"Damn, they are all a bunch of losers!"
Fan Yaosi couldn't help but cursed when he saw it.
Because his group of soldiers had no choice but to capture more than thirty strangers who were suspected of being factory guards, and they started fighting near the city gate, scaring everyone around them into running away.
In fact, how could the Zhangjiakou Fort garrison under his command be an elite army!
A few years ago, there was an incident when Lin Dan Khan, who was setting up a campaign against Chahar in the west, entered the customs at Xuanfu when he returned. Everyone did not fight at all and stayed in harmony. In the end, all the rebels were spared. The merchants from Shanxi were sent to Liaodong, and he took the food and supplies and left.
Looking back, the Xuanfu side also reported to the court that they had defeated the Liaodong Jianqiu and at least defended the city. It was a great achievement!
Therefore, it stands to reason that what this garrison has to deal with is actually just stray thieves. However, rogue thieves do not exist in this area. Even if they come, there are not only defenders in Zhangjiakou Fort, but also servants from various families. How can the thieves defeat them?
Therefore, there is no external pressure on this garrison, and its generals are not enterprising. In fact, they do not need to think about making military exploits, so they naturally lead the troops like sheep. One can imagine how powerful this army can be!
After Fan Yaosi cursed, he was afraid that the group would rush to the city gate, so he shouted loudly to the city: "Why are you standing there, why don't you go and help!"
When the soldiers guarding the city heard this, they quickly grabbed the guy and rushed to help.
However, no one expected that as soon as these soldiers left, the people who had just fled to the city gate suddenly showed their weapons and started to grab the city gate.
Moreover, these people are all very tough and will show no mercy. As long as there are defenders standing in front of them, they will be dealt with with one blow. The blood spurted onto them without blinking an eye.
Fan Yaosi was dumbfounded when he saw this scene on the top of the city. What is going on? I just transferred the manpower at the city gate and encountered such a thing?
He was still thinking when suddenly he saw those who were robbing the city gates were already attacking the city. Many of them actually took out hand crossbows from their arms and started shooting.
"Swish swish"
"Ah!" Fan Yaosi has been targeted for a long time and is the key target of Hand Crossbow. Although he dodged for a moment, he still didn't. An arrow hit his eye. He screamed and fell backwards.
When other people saw those who wanted to intercept them, they came back to help Fan Yaosi. Some people wanted to escape from the city. Damn, where did these come from? They kill people without blinking an eye!
On the top of the city, there was chaos.
The door bolts were chopped off directly by these people with axes, and the heavy door was pushed open with a "squeaking" sound. The cavalry who had been waiting outside the door for a long time immediately swarmed in.
Zhangjiakou Fort was easily captured by combining the inside and outside.
Hong Chengchou, who was riding a horse outside the city and watching all this with a cold eye, was not surprised at all. Because all of this was actually planned in advance.
Those factory guards were actually exposed on purpose, allowing the Shanxi merchants to focus their attention on these factory guards, thereby covering the lurking in of another group of selected military elites.
If the defenders of Zhangjiakou Fort open the city gate, it will be okay. Once they try to resist, the factory guards will attract attention again and let the elite troops seize the city gate in one fell swoop.
And all of this, in the final analysis, was successful because of surprise.
If there were precautions, or if something like this had already happened in Zhangjiakou Fort, then this sneak attack on the city gate would definitely not be successful so easily. However, who would have imagined what would happen this time!
For example, Fan Yongdou didn't expect it at all.
At this time, he was still in his house, withdrawing a sum of money from the warehouse. This was serious money, not a banknote from his Fanji Bank.
While supervising his servants to move boxes containing silver into the car, he said to the accountant next to him: "I have recorded it all clearly. The silver rewarded to the defenders will be shared by each family later."
"Don't worry, sir, the accounts are all clear."
Fan Yongdou nodded after hearing this, turned to look east, frowned and said, "No one will come if he is not kind!"
"Don't worry, sir. There will be brave men under the heavy reward. Our Zhangjiakou fort is very strong and it is impossible for outsiders to get in." After hearing this, the accountant said with a smile, "Even if the city is besieged, we are not afraid."
Fan Yongdou nodded after hearing this. There were countless supplies of food and grass in the fort, which could be used by servants in each house, and there were enough soldiers. I don’t believe it. How can the Ming army fight outside the city?
After holding on for a day, if the Ming army still can't be exhausted, then the reinforcements from the grassland should have arrived. As for what to do afterwards, the boat will naturally straighten out when it reaches the bridge, so just throw more money at the court.
If ten thousand taels is not enough, just twenty thousand taels. If twenty thousand taels is not enough, just thirty thousand taels. I really don’t believe it. In these days, there are things that money can’t do!
The worst thing is, just introduce another scapegoat!
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a shout of death coming from the direction of the east gate.
Suddenly, Fan Yongdou felt a little nervous and immediately turned his head to look. The effect of the self-comfort just now seems to have faded a lot, and there is an anxious look on his face: "Quickly, send someone to see what is going on? If there is a fight, there are not enough manpower, so organize manpower as soon as possible!"
"Yes, sir!" After hearing this, the head of his servants quickly agreed, turned around and ran away.
Holding his hands behind his back, turning left and right, Fan Yongdou was still very uneasy. This kind of experience was the first time for him.
Suddenly, he stopped and said: "Quick, prepare the sedan, go out and take a look!"
However, before he could go out, he heard the rapid sound of horse hooves. The rumbling sound was like thunder rolling in from the sky.
People here in Zhangjiakou Fort are all familiar with the sound of horse hooves. Just by hearing this, they know that it is caused by a large number of running horses. On the defender's side, there weren't actually many horses. This means...
When he thought of this conclusion, Fan Yongdou, who was just about to get on the sedan, swayed and almost fell. He, who had always been calm, stammered to the servant next to him: "It can't...couldn't it be that the city is broken?"
Before his servants had time to answer, they saw a red torrent rolling down the street. The heavily armed soldiers of the Ming Army were speeding along the street in depth while shouting: "The whole city is under martial law, and anyone who takes to the streets will be shot to death! The whole city is under martial law, and anyone who takes to the streets will be shot to death!"
On the distant city wall, the infantry of the Yongwei Battalion had already rushed to the top of the city and were rushing towards other city gates along the city wall.
At first, they encountered a bit of resistance. But this little resistance can't make any waves at all, and it can't even stop them and make them stop.
The soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion were truly invincible and devastating against these defenders. Except for the first moment, all the defenders on the city had lost their weapons and squatted in a corner, trembling. As long as they didn't want to die, that was all.
Starting from the east gate, two torrents quickly extended from the city wall to other places, while the largest torrent extended at a faster speed along the main street, like a sudden burst of magma. This Jiakou Fort was soon submerged.
The soldiers of the Ming army who invaded the city were not lenient at all. After the cavalry in front shouted, the infantry followed. If anyone dared to stand on the street, there were thousands of people talking with swords and guns.
In this city that was developed due to smuggling, basically few people are law-abiding citizens! As the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou had been suppressing bandits in Shaanxi for so many years, and he knew what was happening. Moreover, he had followed the imperial decree, just like when he killed all the surrendered soldiers among the bandits, he showed no mercy.
"Master, hurry up, come into the house quickly, the cavalry is coming."
Fan Yongdou didn't need to be reminded by his servants, he almost rolled away from the sedan and ran towards the door of his house. The servants he had summoned also rushed into the mansion, fearing that after running away, the Ming army would come over and they would be killed by this torrent of iron and blood if they were still outside.
After a servant ran into the mansion first, he turned around and saw the car parked at the door. Then he remembered that the money he planned to reward the city defenders was still in the car. He had just been thinking about escaping, and no one could I didn't remember to push it, so it was still outside the house together with the sedan that had been abandoned by them.
"Master, master, what should I do with the money?"
Fan Yongdou finally came to his senses after running into the house. Seeing so much money outside, he felt distressed and shouted quickly: "Why are you still standing there? Why don't you hurry up and push it in?"
Tens of thousands of taels of silver is not a small amount, and it would kill him to just leave it there!
However, tens of thousands of taels of silver are not easy to get. Even if you push it with a cart, it is still very heavy. What's more, there are steps to the door of this mansion, so you have to lift them first.
After Fan Yongdou gave the order, some of his servants wanted to go out, but when they looked up, they saw that the torrent of iron and blood was approaching, and the rolling power was like an overwhelming force. "The entire city is under martial law, and anyone who takes to the streets will be shot without mercy! The entire city is under martial law, and anyone who takes to the streets will be shot without mercy!"
Immediately, all the servants who stretched out their legs retracted, and no one dared to rush out.
Fan Yongdou was so angry that he wanted to kick someone, but when he saw the cavalry passing by the door of his house in a steady stream, he knew that he, the nursing staff, did not dare to provoke the cavalry. So, he took a look at the cart of money outside, and the expression on his face really looked like his dead parents.
Then, he turned around and hurried back to the mansion.
Similar to him, some of the other seven Shanxi merchants were on the street. They did not expect that the Ming army outside the city would attack the city so quickly. They heard the martial law order and were frightened when they saw the torrent of iron and blood coming. You have to run away quickly.
Just these businessmen and their guardians experienced what fear was when they faced the Ming Dynasty's elite army.
If they had a city wall to support them, they might still have the courage to fight against them. However, now that there is no city wall, facing thousands of cavalry and infantry who are constantly marching into the city, and feeling their murderous intent, no one can resist.
There are only a few idiots who don't know how high the sky is and how deep the earth is, and it just happened to give them a heads up. No matter how strong your skills are, it is useless. In front of a large army, you can't even get close. You will either be shot or stabbed to death with a spear, just like crushing an ant to death.
In Zhangjiakou Fort, as long as you don't want to die, or don't want to die for the time being, you can only hide in the house immediately.
In less than half an hour, the Emperor's powerful army had already occupied the Zhangjiakou Fort.
On the top of the city and on the streets were all fully armed soldiers. Three steps and one post, five steps and one sentry, teams of soldiers, and teams of knights, patrolling the streets and alleys.
Hong Chengchou was very satisfied with this. When he entered the city, he did not go to the general's mansion in the fort. He just went to the arrow tower at the east gate of the city and looked down at the city.
"Report, a large amount of grain and grass was found in a warehouse in the west of the city, estimated to be at least 20,000 dan."
"Report, a large amount of grain was found in a warehouse in the south of the city, estimated to be at least 100,000 dan."
"Report, a large amount of iron materials were found in the east of the city, including fine iron, and countless gunpowder!"
"..."
Not long after, soldiers from all over the city came flying over to report their findings to Hong Chengchou.
The military order he gave was to collect grain and grass supplies as soon as they captured Zhangjiakou Fort.
Listening to the reports of the soldiers who kept coming back, the supervisors and officers of Dongchang and Jinyiwei who were standing next to Hong Chengchou were all very happy: What a great harvest!
But there was something that surprised them all, because they were on the top of the city and saw smoke coming out from the north of the city, which seemed to be on fire.
Needless to say, it must have been deliberately set on fire.
Hong Chengchou was relatively calm and not in a hurry. Because he had anticipated this situation and made relevant arrangements before entering the city.
No surprise, the fire over there was quickly extinguished. After waiting for a while, an officer from the Hussars Battalion came and reported: "Your Majesty, a group of thieves just hid in a grain and grass warehouse and tried to set fire to it. They have been arrested." Kill with the next move."
This time, the emperor's powerful army was very decisive after entering the city. If there was any sign of bad things, they would kill them directly without reporting them for instructions. It was also because of this that the people in the city were caught off guard. Even if someone wanted to set a fire to cause chaos, they could not set the fire if they wanted to.
After a while, officers from all over the city who had received instructions in advance rushed back to report the situation in their respective areas.
Hong Chengchou looked up at the sky and saw that the clouds in the west had been dyed red by the setting sun. It should be dark in less than half an hour.
He lowered his head, looked down at the Zhangjiakou Fort, and shouted coldly: "Generals, listen to your orders!"
A large group of generals at all levels standing next to him immediately clasped their fists and waited for orders: "The last general is here!"
"Drive all the rats out for me and arrest the criminals!" Hong Chengchou ordered loudly with a cold voice.
Upon hearing this, many generals immediately responded loudly: "Yes!"
