After the news of the fall of Jiaxing reached Hangzhou, the governor of Zhejiang, Tong Guoqi, sealed the whole city, and no one was allowed to enter the city unless he had a military intelligence document and verified that it was correct. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Tong Guoqi has more than 20,000 green battalion soldiers in the Central Plains, as well as a naval division of more than 5,000 people, this army of soldiers and horses has been fighting with the Ming army along the coast of Zhejiang for many years, which can be called elite. It's a pity that most of the soldiers and horses were buried in the battle of attacking Xiamen organized by Dasu the year before last, and the naval division was wiped out, and the direct consequence was that when the Zheng army attacked Nanjing, Zhejiang could send no more than 1,000 reinforcements.

Ma Fengzhi returned to the Ming Dynasty anyway after entering Zhejiang, in order to defend Hangzhou, Tong Guoqi is to tear down the east wall to make up the west wall, from the neighboring Ningbo, Taizhou, Wenzhou, Jinhua and other places to piece together people, barely make the Hangzhou defenders reach more than 6,000, but the real battle in the middle is still garrisoned Manchurian Eight Banners more than 700 soldiers, as well as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang and his Tong Guoqi Fu Biao, the strength of less than 2,000. The Ma Fengzhi Department who waved his army to attack claimed to be 100,000, and there were more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, attacking the city all the way, and the morale was high. If it weren't for Ma Fengzhi's greed for money and his greed for money, he would have fallen for Tong Guoqi's plan, but I am afraid that Hangzhou City would have already changed its owner.

After the defeat of Ma Fengzhi's army, Tong Guoqi did not blame the green battalion soldiers who followed Ma Fengzhi anyway, and recruited them vigorously, and gathered more than 10,000 people from the Ma Department before and after. Some of these people were led by the guerrilla Liu Chengyin to garrison Jiaxing, and the remaining part was in the city of Hangzhou.

Hangzhou was originally a big city, there is no distinction between inside and outside, Shunzhi set up a full city in three years, there is a division between inside (Manchu) and outside (Han). There are four city gates of Pinghai, Chengqian, Gongchen and Yingzi in the inner city, which are garrisoned by the Manchurian yellow flag, the red flag and the white flag soldiers stationed in Hangzhou. The outer city has eight city gates, including Wulin, Genshan, Wangjiang, Wangchao, Fengshan, Qingbo, Yongjin and Qingchun. Among them, the Qingchun Gate was guarded by the Han Army Banner alone, the Qingbo Gate and the Yongjin Gate were guarded by the Han Army and the Green Battalion, and the other five city gates were garrisoned by the Green Battalion.

Coupled with the collected Mabu army, together with the defense battalions transferred from Jinhua and other places, the defenders of Hangzhou City now have 10,000 people on paper, but Tong Guoqi and Zhao Guozuo, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, are not trustworthy to these Green Banner battalions. If the Taiping army did not enter Zhejiang so quickly, the governor would have been confident that the Green Flag Battalion would be completely reorganized, but the Taiping army did not give Zhejiang a chance to breathe.

Five days ago, Tong Guoqi was on duty day and night on the tower of the city gate or in the courtyard near the city gate, one is to quickly deal with the military situation, and the other is to shock the horse army to surrender. All gates of the outer city were also transferred to the Han army and Manchurian soldiers to assist in guarding, and the gate was very strict. The people in the city were also ordered to stay at home and forbidden to move, and under various measures, the city of Hangzhou was also calm, and there was no chaos in the city before Ma Fengzhi's soldiers came to the city.

The most important task of defending the city is the morale of the city defense, and the other is ordnance and grain and grass. While the Taiping army had not yet reached Yuhang, Tong Guoqi continued to urge neighboring prefectures and counties to urgently allocate grain and grass to Hangzhou in the past few days, and was ready to hold on. He Kui, who was stationed in Hangzhou, personally led his troops to raid several counties near Hangzhou, and forcibly dragged many people back to Hangzhou, so that when the Taiping army came, there would be enough cannon fodder in the city. Regarding this matter, Tong Guoqi pretended not to see it, and let He Kui poison the left.

On the side of the Governor's Palace, after hearing that the general of the Taiping Army who led the army was a Manchurian leader who had descended in Guangdong, Zhao Guozuo, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, sent his staff Han Kedong to Haining to say that the commander was slow to march.

Han Kedong rushed back from Haining in the evening of the day before yesterday, and as soon as he entered the city, he hurried to the governor's yamen, and later the governor's yamen came to invite Tong Guoqi to discuss the matter. After Tong Guoqi arrived, Zhao Guozuo said to him happily that Han Kedong was fortunate not to be dishonored, although Na Suna did not say it explicitly, but he accepted all the gifts he sent, and secretly sent someone to send Han Kedong out of the city. There are all kinds of indications that although Nasuna is in a high position in the Taiping Army, after all, he is from Manchuria, and he is also worried about the future, and he is likely to think about himself and come to attack Hangzhou slowly.

Tong Guoqi was overjoyed when he heard this, and suggested that the governor should send Han Kedong to Haining again, so as to persuade Suna to come over again. This possibility is very low, but it is not impossible, Zhao Guozuo thought about it for a moment, and thought that there was no need to worry about this matter, and it was not too late to wait and see the movements of the Taiping army. Han Kedong also said that once Suna is really slow to advance, Nanjing's thief Xiucai will definitely be suspicious, and at that time, he will send some fine works to spread rumors that Suna is Manchurian, not the same species as the Han people, and his heart will be different. Now I am anxious to persuade him to defect, but I am afraid that he is a little anxious.

Tong Guoqi is also right to think carefully, he can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and now it is a great thing to be able to persuade Na Suna to march to Hangzhou slowly, how can he expect the other party to return to the Qing Dynasty again.

After returning from the Governor's Palace, Tong Guoqi was still a little uneasy, and specially sent a few groups of scouts to Haining and Yuhang to find out whether the Taiping Army was really stagnant, and at the same time sent people to spread the Taiping Army's debt in Jiangnan in various provinces, in order to provoke the Zhejiang gentry to resist the Taiping Army, so that the Qing Army could get more help, and the Taiping Army could not gain a foothold in Zhejiang.

On this day, a group of Manchurian cavalry came from outside the Wulin Gate, and the Manchurian staff leader led by him shouted towards the city: "Quickly put down the drawbridge, we are from Fuzhou!" After shouting, he shook the official document in his hand stamped with fire paint towards the city.

Separated by a moat of more than 50 zhang, and when it was twilight, the Qing army in the city could not see it really, but there were not many Manchurian soldiers who came, so they put down the drawbridge. As soon as the drawbridge was over, the Manchurian senator led his subordinates straight to the city and handed the official document into the city cave of the urn.

On duty in the city is a Han army leader, see the other party handed in is a fire paint sealed fire emergency document, which indicates that the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, the upper right corner is also written with the word "urgent delivery", the back of the seam is written to indicate the year, month and day of the document, and the Fujian Eight Banners are covered with customs defense. The leader of the Han army did not dare to slack off, and summoned the growth of a Manchurian red flag to assist in the city, and he asked the other party a few words in Manchu, and the other party also answered in Manchu.

The leader did not doubt him, so he politely said to the Manchurian leader: "My lord, please wait, wait for the little one, and then come back to enlarge the people into the city." ”

Manchu was greatly translated, but the staff leader was very displeased and said: "Why don't you let this official enter the city now, is there a fake official document?" ”

Zuo Ling said with a smile: "The official document is naturally true, but you still need to pay attention to Lord Futai before you can open the door." Where the responsibility is, don't dare to make a mistake, don't blame adults! ”

The staff leader was dissatisfied: "I am receiving 100,000 urgent military intelligence, if you miss a major event, be careful to lose your head!" ”

"Your Excellency is relieved that you will never make a mistake. Lord Futai is on the upper floor of Nancheng, and it doesn't take much effort to come and go. ”

Seeing that the city insisted on being clear, the Manchurian leaders had no choice but to ask the Han army to go quickly. Na Zuo led it downstairs in Nancheng and handed the official document to Guo Yanzong, the deputy general of Fubiao below. Guo Yanzong carefully read the official document, and there was nothing suspicious, so he nodded to the Han army leader and said, "How many people are they coming?" ”

Zuo Ling said: "More than twenty." ”

"Let them into the city, and put them to rest and wait. I immediately sent the official letter to the governor's yamen. As soon as there is a palindrome, even if it is handed over to you to bring back. ”

Before he could finish speaking, an old voice behind him said, "No need. ”

Guo Yanzong was stunned, turned around and saw the governor coming down from the city tower, and hurriedly bowed down and saluted: "Your Excellency doesn't rest, why did you come down?" ”

Tong Guoqi shook his head as he walked and said, "Where can I sleep." After that, he took the official letter from Guo Yanzong's hand, and saw that it was sent by the Annan general Dasu, and couldn't help but be stunned, and had the intention to open it to take a look, and it could be seen that it was indicated that it was for the governor, so it was not easy to open it without permission. After thinking about it, he instructed Guo Yanzong to settle the Manchurian soldiers who delivered the letter, and he personally sent the official document to the governor's yamen. Guo Yanzong hurriedly agreed, and rushed to the city gate with the Han army leader to deal with the Manchurian generals who sent the letter.

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Come on, come on, reward and go a wave, work hard today, put Hangzhou all over the city, and let the soldiers rest for three days.