On the Yangtze River, a fleet of twenty or thirty large sand boats sailed upstream.

Shen Shuren stood on the bow of the boat, watching the mountains on both sides of the strait retreat one after another, and he was still a little apprehensive in his heart.

After all, he was a human being in two lifetimes, and it was the first time he went to an inland province. The visual impact when you see it with your own eyes is far from being comparable to the geographical knowledge in the textbooks.

"Shhh...... Am I going to Huguang to be an official? If it weren't for the fact that the map clearly says that this is Huangzhou, I would have thought that I would have entered Sichuan through the Three Gorges. Shen Shuren couldn't help but sigh.

"In addition to going to the capital, the young master has not been far away, this is normal, we are used to running the Yangtze River, and we all know that it is dangerous to cross the lake, otherwise why should Jiangxi Caoliang levy two more dollars of silver to cross the lake." His attendant Shen Fu had sailed far away, and he had been to all provinces of the Yangtze River, and he explained disappretently.

At this moment, the fleet has entered the boundary of Huangzhou, about the two counties of Huangmei and Guangji on the other side of the mouth of Poyang Lake, and then Qizhou.

Huanggang is still under the control of thieves, so the temporary office location that Shen Shuren chose for himself, the Tongzhi of Huangzhou, is in Qizhou. Further upstream from Qizhou passes through Qishui County, and farther away are enemy-occupied areas.

When passing through Huangmei and Guangji yesterday, Shen Shuren thought that there were also many plains in the boundary of Huangzhou, but now he knows that those two counties are just special cases, and they are plains that have risen and fallen from Poyang Lake for thousands of years.

After passing the mouth of Poyang Lake, both sides of the Yangtze River are high mountains, the south bank is the Luoxiao Mountain Range on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, and the north bank is the Dabie Mountain on the border of Hubei, Henan and Anhui.

The vast majority of the entire Huangzhou is in the Dabie Mountains. There are only small rivers that flow down from the Dabie Mountains and flow into the Yangtze River, and there are some narrow valley plains on both sides.

The various county towns are scattered on these river valley plains, so that they are not connected to each other by land, and it is necessary to climb very treacherous mountains.

Locals who go to neighboring counties have always taken a boat down the river into the Yangtze River, then sailed to the mouth of another small river, and then sailed upstream. In the end, the actual mileage may be more than three or five times the straight-line distance between the two counties.

But even so, it is cost-effective to take the waterway, and who makes the cost of water transportation low.

"I'm throwing myself into a trap and going to a place with poor mountains and bad rivers to be an official, this is not only a problem of thieves, but even the environment is so bad."

Seeing the dock in Qizhou County in front of him appear on the river level, Shen Shuren couldn't help but laugh at himself.

Fortunately, he is very good at self-comfort, and after a little pondering, he figured it out - if he wasn't located in the treacherous place of the Dabie Mountains, how could he rely on the Tiangao Emperor to build his own base from afar?

The fertile plains are indeed cool, but the imperial court will come to see that you are farming well, and a single order can transfer you away. Where the mountains and rivers are closed, the control of the imperial court is also weak.

Otherwise, if you don't say that in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", Liu Yan, the warlord who was the first to move the heart of secession in the late Han Dynasty, wants to invite himself to be the pastor of Yizhou, isn't it because the emperor in the mountains can't control it.

Others had to wait until Dong Zhuo was in turmoil in 190 years before they could shift from the logic of officialdom to the logic of fighting for hegemony, and those who turned early were all wiped out by the imperial court. And as long as Liu Yan released the rice thief Zhang Lu to intercept and kill the Han envoy, he could switch to the logic of separating and fighting for hegemony in 187 years and become his own soil emperor.

Space can be exchanged for time. The more inconvenient the traffic, the longer the difference in time you can take a taxi.

And at that moment, at this very moment.

If you want to be a warlord in a convenient area, you will be killed by the emperor in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen at the latest - the "History of the Ming Dynasty" records that He Renlong preserved his strength and lost the second governor, wasn't he cut down by Sun Chuanting in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen?

It can be seen that Chongzhen has been able to kill local generals indiscriminately until the fifteenth year. In history, Yang Sichang died at the end of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen because of the fear of trapping the domain, which shows the emperor's control.

Zuo Liangyu's wolf ambition was exposed later than He Renlong, and after the beginning of Chongzhen's sixteenth year, he never heard that the emperor had the control to kill local generals, so later Zuo Liangyu's tail was too big to fall off and became a harm to Nanming.

It can be seen that the world has completely shifted to the hegemony logic of "you can't take you if you divide the imperial court, you can only hold you".

But Shen Shuren doesn't have to wait until the beginning of Chongzhen's sixteenth year to cut off! He can exchange space for time, and start to lay out with a hegemony mentality two and a half years in advance!

Set a small goal first, and become the hegemon of the Dabie Mountain region in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen! After the base area is firmly managed and the emperor's control is abolished, he will swagger to expand his territory in the plains!

With Chongzhen slashing the human dragon as the number, seize this fleeting "outlet", the rhythm must not be chaotic.

Half a step ahead of the rhythm of the times, and it is possible to become a pioneer. One step ahead of the rhythm of the times, then you will directly become a martyr. All the loyal and righteous acting skills that have been piled up before will also be in vain.

The shark arm that casually cuts off without thinking clearly about the underlying logic is looking for death.

……

The fleet soon docked at the Qizhou wharf.

When Shen Shuren got off the boat, there was already a group of officials and soldiers lined up on the shore to greet him. It seems that the sentinel ship sent by the Shen family to report the news before was quite powerful.

However, Huangzhou is a poor place after all, there is no pomp, there is no display on the wharf, and the wooden planks of the trestle look a little decayed, but the people who should arrive have arrived, that's all.

After all, even in the 21st century, Huanggang is also a relatively poor city in Hubei. Otherwise, it would not have been used as a place of exile for officials like Su Shi who failed in political battles since ancient times.

"Zhao Yunfan, Zhixian County, Qizhou/Jiangcheng, Huangmei Zhixian County, I have seen Tongzhi."

Shen Shuren stepped on the trestle bridge step by step, and as soon as he landed ashore and stood firmly, several county-level officials next to him came to greet him, and his attitude was not very positive.

It is estimated that the Shangguan who is used to seeing here are all down-and-out people, so there is no need to be too stubborn.

"Thieves are rampant, and it is not easy for you to guard the place. At this point, this official was ordered by the emperor to expel Liu Xiyao, and in the future, I will ask you to work together to repay the country's kindness. ”

Shen Shu nodded kindly at everyone, and did not take a shelf. Of course, he doesn't know any of these county-level petty officials, and it is impossible for him to leave his name in the history books.

Those officials listened to Shen Shuren's tone of voice with a lot of determination, so they carefully observed his appearance and realized that this Shangguan was really too young to speak-

In the resume of Shangguan they received before, there was no such unimportant information as next year. Information in these small mountainous areas is closed, and officials are not very well informed about the changes in government and government in the outside world.

Zhao Yunfan, who was the leader, sighed: "The adults are strong in blood and forge ahead, they shouldn't have been driven to Huangzhou by political enemies, right?" Dare to take the initiative to take the errand here, and the officials admire it.

However, Huangzhou has scarce money and food, and the people are scattered, and it is not easy to barely maintain the four counties now. If we have to send more military rations and forcibly recruit the villagers, I am afraid that more people will be forced to make a living. When the time comes, don't say it's to expel Liu Xiyao, even ...... Alas. ”

The latter words were too frustrating, and he was too embarrassed to say them.

Shen Shuren's expression remained the same, but he gently confirmed the situation:

"How to say 'barely maintain the four counties', before the official took office, the Ministry of War said that four of the nine counties in Huangzhou fell into the hands of thieves, and the five counties in the southeast were relatively rich and controlled by the imperial court. Could it be that in the more than half a month since this official took office, he lost another county? ”

Zhao Yunfan shook his head helplessly: "If you have to say five counties, it's okay - Luotian County is located in the upper reaches of Ba Shui, and it is said that it is still under the adherence of local history, and there are no thieves." Because it was too poor and remote, the thieves did not attack.

However, Huanggang, the government of the lower reaches of Luotian County and the mouth of the Bashui River, is now occupied by Liu Xiyao. Therefore, the roads leading to Luotian along the Yangtze River and Ba Shui waterway in the remaining four counties of Huangzhou have been cut off. If the adults want to recover the entire territory of Huangzhou, Luo Tian's little money and grain cannot be dispatched. ”

Shen Shuren nodded, this is equivalent to an enclave in the mountains, and he really can't count on it.

He sorted out the wording and encouraged: "It seems that the situation is indeed not optimistic, but since I am here, you can rest assured, I will take you to expel Liu Xiyao and make contributions together." As for looting people's fat and ointment, this official will not do it.

All the recruited village warriors and the original guards will not be disadvantaged by military rations and salaries, they just need to worry about training hard and fighting hard. This official is ready to be an official with money! ”

Shen Shuren has already figured it out, the current territory is too small and poor, and it is impossible to rely on farming and self-hematopoiesis to maintain the operation of the thieves.

Therefore, they can only rely on the Shen family to post money themselves, overcome the initial difficulties first, and build up confidence.

Farming is also about planting, but it takes a year or two to build up the self-sufficient hematopoietic ability, and it is still too late. The key now is to expand the territory as soon as possible. Otherwise, there are only a few counties, and there is not much benefit from planting.

When Zhao Yunfan and Jiang Cheng heard this, they were quite surprised: What is the origin of this Shangguan? In the Ming Dynasty, there were still good people who were officials with money?

"Okay, don't be stunned, aren't you tired standing here, go to the county office first, the official brought some thin wine with the boat, please have a drink with your colleagues."

Shen Shuren didn't intend to let the local officials break the bank, he knew that they couldn't afford it.

As he spoke, the Shen family's fleet successively moved down a lot of weapons, goods, money and food, all kinds of overseas crop seeds, poultry eggs, cubs, and hundreds of armed family members who asked Zheng Chenggong for him.

The Shen family has one or two hundred sea vessels, and usually has seven or eight thousand sailors and more than a thousand armed families.

Shen Shuren's performance has been so good recently, of course his father has given him complete authorization, and he will not let his son take risks alone. Therefore, the family gave him at least a few hundred thousand taels of cash, and also allocated five or six hundred armed men and five or six hundred sailors who accompanied the weapons.

To put it bluntly, Shen Shuren, a fellow acquaintance, brought a thousand armed men to office, which is also the largest resource that the Shen family can mobilize. If there are more, the safety of the sea transport side cannot be guaranteed, and there will be chaos.

Zhao Yunfan and Jiang Cheng were directly stunned, and they didn't dare to ask him directly, so they finally saw the opportunity to find Shen Shuren's relatives and ask him about his identity:

"This little brother, where is this Shen Tongzhi from? Why can you be so bold? We've lived in the mountains for a long time, and we're really clumsy. ”

Shen Shuren's follower, Shen Fu, looked at the smiling faces of several magistrates accompanying him, and couldn't help but be very proud:

"You don't even know that? If you don't know it, our family is the richest man in Suzhou, and the imperial court shipping is all undertaken by the Shen family. The young master of my family is for the country and the people, obviously he is a two-list jinshi and a Hanlin cultivator, and he also took the initiative to ask for release and come here to be an official! ”

Zhao Yunfan was in awe, his face full of incredulity: "The richest man in Suzhou, can there still be two lists of Jinshi and Hanlin revision?" With such a good future, you still take the initiative to come to Huangzhou? Isn't this going to jump into the pit by itself? Is...... High Wind Bright Festival! ”

A wave of despair actually rose in the hearts of several officials. What do you mean by "people who are richer than you work harder than you", I guess that's how it feels.

Everyone is the richest man in Suzhou, and he can also be admitted to Hanlin Revision! Is it possible to say that there is no blessing from ghosts and gods and blessings from the stars?

——

PS: There are a lot of things that need to be queried and designed to change the map, and the writing is a little slower, sorry. Halfway through writing in the morning, I saw the pop-up news that Abe was killed, and as a result, he lost a lot of time to read the news......