These thieves were originally rogue bandits, and there were three things that were most important to them: the horses to escape, the weapons in their hands, and the food in their mouths. These three were all life-saving things, so when everyone saw them offering food,

The matter will no longer be pursued.

Zhang Shun was happy to have some leisure since then, and took the opportunity to observe the tactics of attacking and defending the city. This time, the two battalions following "Zijin Liang" were still the "Lao Hui Hui" and "Ba Jingang", and most of their subordinates were Shaanxi frontier troops.

They were soldiers who rebelled at the garrison, so although they looked dusty and thin, they actually had very good combat skills and basic tactical qualities.

The rebel army claimed to have 30,000 people, but in fact, excluding family members, old and young, the actual number of combatants was only about 15,000. They surrounded Douzhuang, a city with a circumference of 1,008 steps, and it was almost watertight and airtight.

No bird can fly out. But this fortress is very tall, almost as high as a three-story building in later generations. There are also urns at the east, west, north and south gates, which is really difficult to capture.

There were not many people defending the Douzhuang city wall. At a rough look, there were only a few hundred people. However, the opponent had a good location and firearms, and the city was not very big in the first place. As a result, although the number of rebels was large, they were unable to spread out.

The formation, taking advantage of the large number of people, can only use the tactics of adding fuel and launching attacks in waves. This is what people often say when playing games in later generations, "The gourd boy saves grandpa."

Zhang Shun didn't understand the method of siege. He changed his location and couldn't think of a way to break the fort. To be honest, in Zhang Shun's opinion, unless there were cannons that directly destroyed the city walls or blasted through the gates, there was really no way to attack the city.

Find a way to capture this fort.

Zhang Shun watched for a long time and found that the rebels had been repelled several times. He was grateful that he had given up part of the food in exchange for avoiding the attack on the city, so that his soldiers did not lose their lives in vain. While shaking his head secretly, no wonder "The Art of War by Sun Tzu"

" said: The method of attacking the city is a last resort. It will take three months to repair the oars, Benwen, and equipment, and it will take another three months to get to the ridge. The ants will be overwhelmed by their anger and kill one-third of the soldiers.

If the city is not taken out, the attack will be a disaster.

This siege method is the worst of the worst, but this ant attack is even worse. The only safe way is to make complete siege equipment, and try it slowly. I don’t know if Song Tongyin, the governor of Shanxi, will give this opportunity.

.

The rebels tried again, leaving dozens of corpses behind. Seeing the low morale of the "Purple Gold Liang", they had no choice but to order a postponement of the siege and prepare siege equipment for a long-term plan. Song Tongyin, the governor of Shanxi who Zhang Shun thought was the greatest threat to them, was actually also

The hemp stalk beats the wolf and is afraid of both sides.

Although Shanxi is one of the nine border towns, it is actually a second-tier border town. Unlike Datong and Xuanhua, which directly face the threats of Mongolia and Manchu Qing, it is more of a support and backup for the second town of Xuanda. Therefore, the soldiers of Shanxi Town

The quality of the generals was far inferior to that of the other eight towns, but elites had to be left behind to defend against threats from the north. Therefore, Shanxi Governor Song Tongyin could not mobilize many troops, not to mention that the peasant army was not only concentrated in Zezhou at this time.

For example, those from the Luliang Mountains who crossed the river from Shaanxi included Wang Gang, He Dicao, Bao Wu, Short Haired Son and other bandits. But there were even more bandits from the Taihang Mountains. The thirty-sixth battalion brought by the "Zijinliang" basically

They are scattered in the Taihang Mountains, waiting for opportunities to attack cities and seize territory. It is really impossible to guard against them.

In the Ming Dynasty, the full name of the governor of Shanxi was Admiral Yanmen and others who also patrolled Shanxi. He unified the Hebei and Ning Bing Bei Road, Yan Ping Bing Bei Road, Kelan Bing Bei Road, Hedong Bing Bei Road, Lu'an Bing Bei Road, and Ning Wu Bing Road.

There are six roads of preparation, the four prefectures of Taiyuan, Pingyang, Lu'an and Fenzhou of Shanxi Province, the three prefectures of Liao, Qin and Ze, the nine castles of Taiyuan and left and right of Shanxi Dusi, Qinzhou and Ninghua.

It seems that he has many soldiers and generals, strong men and horses, but in fact, the three passes of Yanmen, Biantou and Ningwu cannot be moved first. They are the core passes of Shanxi to guard the north; followed by the three passes of dependence

The various guards and castles cannot be moved.

The remaining Fenyang Guards and Pingyang Guards are to be used to defend and exterminate bandits near Luliang Mountain. They can only mobilize troops from the Taiyuan Guards, Luzhou Guards and Ningshan Guards. According to the Ming Dynasty system, the maximum number of people per guard is 5,000.

Six hundred people. In fact, the guard system in the late Ming Dynasty was ruined. It would be good if one guard could have two to three thousand capable soldiers, not to mention that some soldiers should be left behind to guard key points. Therefore, Song Tongyin, the governor of Shanxi Province, actually had the available soldiers.

It's only about ten or twenty thousand.

"Purple Golden Liang" plus "Lao Huihui", "Eight King Kong" also has one or two thousand capable soldiers, so Shanxi Governor Song Tongyin also has to wait for the opportunity, and it is not uncommon to accidentally lose the battle, not to mention "Purple Golden Liang"

There were also bandits from other camps under his command, ranging from two to three thousand to more than ten thousand. If they were to join forces to attack Song Tongyin, he, the governor of Shanxi, would be in trouble, so he couldn't help but be careless.

"Zijinliang" himself led "Lao Huihui" and "Eight King Kong" to make siege equipment. Zhang Shun also received a task of casting artillery. As for how to cast artillery, Zhang Shun didn't understand at all, he only had some understanding.

What's more, he learned a famous "iron mold cannon casting" technology in history class. This technology was also mentioned in the online novels he read in his previous life. However, Zhang Shun glanced at it at that time and didn't read it seriously at all. He only remembered that he seemed to use this

Cannons cast by this method will reduce performance, but can speed up the casting time.

But Zhang Shun is not worried. This is Yangcheng. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was even claimed that iron output accounted for 90% of Shanxi. There was also a saying that "iron is cheaper than mud", which shows how prosperous the Yangcheng iron smelting industry was. As mentioned before

Runcheng, not far from here, is a famous iron smelting town, and its iron products are sold well all over the country.

So, Zhang Shun summoned Liu Gang and asked him about casting matters. Despite his age, Liu Gang was very proficient in iron making and casting. Zhang Shun secretly took a careful inventory of the available manpower under his command, and surprisingly

He discovered that: apart from Wu, most of the useful people under his command were old men. Not to mention the "passed" Taoist Master Ma, Zhao Yutou, Chen Jindou, and even the captive Zhang Shenyan were all old men. Could it be that except for himself,

In addition to being born with different appearances, is it possible to have the aura of an old man?

In fact, this is Zhang Shunduo's overthinking. Agricultural society has not developed scientific thinking methods, and is still dominated by empirical science. Most of these older people are experienced people, so in ancient times, there was the concept of "respecting the elderly"

Said. This is not just "respecting the elderly", but also respecting knowledge, culture, and intellectual experience, rather than advocating force and being simple-minded and muscular.

Of course, in some barbaric places where the strong bully the weak and the masses are violent, the young and the strong are mostly the targets, and the old are mostly discarded. This also shows that these places are barbaric and uncivilized, living in the skin of civilization.
Chapter completed!