Early in the morning on April 25, the eighth year of Chongzhen, outside Nanyang City.
Chen Yongfu led more than a hundred people wearing Ming army uniforms all the way south, and soon arrived outside Nanyang City.
At this time, the gate of Nanyang City was tightly closed, and there were many nervous-looking soldiers stationed on the top of the city. There were also several generals in armor or officials in civilian robes on the gate tower.
Chen Yongfu and his men approached the city gate two to three hundred meters away, and immediately sent two men forward.
"Hurry open the door and let us in. Hurry, there are thieves behind you. Hurry and let me wait to enter the city."
"General Chen is outside the city. Please open the city gate quickly. Otherwise, you will not be able to bear General Chen's anger."
The two men shouted loudly while riding their horses.
Unexpectedly, the people in the city did not open the door at all. Instead, they shot out several arrows. There was a general-looking man on the city gate building shouting: "Bold thief Chen, you surrendered to the thief yesterday, but now you dare to come and defraud the city gate." , these unfaithful and unjust people should be punished by everyone."
When Chen Yongfu in the distance heard this, his face couldn't help but show anger.
Even though he had really surrendered to the thieves, he still felt a little embarrassed after being called out by the people on the top of the city and scolded him for being disloyal and unjust.
However, he still endured it and turned sideways to a man dressed as a soldier beside him and said: "Captain Li, it seems we are still late. Nanyang City has already learned about the Zhaozhuang war. It should have been yesterday." The defeated soldiers escaped first and informed them of the situation."
Battalion Commander Li, who was dressed as a Ming army soldier next to him, said: "It's a pity. If I had known we should have traveled south with light clothing yesterday and ran to Nanyang City in one breath. Maybe we could sneak into Nanyang City."
"As long as we can get a few dozen people in, it will be much easier to attack the city."
Chen Yongfu also responded: "Who says it's not the case? It's just that I was too late yesterday."
Battalion Commander Li said: "Since we can't trick the city gates into opening, let's wait for the general and the others. Although Nanyang City is strong, the thousands of guardsmen and civilians in the city cannot stop the advance of our defense army." ."
"What's more, even if we can't directly deceive the city gate, there are still spies from our army inside the city. Although the number is a little small, it won't be a problem to create some chaos when our army officially attacks the city."
In the past month or so, the Baoxiang Army has also successively sent spies to Nanzhao County, Nanyang City and even several surrounding cities.
At first, they just sent spies to inquire about various information. Later, the Intelligence Section of the General Staff Office increased the manpower sent to each city so that they could cooperate inside and outside when the army attacked the city.
Among them, Nanyang City is naturally the key city for intelligence department spies to infiltrate and lurk. At present, a total of more than 40 people have been sent and lurked.
Once the rural protection army officially attacks Nanyang City, these forty people will be able to create a certain amount of chaos in the city, and even open the city gates by cooperating with the inside and outside, thereby reducing the difficulty of attacking Nanyang City.
But the specific effect remains to be seen at that time.
Soon, Chen Yongfu and others left, but they did not go far. Instead, they stopped in a large open space about a thousand meters outside the city and began to build a simple camp.
After watching Chen Yongfu and the others leave, a green-robed official on the city gate frowned and said, "How can a beautiful lady like you be a thief!"
A colleague wearing a green robe next to him said: "Hmph, I have long thought that Chen Yongfu is a treacherous person. He used to lead troops to garrison our Nanyang Mansion and required a lot of money and food. However, he delayed the suppression of thieves as much as possible. No effort was made.”
"It's not surprising that a treacherous villain who has no eyes for the imperial court and no saint will turn to thieves."
"We must submit a letter to the court. Chen Yongfu must be severely punished for turning into a traitor. Without confiscating his family and exterminating his clan, it will not be enough to demonstrate the power of the court."
Qingpao official Song Qi, the magistrate of Nanyang County in Nanyang Prefecture, frowned slightly when he heard this. He knew that Zuo Binglin and Chen Yongfu, the recommended officials of Nanyang Prefecture, usually did not deal with them, but these words sounded a bit harsh.
You must know that when Chen Yongfu asked for military supplies some time ago, Song Qi made great efforts to help Chen Yongfu raise military supplies for the safety of Nanyang City and because of his old relationship with Chen Yongfu.
But Song Qi did not expect that Chen Yongfu would be defeated in the end, not only defeated but also surrendered to the thieves.
Last night, Song Qi was very shocked when he learned that Chen Yongfu had turned into a thief. Besides being shocked, he was also very worried.
After all, many people knew that they and Chen Yongfu had known each other for a long time and were from the same hometown. After Chen Yongfu turned into a thief, there was a chance that Song Qi would be implicated.
He frowned slightly and said, "Don't worry about Chen Yongfu for now. When Governor Hong and his army arrive, Chen Yongfu will die without a burial place."
"Our top priority now is to find a way to stop these thieves!"
"Chen Yongfu was defeated miserably in Zhaozhuang yesterday, and today the security thieves have already arrived at the city. I'm afraid the security thieves will officially attack the city in the next two days, so we have to guard against it!"
"There are still fewer soldiers in the city now, and not many civilians have been recruited. We still need to recruit more civilians to help defend the city."
"Come on, let's go report back to the prince of the palace. We need a lot of money and food to recruit soldiers. Now that the official warehouse is empty, we have to find the gentry in the city and the Tang Palace to discuss how to collect money and food."
Zuo Binglin, the promotion officer of Nanyang Mansion beside him, glanced at Song Qi, snorted in his heart and stopped talking.
If I get the chance another day, I will definitely impeach you Song Qi. Damn Xipi, how dare you go to my own slaves to collect military supplies!
Song Qi and Zuo Binglin ordered several of their subordinates and generals to guard the city gate and keep an eye on the rebels outside the city, and then immediately went to the magistrate's Yamen in a sedan chair.
Soon, a group of powerful gentry gathered in the prefect's yamen. However, under the auspices of the prefect, although everyone said nicely that it was their duty to provide money and food to fight against thieves, they actually asked them to provide money and food. At that time, each of them only took a few hundred taels of silver and sent it away.
On the contrary, the people sent by the Tang Palace were more generous and expressed their willingness to provide 2,600 taels of silver and 10,000 jins of grain and grass for military supplies.
At last count, the Nanyang government had only collected a total of 5,423 taels of silver and 14,000 kilograms of grain. In addition, there were a bunch of messy things, such as dozens of pieces of cloth and several pieces of cloth. silk.
This is quite normal. What is strange is that among the materials donated by the gentry, there are hundreds of porcelain bowls and dishes, and this is not an exception.
Many gentry just took out some random money, and then some goods from their own industry.
As for whether these supplies can be used, it's none of their business...
It's just that, as soon as the statistics of the money and food were completed, the officials tacitly agreed that 30% of the money would be lost, and the profits would be divided into their own pockets.
Many of the materials were sold directly after being floated without having to rehandle them. What is interesting is that most of the companies that purchased these donated materials were the same companies that donated them.
However, this time their float was more conscientious, only 30% of the float was lost.
After all, the security thief is about to attack, so they don't want to go too far, they just follow the routine.
However, this 30% of the money was lost by the civil servants, and the remaining money and food, the generals at all levels who led the troops, had to share a portion of the money as usual.
As this level of distribution continued, the money and food that finally reached the hands of the soldiers was less than 23/10 of the original amount.
Of the more than 10,000 kilograms of grain, only more than 4,000 kilograms ended up in the military warehouses of the ministries that defended the city. As for the rest, naturally they went into the warehouses of various grain shops in the city.
Now the price of food in the city has skyrocketed. The price of food has increased by more than five times compared to normal times. Moreover, most food merchants are reluctant to sell at this time. Ordinary families cannot buy food even if they still have some money in their hands.
This caused panic in Nanyang City. After all, no one knew when the thieves protecting the city would attack the city, whether there would be a massacre after the attack, or whether they would besiege the city after they failed to capture it.
These uncertain news caused great panic among the people in the city. If the officers and soldiers had not blocked the city gate, it is estimated that the fleeing people would have blocked the city gate.
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When news was flying all over Nanyang City and panic was overwhelming, Luo Zhixue finally arrived outside Nanyang City with his army at noon.
On the way, he had already learned that Chen Yongfu's plan to defraud the city gate had failed, but he didn't pay too much attention.
If Chen Yongfu can deceive the city gate, it's best if he can't. If he can't deceive him, then he can just attack by force.
Anyway, there are no regular battalion sentries in Nanyang City. With only about 2,000 guard soldiers and an unknown number of young civilians, it is impossible to block the attack of the Home Guard Army.
Even though the walls of Nanyang City are high and thick, there are even many artillery pieces on top of the city.
But no matter how good the city defense system is, it is useless without a reliable army to garrison.
As for the guardsmen and civilians in Nanyang City, even if ordinary thieves came to kill them, they did not have the courage to resist, let alone the strength to resist.
Otherwise, the previous officials of Nanyang City would not have always wanted Chen Yongfu to stay in the city.
Isn't it because Chen Yongfu has two thousand soldiers under his command?
After arriving outside Nanyang City, Luo Zhixue asked his troops to set up camp and prepare various siege equipment. He led some senior generals and guards to climb a nearby short mountain for observation.
The focus is to observe the city defense system, especially some of the artillery deployed by the Ming army on the top of the city.
After careful observation, Luo Zhixue did not hesitate, but directly ordered the troops to prepare for an attack.
After his observation, although the walls of Nanyang City were tall and thick, there were not many cannons on the walls, and they were all old cannons. There was not a single long-barreled Hongyi cannon.
At the same time, he also observed that the Ming army on the top of the city was in disarray and had low morale. At the same time, there were also a large number of young men without weapons among the soldiers.
The most important thing is that few of the Ming army on the city, whether young or strong, are wearing armor. Only a few officers who look like officers and a few soldiers around them have armor.
The strength of the Ming army in the city was as Luo Zhixue expected: not good!
For such a weak enemy, Luo Zhixue did not intend to waste too much time and quickly ordered an attack!
