Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2199 Under Lianzhou City
The consequences of losing so many young and middle-aged men are self-evident.It will not only seriously affect production, but also make their security situation at stake.Whether it is the hostile Guren village or the Hakka village at the foot of the mountain, they will not miss this opportunity.To ensure their own safety, the only way is to rely on the Senate.

"... Besides, what are you going to do with them? You still need to consume food, like Zhou Liangchen said, kill them all? That would be bloody enmity—we still need to appease them, and we can't do anything."

Brothers Mo Songling and Mo Hongling and four brothers Ma Tianju, Ma Mingju, Ma Junju and Ma Yunju were on the city wall of Lianzhou, across the moat, watching with great interest the Australian troops stationed outside the city.

Although the Yao people who besieged Lianzhou had already retreated, the siege of Lianzhou was still unresolved for the people in the city, but the besiegers were replaced by Australians who called themselves Da Song.

However, the siege of the Australians is much looser than that of the Yao people.Except for setting up camps outside the four gates, and not allowing people with weapons to pass through, there are no defenses in other places, and the people are not hindered from going out of the city to collect firewood and water, and they come and go as they please.The atmosphere inside and outside the city suddenly relaxed a lot.

It was in this relaxed atmosphere that these children were able to climb up the city wall to "watch the soldiers".

In the past, they also watched the "army drills" of the county's guards in the eastern suburbs.Lianzhou is located in the Yao area, and there have been constant conflicts between Han and Yao all the year round. Because of the need to "defend against Yao" all the year round, the situation of the local guards operating the army is better than other places, and it can be regarded as able to fight.However, compared with the Australian soldiers who are currently training outside the city, the gap is still too large.Although the opponent has no armor, but the weapons and equipment all over his body are capable and capable, and he looks like a "strong soldier" at first glance.

"This Australian soldier really lives up to his reputation." Mo Songling, the oldest of the children, said.Said to be the oldest, but in fact he was only 14 years old.

Mo Yuqi, the grandfather of the two brothers of the Mo family, and Ma Chonghai, the grandfather of the four brothers of the Ma family, were good friends. Both Mo and Ma were big gentry families in Lianzhou. Brothers who grew up playing together and growing up as buddies.Even though they are only half-grown children: the oldest Mo Song is only 14 years old, and the youngest Ma Yunju is less than nine years old. They are all well-known "children of aristocratic families" in the city.Therefore, when they came to the city to "watch the soldiers", the soldiers on the city, brave and brave, did not dare to stop them.Let them play around the city.

Since the Yao people besieged the city, most of the elders of the two families were not at home. They went to the state office to discuss countermeasures every day, so they had no time to supervise them, and no one cared about their homework.This group of children has become a wild horse.When the battle was urgent, the defenders would not allow them to run to the city wall, but now that the battle has slowed down, they are happy to take a few rewards from the "young masters" and let them "visit" at will.

"Yesterday, the cannons rang for a while, and the Yao people retreated. The Australians really fired a lot."

"What's so interesting about cannons, no matter how powerful they are, there are still ones in this city. It's the automatic boats in the river. I really want to see what's going on."

……

While looking around the city, they talked about the Fubo army that appeared outside the city.Cannons, big boats and other novelties arouse children's curiosity.

Outside the city, Yang Zeng has roughly completed the siege of Lianzhou City.In addition to the outposts outside the city gates, one national army squadron was deployed in the north of the city, one in the northeast of the city, and one in the east of the city. The Cannon, the Fubo Army Company and the Li Miao Company were all deployed on Yanxi Mountain. The civilians were stationed on the west bank of the Lianjiang River, and the gunboats patrolled the north and south along the Lianjiang River.On the seemingly loose front, in fact the blockade of Lianzhou is already airtight.

Neither Yang Zeng nor Huang Chao wanted to storm Lianzhou City.First of all, their troops have shrunk significantly after being deployed all the way. The troops currently deployed to the city of Lianzhou are not enough for a strong attack, so they must mobilize troops from other places.And the area where the troops are deployed is essential to the control of the entire Lianyang area, and the deployment may cause instability in the entire area.Secondly, Lianzhou is the foundation of their rule, and Huang Chao didn't want to impress the soldiers and civilians in Lianzhou City as "foreign conquerors".

In the flower hall of the Lianzhou government office, Cui Shizhao, the Zhizhou, was discussing countermeasures with a group of gentry in Lianzhou city.Now replacing the siege of Ba Pai Yao is the more vicious Australians.The "Lianzhou Zhi" in the old time and space records that when Cui Shizhao was in office, he used his virtue to influence the rebellious Yao people and quelled the Yao rebellion in Chongzhen for eight years.But in the current time and space, after the addition of the Guangdong-Guangzhou Raiders variables, Cui Shizhao had no time to influence Ba Pai Yao before he met the Australian veteran—his virtue obviously could not influence this group of rough people.

Ba Pai Yao, Cui Shizhao still knows some of their situation, some of their leaders, in and out of the city, there are not a few people who can deal with Ba Pai Yao, and they can always talk to each other.But Australians who come from nowhere, then no one knows how to deal with them.

Cui Shizhao also knows the names of Australians, but in his view, Australians are "overseas thieves". Although they can invade Qiongzhou and invade Guangzhou, they are still far away overseas and have little to do with him.It wasn't until the news that the Australians attacked Guangzhou that he realized that the Australians were not simply pirates, but had other plans.

Cui Shizhao's response to the envoy sent by the Australians to surrender was "don't see", "no surrender" and "no leave". Since he is the magistrate of Lianzhou in Ming Dynasty, he has no reason to surrender; abandoning his official position and leaving is not his way of doing things.So the Master Zhizhou insisted on staying here with some stubbornness.

The morning's "discussion" passed in a rambling empty talk.Cui Shizhao sighed. He first looked at the two Juren of the Mo family: Juren Mo Jin was the son of Mo Yuqi, a Jinshi in Lianzhou Tianqi period, and Juren Mo Yang was Mo Jin's cousin. After passing the Jinshi examination, he became an official in Nanjing Taiping Prefecture. After serving for one term, he resigned and returned to his hometown, where he died soon.Mo and Qi were well-known in Lianzhou, and they always attached great importance to the education of their nephews, and they trained Mo Jin and Mo Yang.Therefore, the Mo family has always been very prestigious in Lianzhou City, and Cui Shizhao attaches great importance to their opinions.

But Mo Jin and Mo Yang looked at each other tacitly, drinking tea on their own, without speaking.

Cui Shizhao also looked at the two brothers of the Zeng family: Zeng Rushao and Zeng Ruzan were the grandsons of Ma Xianggan, a concubine in the Wanli period. So he resigned and returned to his hometown of Lianzhou, regaining his original surname Zeng. From then on, he devoted himself to the study of history until his death.Now, the two Zeng brothers are old men in their 60s and [-]s, with limited energy. They were already tired from sitting all morning, and they dozed off inadvertently, not noticing that Cui Shizhao was looking at the two of them.

Neither Mo nor Zeng expressed their opinions. Cui Shizhao found it boring. He also looked at Ma Chengxiang, a family friend of the Mo family. Ma Chengxiang also seemed unwilling to say anything. All of them seemed unwilling to express their opinions.

As a last resort, Cui Shizhao turned his attention to Ma Tiyi, his close friend in Lianzhou. Ma Tiyi shook his head. Cui Shizhao knew that he couldn't explain why today, so he had to give himself a step up: "It's almost noon, everyone, please go ahead." Go home and rest, don't get caught in the heat, let's talk about retreating the enemy tomorrow."

How to retreat from the enemy has been discussed many times.At the beginning of the siege of Ba Pai Yao, there was no clue, let alone the more vicious Australians.The bigwigs with the most extensive networks in the Mo family and the Zeng family have already made a judgment that Lianzhou City will never be able to defend against the menacing Australians, but there are a few rotten scholars who have never left their homes but insist on affirming it. There is a way to defeat the enemy, but you can't tell how to defeat the enemy-if you really want to tell the way, others will know that it is just talking on paper.

It's been very quiet these past few days, it's really because everyone is tired of talking, and they're tired of talking—empty words will be empty words if they are repeated a thousand times.

Fortunately, the Australians have no intention of attacking the city, so Lianzhou City has been exhausted like this.There was not much food in the city, and with the decrease in food storage, the porridge sheds on the street have changed from giving out twice a day to once a day, and the porridge has become thinner and thinner.Since Cui Shizhao was well-known in Lianzhou City, the gentry in the city were willing to donate food to the refugees, but if they continued to solicit donations from these gentry, they would even take away their own food.After all, there is not as much grain in the city as there is in the countryside outside the city.If those salt merchants had food in their hands, they would definitely be willing to spend money to eliminate disasters, but salt merchants only had money in their hands, and Cui Shizhao didn't need either of these.

When Ba Pai Yao was besieging the city, all the gentry in the city unanimously went out to the outside world and did not hesitate to destroy their homes.Because once Ba Pai Yao enters the city, the whole city will not only lose their wealth, but also their lives; and once the Australians besiege the city, the gentry's opinions will be divided, because Australians are rumored to be much better than those Ba Pai Yao Many—as long as they surrender in time, the common people and gentry can keep their wealth safe.Both Mo and Zeng felt that they could have a talk with the Australians, to "make compromises and take the long term".Even Ma Tiyi, Cui Shizhao's close friend, advised Cui Shizhao to have a talk with the Australians and get a "decent result" so that Lianzhou City would not be destroyed.

But Cui Shizhao was unwilling, because this "decent result" was nothing more than surrendering to the Australians!
Cui Shizhao cares about his reputation very much.However, the details of the grain depot in Lianzhou City made Cui Shizhao have to weigh the importance of the names of the people in the city compared with his own.Now the grain stores in the city have no market, and there is no grain for sale, except for wealthy families and big households who still have grain in stock, and the folk grain stockpile has been exhausted.It all depends on the bottom of the official warehouse.The number of refugees lining up in front of the porridge shed is increasing day by day, and Cui Shizhao knows that in a few days, he will no longer be able to produce half a grain of rice to cook porridge for the refugees—Lianzhou City is about to run out of food.
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Next update: Volume 403 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter [-]

(End of this chapter)