Chapter 513: Chaos in Yuzhou

"Tell me, what else have you found!" Emperor Yanping looked at Wang Zhongzhi.

Wang Zhongzhi quickly replied: "Your Majesty, in addition to the relationship between the Maritime Customs and the pirates, we also found that many wealthy families in Jiangnan have connections with the pirates!"

"And we found that these pirates may be related to the Xingyue Sect!"

Emperor Yanping frowned, "Xingyue Sect?"

Wang Zhongzhi said: "Yes, it is Xingyue Sect. We found Niu Ben, the head of Kaiyang Xingtang of Xingyue Sect in Haizhou Prefecture."

"Hasn't Shangwu Temple been looking for warriors from Xingyue Sect in the past two years?" Emperor Yanping looked a little ugly.

During these three years, Shangwu Temple has not been idle.

After sorting out all the forces in the rivers and lakes in Darong, Shangwu Temple began to clean up the strongholds set up by the external forces of Darong in Darong.

The key cleaning target is the Qixingtang of the Xingyue Sect. In three years, all the garrisons of the Qixingtang have been found and destroyed.

However, there are still many remnants of the Seven Stars Hall who escaped the pursuit of the Shangwu Temple, some fled back to Xingyue Island, or hid their identities in the downtown area.

Among them, Niu Ben, the former head of Kaiyang Xingtang, is one of them.

"Your Majesty, this matter cannot be blamed on Shangwu Temple. There are many masters in Xingyuemen. It is almost impossible to catch all of them!" Wang Zhongzhi said softly.

Emperor Yanping nodded slightly. He was not blaming Shangwu Temple. He was just angry with Xingyuemen.

"Do you know why they attacked Yuzhou City?"

Wang Zhongzhi hesitated for a moment before saying, "It may be related to the Weaving Bureau!"

"Why is it related to the Weaving Bureau again?" Emperor Yanping asked.

Chen Zhongshu next to him narrowed his eyes slightly, revealing a dangerous gleam.

The Weaving Bureau was originally an institution of the inner court, set up under the Silijian, specializing in manufacturing silk fabrics needed for the palace, and also providing various silk fabrics for tribute trade.

Although the Weaving Bureau is now under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Merchants Bureau, it is actually still supervised by the eunuchs of the inner court.

The weaving bureau is still under the control of the Silijian, and Chen Zhongshu is the seal holder of the Silijian.

If there is a problem with the weaving bureau, then he, the seal holder of the Silijian, cannot escape the blame.

Wang Zhongzhi said: "The Haizhou Weaving Bureau has four weaving workshops in Yuzhou, and these four weaving workshops were all reduced to ashes overnight."

On the night when Yuzhou City was broken, the whole city was on fire, many houses were burned down, and even the prefectural government office was burned down. Although it seems reasonable that the four weaving workshops were burned down together, the problem is that the four weaving workshops in Yuzhou City were not together.

Yuzhou City was broken from the south gate, and the burned places were mostly in the south city of the city, while one of the four weaving workshops was in the north city. There were not many places burned down in the north city, but it happened to include the weaving workshop.

Therefore, the spies of the Secret Guards thought that this matter might be related to the Weaving Bureau.

Emperor Yanping rubbed his eyebrows, he felt that this matter was becoming more and more complicated.

The Weaving Bureau was an institution of the inner court, and the Maritime Customs Office was an office of the outer court. The composition of the wealthy families in Jiangnan was relatively complex, including wealthy merchants, official families, and martial arts families.

The Xingyue Gate and the pirates belonged to external forces.

If the Xingyue Gate was related to the pirates, it would not be difficult to understand.

There were many pirates in the East China Sea, and the Xingyue Gate was located in the southeastern sea area. They originally controlled some pirates. If they drove the pirates to attack Yuzhou City, this would be easy to explain.

In the past two years, the Shangwu Temple has been attacking the Qixingtang, and it is reasonable for them to want to retaliate against Darong.

But why did the Maritime Customs Office and the Weaving Bureau get involved?

"Have you arrested the people from the Maritime Customs Office?" Emperor Yanping asked

"No, in order to avoid alerting the enemy, we did not do it!" Wang Zhongzhi replied.

Emperor Yanping nodded slightly, "Then continue to investigate, and we must get to the bottom of it! I will let Shangwu Temple cooperate with you!"

The Secret Guard is professional in investigating cases, but the Secret Guard is responsible for many things, and it is impossible to mobilize too much power to Jiangnan.

The most important task of the Secret Guard is to search for the traces of Shenyang Sect. In the past three years, Shenyang Sect seems to really not exist. Neither the Secret Guard nor the Shangwu Temple has found any traces of Shenyang Sect.

Now the Secret Guard has set its sights outside of Darong, and has sent a large number of people to the southeast sea area and many dynasties south of Darong.

So now the Secret Guard cannot withdraw too many people, but the Jiangnan Shangwu Division under the Shangwu Temple has enough people.

"I obey the order!" Wang Zhongzhi received the order.

After receiving the order, Wang Zhongzhi first went to the Shangwu Temple to find Zhang Luan, and borrowed some people from Zhang Luan before going to Jiangnan.

Jiangnan is the richest region in Dayong. Jiangnan not only has abundant grain production, but also has developed silk and cotton industries. In addition, there are tea, pottery, wine, medicine, shipbuilding and other industries. Jiangnan has unique advantages.

In addition, Jiangnan has abundant water resources, large rivers, lakes and seas, and convenient water transportation, which makes Jiangnan the richest region in Dayong.

Yuzhou is one of the nine prefectures and four states in Jiangnan Province. It is located in the northeast corner of Jiangnan and is one of the most important raw silk producing areas in Jiangnan.

The situation in Yuzhou at this time was more serious than Lin Zhan expected. When he came to Yuzhou, he found that it was not only Yuzhou City that was attacked by pirates, but also many villages and towns were looted by pirates.

And after the pirates attacked Yuzhou City, there were still small-scale pirates roaming in Yuzhou.

Entering from the north of Yuzhou, many villages were looted and the number of people killed was unknown.

In a village, Lin Zhan looked at the houses with thick smoke and corpses everywhere, his expression extremely ugly.

"Fourth Master! Only one child is still alive!" A guard came to Lin Zhan holding a crying infant.

This guard was a guard of the Yang family. Since Lin Zhan grew up in the Yang family and was Yang Zhengshan's apprentice, and was younger than Mingcheng, Mingzhi and Minghao, the servants and guards of the Yang family called him Fourth Master.

Looking at the child in his arms, Lin Zhan's eyes turned red. He thought of himself and Wang Mingzhe. Wang Mingzhe was only that old at that time.

If Yang Zhengshan had taken them in, he might have starved to death long ago, and Wang Mingzhe would definitely have starved to death. At that time, Wang Yunqiao alone would definitely not be able to feed Wang Mingzhe.

"Take good care of him, he will be my apprentice from now on!"

"Yes!" The guard carefully took the swaddling clothes.

Lin Zhan looked at the corpses on the ground, his eyes shining with a cold light.

"Let's go to Zhoucheng first!"

He did not have time to bury these dead people. His top priority was to rush to the prefectural city as soon as possible, and then organize soldiers and young men to eliminate the pirates who were still on the move.

A group of more than 20 people flew along the official road and arrived at Yuzhou City near noon.

The gates on all sides of Yuzhou City were closed tightly, and there were many soldiers on duty on the city walls.

Lin Zhan rode to the city gate and looked up at the soldiers guarding the city wall.

"Who is under the city?" the soldiers guarding the city shouted loudly.

"I am Lin Zhan, the new magistrate of Yuzhou." Lin Zhan shouted loudly.

After hearing this, the soldiers on the city wall discussed it for a while, and then said: "Master Lin, please wait a moment, while Rong Xiao goes to report first!"

Lin Zhan nodded, not feeling dissatisfied, but feeling slightly relieved.

There are soldiers guarding the city, which shows that Yuzhou City has not completely lost control. This is undoubtedly good news for the current situation.

About a quarter of an hour later, a middle-aged man wearing cotton armor came to the city gate tower. He first looked at Lin Zhan and his party, and then shouted: "Master Lin, please put the official promotion documents in the basket!"

With that said, a basket was placed on the city wall. Lin Zhan took out the official documents given to him by the officials and asked a guard to place them in the basket.

After another half-quarter of an hour, the closed city gate opened, and a middle-aged man wearing cotton armor led a dozen soldiers out of the city gate.

"Li Boran, a member of Qianhu, Haizhou Wei Zuoqianhu, is here to pay homage to Mr. Lin. I was disrespectful just now, so please forgive me!" Li Boran stepped forward and paid homage to Mr. Lin.

Lin Zhan dismounted and helped Li Boran up, "Li Qianhu doesn't need to be polite."

Li Boran stood up and looked at Lin Zhan, but when he saw Lin Zhan's young face clearly, he couldn't help being slightly stunned, and at the same time he couldn't help but feel a touch of bitterness in his heart.

Too young, why did the court send such a young official.

Lin Zhan is indeed young. He is only twenty-six years old now. Even though he has grown a beard, he still looks very young.

With the situation in Yuzhou in front of him, Li Boran hoped that the court would send an experienced and prudent magistrate to take charge of the overall situation.

Obviously Lin Zhan did not meet his expectations of being mature and prudent.

"Master Lin, let's go to the city first!" Li Boran said.

Lin Zhan nodded slightly, then got on his horse and entered the city.

The situation in the city is pretty good. Although you can see many burned places, the streets are still clean, except that every house is hung with white silk.

"Mr. Lin, the Zhizhou Yamen was burned down. We temporarily found an inn as an office location!"

Li Boran led Lin Zhan to an inn. Naturally, there were no guests in the inn, only some soldiers and officials, which seemed to be a mess.

"The situation is complicated and the conditions are a bit crude. Please forgive me, Mr. Lin!" Li Boran said softly, while observing Lin Zhan's expression.

Lin Zhan just nodded slightly and said calmly: "Please also ask Li Qianhu to help my brothers arrange a place to stay and have a rest."

Li Boran was a little relieved when he saw that Lin Zhan didn't dislike this place, but he immediately said: "The rooms here are all full, and there are a few wing rooms in the back that can be freed up!"

"It's okay, just have a place to sleep. Let's just squeeze in and make do!" Lin Zhan waved his hand nonchalantly.

Li Boran quickly asked people to make arrangements, and soon he vacated three rooms for Lin Zhan and his party. There must be no beds to sleep on, so everyone had to make do with the floor. Fortunately, it is not cold in Yuzhou now, so they can make do with sleeping. .

After waiting for the accommodation to be arranged, Lin Zhan and others put down their luggage and immediately came to the lobby of the inn.

At this time, there were more than a dozen people in the lobby. Li Boran introduced: "This is the new governor Lin Lin!"

Lin Zhan cooperated and took out his official document and handed it to everyone for circulation.

"Xiaguan Haizhou Guard Deputy Qianhu Wang Ruihua pays homage to Mr. Lin!"

"The lower official Yuzhou and his colleague Zhang Yu pay homage to Lord Zhizhou!"

Several people paid their respects one after another.

After listening to everyone's self-introductions, Lin Zhan's eyes fell on Zhang Yu, a fellow governor of Yuzhou.

"Master Zhang, please tell me about Zhizhou Yamen first!"

The Zhizhou Yamen was burned down, and the former Zhizhou's family, young and old, including many officials, soldiers, and civilians in the Yamen were killed.

At present, Zhang Yu, who has the highest official position in Yuzhou City, is from the sixth rank.

Zhang Yu said with a pale face: "To answer your question, the prefectural government has nothing now. There are 18 officials who were killed, more than 30 soldiers and yamen runners. In addition to a few clerks and clerks, only I and Mr. Ning are left!"

The Mr. Ning he mentioned is Ning Yuanhe, the judge of Yuzhou, a little old man with gray hair.

"How many soldiers can we mobilize now?" Lin Zhan asked again.

Zhang Yu said: "In addition to the 500 soldiers brought by Li Qianhu, there are 600 soldiers from the inspection department in the city, more than 100 yamen runners and constables, and more than 800 militiamen I just recruited!"

Lin Zhan rubbed his eyebrows with a headache when he heard this.

Li Boran, the Qianhu, belongs to Haizhou Guard. As the prefect, he has no right to mobilize Haizhou Guard. At this time, Haizhou Guard can arrange a Qianhu to take charge of the city defense, which is already responsible.

As for the Inspection Office, its duties include checking people who have no way to go out, arresting fugitives, combating smuggling, maintaining normal business and travel exchanges, etc. But to be honest, the soldiers of the Inspection Office are not very useful.

The rest are the constables and civilians. Forget about the civilians, they are all ordinary people, not even soldiers.

There are many warriors among the constables who can be used.

Many of the yamen runners and constables at all levels are warriors, and there are even acquired warriors. Although there are no very strong warriors, they are responsible for solving cases and chasing criminals. Many times they have to face warrior criminals, so they still have some strength.

"Where is the Shangwu Division? Is there a Shangwu Division in the city?" Lin Zhan asked again.

Zhang Yu shook his head, "We haven't set up a Shangwu Division in Yuzhou yet, but Haizhou Prefecture set up a Shangwu Division last year!"

Lin Zhan was not surprised. At present, the Shangwu Temple has begun to add Shangwu Divisions in various prefectures, but not all prefectures have been added. Some prefectures have already been established, and some have not.

"Where are the money and grain? How much grain do we have now!"

"The government's rice warehouse and tax silver were looted by the pirates, but the official warehouse in the city is still there, and there are 20,000 stones of rice in the official warehouse!"

Lin Zhan nodded, and he was not worried about having food in his hand. 20,000 stones is not a lot, but it is enough for a while.

He then asked about the situation in the city. At present, there are more than 30,000 people left in the city, but the people are panicking and hiding at home.

There are three county towns under Yuzhou. These three county towns have not been attacked by pirates, but the gates of the three county towns are now closed. Because there are still pirates roaming around, they dare not open the gates at all.

After understanding the general situation, Lin Zhan asked again: "Did the Dusi Yamen send troops to wipe out the roaming pirates?"

Zhang Yu and Li Boran looked at each other and said: "It should have, but the army doesn't seem to have come yet!"

Lin Zhan frowned, "What do you mean by not coming?"

"Only Haizhou Guard and Sangzhou Guard are available near Yuzhou, but Sangzhou Guard is a navy. It is said that they have gone to chase the pirates. As for Haizhou Guard!" Zhang Yu looked at Li Boran.

Li Boran smiled bitterly, "The main responsibility of Haizhou Guard is to guard Haizhou Prefecture. Since the appearance of Yuzhou pirates, Haizhou Guard has placed its troops in Haizhou Prefecture. The commander only sent me to Yuzhou City."

Lin Zhan glanced at him, nodded slightly, and didn't say much.

Although Li Boran's words were unclear, he still understood.

The commander of Haizhou Guard was probably a coward who didn't dare to come to Yuzhou to clear out the pirates, so he hid in Haizhou Prefecture. In fact, he was not wrong to do so. Compared with Yuzhou, Haizhou Prefecture was undoubtedly more important.

When Yuzhou was attacked by pirates, it was reasonable to guard Haizhou Prefecture from being attacked by pirates.

And Li Boran was sent to Yuzhou, which was obviously excluded by his superiors, otherwise Haizhou Guard could have not sent anyone to Yuzhou.

However, Lin Zhan had a good impression of Li Boran. Yuzhou City was still in a controllable state, which was Li Boran's credit.

If Li Boran was not there, Yuzhou City would be in chaos.