Half a month later, Hai Rui arrived in Qingjiangpu.

Hu Shouren and Jin Wuwei's tens of thousands of Heavenly Son troops have been waiting for him here for a long time.

As soon as Hai Rui saw Hu Shouren, he sank his face and said to Hu Shouren: "Didn't you let you go directly to Yangzhou and wait, how did you get here!" A Qingjiangpu, how can you supply tens of thousands of soldiers and horses? ”

Hu Shouren hurriedly arched his hand and said: "The ministry is graceful!" The gate of Yangzhou Mansion City is closed, there are fierce people who say that we are going south to plunder, and also release arrows to us, we do not have your order, do not dare to attack Yangzhou City by force without authorization, so we have to retreat to Qingjiangpu temporarily, Qingjiangpu is an important canal town, compared with other towns, it is easy to buy grain and bean feed, but there is no need to worry about the lack of food and affect military discipline. It's just that we can't stay for a long time, and now the grain has not arrived, and the major grain stores in Qingjiangpu do not have much inventory, and the most important thing is that the soybean material is insufficient. ”

After hearing this, Hai Rui's expression became even more serious: "It's ridiculous! What kind of people can make Yangzhou's officials unable to control it, and let the power of the city be occupied, what is the difference between this and the opposite, do you want the church to cure him for a crime of failure?! ”

"What should we do, please make it clear to the ministry."

Hu Shouren said.

Hai Rui went back to the ship directly, wrote the order on the special paper for the official letter, and then stamped his own customs seal, took it out, and handed it to Hu Shouren:

】

"First warn the people of Yangzhou again, if the city is not opened within the half pillar of incense, and those who prevent the officials and soldiers from entering the city will be punished as anti-thieves, and the officials and soldiers in the city will be punished for their dereliction of duty, and those who have meritorious names will be punished for not keeping the festival, and directly think that Yangzhou has counterattacked the city!"

After Hu Shouren received the official letter, he said yes and left.

A few days later, Yangzhou City, Hu Shouren and other Jin Wuwei Tianzi's pro-army, accompanied by the rising sun, came to the outside of the city again.

At that time, Cheng Batian, a fierce citizen of Yangzhou who was standing in the city, asked Zhang Zongxi, a student: "Zhang Xianggong, the heavenly soldiers who levy taxes are here again, do we still have to close the city gate?" ”

"Keep shut!"

"That Hai Rui is a man who loves the people and sells his name, he is not afraid of the officials but is afraid of the people, and he does not dare to attack without authorization, and he may realize the difficulty of the officials and gentry in one body, and sue the court, so that the court rulers also know the difficulties, and persuade the Son of Heaven to withdraw the will to cancel the preferential exemption."

This chapter Xianggong said.

"That's right! You just have to preach to the people that these heavenly soldiers will burn, kill and loot after entering Yangzhou, so that they must stop the Yangzhou Yamen and guard the city gate, so as not to let the officials and soldiers in the city have the opportunity to open the city gate! ”

Another student named Gong Yuanxiang followed along.

"The people in the city listen, the governor of the state tax and the sea department has an order, if the city is not opened after half a pillar of incense, it will be regarded as Yangzhou has been opposed, and directly use force to attack the city, when the time comes, Yangzhou officials and soldiers are guilty of dereliction of duty, those who have meritorious fame are guilty of not keeping festivals, and those who defend the city are guilty of anti-thieves!"

A herald ordered the cavalry to come to the city with an official letter at this time and shouted.

Cheng Batian hurriedly asked Zhang Zongxi: "Zhang Xianggong, what should I do now?" ”

"No, let's take a look, maybe it's just a scare."

Zhang Zongxi thought for a while and said.

And at the end of the time of the half-pillar incense, Hu Shouren commanded: "Let the gunner fire!" Tell them that the time of the half-pillar incense is subject to the sound of the cannon, and before the cannon sounds, if the city gate is not opened, it will be regarded as Yangzhou has been reversed. ”

It didn't take long for Cheng Batian to point to the artillery five hundred steps away and said: "Zhang Xianggong, they want to release the cannon, the cannon jacket has been lifted, the cannon should not look small, and the outline can still be seen from such a distance!" They're really going to siege the city! ”

Zhang Zongxi, who was short-sighted because he read a lot of books, couldn't help but squint: "Where is the cannon?" ”

Cheng Batian hurriedly pointed.

Zhang Zongxi couldn't help but take a serious look, and soon saw it.

Here, Gong Yuanxiang, a student, had already hurried down the city first: "I'll open the city gate!" ”

"Brother! Why are you so bold! He Hai Gangfeng would not really order the siege of the city, maybe it was just to scare and scare us. ”

Zhang Zongxi couldn't help but turn around and shouted loudly.

Gong Yuanxiang didn't listen to him, but directly took the house slave down to the city first.

At the same time, a number of students went down to the city.

Seeing this, Zhang Zongxi thought about it, and said to Cheng Batian: "Cheng Lichang, you have to lead the villagers to hold on and tell them that the heavenly soldiers will not really attack, because it is Hai Qingtian who rules them, and Hai Qingtian will not harm the people." Let them hold on until the end of the half-pillar incense before leaving, I still have something to do, I have to leave first. ”

"Zhang Xianggong, the time for half a pillar of incense has come."

Cheng Batian said at this time.

"What?"

Zhang Zongxi couldn't help but glance back for a while, and saw that there was only one meritorious scholar left in the city, and other friends had already gone down to the city, and the heavenly soldiers outside the city had already drawn their swords and lit the fire rope.

Zhang Zongxi regretted it for a while, and hurriedly turned back to Cheng Batian and said: "Don't confess me, I will take your wife and children to my house to provide for you!" ”

As he spoke, Zhang Zongxi hurriedly walked to the city.

Rumble!

Suddenly, the walls trembled violently.

Zhang Zongxi fell to the ground directly because of this.

At this time, the city gate had already been opened in advance, and Gong Yuanxiang had already knelt at the city gate, shouting: "Yangzhou has not rebelled, but there is a rebellion among the people, and the heavenly soldiers are specially invited to enter the city!" ”

And Hu Shouren had already let a cavalry rush in and had come up to the city wall.

Zhang Zongxi saw that he couldn't escape, so he had an idea, laughed, and then pointed at Cheng Batian and scolded:

"You anti-thieves and demons, do you think that if you instigate the foolish militia to trap the government and occupy the city gate, you can take Yangzhou as your own?!"

"Huang Wei Hehe, Wang Fa Zhaozhang, have you ever thought that as soon as the heavenly soldiers arrive, what you will do is just a mantis arm as a car!"

Cheng Batian was a little stunned, so he froze in place.

Jin Wuwei, who went up to the city wall, was also a little stunned when he saw this.

Zhang Zongxi also directly turned back to command Li Yifu: "This general has not quickly killed these rebels to prevent their trouble!" ”

"Kneel down and disarm leniently!"

At this time, Lin Linfeng, the orphan who came over and also graduated from Xingming Academy, reacted faster, shouted, and said to Li Yifu:

"It cannot be ruled out that these people are being coerced, and it is not appropriate to kill them directly, in this way, they may be able to dig out the mastermind behind the scenes!"

After hearing this, Li Yifu suddenly felt reasonable, and hurriedly said: "Kneel down and disarm leniently!" ”

Zhang Zongxi knelt down first and whispered to Lin Linfeng and Li Yitian: "If the two generals can directly kill these people, I am willing to give thirty acres of water to the two generals in the next wish!" ”

Lin Linfeng laughed: "You are a public minister, if you want to bribe, you should be generous, you can't take anything worth a few hundred taels, it's not enough to seal the mouths of these brothers, and you just let us bear the risk of being expelled from the pro-military guard, it's really stupid to read." ”

Li Yifu asked people to disarm Cheng Batian first, and then pointed to Zhang Zongxi to Cheng Batian: "What is his name and what identity." ”

Cheng Batian replied without hesitation: "This mansion is the prince of the Sect of the Sect and the Emperor of the Sect. ”

……

Not long after, Hai Rui also arrived in Yangzhou City.

At this time, the officials and gentry in Yangzhou City all held their breath and condensed, and many high-rise mansions went to the decoration that violated the regulations and encroached on the royal privileges.

"Lock up Zhang Zongxi and Cheng Batian, who are making trouble, and put them in Yangzhou Prison, Hu Tshuai, you order a bureau to take over Yangzhou Prison, and send another team of officers and soldiers to Yangzhou Mansion! Let the prefect of Yangzhou come to see the church! ”

And Hai Rui came to Yangzhou and listened to Hu Shouren's report on the relevant situation, so he gave orders.

Not long after, Wu Xiumin, the prefect of Yangzhou, came to Hai Rui, knelt down and cried: "The people are in turmoil, but fortunately, the ministry and the heavenly soldiers arrived in time, otherwise the lower officials can only be martyred, woo!" ”

Hai Rui got up, looked at the sailboats on the canal with his hands behind his back, and asked: "How many fierce people are there that you can't do anything with the prefect, and the transfer envoy Yamen and the salt patrol can't send Yanding to save them?" ”

Wu Xiumin said: "It is precisely because there are no less than 100,000 salt Ding who take the lead in besieging the yamen, so that the lower officials can't do anything!" ”

"Why are these salters besieging the government?"

Hai Rui asked with a calm face.

Wu Xiumin said: "Because of the system of the official gentry paying grain and errands, most of these salt lads have family members who are tenants of the gentry, and they think that the abolition of preferential exemption will make the gentry pass on the extra tax and silver to them, so I want the court to continue to give the gentry preferential exemption." ”

"It's not negotiable!"

Hai Rui directly waved the sleeve of his robe and replied sharply.