Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

An hour later, Yao Yuanwai and the local gentry brought a total of more than 700 strong men from their respective families to the county government to gather.Fortunately, they basically hold weapons in their hands.However, the types of these weapons are varied.Even some people only hold farm tools and sticks in their hands.

After a while, Zhou Xun also ran to the county seat with 150 soldiers sweating profusely, and Li Sanhe followed Zhou Xun to the county seat.

However, although Zhou Xun and the others brought thirty heavy firecrackers and ten three-eyed firecrackers.However, they did not bring much gunpowder.Wu Shigong immediately sent people to the entire county to collect gunpowder.However, in the end only a dozen catties were collected.Most of the gunpowder in the entire county has already been bought back by Wu Shigong.

However, in order to strengthen Wu Shigong's long-range attack ability, Xue Yongli asked Zhou Xun and the others to bring fifty bows and one thousand arrows.

Wu Shigong did some calculations, and with these gunpowder, thirty heavy-duty firecrackers and ten three-eyed firecrackers, plus twenty or so medium-sized firecrackers around Wu Shigong's guards, each can fire more than thirty rounds at most. bullet.

Since there is not enough gunpowder, we still have to rely on cold weapons.So Wu Shigong ordered Zhou Xun to divide these strong men into groups of ten.Then let these strong men accept the training subjects when the new recruits first started training weapons.That is: a group of ten people, all armed with long guns, ran ten steps side by side, and assassinated together.

But as soon as the training started, Wu Shigong found something was wrong.None of these strong men had received queue training at all.Therefore, they can't run ten paces side by side at all.

During the training process, these strong men made a lot of fools.Some ran ten steps and didn't become a queue at all; some ran but fell down;

Wu Shigong made an impromptu decision to reduce the number of strong men lined up.But after reducing to five strong men running side by side, it still doesn't work.In the end, Wu Shigong was only able to let the three strong men run side by side, and the assassination took only five steps.In this way, the training can be barely started.

However, Wu Shigong thought to himself: "If these strong men are on the city wall to assassinate those rioters who have just climbed the city wall, these trainings are quite effective."

It was already time for lunch, and Wu Shigong and County Magistrate Qi had no intention of eating. Both of them brought their subordinates to the west wall, waiting for Zhang Biao and the others to come back, wanting to know the details of these rioters.

After looking at Yu for more than half an hour, Zhang Biao finally came back with ten guards.He reported to Wu Shigong: "My lord, I have already found traces of rioters twenty miles west of the county seat. But these rioters are few in number, and they are all busy looting houses in the countryside. They are just a group of scattered soldiers." .”

"Boldly, I led my brothers around these mobsters, and went deeper for about five miles, and found a lot of smoke and dust when people and horses were walking seven or eight miles away. I guess it was a group of mobsters. The small ones dare not go any further. However, judging from the appearance of the smoke and dust, the small ones really have tens of thousands of people in the mob brigade."

"However, I watched it for a while. The group of rioters was not walking fast. It is estimated that they will not be able to reach the county until after noon tomorrow and before evening."

Only one day left.Wu Shigong and County Magistrate Qi glanced at each other, and they immediately discussed how to defend the county on the west wall.The officials and guard leaders at the side also offered their ideas one after another.

After discussing for a while, they decided on the following measures:

The first point is: Immediately implement martial law in the entire county.All residents can only stay at home if they do not get approval, and are not allowed to go out on the street at will.Otherwise, they will be arrested and imprisoned;

The second point is: before dinner, after withdrawing the people outside the city to the county as much as possible, immediately close all the gates of the county and prohibit anyone from entering or leaving the county.If any remaining civilians want to enter the county seat, they can only be hoisted into the county seat with a hanging basket on the edge of the city wall;

The third point is: let Wu Shigong's 700 soldiers and more than [-] strong men, plus the dozen or so people brought by Li Lu, immediately guard each city wall in groups.The magistrate of Qi County will also organize all the young and strong people in the county to gather through the various square chiefs in the county to supplement the power to defend the city;

The fourth point is: Wu Shigong asked Foreman Jiang, who was also trapped in the county town, to immediately survey the next line of defense in the county town. According to this line of defense, demolish the obstructing houses and build a second wall;

The fifth point is: mobilize the young and strong in the county to block up the four city gates with stones and sandbags;

The sixth point is: the magistrate of Qi County immediately arranged for the head of the yamen servants to lead all the yamen servants to start a census of all the households in the county.If there are people who are not in the county, there must be a guarantor.If they are strangers without a guarantor, they will all be imprisoned.

In addition, Wu Shigong and Qi County Magistrate also demanded that all the grain in the county be withdrawn behind the second wall.Moreover, Wu Shigong sent an order to those strong men: "I will evacuate all the family members of the strong men to gather behind the second wall for the best protection. However, if anyone dares to run away, I will first Kill the whole family of the man who got away."

Wu Shigong did this out of helplessness.Before that, Wu Shigong and Qi County Magistrate had already walked around the city wall to look around.

The city wall of this county is no more than three feet high.Because there has been no war in this county for a long time, the city wall has not been repaired for a long time, and it looks very dilapidated.Fortunately, it looks solid so far.

But outside the city wall, the moat surrounding the county seat has long since dried up, and even the dry riverbed has been basically filled with silt.Coupled with the recent drought, the silt has basically dried up.Therefore, the role of the moat and the moat can no longer be achieved.

But from another point of view, this county is not big, if there are nearly a thousand soldiers defending on the city wall, it is barely enough.However, the defensive soldiers also need to rest, and there will be casualties.Therefore, Wu Shigong asked Qi County Magistrate to mobilize all the young and strong in the city to strengthen the defense.

The construction of the second wall is Wu Shigong's old plan to build the fortress of Qianhusuo.In Wu Shigong's mind, not only should the second layer of walls be built, but as long as time permits, a third layer of walls should be built with the county government as the center to form a third line of defense.

Wu Shigong thought about this issue from the perspective of these rioters.The current purpose of these rioters is nothing more than to grab food.However, in this vicinity, the food is basically in the county town and the Qianhusuo Fortress.

If Wu Shigong concentrates the grain in the core defense area of ​​the county, which is behind the third wall.Suppose it takes half a month for these rioters to break through the city wall, and ten days to break through the second wall.As long as Wu Shigong and the others persisted on the third wall for five days, the rioters would have no food supplement for nearly a month.

At that time, even if these rioters got some food in the Zhuangzi near the county seat, the food would definitely not be enough for tens of thousands of rioters to feed for a month.In other words, as long as Wu Shigong and the others persisted for a month, even if they were hungry, they would starve the rioters to death.

Besides, by that time, government offices at all levels in Henan who have received news of the rebellion will also take action, and reinforcements will basically rush to this county to rescue.

On the contrary, Wu Shigong didn't worry much about the defense of Qianhusuo Fortress.Under the leadership of Xue Yongli, an experienced military leader, there are nearly [-] soldiers who have received at least four months of military training for defense. In addition, the fortress of Qianhusuo is dangerous, and there are supplementary men from military households.Then, the combat effectiveness of the defensive forces of the Qianhusuo Fortress will far exceed the combat effectiveness of the defensive forces of the county seat.

Under the threat of the artillery and firecrackers of Qianhusuo Fortress, these rebels may not be able to fill the trench in front of Qianhusuo Fortress within a month, and they can approach the city wall to attack Qianhusuo Fortress.

And Wu Shigong gathered the family members of these strong men and retreated behind the second wall.One reason is of course: to protect the safety of the families of these strong men, so that these strong men can fight on the city wall with peace of mind.

But the more important reason is: nakedly taking the families of these strong men as hostages, forcing these strong men and the rioters to work hard.In order to achieve the effect of holding the county wall for as long as possible.

The reason for Wu Shigong’s last two decisions—blocking all four city gates with stones and sandbags and asking Qi County Magistrate to arrange government servants to search for strangers in the county without a guarantor and imprison them all , that is: Wu Shigong already knew from Li Lu's words and Zhang Biao's inquiries that this rebellion was organized and led by the Holy Spirit.

Wu Shigong still remembered that when he arrived in the small town, Xiao Jie fell ill, so Chang Meng invited Xiao Jie from the small town to be a saint from the Holy Spirit Society.From this point of view, the Holy Spirit Society must have some believers in this county.Now the Holy Spirit will attack this county, why won't they use these believers?

In addition, maybe the Holy Spirit will send some people to sneak into the county while Wu Shigong and the others evacuate the people outside the county.When the rioters attack the county seat, those insiders can cooperate with the inside and outside, open the gate of the county seat, and cause the county seat to fall.

Therefore, Wu Shigong simply blocked the gates of the county town with stones and sandbags.Let these internal responses be within a short period of time, and it is impossible to open the gate of the county seat.

The magistrate of Qi County arranged for the government officials to search and detain the strangers without guarantors in the county, and it was also for the purpose of eliminating the internal response of the Holy Spirit Society as much as possible.

Wu Shigong's estimation was indeed correct.His two decisions were also very timely.Afterwards, after the search by government officials arranged by the county magistrate Qi, a total of more than 100 strangers who entered the county without a guarantor were arrested.

Under the torture and interrogation of experienced yamen servants, a total of more than a dozen internal representatives of the Holy Spirit Society were arrested.Wu Shigong immediately beheaded them all for public display.And some believers of the Holy Spirit Church in the county, after seeing the tough style of the government, did not dare to act again.

By the way, Wu Shigong's last two decisions were made under Shumo's reminder.It seems that although Shumo is timid, timid people always have a very keen sense of smell when saving their lives, and they also have a few tricks to save their lives.

Before dark, the people near the county seat basically evacuated into the county seat, and the city gate was immediately closed and blocked with stones and sandbags.

And Foreman Jiang had already surveyed the route, and led a group of young men recruited from the county town by the magistrate Qi, and began to build the second wall overnight.

Seeing Wu Shigong's arrangement was well-organized, the young and strong in the county also took action.At this time, the hearts of officials, gentry, and every commoner in the county began to settle down.

After receiving the news that the rioters were going to attack the county seat, these people felt for the first time in their hearts that it was indeed possible for Wu Qianhu to lead them to defend the county seat.