Be a small county magistrate in ancient times

Chapter 724 A Big Gamble

"I noticed how lazy they were when they changed shifts. There weren't even enough soldiers on duty," Zuo Datou continued. "According to our soldiers, they changed from three shifts per rotation to two shifts per rotation, with each shift lasting six hours. But people often leave early, and most of the time there's only one person guarding a distance of twenty zhang."

Meng Changqing frowned as he listened.

Zuo Datou said, "Sir, we can't let them continue to be lazy. If the Yan army is determined to attack, the current state of Hongjia County makes it too easy for them to take advantage of us. If the Yan army really manages to enter Hongjia County, we won't be able to protect ourselves either."

“You’re right.” Hearing this, Meng Changqing couldn’t sit still any longer. “You go and rest first, I’ll go to the city wall and check the situation.”

"My lord," Zuo Datou quickly followed, "I'll go with you."

Meng Changqing stopped and said to Zuo Datou, "You've been busy these past few days, you should get some rest. I'll take the others."

Meng Changqing was going to the wall, and Xi Bei and Chu Mufeng would definitely follow, making a total of three people.

The three men rode quickly to the wall, where soldiers on duty below rushed forward, saying, "Lord Meng."

"Tie the horse up, I'm going to climb up the wall and take a look."

The soldiers had barely taken the reins when Meng Changqing had already climbed several steps.

Xi Bei and Chu Mufeng quickly followed.

Meng Changqing took two or three steps at a time, quickly climbing up.

Once she got up there, she looked directly in the direction of Hongjia County.

The contrast was striking: there were soldiers every two or three steps on the Beishan County side, but once they reached Hongjia County, they couldn't see a single one.

"Where are their people?" Meng Changqing asked.

A leader nearby stepped forward and replied, "He said he had something to do and left before his shift was over, but he told our people to keep an eye on things for him."

"Quite polite, they even said goodbye before leaving early." Meng Changqing sneered, "Who among you agreed?" "No, no." Even if they had verbally agreed before, hearing Meng Changqing's question, they could only say no, "Border defense is no small matter. If something goes wrong, a few heads wouldn't be enough to lose. Who would dare to agree to them?"

In other words, even without a camera, if there were anything that could record the scene, Meng Changqing would have taken pictures of the situation on the Hongjia County city wall and shown them to Song Qingfeng.

Look at the mess your soldiers have made!

Actually, Meng Changqing was also terrified when she saw this scene. She only found out when Zuo Datou came to investigate.

If she sends someone to investigate a month later, how long will this situation continue? Until the Yan army discovers it?
Why didn't anyone tell her about the situation next door before?
Meng Changqing felt both fear and anger; Zhang Yuan had run into the line of fire.

Zhang Yuan happened to be patrolling the city wall when he heard his subordinates report that Lord Meng had arrived. He hurried over, but before he could even greet him, he saw Meng Changqing's gloomy face.

"Sir." Zhang Yuan had a vague premonition, but after thinking it over, he realized that nothing had gone wrong in his own little territory. The lord was just angry because of those unreliable people in Hongjia County.

Even if he's angry, that's a matter for Hongjia County, something Zhang Yuan can't control anyway, so the adults wouldn't take their anger out on him.

He assessed the situation and preemptively criticized the people next door, saying, "Look at those people, they are really unbecoming. It's only been a short time since Master Hua left, and they've already become so lazy."

Meng Changqing said with some confusion, "Brother Zhang, so you can talk!"

Although Zhang Yuan didn't quite understand what was being said, he knew it was an insult directed at him.

"Why didn't you say something like this sooner?" Meng Changqing was so angry that he couldn't control his tone.

When people encounter trouble, most of them will first try to exonerate themselves. So Zhang Yuan immediately said, "Sir, that's not my business. If I say anything, wouldn't I be being too nosy?"

This isn't just a matter of being talkative or not; essentially, Zhang Yuan was too tactful when things went wrong, afraid of offending anyone, so he gambled with Daliang's luck.

They were betting they wouldn't be so unlucky, that an external enemy would just happen to attack their door at this time.