The Mongolian cavalry stationed in Dayi fled after the battle, which caused the new annexed troops in the city to panic. The bandit soldiers who were quick-thinking began to pack up their belongings and prepare to escape. Some even anxiously used ropes to lower down the city wall. For a while, the city was in chaos. Upon seeing this, Cao Ergou left one company to clean up the battlefield and prevent the Mongolian cavalry from returning with their carbines. The remaining three companies went to block the three gates in the northwest and south, preparing to catch turtles in the jar tomorrow.
Although this Dayi is a county town, it is not much smaller than Chongqing Fucheng. The name "Dayi" means a big city. The four companies of the Perak Army could only block the city gate, but they could not defend the long city wall. After nightfall, the defenders in the city lowered the city walls and fled to Heming Mountain. By midnight, they had all escaped. When the sky was still dark, the people in the city sent several elders to Cao Ergou's tent to ask for surrender, and the Pili army took over the city without bloodshed. After the Mongolian cavalry and the newly attached troops fled, the military supplies in the city were naturally taken over by the Perak Army. This batch of grain totals about 150,000 kilograms, which can feed an army of 300 people for half a year. Cao Ergou was not satisfied with this. He knew that Zhao Shicai only raised troops to attack Wanjiabao after the autumn harvest. After his defeat and death, the military rations stored in Dayi City would never disappear out of thin air. Only after interrogating the people in the city many times did they find out that the Mongols had sent a large amount of grain and grass to Chengdu some time ago. This result was obviously unsatisfactory, but it also made people helpless.
With the current strength of the Perak Army, it is obvious that they are unable to divide their forces to defend Dayi City. But according to Ouyang Xuan's consistent behavior, it is obvious that he will not leave the city's resources to the bandits. The Perak Army took over all the assets left by the Mongols and bandits, and mobilized the people in the city to go to Wanjiaping. However, although there were more than 300 households in the city, only a dozen or so people came to sign up. In this regard, Cao Er Although the dog was puzzled, he didn't care much. He was even more surprised that no craftsman came to seek refuge. To this end, he sent people to visit craftsmen door to door, especially carpenters, blacksmiths, and cobblers who had built siege equipment for Zhao Shicai and the Mongols. After repeated "persuasion", dozens of craftsmen "voluntarily" defected to the Perak Army.
"To capture a person's heart, you must first capture his stomach." In order to make the defectors return, Cao Ergou asked someone to bring a large pot of stewed meat soup as a reward. The Mongols lost more than 30 horses in last night's battle. Naturally, the Thunderbolt Army would not let go of these carnivorous horses. After peeling off the skins, they smoked the meat, resulting in a total of more than 4,000 kilograms of marinated horse meat. As for the offal and bones stewed over high fire until tender, it is also a delicious delicacy that makes all the craftsmen who have returned smile with joy, and also makes the poor people who come to smell the aroma salivate. Attracted by the broth, more than a hundred people successively defected to the Perak Army and joined the ranks of drinking soup and chewing bones. These extremely poor people had nothing to eat and nothing to worry about, so they simply joined the Perak Army to make ends meet.
After eating and drinking, in line with the principle of not feeding idle people, Cao Ergou gave these people their first job - scraping walls from house to house, while the soldiers of the Perak Army were responsible for counting the confiscated food and property. Unexpectedly, the wall-scraping project went very poorly and was repeatedly obstructed by the owner of the house. In front of a huge house with dozens of large rooms, the man who scraped the saltpeter expected to be able to scrape a lot of saltpeter. When he was about to enter, he was blocked and was killed and injured several times during a dispute with the landlord named Liu. indivual. The house owner surnamed Liu is called Liu Jue. He was originally a giant businessman in the county, and his clan brother was an official in the Lin'an court. After the Mongols occupied the city, he surrendered to the Mongols, and he lived well in both the Southern Song Dynasty government and the Mongols. rise. After Zhao Shicai was defeated and killed, the bandits in Heming Mountain were introduced to the Mongols through him. Last night, the bandit soldiers also asked him to escape together, but he believed that as long as he showed his name as a clan brother, the Perak army would retreat in the face of difficulties. Today I saw a group of ragged poor people breaking into my home, saying that they were ordered by the Perak Army to come and scrape the walls. It seemed to Liu Jue that the beggar had the audacity to be arrogant and use chicken feathers as arrows. This made him furious, and he immediately ordered his servants to pick up knives and sticks and beat him randomly.
After getting the news, Cao Ergou led people to the scene. Liu Jue still took dozens of servants to defend the high-walled house. He didn't take the Perak Army seriously at all. In his opinion, his brother was the fourth rank in the court. Officials, the leader of the Perak Army is just a small Yongkang County Magistrate, what can he do to me? Cao Ergou saw Liu Jue's unruly face on the wall, and then looked at the dead and wounded on the ground. He waved his hand with a livid face and said, "Attack in, and those who resist will be killed without mercy." After one shot, a large number of people on the wall fell down. Before the smoke cleared, the door opened, the surrendered servants knelt on the ground, and Liu Jue was killed with one blow. On the one hand, this was because of close-range shooting, and the hit rate of dense shotguns was very high. On the other hand, Liu Jue did not hide at all. He thought that the Perak Army was just trying to intimidate him, but unexpectedly he lost his life because of his arrogance.
After the soldiers of the Perak Army searched the house, Cao Ergou found out why Liu Jue resisted scraping the wall with force. It turns out that there is a large amount of property hidden in this house. These are the wealth that Liu Jue has accumulated over many years of doing business and even engaging in private salt trading. Not to mention iron coins, copper coins, and silver ingots, there are more than 50,000 kilograms of grain alone, and two tons of salt. More than a thousand kilograms, this not only made the soldiers of the Perak Army overjoyed, but also made the onlookers grit their teeth. Most of the people in this city lacked food and clothing and were extremely poor. Liu Jue had such wealth but did not do anything to help the people. He just sat and watched his neighbors starve to death from time to time.
Once Liu Jue died, not only was there no resistance to scraping the wall, but more than a hundred people were willing to go to Wanjiaping. The newly defected people also told Cao Ergou that it was Liu Jue's minions who threatened the people not to have contact with the Perak Army. Cao Ergou also learned that there were several large families in the city who were working as slaves and were willing to be the Mongolian lackeys. The Pili Army was naturally rude to these people and confiscated all their property, including grain, leaving only three months of rations for each person. Anyway, in May, the food near Dayi City will be harvested.
The rich loot made Cao Ergou very happy. Now I am not afraid that Brother Xuan will call me a prodigal. Cao Ergou has a very fierce fighting style. He often engages in suppressive fire regardless of cost. Not only does he consume a lot of ammunition, but he also blows up a lot of available supplies. This has made Ouyang Xuan criticize him many times for not being a master and not knowing how expensive salt and rice are. He often loses money. battle. Roughly calculated, Cao Ergou harvested 250,000 kilograms of grain, more than 4,000 kilograms of cured meat, more than 3,000 kilograms of salt, and more than a thousand kilograms of coarse saltpeter in Dayi, as well as more than 100 taels of silver ingots and more than 300 kilograms of copper. , there are also a large number of daily necessities such as cloth, cotton, vinegar, and a small amount of valuables such as silk. After the grain, cured meat and part of the salt were transported to Hengyuan Town, they were used for the needs of the Hengyuan Fort under construction, while the rest of the materials were transported to Wanjiazhai. In addition to the strong laborers and craftsmen who participated in the construction of Hengyuan Fort, the newly defected population also went to settle in various villages in the mountains. Only the captured iron coins were distributed to the people in the city. These iron coins were not only full of impurities but also rusty. Cao Ergou really looked down on these low-quality coins.
