A hole had been dug in the wall, and two auxiliaries had dug into the hole to continue digging.

"Get out of here!" One of the soldiers shouted.

The auxiliaries pushed the blazing cart and pushed it back desperately. The fire scorched the heat in the car, and before it could fully reach the range of the Qing army, the auxiliaries and soldiers in the car fled from the burning car. At this time, a flurry of arrows rained down at the head of the city, and the soldiers who were protected were safe and sound, but more than a dozen auxiliary soldiers fell halfway.

The blazing carts were abandoned under the city, and soon they were burned down and turned into a bonfire.

The tiger squat cannon on the well of the Ming army did not dare to fire shotguns at this time, for fear of hurting their own people digging in the cave under the city, so they could only attack with solid bullets, and the effect was not good; The archer on the nest car also had a sore arm because of suppressing the opponent for a long time, and he could no longer release his arrows. At this time, a platoon of birds stepped forward, hiding behind the well and the carts that had not been pushed forward, and with the help of thick wooden planks, they stretched out the barrels of their guns from time to time, and opened fierce fire on the city, and the deadly projectiles flew towards the city.

White smoke filled the air, and the Qing soldiers behind the female wall who were shooting arrows kept getting shot.

The bird-gunners took turns firing, but they also formed a continuous fire support, and the Qing soldiers and archers were scattered at the head of the city.

"Dig it!" The auxiliaries who were digging in the cave stretched out their iron pickaxes and waved them in front of their phalanx, indicating that they had dug the cave.

Wang Xinyu ordered his own soldiers: "Let the cart with the gunpowder box in it be pushed up!" Pay attention to protection and don't let the Tartar oil canisters and rockets hurt! ”

"No!"

The flags in the hands of the soldiers waved and gave the order to the carts behind them to attack.

War drums roared, flags danced, and a cart with a powder box hidden in it was pushed up by the soldiers.

The bird gunner fired desperately, and the archer on the nest car also moved his arm slightly, and continued to open his bow and arrows, shooting the Qing archers who had the best archery and the greatest threat to their own side.

Despite being suppressed by heavy firepower, the Qing army at the head of the city still resisted stubbornly, and arrows and stones fell like hailstones and smashed on the roof of the car, but they could not cause any damage to the Ming army in the car. However, during the confrontation between the two sides, several bird-gunners were unfortunately wounded by arrows. The auxiliaries behind immediately stepped forward, some stepped on the fire rope that fell to the ground, and some dragged the fallen bird gun back.

The cart was pushed to the foot of the city wall, and the four soldiers pushed the wooden box full of gunpowder from the bottom of the cart, pushed it into the hole dug in the city wall, connected a slow-burning fire rope to the fuse, lit the fire rope, quickly retreated to the cart, and pushed the cart back to their own position.

The banners in the hands of the soldiers waved, and the neatly lined up sword players, long knife players, and pikemen stepped on the neat steps, step by step towards the city wall. At a hundred paces from the city walls, the queue stopped advancing.

There was a loud bang under the city, and the earth shook as if it had been shaken, and a large section of the city wall was blown open, and a gap seven or eight zhang wide appeared.

"Kill!" The Ming army shouted and slaughtered the gap that was blown open.

On the city wall that was blown up, the Qing soldiers had been killed and stunned, and there was no one to stop the Ming army.

When the Ming army rushed into the gap, the Qing soldiers who came to block the road had just blocked it, and the two sides started a fierce hand-to-hand battle in the city at the gap.

The long knife hand of the Ming army can be said to be invincible, compared to the pikeman, the long knife hand has a greater attack power on the infantry, in addition to the long knife can be stabbed, it can also chop, not afraid of the enemy close. And once the pikemen are close to each other, they may not be able to beat the sword player. The long knife hand, but the nemesis of the knife player. It's just that long knife hands are difficult to train, and long knives are expensive, so Zheng Jun doesn't have many long knife hands.

Wherever the long knife went, bursts of blood mist were raised, and the Qing soldiers were crushed to death by the heavily armored Ming soldiers like ants.

The magistrate urgently dispatched soldiers and people to plug the gap.

At this moment, there was another loud bang in the southeast city wall, and another gap in the city wall was blown up.

"Kill!" The Ming army, which had been waiting under the southeast city for a long time, rushed into the city with a shout.

The morale of those who were temporarily recruited fell to the lowest point. When some people saw the sun and moon flags fluttering on the city tower, they instantly lost their last resistance and turned around and ran.

"The city is broken! The city is broken! The defeated Qing soldiers cried.

A Qing soldier always rushed to the north gate with several of his own personal soldiers like crazy, opened the city gate, and the group fled out of the city on horseback. Who knew that as soon as he left the city, a small group of Ming cavalry caught up.

Seeing that the soldiers and Minzhuang were all in chaos, knowing that Zhao'an City could not be defended, the county had no choice but to walk back to the county office and commit suicide by hanging a beam in the lobby. But this magistrate is also a fool, he forgot one important thing: he forgot to send someone to burn down the warehouse. As a result, after the Ming army entered the city, they took control of the warehouse.

Zhao'an, which had suffered from the scourge of war, was not wealthy, but there was still some storage in the warehouse. The Ming army opened the warehouse and seized 2,000 stone of rice, 800 stone of wheat, 1,000 horses of cloth, more than 1,000 jin of pig iron, more than 100 jin of wrought iron, 5,000 taels of silver, and 300 taels of gold.

Some of the gentry in the city who were eager for the Qing court did not escape the catastrophe. Wang Xinyu ruthlessly raided the homes of these gentry, and found more than 10,000 stones of grain, more than 5,000 pieces of cloth, more than 30,000 taels of silver, countless gold and other jewelry, and also found a large number of valuable items such as tea, silk and ceramics.

Of the 300 green battalion soldiers in the city, except for the 156 killed in battle, the rest were captured. About 1,000 of the 3,000 people organized by the county died, more than 500 fled taking advantage of the chaos, and more than 1,500 were captured.

"Take them away, divide these captives into two groups, one group will go to the beach first, get on the ship and bring them back! Another group was directly incorporated into the auxiliaries and went with us to harvest grain outside the city! But don't let them be idle, and let them carry everything they have seized in the city! Wang Xinyu gave an order.

These people are different from the captured Green Battalion Qing soldiers, they are actually ordinary people. Wang Xinyu can't recruit enough soldiers now, and he is not at ease with those captured Qing soldiers, and these people can bring them back, and they can recruit a group of new soldiers from them, and the rest will be arranged to farm or do other work. In the future, when he went to Nanyang to open up land, he also needed these people.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you can do it! Let's put the grass people's grandson back. The old body is such a grandson, you took away the grandson of the grass people, how can you live with the old man and a lonely old woman! ”

Just as the auxiliaries were escorting the captured Minzhuang and preparing to go to the beach to board the ship, a gray-haired old woman did not know where to come out, knelt in front of the army, kowtowed desperately, cried, and begged the Ming army to release her son.

"Grandma! Grandma! A strong young man dropped the food bag on his back, rushed out of the crowd, hugged the old woman, and the two hugged their heads and cried.

Grandma is the meaning of grandmother in Hokkien dialect.

"Less nonsense! Get up! Grab your food bag and go! A Ming army auxiliary came up with a whip.

The young man turned his head and glared angrily at the soldier with the whip in hand: "A few years ago, you pirates invaded Zhao'an, and my father and brother died at your hands!" You're going to get me away today! I'm not going! I'm gone, what about my grandma? ”

The soldier's whip was about to be whipped, and the old lady went to pounce on it and hugged the soldier's thigh: "This military master, if you want to beat it, you will kill the old body!" Anyway, the old body doesn't want to live anymore! ”

"Fuck off! Dead old woman! Your grandson joined the Tartar Army, and he was our prisoner! The soldier scolded.

The old lady clung to the soldier, who was so angry that she wanted to whip it down, but she was caught: "Stop! ”

"General!" Seeing that it was Wang Xinyu who grabbed his whip, the soldier hurriedly knelt on the ground, "This old woman refuses to let her grandson go with us, and she is still pestering her subordinates." ”

Wang Xinyu asked the old lady: "There is no one else in your family?" ”

"It's gone, they're all dead, and the old body and grandson are left to rely on each other. My lord, you took away the grandson of the grass people, how can people still live! ”

Wang Xinyu understood the situation and knew that the old lady's husband died early, and she brought up her son alone and married her daughter-in-law. But a few years ago, Zheng Chenggong attacked Zhao'an, and the old lady's son and two grandsons were all conscripted, and they were all killed. The old lady's daughter-in-law soon died of illness, leaving only this little grandson.

"My lord, all dynasties and dynasties have stipulated that only sons are not allowed to be forcibly conscripted, but the Tartars have forcibly conscripted the old lady's only grandson! I think that it is also hateful to be a Tartar! Today this man is captured by us, he is our captive, and it is only natural for us to take him away! "A general fist holder.

Wang Xinyu asked the old lady again, and learned that the old lady's family was very poor, so she relied on her grandson to rent a few acres of thin land for a living.

"Old man, come with us! When you get to us, you and your grandson will have enough to eat! And General Ben also promised that because he is an only grandson, we will not forcibly enlist in the army, and we will give your family a piece of land of your own in the future! Wang Xinyu comforted the old lady and said.

"My lord, is there really such a good thing in this world?" The old lady couldn't believe her ears.

"Seriously! General Ben swears to heaven that he will not break his word! At most, I can give you a piece of land, so that your only grandson does not have to participate in the war! Every year, the harvest is your own except for paying taxes, and it won't take a few years to marry a daughter-in-law! ”

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir! The old lady kowtowed again and again to thank her.

"Get up and come with us! Our general Bodhisattva is hearty, seeing that you are pitiful, I took you away! A soldier said.

Wang Xinyu said to the general: "You immediately let people know, see who is left with women, children, old and weak in these captured people, and take them away with their families!" ”

"Whoa!"

After screening by the Ming army, there were more than 200 people in the family who were left with only women, children, the old and the weak, and more than 150 of them expressed their willingness to take away their wives, children, and the elderly at home. However, more than 50 people said that they wanted the Ming army to release themselves and go back to support their families. Most of the captives thought that since they were captured, their fate was in the hands of others, and since the military master promised to let him take his family, then take it away. But there are still a few prisoners, but they think that they are in a pitiful situation, and hope that the Ming army will be kind and release themselves.

"We will take you back to live a good life, but you will not go, and you will go back to the Tartars to suffer!" The one said angrily.

Wang Xinyu came up to ask, and the general said: "My lord, these captives are determined to go back!" I think that these captives must not be released! After it is released, more people will want to go back! Then people's hearts will be unstable! ”

Luo Xiang, a personal soldier, also said: "My lord! Can't let people go! If we let one go, there will be ten people left! ”

"Yes!" Wang Xinyu nodded, "We can't just put the captives back!" Now we need people the most! ”

Li Rui asked: "My lord, but these people have to leave, what should we do?" Whipped with leather? Or kill a few people? ”

"The torture of prisoners and the killing of prisoners are unknown. In this way, if they have to leave, we will agree to let them go, but we will ask them to pay a deposit of five taels of silver, and as long as they pay the silver, they can be let go back! Wang Xinyu came up with a solution.

Pay five taels of silver? Most of these people are poor, how can they get five taels of silver? In desperation, they had to agree and leave with their families.

Of course, there were also six people who really asked their families to send five taels of silver, and for those people, Wang Xinyu ordered them to be released.