Eight gates were sealed, and each gate was guarded by a thousand villagers. While guarding the city gates, the villagers also had to conduct drills under the leadership of the officers. On average, there is one veteran of the Praetorian Guard for every 100 villagers, and one supervisor for every 200 villagers is responsible for ideological work. Specific military skills are too late to be taught, so practice how to defend the city first, as well as simple queues. You have to practice the queue, otherwise you won't be able to pull it out at all. Walking a certain distance is like herding sheep, and such an army is not able to fight at all.

The training place was on the city wall, and a team of 100 people began a queue drill at the top of the narrow city wall, turning left and right in unison. It's hard to say what kind of training this kind of training has any effect, but at least it can put the 100-man team as a whole as much as possible.

Xiang Yong is practicing, and the other people in the city defense prime minister's office are not idle, and someone is responsible for contacting the people to contact the tailor shop in the city to make military uniforms for Xiang Yong, and in two days, more than 5,000 sets have been sewn, and in a few days, 15,000 sets can be sewn to change the clothes of all Xiang Yong.

Someone was in charge of crafting weapons, and the blacksmith shops and blacksmith workshops in the entire city of Suzhou were requisitioned, and they didn't make anything else, but they made spear heads, and the carpenters made the barrel of the gun, and loaded it with a long spear. In two days, hundreds of blacksmiths throughout the city worked day and night to build 3,000 spears.

Many people were also mobilized to cook for the villagers and carry bricks, stones and timber to the city. All the people involved did not work in vain, but were paid, or given some copper coins, or simply a few catties of grain. This also made the people burst out with great enthusiasm.

Of course, such a consumption will be very large, and the money and grain in the treasury alone will not last for a few days. But it doesn't matter, who is called Suzhou rich in the world, there is money and food! Chen Zilong, in the name of the Prime Minister's Office of Urban Defense and the Suzhou Governor's Office, sent official documents to dozens of gentry and businessmen inside and outside the city, calling on these wealthy people to donate money, grain, and materials for defending the city.

However, almost two days have passed, and only half of the gentry and merchants have taken the initiative to donate money and grain, and the value of the donated money, grain and materials is less than 100,000 taels. Moreover, it is rumored that the gentry of the Huang family have already released their words, saying that resisting the White Lotus Bandits is a matter for the government and will never donate a tael of silver.

If Li Jingsheng, the prefect of Suzhou, or even Mei Baohua, the governor of Suzhou, was in charge, there was really no way to take these gentry. For example, the Huang family, in the past 20 years, has produced three jinshi, the highest grade is a provincial political envoy, and the other is a household department, all of whom are high-powered. What's more, these gentry have too many fellow villagers in the same year, and their strength is intertwined. If you dare to forcibly do something to them, you will inevitably be retaliated against afterwards, either on yourself or on their family. For example, Li Jingsheng is a native of Shanxi, and the current prefect of his hometown is from Jiangnan......

But what Li Jingsheng didn't dare to do, Chen Zilong dared, because Chen Zilong knew in his heart that it wouldn't take long for the entire Jiangnan to undergo great changes, and his hometown Songjiang would definitely not be able to escape, and there was no need to be afraid of retaliation!

Therefore, after arranging the city defense, Chen Zilong immediately led a team of villagers to the Huang family's mansion in the city, he wanted to take the Huang family first and kill the chickens and monkeys!

"The current head of the Huang family is named Huang Huan, born in Jinshi, did a prefect, returned to his hometown ten years ago, and began to run his own business, mainly engaged in printing and dyeing, raw silk business, there is a dyeing workshop, two silk reeling workshops, half of the silk in Suzhou is his dyeing workshop printing and dyeing, financial resources in the forefront of the Suzhou gentry!" Chen Zilong introduced the situation of the Huang family to Yan Yingyuan on the side.

"I heard that the Shen family in Suzhou is the most powerful, why don't you deal with the Shen family first?" Yan Yingyuan asked.

"It's not that you don't deal with the Shen family first, it's that the main house of the Shen family is not in the city, but in the Shenjia Village in the south of the city. Shen Heng, the head of the Shen family, lives in the Xishan Island Courtyard in Taihu Lake all day long, and he doesn't come to Suzhou City when he is free, even if I rarely see Shen Heng, only Zhang Pu and Shen Heng have the best relationship in the Restoration Society. The Shen family is a Jiangnan family, and it was a wealthy merchant in Wuzhong in the former Yuan Dynasty, and its family has Jinshi from generation to generation, and it is a real famous family in Jiangdong! Shen Xun, the governor of Shandong, you have heard of it, and it is from the side branch of the Shen family. Shen's Eight Dragons and Shen's Five Phoenixes are all famous in Jiangnan! It's really deep-rooted.

However, most of the Shen family's business is controlled by the main branch Shen Heng, of which the silk business is the largest. It is said that the Shen family has 5,000 looms, and the number of employees working in the Shen family's workshop is as high as 10,000. And I heard that the Shen family also secretly organized a fleet to go to sea and sell porcelain, silk and tea abroad. Therefore, if you talk about the richest in Jiangnan, it should belong to the Shen family, and even the Songjiang Xu family is far inferior. Chen Zilong sighed.

Only after in-depth understanding will you understand how huge these Jiangnan family forces are, and the huge ones are desperate. Under normal circumstances, no one would have the guts to touch such a family!

Yan Yingyuan was silent for a moment and sneered: "These families have accumulated countless wealth by annexing the fields and fish and flesh people, and they have accumulated countless wealth by sucking blood, and now it's time to settle accounts with them!" ”

The two took Xiang Yong and walked for a while, and then arrived in front of the Huang family's house. This is a very large mansion, a courtyard with five entrances, and the whole street is just this one!

Before he reached the gate of the house, he saw that the gate was suddenly opened, and many servants with clubs and swords rushed out and lined up outside the gate, and the number was five or six hundred. And Chen Zilong and Yan Yingyuan only have more than 300 township braves.

"We have to send someone to transfer troops quickly." Looking at the Huang family's family slaves, who were twice as numerous as his own, Yan Yingyuan's face showed a worried look and said in a low voice.

Chen Zilong shook his head slightly: "No need!" ”

As he spoke, he walked quickly to the front and faced the people of the Huang family.

"Senior Huang, what are you doing, are you going to gather a crowd to fight against the government?" Chen Zilong raised his voice and asked.

Huang Huan, the head of the Huang family, came out of the crowd and sneered: "Against the government? You Chen Zilong is just a mere lifter, what kind of official is it? ”

Chen Zilong said with a cold face: "I was ordered by Lord Fuzun to serve as the prime minister of city defense, and he was fully responsible for defending the city, how can it not be considered an official government?" Senior Huang, you don't listen to the order, gather domestic slaves to resist with arms, it is for the bandits! ”

"Hehehe," Huang Huan sneered, "what a big hat!" But it can't be deducted from Huang's head. Huang was born as a dignified scholar and a squire, who would think that I was a bandit? What did I do again? On the contrary, it was you, Chen Zilong, who led the crowd to my Huangfu to attack the official eunuchs and squires, ignoring the laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty, this is a bandit, this is a rebellion! ”

Huang Huan's words were like arrows, and every sentence stood on the truth, it was the Xiang Yong behind Chen Zilong, who looked at each other when he heard it.

These Xiangyong are all hired workers, some of them are still employees of the Huang Family Workshop, in the eyes of these people, Huang Huan is an absolute big man, and his identity is not even worse than the prefect of Suzhou. Now Chen Zilong is leading everyone to besiege Huangfu, which makes many villagers very worried.

Yan Yingyuan on the side also frowned slightly, after all, this matter is not very reasonable today, defending the city requires silver and materials, but it also requires the gentry to take the initiative to donate, and bringing the army over is tantamount to forcing donations. But the enemy is really not able to take care of so much! These gentry have a lot of wealth, but they don't pull out a dime, and many of them secretly collude with them, and this is a sin! Even if you can't hold the evidence, you still have to arrest someone, and you still have to raid your home! However, there are too many slaves of the Huang family on the other side, and Chen Zilong doesn't want to transfer reinforcements, it looks like it will be a bloody battle today! Yan Yingyuan tightly held the steel knife in his hand.

"Hahaha......" Chen Zilong suddenly laughed.

"Senior Huang, look at what this is?" Chen Zilong smiled and took out a scroll from his arms.

"Trick up!" Huang Huan said coldly.

"This is the emperor's edict, Huanghuan, you still don't kneel!" Chen Zilong said coldly.

Yes? Huang Huan was stunned, all the house slaves behind him were also stunned, and the villagers behind Chen Zilong were also stunned, all looking at the roll of paper in Chen Zilong's hand blankly. The emperor's edict, this is the holy decree, for ordinary people, the holy decree is just a legendary thing, but I didn't expect it to appear in front of me. The scroll wrapped in yellow silk must be a holy decree, and no one dares to fake it.

"Seeing Your Majesty's hand, Huang Huan, you still don't kneel, do you really want to rebel?" Chen Zilong stared at Huang Huan and said in a calm tone.

Huang Huan's legs trembled, he never expected Chen Zilong to take out the emperor's edict. Although he had the intention of rebelling against the emperor, after all, he was a gentry of the Ming Dynasty, and under the watchful eyes of all people, how could he dare to openly rebel against the emperor's edict! But he is just an official of Zhishi, and he has only been a prefect at the highest, how can the emperor give him an edict?

Just when Huang Huan was still hesitating, a pop sounded, but a house slave knelt down behind him, and then the other house slaves also knelt down one after another, kneeling together.

Huang Huan finally knelt down: "Huang Huan, the grass people, took the order." ”

The corners of Chen Zilong's mouth curled, and he read: "Fengtian carries the emperor, and the edict says: ....... Remembering that the people's livelihood is full of hardships, all of which are caused by inequality, so I have decided that from now on, Chen Zilong, the prime minister of Suzhou City Defense, will be responsible for the release of slaves in Suzhou. Chin this. ”

Okay, where is the edict to Huang Huan, it is clearly the document sent by Zhu Youzhen to release the slaves, which was just sent to Suzhou.

"Chen Zilong, you are pretending to pass on the holy decree......" Huang Huan stood up angrily.

Where does this edict mention his name, and what does it have to do with him? Wait, it really matters......

Huang Huan recalled what he heard, his face suddenly changed, and he couldn't help but look back, and saw the house slaves behind him, many of them showed excited looks, and some even danced excitedly.

"Your Majesty, Shengming, decreed the abolition of slavery and lowly status, from now on, you are all ordinary households, no longer need to be enslaved, no longer need to be beaten and scolded, anyone who dares to beat and insult you can sue the government, and the government will make your decision! From now on, your children and grandchildren will be able to study and have the opportunity to become officials. Chen Zilong no longer paid attention to Huang Huan and shouted to the house slaves behind him.

"Your Majesty."

"Brother, brother, we will no longer be slaves in the future, we will become free people!"

"Second son, you have been accompanying the eldest young master to study, and you can read better than the eldest young master, the eldest young master can be admitted to Xiucai, you must be able to!"

The house slaves threw away their sticks, and everyone looked surprised. If given a choice, who would want to be a slave? If you don't have personal freedom, no one cares if you are beaten to death by the master's family. It's good to meet a good master, but it's better to live than die when you meet a mean master!

Not only the slaves of the Huang family, but also the townsmen behind Chen Zilong, many people also showed excited looks, because many hired workers were also slaves.

"After defeating the White Lotus Sect bandits, we will also carry out the equalization of fields, Your Majesty said, let the cultivators have their fields! All the fields were to be taken over by the government, and then they were divided equally among the households, and land deeds were issued. If you do not want to return to your hometown to farm, you can also change to urban household registration, and if you work in a workshop, the government will help you sign a formal employment contract to protect your rights and interests and increase your income, and the businessman will be issued a business license without any discrimination. In short, from now on, everyone is equal, there is no distinction between high and low in personality, the cultivator has his own land, the man ploughs and the woman weaves, each performing his own duties, and no one can bully and exploit you. ”

Chen Zilong continued. Although the tone is bland, it describes a very fair and ideal society, which makes these domestic slave employees who have no personal rights and interests all yearn for it.

"Long live Your Majesty."

"Long live Your Majesty!"

Many house slaves knelt on the ground, speechless with excitement.

For these people, they are really as lowly as dirt, and they are allowed to be trampled on by others, how can anyone give them respect? As for personal freedom, I never thought about it. But as long as they are human beings, they all yearn for freedom and equality, who wants to be slaves from generation to generation? Who doesn't want the children and grandchildren of the younger generations to be upright and upright, and to be officials and officials? But as a slave, there is no possibility of becoming an official.

If it were normal, someone would tell them that they would abolish slavery and lowly status, that everyone would be equal, and no one would believe it. But now that the emperor himself issued the decree, how could they not believe it? What's more, the news of Zhenjiang keeps coming, Zhenjiang Mansion has really canceled the slave registration, and it is really in Juntian!

Just a few words disintegrated the fighting spirit of the Huang family's slaves, and at this time, no one would listen to Huang Huan's words anymore. Seeing this, Huang Huan trembled in fright.

"Now that the enemy is present, the White Lotus Sect bandits must be defeated before they can release the slave Juntian. Everyone, stand aside for the time being, and don't delay me talking to Master Huang. Chen Zilong smiled.

As soon as the words fell, a house slave threw the knife and stick in his hand and walked silently to the side, and the others followed. In an instant, the five hundred house slaves were gone, and there were only a few people left in front of the mansion, which were Huang Huan and his brothers and nephews.

"Senior Huang, the enemy is current, and everyone is responsible for defending the city, do you still resist donating money and materials?" Chen Zilong asked with a smile.

Huang Huan's legs weakened and he sat on the ground at once.