"Sir Futai, the Mei family in Shenzhuang has a reputation of being generous and charitable in Macheng. The chivalrous and desperadoes in the Juma area are mostly favored by them. Mei Zhihuan has always liked to make friends with unruly people, and those who are brave and despise others are also often treated by Mei. The children of the family are traveling, but he also secretly uses the Military Art Department to restrain the children of the guests. He is so powerful that he must not be touched lightly."
Xiao Weisong continued to make trouble for Song Yihe. He repeatedly emphasized how powerful the Shenzhuang Mei family was in Macheng. It seemed that he was trying to persuade Song Yihe not to target Mei Zhihuan, but in fact he still wanted to put Mei Zhihuan on the fire. , to stimulate Song Yihe to make a decision as soon as possible.
The governor of the Song Dynasty originally had a grudge against Mei Zhihuan because of his inability to mobilize Shen Zhuang's army. Now, Xiao Weisong has given him the benefit of the doubt and mistakenly believed that Mei Zhihuan really had the ambition to "seize the position of governor of Chu". His prejudices naturally deepened several times.
In fact, Song Yihe and Mei Zhihuan can be regarded as old friends. After all, Mei Zhihuan was a high-ranking official who once served as Ganfu. How could he, as a recommended gentry, come to the mountains and forests?
But power makes people crazy. Song Yihe was deeply afraid that his position as governor of Huguang would be shaken. He could no longer see anything else. He completely fell into Xiao Weisong's words and regarded Mei Zhihuan as a fainting and crazy man. A madman, how can he think that he is the mad one?
"Mei Zhihuan bribed the fugitives, gathered tens of thousands of people, deceived the world and stole his reputation, and defrauded the support of the Huangma gentry. I'm afraid he had a very big purpose."
Now Song Yihe is not only worried about his own old grudge with Mei Zhihuan, he also really begins to feel that Mei Zhihuan may have rebellion ambitions. If he succeeds, Huguang will be in a state of corruption, and the whole world will follow suit. shake.
Thinking of this, a strong sense of mission and responsibility burst out in Song Yihe's heart: Isn't this a great responsibility given to me by God?
If Xiao Xiao kills the plum thief and takes this merit, he will be appointed as the superintendent!
But he also felt that if it was true as Xiao Weisong said, Mei Zhihuan's power in Macheng was so powerful that he could cover the sky with one hand, and he might not be able to deal with the Mei thieves smoothly.
Once something goes wrong, Ding Qirui, who is in a precarious situation, will definitely not mind destroying himself first to divert the emperor's attention.
Always proceed with caution.
He lowered his voice and asked Xiao Weisong: "Shopkeeper Xiao, does Mei Zhihuan really have evil intentions? He has gathered tens of thousands of people, and if they are mishandled, they will be ruined. There are hundreds of thousands of jute merchants, and their lives and property are all tied to it. , you must not talk nonsense, you must tell me the truth."
Xiao Weisong was born as a medicine merchant in Linjiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province. As a merchant, he traveled all over the country and became a disciple of the storyteller Liu Jingting. His ability to read people was quite good.
After only listening to these two words from Governor Song, he immediately guessed Song Yihe's true inner thoughts. Dangzhi hit his forehead on the bluestone floor, touched a trail of blood with his force, and wailed: "Mei Zhihuan is dying because of his Yin knot, so The picture is nothing more than two, if it is not a bandit, it is an adult. Now the jute area has become Mei Zhihuan's private land. The villain's shops have been destroyed by his gangsters. He has no fixed place to live and no way to do business. He just wants to do it. Please make preparations in advance, so as not to cause trouble to Sanchu after the incident occurs."
Song Yihe and his nephew's staff looked at each other indifferently. His juniors, who had no talent and had only entered the shogunate due to nepotism, had panic expressions at this time. Only an older nephew was more stable and stayed close to Song Yihe. He whispered urgently: "I didn't expect that the Mei thief's strength has reached this point. If we don't deal with this thief as soon as possible, I'm afraid things will not end in the future."
"Well...but Mei Zhihuan's treachery has not yet been revealed, not to mention that the bandits are rampant in Suizhou at this time. If things change, the court will definitely accuse me of causing a radical incident. Shopkeeper Xiao is familiar with Jute's people and has personally come to Wuchang to take the lead. Do you already have a strategy in mind?"
Xiao Weisong knew that the drama was about to happen, and immediately replied: "Since the rogue bandits are rampant, the imperial court is urgently asking for a brigade to be used in time, and Mei Zhihuan has asked himself to send troops to Dabie Mountain. Master Futai can take advantage of this situation and give Mei Zhihuan a try." Sincere intentions.”
"How to try it?"
"The Mei family in Shenzhuang is rich, and it is rumored in the countryside that the Shenjiazhuang has millions of money. Since Mei Zhihuan wants to ask Lord Futai to send troops to suppress the Dabie Mountains, then he only needs to send officials to Shenzhuang from Futai to prepare for the chaos. In his name, he asked for tens of thousands of gold and silver from Mei Zhihuan. If Mei Zhihuan had no other intentions, he would definitely donate the silver. If he had any counter-intentions, he would definitely refuse to donate money. The local gentry would know who Mei Zhihuan was when he saw this. A person who is greedy for wealth will have his reputation in the village ruined. It only takes one executioner in Futai to arrest him."
Xiao Weisong's strategy is reasonable and well-founded. It is indeed a big conspiracy that can kill Mei Zhihuan. Even if Mei Zhihuan really donates tens of thousands of gold and silver to Song Yihe, Song Yihe will probably only think that Mei Zhihuan has a big plan. , otherwise why would you be willing to lose tens of thousands of taels in vain?
However, precisely because this conspiracy plan was too sophisticated and sophisticated to be thought up by a businessman, Xiao Weisong still emphasized that this strategy was the work of the nephew of Song Yihe clan, and he was just describing it on his behalf.
Fortunately, Song Yihe's attention is not on this point. The question he is concerned about is how much money is appropriate to ask for?
Ten thousand taels? Twenty thousand taels? Or fifty thousand taels?
"Just forty thousand taels!"
Xiao Weisong took a deep breath. He never expected that Song Yihe's focus would be on the amount of money. He could only smile bitterly in his heart. He really overestimated this minister of the border who had "not been ten years old".
Song Yihe finally made the plan. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to send people to Shenjiazhuang in Macheng first to ask for 40,000 taels of military expenses from Mei Zhihuan in the name of preparing for the rebellion.
If Mei Zhihuan calls for the money on the spot, then we will consider the long term; if Mei Zhihuan makes some excuses and refuses to pay the money, then we will expose all his illegal things, ruin his reputation in the village, and finally, with a thunderous force, In one fell swoop, Shen Zhuang's army was disarmed and consolidated, and Mei Zhihuan was arrested in Beijing for questioning.
Based on what the red team recently learned about the Mei family's property, Mei Zhihuan's wealth is definitely not less than 40,000 taels, but he has spent all his property to support Shen Zhuang's army and needs to come up with 40,000 taels of cash in a short period of time. There is absolutely no possibility at all.
Of course, it is not ruled out that Mei Zhihuan could use his prestige in Jute to borrow money from other gentry to deal with Song Yihe. But if he wanted to do that, wouldn't it just confirm his evil intention of accepting heroes and winning people's hearts?
Since Gao Yingxiang invaded Huangpi, Huang'an, Macheng, Huangzhou, Qishui, and Guangji in the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, the rebel army has spread continuously. Luo Rucai once defeated Yingshan and Luotian, and Zhang Xianzhong also defeated the official army at Yinshanfan in Macheng.
Mei Zhihuan summoned the people to form a stronghold to protect themselves, worked hard, raised Qihuang stronghold troops, and formed the Shenzhuang army. He drove Zhang Xianzhong, Ge Liyan, Zuo Jinwang and other troops out of Macheng three times.
How could he have expected that he would not be defeated by the bandits but would be defeated by the imperial court?
In order to further stoke the fire, Xiao Weisong secretly ordered the red team members to spread the news in advance that Song Yihe was going to send officials to Macheng to ask for bribes. He even added fuel to the fire by saying that Song Yihe's purpose was to ask for bribes to force Mei Zhihuan to revolt in anger, which was a good excuse. Suppressed and took away all the Mei family's property.
Shen Zhuang's army had requested reinforcements and support from Wuchang several times before, but was rejected by Song Yihe. There were already conflicts between the two sides, and the people of Macheng were naturally very concerned about this rumor.
When the envoys and officials sent by Song Yihe to ask for military expenses actually came to Macheng to ask for money, people became more convinced that the rumors were true and that Governor Song was indeed plotting against the Mei family's property.
Even if Mei Zhihuan is very good at nourishing qi, I don't believe that Song Yihe, who is a governor of a border area, would do something so mean. But the other young children of the Mei family and the group of heroic desperadoes that Mei Zhihuan accepted in order to defend the village , their temper was not so good, they immediately tied up the messenger who asked for bribes and hung them up at the gate of Macheng City to show the public.
Mei Zhihuan was unable to dissuade him, and he knew something was wrong. When Song Yihe heard the news, he concluded that Mei Zhihuan was about to start an army and cause chaos. He immediately sent a letter to the officials of Huang'an and Macheng counties, ordering them to arrest Mei Zhihuan first. Take custody.
However, Mei Zhihuan had extensive connections in Huangma and other places. Song Yihe's official document requesting local officials to arrest Mei Zhihuan had only arrived in Huang'an, and the Mei family had already received this news.
Now Shenzhuang's army felt that Song Yihe's conspiracy had been completely exposed, and his ambition to seize the property of the officials and gentry was fully realized. How could there be such a shameless rogue in the world?
Everyone was already feeling resentful. Although Mei Zhihuan tried to dissuade him, he was bedridden during this period and could not save time. Most of Shen Zhuangjun's affairs were left to the young men of the family. Even if he wanted to stop him at this time, There is nothing we can do to further intensify the situation.
The magistrate of Macheng County knew that it was impossible for his detectives to arrest Mei Zhihuan. He also heard that the descendants of the Mei family led a group of desperadoes and were searching the city for the officials sent by Song Yihe. He was frightened and took the county government seal letter with him. Fleeed to Huangzhou.
Song Yihe, who was in Wuchang, was shocked when he heard the news that the magistrate had fled to Huangzhou. He was finally convinced that Mei Zhihuan's rebellion was unmistakable, and he immediately mobilized troops to use Huguang's few mobile troops in Fubiao. Dedicated troops from some prefectures and counties were transferred to Juma in preparation for resuming the campaign.
After the children of the Mei family learned through various old official connections that Song Yihe had mobilized officers and soldiers to encircle and suppress Shenzhuang's army, they knew it was difficult to get off the tiger, so on the fourth day of November, they gathered tens of thousands of people in Shenjiazhuang, Macheng, to " Execute corrupt officials and get rid of bird thieves (the fact that Song Yihe signed his name as "Yiniao" has always been a joke among Chu people)" in the name of raising troops vigorously.