Most of the Yin Feng's house in the north of the city collapsed in the earthquake. The remaining study and backyard became the "disaster relief headquarters". It is now filled with all kinds of food supplies and medicines, and people are coming and going. There was an endless stream of escort soldiers in black uniforms, busy and busy.
In the small house in the backyard, the atmosphere was very dull. At this time, Quanzhou magistrate Jiang Zhili, health officer Zhan Yangxian, Quanzhou Wei Qianhu Zhang Zhenzong, Dong Qiyi and others were all here to persuade Yin Feng to withdraw his troops. Zeng Ke, the uncle of the Zeng family, also Sitting on the side, watching Yin Feng couldn't help but sigh.
Quanzhou Wei Qianhu Zhang Zhenzong and Dong Qiyi both participated in the Battle of Penghu at the beginning of the year. They knew how powerful the escort was. They came here simply because they had no choice but to show off their duties; they were asked to drive away the Chinese company escort and kill them. He won't do it either.
Yin Feng stood in the middle of the hut and spoke to Jiang Zhili, the prefect of Quanzhou, who was sitting at the top with his hands raised. However, in Jiang Zhili's view, this guy had no sense of being a subordinate official. There was no respect in his demeanor and all he talked about was Criticizing the Quanzhou government's remarks: "...Five days ago, my merchant ship transported medicines, but now these medicines are nowhere to be found in the government treasury. Five days ago, 30,000 kilograms of grain shipped from Taiwan are now But only 8,000 kilograms were delivered to various neighborhoods. Hundreds of thousands of victims in the city and outside the city could not even get one meal of gruel a day. Within one day after I entered the city, five or six people died of starvation near my home. As a neighbor, saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Human life is greater than heaven. I use my own wealth to help the people. May I ask what is wrong with this, sir and students?"
Yin Feng has the identity of a donated prison student, so he is right to call himself a student, but the prefect is very dissatisfied: How can any student talk like this?
However, Jiang Zhili, the prefect of Quanzhou, had an unspeakable secret; most of the grain and medicine were privately distributed by officials at all levels, or sold by wealthy merchants to hoard for profit. The government treasury had been plundered by the army at the beginning of the year, and there were only a few officials, gentry, and merchants in Quanzhou Prefecture. To help the victims, he, a prefect, had to rely on the support of local officials, gentry and landlords to maintain his rule. He was helpless to deal with such a catastrophe that could not be resisted by manpower.
At this time, Zeng Ke had no choice but to come out to smooth things over, and sighed: "Feng'er, please don't be rude. The issue right now is not whether you should rescue the victims, but the 2,000 people you brought ashore." He stood up and offered his hands to the prefect: "The only plan now is to transport grain first. Our Zeng family firm can propose that all the gentry in Quanzhou come together to deliver grain, and the prefect appoints the Huaxing Alliance to organize manpower to coordinate disaster relief matters.
Magistrate Jiang snorted coldly and said: "Then, what about your 2,000 troops? They now have complete control inside and outside Quanzhou Prefecture. They control all the granaries. Even my government officials can't get food." He shook his head, He said to Yin Feng: "Yin Qianhu, I have heard about you. It is natural that you are eager for justice and save people from fire and water. But the heaven has its own laws and the court must act according to the rules. You are doing it casually." Then he led his troops ashore and put the face of us and other imperial officials to shame. In the future, Governor Xu and the adults from Yushidao will come from Fuzhou to inspect. By then, I don’t want those people in black to be still on the streets of Quanzhou. people,"
At Zeng Ke's signal, Yin Feng lowered his head and said, "Students will definitely do as they are told, but..." He paused and said, "Tomorrow I will evacuate the people and leave 100 people dressed in common people's clothing to take charge of various areas. The relief food distribution points, as well as the distribution of medicines in the temporary medical centers, it is best for Futai-sama to send capable personnel to supervise the distribution. My people can be at your command at any time,"
Zhan Yangxian, a student in Quanzhou, was a public-minded gentry and a erudite scholar. He was one of the earliest gentry to distribute food to the victims after the earthquake. At this time, he also came out to deal with the problem: "My servants can also be assigned Come out and use it as the prefect does,"
The prefect of Quanzhou had no choice but to agree to this measure, which could not only save people but also take care of the face of the court officials.
However, since then, the reputation of Zhonghua Company and Yin Feng has become more and more popular in southern Fujian.
While the Zhonghua Company was busy providing disaster relief in Quanzhou, Shen Yourong, the new Zhejiang military commander, was paying homage to the Queen of Heaven at the Tianhou Palace on the edge of the Min River in Fuzhou.
He is already fifty years old, and the Battle of Penghu has greatly stimulated him: not only because of the defeat, not only for the commander-in-chief to cover up defeat into victory, but more importantly, he is worried about the current situation in Fujian. The Battle of Penghu After the war, Shen Yourong's men in the Wuyu Water Village suffered the greatest losses, and the old camp in the Water Village was also burned down by Yin Feng's fleet. After the armistice, the commander-in-chief Zhu Wenda and the governor Xu Xueju, in order to cover up the failure, commended him and recommended him. He was promoted to Zhejiang General, and most of the documents Shen Yourong submitted to the imperial court regarding the truth were suppressed by Xu Xueju, Gao Cai and their supporters in the imperial cabinet, and were not even published in the imperial newspaper.
Zhu Wenda felt that out of sight was out of mind, and it was best for Shen Yourong to leave Fujian so as not to cause trouble to them, so he recommended him to Zhejiang.
Shen Yourong was somewhat discouraged about his future. The two young men standing behind him at the moment were the Guo Yi brothers. This was the last time Shen Yourong met them before leaving Fujian.
Shen Yourong put on the incense, without looking at the two people, and waved his hand for them to follow him.
The three of them came to the shore of the Tianhou Palace. Shen Yourong looked at the water of the Minjiang River where sailing boats were constantly coming and going. Without saying a word for a long time, three huge merchant ships sailed from the direction of the seaport on the river, with hanging boats hanging on them. Shen Yourong pointed to the ships with the Chinese-character flag and the Yin-character flag on the blue background and said, "Brothers of the Guo family, have you decided to go there?"
The two Guo brothers looked at each other, and Guo Yi said: "Sir, we are just trying to make a living, and there is really nothing we can do about it. Now that you are gone, we can't do much to help. The family's debt must be repaid, and we still have to make ends meet. There are more than a dozen people in the family..."
Shen Yourong nodded: "Yes, you have done so many things for me in the past few years and risked your lives. The reward I can give you is too little. Guo Yi, if you gamble less, you will be the same in the past few years." You can make some money, I have to take care of the food and drink of thousands of brothers, and money is very tight. I have really treated you two badly."
Guo Yi hurriedly said: "Don't say that, Mr. Shen, we all know that most of your own salary goes to your brothers. The government's salary is only this little. We are satisfied. We don't work for you for your money." , because you saved us in the storm, you looked up to us, the common people, and treated us as human beings..."
Shen Yourong looked at the two of them with worried eyes, sighed and said, "Okay, you go ahead. When you get to Taiwan, you must contact Mr. Chen Dong and ask him not to expose his whereabouts. You two must also be careful. As you know, Lin Xiao, who works under Yin Feng, is cruel and ruthless,"
He turned to look at the river: "I will still come back to Fujian. Once something happens in Fujian, the whole province will have no soldiers or generals to fight. Then those feudal officials will still think of me, haha..." Shen Yourong turned around and looked at the Guo brothers with cold eyes: "You two pay attention to everything in Taiwan and wait for news from me at any time. I will definitely come back."
…
At almost the same time, in a small hotel in the south of Fuzhou City, Yuan Jin and Li Zhong were drinking together with an overseas Chinese businessman from Southeast Asia.
"Brother Li has really become the Kapitan of Malacca," Yuan Jin asked coldly as he lowered his head to drink.
"Mr. Li Huayu is indeed the previous Kapitan. The current leader of the Tang Dynasty in Malacca is the shopkeeper of the Zhonghua Company." The wealthy Nanyang Chinese businessman surnamed Luo said with a smile: "Two military masters, this is Mr. Li Huayu A letter to you, he said that if you two are willing to leave Fuzhou, my ship can take you to Malacca, and he has paid the ship fare for you two in advance,"
Li Zhong excitedly pushed Yuan Jin: "Bago, let's go. The whole coast of Fujian is ruled by Yin Feng. We will never get ahead if we stay here. Let's go and be a short seller with only a few taels of silver a month." Officer, everyone is going to die here,"
Yuan Jin said coldly: "There are people from Yin Feng over there, haven't you heard? The current Jiabidan is from Zhonghua Company,"
Li Zhong shook his head: "No matter what, Li Huayu has already made a name for himself there. When we go there, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and it is the territory of Fo Langji people. Yin Feng can't do anything to us. Let's go, Bage, are you willing?" Will you always be a slave to the Commander-in-Chief?"
Yuan Jin thought for a while, then suddenly took a sip of wine and said coldly: "I can't care so much anymore. Let's go. Sooner or later we will be killed by Yin Feng here. Let's go to Nanyang, go to Malacca, go, let's kill us tonight." Find all the people,"
Across the street from the small hotel, a fishmonger was walking slowly in the alley with a basket on his back. Looking left and right, hoping that no one was paying attention to him, he walked into a small courtyard on the left and closed the door behind him.
Standing in the narrow aisle inside the door was Xiu Chenghao, the shopkeeper of Fuzhou Commercial Store of China United Company and Huaxing Co., Ltd. He was a distant relative of the Han Ping family. When the fishmonger saw him, he first bowed his hands and saluted, wiped his sweat, and Xiu Chenghao Hao hurriedly asked: "How's it going? What did we find?"
"The person who invited Yuan Jin and Li Zhong to drink was a Nanyang businessman from Malacca, surnamed Luo. According to what the hotel clerk overheard, it seems that Li Huayu brought a letter to them, asking them to go to Nanyang to help with work."
Xiu Chenghao said "Oh," and nodded: "Okay, go back as soon as possible and watch Yuan Jin and Li Zhong's every move. I will send another person here to check that wealthy Nanyang businessman. There are many businessmen going to Nanyang recently. Is it possible? Will something happen over there in Nanyang?"
After the businessman surnamed Luo made an appointment with Yuan Jin and Li Zhong to board the ship, he left the hotel and started walking back and forth in Fuzhou City. He did not realize that there were always fishmongers, hawkers, beggars and other people behind him. When they appeared, the followers followed them like a shadow until they found that the wealthy businessman surnamed Luo came to the back alley of Fuyuan Street, knocked on the back door of the luxurious mansion of Gao Cai, the tax eunuch, and was actually let in. It seemed that the guard guarding the door He recognized this wealthy businessman named Luo.
The spies of the Zhonghua Company's Business Information Department who had been following him were startled, and they quickly left one person to follow him, while the other went to report to the shopkeeper of Fuzhou Zhonghua Commercial Hall.