Banten City, just on the edge of the strait, was originally chosen by the Tang Western Company to build the city, not only because it was the capital of the original Banten Kingdom, but also because it had a traditional trading port and could still control the Sunda Strait.

The Sunda Strait is so important, and the city of Banten is so important, it is not surprising that the Portuguese are behind the scenes, supporting the natives and pirates to attack the city!

The overall area of Banten Castle is not large, and in normal times, only official planes, military units, and merchant houses are stationed, and most of the people are maintained at the scale of 1,000.

Because this place is not a castle in the traditional sense, but a fortress specially designed for war, the heavy artillery on the head of the city is the main force used to block the Sunda Strait!

This is a fortress, there are actually not many people on weekdays, but during the war, more people hid in, and now there are about 3,000 people in the entire Banten City, but the army is only 500, the militia is 300, and the rest are women, children, old and weak.

This is not to say that there are no young people who have immigrated in the Banten area, but that the young people have already been incorporated into the militia!

The small city of Banten, in fact, had 500 militia troops before, 200 militia went with the army to the eastern region, and there were 300 defenses in the city.

But no matter how powerful the fortress is, with only a few hundred troops, it is difficult to block the siege of 20,000 enemies!

Banten City was besieged, it was not a matter of a day or two, but half a month ago, half a month ago, a large number of ships suddenly appeared on the sea, and the civil and military officials of Banten City who realized the danger at that time immediately retreated to Banten City.

As expected, this huge fleet began to land gradually, and then slaughtered towards Banten City, at first they tried to attack the city directly, but in a hurry, how could they break through the fortress with 500 army soldiers and more than 300 militiamen!

After these natives who came out of nowhere failed to attack the city, they began to besiege the city!

Time flies, and half a month has passed!

Now, the natives and pirates outside the city are almost ready, and they are about to launch a general attack, how can Zhu Jiaxiang not be in a hurry, but there is no hurry, so he can only let the officials under him cooperate with the military as much as possible to do a good job in defense.

Saying this, Zhu Jiaxiang gradually fell asleep!

After seeing Zhu Jiaxiang fall asleep, Ji Dingfeng, a military medical officer, stepped forward to check on it, and then whispered to everyone: "My lord just fell asleep, there is no big problem!" ”

Everyone glanced at each other, and then Cheng Zhiyan, the Tongzhi of Wandan Mansion, lowered his voice and said, "Let's go out first, let the adults have a good rest!" ”

After the people went out, they went to the living room next door and sat down one after another.

At this time, Zhu Jiaxiang, the highest-ranking official in Banten City, fell into a coma and could not actually preside over affairs, and the corresponding authority was naturally extended to Cheng Zhiyan, the Tongzhi of Banten Mansion.

Of course, this authority does not include military command!

Although Banten is said to be an overseas territory, and the prefect has far more authority than the local prefect, the separation of military and political affairs is strictly enforced.

According to the current relevant rules and regulations of the empire for overseas territories, in view of the fact that some overseas territories are far away from the mainland and communication difficulties, the empire will give some authority to the local local government officials as appropriate, and the scope of this authority is relatively large, and there are no strict regulations, mainly depending on what the specific dispatch of the head of the overseas territory is.

For example, Zhu Jiaxiang, the prefect of Banten Prefecture, his title is more complicated, first of all, his own official 'Governor of Banten Prefecture', and then his grade: Zheng Sipin, and then he is a special dispatch that is not available in ordinary prefects in China: "Acting military and political affairs of Banten Prefecture".

To a certain extent, Zhu Jiaxiang is actually the governor of Banten, of course, the title of governor is impossible to give him, and in the Tang Empire, there is no such dispatch or control as a governor, but in the Tang Western Company, there is an Indian governor.

In order to avoid disagreement with the specific meaning of 'acting Banten military and political affairs', which leads to confusion of functions and powers, the cabinet has a very detailed explanation of this word, more than ten pages long!

In addition to the authority to deal with civil affairs, this dispatch also has some powers such as diplomacy, declaration of war, and conclusion of treaties, but this authority also has a clear limitation, that is, it is only for the affairs of its jurisdiction, that is, the affairs of Banten Province, and the affairs beyond the jurisdiction are not allowed.

For example, in the case of the Portuguese, Zhu Jiaxiang, the governor of Banten Province, did not have the authority to directly conclude a treaty with the Portuguese or go to war against the Portuguese, but he could do so to the natives in the jurisdiction of Banten Province.

At the same time, this authority to declare war and conclude treaties does not include military command.

To put it simply, Zhu Jiaxiang, the governor of Banten Province, can declare war on the indigenous forces in the vicinity of Banten Province and even the surrounding areas, and issue relevant orders to the local garrison, that is, the Banten Garrison Regiment, the Banten Squadron, the Banten Militia and other armed forces, and even the company fleet of the Datang Western Company, so that they can carry out relevant military operations!

And how to fight it, that's the military's business!

In other words, if the military does not recognize or is unwilling to fight, it will actually not be able to fight!

But on the other hand, if there is no order from Zhu Jiaxiang, even if the military wants to fight, it will not have the authority to start a war!

According to the relevant regulations of the Empire, when the prefect is unable to actually handle affairs for various reasons, the authority of the prefect will be transferred according to the high ground of the official position.

Therefore, at present, this power is transferred to the hands of Cheng Zhiqi, the Tongzhi of Banten Province!

This is also the reason why he is sitting on the throne today, in fact, since Zhu Jiaxiang fell ill and was unable to handle affairs, it has always been Cheng Zhiqi who has been handling affairs.

He is not good at fighting, but it is his job to deal with the affairs of the city and do a good job of logistics for the army.

How to fight against this coalition of natives and pirates who came out of nowhere, Cheng Zhiyan didn't understand, he sat on the main seat, just because of his identity.

So after everyone sat down one after another, he set his eyes on Colonel Yang Hong, the head of the Banten Garrison Regiment!

Originally, in the Banten area, the highest military rank was Commodore Xia Zhiquan, the commander of the Banten detachment, and Banten is far away from overseas and is an archipelago terrain, so the navy's speech weight is also greater.

But now, Commodore Xia Zhiquan led the fleet to go out, and the main defensive force in the city was also the army, so Colonel Yang Hong became the supreme military commander of Banten City.

Seeing Cheng Zhiqi looking at him, Yang Hong also sighed secretly in his heart!

In this situation, what else does he have to say, it's nothing more than stubbornly defending!

In the past half a month, they have done everything they should do, and then they just wait for the enemy to attack, they can hold it if they can hold it, and if they can't hold it, it's over, it's as simple as that.

War, not so much complicated stuff!

But the words must not be said like that, it is still necessary to boost morale!

"Your Excellency, don't worry too much, my Banten City is a fortress specially built for war, and its comprehensive defense capability far exceeds that of ordinary cities, and now there are 500 soldiers of our army in the city, as well as 300 militiamen, and more than 20 heavy artillery, more than 10 field guns, and dozens of shotguns, this kind of firepower, even if it is a whole fleet of hard resistance to the enemy, and whether it is ordnance and ammunition, or food, grass and water are sufficient, this is not a big problem to hold the city!"

"Of course, now our manpower is still relatively tight, although we have a lot of artillery, but the number of ordinary gunners is seriously insufficient, I suggest that some of the people in the city be requisitioned to the city to supplement the shortage of artillery!"

"Draw the people of the city?" Hearing this, an ordinary civil official in the crowd said: "But the young and strong people in the city who can be recruited have already been recruited, otherwise the five hundred militia who came there!" The remaining 1,000 or so people are old, weak, women and children, what can they do! ”

Yang Hong said: "I Yang Hong also knows this situation, this requisition of them, is not to let them go directly to the battlefield to fight, and the enemy army to fight this kind of thing, with our army, my idea is to let some people bear the ammunition transportation, loading shells and other affairs, aiming and firing this kind of thing, naturally there are gunners responsible!" ”

The civil official was still a little worried: "I'm afraid this won't work, just those old and weak women and children, how can they withstand the fight, the enemy also has artillery, this is an artillery battle, I'm afraid these ordinary people can't withstand it!" ”

Yang Hong said: "If we can't stand it, we can't help it, we are short of people, we can't let a large number of soldiers act as transport soldiers, in this case, who will be responsible for the battle at the head of the city?" ”

Yang Hong said this, and several other people also nodded!

There are few people in the city, limited soldiers and even militia, which are to be deployed on the city, ready to meet the onslaught of the enemy, and the number of gunners is not enough, it is difficult to operate nearly forty guns and a larger number of shotguns, in this case, it can only be used by ordinary old and weak women and children to act as transport soldiers with little technical content.

As for the danger, it is not as dangerous as the infantry who will participate in the battle at the head of the city!

After Cheng Zhiqi listened, he nodded and said: "Since this is the case, then this matter is decided, and the end of the meeting is to start recruiting the old and weak and healthy women in the city!" ”

Yang Hong said: "The number doesn't need to be too much, one of three hundred people is enough, and it's useless to have more!" ”

Speaking of this, he sighed deeply and said to Cheng Zhiqi with an apologetic face: "Alas, I also know that it is inappropriate to recruit old and weak women, but there is really no way to do it...... If there is a way, I will not let the old and weak women and children go to war! ”

Cheng Zhiqi waved his hand directly and said: "Colonel, you don't need to say more, in this situation, whether it is a soldier of the empire or an ordinary person, they should all have the consciousness of dedicating themselves to the empire and His Majesty!" ”

Cheng Zhiqi said: "When the war starts, this official will personally take the officials of each yamen to the city to help in the battle!" ”

At this time, Cheng Zhiqi had already stood up, fully letting everyone see what it means to be a politician of the empire, and he may not be able to do anything, but he must be able to say:

"Although we are not good at military affairs, we are still Chinese men, and we can still kill the enemy with a sword!"

"We want to let those barbarians know that although my Datang land is wide, I don't give up an inch of land, and although there are many people, none of them are afraid of death!"