When Xu Wentao heard this, he shivered, and secretly complained in his heart.

The Taiping army has been ravaging the place for a long time, and everywhere they go, they specially slaughtered the big officials and mansions, and in the name of robbing the rich and helping the poor, in fact, they were like locusts, robbing everything they could take away, and burning everything they could not take away.

It is said that wherever the Taiping army went, there was no piece of paper left, and all of them were snatched, and in the end only bare houses and walls and the old, young, sick and disabled who could not walk.

On the upper floor of Beicheng City, four lanterns are hung high, and the lights are bright.

Seeing Xu Wentao surrounded by a group of people and hurriedly climbed up to the city tower, Li Jun, the county lieutenant, hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

"What's the situation?" Xu Wentao asked urgently.

Li Jun's face turned slightly pale, and he said nervously: "There are at least 2,000 Taiping bandits, and I have ordered the county soldiers to distribute four gates and organize the militia groups in the city to strengthen the patrol of the city wall, but there are only more than 1,000 county soldiers, and they have to divide the troops to defend the four gates, and the actual strength is insufficient, and it is difficult to resist." ”

"What about the militias?" Xu Wentao hurriedly said, "Quickly organize more militia groups to come up, recruit strong men, prisoners, family members, all those who can fight, they must come up, and they must be defended." ”

"The people above listened, and let the man in charge come out and speak. Suddenly there was a shout from under the city walls.

Everyone looked outside the city, only to see the dim wilderness outside the city, a large group of black oppressive crowd hands, torches, knives and guns, the hustle and bustle, the figures of the people, the face could not be seen clearly.

Not far from the city tower, a man rode a big horse, held an iron spear, and looked up at the city tower.

"Say, I'm the magistrate of my county. Xu Wentao stepped forward and said.

"Happiness and sharing, no burning and no robbery. ”

"If there is a difficulty, share the money and food. ”

“......”

The crowd outside the city suddenly erupted into a neat deafening roar, the sound shook the four fields, on the city tower, everyone's hearts were shocked, the Taiping army already had such a might, it was really terrifying.

The rider swung his gun back, and the crowd behind him calmed down.

The horseman said triumphantly: "The Taiping army passed by Yangcheng and wanted to borrow some food." Within half an hour, we will send out 200,000 taels of gold and 200,000 catties of grain, otherwise we will attack the city, and there will be no armor left. ”

"The small people in Yangcheng County are poor, and it may be difficult to raise 200,000 taels of gold for half an hour, can you give some time to ......" Xu Wentao said tremblingly.

There was a sound that broke through the air, and a feathered arrow pierced through the night and suddenly came.

The feather arrow was nailed to the gate post of the city tower, and the arrow feather shook sharply.

Xu Wentao's face turned pale.

"Get down!" Li Jun exclaimed, and everyone fell to the ground.

"Rush!" The horsemen outside the city waved their guns in their hands, and the crowd rushed down the city with bamboo poles and ladders.

"Hold on! Hold ......"

"Look, they're coming. ”

“......”

Gongs roared, screams, cries...... There was a mess on the walls.

Although Yangcheng is not far from the border, there has been no war for many years, and everyone has never experienced a battle, and everyone is panicked.

"Don't panic, pay attention, get ready to roll wood and ......stones," Li Jun shouted.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

There was a rain of arrows on the city tower, and people couldn't look up.

Ahh

There was a rumbling sound, and pieces of wood were thrown from the city walls.

The sergeants did not dare to probe, so they simply lifted the rolling log and threw it down indiscriminately.

Xu Wentao's legs trembled, and he said in a trembling voice: "How to ...... Master Lee...... What to do?"

Li Jun squatted down and hurriedly said, "My lord, you can't hold it by guarding, so quickly send someone for help...... Help. ”

"Where to go for help?" Xu Wentao hurriedly said that he was a civilian official and had never been in a war, so he panicked for a while.

"The nearest is the Pingjiang granary defenders, I can only ask them for help, and the rest of the places are too far away to rescue at all. ”

Just as he was panicking, there was a sudden silence all around, and a triumphant voice came from outside the city.

"Just now I just gave you a warning, half an hour, prepare gold, silver and food, otherwise you will attack the city and leave no armor behind. ”

Withdrawn?

Xu Wentao and Li Jun looked at each other.

"Hurry, hurry!" Xu Wentao said decisively, "immediately send someone to ask for help from the defenders of the Pingjiang granary." Let's just say two or three thousand Taiping bandits. No, 4,000 bandits attacked Yangcheng, ask them to send reinforcements immediately. ”

"No! The Pingjiang granary itself also needs to be guarded, at most half of the troops can be divided, if there are too many bandits, they can't divide more people, even if they send troops, they will delay all the way. It is better to say that there are only 1,500 of them, and many of them are old, young, sick and disabled, and they are eager to make meritorious contributions, and they will inevitably attack quickly. ”

"Brilliant plan!" Xu Wentao was overjoyed.

"In addition, just in case, it is necessary to raise silver taels of grain. ”

"Half an hour, where can I find 200,000 taels of gold? There are no 10,000 taels of gold in the county office. ”

Li Jun looked at the many famous squires hiding behind the wall battlements not far away, and said viciously: "Let's resist desperately and contribute; they must go all out to raise silver and grain and pay money." Whoever dares not to come out will be punished for failing to resist bandits and colluding with bandits. ”

"Isn't that big, right?" Xu Wentao hesitated slightly.

"In the anti-bandit war, rolling wood is money, the treatment of the wounded is money, the pension of the dead is money, swords, guns and arrows are money, Yangcheng County is poor, where does the money come from?" Li Jun said quietly, "The adults are so hard, and they are frightened, for the safety of the people in Yangcheng, but the county government is so dilapidated, it should be repaired, so as to be worthy of the hard work of the adults." ”

Xu Wentao suddenly said viciously: "What Master Li said is right. You immediately sent people to escape from the south, east, and west gates, and urgently asked for help from the Pingjiang granary. In addition, he sent capable soldiers to visit the big households in the city one by one and raise 300,000 taels of gold. ”

"Three hundred thousand taels?" Li Jun was taken aback.

"In case the reinforcements can't arrive in time, 200,000 taels will be sent as a delaying tactic, and the remaining 100,000 taels will be used as military funds. Xu Wentao's eyes showed a fierce light, "If the reinforcements can retreat from the enemy, the 300,000 taels can be refunded a little, and the rest will be used as summer grain tax silver." In addition, the prefect of the state and county Bao is an upright official, the family is hard, and his mother will celebrate her 60th birthday next month, so it is of course to give some generous gifts, so you can go with me at that time. ”

Li Jun's eyes widened when he heard this, and he was ecstatic.

"Your Excellency is wise!"

It was late at night, and two huge bonfires were still burning in the huge school yard in the Pingjiang granary.

Hao Sirang, the commander of the Pingjiang battalion, Changshi Zuomou, and Lu Yuan, the director of the granary, each held a roasted lamb leg and ate it happily, with wine bowls beside them, accompanied by many garrison captains.

The life of the guards in the Pingjiang granary is very boring, except for daily drills and patrols, there is basically nothing to do, and it is like this all year round, which makes people crazy and bored.

Poor and bored, it is easy to make trouble out of nothing, so that Hao Sirang ignored the strict prohibition of fireworks in the granary, and let his subordinates make a fire to barbecue meat and drink.

The guards belong to the military, and the granaries belong to the household department, which belong to different countries, but they are dependent on each other. The life of the guards is really hard and monotonous, Lu Yuan is not good at being too harsh, and he was forced to drink by Hao Sirang, so he had to take out good wine and good meat to accompany him.

The granary supervisor has countless ways to get money, Hao Sirang will naturally not be polite to Lu Yuan, and when he was drunk, suddenly, the sergeant on duty led a person to run over in a hurry.

"What's so flustered?" said Hao Sirang unhappily.

"General, the Yangcheng Xu County Order sent someone to report that the Taiping bandits are attacking Yangcheng and ask the general for reinforcements quickly. "Guard.

The person who came was dressed in civilian clothes, and when he saw Hao Sirang, he hurriedly knelt down and said: "Meet the general, 1,500 Taiping bandits are violently attacking Yangcheng, Yangcheng is in danger, Xu County Commander and Li County Lieutenant sent me to escape from Yangcheng, ask the general for help, and ask the general to send reinforcements quickly." ”

Hao Sirang was taken aback when he heard this, "The Taiping army is just a group of bandits, and they dare to attack the county seat? How many people are there? Who is the leader? How long can Yangcheng hold on?"

"There are only about 1,500 of them, many of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, but this group of bandits is very ferocious, there are only 1,000 county soldiers in Yangcheng, and there are some militia groups, it is estimated that they will not last long, please send reinforcements to the general quickly. ”

Hao Sirang pondered for a moment, "This matter is a bit strange, there are only one or two thousand bandits and rogues, and they will never dare to attack the county seat." ”

"Ask the general to send troops quickly, Yangcheng can't stand it. The visitor hurriedly kowtowed and begged.

"Recently, the Southern Expedition of the Northern Wei Dynasty has been rumored, and the Pingjiang granary is related to the grain and grass of 100,000 eastern sailors, and it cannot be moved lightly. Hao Sirang shook his head, a little hesitant.

The safety of the Pingjiang granary is the primary responsibility of the defenders, and there is no room for mistakes.

"General, this is a great event. Zuo Mou blushed drunkly and waved his hand.

Hao Sirang was stunned and looked at Zuo Mou, "What do you say?"

Zuo Mou hurriedly said: "The garrison of the granary must not be moved lightly, it was rare to have military merits in the past, but now Yangcheng is in danger, and the general can take the opportunity to send troops to exterminate the Taiping bandits, which is a good opportunity for meritorious service." ”

Hao Sirang hesitated a little when he heard this.

"As for saying that 1,500 Taiping bandits dare to attack the county seat, I don't believe it, there must be bandits hiding in the shadows. However, most of the bandits are a rabble, and they rush to collapse, so there is no need to worry at all. The general can divide half of his troops to go to the rescue, leaving 5,000 men and horses to stay in the granary. ”

Zuo Mou said: "The space of the Pingjiang granary is narrow, and the 10,000 defenders can't put their troops on it, if there is really an enemy attack, there are 5,000 defenders inside, and the general's 5,000 troops are outside. And if we lose this opportunity to make meritorious contributions, where will we be in the future? General, we must not miss this opportunity, and we will not come again if we lose it!"

Hao Sirang suddenly realized and said happily: "Zuo Changshi is really very shrewd, and he woke up the dreamer with a word. ”

After a while, the people who escaped from the east, west, and south gates of Yangcheng for help came one after another, constantly urging for help, Hao Sirang no longer hesitated, ordered 5,000 people, divided into four teams, and hurried towards Yangcheng.

Hao Sirang led the army for about ten miles, and seeing that Yangcheng was vaguely in front, he had just turned a hill and suddenly saw a team of four or five hundred people, quietly marching in the same direction as himself.

Bandits!

Hao Sirang was overjoyed and was about to charge, when someone in the front team shouted: "Wanzhou Nalan Battalion No. 1 Battalion is on business, who are you?"

"Alert!"

"Stay put!"

With the sound of the order, the front team quickly stopped, and stood on guard, it was actually a well-trained army, and the atmosphere became tense in an instant.

"We are the Pingjiang battalion, what credentials do you have, one person is allowed to take the voucher to the front, otherwise it will be killed. Hao Si asked one of the guards beside him to shout.

With the order, the team behind rushed forward, and the team in front of it was already faintly surrounded.

In the dark night, a tall lieutenant wearing a South Vietnamese military uniform came to Hao Sirang with a seal letter in his hand.

Hao Sirang faintly relaxed, wearing a captain's uniform, he should be the leader of this team, the leader came, it should be a South Vietnamese friendly army, and the enemy army would not dare to be so unguarded.