Fei Ruhe looked at the corpse on the ground with a complicated mood.
Shen Youlong, who had been blocking him in Longchuan County for two months, committed suicide very simply and neatly. On the other hand, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Shi Wangzheng escaped quickly after being defeated and escaped into the mountains and forests, making it difficult to hunt him down.
"Look around and you won't miss even a firecracker!"
Fei Ruhe went back to clean up the battlefield, his eyes gleaming as he looked at the blazing guns.
They are all good muskets made in Foshan. Shen Youlong paid for them himself, they are not some stupid gadgets issued by the imperial court.
With Shen Youlong's main force destroyed, there is no suspense in eastern Guangdong.
Fei Ruhe returned to the outside of Heyuan County and threw Shen Youlong's body at the city gate. The guard was so frightened that he fled with his servants that night.
Huizhou Prefecture, one state and ten counties.
Chaozhou Prefecture, eleven counties.
Of these twenty-two cities, except for Huizhou Prefecture, which was still resisting, the rest were all waiting for Fei Ruhe to capture them. The prefects, magistrates, county magistrates, and defenders all ran away, and the local officials could not even recruit rural warriors to defend the city.
Because Guangdong suffered two consecutive years of severe disasters and three years of military disasters, even the gentry and wealthy families were unwilling to fight again.
Fei Ruhe didn't open for two months, but once it opened, it occupied the whole of eastern Guangdong.
Especially Chaozhou Prefecture, Fei Ruhe didn't even bother to occupy it. Not only was it time consuming, but it also required separate troops to garrison, and there weren't that many officials to dispatch. This guy directly led his troops to Huizhou and surrounded the prefecture tightly.
…
Guangzhou Prefecture, Nanhai County.
Many businessmen gathered together, Guan family, Huang family, Deng family, Feng family, Xie family... no Li family!
Except for the Li family, everyone arrived three-quarters of an hour early.
"Are you ready?" Guan Jialun asked.
Huang Xuanshen said: "Foshan is ready, we will start tonight."
"My Guan family is in charge of Nanhai County," Guan Jialun asked, "Where is Guangzhou Fucheng?"
Feng Yucheng said: "Several companies have joined forces and more than 600 people have entered the city one after another. Together with the domestic slaves in the city and the Xiangyong who defend the city, it will definitely be enough to take Guangzhou!"
Feng Yucheng's younger brother was Feng Yushun, who was an aide to the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.
At critical moments, he doesn't care about the life and death of his relatives.
Deng Yunqiu held the tea bowl and said: "The Deng family and the Xie family promise to capture Xiangshan County. If the lackeys of the Li family in Xiangshan County cannot escape this time, none of them will survive!"
These Guangdong gentry and wealthy families want to resume trade as soon as possible, which is just one of the reasons.
They also have a common enemy: the Li family!
The current Minister of Household Affairs is called Li Daiwen, a native of Foshan, Guangdong.
The Li family originally belonged to ordinary merchants, and they were inconspicuous among a group of wealthy businessmen. However, during the Wanli Dynasty, Li Daiwen became the doctor of the Wenxuan Department, and the Li family quickly became arrogant.
His younger brother Li Chongwen not only sold ironware to foreigners, but also sold Guangzhou rice to disaster-stricken Fujian.
At that time, there was also a minor disaster in Guangzhou, and there was not enough food. In order to make huge profits, Li Chongwen, regardless of the lives of the people in Guangzhou, forcibly harvested rice and transported it to Fujian by sea. This triggered a civil uprising, and Guangzhou citizens killed Liang Guolun and three other people. Everyone is Li Chongwen's lackey.
The case was handled by Yan Junyan, a minor official with a great reputation.
When Yan Junyan was an official in Guangzhou, he dealt with a large number of smugglers. Unfortunately, the Li family was too powerful, so he had no choice but to arrest Li Chongwen and punish him. At the same time, Shangshu requested that Li Chongwen be deprived of his title (Guozi Jiansheng).
In desperation, Li Chongwen promoted Yan Junyan to Fujian through his clan brother Li Daiwen.
As a result, Yan Junyan offended Xiong Wencan in Fujian again and was sent by Xiong Wencan to appease Zheng Zhilong. This move was unscrupulous and he hoped that Zheng Zhilong would kill Yan Junyan, but Yan Junyan succeeded in recruiting him.
Xiong Wencan was immediately overjoyed and no longer resented Yan Junyan for offending him, and immediately took the credit for himself and reported to the court.
After Yan Junyan was transferred from Guangzhou, Li Chongwen had no one to control and had to intervene in all goods, which was tantamount to violating public anger. Because it was mutually agreed upon which goods to be smuggled by each other, and the Li family did not follow any rules at all.
Not only did Li Chongwen not follow the rules, but he also wanted to make his own. He colluded with the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi, and almost monopolized the ironware exports of Foshan Town. Who dared to bypass the Li family to sell ironware? There was Li Daiwen in the DPRK, and there was a governor in Guangdong. Internal and external cooperation
Below, he was directly convicted of conspiracy to commit rebellion.
The ironware and grain trade have been completely controlled by the Li family, and a large number of merchants can only rely on the Li family.
Today, they are still planning to control the export of porcelain and silk!
Everyone was waiting around, but Li Chongwen didn't show up, probably because he didn't dare to keep the appointment.
"If this person doesn't come, the strategy of capturing the thief first and the king is no longer feasible. Don't wait any longer, Foshan Town takes action immediately!" Guan Jialun ordered.
…
Foshan.
"Master, it's not good, all the big families in the town are here to kill them!" The servant ran into the house in fear.
Li Chongwen held a fire gun and said with a ferocious expression: "What are you shouting for? Kill as many as you come!"
In the Li family's mansion, there were actually two hundred fire-gun soldiers, hundreds of sword-wielding guards, and even more than a dozen pairs of armors. This guy felt something was wrong, so he gathered all his private armed forces at home, which were usually scattered everywhere.
.
The forces attacking the Li family also had firecrackers, and even brought in six Folang machine cannons.
Is this strange?
It is not surprising, because Foshan is the iron smelting center of Lingnan and the firearms casting base in the south. The governors of Guangdong and Guangxi had to come to Foshan to buy their firearms.
"Bang bang bang!"
Gunshots rang out and killings occurred everywhere.
"Boom boom boom!"
Six Fo Lang machine guns fired wildly at the Li family courtyard wall.
Most of these attackers are merchants who are attached to the Li family. They have long been looking forward to the day they can leave the Li family. Unfortunately, Li Daiwen's official position is getting higher and higher, and now he has become the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. They can only
Rely on Zhao Han to come back.
If Zhao Han didn't send troops to attack Guangdong, these people would not dare to resist the Li family!
Once they rebel against the Li family, they will completely offend the Minister of Hubu, and they can only loyally support Zhao Han from now on.
After a bombardment, the courtyard wall finally collapsed.
"kill!"
Not only were there armed forces from various ethnic groups, but there were also many gangsters rushing in with all kinds of weapons.
"boom!"
The twenty or so people who ran at the front rushed into the courtyard and were directly blown away. The Li family used barrels to contain tens of thousands of enemies.
"Run quickly!"
The gangsters fled in terror.
A merchant surnamed Deng shouted: "Whoever captures the Li family's house will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver! Whoever captures the Li family's house will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver!"
After shouting several times in succession, the collapse was quickly stopped, and the thugs went back with all their courage.
The firecrackers on both sides did not form a formation to shoot, and they were probably not trained. They stood behind obstacles, passed through the gaps in the courtyard wall, and aimed at the opponent and fired random shots.
The fight lasted for half an hour, not to mention killing anyone, and no one was injured by the gun.
It's all a fuss.
"Kill!"
In the other direction of the Li family's residence, merchants from the Xie family led people to climb over the wall and enter.
These people were all recruited from the seaside. They were both farmers and fishermen, and their real occupation was "smuggling donors."
The overall links of Ming Dynasty's smuggling trade are as follows: inland manufacturers - inland shippers - coastal consignees - coastal fishermen - maritime pirates from various countries.
The smuggling center in Guangdong is Xiangshan County (Zhongshan and Macau). Coastal fishermen use fishing boats to transfer goods from Guangzhou to Xiangshan. It can be said that the fishermen in Guangzhou, Nanhai, and Xiangshan have regarded smuggling as a profession. If smuggling is banned, they will lose their economy.
source.
If Zhao Han takes over this place, he must solve the livelihood problem of the fishermen. Otherwise, if he directly cracks down on smuggling, all these coastal fishermen will rebel.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the sea ban was strict, why was it stipulated that no one was allowed to live on the seaside? Because all the people on the seaside were smugglers!
"Bang bang bang!"
Another burst of gunfire rang out, and several civilians were killed on the spot.
In panic, the people who climbed over the wall and were admitted to the hospital were frightened and fled. The merchants of the Xie family and their slaves shouted: "Kill a member of the Li family, and you will be rewarded with one tael of silver!"
Although these people were afraid, they still ran around the garden under the heavy reward.
They did not dare to face the firecrackers, but they dared to rush into residential areas and attack the old, weak, women and children inside.
Suddenly, screams broke out in the inner courtyard of the Li family.
Many domestic slaves holding firecrackers panicked. They also had family members, and they all rushed to help.
"kill!"
Another person climbed in through another courtyard wall, instantly deciding the outcome of the battle.
The killing lasted until midnight, not a single living thing was let go, including the maids and wives of the Li family.
These merchants have endured the Li family for more than ten years!
At the same time, there were merchants leading people to rob the Li family's various properties.
He also brought with him domestic slaves, gangsters (gangsters), smugglers (fishermen), and walking sticks (human traffickers), and began to attack Guangzhou, Xiangshan, and Nanhai from the city.
These "rebels", a mixed group of good and bad, immediately burned, killed and looted the city after occupying it. Only the large households involved in the uprising were not affected.
In coastal areas, not only are there many gangsters and smugglers, but they also specialize in the "walking stick" business.
Most of the time, they are overseas agents who lend money to poor people to go to sea by boat. These poor people go to Nanyang and earn money by working to pay off their debts. There are also some walking sticks who directly kidnap and traffic people, selling women and young men to Nanyang or to Macau.
The red-haired ghost.
Within one day, the weather in Guangzhou Fucheng, Nanhai County, and Xiangshan County all changed, and the Datong military flag was planted on the city tower.
Because those guys were robbing too hard and even insulting women, the suffering people in the city looked at the Datong military flag with resentment in their eyes!
The people of the three cities didn't know anything about world unity. They only knew that the bad guys were in the same group as Zhao Han.
Merchants from the three cities sent messengers to the north to ask Zhang Tieniu to come quickly.
Lu Qian, the commander-in-chief of the Yingde garrison, heard that the three cities of Guangzhou had been lost. He was so frightened that he ran to western Guangdong overnight, otherwise he would be made dumplings again.
At the same time, the defenders of Huizhou Fucheng also killed their generals and surrendered directly.
Fei Ruhe occupied Guangzhou effortlessly, and then his face was as black as the bottom of a pot. The people here regarded the Datong officers and soldiers as intruders, and some scholars even made up nursery rhymes, singing that King Zhao Tian was a man-eating devil.
"Bingyuan, the scholar who posted random posts has been caught!"
"Bring it in!"
A scholar was escorted in front of Fei Ruhe. He was arrested for posting big-character posters.
Fei Ruhe asked: "Why did you expose the post and spread rumors?"
"Pooh!"
The scholar spat in Fei Ruhe's face: "If you burn, kill, rape and plunder, sooner or later you will be punished by God!"
(There were so many mistakes and omissions in the afternoon. Lao Wang was so confused that he uploaded it before making any changes. It has been changed again. Sorry.)
