Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 220
In Taoyuan County, Lu Xiangtong is leading a team of brave men to patrol the banks of the Yellow River.

Lu Xiangtong was a member of the Southern Strait, and his cousin was Lu Xiangsheng, one of the most fierce men in the Ming Dynasty. As a civil servant, he could go into battle with a machete to kill the enemy.

Lu Xiangtong is not as famous as his cousin Lu Xiangsheng, but he is also good at martial arts, and he is also tall and burly.

Pointing to the ice surface of the Yellow River, Lu Xiangtong said to the village captain beside him: "Sanwang, take a few people down to dig through the ice near the river bank."

"Yes." Wu Sanwang, captain of the Township Yong, immediately led the men down the river.

After a lot of effort, they finally cut through the ice of the Yellow River.

Wu Sanwang was good at making comparisons, looked up to Lu Xiangtong and said, "My lord, it's amazing that the ice layer is one foot thick!"

"It's more than a foot thick!" Lu Xiangtong's face collapsed immediately, "With such a thick ice layer, even if tens of thousands of people stand on the ice, it may not collapse."

"In this way, Jiannu can attack directly from the river."

"Then we have spent nearly half a year building more than a hundred gun towers in the east, west, south, and south directions of the county, and they can no longer play any defensive function."

The terrain of Taoyuan County is slightly unique.

Because the location of Taoyuan County is as high as the embankment of the Yellow River, and it is very close to the county, the Yellow River directly becomes the moat of Taoyuan County.

This has advantages but also disadvantages.

Lu Xiangtong said worriedly, "What should I do?"

Wu Sanwang said: "My lord, why don't we evacuate all the brave men into the county?"

"How can I do that?" Lu Xiangtong shook his head like a rattle, "The city wall of Taoyuan County is only two feet high. At this height, Jiannu doesn't even need a ladder. He can climb up with a human ladder! So if there is no peripheral gun platform The guards cannot be defended by relying solely on the low city walls of the county seat, at best they can only hold on for two or three days."

Wu Sanwang scratched his head and said, "My lord, maybe Jiannu won't come to attack Taoyuan County."

"Nonsense, you can't have such a fluke mentality." Lu Xiangtong said decisively, "If Jiannu can't attack Xuzhou for a long time, he will inevitably divide his troops and detour to Huai'an Mansion or Fengyang Mansion. Coming down will be our Taoyuan County, so we must be prepared."

"But the problem is, this battle is really not easy to fight."

"No one expected that the weather this spring would be so cold."

Wu Sanwang smiled wryly: "Although the Yellow River also froze in previous years, the ice layer was not so thick."

"I'll think about it again." Lu Xiangtong said with a frown, "I remember the Holy Majesty said that there are always more solutions than difficulties, as long as you think about it, you can always come up with a solution..."

Before the words finished, Wu Sanwang suddenly called out: "My lord, there are people coming from the river!"

"Huh?" Lu Xiangtong suddenly looked up, and saw a figure sliding over the river.

"My lord, it seems that he is our courier, either from Pizhou or from Suining..." Halfway through speaking, Wu Sanwang suddenly called out again, "He seems to be injured."

Lu Xiangtong also saw that the man's cotton armor was almost soaked in blood.

Needless to say, this person must be Wang Pohu. He narrowly escaped from the arrows of three Jiannu white armor soldiers.

Seeing Lu Xiangtong, Wang Pohu secretly said that he was lucky.

Originally, I was worried that I would not be able to go to the city, but unexpectedly I met Mr. Lu Xiangtong here.

Wang Pohu has been to Taoyuan County many times with Huaxia, and he is already very familiar with Lu Xiangtong and Wu Sanwang.

"Ah, it turned out to be Brother Pohu!" Wu Sanwang also recognized Wang Pohu, and hurried forward to meet him.

But Wang Pohu was gliding so fast that he couldn't stop at all, and he brought Wu Sanwang down in one fell swoop. The two slid on the ice for more than ten steps, and they stopped when they hit the river bank.

When Lu Xiangtong rushed over, Wang Pohu was already angry.

Niyaha's arrow did not actually hit the vital point, it only pierced Wang Pohu's right shoulder blade.

If he could find a doctor in time to bandage the wound, his right arm would probably be useless, but saving his life would not be a problem.

As a result, he slipped away for an hour or two, and he bled out all the blood in his body.

"My lord, my lord asked me to come to Taoyuan to tell you..." Wang Pohu forcibly cheered up, and explained exactly what Huaxia meant, and then he died.

The mission has been completed, once the tense nerves are relaxed, people will die immediately.

Lu Xiangtong immediately sent his accompanying Xiangyong to choose the honest Xiangyong with a large number of poor children.

Although I'm not sure whether Huaxia's method will work or not, I can only try it now.

After sending Xiangyong away with him, Lu Xiangtong said to Wu Sanwang, "Sanwang, dig a hole with me and bury brother Pohu. Let's bury it by the Yellow River."

"My lord, let me come."

Wu Sanwang hurried over to grab the shovel.

"Ah!" Lu Xiangtong suddenly yelled.

Wu Sanwang was startled, and lost his voice: "What's wrong, my lord?"

Lu Xiangtong said anxiously: "Sanwang, can you play ice opera?"

"Yes." Wu Sanwang said blankly, "There is no one who grew up by the Yellow River who knows how to play ice."

"Great." Lu Xiangtong said hurriedly, "You go home quickly and put on the linden, then take the Yellow River waterway to Qinghe County and Huai'an Prefecture, and pass the letter sent by Brother Pohu to Qinghe County and Huai'an Prefecture Taxi."

"Yes." Wu Sanwang didn't dare to neglect, and immediately turned around and ran back.

……

I have to say that skating is fast, much faster than riding a horse.

Wu Sanwang set off from Taoyuan County in the evening, arrived at Qinghe in the middle of the night, and then arrived outside Shanyang City in the early morning of the next day, just in time to meet Yan Yingyuan and Maoxiang who were patrolling the city defense.

After listening to Wu Sanwang's report, Yan Yingyuan nodded to show that he understood.

"Come here." Yan Yingyuan said again, "Bring Brother Sanwang back to Xingyuan and drink some hot soup to warm your body."

"My lord, there's no need." Wu Sanwang declined politely, "I have a mission, and I have to go back to Taoyuan County to return to my mission."

Watching Wu Sanwang slip away quickly on the ice linden, Mao Xiang asked: "Brother Yanheng, do you think the method sent by Huaxia can work?"

Yan Yingyuan said: "Huaxia's strategy is undoubtedly a very good strategy, but it is not suitable for Shanyang."

"Brother Boheng, I don't understand this." Mao Xiang was puzzled, "Why isn't it suitable for us in Shanyang?"

Yan Yingyuan said: "The reason is very simple, because Suining County, Taoyuan County and Qinghe County are tasteless to the army of slaves, tasteless to eat, and a pity to discard, but our Shanyang is not."

"Chicken ribs?" Mao Xiang nodded, thinking of this allusion from the Three Kingdoms period.

Yan Yingyuan said again: "So Huaxia, Lu Xiangtong and the others can recruit dead soldiers from the bravery of the village, and use these dead soldiers to fight Jiannu. Jiannu realizes the price to be paid for taking Suining, Taoyuan and Qinghe counties. It will be far greater than the benefits that can be obtained from it, so I don’t want to waste time and troops in those small counties.”

"I understand." Mao Xiang nodded and said, "But compared with Suining, Taoyuan and Qinghe County, Shanyang, the prefecture of Huai'an, is a big piece of fat, because Shanyang is not only the residence of the Hecao Governor's Yamen, but also the home of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. One of the inner warehouses is also in Sanyang, and the richest gentry in Huai'an Mansion is also in Sanyang City!"

"Exactly." Yan Yingyuan sighed, "So Huaxia's tactics are useless to us."

Mao Xiang paused and said: "I don't know when the second batch of bird guns and tiger squat guns from the arsenal will be shipped to Shanyang?"

As the prefectural city of Huai'an, Sanyang's treatment is still different from that of Suining and other small counties, and it can be equipped with tiger crouching guns and bird guns.

However, since the production capacity of the Daming Armory could not keep up, only half of the [-] bird guns and [-] tiger squat guns originally planned to be supplied to Shanyang Xiangyong have been delivered.

"That can't wait." Yan Yingyuan said, "The canal is frozen and all the tank boats have been suspended. The arsenal can only load the bird guns and tiger squatting roars on dry roads, so let alone ten days and a half months, two months. They may not be able to arrive at all, Jiannu had already approached the city at that time, so don't expect the second batch of bird guns and tiger squat guns."

Maoxiang became more and more worried, frowned and said, "What should I do?"

"When the soldiers come, the water will flood the soil, and when the time comes, we will see the tricks." Yan Yingyuan seemed calm and composed, "The Holy Majesty also said that there are always more ways than difficulties, as long as you think about it, you will definitely find a way."

Speaking of this meal, he said: "As for the moment, we should store as much supplies as possible, such as gunpowder, lime, rolling wood and rocks, and even gold juice, as much as you have! There are also sulfur, firewood, rice straw and wheat straw. We should also send troops to collect as many things as possible to start the fire, and by the way, we should also store more wood.”

As for the food, there is no need to worry about it. There are millions of grains in the Sanyang warehouse.

Therefore, even if the city is besieged by slaves for a year, Shanyang City will not worry about food shortages.

Maoxiang made Yan Yingyuan speak even more nervously, as if Jiannu had already approached the city, and the war had already broken out.

Seeing this scene, Yan Yingyuan persuaded with a smile: "Brother Pijiang, there is no need to be nervous. In short, we will try our best to hold on to Shanyang. As for the final result, whether we can hold on? That is up to the heavens to decide. Our generation Scholars act in a way that is not ashamed of their mission, not ashamed of the Great Ming, and not ashamed of the people of the world."

The implication is to do your best and accept it no matter what the final result is.

After hearing Yan Yingyuan's words, Mao Xiang suddenly understood, yes, what's the use of being nervous?Just do your best and do it with a clear conscience.

Immediately Maoxiang said: "Brother Huheng, I am responsible for raising various materials, and I will leave the city defense deployment to you, because you have fought against pirates in Jiangyin, and you have more experience than me in this regard."

Yan Yingyuan said happily: "Okay, then brother Pijiang will work hard."

"Hey, they are all doing things for the Ming Dynasty, for the common people of the world, so why bother." After Mao Xiang finished speaking, he turned and left in a hurry, while Yan Yingyuan turned his eyes to the canal.

(End of this chapter)