In the current Laizhou City, the Ming army and Qingzhuang defending have reached more than 20,000 people. The two governors Xu Congzhi and Xie Lian, plus the Laizhou magistrate Zhu Wannian, and the general Yang Yufan, four officials, are in charge of guarding a city gate.
The morale in the city was quite high.
Moreover, the preparation work of Zhu Wannian, the prefect of Laizhou, was quite good. There were sufficient grain, grass, ordnance and defense materials in the city. Facing more than 30,000 rebels outside the city, in the eyes of ordinary people, it should be said that it was more than enough to defend the city.
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In fact, it is not. Unlike the impregnable Dengzhou City, the terrain of Laizhou City is not very dangerous. Moreover, Laizhou City was rebuilt as a new city in the 26th year of Wanli. Its city walls are three feet and five feet high and the foundation is two feet thick.
It is four feet long and has four city gates. Below the city is a moat, two feet deep and four feet wide.
It was also because of the guidance of Sun Yuanhua, a firearms expert, that Laizhou City was built with reference to Western city building methods and built with forts. And as another logistics base in Liaodong, the city had sufficient food, grass, and weapons.
But the disadvantage is that there are few heavy firearms, most of which are light artillery produced by the Ming Dynasty, and there are not many soldiers who know how to operate artillery. In comparison, the artillery of the rebels outside the city had been trained by Portuguese officers before the rebellion.
During the training, the artillery fire was particularly accurate. Especially for stationary targets, bombarding the crenellations of the city wall was as easy as target practice.
In order to attack Laizhou City, the rebels mobilized almost all the Hongyi artillery and bombarded Laizhou City from all sides. The power of this artillery was so powerful that the Ming army standing on Laizhou City could hardly raise their heads.
The rebels, who were well aware of the power of artillery, thought that the Ming army in the city had lost the courage to defend the city, so they began to fill in the moat and prepare to transport siege equipment.
But what I didn't expect was that when the rebels who filled up the moat approached the city wall, a large number of Ming troops would always appear on the seemingly deserted city wall. Under the fire of the Ming army's firecrackers and bows and arrows, the result was that
The rebels suffered a large number of casualties. After repeated attempts, the rebels realized that they had underestimated the willpower of the defenders in Laizhou City.
So the rebels, who suffered a small setback in the first battle, took a rest. They divided their forces to conquer Pingdu and then returned to attack Laizhou. The looting in Pingdu boosted the morale of the entire rebel army. What is even more surprising is that
Yes, the number of rebels attacking the city increased. Seeing the strength of the rebels, bandits and refugees nearby came to surrender. The number of rebels attacking the city soon exceeded 40,000, and was heading towards 50,000.
The numbers are approaching.
The rebels also summarized the reasons why the first siege of the city was unfavorable. They decided to concentrate their firepower and focus all artillery fire on the northeast corner of the city. Under the cover of artillery fire, the rebels continued to dig tunnels, hoping to attack the city.
In this regard, the defenders in the city also took the right medicine. Large vats were buried at regular intervals along the city wall so that blind people could hear the direction of the tunnels. Then the defenders poured water into the tunnels and drowned the enemy soldiers. Who
Are you saying that blind people are useless in war?
But the rebels were not discouraged at all. The rebels once again sent troops to dig tunnels around the city. After digging a large hole, they filled a coffin with gunpowder and placed it in it. They fired it and set it on fire. After the explosion, the city wall collapsed several feet.
But when the rebels swarmed in from the gap in the city wall, the well-prepared defenders poured boiling oil on the influx of rebels, and then threw down torches. The rebels died under the blazing flames. Xu Congzhi and others ordered people to
Drop the sandbags you have prepared to plug the gap.
The defenders of Laizhou City were not just passively beaten, they were also extremely mobile and flexible. At night, Xu Congzhi and others sent death squads to sneak out of the city and attack from several directions, destroying many rebel artillery pieces and achieving considerable success.
Capture.
At this time, General Peng Youmo of the Shenji Battalion, who had arrived from the Beijing camp, was not afraid of the enemy in Qingzhou like his colleagues. He took more than 300 officers and soldiers of the Shenji Battalion and took advantage of the darkness of night to decisively follow the enemy.
The rebels broke into Laizhou City through a gap in the encirclement outside the city.
Such an arrival of the first reinforcements greatly boosted the morale in the city. More importantly, Peng Youmo brought firearms experts from the Shenji Battalion. They strengthened and improved the artillery technology and improved the defenders' gunnery skills.
level. As a result, the artillery fire in the city gradually suppressed the rebel artillery fire.
Later, during a night sneak attack by the rebels, General Peng Youmo led his troops to repulse three consecutive rebel attacks. The soldiers and civilians of Laizhou praised his actions as "reinvention". This was the first time that the balance of victory and defeat tipped the scales to the rebels in Laizhou City.
The Ming army tilted over.
While the soldiers and civilians were fighting bloody battles in Laizhou City, the war of words in the court to suppress officials from the two factions became more and more intense.
Sun Yuanhua, who was captured at the time, once showed his interests and righteousness to Kong Youde and other rebel generals. Faced with Sun Yuanhua's persuasion, Kong Youde showed a change of heart and asked for peace.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen still tended to recruit peace. Because at that time there were civil unrests in various places in the Ming Dynasty, and the Jin army outside the pass was besieging Dalinghe City. The entire court was spending money everywhere, and its military strength was also stretched. If it could recruit peace, then at least it could
Ease the current dilemma.
In addition, the officials headed by the Chief Assistant Zhou Yanru, in order to keep their official positions and rescue Sun Yuanhua and other close associates, they also tried their best to recruit the rebels. After all, the Chief Assistant had a high official position, so in the court, they recruited
The opinions of Sun Yuanhua prevailed. Therefore, the imperial court also agreed to punish Sun Yuanhua.
But then, an incredible scene happened again. Shandong Governor Wang Daochun secretly hid the edict, and the rebels revolted on the grounds that they had been unable to recruit for a long time.
Sun Yuanhua once again persuaded the rebels with earnest words and asked him to return to the court and tell the truth. But when Sun Yuanhua returned to Beijing, Wang Daochun sent troops to attack the rebels, causing the rebels to attack Laizhou and the chaos expanded.
In later history, some historians pointed out: If Wang Daochun had not acted without authorization, Sun Yuanhua's recruitment might have been successful. This situation would not have reached the uncontrollable situation that was to follow.
In their view, the rebellion of Kong Youde and other rebels seemed to be largely blamed on Wang Daochun's treachery. And Sun Yuanhua's subsequent death was completely unjust.
On the surface, the words of these historians seem to make sense. Let’s take a look at the remarks in Wang Daochun’s memorial.
""The thieves used to caress me one day, and six cities fell with one care, and Dengzhou was destroyed with another care, and Huang County was lost with three caress, and now Laizhou is besieged with four caress. Our army has been defeated many times, can we resume the war? Begging for speed?
Send out a large army to save this dangerous land."
For the rebels who have become accustomed to betrayal, what reason does Wang Daochun have to believe in their promise to accept recruitment?
In the author's opinion, the most likely reason that Kong Youde and others asked for the imperial court's appeasement was a delaying tactic. When the rebels are fully prepared, they will definitely rebel again. The ambitions of these careerists have already risen, and they also hope that they will take advantage of them again.
Have you tempered your ambitions?
But on the other hand, Wang Daochun's behavior of disobeying the imperial decree and secretly hiding the edict should be severely punished. No matter how correct Wang Daochun's personal actions are, he should not disobey the imperial decree. This is the modern
It means "reserve personal opinions, but resolutely obey the organization".
You must know that the truth may indeed lie on the side of a few individuals on something. But in most cases, the perspective of the officials at the bottom is narrow, and what they think is right is also local.
The court often considers the overall situation when considering issues. What is right locally may be wrong in the overall situation. This situation often happens.
If everyone follows the personal opinions of the people below, how can we ensure the smooth flow of government orders? So from this incident we can see how chaotic the communication and execution of government orders in the Ming Dynasty was at that time!
So in this way, the memorials of Sun Yuanhua and Wang Daochun made the whole court debate chaotic.
The officials who advocated recruiting said: It was the actions of Wang Daochun and other officials who disobeyed the imperial decree that led to the failure to recruit the rebels. As long as suitable officials are sent to recruit again, the recruitment should be successful.
Officials who advocated encirclement and suppression said: The rebels have repeatedly attacked and rebelled twice and three times, which shows the rebels' wolfish ambitions. Therefore, they should give up the illusion of recruiting the rebels, mobilize a large army, and defeat the rebels who are in the inner circle of the Ming Dynasty.
Wipe it out cleanly.
However, because Wen Tiren, Zhou Yanru's chief political enemy, remained silent, those officials who advocated encirclement and suppression were leaderless and could not be well organized. Therefore, under the unified voice of the officials who advocated recruiting and appeasing, Emperor Chongzhen once again leaned towards
In order to appease the rebels, officials were sent to appease the rebels.
At this time, the imperial court sent Zhang Guochen, the highest-ranking Liao civil official, to appease the rebels. Zhang Guochen was once again beguiled by the rebels' false surrender. He ordered the soldiers and civilians in Laizhou City and reinforcements not to go to war without authorization, so as not to damage the appeasement bureau.