The panic of the people in Qingzhou City gradually subsided after the government issued several announcements to appease them. Since they can't get out, let's work together to defend the city. The government has issued a document to recruit young people in the city to help defend the city, and has distributed money and food. In addition, they learned that the city Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers came outside to help, and the people became more and more at ease and went home to cook at noon.
Li Shiyuan was busy with city defense matters, and the prefect Qian Lianghan was not idle either. He invited all the famous squires in the city to the prefect's Yamen as guests, and went straight to the topic: fundraising, and his tone was similar to Chang Yu's, whether he was going to bankrupt his family or his family. !
At the same time, the chief minister of Prince Heng's palace and the bookkeeper were busy keeping accounts with their account books, and the servants went around to the warehouse to collect money and grain.
Zhu Youyi risked his life. If you want money, give it. If you want food, give it!
As long as the lives of hundreds of people in Prince Heng's palace are saved, there is no need to hesitate to lose everything!
Chang Yu originally wanted to go to Li Shiyuan to find out some information, but Li Shiyuan also came to look for him. The two met near the North City Gate, so they found a table in a small teahouse on the roadside and sat down to chat.
The teahouse was just a roadside stall with few customers. A hunchbacked old man carried a big teapot and made water for the two of them. He then looked at the big men at the door and asked, "Aren't the guests coming in to drink tea?"
Those big men were Li Shiyuan's personal soldiers and the Jinyi Guard Guo Chongshan. Hearing the old man's greeting, he waved quickly, but Chang Yu said: "Come in and have a rest. You can feel comfortable if you don't drink tea and drink some cold water." Then they entered the store. He found a table in the corner and sat down, Guo Chongshan clasped his fists: "What do you call these brothers? My surname is Guo. Guo Ziyi's Guo is not the pot with the lid..."
"Mr. Factory Master, I have just checked the armory. There are more than 3,000 rusty swords, more than 400 bows, more than half of which are damaged, and nearly a thousand arrows..." Li Shiyuan reported one by one, but it was also what Chang Yu had planned to ask before. The young men in the city Thousands of people could be mobilized at will, but the civilians were not used to swords and arrows, and they would not be able to use them when defending the city. All they had to do was throw rocks and scatter ashes.
"I see there are several iron cannons on the city. How much ammunition is stored?" Chang Yu asked.
"There are only a few, less than a hundred rounds," Li Shiyuan sighed. Facing tens of thousands of troops attacking the city, a hundred rounds of artillery shells was simply a drop in the bucket.
"Where are the enemies of ten thousand people?" He suddenly asked again. He had heard about this thing before, and its development was recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu" during the Chongzhen period of the late Ming Dynasty, but he had never seen it with his own eyes. It was said that this thing was used during the battle to defend the city in Qingzhou two years ago, and in the end he relied on this thing. The thing repulsed the Qing army.
Li Shiyuan was startled, but he didn't expect that the young eunuch also knew about this thing, so he said: "This thing is not suitable for storage. It is not available in the warehouse, but it can be made now, but I don't know if it is available in time."
"Is there any firearms craftsman in the city who is good at this kind of thing?" Chang Yu asked quickly. Although he had never seen ten thousand enemies, he knew a rough idea. In fact, it was the incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs of later generations, which are incendiary firearms. This Fire starters are hollow spheres made of mud with small holes around them. They are dried and then filled with gunpowder and mixed with toxic substances. When the enemy attacks the city, light the fuse and throw it under the city. The flames will spray out in all directions and continue to rotate, burning the enemy. Because it is simple to make, easy to obtain materials, and has killing functions, it has this title.
In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, when the Qing army was in danger of attacking the city, Huang Huan, the commander of the Qingzhou Guard, threw this object to resist the enemy and joined forces with Li Shiyuan to force the Qing army to retreat halfway through the city.
"Yes, but not much! And it takes three days from manufacture to use if it's sunny, and more than half a month if it's rainy," Li Shiyuan said quickly.
Chang Yu knew that the ten thousand enemies were made of mud and needed to be exposed to the scorching sun. He raised his head and looked at the sky outside: "Hurry up and order them to be built. The Governor of Duo Duoyi will give you a heavy reward." Li Shiyuan quickly asked one of his subordinates who was chatting with Guo Chongshan to pass the order. .
I hope there will be good weather with clear skies in the future. Chang Yu secretly prayed, glanced at Li Shiyuan and said: "Li Shoubei told us about the battle two years ago. How did you hold Qingzhou? At that time, the Tatars How many soldiers and horses are there?”
In fact, Chang Yu learned about Li Shiyuan's battle to defend the city from some unofficial historical materials of later generations. For example, the Qing army lined up in Wenquan Village next to Fan Gong Pavilion to check the terrain. Three days later, they suddenly broke out and left. The people in the city cheered, but Li Shiyuan felt strange and couldn't sleep at night. In the middle of the night, I heard some movement outside the city and looked out to see that the Qing army's siege ladder had all been set up.
Li Shiyuan shouted to wake up the sleeping officers and soldiers. The officers and soldiers were in a panic. Li Shiyuan cut down one man and stabilized the position before starting to fight back. He used artillery to blast the Qing army and found that the Qing army had begun to climb the city. The artillery could not hit them at all. Li Shiyuan raised the iron cannon and fired against the city wall. The Qing army was in chaos, and Huang Heng surrendered to the enemy with ten thousand people. Huang Huan was killed by an arrow fired by thousands of arrows from the Qing army. The soldiers fought hard and resisted and finally pushed back the Qing army... In this battle, Li Shiyuan became a god.
Of course, Li Shiyuan was also proud of this. He briefly described the battle with a face full of pride. Chang Yu listened carefully but also found some discrepancies with later unofficial records. For example, the Qing army had only a few thousand troops, not seven or eight thousand or even ten thousand. If there were such a force, Li Shiyuan would not be able to defend it at all, nor would he leave after just one attack. Moreover, at that time, the main force of the Qing army on the Jinan line could not separate so many soldiers and horses, as well as the iron cannons on the city. It's not that a field gun like the Tiger Master weighs more than a thousand pounds. Although Li Shiyuan is said to have extraordinary physical strength, it is still too exaggerated to carry it as a gunman.
"Li Shoubei also formed a relationship with Liu Zeqing at that time?" Chang Yu asked with a half-smile. Historical data records that after the Qing army retreated, Emperor Chongzhen dispatched troops to Qingzhou to protect the vassal. The Ming armies did not dare to approach the main force of the Qing army. But seeing the Qingzhou Qing army retreating, they showed up and came, and quite a few came, including Governor Fan Zhiwan, Manager Wang Yongji, Shandong Commander-in-Chief Liu Zeqing, and General Zhong. These four men divided their forces and set up camp outside the four gates, setting up operations every day. Soldiers were looting outside the city. What was even more despicable was that Liu Zeqing, who was outside the west gate, pretended to be a Qing army to attack the city at night. Fortunately, Li Shiyuan saw it through and set tens of thousands of enemies free to incinerate more than a hundred people. Liu Zeqing was so angry that his plot had not succeeded. The two of them were furious. People make grudges.
"The factory supervisor also knows about this matter." Li Shiyuan smiled bitterly: "I once reported this matter to the superiors, but because of my humble position, I couldn't listen to it." He said for a while: "I heard that General Liu went north to the King of Qin a few days ago. I'm going, factory supervisor, please be more careful about this person."
Chang Yu chuckled: "The governor has known about Liu Zeqing's bad reputation for a long time, but he was unable to deal with him for a while." Li Shiyuan heard Chang Yu call Liu Zeqing "Liu Zeqing" and knew that Liu Zeqing also hated him, but said: "Admiral Dong, Mr. Factory Lord." Chang is a close associate of the emperor but he can't cure him?"
Chang Yu sighed: "It's not that it can't be cured, firstly, there is no time, and secondly, it cannot be cured for the time being!"
"Why..." Li Shiyuan wanted to ask again, but he quickly came to his senses: "I know, Liu Thief is proud of himself! Maybe the superiors also heard about his evil deeds at that time, but they just turned a deaf ear on purpose."
Chang Yu said nothing, picked up the tea cup and drank his tea.
Li Shiyuan sighed deeply in his heart, the dignified eunuch of the East Factory was helpless against Liu Thief. What did he have to worry about as a small guard? If he said too much, he would just offend the little eunuch, so he changed the topic: "Master, Mr. Factory, I heard that he was outside the customs not long ago. I also fought a battle with the Tatars and defeated the enemy in one fell swoop. Can this be an eye-opener for me?"
Chang Yu smiled slightly, and Li Shiyuan was quite discerning: "Forget it, we both have fought against the Tatars and let's talk to each other." Then he briefly talked about the battle general Ningyuan outside the Pass. Li Shiyuan's blood was surging when he heard it, and he sometimes fisted his fists. Hold on tightly, sometimes clapping the table and applauding.
"The factory owner was hiding in the mountains inside and outside. We also have mountains outside Qingzhou City. Can you..." Li Shiyuan looked excited as if he had discovered something.
Chang Yu smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's not feasible. Firstly, there is no time to go into the mountains to search for suitable terrain for hiding troops, and there is no artillery and artillery defense. Secondly, there are not enough troops in the city at the moment, and there will be no troops to separate into the mountains."
Li Shiyuan sat down slightly dejected, and suddenly said: "The factory official said that the Qing army's cavalry is unparalleled in combat power. At this time, there are more than 20,000 cavalry, which can defeat the Ming army's 50,000 or even more. The factory official is chasing only cavalry behind." Aren’t you afraid of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan..."
Chang Yu laughed: "Afraid, of course I am afraid, but Dorgon dare not return the troops at this time, because his purpose is to rob, not to fight. If he chases me, I will run away, and he will never give up plundering." And chasing the governor everywhere, not to mention that he is not willing to fight with the governor unless it is the most urgent. Although his more than 20,000 cavalry are powerful, they are the last to win. Outside the governor, except for the 30,000 We have 50,000 to 60,000 remaining cavalrymen and 50,000 to 60,000 infantrymen, so even if we fight three to one, we can wipe out all of them!"
One fight for three! Li Shiyuan couldn't help but shudder. Only then did he realize the gap in combat power with the Qing army. Back then, he used defense as offense and had never fought head-on with the Qing army. If it was a close-quarters battle in the field... He didn't dare to think about it. He just felt that My back felt cold.
