On the fifth day of February in the fifth year of Chongzhen, the rebels led by Kong Youde completely surrounded Laizhou Fucheng.

Xu Congzhi, the governor of Shandong, Xie Lian, the governor of Denglai, Zhu Wannian, the prefect of Laizhou, and Yang Yufan, the commander-in-chief of Laizhou, respectively garrisoned the four gates of Laizhou Fucheng, desperately resisting the rebel attack.

Laizhou Fucheng still has the confidence to hold on. This is another Ming Dynasty military town in Denglai. It stores a large amount of ordnance and food. There are also artillery on the city walls, but they are all light artillery and not powerful enough. On the other hand, the attack on Laizhou Fucheng

The rebels have quite sharp artillery.

The battle to defend Laizhou Fucheng was destined to be an extremely brutal battle.

...

On March 25, the imperial court finally sent Zhang Guochen, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, to Shandong to recruit the rebels.

Zhang Guochen was the highest-ranking civil servant among the Liao people. He went to Denglai to appease Kong Youde's rebels, who were mainly Han people from eastern Liaoning. This shows that the court put a lot of thought into it.

At the end of March, Zhang Guochen arrived in Qingzhou and ordered all armies not to launch attacks without authorization, so as not to damage the recruitment situation. This move gave the soldiers and civilians in Laizhou a temporary respite and allowed the rebels to adjust.

In early April, after the rebels received supplies and respite, they launched another attack on Laizhou Fucheng and other cities in Laizhou. Zhang Guochen's attempt to recruit them failed.

Because Xu Congzhi, the governor of Shandong, was besieged in Laizhou Fucheng, the reinforcements mobilized by the imperial court gathered in Qingzhou and were at a loss as to what to do, neither attack nor retreat.

On the sixth day of April, Liu Yulie, the right minister of the Ministry of War, was appointed governor of Shandong. He was fully responsible for the suppression of the rebels and commanded all armies.

This Liu Yulie also advocated appeasing the rebels. After arriving in Qingzhou, he did not fully organize an attack.

On April 10th, Liu Yulie was bewitched by the rebels and believed that Kong Youde and others were being appeased by the imperial court. However, they were attacked by the rebels and lost five Hongyi cannons and many other artillery pieces brought from the capital.

On April 16, the unfortunate news came that Xu Congzhi, the governor of Shandong Province, was hit by rebel artillery in Laizhou City and died heroically.

On the fifth day of May, the emperor sent Liao general Sun Yinglong to appease Kong Youde. Unknown to him, Sun Yinglong took a boat from Tianjin to Laizhou and was directly killed by Kong Youde.

There was a rebellion in Leap November in the fourth year of Chongzhen. By May of the fifth year of Chongzhen, in just seven months, the number of rebels under Kong Youde increased to more than 20,000, and they continuously captured many prefectures and counties in Denglai, playing tricks on the court.

As a result, the rebels' arrogance became even more arrogant. Trying to surrender at this time was tantamount to wishful thinking.

...

In the wing room, Wu Zongrui's face looked a little green.

Starting from February, the Qingzhou government office began to turn around. Zhang Guochen, Liu Yulie and others arrived one after another. They were all imperial envoys sent by the imperial court. The sergeants dispatched from various military posts to assist Denglai also began to assemble in Qingzhou.

Wu Zongrui didn't have to spend much thought to welcome these imperial envoys, but it was very troublesome for Wu Zongrui to arrange the sergeants who were drawn from various garrison posts to rush for reinforcements. These garrison sergeants had no combat effectiveness at all. To put it bluntly, they had no fighting ability at all.

They were no match for the rebels. After these sergeants arrived in Qingzhou, they spent the whole day clamoring about replenishing food and grass, without even thinking about actually fighting.

The food and grass allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War arrived late, which made Wu Zongrui very anxious and embarrassed.

Wu Zongrui's main responsibility is to allocate food and grass to the various reinforcements. The army's supplies are allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War and transported from North Zhili and South Zhili. Almost all of them are transported to Qingzhou Fucheng. As the prefect of Qingzhou, Wu Zongrui

Responsible for allocating food and fodder to maintain the expenses of the army that came to the rescue. This was a job that everyone envied. With the power in hand, one could withhold food and salary without any scruples. This became a common practice, and no one would investigate specifically.

However, Wu Zongrui was not too hot-headed yet. He put Zeng Yongzhong in charge of this matter and made sure to allocate the grain and grass according to the rations. When Zeng Yongzhong allocated the grain and grass, he clearly told the quartermaster who rushed to the reinforcements that if he dared to disturb the people in Qingzhou, the grain and grass would be released.

Disbursements were delayed and rationed grain and grass could not be disbursed.

This method has worked very well. Several months have passed and Qingzhou is basically stable.

You must know that during this period in history, Qingzhou was plundered and was in a state of collapse. The soldiers who came to rescue the army behaved like bandits, causing heavy losses to the surrounding farmers and people.

However, occasionally there were still individual sergeants who robbed the people. When Wu Zongrui learned about it, he mercilessly cut off all the food and grass supplies to his army. In the end, Governor Liu Yulie came forward to coordinate and the matter calmed down.

Dealing with these things is too tiring and requires a lot of energy and physical strength.

Wu Zongrui also needs to consider the matter of Xinyi Escort.

There are a large number of sergeants in the Xinyi Guards. In order to avoid accidents, starting from March, except for the sergeants with escort tasks, the rest are not allowed to leave the military camp for even half a step to avoid being discovered by the outside world. At this time, the Xinyi Guards must keep a low profile.

Liao Wenru and Liu Ning entered the wing at the same time.

Seeing Wu Zongrui's somewhat blue face, seeing the exhausted Zeng Yongzhong, Liao Wenru and Liu Ning were at their wits' end.

They are also worried that Qiao Mingjun has been lurking beside Kong Youde for several months. When will he be able to take action? The rebels are so arrogant at this stage that Qiao Mingjun will definitely not be able to take action.

"Sir, the imperial court needs to allocate the follow-up food and fodder. Otherwise, there will be no food and fodder allocated for up to ten days."

Wu Zongrui looked at Zeng Yongzhong and sighed.

"Sir, don't be too anxious about the allocation of food and grass. Don't look at the noise of the officers at the guard station. In fact, they are not short of food at all. They are just too greedy. There are 5,000 sergeants coming to rescue them, but in fact they are 3,000.

No, the officers at these guard stations are so courageous that they dare to take advantage of their free pay at such a critical moment."

"I just sigh for the emperor and the court. Letting these guards troops come to support Dengzhou and Laizhou will have no effect except consuming more military pay and food."

Zeng Yongzhong nodded, he also knew these situations.

"Sir, I see that the emperor and the court are not thinking about annihilating the rebels at all. What they are still thinking about is appeasement."

"Sir, you are right. The imperial court still focuses on appeasement. The ministers in the court are so superior that they have no idea about the fighting situation in Dengzhou and Laizhou. No one dares to tell the truth to them. Anyway, there is nothing wrong with advocating appeasement.

You don’t need to bear any responsibility. After the Battle of Daling River, the main militant faction in the DPRK and China suffered a heavy blow. Who doesn’t want to protect themselves? Whoever strongly advocates the annihilation of the rebels at this time will have to bear all the consequences if the war situation is unfavorable.

responsibility."

Wu Zongrui sighed slightly.

"Master Sun Chengzong has taken responsibility for this and was forced to retire and return home. Who else in the court dares to say that his qualifications are more profound than Mr. Sun Chengzong."

Liao Wenru on the side couldn't help it anymore.

"Brother, are you just watching the rebels become so arrogant, watching them attack Laizhou City, and watching them slaughter places? If this continues, Dengzhou and Laizhou will be completely finished..."

Wu Zongrui looked at Liao Wenru, with a wry smile on his face.

"Wen Ru, after so many years, do you understand that in the first year of Chongzhen, the Shaanxi bandits rebelled? At the end of the second year of Chongzhen, the Tatars of the Later Jin Dynasty entered the customs and attacked Yongping, Zunhua, and ravaged Northern Zhili. Last year, the Daling River City War

war, this year's Denglai mutiny, which time will the emperor and the court be able to deal with it calmly?"

Liao Wenru was a little anxious and looked at Wu Zongrui.

"Brother, I really don't understand why this is happening."

Not only Liao Wenru, but also Zeng Yongzhong, Liu Ning and others looked at Wu Zongrui.

Wu Zongrui patted the table gently and spoke slowly.

"Because the roots of the Ming Dynasty are rotten. The civil and military ministers of the DPRK and China only think about their own interests all day long and don't care about the world at all. Haven't you noticed that the chaos is basically in the north, and the south is relatively stable, but...

Most of the adults in the court are from the south, so how can they care about the affairs of the north."

"You didn't pay special attention to some of the words in Lu Faxuan's letter. During the Denglai mutiny, the Ministry of Revenue mobilized grain and grass from South Zhili several times, but all ended in vain. There was no news about the troops mobilized from the south. This time it was

So, this was not the case before. When I was the governor of Huai'an Prefecture, I paid special attention to water transportation. At many critical moments, water transportation always had problems. Either it was not possible to mobilize enough food, or there were problems in the waterway. Looking back now,

I'm afraid someone is deliberately causing trouble."

...

Zeng Yongzhong and others were stunned, they really had not thought of this.

Wu Zongrui waved his hand.

"Okay, let's not talk about it anymore. Sooner or later, the Denglai mutiny will attract the attention of the emperor and the court. It is a matter of time to quell this disaster. It is a pity that Dengzhou and Laizhou have suffered such a disaster and cannot recover in a short time.

Now, this was once a military base and an important military town for the imperial court. It was also the eastern gate for the imperial court to respond to the invasion of the post-Jin Tatars. Now this gate may be completely open. If Dengzhou and Laizhou and other places cannot recover quickly, then the fall of Pidao

, is just around the corner, and by that time, the Later Jin Tatars will have no worries."

"Wenru, Liu Ning, and the sergeants of the Xinyi Police Department must not relax their training at all. The area more than a mile in front of the Xinyi Police Department headquarters is the base camp for this food and grass hoarding. No one is allowed to approach, otherwise they will be killed without mercy, so no one can

We will find you, so you don’t have to worry too much.”

"I think the situation may change a little. Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and others have gone crazy. They are too arrogant. If God wants people to perish, it must let them go crazy first."

"Xinyi Chief must be prepared. Qiao Mingjun has been lurking beside Kong Youde for a long time, sending a steady stream of information. He must be anxious. Wenru sent scouts to Dengzhou Fucheng and told Qiao Mingjun to calm down and don't be anxious.
Chapter completed!