Although it is already March according to the season, spring in the north always comes later. And the spring in Liaodong will be even later. So at this time, when you stand on the wall of Jinzhou City and look out, you will find that on the vast plains, you can still see the remnants of snow that have not completely melted everywhere, and as for the mountains in the distance, they are still covered in silver.

A little closer, probably outside the range of the legendary Hongyi Cannon, an epic weapon that "erodes dozens of miles with one cannon", a large group of ant-like people are busy in the cold wind of early spring. They were trying to dig out the soil that had just begun to thaw and dig it into a trench.

"Dong Xuan wants to play the tricks of the Great Ling River in the First World War, right?" Zu Dafu, the chief soldier of Jinzhou, leaned on the battlement of the city wall, looking at the group of ants from a distance, and said to his younger brother Zu Dale who was standing beside him.

A few years ago, Zu Dafu built a city on the Daling River further north, hoping to further expand his control. As a result, the Jin army immediately dispatched to surround Dalinghe City, which had not yet had time to repair. First, they surrounded Dalinghe City with trenches and earthen walls, and then successively defeated the officers and troops who tried to relieve Dalinghe City in field battles. The officers and soldiers in Dalinghe City quickly ran out of food, and they survived for a while by eating the people, and finally, more than 10,000 defenders surrendered to the Jin army. The most elite troops of the Liaodong Army were lost in this battle.

"This time it's different from Da Ling River." Zu Dale said, "At that time in Dalinghe, our city had not yet been fully built, and there was only food in the city for five or six days. But Jinzhou is different, Jinzhou is much stronger than Dalinghe. What's more, we have enough food in the city to feed us for two years. Can they really besiege us for two years in one go? ”

Zu Dafu shook his head with a heavy face and said, "It's not that simple. Tiancong Khan on the other side is not a simple character, when have you seen him do anything that has not been done over the years? The year before last, they built the city of Uiju and camped fields outside the city, and after they returned from Guannai last year, they also resettled more than 100,000 people who had been plundered from Guannai there to cultivate land. Yiju is only a little further away from us? These Tartars, they are planning to farm the land while surrounding us! It's a stupid way, but the hardest thing in the world to deal with is never a clever way, it's a really stupid way. However, this siege will take at least two years. After two years of hard work, he is really not afraid of any changes? ”

"When they first started to build the city of Uiju, I wondered when the Tartars had learned to build the city. I knew ...... earlier," Zu Dale said.

"What if you knew earlier? Can we still take the initiative to fight them? Zu Dafu shook his head and said, "If we can beat them in the field, they won't be able to surround us." Now that we can't beat them in the field, they are there to repair the city of Yiju, what can we do? I know what Tiancong Khan's idea is, he surrounds us, and then waits for the imperial court to send rescuers, and then he will kill the imperial court's rescuers in the field......"

Speaking of this, Zu Dafu sighed again.

To be honest, Zu Dafu is not particularly loyal to the imperial court. But if it weren't for the time when there was no choice, he would definitely not be willing to surrender to the Tartars. Because if he is still the chief soldier of Jinzhou in the Jokhang court, Jinzhou is still under the rule of the Jokhang Dynasty, and the Jokhang court will spend millions of taels of silver on him every year. Of course, it is impossible for all these millions of taels of silver to fall into his hands, and after this money is allocated from the household department, at least more than half of it will remain in the capital and flow into the hands of officials and eunuchs of all sizes. But even so, this is a lot of money, enough for Zu Dafu and his ancestral army to live a good life. What's more, after wars again and again, there are not too many "peaceful residents" near Jinzhou, almost all of them are the military households of his ancestor Dafu's family, and this Jinzhou, and even the entire Liaodong land that is still under the control of the Jokhang Dynasty is basically the military land of the ancestral family. But if this place is taken by the Tartars, then everything will become Tartars.

"Big brother, what should I do then?" Zu Dale said.

"What else can I do?" Zu Dafu said, "To deal with stupid methods, you can only rely on stupid methods." Now we can only hold on as long as possible, waiting for reinforcements from the imperial court to relieve the siege. ”

"But, isn't Tiancong Khan just waiting for reinforcements from the imperial court?" Zu Dale said.

"So what else can I do? Leave Jinzhou behind, let's break through? Zu Dafu asked rhetorically.

Now although the Jin army has been encircled, but the trench and earthen wall have not been built, there are 50,000 or 60,000 troops in Jinzhou City, all of whom are Zu Dafu's family foundation, although the combat effectiveness is not as good as the Jin army, but it is not impossible to fight. Among them, the thousands of family members of Zu Dafu have the combat effectiveness of the authentic Eight Banners Golden Army. Although the Jin army was slightly more numerous, it was surrounded on all sides, and the strength of any side was small compared to Zu Dafu's entire army. Now that the trench and earthen wall have not been built, if Zu Dafu's whole army breaks through, it will not be a problem to stand out. But most of the belongings of the ancestral family, and the entire Guanning Army that followed the ancestral family, were in the Jinzhou area, how could these things be easily abandoned?

Zu Dale naturally knew that it was impossible for Jinzhou to give up, it was impossible to break through, it was impossible to break through in this life, and the field battle could not be beaten, and now he could only defend the city to maintain his life. It depends on whether the court's rescuers are powerful, and if the court really can't beat it, then it can really only surrender. Besides, surrendering doesn't have to be bad. After the Battle of Dalinghe, Zu Dafu's sons Zu Zehong and Zu Kefa were captured by Dajin, and they are still on Dajin's side. They often ask someone to bring letters over, and according to them, they feel much better at Daikin than at home, where everyone is full of talents, and they speak well, and they like it so much!

"I hope the rescuers of the imperial court can be more elite, otherwise they will ......" Zu Dafu sighed again. Then he added, "It's not okay to be surrounded by them like this, let's also move around from time to time." Da Le, you take a team of cavalry, go over there to harass it, if they are slow to react, cut off a few heads and come back, if they react fast enough, you can estimate and deal with it yourself, don't suffer! ”

Zu Dale answered and turned around and went down the city wall, and after a while, the city gate opened, and Zu Dale rushed out with about two hundred families.

As soon as the cavalry left the city, the sound of artillery was remembered from a dock fort in the distance. This kind of dock fort was originally part of the outer defense of Jinzhou City, and in the periphery of Jinzhou, there are many such dock forts, and they can echo each other with Jinzhou City during defensive battles. It is an important part of Jinzhou's urban defense. If it was in the early years, as long as the defending side was resolute, such a dock fort would be difficult for the Jin army to overcome. But now, the situation is completely different, and the Jin army also has Hongyi artillery, so the ability to attack fortifications has been greatly strengthened. However, it was impossible for the Jokhang army to equip every dock fort with precious Hongyi cannons, so the defenders of the dock fort had no means of confrontation when facing the Hongyi cannons of the Jin army. So in the past month, these dock forts have been conquered by the Jin army one after another. Now it has become a stronghold for the Jin army to spy on the Zhao army.

As the cannon sounded, a group of cavalry of the Jin Army came out of the dock fort and greeted Zu Dale.

Zu Dale estimated that the number of those Jin army cavalry was less than his own, probably only about a hundred. So he led his men and horses to meet them without fear.

However, those golden soldiers also understood that this group of cavalry was the elite of the elite, and there were more people than themselves, and if they hedged, they might not necessarily have a advantage to take advantage of, so they did not choose to hedge with Zu Dale, but turned to the side and ran with Zu Dale.

In the midst of this, those who were still digging trenches withdrew to the nearby dock fort under the supervision and command of some bannermen. Zu Dale took a closer look at this group of Jin cavalry, and found that they were all wearing light leather armor, and he knew that these Jin soldiers were not the most authentic Eight Banner soldiers, but the Mongols who followed the Jin State. To be honest, even if they outnumbered themselves and hedged face-to-face, they were no match for the well-armed ancestral family members. But the equestrian skills of these fellows are quite good, and they are light, and the horses are naturally faster. It is unlikely to catch up with them. If they had abandoned them to attack the trenchers and the bannermen guarding them, they would have to worry that they would be flanked by the Mongol cavalry after losing their speed and losing their formation. Zu Dale saw that those clothes had been withdrawn, and he was worried that other Jin troops would come to reinforce them, so he stopped chasing, turned his horse's head, and returned to Jinzhou with those cavalry......

……

In order to cope with the current situation, especially in order to adopt Yang Fei's strategy, Emperor Chongde had to get more money. It is obviously impossible to use the emperor's relatives and relatives, and if you can't move the emperor's relatives and relatives, you naturally can't move the civil and military officials, and now you can only stretch out your hand to the people. When Emperor Chongde was a child, he also read such things as "water can carry a boat and also overturn a boat", and he also knew that being too heavy on the common people was the reason for the overthrow of many dynasties. But now, he can't think of any other way than to further exploit the people. Although Emperor Chongde did not know what the consequences of doing this would be, he always had some luck in his heart, that is, maybe after taking out such a sum of money, the officials and soldiers could really quickly annihilate those "rogues", and then he could reduce or exempt these increased taxes. At that time, it will naturally be possible to certify again, and the world will naturally be peaceful. But he didn't know, or didn't want to think about, what would happen if he didn't do it. I don't even want to think about whether even if those rogues are really exterminated, the taxes that are added to them will really be reduced.

As the saying goes, the hole is as big as the snake is. Since ancient times, once the proportion of taxes has been added, it is basically difficult to reduce until the fall of this dynasty. Because for every additional tax levied, someone can profit from that tax. And once this tax is abolished, the interests of these people will naturally suffer, therefore. Naturally, these people will find ways to protect the tax so that it cannot be abolished. And these people, in general, are powerful and positional people, and they also have enough strength to do this.

But this is all in the future, and the most important thing now, at least in the eyes of Emperor Chongde, is to get the money out. In the past, Yang Fei had proposed to levy a levy on the salary, but it was unsuccessful because of the opposition of many people, this time, Emperor Chongde made up his mind, no matter who objected, he would push this matter forward, even if it was an abyss in front of him, he would also cross it.