March twenty-sixth.
Just a few days after Sun Yuanhua, Wang Zheng and Zhang Tao were released, seeing that Laizhou was still impregnable and unbreakable, the Dongjiang Town rebels finally showed their fangs.
In the early morning of this day, the rebels launched a general attack on Laizhou.
The rebels occupied Wanghai Tower in the north of the city and set up huge cannons on the upper floor. The cannonballs weighed twelve kilograms and were fired endlessly, like a torrential rain or a waterfall.
In fact, Laizhou City had already had a premonition and made sufficient preparations.
To prevent rebel raids, lighting candles and torches were placed on each battlement.
The rebels' heavy artillery firepower was too fierce. The Ming army guarding the city wall suffered heavy casualties, and all the temporarily reinforced battlements were destroyed.
The rebels concentrated their forces to storm the northeast corner and the fourth gate of Laizhou City, and ignited the gunpowder in the tunnel in the northeast corner. With the loud noise of the earth shaking and the mountains shaking, the city wall collapsed.
Kong Youde, who personally supervised the battle, was overjoyed and immediately waved his sword and ordered.
"Charge forward, all charge forward. Capture Laizhou City and let us loose for three days."
The rebels' morale increased and they rushed towards the gap.
Guarding this section of the city wall were Sichuan soldiers and Huguang soldiers. They obviously also knew what would happen if the city was defeated, so they fought to the death and refused to give in.
The two sides fought bloody battles on the collapsed ruins, and the corpses gradually piled up almost as high as the city wall.
The rebels attacked the city several times in a row, and the rebel flag was also planted on the wall.
Peng Youmo, the commander of the Sichuan and Huguang soldiers, became ruthless and personally led the reinforcements to counterattack. After attracting enemies to one place, immediately set them on fire.
All the rebel soldiers were burned into fireballs and fell from the city wall.
In this way, the Ming army defeated the rebels three times.
Finally, daybreak came.
The rebels, who had suffered heavy losses, were unable to fight anymore, and the clarion call to retreat brought relief to both sides.
Xu Congzhi and Xie Lian climbed to the top of the city, looking at the miserable state of the city, their hearts filled with gloom.
"Where are the imperial reinforcements?"
"Send a message quickly and urge me again."
On the same day of March 26th, Zuo Mengeng returned to Yimeng Mountain.
The new army headquarters left Fei County and approached the foot of Nishan Mountain.
The New Army's three divisions and twelve regiments in total have already surrounded Nishan.
With Zuo Mengeng's return, the final offensive against the remnants of the White Lotus Sect has begun in full swing.
This time there is no distinction between main attack and auxiliary attack. Twelve regiments, twelve directions, all are main attacks.
It can be said that this Battle of Nishan was a grand review of all troops.
This is done for observation and summary for subsequent operations.
Although each regiment did not know the whole story, under the tense atmosphere, the generals all used all their abilities and exerted their utmost energy to compress from all sides.
With the new army's all-out attack, the situation of the White Lotus Sect in Nishan became increasingly difficult.
After months of siege, the mountains had already run out of food. The White Lotus Sect rebels have already eaten everything they can eat. If everything hadn't come back to life in the spring, they might all be cannibals.
Although they were in a dead place, the White Lotus Sect was still divided into two groups. Zhao Si was in the Chaishan area, and Dong Dacheng was in the Heishantop area to the east.
The reason for this is that Zhao Si was originally a subordinate of Guo Yunbiao, and Dong Dacheng was a subordinate of Li Mengming.
The left and right guardians of the White Lotus Sect seem to be better at fighting each other.
Therefore, Zhao Si and Dong Dacheng could not trust each other. After driving away Murong Cai, the two immediately distanced themselves and were on guard against each other.
However, the situation was now extremely critical. The mountaintops were being lost one after another. Seeing that there was no place to stand in the huge Nishan Mountain, Dong Dacheng decided to do something.
He found a village overnight and met with the leader.
"King of the Nine Mountains, we are brothers, can you give me some food and grass? Don't worry, after we fight out of the mountain, I will pay back a hundredfold, brother."
The person Dong Dacheng met was not the White Lotus cultist, but the local powerful Wang Jun.
This Wang Jun is very famous on the green forest roads in Shandong, and is nicknamed the "King of Nine Mountains". The nine peaks of Nishan were originally his territory.
After the White Lotus Sect arrived, it was too powerful to be defeated, so Wang Jun had to retreat to the Caojiazhai Mountain area.
Even so, Wang Jun had always robbed homes and houses, and had killed officials. He was also a target of the imperial court's encirclement and suppression. Therefore, he had to make peace with the White Lotus Sect and became a temporary ally.
However, Wang Jun's men were unhappy when they heard Dong Dacheng's request for food.
Chao Yuguang jumped out and shouted: "If you guys hadn't come to Nishan in such crooked ways, I wouldn't know how comfortable my life would be. But now, the government and the army are completely surrounding this place, and everyone will starve to death sooner or later."
Chao Yuguang always regarded himself as a descendant of Chao Gai, and he was also a well-known figure among the bandits in Nishan.
When it comes to being the most hostile towards the White Lotus Sect, he bears the brunt of it, followed by Wang Jun.
When he yelled like this, the rest of the thieves became filled with indignation. If it weren't for the powerful enemy at hand, it would be impossible to attack Dong Dacheng first.
Dong Dacheng's face was full of bitterness, but he still had to give in.
"King of the Nine Mountains, no matter what, we are all brothers in the world. When the army comes, I will be cut to pieces by a thousand knives, and my brothers will not have a good ending. We are all grasshoppers on the same rope, and now we are not of the same mind. , they will all become the victims of the army."
Wang Jun smoked his pipe and said in a low voice: "What I'm saying is the truth, and it's not that I don't understand. But I'll be honest, everyone in your sect is at odds with each other, and I, an outsider, don't understand." What’s the point?”
Dong Dacheng understood that Wang Jun was talking about his and Zhao Si's dirty work.
Speaking of this, Dong Dacheng became even more angry.
"Then Zhao Si turned out to be a scoundrel, and no one in our religion has ever looked down upon him. This time our holy religion rebelled, and after all the leaders fought and sacrificed their lives, he was made the king of the mountains without tigers and monkeys."
Wang Jun squinted his eyes and said pointedly: "We are outsiders, and we dare not get involved in your sect's affairs. However, Lei Chao saw with his own eyes a few days ago that in the village of your Fourth Master Zhao, there are many people who have been promoted to It’s smoked.”
Wang Jun's general Xiang Lei nodded in agreement.
"I can smell the fragrance of rice even from afar. It seems that Fourth Master Zhao is hiding something behind our backs."
Dong Dacheng couldn't help being shocked, "Seriously?"
Xiang Leichao was unhappy, and his voice was as loud as thunder.
"There were a lot of people watching that day. If you don't believe me, ask, who am I, the old prime minister?"
Dong Dacheng did not ask further questions, but believed it immediately.
Because among the three forces in Nishan, Zhao Si is the most alienated from his family. Especially since last month, we have been in constant contact with each other.
Dong Dacheng originally thought that it was not an option to waste so much time, so he sent someone to notify Zhao Si, and thought about discussing it to see if they could break out of the encirclement together.
The person who had wanted to send him was driven back without even seeing Zhao Si.
At that time, Dong Dacheng thought that Zhao Si was afraid of him cheating, but now it seems that Zhao Si is obviously up to something fishy.
Dong Dacheng couldn't help but feel murderous intent in his heart when he thought that Zhao Si was hiding in the village, eating hot and spicy food, while they were eating all the bark and grass roots.
"King of the Nine Mountains, a wise man does not speak secretly. Now you have seen the momentum. We will definitely not be able to defend this mountain. This soldier named Zuo has evil nature and fights ruthlessly. Brother, I have already lost seven mountains. If you keep doing this, If we go down, we will all die in this mountain. The only way is to find a way to rush out. But if we want to rush out, brothers have no strength. Since Zhao Si has food but hides it secretly, then we can still Do you recognize him as your brother?"
These words made Wang Jun and others excited.
"Dong Da's headship means..."
Dong Dacheng was very satisfied with the performance of Wang Jun and others.
"Since he is unkind, don't blame us for being unjust."
Wang Jun calmed down and looked at him critically.
"Haha, Mr. Dong is joking. You are all gods, unlike us who run around in the world. We don't dare to get involved in the fight between gods and gods."
The meaning of his words was very clear.
Dong Dacheng and Zhao Si are from the White Lotus Sect anyway, but Wang Jun and his brothers are just reckless.
The nice thing is to join forces to deal with Zhao Si, but looking back, Dong Dacheng will not join forces with Zhao Si to destroy them.
Seeing Wang Jun being so suspicious, Dong Dacheng couldn't help stamping his feet and swearing.
"King of the Nine Mountains is so confused. If only Zhao Si cared about the friendship with fellow believers, brother, I would still be so miserable? Now that the army and the army are approaching, our heads can be moved at any time. How many leaders have died in the Holy Cult? Can you still take care of so much? Furthermore, the King of Nine Mountains has also seen these days that Zhao Si is more guarded against me than all of you. Without your help, with the ability of brothers, it is impossible to plot against Zhao Si. Maitreya Buddha is on top, today I, Dong Dacheng, hereby swear that I will make a bloody alliance with the Nine Mountain King and other brothers to seek wealth and wealth together. If I violate this oath, I will be punished by three swords and six cuts in my life, and I will die in the Nine Nether Hells, and will never be reincarnated."
Wang Jun and others made eye contact and saw that he actually swore an oath to Maitreya Buddha, which showed his sincerity.
"The head of the Dong family is serious. In that case, it's hard to say that our brothers will believe you for once."
Dong Dacheng was overjoyed and said hurriedly: "If we want to succeed, we have to trouble all brothers to come forward..."
