Chapter 458: Huang County, City Wall, Bleeding, Almost Dead

According to Zhang Zhun's judgment, the Tartars should continue to gather troops now, and with the help of the three big traitors, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and Geng Zhongming, it should not take much time for the Tartars to digest these rebels. In other words, Tartar will not leave much time for Zhang Zhun to prepare. Once the rebels have been digested, the Tartars will immediately expand their territory in all directions.

Among the several famous slave chieftains, Nurhachi was good at military affairs, Huang Taiji was good at political means, and Dolgon was good at both military and political methods. If it weren't for some special reason, Dorgon could have become emperor. He came to govern Dengzhou City, and he was indeed a great rival.

Moreover, Zhang Zhun from later generations also knew that Dolgon had always been unconvinced by Huang Taiji and wanted to surpass Huang Taiji, so Dolgon's enterprising spirit was even stronger than that of Huang Taiji. In other words, his attacks on Huangxian will definitely continue one after another, and he will not give up easily.

"Lots of tartars."

Dong Shuyan said with a frown.

Halfway through, Zhang Zhun gave her a gift, which was a clairvoyant mirror. After arriving in Dengzhou City, she held a clairvoyant mirror and observed the walls of Dengzhou City back and forth, feeling quite fresh. There were a lot of Tartar sentinels on the head of Dengzhou City, and she naturally saw it.

"Hmm."

Zhang Zhun hummed lightly.

Looking through the clairvoyant mirror, the Tartars have already established the defense of Dengzhou City. It can be clearly seen that the Hongyi cannon and the Franc machine cannon are placed in different gun emplacements. Staggered from each other, sparse and sparse. If the enemy forcibly attacked the city, it would inevitably pay heavy casualties. Obviously, this is from a professional gunner.

At the beginning, Sun Yuanhua hired 16 Portuguese cannon technicians in Dengzhou City to teach his craftsmen the manufacturing technology of cannons and the operation skills of cannons, and trained quite a lot of cannon craftsmen and trained quite professional gunners. As a result, Kong Youde rebelled, and all of these technicians, craftsmen, and gunners were captured by Kong Youde, and all of them were dedicated to the Tartars. From this point of view, even if Kong Youde is cut with a thousand knives, it is difficult to eliminate the hatred in his heart.

Next to the cannon, there were many Tartar sentinels, staring vigilantly outside the city. There was no sign of the rebels in the city, indicating that the Tartars were in complete control of the city. The original garrisons of Dongjiang Town and Dengzhou City were either sent to the Liaodong region for reorganization, or they were domesticated in Dengzhou City and transformed into the Tartars' own military force as soon as possible.

"The Tartar's movements are so fast......," Dong Shuyan said with a little complaint.

"It's not that the Tartars move fast, it's that we are too many traitors!" Zhang Zhun said coldly.

Dong Shuyan couldn't help but turn her head to look at him.

As a result, all she saw was Zhang Zhun's murderous face.

"Let's go!"

Zhang Zhun snorted lightly and took the leopard riding camp away.

They galloped in the direction of Huangxian. The road here is slightly better. Before nightfall, Zhang Zhun came to Huang County. At this time, the dragon riding camp and the tiger riding camp had already arrived in Huang County. The local people in Huang County have almost fled, and the dilapidated streets are empty, and there is no trace of anyone in sight. As night fell, there were no other lights to be seen except for the torches lit by the Tiger Army.

"Your Excellency!"

"Your Excellency!"

Yang Weiguo and Zhong Wuying both came up to salute.

"Good!"

Zhang Zhun nodded and beckoned the two to come over.

"I'll give you three days to familiarize yourself with the terrain around you."

"From here to Qixia, to Laiyang, to Weihaiwei, you must be familiar with all the terrain."

Zhang Zhun said in a deep voice.

"Understood!"

"Understood!"

Yang Weiguo and Zhong Wuying both agreed to go.

Soon, the warriors of the Dragoon Battalion and the Tiger Cavalry Battalion began to divide into multiple squads and march towards the mountains to the southeast. The soldiers of the leopard cavalry battalion continued to be stationed in Huang County. Except for a few people who were taking care of the horses, a small number of warriors stood guard on the walls of Huang County. The rest of the warriors soon fell asleep. After running back and forth for a few days, the road was very difficult to walk, and the soldiers of the leopard cavalry battalion were indeed tired.

Part of the night was not closed, and quietly went out to a place about thirty miles away from Huang County, closely monitoring the movement in the direction of Dengzhou City. If there is an enemy's movement, Zhang Zhun will definitely be the first to know. However, considering that the Tartars had just arrived, their first task was to gain a firm foothold in Dengzhou City, so they would not immediately attack Huangxian for the time being.

Zhang Zhun immediately launched an on-the-spot exploration of the city wall of Huangxian County. The city wall of Huangxian County is very ancient. Huangxian and Jimo are both among the oldest counties in Shandong, which have existed since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Due to its long history, the city wall of Huangxian County is also particularly mottled. The highest part of the city wall is more than four zhang, and the shortest place is less than two zhang. Part of the wall was dilapidated and in need of major repairs.

Three years ago, during the Dengzhou Mutiny, the rebels and the official army fought fiercely in Huang County, causing great damage to the city wall of Huang County. Since then, the city wall of Huangxian County has not been rested much. Three years later, the Tiger Army is going to fight the Tartars here again. With the increase in the strength of both sides of the battle, I don't know how many points will be left of the walls of Huangxian County?

At the beginning, the fiercest competition between the rebels and the official army was the western wall. Looking at the past, the western wall is very low, and most of it is dilapidated. Luckily, the Tartars came from the east. However, in case there are many Tartars, it is not impossible to besiege Huangxian. Therefore, the western wall also needs to be repaired. Zhang Zhun has already ordered the rapid mobilization of migrant workers from Laizhou Mansion to lead cement and other materials to Huang County to support.

Due to the lack of solid foundation, most of the city walls in Huang County are actually not strong enough. Most of the walls are actually covered with bricks on the outside, but the inside is actually just tamped earth. If the Tartars knew how to blast them, they could easily blow the walls apart. In addition, the Hongyi cannons of the Tartars, which were also very effective in destroying the city walls.

Dong Shuyan said with some worry: "Zhang Zhun, these city walls must all be demolished before they can be rebuilt!" How many people do you have to do it? ”

Zhang Zhun said disapprerovingly: "Tear it down? Do you have that much time? ”

Dong Shuyan said worriedly: "Don't tear it down? If you don't remove it and reinforce it, the foundation will be unstable and it will collapse easily. ”

Zhang Zhun said with a smile: "I don't mean to increase the height and reinforcement of the city wall here, just a simple repair." ”

Dong Shuyan asked in wonder: "If you don't increase the height and strengthen the city wall, how can you block the attack of the Tartars?" You're not going to be ready to fight the Tartars, are you? ”

Zhang Zhun said confidently: "You will see when the time comes." I've designed a defense system that is much more effective than a single wall, and it will definitely keep the Tartars bleeding here. If you make a line of defense against Ningjin, the Tartars won't come up at all. If the Tartars are immortal, how can we defeat them? The most fundamental way to defeat the Tartars is to keep them sent to their deaths. When the Tartar is almost dead, the problem of Liaodong will be solved. ”

Dong Shuyan looked at him suspiciously, as if she understood what he meant.

Zhang Zhun smiled slightly and came down to the city wall. Immediately, he turned on his horse and went to inspect the surroundings of Huang County. Even though it was already dark and it was pitch black all around, nothing could be seen. But in order to grasp the situation on the battlefield as soon as possible, Zhang Zhun still asked Huang Xian and others to hold torches and follow behind him.

The terrain around Huangxian County is a relatively slow slope in the east, high in the west and low in the east, and it is an uphill state from Dengzhou City to the west. The west side is flat, with little undulation. To the south is mountainous with rolling hills. To the north is the coast, and the terrain is relatively gentle. Due to the frequent wars, a lot of land has been abandoned, and the weeds in the fields are almost knee-high.

In general, the land around Huang County is suitable for large troops. However, there is a prerequisite, that is, Huang County must be controlled. If Huang County cannot be controlled, it is simply impossible to advance eastward or westward. In other words, the battle for Huangxian by the Tartars is inevitable. Similarly, if the Tiger Ben army lost Huangxian, the Tartars would drive straight into the hinterland of Shandong.

After inspecting the surrounding terrain, Zhang Zhun returned to Huang County and set up a headquarters here.

Hearing that the Tartars were coming, the people of Huang County basically fled, and only the common people of less than 1,000 people were in the county, and most of them were still old, weak, sick and disabled, and they could not be mobilized to play a role at all. All those who stayed were numb to their homes and did not dare to go out at all. The headquarters selected by Zhang Zhun was set up in the Fan family compound in the west of the city.

There is a big family in Huang County, called the Fan family. The Fan family produced a big official, called Fan Fucui, who originally served in Dali Temple. After Wu Zongda Zhishi, Fan Fucui didn't know what luck he had, and he was actually appointed by Chongzhen as the left waiter of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University, acting as the criminal department of Dali Temple, entering the cabinet, and becoming one of the giants of the imperial court.

Fan Fucui's promotion was very rare in the entire Ming Dynasty. Fan Fucui didn't have any big political achievements, and in the imperial court, he seemed to be a lonely person, and his relationship with anyone was not very good. If it was a cabinet minister, he wouldn't have been able to do it. However, the fact is that he entered the cabinet. Even Gao Hongtu couldn't see Chongzhen's true intentions clearly, so he could only sigh that Fan Fucui's luck was really good.

However, Fan Fucui's own luck is indeed very good, but his family's luck may not be good. Fan Fucui entered the cabinet, his power increased greatly, and the Fan family felt deeply honored, and built a large number of buildings in Huang County to expand the Fan family compound. In the past, Fan Fucui successively patrolled Jiangxi and Shaanxi, and naturally accumulated a lot of money. This time, the Fan family really spent a lot of silver taels. Although most of the projects have not yet been completed, the scale has completely surpassed that of the large families in Laizhou Prefecture.