The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

Jia Chen understood Zhao Zheng's meaning; he had also thought of this.

For many years, no fortified town had fallen, and the consequences of this incident were severe.

Although this matter has nothing to do with Qianshanbao, Qianshanbao is located outside the Great Wall and has the function of warning people. It will definitely be brought up by people later.

Their future fate largely depends on the attitudes of Liu Tianwang and Chen Tai.

If they had protected them to the death, their fate would probably have been better.

I'm afraid that they themselves will also face various impeachments and be unable to protect themselves.

"What we can do now is to defend Qianshan Fortress," Jia Chen said calmly. "While ensuring that Qianshan Fortress is not lost, we should kill as many Northern barbarians as possible and take their heads. With enough military merits, I believe this predicament can be easily resolved."

"That's right, kill the Northern barbarians!" Wang Baisheng immediately shouted. "I heard it's that little prince Abunai again. We were able to defeat him badly last time, and this time will be no exception."

Those who escaped had seen Abunai before, so they recognized Abunai as the leader of the Northern Barbarians.

"He suffered a major defeat at Qianshandun last time. If he really comes this time, he will probably be fully prepared. This battle will be dangerous," Zhao Zheng said.

"Old Zhao, don't boost others' morale and diminish our own," Wang Baisheng disagreed. "We're not in the same boat as we were at Qianshandun now."

"That's true," Zhao Zheng said with a smile. "My lord, given Abunai's temperament, he will definitely attack Qianshan Fortress."

"So, everyone, be on your guard from now on. I don't believe Abunai will bring tens of thousands of troops here for a small fortress like Qianshan Fortress," Jia Chen said coldly. "As long as it's not their entire force, we have the ability to make the Chahar Tartars kowtow and bleed before Qianshan Fortress!"

The Tiger Crouching Cannon's defense of the city gave Jia Chen considerable confidence.

But if Abuna really besieges the front fort with his entire army, it will definitely not be able to hold.

After all, Qianshanbao only had a little over four hundred people.

The Chahar tribe's southward march was mainly for plunder. Given the current cold weather, Jia Chen believed that they wouldn't stay long this time, at least shorter than last time, probably around ten days.

After the Northern barbarians captured Zhenqiang Fort, they would inevitably divide their forces to plunder everywhere.

When Abuna came to retaliate, he certainly didn't bring all his troops.

The fall of Zhenqiang Fort made the atmosphere in Qianshan Fort tense.

However, everyone is doing their own job.

Those who needed to train continued to train, making final preparations before the big battle.

Jia Chen ordered Lu Dahai and others to do their best to manufacture landmines and tiger-squat cannons, and to make as many as possible before Abunai arrives.

In the following days, Qianshanbao gathered some of the defeated soldiers and civilians from the Great Hong Dynasty.

Most of these people escaped from Zhenqiangbao, and some were local residents from the surrounding area.

Jia Chen obtained more information about the Chahar tribe from them.

The number of Chahar troops who marched south this time was probably no less than 20,000. After capturing Zhenqiang Fort, they immediately divided their forces and spread out to plunder the surrounding area.

Jia Chen gathered more than forty defeated soldiers and ordered them to defend the city, hoping they would atone for their crimes through meritorious service.

These people have all been screened and confirmed to be border troops, especially the garrison of Zhenqiang Fort.

Wang Baisheng and his men had some understanding of most of these garrison troops, so they weren't worried that they might be infiltrated from the Northern Barbarians.

The other few hundred people assisted with the city's logistics.

If there really isn't enough people, even if we include everyone, Qianshanbao currently has about 600 people.

With the city walls in place, we believe we can inflict even more casualties on the northern barbarians.

At noon on the third day after the fall of Zhenqiang Fort, the sentry on the lookout tower sounded the alarm.

The Northern barbarians' forces finally appeared and were approaching Qianshan Fort.

Jia Chen and the others immediately climbed the south city wall.

"Everyone to your positions," Jia Chen commanded loudly.

Liu Cheng, Wang Baisheng, Ding Heihu, and Zhao Zheng each took charge of guarding one side.

Since it is still unknown which direction the Northern Barbarians will attack from, the troops are basically evenly distributed on all four sides.

After deducting some elderly, weak, women and children for logistical support, there were nearly 450 people capable of fighting, including the forty-odd defeated soldiers, who were incorporated into the city's defense.

Each side was guarded by 80 soldiers, and Jia Chen personally led 130 men as a reserve force to guard the south gate, including Huang Xiuer's arquebus squad.

Jia Chen wanted to see the main direction of the Northern Barbarians' attack, and Huang Xiuer and the others would definitely be deployed in that direction.

In the past two days, Lu Dahai and others have been working day and night to build another eight tiger-squatting cannons.

Jia Chen also prepared these eight tiger-squatting cannons as backups, ready to be moved wherever needed.

"My lord?" The people on the city wall quickly recognized the Northern Barbarian troops from the south.

In front of the Northern Barbarians were densely packed people of the Great Hong Dynasty, being driven towards the front mountain fortress.

A rough estimate suggests that the number of people is no less than a thousand.

As for the northern barbarians, their forces are even greater, probably no less than three thousand.

"Sir, they're trying to use the people to fill the moat," Sun Tiechong said, his voice trembling, standing beside Jia Chen.

This kind of thing was actually quite common among the Northern Barbarians.

Jia Chen's heart sank.

Last time, when Abunai dealt with Qianshandun, he didn't use this tactic and directly let the Northern Barbarians charge.

That was because Abunai was arrogant and overconfident at the time, thinking that a small fire-receiving mound was no match for him.

With the border troops following behind, Abunai was wary and led his troops to cover the rear, abandoning the attack on Qianshandun. Otherwise, they would definitely have used this tactic later.

At that time, Qianshandun would have been in danger.

This time, Abunai had clearly changed his approach, learning from his mistakes and using the local people as a vanguard.

This put the soldiers guarding the city in a very passive and difficult position.

The northern cavalry quickly surrounded Qianshan Fort and began driving the civilians closer and closer to the fort.

These people were carrying stones in their hands, and baskets filled with soil on their backs, and so on.

The northern cavalry stopped two hundred paces away and kept shooting arrows to threaten the people's advance. Many people were hit by arrows and fell down.

The people gathered at the south gate, which was the main direction of the northern enemy's attack.

To be honest, Qianshanbao only had one city gate, which was the south gate.

The purpose was to make it easy to defend and difficult to attack; leaving one entrance and exit was sufficient.

"Sir, shall we fire? Otherwise, they'll fill the trenches and make a path through them!" Wang Baisheng shouted.

Jia Chen was on the south city wall, in the direction that Wang Baisheng was guarding.

The others looked conflicted; those below were their fellow villagers, their compatriots.

But for them, defending the city was the top priority.

Therefore, everyone remained silent in response to Wang Baisheng's suggestion, which can be considered as tacit agreement.

Jia Chen stood on the city wall, his fists clenched tightly.

Historically, there have been far too many instances of using civilians as human shields in sieges. Faced with this situation, the defending soldiers are in a difficult position, finding it hard to bring themselves to slaughter their fellow countrymen.

These factors often lead to heavy losses for the defending soldiers, or even result in the fall of the city and the deaths of its inhabitants.

He felt powerless; he wanted to save people but couldn't.

If we don't take action against these civilians and make them fill in the trenches, Qianshan Fort will definitely fall.

To protect Qianshan Fortress, these civilians must be slaughtered.

He no longer feels anything about letting Jia Chen kill the Northern barbarians.

However, Jia Chen found it difficult to accept the plight of the people of the Great Hong Dynasty.

However, Jia Chen remained clear-headed.

If the people are allowed to fill the moat, the soldiers on the city wall will be too timid to act freely, and everyone in Qianshan Fort will surely die.

Jia Chen had already made up his mind about what to choose.