Ushisuke lifted the curtain of the carriage and peered out through the glass window. The streets are full of hawkers selling Huanxituo, noodle nests, bean skins, hot dry noodles, and lard dumplings.

The sound of a high and low shout wafted into the car through the cracks in the windows and the enticing smell of food. This street is very prosperous because it leads to the wharf, in addition to the food vendors, there are also many shops along the street, row upon row, all the way through the city gate, to the south wharf outside the city. There are many pedestrians on the streets, half of them are merchants or residents of Gangneung Fortress who make a living in the South Pier area, and half are ragged homeless people who support the old and the young.

That's right, it's the outcasts!

When Ushisuke saw these homeless people, the corners of his mouth turned upward, and a mocking smile appeared.

What is the prosperous era of the Ming Dynasty, what is the glorious Celestial Empire...... It's just superficial! Look at these homeless people who have lost their land, can't even be tenants, and can only wander and beg! How can there be such a prosperous Celestial Empire since ancient times?

When the carriage approached the south gate of the urn city, there were so many displaced people that it almost filled the entire urn city. However, these displaced people did not block the road, and quickly dispersed on both sides of the road after entering the urn city.

Niu Jie, who had been wandering around the Ming Dynasty for several months, knew that these homeless people were going to the porridge factory to forage for food.

Porridge factories for the hungry are also found in Dashun, but they are not common, nor are they permanent, and they will not be opened in the cities, but in the countryside during the famine. Usually, the big soldiers in the disaster-stricken townships take the lead, send some rice and grain to their own families, and then ask the government to distribute some rice, and boil porridge and give alms in the villages and towns, so that the hungry people have a way to live.

Regardless of whether there is a famine, and whether the people who come to beg for food are hungry or not, as long as they are dressed enough to be dirty enough, there is a meal of gruel to drink. But you can't take it away, you have to drink it in front of the soup cook.

The porridge factory in Gangneung is located in two urn cities in the south of the city, and small doors are opened on both sides of the urn city for the hungry to leave—after drinking the porridge, they must not stop or queue up again, they must leave immediately. The government of Gangneung County has also installed a lot of wooden fences outside the porridge factory, separating many one-way passages, so the queue to receive porridge is very orderly.

And after leaving the urn city from the small gate, it is not easy to return and queue up again. Because the small gate can only enter and exit, and the gate of the urn city is guarded by the local soldiers of Jingzhou Mansion (the local army of Jingzhou Prefecture), and the ragged displaced people will enter the city - the displaced people can only enter through the east gate of Jiangling City.

In Gangneung Dongseong, a corner of the original Gangneung Castle, a "homeless camp" was also built for the homeless people to live. After the homeless people who can move leave to forage for food, there will also be officials in Jiangling County who go to the homeless camp to give porridge to the elderly and sick who are inconvenient to move.

In addition, in the urn city east of Jiangling City, there are many shops of colonial trading houses, all of which deceive people to go to Nanyang to Xinzhou...... All of them are very dark, and they often have to sign a three-year and five-year contract!

Oh, and there are those who can collect money from colonial trading houses! If there are unmarried girls or widowed young women in any homeless family, and they are willing to let them go to Xinzhou to marry, they can get a sum of money, according to their age and appearance, the money is also different, and the more can get hundreds of taels.

However, Ushisuke is very skeptical of this...... Hundreds of taels of "buying" a girl to transport Xinzhou, how much money do you have to charge to "marry" to make money? At least five hundred taels, right? Who's going to buy it? Will a man who can spend five hundred taels of silver to marry a wife go to the United States of New York to earn a living? Could it be that there are really mountains of gold and silver there?

So these traffickers must have sold good girls to brothels in Qinglou!

The Ming government is really incompetent to the extreme, and they don't care about this kind of blatant human trafficking and abduction of women from good families!

"Li Gongzi, the dock has arrived!"

At this time, the carriage that Ushisuke was riding had stopped outside the Gangneung South Pier.

The one who drove the car was also a sleeper of the Dashun Dynasty, subordinate to the Trade Department of the Dashunhu Government - this yamen was founded by Gu Junen, and was in charge of both foreign trade and intelligence gathering!

Ushisuke got out of the carriage and looked around, already seeing a merchant ship with a flag of tailwind, already moored at the edge of the dock.

The backstage boss of Shunfeng Xing is Dashun's Hugh Government Trade Division, which has semicolons all over Jingchu.

Ushisuke, dressed as an outsider, walked up quickly, and two men dressed as sailors greeted him and blocked Ushisuke.

Niu Jie arched his hand, then patted his left chest with his right hand, and said with a smile: "The boss is rich, smooth sailing, and the wealth is wide!" In Xia Nanhai Li Yijie, polite! ”

"It turned out to be Gongzi Li," one of the sailors also hugged his fist, and then patted his right chest with his left hand, "Gongzi is coming to Jiangling for study or business?" ”

Niu Jie said: "I am here to visit a friend." ”

The sailor asked, "I don't know where your friend lives?" ”

Niu Jie said: "Hulin Prefecture, Jingzhou Prefecture...... I don't know if I can take a ride? ”

"Coincidentally, my family's sand boat happened to pass through Hulin Prefecture."

"Then excuse me!" Niu Jie arched his hand again, "The fare is negotiable." ”

"Please on board!" The sailor made a gesture of surprise, and then led the Ushisuke onto the ship.

In the cabin, there were ten men who looked like him, either businessmen or scholars, who were already waiting there. When they saw Ushisuke come in, they all turned their heads to look at him.

"In Xia Li Yijie, I have seen all the brothers."

Everyone stood up and saluted Niu Jie with fists: "I've seen Li Gongzi." ”

Ushisuke smiled, then strode over to an empty chair at the top and sat down. Then he waved his hand at the ten people in the cabin, "Sit, sit." ”

Seeing that everyone sat down, Niu Jie looked serious, "Let's talk about it, how many heroes have you contacted?" ”

A strong man with a beard and a high nose and deep eyes said: "Master Li, we have already contacted five or six thousand heroes!" ”

"So much?" Niu Jie was stunned.

"Li Gongzi doesn't know anything," the bearded man said, "Now there are a lot of displaced people in the Jingchu area, and the Zhu family's court is negligent in control, so there are many displaced people forming gangs and forming groups. They have contacted five gang leaders, and a total of 2,000 strong men can be pulled! ”

Another middle-aged man dressed as a scribe added: "In addition to winning over the leaders of the gang, Dashun also has a foundation in the Jingzhou Mansion. At that time, they persevered in the ravines and ravines around Padang and Guizhou for many years.

Later, although it couldn't be supported, it only died down, and it was not eradicated by the Zhu thief. The people of the Trade Department have been secretly keeping in touch with them, and now they are mobilized, and Ding Zhuang can also have more than 1,000 people. ”

The Ming court's control of the countryside was no match for the Dashun court, which had 600,000 soldiers all over the countryside!

Most of the counties and below in the Ming Dynasty have considerable autonomy, as long as the taxes can be paid in full, the imperial court will not manage much, and it will be difficult to manage it.

Only in important places such as Yingtian, Wuhan, Shanghai, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Huai'an, Tianjin, Tianhe (Yingkou), and Lushun did the imperial court have a relatively strong ability to control the countryside.

There was also a fat man who looked like a businessman and said: "There are also people from the Trade Division in Shunfeng Xing, there are more than a thousand people who can fight, and everyone has muskets and chain mail, which can be used as backbones!" ”

These more than 1,000 people are all elites selected by the Trade Department from the military households of Chongqing Prefecture and Kunming Prefecture. After special training, he was sent to Daming, not only strong in martial arts, but also very reliable!

A man in his thirties who was handled by a fortune teller continued: "We have also brought in some poor men in the local area of Huya Mountain, and they have also brought in a broken clan, and there can be more than 1,000 strong men, and there is no problem with 5,000." ”

"Is the Zhu Ming Mansion aware of it?" Niu Jie asked, "The Emperor of the Zhu family is in Wuhan, and there should be a lot of spies from Jinyiwei and Dongchang in the Jingchu area, right?" ”

"Li Gongzi rest assured," the bearded man who spoke first smiled, "They are very careful, and they are not noticed by the lackeys who called the Zhu thief." ”

"That's good!" Ushisuke smiled and clapped his hands, "Then let's go!" Go to Huya Mountain, uncover the rod, and make a big fuss! ”