Chapter XVIII The Return of the Navy Captures Gold and Silver

When Mu Yi in Annan said goodbye to Li Zicheng and others and led the naval army to retreat, they left the gunboats to them.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Yaogang naval army, Li Zicheng's army made full use of the characteristics of Annam's water network to turn the most unfavorable conditions for fighting in Annam into the most powerful conditions. Now, militarily speaking, the problem north of the Red River has been basically solved, and some of the resisting forces in the south have also laid down their arms and surrendered with the cooperation of Li Li. It's just that further south, those who were already dissatisfied with Li Li are still putting up stubborn resistance. However, they also used guerrilla tactics to make trouble, and they could not pose a greater threat.

Before, Mu Yi, Zheng Zhilong, Li Zicheng and others discussed, and before leaving, they took a major military operation and sent more than 10,000 people led by Li Laiheng to Cam Ranh Bay south of Annam to land. This was done in order to expedite the settlement of the war in Annam. This move was a heavy blow to the Nan'an resistance. It was the base camp of the rear of the resistance, which was easily occupied by Li Laiheng, and most of the resistance troops that had been gathered with great difficulty were wiped out.

Li Zicheng adopted the advice of Yaogang and adopted the strategy of using razing to defeat raze, and let the Annan people who returned to Shun deal with them, which had a very good effect, because the Annan people knew each other and were familiar with the situation. In short, Li Zicheng and their steady two-sided advancement, progress is smooth. In this way, Mu Yi and they can go back with confidence.

Before leaving, Li Zicheng and others personally went to Haiphong to see off Mu Yi and them, and the friendship received in this battle made everyone a little inseparable. A few drunken meals are inevitable.

On the return trip, Mu Yi's fleet, in addition to loading a lot of rice, also brought more than 20,000 Annam prisoners of war. Transporting Annan prisoners of war from the road is generally Li Zicheng's people, and sending the prisoners to Nanning, which requires many people to escort, and eating on the road is a major event, so the cost of escorting the prisoners is not low. The direct transport of the prisoners by boat also reduced the burden of escorting the prisoners.

The prisoners were transported to Dengzhou (Penglai).

Although Dengzhou Mansion (Penglai) is still under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, Lu Chengxiang bought a lot of beach land here to build salt farms. The local officials knew that the Ming Dynasty was not allowed to make salt privately, but the matter of the kiln gang people, the prefect of Dengzhou (Penglai) also knew that it could not be controlled, and issued a document to announce that the imperial court had long stipulated that smuggling salt was a felony, and there was no follow-up. Prisoners were sent here to be held in the vicinity of the salt works and to participate in the work of the salt works. When they march into Liaodong, they will be sent to Liaodong. Here, Lu Chengxiang arranged that several camps for prisoners had been built on the basis of an old military camp. In fact, the captives are not afraid that he will run away when they arrive here, they can't understand the language, they can't find it when they go out, and they will starve to death if they are not caught.

When Mu Yi and their naval army opened back, Jiang Pai also led the people of their Eastern Expedition Headquarters to gather in Datong, and the 12th Infantry Army, the Fifth Infantry Army, the First Cavalry Army, the Second Cavalry Army and Li Wei's special forces who participated in the Eastern Expedition also gathered on Datong's side. A heavy artillery division of the Liaodong Military Region and a heavy artillery division of the Northern Military Region both marched to Liaodong with the Eastern Expeditionary Contingent this time, and also assembled in Datong. Moreover, this kind of assembly was carried out with great fanfare, and grain, grass, ammunition and materials were all openly transported to Datong. The whole of Shanxi and thus the entire Ming Dynasty knew that the army of the Yaogang people had been assembled and was ready to go to war against the Manchus in eastern Liaodong.

Secretly, the 11th Army of the Central Plains Military Region secretly moved to Kaifeng. This was prepared to march by water. Twenty landing craft are also training in the upper reaches of the Fen River and are ready to be dispatched at any time. Time is tight, and it is the water army of Yaogang. The Hongzehu returned to Quanzhou to put down Zheng Zhilong and Mu Yi, and after transporting the captives to Dengzhou (Penglai), it came to Weitou Bay in front of Zheng Zhilong's hometown and stopped at the dock in Ping'an Town. Lu Chengxiang has been picked up from Guangzhou by the Xiurong of Yaogang and is waiting here in advance.

Li Jing's team of special forces never dared to leave Zheng Zhilong's mansion. This time, as soon as the Hongze Lake docked at the pier, the divers began to go into the water to get things.

Zheng Zhilong's mansion has a waterway that leads directly to the pier, and smaller boats can directly enter the Zheng mansion and dock at the pier in the courtyard. The wharf in the yard was dug out by hand, but after analysis, the kiln gang people found that there was no need to dock too big boats in the yard, and there was no need to dig so deep. Finally, when the divers went down, they found that there was a large space under the pier that was empty, and there were many jars with sealed mouths in it. The jars are so heavy that even two divers can move them underwater. Divers use ropes to carry up a jar. When they reached the shore, they found that the mouth of the jar was stuffed with wood, and the outside of the wood was sealed with lacquer. In order to waterproof, several layers of tung oil cloth were wrapped on the outside. It took a great deal of effort to open the jar, and when I saw that it was full of gold. And a different jar was brought up, and it was full of silver. These things are very secretive. Ordinary people can't dive as deep as you if they are not good at water, even if they dive down, there is no light below and they can't see the jar buried in the silt. Besides, if the inside of the jar does not enter the water, it will not have much effect on gold and silver. As for how much there is underwater, it is not clear in a short time. Yaogang didn't let them touch these treasures anymore. Because of these things, it may be safer underwater.

After Lu Chengxiang arrived here, he looked at the gold and silver inside the altar and found that they were all recast gold and silver ingots. It is estimated that the weight of gold and silver in each of the following jars is certain. Lu Chengxiang knew that the gold and silver he got this time were indispensable. Zheng Zhilong took the initiative to hand over a lot of gold and silver. Besides, not only Lu Chengxiang thinks, but several giants in Yaogang believe that Zheng Zhilong earns more than 10 million taels of silver from the sea every year, and for so many years, the gold and silver in his hand should definitely be a huge amount, not the five million taels of silver and 150,000 taels of gold that he handed over.

After the Hongze Lake docked, Lu Chengxiang began to instruct divers to carry those jars from underwater, he took people to personally count, opened several jars, and found that sure enough, the amount of gold and silver in each jar was the same, the jar containing gold was different from the jar containing silver, and the jar containing gold was smaller. During the day, when the jar was carried out from the water, the gate was closed tightly, and ordinary people around were not allowed to approach, and at night they used a speedboat to carry the jar to the Hongze Lake. I didn't expect this to be done for ten days. Although Lu Chengxiang has too many things to do outside, Lu Chengxiang will not leave the family to complete this matter step by step.

In the end, an astonishing figure was counted, and the amount of silver that came out of the water was fifteen million taels, and the amount of gold was three hundred and fifty thousand taels. This number made Lu Chengxiang's hands tremble a little after the statistics. He hurriedly drafted a secret telegram report to Zhang Zhimu.

After loading the ship that night, Lu Chengxiang immediately commanded to set sail as soon as it was dawn, and Li Jing's special forces followed Lu Chengxiang back to ensure the safety of the gold and silver. The Hongzehu left Weitou Bay and headed east to the mouth of the Yellow River. Yaogang sent a team of tugboats to pick up Lu Chengxiang and them, and at the same time sent four speedboats to escort the tugboats.

Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He heard that they were getting so much silver at once, although they had long known that it would not be too little, but when they heard this exact number, they were still amazed.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Now, the entire Ming Dynasty is waiting for a lot of money, and there are too many places where we need silver. Besides, we have won the right to issue banknotes, and if we want to issue kiln coins in the Ming Dynasty, we also need a large amount of gold and silver as capital. After we unified the Ming Dynasty, we ordered that the circulation of gold and silver should be stopped, and gold and silver could only be circulated in the market after the bank was exchanged for kiln gang coins. At that time, more gold and silver were needed as reserves. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Zhimu is right, if there is no hard currency such as gold and silver as a backup, our kiln currency will be wool in the future, and no one will recognize it." ”

Not many people know about this big thing. The jars were never opened, and when they were transferred from the Hongzehu to the tugboat, they were not told what they were, but they were only asked to keep them secret. When the tugboat transported these jars to Lingshui Wharf, Yan Boju and Yang Jing personally led people to greet them, and directly transported these jars to the Yaogang vault by car. Even the SWAT who carried it didn't know what it was, so they guessed they could guess it, but they didn't know where these things came from.

In the end, it was Huang Yukun who handled it, and only after she counted the accounts could it be considered warehousing. In fact, Huang Yukun can only count the number of jars, this time the jars are in the underground vault, they are all placed in one place, and the jars are not opened again.

This matter is too big, Zhang Zhimu felt that he should let the giants of Yaogang know. Just as Chen Yufeng said: "Mr. Lu has worked hard, we should celebrate with wine." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Let's celebrate Mr. Lu's achievements together with a few of us at home!" ”

In fact, those who are in Yaogang now are in addition to the few people who know about this now, that is, Zhang Bengui and Li Yan, and no one else is there. So there were Zhang Zhimu, Chen Yufeng, Yan Boju, Ouyang He, Lu Chengxiang, Zhang Bengui, Li Yan who drank at night, and Huang Yukun resolutely did not participate in such a banquet.

At the wine table, when they heard for the first time that so much silver had been transported back to the kiln, Zhang Bengui and Li Yan were in a daze. After a while, Zhang Bengui said: "The court has not collected so much silver in a few years!" ”

"Yes! During the Great Song Dynasty, the imperial court collected the most silver, which was tens of millions of taels per year. Can this Zheng Zhilong really earn silver? I thought it was quite a bit last time he handed it over by himself. I didn't expect it to be so much. Li Yan said.

"It is not surprising that most of the silver in the Great Song Dynasty was customs tariff silver. Now that the imperial court can't collect it, Zheng Zhilong's collection should be a small number. Ouyang He said.

The most proud Lu Chengxiang said: "It is said that my old Lu likes silver the most, and I have seen a lot of silver." When I finished counting the gold and silver in Zheng Zhilong's mansion, I quietly pinched myself, and I felt like I was in a dream. ”

Yan Boju didn't forget to joke Lu Chengxiang and said: "This time, you Lu Xiaoli should be generous!" Ha ha! ”

"If you can't be generous, just rely on what Mr. Zhang wants to do, no matter how much money you have, it's not enough. Thankfully! Our factory is really a chicken that lays golden eggs! When I arrived in Fujian, I learned that the first aluminum products we went out of were sold as silver by those who did overseas trade! Ha ha! Now our aluminum products are also in short supply. When I was in Fujian, those overseas businessmen wanted to see me every day, and they all wanted aluminum products, textiles, medicines, and enamel products. In short, they said that as long as they got what we had in the kiln, they would make money. This time, it is very right for us to put some effort into Quanzhou. There are people from all over the country, and we don't have to worry about selling our things. The more Lu Chengxiang said, the happier he became.

Zhang Zhimu said: "I see! We still solve the problems around us as soon as possible, and then free up our hands, we organize our fleet to trade directly around the world. That's when we made a lot of money and made a lot of money. The world is big! ”

"Yes! In front of us, the Manchu Qing in Liaodong, is a fierce rival. Chen Yufeng said, "Now, the navy still needs to use some strength." When the navy is ready, we can march east. After the matter of Liaodong is settled, we can easily solve the Mongols in the north, and then the next step is the Mongols in the west and the countries in the Western Regions. There are Li Zicheng and Qin Peng and Liu Chenghuang in the south, so we basically don't have to worry about it. ”

"I asked, and two new ships of 5,000 tons and four new ships of 1,000 tons have been launched at the Zhenjiang base. After Mu Yi and his navy finish picking up the ship, they can sail out for a trial voyage, and they can fight if they are familiar with it. In addition, a 20,000-ton giant ship imitating a treasure ship and two steel-hulled ships of the Fu ship standard can also be launched before the end of the year. The naval army can't delay our march into Liaodong. Ouyang He said.

"Don't worry about logistics, camels and carriages don't have to worry. A month in advance, I will have everything ready. Our things are all in Datong, and we can transport them away from Datong. Lu Chengxiang said, "We also have a lot of cars, and they can be used when the time comes." That guy transports more. ”

Yaogang was a little worried about the water army, and Mu Yi was even more anxious. After they returned to Quanzhou, they took a brief rest, and the crew and cadres at all levels of the Hongzehu and Gaoyouhu were divided into half, and after the regrouping, they were going to Zhenjiang to pick up the new ship. They need to receive the new ship as soon as possible and get familiar with the new ship as soon as possible, because the task of marching into the Liaodong Navy this time is very heavy. Not only are there two new ships of 5,000 tons to be launched, but there are also four steam ships of 1,500 tons to be received.

Fan Chengkun, Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong are all grasping this matter. Zheng Zhilong personally selected experienced people at sea from among his own crew members and arranged crew members for the new ship.

All the sailing crew wanted to get on the steamship, because although the conditions on the sailing ship had changed due to the arrival of the kiln man, the conditions on the steamship and the sailing ship were too bad.

In addition to the task of picking up the new ship, Mu Yi and the others also have the task of experimenting whether the tugboat can cross the sea, which is a task that must be completed by the Yaogang side. Because these tugboats are not solved, they will have to be transported by these large ships across the sea. And to enter the Liaodong inland river, you must have these tugboats.

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New progress in "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty": the Battle of Yashan, the defeat of the Yuan army, the counterattack of the Song army, and the landing in Fuzhou.