While Gu Shou, Sun Zhili and others were jumping anxiously on the city wall, Pang Gang, who was in Confucius' mansion, was in a side hall in the inner courtyard persuading the Kong family and his son to move the Kong family's property to Qingzhou mansion.
"Father-in-law, brother Shilin, Yangzhou is by no means a place to stay for a long time. As long as the Sun family and his son are here, they will spare no effort to attack Jubaozhai. As the saying goes, people remove living trees and remove dead trees, so why should you stick to one Yangzhou city?
Well, you can start from scratch when you get to Qingzhou!"
Kong Wen smiled bitterly: "Xiang son-in-law, I know what you are saying, but moving is not a child's play. Our Kong family has been here for several generations, and the honor and disgrace of the whole family have been closely linked to Yangzhou. It is not easy to move them all at once.
"
Kong Lin also added: "Chaodong, you don't know something. Although our Kong family's main business is the jewelry industry, we still have a lot of land in Yangzhou. If we make a gesture all at once, the buyers will desperately lower the price, and the losses will be too great."
When you get older, you have to do it slowly even if you want to sell it. A home that is so big cannot last more than a year and a half."
Pang Gang sighed, he was really defeated by this father and son. After all this time, they were still attached to that piece of land and real estate. They really wanted money rather than their lives.
Just when Pang Gang was at a loss, two sneaky figures were standing behind the screen in the side hall, listening quietly. When he heard Kong Lin's words, one of the figures touched the screen for some reason and made a soft sound.
This soft sound immediately made Pang Gang jump up.
"who!"
Pang Gang shouted loudly and drew out the scimitar from his waist and rushed over. With a side attack, he split the screen in half, revealing two stunned figures inside.
"Miss Kong?"
"Ruolan?"
"younger sister!"
The three people in the side hall looked at Kong Ruolan and Ling'er who were in a dazed state in surprise. The two people had been stunned by Pang's knife just now. The side hall was so quiet at this time that you could hear a pin drop.
After a long time, Ling'er first burst into tears with a cry of "Wow". This cry didn't matter, and made the culprit who caused all this at a loss.
Pang Gang smiled bitterly and sheathed his sword: "Miss Kong, why are you here? I thought the servants were eavesdropping. If the conversation I just had with my father-in-law were leaked, it would bring disaster to the Kong family.
."
Kong Wen, who had reacted at this time, also angrily reprimanded: "It's really nonsense. We are discussing business, what are you two girls coming to hear? Go back quickly."
Although Kong Ruolan was also frightened just now, she bit her silver teeth and glanced at Pang Gang secretly, mustering up the courage to say: "Dad, my daughter feels... I feel Pang...
Mr. Pang is right. Now the Sun family and his son hate my Kong family to the core. If we continue to stay in Yangzhou, we will be plotted by them sooner or later. Since ancient times, we can only be a thief for a thousand days, so how can we guard against a thief for a thousand days?
No matter how careful we are, we will never be able to prevent it. Moving now will definitely cause some losses, but it is better than losing everything later."
As soon as Kong Ruolan said these words, Pang Gang couldn't help but be a little surprised. He didn't expect that his unmarried daughter-in-law, who looked delicate and timid, had the courage of a strong man to cut off his wrist. It seemed that he really couldn't underestimate women.
"Oh, you girl." Kong Wen pointed at Kong Ruolan with a bit of laughter and said: "Don't you know this truth when you are a father? But our family has a big business and everything must be prioritized. How can you be like those small families?
It’s like just carrying a baggage and leaving.”
Kong Ruolan advised again: "Dad! You have to give up something when it's time to give it up."
"Stop saying I am..."
"Master, Master, the prefect has come to our house!"
Before Kong Wen finished speaking, there was a rush of footsteps outside, and a servant ran in and shouted: "Master, the ancient prefect is here. He specified that he is looking for my uncle, and he is waiting in the front hall."
"Looking for Chaodong?" Kong Lin on the side immediately asked alertly: "How many people did the ancient prefect bring here?"
Pang Gang's "feat of beating Sun Xiyi" was known to everyone in the Kong family. The servant did not dare to neglect and replied respectfully, "In reply to the young master, the prefect only brought two servants here, and they seemed to be very anxious."
"Two servants? So he's not here to cause trouble." Pang Gang thought for a moment and then said, "Okay, I'll be there right away."
"We'd better go there together." Kong Wen also nodded, "I'm afraid the ancient prefect really has something important to do. Shi Lin, Chaodong, let's go together."
............................
In the hall of the outer courtyard of the Confucius Mansion, the ancient magistrate was sitting anxiously on a chair and looking out from time to time. Not long after, there was a sound of hurried footsteps, and Kong Wen walked in with Kong Lin and Pang Gang.
After seeing the ancient prefect, Kong Wen and Kong Lin immediately bowed down and said in unison: "The common people have seen the prefect."
"No need to be polite, please get up." Gu Shou helped the two of them up, and then he saw a tall young man arching his hands towards him: "Xia Guan Qingzhou Lingshan Wei Baihu Pang has just seen the mansion.
grown ups."
It stands to reason that Pang Gang, a fifth-grade householder, would kneel down and salute when he saw the prefect, but after he had determined that he and the Sun family were in the same group, Pang Gang didn't bother to do those false salutes, and just handed him over. But now.
The situation was urgent, so Gu Shou didn't bother to pay attention to these etiquettes and spoke directly.
"No need to be polite, are you Pang Baihu from Qingzhou?"
"This official is Pang Gang!" Pang Gang replied neither humble nor overbearing.
Gu Shou squinted at Pang Gang and said, "Pang Baihu, I heard that you brought hundreds of elite soldiers to Yangzhou this time?"
"My lord, there are not that many!" Pang Gang shook his head, "Xiaoguan only brought 120 soldiers and 100 heavy troops this time."
Gu Shou said straight to the point: "I don't care how many soldiers you bring, but now I want to temporarily second these soldiers, including you, are you willing?"
Pang Gang asked calmly: "Sir, can you explain the reason?"
Gu Shou said with a serious expression: "I have just received news that a group of Japanese pirates are approaching Yangzhou. Now there is a serious shortage of troops in Yangzhou city. We need to recruit you and your soldiers. I hope you can understand the general situation and work with the Yangzhou defenders to resist the Japanese pirates."
."
“Have the Japanese pirates fled to Yangzhou?”
As soon as Gu Shou said this, everyone in the hall was shocked. Is Yangzhou, which has never suffered a military disaster in more than two hundred years, about to fall into war today?
"What on earth is going on? How could the Japanese pirates invade Yangzhou? Are all the troops stationed in Hai'an Guard and Ruquan Guard dead?" Kong Wen, who came back to his senses, couldn't help but be surprised and frightened.
"Master Magistrate, can't Yangzhou City's military strength still be able to resist those Japanese pirates?" Kong Lin felt a little strange. The military strength in Yangzhou City should not be so panicked against Japanese pirates?
Gu Shou said with some embarrassment: "Yes, there are currently only more than a thousand soldiers and more than a thousand civilians in Yangzhou City. It is very difficult for such a small number of people to defend the four city gates and the city walls, so it requires hundreds of thousands of soldiers."
Please help Pang Baihu. Please rest assured, as long as we can defeat the Japanese pirates this time, I will immediately come to Pang Baihu to ask for your credit!"
In order to coax Pang Gang to send troops, Gu Shou put aside his pretense as a prefect and made a lot of empty promises that were beneficial but not real.
However, the words of the ancient prefect failed to impress Pang Gang. He just asked calmly: "How long are the Japanese pirates away from Yangzhou City?"
"The Japanese pirates should have arrived in Yangzhou now. I hope Pang Baihu will order soldiers to go to the north gate for reinforcements as soon as possible." Gu Shou looked longingly at this Baihu who usually kowtowed and bent down when he saw him. He felt aggrieved.
A dignified fourth-grade magistrate, now actually wants to be humble to a Qiu Ba. If his colleagues knew about it, he didn't know how they would laugh at him. He also had preconceptions from the Sun family and his son that this vulgar warrior would dare to fight the Master.
He would definitely take the opportunity to extort money, and he was mentally prepared for a heavy hemorrhage.
Who would have expected that Pang Gang said directly without saying anything nonsense: "No problem, I will send people to the north gate to defend against the Japanese pirates immediately!"