This incident, if it had happened before, would definitely cause an uproar.

Not to mention anything else, on the Jiangnan side, I won't say how powerful Shilin is. The salt merchants also have a lot of pens, and when the time comes, they will criticize the pen and write it, and believe it or not they can scold the court into. If that's all it takes, it doesn't matter, you scold yours, I'll copy mine.

However, there will be a civil uprising on the Jiangnan side, and if you dare to move a knife against the interest groups represented by the salt merchants, they will be able to incite the people to revolt and drive the outlaws who sell smuggled salt to make trouble. When the time comes, it's really hard to say what kind of chaos will be on the Jiangnan side.

In fact, even if the Jin merchants were raided in the north, it was very cautious, and it was only after Emperor Chongzhen had a descendant army that he could really control that he set up a big situation before he dared to do anything to the Jin merchants.

However, it is precisely because of the examples of the northern Jin merchants that they more or less demonstrate the means of the imperial court.

Then, the Changshu civil rebellion was suppressed by the Nanjing town eunuch led by the troops, and the Donglin leader Qian Qianyi and others, no matter how well connected and background you have, were directly condemned by the emperor as a rebellion, and then fell off the horse, and there were more than 100 black gauze hats, which was completely different from the popular rebellion in Wanli.

In addition, in the flooding on the south side of the Yangtze River, the imperial court did its best to provide disaster relief, which greatly strengthened the prestige of the imperial court among the people. Even if some people want to be seduced, it is unlikely that the people will follow.

Most people can distinguish between right and wrong.

As a result, the officialdom and the people were either shocked or grateful, and there were not many people who objected to this large-scale action of the imperial court against the big salt merchants.

It is precisely because of this Jiangnan operation that it did not touch the elite army under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, but the Jinyi Guard was dispatched to coordinate the local army, and it was implemented.

It can also be seen from here that the imperial court's control over the place is slowly regaining again.

Of course, for such a big matter, there must be people who have doubts. The salt merchants in Jiangnan are so far away from Liaodong, how can they be captured?

Without waiting for these doubts to spread, Jinyiwei issued an announcement on how Le Qingsheng and Jianyu's people colluded, and finally reached an agreement and released the first batch of goods, all of which were explained as they were, and there was a copy of the covenant as evidence. The people involved in the matter, including Wu Zhong, were naturally arrested by Jinyiwei one by one.

The matter of this salt merchant's capture progressed quickly, and the relevant recitals were soon delivered to the imperial front. Then Emperor Chongzhen became angry and said that the salt merchants and the Yandao Yamen sucked the people's fat and ointment, and the old salt policy had reached the point where it had to be reformed. A signal was sent to the whole country, and the salt administration was soon reformed.

In the past, a large part of the revenue of the imperial treasury depended on salt taxes. Therefore, the general emperor does not have the courage to move this, for fear that even the original amount of salt tax will be tossed away. However, this obviously does not include Emperor Chongzhen.

He has actually thought about how to innovate the salt administration. However, if the big salt merchants were arrested and launched immediately, then anyone would think that the emperor had premeditated, and then deduced that those big salt merchants were actually scapegoats, just blocking the way of the emperor's salt policy reform.

Therefore, if you want to eat not ugly, you can't rush to push it out, let the ministers have a discussion process, and finally be guided by Emperor Chongzhen to launch the salt policy he wants.

At a time when all parts of the Ming Dynasty were speculating about what the new salt policy was, on the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Lushun, which was very famous in later generations, was very calm and seemed to be no different from usual.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty had to pass through Liaodong, and all the materials supplied to Liaodong were by sea, starting from Dengzhou or Tianjin, and then landing in Lushun.

Because of the importance of Lushun's location, the Ming Dynasty set up a number of important military towns on the Liaodong Peninsula during the Hongwu and Yongle years, among which Jinzhou and Gaizhou were the core to establish a defense system.

In Jinzhou, it was the headquarters of the Liaodong Command, and later, it became the Jinzhou Wei Command Embassy.

And Lushun is a thousand households under the Jinzhou Guard, in the original time, it was just a tree fence, and a wooden gate city was built for defense. Later, because of the defense of the pirates, the position of Lushun became more and more important, in the tenth year of Yongle, under the auspices of Xu Gang, the commander of Jinzhou Wei, the Muzha City was changed to a brick city, and it was divided into two cities, north and south.

Among them, the north city is surrounded by one mile and one hundred and eighty steps, and the wall is one zhang and two feet high and two zhang wide. Two city gates, "Jinghai" in the south and "mighty" in the north.

The southern city is slightly larger than the northern city, surrounded by one mile and three hundred steps, and the wall is one zhang and two feet high, and two zhang and five feet wide. There are also two city gates, "Tongjin" in the south and "Renhe" in the north.

However, with the passage of time, the corruption of the Daming Guard was rampant, and the military families fled, so by the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, the southern city had to be abandoned. When the northern city was captured by the Manchus a few years ago, it was demolished by them.

In other words, Lushun, which is in such an important location, actually doesn't even have a city. More precisely, not only are there no cities, there are not even people. The Manchu Qing Dynasty ordered that the pieces of armor were not allowed to go to the sea.

However, this order was loosened after the arrival of Shang Kexi, the king of Zhishun, in Jinzhou. At least the warships, which had been almost abandoned in the Golden State, began to be repaired again, and the sailors were reassembled and began training.

No, even Lushun, which has not had anyone for many years, has a lot of people here.

Most of them were migrant workers, or Han slaves, about a thousand people, and under the supervision of the Tartars, they were cleaning up the ruins of the northern and southern cities of Lushun. Among them, after more than a month of cleaning up, Beicheng can already see the appearance of the city again.

On a section of the restored wall, a Tartar general, surrounded by a group of men, scanned everything in front of him. suddenly sighed and said, "This little manpower is still too little!" ”

This person is Ban Zhifu, one of Shang Kexi's henchmen, who was sent by Shang Kexi to rebuild Lushun City. Because Shang Kexi, as the commander of the water division of Dongjiang Town, naturally knew the importance of Lushun. Since there is something to be done in the future, this Lushun City will definitely have to be rebuilt.

"My lord, I don't know what the hell the court is doing, why did you want to demolish a city in the first place!" One of his subordinates heard it and also grumbled.

Without waiting for Ban Zhifu to answer, the other person had already replied with resentment: "What else can there be, isn't it just afraid of the sea!" Who would dare to go to sea! ”

Although he didn't say it explicitly, everyone present knew that he was talking about the Jianzhou Jurchens.

When Ban Zhifu heard this, he frowned, and immediately reprimanded: "Enough, don't talk nonsense!" ”

These are naturally his confidants, and they are all his old subordinates, and it is impossible for him to punish him for complaining about his master.

After a pause, he still explained: "What to say and what not to say, you must have a sense of proportion." If the prince heard it, he wouldn't have spared you so easily. Do you understand? ”

When his men heard this, they were immediately awe-struck. Because they knew that Ban Zhifu was not scaring them, their commander was named King Zhishun by the emperor back then, such a huge favor also made their former commander, the current prince, grateful. If you want to speak ill of your master in front of him, even if you don't mean it, you will really be severely punished.

In fact, it is precisely because they realize this, so they will hold some of the anger they usually receive in their hearts, and now they take the opportunity to vent it out for a reason.

Shang Kexi was valued by Huang Taiji, which did not mean that these ordinary Han soldiers could not be discriminated against by the Jianzhou Jurchens and Mongols.

Ban Zhifu obviously knew this, and after explaining, he changed the topic, frowned and said: "I will go back to Jinzhou tomorrow, and I must need more manpower, otherwise this Lushun City will not know when it will be delayed if it is completed." The prince said that before July, after the construction of Lushun City, the sailors would be transferred here. ”

Hearing this, his subordinates became a little curious, and asked again: "My lord, seeing that the prince is rebuilding the warship again, training the sailors, and rebuilding this Lushun City, is it possible, the Daming Sailor is going to fight over, right?" ”

"Nonsense!" When another subordinate heard this, he didn't hesitate to deny it first, "Dongjiang Town is gone, what do you think Daming still has?" If there is really a sailor, there will be no movement all the time? How many years have passed? ”

"Yes, the court is corrupt ......" Another subordinate immediately wanted to talk about the topic, and when he saw Ban Zhifu's eyes coming over, he immediately came to his senses, and hurriedly defended, "I am explaining that the court of the country is corrupt, the emperor is mediocre, and the traitorous ministers are in charge, where is the money to build ships?" Just like the bear in Mingguo, aren't we all dead hearts? How can it still be beaten, every time the Qing army that enters the customs is less robbed, it is Amitabha! ”

Hearing this, I remembered that in the past, these Liaodong Han people who used to be soldiers in Dongjiang Town were silent for a while: the past is unbearable!

But then, a person standing a little behind leaned forward a little, showed a gossip look, and said in a lower voice: "It is said that this time the Qing army entered the customs and fought a big defeat. ”

"Don't talk nonsense, how is it possible!" Immediately, someone retorted, "Didn't you see that you came back after robbing so many people and animals?" More than ever before! Oh, by the way, and the vassal kings have all been brought in a pot, how can this possibly defeat the battle! ”

"Yes, if you really want to lose the battle, the emperor will definitely be angry, and I haven't seen anyone punished!"

"I really heard that the battle was lost, those Jurchens, there are many more widows, don't you know?"

"Think too much about women, it's all nonsense!"

“……”

Ban Zhifu's status is higher than these people, so naturally he knows more than these people. According to what he learned, the defeat of the Qing army should be true. However, he didn't know the specific situation, and the reason why no one under him knew it was because the emperor deliberately handled it in a low-key manner.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help frowning, for this, he couldn't understand it, how could the Qing army be so powerful, how could it also defeat the battle? Could it be that the fight was too smooth and he got carried away?

Ban Zhifu thought about it and couldn't think of any other possibility. Because in his impression, Da Ming's incompetence is actually similar to what his subordinates said.

At the beginning, Shang Kexi was just a sailor commander in Dongjiang Town, his status was even lower, and he was only in Liaodong, so his vision was naturally limited. Although Shang Kexi was later crowned king, he was also restricted, and Shang Kexi basically had no way to know the news about the Ming Dynasty, let alone him.

In fact, at this time in Liaodong, most people's impression of Daming was still stuck in the past.

Most people don't know what's going on in Kannai. Only those leaders in the Jianyu can understand that the Emperor of the Ming State suddenly became powerful, and on the side of the Qing Dynasty, without the Jin merchants, they encountered difficulties.

Ban Zhifu listened to them for a while, then interrupted them and said, "Enough, don't care about things that shouldn't be cared about." You're all keeping an eye on me, just such a little person, if anyone escapes and delays the construction period, they will all be punished! ”

When his subordinates heard this, they immediately agreed, and then another of his subordinates said with a hippie smile: "My lord, even if you let them escape, where can they escape?" ”

"Yes, can they still swim to Dengzhou, haha!"

"Even if someone escapes, it's not normal to report their illness and death. My lord will go to see the prince tomorrow, and I will ask for more manpower. ”

“……”

Seeing that they didn't seem to care a little, Ban Zhifu sank his face and shouted: "This time, the imperial court has not allocated much population and materials to the prince, and the prince said that he should be careful in his calculations. When I go back this time, I don't know how much I can get. If you dare not be careful, believe it or not, Lao Tzu used military law to deal with you! ”

Seeing that he was angry, these subordinates didn't dare to smile and hurriedly promised that they would be attentive.

But when I looked back at those skinny Han people, I remembered the little food I had set down, and many people lost their confidence. They didn't believe that if Lushun City was to be restored, how many of these people would survive.

In fact, to carry out heavy manual labor, there is not enough food at all. A team of soldiers was also set up to hunt fish on the beach and replenish the food. But even so, there are still dead people every day.

Time passed slowly, and soon it was late afternoon. The sun was setting, staining the western sky red.

The Han slaves who worked were driven back to the half-repaired city by these fake Tartars in groups, surrounded by a city wall, and it was much easier to guard.

However, not all the slaves were driven back, and one of them carried the corpses to a nearby low cliff, ready to throw their comrades who had died of exhaustion into the sea. In addition, a bunch of Han slaves were driven to the beach to pick up more edible seafood at low tide in the evening.

The day is about to pass again, and it's no different from usual.

After the light dimmed a little more, one of the Han slaves who scattered to pick up seafood on the beach suddenly whispered to his companion in front of him: "Brother, do you really want to escape tonight?" ”