The news of the loss of Jiujiang soon reached Nanchang Prefecture, and Jiangxi Governor Meng Yunhe quickly summoned dozens of officials, including Huang Naiyunhe, the governor of Nanchang Prefecture, Yan Hongwei, the Jiangxi envoy, and Tan Datong, the Jiangxi general soldier, to discuss countermeasures.

But after discussing for a long time, everyone still didn't come up with any results, and finally had to set their eyes on the head of the big guy Jiangxi Governor Meng Yunhe, Meng Yunhe looked at everyone, and secretly scolded in his heart, these guys are usually good at speaking, but they are grass chickens at a critical juncture.

Meng Yunhe thought for a while before slowly saying: "Colleagues, now the traitor Pang Gang is still capturing Jiujiang, and the soldiers are pointing directly at my Nanchang, and at this moment there are only more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in Nanchang, and I don't know if I can resist the attack of the traitor. ”

Prefect Huang Naiyun hesitated for a moment and said: "I'm afraid that it will be difficult to save the near fire from far water, if you wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the three provinces of Jiangsu, it will take at least a month, but according to the speed of the enemy's march, it is estimated that we will be able to reach our Nanchang City in two days, can we hold out for so long?" ”

Speaking of this, everyone's eyes looked at Tan Datong, the chief soldier of Jiangxi, Tan Datong's head shook like a rattle, "Ladies and gentlemen, don't look at me like this, Lao Tan, I have self-knowledge, if we really fight with Pang Gang, it would be good for us in Nanchang to resist for seven days, and it would be impossible to expect to resist for a month." ”

According to the inspector Yan Hongwei was very unhappy and said: "General Tan Bing, the art of war: besieging the city, the besieging side needs to have a chance of winning more than five times the strength of the defending side, and now the traitor Pang Gang has only 40,000 soldiers, but you have 15,000 soldiers and horses in your hands, how can you not hold it for even a month?" ”

Yan Hongwei's words were very polite, Tan Datong was annoyed all of a sudden after hearing it, and his eyes glared at the boss and said: "Lord Yan, my old Tan has never read the book of soldiers, and I don't know what it means to besiege and siege a city, but if the soldiers and horses are so useful, the Tartars have frequently entered the customs over the years, and the last general has not seen any time when the Tartars have used five times the strength to besiege my Daming city, but thousands of Tartar soldiers have easily captured the city with tens of thousands of soldiers." Don't say anything else, let's talk about Yanjing City, the capital of Gyeonggi, the place of the Son of Heaven, with 150,000 in Beijing, but less than 60,000 Tartars came the year before last, and the emperor ordered someone to enter King Qin, can you tell me Lao Tan, what is going on? ”

"You're arrogant!"

Although Tan Datong is a big boss, this mouth is not forgiving, and Yan Hongwei was so angry that his body trembled, and he pointed at Tan Datong and trembled for a long time but couldn't speak.

Seeing that Yan Hongwei was so angry that he trembled, but everyone on the side was in no mood to blame Tan Datong for being rude, now it is no better than the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the status of the military generals has been rising with the deterioration of the situation in the Ming Dynasty, let's just say that Zuo Liangyu, who was driven out of Hunan by Liu Zongmin and has now withdrawn to Jiangsu, although he was defeated and fled by the rogues in Jiangnan, but because he had tens of thousands of troops under his hands, the court not only did not punish him, but promoted him to the general of the "Ping Thief".

The civil and military officials around the country were overjoyed and angry after hearing such news, the civil officials lamented that Sven was swept away, but the generals were pleased with the improvement of their status, although all parties reacted, but one thing is certain, that is, in the past, the era of a seven-grade magistrate can also point to the nose of the three-grade general and scold has passed, and now the Ming Dynasty has reached the era when whoever has a big fist makes sense.

Seeing everyone's reaction, Yan Hongwei also knew that Tan Datong now had 15,000 troops in Nanchang, and he really couldn't do anything to him, so he had to snort coldly and asked: "Since General Tan said that he could only hold on for seven days, then why don't you mobilize the young and strong people in the city to defend the city together, some time ago, it was said that the thief Kou more than 100,000 troops committed my Jiangxi, and wasn't it also repelled by our several provinces and township Yong, and now that the rebel Pang has just attacked, let's mobilize the township Yong again as before!" ”

Tan Datong shook his head and said: "Lord Yan, how can you compare Pang Gang with that thief, you haven't heard of Pang Gang's name, it's not that my old Tan Chang and others are angry to destroy their own prestige, you go and inquire, who doesn't know the prestige of General Pang in the city, that is the master who can make the Tartars frightened, just rush this, I guess there are few people willing to come to our aid." ”

Everyone's faces suddenly looked a little ugly, although Tan Datong's words were hard to hear, but the words were not rough, where is Pang Gang's prestige, Julu fought a battle with Lu Xiangsheng and Tartar to the death, although Lu Xiangsheng died in the end, but they also caused huge damage to Tartar, since the year before last, Tartar has never entered the customs to plunder, which cannot but be said without Pang Gang's credit.

And Pang Gang is not comparable to Li Zicheng and his ilk, Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and his ilk will not do anything except sabotage and scraping the ground, but Pang Gang is different, the prosperity of Shandong under his rule is now famous for the entire Ming Dynasty, even those Yi people are trading with him, his refined salt business has spread all over the country, with the skyrocketing of his strength, salt merchants all over the south of the Yangtze River have lamented, and now even the Jingshi is selling refined salt produced in Shandong.

Refined salt alone brings benefits to Shandong every year no less than seven or eight million taels of silver, and although Pang Gang has earned so much silver, but he is not a man who collects money, but takes it out to repair bridges and pave roads, relieve the victims, and benefit the township, in Shandong, Pang Gang's reputation is much stronger than today's Shengshang, after several years of edification, people there only know that there is Pang Gang and do not know that there is Chongzhen, many military households and even civilians have set up an immortal tablet for Pang Gang at home, how can this only know that the rogue who burns and plunders can be compared.

Moreover, the reason why Liu Zongmin was desperately resisted by the gentry and people in Jiangnan after invading Jiangxi last time was because Liu Zongmin did not do anything and did not pull him down as if he burned and plundered him, which caused the common hatred of all the gentry in Jiangnan. And this time Pang Gang entered Jiangxi but Qiu did not commit any crimes, I heard that even the prefect of Jiujiang who surrendered to him Pang Gang did not do much to him, but let him reinstate his post and still be his Jiujiang prefect, so that the gentry and rich households and people all over Jiangxi basically have no resistance to Pang Gang and the army under his command, anyway, their words have been taken, and the Great Zhou army will not move a single hair of their hair when it comes, and they will only go to fight with the Great Zhou army.

Yan Hongwei was anxious, "This doesn't work, that doesn't work, are we just going to give up Nanchang to that traitor Pang Gang?" Tan Zongbing, as the saying goes, you are a Ming courtier, and now that the enemy is pressing, you can't ignore it! ”

Tan Datong glared: "Who said that I don't care about old Tan, anyway, I just ordered soldiers and horses, and waited until that Pang just came to fight with him and pulled him down." ”

Seeing the people below arguing, Governor Meng Yunhe knocked on his somewhat swollen head and shouted: "Okay, everyone don't quarrel, as court officials, the emperor sent us to guard the pastoral side, and we should be loyal to the king, Lord Yan, you quickly write official documents to Nanjing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places to ask them to send reinforcements, as for whether to come or not, you can only resign yourself to fate." Tan Zongbing, you immediately gather the soldiers to bravely go up to the city wall, to guard it tightly, and swear to live and die with the city! ”

"Yes, yes!"

Seeing that the boss slapped the board, everyone had to obey the order.

Three days later, Pang Gang led more than 40,000 A Jun Hao to Nanchang City, Pang Gang was not polite, after a while, 40,000 troops immediately surrounded the huge Nanchang City, and sent someone to shoot a bow and arrow into a letter of persuasion, Yan Ming said that if they did not surrender before noon, they would immediately attack the city.

In the signing room of the governor's yamen in Nanchang City, Meng Yunhe, who was furious, slapped the table and said angrily: "Hmph, what an arrogant tone, if you don't open the city and surrender at noon tomorrow, and start shelling Nanchang, does he think that our Nanchang city wall is vegetarian?" ”

After seeing the letter of persuasion written by Pang Gang himself, Meng Yunhe was finally furious, in the more than 20 years of his career, he had never seen such a rampant letter of persuasion, not to mention that in his opinion, it was a letter of persuasion from an unfaithful and unrighteous rebellious minister and thief.

"Come on, tell Tan Datong, teach the official a hard lesson to that arrogant man!"

The next day was just dawning, and the rising sun still had a green and damp smell, as if it still had the fragrance of fragrant grass, but no one appreciated all these beautiful things, because a great war was about to begin.

At the end of the morning, Meng Yunhe led the officials at all levels of Nanchang Mansion to the city wall, at this time, the city wall of Nanchang was full of soldiers and temporarily recruited villagers, seeing Meng Yunhe and others coming up, the general soldier Tan Datong hurriedly led several officers to Meng Yunhe and said with some anxiety.

"My lord, why did you come up, the Great Zhou army is about to attack the city!"

"Mr. Tan, pay attention to your words." Yan Hongwei, who was standing behind Meng Yunhe, couldn't help but interject: "Don't forget, there are traitors and Pang Gang's men in front of you, not the Great Zhou Army. ”

"Yes!"

Seeing that Yan Hongwei had seized the loophole from his words, Tan Datong reluctantly responded.

Seeing that he had won back a game, Yan Hongwei's smug expression flashed on his face, Meng Yunhe frowned and glared at Yan Hongwei, meaning that he was still picking stones in the eggs at this time, and then turned his head to look at Tan Datong, and asked softly: "General Tan Bing, are the thieves going to attack the city?" ”

Tan Datong shook his head and said: "The last general doesn't know, but now there is still a quarter of an hour before noon, and the last general estimates that it should be soon." ”

Meng Yunhe didn't speak, he looked around, and he saw a pot of golden juice burning around and a pile of rolling stones, and there were more than a dozen tiger squat cannons not far away, and he couldn't help but nod with satisfaction.

(To be continued)