August 28, camp in the west of the city.
More than 3,000 newly recruited Yongzhuang and 2,000 militiamen put on standard clothes and armor here, and were also issued with swords and guns.
If you don't look carefully, there is no difference between it and the regular army.
Immediately, Yongzhuang was organized into eight battalions according to the Eastern Wei military system.
Zhao Mengqi used the staff of Jiedu Mansion as officials at all levels of the Yongzhuang camp and quickly established an organizational structure.
The so-called "sharpening a gun before the battle" is a waste of time. After two days of special training, the combat effectiveness of this Yongzhuang Battalion is definitely not good, but it looks decent.
Chen Wei was in charge of the militia, and the officials and assistants were basically his family's children and close confidants, as well as the nephews of other gentry.
Chen Wei had many experiences in forming militia groups, and he never lost his ability in training and fighting. It only took a very short time to organize four battalions according to the traditional military system.
This kind of powerful landlord armed force is actually not bad in combat effectiveness. It often appears in emergencies, but it is easy to become a private army, so most of them will be disbanded afterwards.
On the evening of the 29th, all Yongzhuang battalions entered the city and garrisoned on the city wall, replacing the two Dongwei battalions and one Masi battalion that originally defended the city.
In other words, Fuzhou City will be defended by one Masi Battalion and eight Yongzhuang Battalions.
Zhao Mengqi will lead one Masi battalion, two Dongwei battalions, and four militia battalions, with a total of less than 3,500 people to rescue Quanzhou.
Speaking of which, if these soldiers and horses are all elite border troops, they are really quite a few. The last time Chen Wei put down Yan Mengbiao's rebellion, he only mobilized 3,500 Huai soldiers.
But Zhao Mengqi's three thousand and five thousand is up for debate. At least Pu Shiwen and Liu Qingzhu scoffed at the news.
"Is this King Yan arrogant or stupid? He wants to rescue Quanzhou with just a few troops?"
"Haha, among these soldiers and horses, only Ma Xingsi's more than 300 soldiers can fight. The others are not worth mentioning. If King Yan really dares to come like this, he will be like a sheep in the tiger's mouth."
"No... they also mobilized troops from Gutian. It is said that there is some kind of special service team that surrendered ten thousand people without any effort. There should be something there. Let's not be too careless."
"Based on time, Gutian's soldiers and horses will arrive tomorrow at the latest. In that case, King Yan will have nearly five thousand soldiers. We have less than nine thousand soldiers. We still have advantages, but we can't be foolproof. If then, If King Yan takes advantage of the chaos to escape, we will fall short."
"Brother Pu's words make sense, so let's send a pigeon message to Quanzhou as planned and let the White-Eyed Jiao come to support us."
"Wait a minute, I always feel that it's not that simple here. King Yan has been very cunning in the past. Why did he suddenly become stunned this time?"
"You mean, King Yan is using a blind trick?"
"We can't say for sure at the moment. Whether he really wants to rescue Quanzhou, when he will set off, whether by land or sea, we are still not sure. Let's wait and see. Once it is confirmed that he has left, it will be too late to make arrangements."
"Well, if he doesn't move tomorrow, it's almost certain that he is using a delaying strategy. He simply wants to wait for the backup army to arrive before taking action. In this case, we will have to ask Quanzhou to strengthen their offensive..."
So there was nothing to say all night, and it was August 30th.
It was still dark, so Zhao Mengqi led his guard squad out of Fuzhou City and directly into the camp.
Before the hour came, a different sound than usual sounded from the camp, presumably to gather troops.
Sure enough, soon after, the camp gate opened wide, flags fluttered, and groups of soldiers came out.
In the middle of the team, the banner of the King of Yan was raised, and the King of Yan himself rode a black horse, surrounded by more than a dozen personal guard cavalry, riding proudly.
They passed under Fuzhou City in the east, and then crossed the Min River and headed south in full view of the public.
On Dading Mountain on the south bank of the Minjiang River, six people looked at the official road at the foot of the mountain. After careful observation, they all became excited.
Then they quickly wrote the information, grabbed two pigeons from the pigeon cage, tied them to mailboxes and released them.
Then, they planned to leave two people to continue guarding the official road, while the others moved to the other side of the mountain to join their accomplices who were monitoring the mouth of the Minjiang River.
But before he had gone far, he was surrounded by more than a dozen people.
The four spies were shocked and drew out their daggers, "Military Intelligence Department!?"
"Hey, you know a lot." Lin Fa wandered out from behind a tree and threw a net bag in front of the four spies.
"You probably want to see these guys. You see how considerate our Military Intelligence Department is. We have already brought them here to save you from unnecessary mistakes."
Seeing clearly that the five heads in the net bag were the accomplices responsible for monitoring the mouth of the Minjiang River, the spies realized that their and others' every move had already fallen into the eyes of the Military Intelligence Division, and they couldn't help but feel desperate.
This shows that the Military Intelligence Department completely deliberately let them release the pigeon message.
The head of the spy's face turned pale instantly, and he knew that the Military Intelligence Department did not immediately kill him and others, and must have other motives, "What do you want?"
"Which one of you is responsible for sending pigeon messages can survive." Lin Fa was too lazy to talk nonsense.
However, the head of the detective's face darkened, "It turns out that I wanted to use the pigeon message to send out false news. Haha, what a dream! We would rather die than... ah!"
A dagger stabbed into his lower back, "I'm sorry, I don't want to die yet!"
The detective turned his head in disbelief, "Shi...san...you, are you crazy!? If you don't...die, your whole family...will...die!"
"Only when I am alive can I have a family!"
Shi San sneered, exerted force on his wrist, stirred the dagger hard and then pulled it out. Then while the other two accomplices were stunned, he quickly swung the dagger and cut their throats.
Throwing away the blood-stained dagger, Shi San knelt down and said, "If the villain is willing to surrender, the villain will do whatever the high officials say."
Lin Fa looked at Shi San coldly, with a hint of fear in his eyes, and finally managed to hold back his murderous intention, "Get up, from now on, take care of your own life, don't give me a reason to kill you..." "
Then, they immediately went to deal with the last two spies and left Dading Mountain with the pigeon cage.
The two pigeons flew to Dongjubei Island, one hundred and thirty miles south, half an hour later.
Pu Shiwen and Liu Qingzhu showed surprise smiles on their faces after carefully reading the pigeon letter.
"Oh! It's actually here... Normally, they should arrive at the north bank of Hagiru River at noon tomorrow."
"Hahaha, let's get on the boat quickly."
"Don't worry, send a letter to Quanzhou first. If nothing unexpected happens, Baiyan Jiao and the others can arrive tomorrow."
Soon, two more pigeons took off from Dongbei Island and headed south, and then more than 40 ships that stayed between Dongbei Island and Xiyaobei Island began to set sail, heading twenty-six miles northwest. The mouth of the Hagi River.
After flying more than 160 miles, the two pigeons landed in the Pu family mansion in Fashi Port, Quanzhou.
A group of people had been waiting for a long time. After receiving the news, they sent people without delay to inform Pu Shisi in Nanguan Port.
At this time, Quanzhou City was surrounded by nearly 100,000 bandits and had been attacked for two full days. It faced the crisis of breaking the city several times, and the soldiers had suffered more than a thousand casualties.
Linzhang Gate on the west gate and Deji Gate on the south gate were the key attack directions of the bandits, and the city walls were extremely damaged.
There were corpses lying everywhere outside Deji Gate. It was estimated that there were no less than five thousand corpses, and most of them were civilians captured and driven by pirates.
Thirty feet away from the city, there are more than twenty trebuchets, which are constantly throwing stones weighing dozens of kilograms at the city wall. The manpower responsible for operating the trebuchets is naturally common people.
It's not that the defenders didn't want to destroy these trebuchets, but no matter how many they destroyed before, the pirates could immediately rush a large number of craftsmen to repair them.
There are a large number of houses in the towns and docks, and there is no shortage of materials. As for the craftsmen and people, they are not worthy of pity. If one group dies, another group will be driven away.
On the contrary, the defenders killed until they were weak. Later, as long as they did not come to annex the city, they did not bother to kill anymore.
Fortunately, this Silla City was built not long ago, and it was built solidly enough. Although it was smashed into holes, the main body was still strong.
Today, since dawn, the pirates have launched a stone-throwing attack. They have been stoned for more than two hours. The more than 400 defenders at the top of the city did not dare to show their heads easily.
The trebuchet finally stopped, but the defenders became even more nervous, because this meant that the pirates were about to rush to the city and ants were clinging to the city.
Qi Dali looked out from the incomplete crenel and saw that sixty feet away, seven or eight thousand pirates had lined up and were in position, while more than six thousand common people were holding large wooden shields and carrying long ladders. Some were lined up at the front of the queue, and some were sandwiched between the pirates. between teams.
"These sons of bitches!...Brothers, brace yourself and prepare for the battle. Don't be soft later. Otherwise, once the city is defeated, with the ruthlessness of these bastards, the people in the city may be doomed!"
The soldiers clenched their crossbows and braced themselves to respond.
Qian Long was still slumped in the corner of the female wall and said in a low voice, "Send someone to ask for reinforcements. I guess the pirates are going to use all their strength this time. It's hard for us to be able to withstand this."
"Reinforcements..." Qi Dali hesitated and asked, "There aren't many people left in Luocheng and Zicheng. If they are transferred again, in case of civil strife..."
Although the outer city has insufficient troops, the inner city must always retain a certain amount of troops.
Firstly, it is to prepare for emergencies, and secondly, it serves as a reserve force, rushing to support whenever there is a crisis.
"There are about five or six hundred left."
Qian Long remained motionless, just to preserve his strength, and even spoke in a much lower voice, "You can't control so much now. If this place is breached, everything will be over. Please call for help quickly."
Qi Dali smiled bitterly and nodded, summoning a soldier. Just as he was about to give orders, he heard someone shouting, "Command, the pirates seem to be retreating..."
Hearing the sound, Qi Dali looked over with disbelief, "Nonsense... ugh! The pirates are really retreating. I beg you, they won't attack the city anymore?!"
When Qian Xiaopang heard this, he stood up suddenly and looked at the crenel, also full of surprise, "Mom, you really retreated..."
Then he seemed to think of something and was suddenly startled, "Could it be, could it be that His Highness really wants to come to the rescue, but where does he have any soldiers in his hand?"
Under Qian Long's watch, the pirates retreated to the port, and then began to board the ship. After being filled, the ship sailed directly away from the dock and went out to sea.
Qian Long finally estimated that there were about 5,000 pirates, leaving in more than 30 large ships.
This time, he was more certain of his thoughts. These pirates were definitely going to intercept King Yan.
As a result, he couldn't help but turn his eyes to the north, his heart full of worry.
However, the departure of most of the pirates only alleviated the pressure on Deji Gate, but the bandits from other directions were still attacking the city. Qian Long could not think more about it and rushed to Linzhang Gate with two hundred soldiers to provide support.
Some people died, but not completely...
