The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Seeing this young scholar, Pan Hong frowned and shouted: "Jing Changshu, don't delay my official duties!"

It turns out that this young scholar is a well-known scholar in Wuyang County, Jing Changshu.

It's just that since Pan Hong took office as the county magistrate last year, Jing Changshu has always blocked the county government from collecting and paying taxes on the grounds of people's requests.

When Pan Hong first organized and trained rural soldiers, Jing Changshu publicly made a sarcastic statement, saying that Wuyang was just a county town and had a thousand battalions to defend it. The county magistrate's training of rural soldiers was a waste of money and food.

In addition, the Jing family was a wealthy businessman in the city and was also included in the county government's tax assessment this time.

Pan Hong knew that Jing Changshu actually represented the interests of ordinary landowners and wealthy businessmen in the county.

really.

Jing Changshu bowed his head in a neither humble nor arrogant manner and said: "Old parents, Wuyang has been suffering from drought for several consecutive years, and this year there was a severe drought coupled with a locust plague, and the autumn grain harvest was almost impossible.

You are a parent official. If you don't try to help the people in the county, why do you need to increase taxes? Isn't this forcing us people to die? "

Seeing hundreds of people watching, Pan Hong knew that there must be an explanation today, otherwise the government's reputation would be worse and the remaining taxes would be more difficult to collect.

He hummed: "What do you, a mere scholar, know? Now the imperial court is in serious trouble. They are the Eastern captives on the outside and the rogue bandits on the inside.

If these two are not wiped out, how can the court find money and food to help the people?

If Wuyang has suffered from disasters for many years, it is precisely because of this that I ask you landlords and wealthy households to pay more taxes.

As long as you cooperate in paying taxes, the county will have money and food, and after turning it over to the court, it will naturally help the hungry and needy people! "

Jing Changshu said excitedly: "With so many taxes allocated by the county, even we, the landlords and wealthy businessmen, have to go bankrupt.

Among us, which household doesn’t have dozens of tenants and helpers working to earn a living? When the magistrate makes us bankrupt, isn't that forcing the poor people to die?

What's more, in terms of wealth, how can we compare with the big families in the county? If the county magistrate really cares about the poor, why doesn't he collect money and food from the big households? ! "

Pan Hong blushed at these words and said angrily: "Who said that I have never collected taxes from large households? They are gentry and have the right to tax exemption. If I can, I have already levied taxes!"

Jing Changshu wanted to say more, but Pan Hong was not ready to listen anymore.

He shouted: "If you dare to obstruct official duties again, the county will ask the academic officials to strip you of your honors when you get back!"

Jing Changshu's face turned pale and he had to get out of the way.

But before Pan Hong had even taken two steps, the commander of a township army came running towards him, shouting from afar: "Mr. Magistrate, there are bandits coming to attack the city!"

Wow!

When the people around him heard this, they suddenly became commotion.

Since the rogue bandits passed away a few years ago, although there are countless bandits in various places in Henan, there are very few who dare to attack the county town.

In addition, in the common people's perception, bandits will inevitably burn, kill, loot, and even rape women after breaking through the city.

This is much scarier than the county government forcing taxes to be paid.

For a moment, people were panicked.

Pan Hong's heart was tense, but his face was quite calm.

He asked: "Do you know how many traitors have come?"

"Looking from a distance, there are probably more than 3,000 people."

Pan Hong laughed deliberately after hearing this.

The boss refused to answer and asked, "Why is the county magistrate laughing?"

When Pan Hong saw that the people around him were looking over, he said loudly with a smile: "I laugh at these thieves for not overestimating their abilities! There are only three thousand people here, and they want to take advantage of our Wuyang County!"

In addition to the 1,000 battalion soldiers in our city, there are also 500 rural soldiers and more than 100 government officials. There are more than a thousand nurses and servants in each large household.

We also have four general cannons at the top of our city and more than a dozen tiger crouching cannons. Our officers and soldiers are well-armed. Just three thousand thieves, are you going to beat us Wuyang with our heads? ! "

When the people around him heard these words, they couldn't help but nod and heaved a sigh of relief.

They even started talking about it——

"The county magistrate is right, there is no way that three thousand thieves can capture us in Wuyang."

"That's right, although Wuyang is a county town, it is still heavily guarded."

"I heard that there is a battalion of officers and soldiers at the government-run iron yard in the south. If we learn that the bandits are attacking the city, we will definitely come to support them."

"I just hope that these thieves will retreat when they see the difficulties, otherwise we, the common people, will suffer if a fight breaks out."

"···"

In the crowd, Jing Changshu frowned slightly as he listened to the discussions of ordinary people.

Ordinary people don't know, but he does.

The one thousand battalion soldiers mentioned before actually only have eight or nine hundred people, of which the combat soldiers and servants combined are less than 400, and the rest are auxiliary soldiers.

The combat effectiveness of the auxiliary troops was not as good as the 500 rural soldiers trained by the magistrate.

In addition, although the magistrate had cast more than a dozen cannons, he was stingy with gunpowder and almost did not let the rural soldiers practice them.

If a fight breaks out, the rural soldiers may not be able to make good use of those artillery pieces.

In the alley, Du Jin stood behind the crowd with strange eyes.

He was thinking that if this group of thieves was strong enough to capture the county, he might as well be an internal agent and surrender to the thieves, otherwise he would be driven to a dead end by Pan Laogou sooner or later...

After Pan Hong calmed the people in front of the alley in the southwest corner, he took action immediately.

On the one hand, he sent people to summon other rural soldiers and government officials to prepare to defend the city. He also sent people to notify the big households to be ready for the guards and servants to come to the city wall to support them.

As for himself, he took his youngest son and a hundred rural soldiers beside him and went straight to the southern city wall.

He looked out from the city gate tower and saw that the bandit army had arrived two miles away, and he couldn't help but frown.

Because just looking at the marching team, this bandit army gave him a very different feeling.

In the past few years, Pan Hong has seen several large groups of bandits and even rogue armies.

The main force of the rogue bandits mostly rides mules and horses, and they often attack for hundreds of miles. Although they do not pay attention to the uniformity of the team, it does not affect their combat effectiveness, but they rarely fight head-on with the official army.

But those large groups of bandits who lack mules and horses are often no different from refugees when they march. There is no queue at all, and there is not even a flag to command.

The group of thieves in front of them only had about two hundred riders, scattered around the main force, and they were obviously used as sentinels.

The main team has a clear banner, and the queues can be vaguely distinguished from a mile or two apart.

And there are many reflective armors (zhao, chainmail, etc.) in the front row of the team.

They are more like official soldiers than bandit soldiers.

When the main force of the bandits stopped about a mile and a half away and set up their military formations, Pan Hong felt that these bandits were more officers than soldiers.

Pan Cheng, the youngest son next to him, also had a solemn look on his face and said, "Dad, almost all of these thieves are wearing armor. Could it be that one of the officers and soldiers has rebelled and is coming to attack Wuyang?"

Pan Hong shook his head, "I don't know either."

In recent years, the imperial court has recruited and surrendered many bandits and bandits, and some of them were dissatisfied with their treatment and rebelled again.

The most typical example is Zhang Xianzhong, the Eighth King, who was cornered by the government and surrendered to survive. As a result, he trained hard for several months and became a rebel immediately when he became stronger.

As a result, the imperial court is still dragging hundreds of thousands of troops in Sichuan, costing the imperial court an unknown amount of money in food and supplies.

At this time, the camp guard Cheng Zhineng also came over with dozens of servants.