The heads of Darhan and Kuruk were sent back to Taiyuan by five Mongolian soldiers who had one ear cut off, and their heads were mutilated and their flesh and blood were blurred, and it took a long time for Lai and Zhu Shichang to identify them, and they barely recognized that these two heads were indeed the heads of the two generals who had just jumped out of the city a few days ago.

Among them, Kuruk's head was even missing a large skull, and his brain was bursting, and he filled it with dirt and tiles, and the section did not look like a scar cut by a knife and axe, and the bones were broken neatly, as if they were caused by some heavy object.

"This is the fatal wound of an iron bullet!" After all, Zhu Shichang was born in a Han family, and his understanding of firearms was much stronger than that of Alai, and after looking at it for a while, he said firmly: "It will never be wrong, only the iron bullet fired by the cannon will form this kind of incision on the hard skull!" ”

Ah Lai frowned, waved his hand to let his subordinates take their heads down, took two quick steps in the hall, and then suddenly stood still: "So, is it the person killed by the Shaanxi soldiers?" ”

Zhu Shichang fanned his nose with his hand, dissipated the pungent smell of blood, slowly sat down on the Taishi chair, and said in a deep voice: "It must be!" Those defeated soldiers said that they were the thieves in Jinzhong, but I don't think so! The thieves are all farmers with hoes, how can He De kill 3,000 Mongolian cavalry in the dark night? As the old saying goes, no matter how many sheep there are, they are also a flock of sheep, and they can't drown a wolf! ”

Alai's face turned pale, and he became obviously anxious, and he circled around the hall a few more times, and the confident posture of strategizing a few days ago dissipated without a trace, and the footsteps of the riding boots on the green bricks exposed his chaotic emotions.

Compared with him, Zhu Shichang, the old eunuch, was much calmer, sitting motionless on the chair, his face was as usual, although he was also worrying, but he was not as anxious as Alai.

This is excusable, Nikan left 5,000 Mongolian soldiers in Taiyuan, and lost 3,000 in one night, how not to hurry? According to the remnants of the soldiers who were missing their ears, that night, Kuruk and Darhan led them out of the city to kill the enemy, but they were inexplicably blocked at the city gate, the cannon rumbled outside the door, the shouting of killing shook the sky, and the people who went out were panicked by the cannons, turned around and wanted to go back, the people inside were unknown so, they squeezed out, squeezed the city gate that was not wide into cans, and finally under the double squeeze of iron bullets and human bodies, the city gates made of stone were actually crushed down!

Kuruk, who rushed out first, was smashed half of his head and died in the first place, no one commanded outside the city gate, and Darhan inside couldn't get out, so he couldn't figure out the situation, and when the city gate collapsed, the people inside figured out that outside the city gate was not the Yushan people's army, but the elite Shaanxi soldiers.

At this time, everything is over, the remaining three city gates have already been breached, the Shaanxi soldiers use the bird to open the way, along the street next to kill over, the Mongolian soldiers' horses can not be deployed in the narrow city at all, the widest place can only accommodate three horses in parallel, so to meet the Kuizhou army, it is equivalent to sending the line to death, such as a storm of lead bullets and arrows will be fearless to rush up the Mongolian soldiers one by one into a sieve.

Like a one-sided massacre, the last few hundred Mongol soldiers were surrounded in the county office in the center of the city, and Darhan wanted to surrender, but the people sent out to negotiate were beheaded and thrown back.

Then the Kuizhou army transferred a few small copper cannons, and a few cannons bombarded the gate of the county ya, which was blocked by the Mongols with stones, and then did not come in, but began to set fire outside.

Pity these eagles on the grassland, they were actually smoked alive and burned to death in the ruins of the small city of Taigu, Darhan did not close his eyes when he died, he was unwilling to die in such a nest.

Although there are many contradictions between the rabbits and foxes, and the tribes often fight each other in life and death, Alai also feels heartache for the death of 3,000 compatriots, and even more frightened, he asks himself, if he is in that environment, he may not end up much better than Darhan and Kuruk.

After a few turns, Ah Lai saw that Zhu Shichang began to drink tea, and suddenly became angry, hummed and sat down on the chair opposite Zhu Shichang, and said in a muffled voice: "My lord is so interested, aren't you worried at all?" ”

"Worried? What to worry about? Zhu Shichang smashed his mouth and put down the teacup: "Are you worried that the Shaanxi soldiers will break through Taiyuan City?" ”

Alai said: "Exactly! The fiasco of Taigu is equivalent to feeding dog blood to those Diao people and thieves, and even the heroes on the grassland have been beheaded, what are they afraid of? ”

He glanced at Zhu Shichang, who was there with the old god, and said, "What's more, the Ming army has artillery!" This cannon is a sharp weapon for attacking fortifications, the Qing army can meet the city in the territory of the Ming Kingdom, the red-clothed cannon is indispensable, if the Ming army puts the cannon under the city of Taiyuan, my lord, I am afraid you will not be able to sit so stable now, right? ”

Zhu Shichang spit out a piece of tea in his mouth, and shot very unsightly on the ground in the distance, he didn't pay much attention to etiquette in front of this Mongolian Tartar official, and then looked at Alai lightly and said: "Lord Alai is too worried, Taiyuan is not as good as Taigu City, and the city wall of the county is not as high as the wall of my governor's yamen, how can I not let the Ming army succeed?" The city is so small that the cavalry can't be used at all, so how can they not be broken and killed one by one by the thieves? Kuruk and Darhan were not unjustly defeated, and the Shaanxi soldiers did have famous generals, but the main thing was that these two people were defeated by themselves. ”

"But can Taigu compare with Taiyuan? Taiyuan city high wall thick, urn city horse face, enemy Taiwan arrow tower, everything, these years have been reinforced, never relaxed, now comparable to Datong city defense, what is there to fear? What's more, the city is full of artillery arrows, 20 stacks of cannons, and strong crossbows, dense as stars. There are also several red-clothed cannons transported by Lord Nikan a few days ago, all of which are placed on the city, and the gunners are also familiar with the transfer from Liaodong, which is definitely much better than those half-hangers of the Ming army. ”

"Husband and fighter, but the time, place, and people are also good! When we live in the sky, occupy the geography, and don't want people, but also rely on the strong city and cannons, the army of tigers and wolves, why worry about sorrow? ”

Zhu Shichang said proudly, stroked his white beard a few times, his face was pale, the corners of his mouth were smiling, and he looked proud, not like a defeated army that had just lost 3,000 soldiers, but like an victor who killed the opponent's 3,000 soldiers.

Ah Lai looked at him dumbfounded, feeling that something was wrong, but after thinking about it, he felt that Zhu Shichang was reasonable, he was stunned for a moment, and said, "Then, what should we do?" ”

Zhu Shichang smiled slightly and said, "Wait!" ”

Ah Lai repeated suspiciously: "Wait? ”

"Yes, wait!" Zhu Shichang said leisurely: "Waiting for the thieves and the Shaanxi Ming army to attack, they ate such a large group of Mongolian soldiers, impetuous, carried away, will inevitably take advantage of the victory, trying to take Taiyuan in one go, this is called greed does not become a snake swallowing elephants, self-esteem is too much!" ”

Ah Lai licked his lips and asked: "What my lord means is that since the target of the thieves must be Taiyuan, why don't we shrink into the city, stick to it and wait for help, and wait until the thieves outside the city attack are futile, tired and lax, take advantage of their unpreparedness to go out of the city and defeat them in one fell swoop, then the rebellion in Jinzhong can be solved?" ”

Zhu Shichang looked at him with some surprise, seemed to be impressed by this brainy Mongolian, and nodded slowly: "That's right!" Lord Lai is indeed smart, but you don't have to say anything. ”

Ah Lai was stunned again, rolled his eyes and thought for a while, feeling that he had thought of everything he had changed, so he looked at Zhu Shichang blankly.

Zhu Shichang indifferently picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and said leisurely with a tea bubble: "Lord Lai forgot, the people we sent to Datong to ask for help earlier, calculate the footsteps, this moment has reached the ground, we are consuming with the thieves, we can eat them, even if the thieves are numerous, overwhelming, we just need to guard firmly, anyway, there are hundreds of thousands of grain in the city, and when the reinforcements from Datong arrive, the inside and outside should be combined, why worry about the thieves and dogs not dying?" Hahaha! ”

Ah Lai woke up like a dream, overjoyed, clapped his palms, and laughed with Zhu Shichang.

The laughter drifted out of the roof of the governor's yamen and drifted away.

On the official road dozens of miles away from this laughter, a group of rebels wearing tattered armor and simple weapons but with a large number of people were walking along the avenue of the Jinzhong Plain, under the guidance of countless banners, spreading to the iron-walled Taiyuan City.

The rebels did not hide their movements, the entire marching platoon was several miles wide, really like a locust in transit, and like a thief who wandered through several provinces in the early years, a huge piece of black oppression, even the strong Mongolian scouts, did not dare to get too close, fell and watched from afar, and the news of this black cloud-like flow of people to Taiyuan was transmitted over and over again to the yamen of the governor of Shanxi.

(End of chapter)