The peasant army mobilized massively eastward, but could not hide it from the Ming army based in the outskirts of Baoji.
During the same period, Cao Wenzhao, Zuo Liangyu and others also took this opportunity to send messengers to Fengxiang Mansion to go deep into the people and spread news to the local area.
For a time, the entire Fengxiang Mansion was filled with war clouds, as if a hundred thousand Ming troops had invaded Fengxiang, and false news that the Marshal's army retreated hastily to the east spread all over the sky.
But soon, groups of Mongolian cavalry swarmed into Fengxiang from the east, bringing exciting news to the poor people who still yearned for the commander's mansion: two important towns in Pizhou and Qianzhou fell on the same day!
As the guard general of Fengxiang Mansion, Wang Wenxiu received a clearer battle report from Liu Chengzong.
Pizhou was engaged in street fighting. Ren Quan'er, the general responsible for the siege of Pizhou, led his army to Pizhou on the second day, and the defenders launched an attack on the troops outside the city.
From the beginning, Zhang Yingchang planned to form a formation with his back to the city and launch a defensive counterattack below the city.
This tactic is a bit reckless. After all, the troops led by Quan'er actually pose little threat to the Pizhou defenders and there is no chance of forcibly attacking the city.
But he really couldn't control his desire to curse. Only by leaving the city could the two armies get close enough, close enough for him to point his nose at Ren Quan'er and curse him.
It just so happened that Cao Bianjiao hit it off immediately.
They really couldn't figure it out, how could the Yan'an pillars of the imperial court suddenly turn into rebels and traitors in just a few days?
The troops led by them did not react, and they still had old feelings in their hearts.
But they obviously thought too much.
If being in the Ming Dynasty made the officers and soldiers of Yan'an Camp feel conflicted, then the flag officers and flag soldiers of Yan'an Guard felt uncomfortable.
The Yan'an Guard has always been the most loyal army to Liu Chengzong in the Ming Dynasty.
Because they have different foundations of existence from the Yan'an camp, and their methods of obtaining benefits are also different.
From the very beginning of the Yan'an Camp, the way people promoted their lives and improved their lives was to "beat Liu Chengzong." Even if it was a tacit and fake beating, it was still a kind of confrontation.
The foundation for the Yan'an Guard's existence in Yan'an Prefecture is that the people of Yan'an recognized the Liu Shizi brand. Because of this brand, King Chuang would give them food, and the local people would exchange supplies with them.
Even when there is no water supply in the township, people will temporarily work in the Yan'an Guards' fields, which have the best water conservancy facilities, until the river water level rises.
All this was due to the fact that Ren Quan'er was the largest inheritor of the Yan'an estate after the old Liu family moved westward.
The thousands of households under his command were either Shi Wanzhong, a tenant of Fourth Master Liu, or Chen Ruji, who was related to Fourth Master Liu, or, last but not least, Lu Bin, a neighbor of Black Dragon King Miaoshan.
As the successor, he not only had the kindness of the Lion Camp to the people of Yan'an Prefecture, but also provided support to the government officials and minor officials, and he also had the ability to frighten the local wealthy and wealthy families by cleverly plundering.
Ren Quan'er is the most respected person in Baojia and the township people in every county, even if he is not announcing tax collection in Yan'an Prefecture.
As long as the passing flag soldiers reveal their identities, people will not beat, loot, or kidnap the passing flag soldiers, nor will they deliberately lead them into mine arrays and blow them up into the sky, nor will they poison the wells in Xindi where they are stationed.
This kind of treatment is higher than Chen Qiyu who announced that Yan'an Prefecture is tax-free.
At this time, Ren Quan'er could not care about the Ming army. The Yan'an guards officers under his command, such as Shi Wanzhong, Chen Ruji, and Lu Bin, were mentally in the excitement of returning to the mountains and getting promotions.
They have not fought seriously in these years and are always immersed in boring training day after day. The only fun they have is confiscating the illegal gains of friendly troops.
Now that they saw Zhang Yingchang coming out of the city to form a formation, Ren Quan'er gave an order and the gang formed a formation to engage the enemy and fight him.
The two sides fought for an hour, with equal numbers of casualties. As the sky grew dark, the Yan'an flag army retreated back. The Ming army also retreated to the sound of golden drums and withdrew into the city in an orderly manner.
But that night, the east gate of Pizhou City opened, and a group of Pingliang Guards Banner Army came out and ran to Ren Quan'er's Army, calling them to enter the city to change defenses.
On the one hand, Ren Quan'er was afraid of being fooled, and on the other hand, he really didn't have many useful soldiers at hand.
More than half of the Yan'an Guard's direct troops were exhausted from the evening battle, and the other half had to stay to monitor Zu Chengyong, so only four hundred men were sent into the city first to test whether it was true or false.
Unexpectedly, the Ming army was in similar condition. In fact, in the past few days, friendly forces had surrendered to the enemy and their strength was greatly reduced. They had long been frightened.
Zhang Yingchang was awakened from his sleep by the chaos in the city. He panicked and quickly sent people to look for Cao Bianjiao, trying to organize defense and start street fighting.
But his army was more panicked than him. The defenders stationed in the camps at the four corners of the city were frightened out of their camps. Hundreds of soldiers who were sleeping soundly after being exhausted and fighting all day were awakened and had no time to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy.
, just close your eyes and draw the knife and start doing it.
There were two camps left, one was for the Pingliang Army, which was well-formed and waiting to be reorganized, and the other was for General Qian, who was calm and composed, and opened the north gate and ran away as soon as he heard that there was chaos in the city.
Zhang Yingchang and Cao Bianjiao were unable to contain the roar of the camp in the chaos. Finally, they worked together to gather the sergeants, including their own cavalry and servants, gathered more than a thousand cavalry, and left the city along the north gate.
Not far to the north of Pizhou is Zhenning County in Qingyang Prefecture, and to the west is Pingliang Prefecture. However, neither Zhang Yingchang nor Cao Bianjiao dared to go to these two places.
Not to mention Pingliang Mansion, Cao Bianjiao recruited troops from there, and now he has become a mere commander without even fighting a single battle. As for Zhenning County, there is that madman He Renlong who escorted them into Pizhou.
Together, the two of them bypassed Zhenning, crossed Ningzhou overnight, and directly withdrew from the battlefield controlled by the Marshal's Mansion.
The Battle of Qianzhou on the other side was not so dramatic. The battle there was a matter of course, no, to be precise, it was a matter of course.
In the past thirteen days, Zhang Xianzhong was not in a hurry to attack the city. He relied on Liu Chengzong's power to suppress Shi Xiang and Yang Guodong, and made perfect preparations for the attack outside the city.
In the ruins of Guanxiang outside the south city wall, he dug twelve zigzag trenches, six of which were dug all the way to the moat according to Liu Chengzong's requirements, and led the water from the moat to Qishui River.
At the same time, the artillerymen outside the city were firing at the defenders almost every hour, consuming all the gunpowder and shells in the city. Four of them were damaged by the cannons.
On the other hand, a blast furnace for casting cannonballs and artillery was built outside the city. However, he searched all the sergeants stationed in the siege camp and could not find a cannon caster who could copy the thousand-jin cannon.
Therefore, the twelve heavy cannons could only be cast outside the city, firing the same shells with the same range, but weighing more than 700 kilograms more than the standard thousand-pound cannon installed in the Marshal's Mansion.
However, it is a siege cannon anyway, so there is no need to delay its use.
At the same time, he also stole people from the city.
A normal siege of a city would involve three gates and one gate. Troops would also be deployed to block and surround the other gaps in the distance.
Zhang Xianzhong, on the other hand, surrounded Qianzhou with three walls and only surrounded the southern city wall. On the other three sides, he used the endless darkness to throw letters urging people to flee into the city.
He did not persuade people to surrender. He only said that the defender Duan Fuxing had committed a serious crime by killing the envoy of the Marshal's Mansion. However, the people in the city and the defenders were innocent and could not afford to die with him. They should quickly find a way to escape from the city to avoid the fire at the city gate and the harm to Chiyu.
At first, the defenders were able to stop them, but as the preparations for the siege in the siege camp became more and more complete in recent days, the defenders were under increasing mental pressure and could no longer stop the people who wanted to leave the city.
Now that the moat has been emptied, all the people in the city who can run have also run out. Zhang Xianzhong rushed to build a lot of siege equipment and made a bunch of blasting tubes out of tree trunks, waiting for the opportunity to find the defenders tired. Below Blow up the attack and knock down the city in one wave.
Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong actually sent Yang Yanchang and other fresh troops here.
Zhang Xianzhong thought to himself, the Generalissimo really did not treat me badly, Mr. Zhang!
In fact, he has always been afraid of Liu Chengzong.
Although Zhang Xianzhong speaks impulsively and seems naive and not very smart, he is not an impatient person.
On the contrary, being honest is just a disguise he uses to observe others. Under the disguise, Zhang Xianzhong is very calm, cunning and patient, and is a real smiling tiger.
But he couldn't understand Liu Chengzong.
I couldn't understand it from the beginning, and I can't understand it even more now.
He felt that if Liu Chengzong forced him to land, he would definitely be thrown to the front lines of the battlefield to fight for his name, but he was given a great official position as Minister of Rites.
The wolf-like troops of the Western Camp were thrown into the Zhuanglang Valley to build temples, and with a wave of their hands they were given a few months' rations to be raised purely as livestock.
I originally thought that the position of Minister of Rites was a useless position, but I withdrew it immediately, and then I would have nothing but fish and meat on a chopping board.
Who knew that as soon as he opened his mouth, he was asked to lead troops to attack the city.
He said five days and gave him a month. He was still worried about not having enough troops, so he sent reinforcements like Yang Yanchang to him.
By this time, the troops besieging Qianzhou were larger than the troops surrounding Liu Chengzong.
He could not figure out at all now whether Liu Chengzong wanted to kill his people or seize his power; whether he wanted to promote him to an official position or buy his life.
All favors seem to contain fear; all trusts seem to contain hostility.
Liu Chengzong treated him like a disorganized psychopath.
But this is entirely due to the fact that people's views on people have reactive forces and are mutual.
Liu Shizi truly treated Zhang Xianzhong as a psychopath from the bottom of his heart.
When others do something that makes Liu Shishi unbelievable, he will guess, analyze, think, and then prescribe the right medicine and correct it. He may even lose his temper in the middle, and then turn over the story with satisfaction.
But for Zhang Xianzhong, the analysis process will be completely omitted.
If he does well and exceeds the lower limit of normal people, it will exceed the upper limit of Liu Shizi's expectations for him, which is great!
When Zhang Xianzhong did something unbelievable, Liu Shizi would not guess. His brain would naturally find a reasonable explanation. No matter how outrageous the explanation was, there would still be a clear answer: This is a mental illness.
Who has nothing to do with mental illness?
Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong has behaved like a normal person in most cases so far.
Even normal people who are very good, powerful, and capable of leadership.
The additional reinforcements Liu Chengzong sent to him were the surrendered troops that had just surrendered.
After simply listening to Yang Yanchang's briefing on the personnel composition, Zhang Xianzhong immediately understood Liu Shishi's intention: let me, Lao Zhang, be the bad guy.
Easy to handle!
Zhang Xianzhong, brigade commander Shi Xiang, and Xie Erhu went up to the tent to discuss matters, and gathered the generals Zhang Yunqi, Li Zude, Yang Guodong, Yang Yanchang, Zhang Shangxuan, Mo Yujing and others, and in the blink of an eye they deployed the four gates.
Outside the east gate, 2,000 troops led by Yan'an Battalion General Yang Yanchang were deployed on the front line, followed by 2,000 sergeants led by Lintao Brigade General Zhang Yunqi.
Outside the south gate, Liu Xiangshan, the general of the Yan'an Battalion, led his headquarters and the first section of the Zhenyu Army to deploy 2,000 troops on the front line. Later, the Lintao Brigade joined Yang Guodong's command of more than 2,000 troops.
Outside the west gate, two thousand soldiers were led by Zhang Shangxuan, the commander of the Zhenyu camp, followed by two thousand sergeants led by Li Zude, the commander of the Lintao brigade.
The north gate, as the entrance, was completely handed over to Xie Erhu's Mongolian cavalry, who were not responsible for attacking the city.
Zhang Xianzhong's order was that if any defenders escaped from the north gate during the siege stage and did not put down their weapons and surrender immediately, the Mongolian cavalry would drive them into Huangchao Valley and throw them to death.
In addition, Zhang Xianzhong also transferred men from various ministries to form a thousand-man team, temporarily led by his former Xiying general Wang Ziqi.
The brothers Wang Ziqi and Wang Ziyu used to have a high status in Xiying because they led a group of clan forces from Jiazhou, Shaanxi to join Zhang Xianzhong.
But with Liu Chengzong splitting up the Western Camp, Wang Ziqi now didn't even have an official position, and could only follow Zhang Xianzhong as the head of the guard.
At this moment, Zhang Xianzhong found an opportunity and arranged a death squad of 1,000 people for Wang Ziqi. As the backbone of the force to break through the city wall, they were deployed outside the south gate.
Then Zhang Xianzhong gave an order, and preparations for the siege of Qianzhou on the 13th officially began.
The first step was to push the tree trunk filled with gunpowder into the tunnel under the city.
With a series of explosions, the blasting tubes with redesigned charges by Liu Shizi detonated one after another under the south city wall. Huge vibrations and flames rose from the ground. The vibrations of the blasts seemed to push up the city wall a little, and then fell hard again. It's normal to go down.
But in fact, the explosion was not that powerful. The blasting tube broke the support pillars in the tunnel. The city foundation lost its support, and the soil layer was damaged by the shock wave during the explosion, which caused the city wall to fall downwards.
When the huge smoke and dust slowly dispersed in the air, the south city wall collapsed into two slopes four to five feet wide. Then the war drums roared, and the defenders on the city reacted and rushed towards the slopes to support them.
Zhang Xianzhong at the bottom of the city showed a triumphant smile, waved the command flag, and the artillery fire of the military array was fired. Suddenly, the siege troops arrayed outside the three walls of Qianzhou received the signal, and at the same time launched a storming attack on the city wall amidst shouts.
Dozens of ladder trucks set up with wooden curtains to shield the arrows and lead pellets, and drove down the city. At the same time, rows of long ladders served as a supplement to the siege. They were erected on the city wall where there was a lack of defenders everywhere, and they started close combat with the defenders.
The suicide squad led by Wang Ziqi also rushed up to the two gaps with shields in front and earth bags at the back. Under the cover of the shield hand, they piled up the earth bags in the gaps where it was difficult to get foot, climbed up and rushed up to meet the enemy. They drew their swords and fought against the oncoming defenders.
At this moment, a column of black smoke burst into the sky from within the city.
Duan Fuxing, the councilor of Shaanxi Province in the Ming Dynasty, threw down the torch, ignited the firewood piled under the Drum Tower with his own hands, threw the official seal into the fire, and said goodbye to his old mother, wife and concubines upstairs.
Then he turned around and took off his official hat without looking back. Holding an iron whip in hand, he led his servants and rushed towards the rebels who broke into the city. If you like Naughty Thief, please collect it: (www.sodu777.net) Naughty Thief Search Novel Network Updates The speed is the fastest on the entire network.
