The earthwork of the fortress has been basically completed, and the surface has been reinforced with bricks and cement, although the degree of solidity is not as good as that of some city walls made of thousands of pounds of blue stone at the bottom, rammed earth and glutinous rice juice on the wall, and covered with green bricks, but it is much stronger than ordinary cities, and the cost of construction and time is much cheaper. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

It's a pity that Dengzhou doesn't have 10 catties of field artillery, and this time and space can't make machine guns, Lin Weiye thought regretfully, otherwise tens of thousands of people wouldn't be able to gnaw on this fortress. Visually, there seems to be no better way than a long-term siege.

Thinking of the siege, Lin Weiye patted his head and prepared to go to Su Thick Leg to discuss whether he should ask Xie Sanbin for enough grain to store in the fortress in case of emergency. He did not anticipate the risks in an uncertain prophet, but out of the rigor of the science and engineering man, he strived to make each step scientific and reasonable, rather than considering whether it was cost-effective and necessary.

Su didn't question whether it made sense to do this, but carefully estimated a month's ration according to the number of soldiers: "...... Our military training is hard, a person always needs a pound of brown rice every day, 4 infantry battalions of the independent regiment plus a cavalry battalion, more than 5,000 people, a month to fill the stomach at least eight or nine hundred stone rice. ”

Lin Weiye heard this: "Then more is not less, a thousand stones of grain, I will go to Xie Sanbin to ask for it." ”

In the governor's yamen, Xie Sanbin was a little crying and laughing, he looked at Lin Weiye with a serious face and said: "General Lin Bing, the amount you mentioned, the food and salary allocated by the imperial court to all the troops in Denglai and the two prefectures are not enough, and I can only guarantee to give you 500 stone of grain every month - you can't let other teams drink the northwest wind, right?" ”

Lin Weiye shook his head: "Five hundred stones is not enough. Master Xie, you are the governor of Denglai and Xia Nan's father-in-law, and you have to help us both in public and private. In this way, all the military rations allocated by the imperial court will be given to us, and in addition, our salaries will not be found in silver, converted into grain, and then we will gather enough 1,000 stone to give us, so that it will not be offset, and it will not make it difficult for you. ”

Xie Sanbin brought his staff who was responsible for the allocation of money and grain, and the staff crackled and said to Xie Sanbin: "Futai, even if the salaries and silver of Lin Zongbing's subordinates are converted, it is not enough, and now a stone of grain is at least three taels of silver, except for the true color (Note 1), and the folded colors allocated to them by the imperial court (Note 2), there is not much to peel down layer by layer, and it is only more than 700 stones, even if Futai is willing to allocate some from the fire consumption of various prefectures and counties, and make up enough 800 stones, which is still a lot worse than the 1,000 stones that Lin Zongbing said......

Xie Sanbin pondered for a moment, and said to Lin Weiye: "Mr. Lin, the relationship between you and Tiannan Benfu also knows, the two are like brothers, everyone is their own people, Benfu also opened the skylight with you and said something bright: The military camp you made is only a few miles away from Dengzhou, and it can be stationed for a long time for the convenience of training, but after all, it is not an island that hangs overseas and has inconvenient transportation, there is no need to scrape together a thousand stone of grain every month, you can be flexible, don't be so rigid." After all, the governor's yamen was responsible for allocating the military rations sent to Dongjiang and other places, and the food shortage was too great to turn around, so he would be impeached by the officials. Why don't you make up 800 stones first, it's really not enough at the end of the month, and then find a way to even it out from other places, how about it? ”

Lin Weiye thought about it, and according to what Su Thick Leg said, eight hundred stones of grain was barely enough, so he nodded and said, "Then take eight hundred stones first." He got up and took his leave.

When he walked away, Xie Sanbin shook his head and said to his staff: "My son-in-law is a long-sleeved person, good at dancing, and exquisite, many people who have been in the officialdom for many years can't compare to him, why is his brother so rigid in doing things?" It is just a matter of abandoning the military camp in the city, spending money and food to set up a stone fort outside the city, and now you still bring a full month's food to nest in that stone fort and don't come out, do you want to get along with us from old age and death? Asking for military rations to be justified, completely forgetting that he is the chief soldier of Dengzhou and is under the control of Benfu! ”

When it comes to the governor's quick son-in-law, the staff is not good at commenting, so they can only vaguely comfort: "Futai is angry, Lin Zongbing is a real person, and there is merit in doing real things." Besides, don't look at the face of the monk and look at the face of the Buddha, for the sake of Ping Nanbo's face, as long as he doesn't ask too much, Futai still satisfies him......"

Xie Sanbin sighed: "Who made him the person sent by Tiannan?" Go and take account of the accounts, and give him eight hundred stone of grain. ”

Neither Xie Sanbin nor Lin Weiye himself expected that two days later, this seemingly superfluous move by others played a key role.

When the grain was transported to the new barracks, Lin Weiye was directing people to place 6 catties of mountain guns in the protruding corners of the fortress. Although the power of the mountain cannon is not commensurate with the fortress of this scale, it is better than nothing, Lin Weiye looked at the "small" mountain cannon with regret, and thought, it is a pity that it is too troublesome to build an arsenal for casting artillery, and training craftsmen is not something that can be done overnight, otherwise it would be perfect to cast ten or twenty 10-pound field guns or even coastal defense artillery-level cannons on the spot.

As he was imagining, the sound of rumbling hooves was heard in the distance, and it sounded like a sizable cavalry force approaching. Lin Weiye said with a smile: "It must be Ma Wei who has come back from exterminating the horse thief." Let the soldier pass the binoculars and take a look, and it was Ma Wei in front of him.

He was about to put down the binoculars and lead people out of the city to greet them, but he felt that something was wrong with the glimpse just now, so he quickly raised the binoculars again to take a closer look: Ma Wei and the cavalry behind him were tired, many of them were still wounded, and the expressions on their faces were very serious, and they seemed to be a little ...... Nervous?

No, it's not uncommon to have injuries, but after exterminating the horse thief, he shouldn't have such a look!

Lin Weiye called Su Thick Legs to the city wall and handed him the binoculars, "Look at it, I always feel that Ma Weide doesn't look like he has returned triumphantly." ”

Su Bush only looked at it for a moment, and immediately said: "Lord Commander, quickly order the whole regiment to be on guard - there are chasing soldiers behind Ma Wei, and there are quite a few of them." The one who can make him so embarrassed is definitely not a horse thief! ”

Lin Weiye was taken aback, and looked over with a telescope again, and sure enough, some distance behind Ma Wei's group, there was still a large pool of dust, and there was a faint figure shaking.

A cavalryman broke away from the brigade and ran to the front to report the news at all costs, and just came to the front of the fortress, the war horse screamed, the front hooves were weak, and he fell to the ground on his knees, and then fell down with a bang, and the cavalry jumped down before the war horse fell to the ground, and ran desperately to the city, shouting: "My lord, the Tartars are coming, quickly close the city gates!" ”

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Note 1, Note 2: The Ming Dynasty issued to various places of grain and salary, divided into two parts, the color and the color, simply put, the color is the levy of the physical field, the color is to other goods (such as silk) or currency (silver) conversion instead, called color.