Xinhui County.
In the early morning when the sky was just getting a little brighter, a group of knights riding pony horses came from the direction of Xijiang at high speed and entered the heavily guarded Xinhui County. This group of knights all dressed up as heroes, probably because they were in such a hurry and were covered in sweat.
One of the leaders among them is Mr. Li Tianzhi, the palace chief under Shang Zhixin. And Mr. Huang Zhisheng, who had just visited King Zhu Tianwang and Zhu Heji and his son a few days ago, was actually among them. He was also dressed as a hero who traveled around the world, dusty and tired, and hurried into the city.
At this time, Xinhui County seems to have returned to the state it was in more than ten years ago when Li Dingguo, the king of Jin Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty, invaded the country with his troops. As if facing a formidable enemy inside and outside, they were constantly reinforcing and preparing for war day and night.
Xinhui County, like most of the towns in Guangzhou Prefecture, is located near the water. And it’s not just on one river, but at the confluence of three rivers: Tanjiang River, Yashan Waterway and Xijiang River. Among them, the confluence of Tanjiang River and Yashan Waterway is just to the west of Xinhui County. There is also a canal connecting Tanjiang, Yashan Waterway and Xijiang River, flowing through the south of Xinhui County.
Xinhui County was built by cleverly taking advantage of the topography of the confluence of three rivers, with Tanjiang River and Yashan Waterway to the west and the canal to the south. As a result, the southwestern sides of the castle are protected by wide rivers, leaving only the northeastern sides that may be invaded by enemies.
After Shang Zhixin sent Shang Kele to Xinhui, the people of Xinhui mobilized under the leadership of the three big families of Huang, Mo, and Li. They transported a large amount of rice into the city through waterways to prepare for emergencies; Work and materials were produced to reinforce the city for the Shang family army. An outer trench was dug outside the trenches on the east and north sides of Xinhui, and a sheep and horse wall and a wooden fence were built in the trenches on the northeastern sides.
So when Shang Zhixin took Li Tianzhi, Wang Guodong and others and two or three thousand elite soldiers to Xinhui, the city that appeared in front of him was much stronger than the Xinhui City that defeated King Li Jin back then!
But Shang Zhixin had no energy at all. After entering Xinhui City, he became a hand-off shopkeeper. He lived in the annex of Prince Pingnan's palace in Xinhui, played songs every night, feasted every day, and died lying down. All the matters of defending the city and preparing for war were left to Shang Kele, Li Tianzhi and Wang Guodong.
And Shang Kele, Li Tianzhi and Wang Guodong, who took over the task of defending the city, did not try to persuade Shang Zhixin to cheer up, because the three of them knew very well... The sky in Guangdong has changed, and no matter how hard they and the people of Xinhui work, it will be in vain. Gave it.
Because when Li Dingguo came last time, he only captured the three states of Gao, Lei, and Lian in Guangdong... The territory seemed quite large, but the harvest was limited.
Zhu Heji has now taken over ten counties in Guangfu, including Guangzhou City, Macau City and Foshan Town, all of which are in his hands.
Not to mention anything else, if the dozens of red cannons from the St. Paul's Fort in Macau were pulled over and fired at Xinhui, Xinhui would not be able to defend it.
Not to mention Zhu Heji and Zhuge Tianlei, Sky Fire Ball, Smoke Bomb...
However, Li Tianzhi, the eldest official under Shang Zhixin, still refused to give up hope. All day long, he plotted with his friends, the patriarch of the Du Ruan Huang family in Xinhui, and Huang Zhisheng, an alternate magistrate of the Qing Dynasty who was a filial son in Dingyou, the township, to escape from the trouble.
Not long ago, Li Tianzhi and Huang Zhisheng went to Guangzhou in disguise.
Different from what Tu Hai and others imagined, Zhu Heji did not send troops to besiege Xinhui. The Ming army did not even go deep into Xinhui County, but only set up checkpoints around Xinhui County. Xinhui merchants were not prohibited from entering or exiting—Xinhui was a large agricultural county with many rice fields and sugar cane fields, producing a large amount of rice and sugar.
Rice can feed Zhu Heji's army and the citizens of Guangzhou, but sugar is now a "military product"... Zhu Heji has no reason not to let Xinhui people sell it in Guangzhou!
In fact, Zhu Heji did not want to stop Shang Zhixin from leaving. He already knew how his grandson Zhu San did it. Yang Qilong told him that it was all done by Wu Yingxiong and Shang Zhixin in order to support the bandits. Among them, Shang Zhixin I believe this fool takes all the credit!
Therefore, unlike his traitor Lao Tzu, he contributed to Zhu Heji's career. If Zhu Heji kills him, it will set a precedent for killing heroes.
Zhu Heji, who couldn't bear to kill the hero, hoped that Shang Zhixin could escape to Beijing alive... and asked Emperor Kangxi to punish him, so that Zhu Heji's own hands would not be stained with the blood of the hero.
Moreover, Shang Zhixin’s crime is linked to Wu Yingxiong!
Before Kangxi killed him, he would definitely find out all Wu Yingxiong's crimes.
According to Yang Qilong, Shang Zhixin, Wu Yingxiong, and Geng Jingzhong also imitated Liu Guanzhang and created a three-part sworn alliance in the Apple Orchard - they kowtowed at the Pingguoyuan Station of Beijing Subway Line 1!
That place was called Apple Orchard in the Ming Dynasty. It is said that there were many apple trees back then.
If Shang Zhixin was killed by Kangxi, would Wu Yingxiong and Geng Jingzhong have to send troops to avenge their brothers?
And people like Li Tianzhi, Huang Zhisheng, and even Shang Kele and Wang Guodong also hope that Shang Zhixin can go to Beijing...
...
When Li Tianzhi and Huang Zhisheng arrived at the other courtyard where Shang Zhixin lived, Shang Zhixin, who had just spent the night with several concubines, was trying hard to talk to Shang Cola.
Shang Kele came to Monk's Letter to talk about the Yamen Waterway... The old man got a large ship from nowhere and hid it on the dock of Yashan Town, which was abandoned due to the sea ban. Moreover, these days he has also found some old sailors from Xinhui County who have not forgotten how to sail a boat.
Two days ago, Shang Kele went out to sea on that bird boat with them!
But Shang Zhixin had no interest at all in escaping by boat, as if he had already made up his mind to lie down and die in Xinhui City.
Just when Shang Kele didn't know how to persuade him, he heard footsteps outside the house. The sound had already arrived before the person arrived. It was Shang Zhixin's confidant Li Tianzhi, with a hint of crying in his voice: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the fake Third Grandson of Zhu has sent out troops, the fake Third Grandson of Zhu has sent troops to fight against Xinhui!"
With a crash, a tea bowl in Shang Zhixin's hand immediately shattered to the ground. I could only see the Prince of Pingnan leaning on the back of his chair, closing his eyes, raising his head to the sky, muttering something unknown.
To be honest, he still wanted to live. Otherwise, he could just lie down and die in Guangzhou. Why did he come to Xinhui and wait to die? But he also knew that his sins were serious, and neither the Ming Dynasty nor the Qing Dynasty would spare him... There was no way to survive!
Oh, he didn't know that he had been classified as a hero by Zhu Heji in a pragmatic manner. He also consciously added the sin of being an old traitor to himself, because he was the heir apparent!
If he wants to inherit the throne, of course he will also inherit his sins, so he cannot escape death!
At this time, Li Tianzhi had already broken into the house with Huang Zhisheng. Li Tianzhi shouted: "It's over, it's over... The fake grandson Zhu San sent 30,000 troops to Xinhui by water, and he also brought many artillery. The new club can no longer hold on!"
"Where are the court's reinforcements?" Shang Kele could barely remain calm.
"The imperial court's reinforcements are still on the way!" Li Tianzhi said, "Now in Zhaoqing and Shaozhou, there are only 20,000 people brought by Sun Yanling from Guangxi and 4,000 people from Zu Zeqing... There are still some small numbers in Huizhou. The fragmented army totals less than 30,000!"
"It's over, it's over, it's over..." Shang Zhixin shouted "It's over" three times in a row. He already knew that he had only a few days to live, "Wine, wine, bring the wine!"
After hearing what he said, Huang Zhisheng, who came with Li Tianzhi, quickly went to the wine table nearby and poured a large bowl of "Chaozhou Bai", which is the "sauce-flavor sugar cane wine", and gave it to Shang Zhixin. It's boring when you hold it. But as soon as he drank the white wine, he felt something was wrong. The wine seemed to be very strong, and he went to his head immediately. He also felt very sleepy... In an instant, he couldn't hold on any longer and fell into a deep sleep.
Huang Zhisheng, who had just poured wine for Shang Zhixin, saw that Shang Zhixin had fallen asleep and was still praising him, "This Dongchang's Mongolian sweat medicine is really powerful..."
