A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 685 Erosion
On the first day of August, Guidefu City.

This place is the Shangqiu City of the later generations, with outstanding people. For thousands of years, a large number of emperors, generals, celebrities and heroes have emerged.

The ancestral home of Confucius is here, where Liu Bang killed snakes and rebelled, Zhang Xun fought against the [-] troops of Anlu Mountain here, Zhao Kuangyin made his fortune here, Sima Xiangru, Fan Zhongyan, Su Shi, etc. all left their traces here.

However, this city is also a place where military disasters and natural disasters frequently occur. At this time, on the Gongchen Gate in the north of the city, Li Zhenyu, the prefect of Guide, is looking at the outside with a heavy heart. full.

Looking up, not only the plains in the countryside, but also the outer city were occupied by their soldiers and horses.

The layout of Guidefu City is a very unique outer circle and inner square style. The city wall, city lake, and city walls are trinity, just like a huge "copper coin". Respond to the place and take the meaning of nature.

In the Jiajing year, the city was built again, which was also used as a moat and embankment. The outer city was circular and the inner city was square, finally forming a unique pattern of outer circle and inner square.

Because of the embankment of the city moat and the ingenious drainage system of the city pool, even if the Yellow River overflows, overflows, and bursts irregularly, it cannot pose a major threat to the city of Guidefu.

However, although the city wall is generous, it is only for waterproofing after all. The dike is too long and the height is not enough. If defense is needed, the troops in the city are also insufficient.

Fortunately, the city wall of Fucheng is high and thick, surrounded by moats on all sides, and the south side is even wider, more than one mile wide and nearly three miles long.

Although it is a moat, it is more appropriate to call it a lake. Under the river, there are six ancient cities, including the capital city of the Spring and Autumn and Song Dynasties, Suiyang City in the Qin and Han Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yingtianfu Nanjing City in the Song Dynasty, and Guidefu City in the Yuan Dynasty.

Therefore, although the thieves attacked day and night, the Fucheng has been defending until now, but whether it will be able to hold it in the end, Li Zhenzhen has no idea. The east gate, west gate, north gate, and several city gates have relatively narrow river water, and it has been dry for many years. The water level of the moat Quite a lot.

There are not many other things about the rogues, but they have a lot of manpower. They push mud to fill the river day and night, and slowly many parts of the moat are about to be filled by them.

"Can the city be defended?"

Li Zhenyu murmured in his heart.

The thieves have been attacking the city for many days, and they have exhausted all kinds of methods. On both sides of the moat, there are all kinds of broken equipment, corpses of men and horses, especially in the narrow area outside the ancient city wall of the southern outer city, the lower part of the city wall is full of people. After touching the corpse of the thief, the blood that flowed out even solidified into a reddish brown.

The thieves even used boats. In the moat on all sides, there were quite a few damaged boats and corpses inside.

Just as he was thinking, footsteps sounded, a general with a strong figure, a bright tassel on his head, and a battle robe came to Li Zhenyu's side, but it was General Yang from the Guide Mansion.

At this time, he said with a deep tiredness on his face: "Master Fu, the bandits have been besieging the city for many days, but there is no news of reinforcements for a long time, and the general is worried..."

Li Zhenyu's heart trembled slightly, this was also what he was worried about.

The current situation in Guide Mansion is full of bandits. There may be hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. With so many thieves, the officers and soldiers on all sides are all frightened. It would be good if they can hold their own defenses, so why come to rescue?

As far as Li Zhenzhen knew, the Shandong soldiers and horses on the other side of the Yellow River just guarded the border of Shandong strictly across the river, and ignored Li Zhenzhen's request for help.

Facing the nearby Fengyang Mansion in Nanzhili to the east, Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, also guarded the line of defense strictly. He even transferred Huang Degong, the commander-in-chief in Luzhou, to Zhongdu, and ignored the war in Guide Mansion. He is the governor of Fengyang, and the affairs of Henan are not under his jurisdiction.

What he is most worried about now is that thieves continue to enter Xuzhou. If the water transportation is blocked, he, the governor of Fengyang, is also responsible, and he can't take care of others.

Therefore, it seems that there are no reinforcements around, the supervisor Ding Qirui, the leader Zuo Liangyu and others are lingering in the Runing Mansion, the officers and generals of Kaifeng City don't know what their plans are, and the rescue troops will be delayed. Now the news inside and outside is cut off, and I don't know the feelings of the outside world.

In the city of Guide Mansion, only General Yang has more than 2000 battalion soldiers. No wonder he is worried and worried that he will not be able to defend the city.

After being silent for a long time, he turned around and looked at the Zhang Xun Temple in the south of the city. Li Zhenzhen finally said with emotion: "Regardless of whether there are reinforcements, the rewards of eating the king, and the matter of being loyal to the king, as local parents, how can we be afraid of thieves and troubles? Right now, the people are exhausted. Entering the insurance, there is no gap between the inner and outer cities. It is our duty to protect our hometown! In the past, Zhang Zhongcheng guarded Suiyang. people."

Judging by Li Zhenyu's resolute expression, he already has white beard and hair, and behaves like an old man, but General Yang knows that Li Zhifu is only in his forties, and is about the same age as him. Looking at his appearance, he is already like his father.

Thinking about everything Li Zhifu did on a daily basis, a wave of heat surged in his heart. He is an upright person, and he said loudly: "Fighting for the country is our duty. I am willing to hold the whip and fall to the stirrup, and follow the governor around."

Li Zhenyu saluted deeply: "It is the duty to protect the soil, please general."

With a few words, the two of them let go of everything, at most, they would just die in battle.

They discussed military affairs more carefully, relying solely on officers and soldiers, and their strength is weak, it will be difficult to defend the city in the long run, and more social soldiers and rural courage must be built.

In the local area of ​​Guide Mansion, there are many prominent families from military households. Many of these military dignitaries with hereditary privileges have private armed forces. A powerful family.

Although the vicious expansion of the power of the township eunuchs has caused all kinds of conflicts in Guide Mansion to be extremely sharp, on weekdays, these clan tyrants also violated the government's decrees. Li Zhenzhen's gray hair was mostly caused by these people.

However, their clan has strong cohesion, and they are at odds with the bandits.

They knew that after the thieves broke through the city, they would never let them go. After all, they were big families, and their will to defend the city was quite firm. The same as the Social Soldiers.

The local scholars also resolutely stood on the side of the government. At this time, Hou Fangyu, Wu Boyi, Wu Boyin, Jia Kaizong, Xu Zuolin, Zhang Wei and others formed the Xueyuan Society in Fucheng, which was called Xueyuan Six Sons at that time. The local eunuchs are powerful and powerful, and they work together to resist the bandits.

With the help of these gentry, it is estimated that the defenders in the city can reach [-], and the city can last for a long time.

Especially among the officers and soldiers in the city, most of them also have excellent Xuanfu town bird guns, which played an important role in the battle of defending the city.

Li Zhenju bought it from Xuanfu Town relying on his relationship with Wang Dou. Wang Dou is a nostalgic person. Not only did he give him a discount on the price, but also in the situation where the supply of bird guns was in short supply, the list of shares gave priority to Li Zhenju. The sub-medicines given away are also much more than ordinary people.

In the past, Li Zhenyu was attacked by local scholars because of this, but now, he has achieved his far-sighted actions, and has been praised by everyone in the prefecture.

He also sold the bird guns he bought to General Yang at a favorable price, which is one of the reasons why the two have a good relationship.

"I don't know when the reinforcements will arrive, and the medicine needs to be used sparingly."

The two discussed carefully.

"Although the gunpowder in stock is not as powerful as Xuanzhen, it can still be used. If the lead is not suitable, it can be selected by everyone..."

……

On the third day of the eighth month, the bandits attacked very urgently. Just as Li Zhenzhen and General Yang Cang went to the city to roar and command the battle, suddenly they retreated like a tidal wave.

Li Zhenyu and General Yang Cang were overjoyed. Standing at the top of the city, they saw all the thieves pulling out their camps, their horses galloping, and the dust covered the sun, heading southeast. They looked at each other, and they both saw the joy in each other's eyes. Could it be that the reinforcements are coming? no?

Sure enough, in the afternoon, sentry cavalry came, but it was Jingnan Bo Cao Bianjiao, under the command of Ningnan Bo Wang's courtiers, saying that the army of the two earls was not far from the city of Guide.

Hearing and hearing from all over the city, everyone was overjoyed, the reinforcements really came, and they were the famous strong troops in the border town, now Guide Mansion will have no worries.

Sure enough, on the fourth day of the lunar new year, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen each led the main battalion to arrive first, and the rolling iron cavalry saw that Li Zhenyu and the others were even more confident. There are nearly [-] horse and infantry officers and soldiers.

In the past, all states, counties, guards, and prefectures have always reported fear and rejection of officers and soldiers crossing the border, but at this time, the whole Guide Mansion welcomed the arrival of Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen very much.

Although the officers and soldiers will harass the people, it is better than the thieves breaking the city. Moreover, the military discipline under the command of the two earls is relatively strict.

These soldiers and horses are also extremely elite, no wonder they can scare away the overwhelming thieves outside the city. From Li Zhenyu's point of view, although they are not as good as the Jingbian Army, they are still one of the strongest troops in the Ming Dynasty. General Yang Can and other local soldiers are even more shocking. If heaven and man.

Although it was difficult, Li Zhenzhen tried his best to supply the nearly ten thousand soldiers and horses who came here. Of course, they also hoped that the rogues in the territory could be wiped out as soon as possible.

Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen stayed in Fucheng for a few days to recuperate and analyze the enemy's situation.

After their soldiers and horses arrived, a large number of thieves seemed to flow to Xuzhou and Fengyang Mansion in Zhili in the south.

However, in Suizhou, Ningling, Zhecheng, Luyi, Xiayi, and the neighboring Haozhou of Nanzhili, there are many small and large groups of rogue soldiers and horses left. These rogues can be wiped out first, and the Qing The place of Jingguide Mansion.

Moreover, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen successfully forced back the army of low-ranking thieves in the Guide mansion. The news spread to Kaifeng and Runing mansions. The governor Ding Qirui, the general soldier Zuo Liangyu and others were all excited and wanted to lead the troops. Suppress thieves.

The strategy of the bandits has changed, and they are no longer pressing towards Kaifeng. Naturally, their own side cannot stay where they are for a long time.

Even the governor of Baoding, Yang Wenyue, who was Ding Qirui's deputy at this time, under Ding Qirui's call, wanted to lead the tiger, the deputy commander, and bid for the governor of the Chinese army, Jiang Mingwu, etc., and forced him to come to Guide Mansion. Only Gao Mingheng, the governor of Henan, was still hesitating. Leave Chen Yongfu in Kaifeng City.

Ma Shiyingfeng, the governor of Fengyang, was furious, and wrote to impeach Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen, and impeached them to drive the thieves into the Nanzhili government and corrupt state affairs.

All parties were ready to move, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses seemed to be mobilized by the bandits, but they basically acted according to the strategy proposed by Li Dingguo at that time.

(End of this chapter)