Hearing Wang Congyi's words, Yang Guodong could only say helplessly: "Governor, there are 40,000 to 50,000 rebels in Jinan Prefecture. If we want to divide our troops into two places, we only have more than 60,000 people in one place. We have to divide our troops to protect the logistics. It is too risky.

It’s big.”

Wang Congyi could see it, of course he could see it, but there was nothing he could do about it. The guardsmen under their command were simply useless. It was fine when there were more people. At least they still had a strength advantage. If they divided their forces, I'm afraid

Even the safety of the canal cannot be guaranteed.

"Then we can't let the rebels grow stronger, right?"

Wang Congyi gritted his teeth, only hating how he had ended up in such a mess. How could he suppress the rebellion when he had no food or soldiers?

"We will take control of the canal first, and then we will report to the court and ask the court to send more troops."

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

Originally, the imperial court was planning to mobilize troops from South Zhili, but after the canal was cut off, the imperial court was worried about problems in the prosperous land of Jiangnan, so it did not mobilize troops from Southern Zhili, but mobilized troops from Shanxi. If

The imperial court has mobilized soldiers and horses from Nanzhili, and should be able to mobilize another 70,000 to 80,000 troops, which should be enough to suppress Jinan Prefecture.

"well!"

Wang Congyi sighed: "I'm afraid the 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. A large army can't attack the city just by rushing in all the soldiers like a swarm. Attacking the city requires a lot of equipment. Now among the army, only the three or four

The flying bridge across the river, wooden chariots, ballistas, flying hooks and other small equipment built in Cangzhou for months, and large siege equipment such as door-breaking hammers, rams, ladders and other large siege equipment had to be built on the spot.

Unless there is no other action from the Jinan government in the past two or three months, those enemies in the court will definitely impeach him. Those people will not consider the overall situation and will never let him go if they can kick him out.

After all, counterinsurgency is very profitable. With so much money and food, a little bit of thinking can bring a lot of benefits. More importantly, Shandong is not a poor place like Liaodong. It is very rich here. You can find various places to put down the rebellion.

The gentry could easily make hundreds of thousands of taels of silver by collecting donations, and there were many people who were tempted. It is estimated that the imperial edict to punish the perpetrators had arrived before the reinforcements arrived.

"This is the best choice."

Yang Guodong just said one sentence and then fell silent.

After resting for a day, the army set out again. Because Linqing Prefecture was not far from Dongchang Prefecture, the army did not continue by boat this time.

………

Dongchang Mansion.

On the north gate wall, Tang Xiangjin and others looked at the army snaking in the distance, with solemn expressions on their faces.

"Lao Liang, are all the supplies for defending the city ready?"

Tang Xiangjin said in a deep voice, in addition to soldiers, what is more important for the defense of the city is the defense materials, such as bows and arrows, rolling logs and stones, gunpowder and other materials. Dongchang Mansion is surrounded by lakes and is not afraid of the enemy digging tunnels if the opponent wants to attack the city.

Only frontal attack.

"These things are all ready."

Liang Ping nodded and said: "As long as the opponent does not attack the city for a long time, these things will be enough for one or two years."

Having said this, Liang Ping paused for a moment: "But what should we do with the wealthy families in the city now? These people are all hidden dangers."….

Hearing Liang Ping's words, Tang Xiangjin also frowned. After taking Dongchang Mansion, they also wiped out the two largest wealthy families in the city in the name of helping Jiang Renxi. However, the others only asked the other party to hand over the certificate of surrender, but at that time in the city

There are no big officials left, and the certificate of nomination is just to kill some small officials. This kind of certificate of nomination is of no use at all.

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

Now that their general trend has not been achieved, they are unable to fight against all the wealthy families in the world. Those who can become a wealthy family are basically local wealthy families with many people. If they kill too many, they will definitely make other wealthy families miserable. By then, they want to

If you attack other cities, you will have to face the desperate resistance of these wealthy families.

Don't underestimate these wealthy families. These people have a high status in the clan. They can easily recruit hundreds of family members. Coupled with the large number of tenant farmers under their command, they can easily recruit one or two thousand village warriors. Back then, Xu Hongru

The main reason why it failed was because of the resistance of these wealthy families.

If it weren't for these wealthy families, how could the guardsmen have been able to defend so many big cities? There are nine guards and ten guards in Shandong, with a full complement of more than 50,000 people, but now one-third is even more.

Wow, one or two thousand garrison soldiers can't hold a city at all!

Only the help of these wealthy families in recruiting rural warriors can we defend the city. Without the help of these wealthy families, how could the prefects and county governors have such high prestige that they could recruit thousands of rural warriors in ten days and a half?

Defend the city.

This resulted in Xu Hongru being unable to capture some big cities and could only occupy some small county towns. He had no important cities to defend, and his troops were not elite. It can be said that Xu Hongru was defeated not by the imperial court, but by these wealthy families.

.

Therefore, Su Hao's attitude is very clear. As long as he submits a certificate of surrender and draws a clear line with the imperial court, he can live with peace of mind. However, this time there are no high-ranking officials left in Dongchang Mansion, only some petty officials. Those wealthy families may not be willing to retire.

Stay still.

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

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

After a pause, Tang Xiangjin's voice turned cold: "But if those people dare to do anything strange, they will be killed without mercy!"

Hearing Tang Xiangjin's words, Liang Ping nodded.

Not long after, the imperial army formed a formation and slowly approached, then stopped a few hundred feet away from the city wall. At the same time, on the other side of the canal, a large number of soldiers began to build a camp.

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

"General Yang, do you want to try to attack the city?"

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

"Um!"

Yang Guodong nodded and raised the flag in his hand. Soon, the war drums thundered, and artillery pieces of various sizes were pushed to the front of the formation, and then began to take aim.

At the same time, the siege ballistae also moved forward slowly. In front of the ballistae, a large number of soldiers carried the flying bridge across the river and approached the city wall under the cover of wooden chariots and shields...

On the city wall, Tang Xiangjin watched this scene coldly. With a wave of his hand, the archers on the turrets, enemy towers, and bunkers were all on alert. At the same time, the old bowl-mouth cannons and squatting tiger cannons began to take aim.

"Old Tang, don't you pull out those Hongyi cannons first to test their power?"

Seeing Tang Xiangjin pulling out those old cannons, Liang Ping couldn't help but wonder. Compared with these old cannons, those Hongyi cannons were more powerful and had a longer range. The longest range was a thousand feet away. Although it was

There is no accuracy when you are thousands of feet away, but now the imperial army is within a few hundred feet, and one shot is enough to kill and injure many people.

"Don't expose the Hongyi cannon for the time being."

Hearing this, Tang Xiangjin shook his head and said: "Now we only have seven or eight Hongyi cannons. The number is too small. If it is exposed now, it will easily attract the opponent's masters to target. Moreover, it will not change the situation if it is exposed now. It is better to wait."

A suitable opportunity,"

Killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers now has no effect at all, and it is easy to attract the attention of experts. For first-class warriors, as long as they have magic weapons, it is not difficult to destroy these red barbarian cannons. As long as there is no delay, the opponent can completely destroy the cannons.

Then he got away easily.

It is better to wait for the right opportunity and rely on the power of these Hongyi cannons to settle the battle situation in one fell swoop. Anyway, now that Dongchang Lake is here, the opponent cannot easily get close to the city wall. They have an absolute advantage in defending the city.

Three hundred feet!

Two hundred feet!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

At this time, the artillery on the urn outside the city gate began to fire. More than a dozen squatting tiger cannons were fired at the same time. Thousands of stones and iron beads were sprinkled on the army outside the city like a curtain of rain.

For a moment, the imperial army that was slowly approaching suddenly fell on its back. Although only dozens of people were injured and even fewer died, the movement of the imperial army was suffocated.

One hundred and fifty feet, at this time, the imperial army had arrived at the lake. A large number of soldiers began to rush to build the flying bridge. Some of them rushed onto the arch bridge and rushed towards the city wall. Some soldiers set up tiger crouching cannons and fired at the city wall. Unfortunately, they were facing the city wall.

For a city wall that is three feet and two feet high, stones and iron beads can only reach the base of the wall, leaving little white marks on the wall bricks.

The only ones with a record of success were the siege ballistas. Hundreds of crossbow arrows shot onto the city wall, but most of them were blocked by the crenellations of the city wall. Only a few of them hit the soldiers who were shooting arrows at the crenellations.

"put!"

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

The arrow was lost, and stones and iron beads rained down from the sky!

At this moment, a tragic scene appeared. The soldiers who were rushing to lay the flying bridge, the gunners who fired the cannons, and the soldiers on the arch bridge were like wheat under the strong wind. They fell one after another in an instant, and the blood dyed the lake fire red. There were at least hundreds of them.

Killed and wounded in this attack.

At the Central Military Department, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong frowned. They didn't feel sorry for the hundreds of people who were killed and injured. They didn't care about trivial matters when it was a big deal. They didn't care much about the casualties of a few hundred people, but the Dongchang Mansion was like a turtle shell.

Such defense is giving them a headache.

"Send the order, retreat!"

Yang Guodong raised the flag. This time it was just a test. Since there was no chance, he had no choice but to withdraw...

Soon, the golden sound sounded!

The soldiers under the city wall immediately receded like a tide, leaving only corpses on the ground and some wounded soldiers who were too injured to move, wailing in place.

"General Yang, the rebels have few masters. Can they organize masters to seize 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 dissatisfaction among others, and there will be no need to fight this battle."

A master of organization seizes the city?
To be continued...