"Qianhu Guan Qilin, Qianhu Office, Mian County, pays homage to General Chen."
Guan Qilin didn't hesitate at all. As soon as he came in, he knelt on the ground and saluted respectfully like pushing a mountain of gold over a jade pillar.
His etiquette was not faulty, and he did not appear to be a local coward at all.
Although the status of guard officers is lower than that of battalion officers, battalion officers do not have command orders and have no authority to supervise guard officers. The two do not belong to the same system.
Generally speaking, as Qianhu Guan Qilin, there is actually no need to be so respectful.
But this is not an ordinary situation. Now a large number of bandits have rushed into Hanzhong Mansion from Yuguan.
The battle between Lueyang and Jinniu has already spread to Hanzhong Mansion.
Nowadays, the entire Hanzhong Prefecture is in panic. Mian County is the first place to be affected. Many wealthy gentry have fled to the east in the direction of Nanzheng.
Chen Wang left his seat, walked forward and helped Guan Qilin up, saying warmly.
"Just now, my subordinates and I were observing the terrain in Dingjun Mountain. We found that there were many signs of neglect, so please don't blame me if I shut down thousands of households."
"Where, where..."
Guan Qilin waved his hands repeatedly with a smile on his face.
"I don't have anything important to do. I just want to see if General Chen needs help. Although he is not very capable, he will never refuse anything that can help him."
Guan Qilin felt sad in his heart, and he lowered his status to a very low level, almost as if he was doing the work of a dog and a horse.
He had heard that the bandits fled to Hanzhong and then fled all the way south.
It is said that the rogue bandits seem to be in the Ningqiang Prefecture area, not far to the southwest of Mian County.
The reason why he came to Chen Wang was to know what Chen Wang was planning to do next, whether to suppress or defend.
The wealthy gentry could escape, but he, a thousand-year-old family, could not escape.
As the guard of Qianhu Station in Mian County, how could he escape and take refuge?
The responsibility of guarding the land is not only the responsibility of the county magistrate of a county, but also the officers of the garrison.
If he escapes, as a Qianhu Guan Qilin, ten heads are not enough to cut off, and the clan will be implicated.
Chen Wang also knew why Guan Qilin kept such a low profile.
In the seventh year, the rogue bandits also broke through the Yuguan Pass. They entered Hanzhong and burned, killed and looted, but they were blocked from Mian County.
But at that time, they minimized the losses because they took precautions and dispatched troops in advance to guard the key roads.
Guan Qilin didn't want him to leave. If he wanted him, he would station troops at Dingjun Mountain to protect Mian County and prevent rogue bandits from coming.
Chen Wang looked at Guan Qilin without leaving any trace. He noticed that Guan Qilin's clothes were quite thick and he was well-dressed.
However, the few servants following Guan Qilin were much shabby. The cotton armor they wore was slightly worn, and the boots on their feet looked older.
A glimpse of the situation revealed the whole situation. As a member of a thousand households, Guan Qilin was not even well-dressed for his own servants, and the regular soldiers and remnants below him were probably even worse.
"Our army currently has no shortage of equipment including military pay, food, and fodder. It's just that many civilians who were recruited to transport food, fodder, and weapons escaped during the pursuit, and there are not many mules and horses left..."
"If it is convenient to close thousands of households, can you second some sergeants to help transport the supplies and food?"
Chen Wang helped Guan Qilin sit on the seat on the side and pretended to be embarrassed.
Chen Wang is pretending to be embarrassed, but Guan Qilin is really embarrassed.
"this……"
"Now all the sergeants in Qianhu Station have been transferred to the east. There are only about a hundred regular soldiers, and there are only more than 200 soldiers including the remaining soldiers. I heard that the rogue bandits are going south, and they are now helping to defend Mian County..."
"It would be really difficult for General Chen to ask for help."
Guan Qilin looked a little embarrassed, sitting on the chair with only half of his buttocks, his hands on his knees, leaning forward uncomfortably.
Chen Wang asked him to send people to serve as auxiliary troops to transport food and grass, but how could he send them.
Now there are more than 200 people in Mian County who have been cobbled together. He gritted his teeth and spent a lot of money to find people who were willing to replace them.
He thought that the Qianhu House in Mian County was not wealthy. The military fields in the past were either occupied by King Rui who was sealed in Hanzhong or were stolen by the gentry.
The garrison stations in the mainland are similar, with serious military desertions, and the Qianhu Station under Guan Qilin is no exception. Moreover, it is located in the hinterland of Hanzhong, and there is no place to go even if you want to hook up with the army.
The Thousand Household Residence led by Guan Qilin usually only has five or six hundred regular troops, less than half of the designated number of troops. Now the entire Thousand Household Residence has only more than 2,000 people including the elderly, weak, women and children.
Seven years after the bandits entered Hanzhong, the magistrate of Baocheng immediately cut off the plank road in the north, thus preventing the bandits from entering the hinterland.
Guan Qilin was also ordered to lead troops to guard the plank road at that time. Later, Ning Qiang joined the bandits again, and they followed them to suppress Ning Qiang.
After the two battles, nearly a hundred people in the guard camp died outside, which also made the situation in the Qianhu camp even more embarrassing.
The court is in a state of turmoil now, and even the pensions for the soldiers who died in the battle cannot be paid out in time, let alone the guards.
Everything was as expected by Chen Wang.
In fact, Chen Wang knew Guan Qilin's answer long ago. Before he raised this question, he knew that Guan Qilin couldn't solve it.
When asking someone to do something, you can first make a big request that is difficult for the other person to accept.
Then lower the conditions and make smaller demands that the other party can accept.
In this way, it will be easier for the other party to accept it psychologically and it will be easier to achieve the goal.
It's like the room is too dark. If someone says to open a skylight here, everyone will definitely not allow it.
But if you advocate removing the roof, they will mediate and be willing to open skylights.
At this time, the rogue bandits suddenly moved south, and the soldiers of Hanzhong Prefecture were basically concentrated on the eastern front for suppression, and had no time to look west.
Nowadays, the thousands of households in Mian County can only mobilize more than 200 soldiers. Even these 200 soldiers, most of them are just people who are just trying to make ends meet.
The Mainland Guard Station has long been in decay and cannot bear a fight. On paper, there are only 20 or 30 people who can fight among the more than 200 people, which means Guan Qilin is a capable general.
During the Japanese Rebellion, thousands of guards were defeated when they encountered dozens of Japanese pirates. Counting on the guards in the interior, it would be better to hope for meteorites falling from the sky and killing all the enemies. The probability is probably even higher.
"Chen's position as a guerrilla was obtained by fighting with swords and guns. I also know the situation at the grassroots level of the guard station. I have also heard about the war in Hanzhong. Guan Qianhu has no extra troops to dispatch, so there is no need to go too far. Mind you."
Chen Wang's voice was deep and he sighed.
Guan Qilin's nervous look relaxed a little. Although he had not been with Chen Wang for a long time, he felt that this young guerrilla general seemed to be a good talker. At least he always spoke in a pleasant manner and did not reprimand him as if he were a subordinate. .
When the soldiers asked him to wait in the side tent, Guan Qilin thought that Chen Wang deliberately left him aside to show off. He had encountered this situation more than once.
Although he is a Qianhu, he is also a military attaché of the fifth rank and a military commander in a region.
But in this world, where the civilized and the military are inferior, he, a fifth-grade guard with thousands of households, is even less powerful than the county's Lord Bo and the county magistrate.
Chen Wang looked at Guan Qilin's expression without any trace, and said slowly.
"Guan Qianhu came all the way. You should have seen the refugee camp in the north of the mountain, right?"
Guan Qilin's expression moved slightly. He didn't know why Chen Wang suddenly asked this question, so he could only answer truthfully and nodded.
"General Chen has a benevolent heart and helps the villagers who suffered from military disasters. Although I am in Mian County, I have heard from others."
These refugees came all the way with Chen Wang's army, and he got the news from the beginning.
This guerrilla general seemed to have distributed military rations among the troops to help the people who had fled due to the war, and those people followed them all the way into Hanzhong from Lueyang and other places.
"Although they won the battles of Lueyang and Jinniu, they could not make up for the impact of the war disaster."
Chen Wang's expression was gloomy. The biggest damage caused by the rogue bandits was not in the military, but in the civil affairs.
Wherever the bandits went, almost no grass grew.
They are like a swarm of locusts. They are not interested in production, but only in destruction. They destroy every place they pass by.
At this time, the Ming Empire was experiencing internal and external turmoil, its finances were on the verge of collapse, and it was unable to solve many problems in people's livelihood.
The disaster of rogue bandits is a dead end for today's Ming Empire.
"The rogue bandits came all the way, burning, killing, and looting. The people along the road suffered war disasters and their houses were destroyed. They had no shelter from the wind and rain, and no food supplies for the winter. No one in the prefectures and counties along the road was willing to take care of them."
"The reason why the rogue bandits fled into Hanzhong was ultimately due to Chen's inability to suppress them, which led to continuous military disasters and harm to the people..."
Chen Wang's eyes were cold, his expression was slightly gloomy, and his voice was low.
The military disaster in Hanzhong was entirely caused by him.
This disaster should not have happened to Hanzhong originally, but his plan had to enter Hanzhong Mansion, and he needed an excuse.
The problem before Chen Wang was a trolley problem.
A madman tied five innocent people to the tram tracks.
An out-of-control trolley was heading towards them and was about to run over them in a moment.
Fortunately, you can pull a lever to send the trolley to another track.
The problem, however, is that the madman also tied up a man on another tram track.
This is a dilemma, and there are huge problems no matter which choice you make.
Chen Wang had to make a choice. He chose the lesser of two harms. What he pulled was the lever that represented life and death.
He was never a saint, but he wasn't hard-hearted either.
Without him attracting these bandits, the bandits would also invade Hanzhong in the future, and Hanzhong would suffer greater suffering and destruction.
And when the Qing troops enter the pass, the flames of war will sweep across the entire China.
Distributing military rations to assist the refugees is not only for future plans, but also to minimize the disaster as much as possible.
Only after entering Hanzhong can he have more autonomy and be able to run the business secretly.
If you don't enter Hanzhong, you will have to travel back and forth in the next few years, fighting back and forth, and you will be exhausted.
If you are unlucky, you will be on the road and be written off in the history books.
If you are lucky, there will only be one more person like He Renlong or Zuo Liangyu in this world.
But whether he becomes He Renlong or Zuo Liangyu, there is no way to prevent the coming catastrophe.
"You and I both know that it's the freezing season right now. Without food or shelter, it means death."
Chen Wang picked up the tea cup placed aside and moved his eyes to Guan Qilin, who was sitting beside him.
What he said was obvious enough, and he was waiting for Guan Qilin's answer.
I should be able to resume normal updates tomorrow. I’m really sorry for all the book lovers out there.
(End of chapter)
