The county magistrate, who had been chilled to the bone, snapped to his senses when he heard these shouts.
“We cannot close the city gate!” he shouted. “There are still several hundred people outside.”
The subordinate officials naturally knew this, and moreover saw the galloping bandits drawing their bows to shoot arrows, with fleeing people constantly falling dead.
“Sir,” they said mournfully, “if we don’t close the city gate, if the Xi Liang bandits charge into the city, our ten thousand people will all be unable to escape death.”
The county magistrate turned to look at the city interior. What had been a prosperous, bustling main street had descended into chaos. Countless people were running and wailing, doors and windows were closing, but if the bandits truly killed their way in, how could those doors and windows possibly stop swords, spears, and fire—
“The beacon fire, has the beacon fire been lit?” the county magistrate asked.
The officials nodded, but their expressions remained grief-stricken: “Sir, all of Yunzhong Commandery’s military defenses are at the border and cannot provide support. The garrisons in other commanderies to the rear are too far away, and moreover we’ve heard the court has ordered that garrisons everywhere must not act without authorization to come to Yunzhong Commandery—”
They had once celebrated being far from the border. Who could have imagined there would be a day when calling to heaven brought no response and calling to earth brought no answer?
They couldn’t worry about those people anymore. They had to close the city gate. The city was their only refuge now.
The county magistrate naturally understood this principle as well. He looked ahead. Those bandits were getting closer and closer to the people. The foremost bandit had already put away his bow and arrows, taken down his large sword, and was laughing wildly as he looked at the fleeing people—
The people had nowhere to go. The city gate ahead was their only path to survival.
The county magistrate turned to look at those on the city wall and shouted: “How many constables do we have?”
The officials were startled: “Sir, what are you planning to do?”
The county magistrate said: “This official cannot watch the people die before my eyes. This official will go kill the enemy and block them, so everyone can enter the city.”
He looked again at the constables.
“You and I all receive the sovereign’s salary and are supported by the common people. Today, are you willing to join this official in rescuing the people, rescuing our own families, and our city?”
The constables raised the swords and spears in their hands: “We are willing!”
“Sir!” The officials grabbed the county magistrate and knelt down, their voices choked with emotion. “You cannot go—this is going to your death!”
The county magistrate looked toward the wilderness outside the city, at more and more people about to be caught and cut down, the people crying out in despair.
“Even unto death, without regret,” he said. He shook off the officials and strode toward the city gate below.
Behind him, over thirty constables followed closely.
“Once all the people have entered the city, close the city gate.”
The county magistrate threw back one last sentence.
“Don’t concern yourselves with our lives or deaths.”
The officials on the city wall knelt down, their heads to the ground, sobbing.
……
……
In the winter of the fifth year of Yongning, Gao County in Shangjun was raided by Xi Liang infiltrators who burned, killed, and plundered. The county magistrate led thirty constables and died fighting.
Outside Yunzhong Commandery, beacon fires also rose on all sides.