Following a burst of applause - a new etiquette that became fashionable after the arrival of the Australians - Xie Erren cut a red ribbon - also a new thing brought by the Australians, announcing the restoration of the Guijiang Floating Bridge that had been suspended for many days. Passage.
Although the Guijiang Floating Bridge is just a pontoon bridge, it is of great symbolic significance to the local people in Wuzhou. After a war, life has finally returned to normal.
The repair of the bridge can be said to be very fast: originally the gentry and common people in the city thought it would take at least a year and a half, but they did not expect that the first thing they did after the aftermath bureau raised money and food was to repair the pontoon bridge. Not only many refugees were recruited to participate, but the Australian navy stationed here also participated in the bridge repair.
Xie Erren mobilized the people to search for the surviving pontoon boats, and asked the local sailors to salvage several sunken boats from the water and repair them one by one. If they could not be found, he also searched for suitable sized boats among the civilian boats abandoned by the captured official ships. ships, and finally gathered 56 pontoon boats for the bridge. The local blacksmith forged the missing chain link, then took a boat with a wind furnace anvil to pick up the iron chain and beat it back on site.
After dozens of busy days, the pontoon bridge was finally repaired and unblocked at the end of May 1635. The next day, Xie Erren held this grand "opening ceremony."
As soon as Xie Erren put down the scissors, firecrackers went off loudly. Members of the aftermath bureau and local wealthy people who came to watch the ceremony came forward to express their congratulations. Ordinary people here are also beaming with joy, and many people come to grab the cut ribbons when they fall - it is said that if they get them, they will have good luck or can cure diseases. Xie Erren was happy to see this kind of "superstition" and did not order to stop it.
Yi Haoran was also among the crowd watching the ceremony. He had been very cautious since he last wandered near the west gate of Wuzhou and saw Mr. Qiao coming out of the aftermath bureau in the Chenghuang Temple. Because Mr. Qiao had interviewed him and knew his identity. If he is recognized, his cover identity will be exposed immediately.
Fortunately, Mr. Qiao was very cautious at this time and did not leave the house except to go to the aftermath bureau and the Rice and Grain Guild for meetings. As long as Yi Haoran pays a little attention, he can avoid it in time.
Even so, Yi Haoran felt terrified - now he was not only a former aide on the run, but also involved in Gou Xunli's conspiracy. Once captured, the consequences would be disastrous.
Yi Haoran is over fifty years old, has rich experience, and has reached an advanced level in the art of identifying people. As soon as he comes into contact with Gou Xunli, he is regarded as an "evil person" and is definitely not a good person. Most of the "gentry" who are in high positions have gilded themselves, and in all likelihood they are local powerful people.
Originally, he looked down upon such a person, let alone cooperated with him. But Gou Xunli's deep-seated hatred for Kun Thief was real. Since he was unwilling to just run away with his tail between his legs, he wanted to have a good fight with the Australians. This was a godsend - at least, he didn't have to worry about Gou Xunli betraying him.
He took the opportunity to go out of the city to collect the bill for Mipu, and had several secret meetings with Gou Xunli at the Dragon Mother Temple. After hearing Gou Xunli's attempt to "do big things". At first, Yi Haoran only thought that he was having a whim, especially his attempt to "capture the emperor alive". It even made Yi Haoran feel unreliable.
But he didn't expect that this wretched man would actually mention Hou Dagou's past to him. Yi Haoran was immediately moved.
In the seventh year of Tianshun, Hou Dagou made a surprise attack on Wuzhou and killed and captured many officials. Yi Haoran saw it when he was idle in the shogunate and read the official annals. Of course, this Hou Dagou was a "giant bandit" of the Yao people. The imperial court mobilized troops and sent famous ministers like Han Yong to take command to suppress it. In comparison, Gou Xunli is just a bandit leader...
However, he also thought that Hou Dagou was just an ordinary Yaoman when he started his army. It may not be much better than this strict etiquette. Since ancient times, many heroes have been careless. It would be shallow to judge them based on their background.
If a real Kun could be captured or beheaded, it would be a great boost to the court and officers and soldiers who had been repeatedly defeated by the Kun thieves. He has also made extraordinary achievements!
Although Yi Haoran is old, his desire to make contributions has not been extinguished. At this moment, the imperial court was in crisis, and Guangdong and Guangxi were about to fall into the hands of the thieves. He was unwilling to give up and run away. He immediately agreed to cooperate with Gou Er.
Although the two parties were officially partners, Gou Xunli himself couldn't tell how to capture Zhenkun. All he could think about was the past of Fanghou Dagou.
The problem is that neither Yi Haoran nor Gou Xunli know how Hou Dagou broke into Wuzhou in the first place. Thinking about it, it was probably a sneak attack with light troops and a method of combining inside and outside.
After the two discussed, they decided on a strategy. Yi Haoran would organize internal support in the city, and Gou Xunli would make preparations outside the city. When the time was right, they would cooperate with internal support and external support to capture Wuzhou in one go and capture Xie Erren!
With this in mind, Yi Haoran walked around Wuzhou City every day after working at Mipu. While looking for like-minded people, I also spy on the flaws of Australians and wait for the right opportunity.
However, this opportunity never came, especially after the arrival of the Wuzhou National Army brigade, the number of troops stationed in the city increased sharply, and all key points were guarded by troops. There is also a Fubo Army company in the city that is armed to the teeth. No matter how he looked at it, he felt unsure.
The opportunity for a sneak attack could not wait, but news came that Teng County and other counties under Wuzhou Prefecture had fallen one after another. His little hope that the army would counterattack from Guangxi was completely shattered. Fortunately, the news of bandit uprisings and Yao people riots in various parts of Guangdong soon came, which ignited his hope.
He learned from the gossip on the street and the boatmen traveling on the Xijiang River that the riots had spread widely, and the entire northern Guangdong region was plunged into chaos. The Australians do not have enough troops and are currently recruiting soldiers everywhere. As expected, not long after, he heard from a local government official in a teahouse that the Australians were recruiting new soldiers among the prisoners of war at the Sanhezui campus to form a "national army". It was said that they were preparing to fight the Yao people.
Since the Australians do not have enough troops, even if Wuzhou is an important town, they may not be able to invest too many troops. Maybe they will also send troops to participate in search and suppression operations and patrols along the river. In this way, there is an opportunity!
But this excitement did not last long. Yi Haoran soon discovered that he was a loner in Wuzhou City. If he wanted to coordinate internally and externally, he, a scholar over fifty years old, was unable to do so, so he had to find helpers.
But where are the helpers? Sanhezui Campus is the largest prisoner camp for Kun thieves in this area of Wuzhou. Prisoners captured from various places are sent here to be intensively detained and screened. There are as many as thousands of people.
Yi Haoran originally had their idea in mind. As long as you can get a small sum of money, it shouldn't be difficult to go in and incite the prisoners to revolt. The guarding of this prisoner camp was not very strict. Usually, only the security team - the strong squad in the past - guarded the camp, but outsiders were not allowed to enter or leave. This makes Yi Haoran a little embarrassed - after all, he is not a hero who can climb over walls and swim over walls to enter the prisoner camp. Besides, he doesn't have such a sum of money.
At this time, he thought of Chang Qingyun - as a member of the prisoners, he should also be in the prisoner camp in Sanhezui. If he could get his help, half of his problems in sneaking into the camp would be solved.
He remembered that on the way to Longmu Temple to meet Mr. Gou, he saw Chang Qingyun working as an accountant at the construction site near the Guijiang Floating Bridge, so he might as well go and look for him. Since he didn't expose himself last time, it was obvious that his conscience was still intact. If he could understand it rationally, he might still be able to get help from him.
I never thought that Chang Qingyun would not be found when he came, but he would just happen to bump into the "ribbon-cutting ceremony" of the Australian prefect. Seeing that Mr. Qiao was there, Yi Haoran didn't dare to move around and just mingled with the crowd and pretended to watch the fun.
Seeing the pretty-faced thief "prefect" cutting the ribbon like a dog, he was surrounded by a group of local big businessmen - just businessmen. Several local wealthy gentry people were also among them, nodding and bowing to the real lord, looking flattering. Yi Haoran's ugly behavior made Yi Haoran so angry that he secretly cursed "a bunch of uglies are jumping up and down"! He didn't want to look any further, so he squeezed out of the crowd, thinking of going to the construction site for repairing the city wall next to him to see if Chang Qingyun was still there.
The work on the pontoon construction site was over, but he already knew that the Australians would drive labor teams composed of captives out to work every day, doing everything from repairing city walls, cleaning up ruins, salvaging sunken ships, loading and unloading supplies. Then Chang Qingyun will probably continue to be his bookkeeper at other construction sites.
As long as he can come out, he will have a chance to meet Chang Qingyun. Dayunmen, not far from the Guijiang Floating Bridge, was the focus of the battle between the two sides and suffered the most serious damage. The nearby markets and docks were also affected by the fighting and were in a mess. The ruins of the sunken ship have not been cleared up yet. Chang Qingyun, the bookkeeper, is probably on a construction site nearby.
Yi Haoran wandered outside Dayunmen with this purpose in mind. He was dressed like an accountant and carried a ledger, so no one doubted him.
However, he walked along the Guijiang River outside Dayunmen, and went closer to take a look at any place where workers were working. However, he never saw Chang Qingyun, and he felt a little disappointed - where was he? ?
He had heard people say that every once in a while, the returning transport fleet would transport away the prisoners from the Sanhezui campus - it was said that they would all be sent to Guangzhou. Could it be that Chang Qingyun was sent away?
While hesitating, I suddenly heard someone calling: "Sir, are you taking a boat? Sir, are you taking a boat?"
This is the boatman on the riverside ferry trying to attract business. Although there is a pontoon bridge, it is already far away from the pontoon bridge. Some people are unwilling to take a long detour, so it is common for them to pay a few pennies to cross the river. Yi Haoran didn't take it seriously and waved his hand: "I can't cross the river."
"Sir, let's cross the river." The other party was actually confused.
Yi Haoran had a look of disgust on his face, and just when he was about to scold the short, dark, thin boatman in front of him with a straight face, he suddenly froze!
