The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 176 Battle of Qufu
On October 18th of the first year of Taichang, Marquis Ping Liao led his army to Qufu.

On the same day, Burhanggu led the cavalry battalion to cut off Qufu's passage to the north.

The army rested outside the city for three days. At the first quarter of the morning on the 21st, the army made a fire and cooked. At the second quarter of the morning, more than 8,000 soldiers from three thousand headquarters launched a fierce attack on the east, west and south gates at the same time.

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Liu Zhaosun's intention for this battle was very clear, which was to annihilate all the Wenxiang Sect thugs in the city without leaving a single one alive.

This group of Wenxiang Sect rebels started an uprising in Yuncheng in April. For more than half a year, they have been roaming across most of Shandong, killing countless people and looting property piled up like mountains. It is time for them to go to hell.

If it weren't for the purpose of dealing with the Kong family in Qufu, Liu Zhaosun would have killed all the thugs as soon as he entered Laizhou.

In early October, the cabinet minister Xu Hongru and his remaining cronies rushed to the county town.

Qufu's defenses were weak, and with the cooperation of the believers in the city, the White Lotus Sect worked together from inside and outside to capture Qufu in one fell swoop.

The county magistrate and his clerks were all captured alive and thrown into jail.

Wen Xiang taught the second inquisitor to take care of the county magistrates himself, wielding a whip.

After being tortured severely, he was forced to extort 100,000 taels of silver.

As the troops became increasingly scarce, in order to replenish more cannon fodder, the Second Cabinet had to lead a group of old brothers to preach the miracles of the "Mother of No Birth" everywhere, such as:
One pancake can feed half the people in the city, one rat head can turn into ten duck heads, and dishes cooked with tung oil taste more delicious...

Trying to use these despicable tricks to recruit people.

However, everyone could see clearly that under the attack of the Kaiyuan soldiers, Xu Hongru and his gang of demons were like grasshoppers in autumn and could not jump for a few more days.

Despite the desperate efforts of the Second Cabinet, there were only a few believers who joined the Mother of No Birth.

Xu Hongru was furious when he saw that he could not recruit any more people, so he decided to go all out and let the thugs loot Qufu.

The White Lotus Sect was already very familiar with robbery. These people were not like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong who came later. They did not "refuse to collect taxes when the King of Rebellion came". They just robbed everyone regardless of their wealth, status or social class.

The people of Qufu were in panic.

Even a saint like Duke Yansheng, who was indifferent to worldly affairs and devoted to doing good, was frightened, so he sent people to deliver generous gifts, hoping that Xu Hongru could go to other states and counties to "preach the doctrine."

Duke Yansheng Kong Yinzhi sent someone to deliver two thousand taels of silver, and as usual, he also submitted a congratulatory message, respectfully calling Xu Hongru "Emperor Zhongxing Fu".

To show their piety, the Kong family also sent servants to the Wenxiang Sect's headquarters to bring back a portrait of the Mother of Mount Lishan and hang it upright in the Kong family ancestral hall.

Burn incense and worship to show piety.

Despite making such a huge sacrifice, Emperor Zhongxing Fu was still unwilling to give up and even continued to rob the Confucius Mansion.

Famous families like the Kong family, which have a thousand-year-old fine family tradition, promptly surrender to the new master, and do things with a bottom line, are generally not troubled when dynasties change.

Besides, Kong Yinzhi's attitude towards the Wenxiang Sect was extremely respectful.

But what he met was a scoundrel like Xu Hongru.

"Bring back the Confucius Mansion's silver, women, and all the rare treasures bestowed upon them by past emperors! Not a single one can be lost!"

"Big cabinet, we don't have enough soldiers."

"Then let the Mother of Mount Li appear!"

"Dagui, Liu Zhaosun's soldiers are chasing us again!"

"Crap!"

Since all the civil and military officials of Emperor Zhongxing Fu were killed by the Kaiyuan Army, only the two officials and a captured eunuch from the palace were left alive, so now Xu Hongru only talked about Emperor Zhongxing Fu to the outside world. In front of a group of old brothers, he was still called the big official.

The Wenxiang Sect suffered defeat after defeat, from Dengzhou to Qufu, and its morale was at its lowest point. If the old brothers were not given some benefits, the disciples of Lishan Laomu would probably disband immediately.

However, if you ask the Mother of Mount Lishan with just your mouth, no one will believe you after you ask her too many times.

To boost morale, the most effective things are money and women.

Although Xu Hongru had some awe for the Kong Mansion, he knew that offending the Kong family would mean offending all the scholars in the world, so he had been reluctant to let the rioters rob the Kong Mansion.

But the situation is different now. If we don't let the believers rob the Confucius Mansion, I'm afraid they will be kidnapped by his men and handed over to Liu Zhaosun to ask for credit.

"Big cabinet, all four doors are blocked by Kaiyuan soldiers. We are trapped."

Before the Wenxiang Sect took action, the Kaiyuan army began to attack Qufu.

Xu Hongru said angrily:

"Damn it! That bastard Liu Zhaosun is determined to force me to death! Let's fight him! Give each of us some silver, a gold ingot, and let's go to the top of the city and fight!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Qufu is a small city with a shortage of firearms. There are no red cannons or French anti-enemy cannons.

The Wenxiang Sect rebels could only climb to the top of the city wall and shoot at the soldiers climbing the city wall with bows and arrows. Unfortunately, the bows and arrows were not very accurate and rarely hit the target, while the opposite side's flintlock rifles had an amazing hit rate.

From time to time, screams of thugs being shot could be heard from the top of the city walls, and fanatical believers were knocked to the ground.

As the flintlock soldiers entered the range of the bows and arrows, the bows and arrows of the Wenxiang Sect finally made some progress, and some of the flintlock soldiers on the opposite side were shot and fell to the ground.

In sieges of this era, the defenders relied on the protection of the city walls and had a greater advantage. As long as the defense was effective, they could cause serious casualties to the attackers.

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"Since it's so powerful, well, let's try out the new infantry field gun."

At the south gate of Qufu, Ping Liao Hou reined in his horse and looked into the distance, surveying the surrounding battlefield. His attention was soon drawn to the archers jumping back and forth on the city walls.

Judging from their archery posture, they should be soldiers brought from Denglai. These are the elite of the Wenxiang Sect.

A hundred steps behind him, two Kaiyuan Army gunners were still directing a group of auxiliary soldiers to install the wheels and gun carriage of the six-pound cannon.

This type of infantry field gun is the workshop's latest product and has never been tested on the battlefield. This time, when suppressing the rebellion in Shandong, Liu Zhaosun specially transported five of them.

The gun weighed 850 kilograms and had a range of three miles. It could be loaded with both solid bullets and shotgun shells, though the shotgun shells had a shorter range. During marches, the gun was disassembled into several pieces and transported by horse-drawn carriages, allowing it to be quickly assembled in times of war.

New artillery is generally used to drive away enemy formations or provide fire support for one's own infantry during attacks.

The gunners adjusted the cannons and placed five cannons in a row on the flat ground one mile outside the south gate, with the muzzles aimed at the Wenxiang sect members who were shooting arrows from the top of the city wall.

The 17-foot-tall general's flag leaned forward slightly, the rapid sound of war drums sounded, and the artillery bombardment began.

Five six-pound cannons erupted with deafening roars, and amidst lightning and thunder, thick white smoke covered the long front line.

The gun carriages seemed frightened by the sound and retreated on their own. A six-jin iron bullet rushed out of the muzzle and hit the top of the city wall. Due to its speed, only a black shadow could be seen flying through the air.

The city wall of Qufu Wengcheng was immediately hit by artillery shells. The bricks and wooden blocks on the city wall turned into flying fragments, carrying the remains of the victims, and fell from the air, splashing a horrible rain of blood on the surface of the city river.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The sound of artillery continued.

The mounted infantry still cruising around began to gallop wildly. The cavalrymen held on to the reins tightly, and the unseasoned horses under their crotch were frightened by the sound of the cannons and fled in all directions with their hooves raised.

"Hold the horses!"

A mixed horse threw the cavalryman off his horse, ran madly across the battlefield, through the endless smoke, and disappeared in a cloud of dust.

The captains of each camp blew their bamboo whistles and ordered the auxiliary soldiers to catch the mad horse...

"We still need to equip soldiers with horses in the future. These miscellaneous horses can only be used to transport food."

Liu Zhaosun looked at the chaotic battlefield, searching everywhere for the disappeared mixed horse, muttering to himself.

Qiao Yiqi beside him exclaimed in amazement, "Ping Liao Hou, it seems that in the future, we will still have to use cannons to fight. A few rounds of artillery fire will shatter everyone into pieces, no matter if they are the Mother of Mount Li or the Eight Banners warriors!"

"General Qiao is absolutely right."

Liu Zhaosun echoed, remembering that it was roughly like this when the Qing Dynasty moved south. Every time they fought with the Ming army, they would first blast open the city with cannons, then rush in and start slaughtering the civilians.

From the northwest to the south of the Yangtze River, we fought our way through Tongguan, Yangzhou, Xiangtan, Jiading...

Another round of bombardment, Qiao Yiqi clapped his hands and laughed.

"Give me a good blow and kill all these monsters! Let's see if they dare to do anything wrong again!"

There was the sound of bricks and stones collapsing from the city wall, mixed with the screams and cries of the defenders.

The surviving members of the Wenxiang Sect were crawling hard among the ruins and smoke, emitting screams that were not like human voices. Many of them were hit by the shells before they could even see where the artillery was fired from. Their bodies were covered in blood, like evil spirits from hell.

The soldiers lying in ambush under the city began to attack, and the auxiliary soldiers pushed the shield carts to the base of the city wall and set up ladders.

The nimble sword and shield soldier bit his sword and took two steps at a time, climbing up the steep ladder.

The walls of Qufu were not high to begin with, and at this time the city walls were in chaos and had lost effective resistance. The vanguard occupied the city walls at a very small cost.

The sword and shield soldiers stepped on bricks and rubble, and the broken corpses under their feet, sweeping across the South Gate City like autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves.

"Now that the city is broken, remember to do more good deeds and kill less people."

(End of this chapter)