Nanming Engineer

Chapter 396
The heads of Darhan and Kuruk were returned to Taiyuan by five Mongolian soldiers who cut off one ear. The heads were mutilated and bloody. After identifying them for a long time, Alai and Zhu Shichang reluctantly recognized that these two heads were indeed those of Taiyuan. The heads of the two generals who had just galloped out of the city a few days ago.

Among them, Kuruk's head even lacked a large piece of skull, his brain was cracked, he filled it with some mud randomly, and then plugged it with tiles. It looks like it was caused by some heavy object.

"This is a fatal injury from iron bullets!" After all, Zhu Shichang was born in the Han family, and he has a much better understanding of firearms than Alai. A bullet would form such an incision on the hard skull!"

A Lai frowned, waved his hands to let his subordinates take their heads down, walked two quick steps in the hall, and then stood still suddenly: "So, the one killed by the Shaanxi soldiers?"

Zhu Shichang fanned his nose with his hand to disperse the pungent smell of blood. He slowly sat down on the Taishi chair and said in a deep voice: "It must be! Those defeated soldiers said it was the rebels in Jinzhong who did it. I No! The rebels are all farmers with hoes. How could He De kill three thousand Mongolian cavalry in the dark night? As the old saying goes, no matter how large a flock of sheep is, it is still a flock of sheep and cannot drown a single wolf!"

A Lai's complexion turned pale, and he became visibly anxious. He walked around the hall a few more times. The confident posture of strategizing a few days ago disappeared without a trace. The sound exposed his disturbed emotions.

Compared with him, Zhu Shichang, an old man, was much calmer. He sat motionless in his chair with his face as usual. Although he was also frowning in thought, he was not as anxious as Alai.

This is understandable, Nikan left [-] Mongolian soldiers in Taiyuan, and lost [-] in one night, why not rush?It doesn't matter if it is lost, but it is so clean and neat. According to the remnants of those missing ears, that night, Kuruk and Darhan led them out of the city to kill the enemy, but they were blocked at the gate of the city for no reason. The sound of cannons was rumbling, and the sound of shouting and killing shook the sky. People who went out were panicked by the cannons, and turned around to go back. The people inside were unknown, so they kept pushing out, squeezing the narrow city gate into a can. Finally, under the double squeeze of the iron bullets and the human body, the city gates made of stone were crushed and collapsed!

Kuruk, who rushed out first, was beaten to death with half of his head smashed immediately. There was no one commanding him outside the city gate. Darhan inside could not get out and could not figure out the situation. Only when the city gate collapsed did the people inside figure it out. Outside the city gate is not Yushan civilian army, but elite Shaanxi soldiers.

At this time, it was all over, and the other three city gates had already been breached. The Shaanxi soldiers used the Niaotong crossbow to open the way and killed them one after another along the street. The Mongolian soldiers' horses could not be deployed in the narrow city. The place can only accommodate three horses in parallel, so facing the Kuizhou army in this way is tantamount to queuing up to die. The stormy lead bullets and arrows shot the brave Mongolian soldiers who rushed up one by one into a sieve.

Like a one-sided massacre, the last few hundred Mongolian soldiers were besieged in the county government in the center of the city. Darhan wanted to surrender, but the people he sent out to negotiate were beheaded and thrown back.

Then the Kuizhou Army brought in several small bronze cannons, which blasted open the county government gate that had been blocked with stones by the Mongols. Then they refused to come in and started setting fire outside.

The poor eagles on the prairie were smoked and burned to death in the ruins of the small town of Taigu. Darhan didn't close his eyes when he was dying. He was unwilling to die in such a useless way.

The death of the rabbit and the fox are sad. Although there are many conflicts among each other, and the tribes often fight each other for life and death, Alai also feels heartbroken and terrified of the death of three thousand compatriots. He asks himself, in that environment, he may end up worse than Darhan and Ku. Luke wasn't much better.

Turning around a few times, Ah Lai saw that Zhu Shichang had started to drink tea, and suddenly became angry, humming and sat down on the chair opposite Zhu Shichang, and said in a muffled voice: "Your Excellency is very interested, don't you worry about it at all?" ?”

"Worried? What are you worried about?" Zhu Shichang slammed his mouth and put down his teacup: "Are you worried that Shaanxi soldiers will break through Taiyuan City?"

Alai said: "Exactly! Taigu's disastrous defeat is equivalent to feeding dog blood to those troublemakers and rebels. Even the heroes on the grassland have been beheaded. What do they have to be afraid of?"

He glanced at Zhu Shichang, the old god, and said: "What's more, the Ming army has cannon! This cannon is a powerful weapon for attacking forts. The Qing army can conquer every city in the Ming Dynasty, and the red cannon is indispensable. If the Ming army had the cannon, Under the city of Taiyuan, my lord, I'm afraid you won't be able to sit so securely now, right?"

Zhu Shichang spat out a piece of tea in his mouth, and shot it unsightly on the ground in the distance with an unsightly "puff". He didn't pay much attention to etiquette in front of this Mongolian official, and then looked at Alai lightly and said: "Your Majesty Alai, you are too worried. Taiyuan is not comparable to the small town of Taigu. The walls of the county town are not as high as the walls of my governor's yamen. How can the Ming army not succeed? The city is so small that the cavalry cannot be used at all, so how can we not be attacked by thieves?" Defeat one by one and kill one by one? Kuruk and Darhan are not unjustly defeated, the Shaanxi soldiers indeed have famous generals in command, but the main thing is that these two men did their own thing and lost."

"But can Taigu compare with Taiyuan? The high walls of Taiyuan city, the horse face of the urn city, and the archery tower of the enemy's tower are complete. They have been reinforced over the years and have never been relaxed. Now they are comparable to the defense of Datong city. What is there to fear? Let alone the city The cannons on the head are complete, twenty stacks of Franco cannons, one cannon, and the cannons are as dense as stars. There are also several cannons in red that Mr. Nikan brought in a few days ago, and they are all placed on the top of the city. The gunners are also experienced hands transferred from Liaodong, and they are definitely much better than those half-baked guys from the Ming army."

"Warriors are nothing more than the right time, the right place, and the harmony of people! We live in the right time, occupy the geography, and don't care about the harmony of people. What's more, we rely on strong cities and sharp guns, and the army of tigers and wolves. Why worry?"

Zhu Shichang said proudly, stroking his white beard several times, with a glowing face and a smile on his face. He looked very proud. He looked not like a defeated army who had just lost three thousand soldiers, but like he had killed three of the opponent's soldiers. The victor of a thousand soldiers.

A Lai stared at him dumbfounded, and felt that something was wrong, but after thinking about it, he felt that what Zhu Shichang said made sense, he was stunned for a moment, and said: "Then, what should we do?"

Zhu Shichang smiled slightly and said, "Wait!"

Alai repeated doubtfully: "Wait?"

"Yes, wait!" Zhu Shichang said leisurely: "When the rebels and the Shaanxi Ming Army come to attack, they have eaten such a large group of Mongolian soldiers. They are impatient and complacent. They will definitely take advantage of the victory and try to take it all in one go. Taiyuan, this is called being greedy and overestimating yourself!"

Alai licked his lips and asked: "Your Majesty, what you are saying is that since the target of the rebels must be Taiyuan, why don't we shrink into the city and wait for reinforcements until the rebels outside the city are tired and relaxed after their attack is ineffective? , take advantage of them and rush out of the city, defeat them in one fell swoop, and then the chaos in Jinzhong can be easily resolved?"

Zhu Shichang looked at him with some surprise. He seemed to be impressed by this thoughtful Mongolian. He nodded slowly and said, "That's right! Mr. Alai is indeed smart, but you should speak less."

Alai was stunned again. He rolled his eyes and thought for a moment. He felt that he had thought of everything he had changed his mind about, so he looked at Zhu Shichang blankly.

Zhu Shichang calmly picked up the teacup, took a sip of the tea, and said leisurely, "Master Alai forgot, the people we sent to Datong for help earlier counted the distance, and this time has arrived. The rebels are exhausted, and if they can eat them, they will eat them. Even if the number of rebels is large and overwhelming, we only need to guard firmly. Anyway, there are hundreds of thousands of grains in the city. Immortal? Hahaha!"

A Lai woke up like a dream, overjoyed, clapped his palms, and laughed along with Zhu Shichang.

Laughter floated out of the roof of the Governor's Yamen, far away.

And on the official road dozens of miles away from this laughter, teams of rebels wearing tattered armor and simple weapons, but numerous in number, are walking along the avenue of the Jinzhong Plain, guided by countless banners, towards the iron wall. Taiyuan City.

The rebels did not hide their movements. The entire marching platoon was several kilometers wide. It was really like locusts passing through the border, or like thieves who fled through several provinces in the early years. It was so dark that even the mighty Mongolian scouts dared not go too far. Approaching, falling and watching from a distance, the news of this black cloud-like flow of people rushing to Taiyuan was spread to the governor's office in Shanxi over and over again.

(End of this chapter)