Gao Heng's army moved very quickly and took control of more than a hundred people defending the city. The remaining two to three hundred people were directly blocked by a company of firecrackers in the military camp. The combat effectiveness of the guardsmen was too low, their military pay was withheld all year round, and their morale was also very low.
After all the general's cronies were controlled, the remaining soldiers basically had no will to resist. They couldn't even get one tael of silver a month as military pay, so they couldn't risk their lives. Furthermore, these invaders all had Han faces and spoke Chinese. When they were asked to put down their weapons, the soldiers obediently put down their weapons.
As soon as it got light, the residents of Yazhou who got up early discovered something strange. The defenders in the city and the Ming troops patrolling the streets disappeared. They were replaced by groups of soldiers dressed completely differently from them. It was already time to open the city gate, but the gate was still closed, with no sign of opening.
The people were in an uproar. Although Qiongzhou Prefecture had not experienced a war for many years, the sudden appearance of these unidentified armed men still shocked the people. Could it be that pirates came in?
Everyone quickly ran home and closed the doors and windows. Everyone watched the movement at the door nervously, fearing that their own door would be knocked.
"My lord, my lord, it's not good, it's not good. Come and have a look. Come and have a look." The Yazhou government office is located in the city. The prefect Chang Hong hasn't gotten up yet, unlike officials in other places. , Chang Hong was sent to Yazhou to be an official. He was full of complaints. Who would want to be an official in such a place?
People say that if you clear the prefecture in three years, you will earn one hundred thousand snowflakes and silver. But in this hellish place, there is little water and clear soup, and there is basically no oil or water to be fished out. Chang Hong came here to basically hang out. He hoped that one day Shangguan would be merciful and transfer him from this hellish place to the inland. Originally, he still had some hope. Qiongzhou Prefecture was under the jurisdiction of Guangdong and Guangxi, and he would move up and down from time to time. However, with the corruption of the government, the personnel transfer work above basically stopped. Naturally, no one cared about the promotion and transfer of Qiongzhou, a remote place.
On the other hand, Chang Hong is actually safe here. It is good to go inland, but who knows when the Liu bandits and Jianlu will come over? Don't waste your time making money but not spending it. After figuring this out, Chang Hong just muddle along and just stay here, not getting up early to go to work every day, just living in a muddle.
But early this morning, while Chang Hong was still sleeping, a government servant ran into the backyard in a panic and shouted. Chang Hong was naturally woken up. He turned over and sat up and started to curse, "What are you shouting about so early in the morning? What a shame!" Chang Hong cursed and got up to open the door to see which yamen servant was not smart.
With a crash, the door was opened, and what came into view were the panicked faces of several government servants and servants. Chang Hong was a little confused as to what was happening.
The class leader rushed up the steps and pointed in the direction of the yamen door: "Master! Outside the door, outside the door, he, he, they." He tried his best to control his nervousness, but his words were still incoherent. Chang Hong felt bored for a while. This guy was usually quite calm, so why did he become like this today.
"Get out of the way, I'll go see it myself." Chang Hong glared. Immediately, he pulled the class leader aside and strode toward the front hall. As soon as he entered the front hall, he felt something strange. The yamen door was closed tightly, and a group of yamen servants blocked the door, holding waist knives and wind and fire sticks in their hands, facing the direction of the door.
Chang Hong walked quickly behind the yamen servant, and then he realized that many people's calves were trembling. Chang Hong separated from the crowd, looked out through the small window on the door, and almost sat down on the ground. Outside the door, hundreds of heavily armed soldiers were aiming in the direction of the door with muskets. A general wearing a helmet and armor stood in front of the soldiers. Judging from the dress of this group of people, it was obvious that they were not Ming soldiers.
So, what about the Ming army in Yazhou? Where are Mr. Wang and the others? Chang Hong didn't dare to think anymore, and big beads of sweat instantly fell from his forehead.
It was Gao Heng who stood outside the gate. His troops were very fast. He was too lazy to ask the people one by one about the whereabouts of Sun Yuanhua's descendants. They were here anyway, so he simply led his troops to the Yamen directly. He believed that Zhizhou would definitely know the answer to the question.
"Lord Zhizhou, open the door. We have no ill intentions, we just want to find someone here. If we find someone, we will leave." Gao Henggong said.
"Who are you? Are you pirates? Why do you want to invade Qiongzhou? I advise you to leave immediately, otherwise when the Ming army arrives, you will be unable to fly." Chang Hong said boldly.
Gao Heng laughed loudly, "My lord, you are joking. Even if the Ming army from the government office comes over, it will take some time. If your lord does not cooperate, you will be in danger now."
"How dare you threaten the imperial officials!" Chang Hong shouted.
"I don't belong to the Ming Dynasty. I don't care which court you belong to. I don't care. I just want someone. Give it to me and I'll leave. I'm counting to three now. If you don't open the door, I will open the door." After that, Gao Heng waved his hand, and soldiers had already brought up a squatting tiger cannon and placed it in front of the gate with a bang.
The government officials immediately dispersed, and artillery bombarded the door. The broken wooden door of the state government office could not withstand it.
The moment he saw the artillery, Chang Hong was scared. He immediately ordered the left and right to open the door. Gao Heng strode up the steps and stood directly in front of Chang Hong.
Only then did Chang Hong see clearly that he was a young general in front of him, but his clothes were different from those of the Central Plains, and the soldiers behind him were not dressed as Ming soldiers. Gao Heng spoke first: "Sir, you don't need to know who I am or where we come from. You can just treat us as pirates. The king and his soldiers you mentioned are still alive. Let's take them They are locked up in a military camp, and this place is under our control for the time being. We are just looking for people, and we will leave immediately if we find them."
Chang Hong stammered: "Nana, who are you looking for?"
Gao Heng said: "Sun Yuanhua's descendants were exiled to Yazhou. Where are they now? I want to see them immediately."
Descendants of Sun Yuanhua? Chang Hong was stunned and searched frantically in his mind. This really cannot be blamed on Chang Hong. Sun Yuanhua was killed more than ten years ago, and his descendants were exiled to Qiongzhou more than ten years ago. Although Chang Hong has been an official here for five or six years, This incident happened during his tenure.
After they were exiled to Qiongzhou, they must have been arranged by the government to live in some remote place in the countryside. Chang Hong would not care about the families of the prisoners when he came here, so let alone ordinary residents of Yazhou, even Chang Hong himself could not figure it out. this matter.
"What, you don't know?" Gao Heng said solemnly.
Chang Hong swallowed, obviously not knowing that this answer would definitely not meet the needs of the pirate leader in front of him. Although he did not know what the descendants of Sun Yuanhua were related to this person, he knew that Sun Yuanhua himself was the former governor of Denglai. , maybe he had a grudge with the pirates during his tenure. It is never too late for a gentleman to seek revenge after ten years. Now that he is seeking revenge from his descendants, there is no need for him to wade through this muddy water.
Just when Chang Hong was at a loss what to do, a government official raised his hand and said: "Big sir, sir, little man knows."
"Huh?" Gao Heng immediately walked up to this person, "You know?"
"Speak quickly, speak quickly." Chang Hong urged. This may be related to his life and fortune. Don't anger these pirates and start killing them. That would be an unreasonable disaster.
"The villain was originally from Jiubao Village outside the city. A group of outsiders came to our neighboring village more than ten years ago. At first glance, they came from a wealthy family. The officers and soldiers told the village chief that they must be guarded and not allowed to leave the village. , and later this group of people settled here. There were three brothers among them, who should be middle-aged now. Seeing that we didn’t have a private school there, we set up a private school in the village. They taught children to read and write for free. They were very popular among everyone. Respect, I came out early, but I still vaguely remember that the three brothers’ surname is Sun.” said the Yamen servant.
Gao Heng immediately grabbed his arm and said: "Lead the way forward. If you are right, you will be rewarded heavily."
The officer had no choice but to plead: "I don't need the reward. I just ask the military master to let the villain live."
A quarter of an hour later, Gao Heng told Pudman and others to keep an eye on the city and the defenders. He followed the government officials with twenty guards, requisitioned several carriages, and immediately set off for the outside of the city.
When they arrived near Jiubao Village, the mountain road was difficult to navigate, so they had no choice but to abandon the carriage and hike into the hilly mountains. After more than an hour, they finally saw several small mountain villages with smoke rising from the kitchen ahead.
This place should be said to be a depression surrounded by hills, with several small mountain villages located in sequence. The mountain villages are not large in size. The total number of villages can have more than a hundred households.
The government officials took them into the village. The people in the village were obviously afraid of this group of uninvited guests and avoided them. The children were led into the yard by the adults at home. Gao Heng finally managed to hold on to an old man with handicapped legs. When the old man saw this group of people armed and fierce, he immediately waved his hand and said: "There is nothing in the village. We are all poor. You go, go."
Gao Heng couldn't laugh or cry. It was obvious that his group of people were dressed differently from the Ming army, which scared these people and made them think they were bad guys. Gao Heng clasped his fists and said: "Old man, we have no ill intentions. We are here to find the descendants of Mr. Sun Yuanhua. I would like to ask, are there any middle-aged people named Sun in your village?"
"They are the three brothers of the Sun family." the yamen officer added.
The old man looked at Gao Heng, shook his head and said, "No, there is no one named Sun." Gao Heng looked into the old man's eyes. His eyes were evasive, and he was obviously lying. It seemed that he had misunderstood that he was here to come. The Sun family is in trouble.
"What are you going to do!" Just as Gao Heng was about to explain, several middle-aged men wearing burlap clothes appeared at the end of the village. The leader stood up and said, "Who are you? Why do you come to us?"
"Mr. Sun, go quickly, go quickly, they are here to find you." The old man said hurriedly.
Gao Heng's eyes lit up. Is this the person he is looking for?
"Come to me?" The middle-aged man was stunned. Gao Heng said quickly: "We are looking for the descendants of Mr. Sun Yuanhua."
The middle-aged man smiled and said, "This day has come. It seems that the court still refuses to let us go. It's now time and we still have to eradicate the roots. I am the eldest son Sun He Ding. If anything happens to me, come to me."
"Sir, please let Mr. Sun go. They are good people. They are good people." The road in the village was crowded with villagers at some point, and they knelt down and begged.
"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding, Mr. Sun, I am not from the imperial court. I came to see Mr. Sun this time to discuss important matters, so I had no choice but to use this method. Mr. Sun, please understand, this is not the place to talk. , why don't we find a place to talk slowly." Gao Heng stepped forward and said.
Sun and Ding were also confused. This group of people was not from the imperial court, but they were not dressed as Ming soldiers. "You are?" he asked.
"Mr. Sun, we are from Annan. It's a long story, so why not." Gao Heng said.
"Well, come with me." Sun Heding said.
Gao Heng turned around and said to the guards: "I will come as soon as I go. You can stay and don't disturb the people."
"General, this." Fan Yu hesitated.
Gao Heng winked, indicating that it didn't matter. Sun Heding took Gao Heng to his small courtyard. Gao Heng took a look at the small courtyard, with low walls and three bungalows. Through the small wooden door, you can hear the clucking sound of the old hen inside. Looking through the wall, you can see that there is no one in the courtyard, only a black dog lying in the small courtyard.
Gao Heng said with a smile: "I didn't expect Mr. Sun to live a life of picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing Nanshan."
Sun Heding and his two brothers had serious faces and did not answer. After inviting Gao Heng in, Sun Heding moved in a few small wooden stools and said, "The conditions are simple. Please make do with it. I just heard them calling you general. It seems that He is also a person of high authority.”
Gao Heng immediately said: "Sir, you misunderstood, we are not evil people." At that moment, Gao Heng introduced himself and Xinghuajun to Sun Heding and others. In the process, he also learned that standing behind the middle-aged man, the slightly older The younger two are his younger brothers Sun Hedou and Sun Hejing.
After Gao Heng finished speaking, the three of them recovered from the shock. They always felt that Gao Heng's experience was too legendary to be true, but he actually appeared in front of them. Others didn't know, but Sun and Ding knew clearly that if they didn't It is impossible to come here fully armed to control the state city. It seems that what Gao Heng said is true.
Sun He Dingfa asked: "But why are you traveling thousands of miles across the ocean to come here to look for me? What's the use of looking for me? I'm just a scholar, I'm of no use to you."
Gao Heng said: "No, sir, you are not a scholar. I believe that one of you three brothers must be a descendant of Lord Sun. Now the Ming Dynasty is dim, the country is in danger, and the ship is about to capsize. Don't you, sir, want to do something for the people of the world? Lord Sun was unjustly killed. Such a court is not worthy of allegiance, but I can guarantee the safety of the people in Annan. If there is a chance to restore the Central Plains in the future and save hundreds of millions of people from disaster, I, Gao Heng, am willing to pay for this one ten thousandth Take a chance."
