Zhang Dahui saw this comrade-in-arms who had been separated for less than an hour, and his heart was first happy, this person is a master of intelligence, and he will definitely be able to get rid of the possible factory guards with his cover, but the scene at this time makes him feel a little wrong, and his keen intuition that has been engaged in secret work for many years also told him that the situation is a little wrong, because if he wants to answer himself, it will not be Zhang Dong who comes alone, there will definitely be an action group around to cover, and it must be within sight, but Zhang Dahui has not found anything, Zhang Dong's past deeds immediately came to his mind, is also a member of the Intelligence Bureau, and Zhang Dong's actions are not a secret.

Zhang Dong was waving slightly, motioning for Zhang Dahui to follow him, and people came and went around him, but Zhang Dahui felt like he was in a dangerous wilderness.

A qiē thought was between the lightning and the fire, Zhang Dacheng almost didn't have any stunned expression, and directly turned his head to the alley next to him and nodded, the alley was empty, but Zhang Dacheng's appearance was making people feel like leaving, Zhang Dong's position could not see the situation in the alley, and his cold gaze changed a little.

After Zhang Dahui glanced at the alley twice, he took the initiative to walk towards Zhang Dong to prevent Zhang Dong from coming over and seeing the situation in the alley, he came to Zhang Dong all the way to Zhang Dong without making any defensive gesture, "Brother Dong, why are you here?" Fanzi is also going to deal with you? ”

Zhang Dong glanced at the alley and shook his head slightly, "I'm here to answer you, I heard that someone is going to be unfavorable to you, and I am relieved that you have someone to cover me." ”

Zhang Dahui said a little anxiously: "Brother Dong, it's not just bad for me, many of our contact points may be discovered by Fanzi." ”

"A lot of points of contact?" Zhang Dong's eyes kept staring at Zhang Dahui's face.

"Yes." Zhang Dahui's mind was spinning sharply, he now had to stabilize Zhang Dong to delay time, and said in a low voice. "I just came out of Qian Yuanhug and went to the teahouse to get information. I found Fanzi's eyeliner outside the teahouse, so I had to come out the back door. Another person was sent to walk from the alley to see the surrounding situation, Brother Dong, have you noticed that there is an eyeliner on this street? ”

Zhang Dong shook his head, he had been observing Zhang Dahui's expression, after years of summarization, the Intelligence Bureau also had a set of methods to judge whether the other party was lying, which was similar to the skills involved in Chen Xin's rough seven-step interrogation method back then.

Zhang Dongneng is here, prejudging that Zhang Dahui may come out of this point of contact. The same is true of their usual methods, the second shopkeeper in the teahouse is from the Intelligence Bureau, if someone passes through the lobby of the teahouse to follow Zhang Dahui, they think of delaying or sending someone to deal with it in the back.

He was at the south end of Qipan Street, separated from the cover team, and did not tell the cover team where he was going, and the henchman's words actually planted a seed in his heart, so he would appear alone on this back street.

Zhang Dong heard Zhang Dahui say that there was fanzi eyeliner at the front door. After carefully looking at Zhang Dahui's expression, he didn't find any flaws, Zhang Dong knew that Zhang Dahui also knew this set of things, and it was likely that he had trained himself how not to show flaws.

Under the indistinguishability of truth and falsehood, Zhang Dong's energy had to be removed. After a quick look around, I didn't find any suspicious people, but in case there was a real thing in front of me. That may come out with Zhang Dahui, and the guys in the teahouse may also come out to check. Most of those intelligence agents had seen Zhang Dong, and Zhang Dong didn't dare to attack Zhang Dahui for a while.

And Zhang Da will move on the alley just now. It also made Zhang Dong hesitate, which means that Zhang Dacheng may have subordinates nearby, if he kills Zhang Dacheng himself, then as long as he is seen by anyone before leaving the scene, he will leave endless trouble, after all, he knows Chen Xin's style very well, and he also knows the relationship between Zhang Dada and Chen Xin.

Zhang Dong is very clear about Zhang Dahui's skills, this person has a flexible brain, but he is never willing to practice martial arts hard, Zhang Dong is sure that he will be killed in two or three moves, but the conditions at this time make him unable to make up his mind.

"I'll take you out of here and into one of my safe rooms." Zhang Dong said to Zhang Dacheng.

Zhang Dahui shook his head, "Brother Dong, don't forget the regulations of the Intelligence Bureau, we can't mix safe rooms at our level, the younger brother has his own preparations, now it seems that the factory guard is going to do it, I am not suitable for this familiar face to stay in Jingshi, Jingshi will rely on you in the future, I will go back to Denglai, I have been tired for so many years, so I will mix a director under Brother Liu." ”

Zhang Dong finally smiled, and at this time, a subordinate of Zhang Dahui appeared behind, and he stopped at the back door of the tea shop after seeing Zhang Dahui's back.

Zhang Dong recognized the man, immediately gave up all ideas, and said to Zhang Dahui: "This place is not suitable for a long time, you can leave as much as possible, and I will cover you to Xijiaomi Lane." ”

Zhang Dahui glanced back, and also found his subordinates, his hanging heart suddenly let go, and he arched his hand to Zhang Dong: "Don't trouble Brother Dong, a few of my subordinates will follow." ”

"Take care all the way." Zhang Dong arched his hand, he decisively gave up the adventure, went directly to the west into an alley, and soon disappeared from Zhang Dahui's sight.

Zhang Dachang let out a long breath, observed the surroundings, and continued to go south, and the men behind him covered all the way to Xijiaomi Lane, Zhang Dahui did not go directly to the safe room, and turned around many times in Xijiaomin Lane, and after making sure that there was no tracking, let the covering subordinates leave.

Zhang Dahui went around in a big circle, and finally arrived at his safe house, which he bought with the false identity of Xuanfu, only he knew about it, and it contained a full supply of silver, clothes and food, enough for him to hide for a while, and a few weapons for self-defense. He had two such safe houses, which were intended to be used in the event that the core personnel of the Beijing Division were captured, that is, when all the reserve contact points were not safe. He was very grateful to Song Wenxian for his reminder at that time, so he let himself prepare two safe rooms with his heart.

Now it means a little bit to Zhang Dahui, because it is not easy to pass on the news, he doesn't know if the factory guards have done anything else, and he doesn't know if anyone from the Dengzhou Intelligence Bureau has been arrested, he must give priority to protecting himself, because he knows the most things.

And Zhang Dong's actions are very suspicious, although Zhang Dahui didn't catch any tricks, but it does not prevent him from remembering Zhang Dong's hatred. Zhang Dahui is not afraid of him now, because Zhang Dong will never dare to use the power of the intelligence bureau against himself, which will leave him with a fatal handle. Once it leaks out, there is no need for Chen Xin to do it. Zhou Shifa could kill him. For people like Zhang Dong, they will not let themselves have a handle in the hands of others. Even his own henchmen can't do it, so he can't find Zhang Dahui with just one Zhang Dong.

Zhang Dahui put down his worries, cleaned up and lay on his back on the bed, the sunlight shining a little through the gap between the tiles, at this time, just like when he came to Beijing alone many years ago, full of loneliness in this city of millions of people, and then called for wind and rain in Beijing, and now it is finally time to leave alone.

Zhang Dahui stared at the roof and muttered, "Chongzhen has been eight years, almost five years." Back to Denglai, go home...... Jingshi Lao Tzu will come back, Zhang Dong, you remember Lao Tzu. ”……

In late May of the eighth year of Chongzhen, when Zhang Dahui quietly embarked on the way home, another food shortage came along the canal. The ravages of the Liukou have caused the grain production of the northern land of Daming and Huguang to decline, and the excessive commercialization of Jiangnan has made the grain extremely dependent on Huguang and Jiangxi, and now the largest granary Huguang has failed to harvest, and the grain prices in the entire Jiangnan region have been rising.

This year's grain shortage is even more menacing than last year's, and grain prices have risen since Yangzhou. There were people buying grain at all the wharves of the canal, and in addition to the imperial court's Cao boats that could go north, the gentry and Cao Gang in various places were intercepting the grain boats and asking them to release grain locally. Even the entrainment of the cao boat can rarely pass through Tianjin.

Grain prices in Tongzhou and other places soared rapidly to nearly four taels, and grain prices in Yongping, Luanzhou, and Guanning were even more alarming, and Yongping and Luanzhou reached six or seven taels and one stone. And last year's last wave of crackdowns on food prices caused many traders to go bankrupt.

High food prices have caused many people to flee the famine. The commercial and sparse population in the Yongping area makes transportation more expensive. Many merchants in Beijing are waiting, and those who dare to transport to the Guanning area are only the big shops with the background of the imperial court, and these people are in the same group as the Sihai Trading Company, not only have the interests of grain, but also cigarettes, cotton cloth, southern goods, etc., in terms of strength, the funds they can mobilize are far from being compared with the Sihai Money Village that has absorbed a large amount of silver deposits this year, and they tasted the sweetness last year, so they are consistent with the Sihai Trading Company, the amount of grain is not large, and a small amount of goods is maintained high profits.

Last year, a large number of private ships in Tianjin were bought by the Four Seas Trading Company, and many of them stopped in Tianjin, and the number of ships shipped to Guanning was very small, and in early June, sailors were suddenly recruited and then left the port for an unknown destination. The remaining ships were also hired by people from the Four Seas Trading Company, and it was said that they were going to Dolleila Cotton.

The sea and land traffic was not smooth, so that the densely populated western Liaoning region fell into a strict grain shortage, and the documents for grain flew to Beijing one by one, and Chongzhen strictly ordered the household department to make up for it, but the power of the imperial court was far from being compared with the Dengzhou system at this time, and the various shortcomings and inefficiency of officialdom at the end of the Ming Dynasty exacerbated this gap.

By the middle of June, the grain price in Liaozhen had reached ten taels, and last year's wave had looted the silver deposits of the people in western Liaoning, and many battalion soldiers had no food for the next day at home, and the true colors of the imperial court were deducted by the generals at all levels and the profits were basically only enough to feed the battalion soldiers themselves, and many of the generals in Liaozhen opened their own grain stores, bought grain from the Sihai Trading Company and its accomplices in various ways, and then sold it to the battalion soldiers in Liaozhen, and the color of the battalion soldiers was recovered to the merchants and generals by the high grain price.

It turned out that many of the generals of Liaozhen had dealt in the goods of the Four Seas Trading Company, and the cadres of Liao Town, such as Wu Xiang, Zu Dale, and Zu Kuan, also relied on the Four Seas Trading Company to start trade in Mongolia and Guanning, and made a fortune in it, and Zu Dashou himself was similar. After last year, the Sihai Trading Company controlled the trade route in western Liaoning, and the entanglement between generals at all levels and Sihai became deeper and deeper.

By the time Zu Dashou discovered the Tao, this kind of interest was difficult to remove, and Zu Dashou's control of Liao Town mainly relied on in-laws and interests, and the shops of various generals were an important source of income for them, allowing them to support more families and have more status in Liao Town. This kind of interest is something that Zu Dashou does not dare to move, otherwise he will lose the foundation of his control of Liao Town.

Zu Dashou is also the first time to meet Chen Xin to do this, before and after Jin Duo relied on military deterrence, sent troops to beat it every once in a while, and then privately contacted the Zu army, but now Dengzhou Town is pervasive, although Zu Dashou can't beat Houjin, but there is no problem in defending the city, and now he can't find a way to deal with Dengzhou Town.

But the food shortage is not solved, Zu Dashou is helpless to send Wu Xiang to Denglai again, Wu Xiang is a regular customer of Dengzhou, he did not refuse, but this time he brought one more person.

Before leaving, Wu Xiang went to Jinzhou. This is Zu Dashou's base camp, after the killing of He Kegang was exposed. Zu Dashou put on a warlord attitude and has been trapped in Jinzhou. Jinzhou is no longer a question of whether the imperial court is willing to withdraw. If Chongzhen insisted on withdrawing Jinzhou, then Zu Dashou could only invest in Houjin, so the imperial court could only raise Liaozhen in this way.

Zu Dashou seems to be a warlord on one side, but in fact the shape is much worse than Dengzhou, Chen Xinsan faces the sea, only Liaonan is at war with Houjin, and the rear is very stable, Zu Dashou is surrounded by enemies on all sides, not so much that he seized Jinzhou. It is better to say that he cut off his own way and had to be trapped in Jinzhou, and even Ning Yuan, where Fang Yizao was located, did not dare to go.

Wu Xiang and his entourage came from Ningyuan, there were many platforms along the way, and there were large and small fortresses covering the entire Ningjin, if there was an elite that could fight with Houjin Ye, this line of defense could be trusted. But the problems of the Ming army were still in the field and mobility, and the fortress that lost its ability to attack could not play the real role of a fortress.

Wu Xiang entered the city from the south gate, where there were two Hongyi cannons and a large number of old general's cannons, Furlong machines and so on. It looks very sturdy. But Wu Xiang knew that this kind of defense line could withstand Jiannu's attack, but it could not resist the siege.

The city of Jinzhou is strong, and Zu Dashou originally planned to store a year's grain here. According to the current shape of Liaodong, it is also enough, because there is Dengzhou Town in southern Liaonan, and Houjin does not have the strength to mobilize a large army to besiege him for a year. At most, there is a short autumn breeze. However, due to the impact of the food shortage, Zu Dashou's grain storage is currently only three months.

Because of the current situation of Zu Dashou. He could only concentrate his strength as much as possible in Jinzhou, and even the craftsmen who used to make artillery in Liaozhen got into the front line of Jinzhou. If he could have a little room to maneuver, he wouldn't be so cramped.

The consequence of his doing so is that after the Battle of Songjin, Huang Taiji captured the complete Ming army's high-level artillery system, the original Hou Jin was responsible for the Tianyou Cheer General Cannon Wang Tianxiang, Jin Shixiang was immediately transferred to Jinzhou, relying on those captured craftsmen, Hou Jin in a year to produce a higher level of Shenwei invincible general cannon, the process used is the iron core copper body, the thickness of the barrel is reduced by three to half compared with the old cannon, the gun weight is three thousand six hundred catties, the barrel length is twenty times the air diameter, five catties of medicine with ten catties of ammunition, Compared with the original Tianyou Cheering General, it is a great improvement of more than 5,000 catties, so that it is close to the level of the Ming Dynasty in the production of Hongyi cannons.

After the Hongyi cannon was introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty, Chinese craftsmen quickly improved it, and before the first year of Chongzhen, they created a unique technology such as the iron-core copper Hongyi cannon (Note 1), which made the cannon lighter and could withstand higher chamber pressure, surpassing the West in craftsmanship at that time. Even if the level of Houjin was greatly improved in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, it was still not as good as the level of the Ming Dynasty, Wu Sangui cast the Dingliao General cannon in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, and in the case of the thickness of the barrel slightly less than that of Houjin, the body tube was two to four percent longer than the invincible general of Shenwei (366 cm), and the high magnification diameter could give the cannonball a higher muzzle velocity, and it was still stable and stable in terms of technical level.

Of course, Wu Xiang would not think of so many problems at this time, after he entered the city, he went to Zu Dashou's General Military Mansion, Zu Dashou met this brother-in-law in the study, and followed Wu Xiang in, and there was a young military attaché.

After Zu Dashou let them sit down, he said to Wu Xiang with a gloomy face: "Lianghuan, you go to Dengzhou this time, you have to ask Chen Xin's intentions, he didn't make money by engaging in grain shortage last year, and he can't drink blood from Ning Jin every year." ”

"Fuyu rest assured, the next official must ask to understand when he goes here, he Chen Xin fights Jiannu and returns to Jiannu, and what is the matter with the food shortage in Guanning every year."

Zu Dashou said lightly: "The last time Song Wenxian came over, the implication is that at least I can protect my rich and noble wealth, it seems that Chen Xin is at least going to occupy Liaodong, once Dengzhou Town occupies Liaodong, it is more powerful than that Jiannu, not to mention Liaodong, at least two or three million people can be raised, and there are more Denglai Qing three mansions to rely on, and the Shandong Canal is under his nose." ”

"Dashuai, if you want to say that this Chen Xin is actually stronger than Huang Taiji, although the current food shortage is not a good thing for us, it also shows that this Chen Xin is not using ordinary methods, not to mention that he cuts off the canal, as long as he comes to such a food shortage every year, Jingshi will become his Chen family sooner or later. Our Liaozhen is in this critical position, if several parties can't hold each other, it is naturally the best, but if one side is unstoppable, we still have to choose a side earlier. ”

The young military general next to him listened, looked up at Zu Dashou, and saw Zu Dashou frowning, the leading brother of the Zu family's army has also been a lot haggard in the past two years.

Zu Dashou said after a while: "Huang Taiji sued for peace last time, it can be seen that he was also forced by Dengzhou helplessly, Dengzhou and the Dongjiang army have approached Liaozhong, everyone can see that the Houjin is not good, North Korea will send the Houjin envoys to Dongjiang Town, Mongolia has also changed suddenly, I heard that some of their departments went to Liaonan to see the spring offensive of Dengzhou, and was intimidated by the Dengzhou army, and after going back, he deliberately opened the relationship with Houjin. ”

"So his subordinates said that Chen Xin always doesn't use ordinary methods, who would have thought that he would invite the Mongolian people to go to Dengzhou to fight, I heard that those Mongolian people have been to Lianshan Pass farthest, and they have seen with their own eyes that the Houjin soldiers can't shrink out, Lianshan Pass is close to Liaozhong, and Houjin is still unable to fight back, these Mongolian people are all grass on the wall, Dengzhou is another commercial lure, they naturally dare not get so close to Houjin."

Zu Dashou said simply: "Okay, if you go this time, you will have an open talk with Chen Xin, to put it bluntly, how much benefit he has given us, and how to keep our net worth safe." ”

"Subordinates obey."

Zu Dashou raised his head and said to the young military attaché: "Sangui can also see more and learn more, your father and I are old, the two rings have been to Denglai a few times, I didn't understand, you young people go to see the doorway, if we really can't learn, we will talk to Dengzhou earlier, and we will act in a measured way in the future, so as not to fall into a situation where we can't go up or down." ”

The young military attache knelt down and said: "My nephew has written it down, my uncle is a hero, how many winds and waves have come, and there is no need to be afraid of Dengzhou Town everywhere, our Liao Town is also the strongest town on the nine sides, Sangui will help my uncle to see if Dengzhou Town has the ability to swallow us." ”……

Note 1: In the first year of Chongzhen, Jiesheng flew into the air to destroy the Anbian cannon, which is a small cannon with iron core copper casting technology, with two catties of medicine and two to three catties of ammunition, which is now stored in the Great Wall Museum of China in Badaling.

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