On the eighteenth day of the first month, Li Zicheng prepared a tentative siege of the city, and the Mandate of Heaven army launched an attack from the west, south and north gates at the same time, and Li Xin's department contained Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai of the Ming army stationed in Dongguan outside the east gate, and now Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai took the initiative to return to Shun, and the Ming army outside the east city no longer existed, and Li Xin also launched an attack from outside the east city.

Li Zicheng did not know the detailed distribution of the defenders in the city, and the tentative attack was to spy on the military situation of the Ming army, not to break the city.

Since it was a tentative siege, the scale would not be too large, but when Li Zicheng rushed to the north gate with Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai, Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai were eager to make meritorious contributions, and used a limited number of siege ladders to launch a fierce attack on the city.

After noon, the east, west, and south gates have stopped attacking, only Liu Jianyi and Luo Taibu outside the north city gate still do not give up, and continue to attack the city, Liu Zongmin sent a thousand gunners to shoot at the city outside the city, and cooperate with the two sieges.

The soldiers of Liu Jianyi's department climbed the city several times, but in the end they were all driven out by the Ming army in the city.

Beicheng was not breached, but Bai Shangwen, who defended Beicheng, suffered heavy casualties, eight of the ten hundred households suffered casualties, of which three hundred households suffered more than half of the casualties, and they had lost their combat capability.

Bai Shangwen didn't expect that in just one day, Luoyang City almost missed, and he had a new understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Heavenly Mandate Army, especially the firearms of the Heavenly Mandate Army, which made him helpless.

In desperation, Bai Shangwen asked for help from Wang Yinchang, who participated in politics.

Wang Yinchang was stationed at the West City Gate, and was attacked by Li Jibu's rifle today, and the casualties of his own soldiers were not light, but he knew that the firearms of the Liukou were sharp, and if he could not increase reinforcements, the North City Gate would definitely not be able to defend it.

Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai, who happened to attack the North City Gate, were originally familiar with Wang Shaoyu, the chief soldier of Henan Mansion, and Wang Yinchang transferred Wang Shaoyu to reinforce the North City Gate, hoping that Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai would not attack with their lives for the sake of their old superiors.

The soldiers at the West City Gate also suffered heavy casualties, but there was no adjustable army in the city, Wang Yinchang thought about it, and begged to see the blessed king Zhu Changxun that night.

Perhaps aware of the tension in the city, this time King Fu was very happy, not only left Wang Yinchang to drink and eat in the palace, but also specially allocated a thousand taels of silver to recruit young men to help defend the west city gate.

But Zhu Changxun put forward his own conditions: the palace does not care about the food and salary of the young and strong, just pay a reward of silver, for every kill of a rogue, a reward of five taels of silver, and a reward of two taels of silver for killing and wounding a rogue......

Although Wang Yinchang was dissatisfied, he still agreed, Qingzhuang fought against the rogues on the city wall, if he killed and injured the rogues, it would be difficult to get the corpses, and the number of the casualties of the rogues at that time was not up to him? It really can't be done, and the number of casualties of the rogues is falsely reported, and the extra silver is used as the salary of the young and strong......

It's a pity that King Fu is too stingy, only a thousand taels of silver, and there are tens of thousands of rogues outside the city!

Wang Yinchang went out of the palace, and asked Wei Jingzhong, the official to recruit five hundred strong men overnight, Wei Jingzhong according to Wang Yinchang's meaning, declared in the city: The five hundred young men recruited must fight to the death, in addition to food, there is half a tael of silver every month, kill one thief, reward five taels, wounded thief, reward two taels!

In less than an hour, Wei Jingzhong recruited five hundred young people, he opened the treasury, issued weapons to the young people, and instructed them to go to Xicheng immediately to garrison.

After Wang Yinchang returned to Xicheng, he was afraid that the rogues would attack the city at night, so he patrolled the city, but unexpectedly heard the conversation of the soldiers:

"It's freezing on this day, so that Lao Tzu is hungry to defend the city, and the official goes home early to sleep on the hot kang......"

"Don't talk nonsense, since there are thieves outside the city, when is the adult not in the city?"

"That is, the adults work hard, and the people who really want to protect are not dreaming of hugging Jiao # Niang at this time?"

"You're talking about the palace?"

"If you talk about wealth, who in Luoyang City can compare to the palace? Thieves are raging everywhere, and the palace is still full of fish and meat? Walking outside the palace today, you can smell the smell of meat from a long distance......"

"Who makes the family born well!"

"The birth of a fart, if there are no people like us guarding the city, how can the palace be so free?"

"Yes, it provoked Lao Tzu to get angry, secretly opened the city gate at night, waited for the thieves to enter the city, cut it in two, and see whose birth was good, the thieves entered the city, and they would not be unable to get along with untouchables such as me......"

When Wang Yinchang heard this, he was shocked in his heart, the army's morale was unstable, and his morale was lost, how could he hold Luoyang City? He wanted to behead the soldiers who were defending the city, but he felt that their words were actually good.

Kill these soldiers, can you block Youyou's mouth? In case of a mutiny......

Wang Yinchang let his guards go over, scolded these soldiers, warned them not to talk nonsense anymore, and returned to the barracks near the city, he was still terrified!

Not long after Wang Yinchang left, the temporarily recruited young man was stationed in the military camp near the city head and mixed with the original soldiers.

In the middle of the night, Wang Yinchang was awakened by the noise, thinking that it was a rogue attacking the city, and hurriedly put on his clothes and came out, but when he inquired, it turned out to be a newly recruited young man, and there was a brawl with the soldiers at the head of the city.

Wang Yinchang was furious, when has this happened, and you still have to fight in the nest, do you have to put the knife and gun on your neck to regret it?

Now is the time when the soldiers need to work hard, and the soldiers cannot be punished too harshly, Wang Yinchang held back his anger and asked about the situation, it turned out to be a newly recruited young man, and boasted to the veterans in the barracks about his treatment, not only can he eat enough, but also have a salary and a reward of silver, the veteran is not convinced, and the two sides have a quarrel.

The quarrel became more and more intense, people on both sides kept joining, and finally the knife was moved, the veteran killed and injured five people, and the young man suffered more than ten casualties, if it wasn't for Wang Yinchang to stop the fight in time, I don't know what the trouble would be!

The handling of the aftermath is also very tricky, and the young and old soldiers feel very wronged.

Should the casualties be paid bereavement benefits? If there is no pension, will the young people still work hard for Luoyang? The veteran is even more angry, he is also defending the city, not only does he not pay silver or reward silver, but he can't even eat his belly, and the young and strong are just a group of people who have not been trained, why are they so generous?

This time in the city to recruit young people, using the silver of the Fu Wangfu, Wang Yinchang naturally can't explain it, otherwise it will anger the veterans, they kicked their legs, and ran away one by one, relying on five hundred young people, how to guard the west city gate?

If the escape of the veteran is known to the soldiers at the other gates, it will definitely trigger a wave of soldiers fleeing, and then Luoyang will become an undefended city, and the rogues will come in without attacking the city......

Wang Yinchang couldn't balance the contradiction between the young man and the veteran, so he scolded both sides, and then carried the dead soldier out, and the injured person was bandaged and treated in time.

In order to avoid the same thing from happening again, the young and old soldiers will be independent battalions from now on, but the veterans will not forgive, and with the connivance of the lower-level officers, they have to ask Wang Yinchang to give an explanation: The same is defending the city, why is the treatment of veterans much worse than that of young and strong?

Wang Yinchang reprimanded the sergeant at the head of the sergeant, and promised that after the Mandate of Heaven Army, he would make a reasonable explanation and take appropriate measures.

Wang Yinchang went back to the camp, but the veterans in Xicheng did not rest, so there were people who did good things and shuttled between the barracks at night......

On the head of the north city gate, the chief soldier Wang Shaoyu has been replaced, but Wang Shaoyu, like Wang Yinchang, is facing the problem of food and salary.

On the same day, Wang Shaoyu came to Luoyang City, wanting to enter the city to rest and replenish food, but Zhu Changxun, the blessed king, originally disagreed, but Wang Shaoyu had the military power in his hands, so he forcibly broke into Luoyang City and let the soldiers rest for two days, but in this way, he offended Zhu Changxun, and Wang Shaoyu did not get much food.

Originally, they were resting in the city, and the soldiers' hearts were better, but now that they have gone to the city, they are desperate with the rogues, and they continue to be hungry, and the soldiers will stop doing it.

In order to impress Wang Shaoyu, these middle- and lower-level officers patted their chests and promised: As long as they can eat their stomachs, they guarantee that the soldiers will defend the city to the death, and they will be in Luoyang!

Listening to these blood-boiling words, Wang Shaoyu also had a lot of feelings in his heart, but he was really powerless about food, the Luoyang Treasury was already poor, and the only person who controlled the money and grain, Fu Wang Zhu Changxun was an iron rooster.

Besides, Wang Shaoyu forcibly led troops into the city, which had secretly offended Zhu Changxun, even if there was food, it would be difficult to distribute it to Wang Shaoyu's department.

Wang Shaoyu was so anxious that he went to the ants on the hot pot, so he had to go to Wang Yinchang, the chief official in the city, but Wang Yinchang was worried about the affairs of Xicheng, Xicheng was also short of food and salary, he lay in the camp tent, just to avoid the contradiction of salary, his own problems could not be solved, how could there be money and food to help Wang Shaoyu's Beicheng?

Coming out of Wang Yinchang's camp, Wang Shaoyu's heart was half cold, he was not afraid of fighting, the city wall of Luoyang was solid, as long as everyone was united, it should not be difficult to block the Liukou outside the city, but if there was no food, let the soldiers fight hungry, Luoyang City would definitely not last long.

It's not that there is no money and grain in Luoyang City, but the officials who defend the city have no right to mobilize this money and grain!

If the soldier's stomach is not full, he will have a lot of thoughts, maybe there will already be many people staring at the Fu Wangfu!

Wang Shaoyu sighed secretly, the fortress is the easiest to break through from the inside!

Li Zicheng knew that the defenders in Luoyang City were short of food and salary, but he didn't know that the soldiers were starving, and Wang Anping, who was sitting in Luoyang City, sent a message, and he knew that Luoyang City was on the verge of collapse, no wonder Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai took the initiative to return to the Mandate of Heaven Army!

In that case, why not add a fire to yourself?

On the nineteenth day of the first month, the Mandate of Heaven army attacked the city on all sides, all the siege equipment was used, the direction of the main attack was the west and north city gates, and the other two gates, although they did not stop, but there were not many soldiers attacking, just like training, and the battle had been tepid.