Lord of the House

Chapter 8

Meixi in Anji, the lake on the west bank is clear after the rain, and the sun shines through the bottom. Looking at it from afar, it seems like a crystal clear emerald is inlaid between heaven and earth. Lin Fu and Chongzhou County Book Office Li Shuyi and others landed on the shore in a light boat. The Tianmu Mountain here is as green as jade, the waterfront in front of the mountain, and the white stone pagoda more than two feet high shines in the sun.

Along the way, the wind and rain were dark, and the weather was rarely sunny. The weather was so bright today, and Lin Bie felt comfortable standing on the bow of the boat. This was the 21st day after he left Chongzhou and entered the three houses along the Taihu Lake to raise grain.

Meixi is a market town in Anji County, Huzhou Prefecture. The Meixi Shu family is not a family of Shixun, and there are no children in the family who are famous. It is difficult to say that the foundation is innocent after accumulating such a large family property purely through land and water business; Lin Fu only knew that the Meixi Shu family did not bribe the Qu family to send someone to attack the estuary.

From a distance, there were some people standing on the bank wearing long robes and scarves. I think it was the people who came to the lake embankment to greet the Shu family when they received news. Still far away, Lin Fu also sat on the bow of the boat casually, and smiled with Li Shuyi, the office secretary of Chongzhou County, and said with a smile: "It is said that the local snakes in Anji County are not easy to mess with, I think they have come from afar to raise food for us, It's still very welcoming and warm..."

Welcome a fart, a warm fart, Li Shuyi secretly spit in his heart, but smiled on his face: "It's all thanks to Lord Lin's reputation, and the squires of Anji County are open and knowledgeable..."

Lin Fu smiled slightly. He didn't care what Li Shuyi had against him. He came out to raise food and brought Li Shuyi with him, because he was afraid that Li Shuyi would interfere with Lin Mengde, Fu Qinghe, and Hu Zhiyong in Xisha Island.

Li Shuyi was born as a scholar, and he is also a person who has read poetry and books. He has failed several times in the township examination. This journey, most of the time on the boat, Lin Fuxian has nothing to do, and also talked to Li Shuyi about the history of the book to pass the time. I don't know Li Shuyi's resentment in his heart. Snakes and scorpions have made great progress.

Li Shuyi glanced back. The two boats "Jiyun 1" and "Jiyun 2" with shallow water near the shore and deep draught could only anchor in the middle of the water a little far from the lake embankment. The people took a light boat, and more than 20 soldiers took the other two light boats to **** them ashore to meet with Mei Xishu's family and talk about raising food.

The two armed warships "Jiyun 1" and "Jiyun 2" set off the surrounding small fishing boats unusually tall. More than a hundred soldiers stood on the deck in armor. There were more than 300 sailors, and Li Shuyi thought that Lin Tie was relying on such force, not so much to raise food as to beg for food.

The Qujiatong bandit case is no trivial matter and involves a wide range of issues. The Qu family, a powerful family that lasted for more than 200 years, vanished overnight; the former minister of the household and the great scholar Chen Xiyan were also forced to petition for their relationship with the Qu family. The table, the hope of becoming prime minister; to buy the forces of the Taihu Water Village that participated in the attack on the estuary of the Qu family, it is even more impossible to wash away the relationship.

This is not a matter of the Qing Dynasty. The more than 300 Taihu robbers who participated in the attack on the estuary were charged into the Jiangning garrison, and dozens of bandit leaders were imprisoned in the Jinchuan Prison Island prison. It can be said that Gu Wuchen has whatever evidence he wants. Besides, the Qu family monopolized the rice grain trade imported from Pingjiang, Danyang, and Huzhou prefectures into Jiangning for a century.

It is good for local aristocratic families to say that there are many school children who are officials, and they are self-contained in the court and the opposition, led by Chen Xiyan, for the Wu party. The Wu Party lost the battle with the Chu Party this time, and it was inevitable to suffer a blow. The son of an official might be demoted or dismissed from office, but there would be no worries about breaking the family and losing the family. No matter how severe the struggle was, it was impossible to vote for the Chu Party.

The forces of the Taihu Water Village, which belong to the nature of self-protection, have no such confidence.

Chen Xiyan is hopeless, Chen Xinbo is alone, and no one in the DPRK can control the power of the Chu Party. How far and how deep the Qujiatong bandit case will be implicated depends entirely on the face of the Chu Party.

At this time, the forces of the Taihu Water Village are all in danger and anxiety. Those who have knowledge and think that they are not deeply involved, go to the relationship early. At this time, Gu Wuchen is in the name of preparing for war and raising food, how can they not know it? What's the matter?

The local government and county yamen completely ignored Lin Fu's use of tiger skin as a banner to enter the country, but as long as the Qu family did not buy it this time, the Taihu water village forces who directly participated in the attack on the estuary were eagerly looking forward to Lin Fu's "food raising". make" the arrival.

Li Shuyi left Xisha Island with Lin Fu, entered Jiyang Lake from Donglai River, entered Taihu Lake through Chenghu Lake, entered Dianshan Lake, and entered Huzhou through Zhuxi. More than 20 days have passed so far, and he has visited 26 Shanshui Villages along the way. family, and even got in touch with the leaders of 133 Shanshui Villages.

For the various Shanshuizhai forces, this is an opportunity to spend money to clear their name and to prove their innocence.

Lin Fu is also very clear about the purpose of his trip. The low bid made the forces of the water villages feel uneasy, and they would start raising prices wherever they went, and of course let the water villages negotiate the price.

In the past 20 days, more than 60,000 shi of grain have been raised, and more than 80,000 taels of money and salaries have been raised.

To raise food, Lin Fu sent each water village self-provided food boats to Xisha Island and Dongyang respectively; Xisha Island received 40,000 stone of disaster relief food, which was enough to cover the three-month support based on the scale of disaster victims on Xisha Island.

Most of the money raised was used to purchase a large number of relief materials such as porcelain iron bricks, wooden mules and horses along the way to Xisha Island, and most of them were intercepted by Lin Bie and loaded on the ship.

The harvest from this trip is not too big. In addition to getting so much grain and money, it is the key to stabilize the situation in the Taihu Lake Basin.

Li Shuyi complained bitterly in his heart. The commissioner of the judiciary, the commissioner of Xuanfu, and the government and county government belonged to two different systems. He worked so hard with Lin Fu, and greed for ink for less than a cent of money. Lin Bie has been with him for a long time, and he may be suspicious and rejected by his colleagues in the future.

Most importantly, Li Shuyi knew that Lin Fu started killing in Jiangning. More than 300 disciples of Taihu Shuizhai died under his sword, more than 300 people were arrested and convicted, and dozens of leaders were detained in his jurisdiction. Jinchuan Prison Island prison, Pingjiang, Huzhou, and Danyang prefectures do not know how many people want to kill Lin Fu and then quickly.

Every time along the way, he accompanied Lin Fu to land on a light boat, and negotiated with Zhushuizhai to raise food. Li Shuyi was afraid that the cup would suddenly fall and countless men with knives poured out from behind the screen to chop them into meat dregs. , I'm even more afraid that everyone was drinking tea and drinking wine, and suddenly they covered their throats and couldn't breathe, rolling around on the ground and poisoning them.

Along the way, Li Shuyi felt that he was a live fish dragged to the cutting board by Lin Fujiang, and waited for the knife to chop with his eyes open. This kind of fear is really unbearable.

In the first ten days, except for the constant robbery and harassment of Xiaogu Lake along the way, the negotiation with Zhujia Shanshui Village to raise food went smoothly, and no special incident happened. No matter how stupid Li Shuyi was, he could guess that Lin Fu had an accurate list in his hands, and it made him hate Lin Fu so much that he was frightened for more than ten days in vain, and every day his hair fell out. .

The same is true of people. Once you think through it thoroughly and let it go, the fear in your heart will recede like a tide, and it will disappear without a trace. Aside from Qingliu's inherent prejudice against others, Li Shuyi thinks about Lin Bie's actions, which is indeed far worse than ordinary people. The talent and the bearing to lead others.

Two hundred strong men selected from the victims traveled with the boat to supplement the shortage of manpower. At first, they were at a loss on the boat. In the past few days, they have been able to assist the boatmen in an orderly manner and assist the soldiers to fight back against the lake along the way. The harassment of thieves. People from more than two hundred miles away, the four leaders of the disaster victims headed by Ning Zechen were even more obedient.

Of course, the refugees in Xisha Island suffered disasters, and Chongzhou County abandoned them as if they were on their feet. Regardless of whether they were asked, they were allowed to die. Only Lin Fu stepped forward to save the people in danger, give them a way to live, and even settle them down. And other hopes, how could they not follow Lin bound horses?

Thinking about it again at this point, Li Shuyi felt that he had no special prejudice against Lin Fu. Shilin Qingliu regarded Lin Bie as an alien, mostly because of his arrogant and domineering words and deeds. Li Shuyi had been with him for nearly a month, and he felt that instead of his arrogant and domineering words and deeds, it would be better to say that this person was a little maverick. As far as the disaster relief and disposal of Xisha Island is concerned, it is hard to imagine that someone in Chongzhou County can do better than Lin Fu.

At first, Li Shuyi did not agree with the abandonment of the displaced people in Xisha Island. These middle and low-level officials are all in Chongzhou City. Once the displaced people in Xisha Island follow the example of Liu An'er, the thief of Hongze Island, Chongzhou City will be in danger; Ninghai Town is in the army. Shanshuizhai's garrison is not worth relying on. However, Li Shuyi was quiet in the county, and his opinion could not affect the county magistrate Chen Kun. Seeing that Chen Kun was deflated in front of Lin Fu, and even relied on Chen Kun's trust in Geng Weide, who was a powerful force in the county, to teach Lin Fu a hard lesson, Li Shuyi was not without pleasure.

The lake embankment is approaching, and I can almost see the expressions on the faces of the people on the shore. Li Shuyi thought in his heart that when Anji County was cleaned up, there would be no further delays along the way back to Chongzhou. To be able to reach Chongzhou, this drudgery is over.

Li Shuyi was thinking about it, and suddenly heard the sound of hooves. He turned his head and looked over. A purplish red horse was galloping fast from the west. The knight was crouching on the horse's back and couldn't see his face, but it attracted the attention of everyone in the lake and on the embankment.

Seeing this strange situation, Lin Fu decisively signaled the oarsman to stop the boat, frowning at the situation on the embankment. Many people in long gowns greeted on the river embankment had strange expressions on their faces, only to see the knight who had suddenly entered the vicinity, reined his horse and turned sideways. , raised his hand and lifted out the hunting bow that was hidden under the horse's belly before, took the arrow and pulled the bow, and heard a sharp sound piercing the sky and shooting towards this side.

Li Shuyi was startled when he saw the arrow coming in this direction. He subconsciously wanted to hide behind Lin Fu, but he was afraid that Lin Fu would look down on him, so he stopped abruptly; behind.

"It's a messenger arrow, pick it up." Lin Fu said calmly.

Lin Fu's voice fell, and the white-stemmed arrow with its clustered head fell into the water three or four feet away from the bow of the boat. Li Shuyi felt ashamed, and felt that Lin Fu was really not as calm as an ordinary person, and he calmly went from there. The trajectory of the arrow's shooting predicts in advance that the arrow will fall into the water three or four feet away.

The guard Wu **** picked up the white-stemmed arrow that fell into the water and handed it to Lin Fu. Lin Fu untied the small oiled paper bag tied to the end of the arrow's shaft, unfolded the note inside, and said, "I always want to be extravagant. It will make me too comfortable, I didn't expect them to hold back until this time, there are soldiers in ambush on the shore, let's go back to the big boat! Be careful of the fishing boats left and right, don't let them approach easily." Handing the note to Ao Canghai on the side, he motioned to the oarsman. They turned around and rowed back; the military soldiers were also on alert, and a large shield was erected on the bow to guard against ambush hidden in several fishing boats scattered on the left and right.

Li Shuyi didn't know who Lin Bie was referring to by the "luxury family", was she Wenzhuang, the Hou of Jin'an? However, some flying horses shot arrows from the shore to report the news, which also made him aware of the lurking crisis.

When the three assault boats turned their heads, Li Shuyi looked back. The archery messenger was turning his horse's head and running back. A dozen cavalrymen rushed out of a peach grove in the distance of the lake and wanted to intercept him. I felt a chill down my spine: There really are soldiers in ambushes in the peach tree! Li Shuyi didn't know why someone reported them in time. He saw that the messenger stabbed the ambush soldier who rushed out first. He didn't know if he was injured, but he saw that he was able to get rid of the entanglement before the encirclement. , fleeing far away.

Lin Bie had no time to pay attention to the secret message on the shore, took off the waist knife and held it in his hand, took off his official robe in blue and threw it on the boat at will, revealing his short cardigan, while asking the guards to help him put on scales, A shield kicked at Li Shuyi's feet and said, "You take your shield and sit in the middle of the boat, cover your head and chest, and be careful to fall into the river. No one can take care of you later."

Li Shuyi and Lin Fu were both on the big boat when he encountered bandits a few times before. He hid in the cabin and watched Lin Fu and the others counterattack on the deck. At this time, he was standing on an assault canoe without a canopy, the width of the hull was even They didn't even have a long spear, so Li Shuyi was inevitably flustered. He took the shield and sat in the middle of the cabin. Seeing that Lin Bie had already put on his armor, he held the shield in his left hand and the knife in his left hand, ready to fight. , he can not panic at the enemy, and he can't be too arrogant, forcing a calm look ahead.

The seven or eight fishing boats scattered on the lake before saw that the three assault boats suddenly turned back after receiving the report, and they all tore off their disguise and came to encircle them together. Each fishing boat had seven or eight armored soldiers to get out from under the canopy. Half of the people held big bows in their hands, and a total of more than 30 big bows were shot at a distance of seventy or eighty steps.

The sword and shield man erected a large shield on the bow, and the arrow cluster hit the large shield with a dull dull sound. The sword and shield player in front couldn't bear the pain and let out two screams in succession. Lin Bing looked over and realized that it was not easy to hide the enemy on the fishing boat. There were many iron arrows shooting through the skinned wooden shield at a distance of seven or eighty paces. The shield hand was close to the shield, and the arrow was shot under the flank, and the palms of the two sword shield hands were nailed to the wooden shield.

There are no more people on board, and no more space. Except for the one who was struck by the arrow under the threat, the sword and shield hands, whose palms and wooden shields were nailed to the iron arrows, were only removed from the waist and poured half a bottle of medicinal powder to stop the bleeding. Painful, the arrow could not be pulled out in time, so he supported the big shield with his shoulders and continued to stand on the bow.

"The bow is erected with double shields! Pay attention to the protection of the sides, pay attention to the enemy's throwing arrows, and prepare to strike back!" Ao Canghai ordered in a deep voice.

Ao Canghai had previously served as the military attache of the forward battalion in the Chen Zhihu Department of the Eastern Fujian Army for a long time. He had a deeper understanding of the hand-to-hand combat with cold weapons than Lin Bie, and he naturally commanded the assault boats and pawns.

Lin Bie clenched the handle of the knife and stared at the enemy ship in front of him.

He never thought that apart from a few innocuous harassment by lake robbers, he would be able to raise money all the way and return to Chongzhou safely.

The main purpose of the She family's integration of the East China Sea pirates in the islands of Changguo County is to break the economic foundation of the imperial court in the southeastern counties. As long as the She family sends someone to kill him in Taihu Lake, the disaster relief situation on Xisha Island can be easily disintegrated, and the nearly 30,000 displaced people in Xisha Island will be restored to chaos, giving the She family an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos or to incite a rebellion.

Even though he knew that the trip was dangerous, Lin Fu, as the "reporter of the police to prepare food and prepare food for the road", had to personally come forward to contact the forces of various water villages to raise food and salaries.

Wu Qi accompanied him along the way, but none of the others stayed on the boat with Lin Bie, but sneaked along the way to detect whether there was any abnormality.

After all, due to the lack of limited manpower, it is impossible to monitor all the passages into the Taihu Lake Basin, not to mention that in addition to sending elites to infiltrate the luxury family, they can also directly bribe the forces of the water village to set up ambushes in advance, so Wu Qi can only target them. Send someone to monitor the water village that Lin Fu is about to visit in advance.

They can reconnaissance here, the luxury family has been in rebellion for ten years, and they have extremely rich experience in various struggles, so they are naturally proficient in anti-reconnaissance.

Lin Fu didn't know who the enemy was commanding behind this time, but it was by no means simple. He could endure it all the way to Anji County, Huzhou. The reconnaissance power is limited, and they can take the initiative to jump into the trap when Lin Bie takes the initiative to lay out calmly in Anji County.

Wu Qi also realized the abnormality at the last moment when the other party deployed the ambush into the peach forest, and promptly dispatched people to charge in and shoot arrows to report the news.

The more it got to the end, the more careful Lin Bie became. He came over to contact Meixi Shu's family. Although he went ashore in an assault canoe as usual, Lin Fu only planned to negotiate the supply of food on the shore. In addition, he also prepared more large shields and scuttles in the assault canoe than usual. Zhang Qiangnu was to prevent the Shu family from buying the extravagant family.

Lin Fu stared at the front. The ambush soldiers began to prepare to shoot the second round of arrows. The two sides approached each other for fifty paces. The other side also realized that there would be a shield on this side, and divided a dozen people to raise their bows and shoot flat. for projectiles. They didn't see the "Jiyun 1" and "Jiyun 2" behind them. Although they were three or four hundred paces away from here, they didn't have time to raise the sails to come to the rescue, but the varnished cloth on the bow was lifted, revealing that they had already been wound up. Four bed crossbows came.

The three-bow bed crossbow is fixed on the deck, and five people operate one bed crossbow at the same time. When the enemy soldiers were about to shoot the second round of arrows, four giant crossbow arrows, one shot through a hole in a fishing boat, and two fell into the water. The only giant crossbow arrow that hit was connected from the chest to the abdomen. The thighs shot the three ambush men together.

Ao Canghai also ordered the guards to fire crossbow arrows in a timely manner, disrupting the rhythm of the second round of the ambush; the second round of the ambush was disturbed by the front and back, and the number of arrows was sparse.

Although the Chuangzhang crossbow is slow to open the string, but the bow power is so great that it is beyond the reach of ordinary step bows. At a distance of sixty paces, only scale armor and plate armor can effectively prevent the Chuangzhang crossbow from shooting. Although the enemy soldiers all wore armor, few of them wore scale armor, and they were not shielded by large shields. Twelve crossbows were shot together. Immediately, five or six ambush soldiers shot, and three fell into the river.

Ao Canghai saw that there were no other enemy boats approaching. He knew that the enemy was afraid that he would see through it. The main ambush troops were on the shore, and there were only these seven fishing boats in the water. As a result, Ao Canghai no longer took the initiative to take the boat to fight and break out of the siege, but took advantage of the speed of the assault canoe to distance himself from the fishing boat, and used the crossbow to shoot each other, and then gave the three-bow crossbow to the two thousand stone ships. Look for opportunities to shoot hard.

"Jiyun 1" and "Jiyun 2" raised their sails one after another. Seeing that the fishing boat could not find a favorable fighter in the water battle, they dispersed to the shore and supported each other with the ambush soldiers on the shore. "Jiyun 1" and "Jiyun 2" converge.

Lin Fu climbed up the bow of "Jiyunyi" from the rope ladder, and stood on the deck overlooking the lake embankment. Most of the people who greeted him had long since dispersed, leaving three or five people surrounded by ambushes and stood there facing this way. Point to point.

Although there were only two or three hundred soldiers in ambush on the shore, there were only more than one hundred armored soldiers in Lin Fu's hands. Except for the boatmen and handymen, the other three hundred people were newly recruited to make up for the shortage of manpower. The 200 people who were displaced by the disaster did not undergo strict training. No matter how strong the will to fight, compared with the elites of the luxury family, their combat effectiveness was still extremely limited.

"Is the ambush done by the luxury family?" Master Loach asked solemnly, wearing scales.

"Although it hasn't been proven yet, other than the luxury family, who else can give the Shu family a suitable bargaining chip?" Lin Fu said.

According to the information Lin Fu had, the Shu family of Meixi did not send anyone to attack the estuary, and they were in contact with the Qu family but were not very close, but they were ambushing Lin Fu in Meixi Lake at this time, and even the yellow mud in their crotch became Shit - only the Shejia can offer a bargaining chip to make the Shujia's yellow mud into shit. Maybe the Shujia has already bought it for the Shejia, and it may be the secret pile of the Shejiabu at the junction of Jiangdong and Zhejiang.

"What should I do now? I think the money in Anji County is not easy to collect. I think we should withdraw from Meixi Lake and return to Dianshan Lake via Zhuxi to Chongzhou." Li Shuyi also regained his composure at this time, listening to Lin Bie and When his subordinates discussed the enemy's situation, they couldn't help but interject a sentence. After all, he and Lin Fu were court officials.

"I'm worried that before entering Zhuxi, there will be ambushes at the entrance of Meixi Lake. Even if we break through the entrance of the lake, the road ahead will not be peaceful," Lin Fu said. It's so easy to get out."

"Did they still rebel?" Li Shuyi asked, "It's really not possible, we can go to Anji County for temporary shelter."

Lin Fu shook his head slightly. He had to wait until Wu Qi was brought on board before he could learn more about the situation on the shore. At least he had to get a rough idea of ​​how many East Sea bandits had infiltrated before he could decide what to do next.

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