"Ran away?" Zhang Tong's face was full of doubts.

Xin Qiji was speechless, and motioned for the clerk to tell the other party in person.

I only heard the official whisper: "Soon after the governor sent someone to send an order to Lord Xin and Zhang Tong, he took his family and hurriedly left the city from the east of the city in a carriage, and the official seal, official uniform, and black yarn remained in the state office. ”

"Why are you leaving?" Zhang Tongzhi doesn't understand, this kind of thing happened in Bozhou City, how can he run as a governor?

"I don't know." The clerk replied.

"Who is in charge of the state government now?"

"Nobody is in charge. I heard that Zhizhou ran away, and many officials also ran away, and when I came, I also saw a carriage running to the east of the city, and I am afraid that there is only Lord Xin in Bozhou City now. ”

When Zhang Tongzhi heard this, he was immediately angry, and secretly cursed the fleeing officials in his heart, because they fled without a pause and shook the morale of the army, so that the army suffered repeated defeats.

But what are they going to do?

Do you continue to carry out the order, or do you quickly withdraw from Bozhou City?

"Zhang Tong, Lord Zhizhou has abandoned the city, but this Bozhou City is still the city of the Great Song Dynasty, you and I are still officials of the Great Song Dynasty, if you don't leave, then stay, and we will clean up the chaos together." For so many years, the Northern Expeditionary Army finally went north to Guide and Xingrenfu, and it must not let the results of the Northern Expedition fall short because of the chaos in Bozhou. What do you think? ”

Xin Qiji took a step forward and lowered his voice, Zhizhou's escape is not worth publicizing, nor can it be wantonly promoted, the military spirit and the people's heart in Bozhou City must be stabilized, and the first thing to bear the brunt is to stabilize the nearly 10,000 defeated soldiers.

The chapter system came from Zhenjiang all the way to Bozhou City, and for so many years, he knew that it was not easy for the Great Song Dynasty to win a victory, and it was even more difficult to return to the north.

After a moment's thought, he nodded slightly.

"Zhang is willing to listen to Lord Xin's arrangement!"

"Good. Immediately issued an order to close the gates of the city, and no one was allowed to enter or leave. In addition, all the city is under martial law, and no one is allowed to move around at will. Xin Qiji immediately ordered to cut off the people's escape route first, and leave them in the city and at home to avoid greater panic.

"Zhang Zhi, leave a team of people here, listen to my command, you take the others away, and the city defense and security will be handed over to you."

"Okay."

Zhang Tong received the order, and then immediately ordered: "The first and second battalions stay, listen to Lord Xin's orders, and the others will follow me!" ”

With an order, Zhang Tongzhi quickly left with the army to maintain law and order in the city and strengthen the city defense.

"My lord, if you have any orders, we will follow them."

On the crowded street, two generals stepped forward to salute Xin Qiji.

"Remove the crossbowmen, get out of the way, and don't attack the rout without my orders!" Xin Qiji immediately ordered.

"Yes, I will obey my lordship!"

At the order, the general immediately turned around and ordered the crossbowmen to put away their crossbows.

Seeing that the defenders carried out the order, Xin Qiji immediately turned on his horse and chased after the rout.

In an instant, Xin Qiji caught up with the rout again.

"Listen, everyone, I am Xin Qiji, the grain envoy of Bozhou, and I have been ordered by the Bozhou government to be fully responsible for the supply of grain and grass for the military camp in the south of the city! All your problems such as eating and dressing in Bozhou City will be solved by me! I promise you that within an hour, you will all have a hot and full meal! ”

As soon as Xin Qiji's voice fell, there was immediately a humane in the slow-moving crowd: "What you said is good, how can you guarantee it?" What about the previous assurances of the state government? It's all fart! ”

"I am the grain envoy of Bozhou, it is my duty to raise grain and grass for the Northern Expeditionary Army, you are also part of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and when I came to Bozhou, I should supply you with grain and grass. As the grain envoy of Bozhou, from today onwards, I will personally provide you with grain and grass to ensure that you eat, drink and lie in Bozhou City! Xin Qiji explained, and continued to assure, trying to make the defeated soldiers believe him.

"What do you take to guarantee that you will give us food? We're going to eat! We're going to eat! We're going to eat now! ”

"We want to eat, we want food, and the grain is in the granary in front, since it is for us, go and get it yourself!"

"Yes, go get it yourself!"

The routs rose up in a hurry, no longer fighting with Xin Qi, nor discussing with him, they wanted real food, not promises and guarantees, they were hungry, everyone understood that only food could fill their stomachs now, empty words, promises and guarantees, all useless.

"Good! Fetch your own food, I agree! But look, all of you have come to get food, how far have you come after so long? There is still a hundred zhang distance from the granary, and at this speed, it won't take three or five hours, will you go to the granary? Even when you get to the granary, can you still bring out the grain? ”

Xin Qiji finished shouting, paused for a moment, and immediately said: "Also, you have been here for so long, the people at the front have already entered the granary, have you seen someone come out?" The whole road has been completely blocked by you, and they can't get out even if they get food. If this stalemate continues, the people at the front will not be able to get food into their stomachs, they will not be able to get out, you will not be able to get in, and if you can't get in, you will not be able to see the food, and eventually everyone will starve to death on this street in front of the granary! Is that what you want? ”

As soon as these words were shouted, there was a sudden silence in the crowd of slowly moving routs.

This question immediately drilled into the hearts of every hungry rout, they came to the granary to grab food, in order to live, not to die holding food, let alone to die on the way to grab food, they just want to eat and live.

"Everyone obeys my command, now immediately return to the barracks, and within an hour, everyone will have a hot meal! If you squeeze in here, everyone will have to starve to death by looking at the food! As soon as Xin Qiji saw that the defeated soldiers listened to his words in his heart, he immediately struck while the iron was hot.

"Can you really let us eat?" There were routs in the crowd who asked.

"Of course! I am the grain envoy of Bozhou, and what I do is to raise grain and grass for the Northern Expeditionary Army, in this Bozhou city, besides me, who else can supply grain and grass for the whole army? I can supply grain and grass for an army of fifty or sixty thousand, and there are only so many of you that it is not a problem at all to feed your stomachs! Everyone listened to me, hurry back to the barracks to make a fire and prepare, within half an hour, ensure that there is rice in the pot! Xin Qiji faced everyone and made a promise loudly.

Seeing that some people in the rout were hesitant and some people were moved, Xin Qiji was also very anxious, if he didn't move them, then it would be a big trouble.

Seeing that the situation was delicate, Xin Qiji immediately shouted again: "Go back a moment earlier, eat a hot meal a moment earlier!" If you delay for a while and a half, you will be hungry for a while longer, and if you don't go back to make a fire and prepare, no one will be able to eat a hot meal! If you want to eat hot rice, hurry back and make a fire, so that the rice will be in the pot! ”

In the rout, whispering and unable to make up their minds.

Go back to make a fire, is there really rice in the pot?

Crowded here, can you really get food and eat?

For a moment, it was vacillating, and no one could make up their minds.

"Hurry up and go back and make a fire, if there is no rice in the pot within half an hour, you will come to dismantle the granary, and I will not stop it!" At the critical moment, Xin Qiji made another incredible promise.

"We came late, and we couldn't get food here, so instead of being hungry, we should go back to the fire and wait for the rice to be cooked. I believe in adults again, if I still can't eat enough, I can't guarantee that I will do anything! Brothers, go, go back and make a fire! ”

A low-ranking officer-looking rout greeted him, and at the end of the rout team, dozens of people turned around and left the rout with him.

"Don't worry, I don't want to stop talking, and if I say that I will put rice in the pot for you, you will definitely have rice in the pot! Let's go back and light a fire! Xin Qiji's tense nerves suddenly lightened.

"I wish you could do it, Lord!" The low-ranking officer carefully glanced at Xin Qiji, who was dressed in green clothes on horseback, and remembered his young appearance in his heart.

"Order, let them go!" Xin Qijian turned his head and gave an order to the officials behind him.

Soon, the first small army of routs left the street outside the granary and headed for the barracks south of the city.

With the successful experience, Xin Qiji immediately began to persuade more defeated soldiers little by little.

Between eating a hot meal in an hour and cramming into the streets to starve, more and more of the defeated soldiers chose to go back to the camp to light a fire and wait for the rice to be cooked.

After all, there are too many people desperately squeezing into the granary to grab grain in front, and the routs are blocking the entire street tightly, and the people behind are empty-handed, desperately squeezing can't move forward, and the people inside are carrying food and want to come out, which is simply impossible.

Whether it's dry, I don't know when, or whether it's a hot meal in an hour, as long as you have a little brain, you know how to choose.

As Xin Qiji's throat became more and more hoarse, more and more soldiers left.

At first, dozens of them left at a time, and then hundreds of them left at a time, and then later, the routs spread the word of mouth, spontaneously began to argue and discuss, and slowly understood that crowding on the street and waiting for food grabbing would not work at all, so it was better to believe that the Bozhou grain governor made Xin abandon the disease again.

A few quarters of an hour later, most of the defeated soldiers returned to the barracks south of the city, and the defeated soldiers waiting on the street were only less than five zhang away from the end of the team to the gate of the granary, and the number of defeated soldiers was only a few thousand.

But because they were so close to the granary, they thought they would get the food soon, so there were many fewer people who chose to leave.

Xin Qiji took a lot of time before advancing the distance of three zhang.

There are not many defeated troops at the gate of the granary, but it is difficult to say how many people are in the granary, because until this time, no one has been able to come out of it with grain.

Xin Qiji called a battalion of heavily armed defenders, and with some tongues, the routs desperately squeezed in at the door of the granary finally retreated, and the door was empty.

The door was empty, the internal and external forces were unbalanced, and the routed soldiers inside the door resisted the food gushing out.

"Put down the grain! The Bozhou defenders will help you send food to the barracks! If you dare to resist, you will be killed! ”