stubborn thief

Chapter 650: Offering Money to Recruit Death Soldiers

Ten miles southwest of Luoyang City is Zhou Mountain.

The pine trees are towering, and the ground is covered with golden ginkgo leaves.

Zhang Yichuan put away Liu Chengzong's letter, picked up the telescope and looked at the majestic Luoyang buildings not far away.

Beside him, Lieutenant General Song Jiang asked excitedly, "General, our five battalions in Henan have brought honor to the Grand Marshal. Is the Grand Marshal's reward satisfactory?"

"Reward?"

Zhang Yichuan glanced at Song Jiang, pursed his lips slightly, with a complicated expression on his face. The corners of his mouth drooped downwards, but he still forced a smile.

  Reward, what a bullshit reward!

Zhang Yichuan's education level is not high, he has only learned a little.

But he's not stupid.

Liu Chengzong sent two documents and a private letter successively to the three yamen of Bingya, Liya, and Marshal's Office.

First, let the military office publicly commend him for his meritorious service in leading the troops to capture Yongning City, so that he could gain enough face in front of the five battalions of Henan.

The Li Ya also stipulated that in the future, any captured princes should not be killed without authorization, and this was announced to the entire army.

With these two official documents in front of them, the officers and soldiers of the Five Battalions of Henan naturally believed that Liu Chengzong's private letter to Zhang Yichuan must be a compliment to him.

But the last private message was clearly not the case.

Liu Chengzong was almost pointing at his nose and calling him stupid.

But for Zhang Yichuan, it was not a big problem... At least Liu Chengzong still addressed him as brother in the letter, and did not call him General Zhang or General Zhang.

To be honest, this kind of extremely normal address, in the abnormal Marshal's Office, or for Liu Chengzong who controls a group of abnormal people, the level of swearing when referring to positions at work is far more serious than swearing.

However, no one would be in a good mood after being scolded, and this was an unexpected disaster for Zhang Yichuan.

As a rebel, they killed a prince of the Ming Dynasty. Before the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could get anxious, he was actually scolded by the rebel marshal.

  Where can I reason from this?

The key thing that made Zhang Yichuan angry was that he felt that the Grand Marshal was right.

If the offensive outside Luoyang city went smoothly, he would be very dissatisfied and angry, but the current situation was that Luoyang's defense was different from what he imagined.

He really felt like he was riding a tiger and was trapped.

At this time, Liu Chengzong sent a letter over, saying a lot of things as if they were hindsight. In fact, none of them were important. The most important thing for Zhang Yichuan was that the Marshal's Office had left him a way out.

Let Zhang Tianlin open a passage east of Tongguan and be prepared to receive him.

With this action, he was not afraid even if Liu Chengzong scolded him in the letter.

Because before this, Zhang Yichuan had enough knowledge about Luoyang. As early as two years ago, when he led his troops through Mianchi, he asked people about the size and approximate location of Luoyang city, and even obtained important intelligence about the weaknesses of Luoyang city defense.

The circumference of Luoyang City is eight miles and is surrounded by four rivers: Chan River to the east, Luo River to the south, Jian River to the west and Gu River to the north.

Outside the city, the Chan River was diverted to circle the city, and a three-meter-wide moat was dug. The city wall was covered with blue bricks in the sixth year of Hongwu, and thirty-nine enemy towers were built on the city, making it a strong city that was easy to defend but difficult to attack.

The weakness of Luoyang that Zhang Yichuan relied on was this four-meter-wide moat.

It is three meters wide, and it is more like a moat than a moat.

It is acceptable for ordinary cities, but it is very narrow for Luoyang, the capital city with convenient water supply and crisscrossing rivers.

But it is also understandable.

After all, this is an ancient city covered with bricks in the sixth year of Hongwu. Brick covering can greatly enhance the defense of the city, but it will also bring difficulties to expansion.

Expansion costs money. In fact, the expansion of many cities is not just carried out because the officials in charge think it is necessary.

In fact, it is the same everywhere in the world, from counties and prefectures to the six ministries of the imperial court. Everything costs money and the finances are never enough.

  Who would have the time to repair a city wall unless it was absolutely necessary?

In most cases, the earthen city walls without brick coverings had not experienced war for decades or even hundreds of years, and had been eroded by rain and snow, and had been dug up by the common people to build houses, causing some to collapse and some to sink.

It has long lost its original defensive capabilities, but even so, people don't care about it.

It was not until an official who wanted to do something big took office and saw that the city wall was really an eyesore that he summoned the gentry to discuss building another wall.

This way, there is no need to demolish walls, the amount of work is relatively small, the cost is not high, and it is easier for all parties to accept.

After the city wall was covered with bricks, it would not be easy to expand it.

Whoever dug the soil owned it. The common people dug a cartload each, and the city wall was in a state of disrepair after a few years.

The rammed earth walls in various counties that are not covered with bricks are able to maintain their appearance thanks to the labor camp prisoners.

It is an old tradition to force criminals to build city walls as labor, which was called Chengdan in the Qin and Han dynasties.

But city bricks are different from rammed earth. Bluestone bricks are not easy to steal and are very conspicuous if damaged. What's more, Luoyang is a prefecture and county. Either the prefect or the county magistrate is willing to repair and patch up the city wall to make it look better.

Therefore, the urban construction of Luoyang City has not changed much during the Ming Dynasty.

By the Chongzhen period, the city still looked the same as it did during the Hongwu period.

This means that the city is outdated, and very outdated.

Its hypothetical enemy for defense was the enemy during the Hongwu period.

The moat is narrower, but that’s enough.

But more than 200 years after the Hongwu period, the range of muskets and artillery had become very far, and the narrow moat of this city was no longer enough.

In addition, Luoyang is also a metropolis. Outside the city wall with a circumference of more than eight miles and the moat several feet wide, the suburbs of the four passes are full of densely packed houses, mansions, courtyards, pavilions, and temples.

The buildings in the villages two or three miles outside the city are connected together, prosperous and crowded.

This is the greatest confidence that gave Zhang Yichuan the courage to lead his troops to Luoyang and to win.

It was difficult for the Ming army to complete the battle of clearing the countryside in Luoyang, and those buildings were the biggest help in filling the trenches.

It can be used as a shelter to defend against artillery and gun bullets, and can also be easily dismantled and used as bricks, tiles, wood and stones to fill the moat.

As long as the moat is filled, the 20,000 peasant soldiers can surround the city with the help of the houses outside the city and attack. The defenders on the city wall will not have much advantage, and the fall of the city is only a matter of time.

but!

After Zhang Yichuan came here, he found that he couldn't find the city of Luoyang.

Or maybe Luoyang City is still there, but it is blocked by something.

Specifically, there was a new city wall outside Luoyang City. Zhang Yichuan sent cavalry to explore the way along the wall. By the time they finished their meal, the cavalry had not returned yet.

Finally, after waiting for nearly an hour, the cavalry came back to report that Luoyang... had expanded its outer city. Outside the original city, which was more than eight miles in circumference, a rammed earth wall of more than thirty miles was built to encompass and protect all the villages, gardens, and temples outside Luoyang.

The outer city of Luoyang today does not have a narrow moat outside, but instead uses the four rivers in the southeast, northwest, and northeast of Luoyang as moats.

  How the hell do I fight this?

Zhang Yichuan thought to himself: Damn, it wasn’t like this the last time I came to this damn place!

In fact, this was his illusion. The expansion of Luoyang City began in the fourth year of Chongzhen.

However, when Zhang Yichuan passed through Henan Prefecture last time, part of the high wall had not been completed, and they did not attack Luoyang, so they were not aware of this huge city defense project.

Starting from the fourth year of Chongzhen, the peasant armies that rose up in Shaanxi and Shanxi made the officials of Henan Prefecture feel a sense of crisis.

After all, the moat of Luoyang City was indeed as narrow as a toy. A moat only three or four feet wide could be easily filled up by any peasant army.

The second reason is that the forts scattered throughout Henan Province attacked each other. The third reason is that the victims of the two floods became the biggest source of instability in the area.

In view of the importance of Prince Fu as the emperor's uncle during the Chongzhen period, and in order to solve Henan's practical problems, local officials in Henan Prefecture planned to use work as a relief.

The officials took this opportunity to build a 33-li-long earthen wall around Luoyang, almost along the maximum range of the artillery on the Luoyang city wall, as the outer city of Luoyang.

It was a long, daunting wall.

However, Zhang Yichuan conquered cities and killed famous kings, and his military strength, military power and experience have increased tremendously. His fighting spirit is high and he is in the best condition.

If it was just this high wall, Zhang Yichuan would have nothing to be afraid of.

At this time, not to mention that there was only a high wall in front of him, even if Zuo Liangyu was placed on the city wall, he would not be afraid.

What really made him realize that the speculation in Liu Chengzong's letter made sense was that the morale of the Luoyang defenders was not right.

Since there was an extra high wall in Luoyang, he had to find a way to break through the wall. To attack the wall, he had to build a floating bridge on the river first.

This is also the reason why Zhang Yichuan set up his camp on Zhou Mountain. He had to cut down trees first to obtain materials for building a pontoon bridge.

He never expected that before he launched an attack on Luoyang, the defenders of Luoyang rushed out to kill him.

Three hundred men, well-armored and well-equipped.

For two consecutive days, they attacked three times. Instead of taking the suspension bridge, they lowered themselves from the city wall and swam across the river with their armor and weapons on their backs. After crossing the river, they shot at anyone they saw with their bows and chopped them with their swords.

Their fighting spirit was even stronger than that of Zuo Liangyu's soldiers. They defeated the two newly formed militia camps that were besieging the city on the west bank of Jian River, causing them to flee to the ground with their heads in their hands.

Even Zhang Yichuan on the mountain thought his subordinates were joking with him at first when he got the news.

  I haven't heard of any famous generals in Luoyang City. How come these Luoyang soldiers are so fierce!

Until this morning, Zhang Yichuan ordered Lieutenant General Ke Tianhu to personally lead a battalion of elite soldiers under his command to surround the 300 people, bombarding them with artillery and guns, but even this failed to persuade them to surrender.

The last battalion of more than 2,000 people rushed forward, shooting with arrows, hacking with knives, and fighting in close combat. It took them a whole morning to completely annihilate the 300 people, and they only captured or surrendered seven people.

Zhang Yichuan was frightened by their fighting spirit. What kind of great Ming soldiers and generals are these?

If there were ten thousand of these in the city, not only would Zhang Yichuan not be able to capture Luoyang City, even Liu Chengzong himself would not be able to take it.

Finally, after interrogating the prisoners, it was discovered that these people were not elite heavenly soldiers, or even government soldiers. Instead, they were serious criminals and civilian warriors who were released from Luoyang City.

Their fundraiser was Prince Zhu Changxun of Fu.

Zhu Changxun is a person who cannot be ignored during the Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties of the Ming Dynasty.

In other words, after Wanli, he was the most honorable person in the world, and the emperor had to rank behind him.

Because he was Wanli's favorite son, there was even a time when he wanted to depose the eldest son and make him the crown prince.

Around this incident, a dispute over the foundation of the Ming Dynasty broke out and lasted for fifteen years.

During those fifteen years, Wanli forced out four prime ministers and more than ten officials from the six ministries, involving more than 300 Beijing and local officials, of whom more than 100 were dismissed, removed from office, or exiled.

In the end, Wanli lost, but still made his eldest son Zhu Changluo the crown prince, and Zhu Changxun was named Prince of Fu. As a revenge, Wanli began to neglect his duties.

But Zhu Changxun did not lose.

Except for preventing Wanli from deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son, the court officials gave in and compromised in almost all other aspects, thus creating the Prince of Fufan with a transcendent status.

He continued to live in the Forbidden City for a full thirteen years, until the 42nd year of the Wanli reign, when he was enfeoffed in Luoyang.

Although he failed to inherit the throne, he obtained part of the power of the world, which to some extent even exceeded that of the emperor.

The vassal states generally relied on the rice and real estate salaries of the royal family. However, due to local financial problems, the rice and royal family salaries were always insufficient, so the vassal states would mostly impose heavy taxes on the people in terms of real estate.

But Fufan was different.

Zhu Changxun's largest source of income was the national tax of the Ming Dynasty.

Before Prince Fu became a fief, Wanli granted the various miscellaneous taxes along the river in Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Nanjing Yingtian, Taiping Prefecture, and part of the income from the Sichuan salt wells to Prince Fu.

In other words, these national taxes that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty had nothing to do with the imperial court after Wanli, and became the private property of Prince Fu, which also allowed the tentacles of Fu's power to extend to Southern Zhili.

At this point, although Zhu Changxun did not get the throne, he had more private property than Zhu Changluo who got the throne.

The news of Prince Wan'an's death greatly stimulated Prince Fu.

This prompted him to send people to the court and Kaifeng for help as soon as he learned that Yongning had been captured. At the same time, he held a banquet in the royal city to entertain civil and military officials in Luoyang.

That night, a big plan was drawn up: "Defend Luoyang, Fu Fan will give 100,000 taels of silver to reward the troops, and report to the court, guaranteeing that you will be promoted."

However, he still did not donate money to support the war. Instead, after discussing with Governor Chen Biqian, he released the prisoners whose families were left in the city. He also recruited a group of brave warriors in the city at a high price to form a death squad and went out of the city to attack Zhang Yichuan.

The intention was to dampen Zhang Yichuan's fighting spirit and boost the morale of the Luoyang defenders.

Those prisoners and militiamen fought to the death outside the city, and most of them chose to die rather than surrender. There was no other complicated reason, it was just that Prince Fu gave enough money.

If he went to war, he would be rewarded with fifty taels of silver, which would be given to his family; if he died in battle, he would be rewarded with another fifty taels of silver, which would also be given to his family.

Paying money means buying life.

Faced with the Ming army's crazy and desperate offensive, Zhang Yichuan was a little scared and wanted to retreat.

However, after learning from the captives that these were the death squads recruited by Prince Fu at a large sum of money, he felt relieved.

Fifteen thousand taels were paid, and three battles were fought. When they returned, all the people were dead. According to the agreement, Master Prince Fu had to pay another fifteen thousand taels.

Zhang Yichuan couldn't understand what was going on in Master Fu's head. If it were him, he would definitely ask for a reward of fifty taels of silver for killing an enemy, rather than a reward of one hundred taels of silver for dying.

Now, the 30,000 taels of silver offensive was defeated by him in just one morning. Can Prince Fu still recruit more death-defying warriors?

  Zhang Yichuan didn't know, but he knew that if Prince Fu, who was the richest man in the country, only had this ability, then he was determined to take over Luoyang City. He could beat Prince Fu into bankruptcy!

Good morning!