The Gaoliu coalition army, when it arrived at the city of Shouzhou, gave Chongzhen, who was already not calm, a turbulence and instability at the end of the sixteenth year.

Since Gao Yihuan fell into Runing and broke Chongwang's mansion, Gao Yihuan's name has appeared on Chongzhen's desk again and again.

The first news about him was Yang Wenyue, who was reactivated, and mentioned a very brief sentence in the memoir, "In November of the fifteenth year, there was a Henan thief Gao Yihuan, defrauding Runing City, and the thieves poured in to break the Chongwang Mansion. ”

After that, when Jin Yiwei investigated the war in Shandong, he also mentioned it once, but since then, this name has disappeared for nearly half a year, so that Chongzhen, who is busy with various affairs, has forgotten such a person.

Gao Yihuan's name reappeared a month ago, when the situation in Huguang deteriorated.

Chongzhen received Huguang He Tengjiao's recital, and there was actually a third of the content on it, all of which were about Gao Yihuan forcing Zuo Liangyu away and fighting for Xiangyang with the Western Thieves.

This reminded Chongzhen of such a person again, and what he didn't expect was that in less than a month, he saw Gao Yihuan's name in the recital, and his deeds finally took up the entire space.

"The high thief Yihuan, Chen Liuren's family, fifteen years from the thief, now has tens of thousands, invites the German thief Liu Shun, enters Kou Nanzhi, traps Bozhou, Wuyang, Yingchuan, Yingshang four cities, and jointly attacks Shouzhou ~~~"

This is the special fold of Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, because the Huguang road is not passable, and He Tengjiao's twist and turn is relatively slow, so the two folds are only one month apart.

In such a short period of time, Gao Yihuan's name appeared continuously, and they were all major events, which attracted the attention of the Ming court.

"Give an order to Ma Shiying, if Fengyang is lost, I will let him come to see him!" Chongzhen closed the recital and said in a sullen voice.

At the beginning of December of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the weather was getting colder, and after the Gaoliu coalition army arrived in Shouzhou, he sent sentinels to monitor the movements of the officers and troops in the direction of Hefei and Fengyang, and then began to prepare for the siege.

This time, Liu Liangzuo was in the city, and Tie Lixin and others came to save him, and then came to attack inside and outside to destroy Gao Yihuan.

He shrank in the city and made up his mind to be a turtle with a shrunken head, so that Gao Yihuan would not be able to use any strategy, so there was only one way left.

At this time, there was a golden sound under the city, and the attacking soldiers retreated like a tide.

The soldiers were still running back, and suddenly there was a loud bang in front of them, a Hongyi cannon, the muzzle of the cannon spewed out a cloud of white smoke, the cannon body suddenly retreated, and an iron bullet slashed over the heads of the soldiers, smashed on the city wall, and shattered the masonry.

", fight so early!"

The new camp retreating from the city shook the dust splashed on its body as it ran back, cursing incessantly in its heart.

After Gao Yihuan arrived at the city of Shouzhou, he began to set up artillery to bombard the city, and at the same time, the nearly 3,000 Liu officers and soldiers captured in the four counties of Yingchuan, Bozhou, Wuyang, and Yingshang were organized into a new attached army, and divided into three teams, each team of 1,000 people, launched an attack on Shouzhou in the interval of the shelling, and exhausted the defenders on the city.

At this time, ten Hongyi cannons under the city, plus more than 20 general cannons, lined up under the city.

After the artillery had cooled for half an hour, it opened fire again, and the new annex battalion, which had feinted and harassed, retreated.

At this time, in front of the artillery front, a general suddenly waved the triangular red flag, and the artillery burst into a deafening sound of cannonball.

In an instant, thick white smoke covered the long front, the gun mounts of the various guns retreated, and the iron bullets rushed out of the muzzles and flew towards the city, and the walls were smashed to pieces, and the dust was flying, and countless rubbles rose into the air and fell like hailstones.

Liu Heizi stood behind the artillery array, and from a distance, he could still feel the shaking of the Shouzhou city wall, and his heart was beating wildly.

The defenders at the head of the city were under the attack of artillery, and they experienced the shaking of the ground and the mountains, and they all squatted at the head of the city, fearing in their hearts, "Is this still a fucking thief?" The equipment is even better than them! ”

Outside the city, the gunners quickly cleaned the chamber after firing a shot, and the wet brush made a sound of evaporation of water droplets in the hot chamber.

The soldiers hurriedly used a wooden stick wrapped in cotton cloth, cleaned it again, and then loaded it with propellant and iron bullets, and then compacted it, and the gunner readjusted the gun position, punctured the medicine bag, inserted the lead, and finally ignited.

These cannon techniques and liucheng were all learned from the craftsmen of the cannon casting workshop, and these craftsmen from Guanzhong learned the Xiyi cannon skills.

The artillery under the city kept roaring, and the rising gunpowder smoke soon covered the entire front, and looking down from the city, the defenders could no longer see the gunners clearly, only the white smoke, from time to time flashing orange-red cannon flames.

Liu Liangzuo hid at the head of the city, only hearing the Shouzhou city wall, the sound of bricks and stones collapsing from time to time, and the screams of the soldiers in the city.

After Gao Liu's two armies arrived at the city, they began to bombard the city, and Shouzhou City had been beaten for more than ten days.

The walls of the city were in shambles under the bombardment of artillery, smoke and dust were billowing and the vision was blurred, and the sound of screams for help was everywhere.

Liu Liangzuo wanted to let the soldiers go down the city, but as soon as the cannon stopped, someone would attack, and even before the cannon could hear, the attacking team had already arrived in the city.

The steps on the city wall are only available on both sides of the city gate, and it will be too late to let the soldiers go down to the city and wait for the shelling to be over, and then go back to the city.

Although Liu Liangzuo also knew that this was Gao Yihuan's tired enemy's strategy, it was basically a feint, but he was afraid that he would suddenly play for real.

For more than ten days, the defenders needed to keep themselves up at all times, and the personnel were already quite tired.

Liu Heizi watched the shelling for a while, and saw that the green bricks on the city wall of Shouzhou had fallen off in large areas, revealing the soil inside, and couldn't help but say to Gao Yihuan: "Brother Gao, when will we go up?" ”

Gao Yihuan looked back, and the soldiers in the camp who were still preparing equipment did not answer immediately, but asked Zhao Daxian beside him: "Is there any movement in the direction of Taiping Mansion?" ”

Zhao Daxian hurriedly said: "Huang Degong sent a team of soldiers and horses, and after arriving in Hefei, there was no movement. ”

"How many people rushed to Hefei?" Gao Yihuan asked.

If Huang Degong's troops and horses went north, then he had to guard against a sudden attack by the Ming army, and Shouzhou would not be able to fight.

"Two thousand people, plus the original one thousand people in Hefei, there are three thousand people in total. It is estimated that they are afraid of us, and after taking Shouzhou, they will fight Hefei again, so they will increase their troops to defend. ”

Gao Yihuan nodded, three thousand soldiers and horses, not enterprising enough, more than enough to defend the city, Huang Degong to guard against Zhang Xianzhong, hold Anqing, Taipingfu, block the waterway of the Western army east into Nanjing, should not have the strength to go north.

Gao Yihuan immediately asked, "What about Fengyang and Xuzhou?" ”

"Second brother, there is no movement, Ma Shiying not only did not send troops, but withdrew the men and horses of Mengcheng and Huaiyuan to Fengyang."

After Gao Yihuan heard this, he said to Liu Heizi: "If nothing else, I want to prepare for three days and then attack the city." The more fully prepared we are, the easier it will be to conquer Shouzhou, and the time to attack the city will be shorter. ”

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(End of chapter)