In October of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Li Shouhan, the general of the Dragon and Tiger, resigned. The land to the north is cold, and the southerners are not tolerant of wind and snow and beggar.

On the fifth day of the first month of October, the large camp of the Nanzhong Army outside Chaoyang Gate was covered with crowns, and the guards of honor were everywhere.

"Look! Honor guard flags of the two governors! ”

"The big sedan chair of the father-in-law of the master of ceremonies and the imperial horse supervisor!"

"What is this?! Didn't you see the guard of honor standing at the gate of the camp that was supposed to be a prince?! ”

Several Cao Gang members were maintaining order on the dock, and they were still talking about the prestige of the official honor guard who saw off the Han guard.

At present, the relationship between the Cao Gang and the South China Army is good, and it is basically too fat to wear a pair of pants. Needless to say, from the south to the north, all kinds of southern cargo guò boats were sold in the canal basin. Transporting grain has become a sideline of Caochuan, from Caojiang Yamen to ordinary Cao Gang, all of them are bright. But who would be embarrassed by silver and copper coins? Especially the Nanzhong silver dollar and Tongbao in excellent condition?

Shouhan has been informed of the Cao Gang through the prevailing channels of Guòlong, and in the future, the Haihe River workers will be indispensable to the Cao Gang's share, even if it is Nancao Shipping, to Tianjin to connect and transship, from Nigu to Chaoyangmen This section is also to be handed over to the Cao Gang's brothers.

In order to show their sincerity, several shopkeepers of Long Shengxing also led the hall masters of the Cao Gang to visit the eunuch Liu Eunuch of Nancao Affairs. After sending the rice ticket of Longshengxing's grain and rice store and the jewelry maintenance certificate of the jewelry store, Eunuch Liu patted his chest and said, "Hehai family, our family has also been explained by our ancestors!" Nancao is a matter of the emperor's use, so naturally it must be handed over to the appropriate people! In addition to the familiar hands of the Cao Gang. Who else is feasible and credible on the ground in Gyeonggi? ”

Now that the rice class is mainly leaving, the brothers of the Cao Gang naturally have to do their part.

"Elder Hong Jiu, Elder Lu Jiu, Brother Bai Gu, this camp of a certain family, I will give it to the two brothers, these equipment and tents in the camp, Xuan Dajun and the brothers on the three sides can see it, so just take it."

In the camp tent, Shouhan drew a circle with his hands very proudly to Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng, and Sun Chuanting, who came to see him off, pointing out the fixed assets in the camp.

"It's a lot of stuff. The old man said that if you drop it, you will drop it? Sun Chuanting was a little unconvinced. Did your ears hear it wrong?

"Alas! There is no way, there are thousands of people who want to follow them back to Nanzhong, and there is really no room for these things on the ship. Fortunately, Jingshi is only a few hundred miles away from Tianjin, so I can endure it and pass. ”

Look at the mountains of grain and meat in the baggage camp. There is also a cooking cart that can make hot meals for hundreds of people in an hour. Seventy or eighty percent of new tents. The generals who came to see off the towns had already made up their minds, as long as the Nanzhong Army walked on the front foot, they would immediately transfer their own troops to carry it!

"Two governors. Sun Futai, when the lower officials resigned to the emperor, they also mentioned the chaos of the mainland rogues. ”

"I would like to hear high opinions."

"At present, there are many bandits everywhere, and the officers and soldiers are cleaning up everywhere, but it is just to stop the boiling. A little slack, and immediately the civil unrest boiled again. ”

"Raise the soup to stop boiling?"

The three of them are all well-educated people, and they feel quite vivid after chewing on the mention of Shouhan. This pot of soup is indeed extremely boiling, and I am exhausted everywhere, isn't it just to scoop out the soup in the pot?!

"The lower officials are brave, instead of raising the soup to stop the boiling, it is better to draw salary from the bottom of the kettle!"

"What is a salary? Where do you go to your salary? ”

"The hungry people on all sides will be the wages of the bottom of the kettle!" Those who guard the Han word by word, lest everyone in the tent not understand.

"At present, the emperor of the Han and Mongolian dynasties is gracious, the governor of Nanzhong, the army, horses, money and food, and the prime minister and the two Guangxi are soothing. Nanzhong is a fertile land of thousands of miles, and there are countless islands of all sizes, which can transport the hungry people from the interior to us. I don't know when and where my life will end? ”

Everyone was speechless for a while.

This is indeed quite appropriate. However, at the moment, the conditions are not available!

Not to mention the thousands of displaced people, there are hundreds of thousands at every turn. Mo said how to make them go to Nanzhong to reclaim, control these many displaced people, and prevent them from plundering and harassing the prefectures and counties along the way, which is already a big project.

Not to mention the need for large food rations.

If they were to travel to Nanzhong by sea, how would the displaced people from the Northwest and Central Plains reach the seaside? Where to go to sea? It's all a problem!

Wang Bao on the side handed the list of materials that he was not going to take away to Shouhan, "Lord, this is the material to be handed over, please check it." ”

"Three, these, can be regarded as sent by Shouhan to three. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to fight together in the future. However, for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, I would rather never have that day! ”

"Five thousand stone grain, four hundred tents, and twenty wagons. There are a number of other scattered materials and equipment. ”

Hong Chengchou and the three of them weighed this list, but they didn't know what to say.

"Generals, let's go! See you soon! ”

"General Huang has a good trip!"

Huang Yishan, the battalion officer of the horse battalion, got out of the encirclement of the general soldiers and said goodbye.

"Generals, remember what Ichiyama said!"

"Of course you have to remember! In the future, there will be coerced good people, and when you are on the beach again, we will give them to you and ask you to exchange armor, swords, guns, and firearms! ”

He Renlong shook his head and roared unscrupulously.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Say goodbye! ”

Shouhan took his own soldiers and horses and went away.

"Doge! Governor! ”

Lu Xiangsheng's personal general, Chen An, whispered in the ear of Lu Xiangsheng, who was looking at the smoke and dust in the distance.

"Lord Hong and Lord Sun are waiting for you in the tent to discuss how to distribute those grain and grass military tents. In addition, when Master Li left, his guard handed me a letter for your attention. ”

In the letter, Shouhan sent 20 big Buddha Lang machines and supporting ammunition to Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiang 10 each, and asked him to send capable personnel to Tianjin to accept them.

"Alas! General Lee! ”

"My lord, let's hurry up and enter the account! It's too late, and the two adults are afraid that they won't be able to suppress the generals of the towns! ”

An hour later, the Nanzhong Army camp was full of people. The chariots and horses were shouting and scolding.

Three hours later, the originally neat and mighty camp became as clean as Yasai water.

Two days later, Nigu Pier.

"My lord, why are you in such a hurry to return to Nanzhong? Is it really because of the cold of the Northlands? ”

After arranging for the troops and the accompanying refugees and volunteers to board the ship, Wang Bao quietly came to Shouhan's side.

"How many people are left in the capital?"

"Back to the lord, five hundred. Two hundred guns, one hundred and fifty swords, shields, and spears. There is no horse team. There are also a thousand volunteers, all of whom are dispatched by Long, who can be regarded as the bodyguards of their firm. ”

"Don't walk with the brigade for a while, I'll give you a fast boat, no refugees. Just pull the sails and head south! After Hue. Go do these things for me! ”

"Lord, why is that?"

Shouhan sat in the cabin and took out a few copies of the secret music from a protective book, "Take a look! ”

The tantric recitals were sent by clipper from the official office. Shouhan led the army north to King Qin for the past few months. There are quite a few people in various parts of the south and central who are ready to move. At first, it was just a secret rumor, such as "Li Shouhan's ship sank on the road!" At present, the general's mansion is not mourning, and the generals are fighting! "Li Shouhan was imprisoned by the emperor in Beijing. To tie up the noon gate and behead it! ”

With the spread of rumors, the Kapitan and Sultans in Manraka and other places also began to have some ideas, and the Kapitan deliberately delayed the tax receivable in their hands, and the tax that was not allowed to be overnight in the past could not be sent to the customs office three or two days late.

And those sultans, shaking their fat bellies, went to Manraka to ask for a share of the tariff!

One mouth is to ask for three seven to divide the account, and it is to pour three seven, the sultans lie in the palace and watch the beauties dance belly dance, they will get seventy percent. The reason is very simple, "This is the land given to us by Mu Sheng and our ancestors, and you are allowed to take 30% because of your hard work in collecting taxes and giving you your hard-earned money!" ”

These are the lack of hearts of the feudal kings under their rule, and there are threats from friendly forces!

Zheng Zhilong, who was in Xiamen and Kinmen, sent people to Hue many times to ask for Taiwan's income from land reclamation, and even demanded a one-time payment of grain for three years. "It's okay if you don't have a ship! We'll pick it up ourselves! ”

In and out of the words, there is some meaning.

In addition to the grain requirements, the Zheng family also proposed to increase the share and frequency of trade with Japan and the Dutch.

If you have money, you have to earn it together!

In the waters of Fujian, the ships of the Nanzhong Army in Tongguò were attacked and harassed by unidentified armed ships, and although they did not cause any loss of personnel for the time being, they were also very annoying.

"You immediately go to Kinmen to see Zheng Zhilong, tell him that my fleet is about to pass by, ask him to prepare 30,000 people of water and vegetables for us, and I will give him silver at the price."

"30,000?! Subordinates understood! ”

"After that, you go back to Hue, gather the chiefs of all ministries and provinces to Hue, and make me the emperor the general of Long Wu, the governor of Nanzhong, the prime minister of Liangguang to suppress bandits, reward the prince's honor guard, and Yin Yizi as the brocade guard to guard thousands of households, and show off all these things."

Speaking of which, Shouhan completely lost the appearance of the humble gentleman who scattered wealth in the capital, and a hideous color appeared on his face, "If those guys are not honest, I will find a place for them to go and let them be honest forever!" ”

"Then order the left flank fleet to move eastward, and wait for our fleet to cross near the city of He'anping in Taiwan!"

"The garrisons of all provinces and towns have launched a clean-up campaign against the unruly native tribes in the mountains and forests who do not obey the king, and the strong men and self-defense forces of the villages and towns and forts will go together! Be sure to plow the court and sweep the holes, so as not to leave any trouble! Capture a lot of captives and send them to various mountain and forest mines and workshops to serve as official slaves! Lao Tzu has received so many orders this time, and some of them have jobs to do! ”

Shouhan shook the contracts and the accounts of the deposits received by Long Shengxing with the Governor of Xuanda, the Governor of the Three Sides, Jizhen, Yutian Town, etc., just the thirty percent deposit received had already made Shou Han earn a lot, plus the unpaid seventy percent of the payment, it was an astronomical amount.

"Let's go back and build more than three blast furnaces, and I'm afraid there will be more orders in the future!"

"Lord, won't you?!" Wang Bao has a little lack of understanding of the darkness of the human heart, and does not know the greed and darkness of officialdom and the human heart.

Shouhan didn't break it, he just laughed wildly in his heart, just a small Datong town, he needed so many armor weapons, even Wang Pu's main barracks were all equipped with them, and the Devil Terminator generally didn't need so much! For the extra ones, Wang Pu will not go to the snow to send charcoal to help others expand their strength. Then there is only one place to go, and that is to sell it to his clansmen, the Wang family, one of the eight Jin merchants!

After that, the Wang family sold these high-quality armor, swords, and guns to the Liaodong thieves!

"However, the men of Long Shengsheng told me that there have been people with outside voices asking about various weapons in their trumpets recently."

Since that day, after the martial arts performance, the few shops that Long prevailed outside Chaoyang Gate were overcrowded, and the accents in and out were chaotic, and the demeanor knew at a glance that he was definitely not a good person. If you don't know that this shop is the business of General Li of the Nanzhong Army, the plaque is inscribed by the governor of the three sides, Lord Hong, and there are dozens of Cao Gang at the door who are obliged to stand there and cheer. I'm afraid of how many times I have been robbed a long time ago.

"There are people from Liaodong Military Town. There is a Shaanxi accent and a Shanxi accent. There were also a few big businessmen who approached Long Shengxing, planning to buy a large number of weapons and sell them to all parts of the Nine Sides. But according to the Lord's will. The stewards all said that it was a matter of the Great Ming Law. Ask them to bring out the customs documents of the generals of each town. It is proved that these military equipment were sold to the Nine Border Military Town. Speaking of this, Wang Bao suddenly found that since he entered Beijing with Shouhan. It seems that I didn't see Lin Wenbing, the shopkeeper of Longsheng, and there were only a few stewards in the business who were there to take care of daily business. Where did this Lin Da shopkeeper go? Wang Bao didn't dare to think about it.

There is another document on the sale of weapons on the Shouhan table, which was also sent by the official office by clipper.

"Yo he! They have a lot of appetites! So much?! The variety is so rich! ”

The order was sent by the Shimazu family, and the Shimazu family and several affiliated families joined forces to deliver a huge arms order contract.

"100,000 stone of food and 3,000 pairs of armor, but I asked for a trumpet. 5,000 boxes of canned pork, 2,000 boxes of chicken and duck, 5,000 knives, 3,000 firearms, and 20 rounds of medicine. 10,000 spears, 50 big Buddha Lang machines, 10 sub-guns, and 50 cannons. 10,000 pieces of fine-quality dyed cotton. ”

"My lord, this group of widows has such a great appetite! The subordinates just want to ask, do these dwarves have so much money? ”

This is one of the reasons why the official office does not dare to call the shots, and is worried about the Shimazu family's ability to pay.

Second, it is clear what kind of shape the Toei Islands are, and the official office is also very clear, and the various foreign daimyo have some ideas about the Tokugawa family's control of the position of the shogun of the Seiyi after their strength has been expanded, but they are afraid that the sale of these weapons to the Shimazu family will cause turmoil in the Wa country, and then affect the interests of the Nanchu army.

Shouhan picked up his pen and approved a few lines on the document sent from the office.

"Don't be afraid of rebellion. The Shimazu family in southern Kyushu bought it, but are all parts of northern Kyushu and Honshu willing to live under the guns of the Shimazu family? Will only buy our stuff more people! After this contract was executed, it was known to the daimyo and shogun of the Japanese country through various means. ”

The official affairs are explained one by one.

As the first to set off Wang Bao, carefully put away the thick stack of documents. Instead, he raised his head and asked Shouhan.

"Lord, what if these dwarves don't have the money to pay?!"

"Po! If you look closely at the paperwork, these dwarves don't have any money in the first place! At most, you can pay 40% with gold, silver and copper coins! ”

At the back of the documents of the Shimazu family's request for military weapons, it is noted that the small country of the lower state is small and the people are poor, and it is difficult to raise so much gold and silver for a while, and they are willing to use the young and strong women of the right age to go to the upper state to serve as laborers (and provide warm bedding services) and domestic products to cover the price of goods.

"These dwarves! Shameless! Wang Bao's face was slightly hot, he didn't see this.

"Alright, Po! Are there fewer Fusang concubines and Tianzhu orchids in your house? If it weren't for this group of people to transport these women to Nanzhong, our men would be prosperous and weak, and the brothers would have no women, I'm afraid there would be a big mess! ”

"Go back to the official office, so that they can use their labor and young women to settle their accounts, and besides, the goods are at present limited to sulfur, purple roots, timber, all kinds of dried seafood, copper, bluegrass, lead, zinc, etc., and as for their screens, folding fans, lacquerware, etc., cannot be used as the main varieties!"

Sulfur in Kyushu has always been an important source of raw materials for the production of arms in Nanzhong, and as for those lead and zinc, in addition to lead can be used to make projectiles, zinc is an important consumable for sailors.

In order to prevent the loss of the copper base, it is necessary to put zinc blocks at the waterline of the ship using the "cathodic protection method of sacrificial anode", so that the seawater will only corrode the zinc blocks and not the copper bottom. However, in this way, the demand for zinc is not ordinarily large.

This is also one of the things that everyone knows about the naval division of the Nanzhong Army, but they don't know why. Every time they went to sea, the sailors had to tie the zinc blocks one by one with ropes and sink them into the waterline, but no one could say why.

Looking out from the cabin, a group of soldiers on the pier organized the same battalion, sentry, and team of refugees and volunteers to board the ship, and the soldiers of the artillery team, with the help of the pulley group, hoisted a cannon onto the ship, disassembled it, and put it in the base compartment as ballast. The soldiers of the horse team acted as faithful sentinels in the distance, and from time to time they took out a handful of fried soybeans mixed with lightly salted water from their pockets and fed them to their silent comrades.

Although several groups of ships have been transporting refugees and horses south, there is still a lot of pressure on transport capacity. It was in order to free up limited transportation capacity and more space that Shouhan had to hand over those grain tents and other materials to Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng and others.

"I hope I can transport it all at once!"

Looking at the white smoke rising from the cannon fired on the fast boat on which Wang Bao was riding, Shouhan knew that this time he went north, and this was the end of it.

Looking due north, there were clouds covering it, and a cold snap from Siberia would soon wreak havoc on that black land.

"I don't know if Lin Wenbing and Li Peiting have arrived. I hope they can return safely! (To be continued......)