In March, the city of Yangzhou is already a fireworks everywhere in the spring scene, in the Jiangbei Defense Yamen, Sima Yi will get up very early every day, go to the city to walk around, feel the spring in the south of the Yangtze River.

By the end of February, the people in Yangzhou were about to reach the state of ten rooms and nine emptiness, the people fled one after another, and the original shops and markets in the city were closed, all of which were related to the government's inaction. On the contrary, the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty in the northern Jiangdu region gradually gathered, and they saw that they would move south at any time.

On the ninth day of the first month of March, Sima took the morning to inspect the defense of the city, which was also a rare time for him to do official work, got up very early, rode on a horse and took a few followers to the gates of Yangzhou, and climbed the city tower to see. Originally, the west and north gates of Yangzhou City were the top priority of prevention, but the focus of Sima Yi's inspection was in the south city, and Sima Yi did not come down for a long time after climbing the south city gatehouse, and even lunch was eaten on the south city gatehouse.

For the generals and officials of Yangzhou, Sima Yi even if the dragon sees the head and the end, but his every move has always touched the hearts of the people, just after noon, Sima Yu has not come down from the south city gate, Yangzhou Taishou Sui Hua will take people to accompany the "inspection" with great fanfare. Because the defense of Yangzhou City has never met the expectations of the imperial court, as the Taishou of Yangzhou City, Sui Hua is facing the huge pressure of the imperial court every day.

Sui Hua reprimanded him every time the court issued an order to reprimand him instead of reprimanding Sima Yu, and he was angry, it stands to reason that Sima Yu is his superior, and Sima Yu is also responsible for it, but the court seems to recognize that Yangzhou's poor defense is from Yangzhou Taishou Mansion, and has nothing to do with Sima Yu's Jiangbei Defense Yamen. Sui Hua originally wanted to use Sima as a parasol, but at this time, the plan was completely frustrated.

Sima learned that Sui Hua was coming, and the others were still looking at the river in the distance from the city tower. Although the road is too far to see the vastness of the river, I can finally feel that the north and south are not in the desolation of mountains and rivers. Sima Hua's coming was also expected, and he himself came out to give Sui Hua a chance, so that Sui Hua could take the opportunity to show his posture in front of the soldiers and civilians in the city.

Sui Hua was still a little out of breath when he went up to the city tower, as the Yangzhou Taishou. Sui Hua was not a military general, according to the rules and regulations of the Southern Dynasty, and only in wartime the military and administration in the city would be shouldered by the Taishou, and Sui Hua itself did not have to manage the military and politics.

Sui Hua came up, and before he could take a breath, he saw a large number of refugees outside the city bypassing Yangzhou and heading south, at this time there were not many people in the southern dynasty who were still in Jiangbei, and the city wall of Yangzhou was still ten rooms and nine empty, and the surrounding small states and counties could not keep people.

"Sima Xiangguo doesn't know where he is looking? Could it be the ancient capital of Jinling? Sui Hua stepped forward. I want to talk to Sima Yi.

Sima Yi didn't seem to hear it, and after looking at it for a long time, he retracted his gaze and said indifferently: "I'm watching the mountains and rivers break." ”

Sui Hua was very confused when he heard it, but he smiled reluctantly and said: "Sima Xiangguo is worried about the country and the people, but this country and society should be in charge of the people of the Mandate of Heaven." The Son of Heaven entrusted the important task of Jiangbei to Xiangguo, but Xiangguo has never done anything, I am afraid that he will be entrusted by the Son of Heaven. ”

Sima Yi looked at Sui Hua and said, "I don't quite understand what Sui Taishou means. How can I be entrusted by God? ”

"This ......" Sui Hua originally wanted to remind Sima Yi to hurry up and make a big move for the defense of Jiangbei, which would not only facilitate and stabilize people's minds. It can also ask him for more military salaries and food salaries from the imperial court, and make a lot of money from it. Two months ago, Sui Hua was still full of confidence in Yangzhou's defense, and now that the people in the city have fled, even he, the Yangzhou Taishou, is beginning to have no bottom in his heart, if he continues like this. When the actual war starts, who will be in the city to defend the city?

However, there is an advantage to following Sima Yu, Sima Yi himself is friends with the emperor of the Northern Dynasty, and it is convenient to surrender, or if he surrenders to the Northern Dynasty, the emperor of the Northern Dynasty will let him continue to serve as the Taishou of Yangzhou. Although this probability is very low.

Sui Hua thought about the wording, and then said: "Your Majesty entrusted Xiangguo to guard Yangzhou, entrusted with the important task of defense, and our ministers should be loyal to their duties, mobilize the people of the city to consolidate the city defense, even if the northern army goes south, you can also wait for reinforcements on the city wall. I heard that the general of the Southern Expedition appointed by the emperor of the Northern Dynasty was Su Tingxia, the general of the Northern Army, who had repeatedly plundered the local people. ”

Sima Yi nodded, continued to look into the distance, and suddenly asked, "Then Sui Taishou knows which direction the northern soldiers and horses are coming from?" ”

This problem is obviously not a problem, the northern army went south, naturally from the north, it will not come from the south bank of the river, if this is the case, Jinling City has also been lost, it is almost impossible to resist with Yangzhou City, and it will be surrendered if you don't surrender.

Sui Hua wanted to pretend to be humbly taught: "I want to hear it in detail." ”

Sima sighed: "I don't know where it came from, but it's not from the north anyway. The important task of rejecting the northern army to the south will not be in Yangzhou, and Sui Taishou will inevitably think too much about it occasionally. “

Sui Hua was shocked again, he had discussed a lot of things about this war with his staff these days, but he was taken aback by Sima Yi's words. No one dares to guarantee how the Northern Dynasty will invade the Southern Dynasty, but it is an indisputable fact that the Northern Dynasty hoarded heavy troops in Jiangdu and Yuzhou. People like Sui Hua who are not very proficient in military affairs know this truth, not to mention the brave and good soldiers of the Northern Dynasty in recent years, as well as Sima Yi, a famous military advisor who was respected by King Hui and Empress at the same time.

Sima said, "Let's go, go down and have a look." I also want to walk around Yangzhou City, is Sui Taishou willing to accompany him? ”

Sui Hua saluted and said, "The lower officials are willing to go together." ”

So Sima Yi and Sui Hua walked down the city tower one after the other. At this time, because the two major figures in Yangzhou City went to Yangzhou South City, the few remaining people in the city seemed to want to come around to find out, and many people gathered under the city tower.

After Sima Yi walked down the city tower to receive the stairs, someone immediately handed him a military report from Jinling, which had not even been read by Sui Hua, and the empress and King Hui occasionally had military orders, most of which were sent through the Taishou Mansion, and some of them were directly sent to Sima Yi without passing through the Taishou Mansion. Sui Hua also wanted to know what was in the report. It's a pity that Sima read it, so he stuffed the newspaper into his arms. didn't mention a word about Sui Hua.

"Is Sui Taishou riding a horse or a sedan chair?" Sima asked suddenly with his head sideways.

Sui Hua saw that Sima Yi had asked his entourage to lead the horse over, obviously Sima Yi was going to ride a horse, if he was in a sedan chair, the two would not be able to talk on the road at all. Sui Hua said: "Xiaguan is riding a horse." ”

Although Sui Hua is the Taishou of Yangzhou and is responsible for the defense of the city, he is not skilled in arching horses, and even riding horses is a little rusty. With the help of his subordinates, he jumped on horseback. Sima Yi is familiar with it and is not busy at all.

"It seems that Sui Taishou is not a man of march." Sima excused himself.

Sui Hua smiled ashamedly, this is the truth, he has not been running Yangzhou for a long time, but in the last year, Sui Hua has fully taken over the military and political system in Yangzhou City, and everything in Yangzhou City is respected by him. The imperial court suddenly sent someone above his head, which was originally very unhappy for Sui Hua, and Sui Hua had been waiting to stumble Sima by. Who knew that Sima Hua would be completely idle as soon as he came, and he didn't care about anything, which made Sui Hua's overall plan fall through, and now he was forced by the imperial court, but Sui Hua could only bite the bullet and ask Sima for help.

In the Southern Dynasties, the Yangzhou city system was different from other county capitals, and there were only a few prefectures in the north of the Southern Dynasties, with Yangzhou City as a solid. The Southern Dynasties have always stationed heavy troops in Yangzhou, which is the center of mutual trade between the Southern Dynasties and the Northern Dynasties. It is also a military fortress, but it is very deserted for the most basic farming. After all, Yangzhou City is too close to the Northern Dynasties, and it is easy to be plundered by the Northern Dynasties when it is cultivated, so Yangzhou is simply used as a military and trade fortress, and the lack of soldiers and civilians in the city is basically transported from the south of the Yangtze River.

Now there is a war. In the case that Yangzhou could not produce its own grain, all the materials needed to be transported from the south of the Yangtze River, but the desertion of soldiers and civilians in Yangzhou made the imperial court dissatisfied, and the imperial court repeatedly issued orders to reprimand at the same time, it also reduced the delivery of the most basic food and materials to Yangzhou. At the beginning. Sui Hua also wanted to coerce the imperial court as his Yangzhou Taishou, but at this time, he knew that the imperial court was giving him a horse, so he had to bow his head and beg Sima to reconcile with the imperial court, in exchange for the imperial court's attention to Yangzhou.

Sima rode parallel to Sui Hua, and there were soldiers along the way to open the way. Originally, there were still people on the street who wanted to come out to see the excitement, but they were also driven away by the soldiers, Sui Hua rode on a horse and naturally took it for granted, before the war, he was afraid that someone would assassinate him.

Sima Yu said: "I came out to supervise military affairs, but to share the worries of Your Majesty, to reward the soldiers on behalf of the Son of Heaven, and to reassure the people." I don't know if Sui Taishou can withdraw the soldiers, I will come along the way and see more about the current situation of the people in the city? ”

Sui Hua hesitated, he wanted to say that it was not safe to do so. But seeing Sima Yu's insistence, he nodded and agreed, and immediately asked the generals who accompanied him on the patrol to pass the word, not to disturb the people too much, and not to do anything to open the way, but the soldiers escorted along the way were indispensable.

Even if this change made Sima Yi and Sui Hua come out to inspect the streets this time, it was more meaningful to be close to the people, at first the people were driven out, but when the soldiers stopped driving people behind, the people flocked to Sima Yi and Sui Hua, most of these people were ordinary people who took refuge in the city, and they wanted to tell their demands to those high-ranking officials.

Sui Hua was a little frightened at first, he had always been in the Taishou Mansion and ignored the affairs of the people, and suddenly so many people rushed over as if they were going to eat him, he inevitably thought that these were people who were not good for him.

But when some of the people just came to salute and say goodbye, and some just stood by and watched, after walking a little longer, Sui Hua's heart suddenly relaxed a little. Only then did he know that not all the people were Diao people who were looking for trouble with him, and there would also be people who kept to themselves, although he was still a little disdainful of Sima Yi's decision, but he was finally relieved.

"It seems that Sui Taishou doesn't often come out and walk around the people." Sima Yu said in a calm tone suddenly.

Sui Hua had the heart to notice Sima Yi's reaction, thinking of Sima Yi's bland reaction along the way, it seemed that Sima Yi did not have any rejection of the people, and this should not be the reaction of a high-ranking person. Sui Hua has been in the officialdom for 20 years, thinking that Sima is only in his early twenties, but he is already the right minister of the Southern Dynasty, and he has won the trust of King Hui and the empress, and it is not easy for such a person to rise.

Sui Hua said: "What Sima Xiangguo said is that he has been busy with military affairs recently and has no time to come out and walk around. ”

Sui Hua said that he has been flawless recently, in fact, he has not been available, professional politicians do not need to care about the life and death of the people, the people he is responsible for are not the people, but the officials, it is the court, everything he does is to make the people above feel that he has the ability, even if the reputation of the people is poor, as long as it is necessary, he can find countless people to come out at any time to sing praises to him, and the people above will also think that he is a benevolent official who is sympathetic to the people.

Sima said: "Then Sui Taishou can know how many people are still in the city now?" ”

One problem stumped Sui Hua. When Yangzhou was at its peak, that is, when the war in the north continued in the past two years, there were also refugees in the north who fled south, especially in the autumn and winter of last year, when the Northern Dynasty court used troops against Yuzhou, there were many people in Yuzhou who fled south, and the people in Yangzhou City had more than 100,000 at most, which can be called the second largest city in the Southern Dynasty in addition to Jinling.

It's a pity that the situation in the city is too bad now, running and scattering, and it should be almost the same if there are tens of thousands of people.

Sui Hua said: "Back to Sima Xiangguo, the following officials estimated, it should be ...... There are still 40,000 or 50,000 people. ”

Sima Yi smiled, as if inadvertently: "It's not forty or fifty thousand, but more than sixty-three thousand." ”

Sui Hua was stunned by one sentence, Sui Hua felt that he knew a lot about the situation in the city, after all, there were so many people under his hands, even if he didn't walk around the city, someone would report to him what happened in the city. But Sima Yi is a newcomer, and after Sima Yi came to Yangzhou, he didn't go out all day, how could he know so much about the number of people in the city, not to say an approximate number, but directly to a very accurate more than 63,000 to make the accurate number. Sui Hua didn't believe that what Sima Yi said was accurate.

"Yes, yes." He didn't believe it in his heart, but he still had to answer it in his mouth. How can I say that Sima Qi was also sent by the imperial court, if this war is won, Sima Qi will leave after all, and there is no benefit to Sima Qiqiang, he will say as much as he wants.

Sima Yu asked again: "Then Sui Taishou knows how many soldiers in this city can really pick up weapons to resist the northern soldiers and horses?" ”

This time, Sui Hua felt that self-confidence must be right, if he didn't even know how many soldiers he had on hand, he wouldn't have to mix it up. (To be continued......)