"The imperial court has issued another order of the king, but Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of Liaozhen, and Li Yutian, the governor of Liaodong, have just arrived in Yongping, and they are still settling the people of Liaodong who entered the customs with the army...... This was a few days ago, and the latest news has not yet arrived. ”

"It's Di Copy, and the Northern Tang Newspaper are broken." Min Yuanqi looked at his uncle and said in a deep voice: "I'm afraid I have to plan for the worst." ”

Min Qiande's expression was pale, and he subconsciously said, "Has it come to this point?" ”

"Datong Xuanfu has been lost, Liaozhen soldiers have not arrived, Shandong Zhennan channeled, the rebel division marched east a month ago, Wei Hui and other places went down first, and then the Daimyo Zhending Zhufu, Liu Fangliang's soldiers have approached Baoding, Baoding, Jizhen, Xuanfu, Datong, the Beijing division is lost on all sides, there is no nameless general stationed inside, there is no rescue outside, Tang Tong led 8,000 soldiers to block Li Chuang's main force outside Juyong Pass? This person went to Juyong Pass and did not garrison under the Jingshi City, I am afraid that he is thinking of surrendering first...... Second uncle, this possibility is the greatest. Ju Yong closed it, and the main force of the intrusion army went directly to the outside of the Beijing Division, even if the Beijing Division was not lost now, it was a matter of course that the news was cut off. ”

Min Qiande's face was pale, and he could see that his hands and feet were trembling slightly......

Even if he had made some mental preparations, when this day was really coming, it was obvious that Min Qiande was still shocked and frightened, even afraid.

Daming, everyone's Daming, although it has lost the hearts of the people, but people have lived in the Jiajing period since childhood, to Longqing, Wanli, to the Apocalypse, Chongzhen, the memories of these decades are related to the Ming and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and the ancestors have been working for the Ming Dynasty for generations. This dynasty was very harsh on the soldiers of the guard, and at this time everyone had no intention of serving it, and Min Qiande actually gave up, but somehow, he felt scared and sad......

"Uncle should not be surprised." Min Yuanqi looked at Min Qiande's face wrinkled into a ball, and the white hair between his eyebrows seemed to be a little more, and he sighed in his heart, and reassured: "This is something that has been expected for a long time...... The important thing is that there is any news from Nanjing? ”

"No, the Cabinet Department is still preparing for King Qin." Min Qiande sighed and said, "It is estimated that in another month, I will be able to prepare to cross the river and go north." ”

Historically, Shi Kefa panicked from January when he knew that the army was going north, and then after the loss of important towns in March, but this person lacked the ability to change and deal with urgent military and political affairs, and after the panic, he did not swear to cross the river until April 7, when Chongzhen was buried for a long time.

"I'm afraid it's too late."

"No matter how much, let's do what we have at hand first." Min Qiande sighed and stopped talking.

……

The draft of the ten boats is quite deep, and it is obvious that the load is extremely heavy.

In fact, now that the Cao Yun is cut off, there are quite a lot of useless Cao boats in Yunti Pass, but many ships are in the hands of other hundred households, or they are directly managed by Li Kecheng, and the Min family can directly use the ten ships in front of them without causing trouble.

Ten cao boats are full of packed fine salt, a bag of 120 catties per stone, each ship is loaded with 500 stones, each ship is 60,000 catties up and down, according to the annual 120,000 stone transportation task of Dahewei, five thousand households have to transport more than 20,000 stones per year, each ship transports 600 stones, each shipment needs to be 30 cao boats set off together, the ships will be inspected before departure, and they will be assembled and loaded with grain at the water pass one after another, and then the army will go north under the supervision of the head of the Gang Division and the general grain transporter.

If there are other things, these guards may not be good at it, driving the ship to operate the ship to maintain and repair, raising the sails and driving the ship to pull the fiber, these things are all done, each ship is 60,000 catties of salt, ten ships are 600,000 catties, more than 200 people are loaded, and all the shipments are completed within one day. Because everyone knew that fine salt was pulled and sold for money, everyone lived a better life after that, and everyone did their best.

"600,000 catties of salt ......" Min Qiande's eyes narrowed slightly, the wealth represented by these salts made him quite excited, if he hadn't made up his mind to fully support his nephew, in order to revive the prestige of the Min family, I am afraid that Min Qiande would not be able to help but be moved.

Li Kecheng asked me many times, but I ignored it, and he said that he wanted to persuade me to go to the 300th household inspection. I said that the rumors have not been right recently, and there are quite a few bandits and pirates hiding around to find out the news, this person has always been timid, and he was really scared back by me. ”

"He's not afraid to come." Min Yuanqi pressed his waist knife and smiled: "I have my own way to deal with him." ”

"Well, it's good if you know it yourself."

The uncle and nephew no longer talked, Han Sen made a hand gesture on the first boat, and everyone worked together to raise the hard sail on the mast of the boat, and then put away the anchor, Min Yuanqi also got on his own boat, after the ship set sail, it could still be seen that Min Qiande was standing on the shore, waving to this side from afar.

The wind direction is quite suitable, although it is going against the current, but there are flag army poles on both sides to paddle, and the Huai River is deep in this estuary, Min Yuanqi remembers that the army is most afraid of shallow places, because the time to travel north is sufficient, as long as the water is deep, it is necessary to borrow the wind to go slowly, once the water is shallow, it needs to be stretched, it is extremely hard, and even for the army, it can be described as a rather terrifying experience.

After the anchor was raised, Min Yuanqi glanced at it, and saw that there were words engraved on the anchor, and he saw that it was the words "built by the Ministry of Industry in the fifth year of Hongwu", and the ship obviously had a considerable history.

The hull is about 244 meters long, less than 4 meters wide, and there are 14 cabins, and there are obvious traces of rear inlays at the bow and stern, which shows that the front and rear cabins were privately built by the transport army.

Although the army has extra food and salary, but often in arrears or reduced, Cao Yun northbound and southbound is along the main artery of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, thousands of miles back and forth, entrainment of southern goods to the north, and then the north freight to the south, even to help merchants transport can also earn some subsidies for the family.

The literati of the Ming and Qing dynasties, unless they were wealthy families, had to take a boat to the south and north, and give some Sichuan money for the road, and the army would be happy to bring these people along, otherwise with the travel expenses and food given by the imperial court, I am afraid that everyone would have to run the boat with a hungry belly to pull the fiber.

The wind on the river was very strong, Min Yuanqi stretched out his hand to help the boat, and obviously felt that the wind was very strong, although the big boat was fully loaded, the speed was not fast under the efforts of the flag army.

More than 200 miles from Yunti Pass to Huai'an Fushui Pass, if you keep maintaining this speed, you can arrive before dawn tomorrow, Min Yuanqi didn't say anything, turned around and entered the aft cabin, where Li Junsun laid out the pen and paper, Min Yuanqi sat down cross-legged, and continued to concentrate on writing the detailed plan of various important events in the near future, there was a shouting sound from the bow of the boat, and the sound of the hull rowing across the river, the sound of slapping the hull, someone on the shore was shouting something, no one paid attention, the boat was full of fine salt and everyone's hope, riding the wind and waves, Hurry towards Huai'an Mansion City.

……

Before the fleet set off, Min Yuanzhong took his waist knife and rode the healthy mule among the hundred households to Huai'an Mansion.

This errand was not easy, and he had to ride a mule for more than 400 miles back and forth, not only to work himself but also to take care of the mule. Along the river out of the Yunti Pass, the range of dozens of miles is another 1000 households, there are also private villages and market towns, but the population density of this place is not large, there are not many inns and mules and horses along the way, it is very difficult to eat and take care of mules, fortunately Min Yuanzhong has a small flag waist card, there are post stations along the river every 30 miles, or Hongwu years set up, there are several post stations are added when preparing for the Jiajing period, there are not many officials and gentry who pass by the road every day, many post stations are dilapidated, the official road is not the main road, all have been in disrepairAs long as you follow the road and the shade of the willow trees that you can't see at a glance, you can reach the destination by walking all the way to the west.

This place is either the guard, or belongs to Guannan County, and then to the southwest is Andong County, due south belongs to Yancheng, most of the places along the river are the places where the counties are staggered, and there are many places where the guards are located, so it is quite mixed, which is also the reason why Yang Shida and his gang can occupy the water pass and run rampant.

Min Yuanzhong came out of the hundred households, walked for a whole day almost to the Shuiguan place, he looked at the Shuiguan from a few miles away, there was still a white ground over there, there was a group of dolls playing near the ruins of Shuiguan, Min Yuanzhong looked at it for a while, remembered that he was also rushing in with a knife card, and then he attacked with a round card grid, slashing and stabbing with a waist knife, it was very chaotic that night, he didn't know how many people he killed, and now he looks back on it like a world away.

But Min Yuanzhong knew that although the memory was far away, everything had changed.

Now he didn't feel too much discomfort when he thought about the killing, and he didn't even feel afraid, this change was not sudden, but subtle.

Every day is a gun and knife fighting, queues, golden drums, flags, fighting each other, every day is sweaty robes, many people are changing, not only people who kill people in Shuiguan, as long as they have been trained for a long time, there is a brave and decisive military atmosphere.

These changes are happening slowly, and the daily training is to train serfs and slender men into soldiers, which has had some effect so far, but Min Yuanzhong doesn't know how big the changes are in his group.

Min Yuanzhong found a post station near Shuiguan to rest for a night, the post station was very dilapidated, there were not a few post horses, the straw bundle in the warehouse was not enough, and the post man did not have the heart to take care of it, except for the straw bundle, there was no bean material, Min Yuanzhong had to spend money to buy a few liters of bean feed from a nearby farmer and feed the mule, this mule is the treasure of a hundred households, if he didn't have something important, I'm afraid he wouldn't be qualified to ride it out.

In the evening of the next day, Min Yuanzhong arrived at the west city wall of Huai'an Mansion City along the land route, first saw the arrow tower at the head of the city from a distance, and then saw the urn city outside the city gate, Huai'an Mansion City was built at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty's northern defense town, in addition to the brick city wall, four more urn cities were built as sub-cities, the urn city area is not large, all are soldiers stationed in it, covering the main gate of the city gate, unless the urn city is conquered, there is no threat to the main gate of the city gate, when the urn city is attacked, the front and both sides of the main gate plus the urn city defenders can cooperate to defend, so if the city defenders have fighting spirit, It's almost hard to conquer from the front.

The west gate of Fucheng is Wangyun Gate, after entering the city, it is the place where water and land meet, it is quite lively, there are many commercial banks, and the big commercial banks in the city are almost all concentrated in the west city.

The northeast direction is the Huai'an Mansion Bureau, the middle direction is the Caoyun Yamen, in addition there are the Tixue Yamen and the Shanyang County Yamen, the vicinity of the East Gate is relatively narrow, from the east to the middle and the north there are many official offices and private houses, the West Gate is the most prosperous and wealthy here, and it is also the essence of the Huai'an Mansion City.