Outside the city of Zezhou, there was already a bloody storm.

Lao Huihui led 40,000 Liukou, and he had already attacked the city of Zezhou with lightning speed, which was beyond everyone's expectations.

When Lao Hui attacked Yangcheng County, Ning Shanwei, who was stationed in Zezhou Prefecture, did not make any moves, it can be said that he watched Liukou take Yangcheng, it was not that they didn't want to rescue, but they had to garrison Zezhou Prefecture, which was the focus of their guards, of course, the outcome of this was the loss of Yangcheng, but Liukou's actions were limited to this, and there was no next move.

Lao Hui Hui attacked Zezhou Prefecture City very suddenly, without any warning in advance, just when everyone thought that Lao Hui Hui would go to take Qinshui County, Lao Hui Hui's Liukou surrounded Zezhou Prefecture.

Although there are only more than 40,000 rogues led by Lao Huihui, there are less than 10,000 soldiers stationed in Zezhou Prefecture, and what is even worse is that there is no rescue in Zezhou Prefecture for the time being. In other words, their soldiers, who are less than 10,000 soldiers, must defeat 40,000 rogues, and this task is undoubtedly impossible.

Zezhou Zhizhou did not know the imperial court's holy decree, let alone Hong Chengchou had led the army to Datong, he faintly heard that Hong Chengchou led the army into Shanxi, but did not see any movement, what he saw was only the arrogance of the Liukou in the Zezhou area, the emergency document had already been sent, just when the Liukou took Yangcheng, Zhizhou wrote an urgent document to the governor Yamen and the imperial court, Zhizhou was not qualified to write directly to the Ministry of War, but he couldn't manage so much.

The initial attack of the Rogue was tentative in nature, and the scale was not very large. But what made Zhizhou tremble was that Liukou actually had artillery, this thing was too powerful, it was simply a weapon for siege.

Ning Shanwei commanded the envoy to spend most of his time with Zhizhou, and all the sergeants of Ning Shanwei. All retreated to the state city, and it sounded to the outside world that all the sergeants of a guard post had entered the city, and they would definitely be able to defend it firmly, but it was a pity that the guard commander himself understood, and the sergeants of the entire guard commander were less than 4,000 people. After entering the city, they united with the sergeants guarding the yamen, and there were no more than 6,000 people, and in desperation, more than 3,000 young men were temporarily recruited in the state city. Only then was an army of 10,000 people formed to defend the state city.

Ning Shanwei's sergeants did not participate in many battles, and most of the Liukou used to be active in the area of Taiyuan Mansion and Pingyang Mansion, either directly from Pingyang Mansion to Henan, or to the Hanzhong region of Shaanxi, probably because the place of Zezhou was very small, and the Liukou were a little disdainful. This time, the rogue entered Zezhou on a large scale, for the first time in many years.

The sergeants in the state city have no fighting spirit at all. Zhizhou and the commander of the guard knew the truth, and it was impossible to show a smile on his face, which indirectly affected the sergeants, of course, they had to defend it to the death, you must know that after Yangcheng was taken by the Liukou, all the officials were killed. None of them were left, and there were no scholars and squires who had time to escape. It was also the destruction of the family, and all the property was robbed by the rogues. What made Zhizhou and Wei even more embarrassed was that the families of these officials and scholars were also insulted, and their lives were worse than death.

Therefore, the state city must be defended.

The battle on the first day was not very fierce, and the casualties of the double anti-dumping were not large.

By the next day, the situation had changed, and the Liukou began to intensify their attack on the city, and they were attacking from the south and west directions, Zhizhou led a part of the sergeants to hold the south gate, the guard commander led a part of the sergeants to hold the west gate, and the sergeants of the inspection department were responsible for guarding the north gate and the east gate.

Casualties have also increased.

There is no artillery in the state of Zezhou, and the imperial court generally only equips the capital city where the governor's yamen is located and the relatively important capital city with artillery, and Zezhou is not qualified to be equipped with artillery, but there are still bird guns and cluster rockets, but these firearms can only hit the rogue at close range, but the artillery is different.

Liukou has a Franco, this kind of artillery, it is impossible to blow up the city wall, but it can form heavy casualties, and it makes the sergeants guarding the city wall afraid, especially those who have just been recruited to the army, Liukou has artillery, some sergeants who have just entered the army, shouting, fleeing in all directions, Yan zhòng disturbed the morale of the army, Zhizhou and Wei Commander had no choice but to kill some sergeants, which barely stabilized the sergeants defending the city.

On the third day, the tempo of the siege of the Liukou was faster, and the artillery fire was more intense, but the Liukou had not yet launched a large-scale charge, but the sound of cannons and drums had already made the soldiers on the city wall all the soldiers and trees.

By the time the commander of Zhizhou and Wei finally understood the strategy of the Liukou siege, it was already a little late.

Liukou took measures to interfere throughout the day, even at night, they would open artillery attacks, but their personnel almost did not attack, three days passed, the sergeants of the Ningshan guard and the garrison yamen, almost no rest, were highly vigilant at all times, but the human body was limited, and some tired sergeants even fell asleep directly on the city wall, and the artillery fire was difficult to wake up.

On February 18, the fourth day of the attack on the city of Zezhou.

At the same time, the sound of cannons and drums sounded at the same time, and the Liukou gave up the attack on the west gate, and all the forces were concentrated at the south gate.

This was a sign of a general attack, and the commanders of Zhizhou and Wei understood it, and they quickly adjusted the deployment of their troops, leaving a small number of sergeants to guard the north and east gates of the west gate, and the vast majority of the sergeants were concentrated at the south gate.

Until noon, the rogues still did not launch a large-scale attack, but occasionally organized small charges.

The Zhizhou and Wei commanders on the city wall, their faces were pale, they already had a feeling of great difficulty, Liukou was obviously ready, they were ready to launch a large-scale attack, but look at the sergeants under their command, their faces were gray, their eyes were black, and they were staggering when they walked.

Before that, the drumming became more intense, and the cannons stopped.

Zhizhou and Wei Commander made their bodies tremble, they saw the swarming rogues, densely packed, the rogues finally began a full-scale attack, if they could not resist, they would die without a place to bury.

The sergeant defending the city looked at this qiē, and his body was trembling.

Zhizhou, whose face became hideous, stood up and shouted hoarsely for the sergeant to release the arrows, the firewood under the oil pot was ignited, and the bows and arrows and the wet were quickly carried up the city wall.

The attacking rogues were equally powerful with bows and arrows, and the soldiers on the city walls kept screaming and falling.

A few streams of rogues carried round trees, ready to ram the gates.

Although the city gate was filled with a large number of stones, once the gate was broken, the rogues were able to fire cannonballs in the direction of the gates, and it was easy to blow up those stones, but at that time, the soldiers in the city could not hold on to the attacks of the rogues in both directions.

The fierce battle has finally begun.

Zheng Xunrui put his hands behind his back, looking very quiet, waiting for the scouts to report back and forth on the information they had detected.

The 20,000 soldiers of the Zheng family army are less than ten miles away from the state city of Zezhou.

All of Liukou's energy was focused on attacking the city of Zezhou, perhaps because he had already reconnoitred the surrounding situation, and Liukou did not leave a vigilant scout, which allowed Zheng Jiajun to deploy very calmly.

All the soldiers were ready, but the offensive was delayed.

Zheng Jinhong and Yang He's battle report was sent in the early morning, the nine dragons were captured alive, the 20,000 rogues stationed in Jiyuan were all defeated, the number of rogues who were killed and surrendered reached more than 16,000, and the number of escapers was less than 4,000.

This battle report indicates that Zheng Jinhong and Yang He are ready to resist Li Zicheng's reinforcements.

Most of the rogues who fled in the direction of Zezhou were killed, and it was almost impossible for the rogues to report the situation to Lao Hui through the defense line laid by the Zheng family's army.

It should be said that the best time to attack has arrived, but Zheng Xunrui still did not give the order.

Yang Tingshu and Liu Zeqing stood beside them.

Yang Tingshu's expression was slightly anxious, he should have returned to Taiyuan Mansion City, but he insisted on following the Zheng family's army, Zheng Xunrui did not refuse, as for Liu Zeqing, there was no expression on his face, he only needed to be responsible for leading the army to fight, and the rest were all subject to Zheng Xunrui's arrangement.

The scout hurried into the tent of the Chinese army.

"Report, the Liukou are about to break through the city of Zezhou, and the defenders of Zezhou are difficult to support, the number of Liukou attacking is close to 20,000, and there are still 20,000 people who have not launched an attack......"

"Got it, continue to investigate, and quickly report the battle situation."

Yang Tingshu's face had changed, and after the scout left, he couldn't help it.

"Qingyang, hurry up and launch an attack, if the city of Zezhou is lost, it will be too late."

Zheng Xunrui looked at Yang Tingshu and spoke word by word.

"Huai Dou, the purpose of the Zheng family's army is to kill and injure the Liukou to the greatest extent, and only half of the 40,000 Liukou under Lao Hui Hui have launched an attack, and half of them are still moving, which shows that it has not yet reached the last moment, once all the troops under Lao Hui Hui have launched an attack, it is the best time for the Zheng family army to attack."

Seeing Yang Tingshu's somewhat gloomy expression, Zheng Xunrui spoke again.

"Huai Dou, I know what you think, but this is fighting and fighting, the sergeants of Ningshan Guard and the garrison Yamen, they must resist desperately, this is their duty, as for how much sacrifice they pay, this is not something I need to care about, I just need to grasp the best time, if you can't bear it, you will make a big plan, Ci is not in charge of the army, you are the governor of Shanxi, and you don't want the city of Zezhou to lose, this is understandable, but I can't think like this, I need to exterminate the Liukou to the greatest extent."

Yang Tingshu's body trembled slightly, looking at Zheng Xunrui, he suddenly noticed that after a few years, Zheng Xunrui revealed more and more confidence and domineering, and this kind of confidence and domineering will be displayed at critical moments, which is undoubted. (To be continued)