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"Is the situation in Zhenzhou clear?" Bai Xianzhong, the commander of the First Division, looked at Zha Yong, the captain of the reconnaissance brigade directly under him, and asked.

"Back to the division commander, the strength of the defenders of Zhenzhou is about 3,000 people, plus the people who can be summoned in the city, and the troops of 5,000 to 6,000 can be organized. The division commander should remember that the several counties taken in front of him and the big town of Zhuangbao all said that they were ready to take their subordinates to reinforce Zhenzhou, but they were destroyed by us in advance. But judging from their current preparations, even if we have the help of the artillery battalion, I am afraid that it will not be easy to conquer Zhenzhou City in a short period of time! The subordinates built yì, and the city of Zhenzhou could only be crushed and attacked by artillery! Zha Yong immediately told all the news that his subordinates had found out, and gave his own advice.

Bai Xianzhong looked at Zha Yong, nodded slightly, and said, "That's right, it seems that you have prepared a lot of homework during this time!" Understand the situation of Zhenzhou City more thoroughly! Hehe! Very good! What else is there to say? ”

Zha Yong thought for a moment and then said: "I think that if the artillery battalion arrives here quickly, as long as our artillery can suppress the officers and troops on the city, with the fighting spirit of the officers and soldiers, it should collapse quickly, and our muskets will be used as a powerful assault, and the siege time will be greatly reduced!" Shun lì words within three days. Zhenzhou City can be breached by us! ”

Three days. After the generals in the big tent of this number listened. They all nodded again and again, feeling that what Zha Yong said made sense, Bai Xianzhong also nodded and said: "That's right, within three days, we must conquer Zhenzhou!" Because the time left for us is only about three days, we have consumed too much time in front, and if we drag it out, it will not be easy for the brothers of the cavalry division to hold back the troops on the Ji'an Mansion! This time, let's send troops. It was necessary to open Zhenzhou within three days before Hilgen mobilized the officers and troops. Otherwise, we'll be dragged here and ruined the Grand Duke's overall plan!" I have only given you three days, and I have no faith? ”

After hearing this, the generals immediately stood up together and shouted: "Obey! ……”

After the Mawei army arrived in Zhenzhou City, they set up cards in various dangerous or key road sections, and at the same time quickly swept through all the larger towns and towns in the south of Zhenzhou, Zhuangbao, and successively cleaned up many local forces that were ordered by Yuwen Xing to drag their families and lead private armed forces to flee into Zhenzhou City to help in the war, forcing the local gentry and Wang clan around Zhenzhou City to give up the idea of entering Zhenzhou City, or simply surrender to the Mawei Army. Either they fled in other directions with a soft drag, and a few chose to close the gate of Zhuangbao. However, it was also quickly broken by the Mawei Army. In short, there are only the original defenders left in Zhenzhou City, and it is impossible to have reinforcements to Zhenzhou from other directions, of course, Ji'an Mansion is an exception.

After Jiang Yuanxun entered the territory of Ji'an Province with the cavalry division, he immediately carried out an attack, the purpose of which was to contain the defenders of Ji'an Province to reinforce Zhenzhou.

In just one day, Bai Xianzhong led four battalions of officers and soldiers under his command, plus an artillery battalion to rush to the outside of Zhenzhou City with a full sixty general guns and general guns. These days, Luzon Island has not stopped at all, constantly transporting war horses to Fujian, so that the number of war horses equipped with the artillery division of the Mawei Army is more and more sufficient, and there are more and more war horses available in the Marine Army.

In the early morning of the second day when the Mawei Army arrived in Zhenzhou City, the officers and soldiers in Zhenzhou City were horrified to see that on the open ground outside the south gate of the city, a group of Mawei soldiers stepped out of the barracks with high morale and began to line up outside the city, and all kinds of attack tools were also pulled out of the Mawei Army's camp and placed in the starting position.

What made the officers and soldiers in the city even more frightened was not how prosperous the military appearance of the Mawei Army was, how many soldiers and horses there were, but what shocked and frightened them the most was the various types of artillery that the Mawei Army placed in a row outside the city. At a glance, experienced people found the difference between the Mawei Army's artillery and the official army's city-defying artillery, especially Yuwenxing's own recognition at a glance, these cannons used by the Mawei Army are basically a miniature version of the Hongyi cannon, not the messy miscellaneous cannons such as bowl-mouth guns, tassel cannons, general cannons, and tiger squat cannons that he has tried his best to equip in the past few months. The cannons used by the Mawei Army must be much more powerful than these broken cannons placed on the city wall of Zhenzhou in terms of range and power.

When the officers and soldiers who knew the number counted the various types of cannons pulled out by the thieves outside the city, their jaws almost fell to the ground, they did not expect that the thieves army of thousands of people outside the city could actually pull out a full sixty cannons, and the models seemed to be very uniform. In terms of quantity, it is much more than the various miscellaneous cannons that Zhenzhou City has, and these cannons are concentrated at the south gate of Zhenzhou City, aiming the muzzle of the black hole at the southern city wall.

When the defenders in Zhenzhou City saw this scene, they began to turn pale one by one. In the past two months, Yu Wenxing had already shown them the power of artillery, and their dozens of miscellaneous cannons had already made them tremble, and this obviously much larger and much stronger cannon made them panic. The defenders at the head of the city turned their heads to look at the wooden signs and other guards that they placed on the city wall to block arrows, and they couldn't help but be very depressed, and many people secretly shouted in their hearts: "It's over, it's over, this time it's over, the thief army has so many big killing weapons, Zhenzhou City is now over!" ”

After seeing the position of the Mawei Army, the morale of the defenders should be even more suppressed. Most of the defenders in the city were converted from the officers and soldiers of the former Ming Guard, but the name changed to the green battalion, but the combat power has not changed. Many of them are cobbled together, but they are just eating together. In general, don't talk about going out and fighting the enemy in the field or anything. It is to stand here and defend the city. It's already pretty good. Although Yuwenxing is the prefect, after all, he is not a military camp garrison, and the soldiers are not brought by him, so he can no longer turn ordinary soldiers into elites of a hundred battles.

Although the walls here are built quite strongly, it is still impossible to withstand the bombardment of many artillery. Originally, the pre-Ming Dynasty also attached great importance to the application of firearms, but later the financial resources were not good, and the peasant army and the Qing army fought in the previous decades, although there were still a lot of miscellaneous artillery in the cities. But it was also slowly consumed, and Yuwenxing also spent a lot of effort to get forty miscellaneous cannons of all kinds.

Now these miscellaneous cannons are really not the same thing in the eyes of the Mawei Army, and in the eyes of the soldiers of the artillery battalion, it is really just a joke. But this was not until thirty or forty years ago, when the poorly equipped peasant army came to attack the city, it would have to pay a considerable price, and sometimes it was even dozens of times the number of defenders, and it was impossible to conquer a city.

At this time, after the defenders in the city saw the siege lineup of the Mawei Army, the defenders of Zhenzhou were all cold. If the rebels below are just the same green battalion soldiers as they were, use the various garrisons stockpiled in the city. The defenders still have considerable confidence to fight to the death, but today they have been replaced by this horsetail army, which can be said to be armed to the teeth. The defenders were suddenly worried.

It has been an eternal truth since ancient times that when two armies meet, the brave wins, and once the morale of one side declines, then the outcome of this battle can be determined. When he learned the news that the Mawei army had begun to prepare to attack the city, Yuwenxing also personally climbed the gatehouse in the south of the city surrounded by Hu Servants, and stopped to look outside the city, but after he saw it, like the other defenders, his face became pale, and he said to the Zhenzhou garrison Mangui with a trill: "General Man, hurry up and make preparations, be sure to block the rebels!" This official has already sent someone to report to General Dingnan, and General Hilgen will definitely send troops to rescue Zhenzhou! ”

This man is the garrison of Zhenzhou City, and he is now the highest-ranking military general in the city. He was a Manchu general, and he was originally just a small soldier, but he accumulated military merits and slowly rose to his current position after the Qing court won the world. He also knew that in a big war, others could surrender, but it was difficult for him to surrender as a Manchu, even if he surrendered, no one would necessarily accept it, and it should be said that the possibility of not accepting him was much higher than accepting him. At this time, after he saw the lineup of the Mawei Army, he couldn't help but shake his head secretly, after hearing Yu Wenxing's words, Man Gui just hugged his fists and said: "Needless to say, the prefect will definitely do his best, these rebels will live up to the holy grace, and the general will fight with his life to block them outside the city of Zhenzhou, and as soon as General Dingnan arrives, the army will immediately extinguish these rebels!" ”

"Okay, it's good that General Man has confidence! Come on, carry it up! ”

With his order, a dozen big men behind him carried three large boxes to the city tower. After all of them were opened, a dazzling silver light blinded everyone's eyes, all of which were bright silver dollars, still minted in Fujian, scattered and stacked in boxes and not wrapped in red paper.

"That's a lot of silver!"

"It's silver!"

"Listen to the soldiers, the court has an order that we must hold Zhenzhou, which is also our homeland, and we must not let the rebels break through. Whoever fights bravely to kill the enemy, the court will never treat anyone badly. If you kill one enemy, you will be rewarded with ten taels of silver, and if you kill two enemies, you will be rewarded with thirty, and if you kill three or more people, you will be promoted to one level and rewarded with fifty taels of silver. If you kill five enemies, you will immediately be promoted by two levels in a row, and you will be rewarded with two hundred taels of silver. Now, distribute two taels per person first, and when the rebels are repulsed, each person will receive another two taels! "Yuwenxing's actions are still quite effective, and the morale of the defenders at the head of the city immediately rose, what are they serving as soldiers for, isn't it just for money. Yuwen Xing used the newly collected imperial court tax burden to boost morale, which can be regarded as a must!

While they were distributing the money, a horsetail knight outside the city galloped outside the south gate with a small flag in his hand. I heard the horse-tailed warrior shout to the many defenders in the city: "Everyone in the city has listened! Our division commander has something to say to you! You have also seen these cannons we put out, today my Mawei army wants to take Zhenzhou City, if you want to live, you will quickly surrender the city, our division commander has a life, read that you are a soldier is also for food, never hurt your life, if you don't know how to lift, then don't blame us for being polite, swords, guns and guns are ruthless, wait for us to attack the city, and kill you and wait for a chicken and dog to stay! ”

As the highest guard in the city, Mangui was furious when he heard that the rebel below was so arrogant and made such nonsense in front of him, so he took his big bow and aimed his arrow at the horsetail soldier under the city.

The arrows of the carving flick flew straight towards the horsetail soldiers under the city, and the horsetail soldiers who were ordered to come to persuade them to surrender were of course also paying attention to the reaction of the city at any time, as soon as they saw someone with a bow and arrow aimed at him, they were on guard early, and after Mangui shot down an arrow, he immediately raised the round shield on the horse's back and at his feet, and knocked the arrow away at once, and sneered and shouted: "I don't know what to do, wait to report to the king of Hades!" ”

Man Gui saw that he missed an arrow, so he yelled: "Shoot Ben General and shoot this dog thief!" When the defenders of the city heard the order, they immediately began to draw their bows and arrows and shoot arrows at the city. But the horsetail warrior was not stupid, but very clever, and anyway, everything that had to be said was finished, and when he returned to his own position, all the arrows fell in the air, leaving him with a burst of mocking laughter behind him. (To be continued......)