Chapter 147: Destruction of Guifan Tower

When Wuyou Cave was destroyed, the battle at Guifan Tower had just entered a fierce stage.

Compared with the terrain disadvantage of Wuyou Cave, Guifan Tower was located deeper. Even if there were insiders who provided the location of the sentry, the officers and soldiers were discovered in advance because they went too deep.

In addition, Wuyou Cave was more dispersed in terms of numbers. Because Wuyou Cave had a greater underground power, it had established a large number of branches, each with hundreds of people.

In this way, together with the 5,000 to 6,000 people at the headquarters, the entire Wuyou Cave had more than 10,000 members, which was stronger than Guifan Tower among the underground forces.

The number of people in Guifan Tower was relatively small, mainly because their territory was more on the ground, so when Bianliang launched the anti-gang and anti-evil campaign, their strength suffered the greatest loss, and at least thousands of people were captured.

But it was precisely because the power above was damaged that a large number of people were transferred underground, making the number of people at Guifan Tower headquarters now one or two thousand more than that at Wuyou Cave headquarters.

There are only seven of the twelve branch leaders of Guifan Tower left now. Under the leadership of the left and right whips, left and right knives, and left and right sticks, they barely unite together to resist foreign enemies.

Although there have been some internal disputes these days, Guifan Tower has a large influence on the ground and transferred a large amount of supplies in the early stage. Therefore, although there are many people and the consumption is large, it can still hold on and no large-scale civil strife has occurred.

When the government suddenly attacked, a sharp whistle resounded throughout the cave. Many people in the cave woke up one after another, picked up knives, and rushed out of the cave to scan the situation.

"The government is coming."

"Don't be chaotic, don't be chaotic, gather immediately."

"Quick, blow the whistle."

I don't know how many people came out of the wooden houses and caves in the ghost market below Guifan Tower.

Various whistles were heard incessantly.

Outside the second floor of Guifan Tower, the top floor of the cave, a tall and strong middle-aged man with Ningshuo Army engraved on his face came out and looked down with Guifan Tower's left whip.

This person is the right whip of Guifan Tower, named Ma Zhiwu, who is the confidant of the tower owner. He was born in Ningshuo Army and has a certain sense of military.

In addition to the three yamen of Dianqiansi, Imperial Guard Cavalry Division and Imperial Guard Infantry Division that guard the capital, Bianliang also has the imperial guards stationed outside the capital to guard Tokyo.

There are mainly 21 battalions of Gongsheng Army, 23 battalions of Xiaoqi Army, 5 battalions of Xiaosheng Army, 10 battalions of Ningshuo Army, 8 battalions of Longmeng Army, 2 battalions of Feimeng Army, 4 battalions of Xiaomeng Army, 4 battalions of Xiaoxiong Army, 18 battalions of Shenqi Army, 4 battalions of Qingshuo Army, 5 battalions of Qinrong Army, and 6 battalions of Budou Army.

Each battalion of these imperial guards has 500 people, with a total of 55,000 people. The manager is the commander, and there is no general.

Di Qing was imprisoned by the government because of a conflict with the villagers, and his household registration was cancelled and he was sent to the capital as a soldier, which means he became a small soldier in Gongsheng Army.

Later, because of his proficiency in horse riding and shooting, he was selected to become a cavalryman in the Imperial Horse Guard. Later, he served as a small team leader on scattered duty. Now he has been promoted to the commander of the Imperial Horse Guard of the Palace Front Department, in charge of a battalion of soldiers, responsible for protecting Zhao Jun's safety.

This time, when Zhao Jun encircled and suppressed the underground in Bianliang, Di Qing led his battalion of soldiers to kill them.

The Ningshuo Army belongs to the outer imperial army. Because the power of Guifanlou is mostly on the ground, it needs to be brave and fierce, so it has absorbed a lot of soldiers from the outer imperial army, which is slightly more combat-effective than the Wuyou Cave.

At this moment, there was chaos below. Ma Zhiwu kept whistling, and gradually the nearby people and horses came closer, forming a small military formation around him.

"Go!"

Ma Zhiwu shouted and led his men down personally.

At this time, the officers and soldiers had already killed to the outer beach. The outer personnel who originally lived on the outer beach could not stop them at all, and they fled inside one after another.

Compared to Wuyou Cave, which is close to the exit of the Caihe River channel but easy to defend and difficult to attack, Guifan Tower is closer to the Bian River, which is far from the exit of the Bian River but easy to attack and difficult to defend.

The main reason is that the entrance of Wuyou Cave is particularly narrow. If Wuyou Cave is more vigilant and finds the enemy in advance, it is easy to defend by occupying the entrance.

The entrance of Guifan Tower is relatively open, with a river beach outside, and then walking through the river beach to the headquarters of Guifan Tower, which is not a high-altitude terrain, but a relatively flat and gentle slope.

So if the fight really comes, Guifan Tower still doesn't have much advantage in terms of terrain.

But no matter what, it still has to fight.

Otherwise, years of hard work will go to waste. Anyone wants to fight.

Ma Zhiwu led his troops down to the market, and then kept issuing orders, gathering a large number of thugs, and ambushing at the entrance.

At the same time, Jiang Dalang followed Fatty Huang and hid on a gentle slope in the north.

Fatty Huang suffered heavy losses this time. He brought no more than a hundred people with him, and only 20 to 30 core members. He has been bullied these days.

If it weren't for Jiang Dalang, a master, I'm afraid he would not be able to keep his position as the helmsman.

"Brother, aren't we going to join the battle?"

Jiang Dalang still had a red scarf in his arms, but now was not the right time, because his target was not Fatty Huang, but Ma Zhiwu who was far below.

Only by assassinating Ma Zhiwu would the resistance of Guifanlou collapse instantly, and the officers and soldiers could naturally kill in easily.

So he didn't want to stay here, but wanted to go down to see if he could get to Ma Zhiwu.

But Fatty Huang was afraid of death, so he shook his head and said, "We are few in number, so we won't join in the fun. There is a secret passage in the north, follow me later."

A confidant hesitated and said, "We are already in a weak position in the building. If we flee without fighting, what if they beat back the officers and soldiers and settle accounts with us later?"

"Hmm"

Fat Huang thought it made sense, so he said, "Then wait and see the situation here first."

Jiang Dalang was helpless.

But he had no choice but to wait and see below.

At this moment, the officers and soldiers had already rushed to the outer river beach and were heading straight to the heart of Guifan Tower along the passage. With torches shining one after another, they could almost see the reflection of the flames on the outer passage.

"Kill!"

"Those who surrender will be spared."

"Those who resist stubbornly will be killed without mercy!"

The officers and soldiers held long spears in their hands and drove the outer personnel to rush in.

Ma Zhiwu frowned in the back. The other side obviously planned to use their outer personnel to break up their army formation.

But after a moment, he relaxed his brows and whispered, "Set fire!"

"Quick, set fire!"

The people next to him shouted immediately.

After the order was given, a large amount of hay was thrown into the passage.

Then the fire started to ignite the straw, and the fire started all of a sudden.

The passage was long, and although there were several roads connecting them and several entrances that could directly reach Guifan Tower, the people in Guifan Tower had already set the fire.

When the outsiders ran three or four miles and finally got there, the blazing flames mixed with billowing smoke frightened them to death.

"You bastards, you sold us out like this."

"Damn it, there's a fire in front and pursuers behind, we're dead."

"Jump into the canal quickly."

Someone shouted.

This passage actually still uses the old canal route, with passages on both sides and canal water in the middle.

Jumping into the canal water can also swim to Guifan Tower, because the flames only block the passage entrance, but the canal water outlet cannot be blocked.

But how could they run faster than the shore if they jumped into the water? Soon, a large number of people behind them were stabbed to death by the soldiers chasing them from the corridors on both sides of the passage, and they screamed for a while.

"Commander, they are blocking the road with fire!"

The people in charge of the front line here are Di Qing and another commander. Together with the people from the government office, there are about 4,000 people. The elite troops of Yulongzhi where Di Qing is are in the front.

Knowing that the other party actually used fire, the young Di Qing said without hesitation: "The shieldmen go in front, the crossbowmen are behind the shieldmen, and the crossbows open the way first to prevent them from adding more fire inside. The rest of the people go outside to find buckets, drive the boat over, and scoop water to put out the fire."

There are about seven or eight passages, connecting to the river canal outside. There are large shantytowns on the river beach, which are the residences of peripheral personnel. There is no shortage of daily necessities such as buckets.

Although you can wait for the other party's fire to go out.

But there are many escape passages in Guifanlou. If they use fire to stop everyone from chasing and transfer people and money, the operation will inevitably fail.

So Di Qing immediately chose to attack.

Countless crossbow arrows shot out like raindrops in the flames, shooting the Guifanlou personnel who were originally throwing straw and making them run away with their heads in their hands.

Then dozens of small boats came over, and the soldiers on the boats jumped into the river to get themselves wet, and then got on the boats to get close to the flames, and started to splash water about three or five meters away.

In an instant, the flames became much smaller.

Ma Zhiwu on the slope in the distance frowned, and he suffered a loss because he had no equipment.

The other imperial guards were fully armed, and a set of armor, shield, and crossbows cost hundreds of strings of cash. They didn't even have armor, let alone leather armor, and only a few elite confidants had imperial guards equipment.

More importantly, crossbows.

If they had crossbows, this terrain would not be bad.

Unfortunately, the weapons and equipment of the imperial guards were indeed circulated on the black market, but not many were circulated. There were so many gangsters in Bianliang, and there were only a few thousand or tens of thousands of sets after being divided up, which was not enough.

Ma Zhiwu knew that the enemy had shields, and his more than 200 crossbows would probably be useless, so he could only sigh and say, "Retreat to the slope."

"Quick, retreat quickly."

"Go, go, go."

"Go up first."

The people in Guifanlou evacuated one after another.

The next step was a tough battle, and it was in the dark, and both sides had to fight with torches.

Soon, the officers and soldiers rushed in. There were seven or eight passages, and the commanders of each camp ordered an attack, and more than a thousand fully armed soldiers rushed up.

Behind them were a large number of Kaifeng government servants. Almost at the moment when the soldiers rushed out, more than 200 crossbowmen arranged by Ma Zhiwu on the right slope immediately fired, and hundreds of crossbow arrows were shot out in an instant.

Ma Zhiwu actually wanted to use these crossbows as a trump card and use them at critical moments, but he was afraid that the troops in front would encounter the regular army and collapse directly.

At that time, the people in Guifanlou would collapse at the first touch, and would roll back and collapse them.

So they had to use bows and crossbows to temporarily stop the opponent's offensive, and then readjust the formation.

"Swish, swish, swish!"

A large number of crossbow arrows drew an arc in the air and fell into the pile of guards who had just rushed in, making a "ding-dong" sound.

Some of them were shot on the rock wall of the passage, some were shot on the ground, and most of them were shot on the shields or armor of the guards. The crossbow arrows collided with the armor, and some even produced metal sparks.

"Do they have bows and crossbows?"

Di Qing and another commander, as well as three Kaifeng Prefecture judicial and registrar soldiers, looked at each other.

Bows and crossbows are prohibited items, and they actually appeared in the hands of the criminals.

But several people were silent.

Everyone knows that the imperial guards are quite bad, and the weapons in them are often resold.

Liu Yuanyu is still in prison. In addition to corruption and abuse of power, one of the charges is reselling prohibited items such as weapons.

So it can only be said that the people in Guifanlou have so many bows and crossbows. It is unexpected, but reasonable.

"Commander Di, you will be in charge of this battle."

The commander said.

He knew that Di Qing was Zhao Jun's confidant, so he naturally followed his lead.

Di Qing glanced at the situation. The soldiers' attack was blocked by the bows and crossbows, and the momentum stagnated, and there was no previous offensive.

Although the opponent was not on a particularly high ground, there were still some high slopes on both sides, which might be only half a foot high, which would still pose a considerable threat to their strong attack.

The imperial guards were okay, mainly the yamen runners behind. They had no armor, and they had to be shot by crossbows.

After thinking for a while, Di Qing issued an order: "The imperial guards will form a formation to attract their front troops. Look at the slope on the right. Can the people from Kaifeng Prefecture rush down the slope?"

A judicial officer took a look and whispered: "If they don't bring torches, they may be able to rush over."

"Okay, I will lead the team myself. You guys attack with the main force, and I will attack from the side."

Di Qing said.

As he said that, he waved his hand, and Li Yi and Liu Qing, who were beside him, and several teams of yamen runners from Kaifeng Prefecture, threw away their torches and moved to the flank.

Ma Zhiwu was still commanding the people in front to fight with the imperial guards above, and the two sides quickly fought together.

After the melee began, the crossbowmen began to shoot at the yamen runners in the back.

But the imperial guards were not vegetarians either. They also had crossbowmen, and there were more of them than the enemy. Under the cover of the shieldmen, more than 300 crossbowmen shot at the back of Guifan Tower.

Originally, the narrow tunnel was not suitable for shooting, but Guifanlou had already turned it into an underground city. The surrounding terrain was relatively open and could accommodate tens of thousands of people. Therefore, except that the view was too dark and could only be illuminated by torches, it was no different from the outside.

The main reason was that the underground of Bianliang was actually more exaggerated than people imagined.

Since the Warring States Period, complex underground waterways have been built here. According to later archaeological excavations, cities from the Warring States Period, the Han Dynasty, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties are buried underground in Bianliang. The cities above were newly built after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, there are really cities buried below.

The two sides fought together, shouting, screaming, roaring, and wailing were endless, and the sound of weapons colliding never stopped.

But in fact, the people of Guifanlou were already a little bit unable to hold on. After all, they were just vicious criminals, and there was still a big difference from the well-trained regular army. What's more, the equipment of both sides was not at the same level. They lost a lot of people at the first encounter.

The only reason they didn't collapse immediately was the support of the crossbows and Ma Zhiwu's fairly standard command.

But it didn't take long for all this to change.

As Di Qing and his group of about 40 or 50 people threw away their torches, they took advantage of the chaos to reach the right gentle slope. With everyone cooperating with each other, Di Qing was the first to rush up the gentle slope and into the group of crossbowmen.

In a moment, screams rang out, and the crossbowmen camp was in chaos. Many people threw down their crossbows and fled, and the battle situation instantly showed a trend of falling.

Seeing this scene, Ma Zhiwu knew that he was finished, so he didn't hesitate, and simply abandoned the troops behind him and fled with his confidants.

Fatty Huang, who was watching from above, saw that the people below had only persisted for less than half a minute before they collapsed, so he said with sweat on his forehead: "It's over, it's over, go, go!"

He turned around and ran.

Jiang Dalang frowned. He didn't want to entangle with Fatty Huang and others now. Once he took action, he would only get rid of a helmsman.

His target had to be at least Ma Zhiwu and the scarred man with the left palm whip.

So he didn't take action, but patted the brothers behind him, signaling them to follow him. Taking advantage of the chaos, they left the team and went to another passage.