Zhang Mengjin led his subordinates to attack everywhere, and the soldiers and civilians in the Wuqi Battalion, Wugu City, Shajiaji, Daqianzhai and the 54 piers on the Great Wall around Ningsai Fort all surrendered to the wind.

On the Great Wall on the northwest border of the Ming Dynasty, there was a defense vacuum of 54 miles. But Zhang Mengjin was not satisfied, he left Guan Zhiqing, Zhang Mengguang and Zhang Mengcheng and others to train the dependent soldiers and civilians in Ningsai, and Zhang Mengjin personally led his men and horses to prepare to attack Liushujian Fort to the west.

However, not long after Zhang Mengjin left the city, he got the news of the Shenyi Yuan tribe. It turned out that they had captured the Xin'an border camp a few days ago, and then set off to Liushujian Fort, arriving at Liushujian Fort one step earlier than Zhang Mengjin.

The hungry soldiers and civilians in the fort also opened the city gates and attached themselves to the god one. In this way, Shen Yiyuan and Zhang Mengjin almost effortlessly captured two important military forts on the west road of Yansui Town.

After Shen Yiyuan captured Willow Stream, he rushed to Ningsai with his men and horses, and planned to follow the plan, and the two sides were ready to join forces to attack Baoan County together.

Soon the men and horses of the two sides successfully converged, and since Shen Yiyuan thought that the number of men and horses on both sides was quite large, it was decided to divide the troops into two ways for the convenience of eating. All the way to attack the Jingbian camp east of Ningsai, all the way to the south to attack the county seat of Baoan.

Zhang Mengjin also agreed with this opinion, but the two sides have been arguing about who will attack the security guards and who will attack Jingbian, because everyone wants to go to the security guards with more food. In the end, it was decided that the men and horses of both sides would be divided into two parts and then merged. Guan Zhiqing and Shen Yiyuan's subordinate Huang Youcai led more than 1,000 people to the east to besiege Jingbian. Zhang Mengjin and Shen Yiyuan, two big bosses, led a large group of soldiers and horses to attack the security in the south.

In December Gengshen of the third year of Chongzhen (that is, the 16th day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, January 17, 1631 AD), Guan Zhiqing led several leaders and some of Shen Yiyuan's men and horses to besiege the Jingbian camp garrisoned by the soldiers on the West Road of Yansui. The soldiers and civilians in the Jingbian camp did not choose to surrender this time. Instead, under the leadership of Li Ruozi, the deputy envoy of the military garrison, a stubborn defense was carried out.

Although the Jingbian camp was located on the plain, Li Ruozi still selected the elite in the city, relying on the ditch around the city and the Wolf River to attack and harass the invading enemy one after another.

Che Jibao and Zhang Mengcheng led more than 20 rangers together to compete with each other in the wilderness, and both sides were killed and wounded. The Jingbian battalion's successful delay tactics prevented the Liukou under the city from directly attacking the city as planned when they arrived at Gengshen Day under Jingbian City.

After Guan Zhiqing and Huang Youcai decided not to attack for the time being, they sent people to persuade them to surrender. However, as soon as the people who went to persuade him to surrender said two words outside the city, they were directly shot dead by the defenders inside the city. Angry, the two leaders endured and attacked the next day. (Note 1)

……

"Hurry up, put the ladder up." Wei Heyong led dozens of foot soldiers to press, and used knives to force the hungry people to carry ladders to keep approaching the walls of the Jingbian camp. Originally, the defenders only scattered a few crossbow arrows, and the hungry people, who did not see any threat, finally carried ladders and hugged them under the pressure of the rear.

However, when they reached a place of more than 30 steps outside the city wall, a volley of guns suddenly fired on the city wall, and dozens of hungry people were instantly shot and fell to the ground. The rest of the people ignored the killing of Wei and Yongbu in the rear, and kept fleeing to the rear. Che Jibao saw that he couldn't do anything, so he had to take the cavalry to collect the hungry people who had fled and bring them back to the camp for reorganization.

Huang Youcai, who was in charge of leading the people of the Shen Yiyuan side, looked at the situation of Zhang Mengjin's men and horses attacking the city. Let Liu Jin, the leader who came with him, quickly rush forward with his troops, and the siege attack began again.

"Damn, how can the officers and soldiers in this fort have so many firearms. We've been hit hard with firearms, and now we're letting the centaurs of God Yuan watch the joke on the sidelines. Yu Baocheng looked at the people of Shen Yiyuan and said indignantly.

I saw Liu Jin and his subordinates picking up the ladder dropped by Guan Zhiqing's side and quickly forcing towards the city wall. The defenders on the city wall could only use individual firearms such as fast guns and three-eyed firearms to fight back, while slower-loaded firearms such as the Baizi Gun and the Great General's Cannon could not be used again for a while.

"The city of Jingbian Camp is larger than that of Ningsai, and there are fewer soldiers stationed there. I thought I could simply capture Jingbian. But we have spent too much time, and people must be ready and waiting for us. Zhang Mengcheng looked at Shen Yiyuan's subordinates who were attacking the city in the distance, and said dissatisfied.

After Zhang Mengjin and his gang captured Ningsai, they were busy subduing other Ming troops around Ningsai. Originally, Zhang Mengcheng thought that Jingbian should be laid first, but Zhang Mengjin thought that it was more important to merge with the gods, so he wasted a day.

After meeting with Shen Yiyuan, the two sides originally planned to set off as planned, but it suddenly snowed heavily. In order to avoid the losses caused by the march in the heavy snow, another day was wasted in Ninse.

By the time the soldiers and horses of both sides finally came to the city of Jingbian Camp, it was already Gengshen Day, three days after the Ningsai camp was defeated. In the past three days, the Jingbian battalion must have received the news long ago and made preparations for defense.

The Jingbian camp is also out of the land of Jichong, and the city wall is eight miles around, which is almost twice as large as the four miles of Ningsai. In addition, it is located on the plains, and there are fewer troops stationed in Ninsai. Therefore, even if the action dragged on, Zhang Mengjin, the big boss, was always very relaxed, and he was optimistic that the soldiers and civilians in the Jingbian camp would choose to surrender. Therefore, he didn't let Guan Zhiqing bring many people, plus the people on the Shenyuan side, the total number of people on both sides was only more than 1,000 people.

Before Zhang's fall into the grass, Zhang Mengcheng once read a book in the county school, and the cover and preface of the book were scattered, and I don't know what year it was printed. The book records that there were 2,095 soldiers in the Jingbian camp, and horses, mules, and horses and mules were picking up horses. and Ninsai had two thousand one hundred and seventy-five soldiers, and one thousand five hundred and seventy-one horses and mules. (Note 2)

After Zhang Mengjin defeated Ningsai, counting the more than 100 people who had captured Chen Sanhuai before, the actual number of soldiers in Ningsai Fort was only 277. Therefore, Zhang Mengcheng also estimated that the number of soldiers in the Jingbian camp would not exceed 300. However, after a few days of delay, the Jingbian battalion had obviously summoned all the people around, including the soldiers in the pier, into the city. The number of soldiers is not good, there are six or seven hundred, and it looks like it will be very troublesome to attack Jingbian this time.

"Xiucai, you take your brothers and hurry up, don't let the people who give all the credit to God one yuan to rob it." Guan Zhiqing saw that Liu Jin and others had already put the ladder on the city wall, and hurriedly asked Zhang Mengcheng to rush forward with more than 50 armor-clad elites who had been prepared on the side to grab the merit.

Guan Zhiqing has already negotiated with Huang Youcai about the distribution of the harvest after breaking the city, but if his own performance is too poor for the other party to capture the city, then in the future cooperation between the two sides, Guan Zhiqing will definitely be in a disadvantageous position.

Hearing Guan Zhiqing's order, Zhang Mengcheng immediately picked up his Kaiyuan bow and called Zhang Zhaoen to lead a group of subordinates to quickly rush to the city wall. During this period of time, the defenders in the Jingbian camp threw some stone cannons, firearms such as 10,000 enemies at the thieves under the city, and also burned some siege equipment with oil.

The besieging Shen Yiyuan tribe suffered some losses everywhere, except for the pointed wooden donkey that had been prepared with great difficulty, and several ladders that had already been erected, all of which were set on fire by the officers and soldiers. Some of the Divine One's subordinates could not withstand the casualties and fled to the rear one after another.

PS: Note 1: "Gengshen" uses the record in "Huailing Liukou Always Recorded", and the ninth page of the first edition of "Suikou Jilu" in the series is recorded as "Attacking Jingbian on the 25th". The "Ding Si" capture of Ningsai recorded in "Huailing Liukou Always Record" and the "13th Break Ningsai" in "Suikou Jiluo" are a time, and Ningsai and Jingbian are only forty miles apart. It shouldn't take long to travel such a short distance, so "Gengshen" (16th) is used.

Note 2: The original figures in the Jingbian camp and the Ningsai camp are taken from the records in the "Illustrated Description of the Four Towns of Shaanxi". The premise of this book is that Zhang Mengcheng is reading a broken book that is not well preserved. It doesn't have to be "The Four Towns of Shaanxi". In fact, in the late Ming Dynasty's "Jingguo Xiongluo" Bian Saikao, the Jingbian battalion recorded only "976 officers and 535 horses." ”