Chapter 2152 The fate of the Guizi scroll converges, focusing on southern Shanxi
Man Gui took a deep breath, calmed down, and motioned for the two of them to take their seats. He calmly returned to his seat and sat down. On the surface, he was not at all confused, but in his heart, he was thinking quickly about countermeasures.
Changle Town is located ten miles southwest of Siyan City. It does not belong to Anyi County, but to Jiezhou. It is only seven or eight miles away from Jiezhou City. The road between Changle Town and Xiezhou City happens to be across Yanchi and Nuyanchi ( Between the saltpeter and the saltpeter, it was also a place called turbidity in ancient times.
Shortly after the three families were divided into the Jin Dynasty, the Wei State and the Han and Zhao Kingdoms fought here. The Wei State won the battle and avoided being divided.
This turbid lake was originally a lake, but it was buried before the Tang Dynasty and is now a flat land.
There are also salt pools in Anyi, but they are not the same as the salt pools commonly referred to. Only the Jiezhou Salt Pool is a salt pool in the usual sense, and the Anyi salt pool needs to be added with the word Anyi. As for the female salt pool, it is more than ten miles away from the salt pool. In the ground, the salt content is thinner, far less than the amount of salt produced in salt ponds, and the quality is also slightly inferior.
Salt Transportation Officer Si Yamen has officials stationed in these salt ponds, who are responsible for supervising the salt workers and running the entire process of salt drying, salt production, and salt transportation in and out of the storage.
Changle Town in Jiezhou and Shenghui Town in Anyi are both on the edge of the salt pond. They are places where merchants and tax collectors live. In addition to paying the salt tax, salt merchants also have to pay commercial taxes when transporting salt. Is the tax rate far different from that of the salt tax? Both towns have inspection departments stationed in them, which assist in transporting salt to the yamen and inspect tax cards to collect taxes.
“Channgle Town was attacked, what about Jiezhou?” Mangui asked slowly: “Is Jiezhou just watching?”
Zhu Xingquan shook his head in confusion: "I don't know. Maybe Jiezhou doesn't have the strength to rescue it at all, or maybe Jiezhou has already fallen?"
Frightened by his last words, Zhu Xingquan turned pale and stood up, faltering, "What should I do?"
"No, Jiezhou is not so easy to be captured by the rebel army." Man Gui shook his head, "Jiezhou has a strong population of three thousand people, and the city has high walls and thick walls. How can the rebel army succeed so easily?"
"I hope so." Zhu Xingquan regained his concentration and said, "General Man, what should we do? We still have a thousand stones of salt in the warehouse, and more than 60,000 taels in the salt class. What should we do?"
The continuous "What can we do about this?" shows that this colleague of the salt transportation department was frightened and at a loss, and he didn't know how to deal with it.
"Where is the salt transporter?" Mangui asked puzzledly: "It's up to him to make the decision."
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'll be back in two or three days..."
Man Gui stood up in shock. He was asking for help. He was clearly abandoning his official position and running away!
Now it's his turn to say what should be done. Even the salt transport envoy has run away. You must know that the highest official in this yamen has to take orders from him. What a blessing now, he actually ran away and left this person behind. A bunch of dead fish and shrimps are waiting to die here.
"If we can ask for help from Pingyang Guards, why wait until the salt transport envoy goes there in person? I have already done it, and now Pingyang Guards can't take care of our side." Man Gui sighed, "We should ask for help. I have already gone and begged, but now we have to rely on ourselves. Mr. Zhu, please make up your mind, whether to stay or leave, you have to say something."
"Is it still too late to leave?" Zhu Xingquan spread his hands with a wry smile, "If we leave these warehouses of salt and the money from the salt class and leave, you and I are afraid that in the end we will only end up killing the three clans. If we leave these warehouses If you leave salt and silver to the rebels, you are supporting the enemy."
Man Gui also had a helpless look on his face. His mission was to guard Si Yan City. If no one from the Si Yamen left the salt envoy in the capital, or left the warehouse of salt and the salt class money and ran away, all the salt envoys would Although the people in the Si Yamen are not in good stead, they will also be held accountable.
Man Gui always thought that she had a bright future and wanted to work hard, but now she found that she was suddenly faced with a dilemma.
If we continue to defend, the rebels will attack. If a large-scale rebel army comes to siege, most of these two thousand soldiers will become victims again and are worthless.
You can just leave. If you don't find a reasonable reason and don't handle the salt in the warehouse and the silver in the salt department, you will be charged with a crime or even sentenced to death.
“Master Zhu, can you transfer the Yan Ke Yin and Cang Yan together?” Man Gui suggested with hope, “If not, transfer it immediately, transfer it to Zezhou...”
"General Man, how far is it from here to Zezhou? It's a bumpy road, and the money is easy to say, but what about the warehouse salt? Thousands of stones of warehouse salt, how to transport it? Firstly, I couldn't find so many suitable carriages in my hurry, and secondly, even if I found it. It’s troublesome to transport it. It must be very slow. If I get robbed on the road and I not only leave my post without permission, but also lose my salt and silver, I will really kill the three tribes. And now Riots and riots are happening all over the place. From Anyi to Zezhou, we have to cross Wangwu Mountain. The journey is difficult and dangerous, and there are so many bandits that it is impossible to go. We cannot go on this road, and we dare not go on it."
Man Gui is desperate. What can you expect from a boss who is so rigid and indecisive, and may even end up passing the blame on himself?
This guy obviously hopes that he can defend Si Yancheng. The problem is that he also wants to defend it, but can he defend it?
“Then go to Pinglu and cross the river to Shaanzhou?” Mangui suggested again: “Maojin Ferry is still in our hands, but we don’t have to go to Modi Ferry…”
"Across the river is Henan. I have no right to transport the salt and silver out of the province. Moreover, I heard that there are also troops on the banks of the Yellow River in Henan. It is also unsafe..." Zhu Xingquan said hesitantly.
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 that could defend Si Yancheng.
He was a civil servant of the Salt Transport Bureau, so Mangui could only obey. Now all he could think about was how to defend the city. It seemed that he had to leave more than a hundred kilograms here. Mangui thought pessimistically, Even if he has great confidence in his group of people, three times the rebel army can fight, five times can defeat one, what about ten times?
How long can we 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?
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Feng Ziying received letters from Duan Xipeng and Bao Qin on the way to Xi'an.
The situation in northern Shaanxi has opened up. Modlen swept through Qingyang and rushed into Pingliang Mansion. He even had a small-scale confrontation with the Guyuan Army in Zhenyuan. There were casualties on each other, so he turned south and captured Jingzhou. This It also shocked the entire Pingliang Mansion.
When the Guyuan army could not figure out the whereabouts of Modlen's tribe, they had to retreat to Pingliang City. Even Chongxin did not dare to defend it. Losing Chongxin could be tolerated. If even Pingliang City was lost, then Guyuan Town would really be lost. Only it was axed.
Modelun took the opportunity to launch a massive attack in the Jingzhou and Lingtai areas, attacking local tyrants, dividing grain and floating wealth.
It is impossible to divide the land, and it is useless.
Immediately afterwards, the Tufeng Battalion rushed up from Qingyang, and just in time joined forces with the Guyuan Army to "drive out" Modlen's Boyan Village from Qingyang.
Modlen's Boyan Village moved to Ningzhou. Although they did not capture Ningzhou City, they swept all the way and cleaned up all the gentry in the state. The entire Ningzhou landowners and gentry mourned, but they had no choice but to attack Tu Tu. The front camp moved slowly and attacked weakly.
Letters of distress and complaints flew like snowflakes to the yamen of Xi'an City's Chengxuan Envoy Department, Provincial Envoy Department, and Du Commander Envoy Department. Feng Ziying's place was even more crowded.
Feng Ziying has long been used to it. He has been mentally prepared for this since Modlen and Qiu Zixiong acted according to the plan. He even knows that the letters from these gentry have been sent to the capital, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Cabinet. There must be quite a few, but does it mean that the cabinet and the Procuratorate are unaware of the situation in Shaanxi?
How can millions of hungry people survive without giving anything? Should we kill them all, or allow them to be exported to Shanxi and Henan?
Even so, tens of thousands of Shaanxi rebels crossed the river and entered eastward, not to mention that the eastern part of Xi'an Prefecture is not far from Henan. If they really want to cross the river and enter Henan, the trouble will be even greater.
After reading the letters from Duan Xipeng and Xue Baoqin, Feng Ziying knew that something was bad.
This is the trouble caused by information asymmetry.
Feng Ziying thought they should have passed Tongguan long ago and were about to reach Xi'an. Unexpectedly, they were still in Linfen. They were considering going south at this time. Wouldn't they be throwing themselves into a trap?
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 Shanxi rebel army. Many leaders have gone their own way.
But there is no doubt that it is too 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 or not.
Moreover, the other two armies of the rebel army are attacking Linjin and Yishi. If these two places also fall, then Puzhou will be in danger, Jiezhou will be in danger, and places such as Anyi, Quwo, Xia County, and Jiangxian will be in danger. It is said that nothing is safe south of Linfen, and it will only be a matter of time before it is captured.
Can Duan Xipeng and the others get through before the rebels cut 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. He never thought that leaving Baoqin and the others behind and walking slowly would wait for such a big moth to come out.
When the rebels entered Jin, he did not expect that the offensive would be so fierce and the defense in southern Shanxi would be so weak. Even if some of the guards were removed by Shanxi Town, what would happen to the people?
In the final analysis, I’m afraid it’s still a problem with local officials.
(End of this chapter)