The army of officers and soldiers camped several miles outside the city, surrounding Macheng with three floors inside and three floors outside. Song Yihe settled in the middle military tent. He was boasted and praised by Cao Yinchang, a famous scholar in Juma, and he felt that the gentry in the city would be there at the latest. Kaicheng will be surrendered within a day or two, and the Mei family property that I have longed for should not be far away.
Therefore, Song Yihe ordered the siege to stop at night in the past few days. Since he felt that the surrender of Shen Zhuang's army was imminent, he did not want his elite Fubiao troops to suffer too many losses under the city.
Following the instructions, the other generals and the traitorous gentry withdrew their troops and went back to camp to rest together.
Since Mr. Futai is not in a hurry, why should they be anxious?
After this, the officers and soldiers besieging the city became completely relaxed. The soldiers were bored, and they had a lot of gold and silver in their hands due to the recent massacres. The renegade gentry also wanted to outsell the officers and soldiers, so they invited many Prostitutes, theater troupes and even department store merchants came to the military camp to do business.
The officers and generals also levied tribute fees from these department store merchants. Each shop and stall had to pay a certain tribute fee before they could do business in the military camp. Some officers and soldiers were jealous of the merchants making profits, and even stayed outside the camp at night. The practice of looting merchant goods and then bringing them into the camp to continue selling them.
In view of the fact that the Shenzhuang Army trapped in Macheng could only parry but not counterattack, everyone spread the rumor that Mei Zengzhi was about to open the city and surrender. Therefore, the officers and soldiers paid less attention to military discipline, raising birds, dogs, and Building fences, building sheds, listening to music, playing chess, beating leaves... these are all relatively restrained.
What's more, there were actually many soldiers in Song Yihe's Fubiao Battalion who had disputes over buying prostitutes and raping civilian women, which eventually turned into a private fight between two large groups of people.
After all the teams went back to their tents to rest at night, more than a dozen officers and soldiers who had private fights with friendly forces during the day for snatching women, and were defeated because they were not ruthless enough, took the opportunity to grab swords, guns, and weapons while their enemies dispersed to rest and sleep. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he pounced into the tent, first covering his head with a cloth bag, and then beating him wildly with his sword.
I don’t know which brother was too cruel and actually stabbed someone with a spear. When the shot was fired, there was a pool of blood. All the officers and soldiers who were sleeping in the military tent suddenly woke up. Many people saw blood stains and corpses, and Those friendly troops who were carrying weapons and committing murder were completely unaware of the situation. They thought it was the enemy coming to rob the camp, and they abandoned the camp and fled in panic.
Song Yihe, who was dreaming of "living jute in peace", waited for a while, and when the farce of bombing the camp became more and more intense, and there was a lot of noise all around the Chinese army tent, he hurriedly approved a coat. , come out to investigate.
He saw broken soldiers running around and shouting randomly, and he felt very unsure. He also came up with the idea "could it be that Shen Zhuang's army attacked and robbed the camp at night?" He greased the soles of his feet and almost ran away.
Fortunately, Huguang Fubiao is still a relatively elite force after all, and there are many elite soldiers and generals who are good at fighting. A few officers climbed up and looked around. Seeing that there was no attack on all sides, Song Yihe held down his legs and carefully commanded the soldiers. Start pressing.
Each of Fubiao's elite soldiers held torches and wore strong armor. Some even took out muskets and light cannons because they were afraid of something big. They occupied the crossroads in the center of the camp and lined up in several columns to move forward. After pushing forward and investigating one by one, we finally figured out the situation: it turned out to be a farce caused by a private fight between soldiers due to the uneven distribution of plundered women!
Song Yihe had a splitting headache and said sadly: "When we were attacking the city a few days ago, why didn't I see you as brave as tonight?"
Angry in his heart, he pulled out a saber from the sheath on the waist of a soldier beside him, pointed it at the group of privately fighting officers and soldiers and cursed angrily: "You! You! And you! Aren't you very brave? Today we are attacking the city.
, so I regard you as the first to ascend!"
When the troubled soldiers heard this, they became panicked and fell to their knees one after another, begging Mr. Futai to give him a gentle punishment. But by this time, many officers and soldiers had already begun to notice the faint gunpowder smoke in Macheng City.
At first, everyone thought that the smoke should be caused by some military tents being accidentally burned down during the bombing of the camp.
But as the sky got brighter little by little, everyone gradually became convinced that the smoke was clearly coming from Macheng City!
Song Yihe said in surprise: "There must be a loyal gentry in the city who has killed the plum thief and opened the door for me."
He then looked around at the soldiers around him and said solemnly: "The opportunity to fight should not be missed lightly. You have violated military discipline and are unforgivable. But if you dare to climb first and behead one or two thieves, maybe you can still lightly discuss it!"
Song Yihe was afraid of missing this precious opportunity to attack the city, so he immediately ordered all his troops to attack the city without waiting for the exhausted officers and soldiers who had just experienced a night bombing of the camp to rest.
The officers and soldiers were all complaining. They had indulged themselves for several days and had not slept well all night. Now the governor still insists on forcing everyone to attack the city immediately?
Since there is already chaos in Macheng, wouldn't it be over when they open the city and surrender?
Under this mentality, the morale of the officers and soldiers was unprecedentedly low. Although Song Yihe pressed hard in order to gain the victory of seizing the city as soon as possible, all the siege troops were working hard. They were timid and had no fighting spirit. They were just pretending.
Just show Futai how to siege the city, and then just goof around.
Only the chieftain soldiers transferred from Shizhou Guards and the elite Fubiao soldiers captured by Song Yihe himself worked harder to attack the city. They first brought up cannons and blasted them violently, but soon found that the defenders on the top of the city were not as quick as before.
After the artillery fired back but there was no movement, he and Song Yihe guessed that there was civil strife in the city and that all the defenders on the wall had probably been transferred away.
So if we don't go to the city now, how long will we wait?
The mentality of these capable Fubiao officers and soldiers and Shizhou chieftain soldiers changed again, and they began to adopt an overly optimistic attitude. They were divided into several columns, carrying ladders and singing little songs as if they were on armed parade for vacation.
, and prepared to take Macheng lightly.
But when the officers and soldiers were halfway through the city, some sharp-eyed people finally discovered that the banners of the invading army had been erected in many places around the city. The siege officers and soldiers were shocked at first, but then they felt that the invading army was still there.
How could the Central Plains appear in Macheng? It must be a trick by the defenders.
"Fight back!"
Just when the officers and soldiers were greatly relaxed, they suddenly heard a cry of "counterattack" coming from the top of the city. Everyone was shocked and inexplicable. Looking up, they saw a group of soldiers wearing red tassel felt hats, carrying muskets and cannons.
They bombed the siege troops indiscriminately.
"It's an intruder! It's really an intruder!"
I don't know who shouted first, and then countless people started shouting. Many people didn't hear clearly, and they were surprised what the soldiers in front were shouting?
But when the siege soldiers in the front row suddenly dropped their weapons and fled backwards, the officers and soldiers who were so nervous from the past few days of indulgent life and bombing the camp at night could not care about who the person who suddenly appeared on the wall of Macheng was. , all I know is to imitate the friendly troops around me to drop their weapons and run away quickly.
Regardless of whether he ran into some serious trouble or not, he was running faster than his friendly forces, so he must be right.
When Song Yihe saw that the siege troops suddenly collapsed without a fight, he was confused at first. After the soldiers told him that the flag of the insurgent army appeared on the top of the city, he cursed: "This is just a bluff by the Shenzhuang thieves. It’s ridiculous, ridiculous that you are actually deceived by such evil tricks!”
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, so he personally took all Fubiao's soldiers to the front line to intercept and route the fleeing officers and soldiers, and did not allow the siege troops to retreat even half a step. If anyone dared to escape, he would be ordered to be executed on the spot by the soldiers supervising the battle.
Under such strong pressure, the siege officers and soldiers barely stopped their retreat, and were forced by Song Yihe to rush back to the front row to fight with the defenders.
Originally, there was indeed a main battle between Mei Zengzhi and Zhou Wenjiang in Macheng City. The main battle and the collapse of the two factions of gentry in Macheng City caused internal strife. There must have been a big problem in the combat effectiveness of the defenders.
Even if Yan Xin led the red team members to the city wall to help defend, their troops of less than a hundred people would be a drop in the bucket and would not have much effect.
However, the siege officers and soldiers were confused by the flag of the invading army. Many people thought that the invading army must have sneaked into the city to assist in the defense. They actually did not know much about the invading army, but they had also heard that Fu Zonglong, the governor of the three sides, was recently invaded in the Central Plains. The whole army was annihilated in the attack, so he was frightened and his morale became even lower. He became less active in attacking the city and the attack became slower and slower. No matter how angry Song Yihe was and urged him, there was nothing he could do.
When the sun fully rose, the siege troops still had not made much progress. However, in the Sanjiang Mountain a few miles northwest of Macheng, under the cover of the mountains and forests, a large group of soldiers and horses were sneaking in from the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains. , they walked quickly with their coins in hand, over high mountains, through dangerous fortresses, and already occupied a good fighting position facing the waist of the siege army.
Triangle Mountain is named for its three-column peaks, which are shaped like animal horns and jut into the sky. It is also known as Bijia Mountain because of the wonder of "Bijia Waterfall". Near the landscape of "Bijia Waterfall", there is a historic site, which is the Yuan Dynasty At the end of the period, Xu Shouhui revolted and proclaimed himself emperor, and led the Red Scarf Army to gather in the money-making furnace that was left in place at this time.
The headquarters of these thousands of capable soldiers sneaking over from the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains is stationed beside the money-making stove. The young general at the head wears a red tassel helmet, a sky-blue arrow jacket, and a thin fur coat. There was a broken arrow next to the stove, and he smiled calmly and said: "It's ready to hit."