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Chapter 169 There is an emperor in Shanghai! (Above)

“…… Cavalry, assault! ”

Accompanied by the banner of the Qing army, a small group of fierce Eight Banner Iron Cavalry, to the frightened rebels made the final impact, where the light cavalry passed, the rebels who seemed to be outnumbered and powerful, were smashed by bows, knives, and sticks, and the casualties were unbearable, and they completely collapsed in an instant.

Heart-rending screams, skulls slashed by knives, pungent blood, and...... A mace that is getting closer and closer to his head!

“…… Ahh

In the faint morning light, accompanied by a sharp exclamation, Chen Zilong sat up from the bed suddenly, only then did he remember that he had long been away from the battlefield and fighting, and was now in his own courtyard in Shanghai County, but every time he recalled the scene in his dreams, he still had palpitations.

After staying for a long time, Chen Zilong reached out and touched it, his forehead and sideburns were wet, and he was really sweaty.

More than a month ago, the "Zhenwu Army" that he and his friends jointly formed was beaten to pieces by a small group of Qing soldiers and cavalry, and they fled. When the whole army collapsed, Chen Zilong once thought that it was time for him to be martyred, but who would have thought that he would be desperately rescued by a few loyal servants in the end.

But even so, Chen Zilong, who fled to Shanghai, was still seriously ill, and he didn't dare to talk about military affairs lightly, let alone talk about it casually.

“…… Son! What's wrong with you? ”

Liu Ru, a famous prostitute in Suzhou who escaped from under the Qing soldier's knife with Chen Zilong, had just gotten up not long ago, was making a basin of well water, squatting in the courtyard outside to freshen up, and when he heard Chen Zilong's exclamation, he hurried over to ask.

Chen Zilong looked up from the bed and saw Liu Ru with loose temples and messy clothes, and bursts of women's fragrance coming to his nose. If it were in normal times, he was afraid that he would already be in a state of flux, and he couldn't help himself. It's just that at this moment, he doesn't have the slightest intention of looking for Fang.

“…… Nothing, just a nightmare! Facing Liu Ruyi's delicate face, Chen Zilong just waved his hand casually, jumped out of the bed, took off his pajamas and changed into a coat, anyway, as prostitutes and benefactors, they have long been in the same bed, and there is nothing to avoid. Then, Chen Zilong took a baked cake in his arms as breakfast, and hurriedly went out with the two little guys, and did not forget to tell Liu Ru before leaving:

“…… If so, I have to discuss important matters with Xu Gebu and Master Sun in the Catholic Church today, and I won't be back for lunch! ”

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The history of the county seat of Shanghai is quite long, and its earliest history can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, but until the late Ming Dynasty, it was still a small city by the standards of the south of the Yangtze River. Even the capital city of Songjiang Prefecture is not in Shanghai, but in the Huating in the south.

However, since the late Ming Dynasty's "Longqing opened the sea", Shanghai has finally gradually become a foreign trade port, and a large number of cotton cloth from Songjiang Prefecture has been exported to overseas and the north and south of the country, and the market has begun to prosper. The population of the county has grown to 100,000 households, and there are more than 30,000 households in the city. However, compared with the major seaport cities of Fujian and Guangdong, which were already very prosperous at that time, the scale of Shanghai Port was still much worse. It is completely incomparable with Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou, which have a population of nearly one million.

However, it is such an ordinary county town, but now there are more than 100,000 war refugees, and in an instant, it is beyond Shanghai's capacity. When Chen Zilong walked through the streets with his little servant, he saw that every roof was crowded with many hungry people from other places in tattered clothes and vegetables. And because the "Australian" fleet blocked the sea lanes, Songjiang cotton cloth could not be sold, and the local weaving and dyeing craftsmen in Shanghai were also unemployed in large numbers, and outsiders could not find jobs. With so many people crammed into the tiny county town of Shanghai, the market is getting more and more chaotic, as the old saying goes: if you are cornered, don't forget that there is one last way out, and that is crime.

As a result, all kinds of robbery, murder, theft and riots ♂ spread with explosive growth in the county seat of Shanghai, and soon the management ability of the county government was out, and even the county magistrate of Shanghai was killed by someone last month, making the city into a state of anarchy from then on.

At present, it is entirely by relying on the most prominent families in Shanghai to jointly dispatch armed men of various families to patrol and suppress, hang a string of heads on the streets and at the city gate to "deter the traitors," and take out food stocks to give porridge for relief, so that the basic order in Shanghai County can be barely maintained.

The Catholic church that Chen Zilong visited this time is located in Fahua Town, outside Shanghai County, which will be Xujiahui in the future. Because Xu Guangqi's descendants once lived here, they got such a name. But right now, Xu Guangqi is still alive.

This veteran Westernist school of the late Ming Dynasty, who introduced Western geometry and sweet potato cultivation technology, is one of the few Chinese scholars and doctors who "opens his eyes to the world", and the highest-ranking Christian in the Ming Dynasty is now over 70 years old, and can be regarded as the number one person on the ground in Shanghai today. Moreover, the meeting held in the Shanghai Catholic Church was also initiated by Xu Guangqi.

In fact, Xu Guangqi's experience in the past two years in this time and space can also be called twists and turns.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen, Xu Guangqi was originally in Beijing as a cabinet scholar, because Chen Xinshuai's Dengzhou town pulled the flag to rebel, expelled Denglai Governor Sun Yuanhua, and defeated the Shandong officials and army, and the Ming court was on fire and smoke in all directions, and there were defeats everywhere, and there was no strength to crusade against Dengzhou, so Emperor Chongzhen, who had not changed his soul at that time, sent Xu Guangqi to Beijing to Shandong to appease the Dengzhou rebels.

Unexpectedly, before the pacification negotiations were successful, the Guan Ning army had already defected and surrendered to the pass, leading the Eight Banners Tartars to attack Beijing, and the Ming court collapsed. Xu Guangqi, who was negotiating in Dengzhou, couldn't help but be disillusioned for a while, so he simply got a sea boat through the relationship in Dengzhou Town and went back to his hometown in Shanghai. After arriving at his hometown in Shanghai, Xu Guangqi was stunned to find that his good student, fellow villager and parishioner Sun Yuanhua was already waiting for him in Shanghai, after being defeated by the rebels of Dengzhou Town, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, was afraid of the imperial court punishment and did not dare to return to Beijing, so he fled directly to his hometown in Shanghai by boat.

After returning to his hometown in Shanghai, Xu Guangqi was already dedicated to living in seclusion for the elderly, and basically did not ask about the world except for reading the Bible. Although the Donglin Party court in Nanjing, after supporting the Yonghe Emperor Zhu Yihai, once sent people to Shanghai to recruit him to appear again, Xu Guangqi also resigned on the grounds of old age and decrepitude. And his student Sun Yuanhua, who was also religious, basically did the same after fleeing to Shanghai.

However, in the current turmoil, Jiangnan is also not a happy land, with the "Australian thief" Chongzhen Emperor and the Qing Eight Banners successively invaded, the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River was in turmoil, and the small court of Nanjing collapsed. The Qing army's policy of staking land and capturing people as slaves, especially the unprecedented and tragic massacre of Suzhou, made all the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River a bloody storm, and ghosts cried wolves.

In the face of the crisis of destruction, Xu Guangqi had to drag his old body to stand up, use his high prestige and family power, and his student Sun Yuanhua together with local gentry and celebrities, to form a maintenance association in Shanghai, and appointed himself as the maintenance president, temporarily wielding the functions of the provisional government. Out of the selfishness of a Catholic, the location of this maintenance meeting was arranged by Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua in the Catholic Church in Shanghai.

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From the outside, the Catholic church in Shanghai at the end of the Ming Dynasty does not look like a church at all, because it was originally rebuilt with a landlord's manor, if it were not for the cross erected on the roof of the courtyard wall outside, it is estimated that no one would have noticed that this was originally a "cross temple".

Because he has been back and forth many times and is already a familiar face, when Chen Zilong came to the church, the church's doorkeeper opened the door to welcome him in without questioning. The buildings inside the courtyard wall are also similar to the Ming Dynasty mansions of this era, except that a Western-style chapel was built on the original garden ground, and some religious theme murals and reliefs were decorated inside and out. However, Chen Zilong had no intention of appreciating it at this time, and just walked straight in.

As soon as he walked to the door of the chapel, Chen Zilong heard the voice of his friend Xia Yunyi:

“…… Ay! Our Zhang Pu and Zhang Tianru, this time it is really the iron of the south of the Yangtze River, and it is an unprecedented mistake! What a borrowing teacher to help the war! It's like inviting a group of demons to come down to earth! The day before yesterday, the students ventured to Suzhou, and the scene was really ...... Indescribable! Hundreds of thousands of people in the city were reduced to corpses, and there were no living people on the streets, only crows and wild dogs! Even if it's the Shura hell in the Buddhist scriptures, I'm afraid it's just that! ”

Chen Zilong hurriedly walked over to take a look, and now Xia Yunyi was standing under the cross, spitting about what he had seen and heard about secretly taking people to Suzhou to reconnoiter the enemy's situation a few days ago. Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua, and several other Shanghai gentlemen sat on the benches and listened, all of them sinking into water.

“…… Hey, I didn't expect this Tartar to be so brutal, I Jiangnan really suffered a catastrophe this time! ”

After listening to Xia Yunyi's description of the scene in Suzhou after the slaughter, everyone present was concerned, and Xu Guangqi also sighed repeatedly, "...... In the territory of Suzhou Prefecture today, are there still Tartar soldiers and horses? In your opinion, the Tartars have no intention of attacking Matsue. ”

“…… As far as the students inquired about, because of the violent death of the Tatar chieftain Huang Taiji, all the captives had already withdrawn from Suzhou Prefecture. ”

Xia Yunyi replied, "...... However, if the soldiers and horses of the north come again next time, Songjiang will definitely take the brunt! ”

Faced with this long-anticipated bleak prospect, everyone in the church was silent. After a while, Xu Guangqi opened his mouth again, "...... Chu Yang (Sun Yuanhua's cousin), how are your 2,000 volunteers training now? Can I go into battle and kill the enemy? ”