The officers and soldiers who went out of the city to fight were originally high-minded soldiers, and they were full of confidence in repelling the thieves. But he suffered a big defeat when he fought with the security army, not only was he killed and wounded on the spot by the musketeers of the security army, but the rest of them were surrounded by the cavalry of the security army and could not escape, so they were taken prisoner.

The brigade in the back, Xiang Yong, originally just came over to wave the flag and shout to cheer for the officers and soldiers. I never thought that as soon as the officers and soldiers and the security forces fought, they could hear a burst of gunfire in front of them, the smoke on the position was misty, and the shouts of the officers and soldiers were chaotic. The townsmen have not yet recovered from the tension and excitement of the first battlefield, the defeated soldiers of the official army fled, driven by fear, they could only turn their heads and run, but they did not run long before they heard the sound of rapid horses' hooves, as if there were cavalry of the security army on all sides, they were dressed in black and held high sabers to cut down the townsmen running around one by one to the ground, or the officers and soldiers who were mixed in it were experienced, seeing that they could not run away and knelt on the ground and raised their hands, the townsmen knelt down like this, The cavalry of the security army let them go and chased down the villagers who tried to escape.

The infantry of the security army in the rear rushed over and gathered all the prisoners together, and the villagers were held together alone, and they had long lost the courage to punch the colorful tiger in Nanshan and kick the dragon in the North Sea when they first set out for the expedition, and they shrank there one by one, shaking up and down.

Yang Biao is very strange about the appearance of this brigade of Xiang Yong, when he attacked the official army in the past, there were also Xiang Yong to assist the official army to defend the city or something, like this, thousands of people were organized at once, and they dared to go out of the city to fight. For this reason, Yang Biao came to the place where the prisoners were held, and he wanted to see what kind of goods these townsmen were.

Xiang Yongzhong also saw Yang Biao's arrival and knew that this was a big man who could decide their life and death, and they knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

Yang Biao ordered someone to pull out a few of them in bright clothes, and when he asked, he figured out the situation. Seeing that the big city of Taiyuan is different, the summoned Xiangyong can not only receive silver, but also have so many rich children to participate. Since these people themselves sent to the door, Yang Biao is not polite, on the one hand, to make use of these "second ancestors", and at the same time, to deter the people in the city, it is not a good end to follow the official army and the security army against the army.

Yang Biao ordered the arrest of all the well-dressed rich children in the team, and after interrogation, they quickly figured out their backgrounds. They were given different prices according to the amount of their property, and then they were asked to write letters to their families and let them ransom them at the price.

"Second Ancestor" wept and shed tears while writing letters. The security guard on the side couldn't stand it anymore, and angrily reprimanded: "What are you crying about, it's not like I'm going to kill you immediately, like a girl." Your family has paid for it, and you can go back immediately, and then you know that you are worried about money. "Master Jun, I'm not worried about money, I used to give my family a lot more money than this. It's just that my father has long hated me, and this time we didn't have a good heart when we went out with the army, and they were happy when I died. A rich kid who usually makes trouble in Taiyuan City said.

The others next to him echoed along. The security guards were amused and angry when they heard this, it seems that these "second ancestors" have caused trouble at home, but ordinary people can't get through this level of family affection, and these rich businessmen will not take the life of their own sons if they are angry.

Yang Biao ordered a few people to be selected from among the captured wealthy merchants, and returned to Taiyuan City with the corpses of the children of the wealthy merchants who had been killed in the battle and the letters they had written.

Yang Biao led the team to clean up the battlefield and continued to move forward, arriving outside Taiyuan City.

Taiyuan City is worthy of being an important town on nine sides, the circumference of the city wall alone is 50 miles long, there are eight city gates on the city wall, there are city towers on the city gates, and there are corner towers at the four corners. The city wall is all wrapped in bricks and stones, the height is nearly four zhang, and the width of the top of the city wall is also about three zhang. At this time, the city had learned of the attack of the security forces, and the eight gates were closed. The city was full of officers and soldiers on the defensive.

With the small strength of the security army, it was definitely impossible to besiege Taiyuan City, so Yang Biao only ordered the security army to camp outside the south gate of Taiyuan and wait for the opportunity to attack.

At this time, the battalion had been bombed in Taiyuan City, and Yang Guohua was commanded to get a report, losing 5,000 officers and a general, and all the thousands of villagers who were summoned were wiped out, and more importantly, there were a large number of children of wealthy businessmen and magnates in Taiyuan City.

Yang Guohua immediately ordered people to close all the gates of Taiyuan City, and ordered all the officers and soldiers to go to the city to defend. Then he urgently wrote a letter to the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou, to report the situation in Taiyuan City, hoping that Lord Hong could immediately return to the army to rescue Taiyuan City.

As soon as all this was arranged, a servant came to report, and a few wealthy businessmen in Taiyuan City came to ask for a meeting outside the door. "Help, sir! Save my son! As soon as several businessmen entered the door, they knelt on the ground and cried to Yang Guohua. Hurry up, I'll figure it out. Yang Guohua hurriedly went over and helped them up while comforting. Please send troops to destroy this bandit and rescue our son. After settling down a little, the merchant said. This matter has to be considered in the long run, and now the situation of the thieves is unknown, if they rush to send troops, not only will they not be able to save their sons, but they may also harm their lives. Are you sure your son is in the hands of thieves? Yang Guohua is also strange, these businessmen only said that they rescued their son, and no one said that they wanted revenge, how could they have so much confidence in their son. It's hard to say what the chances of survival of those straw bales in this chaotic army are. "A family member who was captured by the thieves came back and brought a letter from the dog, saying that the thieves had set a price for them and asked me to send 50,000 taels of silver to ransom them." An elderly wealthy businessman replied. "There is such a thing, the thief's words cannot be trusted, and isn't it an enemy to give money to the thief? Besides, who can guarantee that the thief will be trustworthy. "Yang Guohua was shocked when he heard this, if the thief gets a large amount of silver without entering the city, the thief's strength will be much stronger all of a sudden, so how can it work." If they don't give money, they can only ask the adults to send troops to rescue them, and the children of several merchants have become corpses and have been carried back. "The merchants remembered the corpses of the merchants who had been killed on the battlefield, and their hearts were palpitating." Now the strength of the city is limited, and I really can't spare manpower, and when Lord Hong's soldiers and horses come back, I will definitely order someone to lead the troops to save people. Yang Guohua saw that he couldn't shirk it, so he decided to delay it for a while, and wait for Hong Chengchou to come back. At that time, if the thief becomes angry, our children will be in danger. Or ask the adults to pay for the ransom of our children. The merchant said. Where do I have the money to redeem people, I want to redeem you to redeem yourself, and then the thief will not be trustworthy, and will not let people go after receiving the money, don't blame me for not reminding you. Yang Guohua listened to the businessman's more and more disagreeable, and even wanted to pay for his own money to redeem people, can the money in his pocket be taken out? So he said angrily. "The thieves are still very trustworthy, I heard that Yang Jiamo, the general soldier of Gansu, was arrested by this gang of thieves, and then his family spent money to redeem him. Please also inform the city gate, so that we can send people out to ransom them. The businessmen are very smart, and they knew before they came to Yang Guohua that it was impossible for Yang Guohua to send the queen to save people, let alone pay for them themselves. But I had to come to him, if I didn't get angry with Yang Guohua first, and I came into contact with the thief, I might be accused of being a thief and ruined my family.

Yang Guohua's words have been exported, don't take it back, if the sons of these businessmen die, it will not be easy, so he had to say: "You have to figure out the matter yourself, I don't know anything." ”

The businessmen received Yang Guohua's promise of non-interference and took their leave.

After some discussion, the merchants had no choice but to send a trusted man with the money to the barracks of the security army outside the city. (To be continued.) )