Yuntiguan to Huai'an Mansion is more than 200 miles of water, the distance is quite far, fortunately all the way along the river can be, to the place near Huai'an after turning along the fork river into the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, all the way to Qingjiangpu, and then along the fork river south to more than 20 miles is Huai'an Mansion.

The river narrows, the village becomes denser, and there is a large market town every ten miles or so.

This is much stronger than the Yunti Pass, where there will be a town within a radius of thirty or forty miles, and it is far less prosperous than here.

If you go south to Yangzhou, the south of the Yangtze River will be more prosperous than Huai'an, more densely populated, the place is also more wealthy, and culture and education are the top in the country.

And Min Yuanqi knew that the Jiangnan side was not as weak as the rumors, the Qing army went all the way south, except for a few battles with the Shun army, there was almost no resistance, all the way to Jiangnan, but after arriving in Jiangnan, whether it was Nanzhi or Zhejiang, large-scale threatening resistance began to appear.

There is also a noticeable change in Qingjiangpu, that is, the number of ships has increased significantly.

In addition to mooring a large number of boats, there are a considerable number of civilian ships, most of them are merchant ships that go north and south along the canal, the ships are large and small, the big sand boats are more than ten meters long, five or six meters wide, and the boats are about the same size, the small canopy boats are five or six meters long, and they can accommodate a few people at most.

The contrast between the number of ships in Qingjiangpu is impressive, but most of the shipyards along the coast are more than ten miles long, which is quite strange.

The shipyards here are all built by the Ministry of Industry, mainly to build boats, the scale can be said to be the first in the country, and the lack of construction can only show that this year's water transportation task has not yet begun.

"I've seen Li Baihu." Min Yuanjin is good at dealing with people, and when he intersects with a boat, he stands at the bow of the boat from a distance and bows to an official in a military robe.

Six-grade military uniform, complement with biao, short hard wings and black yarn, a sword hanging from the waist, and black thick-soled official boots on the feet. From a distance, it looks like a serious official, but when it is closer, it can be seen that these forty or so military attachés are full of hardships and hardships, not like officials, but like craftsmen who have accumulated years, and most of the official robes on their bodies are damaged, and there are inconspicuous patches.

If this is changed to a six-rank civil official, it is naturally impossible to have such a appearance.

Of course, now the status of the battalion soldiers is getting higher and higher, and the military attache of the Liupin Guard is at most a sentry officer when he arrives in the barracks.

The people who come don't take it big, and it really doesn't take much, the military attache of the guard is a watershed, and the thousand households are the five grades, and they can barely talk about business with the civil officials at the county level, of course, they still have to be willing to be subordinates, to the level of commanding the ministers, and they can barely be on an equal footing with the county, but when they see the big mansion, they are divided into guards and patrols, and they still have to kneel down to salute. More than 100 households, said to be a six-grade military attaché, in fact, 100 households have 120 banner troops, hundreds of Ding, more than 1,000 dependents, to put it bluntly, he is a village chief, if the guard army can go into battle, 100 households are also very powerful, or have the right to enforce the law, such as the Jinyi Wei 100 households, you can directly go to the book to the Son of Heaven, take the arrest of the minister, don't say a county, even if the red-robed officer has to be afraid of the Jinyi Wei 100 households.

As for the hundred households in front of him, he is just a village chief with a knife.

Min Yuanqi also recognized the hundred households on the opposite boat, Li Guoding, the 900th household of the Imperial Palace, looking like he was in his fifties, but in fact, he was in his early forties at most. Tempered and generous, he spent a long time in the boat yard in Qingjiangpu when he was a teenager, and if there was any damage to the boats in the guard, most of them were repaired by Li Baihu.

"I've seen Li Baihu."

"It's Yuan Qi." Li Guoding said with a rather calm attitude: "I heard that you had a dispute with Yang Shida and injured him, is there such a thing?" ”

It seems that the news spreads much faster than the boats...... Min Yuanqi smiled slightly, and said: "This is true, the salt I brought people to cook hard is the ration of hundreds of people in the general banner to eat, he Yang Shida said that it was a salt class promotion, who doesn't know that he himself is a salt lord who cooks private salt?" I took this silver and stuffed it into this dog's hole, and I was really not convinced. ”

Li Guoding sighed, and stopped talking a little.

There are now nine hundred households in the Yunti Guard, even if it is a salt ship for thousands of households and deputy thousand households, Yang Shida and his gang have also collected two percent, this rule has been many years, and everyone has adapted and used to it, Yang Shida's official position is nothing, and the salt class promotion department has long been out of business. But Yang Shida's ruthlessness and viciousness, as well as the more than 100 salt dices under his command, are nothing. Yang Shili behind it is the giant who should go to Yancheng, there are thousands of salt dings under his command, not to mention, the Yancheng area is deserted, the garrison is small, the place is partial, and it is an offshore place, there are many pirates and bandits, Yang Shiyong is colluded with many thieves, if you provoke such a character, how can the ordinary military attache of the guard station parry?

"Be careful." Li Guoding finally said: "Yang Shida's matter has been spread to Fucheng, I am afraid that your salt goods will not be easy to sell, after all, ordinary merchants dare not offend Yang Shida." ”

That's a problem...... Min Yuanqi pondered for a moment, and said with a smile: "If you can't go down to Yangzhou from Suqian, you will arrive in a day or two, no matter how powerful Yang Shida is, there are many big salt merchants in Yangzhou City, and there are many people who hook up with Xungui, and he is a local salt lord, I am afraid that he will not be taken seriously." ”

Li Guoding nodded and said: "This is very true, Yuan Qi, you are really good." ”

When Min Yuanqi first took office, these hundreds of households who had accumulated years did not take him seriously. is not only for the word "test" that tried hundreds of households, but also because Min Yuanqi was young and inexperienced, he couldn't speak ideas, and he was even more undisciplined.

This time for Yang Shida's matter, although it seems very dangerous now, but at least this matter has been done, Li Guoding's heart is of course unwilling to hand over the silver to Yang Shida and his gang, someone takes the lead in rushing, if it is done, it will be a great thing!

"This year's Cao Yun hasn't started yet?" Min Yuanqi couldn't help but say, "No news yet?" ”

"Nope." Li Guoding shook his head and said: "I have seen the commander and the Tongzhi Lord, and they all said that there is no news, and there is no news from the Huaiyang Military Preparation Road, so we have to wait for the edict of the Nanjing Cabinet Department, but I heard that the Cabinet Department is now mainly focusing on the selection of soldiers and horses, and plans to enter the king of Beijing Qin." Chuang Rebellion has entered Shanxi, I am afraid that it is about to arrive in Beijing, and there have been officials and gentry from the north to the south, and now Huai'an is fine, and the north is already panicked. ”

The two sides of the strait were densely populated, and there was no scene of war and chaos, but Li Guoding's words made people chill like ice, including all the flag troops on the two ships.

Maybe everyone doesn't have the intention of fighting hard for the Ming Dynasty, but the Emperor Ming has ruled for nearly three hundred years, is it really on the verge of extinction?

Even the most ordinary military attache and flag army, but also know that the counterattack to fight to the Beijing division and the Tartars to the Beijing division are two different things, the Tartars in Liaodong founded the country, to the Beijing division is from the grassland detour, thousands of miles over, the most recent Chongzhen fifteen years, the Tatar county king Abatai as the main commander, a large number of Qing troops into the territory of the Ming Dynasty back and forth for eight months, captured and killed the king of Lu, a large number of county kings and thousands of people were beheaded, the Ming army gathered hundreds of thousands of soldiers but did not dare to fight, Abatai southernmost to Linyi, and then south into the Nanzhi boundary, at that time the Jiangnan Jiangbei place was also rumored, the grass and trees are all soldiers, fortunately, the Tartars returned north after recuperating for a month, probably to the south The terrain is not familiar, the water network is dense, and Abatai is not willing to continue to venture south.

Although the tartar is terrifying, it always feels like an external disaster, and it leaves once every few years, but Li Chuang is different. These rogues have been in trouble in the early years of Chongzhen, and it has been 17 years now, since the 36 families burned the Fengyang Emperor's Mausoleum, the rogues have been fighting with the Ming Dynasty.

Liukou was a peasant uprising in later generations, but in this era it was a standard destroyer, after all, there was no foundation in the early uprising, where did the food and ordnance come from? Of course, it has to be looting, and in terms of soldiers, it is impossible for a large number of young people to take the initiative to participate in the early stage, most of them are coerced.

In addition, the leader of the peasant army is also mixed, with Li Zicheng like Li Zicheng in the early days, he was also good at killing and plundering, and later wanted to win the world, and the military discipline of the army began to improve. But such as Luo Rucai and Zhang Xianzhong's generation, they are either unambitious and still mainly looting, or they are cruel and murderous, and their personalities are twisted and perverted.

The name of the rogue has long spread all over the world, Li Chuang and Zhang Xianzhong both wanted to win Nanjing, and were defeated successively, but the name of the murderer has long spread all over the country. By the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng had defeated the main force of officers and soldiers in Henan many times, especially after defeating Sun Chuanting, the imperial court was no longer able to lead the army to face the commander of the thieves, and there was no strategic mobile force to take action.

In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the emperor forced Sun Chuanting to fight, and there was a royal history to persuade him, bluntly saying that this part of the Ming army was the emperor's last belongings, and he must be cautious.

But Chongzhen is this kind of gambler character, every time he catches the worst card, but he wants to open the biggest gambling game, Chongzhen thirteen to fourteen years of the Songjin battle, the Ming army can obviously hold a heavy slow attack, and Houjin fight to consume national strength, but Chongzhen is forced to force the army to fight, have to open a decision to win or lose. This was the case in the fourteenth year, and it was still the same in the sixteenth year when Sun Chuanting was forced to fight a decisive battle.

This bet is lost, the death of the Ming Dynasty is almost doomed, some high-level people have seen that the death of the Ming Dynasty is inevitable, and the military attaches on the Huai River in front of them, except for Min Yuanqi, just feel that this time the Beijing division is trapped is extraordinary, but if they want to say that the Ming Dynasty will die, these officers and soldiers of the guard are not willing to make such a judgment.

"Be careful." Li Guoding let out another long sigh, his face was almost ten years old, and he looked almost sixty.

The two sides exchanged hand-to-hand greetings, and the two boats staggered across the river, and soon both were far away.