Of course, Yang Hongzhang didn't believe that the two commanding envoys came to the Yamen of the General Military Mansion to ask for guilt just for a few unscrupulous businessmen, they took advantage of the opportunity to catch Yang Hongzhang's little whip, and wanted to take the opportunity to establish their prestige, if they succeeded this time, Yang Hongzhang would also have to rely on others in Datong Town in the future. It is impossible to say that there is still a possibility of getting out of the way, so that in the absence of suitable candidates in the imperial court, the two commanders of the front and rear guards of Datong are very likely to be replaced.

It's just that they thought very well, but Yang Hongzhang didn't play cards according to the routine, and so on put Xu Fengbo and Shen Wenchao in prison, and let Yang Sheng interrogate more than a dozen businessmen overnight, at the beginning, these family owners, because they were also made inexplicable, since they paid the deposit for release on bail pending trial, the soap of the Yamen of the General Soldier's Mansion was very polite to them, except that they could not leave the mansion at will, and they could not go out of the city, there were almost no other restrictions, so several people admitted that they had exchanged letters and believed that this Chief Soldier was a money fan, In this way, they plan to connect in series and send people to the capital to dredge up relations, and then sue in front of the emperor.

And the two commanders made the adults make a big fuss about the General Military Mansion, and they also learned about it quickly, but soon the personal soldiers of the General Military Mansion arrived, saying that General Yang Sheng had invited them, and all the merchants trembled involuntarily when they heard the name Yang Sheng. It really confirms the old saying that the king of Hades is good at seeing little ghosts, and this Yang Sheng is a particularly ruthless little ghost in front of the Yama Palace.

Almost all of them thought about it, if the chief soldier asked for money, they would admit it, anyway, they would be able to turn over when the imperial court's envoy came, and maybe they could return the silver, but when they arrived at the general soldier's mansion, they found that they were still dealing with the same posture as on the first day, one person in a single room, and four people against one.

Tossing and turning until the second half of the night are just a few questions, what is the relationship between you and Xu Fengbo, is he colluding with Jiannu, and is it that they should cooperate with the outside world last time the Mongol Tatars attacked the city? In short, every head of the family dares to admit these questions, because these are the great crimes of killing the head! In the end, it was Huang Qiqi, the head of the Huang family in Daizhou, who said cautiously: "General, we are just honoring Xu Fengbo during the New Year's holidays. I heard that he had close contacts with some Fanbang merchants, and it was impossible to distinguish whether those merchants were small or not. ”

With the first breakthrough, someone immediately reported to Yang Sheng, and Yang Sheng was also overjoyed and hurriedly asked people to transcribe a few copies of the confession inspired by Huang for those unenlightened family owners to see, and those people remembered many past events as if they had just woken up from a dream......

When Yang Sheng came to Shen Wenchao's room in the second half of the night with the confessions of more than a dozen family heads, Shen Wenchao was also dumbfounded after reading these confessions, he didn't understand why these businessmen were so able to make up stories, and they seemed to be close to the truth.

As the commander of the front and rear guards of Datong, he sat and watched the defeat of the general army of Datong, and then fled in a hurry to give up Datong City to the Mongolian Tartars, Shen Wenchao actually blamed himself in his heart, but then the court did not seem to pursue it, and the general soldiers sent did not pay attention to it, he seemed to have forgotten about it.

Now the indiscriminate confessions of those unscrupulous businessmen are infinitely close to the truth, which makes Shen Wenchao tremble, it turns out that he unconsciously became an accomplice of the Mongolian Tatars ravaging Datong Mansion, so what face do he have to question Yang Hongzhang?

Yang Sheng is also a good person, and when he saw the change in Shen Wenchao's expression, he rolled his eyes and said: "General Shen, it's not that my marshal is cowardly, nor is it that the court is magnanimous, but that I didn't have enough evidence before this, and the border army in Datong Town was also destroyed, so the emperor gave my marshal a secret decree to investigate the Mongol Tatar invasion while rebuilding the border army, I didn't expect you two to be good, the marshal didn't come to you for trouble, but you jumped out to make trouble, I really think the marshal can't cure you?" You don't even use your brains to think about it, why did the commander set up the General Military Mansion in Yanggao instead of going directly to Datong? Why did the marshal start with the merchants, instead of asking for the help of the envoy and the brocade guard to go directly to the barracks to investigate? You're just waiting to wipe out your family! ”

With a plop, Shen Wenchao knelt on the ground in a daze, looked at Yang Sheng blankly, and then seemed to suddenly wake up, and hugged Yang Sheng's thigh with a few steps on his knees: "General Yang, you must help me, I don't have Litong Tartar and Jiannu, it was also Xu Fengbo's idea to give up Datong City, my Datong guard was already short of major generals, and the plague reduced two-thirds, and then the great drought court did not allocate silver to expand the army, and when the Mongols broke through, the entire Datong guard was less than 2,000 people, If you want the tens of thousands of border troops in Datong to be unable to withstand the Mongol Tatars, we will go up in vain. Besides, Datong has always commanded Xu Fengbo with the avant-garde command, and I just retreated......"

"When the imperial court's envoy comes, they will naturally judge, let's talk about your other problems, such as whether you have done what those merchants said, how much benefit you have received from them on weekdays, and whether you have helped to dredge up the relationship and sell a large number of prohibited goods to the outside of the city?"

"This ......" Shen Wenchao looked at Yang Sheng with a little hesitation.

"Don't be lucky, my handsome family hates others to deceive him the most, if you take the initiative to admit it, maybe the handsome can help you cover up for the sake of your colleagues, if you wait for Xu Fengbo to say it first, you will be miserable."

Many things were expected by Yang Hongzhang, two people who were able to escape when the Mongol Tatars were attacking the city, and the Mongol Tatars were sitting in the command position unharmed after retreating, Yang Hongzhang naturally did not intend to be polite, these were also the two chickens he killed and set an example for! But with the development of the plot, in the end, Xu Fengbo and Shen Wenchao actually began to eat dogs, and some unknown insider stories were gradually exposed, although they were nothing compared to the two major crimes of building slaves and sheltering illegal businessmen, fortunately, these were admitted by themselves, and they were a bit genuine when they went to the court to start a lawsuit.

Yang Hongzhang sent someone to invite Gao Shiming back overnight, showed him the confessions of Xu Fengbo and more than a dozen businessmen, and then said: "Gao Gong, I plan to take the initiative to play what happened here with the court, otherwise when the villain knows about the right and wrong in the court, you and I will be passive." ”

Looking at the confessions of those businessmen, Gao Siming was also dumbfounded, he thought of the collusion between officials and businessmen, but these people almost unanimously confessed to the two commanders, although they also involved other officials in Datong Mansion in their confessions, but most of them either died in battle or fled, so only these two commanders were really still in high positions.

Gao Shiming is naturally familiar with some officials of the Criminal Department who handle cases first set up a trumped-up charge and then straighten out the black materials, and then keep digging up, and in the end, the true and the false are put together, and those officials are almost not clean. These two commanders were obviously taken down by Yang Hongzhang by the same means. Gao Shiming looked at the general soldier who was more than ten years younger than himself, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, this is not only a good hand in war, but also a good hand as an official. That's fine, if the general army can't handle the commanders below, then he, the prison army, will have no light on his face, and I'm afraid that no one will take him seriously.

Of course, Gao Shiming knew Yang Hongzhang's intention to call him back, and they couldn't let the court know that the two people actually guarded the two places separately in order to collect money, so that the court felt that this was a joint decision of the general army and the supervising army, and jointly played the imperial court, demanding a thorough investigation of the thirteen guards in Datong Town, the purpose of which was to eliminate the Mongolian Tartars and Jiannu's fine work in the army.

This was originally a very ridiculous thing, but there was the fact that Datong Mansion was captured by cavalry, and there were Shanxi merchants who frantically sold grain, pig iron, etc. to Jiannu despite the ban.

After writing the joint chapter, Yang Hongzhang immediately wrote to the guards in the name of the General Military Office, asking each guard to conduct a self-examination in the unit of thousands of households, and resolutely purge the construction of slaves, Yang Hongzhang has the life experience of the harmonious era, and knows that the movement is also feasible in the Ming Dynasty, and may receive unexpected results.

Another decision was to move the Yamen of the General Military Mansion to Datong, after all, he Yang Hongzhang was the general soldier of Datong, not the commander of Gao Shanwei. Moreover, the new prefect of Datong, Ye Kaitai, is about to arrive, and he can't give Ye Kaitai an empty and dilapidated Datong for him to play with. After all, the long-term supply of materials still needs to pass through Datong Mansion, and unlike Tianjin, he was the prefect of the general army at that time.

Of course, there is another reason why Yang Hongzhang is so anxious, that is, to open a mine, although he has greeted the emperor and other scholars, Ye Kaitai is also his own person, what can he do if this stubborn temper offends him, so everything must be done before he arrives, so Ye Kaitai has no responsibility for negligence. Hunyuan Prefecture is naturally the best place for coal resources, where to open mines and set up arsenals is the most ideal, and where it is a little far away from Yanggao, and a large number of sergeants are needed to guard, so Datong is a more ideal location.

The pro-soldier battalion, cavalry battalion, auxiliary battalion and 10,000 recruits accompanied Yang Hongzhang to Datong.

Due to the seizure of a large amount of supplies, Yang Hongzhang allowed Tianzhen County and Yanggao County to recruit pickets of 1,000 people in each county, responsible for the security of checkpoints and the city in peacetime, and as a reserve in wartime. Luo Kedi was stationed in Yanggao and Zhang Hu was stationed in Tianzhen, and Sun Fei, as a patrol team at the checkpoint, set up strongholds in the two cities. The strength of three battalions increased to three thousand.

In addition to the craftsmen that Yang Hongzhang asked for from the military department and the craftsmen recruited from Tianjin, there were also more than 3,000 people who participated in Yang Gaocheng's construction, and these people would become the main force in mining and building the arsenal.