Since the Tang Dynasty, Quanzhou has been an important foreign trade port on the southeast coast, and for more than 1,000 years, Chinese and foreign merchants have been in an endless stream. As for the Chongzhen period at the end of the Ming Dynasty, although the overseas trade of Quanzhou Port was robbed of a lot of shares by Dianshan Port under the name of Ji Qingwen, it was still a pivotal seaport.

Xu Hongru did not live in vain at his nearly ancient age, knowing that whether it was Chinese, Japanese, Nanyang, or Western maritime merchants, they were all rich and oily, and in his eyes it was like a sugar jar with honey, which was a good opportunity to supplement military salaries.

Therefore, Xu Hongru and Zhou Xiuying respectively led the army to raid Quanzhou City, and sent Xu Daoqing to lead an elite army to the port to prepare for a large-scale plunder of the anchored sea ships.

Seeing that there was an inexplicable bunch of bandits fighting outside the harbor, they immediately took out the artillery, bed crossbows, bows and arrows hidden under the deck, and slammed them into the crowd of White Lotus cultists.

Xu Daoqing was dazed by such a burst of long-range firepower, and felt that it was more important to live a small life than money, so he quickly withdrew from the harbor and ran out of the range of artillery.

Although the robbery of the harbor was not done, the ransacking of such a big city as Quanzhou still brought Xu Hongru quite a rich harvest.

After this battle, Xu Hongru did not suffer much losses, but he robbed more than 400,000 taels of silver, tens of thousands of stones of grain and grass, and 10,000 horses of cloth, which was enough for a period of military supplies.

This was the first time that Xu Hongru successfully attacked a big city from the outside, and he was inevitably a little in a hurry, grabbing these silver and property and quickly withdrawing from Quanzhou. If it weren't for this, Xu Hongru would have been able to grabs several times more silver and materials than mentioned above after patiently searching Quanzhou City for two more days.

Xu Hongru made such a fuss, but it turned the sky upside down.

Originally, Emperor Chongzhen wanted to suppress the incident of the White Lotus Sect in the south of the Yangtze River, but Xu Hongru robbed such a big city as Quanzhou, and there were many merchants from all over the world in Quanzhou, and it would not be long before this ugly thing could be spread all over the world.

Chongzhen is a face-heavy emperor, Quanzhou has made such a big mess, the head of Fan Weicheng, the prefect of Quanzhou, naturally can't be saved, Emperor Chongzhen waved his pen, and the head of the forty-seven years of Wanli Jinshi master rolled down. Fujian Governor Zou Weilian was also unlucky, was fined for one year, demoted two levels and retained, and still served as the governor of Fujian.

Emperor Chongzhen issued several holy decrees in succession, urging Nanjing Admiral Xun Gui Chengyi Bo Liu Kongzhao and Nanjing garrison eunuch Han Zan Zhou to quickly mobilize the main force south to Fujian, encircle and annihilate Xu Hong's Confucian troops, and if there was any hesitation, he would be killed in front of the two armies according to the crime of fearing the enemy; He also strictly ordered Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian, and Zhang Yandeng, the governor of Zhejiang, to mobilize local defenders, village warriors, and regimental training to join forces to suppress them, and strictly prohibit the White Lotus Sect from wandering to other provinces. In the end, he specially ordered Ji Qingwen's department to immediately rush to the aid of Fujian, waiting for an opportunity to fight with the White Lotus Sect, not seeking to achieve obvious results, but only to win the first battle.

Although Emperor Chongzhen had the highest requirements for Ji Qingwen's department, he rarely gave him the right to act cheaply, giving Ji Qingwen room to act flexibly.

Therefore, after discussing with Li Yan, Li Yuanyin, Yang Zhan and others, Ji Qingwen packed up grain and grass, swords, muskets, ammunition, two well-built chariots and 100,000 taels of silver salary, and went south to fight.

Although the determination has been made, how to go south is a question worth considering.

Rushing south from Suzhou to Quanzhou, Fujian, it is nothing more than divided into two roads - one is to take the line of Wenzhou in eastern Zhejiang, through Ningde and Fuzhou, and arrive in Quanzhou; The other road is to take the western line of Zhejiang, pass through Nanping, enter Zhangzhou, and then enter Quanzhou to the east.

These two roads, one near and rugged and the other far and flat, have their own pros and cons.

But Ji Qingwen is a guy who doesn't play cards according to the routine, and chose the third way in addition to the two roads - the sea route.

After raising the army, Ji Qingwen did not go south, but first went east into Songjiang Mansion, borrowed five large sea ships under the name of Zheng Zhilong in Dianshan Port, transported 1,000 men and horses of the "Ming Wu Army" and 3,000 soldiers of the Beijing Division Battalion, loaded enough countless grains and grass baggage, and then took a boat to the south to Quanzhou Port.

At this moment, it was August, the southeast wind along the coast was in full swing, and the boatmen under the command of Rao Zhilong were proficient in sailing against the wind, but they inevitably delayed the trip, and it took five days to arrive at Quanzhou Port.

At this moment, Xu Hongru, Zhou Xiuying, and Xu Daoqing of the White Lotus Sect had already led their White Lotus Sect disciples out of Quanzhou, and they didn't know where they were going.

Fortunately, Emperor Chongzhen did not give Ji Qingwen a death order, asking him to fight the White Lotus Sect within a certain limited time, which allowed Ji Qingwen to calmly command his three thousand men and horses to get off the ship, resting in place while inquiring about the location of the main force of the White Lotus Sect.

Since the White Lotus Sect attacked Quanzhou, Quanzhou was in fact outside the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, and the yamen had long been closed, and the soldiers in the city who had originally been powerful and lucky had not a single one left, allowing the White Lotus Sect to loot the silver taels of the rich families in Quanzhou. However, Xu Hongru also knows how to buy people's hearts, and he is open to the poor and poor. But the White Lotus Sect is uneven, and not all of them are willing to follow the decree of Xu Hongru, the mortal Mingzun Sect Master, and still do a lot of things to rob the good people.

Therefore, the people of Quanzhou did not have much good impression of the White Lotus Sect, and suddenly saw that the imperial army arrived by sea like a divine soldier descending from heaven, and the city immediately discussed sending a few old squires to the port to greet these officials and soldiers who came from nowhere on behalf of the people of the city.

Now Ji Qingwen is fighting in the guest land, and there is no supreme emperor to make decisions for him, and he knows the importance of winning the support of the local people, so he ordered Yang Zhan to show the flag as soon as he got off the ship, especially the big flag with the word "Qi".

It turned out that Ji Qingwen had already inquired and understood along the way: the rebellion of the Japanese invaders had also affected the coastal areas of Fujian, and the local defenders had no way to face the vicious Japanese invaders, and finally relied on Qi Jiguang to lead the army to reinforce Fujian, which completely quelled the rebellion of the Japanese invaders - therefore, in the hearts of the people of Fujian, the "Qi Family Army" under the command of Qi Jiguang had an outstanding reputation and was a more reliable force than the serious imperial army.

Sure enough, as soon as the old men in Quanzhou City saw the banner of the word "Qi", they spontaneously felt a sense of intimacy, and stepped forward and asked, "May I ask this lord's name?" Why do you use the banner of 'Qi'? Could it be that he was the descendant of the old general Qi Jiguang back then? ”

Ji Qingwen saw that the old man was neatly dressed, and although he spoke with a strong Fujian accent, he was also able to hear and distinguish the official language, obviously he had been an official or studied in the capital.

Therefore, Ji Qingwen didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly said: "Outside of this old man, the lower official is Ji Qingwen, the commander of Suzhou Weaving, who was ordered to lead the army to Fujian to pacify the demon bandits of the White Lotus Sect. As for the 'Qi' banner...... Although he is not a descendant of the old general Qi Jiguang, the 'Ming Wu Army' under me is the foundation of the 'Qi Army', so I dare to dare to play the banner of the word 'Qi'. ”

The old man raised his eyes and looked at Ji Qingwen, and sighed: "This lord is very good, but he is just a miscellaneous official of the fifth grade, and I am afraid that the person who leads it is not a serious official army, as for the 'Qi family army'...... Alas, I don't know how much is true and how much is false......"

It turned out that when Ji Qingwen first arrived, the Fujian people did not understand Ji Qingwen's power like the people of Nanzhili and Zhejiang, although they expressed deep doubts about the cowhide that was not too outrageous.

This is also human nature, but Shen Liangzuo, who was beside Ji Qingwen, was angry and scolded: "Okay, you old gangster, you dare to suspect that the people of the imperial court are coming?" You know what a! Impatient to live? ”

When the old man heard Shen Liangzuo's fierce reprimand, he couldn't help but be a little frightened, and hurriedly argued: "Don't dare...... Can't...... This is just a little faint talk from the little second child, I don't know the name of this Shangguan Zun? ”

When Shen Liangzuo heard this, he replied with a little pride: "Shen Liangzuo of the miscellaneous family is the chief eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, who is in charge of the forbidden army for the emperor. Hum! You don't understand it! ”