It has entered the hot month of July and August, and four or five months have passed since the Liaoshen fiasco. During this time, the Ming Dynasty, under the command of Wang Huazhen, the new governor of Liaodong, gathered the remnants of the army, pacified the people, and built three solid lines of defense.

The first one closest to Jiannu is Xiping Fort, which is the gateway to Guangning, and the throat of Jiannu's attack on Liaoxi must be guarded by the general.

The chief soldier, He Shixian, took the initiative to ask for help. After some weighing, He Shixian and Deputy Chief Soldier Luo Yi led 5,000 elites out of the town of Xiping Fort. Their range of activities extended from Xiping Fort to the area of the Sancha River, and served as the vanguard of the guard defense against Jiannu.

The second line of defense is the city of Quang Ninh, which is not only the largest city in western Liaoning, but also the gateway to Mongolia. If lost, Jiannu can bypass the Liaoxi Corridor at any time, attack the Great Wall from the grassland, and wait for an opportunity to loot Gyeonggi and other places. In fact, the Manchu Qing Dynasty did this later, and Guangning was the place where the Ming army accumulated men. Yu Weiliang and Sun Degong, the two general soldiers, plus the generals Zhang Feng and Tang Hui, a total of 30,000 horses guarded. Of course, most of the people still make up the numbers.

The third line of defense is the first line of the Daling River, Yizhou, Jinzhou, and Youtun, which is the direction that Zhang Ke mainly guards, and the essence of the Yizhou soldiers is concentrated in this line.

Zhang Ke's men and horses were recruited and trained one after another, after more than half a year of hard training, there are more than 8,000 people, and the elite veterans are about in the early 5,000s, which is the essence of the entire Liaodong Ming Army, and it is also the only army that can fight hard with Jiannu.

In addition, Zhang Ke has two troops in his hands. One is the white pole soldiers led by Qin Minping, and the other is the Zhejiang soldiers led by Zhou Dunji, and both teams are also licking their wounds. Restore fù combat power.

Every day, when I was far away from the barracks, I could hear the cries of the soldiers.

Three times in the morning, noon and evening, an officer asked loudly: "Have you forgotten the hatred of the Hunhe?" ”

The soldiers replied in unison: "Don't dare to forget!" ”

If it was three times, the shame was firmly engraved in the hearts of every soldier, and everyone trained frantically, waiting for the day of revenge!

The situation in Liaodong has been greatly reversed, and the official has played the apocalypse. praised Wang Huazhen for "lifting the weak pawn and guarding the lonely city." The anger is not intimidating, and the time is impressive".

The apocalypse ordered that Wang Huazhen be rewarded with 500 gold, and Yin Yizi Jinyi Wei 100 households.

Holding the emperor's holy decree, the old king couldn't cry or laugh. This arrangement is all from Zhang Ke's hand, he is just executing, but now he has added all the credit to his head, feeling guilty and sorry for Zhang Ke.

On the third day after Wang Huazhen received the reward, he set off for Yizhou, but when he arrived in Yizhou, Zhang Ke was not there, and it was Du Qing who received him.

"Lord Zhongcheng. Shao Bao went to Jinzhou, and when he left, he said that if you are in a hurry, you can also go to Jinzhou to have a look! ”

Jinzhou? What could be the matter......

"Isn't it food coming!"

Du Qing smiled slightly proudly: "Although the adults didn't say it." But I guess it's almost the same, how can those mallets in North Korea fight too little. ”

"Hmmm! I'm really here, I'm going to Jinzhou, hundreds of thousands of people are waiting for food to save their lives, Yongzhen don't let the big guy down! ”

Wang Huazhen was full of hope and immediately ran to Songshanwei in Jinzhou with his entourage. In front of them was the vast sea. Workers are constantly coming and going on the docks, and dozens of tall sea boats are parked in the bay. Tall masts stand in the sea breeze.

Seeing this scene, Wang Huazhen was excited, expectant, worried, and had mixed tastes, as if she had returned to the night of the candles in the cave room.

"The older you get, the more useless you get!" Wang Huazhen rubbed her sour nose and urged the war horse to the dock. A large convoy of carriages came in front of them, and the heavy grain pressed on the carts, leaving deep ruts wherever they passed. The old man who was driving the car had a black and red face, full of smiles, and his horsewhip was raised and waved vigorously.

"Boss Che, how's the food?"

The old man stretched out his thumb and said with a smile: "Okay, I think it's better than the japonica rice in Jiangnan!" ”

"Don't brag!" Wang Huazhen said with a smile: "In the barbarian land of North Korea, can their food be better than that in the south of the Yangtze River?" I don't believe it! ”

"Shibo, you still believe it!"

Wang Huazhen turned back suddenly, the person who came was Zhang Ke, he was dressed in a short beat, dressed almost the same as Liba, and had a cushion draped over his shoulders, which seemed to be carried by himself.

"Hahaha, Yongzhen, I'm here to ask for life-saving food, if there is no more food, I will be cut off!"

Zhang Ke dragged Wang Huazhen to the bottom of a large poplar tree, and the huge canopy of the tree covered the hot sun. Two bowls of mung bean soup were brought from the people, and they drank them all.

"It's comfortable!" Zhang Ke said with a smile: "Shibo, the rice in North Korea is almost the same as in Liaodong, it is a season of rice, the growth cycle is long, the nutrients are sufficient, when it comes to taste, it is indeed much better than the japonica rice in the south of the Yangtze River, if you don't believe it, we will eat North Korean rice at noon!" ”

"Yongzhen said it, I naturally believe it!" Wang Huazhen said with a smile: "In the past, I felt that the Celestial Empire occupied the best place, and everything produced was good. Take silk and porcelain as an example, Westerners are eager to use it, and they do not hesitate to spend a lot of money. I really didn't think that there was something commendable about overseas feudal countries? ”

Standing on a high place for too long will make people relax and slack.

The wealth of the Ming Dynasty has reached the pinnacle of ancient China, and the scholars would rather focus on the subtle words of a frustrated old man more than 2,000 years ago, rather than open their eyes to see the changes in the world, I have to say that it is the sorrow of the Celestial Empire!

"Shibo, if you want to say that the location of the Celestial Empire is naturally good, but it is not good everywhere, for example, the Celestial Empire lacks gold and silver, but the West is rich in gold and silver overseas, and the Wa Kingdom not far from us is even more gold and silver, and the money is outrageous!"

Wang Huazhen's eyes widened, and she asked in disbelief, "Yongzhen, you're not joking, are you?" If the Wa Kingdom was rich in gold and silver, how could they not hesitate to cross the ocean and run to the Ming Dynasty to be robbers? Could it be that they are born cheap, and it is not good for them to live a peaceful life at home? ”

It seems that Lord Wang doesn't know anything about overseas, so Zhang Ke simply told Wang Huazhen about his maritime business.

……

Zhang Ke currently has more than 300 sea vessels, of course, the good and the bad are mixed, and it is definitely not possible to cross the ocean, but it is enough to run the Korean and Japanese trade routes.

These ships carried homespun porcelain produced in Liaodong and other places, as well as fur and medicinal materials from the grasslands, and set out from Jinzhou to Korea to exchange goods for gold and silver. The flotilla then moved on to the Japanese island of Kyushu. Selling the surplus goods to the local overseas Chinese -- why not sell them to the Japanese -- of course, was not a dislike of the Japanese, but an agreement of the maritime merchants.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were almost 20,000 or 30,000 Chinese expatriates gathered on the Japanese island of Kyushu, most of whom were merchants, and even some maritime merchants even had their own fleets armed, which made them famous among Westerners.

For example, Li Dan and Yan Siqi at this time, including Zheng Zhilong in the future!

Funny to say, the Ming Dynasty knew almost nothing about these maritime merchants, and simply regarded them as seamen who had left their homeland. Zhang Ke mentioned Li Dan when he gave advice to Wanli at the beginning, and under the planning of the old eunuch Chen Ju, he invited Li Dan to be a six-grade official and allowed him to return to China to visit relatives.

The two sides reached an agreement, and Li Dan and they assisted the Ming officials in exchanging gold and silver in Japan to make huge profits. In order to protect their original trade routes and markets, only a small amount of goods were allowed to be carried by official ships, and they had to resell them to them, and they were not allowed to trade directly with the Japanese.

Of course, buying things is only a small amount of money, and the real huge profits are gold and silver trading. The price of gold in Japan was extremely low, and the price difference between the shogunate and the feudal lords was huge, as if they were two countries.

According to Zhang Ke's design, the fleet first took the silver to the place rich in gold mines to exchange for gold, and this transaction could earn at least fifty percent. Then take the gold in exchange to the shogunate to exchange huàn into silver, because the shogunate and the Ming gold and silver exchange rate looks good, and can earn 30%.

With the money earned, he bought off the feudal lords of Kyushu Island, and with the help of their strength, he continued to buy and sell, and one million taels of silver became three million in a few months.

The Daming fleet, which had earned a lot of money, sailed back to China, and Li Dan and others provided intimate protection at sea, and everyone was wet with rain and dew, which was beneficial. It was the only one that caused the exodus of gold and silver and the sharp decline in income of the Japanese. In order to make up for the shortfall, the shogunate had to levy more taxes on the lower classes.

This is a vicious circle, without using a single sword or a soldier, Japan that finally came out of the Warring States period can return to the Warring States period!

Wang Huazhen's eyes almost fell when he heard this, he really couldn't believe that simply reselling gold and silver could be so lethal!

said that Zhuge Liang was in ashes when he talked and laughed, that was almost the level of a demon. Zhang Ke can plunge a country into chaos when he flips his hands, and he is three points more powerful than Zhuge Liang, this kid is simply a freak!

"Hahaha, Shibo, there's more to trade than that! I opened the joints of the DPRK, and they agreed to exchange grain for firearms. In this way, we took the gold and silver we got from Japan, went to Korea to exchange it for grain, and then shipped it back home. As for North Korea, they have less food and more gold and silver, which will inevitably cause food prices to soar, and the wealthy businessmen and tycoons are full of oil, but the people at the bottom can't afford to buy food, and life and death will be in the hands of the Ming Dynasty in the future! ”

Playing with two countries in applause, refreshing! It's even more refreshing than killing tens of thousands of Tartars!

"Shibo, you can think that such an act is despicable and shameless, but in one trade, we got back 1.5 million taels of silver from Japan, 300,000 stone japonica rice, and 500,000 stone wheat from Korea, which is enough for our Liaodong refugees to eat for more than half a year! Benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom and faith are for their own people, not for foreign countries! ”

Wang Huazhen, as a member of the shepherd guard, did not know the preciousness of silver and grain, did not harm his own people, did not take meat from the mouths of wealthy merchant families, and did not take meat from the mouths of wealthy merchants, as for overseas...... him!

While we were talking, someone suddenly ran up from the main road, running and shouting, "It's done, it's done, it's really done!" ”

How did the madman get here? Wang Huazhen said with a calm face: "Don't send it away quickly, I still have to talk to Master Zhang." ”

"Slow!"

Zhang Ke stretched out his hand to stop Wang Huazhen, and said with a smile: "Shibo, this person is not crazy, he must have sent good news!" ”

"Mr. Sun, have you achieved results?"

Sun Yuanhua was unkempt and laughed loudly: "That's right, please look, my lord, the flintlock pistol you want is ready!" (To be continued)