Zhang Maolan, courtesy name Dexin, was born in Zhangqiu, Shandong. He was a Jinshi in the 18th year of Hongzhi's reign and was first appointed magistrate of Julu County. Ding You went home to mourn and was appointed magistrate of Qiu County.
During his tenure as magistrate of Julu County, Zhang Maolan voluntarily gave up his qualifications for tax exemption and reduction. This monarch's official position was as clean as water, and his tenure as magistrate had not yet expired. His name was known to everyone in the court, and he was called "Zhang Maolan, an upright official in the world."
If being honest is just a show, then his actions in Renqiu County after mourning are enough to be called a capable official.
Three months ago, when Zhang Maolan took office, Renqiu had already been looted by bandits.
Seeing the bandits moving south, the governors of the prefectures and counties in the capital no longer took the bandits seriously. Only Zhang Maolan vowed to disperse food, build city walls, rectify the soldiers and armor, and appease the hungry people.
When Liu Liu, Liu Qi and Yang Hu passed through Renqiu County this time, they saw that the county town was heavily fortified and went directly around the city to Wen'an.
If Zhang Maolan had not been prepared in advance, the rebel army would not have met in Wen'an, but in Renqiu!
…
"Your Majesty, the thieves have climbed to the east wall, and the brothers really can't stand it!" The county captain sent someone to ask for help.
Zhang Maolan has long been used to it. At this moment, she unsheathed her sword and said to the reserve team behind her: "My neighbors, fellow villagers and elders, do you still remember the tragic incident four months ago? For the sake of your parents, wives and children, please follow me to kill the enemy!"
"kill!"
The village heroes shouted in unison and ran towards the east wall without fear of life or death.
These village warriors are not just the people in the city, but also the villagers in the four fields whose homes were broken up by bandits a few months ago. All of them have a deep hatred against the rebels, and when they meet a magistrate who dares to take office, they will not fight over each other.
To defend the city to the death?
I saw Zhang Maolan, a scribe, leading the country warriors to climb the city wall and kill the bandits without their lives.
He lacked force and did not kill any of the thieves himself, but he greatly boosted the morale of the officials and people defending the city. Some villagers even defended Zhang Maolan and used their bodies to protect the county magistrate from swords and guns. They worked together to kill the enemy with all their strength.
Then kill all the bandits who climbed into the city.
Seeing Zhang Maolan's face and chest stained with blood, the county lieutenant asked in surprise: "Is the county official injured?"
"It's not my blood," Zhang Maolan said with trembling hands, suppressing her nausea, and dry mouth, "I just killed a thief, and he vomited blood and sprayed it in my face. Leave me alone, and you go kill the thief!"
The county captain said: "Your Majesty, the traitors have retreated and they probably won't come back today."
"It's better to retreat, it's better to retreat," Zhang Maolan's legs softened, and she sat directly on the tower, closing her eyes and said, "Let me sleep for a while, and then wake me up when the traitors come."
The county lieutenant did not dissuade him, but asked someone to prepare meals and serve them immediately when Zhang Maolan woke up.
Half a month ago, the main force of the bandit army passed around the city because there were still officers and soldiers stationed in the city who came to suppress the bandits. But at this moment, the officers and soldiers in the city had already gone to Bazhou to join the army to encircle and suppress the bandits.
In the entire county, there are now only 2,000 rural warriors, all of whom are made up of improvised mud legs.
If it were the county magistrate who had no responsibility and no means, this earth city wall would have been breached long ago. How could it be possible to hold on for several days?
…
In the rebel camp.
The thieves leaders from all walks of life advised each other: "Brother Sun, it's better to retreat. The county magistrate guarding the city is so powerful, why do we need to fight head-on here?"
Sun Hu is an old thief who got into trouble earlier. He was beaten by the army in the past two months until he fled, and now he has finally taken tens of thousands of refugees hostage. This is also a form of revenge.
At this moment, Sun Hu patiently explained: "Brothers, all the prefectures and counties along the way have been robbed, and even the small villages and towns have been robbed by other rebels. There are hundreds of miles around here, and only Hejian Prefecture and Renqiu County have not been robbed.
. Hejian Fucheng is so tall that we will definitely not be able to capture it. If we don’t capture Renqiu County, where can we grab grain to support an army of more than 10,000 people?"
A bandit leader said: "Go to Bazhou to join the army, and the two generals Liu will naturally provide you with food."
Sun Hu sneered and said, "Are you willing to share the food you grabbed with others?"
The thieves suddenly had nothing to say.
Sun Hu stood up and drew his sword: "We will intensify our attack on the city tomorrow!"
All the thieves were dejected and left their tents. They also wanted to attack the city, but the thieves under their command kept calling on them.
These more than 10,000 young men were held hostage for only half a month, and it was okay to fight with a favorable wind. After the repeated setbacks in the siege of the city, they were no longer willing to work hard, and some people even escaped quietly every day.
On the second day, the offensive and defensive battle began again.
The thieves carried crude siege equipment and rushed towards the city wall in a swarm. As soon as they arrived at the city, they were treated with gold juice and hot oil, and they immediately fled back in groups.
The old thief supervising the battle finally forced the new soldiers to turn around and attack the city. After several ladders were overturned, the thief soldiers under the city fell into chaos again. Many new soldiers who did not want to fight did not dare to retreat or charge, and they just fled sideways around the city wall.
, and the nearby friendly forces were also flushed into a mess.
The whole morning was spent in this kind of chaos, and the siege effect became worse day by day.
However, the gold juice, hot oil, and stones in the city were almost exhausted, and the rural warriors who defended the city were also on the verge of collapse. If the county magistrate Zhang Maolan had not established prestige and personally went into battle at the critical moment, the rural warriors would have given up resistance long ago.
At noon, Sun Hu was cursing in the tent and executed some traitors who escaped from the battle.
Suddenly a confidant came in and reported: "Brother, a group of officers and soldiers were found in the southwest."
Sun Hu suddenly became nervous and asked: "How many people are there?"
"About two to three hundred, all cavalry, all equipped with armor," the visitor said.
Sun Hu sneered and said: "Don't worry about it, there are only two or three hundred officers and soldiers. We will continue to attack the city in the afternoon. Let them press all the old camp. The young and strong new camp is useless. We must capture the county seat today!"
The visitor hesitated and said: "Brother, the brothers in Laoying are so distinguished that they cannot die here easily."
Sun Hu said ferociously: "If one person dies in the old camp, he will be replaced by a new one. We have suffered heavy losses in the past few days. How about the officers and soldiers in the city? In the siege near noon, there was no hot oil or falling rocks. It was just one fell swoop.
Great opportunity!”
…
Three miles away from the bandit camp, all two hundred cavalrymen dismounted and rested.
A Jinyi guard sentry came back to report: "The bandits have camped two miles southeast of the city. Due to the flat terrain, it is difficult to climb up and have a bird's eye view, so the specific situation cannot be ascertained. However, the surrounding camps are all in a mess, and they did not reinforce them when we arrived.
garrison."
"Continue to inquire for information!" Wang Yuan ordered.
"Yes." The sentry turned around and left.
After another half an hour, the sentinel came back again: "The bandits are preparing to attack the city, and they are going out in full force!"
Wang Yuan originally planned to look for an opportunity to attack at night. When he heard the news, he immediately took four of Zhu's sons and personally led the horses to observe the enemy's situation.
These rebels actually knew how to surround the city and only attack the city from three directions: east, west, and south.
At the beginning, the fighting situation was similar to that in the morning. All the new soldiers were fighting for their lives, and the fighting was messy.
Suddenly, a large group of veterans blended into the fleeing team and ran directly towards the empty northern city wall. The soldiers and civilians defending the city were killed by surprise. The county magistrate Zhang Maolan personally led the reserve team to defend against the enemy and fought with the old thieves on the city tower.
When Sun Hu got the news, he immediately said: "The whole army shouted, Beicheng has been broken, attack from all sides together!"
"Beicheng has been destroyed, kill!"
"The North City has been destroyed, the whole army attacks!"
The hearts of the soldiers and civilians guarding the city suddenly became unstable. The county captain led the crowd and shouted: "Protect our family and defend the county, and we swear to live and die with Ren Qiu!"
There was a burst of shouting in the city, and the position was stabilized. Even the elderly and women took up arms.
It is true that Liu Liu and Liu Qi had such a bad reputation that they often massacred villages and annihilated counties. Renqiu County had already suffered a military disaster. Which of the people in the city had not lost their loved ones? They had long given up on taking chances and, under the leadership of the county magistrate, vowed to
Live and die with your homeland.
"The leader of the thieves is over there!" Wu Liande suddenly shouted.
Wang Yuan took a closer look and saw a big flag. The other bandits were attacking the city, but these two or three thousand people had not moved, and there were hundreds of cavalry protecting the flanks.
"Put on your armor, cock your crossbows, and prepare to charge!" Wang Yuan immediately ordered.
At this time, Zhu Zhi no longer complained and led his cavalry to quickly put on their armor.
After a while, the two hundred cavalry began to slowly accelerate, charging towards the bandit army at an unhurried pace.
Sun Hu fought with the army for half a year. Although he suffered many defeats and even his old troops were scattered. However, he also grew up rapidly in the war. When he saw the army coming from behind, he immediately dispatched his cavalry to fight.
.
In Sun Hu's impression, the officers and soldiers with less than 3,000 troops are all useless people who dare not fight. They are obviously better equipped and more powerful, but they just don't dare to fight with the rebels. Only when they have an absolute advantage can they dare to take the initiative.
Although the two hundred cavalry in front of them were brave, they would definitely run away with just a few charges.
Wang Yuan held a powerful crossbow in his hand and lay motionless on the horse's back, tightening the reins to prevent Ah Hei from charging too fast.
Six to seven hundred anti-thief cavalry rushed towards them, about two hundred paces away. Wang Yuan suddenly raised his crossbow and shouted: "Throw, shoot!"
This was beyond the effective range of the hand crossbow, but both sides were charging head-on. In an instant, forty or fifty thieves were struck by arrows, causing small-scale chaos to the other side.
Wang Yuan threw away the hand crossbow, turned the horse's head, and suddenly accelerated.
Zhu Zhi, who followed closely behind, raised his hand to convey the order, and Zhu Cong and Zhu Xiang immediately led their respective troops to comply.
I saw the two hundred cavalry suddenly separated and drew two arcs, passing around the left and right sides of the thief cavalry.
But the six to seven hundred thieves cavalry couldn't stop charging at all, and they couldn't use the high-end maneuvers of changing formations when facing the enemy. They rushed for dozens of steps before stopping. When they looked back, Wang Yuan had already charged directly at the Chinese army.
.
Only about a hundred steps away from the rebel army, the two hundred cavalry joined forces again. Wang Yuan raised his spear and shouted: "Follow me to kill the thieves!"
"Fire the arrow!" Sun Hu was shocked.
Archers are not that easy to train. Even if he grabbed a lot of bows and arrows, Sun Hu could only form an archer team of thirty people.
And, it’s a complete mess.
Seeing the cavalry speeding up, most of the rebel archers fired their arrows in panic before the bowstring was fully drawn, and then hurriedly fired their arrows again.
A single salvo shot down only one of the army's horses, and several others were hit by arrows but were blocked by their armor.
Wang Yuan took the lead and used his spear to overthrow a rebel spearman from a distance of more than three meters.
"Run!"
These were all veteran thieves with half a year of experience in the industry. Each one fought harder than the other, and ran faster than the last when he was defeated. Seeing the two hundred cavalry coming, those facing him immediately fled, disrupting the left and right formations.
Thousands of spearmen were defeated as soon as they engaged the enemy.
Although Wang Yuan was not good at using the horse spear, the attack range of this thing was very long. He rushed forward, directly swept away two archers, killed a spearman, and rode directly into the enemy's formation alone.
Although the two hundred cavalrymen behind them could not catch up with the general, they were inspired by the general's bravery. In an instant, they risked their lives and bravely charged towards the anti-thief Chinese army.
Sun Hu was inexplicably horrified. There were more than a thousand personal guards around him, but he subconsciously galloped away, abandoning tens of thousands of troops and fleeing.
The six to seven hundred anti-thief cavalry who turned around to save the savior quickly turned their horses and fled in the opposite direction of the city.
On top of the city tower, a sharp-eyed village warrior immediately shouted at the top of his voice: "Reinforcements are coming, the leader of the bandits has escaped! The leader of the bandits has escaped!"
The morale of the soldiers and civilians defending the city was greatly boosted, and regardless of whether they were new soldiers or veterans, the rebels subconsciously turned around and instantly lost the courage to continue fighting.
More than ten thousand thieves were defeated across the board!