Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 244 The Second Attack and Defense (3)

Song Lian was so busy during this time that he didn't even have time to think about city defense.

Of course, he didn't want to think about it, so he kept working hard, because he was really pessimistic about Haizhou's future.

No fool would believe that four or five thousand civilians, plus a few hundred elite soldiers, could compete against tens of thousands of elite captive soldiers.

Fortunately, there are many things for Song Lian to do, otherwise he would not know how he would live these days.

Song Lian was responsible for civil affairs, and what he had to do was to do logistics for the soldiers in the city. The core job was the food issue.

The food supply in the city must be guaranteed, even if the old and weak in the city eat less, it doesn't matter.

Therefore, at the beginning, the rations of each household were very low. The young and strong men in the city were rationed one catty of rice a day, and the old and weak were only half a catty.

In the absence of non-staple food supplies, these rations cannot satisfy food and clothing, and people will think of various ways to exploit various loopholes if they are not full.

During this time, Song Lian has been fighting against this loophole.

According to the rules set by Song Lian, each household buys grain every three days, and the quantity purchased is determined according to the population of each household.

However, there have been various problems, such as those who falsely reported the number of people, and those who purchased multiple times in violation of the regulations.

On the first day, Song Lian found that the door of the grain store was crowded with customers who came to buy grain all day long. As Haizhou is a wealthy city, there are many grain stores, and this situation is usually impossible.

Even if it is now stipulated that each family can only buy three days of rations at a time, it is impossible to have a flood of customers all day long. Song Lian soon discovered that after some people bought food once, they threw down the food, turned around and crowded to sell it again. grain.

This situation almost made Song Lian want to close the grain store, and then distributed grain from door to door, as much as each family wanted.

In the end, Yang Chao stopped him. Doing so would allow everyone to buy according to the quantity, but the workload would be too great. With 10 people in Haizhou and [-] households, it is impossible to have enough people to go door-to-door. Food.

Yang Chao gave Song Lian an idea, that is to issue certificates, conduct door-to-door investigations, issue a brand to each family, and record the population on the brand, and each family will buy it once every three days according to the brand, and the grain store will be responsible for registration to prevent multiple purchases. situation occurs.

This solved the problem, but soon there were counterfeit wooden signs issued by the government, which made Song Lian furious. He had launched a city-wide search for fake certificates, but unfortunately the results were minimal.

When work was in a mess, Yang Chao came to him again.

Song Lian really didn't want to see Yang Chao, not to mention that he didn't have a good impression of Yang Chao at first, the key point is that Yang Chao must have something to do when he came to see him, he really didn't want to hear about the unexpected situation.

But what surprised Song Lian this time was that what Yang Chao said was too simple.

"Want salt?"

Is salt still a thing in Haizhou? There are a large number of shops and warehouses of salt merchants here all the year round. There are thousands of tons of salt stored in Haizhou. It is impossible to eat it all.

"That's right, Song Dianshi, please prepare a hundred tans of salt for the city, I want it right away!"

Yang Chao said with certainty.

This small problem was no longer a problem, and Song Lian immediately called a yamen servant: "Go to Kang Mazi and ask for a hundred loads of salt!"

Kang Mazi is the shopkeeper of a salt shop.

The yamen servants set off immediately, and Yang Chao asked his officers to follow directly with Min Zhuang.

Then I exchanged pleasantries with Song Lian, and asked about the situation in the lower city. The city was really chaotic, and the wisdom of the people in the market to take advantage of loopholes brought Song Lian a lot of trouble at this time.

Yang Chao didn't have much to do about it, he could only tell Song Lian to let the workers in the grain store and the servants keep an eye on them, and immediately arrest those who came to sell grain many times, otherwise a black market would form in the city at this time , These people must be making a fortune by reselling the extra food they bought.

But let the grain store and the government servants manage it, and there is also a relationship of favors and transactions. They must turn a blind eye to their acquaintances, and may even participate in it to get a share of the pie. These situations cannot be completely eliminated.

Yang Chao only hoped to suppress it as much as possible. Anyway, as long as it is guaranteed for a month, if the captive soldiers still do not retreat, Yang Chao can only take a risk to break through.

Song Lian didn't care much about the affairs in the city, and didn't ask Yang Chao at all.

Yang Chao didn't bother to tell him the details, and immediately rushed to the east wall.

It's a pity that Yang Chao killed all the horses before entering the city, so he could only walk there.

There must be livestock in Haizhou City, but they were either hidden by big households or killed directly. They would rather kill and eat them than let the government snatch them away.

On the east wall, many men are in better condition. He doesn’t have the firepower of Li Wuliu’s gunners on the south wall, but there are still tiger squatting guns. In addition, a large number of original archers from Haizhou have been dispatched. It is the one in the guard who can draw the bow. Although the level is not as good as that of the captive soldiers, the level of the bow soldiers who have been trained for more than a year is not bad than that of Yang Chao. One exception is Li Rui's servant, a master who has practiced martial arts since childhood.

"Don't worry, my lord, the casualties of our army are not serious, only three were seriously injured and two were slightly injured!"

Many male casualties were much better than the South Wall.

Yang Chao also raised his head to observe, and found that the attack power of the captive soldiers on the east wall was not high, the shield chariots went back and forth to shoot at the city wall, and although there were ten ladders erected, they had long since given up attacking the city.

Yang Chao couldn't help feeling suspicious.

Immediately understood: "It seems that the captive soldiers are feigning an attack, and the main attack is indeed Nancheng."

Yang Chao immediately understood that the east wall was just a diversion, and the captive soldiers wanted to open the situation from the south wall. Yang Chao even suspected that the same was true on the northwest side. , The purpose is to disperse the forces of Haizhou.

But Yang Chao didn't dare to gamble, betting that the captive soldiers would really attack from three sides and attack on the other side. If he deploys troops from other directions, who knows whether the captive soldiers will turn to attack other directions. Fighting is an opportunism Prevailing behavior, even a false attack, can become the main attack when the opportunity is seen.

Therefore, Yang Chao didn't dare to leave any gaps. After all, the opponent was the attacking side and had already taken the initiative.

Attack is a thorn, defense is a piece of cloth, as long as the thorn penetrates a little, it will be successful, but the cloth must not have a single hole, otherwise it will be caught.

In addition, the opponent is a cavalry, and they move quickly. It is too easy to change the direction of attack. I can only foolishly deploy defenses on all sides. Don't look at the main attack direction of the captive soldiers now. In case of a sudden change of direction, start to transfer the main force to the east Wall, if Yang Chao didn't have a strong army on the east wall, he wouldn't be able to persist in supporting him.

Thinking of this, Yang Chao warned: "Continue to stand firm. Beware of the sudden increase of captive soldiers to attack. If the captive soldiers attack by force, you immediately use the letter flag!"

Many men responded.

Although his subordinates objected, Yang Chao still walked along the city wall from the east wall to the south wall.

At this time, the south wall had begun to pour salt water on the captive soldiers.

After asking Li Wuliu, the effect was still very good, and three waves of attacks by the captive soldiers were repelled.

"Those cavalry have been watching the show for too long. It's time for Frank to make a move!"

Yang Chao saw that the captive infantry group was concentrated under the city wall, while the cavalry was in a dense formation on the other side of the river. The distance was beyond the range of the blunderbuss, but they might rush under the city wall at any time.

Obviously, the cavalry had nothing to do with the siege, and the captive soldiers knew it very well, so these cavalry only played a supervisory role, and they had been doing nothing, just like spectators.

As soon as Li Wuliu heard that he was allowed to fire, he immediately yelled loudly to deploy the artillery array, and began to bombard the cavalry on the opposite side.

"Dare to put up such an array, really short of memory!"

Seeing that the formation of captive soldiers was still so tight, Li Wuliu couldn't help laughing.

"Li Wuliu, remember, you can't defend the city to death. Only by combining offense and defense can you maintain vitality. If you are only attacked by the opponent, it will not be good for morale, so when we must fight back, we must fight back decisively!"

Yang Chao said to Li Wuliu, let this subordinate remember his intention, that is to fight back at the right time to boost morale.

Strictly guard against death, like stagnant water, it cannot be prevented.

Before Yang Chao walked back into the urn tower, he had already heard the sound of artillery. The Franco cannon array was erected on the inner side of the city wall, so the captive soldiers could not see it, and it was far away from the siege ladder, so there were no captive soldier shooters. Harassment, you can aim at peace of mind, and then bombard the cavalry behind.

Moreover, there are positions on both sides, forming a crossfire, which can cause considerable damage in an instant.

Yang Chao saw dozens of shells hit, killing at least fifty or sixty horses, and at least twenty or thirty people.

It's a pity that the opponent's cavalry is too small, otherwise more people will be killed.

Not long after Cannon thought about it, cheers suddenly sounded on the city wall, and Yang Chao naturally knew the reason.

The captives withdrew.

The captive soldiers who attacked the city slowly retreated after paying more than 100 soldiers and nearly [-] coats of clothing. Unfortunately, these corpses were all retreated with shield chariots, and it was impossible to become the military exploits of the Ming army.

After seeing the captive soldiers calmly pushing through the passageway piled up with sandbags under the cover of the shield cart, Yang Chao couldn't help feeling that it seemed too easy for him to let the captive soldiers fill the river yesterday.

Obviously, it would be more beneficial for him to shoot at the captive soldiers across the river. If the firepower was stronger yesterday, there would be no need to lose more than a dozen people today.

Thinking of this, Yang Chao suddenly had a plan.

late at night.

More than a dozen people quietly fell down the city wall and rushed to the river at an extremely fast speed.

They didn’t stop until the sandbags filled by the captive soldiers by the river, and then began to move these sandbags. Unfortunately, they made very slow progress. After a day of trampling on these sandbags, they were already very solid. Impossible to move.

And these people had no chance to move the sandbags on the lower floor at all, because they had just moved a few sandbags, and there was a sudden shouting sound from the opposite bank, followed by a dense rain of arrows. Although they were not accurate in the dark, they were still injured The three of them, the others scattered like birds and beasts, fled back to the city, jumped into the hanging basket and were dragged to the city.

Yang Chao's attempt to remove the sandbags and rebuild the confrontation with the captive soldiers across the river went bankrupt. Fortunately, all three dead soldiers came back alive, and the three injured were not seriously injured.

Yang Chao could only laugh at himself that he counted it as an attack, which boosted the soldiers' memory.

(End of this chapter)