Ye Changsheng was also secretly shocked, it was really incredible that a small general manager was so clear about the waterways around Wuchang Mansion.

In fact, it is not difficult to understand that the Far East Intelligence Department in various parts of the Ming Dynasty through transactions, bribery, coercion and intimidation and other means, most of the bribes are high-level officials and generals, even the low-level officials are the kind of people who hold real power, and ordinary lecturers like Liu Tong often do not pay too much attention.

And the people who know the local situation best in Wuchang Mansion are precisely these lowest-level generals and officials. It's not that they are loyal to their duties, but that these guys do everything possible to deduct and make money on weekdays, and for more than ten years, they have not let go of the corners and corners around Wuchang Mansion, of course, they know everything about it.

As the saying goes, "snakes have snake paths, rats have rat roads", don't underestimate these local head snakes, even if the officials don't know things, or troubles that can't be solved, leave them to ensure that they are profitable and do not leave a future trouble.

Liu Tong and his gang have been floating on the river around Wuchang Mansion for more than ten years, and they have done extortion, smuggling and selling stolen goods, and even hijacking ships and killing people. If you are not familiar with the surroundings of Wuchang Mansion, you may not get the silver, and you have to put yourself in.

Although the Intelligence Department of the Far East Army has been collecting intelligence for several years, it is of course lacking compared with Liu Tong, a local snake who has been floating on the nearby river for more than ten years.

Wuchangfu Wharf has become an important transportation hub and strategic location because of the Yangtze River that spans the east and west and the Han River that connects the north and south. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the development of commodity economy, Wuchang Mansion also became a famous wharf for the distribution of commercial goods in the central region. Huguang, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other provinces, as well as merchant ships from Xiajiang and Hui merchants who came to Han to trade, all had docks to berth.

Hankou on the other side of the river is also a very prosperous wharf, since the implementation of the Gang Salt Law in the last year of Wanli, Hankou has become the general shore of Huguanghuai salt distribution. Hankou and Hanyang are also known as the four major towns in the world together with Foshan, Jingdezhen and Zhuxian Town.

Not only that, since the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the gradual reduction of the grain production area in Suzhou, Huguang has become the most important grain production area in the Ming Dynasty. It was also the most important area for collecting grain at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The Jingjiang, Hanjiang, Xiangjiang, Yuanjiang, Zishui, Lishui, Dongting Lake, Honghu Lake and many other lakes in the Huguang area are full of granaries of the government and private grain stores. If the First Squadron's raiding plan in Jiangnan goes well, a large number of grain and other materials can be collected in the Huguang area alone.

In the early morning, the Wuchang Fu Wharf is already a busy scene. The merchant goods on the wharf were piled up, and the porters and boatmen who relied on their strength to eat got up early and were desperately busy on the wharf.

"Buzz...... Buzz ......"

A violent roar came from the river, covering the hustle and bustle of the wharf, so that the busy people on the wharf of Wuchang Mansion couldn't help but stop and watch, only to see several strange clippers rushing into the wharf like arrows from the string.

"Bang...... Bang ......"

Although these clippers did not look big, they slammed into the boat outside the dock, knocking several wide ships violently, and a ship full of cargo shook violently, and the cargo loaded on the ship fell into the water.

The busy porters and boatmen on the dock were frightened by the sudden scene and fled to the dock to hide, and the people on the dock also fled, causing the dock to fall into chaos.

More than 100 officers and men from the Far East rushed to the Wuchang Fu wharf with rifles on the ships moored on the wharf, and the bright bayonets on the rifles flashed with a terrifying cold light, making the already chaotic Wuchang Fu wharf even more out of control.

Whether ancient or modern, the wharf is a place where dragons and snakes are mixed, and it is also a place where heroes from all walks of life compete for food. This is especially true of Wuchang Province and Hankou, Hanyang and other places on the other side of the river.

The chaos on this dock was not the government that first alarmed, but the gang forces of the dock came out. More than 100 outlaws with fierce eyes rushed to the dock with knives, iron rods and other murder weapons.

It's not uncommon for gangs to fight for territory on the docks, so each gang has to raise some outlaws who dare to fight and kill to deal with such a scene.

But as soon as a group of outlaw thugs arrived at the docks, they saw a group of stout men with weapons rushing towards them, and they thought that the gang had come to smash the field, so they roared and rushed forward.

"Bang...... Bang......"

A platoon commander of the Far Eastern Army raised his revolver, several gangsters who rushed to the front were knocked down one after another, and other fighters also raised their guns to shoot, and the remaining gangsters suddenly dispersed, crying and running in all directions.

As a result, the dock became even more chaotic, and then a group of government officials, soaps, and helpers who came to see this scene turned around and fled.

The assault troops of the Far Eastern Army did not bother with them at all, and the follow-up fighters carried two water-cooled heavy machine guns and set up two machine-gun positions on the pier.

The officers and men on several river sailing boats on the river threw ropes one after another to tow the boats on the wharf one after another, and in a short time, the wharf several hundred meters long was cleared.

A team of inland river steam deck barges did not wait for the dock to be cleared, and slowly approached the Wuchang Fu dock. A large number of sappers jumped onto the dock and used steam-powered cranes on deck barges to lift all kinds of supplies ashore.

The wharf of Wuchang Mansion is piled up with all kinds of goods, and it looks chaotic. The assault force was understaffed, so it had to forcibly requisition hundreds of porters and boatmen on the pier who had not had time to escape, to help the assault force clear the pier and help the engineer unit establish a landing ground.

As the steam deck barge fleet continued to dock, a large number of engineering materials were also unloaded to the wharf of Wuchang Province, and the engineering units began to establish a landing ground on the wharf of Wuchang Province.

More assault troops continued to land, and then quickly attacked and advanced into Wuchang City with the assistance of local intelligence stations as companies.

When Liu Tong followed the fleet headquarters to the dock of Wuchang Mansion by barge, he couldn't believe his eyes in the face of the changes on the dock.

The nearly kilometer-long dock has been cleared, the floating docks are almost connected, and a fleet of flatbed boats are leaning on the docks to load and unload supplies.

Several long trestle-style floating wharves stretched out on both sides, and groups of heavily armed Far Eastern officers and soldiers jumped onto the trestle-like wharves, ran in formation, and ran through the trestle bridges to advance towards Wuchang Mansion. The city was filled with screams and screams, and sporadic gunshots could be heard.

The Wuchang Fu wharf was also cleared out of a large open space, and all kinds of war readiness materials were neatly stacked in the material storage points fenced off one by one. Although there is chaos on the dock, all the work is orderly and very efficient. Even the large number of porters and shipwrights who had been forcibly conscripted had been simply reorganized, and they were busy at the docks under the command of the Far Eastern Army. (To be continued.) )