Pei Changcai and Shizihe two thieves started from Mount Tai.

But this is not the first time they have attacked the city, starting from Mount Tai, in just one year, they have captured two county seats, and plundered countless villages.

Facing Zhang Xutuo, who had just teased him, and that Zhangqiu City, he was now eager to enter the city immediately.

As soon as the order to wash the city was given, the eyes of those bandits were red, and they were all excited.

In fact, among the more than 20,000 thieves under Pei Thief, there were only a few hundred old thieves who really fell with him in Taishan in the early years, and the rest have snowballed for more than a year. Some of them couldn't stand the conscription and fled to Mount Tai and took the initiative to join him, but more of them were the people who were coerced by him when he led his troops to plunder.

Most of them used to be good people, but with the Eastern Expedition, the people could not survive, and their hometown was looted by bandits, and they couldn't survive, so they had to follow the bandits half-pushed and half-pushed.

At first, it was forced, and then it became a thief, and after robbing it together a few times, I gradually got used to this new way of survival.

Therefore, in fact, although thieves were once good, they are indeed thieves now, and there is nothing innocent to speak of.

Once people break through their own limits and abandon morality, then they don't care about goodness, they are all the same thieves.

More than 20,000 thieves and bandits surrounded Zhangqiu City, and they began to prepare for the siege without stopping.

On the city.

Du Ruhui visited Zhang Xutuo.

Zhang Xutuo didn't even care about the wounds and blood on his body, so he went to the city to watch the enemy's situation.

"About 20,000 people." He started by estimating the total.

However, not all of the more than 20,000 people are thieves, the young and strong are thieves, and the old and weak are the wives and children and parents of the people who have been coerced, and these people account for the majority. And I estimate that among the remaining 10,000 thieves, the real old thieves are only about thirty percent. ”

His judgment is based on experience, the thieves robbed wherever they went, and after looting a place, they also took the people away by the way. The young and strong are thieves, so naturally they have to take their wives and children to follow, so there are old camps, strong camps and dependents among the thieves. This old camp is naturally the elite old thief subordinates of the thieves, and the strong camp is mostly coerced to join the young and strong, and the military camp is the family of those thieves.

The thieves are basically wandering around, and there is no base camp in the base, where they go, they rob wherever they go, and their families also take them with them, like locusts crossing the border.

When he calculated it like this, Du Ruhui and the others felt a lot more relieved.

"Tongshou, there are now 300 county soldiers and 1,000 township soldiers in Zhangqiu City."

For such a small number, Zhang Xutuo was dissatisfied, according to the arrangement, Zhangqiu should have 500 county soldiers and 2,000 township braves. But he also knows the current situation, together with the Eastern Expedition, not to mention that the Weifu soldiers were basically requisitioned, and even the sturdy people in the original county soldiers and township Yong were mostly named government soldiers and then entered Liao, and the remaining county soldiers and township Yong were not satisfied, and most of them were also called to Liaodong to transport grain as husband and wife this time.

Shan Binbin stepped forward.

"Romon Shan has seen the teacher, and Daifu Jungoro greets the teacher."

Zhang Xutuo saw that it was her and nodded, "Mrs. Qi Jun is fine." ”

Although Luo Cheng is his protégé, Luo Cheng's wife and mother have been awarded the decree because of his merits, Luo's mother has to be awarded the decree of Mrs. Lu County, and Shan Binbin has been awarded the decree of Mrs. Qi County, and this county lady is regarded as the decree of the three products.

"Teacher, my husband still has three hundred righteous children, and now they are also in Zhangqiu City, they can also fight."

"This official has also heard of the name of Changbai orphans, Zhangqiu has leveled thieves three times, and they have all made meritorious contributions, and they have indeed achieved it."

While talking, the bandits have begun to attack the city with ants, these people still think that Zhangqiu City is also the county town they have breached, and they have no defense, so they swarm up in a mess, and the ants are attached to the siege on all sides, carrying a simple ladder to break the city.

Zhang Xutuo shook his head disdainfully.

"Can you repel the bandits?"

The answer to him was Luo Jizu, the captain of the county and county military academy, "Please rest assured, if the thieves want to go to the city so simply, it is a fool's dream, we have also experienced several bandit attacks, so the defense has been prepared, please go to rest first, leave it to us here." ”

"Find a doctor, I'll just bandage it here." Zhang Xutuo is still a little worried, after all, the thieves this time are powerful, even if the water is thrown away, there are nearly 10,000 bandits.

Luo Gui took his two sons to succeed his ancestors, as well as his two sons-in-law Zhou Dewei and Zhou Xin, as well as his daughter-in-law Shan Binbin, etc., to arrange a defense in front of Zhang Xutuo.

The thieves seem to be very powerful, but in the eyes of Zhang Xutuo, who has made great achievements, they are like a child's play.

There were no decent archers responsible for firing arrows to suppress the city, nor did they prepare enough siege equipment, and they did not even have the direction of the main attack, so they attacked the city on all sides, regardless of the importance and without a rhythm.

In short, it is to rush over as if there are many people, and behind a ladder, hundreds of people can follow.

To deal with this offensive, it is simply not too simple.

If you say that there is no city wall, in the field battle, Zhangqiu City has few soldiers, it is really a bit troublesome, but now that there is a city wall, the two thousand Zhangqiu men and horses are definitely defending.

What happened next was exactly what he expected.

Dad divided the 2,000 people into three shifts, taking turns to go to the city to guard, only one-third of the city at a time, and also divided into four city walls.

There were very few people on each city wall, but the people in Zhangqiu City were many young and strong, and many of them were recruited to help defend it.

The defenders stood on the wall, leaned against the battlements, and fired arrows at the city.

The people, on the other hand, were responsible for boiling the golden juice of dung and boiling oil and water on the top of the city, and when they saw that there were more thieves, they poured a few spoons on them, and drenched them with wolves.

The thieves continued for about three hours, until it was dark, and they failed to reach the city.

Instead, thousands of corpses were left under the city.

The casualties were not insignificant, but Pei Changcai insisted on sending the old thief to supervise the battle in the back and refused to retreat.

But when it got dark, those thieves were also exhausted, no matter how Pei Caichang said that after breaking through the city, the city was washed and looted, and no one had the strength to do so, and the corpses under the city made them afraid.

Seeing that it was dark and could no longer attack, Pei Changcai had no choice but to order Mingjin to withdraw his troops.

"Collect the troops and fight again tomorrow."

The bandits suddenly receded like a tide, leaving countless corpses under the city, and no one cared for them.

After a long time, some women, children, and old people came to look for the bodies of their loved ones, crying out in grief and crying the names of the dead.

Dusk, corpses, blood, mournful cries.

At this scene, the people in the city couldn't help but sigh again and again.

But no one pities them, since they have become thieves, since they have come to attack Zhangqiu, then either you die or I die.