Yan Jizu, the adjacent governor of Shandong, strictly ordered the Shandong soldiers and horses to defend across the river, and be sure to block the Liukou from crossing the Henan into the mirror, but ignored Guide's request for help.

Facing the south of Fengyang Mansion in the east, Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, also strictly guarded the defense line, ordered soldiers and horses from all over the country to ensure the capital, and ignored the war in Guide Mansion.

What Ma Shiying is most worried about now is that if the thieves enter Xuzhou, if the Cao Yun is blocked, he, the governor of Fengyang, is also responsible, and he can't take care of others.

Gao Mingheng, the governor of Henan, is in Kaifeng, and it is difficult to protect himself, and he can still manage the crisis of returning to Germany.

In April this year, due to the fall of Luoyang and Xiangyang successively, Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang, and Zhu Changfa, the king of Guiyang, died at the hands of the rogue, announcing the failure of the "four positives, six corners and ten nets" encirclement and suppression plan proposed by Yang Sichang.

The imperial court also ordered Ding Qirui, the governor of the three sides, to take over as the governor of the five provinces and control the armies and horses of Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangbei. Ding Qirui was born as a scholar, has little military talent, is more indecisive in handling things, and has a timid temperament.

Some time ago, Ding Qirui was shocked when he heard that Kaifeng was besieged and that the army reached 700,000 people, and he heard that Zhang Xianzhong had few soldiers, so he said to the people who came to ask for help: "I want to encircle and suppress Zhang Xianzhong, and I can't control Kaifeng's affairs." (We have something to do with loyalty, but it's too late)

Later, Kaifeng lifted the siege, the vassal king was worry-free, Ding Qirui was proud, and he boasted that he handled it properly, and now he came to Defu for help. Ding Qirui only ordered the generals near Kaifeng to come to the rescue on the grounds that he was far away in Runing and his subordinates fought repeatedly.

Kaifeng is still difficult to protect itself, how can there be soldiers and horses to come to the rescue and return to Germany?

Wang Shixiu said while pacing in the lobby: "Regardless of whether there are reinforcements or not, whether we are loyal to the king or not, as local parents, how can we be afraid of thieves and things?" At present, the people are all in the city to protect themselves, and there are no gaps in the inner and outer cities, and it is incumbent on us to protect the township! In the past, Zhang Zhongcheng guarded Suiyang, a good story through the ages, Zhen Ting is not talented, and he is willing to follow one or two, that is, he will die, and let the thieves know that I am not no one. ”

A few days ago, the imperial court just issued an order to transfer Wang Shixiu, the prefect of Guide, to the Ministry of Works. Tong Zhi Yan Zekong, Xu Yiyuan, Shangqiu Zhixian Liang Yizhang, Xia Shiying, Liju Shangshu Zhou Shipu, etc., invited Wang Shixiu to stick to morality together, Wang Shixiu was invited to not go to Beijing for the time being, it can be seen that this is an official with temperament.

Wang Shixiu stopped and said to Yang Sheng: "The Jin gentry have been recruiting village warriors for several days, and you must distribute all the weapons in stock." ”

Yang Sheng said: "The last general will respect the order." ”

Wang Shixiu said to Liang Yizhang of Shangqiu Zhixian County: "Lord Liang, you are young and promising, and now the thief is about to return to Germany, and he will lead the township to contact the Jin gentry, and you will be responsible for the overall planning of the city defense, and you will also be responsible for the inspection of all gates in the city." ”

Liang Yizhang arched his hand and said: "Lord Fuzun, please rest assured, you must fulfill your duties, inspect day and night, and strictly guard against death." ”

The Ming Dynasty had the practice of using literature to control the military, so Wang Shixiu asked Liang Yizhang to be responsible for coordinating the defense of the whole city.

Liang Yizhang is young and vigorous, and now he is in the prime of life, at the age of thirty-four. He was the first in the township examination, that is, Xie Yuan was born, and later he was a high school jinshi.

The prefect Wang Shixiu has received an order, which can be regarded as the acting prefect, and the same Zhiyan Zekong is old and lacks energy, so it may be difficult to work day and night to guard the city. Therefore, in order to avoid suspicion, the overall planning and deployment power in Guide City was handed over to Liang Yizhang, the commander of Zhengyin County.

Wang Shixiu said to Yang Sheng again: "General Yang, what is the movement of the security forces in the city in the past few days, and are there any signs of evacuation?" ”

Yang Sheng said: "According to the observation of the last general, this security army is actively preparing for war and has no intention of evacuating. ”

Wang Shixiu nodded and said: "This is very good, although I heard that this security army is only a subsidiary of the Tiance Army, but the combat power should be good, with them, Guide can still withstand some time." ”

What he was most worried about was the sudden withdrawal of the security forces, after all, the security forces were only guest troops and had no obligation to help him defend the city.

Yang Sheng said: "It's a pity that the security army only has 3,000 people, if the Tiance army is here, there is no need to worry about returning to Germany." ”

"Rat-eyed!" Wang Shixiu scolded: "I have heard that the loyal marquis has the name of benevolence and righteousness, and loves the people like a son, I will not see the soldiers of this brigade in danger." And I have a large number of people from the starting point city in Guide, if the thieves attack the city, the loyal marquis will not stand idly, so if there are reinforcements in Guide, it will be the Tiance army! ”

Yang Sheng said loudly: "I understand, the last general will defend to Germany and persist until the Tiance Army comes to help." ”

At this time, Wang Shixiu didn't know that Li Zicheng's army was attracted by the slogan "When you arrive in Guide, you will have food".

The Tiance Army Headquarters has long planned for the security and defense work of the Guide Migrant Transfer Center, and although the public security brigade in Guide is a B brigade, its firepower has been strengthened. In addition, Shandong is the base camp for the recruitment and training of the public security forces, that is, there are 12 brigades of new and old troops of the public security forces, with a total of 36,000 people, which can be used for reinforcements in the direction of Germany.

In order to improve the combat capability of the B Brigade of the Security Forces, the B Brigade is usually equipped with twelve Type 85 heavy machine guns as standard to enhance the continuous firepower, and the wooden-handled grenades produced in the starting city are also equipped with the B Brigade, with each soldier carrying four.

In the B Brigade of the Public Security Army in Guide, the number of heavy machine guns was specially increased to 24, and some of the heavy machine guns were used for city defense. In addition, there are six armored vehicles lent to the propaganda department by the Tiance Army, which will be used by the security forces if necessary.

Judging from the equipment of the security army in Guide, it is not easy for the rogues to break through Guide.

However, Li Zicheng's forces expanded faster than the Tiance Army Command expected, and the General Staff was cautious about the safety of Guide.

Since last year, the army has changed its style of indiscriminate killing, and put forward the political slogan of exempting the land from taxation to deceive people's minds, and the number of troops has rapidly expanded to 100,000. After successively conquering dozens of prefectures and counties, he took Luoyang, an important town in the Central Plains, obtained a large amount of supplies, and then coerced hundreds of thousands of displaced people. There is also a strategist Song Xiance who fabricated a prophecy, the Mandate of Heaven of the Eighteen Sons of the Lord Artifact, and through the god-making activities, he advocated that Li Zicheng was the true Son of Heaven to go down to earth and fool the people. This year, the army gathered the Gezuo and other battalions, recruited the defeated officers and troops, and united with the Henan giant bandits Yuan Shizhong, Li Jiyu, and other soldiers and horses to form a coalition army, and the strength of the army rapidly swelled from 230,000 to more than about 500,000, and claimed to be 700,000. ”

After introducing the situation of the invasion of the army, Chief of Staff Li Zixiong pointed to the big map and said: "Judging from the current dynamics of the invasion of the army, the goal is to return to Germany. ”

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