After an unexpected gale, Dengzhou Water City was in shambles.

The wind in the second half of last night was so fierce that almost all the camps had wooden fences uprooted; Everything outside the barracks, whether it was clothes to dry or dried fish spread out in a dustpan, was swept away; There were even a few old wooden houses that were directly blown down, crushing and crushing many people.

Because it has reached the end of summer, and the windy season has long passed, all the battalions in the water city are relatively slack about wind prevention; Ships large and small have only lowered anchor, tied a rope to the shore, and the minimum windproof measures such as mooring have not been done.

As soon as the wind came, the water city was very beautiful: most of the smaller ships were photographed on the shore, and the luckier ones were only damaged by the rudder and side side; The main masts, which were a little less lucky, were blown off, and some of them hit the underwater reef, and the planks of the ship broke, and they hung on the reef and ran aground; There was also the most unlucky boat, the whole half of which was smashed and could not be repaired.

As for the few large ships, the mainmasts were blown off without exception, and the riggings on the ships were blown everywhere, scattered like spider webs on the boardwalk; Some of them were not even spared the auxiliary mast, and the worst one was blown overturned, crushing most of the plank road.

The Yamen of Dengzhou Bingbei Road almost poured out, and all rushed to the heads of various battalions to check the disaster.

After turning around, the military garrison Dao Tie returned to the guerrilla general's camp with a blushing face, and after a while, the deputy military envoy named Hou Zhibang also returned, and his face was about to wring out of the water -- he was mainly responsible for the transportation of grain, and now most of the guys who were eating were destroyed. How could he not be in a hurry?

"My lord, half of the ships of each battalion are damaged, and there is not one in a hundred who are intact and able to walk. How good is that? Deputy Envoy Hou was not polite after he sat down, and he rushed to the point of preparing for the road.

What he said was good, but two days ago, the governor of Jiliao, Yamen, issued a letter asking them to transfer the 100,000 stone military rations hoarded in Tianjin Wei to the Ningyuan army before August 15, and there must be no mistake, today is July 15, and there is only one month.

It was supposed to be according to plan. The battalions in Dengzhou will set off one after another in the next few days to transport grain to Tianjin, but no one expected it. There were unforeseen circumstances, and a strong wind blew the Dengzhou water camp into a cripple.

Now Hou Zhibang is beating a drum in his heart, the new governor of Jiliao, Yuan Chonghuan, he has dealt with a lot, and he is a master who doesn't recognize anything in order to climb up!

A *heart* thought wants to enter the cabinet. He is known for his resoluteness and decisiveness. The most important thing is to see the prevarication and procrastination below, and the yang and the yin are violated. For the subordinates of civil officials, the bullet seal was smashed down if it was a little unsatisfactory, and when it was still Ning Qiandao, many people were involved; For military generals, it is even more spicy, and it is also when Ren Ning was in front of the road, he took it upon himself to kill a guerrilla general, if it wasn't for the then governor Sun Chengzong to help him deal with the aftermath, he would have to go home on the spot!

Now Yuan is sitting on the throne of the governor of Jiliao. Naturally, he was even more satisfied, and the first thing he did was to send Man Gui, who had disobeyed his military order of "not going to war" in the Battle of Ningjin, to Datong to eat sand -- it was wrong for Man Gui to go to war in violation of the order. But they won! Cutting more than 200 levels of Tartar is also the only empirical record in the Battle of Ningjin, with this, Man Gui should not be expelled from Guanning, as the governor of Jiliao, he doesn't even have this amount of tolerance, which is really despicable.

However, this is also in line with Yuan's consistent style, he can't tolerate any noise in his ears, and his subordinates will naturally only use obedient people like Zhao Shujiao and Zu Dashou, and he will never be soft on those who have objections, whether they are civil officials or military generals, or kill or drive away.

This is what Hou Zhibang is most worried about, if he doesn't deliver the grain when the time limit is up, the soldiers will certainly suffer, and I, the main person in charge, may be even more unlucky.

Seeing that the soldiers were silent, Hou Zhibang leaned forward slightly, and said in a low voice, "My lord, the lower officials think that the top priority is to transfer military rations...... Since the battalions in Dengzhou should not be trusted, they should collect the ships of the folk squires for transshipment, and they must not miss the time limit of Inspector Yuan. ”

Bing Beidao shook his head and said, "This storm, my Dengzhou battalions are still damaged like this, how can the people avoid it?" …… Besides, most of the private boats are fishing boats, what is the benefit? This is inappropriate. ”

Hou Zhibang's eyes rolled, and he remembered what he had said when the coastal defense guerrillas were chatting two days ago, so he insisted, "My lord, other people may not have the power, but Chu Fan must have -- according to the guerrillas, the four giant ships of the East India Company have passed through the mountain guard, and they will be able to reach Dengzhou in a few days, or they may be requisitioned. ”

Bing Beidao glanced at Hou Zhibang, and felt a little unhappy in his heart.

He knew a little about Ning Yuan, he had been in arrears for several months, and he heard that the soldiers were quite unstable and could change at any time; If the East India Company's fleet is requisitioned to transport grain, what if there is a mutiny, not to mention the food grabbing, and the ship is burned and destroyed?

He was the majority shareholder of the East India Company, and he invested 10,000 taels of silver, but of course he did not want to take this risk.

He didn't know that although this Hou Zhibang had also bought Chu Fan's shares of 1,000 taels of silver, he now hated the East India Company to the core, and wished that the East India Company had fall down immediately!

There is no other reason, it is caused by the East India Company's opening of a rice shop in Lushunkou -- the original rice and grain supply in Dongjiang Town was in the hands of this Hou Zhibang, who said that he would buy as much as he wanted, and the oil and water were bubbling out, not to mention tens of thousands of silver a year.

Now the East India Company is not talking about it, and it still has money and does not make money, and supplies food to those big-headed soldiers at a low price! This made Hou Zhibang angry with shame - as the saying goes, cutting off people's wealth is like killing parents, you Chu Fan don't produce good cigarettes, what's the matter with running to Dongjiang Town?

It is because Hou Zhibang is determined to Yin Chufan this time, not only to requisition his ship, but also to let him follow him to Ningyuan, when the time comes, it is best to encounter a mutiny, even if he can't meet it, he will follow and do some tricks, so that he can't be transported in time, a crime of missing the deadline, but it is enough for him to drink a pot.

Looking at the indecision of the soldiers, this Hou Zhibang took the trouble to give him an example of the fierce and ruthless side of Inspector Yuan, and the meaning in and out of his words was nothing more than that we are now grasshoppers on a rope, and the military rations cannot be transported, and no one has good fruit to eat; Then it was estimated that the situation of the various battalions in Dengzhou would repair the boats, and it would take at least a month to repair the ships that were ready for use. In the end, they counted the civilian ships that could be requisitioned nearby.

After spending a long time, they finally made the soldiers understand that except for Chu Fan's four big ships, there was nothing that could help them solve the crisis of missing the grain transportation schedule.

Although the silver is important, the weight of the black gauze hat on the head is even heavier, and the soldier weighed it for a long time, and finally nodded.

"Since there is no other good way, this way will go to Chu Yixian." (To be continued.) )