Chapter 028
"There is a severe drought this year, and grain production has been seriously reduced. The dry fields of thousands of households in Zuo have no way to water, and the harvest of 10% will be reduced by at least 70 to 80%. If they don't buy grain, thousands of these households will starve to death!"
As soon as Qin Wu said this, all the fierce bandits fell silent.
The current disaster situation is serious and the life of ordinary people is difficult. The life of bandits is also difficult. In the past, just robbing a few towns was enough for thousands of people to chew for half a month.
But the question is what now? They looted many villages, but could not find a few grains of food. Without food, no matter how much money you grab, it will be useless. Money cannot be used as food. If the officers and soldiers surround the mountain, they will have to hold on to a large pile of money and drink from the northwest wind.
If you want to live a good life for a few months, you still have to grab a lot of food.
And Cheng Shijie was buying food like crazy, tens of thousands of stones of food, enough for them to squander for two years!
Qin Wu's staff reminded Qin Wu again: "Master, could this be a trap?"
"trap"
Qin Wu chuckled: "Although our Zhejiang army is bad, at least it can still fight. However, Shandong has been at peace for too long. The Shandong army can no longer fight. It's not like we have never fought against the Dengzhou guards!"
"That's right, it's just a place with a thousand households, hanging alone in Ninghai Prefecture. I heard that the city wall there has long been dilapidated..."
Speaking of the city wall of Qianhusuo, Xizuo said hurriedly: "The head of the family, the new Qianhusuo, has been building the city wall for more than a month, and now the city wall of Qianhusuo is not low!"
"So what, no matter how hard the turtle shell is, I will smash it to pieces with one hammer!"
Liang Youcai, the tall and mighty second in command of Qin's Fifth Division, said rather arrogantly.
"The officers and soldiers don't dare to go to war at all. If they go to fight, if they take action without any effort, we five hundred heroes can kill them all.
Because of the poor performance of the Dengzhou Guards, the Qin Fifth Division looked down upon the Zuo Qianhu Division of the Dengzhou Guards. The combat effectiveness of the guards' officers and soldiers was so scumbag that even describing them as "fighting five scumbags" is considered a compliment.
Qin Wuda made up his mind and said: "We will attack Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu Station, grab a batch of grain, and then return to Linglong Mountain!"
The bandit leaders, big and small, said arrogantly: "Beat Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu Station and have a good year!"
"Let's go, grab food, money, and women!"
“If you walk fast, you’ll eat meat; if you walk slowly, you’ll only eat farts!”
Qin Wu was actually a smart man, and he knew very well the urinary nature of Ming officials. If an ordinary peasant rebels, they will immediately send troops to suppress it, because peasant rebels basically have no strength and do not understand military affairs. The peasants are also timid. If they kill the leaders, the rest will not be a concern.
Qin Wu himself never attacked the prefecture and took the initiative to attack the county. Since then, the officials of Dengzhou Prefecture, including Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, who had more than 6,000 Western-style firearms troops, did not know the existence of Qin Wu.
Of course, maybe I really don’t know, or maybe I’m pretending not to know.
In fact, Qin Wu did not have more than a thousand troops as claimed to the outside world. In fact, his tribe included remnants of the Zhejiang Army, deserters from the Shanxi Army, and Shandong thieves. The troops are divided into six parts, with more than 4,000 troops.
This is actually not the most important thing. The most important thing is that he has a cavalry team. Once this cavalry team rushes into battle, their combat effectiveness is absolutely amazing.
Although the Qin Fifth Division looked down upon the Dengzhou Guard Zuo Qianhu Station, they almost all left, leaving only more than 500 old, weak, sick and disabled people to guard the camp, and more than 3,800 fierce bandits, carrying more than 1,000 large vehicles. The car drove towards Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu Station in a mighty manner.
The distance from Linglong Village to Zuo Qianhu's place is actually not that close, more than two hundred and fifty miles.
Thousands of bandits howled like ghosts, picked up their various weapons, and marched toward Dengzhou Guard Zuo Qianhu Station in a chaotic manner. There were so many of them and their formation was chaotic, they looked like a group of refugees passing through the border.
The dispatch of Qin's five troops frightened the villages and towns along the way. They reported to Dengzhou Fucheng or Si Yamen, the commander of Dengzhou Guards.
Soon, Jin Yousheng, commander of the Dengzhou Guard, received the news.
Jin Yousheng looked at the information and frowned.
In fact, Jin Yousheng was a very principled person. He had a close personal relationship with Geng Zhongming. However, when Kong Youde's rebels attacked Dengzhou City and Geng Zhongming wanted to surrender the city, Jin Yousheng was the most critical figure.
According to "Shandong Tongzhi", in the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign, the rebels invaded the state and besieged the city for seven days. Sun Yuan, the defense governor, sent his troops to attack Zhang Tao and ordered his friends to stay and defend him. At that time, many officers and soldiers were baited by thieves. The battle was in full swing, but they suddenly surrendered for no reason, trying to lure thieves into the city. Seeing that Yousheng was heavily patrolled, he did not dare to move. That evening, Yousheng went to the Pipi to patrol the south gate. The rebels outside the city fired cannons and attacked them. Yousheng was killed. "
Huang Zuxin asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, Commander, are you worried that the traitor Qin Wu will become powerful?"
"If you say you're not worried, that's definitely prevarication!"
"Let's just sit back and watch the fight between tigers and tigers. No matter who wins or loses, it will only be good for us, and there will be no harm..."
"They are also my commander's soldiers."
Jin Yousheng sighed and said: "Zuo Qianhu must also have heard the news. He neither rescued nor escaped. He is still responsible. Zuo Qianhu lacks weapons!"
"We are not rich either!"
"Send them six hundred guns, six cannons, one thousand kilograms of gunpowder, and fifty armor. Send them quickly!"
"yes!"
Jin Yousheng continued: "Don't transfer from the commanding officer Si Yamen. It's too late. Transfer from Zhongzuo Qianhu. Tell Liu Jintang, Zhongzuo Qianhu, not to do anything!"
Huang Zuxin looked at Jin Yousheng with some surprise: "Master Commander..."
"go a head!"
…
Since the implementation of the fishing plan, Cheng Shijie has not been idle, but it is a pity that his transportation capacity is limited and it is impossible to transport a massive amount of materials to the end of the Ming Dynasty in one day.
Cheng Shijie was ready, just waiting for the enemy to arrive.
The enemy did not come, but the weapons and equipment sent by the commander of the Dengzhou Guard arrived first.
"Sir Qianhu, please sign for it!"
Cheng Shijie took a look at the list and saw that it read: 600 spears, 200 waist knives, six bowl-mouth blunderbuss, 1,000 kilograms of gunpowder, and 50 pairs of iron armor.
After Cheng Shijie signed for it, the soldiers who came to deliver the ordnance left immediately, not even the carts. Cheng Shijie stroked the spears with his own hands. These were spears made of long wood. Similar to the sticks used by Zuo Qianhu, the wood was rough, not flexible enough and too brittle, which was even more frustrating.
Nowadays, these gun shafts are made of ash, which can also be called white wax rods. They have good flexibility, high hardness, and smooth wood texture. They are high-quality wood for making ancient long gun shafts.
Although the iron armor is stained with rust, it is generally in good condition, at least there is no hole in it if you poke it.
"Master Qianhu, are you sure Qin Wu will be fooled? Attack our Qianhu Office?"
Cheng Shijie nodded lightly, pointed at the equipment and said, "I wasn't sure at first, but now I'm sure it will come!"
Song Kangnian asked with some confusion: "Nothing is absolute. What if he doesn't come?"
"First, the Fifth Qin Division needs food, and we have food here. Secondly, the combat effectiveness of the guard station is too poor. Although we are an army, we will not be taken seriously by Qin Wu. Thirdly, someone wants him to come, so he will definitely Come!"
While Cheng Shijie was talking, there was a burst of noise outside.
"Sir Qianhu, the bandits...the bandits are here!"
"Pass this order to Qianhu, all young men and women, regardless of whether they are young men or not, immediately board the city wall!"
"yes!"
Just when Cheng Shijie went to the city wall, the entire Qianhu Institute had become a mess. The wheat on the threshing floor and the working military households, including children, were running around.
Cheng Shijie also whipped up his whip and beat several military households before climbing onto the wall of Qianhusuo.
On the dirt road to the south, huge plumes of dust and smoke were raised, the sound of horse hooves shook the sky and the earth, and cheers came and went.
Before Song Kangnian could speak, Zhou Yandong said: "Master Qianhu, the number is wrong. This is definitely more than a thousand people!"
Cheng Shijie said calmly: "This thousand households can see it!"
The number of people was in the thousands, and the formation of the bandits was loose. From the looks of it, there were bandits everywhere. These bandits also had a group of knights, and these knights quickly rushed towards Qianhu City.
The atmosphere on the walls of Qianhushuo began to become solemn.
"At least four thousand, how can we fight this battle?"
There are ten hundred households in the Qianhu Institute in name, but there are three hundred households outside. There are only seven hundred households in the thousand households. Among them, the middle hundred households and the middle left hundred households are training outside the city and have not returned yet.
This means that there are only five Baihusuo in the entire Qianhusuo City. If Cheng Shijie had not prevented these Baihusuo officials from taking up their quota, there would not even be 400 sergeants.
Although there are five fully-staffed hundreds of households, each leading 112 people, this is still a gap of one to ten, which makes people feel extremely desperate.
Qin Wu rode a horse to the foot of Qianhu City. He looked at the chaos on the city wall and said with a proud face: "Send someone to persuade them to surrender and ask them to open the city gate and surrender. Otherwise, after the city is broken, I will Massacre the city, leaving no chickens or dogs behind!”
