On the fifteenth day of the offensive and defensive battle, the situation in the city of Jinan deteriorated further. On the one hand, under the attack of the White Lotus Sect's return artillery, not only was the city wall damaged a lot, but the defenders were also killed and wounded more and more. The soldiers and horses that the Fubiao Battalion and the Jinan Right Guard can fight are less than half of the original ones. The Minzhuang team organized by Yun Chuqi has accumulated more than 20,000 casualties. Although after several days of bloody fighting, the first group of them were experienced as long as they could survive, but they really didn't have much left.

On the other hand, the infantry of the 32nd Village of the Green Forest, who had been expected as reinforcements, had finally appeared outside the city, but they had joined the side of the White Lotus Sect. It turned out that this group of men and horses was intercepted by the White Lotus Sect on the way to Jinan. There was actually a leader of the White Lotus Sect who went straight into the account and told them that Lei Zhanbiao had been killed by Yan Hong, and Zuo Shenlei, Xie Baoshan and others who surrendered were either beheaded by Yan Hong by military law, or sent out of the city to sacrifice by Yan Hong by killing people with a knife. Even if you accept the recruitment, you will not be able to escape this fate.

Because most of the thirty-two soldiers and horses who followed Lei Zhanbiao at the beginning were indeed managed by Yan Hong, this fact was in front of him, but the head of the White Lotus Sect seized the opportunity to lobby them. In addition, among the infantry of the thirty-two villages, there were originally quite a few followers of the White Lotus Sect, as well as undercover agents specially placed by the two elders of Qi and Liu. As soon as it was launched inside and out, nearly 3,000 of the Green Forest infantry, with a total of more than 3,000 people, stood on the side of the White Lotus Sect. At the same time, they attacked and killed the few who refused to submit, as well as the envoys sent by Sun Lie, and then drove to the city of Jinan and joined the side of the White Lotus Sect.

These are outlaws who have been in the cottage for many years, and when it comes to the ability to fight alone, they are no weaker than the soldiers and horses of the right guard of Jinan. Many people may not even be under the Fubiao camp. As for the White Lotus Sect Divine Soldiers. It's even less than that. The defection of this detachment. The strength of the siege has been greatly improved. The defenders of the city are facing a more severe dilemma.

For Yan Hong and the top management of Jinan, the biggest problem is still the distant reinforcements. After all, relying on the thousands of regular troops in Jinan City, as well as the untrained people, it is okay to support ten days and a half months, and it must continue. Not really. Where's the reinforcements? Knowing that the military situation in Jinan is urgent, shouldn't he have rushed here with a double journey? It's time to calculate, but why is there no movement?

Yan Hong had no way to do anything about it. He could only pretend that he didn't care and comfort his subordinates, while continuing to sprinkle a lot of money to motivate the soldiers and the people. It's just that if he continues to consume it like this, at the current rate of casualties, he is afraid that the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver he copied from Wang Xuan will be used almost in terms of bereavement and reward.

Now defending in the city, Yun Chuqi and Zhang Jingzhai's Minzhuang team is already the absolute main force. The number of men in each battalion was more than two thousand, in most places on the city walls. It's just a symbolic place of a few soldiers and horses of the right guard of Jinan or the soldiers and horses of the Fubiao battalion. At the same time, due to the loss of gunpowder, most of them were lost. Now, in addition to the musket team directly under Qincha led by Ye Zhengfei, the musketeers in the Jinan Right Guard and Fubiao Battalion have all been changed to knife and axe players.

On the night of the fifteenth day, in the big tent of the White Lotus Sect and the Mongolian coalition army, a short half-old man was talking to Su Gui, the "Little Ming King", and two Mongolian commanders. This old man is Li Zixin, an elder sent by Zhao Quan.

Regarding the original position in the sect, Li Zixin, the elder, is above Su Gui, the incense master. The problem is that Wang Xuan, Qi Yuanshan, Liu Chengyin, and Su Gui are the "general altar faction", and they don't even recognize Zhao Quan, the sect leader, so they naturally don't take Li Zixin's elders seriously. Joke, do you have a certificate as an elder? Who did it? Who signed it? Which organization does the certification? Therefore, the conversation between the two families is divided into guests and hosts, and there is no superiority and inferiority.

Li Zixin didn't care about this either. He looked directly at Su Gui and said, "Lord Su Xiang, the dispute between the two factions of the White Lotus Holy Sect between you and me, it is not clear who is right and who is wrong. It's just that it is precisely because of our incessant internal strife and failure to cooperate with each other that Jinan's uprising was frustrated, and Wang Zuo's envoy, Elder Qi and Elder Liu were martyred one after another, this is always a fact, right? Now you just say, your mentor Elder Qi, as well as Wang Zuo Envoy and Elder Liu, their revenge, will you revenge or not? This treasure of the Holy Sect in Jinan City for hundreds of years, do you want to take it back? ”

Su Gui glared and said, "Of course you want to take revenge!" Treasure hunting, of course! I didn't see that now my White Lotus army has surrounded Jinan, and the gunpowder bows and arrows in the city have basically run out, or I will enter Jinan in a few days, catch Yan Hong, and cut it with a thousand knives! By the way, I would like to remind you, I am the king of Ming, not a master of incense. ”

Li Zixin said: "Lord Su Xiang, I know that in the past half a month, you have attacked every day, and your own soldiers and horses have lost a lot. Although parishioners from other places come to join every day, they come less and go more. And Yan Hong, the head of the city, bewitched Ding Zhuang among the victims to defend the city for him, and for a while, the number of troops defending the city did not decrease. Even if you have a return cannon to help, and the old man helped you bring these heroes from the 32nd village of Shandong Green Forest, but in the past three or five days, Jinan City is afraid that it will not be able to be defeated. And the reinforcements of Lao Wang, the governor of Jiliao, are afraid that it will not be long before they arrive. When the time comes, I'm afraid it will fall short. ”

Su Gui knew that what Li Zixin said was reasonable, but he refused to give in, and hated that the other party did not call him King Ming, so he said: "Then with Your Excellency's opinion, what should you do?" ”

Li Zixin smiled slightly, and said to Su Gui, China, and Bala: "The soldiers are very fast, we have trapped the 100,000 army under the fortified city of Jinan, if we can't conquer it as soon as possible, but fall into a protracted war, it will be quite unfavorable." Since you want to conquer it quickly, you have to concentrate all your strength and break the city in one fell swoop. Therefore, the warriors of Mongolia should also go into battle, and not just watch our parishioners fight in the city. ”

When Bara heard Li Zixin talking about them, he was very dissatisfied, and said viciously: "You old man, you are the one who colluded with the old man to answer, and our warriors under the banner of Kuten Khan do not listen to you." ”

Li Zixin said with a straight face: "Commander Bala Qianfu, since you are a descendant of the Golden Family, have you ever heard the story of the Mongolian ancestor Yalanhua?" ”

The Mongols had it that the ancestor Yalanhua had five sons who were at odds with each other, so they gave each of them an arrow to break easily. And he gave them a bundle of arrows, and they all broke them continuously, to show that unity is the strength of strength. How did Barak and China not know about this allusion? Listen to Li Zixin say it. Naturally I understood what he meant.

Li Zixin said again: "Kuten Khan and Altan Khan." All are Mongolian heroes. If they join forces, they can take the Central Plains Flower World realm, and retreat to protect the desert from the invasion of the False Ming. There are also fights between their uncles and nephews, but when it comes time to fight against the false truth, they should join forces. Not only is this the case with Alta and Kuteng, but also with my Sect Leader Zhao and this Shandong Su Xiang Master, how can this not be the case? Between our White Lotus Holy Sect and you Mongolian warriors. How is this not the case? is to ask everyone to fight among themselves, and wait until they defeat the puppet Ming Dynasty together. My old man's idea is to help you take this Jinan. But there is one thing, the seizure of Jinan is everyone's business, and everyone must move forward together. Just let the White Lotus members fight hard in the front, and the Mongolian warriors only watch from the back, this big thing can't be done. ”

This Li Zixin is worthy of being the No. 1 capable minister under Zhao Quan, and he can speak well. And Zhao Quan's party belongs to the grassroots rise in the White Lotus Sect, and in terms of judging the situation and execution, it has already relied on the old and sold the old Qi, Liu and others. Therefore, Li Zixin said. China and Bara couldn't help but nod their heads. Chi Na said: "Very good, Li Zixin." And thou sayest, What ought us to do? ”

Li Zixin smiled cruelly and said his plan.

On the sixteenth day, the White Lotus Sect Army, as always, continued to use the tactics of combining cannon shooting and disciples' climbing the city, and attacked the city of Jinan for a whole day, and collected the troops at dusk, but after nightfall, the right guards and horses of Jinan patrolling the city heard the movement under the city. When I hurriedly stretched out my head to look, I found that there was a group of people in the black press under the city who were tinkering with something.

Yan Hong was in the governor's yamen, and his hair stood up in shock when he heard the news. My God, are the White Lotus Cultists going to attack at night? He hurriedly summoned all the civil and military officials and a group of people from the Loyalty and Righteousness League. After everyone arrived, the people who led the troops were not too panicked, after all, the night attack certainly increased the unknowable factor to the defender, but for the attacker, it was actually more risky to touch the black siege.

Therefore, Zhang Qingyan only sent additional men to patrol the city, and Wei Guoliang and Qin Delu respectively arranged for their respective sergeants to be ready to attack at any time when they rested at night. Yun Chuqi specially transferred 4,000 people from two battalions that had never participated in the battle during the day to go to the city, guarded them tightly with lanterns and torches, and arranged two battalions as emergency teams, thinking that this should be fine.

After another hour, the general of the night patrol rushed to the yamen to report that he had found that the enemy troops were working in more than ten places outside the city wall overnight, and it seemed that they were digging up dirt and piling up mountains of earth. Yan Hong didn't dare to despise it, so he hurriedly went to see it with Sun Lie, Ziqing Shuangxia, Shao Jing and others. Walking down the city wall, another hour passed. Zhang Qingyan said violently: "It's not good, I'm afraid that the thieves want to attack the city through tunnels!" ”

Yan Hong said: "How is this good? Zhang Qingyan said: "Fortunately, the number of Ding Zhuang in the city is still sufficient, and he is not afraid of the method of attacking the city through tunnels." You only need to bury a cylinder every more than ten zhang in the city near the city circle to monitor the direction of the tunnel. In addition, Mr. Yun Chuqi was asked to transfer 5,000 people to line up along the foot of the inner city. The tunnels were not dug too quickly, he only used a few tunnels to dig through the city, and he was also surrounded and annihilated by our army and horses. After dawn, find out the direction of the enemy's tunnel, bring a large stone, and smash it down from the city, so that the tunnel can collapse, and the thief army who excavated the tunnel will die inside. ”

Yan Honglian said that it was wonderful, and hurriedly asked Yun Chu to get up and arrange it accordingly. praised on the other hand: "Woman Zhang's clever plan is like a god, and she can be described as Zhuge among women." Having to meet Zhang Nuxia in Jinan is the luck of Yan's three lives. ”

Zhang Qingyan listened to Yan Hong's meaningful and even ambiguous praise, his face turned red, and he stopped talking. Xia Zisu next to him was uncertain. Everyone patrolled for a while, and Yan Hong saw that the enemy army outside the city was nothing more than digging in the dark, and the city tentatively fired a few guns, listening to the sound of knocking down a few people, but it also failed to stop the White Lotus Sect from continuing to work. And the Minzhuang team on Yun Chuqi's side has been arranged. Yan Hong said in his heart, anyway, it will be tomorrow to start fighting, so he went back to the yamen to rest, just waiting for the next day to see if he can break the authentic Dafa of the White Lotus Sect.

In the early morning of the next day, Yan Hong got up, and suddenly heard a loud bang in the direction of the west of the city, which shook the teacups on Yan Hong's table slightly. Yan Hong's heart almost jumped out of his throat after him, and he had to get up and walk outside the yamen.

Fang ran to the door, only to see Liu Lian, the chief banner of the Jinyi Guard, rushing over, and said angrily: "Huhou, the big thing is not good, the White Lotus Sect uses gunpowder to attack the city, and the northwest section of the city wall is about to collapse!" (To be continued......)