1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Fudong Town, located on the west bank of Taihu Lake, belongs to Yixing County, Changzhou Prefecture, but the town is still forty miles away from the county seat.

Not far to the south of Fudong Town is the boundary between Changzhou Prefecture and Huzhou Prefecture, and to the south of the boundary is the area actually controlled by Haihan.From a certain point of view, this place can be regarded as the frontier town of Daming today.

Although the location of Fudong Town is a bit remote, but when it comes to the local specialties, it is well-known in the outside world.The raw material used in the famous Yixing Zisha teapot is produced in Dingshan near Fudong Town.

In the nearby ten miles and eight towns, almost all the workshops of making purple sand pots come here to buy raw materials.Therefore, although the location of the town is a bit remote, it is not deserted, and there are quite a lot of merchants from the north and the south who welcome and send them there every day.

But at this moment, Fudong Town was no longer as lively as it used to be. Even though it was noon, the streets were deserted, with few pedestrians walking around, let alone the usual bustling caravans.

At the door of an inn in the town, the shopkeeper with a worried face stood at the door and looked around for a long time, and finally told the clerk next to him: "Close the door, it seems that there is no business today!"

While moving the door panel, the clerk asked: "The shopkeeper, everyone said that the Haihan army is coming, and the townspeople have almost run away. Why don't we go out and hide?"

The shopkeeper scolded: "Hiding a fart! My small inn has no oil and water. How can the Haihan people care about it? If they really want to rob it, don't they know to rob the big family in the county?"

The man refused to accept it and said, "Then if they hit here and set fire to it, it's hard to say that it will affect us."

The shopkeeper spat again and again: "Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah! You're a bad boy! Go to my room later, take out the two-color flag from the cabinet and hang it at the door."

The clerk said: "Hanging the two-color flag of Haihan? What if someone from the government sees it?"

The shopkeeper scolded: "This is imminent, and you are still worried about what the people in the government think. The most important thing right now is to keep the inn. From now on, it's hard to say who will take care of this Fudong town!"

The method of hanging the red and blue double-color flag was told by the shopkeeper from a regular customer who often went to Hangzhou for business.It is said that when the Haihan army attacked towns, as long as they saw the place where the two-color flag was hung, they would generally not attack actively.

Whether this statement is reliable or not, the shopkeeper is actually not sure, after all, it is just a rumor in the world, and there is no actual evidence.

However, news came from the south a few days ago that the two countries might go to war again. Thinking of this rumor, the shopkeeper hurriedly went to the cloth shop in the town and pulled a few feet of red and blue cloth. A rainy day.

His inn was a family business he had accumulated little by little in the first half of his life, and he couldn't cash it out in a hurry, and it was even more impossible for him to abandon the inn to escape.Although I don't know if the method of hanging the double-color flag of Haihan and Han Dynasty will work, but in the current situation, there is no room for picking and choosing, so I can only treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor.

Although the shopkeeper was a little blunt, he had already considered the risk that the buddy said.

As far as he knew, he was not the only one in the town who quietly prepared two-color flags. Old Liu's rice store, Song Laizi's pawn shop, and the wealthy Wang's house in the east of the town all secretly prepared two-color flags.

Even Mr. Qi, who retired from the county seat and went back to Fudong Town to provide for the elderly, was usually full of benevolence, morality, loyalty and patriotism, but when things came to an end, he went to a cloth store and bought several bolts of red and blue cotton cloth. Wrapped up.

The source of these news is the old chapter of Kaibu Xing. The shopkeeper has been friends with him for many years, and he will definitely not make up stories to deceive himself.During the war, in order to keep the family property and life, no one cared so much. If other people hang the double-color flag, of course they can hang it themselves.

Just after noon, Fudong Town indeed drove in a troop.But the one who came was not the Haihan army, but a Ming army.

The clerk was the first to discover the flag of the Ming army, and hurried to tell the shopkeeper the good news: "Shopkeeper, rescue soldiers, rescue soldiers are here!"

When the shopkeeper heard this, he hurried to the window to look, and sure enough, he saw the Ming army, knocking on doors from door to door.

"Damn it!" The shopkeeper saw this Ming army appearing from the window on the second floor of the inn, and immediately felt bad.

Seeing that he was in a bad mood, the clerk asked curiously, "Boss, the rescuers are here, why are you panicking?"

The shopkeeper said anxiously: "You know what a fart! Those outside are not rescuers, they are here to beat the autumn wind!"

There is no Ming army stationed in Fudong Town at ordinary times, and the nearest Ming army station is in the county town forty miles away.The sudden appearance of these Ming troops in Fudong Town is not necessarily a good thing.

Before the shopkeeper had time to take back the two-color flag outside the gate, there was already a knock on the door.

The shopkeeper wanted to pretend to be dead and not open the door, but the people outside shouted: "Is there no one? Mark this place, and it will be set on fire later!"

The shopkeeper didn't dare to keep hiding, he hurried to open the door, and said repeatedly: "It can't be burned, it can't be burned!"

There were seven or eight Ming troops standing outside the door. The leading officer glanced at the shopkeeper and said coldly: "My department is guarding Yixing County, and now we are collecting money and food from the people for military supplies. Your inn looks quite big. Just take 200 taels of silver and donate another [-] catties of grain!"

The buddy asked in a daze: "Master Jun, are you planning to fight the Haihan people in Fudong Town?"

The officer scolded: "There's so much nonsense, hurry up and get money and food! There's no danger to defend Fudong Town, so what are you going to do with the Haihan people? Of course it's the county seat!"

The shopkeeper's heart sank when he heard that, the other party's answer just confirmed his guess, these Ming troops ran forty miles to Fudong Town, but they didn't come here for war.

The shopkeeper said with a sad face: "Master Jun, since the news of the war came at the beginning of the month, my inn has no business. How can I get so much cash now! Please do me a favor, I still have thirty or forty catties of grain in the kitchen , Donate all of it, okay?"

The shopkeeper's crying did not fool the other party, the officer glared and said: "I said shopkeeper, if you don't eat the toast, you will be fined! What is hanging on the outside of your door? Collaborating with the enemy and traitorous country is a death penalty, do you understand? "

The shopkeeper hurriedly said: "The villain has no intention of collaborating with the enemy, please tell the military master, I will take it down!"

The officer stretched out his hand to stop him, and said coldly: "I have two options for you, one is to hand over the money and food as soon as possible to prove your loyalty to Daming; Lest it be left to the enemy!"

The shopkeeper yelled that he was wronged, but at this juncture, who would care about such a small person like him?
Seeing Lao Liu's family from the rice store across the street thrown out by the ferocious soldiers, the whole family lay crying in the middle of the street, the shopkeeper couldn't help shivering, and quickly agreed to the other party's request.

It's just that he really doesn't have so much money and food on hand, so he can only let the Ming army remove valuable things from the inn by themselves.

When these Ming soldiers were entering the inn to move things, there was a sudden crackling sound from the south of the town.The leading officer's expression changed, and he hurriedly told his subordinates to evacuate, even taking away the few bags of food that had been moved to the entrance of the inn.

The shopkeeper heard someone shouting faintly outside: "Hai Han Army, it's the Hai Han Army that's calling!"