The day after Zhu Pingjin ascended the hall and received the worship of the hundred officials, Fuxing Bao issued a special issue featuring this grand royal ceremony, and issued nearly 100,000 copies to Chengdu Prefecture and all the prefectures, prefectures, counties and even toasts in Sichuan at a symbolic price of one copper plate.

Many merchants passing through Chengdu, after being asked about their business name and destination, will be forcibly required by the government to bring dozens or hundreds of special periodicals, and then transfer them to the local government or Tusi after arriving at the destination. Through this form, the people of Shu saw a clear image for the first time:

It was a majestic, benevolent, noble boy with noble blood and the highest power in Shu. This teenager, in the turbulent years of war and chaos, may be a symbol and guarantee of their life safety and peaceful life.

……

Chen Youfu and Luo Jingyun joined forces, the system was complete, and the strength was greatly increased, and they immediately planned to rely on the new deal dam to give the local tyrants who might come out to grab grain to face the head-on, and play the prestige of the Shu Wangfu and the caravan in northern Sichuan. But with so many places around the New Deal Dam, where are the rioters most likely to appear? At this time, Li Kun, the warden of the New Political Dam, suddenly came to visit, and established the direction for the first attack of the caravan.

The city tower of the east gate of Xinzheng Dam is like a broken temple standing on the dirt slope. The headquarters of the third battalion of the caravan is located here. The Li family once vacated a compound and invited Luo Jingyun and Chen Youfu to live, but the two refused. However, the woman Tu brought back by Lin Yan from Shunqing Mansion had nowhere to be placed in the army, so she ended up living in Zhou Wenzheng's house and being accompanied by Miss Zhou.

The area in the castle tower is not large. A large table is placed in the center and occupies a lot of space. On the table was a white silk with fine lines carved on it.

"Luo Jianjun, Battalion Commander Chen, generals, please take a look."

Li Ke pointed to the white silk and said: "This is Changping Mountain (Changping Mountain), there is a small village at the foot of the mountain, and there is an ancient village on the mountain. The village is surrounded by cliffs and cliffs, the forest is abundant, there is only one sheep intestine trail and the road under the mountain to connect, and the mountain has to pass through the nine gates of the village. Hold here, advance can be attacked, retreat can be defended. The road under the mountain is a three-way intersection. The road comes from Jincheng Walled, one goes to Nanmuchang, and the other goes to the east gate of Xinzheng Dam. There are three more roads through Nanmuchang, one crosses the river to Panlongchang, one goes to the southern county seat through Beiyuan Temple, and one goes directly to the Jialing River, and then along the river through Bird's Nest Mountain to the north gate of Xinzheng Dam. ”

"It's good to occupy Changping Mountain, but we're not here to guard the southern county!"

Chen Youfu stared at the map, his fingers moving along the lines on the map. He lit a black circle and said, "This is the Golden City Walled City in Yilong County." When the local rioters come from near Bazhou, they will definitely pass through the Jincheng Walled City. If you can get in touch with Jincheng Walled, you can detect the movements of the local rioters in advance. When the local thugs attack the city, we can suddenly kill from the back, and attack the front and back of the golden walled city, and we will definitely win a big victory! ”

Chen Youfu's proposal immediately aroused the motivational discussion of the generals, and everyone began to gossip.

Luo Jingyun learned his brother-in-law's posture and tapped a few times on the table with two fingertips to stop the generals.

"Li Gongzi has a new policy for the world, and he has an official errand, and he has many situations in the mountains and rivers of this place. Why don't you wait for Li Gongzi to finish speaking, and then everyone will discuss? ”

"Luo Gongzi looks up to him, but he doesn't dare to be honest!" Li Kun pointed to the black circle with a smile and said: "The art of war says, know yourself and know your opponent, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles." Although Jincheng Walled City is a dangerous county town, it is a dead city. If the officers and soldiers do not defend it, and the thieves do not attack, it will be useless, so what is the use of it. ”

Chen Youfu reacted suddenly, and he made the mistake of impatience again. The general of an army must master the five elements of mission, enemy situation, self-situation, terrain and time, which are also called the "five elements" by the prince. Shizi repeatedly emphasized: "The five elements are uncertain, and you will lose cleanly (Note 1). "Now that I don't know anything about the situation in Jinchengzhai, I put forward a strategy to attack back and forth, isn't that nonsense? Chen Youfu's face was slightly hot, but fortunately, Li Kun was talking about the defense situation of the official army near Boryeong Mansion, and everyone was listening carefully, and no one noticed his embarrassment.

“…… Boryeong Mansion used to guard one of the thousand households, but now it is just an empty shell, with only one or two hundred soldiers, all of them are old and weak. After the Chu army Zhang Zuokai entered Sichuan, he was also stationed in Bazhou City in Baoning Prefecture. Last year, the thieves entered Shu, defeated the general army Fang Guoan at Youxikou, Dazhou, and took advantage of the situation to enter Bazhou. Zhang Zuokai didn't want to go out of the city, but he was afraid that he would be beheaded by Yang Sichang's Shang Fang sword, so he couldn't do it, so he had to send hundreds of soldiers out of the city to intercept him. It is conceivable that within a quarter of an hour of the battle, these hundreds of soldiers scattered in a hurry and ran away.

Zhang Zuokai originally wanted to make a truce, and sat at the head of Bazhou City to send the thieves across the border. How did he know that Fang Guoan, the town of the Sichuan Administration, chased him to Bazhou and immediately ordered Zhang Zuokai to pursue with him. Only then did Zhang Zuokai gather all the soldiers and horses and join the Ministry of State Security. The thief crossed the Jialing River and immediately turned his head to fight with Fang Guoan and Zhang Zuokai, who had caught up, in Zhenpu above Jianzhou. The two armies were tired and fled in defeat, and Luo Wanxiang and other generals lost their lives. Fu Bing Yin Qigao, Sun Fengsheng, Wei Jiazeng, and Shu Ming were reinforced to Kangxiangpu, and collided head-on with the thieves and returned defeated. All the generals are dead, and there is not a single soldier. After this battle, there were only 1,000 remnants of Zhang Zuokai. For most of the past six months, Zhang Zuokai has been pulling troops to rob his husband, trying to restore his strength. In the first two months, Sichuan Fu sent about 2,000 reinforcements from Syria and Qiongzhou, and this Zhang Zuokai dared to send the main force to the vicinity of Yuxi in the southwest of Bazhou to confront the local tyrants of Bazhou. As for the southern part of the Xinzheng Dam, there are only 300 garrisons, which are commanded by a member surnamed Mi. Coupled with the strong men raised by the county lord and the county squires, there are about seven or eight hundred people. ”

"Li Dian's intention is that Zhang Zuokai's battalion and the county soldiers in the southern county can't be counted on." Lin Yan interjected.

"Exactly!" Li Ke nodded and said: "Don't say that now Zhang Zuokai has few soldiers and few generals, even if he gives him another 10,000, he will not send troops to Yilong." ”

"Why is that?" Lin Yan is very strange, don't the officers and soldiers rely on the head to remember the merits.

"Those rotten soldiers of Zhang Zuokai, a group of people called Huazi, I don't know where they were caught! It's better to expect them to fight, it's better to ......" Li Kun's face was full of contempt, and he swallowed back the unpleasant words he didn't say.

"Even if Zhang Zuokai's soldiers are strong and strong, he may not be able to garrison Yilong." Luo Jingyun said with a smile.

Chen Youfu patted his head and suddenly realized: "I understand, that Yilong County belongs to Pengzhou, which is under the jurisdiction of Shunqing Mansion, and has nothing to do with Baoning Mansion!" Besides, the Jincheng Walled City is built on Jincheng Mountain, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The local tyrants have been raging for so many years, and the Jincheng Walled City has long been asking for grain and silver, so why should the local tyrants fight with the government for a difficult and dangerous lonely city? ”

"If the county seat is lost, the government will have to find a local tyrant desperately in order to keep Wusha!" Lin Yan also understood. He sighed: "The local tyrant doesn't seem to be dirty at all, but he is very smart!" ”

With a lesson, Chen Youfu learned to be obedient. He also followed Luo Jingyun's example: "What are the benefits of Changping Mountain, please ask Mr. Li for advice." ”

"Listen to Battalion Commander Chen and Luo Jianjun, you have to go out to fight the local tyrants and frustrate their edge." As he spoke, Li Kun showed a mysterious smile to the officers present: "As long as you occupy Changping Mountain, within five days, there will be a battle!" ”

Perhaps seeing the doubts of Chen Youfu, Luo Jingyun and others, he smiled and reminded: "Since the thieves are called soil tyrants, then they must be robbing things when they come out." If there is nothing to rob, what are they doing here? ”

"Grab something? Is it food? Everyone's brains were spinning at high speed, and it turned out that He Yongnian, who was familiar with the local situation, took the lead.

His fingers pressed on the silk cloth and slid southwest from Changping Mountain, to Nanmuchang, and then to the northeast, until he stopped under the sharp corner symbol of a large mountain.

"Yuji Mountain! Beiyuan Temple! He Yongnian said with a smile, "What Li Gongzi said must be here!" ”

……

The southern county is located in the north of Sichuan, the land is not wide, the field is not abundant, in the counties of Baoning, the wealth is not inferior to the city of Langzhong, what is it? Because the southern counties are rich in a special mineral that everyone needs: salt. The main production area of well salt in the southern county is around the Beiyuan Temple at the foot of Yuji Mountain.

Salt is probably one of the oldest commodities in China.

Since the Han Dynasty, salt has been included in the state's catalogue of exclusive commodities. BY THE SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY, THE SALT TAX BECAME ONE OF THE MAIN REVENUES OF THE STATE, AND IN SOME YEARS IT REACHED NEARLY 13 MILLION TAELS (MIN), WHICH WAS CONVERTED INTO SILVER, WHICH WAS ABOUT 13 MILLION TAELS.

When the Ming Dynasty was built, the border army lacked food, and the imperial court opened the Chinese law, allowing merchants to transport grain to the border, and then brought back salt from the border, and used salt to extract salt in the inland salt area. Later, the salt government was corrupted, and the imperial court implemented the "one whip law", and the tax was added to the salt introduction (bill of lading for edible salt), and from this, salt became a special currency. Concubine Zheng Guifei begged for the seal of her baby son King Fu, thinking that the land was too little, so she asked for a large amount of salt.

If the thugs can grab the salt, it is equivalent to grabbing the silver. Not only to meet their own needs, but also to sell and earn huge profits.

Under the instruction of his father Li Junying, Li Kun dared to suggest to Chen Youfu and Luo Jingyun that the main forces of Xinzheng Dam should be used on the road from Yilong County to Nanfang County, in addition to judging that the local tyrants would definitely come out to loot during the season of harvesting grain and salt, but also because he had reliable inside information.

After Fu Chongqi poured the Sichuan Salt Tea Ceremony, Liu Zhibo, the governor of Sichuan, immediately sent people to inspect the tax situation of the salt industry in Sichuan. But the salt industry is a rotten net full of holes in the whole country, where can it withstand the toss of Lord Liu? When the southern county heard the news, it was said that Fang Yaoxiang, the same governor and supervisor of Chengdu, had made people angry in the artesian and Gongjing areas, and that some salt merchants had already released words to buy his head with silver.

Of course, the southern county side is also nervous. The local salt transportation yamen has already sold dozens of times the actual production of salt, overdrawing tax revenues for decades to come. These taxes did not go into the treasury of the government, but in accordance with the rules of officialdom, they fell into the pockets of private individuals. However, the local salt affairs yamen in the southern county has gradually formed a set of effective countermeasures for the inspection of the higher authorities. One of the simplest and most effective ways is to invite the bandits to the salt works to grab it. After reporting the case, anything can be pushed on the local tyrant, even if Liu Zhibo comes in person, there is nothing he can do about it.

The Li family is an indigenous person from Nanfang County, and they are also the head snake of the land that straddles the political and business worlds. They're all too familiar with it. They have even made preliminary inquiries about this year's invitees through their own channels: Yao Yuchuan, a local thug entrenched in the mountains east of Yilong County.

Yao Yuchuan is the son of Yao Tiandong, and also inherited his father's name: "Shake the Sky".

Note 1: Salute to Liu Shuai.