Chapter 191: On the River

In the river network from Jining Prefecture to Henan and Nanzhili, in addition to grain ships and cargo ships, salt ships occupy a very large proportion.

To be precise, it should have become scarce after seven years of Chongzhen, the reason is, of course, that Li Meng integrated the entire private salt market in Shandong, and suppressed the original market of the two Huai salt merchants.

Because of Liu Zeqing, some markets in Yanzhou and Dongchang were still open, and by March of the tenth year of Chongzhen, at least the illegal salt in most areas of Yanzhou Prefecture began to be reoccupied by Huaiyan.

The two Huai salt merchants were not satisfied with this result, but the current situation was the best they could do, Liu Zeqing, who had originally placed great hopes, Liu Bu was beaten out of more than 4,000 people in ten days, which really made people feel cold and afraid.

Huaiyan's fleet is more than 30 ships, and the escort leader at the bow of the ship used to be a military attache from Nanzhili, who came to be a salt merchant's guard, which was much more oily and watery than being a small military attache in the guardhouse.

The leader of the escort was a little depressed, and it was far from being comfortable to go to Huguang and Zhejiang on the Shandong side, and now the situation was very different from before, when the salt ships were on the canal in the past, they didn't have to scruple about anything, they just needed to swagger away, although there were officials who investigated and seized smuggled salt along the way, but as long as they spent silver.

But now this road has become very dangerous, during the first month, several of his subordinates were attacked by "horse bandits" when escorting salt goods in Dongchang Mansion, not to mention the salt goods, several people were cut off their heads, so that the heads of these people were packed in lime bags and sent to the door of their shopkeeper in Jining Prefecture.

Since that incident, all the salt goods in their own house have to be accompanied by a guard of about 100 people, and they dare not leave the ship a little bit during the day and night, and they have to be nervous for a long time if there is some wind and grass.

The escort leader used to walk this way, not to mention the wine and food on the boat, and generally asked a woman to accompany him along the way.

But anger is anger, be careful or be careful, the escort leader lay on the side of the boat and fished a few handfuls of river water to wash his face, the canal water in March and April is still very cold, it seems to be a needle prick in the face, and the escort leader is finally sober. I heard the shouting of the men of the ship in front:

"There is a ship, a flat boat for Caoyun, and a south ship for the south."

That is to say, there is a fleet in front, it is a fleet that transports grain to the south, and it has been loaded with other goods, and at this time it is going south along the Caoyun, and there are many ships on the Caoyun, so naturally it will not be just a fleet, but the ships escorted by the salt merchant cannot be cautious every time they pass a ship, and there is an old oilman who often runs on the river in front of him.

Hearing that it was the southbound grain ship on the way back, the escort leader breathed a sigh of relief and stuffed the knife back into the gap in the salt bag.

Although the river is wide, the speed of the two ships is still very slow, and the bow and stern of each ship are marked with wind lanterns, and the guards on each salt boat have come to the place where the two ships are staggered, and although they are sure that the other party is safe, they still have to be careful.

I can't see anything wrong, the goods on the other side are covered with tarpaulin, and when the grain ship goes south, it is all carrying some special goods from the north, and the profits are mainly from the goods carried back and forth from the north to the south.

Except for the light of the wind lanterns, the river surface was dark and it was impossible to see anything clearly, and the escort leader gradually relaxed, thinking that he seemed to be too nervous, and he would find a sheltered place on the boat to squint for a while to replenish his spirit.

But the two boats staggered, and the ships passed in front of him, and there was nothing abnormal, but he always heard the sound of blowing, as if there was such a sound on every ship, and he couldn't see the end, but the mood of the escort leader was always unrelaxed.

It is also a coincidence that the other side's fleet is actually about the same length as its own, and the fleets of the two sides are directly tied together in the end, parallel to the river.

Someone suddenly began to shout loudly on the grain ship, shouting the password of "ready", "up", "ping" and other incomprehensible words, but these sudden loud shouts made the fleet of the two Huai salt merchants suddenly nervous, all the escorts were holding knives, guns and weapons standing on the side of the ship opposite those ships, staring nervously, several leaders shouted and cursed, scolding each other for why the other party was making noise and being scary.

The escort leader standing on the second ship felt that something was wrong, but there was nothing unusual on the opposite ship except for the cloth and wind lanterns.

"Shoot!"

He finally understood this command, but as soon as he reacted, he saw that the tarpaulin on the opposite side had been dragged open, and under each tarpaulin was not the goods, but the shadowy figures, all of them were standing in a half-kneeling posture, holding what they could not see clearly, but they could see the sparks dotted with stars.

"Boom boom~~~" There was a continuous sound, and a lot of waterfowl and small beasts were startled around, and there was still smoke between the two fleets, and the smell of gunpowder was everywhere.

The screams rang out, and many of the escorts standing by the ship fell into the water and could not get up again, but the escort leader was very lucky when he saw the opportunity, and the shot rang out, and he fell down towards the deck of the ship, and even the sound of lead bullets whistling over his head could be heard.

"Firebolt, firebolt!!"

In the end, this escort leader was a junior officer in the Ming army, and he knew something, but what was the use of shouting, because the other party shouted loudly, and almost all of his subordinates were attracted to the side facing each other, and they were all hit by the fire guns prepared by the other party.

The two fleets were parallel, the distance between each other's ships was not more than thirty paces, the water was very calm, and the power of the firearms was maximized.

Although the muzzle velocity of this black powder ammunition is not fast, the impulse is enough to shatter people's internal organs and bones, and the penetration power is poor, but in such a close shot, many people in the escort team of the two Huai salt merchants were pierced by the gun.

Flesh and blood splattered on the salt bag behind him, and there were more than a dozen escorts who escaped the shooting, but they were lucky just now, the other party's fleet was already approaching this side, and they didn't need to stick all of them, as long as there was a ship on it, the rest of the people could come up.

The captains and sailors of the ships carrying the salt were already frightened, and those who survived either lay on their stomachs and did not dare to move, or jumped into the river and swam to the other side with their lives.

When the escort leader stood up from the boat, he saw that the other party's head boat was already on the salt boat on this side, and he could see that the other party's people were running towards the boat on this side. The escort leader choked on a few puffs of gunpowder smoke that had not yet dissipated, and couldn't help coughing somewhere.

If you jump into the water and run, so many salt boats are lost, it is already a great responsibility, even if you destroy Haizhou, I am afraid that you will be cut off by your own master's head, it is better to fight like this, and you can also earn some buried silver for your family, and the sound of fighting in front of you quickly dissipated.

More than a dozen people did not form any resistance, only heard the screams and the sound of falling into the water, the other party had already arrived in front of him, the escort leader was not in a hurry, he went to the side of the boat to catch some water, wiped a handful on his face, and muttered in a low voice:

"Until now, Lao Tzu doesn't know who is going to fight, and he is a fool when he dies, it's really awkward......"

But then he raised the big sword in his hand and shouted:

"Lao Tzu, I have eaten, drank, and prostituted, and I don't live in vain, your mother!"

The man shouted, rushed forward with his knife, ran past two boats, and was hit by a few spears that opened a bloody hole in his body, and fell directly into the river.

In April of the tenth year of Chongzhen, the four salt depots of the two Huai salt merchants in Yanzhou and Jining Prefecture, and the two salt boats traveling on the canal, were all destroyed, and the salt was either directly dispersed or dumped into the water, which can be said to be a heavy loss for the two Huai salt merchants.

To make matters worse, the representatives of two salt merchants in Jining Prefecture stationed in Shandong were robbed in the middle of the night, their heads were cut off, and the gold and silver treasures were all looted.

In Caozhou, there is a place guarded by the chief soldier Liu Zeqing, so such a vicious case did not happen, but the salt merchant housekeeper who lived in Caozhou was thrown a dead dog in the yard in the middle of the night, and the dog's blood flowed all over the ground in the morning, and there was a fishy smell, which scared the whole family to fly and jump.

In Qingzhou Mansion, close to Yanzhou Mansion, a local gentry who had colluded with Liu Zeqing was charged with the White Lotus Cult, and before the gentry could defend himself or escape, he was surrounded by a large number of Jiaozhou battalion soldiers and horses, and opened Zhuangzi with three times and divided by two, destroying the whole gate.

As a result, in May, there was not a grain of salt in the two Huai to Shandong, and no one in Shandong did not use Lu salt, and some literati recorded these things in their own notes, and gave it the name "Blood Salt April".

Since Mu Yunyao took on the task of interpreting the Di Bao Tang Newspaper, the girl has had the right to entrust the merchants of the Jiaozhou camp to search for some information she requested.

On May 21, the news she asked for was sent from Nanzhili....