In the fifth year of Longwu, in early spring and February, the southern land was already full of vitality.

Counting from the beginning to the end, it has been five years since the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs.

In the past five years, the Southern Ming has been passively defensive, and at the large-scale strategic level, the Manchu Qing have always held the initiative, launching an offensive every winter and resting in the summer, which has almost become a common practice...... The Ming army only had some partial counteroffensives, like the Huguang Campaign, to drive Kong Youde back to Wuchang and recover the whole of Hunan, which was a great victory, but in the final analysis, the Huguang Campaign was also a defensive battle, repelling the invading enemy.

The Manchus still looked so strong that the reconquest of their homeland seemed far away.

In the area controlled by the Southern Ming Dynasty, some people fantasize about being safe and secure, some people are getting by, and there are a few "smart people" who think that the death of the country is a matter of time, and secretly prepare, if the Qing army comes, they will kneel to welcome the king and be a great Qing Shunmin.

In the Manchu occupation area, starting from Hanzhong Hezhen anyway, the anti-Qing struggle has been surging for more than a year, and volunteers from all over the country have risen one after another, with Jin Shenghuan and Jiang Hao returning to the Ming Dynasty one after another, the Chu army won the victory in the Huguang Campaign, and this anti-Qing struggle has also reached a climax...... But the climax was inevitably followed by ups and downs, and under the bloody suppression of the Qing army, small groups of anti-Qing volunteers failed one after another, and more and more people began to become numb and accustomed to Manchu rule. In order to raise huge war funds, the Qing court imposed heavy taxes in the Jiangnan area, and although the local gentry and common people were dissatisfied, they could only be forced to accept under high pressure.

At this time, Emperor Longwu and Wang Kefan decided to launch an eastern crusade and successively issued mobilization orders.

This was the first time that Nanming took the initiative to launch a counteroffensive. The Longwu court attached great importance to this, and except for a few people who expressed opposition, the main battle faction in favor of the Eastern Crusade had a clear upper hand. Except for Emperor Longwu and Chu Xun. The Donglin Party is also a staunch main battle faction, their roots are in the south of the Yangtze River, and after coming to Guangxi, they have become rootless Ping, and they heard that the imperial court is going to counterattack Zhejiang and Nanzhili, and most members of the Donglin Party have expressed their support.

The situation is similar for the Yugoslav Party. With the exception of Liangguang, many members of the Southern Party were from Fujian, and of course they were in favor of the Eastern Crusade. Moreover, the eastern part of Guangdong has been in a state of war for a long time, and if Fujian can be recovered, Guangdong will become a large rear area of security. Therefore, many of the officials from Guangdong, especially those in eastern Guangdong, were also in favor of the Eastern Crusade, and Su Guansheng, the governor of Liangguang, immediately expressed his support after receiving the news.

Those who are not in favor of the Crusades. Mainly the civil and military officials in Guangxi and some bureaucrats and politicians who lack strategic vision. These bureaucrats and politicians were afraid of the Qing army, always believing that the enemy was strong and we were weak, and should not take the initiative to provoke, so they wrote letters to express their opposition.

But they did not expect that this move deeply angered the main battle faction of the Donglin Party and the Southern Party, and the Donglin Party, which was good at using public opinion, soon set off a scolding war, comparing the opposition to Qin Hui and Jia Nidao of the Ming Dynasty, and Huang Zongxi, who was already a little famous, also wrote a poem for this. Among them, the finishing sentence of "directly regard Guilin as Hangzhou" is slightly unusual, but it is born from the famous sentence of "directly regard Hangzhou as Bianzhou". With the irony of the past and the present, the blood spray of those who only know how to be reluctant and partial to the eyes of the rats is widely praised among the officialdom......

Huang Zongxi became famous for a while, and was personally received by Emperor Longwu, but the officials who opposed the Eastern Crusade became rats crossing the street, everyone shouted and beat, and the main battle faction soon won the victory, and the court began to mobilize for the Eastern Crusade.

The hearts of the people are united, and Mount Tai moves. The Longwu court was originally a government-in-exile, and most of the members hoped to recover Jiangnan and fight back to their hometowns. With the mobilization unfolding, the specific plan of the Eastern Crusade began to slowly spread among the high-level, and when it was heard that Wang Kefan had placed the main direction of attack in Nanzhili and northern Zhejiang, the Southern Party immediately mobilized and encouraged Emperor Longwu to open another offensive line and must recover Fujian.

Most of the civilian officials were military laymen, and after the announcement of the Crusade plan, many people had some understanding of the shape of the front. According to Shangshu Wen'an of the Ministry of War, the main force of the Qing army is in Shanxi, and the southern troops are extremely empty, and everyone immediately realizes that the current Qianli Jiangnan is like a piece of fat on the chopping board, as long as you dare to go under the knife, you can eat a mouth full of oil, how can such a good opportunity be enjoyed by the Chu army alone?

The Southern Party, the Imperial Party, and the Donglin Party, as well as Su Guansheng in Guangdong, Wan Yuan Ji in Jiangxi, and the Eight Immortals who crossed the sea to show their magical powers, all wanted to participate in the Eastern Expedition as much as possible, and get a piece of the fat soup......

At the time of the spring equinox, the Yangtze River basin still has a feeling of warmth and cold, but the weather in Lingnan is very warm, especially in the Pearl River Delta region at the southern end, as if it has smelled the breath of early summer.

The famous Shenzhen River in later generations, at the moment is still called "Mingxi", along both sides of the riverbank, there are green crops everywhere, the bank is rice, the distance is sweet potatoes, I heard that there are new potatoes planted in the mountains, but they can not be seen on the flat land by the river.

When the Dongguan battalion was established, Zhang Jiayu took away 2,000 elites, and the remaining 8,000 Dongguan volunteers opened up wasteland in the north of Hong Kong to provide for themselves. After three years of development, the fields of Juntun were scattered everywhere in the later Shenzhen Guannai and even in the northern part of Hong Kong.

The summer here lasts for half a year, and the winter is only two months, with abundant sunshine and abundant rainfall, rice can be harvested three times a year, and the sweet potatoes and potatoes that have just been popularized are even more high-yield crops, and the crops grown by 8,000 military households can meet the needs of the whole of Hong Kong.

Walking west along the Shenzhen River, you can see the sea, and the sparkling salt pans by the sea are boundless, stretching all the way to the Shekou Peninsula.

There were a few people in the salt pans, walking and stopping, talking from time to time, and occasionally squatting down, pinching a pinch of salt and putting it in their mouths to taste.

The leader was a middle-aged man under forty years old, with a black and red complexion, which at first glance was the result of long-term sun exposure. He did not wear a hat on his head, only wrapped in a scarf, wore a pair of straw sandals under his feet, his trousers were rolled up, but his upper body was a long shirt, the hem was tied horizontally around his waist, and he was dressed in a nondescript manner, but everyone around him was extremely respectful to him and answered all questions.

John doe! Hong Kong's most powerful tycoon inspects the salt pans that have just been put into production.

"It's not easy! After trying so many times, I finally got rid of the bitterness, and this 'three-breath method' is really useful! Li Si said with a smile: "The military gate said that it could use seawater to dry salt, but I didn't dare to believe it, but I didn't expect it to be true!" ”

"Isn't it? After removing the bitter taste, our salt is considered refined salt, and it tastes better than boiled salt, so we won't have to worry about selling it in the future! "The chief in charge of Yantian is surnamed Qi, and he has the same black and red face as Li Si, and he is simply dressed in a short dress, like a farmer who goes to the field.

The traditional method of making salt is to boil salt with seawater, not to mention that the efficiency is too low, and it will also cause severe corrosion to the container, so the cost of salt production is very high, and many places guard the sea but have no salt to eat. However, in the coastal areas of Guangdong, some people have already explored the method of drying salt, but because the technology spread too slowly in this era, and the method of drying salt in seawater is not very mature, it has not been popularized on a large scale. ("Tiangong Kaiwu" records that Guangdong Haifeng "has a person who leads seawater into the pool to dry, and when it is condensed, it is the same as the solution of the pool.) ”）

Wang Kefan has been paying attention to this matter, and ordered Li Si to go to Haifeng County to find people who can use seawater to dry salt. However, this method of drying salt is still relatively rough, except for the top layer that can be eaten, most of the salt at the bottom has a lot of impurities, and the taste is bitter and difficult to eat.

After two years of hard work, Wang Kefan finally succeeded in the recent success, which greatly increased the output of the salt pan while controlling the cost.

Li Siyi waved his hand and said proudly: "Yantian should be built as much as possible, at least two more heels, and he will dry 300,000 quintals of salt a year, not only to crush Guizhou salt, Guangxi salt and Fujian salt, but also to sell it to Tartar!" ”

The salt production areas of Nanming are mainly in the coastal areas and Yunnan-Guizhou area, the coastal is still boiling salt, Yungui is well salt, the cost is relatively high, the output is also limited, and the competitiveness is far less than that of seawater salt.

After the abolition of the Longwu New Deal, the salt monopoly fell into chaos again, and all kinds of smuggled salt were popular, and the output of seawater dried salt kept up, just in time to make a big profit. When the other salt producing areas are crushed, even if the monopoly of the salt industry is restored in the future, the "Long Maochang", as an imperial merchant, can also monopolize the salt production of Nanming.

The salt industry monopoly on the Manchu side was relatively standardized, the newly built toilets were fragrant for three days, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had just opened the country, corruption and corruption were not so strict, the system was not so chaotic, and the price of salt was several times lower than that of the Southern Ming, which provided a large amount of tax revenue for the Qing court...... Smuggling salt produced in Shenzhen into the Manchu-occupied areas would not only make a lot of profits, but also wage an economic war against the Manchus.

"But that's not all! As long as our salt is cheap, it can be sold overseas, such as Annam, Luzon, Java, Siam, and Tianzhu...... Everyone has to eat salt! "Qi Guan is quite economically minded and is also optimistic about overseas markets. Annan is Vietnam, Luzon is the Philippines, Java is Indonesia, Siam is Thailand, Tianzhu is India, and he has all of Southeast Asia at once.

"Not bad!" Li Si nodded and said: "We buy more things, sell less things, and when the sea ship sails, it is often not full, and it is loaded with some salt to sell, at least there is one more entry." ”

Because Jiangsu and Zhejiang were occupied by the Qing army, there was no supply of raw silk, silk, cotton cloth and other commodities, and Hong Kong's products sold overseas were mainly porcelain and tea, but the things bought in were all kinds and in large quantities, such as silver, grain, firearms, cotton, leather, and ships...... Coupled with the looting of people everywhere, the departing sea ships sometimes appear empty.

Source!

Nanming's territory is too small to have enough supplies to ensure the development of maritime trade, and seawater salt fills this gap. (To be continued......)