The rise of the poor

Chapter 2095: Announcement to the whole city, vow to go to war

The entrances to the market towns, teahouses, restaurants, and inside and outside the city gates of Shaoxing City were all greeted by the busy figures of officials, who skillfully applied paste and then posted notices one after another.

"Why are there so many notices? There are notices everywhere in the city. Are we almost surrounded by notices?"

"Let's go and take a look. Who can read? Can you please read to us what is written on this notice?"

"Is it possible that some extremely evil and rebellious criminal has suddenly appeared, and the court has issued a warrant to arrest him?! I remember the last time there was such a big commotion was ten years ago, when the gangster Wang Ermazi escaped from prison, revolted, and proclaimed himself king."

When the people around saw this, their love for fun immediately came out, and they all gathered around, crowding together in three layers.

Everyone was curious about what was written on the notice, and many people speculated that some extremely evil criminal had appeared.

Someone mentioned the bandit Wang Ermaizi, which immediately brought back many people's old memories and they started to clamor.

"I know that. Wang Ermaizi was arrested for theft and was put in jail. The jail was damp and dark, and moldy everywhere. But one day, Wang Ermaizi was surprised to find that the bamboo bed he slept on had grown bamboo leaves. He was very surprised. The other prisoners in the jail were also very surprised to see this scene. The prisoners thanked Wang Ermaizi one after another. It has been made into a bamboo bed for so many years. The bamboo has sprouted and grown leaves. Isn't this a good omen? The prisoners all think that this indicates that Wang Ermaizi will definitely be successful in the future. Although he is in jail now, he will definitely be expensive in the future. There are a few people in the jail who are afraid of chaos in the world. They instigated Wang Ermaizi and said that bamboo has grown on the bed you sleep on. This is a good omen that only happens once in a hundred years. If you don't take it, you will suffer. That is to say, this is a revelation from God. If you don't accept it, there will be disasters. You might as well escape from prison and rise up. You must be a king. Then, Wang Ermaizi really escaped from prison with some prisoners, and went outside to rebel and became a pirate."

"I know, I know. At that time, the court issued a warrant for the arrest of the pirate. The situation was similar to today. I still remember the last sentence of the warrant very clearly: 'A decree is issued to anyone who can report this pirate. A reward of 100,000 yuan will be given.' Unfortunately, I didn't have that kind of luck. In the end, Wang Ermaizi escaped and rebelled as a pirate. After becoming a little powerful, he declared himself a king. It wasn't long before he was suppressed by a general sent by the court. I heard that Wang Ermaizi was shot by arrows and turned into a hedgehog. It was so miserable."

"Come on, someone who can read, please read the notice to us. Let's see which bandit has appeared out of nowhere this time."

People gathered around the notice, making a hundred times more noise than in a vegetable market.

"What kind of arrest warrant is that? It's nonsense! You are illiterate and your nonsense is really a laughing stock!"

An old man with a goatee snorted, looked down on everyone, pointed at the notice, and then pointed at the crowd.

Everyone was about to retort when someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, "That's Master Yang, a wise man in our village. He can read and write. Master Yang, please read to us what's written on it."

When people heard that this was an old scholar, they all endured it, pinched their noses, and complimented Master Yang, asking him to read the notice to everyone.

After being complimented by everyone, Master Yang shook his sleeves, put on a full posture, coughed, and read to everyone in a rhythmic manner:

"Zhejiang Governor Zhu Ping'an: I am writing to all of Shaoxing and Zhejiang: Today, the Japanese pirates are powerful and have committed heinous crimes, such as murder, arson, rape, looting, and all kinds of evil. The people of Zhejiang have suffered greatly from them. Now, I, Zhu Ping'an, have been honored by the emperor and appointed as the governor of Zhejiang. It is my duty to defend the land and not give up any piece of land or island. To repay the emperor's grace and to protect the people of Zhejiang, I will swear to go out tomorrow to wipe out the Japanese pirates along the coast of southern Zhejiang and return peace to the people of Zhejiang. I will not wait for the Japanese pirates to be pacified. I am willing to lead a 10,000-strong brigade to ride on horses and wield swords to attack the Japanese capital."

After Master Yang finished reading, all the people present were stunned. They looked at Master Yang in disbelief, wondering if they had heard it wrong.

Swear to go to war!

The governor is going to swear to lead his troops to pacify the Japanese pirates in southern Zhejiang!

The Japanese pirates in southern Zhejiang? Aren’t they the most powerful Japanese pirates, the Wang Zhi Japanese pirates?

I heard that there were nearly 100,000 Japanese pirates directly under Wang Zhi and under his command.

The Zhejiang Army under the command of our governor is very capable, but how many soldiers does the Zhejiang Army have? I heard that there are only a little over 10,000 soldiers.

Ten thousand versus one hundred thousand, how to fight this battle?

Is our governor going to suppress the Japanese pirates in southern Zhejiang, or is he going to be suppressed?

Ordinary people couldn't believe it and began to doubt their lives.

"Master Yang, you are not deliberately reading the notice out of order to tease us, are you?"

"That's right, Mr. Yang. You can have fun or make a fuss, but don't joke about the governor's notice."

A group of ordinary people talked at once.

"Why am I teasing you? The governor's notice is written with great literary talent. Listen to it. Every inch of our land is fought for with blood. How can we wait for Sun Ping to defeat the Japanese pirates? I am willing to lead a 10,000-strong brigade to ride on horses and wield swords to conquer the Japanese capital... If I had one tenth of the literary talent of our governor, I would still be standing here talking to you. I would have been in high office long ago. You would be grateful to see me."

When Master Yang heard people questioning him, he immediately puffed his beard and glared.

"Yes, what Master Yang said makes sense. Every inch of land is worth an inch of blood. How can we wait for Sun Ping to defeat the Japanese pirates? I am willing to lead a 10,000-strong brigade, ride on horses and wield swords to conquer the Japanese capital. How exciting it sounds. It makes my blood boil. Master Yang doesn't have these two skills."

"Yes, yes. If Master Yang had these two skills, he would not have been a student for thirty years. He would have passed the imperial examination and become a juren."

People all agreed with it.

This means that the notice read by Master Yang is true, which means that the governor will really swear to lead his troops to go to the battle tomorrow to pacify the Japanese pirates in southern Zhejiang!

Brave!

Ten thousand against one hundred thousand!

The governor is so brave!

"Our governor is really brave. Wang Zhi has 100,000 Japanese pirates. If the governor goes to suppress Wang Zhi, isn't that like an egg hitting a stone?"

Some people expressed concern about Zhu Ping'an's oath to go to war.

"Our governor is no fool. Back then, when we were in Suzhou, he had fewer soldiers than we have now. He only had two or three thousand. Facing the 40,000 to 50,000-strong coalition of Japanese pirates led by Xu Hai, he almost wiped them out. Now, our governor has tens of thousands of Zhejiang troops under his command, and they are definitely more capable of fighting."

Someone immediately expressed support.

"We have suffered from the Japanese pirates for a long time. Who doesn't have relatives who have been harmed by them? These damned Japanese pirates burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of evil. It's rare for the government to send troops to suppress them. Regardless of whether they win or lose, it's great. Tomorrow I will watch the oath-taking ceremony to cheer for the governor and the officers and soldiers."

"Yes, that's right. Let's go and cheer tomorrow."

"Go together, go together."

People quickly reached a consensus to go to watch the oath-taking ceremony and cheer for the government troops tomorrow. (End of this chapter)