"Reinforcements, what's the best reinforcements? Haven't the bandits launched an attack yet?"

Ma Sidi cursed angrily: "Go back and tell Hou Xiong that if the bandits launch an attack, I will hold back. If the Qiantang Gate is so good that Hou Chao Gate will lose it, I will chop his head. Do you understand?"

"Here!"

The messenger was startled and ran away quickly.

After getting angry, Ma Sidi went to the city gate and came to Pan Ruzhen to persuade: "Governor, I think the situation is still not optimistic now. There are too many thieves. The soldiers guarding the city have not had a good rest for several days. Why don't we recruit another group of young and strong people?"

Pan Ruzhen pondered for a while and said slowly: "Yes, I wonder how many more people do you want to recruit?"

"Of course the more, the better."

After Ma Sidi blurted out, he realized that he was talking nonsense. Judging from the population base of Hangzhou Prefecture, recruiting 18,000 young and strong men is like playing. Judging from the current situation, even if it is 30,000 to 50,000 young and strong men is fine, but the biggest problem now is that they don’t have that much money at all.

The young and strong are different from regular officers and soldiers. The Ming Dynasty law stipulates that if the government recruits young and strong, it will pay a settlement fee. Generally speaking, the settlement fee for each young and strong is at least not less than ten taels. If you really want to follow what Ma Sidi said, the more, the better. It is different that when the bandits attack, they will have gone bankrupt long ago.

Besides, the young and strong people have never received training, and the casualties on the battlefield are astonishingly large. In these days of battles, the casualties of the young and strong people account for 60% to 70% of the total casualties. If the young and strong people are still recruited to defend the city, the casualties will be greatly affected.

Unexpectedly, after hearing Ma Sidi's words, Pan Ruzhen thought about it seriously and said after a while: "I have ordered another eight thousand young and strong people to be recruited this morning. I believe that I will hand over the person to you this evening. Hangzhou Prefecture must not be abandoned!"

"The official understands."

What else could Ma Sidi say? He could only agree.

Just as Ma Sidi was preparing to go down the city gate tower, a roar suddenly came from a distance, and a projectile hit the city wall heavily. The five-pound projectile with powerful kinetic energy smashed a battlement as big as a table. The two young and strong men hiding behind the battlement were smashed by the flying blue bricks and gravels everywhere, and they fell to the ground and kept wailing.

The young and strong man next to him immediately stepped forward and lifted the two injured companions down.

"What the hell is going on? How come the bandits have artillery? Where did these artillery come from?"

Seeing that the city wall was actually bombarded, Ma Sidi was stunned and grabbed the Qianli Milestone and looked at the place where the sound of the cannon sounded. Sure enough, he saw more than ten cannons lined up, and dozens of gunners were busy manipulating the cannons. However, these gunners were not very familiar with the guys in their hands and their movements were very unfamiliar.

"Master Ma, can you tell me where the thieves got the cannons?" Pan Ruzhen, who was quite calm these days, has also lost his composure. He has been very difficult to defend these days. Being able to hold on is nothing more than a large amount of silver rewards and dozens of cannons on the city wall. But if even the thieves have cannons, how can they fight this battle?

"Although Xiaguan has not received the news yet, Xiaguan has reason to believe that the bandits' artillery must have been seized by them in conquering Huizhou Prefecture and Ningguo Prefecture, and they don't know how to use artillery, otherwise they would not have been taken out until now."

"Well, it makes sense."
Chapter completed!