There is no free lunch in the world, there will be no pie in the sky for no reason, and the effort will be rewarded.

Some people understand this truth, some people don't understand, and some people clearly understand it but pretend not to understand, and go to get the return with peace of mind, but do not consider the problem of paying.

This world is very cruel, and there will be no rules just because you understand it, and you won't change the rules because you don't understand it.

At the beginning, many people thought that if they joined the peasant army, they could eat enough every day and not have to pay anything, but later, the leaders of the peasant army or the cruel reality would tell them that they had to pay a price for having enough to eat!

Whether it is to kill corrupt officials, kill local tyrants, or kill the emperor's relatives and relatives, they have to attack the city, people will not stretch their necks and send them to you to kill, and after killing, they will have to face the encirclement and suppression of officers and soldiers, these are all costs.

Some people are lucky, but they only pay courage and physical strength, or physical injury;

If someone is unlucky, then he will have to pay with his life.

It has been six years since the peasant uprising, and at the beginning, even some of the leaders of the peasant army did not realize that they would be rewarded only if they had to pay, or they knew about it, but deliberately avoided the issue, so many of the leaders of the peasant army paid with their lives.

Six years have passed, these peasant army leaders have understood this truth, if you want to repay, you must pay, we risk Ling Chi to be executed, and the nine clans are in danger of rebelling, is it possible for the people below to lie down and eat ready-made every day?

This is naturally impossible, so when attacking the city and plundering the land or facing the encirclement and suppression of the officers and soldiers, these peasant army leaders are quite strict, and their subordinates must obey the order, rush forward, and those who do not obey the order, or those who escape from the battle, behead!

This is also a reason why the combat effectiveness of the peasant army is getting stronger and stronger, at the beginning, there is no such discipline, the officers and soldiers came, everyone dispersed in a hurry, there was no combat effectiveness at all, and in the back, after more and more leaders of the peasant army paid the price of their lives, their successors became more and more severe, did not obey orders, and escaped from the battle, is this my life, I want your life first!

At this time, the combat effectiveness of the peasant army is getting stronger and stronger, not that his personal ability has improved, but because their combat discipline has improved, whether they are forced to be helpless, or whether they are afraid of death, in short, at this time, the peasant army will not be defeated because of a little setback, let alone retreat because of the death of a few people.

Zhang Bin looked at the peasant soldiers with luck, hope, helplessness, despair, and even madness on his face in the telescope, sighed slightly, and then ordered: "Musketeers prepare." ”

With a "bang", thousands of soldiers of the Qi family army stepped forward with muskets and lay neatly in the gap between the arrow stacks.

At this time, the peasant army carrying the ladder had already rushed to a position about 100 steps away from the city wall, Zhang Bin waved his big hand and decisively ordered: "Aim and shoot." ”

"Papapa", the city wall suddenly sounded dense gunfire, and the peasant army carrying the stairs below suddenly fell down like cutting wheat, with cannonballs above their heads, bullets in front, and the people around them kept falling, but the peasant soldiers who were besieging the city did not stop because of this, or rather, they did not dare to stop at all, and could only rush forward one by one.

After paying the price of nearly 5,000 casualties in the frantic shouts of killing, someone finally rushed to the city wall!

"Papapapa", stairs set up the city wall, and the peasant army desperately rushed to the city wall.

Zhang Bin did not hesitate to order: "The musketeers stand back and pour hot oil." ”

The musketeer stepped back instantly, and pots of boiling hot oil poured down the stairs.

Countless peasant soldiers fell down the stairs with scalding, and a terrible scream suddenly sounded under the city wall.

However, the peasant soldiers in the back still rushed upwards desperately, as if they had not heard the screams of their comrades.

Zhang Bin frowned, and then ordered: "Ignition!" ”

The first batch of stairs up to the city wall were ablaze, and the peasant army foot soldiers who had just been poured hot oil were also set on fire, and the city wall was suddenly in flames.

At this time, the peasant army infantry behind still ignored it, and set up stairs to rush up one after another.

Zhang Bin gritted his teeth and ordered: "Get off the wood." ”

Huge logs rolled down the stairs, and the peasant soldiers on the stairs suddenly fell like dumplings, and the fire under the city walls became even stronger.

At this time, only about 20% of the 10,000 foot soldiers who were attacking the city remained, and Wang Ziyong and Zhang Xianzhong, who supervised the array, glanced at each other, and finally ordered at the same time: "Mingjin, collect the troops." ”

"Bang bang", a gong sounded, and the besieging foot soldiers suddenly retreated like a tide, faster than the speed of rushing up, and even the wounded soldiers who were originally rolling on the ground miraculously stood up, spread their feet, and ran back.

The first exploratory siege ended like this, the peasant army can be described as a heavy loss, no less than three thousand were killed, and nearly fifty percent were injured, there were no casualties on the Qi army's side, people were purely here to test, except for climbing the city wall and not performing other tactics, the city wall did not climb up, and naturally could not hurt the Qi family army officers and soldiers above.

Zhang Bin has a certain understanding of the combat strength of the peasant army during this period, they are forced to "not be afraid of death", but because the equipment is too poor, this kind of fierce and fearless death is almost no different from sending to death, in the face of muskets and artillery, the ordinary peasant army has almost no threat, but I don't know what their main force will look like.

Of course, this is not a threat is relative, the difference in the number of people on both sides should also be considered, if they are desperate and take human lives to pile up, it is really unknown whether this famous city will be defended or not, you know, in history, the first fierce general Cao Wenzhao in the late Ming Dynasty was beaten to death, no matter how powerful he is, he can't stand up to many people!

Will the peasant army be desperate to pile up human lives?

The smoke of gunpowder cleared, the flags died down, and the leaders of the peasant army gathered in a village about ten miles from the city.

At this time, the village was naturally occupied by them, and the landlord and squire were also dragged out and cut down, and they sat around the compound of the landlord's house and began to discuss again.

Wang Ziyong's interest doesn't seem to be very high, he just lost more than 1,000 people, and there are two or three thousand more wounded, it's no wonder that he can be in a good mood, seeing that everyone is here, he immediately coughed, and said in frustration: "Everyone has seen how powerful the officers and soldiers in the city are, what to do next, let's talk about it." ”

Today's siege of the city has naturally seen everyone, although the number of officers and soldiers in the city is not much, but the number of muskets and artillery is terrifying, in the face of muskets and artillery, they really have no way at this time, many people have begun to retreat.

Guotianxing Hui Dengxiang coughed and said weakly: "If we don't withdraw, I'm afraid it will be difficult to defeat this famous city." ”

His words represented the hearts of most of the leaders, and as soon as he said it, many leaders couldn't help but echo it.

Zhang Xianzhong frowned and didn't speak, Li Zicheng still lowered his head, but this time he didn't show any disdain, he seemed to be thinking about something.

Seeing that the call for retreat was very high, Wang Ziyong simply asked Zhang Xianzhong directly: "Eight kings, what do you say?" ”

Zhang Xianzhong said with displeasure: "I still say the same thing, we are rebelling, don't think that the officers and soldiers will let us go, even if we accept the appeasement, we can only keep us safe for a while, his old Zhu family has done a lot of things to unload and kill donkeys, so we can only survive if we overturn them and become emperors ourselves." ”

When Wang Ziyong heard this, he shook his head and sighed: "Problem: We can't beat the officers and soldiers in the city now." ”

Zhang Xianzhong said disdainfully: "There are only so many officers and soldiers in the city, we don't need to go all of them, at most 100,000 people can pile them up, and they can definitely be piled to death, and besides, muskets and artillery need ammunition, how many ammunition do you think they can bring at a time, it will take ten days, and it will definitely consume up their ammunition." ”

Wang Ziyong still shook his head and sighed: "The ammunition is exhausted, but it needs to be consumed by human lives, ten days, how many people have to die!" ”

The leaders of the peasant army echoed again, no one under his command fell from the sky, it is not easy to pull up such a large team, who is willing to spend half of the people in this meaningless mansion, it is Luoyang City, the capital is naturally better, this famous mansion city is forgotten.

Zhang Xianzhong snorted coldly: "Who said that if we take human lives to fill in, we won't build siege equipment, thigh-thick wooden pillars cover the top of their heads, what is the use of their muskets and artillery, I mean to build siege vehicles to consume their ammunition, people just hide under the siege vehicles, and they won't die." ”

When the leaders heard this, they suddenly came to their senses again, yes, you can build siege equipment, the artillery of the officers and soldiers in the city is not very large, as long as it is built strongly, the artillery will not be smashed.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Wang Ziyong immediately nodded and said, "Okay, let's build siege trucks, slowly consume them, and use up their ammunition." ”

The leaders nodded in approval, but at this time, Ma Yingshou suddenly proposed: "With so many people gathered together, the food loss is not a small amount, or we will go to the neighborhood to raise some grain and grass, so as not to run out of food when we don't get it." ”

The so-called raising of grain and grass is naturally not to collect taxes or organize fund-raising or anything, what he means is to fight local tyrants, rob landlords, and grab grain!

Wang Ziyong nodded approvingly: "Okay, anyway, there are so many officers and soldiers in the city, we don't have to stay here, grain and grass are indeed the top priority, you will lead the fifth battalion of the left side of the revolution to the nearby ten miles and eight towns to raise it tomorrow." ”

Such a good errand was robbed by this guy, Li Zicheng cursed secretly, whispered a few words in his uncle's ear, and then raised his head and suggested: "We can also divide our troops to attack other counties in the Daimyo's Mansion, and force the officers and soldiers in the city to divide their troops to rescue, as long as they are out of the city, there is nothing to fear, we can ambush them there casually, and we can kill them." ”

When Wang Ziyong heard this, he couldn't help but admire: "Yes, we can divide our troops to attack other county seats, and the officers and soldiers in the city must divide our troops to save them, otherwise, the little emperor will have to clean him up." King Chuang, why don't you take your men to attack? ”

Gao Yingxiang didn't understand what Li Zicheng meant at this time, but he still trusted his nephew, he thought about it for a while, and nodded and said, "Okay, we will take people to attack several county towns south of the Daimyo's Mansion tomorrow and force the officers and soldiers to divide their troops to rescue." ”

With a slapper from the king, the matter was settled, and the peasant army moved early the next morning.

First of all, the five roads of Lao Ge Zuo Ma Yingshou, Ge Li Yan He Yilong, Zuo Jin Wang He Jin, Liu Xiyao, the king of the ruling world, and Lin Chengcheng, the king of the world, were dispersed into dozens of thousand-person squads, and ran to the villages around the Daimyo's Mansion.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Yingxiang led his team to set off, but they did not disperse, but hugged together and ran directly to Neihuang County, south of the Daimyofu City.

As for the more than 100,000 peasant troops that remained, they did not rush to attack the city, but cut down trees everywhere to build siege equipment.

They built mainly siege engines, that is, wooden cages, empty at the back and underneath, with wooden railings on both sides and in front, and wooden rafts nailed into thigh-thick wooden stakes on top, with four wheels.

Zhang Bin couldn't help frowning slightly when he saw this scene, such a thick mu of stakes can't be smashed by cannonballs!

However, he didn't say anything, just ordered Lu Xiangsheng to keep collecting city defense facilities and prepare to deal with the peasant army's siege.

Anyway, Gao Yingxiang is still in the dark at this time, he really can't understand, why did Li Zicheng suggest that he lead his team to the south to attack other counties of the Daimyo's Mansion, and attack the Daimyo's Mansion City with everyone, anyway, if everyone goes out together, he won't lose much of his men and horses.

It is not the same to lead the army to attack the county seat alone, the county order and the local tyrants and squires in the county will at least organize hundreds or even thousands of families, guards, and villagers to guard the city wall, and when the time comes, the soup, hot oil, rolling stones, and sassags will all have to be carried by their own people, and it will be impossible to capture a county town without casualties of thousands of people.

Waiting to stay away from the camp of the peasant army, Gao Yingxiang finally couldn't help but ask: "Zao'er, why did you come up with such a bad idea, there are six or seven county towns in the south of the Daimyo's Mansion, and if they are fought down one by one, my 20,000 or 30,000 horses will basically be abolished." ”

Li Zicheng said wisely: "Uncle, you haven't seen it yet, if we really provoke the world's soldiers and horses to come to King Qin, and don't kill and injure more than 100,000 people, can we get out?" ”

Gao Yingxiang thought about it when he heard this, and couldn't help but be dumbfounded: "Yes, how can the army of hundreds of thousands of Qin Kings be so easy to get rid of, isn't this seeking death!" ”

Li Zicheng mocked: "He Zhang Xianzhong thinks that everyone else is a fool, I guess he has arranged it at this time, the elite rides, the main force sits in the car, leaving a bunch of useless cannon fodder, and accompanying those fools to resist the officers and soldiers in the back, when the time comes, everyone will suffer heavy casualties, and he will be left with the strongest strength, and his development is naturally the fastest, he has a good calculation." ”

When Gao Yingxiang heard this, he couldn't help but be afraid for a while, this guy is so poisonous!