The residents of Hezhou City, almost all night, but a few miles away under the Diaoyu Mountain under the sound of fighting sounded all night, the sky-high fire reflected half of the sky, frightened people frightened, tightly closed the gate and hesitated until dawn, in the morning the sky was high and the sun rose, no one dared to show up on the streets of the city, such as the city head of the great enemy, only Zhizhou and other local officials with the city horse foot squad and the people Zhuang in the trembling lookout and inquiry.

A few days ago, the people of Kuizhou, who occupied Chongqing City, came to greet and told Zhizhou that the city gate should be closed as soon as it was dark in the past few days, and no one could open the door when anyone came to call it, otherwise the people of the county would be killed and the city destroyed.

Zhizhou only agreed, and now it is the people of Kuizhou who call the shots, of course they have to listen to them, but why do they do this, the people of Kuizhou didn't say why, they just said that it was Meng Zhiyu's message.

The governor of Hezhou knows Meng Zhiyu, a colleague from a different background, although he is not as noble as the top three jinshi on the main and deputy lists, but he is the celebrity in front of Wang Huan, the chief soldier of the lord of Kuizhou in the Ming Dynasty, and he has the status of the first person in the civil affairs of eastern Sichuan in the future, and most of his words are not wrong, so Chen Kun of Zhizhou hurriedly arranged, and the door was closed and locked at dusk every day, and the city gate was blocked with a stone, so no one wanted to enter or exit.

Sure enough, within a few days, not far from the Diaoyu City, the Kuizhou Army and the Ming Chongqing General Soldier Zeng Ying opened, standing at the head of Hezhou City, you can see the sky-high gunpowder smoke stained the black sky, across a few mountains can also hear the sound of cannons and shouts of fighting, Chen Kun and a number of state officials secretly complained, the heart of the military disaster came, this time no matter who loses or who wins, a catastrophe in Hezhou City is inevitable.

After a day in the panic to midnight last night, the rumbling explosion under the Diaoyu City made the people of the whole city wake up from their slumber, the ground is trembling, the ash brush on the beams of the house is falling down, the earthquake makes people mourn, Chen Kun took the head of the horse step team and some people to reluctantly have the courage to go up to the city, looking at the Diaoyu Mountain, but saw that the fire burned the night sky red, and there were constantly defeated soldiers passing by under the city, shouting and scolding Chen Kun to open the city gate.

Chen Kun knew that he was coming, gritted his teeth and closed the door and did not open, and the endless stream of soldiers and ruffians saw that they could not open the door, so they scolded, and even some officers shouted that they wanted to climb the city, if they were allowed to come in, the fate of tens of thousands of people in Hezhou City would be not much different from that of the people in Yangzhou City.

Fortunately, there are some preparations in the city these days, and there are a lot of rolling wood and stones, and the people at the head of the city know the terrible disaster of the war, and they are angry with the enemy, and they guard an earthen city tightly, and the water cannot be splashed.

It wasn't until after noon that day that the sound of Diaoyu City slowly stopped, and the stragglers entangled in the outside of Hezhou City fled in all directions, and the outside of the city was quiet, Chen Kun wiped the sweat on his head, and took a long breath, looking at the adjutants and others who followed him, everyone had a relieved expression, and a vain disaster was finally avoided.

As soon as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they saw smoke and dust rising on the official road outside the city, and a team of white-robed soldiers galloped over, starting with one person, but it was a donkey riding, dressed in the official robes of the Ming Dynasty's seven-rank civil officials, and shouted loudly to the city: "Brother Chen?" ”

Chen Kun looked closely, it turned out that the official riding on the donkey was Meng Zhiyu, and he was surprised, how could this master come to a small state city like Hezhou in person, and hurriedly ordered the people to move open the stone and open the city gate, and stood outside the city gate by himself, greeting him with courtesy.

When Meng Zhiyu saw Chen Kun, he hurriedly jumped off the donkey, covered in sweat, dusty, and seemed to have run a lot.

The two saw the cumbersome etiquette of the literati, and then they spoke, Chen Kun had something in his heart, and hurriedly asked how the war was going outside, who won and who lost.

Meng Zhiyu grinned, touched the beard on his chin and said, "Do you still need to ask?" Brother Chen, if Lord Wang loses, can I still stand here and talk to you? I had already fled for my life. ”

Chen Kun smiled reluctantly and asked hesitantly: "Then, Lord Wang, uh, how are you going to get rid of me and other old officials?" ”

Meng Zhiyu said with a smile: "I knew that Brother Chen had this question, so I came overnight to calm Junxin's heart, I really don't hide it, I came this time, I came on the order of Lord Wang and General Soldier Wang, and arranged all kinds of matters for the newly annexed states and counties." ”

"Brother Chen doesn't have to guess, all the states and counties, as long as they are dedicated to the respect of Lord Wang, and do things loyally, they can live in their original positions as much as possible, and they will not be implicated, and the adults are considerate, things are done well, and it is not very simple to be promoted exceptionally, and now there are scarce talents in the official office of adults, you look at me, but I am only a seven-grade official, but I am appreciated by the adults, and I am appointed as the prefect of the office, and I even skip several levels, and when the war settles down, the adults will report to the court and ask for rewards for the meritorious people.

Meng Zhiyu's words made Chen Kun's eyes light up, and his expression soared, but Meng Zhiyu's words changed, and he whispered a few words: "But Lord Wang hates two-faced and three-sword people the most, if he takes his money and is an official under his rule, but he does disloyal things and is not a subordinate, it is also terrible to provoke the wrath of thunder, Brother Chen, you look at Zeng Ying, who is so heroic, he was still pacified by him overnight, captured alive, you understand." ”

Chen Kun suddenly lost his color, and said with a panicked face: "Zeng, Zeng Ying was captured alive by Lord Wang? ”

Meng Zhiyu patted his head: "Isn't it, I caught it last night, look at it, you and I have been talking here for a lot of time, hurry up, Brother Chen, go back to the state government quickly, clean up a large courtyard, Lord Wang is going to enter the city to rest, don't make a mistake." ”

Chen Kun woke up like a dream, he was anxious just now, and pulled Meng Zhiyu to stand at the city gate and chatted for a long time, and he didn't let the family drink a sip of tea, which was not a way of hospitality, so he hurriedly led the way and took Meng Zhiyu to the state office.

After more than an hour, Wang Huan came to Hezhou City with three thousand white-robed soldiers, Ma Long's people and Ma Xintian's new army, respectively, went to the west and east to pursue the fleeing Zeng Ying's defeated army, forty or fifty thousand officers and soldiers, less than 10,000 were killed and wounded last night, and the rest were either carried away by the guerrillas of the generals, or scattered into bandits and ruffians in groups, and fled into the township, these are all scourges, not one by one will inevitably harm the place, Wang Huan captured Zeng Ying, the entire three mansions and two divisions east of Chongqing Mansion are his territory, not completely except for these troubles, there will certainly be some troubles in the future governance.

Three thousand soldiers stayed outside the city, camped on the spot to rest, Wang Huan only brought five hundred people into the city, after all, this place was initially decided, the brigade of soldiers on the street will bring panic to the people in the city, Wang Huan governs with benevolence to rule the law, and tries not to disturb the people if he can.

But even so, the five hundred white-robed soldiers stepped on the stone street, but the momentum was greater than that of five thousand, after a night of bloody battle, the white robes on the soldiers were stained with blood and battle marks everywhere, and those who saw it all looked sideways, and the ash pole spear leaning on the right shoulder at the same angle, the blade was shining, and the mountain-destroying crossbow hanging on the waist was faintly shining, revealing a terrifying and murderous atmosphere. Every white-robed soldier had an indifferent look of honor and disgrace, as if last night's fight was just a small training, his eyes were resolute and calm, his steps were neat and powerful, his waist was straight, and he was vigorous.

Hiding under the eaves on both sides of the street, the lively people whispered, praising and praising and amazed, such a military appearance and military discipline, everyone has never seen it, aren't the Ming officials and soldiers all a group of soldiers? When did such an iron army come out?

When a wooden prisoner cart that looked hastily built at first glance creaked over in the ranks of soldiers under the pull of two horses, the people's discussion suddenly became louder, and everyone recognized that the horse-faced man in the prisoner cart was not Zeng Ying, the general soldier of Chongqing of the Ming Dynasty, who was high on weekdays? He was captured alive by the Kuizhou soldiers!

The news spread from street to street, and soon spread throughout the city, and it was a change of day! This is the top priority in everyone's mind, and in the future, there will be no Lord Zeng in this eastern Sichuan realm, but only Lord Wang.

When Wang Huan entered the city, the people in the city were still dodging and didn't dare to go to the street, so not many people saw him, at this moment Wang Huan sat peacefully in the hall of the Hezhou Prefecture, drinking a cup of Longjing tea at the bottom of Chen Kun's box, and listened to him standing in the hall and bowing and talking.

"My lord, there are 18,000 households in Hezhou, and the household registration files of the government treasury are all here, please take a look."

Chen Kun held a large stack of books in his own hand, gently put them on the table next to Wang Huan, and then bowed down, his head was full of sweat, and he didn't dare to come out.

Wang Huan picked up a copy at random and flipped through it, then threw it aside and let Meng Zhiyu look at it, while he looked at Chen Kun with a pleasant face and opened his mouth to ask.