Private documents, official seals.

What Zhou Xingyuan sent was not an ordinary official seal, but the seal of the governor of Liangjiang, as long as it was handed over, it was really a great achievement. Han Xiufeng really wanted to ask why Zhou Xingyuan, who was immortal in the catastrophe, why he didn't exchange it for credit, but thinking that he was a friend of the governor of Liangjiang, and the owner was martyred, but he was alive, and suddenly realized that anyone could take the Great Seal of Guan Fang to ask for merit and reward, but he couldn't.

Han Xiufeng also wanted to carefully ask Jiang Ning how he lost it, how he escaped from the chaos, and how did he escape from Jiangning all the way here, but the army of bandits had already arrived in Yangzhou City, and now was really not the time to ask this, so he simply put the big seal aside, got out of the cabin and asked, "Liang Jiu, what about your cousin and the other brothers?" ”

Liang Jiu hurriedly said: "Master Han, my sixth brother and they are all back, we originally walked together, and we were worried about being caught up by bandits halfway through, so we split into two ways." They went around from the north, and I took the official road, planning to go to Changchun Bridge from the official road, planning to see if the officers and soldiers guarding there could stop the bandits. ”

"So even if they don't come back today, they can come back tomorrow?" Han Xiufeng asked.

"Almost." Liang Jiu scratched his head and said again: "Master Han, my sixth brother and they may not necessarily come here, before leaving, he said that they would go directly to Wanfu Bridge." ”

"It's best to go directly to Wanfu Bridge," Han Xiufeng nodded, thought about it and asked, "Have you gained anything from this trip, and have you gathered some weapons?" ”

"Some, but not much."

"How much?"

Speaking of these Liang Jiu family treasures, he said without thinking: "Master Han, the soldiers of the Qi Battalion and the Qingshan Battalion have already run away, and when we arrived, there was no one in the camp, and all the things in the camp were looted by the people nearby. Sixth Brother and I had no choice but to take the brothers to the nearby people, and collected from the people eight shotguns, two carrying guns, four barrels of gunpowder, more than 300 catties of lead, 47 knives, more than 30 spears, more than 40 gowns, and six pieces of cotton armor. ”

"Is there a cannon?"

"No, not in the camp, and the people nearby said they didn't see it."

Hurry up or still didn't catch up, go to the two battalions and only collect this bit of weapons, Han Xiufeng couldn't help but be a little disappointed, but thinking that it is better than nothing, it is better than falling into the hands of bandits, and his mood is much better, and he is thinking about taking everyone back to Wanfu Bridge first, or wait here for a while, Zhou Xingyuan came out of the cabin and asked embarrassedly: "Brother Han, can you lend me a hundred taels of silver first?" ”

"Brother Zhou, what do you want money for?" Han Xiufeng asked puzzled.

Zhou Xingyuan pointed to the two ragged men squatting on the shore, and said with a wry smile: "I can escape from Jiangning all thanks to the help of these two people on the shore, and it is all up to them to take care of me all the way from Jiangning." I promised fifty taels to each of them, but I can't keep my word. ”

I didn't expect him to be a particular person, but then again, this is a life-saving grace, fifty taels for one is really not much, Han Xiufeng agreed: "What friendship do you and I have, what do you talk about." ”

"The main thing is that I came out in a hurry, and I didn't have time to clean up the softness." Thinking that the more than 3,000 taels of silver that he had saved with great difficulty were all cheapened by the thieves in Jiangning City, Zhou Xingyuan didn't mention how distressed he was.

Han Xiufeng also felt that he was unlucky enough, and just let the big man take out two ingots of silver, and the short man who escorted Zhou Xingyuan here all the way suddenly knelt down and asked, "Mr. Zhou, don't you want to be small?" This army is in chaos, and the people here are not familiar with the place, what is the use of the small ones asking for silver? ”

The tall man reacted, and quickly knelt down and said, "Mr. Zhou, the little one won't go anywhere, the little one will follow you, and besides, you can't be without an errand under you." ”

"Yes, Mr. Zhou, don't drive the little one away, let the little one stay and serve you!"

There are few people under him, and it is inconvenient to do anything, Zhou Xingyuan really wants to keep them, but now he is embarrassed to agree, and subconsciously looks at Han Xiufeng.

How could Han Xiufeng not know what he thought, and couldn't help laughing: "Brother Zhou, since these two want to stay, you let them stay." ”

"Then I'll let them stay?"

"Stay." Han Xiufeng smiled slightly, and then motioned to the big head to hand over the silver to Zhou Xingyuan.

At this time, a villager rushed over along the riverbank, and when he saw Han Xiufeng, he knelt down and said: "Master Han, the green battalion soldiers and servants who went out of the city in the morning heard that the bandits had arrived at the west gate, so they all threw down their weapons and fled for their lives. Master Han and Wang Qianli led people to chase those officials, and asked the little ones to come back quickly and ask if they sent someone to collect their weapons! Han Xiufeng was about to speak, but Xiang Yong said again: "There is a brother over there who is watching, and if he doesn't send someone to collect it, those weapons will be picked up by those who fled out of the city." ”

"Ji Da Ji Er, you hurry over!" Worried that so many weapons and more than a dozen people would not be able to transport them back, Han Xiufeng explained: "Gather the young men all the way, give them foot money, and let them help carry them!" ”

"Yes!"

"Young Master, what about me?" Big Head asked eagerly.

"You go to Wanfu Bridge with me," Han Xiufeng climbed ashore, glanced at Yangzhou City again, and said coldly: "Ji Da, after you gather your weapons, transport them to the river, find a boat and transport them directly to Wanfu Bridge, we are waiting for you at Wanfu Bridge." ”

"Yes!"

Zhou Xingyuan didn't know what Han Xiufeng was going to do, he only knew that he couldn't eat dry rice, and said without thinking: "Zhang Shangqing, Chen Si, you also go together!" ”

The two men who escaped from Jiangning were hesitating, and Han Xiufeng suddenly said: "Brother Zhou, you two subordinates don't have to follow, you must be very tired from Jiangning all the way here, let's take a breath first." ”

"Brother Han, let's come to you, we can't do nothing."

"Brother Zhou, why did you say this," Han Xiufeng returned to the bow of the boat and patted him on the arm: "Brother Zhou, you are from Jiangning, you must know more about thieves than I do, and I still have a lot to ask your master and servant three for advice." ”

"I can't talk about asking for advice, Brother Han wants to know something, just ask."

"Okay, let's go to the cabin."

……

The bandits had already arrived outside Yangzhou City, Han Xiufeng did not dare to delay for a moment, and immediately signaled the boatman to leave, and immediately invited Zhou Xingyuan to return to the cabin again.

Zhou Xing didn't follow Lu Jianying to aid Jiangxi a long way ago, and only fought with bandits in Jiangning, when he mentioned Jiangning City, he didn't have a good word for his old club, but praised Qi Suzao, who Han Xiufeng wanted to meet but didn't see a year ago.

"Although Jiangning has a strong city wall, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but whether the city can be defended depends on who is defending the city! If it weren't for Lord Qi, Jiang Ning wouldn't have been able to hold on for more than ten days, and I'm afraid it would be self-defeating like Jiujiang and Anqing! ”

"What do you mean by that?" Han Xiufeng asked curiously.

Zhou Xingyuan said helplessly: "When the bandits slaughtered Jiangning City, there were only more than 5,000 soldiers in the city, and Fuzhu Hong'a also led more than 3,000 of them to be stationed outside the city, and there were only more than 2,000 bannermen and green battalions in the city. The troops were insufficient, and as soon as Lord Qi returned to Jiangning, he issued a notice to recruit the people.

Whoever is recruited to defend the city is given two hundred wen a day, and those who dare to go up to the city wall to fight the thieves are doubled. As the saying goes, there must be brave men under heavy rewards, in just two days, more than 10,000 township warriors were recruited, and another 20,000 or 30,000 should be recruited, even if the bandits claim to be a million army, the officers and soldiers and township warriors can still defend the city, but they can't be recruited, not only can't be recruited, but even the more than 10,000 township warriors who were recruited with great difficulty before have run away a lot. ”

"Why can't you recruit them?" Han Xiufeng asked.

Zhou Xingyuan smiled bitterly: "No money, it is difficult for Lord Qi's clever wife to cook without rice, how can he recruit without money?" ”

"Why don't you have any money, as far as I know, the imperial court allocated more than 300,000 taels of silver to Jiangning, and even the tax silver from Yangzhou Pass was transported to the Jiangning Domain."

"Originally, he was rich, but when Lu Zhitai sent his family back to Beijing, he asked his family to take away 150,000 taels. After returning to Jiangning from Anhui, in order to boost morale, tens of thousands of taels of rewards were given to those remnants of the defeated generals. Lord Qi spent almost all the rest of the silver in order to recruit the more than 10,000 villagers, and he could only look at the empty domain and sigh. ”

Zhou Xingyuan paused, and then said: "The gentry and rich lords in the city are afraid of both the bandits and the routs, so they have already run away with the money, and they can't find anyone if they want to persuade them to donate money!" Zou Minghe also made a big mistake, first advocating the demolition of private houses outside the city and removing the cover of bandits. The demolition of private houses is to defend the city, which is understandable. But his family members took the opportunity to extort money, as long as the people gave money, the house could not be demolished, and all the houses could be demolished without payment or no money, so that those people outside the city were displaced, causing anger and resentment and loss of people's hearts. ”

"And then?" Han Xiufeng asked in a low voice.

Later, Li Kaifang, the vanguard of the bandits, led his troops to the south of the city, not in a hurry to attack the city, but waited for the large group of men and horses to assemble. Seeing the bandits in the city outside the city, there was a mess, and everyone was in danger. Lu Zhitai and Xianghou hurriedly climbed the city wall, but when they saw the figure of the bandits outside the city from a distance, they ordered the cannon to be fired. Large and small forts, day and night, keep firing artillery, every day there are thousands of pounds of gunpowder knocked out, but the shells that can be released can't reach the bandits at all, all in vain! ”

"And later?"

"Lord Qi really couldn't stand it, and argued with reason, so Lu Zhitai let the artillery stop. As a result, the bandits actually sent troops to run to the city to wave their flags and shout, and Lu Zhitai was frightened, and ordered the officers and soldiers defending the city to open fire. Officers and soldiers and village warriors fired cannons, shouted, and beat gongs and drums in the city. The bandits outside the city did not fire their guns to fight back, only watched jokes from a distance, and sent some soldiers to grab food. ”

Zhou Xingyuan took a sip of tea, and then said: "The Xiangyong recruited by Lord Qi is not vulnerable, hundreds of thieves and bandits ran to the outer street of Jubaomen in the south of the city to grab grain, and were surrounded by more than 1,000 Xiangyong. There are many brave people in the township, although the thieves are brave but there are not many people in the township, and they are killed outside the treasure gate.

Lord Qi knew that if the stalemate continued, when the bandit reinforcements arrived, the villagers outside the city would definitely die. I wanted to lead my troops out of the city to respond, but I was stopped by Lu Zhitai, who said that as soon as the city gate was opened, the thieves would fall into the tricks of the bandits, and the bandits would take the opportunity to come in, so they ordered the officers and soldiers on the city wall to bombard.

The bandits were killed from Guangxi to Jiangning, all of them had experienced a hundred battles, and they knew how to hide when the shells hit them. The villagers hadn't seen it, they didn't know how to dodge, and the cannonballs hit their heads and they were still looking around with the heavenly spirit cover. After a night of bombardment, few bandits died, but more than 600 villagers outside the city died......"

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