Zhong Feng sat in the lobby of the Qianyun Building, looking at Qian Qianyi and Zhang Shenyan who were kneeling on the ground. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

He suddenly asked, "Zhang Shangshu is old this year?"

Zhang Shenyan was stunned, looked up at Zhong Feng, and then replied, "Sixty-nine this year." ”

Zhong Feng nodded and said, "Sixty-nine, it's really not easy to kill if you're not careful." When I saw Shangshu, I took the initiative to hand over the record of the Jiangnan gentry's donations to the Jiangbei Army, so as not to let our soldiers come up and torture them. ”

Zhang Shenyan's body shook and did not speak.

Zhong Feng snorted coldly when he saw that Zhang Shen was silent. A soldier next to him walked up and grabbed Zhang Shenyan, and slapped him with a big slap.

Zhang Shenyan was slapped so much that his eyes were full of stars, his blood was surging, and he almost fainted all at once. Where can a sixty-nine-year-old be hurt like this? He staggered to the ground and paced left and right for a few steps, then fell to his knees again with a thud.

Zhong Feng waited for a few minutes, waiting for Zhang Shenyan to recover, and then said with a smile: "Is Zhang Shangshu going to die?" ”

Zhang Shenyan finally relieved his breath, coughed a few times, and coughed up a few traces of blood. He looked at Zhong Feng in a panic and said, "The old man has no account books, and the account books are good for Qian Qian. ”

Zhong Feng sneered and looked at Qian Qianyi.

"Qian Qianyi, your son and daughter in Changshu have been controlled by us. If you don't hand over the original record honestly, I'm afraid the Qian family will be doomed. ”

Qian Qianyi trembled, but refused to speak.

Zhong Feng frowned, and with a wave of his hand, two soldiers walked up and were about to slap the old man.

This Qian Qianyi is not afraid of his son and daughter being killed, but he cherishes his body very much. Seeing that the soldiers of the Tiger Ben Army were about to beat him, he finally spoke: "Don't! Don't hit me! I'll deliver! ”

Qian Qianyi turned around in three steps, very reluctant, but walked to the library under the push of the soldiers. He turned out hundreds of sandwich pages from dozens of ancient books, which were clearly the list of donations from the gentry in the provinces south of the Yangtze River.

Zhong Feng flipped through the lists and said coldly: "If there is a mistake or omission, I will delay you!" ”

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On the third day of the third month of March, Zheng Kaicheng returned to Fengyang City after inspecting outside Fengyang City.

After getting the list of gentry who donated to the Jiangbei Army from Qian Qianyi, Li Zhi began to conduct a great investigation in Nanzhili.

Li Zhi's policy was: Anyone who donated more than 1,000 taels to Qian Qianyi would be shot to death. If it exceeds 2,000 taels, the head of the house will be shot dead and the house will be raided. If it exceeds five thousand taels, it will be cut off all over the door.

Of course, the news of the Jiangbei Army's flight south to Jiangxi had spread throughout Nanzhili at this time, and the gentry who donated money to the Jiangbei Army found that the momentum was not right, and they fled with their money. Li Zhi was able to capture only a few gentry who were lucky and did not flee.

For those gentry who fled, Li Zhi's policy was to raid their homes. The escaped gentry hurried, and the silver that could be taken with them was only partial, and some of the possessions were left in the cellar of the house.

Zheng Kaicheng rode into Fengyang City with his personal guards, and couldn't help but shake his head. Fengyang's situation is worse than what Grandpa Guo expected, and Zheng Kaicheng can be said to have gained nothing.

Fengyang is located in the northwest of Nanzhili, the climate is not like Jiangnan, but similar to Henan, Fengyang has also suffered a lot of locust plagues and droughts over the years, and the road of Fengyang Mansion City is not prosperous. The exterior decoration of the shops on both sides of the road is very rudimentary, and at this time, they are all closed, making the whole city even more deserted.

However, even in such a poor place, the gentry here still strongly supported Qian Qianyi's Jiangbei army. According to the list found in the Qianyun Building, the Fengyang Mansion donated 130,000 taels of training funds to Qian Qianyi.

But by the time Zheng Kaicheng arrived in Fengyang, the gentry had already emptied their belongings, and not a single tael of silver was left for Zheng Kaicheng, who led his troops into the city.

Fengyang is far away from Nanjing, and Zheng Kaicheng's soldiers and horses must not be as fast as the transmission speed of news. On the way to Fengyang, the traitors of Fengyang had plenty of time to escape. When the Tiger Ben army entered the city, all the civil officials and gentry on Zheng Kaicheng's arrest list ran away.

To the north of Fengyang is Henan, where Li Zicheng is raging, and to the west is Huguang, where Li Dingguo is active, neither of which is a peaceful place. It was impossible for these gentry to run to these places with a cart of silver. Both the east and south are areas under Li Zhi's control, and they are not places where he can flee. The most likely thing about these gentry is that they are hiding somewhere.

Zheng Kaicheng secretly said that he wanted to reconnoiter in Fengyang and arrest these gentry who were hiding.

Zheng Kaicheng was about to enter the yamen to rest, but he saw a peasant man in coarse cloth clothes in the distance running over in a panic. Behind the peasant man, four men who were also covered in patches, but who were too tall and strong to look like peasant men, chased after the escapee.

The peasant man ran all the way and rushed to Zheng Kaicheng's personal guard. He bumped into the guards and didn't stop, and desperately rushed to Zheng Kaicheng's horse, but was stopped by the guards.

The platoon commander of the personal guard couldn't stand it anymore, and shouted: "Dare to disrupt the people!" Why did you rush into the personal guards of the commander-in-chief? ”

"General, save me!"

This peasant man was asking Zheng Kaicheng for help, and the pursuers behind him were killed. Ignoring that Zheng Kaicheng's personal guards were in front of him, one of the middle-aged men pulled out a dagger and stabbed the back of the peasant man's neck, killing the peasant man in front of Zheng Kaicheng.

Blood splattered, and the pursuers fled into the distance as soon as they struck a blow. Zheng Kaicheng's guards didn't know what was going on all of a sudden, so they took out their handcuffs and began to load the propellant.

The guards' handcuffs are loaded in advance. The bullet was wrapped in shredded paper and stuck in the barrel, and it took a few seconds to load the propellant on the fire door when it was ready to be used. Only a crackling gunfire was heard, and before the gangsters could escape twenty meters, they were all put down by more than a dozen handcuffs.

Zheng Kaicheng witnessed this inexplicable scene, he didn't know what was going on, and frowned. After thinking for a long time, Zheng Kaicheng said to the platoon commander of the personal guard: "Find someone to investigate the identities of these deceased." ”

After saying this, Zheng Kaicheng walked into the prefect's yamen.

After a long time, the platoon commander of the personal guard found Zheng Kaicheng: "My lord, we found a lot of people to identify the body, and finally figured it out." That peasant man was a villager from Wangjia Village, fifty miles outside the city. The four murderers seemed to be the family members of the great gentry of the city. ”

Villager? Family?

Didn't all the gentry's family members run away? How did it end up in the city? And why kill in front of yourself.

Zheng Kaicheng sat on the chair and pondered for a long time, and suddenly felt that he had caught some clue. He slammed the table: "Send a thousand scout cavalry to attack Wangjia Village, and no one can be let go!" ”

"Order!"

After giving the order, Zheng Kaicheng paced back and forth in the prefect's yamen, anxiously waiting for a response. It wasn't until the platoon commander of the personal guard brought him a cup of tea that Zheng Kaicheng reluctantly sat on the chair, but he still couldn't help but look at the gate of the yamen.

Finally, when it was time for dinner in the evening, a scout cavalry battalion commander ran in with two signal men. The battalion commander, though hungry, was radiant. He knelt down on one knee in front of Zheng Kaicheng and said loudly: "Your Excellency, we have caught one hundred and seventy-six gentry who were fleeing by car outside Wangjia Village, and there are countless gold, silver and goods. ”