The next day, October 19.

After joining up with the Yiwu camp that came from Anxi, the righteous army marched to the city of Quanzhou and surrounded the four main gates in the four directions of the city.

At the same time, 12 falcon cannons were also transported to the famous mountain Qingyuan Mountain, and artillery positions were deployed on the mountainside, aiming at the city shaped like a carp from afar.

Su Yan also led the general guards to climb Qingyuan Mountain, which was later defined as a 5A-level scenic spot of the famous mountain with beautiful scenery, and the Laojun Rock, which was built in the Song Dynasty, was not so weathered and covered with moss in later generations.

Although Su Yan did not believe in Taoism, out of respect for Lao Tzu, he still paid homage in front of Laojun Rock, and then turned over and looked at the bustling port city in the distance condescendingly.

"Quanzhou, after more than 300 years, we meet again."

Su Yan muttered in a low voice, his eyes searched inside and outside the city walls, as if he wanted to find those places in his memory, but three hundred years of vicissitudes had already turned the city upside down.

"Go down the mountain, let's go to meet with the prefect and general who are guarding the city."

After Su Yan finished speaking, he took the lead in riding down the mountain, and when he came down the mountain to the outside of Quanzhou City, it was already very lively, and countless soldiers returned to the camp shirtless, carrying the nearby felled trees, and built a large-scale siege camp outside Quanzhou City.

In addition to Su Yan leading the Chinese military camp and the Shenji battalion to sit in the West Gate Yicheng Gate, the South Gate of the South Gate Town, the North Gate Chaotianmen, and the East Gate Renfeng Gate each have a battalion responsible for the siege, of which the south gate of the town and the southeast Tonghuai Gate and the southwest Linzhang Gate and the South Xun Gate are all facing Jinjiang, and there is no wide place for a battalion of soldiers and horses to be stationed outside a stone's throw away, so the mighty battalion commanded by Chen Shitai is only camped outside the Tonghuai Gate.

Quanzhou City was so big that Su Yan's 6,000 men could not surround the entire city at all, and he could only use the four main city gates in the southeast, northwest, and east as the main direction of attack.

At the same time that the rebels were in full swing to set up a siege camp outside Quanzhou, in the countryside around Quanzhou, because of the propaganda of the rebel cavalry, many people who were still concerned about the former Ming Dynasty picked up all kinds of utensils that could be used as weapons, bid farewell to their families, and walked to Quanzhou City in twos and threes.

Until the evening of the 19th, the besieging camps everywhere received anti-Qing people from all over the world, and Su Yan had no way to distinguish the Qing spies among them, so he could only break them up and not allow them to move around the camp at will.

Of course, this is a later matter, Su Yan, who had just come down from Qingyuan Mountain, after patrolling the camp, sent a messenger to shout to the city.

"Listen to the soldiers in the city!" The guards in charge of shouting were not afraid of the cold arrows that might fly at any time, stopped outside the moat, and shouted: "Our army has come to the city, dozens of Hongyi cannons are aimed at the city wall, the cannon sounds, erosion for several miles, and the lives are ruined, persuade you to open the city and surrender as soon as possible, leaving a life, otherwise, our army will attack the city, and you will die without a place to be buried!" ”

The Qing army commander on the city wall was unmoved, he spat on the ground and scolded:

"Country thief, so daring! How dare you bark and fire arrows here! ”

Whoosh –

The messenger kept an eye on the movements of the Qing soldiers on the city wall, and when he saw that they raised their bow-wielding hands, they hurriedly raised their shields to block their chests, blocking the arrows flying towards them, and then they turned around and galloped towards the camp.

……

At the same time, Quanzhou Yacheng.

"Lord Shen, how is the gathering of the villagers in the city?"

Dressed in a military uniform, Li Qi, the remaining Quanzhou staff general, asked Shen Wei, the prefect of Quanzhou, Shen Wei wiped the sweat on his forehead and said: "General Li, although this official ordered to recruit brave and strong men in the city and countryside yesterday to assist in defending the city, there are few responders, and so far, less than 500 people have responded. ”

"Don't you know that after the thieves come in, they will also attack them?" Li Qi scolded hatefully.

"This ......" Before Shen Wei could speak, the master bookkeeper on the side interjected: "General Li, do you know, the people in the city are rumored that the thieves came here just to kill the people, and they will also exempt the people's heads, so the people don't have much resistance to the thieves......"

Hearing him say this, Li Qi was speechless for a while, he paused, and then said: "What about those gentry in the city, I heard that the so-called policy of apportioning the land into the mu implemented by the thieves is to raise taxes on them, don't they have a little reaction?" ”

"Every family in the city has made up a little bit, about 300 families, but those families are not reliable, I think once the city is lost, the thieves have made progress, they are only afraid to run faster than rabbits." Shen Wei said helplessly.

The reason why only such a few people were gathered was because after the Qing army entered Fujian, in order to prevent these gentry and big families from threatening the place, they forcibly disbanded a lot, and only kept a few families.

Li Qi also thought of this, and he also looked helpless, and said: "That's it, these people are better than nothing, please Lord Shen continue to recruit village warriors, and I will go to the city to inspect first." ”

Out of the Yacheng, Li Qi and his personal soldiers rode horses and walked on the streets of the inner city (Zicheng), most of the people living in the inner city were rich officials and nobles, and the streets here did not feel the solemnity of the arrival of the war, and there were still many people walking on the streets shouting and buying.

The further you go, the fewer pedestrians there are on the streets, and passing through the drum tower rebuilt from the original gate of the inner city, the common people on the streets of Luocheng are all hurrying to their homes.

Although most of them were not worried that the rebels outside the city would attack them, the sword had no eyes in the war, and the rebels still had artillery in their hands, so if the artillery coming in from outside hit them, it would be unlucky.

Passing through the gradually empty streets, Li Qi finally came to the head of the city, and he inspected the four main gates of the city, south, east, and west, encouraging the soldiers who defended the city, telling them that as long as they continued to hold on, the army of the imperial court would soon arrive.

Although he didn't have a bottom in his heart when he said this, his "white lie" still played a role, and the morale of the Qing soldiers was boosted a lot, and they were full of confidence in defending the city.

There was no fighting on the first day.

Both the attackers and defenders were preparing for the next day's battle, and the Qing soldiers in the city sent large quantities of ordnance and ammunition to the city to wipe the artillery on the city walls.

Before the end of the first day, Su Yan convened a military meeting again and set the tone for the first few days of the offensive - first bombarding the city with artillery, destroying as much Qing artillery as possible on the city, and then letting the infantry attack.

And in the course of a few days, the infantry only needed to build siege equipment in the siege camp.

Su Yan did not plan to contact the internal response of the south gate as soon as he came up, and after first destroying the morale of the Qing army through artillery bombardment, it was not too late to attack.