The Taiping army drove a large number of forcibly conscripted people to fill the moat, and although these people suffered heavy casualties, there were always a small number of people who ran to the city and threw mud and sand and stones.

In this process, it was naturally not just because these people were afraid of being killed, but because Lin Chengting ordered his artillery unit to intensify the artillery bombardment of the city.

Although he didn't care about the lives and deaths of these cannon fodder, he still had to rely on these cannon fodder to fill the moat no matter what, so that he could carry out subsequent attacks.

So he ordered his artillery units to increase the intensity of artillery bombardment on the position of the city head, and even in order to achieve a greater rate of fire, he also asked the artillerymen to increase rapid fire.

Dense cannonballs smashed on the city, so that the soldiers of Yu Shengjun also suffered certain casualties, although most of the cannonballs flew over the city head from time to time and fell into the city, that is, directly smashed on the main city wall, but there were still very few cannonballs hit the gap in the city wall and other positions, these cannonballs are solid iron ball cannonballs, smashed on the city wall, often able to smash stone fragments flying sideways to kill and injure the soldiers of Yu Shengjun behind the city wall.

Although it is said that Yu Shengjun's scattered is relatively open, and the casualties caused by a single hit are not large, but there are many Taiping artillery cannons, dozens of artillery, even if it is only occasionally hit by one shot, but if it is accumulated, for Yu Shengjun, who only has a thousand people, the continuous casualties are also very uncomfortable.

In order to evade the enemy's artillery, Shi Langyi on the one hand ordered his troops to disperse to a wider city wall.

At the same time, he also ordered the other green battalions in the city to go up the city wall to help defend them, and these green battalions also had a lot of firearms such as shotguns and cannons, as well as a lot of bows and arrows. It can't be used as long-range firepower, but it can still be done by striking the Taiping army rushing to the edge of the moat.

At the same time, he also had the temporarily recruited strong men go up to the city wall to help Yu Shengjun build fortifications, so that Yu Shengjun's soldiers would have a safe bunker to avoid the stone fragments flying everywhere behind the cannonballs hitting the city wall.

It's just that the more than 300 green battalions in the city have just gone to the city, because they have not been dispersed, they are crowded on one of the sections of the city wall, and they are inevitably bombarded by the Taiping artillery.

Facing these soldiers of the Green Battalion who had just fled in less than half an hour on the city wall, Shi Langyi snorted coldly: "Order the baggage battalion to shoot the soldiers who escaped without permission!" ”

The Second Baggage Battalion, which served as a strategic reserve, did not go up to the walls, but rested behind them, and now they played the role of overseers.

The soldiers of the Green Battalion, who were swarming to take down the city wall and then hid in the houses in the city, found that they had just come down the city wall, and hundreds of Yu Shengjun soldiers armed with foreign guns were aimed at them.

The few green battalion commanders in front could even hear the shouts of the officers of the Yu Shengjun who were riding on horses: "Those who retreat without permission will be killed!" ”

The other officers each shouted, "Reload!" ”

Although the generals who led the escape were a little frightened when they looked at the muzzle of the gun, they still calmed down, and one of them shouted: "We are the soldiers of the imperial court, they don't dare to shoot, otherwise it will be a rebellion!" ”

Saying that, he continued to rush over, and under his leadership, the hundreds of green battalion soldiers rushed forward in a swarm, of course, they were not stupid enough to directly attack Yu Shengjun's infantry phalanx, but tried to bypass and flee for their lives.

Han Xuannai, the commander of the Second Baggage Battalion, looked at these soldiers of the Green Battalion who were still messily trying to escape, and he immediately raised the command in his hand with an expressionless face: "Fire!" ”

After a volley of gunfire, at least fifty of the more than 300 Green Battalion soldiers fell at once, and the rest were stunned.

How dare these Yu Shengjun? How can they?

Dare to kill them, the soldiers of the imperial court!

At this time, the officers of the 2nd Baggage Battalion rode on their horses and shouted: "Load! ”

At this time, the stunned green battalion soldiers also reacted, and they continued to run, and they were probably killed like the brothers who ran at the forefront before.

At this time, it was still the green battalion general who said that Yu Shengjun didn't dare to shoot, and knelt down directly, and then shouted: "Spare your life, we won't run away, spare your life!" ”

He joined his head, and more of the Green Battalion soldiers also knelt down and begged for mercy.

Looking at these people, Han Xuannai's face showed disdain: "These shitholes!" ”

Although it prevented these green battalion soldiers from escaping, it was also a trouble to deal with it next, these green battalion soldiers didn't dare to escape, and Shi Langyi couldn't order them to be taken prisoner or all the enemies shot.

But it is not appropriate to let them continue to stay on the city walls, these scumbags are not sure when they will collapse and flee again, and it will be very severe to the morale of the whole after a few more times.

You must know that there are not only Yu Shengjun and the green camp on the head of the city, but also more than 1,000 Ding Zhuang recruited by Qu Shengchao, the official government of Huzhou, and most of these Ding Zhuang are the families, guardians or tenants of the major households in the city.

At least these Ding Zhuang braved artillery on the top of the city to build fortifications for Yu Sheng's army, and carried a large number of stones, giant trees, fire oil and other materials for defending the city, although they suffered some casualties, but there were no signs of large-scale collapse.

However, although these Ding Zhuang are stronger than the Green Battalion in terms of personal appearance, if they see the Green Battalion, which is a friendly army, fleeing again, it is estimated that they will also turn around and run.

In order to stabilize the morale of the army, it is impossible for Shi Langyi to continue to put them on the head of the city, but if they are allowed to withdraw the head of the city, wouldn't this be the intention of avoiding the battle and escaping.

"If you want to run away without a fight, how can there be such a good thing in this world!" Shi Langyi looked at the embarrassed Qing army general in front of him, this person's surname is Sun, about thirty years old, and he is the green battalion garrison stationed in Huzhou City.

He himself was quite brave, and in the end he tried to save the Green Battalion from collapse, and did not flee with the rout.

Sun Shoubei said: "Although the brothers in my battalion have some bad deeds, I promise that they will never run away later, and I hope that Lord Shi can become a large number of adults and surround their lives!" ”

Qu Shengchao, the prefect of Huzhou on the side, also spoke: "Now that the enemy is present, one more person will have more strength!" ”

Shi Langyi was smiling: "I didn't say that I had to kill them, I still need them in the follow-up battle!" ”

"Oh, will you let us continue to fight back in the city?" Sun Shoubei was overjoyed, although strictly speaking, his green battalion soldiers did not belong to this Shilang Yiguan, but who let his soldiers escape, and was shot by more than fifty people in a row, and now they are honestly squatting behind the city wall waiting to be dealt with, and as the commander of these people, he naturally hopes to save their lives.

"Naturally, you can't stay in the city, but you can't stay under the city walls!"

"What, let them go under the walls?" Sun Shoubei showed a look of misery, if he went under the city wall, once the thief army outside the city attacked the city, then these people would be the first to die.

"Yes, let them bring weapons and muskets out of the city, and as for protection, they can build their own breastwork, but Lord Sun can also tell them that once the thief army comes, if they don't fight effectively, they will still be unable to escape death!"

Sun Shoubei went out with a look of embarrassment, and Qu Shengchao on the side said: "I'm afraid these green battalion soldiers will have to escape!" ”

"If you escape, you can kill it!" Shi Langyi's answer was very straightforward, he wished that these green battalions had escaped, so that he could solve this trouble in one fell swoop, and it would only be a matter of wasting a few hundred bullets.

Qu Shengchao still said: "What if they arrive at the city and turn against the enemy when they attack the city?" ”

Shi Langyi's answer was the same as the previous one: "Then kill!" ”

Saying that, Shi Langyi was probably trying to strengthen his persuasiveness, and immediately said: "Believe me, it only takes one round of salvos to solve them!" ”

Qu Shengchao snorted coldly in his heart when he heard this, these officers of the Yu Shengjun under Lin Zhe are all extremely arrogant, they kill their allies at every turn, and they are not afraid of being impeached?

However, these thoughts in his heart can only be hidden in his heart now, Qu Shengchao knows very well that whether he can hold Huzhou City or not, he has to rely on this Shi Langyi and the more than 1,000 victorious troops under him.

Otherwise, relying only on the more than 1,000 Minzhuang he recruited and the three or four hundred green battalions that were more garbage than the Minzhuang, it would be hellish to be able to hold Huzhou City.

And he was also worried that Yu Shengjun would leave without a fight, you must know that for Yu Shengjun, giving up Huzhou is not a big deal, before Yu Shengjun sat back and watched the fall of Guangde and Changxing, and when he faced the envoys from Guangde and Changxing for help, he did everything possible to shirk it, and he was stunned that not a single soldier was sent to reinforce it.

In this way, it can be known that these soldiers of the Yu Shengjun do not care about the life or death of the gentry and ordinary people in these cities, and they only care about their own strategic security.

If Yu Shengjun suffered too many casualties in Huzhou City, it is very likely that he would abandon Huzhou City in order to avoid excessive casualties.

When the time comes, Yu Shengjun pats his ass and leaves, and he Qu Shengchao will have to hang himself!

So let Yu Shengjun continue to defend Huzhou City, Qu Shengchao did his best.

Knowing that Yu Shengjun's military expenses were tight, he had already promised Yu Shengjun that all the food expenses of Yu Shengjun during the defense of the city would be provided by Huzhou City, and he also gave a one-time defense fee of 50,000 taels of silver.

In addition, they persuaded the gentry and wealthy families in the city one by one, not only to let them give rice, grain, gold and silver to Yu Shengjun, but also to let them gather the guards, households, tenants, etc., and set up a Minzhuang army of more than 1,000 people to assist Yu Shengjun in defending the city.

In order to raise these rice, grain, gold and silver, Qu Shengchao spent a lot of words to intimidate and win over the officials and gentry and rich households in the city, and these gentry and rich families in the city heard that Guangde and Changxing were broken by the Taiping army.

This makes the rich families in Huzhou City also frightened, if it weren't for the fact that Yu Shengjun has closed the whole city, and at the same time the Taiping Army is also sending troops to surround the entire Huzhou City, although the main force of these Taiping troops are in the north gate, in the west gate, the south gate of the troops are only a small number of weak, but it is also an army, not ordinary people can break through. Otherwise, these gentry would have run away.

In the case that he couldn't run, in order to avoid the destruction of Huzhou City, his own body and family were killed, and his wealth fell into the hands of those thieves outside the city, all of them gritted their teeth and dripped, dripping blood in their hearts, and gave money and food, just to let Yu Shengjun hold Huzhou City.

But even so, in fact, many people are not a dime, there are many wealthy families worth more than 100,000 yuan in Huzhou City, but they all only donate a few dozen taels, more than a few hundred taels, and no one donates more than 1,000 taels of silver.

In order to persuade these rich gentry families to come up with money, Qu Shengchao also put a lot of thought into it.

"Lord Shi, out of the 50,000 taels of the defense fee that I said first, I have already raised 30,000 taels to send to your army, but the remaining 20,000 taels please ask Lord Shi for two more days!" Qu Shengchao still looked at Shi Langyi as he spoke, for fear that he would show a dissatisfied look.

"It's okay, there is no shortage of one or two days left and right!" Shi Langyi is not afraid of these people defaulting on their debts, although Yu Shengjun has stopped engaging in public extortion in the past six months, but if the rich gentry in the city want to repay their debts, Shi Langyi will take the soldiers to get them themselves, and by the way, let them see how the most advanced Mini rifle in this era is fired

Qu Shengchao was also relieved when he heard Shi Langyi say this, but he also knew that this matter could not be delayed any longer, and on the way back to the prefect's yamen, Qu Shengchao thought hard for a long time and there was no good way to get the rich gentry in the city to take out the money.

When he arrived at the prefect's yamen, he looked at the officials on the left and right to arrest quickly, and said secretly in his heart: "You forced me, if I don't give you some color to see, I really think that the words of breaking the county order and destroying the prefect are false!" ”