Cross the Sea in the Red Chamber

Of course, Song Chen's panic couldn't hide from Chen San, who lived in the Song Mansion and was in charge of acting and spying. He stared at Song Chen carefully, pretending to know nothing, wandering around the Song Mansion leisurely, looking for words from time to time. After stabbing Guanshi a few words, he was so angry that he jumped up and down.

Although not many people knew about Chen San's falling into the water, but those geniuses who disappeared back then reappeared, and the Wang family still knew about his disappearance.

Wang Zipeng once sent someone to inquire about Chen San, and Chen San told everything he could tell except the matter of hiding Jiangyuan and the others.Manager Liu snatched the letter from him and threw him into the river, almost drowning him, and a merchant ship happened to save him, but he was anxious about business and refused to dock at will, so he was delayed for a few days He was able to leave the ship when the merchant ship docked, and came to the Song Mansion.

This rhetoric is not without flaws, but Chen San has been living in the Song Mansion in Yangzhou during this period of time, and has never returned to the Jinling King's house. The lie was covered.

As soon as the Wang family heard that the Liu family had even done the thing of snatching letters and silence, all they were thinking about was how to seek revenge from the Liu family. In addition, Liu Guanshi did not leave the Song residence. The Wang family was afraid that it would be cheaper if Chen San left. Therefore, he only ordered Chen San to continue to live in the Song Mansion to persuade Song Chen to hand over his things, but let Chen San pass by without showing his feet.

Chen San knew very well that since he had told Jiang Yuan and the others everything he knew, it was as if he had betrayed the Wang family, so his path in the Wang family had already been cut off.He told all such secret things to outsiders. According to Wang Zipeng's ruthless temper, he would never let him go. Unless he really didn't want to live anymore, he could only follow the arrangements of Jiang Yuan and Lin Jun. It's dark.

Lin Jun learned the news he sent out, secretly prepared for Song Chen to escape, but ordered Chen San to pester Liu Guanshi as much as possible, so that Liu Guanshi would not be in the mood to do other things, so as not to be discovered by him about the stolen things.So Chen San hangs around in front of Liu Guanshi every day when he has nothing to do, scaring this servant of the Liu family who tried to kill him.

Liu Guanshi thought that throwing Chen San into the river was done very covertly at that time, and Chen San should not be able to produce any personal or physical evidence, and the torn satin coat he used to cover up the traces of the bondage had also been burned long ago. It's clean, even if Chen San really went to the government to sue, there would be no evidence to show, and the state officials would not dare to offend the Liu family because of Chen San.

And there must be a reason for killing, right? Chen San, a servant, why is it worth others to assassinate him?It is said that they murdered for money, but there were many people on board who were richer and weaker than Chen San, so why didn't they get killed?This is completely unreasonable. Could it be that Chen San dared to risk being killed by the Wang family to explain the reason for the whole thing?If he dared to tell the relevant matters of the original letter, let alone the Liu family, even Wang Zipeng would never forgive him, and his death would not be far away.

That's what he said, but this Chen Sansan walked around him every now and then, with fierce eyes and a sinister smile, and said two specious words, which frightened him.He was sure that Chen San didn't dare to sue him, but he didn't know if Chen San would be cruel enough to kill him for revenge. If Chen San planned to attack him, he might not be able to hide.

At the beginning, he defeated Chen San by sneak attack, otherwise he might not be the real opponent with Chen San being so young and strong.In case Chen San comes to his death...

Thinking of this, Guanshi Liu almost wanted to shrink back, but when he thought of the way the Liu family was doing more than the Wang family, he gritted his teeth and dared not leave the Song residence.Chen San is afraid of Wang Zipeng, isn't he afraid of the Liu family?If Chen San got that thing because he left early, why wouldn't the Liu family scrape him alive? !

Afraid of wolves in the front and tigers in the back, this Steward Liu was so chilled by Chen San's stare that he became a little dazed when doing things, so he was not in the mood to force Song Chen to come.Chen San was very happy that Guan Liu was like this, and neither of them was willing to persecute them. Therefore, although the servants of the two families lived in the Song Mansion for several months, they did not do anything particularly extreme to Song Chen. It also provided time for Jiang Yuan to lead his troops south.

Before the aristocratic family and nobles knew it, there was already a big hand covering the sky in the south of the Yangtze River, waiting to wipe out all the forces under their banner!

Yangzhou Mansion, in a small courtyard.

Jiang Yuan smiled slightly and looked at Lin Jun, who looked resolute and more capable, and was very satisfied. This Lin Jun is indeed an expert in planning. I am much smarter myself.He left Jiangnan for a few months, and the whole Jiangnan was still calm, without any disturbances, even Song Chen's residence did not have any troubles.The means of doing things are second to none under Situ Sheng's command, and he is indeed the best helper.

It was still the small house. Apart from Jiang Yuan and Lin Jun, only Chen Youwei and Di Fei were present in the hall. The four of them are Situ Sheng's confidantes, and they are naturally reliable people. Up to now, some things There is no need to hide it.

Jiang Yuan took out the sheepskin map and spread it on the desktop, pointing to the position on it and said: "Although the land of Jiangnan covers many provinces and a vast area, it falls on the heads of aristocratic families and nobles, but it is mainly concentrated in These four places—Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Jinling. Although the rest of the land is also the sphere of influence they are fighting for, they are one level behind, and they are not guarded by their own people, so they are not as important as these four places."

"We only have 4 horses from the Three Kingdoms. It doesn't look like a lot, but it's enough." Jiang Yuan said, "Now the Lord has ascended the throne and made a decree to punish the place. Tiger Talisman is used to control the military power, no matter how many troops are stationed here in Jiangnan, and the generals are all the emperor's people, they dare not openly rebel and disobey the emperor's orders."

"As long as these soldiers and horses don't move, there will be no other forces in the south of the Yangtze River that can compete with the troops in our hands. Even if we want to arm the tenants, it will take time. As long as we divide our troops and seize these four places first, we will fight against the nobles of the aristocratic families. Controlling the situation before, and then advancing layer by layer to erode the entire Jiangnan, will definitely completely disintegrate the power of the family and nobles!"

He pointed to a few places specially marked on the map, "These places are where King Yong, King Shun, and Prince Yizhong hoarded food, grass, and military equipment. We must seize these places first to prevent nobles and aristocratic families from The dog jumps over the wall and incites the tenants to rebel. After these places are all occupied, it is useless even if they want to be dishonest. No matter how many tenants have no weapons and food, they are just ordinary people. Are they going to rebel with hoes and grass roots?"

Jiang Yuan arranged the specific matters one by one, arranged to take care of them, and did not leak any water.Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Jinling, each of them is responsible for one area, and then gradually expands to the surrounding areas around these state capitals, striving to control the entire Jiangnan within a few days!He was caught off guard by the noble nobles of the family!

Outside the city of Hangzhou, there is a farm, Liujiazhuang.

Although they are all surnamed Liu, the owner of the Liu Family Village is not a relative of the Liu family.The masters of the Liu family like to give the surname Liu to the servants below, and this servant surnamed Liu was released to manage this farm for the Liu family, so this farm is called Liujiazhuang.

In fact, the owner of Liujiazhuang is named Liu, and the person in charge is named Liu, but the tenants below have all kinds of surnames. There are thousands of households living here, renting the land of Zhuangzi to live.There is a lot of land in the whole farm, and there are many tea trees planted on the hillside. It seems that the harvest is very good, but the life of the tenants here is still very hard.

The climate here in the south of the Yangtze River is suitable and the land is fertile. It was originally called a land of fish and rice and a land of grain production.However, there is more production in this field, and the rent of the field has also risen continuously. In famine years, when the crops are not harvested, the rent will not only not drop, but will increase again. Only the servants of the Liu family are willing to quit.

After working for a whole year, [-]% to [-]% of the grain dug out in the fields would be taken away by the stewards of Zhuangzi. The little grain left was not even enough to make ends meet, and everyone was so hungry that they were pale and emaciated.This is not a big deal, they tenants still have to help the village to collect tea and stir-fry tea, hunt and fish, pickle vegetables and make meat, and give gifts to the gentlemen. If you do it, you will be expelled from the farm by taking back the land.

Although the life in Zhuangzi was depressing, few tenants decided to leave here, just because the entire Jiangnan farm was like this, no matter where they went, this fate was unavoidable.

There are also literate people who said that the imperial court has express laws and regulations that the land rent in Jiangbei should not exceed [-]% of the real estate, and the land rent in Jiangnan should not exceed [-]% of the real estate.

But that being said, since ancient times, which tenant can sue the owner?All the officials, large and small, in the south of the Yangtze River have long been taken care of by the owner of Zhuangzi. If the tenants dare to sue, not only will they not get justice, but they will be reversed in the name of false accusations and exiled into the army.So everyone can only endure it, and if you can't bear it, you have to continue to bear it.

Although life is a little bit harder now, at least he can barely survive and have a bite to eat, but if he leaves the farm, he will really have no way to survive in this Jiangnan area. He will either become a pariah or starve to death.So they hated the farm, but they couldn't leave. Everyone thought they would live like this from generation to generation...

In the middle of the night, there was a burst of noise from the yard in charge of Liujiazhuang. Many tenants who rented the land heard the movement in the yard, and carefully peeked over the crack of the door.

A few bold people sneaked out of the house and got closer to see it more clearly.I saw that the three-entry courtyard was surrounded by a group of people. On the top of the thick wall lay a few of Guanshi Liu's confidantes. They were holding bows and arrows and planning to fight back, but they were attacked first by the people outside. , A few arrows shot in the past and there was no sound.

Look at the clothes, look at the armor... Those peeping tenants swallowed their saliva. The people besieging the yard turned out to be the imperial army!How big a crime would it take to attract people from the imperial court to destroy Zhuangzi?Could it be that Liu Guanshi committed a crime, so he will be arrested by the government?The tenants murmured in their hearts, but they dared not take a step out. Instead, they sneaked back home, fearing that they would be mistakenly killed by the army's confidantes who acted as farm stewards.

The noisy sound lasted for a full hour. The sentry broke open the courtyard door and rushed into the courtyard of the steward of the farm. After a while, he tied up the steward and everyone in the courtyard and pressed them out. I don't know what they found in Zhuangzi, and they turned out more than a dozen large boxes.It wasn't until the captured people and the dug-out boxes were put on the carriage that these people left Liujiazhuang without a trace.

Seeing that there was no movement outside, a brave tenant sneaked out of the house to check the yard, and saw that there was no one left in the yard in charge, not even the farmers who had been shot dead.Nothing of value in the house, money, rice and food in the warehouse were removed, and they were all taken away by the soldiers.

This scene looks like the ransacking of the family and the extermination of the family as mentioned in the drama. Could it be that the steward really committed a major crime...

Suzhou City, Tongzhi House.

In the middle of the night, the watchman was looking for a place to take a nap, but suddenly someone knocked on the door, and the sound of ping, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, made it clear that he would not stop until the door was opened inside.

The doorman on duty at night yawned loudly, patted his mouth, and said lazily to the outside of the door: "I don't even know what time it is, what kind of knocking, urging my life!"

Although he was very dissatisfied in his heart, he still had to open the door honestly, even if he was cursing, he didn't dare to speak loudly, for fear that people outside would hear him and give him little shoes to wear.As the gatekeeper of Tongzhi's official residence, he is still very winking. It's already the time of curfew. Those who dare to walk around the streets and knock on the gate of the official residence at this time must not be ordinary people. It is estimated that there is something important to find His master, in short, he was not the one to offend the door, so although he was full of complaints, he walked over quickly and pulled the door bolt.

The door just opened a small crack, and before the door could see who was knocking on the door, the person outside the door suddenly pushed on the door, pushing the door behind the door to stagger.

Before the door could yell and curse loudly, the people outside had already knocked open both doors, and there were a hundred or ten soldiers holding torches and weapons at the foot of the steps outside, and the person who knocked first had not waited. He reacted and rushed into the front yard.

"You, you..." What do you do?As soon as he stumbled and said the first two words, he was dragged into the shadow of the corner by the soldiers who broke into the door, gagged his mouth and tied him up. Powerless to resist, he could only watch helplessly as the soldiers rushed into the courtyard Inside, there was a burst of commotion.

A few moments later, Suzhou Tongzhi, who was sleeping in the mansion with his concubine in his arms, was only wearing loose obscene clothes, with disheveled hair, and was dragged into the front yard by the soldiers, who was shackled and held down by the shackles he did not know where he found. Kneeling in the middle of the yard.

After that, the relatives of Master Tongzhi did not run away, even the servants in the mansion were not spared, they were either tied up by the soldiers, or locked in the house and could not come in or out.The valuables in the house and the gold and silver treasures accumulated in the storeroom were packed and carried out by the soldiers skillfully, and they were neatly stacked in the yard, waiting for the carriage to arrive, and dragged them away.

The fellow-prefect master from Suzhou was about to argue with the soldiers, but the general who seemed to be of high rank looked at him contemptuously and said coldly: "There is a decree from the sage, I want you to raid your house later." , don’t you still dare to disobey?”

Such a sentence is more effective than anything else, and I don't know what the fellow zhi made up in his head. His face was pale, his whole body twitched, and he collapsed on the ground. After a while, the people around could only smell a foul smell from him. When it came from below, he was so frightened that he lost control of himself!

With such a guilty conscience, it means that no one would believe that he hadn't committed any major crimes. Didn't make any mistakes so he was so frightened?The people who were tied up next to him couldn't help but tremble, fearing that they would be implicated in a big case and be assigned or even beheaded.

This kind of scene didn't just happen in Liujiazhuang and Suzhou Tongzhi's houses, the entire Jiangnan land was turned upside down overnight, the houses of countless officials were broken down by officers and soldiers, and the stewards of countless farms were destroyed by soldiers. arrest.It is unknown how many people were arrested overnight, and how many houses were raided.

Countless people wailed and cried out for injustice, countless people were scared and appointed, countless people cursed through gnashing of teeth, countless people thought their backers could save their lives, uttered rude words and cursed loudly... But what happened?They all deserve what they deserve...

Yangzhou City, Song Chenfu.

The heavy mansion gate was smashed open by strong soldiers with wooden stakes. Song Chen didn't know what he had done until he was tied up and thrown on the ground.

Corruption?How many officials in the world have committed such a crime, as for people to arrest him with such fanfare?

Taking bribes?In the hearts of people like him, this can only be regarded as the filial piety of his subordinates. This is the practice in the world, and it is not a crime at all!

Collusion with foreigners?This is a serious crime, but he thinks that he did it meticulously, leaving no traces, leaving no witnesses or physical evidence, and even let him burn the letters, so others can't see through them.

As for opening the door of convenience?People give money and power, and he gives benefits. This is simply a matter of course. How can it be wrong?

So what caused him to be caught?

He fell to the ground, shouting his innocence loudly, struggling to see the young man standing in front of him who was clearly the leader.He was very sure that he had never seen this person before, but he looked like he was in his twenties, he didn't look like he came from a small family, and he didn't have any official air on him. Could it be that he was a child of some family?

Thinking of this, Song Chen quickly shut his mouth. At this moment, he didn't think that the government came to arrest him at all. He thought it was the aristocratic family and nobles who wanted to silence him!

Although the movement was a little fanfare and the surrounding troops were mobilized, it was already the time of the curfew. No matter how big the movement was, no one dared to go out to inquire about it.

Just report to a robber for robbery and murder. Given the influence of this family and honor in the south of the Yangtze River, the death of him, a fourth-rank official, is not unjustified, so what if it is unjustified?He would have already died by then, could he still come alive to take revenge?As long as the methods are clean, even if Beijing sends people to investigate, nothing can be found...

Just as he was thinking about this, he became more and more frightened, and saw Guanshi Liu who lived in the guest room was also tied up and thrown into the corner to be his companion, while Chen San, who also lived in the guest room, had a pale face at this time, but he was unscathed The young man who walked towards the dominant position seemed to be in the same group as him.

Now Song Chen confirmed his judgment. This young man must be from Xungui's side, maybe even from Jinling Wang's family. Otherwise, why both he and Liu Guanshi were arrested, but Chen San was able to escape This catastrophe?This honorable family has always known a lot of generals. Many generals in the south of the Yangtze River are old disciples of their family, and they are willing to give them some face. It is not impossible to borrow a few soldiers if they want to come. Come to kill him!

Seeing Chen San walking over with a pale face, Lin Jun who was standing in the middle of the yard raised the corners of his lips, and softly comforted Chen San who was trembling, "You did a good job this time, since you are doing things for the court like this, don't worry. Keeping the situation in check, the imperial court will naturally not treat you badly."

"After this incident is over, you will be able to erase your slave status and get a lot of money to live a good life in a place where no one knows you. At that time, how far away from the Wang family will be, even if Wang Zipeng wants to To take revenge on someone who can’t find you.”

Chen San swallowed his saliva, and saluted Lin Jun honestly. Now that he has reached the dark all the way, he has to keep going. Now as long as he can survive, he will dare to do anything!On weekdays, the more life-hungry a person is, the more courageous he is when he is forced into a dangerous place. In order to save his own life, he even dared to deceive the master, and stared at Guanshi Liu who wanted to take his life every day. What else could he not do? Dare to do it?He only begged Lin Jun and Jiang Yuan to let him go, he didn't dare to take any gold, silver or property...

Lin Jun spoke in a low voice, and Song Chen didn't hear a word of what he said, but when he saw Chen San saluting Lin Jun respectfully, Song Chen had confirmed his previous suspicions, and decided that Lin Jun in front of him must be He is a member of the Wang family, and looking at Chen San's humble appearance, he is probably a child of the Wang family, so I don't know which family he is from!

At this time, in order to save his life, Song Chen ignored everything and yelled loudly, "You Jinling royal family dare to attack me, don't you know that I have the handle of your royal family in my hand? The handle of your Wang Ziteng is here. I hold it tightly in my hand, if you want to get rid of me, the news will not be kept, it will definitely be spread by my confidantes all over Dajing! You still don’t let me go?!”