In order to make sure that Wang Xingshan was telling the truth, Lu Dongliang strode to a crenel and leaned out to look down the city.
Sure enough, there was a headless corpse under the city wall.
"He, he is the magistrate of Lingbao County?" Lu Dongliang looked suspicious.
The city wall is not high, and the clothes on the corpse can be clearly seen. He is dressed like a poor man, but he does not look like the magistrate of Lingbao County.
"He changed his clothes and was about to run away, but I sent someone to catch him. You can take a closer look at his stature. Poor people can't find such a wealthy person." Wang Xingshan walked next to Lu Dongliang and looked down at the city. The county magistrate outside collected the body.
Lu Dongliang looked at it carefully.
I found that the corpse outside the city was indeed not as skinny as the poor people I had seen before. Judging from the body shape, it was indeed possible to see a bit of the figure of the Lingbao County Magistrate.
"He was an official of the imperial court, so he was killed like this!" Lu Dongliang turned around and looked at Wang Xingshan beside him in disbelief.
The saying "killing officials to rebel" applies not only to the common people, but also to officials like them, unless there is a clear purpose.
Wang Xingshan snorted coldly and said: "You just killed a corrupt official. Do you think I will care about it? Even if the court wants to punish this general, there must be this opportunity."
Lu Dongliang was silent when he heard this.
He felt the determination to die from Wang Xingshan.
Since Wang Xingshan didn't care anymore, he couldn't say anything more, so he said: "Since the general has made preparations, I won't say more."
"Go back. The bandits are coming soon. You still need to keep an eye on the reserve team." Wang Xingshan signaled that he could leave.
"General, I will retire." Lu Dongliang bowed to Wang Xingshan, turned around and walked towards the horse path down the city wall.
At this moment, chaos suddenly broke out on top of the city.
Many officers and soldiers guarding the city shouted something like "the rebels are coming".
Wang Xingshan's expression changed and he hurriedly looked outside the city.
Lu Dongliang, who was about to leave, also ran back at this time and appeared in front of the crenel beside the city wall.
Outside the city, a large black banner appeared in the eyes of everyone on the top of the city.
"The thieves are attacking the city." Lu Dongliang said in a deep voice.
Wang Xingshan, who grasped the crenel with both hands tightly, said with a heavy face: "I have long heard that this bandit army has many guns, but now it seems that there are more than the rumors said."
One after another, artillery carts pulled by several horses slowly drove towards the gate of Lingbao City.
"I'm afraid it will be difficult to defend Lingbao City." Lu Dongliang turned his head and looked at Wang Xingshan.
Seeing the bandits bringing so many cannons to Lingbao City, he wanted to know whether Wang Xingshan still insisted on holding on to Lingbao City.
"I have already said that I will be here in Lingbao City. If Lingbao City is destroyed, I will be loyal to the court." Wang Xingshan said firmly.
Lu Dongliang felt his determination to live and die with Lingbao City.
However, this was not what he wanted to see, but he also knew that he could not persuade the other party at all, nor could he change the other party's determination, so he simply stopped talking and directly asked to go back to the reserve team to keep an eye on him.
Wang Xingshan nodded and agreed for him to leave.
The news that the bandit troops were approaching the city outside the city caused confusion among the officers and soldiers on the city wall for only a moment, but they were immediately suppressed and resumed their busy work.
"Come here, go and carry all the door panels, and prepare more quilts. Remember to soak the quilts with water." Facing the numerous cannons outside the city, Wang Xingshan had no better way to resist, so he could only choose to add door panels. Use quilts to resist the coming bombardment as much as possible.
Although there are cannons in Lingbao City, he has never thought about letting the defenders in the city use cannons to blast the rebels' cannons.
It's not that he doesn't want to do it, but there are only two old cannons in the city.
One is a bronze cannon cast during the Wanli period, and the other is older and can be traced back to the Jiajing period.
Soon, door panels that had been dismantled from someone's front door were carried to the city wall. There were about seven or eight pieces in total.
"How come it's just this little!" Wang Xingshan looked at the several door panels in front of him, and his face immediately sank.
At the same time, he looked at a Qianhu on the side.
It was this Qianhuren who went to the city to collect door panels.
The Qianhu who was asked stood up bravely, bowed and said: "General Qi, we have collected a lot of door panels, most of them have been turned into firewood, used to cook golden juice, and these are the only remaining door panels." Already."
"Then go ahead and get it. I don't care where you go to get the door panels. If you delay the defense of the city, I will definitely punish you. There are also quilts. The more the better." Wang Xingshan gestured to Qian in front of him. I went to get the door panels and quilts.
He had already robbed the food from the people's homes in the city, and he didn't care if he came back with more door panels and quilts.
"Yes." Qianhu agreed, turned around and left quickly.
Also leaving together was a group of dozens of officers and soldiers.
It also takes time to transport the cannons of the Tiger Character Banner to the gates of Lingbao City, which also leaves more time for the officers and soldiers guarding the city.
More than thirty cannons were lined up in several rows outside Lingbao City.
Among them were six six-pounders, two nine-pounders, and all the rest four-pounders.
Coming with these cannons was Xu Bingyu, the captain of the artillery team.
Originally, when ordering artillery like this, he did not need a battalion-level artillery captain to lead the team. He could just let the artillery deputy captain or the artillery squadron captain below.
However, when he learned that there was actually a deputy commander-in-chief of the Ming Army in a county like Lingbao City, he decided to come over in person to direct the artillery team in action.
In the busy work of each gunner, more than thirty cannons were quickly set up, and the shooting angles were adjusted to the best.
An officer from the artillery team came to Xu Bingyu, stood at attention, saluted, and said loudly: "Report to the captain, all cannons are ready, please fire."
Xu Bingyu raised the monocular telescope in his hand and glanced at the top of the city, and said: "Permission to fire."
The officer turned around and ran to the side of the artillery team, holding the copper whistle in his mouth and holding the command flag high in his right hand.
Beep!
A sharp whistle came from the copper whistle in the officer's mouth, and at the same time, his right hand holding the flag high waved down violently.
boom! boom! boom!
Cannons were fired one after another.
Cannonballs include solid bullets and blooming bullets.
Solid bullets are mainly used to bombard the walls and gates of Lingbao City, while blooming bullets have not been used much. Because of fuze problems, blooming bullets are rarely used.
However, just a few months ago, the Tiger Banner Arsenal developed a wooden tube fuse.
With this thing, although it still cannot change the fact that the range of blooming bullets is not as good as that of solid bullets, it can well ensure that the blooming bullets will not explode in the barrel, or explode without hitting the target.
