Jingming

Chapter 249

For Tang Peiyu, the situation took a turn for the worse.

The sound of gunfire from Yangmei Mountain overturned Tang Peiyu's cognition.

That's not flat land, that's a mountain!

At present, Gu Shilong's subordinates have not really attacked the city. The Changsha defenders still have a certain amount of room for movement within three to five miles outside the city wall, so they have been sentry.

Tang Peiyu was sure that the people from Yangmei Mountain were not there yesterday.

Regardless of whether it was the Shenji camp's forward selection or which strong team Gu Shilong led to the south, even if it wasn't really exhausted like Nanchangwei, how could they transport the bowl of guns to the Yangmei mountainside in a hurry for field battles?

But those thousand elite soldiers had to be rescued.

Just as Tang Peiyu led his troops out of the city, Zhu Jianjun had already arrived at Liuyang Gate.

"Didn't this king ask General Tang to guard the city?" He looked to the southwest in surprise, "How many people did General Tang take out?"

The "loyal minister" of Prince Ji's Mansion, the former Captain Jinyi of the Division of Etiquette and Guards, squinted his eyes at the crowd of people heading southeast: "I'm afraid it's more than two thousand. Judging by the appearance of the army, there are more than half of them." He was an elite soldier from the original Changsha Guards.”

"... two thousand?" Zhu Jianjun's eyes darkened.

First there were [-] elite soldiers, and now Tang Peiyu brought more than [-] elite soldiers from the original Changsha Guard out of the city, so is it true that less than half of the nearly [-] elite soldiers in the entire Changsha Guard were left?
What if this is Gu Shilong's strategy of making a fool of himself?What if the north, east, and west come under siege at this time?

Zhu Jianjun's guess was not wrong. At this moment, from the foot of Guifeng Mountain, five cavalrymen were rushing northward along the Liuyang River at full speed.

They first reached the camp on the east side of the siege, leaving one person behind, and then the four continued to go north.

The east-west walls of Changsha City are narrower, while the north-south walls are longer.

Gu Shilong's camp is located in the northeast corner of Changsha City.

There were only about ten miles in total, and as soon as the news that the soldiers in Changsha City had come out of Duanyang Gate reached Wuchangwei, they set off.

These are all pre-agreed plans.

By the time the cannons sounded on Yangmei Mountain, the East Camp had already received the news, and the army was immediately prepared to advance.

Gu Shilong also received the news when Tang Peiyu led his army into the valley between Yangmei Mountain and Fulong Mountain in the south.

It seems that there is no need to wait until the strategy of luring the enemy fails, and then wait until the agreed time to act.

He glanced at the clock, and immediately ordered: "Order Xiong Weiyang, and the naval warship assigned to Yuezhou Wei will immediately go up the Xiangshui River to intercept the fleeing thieves from the four gates in the west of the city. Let Geng Yongfeng not have to be wary of Zhan Huabi, and immediately go along the Xiangshui River." Go south from the west bank and march into Xiangtan!"

After finishing speaking, he went out of the door: "Send my military order, the army is approaching the city, ready to attack the city!"

It's already August 27, and one month later will be His Majesty's Longevity Day.

Gu Shilong's siege and not attack is not seeking stability, but the arrangement must be in place first.

The Huguang army has not experienced war for a long time, and he can only really boost morale with a beautiful and timely victory.

In this case, whichever side loses the first battle is a complete loss.Even if the imperial army can win in the end, it will no longer be Gu Shilong's commander, but it will take several months to increase the army and fight again.

Now on Yangmei Mountain, Qu Zhinan, who is under Ji Weimin's command, only urged in a low voice: "Hurry up! Brother Wei, take your brothers to suffer and try to move down. You don't need to be accurate later, let them If it becomes chaotic, I will take the rest of my brothers to cover up the chaos!"

The 1000 people are supposed to be headed by him, but this Wei Jigui was the one who captured Zhang Heling with Guo Xun.

And this new artillery battalion in the Shenji battalion was trained by Wei Jigui from the very beginning.

He, Wei Jigui, is also a regular.

"Old Qu, don't worry!" Wei Jigui turned his head and greeted, "Be careful with your feet, three people, take turns to lift!"

For the composition of the Shenji Battalion, Wei Jigui brought 400 men, while Qu Zhinan had [-] firecrackers under his command.The other [-] troops were commanded by the guerrilla general Ji Weimin, with [-] cavalry, [-] gunfire soldiers, [-] chariot soldiers and the remaining [-] artisans.

The new cannon brought by Wei Jigui was obtained after more than two years of experiments, from the Portuguese's cannon-making method and the other ingenuity of Huangming University.

His Majesty bestowed the name "Tiger Crouching Cannon".

This new cannon has an extra pair of "tiger feet", which can stand firmly on the ground after being put down. It really looks like a tiger squatting on the ground and roaring when it chooses an opportunity.

The most important thing is that although the barrel of this tiger crouching gun is longer than that of the bowl-mouthed gun, the muzzle is not as big as the bowl-mouthed gun.

The whole cannon weighs less than forty catties, and the two of them carry it in rotation, which is enough to carry it with the army.With a tiger's feet, it is also easy to use in field battles.

However, Huangming University, the Bureau of Military Warfare, and the Military Weapons Supervision have been experimenting with the gunpowder formula with the new method requested by His Majesty, and there is a new word called quantitative loading.

Although Wei Jigui didn't understand why these things had to be like this, but now the tiger squatting gun has a set of rules for filling, reloading, and even measuring distance.Although the muzzle is smaller, the firing range is farther than that of the bowl-mouth gun.

Qu Zhinan led more than 280 people to go down the mountain, and Wei Jigui led these [-] people along the side of Yangmei Mountain closer to Changsha City. There were actually twenty tiger squatting cannons being carried up. Walk down the mountain slowly.

There are five people in each artillery group, and Wei Jigui brought a total of 25 artillery pieces.The remaining 150 people are the reserve forces and sword players who protect the artillery.

The knife players in the Shenji camp are also different from the knife players in the local guards.The shield is still there, but in addition to the waist knife, the long-range weapon that is equipped with it is a short gun that is being improved with a handle.

Tang Peiyu also noticed that there was movement on Yangmei Mountain near the city wall.

But he can't control that much.

The thousand elite soldiers before were fighting and retreating, so they had to join them first.

Five-door bowl-mouth gun, the firing interval is not short.As long as they take advantage of the gap to get out of the shelling range, they only need to face the elite soldiers of the Shenji Battalion who are forcing them down the mountain.

For the thousand elite soldiers who left the city earlier, the sudden bombardment of the blunderbuss, the sudden appearance of the banner of the Shenjiying, and the sudden clamor from Guifeng Mountain, which was getting closer and closer, all showed that this place was not A place to stay.

The sound of drums and horseshoes from the direction of Changsha City also showed that reinforcements were on the way.

The distance is not far, as long as there is no collapse, there will be vitality.

"Hold on! Hold on! Retreat to Taniguchi in a crab claw formation, and reinforcements will arrive in no time!"

The messenger commanded the remaining [-] people with semaphore, and more than [-] of them had suffered some minor injuries.

Ji Weimin wasn't in a hurry, he just pushed down the hillside slowly.

The five swarms of bees had all been scrapped, and when they passed by the rebels, there was a special person to make up for the head and cut off the ear.

And in the back with a wide view, there are several people standing there with paper and pen in hand, watching everywhere and taking a pen to record.

In the eyes of Changshawei's "elite soldiers", how the new Shenji Battalion fought was completely different from their cognition, so they were even more frightened.

Seeing that the reinforcements led by Tang Peiyu were about to join the Changsha Wei defeated army, Ji Weimin's eyes widened: "Beat the drum! Charge!"

Tang Peiyu didn't understand why the Shenji Battalion, which had already set up a banner, suddenly became excited. When the vanguard soldiers who had just been received were slightly relaxed, they only heard the sound that made them suspect that their ears were broken.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

The sound of cannons was continuous, and it seemed that from the mountainside of Yangmei Mountain near the city wall to the position of Shenjiying just now, the forest was full of guns.

How many cannons does it have?
As we all know, under normal circumstances, the ratio of the number of cannons to the number of soldiers is very large.How could it be possible to prepare so many cannons without setting up camp for several days?

Now that the gunfire is so dense, how many people are still ambushing on Yangmei Mountain?

"kill!"

Tang Peiyu was terrified, and he had already seen an endless stream of people rushing down from Yangmei Mountain on the way.

The frequency of firing the cannons of the Shenji Battalion also exceeded Tang Peiyu's knowledge.

What he didn't know was that the artillery on the mountain was just bombarding in the direction of their pawns.

There is a special gun for accurate charging, and the gun body is also different from the original one-piece mixed-cast bowl-mouth gun.This is a technique learned from the Portuguese guns - there is a sub-cannon on the body of the gun, and the gunpowder and projectiles are first loaded in the sub-cannon, and then the sub-cannon is loaded into the belly of the gun.

In this way, there are five people in one artillery group, and some people can take turns to load the sub-cannons and fire them.

And the projectile has also been improved.There were poisonous fire flying cannons during the Hongzhi period, but now the explosive projectiles are even more powerful.

Looking at the situation where the rebel army was shot and fell down, Wei Jigui felt that the name "Blossom Bullet" was very realistic.

"Ten steps down!"

While the two sub-cannons were being reloaded, Wei Jigui ordered the artillery line to continue to advance.

This is the advantage of the tiger crouching gun, a new gun that is very suitable for field battles!
Tang Peiyu was about to go crazy: there were so many cannons, why didn't they finish blasting all at once?
Of course it was for fishing, which Tang Peiyu knew.

The strength of the Changsha guards is limited, and they cannot afford to lose easily.If the first battle is lost, morale will also plummet.

But he really didn't expect to bump into so many cannons head-on in the wild.

Fortunately, although there are many cannons, their lethality is not necessarily so terrifying.

"The rear team transfers to the front army, fight back to the city!"

Tang Peiyu, who came to intercept him, had already seen it, less than a thousand people.

How tiring is it to walk through the mountains?Tang Peiyu didn't believe that more than [-] people under his command could not disperse these hundreds of people.

Then, before reaching the enemy, he suddenly saw hundreds of people on the opposite side stop first, and then throw a piece of things in unison.

Shock...shocking thunder?

No... it's a little different.

In the Song Dynasty, firearms that would explode after being thrown, such as thunderbolt fireballs, appeared, and even 200 years ago, there appeared iron-shelled thunderbolts.

Now, all these things that were thrown out carried a handle, which Tang Peiyu had never seen before.

But he knew it was broken.

Sure enough, those soldiers who had just become the front army and were originally recruited temporarily from the rear team fell down unexpectedly.

Qu Zhinan was overjoyed: "Taking advantage of his illness to kill him, he raised his hand and pretended to throw it, go!"

They are a new type of firecrackers, and each of them carries an improved version of the thunderbolt called a "grenade".

After a round of throwing, the enemy is already terrified.

Obviously there are no more grenades, but the appearance of hundreds of people groping from their waists towards that side, only made Chang Shawei think that there would be another round of thunderstorms thrown over, and they were confused for a while, dodging and acting indiscriminately. lump.

At this time, Wei Jigui on the flanking mountainside approached a little more, and the loaded sub-cannon was stuffed into the belly of the tiger crouching cannon, and a new round of shelling began.

Tang Peiyu's face was ashen, and he looked at Shenji Camp in the east and west, Yangmei Mountain in the north, and finally Changsha City in the northwest.

It was hopeless, the Shenji Battalion was using very new things, and his subordinates were caught off guard and collapsed at the first touch.

"Retreat into Funiu Mountain! Quickly, retreat into Funiu Mountain!"

As this order came out, the trend of defeat became obvious.

But for Tang Peiyu, this is the best choice: after losing for a while, even if he fled back to Changsha City, he would face encirclement from all sides.With all the new gadgets that Shenjiying displayed today, is Changsha City really that easy to defend?

And if they can retreat into the mountains south of Changsha City, there will be a glimmer of life instead.

At the Liuyang Gate, Zhu Jianjun's face turned earthy when he heard the continuous sound of gunfire from the southeast.

He couldn't see how the battle was going, but Fu Rongzhong rushed over suddenly: "Gu Shilong's camp has moved, and they are about to attack the city! Where is General Tang?"

Zhu Jianjun slapped the battlements on the city wall fiercely: "Damn them all!"

Tang Peiyu really wanted to take the opportunity to escape from the city, and Pu Zitong didn't come to guard Changsha first as promised!

……

During the "fierce battle" in Changsha, Qufu, Shandong, today is a grand sacrifice to Confucius.

The difference from the originally determined process is that Kong Wenshao, Duke of Yansheng, and Kong Wenfang, magistrate of Qufu County, are gone.

Qi Jingtong led the pacesetter battalion and directly took over Qufu County.

And in Jinan Prefecture, Zhuo Zhitian, who had just arrived here from the outskirts of Beijing, was led by Zhuo Zhitian, who had made great achievements in suppressing the Fifth Army Battalion, and together with Gao Zhong, he firmly controlled Jinan City.

This time offering sacrifices to Confucius, Zhang Fujing acted on behalf of the emperor.

Although the specifications are high, the sacrificial ritual system has been changed to be much simpler.

The statue of Dacheng Master Wenxuan is no longer there, and the newly made wooden master cannot smile.

The main officials of the Shandong Third Division and the chief officials of various prefectures and counties in Shandong came to the Dacheng Wenxuan Temple at their request, and none of them felt at ease right now.

Following the rebellion of King Anhua and King Ning, within 20 years, the vassal kings of Daming rebelled three times.

But this time, it was the loudest.

King Ji enshrined King Rui as orthodox, King Yi dismissed his sons and absconded and went to Beijing. They set off for Beijing in a hurry—although given the distance from Shandong to Beijing, they could wait until early September before leaving.

That's because Zhang Fujing was here. After Zhang Fujing arrived in Shandong on the ninth day of August, he personally led the battalion to take down the brothers Kong Wenshao and Kong Wenfang.

Today, Kong Wenshao has been escorted to Beijing, and Kong Wenfang is being held in the prison of the Shandong Procuratorate.

Behind Zhang Fujing are the patriarchs of the Kong family, Yan, Meng and other clans who are temporarily safe.

After the sacrifice ceremony for Confucius, Zhang Fujing "pacified" them with a smile: "The crime of Yan Shenggong has nothing to do with the patriarch of Confucius. It involves the reputation of Dacheng Wenxuan Master. The Ministry of Punishment, Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple and Beizhen Fusi sent special envoys on their way. When the imperial envoy arrives in Shandong, Patriarch Kong will answer the inquiry truthfully. If there is nothing wrong, His Majesty will never punish him for any crime."

"...Yes, yes, I will answer the inquiry truthfully."

Zhang Fujing left the Confucian Temple, behind him were officials from Shandong.

The Confucian Memorial Ceremony is a very good occasion, and it is an occasion where they all have to gather here.

And now the county magistrate of Qufu has also been convicted, and the entire county of Qufu is under the control of Zhang Fujingbiao's barracks.

Seeing the back of Zhang Detou walking forward steadily, and thinking about his "extreme power" in Guangdong, the Shandong officials only felt suffocated.

Now is the time when Huguang is in great chaos and people in the world are plotting rebellion.

Arriving at the Qufu County Government Office, Zhang Fujing sat on the main seat in the lobby, and Qi Jingtong stood beside him.

In the hall, there are seats for the officials of the three divisions and the prefects and prefects of various prefectures.Outside the hall, all the county magistrates in Shandong could only stand.

Zhang Fujing opened his mouth slowly: "Nanzhili, Huguang, Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other provinces are more or less affected by disasters. Your Majesty has ordered that from this year, Shandong will halve the grain shipments, and the rest will be transferred to the south for disaster relief. The memorial ceremony for Confucius is completed. The next thing the governor will do is to supervise the administration of this year's grain tax. Please be loyal to the emperor and use your affairs, and don't take the opportunity to harm the people. Yanshenggong's mansion actually has ten thousand hectares of good land in addition to the sacrificial land. This is the only one. Shandong does not need to send more people to the people for disaster relief. In addition to the governor, there are patrol officials and disaster censors, you should keep this in mind."

"...Yes." For some reason, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they came down from the Shandong Third Division.

After finishing the next work, the front problem should be easy to talk about.At this juncture, position is more important.As long as there is a little carelessness, it may be a crime of treason.

But Zhang Fujing said that he only supervised the handling of food and taxes, and the case of Nayan Shenggong's impeachment and conviction was all investigated and interrogated by the third division of the imperial court and the Fusi of Beizhen?
Zhang Fujing then let these Shandong officials leave the city and return to their respective places of office, but he was still sitting in the lobby of the Qufu County Government.

"Post up a notice that the governor will temporarily act as the county magistrate of Qufu, and will open the court for questioning from now on."

The magistrate of Qufu, who has always been essentially hereditary from the Kong family, is now convicted of even Yan Shenggong, who will recommend him?

Zhang Fujing took the position of the governor of Qufu temporarily as the magistrate of Qufu and opened the court to ask questions. Obviously, the affairs of Yanshenggong's mansion will not end so simply.

But Zhang Fujing also knew that if it was just these small crimes of the Kong family that harmed the people, it would not be enough to achieve the expected goal.

Now, we have to wait for Huguang to break through Changsha City, and wait for them to get more evidence of Yan Shenggong's rebellion and even complicity.

Only in this way is the crime of the nine clans!
In the Forbidden City, Kong Wenshao finally met the new monarch.

Zhu Houcong looked at him quietly: "Since you are a descendant of the former teacher, why did you forget the teacher's teaching?"

In Qufu, Kong Wenshao was almost heavenly.

In front of the emperor, he knelt on the ground and trembled, not daring to scold or argue.

Because he already knew very well that if he said a wrong sentence now, he would be charged with treason and treason.

"...The minister is guilty."

Now he only hates Shandong for being too close to Beijing, the emperor for being too ruthless, and the scholars in the world for being too soft-boned. Why don't there be more Fu Rongzhong?
He was also a little strange, how could the emperor still not be in a hurry in the face of rebellion and the severe drought in the south?

"Since you know the crime, you will confess truthfully in front of the third secretary. If you wait until the investigation is found out, then the crime will be increased. Let's go down."

Meet him, it's just a formality.

In Zhu Houcong's eyes, Kong Wenshao was already dead.

After Zhang Fujing went to Shandong, under the coercion of Zhang's decapitation, Yanshenggong's mansion sent many letters to various places.These letters were not intercepted by Jin Yiwei's people in various places.But after the letters were delivered, many of the senders were detained.

It doesn't matter if the letters are destroyed or not. When the counter-insurgency is over, some people will always be caught and the messengers will be recognized.

Under torture, there are many irrefutable evidences.

Now he is concerned about another matter: "Where is Luo An?"

Wang Zuo immediately replied: "Your Majesty, Commander Luo and General Lei Shen have met in Anhua and set off for Hengzhou Mansion."

"Where's Zhu Qi?"

"We have arrived at Shaozhou Mansion."

Zhu Houcong looked at the map, his eyes were cold: "Command Luo An, Zhan Huabi try to capture alive. There is also Pu Zitong, who is so courageous, you can check if he is a descendant of the Pu family in Quanzhou. Those who are in the spice business should be investigated. Yan Song was ordered to leave Jiangxi alone, and let Wang Hong and Guangdong Zhao Jun lead the Haiphong Dao Navy warships to wipe out the coastal areas of Fujian. Prince Yi's heir must have someone to support him when he enters Fujian. After the cleanup, the army went directly to Taiyuan."

On this map, the island to the east of Fujian had once set up a Penghu inspection department in the southwest corner. During the Hongwu period, it was withdrawn due to the sea ban, and the people on Penghu Island moved to the mainland.

For more than a hundred years, the island now known as Taiyuan, Chicken Coop or Xiaoliuqiu has actually become a place of alienation.

After the trial of the new law in Guangdong and the abolition of the Shipping Department in Zhejiang, people in Jinyiwei and internal factories in Zhejiang and Fujian quietly watched the movements of many coastal companies in the past two years.

Wang Shouren said that their idea was to establish a separatist regime in the mountainous area where Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong meet first, and consume it, but for rebellion, how can there be no real way out?

The big island facing each other across the sea is probably the real way out.

If it can be dragged on, the world will gradually become chaotic.If it can't be dragged on, Prince Yi's son and Prince Rui's biological father will probably bring Prince Rui to establish a foothold there first.

Attacking across the sea is the real consumption for Da Ming, and it can drag on for several years.

Now that the call to action has been issued, Zhu Houcong must implement the new law. Fujian is shielded by mountains, and many large families along the coast have Haili drives, and there are many ships that can be used for both commercial and war purposes. This is the capital.

Even the Portuguese in Nanyang and Japan, which had been cut off from tribute, were cited as aid.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Houcong said: "Wang Shouren and Yan Song were ordered to hand over the Huguang Rebellion to Sun Jiao, Gu Shilong, Zhu Qi, and Luo An, so that he and Yan Song must stop the rebels from going to sea with the cooperation of the governor of Fujian. The second counter-insurgency, take down Taiyuan!"

The rebel has the goal of the rebel, and Zhu Houcong has his own goals.

"Yes!"

Wang Zuo left in a hurry.

"Have the orders and pensions of Wang Bangrui and others been arranged?"

Huang Jin replied after hearing the words: "I have already gone to announce the decree."

Zhu Houcong nodded: "Give Zhang Jin a decree, asking him to visit the various mansions in Nanzhili on my behalf, to help Jiang Mian in disaster relief, and tell Guo Xun that it will be a meritorious service to stabilize Nanzhili, and there is no need to ask for orders to go to Huguang. Then give Wei Lin Going to a decree, there is a new chaos in Sichuan, although Fei Hong wants to supervise the transportation of food and taxes to Huguang for disaster relief, he can't harm the people."

"The servants lead the order."

A steady stream of wills have been sent out from the Forbidden City during this time.

Rebellion, disasters, new laws, the conviction of Lord Yan Sheng, the arrival of the vassal king's relatives in Beijing, the upcoming Longevity Festival... Yang Tinghe and others have countless things to be busy with.

But everyone is waiting for the good news from Huguang.

When night fell, Changsha City was finally completely surrounded, and the army was only one mile away from the city wall, ready to launch a general attack at any time.

Wisps of cooking smoke rose from behind the big army camp. After a full meal, the defenders must have been exhausted from attacking the city at night.

Then came the messengers galloping to report.

"My lord, the guards in the city sent envoys to come here with the badge of the captain of Jinyiwei to surrender! The traitor Tang Peiyu led his army out of the city today after being defeated and fled south. The soldiers in the city were terrified of mutiny. Kill King Ni and Fu Rongzhong!"

Gu Shilong put down the bowl and chopsticks and stood up: "Please ask Huang Xingxing to identify the badge. Where is the letter of surrender?"

(End of this chapter)