The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Yijun City was built on Turtle Mountain, following the contours of the mountain, and is an irregularly shaped circular city.

A round city has an advantage over a square city: it can be defended by fewer people.

As a small county, Yijun City has a population of over 6,000. Half of the population is men and half is women. After removing the elderly and children, there are still about 1,500 to 1,600 men who are able to defend the city.

Zhou Dezhao used every means at his disposal and threatened the entire city, saying that if the city fell, the bandits would raid it. In the end, he only managed to mobilize about a thousand people.

Although this thousand people were fewer than Wang Er's army of tens of thousands of refugees.

But to be fair, this mobilization rate has far exceeded the standard for local officials in the Ming Dynasty.

This is all thanks to Master Zhou, who usually behaves like a decent person in Yichang.

He judged disputes and lawsuits among ordinary people according to the law and human ethics, and he never accepted bribes during festivals.

When it came to matters involving wealthy gentry or superiors, he did his best to mediate.

Especially during the severe drought of the past two years, he also kept an eye on the unspoken rule of embezzlement during the summer and autumn tax collection periods at the government offices.

Although this caused the county officials to curse him behind his back as "Old Zhou the Drought," they also added, "Old Zhou the Stingy."

However, the people of Yijun, at least those in the city, were quite grateful to this local official.

So when Master Zhou called on all the people of the city to defend the city, people from every alley and neighborhood went.

But no matter how grateful you are, it will fade when faced with a life-or-death situation.

Just as the constable fell to the ground in front of Zhou Dezhao, crying and saying that thieves were attacking the north wall.

A loud boom came from the north wall, followed by a huge tremor from the city wall, and then a cloud of dust billowed into the sky.

Then Zhou Dezhao heard someone shout, "The city has fallen!"

Then the able-bodied men who had been throwing stones at the black scorpion on the city wall scattered and fled.

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While Black Scorpion was organizing his troops below the city and addressing the starving people, Li Chengye had already returned to his own camp.

Upon entering the camp, Li Chengye said:

"We can't wait any longer, let's set off now."

"But aren't we supposed to attack the city after Black Scorpion? Would Wang Er agree to that?"

Master Qin hesitated. He couldn't understand why Chengye wanted to take people out now when Black Scorpion hadn't even started yet.

"If we wait until the Black Scorpions are finished before we go, we'll be using a piecemeal tactic, letting the city's defenders take turns attacking us."

This was precisely Wang Er's objective: to have Li Chengye, Huo Tu, and Black Scorpion exhaust the defenders' weapons and energy.

Then he led the old camp to deliver the final blow.

But this is not what Li Chengye wanted.

He observed clearly that although Yijun City was not large, the number of garrison troops was not small. He could see people behind at least every battlement around the city.

Following Wang Er's advice, they took turns going up. In the end, it was hard to say how many of them would be left.

"Wang Er, that's pure misdirection. His idea is good: assign two thousand men to each team, which is about three sides of the enemy but one side is missing. Once we're exhausted, the defending troops will be almost finished too."

"But he forgot that out of those two thousand starving people, not even five hundred could make it to the city walls."

"We have to do as we agreed last night. Now that the black scorpions have attracted the attention of the guards, it's the perfect opportunity."

"If we go alone, even if we manage to break through the city walls, we will suffer heavy casualties."

After hearing this, everyone was speechless.

After all, no one wants to be the one sacrificed.

Let's take action then.

While Black Scorpion and his men were climbing the east wall using grappling hooks, Li Chengye, with over three hundred men he had selected, had already reached a mound outside the north wall, pushing siege engines and grain carts that had been converted into trench-filling vehicles.

Using the mounds of earth as cover, they managed to hide most of the vehicles.

The guards on the north wall spotted Li Chengye and his men, but only saw about a hundred people and two or three flatbed carts covered with cloth.

Although the garrison was also very nervous, Li Chengye and his men did not take any action; they could only remain on guard.

The Black Scorpion's offensive grew increasingly fierce, and the shouts of battle from the south and east walls intensified, but the defenders on the north wall remained vigilant and did not go to provide support.

Thick smoke rose from the east, accompanied not only by shouts of battle but also by people's cries, until finally someone moved on the north side of the wall.

Suhe was the military clerk and head of the constables in Yijun County, making him the second most important figure in the county government.

According to the "Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty", the first-ranked official in a county was the magistrate, followed by the assistant magistrate, the registrar, and the clerk. As for the clerks of the six departments, they were not considered officials and were considered second-class.

Suhe was a second-rate person in the eyes of such an official.

The reason he was able to become the second-in-command was because Yijun currently had neither a county magistrate, a registrar, nor a clerk.

During the Ming Dynasty, officials were required to "avoid their native place of residence" when taking office. This meant that officials were not allowed to serve in their own province, especially their own prefecture, county, or neighboring areas, in order to prevent the power of their fellow townsmen and clans from growing too strong.

The positions of county magistrate and registrar are required to be at least Juren (successful candidates in the provincial civil service examination) or Gongsheng (tribute students), while the position of clerk requires the title of Xiucai (successful candidate in the county civil service examination).

However, in a poor and barren county like Yijun, no scholars or tribute students from other places were willing to come.

In reality, very few people in the entire northern Shaanxi region were willing to come. Zhou Dezhao's superior, Fan Zhimao, the prefect of Fuzhou, was a Juren (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations) who rose through the ranks from county magistrate to prefect because he dared to take office.

This is unthinkable in the Guanzhong and Jiangnan regions.

Originally, Yijun had a clerk named Liu, but two years ago he managed to transfer to Yan'an Prefecture, and Zhou Dezhao didn't fill the vacancy, so the position has remained empty.

Yijun City now has two city gates: the county magistrate guards the south gate, and the military clerk guards the north gate.

Although the previous attack by Hotu resulted in a river filled with corpses, the casualties inflicted on the people on the city walls were quite limited, aside from the arrows and stones used.

But Black Scorpion's case was different.

He seized upon the weakness of the east wall and launched a fierce attack. Moreover, his veteran bandits were also quite valiant. The strong men on the city wall, who had never seen blood before, were quickly routed.

Seeing that Black Scorpion had succeeded on the east wall, several old bandits had already climbed up the city wall and were killing people in all directions. The moat-filling team, which was originally just pretending, also went crazy.

They set up long ladders and attacked the city walls.

For a time, both the south and east walls were in imminent danger of collapse.

If Suhe hadn't discovered the presence of bandits outside the north wall he was responsible for, he would have already led his men to support the county magistrate.

After all, Zhou Dezhao had promised him before the battle that as long as the bandits were defeated, he would recommend Su He to the Ministry of Personnel so that Su He could be directly appointed as a clerk for his meritorious service in defeating the bandits.

He had been working his way up from a clerk to an official, and eventually into the government system – but that had been his dream for so many years.

But the hundred or so bandits outside the north wall just stood there, neither attacking nor retreating, and it was unclear what they were doing.

Su He was initially able to remain patient, but as the situation on the south and east walls became increasingly critical, he could no longer afford to be so cautious.

He sent his deputy with about a hundred men to provide support at the east wall.

After his deputy left, the bandit army outside the north wall still didn't move, and Suhe secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Then the cannon fired from the south gate.

Su Hezhen never expected that the old Hongwu cannon could still be fired; he had even peed on it when he was a child.

It seems that the South Gate side is really going all out.

They were willing to fire the cannon despite the risk of the old gun blasting and killing himself.

However, it did work. After the cannon shot rang out, the bandits outside the south gate were terrified and fled.

It seems that this attack will also be fruitless for the enemy.

Just as Suhe was thinking this, the bandit army outside the north wall moved.