Chapter 21 Waiting and Not Waiting
"The Qin family came over by boat and brought in a lot of boxes, cages and bedding."
"The Zhao family's house is too small, and they are preparing to entertain too many people, so they rented a large open space and built a courtyard. They are preparing to hold a celebration there."
"The Zhao family's ship took over the transaction of transporting grain, and then loaded it to Fuzhou."
"Person Zhu sent someone to inform Zhao Jiaren had ordered him to lead troops to Jinjiang on the eighth day of the lunar month."
After thinking about this information, Pu Shougen felt that Zhao Jiaren was about to start taking action after the wedding, which made him feel much better. It was obvious that time was not on Zhao Jiaren's side. Pu Shougen knew very well that the basis of the Song Dynasty was taxation. The invasion of pirates and the fleet did not return to Quanzhou Port. The core of all the methods he prepared was to prevent the Quanzhou government from collecting taxes smoothly.
Zhao Jiaren, the magistrate of Quanzhou in Song Dynasty who wanted to attack the Pu family, was not the only one. However, the Pu family escaped disasters every time. The reason was very simple. The magistrate only had three years of term and was rated as poor for two years, and their official career was probably overwhelmed. The Pu family had been in Quanzhou for decades, and they could bear several years of losses. Those magistrates who were forced to compromise with Pu Shougeng could not bear strong pressure and had to surrender. With these experiences, the Pu family already had their own ideas, and the means of pursuing peace could only rely on struggle.
Recalling the ups and downs of the past, Pu Shougen sat upright on the back of the hard chair, his eyes calmed down again.
"You bunch of wastes, let you find the Mongolians, and the people who went there will not come back for a few months. If you find the people from the Song Dynasty, you will be useless!" Pu Shiwen's angry scolding came from outside the hall.
Pu Shougen did not say anything. With his understanding of his son, it would not take too long before Pu Shiwen would come in to talk about these things with Pu Shougen. Sure enough, Pu Shiwen stepped into the flower hall and complained to his father when he opened his mouth, "Those officials of the Song Dynasty agreed when they took money from us, and when they should work, they all turned into turtles. Until now, no official is willing to write a memorial to the Emperor of the Song Dynasty."
After hearing this, Pu Shougen was not particularly excited. Zhao Jiaren is the highest-level official in Quanzhou. Some Quanzhou officials must be dissatisfied with Zhao Jiaren. However, it is the matter of the Ministry of Personnel to assess officials. These people think that they can only send a message to the Ministry of Personnel when they are evaluated. In addition, the only ones who can kill Zhao Jiaren are able to kill Zhao Jiaren. The Pu family had some contact with many officials who left Quanzhou in the past, and this time they also sent people to deliver letters. It can be judged from Pu Shiwen's curse that the people who came back to report this time were like those before, and they could not make the officials of the Song Dynasty promise to impeach Zhao Jiaren.
"Don't worry. Everyone pushed the wall down. Now no one is willing to jump out and hit the wall with his head first. When the wall is broken, it will be different. Don't worry." Pu Shougeng asked his son to calm down first.
"Father. In the past, those magistrates didn't have fleets, but now our fleet can't beat Zhao Jiaren, the little thief." Pu Shiwen said a rare word that seemed a little timid, but then Pu Shiwen revealed his true face, "It's better to get Zhao Jiaren out. Find someone he can trust to give him medicine. Or just offer a woman to him?"
After hearing this suggestion, Pu Shougeng frowned slightly. His son is good at everything, but he is too anxious to do things. After a moment of silence, Pu Shougeng said: "Now Zhao Jiaren is newly married, so it is probably not appropriate to give him a woman. Now, it would be great if he did this earlier. We can wait a little longer. You go to find a woman who believes in the True God first, and we will prepare for it in other ways. When Zhao Jiaren's woman becomes pregnant, find a way to send it to him."
After hearing his father's opinion, Pu Shiwen couldn't help but nodded repeatedly. He was more fierce and Pu Shiwen was quite confident. But he was more thorough in doing things. Pu Shiwen always admired his father Pu Shougen. "Father, I'll go find someone now. But the day after tomorrow, that little devil Zhao Jiaren will get married. Should we give him a gift?"
"Of course I have to give it away! They are all old households in Quanzhou City. Even if we don't go to watch the gifts in person, there is no reason not to give gifts." Pu Shougeng smiled.
Pu Shiwen was unhappy, but he also knew that his father's decision was right. With a very unhappy mood, Pu Shiwen went to prepare some very common gifts and ordered people to pack them and write a famous sect. He was about to send someone to the day Zhao Jiaren got married.
As night fell, a fleet gathered in the northeast direction of more than 30 miles from Quanzhou. There were twenty-four warships, each of which was filled with people. Li Hongjun, who led the team, ordered, "Get the anchor, and every ship looks good. When it is almost dawn, start the anchor and go to Quanzhou. Everyone should rest quickly. I will be busy tomorrow!"
All the people who could use it in Fuzhou school were stuffed into the fleet and transported it here. Before boarding the ship, those who were not reliable in the investigation were sent to the shipyard to do heavy physical work, which made those guys so tired that they could not even walk, let alone any bad ideas.
Even so, the reason for the fleet sailing was not to kill the Pu family, but to perform the exercise. Since it was an exercise, we naturally had to bring weapons. When we arrived on the ship, we told everyone that this time we were ordered to deal with the Pu family under the will of the court. In the past, Li Hongjun was still a little nervous whenever he attacked the Pu family. That kind of private action was actually no different from pirates. At most, the leader of the pirates was a big pirate, and Li Hongjun and the others were high officials.
After seeing the official documents of Dali Temple with his own eyes, the only uneasiness left in Li Hongjun's heart had already flown out of the sky. This was the official documents of the court. The Pu family was no longer just a pirate, but also a traitor who colluded with the Mongols. Killing the thief not only made contributions, but also deserved rewards. After completely getting rid of the guilt in his heart, Li Hongjun felt that he was full of strength.
When some students who had never fought against the Pu family questioned why they wanted to kill merchants, Li Hongjun took out a document from Zhao Jiaren and Zhao Zhizhou, pressed the document on the nose of those colleges and shouted: "What does it mean to kill merchants? The Pu family is all bandits. Can the government's words be fake? You don't even believe the government? You don't even believe the Zhao Zhizhou's words when he looks for the principal? Well!!"
If a person is confident, his words will have momentum. After Li Hongjun's silence, the people below immediately shrank their necks and dared not say anything. The bad guys identified by the court would have been considered bad guys, not to mention that even Principal Zhao ordered them together.
Although it was June, the temperature at sea was not high. With the windows open, everyone on the boat fell asleep. When it was time to set sail, only the sailors who drove the boat started to work. The lights first appeared on the road ahead, which was a fire that led to the way several miles away yesterday. Only three ships could relay the way to Quanzhou. Li Hongjun couldn't help but sigh in his heart that Zhao Jiaren was really meticulous in his work. If Li Hongjun asked him to arrange it, he would not think of such a way. It would be extremely difficult to accurately determine the direction at the sea in the dark.
The sea breeze hangs in the early morning, and there are no people on the street. The knock on the door woke Vice Commander Zhu Qi up. He shouted angrily outside, "Go and see who called people up so early in the morning." After shouting, Vice Commander Zhu Qi turned over and turned to the direction with his back to the window. The light shone on his eyelids and felt very uncomfortable.
Not long after, a conversation came from outside. After a while, the personal soldiers ran over and knocked on the door of Zhu Qi's bedroom. Zhu Qi was furious and was making trouble early this morning and wouldn't let people sleep? Driven by the strong aura of getting up, Zhu Qi turned over and woke up, shouted to the outside: "What's going on?"
"Commander Zhu, is it Zhao Zhizhou who sent someone to invite you?" the personal soldiers replied carefully.
"Is he getting married today?" Zhu Qi was a little confused. He remembered that Zhao Jiaren got married tomorrow. However, he met Zhao Jiaren so early in the morning to invite him. Could it be that Zhu Qi remembered it wrongly?
"It's official business. Zhao Zhizhou sent someone to speak, saying that the court sent someone to pass the imperial edict and asked Commander Zhu to go to the yamen together." The personal soldiers replied.
Hearing that the court had an order, Zhu Qi had to stand up in a desperate situation. After rubbing for a long time, Deputy Commander Zhu Qi put on his clothes and opened the door. Outside the door, he saw a servant waiting at the door, and Zhao Jiaren's aide was also waiting. Seeing Zhu Qi coming out, the aide immediately handed the official documents to Zhu Qi and continued, "Deputy Commander Zhu, Zhao Zhizhou urgently ordered you to go to the magistrate's office. The carriages and horses were ready at the door."
Zhu Qi didn't want to go at all, but looking at this posture, he knew that something big had happened. He muttered, "I haven't had breakfast yet."
"It's okay. Breakfast has been prepared in the yamen. Deputy Commander Zhu doesn't need to worry." The aide said to Zhu Qi with a very bureaucratic smile.
Unable to do so, Zhu Qi changed into the official uniform. When he got into the car, he leaned in the chair in the car. As the body of the car swayed gently, Zhu Qi actually got up and went back to sleep. Because he fell asleep, Zhu Qi did not notice that after he got into the car, someone had already gone to the place where Zhao Jiaren held the wedding.
At this time, a wall of bamboo was erected around the place, and red cloth was hung inside. There was no way to see anything inside from the outside. Zhao Jiaren sat in the tent in the official uniform, and the clothes of the wedding errand servants who reported the news were coming in and out. Just looking at the appearance, he was full of joy.
"Those people have already started to set off. Now everyone is starting to prepare." Zhao Jiaren calmly ordered.
There were many brigade leaders and squadron leaders sitting in front of him, and a model of Fuzhou City was placed on the table in front of them. Dolls representing the brigades and squadrons were placed in the positions where the Pu family attacked.
"Who else hasn't gotten familiar with these roads?" Zhao Jiaren asked at the end.
No one said anything. Over the past few days, the captain of the brigade squadron used the preparation of marriage as a cover and took the path of attack many times. Maybe he would not touch the wrong way even if he closed his eyes.
"Then prepare to set off." Zhao Jiarenteng stood up, pulled out his sword and stabbed it in the middle of the model. The Pu family compound located in the center was pierced by a sword from front to back.
Chapter completed!