The news that the county seat of Anzhou, forty miles north of Gaoyang, was captured by the Tartars soon spread along with the fleeing refugees, and the people outside the city suddenly panicked. How did you even win Anzhou County in a blink of an eye? Soon some people began to pack up and prepare to leave their hometown to take refuge in Shandong, especially the villagers outside the city, without the protection of the city wall, the Tartars came, they were a piece of fat that could be taken at any time.

On the third day after the battle in the west of the city, the fear of the Tartars had reached its peak, and people began to bring their families with them. Lu Dianshi was so busy that he had to issue a decree on the relocation of the people in advance in the name of the county order, but even so, it still couldn't stop the tide of people fleeing, and less than three or four out of ten people were willing to enter the city. After all, the Ming government has lost even the larger Anzhou, how long can a small Gaoyang last?

After a few days, the anxious Lu Dianshi was full of bubbles, and the whole person lost weight alive. Li Xin's situation is not much better than that of Lu Dianshi, he has the dual tasks of building a city and teaching and learning, but he only hates the lack of skills, and there is no shortage of people to recruit people, and the transformation of the city wall alone is a major heart disease. Although it was much easier to mobilize the people to burn cement with the warning of the Tartars attacking the city, the overall project was huge, and it took enough time for the wall to reach the ideal strength after solidification, which could not be achieved overnight. But with enough cement, the renovation of the north city is basically completed, and the rest is some finishing work for maintenance, which can be invested in the transformation of the east and west cities.

Li Xin prayed silently, hoping that the renovation of the walls of Gaoyang City would be completed smoothly before the Tartars invaded southward. It's a pity that the heavens didn't fulfill people's wishes, and the Tartars didn't give Li Xin much time. On the seventh day of the battle in the west of the city, Zhang Shizheng was leading Minzhuang to patrol the north city wall, and there was a gloom inside and outside the city! After the baptism of the previous battle, there was already a faint trace of murder on their bodies, and three pillars of smoke in the distance rose into the sky in the blink of an eye.

"Brother Stone, look, smoke column!"

It was Hu Ergou who spoke, his reaction was half a beat slower, and Zhang Shi's face changed greatly.

"Ring the bell, ring the bell, ring the bell quickly!"

Li Xin deliberately erected a large bronze bell at the head of the north city, and once there was an alarm signal, he would ring the bell to warn the whole city. Only then did Hu Ergou react, beckoned a few people to run to the big bronze bell, hugged the wooden stick that hit the bell and pushed it down. In a moment, the loud copper bell hovered and rang over Gaoyang.

The bell has been ringing twice in the past seven days, and it is called a drill in Lee's words. Li Xin was on the construction site in the west of the city at this time, and he also saw three pillars of smoke rising into the sky in the distance. The people were not alarmed by this, put down their work, and lined up in two long teams to enter the city. After the previous two exercises, they were already familiar with the routine of lining up to enter the city after the bell rang.

Looking at the people who lined up in an orderly manner to enter the city, Li Xin's brows tightened, and he didn't stay for a moment, and went straight to the north of the city to find the domain of Dian Shilu. After taking Minzhuang to the war last time, Li Xin was ruthlessly counted by Zhou Jin, and under any circumstances, he did not have the right to privately transfer soldiers for a single teacher, and with a stroke of the pen in the merit book, he gave him a big demerit, which was considered to be offset by merit and demerit.

Zhou Jin's pretentious Li Xin couldn't cry or laugh, but in order to avoid side complications, he had to act according to the rules set by Zhou Jin. This bell ringing was not a drill, and in the past drills only lit a pillar of smoke, and it was on the slope adjacent to the north of the city, but this time the three pillars of smoke were all from the early warning site set up in advance, so it must have been an enemy attack. He didn't make a statement, so let these people continue to think it was a drill, and it would save the chaos.

On the way to the north of the city, he bumped into Lu Zhifan, who was hurrying to the city. After seeing Li Xin, Lu Zhifan looked anxious and sighed again and again.

"If there is another ten days of work, the transformation of the west of the city should be completed." He didn't wait for Li Xin to answer, and continued: "Go and transfer the people to the city!" ”

Lu Zhifan took out an iron plate from his bosom and handed it to Li Xin, which was a token of Li Xin's compatibility with the teachings Zhou Jin when he mobilized the people. By the time Li Xin took the newly recruited 2,000 people to the top of the city, the 600 people in charge of patrolling had already arrived at the battle position of the north city wall according to the routine of the exercise.

"Brother Shi, this battle is not like a drill, but like the Tartars are really coming......"

After all the people withdrew into the city, the city gate was completely closed, the burlap bags filled with soil in advance were layered on the inside of the city gate, a large number of people Zhuang Xinding went to the city, and Li Xin, Lu Zhifan, and Zhou Jin all went to the city to lookout. Hu Ergou, who has always been known for his slow reactions, also smelled a hint of unusual smell and muttered softly to Zhang Shi.

"Silence, the lesson is here!"

Zhang Shi had been appointed as a sentry officer at this time because of his excellent appearance, and Hu Ergou was the captain of his subordinates. According to the military camp of the Ming court at that time, Li Xin divided the 600 people into a total of five posts, of which five people were in the team, the five soldiers were the team, and the five teams were 125 people in one sentry, and each post had a sentry officer, and the five posts were a general commander. The newly recruited 2,000 people were organized into three generals, with a total of 16 posts, and 600 militia veterans were combined into a battalion. The nominal commander of this battalion is Lu Zhifan, but in fact, Li Xin is responsible for the daily command and training, and he also acts and receives the post of commander of 600 people.

Li Xinli stood on top of the enemy tower and looked over the dirt slope outside the north gate, and a torrent of dust and soil particles was rolling towards Gaoyang City. The torrent stopped at the top of the slope three miles away from the north gate, and the dust and smoke dissipated, and the Tartar lineup was displayed in the eyes of everyone at the head of the city.

At the front were infantry in various costumes, numbering about a thousand men, and in the rear were lightly armored cavalry, typical of the Tatar cavalry. Previously, Li Xin had asked Sun Chengzong in detail about the range and power of the cannons of this era, and the answers he got were very disappointing to him, a lover of pre-Ming history. At present, the most powerful Hongyi cannon has a range of only about three miles, or 1,053 steps, which is not at all the ten miles that have been handed down in later generations. From this, it can be inferred that the commander of the opposite Tartar must have been on the battlefield for a long time and is equally familiar with the performance of the artillery. What's more, there are no Hongyi cannons in Gaoyang City at all, and the range of the only few iron cannons is also within 2 miles, but I don't know who this Tartar master is? A flash of inspiration suddenly occurred in Li Xin's mind.

"Zhang Shi went and brought the second tartar called Dobi!"

According to the meaning of Lu Zhifan, this Tartar called Duobi was originally going to be beheaded and sacrificed, but Li Xin deliberately kept it, and a living enemy prisoner must be more useful than a dead Tartar, and now it is time for him to come in handy.

This Duobi is Akzia's domestic slave Wei Baosan, and the full name he gave himself is called Duobi. When Dobi was brought up, his upper body was exposed, and the blood marks had been scabbed, unkempt, and his lips were chapped, and he obviously suffered a lot. I didn't know that Naduo would have arrived at the head of the city, and when he saw the banner waving on the slope of Chen Bingtu on the opposite side, he immediately came to the spirit.

"Dog official, Lord Ao Bai is now coming to take the life of the dog, and he will not let Lao Tzu beg for mercy...... Hmmm......"

Zhang Shi smashed a fist on Duobi's mouth, and his mouth was immediately full of blood, and even two of his front teeth were broken. Hu Ergou found a rag out of nowhere and stuffed it into his mouth, so he couldn't scold.

"What's the use of keeping this traitor's two tartars? Is Jiao Xi going to take him as a sacrifice flag? ”

Zhang Shi's words Li Xin didn't hear, his mind turned to the main general of the opposite Tartar, thanks to the flood of braided dramas in later generations, "Kangxi Empire", "The Legend of Deer and Ding" and other film and television themes in Aobai is already a household name, and is known as the first Baturu in Manzhou. Thinking of this, Li Xin sneezed violently.

……

"According to the captured people of the Southern Dynasty, the person in charge of commanding the people in Gaoyang City is a horse thief, and it seems that Chongzhen Lao'er has no one to use."

The man with slender eyes and beard laughed mockingly, but he grinned in pain from the wound on his abdomen, and the cyan war horse under his crotch was gouging around, as if he was very dissatisfied with the person sitting on him. The man patted the horse on the neck to try to calm it down, and the big green horse had clearly not yet adjusted to his new owner.

"Akzia, don't underestimate the southerners, don't forget that you just suffered a loss on that horse thief!"

The person who spoke was white-skinned, dressed in light cloth armor, and pointed at Gaoyang City with a horsewhip.

"Horse thieves are not afraid, the real terrible thing in this city is Sun Chengzong! You go and give an order to drive the Ming Dynasty to attack the city! ”

Bai Jingpi was obviously the main commander of these people, and at the sound of an order, the originally static team moved again. The Qing army went south to collect many Ming troops, so they were all assigned to fight under the banner of the Han army, rather than simply treating them as a plundered population. The Han banner infantry shouted and began to advance towards Gaoyang City, followed by one hundred and ten light cavalry, as a supervising team. The light horsemen spoke in a relaxed voice, as if this was not a siege battle, but a safari.

"Then Akzia is a straw bag, relying on the fact that he is the true disciple of Baiyin Tugu Mountain, and pulls Ao Bai and our brother with a yellow flag to declare his personal vendetta for him."

"What is a younger brother, isn't it the half-brother of Baiyintu......"

"Qin Si shut up, Bai Yintu is the nephew of the first great Ying Ming Khan, how can you be a slave who can chew your tongue!"

The reprimanded Tartar soldier was obviously a Han man, and he shrank his neck and smiled: "It's not that Lord Ortai is pressed by that straw bag, and the slave is not angry...... There is also Aobai, a Jiezhang Jing, who does not tie up with the emperor's relatives and relatives ......"

The Han army banner infantry in front of them had already rushed into the city gate a hundred paces away with wooden stakes, and the infantry behind them followed closely with simple ladders. To the surprise of these infantrymen, the city wall of Gaoyang City was a bit strange, the north city wall, which was supposed to be in a straight line, was actually built on two sides, about forty steps long, about two zhang high, and perpendicular to the wall of the north city wall, sandwiching the north city gate in the middle, forming a concave shape. Strange as strange, these infantrymen were only responsible for charging where they had time to think about other things, and in their eyes as long as they carried the stake to the city gate, it was half the victory.

Usually this kind of small northern county town has no moat, and the city gate does not have a stone gate, as long as the two wooden city gates are broken, the city can be easily taken. As a warlord, Ortai was unwilling to be reluctant, and rushed into the middle of the concave shape of the two walls built perpendicular to the north city wall, and an ominous premonition came to his face, and the intuition cultivated in the battlefield for many years smelled a trace of death.

Ortai looked at himself again, and the front, left side, and right side were all exposed in front of the southerners.

Note: (1) Gushan Ezhen was the prefect of the Eight Banners and One Banner of Manzhou, and the subordinate relationship with the banner owner was unknown before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs. After entering the customs, it was renamed the capital, and it was subordinate to the flag owner in terms of identity, and was only responsible to the government in terms of position.

(2) Zhangjing was a kind of military attache in the early Qing Dynasty, the abbreviation of the Manchu language "Baya Laxu Zhangjing", and was the leader of the escort army composed of the elite of each banner. In the late Qing Dynasty, some civil officials who assisted the various yamen officials in handling paperwork were also known as Zhang Jing.