Fang Han was wearing a tight-fitting jacket. For the convenience of movement, he did not wear armor and was dressed like a bandit. Under the escort of the third team of the Guards Bureau B, he entered outside the bandit camp in the north of Kaifeng City.
In order not to alert the rebels, he asked most of the brothers in the third team to stay where they were. He took only two cavalry and sneaked outside the rebel camp to the gates of Kaifeng City. Fortunately, he was not discovered by the rebels.
But in the cold winter night, the cold wind was howling, and it was so dark and the wind was high. The soldiers who defended the city Yong did not say anything and let him off the drawbridge. Fang Han kept talking until he finally reported Su Zhuang's name.
Guanhe Tongzhi Sang Kaidi, who was responsible for guarding the north gate of Kaifeng, agreed to lower the suspension bridge. After Fang Han and the other three riders crossed the suspension bridge, the guards retracted the suspension bridge and slowly opened a gap in the north gate of Kaifeng.
Fang Han and others filed in, and were disarmed one by one as soon as they entered the city gate. Dozens of defenders in the city gate were bravely waiting with swords and guns in hand. Fang Han could also understand the reason why they were so vigilant.
After all, there are no generals or soldiers in charge of Kaifeng at this time. It is not easy for these civil servants to lead a group of common people and brave men to guard Kaifeng so tightly. It is understandable that they should be stricter with themselves and others.
He obediently handed over the autographed letter from the Taoist Su Qiang. Several local warriors took the letter and ran to send it to Sang Kaidi, and took away their horses. Fang Han and the other three were blamed for being trapped in the doorway.
Not allowed to move even half a step, he had no choice but to cooperate with a wry smile.
Sang Kaidi and Su Zhuang were officials in the same city. Although they managed different affairs, they still had some contact with each other on weekdays. When he saw it, it was written by Su Zhuang himself, and the letter stated that he would patrol Gao Mingheng and Zuo Bu.
The two political envoys, Liang Bing, personally initiated the ceremony.
The day before yesterday, Su Zhuang and more than ten people rode out of the north gate to ask for help. He had personally ordered the city gate to be opened. Now that he had received a reply, he was extremely excited and shouted hurriedly: "Hurry, prepare your horses quickly, I will
Take three warriors to meet with the Governor and the Chief Envoy!"
Before leaving, he gave special instructions: "Take good care of the city gates and strengthen patrols on the city. Don't be careless!"
…………
On this day, it was cloudy and very cold.
The rebel soldiers fought for half a day outside the city and almost filled up the trenches on all sides. Even the corpses of the hungry people who were killed outside the trench were filled into the trench and mixed with the soil to fill up the trench.
The soldiers and civilians defending the city also fought hard all day long, but could not stop the hungry people from filling the trenches. As the trenches were filled up one after another, they became more frightened. Everyone knew that the rebels would attack the city tomorrow.
Rumors abounded in the city, saying that after the intruder Li Zicheng captured Kaifeng, he planned to kill all the men in the city, leaving only the women to be distributed among his soldiers and generals, and children under the age of sixteen to serve as soldiers.
In Kaifeng City, there are the governor's yamen, the chief envoy's yamen, the inspector's yamen, and the commander's yamen. In addition, there are also road, government, and county yamen, most of which are concentrated in the area southwest of the Zhou palace.
There is a tall archway on the north side of Henan Governor's Yamen West Street, with the words "General Constitution" written on it.
After entering the archway, we passed a stone's throw. There were three gates to the north. There was a sign in the middle that read "Henan and other places punished by prosecutors", and there was another sign on the left that read "Question the corrupt officials."
", and there is also a sign on the right that reads "Justice and injustice against the soldiers and civilians."
This is the Henan Xunjian Yamen, commonly known as Naitai Yamen. In front of the gate, two tall stone lions glared at the people walking on the street with their bulging eyes.
After nightfall, silvery snowflakes fell from the sky, and the white snow made Zhensi Yamen look even more solemn.
More than ten social soldiers formed a team and walked through the street. Although the leader of the team did not recognize Sangkaidi, they saw him coming with several cavalry escorts, and he was dressed in official uniform and riding on a tall horse.
He gave in and didn't ask any questions.
Going further, you will see the tall and majestic archway in front of the Xunjian Yamen. Behind the Yimen is the dark lintel. The red lanterns under the lintel emit a strange light, making the Xunjian Yamen look even more deep and gloomy.
There were four guard sergeants standing on the steps with their hands on the hilts of their swords. They were all unarmored and wore the Ming army's standard red mandarin duck war jackets. They looked extremely heroic amidst the silvery white everywhere.
From a distance, I saw a group of knights galloping towards me on horseback through the snow. They had been on duty at various government offices such as Zhensi Yamen for a long time, and they had long been familiar with the officials in the city. In the light of the fire, it was Sang Kaidi, a fellow official of Guan He, who came in person.
, a guard hurriedly ran down the steps to greet him.
He took the horse's rein from Sang Kaidi's hand and said hurriedly: "Sir Sang, my lord is still at the west gate and has not returned. Are you here to see my lord for something urgent?"
Sang Kaidi shouted anxiously: "Hurry up, get on my horse and ask Gao Xun to return to the government office as soon as possible. Let's say Mr. Su has received a message."
He just turned over and dismounted, and added eagerly: "Separate one person and ask the chief envoy, Mr. Liang, to come to the Yamen to discuss the important military matters."
The two guards galloped off on horseback, and the remaining two hurriedly called the concierge to invite Sang Kai's first group into the Yamen of Zhensi, waiting for the arrival of Gao Mingheng, Liang Jing and others.
All the officials of the Inspectorate and Inspectorate followed Inspector Gao Mingheng to the west gate wall to participate in city defense matters. Even if they did not go to the city to garrison, they participated in city defense in various places in the city. There was only one senior seventh-rank experience officer Fu Zhengyang in the government office who stayed behind.
When he heard that Guanhe Tong knew that Sang Kaidi had come to the office at a critical time to defend the city, he knew that there must be something big going on. He hurriedly went out to welcome Sang Kaidi and invited him into the office.
Behind the lobby of the Yamen, and after entering the courtyard, is the second hall. In addition to the official hall in the middle, the second hall has East and West Warm Pavilions on both sides, which are where meetings are usually held.
After experiencing this, Fu Zhengyang led Sang Kaidi and the other four people to the warm pavilion on the east side of the second entrance to the courtyard, and ordered the servants in the government office to serve fragrant tea. In order to prevent Sang Kaidi from sitting dry, he started talking softly to Sang Kaidi.
But his eyes were not fixed on Fang Han. He didn't understand why Sang Kaidi brought three thieves-looking men to patrol the Yamen, and even left his own bodyguards in the concierge to lead this group alone.
The three of them went straight into the second hall.
It wasn't that Fu Zhengyang didn't trust Sang Kaidi, but he just felt that there must be something fishy going on. There was a lot of probing in his words, and he kept asking about the situation of the traitors filling the trench outside the north gate.
Although he was doubtful in his heart, he didn't dare to ask openly. After all, Sang Kaidi's rank was too much higher than his. He didn't want to say clearly that there must be a reason. After a while, he said: "Master Sang, please sit down for a moment.
I'm going to see if my lord is back."
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In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the old system of the Yuan Dynasty was followed, and Xing Zhongshu Province was set up in various places. There were provincial Pingzhang and political affairs, left and right prime ministers, and counselors and political affairs officials.
In the thirteenth year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang executed Prime Minister Hu Weiyong and related officials for nefarious plots. At the same time, he announced that the Zhongshu Province would be abolished and the post of prime minister would no longer be established.
At the local level, the original provincial system was also abolished, and instead the administrative envoys' offices, also known as vassal offices, were established in each province. There was one left and right administrative envoy, each in charge of the civil affairs of a province, and divided into government offices.
Prefectures and counties are governed by six ministries of the central government.
There is a Prosecution and Prosecution Envoy Department, also known as the Zhensi Yamen. There is one person, the Provincial Censor, also known as the Provincial Procurator. It is responsible for supervising the judicial and criminal prisons of a province. It takes orders from the Ministry of Punishment and the Supervisory Office and is directly responsible to the emperor.
.
The responsibility for the military defense of this province falls on the shoulders of the Commander-in-Chief Division. The Commander-in-Chief Division is in charge of the Military Household Guard Station of a province and takes orders from the Ministry of War and the Fifth Army Commander-in-Chief Office.
The three were separated and restrained each other, preventing excessive local power from jeopardizing imperial power.
At this time, not only the highest administrative officer of the province, Governor Li Xianfeng, was not in the city, but also the officer in charge of military affairs, Chen Yongfu, was not in the city. The governor, Gao Mingheng, was very insightful, courageous and resourceful in times of trouble, and he was more daring to take on tasks and was not afraid of taking on responsibilities.
responsibility.
The Kaifeng city guards relied on him to make decisions on all matters, and he had apparently replaced the Fu minister Li Xianfeng as the head of Kaifeng officials.
After Gao Mingheng received the report, he ordered the promotion officer Huang Shu and Cao Kun and Li Yingchun of the Zhou Palace to stay behind, regardless of the wind, snow and severe cold. He hurriedly went down to the Ximen Tower with several entourage guards, and galloped to the Si Yamen in the wind and snow.