Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 961
The official road paved with gravel became blurred underfoot, almost unrecognizable.The dawn wind was blowing from the wilderness, even though he was wearing a windbreaker and a hood, Zhao Yingong still felt chilly.

The journey from Hangzhou to Dengzhou was difficult and dangerous.In the territory of Nanzhi, the boats provided by Xu Guangqi's family along the north of the canal were taken by Xu Guangqi's family members along the way. Not only was the journey comfortable, but it was also convenient to pass through the gates. It made Zhao Yingong fully understand the majesty of Jinshen again.

No wonder so many people want to pretend to be officials. Those who make a fortune in business can't forget to hire famous teachers and bribe examiners for their children, and do everything possible to make them "inside the system". Mud farewell".

However, his feelings about the difference between the government and the people disappeared as soon as he crossed the Yellow River.

The Yellow River entered the sea from the Huai River in the Ming Dynasty, and its estuary was near Xuzhou.Crossing the Yellow River near Xuzhou, we left Nanzhili and entered the territory of Shandong.

The Grand Canal is also navigable in Shandong, but not in Dengzhou.A group of people abandoned their boats and landed in Xuzhou, and went by land instead.Zhao Tong used to walk through the escorts on the North Road, reminding everyone to be careful along the way

If it is said that the territory of Nanzhi seems much more desolate and poor after crossing the Yangtze River, but after crossing the Yellow River and entering the territory of Shandong, Zhao Yingong really felt the harshness of the environment.

Even though it was midsummer, there were no crops in the fields. Large areas of land were barren, and the trees along the way were dead in patches. When I walked in, I found that they were all stripped of their bark.Among the bushes and trees, scattered dead bones can be seen from time to time.

The villages I passed by by chance were either covered with wormwood, with collapsed houses, or high walls and deep ditches, and the villagers were heavily guarded.After Zhao Yingong asked, he found out that less than ten years ago—in 1622, the White Lotus Sect riot launched by Xu Hongru broke out in the southeast of Shandong Province. The riot centered on Jining and spread eastward to Rizhao, westward to Heze, and southward to To the Xuzhou area.All along the road are places that have suffered from military disasters. In recent years, they have suffered from floods. The government's land tax increases day by day.Even in broad daylight, a small group of bandits were still active in the open, and there were desperate people everywhere. For this reason, Zhao Yingong and his party, in addition to their own bodyguards, the Xu family also sent more than ten brave servants to guard along the way.

In this way, I walked northward without stopping in fear all the way.When we walked to Yizhou, we encountered heavy rain and flooding.The water depth on the flat ground is six or seven feet, and it was hard to get a boat.Zhao Yingong looked at the refugees supporting the old and the young all over the ground and the dead bodies along the way, and couldn't help feeling distressed, and secretly called out: "It's too late!"

But now I don't have the ability to take in refugees—no matter what I do, it's impossible for Daming to move forward without official support.He had no choice but to urge his followers to hurry to Dengzhou to meet Sun Yuanhua to gain his trust and support.

A group of people traveled through mountains and rivers, ate and slept in the open, and finally came to Dengzhou.The hardships of the journey are beyond description.

At this time, Dengzhou was already an important frontier town for the Ming Dynasty's battle against Liaodong, and it was also an important town for Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua and others to organize and train the new army.I haven't seen the Dengzhou city wall yet, but I can often see mobilized soldiers and camps along the way.There are also patrolling cavalry on the road, and people check from time to time.

Although the road seems to be heavily guarded, there are still news of bandits and salt lords along the way.There were even horrific incidents in which entire villages were massacred.As if to confirm this news, they heard a scene of fighting and screams near the official road as soon as they entered the border of Dengzhou.A group of people immediately stopped the horse and showed the guy.Zhao Tong, the bodyguard in charge of the security, ordered the dogs to be put down from the car to prepare for killing and biting, while turning the horse's head towards the middle of the team.

Surrounded by servants, Zhao Yingong walked over slowly.After hearing the previous report, he turned around and asked the local postman who was leading the way if he knew what had happened.The old postman said: "This must be the local salt owl's fire."

"Aren't they bandits?"

"Bandits don't dare to go on the road in broad daylight. There are many troops here." The postman said, "Most of the salt lords are local military households. Although they are poor enough to sell smuggled salt, many of them still have a small flag, a general flag, and the head of a hundred households." What about the future of the humans. The government generally doesn’t care about them—it can’t.”

Zhao Yingong heard that it was just a fight between the salt owls, so he told the men to move on, Zhao Tong dissuaded him: "Master, we can't see what the fighting is like now, if they see it in the past, some people think it's to help us fight." It’s going to be troublesome—the fight ended badly.”

Zhao Yingong thought so too, after all, he was in a foreign place, and if he got involved in a local conflict, it would be very troublesome to deal with the follow-up.Although he is "tough" on the official face, Yan Xiao is a local snake after all, and after he has been killed, he has formed unnecessary resentment.

Everyone waited on the road for a while, and when they heard the killing sound in front of them gradually stopped, Zhao Tong told everyone to wait on the road for a while, and went to the front to inquire first.He got off his horse, walked slowly along the shoulder of the road, and came back after a meal.He rushed to Zhao Yingong's horse and told him: "Go back to the master, the front is already scattered. It's just that there are many corpses and weapons on the road. Please be careful when passing by."

Under the guidance of Zhao Tong, the people walked over cautiously, only to see thirty or forty corpses left in disorder by the official road in the distance, dripping with blood, and there were many broken weapons on the ground. It was full of sharpened bamboo guns and more than a dozen damaged bows and arrows, and there were scattered cattail bags on the ground, and a lot of sea salt was scattered.

"This is a robbery of private salt." The postman said, "It's a common thing on this official road. Look, the wheel of the cart has gone off the official road—it was stolen." He looked at it and muttered again : "That's not right..." After saying this, he seemed to regret his slip of the tongue, so he quickly shut up again.

"What's wrong?"

Zhao Yingong questioned again and again, and the postman hesitantly said that there were many horseshoe marks on the post road, and the feather arrows left on the corpses were not weapons used by ordinary bandits and salt lords.

"A man from the imperial court?"

The postman didn't say a word, but his expression had already acquiesced in this matter.

"Doesn't Sun Futai care?" Zhao Yingong originally had doubts about Sun Yuanhua's ability to govern the army, but now that he saw it, he felt more and more accurate.

The postman whispered: "How can Sun Futai manage it? Nowadays, the arrears of salaries for soldiers are one year or two years, and most of the troops in Dengzhou are guest soldiers—the most lawless. There is no local Openly robbing merchants and slaughtering villages to raise wages is Sun Futai and Zhang Zhentai's way of suppressing it."

In other words, it's not a big deal to do some sneaky activities like this.Zhao Yingong also knew a little about what officers and soldiers could do without limit.Judging from the leftover corpses and wheel marks, the illicit salt transported by the salt lords was equivalent to the carrying capacity of about twenty wheelbarrows, and the total amount of silver was only a few dozen taels.The two sides were attracted to kill each other, and one can imagine the chaos in the world.

"Let's go, this is a place of right and wrong." The postman urged a group of people to get on the road quickly.

Just as he was about to go on the road, he suddenly heard someone shouting "Help" among the corpses.Zhao Yingong took care to search for it, and found a young man under a few corpses.His body was covered in blood, and he couldn't tell what the injury was.

"Is there any help?" Zhao Yingong asked.

Zhao Tong nodded: "He suffered a lot of flesh wounds, he should be able to recover with a little gold sore medicine."

"Then take it with you and put it in the car. Whether you can live or not depends on his luck." Zhao Yingong said.

The group finally arrived in Dengzhou City peacefully.Dengzhou City is now a city of soldiers. Inside and outside the city, there are soldiers with various accents everywhere.Zhao Yingong noticed that many people were speaking with a Liaodong accent--obviously these people were the original Dongjiang Town troops, that is, the main force of the upcoming Dengzhou Rebellion.

Relying on Xu Guangqi's post and others' posts, Zhao Yingong entered the city without hindrance - because this is the frontier of the Liaodong War and a place where military aircraft are important, the check at the gate of the city is very strict.

After entering the city, Zhao Tong saw that the big inn was full of customers, and the inn was too small to satisfy the owner, so he decided to find a big local temple, donated six taels of silver, and lived in the temple under the hospitality of the host. of a courtyard.Zhao Yingong told everyone to rest for three days, bathe and change clothes, and go to the wind and dust along the road.He also ordered people to unpack the luggage and count the gifts for Sun Yuanhua and others who were going to give them—the gifts were all carefully selected, and many of them were specially shipped from Macau and Lingao.

When he went to see Sun Yuanhua this time, in addition to the letters from the Xu family and the Hangzhou church, he also brought the missionary Jin Lige to fully prove that he was a "catechumen".

To get the greatest help from Sun Yuanhua, the only way is to dress up as a devout quasi-religionist, so that Sun Yuanhua will treat his request from the perspective of a believer, not from the perspective of an ordinary camper.

He knew very little about Sun Yuanhua. The information given to him by the big library was only his basic life and some speeches and political opinions. They had no way of guessing what kind of person Sun Yuanhua was.However, since Xu Guangqi was willing for his son to form a family relationship with him, this person's character would not be bad; but he became a governor in his early fifties, which shows that he is also quite capable of being an official.He is also a Catholic, keen on "Western law" to improve Ming's military technology and system.On the whole, Sun Yuanhua should be a person with good character, who will be an official, and who is willing to accept new ideas.Such a person shouldn't be too difficult to deal with - Zhao Yingong is most afraid of meeting people who are unwilling to do things - then nothing can be done.

Zhao Yingong told the servant to inquire about the news first, and confirmed that Sun Yuanhua was in the yamen recently.So I searched for a day and formally went to the Yamen to see you.

(End of this chapter)