The two Citi people happily went to the British Concession from the small stone bridge with a bag of silver dollars, and Su Jueming, who had been sending them to the bridgehead, said nervously as soon as he came back: "Fourth master, the officials and villagers guarding the bridgehead have all run away!" ”

"Just run, what's the fuss."

"What about us, what are we going to do?"

Looking in the direction of Su Jueming's finger, he saw that there were more and more people fleeing from the small stone bridge to the British Concession, Han Xiufeng pondered for a moment, turned around and asked, "Is there any movement on the other side of the bridge?" ”

Su Jueming hurriedly said: "Dozens of foreigners came, all carrying foreign guns, but they didn't look like foreign soldiers. ”

Shopkeeper Wu stood on tiptoe and looked, he couldn't see anything clearly from too far away, and muttered, "Fourth master, what Mr. Su said should be the foreign gun team." ”

"Which country's foreign guns?" Pan Er asked curiously.

"Several countries," Woods Quan glanced back at Pan Er and explained, "In the first month, Changmao went down the river, attacking the city all the way to Jiangning. The court is afraid, and foreigners are just as afraid! Later, when they heard that Jiangning had been occupied by Changmao, the British, French, and American councillors convened the merchants and expatriates in the concession to discuss and set up a foreign gun team full of foreigners and all foreign guns and cannons, but they were not called foreign guns themselves, but they were called Shanghai Volunteers. ”

"Yiyong, is it similar to the Xiangyong we trained?" Han Xiufeng asked subconsciously.

"Yes, yes, yes, it's the hometown of foreigners!"

"What about the foreign soldiers?"

"There are not many foreigners, otherwise there is no need to recruit merchants and expatriates."

Han Xiufeng nodded slightly, and while leading everyone back to the courtyard, he muttered: "The foreigners' foreign spear team has been dispatched, which shows that there is a lot of movement in the city. The county magistrate is more auspicious, and it is estimated that 'selling chickens' will not be cool. ”

"Fourth brother, what should we do?" Pan Er couldn't help but ask.

"I can't go if I want to, it's all messed up like this, where to hire a boat, it's better to be still than to move at this juncture, just stay here and do nothing, wait and see what happens."

"What if the party kills you?" Su Jueming asked worriedly.

Han Xiufeng stopped, looked at him with a smile and said, "The rebellion is not a joke, I bet the party is busy at this moment." The occupation of the county seat is just the beginning, and they have to think about how to defend the county seat. What's more, they are different from the Cantonese bandits, there are several gangs, several gangs, and several people, I don't believe that their hearts can really think in the same place, and their strength can be used in the same place. Anyway, they didn't have the time to come to us. ”

Thinking that almost no one in the city knew that the person in front of him was coming to Shanghai, Wood Quan said with deep understanding: "What the fourth master said is extremely true, not to mention that the party can't take care of it here, and it won't come if it can take care of it." After all, they don't know you're here, they don't know what they're doing here. ”

Su Jueming was deeply impressed by what Changmao did in Yangzhou, and couldn't help asking: "Shopkeeper Wu, aren't you worried about them going out of the city to rob big households?" ”

"Since they dare to rebel, they will definitely rob the big households, but even if they rob the big ones, they won't come here, after all, everyone knows that this house is idle and no one lives, and the big houses and shops in the city and outside the small east gate, the big east gate, and the south gate are enough for them to rob." Speaking of this, Shopkeeper Wu suddenly remembered something, and said with a wry smile: "Fourth master, those parties don't need to rob big households, they want money to be found in the city." ”

"If you don't go to grab the big money, where is the money?" Han Xiufeng asked puzzled.

"There is one in the yamen!" Shopkeeper Wu said helplessly: "Isn't selling chicken Shuang also the supervision of Jiang Customs, all the tax silver of Jiang Customs is stored in the Dao Treasury, not to mention four or five hundred thousand taels." There is also a lot of silver in the county government, and the silver and miscellaneous taxes levied in the first half of the year have not yet had time to be paid into the treasury, and all the party will be cheap, do you say they will be short of silver? ”

Others may not believe it when they say this, but Woods is convinced when they say this, after all, the county government or the provincial government department, even if they don't look for "Rishengchang" to pay taxes and silver, "Rishengchang" will also go to the county master and "sell chickens", because they are doing this business.

Hundreds of thousands of taels are gone, no wonder everyone says that the thieves are richer than the imperial court.

Han Xiufeng felt a pity, and said in a deep voice: "It's too late to say anything now, Mr. Wu, aren't you going to Songjiang to report to Qiaofutai, and by the way, see if you can intercept the shopkeeper Wu, if you want to go, hurry up while the party can't take care of the outside of the city." You can rest assured that there is a lot of money and ledgers for the ticket number, and there are a lot of copper plates with me. ”

"Fourth Master Xie!"

"You're welcome."

……

After sending Wu Quan away, Han Xiufeng walked into the flower hall, looked at Lu Daming who was wiping his gun and asked, "What's the matter with this gun?" ”

With a gun in his hand, he didn't panic in his heart, Lu Daming raised the gun in front of Han Xiufeng, and said with a fluttering eyebrow: "Fourth master, you see, this gun is all fine iron, although it is an old gun, although it has not been loaded with gunpowder, but I dare to conclude that it is better than the foreign guns we used before." ”

"Then use it first, keep it well, and don't go off."

"Don't worry, we're careful."

"Get busy, by the way, explain it, don't take the gun out the door until you have to."

"You know, we don't even have knives with us when we go out, let alone guns."

Lu Daming bowed and walked out of the flower hall with a gun, Pan Er helped Han Xiufeng make a cup of tea, and said with a wry smile: "Fourth brother, why is our luck so bad, we can still meet the rebellion of the party when we come to sell guns." ”

Han Xiufeng took the teacup and said lightly: "It's good to get used to it." ”

"It's good to get used to it, fourth brother, can you still get used to this kind of thing?" Pan Er was made ridiculous.

"I'm really not joking, think about it, the Cantonese bandits committed rebellion, from Guangxi all the way to Jiangning, and now they are divided into troops to invade the capital and Anhui, Jiangxi, Huguang. What is this, this is the chaos in the world. The gangs in Shanghai County and the ruffians in Qingpu in Jiading are not so much committing chaos as taking advantage of the chaos. If the Cantonese bandits hadn't made a mess, if Shanghai and the green battalions around Shanghai had all been transferred to Jiangning, they wouldn't have dared to lend them a few guts. ”

Looking at Pan Er's thoughtful appearance, Han Xiufeng continued: "The same is true for the twisted bandits in northern Anhui and Henan, all in all, as long as the military system of the imperial court is still the same as it is now, in case of trouble, you can only draw two hundred soldiers from here and three hundred soldiers from there, and put them together to quell the chaos, those who see that the imperial court is empty will be ready to move, and even pull the flag and rebel like these parties in the city." ”

"Fourth brother, even we know that there are too few soldiers and they are too scattered, why don't those princes and ministers in the capital know, and the emperor can't not know, why don't you recruit more soldiers?"

"Those princes and ministers in the capital know that the emperor knows the same, but it is not so easy to recruit more soldiers, one is to raise soldiers and ask for money and food, how can the court have so much money and food, and then the court does not dare to raise too many soldiers."

"Why don't you dare?"

"I don't even know this, what are you doing as an official," Han Xiufeng looked up at Pan Er, and sighed lightly: "This country is full of people, but how many people can there be in the world, and how many Han people are there?" What's more, Chengping has been peaceful for a long time, and those Eight Banners disciples can't shoot bows and arrows, even if they recruit soldiers, they can only recruit Han people, if you are the emperor, can you rest assured? ”

Pan Er reacted, and couldn't help blurting out: "No wonder the imperial court let the place that was not occupied by the thieves dismiss Xiang Yong!" ”