Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 353: Washed some sunshine green grapes

Jinan is the heart of the province, a fortress that blocks the northern expedition of bandits, a military stronghold close to the Grand Canal, and a place where the princes of De and Heng take temporary refuge. But if there is even a slight mistake, the situation in the entire north will surely deteriorate.

Some people immediately complained that they shouldn't have spoken too confidently and made the emperor think that the Red Turban rebels could be wiped out overnight. They should have explained the difficulties and pointed out the shortage of soldiers and food in the area, and given the emperor more time to prepare.

The emperor thought that the Beiwei bandits and the Red Turban bandits had changed their flags and fallen out with each other, and were competing with each other, so the transportation of ships and food supplies was cut off.

The reason why the Red Turban bandits desperately plundered eastern Shandong was because of the "shortage of food and grass" after the separation of the family.

The emperor believed that the two rebel groups could be defeated one by one, so he ordered the Ministry of War to urge them several times. Seeing that they were slow to act, he sent in military supervisors to rudely interfere with their command, clearly worried that the generals on the front line would "nurture the enemy and gain power."

Yang Wenyue originally planned to charge into Qingzhou in one go. By then, the gentry in eastern Shandong would rise up and attack from both inside and outside. Even if the Red Turban bandits were fearless and brave, they would not be able to withstand the multi-faceted siege.

Unexpectedly, things did not go as planned. The bandit soldiers repeatedly broke the bottom line of "favorable treatment for gentry" and did not even find a pretext to whitewash it. They randomly found a group of treacherous people to falsely accuse the good gentry, and slaughtered dozens of wealthy families like smashing melons and fruits.

Now, without the support of the gentry, the vanguard army was almost wiped out, and Yang Wenyue and others didn't even know where the main force of the enemy was heading.

The worried "retreat faction" advocated retreating in the face of difficulties. The army of more than 60,000 could be wiped out if they were not careful, and no one could bear the responsibility for the defeat.

The emperor, driven increasingly insane by the Liaodong Rebellion, is constantly rounding up high-ranking officials under the guise of "investigating corruption." They don't want to be the next one.

Of course, what they feared most was falling into the hands of the Red Turban bandits - the tragic scenes of gentry being tortured and executed had long been spread throughout Shandong with exaggerated stories.

The "defensive faction" was afraid of being tortured if defeated, but the "war faction" opposed it.

Right now, the vanguard has suffered a setback, so if we withdraw all the 60,000-plus troops, wouldn't that boost the morale of the enemy soldiers?
If we don't defeat the bandits in one fell swoop, they will never retreat easily.

At that time, will I have to flee like Lu Wenjin, leading the vassal kings, losing Jinan, and then losing the important cities along the canal, and finally retreating all the way to Beijing, and being captured by the bandits together with the emperor? Or will I protect His Majesty and flee to the south of the Yangtze River, and confront the rebels who have seized the north across the river?
Rather than losing your reputation later, it is better to disband the army now and let everyone go out to seek a way to survive.

Perhaps after the rebel has taken over the world for a few years, he will forget that you are here to oppose him today.

If you are unwilling to surrender and are reluctant to give up your official robes, then we will continue to fight.

What was there to be afraid of with only a few thousand bandit vanguards? More than 60,000 government troops pressed forward to surround the Qingzhou City where the bandits were entrenched, forcing the bandit army to fight a decisive battle with them.

Besides, the bandits slaughtered good gentry and acted perversely, just like children who had never seen the world. They hated the "bad rules" that officials and gentry were accustomed to, and could not tolerate even a grain of sand in their eyes. It seemed as if they would not stop until all the bureaucrats and gentry in the world were killed. They had no idea of ​​the doctrine of the mean.

It can be said that those who lose their way will have few supporters. Without the support of the gentry from all over the north, how could a mere Red Turban bandit become the master of the world and govern such a big country?
The statement of some cowardly people that "the bandits can be defeated ten or a hundred times, but the government army can only be defeated once" is simply absurd.

A large number of gentry have been forced by the rebels to donate generously, changing their previous stinginess and short-sightedness.

The "small circle of gentry" that was once self-contained is now uniting.

This is not about the rebels and traitors being more powerful, it is clearly the government army that has more confidence to win this battle. The people's hearts are with the court and the Ming Dynasty! The hearts of the traitors are not worthy of being called the people's hearts!

They, the pillars of the country, should let the rebels see that the fate of traitors is only death and the extermination of their clan.

Yang Wenyue also knew that the arguments of both factions were reasonable, but his ideas were like the unpredictable atmosphere in the house, and he was unable to make a decision whether to advance or retreat.

He always felt that this group of bandits was different from the bandits he had defeated before, and that they had a terrifying aura that was like a tidal wave...

While Yang Wenyue was discussing with everyone, he suddenly heard a report from his personal guard: Zhuge Lu discovered enemy soldiers ten miles away.

Yang Wenyue's heart sank. It was not the report from the scouts more than 30 miles away, nor the warning from the pond soldiers in the nearby counties, but the report from the "Zhuge Furnace" that rose in the city and could only detect an area of ​​more than ten miles?
Yang Wenyue hurriedly led a group of senior officials to the wall.

The bandits ran very fast and soon appeared four miles outside the county town.

With the telescope hanging in front of his eyes, Yang Wenyue discovered that the rebels were all cavalry, about one or two thousand bandits.

The bandits were fully armed, each riding three horses, equipped with swords, spears, and muskets of varying lengths. The backpacks on both sides of the pack horses were full, seemingly stuffed with food and spare weapons.

Yang Wenyue exclaimed in his heart when he saw this, this is the base camp where the main force of the government army is assembled!

How did the bandits march straight in and reach this place without triggering the Tangma alert, and how did they accurately discover that this was the main force of the government army?
Discovering the enemy's main force on a vast battlefield is no less difficult than catching a thin needle in a lake. Even if the troops are dispersed to search everywhere, it will take a long time to distinguish the "true" from the false after the layers of intelligence are transmitted back.

If it were an ordinary army, Yang Wenyue would have tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and the cavalry from various units would have tens of thousands of soldiers assembled. He would have to mobilize troops to fight.

But the bandits dared to arrive at the city with less than two thousand soldiers, so they must have something to rely on.

Could it be that the main force of the bandits is following behind?

Yang Wenyue hurriedly looked further away and saw a sparse forest with billowing dust and dozens of flags fluttering in the dust.

The main force of the bandits is hiding behind, waiting for the officers and soldiers to send out troops, and then they will attack from the front and back?
Or is it pretending to set an ambush, but actually making people afraid to act rashly?
The controversy over whether to send troops out of the city to fight the bandits or to wait and see if the bandits would rebel was re-emerged. The two arguments were like two sharp knives piercing Yang Wenyue's ears.

"Silence!" Yang Wenyue shouted, then said, "Pass the order to the entire army to be on alert. Let's see what the bandits are planning."

Yang Wenyue thought about it and added a sentence: carry the swarm of bees and heavy artillery to the top of the wall to prevent the main force of the enemy army from arriving later.

The bandit soldier raised his hand and threw it upwards, and a crumpled yellow paper floated towards the county town with the southeast wind.

Somehow, two or three hundred bandits suddenly broke away from the team and rushed towards the county town in a cloud of dust.

Are the bandits trying to show off their power in front of the battlefield?
Yang Wenyue immediately glanced at the general beside him, who understood what he meant and ordered the nearby musketeers to load the ammunition.

There was a rustling sound of gunpowder being loaded into the gun barrel. Yang Wenyue turned his head and saw a few "bird guns" of different models.

The thick gun barrel is different from ordinary bird guns. It is a heavy matchlock gun called big bird gun or turtledove gun, which can hit enemy soldiers at a distance of about 100 steps. There is also a "self-generating fire gun" fired by flint.

However, the gun barrels made by the craftsmen were of poor quality, and only a small number of the above two types of firearms were deployed. The grassroots soldiers preferred the more durable muskets and three-barreled guns, or ordinary bird guns that were less likely to explode.

Just as the bandits approached the wall, Yang Wenyue shouted, "Fire!"

At the command, hundreds of gunners pulled the trigger and fired their bullets. However, when a puff of white smoke dissipated, only a dozen bandits fell off their horses, and even half of them were able to stand up steadily after a breath.

Yang Wenyue secretly cursed that these firearms were really useless. They couldn't even kill half of the enemy even after shooting at them from more than 200 steps away.

The bandits reined in their horses and stopped at a distance of more than 200 steps, then turned their horses' heads to intersect the wall, as if they were deliberately going parallel to the wind direction.

A bandit soldier squinted one eye, raised his right arm straight, and raised his thumb as if to give a thumbs up to Yang Wenyue.

"What does this mean?" Yang Wenyue asked around without reason. The bandits' facial features were indistinguishable to the naked eye, and the colors of their clothing were barely discernible. Suddenly, someone chimed in, "This is the bandits' monocular distance-finding method. It can tell the distance between us and the enemy."

Upon hearing this, Yang Wenyue turned his head and vaguely remembered that the other party was Du Cang, the lieutenant general of Xuzhou, who had once cooperated with the Beiwei Army to conquer southern Liaoning.

As the bandit soldier who had raised his hand lowered his arm, all the bandits in the same row seemed to have received an order, and they raised their already loaded "long bird guns" and aimed them at the top of the wall.

The moment the bandit soldier raised his bird gun, Yang Wenyue heard a familiar voice shouting, "Get down quickly!"

The man pounced on Yang Wenyue to the ground like a ferocious tiger pouncing on its prey. Before the civil officials, military supervisors, and gunners nearby could react, seventy or eighty of them fell backwards as if hit by a sledgehammer. A cloud of white smoke from the flying stones immediately rose from the top of the wall.

All of a sudden, all the civil and military officials fell to the ground in a panic, but a few unlucky ones who were slow to move were hit by the subsequent bullets.

The moment Yang Wenyue was knocked down, he felt as if his limbs were about to break, and the pain nerves in half of his body were screaming in pain.

He gritted his teeth and looked back at where he had just stood. Suddenly, there was a seriously injured man with blood gushing from his chest. Sweat instantly broke out on the man's face, and a streak of blood flowed out of his rapidly opening and closing lips.

Yang Wenyue gasped in fear. If Brigadier General Du had not saved him, he would have been killed by the gun.

Yang Wenyue had not yet regained the ability to think, and just kept pointing at the dead gunner.

His sight unconsciously shifted to the distance, and a familiar face turned towards him, with a red dot between his eyebrows and eyes, and blood was slowly flowing out.

If that person isn't the military supervisor eunuch, then who is he?!

The third round of volleys of gunfire hit the top of the wall again, shattering the rocks and making a banging sound. Yang Wenyue was so scared that he couldn't help but shrink his neck, and the other officers and soldiers didn't dare to stand up.

Only a few brave officers and soldiers put their bird guns out of the firing holes at their feet and pulled the trigger to shoot the enemy without caring whether they could hit the enemy or not.

"What, what is this?" Yang Wenyue pointed at the bullets flying from the top of the wall.

"It's the enemy's Thunderbolt Gun." Lieutenant General Du was quite capable. He always stayed below the height of the battlement and picked up a flint-fired bird gun. "The enemy's Thunderbolt Gun looks no different from this kind of fire gun, but there are grooves and patterns inside the barrel..."

"Um……"

Yang Wenyue lowered his head and pondered, remembering that when he was the governor of Denglai, he had discussed firearms with the Portuguese instructors who were training the new army. At that time, he had seen the grooves carved into the barrels of the Western barbarians' hand cannons.

However, loading a grooved firearm was extremely difficult, and took three times longer than an ordinary bird gun. He had personally seen the Western barbarians use hammers to hit it multiple times before they could get the bullet in.

Why were the bandits able to solve the problem of loading difficulties using the "in-barrel grooves" that the Western barbarians were reluctant to use?
Du Cang seemed slightly disappointed, as if he didn't see any surprise on the Governor's face. However, he continued to speak shockingly, "The bandits' Thunderbolt Guns can fire three rounds a minute, and within 200 to 300 steps, they can hit seven or eight out of ten targets..."

"Can the enemy be killed in just two or three hundred steps?" Yang Wenyue took a breath.

Having dealt with the Western Yi people, he understood that the Western Yi divided time into hours, minutes and seconds, and divided a day into twenty-four hours.

Weren't the rebels also Ming Dynasty's official troops before they rebelled? How come the firearms they used were even more powerful than those of the Western barbarians?

The Western barbarians' "strange skills and tricks" are superior to those of the Ming Dynasty. This is something that Yang Wenyue and other high-ranking officials in the ministry know well.

Being weaker than others is not scary. What is scary is knowing that the enemy is strong and you are weak but still being complacent and refusing to make progress.

The bird guns, turtledove guns, self-generated fire guns, red-haired cannons, etc. developed by the Ming Dynasty were all modeled after those of the Western barbarians, but due to insufficient funds, they were difficult to popularize throughout the army.

The rebels possessed such "magic weapons" but refused to pay tribute to the imperial court. Doesn't this mean that the Red Turban rebels and the Beiwei rebels had long harbored rebellious intentions?

"Among the bandits, there are exceptional gunners, chosen from among the best. They call them 'chariot-beaters.' The lightning guns they wield are made of fine iron and are even more sophisticated. They have telescopes at the end of their guns, allowing them to fire at ranges of four hundred steps..."

"How can it be so sharp?"

"Sir, please lend me something." Lieutenant General Du pointed at the helmet on Yang Wenyue's head, and the latter quickly took off his helmet and handed it to him.

I saw the bird gun lifting the helmet and slowly protruding from the parapet. After a while, a rapid whistling sound was heard, and several bullets came one after another with sharp whistling sounds. One of them was wrapped in a strong impact and knocked the helmet several feet away.

"what!"

Yang Wenyue was shocked. When Du Cang took back the helmet, he could see two holes pierced through the front and back of the top of the helmet.

"The bandits are firing continuously. How can we defend this place? If the main force of the bandits comes, this wall will definitely be breached!"

"That's all right," Du Cang said. "Master, the Governor, can simply order the troops to trick the bandits into firing their weapons, just as I did just now."

"What does this mean?"

"The rebels have a fixed amount of ammunition to bring to each battle. If they run out of firearms and ammunition, they can only retreat and set up camp, waiting for the main force to arrive."

"Good! General Du's wise words are truly timely! If the entire army had the talent of Lieutenant General Du, we wouldn't allow the rebels to run rampant here!" Yang Wenyue suddenly pointed at the parapet. "The gunfire has stopped."

"It's too early to let down our guard now." Du Cang grinned bitterly. "The bandits have countless strategies for field battles and for seizing cities. When I helped them recapture several cities in southern Liaoning, I saw with my own eyes that they used different methods in each battle, and none of them were repeated."

"There are also military geniuses among the rebel army." Yang Wenyue sighed sadly.

If there had not been the incident in Liaodong, the Beiwei Army and the Red Turban Army would still be loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps they would have come under his command at this moment and marched south together to fight against the beggar bandits?
As they were expressing their feelings, Yang Wenyue and Du Cang saw hundreds of tiny objects flying overhead, which looked like Kongming lanterns with something tied to them.

This time it was a real Kongming lantern. The oil lamps pushed the gauze higher than the wall and swept across the county town with the southeast wind.

Some Kongming lanterns had very little fuel in them, and soon they burned out and fell into the city, with something tied to the bottom of the lantern.

Yang Wenyue ordered someone to pick it up and saw that it turned out to be a notice issued by the bandits to "suppress the soldiers and pacify the people" -

To suppress the troops and maintain civil peace.

The Ming Dynasty was a corrupt and inhumane ruler who favored eunuchs, emphasized imperial examinations, levied heavy taxes, and imposed harsh punishments, failing to save the people from their suffering. He exhausted his army, plundered the people's property, raped their wives and daughters, and sucked their blood and flesh...

Yang Wenyue was immediately furious. The hateful traitor actually treated the Ming army as bandits and surrounded and suppressed them. He was simply rebelling against the Tiangang!

Just as Yang Wenyue was furious, the soldiers responsible for carrying the red cannons to the wall arrived.

"Alright!" Yang Wenyue waved his hand, "Kill the rebels for me! I want to show them who are the soldiers and who are the rebels!"

(End of this chapter)