Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 92: Destroying the Salt Merchants

According to historical records, Wei Yinghong, the prefect of Yangzhou, defended Yangzhou against the Huaiyin army for fourteen days. When he saw that the situation was hopeless and the outcome was decided, he led a thousand remaining soldiers out of the city to surrender.

Fang Yong looked at this rare loyal minister of Daxi with great interest.

"Success or failure is already determined. I have nothing to say. A loyal minister does not serve two masters. Now I only wish to die quickly."

Wei Yinghong closed his eyes.

Fang Yong chuckled twice and shook his head:
"You think too highly of yourself, but in my eyes you are not that important."

After saying that, Fang Yong left, leaving Wei Yinghong alone in a daze.

The people in Yangzhou City were celebrating the arrival of the Huaiyin Army with great joy, and Mr. Ma Erye's door was knocked again.

It’s still Sun Wan.

But this time, Sun Wan's face was full of smiles.

The fat on his face turned into a smile, creating wrinkles, and the mole turned into a funny and festive look, like a eloquent matchmaker.

"Master Ma, the men of the Huaiyin Army know about the passage you edited, and now they want you to tell the story!"

……

Fang Yong did not stay in Yangzhou for long.

He kept Zhou Shuan to be in charge of garrisoning Yangzhou and establishing military settlements; he transferred Jin Zhi, the top scorer in the imperial examination, to temporarily take charge of government affairs; and as for business, he handed it over to Huang Wenzhou.

There is a small thing to mention here.

That was the salt merchant who betrayed Huang Wenzhou.

In the past, Huang Wenzhou entered Yangzhou ahead of time on Fang Yong's orders, contacted the salt merchant families in the Yangzhou area, made great promises, and bribed them to open the city from the inside.

At that time, a total of five to six hundred people gathered, including two hundred from the Zheng family, one hundred and fifty from the Wang family, one hundred from the Wu family, one hundred from the Jiang family, and fifty from the old Huang family.

Although the other three families did not contribute anyone, they also contributed.

However, the news eventually leaked out, and Huang Wenzhou was blocked in Yanyue Cave by soldiers who had ambushed him in advance. Hundreds of his men were wiped out, and Huang Wenzhou was also arrested and thrown into prison, where he was tortured.

Afterwards, Fang Yong captured Yangzhou. Lin Ruhai knocked Wei Yinghong unconscious and surrendered on his behalf. Huang Wenzhou was also rescued.

The rescued Huang Wenzhou was wrapped in gauze and kneeling in front of Fang Yong with tears in his eyes.

"General! Bo Wen (Huang Wenzhou's name) was incompetent and failed to detect the traitor, which caused our army to be blocked in Yangzhou for more than ten days. This is all my fault!"

Fang Yong helped Huang Wenzhou up.

He did not blame Huang Wenzhou for the defeat.

Huang Wenzhou might be lacking in ability, but he had a blood feud with the imperial court and was loyal to himself, making him a rare talent.

Lin Ruhai once told him that Huang Wenzhou was tortured severely in prison and ultimately did not utter a word.

Although Wei Yinghong claimed to be a gentleman and forbade the use of extreme torture during the interrogation, those ordinary torture methods were already very painful. Huang Wenzhou was definitely a man for being able to endure it.

"Victory and defeat are common in the military. You were betrayed by a traitor and suffered a tragic defeat. How can I blame you? I have sent people to surround the two families who betrayed you. You can deal with them yourself."

Fang Yong said.

Huang Wenzhou was very moved after hearing this.

"Bo Wen thanks the general for his forgiveness, but I still don't know which two families betrayed me. I think it must be the people from the three families who are unwilling to sell out their people!"

Fang Yong shook his head:
"No, it's the Zheng and Wang families."

Huang Wenzhou was shocked and said in disbelief:

"It's actually these two families! How is it possible? They are the ones who contributed the most manpower!"

Fang Yong shook his head.

This is the information given by Lin Ruhai, it is basically impossible to be false.

Fang Yong simply explained:

"The reason is that most of your family's businesses are occupied by these two families." Huang Wenzhou stood there in a daze, unable to calm down for a long time.

After the Huang family was wiped out by Shanguogong, the remaining properties were taken over by the Zheng and Wang families. After Huang Wenzhou returned, the Zheng and Wang families were afraid that Huang Wenzhou would take back the property, so they designed to reveal Huang Wenzhou's plan to Wei Yinghong, intending to get rid of Huang Wenzhou through Wei Yinghong...

Soon, the Huaiyin army began to settle accounts with the Zheng and Wang families.

Under the leadership of Huang Wenzhou, the Zheng and Wang families were killed, all family members and relatives of the two families were killed, and their houses were dug up three feet deep.

It literally means digging three feet into the ground.

Because Huang Wenzhou, who came from a salt merchant family, knew too well how these people would hide their wealth.

Sure enough, after digging three feet into the ground, they found several hidden passages, all of which were the places where the two families hid their gold and silver, and they were filled with countless gold and silver.

After final statistics, it was found that more than 8 million taels of silver in cash were seized from the Zheng and Wang families alone, and countless other pearls, jades, antiques, calligraphy and paintings. The total amount was definitely far more than 10 million taels.

It was a pity that the eldest sons of the two families fled across the river with part of their assets before the city was broken, otherwise they would have obtained even more money this time.

Fang Yong really made a fortune this time.

Gold and silver are absolute hard currencies at all times.

A large amount of gold and silver was transported to Huaizhou. Gan Ba, who was originally preparing to retire, was called up again by Fang Yong and began to recruit troops and train soldiers.

Xue Dacui's caravan also started to operate, stockpiling various war supplies.

Originally according to the previous war budget, Fang Yong was planning to stop and recuperate after taking Suzhou and half of Huizhou. Now with this windfall, he can directly capture the entire Huizhou and tear open a hole in Zhejiang by the way, to prepare for the future capture of Jiangnan.

Soon, Fang Yong began to lead his troops into Jinling.

There is a city nearby along the way called Zhenjiang.

As the name suggests, this is a fortified city that cannot be ignored after crossing the river.

However, this city was not included in Fang Yong’s strategic goal this time.

The strategy he planned this time was to capture Yangzhou, then march into Jinling and then attack Chuzhou.

On the other side, after Ma Laohei captured Xuzhou, he marched into the Huaibei and Huainan areas.

The two formed a pincer attack and swallowed up most of Huizhou in one bite.

As for Zhenjiang, it is not included in his strategy this time. As long as Zhou Shuan can guard Yangzhou without any problems, Zhenjiang will not pose any threat to him and he can deal with it slowly later.

On this side, Fang Yong led his troops by land and sea to attack Jinling.

The prefect of Jinling is called Meng Kang. He was originally the fifth-rank prefect of Jiangning, and is now temporarily serving as the prefect of Jinling.

Upon hearing that the Huaiyin bandit army was attacking, Meng Kang was terrified and worried all day long.

This was because Jinling had fallen into the hands of thieves before, and the powerful people in the city were either killed or fled. Even after it was recaptured by Duke Shanguo, the city was still in ruins.

Meng Kang was temporarily appointed as the prefect of Nanjing. He had just taken office and had no foundation. He had no idea how to fight against the Huaiyin bandits.

More importantly, the city's defenders were extremely scarce and lacked soldiers and generals. Wang Ziteng took away almost all the government troops, leaving almost no one behind except for some city guards who were guarding the gates.

On this day, Meng Kang was worried about the Huaiyin bandits.

One of his men came uninvited and quietly entered Meng Kang's study.

"Master, are you still worried about the Huaiyin Army?"

Meng Kang was very suspicious when he heard this. He took a look at the door, but found it to be nothing special.

"you are?"

Meng Kang asked.

The doorman did not answer, but winked and looked at the servants around Meng Kang.

Meng Kang then signaled the servants around him to retreat.

(End of this chapter)