On the afternoon of July 16, the county magistrate Jiang Yingchang was reading the Di newspaper at Heshui Yamen.
During this period, Jiang Yingchang's life was difficult.
There have never been many households in the small county of Heshui. It is three hundred miles away from the border wall in the north. The people all live in the northern mountains outside the city, living on the fields. There are only more than 200 households in the city.
This city is so small that it is often forgotten by the Shaanxi Chief Envoy of the imperial court.
Jiang Yingchang was just a scholar. He used to be the magistrate of Anhua County, Qingyang Prefecture. In the past two years, because the four chief officials in the county were transferred away one after another, the people went to the Chief Envoy Bureau to ask for officials, so he was promoted to the county magistrate.
Since the exiled officials had neither the ability nor prestige, the city had always been in a semi-autonomous mode. In the absence of an official for four years, all the affairs of the county were managed by Mr. Yuan and the gentry of Xicheng.
There are not many things that the county magistrate needs to do. His daily activities are just to take care of education, pay attention to sacrifices, walk in the countryside, and help people solve some farming problems.
It's not more about whether he wants to do it or not, but that he doesn't have much ability to do it. This is the case three seasons a year.
Only in winter, Heshui County has a custom that has continued since the Yingzong period. People who live in the fields will return to the county town. Under the auspices of the magistrate, thousands of people will be brought out and given weapons to guard against thieves and bandits.
That was the time when Jiang Yingchang was most tired and happiest. Only then was he the powerful magistrate.
However, looking at the current situation, I am afraid that there will be no way to organize people's support this winter.
The Di newspaper delivered two days ago made Jiang Yingchang very excited.
The imperial court has selected General Du Wenhuan as the admiral of Shanxi and Shaanxi to assist in the fight against the thieves. It has assigned the guerrilla general Cao Wenzhao, who has made great achievements in the war in the capital, as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Yansui East Road. Yan'an General Yang Yanchang is the vanguard, and the guerrilla general Wang is in charge of transporting grain. , led 3,000 Guan Ning troops into the Pass to quell the rebellion.
Jiang Yingchang had heard of all the four generals. Needless to say, General Du Wenhuan. Cao Wenzhao was from Datong, Shanxi Province. He joined the army in Liaodong in his early years and fought with the Donglu from a small soldier to a guerrilla. This time the Donglu invaded and fought several battles. , without any defeat.
As for Yang Yanchang, I am even more familiar with him. He is a rising star of the Yan'an Guard. He has a background in suppressing bandits. He is also famous for his bravery. He is also a powerful figure who protects Yan'an Prefecture on his own. It is said that he guards Yan'an Prefecture. Even Liu Chengzong, a ruthless bandit, dare not Half a step closer to Fucheng.
However, this person was for the king's own use. Jiang Yingchang had never known that this person existed in Yan'an Prefecture before, but this time King Qin's army entered the capital and made great achievements in raising and mobilizing the militia.
At present, this elite army of heroes has marched towards Shanxi.
Thinking of this, Jiang Yingchang finally breathed a sigh of relief. It's great that the court can make such arrangements, great!
After reading the Di newspaper, he immediately started writing and planned to write a letter to the Trilateral General Office in Guyuan, asking Governor Yang to send troops to Qingyang Prefecture, especially his Heshui County.
This is the east gate of Qingyang Prefecture. The entry of Guan Ning's army will definitely put great pressure on the Shaanxi thieves. They will move from Yan'an Prefecture to Qingyang Prefecture.
Once Heshui County is captured, let alone Qingyang City, even Pingliang Mansion, where Prince Han's Mansion is located, will not be safe.
It's only four hundred miles away, and the thieves can get down along the Jinghe River Valley in five days. Who can bear the responsibility of trapping the feudal clan?
After the ink was polished, Jiang Yingchang picked up his pen and started writing. As soon as he wrote a few dozen words, he heard chaos outside. The government servant hurriedly ran over and said: "Sir, something serious has happened. There is a flood in the north of the city!"
"Chengbei?"
Jiang Yingchang thought that no one lived in the north of the city for a long time. There were trees growing on the mountains. How could there be a fire?
At the moment, I didn't care about writing. I didn't even put on my official hat. I picked up my sleeves and ran out of the Yamen. I saw the fire in the mountains to the north of the city. At this time, there was an east wind, and the fire was blown westward along the uninhabited thatched tile roofs. Connected with the grass and trees in the mountains, the fire was unstoppable in an instant.
"Quickly sound the gong to gather the people to put out the fire... No, demolish the houses, rescue the people first, and demolish the houses on both sides along North Street."
There was no hope of saving the fire. There was no shortage of buckets, hooks, ladders, and water guns in the county, but the river was almost dry, and there was only so much water, so there was no way to put out the fire.
We can only isolate the city and let the northern part of the city burn.
Anyway... the people in the city were able to escape, but not many people lived in the house and yard.
"There are also strong people in the city. They asked people to close the city gates tightly and leave a few people to guard them to prevent thieves from taking advantage of the chaos to enter the city. The others will put out the fire first!"
Later, as he was walking to North Street, the squires in the city also gathered with their children. After hearing his method, they all applauded, and a demolition team of several hundred people soon set out on the road.
It was almost men, women, old and young who went into battle together.
They raced against time on North Street, racing against the raging fire. On the one hand, they sent people to remove thatch roofs in areas where the fire had not yet spread, and sprayed water to prevent the fire from spreading. On the other hand, they demolished a zone on North Street to isolate the flames.
The sky was getting dark, and the fire was burning high in Heshui County, which is high in the north and low in the south.
The city's civil servants stepped down layer by layer to help, but two muscular figures in black climbed onto the horse path and headed towards Suiding Gate in the east of the city from the north wall.
Outside the city, teams of mules have been assembled, flowing through the shallow river, like a black cloud slowly moving across the earth.
The people who stayed behind were worried that the fire in the city would burn down their homes, but they also felt that something was wrong with the darkness of the mountains and forests outside the city. He was holding on to the battlements and squinting his eyes to the east when he suddenly heard footsteps behind him, and before he could turn around, he was knocked with a thump. Fall to the ground.
Bai Liuxi put away the fire stick and looked down at the city. The black clouds were moving. She turned around and said, "Yun Niang, hurry up. They are marching."
There are no pavilions and pavilions at the top of the city in Heshui County. There are only three rooms above the east and west gates, which control the city gate suspension bridge.
Yun Jiaoyue nodded in agreement, looked towards the house, threw her short spear, took out the short knife from the hand of the fallen Minzhuang, walked towards the house with her long legs and lowered her head.
After a while, the suspension bridge fell.
Wang Wenxiu's troops were the first to enter the city. They rode mules from the horse road inside the city to the city wall first, and then galloped up the city along the north and south sides, heading straight to the east gate.
Yang Yaoze and Wei Qian'er led their troops from the official road outside the city to the west, crossed the city, and went straight to the Malian River in the west to prevent reinforcements from being sent from the direction of Qingyang Mansion.
The fire is still burning, but its spread has been stopped due to county quarantine measures.
Jiang Zhixian, whose face was covered with traces of smoke and fire, sat tiredly on the stone homestead and finally took a breath.
When I looked up, it was getting dark. I figured it would be time to leave the office, so I asked the servant to go back to the office and ask my wife to make some soup. There should be some leftover South Australian seaweed at home. It would be best to have an egg and some sesame oil.
The servant ran away, and Yuan Sannan, who was in a state of embarrassment, ran over in a hurry: "My lord, it's not good, the city defense has been occupied by the army!"
Jiang Yingchang tilted his head and stretched it forward slightly, frowning with a very surprised expression: "Huh?"
"Border troops! Hundreds of those idiots guarding the border wall have occupied our city, and the horse soldiers are running around on the wall!"
Yuan Sanmen could also see that Jiang Zhixian's brain couldn't accept the amount of information at the moment, so he simply ignored him, raised his hand and pulled a yamen servant over and asked, "Where is Mr. Yuan?"
"I was here just now. It seems that everything is fine and I have returned to the west of the city."
"This old bitch is running blind."
When Jiang Zhixian heard that the army was entering the city, he still couldn't react, but other large households in North Street had already been bombed.
Border troops entering the city is much more terrifying than thieves entering the city.
Yuan Sanman ran away when he saw frontier troops running towards the city at the foot of the city.
Intuitively, he thought this was the helper called by the banner army to drive away today, or the letter sent to the magistrate, which reminded the border army to rebel.
He still doesn't know what was written in that letter. The scholar went to escort his mother-in-law and didn't come back. The idiot must have sneaked ahead of him and ate it.
Yuan Sannan made up his mind to kill the bastard when he saw the scholar again.
But the situation became like this, and he would not give the letter to the magistrate no matter what.
On the contrary, he planned to run away. He wanted to grab another sum of money before running away. He simply took his helpers and rushed into the yard with the wealthy people who were running home. Who is not cheap when silver is cheap? Where are you hiding the gold and silver?"
All of a sudden, people were running home, and those who wanted to run out were running out. Suddenly, there was no one on North Street, which was bustling with people just now.
Jiang Zhixian, whose face was full of charcoal marks, stared at several government servants around him. The government servant asked: "Sir, what should we do?"
Jiang Yingchang didn't know what to do. He had never experienced the situation of officers and soldiers sneaking into the city, let alone the border troops.
Feeling confused, Jiang Yingchang still pointed to a government official and said: "Go to the city wall and ask where they are from the frontier army and who their generals are. Just tell Jiang Yingchang, the county magistrate, that he wants to see him. Is there any royal law? Who will allow it?" They entered the city!"
The yamen servant went to get bolder, and not long after, Wang Wenxiu from Xicheng Gate saw this silly boy.
He raised the iron pot above his head and walked cautiously towards the city gate. As he walked, he shouted: "General, don't fire arrows and don't fire blunderbuss! The villain is just a messenger!"
The order Wang Wenxiu received was to occupy the city wall, at least the south wall, to cover their grain trucks and artillery trucks moving westward.
Because Liu Chengzong believed that it was not difficult to capture the city's defenses, but it was meaningless to fight with the people in the streets after occupying the city, so he had to set up a list to pacify the people before occupying the county government office.
Wang Wenxiu thought that this messenger might be an opportunity to occupy the city, so he supported the battlements and said, "Who are you sending the message to?"
"The magistrate asked me to come! I want to ask where you are from the border army and who your general is. The magistrate wants to see him!"
Wang Wenxiu was very happy when he heard this. He thought that the magistrate of the city thought that the border troops had entered the city. Why didn't he give him a pillow if he didn't feel sleepy?
He immediately said in the city: "Let the magistrate come over and provide us with food and grass!"
Then he ordered two teams of infantry to go down to the city and hide in civilian houses.
As soon as Jiang Yingchang came over on his little mule, he asked the infantry to take it away. He pulled the mule off and pretended to be an official. He shouted loudly: "I am an official of the imperial court. Do you dare to tie me up? Do you want to rebel?"
Wang Wenxiu laughed: "Sir, we are rebels, we are Marshal Liu's subordinates!"
Jiang Yingchang was like a crowing rooster that was suddenly choked. He stared left and right, his excitement immediately cooled down, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his back was wet.
A gust of wind blew, and he shivered with coldness through his official robe. He slowly swallowed: "Marshal Liu's subordinates?"
Wang Wenxiu was so happy that he rubbed his hands together and commanded the people around him: "You should keep an eye on the city's defenses and wait until I come back."
After that, he took off the official seal from Jiang Yingchang's waist who was being escorted by the soldiers, and happily escorted him out of Dongguan.
The four military formations of the Lion Camp were set up outside Dongguan. Han Shipan and Han Shiyou were leading troops into the city to supervise the military discipline of the sergeants entering the city.
The two sides met at the city gate, and Jiang Yingchang looked puzzled. Aren't these all border troops?
When Liu Chengzong received the news from Wang Wenxiu, he was praising the two men from Bailiuxi who took the risk to sneak into the city. He was very happy when he heard that Jiang Yingchang, the county magistrate, had surrendered to Wang Wenxiu's army.
He immediately decided to ride on horseback to meet the magistrate at the gate of the camp.
When he saw someone, Fan Sanlang came forward with a torch to illuminate it. Liu Chengzong leaned over the saddle and looked at it, and asked, "Are you the magistrate of Heshui County?"
Jiang Yingchang is very complex from his heart to his facial expressions.
He thought it was the lawless frontier army that captured the city defense, but it was indeed the lawless border army that captured the city defense.
Then he discovered that they were actually thieves from Yan'an Prefecture. He threw himself into the arms of the thieves, and then discovered that the thieves were all frontier soldiers.
All kinds of unbelievable news hit his head in a short period of time, and he only figured out one thing so far, Heshui County was lost.
But how exactly it was lost? My mind is still in a daze. Should I say that Heshui County was invaded by bandit soldiers, or was it robbed by a mutiny?
He still doesn't know who Marshal Liu is.
However, Jiang Yingchang's backbone was not bent, and he stiffened his neck and said, "Are you Marshal Liu? Why did you seize my city defense?"
Suddenly he became a guest and asked Liu Chengzong, "Why did you seize your city defense?"
Liu Chengzong smiled on the horse and said, "You don't know who I am? I am Liu Chengzong, have you heard of me?"
Jiang Yingchang blinked, when did Liu Chengzong become marshal?
Moreover, there are border troops everywhere. This is different from the intelligence. Don't they all say that Liu Chengzong is a thief?
He has seen thieves before, but they don't look like this.
Jiang Yingchang came to his senses and raised his neck to curse, but Bai Liuxi next to him pointed and cursed with the new swear words he learned during the day: "Hurry up and clamp the bird's beak!"
Jiang Yingchang was stunned by these words, and Liu Chengzong also looked at him sideways. Then he turned to Jiang Yingchang and said: "Jiang Zhixian, Heshui County is within your reach now. Tell me a few of the big lawbreakers in the city."
"I took care of them and left. Heshui County was only temporarily attacked by the army. You were temporarily captured, but you persuaded the thieves to take away the thieves to protect the country and the people. The merits and demerits are roughly equal."
"Or if you jump up and scold me a few words, just to have fun, I won't kill you, I'll just take you away. You can go wherever I go. If my soldiers kill someone, just write "kill" on the wall. Jiang Yingchang, you stand next to me when I go to attack the city."
Jiang Yingchang wonders, you, the generalissimo, actually use this? He glared and said anxiously: "You are despicable!"
"You've already scolded me, but you still don't want me to torment you?"
Liu Chengzong asked of course, and then said: "Are you jumping again?"
Jiang Yingchang's momentum dropped by half, and he said angrily: "Yuan Yuanwai from the west of the city has controlled the county for thirty years. I can't do anything about him. You go and deal with him."
"Not counting Yuan Yuan, I already know about this person. His subordinates are not good people either. He insulted the banner troops outside the city, raped civilian girls, and threw a toothless old man in his sixties into the river. You can tell me a few more .”
This time it was Jiang Yingchang's turn to glare, he didn't even know this happened.
After thinking about it again and again, Jiang Yingchang felt that the conditions proposed by Liu Chengzong were not bad, so he simply gritted his teeth and said: "The rice merchant Ding Guoen's family lives in Dingjiabao in the west of the city, driving up the price of rice and bullying the market. Many of them committed illegal acts; therefore, the county chief Nie chased the bandits and colluded with Yuan in the west of the city, Feng in the east of the city and others, so they all deserve to be killed!"
Liu Chengzong put his hands on his hands and laughed: "Easy to handle!"
