Chapter 197 Dark Clouds Loom over the City, Threatening to Destroy It
At this time, as bad news came one after another from south to north, the atmosphere in Jintian was extremely tense and depressing to the extreme.
After more than two months, the Keelung Department Store stores in various stores were all gone. Most of the silver stored in various counters was withdrawn by Qin and Han merchants as payment for goods. The economic strength of the five major families immediately showed their embarrassment. Financial resources were cut off everywhere. Time is running out to maintain support.
People of all ages in the clan have been asking for the public accounts of public funds to be made public so that the clan can reduce land rents and interest rates. Otherwise, it will be like this.
Faced with such a catastrophic situation, Deng Wentian, the soul and leader of the five major families, and Old Madam Deng, had no choice but to muster up 100% energy to support their old and weak bodies to summon the children of each family to discuss matters.
However, it is very sad that Old Madam Deng, who used to raise his arms and the mountains responded, is unable to speak well today.
The Bai family of Ueda, the Kong family of Xiashui, the Shen family of Longchuan, and the Peng family of Xiling all sent their own children here. They were very sorry to say that because of the pirates crossing the border, it was inconvenient for the family owners to leave without authorization. I hope that Mr. Deng will forgive me and wait for the retreat If you kill a pirate, come and apologize in person.
"Alas! It seems that we have really fulfilled that sentence. When a disaster comes, everyone will fly away! Ah Wu!" Old Mrs. Deng summoned his most proud grandson, Wulang, "You immediately send someone to contact the Keelung Army, and say that the Deng family is willing to Pay the money in good faith and become obedient people under the Keelung Army. As long as they are willing to withdraw, they will not pursue the previous matter!"
"No, grandpa! We have fought against them, and they are not heavenly soldiers or generals. They have no magical powers! We are afraid of them! We will rely on Jintian to defend and summon people from all over the country to fight with them! In the end, the fish will die and the net will be broken. They It’s not necessarily a good bargain!”
"Stupid thing!"
Deng Wentian waved the crutch in his hand and hit Deng Wulang hard on the head.
"You don't even look at the situation. In the past, when the bells and drums were beaten in the ancestral hall, what was the noise in the surrounding villages? What about now? The bells and drums in the ancestral hall are almost broken, but has anyone come to support?!"
The burning pain on his head made Deng Wulang's mind suddenly become clearer.
He was also a smart man and immediately understood what grandpa meant, but he was just not convinced.
"Grandpa, my brothers and I will take people to several other villages and bring as many young men as we can from the villages to guard the perimeter! What do you think?"
"You did this first. If the Keelung Army is unwilling to let us go, it will be a dead end!" Deng Wentian said helplessly.
"Grandpa, don't worry! I will ask my brothers to spread the news in every village. This time the Keelung Army has come to take revenge. Anyone who went there last time will be killed. If you don't want to die, go to Jintian." Come and hold the fence!"
After hearing the idea from his favorite grandson, Deng Wentian couldn't help but nod in agreement. If this was a normal time, he would have to comfort him with gentle words, and he felt happy in his heart.
"Let the people below take care of this matter! Go to the accounting office to collect 50,000 silver dollars, and take the people to Jinping County as quickly as possible!"
"Grandpa, what are you doing?!" Deng Wulang was a little confused about his grandfather's behavior and asked anxiously.
Do you want to escape first? Leave some blood for the Deng family? This terrifying thought flashed through his mind, making him afraid to imagine it.
Seeing Wu Lang's thoughts, Deng Wentian explained: "Don't worry, I'm not asking you to run away, I have something important for you to do."
"My informant in the county government office told me that Weizhou, the leader of the Keelung Army, sent 10,000 silver dollars to the county magistrate Liu Wendou and asked him to sit back and watch. Go! Tell Magistrate Liu that as long as he is willing to mediate, my Deng family will give him five Thousands of silver dollars! Thank you very much afterwards!”
"That's it!" Deng Wulang suddenly realized.
Deng Wulang lay on the ground and kowtowed to Deng Wentian, then turned around and walked out of the hall, asking his brothers to take their own errands.
Deng Wentian was the only one left in the hall, sitting alone on the bamboo rocking chair. The sunlight coming in from the hall door made him unable to open his eyes, so he simply closed them and slowly shed two lines of turbid tears. Sliding off your cheeks!
Not long after Deng Wulang left, the troops of the Keelung Army Brigade appeared several miles away from Jintianwei.
The people on the fence first felt the ground tremble, and then a large red flag appeared in their field of vision. The tassels of the iron-pointed helmets in the procession were burning like fire, and the eyes of everyone in the Jintian fence were sore.
In full view of the people on the wall, the Keelung Army under the wall began to adjust their ranks and surrounded the entire Jintian in an orderly manner.
From time to time, a few heads popped up on the edge of the wall and peeked at the city. The timid one had already begun to tremble uncontrollably with his legs.
They have seen many officers and soldiers, and they have also seen pirate teams, but they have never seen a team that can walk for dozens of miles and still move in such a consistent and orderly manner.
From the looks of it, I can't keep this fence today!
Outside the Huzhuang River, Weizhou led a group of officers there to take a leisurely look at the terrain. Different from the last time, the mood when observing Jintianwei this time was so calm, so calm that even Weizhou himself was surprised.
It was as if I had been here many times without any emotional fluctuations.
In the past two months, Kam Tin Wai has not been idle, and naturally a lot of fortifications have been strengthened.
On the outside of the Weizi wall, ten more horse faces were built, which combined with the forts at the four corners and the original horse faces, further strengthened the blockade of the periphery. Coupled with the ten-meter-wide Huzhuang River, this village becomes even more indestructible.
"Everyone, did you see that? This village has only one gate, and people must go in and out through this gate. If we want to break through Jintianwei, we will have to force an attack, but if we do that, we will encounter the same situation as last time."
"The forts and horsemen built close to the river bank will attack us from both sides with bows and arrows and muskets. With the troops on the front wall, our attacking force will be attacked from three sides!"
Everyone looked in the direction pointed by Weizhou's whip. Jintianwei is 150 meters long and about 100 meters wide. The circumference of the village wall is only 500 meters. In addition to the four forts at the four corners and the original eight horsemen, ten more horsemen have been added. Whether it is a fort or a horseman, there are gun holes on it, and the black muzzles can be vaguely seen.
"No wonder!" Everyone weighed it in their hearts. No wonder they returned empty-handed last time.
"Sir! I have an idea, I wonder..."
"Tell me!" Weizhou couldn't wait to look at the young man in front of him who he met for the first time.
"This enclosure is not actually very big, and there won't be too many people on the city at the same time. We can use our artillery advantage to create the illusion of filling up the Huzhuang River with infantry, lure them to the wall, and fire on the horse face and artillery platform to intercept. I think, with their artillery and firing level, even if they fire, it may not have much impact on us. Our artillery will use this opportunity to suppress the artillery platform and clear those artillery one by one!"
Jiang Jianke, the proud disciple of the artillery commander Yuchi Cunguo, as the commander of the artillery team of the Western Route Army, proposed an offensive plan from the professional perspective of artillery.
"At the same time, mix the real and the fake, the real and the fake. During the interval of artillery fire on the top of the city, we can really fill the moat and open a channel for future attacks, killing two birds with one stone!"