Chapter 649: Offering money to recruit dead soldiers
Ten miles southwest of Luoyang City is Zhoushan Mountain.
The pine trees are towering and golden ginkgo leaves have fallen all over the ground.
Zhang Yichuan put away Liu Chengzong's letters, picked up his telescope and looked at the majestic Luoyang buildings not far away.
Next to him, General Song Jiang asked excitedly: "Commander, our Henan Fifth Battalion has given the Grand Marshal a face, are you worthy of the Grand Marshal's reward?"
"Reward?"
Zhang Yichuan glanced at Song Jiang, pursed his lips slightly, the expression on his face was complicated, the corners of his mouth drooped down, and he forced a smile.
Give a reward, give a reward!
Zhang Yichuan's education level is not high, but he has only been educated in Mongolia.
But he's not stupid.
Liu Chengzong had three yamen: the military yamen, the ceremonial yamen, and the commander-in-chief's military yamen. Two documents and one private letter were sent one after another.
First, let the military office commend him in public for his contribution in leading the troops to capture Yongning City, so that he could gain face in front of the Henan Fifth Battalion.
It was also agreed upon by the Li Yamen that in the future, the captured clan king would not be allowed to kill without permission, and this was affirmed to the whole army.
With these two official documents in front of them, the generals and soldiers of the Henan Fifth Battalion naturally thought that Liu Chengzong's private message to Zhang Yichuan must be a compliment to him.
But that was obviously not the case in the last private message.
Liu Chengzong almost pointed at his nose and scolded him for being stupid.
But for Zhang Yichuan, it wasn't a big problem...at least Liu Chengzong was still called brother in the letter, and he was not called General Zhang or General Zhang.
To be honest, this kind of extremely normal title, in the abnormal Marshal's Mansion, or for Liu Chengzong who controls a group of abnormal people, the level of swearing when addressing one's official position at work is far greater than swearing.
However, no one would feel better after being scolded, and this was an unforeseen disaster for Zhang Yichuan.
As a rebel, he killed a prince of the Ming Dynasty. Before the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could get too worried, he was actually quarreled by the rebel generalissimo.
Where can I reason from this?
The key thing that makes Zhang Yichuan lose his temper the most is that he thinks that the generalissimo is right.
Whenever the offensive outside Luoyang City went smoothly, he would have to brag and stare with dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction. But the current situation is that Luoyang's city defense is different from what he thought.
He was really like a tiger riding a tiger, and he was held back.
At this time, Liu Chengzong sent a letter and said a lot of words as if they were hindsight. In fact, they were not important. The most important thing for Zhang Yichuan was that the Marshal's Office had left him a way out.
Ask Zhang Tianlin to open a passage east of Tongguan and be ready to meet him.
With this move, even if Liu Chengzong scolded him in a letter, he would not be afraid.
Because before this, Zhang Yichuan knew enough about Luoyang. As early as two years ago, when he led his troops through Mianchi, he inquired about the size and general location of Luoyang's city, and even obtained important information about the weaknesses of Luoyang's city defense.
The city of Luoyang is eight miles in circumference and is surrounded by four rivers: the Han River to the east, the Luo River to the south, the Jian River to the west, and the Gu River to the north.
Outside the city, water was diverted to surround the city, and a three-foot-wide moat was dug. The city wall was covered with blue bricks in the sixth year of Hongwu. Thirty-nine enemy towers were built on the city, making it a strong city that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The weakness of Luoyang that Zhang Yichuan relied on was the four-foot-wide moat.
Three feet wide, it is more of a moat than a moat.
It's okay for an ordinary city, but it's very narrow for Luoyang, a capital city with crisscrossing rivers and convenient water diversion.
But it is also excusable.
After all, this is an ancient city that was covered with bricks in the sixth year of Hongwu. Covering it with bricks can greatly enhance the city's defense and also make expansion difficult.
Expansion requires money. In fact, the expansion of many cities is not done by the officials in charge who think it is time to expand.
In fact, it is the same everywhere in the world, from the county and state capitals to the six ministries of the imperial court. Money is spent on everything, and the finances are never enough.
Who would be free to build a city wall unless absolutely necessary?
More often than not, the earthen city wall without bricks has not experienced war for decades or even hundreds of years, and has been eroded by rain and snow. When the people dig up the earth to build houses, it collapses when it should, and collapses when it should.
It has long lost its original defense capabilities. Even so, people are out of sight and out of mind.
It wasn't until a new official who wanted to do something big came to take office, and the city wall was really an eyesore, that he convened the gentry to discuss building another wall.
In this way, there is no need to demolish walls, the project volume is relatively small, the cost is not high, and it is easier for all parties to accept it.
After the city wall is covered with bricks, it is not easy to expand it.
Whoever digs out the soil belongs to the same person. Common people, you dig a cart and I dig a cart, and the city wall will not look like it after a few years.
The rammed earth walls that are not covered with bricks in various counties can maintain their appearance only because they are reform-through-labor prisoners.
It is also an old tradition for criminals to build city walls and undergo labor reform. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was called Chengdan.
But city bricks are different from rammed earth. Bluestone ones are difficult to steal, and they are very conspicuous if broken. What's more, Luoyang is still a prefecture-county annex. The prefect or county magistrate will be willing to repair and mend the city walls regardless of who takes office.
Look better.
Therefore, the urban construction of Luoyang City has not changed much since the Ming Dynasty.
By the Chongzhen year, the city was still as it had been built in the Hongwu year.
This means that this city is outdated, and very outdated.
Its defensive imaginary enemy was the enemy during the Hongwu period.
The moat is narrower but sufficient.
But more than two hundred years later during the Hongwu period, the range of muskets and artillery was already very far, and the narrow moat of this city was not enough to see.
In addition, Luoyang is also a big city. Outside the city wall with a circumference of more than eight miles, outside the river moat several feet wide, and in the suburbs of the four gates, there are rows of residential buildings, houses, courtyards, pavilions, and temples.
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The village buildings two or three miles outside the city are all connected together, and they are prosperous and crowded.
This is the greatest confidence that Zhang Yichuan dares to lead troops to Luoyang and is bound to win.
It was difficult for the Ming army to clear the country in Luoyang, so those buildings were the biggest help in filling in the trenches.
It can be used as a bunker to defend against cannons and guns, and can be easily dismantled and used as bricks, tiles, wood and stones to fill in the moat.
As long as the trenches are filled and the 20,000 peasant troops surround and fight with the help of civilian houses outside the city, the defenders on the city wall will not have much advantage, and the fall of the city will only be a matter of time.
but!
After Zhang Yichuan came over, he realized that he could not find the Luoyang city.
In other words, Luoyang City is still in that position, but it is blocked by something.
Specifically, there was an extra city wall outside Luoyang City. Zhang Yichuan sent cavalry to explore the route along the wall. After eating, the cavalry had not returned yet.
Finally, after waiting for nearly an hour, the cavalry hurriedly came back to report that Luoyang... had expanded its outer city.
Outside the original circumference of Duofu City, which was eight miles long, people built a rammed earth wall more than thirty miles long to include and protect all the villages, gardens, and temples outside Luoyang.
The current Luoyang Outer City is not surrounded by a narrow moat. Instead, the four rivers in the southeast, northwest and northwest of Luoyang are used as moats.
How the hell do you fight this?
Zhang Yichuan said to himself: Damn, the last time I came to this ghost place, it wasn’t like this!
In fact, this was his illusion. The expansion of Luoyang City began in the fourth year of Chongzhen.
It's just that when Zhang Yichuan passed through Henan Prefecture last time, part of this high wall was still unfinished, and they didn't attack Luoyang, so they were not aware of this huge city defense project.
Since the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign, the peasant army that has sprung up in Shaanxi and Shanxi has made Henan officials aware of a sense of crisis.
After all, the moat in Luoyang City is indeed as narrow as a toy. The moat is only three or four feet wide, and any peasant army can easily fill it up.
The second reason is that the forts all over Henan are attacking each other, and the third reason is that the victims of the two floods have become the biggest factor of instability in the area.
In view of the importance of King Fu as an imperial uncle in the Chongzhen Dynasty, and in order to solve the practical problems in Henan, local officials in Henan Prefecture planned a work-for-relief program.
Officials took this opportunity to build a thirty-three-mile earth wall around Luoyang, almost along the maximum range of the artillery fire on the Luoyang city wall, as the outer city of Luoyang.
This is a long and intimidating wall.
However, Zhang Yichuan conquered cities and territories, killed famous kings, his troops, military strength, and experience have all increased tremendously, and his fighting spirit is at its best.
If it's just up to the high wall, Zhang Yichuan has nothing to be afraid of.
At this time, let alone a high wall in front of him, he would not be afraid even if Zuo Liangyu was placed on the city wall.
What really made him realize that the speculation in Liu Chengzong's letter was reasonable was that the fighting spirit of the Luoyang defenders was not right.
Since there is a high wall in Luoyang, he has to find a way to break through the high wall. To break through the high wall, he must first build a pontoon bridge on the river.
This is also the reason why Zhang Yichuan set up his camp on Zhoushan Mountain. He had to cut down the trees first and obtain materials for building a pontoon bridge.
Unexpectedly, before he launched an attack on Luoyang, the defenders of Luoyang rushed out to kill him.
Three hundred men, well-armed.
For two days in a row, they attacked three times. They did not take the drawbridge, but lowered themselves from the city wall. They swam across the river with their armor on their backs. When they crossed the river, when they saw people stretching their bows, they shot, and when they drew their swords, they cut.
The fighting spirit was stronger than that of Zuo Liangyu's soldiers, and they beat the two newly formed militia battalions he had besieged on the west bank of the Jian River to the point where they ran all over the ground with their heads in their hands.
Even Zhang Yichuan on the mountain thought his subordinates were joking with him when he received the news.
I have never heard of any famous generals in Luoyang City. Why are these Luoyang soldiers so fierce?
Until this morning, Zhang Yichuan asked General Ke Tianhu to go into battle in person, supervising him to mark the next battalion of elite soldiers, surrounded the three hundred people, and beat them with artillery and guns, but he was still unable to persuade them to surrender.
The last battalion of more than 2,000 people pressed down on them, shooting with arrows, cutting with knives, and fighting at close quarters. It took a whole morning to completely annihilate the 300 people and capture them, but only seven of them could be surrendered.
Zhang Yichuan was frightened by his fighting spirit. What a great soldier and general.
If there were ten thousand people in the city, let alone Zhang Yichuan, he would not be able to conquer Luoyang City, even if Liu Chengzong came in person, he would not be able to conquer it.
After finally interrogating the prisoners, it was discovered that these people were not elite heavenly soldiers, or even officers and soldiers at all. Instead, they were released felons and civilian warriors from Luoyang City.
Their fundraiser is King Fu Zhu Changxun.
Zhu Changxun was a person who could not be ignored in the Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, and Chongzhen dynasties of the Ming Dynasty.
In other words, after Wanli, he was the most noble person in the world, and the emperor was also ranked behind.
Because he was Wanli's favorite son, he even wanted to dethrone his eldest son and establish a younger son for him, and wanted to make him a prince.
Around this incident, a national dispute broke out in the Ming Dynasty that lasted for fifteen years.
In those fifteen years, Wanli forced out four chief ministers and more than ten officials in the six departments, involving more than 300 officials from the capital and local officials. More than 100 of them were dismissed, dismissed, and reassigned.
In the end, Wanli lost and still made his eldest son Zhu Changluo the crown prince, while Zhu Changxun was made Prince Fu. In retaliation, Wanli began to neglect his government.
But Zhu Changxun did not lose.
In addition to not allowing Wanli to abolish his elders and establish younger ones, the courtiers made concessions and compromises in almost all other aspects, creating a detached prince of Fufan.
He still lived in the Forbidden City for a full thirteen years, and it was not until the 42nd year of Wanli that he conquered Luoyang.
Although he failed to inherit the throne, he gained part of the power in the world, which to some extent even surpassed that of the emperor.
The vassal states generally relied on clan lumi and real estate, and the clan lumi was always insufficient due to local financial problems. Therefore, most vassal states would levy excessive taxes on the private sector in terms of real estate.
But Fu Fan is different.
Zhu Changxun's largest property income was the Ming Dynasty's national tax.
Before King Fu came to feudal vassal, Wanli sealed part of the income from various miscellaneous taxes along the river in Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Nanjing Yingtian, Taiping Prefecture, and the four prefectures, as well as Sichuan salt wells, to Fu.
In other words, these national taxes that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty had nothing to do with the court after Wanli, and became the private property of King Fu, which also extended the power of the Fu clan to southern Zhili.
At this point, although Zhu Changxun did not obtain the throne, he owned more private property than Zhu Changluo who obtained the throne.
The news of King Wan'an's death greatly stimulated King Fu.
This prompted him to send people to the court and Kaifeng to ask for help as soon as he learned that Yongning had been captured. At the same time, he held a banquet in the royal city to entertain civil and military officials in Luoyang City.
That night, a piece of cake was drawn that said, "To defend Luoyang, Fu Fan will send out one hundred thousand taels of silver for the labor force, and report to the court to ensure that you will be promoted to officials and nobles."
However, he still did not donate any money. Instead, after discussing with the governor Chen Biqian, he released the prisoners with their families in the city. He also recruited a group of warriors from the city at a high price to form a death squad and went out of the city to attack Zhang Yichuan.
The spirit intended to kill Zhang Yichuan would boost the morale of the Luoyang defenders.
Those prisoners and Minzhuang were fighting to the death outside the city. Most of them chose to die rather than surrender. There was no other complicated reason. It was because King Fu had given enough money.
If you go to war, you will be rewarded fifty taels of silver to your family members; if you die in battle, you will be rewarded fifty taels of silver to your family members.
When you give money, you pay for your life.
Originally faced with the crazy offensive of the Ming army, Zhang Yichuan was a little frightened and thought of retreating.
But after finding out from the captives that these were dead soldiers recruited by King Fu with huge sums of money, he felt relieved.
With fifteen thousand taels, we went out and fought three games. When we returned, everyone was dead. According to the agreement, Mr. Fu Wang had to pay another fifteen thousand taels.
Zhang Yichuan couldn't figure out how Mr. Fu Wang's head grew. If it were him, he would definitely ask for a reward of fifty taels of silver for killing an enemy, rather than a reward of one hundred taels of silver for killing an enemy.
Now that it's all right, the 30,000 taels of offensive was dismantled by him in one morning. Can King Fu continue to recruit people who dare to die?
Zhang Yichuan didn't know, but he knew that if King Fu, who was extremely wealthy in the country, only had this ability, then he was determined to go to Luoyang City, and he could beat King Fu to bankruptcy!