After Gou Ergui fled to Fucheng, he went directly to the prefect's yamen to complain, but was blocked back. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info he is a small official who does not enter the stream, he left in a hurry and did not bring much silver, and he couldn't even enter the gate of the prefect's yamen.

He complained that Lingao Xiangyong colluded with the Li mob to kill the squire, but the prefect's yamen did not receive the official news from the Lingao County Yamen, and from the prefect to the upper and lower officials, they all had the idea that more things were better than less, and ignored him. Gou Ergui has no relatives in Fucheng, only a few taels of broken silver, and he does not dare to return to Lingao, after many days, he can't eat enough, his clothes are dirty and torn, like a beggar.

Just when he was about to despair, he finally waited for the prefect to send someone to find him and ask him to go to the yamen to report the relevant matters.

Qin Bingyan only remembered Gou Ergui after receiving the news of the death of Lin Sanfeng, the commander of Chengmai County, Gou Ergui was blocked from the door many times, but his matter still reached Qin Bingyan's ears, both of which involved Li people, in order to find out the truth, he summoned Gou Ergui to come.

Qin Bingyan asked the officials and staff present: "What do you think?" ”

Tongzhi Zhao Yue arched his hand and said: "Futai, the leader of the Li people, Huang Mengjia, has heard of his humble position, he is the most warlike tribe in Chengmai County, and he has helped the government suppress other Li riots several times. According to what the two of them said, they believed that after Huang Mengjia's failure to attack Chengmai County, he colluded with Lingao Xiangyong to kill the squires and even kill the court officials, which has become a big disaster in Lingao Chengmai County! ”

"Zhao Tongzhi thinks how to deal with this matter?"

"The Li people dare to brutalize the officials of the imperial court, for the sake of the dignity of the imperial court, in order to stabilize the situation in the two counties, they can only send a large army to exterminate them!"

Qin Bingyan stroked his beard and asked everyone: "What do you think?" ”

Officials and staff members responded one after another: "Zhao Tongzhi is very true, and he also asked the government to send troops." ”

Qin Bingyan nodded, he thought so in his heart. Lin Sanfeng has a close relationship with him, and he has really given him a lot of silver in the past few years, but now that he has died, he has lost a source of wealth, it is a pity, both public and private, must exterminate this gang of chaotic people.

Now that the policy of extermination has been agreed, the next step is how to send troops. There is no battalion in Qiongzhou Mansion, and everyone knows how rotten the guard is, and it is said that they will invite the governor of Liangguang to mobilize the Guangdong battalion or the wolf soldiers of Guangxi, which is the army that Guangdong can take out, but for the sake of a Li village, it seems that it is a knife to kill chickens, and I am afraid that the report will not be approved.

The officials present discussed, and in the end, Zhao Tongzhi suggested that the army of the guard of the government should be used as the main force to suppress it, it doesn't matter if the combat power is low, if one guard is not good, there will be two, and if two is not good, there will be three, and there are only a few hundred Li people, and thousands of people will push them over and trample them to death.

Qin Bingyan adopted this suggestion.

The health centers in Qiongzhou are divided into five inner and six outer, with a total of 11 thousand households. In addition to the other six to guard against pirates, a little passable is the former place near Qiongshan in Fucheng, the full name is the former thousand households under the five thousand households of the inner guard, and the locals call it the thousand households of Qiongshan.

There are more than 300 military households in Qiongshan, nearly 2,000 men, women, and children, and they can pull out five or six hundred soldiers, with these few hundred people as the core, and several other thousand households can get together, and there are always one or two thousand soldiers, plus the township Yong of Qiongshan, Chengmai, Wenchang and other counties, you can make up the number of 3,000, and according to the rules of war, you can claim to be an army of 10,000.

According to the system of the imperial court, the prefect has no right to mobilize the garrison, but if it only mobilizes the local guard army to clear out the bandits in the territory, it is reported to the command of the Guangdong Metropolitan Envoy for an order.

After everything was agreed, the war machine in Qiongzhou Mansion creaked and creaked. Qin Bingyan carried out both hands at the same time, on the one hand, he commanded the envoys in Guangdong, and on the other hand, he informed the thousands of households in advance of the thousands of households, and at the same time mobilized the local squires to donate money and materials to raise money and food for the army - the soldiers and horses did not move the grain and grass first, if they wanted to work hard in the defense of the military households, it was not possible to draw silver and reward silver for the battle, and the food and drink of thousands of people also cost a lot, and it was far from enough to rely on the money and grain of the official treasury of the prefecture and city.

Just after the prefect's yamen was settled, Liu Quan and Yang Youji came to Fucheng.

They came to find out the news, but they didn't know where to start. In addition to dealing with the Lingao County Yamen, the two had no intersection with the government, and they couldn't find a way to send money, so they could only take a few guards to try their luck near the prefect's yamen every day.

In this era, there was no concept and system of secrecy, and the court and the local government were all sieves that were ventilated on all sides. After a few days of wandering, the two heard the news that the army was going to Lingao County to exterminate the Li people in the teahouse and wine shop. However, there are many versions of how to send troops: some people say that the prefect asked the governor of Liangguang to send elite soldiers, as well as tens of thousands of Guangxi wolf soldiers; Some people say that killing chickens with knives is enough, and the local troops in Qiongzhou Mansion are enough; Some people also say that the Baishazhai water camp will also participate in the war, and the water and land armies will go hand in hand. As for the number of troops, there are even more opinions, ranging from 20,000 to 100,000.

The two of them were stunned by these news, hundreds of thousands of troops! Even if you make a discount, there are fifty or sixty thousand. Even if the guards are all three-headed and six-armed, they can't stand the large number of officers and soldiers! Yang Youji estimated that assuming that all the new and old members of the escort team were pulled into the battlefield and all equipped with firearms, it would not be a big problem to deal with officers and men who were about twice the number of officers, provided that the new members were very proficient in firearms drills after short-term training, but the number of officers and soldiers reached five, six, or even ten times, and everything would be in vain.

Yang Youji was worried that the disparity in strength in this battle was too great, Liu Quan was even more worried, he pinned all his hopes of getting ahead in this life on Xia Nan, if this battle was defeated, Xia Nan's power would collapse, even if he saved his life, he would be just an ant-like little person in this life.

He said to Yang Youji: "It's not a way to go on like this, the rumors in the market must be exaggerated, and we have to find a way to inquire about the news from the prefect's yamen." I can't get close to the official master, so I want to get close to other officials. ”

Yang Youji agreed, touched the knife wrapped in cloth, and said: "You can use the silver, I will use the knife if you need to use it, no matter what, we have to find out the accurate news and report to the master." ”

It turns out that the ideal is plump, and the reality is skinny. In Lingao County, the county fart is a big place, and the villagers in the big hometown don't look up and look down, as long as they are willing to spend money and deliberately make friends, it is not difficult to get acquainted with the small officials of the county government. But when you arrive in Fucheng, even the secretary of the prefect's yamen has formed a circle of its own, and the two turtles from the countryside obviously can't break into this circle in a short time, even if you invite guests to dinner, you have to catch up first.