Hearing Wang Congyi's words, Yang Guodong could only helplessly say: "Governor, there are forty or fifty thousand rebels in Jinan Mansion, if we want to divide our troops into two places, we only have more than 60,000 people in one place, and we have to divide our troops to protect logistics, which is too risky."

Wang Congyi can see it, he can naturally see it, but there is no way, the guards under them are not at all useless, when there are many people, it is okay, at least there is an advantage in troops, if the troops are divided, I am afraid that even the safety of the canal cannot be guaranteed.

"Then we can't watch the rebels sit big, right?"

Wang Congyi gritted his teeth, only hated himself for taking over such a mess, no food and no soldiers, how to quell the rebellion?

"We will first control the canal, and then we will go to the imperial court and ask the imperial court to send more troops."

Yang Guodong said in a deep voice: "When the time comes, we exaggerate the strength of the rebels, and the imperial court will definitely send more troops."

Originally, the imperial court was also ready to mobilize the soldiers and horses of Nanzhili, but after the canal was cut off, the imperial court was worried that there would be problems in the rich land of Jiangnan, so it did not transfer troops from Nanzhili, but transferred the soldiers and horses of Shanxi.

"Alas!"

Wang Congyi sighed: "I'm afraid that the imperial court won't give us such a long time."

If you want to completely control the canal, it will take at least two or three months, the army to attack the city is not to say that all the soldiers rushed over like a swarm to attack the city, the siege needs a lot of equipment, now the army only in the previous three or four months in Cangzhou to build the river crossing flying bridge, wooden mantle chariot, ballista, flying hook and other small equipment, such as the door hammer, rushing car, ladder and other large siege equipment have to be built on the spot.

Unless there is no other action on the Jinan side in the past two or three months, those opponents in the court will definitely impeach him, and those people will not take into account the overall situation, and they can kick him out and will never let him go.

After all, the counterinsurgency is very profitable, so much money and food, a little brains are a lot of benefits, more importantly, Shandong is not the kind of poor place in Liaodong, this side is very rich, you can also find gentry from all over the country to raise donations, you can make hundreds of thousands of taels of silver casually, there are not a few people who are tempted, it is estimated that the reinforcements have not yet arrived, and the holy decree of asking for sins will arrive first.

"It's the best option."

Yang Guodong just said a word, and then kept silent.

After resting for a day, the army moved again, because Linqingzhou was not far from Dongchangfu, so this time the army did not continue to take another boat.

………

Dongchang Mansion.

On the wall of the north gate, Tang Xiangjin and the others looked at the army winding in the distance, and everyone's faces were solemn.

"Lao Liang, are you ready to defend the city?"

Tang Xiangjin said in a deep voice, in addition to the soldiers, the more important thing to defend the city is the materials for defending the city, bows and arrows, rolling wood and stones, gunpowder and other materials for defending the city, Dongchang Mansion is surrounded by lakes on all sides, and the enemy is not afraid of digging tunnels, the other party wants to attack the city, only a frontal attack.

"These things are ready."

Liang Ping nodded and said, "As long as the other party is not attacking the city for a long time, these things will be enough for one or two years."

Speaking of this, Liang Ping paused: "But what should those wealthy families in the city do now? These people are all hidden dangers." ….

Hearing Liang Ping's words, Tang Xiangjin's brows also furrowed, after taking Dongchang Mansion, they also exterminated the two largest wealthy families in the city in the name of helping Jiang Renxi, but the others only let the other party hand over the name, but there were no big officials in the city at that time, and the name vote just killed some sesame petty officials, and this kind of name was useless at all.

Now that the imperial army is attacking, these people have become an unstable factor, but it is not possible to kill them directly, according to Su Hao's meaning, the attitude towards these wealthy families is not to win over or target, unless someone is willing to take the initiative to take refuge.

Now their general trend has not been achieved, they can't fight against all the wealthy families in the world, and those who can become a wealthy family are basically local clans, and there are many clansmen, if they kill too much, they will definitely make other wealthy rabbits die and be sad, and at that time, if they want to attack other cities, they have to face the desperate resistance of these wealthy families.

Don't underestimate these wealthy families, these people have a very high status in the clan, and they can call on hundreds of family members at will, plus there are many tenant farmers under them, and they can easily pull up one or two thousand people.

If it weren't for these wealthy families, how could they hold so many big cities with only those guards, there are nine guards and ten guards in Shandong, and there are more than 50,000 people in full, but now one-third is considered to be more, and one or two thousand guards in a city can defend a fart!

If there is no help from these wealthy families, then only those prefects and county officials, how can they have such a high prestige, and thousands of townships will be recruited to defend the city in ten days and half a month.

This led to Xu Hongru's inability to seize some big cities, only to occupy some small counties, there were no heavy cities to defend, and his soldiers and horses were not elite, it can be said that Xu Hongru was not defeated in the hands of the imperial court, but in the hands of these wealthy families.

Therefore, Su Hao's attitude is very clear, as long as he submits a petition and draws a clear line with the imperial court, then he can live with peace of mind, but this time there are no big officials left in Dongchang Mansion, only some small sesame officials, and those wealthy families may not be willing to stay honestly.

"Send more people to keep an eye on it."

After thinking for a moment, Tang Xiangjin shook his head and said, "These people can't be killed casually, otherwise it will be difficult to attack other cities in the future."

After a pause, Tang Xiangjin's voice became cold: "But if those people dare to make any changes, they will be killed!"

Hearing Tang Xiangjin's words, Liang Ping nodded.

It didn't take long for the imperial army to form a formation and slowly approach, and then stopped a few hundred feet from the city wall, while on the other side of the canal, a large number of soldiers began to build camps.

In the Central Military Department, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong looked at the heavily guarded city wall with grim expressions.

"General Yang, do you want to try the siege?"

Wang Congyi asked, if you don't try to attack the city, it will be difficult for the court to explain.

"Hmm!"

Yang Guodong nodded, the command flag in his hand was raised, and soon, the war drums thundered, and a large and small artillery was pushed to the front of the formation, and then began to be more accurate.

At the same time, the siege crossbow carts also moved slowly, and in front of the ballistas, a large number of soldiers carried the flying bridge to cross the river, under the cover of wooden mantle chariots and shields, approached the city wall. ….

On the city wall, Tang Xiangjin looked at this scene coldly, and with a wave of his hand, the archers on the corner tower, the enemy platform, and the shop were all on guard, and at the same time, the old bowl cannons and tiger squat cannons began to be more accurate.

"Old Tang, why don't you pull those Hongyi cannons out first and try their power?"

Seeing Tang Xiangjin pull out those old cannons, Liang Ping couldn't help but wonder, compared to these old cannons, those Hongyi cannons are more powerful, and the range is longer, the farthest distance is thousands of zhang, although there is nothing to be accurate when it reaches a thousand zhang away, but now the imperial army is within hundreds of zhang, and one cannon is enough to kill and injure many people.

"Don't expose the Hongyi cannon just yet."

Hearing this, Tang Xiangjin shook his head and said, "Now our Hongyi cannons are only seven or eight, the number is too small, if it is exposed now, it will be easy to attract the target of the opponent's masters, and now it is exposed, it will not be able to change the situation, it is better to wait for a suitable opportunity,"

Now killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers has no effect at all, and it is easy to attract the target of masters, for first-class martial artists, as long as there are divine weapons, it is not difficult to destroy these Hongyi cannons, as long as they do not delay, the other party can easily get out after destroying the cannons.

It's better to wait for the right opportunity, with the power of these Hongyi cannons to lay the battle in one fell swoop, anyway, now that Dongchang Lake is here, the other party doesn't want to easily approach the city wall, they are the defenders of the city and occupy an absolute advantage.

Three hundred zhang!

Two hundred zhang!

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

At this time, the artillery on the urn outside the city gate began to exert its might, and more than a dozen tiger squat cannons were ignited at the same time, and thousands of stones and iron beads were sprinkled like a curtain of rain on the army outside the city.

For a while, the imperial army that was slowly approaching suddenly turned on their backs, although only dozens of people were injured and even fewer died, but it also suffocated the movements of the imperial army.

One hundred and fifty zhang, at this time the imperial army has arrived at the lake, a large number of soldiers began to rush to pave the flying bridge, some of them rushed to the arch bridge towards the city wall, and some of the soldiers set up a tiger squat cannon to fire at the city wall, but unfortunately in the face of the city wall of three zhang and two high, the stones and iron beads can only shoot under the base of the wall, leaving a little white mark on the city wall bricks.

The only thing that had a record was the siege crossbows, hundreds of crossbow arrows were shot at the city wall, but most of them were blocked by the battlements of the wall, and only a few of them hit the soldiers who shot arrows with bows at the battlements.

"Put!"

At this time, Tang Xiangjin waved his hand and ordered, and thousands of arrows fell like raindrops, and at the same time, hundreds of bowl mouth cannons and tiger squat cannons on the city wall opened fire at the same time.

Arrows are missing, stones and iron beads are falling all over the world!

At this moment, a tragic scene appeared, the soldiers who were rushing to pave the flying bridge, the gunners who opened their guns, and the soldiers on the arch bridge fell one after another in an instant, blood stained the lake fire, and at least hundreds of people were killed and injured in this attack.

In the Central Military Department, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong frowned, they didn't feel sorry for the hundreds of dead and wounded, they didn't care much about the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people, but the turtle-like defense of Dongchang Mansion was a headache for them.

"Order, retire!"

Yang Guodong raised the command flag, this time it was just a temptation, since there was no chance, then he could only withdraw. ….

Soon, the sound of gold sounded!

The soldiers under the walls of the city suddenly receded like a tidal wave, leaving only corpses and some wounded soldiers who were too badly injured to move to wail in place.

"Chief Yang Bing, this rebel army has few masters, can you organize masters to capture the city?"

At this time, Wang Congyi suddenly asked.

Hearing Wang Congyi's words, Yang Guodong just said coldly: "Governor Wang, don't mention this matter, otherwise it will cause others to be dissatisfied, and there will be no need to fight this battle."

Organize a master to take the city?

Wang Congyi really dared to think that those who could jump up the three-zhang high city wall with light skills were at least second-rate warriors, and those who could become second-rate warriors were either Jinyi guards from all over the country or military generals in the army, and they were really those big-headed soldiers.

People are just warriors, not immortals, breaking into the enemy camp alone, that is looking for death, masters fighting, only in an instant, breaking into the enemy camp alone and being besieged by hundreds of soldiers, the opponent's master can easily sneak attack and kill them.

Let them take the city, what is the difference between that and let them die!

Wang Congyi really dared to give this order, and it was estimated that those people would be able to let Wang Congyi go to see the king of Hades tonight.

Hearing this, Wang Congyi also knew that he had said something stupid, so he could only laugh.

There was no hope of attacking the city, so Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong's goal was to dredge the canal, and sent a large number of soldiers to the counties to forcibly recruit people to dig up the filled river.

………

Jinan Mansion, Jinyi Wei Yamen.

Su Hao looked at the information sent back from Dongchang Mansion, his fingers lightly tapped on the handrail, the actions of the imperial army were beyond his expectations, he thought that the other party would attack Jinan Mansion in two ways, but he didn't expect that the other party would gather all his troops and besiege Dongchang Mansion.

"Qianhu, should we send someone to support the Sixth Brother?"

Jiang Shizhong asked, now that the imperial army is all besieging Dongchang Mansion, with Tang Xiangjin's strength on their side, they may not be able to hold it.

"No, Dongchang Mansion City is high and deep, so it's not so easy to take down."

Su Hao shook his head and said, "Now we have more important things to do, you and Ah Yang immediately lead troops to the battle, each with 10,000 soldiers and horses, to recover the other county seats."

"Qianhu, isn't this too urgent?"

Hearing this, Jiang Shizhong was stunned for a moment, obviously he had given up two county towns before, why did he attack again?

"Now that Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong have made it clear that they want to restore Caoyun, they will not come to attack Jinan Mansion in a short time."

Su Hao said in a deep voice: "Now we have no soldiers to recruit around here, and if we want to recruit more soldiers, we can only take other county seats."

Before, he was worried that Wang Congyi would do it

Only then did the division of troops give up the two counties close to Dezhou, which were too far away from Jinan Prefecture, and they might not be able to hold it if they did not give up.

Jinan Prefecture has 4 states and 26 counties, it is a veritable big house, and now they belong to only the surrounding six county seats, he recruited nearly 100,000 troops this time, half of them are from the surrounding areas of Jinan Prefecture, nearly 20% of the original few guards surrendered, and there are very few other counties, the main reason is that he did not take those counties, and those who want to join the Guardian Army are worried that their families will be liquidated by the local yamen.

Now that the troops around Jinan Mansion have dried up, even if they are recruited again, they will not be able to recruit people, after all, the conditions he prescribed before are already heavenly, and those who are willing to join the apologetics army have three taels of Anjia silver, two taels of body silver, two acres of land, three people are exempted from conscription, and ten acres of land tax are exempted. ….

Twenty or thirty taels of silver for one acre of land, fifty or sixty taels of silver for two acres, and the latter two conditions could not be bought with silver, and then he was exempted from tenant rent for one year, so to speak, he had to spend hundreds of taels of silver to recruit a soldier, and it was this sky-high price that allowed him to recruit nearly 100,000 young soldiers in five months.

But this is also to the limit, it can be said that here in Jinan Prefecture, at least one person from every household has joined the Guardian Army, and there will not be many people to recruit again.

And after recruiting a large number of recruits, he also found a strange phenomenon, that is, he doesn't seem to need to win over the people, and the hearts of the people in Jinan Mansion are on his side.

The counties around Jinan Prefecture are relatively wealthy, and the population is relatively large, there are about 100,000 people in a county, and he has recruited almost 6,000 recruits in Qihe County.

However, he recruited such a big benefit, it can also be said that he has completely exempted the taxes for the next few decades, which belongs to the practice of fishing with all his might, after all, the exemption of three people from forced labor is equivalent to the complete exemption of the forced labor of a family, plus the land tax of ten acres of land.

Get!

Conscription is exempted, ten acres of land are exempt from tax, maybe now these people have no land and can't enjoy the benefits of tax exemption, but it doesn't mean that there will be no land in the future, and conscription of 100,000 soldiers is equivalent to conscription of 100,000 talents, which means that in the next few decades, he basically doesn't want to collect any taxes in this part of Jinan Mansion.

However, his only advantage was that he still had a large amount of land in his hands, which could be rented by tenants, and he was quite left-handed to right-handed, and he exchanged the conscription for tenant rents, and then used these tenants as military expenses.

It's just that this kind of practice is not big for him now, and he can barely support it after raiding his house and grabbing grain and fertilizer, if the territory is big in the future, this method will not work, if he doesn't pay taxes everywhere, he will take a head to raise hundreds of thousands of troops.

But now he doesn't need to think about this problem, his rebellion now is similar to walking a tightrope, when will he fall is a problem, why do you want to go so far!

Besides, if there are really hundreds of thousands of troops, he should use his knife against those squires, after all, the land occupied by the vassal kings and the big tycoons is only a small number after all, and the real big heads are the gentry of the middle class, these people occupy a few hundred acres of land, and many thousands of acres, and the number of these people is still large, at least two or three in a village.

When he has an army of tens of millions, all the wealthy families are a joke, even if he gnaws city by city, he can sweep the world.

He called this model "the world of soldiers", after all, the Ming Dynasty is "the emperor and the gentry share the world", which means that the emperor and the gentry share the world, and his "soldier world" is the world with the soldiers.

The advantage of this "soldier world" is that it is easy to collect soldiers, and if he gives the benefits to the soldiers, the soldiers will naturally be loyal to him, after all, to be loyal to him is to be loyal to their own interests.

However, this "soldier world" also has disadvantages, which is equivalent to giving the interests of the gentry class to the soldiers, now his troops are not much, and the territory is not large and cannot be revealed, and when the territory is large, there are more soldiers and horses, and the conflict between him and the gentry class will be more obvious, after all, the silver and grain in his hands are limited, and when they run out, he has to go to those gentry to talk about paying taxes.

This also means that he must find some people to govern the world for him, and Confucianism can get out, after all, the current gentry class can be said to be all Confucian children, and those who can be gentry are basically showmen, lifters, and jinshi, and he puts these

The benefits of the people are distributed to the soldiers, and if they continue to use these people to rule the world, they may be stabbed in the back at any time.

lq.

This Ganges beaver