Because of the fear of revealing his identity, Wu Yuanming and his entourage left the fleet at the mouth of Luoma Lake and went south to Yangzhou by land, but the sky had no eyes, and Wu Yuanming, who had done a lot of evil, fled in embarrassment in order to avoid the end of the evil, and actually escaped a catastrophe - Zhou Peigong sank the ship in the Suqian waterway and closed the river, the Luoma Lake fleet was intercepted in the narrow river, and it was impossible to go up and down, the Qing army on both sides ambushed and killed, the Luoma Lake team was defeated, and almost all the army was wiped out, only more than ten light boats broke through the Qing army's defense line and fled into the Yellow River, The others were either captured or killed, and only a few escaped by land; Zheng Xue and Cai Dezhong, who had Chen Jinnan on his back, disappeared in the chaos, and no one knew whether they were alive or dead; Liu Haozi, Hong Dashan and Mu Shenbao, brothers and sisters, fled in embarrassment after being injured, and they also did not know whether they were alive or dead......

That night, the Qing army burned, killed and looted on the Suqian waterway, raped ** women, and did all kinds of evil, slaughtering Luoma Lake prisoners, light and serious wounded, old and weak women and children, including infants, blood flowed in the wilderness, and the river water was full of it. And Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi and Lu Liuliang were all powerless scholars, and the three were captured by the Qing army, but fortunately, the three of them were leaders of the Jiangnan literary circle, and their reputations were far and wide, and the Qing army did not dare to abuse and kill them without authorization, and Luomahu and Suqian were both located in Jiangsu, and they were captured here, and according to the law, they could only be escorted to Jiangling, where the governor of Jiangsu was located, and handed over to Zhu Guozhi, the governor of Jiangsu, for trial and conviction.

Okay, now let's talk about Zhu Guozhi, a super Qing official and loyal minister who was blown to the sky in the braided play, different from the TV series that praised the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Guozhi is not a good man and a woman. Just listening to this nickname, Zhu Guozhi's cruelty to the looting and exploitation of the people in ordinary times can be seen - by the way, the reason why Zhu Guozhi was cut by Wu Sangui in history was not because he refused to oppose the Qing Dynasty, but because he repeatedly withheld the military rations of Wu Sangui's army during his tenure as governor of Yunnan, and Wu Sangui's army was angry and divided his body. In addition, Zhu Guozhi also participated in the "History of the Ming Dynasty" case, and joined forces with Ao Bai, Wu Zhirong and others to kill Zhuang Tingyan's family and countless literati and Confucian scholars and even innocent booksellers and printers who participated in the proofreading; As for the Weeping Temple Case, the Sales Case, and the Tax Resistance Case, Zhu Guozhi showed his true character as a butcher, and successively harmed more than 13,500 squires and gentlemen, killed countless literati and innocent people such as Jian Shengsi, Ni Yongbin, Xue Erzhang, and Ding Zixuan, and thousands of innocent women and children were sent to the frontier to be enslaved by the Manchurian soldiers.

After a brief discussion, Kong Sizhen, who won a big victory by using Zhou Peigong's shipwreck to seal the river, was unwilling to continue to go south because of some things, and was ready to return to Beijing to ask for credit, and Zhou Peigong, who performed well, naturally walked with her; Chani, who fled back to Suqian in embarrassment, led his army to stay where he was, and continued to search for and kill the missing Chen Jinnan and others—incidentally, he took the other troops to deal with his defeat in suppressing bandits. At the same time, Kong Sizhen sent a donkey with 300 people to personally escort Gu Yanwu and others to Jiangning for trial and conviction, in order to prevent anti-Qing forces from intercepting and rescuing on the road, Kong Sizhen also used a special channel to contact his old lover Wu Ciyou, and asked him to take Li Yuliang to secretly protect Donkey and others along the way. After everything was arranged, Kong Sizhen and her new love Zhou Peigong went north, and the donkey, one of her abandoned old lovers, reluctantly escorted Gu Yanwu and others south, but what they didn't know was that there were many old friends they knew and didn't know about going south at the same time......

……

"Gaoyou! Brother Wu, the front is your hometown Gaoyou! Zheng Xin pointed to the bustling wharves and streets beside the canal, and cheered as he jumped on the boat. Wu Yuanming, who was discussing the design of the flowering cannonball with Dai Yan, raised his head and looked at the bustling Gaoyou City in the distance, his hometown in this life, and couldn't help but smile: "Yes, I have arrived at my hometown, after Gaoyou, I will go to Yangzhou in a few days, and I can see my father-in-law and sister Hui'er." ”

"Sister Hui'er again!" Zheng Xin snorted coldly in her heart, but the smile on the face of the increasingly cunning little girl did not change, and she just smiled at Wu Yuanming: "Brother Wu, don't be in a hurry to leave, have you forgotten what day it is?" Wu Yuanming thought about it and immediately shouted: "I almost forgot, today is the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15." At the same time, Wu Yuanming was full of emotion in his heart, it had been seven or eight days with the Luoma Lake team in the blink of an eye, and these days were just a day and night rush, and I didn't know what happened to them.

"Yes, Mid-Autumn Festival, when you eat moon cakes." Zheng Xin tilted his head mischievously, blinked his big eyes and said: "Anyway, we can't go to Yangzhou today, we will stay in Gaoyou City for one night tonight, eat moon cakes and admire the moon!" There are also eating hemp duck and Dong candy from your hometown, as well as Gaoyou's most famous double yellow salted duck eggs! ”

"Alas, why are you like my sister Hui'er, and you are greedy when you go there?" Wu Yuanming shook his head with a wry smile, as if returning to the time when he was forced to buy snacks by the little girl when he was walking with Hui'er. Who knew that Dai Yan, who had been pestering Wu Yuanming to study new firearms, also raised her head and said to Wu Yuanming: "Brother Wu, I also want to try the snacks here, my home is farther away than Yangzhou, anyway, I can't go home for the Mid-Autumn Festival, let's stay in Gaoyou for one night tonight." ”

"Yes, Sister Dai is right, let's stay in Gaoyou for one night." Zheng Xin ran over and pulled Dai Yan up, and threatened Wu Yuanming with her. In the past few days, the relationship between Zheng Xin and Dai Yan has eased and become much closer, not that Zheng Xin has changed his brutal and cautious character, but that Zheng Xin found that Wu Yuanming was obviously not interested in Dai Yan, but he just liked to ask Dai Yan about the origin of the long-shot musket, and Dai Yan was the same, just liked Wu Yuanming's unique insights and understanding of firearms, and there was no other relationship between the two. However, Wu Yuanming mentioned the sister Hui'er who had never met from time to time, but Zheng Xin was the object of great vigilance and jealousy.

At the joint request of Zheng Xin and Dai Yan, the civilian boat chartered by Wu Yuanming and others arrived at the Gaoyou Civil Wharf and docked immediately, Wu Yuanming and two little girls, Li Xiongfei and other four people, as well as more than ten family members of Dai Yan got off the ship together, and went to Gaoyou City to stay overnight through the North Gate. When they found the Zhongyi inn to settle down, it was already afternoon Shenshi, and the two girls couldn't wait for Wu Yuanming to take them to the street to buy snacks, Wu Yuanming also wanted to see the situation in his hometown and the customs of Jiangnan, so he naturally complied.

Playing all the way, it is needless to say that the prosperity in Gaoyou City, there are many shops on both sides of the street, there is everything, the street is full of people, and there are many people wearing satin silk robes, and the wealth here can be seen. However, the most rare thing is that the words of how beautiful the girls in the south of the Yangtze River are really worthy of their reputation, and most of the women go out to shop during the festival, and when they look at it, the street is really beautiful like a cloud, and the beauties are in groups, although the figure is thinner than the northern women, it is more exquisite, and the beauty of the appearance is not comparable to the northern women. Wu Yuanming and Li Xiongfei, who hadn't touched a woman for a long time, sighed why didn't they grow up here? Zheng Xin, who saw that he was also a beauty, was very jealous, and kept saying to Wu Yuanming: "No wonder you look like a thief, it turns out that the people in this place are very handsome, and you have taken a big bargain." ”

Gaoyou City is not all rich and well-off, all the way to play and shop, walking between the road, Wu Yuanming and his entourage unconsciously played to the west gate of Gaoyou City, although there are many people outside the city, but most of them are unkempt poor people, and there are many boys and girls with straw sticks kneeling on the side of the road, waiting for the buyer to sell themselves as slaves. Wu Yuanming knew that this was because of the tyranny of the Qing court, and he couldn't bear to see the misery of those poor people, so he wanted to turn back and go to other streets. Who knew that Li Xiongfei pulled the corner of Wu Yuanming's clothes and smiled at Wu Yuanming: "Cousin, the girls here are all good, there is no one to serve Miss Zheng on the road, it is better to buy a few for her to be maids, and bring them back to Yunnan in the future." ”

"I'm afraid that you didn't buy them to be a maid for me, but to raise them to be a concubine, right?" Zheng Xin had already seen that Li Xiongfei and Wu Yuanming were the same raccoon dog, and immediately snorted. Wu Yuanming also understood Li Xiongfei's intentions, so he nodded with a smile and said, "Okay, you go and pick a few good ones, and buy two maids for Miss Daiyan as well." As he spoke, Wu Yuanming grabbed Zheng Xin, who was about to slip away, forcibly untied the purse around her waist, and took out a silver ticket of one hundred taels from it and called it to Li Xiongfei, who was about to run out of funds, and Li Xiongfei left overjoyed.

"Stinky thief, robbing me of my money again, my money is running out." Zheng Xin clenched his purse tightly and hummed to Wu Yuanming angrily. Wu Yuanming said with a smile: "What are you afraid of, my silver is kept by Sister Hui'er, and I will pay you back twice as much when I arrive in Yangzhou." ”

"Words must be counted, I can keep accounts." Zheng Xin was a little deflated at this time, but the little girl thought about it for a while, and then pulled Wu Yuanming and muttered, "Brother Wu, I have always been careful in calculations, and you have also seen it, when you arrive in Yangzhou, you will return your silver and hand it over to me for safekeeping, okay?" ”

"Is it strange that Hui'er didn't slaughter me?" Wu Yuanming rolled his eyes, and said in his heart I haven't planned to marry you, so you're going to control my wallet? With your temper, when you arrive in Yangzhou, you meet Hui'er, who has a similar temper to you, don't you two dig each other's eyes and pinch each other's throats? At this time, there was a sudden commotion on the official road outside the city gate, and a group of Qing troops with about three hundred people suddenly gathered around a few carriages, Wu Yuanming knew that this road led to the special wharf of the government in the canal, and thought that this army was coming from the canal, so he was busy pulling Zheng Xin and beckoning Dai Yan to retreat to the side of the road, so as not to be injured by these arrogant and domineering troops. Who knew that before the official army entered the city, Dai Yan pointed to a car and shouted excitedly, "Brother Wu, look, cannon!" Red Cannon! ”

"The cannon?" Wu Yuanming knew that this thing was the most advanced weapon in the hands of the Qing army, so he hurriedly looked in the direction that Dai Yan pointed, and saw that an iron cannon with a thin front and a thick back of about three meters was half covered by a red cloth, and it was being pulled by two tall horses, and it was slowly driving towards this side. Wu Yuanming was wondering why the red-clothed cannon appeared in Gaoyou City, which was not a strategic location, and Dai Yan suddenly asked Wu Yuanming strangely: "Brother Wu, I have seen the red-clothed cannon before, but why is this cannon not the same as the one I saw before?" This cannon is obviously bigger and longer than the one I've ever seen, and has an iron fork on it? ”

"That's not an iron fork, it's a cannon's crosshairs, for aiming." Wu Yuanming replied casually. But Wu Yuanming's mind flashed violently, remembering that the photo of the red-clothed cannon he saw in the 21st century did not have a crosshair on it, and he couldn't help but be shocked - could it be that this is a new weapon of the Qing army? But what made Wu Yuanming even more surprised was still behind, after the Qing army entered the city, Wu Yuanming found that in addition to the cannonballs, the carriage behind the red-clothed cannon was not filled with barrels containing gunpowder, but a bag of bags of stakes wrapped in oiled paper, and the size of each package was almost exactly the same, obviously the product of standardized production, Wu Yuanming's face couldn't help but change color, and blurted out: "Is it a pill pack propellant?" ”

"What is a pill-pack propellant?" Dai Yan likes to study firearms the most, so she hurriedly asked Wu Yuanming. Wu Yuanming replied in a low voice: "It is to put gunpowder into a special medicine bag, and fill a powder bag for each shell fired, so that you can avoid excessive charge explosion or too little charge and insufficient range, and can greatly speed up the charge, which is the latest invention of the Europa countries not long ago." Although Wu Yuanming knows this truth, Wu Yuanming knows that the decaying and backward Qing Dynasty in history did not introduce this kind of medicine packet propellant technology, and now this advanced weapon suddenly appeared here, how can Wu Yuanming not be frightened?

"The Europa people are so smart." Dai Yan said approvingly. But a new accident reappeared, a Westerner with a high nose and deep eyes, curly yellow hair riding on a horse, wearing a four-grade official uniform, with a silver cross around his neck, was being surrounded by the Qing army into the city, although Wu Yuanming saw him for the first time, he immediately guessed his identity, and said in his heart: "Nan Huairen! Tang Ruowang died two years ago, and the only foreigner who was appointed as an official by the Qing court in this era was Nan Huairen! ”

"Brother Wu, why is that person's eyes blue?" Dai Yan asked Wu Yuanming again. Zheng Xin, who is a common foreigner in Taiwan, said with a smile: "Sister Dai, the red-haired devil's eyes are colorful, not only blue, but also gray, yellow and brown, so he is called a red-haired devil." ”

"Beautiful and lovely girl, I'm not a red-haired devil." Nan Huairen happened to pass by here, and after hearing Zheng Xin's words, he turned his head with a smile and said in a proficient Chinese: "The red-haired devil you are talking about is Dutch, and I am Belgian." Although Nan Huairen has a kind attitude, his appearance is really scary to the Orientals, Dai Yan and Zheng Xin both retreated to Wu Yuanming to hide, not daring to look at Nan Huairen anymore, Nan Huairen is often treated like this in China, and he is not angry, just urging the horse forward, and in a moment he turned the corner with the Qing army and went straight to the Gaoyou Pavilion.

"I'm so stupid." It wasn't until Nan Huairen walked away that the trembling Dai Yan said with remorse: "I heard that Westerners are very proficient in firearms, I should discuss firearms with him, show him my long-shot musket, and ask him to teach me how to make flintlock muskets." ”

"Don't go." Wu Yuanming said gloomily: "This foreign devil is not a good person, not only is the Tartar Emperor's henchman, but also narrow-minded and jealous, and he specially helps the Dog Tartar Emperor to harm our country's firearms genius (Note: 1). At this time, Li Xiongfei and the three veterans of Pingxi Wangfu had already bought four dusty girls to come over, because they were about to leave their parents' hometown, the four girls were crying and crying very sadly, Zheng Xin was not bad to his subordinates, and hurriedly pulled them over to comfort them, so that they could rest assured that they would be their own maids. Li Xiongfei pulled Wu Yuanming aside, frowned and whispered: "Shizi, the situation is not right, this is the ancestral home of you and the prince, how can the imperial court transport the red-clothed cannon that can open mountains and break rocks here?" And a foreign monk came along? ”

"It can't be sent by the Tartars to destroy the feng shui of my ancestral tomb, right?" Wu Yuanming didn't care, and sneered sarcastically. But Li Xiongfei was not a great materialist like Wu Yuanming, and slapped his thigh and exclaimed in a low voice: "It's possible!" If the ancestral tomb of the prince is on the dragon vein, the Tartar may come to break the dragon vein! Speaking of this, Li Xiongfei, who was loyal to the Wu family, ignored Wu Yuanming's expression of laughter, and said in a low voice: "Shizi, please let the villain inquire about their intentions, and we will meet at the inn in a while." ”

Wu Yuanming began to want to dissuade him, but considering that Nan Huairen appeared too suddenly, and those new firearms were Wu Yuanming's heart disease, Wu Yuanming nodded and said, "Okay, it's okay for you to inquire, have you seen those oil paper bags on the carriage?" If possible, get me two packs. Li Xiongfei agreed and hurried away, while Wu Yuanming took Zheng Xin, Dai Yan and others out to wander around, bought new clothes for the newly bought maid and had dinner in the restaurant, and then slowly swayed back to the inn.

……

The sky was getting dark, the moon as round as a jade disk rose into the night sky, and Li Xiongfei, who went to inquire about the news, still did not return to the inn, Wu Yuanming couldn't help but feel a little anxious in his heart. But Zheng Xin was not interested, and actually pulled Wu Yuanming to eat moon cakes in the courtyard to admire the moon, Wu Yuanming was very angry about this, and scolded the little girl, scolding her so tearful that she didn't dare to speak, Wu Yuanming was a little soft-hearted, took her little hand and said: "Good, Li Xiongfei went to the adventure to find out about the enemy, and he hasn't come back yet, do you think I can't worry?" Be good, go to your sister Daiyan's room to play first, and when Li Xiongfei comes back, we will eat mooncakes together. ”

"Hmm." Zheng Xin hummed lightly and kissed Wu Yuanming's face, and then walked out quickly with a red face. Not long after she left the room, Li Xiongfei jumped into Wu Yuanming's room from the window with two oiled paper bags, and whispered to Wu Yuanming: "Shizi, I'm back, and I have got the things you explained." Wu Yuanming was overjoyed, and hurriedly let Li Xiongfei sit at the table, and personally poured him a cup of tea, and then asked him, "How is it?" Did you find any news? ”

"Shizi, you really guessed it!" Li Xiongfei drank all the tea, gasped and said: "I spent some silver to buy a Qing soldier, and he told me that Nan Huairen came from Guangzhou this time, and he went north with the new red-coated cannon he bought from the English merchant ship, and he was originally going to go directly to Beijing. But when they were about to arrive in Yangzhou, the imperial court sent a holy decree to let their team stop at Gaoyou, and then go to the Changlin Ditch of Hanliu Town, where your ancestral tomb is located, and shoot nine cannons at the peak behind your ancestral tomb! This is obviously to destroy the feng shui of your family. ”

"Hahaha......!" Wu Yuanming covered his stomach and laughed violently, pounded the table and laughed in a low voice: "What age is this?" He Kang Mazi still believes in feng shui? If he breaks the feng shui of my ancestral tomb, will my father's army be automatically disbanded? Hahahaha......! ”

"Shizi, you don't believe in feng shui?" Li Xiongfei asked Wu Yuanming in surprise. Wu Yuanming was already laughing so much that he couldn't speak, so he could only laugh and nod wildly. Li Xiongfei said with a straight face: "Shizi, even if you don't believe in feng shui, but we believe it, and the prince believes it!" The emperor and the army of the Tartars also believed! Once the news of the destruction of the feng shui of your ancestral tomb spreads, our army will inevitably be demoralized, and the Tartar army will be greatly demoralized! After being reminded by Li Xiongfei, Wu Yuanming immediately put away his smile and said solemnly: "You are right, I am not superstitious, but others are superstitious, and if we don't do it well, our army's morale will be shaken." ”

"Shizi, the Tartars want to destroy your family's feng shui, what should we do next?" Li Xiongfei asked with a sad face. Wu Yuanming shook his head, he couldn't think of a good way to deal with it for a while, and at the same time, Wu Yuanming was very concerned about the oil paper bag brought by Li Xiongfei, and hurriedly untied the two oil paper bags, revealing two square white cotton pockets printed with English logos. Wu Yuanming lost his voice and said: "Sure enough, it is a pill-pack propellant, Nan Huairen, a foreign mongrel, actually got such a thing for Kang Mazi!" I'm in trouble now! ”

"What is a pill-pack propellant?" Li Xiongfei asked curiously. Wu Yuanming quickly explained the principle of this thing, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "This thing is only used by a few countries in the world that are good at using firearms, if Kang Mazi also buys or produces this kind of propellant for the army, then the power of the Tartar's red-coated cannon will be greatly enhanced!" Speaking of this, Wu Yuanming slapped the table and shouted in a low voice: "No, this thing in Yunnan also has to be imitated and produced!" Immediately transfer a man from our people, let him return to Yunnan with a packet of medicine and give it to my father, and ask him to order the craftsmen to imitate it! ”

"I'll arrange it at the end." Li Xiongfei knew that the stakes were very high, so he hurriedly arranged manpower. But before he could go out, Wu Yuanming's door was knocked violently, and Zheng Xin shouted outside the room: "Brother Wu, something is wrong, Sister Daiyan is gone." At the same time, the old servant of Dai Yan also shouted outside the door: "Wu Gongzi, my young lady is gone, I didn't pay much attention to it just now because she was with you, just now Miss Zheng came to ***, I only knew that she was missing." ”

"When did she disappear?" Wu Yuanming opened the door and asked. The old servant of Dai Yan's family said with a sad face: "Childe, not long after you and our young lady came back from outside, the young lady went directly back to her room to rest, and then no one saw her again. ”

"Did she bring a musket?" Wu Yuanming vaguely guessed something, and hurriedly asked again. The old servant replied with a bitter face, "Bring it, she took the long-shot musket with the musket you gave her." ”

"Not good!" Wu Yuanming slapped his thigh and said bitterly: "That firearms madman lady in your family must have gone to Nan Huairen to discuss firearms issues!" Wu Yuanming's mind swirled for a while, and his heart said Dai Yan, Dai Yan, aren't you causing trouble for me? Nan Huairen just got a new type of artillery for Xiao Mazi, and you sent him the musket again!

Note 1: The fact that Nan Huairen framed our country's firearms genius is not fictional, and will be explained in detail later.