The small Tangyi City has completely turned into a busy and orderly military camp at this time.

Han Daoming and the others also walked into Tangyi City, only to suddenly find that there were far more soldiers and horses in the city than they imagined.

The main warships of the Xuzhou water camp could not pass through the shallow and narrow river channel and sail directly to the city of Tangyi, and at present, the water camp Dazhai is located more than 30 miles away, located in a river bay named Qingpu Kou at the foot of the southeast foot of the Great Thorn Mountain.

Even if there were no camps on the north side of the Qingpukou River Bay and on both flanks to guard against the enemy's approach from the north, it stands to reason that the most in Tangyi City would be the 3,000 Jiangzhou soldiers under the command of Zhou Yi, and the more than 1,000 Guangde soldiers who Chen Jingzhou had escorted grain and materials over two days ago.

However, Han Daoming and the others entered Tangyi City from the east gate, and found that there were more than 2,000 troops stationed near the east gate alone, all of whom were well-armed, and more than 20 scorpion cannons and bed crossbows were placed at the head of the city.

Of course, the city is more populated by hungry people fleeing the war.

After the announcement on the 18th to establish the Tangyi camp, the household department also sent Lang Zhongguan to take officials across the river into Tangyi City to take care of its affairs.

It is said that it is in charge, but the household department only sent a lieutenant Lang to cross the river with a few small officials, how can it manage the resettlement of tens of thousands of hungry people?

In the final analysis, it is still the Tangyi camp that sends people to be responsible for managing the porridge field and rectifying the order, and the household officials are only responsible for supervising to ensure that there is no false boasting and concealment here, and then allocating the money and food needed for the almsgiving.

"The eldest master, the second master, I am Han Fu!"

As soon as Han Daoming and the others entered the city, they were about to rush to the camp tent used as the former Tangyi County Ya by Feng Yi when they heard someone in the crowd on the side of the street screaming hoarsely at them.

Han Daoming looked over, but it was Han Fu, the steward sent by the second Daochang to Jiangbei to be responsible for encircling and occupying the grange, and at this time he was standing behind the crowd with a look like a long drought and a rainy dew, and he was happily standing on tiptoe and waving to them.

It's just that Han Fu and the two familiar entourages around him are all hungry, and the clothes on their bodies are also tattered, no different from the hungry people in the city, as if they have suffered a lot.

Han Daoming and Han Daochang reined in their horses, waited for Han Fu and the others to come over, and asked in surprise, "How did you become like this?" ”

"That's a long story!" Han Fu said with a crying voice.

Han Fu is an old family member who has served the old man Han Wenhuan, who is the same age as Han Daoming, and his sideburns are frosty white.

As the saying goes, the seven-rank official in front of the prime minister's door, as an old slave with the old qualifications of the Han Mansion and trusted by the old family master and the head of the family, even if Han Chengmeng and other children see Han Fu, they have to be called Uncle Fu, and when he walks out of the Han Mansion, a lot of people are called "Fu Ye".

Han Fu saw the eldest master and the second master crossing the river at this time, and he felt a lot of grievances in his heart, and he couldn't wait to pour out all the hardships he had suffered in the past ten days at this moment.

Feng Yi said to Han Daoming: "The hungry people are stranded on the street, and the situation is complicated, so let's go to the tent first." He motioned to the guards to give three horses to Han Fu and the other three, and rushed to the camp tooth tent first.

Rushed to the tooth tent, only Gao Shao, Xi Xunqiao and others were handling official business in the hall, Han Qian, Zhou Yi, Chen Jingzhou, Tian Cheng and others went out of the city to reconnoiter the terrain in the north in the afternoon, and they were not in the city at this time.

Feng Yi, as the commander of the camp, had endless things to do when he returned to Tangyi, so he could only arrange for Han Daoming, Han Daochang, Han Jun and others to rest in a courtyard in the back house first.

"Why do you look like this?" went to the small hall in the courtyard and sat down, and at this time Han Daochang had to ask Han Fu about their current situation.

"The Seventh Prince arrived in Tangyi twenty days ago, and all the houses, grain and grass, strong men and even extra clothes in the city were ordered to be forcibly requisitioned, and those who dared to hide or resist the order were severely punished. Han Tong recognized the Seventh Prince as early as possible, and thought about begging the Seventh Prince for mercy and keeping the Han family's house in the city, but he didn't want the Seventh Prince to give an order on the street, so he beat Han Tong with ten boards and threw it out to dig trenches and dig canals. Han Tong was tired and vomited blood when digging the trench the day before yesterday, and was sent back to the city to rest for two days," Han Fu cried and said, "I am also old and frail, and I fainted from digging the canal for two days a few days ago, and the people of the seventh prince couldn't look at it, so I was extra kind and arranged for the junior and fifth to send me back to the city to rest, but the rest of the manpower was scattered and incorporated into the private sector to serve as coolies." Several sets of yards that our family had built in the city before were also requisitioned, and the three of us could only squeeze a horse shed with more than a dozen other hungry people every day to barely survive the night, and we could go to the porridge field every day to mix two bowls of gruel and not die - the eldest master, the second master, this city is really not a human life! ”

Han Daoming and Han Daochang sat in the hall and looked at each other, Han Qian said that he had only arrived in Tangyi with the Xuzhou Water Camp on the twelfth, but listening to what Han Fu said, Han Qian was obviously in Tangyi on the second and third days of the lunar month.

In terms of time, this is also consistent with Zhou Yi's takeover and blockade of the entire city of Tangyi.

Maybe Han Qian contacted Chen Jingzhou at that time, mobilized and summoned the old headquarters of Zuo Guang's German army to go north, which made the defenders in Tangyi City at this time much more than expected.

Of course, these things are already inconsequential details.

Just like when Han Qian infiltrated Jinling and directly took away the military power from Li Pu, in the end, this matter can only be said to be Han Qian's decisive and flexible plan, and he did not drag the mud and water, could it be that he could still use the rule of law to seize the military power without permission?

On the fourth day of the first lunar month, the enemy cavalry annihilated the right Shenwu army and captured Zhongli City, but after that, the 20,000 enemy cavalry did not dare to rush south, and even now they only sent more than 3,000 cavalry from the flank to keep an eye on Chuzhou City, and did not attack it.

All this can even be said to be Han Qian's decisive entry into Tangyi ahead of schedule to join Zhou Yi, so as to gain extremely valuable time for the imperial court to rectify the defense on the north bank.

Although the imperial court finally decided to pay all kinds of supplies to Tangyi according to the number of 20,000 soldiers, and there was a steady stream of materials from the south coast these days, in addition to the first batch of warships, three groups of merchant fleets brought more than 100 ships and nearly 100,000 stone of materials to Tangyi these days.

Since Han Qian had a large amount of grain and materials that were not under the supervision of the imperial court, Han Qian did not need to report to the imperial court about everything if he wanted to build the Tangyi defense line in the end.

Listening to Han Fu's tone, Han Qian obviously wanted to dig a canal between Tangyi and the main channel of the Yangtze River before spring, so at this time, the young and strong men who could be requisitioned were squeezed to the limit, so that people like Han Fu, who were almost sixty years old, would also be requisitioned out of the city to do heavy physical work such as digging riverbeds.

Han Daoming and the others crossed the river in the name of the labor army this time, and they rushed over to reconcile, not to hold them accountable.

Unconsciously, the sky was getting dark, and Han Daoming was just about to send someone to ask Han Qian when he would return to the city, when he heard footsteps coming from outside the courtyard wall, and heard Han Qian complaining loudly on the courtyard wall:

"Who asked you to bring them over, others don't know the severity, they don't know the twists and turns behind it, why are you confused, haven't you even figured out such a simple truth?"

"The eldest uncle crossed the river to come to the labor army, and he asked for an order, how can I dissuade him?" Feng Yi's voice came, as if he was justifying something.

Han Daoming's heart jumped, and he looked at Han Daochang, the second child in front of the corridor, with an ugly face, Han Qian was dissatisfied with Feng Yi taking them across the river?

Han Jun, Han Duan, and Chen Zhiyong looked at each other, and they didn't know that when Han Qian walked in and drove them away, they left directly, but they salivated and said soft words?

Han Fu encountered the eldest master and the second master in the afternoon, and his body shrank back at this time, and he didn't even dare to breathe, and he felt that the air in the courtyard was inexplicably solidified.

Without waiting for them to discuss anything, they saw Han Qian walk in with a gloomy face.

Han Qian walked to the front of the corridor, his eyes swept over Han Fu and the others standing in the courtyard, as well as the other dozen or so followers brought by Han Daoming, and said in a deep voice: "Give me all out." ”

Han Fu and the other more than ten of his followers looked at Han Daoming, who was shocked.

"You go out first." Han Daoming was still shocked, thinking that Han Qian really wanted to do something disobedient, and there were more than a dozen people around them who couldn't stop anything, and motioned to Han Fu for them to go out first.

"Arrange for people to guard the left and right, and no one is allowed to approach the courtyard," Han Qian instructed Han Donghu, and then asked Han Daoming with a gloomy face to enter the hall to speak, with a tone of regret that it was too late, and said, "Uncle, second uncle, you really shouldn't have crossed the river, Feng Yi was careless, and complained that I didn't make it clear to him, and I made such a big mistake!" ”

Han Daoming and Han Daochang looked confused, and they couldn't understand how Han Qian, who could still treat them as elders, could look like something bad.

"Why shouldn't we cross the river?" Han Daochang asked.

"When the defense line of Tangyi is stable, I will lead the water camp back to Xuzhou. Second uncle, do you think you should cross the river so vigorously? Han Qian asked.

"You're going back to Xuzhou?" Han Daoming was shocked and asked, "Why?" ”

Their crossing of the river like this today was actually premised on Han Qian's return to the center and never leaving again.

And if Han Qian led his troops and horses to retreat to Xuzhou again after the war, thinking about Guangde Mansion in the spring and summer of last year, he would know that all the suspicions of Han Qian by the monarchs and ministers of the DPRK and the central government would be like if they fell on their heads.

They never came to Han Qian this time, and they will go back.

"Why?" Han Jun asked in surprise.

He really didn't understand, from now on, Han Qian obviously had military power, and he formed an alliance with Li Zhihe again to serve under the command of the Queen Mother, why did he return to the beautiful place of Xuzhou after the war?

"Why?" Han Qian glanced at Han Jun and said, "I came to Jinling under the edict of the Empress Dowager, but after the war, the Empress Dowager ordered me to return to Xuzhou, if I dare not comply, the Han family will be wiped out!" ”

"How is that possible? Even if Your Majesty and the Queen Mother are suspicious of you, they will also take into account your prestige among the subjects of the world, unless they completely disregard the safety of the Great Chu Sheji. Han Daoming asked in shock.

"Your Majesty is suspicious of me, you also know, with this alone, Your Majesty can't kill me directly, let alone destroy my Han family, but what if someone in the Han family is adulterous, and even gives birth to a son? Uncle and second uncle, do you say that this is a disaster to exterminate the race, and you say that how many dares do I have to act without obeying their orders? Han Qian asked in a deep voice.