Wang Yongqiang's movements were very fast, and within a day after Meng Qiaofang and Ha Ha Mu got the news, his team appeared one after another in the suburbs of Xi'an.

At this time, it was early in the morning, and after getting the alarm from the city, Meng Qiaofang and Hahamu hurriedly ran to the north gate, and the rebels came from northern Shaanxi, and the north gate bore the brunt.

The two of them stood under the gatehouse, lying on the battlement, looking into the distance, only to see that under the morning sun, the undulating mountains outside the north gate were still shrouded in silence, the morning breeze was blowing, and the trees were verdant.

But if you look closely, you can find that those originally familiar hills have changed shape, and they are moving slowly, the two of them were shocked, rubbed their eyes, and looked closely, only to see that those moving hills were actually waves of people.

The overwhelming waves of people, surging along the undulating terrain, like bursts of dense ants, covering the ground, are far away, no sound can be heard, only a terrifying picture comes into view.

Looking at this scale, there are no less than tens of thousands of people outside.

Meng Qiaofang and Ha Ha Mu looked at each other, Ha Ha Mu relied on Wu Yong, and wanted to urge the troops to go out to meet the battle, but at this moment, he saw waves of people outside the city, and immediately dispelled this idea.

"This thief used the tricks of Li Zicheng's thief army back then!" Meng Qiaofang had a white face, recalling the past when he was a Ming general and fighting with the thieves in Shaanxi: "The thieves drove the homeless people, one wrapped in ten, ten wrapped in hundreds, hundreds wrapped in thousands, locusts roared and roared away, the officers and soldiers rushed to disperse, the officials and soldiers went to reunite, killed endlessly, caught inexhaustibly, it made people have a headache!" ”

Hahamu's face trembled, and he said angrily: "It doesn't matter, it's just a homeless people, it's harmless to kill, my Eight Banners Army attacked the city in Liaodong back then, and often drove the Han people as the forerunner, leading the Ming army to shoot the artillery arrows to kill, and when its gunpowder bullets were shot out and not reloaded, the Eight Banners athletes rushed up, and all of them were defeated." But so many people, even if it is a pig waiting for us to cut it, it takes a lot of time, and the Han people are full of benevolence and morality, and it turns out that they are so cruel. ”

Meng Qiaofang looked at him unnaturally, picked his eyelids, and said insincerely: "The king thief is despicable, and only he can do such things." ”

Hahamu nodded and agreed: "It's really despicable, Lord Meng, you and I are in one place in the army, there are only more than 10,000 people, and the others are stationed in four prefectures and counties, and it is too late to transfer them back. ”

Meng Qiaofang said in his heart This is cowardice, I didn't expect you to be coaxed, and there are times when you are afraid. However, he didn't dare to confront the rebels outside the city, so he nodded desperately.

"Then, please ask Lord Meng's soldiers to hurry up to the city to defend it, and I will gather the soldiers of the Eight Banners in the city to gather in one place and support the city gates at any time." Hahamu decisively deployed, he is a Manchurian, although the grade is similar to Meng Qiaofang, but naturally one level higher: "Although I only have two thousand, I have five hundred Baya soldiers, all of them are one hundred, such a strong army, in the words of the Han people, good steel should be used on the blade." Don't waste them on defending the city, wait for any loopholes everywhere to counterattack the thieves who have invaded the city. ”

Meng Qiaofang scolded in his heart, you are hiding behind again, putting Lao Tzu's Han army out as a substitute for the dead ghost, knowing that defending the city has the most losses, and making up some reasons with rhetoric and strong words is just to preserve strength, can't I really be stupid?

But he had no choice, this was the usual practice, and the Han army was in front of the banner and behind in the battle, which has always been the case.

Meng Qiaofang swallowed her anger and arched her hand: "In this way, please take the trouble to run away." ”

Ha Ha Mu waved his hand and said solemnly: "You and I are trapped in the same city, you don't need to be polite." In the coming day, I will surely praise the loyalty of Lord Meng to the imperial court. ”

Meng Qiaofang sighed, stopped talking nonsense, and turned around and left as soon as he gave up his hand, busy beckoning his subordinates to deploy to defend the city.

……

On a small hill five miles away from Xi'an City, countless sturdy armor soldiers stood all over the hillside, looking at their clothes, all of them were iron blades, sharp swords and long knives, which were very different from the ragged people with broken guns and sticks who kept walking by the side of the hill.

These soldiers are obviously from the family, strong and sharp-eyed, and they are used to seeing bloody and murderous pawns, and they are naturally guarding Wang Yongqiang and other leaders.

Wang Yongqiang and his younger brothers Wang Yongzhen and Gao Youcai, each riding a horse, stood on the top of the hill, holding a pergola with their hands, and tried their best to look forward.

"Xi'an City is really not built, what a big city!" Gao Youcai was amazed again and again, and couldn't help but praise: "Look at the city wall, I'm afraid it's more than ten miles away, right?" ”

The Wang brothers glanced at him with disdain, and said in unison: The local tyrant who sits in the well and watches the sky.

People in this era, not everyone can travel thousands of miles, the vast majority of people's living range, limited to a radius of more than ten miles, can enter the county, even if it is a big deal, so although Gao Youcai is a strong family in Shenmu County, his family has 10,000 acres of fertile land, but because Shenmu County is nearly 2,000 miles away from Xi'an, Gao Youcai has not come.

"It's not easy to take this city." Gao Youcai didn't notice the eyes of the Wang brothers, he still observed Xi'an City, and said to himself.

Wang Yongzhen nodded and said: "That's true, the city wall of Xi'an is three feet high, the loess is mixed with glutinous rice, and the green bricks are covered, which is extremely strong. ”

"Not only that, a few years ago, after the Tartars obtained this city, they built another full city in the northeast corner of the inner city, which was garrisoned by the banner people, and it was even more solid. Wang Yongqiang said in a deep voice, he got a lot of information from Chen Xiang: "At this moment, the defenders in the city count the Eight Banners Army, a total of 11,000 people, tens of thousands of stones of grain in the city, sufficient equipment, and a lot of gunpowder arrows are stored. ”

He paused for a moment, and then said, "Maybe we have to explain everything here." ”

Wang Yongzhen and Gao Youcai glanced at each other, and each saw retreat from each other's eyes.

"In that case, brother, why are we so concerned?" Wang Yongzhen said with a weak heart: "Didn't the General Chen sent by Pingliangbo say it? As long as the Qing army is contained under the city, we can set up a fence and swagger outside the city, can't we attract the Tartars? ”

Gao Youcai's eyes lit up, and he nodded and agreed: "Yes, yes, Brother Yongzhen is very right. ”

"What a fart!" Wang Yongqiang said angrily, his eyebrows wrung together: "I want to stay outside the city and stay, but there are so many people, what do we feed them?" What to eat and drink? Along the way, the states and counties along the way have been washed by us, and we haven't released much food, Meng Qiaofang's thief is smart, and he collected all the grain from nearby states and counties into Xi'an City early. ”

Gao Youcai hurriedly nodded again and said: "Yes, yes, the eldest brother is right, the mud-legged people are hungry, more ruthless than locusts!" ”

Wang Yongzhen glared at him, and said in his heart, do you have an opinion of your own. Then he arched his hand and said in a deep voice, "So, what should we do?" ”

Wang Yongqiang squinted his eyes and scanned the surroundings, only to see the crowds of people all over the mountains and fields like boundless waves, every 100 people are a team, men in front, women and children and old people in the back, led by some sturdy men, holding rudimentary weapons, walking in the direction of Xi'an City.

The men who led the team, both old and young, had the only thing in common was that their mouths were very sharp. As they walked, they kept shouting loudly: "Xi'an City is ahead, everyone work hard, the town marshal said, as long as you enter the city, there will be endless food inside, and everyone has a share!" ”

"It's our Han people who defend the city, everyone is a compatriot, they won't fight us seriously!"

"As long as you attack the city with your heart tomorrow, the town marshal said, the first one to rush to the head of the city will reward him with ten thousand households, and all those who have merit will be rewarded!"

"Zhen Shuai provided everyone to eat and drink along the way, everyone saw and eaten, Zhen Shuai is really good for us Han people, the Tartars want us to shave our hair and make it easy to wear, is it to make us forget our ancestors, is that what people did? Everyone unites and fights with the Tartars! ”

Slogans like these, one after another, shouted hoarsely in the crowd, and the people who went with the flow listened enthusiastically, and from time to time some people shouted in response, waving weapons in their hands, and the whole crowd was filled with a feverish atmosphere.

"This set of methods passed on by Uncle Pingliang is effective, so that these homeless people willingly follow us all the way to the black, which is quite similar to the methods of the White Lotus Sect, it seems that this adult is not simple." Wang Yongqiang sighed sincerely: "Things have come to this point, what else can I do, what can I do!" ”

He said: "Today, we are camped outside the city, there are few soldiers in the city, and we will not dare to come out to meet the battle when we see that we are strong. Early tomorrow morning, they will send people to fill in the trenches and attack the city, and the rest of the people will step up the construction of the village and dig the trenches, waiting for the Qing army reinforcements to fight, if it is really as General Chen said, Wu Sangui's men and horses can be transferred back, then it will be a success. ”

100,000 people, just shouting can collapse a wall, and the Qing army is not afraid, but in this way, I don't know how many people will die and how many corpses will be buried under the city of Xi'an.

Wang Yongqiang shook his head and sighed secretly.

(End of chapter)