After the Ming army knocked down several blasters in front of the Hanyang city wall and let the bell mouth basically rest against the wall, they began to fix it, first dropping the wheels and then ramming the tail into the ground. After fixing, put the mouth of the iron bell on the wall, and finally complete the fixing of the bell and the car body. These soldiers were all trained by Liu Tichun's demolition team, and because there was no interference from the Qing army, their work progressed very smoothly, and soon the first team completed all the work, and the member of the demolition team who was responsible for guiding the team also carried out a leisurely inspection.

When the Ming army was making preparations, Deng Ming had been watching from a distance, and only a few minutes later, a team sent a signal that the arrangement had been completed: "It's much easier than I imagined, it's even easier than the exercise in Yiling." ”

When Liu Tichun gave a demonstration to Deng Ming, he sent a group of soldiers to play the role of the Qing army on the wall of the scheduled blasting, using cold water to simulate boiling oil and cloth wrapping to simulate boulders to interfere with the demolition team. Today, Deng Ming also assigned a large number of cover personnel to the demolition truck, who held a special large shield to protect the vehicle and those responsible for immobilization.

Soon the four demolition trucks were all placed, and after they lit the fuse one after another, they quickly ran towards the Ming army's position.

"It seems that when you use blasting trucks in the future, you still need one or one on the ground, and don't put several vehicles in one go." Deng Ming said to himself that he sent four demolition trucks in one go to improve the effect, but after the first one was placed, the fuse could not be lit immediately because the other vehicles were still in stationary work. In order to wait for the last one to be placed, the personnel of the other three stations could not retreat from the danger area, but fortunately, the Qing army was slow to react and never came to disturb the Ming army under the city, which allowed the Ming army to retreat safely from the front of the city without any danger.

Until the Ming army retreated, there was still no Qing soldier on this section of the city wall, and Zhou Peigong had already told Sù's subordinates in advance that the Ming army had the means to quickly break through the city wall, but what means were used was not determined. Some Qing soldiers had already seen the methods of the Ming army in Zhongxiang, and knew that even if those soldiers standing on the destroyed city wall saved their lives, they would have to lack arms and legs, and they would have long since hid far away. The other Qing soldiers had not seen the power of the city wall collapse with their own eyes, and they had heard some descriptions from their companions. Today, Zhou Peigong's deployment frightened everyone even more, seeing the rows of monks chanting scriptures behind the city wall, as well as the yellow paper talismans pasted all over the place, no matter how bold the soldiers were, they were all panicked, and those who were timid were even weaker, and they were all there to chant the Buddha's name with the masters.

Especially seeing that Zhou Peigong and the standard camp guerrillas were also hiding far away, the soldiers felt that even the adults with official positions to exorcise evil spirits were afraid of the other party's witchcraft, so where were they willing to go over and send them to death? In this way, when the Ming army planted the blasting car, the Hanyang defenders led by Zhou Peigong hid on both sides and stared.

Even if Deng Ming made the fuse as long as possible, the four iron bells still did not explode at the same time, and with a few loud bangs, a large cloud of smoke and dust rose from the side of Hanyang City, blocking the view of the Ming army.

According to the previous experience of blasting and capturing the city, it was time to let the infantry charge, but today Deng Ming stood still and waited patiently for the dust to settle with the guard officers. The Ming army, which had been notified in advance, was still in a neat attack formation, calmly waiting for the commander's order.

In Hanyang City, Zhou Peigong felt that the city wall under his feet shook several times in a row, and his vision was also blocked by the smoke rising into the sky, and he couldn't see what was happening on the other side of the city wall at all.

"It turned out to be gunpowder!" After smelling the pungent smell of gunsmoke, Zhou Peigong suddenly realized.

A moment later, a large number of monks ran out of the smoke while coughing violently, and the wooden fish had long been thrown into the dust, their clothes and beards were covered with dust.

"How's the city wall going?" Zhou Peigong anxiously ordered, the standard battalion guerrillas around him had never seen such a scene, and he was stunned when he looked at the smoke, and after being awakened by Zhou Peigong's shout, he hurriedly sent an order behind the city wall, asking his subordinates to rush into the smoke to check the city defense.

Like Li Guoying's standard battalion, the standard battalion of the governor of Huguang was also armored cavalry, and there were more than 400 cavalry who were ordered to come to Hanyang with Zhou Peigong, half of whom were deployed in the camp outside the city gate by guerrillas, intending to wait for an opportunity to sneak attack when the Ming army was digging tunnels. The rest remained with them as reserves, which could launch a counter-charge or cover a guerrilla breakout if necessary - as the case depends.

Although they heard the clear orders of the guerrillas, the cavalry of the standard battalion flinched, and they, like their immediate superiors, had never seen such a scene. Earlier, Zhou Peigong's pretending to be a ghost also caused a lot of psychological pressure on these standard camp knights, these cavalry who had been staying in the city didn't know what the Ming army was doing outside the city, seeing the smoke rising into the air, after the masters fled one after another, there were already many Qing cavalry exclaiming, "The enemy's demon magic is powerful, and even Sanskrit can't suppress it!" ”

When the standard camp guerrillas urged his subordinates to step forward, Zhou Peigong also ordered the soldiers around him to go forward along the city wall to investigate, but these Qing soldiers on the city wall were worse than the cavalry in the city. These clever soldiers immediately shared their findings with the rest of their companions, and when the smoke rose, the Qing soldiers were very sure that the Heavenly Court Warriors were obviously crazy, and they even dared to use lightning to slash the Jade Emperor's throne, so how could they care about the life or death of mortals? What if they do it again? Therefore, despite Zhou Peigong's coercion and temptation, the Qing soldiers refused to step forward to fight the thunder.

The smoke and dust in front of him gradually dissipated, and Ren Tang saw that a large section of the brick wall had disappeared without a trace, and the broken bricks and the rammed earth in the wall were covered around the blasting x, and after losing the brick wall, the rammed earth layer that had been loosened also collapsed, and the original Hanyang city wall had become a slope.

"Such a big gap should be able to make Zhou Peigong realize that Hanyang X can't hold on at all." Ren Tang turned his head to Deng Ming and said, the Ming army has no intention of capturing Hanyang through hand-to-hand street fighting, such a city capture station may lead hundreds of Ming troops to be killed and thousands wounded, for the Chengdu Ming army, such a big loss is best avoided if it can be avoided.

"That's right," Deng Ming nodded, when he and Li Laiheng discussed the issue of Zhou Peigong that day, he pointed out to the other party that only living meat tickets are valuable, and now for Deng Ming, Hanyang is the meat ticket in his hand: "Give the order." ”

"Yes." Ren Tang replied loudly, turned around and conveyed Deng Ming's order to the standard-bearer behind him, and then he turned back to Deng Ming and smiled: "Congratulations to the Admiral on the arrival of the meat ticket." ”

When Deng Ming and Li Laiheng were discussing that day, Ren Tang was also on the side, and as they got along for a long time, he became more and more familiar with Deng Ming's thinking. When discussing the battle plan for Hanyang, Ren Tang quoted Deng Ming's theory of meat tickets, saying that if you want to ask for ransom from Zhang Changgeng, you need two elements, the first is of course the survival of meat tickets, and the second is to make the other party realize that the Ming army has the ability to tear up tickets.

At about the same time that Deng Ming saw the gap, Zhou Peigong and the standard battalion guerrillas also saw the situation at the scene, and after seeing the terrible gap, Zhou Peigong felt as if he had been hit hard by a hammer in his chest. The not-so-steep slope could not prevent a large number of troops from passing through Guò, and such a long gap was even more difficult to repair.

"Haven't the enemy rushed in yet?" After a while, Zhou Peigong realized this, and he suddenly found that the Qing officers and soldiers around him were all looking at the gap in a daze, if the Ming army had charged just now, they would have rushed into the city now and started a street battle with the Qing army.

Outside the city, the Ming army suddenly burst into loud cheers in unison, sounding as if they had won a complete victory, and after this cheer, the Ming army turned around and left in order, returning to their camp.

Shut down

"Deng Ming has retired?" After seeing this strange scene, the eyes of the standard camp guerrillas were as big as copper bells. The Ming army outside the city gradually moved farther and farther away, seeing their backs getting farther and farther away, the standard battalion guerrillas leaning weakly against the battlements, being caught between the joy of escaping death and the incomprehensible doubts, and their minds were in a mess.

While the Ming army retreated, several Ming cavalry galloped to the front of Hanyang City and shouted loudly to the city tower, claiming that they had a war letter to hand over to the Zhou governor's mansion.

The defenders on the city tower recovered from the shock, they did not dare to slack off, and while setting up their bows and arrows to wait for the battle, they hurriedly sent people to report to Zhou Peigong.

"War letters? The walls have fallen, what war letters do they have? Are you going to ask us out to go out in the field? When the guerrilla of the standard battalion heard the news, he felt that his thinking was even more confused, he glanced back at the gap in the city wall, and suddenly a clever man turned around and shouted anxiously: "Don't let go of arrows!" ”

Although I don't know what the Ming army is thinking, but the current situation is obviously a moment that can be dragged on for a moment, the standard battalion guerrillas are afraid that the officers on the city tower will be reckless, and the messenger of the Ming army shè died, and the director zhì Deng Ming was furious and returned to the division. Although the Ming army has gone far, before they walk back, the Qing army will definitely not be able to repair the city wall, even if they go back to the camp to sleep and come back, the Qing army may not be able to plug the gap.

"Don't worry," the herald hurriedly replied, the guard of the city tower had also seen the situation on this side of the city wall, and knew that if the Ming army rushed into the city, it would be a pot, and where would they dare to provoke trouble: "We are just on guard with arrows, and we will never release arrows." ”

"What arrow?" The guerrilla was furious when he heard this, and he pointed his arm behind his back and pointed in the direction of the gap in the city wall: "With such a big opening, will Deng Ming still go to the city gate?" Go back quickly, put your bow away, and what if you slip your hand and get the arrow out? ”

"I'll go over here." Zhou Peigong said with a deep face, after hearing the message sent by the herald, he was not as excited as the standard battalion guerrilla, but forced himself to calm down and think about it for a while, and now he has roughly guessed what kind of war letter Deng Minghui sent back.

Walking to the city tower, Zhou Peigong ordered all the shè men to put down their bows, leaned out from the battlements, and shouted at the Ming knights in front of the city: "I am Zhou Peigong, do you have a war book to give me?" ”

After confirming that the other party was Zhou Peigong, a knight bent his bow and arrows, put a letter on the city, and shouted at the same time: "Admiral Deng does not want to hurt the people of Hanyang, so he invites the Zhou prefect to go out of the city to fight a male and female." ”

After completing the task, these Ming cavalry turned their horses and galloped to chase after the large army.

"What? Invite us out of the city for a decisive battle? When the guerrillas from the standard camp who rushed back with them heard this, they shouted: "Deng Ming's men have seven or eight thousand armor, and there are less than three thousand in Hanyang City, how can we go out to die?" Street fighting can resist a little longer. ”

"I'm afraid I won't be able to resist for long." Zhou Peigong said coldly, at this time, there were already soldiers who picked up the war book, held it in both hands and presented it to Zhou Governor's Mansion, stretched out his hand to take the letter, Zhou Peigong swept the miserable white standard camp guerrilla, and whispered comfort in his ear: "Don't worry, this official dares to take xìng's life guarantee, this letter is definitely not about us to go out for a decisive battle." ”

"Most of them are for ransom." Zhou Peigong muttered quietly while opening the letter.

The voice of the voice was very small, and the other soldiers did not hear it, but the standard camp guerrilla next to Zhou Peigong did hear it clearly, the muscles of his cheeks shook, and he quickly looked around, and saw that the Qing soldiers were far away, so he immediately took a step closer to Zhou Peigong's side, and said in a low voice: "Lord Prefect, if this is the case, it is best to agree." ”

Zhou Peigong smiled bitterly when he heard this, but he didn't respond, just continued to open the letter.

"Am I a bit of a choice?" Zhou Peigong asked rhetorically in his heart, as the prefect of Wuchang Mansion and the keeper of Hanyang, if Hanyang is lost and known by the imperial court, then he will not only lose his official position, but also his life: "But Deng Ming is really too deceitful, he is untrustworthy, last time he lied to me and said that he would give me a kickback, once the matter is done, Li Laiheng will raid my home." ”

Thinking of this, Zhou Peigong was already furious: "This time you want to force me to redeem the city?" Do you want to give me any kickbacks? Deng Ming repeatedly teased, which was really a great shame. Hmph, Shi can be killed, but not humiliated, I will die in Hanyang if I am a big deal, what's the big deal? Yes, I will not be humiliated even if I die! ”

Zhou Peigong violently unfolded the letter, and almost tore it in half with such force, seeing this, the standard camp guerrilla was also shocked, for fear that Zhou Peigong's stubborn temper would come up, and he wanted the whole army to live and die with Hanyang - the city wall collapsed so much in half a day, if the Ming army decided to attack, it would definitely be dead or alive, even if it was useless to make up for it, the Ming army would have to spend half a day to tear down another section of the city wall.

"If the prefect would rather be a broken jade," the guerrilla mind of the standard camp turned quickly, Zhang Changgeng had already explained before coming, no matter what, Hanyang could not be lost, if it was found that the Ming army had the intention and ability to break through Wuchang, then the alliance under the city should also be agreed before - if the governor of Huguang lost the station, the court would never spare his life: "The governor has said that the prefect is not the only one who is unlucky in Hanyang, even the governor cannot explain to the imperial court." Now Wuchang is only a few thousand armor, Deng Ming's demolition of the city wall is too fast, Wuchang is also dangerous, if Wuchang is lost, the governor will be unable to protect his life. Well, if the prefect is angry, I will hold him back in any way, and then send someone to report to the governor in a hurry. ”

The guerrilla made up his mind, and peeked at Zhou Peigong's expression again, and found that most of the anger on the latter's face had dissipated, and he was reading the war book for the second time.

After carefully reading the war book again, Zhou Peigong gently rolled up the letter, then pulled the standard camp guerrilla aside, and discussed with him in a low voice: "Deng Ming really came to ask for a ransom for the city fee, and he also asked the official to go out of the city to negotiate with him. ”

"This ......" as Zhang Changgeng's personal commander and accomplice in the murder of Hu Quancai, of course the standard camp guerrilla knew that Zhou Peigong had negotiated privately with Deng Ming many times, but at that time Zhou Peigong was just a staff member of Zhang Changgeng, a young man, but now Zhou Peigong is already a dignified Wuchang prefect and imperial court official, what if Deng Ming turns his face and detains him?

"You look at the city wall, a stick of incense will collapse, the official sees that Hanyang is unable to hold on, if this Hanyang is not guaranteed, Deng Ming will take the power of a great victory, and attack Wuchang again, I am afraid that Wuchang will also be in danger." Zhou Peigong sighed, his face was sad, the anger just now disappeared without a trace, and then Zhou Peigong's face changed again, showing a resolute sè, and said to the guerrillas: "The Governor treats me well, at this critical time, I don't stand up to share the worries of the Governor, what more people?" ”

Without waiting for the moved standard camp guerrillas to interject, Zhou Peigong waved his hand and said resolutely: "This official will sneak out of the city in disguise tonight to discuss with Deng Ming about the armistice and the army, you can quickly report to the governor and ask him to send another official to come, if this official encounters any accidents, someone can take over the duties of this official." ”

After discussing with the guerrillas, Zhou Peigong wrote another letter to Zhang Changgeng, describing the current crisis situation in detail, clearly telling the governor of Huguang that he could no longer rely on military means to keep Hanyang, and at the same time Zhou Peigong also assured Zhang Changgeng that he would definitely fight for the interests of the governor of Huguang in front of Deng Ming, as much as possible for the interests of the governor of Huguang, and make every effort to reduce the losses that the imperial court would suffer.

After breaking up with the standard camp guerrillas, Zhou Peigong returned to the yamen, sat down, took out the war book hidden in his sleeve again, and gently unfolded it for the third time.

In this letter, Deng Ming apologized to Zhou Peigong straight to the point, saying that he had no prior knowledge of Li Laiheng's misdeeds; After apologizing, Deng Ming said that he had asked Li Laiheng to return all the Zhou family's property; As for Li Laiheng's incidental request, that is, asking Zhou Peigong to pay taxes in full, Deng Ming was also blunt; However, immediately afterwards, Deng Ming said that he had thought of a compensation plan to make up for the losses caused by Li Laiheng's unreasonable request to Zhou Peigong. The specific content of the letter could not be written, Deng Ming asked Zhou Peigong to have an interview, and said that if Zhou Peigong knew that there were other Huguang gentlemen in the same situation as him, Deng Ming was willing to compensate them equally.

"Admiral Deng, Admiral Deng, is this Li Laiheng your subordinate?" After reading the letter, Zhou Peigong put it on the fire and lit it, and watched the letter being burned to ashes: "What kind of compensation will it be?" Of course, I know that many people have been raided and taxed by your 'subordinates', and if you can compensate me, it will be a lot of favors for me. ”