Li Yu's own ability is not limited to literature, not to mention, there is also an interesting guy among the few friends he brought. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info these situations have been made clear by a trainee spy, but the news from Quzhou has forced Chen Wen to give up his plan to continue recruiting talents for the time being.

On the fifth day of the tenth month of the sixth year of Yongli, Chen Wen hurriedly returned to the Quzhou front, just because there were some new changes in the Qing army around him.

The governor of Jiangxi, Liu Guangbi, returned to Quzhou, and the troops are said to have been replenished to a certain extent, and they are now stationed in Changshan County; In addition, a Qing army under the banner of Huizhou Green Camp was stationed in Kaihua County; Jiangshan County, which had long been guarded by the Qing army, was divided into the 28th capital of the general army standard battalion on the left road of Fujian and Xianxia Pass.

There are a total of five counties in Quzhou, Longyou in the east has long been recovered by Chen Wen, and Xi'an, where the capital is located, is also under siege. The remaining three counties, Kaihua, Changshan and Jiangshan, are lined up from north to south, and are respectively stuck on the road from Quzhou to Huizhou in Nanzhili, Guangxin Mansion in Jiangxi and Jianning Mansion in Fujian.

The Qing army deployed this defense in order to limit Chen Wen's army to the current occupied area. However, Tanma in the direction of Chuzhou said that the Qing army there had no intention of holding on at all, and there seemed to be signs of fleeing in panic.

The siege of Quzhou has been nearly a month, and the Qing army in the city is weak and unable to break through on its own, while the Qing army in the surrounding areas has almost all suffered varying degrees of losses in that fiasco, coupled with the lack of a figure who can act as the commander, it is naturally impossible to break the siege, even if the city is surrounded by the most powerful high-ranking officials of the Manchu Qing in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

However, although there are many troops under Chen Wen's command, the strategy of capturing and killing Chen Jin this time has been decided, so naturally he can't relax the density of the siege to attack all over the world. The Ming army outside the city has already diverted the water of the moat, and is still waiting for the attack and blasting after the sun is over, and then use troops after the capture of the city.

At the same time, the Qing army in the city had dug a trench on the inside of the four city walls, and organized a group of blind people in the city to stand by the inverted water tanks, listening from time to time, intending to find out the specific location of the Ming army's excavation from the city, and then destroy the traditional ways of defending the city such as flooding and smoking.

The soup kitchen in the city has been stopped today, and the reason is to leave some food for the Qing army defending the city and the reinforcements that may arrive at any time. Since the grain merchants had been swept away, the people in the city had no place to buy grain, and this was the first day of stopping the soup kitchen, and many people who had come to receive the soup every day gathered in front of the previous soup kitchen, including Rong Qian and his family.

"The court is considerate of the situation, and the soup soup is given in the government and the county government, but the food in the treasury has long been used to supply the army because of the defense against the thieves, and the autumn tax has not yet been collected, and the soup has been given for more than half a month, and the grain is not much, and it has to be left for the defenders and reinforcements. Therefore, the soup giving will no longer be carried out from this day on. ”

The government has never been unreasonable, and Rong Qian never thought that the government would have a day to reason with ordinary people, which really made him feel a little absurd. But as soon as they heard that the soup was no longer giving, the crowd naturally became angry, and the people around them didn't care whether the government was reasoning or not.

"The government has slaughtered all the grain merchants, and the inventory has been wiped out, so it has only been a few days of porridge, or just a bucket of gruel without a few grains of rice, and the grain storage is almost gone, who are you fooling!"

The people below continued to express their dissatisfaction. There can be no more, there can be no have, this truth is still very clear to the county leader, in fact, he also drove ducks to the shelves, and was forced to take on this thankless job. Fortunately, Li Zanhua, the one who arranged the matter, had already expected this, and he simply said it directly.

"It is true that a lot of grain has been confiscated, but the autumn harvest has just been harvested during the siege, the new grain has not yet been marketed, and the storehouses of those profiteers are full of old grain. The imperial court gave porridge at the same time in the government and the county government, one bowl for one person, ten people is ten bowls, tens of thousands of people in Quzhou City, there are not a few people who come to receive porridge, and there are people who have to eat there after eating, no matter how long the grain can last. ”

"Moreover, although the remaining grain in the treasury is no longer porridge, the yamen still has to distribute food to the soldiers who defend the city and the people who assist in the defense of the city. Otherwise, there will be no food in the army, and who will defend this city? Once those Jinhua thieves enter the city, aren't they still the fathers and elders who suffer? ”

Although the Ming army outside the city is said to have strict military discipline, this is just a rumor, and it is impossible to count. The army of this era is almost all burning, killing and looting, who can guarantee that the Ming army outside the city will really not harm the people. The county Cheng's words made the noisy voice inadvertently lower a lot, but compared with the Ming army outside the city, food is a more urgent issue, especially for those people who have long been out of cooking at home and have to rely on soup soup to survive, this break is to cut off their way of life.

"The grain shops have been copied by the government, and there is no place to buy grain, how do you tell me to live?"

"That is, I have never had a shortage of taxes and forced labor every year, and the court can't starve us to death."

“……”

The noisy questioning and complaining voices intensified again, and the county knew that it was time for the fire, and immediately said that he had something to say, signaling the silence of the people below.

Until the sound wave was underestimated, I only heard the county Cheng say: "Fathers, it's not the imperial court that wants to starve you, it's the Jinhua thieves outside the city who want to starve us all." In the past month, they have blocked the city, and no one can get out, and no one can enter. Not to mention anything else, our Quzhou is a big city, and if you can't get into the city, you can't get food. Now there are not many trees on Fushan Mountain, and I am afraid that I will have to demolish the house and go to the fire in a few days, all because those Jinhua thieves outside the city will lead the military disaster to our Quzhou. ”

Fushan is a well-known place in Quzhou City, where government offices, government schools, temples, and gardens gather, and the humanities are gathered, and Zhong Lingyu is beautiful. These days, due to the cutting off of wood, there are many people in the city who go up the mountain to cut down bamboo and wood, and the county Cheng takes advantage of this matter to reverse black and white, and for a time it also blindfolds many fools and fools who are short of knowledge.

"Besides, the soup kitchen has stopped, but when I assist the officers and soldiers to defend the city, I can always have a stutter. Now that the reinforcements are on the way, hold on for a while, and it won't be long before those Jinhua thieves have to retreat. But if the city is captured by Jinhua thieves, it will harm the people, not to mention, the Eight Banners are killed, and the Jinhua thieves will not dare to resist. ”

In the past two years, although the Jinhua Ming Army has won successive battles, its opponents are all green battalion soldiers from the south, even if it is the elite of the green battalion, it cannot be compared with the Manchurian Eight Banners, which are known as "unparalleled in cavalry and archery" and "invincible".

The Eight Banners Army has a unique reputation in the impression of the people, and the brutality of the slaughter of the city is more well-known, Jinhuafu City to the east, Shaowu to the southwest, and Nanchang to the west, these bloody cases of slaughtering the city have long been known to the people of Quzhou along with the comings and goings of Quzhou merchants.

After the county Cheng said a lotus, the people began to disperse slowly. On the way home, Rong Qian carefully calculated, there is not much food at home, it probably won't last a few days, and it is estimated that his uncle will not borrow it anymore, so he has to find a way to support it.

After getting the news of the government and the county government, Li Zhifang hurriedly rushed to the governor's yamen to ask to see Chen Jin. When he entered the lobby, he saw Chen Jin whipping the house slaves.

These days, Chen Jin has been under a lot of pressure, and his temper is naturally much greater than usual, and the whipping of domestic slaves happens almost every day, and sometimes even several times a day.

As a close confidant, Li Zhifang knows this very well, and he also knows that Chen Jin needs to vent. It's just that after the report, the house slaves were spared, and when they passed by him, Li Zhifang seemed to see a trace of hatred passing by, and I don't know if I was wrong. However, there were still big things at the moment, and he didn't take these things to heart, so when he came to Chen Jin, he hurriedly told him in detail about the things outside, which made Chen Jin's mood a little easier.

When it comes to defending the city, the first priority is unified.

But now, the Qing army has suffered a crushing defeat and suffered a lot of losses. The defenders of Quzhou are only more than 3,000 people, not to mention the rout of that battle, the city defense is mainly supported by the people who assist in the defense, even if this is far lower than the Ming army, in fact, it is mostly composed of Quzhou locals. Chen Jin was guilty, and he did not have enough external forces to contain him, so in fact, he was already in danger.

It is definitely not possible to let it go, but if the persecution is tight, these Quzhou people will not need to be compared to Chen Jin and the Manchu officials, as long as the city gate is opened, the Ming army outside the city will kill all their "stubborn resistance" rebellion.

Fortunately, Chen Jin was also an old military officer, and after consulting with Li Zhifang and other cronies, he decided to divide the people of Quzhou by controlling the grain in his hands, co-opting the defenders and people's husbands, and holding the men who were capable of making rebellion in his hands, so as to achieve the goal of holding on and suppressing the people in the city. At the same time, they can also use false accusations and other means to confiscate the property of wealthy families, and use the silver to bribe the powerful and high-ranking officials of the imperial court in order to get away with the crime.

These days, under the pretext of hoarding Juqi and conspiring against the imperial court, Chen Jin has already mastered the grain and a lot of goods, and the other officials share the profits, and he used Li Zhifang's strategy to make soup soup to appease the people in the city.

To this day, in terms of goods, Chen Jin took advantage of the defect that the Ming army's water camp was not familiar with hydrology late at night, and Zhu Zhixi and Ji Zhenyi had taken his cronies out of Fucheng respectively, and used Shangjing to bribe the powerful and high-ranking officials in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. And in the city, the matter of soup soup is now over by diverting hatred and the prestige of the Eight Banners.

All that remains is to leave some of the grain and grass in the treasury for the reinforcements who do not know when they will arrive, and continue to use the rest to control the defenders and the people, until the people in the city have completely lost the ability to resist in hunger, and he can no longer consume the food, but feed the defenders with the two-legged sheep in the city.

The situation is extremely unfavorable, from the moment he decided to stay, Chen Jin is dancing on the tip of the knife, and now relying on his rich experience and the wisdom of his subordinates, these unconventional means can be carried out, which makes him have a lot more confidence in defending this fortified city.

"Yeyuan, the corruption of the military discipline of the Ming army, the combat power of the Eight Banners and the example of the slaughter of the city, these propaganda must be intensified, these Quzhou people must be frightened, and we can defend this city for the imperial court." (To be continued.) )