Pingyang Fu of the Red Chamber

Chapter 256 What Happened to Yangzhou City
Driving ahead of the navy on the Anshui River.

A thunderstorm sounded, and Zhang Jinyu's hairs stood up in shock. He raised his eyes to look at the sky ahead, and thick dark clouds were rolling in.

Dark clouds overwhelm the city.

Zhang Jinyu thought to himself, bad luck, I didn't go far.

Fortunately, Lou Chuan moved very smoothly, otherwise it would be really uncomfortable.

And the building boat led by Lu Yi, who was leading the team at the front, sent an order to the back to move forward with half sail.

Then the tall ships on the river, and the messengers on the bow tower on the deck passed back one by one. After a while, the twenty tall ships slowly lowered their sails, and their speed dropped significantly.

The surrounding escort ships were even more dexterous, always maintaining the same speed as the building boats. Seeing the water transport guards so skillfully manipulated, Zhang Jinyu took his heart to heart, glanced at the sky, and prepared to go back to the cabin.

In the cabin, the little girl saw that Qin Keqing had recovered a lot, then carefully took off the silver needle, tidied up the medicine box and was about to leave.

"Wait, Zixiang."

Qin Keqing yelled softly on the bed.

The little girl stopped and turned around and asked;

"What else is there, ma'am?"

Qin Keqing looked at the innocent little girl, and liked her in her heart, so she asked;

"Zixiang, where do you live on the boat?"

"I live in the small room next to my wife, but it's a bit dark."

The little girl still complained that the cabin was a bit dark, Qin Keqing smiled and said;
"Then don't live there, I'll just pick a room next door and live here, and stay by my side from now on."

Qin Keqing naturally wanted to have a Xinglin master by her side, there must be a guarantee, so she tried to win over and said, the little girl nodded after thinking about it,

"Well, I agree, Ma'am, wait a minute, I'll move here right away,"

After the little girl finished speaking, she ran back to her own cabin without looking back, started to pack her luggage and was about to move it here, she looked so busy and cute, but Baozhu and Ruizhu were a little bit of a taste, and they were a little unhappy there.

"Miss, look at her, she is not big or small, wouldn't it be a nuisance to come around?"

"Yes."

Ruizhu also added a sentence aside.

Qin Keqing was also helpless towards the two little girls,
"You two have rules, isn't it big or small? Go and clean up that bed."

"Yes, ma'am."

The two reluctantly moved their feet and walked over.

at the same time,

Ji Qianhu, who was going down the Jiangnan Canal, didn't dare to stop along the way, and led the people from the Imperial City Division to pass Jinling and other places in fear, and went directly to Yangzhou City.

When he arrived at the Yangzhou wharf, he left his confidant and the guards to guard the building ship together, and instructed the building ship's Xiaowei An;

"Lieutenant An, take someone to keep an eye on the building boat. If there are unknown people approaching, you can shoot them directly. In addition, the imperial envoy from the capital has already gone south."

"Yes, my lord, I know that, my lord, be careful, I feel that there is something wrong with the dock guards."

Ji Qianhu didn't have time to investigate, the time was urgent and he had to enter the city.

I had to ask Lieutenant An to be careful, while he and the others ran straight to the Yangzhou Yanzheng Yamen in armor and knives.

Along the way, the people rushed to wait and see, and they arrived at the city of Yangzhou.

The government army guarding the city gate wanted to stop them, but was kicked away by the leader Ji Qianhu.
shouted angrily;
"Blind your dog's eyes, this thousand households are inspected by Jiangnan, the imperial city of the capital, and dare to stop me."

Seeing this, the school lieutenant of the Chengmen Mansion Army hurried over and apologized, bowing his head and bowing his head.

"Shangguan calm down, Shangguan calm down, the newcomer is not sensible."

Ji Qianhu glared at Xiaoxiao and shouted, "Get out."

The captain of Chengmen retreated embarrassingly.

Ji Yunhui didn't pay attention and led the people to move on, passed the city gate, and walked to the streets of Xicheng.

The deputy Qianhu Feng Gu trotted to his side in a hurry, and asked in a low voice;
"My lord, it would be bad to offend the guards of the city gate like this. It will be difficult if something goes wrong in the future. We are blind in the boundary of Yangzhou."

Ji Yunhui said with a gloomy face;

"Feng Qianhu, do you think we are fighting alone now? It can be said that people in Yangzhou City, including the Imperial City Secretary, cannot be trusted. The secret guards in Master Lin's house suffered heavy casualties, but Yangzhou Imperial City Secretary Yamen did not die. , don’t you think it’s strange, or is there another hidden story?”

"Hey, these sons of bitches dare to do this, my lord, how can we accomplish anything with less than a thousand people!"

Deputy Feng Qianhu also felt the grief of the death of the rabbit, and the hidden guards around Lin Ruhai were all members of the Imperial City Department dispatched from the capital.

Now it is also completely lost. It can be seen that the situation in Yangzhou City is almost the eyeliner of those people, and their hearts are also cold, how cruel it is to cut flesh with blunt knives.

"Let's go, let's go to Mr. Lin and settle down first. The supervisor must first guarantee Mr. Lin's life, and then the imperial envoy will go south soon, and the supervisor will supervise it himself."

Ji Yunhui could only cheer up his subordinates.

Of course, you must know that your internal appearance will not lie to you. The emperor is very concerned about Lord Lin Ruhai. As for the other people in Yangzhou City, although I don’t know if they are hostile, as long as they don’t rebel, they can’t come to kill them openly. So there is nothing to worry about during the day.

The armored team of nearly a thousand people, holding long knives, carrying crossbows, bows and arrows, and some of them holding shields, rushed to the Yanzheng Yamen in Yangzhou without stopping.

At the west gate of Yangzhou,

After seeing the Huangcheng Division's group walking away, the Captain of the House Army spat a mouthful of saliva on the ground with a "bah", and then immediately ordered his confidantes to report to Yangzhou Tongzhi Wang Haihe immediately.

"You, go to the magistrate's yamen immediately and report to Tongzhi, saying that the people from the Imperial City Department of the capital have arrived, and they went straight to the Yanzheng yamen."

"Yes, my lord, the little one will go right away, there will be no delay."

The confidant soldier didn't even change his clothes after speaking, and ran directly back to the Yamen of Yangzhou Mansion from another path.

And in the government office of Yangzhou,
Ye Yuanchang, the magistrate of Yangzhou, also had a sad face, and there was nothing he could do while sitting there thinking hard.

Those salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River were so daring that they even sent people to assassinate Lin Ruhai. Now they have attracted the attention of the Tian family, but luck and disaster are unpredictable.

And Wan Haihe, the Tongzhi of Yangzhou Mansion who was sitting beside him drinking tea together, said cheerfully;
"My lord, don't worry about it anymore. It doesn't matter how we think about it. Those local snakes are so easy to fool. Even the Zhen family in Jinling didn't intervene. Besides, what are we afraid of if we didn't do it?"

"Hey, that being said, if Mr. Lin dies in Yangzhou, what do you think will happen to our Yangzhou officials in the future? Can the emperor and the court really forget? Especially the two of us."

Ye Yuanchang, the magistrate of Yangzhou, looked sad, stretched out his hand, and pointed at Wan Tongzhi and himself. No matter how you think about it, there is no solution to the situation.

The fellow prefect Wan Haihe, who was still a little cheerful, also felt cold, yes, others don't know, but officials of all sizes in Yangzhou are abolished, especially himself as a magistrate.

Anxiously put down the teacup and asked eagerly;

"My lord, what shall we do?"

"Hey, I don't know either."

Ye Yuanchang thought about how it was a dead end, and sighed helplessly.

Wan Tongzhi couldn't sit still, so he stood up and paced back and forth in the hall, scratching his hair from time to time, and asked suddenly;
"Master Zhifu, didn't we write to Lord Jiangnan Buzheng Shizhuang of Jinling, did you get a reply?"

Zhifu Ye was also taken aback when he heard it. If there was such a thing, the letter was replied, but it was the same as if he hadn't replied.

"I came back, but it's the same as if I didn't come back!"

"My lord, never mind that he is different, what do you say?"

Wan Tongzhi also asked anxiously, if this matter is not handled well, his official luck is at the end, and if he is inferior in the next year's assessment, he will be ready to be sent to the frontier, then life will be worse than death.

Ye Yuanchang directly took out the reply letter from his arms and handed it over. Wan Haihe opened the letter after receiving it, but he was dumbfounded at first glance. There were only four words on it,
"My lord, I just wrote four words. We can decide for ourselves. How should we decide? Didn't we say the same thing? This"

"Sit down, Mr. Zhuang can't be counted on, but the old man was more careful and asked the old man's brother-in-law to go to Jinling, and Jiangnan transfer Shi Xu Delin and the old man were born as Jinshi in the same year. He brought me a piece of news."

Ye Yuanchang looked around and said in a low voice, seeing that there was no one around, Wan Haihe hurried over and leaned down to listen.

"My lord, what news?"

"In a few days, people from the Imperial City Department of the capital came here to investigate first, and then the emperor sent imperial envoys to Jiangnan. I heard that this battle was not small, and there were people from the inner circle to supervise the army. I didn't say who it was. , but it’s not a small thing to think about.”

After the two finished speaking, they sat in their chairs and thought about it.

a long time,

Wan Haihe asked again,
"My lord, is the news reliable?"

"It's absolutely true. All the water transport and water troops have assembled and headed north. Master Xu arranged all the food and grass, and the main battleships of the water army are not left behind."

The magistrate of Yangzhou said firmly.

The two of them suddenly understood that such an arrangement was not for the civil servants to come here alone, but might be accompanied by a large army.

Glancing at each other, Wan Haihe gritted his teeth and said;

"My lord, it's time for us to think about our future. If this is the case, Jiangnan will inevitably be in turmoil. At that time, we can protect ourselves. No one can take care of others. We should make plans early."

"That's good. A dead fellow Daoist is not a poor daoist. Now we can only remedy it. I don't know if the people from the capital have arrived?"

Ye Yuanchang agreed with Wan Tongzhi's idea, and was also thinking about how to remedy it, but Lord Lin Ruhai's son died, and his wife heard that it would be soon, so there was no way to do it.

At this moment, a hurried figure of a soldier outside the yamen ran in, knelt down on the ground in the hall, and shocked the two adults.

Wan Haihe was thinking about something, but now he was frightened, threw his tea bowl and said angrily;

"Blind your dog's eyes, there are no rules at all, it's crazy!"

The soldiers in the hall kowtowed in fright,

"The two adults calm down, the younger one has something important to report."

Ye Yuanchang grabbed Wan Tongzhi who was still angry, and said;
"Haihe, wait a moment and listen to him, what's so urgent?"

The sergeant kneeling on the ground kowtowed again, and hurriedly said;
"Master Xie, the little one is on duty at the gate of the city. Suddenly, a team of imperial officials in full armor came. They sounded like they were from the capital. The leader of the Qianhu family was so proud that he killed the little one as soon as he entered the gate. I kicked him, and then led people to the city, apparently heading to Lord Lin’s Yanzheng Yamen.”

"What, can you see clearly?"

Ye Zhifu exclaimed, and asked again,
"Go back to the adults, you will never be wrong, and the little ones will guarantee their lives."

Zhifu Ye glanced at Wan Tongzhi, and the two of them stared at each other with serious expressions on their faces.

(End of this chapter)