Whether it was the Qing court in Beijing or the Qing army in Huaiyang, after determining that Deng Ming appeared in Shandong, they were convinced that the main force of the Sichuan army followed Deng Ming, and the sailors escorting the Sichuan army were likely to be the main fleet of the Fujian army, and Zhang Huangyan's Zhoushan division was likely to be involved. The Qing court knew that Deng Ming and Zheng Chenggong had a close relationship, and they felt that Zheng Jing probably also inherited his father's good relationship with Deng Ming, so that the appearance of the Sichuan army in Shandong made sense.

When the Qing court was suspicious, Deng Mingzheng commanded the Shandong rebel army to besiege Weixian. This was the first county town he had attacked since he landed. However, the progress was very slow, as Gong Yan predicted, the rebel army composed of bandits and heroes was very difficult to command, their morale fluctuated, and the military discipline was close to nothing, which gave Deng Ming a headache.

Deng Ming brought a demolition team of the Sichuan army, but in order to train the Shandong rebel army, he did not let his demolition team go, but trained the Shandong rebel army. After watching the demonstration of the Sichuan army, many heroes patted their chests one after another to say that they completely understood, and then immediately rushed to attack the county seat, and did not plan to spend too much time on practice.

As a result, the first attack on Weixian was a disaster, and the rebels were helpless in front of the improvised trenches, and were stoned by the county soldiers defending the city walls, killing and wounding more than a dozen heroes. An inexplicable collapse ensued, and the attackers threw down dirt bags and digging tools and retreated. Hearing the cheers and laughter from the city wall, Deng Ming couldn't help but shake his head and sigh: "Is this me training the army, or am I helping the green battalion in Weixian County to train the army?" ”

After returning to the camp, the heroes who participated in the attack and the attacking troops waiting behind them began to fiercely accuse each other, almost strife and martial arts in front of Deng Ming. Deng Ming came out to play a round, which was barely to calm down the excited crowd, but a few good men in Shandong couldn't swallow the scolding, and wanted to show a good show in front of the Duke of Baoguo, and the next day they actually went to attack the county seat by themselves.

After learning that there were hundreds of heroes who fought without authorization, Deng Ming and his guards were so shocked that they were almost speechless, not to mention that the Sichuan Army or the Kuidong Army, even Zhang Huangyan's volunteer soldiers could not have such a thing. The other heroes who knew about it did not dissuade them, and some of them followed to see if they could break the city, while the rest of them sneered on the side, waiting to see the joke - most of these people were in charge of filling the trench yesterday, and after they were scolded for their incompetence, they ridiculed each other, calling those in the back row preparing for the battle cowards - this was obviously a tactical arrangement, and the people in the back row did not take the lead because they were cowardly.

By the time Deng Ming arrived, several heroes had already rushed up with ladders, and they planned to run through the trench on the ladder first, and then set up a ladder to climb the city wall.

Two of them had not yet crossed the trench before they were repelled with stones by Ding Yong, who had been improvised by Weixian, and the rest of the men were lucky enough to rush under the city walls without any resistance - it was not because they were well prepared for battle, these heroes did not think of concealment and feints in advance, so from the very beginning the intention of the attack was completely exposed to the eyes of the defenders. However, there are not many green camps in Weixian, and most of the defenders of the city walls are strong men brought from the city. When these strong men saw the heroes with red cloths on their heads, shirtless and with knives in their hands, they were so frightened that they ran home.

However, after the ladder was put up on the city wall, it was found that the ladder was not high enough, and the county order of Weixian County did not think of using fences and adobe bricks to raise the battlements, but the heroes made a mistake in their visual observation. There was also a lack of preparation time for a hasty attack due to anger, so there was a problem with the length of the ladder.

Seeing that they couldn't climb the city, the heroes on the ladder had to retreat and began to dig earth and rocks on the ground to build an earthen platform to come out. However, before they could make the ladder, the green camp in the city rushed to hear the news, and hacked to death a few strong men who had escaped. When hail stones fell from the city, the attack failed without any suspense.

"If we continue to fight like this, we will help Weixian train a group of elite soldiers." Deng Ming shook his head at the sight.

Deng Ming was even more frightened by the mobilization of several mountain kings during the siege, and he heard those people shouting: "Kill into the county seat, one person will share a big girl" to boost the morale of the minions, and what is even more terrifying is that these words are also heard by the defenders of the city.

"I didn't break the city today, I really don't know if it's bad luck or luck." Deng Ming sighed.

Shandong's rebel army is mixed, many people are indeed bandits and bandits, and some of the heroes and young heroes from the city are lawbreakers in the past.

Deng Ming did not bring a large number of descendant troops, although the righteous army was afraid of the force of the Sichuan army, but they would never understand the policy and military discipline of the Sichuan army, and if they wanted to encourage them to brave the arrows and stones to attack the county seat, those mountain kings' calls to wash the city were definitely more appealing than Deng Mingqiu's request that he did not commit any crimes.

After this defeat, the bandits finally realized that even if Deng Ming and the Sichuan army could beat Zu Zepu to pieces, the city wall of the county town was still an insurmountable barrier for the righteous army, so they turned their heads and humbly asked the Sichuan army for the skills of blasting. However, at this time, due to the fear of problems after the city was broken, Deng Ming was not so enthusiastic about training the blasting technology of the Shandong rebel army.

"We have to find a way to turn these members of the rebel army into veritable rebel soldiers, and not just think about robbing homes and houses." Deng Ming asked the demolition team to slow down the speed of teaching skills, and first let the rebels practice their ability to dig tunnels around, and not hand over the gunpowder to them immediately.

At the same time, Deng Ming ordered the guards to visit the nearby gentry with his name post, trying to find some collaborators who could help him maintain social order after the city was breached.

I just heard that after Deng Ming landed, the nearby gentry and Haoqiang gathered their families to protect themselves, and after the defeat of Zu Zepu, these gentry realized the strength of the Ming army and began to send food to Deng Ming, hoping that the Ming army would not loot their clans and villages.

Xia Jie Xia Juren was a native of Weixian, who usually lived in a house in the countryside, and when the well-known Baoguo Gong appeared on the ground in Shandong, he distributed grain like other gentry and gathered tenants to protect themselves. After Zu Zepu was defeated and the righteous army led by Deng Ming surrounded the county seat, Xia Jinshen personally came to Deng Ming's military camp to ask for his life on behalf of the surrounding Haoqiang.

"How is the appearance of our army?" After seeing Master Xia, who personally escorted ten carts of grain, Deng Ming asked straight to the point.

"Mighty and majestic, it's really a heavenly soldier." Xia Jie immediately praised.

"That's a lie." Deng Ming shook his head and smiled: "How can I not know the surrounding military camps, they are simply a group of rabble, and when they attacked Weixian yesterday, they were still shouting to wash the city." ”

"With the Baoguo Gong here, he will be able to keep a city safe." Xia Jie cautiously observed Deng Ming's face.

"I don't have this confidence," Deng Ming still shook his head: "My army hasn't arrived here yet, I can't control these thousands of heroes at all, and I can guess what they will do when they enter the city." Now I did not immediately let my men participate in the siege of the city, because I was afraid that they would harm the fathers and elders in the city and discredit the court and the king. Deng Ming stared at Xia Jie for a while, and asked sincerely, "Does Xia Juren have a good plan to teach me?" ”

"Protect the country and be merciful." Xia Jie finally determined Deng Ming's true attitude, knelt on the ground and raised his arms and shouted: "Guogong, these are thousands of jackals, tigers and leopards, if they are allowed to break Weixian, they will inevitably destroy the lives in the city." ”

When he walked past the surrounding military camps just now, Xia Jie recognized several famous Jiangyang thieves, and he immediately reported the names of these people: "Guogong, these people usually kidnap tickets, rob relatives, and do all kinds of evil, and they didn't participate in the incident when Yu Qiye got up, but they heard that Baoguo Gong defeated Zu Zepu, so they went down the mountain and wanted to follow to rob a sum." ”

In Xia Jie's words, Yu Qi himself never gave up the idea of recruiting An, and many of Yu Qi's comrades-in-arms were also thinking about this matter, so there was no harm to the township. But there are some people who are genuinely taking advantage of the fire. The reason why many gentry did not support the Seven Uprisings was not only because they were not optimistic about the comparison of strength between the rebels and the Qing court, but also because in their eyes, many members of the rebels belonged to the bandits who should be suppressed.

"Order of a tyrant is better than no order." Deng Ming muttered to himself.

Yu Qi would definitely take in those bandits who followed him to meet the Qing army, and it was impossible for Deng Ming to kill these people now, and it would not even be easy to remove them from the rebel army. However, in addition to discrediting the Ming army, these people are also extremely unreliable allies, and once the situation is not right, they can desert without hesitation, and may even defect and kill the rebels in exchange for the forgiveness of the Qing court.

Although the order of the Qing court was brutal and unkind, if Deng Ming could not even maintain this level of order, the gentry of Shandong would not support the Sichuan army. Now there are many eyes watching, to see what the Ming army did in Weixian. If Weixian was plundered by the rebels, the gentry in Shandong would completely fall to the side of the Qing court and support Zu Zepu in fighting against the Ming army.

If Weixian, a small place, can resist the Sichuan army's offensive for a long time, it will greatly damage Deng Ming's prestige, and it will strengthen the determination of the Qing army to resist in Laizhou and Dengzhou, so that the good situation of the Sichuan army's victory in Jiaoshui River will be wiped out.

"It is impossible for us to draw troops from Jiangnan, Shandong is only a secondary battlefield for us, and we must use the least number of troops to achieve the greatest results."

In order to achieve this goal, Deng Ming should follow the principle of choosing the lesser of two evils, ignore the wishes of the gentry represented by Xia Jie, and make as much trouble in Shandong as possible. It's just that Deng Ming hasn't been cold-blooded to this point and can't make such a determination, so he is in a dilemma.

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