"Everything is just as you deduced. Wanli has ordered Yin Bingheng to lead the three battalions to move to the east of Tongzhou. The army is lined up with their backs to the North Grand Canal to prevent the loss of Tongzhou granary." Meihua, the mediocre chief of the special reconnaissance section, appeared in front of the insignificant Colonel Zheng.

"Their top priority now is to transfer the grain from Tongzhou Warehouse to Beijing Warehouse as soon as possible."

"Isn't this all thanks to Section Chief Fang's care and Section Chief Mei's timely and accurate intelligence?" Zheng Yiluan was flattered by the arrival of this section-level cadre. This was enough to show that his small "reinforced group" had become the focus of the big boss's attention!

"Haha, after all, we are all under Director Gao's command, so of course we should help if we can." Meihua said with a faint smile.

"Then we must fight this battle well and not bring shame to our Security Department!" Colonel Zheng immediately expressed his opinion and toasted Section Chief Mei with a cigarette.

Meihua waved her hand to indicate that she didn't smoke. Although there are tens of thousands of smokers in Jiangnan now, smoking is still the exclusive domain of the landlords in the north. He is not as talented as the section chief, so he must hide himself carefully to avoid attracting attention.

"But you don't have to worry too much." Meihua gave Zheng Yiluan a reassurance and said, "We were originally worried that Wanli would learn from Yu Shaobao's example and transport all the grain in a few days, but now it seems that we were worrying too much."

In order to build a strong defense and clear the countryside as quickly as possible, Yu Qian petitioned Emperor Jingtai to provide nine months' worth of rice to the civil and military officials in the capital and six months' worth of rations to the soldiers defending the city, but they had to go to Tongzhou to collect them.

At the same time, in order to mobilize the masses, he not only paid for the grain transportation, but also did not care whether the people would transport the grain to their homes. This created an absolute miracle, and the huge amount of grain in Tongzhou Warehouse was transported in just a few days.

Moreover, all the civil and military officials in the court, as well as the soldiers and civilians, had full granaries and tanks at home, so naturally people's hearts were at peace and morale was greatly boosted.

Therefore, we cannot take things lightly at this life-and-death moment; we must do everything for the sake of victory.

If you still say "I would rather be friends with foreign countries than be my domestic slaves", then it will be useless.

But it was impossible for Wanli to not count the small account. That was 20 million dan of grain, which was conservatively estimated to be worth 40 million taels of silver!

It would be better to kill him than to let his precious wealth be distributed to those hateful ministers and lowly common people for nothing.

Therefore, Wanli only ordered the Imperial Horse Administration to recruit civilians from the capital and sent four guard battalions to supervise the transportation, making sure that every grain of rice was returned to the warehouse...

Not to mention a few days, he wouldn’t be able to finish all the transportation in just a few months!

"That's normal. Zhu Yijun is so greedy, how could he be willing to spend his money?" Zheng Yiluan lit up the cigarette and took a puff. Zhonghua brand cigarettes are hard to come by. He can only get a few cartons a year, and he usually doesn't want to smoke them.

"However, Wanli has not planned to let the three camps deal with you. He sent the military supervisory eunuch with the supervision team and the royal flag to the camps of Wang Huaxi, Zhang Chen and Du Tong, forcing them to fight with you to the last man." Meihua revealed again.

"No wonder the Zhang family father and son rushed into Baodi City and refused to leave." Zheng Yiluan showed a look of realization: "I thought Marshal Zhang was dying."

"He's almost recovered, but he hasn't gotten out of bed. He must be pretending to be sick to fool the new eunuch who supervises the army." Meihua said calmly. Obviously, he has a complete grasp of not only the intelligence in the palace, but also the situation of the enemy.

Although Baodi County is not large, it is the gateway to the capital, so it was built with military considerations in mind. The city wall is made of brick and stone, and is 26 meters high and thick. Moreover, each city gate is made of solid wood and iron nails, and there are towers on the gates, and a corner tower is set up at each of the four corners. The defense facilities are very complete.

Zhang Chen put on a defensive posture, hoping that Zheng Yiluan would retreat. If Zheng Yiluan was really determined to fight, Zhang Chen would have some advantages with the strong city.

"Marshal Zhang thinks too highly of us. We don't have the ability to attack the city." Zheng Yiluan sneered and asked, "Are there still civilians in Baodi City?"

"The circumference of Baodi County is less than seven miles. With 20,000 to 30,000 government troops pouring in, how could the common people dare to stay in this small county?" Meihua smiled and said, "They all fled to the countryside a long time ago."

"That's good. We should be good people to the end and help the Buddha to the west. We have to help Marshal Wang!" Zheng Yiluan said, flicking the cigarette butt away in a cool manner, and a string of orange-yellow sparks drew a beautiful arc in the night sky.

~~

Amidst the whistling sound, thousands of orange arcs cut through the dark night sky.

The orange flames illuminated half of the night sky very brightly and clearly outlined the contours of Baodi County.

"Wow, so beautiful, is it a shooting star?" The defenders on the city wall craned their necks to watch this once-in-a-lifetime beauty.

"Is it a flying monkey?" Hearing the noise, Zhang Chengyin also came out to watch.

It was not until those "meteors" fell on the county town that the officers and soldiers realized that it was an enemy rocket attack and hurriedly hid with their heads in their hands.

Fortunately, although the thing made a terrifying noise, it did not explode after landing. Except for a few unlucky people who were hit directly by the big iron can and died or injured, most people were safe and sound.

Zhang Chengyin was just about to say that he didn't expect the rebel army also had such flashy things.

However, he was horrified to find that the rocket that fell in front of him was running around with a long tail flame, and it didn't stop until it hit a dirt wall. Its butt was still spitting flames, with no sign of going out!

"The fire broke out!"

"It's on fire!"

"It's terrible, it's on fire!" Screams were heard all over the city, and fires were started everywhere.

Now Zhang Chen didn't bother to pretend to be sick, and quickly got up and ordered people to put out the fire.

Although the officers tried their best to organize the soldiers to put out the fire, except for the landlords, every house in that era had thatched roofs. In fact, even the landlords' houses with wooden structures were extremely afraid of fire. If you don't believe me, look at the largest landlord's compound - the Forbidden City. What a mess it was every time there was a fire?

The firefighting was completely useless. The continuous rockets fired made the flames soar into the sky, and finally they connected into one, and the whole county became a sea of ​​fire...

Surrounded by high walls, the small city became Laojun's alchemy furnace. In the raging fire, houses kept collapsing. Thick smoke filled the entire county, as if it was going to swallow everything.

In a state of panic, the military supervisor, Eunuch Pi, was the first to call for the city gates to be opened and escape from the county. The officers and soldiers followed him and fled...

Seeing that the army had lost control, Zhang Chen had no choice but to escape from Baodi County under the protection of his son and personal soldiers.

He gathered the defeated soldiers along the way, and it was not until dawn that he gathered most of his troops again.

But at this time, they were almost thirty miles away from Baodi County.

Moreover, there was no food, supplies, weapons or equipment. Many officers and soldiers had even lost their cotton-padded clothes and shoes. They were covered in dust and shivering, no different from refugees.

Now I have no fighting power at all...

"Father, what should we do?" Zhang Chengyin asked with tears in his eyes. It was so aggrieved. They had not even fired a single shot since the start of the war, but they had been defeated again and again.

All the generals looked at Zhang Chen, waiting for the commander to make a decision.

"It's impossible to go back to Baodi, but retreating is also a dead end, and staying where we are is the same." Zhang Chen thought hard for a moment, pointed to the Chaobai River in the south and said, "Cross the river and go to Xianghe County!"

We can't afford to offend the rebels, so just give way, okay?

~~

In the Forbidden City in Beijing, the curses of Emperor Wanli could be heard again in the Yikun Palace!

Because this scene comes up too frequently, you can just use your imagination...

But this time, Wanli had no choice but to believe the report of the eunuch who supervised the army. Because the East Factory Supervisory Team also said the same thing, the rebels had a rocket that could fly from "more than ten miles away" and could spray fire in a matter of seconds. Although the direct killing was limited, it was definitely a killer weapon that would set fire to the city!

Doesn't this mean that the rebels don't have to get close to Tongzhou City at all, and can even launch rockets directly into the city across the Chaobai River and set fire to all his granaries?

When Wanli thought of the scene of his 19.9 million dan of grain being burned to ashes, he felt like he was going to die.

"We must not let them cross the Chaobai River!" Wanli roared, "Send an order to Yin Bingheng to move to the east bank of the Chaobai River immediately!"

"Then we will run into the rebels head-on!" Zhang Hong reminded the emperor.

"What's the problem if we run into them?!" Wanli said with white air coming out of his nose. "They only have 10,000 people! The three major camps plus Wang Huaxi and his men, a total of 200,000! Even if they were 200,000 pigs, they could still knock down all 10,000 of them!"

"Your Majesty is wise." Zhang Hong thought to himself that it was true. Two hundred thousand versus ten thousand, the advantage was in my hands...

"Tell Wang Huaxi and the others to lead their troops to Dachang to participate in the battle!" Wanli gritted his teeth and said, "Tell them that I will lead the army in person in five days! When I arrive at the battlefield, anyone who has not arrived will be executed for delaying military operations!"

"Your Majesty, think twice!" Zhang Hong was terrified. "Leading the army in person is no joke!"

Your great-grandfather went to the grassland to hunt... What is the punishment for impulse?

"No need to say more, I have made up my mind!" Wanli's mouth trembled, and he obviously thought of the story of Emperor Yingzong's northern exile. Although he also has a younger brother, he doesn't have Yu Qian... If there is a mistake, there will be no regrets.

But the words had already been spoken, so he could only say with a determined look: "Tomorrow I will offer sacrifices to the heavens, the earth and our ancestors, and then I will personally lead the army. Hurry and prepare to go!"

Now all the civil servants are in jail, and everything is handled by the eunuchs.

Fortunately, there was no civil service group trying desperately to stop him, so he could go wherever he wanted and was completely free.

The emperor's decision to lead the army in person was finalized.

However, when the two Empress Dowagers and Concubine Zheng started crying, Wanli became shaken again.

He persuaded himself that it was not so bad, two hundred thousand against ten thousand, there was absolutely no way he could lose!

Moreover, General Zhu Shou had personally led several campaigns, and nothing happened to him, right?

What? He fell into the water. Doesn't falling into the water after the war count?

When he thought that although he was only leading the army at home, he would have to cross the Beiyun River and the Chaobai River, he felt more and more frightened.

It seems that the Emperor of our Ming Dynasty is really not suitable for leading an army in person?

What should I do?