Chapter 7 Arrive in Hangzhou

From the Liuhe River to the Yangtze River, passing through the south of Chongming Island and entering the sea, there are a total of eighteen sandships.Foreign soldiers to protect—finally, it was agreed upon that there were a total of 112 people, 100 soldiers, most of whom were "Luzonians", 12 officers, 7 Luzonians, 3 Americans, and 2 A Chinese is regarded as a liaison officer, who sits in two sandships and is inserted in the middle of the fleet. Hu Xueyan was on the first boat.On the same boat were Xiao Jiaji, Li Delong, Li Qingshan, the "Boss of the boat" sent by Yu Fushan, and a liaison officer surnamed Kong.All advances and retreats are discussed and decided by these five people on this boat, and they give orders.As soon as he boarded the boat, Hu Xueyan received a warning that there were many taboos on sand boats sailing in the sea, and the small shrine on the cockpit where the God of Heaven was enshrined was especially not taken lightly.Thinking of the phrase "Right and wrong are just to talk more", Hu Xueyan didn't talk much on the boat, and just lay on the bunk thinking about his thoughts when he was free.However, it was different from others. Although Xiao Jiaji was used to living on the water, there were no such taboos on the ship, and Kong's surname didn't care much. Li Qingshan and Li Delong knew the taboos.In contrast, Hu Xueyan, who usually talked and laughed happily, seemed to be preoccupied and depressed.

So the surname Kong proposed to play mahjong, and Xiao Jiaji specially invited him to join the game in order to relieve Hu Xueyan's loneliness. "How about five guys. Unless one guy does—" Speaking of the word "do", Hu Xueyan shrank his mouth.He remembered that he had been on the boat of the "Waterway Team". "Dream" was taboo. Xiao Jiaji was taken aback, and after thinking for a while, he realized, "No need." He said, "I don't want to fight. Come here, Mr. Hu, to relieve your boredom." So Hu Xueyan had no choice but to enter the game.In the middle of the fight, the storm raged and was forced to stop.Hu Xueyan went back to sleep on the bunk again, he couldn't help feeling uneasy, and he was unaccustomed to the wind and waves, so he vomited profusely. The restlessness in his heart really made him feel like he couldn't live or die.

"Mr. Hu, it's okay!" Xiao Jiaji came to comfort him over and over again. Not only verbal comfort, but also care in daily life, treating Hu Xueyan is really like treating Gu Yingchun, respectful and affectionate.Hu Xueyan was very moved. He had a lot to say in his heart, but he was not in good spirits and was too lazy to say it. At night, the wind is calm, and the sea is full of a bright moon. Hu Xueyan’s seasickness, healed without medicine, but his stomach was unbearable. I remember that Grandma Qigu once put a box of foreign biscuits in the net basket, got up and fumbled, and woke Xiao Jiaji who was sleeping .

"It's me!" He said apologetically, "I want to find some dry snacks to eat." "Mr. Hu feels better!" Xiao Jiaji said happily, "I left the porridge in the tail cabin, I'll get it for you." So Xiao Jiaji lit a lantern and went to the tail cabin to bring porridge, a plate of salted fish and a salted egg.Hu Xueyan ate everything, wiped his mouth and said with a smile: "In times of chaos and famine, there is nothing to be particular about being a human being." "It's not about being a human being, it's about the heart." Xiao Jiaji said, "Wang Futai has a friend like Mr. Hu, and he has vision."

"It's useless!" Hu Xueyan said sadly, "Do your best and obey the destiny. Even if you arrive in Hangzhou, you still don't know what's going on. Maybe at this moment, the city of Hangzhou has been destroyed." "No." Xiao Jiaji comforted him and said, "We always have to think in a good place." "Yes!" Hu Xueyan was easily encouraged, "People live in hope. Jiaji, let me ask you, what are your plans for the future?" These words made Xiao Jiaji feel as if he had met a bosom friend. Even Gu Yingchun had never asked him this question, so he was full of ambitions and couldn't tell.

"I will compete with foreigners in the future. I always think, what they can do, why can't we do it? Chinese people's brains are no worse than foreigners, but they are not united, so I want to find some like-minded people. People, unite and compare with foreigners." "Ambition!" Hu Xueyan praised, "I'm one of them. Tell me, how do you compare with them?" "Naturally, it's business. He comes to us to do business, and we can also go to him to do business. In the short term, Chinese business should be done by Chinese, and Chinese money should be earned by Chinese. As long as It is not necessary for me to be well-off if it is cheaper than foreign countries.”

Hu Xueyan thought about his words for a while, and said with admiration: "Your mind is amazing. I must help you. Look, is there any business that you want to steal from foreigners?" "The first is the steamer." So, from this day on, Hu Xueyan talked with Xiao Jiaji about the plan to start a steamship company, and it didn't stop until Shachuan was about to enter Biezimen. According to the predetermined plan, the smuggling in the dark and crossing the narrow place was regarded as an escape. When walking southwest along the Qiantang River, encountering a northeasterly wind, he quickly arrived in Hangzhou and anchored in the middle of the river.However, Hu Xueyan didn't know how to get in touch with the city.Looking from the center of the river, outside the Fengshan Gate, there are long-haired hedgehogs, which seem to be continuous for dozens of miles, and no one dares to go ashore rashly.

"It was originally agreed that Wang Xuegong sent someone to contact me and told me not to go ashore." Hu Xueyan said, "I just wait, wait, wait!" Wang Youling predicted that Hu Xueyan's grain ship would soon arrive, and what he was trying to do at this time was to open up a line of roads, leading directly to the river, so that grain could be transported into the city.Reluctantly, the ten cities were tightly besieged, and the defense was poor, so worry and anger became sick, and the anger rose, and he vomited blood from time to time, and he vomited a bowl.However, he refused to go to the city to rest, because rest is useless, he might as well support it with all his strength, which can actually boost morale.

The morale of the mourning soldiers is not bad, but as the saying goes: "The emperor does not send hungry soldiers." Fighting is a labor-intensive thing. If you can't even run, how can you kill the enemy?So every day when they go out of the city to attack, as soon as the long hair retreats, the officers and soldiers immediately withdraw their troops.This stalemate has been going on for a long time without any achievements, and more and more people are starving to death in the city.At first there were people who did good deeds, but they couldn't bear to see their bones exposed, so they dug the ground and buried them, and then they couldn't bear to bury them, so they had to let nature take its course.There are countless "roadside corpses" in the streets and alleys. Fortunately, it is winter, so there will be no plagues, but the smell of corpses in the city is enough for people to bear.

By the end of October, the camps of the officers and soldiers outside the city were all broken by Chang Mao, and the only one left was the battalion of the lieutenant general Zeng Sheng outside the Houchao Gate, which stood still.It was a miracle that this battalion survived, but to put it bluntly, it was easier to find food outside the city, but if they really couldn’t find it, they went to the Changmao camp to find it.Anyway, death in battle is death, and death by sitting without food is also death. In this case, it is better to seize the food of Long Mao, which is a way of survival in death.Therefore, Zeng Jun really regarded death as home when he started fighting.Strange to say, when Chang Mao saw the "Zeng" flag, he was flustered at first, and often fled without fighting.However, this battalion can only protect itself. If it wants to attack and defeat the enemy, the disparity in strength is too great, and there is nothing it can do.

However, Wang Youling placed great expectations on this battalion, and specially ordered Wu Baofeng, the magistrate of Renhe County, to move a 3,000-jin cannon placed on the city god to the Zeng Desheng battalion with all his strength, and aim it at the long-haired cannon. Barriers, big bang, bang, bang.The long hairs in this area have disappeared, but they still can't go straight to the river, because beyond the range of the cannons, the long hairs are still like cow hair, heavily blocked, filled everywhere, and still can't break through the encirclement. At this moment, a spy was caught—it was very easy to distinguish the spies, because the people in the city were either swollen or skinny, unable to walk three inches, and spoke weakly.If you come across someone with a normal complexion, slow movements, and who can speak clearly without straining your ears, it must have sneaked in from outside the city.Such a hell on earth, there are still people jumping in, what's the point?Needless to say. Sure enough, after a beating, he immediately revealed the truth, this person said he was sent by Changmao, and sent a letter to a battalion officer under Rao Tingxuan, agreeing on a date for internal and external cooperation.At the same time, he also got news from him that there were more than a dozen large ships moored in the Qiantang River, full of grain.It goes without saying that Hu Xueyan's grain ship has arrived.Wang Youling felt refreshed, and immediately went to see General Ruichang of Hangzhou to discuss how to open a bloody road so that the grain in the river could be transported into the city. There was no need for much discussion, and there was a result. It was decided to ask Jiechun, the vice capital, to take on this important task.In fact, I am afraid that this is the only person who can take on the important task——Jiechun is a Mongolian. His ancestors have been stationed in Hangzhou for several generations. The co-leadership of the product is quite relied on by Ruichang. In the spring of the tenth year of Xianfeng, the city of Hangzhou was bombarded by Changmao for the first time. Ruichang was about to kill himself and die for the country. Jiechun advised him not to commit suicide, thinking that the enemy army from Guangde, Anhui Province, marched lightly and had no successors, so there was nothing to worry about. Might as well stick to it and wait for help.Ruichang listened to his words and retreated to the full camp.Yingpan is on the edge of the West Lake. It is actually a sub-city, commonly known as Mancheng.Because of the good defense, Changmao attacked for six days without success. Jiechun's eldest son was killed while defending the city. On the seventh day, Zhang Yuliang's reinforcements arrived.Jiechun's angry horse stood out, and he was invincible. He cooperated with the reinforcements and launched a massive counterattack, driving Changmao out of the city for more than ten miles.With this credit, Dai Hualing was rewarded and promoted to the deputy capital of Ningxia, but he still stayed in Hangzhou and became Ruichang's right-hand man. This time Hangzhou was in a tight spot again. Jiechun had outstanding military exploits, and was given the title of Batulu, and was transferred to Zhapu as the deputy capital.Zhapu is an important part of coastal defense, but Zhapu has already fallen into Changmao's hands, so it still stays in the provincial capital.Among the ten cities of Hangzhou, the most important ones are Wulin Gate in the north and Fengshan Gate in the south.Fengshan Gate was originally guarded by Wang Youling himself, but this time due to excessive vomiting of blood and exhaustion, Jiechun was changed to defend it—Hu Xueyan's grain ship was moored on the river outside Fengshan Gate.Letting Jiechun kill a bloody road is also a logical thing where people and geography are compatible. The long-haired general who surrounded Fengshan Gate was called Chen Bingwen, and according to the title of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was called "Lang Tianyi".He was about to leave—Shangmao's army rations gradually felt insufficient.Li Xiucheng has already drawn up a marching plan, returning to Suzhou for the new year, and preparing for a comeback next spring.But Chen Bingwen had learned from the refugees who escaped from the city that there was no food in the city and that people could eat people, so he changed his plan and insisted on not leaving.At the same time, I also know that the defense of the city is focused on Fengshan Gate, so I have gathered a large number of troops, one layer after another, until the riverside, where as many as 40,000 people have gathered in a tiny place. As soon as the grain ship arrived, Chen Bingwen became more jealous when he saw it from a distance. On the one hand, he guarded against the city rushing out to receive the grain, and on the other hand, he tried every means to capture the grain ship.Unfortunately, the river was vast, and Hua Er's subordinates were tightly guarded. As long as the small boat got a little closer, a row of guns would come. For three days in a row, there was nothing to count.In the end, someone suggested that according to the method of Chibi's fierce troops to defeat Cao's army, a small boat was loaded with wood, poured with oil, and flowed down the river from the upper reaches to attack the grain ship. Chen Bingwen thinks this plan is feasible.But the upstream is not his own war zone, and he needs to send people to contact him, and he also has to report to the loyal king for judgment, which cannot be arranged in a day or two.At the same time, the weather is getting warmer, the wind direction is uncertain, and there are many small boats of their own on the river. If they become self-defeating and get burned, wouldn't it be bad?Therefore, there was no hesitation.At this moment, the grain ship couldn't wait. Because of waiting for three days in a row, Hu Xueyan lived like a year, without sleep or food.The liaison officer Kong, who was escorting the foreign soldiers, believed that he was in a dangerous situation, and if he did not deal with it quickly, the consequences would be disastrous, so he kept urging Hu Xueyan that if the food could not be transported to land, he should follow the original advice and divert to Ningbo.Li Qingshan of the Shachuan Gang kept silent, and looked quite anxious, which made Hu Xueyan even more anxious, his eyes were red, he muttered to himself all day long, he didn't know what to say, he looked like he was going crazy. "Brother Delong," Xiao Jiaji's reassurance to Hu Xueyan was ineffective, so he had to discuss with Li Delong, "In my opinion, we have to think of a way to do it. It's not going to happen like this." "Yes! That's what I was thinking too. But what can I do? Trapped in the middle of the river, I can't move." Li Delong pointed to the bank and said, "The long hairs are like ants, surrounding the city of Hangzhou like an iron barrel. How can the people in the house get out?" "That's why. I think people in the city can't get out, so we have to find a way to go into the city and ask for a sure message. If it's okay, Mr. Hu should make a plan early. Such an idiot waits for his wife. Until what day?" Li Delong was also young, impatient and adventurous, so of course he agreed with Xiao Jiaji's approach, and he volunteered to swim ashore and go to the city to get news. "Brother Delong," Xiao Jiaji said calmly, "this matter is not about loyalty, let alone politeness. If things work out, it doesn't matter if you go or go, it just depends on which one is right for you. You are more flexible than me. Well, people are more flexible than me, and my skill is not something I can compare to—” "Okay, okay!" Li Delong laughed, "Don't praise me! The higher you praise me, the worse your words will be. Tell me honestly, can I go?" "It's not that I mean to talk around the corner. At this time, there is no emotion. My good brother, why don't you speak clearly. Let me ask you first, Brother Delong, have you ever been to Hangzhou? You know what we said earlier. What is the name of that gate?" "I don't know. I have never been to Hangzhou." "This is not very suitable. Hangzhou was once the capital of the Song Dynasty, and the city is quite large. If you are not familiar with it, you will not be able to find it. This is the second thing. The most important point is that you have heard Mr. Hu say that Hangzhou The interrogation of spies in the city is very strict, and it is unreasonable because of hunger. Brother Delong," Xiao Jiaji paused and said, "I'm telling the truth, don't get angry. You have a bad temper, and your eloquence is not as good as mine. You go Not very suitable!" Li Delong was straightforward, obedient and willing to reason. Hearing what Xiao Jiaji said was good, he immediately replied: "Okay! You go." So the two discussed how to go ashore, how to get past Changmao's camp, how to get underground, how to contact the city, all the details were generally in place, and then they explained the matter to Hu Xueyan. "Mr. Hu!" It was Li Delong who said, "I have something to tell you, old man. We have discussed the matter, and Chenguang will not allow us to procrastinate any longer. I said, please do it, old man, and don't reject it. Please write a letter Send the letter to Wang Futai, and Jiaji will go into the city to deliver it." Li Delong actually misjudged Hu Xueyan.He had thought a long time ago that he had to sit on guard, lest the city send people who had worked so hard to catch up and make irreparable mistakes.In addition, as long as possible, anyone can go to the city to pass the news, so when he heard this, his demeanor changed immediately. "Take your time!" He returned to his calm and unruffled attitude when facing major events. Compared with his restlessness these two days, he looked like a different person. "Tell me first, how do you go about it?" "Swim up—" "No, no!" The first sentence made him shake his head. "If you get wet, you won't get sick from the cold. What will you do when you go ashore? Is there an inn where you can dry your clothes?" "It was to play by ear." "At this time, you can't say that you are lucky. You have to stop before you start." Hu Xueyan said, "Listen to me." He really doesn't have any secrets, but he has always been quick, thinking and talking all the way, and he has a set of methods—the most important point in the whole set of methods is how to deal with long hairs.Hu Xueyan taught him a strategy: pretending to be a representative of British businessmen in Shanghai and selling arms to Changmao. "Fortunately, you can speak English, and you are familiar with Shanghai Ocean Travel. You are smart, so you must pretend to be like one." Hu Xueyan said, "You have to remember that Changmao is also rustic. You have to scare him with foreigners." It's time to explain one by one, but never write a letter.This is also where Hu Xueyan was careful. He was afraid that if he found this letter, he would fail in a major event and cause a disaster of death instead.But when he met Wang Youling, he had to have a token as proof, the gold ring in his hand was the most authentic, but he was afraid that the long hair would be plundered, Hu Xueyan thought for a long time, and could only explain it in words. "Before I left, Wang Futai talked with me for a long time, and entrusted me with his funeral affairs. His favorite youngest son, named Tiaoyun, is only five years old this year, and he wants to entrust it to me. I said I will talk about it when I come back from Shanghai. No third person will know these words, if you tell him, he will naturally believe that I invited you to go." This is the best way to check credit. Xiao Jiaji asked clearly how to write the word "Shaoyun" and kept it in his heart.However, if you can't go for a while, you must first find a way to find a boat. There are small boats. In the past, ferries carrying refugees were seen from time to time, but foreign soldiers with live ammunition and guns were on the sand boats, and no one dared to approach them.This is up to Li Delong, borrowing the telescope of Liaison Officer Kong, spotted an empty boat far away, swam up to meet it, held the side of the boat, and saw the boss of the boat with his head, without saying a word, he felt a watery horseshoe on his body Silver, hand it over.It is true that "under a heavy reward, there must be a brave man", and the ship was hired smoothly. At this time, the sky is getting dark and the vision is unclear, but it is easier to get ashore.Hu Xueyan pointed out the direction himself, and when he was about to set sail, he suddenly thought of something. "Hey, hello, Boss, what's your last name?" The boss of the boat pointed to the surface of the water: "My surname is Jiang." "Old Jiang, thank you for your hard work." Hu Xueyan said, "Send my friend to the shore and send me a letter when you come back. I will give you another ten taels of silver. I will never lie to you. If you lie to me, tell me to lose it immediately." In the Qiantang River, you will not die well." Boss Jiang seemed quite moved when he heard such a heavy curse, "What's your lord's name?" he asked. "My name is Wong." "Master Wang, please don't worry, old man, I have delivered this young master, and I will definitely report." "Please, please!" Hu Xueyan bowed on the sand boat, "I'll wait for you here with my money ready, it doesn't matter even in the middle of the night, you must come! Do you have any lanterns on the boat?" "There are lanterns." Boss Jiang is also very flexible and knows his intentions, "If you hang them out at night, they will go out as soon as the river wind blows." "That makes sense. Come on, come on, just 'six fingers tickle', I'm flattering you." Hu Xueyan also gave him a horse lantern powered by "Mobil oil" as a signal to hang on the bow of the ship when reporting the message, so as not to be caught in time The foreign soldiers went in without knowing it and accidentally injured him. As soon as Xiao Jiaji left, Li Delong couldn't help but ask, why did he treat Boss Jiang like this, and even gambled with God's punishment spell, as if he didn't believe him, was he worried about Xiao Jiaji? "I've already let him out, so there's nothing to worry about." Hu Xueyan said, "I'm guarding against the boss of this boat. I want to prevent him from sending people to Changmao's place to inform him for a reward. So I tied him with ten taels of silver. feet, so as to teach him to come back early. Of course, this must be cursed, otherwise he will not believe it." "Mr. Hu, I've really convinced you. It's really exhausting. But, Mr. Hu, why do you say your surname is Wang?" "There is another reason for this. The ferrymen on the Qiantang River all hate me and want to do bad things by saying my real name. Listen to me and tell you the reason. Twenty years ago—" Twenty years ago, Hu Xueyan was still studying business in a bank.Once he was ordered to collect a sum of money in Xiaoshan County on the south bank of the Qiantang River.The account was not received, and the limited number of money was spent, but the dice roll in the small restaurant lost only ten small coins needed for the ferry. "The boat arrived in the middle of the river, and the money was collected." Hu Xueyan said, "When I got in front of me, I put my hand into my pocket and couldn't get it out." "What's the matter?" Li Delong asked. "It's also called that misfortunes never come singly. There was a hole in my pocket, and I didn't know when the ten pennies leaked out. The ferry boat on the Qiantang River is notoriously fierce. I heard that there were some cases where they couldn't pay the ferry money and were pushed into the river. At that time Naturally, I was very embarrassed, so I had to tell the truth, and agreed to go ashore to the bank to get the money to make up for it. But it is useless to talk about it, and I insist on stripping my clothes." "It's so hateful!" Li Delong was very aggrieved, "However, could it be that the whole boat just stood by and watched?" Of course not, someone lent him ten Wen to avoid the shame of stripping his clothes.But after being stimulated by this, Hu Xueyan vowed when he went ashore: as long as he is proud of himself one day and can afford it, he must buy two boats, hire a few boatmen, and set up a free ferry between the two sides of the strait. "My wish, to be honest, can be fulfilled a long time ago. I don't know that doing good deeds is not enough! Delong, think about it, what is the reason?" "It's easy to understand. Some people do good deeds, and some people have nothing to eat." "Yes! Because of this, the Qiantang River ferrymen joined forces to oppose me and forbid me to set up a free ferry. Fortunately, Wang Futai helped." At that time, Wang Youling had been transferred to the magistrate of Hangzhou. Not only was it his duty to help Hu Xueyan in personal friendship, but also as a local official, it was also his duty to benefit the people and reward good deeds.So on the one hand, a notice was issued not to allow people who make a living by ferrying to obstruct this good deed, and on the other hand, they also asked for an award for Hu Xueyan. I don't know how many people benefit from setting up a free ferry.Hu Xueyan's reputation is not just for fame, but for this, he has won the reputation of "Hu Shanren".It's just that most of the boatmen on the Qiantang River gritted their teeth when they mentioned "Hu Shanren", so he refused to reveal his real name to Boss Jiang. A small story, because Hu Xueyan was in a more cheerful mood, recovered his original eloquence, and told it quite humorously, so Li Delong listened with relish and admired it even more. "Mr. Hu, there is karma after all. Just because Mr. Hu, you do such a good thing on this river, you should never have any risks on this river. We all want to rely on you." These two sentences sounded very pleasant, and Hu Xueyan said happily, "Thank you! Thank you! I will be like you Chrysostom." Not only Hu Xueyan himself, but also other people on the boat were encouraged by Li Delong's words, thinking that if there are good people on board, disasters will be turned into good fortune.Therefore, it suddenly changed the sleepy, melancholy, restless, and breathless atmosphere of the previous two days.At the dinner table, the mood was very good, even Li Delong, who can't drink, was willing to have a drink. "Speaking of it, you really have to believe in ghosts and gods." Liaison Officer Kong raised his glass and said leisurely, "But doing good deeds is really good if you don't let others know about it. It's not surprising to do good deeds for the reputation of good people." "Otherwise. If everyone is willing to do good deeds for the sake of the reputation of good people, the world will be fine. Some people are simply 'good sticks'." Hu Xueyan said, "This is called 'below three generations, for fear of bad reputation'." "What's 'good stick'?" Li Delong laughed, "This is the first time I've heard of this name." "A good person is a liar. They cheat in the name of doing good deeds. This kind of liar is very difficult to guard against. But after a long time, you can't hide it from others." Hu Xueyan said, "No matter what happens, one's heart can't be faked. Some people think they are extremely smart , everyone will be fooled by him. In fact, in the end, the truth is revealed and he ruins himself. Whether a person is worth anything or not depends on whether what he says counts. Like Wang Futai, the official voice in Zhejiang, to be honest, It’s not that good. But now he won’t leave if he doesn’t want to leave, and he wants to live and die with Hangzhou people, and he is much more valuable than He Zhitai in this regard.” At this point, everyone thought of Xiao Jiaji unexpectedly, and speculated when he would be able to enter the city. What will Wang Youling do when he gets the news?How to respond on board? "There will be actions. But—" Hu Xueyan stopped drinking suddenly, and his face was bleak. After a long time, he sighed and said, "I really can't think of how to transport this batch of rice ashore. Even if I kill a Blood road, how can we keep this food road unblocked?" "Mr. Hu, I don't know if there is a way to do it?" Li Delong said, "Isn't there a water gate in Hangzhou? How about getting a few boats and splitting the rice to smuggle it into the city?" "I'm afraid not—" Just halfway through the sentence, there was only a gunshot, and then someone shouted: "You can't shoot, you can't shoot, the messenger is here." So Hu Xueyan and Li Delong went out of the cabin one after another to visit. Sure enough, a little spark came slowly, and as they approached, they saw that there was a lantern hanging on the bow.When the boat approached, Li Delong called out: "Boss Jiang!" "It's me." Boss Jiang agreed, throwing a cable over. Li Delong stretched out his hands, tied the boat, picked up Boss Jiang, and stretched himself into the cabin.Hu Xueyan had already placed a piece of silver on the table. "The young master has come ashore." Boss Jiang said, "I'm here to deal with business." "Take your troubles." Hu Xueyan pushed the money forward, "I will send you as a host for the Chinese New Year." "Thank you, thank you." Boss Jiang took the silver into his hand, hesitated a bit before saying, "Master Wang, I have to tell you something after thinking about it: As soon as the young master landed, Chang Mao caught him. " Not afraid to catch it, it depends on how to catch it, Hu Xueyan asked very calmly: "Is the long hair very fierce?" "That's okay." Boss Jiang said, "This young master is very courageous, and he won't run away when he sees Chang Mao, so Chang Mao should be more polite to him." Hu Xueyan was half relieved first, and asked casually, "What news is there in the city?" "I don't know," Boss Jiang shook his head, his face suddenly filled with distress, "It's like two worlds inside and outside the city." "And what about outside the city?" "Outside the city? Master Wang, you mean long hair?" "Yes! Any news about Long Mao?" "I'm not sure. I said a few days ago that I'm going back to Suzhou. Some Changmao set up street stalls to sell looted things. They seem to be eager to get rid of the goods for cash. I haven't heard any mention of them in the past two days." Hu Xueyan knew in his heart that Chang Mao's army rations were also difficult to sustain, and now he was in a stalemate with the defenders. If there was food in the city, and they could guard for another month or two, Chang Mao could retreat without a fight.But on the other hand, since Changmao is short of food, the more than a dozen boatloads of food on the river will definitely inspire his covetous heart.If you mobilize small boats and rush at them regardless of your life, it is really a very dangerous thing.Therefore, this night he was so anxious that he couldn't sleep, he only hoped that Xiao Jiaji could sneak into the city, and Wang Youling could mobilize troops to fight a bloody road and keep the food road.As long as it takes one day, the sandboat can be propped to the shore, and the grain can be unloaded into the city.