In the current city of Laizhou, the Ming army and young people who defended have reached more than 20,000 people. The two governors Xu Congzhi and Xie Lian, plus the four officials of Laizhou Governor Zhu Wannian and the general soldier Yang Yufan respectively presided over the guarding of a city gate, which made the morale in the city quite high.

Moreover, the preparations of Zhu Wannian, the prefect of Laizhou, are quite in place, the grain and grass, ordnance and materials for defending the city are sufficient, facing more than 30,000 rebels outside the city, in the eyes of ordinary people, it should be said that it is more than enough to defend the city.

Not really. Unlike the impregnable city of Dengzhou, the terrain of Laizhou City is not very dangerous. Moreover, Laizhou City is a new city that was rebuilt in the 26th year of Wanli, its city wall is three zhang and five feet high, the base is two zhang and four feet thick, and there are four city gates. Under the city is a moat, two zhang deep and four zhang wide.

It is also because of the guidance of Sun Yuanhua, a firearms expert, that the construction of Laizhou City refers to the Western city construction method, and there are forts. Moreover, as another logistics base in Liaodong, the city has sufficient grain, grass and weapons.

However, the disadvantage is that there are fewer heavy firearms, most of which are light artillery produced by the Ming Dynasty, and there are not many soldiers who know how to operate artillery. In contrast, the artillery of the rebels outside the city had been trained by Portuguese officers before the rebellion, and the artillery was particularly accurate. Especially for stationary targets, bombarding the battlements of the city wall is as easy as shooting a target.

In order to attack Laizhou City, the rebels brought almost all the Hongyi artillery and bombarded Laizhou City from all sides. The power of this artillery was so powerful that the Ming army standing on the city of Laizhou could hardly raise its head.

Knowing the power of artillery, the rebels thought that the Ming army in the city must have lost the courage to defend the city, so they began to fill in the moat and prepare to transport siege equipment.

But what I didn't expect was that when the rebels who filled the moat just approached the city wall, there would always be a large number of Ming troops on the seemingly empty city wall. Under the fire of the Ming army's guns and bows and arrows, a large number of casualties were inflicted on the rebels. And after so many times, the rebels also understood that they had despised the willpower of the defenders in Laizhou City.

So the rebels, who had suffered a small setback in the first battle, rested for a while. They divided their troops to conquer Pingdu and then returned to attack Laizhou. And the looting in Pingdu also boosted the morale of the entire rebel army. What's even more strange is that the number of rebels attacking the city is also increasing. Seeing that the rebels were strong, nearby bandits and homeless people came to join one after another. The number of rebels attacking the city soon exceeded 40,000, and they were pushing towards the figure of 50,000.

The rebels also summed up the reasons for the unfavorable first siege. They decided to concentrate their firepower and put all the artillery fire on the northeast corner of the city. Under the cover of artillery fire, the rebels kept digging tunnels to attack the city.

In this regard, the defenders of the city also took the right position. After placing vats at intervals along the walls of the city so that the blind could hear the direction of the tunnels, the defenders poured water into the tunnels and drowned the enemy soldiers. Who says that blind people are useless in war?

But the rebels were not discouraged at all. The rebels again sent troops to dig tunnels around the city, dug large holes, filled coffins with gunpowder and placed them in them, and set them on fire, and the city walls were blown down several feet after the explosion.

But when the rebels swarmed through the gap in the city wall, the prepared defenders poured boiling oil on the influx of rebels, and then threw torches, and the rebels died in the flames. And Xu Congzhi and the others ordered people to throw sandbags that had been prepared for haode to plug the gap.

And the defenders of Laizhou City are not only passively beaten, the defenders are also extremely mobile and flexible, in the night, Xu Congzhi and others sent death squads out of the city quietly, attacked from several directions, destroyed a number of rebel artillery, and quite a success.

And at this time, Peng Youmo, the general of the Shenji Battalion who arrived from Beijing, did not fear the enemy in Qingzhou like his colleagues. He took more than 300 officers and soldiers of the Shenji Battalion, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, to decisively follow the gap in the rebel encirclement outside the city and rush into the city of Laizhou.

Such a first reinforcement made the city a great morale boost. More importantly, Peng Youmo brought firearms experts from the Shenji Battalion. They strengthened and improved the jishu of the artillery and improved the level of artillery operation of the defenders. As a result, the artillery fire in the city gradually suppressed the artillery fire of the rebels.

Later, in a sneak attack by the rebels at night, the general Peng Youmo led his troops to repel three successive attacks by the rebels. For the first time, the balance of victory and defeat tilted in favor of the Ming army in Laizhou City.

And when the military and civilians were fighting bloody battles in Laizhou City, the war of words between the two factions in the court to appease the officials of the two factions also became more and more intense.

And Sun Yuanhua, who was captured at that time, once knew the benefits and disadvantages of Kong Youde and other rebel generals, and was clear about righteousness. In the face of Sun Yuanhua's persuasion, Kong Youde expressed a change of heart and asked for Zhao'an's attitude.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was still inclined to recruit An. Because of the civil uprisings in various parts of the Ming Dynasty at that time, there were Houjin troops besieging Dalinghe City outside the pass. The entire imperial court is using money everywhere, and the army is also stretched. If you can recruit security, then at least you can alleviate the current predicament.

In addition, the officials of this faction led by the first assistant Zhou Yanru, in order to keep their official positions and rescue Sun Yuanhua's cronies, they also tried their best to advocate recruiting peace for the rebels. In the end, the official position of the first assistant is big, so in the court, the opinion of appeasement prevails. Therefore, the imperial court also agreed that Sun Yuanhua would be appeased with guilt.

But then, the unthinkable happened again. Wang Daochun, the governor of Shandong, actually hid the edict privately, and the rebels resumed the rebellion on the grounds that they could not be recruited for a long time.

And Sun Yuanhua painstakingly persuaded the rebels once again to let him return to the court to state the truth. But when Sun Yuanhua returned to Beijing, Wang Daochun sent troops to attack the rebels, causing the rebels to attack Laizhou, and the chaos expanded.

In later history, some historians pointed out that if it were not for Wang Daochun's unauthorized actions. Maybe Sun Yuanhua's recruitment will be successful. Nor will this situation reach the unmanageable situation that followed.

In their view, the rebellion of Kong Youde's rebels seems to be largely to blame for Wang Daochun's perfidy. And Sun Yuanhua's later death was completely wronged.

On the face of it, there seems to be some truth in what these historians say. You can take a look at the words on Wang Daochun's recital.

"The thief is fooling me, one stroke and six cities fall, and then Dengzhou is dead, three strokes and Huang County is lost, and now four strokes and Laizhou is besieged. Our army has suffered repeated setbacks, and can An resume the war? Beggar to send an army quickly to save this dangerous land. ”

For the rebels, who have made treachery commonplace, what reason does Wang Daochun have to believe in their promise to accept appeasement?

In the author's opinion, Kong Youde and their request for the court's appeasement is most likely to be a delaying tactic. When the rebels are ready, they will definitely rebel again. The ambitions of this careerist have risen, and they still think that they will rein in their ambitions again?

But on the other hand, Wang Daochun's behavior of disobeying the imperial decree and hiding the edict without permission should also be lashed. No matter how correct Wang Daochun's personal approach is, he should not disobey the decrees of the imperial court. This is what the modern saying "retains personal opinions, but resolutely obeys the organization."

You know, it may be that the truth is indeed on the side of the individual few. But in the vast majority of cases, the officials at the bottom have a narrow perspective, and what he thinks is right is also partial. The imperial court often considers the overall situation. What is right in the whole world may be wrong in the whole world. And this happens all the time.

If they all follow the opinions of the people below, then how to ensure the smooth flow of the imperial court's decrees? So from this incident, it can be seen how chaotic the transmission and implementation of the decrees of the Ming Dynasty were at that time!

So in this way, the recitals of Sun Yuanhua and Wang Daochun made the controversy in the entire court chaotic.

The officials who advocated appeasement said: It was Wang Daochun's actions of these officials who disobeyed the imperial decree that led to the unsuccessful appeasement of the rebels. As long as the appropriate officials are sent to appease again, it should be possible to achieve the success of the appeasement.

The official who advocated encirclement and suppression said: The rebels have repeatedly rebelled twice and three times, showing the rebels' wolf ambitions. Therefore, we should give up the illusion of appeasing the rebels, mobilize a large army, and wipe out the rebels who were in the heart of the Ming Dynasty's interior.

However, because Zhou Yanru's primary political enemy, Wen Tiren, remained silent, those officials who advocated encirclement and suppression were not well organized because they were leaderless. Therefore, under the unanimous words of the officials who advocated appeasement, Emperor Chongzhen once again leaned towards appeasement and sent officials to appease the rebels.

At this time, the imperial court sent Zhang Guochen, the highest-ranking Liao civil official, to recruit Fu, and Zhang Guochen was once again bewitched by the rebels' fraudulent surrender, and he ordered the soldiers and civilians in Laizhou City and reinforcements from all walks of life not to go to war without authorization, so as not to destroy the Fuzhou.

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