Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

When Ma Lingqi woke up again, she was already at the bottom of the mountain.

Being young and frivolous, I didn’t know there was separation in the world.

After learning that her grandmother would stay at home and live and die with Shiqu, Ma Lingqi went crazy and wanted to stay with her grandmother.

Ma Xianglin had no choice but to knock his daughter unconscious when she was not paying attention.

"Lingqi, it's time for you to grow up. Our Ma family is the Shiqian envoy appointed by the imperial court.

Our innate duty is to protect the people here.

Didn't you always look up to your grandmother as a role model?

Your grandmother has been doing this all her life and will continue to do so in the future, and we should also be like her." Ma Xianglin sighed and said to his daughter.

Ma Lingqi remained silent.

On the second day, the troops escorted the civilians and finally reached the temporary camp on the mountain.

Ma Xianglin stood on a high place and looked towards Shiqu with a deep gaze.

In the evening of August 13th.

Zhang Xianzhong finally led his army to the outskirts of Shiqu City.

Behind him, an army of 120,000 soldiers lined up in a long queue that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Damn it, if I don't take down Shi Que this time, I won't be called Zhang anymore!"

Zhang Xianzhong looked at Shiqu City and spat viciously.

He has been in Sichuan for almost a year. He originally thought that by entering Sichuan, a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, he would not only no longer have to be chased around by the imperial court, but he could also develop safely and be able to attack or defend.

But later he found out that it was true that it was easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the imperial court had actually blocked the outside.

Not only that, the small county town of Shiqu was like a nail piercing his heart.

It makes him feel like a thorn in his back and a fishbone stuck in his throat.

Zhang Xianzhong knew something about what was happening outside Sichuan, but due to the blockade, he only got a general idea from the Donglin Party members.

It seemed that it was that the bastard Zhang Shikang who was doing all kinds of evil things in the court, causing the gentry and landlords of the Ming Dynasty to rebel, saying that they wanted to purge the emperor's side or something like that.

At least that's what the people in Jiangnan told him.

But no matter whether it is true or not, the Ming Dynasty is now in chaos, which is a good thing for Zhang Xianzhong.

Let it be chaos, let it be chaos. Chaos is not only not an abyss, but also the ladder for Zhang Xianzhong.

The road to heaven is in it.

What he had to do now was to capture this small Shiqian City, and then lead his troops into Huguang, taking advantage of the chaos to conquer the world.

As there were too many troops, it took the army two hours just to set up camp, and they did not find peace until late at night.

In Zhang Xianzhong's military tent, there were already two village women captured by his subordinates from nearby villages. He entered the tent with a slightly anxious look, and soon he heard crying sounds from inside.

From August 14th to 15th, Zhang Xianzhong ordered the army's craftsmen to frantically cut down trees and make siege equipment such as ladders.

Fortunately, there were trees everywhere and the walls of Shiqu were not very high. After only two days, a large number of siege equipment such as ladders and battering rams were produced.

On the morning of August 16, with the sound of a horn, the attack and defense of Shiqu began.

As he had sufficient military forces, Zhang Xianzhong ordered his four adopted sons to attack together this time.

The eldest son Zhang Kewang led his 10,000 troops to attack the main gate, the second son Zhang Wenxiu attacked the north gate, the third son Ai Nengqi attacked the west gate, and the fourth son Zhang Dingguo attacked the east gate.

Thirty to forty thousand people surrounded Shiqu City, and Zhang Kewang ordered the artillery to start bombarding.

For a moment, the sound of cannons rumbled and the shouts of killing shook the sky.

Qin Liangyu was dressed in military uniform and calmly commanded her subordinates to defend the city.

Ever since she learned of Zhang Xianzhong's movements, she has been making intensive preparations for this defense.

The corridors of the Shiqian city wall were already filled with stones and rolled logs, and iron pots were placed on the fire.

The soldiers threw rocks, rolled logs and poured hot water down frantically.

The enemies climbing the ladders kept falling down with wailing, and some ladders were even broken directly.

But neither Zhang Kewang, Ai Nengqi, Zhang Wenxiu nor Zhang Dingguo allowed the soldiers to retreat.

This situation continued for a long time, but the soldiers in Shiqu City knew that there was no way to retreat. If they could not defend the city, only death would await them.

They encountered almost the same problem as Liu Liangzuo's troops defending Suzhou City.

If it were Zuo Liangyu, he would probably do the same as Liu Liangzuo, either driving the civilians to his own side or surrendering.

But at this time, the commander of this army had been replaced by Qin Liangyu.

For half a year, under the command of Qin Liangyu, the brothers Ma Xianglin and Qin Yiming spent a lot of energy.

First, he streamlined Zuo Liangyu's army of 50,000 men and laid off all those who had become veteran soldiers.

What followed was several months of training, which transformed them into disciplined people.

Now facing the same problem as the Suzhou defenders, the performance of the Shiqu defenders was very different.

Not only did they fight bravely, but they also did not easily ask for rest even when they were exhausted.

They all understood that they were now fighting for their own lives.

This continued until noon, and the four city walls had not been taken down, which made Zhang Xianzhong very angry.

Especially the twenty French machine guns mobilized from the surrounding counties, which fired for a long time but failed to even penetrate the bricks of the wall.

Sichuan was not the main defense line of the imperial court. Not to mention the more powerful red cannons, there were not many smaller Portuguese cannons.

Especially in the past few years, when the imperial court was suppressing bandits, most of them were withdrawn, so that Zhang Xianzhong could only use small field cannons to attack the city.

But no matter how bad Zhang Xianzhong's temper was, there was nothing he could do. In the afternoon, he could only order his subordinates to continue attacking the city.

He just didn't believe that this small Shiqu City could stop his 120,000-strong army.

That night, Zhang Xianzhong was so angry that he killed someone because there had been no progress the whole day.

Ma Xianglin, who was deep in the mountains, had been observing Shiqu City at the foot of the mountain.

There were lights outside Shiqu City, which should be Zhang Xianzhong’s camp.

After listening to artillery fire all day, it would be a lie to say I'm not worried.

"Dad, are we just going to wait here?" Ma Lingqi said softly.

"This is your grandmother's order. If anything goes wrong, we will go to Qianjiang immediately." Ma Xianglin said in a deep voice.

Military orders are strictly enforced, and his mother, like him, has spent her entire life enforcing such a sacred thing as military orders.

"But grandma didn't say that we can't take any action?" Ma Lingqi said again.

She has not yet recovered from her grief, but she knows that she can no longer lose her temper. This is her home, and she has relatives around her and in the city.

She must do everything she can to protect her family, just like her grandmother did.

"Lingqi has often gone to the mountains to play since she was a child, and so do our fellow villagers in the city. We are much more familiar with the mountains and forests than outsiders like Zhang Xianzhong.

Although our eight thousand white-flag soldiers have never seen battle, didn’t Daddy say that if you don’t go to the battlefield, you can never be called a veteran.

Now that grandmother is under siege, isn't this an opportunity for them to familiarize themselves with the battle formation?

The soldiers we recruited are all locals, and they are more familiar with the mountains and forests than we are!"

Ma Lingqi talked about whatever came to her mind. Ma Xianglin didn't take it seriously at first, but as he listened more he seemed to think there was something interesting, so he let Ma Lingqi continue.

“I know what Dad is worried about, the enemy has too many troops.

But Lingqi felt that in the mountains and forests, having more people was not necessarily an advantage.

They are not familiar with fighting in the mountains and forests, but our white-pole soldiers are just the opposite.

Lingqi thought that we could go down the mountain to launch a sneak attack and lure them into the forest.

This can also help grandma share the pressure of defending the city. What do you think, Dad?

This is not considered a violation of military orders. If we can’t win, we can just run away.”

The more Ma Xianglin listened, the more he thought it was feasible, and he immediately touched his daughter's forehead.

“My daughter has really grown up!”