Regarding Wednesday's question, Zhao Shujiao was silent for a long time before gritting his teeth and replying: "What does this official think, it is nothing more than doing his best and dying." As long as the official still has a breath of air, he will never let Jiannu attack the city. ”

Wednesday looked at the few people present, and suddenly smiled and said: "The lower official volunteered to come here, not just to defend this Zunhua City and frustrate the spirit of the slave soldiers. Xia Guan hopes to shed the blood of Jiannu outside this Zunhua City, and win the first merit of the defense of Jizhou with all of you. ”

Before the others could react, Zhao Shujiao couldn't help but mock: "I'm afraid Staff Officer Zhou is going to be disappointed, although Zunhua Town has 5 or 60,000 soldiers, but in this Zunhua City, there are less than 8,000 soldiers, and there are only more than 5,000 soldiers on the battlefield, and the others rely on the city wall to shout and cheer, but if you want to use them to shed enough blood for Jiannu, I'm afraid it's a fool's dream..."

Before Zhao Shujiao could finish his sentence, a somewhat flustered voice suddenly came from outside the door and interrupted his words, "Marshal, there is an urgent military intelligence report from the lowly position." ”

Zhao Shujiao frowned, but he heard that this was the voice of his lieutenant officer, so he turned his mouth and said: "What kind of urgent military situation, can't you wait for the old man to go back, and chased Fu Ya, the sky is falling?" ”

The people outside the door did not understand the meaning of Zhao Shujiao, and after hearing this question, they said regardless of it: "Da'ankou and Longjing Pass both fell in the early hours of this morning, and Hongshankou was also broken this morning.

When Deputy General Zhu heard the news that Longjing Pass had fallen and the reinforcements had been broken, he abandoned the army and fled. The defenders of Hanerzhuang were panicked for a while, and hundreds of soldiers abandoned the city and fled. When the Hongshan Pass was also broken, the Hanerzhuang garrison invoked the war regulations and took the people near Hanerzhuang to burn the city and return..."

Hearing this, Zhao Shujiao and Wang Yuanya couldn't help but shout outside the door at the same time, "Shut up, get in." "Let's talk about it first." Obviously, neither of them wanted this bad news to spread in the city and hit the morale of the already small number.

After the Chinese army stepped into the back hall, he said in detail to the two civil and military officers that Daankou was less than 40 miles away from Zunhua City, that is, a one-day journey. As soon as Da'ankou is broken, it means that the army of Jiannu is about to come to the city. And Jiannu attacked at the same time in three ways from Daankou to Longjingguan for hundreds of kilometers, which made Jizhou Town lose the opportunity to rely on the terrain to resist the enemy.

Even, they don't even know where the enemy's main force is now, and the news from Da'ankou, Hongshankou, and Longjingkou is that the enemy attacking them is the main force, ranging from 120,000 to 30,000 or 40,000. If the number of enemy troops they reported was added, the strength of the Houjin army this time was as high as more than 100,000 people.

If he hadn't received the secret report sent back by Jinyiwei before, even Zhao Shujiao would have been suspicious of these news, but now he believed in Jinyiwei's intelligence more, and as for the reports of the defenders of those passes, he was obviously too frightened and lost his ability to judge.

When Zhao Shujiao was still thinking about these news, Wang Yuanya was already shocked and angry and asked the Chinese army: "Did that bastard Zhu Lai really abandon the army and abscond?" Is your message really true? ”

The lieutenant officer replied honestly: "Deputy General Zhu has indeed fled, and several deputy generals and staff generals who followed Deputy General Zhu to aid Hanerzhuang have all signed the documents sent back, and they are by no means nonsense from the lower officials. ”

Wang Yuanya immediately scolded Zhu Lai, the deputy chief soldier of Jizhou Town, Zhu Lai, has always flattered him, and he was the first general of Jizhou Town to take refuge in him when he took office. The governor of Zunhua, who took office almost with Zhao Shujiao, also regarded him as his confidant, and he also said goodbye to Zhao Shujiao several times for this.

In the end, Zhao Shujiao had to compromise and let this deputy general Zhu lead an army to garrison Santun Camp, just to avoid ruining his major event of rectifying the city defense of Zunhua and retraining the Zunhua garrison. Now this deputy chief soldier Zhu didn't even see the face of the slave soldiers, so he fled when he heard the news, didn't this hang him, the governor of Zunhua, who strongly supported him?

Even if the court has no intention of holding him accountable now due to the war, it is difficult to guarantee that no one will settle this old account with him after the war. Houjin broke through so easily, he, the general highly recommended by the governor, was a villain who fled from the wind, if he could not carry the black cauldron of soil, he himself would not believe it.

At this moment, Wang Yuanya finally lost the last trace of unwillingness in her heart to be deprived of the supreme command. At this moment, what he needs is to honestly obey the orders of the imperial court in order to atone for his sin of employing people without notice. If he jumps out to compete with Zhao Shujiao for the right to defend the city, it is estimated that His Majesty the emperor in the capital will not let him go.

Zhao Shujiao waited for Wang Yuanya's angry order to arrest the fugitive general Zhu Lai before he instructed his Chinese army: "You go back to the General Administration immediately, select a capable person and inform Luo Wenyu's guard Li Sili, and ask him to gather the soldiers and civilians at the nearby pass and withdraw to Zunhua immediately."

In addition, people were sent to inform the garrisons of other passes, all the armies west of Hongshankou returned to Zunhua, and the first goal of the armies east of Longjing Pass was to return to Santun Camp, and the second goal was to go to Qian'an City. Military assets that cannot be carried by the armies shall be burned, and no enemy shall be left behind.

He ordered Liu Yuan, deputy commander-in-chief, to take 300 people to meet the retreating soldiers and civilians from Hanerzhuang, and after receiving these soldiers and civilians, he rushed to the Santun camp to take over the garrison of the Santun camp. ”

Zhao led the orderly distribution of the sect, which immediately calmed down the lieutenant officer, and he hurriedly withdrew from the hall to issue the general order.

After the Chinese army left the room, Zhao Shujiao's original resentment was still gone, and now he had put all his mind on the upcoming battle to defend the city, and he no longer cared about who would pick the peaches. If you can't defend Zunhua City, you won't even have your life, what credit do you have to calculate?

"Staff Officer Zhou, now that Jiannu 3rd Road has broken through, and the spirit is flourishing, this official must go back to arrange the city defense first, and beware of the slave soldiers going straight to Zunhua. Since Staff Officer Zhou has already conveyed the order, he might as well go down to rest and rest first, and if there is any need, he can bring it up to Chief of Staff Qu, and this officer will not accompany him. ”

Wednesday was afraid of how to let Zhao Shujiao leave, he quickly got up and said: "Lord Zongzhen is slow, just now the Lord said that there are less than 8,000 soldiers in Zunhua City, and only 5,000 soldiers in battle, even if the Lord of Zongzhen is well arranged, under this morale decline, how many days can Zunhua City be held?"

What's more, the lower officials in the capital to investigate the previous siege battles after the Jiannu army, but all the cities that were under the Jiannu, either the Jiannu first sent spies into the city, or the big households in the same city were about to respond, every time the defenders fought fiercely, someone caught off guard and seized the city gate, thus losing the city. If the lord of the town only cares about defending the city with soldiers, I am afraid it will be difficult to deal with the next means of Jiannu. ”

Zhao Shujiao stopped, and said with some contempt: "This is Guannei and not Liaodong, how can Jiannu collude with the big families here, they are not familiar with the people here, even if they want to send people into the city, it is impossible." Staff Officer Zhou, don't worry too much. ”

Wednesday raised his head to meet Zhao Shujiao's gaze, and said firmly: "Yes, Jiannu has never been here before. But how did such an unfamiliar army manage to break through three Great Wall passes within hundreds of kilometers in the same day? In the battle of Salhu in the past, our four armies were the elite of the Ming army in Liaodong, and they couldn't reach the city of Hetuara at the same time, so why was Jiannu able to launch an attack on the same day today? ”

Zhao Shujiao was shocked, "What does Staff Officer Zhou mean that there are locals in the Houjin army to lead the way?" ”

Wednesday nodded and said: "Although the current intelligence says that Houjin uses the 36 as a guide, but the 36 can only invade near the pass in the past, and it was not repelled by my Jizhou Town that time?" What the 36 can't do by himself, can he be a guide for Houjin?

What's more, even if the 36th Department knows the roads to the various passes, they must not know the inside story of Da'ankou, Hongshankou, and Longjing Pass, but Houjin still broke it with one blow when I had already taken precautions. ”

At this time, Zhao Shujiao took a serious look at the young military attache from the capital, and asked with some sincerity: "Then from the perspective of Staff Officer Zhou, how should we now screen the possible spies and internal responses in the city?" ”

Wednesday Wei replied: "Lord Zongzhen, Xia Guan has an immature idea, but it is not how to screen the spies and internal responses in the city, but to make the spies and internal responses of Jiannu lose the ability to cause trouble as much as possible." ”

Zhao Shujiao immediately asked, "Staff Officer Zhou might as well speak bluntly, this official is willing to listen to you." ”

Wednesday Wei typed the draft in his heart before he spoke: "Xia Guan thinks that the people who suffer the most from the Houjin invasion are my Ming people. If you want to resist the Houjin attack on Zunhua City, you must mobilize tens of thousands of people inside and outside the city. Only if I, the Zunhua army and the people, are united in resisting the strong enemy, then although the Houjin has tens of thousands of soldiers, it will be difficult to fall under the city, and the spies and internal response of the Houjin will have nothing to do. ”

Zhao Shujiao frowned and said, "You want to use the people to defend the city? How does this work? These people have not been trained to defend the city, and they can't even hold swords and guns on the city wall, so it is completely cumbersome for them to defend the city. At most, it is good to do some work of transporting stones and boiling water, and it is good not to hinder the soldiers from fighting. What's more, the people are weak and timid, once the Houjin attack the city, it is estimated that they will scatter and flee, how can they be allowed to go into battle to kill the enemy? Your plan doesn't work. ”

Wednesday Wei insisted: "The lower officials did not let the people defend the city, but let them guard their homes outside the city." As long as we build barricades on the streets and demarcate the land to defend it, the Jiannu cavalry will have no place to use it, and can only fight with us street by street.

Once these slave soldiers are scattered in the streets and alleys outside the city, then I will send a team of elite soldiers to attack them, and this place is a few miles outside the city, which is the burial place of the slave soldiers, which will definitely severely dampen the spirit of the slave soldiers, then Zunhua can not only be protected, but also can wait for the time to counterattack, and then make miraculous achievements. ”

Zhao Shujiao's eyes widened, and he looked at Zhou Wei with strange eyes and said: "Although your plan is good, how do you let these people fight to the death with slave soldiers, even if there are streets and alleys and houses in the way, one slave soldier can usually deal with seven or eight people." ”