"Not really." Chang Wei said: "The magistrate is now cowering in the city and doesn't know how to panic, if there are private soldiers in each family, he is afraid that he will jump up happily." ”

Zhang Han nodded slightly, and said softly: "It seems that the merchant army, like the landlord army, is trustworthy and relied on in the eyes of local officials. ”

Chang Wei said: "Brother Han, what did you say?" ”

Zhang Han ignored him and asked, "You came here in the middle of the night, didn't you just tell me this?" ”

"No, of course not." Chang Wei's eyes flashed with a strange light, and he said slowly: "Brother Han, I have a thought now...... This time, the thieves invaded the realm, everyone panicked, let's do whatever we want them to do, it's much easier to say than usual to control the Chamber of Commerce, I'm thinking, if we don't kill that thief this time......"

"Oh......" Zhang Han muttered, "Are you going to raise a Kou?" ”

"Brother Han, what you said is so ugly...... Yes, it's a raise. ”

"I'll have to see what the hell is going on with this thief." Zhang Han said solemnly: "It's too useless, it's not a threat to keep it, it's too powerful, it's a hidden danger to keep it, and you can't keep it." ”

Zhang Han remembered that at the beginning, the Jiangmen of Liaoxi and Liaodong also wanted to "raise" Jiannu, they exaggerated the strength of Jiannu, and never refused to really fight and train soldiers, so they counted on the millions of silver allocated by the imperial court to Liaodong a year to share the fertilizer with everyone, and the matter of Liaodong was very deep, and in the end not only raised Jiannu to the difficulty of riding tigers, but also developed a huge Jiangmen group, which not only dragged across the Ming Dynasty, but also became a vampire of the Qing Dynasty in the early Qing Dynasty. To put it bluntly, even the finances of the Qing court could not afford the military expenses of the three feudatories of several million a year, and everyone tore their faces for the silver...... To put it bluntly, the rebellion of the three feudatories was the last collective counterattack of the Liaoxi Jiangmen group at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and in the end it almost beat the Qing Dynasty down, if it weren't for Wu Sangui being too old, he was ten years younger, maybe the Liaoxi Jiangmen could finally get the world.

I don't know what the strength of the thieves is, after all, there are elite border troops among the thieves, and if the time comes, it will be a disaster if it doesn't work, it will be a shame to be thrown home.

Chang Wei said confidently: "Brother Han, don't worry, I think your archers can fight ten bandits." ”

"Nonsense." Zhang Han scolded, and then said: "Hurry up and go to bed, the army will leave at six o'clock tomorrow morning, you can't get up." ”

Chang Wei smiled and left to find a tent to sleep, Zhang Han couldn't sleep for a while, his heart was indeed moved, if this well-known thief can be controlled, it is indeed useful......

……

In the early morning, there was some mist in Lingqiu City, fog is a common thing in early winter, there would be a lot of people walking on the streets at this time in the past, vegetable farmers who walked in from outside the city in the morning, firewood pickers, monks or nuns who knocked on the iron plate, guys who opened the doors in the shop in the morning, and after the fog cleared, they wore six-in-one hats and wore various colored jackets and shop cabinets, they slowly paced to the store, watched the young men hang up the banner, and then sat on the high-legged chairs, waiting for the business to come to the door.

Although this small city is small, it is a small city with a radius of less than six miles in the mountainous area of northeast Shanxi, and the commercial atmosphere in the city is very strong...... There are more than 10,000 miners in the iron yard every year, and a large number of shops are engaged in pig iron trading.

This morning was completely different from usual, the city was quiet everywhere, the bluestone slabs of Fuqian Street were full of dew, wet and shining, and the crowds that used to be bustling on this road were gone, replaced by a panicked emptiness and loneliness.

Occasionally, a few roosters and dogs barked, Zhu Qingyu wore a blue official robe and a black gauze hat on his head, wandering around the county hall in a distraught.

Usually he rarely does such a formal dress, he rarely goes out of the city and county, when he is newly appointed, in order to straighten out the relationship with the various iron yards and the squire, the county magistrate has to often go to various places, clarify the local relationship, restrain the clan forces, and so on after the relationship between the parties is straightened out, the county lord has very few things...... Spring and Autumn taxes, and then there are cultural and educational, warehousing, criminal and public security matters, these things can be sorted out in the city, Zhu Qingyu usually wears a civilian robe in the inner government and easily completes the day's official duties.

Simplify the criminal name, respect the teacher and emphasize education, as long as the three-year governor straightens out the relationship, the performance appraisal is the evaluation.

On the contrary, if the administration is serious, it offends the big households, the past officials are not well received, the reputation is not good, and the evaluation will not be good.

This is Zhu Qingyu's farewell to the teacher who was a high-ranking official when he took office, and the teacher who has served as a high-ranking official confided the truth after drinking, and Zhu Qingyu has always been respectful.

Today's situation is that Zhu Qingyu is upset...... His teacher had never encountered such a situation in front of him, and of course he had never taught him, and Zhu Qingyu's official career in the past few years and the experience of being an official exchanged with other officials did not have these ...... The Ming Dynasty has been peaceful for too long, even the border towns rarely encounter police signals, and the border county officials have not experienced the large-scale invasion of the northern captives for too long, only the southwest is not even peaceful, but most of the officials who were put in the southwest are three rank jinshi or people, who can know how they are officials in the southwest!

At this time, walking into a well-dressed poor man from the outer hall, Zhu Qingyu's eyes lit up, and he stepped forward and said: "What's the matter, what is the situation outside the city, are the thieves really coming?" ”

Five or six days ago, there was a rumor that a large group of thieves were going to attack Lingqiu, Zhu Qingyu could not report to ask for reinforcements before he got the exact information, and the day before yesterday finally had the exact news, but it was already a little late to know at that time, the thieves had already passed the level punishment pass, and it didn't look like they were going to the Bauhinia Pass, it was obvious that this was Benlingqiu.

Zhu Qingyu hurriedly ordered the city gate to be closed, and ordered the officers and soldiers stationed in the city to garrison the city with a small number of village brave archers, these people added up to less than two hundred people, and there was only one guard on the head of the city for a few hundred steps, and there were no big guns and bird guns, and there were very few bows, not to mention stones and wood, Zhu Qingyu went around the city, and felt that as long as the thieves set up some ladders to attack in, he knew that he would definitely not be able to defend it, but he had the responsibility to defend the land and did not dare to leave without permission, otherwise once Lingqiu really fell, he was responsible for guarding the land in this place, and he would definitely be heavily responsibleAfter sending people to the direction of Datong Mansion to urgently ask for help, Zhu Qingyu could only wait for reinforcements, as for him to go out of the city to take the initiative to fight with the thieves, and even defend the iron field and the people, of course it was impossible, in fact, he didn't even dare to let the people into the city, because he was afraid that the thieves would mix in the people and enter the city, but under pressure, let in some people who knew the roots, and after a day and a half, Zhu Qingyu ordered the city gate to be closed, and blocked the city gate with a sack. No more letting people in.

This is also the status quo of the county defense in the late Ming Dynasty, the lack of soldiers, the lack of equipment and garrison, of course, there is no plan at all, whether the success of the city defense can only depend on the ability of the magistrate and the determination of the big households, such as Laizhou during the Denglai Rebellion, Sun Chengzong scattered his wealth and guarded Gaoyang, success or failure is the same, as for the thieves wandering around, there is a lack of layers of warnings and plans, and the local garrison is abnormally empty.

"The thief has gone to the west of the city." It took half a day for the messenger to catch his breath and said to Zhu Qingyu: "The villain risked his life to go out of the city to the direction of the thieves for nearly thirty miles, and found that a small group of thieves went to the west under the banner, they burned Quhui Temple, and then continued all the way forward, going to the direction of Duyuling. ”

"It's okay, it's okay!"

Zhu Qingyu Xiang is drowning man suddenly climbed a driftwood, half of his body surfaced, and he felt the pleasure of being reborn when he was dying, and it was as if he couldn't breathe for a long time, and he took a breath all of a sudden.

He said: "It seems that they went to the iron field on the other side of Dongshan. ”

"Back to the eldest master, it must be so!"

"What about the iron field, is it already gone?"

"It's a miracle." The officer said to Zhu Qingyu with a look of surprise on his face: "The proprietors of the iron yard did not run, nor did the miners, they gathered more than 1,000 people up and down the Duyu Ridge, and the men from several nearby villages were also gathered together by them, saying that they wanted to guard the Duyu Ridge and not let the thieves directly enter the mining area. ”

"There is such a thing!" Zhu Qingyu was a little surprised at first, and then suddenly said to the master beside him: "Sir, you said that we should send someone to Duyuling to ask them to guard the county seat, how about it?" ”

The master has always been reluctant to disobey the proprietor to speak, but this is not a false politeness, and he said at the moment: "Dong Weng, I think they will definitely not come, these people are just protecting their private property, and if they form a village to protect themselves, it is not for the overall safety of Lingqiu, so even if Dong Weng has an order, they will definitely not come, at most they will disperse, so it is better to ask them to resist the thieves over there." ”

"That's right, I think I'm biased." Zhu Qingyu came to his senses and said, "It's good that they can beat the thieves away." ”

"Ahem......" The master coughed and said: "This seems unlikely, there are border troops among the thieves, and they have been wandering for the past few months, most of them are fierce and daring people, Dong Weng, you still have to base yourself on your own to guard the city." ”

Zhu Qingyu sighed, and then said: "If this official had known that this was the case, it would have been better to mobilize large households as soon as possible and recruit more township corps to practice, so that the matter would not be so panicked when the matter comes." I heard that they also found the archers of Zhang Han's inspection department to help, although the inspection has a letter, but you might as well go out to invite the attack, not as cautious as the generals, if Zhang Han can really defeat the thieves with the group training, this official will definitely rely on them more in the future. ”

The master praised this time: "What Dong Weng said is very true, I am afraid that there will always be things in front of me in the future, and it is best to think about everything as early as possible." ”