On the battlefield, there are people who forget to die, but most people are still fighting for their own survival, watching the pirates on the opposite side suddenly line up in a square formation, spears like a forest, and push in their direction without pause.

With a simple visual inspection, you can judge that the weapon in your hand is much shorter than the opponent's spear, and the opponent is facing the array of spears, and the result of facing it can only be stabbed to death.

The spear team in the Yang Si pirates is composed of the personnel sent by the Jiaozhou battalion and the elite of the pirate youth recruited, and the basic combat power is not much different from the troops of the Jiaozhou battalion.

In the midst of such shouts, the pirates strode forward, unstoppable, and the close combat was still entangled with each other, the firearms, bows and arrows could not be used at all, and the pirates suddenly changed their formation, and attacked in one direction with their spears, and the officers and soldiers did not react at all.

Seeing the other party rushing to him with a mountain of momentum, Xuzhou Bing's reaction was to shout and flee in all directions, running slowly and not even having a chance to resist, and fell directly under the thorns of the steel jungle.

The pirates who were fighting outside leaned on the spear array and followed outward, and the encirclement that the officers and soldiers had managed to close was immediately opened.

The horse team was cruising around the periphery, but it could never find the space and opportunity for an assault, and when the guerrillas of the Xuzhou soldiers were in a hurry, they found that their encirclement had been broken by the other party.

Yang Si's pirates should have practiced many times in the situation in front of them, the spear formation was pushed out flat, and when the officers and soldiers were busy with the whole team in the chaos, the spear team stood upright, and then turned around, and the back team became the front team, and the pirates who did not belong to the spear formation followed behind.

The leader shouted again, and the pirates with spears in hand shouted loudly and rhythmically. Rushed back in stride again.

Rushed open by the pirates, it will not be a complete failure, although the officers at all levels of the Xuzhou soldiers are discouraged, but still gather the soldiers, this short-term situation of hand-to-hand combat, short-term defeat does not matter, as long as it does not break up the chaos, then there is still a chance to turn the tables.

But no one thought that after the pirates rushed out, they would be able to turn around so easily. And after turning back in unison, the formation was not chaotic at all.

It is not difficult for a person to advance and retreat at will, but a brigade of several hundred people is like a person, and there is no chaos at all. It's incredible. In modern times, primary school students can easily do this after training in physical education class, but for this era, it is necessary to train strong soldiers to do this, Qi Jiguang is famous for governing the army, but he also said in the military book that when the army marches, it must be walked slowly. Stop every ten steps to correct each other's queues in case of confusion.

The queue training of the modern army of the Jiaozhou battalion is still non-stop training every day, so that the soldiers can achieve this effect, and this effect has played a great role on the battlefield.

When the officers and soldiers who had not yet completely retracted were turned around and rushed back by the spear phalanx, the junior officers could no longer maintain this formation, and the opening that had been broken away just now was broken open again.

The spear phalanx didn't stop at all, and kept pushing towards it, and it was in close combat. The officers and soldiers facing each other in the spear formation, each need to face five rows of spears at the same time, not to mention the insufficient length of the weapon, even if they are skilled in martial arts, how to be prepared in the chaos of the army.

The only way to face is to retreat or die, and on both sides of the spear array, there are pirate stragglers, who rely on the spear queue as a barrier and attack on both sides. Desperately trying to widen the wound.

It's like a sharp weapon with burrs piercing into the flesh, the sharp weapon keeps moving forward, stabbing incomparably deeper, and the burr is to flood the flesh and blood around the wound, causing more damage.

The spear phalanx rushed forward more than a hundred paces, and when the long-haired queue was a little scattered, the situation of the battle, which had been stalemate, finally changed. Xuzhou soldiers could no longer support it. The whole camp was scattered.

The guerrilla who led the Xuzhou army had already gathered the horse team around him. But looking at the spears like mountains in the chaotic army, I just can't make up my mind to let the horses go to charge, this is the pirate that came out there, it is actually such a strong army, the rout of the soldiers ran towards the west, and the horse team gradually couldn't hold on, and was about to be disrupted by the deserters, and the guerrilla was unwilling to continue fighting.

Fortunately, the casualties on the ground this time are not large, but these soldiers who have fled need to be put together, if the soldiers can't be gathered and their strength is damaged, it will be more than worth the loss.

The guerrilla sighed, turned his horse, and chased the rout, but in the guerrilla's heart, he saw that the infantry who used spears were rushing left and right in the military formation, but the formation was not chaotic, if the horse team went to attack, it was really uncertain whether they could gain the upper hand with their own untrained cavalry.

Many pirates were still fighting bloodily, unaware that the officers and soldiers besieging them had already dispersed, and they wanted to pursue the opponent in front of them when they saw that they were about to run. But he was shouted back by the people behind him, and the spear array, which was the core of the pirates, always maintained a rather calm mentality.

Many people were dizzy, they didn't react for a while, and after hesitating for a while, they realized that their own family had already won, and these pirates who were re-gathered under Yang Si had done some murderous deeds in the past, and they had all seen blood, but today's such a big battle was the first time to experience.

These pirates felt scared in their hearts, but they didn't have any intention of running away, just fighting the enemy there according to what they had trained on weekdays, and now the seemingly terrible officers and soldiers were not invincible, and they could resist it on their own side, which was the effect of training on weekdays.

The loose and undisciplined pirate young men were instilled with some things by the officers and training system of the Jiaozhou battalion, which penetrated into their bones and made them stronger and stronger and become qualified warriors.

After the Xuzhou soldiers gradually dispersed, the battlefield gradually quieted down, and those who watched the battle at the head of the city were also stunned to look at the city, and the battle situation was gradually showing in favor of the officers and soldiers.

Suddenly, the pirates on the battlefield shouted a shocking cry. The salt merchants and representatives of the battle site in the city were stunned, and a few of them were directly frightened by this sudden shout and sat on the ground.

This shout is the cry after victory, but this cry can also be heard a little different, the pirates in the spear array rhythmically use their spears to the ground, shouting with this rhythm, while the pirates outside are shouting excitedly, in any case, these pirates have been washed away a lot after this battle, and they are already considered warriors.

However, the joy of the pirates in the city did not last long. Yang Si pulled his throat and shouted:

"Don't howl, give me Yang Si a quiet place, burn the boat listening on the Salt River, and dig the low dam. Let's leave after dark, that rabbit cub is not finished, Lao Tzu leaves him to howl on the shore! ”

The pirates, who were still elated, suddenly became depressed, and it was okay to let them fight to the death, and it was really unrefreshing to let them go to work.

On the city wall of Haizhou City, those people related to the salt merchants looked at the salt river not far away. The black smoke from the burning ground is rising again, and someone is digging a low dam on the side of the salt pan, and the salt pan will not be able to recover for a while, and if it continues like this, the salt pan will be completely abandoned.

Perhaps because the battle consumed physical strength, this time we did not even tear down the salt barns and salt tuns by the river as usual, but just burned the boats, dug the low dams, and left by boat.

The Haizhou salt factory was attacked for the second time, and Ganyu, Huize and other places got the news immediately within three days. The casualties of the officers and soldiers were close to 600, the Xuzhou soldiers were scattered, and the Xuzhou soldiers in Ganyu and Huize immediately retreated to the city, not daring to camp outside the city anymore, and the salt workers who worked in the Yantian salt field were scattered by nearly 20%.

At present, for the salt merchants of the two Huai, this is no longer a question of whether they can catch up with the delivery schedule, but whether the salt works can be preserved, which is related to the salt merchants.

Nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers were routed and defeated. Nanzhili seaside is like a wide open door, allowing thieves to come and go, this is not only a matter of salt merchants, Huai'an Mansion sent people all the way to Nanjing City, Jiangnan earthquake, eunuch Lu Jiude did not expect that this appointment would actually have such a disaster.

It is said that Nanzhili is in charge of the water division of the Cao Jiang Imperial History, and he is responsible for the defense of the river and the protection of Cao Yun. That is, he still has some sailors in his hands. But these sailors are in tatters, and it's hard to say whether they can go out normally. Don't say anything about fighting enemies on the water and pirates on the sea.

Lu Jiude, the new eunuch of Nanjing, also knew that the soldiers and horses of Fengyang Mansion, Luzhou Mansion, and Anqing Mansion could not move, because he came over there, and the soldiers and horses in these three places were all put to guard against Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's chaotic army in the Huguang area.

However, the salt merchants have a great influence in Jingshi and Nanjing, and if they don't come up with a way to deal with it as soon as possible, I'm afraid that even I, the eunuch guarding the town, will not be stable.

In early November of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the officers and soldiers and thieves in the Huguang area were already fighting, the two Huai salt merchants were gloomy, the pirates were at sea, I don't know when the salt works would come again, production would not recover, and this year's income was afraid to plummet.

Hurry up, the situation of the piracy in Nanzhili has been reported to the Beijing Division, and the southeast rebellion of the Jiajing Dynasty almost shook the country, and the princes in the court are still fresh in their memories.

Hearing that there was such a situation in the south, the attitude was extremely unified, and it could not be tolerated, and troops and horses were immediately mobilized to exterminate it. The rebellion of the Japanese invaders began as a small sign, because no one took care of it, and it turned into a catastrophe that followed, and the same mistake could not be repeated, and it must be nipped in the bud.

The crux of the matter was that troops were transferred from there to exterminate the pirates, because with the help of the salt merchants, the imperial court's will and disposal of the pirates were particularly fast, and within about fifteen days, the imperial court's approval had been transferred back to Nanjing.

The salt merchants of Lianghuai are indeed in a hurry, because of the delay in the production here, there are already rumors, saying that the salt merchants in Henan and Shanxi have planned to buy salt in Ludi, and the market is already showing signs of gradual loss, which is really moving their life.

At present, the advantages of Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, are reflected, Shandong's salt production and sales are all protected by special armed personnel, Li Meng's Jiaozhou battalion itself is inseparable from the official salt and private salt, if you want to do something about the private salt of the Jiaozhou battalion, not only in business, but in fact with the Jiaozhou battalion huge armed confrontation.

The two Huai salt merchants have been engaged in Taiping business for hundreds of years, and the relationship with the government has been extremely good. The safety of the sale, transportation and production of salt goods is maintained by the soldiers and horses of the government. The salt merchants were not willing to throw their earned money into the bottomless pit of raising soldiers, and they had no idea of doing so.

But now in the season of war and chaos, even the government can't mobilize these warriors who support their own troops, let alone salt merchants, and even if they are mobilized, what can they do, they fought a few battles with pirates, and they were defeated.

The salt merchants were really anxious, and when the approval of the Jingshi court came to Nanjing, they scattered a large amount of silver. As long as anyone can solve the situation in front of them, they still have a lot of gratitude.

A few days ago, the two Huai salt merchants have been trying to inquire on the sea surface about which family of pirates came to the salt works to make trouble. Since it can't be calmed down, it's good to buy peace of mind with silver, but this matter on the sea is almost all under the control of the Zheng family, and in the past, the salt merchants didn't bother to pay attention to the Zheng family at sea, and they also made trouble for the other party many times, and now they want to use the relationship of the Zheng family to investigate things. One can imagine how the Zheng family will react.

Zheng Xia, who presided over the affairs of the Zheng family in Nanzhili, unceremoniously gave the other party a cold face and ignored it.

On 13 November, a fleet of ships appeared again on the sea next to the Haizhou Salt Works, and the salt workers repairing the salt fields on the coast panicked and fled.

The news reached Yangzhou on the 15th, and reached Nanjing City on the 17th, and it was not only the salt merchants who were anxious at this time, but also the bigwigs of Nanzhili who were shocked. No one wants to let these soldiers out, what if the pirates come to Nanjing.

The two Huai salt merchants urged more urgently, and the officials who had something to do with the salt merchants, under the urging of the financiers, contacted the whole city of Nanjing, and also urged the above to come up with a charter to solve the problem.

The eunuch of Nanjing, the secretary of the Nanjing military department, and the garrison of Nanjing got together every day to discuss how to solve the scourge of pirates in the Lianghuai area.

Such a meeting was no longer a regular meeting of the three of them, but a gathering of their respective subordinates and other senior officials to come up with an idea.

Money can communicate with the gods, and the ears and eyes of the two Huai salt merchants in Nanjing City are beyond anyone's imagination, and the content and results of almost every collegiate discussion. These salt merchants can know at the first time that in order to deal with the nearest one, the salt merchants have special representatives to Nanjing City, bringing a huge amount of silver.

The goal was simple: either to completely exterminate the pirates who harassed the salt works, or to send a reliable army to guard the salt works so that the pirates would not dare to come.

These pirates came from the north. And just to destroy the salt works. The salt merchants also vaguely guessed who was behind it, and the pirates fought desperately to defeat the two groups of officers and soldiers. I don't want a little money, just destroy the salt pans and salt fields, how can there be such an idiot pirate.

At present, there are only two suspicious people, and the most suspicious is Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, who has a province of illegal salt trading under his command, and has several conflicts with the two Huai salt merchants, if he defeats the two Huai salt merchants, his private salt profits can increase by a large chunk, and he will have this motive to do it.

The other person is a certain salt merchant, this salt merchant's salt farm is in Ganyu, but this time the pirates have not been intruded, everyone always feels a little strange, this salt is always sold less by others, and more by other people, destroying other people's salt farms, and they can make money.

But whether Li Meng did it, they can't ask or inquire, the current Shandong controlled by Li Meng is not the same dilapidated place as before, the local gentry and wealthy families are awe-inspiring to obey this Li general soldier, the regular army of the Jiaozhou battalion, the armed Yanding and the guard team of the Tuntian Grange are also strictly guarded, and if they want to inquire about any news, they are easily arrested on the charge of listening to the truth of the officers and soldiers, and harboring ill intentions.

At this time, it was not back then, after Liu Zeqing's incident, the two Huai salt merchants were already afraid, but it was just a business to make a fortune, and it was already chilling to throw so many lives into it.

Now Li Meng is already the chief soldier of Shandong, and the more he can't be provoked, and now the two Huai salt merchants are just afraid of offending Li Meng, and the new and old grudges are settled together, and it is a consensus to stay away, and they dare not violate anything, although they are suspicious of this pirate matter. But after sending a few people to inquire about the news, there was no news, and they didn't dare to move anymore.

What made the salt merchants in Nanjing quite stunned was that today they were finally given a solution, and the person who put forward this idea was not the spokesperson they invested money in, but Wu Jiawei, the right attendant of the Nanjing Military Department.

Wu Jiawei, the squire of the Nanjing Military Department, was only promoted last year, and the Nanjing Military Department, or the right squire, is honestly not a great official. The two Huai salt merchants also sent some regular money, and there was not too deep contact, who would have thought that today's collegiate meeting, but this one put forward a plan.

The soldier's plan was simple. The soldiers of Fengyang, Luzhou, and Anqing can't move, and the soldiers of Nanjing can't move, so why not transfer troops from other places to guard Huai, and in the surrounding provinces at present, the only place where there can be soldiers mobilized is also the ground in Shandong, and the general army of Shandong has just won the battle when the Tatars entered the Kou, and now there is nothing that needs to be moved in Beizhili and Shandong. The ground in Shandong is also very peaceful, and it is also very suitable to mobilize the Lu army. And Shandong and Huaibei 6 road connected, there is always more convenient than Nanjing, the traffic is inconvenient to be much more convenient, Nanjing garrison and Nanjing military department Shangshu Li Banghua is indispensable, anyway, there is no need to mobilize the soldiers and horses in the territory of Nanzhili, but also save their own mobilization of soldiers and horses, raise military salaries and trouble, only need to report this fold to the Beijing Division, let the emperor and the cabinet of princes take the idea.

And they know it in their hearts. As long as the imperial court is not allowed to send troops to pay for it, and it is mentioned that it is Li Meng, a general who has recently made meritorious contributions, and it is such a trivial matter to pacify the bandits, the imperial court will definitely not object, and what it is worried about is nothing more than Li Meng's attitude.

The only one who disagrees with this matter is Lu Jiude, the eunuch of Nanjing, the relationship between Li Meng and his predecessor Liu Fulai is not a secret, although Lu Jiude himself has nothing to do with this job change, but the predecessor is idle and the people, and it is difficult to ensure that this Li Zongbing has no ideas in his heart. I am also the guard of Nanjing now, so why bother to find this unhappy.

What's more, what does the matter of the Lianghuai Salt Farm have to do with yourself, it is better to hang it like this, let those salt dealers pay more tribute to themselves, and they can also make some benefits.

As a result, Wu Jiawei, the squire of the Nanjing Military Department, stood up and said impassionedly:

"Jiajing year. Dozens of pirates marched under the city of Nanjing. The gates of Nanjing were closed, and they did not dare to go out of the city to fight. It has become the laughing stock of the world, and the Japanese invaders in all parts of the Yangtze River are wreaking havoc, and there are also Japanese robbers who have approached the area of the Imperial Mausoleum in Zhongdu, which almost caused a catastrophe! The news from Haizhou City must have been seen by all the adults, it is a giant of nearly 10,000 people, and the Xuzhou soldiers are already frightened, if they don't deploy troops to take precautions, these Haikou are bold, and they will go deep into the inner 6, how to deal with it at that time!? ”

These words are reasonable, all the dignitaries present nodded one after another, and Lu Jiude, who had just expressed his objections, was also silent, and everyone knew that Wu Jiawei was born in Fujian, and he had no stake in the two Huai salt merchants and Li Mengdu, so bluntly speaking, it should be out of public intentions.

Wu Jiawei glanced at the expressions of everyone in the room, knowing that his words had already moved everyone, he couldn't help lowering his voice and said slowly:

"Princes, the lower officials have seen a number of documents and charts in the Ministry of War, and there are a lot of newspapers from all over the country, and now although there are soldiers in Fengyang, they are all on the side of Huguang and Jiangxi, there are no soldiers in the east, and the emptiness is abnormal, if the Haikou is rampant, from Huai'an Mansion all the way westward, and directly approaching the central capital, it will be a monstrous disaster at that time!"

Haikou went deep into the inner 6, approaching Fengyang Zhongdu, there is not much possibility in reality, the rich land of Nanzhili is all along the canal, Fengyang Mansion is heavily guarded, and they are all Huangzhuang, the people have nothing worth looting, and the pirates will not take the initiative to be stupid.

But this theoretical possibility has to be guarded against, there is no absolute, what if such a situation really occurs, and even someone in the court to raise this possibility, what will happen if someone raises this possibility, today's Chongzhen Emperor is not a tolerant person, I am afraid that the time will come......

Thinking of this possibility, all the people in this room, including Lu Jiude, the eunuch of Nanjing Town, were shocked, the high-ranking officials and generals who have lost their heads over the years are not a few, and the officials of the first and second grades have been convicted and killed no less than ten, in the Wanli and the Apocalypse, if you are an official to the fourth grade or above, you don't have to worry about anything, you can be an official until you grow old, and you will be prosperous and rich for a lifetime.

But during the Chongzhen period, this saint was very strict, but his brain was still a little confused, and the central and senior officials were often imprisoned for something unrelated to him, and Shaanxi was in turmoil. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong crisscrossed the five provinces, and this crime was even more real.

Although the future of being an official in Nanzhili is not great, it is stable, and there is a lot of oil and water, so I just want this official position to be done for a long time, and transfer Shandong soldiers to Huai, and it is Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, who is worried. Why stop.

The people in the room were all human spirits, they exchanged glances with each other, and immediately made a decision, and Lu Jiude, the eunuch guarding the town of Nanjing, coughed. Shrieked and said:

"Wu Shilang said that it is reasonable, the matter is big, and it can't be delayed, so our family will draw up an excerpt with Master Shangshu Li and Lord Xu, play the Son of Heaven, and come up with a result as soon as possible. What do you think? ”

"My father-in-law is right, and that's how it should be done."

"Well, it depends on whether the Shandong general soldier takes into account the overall situation, but the Son of Heaven issued an edict, presumably he also understands the stakes ......"

The high-ranking officials in the room were all in agreement, and at the same time, they looked at Wu Jiawei, the right attendant of the Nanjing Military Department, and their expressions were full of approval, thinking that this official understood things and knew how to advance and retreat. Even after bitterly stating the benefits and disadvantages, after everyone agreed with his opinion, they still sat there calmly and complacently. It's really rare, and it will definitely be of great use in the future.

Since it has been agreed, then everyone immediately wrote an excerpt and sent a fast horse to the capital, and now in addition to the bandits in the south and Shandong, and in addition to the bandits, the rest is still peaceful.

What's more, the salt merchants are also very concerned about this matter, and as soon as the collegial discussion comes out, someone will immediately cross the river out of the city and go to Yangzhou. That is, after half a day's work, the salt merchants got the news, and more than a dozen salt merchants who were qualified to decide things immediately gathered together to discuss the matter.

In the end, the result is not too complicated, what else can be done, it can only be admitted, even if this matter is a bandit instigated behind the Shandong General Army, and the soldiers and horses of the Shandong General Army are invited in. He doesn't slap himself in the face. At the end of the day, it's a monetary expense.

Although it was painful to distribute the money and property to the Shandong general soldiers. But it's much better than not having a grain harvest at this time, and as for what losses will be suffered in the future, I can't care about it now.

Speaking of this situation is really ridiculous, the results of the discussion of the Nanjing officials, the responsible civil officials first pressed on their hands, let their subordinates quickly cross the river to the salt merchants in Yangzhou City, the salt merchants felt feasible after the discussion, in order to formally form the plan, and send the horse to Beijing.

Of course, this matter was mainly promoted by these salt merchants, and the officials of Nanjing City were still quite kind, knowing that they had received other people's money, they had to give an explanation to the other party.

Li Meng robbed the Shandong market that the salt merchants had been operating for many years, and killed many subordinates and children related to the two Huai salt merchants in the later stage of the competition.

But at this time, the situation can only ask Li Meng to come forward, so that the salt merchants can still relieve themselves with the help of production, and if Li Meng is also turned away, I am afraid that it will completely collapse.

There was no way out, so Wu Jiawei, the right attendant of the Nanjing Military Department, who proposed this plan, received a thank you of three thousand taels of silver.

Hurry up, all the way non-stop, arrive at Beijing on November 23, on November 25 the cabinet meeting will push the results, there is no objection to the Nanjing military department, the town guard yamen, the garrison yamen, the Chongzhen Emperor also immediately approved the seal, now the eyes of the world are on the suppression of bandits in Huguang, the commission is really unwilling to make any more trouble, since the local government has come up with a way, it is naturally approved.

In addition, since the beginning of the pirates, the court and outsiders saw the emergency documents, which only said that pirates and pirates harassed the coastal state capitals, but did not mention the salt works.

Also, a few years ago, Li Menglai moved to Nanjing City, but he didn't know that the eunuch of Nanjing Town was Liu Fulai, and entrusted the Zheng family's Bafu Commercial Bank to work up and down, and the Zheng family found an official close to him, who was a member of the military department.

A few years later, this member of the staff was naturally promoted, and he was already the right attendant of the Nanjing Military Department, surnamed Wu and named Jiawei. Five days before participating in this collegiate meeting, the Ba Min Commercial Bank sent 6,000 taels of silver to his family.