Zhaoqing, Guangdong, known as Duanzhou in ancient times, was famous for producing Duanyan in the early years, and the ancient city wall of Zhaoqing is as old as Duanyan. The city wall of Zhaoqing was built in the early years of the Song Dynasty, Zhaoqing was the earthen city wall, and the Song Zhenghe three years (1113) expanded the earth city and built it as a brick city. Although the city wall has undergone more than 20 repairs in its history, the location of the city wall and the city gate has not changed.

Its city wall has a total of four gates: Song Chong in the east, Zhennan in the west, Duanxi in the south, and Chaotian in the north. There is one gate tower above the city gate, there is an urn city outside the four gates, there is one corner tower at each of the four corners of the city wall, and there is a moat outside the city. In the fifth year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1469), the prefect Li Pu thickened part of the city wall, and personally inscribed the stone plaque of the four gates, and changed the east gate to Qingyun, the west gate to Jingxing, the south gate to Nanxun, and the north gate to Chaotian. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has been repaired more than 10 times, among which the larger ones are: in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen (1614), Zhang Jingxin, the governor of Zhaoqing Prefecture, increased the height of the wall by 3.5 feet, and rebuilt 4 gates of the moon city. In the eighth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1651), the chief soldier Xu Erxian and the prefect Zhang Zhibi added 6 forts, 148 nest shops, 2 Shuicheng forts, demolished the houses near the city wall, and repaired the buildings.

The city wall of Zhaoqing is still well preserved in later generations, known as the Great Wall of Zhaoqing, but it is somewhat ridiculous that this city wall, which has been built for hundreds of years, has not played its real role in defending against enemies before this, but has blocked dozens of floods of the Xijiang River. Perhaps this time it will really play its role as a ward against the enemy, but sadly, this wall built by the Han people of the Song Dynasty was used by one group of Han Chinese as a defense against another group of Han Chinese.

On the Qingyun Tower at the East Gate, Jiang Zhongyuan, the new governor of Liangguang, stood at the head of the city in military uniform. His face was thin and cold, his gaze was firm and resolute, and his expression was calm and indifferent. Downstairs in the city. Groups of Zhaoqing people were busy reinforcing the city wall, surrounded by fierce Qing soldiers, and the shouting and scolding of Jiangxi accent and Hunan accent mixed with Cantonese begging for mercy came and went, which made Jiang Zhongyuan frown, and turned back to his brother Jiang Zhongjun and said: "Sue the generals of all departments, and be polite to the people who are loyal and helpful in the city." ”

Jiang Zhongjun is Jiang Zhongyuan's brother and has been following Jiang Zhongyuan to fight. Jiang Zhongyuan's other brother Jiang Zhongji died in the Battle of Hangzhou, but Jiang Zhongyuan's other two brothers, Jiang Zhongjun and Jiang Zhongshu, have been following Jiang Zhongyuan to fight until now, and their hands are also stained with the blood of the Taiping Army. Jiang Zhongjun has now been transferred to Guangdong as political envoy. It was Jiang Zhongyuan's right-hand man, he answered, turned his head and gave a few orders to several Qing army generals behind him, and several officers hurriedly turned around.

Jiang Zhongyuan sighed lightly. With a look of unbearability, he slowly recited: "I mourn this poor man who cultivates hard. Annuity is only enough to pay tithes. This year is no longer looking back, and the ravines are filled with white bones. But when the rich are worried, who will pity the poor for hunger? Once the poor are driven by hunger, how can the rich be in peace? ”

Liu Zhaolan, the prefect of Zhaoqing on the side, praised: "The people of Taiwan have compassion for the people and have great compassion, which is really a blessing for the people of the two Guangzhou. ”

Jiang Zhongyuan's face was still flat, and he just hummed lightly and said: "This official has been an official for eighteen years, and he has been a thief for eighteen years." But all thieves were good citizens in the past, and they only gathered people to rebel because they didn't have enough to eat. It's a big rebellion, but it's excusable. ”

Liu Zhaolan's face twitched, and she hurriedly said: "Lord Taiwan, be cautious, if such remarks reach the capital, some villains will inevitably use them to make some articles." ”

Jiang Zhongyuan sneered and said: "The state affairs are difficult, and the source is that there are too many corrupt people among the officials of my generation, and those corrupt people are all damned." ”

Liu Zhaolan was speechless for a while, and at this moment, Jiang Zhongyuan's other brother, Jiang Zhongshu, came quickly and reported loudly: "Lord Taiwan, my subordinates were ordered to inspect the case of the poster that appeared in the city last night, and a total of 52 criminals were found. ”

Jiang Zhongyuan snorted coldly and said, "You personally interrogate, and you must wipe out all the long hairy piles in the city." Jiang Zhongshu answered, and was about to leave, Jiang Zhongyuan said again: "Slow, you will also take the neighbors of the land of these fifty-two people, regardless of whether there is collusion with Changmao, and be punished for the crime of Longhair!" Young and old! ”

Jiang Zhongshu took the order loudly, Liu Zhaolan was taken aback by Jiang Zhongyuan's cold order, and said in a hesitant whisper: "Lord Taiwan, there may be good people in the neighborhood......"

Jiang Zhongyuan raised his hand to interrupt his words and said: "This is how the official acts, this is called killing a hundred people, maybe this time some people will be wronged, but their death has given the people of the whole city a wake-up call, and the official wants to let those long hairs have nothing to hide!" ”

Liu Zhaolan was stunned, but she still bowed her head and praised her kindness, but she couldn't help but think in her heart, this Jiang Da is sympathetic to the suffering of the people, but he is ruthless in the matter of suppressing thieves, no wonder he can still stand for eighteen years, and his official position is getting bigger and bigger, which is indeed outstanding.

Jiang Zhongyuan inspected the deployment of the city wall at the east gate, and saw that the pheasant moat inside and outside the city wall, the traffic inside and outside the ditch, the dense layers, and the fortifications were in order, so he nodded with satisfaction and said to Liu Zhaolan: "Lord Liu's errand is done well, the east gate blocked the attack of Changmao last time, and it has been repaired in such a short period of time, which is indeed rare." ”

Liu Zhaolan heard the praise of her boss, and hurriedly said humbly: "This is also the reason why the master of the Taiwan system is in command in a good way, and the subordinate officials dare not take credit." ”

Jiang Zhongyuan snorted, his brows furrowed as if he was very disgusted by this compliment, and then said: "The city wall should be arranged with more blankets, straw pillows, net mats and other things, the long-haired artillery is sharp, and these objects can be used to bounce off the shells at the head of the city, and our artillery must be withdrawn and deployed, when the battle starts, we only need to be able to hit the city and injure its foot soldiers, and we must not expose our artillery positions as soon as the battle starts." At the head of the city, there will be more water and sediment in the Bois tank to prevent the long-haired cannonballs from igniting the fire......"

Jiang Zhongyuan and the Taiping Army and other rebel armies fought for 18 years, and the defense of the city is indeed very set, Zhaoqing under his guard, is clearly layered, there is a great legacy of Hao Zhao of the Three Kingdoms in the past to guard Chencang, all kinds of situations can be imagined. He even set up barricades in various streets and houses in the city, and even if the city wall was breached, he could still fight street battles with the Taiping army.

After talking about the deployment of the city defense, Jiang Zhongyuan looked at the city from afar, and there were dense Taiping soldiers on the banks of the east and west rivers of the city, and they came to the shore and began to take a boat to the west bank to reinforce the frontline camp of the Taiping army, and couldn't help frowning and said: "It seems that Changmao has begun to increase his troops again." ”

Jiang Zhongjun said: "Yesterday, the horses were returned, and the long-haired soldiers from Foshan, Yangjiang, Jiangmen and other places began to come to Zhaoqing, with about tens of thousands of people. ”

Jiang Zhongyuan sighed lightly and said: "When Li Xiucheng played the horse pistol under Nanchang City, how many soldiers and horses did he have in his hands? Now he has entered the land of Kou Guangyue by land and water, with tens of thousands of elite soldiers on land and water, supplemented by more than 100,000 training in the Xiangyong Regiment, and countless warships and artillery, this battle is very difficult. ”

Jiang Zhongjun's heart suddenly, the eldest brother had never said such frustrating words in the face of the long-haired puppet Dongwang's so-called million-strong army besieging Nanchang, but today he said so, could it be that he still had no certainty of victory in the face of the long-haired elite Xidian army?

Jiang Zhongyuan looked at the generals around him who were a little discolored, and couldn't help but smile and said: "This governor shouldn't say such frustrating words, Zhaoqing is the gateway to western Guangdong, where the throat is, there is no room for mistakes, this governor personally sits here with the idea of co-living and dying with Zhaoqing, and the princes are also trying their best to move forward, and let Changmao know that we are waiting for a lot!" The generals claimed that they would continue to strengthen the city defenses, encourage the soldiers, and wait for the rest of the day.

At the same time, Li Xiucheng also took a group of generals of the Taiping Army to stand on the east bank of the Xijiang River and overlook Zhaoqing City in the west, looking at the figure of the Qing army who was busy at the head of the city, the entire Zhaoqing City was really well defended, Li Xiucheng got off the tall Western war horse, and the horse whip pointed at Xijiang and said: "When will the engineer battalion start to build a pontoon bridge?" If the pontoon bridge is not built, the artillery team will not be able to cross the river. ”

Zhang Wenxiang said on the side: "Jiang Zhongyuan's gang is extremely cunning, at first our department had built three pontoon bridges, but later because of the lack of troops, this guy stole out of the west of the city, put down the fireboat in the upper reaches of the Xijiang River, and then led troops to raid and burn the pontoon bridge. ”

Li Xiucheng sighed and said: "Now that our troops are sufficient, teach all departments to lay mines in Zhaoqing's four gates, I want to see how they can steal out of the city!" After the pontoon bridge is built and the artillery team crosses the river, I don't believe that the Zhaoqing city wall can still block the cannons! ”

After Li Xiucheng led the first and second divisions of the Taiping Army and the auxiliary corps of the township soldiers attached to it, in the face of absolute strength, what he wanted was a simple and rude way of attack. After the arrival of the Taiping army, all they needed to do was to transport the cannons across the Xijiang River, and then set up the cannons to collapse the city wall of Zhaoqing, and then they could drive straight in.

Of course, Li Xiucheng may have thought too simply, but his mind changed after receiving the last flying pigeon from Bai Zetang's secret agent in the city, and he learned from Bai Zetan's secret agent that the Qing army had built the entire Zhaoqing City into a fortress, and Jiang Zhongyuan was ready to fight in the streets.

After reading this bloody information, Li Xiucheng fell into deep thought, Zhaoqing must be conquered, but there may be huge casualties, what can be done to minimize the casualties? Will Zhaoqing be besieged to death, and wait until the day when the ammunition is exhausted? The Taiping army didn't have so many troops and time to play with Jiang Zhongyuan. Do you really want to use artillery to flatten the whole of Zhaoqing? This seems to be too inhumane to the people of the city.

After thinking about it, Li Xiucheng finally decided to lay the city wall first, and then within a few days, the huge Taiping army transport troops continued to transport all kinds of material resources to Zhaoqing, and the pontoon bridge was also built, because the Taiping army had sufficient troops, the four gates of Zhaoqing were completely guarded, and the Qing army failed to go out of the city to sneak attack, but was greeted by the mines laid outside the city.

Seven days later, Yiqiē was ready, and the two sides were ready to launch an unusually tragic battle in Zhaoqing City. (To be continued......)