Section 193 Dengzhou Road

The gravel-paved official road became almost unrecognizable at your feet. The dawn wind blew from the wilderness, even if he was wearing a windbreaker and a hood, Zhao Yinggong still felt cold.

The journey from Hangzhou to Dengzhou was difficult and dangerous. In the territory of Nanzhi, along the canal north all the way to sit on the boat provided by Xu Guangqi's family, along the way there are Xu family's family to take care of, not only the journey is comfortable, but also the convenience of passing the gate, the courtesy and thoughtfulness of the officials along the way, and the strength of the people to levy and send people, all let Zhao Yingong once again fully understand the majesty of the gentry.

It is no wonder that so many people want to be officials, and those who make a fortune in business cannot forget to hire famous teachers and bribe examiners for their children, and do everything possible to give them a difference between officials and people "within the system", which is really the so-called "difference between cloud and mud".

However, as soon as he crossed the Yellow River, his feelings of the difference between the government and the people disappeared.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River was seized into the sea, and the mouth of the sea was near Xuzhou. Crossing the Yellow River near Xuzhou, it went out of Nanzhili and entered the territory of Shandong.

The Grand Canal is also navigable in Shandong, but not in Dengzhou. As soon as the cadres abandoned the boat and landed in Xuzhou, they took the land route instead. Zhao Tong used to walk through the darts on the North Road and reminded everyone to be careful along the way

Although the territory of Nanzhi looked much more desolate after crossing the Yangtze River, as soon as he crossed the Yellow River and began to enter the territory of Shandong, Zhao Yinggong really felt the harshness of the environment.

Even though it was the height of summer, there were no crops in the fields, and large areas of land were barren, and the trees along the way were dead in patches, and when you walked in, you realized that they had all been stripped of their bark. Among the grass and trees, scattered dead bones can be seen from time to time.

The villages that happened to pass by were either overgrown with artemisia grass, houses collapsed, or high walls and deep ditches, and the villagers were heavily guarded. Zhao Yinggong inquired and found out that less than ten years ago, in 1622, the Great Rebellion of the White Lotus Sect launched by Xu Hongru broke out in southern Shandong, with Jining as the center and reaching Rizhao in the east, Heze in the west, and Xuzhou in the south. In recent years, there have been floods, and the government's Tianfu has been sent day by day, bandits are everywhere, and the people have died and fled, leaving only the devastated land. Even in broad daylight, small groups of bandits are also operating in public, and there are desperate people everywhere, so Zhao Yinggong and his party, in addition to the guards with their own dart bureau, the Xu family also sent more than a dozen brave and strong guards along the way.

In this way, he was frightened all the way and walked north. When I walked to Yizhou, I encountered a heavy rainstorm and flooded. The water was six or seven feet deep, and it was not easy to get a boat. Zhao Yingong looked at the homeless people who were helping the old and the young all over the ground and the corpses that died along the way, and couldn't help but feel distressed, and secretly exclaimed: "It's too late!" ”

But now I can't afford to take in refugees -- no matter what I do, it will be impossible to move forward without official support. He had to urge his entourage to hurry as soon as possible and go to Dengzhou to meet Sun Yuanhua to gain his trust and support.

The group trekked through mountains and rivers, and finally came to Dengzhou. The journey is hard to describe.

At this time, Dengzhou was already the frontier town of the Ming Dynasty's war against Liaodong, and it was also an important town for Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua and others to organize and train the new army. I haven't seen the Dengzhou city wall yet, and you can often see mobilized soldiers and horses and camps along the way. There were also patrolling cavalry on the road, and from time to time there were people checking on them.

Although the route seemed heavily guarded, there were reports of bandits and salt barons along the way. There were even horrific incidents in which entire villages were slaughtered. As if to confirm this news, as soon as they entered the boundary of Dengzhou, they heard a fight and screams near the official road. The men immediately stopped the horses and showed their fellows. Zhao Tong, the dart master in charge of the guard, ordered the dog to be lowered from the car to prepare for culling and biting, while turning the horse's head towards the middle of the team.

Zhao Yinggong was surrounded by servants and walked over slowly. After listening to the previous report, he turned back and asked the local post man who was accompanying him to lead the way if he knew what had happened. The old man said, "This must be the local salt lord on fire." ”

"Aren't they bandits?"

"Bandits don't dare to go on the road in broad daylight, there are many troops here." The postman said, "Most of the salt barons are local military households, don't look at the poor people who sell salt, many people still have a future such as a small flag, a general flag, and a hundred households." The government generally doesn't care about them -- they can't do it. ”

Zhao Yinggong heard that it was just a salt and fire fight, so he asked the men and horses to continue to move forward, Zhao Tong dissuaded: "Master, we can't see what the battle looks like in front of us now, in case they see it in the past, some people think that they are here to help the fist, and it will be troublesome - the fight will not end well." ”

Zhao Yinggong thought about it, after all, he was in a guest place, and it would be very troublesome to deal with it in case he was involved in a local conflict. Although he is very "tough" on the official face, the salt lord is the head snake in the end, and after killing, he has formed a senseless resentment.

Everyone waited on the road for a while, and when they heard the sound of killing in front of them, Zhao Tong took care of everyone to wait on the road for a while, and then went to the front to inquire first. He dismounted, and slowly stepped along the shoulder of the road, and he came back for a meal. Ran to Zhao Yinggong's horse and said, "Back to the master, the front has been dispersed." It's just that there are a lot of corpses and blades on the road, so please be careful when you go over. ”

Everyone walked cautiously under Zhao Tong's guidance, only to see that thirty or forty corpses were really scattered beside the official road in the distance, dripping with blood, and there were many broken weapons on the ground.

"This is a robbery squire said," is a common thing on this official road. Look, the chariot has gone down the official road -- and the people have been robbed. He looked at it and muttered, "No......" When he said this, he seemed to regret that he had lost his words, and quickly shut up again.

"What the hell is wrong?"

Zhao Yingong asked again and again, and the post man said that there were many marks of horses' hooves on the post road, and the feather arrows left on the corpse were not ordinary bandits.

"Is it the people of the imperial court?"

The postman was silent, but he had already acquiesced in his expression.

"Sun Futai doesn't care?" Zhao Yinggong had doubts about Sun Yuanhua's ability to govern the army, but now he feels more and more accurate when he sees it.

The post guard whispered: "How can Sun Futai manage it?" Now the arrears of the soldiers' salaries are one year or two years, and most of the people and horses in Dengzhou are guest soldiers -- the most lawless. did not openly rob the merchant brigades in the local area and slaughter the villages to raise salaries, it was already Sun Futai and Zhang Zhentai who had a good way to suppress them. ”

In other words, this kind of secretly mōmō is not the same thing. There is no limit to what officers and soldiers can do, and Zhao Yinggong also knows a little. Judging from the corpses and chariot prints that were dropped, the sī salt transported by the salt lords was the carrying capacity of about twenty wheelbarrows, and the total amount of silver was only a few dozen taels. caused both sides to kill, and it is conceivable what the world will become.

"Let's go, this is a place of right and wrong." The postman urged the group to hurry on their way.

Just as he was about to go on the road, he suddenly heard someone in the corpse shouting "help". Zhao Yingong took care of the search from the people, and pulled out a young man from under the corpse in a few words. His body was covered with blood, and he couldn't see the extent of his injuries.

"Is there any salvation?" Zhao Yinggong asked.

Zhao Tong nodded: "He was injured by the skin, and he should be able to save him from a little gold sore." ”

"Then bring it, put it in the car, whether you can survive depends on his creation." Zhao Yinggong said.

The group finally arrived at Dengzhou City peacefully. Dengzhou City is now a military city, and inside and outside the city, there are soldiers with various accents everywhere. Zhao Yingong noticed that many people spoke with Liaodong accents - it was obvious that these people were the main force of the original Dongjiang Town, that is, the Luàn of Dengzhou, which was about to break out.

Zhao Yinggong relied on the posts of Xu Guangqi and others to enter the city unhindered - because it was the forefront of the battle in Liaodong, the military aircraft were heavy, and the inventory at the entrance of the city was very rigorous.

After entering the city, Zhao Tong saw that the big inn was full of people, and the small inn could not satisfy the host, so he took the initiative to find a big local temple, gave six taels of silver, and lived in a courtyard in the temple under the courteous greeting of the host. Zhao Yingong took care of everyone and rested for three days, bathed and changed clothes to go to the dust along the road. He also ordered people to unpack their luggage and count the gifts of Sun Yuanhua and others who were ready to be given - the gifts were all selected by Jīng, and many of them were specially brought from Mén and Lingao.

This time he went to see Sun Yuanhua, in addition to carrying letters from the Xu family and the Hangzhou church, he also brought Jin Lige, a missionary, to fully prove that he was a "catechumen".

To get the greatest help from Sun Yuanhua, the only way to do this is to dress himself up as a devout quasi-believer, so that Sun Yuanhua will treat his demands from the perspective of a parishioner, not from the perspective of an ordinary driller.

He knew very little about Sun Yuanhua, and the only information given to him by the big library was his basic life and some political opinions, and they had no way to speculate on what kind of person Sun Yuanhua was. However, with Xu Guangqi's willingness for his son to form a relationship with him, I think this person's character will not be bad; However, he became a governor in his early fifties, which shows that he also has some skills as an official. He was also a Catholic, and he was keen on "Western Law" to improve the military technology and system of the Ming Dynasty. On the whole, Sun Yuanhua should be a person with good character, who can be an official, and who is willing to accept new ideas. Such a person should not be too difficult to fight Jiāo Dao - Zhao Yinggong is most afraid of encountering people who are unwilling to do things - then nothing can be done.

Zhao Yingong took care of the servant to inquire about the news first, and confirmed that Sun Yuanhua had been in the yain recently. I looked for a day and officially went to the government to ask for a meeting.

……