Jiangyao County in Wushan Province.

The Cheonggang waterway, which runs through half of Songjiang County, flows out of Songjiang and flows eastward into the Great Eastern Ocean. For goods sent from near Dengzhou, you can easily reach Donghai County by walking 300 miles of Qingjiang waterway. or go straight down the river to the mouth of the sea, and sell it to other countries in the eastern continent by sea; Or unload the goods halfway and send them overland to the entire territory of the empire.

This golden waterway in Songjiang County provides unimaginable convenience and benefits along the Qingjiang route: fishing, irrigation, passenger transportation, and transportation of large quantities of goods from south to north.

The Governor of Matsue, of course, was also coveted by the profits of this waterway. A patrol camp and a water checkpoint for collecting taxes were set up on the Qingjiang waterway in Jiangyao County, in an attempt to collect taxes on water transportation like the Daqing Pass. But it's a pity that since its establishment, this tax card and Watergate have been jointly held by the major chambers of commerce in Dengzhou.

The inspector appointed by Wei Chichang himself was vacated by the people below. The specific tax collection and account books are also basically in the hands of the major chambers of commerce. Although in order to take into account the face of the empire and Wei Chichang's status as the governor, the Chamber of Commerce and some of the participating families did not dare to go too far, and would pay a sum of money regularly every quarter, but under their management, the actual taxes paid were only three or four percent of the total.

This is still the proportion of Wei Chichang who sent his cronies to investigate on the spot, and after being sad with the local Haoqiang in Dengzhou.

If it weren't for the limited transportation capacity of the Qingjiang waterway, and the fact that not all goods were suitable for water transportation, I am afraid that the chamber of commerce and wealthy businessmen would further reduce the land transportation of Daqingguan.

However, this situation was different after the Taiping army swept through the three provinces of Songjiang County and the army surrounded Wushan.

As the county seat of Jiangyao County was conquered, a partial division with a size of 200 people arrived at Yi'an Town in Jiangyao County on the orders of Chen Wu. It can be seen that this town, which has a population of more than 3,000 and is located in the northernmost part of Songjiang County and has the same latitude as Daqingguan, has not been affected by the turmoil. Seeing that the Taiping army of two hundred people arrived in full armor, he even mistakenly thought that they were officers and soldiers sent by Jiangyao County.

It wasn't until the Taiping Army unceremoniously took over Nghe An that the town suddenly understood that this gang of thieves was the boiling "Taiping Bandit Army" spread by ships on the Qingjiang River!

When the news reached the water checkpoint two miles away from Nghe An Town, the commander of the patrol battalion and the inspector in charge of collecting taxes were taken aback.

They have always been concerned about the Taiping army, but at this time, wasn't the Taiping army busy attacking the city of Wushanfu, why did they suddenly come to the place of Yi'an?

The inspectors subordinate to the governor Chi Chang, and the leaders of the patrol battalions installed by the local forces in Dengzhou, fell into panic and disputes.

One demanded that the rebellion be put down in the past, and on the other hand, insisted that he was only setting up a card on the Thanh River waterway to collect taxes, saying that he did not want to retake Nghe An. Before they could come up with an answer, news came that the Taiping army of the two brigades had already rushed over to this side with great momentum.

The inspectors and the leaders of the patrol battalion were speechless.

Only then did they realize that the partial division of the Taiping army was probably coming at them.

There are only more than 100 people in this patrol battalion, plus more than a dozen small boats shuttling on the Qingjiang River. On weekdays, except for relying on official authority to collect taxes, there is not much need to use force. Ordinary people don't dare to do anything with them, and the fleets of those big chambers of commerce are their masters, and they won't come hard. In addition, the emperor is far away, and no one cares about it, and over time, the patrol battalion of more than 100 people may not even be able to fight the occasional water bandits.

Not to mention facing the Taiping army, which is twice as numerous as itself and sweeping through Songjiang!

The inspector looked at the leader of the patrol battalion with his eyes, and exchanged a tacit look: Run?

Both sides understand.

Since you can't beat it, you can only run......

The road is no longer safe, and Nghe An Town is just over two miles away from the Qingjiang Waterway. Coupled with the time when the news came, it would be almost possible to visualize the Taiping army in the distance. Several old men with different positions will have no previous confrontation and dirty, and each of them jumped into a small boat with his henchmen, and rowed away against the current to the upper reaches of the Qingjiang River.

Before leaving, he also snatched some of the wealth he had accumulated on weekdays.

Seeing that the leaders had run away, the remaining soldiers of the Qingjiang Patrol Battalion had even less fighting spirit, and they scattered as birds and beasts, and fled one after another. Some panicked and didn't know where to go, and ran head-on into the Taiping army's partial division and were directly captured. After just a stick of incense, the patrol battalion and this Qingjiang water checkpoint completely fell into the hands of the Taiping army.

Perhaps because a batch was transported away in advance, there was not much tax left in the patrol camp, which was only a few thousand gold coins, including those found from the fleeing soldiers. But the Taiping army rushed here from Wushan, not for this money. According to Chen Wu's request, they quickly began to close the Qingjiang River to demonstrate the sovereignty of the Taiping army!

This water checkpoint has a trestle bridge extending more than ten meters into the river from each bank, and there are a large number of wooden piles driven into the bottom of the river to make a foundation. On both sides of the trestle, there are heavy roulette wheels that can pull up the iron cables at the bottom of the river. Generally speaking, as long as there are patrol boats parked here to collect taxes, the merchant ships will naturally stop and pay money. Moreover, the frequent pulling of the iron cable will greatly accelerate the corrosion rate of the iron cable.

It is precisely for this reason that the Qingjiang patrol battalion generally pulls up the iron cable and completely blocks the river only under special circumstances.

At this moment, a group of ships that were about to go down the river were dumbfounded when they saw three iron cables blocking the Qingjiang River one after another, coming from the direction of Dengzhou. They had to urgently dock and drop anchor, and then sent small boats to slide over to this side and ask what was going on.

In the impression of the crew, it was only three years ago when a group of water bandits were arrested that the patrol battalion pulled up the iron chains. Could it be that there are water bandits again now?

"This place has been taken over by the Taiping Army, and sealing the river is the meaning of the above, and we are just doing it according to orders."

"What? How many days, you ask? It can be as little as three days, as long as five days, and we can't say for sure, so please go back and wait patiently. ”

"Yoh? What's the matter, you want to use force? ”

After explaining to the fleets that came and went, some of the fleets heard that this place was controlled by the Taiping army, so they had no choice but to anchor and wait. There were also some shipowners who were extremely angry and subconsciously wanted to make a move, but they were immediately held by the Taiping army with knives to their necks. On the trestle on both sides, there were also foot archers with bows and arrows, pointing at them from afar. There are feathered arrows that kill people, and there are rockets that are tied to fire oil cotton and used to burn ships. Two hundred sergeants were in charge, and they didn't believe that these fleets could turn the sky upside down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you have something to say......

Seeing that the Taiping army was about to turn around on the spot, these boat owners, who were used to running rampant on the Qingjiang waterway in the past, realized that the situation was different. Seeing this, the Taiping soldiers who had been advised did not really kill people, but only drove them away after a warning.

Affected by this, in just one day, the fleets of boats waiting to cross the river in the upper and lower reaches of the Qingjiang River lined up.

Some of the later shipowners could not figure out the situation, and came again to inquire about the Taipings, and even tried to pay bribes. However, when Chen Wu started from Yicheng, he beheaded several groups of people because of this incident, and the strictness of military discipline was dyed with blood. The Taiping soldiers who came by order did not dare to accept it at all, and reiterated their attitude.

The shipowners were finally at a loss for what to do.

Some of them are just visiting relatives by boat, or the goods are not in a hurry to be transported, and it doesn't hurt to wait for a few days. However, some ship owners who are approaching the delivery deadline are not lacking in a hurry, or even fall ill overnight due to excessive anxiety. Some of the large chamber of commerce fleets with sufficient backgrounds in Dengzhou had to send people ashore to urgently transmit the news of the Taiping army's blockade of the Qingjiang waterway by land.

By the morning of the third day of the closure of the river at the latest, the entire upper circle of Dengzhou already knew the news of the iron cable crossing the river.

For a while, all the wealthy merchants, chambers of commerce, and the nobles and families who invested behind them were shocked and angry at this sudden news.

What exactly did the Taiping Army want to do?

If it's to attack Wushan, it doesn't have much to do with blocking the Qingjiang waterway. And those Taiping soldiers who controlled the checkpoint of the Qingjiang patrol battalion did not explain the reason, and they did not even have an accurate release time.

Is it just to cut off the trade routes of Songjiang?

Doesn't make sense!

After all, Daqingguan was also an important trade route, but the Taiping Army did not close it. Is the difference between the two sides meant to illustrate anything?

As one of the leaders of the Songjiang Chamber of Commerce, Chi Kaifeng, the president of the Chifeng Chamber of Commerce, personally visited the wealthy businessman Zhou's house for this matter.

These two are basically the top forces in Dengzhou City. Over the past hundred years, in Dengzhou, in-laws, interest exchanges and other means have formed an intricate network of relationships. seems to be just a businessman, but in fact, he has contacts with many families and middle and high-level officials. Coupled with its own amazing financial and human resources, in addition to being unable to compare with the eight major valves of the founding of the country, it can definitely shake one side locally.

But such a force is still helpless in the face of the blockaded Qingjiang!

After they mobilized with all their might, they were not afraid of two hundred infantry troops, but what about after that?

The military strength of the Taiping Army is only afraid that it has already exceeded 10,000!

For this reason, anger the Taiping army, which is very likely to take control of Songjiang in the near future?

The two would never do that unless they had to.

What's more, the waterways were blocked for three days and five days, or even ten and a half days, and they were not in danger of breaking their muscles and bones. What the two really want to discuss is the purpose of Chen Wu's doing.

However, the follow-up news came quickly, which made everyone breathe a sigh of relief. On the morning of the fourth day, for no reason, the Taiping army lowered the iron rope of Hengjiang again. Then he took over the patrol battalion and the water checkpoint, and began to collect taxes like the big green pass on land!

This time, all fleets were treated equally, even the fleets of the Great Chamber of Commerce were no longer treated.

Paying taxes at the normal rate is nothing more than earning some ill-gotten gains, and the impact on the chamber of commerce is not great. But these seemingly redundant actions before and after made Chi Kaifeng and the Zhou family truly understand the meaning of the Taiping Army.

"The problem is troublesome."

Some chambers of commerce that also understood the intentions of the Taiping military intents invariably fell into entanglement and distress.