The situation in XA County is not good, but it is not as pessimistic as Zhu Jinglun expected. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the first battle of Xa County, although Chen Guiji was defeated and even killed, the loss of troops was not large, and most of his men fled safely back to the manhole, and there were still thousands of people.

Chen Gui is a Jinshi background, the official career is not smooth, the biggest official he has ever done before, is the head of the household department, just a six-grade official, the grade is not much bigger than the county order, and the power is not as good as the magistrate, but there is an official body, plus the clan power of the Chen family, the Chen family is one of the largest squires in Xin'an, and it is very famous and appealing in the local area.

Now that he is dead, these villagers are full of hatred for foreigners, Chen Gui is originally from Gangtou New Village, Shajing Township, the Chen family is a big family in Shajing Township, and many of the villagers are members of the Chen family, worshipping an ancestral hall together. It's like the Hunan army, they all came out of a village, Wang Ergou was killed, Zhang Laosan would avenge him, and now it is not Wang Ergou or the like who is dying in Shajing Township, but Chen Gui, whose patriarch died.

Therefore, Zhu Jinglun wants to fight Chen Zhiting in XA County and actively ask for battle, and he wants to take the lead with the soldiers of Shajing Township.

Zhu Jinglun believed that under the domination of hatred, they dared to charge head-on with the British. In fact, the villagers in this area of Shajing Township have always been tough, because they are both farming and fishing, busy farming, and usually fishing, that is, traditional villages, but also fishing villages, people who fight the wind and waves on the sea all the year round, and there is inevitably some wildness in their temperament.

But really confronted the well-trained British and French forces, Zhu Jinglun really didn't think well of them, the gap in weapons and training could not be made up by relying on bravery.

"Brother Chen, don't worry, what this official did when he came this time is to recover XA County. Our top priority now is to find out the enemy's situation, this official has just come to your land, and I am afraid that Brother Chen will have to bother more about this matter of sentry. ”

Zhu Jinglun's top priority at the moment is to find out the enemy's situation.

Chen Zhiting said: "Don't worry, sir, although the county seat of XA is occupied by the Yi people, there are our people inside and outside the city. Yiren's every move is under our noses. ”

This is not Chen Zhiting's bragging, after the foreigners occupied Xa County, they immediately fell into the same dilemma as when they were in Guangzhou, that is, they would be attacked when they went out of the city, and they were even killed at the city gate. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as the vast sea of the people's war. To be honest, later textbooks criticized the Qing government for not daring to mobilize the masses, which led to the defeat of the two wars, either because the experts who compiled the textbooks did not understand, or because they deliberately carried out political propaganda. The Qing government did not mobilize the masses, but it did not deliberately suppress them, and the local forces spontaneously organized, which made the foreigners even more headaches.

Zhu Jinglun said: "Brother Chen, my soldiers will arrive in about half a month, and I have been bothering you to keep an eye on XA County to see if the foreigners have increased their troops in the past few days." The number of soldiers, the location of the camp, I want it. ”

Chen Zhiting said: "Don't worry, my lord. ”

Zhu Jinglun said again: "This official plans to go to XA County in person, I wonder if Brother Chen can arrange a reliable person as a guide?" ”

Chen Zhiting persuaded: "How can adults take risks in person. ”

Zhu Jinglun waved his hand: "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you will get the tiger." ”

Chen Zhiting praised: "Adults have heard a lot about adults, and adults have a liver and gallbladder. ”

Zhu Jinglun smiled: "Brother Chen praised it. ”

I didn't see any real information in person.

XA county is also the ancient city of Nantou, Xin'an ancient city, located in the later Shenzhen NS District is directly opposite the Qianhai Bay, has always been a coastal defense fortress, maritime traffic and foreign trade distribution center, so you can take a boat directly in the dock outside XA County.

Stepping on the ancient bluestone slab of the wharf, the small boat kept unloading baskets of vegetables, Zhu Jinglun and Fang Shan picked up a basket by themselves, the two of them were wearing ordinary villagers' clothes, and straw sandals on their feet, mixed in the team of seven or eight vegetable sellers, and walked towards the ancient Nantou ancient city of Chaoxia thinking about it.

Pedestrians outside the city were in a hurry, and there was no shortage of people entering and exiting the city gates, which were guarded by a few British soldiers, blonde and blue-eyed Caucasians, not Indians. They looked at it casually and did not examine it closely. This boat will enter and leave Xin'an City every day, and foreigners have long been familiar with it, but they don't know that it is a spy from Shajing Xiangyong.

There are not many pedestrians in the city, the streets are depressed, and many shops are closed.

Zhu Jinglun and Fang Shan acted separately, and one person each led the way for the two of them.

Hawking in the streets and alleys with vegetable baskets is indeed the behavior that can best cover the identity of the secret agent.

Zhu Jinglun is not serious about selling vegetables, but Chen Ada, who led the way for him, is serious about selling vegetables, because he is really a vegetable seller, and he wants to listen to news and do business. Zhu Jinglun was between the horses, and Chen Ada's shouting had already made several families open the door, and some housewives came out to bargain with him, and they were very dissatisfied with the fact that the price of the food was much more expensive. Chen Ah laughed and said that there is no way, if the foreigners don't leave, the price will increase in a few days.

Xin'an Fortress is an ancient city, the buildings are very intact, most of the streets in the city are bluestone paths, the streets and alleys are wide and narrow, and the whole city is basically rectangular. Almost circling the root of the city wall, Zhu Jinglun found that the city was about six or seven or eight meters from east to west and five hundred meters from north to south. It is not a large city, so there are no complex structures such as urn castle and guancheng, but the city wall is thick, more than one zhang. The foundation of the city was built with yellow mud and sand, and if gunpowder was buried, it could easily collapse, but the problem was that there was a moat outside the city wall, and there was still living water flowing inside, so it was impossible to get close to it.

Such a small city is not easy to capture if the will of the soldiers defending the city is firm and there are not thousands of lives to fill it. Zhu Jinglun knew that he did not have the strength to storm this city.

But the good news is that, as Chen Zhiting said, there were not many British troops defending the city, and the French soldiers retreated after occupying Xin'an and went south to Vietnam. On September 1, the previous month, the Franco-Vietnamese War broke out when the Franco-Vietnamese War broke out when the French Expeditionary Force led a French expeditionary force of 3,000 men, supported by 14 warships, to capture the fortress and harbor of Da Nang.

There were not many British troops, and the French withdrew again, so the British troops left in Xin'an were only about 800, and as for the British reinforcements, they had to wait for next year when they were ready to fight Beijing, and before that, they had to suppress the Indian uprising, and that would have to be next year.

So unless the British were preparing to fight the Qing court, they probably wouldn't send more troops to Hong Kong.

Without reinforcements, there are less than 3,000 people in Hong Kong, and there are sick, dead in battle, and soldiers who can really fight, 2,000 people are good, and it is already the limit to be able to put 800 people in Xa County, no matter how much, Hong Kong's law and order cannot be maintained.

But Zhu Jinglun did not plan to storm the city, which was guarded by 800 people, and still needed to outwit it.

Zhu Jinglun didn't leave, but stayed in an inn in the city, changed his clothes, and exchanged information with Fang Shan about the information they had, and found no special defense loopholes, and there was really no way to take a trick. By the time Zhu Jinglun and Fang Shan walked out of the inn again, they had already changed from vegetable sellers to two merchants, and they planned to go to the tobacco house in the city first, contact the seller, and buy a batch of wounded crow tobacco.