Chapter 184: Southeast Officials in Panic

Late April.

Wei Yuan arrived at Mingzhou, Liangzhe.

According to the established marching route and time, he should have arrived here around the beginning of April.

However, the journey from Haizhou was delayed for too long.

At this moment, dozens of miles outside the Mingzhou coastal defense camp.

Yang Huairen said to Wei Yuan: "Originally, we set the date of triumph to be around June and July, and the food and grass prepared by the court can only supply my army until the end of July."

"Do you think we should ask the court for some more food and grass in case of emergency?"

Wei Yuan shook his head and said: "Don't worry for now. The southeast is the granary of the court. If it really comes to that, borrow some food and grass from the local area first."

He has reached an agreement with the King of Wu in Suzhou.

With Suzhou as a support, the new army will hardly be short of food anyway.

At this moment, the commander in charge of Mingzhou's coastal defense affairs, 'Liu Lu', was drinking in the lookout.

Suddenly, his subordinates came to report that Wei Yuan had arrived.

Liu Lu was shocked, "Lord Zhongyong? He is not going to Mingzhou City, but coming to our side?"

The subordinates responded, "The army is less than 20 or 30 miles away from here!"

Liu Lu's face turned pale, and he stood up from his chair and said, "Why are you still standing there? Prepare the horses and go to welcome Lord Zhongyong!"

After a while.

Liu Lu led 300 soldiers of the Mingzhou Coastal Defense Camp to welcome the arrival of the Danglu Army.

Wei Yuan got off his horse and came to Liu Lu, looking at the Mingzhou Coastal Defense Camp. They were all old, weak, sick and disabled, with only a few young and strong men.

How could such a coastal defense camp fight against Japanese pirates?

Liu Lu was stared at by Wei Yuan and felt scared, so he knelt on one knee,

"I am Liu Lu, the commander of the Mingzhou Coastal Defense Camp, and I pay my respects to Lord Zhongyong!"

Wei Yuan waved his hand and passed by everyone and went to the observation tower.

Yang Huairen looked at Liu Lu and said, "Marshal Wei asked you to stand up."

Liu Lu realized it only later, and saw Wei Yuan walking towards the observation tower.

He looked at the tens of thousands of soldiers of the Danglu Army, and couldn't help trembling in his heart, secretly admiring:

"What a fierce army, so scary!"

After a pause, he hurriedly chased Wei Yuan, stood behind him, bowed his head and bent over, looking very humble, and asked with a smile:

"Marshal Wei has come from afar, why don't you stay in the city, but come here instead?"

Chen Daniu, who was standing behind Wei Yuan, said coldly:

"Where is Marshal Wei going? Do you need to say hello to you?"

Liu Lu knew that he had said the wrong thing, and hurriedly said, "Please forgive me, Lord Zhongyong, I shouldn't say too much."

While talking, Wei Yuan had already come to the observation tower and stood there looking around.

The observation tower and beacon tower in Mingzhou are in the same place. If the enemy is found, the wolf smoke will be lit immediately.

On the left and right sides of the observation tower, there is a small castle every hundred steps.

The castle can accommodate more than ten people.

Ten fortresses are connected in a line, firmly controlling the coastal defense line of Mingzhou.

Wei Yuan is quite satisfied with the infrastructure of coastal defense.

"Whose idea was it to build these bunkers?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Lu respectfully replied: "Reply to General Wei, it was the current co-director of the Censorate, Li Ding, who sent people to build them."

"He was the governor of Mingzhou and went to Beijing to serve as an official five years ago."

Wei Yuan thought, "It turned out to be him."

I heard from Bao Xiaosu that although the civil officials in the court were relatively united on major issues.

However, privately, there were still some grievances and hatreds, which could not be sorted out.

Among them, Li Ding liked to impeach Su Shi whenever he had something to do, which led to Su Shi being demoted or imprisoned frequently.

It is worth mentioning that Li Ding was a student of Wang Anshi, so he could be regarded as a practical man.

As for why Li Ding liked to impeach Su Shi, it was probably because Su Shi had served as an official in the southeast, and the two may have had some conflicts.

Wei Yuan had been in the army for a long time, and he could tell at a glance whether the beacon tower had been used.

The beacon smoke on the Mingzhou lookout tower had not been used for a long time.

Wei Yuan asked, "Have you ever encountered Japanese pirates in Mingzhou?"

Liu Lu was stunned and said, "Of course, we have. Half a month ago, the Japanese pirates learned that you were leading troops to come, plundered many nearby villages, and then went out to sea."

Half a month ago?

Wei Yuan frowned and said, "There is no sign of burning on your smoke. If Japanese pirates appeared half a month ago, you should have lit the smoke to alert the nearby people."

After that, he picked up the firewood on the smoke tower and saw that there was no sign of burning on it.

If the firewood was burned, let alone half a month, even half a year, some traces can be seen.

Liu Lu hesitated, not knowing how to respond.

"General Wei, you don't know that the Japanese pirates know that our coastal defense camp is heavily guarded. He...they..."

Chen Daniu grabbed his sleeve and said angrily: "Just now you said that the Japanese pirates went out to sea. You have set up so many bunkers, how could you not know?"

As soon as the voice fell.

Two new soldiers came over and bowed:

"General Wei, we checked, all the firewood on the bunker has no trace of burning."

Wei Yuan nodded, looked at Liu Lu, and said: "Knowing that the Japanese pirates are afraid of our army, harassing nearby villages, it is fine not to light the wolf smoke to warn."

"Why, you didn't stop the Japanese pirates from going out to sea?"

Liu Lu trembled, and knelt on the ground for a while, "Reply to General Wei, we stopped them."

Stopped?

"Did we kill or injure the Japanese pirates?" Wei Yuan asked again.

Liu Lu trembled with his lips, trembling all over, looking at Wei Yuan's eyes, instantly felt a chill, and couldn't say a word.

At this time, two more soldiers of the imperial guards drank the remaining half pot of wine in the rest area in the observation tower, and even found two women in a secret room in a bunker.

They pulled the remaining wine and women to the observation tower.

Wei Yuan looked at the two women, who didn't look like women from the Central Plains, so he frowned deeply,

"This is the coastal defense camp, why are you here?"

The moment Liu Lu saw the two women being brought in, he instantly lost all hope.

They were clearly locked in the secret room of the bunker, how could they find out?

The two women were in tattered clothes, and suddenly each of them burst out a sentence in "Japanese language".

Chen Daniu said angrily: "Japanese women?!"

Liu Lu knelt down and kowtowed: "General Wei, spare my life, General Wei!"

"I know I was wrong, I was confused for a moment!"

Wei Yuan asked: "Tell the truth, I can still spare your life."

"Where did these two Japanese women come from?"

Liu Lu panicked, "It was the Japanese pirates who gave me two women in order to curry favor with me. I know I was wrong, I know I was wrong."

As he spoke, he had already knocked his forehead and blood marks

Facing Wei Yuan, the killing god, he really didn't dare to lie.

Wei Yuan came too suddenly.

He thought that the new army would enter the city first when it arrived.

He planned to kill these two Japanese women after drinking and having fun today.

However, everything was too late.

Wei Yuan asked again, "Do you know, besides you, which other coastal defense camp commanders were bribed by the Japanese pirates?"

Liu Lu thought for a moment and said, "The commanders of the coastal defense camps in Hangzhou and Taizhou are very close to me, and they have all received benefits from the Japanese pirates!"

"General Wei, I have said everything I can say, spare my life, General Wei!"

Wei Yuan nodded, "Don't worry, I won't kill you if I say so."

As soon as he finished speaking, he glanced at Chen Daniu beside him, and then slowly turned around.

Chen Daniu drew out the sword from his waist, and in the blink of an eye, he had killed Liu Lu and the two Japanese women.

"General Wei said he would not kill you, but I didn't!"

After a pause, Wei Yuan ordered, "Xiao Yuming, Shen Qing, you two, each lead 3,000 people to the coastal defense camps in Hangzhou and Taizhou, and temporarily take over the coastal defense affairs of these two places."

The two bowed together, "Yes!"

Then they withdrew.

Yang Huairen stood beside Wei Yuan and frowned, saying, "I'm afraid that many coastal defense camps are rotten to the core."

"If they are all killed, it will be no less than starting a big prison. But if they are not killed, it will be difficult for the people in the coastal areas to trust the court."

Wei Yuan said sadly, "The coastal defense camps in various places need to be rectified. This is more urgent than eradicating the Japanese pirates."

"The Japanese pirates will never be killed. After we leave, there will be more Japanese pirates who will get involved in our Great Zhou sea area, making the coastal people miserable."

"I have asked the Imperial City Department to investigate the nobles, merchants, officials, etc. in Liangzhe Road who have had ties with the Japanese pirates."

"As long as the evidence is conclusive, they will all be severely punished!"

Yang Huairen said: "In this case, the pressure on General Wei is not small."

Wei Yuan stood with his hands behind his back on the observation deck, looking at the vast ocean in front of him, and murmured:

"Wang Anshi said something right."

"If being an official is not for serving the people, it is better to go home and farm."

"We are in this position, we can't do nothing."

Yang Huairen nodded and said, "Has General Wei decided?"

Wei Yuan said seriously, "If you don't offend them, you will offend the people."

"Offending them will cause chaos for a while, but offending the people may cause chaos for the whole world."

Wei Yuan bypassed Mingzhou Prefecture and went directly to the Coastal Defense Camp. The killing of the commander of this camp soon spread to the Mingzhou Prefecture.

The governor of Mingzhou went to Hangzhou overnight.

Hangzhou is the capital of Liangzhe Road.

The commander of Liangzhe Road Transportation Department, also known as Liangzhe Transport Department, works in Hangzhou.

The commander of the Transportation Department is in charge of the finances of the route and has the responsibility of supervising all officials. He is considered a frontier official.

However, compared with Wei Yuan's current status, his status was slightly awkward, ranking after Wei Yuan and Fan Chunren, equivalent to a high official or a high official.

Not only Mingzhou officials went to Hangzhou.

At this moment, the governors of various states in Liangzhe Road have gathered in the Hangzhou City Transportation Office.

The transport envoy of this term was named Zhang Xia, who was an expert in river management. Since he had been handling the affairs of Liangzhe, there were very few flood disasters in the area.

Many people said that he was a good official.

In Weiyuan, he stayed overnight in the Mingzhou Coastal Defense Camp.

The governors of the fourteen states of Liangzhe entered Hangzhou at the fastest speed and met Zhang Xia. They said one after another:

"This loyal and brave baron killed the commander of my Mingzhou Coastal Defense Camp as soon as he arrived. I don't know what his intention is."

"According to me, your commander of the Coastal Defense Camp should also be killed. Who doesn't know that he neglected his duties? He allowed the Japanese pirates to often harass the coastal areas of Mingzhou?"

"Is your Hangzhou Coastal Defense Camp clean? On weekdays, who doesn't turn a blind eye to these things?"

"In the past, we only cared about the prosperity of local strategies and ignored Ignoring the threat of Japanese pirates, what should we do if this Wei general uses this as an excuse to build a southeastern prison? "

"Master Zhang, please tell me, what should we do?"

"When Wei general arrived in Mingzhou, I led the officials of Mingzhou and waited for Wei general outside Mingzhou City, but unexpectedly received the news that Liu Lu was killed. Master Zhang, this makes me sleepless!"

"."

Zhang Xia, who is nearly fifty years old, sat in the first seat, looking at the people standing uneasy in front of him, without saying a word.

After they quarreled for a while and suddenly fell silent.

Zhang Xia looked at everyone and sneered: "Keep talking, why don't you say anything?"

Several people looked at each other.

Zhang Xia snorted coldly, "What did I warn you about on weekdays?"

"Keep a closer eye on your subordinates."

"We all work for the court. As long as we are upright, why should we be afraid of Wei Yuan?"

"Now you are in a hurry to see me, it can be seen that you all have something to hide."

"If that Wei Shuai really finds out something, those who should be killed will be killed, and those who should be imprisoned will be imprisoned. I will never plead for them."

As soon as these words came out, everyone's face turned pale.

Most of them did not collude with the Japanese pirates. After all, they were scholars and officials. Not colluding with foreign bandits was their bottom line.

But apart from that, they also had some unclean places.

At least they could be convicted of negligence.

If the southeastern governor Wei Yuan was allowed to investigate one by one, who could stay out of it?

They had to be anxious!