"Open the city gate quickly and let us in!"
Hundreds of Shun soldiers disguised as Ming troops outside the city suddenly lit torches and shouted at the city walls.
In fact, there is no need for disguise. After all, the armor of the Shun army is exactly the same as that of the Ming army. We only need to replace the flag with the Ming army flag.
The soldiers on the city wall were fast asleep. They opened their eyes, stood up and looked down.
In the firelight, hundreds of Ming army infantrymen were seen mixed together in a mess, looking into the distance constantly.
There seemed to be something very scary in there.
"Damn it, what are you arguing about!" The guards on the city wall cursed a few times and then asked, "What are you doing?"
"We are the defenders of Sishui County. Sishui County has been captured by the Jiannu. We fought hard to escape. Please open the city gate and let us in."
"Go away! What if you are the Jiannu?" the defenders on the city shouted lazily.
"We are not Jiannu, we are the Sishui County garrison! Please inform the garrison commander He on the city wall. If he refuses to open the city gate, we will turn around and leave."
"Well... okay! Wait, I'll go and report it right away." The guard on the city wall replied lazily, then turned and walked towards the city.
They were not alarmed by the news that the Jiannu had captured Sishui County.
Anyway, the defenders only have so many people. If the enemy comes in small numbers, they will just put up a symbolic resistance. If the enemy comes in large numbers, they will just open the city gates and surrender directly.
The imperial court owed the Qufu garrison fourteen months' wages, and they were already doing the imperial court justice by not rebelling.
What's more, surrender is also a good option.
The Jiannu raped and looted the people and committed all kinds of atrocities, but their attitude towards the surrendering Ming army was completely different.
The Jian Nu adopted the strategy of letting the surrendered Ming troops serve as vanguards and serving as soldiers at their own convenience. The monthly salary for horse soldiers was 2 taels of silver, the monthly salary for combat soldiers was 1 tael and 5 cents of silver, and the monthly salary for guard soldiers was 1 tael of silver.
What?
If you surrender to the Jiannu, you can get a wife, eight cows, sheep and a donkey, and if you die in battle, you can also get a pension of 150 taels of silver?
Sorry, that is the treatment given to surrendered soldiers from the Border Army and Guanning Army.
The other weak soldiers don’t have this qualification!
The news that Sishui County was captured by the Jiannu and the defenders fled to outside Qufu City was quickly sent to He Shun, the garrison commander of Qufu.
Normally speaking, a county-level city only needs one captain leading the troops.
Qufu is different.
Under the influence of the Confucius Mansion, the highest-ranking military commander here is the garrison commander.
Although He Shun was the garrison commander, he only had more than a thousand soldiers under his command, which reduced the total size.
Due to the disuse of military equipment, Qufu inevitably encountered problems of conscription and false impersonation.
Soldiers in the army received military pay and did private work for generals and officials.
There is no such person in the army, so generals, officials, and powerful people use their servants to impersonate soldiers in the army and receive a share of the military pay every month.
When the superiors came to inspect, they would temporarily join the army and pretend to serve. After the inspectors left, they would return to the government office and continue to serve.
He Shun was a little panicked. He dressed hurriedly and went to the city wall with a dozen personal soldiers.
He leaned on the battlement of the city wall and looked down for a while, then asked, "Who is down there?"
"I am Hao Zhong, the commander of Sishui County. The Jiannu captured Sishui and we fought hard to escape. I beg the garrison commander He to let us into the city."
Hao Zhong?
Sishui County is more than 50 miles away from Qufu. He Shun knew many generals and had no impression of the name Hao Zhong.
But whether it was true or false, he had no intention of opening the city gate.
He was not only guarding Qufu, but also the Confucius Mansion and Duke Yansheng!
Thinking of this, He Shun laughed loudly: "You want to trick me into opening the city gate? No way! Because you are wearing a military uniform, I won't shoot arrows. Go quickly, or else don't blame me for being rude."
Hao Yaoqi knew that it was useless to say more, so he ordered his men to shoot the letter of surrender prepared in advance to the top of the city wall. Then he led his men to retreat two miles and raised the military flag with white border high.
He Shun opened the paper on the arrow and was stunned after seeing the words on it.
To the soldiers and civilians of Qufu:
The Qing Dynasty's 80,000 cavalrymen marched south from Qiangziling and entered the pass. They first attacked Xianghe, captured Gu'an, seized Bazhou, and took Dacheng; later they conquered Yanshan, advanced to Binzhou, went down to Linzi, and occupied Weiyang.
Invincible and victorious!
We have now captured Sishui County and are marching into Qufu.
You have one hour to surrender, otherwise the whole city will be massacred!
Gushan Ezhen of the Bordered White Banner of the Eight Banners Han Army of the Qing Dynasty: Bayan.
"The Jiannu's 80,000 cavalry have already conquered Si Shui, and the army is about to arrive at Qufu city. Go and inform the county magistrate and Duke Yansheng!" He Shun, the garrison commander of Qufu, swallowed his saliva and gave orders hurriedly.
At this time, the east began to turn white and the vision became clearer.
Two miles east of the city, thousands of "Eight Banners Soldiers" lined up under fluttering military flags waiting for the enemy.
He Shun picked up the clairvoyance and began to observe carefully.
I saw these cavalrymen lined up neatly on the field.
The soldiers wore white cotton armor, bright iron helmets, shoulder guards, arm armor, bows and arrows, and sabers.
The strong war horses also have armor on their bodies, and you can vaguely see the head armor, breast armor and abdominal armor.
People wear full armor, horses wear half armor!
After seeing the opponent's equipment, He Shun felt hopeless!
Compared with the enemy, our equipment can only be described as miserable.
The helmet was rusty, the cotton armor was torn, and the knife in his hand had to be sharpened by a stone before he could even cut vegetables, let alone chop people.
How to fight this?
"It's the Eight Banners soldiers! The Eight Banners soldiers are coming!" The sentries on the city wall were the first to notice something was wrong. They put down their telescopes and started shouting.
The rest of the Ming army fell into chaos upon seeing this.
"Shoubei He, do you want to fight or surrender?"
"Yes, Guardsman He should make plans early, so as to avoid death and the fall of the city."
He Shun was stunned. He didn't expect Qufu to become the target of the Jiannu.
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