It was not until early May that Zhao Guozuo and Songkui asked several groups of defeated soldiers in Huzhou together that the two felt that this was strange. When a manor saw the regular army, he not only did not scare his calves and his calves trembled, but he even came out to pursue them fiercely - Zhuang Yuncheng actually came out to pursue the officers and soldiers. The fleeing soldiers said that the enemy was fully armored and the guns and cannons were more unreasonable.

"The first time was when Gui'an County sent a yamen runner to the country," Zhao Guozuo read Jia Zhennan's confession several times. Even the county did not take this confession seriously before, but now the governor of Zhejiang did not dare to take it lightly but analyzed it seriously: "The official officer went to knock on the door politely, and shouted in front of the door to ask Master Zhuang to go to the county to explain clearly. As a result, the village fired guns in a row without saying a word, killing almost forty officials - what a fierce old fortune."

Zhao Guozuo and Songkui both thought this was too abnormal and suspected that someone was supporting Zhuang Yuncheng behind them. The firearm described by the Green Camp was too powerful. It sounded like military muskets. The most important thing was that there were tiger squat cannons, which seemed to be the standard equipment of the Han Eight Banners. In the war in Huaiyang at the end of last year, the Han Eight Banners seemed to have participated in the battle, so the Ming Baogong of Sichuan seemed to have the opportunity to seize a batch.

"There are also the Eight Banners in Chongqing that seem to be stationed in the Han Dynasty." Songkui searched through the imperial court's Tang newspapers about Deng Ming over the years and found some reports about Deng Ming. At this time, his and Zhao Guozuo's faces turned pale.

"I have an envoy to protect the Duke." Zhao Guozuo hurriedly ordered a confidant.

Because he reached an agreement with the Sichuan Admiral, the Yangtze River Admiral and the Ming army to support the Qing Dynasty, half of the property seized by the Zhejiang government in the Ming Dynasty was owned by the Duke of Baoguo, so Zhao Guozuo agreed to Deng Ming's people to check the files. Deng Ming sent an envoy very much, and asked the envoy to bring a letter from him, which suggested that Zhao Guozuo set the envoy as a permanent one. Deng Ming said that he thought the consul was a good title and could be granted to these envoys sent to the provincial capital. He also enthusiastically invited Zhao Guozuo to send a consul to Chengdu to facilitate the communication between Sichuan and Zhejiang.

However, Zhao Guozuo did not take Deng Ming's suggestion seriously. After the "consul" sent by Sichuan arrived in Hangzhou, Zhao Guozuo did not want to meet him. Although the envoy not only asked for communication, Zhao Guozuo felt that the Ming Dynasty case had not yet begun and there was no need to meet at all. He sent his confidant to provide the visitors with delicious food and drink in a secret place, and ordered that the communication between the envoy and the Ming army should not be interfered with to show the sincerity of Zhejiang to Deng Ming.

Soon, Deng Ming's envoy Zhang Tao was brought to the Governor's Office. Zhao Guozuo tried it around the bush, hoping to investigate whether there was a shadow of Deng Ming behind the banker. Although Zhao Guozuo was vague, Zhang Tao admitted openly: "Duke Baoguo had ordered me to explain to Governor Zhao that an arms merchant in Sichuan were selling armor, swords, bows, rifles and cannons to Zhuang Yuncheng and other gentry suspected of Ming Dynasty cases..."

After hearing Zhang Tao's products, Songkui jumped up: "Didn't Baoguo Gong promise not to interfere with the Ming Dynasty case? Why did he go back on his word?"

"Of course, the Duke Baoguo will not interfere. He ordered me to explain the situation to Governor Zhao, in order to show his sincerity. My request to meet Governor Zhao several times were rejected."

Zhao Guozuo and Songkui looked at each other. Songkui's identity was similar to Guan Qizhen, which was not enough for him, but he was much smarter than Guan Qizhen. Last time he came forward to hand over the city redemption expenses to Li Xinghan and others. Later, no matter what difficulties he encountered, Songkui and Zhao Guozuo worked closely together, so the Zhejiang officialdom could be called a solid piece and very united.

"So many weapons and armor, but Duke Baoguo said he would not interfere. Is this a self-deception?" Zhao Guozuo shouted in a stern voice.

"These weapons and armor were sold to merchants by Duke Baoguo to merchants, and then the merchant sold them to the dealer, not by Duke Baoguo directly to the dealer. Moreover, if Duke Baoguo had not had a clear conscience, how could he order me to notify Governor Zhao of this matter as soon as possible?" Zhang Tao talked happily, without any shame on his face, nor did he show anger because of Zhao Guozuo's shouting: "Duke Baoguo strictly adhered to neutrality in the war between Governor Zhao and Mr. Zhuang, and would never send troops to assist in the war."

"Will the merchant who sells weapons to the dealer be taken by the official, the Duke of Baoguo will not be ignored?" Zhao Guozuo asked afterwards.

"Of course not. They are all subjects of the Ming Dynasty and are not suitable for trial by Governor Zhao. Although the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty are in a state of war, Governor Zhao and Li Xinghan have a secret truce agreement. Governor Zhao does not intend to destroy it, right?" Deng Ming's instructions to Zhang Tao were very clear: "In addition, Duke Baoguo also asked me to notify Governor Zhao, and the arms merchant also invited a few Ming soldiers to the banker to help him train Zhuang Ding, because the banker paid the arms merchant to pay the arms merchant.

It is not easy to obstruct the Duke of Baoguo; but Duke of Baoguo keeps in mind the ceasefire agreement with Governor Zhao and strictly orders them not to step out of the Zhuangjia Courtyard. If Governor Zhao finds that they leave the Zhuangjia Courtyard and participate in the attack on the prefectures and counties in Zhejiang, then Duke of Baoguo will no longer ask Governor Zhao to return them to us but will let you deal with it. However, if such a thing really happens, I hope to read these evidences and listen to the interrogation of these soldiers to convey the true feelings to Duke of Baoguo."

As for the tiger squat cannon owned by the banker, Zhang Tao also admitted that it was sold by the Ming army to Zhuang Yuncheng.

When Zhao Guozuo and Songkui convened their staff to discuss countermeasures overnight, several batches of arms were transported from Jiangnan to Huzhou. Now the situation in Huzhou Prefecture has been out of control, and there is no sign of the Qing army on the official road; and those road tyrants who set up checkpoints will respectfully release them after seeing the banker's banner, so the arms purchased by Zhuang Yuncheng are unobstructed.

With the successive victory of the banker, a large number of gentry suspected of participating in the Ming Dynasty case defected to his subordinates. During this period, a large number of local officials took the opportunity to extort, which made people panic. Many scholars were obviously not on the blacklist, but were also tortured by local officials, and mistakenly thought that they would lose their money and most of them could not get rid of the charge of great rebellion. Previously, these desperate scholars had no way out, so they could only hope to be kind to the government, but the Green Camp in Huzhou Prefecture could not even beat the two landlords, which led to the ruin of the prestige of Zhejiang Green Camp.

Soon, someone in Jiaxing came to visit Zhuang Yuncheng secretly. After the latter made a connection, he ordered twenty rifles from Anlesi's shopkeeper at a high price of 180 taels of silver per shot. Zhuang Yuncheng and Zhu Youming, who were invincible in Huzhou, also sent support to Jiaxing Prefecture because of the reduced pressure - twenty riflesmen and more than a hundred armored Zhuangding. The gentry of Huzhou knew that the soldiers in the provincial capital were unlikely to be easily used. Now, not only should they support the Jiaxing uprising, but they should also burn the war to Ningbo Prefecture and Shaoxing Prefecture to form a siege of Hangzhou, so that the soldiers in the provincial capital would not dare to easily send them to Huzhou.

At the end of April and early May, there was also a chaos in Jiaxing Prefecture. After the gentry developed the courage to unite because of the victory of Zhuangyun City and Zhu Youming in Huzhou, the green camp completely turned into a paper tiger. Just like in Shandong, as long as most local gentry formed an alliance, the green camps of the prefectures began to break away from the master and county magistrates. When two small-scale conflicts broke out in Jiaxing, the reinforcements sent by Zhuangyun City and Zhu Youming and the purchased rifles once again exerted great power. The unfavorable Jiaxing Prefecture learned the lessons of Huzhou Prefecture and did not dare to send troops to run around, but concentrated its efforts to defend the surroundings of the prefecture.

The gentry in Huzhou and Jiaxing also came to the same conclusion as Zhuang Yuncheng and others, that is, to buy rifles from the An arms dealership, which would give them the ability to protect themselves. All their bribes still do not get a guarantee of clan safety. It would be better to take out silver to buy rifles. The situation is becoming more and more obvious. As long as the gentry unites, at least the mansion will have no choice but to do anything about them.

The shopkeeper said that one hundred rifles could be shipped in May, and the goods were snatched away. All the gentry were eager to own a few. What made the gentry feel that the only drawback was that the An-class arms dealership had no more cannons for sale, and it had eight tiger squat cannons sold out.

On May 5, Jiaxing Prefecture's request for help was sent to Hangzhou. Ningbo Prefecture also reported that the wealthy families under his rule were abnormally moving, as if they were in a connection that was not conducive to the court. The failure of Huzhou and Jiaxing Green Camp not only gave more confidence to the gentry in eastern Zhejiang, but also led to the governments in Ningbo and Shaoxing who had no confidence in the suppression of force. They suffered greater losses in the previous battle with the Sichuan Army and were also seriously infiltrated by Zhoushan. The biggest problem was Ningbo Prefecture, because the sea ban was prohibited, Ningbo Prefecture also lost half of the taxes, and originally relying on the support of the provincial capital to survive. Now the Zhoushan army is more active, and the attitude of the gentry is becoming increasingly unreliable. Ningbo Prefecture wailed that if the provincial capital does not send troops to station, it will be completely unable to support it.

"Call out to the court for help." Zhao Guozuo, who was helpless, could only apologize to Beijing, hoping that Beijing could reduce some of the taxes in Zhejiang, and agreed to amnesty for the relevant personnel of the Ming Dynasty case - many gentry who are causing trouble now are actually fine at all. It is all because of the insatiable local officials, which led them to clear the ruthlessness with Zhuang Yuncheng.

At the same time, Zhao Guozuo also hopes that Beijing will send some Han Eight Banners to Zhejiang or lift the restrictions on the firearms on the Green Camp. Now even if Zhao Guozuo wants to buy some rifles from Deng Ming to form a balance of force with the gentry, he will not be able to send these equipment to his troops.

"But everything should be seen in good places," Seeing the morale of the staff, the governor of Zhejiang encouraged them: "The only rebellion in Huzhou and Jiaxing prefectures is the only tiger squat cannons. This is what the consul of the Duke of Baoguo guaranteed to me that this kind of firearm is not a problem to defend their houses, but it cannot be used to attack the county town. When the court understands the situation in Zhejiang, at least some tiger squat cannons will be given to us. At that time, the officers and soldiers will play with these owners of the houses, and their equipment will not be much different, and they still have the ability to protect themselves."
Chapter completed!