When the day dawned, with the fresh air, the morning sun shone over the trees, shooting out specks from the gaps in the leaves, casting them on the ground, like strange golden leaves, swaying with the swaying of the leaves.

In Xinfeng City, the early shops have opened their doors, and hard-working people come and go on the streets, carrying their bags, and are busy for life; The tempting aroma of the steamed bun shop filled the whole street, and the passers-by swallowed their saliva and looked at it and left in a hurry.

In fact, there are some, after all, it is the county seat, and there are still so many rich people, but during this period of time, these people have left, and the imperial army from Guangdong is stationed outside the city, and the news of the war with Dongyu has been spread for a long time.

"It's not going to come here, is it? Right? After all these years, I haven't seen a war, and wars are all in big cities, and small places won't suffer, right? ”

Occasionally, in the teahouse, the sitting idlers talked to each other, talking about these things, the luck psychology prevailed, a few years ago, the Tartars called, Li Chengdong occupied Guangzhou, there is no big storm here, it is nothing more than some pigtailed officials, become the county, there is nothing else, for the common people, the tax is still paid, and the conscription continues to serve, but it is just a change of yamen.

As for the braids, if you don't keep them, you have to cut off your head, although you feel very humiliated, but if you don't keep them, you will die, everyone still stays, and then Li Chengdong and Li Dashuai don't know how to change the court, and become the official of the Ming Dynasty again, this braid is not allowed to stay, and if you stay, you have to cut off your head, and everyone has cut it again, and they have become the people of the Ming Dynasty.

In the past few months, Li Dashuai outside the city has come again, and I heard that he is going to Jiangxi, and there is a lot of fighting, and many people have died.

The discussion in the teahouse continues, people drink tea, chat, can be idlers, of course, there is still a little money, but not much, there is no way outside, can not go, can only talk on the lips.

"Li Dashuai's soldiers are outside the city, and the camp has been connected to the other side of the mountain.

"That's not it, the Ming Dynasty is alive again, the court has made up its mind this time, it must recover Jiangxi, I think the Tartars are coming to an end in the south."

"Hehe, a few days ago, the king at the entrance of the alley locked the house and fled with his family, saying that he wanted to avoid the soldiers, so I persuaded him, when did we suffer from a military disaster, a small county and a small place, who can look at it? Second, the imperial court has been strong in recent years, and the Tartars can't jump for a few days, Li Dashuai will definitely win in the past, so it's good to stay at home and see the excitement. Who would have thought that Wang Yuan would leave without even talking to him, but he was still the official in charge, and he didn't have any eyesight. ”

"Rich people have very little guts, you and I are not as rich as him, of course I am not afraid, hahaha."

These words have a ridiculous meaning, everyone laughed, the teahouse was rippling with pleasant air, Li Chengdong was extremely strict, prohibiting his soldiers from disturbing the people, so although there were many soldiers in the city, they were at peace with the people, the social order was as usual, and the tea guests in the teahouse were very free.

There was a rush of footsteps running down the street, and someone looked curiously, and turned to shout at a table as if they had discovered something new.

"Huh? Look at it, I ran over just now, it seems to be Yang Zhi County! ”

"Yang Zhixian?" When they looked over, they saw only a few men in cloth robes flashing around the corner of the street, and they disappeared through the street, and on the other side of the street was the direction of the city gate.

"Yang Zhixian has always sat in a sedan chair, how can he run on the street, you are dazzled." The crowd laughed.

The man was in a hurry, and hurriedly distinguished: "How can you be mistaken? My brother works in the county government, I often go there, Yang Zhixian is very familiar, how can he admit his mistake? Those people really have Yang Zhixian, ah, it seems that there is still his son in it. ”

"This man is talking nonsense." Everyone laughed even more happily, it is rare to have such a good joke on weekdays, which amused everyone.

Before the laughter fell, another rush of footsteps came from the street, and this time everyone saw that a group of people in sackcloth and straw shoes and backpacks and boxes ran along the uneven stone street, and the leader was actually the county lieutenant.

They looked panicked, panicked, not wearing official robes, and there were women and children inside, looking as if they were fleeing.

Everyone in the teahouse was dumbfounded, watching this group of people running in the direction of the city gate, in a trance, the woman inside was still wiping her eyes and wiping her tears, and she was talking about something, the county lieutenant ran in front, turned around and slapped the woman, and yelled viciously, the woman was silent, sobbing and followed.

When he ran, his eyes were all at the people in the teahouse, and he didn't stop at all, and when an acquaintance wanted to say hello, the county lieutenant turned his head and ran away.

The woman was the wife of the county lieutenant, a very horizontal mother-in-law on weekdays, and the county lieutenant lowered his voice when he yelled at the woman, but because it was relatively close, the people in the teahouse still heard it.

"Crying your mother's comparison, what are you doing with that little house? The city is ruined and the life is gone, what else do you want to do? ”

The city is broken?

Is the city going to break?

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then let out a shout, and the birds and beasts dispersed.

On this morning, the Qing army in Ganzhou City, a hundred miles away, suddenly appeared on the periphery of Xinfeng, the troops were monstrous, and began to attack Li Chengdong's front army without warning.

When the Xinfeng County Commander ran out of the city for half an hour, the defeated soldiers began to impact Li Chengdong's army, the defeated soldiers who were as chaotic as ants could not be stopped at all, and the Qing army that was covered behind them was like a flood beast, chasing after the defeated soldiers of the Ming army and killing Li Chengdong's Chinese army, breaking the camp.

Li Chengdong returned to heaven without a skill, and retreated into Xinfeng City with the people around him.

The Second Northern Expedition became a laughing stock.

……

Nanjing City in the south, the place of the dragon and tiger, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, the north leans on the Yangtze River in the south and the south of Qinhuai, the ten miles of joy are undefeated for thousands of years, and the beautiful songs of the past are endless for a hundred years.

How many talented and beautiful people left poems here, how many generous people lingered here, so extended to the Ming Dynasty, the most famous in later generations, when the legend of Qian and Liu Ruyi.

Liu Ru is the head of Qin Huai Bayan, peerless, and knows everything about piano, chess, calligraphy and painting; Qian Jianyi became famous as a young man, the leader of the literary world, Liu Ru is a geisha from a humble background, and he is a geisha who does not sell his body, when the two met, Qian Jianyi was fifty-nine years old, and Liu Ru was only twenty-three years old.

However, this year, Qian Jianyi, who was reduced to the Qing court, was imprisoned in the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou because of the Jiangyin Huang Yuqi rebellion case, and the tiger fell to Pingyang, except for Liu Ru who ran back and forth to rescue, no one paid attention to him.

In the former Ming Forbidden City in Nanjing, in the building on the left side of the Fengtian Palace, Hong Chengchou, the prince of the Qing Dynasty, the secretary of the military department, the scholar of the inner court, and the prime minister of the Jiangnan provinces, was sitting behind a huge desk, immersed in books.

The house is large, but there is nothing long, a desk, a few armchairs, some potted plants suitable for the occasion, a circle of bookshelves against the wall is full of dazzling thread-bound books, a few calligraphy and paintings are hanging on the wall, and a sheathed sword hangs behind Hong Chengchou.

There is a furnace of sandalwood burned indoors, fifty-seven-year-old Hong Chengchou is no longer young, the military career of Jin Ge Iron Horse has left an indelible wound on his body, and even now that he is old, every rainy season, there is a faint pain in many places on his body, and he must rely on sandalwood to soothe his nerves to resist slightly.

However, looking at the way he was lying at the desk, his eyes were condensed, his spirit was strong, and he did not have the old man's old age, but he had the meaning of a young man's high spirits. It's just that his eyes are a little cloudy.

His personal companion Hong Fu walked in gently from the outside, bowed down and stood in the room, wanting to open his mouth to say something, but seeing that he was engrossed in writing, with a serious face, he closed his mouth with interest and waited quietly.

After half a ring, the brush in Hong Chengchou's hand wrote the last word on a piece of rice paper full of words, and the expression on his face relaxed, and he looked at it carefully, and at the end, he asked out loud without raising his head: "What's the matter?" ”

Hong Fu replied respectfully: "The rice merchant that Xiangye wants to summon has been waiting outside for a long time. ”

Hong Chengchou kept his eyes off, still looking at the paperwork in his hand and not moving, and waited for a moment before saying casually: "Let him come in." ”

Hong Fu withdrew, and after a while, he led a person in.

This person is dressed in silk and satin, with a rich figure, a lovely smile, simple eyebrows and eyes, not tall but very fat, a body of flesh that supports his clothes and bulging clothes, no beard on his face, shaved and smooth with a slick flow, except for the black spots on his skin, the whole is a standard merchant of a philistine.

Hong Chengchou was born in Jinshi, familiar with Confucius and Mencius, for businessmen, there is a contempt in his bones, he raised his head, glanced at the fat man standing in front of him and didn't know how to put his hands and feet, a disgusted expression spontaneously appeared, unabashedly revealed to his face.

The fat man didn't seem to realize this, he still laughed dryly, he may have never seen such a big official as Hong Chengchou in his life, and his smiling expression was flattering.

However, if someone had seen him on Mudun Island in Hongze Lake a few years ago, they would have recognized him at a glance.

He is the ancestor who shaved his beard.

(End of chapter)