Hu Jisao patted his shoulder and was about to say something more, but suddenly, shouts rang out from the north of the city.
‘What’s going on? Why are there sudden shouts in the north of the city? Could it be that there are a lot of gangsters robbing people?’ Hu Jiya thought.
"Your Majesty, I will go on inspection right away." Cong Dao said loudly, then mounted his horse and hurried over. But before he set off, a messenger ran over here with a look of panic on his face, shouting loudly along the way: "The Ming army attacked the city! The Ming army attacked the city together with the rebellious soldiers!"
"What! The Ming army has attacked now?" Hu Jisao asked in disbelief.
…
…
An hour ago, thirty miles northwest of Shenglong City.
"Put down your weapons." Zhen Weitong looked at the Ming soldiers who were surrounding them with muskets pointed at them, and said to his soldiers.
After listening to his words, these soldiers looked at the surrounding Ming troops. They all threw their weapons to the ground and raised their hands. A few of them did not follow his orders and were immediately named and shot by the Ming troops.
Those surrounding them were naturally Xu Jingchang's troops sent by Zhang Fu to pursue Annan's defeated army.
After conquering Duobang City, Zhang Fu had too many troops defeated. He was worried that if they were blocked in the city, they would fight like trapped animals and cause too many casualties to the Ming army. Moreover, the military strategy had a cloud to surround three towers, so he did not immediately send troops to occupy it. Instead, wait for most of the defeated soldiers to escape from the city before occupying the east gate to block the few remaining defeated soldiers. The last defeated soldiers were greedy and looted the city before escaping. Kill them. Just in time to get a lot of money.
After Zhang Fu occupied the east city gate, he sent Xu Jingchang to command Ben Qianhu and Nie Yi's Jiangzhou Qianhu to pursue them. Thirty to forty thousand soldiers escaped from the city. If Annan's generals were very capable, they might be able to regroup. Organize; even if they cannot all be organized, thousands of soldiers and horses can be restored to order, which will be very detrimental to their subsequent attack on Thang Long City. Therefore, troops must be sent to pursue them and they cannot be allowed to stop and rest.
After Xu Jingchang led his troops to chase out of Duobang City, he was chasing the Annan soldiers normally, but unexpectedly he discovered the artillery team led by Zhen Weitong who was retreating. How could Xu Jingchang miss this opportunity to make a contribution, and immediately led his troops to pursue , and after another battle, Zhen Weitong was forced to surrender.
At this time, Xu Jingchang smiled proudly and said to Nie Yi: "Nie Yi, take your men and horses over there, go around these people and check whether the cannon is intact. If the cannon is okay, let them go; if not, If the artillery fails, they will all be executed."
After hearing this, Zhen Weitong trembled, raised her head and looked at Xu Jingchang, as if blaming him for breaking his promise: just now he had clearly promised to spare their lives as long as they surrendered.
Xu Jingchang did not look at him. He stared closely at Nie Yi, watching him carefully check whether the eleven cannons were intact. After checking them all, he said: "They are all in good condition."
Xu Jingchang breathed a sigh of relief and said to Zhen Weitong: "Okay, you can survive. You come over immediately in groups of ten, no more, no less." He wanted to move their hands and feet into groups of ten. Tie them together with ropes to prevent them from escaping or revolting.
Unexpectedly, Zhen Weitong suddenly said: "General Xu is going to escort us back to Duobang City?"
"Yes. You can see the walls of Thang Long City from here. It's time for me to lead my troops back. Besides, I have captured these eleven cannons. I will definitely get rewards when I take them back. But I can't let Hu Ji Yao's generals do it again. Grab it back."
"By the way, don't call me general. Our Ming Dynasty is different from your Annan. You have to be at least a deputy general to be called a general. If I accept your title of general, it will be a sin of overstepping." Xu Jingchang said to himself The soldier said something while giving instructions.
"Master Xu," Zhen Weitong immediately changed his words: "Master Xu, less than thirty miles to the south is Shenglong City."
"Of course I know about this, so I have to lead my troops back quickly to prevent the cannon from being taken back by the soldiers in Shenglong City. I have just said it." Xu Jingchang said with a somewhat impatient tone. If it weren't for Zhen Weitong After all, he was still an official, and he surrendered just now. He had already knocked him unconscious and left him to die in the wilderness to silence him.
"Sir, why don't you attack Shenglong City? Shenglong City is empty and unprepared at this time. As long as your Excellency sends troops to attack, we will surely capture it!" Zhen Weitong said hurriedly.
"Attack Shenglong City?" Xu Jingchang originally wanted to teach him a lesson, but after hearing his words, he laughed and said, "Are you trying to lure me into attacking Shenglong City so that Hu Jima can take back more cannons?"
"I also asked other prisoners along the way, and they all said that there are tens of thousands of soldiers in Thang Long City, and the city is very tall and strong. I only have 2,000 people in my hand now, how can I capture Thang Long City?"
"You'd better not bother with this. If you talk again, be careful what I do with you!"
"Sir Xu, although there are tens of thousands of guards in the city, people will definitely be frightened after hearing that Duobang City was lost, and their combat effectiveness will not be as good as that of others. Besides, they are ordinary armies, how can they be compared with the two thousand elites that your Excellency currently commands? ?If it is a field battle, I will never be your opponent." Zhen Weitong said.
"You also said it was a field battle, and now I want to attack Shenglong City! Even if they are not strong in combat and are scared now, they are guarding Shenglong City after all. I don't have any siege equipment in my hands now, how can I attack it? This city?" Xu Jingchang said.
But as soon as he finished speaking, before Zhen Weitong could speak, he heard Sun Bingwen whisper beside him: "Sir, now we have siege equipment."
"Where do we have..." Halfway through the words, Xu Jingchang realized: He does have siege equipment in his hands now!
Xu Jingchang's mind turned and he said to himself: "Could it be possible to capture Thang Long City?"
He suddenly felt that he could capture Thang Long City. Now he had eleven cannons. It was said that Thang Long City had no cannons. There were only 10,000 soldiers and horses in the city, and people were still scared. Although he only had 2,000 men, But they are all elite.
More importantly, Hu Jiya was still in the city at this time. Hu Jiya was still in the city, which could lead to two situations: first, the soldiers fought desperately, and second, the entire army collapsed quickly because of Hu Jiya's escape.
'There are no dangerous points to defend along the way from Duobang City to Thang Long City. As long as Hu Jishen still has sense, he will not think that Thang Long City can be defended. He soon found out that the Ming army with cannons attacked Thang Long City. Maybe they thought that the Ming army attacking Duobang City immediately attacked Shenglong City without rest and retreated.' Xu Jingchang thought in his heart.
Xu Jingchang was also a courageous man. He suddenly realized that he could capture Shenglong City with such a small number of soldiers, and he immediately ignored the danger. He immediately said loudly to Nie Yi: "Don't tie them up anymore, tie them up." Let them all go and let’s attack Sheng Long City!”
"Master Xu, we are willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty and follow you to attack Shenglong City." Zhen Weitong heard this and said loudly.
Xu Jingchang looked back at him. The meaning was very clear: You are from Annan, and we just fought a war. How could I trust you right away?
"Sir, we are the artillery team, and we can control the artillery for you. Although you are also commanding a firearms unit, the soldiers you lead should not be able to use cannons. The soldiers I command can fire cannons for you when attacking Thang Long City." Zhen Weitong shouted again.
"Then you can come with me. Nie Yi, hand over the artillery carriage to them again."
…
…
Just as Xu Jingchang guessed, after Hu Jishen said that, he immediately thought that the tens of thousands of Ming troops attacking Duobang City came to attack Shenglong City without rest.
He immediately panicked. Although Hu Jishen was very cruel when dealing with domestic political opponents, he cherished his own life and would never throw it away easily. Historically, when the Hu Dynasty was basically finished after the defeat at Xianzi Pass, His general Wei Shi advised him, "The country is close to destruction, and if the king does not want to kill his men, please burn his body to death." He immediately became furious and killed Wei Shi. This shows how much he cherished his life.
At this time, Hu Jishao immediately ordered the remaining chariots and horses to leave, and said to Cong Dao: "It's too late to gather your troops in various cities. Your commanding troops will stay here. As long as they can hold for a quarter of an hour, the chariots and horses will be able to leave." If you all leave here, I will remember your merits."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Congdao agreed.
Hu Jima then got on the carriage and left Thang Long City.
After Hu Jishen left, Congdao turned around and began to arrange defense.
…
…
Xu Jingchang really didn't expect that it would be so easy to attack Shenglong City!
Two-quarters of an hour ago, he led his troops to a woods to the north of Thang Long City. After a short rest, he came to the city and ordered Zhen Weitong to unload the cannon from the artillery truck and start bombarding the head of Thang Long City. Zhen Weitong Then he ordered the soldiers to fire a round of artillery.
Annan's army guarding the city wall collapsed.
Countless Annan soldiers panicked and shouted in Annan language, "The Ming army has already attacked" and ran towards the city. In the blink of an eye, there was no one alive on the city top except for a few people who had been unfortunately hit by shells and could not move.
Xu Jingchang couldn't believe his eyes! He once heard from generals who participated in the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Whether it was Chen Youliang or Zhang Shicheng, or Ming Yuzhen and the Yuan army, they fought in battles, especially when they were defending the city. They are all tenacious. Except for those cities that were voluntarily abandoned, it would not be easy for the Ming army to capture any city.
Annan, who was named Dayu by Hu Ji-mo, was a country after all. It was just a field battle, and now it was a city defense battle. It was obvious that he was very tenacious when he defended Duobang City, but it collapsed like this in Thang Long City! Xu Jingchang Shi Shi actually suspected a fraud. Although he stopped firing artillery shells, he did not dare to let his soldiers attack the city.
It was Zhen Weitong who adjusted the angle of the cannon to bombard the city gate and beat it to pieces. When Nie Yi saw that Xu Jingchang had led his troops to attack the city gate without orders and easily defeated the Annan soldiers guarding the city gate, he believed Annan. It's not that people are deceitful, it's true that they collapsed like this.
Xu Jingchang immediately ordered some soldiers to guard the cannon, and he led the rest of the soldiers and Zhen Weitong's troops into the city.
The battle that followed was also very easy. Wherever the Ming army and the surrendered soldiers who temporarily wore red turbans went, the common people knelt down and said in a weird tone: "I am a good citizen." Some people even waved the Ming flag in their hands. Show respect.
When most of the Annan soldiers saw the Ming army, they immediately threw away their swords and guns, raised their hands and knelt on the ground; there were also some people in silk clothes, who spoke in a straight and precise manner, and were smarter than most Ming people. He said in standard Chinese that he was a gentry in the city and asked to see the commander-in-chief of the Ming army.
Xu Jingchang didn't have time to greet them! He ordered all the soldiers not to stay until they occupied the whole city, and went straight to the south gate. He had already found out clearly that Hu Jisao was preparing to retreat in the morning, and mobilized all the troops with a little combat effectiveness to escort him to retreat. Went there. The people on top of the city were all temporarily captured civilians, so it collapsed so easily. When he first started to attack the city, Hu Jiya had not yet evacuated. If he rushed over now, he might be able to stop General Hu Jiya. He was captured alive!
This is the king of a country! Now that he has captured Thang Long City, the capital of Annan, if he captures Hu Ji Yao again, his contribution may be enough to make him a duke. Xu Jingchang could not resist this huge temptation and rushed to the south gate with all his strength.
When he rushed to the south city gate, he saw that there was only a simple defense line and not many carriages. He immediately understood that Hu Ji Ya had withdrawn, and felt disappointed.
Fortunately, he understood that the possibility of capturing Hu Ji Yao alive was extremely small. Although he was disappointed, he could accept it and immediately arranged for soldiers to attack this simple defense line and completely occupy Thang Long City.
But he suffered a big loss as soon as he came up! Because it was too easy to break into Thang Long City, Xu Jingchang despised the Annan army to the extreme. At this time, he only had more than a hundred people around him, and there were two thousand Annan people on the opposite side. He actually led his troops and charged forward after everyone had loaded their projectiles and gunpowder.
When Cong Dao saw this opportunity, there was no reason to let it go. He immediately shouted: "Let it go!" Then thousands of arrows were shot at Xu Jingchang. Although Xu Jingchang had already ordered to dodge when he saw the bow and arrow on the opposite side, many soldiers were too late. He escaped and was shot by an arrow and died.
Xu Jingchang's eyes immediately turned red and he was about to rush forward again, but Sun Bingwen hugged him tightly. "Sir, no! There is no way that more than a hundred people can defeat the two thousand people on the opposite side. It is better to wait until the follow-up soldiers arrive before attacking."
"Let me go!" Xu Jingchang shouted loudly: "Our soldiers are strong enough to defeat a hundred. I was just careless just now, otherwise I would have definitely broken through the opposite defense line."
But although Xu Jingchang said this in excitement, he also understood that what Sun Bingwen said was right. After calming down, he said: "Old Sun, let go. I will wait until the follow-up soldiers arrive before attacking them."
But as soon as he finished speaking, he heard a soldier next to him say: "Xu Qianhu, Sun Baihu, it is possible for the more than 100 of us to defeat the 2,000 people on the opposite side."
"Ah!" After hearing this, Xu Jingchang couldn't help but turn his head and look at the person who spoke.
