The defenders at Binyang Gate had already lost their fighting spirit.
Now they can only eat one or two bowls of porridge a day. The reason why they are still defending the city is not because these Qiu Ba are loyal to Zuo Liangyu and would rather die than escape. Many people's legs are so light from hunger that they can't walk. I would rather die on the city wall.
Before the Fifth Corps launched the general offensive, the Qi soldiers patrolling the front line shouted to the defenders at the top of the city. At first, the Ming army could even curse the Tatars. Later, they lost the strength to even curse and begged the Qi soldiers to give them fried noodles and sugar. eat.
The soldiers of the Qi army asked the Ming army why they did not open the city and surrender. The Ming army, who was so hungry and dizzy, put their hands on their necks and said that if they surrendered, General Li would kill them and their families.
When Ma Jinzhong had no hope of breaking through and reinforcements were not available, he sent an envoy to the position of the Fifth Corps. The envoy asked Pu Gang to let them live, not to kill them, but to make way for them. They immediately retreated to Nanjing or Hunan, and in the future We met on the battlefield and never attacked the Qi army again.
Pu Gang refused this request, but he did not kill Ma Jinzhong's envoy and returned him to the city.
~~~
North of Jiangxia City.
The remnants of the Ming army were running back and forth in Binyang Wengcheng like headless flies. Li Cheng and Ma Jinzhong's servants were driving behind them, using sticks and sticks, and barely managed to stop the Ming army from escaping.
"Why are you running! General Li's soldiers and horses are still there! You are attending a funeral!"
The leader of the servants raised his sword, stood in front of a group of hungry and dizzy Ming soldiers, and shouted angrily:
"Five thousand Tatars, let General Li kill more than 4,000. I just counted them above. There are only a few hundred of them, and they are all here to die. To withstand this wave, the white flour steamed buns and bone soup are enough. There’s wine and women, go! Top it!”
The words of the leader of the servants were interrupted several times by the flying crows whizzing over the Wengcheng. When he finished speaking, the remaining servants swarmed up. They were not to defend the city, but to drive away the unsteady soldiers and common people.
Under the Binyang Gate, a group of soldiers carrying simple long ladders quickly approached the city wall. They were all wearing tattered clothes, like the refugees who had raided the city at night a few days ago. The Ming army at the top of the city saw this group of rabble and didn't take it seriously. After all, before this, refugees had attacked Binyang Gate at least three times at night. They looked at the "refugees" on the ladder with smiles, preparing to wait for the refugees to climb up the city wall before hacking them to death. It would be a pity to step out now and be shot by stray bullets.
More than a hundred refugees quickly climbed up to the top of the city. Before the Ming army came to kill them, they formed a small square formation. The spearmen, swordsmen, and shields were outside, and the gunmen were hiding in the middle. Through the gaps between the comrades in front, , shooting at the Ming army.
"Boom!"
After two rounds of volleys, dozens of Ming army corpses fell on the ground. A Ming army general holding a shield and armor had a big hole directly pierced by a mini bullet. His internal organs were flowing all over the ground, and he could still see it on his belly. That horrifying hole.
The Ming troops rushing in front all fell down, and the wounded soldiers who were not killed were immediately stabbed to death one by one by the spearmen who caught up from behind.
Only then did the remaining Ming army realize that the killing gods in front of them were not ordinary refugees at all, but serious soldiers.
When the untrained men saw that Qi's army had arrived on the city, they shouted at the top of their lungs:
"The Tatars are attacking the city! The Tatars are coming... The Tatars have broken the city!"
The last sentence "The Tatars have broken the city" directly caused the soldiers of the Ming army, who had been afraid of the Qi army for many years, to break through the defense.
The defenders at the top of Binyang Gate fled back one after another, and some who walked slowly were directly killed by the Qi troops in the front row.
Some frightened Ming troops climbed up the steps to the top of the city, and desperately used firecrackers and stones to attack the more and more Qi troops.
At this time, the Qi army's artillery fire outside the city became more and more intensive, and the shouts of killing came from outside the city. The head of the servants winked, and all the servants began to kill the Ming soldiers who were walking at the end without saying a word. Compared with the Qi army's fierce artillery fire suppression, the Ming army's resistance seemed weak. Their artillery was completely misfired at this time, because the gunpowder and sulfur stored in the city had been exhausted. The fire not long ago not only burned thousands of Stone grains were also used to detonate two gunpowder depots. It is said that the fire was set by Qi Guo Xizuo.
At five o'clock in the morning, twelve giant ladder trucks arrived at the foot of Jiangxia City one after another. When the ladder trucks approached the city wall, they approached with an almost unstoppable attitude. The Ming army at the top of Binyang Gate fell into despair, and their artillery became scrap metal. , sporadic fire cannons did no harm to this large siege equipment, and the lead hit the skin of the ladder truck, which was completely itchy.
The gold juice, gray bottles, wolf fangs and other defensive weapons originally prepared at the head of the Wengcheng city can no longer play any role now, because most of the defenders have already escaped.
A group of servants came up the steps of the urn city, killing the fleeing strong men. They did not stop until the waist knife in the hands of the leader of the servants curled its blade. At this time, the city was empty except for some injured soldiers who could not walk. .
In the distance, a few Qi army sword and shield soldiers jumped up from the top of the ladder truck to the top of the city, while a few fire gun soldiers climbed up directly from the long ladder built on the city wall.
"Drive them down! Kill a Tatar and I will reward you with twenty taels of silver!"
More than two hundred elite servants, carrying long knives and heavy axes, were like a black whirlwind blowing across the city. In groups of more than a dozen, they surrounded the Qi troops who had just climbed onto the city, chopping vegetables and melons and killing them indiscriminately.
As more and more ladders and ladder trucks arrived at the city wall, more and more soldiers climbed onto the city wall. When more than two hundred servants tried to escape, they were quickly drowned in a black wave.
On the 27th, the remnants of Qin Jianxun, the Fourth Corps transferred from Shandong, also joined the siege. They launched an attack on Jiangxia City from the east.
That night, Jiangxia City was captured.
The Fifth Corps instantly became excited and stirred up!
The soldiers, trainers and chief officers of the two corps took off their hats, waved flags, waved their fists, clapped and shouted.
The huge raging waves seemed to be rolling into a tsunami, sweeping tens of thousands of soldiers into the sky.
The day after Jiangxia City was defeated, the Wuchang City defenders fled without a fight.
On the morning of the 28th, news came that Ma Jinzhong and Li Cheng had been captured alive.
~~~~~
Xing Zhongyi and Liu Yi came out of the Central Army's tent. The two of them took a carriage and walked along Binyang Gate to the mansion where Ma Jinzhong and Li Cheng were imprisoned.
Jiangxia City seemed to have been cleaned by heavy rains. The streets and alleys were clean, the shops and restaurants were all closed, and the people were like mummies dug out of the Loulan Ancient Tomb, thin and haggard and inhuman shape.
There were rows of coffins parked at the entrance of the Jiangxia General Military Mansion. Many of the coffins had not been painted yet and were still the color of wood. Although the weather was not hot, Xing Zhongyi could already smell a faint corpse odor.
"Did the Ming army restrain themselves?"
Liu Yi covered his nose and said: "Where do they care? The soldiers representatives brought people to move it, and the coffin was temporarily built by the carpenters in the workshop."
After entering the general military office, a guard came out to greet the instructor. Li Cheng and Ma Jinzhong were locked up in the backyard.
Several people walked through the lobby together. The ground was in a mess, with broken silver and antique calligraphy and paintings randomly discarded on the ground.
The Zhenfu soldiers, coir guards and civil affairs officials were counting and making books. Xing Zhongyi accidentally caught a glimpse of a landscape painting signed Mi Fu and threw it under the table.
A civil affairs official came over and whispered a few words. Xing Zhongyi was surprised and said: "Have you not found the hidden silver yet?"
The civil affairs official nodded. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was as tired as the soldiers who climbed the city.
"Come on, follow me to the backyard to meet these two loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty."
A group of people came to the backyard.
A group of guards holding long knives surrounded the two generals. Li Cheng and Ma Jinzhong had been stripped of their armor and were huddled on the ground in single clothes without any ropes tied around them. Li Cheng is obese and fair-skinned. He has the appearance of a broad-minded and fat country official. He seems to be a kind-hearted elder.
Ma Jinzhong is a thin man and not very tall.
Seeing a senior official coming in, Li Cheng immediately stood up and politely asked Xing Zhongyi to sit down.
Ma Jinzhong is a thin man and not very tall.
"sit."
The guards brought two chairs, and just as Li Cheng was about to sit down, the instructor said coldly:
"Li Cheng, during the Battle of Xuzhou, when you were Zuo Liangyu's lieutenant, how many of us were killed? Someone came here, and he chopped off his arm!"
The two guards couldn't help but hold down General Li. The other guard swung the Yanling knife and then dropped the knife.
Blood splashed all over Ma Jinzhong, and Ma Jinzhong became limp and slipped from the chair.
Xing Zhongyi touched the blood splattered on his uniform, smiled and said to Ma Jinzhong: "General Ma, sit down and talk."
Five or six guards around him drew out their short muskets, put their fingers on the trigger, and looked at the surrendered general with sharp eyes.
Xing Zhongyi stared at Ma Jinzhong and complimented: "The Dibao in Nanzhili compared General Ma to a field patrol patrolling the isolated city and living up to Zuo Liangyu's team.
Ma Jinzhong said quickly: "The sinner is just a warrior, loyal to the commander-in-chief. He asked me to guard Jiangxia, so I will guard it."
"However," Xing Zhongyi's expression changed, "Commander Zuo, whom you are loyal to, has repeatedly become our enemy in Daqi. Last year in Xuzhou, he massacred more than 10,000 of our people -"
Ma Jinzhong had a look of panic on his face.
Xing Zhongyi waved his hand and said: "I know that you were not involved in the Xuzhou incident, which is why you are alive until now. Where has your commander fled to? Now none of the reinforcements promised to you have arrived, and you have stubbornly resisted. Let tens of thousands of people starve with you, and by the way, you are not hungry."
Xing Zhongyi's expression suddenly became serious:
"You set fire outside Wushengmen, demolished people's houses in Binyang, and made many people homeless. Is this what Marshal Zuo wants you to do?"
"Sinners have no choice but to win the battle." Ma Jinzhong replied.
Xing Zhongyi chuckled: "The reason why I came here is to see your true intentions. If you say this, I have no choice but to leave."
"I'm afraid you are thinking that while you are standing firm in Jiangxia, Marshal Zuo will arrange an ambush on all sides outside, and finally cooperate inside and outside to eat up our fifth corps in one go, and then when it comes to merit, you still have the first merit, right?"
"The sinner never meant this. I swear to God, if he thought this way, his whole family would die!"
"There is no need to swear these poisonous oaths. If it works, some innocent people will be harmed." Xing Zhongyi stared directly into Ma Jinzhong's eyes, which made Ma Jinzhong's scalp numb.
"The Emperor is kind and kind. As long as you can sincerely confess and confess your sins, my Emperor will forgive you. I can also swear to you on this. Killing people in a war is nothing, but letting tens of thousands of people suffer along with them, almost cannibalizing them, this is It’s your fault!”
Ma Jinzhong's psychological defense completely collapsed.
"I'm guilty!"
"What crime?" Xing Zhongyi didn't give him any time to think and breathe.
Li Cheng's head had been salted and put in a box. The soldier brought the box to the instructor. Xing Zhongyi took one look at the head and spat:
"It's too cheap for you to die! Immediately send it to the Emperor's Central Army's headquarters and show it to the Emperor."
Ma Jinzhong's tongue trembled and he said quickly:
"I'm guilty. I shouldn't have been an enemy of Da Qi. I shouldn't have sacrificed my life for Zuo Liangyu! I shouldn't have killed so many people."
Xing Zhongyi's face was gloomy and he said nothing.
"My family has an old mother who is over eighty years old, and a little daughter who is crying for food. If Daqi can open up a little, so that I can save my life and go home to support me, the sinner will never fight again in the future, and will only be a Good people.”
At the end, Xing Zhongyi stood up, and Ma Jinzhong's sitting body subconsciously stepped back.
Like a godfather, the instructor patted Ma Jinzhong on the shoulder and said kindly: "General Ma, it would be best if you could change your ways. I believe that the Supreme Emperor will forgive you. Now, tell me, Cang Yin is here where?"
Ma Jinzhong immediately knelt on the ground and said: "Go back, sir, at the Yamen of the General Military Mansion, at..."
Lewen
