More than a dozen civil and military officials were crowded in the room of Zhu Jiaxiang, the governor of Banten Mansion, and Cheng Zhiyan, the governor of Banten Mansion, leaned over to the bedside, and after hearing Zhu Jiaxiang's words, he immediately replied: "Lord Hui, I haven't received news from the fleet yet!" ”

Hearing this answer, Zhu Jiaxiang, who was lying on the bed, showed obvious disappointment on his bloodless face, but he didn't say anything immediately, but said, "Help the official get up!" ”

"My lord, you haven't recovered yet, and the doctor said you need to rest in bed!" Cheng Zhiyan on the side said: "My lord, if you have something to say, you can say it directly, we all listen, don't get up!" ”

"Lift the officer up!" Zhu Jiaxiang was not moved by his words, and repeated his words for the second time, and his words were full of firmness!

Cheng Zhiqi and the others looked at each other, and then silently stepped forward and joined hands to help Zhu Jiaxiang up, letting him half lean on the head of the bed.

At this time, Zhu Jiaxiang seemed to be moving too much and using too much strength, so his breathing became heavier, accompanied by a few coughs!

Everyone immediately wanted to step forward to check the situation, especially Ji Dingfeng, the military medical officer of the Wandan Garrison Regiment who was wearing an army uniform on the side, took two steps faster, and then wanted to take Zhu Jiaxiang's pulse.

But Zhu Jiaxiang waved his hand effortlessly, signaling that he didn't have to come!

At the same time, he said: "Don't bother with this, how is the old man's body, the old man knows in his heart that he can't get over this hurdle!" ”

When he said this, many of the people sighed secretly, just like Zhu Jiaxiang said, I am afraid that this hurdle will not be overcome.

Zhu Jiaxiang fell ill ten days ago, and then quickly collapsed, the doctors in Banten City were also helpless about this, Banten is a broken place, full of all kinds of dangers, and the biggest danger is all kinds of diseases.

Fortunately, Zhu Jiaxiang's is not a common tropical infectious disease, and there is no outbreak of any infectious disease in the city, otherwise, it would not be him Zhu Jiaxiang who is lying on the bed today, but a group of people.

"But although the old man can't return to his homeland alive, even if he dies, the old man will never become the first prefect in the history of the empire to lose his city and land. When Zhu Jiaxiang said the last sentence, he was so hard that his breathing became even heavier.

As the prefect of Banten Province, the empire is a member of the fourth grade, although it is said that because of the frustration in the domestic battle, he was finally kicked to this broken place by his political opponent, and because of his body, I am afraid that there is no way to return to the mainland in this life.

But he can die, but he must not become the prefect who has lost his city and land, he can't afford to lose that face, and the empire can't afford to lose this face!

Since the Tang Dynasty unified China, it has only attacked cities and plundered land from foreign races, and has never lost cities and land!

He didn't want to break this precedent and be recorded in history, which is not a name in history, but an infamy through the ages!

Zhu Jiaxiang's words, everyone has heard them, and they also know what they represent behind these words!

Zhu Jiaxiang is still thinking about what the posthumous name is, but they still have to consider another problem, if this Bandan City is breached, if everyone present dies in battle, it will be counted, if they are still alive, then there will definitely be no good fruit to eat.

The empire is also a traditional Chinese dynasty, and it is absolutely intolerable for the city to be broken by the enemy and the land to be taken away by foreign races.

At this time, Colonel Yang Hong, the head of the Banten Garrison Regiment, said: "I wish that my lord can't afford to lose this face, and I, Yang Hong, can't afford to lose this face either!" ”

"I wish you rest assured, our army officers have been on the battlefield for more than ten years, and there has never been a precedent for the enemy to break through the city, as long as I Yang Hong is here, and there are five hundred soldiers of our army, this Bandan City will be as stable as Mount Tai!"

The others also spoke one after another, and naturally said that they would definitely defend the city and something like that!

But after listening to their words, Zhu Jiaxiang still did not stretch his brows, although he is not a soldier, but a civil official from a traditional imperial examination, it does not mean that he is not stupid!

He knew that there were more than 20,000 natives outside to surround Banten City, and these natives also had artillery and muskets, and there were also blond-haired and yellow-skinned, black-eyed, black-haired East Asian pirates, on the surface, this should be a coalition of pirates and natives, but he knew with his toes that there must be Portuguese standing behind it.

Otherwise, these natives would have been able to get their hands on so many cannons and muskets?

Even if other pirates had these things, they wouldn't equip the natives!

The only ones who have the ability to arm the natives on a large scale are the Portuguese!

The siege of 20,000 men would not be a problem in normal times, because in normal times, there would be a fleet and 300 marines and a full 1,000 army officers and soldiers in Banten City, in addition to at least 500 militia garrisons.

Not to mention the fleet, just the navy's 300 marines and 1,000 soldiers of the Van Ten garrison regiment, plus 500 militiamen who can be called up at any time, can ensure that Banten City is safe and sound, even if there are 20,000 natives to attack.

However, last month, Banten received news that the natives of the eastern part of Banten Island were gathering troops to prepare for an attack on Banten City, in order to gain the strategic initiative, but also to eliminate the natives of the eastern part of Banten Island in one fell swoop, so as to completely wipe out the indigenous military forces on Banten Island, so as to completely control the entire Banten Island.

Including 300 marines, 500 army officers and 200 militia as logistics troops, according to the plan, the fleet will directly reach the eastern part of Banten Island and land, and then this 1,000-strong army will rely on absolute firepower to sweep through the local natives.

If they can successfully capture and annihilate the local indigenous forces, they will directly establish a colony in the local area!

But half a month after the fleet left, they were besieged by natives and pirates!

And more importantly, because of the hurry of the incident, the enemy approached at night, and directly blocked the port of Banten early in the morning, so that they failed to successfully send a communication ship, in other words, there is a great probability that the fleet that is now out of the country does not know that the enemy is coming to attack Banten City.

Now all they can count on is that the communication ships sent back by the fleet can detect the anomaly and report it back to the fleet.

If there is no big accident in the fleet, sooner or later it will come back to help, but how long will it take to come back? Three days and five days? Ten days and half a month? And will Banten City be able to sustain the day when the fleet will come back?

Zhu Jiaxiang doesn't know!

He had already received a report that the natives and pirates outside had not been idle in the past half a month, and were preparing for various sieges such as building forts, and apparently they had also discovered that there was no way to besiege Banten City by besieging the city alone.

As a military fortress, Banten City stockpiled a large amount of weapons and ammunition, and the city also had a separate well for water supply and food, but it was designed to ensure that Banten City could hold on alone for more than a year, waiting for reinforcements from home.

If the enemy does not attack but only besieges, Banten Castle can hold out for at least a year!

However, the enemy is not stupid, they will not besiege stupidly, they will definitely attack, and according to the speculation of the officers, the time of the attack will not be too long, it is estimated that it will be in two or three days.

Thinking that under the strong attack of 20,000 natives and pirates, Banten City might be breached, Zhu Jiaxiang sighed secretly in his heart!

As the first prefect of Banten Mansion in the Tang Empire, Zhu Jiaxiang can be regarded as an unlucky guy, and he was frustrated in political struggles at home, so he was sent to overseas places such as Banten Mansion, which are thousands of miles away from home.

Well, not only him, but in fact, most of the civil and military officials present have similar situations.

If it is a promising official, regardless of civil and military, how can he be assigned to a broken place like Banten Province to serve, usually stay in the country to serve, even if it is a remote area, but it doesn't matter, basically only people who have offended people, or have no hope of promotion, will be assigned to this kind of broken place.

Banten Province is the third overseas cabinet directly under the jurisdiction of the empire after Luzon and Ryukyu, and the prefect is of the fourth grade.

Before the establishment of Banten Mansion by the Empire, the Tang Western Company had already controlled Banten and the surrounding areas de facto and killed the local indigenous princes.

According to the relevant regulations of the Cabinet, the jurisdiction of Banten Province includes the two main islands of Banten Island (Java Island) and Sumatra Island (Sumatra Island), and at the same time, the surrounding islands are also included in it, such as Makassar and Little Australia (New Guinea Island), which are nominally under the jurisdiction of Banten Province.

Of course, most of these jurisdictions are nominal, but in fact, the Tang Empire actually controlled, ruled, and immigrated to the western part of Banten Island, that is, the area around Banten City, plus a small number of western areas of Suman Island.

Or to be more precise, the only area actually controlled by Datang is the coastal area on both sides of the Sunda Strait.

The Sunda Strait, which is the strait between Banten Island and Sumen Island, is also an important passage for the Tang Empire to enter and exit the Indian Ocean.

The importance of this Sunda Strait is self-evident, so the expansion of the Tang Empire in the Banten Islands also revolved around this strait.