The first thousand and six hundred and fifteen chapters are the highest of the soldiers who are subd
While Hong Yibo was speaking impassionedly, his eyes fell on an old man in his fifties. The old man was drinking wine with his head down. He inadvertently raised his head and caught Hong Yibo's gaze. He was startled and quickly greeted him flatteringly.
Zhu Hong Yibo smiled.
Hong Yibo raised his head slightly, glanced at everyone, and said with a smile: "Everyone, your Majesty asked us in Maozhu County to be vigilant. Although there are demons in the city, it is difficult for the troops of the Far East Army to reach our Maozhu County, but there is a saying, 'be careful'
We still have to make preparations to sail the ten thousand year ship. Previously, the seven of you sent five hundred warriors to Maozhu County to help the general defend the city. The general is very satisfied and very grateful for this. However,
The king's side has been unable to drive Li Shimin's troops out of Hanzhong for a while, so the food and grass are not enough. The king's order has been sent to the counties in Champion County. Our Maozhu County does not have the largest share, but it is still a lot. The food is one hundred thousand shi.
, a hundred carts of hay, these things will depend on the seven of you. Please think carefully about how much you want to contribute. The king has said, which family contributes more this time will be considered when recording the merits and appointing officials."
As soon as Hong Yibo said these words, the banquet immediately became silent, and you could hear a pin drop. The heads of the seven families looked at each other and stopped talking.
Seeing that no one said anything for a long time, Hong Yibo's expression turned gloomy and he glanced threateningly at the old man who had looked at him before.
The old man's heart trembled, and he cursed secretly, but his face was already full of smiles, and he said in a flattering tone: "General Hong, you're welcome. Your Majesty will lead the army to defend the enemy on the front line, and protect the children of our clan from being attacked by those people."
The massacre by Li Shimin's army was extremely hard. Therefore, it is the duty of our seven families to raise food and grass for the king."
Hong Yibo nodded to the old man with satisfaction, looked around at everyone, stood up, and said loudly: "Let's do this. Each family will have at least 13,000 shi of grain and 15 carts of hay."
After Hong Yibo finished speaking, he glanced at the heads of the seven families, but the seven pretended not to notice, lowering their heads and remaining silent.
The seven wealthy families have been able to survive in this troubled world to this day. These seven patriarchs can be regarded as local tycoons. They are not fools. They are very doubtful about whether Zhu Jiajun can stop Li Shimin. Besides, they also learned through their own channels that Li Yuan and his son
They were defeated by the distant army and lost seven counties in Hedong.
In short, the seven of them believed that Zhu Can's time to occupy the two counties of Champion and Hanzhong was short, but with the power of the seven families, they did not dare to resist Zhu Can's rule under the current circumstances.
When Hong Yibo saw that the seven family heads were pretending to be deaf and dumb again, he felt angry. He couldn't help but endure it, and turned his eyes to the old man who had spoken first.
The old man knew that if no one took the lead in speaking, Hong Yibo would definitely come to force him, but when he was stared at, the muscles around his mouth twitched. His heart ached to death, but what would happen if they were to confront Zhu Jiajun now?
It will be very serious, and if you are not careful, it will lead to the disaster of annihilation.
At that moment, the old man endured the pain in his heart, forced a smile on his face, stood up and said with a flattering smile: "We in the Shi family do not dare to lag behind others in raising food and grass for King Zhu. Besides, we are raising food and grass for the frontline army led by King Zhu.
It is also for our own safety. So, for that... that, our Shi family is willing to take... 14,000 shi of grain and 16 carts of hay!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the other six families at the table were secretly cursing.
Hong Yibo had been listening to the Shi family patriarch's words with a cold expression. When he heard "fourteen thousand stones of grain and sixteen carts of hay" coming out of his mouth, a satisfied smile suddenly appeared on his face.
The amount of grain and grass provided by the Shi family was much more than he expected. In fact, the amount of grain and grass that Zhu Can asked for on the front line was less than the amount of 100,000 shi of grain and 100 carts of hay. This was an inflated amount by Hong Yibo.
, who would have thought that this old man from the Shi family would give out 14,000 shi of grain and 16 carts of hay as soon as he opened his mouth. How could he not be overjoyed?
The heads of the other six families were shocked. They looked at the Shi family blankly and murmured: "The Shi family had such a good harvest last year that they were able to provide 14,000 shi of grain and 16 carts of hay..."
At this time, Hong Yibo stopped being polite and turned to look at the other six heads of wealthy families, and asked with a sneer: "The Shi family is willing to provide 14,000 dan of grain and 16 carts of hay. What about the other six families of yours?"
"
The flesh on the face of the head of the six families was slapped several times. After a while, another leader of a wealthy family gritted his teeth and said: "Our Hu family is not as wealthy as the Shi family. We are willing to pay 14,000 shi of grain and 16 carts of grain."
hay!"
With these two people taking the lead, the remaining five wealthy families also expressed their willingness to contribute 14,000 shi of grain and 16 carts of hay. In a short time, 100,000 shi of grain and 100 carts of hay had been raised. Hong Yi
Only then did Bo happily let the seven patriarchs go back.
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The head of the Shi family, who had taken the lead at the banquet, left Maozhu City in a carriage and returned to Shijiawu Fort. As soon as he entered the courtyard of the master's residence, he ordered no one to disturb him. When he arrived at the study, there were already people in the study.
A man in his thirties with stern eyes was waiting for him.
The head of the Shi family bowed deeply to the man, and then respectfully told what happened in Maozhu City today.
After saying that, the head of the Shi family asked cautiously: "Master Shen, are the Far East Army really going to attack us?"
Yes, this man is Shen Guang. He cooperated with Xu Jingzong, Huang Shaoqiu and his party in Yangzhou six months ago to jointly crush Yuwen Zhiji's rebellion, support the emperor's grandson Yang Tong to continue to be the Sui emperor, and successfully control Yangzhou and nearby areas.
The two counties have now completely established a foothold in Jiangnan.
After the war situation in Hedong became clear a few days ago, Wang Junlin sent an order via the Flying Eagle Relay, ordering Shen Guang to come to Sichuan and Shu to command the personnel of the Military Intelligence Office, Wulin Guild and Xiaoyu Theater in Sichuan and Shu to prepare for the Wagang Camp's invasion of Sichuan and Shu.
Prepare.
This Shi family is not someone Shen Guang came to recently and developed into one of his own.
The Shi family was almost wiped out four years ago. It was Xiaoyu Theater that secretly gave them food, grass and some weapons to protect themselves, and helped them build this strong fort. So strictly speaking, it was four years ago that the Shi family
Bao was already a member of the Far Eastern Army.
Shen Guang nodded and said: "Mr. Shi, you are also an old man of our Far East Army. I won't hide it from you. Devil's Pass has been breached by our army. The army will raid the Maozhu City tonight."
When the head of the Shi family heard this, he was shocked. He knew about Devil Pass. He thought that the Far East Army was really powerful. He couldn't help but feel lucky again that he chose to attach himself to Xiaoyu Theater four years ago.
"Master Shen, I am now going to send 14,000 shi of grain and 16 carts of hay to Moso Bamboo City, just enough for our 1,000 warriors to escort these things. When the time comes, we will act as internal agents and capture this Mao Bamboo City."
The leader reacts quickly and is very decisive. He knows that this is a good time to make a great contribution.
Shen Guang nodded slightly to express his satisfaction, but then shook his head and said: "No, you don't need to attack the small town of Maozhu County. You take this opportunity to follow Hong Yibo closely and continue to gain his trust. When we attack the championship county later, that's when you will be able to play your role."
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In the evening, the sky in Maozhu County has darkened. Hong Yibo has easily collected 100,000 shi of grain and 100 carts of hay. He is feeling very proud, thinking that if he hurries to the front line tomorrow, he will be favored by his own King Zhu. At that time, I suddenly heard the piercing sound of horns coming from the direction of Dongcheng.
Hong Yibo turned his head and looked outside the house in shock.
A soldier stumbled up to Hong Yibo and reported in a trembling voice: "General, there are enemy troops... the enemy troops are coming!"
On the evening of February 6th, the fifteenth year of the Great Cause, no one in the entire Maozhu County expected that the Far Eastern Army would suddenly arrive at the city.
Fortunately, the head of the Shi family personally led people to deliver the food and grass, and when he was rushing to his Wubao, he suddenly discovered the Far Eastern Army, and led people to run back to Maozhu City, and warned Hong Yibo in time, and closed the city gate first. .
At that time, the vanguard of Xu Shiji's army was only about seven or eight miles away from Maozhu County.
Even before the Far Eastern Army arrived outside the city, the defenders in Maozhu County were already panicking. After all, the Far Eastern Army's reputation as invincible in the world had gradually taken root in the hearts of the people.
For the people in the city, after learning that the Far Eastern Army was invading in large numbers, almost no one could be seen on the streets, and every door was closed tightly. However, many people were filled with excitement about the arrival of the Far Eastern Army. expectations.
Of course, there are also some people who are worried about their unknown fate.
Although he pretended to be full of confidence, when the Far Eastern Army actually came to the city, Hong Yibo realized that his legs were trembling. In fact, he didn't have much experience in defending the city. It was more because of the prestige of the Far Eastern Army. It's full.
Speaking of which, there are now more than 16,000 troops in Moso Bamboo City, which is already a lot for the defenders. Moreover, they have just collected 100,000 shi of food, so they won't have to worry about the food problem for a while. .
However, Hong Yibo discovered that they did not have any equipment to defend the city, such as crossbows, trebuchets... nothing. The only things they had were rolling stones and wooden logs at the head of the city and a few large oil pans. .
Hong Yibo was frightened and issued orders one after another that he didn't know whether they were right or not. He asked a large number of people to move the rolling stones and wooden logs at the foot of the city to the city wall. He also asked people to bring in firewood and then burned the oil pan. stand up.
That is to say, after completing these things, the Far Eastern Army has arrived outside the city and is expected to attack the city soon.
Moreover, Hong Yibo discovered that the Far Eastern Army troops outside the city seemed to be much larger than he had imagined.
Xu Shiji's troops didn't even have any intention of setting up camp, or in other words, they had no plan to set up camp at all. They lit more than a dozen bonfires and countless bright fires outside the city, lighting up the night sky outside the city bright red.
Then it was time to set up the fifty trebuchets we brought.
The people who operated the trebuchets were people from the engineer camp. They unloaded a large number of trebuchet parts from the ox carts as quickly as possible, then assembled them into trebuchets, and built the trebuchet launching positions.
Soldiers from another group of engineers and transport battalions carefully unloaded the gunpowder bags from the ox carts and distributed them to fifty trebuchets.
Hong Yibo had also used trebuchets when he had fought with Zhu Can over the years, but he had never seen such a large trebuchet, and it was more than 400 steps away from the trebuchet that wanted to hit the city wall.
In addition, he could not believe that the Far Eastern Army actually transported such a heavy thing from the other side of Bashan to the foot of Maozhu County.
In addition, there were people drinking loudly and cutting down trees and sawing wood all night, most of them making siege tools.
Under the contrast between the offensive and defensive forces inside and outside the city, Hong Yibo suddenly lost confidence in defending the city of Maozhu County.
On the southern side of Moshu County, a small river flows from the west around the city to the east. This river has also become the natural moat of Moshu County, guarding the northeastern sides of Moshu County, while the west side is choked by Moshu County.
break.
This kind of terrain was originally very beneficial to the defending side, so Xu Shiji made full preparations. However, having said that, everything can be done without forewarning. No matter how well the city is defended, if the defenders are not prepared, they will have trouble in their hearts.
If you panic, the consequences can be imagined.
Hong Yibo was a little panicked at this time, but he forcibly suppressed the urge to lead his troops to retreat to Champion County - because retreating overnight would inevitably cause great chaos in Maozhu County and make them
Not to mention that the defeat would be even faster. If he turned around and let King Zhu know, he would definitely be steamed in a steamer and eaten.
No matter what, he must persist for at least one night. Even if the Far Eastern Army plans to attack the city overnight, as long as he cannot hold on, the opponent will need to build a ladder all night even if he rushes to build it!
And after tonight, reinforcements from the seven forts should arrive!
Of course, the troops of the Seven Wubao will definitely be defeated by the Far Eastern Army, but as long as they can hold off for half a day, the armies of other champion counties will come to the rescue.
Thinking this way, Hong Yibo felt a little more at ease and no longer panicked at the beginning.
As if it was a routine matter, a horse jumped out from the Far Eastern Army and shouted at the top of the city to persuade him to surrender, but Hong Yibo didn't listen to a word and ordered the archers to shoot randomly as his answer.
The Far East Army did not seem to have much sincerity in persuading surrender, and soon stopped such meaningless things. Inside and outside the city, they were caught in a strange confrontation - both sides were busy nervously, making their own preparations.
But this confrontation was short-lived, and was soon interrupted by the explosion of a gunpowder package fired by a trebuchet.
The trebuchet company finally made all preparations for shooting, and the brave man tentatively fired once into the city.
The angle of the first launch was a little low, and the distance was not enough. It hit directly under the city wall, blasting a crater about ten feet in size.
Such a loud noise frightened the soldiers and civilians in Moozhu County who had never seen or heard gunpowder explosions. A few soldiers even had their legs weak and fell to the ground.
There is no way. Although the Far Eastern Army's gunpowder weapons have become famous all over the world in recent years, armies that have not fought with the Far Eastern Army can only hear about it and imagine it. This is still very different from the explosion of real gunpowder weapons.
Standing on the city wall, Hong Yibo could hear the generals in the Far Eastern Army yelling angrily, as if they were scolding them for wasting a gunpowder bag or something.
"The generals of the Far East Army are not very satisfied with this launch?" Hong Yibo saw a group of people holding several strange-shaped wooden boards and gesticulating. Some people were paddling quickly on the ground, as if they were counting, and some people shouted: "Hey!"
While drinking, he made some adjustments to all the trebuchets that he didn't understand at all.
After a while, it seemed that the adjustment was finally better.
The next moment, as someone in the Far Eastern Army waved a small flag and shouted commands, the Far Eastern Army's trebuchet fired again.
There was a "boom" somewhere at the top of the city. A few soldiers were bullying their heads by sticking their heads out of the parapet to see. The gunpowder packet happened to fall on the top of the city where they were. Hong Yibo only heard a loud bang again.
Come, and then there was a scream from the top of the city.
Hong Yibo turned around to look, only to see a dozen soldiers lying in a pool of blood, and most of their bodies were torn apart. It was so miserable and shocking.
"I'm afraid of nothing. I've already eaten human flesh. What's there to be afraid of? Come here and bring some people down!" Hong Yibo suppressed the fear in his heart and examined the corpses of the dozen soldiers with a straight face.
They called a dozen people over and hurriedly carried the large pieces of broken corpse down to the city.
The general following Hong Yibo turned pale and asked in a trembling voice: "General, what should we do?"
"Lean behind the parapet, spread out and hide, don't be afraid of a bird!" Hong Yibo almost roared angrily, "This is called gunpowder. The Far Eastern Army has gunpowder weapons. It's not like you haven't heard of it. I
I don’t believe that they can use this gunpowder weapon when attacking a city!"
As if in response to Hong Yibo, outside the city, fifty trebuchets from the Far Eastern Army came to launch an assembly line launch. I could vaguely hear the commands being sounded one after another. The trebuchets were launched one after another, and the gunpowder bags were fired.
One after another, they all poured out towards the city wall of Maozhu County.
Amidst the loud explosions, Maozhu County seemed to be shaking.
As time went by, the faces of the defenders became more and more frightened, and their morale became lower and lower.
I don’t know how long the Far Eastern Army’s siege of the city lasted. Fifty trebuchets took turns to hit the city. A quarter of the trebuchets actually missed the target and hit outside the city. They may not really be able to attack the bamboo.
No matter how much damage was caused to the county town, what really made people despair was the helplessness of the Zhu Jiajun soldiers who defended the city in the face of the gunpowder packets fired by the trebuchets.
Xu Shiji may not know what psychological warfare is, but he understands this. He originally wanted to use the explosion of gunpowder packets to destroy the will of the defenders and achieve the goal of defeating the enemy without fighting.
Therefore, he ordered fifty trebuchets to be launched one after another, and the terrifying loud noises continued to beat the moso bamboo county town in the night sky.
For Zhu Jiajun in the city, this was a nightmare night.
What made Hong Yibo even more angry was that, except for the 10,000 soldiers who had already reached the top of the city, most of the more than 6,000 people he sent to move the rolling stones did not come and hid somewhere unknown. Only the head of the Shi family took Shi
The two thousand people of the family were constantly moving rolling stones and logs from the city.
"The Shi family is still loyal. The people from the other six forts have all fled. At this rate, these six forts will not send reinforcements tomorrow." Hong Yibo's face was extremely ugly. He gritted his teeth and glanced around.
Finding that the Far Eastern Army would not send troops to attack the city for a while, I wanted to seize the time and send some soldiers down to move the rolling stones and hardwood from the city to the top of the city.
But before he could finish his words, he heard screams coming from all over the city. He turned his head in surprise and was stunned for a moment.
In the city of Maozhu County, there were fires everywhere.
The originally deserted streets were filled with people running around, and the city was completely in chaos!
"There are spies from the Far Eastern Army sneaking into the city!" At this time, Hong Yibo could no longer conceal his inner panic.
"The situation is over, retreat! Go to Champion City!"
Almost at the same time, horns were blaring outside the city of Maozhu County, and 10,000 Far Eastern Army Wagang Battalion infantrymen surrounded a dozen simple trench bridges and ladders and attacked the city wall.
He knew clearly that it would be inappropriate to offer no resistance, but at this time Hong Yibo no longer had the determination to resist. He reluctantly gathered 6,000 elite guards, including 2,000 people from the Shi family, abandoned the East City and fled to the West City.
.
Only a quarter of an hour after Hong Yibo left Dongcheng, the suspension bridge in Dongcheng was lowered with a creak, and the city gate was slowly opened.
"That's it... captured the Moso Bamboo City?" Xu Shiji watched the city gate slowly open. Although this was the result of the smooth implementation of his plan, it still felt a bit unreal. He had attacked the city many times over the years.