Chapter 129, "Righteous Soldiers" Enter the City (Part 2)
The group of so-called "righteous men" who entered Hangzhou from the north actually only had three small boats, with a total of about twenty people. However, half of them are well-dressed people with great fame, and the leader is even more eye-catching. He is Zhang Dai, Zhang Zongzi, a famous celebrity in Hangzhou and the backbone of Fushe! Magistrate Liu knew that although he did not hold an official position, he was a child of an official family. He had a wide network of contacts and his activities in the court and among the people were quite amazing. Therefore, he hurriedly organized a banquet at the most luxurious brothel in Hangzhou. Give them a chance to cleanse themselves from the dust, lest they be treated with any slightest care.
However, facing the magistrate's warm hospitality, Zhang Dai was frowning. On the way to Hangzhou, what he saw and heard along the way was shocking, which fully proved that the situation on the battlefield was far worse than his last. Pessimistic expectations.
According to the general practice in ancient times, in order to stabilize the occupied areas as quickly as possible and reduce the resistance to ruling the newly conquered areas, the leader of any traditional feudal army will show a certain degree of courtesy to the wealthy Jin gentry in the occupied areas, because these local snakes are still needed. To raise taxes, collect labor, and maintain local order. Especially in the late Ming Dynasty, when literature was valued over martial arts, even the most vulgar bandit king knew to respect scholars.
In return, under certain conditions, the landlords and gentry would also acquiesce in the other party's strong position and pay tribute to the conquerors with money, food and women, so as to avoid offending this group of strong men and causing everyone to die. Of course, the landlords wanted It is basically impossible to be sincerely loyal to these vulgar warriors. On the contrary, doing various small tricks behind the scenes to constantly cause trouble for the new conquerors is almost what the landlords and gentry must do...
In short, in Zhang Dai's view, no matter how the world changes, the wealth and honor of these wealthy local gentry families should remain unchanged forever.
But today's group of damned thieves completely violated the above-mentioned common sense. They were polite to the humble commoners, but they had no intention of being polite to the Jin gentry. They actually openly and wantonly slaughtered the big gentry, and organized "" "Open trial", all the landowners and gentry in the village were beheaded - the distinguished officials of the imperial court were no longer talismans in front of the unreasonable thieves, but instead became life-threatening talismans!
On the way to Hangzhou by boat along the Grand Canal, Zhang Dai and others met countless Jin gentry fleets who had fled with their families, and even a few fair-weather friends they had made in Hangzhou. According to the cries of these refugees, this bandit is really much more cruel than the Japanese pirates. To put it bluntly, the Japanese pirates in the past were just seeking money. If they could partner with Japanese pirates in the smuggling business, not only would the landlords and gentry not suffer losses, they would often make a fortune.
——This is also the reason why the Japanese pirates were repeatedly suppressed in those days. Because the key to resisting the Japanese pirates was to detect smuggling rather than resisting foreign invasion, there were quite a few people in Jiangnan provinces from officials to gentry who colluded with the Japanese pirates. Even with the degree of control over society in modern China, various smuggling problems are still prohibited. As for the Ming Dynasty, let alone mention it - unless it was the time when Zhu Yuanzhang ruthlessly dealt with corruption!
However, the thieves currently rampant in Zhejiang treat the landlords and gentry not only for money but also for their lives. They especially like to kill scholars and have no idea what it means to respect the elderly and the virtuous. Even the retired old minister was hung on a tree and beaten with whips... After hearing the cry of the old minister's grandson, Zhang Dai felt extremely heavy. His family was a noble family in Shaoxing, although he himself was Because of his love for excitement, he lives in Hangzhou city all year round, but most of the Zhang family's properties and people are still distributed in the rural villages and towns of Shaoxing and Hangzhou.
However, the bandits not only caused trouble in the suburbs of Hangzhou on the north bank of the Qiantang River, but also launched a large-scale raid on Xiaoshan and Shaoxing on the south bank of the Qiantang River...
Worried about the safety of his family, and based on the idea that there is strength in numbers, Zhang Dai actively persuaded these gentry to return to Hangzhou with him to seek revenge against the Kun thief. However, most of these fleeing gentry had a bloody feud with the Kun thief. , but I know more clearly how much I weigh. Now that you have finally escaped from danger with a narrow escape, how can you be willing to go back and throw yourself into a trap?
Therefore, even though Zhang Dai played the golden sign of restoring the society and kept his words, in the end he only persuaded two Jusheng who had been murdered and one supervisor whose family was ruined, and took their servants to join the "righteous men" who rushed to Hangzhou. "Come to the team. However, several of the young scholars who had followed Zhang Dai from Nanjing to Hangzhou to "go to the disaster generously" fled in one breath on the way because they saw that the situation was not good...
Just as Zhang Dai was dejectedly recalling these gloomy experiences, a disciple suddenly announced loudly: The prefect is visiting. Then the curtain was raised, and Magistrate Liu Mengqian walked in with Gao Xuan, who had recently been accepted as a confidant. He first greeted Zhang Dai and other righteous men, and then spoke loudly.
"...As everyone knows, this bandit pretends to be a descendant of the Song Dynasty, but he is actually an overseas barbarian. He previously occupied Qiongzhou and committed many injustices, but the court was tolerant of him. Who would have expected that this generation does not think about the emperor's great kindness, but still works hard to serve him? Mantis! He actually colluded with the imperial generals and invaded Jiangnan, slaughtering our scholars and killing our people wherever they went! The energy has been cut off, and demons are rampant! Fortunately, heaven will not stop our Ming Dynasty. A few days ago, some loyal and studious people used wooden cannons to kill the thieves and defeat the enemy's courage; today, there are also righteous people who generously went south to join the army. , this is a blessing for our people in Hangzhou! Let’s drink this cup together!”
There was a chorus of responses from below, but after all, it was a time of war and war, and from time to time there were strange whining rockets flying over the head, and it was really not allowed to slowly drink for three rounds and taste the five dishes—— After a glass of wine was finished, everyone began to talk about business.
"...Mr. Zhang, the elders of Hangzhou have been tortured by thieves for a long time. They are longing for the heavenly troops day and night. I wonder when the reinforcements from Nanjing will arrive?" This was the prefect's impatient question. Having been trapped in the isolated city for a long time, the magistrate really missed the scenery of the West Lake and the gentle embrace of the pretty boat girl. He wished that the bandits would be able to retreat tomorrow, so that he could go boating on the West Lake again and sing "The Great River Goes East" to express his feelings.
"... This... I would also like to invite Lord Haihan. As far as Zhang knows, all the elite soldiers of the imperial court are currently in Yangzhou fighting against the demons of Wenxiang Sect. Although good news has been reported frequently recently, the remaining demons are still stubbornly resisting. Supervisor Yangzhou's Lu Shangshu was really unable to escape for a while. In order to deal with the war in Zhejiang, the court decided to leave. Although recruitment of new troops has been announced in Nanjing, it has been a waste of time to train troops and raise wages, and Zhang Gandu (Zhang Pu is from Songjiang) also proposed to divide the troops to strengthen Songjiang's coastal defense... Therefore, for the sake of Jiangnan's safety, it was still necessary. Please stay in Hangzhou for a little longer..."
After hearing the hesitant words of Zhang Dai, the "unofficial representative of the imperial court", Magistrate Liu suddenly felt cold, "...But all the elite soldiers in Zhejiang were also taken to Wenzhou to defend the enemy by the governor! Now the wind is blowing. It snows heavily, the roads are difficult and dangerous, and the sea routes are blocked by thieves. The governor does not know when he will be able to return to the provincial capital. Although we have a lot of food in Hangzhou, we are short of major generals, and the situation is really dangerous. "
At this point, Magistrate Liu couldn't help bowing to Zhang Dai, "...Mr. Suwen is very anxious for justice. The Kun thieves have been besieging the city for a month now. According to the Kun thieves' arrogance, once the city of Hangzhou is defeated, it will inevitably The lives of the people are in ruins. I hope you can help Hangzhou get reinforcements from the imperial court to save the people of this city!”
"...But the princes of the Nanjing court also have difficulties. No one can conjure up troops, horses, food and wages out of thin air!" Zhang Dai spread his hands and said with a bitter smile, "...I also ask the Lord Fu to try to deal with the thieves. As long as the enemy can be retreated, even if It's just a bribe to the enemy chief, and I guess the princes in the court won't care about it..."
Magistrate Liu rolled his eyes at Zhang Dai's stupid words for standing up and talking without hurting his back. With the momentum and appetite displayed by the Kun thief, if he didn't have millions of taels of money to redeem the city, he probably wouldn't be able to do it. They sent it away. It's not that there isn't so much money in the city of Hangzhou, but just because of his official position as a prefect, how can he force the gentry with a profound background to go bankrupt and spend so much money?
Besides, even if he had no choice but to force the gentry to donate this large amount of money, the thieves would withdraw as promised after receiving the money. But after the Kun thieves retreated, how could those Jin gentry, who had their money taken away but whose hands and eyes were all over the place, be able to swallow their anger? With the energy of those big families, even if they couldn't take revenge on the thieves who were far away overseas, couldn't they still rectify a prefect with a shallow foundation?
However, Gao Xuan, who was standing next to Magistrate Liu, his eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately volunteered to the Magistrate, requesting to be sent to the bandit camp, and used his sharp tongue to launch a divorce plan: "...Prefecture Master Sir, the student has come up with a clever plan. Even if he cannot make the thieves separate and disperse without a fight, it can at least delay it for a certain period of time... He just asked the master of the palace to write a handwritten letter in order to win the trust of the thieves..."< br>
With the idea of treating a dead horse as a live doctor, Magistrate Liu responded to Gao Xuan's request - as long as he didn't ask for money from him, and then sent this loyal and brave scholar to follow the thieves on his last mission. The old man from the camp set off together.
The righteous people such as Liu Zhifu and Zhang Dai stayed in this brothel, continuing to have banquets, chatting, watching songs and dances, and waiting for the good news about Gao Xuan... At the same time, they listened helplessly to the thieves' rockets whizzing over their heads again and again. Flying over, then exploding everywhere in the city...
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North bank of West Lake, outside Wulin Gate
"...咻咻——"
"...Woooo——"
Accompanied by all kinds of strange whistling sounds, Hale rockets continued to take off one after another, bringing winter warmth to the citizens of Hangzhou.
"...Quick, quick, everyone, remember which rocket you fired. Otherwise, if you can't remember it later, don't say I'm unfair!"
Li Meng shook a bottle of bright red wine in his hand and shouted to a group of Japanese security forces who were tinkering with rockets.
——After setting up camp outside Wulin Gate for three days and setting fires for two consecutive nights, because Major General Sun Yang was still dilly-dallying in Fuyang County with the main force, he still did not have enough troops to launch a general attack on Hangzhou City. Wang Qiu and Zhao Yingong, who were extremely bored, simply withdrew more than half of their troops to Fenghuang Villa to rest, and then took a boat to enjoy the snow in the Huxin Pavilion. Only a few hundred miscellaneous troops, mainly Japanese security forces, were left to continue firing Hale rockets to cause destruction outside Wulin Gate, and Comrade Li Meng, a time traveler, was appointed as the temporary commander.
After taking over the motley crew outside the Wulin Gate, in order to boost morale and make the battle more interesting, Li Meng specially asked for several boxes of wine from Wang Qiu as prizes, and held a Rocket Whistle Contest, forcing this group to The battle turned into an entertainment program like the Lantern Festival - every other hour, each security army team could claim a Hale rocket, and then tie a bamboo whistle they made before launching it to see whose rocket fired. The howling sound is scary. The team with the scariest whistle gets a bottle of wine, and the team with the worst whistle is responsible for cleaning up the launch site.
Although China has had poems about "luminous cups of grape wine" since ancient times, in East Asia these days, wine as red as blood is generally a rather rare and imported product. So for this prize, which looked very honorable at first glance, the Japanese security officers and soldiers worked hard and quickly cleared away the few bamboo trees by the West Lake. A few skilled guys simply used wood to plan them. The whistle came out - even if I couldn't get the wine, it was still good to be able to show my face in front of the chief. Some people even used their brains. At Li Meng's prompts, they used the Hale rocket as the power source and just bundled bamboo strips and thin wires to build a rocket bomb. Not only could a whistle be tied to the fuselage, You can also airdrop leaflets...
Just as Li Meng was thinking about what to write on the leaflet, two envoys, one old and one young, arrived from Hangzhou.
He immediately ordered people to escort him over and take a closer look. Li Meng knew the old guy among them. He came back once before. He also wanted to imitate Tie Xuan who guarded Jinan during the Jianwen period and tricked the leaders into entering the city to die... But the young man What is the origin of this guy?
Just as Li Meng was sizing up the two envoys, the young envoy, Gao Xuan, signaled Li Mengping to step back. After being firmly rejected by Li Meng, he startled everyone with his words: "... ...I heard that the general has traveled across the ocean from Australia. I wonder if he has the intention to break the soil and seal the king?"
…Where is this all going? ! Li Meng, who was confused, thought to himself - the city of Hangzhou is surrounded by us, if I want to be crowned a king, why do I need you to play tricks? You should just try to please those senior leaders!
Completely confused, Li Meng simply shut up and continued to see what kind of medicine this guy was selling in his gourd.
——Gao Xuan waited for a while, but Li Meng didn't say anything, and then he said something shocking again: "...If the general is willing to abandon the dark side and surrender to the bright side, and submit to the court! I am a young man who is not talented, but I am willing to write a letter and report it to the court on behalf of the general. With the troops and horses under the general's command, , there is no problem in choosing a good place to be crowned king!”
Li Meng was immediately shocked by this guy's imagination: Damn it? Become a king? The king of Ming Dynasty? Just you? How is this possible? Are you bullying me for not reading? And to actually say this to me, a working guy, doesn't it prove that you don't even know who the coach of this team is?
"...Haha, our Li family has been loyal for generations, how can we have two masters?" After saying these righteous and ancient words, Li Meng felt that he was very cool, so he took advantage of the situation and stood with his hands behind his back to the south, only for Gao Gao Xuan left behind a sad figure.
Unexpectedly, Gao Xuan actually dared to bite his nose - he laughed loudly, pointed at Li Meng and said loudly: "...the Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Mongolian Tatars, and I, the Ming Dynasty, drove away the Tatars and returned to their homeland. Since the Song Dynasty, it has been since the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. It is ridiculous to be upright and honest! Although the general is loyal, he is foolishly loyal!"
Li Meng didn't react at all to this, but Captain Kuroki, who was standing nearby watching the excitement, couldn't stand anymore - Gao Xuan said a lot of literate words in front of him, and his Chinese level was limited, so he basically couldn't understand it; And what Gao Xuan said later... In fact, he still didn't understand much, but he could clearly feel the sarcasm and ridicule in the bastard's words!
In response to this, Captain Kuroki immediately became furious and immediately stepped forward to demonstrate his proud sword-drawing skills on Gao Xuan.
Seeing Captain Heimu put his hand on the new saber he had just obtained, Li Meng rolled his eyes. He knew that this guy's 250-year-old spirit was off again. It was probably because he was splashed with feces twice in public yesterday, and his brain was too damaged. Because of the stimulation, he became a little nervous - so he quickly reached out and held down the handle of the knife before Captain Kuroki took out the knife to chop him, and then motioned to the two security soldiers to take him down to calm down. calm.
Gao Xuan, who had witnessed all these changes, suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his mind. He thought that this was an opportunity to surrender and rebel. He immediately stuffed a paper ball into Li Meng's hand and shouted at the same time: "...Since If the general doesn’t want to surrender to me, see you tomorrow!”
Next, these two strange guys who came inexplicably also left inexplicably. Li Meng was left alone, clutching a ball of paper in a daze: What on earth are these two weird people with completely abnormal ideas doing here? Performing a live drama?
In order to figure out what was going on, he had to rub his temples with throbbing veins, and carefully unfolded the paper ball that Gao Xuan had just pushed over, and then found that it was the calligraphy of Lord Liu Mengqian, the prefect of Hangzhou. In order to increase his credibility, , and the magistrate's seal was stamped on the paper. The bright red color made it look festive. Li Meng's comment on this was... "...Well, this word is really artistic."
——I have to say that the magistrate is really good at writing. In addition, Gao Xuan held it in his hand for a long time, and the paper was stained with stains, so that Li, a modern bricklayer with little knowledge and a salt owl in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote Comrade Meng, left I looked right, sideways, and vertically for a long time, but I still didn't understand what was written on it - in fact, the general idea was that Magistrate Liu promised with all his heart that as long as the thieves chief was willing to retreat, he would recommend him to the court and promise to grant him the title of king. So, the confused Li Meng sighed and put this strange thing behind his mind... However, just when he was about to throw away the paper ball, he suddenly had a change of thought and asked someone to find some paste. , simply framed this piece of paper, ready to keep it as a souvenir.