Yuan Chaoju took heavy steps and climbed the city wall on the horse track.
Yuan Feng, who was following him, noticed that his father had not had a chance to rest since entering the city and was too tired, so he supported him.
Zhao Xing, who came with them, led others behind them.
The general guarding the city wall was Deputy Inspector Qian.
This person took Yuan Chaoju into the city and stayed on the city wall. He only sent a few ordinary guards on the city wall to escort Yuan Chaoju and Yuan Feng.
An army of thieves and bandits had arrived outside Guo County, and he immediately sent someone to deliver the news to the county government after finding out.
Deputy Inspector Qian saw Inspector Zhao Xing leading a group of people up the city wall from the horse path, and hurriedly stepped forward to greet them.
"The lower official has met Commander Yuan, Deputy Qianhu."
When he got closer, he saluted Yuan Chaoju and Yuan Feng respectively.
Although neither of them were officials in Nao County, Zhenwuwei was not far from Nao County, and any one of them was a great official to him.
"Deputy Inspector Qian, you came at the right time. Next, Commander Yuan will take over the defense of the city as the city defender. You must cooperate well with Commander Yuan." Zhao Xing said to Deputy Inspector Qian.
"I will obey the order." Deputy Inspector Qian agreed happily without any resistance.
He himself was just a deputy inspector, and there were inspections above him. It was not his turn to command the city's defenders, and he had no objection to who should take over the position of chief defender.
"Take me to meet the bandits outside the city." Yuan Chaoju was not polite and directly gave the order to Deputy Inspector Qian.
"Commander Yuan, please come here." Deputy Inspector Qian led Yuan Chaoju to the crenellations on one side of the city. "Commander Yuan, please see, there are thieves in the north and east of the city. The same goes for the west side, there are bandits stationed everywhere, only the south side has not found any trace of bandits yet."
"Surrounding Sanque, these thieves are not just bandits who don't know anything. There should be someone among them who knows how to use soldiers." Yuan Feng said to his father.
Yuan Chaoju looked at the invading army outside the city and said: "Liu thieves can capture the two mansions of Xuanda and Da. It is not difficult to find a few generals to mobilize troops. As long as the county town is defended, it doesn't matter how many times he besieges them." use."
"What the commander said is absolutely true. We only need to defend the county seat of Guoxian County. It will be useless even if the thieves surround the county seat on all sides." Deputy Inspector Qian complimented from the side.
It's a pity that Yuan Chaoju didn't even look at him, which made him very unhappy.
"Father, there are a lot of thieves outside the city, probably as many as five or six thousand. Even if we count the young men in the city, there are less than a thousand soldiers and horses guarding the city, and these people are also distributed on several other sections of the city wall." Yuan Chaoju looked worried, worried about whether he could hold the county seat.
Five or six thousand troops may not seem like much, but they are enough to deal with a small county like Nao County.
Yuan Chaoju withdrew his eyes from outside the city and said in a calm tone: "Get ready to defend the city! The thieves are about to attack the city."
After saying that, he left from the crenel.
"Is the city under attack?" Deputy Inspector Qian leaned out from the crenel and looked at the army of thieves outside the city.
After watching for a long time, he didn't find any difference between the thieves outside the city and before.
"Commander, I saw that the bandits outside the city seemed to be making no movement, and they didn't look like they were about to attack the city." Zhao Xing asked puzzledly.
Yuan Chaoju, who was a few steps away from the crenel, stopped, turned around, and said to Zhao Xing: "The bandit army has artillery. Before attacking the city, they will use artillery to bombard the city. Take a closer look to see if the bandits push the cannon." Come up."
Zhao Xing once again looked along the crenel to the army of thieves outside the city.
This time, he did not rush to look away, but waited for a while, and suddenly found that someone in the bandit army was actually pulling a gun carriage with a horse.
"There really are cannons." Deputy Inspector Qian also noticed the movement of the bandit soldiers, raised his finger and pointed outside the city and shouted loudly.
Yuan Chaoju turned around and said as he walked forward: "Send the order to the guards on the city wall and tell them to find a place to hide. Soon the thieves will bombard the city wall."
"There are horizontal bunks on the city wall that can be used to hide people, and many wooden boards have been dismantled, which can be used to resist the cannons of the bandits." Zhao Xing said.
However, just as he finished speaking, Deputy Inspector Qian on the other side exclaimed: "Cannons, so many cannons, at least a dozen cannons."
There were only a dozen cannons in the army out of several thousand soldiers, which overturned his previous common sense.
Of course, it was also related to the fact that he, the deputy inspector of Nao County, had little experience.
"The wooden planks can't stop them. The thieves use heavy artillery. Only bricks and stones can't stop them." Yuan Chao said without looking back.
Having had an experience, he knew very well that the Liu thief's army used heavy artillery to attack the city, which was very rare in border towns. They were usually placed on the top of the city to defend the city, and were usually carried by the officers and soldiers when they went out of the city to suppress bandits. Most of them are cannons weighing one to two hundred kilograms. There are not many cannons weighing more than three hundred kilograms, so they are not that difficult to carry.
But the thieves who attacked Daizhou City all used heavy artillery. Although it didn't look as heavy as a heavy artillery weighing more than a thousand kilograms from the outside, it was no less powerful than such a heavy artillery.
"You go make arrangements." Zhao Xing told Deputy Inspector Qian and chased after the Yuan family and his son.
Deputy Inspector Qian, who was standing next to the crenel, hurriedly asked: "How to arrange the specific arrangements? Just like what Commander Yuan said, the thieves use heavy artillery, and no one on the wall can withstand them."
"You can make up your own mind." Zhao Xing waved his hand impatiently and walked a few steps quickly to catch up with the Yuan family and his son.
Deputy Inspector Qian frowned.
This kind of ambiguous order is the most troublesome. If something goes wrong, it's because his subordinate didn't understand the superior's meaning. If nothing goes wrong, it's all because of the superior's command.
"Father, if you go further, there is a horse trail." Yuan Feng hurriedly reminded him when he saw that his father was about to walk on the horse trail.
Yuan Chao raised his head and said without looking back: "If you stay on the city wall, you are waiting for death. If you want to survive, get down quickly."
After saying that, he took a few steps onto the horse path and walked towards the city wall.
"Didn't my father promise Zhou County Lord to defend the city, so he went down the city wall just after he arrived? It's not very good!" Yuan Feng felt that it was inappropriate for his father to go down the city wall at this time.
Yuan Chaoju snorted coldly and said: "I have offended a county official like him. The commander-in-chief and our father threw his life on the city wall and left quickly. After a while, the bandits opened fire and attacked the city. It will be too late to leave again."
Hearing this, Yuan Feng followed helplessly.
In his heart, he thought that his father was making a fuss out of a molehill. However, as the son of a man, he couldn't force his father to do anything, so he had to stay by his side.
"Commander Yuan, Commander Yuan." Zhao Xing caught up from behind and said eagerly, "You can't leave, the bandits are about to attack the city. Commander, you can't leave at this time!"
Yuan Chaoju stopped, turned around, looked at him and said, "Although I promised to help you defend the city, I didn't say to stay on the city wall and die. If you don't want to die, you'd better go to the city with me."
