Mi Han

Chapter 229 Forced Recruitment of Private Soldiers
When Man Chong received Mi Yang's reply letter, he knew that Mi Yang had seen through his plot, and Mi Yang's army would definitely attack the city soon.

After realizing this, unless Man Chong really opened the city gate and surrendered, all he had left was to step up his preparations.

So Man Chong immediately walked down from the city wall and returned to the county mansion.

After returning to the county government, Man Chong ordered people to summon the officials, generals, and common people in Wudang City.

And the people that Man Chong summoned were nothing more than powerful and powerful households in Wudang City.

Under the summoning of Man Chong, because of his prestige, all the officials, generals, and powerful households who could come in Wudang City quickly arrived in the hall of the county government.

After watching the crowd arrive, Man Chong stood at a high place in the crowded county hall, and said to the crowd below:
"I have never been virtuous. Now the thief leads the army of thieves to come. The people are terrified, and the soldiers abandon their blades."

"This is the time when the nobles are rich and honored."

"I am the general of the country, the genus of the Marquis, and I am supposed to guard the land and borders for the emperor, and I must die if I am righteous.

Now, for the sake of wealth and honor, you may take my head and offer it as a thief's ear. "

When Man Chong said these words, those generals and officials who had followed Man Chong for a long time all had sad expressions on their faces, and some even cried bitterly.

They said one after another: "Death and life should be the same as the general, there is no second heart."

After hearing Man Chong's words, those rich and powerful families had expressions of surprise on their faces, but under the thick expressions of suspicion, there was also a hint of emotion.

But those wealthy families looked at the officials and generals present, and they were all loyal to Man Chong.

Moreover, there were hidden voices of armor outside the county mansion, so they, who knew how to assess the situation, soon began to cry like others.

Seeing that everyone in the lobby "all" couldn't bear to take his head to ask Mi Yang for credit, Man Chong began to feel calm in his heart.

To defend the city is to guard the hearts of the people. As long as everyone in the city can be of one mind and one mind with him, then he is not incapable of fighting against the mighty Mi army.

After knowing that people's hearts are available, Man Chong looked at the people in the lobby again and said: "If you are willing to walk with me in life and death, then I am willing to come up with a plan for you."

"The army in the city is weak today, but there is no shortage of food, grass, ordnance in the city. You and I can stand together."

"If the country's reinforcements arrive, the thieves will lead the army away. At that time, the emperor will feel that we have done a good job in defending the city, and everyone will be favored by the nobles."

"If the country's reinforcements never arrive, and the thieves are in a hurry to attack, then it's not too late for the princes to take my head!"

After Man Chong said this, everyone in the hall of the county government bowed down to Man Chong, expressing their obedience to Man Chong's strategy.

Seeing that the opinions of the various factions in the city had been initially unified, Man Chong immediately began to issue orders in an orderly manner.

It is true that the Wei army in the city currently has only [-] people, but Man Chong can recruit the private soldiers of the big households in the city.

It is not difficult for the private soldiers of those wealthy families to recruit one or two thousand after being recruited.

Compared with the tens of thousands of ordinary people in the city, these private soldiers have a certain combat effectiveness.

And if it is really a last resort, it is also a good way to use thousands of trained soldiers to lead the tens of thousands of common people in the city to defend the city together.

Man Chong knows that the current officials and generals in the city are all his former troops, so he will obey his orders unconditionally.

But creatures like rich and powerful families have always been like grass on the wall.

However, the influence of these rich and powerful families is deeply rooted in the local area. Without their support, Man Chong would not be able to successfully mobilize tens of thousands of common people in the city.

The most important thing is that if they don't get the support of these powerful families, then once the war breaks out, it's hard to guarantee that these grasshoppers won't cause turmoil in the city.

In that case, Wudang County will undoubtedly be in a desperate situation.

That's why Man Chong specially summoned the rich families in the city. Maybe he can't get the sincere support of the rich families in the city, but as long as they can superficially obey, it's fine.

When Man Chong issued the order to recruit the private soldiers of the rich and powerful families in the city, most of the rich and powerful families frowned.

Their private soldiers are their darlings, and they are also an important guarantee for protecting their property.

Now that Man Chong wants to play with them, this must make these wealthy families feel dissatisfied.

But no one wants to be the first bird, and Man Chong is indeed very majestic in Wudang County.

So even if there is dissatisfaction in their hearts, the wealthy families in the lobby can only accept the arrangement of Man Chong honestly.

After the rich and powerful families in the city expressed their acceptance of Man Chong's arrangement, Man Chong asked them to go home and recruit private soldiers.

Under Man Chong's order, all the wealthy families in the lobby left one after another.

After all the rich and powerful families in the lobby had left, Man Chong's master book went up to him and reminded him that the rich and powerful families in the city should not be trusted.

Man Chong is well aware of this reminder from the master book.

But now the situation is critical, even if it is drinking poison to quench thirst, Man Chong has no choice but to do so.

What's more, after a while, after the rich and powerful households have handed over their private soldiers, Man Chong will disperse those private soldiers to the various walls of Wudang, which can also reduce the risk.

After all, it is better to let them join the defense of Wudang than to keep these private soldiers in the hands of the rich and powerful families at both ends of the first mouse.

At least in this case, those private soldiers are still in a situation that can be controlled on the surface.

What Man Chong really wanted was not to just rely on thousands of soldiers to defend Wudang City, but what he wanted was to delay the time as much as possible and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.

A few days later, under Mi Yang's order, the fleet that returned to Xicheng to transport the siege equipment had already arrived outside Wudang City.

Before that, Mi Yang's army was rushing to the outside of Wudang County, so there were not a lot of siege equipment in the Han army camp at the beginning.

If you want to siege a city, you can't do it without siege equipment.

It took a long time to build siege equipment on the spot, so Mi Yang ordered Guan Xing to lead some warships back to Xicheng to transport the siege equipment.

Originally, in Hanxing County, there were not many siege equipment.

Because the Shen brothers have always thought of closing their doors and defending themselves. Under such circumstances, they would not even think about building siege equipment.

Therefore, most of the siege equipment transported to the camp of the Han army under the escort of Guan Xing originally belonged to the Wei army.

When Cao Ren's army set off before, he considered that there would be a siege battle, so he brought a lot of siege equipment.

Many of those siege equipment were burned in the fire, but many were harvested by the Han army after the war.

This is the benefit of knowing how to clean the battlefield.

When Guan Xing came back with many siege equipment, it meant that the day for the Han army to attack the city had arrived.

First, a tall nest cart began to stand outside the city. On top of the several-meter-high nest cart, Mi Yang was already standing in the watchtower on the nest cart, observing the situation in Wudang City.

Then under the nest cart, many siege machines began to appear.

The siege equipment below is mainly divided into two types, namely the 轒輼 and the trench bridge.

Trench bridge, also known as flying bridge, as the name suggests, is a siege tool specially designed for encircling trenches, ditches and moats.

A simple trench bridge only uses two long logs with planks nailed on them. For the convenience of transportation, two wooden wheels are installed underneath.

For more complicated trench bridges, mechanical devices such as turn-offs and potter's wheels need to be installed to fold the bridge deck so that it can pass through wider trenches.

Trench bridges have been used as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

According to "Six Secret Teachings · Military Use" records:
"The flying bridge across the ditch is one foot and five feet wide and more than two feet long. There are eight turns, a pulley, and a ring to stretch it."

From this record, we can know that as early as hundreds of years ago, the ancients could use mechanical devices such as pin shafts, winches, and chain iron cables to connect eight trench bridges in parallel to provide a trench bridge with a width of twelve feet for large troops to pass through.

After hundreds of years of improvement, the length of today's trench bridge can reach up to about 10 meters.

Although the moat outside Wudang City is not too narrow, it is definitely not comparable to the one outside Gongan City, so it is suitable for siege equipment such as trench bridges.

Because the main force of the Han army was in the North Camp, Mi Yang took the North Gate as the main breakthrough in the siege.

When the Han army outside the north gate began to gather in large numbers, and many siege equipment began to appear, the Wei army at the north gate of Wudang City quickly reported the incident to Man Chong.

After Man Chong heard the news, he immediately came to the north gate of Wudang City.

When Man Chong saw the siege equipment of the Han army, Man Chong couldn't help punching the city wall in front of him.

Because a large number of siege equipment of the Han army originally belonged to the Wei army, many of those siege equipment still had the khaki-colored Wei flag.

After Mi Yang seized these siege equipment, he could have exchanged the banner of the Great Wei for the banner of the Great Han, but he deliberately didn't do that.

Because he wanted to further hit the morale of the Wei army in Wudang City.

Sure enough, when he saw the khaki Wei flags of the siege equipment, Man Chong felt resentful, while the soldiers of the Wei army on the north gate were flustered.

Attacking Wei Zhidun with Wei Zhispear is not only a kind of irony, but also a reminder.

The siege equipment of Cao Ren's army is here, so the fate of the tens of thousands of troops can be imagined.

The soldiers of the Wei army at the north gate began to feel restless.

Although there were rumors speculating about the fate of Cao Ren's army in the city before, there was no definite news after all.

Therefore, the people in Wudang City still had a hint of luck.

But now the soldiers of the Wei army on the city wall, after seeing the siege equipment that originally belonged to their own side and started to attack their own city, the facts are already self-evident.

Man Chong clearly felt that the uneasy emotions of the soldiers on the city wall began to spread.

He could only use his prestige to appease Wei Jun on the city wall by constantly speaking.

Under Man Chong's comfort, Wei Jun, who had started to feel restless, gradually stabilized his mood.

But just when Man Chong breathed a sigh of relief, more changes occurred outside the city.

Under Mi Yang's order, some soldiers of the Han army transported carts from the camp of the Han army.

When those Han troops transported the vehicles out of the Han army's camp, relying on the advantage of standing on a high place, the Wei army on the city wall could clearly see what was on the vehicles.

The carts are loaded with advocacy and fine armor.

And these items cannot be owned by senior generals in the non-Wei army.

What's more, there are flags planted on the railings of each car.

"Xiahou", "Chang", "Zhuge", "Wang", "Niu" and other noodles.

Those flags all belonged to generals of Cao Wei such as Xia Houshang and Chang Diao.

Now that the flag is here, but those generals are not there, one can imagine their fate.

This was taken over by Mi Yang!

The flags and the many advocacy and fine armor caused the Wei Jun's heart on the city wall to suffer a heavy blow.

Cao Ren's army was psychologically prepared for a big defeat, but what Wei Jun in the city did not expect was that this was no longer a big defeat, but the entire army was wiped out!

Wei Junzhong's restlessness, which had just been soothed by Man's pampering, began to spread again.

Just when Wei Jun's restlessness became more and more obvious on the city wall, a conspicuous banner was slowly erected on the nest cart where Mi Yang was on the same level as the city wall.

On the expensive flag, there are a few big characters written in a flying style: "Wei Cheqi General Cao."

This is Cao Ren's banner!
The big banner is the symbol of the leader of the first army. Because of Cao Ren's prominent status, there is almost no one in the Wei army who does not know Cao Ren's big banner.

When Cao Ren's big banner was blatantly erected on the nest cart, most of the Wei soldiers on the city wall could no longer hold back their panic after seeing this scene.

Cao Ren's banner fell into the hands of the Han army, so Cao Ren was either dead or captured by the Han army.

This extremely shocking scene instantly broke through the psychological defenses of most of the Wei troops on the city wall.

Who is Cao Ren?

Uncle of the emperor of Wei, the supreme commander of the army in Wei except the emperor.

What's more, Cao Ren's prestige in the army is very deep.

Such characters are all captured or beheaded by Mi Yang, so are they Mi Yang's opponents?

A feeling of panic began to spread on the city wall, and it intensified.

And when Man Chong on the city wall saw Mi Yang set up Cao Ren's banner, he almost gritted his teeth in grief and indignation.

Although there were some speculations before, but after knowing Cao Ren's end, Man Chong could hardly restrain the grief in his heart.

After grief, Man Chong's anger towards Mi Yang has reached its peak.

Man Chong looked at the figure on the opposite nest car, if eyes could kill people, then Mi Yang had already been killed thousands of times by Man Chong.

Mi Yang has no time to deal with Man Chong's resentment towards him.

If it weren't for the fact that Cao Ren's head had been sent to Liu Bei, Mi Yang could have made a circle around Wudang City with Cao Ren's head.

After seeing that the Wei army's morale on the city wall was close to collapse, he finally issued an order to attack.

Exciting drums sounded in the camp of the Han army, and then thousands of Han troops who had been waiting impatiently pushed a large number of siege equipment towards Wudang City not far away.

Standing on the city wall, Man Chong watched thousands of Han troops under the city rapidly approaching the moat. Man Chong immediately issued an order for the Wei army on the city wall to release fire arrows.

But most of the Wei army on the city wall is still on the verge of collapse.

So in the end, only a part of the Wei army obeyed Man Chong's order and began to release fire arrows.

It's just that a small amount of fire arrows can't do too much damage to the well-protected 轒輼 and trench vehicles.

Produced by Dawei, it must be a high-quality product.

Soon after, hundreds of vehicles, driven by the soldiers of the Han army, had come to the moat.

After coming to the moat, many Han troops emerged from the siege, and then with the help of the siege's protection, they began to shoot arrows towards the city wall.

They have only one purpose, and the trench car behind the cover has been successfully built.

Once the trench car can be successfully built, then Wudang's moat will be useless.

Without the protection of the moat, half of Wudang County's city defenses have been abolished.

But when the Han army launched an attack, a Wei army cavalry was rapidly approaching Wudang County dozens of miles north of Wudang County.

(End of this chapter)