Fifty miles away from Pei Dahu, Shen Lian and others, in the Wendeng County government office, Mr. Song, whom Balipupu soldiers talked about, was sitting at the top of the Wendeng lobby, leisurely sipping a cup of Pu'er tea.
Next to Song Yingsheng, sat in turn were Dongchang stall owner Zeng Qixiao, Liaoxi military leader Wu Xiang, Kaiyuan 6000 headquarters Qian Zongwei, and Weihaiwei commander Yang Qilong.
Weihaiwei commander Dong Yushi and Wu Menglin, a member of Qianhu of Baichi Institute, stood at the gate of the county government office, surrounded by several county magistrates who had come from Qixia, Zhaoyuan and other places.
From time to time, everyone looked up and glanced at the officials sitting in the lobby. The magistrate who had just arrived had beads of sweat on his forehead.
The Wendeng County Government Office was now surrounded by soldiers and guardsmen, who dragged the corpses lying on the ground outside one by one.
Green smoke was still rising from the roof of the third-in wing, and the smell of burning wood and a faint smell of blood filled the area around the county government office.
The fire in the wing had just been extinguished. It had just experienced an extremely brutal battle. The last batch of Kaiyuan soldiers who refused to surrender were besieged by the Ming army several times their size. In the end, they all died in the battle and only twenty escaped. There were many people, and there were corpses everywhere from the county government gate to the third courtyard.
Song Yingsheng, who was sitting in the seat of the county magistrate, blew the hot tea in his hand, took a small sip, squinted his eyes and said to the Dongchang stall owner sitting next to him:
"Eunuch Zeng, we have arrested Yuan Keli, captured Liu Zhaosun's concubine, and subdued Wen Deng's Kaiyuan soldiers. Eunuch Zeng and everyone can tell you what to do next."
Zeng Qixiao turned around and looked at everyone, and said modestly:
"What our family does on weekdays is to take advantage of people. We can't do big things. We still have to rely on you to deal with the Liu thief."
Song Yingsheng looked at Wu Xiang, the general in western Liaoning.
Wu Xiang is Zu Dashou's brother-in-law. Compared with this brother-in-law, his son's reputation is more famous in history.
Wu Xiang was originally a horse dealer. His sister married Zu Dashou, and he became the brother-in-law of General Ningyuan.
Starting from Liaonan this time, Wu Xiang originally wanted to take a boat to Shandong to sell horses. Yes, Wu Xiang was a businessman.
However, when Song Dynasty and Zeng began to rebel against the Yuan army in Wendeng, Wu Xiang, a businessman, was inexplicably involved in the dispute.
"Brothers in western Liaoning said that Liu Tie is deploying troops to attack Liaoshen. The next step is probably to attack us in western Liaoning."
Wu Xiang stroked his beautiful beard and suddenly shouted:
"Liu Zhaosun is trying to get angry for his beauty!"
Forgot to introduce, Wu Xiang's son is the protagonist in history who was angry for a beauty - not Chen Yuanyuan in the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai - Wu Sangui, the Pingxi Bo who became famous at a young age and bravely won the three armies.
Eunuch Zeng looked at Wang Wei and said to him:
"Mr. Wang Qian, based on your understanding of Liu Zhaosun, will he lead his army to attack Shandong?"
Wang Wei was worried.
Three days ago, after clearing out Yuan Keli in Dengzhou and some other officials who were close to the Marquis of Liao, Song Yingsheng came to visit in person and met his fellow countryman and friend Wang Wei.
After Song Yingsheng's earnest persuasion, coercion and inducement, Mr. Wang Qian realized that he had been marginalized by Liu Zhaosun, and finally made up his mind to defect to the capital together with Master Song and Eunuch Zeng in front of him to strive for great wealth.
The soldiers under the Six Thousand Headquarters are all Shandong soldiers recruited on the spot after the Wenxiang Sect was wiped out.
Among the 2,500 people, except for 300 Kaiyuan veterans, the other soldiers came from a variety of sources, including refugees, fishermen, trackers, and military households.
Many people trained for less than half a month before joining the army to fight against the Wenxiang Cult.
To be fair, this unit is the one with the lowest combat effectiveness and the least loyalty among the six guards in Kaiyuan.
At that time, after the Wenxiang Sect was annihilated, Liu Zhaosun had to temporarily expand his army in order to complete the control around Wendeng as soon as possible.
The result of the crazy expansion of the army was a mixed bag of good and bad. The morale of the Kaiyuan Army was as high as a rainbow, and the Wenxiang Sect was invincible. However, the problems of this army did not break out.
When the generals rebelled and the training officers of each battalion were killed, this so-called strong army immediately collapsed.
"Eunuch Zeng, Mr. Song, and Thief Liu are probably trying to jump over the wall to rebel. The general thought that they could behead Yuan Keli and Jin Yuji on the spot! Cut off the stubborn resistance of the rebels lurking around Wendeng, and bring their heads back to the capital. , to avoid long nights and many dreams! As for Liu Zhaosun, he will definitely take revenge based on his understanding of him. But don’t worry, as long as the imperial reinforcements arrive in time and blockade the Weihaiwei port, no matter how brave the Kaiyuan soldiers are, there is nothing they can do Not us."
Everyone around them nodded after hearing this, and it seemed like they were talking about seeking a country. Zeng Qixiao's face trembled slightly and he didn't speak.
Song Yingsheng looked at the conductor Yang Qilong sitting next to him. Yang Qilong was still as fat and fair as before. When he spoke, his forehead seemed to be sweating.
He timidly raised his hand to Song Yingsheng, feeling a little embarrassed:
"What Wu Junmen and Mr. Wang Qian said are reasonable. However, Dengzhou is not completely in our hands now. More than 20 soldiers escaped just now. Governor Yuan... Yuan Keli has been an official in Denglai for many years. There are party members all over Dengzhou, and many of them have contacts with Liu Zhaosun. I am afraid it will be difficult to get rid of them for a while. Therefore, since I have been dismissed from office, all the remaining Kaiyuan party members around Wendeng must be eradicated."
"Ahem!"
Eunuch Zeng coughed twice with his hoarse voice, and the hall suddenly became quiet. Even Song Yingsheng stopped talking and stared closely at the burly Dongchang stall owner.
Zeng Qixiao stood up and left his seat, walked to Yang Qilong in three steps, and handed the tea on the table to the Weihai Guard commander.
"Commander Yang, we were able to subdue the Kaiyuan Army this time because of your efforts. When our family returns to Dongchang, we will thank you in front of the factory boss and reward you with tens of thousands of taels of silver. More than that. It's money. That loser Lu Demin has done bad things many times. This time he bombed the Shuiying arsenal and caused such a big incident. The governor of Tianjin can't hold his nephew back. From now on, the business of Beidi's waterways will be left to you. You There’s no need to expect to exploit those poor military households for money!”
Everyone around him congratulated Yang Qilong, but Commander Yang was not happy at all after hearing this. He forced a smile on his face, which looked very unnatural.
As the local leader of Weihaiwei, Yang Qilong certainly needed money. The money he squeezed out from the military households below was only tens of thousands of taels every year, and after all the efforts were made, there was not much left.
Lu Demin earns at least two to three hundred thousand taels a year in Tianjin. How can we not make people excited?
However, having money does not mean having life. Commander Yang had witnessed Liu Zhaosun's methods in Qufu.
Ping Liaohou suppressed the Wenxiang Sect and massacred Yanshenggong. They were all decisive and killed without blinking an eye. It is said that Yanshenggong was killed by Liu Zhaosun himself.
If Liu Zhaosun were to know what he had done in Weihaiwei, he would probably not be able to chop him off even if he had ten heads.
Eunuch Zeng glanced at Yang Qilong and roughly guessed what he was worried about, and comforted him:
"Commander Yang, don't worry. The imperial court cannot spare Liu Zhaosun. Our family had a blood feud with Mr. Song when they were in Kaiyuan. Don't worry, our family won't just slap their butts and leave. We won't leave Deng. The matter in the prefecture is over. If we don’t kill all the Liu thieves, our family will lose their heads when we return to the capital! Our family has sent people to hunt down the more than 20 Kaiyuan soldiers. Now, we have to Hurry up and sign a petition to ask the imperial court to send a large army..."
Before Zeng Qixiao could finish his words, he saw a Jinyiwei fanzi barging in at the entrance of the lobby. Everyone didn't listen to him and looked at the fanzi one after another.
Eunuch Zeng showed displeasure and cursed in a low voice: "These people in Shandong really don't understand the rules! Don't take offense."
Na Fanzi walked quickly to Zeng Qixiao, whispered a few words into Eunuch Zeng's ear.
Zeng Qixiao waited for Fanzi to speak, waved his hand to leave, looked up at Song Yingsheng, and said with a smile:
"Lord Song, gentlemen, Liu Zhaosun's personal guards are here. They were in Balipu at noon. They should be in Wendeng by now. They are the same group that burned the Shuying arsenal. The enemy is here."
