Mount Tai is the head of the five mountains, the main peak of the Jade Emperor is as high as more than 1,500 meters, it is regarded by the ancients as the way to the throne of the Jade Emperor, it has become the worship of the people, and the sacred mountain of the emperors of the past dynasties to worship the heaven and the earth, there has always been: Mount Tai is safe, then the four seas are safe, which is also the origin of the name of Tai'an City.

Tai'an City is located at the foot of the mountain at the southern foot of Mount Tai, built by the mountain, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. If the enemy wants to attack Tai'an City, the most ideal attack direction is only the south of the city, because Tai'an City is backed by Mount Tai, which stands thousands of miles on the wall, and it is impossible to attack Tai'an City from the north, and the east and west of the city are not conducive to the advancement of siege equipment and the spread of the team due to the terrain.

The weakness of the city is the south gate, but the designers of the city obviously also took this into account, so only the south gate was added to the urn city, so as to make up for this weakness, only a few thousand people can defend this mountain city as impregnable.

Since the county seat of Laiwu was captured by the Ming army, Zhao Quan led the remnants to flee into Tai'an City, and joined up with Wang Tang's troops to defend a solid city, and now the total number of troops in the city exceeds 12,000.

Xu Jin led the army to Taicheng, tried to attack several times to no avail, and also lost hundreds of soldiers, coupled with the cold weather after winter, snowflakes drifted for several days in a row, which greatly increased the difficulty of the siege, so Xu Jin decisively changed his strategy and turned the attack into a trap.

Xu Jin transferred Jinan Wei, Qingzhou Wei, Linqing Wei, Yanzhou Wei, Andong Wei and Xuzhou Wei, nearly 30,000 horses, to surround the east, south and west of Tai'an City, apparently intending to trap the thieves in the city alive.

According to the information provided by the residents who escaped from the city, the number of thieves in the city exceeded 10,000, such a huge number, people ate horses and fed, Xu Jin and the generals estimated that the food in the city could only support until the end of the month at most, and then there was no need for officers and soldiers to attack, and the thieves themselves would collapse.

Fighting a war of attrition like this is not what Xu Jin wants, it is really too dangerous for Tai'an City, and the number of thieves in the city is huge, if it is attacked, the casualties caused are too great, it is really not cost-effective, and it can only be exchanged for victory with time. However, in this way, Xu Jin's plan to return to Beijing before the year ago is afraid to be frustrated.

On the third day of the winter month of the sixteenth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, after a rain and snow, a layer of ice formed on the city wall of Tai'an, and the ice edge on the head of the city was like a sharp blade pointing straight to the sky, and the cold wind blowing in the face peeled the skin and eroded the bones.

Zhao Quan, Xue Bingxin, Qiu Fu, Sun Cai and others are braving the fierce cold wind to patrol the city, urging their subordinates to strengthen their precautions.

Wang Tang was so greedy for pleasure and had no ambitions, but Zhao Quan was relieved, not only did he not blame Wang Tang, but let him continue to enjoy himself, and he silently controlled most of the army in the city. The current Wang Tang is already a dispensable waste for Zhao Quan. Of course, the five protectors under Wang Tang are still loyal to him, and they also command a part of the troops.

"Xu Suzi is really bad, this is going to trap us alive in the city!" Qiu Fu looked at the continuous Ming army camp tents outside the city, and couldn't help but scold.

Zhao Quan's sharp eyebrows were twisted, and after careful calculation, the Ming army had besieged the city for more than 20 days, and the intention was revealed. Now that the price of grain in the city has risen to the sky, there is still no market, the people's hearts in the city are fluctuating, and the law and order are chaotic to the extreme, and the situation will only get worse and worse if this continues.

"Senior Brother Sun, how long can the food in the city last?" Zhao Quan asked in a deep voice.

Sun Cai replied truthfully: "If you save a little, it is estimated that it can last for two months!" ”

Xue Bing hesitated for a moment and said, "Senior brother, many people in the city have starved to death and froze to death recently, if you don't take measures......

Qiu Fu immediately interrupted with a mocking face: "What does Senior Sister Xue want?" Give them the grain, and then we eat the northwest wind? ”

Since the last time he witnessed Xue Bingxin saving Xu Jin in Yuncheng County, and refused to assassinate Xu Jin afterwards, Qiu Fu had a great opinion of Xue Bingxin, and he even suspected that the "beheading plan" outside Xintai City that day failed because Xue Bingxin did not do his best.

Xue Bingxin frowned and said lightly: "I have to find a way to solve it, not to mention that if it goes on like this, there will be chaos." ”

Zhao Quan nodded and said: "Senior Sister Xue is not wrong, there will be chaos if it goes on like this, Qiu Fu, you are responsible for driving those old, weak, sick and disabled out of the city, and the young and strong will stay." ”

The old, weak, sick and disabled are not helpful in defending the city, and it is better to drive out of the city to add some chaos to Xu Jin if they keep the food and waste it.

Xue Bingxin's face changed slightly, and she hurriedly said: "Senior brother, now that it's freezing cold, if you drive them out of the city, wouldn't this be tantamount to taking their lives." ”

Zhao Quan's heart suddenly had an inexplicable irritability, in fact, not only Qiu Fu suspected that Xue Bingxin did not do his best in the "beheading operation" that day, but Zhao Quan also suspected it. Zhao Quan is a gloomy and suspicious person, since he was in Yuncheng County before, Xue Bingxin let Xu Jin go under the pretext of not having a chance to start, he has long accumulated dissatisfaction in his heart, plus he feels that Xue Bingxin has obviously alienated himself since then, and his heart is even more unhappy, so at this time, he suddenly broke out, and scolded loudly: "Woman's benevolence, what situation are you still unclear now?" What's more, didn't you say that Xu Jin is a good official? Since he is a good official, he will definitely settle these women and children, why do you bother with such care! ”

Xue Bingxin was stunned for a moment, it was the first time in her memory that the senior brother scolded herself so loudly, and her speech was obviously prickly, her eyes couldn't help but turn red, and she turned around and ran down the city angrily.

Zhao Quan couldn't help but feel a trace of remorse in his heart, but he was soon replaced by coldness, and the person who became a big thing said coldly: "Senior Brother Qiu, do what I want." ”

Qiu Fu nodded and led people to carry out Zhao Quan's order.

Sun Cai secretly sighed and said, "Senior Brother Zhao, forget it, don't talk about this...... The rich people in the city should still have a lot of grain in their private hiding, so I will take someone to scrape it again, maybe it will last a little longer. ”

Zhao Quan nodded and said, "Go ahead!" ”

Sun Cai took two steps and suddenly stopped, and said, "Senior Brother Zhao, it's not a way to go on like this, it's best to break through while you have the strength." With that, he hurried down the city.

Zhao Quanquan's face was gloomy, he now understood how stupid it was to defend the city and fight with the Ming army, if he could do it all over again, he would definitely not stick to the gains and losses of one city and one pool, but chose to move around to fight, so that he could not only avoid the encirclement and suppression of the Ming army, but also obtain a steady stream of soldiers.

Unfortunately, there is no regret medicine in the world!

Qiu Fu led people to search the city door to door, forcibly took all the old, weak, sick and disabled out of the city, for a time every household cried and shook the sky, thousands of old and weak cried in the ice and snow, wiped their tears and walked to the Ming army camp outside the city.

"How can this be reasonable, these White Lotus demons are really not human, they exterminate human nature!" Looking at the thousands of old and weak people crying and shrinking in the ice and snow, even the hard-hearted people couldn't help but scold.

Xu Jin was also trembling with anger, most of these people who were driven out of the city were elderly people, as well as disabled wounded and children a few years old, most of the children were forcibly taken away from their parents, standing outside the closed city gate and crying heartbreakingly, constantly banging on the city gate, crying to find their parents!

"You can still live if you do evil in heaven, but you can't live if you do evil in yourself!" Xu Jin spit out a sentence coldly, and without hesitation, he ordered these people to be settled, although this will inevitably bring a lot of burden to the Ming army, but Xu Jin really can't let these people fend for themselves.