Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 602 Queen 5
The bandits in Zhengyang City were all grinning, not caring at all that their leader left them behind and ran away.In fact, if lottery was used to decide who would leave Zhengyang City to hang out with Zuo Liangyu outside, and who would stay in Zhengyang City to guard the city, most people would hope that they could stay in the city, because there are More than 2000 shi rice noodles and a large amount of canned meat, there is no shortage of firewood, and weapons are piled up like a mountain. With such good conditions, idiots go out to play catch-and-cat with officers and soldiers. When the thousand five hundred cavalrymen broke through, the bandits all watched them go away with a look of "those idiots ran away".The weird attitude of these guys made Zuo Liangyu even more confused. It stands to reason that the general should abandon the city, and the defenders in the city should be in a panic and their morale should be low. Why...

I can’t understand it, I really can’t understand it!
He found that Hong Niangzi was really capable, and after only a few rounds, he was dizzy and confused, so that when Liu Zeqing arrived with the main forces of Changping and Linqing one day later, his head was still there. faint……

When Hou Xun appeared in front of him, he suddenly woke up and didn't dare to faint anymore—Old boss, what can we do if we don't cheer up?

"What exactly is going on?"

Hou Xun's voice was a little gloomy, and his face was even gloomier, looking very unhappy.He really couldn't be happier. Yang Menglong turned the whole Huguang upside down. On the one hand, the Huguang rebels were advancing triumphantly. They had taken Hengyang and Yongzhou in one fell swoop and opened the door of Guangdong and Guangxi. On the other hand, the peasants happily took out the only little I exchanged the broken silver, and happily sent my children to the school to study for free——Boys and girls both go, the school manages breakfast and lunch, which can save two meals, dredging rivers, building reservoirs, and building waterworks... …It can be said that there are endless tricks.Hou Xun himself secretly calculated that since Fang Yizhi took office as governor of Huguang, [-] out of [-] government orders issued were related to building roads, bridges, schools, and reservoirs. He was an infrastructure maniac!Numerous infrastructure projects consume tens of thousands of tons of cement and tens of thousands of tons of steel every month, and the money and food wasted is even more difficult to calculate. I really don’t know how they came up with so much steel and cement. It will never be enough to fill this place. Went into a big pit!According to past experience, such large-scale construction projects will inevitably boil public dissatisfaction. However, the people of Huguang are overjoyed because the damn slave laborers have been abolished. They all have food to eat and money to work, and the wages are not low. !
Hou Xun didn't like all of this, not at all!The factories that have sprung up like mushrooms after rain made him hate it, because a considerable part of these factories were textile factories, which seriously threatened the textile industry in the south of the Yangtze River; Yang Menglong's order that every county must have a school made him hate it even more. To the bone! It has been 2000 years, and reading has always been the privilege of their class. Scholars are always superior. Even if they don’t do anything, the emperor has to allocate 10 taels of silver to support them every year. Serving corvee, not having to pay taxes, not having to kneel when meeting county magistrates, even a sour scholar who has achieved nothing all his life, is still a great figure in the eyes of the common people, and it is so pleasant to ask them for help when encountering any troubles!But now Yang Menglong, the bastard, is all about digging their roots!Shit, if everyone in the world can read, what dignity do they have for scholars, this is absolutely unbearable!For this reason, the imperial court sent Yang Menglong countless official documents, warnings, threats, intimidations, lures...all available tricks were used, but this guy didn't make any effort, relying on the height of the mountain and the emperor's distance, he continued to promote himself. No one can do anything against him... Who let him have an unreasonably strong new army in his hands!

Now the court really has nothing to do with this guy, it can only send Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing over to make things difficult for him.However, these two people were blocked before they even touched the edge of Huguang. How can Hou Xun be happy in such a busy street situation!

Zuo Liangyu said: "The rebels were lawless and kidnapped the dog, and now they are hanging on the top of Zhengyang City, exposed to the sun and rain! The general vowed to tear those gangsters to pieces!"

Liu Zeqing quickly helped Zuo Liangyu to speak: "Father and son are united, how can General Zuo not feel sorry for General Zuo who suffered such inhuman abuse? For the current plan, we can only capture Zhengyang City first, rescue General Zuo, and then Make a plan!"

Although Hou Xun was not happy, he did not dare to push people too far. Zuo Liangyu was famous for his rebelliousness. If he was pushed to a point, he would do anything.Besides, it's normal for a father to desperately try to save his son when he is kidnapped. No matter how powerful he is, he can't force Zuo Liangyu to give up his son, so he can continue to work for them, right?In desperation, he had no choice but to say: "Intensify the construction of siege equipment, and make a quick victory. We must capture Zhengyang within ten days, and then march to Xinyang!"

It doesn’t seem easy to take Zhengyang City within ten days. After all, it’s a siege, and siege battles have never been easy to fight. Some small cities with only 3000 to 10,000 people can’t be defeated by 10,000+ people for a year or two. There are many battles, and the most famous ones are Geng Gongshou Jinpu and Zhang Xunshou Juyang. The former only had a few hundred people and beat [-] Xiongnu cavalry with difficulty, and finally withdrew in desperation. After a battle, there were only about [-] people left, and they were so hungry that they were about to cook the beef tendons on their bows and crossbows. The Huns still couldn't break through the city he was defending; A motley army of [-] people was raised, and they relied on the [-]-strong mob army to defend Juyang. First they beat Linghu Chao violently, and then they fought with Yin Ziqi in a full-scale fight. The elite lost their temper completely, and after nearly a year of fighting, they couldn't beat the little Juyang. In the end, the food in Juyang City was exhausted, the bark of the birds and even the paper were eaten up, so they won the city. At that time, there were only three to four hundred people alive in Juyang City, and they were all so hungry that they could not stand up.So when he heard Hou Xun's order, Liu Zeqing groaned inwardly, but Zuo Liangyu was very calm, and Hong Niangzi's extremely bad command gave him unparalleled confidence-this group of bandits didn't know how to fight at all. It couldn't be easier to capture Zhengyang City within a day. Maybe it won't take even ten days, and Zhengyang City will be captured!

Zuo Liangyu promised loudly: "My lord, please rest assured that Zhengyang City will definitely be captured within ten days, and all those rebels will be brought before your lord, and they will be dealt with!"

Hou Xun waved his hand and said, "Get ready." He was seriously not interested in such untechnical things as fighting and killing...

Coming out of Hou Xun, Liu Zeqing complained: "Brother, how can you promise Master Hou to attack Zhengyang within ten days? How can this city be so easy to attack!"

Zuo Liangyu smiled and said: "Just don't worry, those rebels are just a bunch of mobs, they are easy to deal with. I promised my lord to take Zhengyang City within ten days, and I have given them a lot of face." Already!" After telling Liu Zeqing all the inconceivable and low-level mistakes that Hong Niangzi made when she broke through, Liu Zeqing's eyes widened as she listened to it, and finally couldn't help it anymore, and exclaimed:

"A person can be so stupid!"

Zuo Liangyu said: "At the beginning, I couldn't believe that a person could be so stupid, but I couldn't believe it, because it happened right under my nose!"

Liu Zeqing licked his lips and said: "That red lady is so stupid. There is a limit to how strong her army can be. It will be easy to capture Zhengyang City in ten days. It's a pity that her war horses..."

Zuo Liangyu said: "When we kill her, we will share the horses equally."

Liu Zeqing was overjoyed: "It's a deal!"

Zuo Liangyu said, "It's a deal!"

The two divisions of the Changping Army and the Linqing Army were merged, and the total strength reached 3000, which can be regarded as a quite powerful army.Unlike the Ming army, which had only a few hundred servants out of thousands of people, the Changping army was generally more capable of fighting, and had dozens of cannons, large and small, to assist in the battle.These two troops hurriedly started making ladders and chariots, preparing to do a big job. They all heard that the rebels defending the city were very poor in combat effectiveness, and the amount of money and food accumulated in the city was simply a piece of money. It's so fat that it's fat, if you don't pounce on it and take two bites, you'll be sorry for your conscience!In their eyes, the more than 3000 defenders in Zhengyang City were basically dead.

However, Li Yan has a very different view on the serious question of who is the dead.

While the officers and soldiers were busy making various siege equipment, Li Yan was also busy directing the people to take out bunches of crossbow arrows from the warehouse and transport them to the city wall. At the same time, he asked the civilians to prepare sandbags and pile them in places that could easily cause fires. If Zhengyang City was bombarded and caused a fire, they would throw these sandbags into the sea of ​​​​fire to put out the fire.Big weapons such as ash bottles, horn stones, and vegetable oil were also moved to the city wall for free. The quantities were so insane that the squandering of three thousand people could last at least a month.Of course, among these weapons for defending the city, there was also a large-scale murder weapon that was packed in boxes. Boxes were carried up to the city wall and then opened. The quartermaster took out radish-like iron heads with wooden handles and distributed them among the boxes. That group of bandits, and the bandits also carefully took it and stuck it in their waists. Each of them took three or four, grinning. The quartermaster made them laugh so hard that they felt sick in their hearts and shouted: "Listen up, everyone, this thing is a fire starter." You must throw it away as soon as possible after that, don’t hold it in your hands, it will kill someone!”

The bandits smiled and asked, "How many people will die?"

The quartermaster said: "If such a bomb explodes on the city wall, at least seven or eight people will be killed!"

The bandits were still smiling, not sure if they had listened.

Of course, in addition to this, some explosive packages were also sent over, placed in the direction that is easier to break through.This thing is even more ruthless, one weighs ten catties, if you throw it down after pulling the fire, there will definitely be more than ten or eight dead!

With crossbows, grenades, and explosives, with so many weapons in hand, in Li Yan's eyes, the more than 1 officers and soldiers outside the city were almost dead.

(End of this chapter)