August twenty-sixth.
Uncle Xie Fang led Qian Long, Zhou Mi, and officials of all sizes to Shunji Palace to hold the ceremony of "praying for the wind and offering sacrifices to the sea" at Mao hour.
Shunji Palace is also the Mazu Temple. Shunji is the temple name given by Emperor Daojun, which means favorable winds and blessings.
At this time, the local governor of Quanzhou and officials of the Municipal Shipping Department held sacrifices every spring and autumn to pray for calm seas and safe navigation to encourage the development of maritime trade.
Earlier, worshiping the sea was held at the Zhenwu Temple on the Jinjiang River, and praying for the wind was held at Jiuri Mountain in Nan'an County. After the construction of Xinluo City in Quanzhou, it was moved to Shunji Palace for unified prayers.
Perhaps in order to include Shunji Palace in the city, this section of Silla City was specially built into a protruding corner, and opposite the mountain gate of Shunji Palace is Deokje Gate.
Shunji Palace was later renamed 'Tianfei Palace and Tianhou Palace', and together with Deji Gate, it was preserved to later generations.
After the ceremony was completed, Uncle Xie Fang and others boarded the Deji Gate Tower to see off the left-wing army Shuiying.
Although there seems to be no banditry around Quanzhou City, a state of war readiness is still implemented. Only the outer city gate, Deji Gate, is open for a limited time, and the search is very strict.
As a defender, Uncle Xie Fang could not leave the city easily at this time, but the important affairs of the country were the war and sacrifice, so the expedition ceremony could not be careless.
Fortunately, about a hundred feet south of Deji Gate is Nanguan Port, so we can barely see off the soldiers on the tower.
Quanzhou Port is a general name. In fact, it is a cluster of more than a dozen ports both inside and outside.
Nanguan Port is one of the inner ports. Because it is attached to the city and can directly communicate with the city, it has become the most prosperous port in Quanzhou.
'A city's important land should not be prosperous in Nanguan. Ship merchants from all over the world and all the tributes from Fancheng all gathered here. '
However, due to the influence of banditry, the three inner ports of Nanguan Port, Fashi Port and Wuyu Port in the lower reaches of the Jinjiang River were relatively unsafe. Therefore, most merchant ships were transferred to outer ports such as Anping Port and Dongshi Port where they could escape at any time. .
So at this time, the usually bustling Nanguan Port seemed a little empty, with more than thirty large and small warships docked ready to go.
Compared with ordinary merchant ships, these military ships are obviously much smaller. They basically only have five or six hundred materials, which means that the flagship is one thousand materials.
The lookout on the flagship saw the appeasement flag raised at Deji Gate, and reported to Chen Lei standing on the bow, "Commander, Xie Xianggong has arrived."
"Sign up for instructions." Chen Lei waved his hand casually, with a sneer on his lips, "The show is about to begin, I hope we can give Mr. Xie a surprise..."
At this time, Qian Long was looking here with a telescope, and happened to catch this fleeting and strange expression. He couldn't help but feel something was wrong.
But when I looked again, I didn't find any other abnormalities, so I just thought I was being suspicious and didn't tell anyone about it.
After seeing the flag of the flagship at the top of the city, Uncle Xie Fang read out a symbolic speech. After the ceremony, he ordered the expedition drum to be beaten.
Amidst the trembling drums, the warships began to hoist their anchors and sails, leaving the dock one by one and heading down the Jinjiang River in the morning sun.
It didn't take long for the fleet to leave Quanzhou Bay and enter the sea. After continuing to sail southeast for almost an hour, it was about a hundred miles away from Quanzhou City.
At this time, densely packed sail shadows appeared in front of the route.
Seeing this situation, Yi Mingcheng, the deputy commander of Shuiying who was born in Banzhi, was shocked.
"How come there is such a huge fleet in this direction!? It seems to be coming directly towards us... Commander Chen, I'm afraid this is coming from a bad person. Please quickly order the entire army to prepare for war!"
But Chen Lei, who was standing opposite him, had a look of ridicule on his face, and said calmly, "It's time to give the order, let's do it."
Such an abnormal performance made Yi Mingcheng's scalp numb, a warning sign suddenly appeared in his heart, and he subconsciously pressed the handle of the knife.
But he immediately felt a sharp pain. When he looked down, he saw a bloody knife tip coming out of his chest.
"Why... why..."
Full of unbelievable questions, accompanied by thick red blood, it was difficult to spit out from Yi Mingcheng's mouth.
Chen Lei smiled calmly, stretched out his hand to reach for the Qianniu Dao Yi Mingcheng was wearing, opened his hand, grasped the handle of the knife, and slowly pulled it out.
"Because Quanzhou can only be ours, and the left-wing army is even more ours!"
These words were harsher than the sound of the blade rubbing against the scabbard, and they penetrated Yi Mingcheng's eardrums.
Looking at the blade as slender as a seedling, Chen Lei couldn't put it down, "It's such a good knife."
Chen Lei then swung his knife and slashed at Yi Mingcheng, who was still holding on to his last breath, and cut off his unyielding head as easily as mowing grass.
Using Yi Mingcheng's body to wipe away the blood on the blade, Chen Lei took off the scabbard and put the knife back into the sheath and hung it on his waist. Chen Lei gave the order casually with satisfaction.
"Find something to put the head in, and give the body to the Sea Dragon King..."
Almost at the same time, similar scenes occurred on other ships. More than a dozen officers loyal to the imperial court died tragically at the hands of their "colleagues".
Soon after, the two fleets met at sea.
The other party has more than 40 ships, basically in the style of merchant ships, and most of them have one or two thousand materials. However, they are not all in the style of Song Dynasty ships. They also look relatively shabby. They don't look like merchants, but pirates.
In fact, the ocean in this era is a lawless place, and the boundaries between merchants and pirates are not so clear. If the right time comes, who doesn't like to do business without capital?
However, this fleet is indeed considered a relatively "professional" pirate. To be precise, it is a makeshift "pirate group" made up of seven or eight pirates. The largest leader is named Zou, and is nicknamed "White-Eyed Jiao".
After the rendezvous, Chen Lei handed over all the ships in Shuiying, along with the ordnance and supplies they carried, to the pirates. He took the Shuiying soldiers of the left-wing army to transfer to a large ship with 5,000 materials, and turned to sail north.
And the huge 'fleet' of more than seventy ships, under the command of Baiyan Jiao, headed towards Quanzhou at full speed, with great momentum!
At this time, a small group of cavalry from Fuzhou spent two days passing through six interceptions and finally arrived at the north gate of Quanzhou City. After a lot of trouble, they were able to enter the city.
They handed King Yan's secret letter to Uncle Xie Fang. Uncle Xie took it out and looked at it, but he was a little dumbfounded, "Why are there all new numbers on it..."
"Xie Xiang, this is a password. You need a code book to decipher its contents to prevent it from being robbed. This password is with me."
After Zhou Mi explained it, he took the letter and began to interpret it. The interpreted words needed to be rearranged according to special rules to form the correct message.
Naturally, this rule is only known to specific personnel responsible for confidentiality. In this way, even if the codebook is obtained by the enemy, it will still be difficult to understand the secret message.
The process was inevitably cumbersome and time-consuming, so half an hour later, Uncle Xie Fang saw the 'cracked version' of the secret message, and his expression became more and more solemn.
It turned out that when Qian Long and others set out, Li Zhi had not yet been detected by the Military Intelligence Department. In order not to alert the enemy, Zhao Mengqi waited until Zhou Lian, Zheng Taiqing and others were captured before he had someone send this letter. The content of the letter was what Li Zhi had confessed. Case.
After Uncle Xie Fang finished reading, Zhou Mi asked, "Xie Xiang, what should we do now? Arrest the Liu family and the Pu family directly?"
Uncle Xie Fang shook his head, "The Liu family tree has deep roots, and the Pu family's influence in Tibetan merchants is also very important. In addition, there are so many powerful families. Not to mention that there is no conclusive evidence at the moment. Even if there is, with our current strength, we can't move it." Without them, perhaps the whole of Quanzhou will be shaken if this order is issued. His Highness also said in the letter that we only need to be more vigilant, not to act rashly, and wait until the army arrives before making any plans."
"Then why didn't His Highness directly transfer the first batch of troops to Quanzhou?" Zhou Mi was puzzled.
Uncle Xie Fang explained, "First of all, from an overall perspective, priority must be given to ensuring that chaos does not spread to Zhejiang and Zhejiang, otherwise the entire country will be shaken."
"Secondly, although the powerful people ignited the chaos, the bandits are not completely under their control. Even if all the powerful people change their ways now, the chaos will not subside. Troops will still need to be sent to quell the rebellion."
"Third, His Highness's goal is not just to calm down the incident, but to take the opportunity to carry out a more profound reform of Fujian Road, so he needs to completely control the situation."
"Fourth, there are still a lot of people in the court staring at His Highness, waiting for His Highness to make a mistake, so Your Highness must act with a defensible reason. A wealthy family like the Liu family cannot easily be punished without sufficient accusations. Go and move.”
"Perhaps His Highness has other considerations. All in all, playing it safe and sound is the best strategy at the moment."
Zhou Mi suddenly realized, "If it weren't for Prime Minister Xie's guidance, I would never have imagined that there are so many ways in it... But I'm afraid those people won't just sit back and wait for death."
"Yes..." Uncle Xie Fang sighed and said with a heavy expression, "Your Highness may be waiting for them to do something more crazy, but he just doesn't know if we can handle it."
After saying that, Uncle Xie Fang put the secret letter into the brazier and burned it.
Before the fire was extinguished, Qian Long ran in, sweating profusely, "An urgent report came from Tong'an. Tens of thousands of bandits appeared outside the county this morning. It is estimated that most of them will come to Quanzhou."
Fortunately, he was mentally prepared and Uncle Xie did not panic. "It seems that they are anxious..."
Immediately, he summoned officials at all levels to start making arrangements, "Immediately issue an order to impose martial law throughout the city, close all city gates, and order all officers and soldiers to keep their posts and not slack off... All the people will return home immediately, and they are not allowed to stay and walk in the streets without permission... Inform the Chief Secretary of Nanwai Sect to ask all clan members to take refuge in the city..."
Orders were issued one after another, and Quanzhou City instantly became busy.
But most people were not too panicked, thinking that it would probably be as safe as the previous days. After all, Quanzhou's walls were high and the city was strong, so it was not easy to break through, not to mention that the bandits basically had no ability to attack the city.
Not only the common people thought so, but also the commanders of the three garrisoned imperial troops stationed on the walls of Silla City had the same idea.
Until they saw the fleet of boats that covered the sky coming upstream and heading towards the city.
