The long trenches were dug and the earthen walls were built, and the time was already in the last days of February. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

After walking along the completed deep trench and high wall, Cai Maode also asked Zhang Cunren to lead people to install a tiger squat cannon or Zhankou general cannon brought by the army every ten steps in the important section of the road out of the mountain, and set it on the battlement, facing the direction of Niutou Mountain.

It was only at this time that Cai Maode breathed a sigh of relief, because the chaotic people led by Tu Augly in the mountains were really inescapable.

Cai Maode was relieved, but Tu Aqiu, who was hiding in the mountains and forests not far away and secretly looking at all this under the mountain, suddenly fell into despair.

At the end of January, because he led people to chase and kill the rebels who fled down the mountain without permission, Tu Achou once noticed that there were countless officials, soldiers and people building fortifications outside the mountain.

However, on the way back at that time, his subordinates kept laughing at the practice of driving the people to dig ditches when it was freezing cold.

Some of them even thought that it would not be long before the people down the hill would think that they could not endure the pain of digging long trenches in winter and flee, just like the people who had eaten and drunk with them, and finally ran away when there was no food on the mountain.

These thieves were right, and in the process of digging long trenches and building earthen walls, there were indeed many people who could not bear the hardship and secretly escaped.

Especially during the construction of the project, Tu Achou, Zhou Guoneng, Cheng Zai, and Chen Dalang also took turns to bring some of the chaotic people to carry out sabotage, and from a distance of dozens of steps, they shot arrows and threw bamboo guns into the group of people who were digging trenches and building walls, which affected the progress of the construction and also brought certain damage to the officials, soldiers and people.

But many more people stayed on the site for three full meals a day until the whole project was completed.

At the same time, as time went by, the situation of the people fleeing from the mountains became more and more serious.

Tu Achou knew that there was no food on the mountain, and these people would have to flee sooner or later, but he had no other way than to suppress and arrest them.

If it is in the mountains in summer and autumn, there are still some wild vegetables and fruits that can be eaten, but in the mountains of the cold winter wax moon, there is nothing except hard bamboo.

Even if all the leaders recognized the reality and were forced to adopt a strict food rationing system, the rioters in the mountains still looked like they could not hold out until February.

Rumors of cannibalism have also begun to spread among the more than 20,000 people in chaos, and no one knows when it started or how to stop it.

But Tu Achou did find a human leg that had been burned by fire and gnawed by something in a mountain forest, and he began to suspect that some of his subordinates could not bear the torment of hunger and did something unacceptable to him.

He knew that some of the Taihu Lake thieves he had originally led would do anything to survive, so he couldn't rule out that some people would do cannibalism.

And he was sure that if the snow on the mountain did not melt quickly and the situation on the mountain continued to deteriorate, cannibalism would certainly be inevitable, unless a way out was found, or he laid down his arms and surrendered to the officers and soldiers.

But if they surrender, will the officers and soldiers spare their lives?

If you can save your life by surrendering down the mountain, who wants to live such a hellish life on the mountain?

Everything that could be eaten on the mountain was eaten, first the grain was eaten, then the cattle and sheep that had been plundered, then everything that could be swallowed in several villages in the mountains was eaten, and finally even the bark of grass roots and trees that were difficult to swallow became the only food.

In less than two months, more than 20,000 people who originally entered the mountain, plus a small group of bandits and rebels who came to join the mountain at the beginning, totaled nearly 30,000 people, and now they have been killed by illness, freezing, starvation, and some who have been intercepted and captured by the official army, and the remaining population on the mountain is less than 20,000.

Sometimes Tu Augly even thought that it was better to maintain the current situation than to simply rush down the mountain in one go, and it was better to escape one by one than to starve to death trapped on the mountain.

It was not that he had not organized an assault, but the artillery of the officers and soldiers was too sharp for them, who were even a little poorly clothed, and the tragic situation after being hit by the projectiles fired by the artillery and arquebuses was even more shocking.

So his two successive assaults were of no avail of any effect except for leaving behind a group of men, and no one could break through the firing area of the artillery, bows, and arquebuses of the officers and soldiers, and then have the ability to climb out of a trench five feet deep and climb over a wall of earth five feet high.

Two shocks were launched in a row, and none of them were able to do this.

On the last day of February, the day when the long moat wall at the foot of the mountain was completely completed, Cai Maode and his generals looked at the mountains and forests in the distance through the earthen walls, and the peaks of Niutou Mountain, which were still covered with snow behind the mountains.

At the same time, in the mountains and forests in the distance, Tu Achou, Zhou Guoneng, Cheng Zai, and Chen Dalang, the leaders of the four thieves and the people, were also looking at the trench wall of the official army under the mountain with sad faces and sighs.

And when Tu Achou left with a heart full of worries and even despair, outside the ditch wall, Cai Maode was discussing with his subordinates how to finally solve the thieves on Niutou Mountain.

Cai Maode looked at Zhang Cunren, Zhao Jianji, Zheng Zhihu, Wen Ruoxu, Ling Mengchu and others who had been digging ditches and building walls here for two months, and said thoughtfully: "Do you think we are doing useless work? ”

Of course, Cai Maode heard a lot of people talking in private, and most of them were saying that even if the thieves on the mountain did not all starve to death, most of them had lost the strength of the first battle, so why not just save some effort and wait for the thieves to destroy them in a battle when they came down the mountain.

Even if they would rather starve to death on the mountain than come down, then with the strength of the official army, when the spring flowers bloom, they can also go into the mountains to suppress bandits, why are they stupidly digging ditches and building walls here?!

Of course, Cai Maode also knows these thoughts of the generals and soldiers under his command.

However, in his opinion, it is not difficult to defeat the thieves, but the difficult thing is to catch them all.

If the 20,000 or 30,000 thieves on Niutou Mountain rush down the mountain in one go, and rely on this point of people under their command to surround the defense line for thirty or forty miles, it will inevitably leave an opportunity for these besieged thieves to take advantage of.

At that time, I don't know how much time is wasted and how much money and food is spent.

Rather than take that risk, let's do this stupid work here.

This kind of stupid kung fu seems to be a slow kung fu, but it is actually a real kung fu.

Seeing that everyone under his command did not speak, Cai Maode knew that most of these people probably also had such an opinion, but he didn't care, but continued: "Now that the encirclement has been completed, it is difficult for the thieves on the mountain to fly. There is only one way to die except to surrender.

"Now that the army has been urging and suppressing again and again, and we have been waiting for a long time at the foot of Niutou Mountain, it is indeed not appropriate to delay it any longer.

"And in my official's opinion, we have been besieged for two months, and tens of thousands of people on Niutou Mountain, how much grain and grass can they support so far?

"Recently, the chaotic people on the mountain who were captured all said that the food on Niutou Mountain was exhausted and people were cannibalistic. It can be seen that our siege efforts have been very effective.

"Therefore, this official wants to send people into the mountains to persuade him to surrender in the near future, are there any people among you who have volunteered?"

As soon as Cai Maode's words came out, everyone was shocked.

If what the rebels who fled from the mountains said was true, and there was really a famine on the mountains for many days, wouldn't it be extremely dangerous to enter the mountains at this time?

Tu Augly and his gang still don't hate these officers and soldiers besieging them to death?

However, at this time, I heard a person say loudly: "Lord Zhentai, the students are willing to go!" ”

When Cai Maode heard this, he raised his eyes and saw that it was Wucheng County Township Trial Deputy Gong Ling Mengchu, who had been conscientiously supervising the digging of trenches and walls during this period of time.

Ling Mengchu's age is actually a few years older than Cai Maode, but Cai Maode was born as a scholar, not only as a student in Jiangxi, but now he is an envoy in Zhejiang, so in front of Cai Maode, Ling Mengchu, a person with a reputation but no official position, can only call himself a student.

After Ling Mengchu said this, not only Cai Maode praised him a lot, but Zhang Cunren, Zheng Zhihu, and Wen Ruoxu, who were standing near Cai Maode, also widened their eyes, and their hearts were surprised on the one hand, and admiration on the other, feeling that it was not easy for such a scholar to lead the troops to help suppress it, and now he dared to take risks alone and go into the mountains to persuade him to surrender, it was unbelievable that there were such heroic figures in the land of Wu Yue, who had always been weak!