Hangzhou Mansion, Zhejiang

As one of the best cities in the south of the Yangtze River, Hangzhou's wealth is undoubted, it not only covers a wide area, the city is wide, and even the city gate has ten.

Yes, you read that right, there are as many as ten city walls in Hangzhou, and the city walls are also more than ten kilometers long.

However, it is precisely because the city wall is too long that it also leads to a serious shortage of troops to defend the city, and it is obviously a joke to use 5,000 soldiers to defend the city wall more than ten kilometers long.

For this reason, Pan Ruzhen, the governor of Zhejiang, even had dozens of gray hairs these days, and he not only "borrowed" all their guards from the hands of those maritime merchants and salt merchants with both soft and hard methods, but also recruited 13,000 young men in the name of the governor, so that he finally gathered enough 20,000 people, and filled the city wall more than 10 kilometers long.

Just when Pan Ruzhen was trying his best to strengthen the city defense, Li Zicheng led 70,000 rogues to the outside of Hangzhou, and the atmosphere in the entire Hangzhou city immediately became tense.

In the morning, Pan Ruzhen came down to the gate of Qingbo Gate in the support of Ma Sidi, a garrison in Hangzhou, and a group of officers and officials.

Ma Sidi pointed to the outside of the city and said to Pan Ruzhen: "Lord Governor, according to the report that has not been collected for the past two days and nights, the number of thieves this time is about 70,000, of which about 30,000 are the elites belonging to the old battalion, and the remaining 40,000 people are also regular barracks that have been trained for a period of time. ”

"Hmm......"

Pan Ruzhen pondered for a while, then turned his head and asked Ma Sidi: "Master Ma, you are the garrison of Hangzhou Mansion, and the entire Hangzhou military affairs are under your control. ”

Ma Sidi is a middle-aged man in his forties, although he is not tall, but he is quite strong, and a long knife hanging from his waist looks a little funny.

It is said that when he heard Pan Ruzhen, who was the top boss, asking, there were so many officials and subordinates watching, he should have expressed his confidence and increased confidence to everyone, but he still shook his head: "Lord Governor, if it weren't for the morale of the subordinate officials and others to destroy their prestige, the lower officials had sent a team of cavalry out of the city to fight with the thieves the day before yesterday, but the results were not optimistic.

The cavalry sent by the lower officials and the Liukou met at a distance of more than 20 miles from the Qingchun Gate, and the two sides fought for half an hour, and finally only half of the more than 100 cavalry who went out of the city came back, and the rest were all folded outside. ”

The surrounding officials were all surprised, the cavalry has always been known for its high mobility, in their opinion, even if they can't beat the bandits, at least it should not be a problem to escape, but even so, nearly half of the casualties are killed, is the rogue really that powerful?

An official next to him asked, "Horse guard, how are the casualties of the thieves?" ”

Ma Sidi said: "The casualties of the thieves are also similar to those of our army. ”

"It shouldn't be!" The official said unceremoniously to Ma Sidi: "As far as this official knows, the cavalry of our Hangzhou City has followed your elite for several years, how did they fight like this with a group of rabble?" ”

Ma Sidi's face couldn't help but change color slightly, as the saying goes, you don't hit people in the face, these civil officials are still stinky farts as always, and they don't give themselves any face.

Ma Sidi, who was in an unhappy mood, ignored him, but turned his head to look into the distance, and the atmosphere was a little awkward for a while.

The official who embarrassed Ma Sidi in front of everyone was named Fang Qiying, and it was the general sentence of the Hangzhou government.

As a civilian official, although he also knew that now that the rogue soldiers were pressing, the most important thing for them to do was to appease Ma Sidi and these military attachés, after all, they still had to rely on them to kill the enemy, but how could he have contempt for the military attachés has been deep in his bones, so if he is not careful, the thick irony in his tone jumps out.

It was Pan Ruzhen who snorted, "Okay, there are many thieves, and it is a credit that Lord Ma's cavalry can retreat after killing dozens of enemies after facing several times stronger enemies." ”

It stands to reason that the governor came out to play a round game, and Ma Sidi should accept it when he saw it, but he was rarely tough today, and said: "So that the governor and Lord Fang know that the number of thieves encountered by the cavalry under the command of Xia Guan after leaving the city this time is not much, only more than a hundred."

The reason why both sides were defeated was indeed because the lower officials were too incompetent, so it was better for the governor to remove the lower officials and find another good general to take command for the lower officials, so as not to miss the governor's major affairs. ”

Pan Ruzhen's face sank slightly, "What nonsense is Master Ma talking about, the current enemy is at the moment, it is the time when you are needed, how can you shirk your responsibility at this time." Besides, if you are removed, who can take this seat? ”

Ma Sidi glanced at Fang Qiying, who was calm and silent, and sneered: "It's good for the lower officials to look at Lord Fang, it's better to let Lord Fang take over the errand of the lower officials." ”

"Ridiculous!"

Before Pan Ruzhen could speak, Fang Qiying on the side couldn't help but stand up and said in an admonishing tone: "Ma Sidi, as a garrison in Hangzhou, it was originally your duty to protect the territory and the people. ”

"What's in your heart?" Ma Sidi scolded back unceremoniously, "You dare to point fingers at this official even if you don't know anything about military affairs, and this official wants to ask you what your intentions are?" Since you love to point fingers so much, then the official simply gave you the position of garrison, and then the official also pointed fingers on the side, what do you think? ”

"You...... You...... You ......"

Fang Qiying pointed at Ma Sidi, so angry that she couldn't speak for a while.

If Ma Sidi's garrison position is given up, the people who look for Pan Ruzhen to run the official on weekdays will definitely be able to line up from here to Yongjinmen, but now everyone knows that the garrison official is a hot potato, and if he doesn't do it, he will have to lose his life on the city wall, Fang Qiying is not stupid, how can he agree to Ma Sidi's conditions.

Other officials looked at Ma Sidi with strange eyes, this guy usually saw these civil officials, the waist board has always been short, why did they suddenly get angry now, this thing is full of strangeness.

However, there are also a few people who are active, but they have figured out something, and looking at Ma Sidi's gaze seems to be a little meaningful.

Actually, Ma Sidi is also out of the way today, quite a kind of broken jar and broken posture, Lao Tzu always nods to you bastards on weekdays, today the rogue army is besieging the city, and I don't know if I can survive it, why embarrass myself.

Sure enough, after scolding Fang Qiying, he felt that the eyes of the civil officials around him had changed.

Just as he felt something called pride rise, a desolate trumpet sound came from outside the city.