prosperous age

Chapter 1019 1110 News from Meng Yang

With a creaky sound, the wooden door was pushed open, and Lin Fengchun brought Xu Yingmei into the wooden house.

Yan Youqian and Wu Dacheng, who were originally sitting and waiting inside, stood up. On the table in front of them was an arrow without an arrowhead.

When Lin Fengchun approached, Yan Youqian handed him a bamboo tube and said, "Someone outside the city sent a message. I found it when I was patrolling that section of the city wall this morning."

Lin Fengchun took the bamboo tube, took a look at it, then immediately opened it and poured out the rolled-up letter from it.

At this moment, the three people in the room looked at him eagerly, wanting to know whether the contents of the letter could give them a glimmer of hope.

The letter was not long, so Lin Fengchun finished reading it quickly and then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother, what does the letter say?"

Wu Dacheng was impatient, so he asked immediately when he saw this.

Although when he asked this question, he felt as if a huge stone had fallen to the ground in his heart.

"The result now seems not so bad. As long as we open the city gates and let the government troops into the city, we will have nothing to worry about.

As for the pardon we requested, the other party only agreed to report our contribution in surrendering the city, but we still have to wait for the court’s decision on what will happen in the end.”

Lin Fengchun handed the letter in his hand to Yan Youqian. Among the four people, only he and Yan Youqian could read.

As for Xu Yingmei and Wu Dacheng, writing to them is like playing the lute to a cow. They can't even read a single word.

Although he was illiterate and couldn't read the letter, Xu Yingmei had a quick mind and immediately grasped the key to Lin Fengchun's words. He asked, "Brother, judging from the letter, the commander of the government troops outside the city is a real man and didn't make any big promises to us."

"Yes, if he agreed to all our requests in the letter, I really wouldn't dare to go on."

Lin Fengchun's expression had softened a lot at this time. Deng Zilong's reply could be said to be the best result he could expect.

At this time, Yan Youqian had already finished reading Deng Zilong's reply, and a long-lost smile appeared on his face.

It can be said that they have had serious expressions on their faces since the raid on玳瑁城.

Because they knew at the first moment that their retreat was cut off. The Spaniards directly destroyed almost all of their ships, leaving them with no possibility of escape.

Although Ming army gunboats were also involved, the pirate sailors on the shore could not identify them clearly.

Just based on the number of artillery carried by those ships, they thought that the ships that rushed into the bay and launched the bombardment were all armed merchant ships of the barbarians, and they had no idea that the Ming army was also involved in the attack.

Even when they later spotted the Ming army during the siege, they only thought that they were government troops searching for and tracking them. They never thought that Yu Dayou would send the few gunboats in the Ming navy away from the Ming.

In fact, the two latest Ming Dynasty gunboats brought by Deng Zilong were something that the Lin Feng pirate group had never seen before.

In previous wars, the so-called gunboats of the Ming Dynasty could carry no more than ten cannons, which was very shabby compared to the foreign warships.

Even if the Ming army's best gunboats were to really fight, there would still be a gap between them and the barbarians' armed merchant ships, but not as huge as before.

In other words, the double-decker gunboats that were still being built in the shipyards of Zhejiang and Fujian could barely reach the firepower of the barbarians' medium-sized armed merchant ships. Compared with those large armed merchant ships, they still had the problem of insufficient firepower.

However, these problems cannot be solved overnight and can only be improved gradually, especially when building the hull, which needs to imitate the structure of Western ships.

However, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to do so at the moment, so they were just building a small boat to test the effect.

It can be said that the Ming Navy’s ship technology could not be compared with that of the Europeans during this period.

Now that they received Deng Zilong's reply, the four people could finally put their minds at ease.

"We still have a lot to do next."

Lin Fengchun spoke at this time.

"Brother, just give your orders. We brothers all know that you are doing this for our own good."

Wu Dacheng spoke up.

“First, among all the brothers under you, you need to carefully identify those who are reliable and those who are not, and make adjustments if necessary.

When that day comes, only our own people will be on the city walls.

This matter concerns the lives of our brothers, so we must not be careless."

Lin Fengchun spoke.

"It is better to kill the wrong person than to let him go."

Yan Youqian spoke at this time, with a hint of coldness on his face.

"That's not the case. The main thing is to organize the reliable brothers into separate teams, and divide the others into several teams."

Lin Fengchun began to speak following Yan Youqian's words. At this time, they could not make large-scale changes at the North Gate, otherwise it would easily attract the attention of other leaders.

If they just adjust the team, the impact will be small and no one will pay attention to their actions.

“Second, on the day of the uprising, we must find a way to get our families and those of our brothers to the North City. Otherwise, when the Ming army enters the city, there will definitely be a bloodbath, and our brothers’ families may be implicated and die in the chaos.

This is no small matter. Although we have surrendered to the Ming army, we still have to keep our brothers firmly in our own hands.

Otherwise, we will really have no chance of turning things around.”

Although we have not yet reached the era of self-proclaimed kings in the late Ming Dynasty, those who have been on the sea for many years have long understood that only those with cannons in their hands can raise the flag and have a place in the chaotic sea.

No one has ever uttered the phrase “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” but the meaning has long been known.

"Yes, yes, the boss is right.

When the government troops enter the city and fight with others, they are bound to bump into the brothers' families, and the brothers below will inevitably feel resentful.

  But how do we avoid this from happening?

Everyone's relatives are scattered all over the city. If we move everyone to the North City, it's inevitable that we won't be noticed."

Yan Youqian agreed excitedly at first, but he couldn't help but frown when he said the latter part.

"When the time comes, just ask them to come earlier. Even if someone finds out something is wrong at night, there won't be much time left.

Besides, if we wait until night to be discovered, our city will be under curfew, and those in charge will have to wait until the next morning to report, and by then we will have accomplished the deed."

Xu Yingmei spoke up.

Although they were pirates, they all lived in the Ming Dynasty at the time. Maybe some people lived in the countryside and some lived in the city, but they all knew that there was a curfew in the city at night.

Therefore, this rule was also learned by the Lin Feng Pirate Group.

In other words, the system that Lin Feng established in Daimao City was actually an imitation of the system of prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty, and some government offices were established to manage affairs.

"No, the night curfew applies to the common people. The towns and villages are all headed by his trusted guards, who can move around the city freely, saying they are under joint protection.

Only when a problem is discovered can we immediately bring people to search and arrest people.

So, what you said won’t work.”

Yan Youqian spoke.

"What should I do?"

After her idea was rejected, Xu Yingmei was at a loss and had to ask other people.

"Let's not talk about this for now. We can always think of a way. But when should we start adjusting our people?

The government troops asked, when are we ready to open the city and surrender? "

Yan Youqian did not answer Xu Yingmei's question, but looked at Lin Fengchun and asked.

"Brothers, first think carefully about which of your subordinates you can trust and how to make adjustments so as not to alert the enemy and let others find out."

Lin Fengchun nodded slightly.

Indeed, it is important to find a way to get the families of your subordinates to a safe place and protect them properly, but it is not a problem that must be solved immediately.

"Let me start."

After reading the letter, Yan Youqian began to think about what to do next. Like Lin Fengchun, he thought that the Ming army general outside the city was obviously an honest man and had no intention of deceiving them.

Doing business with such people provides an extra layer of security.

He is much better than those politicians who talk nonsense all the time, like Hu Zongxian, a typical politician who changes his views according to the wind, has no principles at all and cannot be trusted.

Although the Ming general outside the city did not know who they were, he told the truth and admitted that he had no right to deal with them and that he had to report to the court for a decision.

Well, as long as the court's eyes are only on Lin Feng, their security will be further guaranteed.

Because the imperial court only wanted Lin Feng's life, they naturally would not care about anyone else.

Moreover, if these surrendered generals were killed, it would be even less likely that other pirate groups would defect to the imperial court in the future, because the imperial court would not let them go.

If this is the case, it is unknown how much it will cost the imperial court to suppress the bandits in the future.

Yan Youqian believed that the powerful gentlemen in the capital could calculate these accounts clearly.

Their lives are worthless, there's no need to take them to heart.

Therefore, the next move had already been planned, and Yan Youqian said casually: "I still have three teams under my command. I have considered it and found that the only team that can be trusted is that one. The others will still be divided into two teams, and the general situation will remain unchanged.

  However, I am wondering, when it comes to our team adjustments, should they be made just under me, or should we make some exchanges among ourselves?

This way, even if the news gets to the ears of other leaders, I don’t think they will think too much about it.”

“Wouldn’t that be a bit superfluous?”

Lin Fengchun did not directly agree with him, but said with some concern.

"My Lord, something terrible has happened, my Lord, my Lord."

Just as some people on Luzon Island were plotting to open the city gates and surrender to the government troops, in a luxurious mansion in Yongchang Prefecture on the border of Yunnan Province in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty, a man who looked like a butler was standing respectfully outside a bedroom door, knocking on the wooden door and shouting into the house.

After a while, a middle-aged man's voice came from the room, asking impatiently, "Tell me clearly, what happened?"

"My Lord, I just received a message from Meng Yang that the army of King Mang Yinglong of Burma has surrounded Mubang, and Han Lie, the envoy of Mubang, is trapped in the city. His life or death is unknown.

The Mengyang envoy was worried that the Burmese army might launch a surprise attack on Mengyang, so he sent a message overnight, requesting the court to send reinforcements to stop the Burmese king from provoking the border.

The housekeeper shouted hurriedly into the bedroom.

"What? They really started a fight."

This was the only sentence heard in the room, followed by a rustling sound.

Soon, the bedroom door opened, and a middle-aged man was already standing at the door. However, his clothes were disheveled, and it was obvious that he had put them on in a hurry and had not put them in order.

The housekeeper hurried forward to tidy it up for him, and it looked a little better.

This middle-aged man was none other than the contemporary Duke of Qian, Mu Changzuo.

"Where is the messenger? I want to see him in person."

After his clothes were tidied, Mu Changzuo spoke.

"He's in the front yard. I'll go get him."

The steward said hurriedly.

This place is not a villa of the Duke of Qian, but a house temporarily rented by a wealthy businessman in this city. There is no such thing as women in the backyard that is inconvenient for outsiders to enter.

These days, many wealthy businessmen own houses everywhere. Some of them are for business needs, but more of them are for the convenience of officials traveling on the road to borrow.

Yes, the Ming Dynasty had a system of itinerant officials. Although there was a yard in the backyard of the yamen for living, it was still inconvenient.

Therefore, after taking office, officials would often purchase or borrow the houses of wealthy businessmen in order to consider their future.

Such a house is not only comfortable to live in, but you don’t even have to pay anything for it.

What these wealthy businessmen want is just a little help, a hand, or a little favor when needed.

And if they have helped a lot, the title deed to the house would often be delivered to them directly afterwards.

It can be said that these days, officials will never lack for food, clothing, housing and transportation wherever they go, as they will be provided for by wealthy families.

Mu Changzuo arrived at the main hall and sat on an armchair. The servants who were serving him also got up, lit the lamp on the table next to him, made him a pot of tea, and brought him two plates of exquisite snacks.

After all, it was the middle of the night, and it was easy to feel hungry if you got up at this time.

Before long, the housekeeper brought a young man wearing a short Han-style jacket into the room. At this time, Mu Changzuo was looking through the letter from Si Ge, the Mengyang envoy.

It must be a special period, otherwise it would be difficult for this young man to find the house in the city at night, and even entering the city would be harder than climbing to the sky.

Normally, even in a small border town like Yongchang Prefecture, the curfew is strictly enforced and no one from outside the city is allowed to enter.

However, because of the possibility of a war, Mu Changzuo brought his trusted servants and took control of the entire Yongchang Prefecture so that important battle reports could be delivered to him in a timely manner.

Of course, anyone entering and leaving the city gate needs to meet certain conditions.

For example, the messenger who was let into the city this time actually had a token in his hand, which could confirm his identity, and he would be allowed into the city only after a body search.

He was not allowed to come in on his own, but was sent to the government office under the supervision of officers and soldiers.

"How did you receive the news?"

Mu Changzuo had finished reading the letter and asked.

“Reporting to the Duke of Qian, a merchant caravan from Mengyang happened to be returning from Mubang and encountered an attack by the Burmese army halfway.

They hid in Mubangdong for several days before they avoided being intercepted by the Burmese soldiers and brought back the news.

When the leader found out, he immediately ordered me to bring his letter to the Ming Dynasty to ask for help. "

When the messenger explained the situation, Mu Changzuo nodded without comment.

What he said made sense, but he couldn't just believe it. He had to send people to Mubang to investigate in order to find out the real situation.

Don't think that you are slow to react. In fact, this is what we have to do in all military and national affairs.

What's more, the Ming Dynasty has already made preparations, so no matter what the final situation is, it can be said that it will not be a hindrance to the Ming Dynasty.