That day, Dongfang's mood for toasting was waning, he bid farewell to the government officials in Zhoucheng, and hurried back to his home. As soon as he sat down and had some tea, Sister Li Gui knocked on the door outside.
"Let her come in. Master, I have something to ask her."
Daian led Sister Li Gui into the main hall with a smile. Dongfang Zhu waved his wives and concubines to leave first. He looked at Sister Li Gui lazily and said angrily:
"The oirans from Yihongyuan are not so arrogant. Do you know who I invited to Wanghe Tower today?"
Sister Li Gui had a silk hairpin on her arm, a gold-threaded silk hairpin, a white silk jacket and a red skirt. She was dressed very enchantingly. She had just run back from outside, her cheeks were wet with sweat and she was panting. My waist and limbs were tired, so I took out a spring fan from my sleeve and kept shaking it.
"Who else could it be? Isn't it just the government officials? Huang Zhizhou is dead and there is no one to cover them up. They can no longer survive in Linqing City..."
As she spoke, Sister Li Gui glanced sideways at Dongfang Zhu. She didn't care that the servant was still in front of her and just winked at Dongfang Zhu.
"Quite aside, you walk around Wengcheng every day, and you know some Qiu Ba from Liaodong who guards the city. I want to ask you a few things,"
Sister Li Gui looked straight at Dongfang Zhu, pointed to the backyard, and said with a smile:
"Speaking of going to the grape trellis, I walked for several miles and didn't even have a sedan, so I went to rest where you guys are swinging."
Dongfang Zhu was distracted at this time. He had no intention of flirting. He was about to hit these Li Gui sisters with his big mouth. Suddenly he remembered his current situation. He took back his raised hand and pinched her face. Two fingers of rouge gouache.
"It is said that businessmen value profits over separation. This is the current practice for high-ranking officials. In the past, when there were no concubines, Sister Li would be like a cat stealing from others all day long around Yihongyuan (the largest brothel in Linqing). Since then, After marrying Nashi Anemone, I forgot about my old friendship..."
Dongfang Zhu waved Daian to go out, stepped forward and hugged Sister Li Gui, smiling apologetically:
"These days, there is a commotion with the White Lotus Sect in the city, and another time the Cao Army is quarreling about pay. Everyone is busy. When this matter is over, I will marry you in a big sedan chair to save others from gossiping..."
Sister Li Gui was unconvinced, pointed at Dongfang Zhu's nose and said: "The mouth of a high official, the legs of deceivers, how many good girls have been deceived by you in Linqing Prefecture City? I don't know how many times you have said this, every time I go to Yihong This is what the hospital says."
Dongfang Zhu pointed to the sky and vowed:
"It's true this time. If I can save the day, I will definitely marry you. If I lie, I will be struck by thunder!"
Sister Li Gui quickly reached out and covered Dongfang Zhu's mouth to prevent him from swearing like this. She put away the half-eaten melon seeds on the table, stretched and said:
"Ask, what do you want to know?"
Dongfang Zhu pondered for a moment and then said, "How many soldiers did they have? When did they leave? How much money did they steal? Where is the officer from?"
How could Sister Li Gui, a womanly woman, know these secrets? She just shook her head and said nothing. Just when Dongfang Zhu was disappointed, she heard her continue:
"I was in the workshop - the place where they work is called a workshop - and I heard a Liaodong craftsman say that the newly recruited more than 3,000 soldiers will need a lot of armor..."
~~~~
Several wives and concubines in Dongfang Zhu's family had a bad look when they saw Sister Li Gui. The sky was getting dark. Dongfang Zhu left Sister Li Gui to have dinner, chatted with her for a few words, and sent them to the attic early. When it was time to turn on the lamp, Da'an He held up a wooden plate with seven or eight wooden cards placed on it.
"Master, just touch one."
Dongfang Zhu waved his hand impatiently and said to the servant:
"Don't sleep at home tonight. Let them all have a good night's sleep. Tell my wife that you should continue to practice the health-preserving skills given by Wang Daozhang last time. The master will come back tomorrow to check..."
Not to mention which health-preserving technique Dongfang Zhu mentioned, after dinner, Sister Li Gui came out of the mansion with the senior officials, took a small sedan with a sliding pole, and went all the way west to the Ximen Wengcheng where the Liaodong soldiers were stationed.
In the Zhongzhou part, the markets are continuous and densely populated, with thirty-six lines of economy and seventy-two lines of business; the entertainment industry is even more developed, with thirty-two flower alleys and seventy-two spring string buildings, making it a lively and prosperous place. Big pier.
The two of them rode a small sedan together. The sedan swayed along the streets for two miles. There was no curfew in the city. There were only soldiers in short black cloth jackets carrying swords and arrows patrolling the streets.
"You are a strong warrior, Zhou Yafu is reincarnated, he is very fierce, very fierce, no wonder the White Lotus Sect is not an opponent!"
Dongfang Zhu peeked his head out of the sedan and looked out, but he saw around Guangjimen Wengcheng that soldiers were armed with armor, full of bows and crossbows, and sophisticated firearms.
Dongfang Zhu still sighed, and after taking off his robe, Sister Li Gui pulled him in again.
"Officer, don't talk..."
The sedan is swaying...
~~~~~~
Sister Li Gui put on her usual workshop uniform in the sedan chair, got off the sedan chair, and led Dongfang Zhu past several checkpoints until they walked to the workshop.
When Dongfang Zhu met the owner of the workshop, he followed Sister Li Gui's instructions and first offered five hundred taels of silver, saying that he was a merchant in the city and wanted to see General Pu Shen for something important.
The king of the workshop glanced at Dongfang Zhu up and down, confiscated the money, waved his hand to the Zhenfu soldiers to search him carefully. Seeing that Dongfang Zhu did not carry a weapon, he looked at Sister Li Gui again, and then said to him:
"General Pu Shen is having a discussion with the training officer. If you deliberately amuse me, I will throw you into the workshop to drill gun barrels tomorrow without giving you food."
~~~~~
In the first year of Jingtai in the Ming Dynasty (1450), Yu Qian, Minister of the Ministry of War, suggested building brick cities across the country. Linqingzhou City also took advantage of this trend and began to build city walls.
For the foundation of the Linqing city wall, huge strips of stone were first used to build a half-person-high retaining stone wall, and then city bricks were built on the strips of stone as a retaining brick wall. The thickness of this part of the brick wall shrinks layer by layer from bottom to top, with the highest point The brick wall must also be 0.53 meters thick. The city walls are all made of about 25 kilograms of square bricks, with glutinous rice water and lime poured in the middle, making them extremely strong.
Linqing Brick City is three feet and two feet high and two feet and four feet thick. The total length of the city is nine miles and one hundred paces. It protrudes to the northwest of the city, like a turban tied on the head. The locals call it Futou.
The four gates are: Weiwu Gate in the east, Guangji Gate in the west, Yongqing Gate in the south, and Jingding Gate in the north.
There are 8 watchtowers with 46 rooms, eight towers, and 46 shops. There are two inner and outer gates below the city gate. The door opening is equipped with an urn room, which can store 300 troops.
In addition, the moat is nine feet deep and filled with clear water, surrounding the entire city.
Such a strong city in Luxi with a high city and a deep pool has now become the residence of the 14th Army of the Qi Guards after being ravaged by the White Lotus Sect, Cao Army, and bandits.
Pu Gang led his army to garrison in Linqing for half a month, and the main tent of the 14th Guards Army was set up at Guangji Gate.
For half a month, soldiers have been gathering from all over the place.
The soldiers of the Twelfth Guards Corps stationed in Kaifeng and Shangqiu, and the soldiers of the First and Second Guards Corps stationed in the capital.
Pu Gang received news of the explosion in the capital early. The Qi army suffered heavy losses and the whereabouts of Emperor Wu Ding was unknown.
Missing is just a euphemism. The emperor is probably dead.
General Pu Shen was a soldier personally led by Emperor Wuding. During the bloody battle at Hunhe River, Liu Zhaosun entered the Zhenghuang Banner formation and rescued Pu Gang, who was the captain of the banner at the time. For this reason, Ping Liaohou was hit by many arrows.
After the Hunhe War, Pu Gang was promoted to the commander-in-chief. In the third year of Taichang when Houjin was destroyed, he was already the deputy commander-in-chief of the Second Guards Army.
Before Emperor Wu Ding ascended the throne, Pu Gang was appointed as the chief officer of the 14th Guards Army, and also held the title of Jining General. He followed Yuan Chonghuan to guard the Shandong section of the North Canal.
After Yuan Chonghuan went to Japan, Pu Gang was responsible for all the affairs of the North Canal, until the big explosion of Wang Gong Factory happened.
Pu Shen's affection for the emperor was no less than that of Deng Changxiong, Wang Erhu and others.
After learning about the incident in the capital, the stubborn Pu Gang's first thought was not to escape back to Liaodong, but to continue to hold on in Shandong.
He wanted Jining to become Da Qi's last stronghold in the pass until he died in battle.
In order to hold on for a long time, he led the 14th Army to move to Linqing.
Compared with Jining, Linqing City is more solid, has a larger population, and ranks first in money, food and grass in Shandong.
"Emperor Wuding must still be alive,"
Since many soldiers fled to Shandong after the big explosion, it means that the emperor is fine.
"I will be stationed in Linqing, waiting for the emperor! He will definitely come back!"
Several generals around him persuaded Pu Gang to take advantage of the chaos to flee back to Liaodong and join forces with the Liaodong defenders. Pu Gang flatly rejected this suggestion.
"If we all leave, Emperor Wu Ding will have worked hard for these years and the bloodshed and sacrifices of the soldiers will be in vain. Besides, there are still our brothers in Sichuan, Henan, and Shaanxi. We will just miss him if we leave. What should they do?"
The Qi army's military laws were strict, and Linqing was rich in products - the grain and grass supplies stolen by Pugang alone were enough to support the army for two years.
Therefore, with the insistence of the chief officer and the instructor, everyone gave up the idea of escape.
This lone army began to run the most prosperous city on the canal in earnest, waiting for the return of their emperor.
During the waiting process, Pu Gang was not idle. He copied the method used by Emperor Wu Ding in Kaiyuan, recruiting new soldiers according to the Qi Army's recruitment standards and training them on the spot.
Soon more than 3,500 recruits were obtained.
After the explosion in the capital, there was no shortage of desperate trackers along the North Canal.
According to Qi Jin, these trackers are the best source of soldiers.
Linqing is a prosperous place. After Huang Zhizhou's hide-and-seek death, the Qi army found more than 800,000 silver in Zhizhou's cellar, plus the silver and grain seized when they defeated Liu Fangliang two months ago.
Now Pu Gang has money, food and people, which strengthens their confidence in holding on to Linqing.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. The chief official did not bother to report to Emperor Wuding and told the emperor that he wanted to urgently expand the army - first of all, he had to find the emperor himself - and began to do his best to recruit troops in Linqing.
Not only that, the Qi army also opened warehouses to stockpile grain and recruited all the young men in Linqing Prefecture to defend the city.
Women were not idle either. They weaved armor and helped drill the barrels of flintlock rifles.
In just half a month, Pu Gang and Xing Zhongyi (the trainer of the 14th Guards Army) built Linqing City, which was once harmless to humans and animals and was full of brothels, into a terrifying war machine.
~~~~
Xing Zhongyi took out a pocket gold abacus from his sleeve - it was seized from Huang Zhizhou's cellar - and fiddled with it for a long time, his brows frowning more and more.
Pu Gang had goosebumps all over his body. The two had been partners for three years and knew each other well. As long as he saw the instructor's expression, he knew that something ominous was about to happen to this failed scholar.
"General Pu Shen, I have an unknown premonition..."
Pu Gang put down the teapot in his hand and scratched his scalp. He was no longer in a worse situation.
"The emperor's whereabouts are unknown. I don't know whether Supervisor Qiao and Chief Kang are alive or dead. Do you have any more ominous premonitions?"
Xing Zhongyi quickly pulled Pu Gang over and pointed at his palm-sized pocket gold abacus.
Pu Gang didn't even look at it, and said impatiently: "I don't recognize this Lao Shizi. If you have anything to say, just say it."
"Then let me tell you, Lao Pu, we don't have enough food. If we continue to eat like this every day, we will run out of food in ten days at most."
With a bang, the teapot in Pu Gang's hand fell to the ground, and the rough porcelain teapot fell into pieces.
"What? No food?"
In half a month, Pu Gang obtained 800,000 silver by ransacking his house, and bought out hundreds of white ships of grain at Linqing Chaoguan, and obtained more than 30,000 shi of grain, enough to feed the defenders until next winter.
Xing Zhongyi sighed and said, "You don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are when you are not a family member. These days you are recruiting soldiers and strong men, and you are also cooking porridge for the victims fleeing from the north. What can we do with the little food we have?"
Pu Gang patted his forehead. As a chief officer, he was quite good at marching and fighting, but he had never experienced guarding a city for a long time and rationally allocating food and grass.
"Use money to buy it again, Commander Xing. In a big city with a population of hundreds of thousands, you need me for any stone. Emperor Wu Ding was not as busy as me in Kaiyuan back then. Liu Zongzhou is coming soon, and I have to be busy. In order to strengthen the city defense, don't ask me for these things, you can lead the soldiers to buy them..."
The instructor threw the golden abacus on the table and said angrily:
"Where can I buy it? The shops on Thirty-sixing Street are all closed. They say all the food is sold out. They won't sell us even three taels of silver or a stone!"
"Where's the grain ship?"
Since Linqing merchants have no food, Jiangnan grain merchants must have food.
"Liu Zongzhou is about to hit the canal, who will sell grain to us, General Pu Shen, you really don't know, Linqing and other merchants are eager to let us go now..."
"If you can't buy it, grab it. Damn this dealer! He hoards food and doesn't sell it to us. He just wants to sell it to the refugees at a high price."
"Where are we going to rob? We are soldiers, not bandits. If we rob once, whoever does business with us in the future will have to kill the goose to get the eggs?"
········
The two were noisy when a guard suddenly shouted outside, saying that the head of the workshop, Mr. Wang, was here. Pu Gang was surprised, it was so late, why did Lao Wang come here? Could it be that the gunpowder and iron materials in the workshop have also been used up?
After a while, the guards led Jiangtou Wang into the big tent. Xing Zhongyi noticed that there was a middle-aged man who looked like a businessman following behind Lao Wang. , before he could open his mouth to introduce the two chief officers of the Qi army to Dongfang Zhu, he heard Dongfang Zhu put his hands on his hands and said with a smile:
"Exerting orders and prohibitions is indeed the demeanor of a strong army. It is stationed in the city for half a month and does not take a single step from the people. I think Yue Wumu's Yue Family Army is nothing more than this. It is a pity that the Yue Family Army has only been heard in storytelling, but the Kaiyuan Army is in front of you. I really saw it. Looking at this military master, the heaven is full and the earth is round, and he is not powerful but angry, he is undoubtedly the reincarnation of Grandpa Yue. "
Pu Gang looked at the man in front of him coldly and heard that he was talking nonsense. He was about to scold Wang Jiangtou from where he found the green onion, and waved his hand to tell him to get out. Wang Jiangtou hurriedly stepped forward and whispered a few words. After hearing this, Pu Shenjiang's face changed slightly.
But I heard the man continue: "But Grandpa Yue also needs to eat. As the saying goes, a strong dragon cannot suppress a local snake. The two military masters forgot to report their families. I am the largest drug dealer in Linqing, traveling all over the country. All the medicinal materials business in the country has to go through the hands of villains, with three religions and nine streams, black and white, from the governor's office to the small officials in Chaoguan. As long as I am in Linqing, I will be given a little face. My surname is Dongfang. The name is a blessing, a blessing for celebration."
Xing Zhongyi touched his chin and looked at the wild onion that appeared out of nowhere.
"Oh, it turns out that I am a high-ranking official from the East. I heard of your name when I was taking the imperial examination in Tianjin. You are so lucky to have one wife and six concubines."
Dongfang Zhu chuckled, did not continue the conversation, looked up at the two of them, and said word by word:
"The Kaiyuan Army has unparalleled combat power and is undefeated in a hundred battles. To be honest, I have heard General Xuanwu Jin Baya's storytelling countless times after the battle. However, this powerful dragon also needs the help of local snakes before he can fly. You are very talented, there is a big deal here, which affects the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and the survival of the city of Linqing. I wonder if you two are willing to talk about it."
Lewen
