On the first day of August, it returned to the city of Defu. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

This place is the Shangqiu City of later generations, outstanding people, thousands of years, a large number of emperors and generals, celebrities and heroes.

Confucius's ancestral home is here, Liu Bang is here to kill the snake and start an incident, Zhang Xun is here to resist An Lushan's 100,000 army, Zhao Kuangyin has made a career here, Sima Xiangru, Fan Zhongyan, Su Shi, etc., have left traces here.

However, this city is also a place where natural disasters frequently occur, at this time on the Gongchen Gate in the north of the city, Li Zhenting, the prefect of Guide, is looking at the outside with a heavy heart, countless thieves, and the black pressure seems to cover the earth.

As far as the eye can see, not only the plains of the countryside, but also the outer cities, are also occupied by their soldiers and horses.

The layout of the city is a very unique style of the outer circle and the inner square, the trinity of the city wall, the city lake and the city wall, like a huge "bronze coin".

In the year of Jiajing, the city was built again, which was also used as a moat embankment, the outer city was round, the inner city was square, and finally formed a unique pattern of the outer circle and the inner square.

Because of the moat embankment and the ingenious drainage system of the city, even if the Yellow River overflows, overflows, and bursts from time to time, it cannot pose a major threat to the city of Guide.

However, although the city is wide, after all, it is only for waterproofing, the embankment is too long, the height is not enough, if you need to defend, the troops in the city are also insufficient, so you have to give up and defend the inner city, only the south gate of the ancient city of Juyang in the south of the city remains.

Fortunately, the city wall of Fucheng is high and thick, surrounded by moats, and the south is even wider, more than a mile wide and nearly three miles long.

Although it is a moat. It is more appropriate to call it a lake, and under the river, there are six ancient cities, including the capital of the Spring and Autumn Song Kingdom, the Suiyang City of the Qin, Han and Sui and Tang dynasties, the Nanjing City of Yingtianfu in the Song Dynasty, and the Guide Mansion City of the Yuan Dynasty.

So although the thieves attacked day and night, the city was still defended until now, but whether it could be held in the end, Li Zhenting had no bottom in his heart, the east gate, the west gate, the north gate, and several city gates. The rivers are relatively narrow. Moreover, there has been a long period of drought, and the water level of the moat has dried up a lot.

There are not many other Liukou, but there are many manpower, and they push mud to fill the river day and night. Slowly moat many lots. It's about to be filled in by them.

"Can the city be defended?"

Li Zhenting muttered in his heart.

It's been days since the thieves attacked the city. All methods have been exhausted, and both sides of the moat are full of all kinds of broken instruments. The corpses of people and horses, especially outside the ancient city wall in the south of the city, in that narrow place, at the lower end of the city wall, were full of the corpses of thieves, and the blood that flowed out of them even coagulated into reddish-brown.

The thieves even used boats, and in the moats on all sides, there were some broken boats, as well as corpses inside.

Just thinking about it, footsteps sounded, and a sturdy general, with a glowing head and a battle robe, came to Li Zhenting's side, but it was General Yang of Guide Mansion.

At this time, with a strong sense of exhaustion on his face, he said: "Fuzun, the thieves have been attacking the city for many days, but there is no news of reinforcements, and the last general is worried......"

Li Zhenting's heart trembled slightly, which was also what he was worried about.

At present, the situation in Guide Mansion is full of rogues, there are probably hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, so many thieves, officers and soldiers on all sides, all of them are terrified, it would be good to be able to defend their own defensive ground, so how can they come to the rescue?

According to Li Zhenting's knowledge, on the other side of the Yellow River, those Shandong soldiers and horses were just strictly guarding across the river, and they ignored Li Zhenting's request for help.

Facing the south of Fengyang Mansion in the east, Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, also strictly guarded the defense line, and even transferred Huang Degong, the chief soldier of Luzhou, to Zhongdu, and ignored the war in Guide Mansion.

What he is most worried about now is that the thieves continue to enter Xuzhou, if the Cao Yun is blocked, he, the governor of Fengyang, is also responsible, and he can't take care of others.

So looking at it, there are no reinforcements on all sides, the supervisor Ding Qirui, the leader Zuo Liangyu and others, are grinding in Runing Mansion, and the officials and generals of Kaifeng City don't know what to think, and the rescue of soldiers and horses is delayed, and now the news inside and outside is cut off, and I don't know the outside world.

In the city of Defu, there are only more than 2,000 soldiers in General Yang's battalion at the moment, no wonder he is worried that he will not be able to defend the city.

After being silent for a long time, he turned around and looked at the Zhang Xun Temple in the south of the city, Li Zhenting finally said with indignation: "Regardless of whether there are reinforcements or not, whether we are loyal to the king or not, how can we, as local parents, be afraid of thieves and things?" At present, the people are all protected, there is no gap between the inner and outer cities, and it is incumbent on us to protect the township! In the past, Zhang Zhongcheng guarded Suiyang, a good story through the ages, Zhen Ting is not talented, and he is willing to follow one or two, that is, he will die, and let the thieves know that I am not no one. ”

Looking at Li Zhenting's resolute expression, he already has a white beard and hair, and his demeanor is like an old man, but General Yang knows that Li Zhifu is only more than forty, which is the same age as himself, and his appearance is like his father.

Thinking about everything Li Zhifu does on weekdays, a heat surge swelled in his heart, he was an upright person, and said loudly: "Fighting for the country, our duty, I am willing to carry the whip and fall into the stirrup, and follow the Fuzun." ”

Li Zhenting gave a deep salute: "It's your responsibility to protect the land, please general." ”

said a word, but let the two of them let go of everything, at most, they were martyred and died.

They discussed military affairs more carefully, relying solely on officers and soldiers, and their troops were weak, and it would be difficult to hold the city in the long run.

In the local area of Guide Mansion, there are many local noble families from military households, and many of these military magnates with hereditary privileges have private armies, and the descendants of these people have even entered the ranks by the imperial examination, forming a powerful family in Guide Mansion and other places.

Although the power of the township eunuchs has swelled viciously because of this, causing all kinds of local contradictions in Guide Mansion to be extremely acute, on weekdays, these clan heroes also disobey the official decrees, and Li Zhenting's white hair is largely caused by these people.

However, their clan cohesion is strong, and they are also inseparable from the thieves.

They know that after the thieves break the city, they will never let them go, after all, they are all big households, and they are quite resolute in defending the city.

At this time, Hou Fangyu, Wu Boyi, Wu Boyin, Jia Kaizong, Xu Zuolin, Zhang Wei and others formed the Xueyuan Society in Fucheng, called the six sons of Xueyuan, and they ran back and forth, persuading the eunuchs in the city to work together to resist the thieves.

With the help of these gentry, the strength of the defenders in the city is estimated to reach 5,000, and the city can hold out for a long time.

In particular, a large part of the officers and soldiers in the city also possessed excellent Xuanfu Town Bird Guns, which played an important role in the defense of the city.

This is Li Zhenting relied on the relationship with Wang Dou and bought it from Xuanfu Town, Wang Dou is a person who misses the old, not only gives him preferential prices, but also in the situation that the supply of bird guns is in short supply, the share list is given priority to Li Zhenting, and the sub-medicine given away is much more than ordinary people.

In the past, Li Zhenting was attacked by local scholars because of this, but now, it has become his far-sighted move and has been praised by the whole city.

He also sold the purchased bird guns to General Yang at a preferential price, which is also one of the reasons why the two have a good relationship.

"I don't know when the reinforcements will arrive, and the medicine needs to be used sparingly."

The two of them deliberated.

"The gunpowder in stock, although it is not as powerful as Xuanzhen, can also be used, and the lead is not in the right style, so people can choose one by one......"

……

On the third day of the first month of August, the thieves attacked very urgently, and just as Li Zhenting and General Yang were roaring into the city to command the battle, suddenly they withdrew their troops in the formation and retreated like a tide.

Li Zhenting and Yang Counselor were overjoyed, standing at the head of the city and looking at it, seeing all the thieves pulling out the camp, the thieves and horses galloping, raising dust and covering the sun, and walking to the southeast, the two looked at each other, and they both saw the joy in each other's eyes.

Sure enough, in the afternoon, there was a sentry horseman, but it was Jingnan Bo Cao Bianjiao, under the command of the courtiers of King Ningnan, Yan The army of the two counts was not far from the city of Defu.

When the whole city heard it, they were all excited, the reinforcements really came, and it was still a well-known strong army in the border town, and it was worry-free to return to the German Mansion.

Sure enough, on the fourth day of the first month, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen each led the barracks first, rolling iron horses, and Li Zhenting and others were even more confident, and on the fifth day of the first month, the infantry battalion of the two also went to the bottom of the city, and together there were nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers.

In the past, all prefectures and counties, health stations, and prefectures and cities have always reported fear and rejection of officers and soldiers crossing the border, but at this time, the people of the Defu are very welcome to the arrival of Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen.

Although the officers and soldiers will harass the people, it is better than the thieves to break the city, and the military discipline under the command of the two counts is relatively strict.

These soldiers and horses are also extremely elite, no wonder they can scare away the thieves who are overwhelming outside the city, in Li Zhenting's eyes, although they are not as good as the Jingbian army, but they are also a strong army in the Ming Dynasty, and local generals such as General Yang are even more shocking.

Although it was difficult, Li Zhenting tried his best to supply the nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses who came to supply grain and grass, of course, they also hoped that the thieves in the territory could be exterminated as soon as possible, after all, with the power of the ruined government, it was still more difficult to supply grain and grass.

Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen stayed in the capital for a few days to recuperate their troops, and the two analyzed the enemy's situation.

After their soldiers and horses arrived, a large number of thieves seemed to flow to Xuzhou and Fengyang Mansion in the south.

However, Suizhou, Ningling, Zhecheng, Luyi, Xiayi, and the neighboring Nanzhili Haozhou and other places, there are many large and small bands of thieves and horses, these thieves can be exterminated first, and the place of Defu can be cleared and returned.

Moreover, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen successfully forced back the army of thieves under the Guide Mansion, and the news spread to Kaifeng and Runing Mansion, where the supervisor Ding Qirui, the chief soldier Zuo Liangyu and others were all moved, and they also wanted to lead the troops to suppress the thieves.

The thief's strategy has changed, and he is no longer forced to Kaifeng, so he naturally can't stay where he is for a long time.

Even Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, who was Ding Qirui's deputy at this time, also wanted to lead Hu Dawei, the deputy commander-in-chief, and Jiang Mingwu, the governor of the Chinese army, to force him to return to the German Mansion, only Gao Mingheng, the governor of Henan, was still hesitating, leaving Chen Yongfu in Kaifeng City.

Ma Shiyingfeng, the governor of Fengyang, was furious, and wrote a letter to impeach Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen, and impeached the two to drive the thieves into the Nanzhili prefectures and erode state affairs.

All parties were ready to move, and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses seemed to have been mobilized by thieves, but they didn't know that they were basically acting in accordance with the strategy that Li Dingguo had planned at that time. (To be continued.) )