A.D. 1631 is the fourth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty and the fifth year of Tiancong of the Later Jin. On the sixth day of August of this year, Huang Taiji led the Houjin army into the siege of the Daling River.

Although they were worried about the advance of the Later Jin army, the Ming army in the city had full confidence in their defensive strategy of fortifying the city with artillery. Many cannons of the Ming army, represented by the Hongyi cannon, repeatedly played a role in the battle with the Houjin.

Not only the battle to defend the city, but also in the Zunyong victory in May of the third year of Chongzhen, the Ming army also used Hongyi artillery to recover Luanzhou City, which was occupied by Houjin, and then achieved the Zunyong victory. The power of the Hongyi cannon inspired many people with lofty ideals in the Ming Dynasty, and a firearms unit in Shandong Province that received new training carried the hope of many more people. (Note 1)

Huang Taiji already had a considerable understanding of the power of the Ming army's cannons, and this time he naturally would not let himself repeat his previous mistakes.

In the first month of the fifth year of Tiancong, Houjin had already cast his first Hongyi cannon and named it Tianyou Cheering General. And along with the other captured Ming artillery, it was equipped with a new artillery unit.

In this battle of Dalinghe, Houjin has prepared a total of 40 Hongyi cannons and general's cannons with the battalion, and is determined to take Dalinghe City, which is heavily defended by the Ming army.

The suffocating confrontation in the northeast battlefield of the Ming Dynasty did not make the people of Jindingshan in Shaanxi feel the slightest nervousness. In fact, because of the harvest that is about to come around the cottage, thousands of people up and down Jinding Mountain are in a state of excitement. Because under the auspices of Zhang Mengcheng, the leader of Jinding Mountain, the crops around Jinding Mountain grew better than those in other areas.

The crops of Jinding Mountain have undergone Zhang Mengcheng's unified planting plan. The cultivation of various food crops is more regular than that in other regions.

In this year, when grain was more useful than gold, the approximate proportions of grain crops in Jindingshan were as follows: wheat accounted for 20 percent, millet (commonly known as millet in the north) accounted for 23 percent, millet accounted for 22 percent, buckwheat accounted for 20 percent, various beans and sweet potatoes for preparing for famine accounted for 5 percent, and the rest were corn, potatoes and other crops.

The corn that Zhang Mengcheng experimented with since he was a child is still the same as before. The yield per mu is not very high, so the planting area is not large. However, the performance of potatoes is not satisfactory, so this year's planting area has expanded considerably. Mr. Zhang has persuaded his eldest brother and other leaders in the cottage to expand the area of potatoes in next year's further reclamation plan so that the people of Jindingshan can have more food crops to choose from.

Regardless of Zhang Mengcheng's plan, Jindingshan's current crops are generally growing well. Spring wheat has now begun to be harvested, while buckwheat, millet and millet, which make up the bulk of the crop, will be harvested in late September and early October.

The ripening date seems to be a noticeable difference from the harvest time of previous years. But considering that after November this year (the fourth year of Chongzhen), there is a leap November, so everyone did not express any surprise.

God is kind during this time, and the cultivation of Jinding Mountain is timely and reasonable, so there should be no need to worry about the grain harvest this year. And Zhang Mengjin, the big boss, has driven out the invading Mongols several times since he was recruited, and the thieves who are wandering around have also been eliminated, and the people who are attached to the big boss don't have to worry about being robbed.

Therefore, except for one person, thousands of men, women and children up and down Jinding Mountain are mostly very optimistic about their future lives. And this person who is excluded is Zhang Mengcheng, who is fully responsible for organizing cultivation and at the same time controlling the Jindingshan Reserve Cavalry.

Why is Zhang Mengcheng unhappy? This topic has made the people of Jindingshan, whose spiritual life is quite empty, constantly discuss, and some boring gossip has also appeared in the continuous circulation of many explanations.

Some people remembered the actions of the people sent from the security city a few days ago. So they chatted privately and said that the new magistrate in the county sent someone to the cottage to measure the land and count the population, and Zhang Mengcheng was unhappy because he needed to deal with the taxes and labor of the imperial court later.

The people around remembered the movement of people from the county before, and many people agreed with this explanation. Because the big boss once said that this year, everyone in the cottage will produce with peace of mind, in addition to handing over the share of the cottage, the tax of the imperial court is completely solved by the cottage. The big boss who has always been true to his word will definitely not break his word, so the leader of Xiucai must be worried about this matter.

Although there are many people who agree with this statement, this view does not seem to be correct. Some people who knew the inside story said that Zhang Mengcheng sent away the people from the imperial court, and it was enough to use some broken silver and a few hundred stones of grain, which were completely taken out of the Jindingshan Public Treasury.

There are also some people who think they know more, but they swear to the people around them that Yang He, the governor of the three sides, once promised Zhang Mengcheng that he would restore his reputation as a talent after recruiting him. But it's been almost a few months, and the "Xiucai" in Jinding Cottage still hasn't restored the legal certification of the imperial court.

If the Governor had either deceived the Zhang brothers, he would have forgotten about it. Therefore, Zhang Mengcheng, who was bent on taking the examination and being a junior scholar, was naturally unhappy.

These words sound reasonable, Zhang Mengcheng was a talent at the age of fifteen, and everyone in the cottage knew about it. Zhang Mengcheng's usual performance in the cottage also made everyone feel that he was indeed very knowledgeable.

But Zhang Mengcheng didn't show any concern about whether his talent and fame could be restored for a while. He did not study the books of the sages all day, as the other scholars did, nor did he send anyone to question the Governor, so many thought that this was also true.

If the above two speculations are still a bit of a spectrum, the rest of the people's statements are completely boring gossip.

It is said that the Zhang brothers found out that the sister of the elf of Artemisia Cai was the life of a Kefu. Zhang Mengcheng dislikes others, but he cares about the friendship between Jin Dingshan and Artemisia Peak, and he is not good at regretting his marriage, so he is entangled.

It is said that the children in the school don't need to study hard, and they always make Xiucai angry. Some people said that the other leaders in the original village should now have official status, but Zhang Mengcheng is nothing alone, and his heart is unbalanced, etc.

Regarding these speculations in the village, Zhang Mengcheng, who has been circling around the cottage, is not unheard. It's just that he thinks these rumors are insignificant, so he doesn't bother to explain.

Zhang Mengcheng has been in a bad mood recently, neither because he has to pay taxes in the county, nor because of his fame, nor because of other gossip. It's because a while ago, while patrolling outside, he met his old friend Liu Jin.

It stands to reason that you should be happy when you meet an acquaintance, why is Zhang Mengcheng unhappy? If it was a normal situation, Zhang Mengcheng would naturally be happy. But the strange thing is that Liu Jin came back from other places and passed by Jinding Mountain this time, and he didn't go up the mountain to say hello, but was a little sneaky.

After being discovered by Zhang Mengcheng, although Liu Jin's expression was not abnormal, Zhang Mengcheng knew that Liu Jin must have something to hide from him.

After sending away Liu Jin, a friend who behaved a little strangely, Zhang Mengcheng began to wonder what Liu Jin was hiding from him.

PS: Note 1: At present, there are many people on the Internet who say that the army will only use artillery to defend the city, and the Eight Banners will use Hongyi artillery to attack the city, so the Eight Banners seem to be a cut above the Ming army, but in fact, this statement is a manifestation of insufficient understanding of the actual historical facts. As early as the period of Li Chengliang, the Ming army used artillery to attack the Jurchen village, and the use of artillery during the Wanli Aid Dynasty was also widely known. Even the thieves knew how to attack the city with artillery (under the city of Qingyang Mansion written in the previous novel, the matter of the thieves' artillery being captured was not the author's fiction), how could the Ming army not use artillery to attack the city.

If someone insists on telling the example of the army attacking the city with Hongyi artillery, it can only mean that this person knows nothing about Luanzhou City back then. In fact, whether artillery is used for siege or defense, it is only a use of tactical methods, and it is normal to have no distinction between superior and inferior tactical behavior.