In the end, two brigades of soldiers entered Wenqiao, except for one battalion of soldiers to take over the defense of Wenqiao Town, and the main force was stationed in the camp north of the town.

The Huaidong Army regained Wenqiao on behalf of the imperial court, and most people in Wenqiao Town were indifferent, it was nothing more than a change of officials to collect grain and taxes, and life would go on the same.

The battle against Wenqiao was not fierce, in addition to the annihilation of most of the soldiers loyal to the governor's office in southern Zhejiang, more than 100 people were killed and wounded by the local recruits, and nearly 300 villagers were imprisoned in a monastery in the town after paying their armor.

The family of the deceased child was naturally heartbroken, took the corpse, wrapped it in a straw mat and buried it; Although the children were given to the families who were centrally detained, although they heard the promises of the big families in the town that the Huaidong Army would release them and would not blame the past, they could not see the people released back, and their hearts were extremely unsteady.

Even the big families in the town were worried in their hearts, worried that the imperial court would investigate the guilt, worried that the Huaidong army would wantonly loot and extort places, and worried that the Zhejiang-Fujian rebels would counterattack back.

The big families in the town, led by Hu Mingjie, the uncle of the Hu family, surrounded Zuo Shixiong, who came to persuade him to surrender, and complained about his loyalty; At the same time, they did not dare to slack off, and on the night of the 29th, several families gathered together ten carts of grain, five cows, fifty sheep, and two thousand taels of silver, and sent them to the camp in the north of the town overnight.

However, the camp in the north of the town said that the local donated materials would be received by another official sent by the military department, and the army could only buy grain, cattle and sheep and other materials at market prices. Not to mention the confiscation of the silver, he also dragged back two large bags of copper dollars, and the big families in the town were even more uneasy.

More than a dozen people gathered in the Hu family's mansion, looking at the two bags of copper yuan and worried.

In addition to gold and silver ingots, the most widely circulated in the world was money.

According to the law, only the Jiangning Ministry of Industry has the right to mint money, in fact, local private minting has been repeatedly banned, and after the power of the vassal is strong, the mold coinage has become a semi-public means for the military department to raise military funds. Those who abide by the rules will melt copper to cast money, and the amount will be sufficient; those who do not follow the rules will take bad iron to make money; There are even more scoundrels, directly in the money to add the words "worth five coins", "worth ten coins" and so on, one for five or ten coins.

Local coins are used to pay salaries and buy materials from the localities, and eventually all these coins flow to the localities.

In just two or three years, the currency system in Jianghuai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Lianghu, including the Zhejiang and Fujian regions controlled by the luxury family, fell into complete chaos.

Last year, Huaidong officially set up a mint bureau to open a mold to mint money, scrapped the square hole to make money, and directly minted copper dollars.

The Huaidong Army invaded the southern Zhejiang and eastern Fujian coasts, and implemented a strategy of forced conscription and forced ransom against the gentry, which not only reduced the degree of local resistance, but also ensured that more material supplies were obtained from these areas.

The big households in Wenqiao Town have long seen the appearance of Huaidong Tongyuan.

The most common Huaidong copper dollar is ten coins, that is, ten coins of the old coinage. It is said that it is shameless enough, but the amount of Huaidong copper yuan is relatively sufficient, the copper color is fine and the pattern is exquisite, and it is difficult to imitate. Compared with the shoddy local money, ordinary people know that the Huaidong copper dollar is precious. In the coastal areas of southern Zhejiang and eastern Fujian, the Huaidong copper yuan is not very resistant.

The big households in the town are not worried about the two bags of Huaidong copper yuan, but they can't figure out the attitude behind the Huaidong Military Division's refusal to sacrifice the army and insist on redemption. In this year, Xiu only met soldiers, and it was unclear that the Huaidong Military Division represented the imperial court to conquer Zhejiang and Fujian, and if they were ruthlessly slaughtered and plundered Wenqiao Town, they would have no place to redress their grievances.

Zuo Shixin went with the army to persuade him to surrender to other places, and the big families in the town headed by Hu Renjie did not have the eyes and ears to listen to the news for a while, and spent the night in panic with the families whose children were given centralized detention because of their participation in the township bravery.

It was not until the early morning of the 30th that the officials sent by Huaidong to take over came ashore and entered Wenqiao.

Huaidong quickly set up an inspection department in Wenqiao, and the first inspector was Tang Xitai, one of the Chongzhou meat ticket teenagers that year.

Tang Xitai served as a servant in Jianling, presided over the inventory of acres for more than two years, although he was only past the age of a weak crown, but he was capable, calm and moderate, and had the identity of a showman.

Tang Xitai was delayed for a day in Yueqing, and after leading Hu to go ashore from the small port of Genwu in Wenqiaonan, he did not enter the town immediately, but first went to the camp in the north of the town to see Chen Yan.

Although Tang Xitai did not enter the town, he was wearing a lake-blue Jiupin civil official uniform, and he was a landing general with a sword and armor in the past two days, which was very conspicuous, and immediately attracted the attention of the townspeople.

When Hu Renjie, the uncle of the Hu family, heard the news, he wanted to intercept and meet him halfway, but Tang Xitai and the others had already passed the town and entered the camp in the north of the town. Although there was no one waiting, Hu Renjie and the others were inconvenient to go back, so they waited under the archway.

Seeing that a group of mud-legged people also gathered on the side to discuss what not to disperse, Hu Renjie was afraid of causing the unhappiness and unnecessary worries of the officials who took over Huaidong, so he sent his family to drive them away.

The family went and returned, and said: "I heard that there is a general in the town just now, and it seems that he is the second son of the widow's family in the east of the town!" ”

"Who?" Hu Renjie can't remember who is here for a while?

"A few years ago, I recruited the flax monkey who died there for King Qin in the north to choose the Taizhou Prefecture?" Someone next to Hu Renjie remembered such a person.

"Flax monkeys?" Hu Renjie vaguely remembered such a person, or a child of the Hu clan, but he was too far away, and his impression was vague, and the last time the Zhejiang soldiers went north to King Qinwang was Chongguan for nine years, and this year is already the second year of Yongxing, "The flax monkey is not dead, and he is still a general of the Huaidong Army, which is too funny, they didn't look dazzled?" ”

"Probably can't be wrong, not only the second son of Widow Hu's family, but also Tang Gui and a boy from Zhongao in Qianwei, they can't name them for a while, they still greeted the people in the town when they passed, but they didn't stop at their feet," Jiading replied, "Someone over there has already gone to call Widow Hu." ”

"That's probably not wrong," someone next to him whispered, "Oh, by the way, the third son of Widow Hu's family is still imprisoned in the big temple......

Hu Renjie was stunned, and he was confused for a while. When the widow Hu, whose face was like dead wood, caressed the villagers with a handful of snot and tears, Hu Renjie came back to his senses. Hu Renjie hurriedly invited the old woman who he usually looked at to annoyed to come over, and let the old woman sit on the couch; Seeing that the old woman's clothes were thin, she kindly took off the fox fur on her body and gave it to the old woman to wear, treating her closer than her mother. The old woman, Widow Hu, was at a loss......

It was almost sunset that Chen Yan and Tang Xitai walked towards Wenqiao Town, and the flax monkeys were also coming from the queue.

Hu Renjie led more than a dozen squires of Wen Qiao to come forward to greet him, and Widow Hu really saw her son come back from the dead, standing in the middle of the crowd with a knife in armor, and cried loudly when she pounced, and sat on the ground with her ass: "Ma Monkey, the three babies are about to be pulled and beheaded, you have to save the three children......

Chen Yan and Tang Xitai also made a fuss. A bunch of people talked and explained for a long time, only to know that the third brother of the flax monkey and the townspeople were all imprisoned in the town monastery after disarming, and the villagers rumored that these people would be pulled out and beheaded.

Tang Xitai looked at Chen Yan and asked, "Commander Chen, what do you think about it?" ”

Seeing that the patrol lieutenant who came with Tang Xitai was crying with an old woman in the locality, he also knew that they were relatives together, and said: "The military department has appointed Lord Tang and Hu Whistle to come over to deal with local affairs, and these things are naturally up to you; I'm going to get them all out of here! ”

Tang Xitai walked over with a smile, helped the flax monkey and the old woman up, and said: "Jinxiong, you return to your hometown today to recognize your mother, it is a great joy," and said to Hu Renjie and other local squires, "Wen Qiao Township Lao was forced to be a thief, which is tortuous, Huaidong Military Division has long been aware of it, this time a representative of Huaidong Army to the place, will also represent Huaidong Military Division to pardon Wen Qiao Xianglao's unintentional mistakes, there is no intention to pursue it, and please Wen Qiao Township Elder put down his worries......" At that moment, he introduced to Hu Renjie and other local squires that after getting up, more than a dozen military attachés from Taizhou led by Hu Jinxiong, a flax monkey, were introduced.

The flax monkey did not have a big name, it was one of the Zhejiang soldiers who were captured in the battle of Yangxin, and moved to Jinhai to settle down, and gave the name Hu Jinxiong in Jinhai, and then incorporated into the Tianjin Navy to defend the city, and accumulated merit and served as the commander; After withdrawing to Huaidong, he entered the combat training academy for training, and was just promoted to deputy sentinel. This time, he was transferred as the deputy lieutenant of the inspection to assist Tang Xitai in presiding over the local military preparation of Wenqiao.

Huaidong considered that after occupying southern Zhejiang, in addition to governing the local tax extraction, it still effectively organized the local military equipment. In this way, it can not only control the southern Zhejiang region more effectively, but also draw brave and good soldiers from southern Zhejiang to supplement the shortage of troops in the southern Zhejiang battlefield.

In the past, most of the local military garrisons controlled the hands of local wealthy families, even if they were extravagant families governing Fujian, mainly relying on clan forces, after entering and occupying the two Zhejiang, they also adopted the governance principle of luxury families governing the city and the gentry governing the countryside, and mainly carefully focused on controlling key cities and defense villages, and the power was not enough to penetrate into all aspects of southern Zhejiang.

One of the fundamental means of Lin Lian's rule of Huaidong is to quietly suppress local forces. Inspection divisions were set up extensively under the prefectures and counties, and on the one hand, the original local military armaments were abolished, and on the other hand, the inspection divisions, which were under the direct jurisdiction of the military divisions, were reorganized to achieve the goal of replacing them.

Generally speaking, the local forces do not have the ambition to divide and compete for power, and are mainly concerned about the gains and losses of land rights and land houses. The Huaidong Military Division's extensive establishment of inspection departments has not increased the burden on the localities, but has also increasingly stabilized local public order, and has been welcomed by the localities on the whole.

This successful experience is naturally used in southern Zhejiang.

In addition to Tang Xitai, Luo Chengyi, Zhu Ai, and a large number of other officials who were drawn from Huaidong to open up the battlefield in southern Zhejiang, nearly 100 military attachés from southern Zhejiang, including Hu Jinxiong, were also selected to be used as grassroots forces to fundamentally control the southern Zhejiang.

Chen Yan ordered all the soldiers in the town to be withdrawn, moved to the camp in the north of the town to garrison, and officially handed over Wen Qiao to Tang Xitai to take over. Chen Yan was busy with military affairs, and he was too lazy to deal with the local squires. The principle of governing the army of the Huaidong Military Division is also to strictly restrict the army from meddling in local affairs.

Those who followed Tang Xitai and Hu Jinxiong into Wenqiao, in addition to the officials and military attachés, there were only more than a dozen soldiers. However, the large army is stationed on the flank, and twenty or thirty people are more than enough to maintain local order, and the key is to organize local affairs and military equipment as soon as possible.

Tang Xitai and Hu Renjie and other local squires coped, Hu Jinxiong hugged his mother, and took more than ten soldiers to the big temple to take over the more than 300 villagers imprisoned there, and first calm down the hearts of the panicked and speculated people.

The local soldiers were afraid of the soldiers, and the armor-piercing and sword-wielding soldiers withdrew, and Tang Xitai and other officials came to take over, and the local squire's mind was mostly settled. If you are reasonable, you don't have to worry about the threat to your life; What's more, with Tang Xitai, there are many military attaches from Wenling, who always have to take into account the feelings of the countryside and will not mess around.

Wenqiao's terrain is important, and the Southern Zhejiang Governor's Mansion has also set up an inspection department in Wenqiao to control the place, and its public office is naturally taken over by Tang Xitai. After going to the public hall for a while, Tang Xitai and Hu Renjie and other local squires went to the big temple in the town to visit the more than 300 villagers who were imprisoned there.

Hu Jinxiong took his mother and some military attaches from Wenling to come over first, and all the guards outside the temple had been withdrawn. Tang Xitai and the others walked in, Hu Jinxiong was sitting on the ground, telling his experience over the years in the native voice, and standing behind him with his wife was a black and strong young man, who thought it was Hu Jinxiong's younger brother Sanwazi.