Not only Du Yuande, but also the other Jin gentry and grain gang leaders were furious after seeing the way Jiang Fang camp was arranged, and they all started yelling curses!
"Shameless! Extremely shameless!"
"Jiang Fangying is brave!"
"These profiteers! How dare they show up!"
There are three reasons for people's anger.
First, when the Jiang Fang camp formed a defense formation on the shore, the dozens of people standing at the front included not only the military attaches of the Jiang Fang camp at all levels, but also many gentrymen standing beside Liu Huaiyuan, the military official of Cao Jiang.
acquaintances, such as Li Pengyu, the boss of "Pengyu Trading Company", the Zhang brothers, the boss of "Zhang's Shipping Company", Gu Xiqing, the boss of "Yongfeng Grain Company"...
All in all, except for Qian Lai, the Nanjing boss of the "United Shipping Company", almost all of the profiteers and bad businessmen arrested by the Nanjing government yesterday were here!
These "United Shipping Company" franchise merchants chose this opportunity and this place to show up all together, and their intentions are self-evident. Either they want to take the opportunity to make things difficult for the gentry, or they want to take the opportunity to regain their property. In short, they have no good intentions.
The gentry had always looked down upon these nouveau riche, but now they saw that these nouveau riche were actually trying to resist, and even used the officers and soldiers of the Jiangfang Battalion when they resisted. It can be said that they resorted to unscrupulous means, and naturally they were very angry.
In the eyes of the gentry, our taking away your merchants' property and property is a righteous act to share the worries of the imperial court, and your merchants' rebellious behavior is shameless and even the following!
Secondly, when the Jiangfang Camp was forming a defensive formation, the people standing behind the Jiangfang Camp military attachés and merchants were not the lower-level officers and soldiers of the Jiangfang Camp, but the children of the Jin gentry tribe who had been forcibly detained by the Jiangfang Camp.
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As for the officers and soldiers of Jiang Fang Camp, they were all huddled at the back.
The intention of this arrangement is also very obvious. Once the negotiation between the two sides breaks down, the two sides will have to fight with real swords and guns. The Jiangfang camp military attachés and merchants will quickly retreat, leaving these members of the Jin gentry family
The disciples stood at the front and became the human shield of Jiang Fang camp!
As a result, whenever a conflict breaks out between the two parties, the descendants of these Jin gentry families will definitely bear the brunt, suffering heavy casualties!
This behavior is more than shameless? It is simply shameless!
Third, the officers and soldiers of the Jiang Fang Camp who were huddled at the rear not only raised their swords and guns, but also bows and arrows. What was even more frightening was that Jiang Fang Camp even used the crossbows and slingshots from the warships.
The car was also moved out!
With this arrangement, it is obvious that the Jiangfang camp has made up its mind. Once a conflict breaks out between the two sides, they will kill them without hesitation and will never worry about the safety of the Jin gentry!
What kind of status do we, the Jin gentry, have? Your Jiangfang camp actually brought out big-kill weapons like crossbows and catapults? If we, the Jin gentry, are killed or injured, can you bear the responsibility?
All in all, after seeing the layout of the Jiangfang camp, the Jin gentry who were originally full of confidence and high morale became angry and cursed, but also felt a little guilty!
Everyone knew that the Jiang Fang camp was weak in combat. If under normal circumstances, the two sides fought a hand-to-hand battle with real swords and guns, and the Jin gentry side had a strong grain gang to support them, they might still have the upper hand.
But this is not a normal situation. Jiang Fangying's arrangement is shameless and vicious, and his chances of winning have been greatly reduced. Naturally, the gentry began to feel guilty. After all, under Jiang Fangying's arrangement, they themselves had to
Face life danger!
Among them, as the leader of the gentry, Du Yuande was not only angry and guilty at this time, but also felt a little regretful.
*
In fact, in this turmoil, the Du family's losses were not huge.
Because the Du family's power base is in the two prefectures and nine counties in northern Anhui, when Du Yuande was transferring various materials, most of the Du family's cargo ships also sailed towards northern Anhui, and naturally they were not affected by the river defense.
Detention of the camp.
However, Du Yuande considered that the imperial court would soon collect the autumn tax on grain, so he arranged for some cargo ships carrying grain to temporarily reroute to Suzhou for unloading.
Suzhou is the water transportation center. By transporting some grain to Suzhou in advance, when the autumn tax is paid in the future, the Du family will avoid a lot of turnover trouble and save a lot of money.
Therefore, in this turmoil, compared to other major gentry families, the Du family's losses were not large, only more than ten cargo ships and more than ten ships of grain.
Under such circumstances, there was no need for Du Yuande to stand up and take charge of the situation and become the leader of the gentry.
But Du Yuande is a smart man. When he learned that the Jiangfang camp forcibly detained the cargo ships of various Jin gentry companies, he immediately realized the opportunity - with the influence of the Jiangnan Jin gentry and the support of the chief minister Zhou Shangjing,
With the support of the powerful grain gang, it is definitely not difficult to subdue the Jiang Fang camp.
Therefore, Du Yuande took the initiative to call on the Jin gentry and take charge of the situation. He wanted to take the opportunity to show off his abilities. He believed that after he led the Jin gentry forces to recapture the cargo ship from Jiang Fang camp, the Du family's reputation would be greatly increased, and maybe they could surpass the Wang family in one fell swoop.
, Bai family, Lu family, etc., became the largest wealthy family in Jiangnan after the Song family.
But now, after seeing the specific layout of Jiang Fang camp, Du Yuande couldn't help but regret in his heart. He believed that the current situation was completely beyond his ability, and it was absolutely impossible to properly resolve this crisis, even with the Jin gentry forces.
Joining forces with the grain gang forces to defeat the Jiang Fang camp must have resulted in heavy casualties!
It would be fine if the casualties were only the servants of the Jin gentry and the elite of the grain gang, but because of the shameless arrangement of the Jiang Fang camp, the detained sons of the Jin gentry must have suffered heavy casualties. Under the threat of crossbows and bows and arrows from the Jiang Fang camp,
Maybe the core figures of the major gentry families will also be killed or injured - Du Yuande simply cannot bear this responsibility!
So, Du Yuande immediately turned to look at Zhang Bao: "Hall Master Zhang, it seems that Jiang Fangying has made up his mind to fight us to the end! I am a scholar and have no experience or understanding of combat matters, so
...How about Hall Master Zhang taking charge of the overall situation next?"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Zhang Bao is the core figure of the Liang Gang and an experienced and smart man. How can you not understand that Du Yuande’s behavior of giving in to others is actually an attempt to shirk
responsibility?
But compared to Du Yuande, Zhang Bao was more loyal to the Song family and Zhou Shangjing, and he was more responsible when doing things, so after hearing this, he just responded coldly: "Master Du, look, everyone in Jiang Fang Camp
The military attaches and the merchants are all standing at the front waiting for us. It is clear that they are not willing to go to war directly, but hope to negotiate with us first and try to resolve this crisis in a peaceful way, so we led the team to disembark.
After landing, they will not start a fight directly, but put negotiation first...
But I am a rough man and am not good at negotiating. It is better to leave it to the Du family head to take full responsibility! Of course, if the negotiation fails and the negotiation breaks down, as long as the Du family head decides to go to war, I will naturally be in charge of the specific combat matters!
"
After hearing this, Du Yuande's expression was a little ugly.
Although Zhang Bao accepted the responsibility of commanding the battle, he still gave Du Yuande the power to decide to start the war. Therefore, if there were casualties among the Jinshen tribe after the war started, Du Yuande still had to bear the responsibility!
Under the current situation, Du Yuande had no room for retreat, so he could only grit his teeth and nod: "Okay! Once a war is decided, the domestic slaves and guardians of the major Jin gentry families will be under the command of Hall Master Zhang!"
Then, Du Yuande turned to look at the gentry behind him and asked: "Next, when negotiating with Jiang Fangying, which brothers are willing to go with me?"
Even though the Jin gentry had just been yelling at Jiang Fangying for being shameless and cruel, after hearing Du Yuande's invitation, they all showed fear on their faces.
The Jin gentry are all honorable men. Seeing that a large-scale conflict seems inevitable, both sides have real swords and guns. How can they stand under a dangerous wall at this time?
In fact, after the Jin gentry discovered that the Jiangfang camp had brought out crossbows, strong bows, catapults and other lethal weapons, they all secretly made up their minds that they must stay on a relatively safe ship and must not disembark and go ashore to risk their own lives.
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So, after hearing Du Yuande's invitation, the gentry all gave Du Yuande high hats one after another, and they simply praised Du Yuande to the sky!
"My talent is less than one ten thousandth of that of Brother Du. I'm afraid I'm not qualified to assist Brother Du in negotiating with Jiang Fang Camp, and it might even be a hindrance..."
"It is best to leave the follow-up negotiations to the Du family head with full authority! We fully trust the Du family head's methods and wisdom..."
"Yes, in this kind of negotiation, it is not a good thing to have too many people talking. If everyone has different ideas, there will only be internal friction. It is better for Brother Du to be arbitrary..."
Among all the gentry, the most shameless person was Wang Jiahe, the head of the Wang family. His fat and white face was full of generosity and righteousness, and he shouted loudly: "Brother Du personally went into danger and negotiated with Jiang Fangying. My Wang family and Du
Our family has always been friends from generation to generation, so how can we step away from the matter and leave it to Brother Du alone?"
Just when Du Yuande mistakenly thought that Wang Jiahe was willing to go with him and was surprised by Wang Jiahe's responsibility, he saw Wang Jiahe turning around and calling: "Wang Qi! Come here! You escaped from Jiang Fang Camp. What's wrong with Jiang Fang Camp?"
You also know the situation best. Next, you will disembark with the Du family leader and assist the Du family leader in negotiating with Jiang Fangying! Next, you must protect the Du family leader with all your strength. If something happens to the Du family leader, I will never spare you!"
Following Wang Jiahe's example, all major Jin gentry families followed suit and summoned several unpopular but talented younger generations of the clan, asking these young people to follow Du Yuande off the ship to negotiate.
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Seeing the performance of the Jin gentry, Du Yuande felt dumbfounded and felt contempt in his heart.
But in fact, if he hadn't had no way out, Du Yuande would have had the same reaction.
It is human instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and this instinct among the gentry was especially strong.
However, Du Yuande was not disappointed. He had already expected that the Jin gentry would retreat at this time. The reason why he invited all the Jin gentry to disembark with him for negotiations was just to reduce his subsequent responsibilities as much as possible.
So, Du Yuande immediately said: "Brothers, you trust me so much. It is my responsibility, but we must agree in advance. If the follow-up negotiations ultimately fail, we must have a real fight with Jiang Fangying."
, the deaths and injuries of various families after the war must not be blamed on my younger brother!"
After hearing this, all the Jin gentry naturally patted their chests and shouted their assurances.
While Du Yuande was negotiating with the gentry, Zhang Bao from the grain gang also summoned two of his confidants and whispered: "Big Tiger, Ergou, when we boarded the ship earlier, I specially brought
There are a few good horses. After we disembark and land ashore, the two of you will immediately ride back to Nanjing and summon more grain gangs to come for support! I didn't expect Jiang Fang camp to be so bold and decisive, and even brought out crossbows and catapults.
They also carry a large number of strong bows, so our manpower may be insufficient!"
After the two confidants agreed, Zhang Bao suddenly thought of something and walked to Du Yuande again, reminding him in a low voice: "Master Du, something suddenly occurred to me! We are all Cao Jiang Wuchen Liu who is familiar with Jiang Fang camp.
Huaiyuan, that man is just a greedy, weak, and opinionated wallflower. The current arrangement of Jiang Fang Camp is both vicious and shameless. It is definitely not his handiwork... Therefore, I am afraid there is another master hiding behind the scenes.
, instead of Liu Huaiyuan presiding over the situation, the Du family leader had better pay attention when negotiating with Jiang Fangying..."
Just when Zhang Bao reminded Du Yuande, the deck beneath everyone's feet shook violently, but it turned out that more than ten ships occupied by the Jin gentry forces and the grain gang forces had already docked one after another.
When Zhang Bao saw this, he didn't waste any time and immediately ordered the elite domestic servants from the grain gang and the gentry forces to get off the ship quickly, and ordered them to set up a defense formation like a Jiang defense camp.
For a moment, the troops on both sides acted as if two armies were at war, with their swords and spears open and their formations ready.
On the other side, in front of Jiang Fang camp's array, a young man with a scar on his face and a bandage on his neck was standing beside Liu Huaiyuan, the military official of Cao Jiang.
When the young man saw that the other party's troops were disembarking one after another and trying to form a formation, he suggested in a hoarse voice: "Liu Wuchen, the other party is disembarking and has not yet set up a good formation. At a time when our footing is unstable, let's strike first.
To be strong, how about taking the opportunity to attack them?"