Tongxiang County.

The clouds are thick, the autumn wind is bleak, and it looks like another autumn rain, but there is a peaceful atmosphere in the city, and even the sound of festive firecrackers is heard from time to time.

Outside the East City Gate, purple-black blood seeped into the soil, and the four towering Beijing Temples covered with quicklime were a miserable situation of hell on earth.

But from time to time at the head of the city, there were people who stuffed a string of copper coins to the guards of the city, and secretly climbed up to look at it a few times, and their faces were pale and at the same time they were amazed, and they all said...... Good thing the broomstar is here!

Sure enough, it's a broom star, and it's a special one to kill the Japanese Kou!

This sentence was said casually by Liang Sheng when he handed out the silver reward on the night of entering the city, and it has been spread throughout the city of Tongxiang in just three days.

Then, from the next day, Liang Sheng, who had practiced martial arts since he was a child and did not like to read, was locked in a room to copy Buddhist scriptures......

Unlike two years ago, although Xu Hai's raid on Jiaxing Mansion this time was as fast as lightning, before him, there had been several invasions of Japanese pirates, so a large number of families and wealthy merchants near Pinghu, Haiyan, and Xiushui temporarily moved to Tongxiang.

I thought that Tongxiang was the safest place in the whole province, after all, the governor's yamen was here, but I didn't expect that the governor of Zhejiang, Ruan He, was greedy and reckless, and Lu Bo's 4,000 army was lost, and when he couldn't live in panic, Qian Yuan led the army to sweep through Xu Hai, and the Japanese even failed to organize an offensive in Tongxiang County.

In the side hall of the governor's yamen, Qian Yuan and Wu Baipeng were listening to the praise of the big family with a smile, and all kinds of good words were used, so they almost offered Qian Yuan.

After talking nonsense for a while, Qian Yuan put away his smile and coughed twice, "Ahem, there were also a lot of losses in this battle, fifty or sixty bird guns were broken alone, and other spears, war horses, long knives, etc., ......"

Qian Yuan chattered while intentionally or unintentionally looking at the old acquaintance sitting not far away, Xiang Dushou, the first in Jiaxing, he went to Beijing at the beginning of the year to catch the exam and failed the list for the second time, and returned to his hometown in April this year.

Xiang Dushou swallowed his saliva and said with a smile: "Zhancai, leave such a trivial matter to us, if it weren't for you this time, we might not be able to withstand the siege of the Japanese invaders with all our wealth." ”

"Yes, I heard that the inventory of the governor's yamen is not enough to reward silver, and don't take the cloth and silk in the library, just say the number!"

"Silver, this thing is not brought in life, and it is not brought in death!"

Wu Baipeng and Qian Yuan were speechless after glancing at each other, and they were so conscious when they got up, it was simple!

Qian Yuan couldn't help but muttered in his heart, two years ago in Chongde County, he was just scaring and scare, and this time he didn't even need to scare......

Qian Yuan underestimated the threat brought by Xu Hai's invasion of Jiaxing Mansion to these big households, more than ten days ago Xiushui County was breached, and the five big families in the city who had not had time to flee were not left, and the female dependents were hung on a high place, two of which had entered the Shishi, and this matter has been coaxed to the southeast, and these big families will inevitably have a sense of sadness for the death of rabbits and foxes.

It is difficult for the big families to judge what the Japanese will do next, and they are not stingy with this bit of silver, because they hope that Qian Yuan can lead the army to stay in Tongxiang and save their lives.

Sending away this group of people, Qian Yuan estimated in his heart, yes, make up for the dozen or so war horses on Hou Jigao's side, and then make up for the ordnance that was lost one after another, and he could still make three thousand silver......

There is no way, the landlord's family has no surplus food, Qian Yuan brought seventy-two guards out, and now there are only fifty-eight people left, and almost everyone is injured, and the reward and ordnance are all money, and Qian Yuan is also ready to recruit craftsmen to make bird guns, and even improve them.

"Brother Weixi, half of it." Qian Yuan shook his hand and said, "There is no silver in your hand, and no one below will run errands for you!" ”

Wu Baipeng smiled bitterly and was silent, in the past two years, he has actually lived a very aggrieved life, and he is as honest as water and refuses to make money, only accepts some common practices, and is shy in his pocket.

The two chatted and went to the study, originally this was a specially arranged pantry by Ruan E, the space was not small, Qian Yuan temporarily changed it into a study, and a large map hung on the wall, which was painted with a brush dipped in ink and other paints.

"Today's horse exploration report, Wuzhen, Nanxun have Japanese bandits, in addition, Huzhou capital Deqing County has long been breached, the Japanese robbers plundered the north, but Wukang County has held on to this day, and the besieging Japanese invaders have also gone north." Wu Baipeng sighed: "Xu Hai wants to escape." ”

"Eighty percent can't be stopped." Qian Yuan spread his hands, picked up the Miao knife leaning against the table and drew a line on the map, "From Wuzhen, Nanxun to the east, through Wangjiangjing, there are Xiushui County, Jiaxing County, Chongde County ...... nearby"

"There are too many places to escape, Jinshan and Nanhui in Songjiang Prefecture, Haiyan, Haining and Pinghu in Jiaxing Prefecture." Qian Yuan shook his head, "Unless Yu Dayou and Wang Chonggu go south quickly, Liu Xian of Shaoxing Mansion will go north to Haining at the same time, and send warships to fight at sea to find out where Xu Hai's fleet is." ”

"Battleship ......" Qian Yuan touched his chin that began to grow his beard, "I heard the news, Taizhou is ...... Qi Yuanjing, his brother-in-law, and Jingchuan Gong all went to sea by boat and made a lot of gains. ”

In this war, the coastal provinces also fought the best in Taizhou, killing 2,000 Japanese and capturing more than ten sea ships, just like that, Qi Yuanjing and Tan Zili didn't make much effort.

Wu Baipeng also immediately shook his head, this is almost impossible, it is impossible for the north and south sides to cooperate so well, and the officers and troops are naturally afraid of going to sea to fight.

"Shaoxing Mansion and Ningbo Mansion are still in chaos, although the large group of Japanese robbers has retreated, but the small group of Japanese robbers are flowing everywhere." Wu Baipeng sighed: "Liu Xian is only afraid that he will not lead the army to the north so quickly, and he doesn't know how Songjiang Mansion and Suzhou Mansion are, and Yu Dayou has not gone south to aid Jiaxing Mansion until now......"

"According to Hou Longquan, after Xu Hai defeated Lu Bo's 4,000-strong army, many Japanese robbers came from the sea to pounce on Songjiang and Suzhou." Qian Yuan no longer had much hope that he could keep Xu Hai this time, although Yu Dayou was the chief soldier of Wu Song, he actually did not have many troops in his hands.

This is the usual way of decentralization in the Ming Dynasty, the new army under the command of Yu Dayou is only about 4,000 troops, and is responsible for suppressing the Japanese full-time, and Dong Bangzheng, the deputy general of Wusong, is mainly responsible for the defense of Huating and Shanghai counties, while the 3,000 troops under Wang Chonggu are not in Songjiang Mansion, but only in charge of Suzhou Mansion.

Hu Zongxian, the governor of Zhejiang, led the soldiers and horses of the six provinces, but in fact, everywhere was fighting for itself, and he did not completely obey Hu Zongxian's deployment, not to mention the rest, Yu Dayou was transferred away, and Songjiang Mansion would inevitably jump to his feet, once Songjiang Mansion was plundered by the Japanese invaders, no matter what the results of Yu Dayou's southward aid to Jiaxing Mansion were, there would be impeachment and twists in the DPRK and China, and Hu Zongxian would not be able to protect Yu Dayou.

Therefore, Hu Zongxian's power is actually mainly reflected in Zhejiang Province, which is also an important reason why he excluded Ruan He, the governor of Zhejiang.

Qian Yuan couldn't help but feel a little pity for Hu Zongxian, and he did his best to climb to the position of governor of Zhejiang, nominally commanding the soldiers and horses of the six provinces, but in fact his power was far inferior to the governor of Xuanda and Jiliao in the north.

However, this time Qian Yuan and Wu Baipeng both guessed wrong.

At dusk that day, Liu Xian, a general in eastern Zhejiang, led an army of 2,000 to gallop to Tongxiang, and Hu Zongxian was in the army.

Outside the governor's yamen, the soldiers selected by the two rows stood with their heads held high, but the spears, birds, and waist knives in their hands were all damaged.

He Xinyin and Wu Chengqi, the two old men who came from Shangyu, smiled bitterly, Hu Zongxian put Qian Yuan together more than half a month ago, and now Qian Yuan is going to ask for the debt...... Look, with such a broken weapon, you have killed more than 1,000 widows, do you Hu Zongxian want to allocate more silver?

Wu Baipeng was a little uncomfortable all over his body, he admired Qian Yuan's courage and knowledge, admired Qian Yuan's bravery, and admired Qian Yuan's superb cooking skills, but this guy also loves silver too much, and he just picked up a pen from a big household in the city!

Dozens of horses galloped and stopped at the entrance of the yamen, and Hu Zongxian, who was the leader, turned over and dismounted, striding in, with an abnormal flush on his tired face.

Wu Baipeng, He Xinyin, Wu Chengqi, Lu Bin, and Hou Jigao all retreated to both sides and separated into a passage.

Hu Zongxian walked all the way to the back of the crowd and bowed deeply to Qian Yuan, who was about to ask for silver.