"Why?" Of course, Mao Yuanyi understood the boatman's psychological entanglement, which was also a rather embarrassing thing for him, so he skipped it and didn't want to mention it, just followed his own topic and asked again.

"I heard that there are a lot of ships coming from Fujian." The boatman said: "Seven out of ten stops are from Fujian, and we have more ships in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are new shipyards in Zhenjiang and Suzhou, and many people are building ships." ”

"Strange." Mao Yuanyi said with a smile: "In the past, everyone always said that Haili was big, but the risk was also big. Only those who have a lot of capital and dare to take risks will build ships and buy ships, and now it has become a trend? ”

Speaking of Jiangnan, Mao Yuanyi did not feel estranged because he had been in the north for a long time, after all, it was the place where he grew up, and there were endless letters.

"It's because of Hutchison's marine insurance."

After all, the boatman is knowledgeable, raised his eyebrows, and introduced the maritime insurance to Mao Yuanyi in a colorful manner.

"Hutchison is really a big deal." Mao Yuanyi was also quite surprised, he muttered: "In this way, going to sea is almost a profitable deal?" ”

"Not really." The boatman replied, "Hutchison himself also has a boat to buy a large amount of raw silk and tea, and he wants as much as he wants." We Jiangnan people are also fighting for their own anger, either buy or build their own, but it takes at least half a year to a year to build a sea ship to be launched, and now everyone is in a hurry to buy a ship, and the ship is to Dengzhou and Tianjin to buy, and the northerners still don't know much about maritime insurance. ”

Mao Yuanyi smiled and said nothing, it was not good to evaluate the obvious north-south opposition of the boat family.

Mao Yuanyi himself is of course a serious southerner, a native of Gui'an, Zhejiang, his grandfather Mao Shen is a famous literary master in Zhejiang, famous for his articles, Mao Yuanyi himself was famous in Jiangnan for his military and agricultural doctrine in his twenties, and later was already one of Yang Hao's staff during the Battle of Salhu.

Of course, Mao Yuanyi at that time was only a junior, and he was not valued by Yang Hao, so he counted a wave of prestige, and when Mao Yuanyi was a staff member to Sun Chengzong, he was a praise painting with a formal official position, and it was very easy to promote to the general, not only would no one secretly complain, but even the general public opinion was that Mao Yuanyi was too bad...... As long as he has the identity of a talented student, Mao Yuanyi will definitely take the route of a civilian official, and after ten years, he may be promoted to the position of governor or the least military officer.

Mao Yuanyi has been in contact with the elites of the north in the past ten years, such as Sun Gebu is from Baoding, and Zhang Han, who is secretly respected, is a Datong person.

However, the sensitivity and reaction of the northern merchants are indeed slower than those of the south, and judging from the fact that there are many sea ships in front of them and commerce is more prosperous, the reaction and response of the Jiangnan merchants are indeed a step ahead of the northern merchants.

But on second thought, wasn't the originator's Hutchison founded by northern merchants?

If he said this, it was estimated that the boatman's face would not be able to get down, Mao Yuanyi just smiled and did not say what he thought.

The entire Shuiximen area is simply congested.

Everywhere are businessmen who come and go to do goods and deliver goods, the sea ships need a lot of goods, some sea ships are simple, almost only with raw silk, the whole ship is full of crystal clear snow-white raw silk, a load of raw silk is worth a lot of money, each ship does not know how much it is loaded, Mao Yuanyi only saw that the whole ship is full of raw silk, a lot of people carry raw silk picks, swaying from the gangplank to go up, and hand over the basket to the people on the boat.

In addition to raw silk, there are also woven silk, there are dozens of types, and the price is also high.

Cloth of various qualities is also constantly being loaded, and there are all kinds of porcelain, of course, all of which are produced by private kilns, and the porcelain of official kilns is not sold to the public, and outsiders cannot afford to use it.

Tea is also a wide variety, and the large bags are sealed, and it is also the main commodity for export.

In addition, a variety of goods such as paper, cotton, and ironware are also in abundance, and they are constantly being carried onto ships.

Mao Yuanyi also found that a lot of grain was carried onto the ship, which made him feel quite surprised, and stopped a few Lifu to ask, of course, these people didn't know why they were carrying grain on the ship, which made Mao Yuanyi puzzled.

"Master," after leaving the port area, there are rows of streets in front of you, and the alleys and houses slowly stretch out like circular arcs, and there are white walls and stretching horse-head walls everywhere, and the charm of Jiangnan is suddenly displayed in front of you like an ink painting.

First saw a few tea picks stretched out under the guise of a few shops, and then a few pawnshops, it is not surprising that in a place like the port, some people make a lot of money, and some people lose so much that they have to pawn items to return to their hometowns.

There are also money banks, silver numbers, which are used to exchange broken silver or copper coins.

Then there is the grain shop, the rice shop, the mill shop, the wok, the pen shop, the firewood and grass shop, the sweat towel shop, the copper hairpin buckle shop, the garment shop, the burning hotel, and then down is the medicinal herb shop, the grocery store, the cloth shop, the tea shop, the silk shop, when Mao Yuanyi stepped into it, when he heard the familiar sound of the hawker in the official dialect of Jianghuai, and breathed the air by the river with the humidity, he felt that he really stepped on the land of the south of the Yangtze River, and returned to the environment in which he lived more than ten years ago.

At that time, he had the aura of a soldier and agriculturist, and the level of poetry was also passed, and he was just a young man, after a famous family, his family assets were also called rich, and he still won a big name on the bank of the Qinhuai River in the general gold cave, and he also married two famous prostitutes at that time and went home as concubines, I don't know how many so-called celebrities and celebrities were red-eyed...... Looking back, it seems like yesterday, but the past is the past after all, and now Mao Yuanyi thinks back to that year, that is, the evaluation of the four words "young and frivolous".

More than ten years ago, when those elders commented on themselves like this, Mao Yuanyi remembered his expression and heart, and now he actually judged himself by the evaluations of others back then...... Mao Yuanyi couldn't help but smile bitterly.

……

Time slowly but surely moved forward, and in the blink of an eye, nearly a month passed.

The new Liaodong Jingluo Gao Dai officially took office as early as possible, and began to spread some information, investigated and punished some corrupt officials, arrested and questioned the guilty, and at the same time summoned the generals in batches, strictly enforced military discipline, and gave many warnings and reprimands.

At the beginning of October, Gao Di planned to set out from Shanhaiguan to conduct a large-scale inspection in the areas of Ningyuan, Qiantun, Jinzhou, Youtun, and Dalinghe City.

At the same time, Gao Di clearly considered the grievances of the various forces on the Thirteen Mountains, and ordered Zhao Shujiao and other generals to prepare to rescue the Thirteen Mountains and open the weak encirclement of Houjin.

Because the new scripture showed a different style and relatively tough hand with Sun Chengzong, the generals did not dare to slack off, the generals of the Ming army who received the military order began to move to the Jinzhou area, and there were three generals who were transferred, more than ten deputy generals and staff generals and guerrilla generals, with more than 10,000 troops, and at the same time there was accurate information, and the troops left around the Thirteen Mountains by the Houjin side did not exceed 3,000 people, and they were quite tired and tired.

In early winter, the black and yellow roads were crowded with Ming soldiers wearing full-body cotton armor or half-body armor, and red flags flew in the air.

The weather was already very cold, and the cold wind cut Zhao Shujiao's thick and black hands like a knife, he didn't care, his two hands were still controlled with one hand, and the other hand was pressed on the waist on the right side.

This is the habitual action taught by Zhao Shujiao, when he was in Qiantuntuntian the year before last, he accidentally fell down in the ridge and twisted his waist, and he has not fully recovered until now.

In front of him are the dilapidated official roads and the withered yellow withered grass that can reach people, the overly dense shrubs and patches of woodland, coupled with the decaying and decaying abandoned villages, the barren fields overgrown with knee-high withered grass, and the faintly visible white bones, which are easily reminiscent of the fiasco of the Ming army a few years ago.

At that time, Zhao Shujiao was still living in Xuanfu, and he himself never thought that a few years later, he would already be a high-ranking commander-in-chief.

Adjutant General Zhu Mei's eyes were gloomy, rubbing her frozen face, and she said with white breath: "Zhao Shuai, after the defeat of Liuhe, Sun Gebu repeatedly said that we are not enough to fight with the captive field, why did Xin Jingluo decide to fight the Thirteen Mountains again?" ”

Zhao led the teaching: "I went to close the door to lead the training, Gao Jingluo said that there are more than 6,000 elite soldiers on the thirteen mountains, and we will dispatch 10,000 people, and the garrison of the east is only 3,000 soldiers and horses, and there should be a chance of victory in the internal and external attacks." Besides, this time it was the Thirteen Mountains who took the initiative to ask for an attack, and we just cooperated from Jinzhou. ”

Zhu Mei came to her senses and grinned: "It's just that we play the side drums, and if we are profitable, we will advance, and if we are unfavorable, we will retreat." ”

Zhao Shujiao glanced at the deputy, blaming him for saying it too clearly.

Compared with other general soldiers in Liaozhen, Zhao Shujiao is already regarded as a general, Tuntian is not afraid of hard work, is good at soothing soldiers, dares to compete for the first place in battle, and is calm and resolute...... But it is also a battle that can be won before he wants to fight, the defeat of Liuhe was only a few months ago, the shortcomings of the Ming army's poor field warfare were exposed, Sun Chengzong has realized this, and Gao Di, the new scripture strategy, still has hesitation in his heart, at this time the Thirteen Mountains want to take the initiative to attack and break the encirclement, indicating that the soldiers and horses stationed in the east are indeed getting fewer and fewer...... Of course, it's a good opportunity, but it also depends on whether you hurt your hands when you take this opportunity.

Liaozhen only fought on the periphery, and used cavalry to carry out tentative small-scale attacks, and the small-scale cavalry battles said that Zhao Shujiao and the generals were not afraid.

"I also have to call Gao Jingluo to take a look." Zhao Shujiao said lightly: "The imperial court spends a lot of money on Liaozhen, and the people who can't be called think we are waste." ”

"That's nature." Zhu Mei and the other generals all showed excitement, if there is merit to grab, there is no need to exert too much effort to take too many risks, and the generals of Liaozhen will not have much opinion.

"Go fast!" Zhu Mei waved the whip in her hand and shouted at the slow-walking battalion soldiers.