A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 620 Silver Winter Melon

Lao Bainiu: I have been writing for many years, my back is sore, and my body problems continue to appear. The life span of Internet writers may not be long. If there is a chance for me to do it again, I will definitely not write a book again.

……

"Welcome Master Wang, I have been waiting for a long time, if there is a long drought and sweet rain..."

Gao Shiyin's vanguard battalion army, together with some Shanxi town soldiers and horses, entered the city from the east of Jiexiu City through the Pengfeng Gate. Several big families in the city, such as the Han family, Zhang family, Meng family and other patriarchs, led their clansmen early, and some A close gentry officer will greet you.

They represent another force in the city. Jiexiu City was the earliest residence of the surname Han. It was called "Hanban City" in ancient times, and there is a saying among the people that "there was Hanban Bridge first, and then Jiexiu City".There are also many people surnamed Meng here. There is a saying that there are three separate families of Meng, and people surnamed Zhang are also a big family.

They are rivals with the Fan family, so they are naturally unwilling to be buried with Fan Yongdou. After the news of Taiyuan came, they conspired to dedicate the city. Although the local officials were close to the Fan family, they were not without influence in the army and secretly opened a city gate. , it can still be done.

Gao Shiyin rubbed his face. He was a little tired after running around for days, but he still said majesticly: "Very well, it's a wise move for all shopkeepers to abandon the dark and turn to the bright. My general will naturally reward you for your merits."

The heads of each family nodded and bowed their heads and said: "This is what the villain should do. Don't dare to take credit, don't dare to take credit."

Looking at the cavalry armored soldiers behind Gao Shiyin, they were secretly startled, they really were the division of tigers and wolves, such elite soldiers...

The Patriarch of the Han family seemed to be unable to open his teeth, and said dryly: "The army has entered the city, this..."

Gao Shiyin understood what he meant, and waved his hand: "My Jingbian army has strict military discipline, and no crime has been committed in the past. The people eat pots of milk and have never harassed them. As long as everyone in the city does not seek death, they will die." won't die."

Then his face sank, and he said: "However, ugly words are ahead, anyone who dares to attack the army, no matter who he is, will definitely die!"

The heads of the various families were relieved, and they all praised: "I have heard for a long time that the Jingbian Army is a benevolent and righteous teacher. As expected, meeting him is even more famous."

They said that they had prepared a banquet for General Gao, and prepared cattle, sheep, wine and vegetables for the army, and begged for the honor to wash away the dust.

Gao Shiyin said: "Let's talk about drinking and eating meat, and get down to business first."

The heads of each family volunteered to lead the army to Fan Mansion.

Jiexiu City is prosperous, with many merchants and rich people, just like a metropolis.

There are four main streets in the city, all of which are lined with shops, and there are many money houses and pawnshops. The Fan family originally lived in Zhangyuan Village, and then slowly moved to Jiexiu City. Most of them are government offices and other places.

After the Qianfeng Battalion and the Shanxi Army entered the city, they encountered a lot of resistance in the streets and alleys along the way. After all, most of the Fan family members were generals and officials of the Jiexiu City Army.

Those who fought against them were soldiers and horses from Shanxi Town, all of whom were elite cavalry from each battalion. Before the vanguard battalion fought, they made the local defenders retreat steadily, leaving many dead bodies and wounded along the way.

The battle ended in less than half an hour, and the heroes of Shanxi Town wiped out all the resistance forces.

Gao Shiyin led the army to watch the battle, supervise them, and prevent them from taking the opportunity to burn and kill. After all, except for the Jingbian army, the rest of the army did not have good military discipline, and even Yang Guozhu's main barracks had many bad customs.

At noon, Gao Shiyin ordered martial law in Jiexiu City, and then, led by the Han family and others, he led people to ransack the house.

Along the streets and alleys, there are many memorial archways of Fan's family, and they came to Fan's mansion in the southwest corner of the city.

There is a huge mansion in front of me, and I don’t know how many times I go in and out, the front yard, the back yard, the east yard, the west yard, the main yard, the side yard, the cross yard, the study yard, the enclosure yard...etc., coupled with numerous gardens, It covers an area of ​​tens of acres.

"The people anoint the people, the superior life of the Fan family is built on the bones and flesh of our Han people."

Gao Shi Yince was on the horse, took out a note from his pocket, looked at it, and said righteously.

"What the general said is very true!"

All the heads of the family agreed in unison, looking at the luxurious house in front of them, all of them had jealous gleams in their eyes.

"Break the door!"

Gao Shiyin shouted angrily.

The platoon fired several rounds, and shot down some servants holding bird guns on the wall of Fan's mansion, and then rained thousands of enemies and poisonous smoke bombs from the outer wall of the door. In one piece.

The sound of "boom bang" knocking on the door continued, and some Shanxi soldiers, carrying thick pointed hardwood, chanting chant, kept hitting the heavy door.

Behind them, there are soldiers from the Vanguard Battalion lined up neatly, armed with swords and shields, as well as bird guns and spears.

About a quarter of an hour later, the gate was knocked open with a bang, and the Shanxi army retreated. The soldiers of the Qianfeng Battalion behind the shields fired several rounds of bullets at the gate, knocking the guards inside, as well as their officers and soldiers, A large area fell near the gate of the courtyard.

The gunpowder did not stop, and under Gao Shiyin's order, dense hats and helmets poured in from the gate of Fan Mansion, and there were desperate screams from inside.

To search Fan's mansion, Gao Shiyin dispatched two general forces.

After the gate was broken open, the servants in the mansion could not even talk about resistance. They were wiped out one by one by the armored soldiers who entered the mansion. They either died or surrendered. In the ground, bring them one by one to the hall to gather, densely packed, more and more gathered.

Soon after, Fan Yongdou, who was trembling all over, was captured on a secret road and brought to Gao Shiyin, causing the arrested people to cry again.

Gao Shiyin sat on the hall with a big horse and a golden knife. On the left and right were the officers of the battalion department, and the head of the Han family, who stood respectfully at the bottom.

Seeing Fan Yongdou, who was stunned and ashamed, be brought up, Gao Shiyin put a piece of paper in his arms, and slapped the desk beside him, making a loud noise.

He shouted angrily: "Fan Yongdou, you have committed a heinous crime by collaborating with the enemy and traitorous country!"

He roared: "Because you wait, what are the people who died under the knife of the Tartars? How many cities were lost? After you are thrown into hell, you should first go to the mountain of swords, then to the pan of oil, and then to the sea of ​​fire. In the end, I went to the Lingchi punishment area, cut 330 six knives, and finally threw myself into the path of beasts!"

His desk was clattered, and the Patriarch of the Han family and the others below looked at Fan Yongdou, feeling relieved. At the same time, Gao Shiyin's words also made their faces turn pale, and they followed and scolded: "Fan Yongdou, I didn't expect you to be so mad, old man I really missed it!"

"Fan Yongdou, you scum, you deserve to be hacked into pieces!"

"Fan Yongdou, you are a traitor, everyone can kill you!"

Gao Shiyin said: "Listen, listen, this is the people's support, Fan Yongdou, you are full of evil, death is not a pity!"

Fan Yongdou listened to everyone shouting and cursing, his brows and eyes moved slowly, and a sad smile appeared on his old face.

In the end, I looked up to the sky and laughed loudly: "This old man is not guilty. If this old man is guilty, how can I ask who is not guilty in Ming Dynasty? Smuggling slaves, subsidizing the Eastern captives, and I am not the only one? Shaanxi Sanbian, Xuanda Sanbian, Jizhen, Liaodong, There are heavy troops gathered in the border forts, if there is no one to help, how can we send out the goods?"

"Jiubian, which official will not communicate with slaves? Marquis Yongning, is this a persimmon picker? Why didn't he attack King Jin, King Dai, and King Gu? Why didn't they smuggle and cooperate with the enemy?"

He shouted hoarsely: "The old man refuses to accept!"

Gao Shiyin patted the desk: "Hmph, the horse is strong and leads, there is a first step in everything. You have committed a heinous crime and dared to harm Donglu. This is because you have waited for the retribution to come first!"

"It's not that I won't report, the time has not yet come, and when the time comes, I will definitely report!"

He slapped the desk again, feeling that the taste was very good, he waved his hand: "Put this traitor under the hall first!"

Then he stood up with a swipe: "Soldiers, search your house quickly, don't miss a tael of silver, a bucket of grain and rice, these money must be properly handed over to the general, only the old man can truly take it from the people and use it For the people, it will truly benefit the people of the country.”

After finishing his speech, Gao Shiyin secretly admired himself, and he became more and more competent in speaking by himself.

……

The personnel of the intelligence department lurking in Jiexiu City led the soldiers to ransack the homes and search the Fan Mansion one by one. They knew very well that these rich households used the means of hiding money. In addition to the warehouses in the open, there were countless hidden cellars and all kinds of unimaginable method.

For example, an intelligence department led a group of soldiers into an ordinary warehouse. The soldiers looked around and saw that the warehouse was nothing more than some common commodities. They didn't understand why this operation was so cautious.

They looked at this man and saw him walking back and forth, back and forth, with light or heavy footsteps, sometimes knocking on the square bricks on the ground, and listening carefully. Soon, they saw him walking in front of a big pillar again, as if he had something to say. think.

The soldiers didn't understand that this pillar looked very ordinary, and there was nothing unusual about it. There were many pillars like this in the warehouse.

Suddenly, the intelligence officer worked carefully, pulled out the head-removing knife on his body, and slashed on the pillar a few times, revealing the yellow color inside, everyone groaned, it turned out that the pillar was actually made of brass.

Then turn to other pillars, untie the head and cut the direction, revealing the true face of Lushan Mountain one by one. All the copper materials are not brass, but red copper, bronze, and white copper. With so many copper materials, how many copper coins can be cast?
Not only that, the meticulous work also pried up a few square bricks from the ground, cleared them with hands, and immediately revealed a piece of silver light.

Everyone panicked and started to work together. As the surface bricks were removed, everyone seemed to be in a world of silver. It turned out that the entire warehouse floor was paved with silver bricks, and there were even some gold bricks.

Everyone's eyes were wide open, and the team officer sighed: "It's really eye-opening..."

At the same time, there was another member of the intelligence department, Chief Qian, leading a group of armored soldiers, breaking through a rockery in a certain courtyard, revealing a passage inside, and then winding down, it seemed that there was a secret cellar below.

Everyone walked down the steps, feeling that the air permeability was very good, and there was also light coming from nowhere. The structure of the entire dark cellar was amazing.

I don't know how deep I went, how far I walked, and then turned a corner, suddenly there was a bright light ahead, and everyone squinted their eyes subconsciously.

Then they looked over, and they were all stunned. In the wide cellar, there were big wax gourds, each shining with silver light, and they were all made of silver.

These silver winter melons are all very heavy, one may weigh hundreds of catties, which can effectively prevent thieves. Of course, there is nothing to do in the face of such open intrusions.

There are densely packed silver winter melons, and I can't count how many of them at once. In addition to silver winter melons, there are many golden winter melons.

Not only that, there are densely packed boxes and cages next to them. When they are opened, they are full of pearls, agates, gems and jewellery. Rare treasures emerge in endlessly, from the north, the south, overseas, China, and foreign countries. Eye.

Mr. Qian opened his mouth for a long time before he said a word: "It's really... really... scary..."

……

Sitting in the lobby, Gao Shiyin listened to his subordinates' confiscated property, and looked at the files that Zhen Fu kept counting up, nodding from time to time, this Fan family is too rich.

Suddenly his eyes widened, and he saw outside the hall, some brothers in the camp, flickering, carrying some winter melons, these strong armored soldiers, several of them carried a winter melon, but they still felt difficult.

Gao Shiyin took a deep breath and murmured: "What a big wax gourd, it's still silver..."

The battalion generals beside him also stood up unknowingly, their expressions straightened, their eyes opened, and there were hundreds of catties of golden winter melons and silver winter melons.

The patriarch of the Han family and others were also stunned, thinking: "Fan's wealth is the first in Shanxi, what a pity..."

Outside the hall, the kneeling members of the Fan clan saw the confiscated gold, silver, and treasures piling up in the compound, and their hearts were pierced by a knife. This is the painstaking effort of the clan for generations. Fan Yongdou also knelt tremblingly. , old tears, it's over, the Fan family is over, the efforts of so many generations of ancestors have all been in vain.

Seeing the gold winter melons and silver winter melons being brought in one by one, and gold bricks and silver bricks brought in one by one, slowly piled up into hills, a kneeling middle-aged man from the Fan family in the crowd couldn't help shouting: " ...No, these are all the treasures that my Fan family has accumulated hard from generation to generation..."

He screamed and was about to get up and pounce.

The crowd panicked for a while, and Fan Yongdou also shouted: "Yuan Fa, don't..."

"presumptuous!"

A cold light flashed in the eyes of several guarding soldiers, one of them took a step forward, and kicked his refined leather military boots on his lower abdomen. The middle-aged man of the Fan family screamed, spurted out a mouthful of blood, and flew upside down. go back.

"Audacity!"

The moment he fell to the ground, the pain was unspeakable. A heavy blunderbuss butt, with the sound of the wind, hit his lower abdomen heavily again. The middle-aged man of the Fan family spat out a mouthful of blood again, his body twitched, and his two ends stood up like a fish. .

"Dog thief, dare not be honest?"

Afterwards, several blunderbuss butts struck him viciously, hitting him continuously, causing the middle-aged Fan's whole body to convulse, and blood clots kept spitting out from his mouth. When the soldiers stopped, the man was half dead. .

Seeing the man rolling and moaning, with blood streaming down his face, Fan Yongdou whimpered, "Yuan Fa, Yuan Fa..."

Seeing that everyone in the Fan family was crying, a battalion officer sighed: "If I knew today, why bother?"

Another person said indifferently: "These thieves are not worthy of sympathy. Think about the people who died under the sword of the Tartars. They are ten thousand times more pitiful than them."

He said: "Heaven's evil is forgivable, but self-inflicted evil, you can't live."

Gao Shiyin raised his eyes and looked: "These prisoners must be watched carefully, and they will be sent back for public trial."

Looking at the account books with Zhen Fu again, he said with a smile, "It's not a small gain to check the profiteers."

(End of this chapter)