The Chu army moved to Hunan, broke several counties in a row, and the momentum was greatly boosted, and under the anger of Luckedhun, he mobilized 70,000 or 80,000 Qing troops to attack from the northwest and attacked Anren County and Chaling Prefecture, where the Chu army was stationed.

Seeing that the situation was critical, the Longwu Imperial Court, Du Yinxi and He Tengjiao issued several urgent documents, unanimously requiring the Chu army to retreat to Chenzhou, the southernmost part of Huguang, and join Fu Shangrui, who was stationed there, to rely on Nanling to guard the border between Hunan and Guangdong, and to ensure the safety of the two provinces.

In a purely military sense, this deployment is decent, there is no big problem, and there are many supporters within the Chu army, especially the General Staff believes that this plan is the best choice at the moment - Nanling is thousands of miles long, with mountains and mountains, and there are many passes with dangerous terrain, and it is also the dividing line between the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, and the Qing army's naval superiority cannot be brought into play, and as long as the Ming army holds the pass, the Qing army will not be able to enter the two Guangzhou.

However, Wang Kefan did not adopt this plan, but led his army into the Jinggangshan area.

From the Longwu court to Kong Youde and Le Ke Dehun, the commanders of both the Ming and Qing dynasties were very surprised and puzzled by this.

The Chu army now has 30,000 horses, and it does not go to the relatively rich Chenzhou Mansion, but plunges headlong into Jinggang Mountain, where the conditions are difficult, and the situation must be very difficult...... Some careful people studied the route of the Chu army, and found that after they entered the eastern part of Hunan, they had been deliberately bypassing the territory of the Chenzhou Mansion, and seemed to be wary of Fu Shangrui, who was stationed there.

Fang Zhengzheng is such a careful person.

In the middle of the march, he found Wang Kefan. When he stepped into the tent, he found that Lu Renqing was also here, and he was hesitating whether to avoid it first, but Wang Kefan stopped him.

"Is there anything wrong with Mr. Zhengzheng?"

"Oh. I want to ask the military gate, why don't you go to Chenzhou Mansion, is it suspicious of Fu Shangrui? Fang Zhengzheng replied.

"It's not that I'm suspicious, but Fu Shangrui has an intention to surrender the Qing, and the Intelligence Bureau has found a lot of signs." Wang Kefan's answer was a big surprise.

Fu Shangrui, as the governor of Biyuan, is the feudal official of Huguang and He Tengjiao's right-hand man. After the Hunan official army was defeated by Luck Dehun, the largest group gathered in Chenzhou Prefecture, with more than 40,000 horse infantry under its command. There were hundreds of deputies, staff, and tour generals, and more than 20 total soldiers, and if this army surrendered to the Manchus, the situation in Huguang would be even more severe.

Lu Renqing hurriedly interjected and asked, "Since that's the case." Why didn't the military gate wave its troops south. Kill Fu Shangrui as soon as possible? ”

The question was asked out of tune, Wang Kefan raised his eyes and looked at him, as if he wanted to see a flower.

"Renqing, you seem to have been on fire recently, and you have a big bag on your face."

"Huh? Yes, it's a little bit on fire. Lu Renqing was inexplicable, and touched the bag on his face, the pimples that had just popped up. As soon as I press it, I feel painful.

"You can't squeeze this bag now, or you'll have a scar on your face. Wait for the pus to come out before you can squeeze it out, do you think that's the case? Wang Kefan's eyes were full of meaning.

"Well, I see." Lu Renqing is also a clever person, and nodded emphatically.

In Wang Kefan's eyes, Fu Shangrui is an insignificant pimple, although it hurts and itchy, it will not cause too serious consequences, and it is not too late to deal with him when the time is ripe. If he sends troops to Chenzhou to exterminate him now, Wang Kefan will lose his righteous reputation and will cause misunderstanding among others.

Fang Zhengzheng was shocked by another thing, Chenzhou is located in the southernmost part of Huguang, more than a thousand miles away from Chongyang, but he didn't expect that the tentacles of the Chu Army Intelligence Bureau had reached here, and he also found out that Fu Shangrui was trying to clear such a secret.

It is not difficult to deduce that the entire Huguang is under the supervision of the Intelligence Bureau, and the strength of this Intelligence Bureau is not trivial, and in time, it will definitely become a terrifying existence like Jinyiwei and Dongchang. Wang Kefan established such a powerful spy agency, he must have hidden it from Emperor Longwu......

He actually overestimated the capabilities of the Intelligence Agency.

Wang Kefan, as a traverser, of course, has long been wary of Fu Shangrui, and his monitoring has been very strong, judging from the news fed back from all sides, Fu Shangrui is in the most advanced stage of the full sprint, and will soon surrender to the Manchu Qing Dynasty......

After arriving in the Jinggangshan area, Fang Zhengzheng was appointed as the governor of the Yangtze River Grain Road, subordinate to the Admiral Caojiang Yamen, mainly responsible for logistics management. The Yangtze River Governor Grain Road and the Chu Army Logistics Department are a set of teams, two brands, Fang Zhengzheng is also Cheng Wen's deputy, but Cheng Wen is the main inside, focusing on the military, and Fang Zhengzheng is the main outside, focusing on the administration.

Wang Kefan gave him two tasks: the first was to expand the production capacity of the repair institute, complete the imitation of the new Furlong machine cannon within one year, and realize the mass production of flintlock pistols, and the second was to improve the trade route from Huguang and Jiangxi to Guangdong, and establish a preliminary hematopoietic function.

"Our Huguang's tea is still easy to sell, but the real money is still the porcelain and silk in the south of the Yangtze River, but unfortunately it is occupied by the Tartars and can't get involved...... "Fang Zhengzheng is good at the study of things, open-minded, completely different from ordinary readers, these days he is constantly influenced by Wang Kefan, full of confidence in the management of the arsenal, and there is no rejection of doing business to make money, but worrying that he will not do well.

As far as I know, the silk porcelain in Jiangnan is still flowing out in large quantities, we can do business with Jin Shenghuan, pour some things and sell them to the Francois people, and make a quick profit."

Wang Kefan said with a smile: "But this is just an expedient measure, we have to leave a way for Zheng Chenggong to make a fortune, we can't raise the price first from our family, and after beating Kong Youde, our people in Huguang can live and work in peace and contentment, and they can also raise silkworms and burn kilns, and make silk porcelain that can sell for a lot of money." ”

Zheng Chenggong guarded the land of Xiamen, relying on the profits of sea trade and the Qing army to contend with, silk porcelain in the south of the Yangtze River and Fujian continued to smuggle to Xiamen, but the Manchu high-level had no concept of maritime trade, and Zheng Chenggong also despised him, and never took severe measures to blockade Xiamen, so that Zheng Chenggong gradually sat down, and later counterattacked Nanjing, captured Taiwan, and made a vigorous cause...... Of course, after Zheng Chenggong ran to Taiwan, his influence on the mainland became weaker and weaker, and failure was a matter of time.

As the saying goes, Huguang is ripe, the world is full, in this era, Huguang is mainly a production base, handicrafts are not developed, Wang Kefan developed the trade route from Huguang to Guangdong, mainly out of people's livelihood and political considerations, and did not expect to rely on this to support the Chu army.

With the expansion of the scale of the Chu army, the amount of money and grain needed will be an astronomical amount, Wang Kefan must find another way to make money, in his imagination, the Chu army's capital cows are still in the south, in Guangdong, in Hainan, in Hong Kong ......, at most another year, the investment in the south will enter a virtuous circle of return period.

……

Changhua County, Hainan, located in the northwest corner of Hainan Island, was a wild place for exiled officials in this era.

Ding Kui Chu was exiled to Hainan, and then was given death by Emperor Longwu, which was regarded as an ominous place, no one wanted to come to Changhua County as an official, so that the government and the opposition were extremely puzzled, but the Chu Xun group aimed at Changhua, the county order, the county Cheng and the lord, and sent three officials in a row, plus a Qiongzhou prefect, and made Changhua County the Chu Xun group's own place.

Although this matter is weird, the imperial court is busy moving Guilin, supporting the Battle of Huguang, and the negotiations with the Great Western Army are also in full swing, ignoring the remote Changhua, the court officials chatted a few words at most, and forgot about this matter - the people in the Chuxun group are weird, let them toss.

Changhua is located at the junction of the tropics and subtropics, and in April, summer has already begun, and everyone, regardless of status, is dressed in short clothes and short shirts, although they are tanned with hats. On this morning, there were a few such short-shirted customers on the wharf of Changhua Port, except for the clothes that were exquisite, they were not much different from ordinary people, but they were followed by a group of soldiers, holding the honor guard of the government in their hands, indicating that they all had official status.

The dock is being expanded, all the trees have been cut down, and there is no shelter in the bare, Li Si was sweating from the sun after a while, but he didn't care about it, obviously getting used to it. After waiting for about half an hour, a sea ship came from afar, and after docking, Zhu Ji got off the boat with a dozen people.

"I didn't want you to suffer, but there are too many things here, and it's hard for you." Li Si handed over a chopped coconut with a bamboo pipe stuck in it.

"The eldest brother has been soaking here for a few months before it is really hard, and the younger sister is here to help." Zhan Ji took the coconut, took a few sips, and smiled: "It's so sweet, Changhua is a good place!" ”

"It's good to drink if you like it, Changhua doesn't have anything else, you can drink enough coconut."

"Isn't that right?" Seal Ji smiled: "Changhua not only has coconuts, but also a big iron mine, why don't you call me to do it?" ”

"Yes, the iron mine is in Shilu Town, Wang Junmen has indicated the place, it still took us three months to find it, those Li people are too fierce, and the officers and soldiers transferred from Hong Kong sent them away......"

Shilu iron ore, is a famous iron-rich ore in Hainan, found in the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was occupied by the Japanese army, took away 400,000 tons of iron ore, Wang Kefan is familiar with military history, so he knows this place. The ore resources here are not only large, but also rich in iron ore that is easy to mine and refine (as opposed to poor iron ore, with an iron content of less than 50%), which can also be mined under rudimentary technical conditions.

Iron is a fist product prepared by Wang Kefan.

In addition to the traditional silk tea, China's ironware also has excellent sales in East Asia and South Asia, the industrial revolution in the West is still far away, ironware is also produced in the workshop, and then drifted across the ocean to Southeast Asia, simply can not compete with cheap Chinese ironware, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia...... Even in the far Middle East, China's iron tools have always been in short supply. (To be continued......)