Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 331: Trading Space for Time
"call out--"

As dawn was about to break, the sharp sound of arrows tore through the lead-gray sky.

Denglai Governor Lu Wenjin suddenly jumped up from the straw mat, and his military uniform made a crisp sound on the stone floor.

He had just retreated into the city with the defeated soldiers last night, and the straw in the corner of the room was still wet with dew.

"Enemy attack!" Shouts suddenly erupted from the city wall.

Lu Wenjin picked up his sword and walked out of the tower. The bleak morning breeze, wrapped in the smell of mud, blew in his face.

He put on his armor while running, the armor plates of the mountain armor clattered with his movements, and the breastplate tilted and hit his ribs as he ran.

The orange sun was struggling to rise from the horizon.

The battlements of the city wall were crowded with defenders with bows and arrows drawn. Lu Wenjin held his chest, which was heaving violently, and his sweaty palms left wet marks on the arrow embrasures.

Outside the city, the ground was swirling with smoke and dust. The rebel cavalry came galloping, but suddenly turned around three hundred steps away from the city wall, like a giant black python circling the outskirts of the city.

"The enemy army is coming to kill us!" The voice of a defending general was tense and his shoulders trembled violently.

The rebels shot arrows at the city walls, but no defenders dared to fight back.

Arrows flew, and the rebel ranks suddenly erupted into thunderous laughter.

Thousands of rebels immediately dismounted, played music and danced in front of the defenders, and even temporarily selected a dance champion. The defenders could only be forced to "appreciate" the rebels' talent show on the wall.

After having enough fun, thousands of rebels retreated to the post station ten miles away and set up camp.

Even though they were humiliated on the battlefield, the defenders had no intention of asking for a fight. Instead, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing this, Lu Wenjin couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

The thousands of rebel vanguards frightened the defenders into losing their minds.

What if the main force of the rebels arrives?
The rebels claimed to have assembled an army of 100,000 to attack Shandong directly, and ordered the prefectures and counties along the way to open their cities and surrender, otherwise they would be severely punished if they broke into the cities.

Regardless of whether Lu Wenjin believed this number or not, it showed that the Beiwei Army was heading towards Shandong.

Lu Wenjin felt a pang of pain in his heart. Why didn't the rebels go straight to western Liaoning, but instead chose to go to Shandong and kill him by surprise?

Lu Wenjin thought about it and wondered if the entire province of Shandong could gather 30,000 troops. It would also take time to dispatch reinforcements from other provinces.

Fortunately, he had been sitting on the city wall yesterday to stabilize the morale of the army, otherwise the defenders would have abandoned the city and fled, and Denglai Prefecture would have been handed over to the rebels.

Even if the rebels didn't catch him, the emperor would allow him to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence, and if he retreated further, he would have to retreat to Qingzhou and Jinan.

There is a vassal king in the city.

The crime of losing a relative vassal state leaves almost no one alive. When the Red Turban rebels conquered the Lu vassal state, they were able to escape danger only after the Black Flag Camp and the Shandong civil and military officials shared the credit.

Now he doesn't have the loyal Lord Li to help him fight...

Ugh.

The state of affairs is difficult.

Lu Wenjin shook his head, appointed his trusted generals to take over the city defense, and immediately set off for the granary and arsenal to see how much supplies he could mobilize. He had come here for an inspection before taking office, and the granary and arsenal were full, so there should be no accidents.

Inside the Laizhou granary, the gloomy morning light slanted in from the high windows, and the air was filled with the faint fragrance of grains.

Lu Wenjin was still dressed in military uniform, with a sword at his waist, and dozens of personal soldiers following behind him.

The granary clerk had a smile on his face, his back hunched, as he accompanied Lu Wenjin. Along the way, he boasted that he did not dare to neglect the preparation of grain, which was enough to last the army for three months.

He also said that the Beiwei rebels were nothing to be feared, and that they could be quickly defeated under the wise leadership of Lu Futai.

The chief clerk pointed to a few grain bags at the bottom of the pile, with golden grains sticking out of the sacks.

"Hmm..." Lu Wenjin nodded silently. The current state of the granary was just as he had seen it at the beginning, with sacks piled up like mountains and full of grain.

The chief clerk handed over the food spy respectfully, with a look of joy and enthusiasm, just like a host raising a glass to entertain guests.

Lu Wenjin naturally would not do it himself, but asked the leader of the personal guards to do it for him. The latter picked up the food spy and symbolically packed a few bags full of golden corn.

"Very good, very good. You have a good way of managing food supplies. In this way, our Laizhou will surely hold out for several months, waiting for reinforcements to arrive. If you can successfully repel the rebels, I will definitely credit you with the first achievement."

"Thank you, Your Excellency, for your kindness..." The chief clerk was immediately delighted.

After a string of bad news lately, there was finally something that felt good. As Lu Wenjin was pondering, the leader of the personal guards stabbed another bag, only to deflect it with the force and stab the bag in the back row.

Sand poured out like a waterfall, piling up into small brown hills on the blue brick ground.

Lu Wenjin, the head of the personal guards, and the granary clerk looked at each other, and they all saw the surprise and fear in each other's eyes.

The originally relieved smile was obscured by dark clouds. Lu Wenjin pointed coldly at the deeper grain bags. Bags of grain were pierced, and without exception, they were all filled with sand.

It turns out that only 10% of the outer part of the granary is real grain, and the rest is all sand.

"I was inspecting Laizhou half a year ago, and you got away with it like this?!" Lu Wenjin suddenly felt dizzy. It turned out that the grain shortage existed before he took office.

How can we defend Laizhou City without food?!

"Lu Futai, I deserve to die!"

The chief clerk fell to his knees with a thud, repeatedly saying that he was wronged. These days, wars are frequent, either against the Red Turban bandits or the beggar bandits. Previously, the court organized a major campaign to recover Liao, and a large amount of Shandong grain and grass was withdrawn.

Originally, Liaodong was recovered and Shandong's grain reserves could be slowly replenished. However, the beggars became more and more powerful, and some of the bandits' scattered soldiers even broke into southern Shandong.

Even if he wanted to replenish the granary, he couldn't keep up with the speed of the calls from various places.

"Please, sir, for the sake of my loyalty and service, please forgive me this time!"

The chief clerk knelt forward, grabbed Lu Wenjin's right leg, and then used his body as a shield to stuff a stack of papers into Lu Wenjin's palm.

Lu Wenjin looked down and saw that they were five silver notes from Tongfu Money House, totaling one thousand taels of silver.

Lu Wenjin was furious. How could a small clerk take out a thousand taels of silver notes casually? How much of the granary's income had he embezzled?

"Do you think I can't enforce military law?" Lu Wenjin drew his sword and held it against the chief clerk's neck.

Unexpectedly, when the other party was about to die, he showed no fear at all. He raised his head and confidently declared that he was just a small clerk, and the income from the granary was not enough for one person, so it had to be shared by some lords in the province.

A small clerk has been able to keep this job for so many years without any problems. Does he really think that he is "serving loyally"?

Even if Lu Wenjin killed him, it would be of little use. It would also expose the truth that there was no food in the city and undermine the morale of the army.

By the time Laizhou falls, and an inspector investigates and uncovers the root cause of the failure, how will the provincial officials view Lu Futai?
Making enemies with others is the biggest taboo in officialdom. This means that the shadow behind you will always shoot arrows at you. Even if you do good things, you will still be criticized a lot and affect the emperor's judgment.

It would be better for Futai Lu to accept the "gift money" and swallow into his heart what he has seen and heard today. It will be good for you, me, and everyone else.

Moreover, since the recovery of Liaodong, the position of Governor of Shandong has been vacant. Although Lu Wenjin is now the Governor of Denglai, he can also take charge of the other four prefectures in this extraordinary period. The court will often recognize the power of the local officials, making it easier for them to suppress bandits.

Although he knew that the other party was corrupting him, the other party's words were like a spell, constantly draining his strength, and his right hand holding the sword was unable to use enough force to cut his skin.

Kill this big rat to uphold the law of the country!
Use the death of the chief clerk to deter the villains in the city and concentrate the power of the governor!

Words like these echoed in his mind, and the chief clerk kept chattering at his feet, "Lu Futai, make a decision quickly!" The sound of metal clashing filled his ears, and an invisible burden seemed to be pressing on his shoulders. In the end, Lu Wenjin took back his sword.

Alone against the entire province's "officialdom", he could not be as brave and courageous as Hai Rui, and he didn't even dare to kill the small chief clerk in front of him.

Ugh.

Lu Wenjin led his personal soldiers to retreat in a panic, and then went to the armory for a round. Although most of the goods there were also inferior products, the situation was still less serious than that in the granary.

With food and fodder in dire shortage and inadequate military equipment, how can Laizhou City be defended?

Lu Wenjin immediately called his personal staff to hold a "private meeting".

According to traditional thinking, the natural approach would be to win over the wealthy and powerful and ask them to "donate" food and wages, and then use the money and food to recruit able-bodied men in the city. In addition, the best Tangma were sent out to urgently seek help from all directions.

However, this plan was rejected by the staff as soon as it was proposed.

The staff were all "cultured people" who came from the ranks of scholars and juren. They worked as staff for the governor, firstly to realize their ideals and ambitions, and secondly to accumulate wealth and connections. They knew deeply about the moral character of the gentry and powerful people, and even if they went to raise funds, they would not be able to raise much money.

Since this plan did not work, some people suggested calling on the gentry to arm their servants, and the shortage of military equipment could be temporarily made up by the prefecture and county arsenals.

After all, this was a temporary resistance measure and did not violate the "militia training ban."

Besides, after the frequent baptism of bandits in recent years, the gentry and powerful people in the Central Plains region had long begun to build strongholds for self-protection and train teams of retainers.

Although these private servants did not have the organization and scale of formal militia, they were a force that could not be ignored.

This suggestion was indeed good, but the rebels had already reached Dengzhou Prefecture and there was no time to train servants for the local gentry.

The gentry in the three western prefectures might still be able to escape in time, but that would mean the loss of half of the province in the three eastern prefectures, and no one could bear the blame for the repeated loss of land.

Some people expressed their fearlessness, saying that the beggar bandits were about to march eastward. If the bandit army and the rebel army met, it would be a situation where there could not be two tigers in one mountain, and the government army would be able to reap the benefits.

But some people retorted, "You are foolish! If the bandits and rebels cut off the canal transport and caused a stir in the imperial court, even if you and I had nine heads, it would not be enough to chop off!"

"Can Lord Li from Southern Henan come to our aid?"

"He's surrounded by bandits, how can he spare any effort?"

"What should we do? The rebels are so powerful. Are we just trapped in this isolated city?"

"I have a plan, but I don't know whether I should tell you or not." At this time, a middle-aged man stroking his beard spoke.

"explain."

"Burn the granaries and arsenals, abandon the city and flee."

"what?!"

When everyone heard this, they immediately started to scold him. Isn't this just putting the blame on Dong Weng?
Unless the Ming Dynasty was overthrown by traitors, even if Lu Wenjin resigned from his official position, he would be arrested by the imperial guards and thrown into prison.

Lu Wenjin knew the other person well, so she waved her hand to stop the quarrel that had not yet begun to escalate. "Go on."

The man gave a meaningful smile and immediately said that burning the granary was only one of the reasons.

He hoped that Dong Weng would order all granaries in Denglai Prefecture and even in the counties and prefectures around Qingzhou City to be burned down.

No matter how fast the rebels advance, it is useless to capture a city that consumes food. The "empty cities" will also disperse the troops and stretch the supply lines.

Whenever the rebels ran out of food, they would go to the countryside to collect it.

The rebels boast of their strict military discipline and their concern for the welfare of the common people, so they will certainly not rob the rural civilians.

So the question is, who will the food-starved rebels attack?

Naturally, it was the gentry and powerful people with wealthy warehouses.

The staff were all from a cultural background and knew the "weakness" of the gentry and literati. Whenever they had to take sides, they would think about preserving their financial resources and being obedient citizens.

Once the "new dynasty" becomes unstable, they will transform themselves into supporters of the old dynasty.

No matter who sits on the throne, he has to make use of these gentry and scholars. Would he use those peasants who can't even read a single word?

But if the rebels attacked them directly, this group of "weak intellectuals" would face a life-and-death crisis and would definitely contribute money and effort, and summon their clansmen and servants to resist the rebels.

Although the gentry would not have much fighting power in such a hurry, it was enough for them to create trouble in the heart of the rebels and buy time for the court to mobilize troops.

Even if we take a step back and say that the rebels do not want to attack the gentry and are unwilling to exploit the poor, they can only wait for the summer harvest season to arrive or for the food and grass to be slowly transported from the rear.

This also bought time for the court.

It only takes one or two months to dispatch troops and food supplies, and the court will have the confidence to fight against the rebels.

"You want to fortify the city and clear the countryside?" Lu Wenjin's eyes widened, as if he had discovered a ray of light in the darkness.

But some people argued that burning the granaries of more than ten counties was no less than abandoning the two prefectures of Deng and Lai. If the imperial court blamed him, how could Dong Weng bear it?
The counselor said that this was not difficult.

The granaries in Laizhou alone were 90% short of their supply, and the granaries in other places were not much better, with countless officials involved.

At this time, Governor Denglai ordered them to burn the granary to plug the "hole" for them, which was a great help to them.

Even provincial officials had to owe Lu Wenjin a favor.

Even if the court blamed them, these grateful officials would help out and try to get a "meritorious service at the expense of their crimes."

Even if Dong Weng was dismissed from his official position, he could still save his life.

After all, those officials, big and small, are helping Dong Weng to help themselves. Otherwise, if the matter is exposed, everyone will lose face.

Once Dong Weng successfully overcomes the difficulties and sits firmly in the rear, officials from all over the province will surely cooperate.

The whole province was united, not only to repel the rebels, but at least to hold the city for several months until more reinforcements arrived.

Once the rebels and the gentry become fed up with each other, it will be a good time to gather reinforcements from all sides and destroy the bandits in one battle!
"Great!" Lu Wenjin couldn't help but exclaim in praise after hearing this.

This plan is insightful and even takes Lu Wenjin's personal future into consideration. It can be said to be a blessing after a long drought!

The only drawback was that all the gentry and civilians in Laizhou had to be left to the rebels, and Lu Wenjin always felt a little guilty about it.

But when he thought about being able to "punish" the granary clerk at the same time, for example, not informing the clerk in advance when burning the granary and escaping... Lu Wenjin immediately adopted the plan.

He also instructed his staff to perfect the details of the plan.

The group had a very pleasant conversation and immediately contacted the defending general, suggesting that he should prepare to leave the city.

Of course, the strategist added some "insurance" on his own and placed piles of firewood in many places in the city.

After all, burning a granary would only create some obstacles for the rebels.

But if the entire city is burned down, all the people in the city will become a burden on the shoulders of the rebels.

Since your Beiwei Army never oppresses the common people, you are asked to be more tolerant.

(End of this chapter)