The just past night, the surface of the Liaojiagou River looked like a large construction site on the east bank. With the help of the gentry on both sides of the strait, Li Changjing summoned more than 3,000 young and strong men. Not only did he demolish the Wanfu Bridge, which was like a long dragon overnight, he also helped to drag all the wood dragged by Li Changjing from the Fairy Temple to the shore, surrounding a "wooden city" at the bridgehead, and was busy reinforcing it now.

A few days ago, I went to the strange barracks. Qingshan Camp and Liang Liu, a coolie who gathered the weapons, and Ji Daji, a second-class personal soldiers who went to the north of Yangzhou City yesterday afternoon, also returned. As soon as they came back, they sent them to Jiaojiazhuang, two miles north of the bridge, and asked them to hurry up and practice.

Han Xiufeng, who had been sleeping on the boat for a night, washed it, ate two bowls of porridge made with big heads, put on his official clothes and climbed ashore. Zhang Guangcheng and Li Changjing came up. They stayed up all night and stared at their bloodshot eyes and said, "Brother Han, it would be great if the thieves could give us another day."

After a busy look, the camp looked a little bit.

Han Xiufeng patted the arms of the two of them, turned around and looked at the young and strong men who were shouting horns and driving piles to the ground to fix the wooden boats, and then looked at the dozen or so thieves who were locked in the cage to show their presence. He pretended to be relaxed: "Yangzhou City is so big, it can't be plundered in a day or two. Even if the bandits come today, there will not be too many people."

"I hope so." Zhang Guangsheng nodded slightly.

Han Xiufeng was about to let the two of them go to rest quickly, but suddenly he found one or two flagpoles in the center of the camp, two large flags were fluttering on the top of the pole, one was "Han" and the other was "Tai". Three white cloth tents were laid under the flagpole, and "Silent" and "avoidance" cards were inserted outside the tent. Two township heroes held the oxtail knife with their hands and stood majestic outside the camp.

Li Changjing followed his gaze and explained: "I can't convince everyone if I don't fight the ceremonial war."

"For those gentry?" Han Xiufeng asked subconsciously.

"There are also the neighborhood agreements, Chief A." Li Changjing pointed to the people who were helping dig trenches and sighed: "Either the gentry or the people are hard to leave. When we didn't put forward the banner, they were in a state of utmost silence. They were both indifferent to leaving and were reluctant to leave. When we tried to leave, they had a backbone. The young and strong villages on both sides of the Taiwan Strait could come with rakes, shovels, shoulder poles and baskets. They didn't have to pay or take care of their meals."

When he mentioned this, Zhang Guangcheng couldn't help but point to the scholars in the north who were helping to build the arrow tower and said, "Those are all students from Daqiao Town. Not only did they transport the food at home, but they also summoned more than 20 young and strong men to help us defend the city."

Han Xiufeng murmured: "The people's hearts are still here."

Zhang Guangcheng smiled bitterly and said, "This is natural, otherwise why would Zhang Yiguo raise food and grass and recruit so many rural brave men? Unfortunately, the gentry and people entrusted them with unhumanity, and they only know how to talk about war on paper. They have lost so much money and food and lost so many lives in vain."

"Although Zhang Yiguo is overestimating his abilities, he is better than those who are greedy for life and fear of death." Han Xiufeng walked to the bridge and was about to ask when the bridge piles would be fully pulled out, Zhou Xingyuan ran over from the thatched hut by the river.

"Brother Zhou, how did you take a break last night?"

"I just slept for an hour." Zhou Xingyuan didn't care about being polite, and nodded slightly to say hello to Zhang Guangcheng and Li Changjing, and then talked about the thief who found out that night: "Three, the bandit leaders who came to Yangzhou from Jiangning have figured it out, one was named Lin Fengxiang, one was named Luo Dagang, the other was named Li Kaifang, and the other was named Zeng Lichang. These four people were all old thieves from Guangxi, and they were all difficult to deal with."

Li Changjing asked curiously: "Mr. Zhou, how did you find out these news?"

"There must be a brave man under the heavy reward. Besides, I just sent someone outside Yangzhou to inquire with the escaped people, and did not let them venture into the city. However, the city gate has been closed now, and they can't get in even if they want to enter the city." Zhou Xingyuan took out a notice from his arms and then said, "This is the Anmin notice posted by the bandits on the way to Yangzhou from Yizhen yesterday. Look, the bandits obviously plan to operate in Jiangning and do not intend to flee around like before."

I didn’t know if I didn’t see it. I was shocked when I saw it. A group of bandits actually made themselves king in Jiangning!

What is the name of the country? The capital of Jiangning was established, and Jiangning was changed to "Tianjing". The words on the notice were written crookedly, but the content was not simple. He looked up and said, "The true destiny of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Lin, Luo Wei, the imperial envoy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." Another group was ordered to go to war, that is, "sweep away the clear demons", saying, "the people should obey the power of heaven", "all the people along the way were ate and slurped on the road", and also mentioned that in Taohua Temple, "there were illegal stubborn people and the Qing demons dared to fight against the heavenly soldiers", and finally, there was a fate of "both burning both jade and stones, and regretting it too much"...

Zhou Xingyuan touched the corner of his mouth and continued: "Zhu Zhanao died for his country, Zhang Yiguo escaped. He took several family members to gather more than 40 defeated soldiers and retreated to the east bank of the canal. According to spies, he planned to revive his fortune and raise food and recruit soldiers on the spot to avenge Zhu Zhanao."

"He has been defeated once, and he has finally won't have a life, but he still has no memory?" Li Changjing asked laughed and crying.

"God knows what he thinks, but there should be no false to want to avenge Zhu Zhan'ao." Zhou Xingyuan sighed long and then changed his subject: "Zhixing, it is not a bad thing for him to stay on the other side of the strait, after all, we will not be able to set up the camp until noon tomorrow. It's better to send someone to contact him and give him some weapons to deal with the bandits on the other side."

Before Han Xiufeng could speak, Zhang Guangcheng frowned and said, "This is a solution. But if he doesn't have a memory, we must have a memory. Just by the dozens of people under his command, can we deal with the bandits?"

Thinking that it really took time here, Li Changjing looked up and said, "It's not enough to send some weapons, why don't you send some here?"

"Who are you sent?" Han Xiufeng asked in a low voice.

Li Changjing subconsciously looked back at the scholars of Daqiao Town. How could Han Xiufeng not know what he was thinking? He pondered: "It is useless to send young and strong men. If you want to send, you must send someone who dares to fight with the bandits, otherwise you will only waste dozens of lives. And even if you send someone, you cannot just have the final say. You have to go to someone who dares to fight with the bandits and can stand alone."

"This is true. Zhang, a man surnamed Zhang, has any skills besides daring to fight. He knew that soldiers would block the water and soil, and would be defeated as soon as they met the bandits. So either if they didn't send people, they would have to send someone who could fight."

"Second Young Master, don't look at me, I'm really not good at marching and fighting."

"Zhou can only talk about war on paper."

As he was speaking, two boats came across the opposite side. The ferry had moved south, and the river was covered with boats that were pulling bridges and piles. Suddenly, another boat came over, and the one on the boat must be his own people.

Han Xiufeng took the "Qianliyan" from Datou, raised it up and looked at it, then put it down and said, "Qinghuai and Zhiyong are back."

"It's great if you can come back, Brother Han, let's go down to welcome you?"

"Walk."

The three of them walked along the slope to the river. After waiting for a while, the two boats finally reached the shore.

Seeing that there were seven or eight dirty men on the boat, Han Xiufeng was about to ask how the Wu family was doing. Li Zhiyong helped Wu Wenming out of the cabin and said with a bitter face: "Master Han, it's still a step late to hurry up. Wujiazhuang was burned by bandits, and the two old men... The two old men were lit by bandits!"

"If you don't take this revenge, I, Wu Wenming, swear not to be a human being!"

"Brother Wu is sad." Han Xiufeng hurriedly helped Wu Wenming up, clenched his arm and asked, "Brother Wu, where are the other people in the village?"

"Diet, more than 400 men, women, young and old in my Wu Family Village died at the hands of thieves. Only these greedy and fearful animals lived." Wu Wenming became more and more angry as he thought about it. He reached out and wanted to steal the big-headed knife. Without asking, he knew that he wanted to chop the Wu family's children who followed him.

"Brother Wu calmed down," Li Zhiyong hurriedly stopped him and held him with Han Xiufeng and said, "Brother Wu, no one can be resurrected. What's the use of killing them now? It's better to let them commit crimes and avenge more than 400 revenge for the two old men and for more than 400 people in Wujiazhuang!"

"Yes, save their lives first."

The Wu family members were ashamed and wanted to jump into the river immediately. But when they thought that their wives and children who died at the hands of the bandits, they knelt down on the river bank at the same time. The oldest one slapped himself in the face while crying, "Sixth Master, I deserve to die, I'm sorry for the ancestors and ancestors, I have no shame to live in this world! Please save my life first and let me pull a few people on the back!"

"Did you hear that, they know they were wrong." Han Xiufeng signaled Datou to take away the Wu family's children who survived, patted him on his arm and advised: "Brother Wu, there are enough people in the Wu family who have died, so let's save their lives first."

"Blame me, blame me all. If I had gone back earlier, if I had tied my two ancestors to Taizhou at that time, how could this happen..."

"It's too late to say this now. The most urgent task is to avenge the two ancestors." Han Xiufeng and Zhou Xingyuan looked at each other and said bluntly: "The bandits have occupied Yangzhou. If nothing unexpected happens, they will soon send troops to grab grain. The camp here has not been established yet. If Brother Wu wants to, I want to trouble Brother Wu to take a group of township brave men to the other side to deal with the bandits."

Wu Wenming, who was so heartbroken, did not expect that Han Xiufeng would make such a request as soon as he came back. Just because he didn't know whether he should agree, Han Xiufeng said again: "This is not a good job, and he will not come back if he is not careful. If it were not for the last resort, I, Han Xiufeng, would not have opened this question."

Thinking that Zhang Yiguo might not necessarily obey others, but would definitely obey Wu Wenmingyan, Zhang Guangcheng took over the conversation: "Don't have to fight with the bandits head-on. Just fight cold guns and intercept a few left-in-one ones. If you have the chance, burn the food and grass that the bandits robbed. In short, it is harassment, making them difficult to care about the beginning and end, and they will be confused about the reality of the East Coast for a while."

"I'll go!" Wu Wenming was full of anger and wanted to fight with the bandits for a long time. He said hatefully: "Everyone, the beasts who were greedy and afraid of death just now said that they were shameless to live. The two ancestors and my Wujiazhuang died tragically at the hands of the bandits. I, Wu Wenming, were as shameless to live!"
Chapter completed!