I

  Chapter 138 136 [Saturation Dedication]

  Outside the city, the barracks.

  Government Secretary Liu Fang walked into the commander's account and handed a letter to Zhao Han: "General town, Fucheng urgent report."

  Zhao Han opened the letter, read it and put it down, frowning thoughtfully.

  No one dared to speak out, thinking that something big happened in Fucheng.

  Zhao Han thought for a while, and seeing the serious atmosphere in the account, he smiled and said, "What are you doing?"

  Xiao Huan couldn't help asking: "But there are people in Fucheng who are in chaos?"

"It's not that people are in chaos," Zhao Han sighed. "It's that many homeless people are farmers who lost their land and went to the city. They heard that they can divide their fields, and now they are clamoring to go back to the countryside. Once these people leave, the city will be destroyed." If it is paralyzed, the pier may not even find a coolie."

  Xiao Huan suddenly smiled and said: "Congratulations to the town, congratulations to the town!"

   "Speak if you have something to say, fart if you have something to say, you don't have to f*ck around me." Zhao Han couldn't help laughing and cursing.

  Xiao Huan quickly said: "The homeless people in the city are eager to return to their hometowns. Don't they all want the general town, thinking that the general town can win the country? This is what the people want!"

   "Congratulations to the town, congratulations to the town!" Civil and military officials shouted.

Zhao Han was not in the mood to accept their flattery, because he said: "Cities around the world rely on homeless people to operate. Many homeless people have multiplied in cities for generations. Although they have no household registration, some are hawkers, some are coolies, some are The city cannot do without them. These people are clamoring to go back to the village to divide the land, and it is not good to agree, and it is not good to not agree. This is a big problem."

  Xiao Huan also became serious, and thought carefully: "It's better to issue two types of household registration, one for urban household registration and the other for rural household registration. Only rural household registration can divide the land."

  Zhao Han shook his head and said: "One person's wisdom is short, and everyone's strengths are considered. This matter needs to be brainstormed and discussed in detail in a future meeting. Today, let's discuss how to attack the city."

  Huang Yao said: "Jishui County is so big, how can more than a thousand townsmen be able to defend it? First pretend to attack a few places, and then send people to attack other places and beat them down!"

   "There must be a lot of casualties." Zhao Han said.

   "How can anyone survive in a war?" Huang Yao muttered.

  Zhao Han smiled. He was not afraid of death, but he felt it was worthless to die in a siege.

   Jishui County is even more difficult to attack than Ji'an Prefecture.

  The Ganjiang River is to the west and the Enjiang River is to the south. The terrain outside the city is very narrow. Fortunately, the defenders did not have bows and arrows, otherwise they would not be able to display their troops at all. In that case, they would have to land and attack from a ship.

The east side is still close to Taiping Mountain. If there are three thousand regular troops in the city, two thousand will be used to defend the city, and one thousand will form a stronghold at the foot of the mountain. .

   During the Zhengde period, a city was built here, and the earthen wall became a masonry wall.

   In the second year of Tianqi, Urn City was built outside the city gates, making it impossible to enter from the city gates.

  Really, even if there were 500 regular troops in the city, Zhao Han would not dare to show off his might. The city wall here is 5.5 meters high and 4.6 meters thick, which is more terrifying than the city wall of Fucheng. No wonder the gentry fled here!

  It’s just a county seat, so it’s necessary to make it so luxurious?

   "Can I... a villain talk?" Zhong Xingpu, who was so frightened that he wet his pants, couldn't hold back his desire to commit crimes and make meritorious deeds.

   "Let's talk," Zhao Han said with a smile, "Bringing you to discuss the matter is to let you tell more about the situation in the city."

  Zhong Xingpu shrank his head and said: "In fact, there is no need to attack by force, just build siege equipment every day. If you spread the Tianzheng of the rebel army, at most ten days and a half months, someone will open the door to offer the city."

   "Why is this so?" Xiao Huan asked.

Zhong Xingpu explained in detail: "There are twenty-eight gentry families who have fled into the city. Each family has at least seven or eight people, and as many as twenty or thirty people, with maids and servants, and money and food accumulated by several generations. Wealth. There are more than a thousand townspeople, most of these townspeople are from good families, and the whole family has fled to the city, and they don't know how the rebel army is doing. "

   "People are not in harmony?" Xiao Huan asked.

"It's not just that the hearts of the people are not in harmony," Zhong Xingpu said. "Nearly ten thousand people with their families and children poured in at once. These days, there are constant disputes every day. We only need to surround the city. The gentry and the rich have enough food, but the city The small and medium-sized people are suffering, and the grain merchants will definitely take the opportunity to raise prices. There are also vegetables and meat, which cannot be transported in."

  Zhao Han has already understood.

  The enemy in the city is the reactionary forces headed by twenty-eight gentry families and supplemented by more than a thousand good families. Not only did they come by themselves, but they also brought their families and even servants with them. The total population of all kinds was nearly ten thousand.

  The gentry couldn't live a hard life, and the good families followed suit. Nearly 10,000 people couldn't be resettled, so they simply occupied the magpie's nest and drove many residents out of the city.

  Why are nearly 10,000 people fleeing, but only more than 1,000 villages defend the city bravely?

  Because they brought too much property, they not only had to guard against enemies outside the city, but also had to guard their homes to guard against robbery in the city.

  It’s good that there are no bandits besieging the city. Once the city is besieged, all conflicts will erupt inside. Especially the original residents of the city, those hooligans in the city, have long hated the outsiders in their hearts, and they may set fire to robbery someday.

   Moreover, the gentry also had conflicts with each other. In the past, there were feuds caused by robbing water and fields.

   "Let's continue to siege the city, and the siege equipment must be stepped up," Zhao Han said with a smile, "You can't just expect chaos in the city."

   Two days later, the city began to run out of supplies.

  What is missing?

   Firewood!

   As you can imagine, the whole city was cut off from gas supply by Zhao Han.

  Some residents who did not have enough firewood reserves began to dismantle the door panels to cook on fire, and one door was enough for them to burn for several days.

   There were gangsters making trouble one after another, Zhou Ruixu simply distributed money to recruit soldiers, and organized all the jobless people in the city into a city defense army, and the city defense force was close to 3,000 at once.

  Seeing that there are more and more guards on the city wall, Zhao Han is not only not worried, but even happier.

   Twenty-eight families of gentry command the bravery of the country, already chaotic enough, and now they are temporarily recruiting soldiers in the city-don’t they die fast enough?

   "Call out!" Zhao Han ordered.

   More than a dozen missionary officers, holding paper trumpets, stepped forward in turn to shout.

   "Old cousins ​​in the city, don't give your life to the landlord. How much food can you get as a soldier? Mr. Zhao is here, everyone can share the land!"

"Listen, brothers and sisters. Mr. Zhao used to be a slave, and Mr. Zhao's personal soldiers are called Nuerjun. Mr. Zhao said that no more slaves are allowed in the future. As long as you open the city and surrender, the slaves can return to the village to distribute Tian. For those who are willing to join the army, Mr. Zhao’s personal soldiers are also recruiting people, and they will be given good rice for a month and a half stone!"

   "Mr. Zhao said that the night raids to kill farmers a few days ago only killed the chief culprit, not the soldiers!"

"Listen, good families in the city. Some of you are small landlords, and some are self-cultivating farmers. Some of you come from big clans, but you can only get monthly money, and you have no land at all. Help the big landlords fight, and you can exchange for What? Mr. Zhao will not take your land, but will also reduce your taxes and taxes, and will not charge any exorbitant taxes in the future!"

   "..."

  As the main force defending the city, those more than a thousand brave men were shaken in an instant.

  What is a good family?

  In fact, they are self-cultivating farmers and small landlords, and only a few come from large landlord families that have not yet been separated.

  They were brainwashed by the big landlords, saying that the thief Zhao had come and wanted to confiscate everyone's land, and they would be killed to divide the land, so they fled to the county with the gentry and their families.

  Since Zhao Han doesn't divide their fields, and wants to cut taxes and taxes, and slaughtering farmers is only to kill the culprits, then they are still guarding the city?

  Perhaps, a well-known son of a good family is unwilling to be a thief for the sake of the imperial examination. But those without fame have no psychological burden, and they are even more afraid of being killed by rebels after breaking through the city.

  As for the newly recruited young men in the city, they are even more eager to move.

  They belong to the local residents of the county seat and join the army purely for money. If you can go to the countryside to divide the fields, the military pay given by the gentry is nothing!

   "Don't listen to rumors," Zhou Ruixu yelled hastily, "The rebels are cunning, they keep their promises, once the city is broken, the rebel army will kill everything in the city!"

  The other gentry also restrained their subordinates one after another, and they just said a few words back and forth, saying that the anti-thief's words were not credible.

  However, the defenders on the tower could not help pricking up their ears, wanting to hear what the rebels had to say.

   Anyway, there is nothing to lose, and it doesn’t cost money to listen to it.

   "Listen up, old cousins. Mr. Zhao has come to Fucheng twice, and the south of the city is still bustling. Mr. Zhao has kept his word and never looted and burned. The homeless people in Fucheng are all waiting for their land to be distributed!"

"We are teachers of benevolence and righteousness. The residents who were driven out of the county were all resettled by Mr. Zhao. The houses built near the city, Mr. Zhao demolished and attacked the city, and there was compensation for that. You can see it even if you are not blind. .”

   "..."

  The city defenders looked at each other, wanting to find out what other people were thinking, but they didn't dare to defect to the enemy first.

  The people who were resettled and demolished houses were also organized by the missionary officers to appeal to the city to explain their situation, which further enhanced the credibility of the propaganda.

  Xiao Huan praised: "The general town's plan is brilliant, attacking the city is the bottom, attacking the heart is the top, how can the soldiers in the city have the heart to resist?"

   "Most of them were originally deceived," Zhao Han said with a smile, "Except for those big landlords, how could I have treated good families badly?"

   East of the city.

  Li Musheng said in a low voice: "Brother, do it. If you don't do it, these brave men will rebel."

   "Wait a little longer," Li Chun'an said, "When the rebels start attacking the city, we will turn against the enemy, and we will surely seize the door and sacrifice the city with ease."

Li Musheng said: "Looking at this, the rebels haven't planned to attack the city yet, and they will probably shout for several days. I'm afraid that if they shout and shout, Xiangyong will sacrifice the city spontaneously, and we will lose the merit of dedicating the city by then." .”

   "Wait a little longer, wait a little longer." Li Chun'an felt that it was too dangerous, and was afraid that half of Xiancheng would be killed by the gentry.

   "Kill!"

  Suddenly there was a shout of killing from the north of the city.

  Li Musheng was shocked: "Brother, I'm afraid the Liu family has dedicated the city, we are already one step too late!"

   "These **** surnamed Liu were still gnashing their teeth at the rebels yesterday." Li Chunan was furious.

   "Don't talk so much, it's important to sacrifice the city to grab credit." Li Musheng said anxiously.

  While they were talking, a section of the city wall near them, the gentry of the Zou family suddenly shouted: "My sons and daughters, the court is not benevolent and unrighteous, and they all follow me!"

  The Zou family is also a big family. There is an ancestor named Zou Shouyi, Wang Yangming's favorite disciple, the Jishui Zou family moved from Anfu County.

  Li Musheng became even more anxious, and suddenly raised his sword and shouted: "My uncle is a rebel... He is Mr. Zhao's high-ranking official. Come and kill the official and rebel with me. From now on, he will surely seal his wife and son!"

   In the blink of an eye, three of the twenty-eight gentry families defected, all of whom were not stained with the blood of the peasants that night.

   These guys are not sincerely following the thief, but out of the consideration of continuing the family. At this moment, the morale of the army is floating, how can they defend the city? Then simply do it in advance and save your own people.

  The three gentry families in the district, in terms of quantity, naturally cannot beat the remaining twenty-five families.

  But there were more than a thousand recruits temporarily recruited in the city, and they turned against each other under the leadership of several gangsters and workshop leaders.

   The soldiers who turned against the city have surpassed the soldiers who defended the city!

Zhong Xingpu hurriedly rushed out of the city, snatched the cardboard trumpet from the missionary officer, and shouted loudly: "Father, brother, I am Xingpu. I have already surrendered. Hurry up anyway, don't let the Zhong family have The catastrophe of extermination!"

  Zhao Han looked at the messy city wall, smiled and said, "Siege the city."

  (end of this chapter)