The vast and mighty Han River flows between the Qinling Mountains and Bashan, passing through the Yunyang River Valley between the two mountains, and finally comes to the wide Jianghan Plain. Here, plump, with a rich dowry, she reluctantly slept with the Yangtze River in front of her, and forever married Qin and Jin.

According to the order of entry time, Hanshui is only the seventh room of the eight eldest wives of the Yangtze River, referred to as "Little Seven". But in terms of abundance of water, the other seven are unbeatable. In Zhu Pingjin's previous life, the water conservancy brick family immediately hit the poor Hanshui with the crooked idea of the south-to-north water diversion.

An abundance of water brings fertile land. At the Y-shaped estuary formed by the confluence of the Han River and the Yangtze River, there are three towns that are temporarily separated by the water but will eventually be connected.

To the east of the Yangtze River is Wuchang Prefecture attached to Guojiangxia County, west of the Yangtze River, south of Hanshui is Hanyang Prefecture, and west of the Yangtze River, north of Hanshui is a town under Hanyang County: Hankou Town.

The town of Hankow is a young town.

During the Chenghua period, the Hanshui River Estuary moved northward, bypassing the Guishan Mountain, and the wavering waterway of the river finally stabilized. Stable river channels make it possible to build dams for flood control, and the large stretches of river wetlands behind the dam have become excellent places for human habitation and the necessities of life.

Taking advantage of the logistics and trade advantages of the confluence of the two rivers and the radiation of nine provinces, Hankou quickly grew from a barren wetland to a wharf, and from a wharf to a major commercial town. In the end, his size, which was disproportionate to the administrative rank, and the enormous wealth contained in it, finally moved the bureaucratic lords who were fed all day long but had nothing to do:

A patrol inspection department subordinate to Hanyang County was set up here - Hankou Inspection Division.

From this beginning, the prototype of the three towns of Wuhan was formally formed.

But even if the official moved, Hankou still had no city walls to protect it. The culture of Hankou Town that has been precipitated over the long years will not be easily changed. For example, the commercial culture and immigrant culture that are very different from the officialdom of Wuchang, such as the civic culture that cannot be seen and separated from officials, and who are both contemptuous and inferior.

In the middle of summer, the sky is clear in Hankou Town, and the sun is like fire.

The river was scorched by the scorching sun, and countless free water molecules rose. They are everywhere, allowing everything in the land of Jianghan to suffer in a stuffy environment like a steamer.

Perhaps there is really a sense of heaven and man, and the Hanshui Wharf, which has been deserted for a long time, suddenly became lively in the hot weather. On the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, more than ten alum high-masted cargo ships approached the river bank together.

At the pier of the trestle bridge, figures up and down shuttle back and forth, and there is hardly a moment of idleness. The linen and off-white cotton bags unloaded from the ship filled the narrow embankment pier.

Hankou is the largest material distribution center and land and water transshipment center in Huguang and even the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and most of the bulk materials such as grain, salt, cotton, cloth, tea, medicinal materials, bamboo and wood, as well as pig iron, copper and tin will be transferred to various places through the Hankou wharf. But since the year of Chongzhen, the business of Hankou Town has fallen from the peak of Wanli year, and it has become more and more difficult to do.

Of course, there are exceptions to the norm.

Once the imperial court carried out major military activities, the merchants of all sizes in Hankou Town would be busy for a while, earning a lot of silver. For example, a few years ago, Yang Sichang went to Yiling to open a governor's mansion to mobilize materials from all over the country to enter Sichuan and pay the army, and the busyness of Hankou Town reached an unprecedented heat.

"Could it be that Zuo Ping's thieves entered the army to procure the grain?"

Seeing this busy scene on the dock, outsiders will guess like this.

A few days ago, Governor Ding Qirui and Governor Yang Wenyue of Baoding led Zuo Liangyu, Fang Guoan, Yang Dezheng and Hu Dawei to march into Kaifeng by different routes, claiming to be an army of 400,000.

Among the four route armies, the strongest is of course Zuo Liangyu, the general of the Ping Thief. It is said that the front battalion of the left army, the rear battalion, and the middle battalion have miscellaneous cards, adding up to more than 100,000.

The weakest is the veteran Hu Dawei, who was born outside the Saiwai, and it is said that he has only a few thousand people.

The most cursed is the former deputy chief soldier of Fengrun, and later followed Yang Sichang as a dog-legged Yang Dezheng. It is said that the training of one of the three salaries was caused by Yang Dezheng's efforts to strengthen the local armed forces. As a result, the court accepted the training money, and the soldiers did not see the training. The original proposal was only to levy one year's salary, and it was not abolished until the thirteenth year of Chongzhen. But even if the imperial court abolished it, this training salary will continue to be levied in various places under a different name, until now!

It's normal for outsiders to have all kinds of speculations, because they don't know what's going on, so they naturally have all kinds of strange thoughts.

However, this is not the case with insiders.

The combination of various isolated pieces of information will paint a clearer picture of the entire event. However, the outlook portrayed by this outline is not the bright future that outsiders had predicted.

It's been nonsense for a long time, what bad news do you have?

Don't say? Don't say it......

The outsider held a rod, a steel drill, a flat hemp rope, and stared at the insider's thighs, calves, and legs viciously and asked.

This one......

This one......

The insider hesitated for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and said:

It's not ...... to kill me.

Heroes spare their lives! I'm recruiting! I'm all recruited!

……

It turned out that He Fengsheng, a Jiangxia native known as "He Deaf", was forced to enter the cabinet soon after he repeatedly made his way to the office.

The emperor saw that He Fengsheng really had no intention of falling in love with the stack, and he did not have the ability to save the crisis, so he went downhill and allowed him to return to his hometown.

A few days ago, He Fengsheng returned to Wuchang, and a large number of officials and old students received him from the wind. Talking about the difficult situation in the current court, He Fengsheng burst into tears and couldn't cry, which shocked everyone for a while, and became the biggest political news in Huguang today.

THE PERSON WHO REPLACED HIM WAS WU FU (SHEN), A SCHOLAR OF THE MINISTRY OF RITES AND A SCHOLAR OF DONGKAKU UNIVERSITY (NOTE 1).

Wu Fu is a native of Xinghua in the south of Zhixing, Wanli forty-one years of Jinshi, as a county, did the imperial history, once for Henan, Shaanxi patrol, Chongzhen seven years promoted to Shanxi governor, Chongzhen eleven years and Chongzhen thirteen years into Beijing twice, as the military department left waiter. He is an old qualified member of the Donglin Party, who has had two ups and downs in the Huan Sea, has been expelled from the government, and has been dismissed from the township.

Because Wu Fu is a cadre who grew up in Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and other places where bandits are serious, has good political achievements and official reputation, and is also a well-known saint of Xinglin in the officialdom, he must be honest "presumably." Therefore, at the beginning of his tenure, the emperor placed great hopes on him.

At the beginning of his tenure, Wu Fu took on a tricky task: to urge Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue to lead the army to aid Bianbian and relieve the siege of Feng.

Urging reinforcements may sound like a simple matter of a cabinet letter, but in fact it is far from it.

When the army wants to fight, the first thing is food, and what the court lacks is food.

If the imperial court could not provide food and wages, those Qiu Ba found a reason not to fight, and put the emperor's holy decree cabinet on the shelf.

Fortunately, this time the emperor rescued Kaifeng City, which was single-minded, even if he became a dragon robe and sold the Jinluan Palace. Therefore, Wu Fu received this unfortunate errand, so he had to go around asking God and Buddha with the holy decree, and finally raised 500,000 taels of silver for the Qiu Ba (Note 2).

The silver was smashed down. On 1 May, the Ding and Yang reinforcements, who were eager for the Kaifeng military and civilians, were finally dispatched.

When insiders talk about this, I'm afraid everyone realizes the problem:

500,000 taels of silver, the court allocated it, and it sank into the sea and disappeared!

Four routes to aid the Bianda army, two of which used Huguang as a rear base. Zuo Liangyu's rear was in Xiangyang Mansion, and Fang Guoan's rear was in De'an Mansion (now Anlu). However, neither Xiangyang Mansion nor De'an Mansion could independently support the supply of food and wages for the expeditionary army, and in the end they would rely on the big merchants in Hankou to buy from the markets in Huguang and Jiangxi.

According to the usual practice in the past, the orders for the purchase of grain, grass and weapons would be sent to the eight guilds in Hankou in advance (Note 3), and then the guild bosses would convene the various merchants to discuss and formulate a charter for the distribution of profits, and then each family would prepare separately.

The bigwigs of the Eight Great Guilds once estimated that even if half of the 500,000 taels of silver were embezzled by civil and military officials at all levels, and the benefits taken from other places were subtracted, the orders that fell to the merchants in Hankou would not be less than 150,000!

After all, food, a satisfying thing, is not something that can be bought anywhere with silver. Looking at the entire north of the Yangtze River, there is no second place other than Hankou that can provide a large amount of food!

However, the merchants of Hankou miscalculated.

This time to aid Bian, hundreds of thousands of Chu troops walked silently, and there was no intention of fighting at all. And most of the guys who went to Xiangyang De'an to inquire about the news came back, saying that they also did not receive orders over there!

Could it be that the order will be placed in Henan, where the bark and grass are gnawed up?

No way!

The merchants of Hankou Town guessed the only possibility for the first time:

That is, Zuo Liangyu and Fang Guoan did not mean to reserve military funds for a long time for the aid war!

If the army has no food, it will disperse on its own.

This simple truth is understood by the merchants who do Qiu Ba's business, but don't Qiu Ba, who is fighting for his life, not understand?

The Qiu Ba rushed into battle naked with hungry stomachs, this is not a desperate attack, this is a run back at any time!

Okay!

When the insiders said this, there was a cheer all around.

Why do we let our outstanding Huguang children work hard for the Henan people who steal, rob and commit fraud?!

Zuo Liangyu is worthy of being a general trained by the Guanning Army, and the kung fu that turned in front of the enemy really won the true inheritance of the Guanning Army!

Such an army has been going thousands of miles away, and not even a single straw will be left for the thieves!

If Zuo Dashuai returns to Xiangyang, my Huguang Province will be impregnable!

You foolish!

The insiders shouted: You all think Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue are dead? If the two of them participate in a book, the emperor will be furious, and Zuo Dashuai will not be in danger!

I can't imagine that there are still people worried about Zuo Liangyu's future! Among the outsiders, there is a strange yin and yang who speak in a strange way.

Do you know what Zuo Liangyu has done to rob Xiangyang and Yunyang? If there is no Chengtian Mansion, the land of Longxing, in the north of Hanyang Mansion, maybe the next one to be robbed by the left locust is Hankou Town at the foot of this foot!

Will Zuo Liangyu rob Hankou?

I'm afraid not. After all, we have been dealing with Zuo Dashuai for many years, and we have no credit and hard work...... The speaker's heart is already empty.

Credit, hard work?

The military rations are short of two catties, and one catty of grain is mixed with three taels of sand, is it your hard work?

The iron helmet made of cardboard, the sword and gun made of rotten wood, is your credit and hard work?

The outlier among the outsiders sarcastically sarcastic: Besides, how can the thief be easy to deal with, Zuo Liangyu can run away if he wants to? If the thief doesn't want Zuo Liangyu to run away, the thief has a way!

You...... You, who are you! Why do you know so much? Isn't he a thief's spy? If you don't reveal your identity, hum...... I'll take you to the official later!

Insiders and outsiders picked up the rods and rods and steel brazing flat hemp rope together, and aimed at the thighs, calves and middle legs of this strange species.

"Someone's coming, indecent!" The alien lifted his cone hat, revealing a head full of green silk.

Hearing the shouts, dozens of strong men jumped down from several large boats on the shore that were unloading and loading goods. Swords and guns lit up, and they rushed towards this direction.

"Who is so bold! Dare to insult my young lady! ”

"Misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding! Harmony makes money! Ah, harmony makes money! Brother Tai ...... Ah, this young lady, there will be a period later! Scattered, scattered, scattered! ”

Note 1: Historical records record that the time when Wu Fu entered the cabinet was June of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen. Here the plot is needed, months in advance.

Note 2: "Chongzhen Records Volume 15" records: "50,000 gold in the hair, 100,000 gold in the household department, silver medals, cloth coins to reward Zuo Liangyujun." ”

This is the virtue of the ancient texts.

"Golden 50,000" and "Golden 100,000", is it gold or silver?

How much is the "silver medal and cloth coin" worth?

Xiangmu was furious, and directly wrote 500,000.

Note 3: The earliest private commercial monopolies were not trusts or syndicates, but guilds formed by industry, region, and even place of origin.

Note that guilds are not Chinese characteristics. China has it, and foreign countries have it. For example, in the Renaissance, the guilds of all walks of life in Venice were already quite mature.

Those who say monopoly must call trust can shut up.