On October 26, 1643, just three days after arriving at Yantai Fortress, Mo Ming took advantage of the sunny weather and left the camp with his troops and marched south. The troops that set out with him included 240 officers and men of the 2nd Company of the Army, 260 native Sakhalin soldiers of the 3rd Squadron of the Advance Team, and artillery of a small half company (with 2 light guns), with a total combat strength of more than 500 men.

And the personnel who provide them with logistics services even exceed the number of combat soldiers. Due to the poor road conditions, the troops did not carry large wagons during this sortie, and the baggage of the entire army was carried by a large number of horses captured from Jeju Island to speed up the march. Ammunition, armor, water, medicine, fuel, tents, barbed wire and other materials were all packed and fixed on horseback, and were taken care of by the soldiers who accompanied the army. In order to ensure the supply of all kinds of materials necessary for the troops' winter field marches, the size of this pack horse team is as high as more than 600 people and nearly 400 horses. Of course, in fact, a considerable part of this is empty horses, which are used to carry looted supplies.

After the troops left the house, they turned southwest and headed for Fushan Prefecture, which was the nearest county. At the beginning of the year, when the Tartars ravaged the capital of Dengzhou, Fukuyama Prefecture was not conquered due to its heavy garrison, so it suffered less trauma. After the Tatars retreated, the people who fled into the city returned to the area to farm, so Fukuyama Prefecture was also one of the areas where the economy and order of the three provinces of Tenglai were restored the fastest after the war. However, although Fushan County was less affected, the lives of ordinary people were just as difficult. Their possessions were either depleted in the process of fleeing, or they were left at home to be robbed by Tartars or others, so it was not easy for them to return to their fields with no money!

I still have to borrow money from the gentry in the township. And how can those big families be easy? The methods of these so-called scholarly families to lend and collect loans are simply chilling. Ordinary people have to be skinned if they get it. If you are unlucky, it may not be impossible for your family to be ruined. But what can be done now, there is no other way but to borrow farm tools, seeds, and cattle from them, and many people have to borrow from them in order to survive.

In any case, Fukuyama Prefecture's economic and productive activities stumbled under such circumstances, and a harvest was made before the onset of winter. However, after paying off the debt, many people find that their family's remaining food is only enough to last until the beginning of spring next year, and at that time, everyone may have to drag their families out of the country to escape the famine. But there are also some people who are ruthless. simply took his land and invested it under a certain gentleman, and since then he has been a tenant of other people's houses, so that he can be exempted from the increasingly heavy tax shackles on his body.

In this way, the number of yeoman farmers in the countryside was once again reduced, land and wealth were once again concentrated, the sources of tax revenue of the state were again reduced, and the foundations of the whole country were once again destroyed. Therefore, Mo Ming's target this time was those relatively wealthy gentry families - in fact, there was no one to rob except them, and for this reason, he also brought a few Ming people from Fushan to his team. These people are either usurping their land. Either because they can't repay their debts, they sell their children and daughters to the gentry, and there are natural contradictions between them and those gentry families. Mo Ming doesn't care who is right or wrong between them. He wasn't that interested in judging who was more reasonable between them, he just needed these people to lead the way.

I don't know if it was because of the ability of these leading parties to discern the direction, or if they were not familiar with the land at all, in short, they wandered around the muddy land for a whole day before they found their first target, a certain gentleman surnamed Zhang. This old man Zhang is said to be from Xiucai, and he is not very remarkable. However, his ancestors have been educated and become officials for several generations, and they are also a well-known scholarly family within a radius of 100 miles. Since the Zhang family has been a eunuch for several generations, they have naturally accumulated considerable wealth in their hometown, no, their family not only has a lot of land in the countryside, but also a few shops dealing in grain, sesame oil and silk in Fushan County and Dengzhou City, and the annual income is not a few. Although it is not a rich party, it is also a well-known solid family near and far.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, social order collapsed, and bandits were rampant in the countryside. As fat sheep in the eyes of the bandits, these gentry families naturally built forts in the countryside and trained a considerable number of villagers to protect their property. You must not underestimate their armed strength, when Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he sent many officials to Shandong to take over the local power, and later they were all beheaded or expelled by the townsmen commanded by these gentry, and the end was extremely powerful.

Therefore, when the people from the east coast arrived in Zhangjiazhuang in the early morning of October 27, the first thing that caught their eyes was the tall cyan wall and the brave men walking back and forth on the wall. Naturally, these villagers also discovered this huge force, and they were all highly nervous, because not to mention that these people were well-armed, but just to mention their numbers and the horse team that could not be seen at a glance, it could be seen that this group of people was definitely not ordinary bandits.

Could it be that the Tartars are coming again? Just as the terrible thought was spinning in their heads, two cannons were dragged out to the neighing of horses. Seeing this scene, the captain of the village on the wall almost fell off the wall with a weak leg. There are even cannons! No, you have to report to the master quickly! Captain Xiangyong stumbled down the city wall and sped away into the backyard.

Mo Ming, who was riding on a short horse, took out a monocular from his arms, took a good look at the wall, and found that these townsmen were generally equipped with wooden spears, not even leather armor, and few bows and arrows, so they didn't look like a level opponent at all. However, the lion fights the rabbit with all his strength, and of course he will not have any thoughts of underestimating them. Therefore, following his order, more than 200 officers and men of the 102nd Company erected the American Eagle flag, played the march "Victory Belongs to the Army", and then marched forward in a neat three-line horizontal line.

The townspeople on the wall looked at them stupidly, is this a big drama or a war? They think that this gang of thieves is really stupid, are they really not thieves but a troupe invited by the master from Jingshi? However, they soon came to their senses, for the gang of thieves under the wall, dressed in yellow and carrying birds, quickly marched more than sixty meters from the head of the wall, and then got busy under the command of several leaders who were holding sabers aloft.

They...... Is this reloading the bird?! Soon the well-informed townsfolk recognized their movements, but most of the people around them were only slightly agitated when they heard his scream, and these people, who had probably never been in the city in their lives, did not know what the bird gun was, so they still stood there dumbfounded.

"The first row is crouching, the second and third rows are staggered in turn, and the whole line is volleyed! Preparation... Put! As Xiao Xi slashed the saber in his right hand, a burst of gunfire rang out, and then a large puff of smoke occupied the entire position, but it was soon blown away by the cold northwest wind, leaving only a faint smell of gunsmoke.

The effect of the salvo was quite ideal, and the villagers on the wall suffered heavy casualties. According to the visual observation of the combat staff officer, at least 15 people were hit and killed, of which about seven or eight corpses were planted under the wall, and the remaining bodies are believed to have been left inside the wall.

The soldiers who had finished firing the salvo immediately skillfully loaded their rifles, but by this time no one dared to show their heads at the top of the wall, so they could only stand in place, quietly waiting for the commander's order.

A four-pounder gun and an eight-pounder gun were pushed up by the artillerymen. Since the enemy at the head of the wall was swept away by the musketeers, they pushed the artillery very close to the gate. At this time, there is no need to aim, direct strong charge direct shot is!

"Boom! Rumble! Two cannons stuffed with strong charge packs were fired one after the other, and the solid iron balls that whistled away one after the other, shattering a large piece of the wooden gate.

"Damn, the door of the rich man in the countryside is so thick! Again! Li Wenchang, the commander of the artillery company, took off the military hat on his head and said a little depressed.

The artillerymen immediately began the work of resetting the artillery, cleaning the chamber, and charging the ammunition, due to the need to train the gunners, the artillery crew was stuffed with a few newcomers, so their movements were relatively slow, but it doesn't matter, everyone can wait! Soon, just as a few snooping figures appeared on the wall again, two cannons roared and fired the second round of fire of the day, and the two solid iron balls hit almost the same place, knocking out half of the already tattered wooden door, and the remaining half was also crumbling!

"Kurhan!" Mo Ming, who was riding on a horse, shouted loudly.

Hearing a "whoosh", a burly man in heavy armor like a black bear walked up to his horse and looked up at him.

"Take this Zhuangzi for me, be careful, don't kill people unless necessary!" Mo Ming ordered.

Kurhan, who had already learned a little Chinese, nodded hesitantly, and then without saying a word, he rushed towards the gate with more than two hundred Sakhalin native soldiers who were also wearing heavy armor. They all use cold weapons, that is, a mixture of bows and arrows, spears, and sabers, but their combat effectiveness is definitely not to be underestimated after fishing and hunting in the bitter cold land all year round.

There was really no suspense in the next battle, these Sakhalin native soldiers cooperated with each other, shooting with accurate archery skills at a distance, and stabbing with spears at a distance, and soon captured this Zhuangzi, and only four of them were wounded, and none of them were killed, which greatly satisfied Mo Ming.

Soon, after instructing Xiao Xi, the commander of the 102nd Company, to take a small number of men to maintain the pack horse team outside, Mo Ming and several staff officers walked into the Zhuangzi that had been conquered with the rest of the men. (To be continued......)