The reason why Zhu Youzhen spared Hou Shilu was because he had this person in his impression, and he vaguely remembered that Hou Shilu was captured when he was defending against Li Zicheng's thief army, and he would rather die than surrender to the thief, and both father and son were killed by the thief army.

This person may be greedy for silver, or he may have ordinary ability, but in terms of integrity and loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, he is better than most civil and military officials. How can such a person not be open?

Zhu Youzhen appointed Hong Chengchou as the temporary governor of Xuanfu, and led Huang Degong's loyal battalion to Zhangjiakou to deal with the Jin merchants' traitorous and collaborating with the enemy. Jinyiwei commanded Xu Xianchun to accompany him to assist Hong Chengchou.

Hong Chengchou immediately set off with his troops and arrived in Zhangjiakou in a few days.

Zhangjiakou is actually the collective name of a series of fortresses located at the side wall. In the eighth year of Jiajing, the garrison Zhang Zhen opened a small door on the north wall of the side wall, to traffic inside and outside, its door is very small, and because Zhang Zhen opened, so it is called Zhangjiakou.

Longqing paid tribute, Zhangjiakou opened the horse market and Mongolian trade, and gradually prospered.

The horse market is located on the side wall, a closed area enclosed by a wall, and in order to prevent chaos, the Mongols were forbidden to cross the border wall, and only traded in the closed area.

On the south side of the horse market, there is also a fortress, which is the location of the Fuyi Department that manages the horse market, and a chief is sent by the household department to manage the border trade.

To the south of the fortress where the Fuyi Hall is located, is the real Zhangjiabao. It is said to be a fortress, but it is actually a small city within a radius of seven or eight miles. The castle is lined with warehouses and is a base camp for merchants.

To the south of Zhangjiabao, there were a series of more than a dozen small forts, enclosing Mashi and Zhangjiabao in the middle, in order to prevent the Mongols from attacking the border wall through trade and chaos.

It's just that after the tributary trade was reached, the Mongols were very honest and never planned to break through the walls and invade for decades, and these castles did not work.

The defenders of the fortress are also getting fewer and fewer, and now there are only 100 defenders in each fortress, and less than half of them are on duty on weekdays, and most of the other soldiers go to work for the merchants as men.

The salaries of the imperial court were never paid on time, and after the generals deducted eight deductions, the money and food received were simply not enough to support the family.

On the wall of the fortress, the soldier Li Ergou sat bored against the wall, leaning against the rusty spear beside him, looking around unconsciously, and suddenly his eyes widened. I saw a long procession appear from the south, and I saw that the scale was enough to be thousands of people, and it was moving quickly towards Zhangjiakou.

With so many troops, coming from the direction of Xuanhua City, what are you doing here? Li Ergou thought about it, and soon saw the Xuanfu Governor's Banner waving above the team, and next to the Governor's Flag, there was an even taller apricot yellow dragon flag!

Could it be that the emperor came to Zhangjiakou? Li Ergou was suddenly shocked.

In Zhangjiabao, there are many warehouses, and the warehouse of Jiexiu Fan's family is the largest one, covering an area of 100 acres.

In front of it is a series of more than a dozen storefronts, each of which handles different goods. Behind the façade is the warehouse, where horse-drawn carriages loaded with goods enter and exit through the side doors.

Further back from the warehouse, there is a high wall, with a moon door to communicate with the front, and inside is the inner house of the Fan family.

At this moment, Fan Yongdou, the owner of the Fan family's firm, was sitting in the flower hall, listening to his shopkeeper's report on the business.

Suddenly, a soldier wearing a mandarin duck jacket was brought in by the butler, Fan Yongdou was shocked, and waved his hand to let the shopkeepers disperse.

The soldier whispered something, Fan Yongdou's face changed greatly, he touched his body, took off a jade wrench from his finger and stuffed it into the soldier's hand, the soldier arched his hand, turned around and left Fan's house.

"Send someone to ride a fast horse to inform Sanba, and ask him to go to Qilibao quickly." Fan Yongdou called the housekeeper and quickly ordered.

The housekeeper was stunned for a moment and hurriedly went out.

Fan Yongdou entered the inner room, drove out the concubine, turned over for a while, stuffed a box into his arms, came out of the house, and ordered someone to prepare the car. Then under the escort of a dozen healthy servants, he drove quickly towards the north gate.

Seeing the carriage of the Fan family, the guards at the north gate let it go without asking.

On the way to Qilibao, I happened to meet my son Fan Sanba.

"Father, what's going on? The child was discussing business with Director Shen in the Fuyi Hall, why did he hurriedly send someone to call me to Qilibao? Fan San got into the carriage with an unhappy face.

"Let's talk about a fart business, our family is in trouble!" Fan Yongdou lost his former wisdom bead in his hand, and sighed with frustration on his face.

"Father, what is the coming of disaster?" Fan Sanba exclaimed.

"Just now, the emperor's Praetorian Guards drove into Zhangjiabao, and your father and I almost blocked them in the city." Fan Yongdou sighed.

Fan Sanba was shocked: "Could it be that the matter of Liaodong has happened?" The emperor sent the Praetorian Guard to arrest our family? ”

Fan Yongdou nodded and sighed: "Most likely, the caravan was attacked, at first we thought it was done by the Mongols, after all, the place where it was attacked is far away from Jinzhou, and now it seems that most of it was done by the Ming army, and Fan Aliu mostly fell into the hands of the Ming army."

As soon as the emperor arrived in Xuanfu, he summoned all the generals to guerrilla, and it was rumored that they were all under house arrest, at that time I felt that something was wrong, but I didn't think about us, we are just just businessmen, how can we be put in the eyes of the emperor? But he didn't expect the emperor to send the Praetorian Guards to Zhangjiabao, obviously with bad intentions! ”

Fan Sanba also said with a hint of luck: "What if it's not?" Maybe the emperor wanted to come to Zhangjiakou to see. ”

Fan Yongdou glared at Fan Sanba: "How dare you get lucky with such a thing?"

Our father and son will go to Qilibao to hide first, and if something is not right, they will immediately go out of the border wall from Qilibao and enter Mongolia! ”

Fan Sanba said in a trembling voice: "How do we do business?" What about Yudong and other clansmen? ”

Fan Yongdou shook his head: "The matter is urgent, it's too late to inform Yudong, and now there are a few who can escape."

The emperor is too murderous, and he has killed countless officials and squires in northern Shaanxi, all of whom have meritorious reputations, and people like ours are also regarded as the number one person in Zhangjiakou, but what is it in the eyes of the emperor? How can you be soft! ”

Fan Sanba said with a face full of unwillingness: "We have been in business for more than 20 years before we have this family business, can we just let it go?" My mother and several children are in Jiexiu's hometown, can they watch them being caught and killed by the emperor? ”

Fan Yongdou patted the box in his arms and sneered: "How can it be so easy? If the emperor really dares to deal with our family, I will let him walk around without eating!

Which of the officials and generals of the entire Xuan Mansion has not received the silver of our Fan family? Mongolia outside the customs does not fall, who doesn't know our Fan family?

The emperor wanted to use his own strength to use a knife against Zhangjiakou and Xuanfu, and even imprisoned all the generals in the garrison, which was simply audacious!

This time, I want the emperor to know the power of our merchants, know what the consequences will be if you provoke the Fan family, and know that even if he is the emperor, he can't do whatever he wants! ”