In the Zhangjiakou Fort, Li Xingzhi was patrolling on horseback with great satisfaction.
Zhangjiabao is not big, and there are not many residents in the fort. The small fort is almost occupied by various Shanxi merchants' shops. However, at this time, there are almost no clerks in the shops. I heard that Li Xing's troops defeated the local army.
, all the people in the major business houses fled.
The new recruits of the Trap Regiment searched yard after yard and quickly seized a large amount of supplies.
"Second General, four thousand jin of rice, three thousand kilograms of saltpeter, and four thousand kilograms of sulfur were seized from the Jin family's business."
Li Xing became interested and said, "Go and have a look."
Entering the Jin family's yard, Li Xing saw a warehouse full of grain, all of which was high-quality new rice. If these rice were transported to Liaodong, he didn't know how many Tatars would be fed.
But what Li Xing is most interested in is the saltpeter. As the Huben Army continues to expand in recent years, more and more saltpeter gunpowder is consumed, and the price of saltpeter in Tianjin is getting higher and higher. All the original purchase channels for merchants are gradually unable to satisfy them.
The training needs of the Huben Army. Especially after the huge expansion of the Huben Army last year, the saltpeter in Tianjin has become unavailable even with money.
In order to obtain saltpeter, Li Zhi had to organize a caravan to go to the south to purchase. However, there were bandits in Henan and the gentry in southern Zhili were hostile to Li Zhi. The caravan going out to purchase encountered many difficulties and the harvest was not great.
I never expected that I could buy saltpeter in Zhangjiakou.
Li Xing walked to the jars of saltpeter, took out some powder, and walked out.
"Find a place with a fire!"
The soldiers searched around and found a kitchen, where they lit firewood. Li Xing walked to the firewood, took out some saltpeter powder and threw it on the fire. There was only a bang, and a purple light appeared on the flame.
Li Xing took out some more charcoal and threw the saltpeter powder onto the red-hot charcoal. The charcoal immediately spurted flames in all directions and burned violently like a deflagration.
Li Xing scolded: "Thieves kill talents. This saltpeter is better than the saltpeter we use in Tianjin. These Shanxi merchants are really killable."
Li Xing was cursing there when he saw a personal guard running in: "Second General, two cannons were found in the Fan family's warehouse."
Li Xing was stunned.
"And cannons?"
The guard nodded and took Li Xing to the Fan family's business. After entering the grand courtyard gate and entering the warehouse, he turned around and saw two huge doors behind a pile of rice.
Bronze cannon.
The cannon weighed three or four thousand kilograms, was eight or nine feet long, and was equipped with a complete cannon carriage. The Hongyi cannon cast in the Ming Dynasty did not have such a cannon carriage. This was probably a bronze cannon cast by the Macao people or the Dutch.
Li Xing secretly thought that the hands and eyes of these Shanxi merchants really reached the sky.
"Each of these Shanxi merchants can be cut into pieces with a thousand swords."
After a while, another soldier came to report: "I found two hundred fine Liaodong mink skins!"
Li Xing became interested again, clapped his hands and said, "Go and have a look!"
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In the city of Datong, there was a bustle of people and horses, with chickens flying and dogs barking.
The other Shanxi merchants did not expect that the Wang family actually let Li Zhi's troops enter the city. They all went crazy and cursed desperately.
Zhangjiakou Fort only stored a batch of goods with limited value, so Shanxi merchants abandoned the city and ran away. The place where Shanxi merchants really stored a large amount of goods was in big cities like Datong.
Of course, Wang Pu's Datong Wang Family is the most powerful in Datong City, but in addition there are the Liang Family, Tian Family, Zhai Family, and Huang Family. These firms are the actual masters of Shanxi and have been doing business in Datong for hundreds of years.
, I don’t know how much property was hidden in the city. At this moment, I suddenly saw Li Zhi’s soldiers and horses rushing in. The men and horses of these merchants were unwilling to hand over the property, and they and the servants held weapons and resisted behind the courtyard gate.
Several battalions of local soldiers and horses in the city were unwilling to admit defeat and prepared to fight with the Tiger Army in the streets and alleys.
According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the General Soldier has no jurisdiction over other soldiers and horses in peacetime, and only has the power to control during wartime. On weekdays, the generals of these battalions and guerrillas do not listen to the Chief Soldier Wang Pu. Instead, they are long-term
Marry and form alliances with other Shanxi merchant families, and become the people of those Shanxi merchants to compete with the Wang family in Datong City.
So when Wang Pu sent Zheng Kaicheng's army, which numbered only 5,000, into the city, the local camp troops prepared to fight Zheng Kaicheng's army in the streets.
However, these people are not a problem in front of the bandits who are armed to the teeth.
Gunshots rang out from everywhere in the city. They crackled like firecrackers during the New Year and kept going off.
Zheng Kaicheng was riding on his horse and was walking towards the Tian family's business building when he saw thousands of local soldiers rushing towards the road ahead.
These battalion soldiers were in ragged clothes and held crude weapons in their hands. However, under the supervision of the guards, these battalion soldiers kept moving forward. When they reached 300 steps in front of the Polu Division, the battalion soldiers raised their weapons
With the spear and broadsword in his hand, he rushed towards the Polu division.
"kill!"
"Kill these Tianjin people!"
The soldiers of the Polu Division simply formed a three-row salvo formation. The street was only about ten meters wide, but the soldiers of the Polu Division arranged more than ninety people in the three-row firing formation. Waiting on the street
The soldiers of the Datong Battalion rushed within 200 meters, and the soldiers of the Polu Division opened fire.
The crackling sound of gunfire was like the sound of popping beans, constantly ringing in the streets. The rushing soldiers were like straw cut by a scythe, screaming one after another. Bloody arrows spurted from their bodies.
Or the blood mist fell to the ground, twitching and moaning on the not-so-clean ground.
The Polu Division's three-row firing array fired forward every five seconds. After the three-row firing, dozens of corpses had fallen on the street in front, and blood flowed into rivers.
But the round firing did not end there, it continued. The soldiers in the first row squatting down to load the ammunition quickly completed the loading - in fact, for these veterans, there was no need to clear the chamber due to the use of smokeless gunpowder.
It only takes them twelve or three seconds to reload.
The soldiers in the first row stood up again and shot at the Datong camp soldiers in front. More than a dozen people screamed and fell down, bleeding all over the ground.
Only then did the battalion soldiers understand the power of these Tiger and Ben Army soldiers - the dense formation of the Tiger and Ben Army soldiers on this narrow street was extremely difficult to break through, because each Tiger Army soldier only occupied half a meter of separation, and the density of firepower was too high.
The battalion soldiers rushed forward with all their strength, but the people behind them fell down before they could take a few steps forward.
Such casualties were not something the local army could bear. More than a thousand people lost their fighting spirit and ran away screaming.
Hundreds of soldiers of the Polu Division stopped paying attention to the shrimp soldiers and crab generals and walked up to the Tian family's business.
The shop was built very grandly, with a double-eaves gatehouse with carved beams and painted beams, and two white marble stone lions standing at the door. Zheng Kaicheng was looking at the gatehouse when he saw five tough men suddenly standing on the courtyard walls on both sides of the gate.
The servants held bows and arrows and bent their bows to shoot at Zheng Kaicheng.
"General, be careful!"
Two of Zheng Kaicheng's personal guards threw Zheng Kaicheng to the ground.
