Facts have proved that the judgment of the prince and his wife on the situation is still hasty. In the early morning of the second day after King Fujin entered the palace to visit his sister, two fast horses galloped into the capital from the Yongding Gate in the south of the city, ran all the way on the South Street, crossed the Zhengyang Gate, turned east, and went to the Bingbu Street.

The people who were awakened along the road all knew that this was the emergency army of which province had reported - if it were not for the difference, they would never dare to gallop in such a desperate gallop in the dark night in the Jingshi. And if it weren't for the most urgent "600 miles to step up", the discount would not have reached such a point.

The two of them dismounted at the Titang official office in Beijing, rushed into the office, and shouted, "Old Qi!" As soon as he handed the folding bag on his body to the Zhejiang Titang official who came up, he couldn't support it anymore, and sat down on the spot, panting heavily. The Titang official named Lao Qi didn't care about taking care of them, so he opened the folding bag first, and saw that the package inside was covered with the big seal of the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Qi Ling, but he didn't see the titles of the governor Wang Youling and the Hangzhou general Ruichang, and his face suddenly changed greatly, and he gasped: "It's broken!" ”

After dawn, a bad news spread in the capital at a very fast speed: Hangzhou was captured by Changmao.

Since the rise of Pinghongyang's army, it has been eleven years since then, and there have been too many things about the loss of the city and the land of the official army, why is this news particularly shocking? As soon as Anqing came, Anqing had just broken through, and everyone thought that the situation had improved, and the day of the harvest was just around the corner, and they suddenly suffered a blow from this head, and they couldn't help but feel depressed; Second, Hangzhou is the place where the flag camp is stationed, and there is a city full of buildings, and once Hangzhou is broken, nearly 10,000 flag people in the city fall into the hands of Changmao, and I am afraid that there will be death and no life.

The actual situation is not far from what Beijing speculated.

The fall of Hangzhou is quite similar to Anqing, although the host and guest are translocated, but they are all defeated in grain. The difference is that Anqing was besieged for more than a year before it ran out of grain, while Hangzhou was besieged for just over a month, and the grain stock in the city was exhausted.

It is said that it is sold out, but in fact, it is better to say that it is not well prepared. Hangzhou folk, never have the habit of storing grain - "there is heaven above, there is Suzhou and Hangzhou below", the rice warehouse in the south of the Yangtze River, there are grain fields everywhere for dozens of miles on the edge of the city, what do you want to store grain? As far as the government is concerned, it is also a failure to deal with it, and it was surrounded by the soldiers of "Loyal King" Li Xiucheng in a hurry, and there is no way. Governor Wang Youling sent his best confidant, the famous Hu Xueyan, to Shanghai to buy grain, and then took the sea route, entered the Qiantang River from the turtle gate, and transported it to Hangzhou, but the result was a reenactment of the Anqing story, the grain ship was blocked by the Taiping army, and the grain rice could not enter the city.

The food in the city was soon eaten up, followed by shark fin, sea cucumber, jujube chestnut, persimmon cake, and then began to eat bran bran, wild vegetables, banana leaves, and leather boxes.

Of course, such a situation cannot be maintained. Zhang Yuliang, the commander-in-chief, made the last move, led the troops out of the city, and tried to open a passage to the grain ships on the Qiantang River, but the battle was overwhelmed and the whole army was annihilated. In this way, the Taiping army attacked the city more urgently, took two big ships and turned them over and covered the ground, dug a secret passage from under the ship to the Fengshan Gate, filled a few coffins with gunpowder, stuffed the bottom of the fort, and finally broke the city wall and poured in. Governor Wang Youling, more than 20 officials above the fourth grade, either hanged, or took poison, or wiped their necks, and died in the line of duty.

The full city garrisoned by the flag camp was only broken seven days after the fall of the outer city. When the outer city was just lost, the Hangzhou general Ruichang ordered to send out gunpowder, each soldier was given three catties, the official yamen was given one barrel for each barrel, and the general yamen and the capital were given four barrels each. When the city was destroyed, the general's mansion sounded two horns, and each family lit a fire together, regardless of men, women, and children, all of them were buried in the fire, and almost no one was spared.

On this day, Guan Zhuofan was not on duty, and he had a rare good sleep. After getting up, before he had time to eat urgently, he heard the news from the messenger sent by the chief soldier's yamen.

The fall of Hangzhou, for Guan Zhuofan, did not cause any emotional waves—it was expected, he just couldn't remember the date exactly. After the Manchurians entered the customs, the massacre was very fierce, and now there is such a retribution, and there is nothing to say. However, there were also more than 40,000 Han people who died in Hangzhou! Seeing all the slogans of the Taiping Army, it was just a cover.

On the other hand, in fact, he has been waiting for this news, because this news has some other meaning for him.

As soon as Hangzhou is broken, it means that the war situation in the southeast is erosive again. Guan Zhuofan changed into official clothes, sat in the study and thought quietly for a while, picked up the pen, and wrote a letter to Libin who was far away in Shanghai. After writing, he read it twice, sealed it, and pressed it under the paperweight, and then he stood up, strode out, and shouted: "Túrin, prepare the horse!" With Túrin and two of his own soldiers, he galloped towards the Dongcheng Branch of the Infantry Army Yamen in the east of the city.

When they arrived at the Dongcheng Branch, the soldiers who were standing in front of the yamen naturally had to kneel down and ask for peace, but when they entered the yamen, the officials inside were even more chaotic. One by one, they rushed out of the house and saluted.

"Excuse me, please go back to their roots." Guan Zhuofan was very polite, and after saying this, he arched his hand to Demin, the counselor in charge of the Dongcheng Branch, and said with a smile: "Old De, I'm sorry, I came here without saying hello to you." I don't have anything else to do, just find someone to say a few words in private and leave. ”

"Yes, may I ask Master Guan, which one are you looking for, I'll go and call him."

"Bai Mingli."

"Yes." After hearing this, Demin went out of the house and called Bai Mingli to come over, saying in his heart that Master Guan didn't know what was going on, and he wanted to name and find this five-grade leader.

Bai Mingli probably knew what was going on. About a year ago, when he was having a banquet in the house of this Guan adult, Du Er once called the door, and at that time, Guan Daren was only a lieutenant from the sixth grade. Today, he is already the chief soldier of the second grade, the imperial guard, and he comes to him by name, and most of them will have trouble.

"Mark Bai Mingli, see your lord!" Bai Mingli trotted into the house and signed up for the salute, feeling so nervous.

"Lao Bai, get up, old acquaintance, don't be so polite." Guan Zhuofan's tone was very gentle.

"Don't dare to be, don't dare to be." Bai Mingli relieved his mind a little, and didn't dare to say anything about Guan Zhuofan's words, stood up, and said with a smile: "Adults have always been rare, if there is anything, please just give me the order, and mark it and do your best." ”

This Shangguan, who was his own a year ago, is now in front of him, but he is already a submissive look, Guan Zhuofan can't help but sigh, and asks: "Lao Bai, I heard that Du Er has been released?" ”

“…… Be. Bai Mingli didn't expect him to ask this when he opened his mouth, a little embarrassed. Du Er was in the Bujun Yamen Prison in Sanlitun, and he was only locked up for less than a month, and he got it out, and naturally he also received another filial piety.

"Oh," Guan Zhuofan nodded and said with a smile, "My second brother is still in prison." ”

"Undermarked...... Mark ...... "Bai Mingli saw sweat on his forehead, and couldn't help kneeling down again, saying in his heart that your second brother is still in prison, because you yourself refused to let him go, and it has nothing to do with me, but since you are better than Du Er, you must be looking for trouble with him, so what else can you say?" can only blame Du Er's hard life. Thinking of this, he hurriedly said: "Mark, send someone to detain Du Er, and wait for the adult's disposal!" ”

"That's not necessary," Guan Zhuofan knew that Bai Mingli would be wrong, so he smiled and said, "You get up, just bring a word to Du Er for me." ”

"Yes, please show me." Bai Mingli stood up cautiously as if he had been pardoned.

"The incident a year ago was regarded as Zhuo Ren's pit on Du Er, and he still holds a grudge." Guan Zhuofan sat on the chair and tapped lightly on the armrest, "But in the end, Zhuo Ren is my second brother in the end, please go and tell Du Er, what happened in the past is only a wind blowing!" Since then, Zhuo Ren and him have not known anyone. ”

Bai Mingli knew that this was a warning to Du Er, and he would never go to Zhuo Ren for trouble again, so he hurriedly bowed down and agreed, thinking: This Zhuo Ren is about to be released.

*

(Xie Lu Xie Shuyou 1311, Prodigal Son, XYZ, ybch, candy tips, Xie Lu Xie yxx's update ticket.) ）