Chapter two hundred and ninety-six turn from offense to defense
As the shopkeeper, waiters and others arrived, Tang Yin was given a lot of compliments, which made Tang Yin deeply feel the feeling of being respected.
An old guy who had accomplished nothing in his entire life actually managed to get ahead without the reputation of being a master of both poetry and painting, and was worshiped by the world. Tang Yin spoke modestly, but Zhu Hao could clearly see the crow's feet appearing in the corners of his eyes from time to time... to be precise.
The old man's face was wrinkled and his smile could not be concealed, which showed that this old boy was happy in his heart.
"I will definitely live up to the expectations of the people of Anlu. I will eliminate the bandits as soon as possible and restore a bright future to the people of Anlu."
Tang Yin actually expressed his stance by patting his chest in front of a few ordinary people.
Originally, the owner of the wine shop agreed to treat the guests, and the businessmen seemed to care about profits, but the people these days understand one truth, that is, they cannot let people who sincerely serve the people suffer, even if they themselves suffer a little loss, it is better to have peace of mind instead of reputation.
of.
But Tang Yin had shown a fearless spirit before, how could he take advantage of the people now?
He immediately made some excuses and stated that the meal would have to be paid for at the original price. Seeing the refusal, the shopkeeper agreed and quickly gave me two bottles of free wine and a few plates of side dishes.
"Sir, are you treating me to this meal?"
Zhu Hao smiled and looked at Tang Yin who sat down again.
Tang Yin glared at Zhu Hao angrily, reached for his purse, but found nothing. He said awkwardly: "You should get ready for this meal. I was in such a hurry when I changed my clothes that I forgot to bring my purse with me. I'll give it to you later."
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "I'll invite you. But I have something to remind you, sir. You must seize the time to prepare for war recently. Don't wait for the bandits to come. If all the arrangements for sending troops have not been implemented, then I'm afraid you can only stand in the city."
Watching helplessly as thieves commit crimes outside, this is definitely not a scene that the people in the city and Prince Xing’s Mansion want to see.”
Tang Yin looked solemn, nodded and said, "I'll try my best."
…
…
Finished one meal.
The old and the young were enjoying tea and continuing to communicate when Lu Song arrived in a hurry and called Tang Yin away.
They agreed to attend a cultural gathering together, but they parted ways after dinner. Zhu Hao was left alone and had no choice but to return to the palace first.
Along the way, Zhu Hao saw that although the preparations for war in the city were actively advancing, the progress was extremely slow because the government and gentry refused to cooperate.
Zhu Hao thought to himself: "Don't wait until the end. I really got what I said. When the thieves came, they didn't even prepare basic defenses. They just closed the city gate and prepared for war... This is probably what Yuan Changshi wants to see the most."
"
In preparing for this war, everyone in the palace was very cooperative.
But the problem is that many officials in the palace have similar opinions to Yuan Zonggao. Except for the ceremonial guard department, which usually dispatches Luo An, the son of deputy ceremonial guard Luo Sheng, and the Dianzhang Lu Song to help Tang Yin run around, not even the Chengcheng Department is dispatched.
How many people are there to help?
It’s easy to understand that soldiers don’t want to fight. Can’t they live a good life?
When thieves come, you can just close the city gates and wait until the thieves have no place to grab and leave on your own. Why go out of the city to fight for your life? Isn’t it nice to have a heated kang for your wife and children?
Establish military merit?
Stop talking nonsense!
This is not the Nine Borders of the North. How much military merit can we achieve by killing a few bandits? No matter how big it is, we can't operate in the three-thirds of an acre of Prince Xing's Mansion?
There were too many negative factors in the city's preparations for war, which made Tang Yin suffer a lot. Zhu Hao saw this and wanted to help at most by giving advice. He could not rely on the Xingwang Palace and the local government. The gentry should be at his disposal.
…
…
The second day of March.
It was an ordinary day, but the city gate was suddenly closed early in the morning. However, the prefectural government received an urgent military message. The bandits had reached the borders of Anlu Prefecture and were now plundering the ground in Jingshan County.
This time, even the palace paid attention to it and sent Yuan Zonggao, Zhang Zuo and Tang Yin to the prefecture government office to discuss countermeasures, especially the emergency recruitment of soldiers and horses from the guard station to defend against the enemy.
But this discussion did not produce any results, and it was still a mess.
When Tang Yin returned to the palace, Yuan Zonggao and Zhang Zuo went to see Prince Xing. Tang Yinze hurried to the classroom to call Zhu Hao out and tell him the first-hand information he had obtained.
"The situation is not good..."
Tang Yin's summary was very pessimistic, "The Jiangxi thieves who sneaked into Huguang are not one group, but three groups. Each group has about three to four hundred people. The total number of bandits has exceeded a thousand, which is very dangerous. And everyone in the palace can
The number of guards mobilized is only three to four hundred people. Even though the armor and horses are much higher,... it is too risky to go out of the city to meet the enemy."
Zhu Hao nodded: "There are quite a few people here. Do you know what these thieves are?"
Tang Yin shook his head and said: "Where should I go to find out about this? On the way back, Yuan Changshi said that we had to close the city and hold on. Sending troops rashly would probably cause unpredictable risks to the city. After all, there were already tens of thousands of people in the city.
Come to take refuge, if the city is destroyed, the consequences will be disastrous...
"Oh, by the way, in addition to robbing homes and houses, the thieves also kidnapped refugees, kidnapped strong men, women, etc. They obviously wanted to expand their strength, but because of this, they were not moving fast. It is estimated that they will have another two or three days.
, only then will the bandits kill at the foot of Anlu Prefecture City."
At this time, even Tang Yin began to back down.
If only one or two hundred bandits came, or even four or five hundred, the strength of the Imperial Guards Department would be enough to deal with it. Tang Yin went out as bait to lure the enemy, and he was confident. But the problem is that the number of bandits now exceeds a thousand. If you add in the number of bandits along the way,
There may be two thousand or more cannon fodder being held hostage.
Zhu Hao probably knew what was going on.
No wonder it is said that bandits were rampant in Jiangxi around the 12th year of Zhengde. Even with the military genius of Wang Shouren, it took several years to eradicate them. The thieves in Jiangxi are not ordinary thieves. They can almost compete with the officers and soldiers. They have the support of Prince Ning's invisible backing and the government.
The Chinese people tipped off the people, and the number of refugees traveling across the state and government quickly expanded, but no one even bothered...
You are so awesome, why don't you raise the banner of rebellion and become emperor directly?
"Mr. Tang, does the palace want to change its thinking and adopt a strict posture to deal with the invasion of bandits?" Zhu Hao asked.
"Um."
Tang Yin nodded directly.
After preparing for a long time, we ended up mobilizing troops to defend in advance and taking the initiative to go out of the city to fight the bandits!?
Don't blame the thieves for daring to come and provoke us. It's really the officers and soldiers who are incompetent.
Tang Yin may also feel that this would be very humiliating, and continued: "The Huguang Dusi has issued an order to mobilize troops and horses from Jingzhou Guard, Xiangyang Guard and other places to come for reinforcements. Calculated at the current time, it will take ten to fifteen days for the reinforcements to arrive.
Once we arrive, I believe the bandits will have evacuated by then."
Zhu Hao thought to himself, if the officers and soldiers dare not fight head-on, why are the thieves afraid of the officers and soldiers? Don't take the initiative and turn into thieves, and then become the thieves and ambush the officers and soldiers who come to help, that will be a lot of fun.
"Where's Wang Zhongcheng?" Zhu Hao asked.
Tang Yin shook his head: "There is no news yet."
Zhu Hao finally understood why Tang Yin was so pessimistic.
Originally, the two major reinforcements, Huang Zan and Wang Shouren, seemed to be hopeless now. Neither the government nor the local gentry supported sending troops. They relied entirely on the palace's troops to deal with the bandits' invasion, and he, a scholar with no experience in leading troops, was given the command.
Scheduling, it would be strange not to retreat.
It is estimated that even Xing Wang Zhu Youjia has no confidence.
Zhu Hao said: "Mr. Tang, I originally had something that I didn't plan to show you, but now I can't. When do you think you have time to come with me to have a look? Maybe it will be helpful in fending off bandits?"
Tang Yin smiled bitterly and said: "Time is urgent, let's talk about it later. I suddenly remembered that I must see King Xing as soon as possible... I'm afraid that Yuan Changshi and Zhang Fengzheng can't explain the local attitude clearly, which will delay the important matter."
At this time, Tang Yin was just following his promise and needed to explain something to Zhu Hao as soon as possible, but in his heart he didn't think Zhu Hao had any way to solve the current predicament. Maybe he also blamed Zhu Hao for having a bad idea before, which made him anxious at the same time.
, which will make his position in Prince Xing's Mansion unstable and make him the object of ridicule...
Before Zhu Hao could answer, Tang Yin hurried away.
Zhu Hao looked at Tang Yin's back and shook his head helplessly: "It's okay to say that you are like mud and can't hold up the wall, but I really can't hope to entrust you with big things. It seems that I have to wait until I grow up to solve the problem myself.
Don’t be restrained everywhere and have nowhere to use your strength.”
…
…
Originally, Zhu Hao wanted to wait until Tang Yin met Zhu Youjia before discussing with him.
Unexpectedly, Tang Yin moved from Prince Xing's Mansion to the front line that afternoon... that is, a temporary residence under the city wall to direct the war.
The soldiers and horses of the Palace Guards Department were basically sent to the front line.
When thieves and bandits come to kill, it doesn't make much sense for the Royal Guards to guard the gate, unless the thieves have already entered the city... But there is a deeper city wall to rely on, why not make full use of it? Of course, the Royal Guards have soldiers and horses.
Use it on the edge and guard the front line.
Tang Yin seemed to have made a mistake in his advice and was ignored by King Xing, but he still had to carry out the command when facing the enemy on the front line.
Yuan Zonggao was old and frail and could not stay up all night to direct the war. Since the Tumubao Incident, the rules of the Ming Dynasty had become civilian command, and military generals were responsible for obeying orders. The palace could not hand over the power of troop deployment to the military generals of the Palace Guards Department.
On Zhang Zuo's recommendation, Tang Yin took office, and his current status is equivalent to the former enemy commander-in-chief of Anlu Prefecture City.
Who told the government that there were not many soldiers and only hired a group of untrained civilians to patrol and defend the city wall?
It seems that only Prince Xing's Mansion is more enthusiastic about this matter.
As a result, one day later, on the afternoon of the third day of March, the leading bandits had reached a place less than five miles outside Anlu Prefecture City. Standing on the city wall, they could see the enemy setting up camp in the distance.
Tang Yin stood at the top of the city and saw the scene in front of him, his teeth itched with hatred.
Lu Song, who was beside him, was extremely shocked and said: "This group of thieves are so brave. They are openly challenging the government."
Luo An said: "Sir, why don't you allocate a hundred soldiers and horses to me, and I will lead the charge and attack them before they gain a firm footing?"
Lu Song and Luo An, the two people around Tang Yin, are not the kind of conservatives who are passive and fearful of war. Especially Luo An, who has a bad temper at first glance. The thieves came to kill us and let us guard the city wall to watch the fun? All the royal palace's properties are in the city.
Outside! We were robbed by thieves. I am afraid that every family will have to tighten their belts this year!
It's better to rush out and fight the thieves!
Tang Yin sighed: "You two, I can understand your mood, but now the power of the palace alone is not enough to confront the bandits head-on, so we need to consider the long term.
"Pass the order, strengthen the defenses at all parts of the city gate, and send more soldiers to patrol especially at night... Then try to contact the wealthy gentry in the manors and earthen castles outside the city, and ask them to prepare for defense. If the city gate is damaged, light it up.
If Fenghuo asks for help, everyone from all walks of life must come to help!"