As the main combat forces of pirates and bandits were transferred away, the siege operations basically stopped.
The pressure on the city defense suddenly decreased, but Uncle Xie Fang did not dare to relax at all and still insisted on patrolling the city every day.
There are eight gates in the outer city of Quanzhou, and he must carefully inspect each one before he can feel confident.
Renfengmen is the east gate, which is where Uncle Xie Fang feels more at ease, because there are 500 monk soldiers from Dongchan Temple here to assist in the defense.
Dongchan Temple is commonly known as Southern Shaolin. It is said that the founder, Zen Master Zhikong, was one of the thirteen stick monks who saved the king of Tang Dynasty.
After the Tang Dynasty was usurped by Zhu Wen, Wang Shenzhi, who controlled central Fujian at the time, chose to surrender and rely on Zhu Wen, which aroused dissatisfaction and resistance from the Southern Shaolin Temple.
But the arms could not twist the thighs, and a temple could not stand up to the warlords of the feudal town, so it was destroyed and turned into a white field.
Not long after the founding of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty personally issued an edict to rebuild the temple, probably out of recognition of the loyalty of the Southern Shaolin Temple.
The reconstructed Southern Shaolin is extremely large in scale, covering an area of more than 400 acres. More than two miles east of the east gate moat and nearly two miles north of the East Lake are the Southern Shaolin area.
Historically, when Pu Shougeng was demoted to the Yuan Dynasty, he aroused resistance in Southern Shaolin. Thousands of monks fought against 30,000 Yuan soldiers and killed thousands of Yuan soldiers. In the end, they were defeated. As a result, the temple was destroyed and everyone was killed, with only a hundred monks surviving.
During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the surviving monk Faben was already 135 years old. He persuaded the state official Huang Lizhong to report to the court and ordered the construction of the Shaolin Temple.
Although the rebuilt Southern Shaolin was only one-tenth of its original size, it still worked tirelessly to teach martial arts to the people of Fujian and made many contributions to the pacification of the Japanese.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, many people who opposed the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty had deep connections with Southern Shaolin. Gan De thought that the existence of Southern Shaolin was not conducive to the rule of the Qing Dynasty, so he issued an edict to burn it down.
Judging from these three prosperity and three destruction, Southern Shaolin is worthy of the word "loyalty".
This time the thieves besieged the city and caused a lot of trouble near Quanzhou City, but no one in Southern Shaolin dared to harass them.
Firstly, it is the reverence of ordinary people for Buddhism, and secondly, it is the intimidation of the monks in the temple.
However, Southern Shaolin did not stay aloof and still assigned half of its monk soldiers to help defend the city.
The elder who led these monk soldiers was named Yuan Miao, and his lay name was Zhao Mengliang. Not only was he a member of the clan, but he was also from the same sect as Zhao Mengqi.
After he accompanied him for a round of inspection, he saw that Uncle Xie Fang still looked worried, and he couldn't help but express relief.
"Thank you, Prime Minister. Although this bandit is powerful, there is no need to worry too much. We only need to hold on to the city and wait for the imperial army to arrive."
Zhao Jujing on the side also said, "Speaking of it, the current predicament is very similar to that of the third year of Taiping Xingguo. At that time, Lin Juyi led more than 100,000 people to attack the city, and there were only 3,000 soldiers in the city. But in the end, Quanzhou turned danger into safety and got through the difficulty. So we will definitely be able to hold on securely.”
Hearing this, Uncle Xie Fang shook his head, "I'm not worried about Quanzhou City. We were able to hold on when the thieves attacked, let alone now, but they have dispatched more than 10,000 main troops. Obviously they have more important goals than Quanzhou."
"Xie Xiang said that they are going towards Prince Yan? But Fuzhou City cannot be easily broken, right?" Zhao Jujing asked puzzledly.
"If King Yan stayed in Fuzhou City, I wouldn't be so worried." Uncle Xie Fang smiled bitterly and continued, "It's just that based on my understanding of His Highness, after he learns about the situation in Quanzhou, he will probably come to the rescue personally. No, from now on Judging from the reaction of the rebels, His Highness must have arrived, which is why they gave up attacking Quanzhou at the critical moment."
"How could this happen!?" Zhao Jujing asked in shock, "Your Highness probably doesn't have many troops in his hands. How can he take such a risk?"
He obviously thought about the consequences of King Yan's defeat and death.
No matter what the court's attitude will be at that time, the rebels will definitely conquer Quanzhou with all their strength, because the thousands of clans in the city will be an important bargaining chip for them to negotiate with the court.
Uncle Xie Fang sighed softly, "My lord, maybe I am just unfounded. Please do not spread this matter to others, so as not to affect the morale of the army. No matter what, I will risk my life to ensure the safety of the clan in the city."
Yuan Miao also realized the seriousness of the matter and hurriedly said, "Xie Xiang, the Duke, and the poor monk have a suggestion. That Pu Li is one of the main culprits of this chaos, and the pirates are mostly under his orders, so why not take advantage of this?" At that time, their elite troops were mobilized, and the monks led the monk soldiers to Fashi to surprise Pu's family, capture him, and force him to stop the action of murdering His Highness. Even if it was too late, he could force him to remove the pirates in front of Deji Gate and Nanguan Port. , in this way, the clan can leave the dangerous place of Quanzhou by boat."
When Uncle Xie Fang heard this, he was moved.
After all, if things get to that point, Quanzhou cannot be saved. If the clan can be sent away, the court will not be too passive.
Then Zhao Jujing also strongly agreed, "Thank you, Prime Minister, I think this proposal is feasible. Otherwise, if the clan falls into the control of the rebels, even if the imperial court intends to suppress the rebellion with an iron fist, it will be suppressed."
After weighing for a while, Uncle Xie Fang finally said, "Then...please ask Master Yuanmiao to be prepared and take action tonight..."
At this moment, a messenger came panting heavily with an exciting report, "Reinforcements! Reinforcements are coming..."
"What?" Everyone was stunned.
Uncle Xie Fang asked urgently, "What kind of reinforcements? Ours or the bandits'?"
"Our reinforcements are a very large ship, sailing upstream from the lower reaches of the Jinjiang River. The recognition flag hanging on the top of the mast has the word 'Yan' written on it." The messenger quickly answered.
"Yan? Then His Highness must be here...this? How is this possible? Aren't there so many thieves trying to intercept him?" Zhao Jujing murmured.
"Haha..." Uncle Xie Fang laughed, "Perhaps His Highness has circumvented the enemy. His Highness is ever-changing and can always make unexpected moves. Haha, as long as His Highness is fine, everything will be fine! Yuan Miao, please gather the monk soldiers quickly. Let’s go and escort His Highness into the city!”
…
At Nanguan Port, more than four thousand pirates stared blankly at the port.
A huge ship that was three times larger than the largest ship they had ever seen sailed into the port. The warships guarding it on both sides looked like kittens next to a horse.
"Oh my God, how could there be such a big ship..."
"Eh...is it trying to turn the ship sideways?"
"Come on, this is the official ship, the official ship!"
"Why the hell are you standing still? Hurry up and get ready to fight!"
"Quickly, push the stone cannon over. It doesn't matter how big the ship is. Let's kill him on land!"
The pirates were busy in a mess, but the nearly a thousand Liuqiu and Vaishya people were still looking up at the behemoth in the port in shock, and many even knelt on the ground and murmured prayers.
This giant ship is naturally the Shenzhou, but Zhao Mengqi led his people to attack the Pu family and was not on this ship. The people in charge were Lu Changqing and Lu Xiufu.
The two couldn't help laughing when they saw the pirates still trying to resist.
"The mantis' arms are like a chariot!"
"The mayfly shakes the tree!"
After the hull was adjusted, the mainsail was lowered and the anchor was lowered into the water.
On the upper deck amidships, four five-inch caliber mortars and four nine-inch caliber mortars were lined up, with the black muzzles pointing diagonally at the sky.
The sixteen gun windows on the second deck were also opened, and all the direct guns inside were loaded.
Shi Cheng urged the soldiers to adjust the shooting of Zhu Yuan, and looked very excited as he geared up.
The nine-inch mortar cannon alone weighs more than a thousand kilograms. It is difficult to move, so I didn't go ashore before and missed the opportunity to display it. Now I can finally break my fast.
"Everything is ready and can be launched at any time." Shi Cheng asked Lu Changqing for orders.
Lu Changqing looked towards the pier and found that the pirates had arranged the captured civilians near the city gate. There was no need to worry about accidental damage from the shelling, so he ordered, "Allow firing!"
The pirates were completely unaware of the danger and were gathering at the dock to set up a shield array, waiting for the official ships to dock.
After all, the giant ship was still about a hundred feet away from the shore and was not within the range of the stone cannon, so they thought they were safe.
It's a pity that the Shenzhou is not only equipped with stone cannons, but also real cannons!
Shi Cheng waved the triangular flag in his hand and said, "Light it up!"
The eight mortars deliberately staggered the time slightly and ignited the message tubes and firing ropes on the cannon shells one after another.
Soon, the first roar sounded, and the direct guns on the deck below were ignited one after another.
After eight consecutive roars, four small, four large and eight black figures in the sky rose like a single row of wild geese, and then crashed towards the dock in an arc.
The pirates were frightened after hearing the loud noise, and then panicked and tried to escape.
But the cannonball didn't seem to be flying very fast, but it couldn't be avoided by relying on legs, not to mention they were standing so densely.
The Black Death fell randomly into the crowd, killing a few pirates who were not sure whether they were lucky or unlucky. After a slight delay, they exploded violently one after another.
Everything is foam, drowning all life.
A flash of fireworks took away three souls and seven souls.
All bodies are too fragile...
Apart from the rumbling thunder, all other sounds in the world seemed to have disappeared.
The air is full of people, or parts of people that used to be, tiny and scattered.
In an instant, circular vacancies appeared one after another in the originally dense crowd.
What was not in the vacancy was just short-term luck. The next moment, sixteen solid iron balls flew towards them, plowing bloody alleys in the crowd.
Compared with those who were blown away to pieces, these people died more vividly. Although they were incomplete, they could at least be pieced together.
The remaining three thousand pirates all collapsed, dropped everything in their hands, and began to run away from the giant ship.
Most of the Liuqiu and Vaishexie people were frightened by the power of this god coming down to earth. They fell to their knees and did not dare to do anything other than kowtow desperately.
At the Deji Gate, Uncle Xie Fang and others had just arrived and saw this earth-shattering scene. Their mouths were open for a long time without closing.
Only Qian Long, who had seen the 'big world', was more normal, "Thank you, Prime Minister, I will request an attack!"
Uncle Xie Fang came to his senses, "Yes, yes, yes, open the city gate immediately and annihilate the pirates! Yuan Miao, you monk soldiers will go too!"
"Wait!" Qian Long shouted hurriedly, "Look, Mr. Xie, the merchant ships in the reinforcements are about to dock. They must be transporting troops, so we don't have to go too far. Instead, they are over there at Linzhang Gate. The rebels may escape when they realize that the momentum is not right, so we have to send people to block the Stalagmite Bridge to prevent too many rebels from escaping to the other side of the Jinjiang River!"
Uncle Xie Fang immediately woke up and immediately changed his order, "Yuan Miao, hurry over and go out through Tongjin Gate. You don't have to block it. Just destroy the wooden beam suspension bridge..."
"You can blow it up with a grenade!"
Qian Long immediately assigned ten more squad members to carry grenades.
