Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The sound of horse hooves rang out, and the cavalry led by Gu Yanwu finally arrived in Suzhou.

Along the way, more than 20 people in their group stayed at the post stations along the way due to illness, fatigue and other reasons. Only 160 people successfully arrived in Suzhou within 15 days.

Even so, Gu Yanwu was still confident about his mission. After reading out the rewards for the soldiers, he ordered them to rest at the post station, and he took his soldiers to find the officials of Suzhou Prefecture.

Along the way, he found that Suzhou was not peaceful. There were people sitting quietly everywhere on the roadside, and many people were discussing the affairs of slaves, especially the dispute between Zhang Pu and the wealthy families in Suzhou.

Although Zhang Pu brought his slaves and servants with him, the power of the wealthy families in Suzhou could not be easily shaken by a scholar like him. The several conditions proposed by Zhang Pu did not receive a response from the wealthy families in Suzhou.

Huang Daozhou mediated several times but failed to bring the two sides to a settlement.

The slaves and servants in Suzhou Prefecture became increasingly restless, and many began to lose confidence in a peaceful solution.

Gu Yanwu keenly realized that Suzhou was now on the brink of a riot. If one party was dissatisfied with the final result, unrest would likely occur in Suzhou.

This made him speak directly to the Suzhou prefect Kou Shen when he met him:
"Mr. Kou, His Majesty ordered me to come to Suzhou to prevent rebellion."

"Mr. Kou, as the prefect, what can you teach me?"

Kou Shen looked at the young Gu Yanwu. He really didn't expect that someone who participated in the boy's test a few years ago would have such a fate now. Compared with him, the governor of Suzhou, Gu Yanwu's current status is not bad -

After all, he was a Yuanshi who was personally canonized by the emperor and became a hereditary knight. Even if he saw him, he had to call him Sir:
"Sir Gu..., the situation in Suzhou is beyond the ability of a prefect like me to resolve."

"If you want to prevent unrest, you should go to the governor."

After all, he was not called Sir, but just Sir.

However, even so, Gu Yanwu still said that he was not worthy of the title and said to Kou Shen:

"When the student took the boy's exam, he won the award for his words, which I still remember."

"Mr. Kou, you can just call me Yanwu. This is my new name."

"Follow the example of Wang Yanwu, a disciple of Wen Zhonglie Gong, and pledge to be loyal to the country."

After hearing what he said, Kou Shen's tone became more intimate and he said:
"Yanwu? It's a good name."

“The ambition is great too!”

"Your Majesty is wise and likes to recruit talented people. If you work for your Majesty, you will have a bright future."

"Don't go down the wrong path, like some people who are eager for quick success and instant benefits."

The latter sentence obviously had a hidden meaning. Gu Yanwu had been in the army for a long time and was not used to these roundabout words, so he said directly:

"Are you talking about Zhang Pu, Mr. Kou?"

"He has the intention to make achievements, but he won't go astray."

"According to what the students know, Zhang Pu was polite and well-behaved at first. It was just that some people were unreasonable and forced him to do this."

Then he said to Kou Shen:

"During my visit to Suzhou, I received a mission to arrest the people who attacked Zhang Pu in Suzhou."

"This is an order from the Jinyiwei Weiwei Temple, and it has been approved by the Criminal Department Jieshizhong."

"Is the Suzhou Prefecture Magistrate here? Ask him to witness this matter."

The magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture is Huang Daozhou. He has been caught in a dilemma these days in order to mediate between the two parties.

Although he is quite famous and many people are willing to give him face, when faced with conflicts of interest, these faces cannot influence many people's choices.

At this time, he felt the difficulty of governing, and even felt resentful towards Zhang Pu and those wealthy families in Suzhou.

Now seeing Gu Yanwu's order, he said after checking:
"It was an order from the Weiwei Temple, and it was approved by the whole court."

"But the situation in Suzhou is on the verge of breaking out, Captain Gu must be careful."

Gu Yanwu said confidently:
"It doesn't matter!"

"Gu will naturally make them quiet down."

"All Huang needs to do is give the order and ask the Weiwei Office... and the yamen runners to cooperate."

Accustomed to receiving assistance from the Weiwei Office in various places, Gu Yanwu felt very uncomfortable with Suzhou Prefecture, where there was no Weiwei Office.

However, he had never expected the local government to do anything, and he didn't care about it. He just asked Huang Daozhou to send yamen runners to guide Suzhou to the gathering point, and he would lead the troops there tomorrow.

Huang Daozhou also took the attack on Zhang Pu very seriously. He conducted various investigations on the Suzhou gang in recent days and even ordered them to hand over the person voluntarily.

It's just that the people in the fighting business relied on their support and refused to give him, a seventh-rank official, any face. He had long been angry with these people.

Hearing Gu Yanwu say this, he immediately sent several yamen runners to guide Gu Yanwu.

After Gu Yanwu learned the basic situation, he quickly gathered with Qian Wu and others to agree on an action plan.
-
The next day, the people of Suzhou saw a team of cavalrymen riding horses marching through the streets.

This made the people of Suzhou Prefecture panic and agitated: after the Suzhou uprising, the people of the factory guards had long since stopped swaggering around in Suzhou. The people of Suzhou Prefecture were able to live and work in peace.

Now Gu Yanwu brought the Yingyang Army under the Jinyiwei to Suzhou to arrest people. After some people got the news from somewhere, they were naturally very hostile.

In particular, some people deliberately spread the deaths of Zhou Shunchang, Yan Peiwei and others, and shouted "The Ti Cavalry are coming" when they saw the Yingyang Army, causing Gu Yanwu and his cavalry to be besieged by some of the people.

Seeing that more and more people were gathering, there was a risk of being surrounded by Suzhou people. Gu Yanwu jumped out on his horse and shouted:

"What do you intend to do? Do you want to stop the Eagle Army from carrying out its duties?"

"Get out of the way immediately when I count to three, or don't blame me for not respecting the friendship of fellow townsmen!"

"three two……"

Before he could count to "one", someone shouted:

"The Royal Guards' hawks are going to kill people, everyone run!"

The people at the scene were suddenly in chaos. Some people fled in panic, while others tried to drive away the group.

Gu Yanwu made a prompt decision:

"One, fire a warning shot."

"The precision shooter aims at the leader and fires directly."

Someone immediately unloaded the mortar from the horse, and the rumbling sound of the cannon shocked the people at the scene.

Then a few gunshots and blood spurting from people's heads immediately made the people of Suzhou realize that this was no joke and that the Yingyang Army really dared to kill them.

This caused many people who were there to join in the fun to run away immediately, and the streets were filled with panic.

The people with ulterior motives in the crowd were also frightened by the death of their companions. They did not expect that Gu Yanwu, a scholar, would actually dare to kill someone, and kill him in his hometown.

Isn’t this person afraid of offending his neighbors and being forced to leave Suzhou?
In fact, Gu Yanwu was not really afraid, because he had already obtained the hereditary title of knight and could go overseas to open up a fiefdom of twenty miles.

Compared with this, the hundreds of acres of land in his hometown are nothing. He has long wanted to move his family out.

After decisively shooting the organizer of the riot, Gu Yanwu left behind a few people and the yamen runners of Suzhou Prefecture to deal with the dead, and then took others to continue to the gathering place of the rioters in Suzhou.

Some people on several tall buildings along the street saw Gu Yanwu's warning look before he left. They were terrified of this captain who had only one intact eye but was full of murderous intent.

Because they felt that Gu Yanwu really dared to kill people and didn't even mind beating them to death.

These soldiers who had fought in the battlefields in the north were really different from the officers and soldiers in the south. They simply regarded human life as worthless and did not care about the lives of others. Some people thought of their children who were still fighting, and they immediately screamed:

"Go and call the young master back, don't hang out with the people in the fighting business!"

A group of servants hurried downstairs, trying to bring back the evil young man who was hanging out with the gang.

But it was already a little late, Gu Yanwu had already arrived with the cavalry.

Just like facing the people who might riot, Gu Yanwu said:

"Gu Yanwu, a captain of the Eagle Army of the Jinyiwei Weiwei Temple, has been ordered to arrest the criminal who attacked Zhang Pu."

"Order Suzhou Daxing to hand over the man immediately, otherwise he will be treated as guilty of the same crime."

"Start the timer now. You have one minute."

He ordered someone to bring out an hourglass that could last exactly one minute.

Looking at the sand in the hourglass falling quickly, the people in Suzhou were all surprised.

They learned about the Yingyang Army's arrival yesterday, and learned from the government office that they were the target.

This scared some people and they dared not come, but more people were used to being domineering and did not care about it at all.

Unexpectedly, Captain Gu was so different from others. He started issuing an ultimatum without saying anything, ordering them to hand over the prisoner.

The leader of the gang thought about the promises of some people and swore to some people who were sitting on edge:
"Don't worry, these people don't dare to do anything."

"Otherwise, the censors in the court will impeach them to death."

Before he finished speaking, a loud "boom" was heard, and everyone in the business saw their own door being blown away.

There were a dozen people in front of the door with cannons shaped like tiger crouching cannons, aiming at them.

Behind them stood dozens of soldiers holding muskets and even more people on horseback.

These people watched the fight intently, and no one was talking to each other, disrupting the formation.

But those who fought in the industry all felt a silent oppression.

"Or, let's send a few people out..."

"Isn't that how people were made to take the blame in the past?"

A young thug from a higher social class said timidly.

He usually hangs out with the bullies and bullies the good, but now he is the first one to soften.

The leader of the fighting group glared at him fiercely, suppressed his equally anxious heart, and said bitterly:

"I haven't even fought a single fight. How can I survive if I'm handed over?"

"Don't worry, these soldiers won't dare to do anything reckless..."

Just as he was about to mention some people's promises, he heard Gu Yanwu say loudly:
"time up!"

"First team, move forward and capture the prisoner."

"Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy!"

Upon hearing this, the first squad of more than 30 soldiers immediately entered with their muskets in hand.

Behind them were precision shooters with rifled muskets, who set up ladders on the walls to scan for possible rebels.

Just now some people rushed out of the fighting group with weapons, and they shot and killed several people.

The remaining people were almost shocked when they saw their companions died. They didn't expect that someone would kill them like killing chickens.

The leader of the gang was so frightened when he saw this scene that he ran to the back hall, and the thugs and evildoers also scattered like birds and beasts.

However, Gu Yanwu had already commanded the cavalry to surround this place, and none of them could escape and were all captured.

This was the scene that people from various families saw when they arrived. All the people in the gang were handcuffed and shackled, and were driven out by the Yingyang Army.

After finding out what happened, they were all dumbfounded: they didn't expect that the gangsters were so weak and were caught in one fell swoop in almost the first encounter.

They wanted to step forward and plead to bring their young master back, but they were afraid to step forward because of the glaring bayonets.

He could only go back with the news and ask his master to find a way to rescue him.

Not to mention the cries that were heard in the inner houses of each household, after Gu Yanwu handed these people over to the Suzhou government officials, he led the cavalry to look for Zhang Pu.

After reminiscing about the past with him, a group of people stayed at Ming Pao.

Now everyone knew that the Yingyang Army came here to support Zhang Pu.

The attitudes of the slaves changed quickly. After learning about today's arrest process, the people of Suzhou no longer dared to gather together to oppose the imperial guards.

The imperial court is serious now. If they dare to interfere again, the people who were beaten to death today will be their fate.

Now is not the time to let the law take its course. The imperial court is sending troops here to quell the rebellion.

When the wealthy families in Suzhou learned about this, they were also horrified:
First of all, they didn't expect Gu Yanwu to be so decisive and easily crack their methods.

Secondly, we didn’t expect that the gang was so weak and they were all arrested without any resistance.

If the court's new troops were like this, even if they had thousands of loyal slaves, they would have no way to challenge the court.

If something goes wrong, they might be wiped out without hesitation by the imperial court, just like the Suzhou gang.

The restless situation in Suzhou changed as a result. The verbal abuse and conflict of the previous days disappeared, and only Zhang Pu and his servants who were sitting quietly became louder.

Everyone knew that they were backed by the imperial court, and even had soldiers from the Imperial Guard to protect them.
-
Wang Shimin was so angry that he smashed several teacups. He then found Chen Jiru who was staying in Suzhou and asked him for advice:

"Mei Gong, what do you think we should do in this situation?"

"The emperor stood by Zhang Pu without hesitation and cast aside our Suzhou nobles."

"Are we just going to let the emperor slaughter us, release the slaves and return the official land?"

Chen Jiru remained calm and said to Wang Shimin with the air of a country expert:

"My dear smoker, please be patient. The emperor has no intention of slaughtering the wealthy families in Suzhou. He just wants to restore the order of etiquette and law."

"If we really want to take action against the wealthy families in Suzhou, do you think we still need the Eagle Army?"

"The Jiangnan Governor's troops can suppress everything."

Wang Shimin seemed to be thinking about something, and thought of the officers and soldiers trained by Cao Wenheng to suppress bandits and Japanese pirates.

Those officers and soldiers were not as elite as the Yingyang Army, but they were more than enough to suppress the various families in Suzhou.

They had already ascertained Cao Wenheng's attitude, and that he was the supporter behind Zhang Pu.

It seems that the Eagle Army's actions today are more like an attempt to intimidate them.

It was not that the emperor wanted to kill the wealthy people in Suzhou, but that he wanted them to be obedient.

It seems that I still need to have a good talk with Zhang Pu about the matter in Suzhou. (End of this chapter)