In addition to the governor's prefecture and county governance, there are sub-patrol roads or sub-patrol roads, as well as a number of nominal roads such as learning roads and grain roads, and also because the territory is too large, and the governor is too difficult to manage, so according to public security, education, grain storage and military equipment.

As a soldier, Zhou Lianggong has some masters around him, otherwise he would not be able to take care of so many complicated military and political affairs by himself.

Zhou Lianggong's staff members are also extremely good, after all, Zhou Lianggong is also a promising official, but recently due to Liu Zeqing's subordinates to Huaiyang, his position is relatively embarrassing, and he is simply in a predicament.

"They prevaricate, I'm afraid it's more than that." Zhou Lianggong groaned for a while, and sneered: "I know Yang Shida, this person, he is just a green-skinned leader, not worth mentioning. His brother Yang Shili is entrenched in the area of Baoying and Yancheng, not only is he a very powerful salt lord in the local area, but also has a connection with Yang Shiyong, a sea coward in the open sea, with more than a thousand people, such people and other idlers dare not provoke him. The official also heard that Liu Zeqing intended to win over this person, and this matter was even more difficult to handle. Investigating and handling it, they didn't dare to provoke the hundreds of households, they shirked the blame, and they were afraid of offending Yang Shili, so they had to push it to the official. ”

"Toong Takami."

"That's how it should be."

"What should we do?"

"Don't bother." Zhou Lianggong sighed for a while and said: "There is no battalion under the command of this official, and it will be transferred to Xuzhou Garrison, there are three battalions such as Suining on his side, even if they are insufficient, they should have the duty to exterminate the thieves. If there is no real evidence, this official will not do this message to do a lot of things! ”

"Dong Weng's trick is very clever."

There was a staff master whose eyes lit up and said with a smile: "I think there is another layer of intention in the state and county, if the adults can't here, they will invite guest soldiers to help, this is an excuse for someone Liu to openly interfere in local government affairs, this person has been doing a lot of lawlessness in the local government recently, but it is not good to talk about the rules at all, if the local officials ask him to help, it is just to take care of the military and political affairs of various places......

"This case is unavoidable." Zhou Lianggong said with a cold expression: "Everyone is afraid of the strength of the guest army, and the purpose of assisting in the requisition of grain is also to raise soldiers, there is nothing to say, if the matter of government affairs and punishment is also handed over to him, Liu Zeqing will not become the lord of Huaiyang, and he will be like a feudal town?" Absolutely! ”

Having said that, Zhou Lianggong also knew in his heart that the current situation would not last long.

Now that the discipline is in ruins, a general like Liu Zeqing, who has tens of thousands of troops, can do almost whatever he wants, and the imperial court is not in his eyes, and it is only a matter of time before the local domain of Huaiyang is suppressed. The current situation is not something that he can control by a Huaiyang military department, Liu Zeqing is an existence that is difficult for him to suppress, and it depends on the movements of Nanjing, Shi Kefa, the secretary of the Nanjing military department, has real real power, because the five departments of the six military departments of Nanjing are fictitious titles and are not responsible for actual government affairs, and the four words in addition to the original post of the military department are "counselor machine maintenance", with these four words, the Nanjing military department has the actual power that is not inferior to the Beijing military department secretary.

Nanjing, the capital of Nanjing, has its own set of administrative teams, the town guard eunuch is responsible for supervising and maintaining the palace ban, the military department Shangshu is responsible for controlling the battalions of Caojiang and the Yingtian Governor, the Fengyang Governor, the Wolf Mountain General Army and the Fushan General Army, in addition to the 49 guards under the jurisdiction of Nanjing, the huge troop configuration and the ready-made administrative team, plus the Nanjing Beijing camp commanded by the garrison lords, the system is complete, the structure is reasonable, the military department Shangshu has the greatest power, but there is no overwhelming advantage over the eunuchs and the lords, and several forces contain each other, forming a quite reasonable configuration.

If Chongzhen listened to the will of the people half a year ago, was not indecisive and tried to blame the subordinates, and resolutely went south, the team on the Nanjing side cooperated smoothly, and the situation was much stronger than that of being trapped in Beijing, at least the crown prince should be sent south to smoothly grasp Nanjing, and if there is a change in the north, there is still a fairly complete Ming Dynasty in the south, which is much more advantageous than Zhao Gou escaping single-handedly in the Northern Song Dynasty. As a result, because the crown prince was not sent, and there were a large number of relatives outside, the situation in Nanming was not as good as that of the Southern Song Dynasty, although Zhao Gou did not have a team, but he was the only prince of the clan outside, and no one could compete with him.

"What an eventful time." Zhou Lianggong sighed and said to the left and right: "The latest Di Raider has besieged Taiyuan, and Taiyuan is not guaranteed that if the towns of Datong can't stop him, I'm afraid that it is inevitable that the Beijing division will be besieged." ”

"Does the emperor have any plans to go south?"

"It's impossible to go south now." Zhou Lianggong shook his head and said: "Most of Henan is entrenched by Liukou, and there are partial divisions to Shandong, although the Cao Yun has not been cut off, the ground in Shandong is not stable, the emperor is not safe to go south at this time, and his character is ...... today."

The words were not explicit, but everyone also understood that Jin Shang was very resolute and resolute when he was sure enough, such as killing those civil officials who seemed to be derelict in their duties. But there are a lot of favorables for military generals, and many people feel that Zu Dashou did not listen to the command and left the battlefield of Beijing without permission after two years of Chongzhen, which brought a strong psychological hint to the emperor, he was able to successfully arrest Yuan Chonghuan, a civil official, and he could only ask Sun Chengzong Xiaoyu to be righteous and persuade him to return under the premise of ensuring safety.

And the decision that may damage the overall situation and even affect the safety of Imagami will never take risks. If the main force of the southward rebellion last year was still in the western part of Henan and the first time to enter the Guanzhong, and there was no threat to Shandong, at this time, even if the ministers persuaded the emperor to go south, it would be impossible for the emperor to agree to it.

……

"Zhou Lianggong refuses to play cards and take people?"

In a large house in Sanzao Town, Yancheng County, a middle-aged man in his forties drank tea leisurely with a teacup, wearing a Dongpo scarf and a cocoon silk round-necked gown.

There were more than ten men standing around, and they didn't dare to speak out under the prestige.

It was Yang Shili who spoke, he had been entrenched in Yancheng County for many years, and he also donated the miscellaneous official position of the Salt Division, but he didn't care about it, and he rarely wore official robes. Yang Shili can entrench in Yancheng, in Yangzhou and Nanjing salt merchant groups have a lot of influence, mainly because he can master Yancheng as the center of a large area of the salt stove households, many stove households can not even complete the amount of official salt, fried out of the private salt is controlled by this person, more than ten years Yang Shili from a scoundrel to a year out of tens of millions of pounds of salt of the big salt baron, with his current power in Yancheng no one dares to provoke.

At this time, the area of Yancheng County is quite vast, reaching Shanyang in the north, that is, the area of Huaiyin City in the later generations, Hailing in the south, Taizhou Dongtai area, Anyi in the west, and reaching the sea in the east.

This situation is because there are only Huai'an and Yangzhou in the whole Jiangbei, among which Huai'an is the most extensive, and the Suqian and Xuzhou parts of the later generations, the entire Lianyungang, as well as Huai'an City, Yancheng City and other more than 20 counties are under the jurisdiction of Huai'an Prefecture at this time.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Jiangbei was sparsely populated, and the Ming Dynasty set its capital in Nanjing, the Yangtze River was the first line of defense, and the Yangtze River must guard Huai, so Huai'an Mansion was a key place in the north, and the strategic position was important, Taizu strengthened Huai'an, set up more guards, and made it the gateway to the north.

Yancheng County is the largest county under Huai'an Prefecture, and the area at this time should be more than 5,000 square kilometers, and at least five counties in later generations are within its current jurisdiction.

The territory is all plains, and the land is either arable fertile land or uncultivated tidal flats and swampy wetlands. This area has a large number of undeveloped wetlands and deserted areas, and the offshore areas lack a good deep-sea port where large ships can be berthed, so it is quite strange that there is no port in the coastal area for thousands of miles.

A large plain area and a long coastline, coupled with a river with a lot of salt content, the Han Dynasty is famous for salt, set up more than 100 salt pavilions, to the Tang Dynasty there are official records of the annual output of more than one million stones, to the Ming Dynasty after the establishment of the country here changed to Yancheng, widely set up stove households, the place name here can also see the traces of salt production, such as Yang Shili is located in this market town is called Sanzao Town, in the early Ming Dynasty, "Hongwu dispersed", Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty drove the people of the Ming Dynasty to the coastal deserted places to fry salt as a business, set up "total", Then set up the "stove", and then below is the "group", always the management level, the stove is the big stove for frying salt, the group is how many households under the stove, such as three groups, four groups, with several stove households for a group to share a stove, and then according to the provisions of the imperial court to fry salt, the production of salt government according to the official price of purchase, to the stove households for grain, from the beginning of the country to the end of the Ming Dynasty, Yancheng is the largest base of sea salt production, compared to Fujian and the northern coastal places, as well as Sichuan, Qinghai and other places The output is much higher.

There is a lot of salt, there are many stove households, and the salt merchants are also gathered in large numbers, but most of the big salt merchants gather in Yangzhou and Huai'an Mansion, they buy with salt, and then go to other places to sell official salt, salt can be regarded as hard currency in the Ming Dynasty, and it is more popular with eunuchs and nobles than the worthless things of treasure money, and in the official records of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor gave the most good things to the noble eunuchs is the salt introduction.

In the Chongzhen period, the salt introduction was not too valuable, because there was too much private salt and it was too widespread, and only about 200,000 taels were left in the salt class a year.

"Zhou Lianggong ordered the Huai'an Prefecture to send a magistrate to investigate thoroughly, and if the bandits were found to be in trouble, they would send a battalion to Xuzhou Dao to suppress it." Yang Shili also has down-and-out literati as staff around him, and his subordinates are all illiterate Jianghu men, who deal with the government and the big salt merchants, so they need these staff to come forward, and they can also come up with ideas at ordinary times.

At this time, a staff member said: "This is to deliberately get along with us, and the second is to squeeze out Caozhou Liu and not give the guest soldiers a reason to intervene in the place. ”

Yang Shili said: "At this time, I agreed to Liu Zeqing's request, and I was raised as a battalion general, and I couldn't lead the troops to slaughter that Min Yuanqi?" ”

"No, the local government does not report the bandits, and it is not confirmed that it was the military attache of the Nawei Station, so we must not send troops without authorization."

"How about I write a letter to Liu Zeqing and ask him to send troops?"

"Caozhou Liu is now seeking Yangzhou, on the surface he is quite respectful, he is very respectful to the Ministry of History and Soldiers, usually likes to dance and write, and has very close contacts with those of the Donglin Party, at this moment, Caozhou Liu will not do things without scruples, and wants to ask him to send troops directly, I am afraid it will be difficult."

"His guest soldiers are fighting for food and salaries in the Huaiyang area, and more than 100 people have been killed, so they are not without scruples?"

A staff member smiled slightly, and arched his hand: "The guest soldiers go south to Nanjing and have no money and food to support, this matter is not a big mistake, no matter how many people die, it is nothing, if it is illegal to openly send troops in the local area, Caozhou Liu will not be unable to distinguish the severity, now we invite him to send troops, it's not completely impossible, this person has never had too many scruples, but I'm afraid that the price we have to pay will not be low......"

Yang Shili snorted coldly and said, "Now his asking price is too high, it's just that, this person can't be provoked!" ”

Liu Zeqing planned to temporarily settle down in Huai'an and further occupy Yangzhou, but under the premise that the civilian clique did not allow it, Liu Zeqing did not dare to directly act blatantly at this time.

After all, although Li Zicheng was marching, the Beijing division was not besieged, and the most basic legal principles of the Ming Dynasty still existed. Even at that time, the four towns in Jiangbei were slowly formed, and when the ministers in Nanjing were divided, when the king of Lu and the king of Fu were in dispute, Ma Shiying and others formed the generals of the four towns to support the king of Fu, and after making great contributions to the support of Liu Zeqing and other talents, they gradually became a real feudal town.

At this time, Liu Zeqing could only buy the local tyrants by wooing and bargaining the price, and gave Yang Shili a bargaining chip for guerrillas or generals, but what he wanted was at least half of Yang Shili's income, and this price was really too high for Yang Shili.

"If we don't come out with some strength, these officials and guest soldiers think that our reputation is false?" Yang Shili suddenly put down the tea bowl, the porcelain bowl smashed on the table and shattered immediately, he looked at everyone fiercely, and said: "Send someone to the open sea to contact those pirates, and within a month, I will ask Min Yuanqi and everyone around me to accompany my brother to the funeral!" ”