"I'm sorry to keep my father-in-law waiting."

Shen Yichen got out of the carriage, arched his hand towards Xining, and said hello with a slight "apology".

"It's okay, our family has just arrived."

Compared with Shen Yichen, who also got out of the carriage, Xining simply sat on the sedan chair and didn't get down.

Yesterday deliberately showed favor to Shen Yichen, which was enough face for Xining, you must know that in the past, when he went out of the town to supervise the army, the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs did not grovel to himself.

Shen Yichen was still a step late, and according to Xining's character, he didn't shake his face, which is really rare.

"It's a long way to go, and I don't know which route Grandpa Xi plans to take to enter Fujian."

Shen Yichen looked at Xining's lazy appearance, and couldn't help but ask after all.

There are two roads to enter Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, one is the traditional Dabeiling Post Road, also known as the "Zhuangyuan Ancient Road", which is the only way for Fujian students to enter Beijing to take the exam.

From Beijing to Shandong, then to Jiangsu, then to Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and finally to Fujian.

It takes a long time to take the Great North Ridge Post Road, which can be as short as three or five months, or as long as a year and a half. The advantage is that this is a trade route opened up by merchants, which is relatively prosperous along the way, and can also be treated and honored by various local governments.

The other is the traditional waterway, which goes directly to Hangzhou along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and then from Zhejiang to Fujian.

The advantage is that it is fast, and the disadvantage is that it is too fast to make money along the way.

Looking at Xining's posture, Shen Yichen estimated that he was going to take the land route, otherwise wouldn't the twelve sedan chairs be prepared in vain?

However, it turned out that Shen Yichen was wrong, and after hearing his inquiry, Xining replied with some dissatisfaction: "Shen Hanlin is the leader of the Ming Dynasty, and he should know the truth that the soldiers are fast, so he should go to Fujian to quickly quell the rebels, and then return to Beijing as soon as possible to report the good news to His Majesty." ”

"Which way to go, does this still need to be asked?"

If Shen Yichen hurried to Fujian to stabilize the situation, then Xining could be described by the words "returning to the heart like an arrow", and even before he set off, he thought about how to come back in advance.

After all, Xining has been out of the town for many years to supervise the army outside, and finally returned to Beijing from Liaodong and served as the eunuch of the imperial eunuch, and is preparing to get closer to the emperor.

As a result, Wang Zhen was stirred up from it, and he had to go to Fujian to quell the rebellion before his ass was hot, how could he be willing?

"What my father-in-law said is very true, and the lower officials are taught!"

Shen Yichen hurriedly complimented him, this can be called an unexpected joy, but he didn't expect Xining to really have a career mentality.

"Shen Hanlin is polite, then let's go."

"Yes."

Shen Yichen nodded, then turned around and returned to his carriage, and the group walked towards Tongzhou Wharf.

……

Thousands of miles away in Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture, the current county honorable Xu Fengyuan is receiving a group of mysterious visitors in the backyard study. And in order to ensure concealment, he also specially instructed the county government officials to come in without his permission.

Because it was none other than Ye Zongliu, the leader of the Fujian miners!

"Leader Ye, I heard that you have captured Jianning, an important town in northern Fujian, can this matter be taken seriously?"

Before Ye Zongliu could speak, Xu Fengyuan couldn't wait to ask.

You must know that for the imperial court, those who kill officials and riot are called thieves, and those who have no base can only be called rogues.

"Heaven Descends"

But attacking the city and plundering the land, the nature has completely changed, and it can already be defined as a rebel army!

Xu Fengyuan couldn't believe how a small conflict between an errand officer and a furnace master could evolve into today's scene.

If it goes on like this, Ye Zongliu and the others have no way back.

Or rather, there's no turning back now!

Facing Xu Fengyuan's anxious inquiry, Ye Zongliu nodded with a complicated expression and said, "Yes, Jiang Lutou has already led the Luding brothers to capture Jianning Mansion City. ”

Conquering Jianning Mansion, an important town in northern Fujian, was an unexpected gain for Ye Zongliu and others, to be honest. They had no intention of attacking the city and had the strength to do so, just thinking about making a detour to escape the blockade of the official army.

It may be that the defenders of Jianning Mansion have been requisitioned and encircled and suppressed, causing the defense of the entire prefecture and city to be empty. It may also be that the capture and killing of Zhu Yuan, a senator of Fujian's political secretary, has formed a great psychological deterrent to local officials.

Anyway, seeing the arrival of the rebel army, the officials of Jianning Mansion City chose to abscond, and Jiang Fucheng took a city without much effort.

But what followed was all kinds of practical problems, and the city was in the hands of himself and others, but how to hold it?

This is the reason why, for thousands of years, peasant rebel armies often end in failure.

Because in most cases, they are forced to fight for their lives in the face of the harsh exploitation of the government, lacking a clear guiding ideology and goals, and they don't even know what they want to do in the end.

A large group of people hurriedly started without any advance preparation, and then took one step at a time to confront the encirclement and suppression of the official army. Even if you can achieve some success in the early stages, you will quickly fall into a state of confusion and have no direction on what to do next.

The current Ye Zongliu and Jiang Fucheng are like this, they captured the city of Jianning Mansion, and then they don't know whether to defend or abandon the city to avoid a head-on confrontation with the imperial army.

Intellectually, with the strength of Fujian miners, they are far from reaching the realm of attacking cities and plundering land, and it is the most correct choice to abandon the city and continue to fight guerrilla warfare.

However, the temptation to capture the capital city was simply irresistible to many illiterate rebels, and some even cheered that they could tear the land and seal the territory and become king.

As everyone knows, trapping the city was the beginning of the demise of many peasant rebels.

Ye Zongliu did not have any ambition to break the territory and seal the territory, he just chose to cooperate with Jiang Fucheng to kill the officials and rebel out of righteousness and anger.

After all, if Ye Zongliu and other miners had not joined the battle to support, then the fate of thousands of furnace soldiers in You Xi after being besieged by officers and soldiers would have been beheaded according to the crime of anti-thief!

Therefore, Ye Zongliu did not agree with sticking to Chicheng, but in the process of deciding whether to give up, the situation in Fujian suddenly changed, and rebel armies bloomed everywhere!

First of all, in Chuzhou, Fujian, Ye Zongliu friend Tao Deer, led more than 1,000 peasants to revolt, and the momentum was huge and controlled in a short period of time, the border areas and traffic arteries of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces.

Immediately afterwards, a tenant farmer named Deng Maoqi led the tenants to launch a riot in Shaxian County, Fujian Province, and played the slogan of "robbing the rich and helping the poor", which attracted the response of nearby farmers and instantly pulled up more than 10,000 teammates.

In addition, Deng Maoqi was "brave and self-wise", and he had gathered tenants to fight against rent collectively for a long time before the uprising, and had rich experience in leading and organizing organizations, which led to the combat effectiveness of the peasant army under his command also improved by more than one grade.

The local government of Shaxian County is not Deng Maoqi's opponent at all, he later came to occupy Chen Shanzhai, directly set up an official office to swear blood, and called himself "the king of bulldozing", to eradicate the injustice of the world!

The birth of these rebel armies greatly encouraged the miners and furnace men who occupied the city of Jianning, as if the Fujian officials and soldiers were no longer afraid, and there was no need to avoid them and flee everywhere.

Defending the city meant storing enough grain and grass to prepare for war, but before the Jianning officials absconded, a fire directly burned the warehouse of the mansion, resulting in the surplus grain of the entire Jianning Mansion only enough for half a month to eat.

In addition, at the end of the ninth year of Orthodoxy, Fujian suffered from the Japanese rebellion, the Orthodoxy suffered from a flood in the tenth year, and the Orthodoxy suffered a major drought in the eleventh year. Natural disasters and man-made disasters continue, and the people are struggling to survive, and there is no surplus food in their hands at all, and they can't collect it from the surrounding areas of the city.

Having said that, if it were not for a series of natural and man-made disasters, the situation in Fujian would not have collapsed to such a point, and it can only be said that there must be a cause and an effect.

After Ye Zongliu thought about it, the only person in Fujian who could alleviate the crisis of miners' grain and grass was Xu Fengyuan.

In addition, after Xu Fengyuan served as the magistrate of Changle County, he did work conscientiously to benefit one party, and the storage of rice and grain was sufficient, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, which can be said to be quite praised.

So there was such a strange scene, the court thieves were ready to find the court officials to borrow grain......

"Leader Ye, do you know the consequences of capturing the capital city?"

Xu Fengyuan was full of shock, he really didn't expect that Ye Zongliu would come to this point in just a few days.

"Do you know how, but don't you know?"

"Brother Xu, you also know our former identities and plans, and there is no turning back when you open your bow."

Ye Zongliu didn't want to discuss those things about "regret" anymore, he had already made up his mind in the ninth year of orthodoxy, and it was nothing more than a three-year delay in raising troops.

"The Fujian Political Department has issued an official letter to the state capitals informing the imperial court of the Fujian riots. If nothing else, the imperial court counterinsurgency army will arrive soon, is Leader Ye really going to embark on this desperate road? ”

"The soldiers will block the water and cover the earth, Ye came today, and I only asked Brother Xu to help us wait for the last one."

"In the future, each has a destiny, and life and death will not be in harmony!"

In fact, Ye Zongliu had a premonition in his heart about the final result, he didn't want to implicate Xu Fengyuan too deeply, and this could also be the last time he begged for it.

After a few years of getting along in business, Xu Fengyuan respected Ye Zongliu from the bottom of his heart. Listening to the other party's resolute tone, he understood that it was pointless to say anything more.

So he sighed and replied: "Leader Ye said, as long as you can do it in the future, you must do your best." ”

"I need Brother Xu to send a boat to transport grain and grass along the Min River, and when the imperial army comes to Japan, our brothers can rely on Jianning Mansion City to hold on to the confrontation."

Ye Zongliu had long known that Xu Fengyuan had come to Fujian to work, and in addition to operating the Japanese slave smuggling trade with himself, he also received an order from Shen Yichen to collect and dry timber in Taiping Port in Changle County, preparing to build large sea ships.

Although the progress of the sea vessels was slow, Xu Fengyuan, during his tenure as county magistrate, vigorously developed the shipping of Changle County, and adopted a policy of turning a blind eye to fishermen who violated the ban on going to sea.

As a result, the entire Fujian region, except for the Xiafan sea ship built by Guo Yan, the governor of Fuzhou Prefecture, may have an advantage in the number and tonnage of ships, and other places are not as prosperous as Changle County's shipping.

In addition, Taiping Port here was once the place where Zheng He, the eunuch of the Three Treasures, went to the West, and has a deep historical origin.

Shen Yichen arranged for Xu Fengyuan to serve as the magistrate here, which can be regarded as a plan.

"Leader Ye, it's not that you're greedy for life and afraid of death, but you can use ships to transport grain and grass to Jianning with great fanfare, I'm afraid it won't take a moment for the entire Fujian people to know."

Ye Zongliu is now defined as the head of thieves by the imperial court, and officials of all sizes in the Fujian Political Department have their eyes on him.

Officials can collude with bandits, but they must not have anything to do with the rebels, otherwise they will be dismissed from their posts and held accountable at the first time.

"You don't need to transport it to Jianning, just find a remote wharf to unload the goods, and Ye will arrange for a handover."

In recent years, there have been many complaints in Fujian that as long as the harvest is released, countless poor peasants will join the rebel army.

Ye Zongliu only lacked food, grass and battle armor!

You must know that in any dynasty in ancient times, there were almost no restrictions on weapons, and you could go to the end of the world with a sword.

However, the possession of armor is a felony of rebellion.

Of course, the grain and grass leaves Zongliu can show his old face and ask Xu Fengyuan to help, and the iron tool is absolutely unspeakable.

After all, there is an essential difference between dismissal and accountability and rebellion.

Without too much hesitation, Xu Fengyuan gritted his teeth and nodded: "Okay, I promise you that I will immediately organize people to transport grain and grass." ”

"Don't thank you, Ye will be repaid as a cow and a horse in the next life!"

Ye Zongliu bowed to Xu Fengyuan, he also knew very well how much risk there was behind it. It can even be said that even if the brothers of the family encounter this kind of thing, they will not necessarily help each other.

"Leader Ye, I will immediately write a letter to the Jingshi and send it to Brother Shen, during this period, you must be stable, don't act rashly!"

This kind of thing is far beyond Xu Fengyuan's ability, and the only person he can think of to turn the tide is Shen Yichen.

If Shen Yichen can persuade the imperial court to recruit An, he can at least bring Ye Zongliu a way to live, even if there is little hope!

"No need, maybe Shen Sanyuan has already learned about the situation in Fujian now."

Ye Zongliu replied with a wry smile, when the furnace turmoil had just occurred, he had already sent Zheng Xiang to Jingshi to inform Shen Yichen, thinking about whether he could alleviate the conflict with the government.

However, with the Senator of the Political Secretary being captured and killed by the furnace ding, Ye Zongliu understood that even if Shen Yichen learned about it, he would not be able to change anything.

At this point, don't implicate Shen Yichen anymore, just bear the consequences alone.

After hearing this, Xu Fengyuan was silent, it is true that this letter is not written, it is of little significance.

"Leader Ye, I have been taken care of in the past few years, remember to take care."

Xu Fengyuan arched his hand, saying that he was taking care, but it was more like a final farewell.

Whether there will be a next time has become an unknown.

"I will, if Brother Xu can see Shen Sanyuan in the future, thank him for me."

"Thank you Shen Sanyuan for pointing out a way to live that year, so that Ye Mougou lived for three years, there may be no retribution in this life, let's repay it in the next life."

"Brother Xu, it's inconvenient for Ye to stay longer, say goodbye!"

After finishing speaking, Ye Zongliu led his miners and quietly left the Changle County Ya.

Looking at the empty courtyard outside the window, Xu Fengyuan did not retract his gaze for a long time.

After being silent for a long time, Xu Fengyuan sat down and took out a piece of notepaper from the desk, and wrote the three characters Shen Xiangbei at the beginning with pen and ink.

He felt that Ye Zongliu had made up his mind to die, but for some reason there was a premonition in his heart, if Shen Yichen learned all this, he would definitely not give up easily, even if he knew that he couldn't do it, he would work hard until the last moment.

In that case, why don't you try it yourself, maybe a miracle will happen.

After all, Shen Yichen is a miracle for many people.