I have a cornucopia

Chapter 277: Welcome Master Wang Again

Ningbo.

Tianning Temple.

"Liars, they are all liars!"

Xie Sanbin, the head of Yinxian Hometown Association, a disciple of Shui Tailiang and the former Minister of the Imperial Household Department who is said to still be obsessed with his master's wife, roared.

Of course, he is still the richest man in Yin County.

The few local sages who had arrived in front of him were also in a mess. They could not come up with any other solution except to curse Yang Feng and Liu Zongzhou for being idiots.

However, because the incident happened so suddenly, the only people who could reach it were those in Yin County and the surrounding villages...

Nowadays, rural elites don’t like to live in the city. After all, everyone has their own manor outside the city. Why do they have to crowd into the city?
In fact, it was like this in all parts of Jiangnan in the past. Take Changzhou as an example. Outside the north gate of Changzhou City are gardens, such as the famous Wujiazhi Garden. The real big guys are all in these private gardens covering tens of thousands of square meters, or even simply occupy a valley in the mountains, and then live a leisurely life with piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and dancers and singers. Who would like to squeeze into those unrefined ancestral houses in the city and drink groundwater that has been polluted for thousands of years with peddlers?

However, this also means that once an emergency occurs, it will take some time for the leaders of these aristocratic families who control the local areas to gather together.

Even finding them takes a while.

It has been almost two hours since we received the news, and the number of people who have arrived is still less than two dozen.

"Mr. Qian is here!"

There were shouts outside.

Then another local celebrity, Qian Sule, the former deputy director of the Ministry of Justice, who was in mourning, hurried in, still wearing mourning clothes.

"Mr. Han, why don't you close the city gates?"

he asked.

"This, the Northern Army can't be that fast, right?"

Xie Sanbin, who was still filled with grief and anger, said in astonishment.

"Do you think Dinghai will fight to the death to stop us?"

Qian Sule said.

Xie Sanbin broke out in a cold sweat instantly.

Indeed, how could Dinghai fight to the death? The rich people in Ningbo were all in Yinxian and Cixi. As for Dinghai, it was just a coastal fortress. The number of Jinshi in Dinghai was not even one-tenth of Ningbo, and that was including Changguo. Moreover, the rich people in Dinghai were all in Zhoushan. As for the Zhejiang general in Dinghai, Zhang Mingzhen was the general at that time, but the problem was that he had led his troops to Quzhou to prevent the Jiangxi defense line from collapsing or the Jiangxi gentry from surrendering to Li Zicheng.

Even the servants of the gentry in Dinghai City were mostly working as supervisors in Zhoushan at this time...

There were too many migrant workers, Korean slaves, and even Japanese slaves, who were creating wealth for the gentry from all over Ningbo in the seafood processing workshops.

Xie Sanbin's family also has a lot of properties there, and in fact nearly half of his servants are also in Zhoushan.

Therefore, Dinghai now has neither official troops nor militia. Even if the gentry want to resist, they have no servants available.

Zhoushan's huge fishing and processing industry, as well as its maritime trade industry, drained the gentry of the power they could rely on.

After all, overseers also need force.

Without cannons and muskets, it is impossible to suppress those who are working.

"Quick, order the city gates to be closed!"

Xie Sanbin shouted to the servants around him.

The latter hurried to pass on the message.

"Let's go out and gather the young men in the city, and immediately go up to the city walls to prepare to meet the enemy."

Qian Sule said.

Xie Sanbin nodded, obviously a little confused.

The two of them and several other local celebrities hurried out, got on sedan chairs one by one, and left Tianning Temple under the protection of their servants. Then they walked along the main street to the east, moving forward under the fearful gazes of the people outside...

"Fellow villagers, the Northern Army is invading. Today is the time for us to work together to resist the foreign enemies. All men between the ages of fifteen and fifty should go up to the city and prepare to meet the enemy. If the Northern Army breaks into the city, they will surely burn, kill, and loot. At that time, not only will your property be lost, but your wives and daughters will also be raped. The only way is to fight to the end to protect your hometown!"

Xie Huishou shouted from inside the sedan chair.

Then the servants beside him immediately began to drive away the young and strong men on both sides.

The latter obviously lacked interest in this. In fact, most of the people did not understand what was happening. When they saw that they were going to conscript men, the young and strong men immediately started to run away.

"You'll get silver for defending the city!"

Qian Sulue shouted.

When Xie Sanbin heard what he said, he suddenly felt a pain in his heart.

But there is no other way now.

"Yes, I will give you silver. If you defeat the Northern Army, you will get silver. One penny a day, with food provided!"

He shouted with an obviously generous look.

One penny of silver is a lot of money. Ningbo is a place with sufficient food, especially with its huge aquatic product processing industry, so the current price of rice is less than one tael.

Finally, fewer young and strong men ran away, but it was obvious that this little money was not enough for them to take the initiative to assume the responsibility of protecting the property of the elders and local sages. Fortunately, at this time, a large number of scholars ran here from the provincial school, led by Liu Zongzhou's disciples, tribute student Wang Jiaqin, and tribute student Dong Zhining. They ran over to meet Xie Sanbin and others, and learned that the Local Sages Association was calling on young and strong men to defend, and immediately began to incite the people. These scholars were very eloquent and much more people-friendly than Xie Sanbin and others.

"Fellow villagers, we are listening to Master Xie!"

A young man was encouraged and shouted loudly in the crowd.

"Five cents of silver per person per day, are you still worried that Master Xie can't afford the money?"

Dong Zhining shouted.

Xie Sanbin looked at him with hatred.

"Let's go! Five cents a day, and you'll have enough to eat!"

The young man shouted again.

The young and strong were finally encouraged. They quickly gathered into a torrent, pushing the team of local sages and scholars towards Dongdu Gate. On the way, the prefect Zhu Zhikui and the judge Kong Wenyu also joined. They were just dogs of the local sages. Their master was here, so they just followed and waved flags and shouted. At the same time, more young and strong joined in. The team became larger and larger, and gathered into a mighty torrent on the street. As for weapons, there were all kinds of them, such as swords, spears, swords, and even sticks. However, this problem was not important, after all, there were already many cannons on the city wall.

There are even many arms dealers in the city...

Ningbo's arms industry is also very prosperous. After all, many people go out to sea, and these days it is impossible to go out to sea without cannons and muskets.

Next, we only need to move weapons and ammunition out of the warehouses of these military households and merchants, and we can arm at least a few thousand soldiers with firearms. In addition, there are servants of the gentry and scholars with weapons. In fact, there are still two hundred militiamen stationed in the city. There are a total of one thousand militiamen left in Ningbo Prefecture, but most of them are actually in Zhoushan to suppress the workers. There are only two hundred people in Ningbo City to maintain public order.

Make money!
Who has time to think about anything else?

Zhoushan now has hundreds of thousands of refugees who make a living from other places, as well as a large number of slaves. These people do create wealth for the gentry, but they have also become a potential mine. If they are not suppressed, it will turn into a pirate den as it was in the past.

then……

"Boom!" The loud noise of the explosion shook the entire city.

Everyone's eyes turned to the southeast, where a column of black smoke was rising, and at the same time, dense gunfire could be heard...

"Lingqiao Gate, Lingqiao Gate has been captured!"

Shouts of fear rang out from the crowd.

Xie Sanbin and Qian Sule looked at each other in confusion.

Lingqiao Gate.

"Quick, rush in!"

Zhao Xing, a Shandong businessman who had come to Ningbo many times and the guide of the Zhao family in Jiaozhou, roared proudly.

The cavalrymen who were attacking Ningbo beside him, led by the Confucian and Mencius knight Fa Ruozhen from Jiaozhou and the Confucian and Mencius knight Huang Zhenlin from Jimo, rushed into the city gate that had just been blown open.

In fact, the city gate was not closed in time.

Zhao Xing, who was familiar with the situation in this area, formulated a surprise attack tactic for the knights before landing, so they did not follow the main fleet to march along the Yongjiang River by water, but landed at Xiaogang with cavalry. The southbound fleet originally brought a lot of cavalry, after all, it only took a few days of sea transportation to go south from Jeju Island, and Jeju Island itself was the main pasture of North Korea, so there was no shortage of feed before the assembly. After landing, they rushed to Ningbo at full speed and rushed to Lingqiao in less than an hour. Zhao Xing was very clear about the terrain of Ningbo. If he wanted to take it quickly, he had to take this floating bridge across the Yinjiang River for a surprise attack, otherwise he could only land at Dongdumen and attack with the cannons on the city wall.

There would definitely be heavy casualties.

He just took a gamble.

Because Ningbo would most likely dismantle the pontoon bridge after receiving the alarm, but he made the right bet, as the people here were slow to react and did not think of this at all.

Of course, it was a pure surprise that even the city gates were not closed.

As for why I was able to log in successfully...

Dinghai surrendered without a fight.

The local gentry would surrender without hesitation, and they didn't even inform Yin County. After all, even if they did, the Yin County gentry would not appreciate it and would not understand their difficulties in being unable to resist and having to surrender.

When they arrived, the gate of the city wall was still open, and the main city gate was closed urgently after they saw them rushing across the pontoon bridge.

But before it was completely closed, a cavalryman rushed in with a gunpowder bag, and blew up the door as everyone inside fled in panic.

The city gate was filled with smoke and the cavalry rushed in.

Originally in history, Fa Ruozhen, a Qing Dynasty Jinshi, took the lead and rushed directly into the city gate with a flintlock pistol.

The bustling city suddenly appeared in front of him...

"Eliminate the traitors and suppress the rebellion, obey the will of Heaven and quell the rebellion!"

The French Knight shouted excitedly.

then……

"boom!"

In the chaotic crowd on the opposite side, a man who was commanding young and strong scholars raised his hand and fired a shot.

He probably didn't aim well, but the bullet somehow hit the French knight's forehead. The latter, with frozen excitement, suddenly fell backwards with the impact of the bullet, and then fell off his horse. Because the cavalry behind him was in a hurry to enter the city, they didn't have time to dodge and stepped on him again. Of course, the cavalry behind him were also firing, so in the midst of screams of terror and chaotic gunfire, more than a dozen militiamen including the scholar fell down in the gunfire.

The cavalrymen did not stop, but continued to charge forward.

"Go north to Dongdu Gate. Don't worry about anything else. If we rush through, we will win!"

Zhao Xing shouted from behind.

The cavalry that had already rushed into the city immediately turned north at the street corner.

At this moment, the order in the city had collapsed. Although these cavalrymen totaled less than two hundred people, they directly destroyed the order in the city.

Explosions, gunshots, rumors and cries quickly spread panic and chaos in the city.
When they rushed to Dongdu Gate, the mighty fleet coming from downstream could be seen on the city wall. The latter rode the tide and were all row boats, and their speed was not much slower than the cavalry. Seeing this scene, the Dongdu Gate was in chaos. There were only a few dozen militias to maintain order. Although they had been ordered to close the gate, the reinforcements had not arrived yet. Facing the sudden cavalry, the only thing they could do was to fight hastily. However, these cavalry were the followers of Confucius and Mencius, and their combat effectiveness was also at the level of elite servants.

Soon they rushed to the city wall with their numerical advantage.

"Drop the cannon!"

The still young Yellow Knight stood on the city wall, looking proudly at the opponents who were counterattacking from inside the city.

A cannon next to him, which was originally used to defend the city, was turned around by his followers and aimed at the enemies swarming into the city.

"Charge forward and take back the city gate!"

Qian Sule shouted in the crowd, holding a knife.

The scholars, servants, and young men in front of him who were incentivized by huge sums of money, swarmed along the streets and rushed towards the city gate.

The muzzle of the cannon spurted out flames, and dense shotgun shells swept across the street in an instant.

The counterattacking warriors fell down in an instant.

But at the same time, a dozen musketeers appeared on a rooftop in the city, set up their turtledove guns, aimed at the city walls and opened fire. At the same time, militia appeared on the walls on both sides. Behind Qian Sule, Dong Zhining also led the young and strong men into the warehouse of an arms dealer, pushed out two cannons from it, and then set them up directly on the street and fired back at the city walls.

The fierce battle at Dongdu Gate was going on.

If Qian Sule and others can recapture Dongdu Gate before the fleet outside arrives, then they still have hope. As for Lingqiao Gate behind, because it cannot be used as the main landing point, Zhao Xing and others no longer care about it. It has been re-controlled by the militia in the city and is blocking the city gate.

However, Qian Sule and others did not notice that their leader had disappeared.

On the tower of Heyi Gate in the north of the battlefield, Xie Sanbin, who sneaked here secretly, looked at the seemingly endless warships on the Yong River...

"Master, we can't fight anymore. If we continue, all the goods outside the city will be destroyed. Besides, if we really fight, we have to pay money. Over the years, Master has spent tens of thousands of taels of silver on militia training. Master has promised five cents of silver to each person. Even if we defeat the Northern Army, we still have to pay for it. Even if the Northern Army comes, what can we do? Zheng Chenggong is still Master's fellow disciple. Will he embarrass Master?"

The old slave beside him whispered sensibly.

"Ugh!"

Thank you, leader, for a sigh.

The old slave quietly signaled to the servant next to him, who understood and hurried away, taking the other servants down the city wall and opening the city gate...

"You bastards, aren't you harming me? How can I face my fellow villagers in the future?"

Looking at the servants who appeared in the city wall and were walking towards the city gate, Xie Huishou said anxiously.

"Master, this is all my fault. I acted on my own, but I did it for the sake of the people in the city. Now the city gates are open. If you are not satisfied, I am willing to die in public to apologize. But now I can only ask you to go out of the city to welcome the king's division."

The old slave said.

Then he hugged Xie Huishou and walked downstairs.

"Don't hurt me, don't hurt me..."

Xie Huishou was still struggling.

(End of this chapter)