One hundred and thirty-seven chapters

Zhang Hu's men and horses drove over, and did not immediately organize a siege, and most of the battles in this era were the same, with soldiers and auxiliaries...... Oh, well, the people of the Wai have all settled down outside the city first, and built all kinds of equipment on the spot.

Zhang Hu, like Guan Shengyun, was born in the border army, and his main imaginary enemy was a Mongolian compatriot on horseback. Yongwu didn't have to say, with ten people, he dared to gallop hundreds of miles to capture the leader of the rebels. But when it comes to siege warfare, except for the common sense that ordinary people know about climbing the city wall and pushing a cart in front of the enemy, they don't understand anything else. And Fang Ge is a serious inland official army, since he was a child in the camp, in terms of riding horses and cutting people in the field is definitely inferior to Zhang Hu, but he knows how to defend the battle, knows how to defend and attack, and knows everything about siege equipment. However, Deputy Marshal Fang - well, Zhang Hu proclaimed himself the marshal, and the first Fang Ge, who led almost the same number of regular troops to vote, naturally became the deputy marshal - also only ordered the creation of a large number of ladders, and other than that, he only symbolically did a few city gate crashes, and did nothing else, facing the towering city wall in Langzhong, Vice Marshal Fang seemed to be confident.

The defenders on the north and east walls of Boryeong Mansion looked at the overwhelming "thieves" outside the city in horror: the vast majority of them were ordinary people in cloth clothes, men, women and children, mixed together, and a little farther away were bandits in military uniforms, and the Chinese army was set up about three miles outside the city. A small number of civilians built shacks to shelter, and apparently, these were the small leaders of the cannon fodder army. Everyone was busy, and many were digging siege ditches to stop a possible counterattack from the city. The excavated earth was mixed with branches and dead grass and piled up in sacks to fill the trenches during the siege. This is standard practice, the bag will be heavy when it is full of earth, and it will not be able to run fast on its back - the generals will not care how many captured civilians will die during the siege, but too many dead bodies will block the way and delay the warplane. There are also many people cutting trees on the distant mountains, and after more than a day of hard work, the originally lush hill has become like a leper head, revealing a large area of shocking yellow spots - although Duan Yuanji ordered the wall to clear the wilderness, but the surrounding mountains are all mountains, and they really can't burn it, and they can't burn it, otherwise Baoning City will fall into a sea of fire, and there is no need to wait for the thieves to attack.

Wang Chao, the magistrate of Cangxi, simply lived on the north wall for a while - although there was an order from the prefect of Duan, the officials were not vegetarians, and defeat was a dead end, as long as the battle was won, someone would definitely jump out and scold all kinds of scolding, and even the prefect himself would definitely be sprayed with blood...... Theoretically, scolding is scolding, as long as the thief is repulsed, the court will generally not treat you like this, but the scolding of the officials is for the Holy Son of Heaven, and what people eat is this bowl of rice with bones in the egg! If the saint thinks that he is scolded on the point and has a prejudice against someone in his heart, then the career will be very bad in the future. Therefore, no matter what, you must have a good performance, and you can tell it in the future so that the saint will not leave any bad impression in his heart.

Wang Chao can hide in Fucheng, but he can't run to Chengdu, and Duan Yuanji, who has no way out, will come over every day and look at it worriedly for an hour or two. Two or three days passed like this, and the people on the wall watched as hundreds of ladders piled up on the opposite side...... However, the brutal attack was delayed, and the thieves seemed to be waiting for something.

The defenders did not give Ding Zhuang weapons: their task was to throw stones, which required physical strength and were relatively more dangerous. The officers repeatedly emphasized: When the thieves come to attack, they must lean out and throw stones, and whoever is afraid of death dares to throw and waste stones through the wall stacks, they will definitely be thrown down as stones! There was no need for the soldiers to force each other, Ning Ahu and many Ding Zhuang from Cangxi stood on the wall day and night, widening their eyes and trying to distinguish their relatives in the busy crowd of insects and ants in the distance. Since one or two Ding Zhuang who shouted the names of their relatives were mercilessly cut down by the officers guarding the city, no one dared to speak out anymore, but the bright steel knife and the fierce blood could not stop a pair of eyes full of expectation.

Surprisingly, the battle was fought first in the southern counties. Cheng Xi's thousands of rabble, as if out of the ground, pounced on the southern county town like chicken blood.

The Pengzhou of Shunqing Mansion next door has been ransacked many times by these hungry people, and the city wall has been pulled out of several large gaps, completely losing its protective function. However, the inhabitants have also accumulated a wealth of experience: if the thieves are few, they will gather in a few high-walled compounds to defend their precious hard-earned food, and if there are many criminals, they will simply help the old and the young flee to the northern wilderness, and even run all the way to the outskirts of the southern county of Boryeong Province. Cheng Xi's people and the people can't afford it: everything that can fill their stomachs has been taken away, and the "treasures" such as straw mats and crockpots that can be found are getting fewer and fewer each time. Tearing down the courtyard wall is a very physically demanding task, and in a moment the chest will be so hungry that the chest will be pressed against the back, and no one will spend that effort, at most it will only be a fire in a hurry. It is very interesting that after a long time, the two sides actually developed a tacit understanding, and arson became a kind of expression of dissatisfaction: usually a separate house would be chosen, and the fire would not spread like Nanchong City - it really burned this place to the ground, and the people could not survive and completely escaped, which destroyed this wonderful symbiotic relationship. Even if any of the people were slow to escape and were caught up, generally speaking, they were only robbed of food, and there were very few incidents of killing and injuring people. After spending two or three days in the wilderness, Cheng Xi left dejectedly, and the people came back again with the old and the young, waiting for the next comeback of the kings...... It resembles a prairie herbivore and a predator. Cycle.

This time, Cheng Xi poured out of the nest, carrying a flat shoulder and carrying a sack, pushing an old basket in a wheelbarrow and carrying a small ...... This scene frightened the people of Pengzhou: it seems that the mountains don't know what disaster has suffered, this is a complete posture!

Run!

Unexpectedly, thousands of hungry people passed directly through the city, almost without any stop in the county seat of Pengzhou, and followed the people who fled north all the way to the southern county.

The people who fled the disaster took most of their belongings with them, and after a long time, where could they run past those guys who only carried wooden sticks and hoes to lead the chase? And Cheng Xi's group is simply desperate, when they are very hungry, they will dig a pit and build a fire to cook wherever they want, and after eating a mouthful, they no longer care about the stove, they stand up and continue to walk north, and the one behind them directly stuffs two handfuls of firewood into the stove where there are still embers, or roast or boil, and they will follow after eating two bites in a hurry...... Two days later, the people were finally caught up.

Surprisingly, instead of looting, the hungry people greeted enthusiastically: "Come on, let's get a fight!" Let's go to the south to play tricks, where there are piles of rice piled up like mountains, and the belly is open to eat! ”

The defenders in the south had seen many escapes from the plague, and they didn't pay attention at first: most of the people had been in the suburbs for two days and then returned, and a few young people would stop by the county town to open their eyes, but they would still leave for a day or two at most—it was better to have at least a house there than to sleep on the streets of the south. When he felt that something was wrong this time and wanted to close the city gate, he couldn't stop the crowd at all: Cheng Xi led hundreds of armed "warriors" to either push carts or carry burdens, mixed in the front of the refugee team, and poured directly into the south gate of the southern county town.

If it is a real fight, these hundreds of people are by no means the opponents of the defenders - regardless of combat experience, weapons and equipment, the defenders have a multiplier advantage in terms of numbers alone. However, the task of these people is only to grab the door, the south is a small county, there is no urn city, hundreds of people are crowded near the narrow south gate hole, no matter how many officers and soldiers can not exert their strength. Thousands of homeless people in the wilderness outside the south gate, each of them rushed into the city without their lives, and those who were the first to infiltrate the city put a few more fires...... The unknown defenders collapsed all at once. It can even be said that there was no decent battle at all, and the southern county was lost in such a mess.

Zhou Jun, the magistrate of the southern county, saw the opportunity early, packed up his finesse, and fled all the way to Nanjin Pass by the fleeing defenders. Although the "Da Ming Law" clearly stipulates that the local officials have the responsibility to defend the land and die if they lose their land, Zhou Zhixian is not very worried - because he has made great contributions to the imperial court, especially the Duan Governor's Mansion! During Tu Yushi's stay in Boryeongfu, there was an accident in the southern county: a wealthy family in Boryeongfu fled the flood, and the carriage ran all the way to the street in the county seat and killed a baby. The carriage went away, and the baby's father and mother couldn't find the perpetrator, just when Lord Tu came over, of course, he had to face his grievances - isn't this obviously to smear the prefect's face and make trouble for the adult! Therefore, although Taizu has the ancestral training that the people can sue the officials, Zhou Zhixian also has a way: every once in a while, he goes to his house every other day to slam the door at night to "observe the people's feelings" and "Xiaoyi is righteous", and even arranges for the soap officials and the people to "take strict care" - no beating or scolding, but there are people in the way wherever you go...... In the end, I just suppressed this matter silently! With such a brave and loyal credit, Zhou Jun had no doubt that the prefect would protect himself.

Nanjin Pass and Hexi Pass are the two Xiongguan that guard the south gate of Boryeong Mansion. Since it is known as Xiongguan, it is naturally much more difficult to fight than a city with high walls. However, seeing the rout in the south, the defenders were still a little panicked: everyone knew that tens of thousands of thieves had come to the north of the city, and now the southern counties in the south had also fallen into the hands of the rebels...... The defenders have been peaceful for a long time, and many of them have never fought in their lives at all, and when they heard that there were so many thieves, they were more or less muttering in their hearts.

However, everyone's fear quickly dissipated: reinforcements were brought in from Boryeong.

There weren't many reinforcements, only two infantry teams. The accent is not like that of the people of this province, and the Shaanxi accent is very strong. But there is nothing surprising - in this era, most of the peasants and soldiers in the guard post were locals, and there were too many heroes in the field army who committed crimes to serve in the army, and there were people everywhere. Both officers have the waist badge of the Boryeong Mansion, and the speech and demeanor of all of them reveal the style of the imperial court officials and soldiers—these subtle differences are everywhere: from the subconscious attitude towards the officers, to the habits of work and rest, to the pace of walking...... As long as you are in the battalion, you can see at a glance that these fakes cannot be faked. Especially the invisible aura emanating from them, it is not very obvious for one or two people alone, and you will immediately know that these are all good players in the army, all of whom have seen blood on the battlefield!

Most of the defenders were military households, and they were much more skilled at picking up hoes than holding knives. Therefore, although each level only allocated a hundred new forces, it immediately became the backbone of everyone. Don't look at the two team officers are both commanders, but don't talk about Qianzong, even the guards with guerrilla ranks are polite when they talk to them. Zhou Zhixian asked them a few words, but the two generals were illiterate, and only said that they were originally the defenders of Qingchuan in Long'an Prefecture, and they were transferred to Shunqing Mansion to suppress rebellion on the orders of the Dusi Mansion. The army moved south along Xiaotongshui one after another, and it was originally planned to assemble in Pengzhou. The two infantry units learned that the south had been lost at Liubianyi, so they drove directly to Nanjin Pass and Hexi Pass to wait for further orders from their superiors.

Zhou Jun is only a magistrate, and it is impossible to even know all the affairs of his own prefecture, not to mention the military deployment of the Sichuan Metropolitan Government and neighboring prefectures. However, according to common sense, Lord Duan will definitely ask the Chengdu Mansion for help, and it is not surprising that the Dusi Mansion will mobilize troops and horses from the province to directly smash the thieves' nest. Although it was a misunderstanding, they were not Baoning soldiers, but since the heavenly soldiers came to help, how could Zhou Zhixian easily let them go? He patted his chest skillfully and said that he would personally be responsible for explaining to Shangfeng, and that Lizhou Wei in Boryeong Mansion was in urgent need of talents, as long as he made military achievements, he would definitely let Lord Duan come forward, and he would simply stay in Boryeong Mansion in the future...... The two hesitated at first and refused to agree, but Lord Zhou was anxious, so he simply made his words clear and said: It's a big deal to report a death in battle, and after receiving a pension, change your name and be the president directly! said that it was good to say that it was bad, and in the end, each of them stuffed a full hundred taels of silver, and the two of them agreed half-pushing, half-on-the-spot. Master Zhou was well aware of the truth that as long as he got an inch, he personally selected ten of the most capable soldiers to stay by his side as escorts. In order to make the guards work hard, Zhou Zhixian opened the silver box and gave each person a gift of ten taels on the spot - where have ordinary soldiers seen so many white official silver, looking at the salivating eyes of these guys, Zhou Jun felt that his safety was fully guaranteed.