Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 173 A superior move
After hearing this, Wu Sanniang said eagerly: "Thank you very much, the leader, for your rescue. I will go visit a few brothers right now. If the leader does not give up, I am willing to persuade several brothers to join the leader. From now on, I will repay the leader." "

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen was overjoyed and sent Wu Sanniang to meet with Yan Liu and others, leaving his lieutenants Li Yao, Li Lin, and Li Ling to take charge of the cavalry and appease the more than 300 Catholics.

Zhao Zhen then turned to look at Luan Tingyu, only to see Luan Tingyu looking intently at Wu Sanniang who was walking out of the city. Zhao Zhen coughed and then said: "Brother Luan, everyone has gone away."

All the heroes burst into laughter after hearing this.

After laughing, Zhao Zhen pointed to the carriage brought back by Luan Tingyu and others and asked, "Brother Luan, is this?"

Luan Tingyu said: "Master, we followed the retreating direction of the Qing army, and we encountered Wu Sanniang and his entourage fighting with the Qing army's cavalry. When the Qing army saw us, they abandoned Wu Sanniang. They dispersed. The Qing troops escorting the carriages also dispersed. We grabbed these carriages and saw that the Qing troops had fled into the new city. We had no choice but to invite Wu Sanniang to come back together. "

Everyone stepped forward and saw that the carriages were filled with silks, satins, gold, silver and jewels. Zhao Zhen sighed: "I'm afraid this is all the wealth in the outer city of Linqing!"

Before everyone could speak, Wu Sanniang's deputy Li Yao said: "Sir, these treasures were obtained by the leader who led us to capture the three counties of Shouzhang, Yanggu and Tangyi and open the treasury. These large carts are still from our slaves. The three counties drove here, but the white mule was taken away by the Qing dog. The Qing dog didn't know what it was, so he used it to pull the cart. Even the war horses are inferior."

Zhao Zhen didn't care at first. Mules' body hair is mostly dark brown, gray or auburn. This one is just a rare color. After listening to what Li Yao said, Zhao Zhen looked again and found that this white mule was indeed extraordinary. The shape is like a horse, with a short and wide waist. The ear length, mane and tail hair are between those of a horse and a donkey. The heels are high and solid, and the tendons of the limbs are strong. The most important thing is that this white mule is about six feet and a half long, which is no less than the average war horse.

world log
White Mule (Ears like a donkey, body like a horse. Good at carrying heavy loads and galloping.)
Race: Horse mule (produced by the mating of a male horse and a female donkey)
Level: Level 1 and Level 9

Attributes: Strength 32, Constitution 25, Agility 35, Spirit 20
Skills: running, charging, kicking, carrying weight

Zhao Zhen saw it and quickly asked someone to free the white mule from the carriage. He also asked for two radishes from the cavalry army and came forward to stroke and feed them.

After eating the radish, the white mule opened its mouth happily and shouted "Ang, Ang...". Zhao Zhen asked the two sisters Ji Minghan if they wanted this mount. The two looked at each other and shook their heads, saying in disgust: "Husband, this is too ugly."

Zhao Zhen touched the white mule's head. Without looking at the head, with its six-foot-five body length, it seemed that this white mule was a good mount.

Zhao Zhen didn't force him and asked someone to take the white mule down and take care of him. Zhao Zhen turned to discuss with Wu Yong and asked Luan Tingyu to lead all the cavalry to garrison in the north and monitor the Qing army's movements in the new city, while the others searched for useful things in the old city. After all, after more than half a month of fighting, the villagers in the old city of Linqing have now taken advantage of the opportunity to hide in the new city, and some have fled into the wilderness. Those who have not left have been killed by the Qing army. It is said that ten rooms and nine empty houses are not for nothing. Pass.

After arranging the soldiers and religious people, Zhao Zhen asked: "Scholars, do we still want to attack the new city?" Wu Yong said: "Master, although the walls of the new city are made of blue bricks, we have cannons, so there is no risk that we will not be able to attack them. . However, now that the elite Qing troops have retreated into the city, it will be a tough battle. Moreover, most of the wealth in the four counties has been captured, and the gunpowder will be used less. Therefore, Xiaosheng does not recommend attacking the new city if it is not necessary. "

After Zhao Zhen heard this, he couldn't make up his mind for a moment. First of all, he had never fought a siege battle before, and now that he had the opportunity, he would inevitably want to try it. But as Wu Yong said, I'm afraid there would be a lot of casualties. Secondly, after more than half a month of war in Linqing City, there may not be much wealth in the new city, and I am afraid that the gain will not be worth the loss if we capture it.

The two discussed it again, and Wu Yong came up with an idea: "Master, there are a lot of villagers in the new city. After many days of war, there is no shortage of food and grass, and there is probably not enough firewood. Now a lot of clear people have come in." Soldiers are not a small number, so we should concentrate our troops and pretend to be attacking the city. We should concentrate on gunpowder and try to break through the gate of the new city and force the Qing army to abandon the city and flee."

Zhao Zhen nodded and said: "Then give it a try. Pack up supplies today and attack the city tomorrow. Regardless of success or failure, we will leave the day after tomorrow at the latest."

The two of them made a plan and urged everyone to hurry up and search only large houses and shops in the city. This made the process much faster. The found goods were either loaded into trucks or moved onto merchant ships captured by the navy. After everything was tidied up, everyone rested for the night.

On the second day, Zhao Zhen concentrated his troops. More than 300 green battalion soldiers pushed all the cannons and gathered at the west gate of the new city. Wu Sanniang and Li Yao led nearly 400 members of the Qingshui Sect at the forefront. Guang Hui and Chao Gai led nearly two hundred Pu Dao soldiers to the left and right, and Bao Xu led a hundred people from the "Chongfengdu" as the central army. They set up their formation and looked like they were determined to attack the city to the death.

After the soldiers of the green camp adjusted the cannon, there was a sound of drums in Zhao Zhen's camp, and the three mighty and invincible general cannons fired first. "Boom, boom, boom" three times in succession. Unfortunately, none of them hit the city gate. Two shells passed over the city wall. , broke into the city, and none of them even reached the city wall.

Artillerymen clean cannons, reload gunpowder, cannonballs. The remaining ten Folan cannons, thirty split mountain cannons, ten Weiyuan general cannons and five newly captured primary and secondary cannons started running away one after another.

More than forty cannons were fired one after another, and the position of the Green Battalion soldiers was suddenly enveloped in smoke, and the smell of gunpowder smoke filled the entire battlefield. After one round, the gunner quickly cleaned the barrel. Zhao Zhen and Wu Yong stood on the high platform to watch the situation in the city. After so many cannonballs, two iron bullets finally hit the city wall, and the iron bullets from the Pishan Cannon and the Weiyuan General Cannon directly hit the top of the city.

Unfortunately, the Qing troops in cotton armor were not able to kill enough, and they only killed and wounded many civilians on the city wall and green soldiers in leather armor.

After three consecutive rounds, although the city gate was not broken, cracks the size of baskets appeared in several places on the city wall. The Qingshui cultivators, led by Wu Sanniang and the others, moved forward with a clamor, pretending to attack the city. The Qing troops in the city seemed to sense Zhao Zhen's determination to attack the city, and became increasingly restless.

There was another round of cannon fire. Standing on the high platform, Zhao Zhen finally saw that a puma army rushed out of the east gate. Just as Wu Yong expected, the Manchu flag army entering the city wiped out Wang Lun and did not care about the gains and losses of the new city. , once they see that the new city cannot be defended, they will abandon the new city and flee.

There are only two east and west gates in Linqing City. Zhao Zhen gathered his troops to attack the west gate, and the cavalry could only leave the city through the east gate. Wu Yong had already planned this and sent Luan Tingyu and Deng Fei to ambush.

(End of this chapter)