"Now that the thieves outside the city have gathered more than 100,000, the city will soon fall, whether to be loyal to the court or surrender, you can tell me what to do", Ge Qizuo, the military envoy of the upper patrol of the eastern Sichuan Province, rejected Yang Ming's surrender letter, and gathered the officials at all levels of the Kuizhou Mansion early in the morning to discuss how to deal with the next crisis.

"Xia Guan thinks that it is a matter of time before the city is destroyed by the thieves, in this case, why don't we break the cauldron and sink the boat, burn down all the grain and grass houses in the city, blow up all the firearms and cannons, and not leave a little wealth for the thieves, and then we will attack the city wall and die with the thieves!" Fengjie County Commander Luo Fengjie said.

Ge Qizuo nodded, agreeing with Luo Fengjie's words, and was about to send someone to do the same, when he saw Luo Fengjie get up again and said: "But before that, the lower officials feel that we should still give an explanation to the imperial court, this sin of poor defense of the city can't be casually placed on a certain adult, especially Lord Ge." ”

"Why?"

Ge Xundao was indeed a little worried that he would fall into the sin of failing to defend the city, and when he saw Luo Fengjie speaking for himself, he couldn't help but show joy on his face, and secretly said that this third-class jinshi of Chongzhen for thirteen years is worthy of being a student of Mu Lao, and every word and sentence speaks to the hearts of the people.

"Lord Ge is a senior disciple of Yang Lao, don't you know that Yang Lao was framed back then, if Lord Ge is loyal to you, there is a royal history to impeach you for not defending the city effectively, wouldn't it be difficult to protect the name of loyalty, not to mention that Wen Ge Lao's face will not be able to hang up in front of the emperor, according to the lower officials, it is better to gather this in one person, this person has no party and no relatives, and no one will be involved, everyone has a lifetime of fame, isn't it a good thing?"

When Luo Fengjie said this, Ge Qizuo's mind also came alive and asked, "Who can bear this sin?" ”

"May I ask who among the four officials of the entire Kuizhou Mansion is not a two-list Jinshi, who is not a person from the Donglin Restoration Society, who is not a person from Jiangnan Shilin, who is not a person from a famous family, who is responsible for the taxes, money, food, military and civilian affairs of the Kuizhou Mansion, who is the parent official of this side, and who is no one in the court?"

Luo Fengjie's words are referring to the business industry, but this is not surprising, the Jinshi background looks down on the person who was born in the Jinshi, even if the person is still the boss of the Jinshi, not to mention that the business is not yet a fundamental background.

Ge Qizuo, who was in a very bad mood, had a feeling of sudden enlightenment when he heard Luo Fengjie's words, and realized that now he is not only a fourth-grade official in this Kuizhou Mansion, but also a fourth-grade official in charge of Kuizhou Mansion, and only this fourth-grade official can replace his own failure to defend the city.

In addition, Ge Qizuo also understood why he had a feeling of being led by the nose by these thieves from the beginning, which was probably related to the influence of this business business. Originally, he had already seen that these thieves wanted to use troops to besiege the city and annihilate the official army that returned to the reinforcements, but because the thieves were suddenly real and false and the ambition of the thieves who had been beside Shang Dao Xing was always beside him, he finally believed the advice of Shang Dao Xing and transferred back to the official army, which resulted in Zeng Ying and Zhao Ronggui being almost completely annihilated, resulting in Kuizhou Mansion becoming an isolated city, and there was almost no official army to support Kuizhou Mansion City.

Ge Xundao nodded approvingly, but he soon found that Shang Dao Xing had not come at all.

"Where's business?"

The more Ge Qizuo thought about it, the more he complained about Shangdaoxing, if the Kuizhou Mansion was broken by thieves, it must be Shangdaoxing and not himself who was really responsible for it, and it was Shangdaoxing's cowardice and cowardice that influenced his decision! Yes, it is the business and Taoism that affect him, and a local government official does not go all out to fight against thieves, but only knows that he is greedy for life and afraid of death, which is really a crime that deserves death!

"Why hasn't the prefect come yet!"

The delay in the arrival of the business road made Ge Qizuo more and more angry, and frightened the big and small officials in the room to take a few steps back.

But at this moment, there was a sound of hurried footsteps outside, and it was not a person, it was a group of people, it seemed to be quite a lot, Ge Qizuo and other officials looked back, and saw a large group of real knives and guns Ding Haonu rushed in and surrounded the guards outside the door.

"What's going on, whose family are you?" Although Ge Qizuo asked this, he seemed to have guessed in his heart that this matter must be related to Shang Daoxing, and as he expected, it didn't take long for Shang Daoxing to walk in, with a smile on his face: "Master Ge, Shang is one step late, please bear with me!" ”

"Shang Governor's Mansion, what are you doing here, this is the military envoy Yamen, how can you be so presumptuous!" Luo Fengjie, the county commander of Fengjie County on the side, spoke first, and immediately reprimanded Shang Daoxing loudly, but Shang Daoxing was not angry, and still smiled with a spring breeze on his face: "Don't be angry or afraid, Gongzi has already spoken, as long as you stay here, nothing will happen, and your family will be fine, the Han family has strict military discipline, and you don't know it." ”

"You have taken refuge in the thief, you traitor, you traitor, you will not die well!" Fengjie County ordered Luo Fengjie to scold first, but no one else reacted, and even Ge Qizuo sat back in his chair with a decadent face, and sighed secretly: "It's over, it's all over!" Ge Qizuo was stunned for a while, then took out a delicate small porcelain bottle from his sleeve, and was about to send it to his mouth when he was knocked to the ground by the Shang Governor's Mansion: "Lord Ge, don't be in a hurry to leave, our son has already spoken, and the officials of Kuizhou Mansion City have no right to commit suicide!" ”

"You!" Ge Qizuo couldn't get used to the expression of the Shang prefect, so he stood up angrily, pointed at the Shang prefect and scolded: "This official only now understands that the reason why the Kuizhou Mansion fell into the hands of thieves is because of you, a chaotic minister and thief, because of you!" ”

The Shang Governor didn't smile anymore now, and stared at Ge Qizuo with cold eyes: "Really?" Then I'm going to ask, who has the final say in this Kuizhou Mansion, could it be that the prefect who has only been in office for half a year has the final say, Lord Ge, don't let me be ashamed of you, Dongxiang County has fallen, you return the responsibility to me, and the letter to the governor said that it was caused by my excessive oppression of the displaced people It seems to have nothing to do with you Ge Xundao, and now the Kuizhou Mansion will be occupied by thieves, and you say that it is caused by my ill-intentioned intentions, yes, I am ill-intentioned, but it is better than being used as a scapegoat by you! ”

Ge Qizuo was so angry that he trembled, but he didn't say a word for a long time, because he couldn't deny Shang Daoxing's words, he did have the idea of shirking responsibility, but this Shang Dao Xing did have a great crime, and he didn't wronged him at all.

So, Ge Qizuo had to sit back in his chair, neither paying attention to Shang Daoxing nor scolding Shang Daoxing, but kept panting. However, Fengjie County ordered to scold there non-stop, Shang Daoxing really couldn't listen to it, so he stuffed Kuaibu Tuan into his mouth, and the other officials were silent, sitting and standing.

Yang Ming, who knew a little about the officialdom at the end of the Ming Dynasty, also knew that these bureaucrats were not monolithic, and it was common for them to form parties for personal gain and dump each other.

Yang Ming also happened to take advantage of this, and asked Bai Qian to find a way to investigate the situation of officials at all levels of Kuizhou Mansion and the contradictions between them, and after learning that the Shang Governor's Mansion was very unpopular when he was working with a group of Jinshi masters, he decisively contacted the Shang Governor's Mansion, and after Xiao Yi's interests, the Shang Governor's Mansion did not hesitate to get on Yang Ming's thief ship. In this way, there was a picture of the thief Kou Baiqian and the prefect Shangdao Xing living in harmony last night.

Here, after Shang Dao Xing controlled the officials at all levels of Kuizhou Mansion, the defense system of the entire Kuizhou Mansion City was paralyzed. The 1,000 officers and soldiers defending the city and some of the gentry and gentry in the city who were ready to assist the government in defending the city were all in a state of leaderlessness, and the militia that had been organized was also dispersed by the Shang Dao Xing, so that the siege of the city army went more smoothly than expected.

It only lasted for an hour, and the officers and troops defending the city were drowned on the city wall by the more than 100,000 troops who were attached to the ant to attack the city, and Tan Wen's department, which had already infiltrated the city, also took advantage of this to seize the inner gate and let tens of thousands of troops in. In this way, the Kuizhou Mansion in the eastern Sichuan region fell into the hands of Yang Ming and his Han army without any suspense, and his move will also shake the entire Ming court.