Chapter 239 Responsible for Suppressing the Rebellion
"Lu Feng, take 20 personal guards and sneak into Suzhou Prefecture to protect my master! If Suzhou Prefecture cannot be defended, then bring my master out."
"I will return to Jinling first, and then reunite with our troops!"
"With two thousand soldiers, we can go anywhere. Besides, maybe the imperial court has already received the news, and a large army will come to suppress it."
Lu Feng took the order and left, while Jia Cong took Wang Xifeng and others back to Jinling City.
In the afternoon of the next day, the group entered the territory of Jinling, but before they entered the city of Jinling, a group of people rushed out of the city.
"My Lord, the troops ahead are carrying the royal flag!"
"Raise the flag of this marquis!" Jia Cong gave an order, and then the personal guards raised the flag of the Marquis of Guanjun.
"Feng'er, wait here. I'll go take a look ahead."
Wang Xifeng nodded and watched Jia Cong walk to the front of the team.
"The Marquis of Guanjun is ahead!" The enemy's troops approached Jia Cong and others. When they got close, the leading captain shouted towards the front.
"I am here!"
"I am honored to meet Marquis Guanjun!" The man dismounted from his horse and knelt on one knee towards Jia Cong.
"Are you under the command of Jinyiwei Tu Huai?"
"My Lord, you have good eyesight. Your subordinate, Commander Tu, will do your best!"
"What are you doing here?"
"Your Majesty has ordered us to deliver the imperial decree to Marquis Guanjun at an expedited speed of eight hundred miles!"
"Is he going into the city to announce the decree or something?"
"My Lord, this is an urgent matter. Let's do it here!"
After Jia Cong agreed, Wan Cheng took a sandalwood box from the back of a person behind him, opened the box, and took out the imperial edict.
"Champion Marquis Jia Cong accepts the order!"
Jia Cong and everyone behind him all bowed down, only to hear Wan Cheng shouting, "By the will of Heaven, the Emperor... promotes Jia Cong, the Marquis of Guanjun, to temporarily serve as the governor of Jiangnan, in charge of the Shandong camp and responsible for suppressing the rebellion..."
After Jia Cong received the decree, he took another look and heard Wan Cheng say, "My Lord, someone has already gone to the Shandong camp to announce the decree. His Majesty has instructed you to go to the Shandong camp as soon as possible to take over the troops and be responsible for quelling the rebellion."
"I know!"
After handing over the imperial edict, Wan Cheng said again, "My Lord, I have orders from above, so I will not stay any longer. I wish you a successful start."
Jiangnan has rebelled, but the Jinyiwei did not receive any secret reports in advance. Obviously, the Jinyiwei in Jiangnan has long been corrupt, so Wan Cheng might be here to discipline the Jinyiwei. However, Jia Cong obviously would not interfere in these matters.
He returned to the team, mounted his horse and said to Wang Xifeng, "Let's go to Yangzhou first. With our two thousand soldiers, we can protect you well. You wait for me in Yangzhou. I will take charge of the Shandong camp and return to the capital after suppressing the rebellion."
Afterwards, the group did not enter the city, but rode directly towards the northeast.
Jinling is only about two hundred miles away from Yangzhou. Therefore, after resting for a night in Yangzi County, they arrived outside Yangzhou city before noon the next day.
The Yangzhou city, which was supposed to be prosperous, now had its four gates closed, and there were still some confused defenders busying around on the top of the city.
"Who are you? Stop immediately!"
The approach of Jia Cong and others made the defenders above even more uneasy! Someone immediately stepped forward and shouted towards the top of the city, "The Champion Marquis is here, why don't you open the city gate quickly."
The guard on the city wall did not dare to be negligent, but he also did not dare to open the city gate easily. He immediately sent people to Lin's mansion to look for and identify the person.
Before, even if Jia Cong came, they might not care at this juncture. However, the army that arrived a few days ago surprised them.
This army also flew under the banner of Marquis Guanjun, and stated openly that they were coming to the Lin Residence.
It was not until
Yangzhou City was where these salt merchants gathered. Each of them had a few thousand or even hundreds of guards. In addition, someone in the city had colluded to open the city gates, so they couldn't defend it at all. Besides, they, the soldiers, really didn't dare to fight with these guards.
Regardless of winning or losing, which soldier in Yangzhou City has not taken money from salt merchants? Therefore, the defenders did not react in the camp, and thousands of salt workers entered the city.
The first person they wanted to deal with was naturally the thorn in the eyes of the salt merchants, Lin Ruhai. So, three or four thousand people rushed towards the Lin Mansion.
Everyone thought that the Lin Mansion would be completely destroyed, but this army of less than 2,000 people left hundreds of people to guard the gate, and the remaining 1,000 people rushed out directly. It took only two hours to resolve the battle, and 3,000 to 4,000 salt workers suffered heavy casualties. Afterwards, this army attacked everywhere, killing more than half of the thousands of rebellious salt workers that day, and the rest were detained.
By the way , several big salt merchants who had been against Lin Ruhai had their entire families chopped off.
Of course, the story to the public was that it was done by the rebels, but who doesn't know the truth? Although Lin Ruhai was a civil servant who passed the imperial examination, he was able to sit in the position of the Imperial Inspector of Salt for many years, so how could he be merciful? In recent years, there have been a few salt merchants who did not follow the rules who were directly chopped by him. Otherwise, why would these people not be willing to risk losing their heads and directly attack Lin Ruhai?
Afterwards, the captain of that army led his men to call over the defenders in the city and asked them to clean up the chaos in the city and guard the city well, otherwise they would be the next to be wiped out.
Otherwise, how could they have the time to defend the city? Wouldn't it be better to just find a prostitute and have a good sleep?
This is why, when they saw the banner of the Champion Marquis, they did not dare to move. After all, his subordinates were a bunch of killers, so how could the leader be soft-hearted?
Not long after, the city gate in front opened wide and a group of 500 soldiers rode out.
"I'm Guan Jin, the humble general, and I'm here to meet the commander-in-chief!" The leading general dismounted and bowed.
Guan Jin had previously followed Niu Jizong to Lanzhou to guard the border, so he was naturally familiar with Jia Cong and admired him very much. Therefore, when he came to Jiangnan this time, Jia Cong asked him to lead the troops to accompany him.
"Enter the city!"
Jia Cong nodded, and then entered Yangzhou City under the escort of these soldiers.
The old friend bid farewell to the Yellow Crane Tower and went to Yangzhou in the fireworks of March. Although it is not the fireworks of March now, and although Yangzhou City has just suffered a war, all this still cannot conceal the beauty of Yangzhou.
Yangzhou is like a charming and beautiful girl from the south of the Yangtze River, with a bit of haziness that makes people want to explore. The stone paths and bluestone streets are a perfect match with the mist and breeze of this season. It is as if you are traveling through time and seeing the prosperous Guangling in the past.
