Chapter 68: Farewell to Xuzhou

When it was dawn, Li Zicheng personally rode to the place where the fierce battle was fought last night, and after reading it, he was very angry, he had received information that someone was coming. However, on his own side, the army did not pay attention to it. They all think that they have hundreds of thousands of troops, thousands and hundreds of people, and they don't have to worry about it, as long as they surround Kaifeng. When asked about the scene last night, the officers and soldiers who were attacked were still horrified when they mentioned the events of last night, and said: "There are tens of thousands of people coming, and there are muskets everywhere, explosions everywhere, and fires everywhere. There's nowhere to hide, nowhere to hide. However, Li Zicheng, after watching the battlefield, knew very well that there were not many soldiers who were really killed, and the fire caused by the burned shack was the main reason for the chaos. What's more important is that the military is slack, I didn't expect someone to start from here, and the sneak attacker has a large number of firearms, and his own soldiers have not encountered this kind of fighting, and they have not organized a counterattack for a while, otherwise, one person Yang Yiyi also buried the attacker. I also attach great importance to this opponent in my heart, this is really a genius. But the hatred that followed was even stronger. Attacking a few thousand people at most, but it is very likely that they will break the siege plan that they have been preparing for a long time. Thinking of this, my heart is also very heavy. Returned to the battalion and beheaded a few derelict generals.

Zhang Zhimu slept beautifully, woke up, and didn't get up. Picked up the letter sent by King Zhou and read it. King Zhou was very moved by Zhang Zhimu's righteous act. However, the letter obviously did not have much hope for Zhang Zhimu's success. The letter said that if the attack was successful, you could see the letter. The explanation still feels that Zhang Zhimu has little hope of seeing this letter. However, King Zhou warmly invited Zhang Zhimu's caravan, on the return trip, if Kaifeng is not broken, please Zhang Zhimu must stay in Kaifeng, and the Kaifeng military and civilians will welcome Zhang Zhimu with the most solemn courtesy. The letter also told Zhang Zhimu that he would definitely remember the suggestion that Kaifeng could be defended by guarding the Yellow River embankment, and that measures had been taken to block all the city gates and loopholes, and that once the Yellow River embankment was broken, Kaifeng could also protect itself.

When Zhang Zhimu studied this history, he had a good impression of this King of Zhou. The king of Zhou was very sensible, when Kaifeng was besieged, he took out the silver taels in the house to encourage the citizens, there are 50 taels of silver for killing a thief and soldiers, 30 taels of silver for shooting a person, and 10 taels of silver for those who injure a person with bricks and other things. What puzzled Zhang Zhimu was why the soldiers and civilians of Kaifeng were all united in defending the city, especially those poor people, why they forgot their own class and used their property and lives to defend the landlord ruling class and defend the city for them.

What makes people laugh even more when they think about it is that this siege created a miracle in the history of Chinese and foreign wars, and pioneered the "naked war".

Li Zicheng's army was outside Kaifeng City and could not be attacked for a long time. And the defenders are holding on without a fight. Li Zicheng had no choice, so he sent some women to strip naked, stand under the city, and shout and curse at the city. Our great ancestors were full of wisdom and wisdom. The defenders of the city took a very peculiar countermeasure. found a group of monks, who also stripped naked and stood on the city wall, scolding downward. Think about that scenario. Isn't it a miracle that there are white flowers above and below the city? The defenders sent monks, probably for two reasons, the first monk can resist the temptation of the naked women in the city, and the second monk Although the monks are not moved, they are also men after all, and they also have a certain lethality. I don't know how this naked war ended in the end, but this miracle is definitely the only one in the history of Chinese and foreign wars.

Seeing that Zhang Zhimu was awake, Chen Yufeng came over and said: "This time, the people and officers and soldiers we hired have a total of eleven more dead and more than 20 injured. The dead bodies were brought back, and the wounded were all returned. Our own people did not die, there were a few minor injuries. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "If you die, you should take care of it as you said at the beginning." ”

Back at Xuzhou Wharf, Lu Chengxiang and others were waiting there. After greeting everyone for a while, a servant came over and said, "Lord Zhizhou, Ling Xiaoshi has been waiting here, and as soon as you come back, you will go to see him immediately." Zhang Zhimu had no choice but to take Yang Yulin to see Lord Zhizhou. Zhizhou listened to Zhang Zhimu's introduction to the whole process of rescue and unsealing, and his mouth couldn't close. I didn't expect to say a few things in a row. Finally, he said: "I will report to the court immediately and report your earth-shattering feats to the emperor." Zhang Zhimu was not polite this time, now he can't think of being famous, so he simply makes good use of this fame. Zhizhou also told Zhang Zhimu that the three corpses had been packed and given to the Daming Water Master. They had recognized it as their general.

Back at the inn, Zhang Zhimu called Lu Chengxiang and asked, "How much cash do we have now?" Lu Chengxiang opened the account book and said: "I'll report the whole number first, when we left the customs clearance, the gold and silver we seized in the Fenhe River and the silver that we sold the goods in Tongguan were basically brought back by Fan Chengkun and kilned." We only brought money for the cost of the journey. After passing through Tongguan, the bandits obtained 16,750 taels of gold and 43,466 taels of silver. We sold silver without horses in Xuzhou, and got 242,170 taels of silver. The relatively large expenditure was 50,000 stone and 105,000 taels of grain, and 91,000 taels for the mercenary of men and ships and compensation for the casualties. After removing the other expenses, there are now 24,286 taels left, and some copper coins. In addition, we did not pay the full amount for the boat, but only gave a deposit. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Okay, I know a big number." We want to buy a place here in Xuzhou, which is bigger, not necessarily very good, and must have a yard that can put horses and goods. You can ask Liu Qinda's shopkeeper for help in this matter, and then don't forget, thank you. Friendship is priceless, and friendship is counted. After arranging things here, we will move forward immediately, and we cannot delay any longer. ”

In the evening, it was a celebration banquet arranged by all walks of life in Xuzhou, and everyone was drunk. During the banquet, Zhang Zhimu told Liu Qin about himself. Liu Qin said that this is a trivial matter, and now the business is not easy to do, and there are many real estate sales, and within two days, there will be results. In fact, in front of everyone, Liu Qin and Zhang Zhimu were able to talk with each other, earning him enough face, and outsiders didn't know how Liu Qin made Zhang Zhimu a friend.

The next day, when the wine woke up, Zhang Zhimu held a meeting for everyone. Because he knew that this time he went to rescue Kaifeng, everyone didn't say anything, and they might not be satisfied in their hearts. Because it cost more than 200,000 taels of silver at once, which is not a small amount. There must be an explanation for everyone. Seeing that everyone sat down, Zhang Zhimu said: "This time we went to support Kaifeng, and spent a total of more than 200,000 taels of silver, maybe everyone must not understand why we did this." Then I'll tell you about it today. Today, here are the core figures of our kiln, and I will give you a political account. This time, Li Zicheng surrounded Kaifeng three times, and the strategy he adopted this time was very clever, because he had already occupied most of Henan, and he had the conditions to besiege Kaifeng for a long time. And not a hard attack. If Kaifeng is lost soon, as soon as the weather is cold and the Yellow River is frozen, Li Zicheng will wave his army to the north, the Ming Dynasty will be very dangerous, and the Mongolian and northeastern Qing soldiers in the north will take advantage of the weakness, and Li Zicheng's troops can deal with the Ming army, but his troops are not well trained and cannot form a confrontation with the Qing army and the Mongolian army. Such an outcome is not in our interest. We need to maintain the current situation, quite a long time, so that we have time to develop ourselves. This time to put it mildly, we have solved the difficulty of opening the seal, and we can see the benefits in front of two eyes. First, the trade route from the south to the north is completely opened, and second, we have completely won the trust of the Ming court. Needless to say, the benefits to us are simply immeasurable. You say, is it worth the blood and sacrifice we have spent this time? "Listening to Zhang Zhimu, everyone woke up like a dream, it turned out that Mr. Zhang was really grandiose, no wonder, Mr. Zhang was so ruthless. How could anyone like us think of that? In fact, even Chen Yufeng didn't think so far, but he supported Zhang Zhimu's matter. After listening to it, I also felt that Zhang Zhimu was really ambitious, and he could see far. Seeing that everyone was relaxed, Zhang Zhimu said: "I told Mr. Lu that I have arranged for someone to buy a place in Xuzhou, and this will be a place for us to settle down in the future." This is a grain-producing area, and there is wheat and rice. Convenient transportation. Let's take a rest, and after the business here is done, we will set off to continue south. Yan Boju said, "If you are not in a hurry, the horses should be changed to go ashore for a walk." Zhang Zhimu said: "Uncle Yan's affairs will be decided by yourself." ”

As soon as the meeting ended, Lin Xinmin wanted to see Zhang Zhimu, and Zhang Zhimu said, "Come in and sit, Shopkeeper Lu." Lu Chengxiang came in, and he wanted to say nothing. Zhang Zhimu said: "Don't worry, I've already arranged your affairs." We want to buy a place in Xuzhou, and it just so happens that I want to ask you to help buy some grain here, and graphite and zeolite from your house. Your shop, I'll help you redeem it. What do you think? Lin Xinmin said: "Zhang Dongjia saved my family." But I came this time to ask Zhang Dongjia to take me in, I want to do it for you here. To be honest, it's too hard to do business on your own right now. I've been with you all these days, I've never been so happy, I'm busy with everyone, and no one here treats me as an outsider. These days, I am looking forward to being home and afraid of getting home. It dawned on me that I didn't want to leave the brethren here. Zhang Zhimu said: "Shopkeeper Lu can stay and work with us, we can't ask for it." But what about your business? Lin Xinmin said: "I want to put the shop out, and it is enough to settle the family." I'll just do it with you. Zhang Zhimu said: "That's the best." I have a suggestion though. You should take your family to Xuzhou, because, the Ming Dynasty can't withstand the Qing troops now, and the Qing soldiers will attack Shandong in the second half of the year. "Zhang Zhimu can't say, I have read the history of the Ming Dynasty, in December, the Qing army attacked Shandong and took 360,000 people captive. When Lin Xinmin heard this, he felt that the Qing soldiers were too far away from him, and he never thought that he could have anything to do with them. But Zhang Zhimu, a god-like person, can't help but believe what he said. When I think about it, it's the same everywhere, and I have come to Xuzhou. Zhang Zhimu said: "I just appointed the shopkeeper of Xuzhou, if you are not wronged, the shopkeeper Lin will be the second shopkeeper." You all enjoy the treatment of intermediate cadres in the kiln gang"

"Xie Zhangdong, I am willing to assist Lu Jun as the shopkeeper." Lin Xinmin said.

Liu Qin was still very efficient, and found a large courtyard outside the city, which turned out to be an inn. The front yard is an inn, and the back yard is a yard where horses can be carried. This was originally an inn dedicated to receiving caravans, and Zhang Zhimu was very happy to see it. Decide on the matter here, Zhang Zhimu calculated, Lu Jun stayed, Li Mao left one person, Lin Xinmin only four people, and Zhang Zhimu chose two people who came out of the kiln gang to stay. Tell Lu Jun that the other guys and masters are all looking for them locally. Tell Lu Jun to leave you 200,000 taels of silver, help Lin Xinmin redeem the store, and let Lin Xinmin help buy 800 stone graphite and 800 stone zeolite, all of which will be transported to Xuzhou, and the rest of the silver will be set aside for expenses and bought into grain. If you have something, you can go to Liu Qin for help.

Because the next step was to cross the canal, the horses and goods were evenly distributed to the unloaded boats. It is guaranteed that the draft of each ship does not exceed six takes. After arranging everything in Xuzhou, Zhang Zhimu's fleet lifted anchor again and headed south.