The late summer and early autumn of the eleventh year of Chongzhen were destined to be unpeaceful. The three major forces of the Ming Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Rogues all closely watched each other's movements under the turbulent undercurrent. In contrast, Fengyang is in a calm state, and exudes a thriving development trend.

Since Lu Zhenfei took charge of Fengyang, he has been self-denying, lightly dispensing with meager endowments, and strictly investigating corrupt officials and corrupt officials. After a year of repair, the general framework of Fengyang City Wall has been formed, although it is far from being tall and majestic at the beginning, but it is strong and practical.

The various cities in the city have also resumed normal operation, and the yamen in Fengyang can also perform their own duties, and the people who fled have also rushed back from the surrounding prefectures and counties one after another, and there are even some people from other places mixed in. Originally, there were only about 30,000 households left in Fengyang, but this year it soared to more than 60,000 households, although it was far less than the Hongzhi and Zhengde years, but it was the highest peak of population in the past ten years.

The influx of displaced people and wealthy households has stimulated the rapid development of Fengyang's commerce, and while food has increasingly become the most important problem in the city. Fortunately, Fengyang came to Jianghuai, and Caoyun prospered. After the thieves were temporarily suppressed and the people in Shandong surged, Fengyang became the safest transit point between Jianghuai and Beizhili and even Jingshi. The resumption of Caoyun has alleviated the food crisis in Fengyang and attracted more displaced people to come.

After the integration of Zhu Ping'an and Duan Xinian, the original three thousand households are actually only one left, and the remaining two thousand households were originally the children of the Fengyang Hao family. The 1,000 military households under their command fled the most severely, and they had already existed in name only. Now that Zhu Ping'an's thousands of households are becoming more and more prosperous, and Fengyang has once again become an important circulation link of Caoyun, which has led to a series of business opportunities, these two people have put down the so-called identity of thousands of households and plunged into the wave of market economy in full swing, and the few remaining military households were all sold to Zhu Ping'an.

Zhu Ping'an got another 300 young people, although behind them are 300 households with the same value of eating, but now Zhu Ping'an can be described as wealthy. The grain field was not enough, so he started from Caoyun, and relied on the name of the high wall guard and the swords and guns of his soldiers to occupy all the loading and unloading business of Fengyang Wharf. The three hundred young men and their families were all stationed at the wharf, built houses and warehouses, and monopolized the entire Fengyang wharf. not only fed these military households, but also made a fortune because of it. At least 10,000 taels of silver are credited to the account every month.

Zhu Ping'an's original intention was to set up a special economic zone similar to Fengyang, but at present, there is still a gap between his strength and official position, and it is indeed unrealistic to want to cover the sky in Fengyang. Besides, Fengyang is the capital after all, not to mention under the strict monitoring of the imperial court, it is still in the heart of the four wars, the strategic location has congenital defects, the terrain is flat, if the Qing army goes south, Fengyang will have no danger to defend, can only be trapped in the lonely city, which is really not conducive to long-term development. Based on these points, Zhu Ping'an temporarily gave up his thoughts.

Guangdong transported nearly 6,000 catties of pig iron and 2,000 catties of refined iron, Huang Gongfu sent people to escort thousands of miles, under the banner of the Huguang Division's Yamen Soldiers, where anyone dared to check along the way, all the way to Fengyang. With this batch of materials, the work of the dim sum workshop was not stopped halfway, and immediately increased personnel and investment, and made every effort to build the god machine arrow car and rocket car, as well as the armor and crossbow machine, which are all indispensable equipment against the Tartar cavalry.

During these times, Zhu Ping'an went back and forth between the dock and the dim sum workshop, and in the blink of an eye it was autumn, and the time for the Qing soldiers to go south was getting closer and closer, but he was suffering from the fact that there was no intelligence agency outside the pass, so he could only wait for news from the Beijing Division. And Zhu Ping'an was busy making various preparations.

Early in the morning, the Huaihe Wharf in Fengyang was already lively, and the fleet from Suyang was endless, and the ships from Beizhili were correspondingly much less.

Wang Pin was dressed in a plain robe, followed by several people with knives, and looked out along the river.

A shallow boat with 400 materials common on the river slowly approached the shore, and the salt Ding patrolling along the river saw the strange ship, like a wild cat that smelled the fishy smell, and surrounded it from all sides.

At this time, Wang Pin had already seen the person standing on the bow of the boat, who was the person he was waiting for. When his heart was relieved, he saw the salters who were surrounded on all sides, and he immediately frowned, and was about to raise his hand to order the guards to go and relieve the siege, but the salters had already hooked the side of the shallow boat with iron hooks, and seven or eight men wearing gray salting uniforms flew on board with short sticks and iron rulers in their hands.

Cao has been transported for a long time, and the main things carried are two things, salt and grain. Salt Ding is the product of Caoyun, mixed on the water, originally to check the illegal salt, but now it is equivalent to bandits. When they saw the ships passing by, they surrounded them in groups, and they wanted to squeeze out some benefits.

Wang Pin's guards were just about to step forward. On the shore, two long bamboo poles suddenly stretched out, straight to the left and right sides of the side of the shallow boat, and under the swing up and down, left and right, the salters who had just jumped on the shallow boat could not dodge, and were swept into the river by the two bamboo poles.

Yan Ding was stunned for a moment, and suddenly made a noise, there were many of them, every time they came out, there were five or six boats, forty or fifty people acting together, and when they encountered large-scale merchant ships, they avoided them, and small-scale ships, including those traveling alone, wanted to escape their oppression, which was simply one in ten thousand.

Yanding cursed loudly, but in the blink of an eye, he was silent. The reason is that there were more than 20 men wearing short tunics and red scarves on the shore, and a bearded man at the head looked at the salt in the river with a sneering face.

"You killers, aren't your skin and flesh itching again, and you forgot what it tasted like with your fists the day before yesterday?" The bearded man spat at the salt and said disdainfully.

"Boss Cheng, this shore is the territory of your high wall guards, is it also on this water?" After looking at each other for a long time, one of the people in the salt who seemed to be a small leader replied boldly.

The bearded man looked up to the sky and laughed, "Joke, the rules set by our Lord Zhu." All the officials, civilians, and businessmen who come to our Fengyang either bring silver to spend, or they fancy the business to invest, or they rely on the strength of their two arms to make a living, and then there is a gentleman who reads, I heard that our Fengyang is now prosperous, and came to see one or two. All these are not our Fengyang's customers, and anyone who goes to Fenyang for one acre and three points of land is a guest of Fengyang. This ......".

The bearded man smacked his mouth, obviously recalling the "instructions" of Master Zhu, his eyes lit up, and then he shook his head and said: "The so-called 'guests from afar', we must not let some pickled killings ruin our Fengyang's reputation!" ”

The bearded man pointed at Yan Ding, "It's like you guys who don't fight for it, and you don't brighten your eyes a little, what kind of character is our Lord Zhu, an army of 30,000 thieves, and you can still enter the eyes of his old man?" ”

"Retreat quickly, otherwise, Lao Tzu will recognize you, the guy in your hand, and the people of Fengyang may not be able to recognize you!"

At this time, the men in red scarves on the shore gathered more and more, and in the blink of an eye, one hundred and ten big men in the shape of a bun crowded the trestle to the brim, each with a fierce light in his eyes, staring at the salt ding, making the salt ding shudder.

And on the water, I don't know when there are more than ten small boats, shirtless, the man in a red turban stands at the bow of the boat with his hands on his waist, and the household under his feet shines in the sun, clearly harpoons, short knives and the like.

The salts finally couldn't resist it, and the leader gave up his hand to the bearded man, "Okay, Cheng Boss, you are amazing, we will meet in the mountains and rivers, and we will meet another day!" ”

"Slow down and don't send it!" The bearded man just pouted, not even bothering to raise his hand.

The salt came and went as fast as it came, and disappeared into the distance in the blink of an eye. A long-bodied Confucian standing on the bow of the shallow boat saw everything he had just done in his eyes, with a shallow smile on the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were swollen with a curious look, and he hugged his fist at the bearded man on the shore.

"Thank you Brother Tai for breaking the siege, the students are polite!"

The bearded man swept away the arrogant look just now, and returned the salute very politely, "Mr. is polite, since you have arrived in Fengyang, you are a guest, how can we Fengyang people watch the guests being bullied at their own doorstep!" ”

"Sir, I don't care if I live in Fengyang for a long time, but if there is something, I can directly report the name of our high wall guard, and some of the gangsters are not a problem!"

"Thank you so much!" Confucian scholars bowed in thanks.

Seeing the bearded man and the other red scarf men disperse, the smile on Confucian Sheng's face became even stronger. At this moment, Wang Pin and the others had already come to the shore. "Brother Boxiang, don't come unharmed!"

Confucius looked up, smiled and arched his hand, "...... Wang, Brother Qilian, I've been waiting for you for a long time!" ”

Wang Pin personally greeted Confucianism ashore, the two got into the carriage, lowered the curtain, Wang Pin smiled, "How, what our family said is true, you can see the whole picture at a glance, this high wall guard is not simple, right?" ”

Confucian nodded with a smile, "Taking the garrison as his home, the soldiers bear their responsibilities, and their faces are very different, I have never seen such a person and horses all over the world!" ”

"Soldier? Ha ha! Wang Pin laughed, "Mr. Boxiang, you guessed wrong, this is just a new barracks under Zhu Ping'an, stationed on the bank of the Huai River in Fengyang, practicing every day, and maintaining peace along the Huai River. ”

"What?" Confucian exclaimed, "Such a strong man, just an auxiliary? ”

Wang Pin nodded.

Confucian Sheng couldn't help but be a little dazed, and then sighed, "I can't imagine that there is such a talent in Zhongdu?" ”

Wang Pin clapped his hands, "Don't worry, this talent will definitely let you Yang Boxiang see it!" ”

After saying Zhu Ping'an, Wang Pin brought the topic back to Confucius, "By the way, how could I send you Mr. Boxiang to come this time, when you leave, isn't there no one available around the prince?" ”

Confucian Sheng let out a long sigh, "The prince doesn't know yet, I have been transferred to the Ministry of War, and I am about to serve under the command of Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Xuanda!" ”

"What?" Wang Pin was shocked.