When Liu Rugao was lowered to the top of the city wall, he saw all the gentry in the county climbing up to the top of the city wall and looking out.

When he looked back, he saw that Master Zhao had already left along the official road, surrounded by hundreds of riders.

Looking at the scene of smoke and dust rolling into the sky under the setting sun, Liu Rugao suddenly thought of the poem "The Mulberry Field", and thought to himself that if Luofu's husband was not fictional, he must be a character like Zhao Nianxiong.

'There are more than a thousand riders in the east, and my husband is at the top. How can I recognize my husband? The white horse follows the black colt;

The black hair is tied into a ponytail, and the horse's head is tied with gold. The Lu Lu sword at the waist is worth more than tens of millions.

At fifteen, he is a minor official in the government; at twenty, he is a senior official in the court; at thirty, he is a minister of the imperial court; at forty, he lives in the city.

He was fair-skinned, with a rather long beard. He walked gracefully in the mansion and slowly walked towards the palace.

Thousands of people were sitting there, all saying that their husbands were special.'

Instantly, County Magistrate Liu was overwhelmed with endless regret, and felt that his decision might be wrong. Brother Zhao Nian might not be able to get through this, so how could he face him again in the future?

"Finally, we've sent this plague god away." Some of the gentry were short-sighted and said smugly, "Sai Linmu, a worthless deputy governor, wants us to send our sons to Tiger City to deliver shit. How can that be possible?"

"You are a bad guy, you are eating dog food!" Liu Rugao cursed and went downstairs angrily. It was all because of these local tycoons who only cared about their own business that he couldn't live like a human being. It was definitely not because of him that he didn't help because he was afraid of offending Zeng Yiben!

"Why did he scold me?" The man was still confused. For thousands of years, Guangdong people have built villages to protect themselves. Is there anything wrong with that?

~~

Back to Mr. Zhao, his friend's failure to save his life only aroused his temper. He kept urging everyone to hurry up overnight, and finally arrived at the Han River outside Chaozhou City at dawn the next day.

Huang Xiaohu, the deputy chief of the security section who had been exploring the way ahead, returned to report that Zeng Yiben's team was still heading north along the Han River and was still thirty miles away from the city.

"They're coming so slowly?" Master Zhao couldn't help but be pleased. From the mouth of Hanjiang River to the provincial capital, the entire water distance is only eighty miles. It has been the third day since Zeng Yiben captured Nan'ao Island and started going up the river, but the enemy has not yet arrived at the city.

"Because there are many villages and strongholds along the way, they have to negotiate one by one and only dare to advance after they have reached an agreement. Otherwise, if they are bitten from behind after they pass by, it will be troublesome." Huang Xiaohu explained.

"So, they haven't started eating meat yet?" Wu Cheng'en interrupted.

"No, because after Lin Daoquan was recruited, he was settled in Chaoyang County. All ethnic groups and villages were uneasy day and night, so they built high walls and strengthened their defenses. Zeng Yiben was unwilling to bite these hard bones with little meat." Huang Xiaohu was actually a scout of the Qi family army. He was originally supposed to work in the garrison area. Young Master Zhao was worried about the safety of Master Zhao in Chaozhou, so he seconded him to the Security Department.

Young Master Zhao is truly a filial son who has never been seen before!

"What are you waiting for? Let's go into the city!" Master Zhao squeezed the horse's belly hard.

~~

Chaozhou City is not a conventional square city, but was built along the Han River, shaped like a sleeping silkworm.

The famous Guangji Bridge connects Chaozhou City with the east bank of the river.

This ancient bridge, which is as famous as Zhaozhou Bridge and Lugou Bridge, adopts a unique floating beam structure. The east and west sections are stone beam bridges composed of pentagonal or hexagonal piers, and there are 126 pavilions with flying eaves and brackets on the piers, which can protect pedestrians from the sun and rain.

In the middle of the two stone bridges, there is a floating bridge connected by 18 hardwood boats. The floating bridge is fixed with three iron cables, each weighing 4,000 kilograms. This structure is adopted because the water volume of Hanjiang River is very terrible during the flood season, and the width of the river surface exceeds one mile. If all stone bridges are used, the large and dense bridge piers will seriously affect the flood discharge capacity.

The floating beam combined structure can reduce the number of piers in the middle part of the bridge, greatly alleviating the resistance to runoff. When encountering a flood, opening the floating bridge can quickly drain the flood and protect the safety of the bridge.

In short, this is not only the pinnacle of my country's bridge engineering, but also a magnificent work of art.

Mr. Zhao and his party came from the east and were deeply shocked when they saw this bridge that looked like a pavilion on the river from afar. This bridge is so big and beautiful. It seems that Chaozhou is really not poor!

But Mr. Zhao soon had no time to appreciate the bridge because it was crowded with people fleeing the city.

Looking at the refugees driving livestock and pushing carts, carrying bags and children on their shoulders, and the elderly and children, no matter how beautiful the scenery is, it suddenly becomes unpleasant to the eye.

"Where are you escaping to?" He couldn't help but ask loudly, "The pirates are here, isn't it more dangerous outside the city?"

No one answered. People just looked at him blankly. Many people didn't even look at him, just kept their heads down and hurried on their way.

"Sir, they don't understand Mandarin." Huang Xiaohu said hurriedly in a low voice.

"Where are you going?" Mr. Zhao spoke the Cantonese he had learned on the road.

Still no one cares...

"Chaozhou people don't speak Cantonese. The Chaoshan dialect they speak is more similar to Fujian dialect," Huang Xiaohu added.

"..." Mr. Zhao looked speechlessly at his Cantonese teacher Li Liangzhu, a Guangdong scholar who graduated from Yufeng Academy.

"I'm sorry, Master, I was wrong." It is true that Li Liangzhu is from Panyu, Guangzhou, but he grew up in Jiangxi with his father, a traveling official, so he only knows how to speak Cantonese, but he doesn't know that not all people in Guangdong speak Cantonese.

"You're a piece of shit." Zhao Shouzheng pointed at his useless disciple in frustration and had to give up his plan to persuade the people to return to the city.

Although Huang Xiaohu can speak Chaoshan dialect, his expression through translation is not convincing at all.

He changed his mind and was about to ask someone to clear the way for him to cross the bridge and enter the city first.

But then he heard a sudden noise from the Guangji Gate across the bridge. Mr. Zhao looked up, but couldn't see anything clearly. He could only hear crying and shouting getting louder and louder.

The flow of people crossing the bridge became sparse, and the guards quickly took the opportunity to escort Master Zhao through the crowd to the west bank of the river. Only then did they see that the defenders wanted to close the city gates, but the people wanted to leave the city. The two sides started shouting and fighting inside and outside Guangji Gate.

In order to disperse the people who were blocking the closing of the city gates, the officers and soldiers in khaki uniforms, holding their guns in both hands, mercilessly stabbed at the crowd, and many people were stabbed to the ground...

"Stop!" Zhao Shouzheng's eyes were red with anger when he saw this. He couldn't help but shout loudly with all his strength.

Everyone could understand this sentence, and their movements paused. They all looked in the direction of the voice, and saw a handsome middle-aged man in a fifth-rank official robe, appearing outside the city gate, guarded by a group of elite warriors.

Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhao's shout miraculously eased the tense atmosphere. The officers and soldiers were in a hurry to close the gate because they found a large group of knights trying to cross the Guangji Bridge from the top of the city wall. The officers were worried that it was Zeng Yiben's vanguard cavalry, so they quickly ordered the city gate to be closed.

Now that they saw that the people coming were court officials, the alarm was naturally lifted.

When Mr. Zhao Er heard Huang Xiaohu's explanation, his face turned pale. Isn't their execution too weak? They had already reached the city gate, but they still left it wide open. They must be thieves. They had broken into the city!

"It's really terrible." He sighed and entered the city surrounded by guards.

According to the pre-arranged plan, the guards escorted several scholars to the government office and the county government office to summon officials from the city to come and see the emperor.

Mr. Zhao Er did not go to the government office, but went straight to the Guangji Gate Tower. On the tower, a captain came up with several of his men.

Seeing the fifth-rank official robe on Zhao Shouzheng, the captain did not dare to neglect him and politely asked about his superior's origins.

After Master Zhao showed him the letter of appointment as the Assistant Magistrate of the Coastal Defense Department of Chaozhou Prefecture, the captain quickly knelt on one knee to salute.

"I am Tan Yong, the commander of the Donglong Water Fort, and I am here to greet Lord Sima!"

Master Zhao, the co-governor of the coastal defense, was in charge of military affairs. The four major coastal water forts were under his control, so he was respectfully called "Sima", and Captain Tan was his direct subordinate.

"Captain Tan speaks Mandarin quite well." Master Zhao was very happy that they could finally communicate normally.

In fact, all civil and military officials have to be selected by the ministry, so how could they not speak Mandarin?

"Thank you Sima for the compliment." Tan Yong said with a grin.

"But shouldn't your Donglong Water Fort guard Fenghuang Island?" Zhao Shouzheng suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Why did you retreat to the city before Zeng Yiben arrived?"

"This..." Tan Yong couldn't help but said awkwardly, "The Zeng invaders have strong ships and powerful artillery, but the water fort's defense is simple and cannot be relied upon. I will follow the plan made by the Grand Master. If Nan'ao Island is lost, I will lead the brothers to retreat to the city and defend Guangji Gate."

"Which great master?" Zhao Shouzheng asked indifferently.

"Your Excellency Hou." Tan Yong shrank his neck and said.

"Nonsense!" Zhao Shouzheng said sternly, "I have corresponded with the governor several times and asked in detail about the situation of the four major water forts in Chaozhou Prefecture! This includes your Donglong Water Fort, but how come the information I got is completely opposite? He said that you must defend against the enemy in front of Fenghuang Island and never allow the pirates to cross Fenghuang Island!"

"This..." Tan Yong didn't expect that his lie would be exposed on the spot, and hurriedly knelt on the ground and said, "Sima Mingjian, now the whereabouts of the Grand Master are unknown, and the soldiers in the camp are in a panic. How can we resist the enemy in Fenghuang Island? Besides, I am just a small captain, and my words are not as loud as a fart. I can only do what the adults in the city say."

As he spoke, he kowtowed vigorously and said, "Now that the Sima has arrived, I have a backbone. From now on, I will listen to the Sima!"

Mr. Zhao couldn't help but glance at Mr. Wu, thinking that this boy was quite sensible.

Wu Cheng'en taught him to have this outburst, and the purpose was naturally to scare this guy and make him obey.

Wu Cheng'en nodded slightly, indicating that he should continue his performance.

"Hmph, you're lucky." Zhao Shouzheng snorted and said calmly, "Now that we need you, I'll record your crime of deserting the battlefield. If you can make up for your crime with merit in this battle, then it'll be fine. Otherwise, I'll settle accounts with you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, I will try my best to atone for my crime!" Tan Yong kowtowed quickly.

"Get up first." Zhao Shouzheng turned his gaze towards the city, and saw several officials of the seventh or eighth rank who had already arrived at the foot of the city gate tower and were climbing up breathlessly.

P.S. I am busy with Chinese New Year today and will be at my father-in-law's house tomorrow. I will try to find time to write...