Ma Jinzhong sometimes sighed, sometimes resented, but after all, he still couldn't make up his mind and couldn't make up his mind.

After all, the Ma family in Hezhou has a big business on this land, how can it be said that it will be left behind?

"You all tell me, what can I Ma Jinzhong do now, and what should I do?"

Ma Jinzhong sighed and said such a sentence.

At this time, an old man sitting on the left with a high nose and deep eyes, a full beard, and a white Destar turban wrapped around his head said:

"Lord Commander, I heard that Lord Bai Minghe, who was sent to Pingliang, sent someone to deliver a letter, I don't know what the letter says? Was that King Gao Yingxiang ever willing to work with adults to be our barrier to the west of the Taomin River? ”

The old man who spoke, called Sai Yide, was the old man of the imam with a respected status in Hezhou City.

Ma Jinzhong still has a lot of respect for this Saiyide, and when he heard him ask, he immediately said: "This king from northern Shaanxi is not a fuel-efficient lamp!" Not so easy to talk to!

"Brother Bai Minghe went north from Tianshui City, Qinzhou Mansion to Zhuang Lang, and saw the old man from northern Shaanxi who returned to Ma Shouying, and Ma Shouying also helped pass the word, but Bai Minghe waited in Zhuang Lang for three days, and the king did not reply a word!

"Bai Minghe sent a letter saying that King Chuang is afraid that he is unreliable! Especially the leaders of the horse thieves and thieves under him, because of the rumors in Guyuan City, they are now wary of us, and if the official army attacks Pingliang in the future, these thieves will probably come to the west! ”

As soon as Ma Jinzhong's words fell, Ma Shun, another general who was wearing a white hat but wearing the armor of the Ming Border Army, immediately said:

"My lord! Since that King is unreliable, what are we waiting for here?! I can't wait!

"Let the brothers who have settled down quickly withdraw to Hezhou! There are tens of thousands of brothers in Hezhou and Stability, where will the adults take us to, can't we find a foothold?! ”

At the beginning, after Ma Jinzhong's mutiny, he returned to Hezhou and quickly occupied Hezhou, and shortly thereafter, Anding County, which was subordinate to Gongchang Prefecture in the east of Hezhou, also had a Musu barbarian rebellion.

Ma Jinzhong quickly dispatched troops, occupied Anding County, and sent a younger brother Ma Jinde to sit in the town, and now he is leading 5,000 Musu barbarian troops to guard the eastern gate for his hometown in Hezhou.

After hearing Ma Shun's words, Ma Jinzhong hadn't thought about what to do, so he listened to Ma Xin, the general who had just spoken, interjected:

"That's it! Hexi is a vast place, where can it not be accommodated!?

"The top priority is to hurry west to Hexi to join the one surnamed Mi and the one surnamed Ha, occupy one or two cities, gather the population and the people, and try to establish themselves in the future! Either hurry west to the plateau, go to meet the new Lin Dan Khan in the land of Haikou, and make a strong reinforcement!

"Now the adults are taking my generation like a lot of people, trapped in Hezhou here, sitting and eating empty, how will it be a situation in the future if this goes on for a long time! Do you know how much grain and grass you need to support the soldiers and horses in Hezhou City today? !

"Even if we have gold and silver, we can't bear the 20,000 or 30,000 horses in this Hezhou city, and everyone eats horses every day! What's more, even now that there are mountains of gold and silver, there is no way to buy so much grain and grass! ”

Ma Jinzhong is among the right-hand men in Hezhou, Ma Xin is in charge of the soldiers and horses, and Ma Shun is in charge of the supply of grain and grass, and now these two henchmen say this, which makes him even more anxious.

After returning to Hezhou City, Ma Jinzhong immediately recruited troops to expand his team.

On the one hand, in order to prevent the imperial officials and troops of the Trilateral Governor's Mansion from coming to encircle and suppress retaliation.

On the other hand, it is also to strengthen his own strength, and increase his own capital when the court recruits security in the future.

When Ma Jinzhong first returned to Hezhou City, plus his own subordinates brought back from Taozhou, there were more than 5,000 standing men and horses in Hezhou City.

But after the crazy expansion in the following months, at the beginning of the third year of Chongzhen, the scale of the soldiers and horses under his command who ate food and salaries suddenly expanded to more than 30,000 people, and almost all the Musu in Hezhou City and Anding were incorporated into their own Hezhou army.

Many of them didn't even have a decent standard weapon, but they also turned into the defenders of Hezhou City.

There are more people and horses, it looks really good, at least now he has become the largest and strongest of the rebel armies in Gannan after the Taozhou Mutiny.

At the same time, when the imperial court appeased, so many soldiers and horses could of course exchange Ma Jinzhong for a large official position, and could exchange him for more resettlement silver.

However, the appeasement that Ma Jinzhong and others expected was unexpectedly delayed.

In this way, the 20,000 or 30,000 horses in Hezhou City, plus the 5,000 men and horses stationed in Anding County, the daily food and salary consumed is not a small number.

In the past, whether it was the standing garrison of Hezhou City, or the standing garrison of Taozhou and Luozhou City, they were all battalions who regularly received imperial salaries.

Now after the mutiny, of course, the military salary of the imperial court is gone, and the grain and grass paid by the local government are gone.

The magistrates have let the rebels kill them, and the Han soldiers and people have fled, who cares about your grain and grass supply!

At the same time, in order to win the hearts of the troops under his command, Ma Jinzhong did not dare to lower the salary of the original Musubarian border army and the newly recruited Musubarian battalion soldiers than the imperial court.

Originally, I thought that just by holding on for two or three months, the will of the imperial court to appease would come, and at that time, the imperial court would make up the military salary according to this scale, and he would be able to make a fortune.

However, up to now, not only has this big fortune not been paid, but the Ma family in Hezhou has also posted it back and forth I don't know how much grain.

A border army battalion soldier, the imperial court customized two Chongzhen silver yuan per month, and 30,000 people per month is 60,000 silver yuan.

Although these people robbed and slaughtered the Han streets and villages inside and outside Hezhou, they robbed a lot of gold, silver, grain and other wealth, but these things were still counted after all.

Although the Ma family in Hezhou is rich, it can't afford to support 30,000 horses with the power of one family!

In just a few months, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were spent.

Therefore, Ma Jinzhong has not only become a thorn in the side of the Ma family in Hezhou, but also another wealthy family in the city, and he is also regarded as a heavy burden.

If it weren't for the fact that Ma Jinzhong had a large number of people under his command, and most of them were his cronies, and they all listened to him, then I am afraid that the commander of Hezhou City would have already changed people to sit.

Now that the time for spring ploughing has passed, the usual patches of wheat and sorghum outside the city have not planted a single crop.

After a cold winter, the rations that were snatched from the Han people have now bottomed out.

In previous years, the grain from Hanzhong in Guanzhong, Shaanxi Province has now been blocked by the official army, and even if there is gold and silver, it cannot be bought.

If you sit down in the city of Hezhou, let alone the autumn and winter, even this summer, I am afraid that there will be a famine in the city.

Regarding this situation, Ma Jinzhong, the former general of the border army in Lintao Town, is also clear in his heart.

At this time, listening to the words of the generals under his command, Ma Jinzhong knew that he really couldn't sit and wait for nothing, and looked at Sai Yide at the moment and said:

"Old man! It is the light of our people! Now the situation inside and outside the city of Hezhou is also clear, but the old man is talking about it, what should we do?

"Is it like those Mu people outside the city, leaving their homes in Hezhou and going to Hexi to live, or contacting Haikou and still staying in Hezhou?"

After Ma Jinzhong said this, he looked up at the old man Sai Yide, ready to listen to his opinion.

Sai Yide stroked the gray beard under his chin, turned his eyes on the faces of Ma Xin, Ma Shun, and Ma Jinzhong, and then said:

"Still in River State?! Dare to ask the commander, what will you take to guard Hezhou? ”

After saying this, Sai Yide saw that Ma Jinzhong's face was ugly, and immediately said:

"The Ma family has guarded Hezhou for generations, and how many dealings they have with the Haikou in the west of Huangzhong, how can they not know that those people are even poorer than the Tibetan Tusi of Gannan Kangzang!

"Now that Lin Dan Khan and his subordinates have been driven to Qinghai, the reason why he has not come to invade so far is because he is busy gaining a foothold on the plateau, once these Mongols have gained a firm foothold, I am afraid that they will come to Hezhou to ask for food!

"And I heard that the officials and troops of the imperial court have been stationed in Qingyang in a big way, and those Han thieves in Pingliang City are afraid that they won't last long! As soon as Pingliang is lost, they will go to stability, and after they are settled, it will be Hezhou!

"Even if the soldiers under your command are well fed, if that time comes, the officers and soldiers, the thieves, and the pirates will all come, and what will the commander take to guard Hezhou?"