It's not just a matter of face, either.

Once a city is breached under the nose of King Yan, the arrogance of the anti-thieves will inevitably rise, and it will roll up even more momentum.

And some people will definitely seize this point, infinitely exaggerate the incompetence of King Yan, and wantonly attack and smear the government and the opposition.

Without much thought, everyone in the tent could understand the seriousness of the consequences, and the atmosphere began to burn.

"Your Highness, General Staff, the last general is willing to personally lead three hundred horsemen to the rescue to relieve the danger of Gutian!" Cao Lie volunteered.

yes, I almost forgot we had cavalry.

Zhao Mengqi's spirits perked up, but Chen Wei wrinkled his eyebrows and shook his head, "Although there is an official road to Gutian here, it is winding and tortuous, even if you can reach it by light horse, you are sleepy and lacking horses, and the cavalry in the mountains has no advantage, if three hundred want to fight against nearly ten thousand thieves, there is no chance of winning."

The highest requirement for speed is undoubtedly message transmission, and the gold medal express at this time is four or five hundred miles per day, which can only be achieved by constantly changing horses under the complete post station facilities.

In the case of rapid marching, the cavalry of the formed formation can reach 1780 miles a day, and there are also particularly awesome days and nights that can run 300 miles, but this is the result of the superposition of various favorable factors, and it cannot last long.

For example, the Mongol cavalry, which had the most horses per capita, could often march nearly 200 li a day in the plains, and it is said that it was more than 200 li when attacking Hungary, but they were exhausted after three days.

Obviously, Cao Lie's cavalry did not have this condition, and even if all the horses used by the whole army for communication and reconnaissance were concentrated, it would only be more than 700.

Let's talk about the infantry, the marching requirement of the Song Dynasty was 60 miles a day, and the forced march of elite light equipment could reach about 100 miles, after all, the army was not finished when it ran to the place, and it had to maintain a certain amount of physical strength to fight.

As a result, the crisis of breaking the city in Gutian County seems to be unsolvable, and when the official army arrives, the thieves are estimated to have run away after looting.

At this time, Wu Qiong, who was standing behind Zhao Mengqi, suddenly spoke, "Your Highness, let me go."

"Huh? Let you go?" Zhao Mengqi was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes lit up, "Hey, this is really a method."

Chen Wei was confused, "Your Highness, what kind of dumb riddle are you playing? Although your guards are extremely brave, they can't really be ten thousand enemies, right?"

Zhao Mengqi rubbed his hands, "Hehe, I have selected a group of warriors with excellent martial arts and unique skills from various armies, and formed a special service team, there are not many people, and it may be able to have miraculous effects when used to perform special tasks, and the bachelor can be understood as the Eighteen Cavalry of the Hidden Clouds."

Although the Eighteen Horsemen of Youyun is just a legend, it is also included in the "New Tang Book", so Chen Wei understands it a little.

"Your Highness is saying that this small group of elites will rush over first, delay the bandits' excavation speed with raids, and buy time for the brigade?"

"Yes, there are only thirty of them in total, one person, three horses and four horses, and they can arrive in five hours at most, and they have the opportunity to fight for half a day, and then order a regiment of eastern guards to carry only the necessary weapons, throw away their armor and force the march, they should be able to arrive tomorrow night, using the advantage of bows and crossbows, it is enough to deter and stop the thief army, and the large army only needs to speed up the march a little according to the original plan, and then completely wipe it out when it arrives."

Chen Wei pondered, "Your Highness, are you sure that thirty people will be able to complete the delayed task?"

"It should be no problem, after all, the other party is not a real army yet, and once it encounters a panic, it is not impossible for the whole army to collapse." Zhao Mengqi rubbed his chin, which was beginning to grow a beard.

Chen Wei nodded and thought about it, although this method is a bit whimsical, it is not completely impossible to achieve.

"Well, now I can only try."

Immediately, Zhao Mengqi immediately ordered, "Without further ado, Wu Qiong, you are limited to a quarter of an hour to complete the preparations for departure, Geng Zhi, send an order to Lu Changqing, and order the zero regiment to carry only three days of military rations, march lightly and forcefully, set off within two quarters of an hour, and rush to Gutian County before sunset tomorrow, and put the camera into battle, the core task is to ensure that Gutian does not lose ...... The rest of the troops will set off on time tomorrow as originally planned!"

At the sound of the order, the war machine was immediately in motion.

The special service team was originally equipped with a good horse for each person, and Cao Lie selected one hundred and twenty horses from the right army, plus ten

A lieutenant who is good at managing horses, and is deployed for missions.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Wu Qiong took the lead, led the horse team out of the camp, stepped on the official road by the Min River at a gallop, rolled up the sky full of smoke and dust, and soon disappeared in the northwest direction.

In the middle of the river, near the south bank, there seemed to be a few fishing boats floating at random, and one of the fishermen saw this scene on the north bank and hurriedly leaned to the shore.

When he reached the shore, the fisherman hurriedly dropped the boat, threw his legs into a forest, and then came to an inconspicuous shack, and after a while came out with a pigeon cage, and just as he was about to open the cage door, a man swooped out from behind the two banyan trees, and knocked the fisherman to the ground.

"Hey! I've been eyeing you for a long time, and I still want to report the news!?"

The fisherman struggled and shouted, "Let me go...... I don't understand what you're talking about......

A foul-smelling rag was immediately stuffed into the fisherman's mouth, blocking his words and his chances of committing suicide.

"Hehe, after you have seen the methods of the Military Intelligence Department, you will naturally understand everything, Lin Fa, search the inside of the shack."

After tying up the fisherman, the man took out a monkey and lit it, and then a long whistle flew into the sky, and finally exploded.

On the river, three sailor speedboats immediately rushed towards the remaining fishing boats.

At this time, the gate of the barracks was open again, and one after another of the East Guards trotted out of the camp and rolled to the northwest.

1,400 people can attack in less than two quarters of an hour, which makes Chen Wei greatly amazed, only a strong army with a hundred battles can order and prohibit it like this, and if it is recruited, it will come and go immediately, and if it is replaced by an ordinary forbidden army, I am afraid that it has not yet been formed.

Originally, he was still a little worried, after all, the new army of Dongwei was too immature, but judging from the current performance, it was still relatively reliable, no wonder King Yan was full of confidence.

The two troops set off one after another, but there were not many changes in the camp, and everyone still did what they should do, and they were not curious or nervous.

Subsequently, Chen Wei stayed in the camp for lunch at the invitation of Zhao Mengqi, which can be regarded as a personal experience of what it means to "eat better".

After eating and resting for a while, he was about to return to the city, when he received good news from Quanzhou and a handwritten letter from Uncle Xie Fang.

The good news said that thousands of thieves appeared outside Quanzhou City half a month ago, and seeing that Quanzhou City was high and strong, they retreated without trying to attack, but they did not retreat far, but tried to plunder the towns outside the city.

Quanzhou is a maritime trading city, and there are many places such as ports, warehouses, shops, shipyards, workshops, and merchant settlements that are not protected by the city wall, but if these places are destroyed, it will definitely seriously affect Quanzhou's economy.

Therefore, when Uncle Xie Fang's troops in the city were insufficient, he also sent 500 left wing troops to cooperate with the water army to drive away the thieves.

Although there were many thieves, they still didn't dare to touch the officers and soldiers when they saw them, so they scattered and fled, and the officers and soldiers followed Uncle Xie Fang's order and slowly withdrew to the city after only chasing for seven or eight miles.

After all, when the Quartet was chaotic and the troops were limited, Uncle Xie Fang was worried that he would be transferred away from the mountain, which would make the defense of Quanzhou City empty and give the anti-thieves a chance.

Although the thieves no longer came too close to Quanzhou City after being driven away, and only swept away in the rural market towns a little farther away, they still posed a threat to the prosperous areas outside the city.

As a result, a group of merchants and local merchants in Quanzhou applied to Uncle Xie Fang to form their own militia to protect their goods and property.

After considering it, Uncle Xie agreed to this request after making a rule that the militia was not allowed to enter the city.

In these years, it is very dangerous to go to sea to do business, not to mention natural disasters such as storms, and pirates are often encountered, so the ships are basically equipped with armed forces, and the government also acquiesces in this, as long as the armed personnel do not go ashore, they should not be seen.

When Uncle Xie Fang's permission was issued, in just one day, a militia group with 3,000 troops was assembled, and the weapons were quite sophisticated, with all kinds of knives, guns, bows and crossbows, and even "heavy weapons" such as torsion ballistas and small stone cannons were removed from the ship.

Seeing this, Uncle Xie Fang was faintly uneasy in his heart, but he could only let it go, but he kept an eye on the city defense more closely, looking forward to holding on until the reinforcements of King Yan arrived.

It's in him

When he was nervous, the maritime merchants sent representatives to find him, saying that if they could be rewarded with a certain reduction in taxes, they were willing to let the militia take the initiative to eliminate the nearby thieves.

This matter is beneficial to Quanzhou, and Uncle Xie Fang naturally has no reason to refuse, only hoping that the militia can drive the thieves a little further.

So the militia set out, and soon found a group of more than 1,000 thieves near Luoshang Mountain, and showed strong combat effectiveness.

Then the militia chased the thieves all the way, and as the thieves gathered more and more, the militia became more and more excited, because the rich men offered a reward of ten dollars for their heads.

They have been chasing and killing for two days, and only after passing Tong'an County did they return with carts of heads full of them.

Uncle Xie Fang sent someone to count the heads, there were more than 4,000 in total, and he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and thought that the existence of the militia could make Quanzhou City more stable, so he petitioned King Yan to give a commendation and commendation, so that the maritime merchants could do their best more.

After reading the good news and the letter, Zhao Mengqi didn't feel happy, but frowned, "Bachelor, what do you think about this?"

Chen Wei's face was not very good-looking, "The killing is a bit excessive, such a thief is actually easy to force down, hey... Most of them were just ordinary people."

Zhao Mengqi is indeed very unhappy about this point, but it has already happened, and it can only be investigated later, and now there are more important places worth paying attention to.

"Bachelor, I'm talking about the vigilante!"

Chen Wei reacted immediately, "If you think about it carefully, there is indeed a little weirdness here, normally speaking, it is understandable that businessmen seek profit and protect their property, but how can they take the initiative to suppress thieves out of their own pockets?"

"Hehe, now the Quanzhou City Bosi can't collect 50,000 yuan in taxes a year, even if they are all reduced, they can't cover the expenses of the merchants this time." Zhao Mengqi pouted.

To put it simply, after a sea ship arrives on the shore, it generally takes out one-tenth of the goods as a tax, and sells them to the city according to different types of goods.

However, the city tax is only charged on foreign goods, but not on those sold overseas, that is, only import tax is collected, and there is no export tax.

In later generations, export taxes were often not levied in order to maintain the market competitiveness of their own export goods, but the goods of the Great Song Dynasty did not have any competitors abroad, and they could actually be collected.

The current situation is due to the financial constraints of the Song Dynasty, which increased the city tax, which caused the maritime merchants to reduce their willingness to sell goods, and even if they came, they would try to evade the tax, which was indispensable for colluding with the local gentry.

Relatively speaking, they are also more willing to pull out the goods of the Great Song Dynasty and sell them, which is beneficial to the private producers, mainly because of the local tyrants who control the supply of goods, but the government does not get any profit.

Nowadays, the Dashi region is also under the invasion of the Mongols, so most of the merchants prefer to stay in the Great Song Dynasty and not return to the war-torn area, but they still have to do business, so going to Goryeo and northern China has become a better choice.

However, Zhao Mengqi set up a company in the East China Sea, monopolized the trade with the Japanese state, and also sent sailors to cruise in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea to arrest and smuggle, which invisibly blocked the financial route of many people.

Zhao Mengqi also understood this in his heart, "It stands to reason that the maritime merchants in Quanzhou are probably also against me......

"Moreover, they are more afraid that His Highness will change the pattern of maritime trade in Quanzhou, so their intention to form a militia is worth exploring."

Chen Wei narrowed his eyes and continued, "If Xie Xiang loses his guard, I'm afraid something will not be good."