The fighting at the southwest and east gates of Pinggang County lasted from afternoon to evening, and this was the first large-scale offensive and defensive operation in the past few days of fighting. As far as the soldiers defending the city were concerned, they really did not expect and did not know at all how the Taiping Dao traitors suddenly seemed to increase in number, and these people even launched a round of siege warfare that was almost crazy as if they did not take their lives seriously.

Especially on the battle line of the southwest city gate, the traitors have such a great momentum that they have already stormed the city wall.

Relying solely on those wooden ladders, as well as the continuous climbing and the cover of bows and crossbows on the ground, seven or eight people in front and behind killed the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat with the soldiers. Even Zhou Zhi, who was sitting on the scene, had to step forward with his sword and fight the traitor. Fortunately, the armor soldiers in the camp under the city caught up with the city wall in time and killed those traitors one by one, and finally stabilized the situation.

At the end of this day, although the Taiping Road traitors under the city suffered extremely serious casualties, they were also miserable for the soldiers defending the city.

The number of troops defending the city is very limited, and as for those Taiping Road traitors outside the city, I really don't know if they have a steady stream of reinforcements. Because of this, even though the traitors have been repelled many times today, the county government's losses are still not small, and there is really an unsustainable dilemma. In the long run, even if it is slowly consumed, the county government will not be able to hold on to the end.

At night, there are many lights outside the south and east of the city, where the traitors of Taiping Road gather.

After Zhou Zhi finished inspecting the city wall, he suddenly received a notice from the county government, so he took a few cronies and guards and rode horses to the north of the city.

Chengbei had earlier found a pavilion to serve as a temporary warehouse, and when Zhou Zhi arrived at the warehouse, Wen Chou and Zhao Yu had been waiting for a long time. After getting off the horse, Zhou Zhi strode into the gate of the pavilion, and someone had already rushed to the front hall to report. When he came to the front hall, he saw seven or eight bags of grain piled up in the lobby of the front hall, Wen Chou was black, and Zhao Yu looked worried. After a simple greeting, Zhou Zhi hurriedly stepped forward to inspect the grain, and then frowned.

"When was it delivered?" Zhou Zhi raised his head and asked Zhao Yu.

"The city that I just entered in the evening. Alas, I don't know how this happened. Zhao Yu sighed and replied worriedly.

"This batch of grain and grass was allocated by the state government, and it was said that it was obviously 580 stone polished rice, but now it is good, not to mention that there are no 580 stones at all, but I am afraid that 300 stone will be a problem. And I just smoked these seven or eight bags casually, and they were all old rice mixed with corn husks, is this fucking sending refugees? Wen Chou scolded angrily, his voice was loud, and he spoke as if he was roaring, which made people can't help but feel angry when they hear it.

Now the county treasury of Youbeiping County has been scarce for a period of time, since the defeat of Wenchou, the robbery of grain and grass, Youbeiping County has almost reached a situation of poverty and whiteness. As early as last month, the county government had sent several letters to the state government asking for help, one was hoping that the state government would send reinforcements as soon as possible, and the other was also asking for some materials for counterinsurgency. The state government will naturally not sit idly by and ignore the seriousness of the situation in Youbeiping County, and has more or less distributed support materials in the past month, but as for the reinforcements, due to the special situation, it has not been able to respond for the time being.

However, in early February, after the news of the Taipingdao rebellion came from Julu, Youzhou and Jizhou were the first to be invaded by the Yellow Turban thieves, and many counties and towns fell almost overnight. Now even the state capital is too busy to take care of itself, let alone be able to distract from the counties below. As a result, there has been less and less aid since February, but fortunately there is more or less aid. It's just that the grain and grass delivered this time are really unexpected, and the situation is completely different from the past. It is expected that the state government will not be deceitful, since it promised to send 580 stone polished rice, how can it be shoddy?

"Could it be that someone dropped their bag on the road?" Zhou Zhi asked intently.

"Who would dare to be so bold? The people who escorted the grain and grass knew that the state government had already notified them of the fast horses, so this kind of deception was not asking for hardship? Wen Chou snorted and said.

"Where are the men who carried the grain and grass now?" Zhou Zhi turned to the owner of the pavilion and asked.

"Hui sir, I'm resting in the backyard." The owner of the pavilion did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly responded.

"Go and ask them." Zhou Zhi's face was cold, and he was about to walk to the backyard after speaking.

"I've asked them a long time ago, if they know anything, we can't worry about it here." Wen Chou muttered.

"They really don't know anything?" Zhou Zhi was very surprised, the grain and grass of five hundred and eighty stones were missing more than two hundred stones for no reason, how could the people who escorted the grain and grass not know? Even if these people are not responsible for transporting grain and grass, the experience of escorting grain and grass in previous years will not make it impossible to judge that the grain and grass loaded on the truck are not enough at all.

"If you really want to ask again, then you will have to use torture." Wen Chou did not answer Zhou Zhi's words directly, but said from another angle. It can be seen that he has repeatedly questioned in advance, but in the end there is no result, if it were not for Zhao Yu's dissuasion, he would really arrest these people and torture them.

When Zhou Zhi heard this, he already understood the meaning in his heart, and suddenly fell silent, but his face was very entangled.

Zhao Yu just sighed back and forth, and couldn't figure out what was going on. The grain grassland of 580 stone is already pitiful, not to mention that it is impossible to allocate a part of it to help the refugees in the city, and I am afraid that it will not be able to support the military rations alone for seven or eight days. Now that the city has not been besieged by the rebellion, there is an opportunity to come and go from the north for material or reinforcement support, but it is difficult to guarantee how long Xiyang County will be able to hold on to the city walls.

Once Xiyang County is lost, Zhang Wan's rebels will not only form a trap with the Taiping Road Yellow Turban thieves against the county government, but it is even very likely that they will turn the spearhead and attack the county government. Zhang Wan's rebels claimed to have 5,000 people, and now there are as many as 3,000 or 4,000 Taiping Road traitors attacking the county capital, and there are at least 8,000 or more people and horses. At that time, let alone attacking the southwest gate and the east gate, even besieging the whole city is not a problem.

Once there is a shortage of food and grass in the city, the people's hearts are scattered, and there is no need for thieves to attack it, and it will cause trouble within the walls.

The atmosphere in the antechamber became extremely dull and worried, as if a pair of hands were tugging at everyone's heartstrings.

After a long time, Zhou Zhi suddenly asked again: "Where did this batch of grain and grass come from?" ”

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but feel a little surprised. Wen Chou glanced at Zhao Yu, and Zhao Yu looked at Zhou Zhi.

Naturally, the grain and grass allocated by the state government cannot all be sent down from Jixian County, not only the distance is long, the manpower and material resources are too complicated, and the world has been uneven in recent times, and the road is unsafe. As a rule, most of the prefectures will order the counties that are slightly richer or have reserves in the vicinity to be offset by the annual grain collection account of the state government, which will be counted as the grain and grass allocated by the state government.

Zhao Yu pondered for a while, and hurriedly said: "Most of them were sent from Yan Kingdom, Liaodong Subject States and other places before, but this time it seems to be different, it should be the nearest Yuyang County." ”

Zhou Zhi said in a speculative tone: "Could it be that the grain and grass were already like this when they came out of Yuyang County?" ”

Zhao Yu was a little suspicious, frowned and said: "How can it be so, this is the grain and grass allocated by the state government, how can Yuyang County be cheating?" If Yuyang County is really short of grain and grass, it can be truthful, and it is not so much. But the report was 580 stone polished rice, but what was sent was such a good thing, which was really hateful. ”

Wen Chou was in a very bad mood, and said angrily: "This matter must be asked, otherwise how to explain it to the front-line soldiers?" In this case, let me go to Haosheng and ask those who are holding the grain, and see if they dare to hide it. ”

Zhao Yu said with some concern: "In this way, I'm afraid it's a little inappropriate." ”

Wen Chou said hatefully: "Yuyang is next to my right Beiping, and it is the so-called lips and teeth that depend on each other. At this time, Yuyang County has never heard of any major turmoil, if the Yellow Turban thieves are allowed to rebel with Zhang to capture our state capital, I want to see how their Yuyang County can handle itself? ”

Zhao Yu looked at Zhou Zhi and asked, "Lord Zhou, ...... you What do you think? ”

Zhou Zhi pondered for a while and said, "This matter must be clarified." ”

Zhao Yu sighed, nodded helplessly, and said, "Alas, that's it, that's it." ”