In March, Yangzhou City was immersed in the silence of singing and dancing, when the river was close to the opening of the river, and the fat and wealthy salt merchants began to get busy, preparing to open the salt warehouse.

The power of the salt merchants is also revealed here, on the big day of the opening of the river, all the officials of the left and small of the Huaishang River have been invited, even if the bachelor Shi Kefa, the overseer of Yangzhou, has no customs, and they all say that the business is cheap, but by the Huai River, the official robe is juejue, and the black sand is swaying, and the scene, except for the emperor in a yellow robe, is about to catch up with the emperor.

Even the Jiangnan officials, who are known as Qingliu guests, have to bow their heads to the silver!

This salt merchant opened the river is really luxurious, the famous horns of the Qinhuai River were invited to most of them, the painting boat boats are connected with boats, the colorful clothes are walking and walking, and the sound of the tinkling and moving pipa continues! Yangzhou celebrity chefs on both sides of the strait are also throwing off their arms to show their skills, each business is rich and fighting, all kinds of precious materials do not need money to stew in the pot, free to attract diners, just need to leave a poem or an ink painting can be feasted.

You can show your literary talent again, and you can eat white food! Those merry scholars in the south of the Yangtze River also swarmed like flies that encountered carrion, and the songs and songs were endless.

Culturally, it's a big event! But now is the time when the country is divided and the political power is separated, and from the officials, businessmen, and the people, there is really no trace of the country's demise.

"Scholar, please enjoy tea! This is a dragon well before the rain! The real rarity is only the young leaves of the old trees in Lion Peak, even if the old man has so many taels a year, if it is not for the university scholar to come in person, the old man is reluctant to take it out! ”

Blue and white show skirt, plain clothes and hands, clear spring snow charcoal, the value of a small bowl of tea has far exceeded a thousand taels of silver, although it looks like a pain, but this chubby Yangzhou chief merchant Kang Yuanshan's words are full of showing off, even if the other salt merchants present listened to his invitation, they all showed a look of envy and jealousy, a few old tea trees in the Han Dynasty have, even the royal tribute tea is not as expensive as these old gold, it is really a treasure that money can't buy.

"Oh! Sure enough, it's good tea!"

As the protagonist, Shi Kefa was absent-minded, listening to the push, he was a little stunned and took a sip of the tea bowl, he didn't taste a cup of good tea, and the salt merchant sitting under him couldn't help but grin.

But what they don't know is that their current rich prosperity is like a bird's nest on the cliff, which may be subverted by the wind at any time, Xuzhou to Yangzhou three days away, five days ago, he received the news that the Liao army went south to attack Xuzhou, and then Xuzhou cut off contact, Huang Degong, who recently asked for pay, was nearby, and he was immediately pushed to the battlefield, but the day before yesterday, Huang Degong sent a messenger to report, in Lizhuang Town, Mao Jue's forward troops, sent people back to ask for food.

In this way, in just three days, half of the Huaihe River defense line he painstakingly managed has been completed, and Liu Liangzuo's Xuzhou Town has been finished!

Moreover, Lizhuang Town is a day's journey from Yangzhou District, and Huang Dewei can't stop the fierce Northern Iron Horse, and he doesn't know how long he can stop it.

Gao Jie's gang hid far away in Henan and confronted Liu Chong with Mao Jue's department, if Huang Degong was defeated again, Shi Kefa really didn't know what he would do to shield the Yangtze River and protect the group of idiots in front of him!

Shi Kefa's temperament is there, but compared to the old and spicy Sun Chengzong, Xu Guangqi and his ilk are too bad, after all, military talent needs experience to sharpen, and what he can do now is only to support the front-line army as much as possible in terms of materials.

After tasting the tea, his face was bitter, and Shi Kefa brought up the old thing again, and hugged his fist heavily at the salt merchants who were full of fat brains.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if there is no appeasement today, the country has fallen, the northern barbarians are rampant, and the puppet emperor is set up without permission, at this time he is sharpening his knife Huo Huo, preparing to drink Ma Nanjiang, now the imperial court is in financial difficulties, the armament is backward, and the official is cheeky, I still want to ask you to help!"

As soon as these words came out, the entire home platform of Kaijiang became a little quieter, and the salt merchants were fat or thin, but their well-maintained faces were bitter, especially the big chief businessman Kang Yuanshan just now, who had been groaning for a long time, and he hugged his fist heavily.

"University scholar, we and other salt merchants work for the imperial court, and we should also share the worries of the imperial court, but it has been really difficult for business these years! Thieves are rampant, and I finally received a meager salt profit, and I still need to feed up and down, and I really can't do anything! ”

"But the scholar has spoken, and we merchants can't help but express one or two, and we are willing to donate three thousand taels of silver and one thousand stones of grain!"

It's not that there is a shortage of money, this time the salt merchants spent 88,800 taels to invest in these officials, even if they spend a lot of money, these salt merchants don't care, because what they compile is their network, which has great benefits for maintaining the salt merchants' financial resources.

For example, during the Qianlong period, Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River eight times, and most of the silver and silver investments were funded by salt merchants, and even they stammered to the emperor.

But donate to the salary! This thing is not good for them, to put it well, it is to use silver to help the army, and if it is not good, it is to throw silver and let those civil officials and eunuchs really divide it into the hands of the sergeants, how many taels can there be? Moreover, it is a matter of course that all parts of this silver are divided among civil officials, and no one cares about their well-being.

Moreover, the businessmen were looked down upon by the civil officials and scholars, and they also knew in their hearts that the businessmen were still holding a fire in their hearts, why did you landlords not pull out a dime, and it was everyone's interests to protect the family and defend the country, why should we be greedy for silver?

Businessmen pay attention to the benefits of investment, and they are naturally unwilling to pay for such unhelpful investments.

With such a leader, the salt merchants naturally knew the taste, and then they stood up one after another and said, this one donated three thousand, and that one donated one thousand taels, although they were really much stronger than Chongzhen's misers, but with one plus, there was no 500,000 taels or 100,000 stone grain in total.

Shi Kefa immediately became anxious, his face was dark, and his shoulders trembled with anger.

For the first time, this Dongge University scholar was so angry that the salt merchants under him couldn't help but be stunned, there was no way, the salt merchant still had to look at the face of this master, and Shi Kefa was really offended, and they had to walk around without eating, but if they said it, the water that was spilled out, since it was already loaded with no money, wouldn't it be a shame to pay for the silver? After hesitating for a long time, this Kang Wanli was a dignified fist.

"Scholars, you fellow businessmen are in short supply at this time, you have to take the silver, and you really can't take it out, if this is good, everyone is thrifty, this year's summer tax in June, all families are double the silver, how about it?"

This promise is enough to be powerful, the summer tax is 500,000 taels, double it is 1 million taels, half of it will be handed over to the imperial court, and Shi Kefa still has 500,000 taels of silver available, which can be regarded as a huge amount of money.

But June! Huang Degong is brave in battle, and he is not ambiguous about his salary, he wants cash, Shi Kefa can't wait for June, or his face is gloomy, he was quiet for a few seconds, in the worried eyes of those salt merchants, he gritted his teeth fiercely, Shi Kefa still decided to solve the problem.

"Mao Rebell's army has reached Lizhuang Town, Liu Liangzuo fled to Jiangyin, General Huang Degong is in a stalemate with it, everyone, the imperial court really needs ......"

Bang~

Before Shi Kefa's words could be finished, a cannonball suddenly flew out of Beiye, and immediately fell on Guanyin Mountain, the huge bomb exploded, the mountain rock collapsed, and the bronze bell of Daming Temple was buzzed.

What civilization is so fragile in the face of war, in an instant, the literati who are preparing to open the river to release salt at the mouth of the river, and the literati who participated in the salt merchant event, the singers and chefs all exploded in an instant, the women screamed and jumped off the painting boat, and ran to the shore, those pretentious and elegant scholars and cultural people did not play any gentlemanly demeanor, and they couldn't take care of the women at all during the escape.

The painting boat trembled and fled towards the mouth of the river, and the soldiers were also embarrassed to discard the swords, and retreated towards Yangzhou City, at the foot of Guanyin Mountain, looking at the black smoke on the top of the mountain in amazement, Kang Yuanshan for a long time, and then asked Shi Kefa in disbelief.

"Didn't Lord Governor say that the army of Marquis Jingyuan was still fighting against Mao Yi in Lizhuang? This ......, why is this ......"

But at this time, stunned as he watched the black pressure gushing out on the horizon in the distance, like the fierce and invincible iron-blooded army like the cold wind of Liaodong, Shi Kefa couldn't say a word.

…………

Yangzhou, one of the Chinese Kyushu, is now ushering in its new protagonist, under the beautiful Pingshan River, the northern army holding high the banner of Ming and Mao characters from a corner to cover the entire land, the front of the army, sitting on a red-clothed cannon, Sun Chun, the first cannon of the Dongjiang River, is full of momentum with a chest, wearing a beautiful boat-shaped hat high, yesterday's battle of Lizhuang actually did not have the appearance of artillery, which made Sun Chun, who has always boasted of being the main combat strength of the Dongjiang River, angry, Mao Jue is still very fond of these few outstanding female generals under her command, so she came to this opening statement today.

On the ninth day of the war, the army set out from Jinan and reached the edge of the Yangtze River, encircling the last stronghold in the north of the imperial court.

The precautions are so sparse, in fact, if Mao Jue was a carbine lancer raid just now, Shi Kefa would not be able to return to Yangzhou City for a while, and the Jiangbei City, which had held out in front of the Qing army for a few days in history, would also be surnamed Mao at this time! But this time, he deliberately advanced slowly, deliberately looking at those Jiangnan celebrities and literati

(End of chapter)