The Shengzhou guard and the Tian clan used soil and stone to fill the four city gate holes and defend the city. You can't get through the city gate, and you can't crash into the solid city wall covered with blue bricks for a while. Under the command of Ao Canghai, in addition to using the siege equipment transported from Shangyu, the Huaidong Army used local materials to build a large number of nest cars that were higher than the head of Shengzhou City, and placed strong bows and heavy crossbows on the nest cars, with catapult crossbows, to consume the strength of the Shengzhou defenders.

The will to resist of the Shengzhou defenders is not weak, but not everyone can become Dong Yuan, and Ao Canghai had rich siege experience when he was in the Eastern Fujian Army.

Ao Canghai chose the South City Gate as the center of gravity for the attack, filled in the city, and piled up earthen platforms on both sides of the South City Gate building that could set up siege cloud bridges, almost attracting thousands of defenders to the South City to defend......

In the traditional city defense system, the brick and wood tower is the most important command, garrison, defense, lookout, and firing position on the city wall. Generally speaking, as long as the castle tower is not lost, it is easy to counterattack and recapture even if the narrow section of the city wall is temporarily lost.

But in the face of more than 30 counterweight-type large catapults, the multi-story brick and wood tower on the south gate of Shengzhou has become a fatal weakness.

Ao Canghai used a nest car with a strong bow and heavy crossbow to compress the defenders of the southern city of Shengzhou and could not show their heads in the gate of the city tower, so he ordered to withdraw the high pole curtain that covered the catapult in front, revealing a hideous killing machine. More than 30 catapults, equipped with more than 600 battalion soldiers, including calibration, projected a total of more than 120 stone bullets weighing 20 to 50 catties, and the building at the south gate of Shengzhou collapsed with a bang.

Nearly half of the thousands of city defenders hiding in the towers were buried in the ruins. The defenders, who fled in haste, shot the crossbows in the nest cart with great fire. Ao Canghai lost no time in ordering the generals of the city to erect cloud bridges and cloud ladders to attack the city, taking advantage of the chaos to cover up and kill the defenders, but before the foreign reinforcements from Shengzhou arrived, he ordered a retreat, and was not in a hurry to forcibly seize the city.

Lin Jian looked at it and sighed: Ao Canghai's murderous intent is still too heavy.

Shengzhou is a small county, and there are only five or six hundred households in the city. The Huaidong Army rushed to regain the lost territory on behalf of the imperial court, and it did not disturb the ordinary people of Shengzhou much. Few refugees in the countryside fled to the city for refuge, and they calmly watched the Huaidong army attack Shengzhou City.

In addition to the defenders and the clan soldiers recruited by the Tian clan into the city, there are only more than 1,000 Ding Zhuang who can recruit the head of the city to defend in Shengzhou City, which means that the Shengzhou defenders and the Tian clan can only organize a maximum of 4,000 defenders in the city - Ao Canghai obviously wants to take advantage of this battlefield that is conducive to the siege of the Huaidong Army, and turn the southern city into a slaughter ground for strangling the Shengzhou defenders, indirectly achieving the purpose of killing and slaughtering the city, and then deterring local forces in eastern Zhejiang.

On the other hand, it also shows that Ao Canghai has not let go of his hatred for the luxury family and his family.

Eight hundred defenders were annihilated in a short battle, and the ensuing repeated battles around the southern section of the city were particularly tragic for the defenders. Ao Canghai even used a nest car to build two siege platforms with nine zhang square on the front of the south city gate, and set up twelve heavy bed crossbows and a large number of crossbows on each cloud platform to shoot the defenders who had little to cover.

In the case of the city gate cave being sealed, as long as the Shengzhou guards and the Tian clan entrusted by the luxury family refuse to surrender, the defenders can only be forced to stalemate. By 12 April, the number of defenders annihilated on the southern wall alone exceeded 2,000. For the Huaidong Army, it was more like a siege exercise, and only the inexperienced recruits suffered slightly more casualties.

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Compared with the Tian family's dominance in Shengzhou City, the situation in Mingzhou City is much more complicated. After all, the local forces in Mingzhou Mansion who are really iron-hearted and follow the luxury family are a minority, and more people have to bow their heads and give up resistance before the situation after the luxury family controls eastern Zhejiang.

The Huaidong Army fought back on behalf of the imperial court, and many local forces began to suspect that the strength of the Huaidong Army was not good, and they did not dare to express their position easily, fearing that it would be self-defeating and rushing to get ahead, and when the luxury family counterattacked back, it would become the object of purge.

The time lasted until the beginning of April, the main force of the luxury family in eastern Zhejiang has not been able to cross the Cao'e River to counterattack, and the Huaidong army landed more and more soldiers and horses, and the water battle along the Cao'e River in the later period is also the Huaidong army's victory and defeat, and the battle of Dongyang County is to puncture the myth that the elite of Fujian cannot win again.

The local forces, who were a little more bold and thought that they had left no bad deeds during the short reign of the Hao family in Mingzhou Mansion, began to contribute food and efforts for the Huaidong Army to clear the remnants of the Hao family in Mingzhou Mansion from early April.

Some local forces with stains on their bodies have to consider the problem of the back road after they can't see the hope of the luxury family coming back from the counterattack.

In the city of Mingzhou, which is still closed for the time being, it is also turbulent. Even the defenders at the head of the city, in addition to the Ba Min children who were loyal to the luxury family, the local troops who had been incorporated and the local troops who had attached troops and horses began to secretly communicate with the Huaidong army besieging the city outside.

On the morning of the 12th, Mao Tengyuan, the captain of the Mingzhou Mansion, led his troops to kill the guards of the East City and open the East City Gate. Chen Kuili led the army of Hailing Mansion to gather with Mao Teng's distant troops, from the east city to attack the Mingzhou capital city, the battle lasted until the afternoon of the 13th, with the cooperation of the local annexation forces, the remnants of the luxury family in the corner of the Mingzhou capital city were all annihilated, and the Mingzhou capital city was recovered.

Ao Canghai also sent troops to forcibly capture Shengzhou City, where the morale of the defenders was almost collapsed on the 13th.

By this time, except for Xiangshan, Changguo, Daishan and other areas, the Huaidong Army had occupied almost the entire territory of Mingzhou Prefecture.

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On the 21st, Liu Zhi and Meng Xinshi, accompanied by Chen Mingzhe, crossed the Qiantang River from Jiaxing and entered Mingzhou. On this day, Lin Jian also returned from Shengzhou and entered Mingzhou City for the first time.

Mingzhou originally belonged to Huiji, since the middle of the previous dynasty to set the house, has nearly 300 years of history so far, the city and Yinxian Tongye, with Huiji, Jiahang, the same is the essence of Zhejiang County, both for the land of fish and rice, and is the place where humanity gathers.

The Siming Society in the southwest of Fucheng is located in Siming Mountain, and its reputation is slightly smaller than that of the Xixi Society in Jiangning, but it should not be underestimated. After the fall of eastern Zhejiang, the power of the Zhejiang faction suffered a heavy setback, and after the imperial court withdrew the two Zhejiang county divisions, set up the envoy department of northern Zhejiang, and returned to Jiangdong County, the Zhejiang faction forces were completely reduced to vassals of the Wu party.

Lin Jian looked at the majestic Mingzhou Mansion City, and his heart was full of emotion.

Since the middle of the Yue Dynasty, Mingzhou is a famous city in the sea frontier, the luxury family raised the flag to rebel, the power of the East China Sea Kou rose sharply, Zhejiang County also attached great importance to the defense of Mingzhou, the city became stronger and stronger, and the county ruled Hangzhou compared to some inferior. This majestic city with a circumference of eight miles, a height of more than three zhang, and covered with bricks and stones, is far from being comparable to a small city like Shengzhou.

However, this majestic city, which has changed hands twice in recent years, has been too easy and has not played its due role.

The first time Tian Chang raised the city and threw himself in, the luxury family took this Xiongcheng almost without a single soldier.

On this trip, the troops of the luxury family in eastern Zhejiang were too scattered, and when Mingzhou City was besieged, the defenders in the city were less than 2,000 people. The defenders of Mingzhou recruited people to go to the head of the city to participate in the defense, but it made the defenders mixed and fatally divided, not only for the Huaidong army to easily take the east gate, not to mention, but even after entering the city, the attached army became the main force to attack the remnants of the luxury guard Mingzhou.

If the luxury family had been vigilant enough against Huaidong before the war, and had not been deceived by Huaidong's plan to attack the west, and the remaining troops in Mingzhou City exceeded 5,000 people, the situation in this battle would have been difficult and difficult to say.

Now Chen Kuili led the Hailing Mansion army to take over the defense of Mingzhou City, under the strict security protection of the three layers inside and the outer three layers, Lin Jian rode through the city and entered the Mingzhou Mansion to meet with Liu Zhi, Meng Xinshi and others from Jiangning, and also to meet with the representatives of the local forces attached to the Mingzhou Mansion.

Liu Zhi and Meng Xinshi are acquaintances. When Lin Jian led his troops north for the first time, Liu Zhi served as the deputy envoy of Guan Junrong, and since then Lin Jian has dealt with him many times, and he is the head of the ministers of King Ning's Mansion at this time. Meng Xinshi was originally the county governor of Jiyang, during the bloody war in Jiyang, he was considered to have a friendship with Lin Tie who fought side by side, as an official of the Wu department, he was promoted to the general judge of Pingjiang Prefecture in the later period, and at this time he was reappointed as Langzhong of Jiangning's Ministry of Officials.

From the fact that Jiang Ning selected Liu Zhi and Meng Xinshi as special envoys to come to Mingzhou, we can know the change in Jiang Ning's attitude towards Huaidong's plan to attack the west in the name of King Qin.

Yanjing was besieged, Extravagant Feixiong advanced by leaps and bounds on the western front, the situation in northern Zhejiang was critical, and Jiangning's southern line was in an emergency, what qualifications did Jiangning have to investigate Lin Lian's crime of bullying the king?

Of course, since March 23, when Lin Jian led his troops to attack eastern Zhejiang, he either sent messengers or informed various places through the Tang Copy, and Jiangning remained silent for almost a month.

According to Jiang Ning's attitude at that time, even if he was unable to investigate Huaidong's crime of bullying the monarch, he never agreed with Huaidong's behavior. In the eyes of Shizi Qingliu, Huaidong is naturally a big rebel and scolds each other; Even in Huaidong, there are many disputes.

Liu Zhi and Meng Xinshi came over on behalf of Jiang Ning, which also showed that Jiang Ning bowed his head in the face of the situation and officially recognized Huaidong's approach.

Liu Zhi, Meng Xinshi, Chen Mingzhe and others all accompanied Fu Qinghe and other Huaidong officials and representatives of local forces in Mingzhou Prefecture to line up on the stone paving site in front of the government to greet each other. Lin Jian turned over and dismounted, handed over the reins and horsewhip to the attendants, and waved at Liu Zhi, Meng Xinshi and the others, and said, "Sins and sins," pretending to blame Fu Qinghedao, "How can Mr. Fu be so snub to Lord Liu and Master Meng, and let the two adults wait outside for a long time?" ”

"Lin Daren turned the tide of the southeast, was the mainstay of the imperial court, shed blood and sweat, and did his best, I waited in the yamen for a while, it was too insignificant. If it weren't for Master Fu's insistence, I would have felt that I would be able to show a little respect when I went out of the city to greet him," Liu Zhi squinted and smiled, and walked up enthusiastically to take the reins and horsewhip from the attendants, and lead the horse away for Lin Tie.

Meng Xinshi has some backbone, and he can't make Liu Zhi's posture, so if he makes a gesture, it can be regarded as a courtesy.

followed Liu Zhi and walked to the mansion together.

Meng Xinshi followed behind, secretly taking care of Lin Binding.

Since the farewell of Jiyang, he has not met Lin Tie again, when Ji Yang, Lin Tie gives him the feeling of a sharp blade out of the sheath, with a sharp momentum; At this time, Lin Jian should be gentle and restrained, but the more gentle and restrained, the more Meng Xinshi can understand how sharp his edge is after gentleness and convergence!

The situation has developed to this point, Jiang Ning no longer has the ability to refuse Lin Lian's recommendation of Liang Wen to be appointed as the prefect of Mingzhou, and Meng Xinshi came over to strive for favorable conditions for Jiang Ning in the arrangement of other officials in Mingzhou Mansion.

The more gentle and restrained Lin Bin's attitude was, the more bottomless Meng Xinshi's heart became.