Jingmen is less than 300 miles away from Xiangyang, Guo Chonglie Town is the vanguard all the way north, along the way the people rumored that Duoduo was defeated and killed, He Zhen is leading his troops to attack Xiangyang, plus in recent years, through the "Popular Daily" to know a lot about the loyal army

Now hearing that Yang Xuan led his troops north to seize Xiangyang, the squires, scholars, and wealthy families in Yicheng City were encouraged, and they shouted from the heights, and the people cut their hair and revolted, gathering hundreds of people to tie up the puppet Zhixian and related officials sent by the Manqing Dynasty.

Looking at the puppet official kneeling in front of him, Yang Xuan simply asked him about his guilt, and then asked this hoarse pseudo-magistrate to be tied up and cut down, and then appointed officials to comfort the people and punish the traitors.

Along the way, every three or five miles, the old man came out of the village to greet him, and everyone put out incense cases and took out the best things in the house to reward the army.

Whenever he encountered people in the middle of the road, Yang Xuan would turn over and dismount to thank him, due to the poor supply of materials for the army, the rewards were all bought and sold at a fair price.

Looking at everyone's surprised expressions, Yang Xuan took the opportunity to announce the new policy, telling everyone that in order to avoid fire consumption, the government will no longer collect loose silver in the future, but only silver coins and paper money.

After the land was cleared and the population was cleared, the tax was levied, and due to the abolition of fire consumption, the amount of silver paid by everyone after the three salaries was also similar to that in the past.

As compensation, labor is no longer levied except for the construction of the county.

Commercial taxes are levied on small merchants and workers in accordance with the principle of three classes and nine rules, and for large merchant workshops, commercial taxes are levied on each mine according to 15 taxes and one tax.

Establish a township office, form a county council, and local gentry, talent, and trade union leaders of chambers of commerce can run for councillors, and all adult men who pay the ding fee are eligible to elect councillors and township chiefs, and the elected councillors and township chiefs will be given a certain remuneration.

……

And after hearing these policies, ordinary people rejoiced.

Although the three salaries are now maintained, if silver coins and paper money are levied, the actual levy is limited.

Moreover, as long as those who pay the ding and field contributions as required can become official citizens to elect township mayors and councilors, it is undoubtedly a great honor.

And those who read are even more excited, with their local prestige, they are very likely to be elected as councillors and township mayors, so that they can slowly move towards official careers and achieve the goal of helping the world at the same time.

Of course, many rich families also complained bitterly, but with the arrival of the loyal and righteous army, some large families were treated as traitors because of their deep collusion with the Tartars, and a few rich families were left helpless.

From Jingzhou to Xiangyang, there was originally the same post road, as it was said in the past, just like the modern highway high-speed rail four vertical and four horizontal, at that time the country's major cities were mostly connected by post roads.

From Yiting to Yiyang is a general official road, the road is rugged and difficult to walk, but after arriving in Yiyang, it is the highway post road of this era, all of which are rammed earth, and some places are paved with bluestone blocks, and two four-wheeled carriages can run side by side on the post road.

It took five days to complete the 300-mile journey, and in late July, Yang Xuan rushed to the city of Xiangyang, which was surrounded by surging Han water in the north, east and south, and the peaks of Yanghu Mountain and Phoenix Mountain in the west.

The city wall was built in the Han Dynasty, after the overhaul in the Hongwu period, the wall is about 10 meters high, 1.3-1.5 meters thick, and has a circumference of 7.4 kilometers.

There are six city gates in Xiangyang, the north is Linhan Gate, Zhenhua Gate, there is Yangchun Gate in the east, Wenchang Gate, the west is the West City Gate, the south is the Gongchen Gate, each city gate is equipped with urn city or sub-city, the four corners of the city are provided with corner platforms, the enemy platform and the beacon tower are set up along the line, and more than 4,000 battlements are set up on the city wall.

There was a moat between the walls and the land that was 180 to 250 meters wide, which was very difficult to fill, and the land distance between the city wall and the moat was about 4,5 zhang wide.

After returning to the big tent on the main peak on Yanghu Mountain, Yang Xuan took a closer look at the whole picture of Xiangyang City again, and then returned to the tent, where several staff officers were fiddling with the sand table of the ancient cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng.

He Zhen hurriedly came to the barracks with the 36-standard guerrilla general Wang Guangtai, looking at the sand table in front of him, Wang Guangtai knelt down and said: "Lord Wang, although my Wang family was expelled from Xiangyang City by the Barbarian Qing Dynasty, there are still some old friends in Xiangyang City, and the situation in the city is still a little unheard.

Now the Manqing Dynasty is stationed in the huge Xiangyang City with Bei Zishuoto and Gao Di, the commander of the Green Battalion, 3,000 cavalry and 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Green Battalion.

I heard from the inside that Gao Di was going to mobilize the people in the city to help defend the city, but after hearing that the prince's army saw it, the people were quite yearning for my Daming, and Shuo Tuo was afraid that the people would rebel after getting weapons, so he didn't dare to agree at all.

In this way, as long as our army attacks the city wall and opens the city gate, the people in the city will inevitably surge, so that we can take Xiangyang City in one fell swoop. ”

Qian Bangji, the overseer next to him, shook his head and said: "Since ancient times, there has been a saying that Xiangyang City has been beaten with iron, and the difficulty of Xiangyang City can be seen from this, when Kublai Khan attacked Xiangyang, he built a 10-kilometer-long outer city wall to counter-surround Tartar, and it took 5 years to capture Xiangyang City."

Although we now have 10 red-coated cannons and more than 40 Fran cannons, it will be even more difficult to capture Xiangyang City in the short term.

Liu Xuanchu, the governor of Xing'an Prefecture, retorted: "The difference between the words of the capital supervision army, Lu Wenhuan and others were guarding Xiangyang City that day, which was to protect the territory and the people, and recently Shuotuo, Gao Di and others were stationed in Xiangyang City, that is, they wanted to continue to enslave and oppress the people of our Han Dynasty, and the people who defended the city on that day shared the same hatred.

At that time, Lu Wenhuan and others were stationed in Xiangyang, and the Southern Song Dynasty sent a large army to rescue, and the prince sent troops to the east this time, and the soldiers were very fast, and he beheaded Duoduo in less than a month, defeating Duoduo Group.

Just as General Wang Guangtai said just now, as long as the tactics are appropriate, as long as we can storm the city wall and open the city gate, as long as the people in the city see the courage to capture Xiangyang City, then our army will definitely win."

The audience kept arguing, Yang Xuan looked at the sand table in front of him, and suddenly his eyes lit up and said: "Everyone, there is no doubt that Xiangyang City is very difficult, its north is close to the Han River, and there are moats on the southeast and west sides, especially in the east and south of the Han River, it is very difficult to deploy troops.

This Yangyang city can be said to be very difficult for the enemy from the north, not only to cross the Han River, but also to make a detour to the back to attack, and for the rebels attacking from the south to the north, the greatest danger is only this moat.

If you look at it with a telescope, you can also see that the main force of the Tartars is concentrated in the west, and the defense in the east and south is very weak.

I also went to the moat just now to take a look, although the moat is very wide, the water of this river is very smooth, and it can be tied to dozens of rafts to pass.

The decision has been made, and the 8th town of He Zhen will attack the Yangchun Gate and Wenchang Gate in the east, Guo Chonglie's 3rd town will attack the Gongchen Gate in the south, and the 7th town of Jin Tongwu will attack the West City Gate in the west.

Each town had to build an earthen wall about 10 meters high, 5 meters wide and 40 meters long from the moat with the help of terrain to fire the Franc cannon.

Each town needs to send people to each township to cut down bamboo, so as to make four bamboo rafts that can cross the moat, so that everyone can cross the moat and fight.

Each town needs to gather carpenters to make ten siege towers and twenty siege ladders, which can cross the river and fight.

All the work had to be completed within five days, and everyone needed to be ready for the siege immediately.

Each town needs to form 300 death squads, these death squads are uniformly trained by the Chinese army battalion, if the most heroic thousand generals in each town lead, everyone is strong and persistent, rush across the moat, and then climb the first batch along the siege towers and siege ladders to the head of the city to seize Xiangyang City."

When everyone heard this, although they were quite puzzled in their hearts, they still nodded yes.

After the news of the formation of the death squad, the entire military camp was suddenly boiling, since the Tatars invaded China, the various heinous crimes committed have long been exhausted, and now it is rumored that the Duke of Shu is preparing to form a death squad to seize Xiangyang City, and everyone seems to be full of blood one by one.

As the edict said, all those who participated in the death squad were those who gave their lives to the prince, and everyone was only allowed to advance and not retreat, and those who retreated were all killed.

And the battlefield pension for participating in the death squad is doubled, that is, the pension of ordinary soldiers can reach the level of a squadron leader, as long as the battlefield does not die, everyone can be promoted by one level after the war, and promotion will be considered in the future.

Listening to the heated discussions, Wang Sangou, who was building the city wall, thought of his father being beaten to death by a traitor because he insisted on not shaving his tail for money, threw off the rammed stone, ran to the captain in charge of recruitment, and insisted on joining the death squad.

After layers of selection, early the next morning, Wang Sangou and more than 300 warriors from the town came to the assembly and came to the top of a small river ditch.

Looking at the more than 1,500 warriors standing in front of him, Yang Xuan took a loudspeaker and said: "Everyone, I don't know why you joined the death squad, but I only know that this time for the Eastern Crusade, I cut off my hair and beard, and swore that if I couldn't expel the Tartars, I would not return to the division."

Although it is said that the wind is dashing and the water is cold, the strong man is gone. But everyone is a veteran of the battlefield, and on the battlefield they often only have the determination to die, and they can only live after death.

Today, I will conduct special training for you to meet the next siege battle, only you can correctly grasp the relevant points, this king believes that the vast majority of us here will not only not die, but will also make the Tartars pay ten times the price of a hundred times, do you want to? ”

When everyone heard this, they shouted yes.

Yang Xuan immediately asked everyone to elect the squad leader, squadron leader, and captain, and personally appointed the commander of the death squad, which was unexpected by everyone, and he didn't expect that the generals of the death squad could be automatically promoted.

After half an hour of regrouping, Yang Xuan ordered each leader to roll out more than ten rafts and lay across the river with relatively turbulent currents, allowing everyone to step on the rafts and sprint back and forth.

First of all, everyone saw that the raft rushed horizontally, and it was very difficult for everyone to wear armor, and only a few people dared to try, watching these people wear thick armor and walk on the raft like flying.

After all, everyone is a death squad, and they have tried, so it took two days of effort, although everyone is sweating, but most people are still walking on this bamboo raft.

On the third day, Yang Xuan practiced everyone to climb the ladder, climb the siege tower, train everyone how to cover each other, how to throw earth-shattering thunder to cover each other, and on the fifth day, everyone took a holiday to rest during the day to prepare for the attack at night.