With the arrival of the Mongolian army, the defensive battle suddenly escalated, and the battle lasted from dawn to the starry sky, but it still failed to break through the city, so it had no choice but to withdraw the troops. And the Song army was not easy, almost all the strength of a brigade was pressed, and even the baggage regiment was all assigned weapons to assist in the defense, and served as a garrison in the city. And the county magistrate Chen Boyuan also changed his uniform, and led a group of officials and servants with a sword in his waist to direct the township soldiers and servants to carry materials, rescue the wounded, burn fires and cook, pacify the people, and maintain law and order.

After the enemy retreated, Luo Datong ordered the second regiment defending the southern city to be transferred to the northern city, and replaced the next regiment to rest in the city and serve as a reserve. A reserve composed of the scout battalion, the pro-soldier battalion, and the armed battalion of the baggage regiment was to take over the defense of the 2nd Regiment. Then he made another round of inspections, supervised the handover positions of the two divisions, inspected the defense and sentry arrangements in various places, and told him to strictly guard against the enemy's night attack, before going down to the city and riding back to the ya.

......The sound of horses' hooves echoed through the quiet streets of the city, and it was pitch black except for the lanterns hanging high at the entrances of the city, and it was as if it were not for the occasional sound of the checkpoints asking for passwords and the footsteps of patrols.

Since the enemy besieged the city, Luo Datong ordered the implementation of martial law, and allowed the residents of the city to go out to buy and buy and open their shops every day. The rest of the time, families are closed, businesses are closed, and they are not allowed to go out on the streets. No fireworks can be seen in the city during the unitary period, and those who violate the order will not be killed. At the same time, checkpoints were set up on the bridges and main roads in the city, patrols were arranged to patrol back and forth, and shooters were placed at the commanding heights, and those who violated martial law were immediately arrested and those who resisted were killed on the spot.

For such a harsh martial law order, the merchants and people in the city naturally complained, and even Chen Boyuan, the county magistrate, thought it was unnecessary. But Luo Datong was uncompromising, because he still remembered that when the Yuan army came to attack in Qiongzhou, the island was not calm at that time, the internal people were unstable, and the external people were not satisfied, which can be described as internal and external troubles. At that time, the little emperor responded to the enemy while issuing martial law, in case someone collaborated with the enemy to make trouble, or gathered to make trouble, or to cooperate with the outside world.

People who have not experienced the situation back then cannot understand the crisis of the situation, and Luo Datong was only a teenager at that time, and he was selected to serve as a guard for the little emperor in the guard camp. In the face of the pressure of the great enemy, the ministers of the court and the central government were also panicked, some suggested that they get on the ship again and go to sea to avoid the enemy's front, and some people revisited the time of taking refuge in the city. There are even people who make peace with the enemy and accept the edict in order to protect the royal family and keep the people from being swordsmen, and everyone understands that this is to surrender, but to say it is more high-sounding, to find some face for themselves.

Thinking about it, these important ministers of the court all have different thoughts and have no desire to fight, and rumors are spreading among the people, and it is rumored that the Mongolian army wants to slaughter the people on the island. You must know that at that time, Qiongzhou had been on the edge of the management of the imperial court, the wealthy clans were divided, bandits were rampant, the government had no status in the hearts of the people, and local officials had to rely on bribing local clans and slang chieftains to maintain nominal rule. The Mengyuan side had already sent people to contact the slang chiefs and wealthy families, bribed local officials, and prepared to seize Qiongzhou with the outside world.

Luo Datong, who was only a small soldier at that time, could not know how the little emperor, with the support of the empress dowager and the former ministers of the Shuaifu, decisively adopted martial law measures on the whole island and persuaded the important ministers of the court to fight the enemy with one force. But he experienced the inexplicable panic and despair that shrouded the island under the crisis, as well as the sinister and shameless nature of human nature in the moment of life and death. Although the current situation is not as critical as it was then, there are similarities.

In the case of the huge disparity between the enemy and our forces and the trapped in the lonely city, Luo Datong did not dare to bet on the inherent goodness of human nature, he would rather believe in the nature of human beings under the survival instinct, and no one could guarantee what 'a good person' would do between life and death. Putting these aside, Meng Yuan ruled Jiangnan for nearly ten years, who dares to guarantee that there are no beneficiaries among them who still do not forget the old master, at this time, they will take the opportunity to help the abuse, incite the people to stir up trouble, create chaos, and even cooperate with the people to do things to sacrifice the city.

And Meng Yuan has the intention of invading the south, and will definitely lay down spies in the city, collect intelligence, transmit information, and wait for the opportunity to open the city. And there is no shortage of robbers anywhere, those idlers who are lazy and lazy on weekdays, bandits and ruffians, will also take advantage of the time when the defenders and the government have no time to take care of them to kill people and set fires, and act as traitors. Therefore, Luo Datong also ignored the opposition, ordered the implementation of martial law, and sent troops to the streets to guard, so that even if something happened, it could be quickly suppressed. Banning candle flames at night can prevent fires from disturbing people's minds, and can also prevent enemy spies from using the lights to transmit information and prevent the leakage of secrets such as troop deployment.

"All over, let's have some food together!" At the beginning of the war, the military and the government co-located in Changshu County, so that there was no need to run around to deliver news. Seeing Luo Datong enter the middle hall, the magistrate got up and saluted.

"Okay, I ate two biscuits this day, and I'm still really hungry!" While returning the salute, Luo Datong looked at a large round table in the hall, on which was eating, and Wang Xuan, Sima Huangfan, Changshu County Cheng, Zhu Bo and others were eating at the same table, and they also got up when they saw him come in. He pressed his hand so that everyone was not welcome, and he also found a vacant seat to sit down at random, and immediately a servant brought him a bowl of soup. He also reached out and grabbed a roast cake from the plate, broke it open, sandwiched two pieces of cut mutton, bit half of it, chewed a few bites and swallowed it, as if he was choked, and quickly picked up the bowl again and sucked a mouthful of soup before it went down.

"Why don't you eat and watch me do something?" Luo Datong ate two baked cakes in a row, and the soup also saw the bottom, and when he reached out to take the baked cakes again, he suddenly found that not only the people at the table were looking at him, but even the servants who were waiting looked at him in a daze, and asked in wonder.

"Dutong, you haven't washed yet, isn't it too rude to eat like this!" Duyu Marquis Wang Xuan shook his head helplessly and said.

"Hehe, it's rude." Luo Datong realized that his eating appearance was a little indecent, looking at the military uniform on his body was full of gunsmoke and dust, as well as stains of blood, and his hands were also stained with something, dirty, and his face was not much better without thinking about it. On weekdays, when he was with his colleagues, everyone was like this, and no one would say anything, but the image of the local official himself on the table was rude, so he quickly withdrew his hand, took the handkerchief handed by the servant, wiped his hands, and said with a smile.

"It's okay, it's okay, those who achieve big things are not informal!" Chen Boyuan saw that the scene was a little embarrassing, and hurriedly waved his hand and smiled, "Dutong has not received his clothes for several days, and it is a big deal to command the battle in the city every day, so why care about this!" ”

"Chen Zhixian said well, why should those who become big things be restrained!" Luo Datong said happily, "Don't look at my dirty military uniform, but when I opened the mansion in Jiazi Town, there were only thousands of people in the mansion, and there were only a few pieces of armor that were all available, and it was difficult for everyone to have a weapon." The only food eaten was rice and dried fish, and the sand in the rice was all toothy, and His Majesty sat on the steps with a big bowl in his hand like everyone else to eat. For the sake of two boatloads of grain, His Majesty almost fought with Zhang Shushuai, who would have thought that today we would be able to prepare to recover the two Huai and enter the Central Plains. ”

"Oh, Your Majesty has been with everyone else through thick and thin?" Chen Boyuan was elected to the government after recovering Jiangnan, and he had not experienced the hard years in Qiongzhou, and he could not imagine that His Majesty was sitting on the steps to eat with a bowl like a child in a rural village, and said in surprise.

"What was once, Your Majesty is the same now." Luo Datong said with some dissatisfaction, "Your Majesty's diet on weekdays is not as good as mine, and it is also coarse tea and light rice, and it is also an old dress in the harem." In the patrol army, they ate in the canteen like the soldiers, and paid their own meal fees, so as not to encroach on the soldiers' food expenses. ”

"Oh, I didn't expect Your Majesty to live such a simple life, he is really a model for my generation, and it is also a blessing for the people of the Great Song Dynasty!" Chen Boyuan was extremely shocked when he heard it, and his words could be said to have subverted the previous cognition, and sighed.

"What's more! Your Majesty values love and righteousness, and is sympathetic to the people, if I had not been taken in by Your Majesty and carefully taught, where I have today's status, even if I am broken, it will be difficult to repay the king's kindness. Luo Datong was a little distracted when he spoke, as if he had returned to the days when he was by the little emperor's side.

However, Luo Datong quickly woke up from his memories, and while eating, he discussed the war with everyone. In the continuous battle, the Fifth Brigade suffered 1,000 casualties, especially today, many people were injured by stone bullets and stray arrows. Everyone knows that in the future, the threat of food shortage on the Mengyuan side will become more and more prominent, so the battle will be more fierce in the future. The most threatening thing to defend the city was trebuchets, which not only caused damage to the defenses, but also caused large casualties to the soldiers, so the topic turned to how to eliminate this threat.

Discussion came and went, and everyone was inclined to concentrate artillery on destroying the enemy's catapult positions in order to eliminate the threat. But everyone knows that artillery is the fulcrum of the entire defense system, and if the limited artillery is concentrated in one place, once the enemy finds that it is necessary to attack the city from other places, there will be a hole in the entire defense system. In addition, the use of artillery is also difficult to do, the city wall as a firing position is the best position, but the city wall is narrow, it is difficult to form an echelon configuration, and in the case of the first artillery bombardment can not be with the enemy's catapult position to hit hard, so that it loses the ability to counterattack, then the artillery array of its own side can not be transferred in time, causing great losses under the enemy's counterattack.

At this time, Huang Fan proposed that it was possible to select an elite army, and then arrange the rocket artillery on Yushan, use the advantage of long range to bombard the enemy's large camp, and then use the elite soldiers to descend the city, take advantage of the chaos to launch a surprise attack, and destroy the enemy trebuching machine position arranged in front of the city......