Nanming Engineer

Chapter 391 The Response in Taiyuan City

Splendid Taiyuan, governed by Shanxi Province, is also known as Jinyang and Bingzhou in ancient times. The primitive society 8000 years ago has traces of human civilization. .

Beginning in the Spring and Autumn Period, Taiyuan City was burned several times by wars and was destroyed into a piece of rubble, but it was rebuilt again and again like inexhaustible grass, and each time it was built more grandly and magnificently. After several declines, the city wall of Taiyuan, the governor of Shanxi Province Zhu Shichang is now stepping on, is a new generation of city built in the Song Dynasty.

The city was built in the Song Dynasty, but after hundreds of years of operation and expansion in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, by the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Taiyuan City had become a giant with a circumference of 24 miles. It has the style of a generation of metropolises.

The Taiyuan City Wall is even more than three feet high, one foot wide, with turrets on all sides. Each of the eight city gates has an urn, among which the two most magnificent south gates - Cheng'en Gate and Yingze Gate. , the towering gatehouse on the city wall alone is five stories high. Standing on it, you can see far into the distance. On a clear day, you can see more than ten miles away, and you can have a panoramic view of the surrounding golden scenery, which is extremely magnificent and brilliant.

In the Ming Dynasty, Taiyuan has always been the town of King Jin. There is Jinwang Mansion in the city, which is comparable to the small Forbidden City. The scale of the mansion was built on the basis of the original Song Dynasty Taiyuan City. A few days after the conquest of Taiyuan, a mysterious and strange fire burned the entire palace, leaving only a barren ruin, which has become the shelter of countless refugees.

Standing on the gate tower of Cheng'en Gate, Zhu Shichang had a panoramic view of the inside and outside of the city, but in his eyes, there were two completely different worlds.

The outside of the city is desolate, and a residential area close to the city wall has long been reduced to withered bricks. For the convenience of defending the city, these houses were dismantled by the Qing army, and the beams, bricks and tiles were transported to the top of the city as weapons. In the city, prevent being captured by the rebels and used as a source of soldiers.

Outside the ruins, all the trees within five miles were cut down, and all were sent into the city, leaving countless tree stumps, so that if someone approached, they could be spotted by the soldiers in the city from a distance.

The water of the Fen River that goes around the city is led into the moat that surrounds the whole city. The moat is deep and wide, and there are sharpened bamboo sticks and branches buried underneath. The river of Passover is under protection.

But inside the city, it was a scene like facing a big enemy and the city was full of wind and rain. On the street, soldiers, soldiers and civilians were rushing to and fro. Arrows and heavy rolling stones were carried by trolleys along the road to the wall. On both sides of the street, all the shops closed their doors. Nobody cares.

The soldiers and civilians in the city lived in secluded homes, hiding at home with the gates closed. On both sides of the street, the people who had fled from outside the city had nowhere to go. They huddled under the eaves, huddled together with a small amount of luggage, watching the soldiers rushing back and forth. They were motionless, their eyes full of fear and numbness.

"Governor, is it true that Pingyang Fucheng was captured by the rebels within an hour?" A thick-browed man with a bald head and pigtails and a huge copper ring on his right ear asked harshly, with the pungent smell of mutton in his mouth. Zhu Shichang frowned.

Zhu Shichang subconsciously took a small step to the side, and without turning his head, he knew that it was Mongolian Erzhen Kuruk who was speaking.

These Mongols smell very strong, and they can suffocate people from a long distance. I really don't know how the Jurchen princesses who married them can bear it.

Zhu Shichang was thinking in his mind, but he replied in a deep voice: "There is no doubt that this is what the people who escaped from Pingyang said."

He turned sideways and looked behind him. Beside him stood three strong Mongolian men in leather jackets with half of their arms bare. They were all strong-backed and looked like king kongs. They were the three leaders of Nikan's soldiers. Erzhen Kuruk, Darkhan and Alai.

"When Prince Nikan left, he had wiped out all the rebels near Taiyuan and captured and killed countless of their leaders. The rebels should have been severely weakened and unable to fight anymore. How could they capture the heavily defended Pingyang City?" A Mongol general Darkhan also felt strange.

Zhu Shichang held his breath, leaned his nose upwind as much as possible, and then replied in a muffled voice: "According to the scout report, it was not the rebels who broke Pingyang City, but the Ming Dog reinforcements from Shaanxi. Wang Huan, Marquis of Pingliang, who beat Prince Su back to Beijing a few days ago, is good at fighting, although Pingyang City is strong and soldiers are strong, but he couldn't last an hour under his command."

The expressions of the three Mongolians changed, and Darkhan asked urgently in a deep voice: "So, Shaanxi has a lot of soldiers and horses?"

Zhu Shichang shook his head, with a strange expression, and said in a tone that he found strange: "Well, I heard that the Ming army that broke the city was less than 2."

"Less than 2?" Kuruk lost his voice and said: "The rebels surrounded Pingyang last month, and a hundred thousand people did not shake Pingyang at all. The Shaanxi Ming army broke through in an hour with less than [-] people? How is it possible?"

He and Darkhan exchanged glances, and then there was a flash of understanding as if suddenly realizing, and he said: "Could it be that the defeated army is shameful, and they are afraid of being punished by us, so they made up lies to perfunctory us."

Zhu Shichang rolled his eyelids helplessly, shook his head and sighed, "If that's the case, they should exaggerate the number of the Ming army. How could they deliberately reduce it instead? This is against common sense."

Kuruk and Darkhan were choked for a moment, thinking about it for a moment, opened their mouths with widened eyes, and were speechless.

A Lai, who had not spoken all the time, thought for a while, raised his eyebrows and said to Zhu Shichang: "I seem to have heard of this Wang Huan somewhere. It seems that Meng Qiaofang mentioned it several times in the post to the court last year. I heard The soldiers he led were good at firearms and good at cannon arrows, Shaanxi was lost, and they were all lost in the hands of this man."

Of the three Mongolians, Alai is the more reliable, but the other two are reckless. They are good at fighting and killing, but they can't use their brains to think of solutions, but Alai is very knowledgeable. Nikan kept him as a general to lead Kuruk and Darkhan to support Zhu Shichang.

Zhu Shichang nodded, looked at the distance outside the city, and said worriedly: "Three lords, this is what I am worried about. Although Taiyuan is strong, there are three generals who stayed behind to help, so it is impregnable. Now that Shaanxi Minggou reinforcements have entered Shanxi, the situation has suddenly changed. Pingyang and Yicheng, which were originally strongholds in southern Shanxi, were captured overnight. Shanxi is so big, but only our city of Taiyuan is still in the hands of the Qing Dynasty. The officer is worried that once the rebels and the Shaanxi Ming dogs, snakes, and rats get mixed together and their forces become stronger, they will target us in Taiyuan."

Kuruk and Darhan bulged their bull's-eyes, and the flesh on their faces suddenly became ferocious, and shouted: "Why are you afraid, Governor? Didn't the bandit leader Jiang Jianxun claim to have a hundred thousand people a few days ago? It's so amazing that his reputation has spread to the outside world. Didn't we run away like mice under the sweep led by Mr. Nikan, leaving behind a lot of heads and giving us a future? If the traitor Ming Gou dares to come to Taiyuan, we will follow the same method and let them come. No reply, hahaha!”

When the two talked about their excitement, they gave each other a high-five, their arrogance was beyond words.

A Lai wants to be more introverted, but he also doesn't disdain Zhu Shichang's timid appearance, and said with a slight smile: "That's right, although Prince Nikan went north to support Prince Ying of Datong, there are still nearly [-] soldiers in Taiyuan. Go south and west to recover the lost land, at least you can protect yourself. Your Excellency Governor, you don’t have to worry. There is a saying in the art of war of the Han Chinese: Water will cover you, and soldiers will block you. With the three of us here, Taiyuan will be safe!"

Zhu Shichang turned his head and took a deep look at the three people who didn't care. Governor Meng Qiaofang came from a similar background. They were both Han Chinese who had raised the flag very early and were deeply trusted by the Manchus.

The three Mongols didn't know how powerful the Ming army's firearms were, but he did. He knew that the reason why the Ming army was so weak was not because of its poor weapons, but because of its lack of personnel. As long as there were good generals, the Ming army equipped with firearms would definitely be A formidable enemy, judging from the battle history reported from Liaoyang and Yicheng, the army of Pinglianghou Wang Huan is likely to be a powerful army equipped with sharp firearms, which is absolutely different from the Ming Dynasty army encountered in the past. Life sums up the lessons it taught him.

He thought for a while, and an idea came to his mind, so he smiled cunningly, and said to the three of Alai: "Since the three of you are so brave, I am at ease. According to the scout report, in the area of ​​Jiaocheng, If there are rebels gathering, if there is an intention to get involved in Taiyuan, how about asking an adult to lead the army and destroy his team, firstly, to find out their details, and secondly, to sweep away their prestige, how about it?"

(End of this chapter)