I want to be emperor

Chapter 85
To the west of Lushan County in Ruzhou, in the hilly area near Funiu Mountain, there is Songjiazhuang, which is famous in the whole Ruzhou.

The reason why Songjiazhuang is famous is not because of how good this place is, in fact, there is not much difference between this place and other villages on the plain in Ruzhou
The reason why this place is famous is because there is a Song family in Ruzhou.

There are many Song families in Ruzhou, but the Song family that can be prefixed with Ruzhou in contemporary times is only the Song family in Songjiazhuang in Lushan County.

This is the famous family of Ruzhou!

In the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, some ancestors of the Song family became officials with the honor of raising people and becoming officials. Later, some people became officials with the fame of raising people and supervising students. Although the ancestors of the Song family were all middle-level and low-level officials in the early days, they still accumulated a lot for the Song family. In the traditional sense, he has established a scholarly family of farming and reading heirlooms.

By the time it was passed down to Song Pinghe and Song Pinglin's generation, the Song family had already become a well-known scholarly and distinguished family in Ruzhou.

This famous family does not mean that the Song family has tens of thousands of acres of land, hundreds of shops, one of the largest grain merchants in Ruzhou, and other assets, but the reputation of the Song family.

The owner of the long house, Song Pinghe, was a Juren during the Wanli period. He also served as the magistrate of a certain county in Shandong in his early years, but he was dismissed after offending the eunuch party.

Song Pinghe's eldest son is a scholar, who helped manage the family business at home after his career was hopeless; the second son also passed the examination of a scholar, and is now preparing for the provincial examination. It doesn't matter, it's not a problem to get an official hat.

Song's family lineage is actually pretty average. One Juren plus two scholars, plus the reputation of the ancestors can support the name of a scholarly family, but it is far from a famous family.

What really made the Song family rise in the past 30 years and became a famous family in Ruzhou was Song Pinglin, the second house owner of the Song family.

Song Pinglin was a top three Jinshi during the Wanli period. After the first few years of his career as a county magistrate, he was quickly transferred back to the capital to work, and he stayed in Beijing for a long time. Now he is a doctor in the household department.

Don't look at this person's rank is only the fifth grade, and he has been in the household department for 30 years, but this person can stay in the political arena for 30 years without falling, and he has been serving as a Beijing official in the capital for a long time. Let's talk about a political tumbler.

Song Pinglin's 30-year career as a Beijing official has allowed Song Pinglin to accumulate deep network resources and qualifications. At the end of last year, there were already rumors that Song Pinglin would be promoted and transferred to Taichang Shaoqing.

This kind of situation is actually relatively rare for officials in the contemporary Ming Dynasty to be promoted to Li. Usually, the doctors of the six divisions are sent to other places, and most of them are inspectors. Chang Shaoqing is hopeful.

It can be seen that this person has profound political energy.

With his deep contacts and qualifications, as long as there are no major changes in the future, this person will probably be able to become a minister of Taichang Temple in a few years, and then he will be the Minister of the Right.

Given that the contemporary Emperor Chongzhen likes to frequently change his cabinet ministers, it is possible for this person to become a minister or even join the cabinet after the top bosses have fallen one after another.

Such Song Pinglin is now the core pillar of the entire Song family. As long as Song Pinglin does not fall, the Song family in Ruzhou will be a famous family.

But such a famous family, on the 25th day of the first month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, ushered in the biggest crisis in more than 200 years.

A wave of thieves who ran from Funiu Mountain killed Songjiazhuang!
Song Pinghe stood on the courtyard wall of his house, which was half a foot high, looking at the gray thieves in front of him with a dark face.

"These rogues are not kind!" Song Pinghe squinted at the rogues outside, with a deep worry on his face.

His eldest son, Song Ange, was also flustered: "The thief in front of me is very different from the thief in the past, my family is in danger!"

Hearing the panicked words of the eldest son Song Ange, Song Pinghe glanced sideways at him, then turned his gaze away and looked at the thief outside again.

The eldest son is hopeless, even if he fails to start a business, but he is not very good at managing the family business, and he panics when he encounters any trouble.

Fortunately, I was smart in my early years. When I saw that the tuba was not good enough, I immediately practiced a trumpet. Now my second son who is studying in the south of the Yangtze River is smart and studious since he was a child. Later, he became an official, and with his temperament, he was able to survive the officialdom.

But the eldest son said that the thieves outside were unusual, but it was true.

He, Song Pinghe, has seen a lot of rogues. Last year, there were three waves of rogues trying to attack their Songjiazhuang, but those rogues were basically not very good. They didn't even have many swords and spears, and they couldn't conquer them at all. The Songjiazhuang is protected by a half-height courtyard wall and a large number of courtyard guards and tenant villagers.

Those thieves' armaments are not even as good as his Songjiazhuang's nursing home.

Strictly speaking, his family's nursing home is not his Song family's private nursing home, but Xiangyong of Lushan County!
However, when Wang Jida founded Lushan County Yong last year, Song Pinghe, in order to protect his own property and because the private nursing home could not be equipped with sharp weapons such as strong bows and armor, simply stuffed Wang Jida with money and bought one for a collateral clan member of his family. The hat of the sentry officer in Xianyongli.

Then, taking advantage of the situation, he incorporated his own nursing home into this whistle.

Of course, the name of Xianyong is just a name to use as a legal and compliant equipment weapon, and he should do whatever he should do on weekdays, at least the government cannot mobilize the Song Family Nursing Academy.

Therefore, the Song family nursing home can also be equipped with strong bows, armor and even guns.

This is also an important reason why several groups of thieves tried to attack Songjiazhuang last year, but they were all repelled in the end.

But now, after Song Pinghe saw those gray thieves outside, he was very worried about the military equipment and combat power of his nursing home.

These thieves not only have a large group of infantry, but also more than 100 fine cavalry who arrived here ahead of schedule yesterday. He arranged for people to rush out of Lushan to rescue them twice, but they were intercepted and killed one by one by these thieves' fine cavalry.

It is acceptable to have fine cavalry, after all, many powerful thieves also have cavalry.

But what the hell are the dozen or so cannons pulled out of these bandits...

Song Pinghe counted them himself, and there were at least twelve cannons he saw, and two of them were long-barreled cannons that he knew at first glance were not easy to mess with.

At the same time, there are still many bird guns in these bandits.

Moreover, many of the bandit army wore armor, not to mention the fine cavalry who wore armor. Song Pinghe saw that many infantry in the bandit army were also wearing armor.

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like a thief, but more like an officer, or a battalion sentry soldier.

In the face of such thieves, can his Songjiazhuang be able to stop it?

he does not know!

But he knew better that he had to stop it, otherwise his Song family's hundreds of members would be ruined.

Escape is hopeless, the bandit army has more than a hundred elite cavalry, and they can directly chase and kill as many people as they escape.

Surrender is also unreliable. Song Pinghe is very clear about the ferocity of the thieves. Last year, there were thieves attacking Lushan County. Some big families wanted to surrender because of their inferior strength, but the thieves still did not Let them go, one counts as one and the other kills and burns them all.

Therefore, it is unreliable to talk about surrender to these thieves, they can only die.

If you carry it through, you will survive, if you can't resist it, you will be wiped out, and there is no third way to go.

With such a heavy heart, after Song Pinghe got down from the courtyard wall, he took his eldest son, housekeeper and several other clan elders to inspect other courtyard walls, and arranged food, weapons, and city defense.

To fight against such thieves, it is far from enough to rely on the nursing home with less than 200 people in his family, and a few hundred young and strong people are needed. Yesterday when I learned that a large number of thieves came directly towards their Songjiazhuang , Song Pinghe had already started recruiting the young and strong in the entire Song Family Village.

Anyway, these people are tenants of their Song family, and they dare not not come under the orders of the Song family.

Naturally, these recruited young men couldn't let them go hungry against the bandits, right?

Although Song Pinghe is usually tight-lipped, he also knows that now is not the time to save money. He has ordered the granary at home to release grain since yesterday. One person who kills a thief will be rewarded with five taels, and one who kills a small boss will be rewarded with ten taels.

While Song Pinghe was organizing the guarding of the courtyard and the defense of the young and strong, Luo Zhixue was also observing the situation of Songjiazhuang on a low hill about 700 meters away from the courtyard wall.

Like the map of Songjiazhuang drawn by Huang Guangmao from memory, the surrounding terrain of Songjiazhuang is generally flat, with only a few small mountains no more than tens of meters high, and many streams passing through it. There are also some dilapidated houses of ordinary villagers scattered between the sky and the earth.

These dilapidated houses, and the entire Songjiazhuang Manor in the center of Songjiazhuang, went up and down every day.

Even if you look at the entire Song Family Manor from the outside, you can tell that it is a Gaomen mansion. The courtyard walls are four or five meters high, and there are towers at the four corners.

And you can also see the last three cannons placed on the courtyard wall in the early stage, which are estimated to be light cannons of one or two hundred catties by visual inspection.

The courtyard wall is now crowded with people, at least 500 people by visual inspection, most of them are equipped with swords and guns, strong bows, muskets, and some even wear armor.

No wonder several groups of thieves failed to capture Songjiazhuang last year. In terms of defensive strength, this Songjiazhuang is not only not as thick as the real city wall, but also stronger than the current Lushan County in terms of military strength and military equipment.

However, for the Baoxiangying, the courtyard wall of Songjiazhuang, which seemed high but was far less thick than the city wall, was a fatal flaw.

Because there are two [-]-jin long cannons in the Baoxiangying artillery post, and the solid shells fired by them are enough to destroy such a tall and thin courtyard wall.

After climbing up the short mountain and carefully observing the surrounding terrain and the situation of Songjiazhuang, Luo Zhixue did not hesitate, and directly said to An Yong beside him: "Order the artillery post, first attack the courtyard wall where the enemy's artillery is located with a [-]-jin long cannon!"

"Light cannons step forward, wait for the light cannons on the wall of the enemy's courtyard to be destroyed, and open fire to cover the enemy with firepower!"

"The musketeers and archers of each post stepped forward one by one, and after the light artillery shelled, they went forward to suppress the remaining firepower of the enemy's city."

"The armored soldiers at each post are ready to carry out the battle of ascending the city after the firepower of the enemy's head weakens."

After issuing a series of orders, Luo Zhixue took another look at the prepared units in front of him, took a deep breath and said:

"Tell the guards of the ministries that Luo is going to have dinner at the Song Family Manor today!"

(End of this chapter)