"Sir, what does this mean?" Su Rui asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"A poem!"

"Poetry? Why do you feel that this poem is a bit inappropriate, but it seems to be a swearing person? Who wrote this poem?" Meng Youcai also continued.

Kong Youde smiled and said, "The person who wrote this poem is called Zhang Zongchang. He is a native of Ye County. He is also a general who leads troops to fight. He is known as the Poet Saint General!"

"Zhang Zongchang? Haven't you heard of it? Is the war very powerful? Are you in this Laizhou City now?"

"That's not, it's mainly because this man's poems are quite famous! But I don't know where he is now!"

"Sir, has he written other poems?"

"Of course, he has written a lot of poems! I'll give you another poem, listen to it: I don't know how many women have. Yesterday, a child called me dad, but I don't know which one is?"

"Hahaha, this person is indeed interesting. If I could meet him, I must ask him for advice. This is the ability to write poetry!" Everyone laughed so hard that they couldn't stop.

They all thought Zhang Zongchang was very fun. He had taken too many concubines, but he could even write a poem. Not to mention, the meaning was indeed expressed, and it was easy to read.

So everyone asked Kong Youde to read more. Kong Youde did not satisfy them again this time, but waved his hand and said, "Okay, okay, now it's a war, all are serious!"

"I think the artillery soldiers are almost ready! If they come down, they can start shooting!" Then he added, "I will tell you slowly after the war is over!"

"I understand!"

This time, Kong Youde did not use the cannons in dispersed manner, but all gathered together. More than ten types of Folang machines were lined up in a row and aimed at the southern wall of Laizhou City. He could bombard quickly with just a command.

This time, the shelling of Laizhou City was mainly to hit Fan Jingwen. Fan Jingwen was afraid that he still couldn't figure out the current situation and wanted to delay with him.

A few days ago, after Fan Jingwen led the remnants of his troops back to Laizhou City, Meng Youcai and Deng Deming surrounded Laizhou City, but the artillery had not arrived yet and did not attack.

Later, even though Su Rui arrived with the artillery battalion, Kong Youde did not let them attack for negotiations.

Some of his kind actions may be in Fan Jingwen's eyes that he felt that he was incapable of taking over Laizhou City, so he was not very concerned about the negotiations.

So now, Kong Youde wants to let him know that he has the ability to take over Laizhou City. If he is too anxious, he will bear a huge price and can take down Laizhou City.

Moreover, he had no way to compete with him when he bombarded Laizhou City by himself, because he didn't have many artillery in his hand.

Fan Jingwen brought nearly 100 artillery pieces to Zhaoyuan. Because of the failure of Zhaoyuan's battle, all the red-clothed cannons were lost, and more than 50 of the Folang machine were lost. In addition, Meng Youcai and Mao Chengfu chased each other all the way, and many were discarded on the way to escape.

Now, the number of artillery in the city, plus the original ones left behind in Laizhou City, should be only twenty or thirty.

In other words, in front of the Shimen Folang machine of the Artillery Battalion, the Folang machine of the Laizhou defenders was not enough to see enough. Whether they dared to fight back was another matter.

Of course, there are nearly 30,000 Ming troops in Laizhou City and tall and strong city walls. If you really want to attack, you will inevitably suffer heavy losses. Therefore, this shelling was just a simple shelling, and you will not really attack the city after the shelling is completed.

If he could raise a stable steadily for another half a year, he might be able to bear the losses caused by forcibly siege, but now, he is definitely not willing to do so recklessly.

But the Ming army, as well as officials, gentry, and people in the city, did not know. They would only think that their rebels were going to attack Laizhou City and had killed 30,000 Fan Jingwen's 30,000 people before. The remaining less than 30,000 people were not sure whether they could hold on, and it would inevitably cause great panic.

Although he didn't plan to really attack the city, he still had to show his posture, which made Fan Jingwen really think that he had made up his mind to fight him to the death.

In this way, Fan Jingwen will inevitably agree to his own conditions as soon as possible to end the war due to the current situation.

Therefore, the soldiers of other battalions have already prepared to siege the city, sharpen their knives and do the work that should be done in normal siege operations, striving to achieve realistic results.

Su Rui came to the artillery position in front and ordered to check each artillery again to ensure that there were no mistakes. He ordered "Send the order and fire the artillery!"

The artillery battalion is all professional artillery soldiers. After a lot of training and actual artillery bombardment, the operation skills are already quite skillful. They control the Flang machine at hand and open fire fiercely at Laizhou City.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Boom boom boom!"

"Boom boom boom!"

As the leads were burned, ten Folang machines roared one after another, and a large piece of solid shells flew towards the south of Laizhou City.

The distance of more than one mile is within the effective range for the Flang machine, but there is no guarantee of accuracy. It only relies on a huge number to kill the Ming army on the city wall.

At this time, the huge sound of cannons had already resounded throughout Laizhou City.

From the peddlers, ordinary people, gentry, merchants, and high-ranking officials, they all heard the long-lost roar.

A month ago, they could hear the loud noise of artillery all day long, but now they heard these frightening sounds, so panic soon spread in Laizhou City.

Although Laizhou City is a strong city, it was besieged by rebels for three months before, but the rebels did not capture Laizhou City, leading it does not mean that they can rest assured.

They all knew very well that the group of rebels outside the city now was not the same group as the rebels who had attacked the city before. Although they were all rebels, there was still a difference.

The previous group of rebels did not have much strength. Governor Fan came to reinforce with his troops and wiped out the rebel general Li N in one day. Before he arrived in Laizhou City, he was so scared that the rebel general Geng Zhongming gave up besieging Laizhou and defended the Hushan area more than ten miles northeast. Ten days ago, it was even more defeated.

Many people understand that the level of the rebels is actually that way. Relying on sharp firearms to do whatever they want, the reason why they have been passively beaten is mainly because their army is too useless.

The ones who really used were General Yang's Tongzhou soldiers and General Peng Shenshou's Shenwu Zuoying, but they didn't have much force at that time, so they couldn't.

Now the rebels outside the city can defeat Governor Fan's troops, and the Tongzhou army also suffered heavy losses. This rebel army is obviously much stronger. They are not sure whether Laizhou City can still be defended this time.

In fact, as early as the second day after the Battle of Zhaoyuan, news came back to Laizhou City, and of course it was all transmitted to the rich family.

Before the last siege, Fan Fucui, the censor who went home to mourn his father, wanted to escape, but the Jingyang and the others were blocked by Zhu Wannian. Even if Yu Dacheng, the then governor of Shandong, ordered it to be useless.

Later, Fan Jingwen led a large army to rescue the siege. Seeing that Fan Jingwen's army was strong and sufficient, he no longer thought about going west and continued to stay in Laizhou City. After all, his family was in Huang County, and when the rebels were eliminated, it would be much more convenient for him to go home.

However, he was not completely relieved and sent a few confidants to infiltrate into the army as civilians so that he could understand the situation of the war at any time. If he was in a lifetime, he would also react in advance. There were many gentry who did the same thing as him.

As a result, Fan Jingwen had just been defeated, and the spies he sent out brought the news back as quickly as possible the next morning. Fan Fucui was also very decisive and immediately decided to go to Jinan to take refuge. If he left late, he would be blocked by Zhu Wannian again.

Although Zhu Wannian didn't know the news of the defeat in front of him, Fan Fucui took his family and went out of the city to the west, which attracted his attention. At the same time, several other gentry families left the city, and they all walked from the west gate. He knew that something might have happened, so he immediately ordered the four gates to be closed and allowed to enter and not leave.

So most of the gentry who wanted to escape did not have time to run away.

Now, Laizhou City has been bombarded again, and shells have fallen into the city from time to time, which has caused a lot of snarls, howling and screaming. Laizhou City has fallen into chaos. Laizhou City is full of panic in the face, but Kong Youde outside the city is enjoying lunch comfortably at this moment.

Although he was a little anxious, he could not show it at this time. He had to be calm enough to force Fan Jingwen to return to the negotiating table.

As the supreme commander of Laizhou City, Fan Jingwen had already known Kong Youde's actions. He was on the way from the governor's headquarters to the south gate, which is Jingyang Gate. He decided to check the situation himself and make a decision.

After arriving at the South City Tower, Yang Yufan came up and reported that "Master Futai, the enemy has concentrated all the artillery two hundred feet away and is firing with all his strength!"

"Let me lead the way, I'll go up to the city wall to see the situation!" Fan Jingwen didn't say anything, but asked Yang Yufan to go up to the city wall with him.

"Sir, never! This move is too dangerous, so don't take risks!"

Xie Lian, the governor of Denglai, also echoed, "Sir, more than a month ago, Xu Futai was also supervising the battle on the top of the city. Unfortunately, he was hit by rebel artillery and was martyred! You must not do such a dangerous move. If something happens to you, this city of Laizhou will lose its backbone! Please think twice!"

"Yes, sir, don't do such a dangerous move! I am willing to observe the situation on my behalf!"

Everyone experienced dissuasion and prevented Fan Jingwen from coming to the city.

They were worried that Fan Jingwen would die on the top of the city like Xu Congzhi.

When Xu Congzhi replaced Yu Dacheng and became the new governor of Shandong, he was committed to suppressing the rebellion. However, in the battle of Xincheng Town, Wang Hong's escape at the last minute led to a defeat and could only defend passively.

However, Xu Congzhi still patrolled the city wall every day, striving to know the enemy's situation well. However, during a routine inspection in early April, the rebels suddenly launched bombardment, and Xu Congzhi was unfortunately hit by a shell and died on the spot.

Later, the governor of Denglai, Xie Lian, took on the major position, joined forces with the prefect Zhu Wannian, Song Zhijun, deputy envoy of Shandong military preparations, Xu Deshi, left-level military supervisors, and other gentry officials Zhang Yi and Fan Fucui, who retired in the city, barely stabilized the situation in the city.

Fortunately, the rebels had no progress in siege for two months, so they shifted their focus to attacking other cities, so they could keep Laizhou City in such a situation.

In the current situation, if Fan Jingwen was unfortunately beaten to death by the enemy like Xu Congzhi, the already critical situation would have been even worse.

However, Fan Jingwen did not listen to their advice and said, "Is Benfu's words useless? Can you replace Benfu to check the enemy situation and plan to make a decision on behalf of Benfu?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone stopped talking. Fan Jingwen, like Xu Congzhi, was a thunderous and decisive person, not an indecisive person like Yu Dacheng, and he didn't need others to take attention for him.

So, Fan Jingwen came to the city under the escort of Yang Yufan and his personal soldiers. The rest of the officials were ordered to stay below, so as not to be completely cut off by the enemy.

After arriving at the city, he glanced at the situation outside the city and asked Yang Yufan, "Why didn't your artillery fight back?"

"Sir, we don't have many artillery on hand now. The enemy's artillery is far better than us. If our artillery is destroyed and the enemy starts to attack the city, it will be even more difficult for us to resist!"

"Fire a gun and fight back, even if you lose some artillery, you must fight back!" Fan Jingwen ordered in an unquestionable tone.

Yang Yufan did not refute his boss, nor did he ask why, but instead faithfully executed the order.

"Boom boom boom!"

Soon, the Ming army on the top of the city also controlled the few artillery and began to fight back.

However, their artillery bombardment soon attracted Su Rui's attention. He did not expect that the Ming army had the courage to fight back and decisively ordered some of the artillery to turn the guns into the guns and aim at the artillery at the city wall.

The artillery soldiers of both sides launched another fierce artillery battle, and the shells kept wasting waste in the air and immediately smashed into the opposite position.

The Ming army was defeated not long ago. Although its morale recovered, it was far less than that of the Tiance Army's artillery. Coupled with the disadvantage of the number of artillery, it was basically at a loss in the whole place.

After almost seven rounds of artillery bombings, two of the Ming army's Folang aircraft were destroyed, and two other artillery mounts were broken up. After being reinstalled onto the artillery mount, it was basically impossible to open fire again.

Although the Tiance Army had two artillery pieces unfortunately hit, the losses were almost negligible compared to the huge number, and projectiles were still pouring out toward the city.

Half a quarter of an hour later, Fan Jingwen spoke, "Yuze, it's almost enough, order to stop firing!"

Yang Yufan faithfully executed the order, and the artillery battle ended in such a hurry.

Su Rui was a little unsatisfied, but Kong Youde did not order the artillery bombardment to stop, so he continued to command the artillery battalion and bombard the city of Laizhou.

At this time, Fan Jingwen also returned to the city wall and sent someone to call Zhang Guochen to come.
Chapter completed!