Number of People

  Chapter 2152 The destinies of the Guizi scroll converge, focusing on southern Jin

  Man Gui took a deep breath, stabilized his mind, and motioned for the two to take their seats. He returned to his seat and sat down calmly. On the surface, he was not at all chaotic, but he was thinking about countermeasures quickly in his heart.

Changle Town is ten miles southwest of Siyan City. It does not belong to Anyi County, but to Xiezhou. It is only seven or eight miles away from Jiezhou City. The road between Changle Town and Xiezhou City is just across Yanchi and Nvyanchi ( It is also a place called Zhuozawa in ancient times.

  Shortly after the three families were divided into Jin, Wei Guo and Han Zhao two countries fought here. Wei Guo won the first battle and avoided being divided.

   This turbid lake was originally a lake, but it was submerged before the Tang Dynasty, and now it is a flat land.

There is also a salt pond in Anyi, but it is not the same one as the commonly referred to salt pond. Only Jiezhou salt pond is a salt pond in the usual sense, and any salt pond in Anyi needs to add the word Anyi. As for the female salt pond, it is more than ten miles away from Yanchi The salt is thinner, far less than the salt produced by the salt pond, and the quality is also slightly inferior.

  Salt Transport Envoy Siyamen has officials stationed in these salt ponds, responsible for supervising salt workers and running the entire process of sun-dried salt and salt transport and storage.

Changle Town in Xiezhou and Shenghui Town in Anyi are both on the edge of the salt pond, where merchants and tax collectors stay. In addition to paying salt tax, salt merchants also have to pay commercial taxes, but the commercial tax Is the tax rate much different from that of the salt tax? Both towns have inspection departments stationed there, which are to assist in the transportation of salt so that the Si Yamen and the tax card will check and prohibit the collection of taxes.

   "Changle Town was attacked, what about Jiezhou?" Man Gui asked slowly: "Could it be that Jiezhou just watched?"

  Zhu Xingquan shook his head blankly: "I don't know, maybe Xiezhou has no strength to rescue it, or maybe Xiezhou has fallen?"

   Frightened by his last words, Zhu Xingquan turned pale, stood up, shaky, "What should I do?"

   "No, Jiezhou is not so easy to be captured by the rebel army." Man Gui shook his head, "Xiezhou has a population of three thousand people, and the city is high and thick. How can the rebel army be so easy?"

   "I hope so." Zhu Xing took it back with all his heart, "General Man, what should we do? We still have thousands of stones of salt in the warehouse, and there are more than 60,000 taels of salt in the salt class. What should we do?"

  The continuous "what should I do" shows that the colleague of the salt transport envoy Siyamen has been frightened, at a loss, and does not know how to deal with it.

   "Where is the Master Salt Transporter?" Man Gui asked puzzled, "It's up to him to make up his mind."

Zhu Xingquan's face became paler and he gritted his teeth and said: "Yesterday he said he was going to Pingyang to ask for help, but he disappeared early this morning. I asked the people in the yamen, and they said that he hurried out with a few people early in the morning, and asked someone to give it to me. Leave a message, and I will be back in two or three days,..."

   Man Gui stood up suddenly in shock, asking for help, it was clear that he had abandoned his official position and fled!

Now it's time for him to say what to do, even the salt transporter has run away. You must know that the highest official in this yamen has to obey him, but now he ran away and left this A bunch of dead fish and rotten shrimp are waiting to die here.

"Pingyang Wei can ask for help, why wait until Lord Salt Transporter goes there in person? I have done it a long time ago, how can Pingyang take care of our side now." Man Gui sighed, "The help we should ask for I have gone to ask, but now we have to rely on ourselves, Mr. Zhu, you can make up your mind, whether to stay or go, you make a decision."

"Let's go, is there still time?" Zhu Xingquan spread his hands with a wry smile, "If you leave these warehouses of salt and salt money and leave, you and I will only end up with the life of the Zhu family. Salt and silver are left to the rebels, which is aiding the enemy."

Man Gui also looked helpless, his task was to guard Si Yancheng well, if he transferred the salt envoys to the Si Yamen, he would not leave, or he would run away without leaving the salt and salt money, and all the salt envoys would be transported. Of course, the people in the Siyamen are not doing well, and they will also be held accountable.

  Man Gui always thought that he had a bright future and wanted to work hard, but now he found himself suddenly faced with a dilemma.

   Keep defending, and the rebellious army will attack. If a large-scale rebellious army comes to besiege, most of these two thousand soldiers will become victims again, and they are worthless.

  You can just leave. If you don’t find a reasonable reason and don’t handle the warehouse salt and salt money properly, it will be the result of being questioned or even executed.

   "Master Zhu, can you transfer the salt class silver and the warehouse salt together?" Man Gui expressed hope, "If not, transfer it immediately, transfer it to Zezhou,..."

"General Man, how far is it from here to Zezhou? The road is bumpy and easy to talk about, but what about the warehouse salt? Thousands of stone warehouse salt, how to transport it? Firstly, I can't find so many suitable carriages in a hurry, and secondly, even if it is I found it, it’s troublesome to transport, and the speed must be very slow. If I was robbed on the road, I would not only leave my post without permission, but also lose salt and money, then I would really punish the three clans, and now Mobs and rioters from all over the country are constantly rioting. From Anyi to Zezhou, you have to cross Wangwu Mountain, the road is difficult and dangerous, there are many bandits, there is no way to go, this road cannot be taken, and I dare not take it."

  Man Gui is in despair, what can you expect from a master who is so stubborn and indecisive, and may even push the blame to himself in the end?

   This fellow obviously hopes that he can defend Siyan City. The question is that he also wants to defend, but can he defend it?

  But what this guy said is not unreasonable. The road from Anyi to Zezhou is too difficult to walk, and it is indeed not feasible.

   "Then go to Pinglu, and cross the river to Shanzhou?" Man Gui suggested again: "Maojin Ferry is still in our hands, so we can do it without going to Modi Ferry..."

   "Crossing the river is Henan. I have no right to transport these salt and silver out of the province, and I heard that there are also riots on the banks of the Yellow River in Henan. It is also not safe..." Zhu Xingquan hesitated.

  Man Gui was completely convinced, he knew that this guy had no intention of leaving at all, he just wanted to come up with an idea to keep Siyan City.

He is a civil servant of the Salt Envoy, and Man Gui can only obey. All he can think about now is how to defend the city. It seems that he has to leave the more than one hundred catties here. Man Gui thought pessimistically, Even if he is very confident in his group of people, but three times the chaos can fight, five times can also top one, ten times?

  How long can you defend without reinforcements? The food in Yancheng is only 500 shi, which is enough to feed 2,000 people for a month, but the question is, can it last for a month?

  *******

  Feng Ziying received letters from Duan Xipeng and Baoqin on the way to Xi'an.

The situation in northern Shaanxi has been opened. Modron swept Qingyang and rushed into Pingliang Mansion. He even had a small-scale confrontation with the Guyuan Army in Zhenyuan. It also shook the entire Pingliang Mansion.

When the Guyuan army couldn't figure out the whereabouts of Modron's troops, they had to retreat to Pingliang City. They didn't even dare to defend Chongxin. Losing Chongxin can be tolerated. If even Pingliang City is lost, Guyuan Town will really be destroyed. Only to be abolished.

  Mo Delun took the opportunity to attack the local tyrants in Jingzhou and Lingtai, and distributed food and floating wealth.

  Dividing the land is not daring, and it is useless.

   Immediately afterwards, the assault battalion rushed up from Qingyang without any haste, and just rightly joined forces with the Guyuan army to "drive out" Modron's Boyan village from Qingyang.

Modron's Boyan Village moved into Ningzhou. Although he did not capture Ningzhou City, it swept all the way and cleaned up the gentry in the state. The front battalion moved slowly and its attacks were weak.

   Letters of distress and complaints flew to Xi'an Chengcheng to announce the political envoy, the procuratorate, and the commander's yamen like snowflakes. Feng Ziying's place was even more full.

Feng Ziying has long been used to it and is not surprised. He has been mentally prepared for this since Modren and Qiu Zixiong acted according to plan. He even knew that the letters from these gentry had long been sent to the capital, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the cabinet. There must be a lot, but is it true that the cabinet and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are not aware of the situation in Shaanxi?

  If nothing is given, how will millions of hungry people survive? Should they all be killed, or should they be exported to Shanxi and Henan?

   Even in this way, tens of thousands of Shaanxi rebels crossed the east of the river and entered, not to mention that the east of Xi'an Prefecture is also not far from Henan. If they really want to cross the river and enter Henan, the trouble will be even greater.

  After reading the letter from Duan Xipeng and Xue Baoqin, Feng Ziying knew something was wrong.

   This is the trouble caused by asymmetric information.

  Feng Ziying thought that they should have crossed Tongguan and would soon arrive in Xi'an, but they were still in Linfen, so they only considered going south at this time.

Feng Ziying was not sure at first whether the rebel army would go east or south after capturing Hejin and Ronghe, because the rebel army did not have a unified command and was divided into multiple hills, especially after absorbing the local rebel army from Shanxi. Multiple commanders have gone their own way.

   But there is no doubt that it is a little late to go south from Linfen at this time. Feng Ziying has already received news that the rebel army has captured Wanquan and Jishan, and even Wuping Pass has fallen. It depends on whether Jiangzhou can hold it.

Moreover, the other two armies of the rebel army are attacking Linjin and Yishi. If these two places also fall, then Puzhou is in danger, and Jiezhou is in danger. Anyi, Quwo, Xiaxian, and Jiangxian are all in danger. It is said that there is no safety in the south of Linfen, and it will be a matter of time before it falls.

  Can Duan Xipeng and the others pass through before the rebel army cuts off the post road from Linfen to Puzhou?

  Feng Ziying did not dare to take this risk.

   At this time, he was also a little panicked, never thought that leaving Baoqin and the others behind and walking slowly would wait for such a big moth to come out.

   The rebellious army entered Jin did not expect that the offensive would be so fierce after entering Jin, and the defense of southern Jin would be so weak. He did not expect that even if some of the guards were taken away by Shanxi Town, what about Minzhuang?

   In the final analysis, I am afraid that it is still the problem of local officials.

  (end of this chapter)