(Recommended reading: In fact, in addition to the Caoyun Commander-in-Chief and the Caoyun Governor, there is also an important official on Caoyun, that is, the patrol Caoyu Shi sent by the emperor.

The so-called patrol of the imperial history, like the patrol of the imperial history, its own duty is to supervise the imperial history in the Imperial Procuratorate, and was sent by the emperor to the local area to carry out the power of supervision, and the term of office is one year.

Because the imperial court does not send down the imperial history and the imperial history every year, and there are many vacancies in the Wanli court, there is no imperial history in Huai'an City at this time, otherwise it will definitely come to greet Li Hongyu.

In addition to the officials of the Caoyun Yamen, the officials of the Huai'an Prefect Yamen and the Huai'an Wei Command Envoy Yamen and other large and small officials were all present, and the etiquette that should be strictly hierarchical in the officialdom could not be sloppy in the slightest.

"Li has worked hard all the way." After the boat stopped, Li Hongyu got off the boat surrounded by Ma Xianglin and other soldiers of the new army, and Zhao Yizhan led the civil and military officials on the dock to greet him with a smile and said with a smile.

Unlike the fictitious positions of governor and governor of Jiliao, the governor of Caoyun is the actual position of Zheng Erpin, and his official rank is the same as that of the six books.

Although Zhao Yizhan's official position and qualifications far surpass Li Hongyu, Li Hongyu is the champion and he is only a jinshi in the second list, and secondly, Li Hongyu is a messenger with the emperor's order this time, so he naturally has a gentle and polite attitude towards Li Hongyu.

"Governor Zhao's words are serious, this official is acting on orders, why bother?" Li Hongyu immediately recognized the identities of Zhao Yizhan and Wang Chengming from their official uniforms, and said to Zhao Yizhan with a smile.

Zhao Yizhan introduced Wang Chengming, Huai'an Prefect, Huai'an Guard, and other officials with sufficient status to Li Hongyu, and then returned to the city by car, and he had already prepared a reception banquet for Li Hongyu.

No one noticed that among Li Hongyu's guards were two New Army soldiers disguised as men, naturally Naren Toya and Lian'er, and it was inconvenient for them to show their faces on such an occasion, so they naturally had to cover up their identities.

Outside the largest restaurant in Huai'an City, all the gentry and merchants in the city arrived, waiting for the arrival of Li Hongyu and his party.

Li Hongyu's arrival caused a lot of waves in the Huai'an business community, for no other reason, Li Hongyu was the leader of the Ming Dynasty's overseas trade, and those big businessmen understood the huge potential economic value of overseas trade, but they didn't know what the imperial court planned in this regard, so they all wanted to take advantage of Li Hongyu's arrival to find out the news.

After Li Hongyu arrived, Zhao Yizhan introduced the famous gentry and businessmen to him, originally businessmen were not qualified to attend this kind of official occasion, but because the imperial court allowed businessmen to donate money to donate fame, those wealthy businessmen in the Ming Dynasty have gained fame by donating money, and then improved their social status.

The Ming Dynasty donated fame prevailed in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the reason why the imperial court acquiesced to this matter is naturally related to the lack of finance, otherwise the Wanli Emperor would not have levied mining taxes with great fanfare, who would have thought that the dignified Ming Emperor would be the monarch of the Heavenly Empire would also worry about money.

However, although those businessmen donated their fame, after all, their names were not right, so they could not sit at the same table as Li Hongyu.

In addition to Zhao Yizhan and other high-ranking officials in Huai'an, those who can sit at Li Hongyu's wine table are several gentry with high moral standing and who have achieved fame in the imperial examination, that is, the class of scholars and doctors that people often say.

At the wine table, Zhao Yizhan and others naturally wanted to mention overseas trade, after all, this was the purpose of Li Hongyu's visit to Yangzhou this time.

Li Hongyu knew that everyone was very curious about overseas trade, so he did not hide it, and generously explained to everyone the operation of the Customs Department and related matters related to overseas trade.

Li Hongyu did not conceal the reasons why he wanted to sell overseas trade quotas, first, overseas trade was very important, so he had to ensure that the participating businessmen had sufficient strength to provide goods, and second, the funds for the establishment of the Customs Department and the Navy Division were raised by the Customs Department itself, so the Customs Department needed start-up funds.

Because Li Hongyu's attitude was very kind and did not put on a bad show, the atmosphere of the banquet was naturally very relaxed and warm, and everyone toasted Li Hongyu one after another, and everyone wanted to get acquainted with Li Hongyu, a rising star in the officialdom who was in a high position at a young age.

After the banquet, Li Hongyu, who was already drunk, was sent by Zhao Yizhan to the residence of the governor of Caoyun.

Originally, Zhao Yizhan wanted to arrange Li Hongyu in a wealthy merchant in Huai'an City, but Li Hongyu politely refused, as an official of the imperial court in charge of overseas trade, it was obviously not suitable for him to have too much contact with the merchants at this time, so as not to attract criticism.

After entering the bedroom, Li Hongyu, who was supported by two New Army soldiers, was immediately drunk, and asked Lian'er to call Ma Xianglin in after washing his face with water.

"How's it going?" After Ma Xianglin came, Li Hongyu asked slowly while sipping fragrant tea.

"Back to the adults, all the arrangements are in place." Ma Xianglin smiled slightly when he heard this, bowed and replied.

"Tell me to go on, stop the matter in moderation, and don't make a fuss that it won't end at that time." Li Hongyu nodded and said in a deep voice.

"Don't worry, my lord, the brothers know it." Ma Xianglin smiled again, bowed to Li Hongyu and left.

"Brother Yu, why do you want people to go to the casino at night to find trouble?" Waiting for Ma Xianglin to leave, Naren Toya, who was sitting on the side, asked a little puzzled, the people arranged by Ma Xianglin were going to a casino in Huai'an City to make trouble at night, commonly known as kicking the field, she didn't know why Li Hongyu did this, and the casino didn't offend him.

"If you beat the small one, you can see the old one." Li Hongyu knew that Naren Toya was too simple, so he explained with a smile, "That casino is the property of the Cao Gang, and only by making a fuss there can the Cao Gang people be forced out." ”

"Cao Gang?" The look on Narentoya's face was even more puzzled, it was the first time she had heard the name.

"The Cao Gang is a non-governmental gang organization, composed of people who beg for a living on the water, and the boats in this canal must obey the orders of the Cao Gang."

Li Hongyu put down the teacup in his hand and explained in an orderly manner, "The imperial court prohibits this kind of large-scale gang activities, and has sent troops to crack down on it several times, but the Cao Gang was born according to Cao Yun, how difficult it is to eradicate it, in order not to affect Cao Yun, as long as they don't cause trouble, the court will turn a blind eye." ”

"Brother Yu, you just want to see the people of the Cao Gang ask them out to talk, why do you have to be so troublesome?"

Naren Toya understood at this time, nodded and asked puzzledly, even the governor of Caoyun had to give Li Hongyu three points, not to mention a civilian gang.

"I am an official, the Cao Gang is the people, and the people have always sought officials, where are there officials seeking the people, where is my face when it is passed out?"

Li Hongyu laughed when he heard this, and explained to Naren Toya, "In addition, this Cao gang is a bit arrogant in relying on the strength of the crowd, if I don't give them a dismissal, how can I talk about things in the future?" ”

"Brother Yu, things in your officialdom are so troublesome!" Naren Toya didn't expect that Li Hongyu wanted to use the casino matter to beat the Cao Gang, and she couldn't help but widen her eyes, she felt that the people of Daming were not as cheerful and open-minded as the men on the grassland, and there were always a lot of twists and turns in it, which made people scratch their heads.

"It's good to get used to it." Li Hongyu smiled, a look of helplessness flashed on his face, he actually didn't want to intrigue, but this was the reality and he had no choice.

Li Hongyu went to Huai'an this time, first, to meet with Zhao Yizhan, the governor of Caoyun, to coordinate the transportation of overseas trade goods in the future, and it is foreseeable that once overseas trade is on the right track, Caoyun will become an important way for goods to be transshipped.

In addition, Li Hongyu also has to meet the people of the Cao Gang, the Cao Gang controls the freight on the water, and the two sides will inevitably have to deal with each other at that time, so Li Hongyu wants to give the Cao Gang a dismount and let them know that they are not easy to provoke.

Li Hongyu had to be cautious about the Cao Gang, whose members and family members estimated to number one million along the canal, and whose shipping on the Yellow River and the Yangtze River were also affected by it, making it the largest non-governmental organization in the world.

It stands to reason that the imperial court would not allow such a large non-governmental organization to appear, but the nature of the Cao Gang is very special, the members are fishermen and coolies on the docks, and they are forced to gather together for their livelihoods, and because they are distributed along the waterway, they are very loose and cannot pose a threat to the imperial court.

What is particularly critical is that the factions within the Cao Gang are reborn and full of contradictions, and in the eyes of the imperial court, they are a group of rabble, and it is difficult to cause any big trouble.

At the same time, the imperial court also hoped that the Cao Gang could manage the water transportation, which could save the government a lot of trouble, so the Cao Gang could exist.

As far as Li Hongyu knows, the main hall of the Cao Gang is in Huai'an City, and the main hall consists of a torture hall and five branch halls, the five branch halls are named after "courtesy, righteousness, benevolence, filial piety, and honesty", three branch halls are distributed along the canal, and the other two branches are one in the Yellow River and one in the Yangtze River.

Among the three golden waterways of the Ming Dynasty, the canal is the most important, followed by the Yangtze River, and then the Yellow River.

However, the shipping of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River was not controlled by the Cao Gang, and the local forces along the coast blocked the Cao Gang one after another, making the Cao Gang and those forces fighting very fiercely in recent years for the water rights and interests of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and fires and incidents occurred from time to time.

Li Hongyu knew very well that in order to ensure the smooth flow of water transportation, it was first necessary to subdue the Cao Gang, so that those water forces in the Yellow River and the Yangtze River would obediently obey the arrangement.

At night.

"Lord Prefect, it's not good, the people of the Cao Gang and the new army fought in the casino, and several members of the new army have hung up the lottery and have fled back to the governor's yamen." Niu Shangwei, the prefect of Huai'an, who was asleep, was awakened by a hurried sound outside the door.

"What?" Niu Shangwei was taken aback when he heard this, he didn't have time to put on his clothes and jumped out of bed to open the door, staring at the head of the government office in front of the door in surprise and asked, "What do you say again, what's going on in the casino?" ”

"Back to the prefect, a few people from the new army went to the casino of the Cao Gang to gamble at night, and somehow they clashed with the casino, and were beaten by the people watching the scene, and I heard that the injuries were very serious, and blood flowed everywhere." Seeing this, the head of the team hurriedly replied in a deep voice, and he didn't know what was going on.

The people of the government rushed over to check after receiving the report, and by then the wounded people of the new army had already left, and the head of the arrest squad learned the general course of the incident from the people who were watching the excitement, and because of the importance of the matter, he did not dare to slack off, so he immediately came to report to Niu Shangwei.

"Damn it!" Niu Shangwei's face changed suddenly, and while going back to the room to get dressed, he shouted at the head of the fishing team, "Quick, mobilize the people of the Zhuang class to go to the casino, and no one on the scene can let go!" ”

Hearing this, the head of the squad bowed to Niu Shangwei and left quickly, and went to transfer the people of the Yazhuang class, among the three classes of officials in the yamen, the number of the Zhuang class was the largest, and guarding the city gate and patrolling the streets were the business of the Zhuang class.

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