There have always been different opinions about Yuan Chonghuan's death in history, but according to Ji Qingwen's contact with Yuan Chonghuan after crossing over, this Jiliao Governor Yuan is indeed not a perfect person, and he may not really have the ability to save the defeat of Liaodong by himself, but he is one of the most capable generals in the court today, but it is also an indisputable fact, and it is a pity to kill him like this.

What's more, Yuan Chonghuan was extremely prestigious in the Ming army, not only the generals of Liaodong bowed down to him, but even many generals in the Jingshi camp regarded him as an idol. If Yuan Chonghuan is easily killed, the impact on the morale of the army will be too great.

Thinking of this, Ji Qingwen suddenly felt that he should go to Emperor Chongzhen to fight for it, and try to see if he could make this impatient young emperor's subordinates merciful and leave Yuan Chonghuan's life.

Thinking of this, Ji Qingwen had already made up his mind - no matter whether he was guilty or not, whether the crime was big or small, he must save Yuan Chonghuan's life.

And the first thing is to take the crumbling Wenzhou City in front of him as soon as possible, so that he can free up his hands and find a way to pick up Yuan Chonghuan from the ghost gate.

So Ji Qingwen said to Li Yan beside him in an unusually positive tone: "Brother Li, I have thought about it, Liu Kongzhao can help me with this favor." Help him take down Wenzhou City. ”

Wenzhou City will be taken sooner or later, and in addition, it is all about trivial things.

Li Yan knew this very well, so he said: "It's okay like this, the White Lotus Sect has made enough trouble, and it's not a matter if it continues like this." Since Brother Ji intends to sell Liu Kongzhao a face, it is not a big deal. However, the key lies in how to sell and how to exchange the maximum benefit for the minimum price. ”

Ji Qingwen said with a smile: "It is said that it is 'a gentleman who cooks far away', Brother Li has always been quite disdainful of such mundane things as money and goods, why has he learned to do business now?" ”

Li Yan said: "What do you mean by 'vulgar'? One 'person' and one 'grain' are customary, living in the world, getting food, and feeding the whole family, this is the most important thing. There's nothing wrong with talking about 'mundane things' like this. On the contrary, those guys who are full of benevolence and morality all day long, but they don't understand this way of helping the people through the world, so they are naturally fools who have nothing to say. ”

"Alright, alright!" Ji Qingwen said, "I just said a word, and Brother Li has a lot of words waiting for me." Let's talk about how to lay down Wenzhou City. ”

After a few people discussed a few words, they sent people to Yang Zhan, Huang Degong, Qin Xiangzhen, Shen Liangzuo, Cheng Yi and others, and they stood in the open space and made a good arrangement, and then returned to the Chinese army's big tent.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, Lord Liu Kongzhao, the sincere uncle, had been sitting for a long time, and saw that Ji Qingwen took Li Yan and Li Yuanyin out with a total of three people, but when he came back, there were five more people, so he couldn't tell the number of their roads, so he hurriedly got up and arched his hand to everyone, and said, "I don't know ...... you."

Ji Qingwen said with a smile: "Lord Liu, our whole army is dispatched to help you fight for Lord Liu, shouldn't we discuss it in advance?" ”

When Liu Kongzhao heard this, he immediately became overjoyed: "It turns out that Lord Ji has made up his mind, so I can rest assured now...... Rest assured...... In that case, I don't know how Lord Ji is going to help in the war? ”

Ji Qingwen said: "First of all...... The first merit of breaking the city and capturing the thieves is to give your ...... to Lord Liu."

Liu Kongzhao was even happier when he heard this, and hurriedly thanked: "This ...... This...... What's so embarrassing about that? But if Lord Ji has this benevolence, then I will be disrespectful. It's just that I don't know how Lord Ji plans to give me the credit for this chaos? ”

Ji Qingwen said: "It's very simple. Have you heard of the guns I brought with the army? I kept bombarding him a few rounds, blasting the Wenzhou city gate open or the city wall down. Then Lord Liu personally led the army into the city from the gap in the city wall and the city gate. Isn't the first contribution to breaking the city in Lord Liu's bag? ”

Liu Kongzhao felt a thrill in his heart, and then remembered that Ji Qingwen had fought against him several times, and how could he have been so kind, so he asked more: "Lord Ji, if this credit is given to me, wouldn't it be too bad for you?" ”

Ji Qingwen smiled again: "No mistreatment, no mistreatment." Sir, although the White Lotus Sect has become a dog in the water, the dog has to jump over the wall when it is in a hurry, and the rabbit has to bite when it is in a hurry. The White Lotus Sect in the city is not a frightened bird that surrenders without a fight, and the imperial court will inevitably have to pay a lot of price for storming the city. Lord Liu, in order to block the retreat of the White Lotus Sect bandits, the losses of my brothers in the Ming Wu Army have been not small, and I just hope that in this battle, Lord Liu can arrange for our army to have General Qin Xiangzhen's white pole soldiers and Shen Liangzuo's Gonggong's Jingshi battalion to pick up cheap behind the army. I don't know what the lord thinks? ”

This request is not excessive, Liu Kongzhao can agree to it in person, but he has a little more heart, and asks more: "This time the whole army is attacking the city, Lord Ji and several other adults' men and horses are the main force of our army, if these people and horses do not participate in the action, I am afraid it will be difficult to convince the public......

Ji Qingwen said: "Lord Liu's words are wrong. How come we didn't get involved in the action? If I hadn't broken the city gates with these cannons, how would the officers and soldiers have been able to enter the city? Lord Liu, don't underestimate my cannons, every time these cannons are fired, dozens of taels of silver will be gone, and if you can collapse the city wall of Wenzhou, you don't know how much silver you need! ”

Liu Kongzhao had heard of the power of artillery, but in order to achieve such power, he had to pay such a big price, but it was the first time he had heard of it.

This made this Liu Bowen's successor make a small calculation in his heart - one cannon is worth fifty taels of silver according to what Ji Qingwen said, four rounds are two hundred taels, and ten bombardments are two thousand taels of silver. Where is this battle, it's clearly silver!

However, since there is such a set of arguments, Ji Qingwen did not take the lead in sending troops to attack Wenzhou City, so he also had a reasonable reason, and the offensive started the next day without delay.

Just after noon the next day, I only listened to several bursts of artillery in the south and north of Wenzhou, and finally after the smoke dissipated, there were two gaps of five or six zhang long that were blown down on the two sections of the city wall, which was enough for the army to enter the city from the gap.

This is actually a test for Ji Qingwen, on the flat ground, against the defenseless infantry, artillery can naturally play a huge role, but whether it can afford to break through the heavy responsibility of the fortified city, Ji Qingwen originally had no bottom. But now it seems that the power of artillery may not be enough to deal with the strong city walls of Beijing, Nanjing, and Xi'an, but to deal with a weak city like Wenzhou, which has been in disrepair for a long time, these few artillery pieces on the chariot are still more than enough.

Ji Qingwen didn't believe it, and Liu Kongzhao was even less confident.

It was not until he saw with certainty that the city wall of Wenzhou had been breached, so he waved his army and ordered Zhang Yandeng, the governor of Zhejiang, and Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian, to lead the soldiers and horses of Zhejiang and Fujian to attack the south of the city; And he personally led the defenders of Nanjing to attack the north of the city.

The White Lotus Sect in the city was awakened from the drowsiness of the afternoon by the fierce artillery outside the city, and it was thought that thunder sounded in the sky, but when I looked up, it was a bright and scorching sun, and there was no cloud in the sky, so how could the thunder sound?

Only the "senior brother" Xu Daoqing, who had personally experienced the power of artillery, was the first to react, and immediately sent someone to inform the sect leader Xu Hongru and the holy woman Zhou Xiuying of the situation, and he picked up all the White Lotus Sect disciples around him, and immediately ran quickly towards the place where the explosion occurred.

Through the choking smoke of gunpowder, Xu Daoqing really saw countless court officers and soldiers shouting and killing and rushing towards the city, and the direction of their killing was the gap in the city wall that had just been blasted out by artillery.

But when he looked at it, Xu Daoqing actually relaxed again.

It turned out that the officers and soldiers who rushed over were not the formidable Ming Wu army, nor the white pole soldiers from Sichuan, but ordinary local defenders.

Although Xu Daoqing didn't know why Ji Qingwen was willing to send artillery to help in the battle, he did not send his Ming Wu army to participate in the battle. However, Xu Daoqing knew that with the miscellaneous army of the officials and troops opposite, the White Lotus Sect disciples under his command could still resist it—although from the overall situation, even if the White Lotus Sect could hold this lonely city, it would only be a temporary reluctance.