When Mao Wenlong, who founded Dongjiang Town, was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, Dongjiang Town immediately fell into a leaderless situation. Military generals at all levels mobilized their own forces. The ups and downs of these forces are not the focus of this book, but as long as we understand,
The current main forces in Dongjiang Town are enough.
The current nominal leader of Dongjiang Town is General Huang Long. However, because he often deducted military pay, and even caused a mutiny in Dongjiang Town because of the withholding of military pay, except for Huang Long's own direct lineage, the other generals in Dongjiang Town are all related to Huang Long.
It's a combination of appearance and detachment.
Under Huanglong, the most powerful ones are Kong Youde and Monk Geng Zhongming of the "Shandong Three Miners". Of course, there are also some smaller forces, such as Li Jiucheng who encouraged Kong Youde to rebel this time, through his son Qianzong Li Yingyuan.
The forces under his control were the ones who forced Kong Youde into the palace in Wuqiao.
Therefore, after the Wuqiao Mutiny, two opinions emerged among Kong Youde's rebels. One was led by Kong Youde. Their opinion was to give up as soon as they could. Now that they had made enough money, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, came to recruit them again.
I just took advantage of the opportunity to accept the recruitment and clean myself up.
The other group is led by the father and son Li Jiucheng and Li Yingyuan. They believe that the imperial court's recruitment is a temporary measure. When the situation stabilizes, the imperial court will definitely settle accounts with these rebellious Dongjiang Town troops in the future.
Li Jiucheng and Li Yingyuan's concerns are also justified. Because this mutiny killed too many civil servants, gentry and common people, and captured too many cities. It caused such huge consequences, so someone must take the blame!
Therefore, although Kong Youde's forces had the upper hand among the rebels, the opinions of Li Jiucheng and Li Yingyuan occupied the main market.
And what happened next was the defeat of the Shandong encirclement and suppression army and the rapid increase of the rebel army from more than 2,000 to more than 5,000 people. Therefore, the confidence of the rebels immediately expanded greatly, and their thinking immediately became unified.
Got up.
But after thinking about it, we still need an action plan. So after discussion, these rebels decided to return to and occupy Dengzhou. Through the sea passage between Dengzhou and Dongjiang Town, they integrated all the strength of Dongjiang Town.
In this way, if you advance, you can use Dengzhou as a base to attack the surrounding state capitals; if you defend, you can also use warships to retreat to Dongjiang Town when the army is pressing down and the situation is unfavorable. Emperor Shan Gao is gone.
Therefore, Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng immediately decided to feign surrender. Then they began to perform. They cried bitterly in front of the surrender envoys sent by Denglai Governor Sun Yuanhua and Shandong Governor Yu Dacheng, expressing their determination to change their past mistakes, and
Those envoys were given generous gifts.
Then, the rebel army seemed to follow the route arranged by Sun Yuanhua and drove towards Dengzhou City. This performance was so successful that basically all the officials were kept in the dark and they were all high-spirited.
I am happily waiting for this rebel army to arrive in Dengzhou to be reorganized.
But there was still one official who kept a clear head. When Kong Youde passed through Laizhou Prefecture, Zhu Wancheng, the prefect of Laizhou who had a close relationship with Kong Youde in the past, closed the city gate tightly and let Kong Youde go around the city. He had already seen through Kong Youde's trick.
This move is quite important, because in the plan of Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng, they also want to occupy Laizhou City. Because Laizhou City controls the exit of the Jiaodong Peninsula. Once Laizhou City is occupied, the rebels will be able to attack at will in all parts of Shandong.
That will occupy an absolutely proactive position strategically.
Seeing that Laizhou City was heavily defended, Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng could only go around the city because at this time, it was not yet time for them to reveal their true colors.
It was not until they arrived at the foot of Dengzhou City that Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng showed their fangs, and they immediately began to attack Dengzhou City.
The famous Ming Dynasty general Qi Jiguang inherited the post of commander of Dengzhou Guard. Therefore, the only thing Qi Jiguang's ancestors did for generations was to build and strengthen Dengzhou City.
Later, because it was necessary to prevent Japanese pirates from invading, and later because it was necessary to support the Liaodong Ming Army and the Hou Jin Army in their battles, the entire Dengzhou City was reinforced again. At that time, Dengzhou City had become one of the best military ports in the Ming Dynasty.
The town is heavy.
But this is not over yet. When firearms expert Sun Yuanhua took office as the governor of Dengzhou, he once again presided over the reinforcement of Dengzhou City. The entire Dengzhou City wall was reinforced and thickened enough to withstand twelve-pound general cannons and ten-pound cannons.
The size of a six-pounder cannon.
Moreover, the location of Dengzhou City is also quite good. Dengzhou City is surrounded by land walls built on the mountain cliffs on the seaside on three sides, which can make it difficult for the enemy to attack the city.
The most advanced Western artillery built by Sun Yuanhua at the time was lined up at the top of the city. On one side was a water city with an inner harbor and a small sea where warships could be parked. The entire Dengzhou city could be said to be impregnable in the cold weapon era.
(Why the Cold Weapon Age is added will be described in detail later in the article.)
In Dengzhou City, there were three main garrison armies: one was the Zhejiang army led by Zhang Keda, the commander-in-chief of Dengzhou. Zhang Keda was a rare military theorist among the generals of the Ming army. He could be said to be both civil and military.
His commanding skills are absolutely remarkable.
The Zhejiang soldiers are an army with the tradition of the Qi family army. Although the Zhejiang soldiers at this time are not as brave and good at fighting as Qi Jiguang's era, their overall strength is still second to none among the Ming armies at that time. It should be said that just looking at infantry combat, Zhejiang soldiers
The combat effectiveness of the soldiers is much higher than that of the Liao soldiers, who have the strongest overall combat effectiveness;
The second is the Portuguese officer corps that taught the Ming army how to operate Western firearms. This Portuguese officer corps trained Sun Yuanhua to a firearms unit with the most combat effectiveness in the Far East at that time. Coupled with the artillery and muskets built under the leadership of Sun Yuanhua, this unit's
The combat effectiveness of firearms could definitely surpass the Far East at that time;
The third is the Liaodong soldiers who came from the same background as Kong Youde's rebels.
With a solid city and powerful soldiers, Sun Yuanhua should be able to sit back and relax. But let's take a look at what Sun Yuanhua did next.
At this time, Kong Youde's rebel army had swelled to more than 7,000 people. However, his core troops were still the more than 2,000 Liao soldiers during the Wuqiao Mutiny. Therefore, the Dengzhou City officials who knew Kong Youde's true strength decided to let Dengzhou
General Zhang Keda led his troops out of the city first to fight against Kong Youde's rebels.
But even if the matter reached this point, Sun Yuanhua had not given up the idea of ​​recruiting the rebels. This also restricted his own hands and feet, and he did not dare to let go and fight the rebels resolutely.
After Zhang Keda's Zhejiang Army had a taste of victory, Sun Yuanhua immediately ordered a truce. Sun Yuanhua still thought of using war to promote appeasement. In his opinion, Kong Youde's rebels, who had suffered a defeat, should honestly accept appeasement.
But this move was completely letting the tiger go back to the mountain. Kong Youde's rebels seized this opportunity and immediately sent Zijian to Zhang Ke's army to persuade the Liao soldiers to rebel. So in the next battle, they encountered Zhang Ke's army who rebelled and suffered a heavy blow.
A great defeat. At the same time, rebels and captured Liao soldiers joined the rebels one after another, and Kong Youde's rebel army suddenly expanded to more than 10,000 people.
Zhang Keda, who fled alone, fled back to Dengzhou City with only the remaining Zhejiang soldiers. In Dengzhou City, the Zhejiang soldiers were basically exhausted.
But before Sun Yuanhua could get over his shock, another disturbance occurred in Dengzhou City.