Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 37: Hidden Teeth and Claws

But when Shanguogong led his troops through Huaizhou, he had heard that there was a bandit group from Huaiyin with 100,000 soldiers attacking Huaizhou. Shanguogong was very cautious and sent people to investigate the city.

Several scouts entered Huaizhou City and, after questioning, discovered that the Huaiyin bandits had been frightened and fled in all directions upon hearing that Duke Shanguo's army had arrived. The leader of the bandits had hidden in a large swamp three days in advance.

The scouts also asked questions among the people and obtained similar intelligence.

There were children singing nursery rhymes on the street.

The Huaiyin thief has gold and jade as his badge.

The soldiers and horses are actually straw bags.

Lie that there is strength in numbers,
When he saw Shanjun, he was so scared that he ran away!
After hearing this, the scout let down his guard and went back to report.

After receiving the report from the scout, Duke Shanguo not only did not relax, but became even more cautious.

"Children's songs are mostly made up by people with ulterior motives, so they are not to be trusted. Xie Jing, immediately lead people to conduct a thorough search inside and outside the city, especially to check for any objects that can be ignited by kerosene, in case the enemy army sets an ambush!"

Xie Jing took the order and immediately led his troops there.

After searching everywhere for a long time, no ambush was found.

Duke Shanguo could only enter the city with doubts in his heart.

After entering the city, Duke Shanguo immediately sent people to find local villagers to inquire about the information of the Huaiyin bandits.

Soon, the soldiers found six villagers from the city.

After some inquiries, something shocking happened to Duke Shanguo. It turned out that all the six villagers he found were loyal to the Huaiyin bandits and were very uncooperative.

There was no other way, so Duke Shan had to offer a huge profit. After raising the price to forty taels of silver, someone finally agreed to speak.

The others saw this and cursed at the man.

"Niu Qi, you beast, if it weren't for General Fang you would have died of exhaustion from corvée labor. You ungrateful thing, you betrayed General Fang, you will not die a good death!"

Niu Qi lowered his head in shame.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, General Fang, but I want my child to go to school..."

Soon, Niu Qi informed Duke Shanguo and all the generals about Fang Yong's actions in the city, without any detail.

After listening to this, Duke Shan was silent for a long time, then waved his hand and said, "Xie Jing, take him down to claim the reward!"

Niu Qi kept kneeling and kowtow.

That’s great, that’s great. Forty taels of silver is something he couldn’t save in his entire lifetime.

With this money, his son would not have to work like him, and could study and wear the robes of a scholar...

Niu Qi fantasized.

As for General Fang, oh~ I'm sorry, General Fang is a good man, he rescued me from corvée labor, and arranged work for me, and after I made money, I paid much less tax. Such a good man... should not mind me betraying him...

"Hey, sir, aren't you going to collect the reward? Why did you bring me to the backyard?"

Xie Jing looked at Niu Qi with contempt.

"Humph, you snob, traitor, are you worthy of a reward? I'll give you a knife!"

Xie Qiong drew his knife and stabbed it into Niu Qi's chest.

Niu Qi looked at the long knife on his chest unwillingly, and finally his eyes became dull and he fell down.

Xie Qiong used Niu Qi's clothes to wipe the blood off the knife, then spat in disgust and left.

Xie Jing also came from a noble family and was the grandson of Marquis Dingcheng. A mere forty taels of silver was not enough for his meal, so he had no need to accept Hei Niu Qi's reward.

The reason why he wanted to kill Niu Qi was because Xie Jing was a righteous man who hated evil and hated people like Niu Qi who were treacherous.

There is nothing he can do about what he can’t control, but he must try to control what he can!
Return to the meeting hall.

Duke Shanguo had a solemn expression on his face. After learning about Fang Yong's deeds, the battle-hardened Duke Shanguo immediately realized that Fang Yong was a great threat.

In a short period of time, he won the hearts of the people. This was not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing was that the wealthy families in the city did not express any opposition to Fang Yong's governance.

Over the years of fighting, Duke Shan had seen many rebels, but none like Fang Yong...

If possible, Duke Shanguo even wanted to leave behind half of the troops to specifically guard against the Huaiyin bandits.

However, this idea was quickly and ruthlessly rejected by General Zhou.

The so-called Zhou Jianjun, also known as Zhou Gonggong, was a trusted eunuch of Emperor Longqing. He was sent specifically to control Shanguogong. His purpose was to prevent Shanguogong from eliminating dissidents in the name of suppressing rebellion and hindering the new policy.

After all, this is what the emperor did during the last Suzhou Uprising.

"Duke Shan, I don't think these Huaiyin bandits are very capable. As soon as my Daxi Heavenly Army arrived, these bandits fled in all directions. Now they have only occupied a few counties. What can they do? You sent troops here, I'm afraid you have other intentions, right?"

Duke Shanguo wanted to explain, but Eunuch Zhou didn't listen at all and directly asked Duke Shanguo to act according to the plan drawn up by the Ministry of War.

Duke Shan Guo had no choice but to give up this decision.

In order to check and balance Duke Shan, Emperor Longqing gave Eunuch Zhou very great power. As long as the battle plan was not drawn up by the Ministry of War, Eunuch Zhou could veto it.

The so-called main battle plan drawn up by the Ministry of War was to divide the troops into two routes, advancing both by land and sea. The main commander, Duke Shanguo, would lead his troops directly to Nanjing by water, while the deputy commander, Chen Ruiwen, grandson of Duke Qiguo, would lead his troops by land to support Chuzhou. The two armies would attack from the front and back and wipe out the White Lotus rebels in one fell swoop.

Among these, there was obviously no option of staying in Huaizhou to attack Fang Yong.

If Fang Yong continued to stay in Huaizhou, Duke Shanguo could still attack Fang Yong on the grounds that he was hindering the advance. Now that Fang Yong has run away, Duke Shanguo naturally has no reason to attack him.

So soon, at the urging of Eunuch Zhou, Duke Shanguo set off again and headed for Jinling.

Before leaving, Duke Shanguo was really worried about Huaizhou, so he asked the guerrilla general Xie Jing to lead 3,000 people to stay in Huaizhou, on the pretext of protecting the transportation of food and fodder.

This time the reason was legitimate, and only 3,000 people were left, so Eunuch Zhou did not object.

On the other side, Fang Yong returned to the water fort.

Duke Shanguo has not gone far yet, so he needs to lie dormant for a while. Only after Duke Shanguo and Feng Tai have fought each other, Fang Yong can prepare to attack Yancheng.

Yancheng was an important salt-producing area in Daxi.

There is no need for Fang Yong to say much about the importance of salt. As long as he takes Yancheng and then Yangzhou, it would be almost equivalent to monopolizing half of the salt in the world.

With salt as a base, Fang Yong can greatly expand his military strength. When the time comes to counterattack Huaizhou, even if it is a protracted war with Daxi, Fang Yong will not be afraid.

Thinking of this, Fang Yong happily walked towards Daiyu's residence.

She was accompanied by a little maid named Qiaoyan.

This is the poor child we rescued before.

The mother, Fang Li, was tortured to death, and the little girl was sold to a brothel and named Qiaoyan. Although she was too young to receive customers, she was still disciplined by the madam and suffered great mental trauma.

Fang Yong felt sorry for her, so he let her be a maid by his side, usually serving tea, pouring water, making the bed and folding the quilt.

After wandering around for a while, they arrived at the courtyard where Daiyu lived. From afar, they saw a little head poking out mischievously.

Fang Yong quietly came behind the little snow goose and patted it on the back!
"Ah, Third Master!"

Xueyan screamed and was startled.

Fang Yong grinned wickedly.

Xueyan puffed her lips in anger and pointed at Fang Yong, wanting to say something, but suddenly she seemed to remember something, a hint of fear appeared in her eyes, and she put her hand down again.

"what happened?"

Fang Yong was a little confused.

Little Snow Goose is usually very lively and cute, why does he seem a little scared today?
(End of this chapter)