Qian Sunai left Nanjing on November 25 in the first year of Shenwu on a big boat, came to Jiujiang on December 8, and left Jiujiang on the 10th to go to Wuchang Mansion.

After leaving Jiujiang, the south bank of the Yangtze River began to show dilapidation, Qian Sunai didn't know why, you must know that although Huguang and Jiangxi were war zones, but the Jiangxi campaign was mainly fought in Nanchang, there was no big battle in Jiujiang, and Huguang was even smoother, the rest of the Qing army after learning that Duoduo's entire army was destroyed, the whole army crossed the Yangtze River under the leadership of Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, and confronted the Wuchang Ming army with Hanyang as the base.

Qian Sunai was always by Zhu Hongsan's side and knew some military information, and now he was very puzzled to see that both sides of the Yangtze River were so dilapidated.

Qian Sunai knew that the boss of this ship had been running on the river all the year round and was familiar with the waterway, so he asked his subordinates to find the shipowner and ask: "Boss, why are the two sides of this big river so dilapidated?" Although Jiujiang was burned, it is much stronger than this, do you know why? ”

The captain of the boat knows that this young master is not ordinary, and other ships on the docks in Nanjing cannot dock, so this young master can put himself on the shore if he takes a strip, and this energy is not something that ordinary people can have. The boat boss is also an old Jianghu, and he knows that trouble comes from his mouth, but this young master asked If you don't answer here, it's not good, and there is no way for the boat boss to deal with it carefully, and slowly replied: "This young master doesn't know, in the first year of Hongguang, Zuo Dashuai in Wuchang led his troops south to Qingjun's side, and fought a big battle with the imperial army here in Jiujiang, Zuo Dashuai died of illness before the war, and his millions of troops were unrestrained, and they slaughtered both sides of the Yangtze River. There is not a single dog within a hundred miles. As soon as he said that, the boss of the ship saw Qian Sunai's face of resentment, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to speak, so he quickly found an excuse to go down to operate the ship.

Qian Sunai heard that this place was all caused by Zuo Liangyu's "Qingjun side", and he couldn't help but be very angry. As Qian Qianyi's son, Qian Sunai knew some of the dirty things of the Donglin Party back then. In order to overthrow political enemies Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, the Donglin Party did not hesitate to lure thieves into the house, sent Hou Fangyu, who had an old relationship with Zuo Liangyu, to persuade Zuo Liangyu to lead troops to Nanjing to kill Ma Shiying and other eunuchs. In order to protect his life, Ma Shiying ignored the danger in the north, and simply transferred back to Huang Degong, who was still able to fight in the four towns of Jiangbei, although he won Zuo Liangyu in the first battle of Jiujiang, but the gate of the north was opened. At the same time, Gao Jie was ambushed and died, and Shi Kefa was not a person capable of taking the storm at all, so Duoduo captured Yangzhou in one day, causing a tragedy of nearly one million deaths in Yangzhou City. In terms of this public case, neither the Donglin Party nor Ma Shiying can get rid of responsibility, and Qian Sunai's father, Qian Qianyi, can't get rid of responsibility.

As a son of man, Qian Sunai can't say that his father is bad, but he can't help but be very dissatisfied with his father.

The ship moved forward slowly, and when passing through Qizhou, Qian Sunai deliberately asked the boat boss to bring the boat close to the north shore to watch the situation of Qizhou City in detail. Jiangbei is the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the fifty guards of the Qian family are very nervous, and they gather around Qian Sunai one by one, for fear that he will be frightened.

The captain of the boat saw these people and said with a smile: "You don't need to be so nervous, tens of thousands of people died in this place, and the city was full of corpses, so what living people came to this place, only some wild dogs that eat human flesh came!" ”

Qian Sunai looked at the ruined Qizhou city wall in the distance, and couldn't help but sigh: "Your Majesty is right, the people are suffering and the people are dying, this is the world of individual cannibalism!" ”

There was nothing to see by the river, so Qian Sunai stayed for a while and then let the boat boss go back to the south. But as soon as I walked to the middle line of the Yangtze River, I saw two big ships coming on the opposite side in the wind, they were coming down the river from the upstream, and the boat momentum was very fast, and it seemed that they couldn't hide.

The boss of the boat was so frightened that he was sweating, this is the middle line of the Yangtze River, and it is the area controlled by the Qing army, although the Qing army sailors have been beaten by the Guangdong sailors in the past few months and dare not leave the port, but if they encounter the Qing navy sailors, a passenger ship will be waiting to die.

Just when the Qian family guards on the ship were preparing to meet the enemy, the two large warships on the opposite side had already arrived in front of them, and at this time, a person on the warship shouted: "The ships on the opposite side stop for inspection, we are the inland river detachment of the Guangdong Navy!" ”

Qian Sunai was also worried at first, but now that he heard that the Guangdong Navy was relieved, it turned out to be his own people.

Qian Sunai ordered the ship boss to stop the ship and wait for the Guangdong Navy to approach.

After a while, the two warships slowly approached, and Qian Sunai saw that the clothes of these sailors were the Guangdong sailors. A man who looked like a sailor got on the passenger ship, got on the gangplank, and asked, "That's the boatman, where did you come from?" ”

The old man stepped forward tremblingly and said: "Master Jun, we came from Jingshi, and just now this son on the ship was going to Jiangbei to have a look, so he crossed the middle line!" ”

The soldier said angrily: "Didn't you get an order not to cross the middle line? Follow us back to Nanchang and wait for the Admiral to interrogate you and see if you are Manchu spies!" ”

As soon as the boat boss heard that he was going to see the official, he quickly knelt down and kowtowed, shouting: "Master Jun, it's really what this son said, the villain is just the boss of the ship, and I can't help it if the owner says it!" ”

On the side, Qian Sunai stood up and said: "This chief, I am an old family member of Qian Ge, and I went to Nanchang to meet friends this time, this is a letter from Qian Ge Lao to Lord Yu, the governor of Huguang, please take a look!" ”

I don't know which of the Qian family's big names is in Guangdong, after all, there is a noble concubine in the family, and the soldier took it and saw that it was a handwritten letter to the governor, and he didn't dare to slack off and bowed down and said: "This son, of course there is no problem with the letter from the old man of the Qian Pavilion, but you have crossed the middle line, and you have to go to the Yamen of the Inland River Admiral to report according to the law, please go to Wuchang with us, okay?" ”

Qian Sunai was going to Wuchang, but now that there was a warship escort, he naturally couldn't ask for it, so he hurriedly agreed, and then the navy warship turned the bow and returned to Wuchang with the passenger ship.

Qizhou is more than 200 miles away from Wuchang, and the ships walked for two days to arrive, and on the way the two warships grabbed two ships that had crossed the middle line, and also took them to Wuchang with Qian Sunai.

The Yangtze River turned a big bend here in Qingshan Park in the later generations, and you can see Wuchang City after passing here. At a distance of less than ten miles from Wuchang, there was a sudden rumbling of artillery in Jiangbei, and it seemed that there was a war on the Jiangbei side.

Qian Sunai stood on the side of the boat and looked at the Jiangbei side, but now the Yangtze River is not only four or five miles wide in later generations, at this time the Yangtze River is abundant, and the river surface is full of twenty miles, and the Jiangbei cannot be seen at all on the south side of the Yangtze River, and can only hear the faint sound of cannons.

Qian Sunai asked the officers and men of the navy on the ship: "This chief, why is Jiangbei fighting * artillery, is it fighting with the Qing army in Hanyang Mansion?" ”

In the past two days, the second lieutenant of the navy has already been familiar with Qian Sunai, and when he heard Qian Sunai ask, he quickly replied: "Young Master Qian, how dare we start a war without His Majesty's military order, this is the navy's gunboats attacking the shipyard of Hanyang Mansion, those Manchu Tartars are not honest, and they will send ships to harass us in a few days, so the Admiral asked the Governor to attack the newly built ships by the river every ten days to weaken the naval strength of the Tartars!" ”

At this time, the ship had already docked, and Qian Sunai saw that Wuchang Wharf was much worse than Nanjing Wharf. It's not that the infrastructure is insufficient, it's that the flow of people is scarce, most of the shops on the edge of the city have been burned down, and only a few are still open, but few people come to the door.

The second lieutenant sighed and said: "Don't be surprised Mr. Qian, this is already good, Nanchang has eased its popularity in the past three years, and no one was killed in the entire Wuchang City after the Liukou back then, and the dead people in the Yangtze River can actually cut off the river." After Zhang Xianzhong left, Zuo Liangyu occupied Wuchang again, and this former Ming officer and army were even more hateful than Liukou. After catching a rich man, he put him on the stove and roasted them, and he didn't pay for them. After these several military disasters, it is not bad that there are so many people left in Wuchang! ”

Qian Sunai didn't speak, and followed the second lieutenant to the navy yamen in the Zhongxiao Gate, which was the small east gate of the later generations, but it was demolished at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Entering here is the East City, which is where the Ming Chu Palace was located. However, precisely because it was the location of the Chu Palace, it also became the hardest hit area of the slaughter city, and the originally beautiful Chu Wangfu was burned.

At this point, Qian Sun Ai asked his family to take Qian Qianyi's letter to the governor's yamen to change the customs defense, that is, the pass, and he and the second lieutenant entered the navy yamen to wait.

Qian Sun Ai sat safely, because he had Qian Qianyi's letter as a guarantee, and the people on the other two ships were not so lucky, they were caught by the Jinyi Wei and interrogated strictly by the Jinyi Guard's yamen, and if there was no human evidence and physical evidence, they would be regarded as Manchu spies, and they would be sent to join the army or directly cut off their heads.

Qian Mo used to look down on Jinyiwei and Dongchang's fans in Guangzhou, and they saw Qian Sunai low one by one. I thought that when I saw such a wolf-like fan for the first time here in Wuchang, I couldn't help but tremble with fright.

Qian Sunai, as a scholar, is naturally a mortal enemy with the factory guard, Qian Sunai saw that these brocade guards were so domineering, and couldn't help but scold in a low voice, "These dogs!" ”

Thinking that the ears of these brocade guards were tight, Xiaoqi happened to hear Qian Sunai scolding himself, looked back at Qian Sunai, and saw him sitting on the chair like no one.

The little flag said to the second lieutenant on the side: "Lao Zhang, who are these people?" Is it also a Manchu spy who has crossed the middle line? ”

The second lieutenant of the navy saw that Jinyiwei had found Qian Sunai, and he was anxious, he was not afraid of Jinyiwei, because Jinyiwei had no jurisdiction over the army, but he couldn't protect Qian Sunai.

The brocade-clothed Wei Xiaoqi was wearing a black flying fish suit, carrying an embroidered spring knife at his waist, and came to Qian Sunai's side and said, "You rabbit husband, what did you say about the uncle just now?" ”

Qian Sunai looked at the little flag and said word by word: "You heard clearly, I said that you are dogs!" Do you hear me? ”

That Xiaoqi didn't expect Qian Sunai to be so bold and scold himself in front of him, and that Xiaoqi couldn't help but laugh angrily: "Okay! Good! I see you're a Manchu spy, here! Take down this rabbit for me, and send him back to let him taste the eighteen tortures of our Jinyiwei! ”