For Tang Peiyu, the situation took a turn for the worse.
The sound of cannons coming from Yangmei Mountain subverted Tang Peiyu's cognition.
That's not flat land, that's a mountain!
At present, Gu Shilong's men have not actually attacked the city. The Changsha defenders still have a certain space of movement within three to five miles outside the city wall, so they have been constantly scouting.
Tang Peiyu can be sure that the people on the Yangmei Mountain side were not there yesterday.
Regardless of whether it was Shenji Camp selecting a forward or whichever force Gu Shilong led south, even if they were not really exhausted like the Nanchang Guards, how could they hastily transport that bowl of blunderbuss to the mountainside of Yangmei Mountain for use in field battles?
But those thousand elite soldiers had to be rescued.
Tang Peiyu had just led his troops out of the city, and Zhu Jianjun had already arrived at Liuyang Gate.
"Didn't I ask General Tang to guard the city?" He looked to the southwest in surprise, "How many people did General Tang bring out?"
The "loyal minister" of Prince Ji's Mansion and the former Jinyi Colonel of the Yiwei Department looked at the large number of figures rushing to the southeast and squinted his eyes: "I'm afraid it's more than two thousand. Looking at the military appearance, there are more than half of them. They are elite soldiers from the original Changsha Guards.”
"...Two thousand?" Zhu Jianjun's eyes darkened.
First there were a thousand elite soldiers, and now Tang Peiyu has brought more than a thousand elite soldiers from the original Changsha Guard out of the city. So isn't it true that the entire Changsha Guard's nearly 4,000 elite soldiers who were well-trained are less than half left?
What if this is Gu Shilong's strategy to seize the opportunity to attack the east and attack the west? What if the north, east, and west were besieged at this time?
Zhu Jianjun's guess was not wrong. At this moment, from the foot of Guifeng Mountain, five cavalrymen were rushing north along Liuyang River at full speed.
They first arrived at the camp to the east of the siege, leaving one person behind, and then four more people continued north.
The east-west wall of Changsha City is narrower, while the north-south wall is longer.
Gu Shilong's camp is located in the northeast corner of Changsha City.
There was only about ten miles in total. As soon as the news that the soldiers in Changsha City came out from Duanyang Gate reached Wuchang Guards, they set off.
These are all plans agreed upon in advance.
When the gunfire sounded on Yangmei Mountain, the eastern camp had already received the news and immediately organized the army to prepare to advance.
When Tang Peiyu led his army into the valley between Yangmei Mountain and Fulong Mountain in the south, Gu Shilong also received the news.
It seems that there is no need to wait until the strategy to lure the enemy fails, and then wait until the agreed time to fall into the trap.
He glanced at the clock and immediately ordered: "Send orders to Xiong Weiyang, and the naval warships assigned to Yuezhou Guards will immediately go up the Xiang River to intercept the fleeing thieves from the four west gates of the city. Let Geng Yongfeng not have to be wary of Zhan Huabi, and immediately go along the Xiang River Go south from the west bank and march towards Xiangtan!"
After that, he walked out of the door: "Send my military order, the army is approaching the city and prepare to attack the city!"
It's already August 27th, and in one month's time it will be His Majesty's Longevity Festival.
Gu Shilong's siege but not attack was not for stability, but to arrange things in place first.
The armies in Huguang had not experienced war for a long time, and he could only truly boost their morale with a beautiful and timely victory.
In this case, whichever side loses the first battle will lose the whole game. Even if the imperial army could win in the end, it would no longer be under the command of Gu Shilong. Instead, it would take several months to reorganize the army and increase the number of troops to fight again.
On Yangmei Mountain now, Qu Zhinan, a member of the Qianhu family under Ji Weimin, only whispered in a low voice: "Quick, quick, quick! Brother Wei, you take your brothers to endure some hardships and try your best to move down. Don't be precise later, let them When chaos breaks out, I will take the remaining brothers to cover up and kill them!"
The thousand people were supposed to be headed by him, but this Wei Jigui was the one who captured Zhang Heling with Guo Xun.
The new artillery battalion in the Shenji Battalion was trained by Wei Jigui from the beginning.
Wei Jigui is also a member of the Qianhu family.
"Don't worry, Laoqu!" Wei Jigui turned around and greeted, "Be careful where you step, work in groups of three and take turns lifting!"
For the composition of the Shenji Battalion's selection of forwards, Wei Jigui brought 400 men, while Qu Zhinan had a thousand musketry soldiers. The other thousand and six were commanded by guerrilla general Ji Weimin, and consisted of two hundred cavalry, eight hundred gunmen, two hundred chariots and the remaining two hundred craftsmen.
The new cannon brought by Wei Jigui was obtained after more than two years of testing, from the Portuguese cannon-making methods and other ingenuity from Huangming University.
His Majesty gave it the name "Tiger Crouching Cannon".
This new cannon has an extra pair of "tiger feet", which can stand firmly on the ground after being put down. It really looks like a tiger squatting on the ground and roaring at its opportunity.
The most important thing is that although the barrel of this squatting tiger cannon is longer than that of a bowl-mouth gun, the muzzle is not as big as a bowl-mouth gun.
The whole cannon weighs less than forty kilograms. If two people carry it and take turns, it is enough to carry it with the army. It is as powerful as a tiger and can be used in field battles.
However, Huangming University, the War Bureau, and the Ordnance Supervision have been using the new method requested by His Majesty to test the gunpowder formula, and there is a new word called quantitative loading.
Although Wei Jigui doesn't understand why these things have to be like this, there are now a set of rules for filling, loading and even measuring the distance of the squatting tiger cannon. Although the muzzle is smaller, the range is farther than the bowl-mouth blunderbuss.
Qu Zhinan led more than 700 people to the foot of the mountain. Wei Jigui led the 280 people along the mountainside of Yangmei Mountain closer to Changsha City. There were actually twenty tiger squatting cannons being used. Carrying it and walking slowly down the mountain.
Each artillery crew had five people, and Wei Jigui brought a total of twenty-five cannons. The remaining one hundred and fifty people are the reserve force and the sword players who protect the artillery.
The sword players in the Shenji camp are also different from those in the local guards. There is still a shield, but in addition to the waist knife, the other long-range weapon is a short blunderbuss that is being improved through the handle.
There was movement on Yangmei Mountain on the side of the city wall, and Tang Peiyu also discovered this.
But he can't control that much.
The thousand elite soldiers from before are fighting and retreating, and they must be reunited with them first.
With a five-door gun, the firing interval is not short. As long as they take advantage of the gap to withdraw from the bombardment range, they will only have to face the elite soldiers of the Shenji Battalion who are forcing themselves down the mountain.
For the thousands of elite soldiers who had left the city earlier, the sudden shelling of Wankou Gun, the sudden appearance of the Shenji Battalion's flag, and the sudden noise coming from Guifeng Mountain and getting closer and closer all showed that this place was not A place to stay for a long time.
The sound of drums and horse hooves coming from the direction of Changsha City also indicated that reinforcements were on the way.
The journey is not far, as long as we don’t collapse, there will be hope.
"Steady! Steady! Use the Crab Ao Formation to retreat to the mouth of the valley. Reinforcements will arrive in an instant!"
The messengers used flags to command the remaining 800 people, more than 100 of whom had been slightly injured.
Ji Weimin was not in a hurry, and still just slowly pushed down the hillside.
Those five vehicles had all been scrapped. When passing by the rebels, there were special personnel to cut off the heads and ears of the owl.
And in the area with a wide view at the back, there are still several people standing there with pens and papers in hand, looking at the various places to take notes.
In the eyes of the "elite soldiers" of the Changsha Guards, how this new Shenji Battalion fought was completely different from their understanding, so they were even more frightened.
Seeing that the reinforcements led by Tang Peiyu were about to join the defeated Changsha Guards, Ji Weimin's eyes widened: "Drum beat! Charge!"
Tang Peiyu didn't understand why the Shenji Battalion, which had already raised its flag, suddenly became excited. When the elite pioneer soldiers who had just received the call relaxed a little, the next moment they heard a sound that made them suspect that their ears were broken.
"boom!"
"boom!"
"boom!"
The sound of cannons was coming in an endless stream, as if the forest was full of cannons from the mountainside on the side of Yangmei Mountain close to the city wall to where Shenji Camp was just now.
How many cannons are there?
As we all know, under normal circumstances, the number of cannons corresponds to a large proportion of the number of soldiers. How could it be possible to prepare so many cannons if Cuofei had set up camp and prepared for several days?
Now that the sound of gunfire is so dense, how many people are still ambushed on Yangmei Mountain?
"kill!"
Tang Peiyu was frightened when he saw an endless stream of people rushing down from Yangmei Mountain on the way.
The frequency of Shenji Battalion's cannon firing also exceeded Tang Peiyu's knowledge.
What he didn't know was that the artillery on the mountain was just firing in the direction of their soldiers.
There is a special charger for accurately charging the gun, and the gun body is also different from the original bowl-mouthed blunderbuss that was cast in one piece. This is a technique learned from the Portuguese cannon - the cannon has a sub-cannon, the gunpowder and projectiles are first loaded into the sub-cannon, and then the sub-cannon is loaded into the belly of the gun.
In this way, a gun crew of five people can take turns loading the sub-cannons and firing them.
And the projectiles have also been improved. There were poisonous fire cannons during the Hongzhi period, but now the explosive projectiles are even more powerful.
Seeing the rebels falling to pieces after being hit, Wei Jigui felt that the name "explosive bombs" was very realistic.
"Ten more steps down!"
While the two sub-cannons were being loaded, Wei Jigui ordered the artillery line to be pushed forward.
This is the advantage of the Tiger Crouching Cannon, a new cannon that is very suitable for field battles!
Tang Peiyu was going crazy: Why didn't he blast all the cannons at once with so many cannons?
Of course it was for fishing, Tang Peiyu knew this.
Changsha Guards has limited strength and cannot afford to lose easily. If you lose the first battle, your morale will plummet.
But he really didn't expect to run into so many cannons in the wild.
Fortunately, although there are many cannons, their lethality is not necessarily so terrifying.
"The rear army turns to the front army and fights back to the city!"
Tang Peiyu, the man who came to intercept, had already seen it, and it was less than a thousand.
How tiring is it to walk through the mountains? Tang Peiyu didn't believe that his more than 2,000 men could not disperse these hundreds of people.
Then, before engaging the enemy, he suddenly saw hundreds of people on the opposite side stop first, and then throw something at them.
Shock... thunder?
No...it's a little different.
In the Song Dynasty, firearms such as thunderbolts and fireballs that exploded after being thrown had already appeared. Two hundred years ago, iron-shelled thunderbolts appeared.
Now, these things being thrown out all have handles, which Tang Peiyu has never seen before.
But he knew something was broken.
Sure enough, the temporarily recruited soldiers who had just become the front army and were originally just the rear army fell down unprepared.
Qu Zhinan was overjoyed: "While he is sick and you want to kill him, raise your hand and pretend to throw it, go ahead!"
They are a new type of fire gun soldiers, and each of them carries an improved version of the thunderbolt called a "grenade".
After one round of throwing, the enemy was already frightened.
Obviously there were no more grenades, but hundreds of people were groping from their waists and running over there, which only made the Changsha Guards think that there would be a new round of thunderbolts thrown at them, and they were dodging in confusion and acting randomly. A ball.
At this time, Wei Jigui on the flanking mountainside came closer again. The loaded sub-cannon was stuffed into the belly of the Tiger Crouching Cannon, and a new round of shelling began.
Tang Peiyu, with a face ashen as dust, looked at Shenji Camp to the east and west, Yangmei Mountain to the north, and finally Changsha City to the northwest.
There was no hope, the Shenji Battalion was using very new things, and his subordinates were caught off guard and collapsed at the first touch.
"Retreat to Funiu Mountain! Quick, retreat to Funiu Mountain!"
As this order came out, the potential for defeat became apparent.
But for Tang Peiyu, this is the best choice: if he is defeated this time, even if he escapes back to Changsha City, he will definitely face siege from all sides. With all the new gadgets displayed by Shenji Camp today, is Changsha City really that easy to defend?
And if they could retreat into the mountains south of Changsha, there would be a glimmer of hope.
At Liuyang Gate, Zhu Jianjun's face turned pale as he listened to the continuous gunfire in the southeast.
He couldn't see what the fighting was like over there, but Fu Rongzhong suddenly rushed over: "Gu Shilong's camp has moved, and they are about to start attacking the city! Where is General Tang?"
Zhu Jianjun slapped the battlements on the city wall fiercely: "You all deserve to die!"
Tang Peiyu really wanted to take the opportunity to escape from the city, and Pu Zitong even refused to come to Changsha as promised!
…
In the midst of the "fierce battle" in Changsha, Qufu, Shandong Province, held a grand memorial ceremony for Confucius today.
Different from the originally determined process, Yan Shenggong Kong Wenshao and Qufu County Magistrate Kong Wenfang are both gone.
Qi Jingtong led the pacesetter battalion and directly took over Qufu County.
In Jinan Prefecture, the selected frontmen of the Fifth Army Camp who had just arrived from the suburbs of Beijing were led by Zhuo Zhitian, who had been instrumental in suppressing the Fifth Army Camp uprising. Together with Gao Zhong, they were firmly in control of Jinan City.
This time, Zhang Fuking acted on behalf of the emperor in offering sacrifices to Confucius.
Although the specifications are high, the sacrificial ritual system has been changed to be much simpler.
The statue of Dacheng Wenxuan is no longer there, and the newly made statue cannot smile.
The main officials of the Three Divisions of Shandong and the chief officials of various prefectures and counties in Shandong came to the Dacheng Wenxuan Master Temple upon request. No one felt relaxed at the moment.
Following the rebellions of King Anhua and King Ning, the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty rebelled three times within twenty years.
But this time, it was the loudest.
King Ji served King Rui as the orthodox king, and King Yi sent his heirs to flee to Beijing. King Chu and King Liao died successively. King Lu of Yanzhou in Shandong, King De of Dezhou, and King Heng of Qingzhou had already died as soon as the news of the rebellion came. They hurriedly set off for Beijing - although given the distance from Shandong to Beijing, they could wait until early September before setting off.
That's because Zhang Fujing is here. After Zhang Fujing arrived in Shandong on the ninth day of August, he personally led the pacesetter battalion to capture the brothers Kong Wenshao and Kong Wenfang.
Now, Kong Wenshao has been escorted to Beijing, and Kong Wenfang is being held in the Shandong Provincial Prison.
Behind Zhang Fuking were the Kong family and the heads of the Yan, Meng and other clans who were temporarily safe.
After the ceremony to commemorate Confucius, Zhang Fujing "pacified" them with a smile: "The crime of Duke Yan Sheng has nothing to do with Patriarch Kong. The matter involves the reputation of Dacheng Wenxuan, and special envoys sent by the Ministry of Punishment, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple and Beizhen Fusi are on the way. When the imperial envoy arrives in Shandong, Patriarch Kong will answer the questions truthfully. If nothing happens, Your Majesty will never punish him."
"...Yes, yes, I will answer the question truthfully."
Zhang Fujing left the Confucius Temple, followed by Shandong officials.
The Confucius Memorial Ceremony is a very good occasion, and it is an occasion where they all have to gather.
And now the Qufu County Magistrate has also been convicted, and the entire Qufu County is under the control of Zhang Fu Jingbiao Barracks.
Looking at the back of Zhang Shatou walking steadily forward in front of him, and thinking about his "impressive power" in Guangdong, the officials in Shandong just felt suffocated.
Today is a time when Huguang is in chaos and there are people in the world who are plotting rebellion.
Arriving at the Qufu County Government Office, Zhang Fu was sitting in the main seat in the lobby, with Qi Jingtong standing beside him.
In the hall, there are seats for the officials of the three divisions and the prefects and magistrates of various prefectures and prefectures. Outside the hall, the magistrates and county magistrates in Shandong could only stand.
Zhang Fujing spoke slowly: "Southern Zhili, Huguang, Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other provinces are more or less affected by disasters. Your Majesty has ordered that grain transportation from Shandong will be halved from this year, and the rest will be transferred to the south for disaster relief. The ceremony of offering sacrifices to Confucius has been completed. This book The next thing the governor will do is to supervise the grain distribution for this year. I also ask you all to be loyal to the emperor and do not take the opportunity to harm the people. In addition to the sacrificial fields, Yan Shenggong's mansion actually has thousands of hectares of fertile land that does not accept grain. For this alone, Shandong does not need to send additional troops to the people for disaster relief. In addition to the governor, there are also patrol inspectors and disaster patrol censors. Please keep this in mind."
"...Yes." For some reason, everyone from Shandong Sansi breathed a sigh of relief.
Once the latter things are taken care of, the previous issues should be easier to discuss. At this moment, stance is more important. As long as there is a slight carelessness, it may be a crime of treachery.
But Zhang Fujing said that he only supervised the grain tax, so the case of Yan Shenggong being impeached was completely investigated and interrogated by people from the Third Division of the Imperial Court and the Beizhen Fu Division?
Zhang Fuking then let these Shandong officials leave the city and return to their respective official places, but he was still sitting in the lobby of Qufu County Government.
"A notice has been posted that the governor will temporarily take over the post of magistrate of Qufu County and a court session will be held to investigate the case from now on."
The magistrate of Qufu, which has always been essentially a hereditary position of the Kong family, has now been convicted of a crime even by Yanshenggong. Who will recommend him?
Zhang Fujing temporarily held the office of Qufu County Magistrate with the honor of governor to open a court to investigate the case. Obviously, the matter in Yanshenggong Mansion will not end so simply.
But Zhang Fujing also knew that these small crimes of Kong's harming the people would not be enough to achieve the expected goals.
Now, they have to wait for Huguang to break through Changsha City and wait for them to get more evidence of Yan Shenggong's treason or even conspiracy.
Only this is the sin of the Nine Clans!
In the Forbidden City, Kong Wenshao finally met the new king.
Zhu Houcong looked at him quietly: "Since we are descendants of our ancestors, why did we forget the teachings of our ancestors?"
In Qufu, Kong Wenshao was close to the sky.
In front of the emperor, he knelt on the ground and trembled, not daring to scold or argue.
Because he already knew very well that if he said the wrong thing now, he would be charged with treason and conspiracy.
"...I am aware of my guilt."
Now he only hates that Shandong is too close to Beijing, hates that the emperor is too cruel, and hates that the scholars in the world are too soft-boned. Why aren't there more Fu Rongzhongs?
He was also a little surprised. Why did the emperor still not look anxious in the face of rebellion and severe drought in the south?
"Now that you know the crime, confess truthfully in front of the Third Division. If you wait until it is found out, it will be an extra level of guilt. Go down."
Meeting him was just a formality.
In Zhu Houcong's eyes, Kong Wenshao was already a dead man.
After Zhang Fujing went to Shandong, under the pressure of Zhang Beheading, many letters were sent to various places from Yanshenggong Mansion. Jin Yiwei's people in various places did not intercept these letters. But after the letter was delivered, the person who sent it was detained many times.
It doesn't matter whether the letters are destroyed or not. When the counter-rebellion is over, some people can always be caught and the messengers can be recognized.
Under torture, there was plenty of irrefutable evidence.
Now he is concerned about another thing: "Where is Luo An?"
Wang Zuo immediately replied: "Your Majesty, Commander Luo has joined General Lei Shen in Anhua and set off for Hengzhou Mansion."
"Where's Zhu Qi?"
"We have arrived at Shaozhou Prefecture."
Zhu Houcong looked at the map with cold eyes: "Send orders to Luo An to capture Zhan Huabi alive as much as possible. There is also Pu Zitong, who is so courageous. Check to see if he is a descendant of the Pu family in Quanzhou. I heard that most of the Pu family members now change their surnames to Fujian." Several companies involved in the spice business must be investigated. An order was sent to Yan Song, ordering him not to worry about Jiangxi and to let Wang Hong and Guangdong Zhao Jun lead the coastal defense warships to clear the coast of Fujian. Prince Yi must have someone to support him when he enters Fujian. After the clearing, the army went directly to Taiyuan."
On this map, the island east of Fujian once had a Penghu Inspection Department in the southwest corner. During the Hongwu period, it was withdrawn due to the maritime ban, and the people on Penghu Island moved to the interior.
For more than a hundred years, the island now known as Taiyuan, Jilong or Xiaoliuqiu has actually become a foreign land.
After Guangdong tried out the new law and the Zhejiang Shipping Department was abolished, people from Jinyiwei and internal factories in Zhejiang and Fujian quietly watched the movements of many coastal companies in the past two years.
Wang Shouren said that their intention was to segregate and consume the mountainous areas at the junction of Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong. But how could there be no real way out for rebellion?
That big island across the sea is probably the real escape route.
If it can be delayed, the world will become chaotic. If it cannot be delayed, the biological father of Prince Yi and Prince Rui may take Prince Rui to establish a foothold there first.
Attacking across the sea is a real drain on Ming Dynasty, and it can drag on for several years.
As soon as the memorandum was issued, Zhu Houcong must implement the new law. Fujian is protected by mountains, and many wealthy families along the coast have many ships driven by sea power and used for both commercial and war purposes. This is capital.
They even brought in the Portuguese from Southeast Asia and Japan, which had been cut off from paying tribute, for aid.
After thinking about it, Zhu Houcong said: "Instruct Wang Shouren and Yan Song to hand over the rebellion in Huguang to Sun Jiao, Gu Shilong, Zhu Qi, and Luo An, and ask him and Yan Song to cooperate with the Governor of Fujian to cut off the rebels' way to the sea. This Suppress the rebellion and capture Taiyuan!"
The rebel has his own goal, and Zhu Houcong has his own goal.
"yes!"
Wang Zuo hurried away.
"Have the royalties and pensions for Wang Bangrui and others been arranged?"
Huang Jin heard this and replied: "I have already gone to announce the decree."
Zhu Houcong nodded: "Give Zhang Jin a decree to personally visit the governorates of Southern Zhili on my behalf to help Jiang Mian in disaster relief. Tell Guo Xun that it is his merit to stabilize Southern Zhili and there is no need to ask for orders to go to Huguang. Then give it to Wei Lin According to the decree, there is new chaos in Sichuan. Although Fei Hong has to supervise the transportation of grain and tax to Huguang for disaster relief, he cannot harm the people."
"This slave takes the order."
A steady stream of decrees have been sent out from the Forbidden City during this period.
Rebellions, disasters, new laws, the conviction of Duke Yan Sheng, the visit of feudal lords to the capital, the upcoming Longevity Festival... Yang Tinghe and others have countless things to be busy with.
But everyone is waiting for good news from Huguang.
When night fell, Changsha City was finally surrounded. The army was only one mile away from the city wall and could launch a general attack at any time.
wisps of smoke rose from behind the army camp. After a full meal, the defenders must have been exhausted from the night siege.
Then the messengers came flying to report.
"Reporting to the Marquis, the defenders in the city sent envoys with the Jin Yiwei Xiaowei waist badge as evidence to ask for surrender! The rebel Tang Peiyu led his army out of the city today and fled south after being defeated. The soldiers in the city were frightened and mutinied. They have been persuaded to surrender by the Jin Yiwei Hu Guangxing. Kill King Ni and Fu Rongzhong!"
Gu Shilong put down his bowl and chopsticks and stood up: "Please ask Huang Xingxing to identify the waist badge. Where is the letter of surrender?"
