When Wu Mao and Heimu found Frank, they were looking for a boat to leave. They were having a hard time at that time and everyone was working, so Frank also put down his arrogance and went to the dock to work as a coolie.
But this will be of great help to them in learning the language. When Frank, who spoke Cantonese Mandarin, saw Wu Mao, he almost shed tears.
Among the dozen or so people who came with him this time, there were four French, two Italians, one Greek, three Germans, two Britons, and two Spanish. It was really a multinational group.
Li Dan was very satisfied and immediately ordered Mao Zaidi to arrange accommodation, bathing and meals for them. "Give them biscuits. These guys have never seen rice in their lives. They are probably tired of eating rice in Guangzhou!" Li Dan specifically asked.
Two of the three staff returned, and one died of illness there. Li Dan appointed one of them to be the temporary manager of the Yiren team.
Wu Mao and others also collected more than 60 books this time, all related to arithmetic, astronomy, navigation, ships, animals and plants, etc.
In addition to Yusuf, there was also a German named Rod who was also a doctor. The Spaniard, Bamonte, was a priest. He traveled to many places and wrote the "Africa Coastal Scenery" to record the customs, products, flora and fauna along the coast of the African continent.
The British Joey was the chief engineer and gunner on the ship, and the Italian Virgil came to Southeast Asia with the clock cargo. He was a precision mechanic responsible for maintaining and debugging clocks.
The most mysterious thing here is another Briton. This man called himself Hicks. He was handsome, tall and fair-skinned. His conversation showed that he was well-educated. However, he only said that he was the librarian on the ship and was responsible for the safekeeping of books and charts.
Most of the books and charts brought back this time were his contributions, and he also spoke the most standard Chinese, closest to Shangjing Mandarin. It is said that this was due to the fact that he had received the protection of a local official and Living in his house for a year and a half.
In short, Li Dan is very satisfied with the results of this trip to Guangzhou! He decided to let Mao Zaidi take the Yiren team back to Anren first and hand them over to Ba Shiye, who had become the deputy manager of the Raonan Merchant Group.
Then Heomu was asked to go to the Military Intelligence Section as a deputy in charge of reconnaissance, and Wu Mao was left by his side to be the army secretary.
Just in the evening, the scouts met Shenjie and others at Xiayang Ferry in the east of the city who were ordered to escort the general magistrate of Guangxin Prefecture and the guards to command the governor to Nanchang. They determined that Shangrao had already rescued the siege after paying nearly 3,000 casualties. information.
"It seems certain that Lou Zishi is fleeing westward!" Zhao Jingzi said with certainty.
Li Dan immediately arranged for someone to continue escorting him, and at the same time asked about the situation on the road. Shenjie told him that there were no enemies in Xing'an. He heard that all the enemies in Geyang had also withdrawn, but he did not confirm it.
At this time, the largest number of people in Guixi City was Li Dan's troops, and the official army still had not arrived. What should I do?
Everyone felt numb. On the one hand, Geyang and Xing'an had become empty cities. On the other hand, the official army was slow to move south and its troops were thin. It was difficult to resist the impact of the 30,000 main force led by Lou Zishi himself.
In other words, the door designed by Zhao Chongbi didn't have time to be made of iron, or even of wood. It was simply made of firewood and could be kicked open by others!
Zhao Chongbi was even more anxious than them, and kept issuing orders to various places. He even ordered the officers and soldiers from Nanfeng and Guangchang to immediately go north to reinforce Jianchang Fucheng, and asked the Ji'an garrison to gather and transfer some eastward to Fuzhou for help.
He has really felt the threat posed by Lou Shiming. If this guy breaks a big hole in Jianchang Mansion, then the originally imagined perfect encirclement of Guangxin will become a joke!
Whether it was to wait for Lou Zishi to be the main force later, or to rest and recuperate, Lou Shiming stayed in Luxi for seven days.
During this period, he absorbed Yang Heyu's subordinates, Feng Zicai and others, and his strength was further enhanced. So he made a sudden attack on the 24th of the first lunar month, broke through Cai Gangquan's defense line, crossed Yunji Ridge and appeared at the gate of Guangze City on the morning of the 26th.
But he did not tell the old man behind him about his movements. When Lou Zishi entered Luxi on the 27th and found out that his sons had left a few days ago, he became furious again and fainted from his horse.
On the first day of February, Zhao Chongbi had just woken up and was still sleepy-eyed when he heard his Chinese army come in and tell him the news.
"What! Lou Thief is dead?" He suddenly woke up and quickly asked the source of the news.
It turned out that the scouts following Lou's army discovered that the entire enemy's army was wearing filial piety. They immediately caught two deserters who were trying to escape and questioned them. Only then did they find out that Lou Zishi was dead and that the current commander of the army was the eldest son Lou Shiyong!
"What! Thief Lou is dead?" Li Dan also got the news: "Is it reliable?"
"It's very reliable. It's the news sent by the 'Bamboo Rat'." Zhao Jingzi replied: "The Great Master Shen contacted him personally, so there should be nothing wrong. Now Lou Shiyong is in charge!"
"Bamboo Rat" is the code name of undercover Cao Jun. After this guy returned, he worked around the camp and finally got into Lou Shiming's side and became a general. The information he gave came from the top brass of Lou Jun, so the matter was almost certain.
"Now we have something good to watch!" Li Dan sneered: "Lou Shiyong does not have a broad mind. He will not tolerate these two brothers being so willful."
"Do you want them to fight each other?" Zhao Jingzi asked.
"The possibility of a fight is low, but the possibility of the two sides continuing to join forces is not high. The increased strength has given Lou Shiming the capital to fight against his brother, and of course it has also expanded their voice within them." Li Dan took a good break and sat comfortably. posture:
"Now, it depends on how much the quarrel between them can weaken the Lou family's combat power, and how much time it can give the government and army to deploy troops and the opportunity to encircle them again."
The last time the siege door was not closed, Lou Zi kicked it open, so Li Dan said it was "an opportunity to encircle again."
In early February, guerrilla Li Ting led 3,000 people to Geyang, bringing news that Qianshan had been recaptured by other officers and soldiers, and that the enemies besieged in Yushan had accepted recruitment.
Guangxin Mansion was fully recovered. But the situation in Jianchang is very bad. Lou Shi stormed Nancheng with 10,000 men, and finally captured the city in two days.
This was the first city they captured. Lou Shiyong killed the captured prefect Tang Xuying to sacrifice the flag, and then officially announced the founding of the country as Tianfu and called himself the King of Heaven.
He granted his uncle Lou Zisheng King Delu, his second brother Lou Shiming King Guang'an, and his third brother Lou Shifan King Guangxin, but both of them returned their seals and declined.
In mid-February, Lou Shiyong repelled the reinforcements from Nanfeng and other places coming from the south, and then sent Long Hui up the river to occupy the weakly defended new city.
When the situation was great and the officers and soldiers were in a hurry, Yang He ran away again. He took advantage of everyone's attention to look south, broke out, slipped out of the valley of Wugong Mountain, and disappeared into the mountains of southern Hunan.
After Shi Hao confirmed the news, he apologized and mobilized 10,000 troops from Fuzhou to Jianchang Prefecture.
Zhao Chongbi transferred Tuan Lian back to Yingtan and still guarded the hinge of this gate. Now the main force in the suppression campaign has been changed to the army.
The Fujian soldiers at Shangguan failed to return to aid Guang Guang, so they had to retreat to Shaowu first. Lou Shiming has already arrived at Shaowu City, determined to win.
Li Dan was packing. He had already asked Zhao Chongbi to let Liang Mingshan take over as the training envoy of his Raozhou regiment, and then he really wanted to go home to study.
Lou Liang had already arrived in Baima in advance and moved into the "Gelu" built for him. Li Dan counted the days when he would get home, feeling a little anxious.
Footsteps sounded outside, and Liang Mingshan and Zhao Jingzi arrived hand in hand.
"Sir, Lou Shiming and Lou Shifan are both dead!"
Li Dan's hand shook and the books he was holding fell to the ground. He looked at the two of them doubtfully: "Did the Bamboo Rat say that?"
"Yes! He contacted the hero Shen urgently and said that the Lou army in Fujian is now in chaos and has no leader..."
"What happened? Lou Shiming is not so easy to die!" Li Dan still couldn't believe it.
"The incident occurred at Lou Zishi's funeral." Liang Mingshan said.
Lou has not been buried since his death. After he captured Nancheng and founded the country, Lou Shiyong found a piece of auspicious soil and sent a thousand soldiers to build his father's tomb. Then the three brothers Lou Shiming, Shifan and Shiji were notified to attend the funeral.
At the funeral, Lou Shifan lost his composure. After crying bitterly, he publicly accused his eldest brother of killing his mother and killing his father. Lou Shiyong turned pale with anger.
Qiu Keqin in the queue took advantage of Lou Shifan's unpreparedness to draw his knife. Lou Shiming was stabbed to save his younger brother, and his spine was cut off and he died on the spot. Lou Shifan stabbed Chu Keqin and fled with his horse, causing chaos at the scene.
Lou Shiyong originally did not want to pursue the case, but when he heard Lou Shifan shouting that he would raise troops to take revenge as he slipped away, he became murderous. In the end, Long Hui led his troops to catch up and shot Lou Shifan off his horse, and then ordered his subordinates to shoot him to death with random arrows.
This is really a surprise, as unexpected as it is! "I didn't expect that two brothers, Ertian Wang and Hua Jibao, would die like this, killed by their own brothers. Oh, it's so worthless!"
Li Dan sighed: "I thought that one day we would be able to see each other on the battlefield, but who would have thought that it would be like this!" He shook his head and picked up the book on the ground: "Report to Mr. Zhao, what happened in Jianchang Mansion? There’s no need for me to worry about it.”
"What do you say, sir?" Liang Mingshan asked.
"Tan Zhongxiao wrote a letter saying that he has helped the county magistrate to build Nanfeng like an iron barrel, and that the whole city has been mobilized following Yu Gan's example. It is impossible for the enemy to attack Nanfeng like they attacked Nancheng. .
Now they are in trouble again, I don’t think they can last long!
Well, Bo Liang could send someone to tell Mr. Zhao that if the enemy troops on the southern front are leaderless, it is likely that Feng Zicai, a general of Yang He's tribe, has come out to take charge. This person may be able to recruit, please pay attention to him.
In addition, tell the bamboo rat to pay attention to his own safety. If necessary, he can do something to encourage Feng Zicai to accept the recruitment, but it is not appropriate to reveal his identity. "
After the two left, Li Dan thought about it and asked Lu Jiu to find Wang Xi. "What kind of person is Feng Zicai? What are the chances of recruiting him?" he asked Wang Xi after sitting down.
"Sir, Feng Zicai has no family or children. He has always treated his nephew Feng Baishan as his own child!" Wang Xi did not answer the question directly, but said this.
"Feng Baishan? This person looks so familiar." Li Dan thought about it: "Is he the same lieutenant officer who served Yang Xing earlier?"
"Hey, sir, you have a good memory!" Wang Xi said quickly: "When things suddenly changed, we rushed to fight. Unexpectedly, the other party attacked very harshly, and the brothers were divided into several pieces and could not respond to each other.
Fortunately, Mr. Zhu arrived with the officers and soldiers later, otherwise even my life would have been in danger. Well, the point is... I found Baishan's body and buried it. I know how he died and where he was buried. "
"You want to go there yourself?"
"Is there anyone else who can go? Besides, as a former colleague of Baishan, I should explain these things to his family, right?" Wang Xi smiled bitterly. Li Dan thought about it and patted him twice on the shoulder.
The last time he walked this road, there was a huge team, but now Li Dan was only accompanied by Wu Mao, Lu Jiu, Lin Baotong and Yishi Guards.
After Shangrao was relieved of the siege, Lin Baotong's mission was completed. He then sneaked back and handed over the military intelligence work of Guangxin Mansion to Tie Chuozi, while the intelligence station was handed over to Shen Jie's apprentice Lu Shiqi.
It was not appropriate to keep two intelligence forces in the group training. Li Dan decided to withdraw the people from the intelligence department and the Shen family brothers and other people from the group training. Therefore, all the relations of the original intelligence department were transferred to the business group, called the information department.
Along the way, Li Dan learned from Lin Baotong that things in Shangrao City were not all smooth sailing. The parents of Lin Xiaotong, a member of the Qianhu Family in the Guard House, were caught by the Lou family, so they sent someone to sneak into the city to force him to open the door and dedicate the city.
Fortunately, Lin Xiaotong didn't agree immediately, so someone came to negotiate terms for him and entered the city twice, only to be exposed.
After the hero Shen reported the situation, General Yu opened the door to trap and kill hundreds of enemy troops in Wengcheng, and shot Lin Xiaotong dead. The enemy's plan finally failed. This happened the day before Lou Zishi withdrew from the siege, and it was probably his last attempt.
"When Brother Maocai comes back this time, I am actually thinking that I need to send someone to Shangjing as my representative. On the surface, he can be the treasurer of the business group, and he can contact and arrange transactions on my behalf in Shangjing." Li Dan told Wu Mao. .
"Why, Master, do you really want to continue working in the officialdom?" Wu Mao asked with a smile: "Aren't you afraid of falling into the dye vat and being dyed black?"
"No confidence at all!" Li Dan criticized: "How could we know that we didn't dye them red little by little?"
"There's so much black, it's so difficult!"
"So I want to take part in the imperial examination, get to know more candidates, establish my prestige in the literary world, and then slowly attract people who share the same ideals. When our number exceeds theirs, the color of the water in this tank will also change. !”
Li Dan looked at Wu Mao: "The Chen family has been recalled by the emperor, and I think your majesty is still a wise monarch.
If there is no one to assist him, he is alone and can easily be led astray by those scholar-bureaucrats. But if I am here, at least he will not end up like Emperor Sui Yang! "
"You actually compare Emperor Yang to today?" Wu Mao's brows moved in surprise, and he couldn't help but want to open the car door to see if anyone was eavesdropping.
"The wheels are rolling. Even if I shout twice, you may not be heard outside." Li Dan saw his thoughts and smiled to comfort him, and then continued:
"Yang Guang is handsome, knowledgeable, talented, knowledgeable, talented in literature and martial arts. The only thing he lacks is a good minister.
Look at the things he did: opening the canal, building the Eastern Capital, destroying Nanchen, conquering Tuyuhun, and conquering Goguryeo. There were profound considerations behind each of them, and they were all large-scale actions.
It's a pity that he was too impatient in character and executed a large number of heroes for the sake of the stability of the throne, which led to him cutting off his own wings. There were only those sycophantic villains around him to help him.
Later, conquests and constructions were too frequent, and people's power was abused. The state was unable to provide relief in the face of disasters, and relations with famous nobles and nobles became tense and suspicious.
All these eventually led to the sudden demise of the glorious Sui Dynasty.
Therefore, a wise and decisive monarch is indispensable to the country, but if the monarch is too self-righteous and there are no ministers around to correct him, it may turn into a disaster for the people of the world.
Such is the relationship between blessing and misfortune! I wanted to take the imperial examination in order to get close to the emperor and find an opportunity to vindicate the Chen family's grievances. Now he has to take part in the imperial examination, but it is to assist the emperor, so that the empire can learn from the old and adopt the new, so that it can sprout again. "
"Well, the former is private and the latter is public. There is no great change." Wu Mao handed over his hand: "Mao is willing to be the pioneer of the young master. In order to make Yu Nei clear and improve the administration of officials, we will fight hard together with the young master!"
"Okay!" Li Dan was very happy: "After you arrive in Shangjing, first go to Sihaiju Restaurant to find Leopard Wang Jinsheng. He is the person in charge of our Chashan Society in Shangjing, and he also has information channels. I will ask him to try his best to assist you. .
After you are familiar with the situation, you can decide for yourself what appearance and status you will have in Shangjing, and how to carry out it. Please write to me directly to tell you how much manpower and funds you need, and I will designate one person to be our dedicated messenger. "
The closer he got to home, the happier Li Dan felt. He had never noticed such beautiful scenery on this road before. He looked at it with interest, and also paid attention to how people in the fields worked in spring plowing and what tools they used.
Sometimes we stop the motorcade and walk to the edge of the field to chat with fellow villagers. Those villagers didn't know that this kind young master was Li Sanlang, whom they called "eyes like lightning". They only thought that this man was easy to talk and not polite.
He was away as a soldier for a year and was not even at home during the New Year. As soon as Li Dan entered the house, he helped Xiao Qian to the front seat, respectfully kowtowed, and then asked Lu Jiu to present the gifts he had brought to his aunt.
Of course, my daughter-in-law also has some, but naturally I only bring out the good things at night to make her happy. The whole family either received gifts or rewards, and they were all so happy that it seemed like the next year was over.
After waking up again after a crazy night, Li Dan propped up his elbows, looked at Xu Ying who was frowning on the ground, and murmured: "The snow is rolling along with the green pine trees. This meaning is lingering. Who can say that I am in a light mood?" My husband's return is delayed, and we meet each other for half a year."
Xu Ying turned around, slapped him on the forehead, and scolded him with a smile: "You little brat, you got an advantage and behaved well, but you still dare to tease him with crooked poems. Just be more honest, be careful, Ning'er will eat you tonight!"
Li Dan laughed, lying on his back and said, you two can eat whatever you want, there is only so much meat anyway.
Yutong came in and said with a smile: "Brother, please get up quickly. The sun is already getting taller. If you don't do it again, my aunt will say that we are ignorant."
"This is impossible, at least Sister Ying will never do it, unless you, Yutong, are ignorant."
Li Dan slapped the girl, which made Yu Tong blush like a cloth, and spat: "You treat your kindness like a donkey's liver and lungs, but you slap him on the back! Didn't you swear that you want to study? What kind of study is this?"
"Hey, don't be impatient!" Li Dan rested his hands on his head and stared at the ceiling: "A hundred pieces of gold can't be exchanged for free time, and a thousand birds rarely see an empty forest. Let me enjoy this feeling for a while.
Alas, I am finally relieved without an official position! I've been so busy this year that I don't even know how I got through it. This is just the three places of Rao, Guang, and Fu. If I were granted the title of Marquis and Prime Minister, I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to sleep well! "
When Xu Ying and Yu Tong heard him describe themselves in this way, they were stunned for a moment and then laughed. Li Dan felt extremely comfortable watching the two of them trembling with flowers.
Some people died, but not completely...
