Hei Yunlong took the remnants of his troops and fled with his two sons. Fortunately, the Mongols did not pursue them, but chose to consolidate the city wall first.
The father and son first returned home to pick up the family papers, took the gold and silver with them, and then went straight to Wenchang Pavilion.
Wenchang Pavilion is located in the center of Zhangjiakou Fort. There are open spaces on all sides, with four avenues leading to the four directions. Divide Zhangjiakou Fort into four parts.
Wenchang Pavilion is not large in area, but its base is extremely solid and is built with strips of stone on all sides.
On the high platform, a three-story pavilion looks more like a city tower or watchtower. It is a dangerous place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Hei Yunlong just took people to Wenchang Pavilion. Count the people immediately. After calling, I found that there were only 87 servants, three soldiers, and 57 veterans of the guard left.
Heiyunlong not only sighed. My family fortune has been completely wiped out.
Hei Minglian comforted him: "Dad, the green hills are here, so we don't have to worry about running out of firewood. We will stay here and wait for the Beijing camp to come back. We have done a good job in defending our territory. As long as we keep our official positions, we can recruit as many people as we want."
Hei Mingxiao also said: "Dad, if you put up the recruiting flag, are you afraid that there will be no people to eat food? Now that the refugees are everywhere, how many soldiers will be needed? The business is to keep the family papers first. If you are captured, you will be taken to the grassland. Life is worse than death.”
The father and son were lamenting when they heard the soldiers reporting back and forth.
"Sir, Sir Wang Fen has also come with his family papers and a hundred remaining soldiers. He is down below and asks to come in to assist you in guarding Wenchang Pavilion."
Hei Yunlong and the three looked at each other. These guys are quick to see opportunities.
As soon as I arrived here, before my butt was even hot, they were chasing me, and they came with family papers and gold and silver products.
"Dad, I think we should let them come up. After all, we only have 150 people left. With 100 more people, we can be more confident in holding this place. Our supplies are prepared according to 500 people. It should be enough Use it. Besides, the money and food donated by those profiteers before are also here."
"Dad, it's better to let them in. When the time comes, we can still have a witness if we stick to Zhangjiakou."
Heiyunlong pondered for a moment and said, "Let them come up."
The Wenchang Pavilion in this time and space is different from those in later generations. It is a 30-meter-square stone platform with a five-story pavilion-style building standing on a 15-meter-high base.
Different from the all-wood high attic, this attic is basically made of masonry, with a gable roof covered with gray glazed tiles. It looks very similar to the clock tower in the imperial capital.
Here you can overlook the entire Zhangjiakou Fort. It is the commanding heights of the whole city.
The reason why An Sanxi ordered to stop the pursuit. It's because now the only way to get up to the city wall is by twenty simple ladders set up on the wall. Many of them are damaged. Very inconvenient to get up and down. This small town is not big, but the city wall is higher than the Forbidden City.
The Shanxi merchants in the city are powerful. According to the intelligence department, they are very well-equipped and their servants are not afraid of death. They are all veterans who have been fighting with Mongolian horse thieves all year round to protect the camel team.
What is needed now is to control this section of the city wall first, rather than blindly expand the results. If Shanxi merchants make a big counterattack and are driven down again, the fight will be in vain.
"Now the first battalion of the first regiment has gone up. The second and third battalions of the first regiment are preparing to go up the city wall. The other two battalions are setting up defenses on the outside. The second, third and fourth regiments are surrounding the other three walls. We still have five more in hand. Regiment. Be the general reserve team. Our goal should be to kill and injure Shanxi merchants’ effective forces as much as possible.”
"Instead of rushing to expand the results, wait until the Shanxi merchants' power is almost exhausted. It is naturally time for us to pick the fruits."
"Now I order all five regiments to mobilize, immediately knock down the remaining walls on the outside, and use these adobes to build a slope up to the city wall. This will make it easier to transport supplies and troops up the city wall." An Sanxi ordered.
The 3,600 men of the fifth regiment immediately took action after receiving the order. They demolished the ruins, wood, bricks, etc. that remained after burning the houses. Transported to the north wall and piled up. Build a sloping bridleway.
Lin Hu had already arrived at the city wall. All five hundred men in his battalion have gone to the city. In today's battle, more than 500 enemies were killed, and the entire battalion suffered less than 100 casualties. More than thirty of them were killed. More than 20 people were seriously injured.
Lin Hu knew that now was the most dangerous moment. Shanxi merchants may counterattack at any time. After all, a section of the city wall is now missing.
In this operation, the cavalry troops were all cavalry, or camel cavalry. There are no siege weapons. Now Shanxi merchants have blocked the city gates with stones. Such a fortified city cannot be blasted open with camel cannon.
Fortunately, Commander An Sanxi caught him by surprise and attacked him unprepared.
Mainly attack the north wall without gates. The enemy was caught off guard. There were only more than 800 troops defending here, and the equipment was also very poor. That's why we captured the northern city wall in one fell swoop.
Now there are more than a thousand servants of Shanxi merchants on each of the other three city walls, and they are very well equipped. There are plenty of firearms.
Today, when the battle for the city wall was intense, I used a telescope to look at it from the watchtower of the headquarters.
We could clearly see that in various Shanxi Merchant courtyards in the city, a large number of servants were being organized and then setting up defenses from the other three sides. In their mansion, many manhole covers were opened, and the underground warehouse was exposed first.
Large quantities of firearms were taken out and distributed among their servants.
What An Sanxi saw himself were the Tiger Crouching Cannon, the No. 3 General Cannon, and the Frankie Cannon. Almost all of the firecrackers were matchlock guns, and no fire portal guns were seen at all. There are bird guns and heavy matchlock guns like turtle dove guns. We even saw Japanese iron cannons and some obviously European-style matchlocks.
Not only are they numerous in number and experienced in combat, but they also have ample ammunition and food. Their mansion was filled with warehouses. Barrels of gunpowder were brought out of the cellar.
Today, the reason why Heiyunlong was on the North City Wall did not get the support of the business group. The main reason was that the leaders of the business group did not expect that An Sanxi's attack direction today would be the North City Wall.
The north city wall is the highest and has no gates. In the middle is the Jade Emperor Pavilion. The terrain outside the city wall is also complex. Although the moat is dry, it is deeper than the other three sides.
No matter how you look at it, the main attack direction should be to the east and south where there are city gates. What I didn't even expect was that these Tatars were so powerful in combat that they were attacked and destroyed the city in a short period of time.
】
The Jade Emperor Pavilion is the tallest building on the north city wall, and it has now become Lin Hu's headquarters. Now Lin Hu is waiting for the arrival of the regiment leader and the second and third battalions.
The Shanxi merchants did not expect that the officers and soldiers would collapse so quickly.
They originally thought that Zhangjiakou was a fortified city and they would have to defend it for a few days. They were busy arming their servants first, completing the formation, and making all preparations before going to the city to defend.
However, soon news came that the northern city wall had been lost. Although the residences of Shanxi merchants are all in Nancheng, this is enough to scare them to death.
"Hei Yunlong actually took the remaining soldiers and ran into the turtle shell in Wenchang Pavilion. It seems that we can only rely on ourselves." Jin Liangyu cursed.
Soon, eight big shopkeepers came to Fan's house to discuss countermeasures, and this time no one was shirking. Because the officers and soldiers had been defeated miserably, Wenchang Pavilion retreated to the center of the city and stood firm, making it clear that it only cared about itself and ignored the business groups in the city.
The eight shopkeepers had no choice but to scold him. Now I can only rely on myself.
It's a pity that the food donated before is all in Wenchang Pavilion. This dog officer is actually much cheaper.
If the whole city falls, they can rely on a strong fortress and sufficient food to wait until reinforcements arrive. It's a good calculation.
"Everyone, what are your opinions now?" Fan Yongdou asked with his hands raised.
"If you have any other opinions, let's fight."
"If we don't fight, the city will be broken. Taking back the north wall, especially the Jade Emperor Pavilion, will pose too great a threat to the city. If they bring artillery up and bombard the city, it will be all over."
