Although in the long run, Shen Shuren took advantage of Wu Weiye's doubts and took the opportunity to ask Yang Sichang for credit, which is a very effective choice.

After two months of doing things, it was done so beautifully, and when it was time to "calculate performance" in the end, how could you not strive to earn a little more rewards?

However, wealth has always been sought in danger, and if you want to make more, you have to pay the corresponding hard work and risk.

Guozijian's naturalization deadline before each township examination will not open the back door for Shen Shuren alone.

It is said that those who are imprisoned before the end of July can be treated according to the treatment of those who have passed the township test this year, that is, they will be strictly stuck at the end of July, and they will not wait for a day.

Now that it has entered the middle of July, the time left for Shen Shuren to go back and forth between Nanjing and Hefei will definitely not exceed half a month.

During this period, it is necessary to take into account that Yang Sichang is in a high position, and it is not easy to ask to see him, and he may have to wait in line.

The land north of the river is now in chaos, the scouts of the thieves may appear at any time, and the patrolling Ming army is also frequently checked.

In short, it's not easy.

Shen Shuren never fought uncertain battles, so when he left Nanjing and crossed the west, he made strict security measures.

On the one hand, he tried to take the waterway as much as he could.

The Shen family's power on the water is still very large, and the sailors on the boat even carry bird guns and turtledoves, and the sand boats that follow the eldest young master out are also the strongest and sharpest.

Even if you encounter an infiltrating thief, as long as you don't get off the ship, the enemy can't kill you.

When encountering a location where he really had to take the land route, Shen Shuren also prepared dozens of horses, and also wore cotton armor for everyone in the elite family.

Of course, there must be an excuse for all these military preparations, and Shen Shuren has already thought about it - just use the quota that his father Shen Tingyang got from Chongzhen for "preparing for the pilot project of Caoyun to change to sea".

After the reform of the Changyun Law in the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, it was carried and guarded by guards. Shen Tingyang's pilot, although it is only the size of a few ships, it is still legal to deploy hundreds of Cao soldiers.

Along the way, when passing through the Dashengguan (in Ma'anshan) around Nanjing, when Tuwei (in Wuhu) and other places along the river were checked, Shen Shuren used the excuse of "Caoyun trial voyage", and then gave a little tea and silver, and the Ming army with lax armaments was all allowed along the way.

After crossing the Yangtze River and entering Chaohu Lake through the water, as it got closer and closer to the Hefei front, the Ming army's armament was checked more severely.

On this day, it was already July 18, and several boats of the Shen family arrived at the mouth of the Weishui River on the north shore of Chaohu Lake. As long as you enter the water, you can go up to Hefei County against the current.

However, at the mouth of the Weishui River, the fleet also encountered the most rigorous investigation so far, and the Ming army guarding the estuary was actually quite disciplined.

Shen Shuren originally wanted to give a little silver and speed up customs clearance, but he didn't expect it to be self-defeating.

When the guards saw that they took out the silver, they thought that Shen Shuren had something forbidden, and they had to investigate it thoroughly.

Fortunately, Shen Shuren had complete procedures, but he was delayed for half a day, and finally passed.

When it was over, the guard Qianhu also asked suspiciously: "Since it is a trial voyage and in accordance with the law, why did you try to bribe each other with silver at the beginning!" Hurry up, the vicinity of this river has not been peaceful recently, and the Lin Yangsheng Department of the thieves in the fifth battalion of the Revolution has flowed here.

Shi Futai and General Huang told us to be careful not to let the thieves rob the sturdy civilian boats, smuggle into the water, and wet the water. Otherwise, the land north of the Nanjing River will not be peaceful. ”

The second half of the Qianhu sentence was also excusing himself, he already knew that the Shen family was powerful, and he didn't want to offend, so he explained one more sentence.

Shen Shuren also wanted to know more about the front-line military situation, of course he wouldn't bother with him, and he also put on a broken face:

"The general's military law is strict, Xiaosheng admires it tightly, how can he blame. Now that the country is in Japan, there are more diligent and loyal people like generals. I don't know what the general is called, who is under his command, I will go to Hefei, maybe I can meet Yang Ge Lao, and I will have the opportunity to convey the general's diligence and rigor. ”

The thousand households were embarrassed when they heard this, and hurriedly laughed: "Don't dare, don't dare, my surname is Zuo, Zuo Zixiong, and Lu Fenghuang is under the command of General Soldier." My family, General Huang, is now under the control of Anlu Shi Futai. ”

Shen Shuren thought about it for a while, and then he corresponded, the general soldier of Lufeng Huang should be Huang Degong, and Shi Futai was naturally Shi Kefa, the governor of Anlu.

Since Yang Sichang went south, temporarily stationed in Hefei, and arranged the containment work on the eastern front, the most useful civil and military forces under his subordinates at present are Huang Degong and Shi Kefa.

However, when he heard that this Qianhu surname was Zuo, Shen Shuren was still a little worried in his heart, and tentatively added a question: "Since the general's surname is Zuo, can he be related to the general soldier of Wuchang Zuo?" ”

Shen Shuren knows history and still trusts Huang Degong's subordinates, but he has to be vigilant about those who are related to Zuo Liangyu.

After all, in history, Zuo Liangyu finally raised troops to attack Nanjing, trying to "clear the monarch's side", to put it bluntly, he wanted to set up another puppet. If Shen Shuren wants to make contributions in the future, he must beware of Zuo Liangyu.

Fortunately, Zuo Zixiong replied very simply: "I just happen to be surnamed Zuo, and I don't know Zuo Zongbing." ”

After the two chatted, the atmosphere was quite harmonious, Zuo Zixiong and others got off the boat and let them go, and Shen Shuren also asked the sailors to set sail again.

But not long after the sailors had finished twisting the ropes and drove out, a few scouts suddenly rushed to the distance on the west bank of the river.

Zuo Zixiong hurriedly climbed the heights to lookout and found that he was sent out by his own command to investigate.

When the scout got close, he didn't care about entering the customs, so he shouted and warned from afar: "Qianhu be careful, Lin Yangcheng's department has run a few miles away, and the thieves have also gathered horses, so we don't have time to get away." ”

Zuo Zixiong only thought about it for a few seconds, and suddenly slapped his thigh: "Not good!" The eyes and ears of the thieves must have been eyeing the fleet from Chaohu Lake for a long time! In Chaohu Lake, the water surface is wide, and they can't start to grab the boat, so they wait until they enter the water!

Let that Shen Gongzi turn around, and don't go any further! Prepare the elite and prepare to go out to meet the enemy! If Lin Chengcheng wants to rob the boat, he will accept Shen Gongzi and escape back! ”

Zuo Zixiong's hundreds of households and others all looked at each other: "Thousands of households, thieves have always been powerful, we are hundreds of people, it is good to hold Hekou Village, how can we go out of the village to fight." ”

"If you want to disobey military law, you won't be able to! Hurry up and get ready! Zuo Zixiong shouted the order, first to ensure that his subordinates began to line up, and then he seized the time to reason and boost morale:

"Although the thieves are powerful, but such a fierce one, there must only be light horses first, it's not that I look down on Lin Yang, how many war horses can this kind of thief army make! He is nothing more than a fox and a fake tiger, relying on the other four battalions to beat the officers and soldiers to the cold, so he came to get a handful.

The life or death of the surnamed Shen has nothing to do with us, but their ships are sharp, and they look better than the warships of Jiangfang, if they fall into the hands of the thieves, they will easily run east to the east of the river and the water, and I don't know how many poor people are coerced by them! ”

Under the encouragement of Zuo Zixiong, the Ming army's only a few dozen cavalry and 300 infantry who could participate in the field battle finally mustered up the courage, feeling that the enemy might not be much.

The Ming army hid behind the gate of the village, waiting for the order with a solemn expression, and Zuo Zixiong did not rashly open the gate of the village, but just watched from a high place.

If Shen Shuren could escape and return on his own, then he wouldn't go out to rescue, and if Shen Shuren was finished too quickly, he wouldn't need to rescue. Only when he is just so close to the door will he go to make a victory.

The Shen family's fleet in the distance reacted quickly, slowly turned around in the narrow water, and changed to go down the river again.

And the thief general of the cavalry unit of the 5th Battalion of the Revolution on the shore laughed when he saw this scene:

"Sons, these boats look good, it is estimated that there are still a lot of goods, take advantage of the narrow river here, hurry up and rob them, and the king will definitely have a heavy reward when he goes back! Yang Lao'er still wants to open a net to block the king, and when he jumps over the water and approaches Chuzhou, he will see how the official army will blockade it!

The horseman on the boat really didn't know how to die, and when he saw our army approaching, he still had time to turn around, instead of directly changing the stern of the boat and lowering the water downstream, he deserved to die! ”

In ancient times, many river boats were shuttle-shaped with both ends pointed, and the wrong bow and stern of that kind of boat were not very troublesome, and they could be driven, as long as the direction of the oars was changed.

However, if the head and tail are confused, the seaworthiness will definitely be reduced, and the speed and bumps will be affected.

Shen Shuren insisted on letting the boat turn around and then retreat, and he was also sharpening his knife and not cutting wood, on the other hand, he was also confident in the bird gun on his ship.

As soon as the fleet turned around and sailed back, the rogue cavalry had already rushed to the shore of the river, a stone's throw away from the fleet, and it seemed that there were more than two or three hundred horsemen.

It seems that Lin Chengcheng has also invested in the accumulation of a considerable part of the horses for high-mobility and snatching strategic materials.

As soon as the rogue cavalry came into range, they began to throw arrows at the boats, and there were also dismounted and waded in the water to try to intercept the climbers. It's just that the cavalry horses are not easy to load with gunpowder, so I didn't see the musketeers.

Shen Shuren was such a person who was afraid of death, of course, he hid in the inner cabin with a well-protected wooden plank, and only let Shen Fu, the butler who followed him, command the resistance.

This Shen Fu is just from a family, but he also ran across the sea, went to North Korea to do maritime trade, because of his good performance, after he came back, Shen Tingyang was in charge of the Korean medicinal herb shop at home, and finally transferred to follow the eldest young master.

Most of the sailors who ran through the sea trade were killed by licking blood with knives, and these family members were all selected by Shen Tingyang, so they were still calm in their hearts with muskets.

Shen Fu asked the family members to hide behind the board of the boat to show weakness, and they were not allowed to shoot casually without waiting for an order.

Dressed as a pig and a tiger, the thief cavalry mistakenly thought that the ship had no resistance and began to arrogantly step into the mud of the river, and even dismounted and tried to climb the boat.

Only then did Shen Fu shout, and asked the sailors to pull open the wooden planks on the perforations on the portholes, and more than a dozen original turtledove guns imported from the West, and forty or fifty domestic bird guns, divided into two batches and fired, and immediately put down the rogue cavalry who were stuck in the mud.

Subsequently, those who were armed with spears in the family also rushed to the deck with rattan cards on their heads, and while peeking if there were any people who were close to the side of the ship and wanted to climb up, they saw one and stabbed down with a gun in one hand, as if defending the city.

The thieves didn't expect that a few "boats" had such strong firepower, and they were caught off guard and suffered a lot of casualties, the key was that their morale was furious, and they all thought that they had been ambushed by the official army.

Shen Shuren listened to Shen Fu's report that he had killed and injured dozens of thieves, and his mind was thinking quickly, and he immediately ordered: "Don't just use muskets to fight!" Let everyone shout, Shi Futai Huang's army of thousands has been killed, and Lin has fallen for Shi Futai's plan to lure the enemy! ”

Shen Fu was stunned for a moment, and quickly reacted, and he also admired the young master's quick mind in his heart, and he opened his mouth to make such a loss.

With the shouts of more than 100 family members, the thief cavalry really became more and more chaotic. Especially when he saw that there were so many firearms on these ships, saying that it was Shi Kefa's bait to lure the enemy, the thieves simply heard a letter, and no one doubted it.

Zuo Zixiong in the Shuishui Estuary in the south, seeing this, also realized that the opportunity could not be lost, completely stopped pretending, and hurriedly rushed out with the Ming army.

While shouting loudly, pretending that they were really ambushes left by Shi Kefa's clever plan.

Lin Yang's cavalry, which had been used to rob strategic materials, was completely dispersed in this way, and was pursued by Zuo Zixiong, cutting off dozens of heads, and snatching back nearly 100 ownerless horses before and after, and then collected his troops and returned to the camp.

As for Shen Shuren, he didn't let people get off the boat to pursue, after all, before returning to Nanjing, his family died one less and one less, and his own safety was the most important, so there was no need to let his subordinates leave the bunker and go ashore desperately.

Zuo Zixiong picked up the battle exploits, and became more and more grateful and admired Shen Shuren, and after dealing with the heads and trophies, he divided dozens of cavalry and decided to personally escort Shen Shuren to Hefei County.