Zhong Feng was sitting in the lobby of Jiangyun Tower, looking at Qian Qianyi and Zhang Shenyan kneeling on the ground.
He suddenly asked: "How old is Zhang Shangshu this year?"
Zhang Shenyan was stunned for a moment, looked up at Zhong Feng, and then replied: "This year is sixty-nine."
Zhong Feng nodded and said: "I am sixty-nine, and I will be killed if I am not careful. It is really not easy. I saw the minister and took the initiative to hand over the records of donations made by the gentry from the south of the Yangtze River to the Jiangbei army, so that our soldiers would not come and torture them.
Alright."
Zhang Shenyan trembled and said nothing.
When Zhong Feng saw that Zhang Shenyan was silent, he snorted coldly. A soldier next to him walked up and grabbed Zhang Shenyan, and slapped him hard across the face.
Zhang Shenyan was slapped until his eyes were filled with stars, his energy and blood surged, and he almost fainted. How could a sixty-nine-year-old man endure such injuries? He staggered to the ground, paced a few steps, then knelt down again with a plop.
On the ground.
Zhong Feng waited for a few minutes for Zhang Shenyan to recover, then said with a smile: "Is Zhang Shangshu going to die?"
Zhang Shenyan finally regained his breath, coughed a few times, and coughed up a few strands of blood. He looked at Zhong Feng in a panic and said, "I don't have any account books. Qian Qian will benefit from the account books."
Zhong Feng sneered and looked at Qian Qianyi.
"Qian Qianyi, your son and daughter in Changshu have been controlled by us. If you don't hand over the original records honestly, I'm afraid the Qian family will be extinct."
Qian Qianyi was trembling all over but refused to speak.
Zhong Feng frowned, waved his hand, and two soldiers came up and were about to slap the old man.
Qian Qianyi was not afraid that his son or daughter would be killed, but he cherished his own body very much. When he saw the soldiers of the Tiger Army trying to beat him, he finally spoke: "No! Don't hit me! I'll hand it over!"
Qian Qianyi took three steps and turned back, very reluctantly, but was pushed by the soldiers to the library. He turned out hundreds of pages in dozens of ancient books, which were clearly lists of donations from gentry in Jiangnan provinces.
.
Zhong Feng flipped through the lists and said coldly: "If there is any mistake or omission, you will be delayed!"
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On the third day of March, Zheng Kaicheng returned to Fengyang City after patrolling outside Fengyang City and found nothing.
After getting the list of gentry who donated money to the Jiangbei Army from Qian Qianyi, Li Zhi began to conduct a large-scale inspection in South Zhili.
Li Zhi's policy is: If the donation exceeds one thousand taels to Qian Qianyi, the donor will be shot. If the donation exceeds two thousand taels, the owner of the house will be shot and the house will be ransacked. If the donation exceeds five thousand taels, the entire family will be ransacked.
Of course, the news that Jiangbei's army fled south to Jiangxi had already spread throughout southern Zhili. Those gentry who donated money to Jiangbei's army realized that the momentum was not right and fled with their money. Li Zhi was able to capture only a few gentry who were lucky enough not to flee.
Li Zhi's policy for those escaping gentry was to raid their homes. The escaping gentry left in a hurry, and after all, only part of the money they could take away was some of their belongings left in the cellar at home.
Zheng Kaicheng entered Fengyang City with his guards on horseback, and couldn't help but shake his head. The situation in Fengyang was worse than the Duke expected, and Zheng Kaicheng found nothing.
Fengyang is located in the northwest of Nanzhili. The climate is not like that of Jiangnan, but more similar to Henan. Fengyang has also suffered a lot of locust plagues and droughts in recent years. The roads in Fengyang Fucheng are not prosperous. The exterior decoration of shops on both sides of the road
It was very simple, and all of them were closed at this time, making the whole city look even more deserted.
However, even in such a poor place, the gentry here still strongly supported Qian Qianyi's Jiangbei Army. According to the list found in Jiangyun Tower, Fengyang Prefecture donated 130,000 taels of military training funds to Qian Qianyi.
.
But by the time Zheng Kaicheng arrived in Fengyang, the gentry had already emptied their homes of their belongings, and not even a tael of silver was left for Zheng Kaicheng who led his troops into the city.
Fengyang is far away from Nanjing, and Zheng Kaicheng's soldiers and horses must not be moving as fast as the news. On the way to Fengyang when the Huben army attacked, Fengyang's traitors had enough time to escape. When the Huben army entered the city,
All the civil servants and gentry on Zheng Kaicheng's arrest list escaped.
To the north of Fengyang is Henan, where Li Zicheng was wreaking havoc, and to the west is Huguang, where Li Dingguo was active. These are not peaceful places. It is impossible for these gentry to run to these places dragging carts of money. To the east and south are areas controlled by Li Zhi
, and it is not a place where you can escape. These gentry are most likely hiding somewhere.
Zheng Kaicheng secretly wanted to conduct reconnaissance in Fengyang and catch these gentry in hiding.
Zheng Kaicheng was about to enter the Yamen to take a rest when he saw a peasant man wearing coarse cloth running towards him in a panic. Behind this peasant man, there were four men who were also covered in patches, but they were not tall and strong like peasants.
The men ran after the runaway.
The peasant man ran fast and rushed into Zheng Kaicheng's bodyguard. He didn't give up even after bumping into the bodyguard. He even tried his best to rush towards Zheng Kaicheng's horse, but was stopped by the bodyguard.
The guard platoon leader couldn't stand it anymore and yelled: "You are so bold! Why did you attack the general's guard?"
"General, save me!"
The peasant man was asking for help from Zheng Kaicheng, and the pursuers from behind came to kill him. Regardless of Zheng Kaicheng's personal guards right in front of him, one of the middle-aged men pulled out a dagger and stabbed the peasant man in the back of the neck, in front of Zheng Kaicheng's
He killed this peasant man in front of him.
Blood splattered everywhere, and the pursuers fled away as soon as they succeeded in the attack. Zheng Kaicheng's personal guards suddenly didn't know what was going on, so they took out their blunderbuss and began to load the propellant.
The handguns of the personal guards are loaded with bullets in advance. The bullets are wrapped in shredded paper and stuck in the barrel. When you want to use it, you only need to spend a few seconds to load the propellant on the fire door. All you hear is crackle.
There was a burst of gunfire, and before the gangsters could escape twenty meters, they were all knocked down by more than a dozen blunderbuss.
Zheng Kaicheng witnessed this inexplicable scene. He didn't know what was going on and frowned. After thinking for a long time, Zheng Kaicheng said to the guard platoon leader: "Find someone to investigate the identities of these dead people."
After saying this, Zheng Kaicheng walked into the prefect's Yamen.
After a long time, the guard platoon leader found Zheng Kaicheng: "Sir, we found many people to identify the body, and finally figured it out. The peasant man was a villager from Wangjia Village, fifty miles outside the city. The four murderers seemed to be big men in the city.
A servant of the gentry's family."
Villager? Servant?
Didn’t all the gentry’s servants run away? Why did they appear in the city? And why did they kill people in front of them?
Zheng Kaicheng sat in his chair and pondered for a long time, and suddenly felt that he had caught some clues. He slammed the table: "Send a thousand scouts and cavalry to attack Wangjia Village. No one can be let go!"
"Got the order!"
After giving the order, Zheng Kaicheng paced back and forth in the prefect's Yamen, anxiously waiting for a reply. It wasn't until the platoon leader of the guards brought him a cup of tea that Zheng Kaicheng reluctantly sat on the chair, but he still couldn't help but die.
Looking at the Yamen gate.
Finally, at dinner time, a scout cavalry battalion commander ran in with two signal soldiers. Although the battalion commander was hungry, he was radiant. He knelt on one knee in front of Zheng Kaicheng and said loudly: "General Soldier
, we captured one hundred and seventy-six gentry who were escaping in their car outside Wangjiacun, with countless gold and silver belongings."
