Since these nobles were soft, Hong Chengchou naturally didn't care about himself and didn't insist on detaining these people anymore. After all, the thieves have already arrived in the city, and there must be no chaos in the city. It is easy to catch these nobles, but the consequences are great, after all, these nobles are entrenched in Nanjing, and it is easy to cause chaos.

"Ladies and gentlemen, at the moment of the great enemy, we should work together in peace, put state affairs first, and don't spoil state affairs with our own selfishness." Hong Chengchou instructed, no matter whether these people listen to it or not, what should be said still has to be said.

"Rest assured, Governor, we know what to do. That being the case, I'll get ready when I get back. Zhao Zhilong said with a smile.

"Let's go back and prepare now, the thieves will attack the city at any time, don't delay, you must go to the city you are responsible for before dark today, and you must hold your position before the thieves retreat!" Hong Chengchou said solemnly.

"This is too domineering, you are going to drive us to the outer city today, and you won't have time to prepare at all." As soon as he left the governor's palace, a nobleman complained.

"yes, what are we doing? We are hereditary ministers, this Ming dynasty was brought down with the help of our ancestors, not a pawn who was bullied by his surname Hong! Another honorable man.

"If you want me to say that we don't care about the fuck, we won't go to the outer city, and as soon as the gate closes after returning home, let's see what to do with his surname Hong!" Zhang Gongri, Marquis of Longping, looked in the direction of the Governor's Mansion and said in a low voice.

"What do you think of Uncle Yicheng?" Youxungui asked Zhao Zhilong.

Zhao Zhilong's eyes rolled, and he said categorically: "What else can I do, of course I don't listen to his surname Hong, everyone goes back to their own mansions, summons the family in the mansion to guard the door of the mansion, and his surname Hong still dares to send troops to attack the Hou Mansion and the Bo Mansion?" ”

"The enemy is now, he doesn't dare to give him ten dares!" Longping Marquis Zhang Gongri said with a smile.

"With Wei Guogong leading everyone, we don't have to be afraid of the surname Hong, hey, what about Wei Guogong?"

"It seems that he still hasn't come out of the Governor's Palace."

"Wei Guogong should be in harmony with the surnamed Hong, I will send someone to inform Wei Guogong about this matter, everyone should go back to their homes, just do what you just said!" Longping Hou Zhang Gongri Road.

All the nobles were scattered like birds and beasts, and they departed.

Doge's Palace.

"What else does the old man have to say?" Looking at Xu Hongji, who was sitting still, Hong Chengchou said with a smile.

"Lord Hong, my father-in-law wants to ask for a favor, and you also know that my father-in-law's body is too sick to hold a knife or gun." Xu Hongji sighed.

"Of course the governor doesn't dare to let the old man out of the city, if there are three long and two short, His Majesty will not spare the governor." Hong Chengchou said with a smile.

"Thank you Lord Hong for your understanding, my father is really grateful." Xu Hongji hugged his fists.

"Haha, it's a trifle. However, the Duke of Wei is the first nobleman in Nanjing, and if you stay out of such a major event as resisting anti-thieves, you will be gossiped, so let's go on the expedition on behalf of the old man. Hong Chengchou said.

"Ahh Xu Hongji grew his mouth.

......

"Quickly clean up, gather the family in the house, and get out of the inner city before dark!" Yicheng Bofu, Zhao Zhilong ordered.

"Father, didn't you say that you want all Hou Bo to work against Governor Hong and not leave the city?" His son Zhao Derun was surprised.

"Then Hong Chengchou is a madman, if we don't go out of the city, Hong Chengchou will definitely send troops to attack the house, on the contrary, when we go to the outer city, the sea and the sky are vast, and they are very free, why do we have to stay in the inner city?" Zhao Zhilong said with a smile.

"But why do you ......?"

"Why did you fool them into staying?" Zhao Zhilong smiled darkly, "You have to make some trouble for Hong Chengchou, don't you?" If Hong Chengchou dares to send troops to attack the mansion of the nobles and kill people and raid their homes, he can just show those nobles who are still hesitant and cut off their illusions about the monarch and ministers of Chongzhen! ”

Under the urging of Zhao Zhilong, the entire Yicheng Uncle's Mansion was busy, and the families in the mansion were summoned and began to put on armor, and it took more than an hour for everything to be prepared, Zhao Zhilong took his three sons and led two hundred families out of the Earl's Mansion and went to the outer city. His wife and concubines and other family members were left in the house. Because Zhao Zhilong knew that he was going to fight, it was very inconvenient to take his wife and concubine, and it was easy to arouse Hong Chengchou's suspicion. If he stayed in the mansion, Liang Hong Chengchou would not dare to do anything to his family. Besides, it doesn't matter if you do it, anyway, the sons are all taken with you, and the wives and concubines are killed and remarried.

Out of Yicheng Bofu, without walking two streets, I saw a team of people coming from the side street, the two teams walked face to face at once, Zhao Zhilong clearly saw that Zhang Gongri, the Marquis of Longping, was sitting on the opposite side.

"Hehe, Master Hou is also out of the city." Zhao Zhilong touched his nose and said embarrassedly.

"Hehe, yes, Uncle Yicheng is also going out of the city?" Zhang Gongri also replied embarrassedly.

"State affairs are important, and I will greet Hou Ye another day?" Zhao Zhilong hugged his fists and continued to move towards Sanjiangmen.

"State affairs are important, state affairs are important." Zhang Gongri said in a loud voice, and led his subordinates to the direction of Tongji Gate.

The two of them had a very tacit understanding and did not mention the matter of discussing in advance, not going to the outer city, staying in the mansion to confront Hong Chengchou, although it was the two of them who shouted loudly at that time.

At the same time, on other streets, there were also more than a dozen groups of people and horses rushing from the various city gates to the outer city.

There are thirteen gates in the inner city, each gate is guarded by a hundred Praetorian Guard soldiers, and there are more than 1,000 recruited young men to assist in defending the city. In the evening, there was a banging sound, and the gates of the inner city slowly closed, suddenly isolating the inside and outside.

Doge's Palace.

"Have the nobles left the inner city?" Hong Chengchou asked.

"Lord Hui, of the twenty-three nobles, sixteen of them went out of the inner city with their families, and seven of them remained in the city." Chang Wudao.

"Since they don't know what to do, don't blame Ben for being rude. Dispatch the army to arrest people, and if you resist, you will be killed! Hong Chengchou said coldly.

"Yes, sir!" Chang Wu said excitedly.

The drums sounded, and in the square of the Governor's Palace, groups of Praetorian Guards began to assemble, and then, under the leadership of Chang Wu and others, they were divided into seven teams, holding torches high, and rushed towards the mansions of the nobles.

Every once in a while, there was the sound of fighting, and the explosion of firecrackers and grenades.

"Sending people to raid the house at night will definitely bring some accidental injuries, and it will cause panic among the people in the city, but I don't dare to wait any longer." Hong Chengchou sighed.

"Yes, it is better to clean up the inner city sooner rather than later, now the thieves have just arrived outside the city, and they are not ready to officially attack the city, so we are just using this time to clean up the interior." Staff member Zhao Yin echoed.

"I'll leave the matter of settling the hearts of the people to Mr." Hong Chengchou said.

Zhao Yin nodded: "Don't worry, Donglin Bao and other newspapers have been raided, the craftsmen of the newspaper are still there, and the subordinates have prepared the draft, so they are ordered to start construction overnight, and tomorrow morning, the royal people's newspaper will be sent all over the city." ”

That night, the seven nobles who did not obey the military order and had to stay in the inner city were all breached by the Praetorian Guards, and three nobles led their families to try to resist stubbornly, causing some casualties to the invading Praetorian Guards, annoying the soldiers who raided the house, and the Manfu men were killed. The remaining four nobles gave up resistance after the gate of the mansion was breached, and the Praetorian Guards who raided the house did not start a killing spree, but only arrested all the immediate family members of the nobles.

And the raiding and killing that night also brought great panic to the people in the inner city, and many people thought that the thieves had invaded the city. Fortunately, it was night, and most of the people hid in their homes and did not dare to move, but there were also some ruffians in the city who took the opportunity to come out to rob and commit adultery. Hong Chengchou sent two teams of cavalry to patrol the streets, and all ruffians who found rape and looting were killed on the spot.

In the early morning, the inner city, which had been in turmoil for half the night, finally quieted down, and everything in the city returned to calm. Footsteps sounded in the streets, and then the sound of gongs gathered in the youth. Hearing the sound of the gong, the recruited people went out of their homes one after another, began to line up on the street, and then went to the city wall under the leadership of the messenger, or went to the city to guard, or transported masonry, stone and wood ash bottles and other materials to the city wall.

"The Royal People's Newspaper, get the newspaper for free!" Hundreds of men dressed up shouted weakly, each holding a stack of newspapers, walking down the street, stuffing one when he met someone, and stuffing one into the crack of the door when passing by the courtyard of the shop.

"Jinyiwei found out that Huaining Hou Sun Weicheng, Daxing Bo Zou Cunyi, Ning Jinbo Liu Yunji, Nanhe Bo Fang Yiyuan, Dongning Bo Jiao Mengxiong, Ancheng Bo Zhang Guocai and other nobles colluded with Jiangxi anti-thieves to plot rebellion, trying to lead the family Ding Li Yingwai to open the city gate, Jiangnan Governor was furious when he heard the report, and ordered the arrest of Yiying people overnight, etc., Jinyiwei successfully arrested Yiying thieves after repeated fierce battles......"

In a house, a middle-aged man in a shirt reads a newspaper.

"Well done! These nobles really deserve to die, holding the court's fortunes, enjoying glory and wealth in the world, and now seeing that the army of anti-thieves is coming, they actually betray the court and join the anti-thieves! His son, a young man in Tsing Yi, couldn't help but say.

The middle-aged man sighed. Do these nobles deserve to die? Maybe, but if they all fornicate with thieves, but not necessarily, who can tell clearly whether they are right and wrong these days? I just hope that these things don't affect the defense of the city, if you really let the thieves enter the city, it will be troublesome.

There are only a few wise men who can see through the truth, and most of the people are still relatively naïve, and after seeing what happened last night through the newspapers, they are angry at those nobles. I am even more glad that the Governor has put out the nobles who tried to collude with the thieves in time. After all, not many people want the city to be breached, and not many people want to rebel against thieves to attack the city.

Nanjing, one of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty, the people in the city naturally have the pride of being the people of the capital, and the recognition of the Ming Dynasty is much higher than that of other places. Except for a few people with ill intentions, most of the people in Nanjing have no good impression of the rebels who are causing trouble. And the distribution of the royal people's newspaper calmed their hearts.

In addition to introducing what happened last night, the newspaper also published a number of other articles, including the deeds of the Praetorian Guards in the Huanglong raid to recover Liaodong, and the story of the emperor's personal expedition to eradicate corrupt officials and corrupt officials in northern Shaanxi.

Although there are many powerful people in Nanjing, the vast majority of the people are still ordinary people, and these ordinary people naturally yearn for the life described in the newspaper.

At the end of the newspaper, he told the people of the city that the emperor was about to personally lead a large army to Nanjing, and the army would be the end of the anti-thieves! But before the arrival of the army, the people of the whole city must make a strong contribution to cooperate with the governor of Jiangnan to defend the city. Otherwise, once the city is broken, the army of thieves will burn and loot in the city. Therefore, defending the city is to protect one's own home, but also to protect one's family!

The whole newspaper is full of easy-to-understand vernacular, because the time is urgent, and there are many errors and omissions, but it does not affect its function.

In the era when there were no newspapers, the channels for the people to get information were very scarce, so those gentry could easily grasp the right to speak and manipulate public opinion.

The royal people's newspaper was printed in large quantities and distributed free of charge, almost all over the streets and alleys of the inner city of Nanjing, and it can be imagined how great the effect was.

And this is the first issue of the newspaper, and every day after that, a new issue will come out and continue to be distributed free of charge to the people of the city. Several newspapers confiscated by Jinyiwei have adopted movable type printing, and there is no problem in printing tens of thousands of newspapers overnight. During the siege of the city, except for the Royal People's Daily, any other newspaper was forbidden to be printed, and in fact, all the newspapers in Nanjing and even the bookstores that could print were controlled by the Jinyi Guard.

"With newspapers, there is naturally no problem with the hearts of the people in the city, but there are some troubles in the material aspect." Zhao Yin said, "Nanjing has a population of more than one million, and the daily consumption is very large, and firewood, rice, oil and salt need to be transported from outside the city. Now the thieves are besieging the city, and many materials from outside the city can no longer be brought in. It's okay for a short time, but if the siege is long, I'm afraid it will be very troublesome. ”

"It doesn't matter, the food in the city is quite sufficient, and there is no problem in supplying the people in the city for three months." Hong Chengchou said.

"But it's not enough to only have food, the rice must be cooked, and the firewood needs to be supplied from outside the city." Zhao Yin smiled bitterly.

"So the Yangtze River waterway must be controlled!" Hong Chengchou nodded.

"Yes, only by completely controlling the waterway of the Yangtze River can all kinds of materials be sent to the city." Zhao Yin said.

Nanjing city north of the Yangtze River, west of the Qinhuai River around the inner city wall, ships can enter the Qinhuai River from the Yangtze River, directly to the inner city Sanshanmen wharf. As long as the Yangtze River waterway is controlled, the enemy army has a million strong divisions, and it will not be able to cut off the foreign aid of Nanjing City. On the contrary, if control of the Yangtze River waterway is lost, the city of Nanjing will be completely cut off from the inside and outside. Without the endless supply of materials from the outside, the lives of millions of people will be very troublesome!

After all, no matter how much food there is in the guard warehouse in the city, it is only enough for the people of the city to eat for three months, and what about after three months? And what about the daily needs of oil, salt, firewood and other substances?

"Now, I can only look at Li Yanzhi!" Hong Chengchou sighed. He has done everything he needs to do, there are 4,000 Praetorian Guards, plus tens of thousands of people, with the strength of the inner city wall of Nanjing, there is no problem at all to hold it. But if Li Yanzhi can't control the Yangtze River waterway, the next few days will be very troublesome.