Xu Lequn went to Yangzhou in the first month to rescue his subordinates, and when he saw Su Jueming in Yangzhou, he found out that Han Xiufeng was preparing to retreat, which was a complete coincidence. I heard that the Qing army in Yangzhou Prefecture knew that Xu Ying was going to move to Taizhou, so he went to Taizhou to borrow Xu Ying's hand to give Han Xiufeng and Zhang Guangcheng a stone, which was all improvised.

He didn't think that far ahead at all, even if he thought that it was too late for his family and relatives in Fuyaba to take precautions. As a result, because of this negligence, which was not an negligence, Han Xiufeng came to repay others in the way of others.

Thinking that the old ghost Xu was more cunning than the surnames Han Xiufeng and Zhang Guangcheng, Xu Lequn suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and he had already walked to the gate of the state government but did not dare to ask the door to go in to report, but turned his head and ran out of the city, ran to the dock outside the west gate in one breath, looked back, and saw that the officials did not follow, so he jumped on an inconspicuous canopy boat and asked a boatman who got up to greet him to hurry up.

A Chinese character who was sleeping in the cabin sat up suddenly, looked at him and asked puzzledly, "Mr. Xu, didn't you become an official, how did you do this?" ”

"It's hard to put into words!" Xu Lequn didn't dare to stay in Taizhou for a long time, turned around and lifted the curtain and shouted: "Xiaoliu, hurry up to Fu'an, you are familiar with the waterways in this area, take a shortcut, you must be fast, but don't go from Xiahe (Taizhou to Hai'an section of the Yanhe River)." ”

The boatman was stumped, and said with a bitter face: "If you don't go down the river, you have to take a detour, how can there be any shortcut!" ”

"Take a detour, take a detour, and be fast anyway."

"Well, you can hold on as fast as you can."

"What the hell is going on?" The more the man in the cabin listened, the more confused he became.

The more Xu Lequn thought about it, the more regretful he became, and he snapped and gave himself a big-eared scraper: "Blame me, blame me for everything!" Originally, the big thing was decided, but it turned out to be self-defeating and self-defeating! ”

The man asked, "How is it self-defeating?" ”

Xu Lequn didn't care about whether he was ashamed or not, he briefly said the ins and outs of the matter, thought about it and said hatefully: "The more than 1,900 taels of silver were spent in vain, in the eyes of their dog officials, not to mention donating a five-grade top, even if you donate a three-grade top, it is not an official, just find a reason to kill you and me, and wanting to fight with them on the table is tantamount to seeking skin with the tiger." ”

"I said a long time ago that I can't fight them in the official face, you don't believe it, now it's okay, people want to kill your whole family and destroy your whole family!"

"You have a way, why don't you help your brother get revenge?" Xu Lequn glared at the man, clenched his fists and said, "If I had a better way, I could make this decision, and I could stake my life?" ”

The man was angry, glared at him angrily and said: "The surname is Xu, if the third master hadn't believed your nonsense, if the third master hadn't stopped me, I would have summoned my brothers to Hai'an to avenge my brother!" You thought you were smart, not only did you lose the salt, not only did you lose my eldest brother's life, but now you have wasted all the hard-earned money that the brothers had put together, and you are embarrassed to play with me here! ”

"Summoner to Hai'an? Jiang Yougui, do you think the surname Han is really that easy to deal with? ”

"It's better than tossing and turning like this!"

"I don't understand with you, if you have anything to say, go back and tell the third master."

"Here it is again, hahaha, it's the third master again! The surname is Xu, I, Jiang Yougui, put the words here, if Li Zhaoshou really brings someone to kill him, don't blame me for handing you over and letting him dispose of it, I don't care if the third master is happy or not! ”

"Give him an explanation, hand me over to the people on the boat?" Xu Lequn asked with a sneer.

"You are the one who caused the disaster, if you don't hand you over, will it be difficult for the brothers to work hard for you and Li Zhaoshou?" Jiang Yougui asked rhetorically.

"It's true that I caused the disaster, but if you really hand me over to the Cao Gang, where is the face of the Salt Gang, and where do you let the third master's face go?" Xu Lequn had no way to deal with Han Xiufeng and Zhang Guangcheng for a while, but there was a way to deal with Jiang Yougui, so he simply dragged the quilt over as a pillow, and lay down on the quilt and said meaningfully: "Jiang Yougui, don't forget how much silver I have earned for the third master over the years, and don't forget that if it weren't for me Xu Lequn, you would still be carrying salt in Taiba at this time!" ”

……

Just when Xu Lequn was teaching Jiang Yougui, the little leader of Yizhen's private affairs, Li Changjing was discussing with the six gentry and several township covenants in the east of the city about the preparation of the village bravery.

"Don't look at the bandits attacking the city from Liangguang all the way, it seems to be overwhelming, but in fact it is just a stream of rogues! Although they captured many places, even many big cities, the officers and soldiers did not quickly abandon the city and flee for their lives as soon as they arrived. The reason why there are more and more people is actually coercing the people all the way. Although it is claimed to be hundreds of thousands, the only ones who are really difficult to deal with are the 10,000 or 20,000 old thieves in Guangxi! ”

Li Changjing knew that they were unwilling to donate money and food, and they didn't dare to fight with the bandits, so he simply asked the shop soldiers to take a pen and paper, spread it on the table of the eight immortals and drew a map of the two rivers, pointed to the map and said: "Everyone, please see, Jiangning is here, Zhenjiang is here, this is Suzhou, this is Yangzhou, this is Qingjiangpu, this is Hangzhou, this is Taizhou."

If the bandits don't want to run around anymore, they will definitely run Jiangning, and if they want to run Jiangning, they must take Zhenjiang, Wuhu, Yangzhou and other places, otherwise they will only be trapped in the lonely city. Aren't they claimed to be hundreds of thousands, plus the people in the city, if they were surrounded by Lord Xiang and Lord Qishan, they would not need to attack the city, just surrounding them would be able to starve them to death. ”

Seeing an old Confucian nodding slightly, Li Changjing struck while the iron was hot and said: "In short, if the bandits want to run Jiangning, they will divide their troops, and the most difficult old thieves in Guangxi will naturally stay in Jiangning, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou and other big cities, don't necessarily come to attack our Taizhou, even if they come to attack the troops, there will not be many, and they will not be those difficult old thieves to deal with." ”

"Master Li, even if the bandits can't divide too many troops to attack Taizhou, even the hundreds of green battalion soldiers in the city can't hold it!"

"Who said there were only a few hundred Green Battalion soldiers? It's not far from Taizhou, and you can't know what Master Xu has been doing in the past two days. With Master Xu in charge, Taizhou's city defense is stronger than Yangzhou! Li Changjing paused, then pointed to the map he drew and said: "Let's talk about bandits, if they continue to flee, they will definitely flee to rich places, such as Suzhou, and Hangzhou, Taizhou they don't look down on, and it is unlikely that they will attack Taizhou." ”

A group of gentry and townsmen have only been to Jiangning in the farthest place in ordinary times, where do they know the rest of the two rivers, no one has found that the distance between several big cities on the map of Li Changjing is very tired, Jiangning looks very close to Zhenjiang, Suzhou and Hangzhou, not far from Yangzhou and not too close, but very far from Taizhou.

At least judging from the map drawn by Li Changjing, it is unlikely that the Taiping bandits would have come to attack Taizhou at the expense of the near and far.

Li Changjing knocked on the table, raised his head and said: "Everyone, the reason why Master Xu asked this official to train Xiangyong with Master Han and Second Young Master Zhang is to strengthen the defense of Taizhou, and in the final analysis, he is prepared. The second is to bounce the place! ”

"Bullet pressure place?" A gentry asked subconsciously.

Li Changjing looked at him like an idiot: "Brother Wu, you have read so many sage books and are familiar with the subset of scriptures and histories, you should know that the most worrying thing in this situation is not the bandits, but the local people!" If they knew that the Taiping bandits had captured Jiangning, they might attack Yangzhou soon, and it was difficult to say whether they would take advantage of the situation to make trouble. When the time comes, the first unlucky one will not be the state city, but you gentry! ”

"Yes, yes, what Master Li said is very true, no matter what kind of chaos is outside, there can't be chaos in the place!"

"So hurry up and train the village bravery." Li Changjing paused, and then said: "Then the bandits are not only to be guarded against, but also really hateful. As far as I know, they believe in foreign religions, do not respect the way of Confucius and Mencius, do not emphasize respect and humility, do not worship their ancestors, and do not care about morality. Everywhere he went, he not only smashed the statues of saints, but also destroyed temples and ancestral halls, and even dug up ancestral graves. Regardless of men, women and children, they are all called brothers and sisters. ”

"They follow foreign religions?" An old scholar asked in horror.

"You only know that they profess to worship God, and they believe in the same way and do the same things as foreigners!" The more Li Changjing spoke, the more excited he became, and he slapped the table and said: "You all know, I have been peaceful in the Qing Dynasty for a long time, the green camp of the banner soldiers is deserted, and the soldiers no longer have the courage to kill, so I was caught off guard by those bandits." But no matter whether it is Liangguang or Huguang, not only is there no official who is a thief wherever the bandits go, but there are so many officials who have been martyred by their families, why is this? ”

"Why?" A villager who hadn't read anything asked.

"This is because the thief is not only a thief, but also a thief! It's easy to survive, but ants are still greedy, let alone human? But if you follow it, how will you see the ancestors and ancestors under the nine springs in the future! ”