Laiwu eventually became a ghost town.

When Zhang Huangyan handed over Laiwu City to Kong Zhenhui's general army, there were still thousands of ordinary people in Laiwu City, but with the commander Zhang Huangyan, they retreated to Jining Mansion and took almost all the people in the city, leaving only more than 15,000 soldiers led by Kong Zhenhui.

Advancing along the way, Kong Youde has already been aware of the fact that the Ming Dynasty government began to implement the land and clear the wilderness, and they have already been aware of it, and in the villages between the various county governments, Kong Youde and they have rarely found people living in them, except for those who cannot travel far and four lonely old people, thin and lonely children, or a few residents of remote mountain villages.

Laiwu City is not big, so the Ming army wants to turn the siege into a street battle attempt, from the beginning there is not much geographical advantage, and when the city wall of the north city, under the wanton artillery bombardment for two consecutive days, collapsed the moment, the Hongtang army launched their official siege operation.

Garrison General Kong Zhenhui, can not but say that he is a brave general, and at the same time is also extremely loyal to the Ming Dynasty, at the beginning of the siege he did not think about passive defense, but launched a night attack led by himself that night, but was still precautioned by the Hongtang army, with muskets and swords repulsed.

If it weren't for Kong Youde's desire to fight steadily, he would have already won the battle, and he couldn't say that the Hongtang army pursued and routed the Ming army that fled into the city, and I am afraid that he would have been able to open the gate of Laiwu County on the spot.

However, it is the self-discipline of the Hongtang mixed team, the style of acting almost without making mistakes, although there will be nothing brilliant in a big battle, but it ensures that the Hongtang army wins again and again.

You must know that Kong Zhen will raid at night, in fact, it is precisely in the hope that the Hongtang army will be able to pursue them into the city, and in the city, there is a Ming Dynasty elite who is ready to go, and an insidious trap is waiting for the Hongtang army.

Kong Zhenhui knew from the beginning that it was impossible for Laiwu City to hold on, and when Zhang Huangyan handed over his mission, he was ready to live and die with the city.

What he hoped was that he could use the more than 10,000 sons in his hand and the cover of the Laiwu city wall to weaken the strength of the Hongtang army as much as possible.

In the end, Kong Zhenhui's goal was defeated, and his night attack soldiers also lost more than 1,000 people, and the losses caused to Hongtang's army were less than 100 people.

However, Laiwu City was broken on the second day, and it was not until the seventh day that it was completely occupied by Hongtang's army, and at this time, it was still more than a week before Zhang Huangyan gave Kong Zhenhui an order to hold Laiwu City for 15 days.

In the end, after seeing that the city was no longer lucky, Kong Zhenhui gave his last order to garrison Laiwu City - burn the city!!

Anyway, at this time, there are no innocent people in the city anymore, except for the more than 1,000 sons who have survived with him, the rest of the soldiers who are still alive in the city are already soldiers of the Hongtang army.

"Get out of the city!!"

"Retreat according to the formation, don't disturb the order, violators will be killed!!"

Not long after the arrows suddenly rose in the city, thick smoke gradually rose from all corners of Laiwu City, which was already not in the city, followed by red fire snakes, soaring into the sky.

In ancient times, most of the houses were made of solid wood, and most of the people who could use blue bricks and tiles were large households, so it was very easy to artificially cause a fire.

When defending the city, the general army of Kong Zhenhui had already ambushed his cronies in various hidden places in Laiwu City, and asked them to carry a certain amount of earth oil and wait for their signals.

Until the signal was raised, the chess pieces, who had been waiting for a long time, took action, dumped fire oil and other combustibles into the wooden house, scattered a little spark, and instantly turned into a sea of fire.

At that time, when Kong Zhen would take people out to attack at night, he prepared a place for the pursuing army, which was this feast, preparing to wait for the pursuing army to enter the city, close the city gate from the city, and then set fire to the small half of the northern city.

However, the Hongtang army was not fooled at that time, and after the collapse of the Beicheng wall, even if Kong Zhenhui wanted to use this ruthless tactic again, he gave up because the Hongtang army was adjacent to the north gate and could easily escape from the city.

Until now, seeing that most of the city fell into the hands of Hongtang's army, and the soldiers of the army in his hands were killed in battle, and captured in captivity, it was not easy to survive until he had no way out, which also meant that it would take a long time for Hongtang's army to withdraw from Laiwu City when it was on fire again, so Kong Zhenhui issued an order to burn the city.

When the fire broke out, the Hongtang army had already sensed that something was wrong, and soon the regimental and battalion-level officers of the Hongtang army, without waiting for the commanders outside the city to give orders, began to integrate the army and march towards the nearest underground city gate.

At this time, if there is no general or guerrilla officer to give orders, I am afraid that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty army will have no other ideas except panic and excessive advance and retreat. And when the fire becomes an irresistible human existence, and everyone wants to escape, the whole situation will collapse.

After cutting down a few guys who had just joined the Hongtang army by military law and ran around regardless of the army's array, the Hongtang army retreated at the three city gates, but it was carried out in an orderly manner.

Even though the fire behind them had already scorched the backs of the soldiers in the last place and their hair became curly, the soldiers of the Hongtang army did not turn into a plate of loose sand and snatched the escape passage at the gate of the city.

And it was precisely because of the well-organized march of the Hongtang army that when the fire spread throughout the city, almost all the Hongtang soldiers who entered the city safely evacuated from this sea of fire.

As for Kong Zhenhui, who caused this evil act of burning the city, he took his last two thousand sons and daughters out of the south gate after the fire broke out, opened the south gate without hesitation, and launched a decisive charge towards the Hongtang position outside the south gate.

In the end, the 2,000 defenders of the Ming army in Laiwu County, after giving more than 300 casualties to the Hongtang army in Nancheng, all of them were killed, and there were few survivors.

"Your Majesty, the last general has done his best!"

Surrounded by more than a dozen Hongtang soldiers, Kong Zhenhui, who was in a posture of wanting to capture him alive, finally died with blood and regret.

Outside the city, seeing the raging fire burning, Kong Youde, who had been going on for a long time, was silent for a long time after hearing the final results of Nancheng and the news that Kong Zhenhui, who had the same surname, and said such a sentence.

"Find a place to bury him!"

Although the two sides are hostile to each other, such a brave and loyal general is always worthy of Kong Youde's respect and admiration.