Of course, those who can be invited by local officials like Pan Ruzhen to watch the battle at the city wall are not unknown people. On the contrary, these people are all well-known figures in Hangzhou Prefecture. They either have wealth or have thousands of hectares of fertile land. People like the clean and honest man do not exist here.

However, when these people who are usually reserved, rich or majestic, face the overwhelming black bandits under the city, all the so-called reserve and majestic are gone, and instead are panic and panic. The rich-looking gentleman is the first to collapse.

Collapse is contagious, and when a person collapses, it often causes a chain reaction.

When the gentry cried, the people around him began to get messy. Some of their bodies were shaking like sieves, some leaned against the guardrail and their eyes were dull. Some even became so scared that they were incontinent on the spot. The dripping urine flowed out from under their trousers' legs and they were completely unaware of it. For a moment, the crying, shouting, and screaming sounded on the city gate tower.

In addition to Pan Ruzhen and these gentry, there were dozens of soldiers from Fubiao Camp standing on the city gate tower. Many people saw the ugly appearance of the "big figures" who were dressed and above, and they showed contemptuous eyes in their eyes. If they were afraid of the strict military discipline, someone would have made apologies.

Pan Ruzhen walked slowly to the middle of everyone and said sternly: "Everyone, you have also seen the current situation. The bandits are very anxious to attack the city. The soldiers are using their lives to fight for time for us to survive.

If the city wall fails, you should also be clear about what will happen without me telling me. Don’t think about being out of the way!”

These gentry are naturally not fools. After many people exchanged glances with each other, one of the old men stood up tremblingly and saluted Pan Ruzhen, "Don't worry, Governor, although Lao Jiu and others cannot hold their shoulders and cannot resist, they have at least been living in Hangzhou Prefecture for so long. They can't help with big things, but small things like running errands can always be helped. If you have any questions, just give me instructions. As long as I can do it, don't refuse."

Although this old man stood there trembling as if a gust of wind could blew away, Pan Ruzhen knew very well that this old man was the president of the Huishang Chamber of Commerce stationed in Hangzhou. It can be said that if he stamped his feet, the business community in Hangzhou would be shocked three times."

What I fear most about this kind of thing is singing a one-man show. If someone helps to show his eyes, it will be much easier.

Pan Ruzhen has been in the officialdom for most of his life, so why don’t he know the principle of fighting snakes and sticks?

Seeing someone taking a ladder, he quickly said, "Since Mr. Weiqing said that, I'm not polite to the Pufu. Now the bandits are in a hurry to attack the city, and the soldiers guarding the city suffer great casualties. Now we can say that we are short of everything. We lack silver, food, doctors, and medicinal materials, but the most important thing is lack of people.

Thousands of young and strong men who defended the city alone have suffered casualties, so I decided to recruit another 8,000 young and strong men to help the officers and soldiers defend the city. I also know that you still have many servants who are here to come to protect the house. I plan to recruit these people to help defend the city. I wonder what you think?’”

Seeing Pan Ruzhen asking for money, food, medicine, doctors, these wealthy gentry looked normal, but when they heard that they wanted to requisition their servants, many people couldn't help but look hesitant on their faces.

Pan Ruzhen took all this and continued: Logically speaking, these people are all your servants, and even the court is not willing to force the requisition, but now the situation is urgent, I can't take care of much. If Hangzhou City is broken, no matter how many servants can save your lives, do you think that's the reason?"

"Stop... stop..."

The old man, known as Duke Weiqing, stomped his feet and sighed, "No need to say anything about the governor. I still know the truth that my lips are dead and my teeth are cold. Now I immediately asked me to send all the servants in the mansion here for the governor and Lord Ma to send him. As long as I can defend the city of Hangzhou, it is worth it that they will all die on the top of the city!"

"Your Majesty is noble!" Pan Ruzhen was overjoyed. As long as the old man spoke, the others would be able to do anything else.

If so, the people around him also said, "Don't worry, Governor, the Cao people are willing to send more than 30 servants in their home here for your dispatch."

"There are more than a hundred servants in Caomin's family, and they are willing to send them all."

"There are not many servants in the Caomin family, but the Caomin is willing to provide the army with two thousand stones of food and grass and five thousand taels of silver."

"Caomin is willing to provide a batch of herbs, six doctors."

"Caomin is willing to donate 6,000 taels of silver to the army."

Looking at the generous gentry, Pan Ruzhen became energetic and bowed to everyone with a smile on his face to express his gratitude.

Soon, these gentry said goodbye, and their reasons for leaving were very strong. They wanted to go back to raise supplies. But looking at the impatient and even busy steps of these people, they looked like a group of refugees fleeing famine.

The guerrilla general of the governor's battalion walked to Pan Ruzhen and reminded: "Governor, these people are all old people, so be careful that they will disobey their slander."

"It's okay!"

Pan Ruzhen waved his hand and said quietly.

"As long as the bandits are still outside the city for a day, we don't have to worry about them going to make trouble, because these people know very well what will happen if the city is broken, so Benfu never worried that they will be liable for the debt. What I worry about and worry about the most now is when the Duke of Xinguo will arrive. You must know that our people can't hold on for too long."

Pan Ruzhen's concerns were reasonable. After seven days of battle, the guards of Hangzhou Prefecture had long been exhausted. If they hadn't been relying on the baskets of silver and the long swords of the supervising team, they would have been unable to hold on.

But even so, the number of defenders is still too small. The original 5,000 defenders, plus 10,000 young and strong men and more than 1,000 private soldiers who were kidnapped from salt merchants and maritime merchants, have now been killed 30% of them, and the rest are all exhausted. If there is no new force to supplement them, Pan Ruzhen is really worried that when everyone's nerve that has been too tense would suddenly break, and by that time everything will be over...

Just as Li Zicheng was commanding 70,000 to 80,000 bandits to attack Hangzhou Prefecture, less than fifty miles away from Hangzhou Prefecture, a team of cavalry was quietly advancing towards Hangzhou Prefecture from a small road.
Chapter completed!