Each of the four in Jinan has 4 Weiyuan cannons, and the north gate has one bomb in front of the chamber, and only 3 are left. Although the artillery is powerful, the firing interval is long. After each shot, the chamber of the cannon had to be cleaned and reloaded, which was enough time for the White Lotus Sect to move forward quickly. Therefore, taking advantage of the gap in artillery, the White Lotus Sect brigade rushed to the city wall.

The Ming army in the city included hundreds of right guard sergeants, as well as the Jingying men directly under Yan Hong. They fired their bows and arrows and firebolts incessantly, tilting towards the city. Every rain of arrows and projectiles knocked down a White Lotus cultist. However, the arrows shot by the White Lotus Sect under the city were greatly reduced due to the blockage of the battlements on the city wall and the inconvenience of shooting from the bottom to the top, and the losses caused to the Ming army were very small. As for Yan Hongduan sitting at the head of the city, there were already soldiers from the Beijing camp in front of him holding shields to protect him, so he was naturally safe. A few streams of arrows shot over, and they were also gently pushed away by the purple and green heroes guarding beside them.

However, after all, in front of the ranks of tens of thousands of White Lotus Cultists, the proportion of casualties caused by each salvo of firepower in the city was too small. And the moat was also easily thrown out by the White Lotus cultists, and the planks were erected to cross the trench. Within a short time, more and more White Lotus Cultists had approached the city wall, erected long ladders, threw rope nooses, and began to charge towards the city.

The officers and soldiers of the city had already prepared all kinds of things. Some soldiers poured boiling water and dung juice into the cauldron, and the hot White Lotus disciples screamed and rolled down. Some pushed down large pieces of rolling logs and rocks. The ladders that the White Lotus cultists easily erected were often overturned head-on. At the same time, the archers and musketeers continued to fire at the enemies above and below the city. Those White Lotus Sectists who were in mid-air had nowhere to move, although they raised their shields to protect themselves. There are still a lot of people who are hit. They all fell down. All of a sudden. Up and down the city, the sound of killing shook the sky.

The fanatical followers of the White Lotus Sect were indeed shocking, and despite the increasing casualties, they continued to rush forward one after another, and the corpses of their companions were also used as stepping stones. Gradually, the White Lotus cultists on two ladders climbed the battlements. A right-guard soldier rushed forward and stabbed to death one of the "divine soldiers" in front with a spear, but was jumped up by one of the people behind. Grabbing the shaft of the spear, a third slashed him in the shoulder. Several nearby Ming soldiers stepped forward together, swords and spears together, and killed all the White Lotus Sect disciples who rushed up from this ladder. However, this weakened the defenses of the adjacent battlements. Gradually, more and more White Lotus disciples climbed onto the battlements.

At this moment, Xia Zisu peeked and watched, only to see that Yan Hong's face was as usual, still sitting on the chair, with no intention of running away. This time, the purple-clothed Chang'e couldn't help but secretly praise herself in her heart: Although this guy is a gentleman. But I really have some guts. It is an ordinary literati, and the earth-shattering sound of righteousness and benevolence is on his lips. Seeing this situation, I am afraid that I will also think about escaping.

Where does she know the Tao, Yan Hong knows that she is suffering. This time when he went to the city to supervise the battle, Yan Hong wore several layers of iron armor inside and outside because he was afraid of death, and the outermost part was covered with a mountain armor with excellent defense. Being wrapped in metal does give people a sense of security, but after a while, they find it difficult to move, and it takes a lot of effort to get up from a chair. And with this weight, even if you can't run fast. And he is not stupid, if this Jinan city tower is taken down, it is estimated that the city will be broken, even if he wants to run, there is no place to run. Rather than this, it is better to hold up the hero to the end in the city.

Seeing that the White Lotus Sect was coming up in a steady stream, most of the front line of the battlements of the North Gate Tower had been occupied. But he heard Ye Zhengfei's rough voice in the chaotic army sounding through the earthen horn: "Fa! Then came the thumping of muskets, and hundreds of them were shot out like thunderbolts. The projectile swept over like a hurricane, and the White Lotus Cultists, who had already climbed the battlements, fell like crops swept away by a tornado.

It turned out that Ye Zhengfei led more than 100 gunners from his direct musket team to set up a formation in the North Gate Tower early, and every few guns were aimed at the battlements, and the incense braziers were ready-made. Seeing the White Lotus Cultists rushing up to the city tower and the timing of the Ming army's retreat, they launched together. Although the power of the musket at that time was far from being comparable to that of modern firearms, the accuracy and penetration were limited, but this time hundreds of guns were fired at close range, aiming at the fixed target of the battlement of the city wall, and the unlucky White Lotus cultists had no room to dodge at all, and for a while, the projectiles pierced through the armor and pierced through the flesh and skin, accompanied by the screams of the ghosts and gods, and the team of the White Lotus cultists in the city suddenly thinned out a lot.

Then the people and horses of Jingying shouted in unison and rushed up, and the good players in the rivers and lakes under Yan Hong also jumped out one after another. Liang Rufei took the lead, the steel knife in his hand flashed, wandering left and right, and stabbed more than ten disciples to death in a short time. Sun Yuerong was dressed in red, and the ghost head knife slashed and killed with the wind, and also cut down several people. Sun Liebao's knife is not old, his tall body is particularly eye-catching, before the person arrives, the power comes first, the golden knife is dazzling, and the blood splashes. That Meng Xiucai was a scholar before he went up the mountain, and he also liked to punch and kick twice. The force of the melee in his formation is not very high, but he is clever, holding a short spear, wandering around the battlefield, and when he sees the Ming army slashing and killing with the White Lotus Sect, he detours to the enemy's flank and stabs a spear, and if he misses the poke, he immediately scatters his legs and slips away. was so cheating and tricky, he actually killed three disciples before and after him. Not long after, the White Lotus Sect who had gone up to the city tower was completely wiped out with one drum.

At this time, the White Lotus Sect under the city was still desperately climbing up, but the elite soldiers who took the lead were annihilated, which was quite demoralizing. The Ming army took advantage of the victory to pursue and overturned the ladder at the battlement. Then the Minzhuang team led by Yun Chuqi also transported a batch of large stones, and seven or eight people lifted them up and threw them down, smashing the ladders and smashing them. Although the White Lotus Sect is fierce, after all, they are also flesh and blood, there are many casualties, and the fanatical believers are still gone, and the people in the team who were coerced and lured are inevitably frightened, and they have slowed down. The White Lotus Sect Incense Master, who commanded this attack, saw that the situation was not good, so he had to temporarily withdraw his troops.

This vicious battle lasted for two hours. At noon, when the sun was at its top, seeing that the White Lotus Sect's offensive was suspended, Yan Hong ordered the troops to stay on guard, and the rest rested quickly. Yun Chuqi sent thousands of people to the battlements to defend it, which gave the city the illusion that the city was still heavily defended. And the White Lotus Sect outside the city is also smoking, and it seems that everyone is having lunch.

On this occasion, Yan Hong naturally didn't have time to enjoy the delicacies of the mountains and seas in Yan's Mansion, and like ordinary soldiers, he ate white rice with pickles and dried meat. Fortunately, I was hungry, and although this food was not very tasty, it at least gave people a sense of fulfillment.

After lunch, the drums and trumpets under the city rang again. The Ming army threw down the dishes and chopsticks one after another and went to the battlement to defend it. Not long after, the White Lotus Sect rushed forward with another shout. So the morning was the same again, first with artillery bombardment, then with bows and arrows, muskets, ladders climbing, and bloody throwing and slashing. It wasn't until dusk that the White Lotus Sect retreated, and the head of the city remained unmoved. Yan Hong stood in the city tower and watched the White Lotus Sect return to the camp. Not long after, the generals of the other three gates also sent people to report, saying that the enemy had retreated, and the city gate was safe and sound.

On this day, the White Lotus disciples suffered at least thousands of casualties outside the four city gates, while the Ming army only lost a few dozen people. Yan Hong was naturally quite happy. Although many enemy soldiers were killed and wounded, because they were defending the city, there were only more than 300 heads cut off from the city tower. Yan Hong directly allocated 4,000 taels of silver from Wang Xuan's floating wealth as he had said before, and rewarded the beheaded soldiers. and set aside five thousand taels of silver, and rewarded the whole army. Another 2,000 taels were set aside as a pension for the dead and wounded.

The finances of the Ming Dynasty have always been tight, and the soldiers of the Ming army sometimes have to be in arrears even if they have normal military salaries. This is also Yan Hong's special situation, one won Wang Xuan's fat pig, and there was so much cash in his hand that he couldn't get it; Second, he also knew that at present, the White Lotus Sect army outside the city is besieged, if the officials are stingy and don't spend a lot of money to boost the morale of these soldiers, once the city is broken, there will be 10 billion silver will also be the enemy's; The three Yan Hong and Hai Rui have just beheaded the Jinan officialdom for blood, and those who can contain him have been taken down, who dares to go against the idea of Qincha in a group of middle-level officials? Although Hai Rui is the deputy envoy, he can't control Yan Hong, so he spends money like water.

Otherwise, if in normal times, if the provincial city is really besieged, due to the restraint of civil officials and military generals, and the internal balance of civil officials, I am afraid that even if the treasury is full, no one can spend more than 10,000 taels of silver a day to reward the army with such a big hand. Yan Hong allocated another 2,000 taels of silver to Yun Chuqi, and asked him to reward and compensate the people who were helping in the city today, and for a while, everyone was really happy.

When he returned to the governor's yamen, he had already set up a celebration banquet, and Yan Hong invited Qin Delu to sit in the first place, complimenting him on commanding the great destruction of the enemy army, which made a lot of contributions, and he will definitely be praised by the imperial court in the future. The acting commander was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth, and repeatedly patted his chest and said that he would sell the eight and a half catties to Yan Qincha.

Zuo Shenlei looked greedy, and also said to Yan Hong: "Qincha's niece and son-in-law, why didn't you move our team in the green forest today?" When the time comes, we will also be sent out of Lu to rush and kill for a while, so that the White Lotus Sect bandits who killed a thousand knives will know how powerful our Shandong Green Forest heroes are! ”

Yan Hong already had a problem with Zuo Shenlei in his heart, and secretly sneered at this moment, you don't know whether you live or die, seeing that today's fight is going well, I think the White Lotus Sect is easy to deal with. Wait, you're happy. But he was silent in his mouth, raised his glass and said: "The left seniors are enthusiastic, Yan admires." Don't worry, sooner or later, there will be a time for you to make meritorious contributions. ”

Yun Chuqi said: "Although our army has killed a lot of enemies today, it is also because the thief army has just arrived and has not yet gained a stable foothold. If you are besieged by them for a long time, I am afraid that it will not be as easy as it is today. ”

Hai Rui nodded: "What you said is very true. I have already revised the watch and sent it to the imperial court, and an urgent official document was sent to the Imperial Governor's Office, requesting reinforcements. Today, we can expedite another official document to be sent overnight, and ask for reinforcements to arrive quickly. (To be continued......)