day of the third month, 80,000 Shandong righteous troops dispatched from Yidu Fu and Zizhou to the west, and Yidu Fu and Zizhou closed the city gates.

On the seventh day of the first month of March, the 5,000 vanguard troops from Zizhou came to the outside of Zhangqiu County, and the defenders in the city closed their doors.

On the tenth day of the first month of March, 30,000 troops besieged Zhangqiu City, persuaded to surrender for an hour, the defenders were unmoved, the army attacked the city, and the city was broken after two quarters of an hour, and the chickens and dogs in the city were not left.

On the same day, 10,000 troops marched south from Zhangqiu, crossed the mountains and mountains, and attacked Tai'an.

The remaining 70,000 troops continued to advance westward.

On March 11, the 5,000 vanguard troops of the Shandong Righteous Army arrived at Licheng County, 50 miles west of Jinan.

On March 12, the vanguard of the Righteous Army arrived at the city of Jinan, which was closed in the east, west, north and south, and the suspension bridge was raised, and no one could enter or exit.

On March 16, 70,000 Shandong rebels who came to Jinan City one after another blocked the four gates of Jinan, and the 70,000 troops were divided into four, each camped two miles away from the city gate.

After the whole army rested outside the city for three days, the brand-new siege equipment was assembled one by one in front of the battle, and in front of the tall siege ladders and huge trebuchets, the three-zhang high walls were not to be feared!

Before the siege, the righteous army persuaded the city to surrender: "Three days before the siege, half an hour before noon every day, is the time for the soldiers and civilians in the city to flee for their lives, and when noon arrives, the siege continues." After three days, no one will be accepted to flee for their lives! ”

A day after the surrender, on March 20, as soon as noon came, the trebuchets in front of the rebel army took the lead in attacking the city.

Hundreds of pounds of stone projectiles flew out of the trebuchet in front of the formation, whistling, flying forward to the three-zhang high wall, some flew into the high wall, some fell in the moat, and some slammed on the thick city wall, breaking large stones, and at the same time smashing the city wall out of the pit.

The trebuchet attacked the city for two quarters of an hour, and the horns sounded in front of the four gates, and the rebel siege troops held shields and carried the ladder to the city to advance steadily.

The siege has officially begun!

As the rebels came to the city with siege equipment, less than thirty zhang away from the moat, the defenders of the city stretched out their bows and arrows, and shot wildly in a rain of arrows, trying to prevent the rebels from approaching further.

And the rebels had shields or planks on their heads, and they were not afraid of the sharp arrows falling like raindrops on the city, listening to the sound of sharp arrows hitting the shields and planks, the siege soldiers were inexplicably a little excited.

The rebels soon approached the moat, and this time they encountered no longer a moat two or three zhang wide like outside Zizhou City, but a moat five or six zhang wide, only a cloud ladder more than three zhang long, and could no longer fly over both sides of the moat.

The besieging rebels outside the gates were stopped by the moat and were not allowed to enter.

After a stalemate under the city for half an hour, Mingjin withdrew his troops, and the rebels left some corpses and retreated into battle.

The first attack of the Shandong Righteous Army on Jinan Province was declared a failure.

In the afternoon of the same day, the generals of the various armies gathered to discuss the strategy of attacking the city.

On the same day, the 10,000 righteous troops who went south from Zhangqiu and crossed the mountains, after capturing Laiwu, quickly marched westward, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the Tai'an defenders, and broke through the city of Tai'an in one fell swoop, seizing countless grains and grasses.

After taking Tai'an, 5,000 troops continued to seize the surrounding counties, collected grain and grass materials, and the rest of the troops were stationed in Tai'an City.

The 5,000 rebels of Tai'an successively captured Feicheng and Pingyin counties, and then one went south to harass Dongping and the other to harass Surabaya, in order to contain the Jeju army from going north to Jinan.

After the 70,000 rebels besieging Jinan City failed in their first attack, they adjusted their offensive strategy and vowed to fill the moat before breaking the city.

The strategy was agreed, and the armies began to collect hoeing equipment, cut trees, and transport stones.

The vast majority of the rebels were ordinary people who used hoes and tools, which were more comfortable than knives, guns, and weapons, and they quickly developed their unique abilities.

Stones, wood, and sacks full of dirt were thrown into the moat under the cover of the rebels.

Three days later, outside the four gates of the east, west, north and south, a moat more than 20 zhang wide was filled in.

The rebels rested for a day, and shouted to the city ** book: "Starting at noon tomorrow, the Shandong rebels will attack the city in a big way, before the siege, everyone can escape from the south gate of the city, if you refuse to leave the city, when the city is broken, everyone in the city will be disposed of according to the golden dog!" ”

That night, there were people in the south of the city who took advantage of the night to surrender from the city, went out of the city to flee for their lives, were found by the defenders of the city, shot under the city, shot a total of more than 100 people, only a dozen people escaped the rain of arrows on the city, crossed the position of the rebels, and fled for their lives to the southern mountains.

On the second day, as soon as noon came, the rebels attacked with trebuchets for a quarter of an hour, the trebuchets stopped, and the four rebels launched a siege battle almost simultaneously.

In front of each gate, an army was the first to go out, they carried siege equipment, under the cover of shields, quickly approached the city, and the first ladder to the city was quickly erected and reinforced.

Half an hour later, dozens of ladders were erected on the high wall of Jinan.

Ming Jin, the vanguard of the first phase of the siege, quickly evacuated from the city after leaving some corpses.