In the following days, Liu Qing really followed Qiu Yizi and Lin Shuhan's method and put on an attitude of being relaxed on the outside but tight on the inside.
In a few days, among the suspicious people found by soldiers and detectives inside and outside Jinling City, there were indeed a few people from the underworld. However, these people either wandered around Jinling City and then left the city, or suddenly disappeared without any information, and none of the clues could be followed up. And the bronze-eyed arhat was really patient, not showing up for several days as if he had evaporated from the world. As for the whereabouts of Shi Wei and the "big shot", there was no way to track them down.
As for Wen Lingjiao, Qiu Yizhi had also intentionally or unintentionally tried to test her. But Wen Lingjiao was always talking about other things, making it hard to figure out what she was talking about. Qiu Yizhi was afraid that if she asked too much, Miss Wen Lingjiao would get angry and leave immediately, so she didn't dare to force it.
For a while, the case of the Bronze-Eyed Arhat kidnapping the imperial envoy was at a stalemate and could not be moved forward.
Wang Laowu, who went to Luoyang to deliver the letter, also returned from the capital after six days of travel. However, he did not bring back the emperor's reply, but only the reply from Prime Minister Zhongli Kuang.
Qiu Yizhi felt strange, so he opened Zhongli Kuang's reply letter and read it carefully, only to find out: It turned out that Emperor Zheng Rong had caught a cold two days ago and could only stay in bed to attend government affairs, and was unable to reply in person. So Zhongli Kuang followed the emperor's wishes and wrote back to Qiu Yizhi.
As for the content of the reply, there is nothing to speculate. It just told Qiu Yizhi to handle the case carefully and not to harm the life of Shi Wei, the imperial envoy, and bring shame to the court. As for Liu Qing, because he listened to Qiu Yizhi's words, in order to maintain the unity of power in Jinling, a place of right and wrong, his position as the governor of Jiangnan Road was temporarily saved.
At the same time, the giant shields and crossbows transferred from General Cui Nan were also sent to the Mid-Autumn Ceremony in Jinling City.
This was a major event to enhance the combat effectiveness of the two hundred militiamen in Shanyin County. When Qiu Yizi heard the news, he immediately put down his work, called Zhao Chengxiao, and mobilized all the troops to receive this batch of weapons and supplies.
The giant shield and crossbow machine are the indispensable special weapons of the "Dangshiying" and the strong crossbow soldiers of the old Youyan Dao. Qiu Yizhi often deals with them in Guangyang City and is very familiar with them. Therefore, he carefully observed these weapons and saw that the tung oil on the surface of the giant shield was thick and new, and the bowstring of the crossbow machine was thick and tight. It was obvious that Cui Nan selected the newest and best weapons in the army and sent them to him.
Qiu Yizhi was deeply moved and announced on the spot: "These weapons are crafted by craftsmen with great care. How much effort has been put into them? From now on, these weapons are like your lives. They cannot be easily damaged, otherwise you will be punished by military law."
In the next few days, Zhao Chengxiao was in charge of selecting suitable candidates from the local militia and training them in shield holding and crossbow shooting. Although Qiu Yizhi handed over all the power to Zhao Chengxiao, he always took time to watch the soldiers' training. When there was no progress in the Jinling case, it was a bit of a relaxation.
Speaking of which, Zhao Chengxiao really is a man who knows how to use people well, and all the soldiers he deployed are suitable for the job.
For example, the shield of the "Dangshi Camp" was thick and heavy, weighing more than 50 kilograms, and could not be used simply by relying on arm strength. Therefore, Zhao Chengxiao specifically selected people with short stature and stable lower body, and taught them to skillfully use the waist, abdomen and leg strength to truly exert the power of the giant shield and become the cornerstone of the entire army.
Another example is the crossbowmen. Because the bowstring of a crossbow has a very high torque, no matter how strong one is, one cannot pull it open with both hands, but can only use the feet to push it open. Therefore, soldiers with strong foot strength are often selected to operate the crossbow. Zhao Chengxiao saw that all his militiamen could string a crossbow with their foot strength alone, so he picked those with strong arm strength, because they had strong hands and could shoot steadily, thus increasing the crossbow arrow's hit rate.
As for the close-combat infantry, he specifically selected those with quick minds and extraordinary martial arts skills, so that they would not be at a disadvantage in close combat.
These Shanyin County militiamen were carefully selected elite soldiers. After previous training, they were already disciplined, high-spirited, and physically strong. After Lin Shuhan taught them how to read and write, they were more or less enlightened and learned how to use weapons very quickly. A few days ago, they experienced a life-and-death battle with Japanese pirates under the city of Jinling, which made them lose all their fear of the enemy.
Therefore, in just four or five days, the Shanyin militia had mastered the formations of the old Youyandao army almost perfectly and had become a truly powerful army.
Liu Qing, the governor of Jiangnan, was busy handling the case of the robbery of the imperial envoy. He was already overwhelmed and had no time to take care of the problem of the Japanese pirates who were wreaking havoc in Jiangnan. The Japanese pirates, who were finally defeated under the city of Nanjing, regrouped and harassed and looted in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huzhou and other places, causing great trouble in various places.
Qiu Yizi thought that he could use the Japanese pirates to test the abilities of his newly trained soldiers, so he volunteered to Liu Qing to go and wipe out the Japanese pirates.
Liu Qing originally wanted to keep Qiu Yizi in Jinling City to handle Shi Wei's case for him, but Qiu Yizi was determined, and Liu Qing did not dare to go against the wishes of this "His Highness the Righteous One", so he had to nod and agree.
Therefore, Qiu Yizi left behind four smart personal soldiers to continue monitoring Wen Lingjiao's actions in the name of protection. He also gathered two hundred militiamen and fourteen other personal soldiers, and under the protection of Yuchi Jiming and the counselor of Lin Shuhan, they marched out of the city in a mighty force to look for the main force of the Japanese pirates.
Since the victorious Shanyin County militia had already left the city to fight the enemy, the other troops who were recuperating in Jinling City after the defeat naturally had no reason to continue recuperating in this gentle place, and were led by their respective officers to leave the city and return to their hometowns for garrison.
After the Japanese pirates suffered a defeat at the gates of Jinling, they became even more angry and humiliated. Although they had taken precautions everywhere, they still turned Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huzhou and other richest places in the world upside down. To avoid the Japanese pirates, farmers in the countryside all ran to the city to save their lives. The rural fields, which were once connected by roads and the sounds of chickens and dogs, had become deserted.
There is a saying in the Han Dynasty that "When Suzhou and Lake Tai are ripe, the whole world is well fed". As the autumn harvest season is approaching, the ripe rice ears are left growing in the fields with no one to harvest them. Qiu Yizi is very anxious, fearing that the farming season will be missed and even the food supply to the capital Luoyang will be difficult to obtain.
Therefore, Qiu Yizi was very eager to look for the main force of the Japanese pirates, and even sent letters to the garrison generals in various places in the name of Liu Qing, asking them to do everything possible to delay a large group of Japanese pirates once they were found, and then annihilate them after Qiu Yizi's army arrived.
However, what Qiu Yizi encountered were always small groups of Japanese pirates consisting of a dozen people each. Although he eliminated quite a few of them, the results of the battle could never be expanded.
Qiu Yi was anxious and discussed with Lin Shuhan, only then did she realize that Jiangnan was a land of great wealth and abundant resources, and the Japanese pirates could survive even if they stole ripe rice and hunted chickens and ducks in the wild. Therefore, they were not in a hurry to concentrate their forces to attack the fortified city, so it was difficult to find their main force.
He also questioned the captured fake Japanese, and their mouths confirmed Lin Shuhan's inference - it turned out that Japan had always been poor, and ordinary civilians had to fill their stomachs with millet and wild vegetables all year round, and often could not eat a bowl of white rice during the New Year; now that they came to the south of the Yangtze River where rice was everywhere, they were like mice falling into a rice jar and were very content, and would not easily cause trouble for the government troops.
The Art of War says: "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of danger."
Now that they knew the reason why the Japanese pirates broke up into small groups, Qiu Yizi and Lin Shuhan naturally had ways to deal with it.
He then issued an order to the whole province in the name of the governor of Jiangnan Province and the military governor's office, ordering farmers from all over the province to leave the city immediately to harvest rice. During the harvesting process, farmers were not allowed to harvest rice in their own fields by themselves, but had to gather people in one place and harvest the ripe rice fields in a unified manner, using the method of "trading manpower for time" to shorten the time used for harvesting as much as possible, and at the same time, the local government troops and militias were provided with protection. After the harvest was completed, all the grain had to be immediately transported back to the nearby cities, and not a single grain of rice should be left for the Japanese pirates.
This method is equivalent to concentrating the scattered farmers and defenders. At each harvesting point, there are hundreds of soldiers guarding. Even though the Japanese pirates are bold and fierce, they dare not attack the enemy army that is dozens or hundreds of times larger than them.
In this way, Qiu Yizi used nearly a month to harvest the ripe rice and complete the impossible task of clearing the fields in the rice-rich area of Jiangnan, completely eliminating the Japanese pirates' delusion of replenishing supplies on the spot for the winter.
The Japanese pirates had no choice but to try attacking the city.
However, they were too few in number, lacked siege equipment, and had no unified command. In addition, Qiu Yizi, in the name of Liu Qing's governor's office, strictly ordered that the garrisons in various places were not allowed to leave the city without permission to fight the Japanese pirates in the field. Therefore, the Japanese pirates had no gains from several attacks except for stripping off a few blue bricks produced in Jiangnan from the city walls.
After all, blue bricks cannot be eaten. Several large gangs of Japanese pirates were about to starve to death in the fields that were harvested as clean as a monk's bald head. Of course, they could not sit and wait for death, so they gathered together to attack the city and capture some people for food to survive the winter.
Since most of them were in Suzhou Prefecture and lacked food supplies, they could not launch long-distance raids, so they could only look for nearby cities to attack.
Jiangnan is the richest place in the Han Dynasty, and Suzhou is the richest place in Jiangnan. The annual tax revenue of Suzhou alone is comparable to the tax revenue of the entire province of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Yunnan and Guizhou, which shows how rich it is.
Because Suzhou was very rich, the walls of the county were built as solid as a rock. At the same time, the rewards and salaries for recruiting local militia were also very generous - as the saying goes, "a generous reward will attract brave men", the combat effectiveness of Suzhou's local militia was stronger than that of other places.
Therefore, the large group of Japanese pirates counted on their fingers, gathered together to discuss repeatedly, and finally chose a small county called Qingpu to attack.
These Japanese pirates were not fools. They chose Qingpu for a reason. First, Qingpu was the throat connecting Suzhou, Hangzhou, and even the roads in northern Jiangsu. It had accumulated a lot of profits from the merchants coming and going. Second, Qingpu was close to the sea and had several large-scale shipyards. Once they could not gain a foothold in the Han Dynasty, the Japanese pirates could easily escape to the sea. Third, it was said that the city wall of Qingpu was not built high, only about ten feet high. As long as they piled up a few mounds of earth under the wall to serve as a stepping stone, they could easily cross the wall and get into the city.
However, what was beyond the expectations of the Japanese pirates was that these piles of earth used as stepping stones could not be piled up no matter what.
It turns out that the reason why the Qingpu city wall was not built high is because there is a circle of moat outside the city for protection. This circle of moat is composed of three natural rivers and an artificial canal. There is an arch bridge on each side of the river, corresponding to the four city gates. The city wall is built along the river, and the corner of the wall is flush with the river bank. Even if you are proficient in water, you can only touch the foot of the city wall if you swim from the other side of the river. It is like a fairy tale to say that you can go over the wall. (To be continued)