Yang Yan listened, but frowned and said, "The three pirates and the Manichaean army have no grudges, why should they go against the Manichaeans?"

Xie Yuanqing smiled bitterly: "Pirates don't have to rely on us merchants to survive, if the Manichaeans occupy Guangzhou, they will only rob the money, the merchants will flee Guangzhou, and there will be no caravans to dare to live on the shore of Guangzhou, there will be no merchant ships, and the pirates will point to who to live." 8) That is why they united against Manichaeism, and it was also for their own benefit. As soon as the Manichaeans withdrew their troops, they demanded from Canton a million money for the troops, which naturally the government would not pay, and it would fall on us merchants. However, this time Guangzhou was finally saved from Manichaeism, and the money was worth it. ”

Yang Yan was dumbfounded when he heard this, it turned out that there was such a thing here, and after thinking about it, he felt that something was wrong, and said: "There are many Manichaean soldiers and horses, no less than 100,000 people, how can they be afraid of only 20,000 pirates?"

Ali said: "This is because the Manichaeans do not have a naval army, their old army is in Qiongzhou, and if they want to go ashore, they can only come by sea, as long as the pirates block the sea route from Qiongzhou to Leizhou, then the Manichaean army will not be able to return to Qiongzhou at all, so the Manichaean army cannot but withdraw its troops." ”

Yang Yan couldn't help but cry and laugh a little when he heard this, the dignified Guangzhou could only be kept by a group of pirates. No wonder Cheng Yuanzhou has been vague and vague, this is indeed not a glorious thing.

Yang Yan was still a little puzzled in his heart, but after hearing Xie Yuanqing say this, he also jumped, and he couldn't think about anything else, and said, "Business? Do pirates have a trade name too?"

Xie Yuanqing smiled bitterly: "Why not, the three major pirates have their business names in Guangzhou, and everyone in Guangzhou knows it." Every merchant in Guangzhou has to give them a monthly offering, that is, he can go directly to their business name in order to exchange for a one-month pass, if he does not have a pass, it will not be safe to go to sea, as long as he meets them, even the ship and the goods will be robbed, not to mention, even the crew, sailors, and passengers can not escape. ”

The more Yang Yan listened, the more outrageous he felt, and he couldn't help but say, "What does Guangzhou Zhizhou do?" Don't you care if it's too hard?"

Xie Yuanqing said: "How to care? Those officials and soldiers are all experts in bullying the common people, but when they encounter pirates, they will only run for their lives, and they can't fight and fight, and they can't suppress them, not to mention that Lord Zhizhou is still with ......" Speaking of this, he suddenly stopped.

Yang Yan couldn't help but say, "What's wrong with Lord Zhizhou?"

Xie Yuanqing smiled bitterly and shook his head, but did not say anything more. Yang Yan knew that there must be laziness in this, as long as he continued to ask, Ali Zhi took over the conversation and said: "What's more, Lord Zhizhou himself is not clean, I don't know anything else, but I only know that the pirates who are given to the pirates every month are only ninety percent, and one percent is given to us Cheng Zhizhou, with such a big benefit in it, how can the government take care of it?" Not only does it not matter, but every month the government will help the pirate Cui collect money, and he also has a name called 'Sea Tax'. ”

Xie Yuanqing hurriedly said: "Brother Yang, we are also hearsay about these things, and we don't know if they are true or not. ”

Ali was a little displeased, and said: "Xie Dongjia, you are too cowardly, you can hide it from others, but what else can you hide from Brother Yang?" Now the three pirates are in Canton, and I saw them disembark yesterday. ”

Although Yang Yan encountered countless inexplicable strange things after arriving in Guangzhou, Ali's words stunned Yang Yan at the bottom, and it seemed that such a thing as 'the government helped pirates collect taxes' had never been seen in all dynasties. Guangnan is really a place far away from the Tiangao Emperor, and any strange thing will be born, but after thinking about it, what does this have to do with him, and he is not an official of the court, he smiled bitterly and said, "Brother Xie, don't worry, I won't say it." It's just that these three pirates have all come to Guangzhou, is there anything going on?"

Xie Yuanqing said: "There is nothing to do, because tomorrow night there will be a banquet in Guangzhou City to celebrate the withdrawal of the Manichaean army, and Lord Zhizhou will also make a special banquet for the leaders of the three pirates, and he also ordered us to go to their business to thank them." So these three pirates are now coming to Guangzhou. and dwelt in their congregations. ”

As soon as he said this, Yang Yan couldn't help but become curious about these three pirates, and said, "Brother Xie, have you seen these three pirates?"

Xie Yuanqing smiled bitterly: "I am also a well-known businessman in Guangzhou, even if I don't go to see them, they will come to me." In fact, these three pirates were actually businessmen in their early years, but for various reasons, they all became pirates. ”

Yang Yan said: "Oh? There is such a thing, does Brother Xie know the details of the origin of these three pirates?"

Xie Yuanqing said: "The largest of the three pirates is the 'Forbidden Sea Yama' Meng Heng, their family was originally a merchant family in Huizhou, and four generations have been doing business overseas, and the family is extremely wealthy. At that time, because their family's merchant ships were often robbed by pirates, and the government could not control them, so in Meng Heng's generation, he simply organized a militia team to protect the merchant ships, and later gradually expanded to more than 1,000 people and more than 10 armed ships. At this time, the governor of Huizhou didn't know who was falsely accused, and insisted that Meng Heng was plotting against him, gathering a crowd to rebel, and putting Meng Heng in prison. As a result, the Meng family worked up and down, and it took hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle the lawsuit. After Meng Heng was released from prison, he was angry, and simply led his own militia to attack the Yamen of Huizhou Zhizhou, killed Zhizhou, and fled to the sea to become a pirate. ”

Yang Yan smiled bitterly and said: "I think this lawsuit is because the Huizhou Governor deliberately wanted to extort money from the Meng family, and finally forced Meng Heng to become a pirate. ”

Xie Yuanqing nodded slightly, and said: "The other is called Xu Hai, who turned out to be also a businessman, once he went to sea and was robbed by pirates, and was forced to be a pirate, but he was shrewd and quick-witted, and within a few years, he actually became the leader of that group of pirates, and then annexed several small pirates, and finally became a big pirate second only to Meng Heng." ”

Yang Yan said: "I heard that the third pirate leader is a woman, how did she become a pirate. ”

Xie Yuanqing said: "This woman's name is Meng Lanjun, speaking of which, she and Meng Heng are a bit distant relatives, and Meng Heng is her uncle according to generation. The family is also in business, probably because Meng Heng became a pirate, and their family was implicated, so they had to become a pirate as well. ”

Yang Yan also gained a lot of insight after listening to it, and this trip was not in vain. After eating, Yang Yan immediately said goodbye to Xie Yuanqing and returned to his residence with Tie Chenglin and Gu Xueping.

After Ling Xiang and Huang Mingxia also came back, they plus Yin Shibiao, and the four of them got together and told each other all the news. The news that Ling Xiang and Huang Mingxia heard was also similar to what Yang Yan knew. Only then did we have a clear understanding of the current situation in Guangzhou.

After listening to their introduction, Yin Shibiao said: "Anyway, it looks like the Leimani army has really withdrawn." Then let's quickly send someone to inform the Zhang Tongzhi in the back first, so that they don't come. And we don't want to stay in Guangzhou for a long time, let's go back to Jingjiang Mansion tomorrow. ”

Yang Yan said: "No, in my opinion, this is another Manichaean army deceit, and they will definitely withdraw their troops." ”

Yin Shibiao said: "Why?"

Yang Yan said: "You think that Manichaeism has more than 100,000 troops, how can you be afraid of only 20,000 pirates? It is true that they do not have a naval army, and the pirates can also block the sea route from Qiongzhou to Leizhou. But the main forces of Manichaeism have all been transferred to this side through the scriptures, and there is almost no power in Qiongzhou. Therefore, the blockade of the sea route by pirates had no effect on Manichaeism, so it is not tenable to say that Manichaeism scattered its army because it was afraid of the power of pirates. I think this is probably Zhong Ziang's re-enactment of the old plan, deceitful withdrawal of troops, and then attack Guangzhou when the city of Guangzhou is unprepared. ”

Ling Xiang and Huang Mingxia had a deep understanding of this, and they both nodded yes. Yin Shibiao was a little puzzled, and said: "Our march to rescue Guangzhou is not hidden, if the Manichaean army wants to take advantage of Guangzhou's unpreparedness to attack Guangzhou again, then it will take advantage of our rush to Guangzhou to do it, and as long as the current Manichaeism attack early, close the city gate and pull the drawbridge, it will not take much time." ”

Yang Yan nodded, what Yin Shibiao said was not unreasonable, as long as he paid close attention to the movements of the Manichaean army, it really didn't take much effort to close the city gate and pull the drawbridge. Ling Xiang shook his head and said, "Don't I think so, isn't it possible to come and go freely in Guangzhou now?" Maybe the Manichaeans have sent people into the city, just waiting for the arrival of the army outside the city, and the internal and external attacks, won't they be able to break through the city of Guangzhou in one fell swoop? That's how they broke through Yongzhou City. ”

Yang Yan's body shook and said, "I understand, that is, tomorrow night, the Manichaeism will attack." ”

Ling Xiang, Huang Mingxia, and Yin Shibiao were all stunned when they heard this, and looked at Yang Yan together, not knowing why he was so sure.

Yang Yan explained: "The previous plan of the Manichaeans may have been to send people into Guangzhou first, and then attack inside and outside, as Ling Xiang said, but now I think they can't wait for the army to arrive tomorrow night, so they will make a move." ”

Yin Shibiao was still puzzled, and said, "I still don't understand, why are you so sure that the Manichaean fund will be started tomorrow." ”

Yang Yan said: "Tomorrow night, the whole city of Guangzhou will celebrate the withdrawal of the Manichaean army, and the three major pirates will be present at that time. The existence of the three pirates is always a great threat to Manichaeism, and I think that with Zhong Zixuan's personality, I will never let go of this opportunity to wipe out the three pirates. He will definitely send the masters of the sect into the city of Guangzhou, and when the whole city celebrates tomorrow night when the guards are the most lax, the Manichaeans will make a surprise attack, if they can kill the three pirates and the prefect of Guangzhou, then the dragons of Guangzhou will be in chaos. Even if the Manichaean army could not control the situation, they only had to wait for three or four days, and the army would be able to drive to Guangzhou. As soon as the three pirates die, their subordinates will definitely fight each other for position, and other small groups of pirates will also swallow each other, and there will be no time to care about Manichaeism. Even Manichaeism can take the opportunity to ambush the remnants of the three pirates for their own use, which is really a matter of killing one stone. On the contrary, if the army had waited for the city to reach the city of Guangzhou and attacked from inside and outside, perhaps the three pirates would have fled when they heard the news that the troops were approaching the city. As soon as they fled to the sea, the Manichaeans had nothing to do with them. ”

After listening to Yang Yan's analysis, the three of them all looked at each other, but they all had to admit that what Yang Yan said was indeed reasonable, and it was very likely that the Manichaean religion would launch a surprise attack tomorrow night.

Yin Shibiao said: "Then Senator Yang, what should we do, let's go to Tongyi to report to Cheng Zhizhou, and let him immediately order, the whole city will strictly guard, and stop celebrating." Search the Namanichaeans in the city. ”

Yang Yan smiled bitterly and said, "Yin Tongzhi, do you think Cheng Zhizhou will believe what we say?" ”

Yin Shibiao was stunned for a moment, and shook his head with a wry smile, he also knew that Cheng Yuanzhou would not believe what they said.

Yang Yan said: "So if you want to defend Guangzhou City, we can only rely on ourselves." ”

Yin Shibiao said: "Rely on us? There are only 500 of us in all, and we can do anything. ”

Ling Xiang had more confidence in Yang Yan than Yin Shibiao, and said, "Our Huang family's chamber of commerce can send at least thirty or forty people to help, Brother Yang, do you have any way?" ”

Yang Yan said: "I have thought about this, there will not be many people in Manichaean City in Guangzhou City, it is estimated that there are only two hundred to three hundred people." We now have 500 men, and there are 5,000 or 6,000 officers and men in the garrison of Canton, and if there is chaos, as long as we can control the momentum of the Manichaean army at the beginning, these officers and troops will be effective. ”

When Yin Shibiao heard this, he was a little confident, and asked again: "Senator Yang, so what should we do now?" ”

Yang Yan said: "There shouldn't be anything going on tonight, Yin commanded you to let the brothers have a good rest today." Plus, be all ready. Don't ride horses, everyone try to wear as little armor as possible, prepare bows and arrows, short blades, and prepare for tomorrow's street fights. ”

Yin Shibiao nodded and said, "Okay, I'll arrange it right away." ”

Yang Yan said again: "Brother Ling, you and Miss Huang will go to the Huang family's Chamber of Commerce again immediately to see how many people can be mobilized, make arrangements first, and let them all be prepared." I'll go to Xie Yuanqing later, and ask him more about tomorrow's celebration. ”