After the beginning of spring, the snow and ice melted, and the Grand Canal returned to its former prosperity. On the river, there is an endless stream of merchant ships coming and going.

Since the establishment of the Grand Canal, waterway transport has become the main logistics mode for the north and south.

On a merchant ship, Yuan Hao touched a few short beards on his chin and asked, "Where are we here?" ”

On the side, a man dressed in a short shirt replied respectfully: "Steward Yuan, we are about to enter the Shandong realm." ”

"Got it."

Yuan Hao nodded, walked to the bow of the boat and stretched.

He was originally a member of the Wang family's carriage and horses, and he was a gangster on the rivers and lakes. Last year, he followed Li Dong into Beijing and became a nursing home for the Li family.

Not long ago, Li Xiu wanted to sell smuggled salt, and transferred all of them to escort the goods, and entrusted him with the position of steward.

Yuan Hao doesn't look good, he is in his twenties, and he can't get his mother-in-law. Now that he has followed Li Xiu, the tide is rising, and even the clothes he wears are much more decent than others.

After becoming a steward, Yuan Hao obviously felt that several maids in the Li family looked at him differently. He was thinking in his heart at the moment, if he worked hard for a few more days, he would ask the master to be a daughter-in-law.

When the merchant ship arrived at the wharf, Yuan Hao saw a large number of officers and soldiers surrounding the shore, and muttered: "My good man, so many officers and soldiers, the formation is really terrifying!" ”

Yuan Hao hurriedly stepped forward and saluted respectfully to the official who led the team: "This official master, we are good people, and what we sent was just a boatload of salted fish, and there was absolutely no crime." ”

This person is the imperial history of Shandong Province, so he ignored him, and ordered directly to the soldiers: "Search for me!" ”

The soldiers were ordered to rush onto the merchant ship and search inside and out.

After the search, a soldier went to the shore and reported, "Lord Goshi, nothing has been found. ”

This Yushi frowned, walked to Yuan Hao's merchant ship in person, and saw the ten carts of salted fish that were turned over, and wondered in his heart: "Is this a mistake, people are transporting salted fish, where does the private salt come from?" ”

Withhold people first?

No, if there is really private salt, it is fine, and it can be regarded as a great achievement. Just a little salt wrapped in salted fish, it is not a sale of smuggled salt at all. If you detain this batch of goods again, you will be offended by the adults in the capital.

"It's unlucky!"

He thought about it for a while and decided to let it go. Then, he left with those officers and soldiers.

Yuan Hao watched the officers and soldiers leave, and touched his beard with a smile: "The master is really like a god, no wonder everyone is the reincarnation of Kong Ming!" ”

At this time, on the official road that was about to enter the boundary of Shandong, a caravan slowly moved forward.

The caravan was huge, with ten carts full of goods. On both sides of each car, there were two men. The leader was a man with a delicate face, who was Sun Ming.

These days, because he often goes out to run goods, his original white skin has become a little tanned.

As early as Yancheng County, after Sun Ming was loaded with goods, he was about to go on the road when he received news that he would drop the merchant ships on land and water and take the dry road instead.

Sun Ming got the order, so he let Yuan Hao lead the team to take the waterway, and he himself transported this batch of salt from the official road. I used to go by land and water, but this was the first time I went by dry road.

There was a banknote pass ahead, and Li Xiu told him that as long as the official lamp of the Nanzhen Fu envoy was hung on the car, those people would definitely not dare to embarrass it.

Having said that, Sun Ming was still a little apprehensive in his heart. This is a head-killing thing, and I'm not afraid it's fake.

After settling down, Sun Ming walked a few steps quickly, stepped forward and said, "A few poor masters, we are the car of the envoy of Jinyi Weinan Town, please make it convenient." ”

As he spoke, a piece of silver had been quietly stuffed into the palm of the leader's hand.

The man in the lead took the silver, looked at him quietly, and then glanced at the car in front of him, and sure enough, he saw the official lamp with the words Nanzhen Fu Envoy. He waved his hand, and the soldiers guarding the pass immediately made way and let the convoy pass the checkpoint.

After walking forward for a while, Sun Mingtou glanced at it and secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

The reason why Li Xiu was able to learn the news in advance was all because of the informant who had been placed in Wen Tiren's mansion before. Otherwise, this really has to be in Wen Tiren's hands.

On the day of the time, after the servant finished delivering the tea, he hurried to find Han Lin.

After getting the news, Han Lin knew that the matter was very important, and immediately took him to Sihailou to meet Li Xiu and report the matter.

When Li Xiu heard this, he immediately summoned Xu Jiang and asked him to do something on the road and drag the messenger back.

At that time, Li Dong had just rushed to Huai'an, and Wen Tiren was able to learn the news in advance, all because he had figured out the law of Li Xiu's delivery: he traveled every half a month.

During this period, news was generally delivered through post stations. The so-called "600 miles expedited" and "800 miles expedited" are all delivered by post station express horses.

In ancient times, there was generally a post every twenty miles, and there were fast horses in the post station. In case of emergency, the messenger will change people and horses every time he arrives at a post station, and he can travel 800 miles a day at the earliest. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the post station had tended to be perfected.

However, after the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, he did a major thing to abolish the post station.

Nationwide, a large number of post stations and post guards have been largely abolished, and only about two-thirds of the original ones have been retained. Among them is an unemployed post man named Li Zicheng.

As a result, it is now slower to deliver messages through post stations. And in the post stations everywhere, there will be spies of Jinyiwei.

Li Xiu, as the envoy of Nanzhen, wanted to intercept a message and let him convey it to Huai'an Mansion slowly, which was very easy.

Huai'an Mansion is subordinate to Nanzhili, but it is under the jurisdiction of Jiangxi Province in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Jiangxi Province has set up a salt patrol under the imperial history, which is responsible for supervising the salt administration. To put it simply, it is to catch salt dealers.

After Feng Yushi received the news, he immediately mobilized the salt soldiers to prepare to intercept it, but unfortunately when he arrived, Li Xiu's convoy had already left Huainan Mansion and arrived at the boundary of Shandong.

Worried that Wen Tiren would still have a backhand, Li Xiu directly dropped the team and took the dry road instead. Sure enough, I got the news later that the post stations along the road had also intercepted the messenger who was rushing to Shandong.

Wen Tiren made a lot of calculations, but he didn't expect Li Xiu to be able to detect his actions in advance and change his course. No matter how powerful he is, it is impossible for him to mobilize a large number of people and block all the roads along the way.

Li Xiu had been walking by water before, so why bother to intercept the dry road?

Wen Tiren later got the news and immediately looked for the subordinate in the mansion, but the person never came again since he went out that day, and he was nowhere to be found.

ps: Explain,Dian Niang automatically changed the name of the place to the letter.,It's really not me who did it! I will try to make sure that everyone understands the new place names. (To be continued.) )

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