Zhang Yu ran all the way home and saw that Huifu Lane was still the same as before. The shops had all removed their planks and were doing business slowly. △￠, his walnut cake shop was also open, and his father was kneading and baking dough in the shop.
The stove has been lit, and the scent of walnut oil wafts out. My parents are busy around the chopping board.
"Dad! Stop it, close the store quickly!" Zhang Yu rushed in and shouted nonchalantly.
His father's face suddenly darkened: People who open a shop are most afraid of saying "closing the shop". When closing the door at night, they only say "closing". The business was not very good at first, but by chance, it just started to grow, and he was stunned again.
When the kid yelled like this, he couldn't help scolding him: "You're a plague! What are you talking about?!"
Zhang Yu ignored the explanation and shouted: "Get on the board! There are soldiers on the street! Kun... Kun... thieves have entered the city! Guangzhou - Guangzhou - is broken!"
His father was so shocked that he dropped the rolling pin in his hand. The scary words "passing the army" and "breaking the city" penetrated into his ears. Since the Jiajing period, due to rampant Japanese pirates, Guangzhou once built a city to protect the commercial district along the river bank.
, there has been no warning signal here for more than a hundred years, let alone witnessing the disaster of weapons. But for the people at that time, the words "war" and "city destruction" were not unfamiliar. Zhang Yu's parents immediately thought of those terrible things.
The scene: the streets shrouded in fire, businessmen running in all directions, soldiers burning and killing people... His face turned pale, and he couldn't say a word for a long time. Zhang Yu was quick to see the opportunity and urged him repeatedly.
Hurry to close the door and "go up to the bunks." Everyone in the store woke up from a dream, and rushed to get up the bunks one by one. Zhang Yuniang said urgently: "Quickly, put out the stove too!"
His father said: "What are you doing when you turn off the stove? Just put the walnut cake inside. It needs to be raw!"
"This strong smell is because I am not the first to be robbed!" Zhang Yuniang shouted with her hands on her hips. As she spoke, she picked up a bucket of water and poured it into the furnace. The flames inside made a hissing sound.
extinguished.
Zhang Yu didn't care about the inside of the store, so he jumped out of the store to collect the cover. The cover was hung high, and it was originally hung up and down with a fork pole. Zhang Yu couldn't reach the hook above, and was so anxious that he jumped around under the cover.
It was so funny that it made the girl at the tofu shop opposite cover her mouth and laugh.
The daughter of the tofu shop was leaning against the door to sell the tofu she had made early in the morning. She saw Zhang Yu running back all the way. The walnut pastry shop was in a hurry. She was stretching her head to see what was new. Zhang Yu tilted his head and saw her with a confused look on her face.
Standing in front of the store and watching the excitement, he yelled out in a hurry: "Why don't you tell your father to come to the banquet! The bandits have entered the city! They are passing the army!"
It didn't matter that he yelled out, the originally quiet and peaceful street of Huifu Lane suddenly became a mess. In an instant, the residents of each shop were on their backs: those who put things away, those who put up the boards, those who closed the doors and windows...
Some screamed in pain, some were so anxious that they roared at the top of their lungs, and some clapped their thighs for some reason and started crying and singing. The lady at the tofu shop hadn't recovered yet, so she gave her mother a drag.
He went to the back, took the ashes from the stove and painted a big painted face. He hid in the woodshed and was not allowed to come out.
"You're hiding! No matter what you hear, don't come out!"
The tofu shop lady was trembling with fear. She knew the personnel and the fate of the older girl and younger daughter-in-law who had fallen into the rebel army. She was so frightened that she hid in a pile of firewood and did not dare to move.
People's potential is endless in critical moments. Zhang Yu took off his cover with a few jumps and dragged him into the store. As soon as he came in, the last plank behind him closed with a bang, and a thick horizontal latch was lifted.
Go up and fasten a big lock.
The shop was dark, with only a few rays of light coming in from the cracks in the floorboards. His father lowered his voice and said, "Everyone, don't make any noise. Just pack up your things and carry them to the back."
Several people lowered their voices and quietly packed up their things, including flour, walnuts, sugar... and the unbaked walnut cakes. They were all put away one by one, and Zhang Yu's father took them into the inner house.
Zhang Yu was worried, so he followed his mother to look around and checked the doors and windows. His mother hid in the bedroom, packed up the household items, and hid them under the square tiles in the main room of the inner house. She also took care of Zhang Yu.
Go to the front shop and watch the clerk and apprentice.
"You watch them and don't let them cause trouble. Even though they are introduced by acquaintances and they are honest people, you must be on guard against others. There is no guarantee that they will get angry when they see chaos."
The clerks and apprentices in the shop all came from other counties. Since there were soldiers outside, there was absolutely no reason to go out. They usually made floors in the shop, and now they had nowhere to go. Zhang Yuniang sent him to watch over them to prevent them from doing anything.
"Seduce gangsters".
Zhang Yu nodded: "Mom, I can save it! I think we should hang the license outside..."
"The situation outside is unclear right now. If we hang out, it will attract attention. Why don't we take a look first and then talk."
At the same time, in the Zhongjun Yamen of Humen Village, more than a dozen all-dressed generals and foreign affairs committee members gathered together. They were summoned to the Zhongjun Yamen for a meeting before dawn today, but by the time the sky turned pale,
Mr. Liu Qian still didn't show up. He couldn't help but gather in groups and whisper.
Although I don’t know what Mr. Liu Qian wants to discuss in the meeting, everyone guesses that it has something to do with the Kun thief.
In recent months, tugboats on the river have been coming and going frequently. Standing on the top of Wushan Mountain on Ya Niang Shoe Island, you can see the situation clearly on the river. The number of tugboats traveling to and from the world has doubled than in the past.
Not only that. Even though the thieves let it slip that these were goods and decorative building materials prepared for the opening of the big world, the soldiers' intuition still told them that there was something fishy: these ships were not loaded with ordinary goods!
Some people said they saw many boots wearing feet exposed under the canvas canopy, others said that cannons were unloaded from the Great World Pier in the middle of the night, and once, an Australian ship suddenly exploded while sailing on the river.
, and sank to the bottom of the water in a moment...
What the Australians are carrying on the boats is a matter of great concern to the local officials. The Pearl River is the provincial river of Guangdong. As long as the boats are intercepted and inspected, you can know what medicines the Australians are selling in their gourds. However, since
After the Australian troops arrived at Baietan, the Ming Dynasty lost the right to inspect Australian ships. Although later there were a few foolish young men or money-minded people who were "not afraid of rape" and "detained" and suspended
The ships carrying the flag of the Senate either caught fire at night and killed the whole family, or the whole family drowned themselves hand in hand during the day. After a few times, naturally no one wanted to do this again.
The officers on the river defense can see the Australian steamships passing by the river every day, spewing black smoke, and privately discuss that the Australians will make a "big move" in the near future. However, even if they know what the thieves are going to do, they like them
What else can be done? The battle where the Kun thieves broke into the provincial river and reached Baietan left a deep impression on these people - a sense of complete powerlessness made most of them lose the idea of resistance.
What should we do if we really get into a fight? Everyone is thinking about this issue anxiously. It’s not like hitting an egg with an egg and killing both the stone and the stone!
Under the despair of being unable to win the battle, everyone had no plans for the future and just lived day by day. Many people also secretly accepted "subsidy" from the Australians and used their soldiers to
He and the boats were "rented" to the Australians for their service. He lived in a drunken and debauched life in the Ziming Tower.
The officers were whispering, and suddenly someone from behind shouted: "Promotion!" There was a confusion among the people, and they stood in wait according to their respective official titles.
I saw Liu Fengsheng, the leader of the coastal defense guerrillas in Humenzhai, coming out from behind, all dressed up, with a cold and solemn look on his face, as if he wanted to kill someone. All the generals were stunned: There was no warning at the moment, but Liu Qianzong looked like he was going to fight.
What's going on with his expression? Did the Australians take action?
In the midst of doubts, suddenly a report came from Ya Niang Shoe Fort: more than twenty warships of the Kun thieves were moving up the provincial river and approaching the Humen East Waterway!
Then there was a report from Shanghengdang Fort. More than ten warships had sailed into the Humen West Waterway and were approaching Shanghengdang Island Fort from the side and behind. Immediately afterwards, there were also reports from the Sanmen Waterway between Wushan and Humen Village.
A river vessel flying the morning star flag.
Inadvertently, the army of Kun thieves had already arrived at the city, forming a double-team on Humen Village. The generals present were cold-blooded - many people here had personally experienced the Battle of Humen a few years ago, and the ferocious artillery fire against the Kun thieves was fierce.
, I was deeply impressed by the soldiers' courage to fight.
Now, this army is approaching Humen Village again, like a pair of iron pliers, it can crush the not-so-hard walnut in Humen with just a little force.
In panic, everyone turned their attention to the person in charge of Humen Village: Liu Fengsheng
Mr. Liu Qian coughed and said: "The Australian soldiers are approaching, and everyone can clearly see the situation in Guangzhou. If the response is wrong, not only will Humen Village be destroyed, but even Guangzhou will not be able to escape the disaster of the soldiers..."
He didn't talk about how to arrange defenses or how to assign troops to resist. He said this first, and the smart people immediately understood what he was thinking. Most people here didn't want to fight, and someone immediately echoed: "The general is right, we
There are only six to seven hundred men and horses here, and there are only a dozen or so cannons. I’m afraid I won’t get any results from a head-on battle with the Kun thieves..."
Seeing that Mr. Liu Qian did not scold them, everyone nodded slightly, as if in agreement. They became bolder, and everyone joined in, saying that the officers and soldiers "weak soldiers and inferior weapons are not suitable for fighting."
Suddenly, he "loved his soldiers like his own son" and cried out that the officers and soldiers were not getting enough food and pay, and that his subordinates had not had enough to eat for days, so they reluctantly went into battle and died in vain.
Liu Fengsheng let them talk for a while, and when he was about to speak, he saw one person shouting loudly: "Raising an army for a thousand days can be spent in a moment. Don't you feel ashamed to say such a thing?!" (To be continued.)