Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 211 A Different Militia
After a pause, Zhang Li continued: "Later, I discovered that they actually promulgated new laws and regulations in Wenxi County, and those laws and regulations are completely different from those of the imperial court."

Hearing this, Zhou Kang asked: "Have you ever reacted to the chief envoy Si Yamen?"

Zhang Li shook his head: "Never."

"Why didn't you report it?" Zhou Kangqi asked.

Zhang Li shook his head and said: "My subordinates were occupied by rogues, and I have already neglected my duty. What's more, this group of militiamen are still fighting under the banner of the imperial court. How can I find trouble for myself."

Sighing, Zhang Li continued: "Actually, some government orders formulated by the militia are good, which greatly relieved the burden on the common people. I want to use many government orders, but you also know that we are all How could some officials be willing to sacrifice their own interests to consider the common people?"

Zhou Kang nodded. This is why he respects Zhang Li. Zhang Li is indeed a good official. Unfortunately, although he is the magistrate of Jiezhou, he can't cover the sky with one hand in Jiezhou. He acts according to his own wishes. too much.

After being silent for a while, Zhang Li said, "Zhou Qianhu, do you know why the militiamen help the rogues attack the city?"

Zhou Kang shook his head, Zhou Kang was good at fighting, but he was far behind Zhang Li when it came to scheming and playing tricks.

Zhang Li smiled and continued: "The civilian army's helping the rogues to attack the city is actually helping themselves, because the cities and territories occupied by the rogues will be theirs in the future, and they are using the rogues to help them wipe out court officials like us." .Then they appoint their own people to do things. What a good way!"

Zhou Kangwen heard silently, the city captured by the rogues, few court officials could survive, unless they abandoned the city in advance and fled.

But escaping did not end well, and the court would not let these officials go.

Looking at Zhou Kang, Zhang Li asked, "Zhou Qianhu, are you sure you can hold the city?"

Zhou Kang looked outside the city. At this time, the sentry tower on the opposite side had been pushed into place, and the artillery had already boarded the watchtower and began to prepare.At the same time, some artillerymen advanced more than 200 steps forward, and began to mount artillery at a position about [-] steps away from the city wall.

After estimating the attack distance of the enemy artillery, Zhou Kang shook his head. Although it was the first time he had seen this kind of echelon artillery arrangement, he knew very well that it would definitely not work for the officers and soldiers to continue to avoid the artillery attack as before. The bombardment would certainly cover the outer and inner walls, and there would be nowhere to hide in the middle of the walls.

In fact, when the soldiers were hiding under the city wall just now, many soldiers were injured by the shrapnel after the shell exploded.Now that the shells can hit the middle of the city wall and still hide under the city wall, it is tantamount to letting soldiers wait to die.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Kang said, "My lord, I don't know if I should say something or not."

Zhang Li smiled and said: "It's already at this time, what else should I say? If you don't talk about it now, you won't have a chance to talk about it when the bandits break through the city."

Zhou Kang clenched his fists at Zhang Li and said, "My lord, before we thought it was rogues who came to attack and loot the city. Now that we know it is the militia, why don't we make a compromise with them? Talk to the leader of the militia?"

Zhang Li looked at Zhou Kang, and seeing Zhou Kang's expression was determined, he knew that he was not afraid of death and would not fight.

I also understand that Zhou Kang said this to save face for everyone, and he said that he compromised, but he actually surrendered.

Seeing that Zhang Li was silent, Zhou Kang continued: "My lord, you and I both know that after the rogues break the city, they must kill and loot wildly. If the city is broken, none of the officials and their families will be able to escape the thieves." Hand, if you don't think about yourself, don't you think about your family? And the families of your colleagues? And the life and death of the people in this city are all in your mind!"

After a pause, Zhou Kang continued: "Your Excellency just said that the decrees issued by the militia are all for the sake of the people, so they will definitely not disregard the life and death of the people. Let us negotiate with the militia to grasp this point. If the leader of the militia is really for the people Thinking about it, I will definitely agree not to attack the city again."

"However, if we open up the city, then the official careers of all the officials in the city may be the same," Zhang Li mused.

Zhou Kang said anxiously: "My lord, at this moment, do you still care about your official career? Compared with the people in the city, how important is your lord's official status?"

Zhang Li sighed: "Forget it, just follow your words. Go! I'll go back and tell everyone."

Outside the city, the artillery reared.Seeing that Chen Dazhuang's artillery unit was ready, Li Jing immediately ordered someone to inform Wang Ziyong to quickly organize the soldiers and prepare to attack the city.

As for Wang Ziyong's ability to lead the troops in battle, Li Jing really looked down on him now. He attacked the city wall twice, but they all came back. Not to mention the heavy losses, the soldiers also fell sharply.

You must know that the defense in the city is the veteran soldiers of the guard and some farmers who have just put down their hoes. It has been five years since Wang Ziyong rebelled, and his soldiers can't beat the motley army composed of farmers and guard soldiers. It's really slippery. The big joke.

It can be seen from this that Wang Ziyong doesn't train soldiers at all at ordinary times. Otherwise, how could he be defeated by such an enemy?
And now that the siege has stopped, after such a long time, Li Jing's sentry towers have been pushed into place, but his side has not yet rectified the soldiers.

After a while, the soldiers reported: Wang Ziyong's soldiers had lost too much, and everyone was war-weary. They hoped that Li Jing would allow them to rest, or attack the city another day.

Hearing the news from the soldiers, Li Jing was stunned for a moment, and it took a long time before he woke up, and immediately cursed: "Damn, I wasted so many shells, if he said he would not fight, Do you think I have given him a good face during this time?"

In a blink of an eye, seeing the guard staring at him in a daze, Li Jing blushed, and said to the guard, "How many troops did Wang Ziyong and the others lose?"

The soldier replied: "According to Wang Ziyong, a total of 1 people were used in the two sieges. Less than [-] people came back intact, and more than [-] people were injured. The rest basically died on the city wall and The city is down."

Hearing the results of the battle, Li Jing gasped, no wonder Wang Ziyong didn't want to fight anymore, with such heavy casualties, no one can bear it!
Fortunately, I used artillery to suppress the artillery of the official army, otherwise, I would not even be able to go up the city wall.

If the loss of Wang's own troops is too large, it will not be conducive to containing the official army in the future, and it will have an impact on Li Jing's future development.

After thinking for a while, Li Jing waved his hand and said to the soldier, "Let them withdraw."

The soldier nodded, turned the horse's head, and galloped towards the direction of Wang Ziyong's troops.

In fact, Li Jing once had the idea of ​​leading troops to attack Anyi County, but the idea disappeared in a flash.

Li Jing was about to call Chen Dazhuang and others to retreat when he saw the city gate in front slowly open, and then two people came out from the gate.After the two men came out, the city gate was closed immediately.

Seeing someone coming out of the city, Li Jing couldn't help being puzzled. Could it be that he wanted to negotiate with the rogues?

Li Jing was thinking about it, but saw that these two people were coming in his direction.

The two men went to the front of the soldiers and said a few words, and then they were escorted by the soldiers to see Chen Dazhuang. After a while, Chen Dazhuang brought the two of them back to their place.

When he got close, Chen Dazhuang said strangely: "Commander, these two people said that they were officials sent by the city to negotiate. They wanted to see the leader of the militia. I didn't know what they meant, so I brought them here."

Li Jingjing nodded, and carefully looked at the two people in front of him.

I saw that these two people were about forty years old, one of them had three long beards, a handsome face, a thin figure, and an air of elegance exuded from his bones.The other person has a dark complexion, piercing eyes, a burly figure, thick hands and feet, and a fierce look all over his body.

After looking at it for a while, Li Jing asked, "Who are you two? Why are you looking for me?"

The white-faced man didn't answer and asked instead: "Excuse me, are you the leader of the militia?"

Li Jing frowned, he really didn't understand the name Minjun.If you say that Wang Ziyong's gang is also a militia, it's just that Wang Ziyong's militia approved wolf skins and did rebellious work.The Jishi Army led by him can also be regarded as a civilian army, but he is wearing sheep's clothing.

Seeing that Li Jing didn't understand, the man knew that the two sides had misunderstood the name of the militia, so he smiled and said, "I'm looking for the leader of the militia who fought against the bandits."

So Li Jing immediately understood, nodded, Li Jing said: "I am the leader of the militia, who are you?"

The man looked at Li Jing for a while, nodded and said: "If you are a hero! My official, Zhang Li, is the magistrate of Xiezhou."

Hearing that this person is the magistrate of Xiezhou, Li Jing is very surprised, no matter whether this person is really the magistrate of Jiezhou or not, this person is quite courageous.

Then the man took out something from his pocket and handed it to Li Jingdao: "This is my official seal."

Li Jing took it and looked at it, only to see a few seal characters printed on it, but he didn't recognize what characters were engraved on it after reading it for a long time.However, looking at the exquisite workmanship and noble materials used in this seal, it is not likely to be a fake.

Returning the official seal to Zhang Li, Li Jing said with a smile: "Since you are the lord of Zhizhou, this is not a place to talk, please come with me."

After thinking for a while, Li Jing jumped off his horse, handed the reins to the soldiers beside him, and said to Chen Dazhuang: "Retreat the troops and return to the camp."

Seeing Li Jing get off the horse, Zhang Li exchanged glances with the person beside him, and they both nodded slightly at the same time.

Li Jing got off his horse and walked alongside the two of them. Judging from the etiquette, it was obvious that he respected them very much. An ordinary person would never have thought of this.Maybe I still feel complacent when I ride a horse and let Zhizhou walk.

Seeing Li Jing withdrawing his troops and returning to the camp, Zhang Li felt that this man was far-sighted and decisive.

Li Jing took the two of them back to his camp, and ordered his soldiers to sit and serve tea to them.

The two took the tea cups and looked around at Li Jing's military tent, only to see that the facilities in the tent were extremely simple, except that it was slightly larger than the tents of ordinary soldiers, and there was a desk inside, which was almost the same as ordinary tents.

When the two looked away, Li Jing smiled and said, "I'm Li Jing, I haven't asked this brother's name yet!"

The man hastily put down his teacup and cupped his fists and said, "At the end of the day, Zhou Kang will solve thousands of households in the prefecture."

(End of this chapter)