Chapter 458 Huang County, city wall, bleeding, almost dead

According to Zhang Zhun's judgment, the Tatars should be continuing to gather troops and digest the rebels of Dongjiang Town and Denglai at the same time. With the help of the three traitors Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and Geng Zhongming, the Tatars should not take much time to digest these rebels. In other words, the Tatars would not have much time to prepare for Zhang Zhun. Once these rebels were digested, the Tatars would immediately expand their territory.

Among the several famous slave chiefs, Nurhaci was good at military affairs, Huang Taiji was good at political means, but Dorgon was good at military and political means. If it weren't for some special reasons, Dorgon could have become the emperor. He came to rule Dengzhou City, and he was indeed a strong enemy.

Moreover, Zhang Zhun, who came from later generations, knew that Dorgon had always been dissatisfied with Huang Taiji and wanted to surpass Huang Taiji. Therefore, Dorgon's enterprising spirit was even stronger than Huang Taiji. In other words, his attacks on Huang County would definitely be continuous and would not give up easily.

“A lot of Tartars.”

Dong Shuyan said with a frown.

Halfway through, Zhang Zhun gave her a gift, which was a thousand-mile mirror. After arriving in Dengzhou City, she held up the thousand-mile mirror and observed the walls of Dengzhou City back and forth, which felt quite fresh. There were many Tartar sentries on the top of Dengzhou City, so she naturally saw it.

"Um."

Zhang Zhun nodded gently.

Looking at the Qianli Miles, the Tartars had established the defense of Dengzhou City. It can be clearly seen that the Red Cannons and the Folang Machine cannons were placed in different artillery positions. They were staggered and separated. If an enemy forcibly attacked the city, they would inevitably suffer major casualties. Obviously, this was from a professional gunner.

At that time, Sun Yuanhua hired sixteen Portuguese cannon technicians in Dengzhou City to teach his craftsmen the manufacturing technology of cannons and the operation technology of cannons, trained a lot of cannon casting craftsmen, and trained quite a few professional gunners. As a result, Kong Youde rebelled, and these technicians, craftsmen, gunners were all kidnapped by Kong Youde and all were dedicated to the Tartars. From this perspective, even if Kong Youde was cut into pieces, it would be difficult to eliminate the hatred in his heart.

Next to the cannon, there were many sentinels of the Tartars, staring vigilantly outside the city. The shadow of the rebels could not be seen on the top of the city, indicating that the Tartars had completely controlled the place. The original garrisons in Dongjiang Town and Dengzhou City were either sent to the Liaodong area for reorganization, or domesticated in Dengzhou City, and converted into the Tartars' own military force as soon as possible.

"The Tartars are so fast..." Dong Shuyan said with a little complaining.

"It's not that the Tartars are quick, but that we have too many traitors!" Zhang Zhun said coldly.

Dong Shuyan couldn't help but turn her head to look at him.

As a result, what she saw was Zhang Zhun's murderous aura.

"Walk!"

Zhang Zhun shouted lightly and took the Leopard Cavalry Camp away.

They galloped towards Huang County. The road here was a little better. Before nightfall, Zhang Zhun came to Huang County. At this time, the Dragon Cavalry Camp and the Tiger Cavalry Camp had already arrived in Huang County. The local people in Huang County had almost escaped, and the dilapidated streets were empty and there was no sign of people at all. As nightfall fell, there were no other lights except the torches lit by the Hu Ben Army.

"grown ups!"

"grown ups!"

Yang Weiguo and Zhong Wuying both came up to salute.

"good!"

Zhang Zhun nodded and greeted the two of them.

"Give you three days to get familiar with the surrounding terrain."

"You must be familiar with all the terrain from here to Qixia, to Laiyang, to Weihaiwei."

Zhang Zhun said in a deep voice.

"clear!"

"clear!"

Both Yang Weiguo and Zhong Wuying agreed to go.

Soon, the soldiers of the Dragon Cavalry Camp and the Tiger Cavalry Camp began to divide into multiple teams and headed towards the mountains in the southeast. The soldiers of the Leopard Cavalry Camp continued to garrison in Huang County. Except for a few people who were taking care of the horses, a small number of soldiers were on guard on the walls of Huang County. The other soldiers soon fell asleep. After running back and forth for a few days, the road was very difficult to walk. The soldiers of the Leopard Cavalry Camp were indeed exhausted.

Some of the nights did not stop and quietly went forward about thirty miles away from Huang County, closely monitoring the movements in the direction of Dengzhou City. If there was any movement from the enemy, Zhang Zhun would definitely be the first to know. However, considering that the Tartars had just arrived, their primary task was to establish a foothold in Dengzhou City, so they would not immediately launch an attack on Huang County.

Zhang Zhun then launched on-site exploration of the city walls of Huang County. The city walls of Huang County are very old. Huang County and Jimo are both one of the oldest counties in Shandong and have existed since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Due to the long history, the city walls of Huang County are also particularly mottled. The highest place in the city walls is more than four meters, and the shortest place is less than two meters. Some of the city walls are dilapidated and need to be repaired.

Three years ago, during the Dengzhou mutiny, the rebels and the official army fought fiercely in Huang County, causing great damage to the city walls of Huang County. Since then, the city walls of Huang County have not been rested. Three years later, the Hu Ben Army has to fight with the Tatars here again. With the strength of the two sides of the battle, I wonder how many points can the city walls of Huang County be left in the end?

At the beginning, the most fierce battle between the rebels and the official army was the city wall on the west. Looking around, the city wall on the west was very low and most of it was ruined. Fortunately, the Tartars came from the east. However, if there were a large number of Tartars, it would not be impossible to siege Huang County. Therefore, the city wall on the west also needed repairs. Zhang Zhun had ordered the mobilization of migrant workers from Laizhou Prefecture to lead cement and other materials to Huang County to support it.

Due to the lack of solid foundation, most of the city walls in Huangxian are actually not strong enough. Most of the city walls are actually covered with bricks on the outside, and they are actually solid soil inside. If the Tatars also know the blasting technology, they can easily explode the city wall. In addition, the Red Barbarian Cannons of the Tatars are also very effective in destroying the city walls.

Dong Shuyan said with some concern: "Zhang Zhun, all these city walls need to be demolished before they can be rebuilt! How many people need to work?"

Zhang Zhun said disapprovingly: "Tear down? Do you have so much time?"

Dong Shuyan said worriedly: "If you don't remove it? If you increase the reinforcement if you don't remove it, the foundation will be unstable and it will easily collapse."

Zhang Zhun smiled and said, "I don't mean to raise and strengthen the city wall here, I just simply repair it."

Dong Shuyan asked puzzledly: "How can you stop the Tartars' attack if you don't raise the walls? Are you planning to fight against the Tartars?"

Zhang Zhun said confidently: "Look at that time. The defense system I designed is much more effective than a single city wall, and it will definitely make the Tartars constantly bleeding here. If you set up a Ningjin defense line, the Tartars will not come up at all. If the Tartars don't die, how can we defeat them? The most fundamental way to defeat the Tartars is to let them die continuously. When the Tartars die almost, the problem in Liaodong will be solved."

Dong Shuyan looked at him half-believingly, as if she understood what he meant.

Zhang Zhun smiled slightly and came down from the city wall. Then, he turned over and went around Huangxian to inspect. Although it was already dark and the surroundings were dark and there was nothing to see. However, in order to grasp the situation on the battlefield as soon as possible, Zhang Zhun still asked Huang Xian and others to hold a torch and follow him.

The terrain around Huangxian is a relatively slow slope on the east side, high on the west side and low on the east side, and from Dengzhou City to the west, it is an uphill state. The west side is flat ground, with little ups and downs. The south side is mountains and hills are rolling and undulating. The north side is a coast, with relatively flat terrain. Due to frequent wars, many lands are lost, and the weeds in the ground are almost as high as those of Zhangzhun’s knees.

In general, the land around Huang County is suitable for large troops to pass through. However, there is a prerequisite, which is to control Huang County. If Huang County cannot be controlled, it is impossible to advance east or west. In other words, the Tatars' struggle for Huang County is inevitable. Similarly, if the Tiger Ben Army loses Huang County, the Tatars will march straight into and rage the hinterland of Shandong.

After inspecting the surrounding terrain, Zhang Zhun returned to Huang County and set up a command center here.

When I heard that the Tartars arrived, basically all the people in Huang County had escaped. There were only less than a thousand people in the county town, and most of them were the elderly, weak, sick and disabled, so they could not mobilize them to play a role. All the people who stayed stayed in their homes and did not dare to go out at all. The command center chosen by Zhang Zhun was set up in the Fan Family Courtyard in the west of the city.

There is a big family in Huang County called the Fan Family. The Fan Family has a large official named Fan Fucui, who originally worked in Dali Temple. After Wu Zongda retired, Fan Fucui had no idea what luck he had, but was appointed by Chongzhen as the left minister of the Ministry of Rites and the Grand Secretary of the Dongge. He served as the Dali Temple as the Ministry of Justice, entered the cabinet and became one of the major giants in the court.

Fan Fucui's promotion was very rare in the entire Ming Dynasty. Fan Fucui did not have any great achievements. He seemed to be alone in the court and had a very good relationship with anyone. If the court promoted the cabinet ministers, it would not be his turn. However, the fact was that he entered the cabinet. Even Gao Hongtu could not see Chongzhen's true intentions clearly, so he could only sigh that Fan Fucui's luck was really good.
Chapter completed!