For the Taiping Army, the 300,000 people of Wu'an are no strangers.

As early as August, there was news from Longshan Mansion that it was the Taiping bandit army that was in rebellion. However, the vast majority of people didn't put this matter at ease, and even when it was attacked in Longshan Mansion, they didn't care too much. It wasn't until the thief army set out from Shouchuan, the western gateway of the county town, and marched towards Wu'an, that these people finally panicked.

Many things, only by seeing them with their own eyes, can they be touched most strongly.

300,000 thieves surrounded Wu'an!

Even the oldest old man in Wu'an has never experienced this scene in his memory. The rebellion of the Smelling Fragrance Sect a few decades ago was loud enough, right? It still didn't affect this side. But today, at last, they have encountered something they have only heard of in the mouths of storytellers. But this time, no one could laugh out loud.

The vast majority of the upper-class nobles have enough understanding of the military strength of the empire, but they can still calm down, and they don't think that the thieves can break through Wu'an. Ordinary people, who had little eyesight, suddenly fell into an unprecedented panic under the influence of various rumors.

This atmosphere even spread to the heavenly prison in Wu'an City.

As the county seat of Taiping County, Wu'an had two prisons. One of the largest western prisons mainly houses some local ordinary criminals. The other prison, which is only one-fifth the size of the former, is responsible for holding some of the most heinous death row prisoners, felons who are inconvenient to hold in the local area for various reasons, or prisoners of particularly noble status.

In the case of the former, both the conditions and the intensity of the guards are very average, and it is easy for ordinary people to visit the prison. The prison is different, it is extremely tightly guarded. Even if the rebel army is besieging the city now, when the military strength is needed most, there are still fifty guards here.

At first glance, it seems that this place is still heavily guarded, but Yuan Xingwei can clearly feel it. The dungeon is far less well guarded than before.

The most obvious evidence is that there are two fewer jailers on patrol, and the interval is much longer.

"It's quite unusual......

Sitting in a cell on the innermost floor of the prison, he was wearing a brown cotton robe, shaking the folding fan in his hand, and fell into thought.

Although the conditions of the heavenly prison are much better than those of the ordinary western prison. But it's still cooler than a normal house. In addition, it is already the beginning of November, and this folding fan can be thrown more than a month ago. I don't know if it's because of the so-called elegance, Yuan Xingwei was stunned and didn't want to lose it.

If it weren't for his identity as one of Qian Boming's former staff, he was not comparable to ordinary prisoners, I am afraid that he would have been scolded as a psychopath by the cell boss who brought him food.

Yuan Xingwei didn't care about the strange eyes of the jailer and the cell boss.

Anyway, they are all dying people, so why do you care so much, who likes to think and think. He's behind bars now. There is no help, and that's all there is to care about.

For example, you can eat the pork belly of the chef of Meiyulou every day.

This is undoubtedly too extravagant for a prisoner, but many prisoners in the prison are different. With his identity as Yuan Xingwei, this request is really not difficult. At least when he proposed it earlier, Qian Boming didn't embarrass him at all. Even though the cell boss was unhappy and red-eyed, he faced the orders of the governor himself. I can only run obediently once a day.

As for another thing, it is Yuan Xingwei's own life.

Why isn't it dead yet!

Others care. It's all about how to make himself live longer, but Yuan Xingwei is idle, but what he is sitting in prison is studying why he is not dead!

Don't get me wrong, it's not that he has no love in the world, but because he knows too many things, and he has helped Qian Boming do a lot of shady things. Thereupon. When a dog can't use it, the end is naturally cooked. Yuan Xingwei had to be glad that he did not participate in some confidential affairs, otherwise he was afraid that it would not be the autumn queen who would have beheaded him, but he would have fallen into the well and drowned after drinking. Or simply fall ill and die.

No matter how he died, Yuan Xingwei knew that he was doomed. No one could save him, and no one dared to save him. This can be clearly illustrated by the fact that none of his previous good colleagues dared to visit the prison.

Qian Boming wants to let a person die, who dares to be disobedient?

The Lin family has that ability, but how can they stand up for themselves for no reason.

It is precisely because he knows his fate that Yuan Xingwei is strange. According to the practice of the dynasty, Qian Boming sentenced himself to a post-autumn beheading, and basically he could die in October. It's been almost a month, and I'm still alive and well, but Qian Boming didn't even ask.

It's like forgetting about him!

When did Qian Boming's patience become so good?

Not only him, but the other prisoners in the prison seem to have changed at all in recent times. Combined with the fact that at least half of the prison guards had been transferred, coupled with the recent abnormalities of the jailers and cell heads, Yuan Xingwei instinctively felt that something important had happened.

Taking advantage of the jailer's routine patrol once a day, Yuan Xingwei finally couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked.

"You ask what happened in Wu'an City recently?" The jailer and Yuan Xingwei were also acquaintances, and when he saw that the former governor's staff, who had been quiet since he was imprisoned, spoke, he was bored and said: "Our county has really not been peaceful recently, as for the big thing, does Wu'an City being surrounded by an army of 300,000 thieves count?" ”

Smack!

Yuan Xingwei's baby folding fan fell to the ground.

On weekdays, he will definitely be very distressed, and immediately pick it up and pat it off the dust. But this time, Yuan Xingwei really couldn't take care of it, and was stunned by the jailer's words.

300,000 thieves besieged Wu'an?

"When I was imprisoned at the end of July, wasn't Taiping still peaceful? It's only been a little over three months since this full fight, why did there suddenly become 300,000 more thieves? ”

Yuan Xingwei couldn't believe it, he felt that the other party must be joking with him.

"Don't believe me?"

The jailer glanced at him and shook his head, "I think it's a little strange too, but it's true. In August, the Taiping bandits made trouble, and successively fought Yicheng, Lushan, Linxian, and Longshan, and broke the official army several times, Ding Ziming was killed in battle, and the general of the Lin family's protector army was also defeated and captured. Now that Wu'an is in a mess outside, if you want me to say, maybe this Qianyuan ...... Hum! ”

Halfway through what he said, he looked left and right, probably consciously lost his words, changed a little song, and left humming.

Only Yuan Xingwei was left lying alone in front of the fence of the prison, dazed.

Ding Ziming, the brigade commander of the Second Garrison Brigade, died in battle!

Even Lin Anluo's guy was caught by thieves!

The world is changing too fast. If Yuan Xingwei hadn't been convinced that he had only been in prison for three months, it would not be surprising to say that he had been imprisoned for a year or two based on these changes alone. It's no wonder that Qian Boming didn't have the heart to pay attention to himself, it turned out that there was such a monstrous chaos in Taiping County.

In just a few months, even the county town was besieged. This gang of thieves can be said to be an unprecedented giant bandit in the three hundred years of the dynasty!

If, Wu'an City is breached......

Yuan Xingwei's heart moved, and he suddenly found that he had a little more things to care about.

………

November 2nd.

From the drought in early summer to the present, this is the first time that Taiping County has ushered in a cloudy day.

Finally seeing the hope of rain, all the people of Taiping County held their breath. The officers and troops at the head of Wu'an City were even more eager for heavy rain for three days and three nights, so that the thieves would not be able to take the opportunity to attack the city, and the half-dry moat would also be filled and become much more difficult to fill.

But alas, the weather is just cloudy.

According to a believer in the Good Friends Association who knows a little about celestial phenomena, he will not be able to get up in the next two or three days.

This is undoubtedly a rare opportunity for the coalition forces of the rebel army. In case it really rains heavily after a long drought, it will be much more difficult to attack the city. Therefore, it is better to choose a day than to hit the day.

Tens of thousands of displaced people captured from the vicinity of Wu'an were driven to the front of the battle in droves.

Although it was decided to attack the southern city wall, whether it was the siege plan previously formulated or in order to disperse the forces of the official army, the coalition forces needed to fill the river on three fronts at the same time.

As they had done in the city of Long Mountain, the displaced people were driven with weapons by the men of the Volunteer Battalion and the New Barracks, carrying bags of heavy sand and running towards the section of the moat that had been marked by the Righteous Army. Everyone was promised that as long as they filled up the three sandbags, the day's mission would be completed. Not only can you go back to rest, but you can also eat dinner that is comparable to the treatment of a boot camp.

Obviously, compared with the city of Longshan, the conditions set by the coalition this time are more stringent.

This is also something that cannot be helped, the scale of Wu'an's moat is far greater than that of Longshan. Even if the drought is now, the entire process of filling the river will still take at least two days - this is already the fastest speed that Chen Wu estimated.

"The thieves have begun to fill the river!"

At the head of Wu'an City, a large number of officers and soldiers who were waiting for the battle were ready to move.

Kang He, who personally went to the city to watch the battle, had no mercy for the people around Wu'an who were driven and besieged by the thief army. As early as a week ago, when the thieves had just arrived in Shouchuan, the government had already sent a notice to the people of the nearby villages, and later sent people to move them into the city. Those who are really willing to listen to the government have basically been placed in Wu'an City. Now the people in the city are not the original 300,000, but close to 400,000!

As for those who refuse to obey, let them die.

Coldly watching the progress of the thieves in the city, Kang He nodded to the guards beside him.

The order to attack was given.

Under the supervision of the captains of the officers and soldiers, the bed crossbow and stone thrower that had already been adjusted were launched together. A large number of crossbow arrows and stone bullets, like fairies scattering flowers, fell into the densest places of the crowd, causing a great deal of damage to these poor people who were driven to fill the river.

Almost immediately, there was a wailing and groaning from the city.

Many officers and soldiers couldn't bear to look at the tragic situation, but the military orders were like a mountain. No one dares to hesitate to reload and shoot mechanically!

Although the people under the city have been asked by the coalition forces to deliberately disperse, under the astonishing firepower of Wu'an City, they still suffered heavy casualties in a short period of time and fell into collapse. (To be continued......)