The next day, three thousand soldiers and horses of the anti-Japanese army arrived at Fuzhou City with nearly a thousand Japanese prisoners.
The Fuzhou prefect, together with a group of officials from the prefect's yamen, went out of the city three miles to meet him. The leader, Fuzhou prefect Eucommia, saw Ling Su riding a horse and stepped forward with a smile.
However, he just stepped forward, did not speak, and did not salute.
Because Ling Su hasn't dismounted yet.
Even though Ling Su was not on the horse, Magistrate Du had to salute him.
After all, Ling Su was from a military attaché family and knew some of the principles of officialdom. He jumped off his mount neatly, clasped his fists at Magistrate Du and said, "Anti-Japanese Army Ling Su, who is your lord?"
Only then did Magistrate Du smile. He bowed his hands in a symbolic gesture and said with a smile: "Fuzhou Magistrate Du Zhong, along with the officials from Fuzhou, welcomes General Ling's triumphant return."
This Fuzhou prefect is much older than the young Lin'an prefect. Judging from the white hair on his head and his appearance, he is estimated to be in his early fifties.
This age, this position.
At most, the best thing to do is to go a step further and serve as an inspector or chief envoy in the province.
That’s it for now.
Unless the emperor expresses special grace, he will not even be able to be a governor. During the personnel assessment, it is impossible to promote an official of his age.
The greater possibility is that he will stop at the level of provincial prefect and will never be able to go further.
However, when a civil servant reaches this level, he can no longer be considered very low. At least in Fujian, the status of Du Zhifu is already very high.
Because of his high status, Magistrate Du was somewhat absent-minded when facing the general Ling Su.
To be honest, if several adults in the province hadn't asked him to go out of the city to greet them, he wouldn't have been able to go out of the city to greet these stinky Qiuba.
Ling Su clasped his fists politely, lowered his head slightly and said, "I have met Mr. Du Fuzun."
Magistrate Du nodded slightly, then glanced at the anti-Japanese troops behind Ling Su, and said with a smile: "I heard that General Ling achieved a complete victory in suppressing the Japanese. After our officials in Fuzhou Prefecture found out, they were very happy."
"The Japanese plague that has plagued Fujian for many years has finally been solved by the general."
At this point, without waiting for Ling Su's reply, Magistrate Du smiled and asked: "General Ling's campaign against Japanese invaders this time will not cause many casualties, right?"
"Not big."
Ling Su also felt something was wrong in the tone of Governor Du. He hesitated for a moment before replying: "This time, our army wiped out more than 2,000 Japanese pirates on several islands along the coast of Fuzhou, and rescued the Japanese pirates. Thousands of people were taken captive, and nearly a thousand Japanese pirates were captured alive."
"Our army suffered less than fifty casualties in this battle."
"oh."
Magistrate Du said a hearty "Oh" and then smiled with relief: "I heard earlier that the anti-Japanese army was ambushed and severely wounded by Japanese pirates when they entered Fujian. I was worried about this and couldn't sleep well for several days. "
He smiled at Ling Su and said, "It seems that I misunderstood."
Ling Su's face suddenly turned ugly.
Although he is a military commander and has not read many books, you can still hear that there is some innuendo in Du Zhifu's words.
Ling Su's face darkened and he said coldly: "That was General Xue's leadership. They were besieged by Japanese pirates in Funing Prefecture, Fujian. General Xue fought bravely to kill the enemy. More than 200 of our troops were killed, and they killed more than ten times the enemy!"
"That's amazing."
Magistrate Du clapped his hands, still with a polite smile on his face. He glanced at Ling Su, and then at the nearly 1,000 Japanese prisoners behind Ling Su who were being pressed by the anti-Japanese army, with an indifferent smile on his face: "General Ling, these Japanese pirates are bandits who have caused trouble along the coast for many years. Now that we have caught them, we can just punish them on the spot. Why did General Ling take them to Fuzhou? They wasted so many days of food."
Ling Su took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "According to the instructions of the Imperial Envoy, the Japanese pirates captured in each province must be publicly beheaded in the provincial capital or capital city to warn people and prevent others from committing crimes along the coast."
He frowned slightly, took a step forward, and then raised his head to glance at Magistrate Du: "Master Du doesn't agree with us escorting Japanese pirate prisoners into the city to behead them?"
"Agree is naturally agreed."
Magistrate Du frowned invisibly, and then took half a step back calmly, as if he disliked Ling Su who suddenly approached. However, Magistrate Du still had a polite smile on his face: "It's only more than a thousand." Even if an individual kills a hundred people every day, how long will it take? Moreover, beheading in the city is very bloody and can easily scare the people in the city. What I mean is..."
Magistrate Du smiled and said: "Otherwise, please station your army outside the city for one day and kill all the Japanese pirates in front of the camp tomorrow. I will definitely bring officials from Fuzhou Prefecture to watch the execution."
Ling Su took a deep breath and frowned again: "Master Du Fu, my imperial envoy's order is that no matter how many Japanese pirates are captured, fifty people will be beheaded every day, and they must be beheaded in the city. This is to warn the world and not to fight with them. Japanese pirates are in company."
"When we were in Zhejiang, we beheaded people like this in Wenzhou Fucheng and Lin'an City."
Ling Su looked at Magistrate Du and said in a deep voice: "If Lord Du does not agree to take these prisoners to the city to be beheaded, then we and other anti-Japanese troops will not enter the city, but will be stationed outside the city, waiting for the imperial envoy's orders. .”
"Of these thousand prisoners, kill fifty every day."
Magistrate Du lowered his eyebrows and said calmly: "In this city of Fuzhou, we will see blood every day for twenty days."
"General Ling."
Magistrate Du pretended to sigh and said, "You may not know that I am a Buddhist, so I really can't stand it."
At this point, Magistrate Du glanced at Ling Su, coughed, and said: "Since General Ling said, wait... um... wait for the imperial envoy to come to Fuzhou, then I will ask your army to temporarily station outside the city. When the imperial envoy arrives at Fuzhou Mansion, I will talk to him slowly."
As he spoke, Magistrate Du turned slightly, made an invitation gesture to Ling Su, and then said with a smile: "It is difficult for your army of more than 3,000 people to enter the city at once, but General Ling still has a few thousand households. , but you can enter the city. I have held a banquet in the city to celebrate the victory, and I invite all the generals to appreciate it and go together."
At this moment, both Ling Su and the three thousand households behind Ling Su looked a bit unhappy.
Because they all clearly felt that the "civilian master" in front of them did not respect them.
In other words, they do not respect the anti-Japanese army and the results of the anti-Japanese army.
However, the three thousand households stood behind Ling Su. Ling Su did not speak, and they could only grit their teeth and remain silent.
Ling Su took several deep breaths and was about to refuse to go into the city with Magistrate Du. Suddenly he looked up and saw a familiar figure in the crowd.
Ling Su's eyes immediately lit up.
He waved to the three Qianhu behind him, motioning for them to follow him, and then the four of them strode forward towards Magistrate Du.
Magistrate Du stood there, motionless, with a slightly disdainful smile on his face.
He was not afraid in his heart because he didn't believe that these smelly Qiuba dared to do anything to him.
However, Ling Su and the other four ignored him, and instead walked straight past the four of them towards a young man among the spectators.
When they came closer, the four of them knelt down and bowed their hands to the official Mr. Shen in the crowd, speaking in unison.
"Subordinates, please pay homage to the Imperial Envoy!"
Shen Yi was now protected by a group of guards, and the crowd had been watching for a while.
Therefore, Mr. Shen's face at this time did not look very good.
He said a dull "hmm", then stepped forward and said "get up".
The four people stood up and followed Shen Yi obediently without saying a word.
Shen Yi led these four people, hands behind their backs, and walked towards Magistrate Du, who was in a daze.
When he came closer, Shen Yi still had his hands behind his back and looked at Magistrate Du up and down.
He said nothing, just looked at Eucommia ulmoides quietly.
In the end, Du Fuzun was the first to lose his temper. He raised his hands to Shen Yi and said, "Fuzhou Governor Du Zhong, may I ask who your Excellency is?"
Shen Yi then put his two hands in front of him and cupped them symbolically. He only raised his two hands for less than half a second before falling down.
"Shen Yi, Hanlin Academy."
Just these five words were enough to kill Du Zhifu, who was born in the top three.
Du Fuzun was stunned at first. After being silent for a while, he forced a formulaic smile on his face and saluted Shen Yi again.
"It turns out that Mr. Shen arrived in Fuzhou. When did Mr. Shen come? Why didn't he tell me to wait for him?"
Shen Yi looked at the Fuzhou magistrate with a half-smile.
"Prefect Du, it is natural that Shen cannot bear the title of Xianggong, but where does the word "little" come from?"
"Does Magistrate Du think so?"
He looked at Eucommia ulmoides quietly and spoke the second half of the sentence word by word.
"Am I a small imperial envoy?"
