Chapter 281: The Light of Rice Grain: Raising Tigers to Be a Disease

"On the fifth day of August, Lingshan Trading Company arranged for a representative in Laiwu City to inquire about something, saying that the mining supervisor Ding Xu was particularly happy that day, so he specially asked someone to take out the wine he bought in the capital and drink a few glasses."

Although Mu Yunyao was very lively in front of Li Meng, she was very serious when talking about serious matters in the inner study room. She sat upright, and Liu Rushi was next to her and read their analysis clearly. Li Meng had a faint smile on his lips, but he listened very carefully.

"The news also came from the log of that day, saying that a fast horse that sent a message to the capital entered the city early in the morning. When the base camp went to Laiwu City to clear out the bandits at the end of July, a horse once left the city, saying that it was a message to the capital."

Speaking of this, Liu Rushi paused for a moment and continued:

"Master, Miss Mu and the servants infer that the old man's resignation should be due to the move of the mine supervisor Ding Xu. After Yang Sichang, the Minister of War, was ordered to supervise the army, it can be confirmed almost."

Li Meng kept listening very carefully, but after hearing the girls' inferences, he pondered for a while, and asked:

"It's a bit strange. It's just a dispute over money. Is it as to be so chaotic?"

Liu Rushi turned his head and looked at Mu Yunyao who was sitting aside. Mu Yunyao said softly:

"I can't figure it out, maybe there are other things. After the old man comes from Nanjing, he will ask in detail and he will surely have a result."

The names of these people just now are quite interesting. Liu Rushi and Gu Hengbo both want to call themselves slaves, but Mu Yunyao can use the relatively close "me", which also shows the difference in status of these people in the mansion. Gu Hengbo on the side has not spoken, but instead takes the pen and ink to prepare for the record.

According to the scheduled plan, around the tenth day of September, Liu Fulai will come from Nanjing to Jiaozhou City. At that time, based on the old eunuch's knowledge and analysis, there will be more accurate results.

Li Meng nodded, took a breath, looked at the three women with praise, and praised:

"With you a few, I feel like I have three more heads out of thin air. I have watched and heard a lot. I think more thoughtful than before. I will do it well. I will inform me of the resources of Jiaozhou Camp. You can all mobilize them to use them."

Mu Yunyao's cheeks were red with excitement, and there was also a joy in Gu Hengbo and Liu Rushi's eyes. What Li Meng said just now was equivalent to formally acknowledging the location and legitimacy of the account room in the Li Mansion. Those words were not spoken to the close female family, but were the tone of dealing with the official business.

The three girls may have been an organization that was built on a whim. After Li Meng realized their abilities, his attitude towards them became support. The intelligence collection and analysis system is the most core thing in a group. No matter who is handed over, he must consider various potential risks. The three women of Mu Yunyao and the others are the safest choice, because they are the female concubines in their private residence, and they usually cannot leave the inner palace, and their communication with the outside world is just words and conversations. For etiquette, they cannot even face to face with intelligence personnel, so they cannot talk about cultivating their own power. They are most at ease.

"Brother, will the next step be to arrange people to keep Laiwu City and the mining supervisor Ding Xu tightened?"

When Mu Yunyao heard the praise and confession, she was happy and wanted to strike while the iron was hot. Li Meng waved her hand and said with a smile:

"There is no need to spend so much effort, I have something else to do."

After saying this, Li Meng smiled and said with some praise:

"A private official can withstand the bloody swords and bloody wars and coercion, and he still has the intention to fight back. It is amazing to have such courage and insight!"

On the first day of September, Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to appoint Yang Sichang, the Minister of War as the commander, but he did not leave immediately. There were many etiquette procedures to leave, such as saying goodbye and giving edicts to encourage him. The capital was still making noises endlessly, but it had nothing to do with Shandong.

Ding Xu, the mining supervisor, knew earlier than others that the eunuch Liu Fulai, the governor of Nanjing, had fallen. As soon as the news spread, many people must have come to trouble Shandong General Li Meng with new and old hatreds. Who would have thought that the whole Shandong was calm and without any abnormality?

By the seventh day of September, the production of Laiwu iron ore had been stopped for a long time, and Ding Xu was a little overwhelmed and sent someone to discuss with the mine owners of the coal mines in Jining, saying that the backstage of General Li of your family had collapsed. I don’t know what the situation would be like in the future. What are the people below?

Who would have thought that the mine owners of those coal mines would not dare to react at all. At first one or two families met. However, when the subordinates of the mining supervisor Ding Xu went there again the second time, they found that the two coal mines they met had already changed their owners. There was an example here, and they didn't even dare to talk about the later ones.

However, the weapons manufacturing bureau of Jiaozhou Camp has moved towards Laiwu with great fanfare. Ding Xu, the mine supervisor of Laiwu Iron and Metallurgical Institute, has the real power to manage the iron ore and iron smelting station. Laiwu Civil Affairs has no right to intervene. Jiaozhou Camp directly built a large-scale construction in Laiwu City, and he was helpless.

The local soldiers and horses in Laiwu who obeyed his orders did not dare to move around, because one of the camps in Jiaozhou camps was stationed outside the city, and they started slaughtering in the city that day and are intimidating.

During the relocation, the Weapon Manufacturing Bureau also had a much less demand for raw materials. The blacksmith workshops that are still operating are almost enough for the iron materials obtained in small iron ores in various places and some private storage near Laiwu.

The mining supervisor Ding Xu changed from being happy and gloating at the beginning to being a little confused. He had been the local emperor in Laiwu for too long, and he contacted and communicated directly to the eunuch in the inner court. He lacked in-depth understanding of the situation in Shandong. This time, he saw that the Shandong general was safe and the Laiwu Iron Mine was in a state of inability to do so. Finally, he felt that things were not good, and the mining supervisor Ding Xu also began to panic.

In addition to relocating the weapons manufacturing institute, Li Meng is also planning to set up an institution similar to the old camp of Jiaozhou in Jinan City, and the troops stationed must be strengthened. After all, he is the general of Shandong, and Jinan City is the center of Shandong, which facilitates control of other prefectures. The renovation of Jinan Prefecture into a semi-fortress city is also for this consideration, but Li Meng is not on this now.

Ding Xu, the mining supervisor there, was panicked, and the information and analysts of Jiaozhou Camp also found out the various relationships between him and Liu Fulai's resignation, but Li Meng was too lazy to pay attention to it at the moment.

The Jiaozhou area has completely become a military restricted area. Every day, a large number of cavalry and infantry patrol nearby, and irrelevant people are all expelled. Especially the area between Jiaozhou Camp and the seaside is almost a carpet-style search. However, this is the territory of Jiaozhou Camp. Even if outsiders see it, there is no major event worth mentioning on the ground in Shandong recently. To mobilize such a Jiaozhou Camp, it can only be understood as an exercise.

In fact, after Li Meng was married to Yan Ruoran at home for about half a month, he began to leave Jiaozhou every three or four days and come back in another three or four days.

It is said that General Li went to patrol the military camps everywhere, but unfortunately no one was paying attention. The so-called military camps where Li Meng went to could not see Li Meng.

Li Meng went to Xinyang Town to watch the soldiers and saw the thousands of young and strong men trained by Yang Si. It is said that the training of soldiers has not lasted for a year or two, and there will be no results. In mid-September, the young and strong men under Yang Si were just gathered at night, not as messy as the first time to watch. Although there is no formation, everyone basically follows the team that everyone belongs to and will not get separated.

These young and strong men have one advantage over the new recruits trained by Li Meng, that is, most of them were from pirates and robbers back then, and they had seen blood on their hands, so they were not considered to be the role of the first battle formation. Near Xinyang Town, some of the wealthy families with a slightly family moved elsewhere. Seeing thousands of murderous men training soldiers around their homes every day, although they were still very restrained, they were also frightened.

The magistrate of Zhucheng County had reported to him many times, saying that he was old and sick, and asked to resign and return to his hometown. God knows what he said about his age and illness. If he was forty-one, he would be considered old, and marrying a concubine in March was considered to be considered sick, because he ignored his requests several times.

Originally, after the tenth day of September, Li Meng was going to wait for Liu Fulai in Jiaozhou, but news came from Jiningzhou that the old eunuch wanted to visit Jining and Qufu, which was also a relive of the place that made him suddenly become famous. Currently, Kong Sande, the shopkeeper of Wenru Trading, is accompanying him to play there.

Li Meng simply went to Xinyang Town several times, but the last time he went, the guards around him were not riding horses, but taking a boat. There are now fifteen ships under the name of Jiaozhou Camp, three of which are so-called gunboats, and the rest are merchant ships. Although the Zheng family was very cautious, their control over merchant ships was not so strict.

From the boss of the ship to the sailor at the bottom of the merchant ship, all the children of Shandong were responsible for the children. The parents of these people lived within the control of Jiaozhou Camp, so they naturally knew what to do, which was their wholehearted allegiance to Li Meng.

On September 17th, Li Meng led his men to set out from Lingshan Private Port and headed to Xinyang Town. The five hundred guard soldiers were still on board. The Zheng family had several mature leaders, but they didn't understand it very much. They thought that this young man was in high positions at Chad and always had some ostentatious thoughts.

Otherwise, why would you take five hundred people out every time in your own territory? Five merchant ships are enough, but you have to take all the dozen merchant ships away. What should you do with this show? How much money do you have to earn when these dozens of big ships run like this? But after all, they are not a family, and these words are just privately discussed as a joke.

After arriving in Xinyang Town, Li Meng led 200 people from more than a dozen merchant ships and stayed in the campsite last time. At present, Yang Si has built some simple thatched houses and shacks here, saying that it is the place where he raises the village customers. This place is deserted, not to mention that since the Great Sage of Hai has spoken, no one has come to find him uncomfortable.

After Li Meng led the people over, he saw that the shack had prepared food and supplies that were enough to last for a month, and the two hundred of them stayed here.

The dozen or so ships did not return to Jiaozhou City, but were waiting on the sea. When it was not dark, Yang Si led the young and strong men under him to push the boat into the water, and then went to the big boats and climbed onto the big boats. Li Meng came silently. Yang Si and his men seemed to have not noticed that there were people living in the shack, but they used the boat to carry the food and weapons and everything they needed.

Although it was on the sea, the efficiency of these more than 2,000 young men was not as chaotic as on land. Although there were no neat teams and formations, the climbing and rowing boats and the performance of their duties on the ship were quite fast and efficient.

Li Meng and his ships arrived on the sea outside Xinyang Town in the morning. When it was just dark, these dozen merchant ships had already set sail and headed south...

In modern times, although Li Meng learned geography courses in a normal way, it could still point out that Lianyungang was a city facing the sea in the north of Jiangsu Province. However, in the 12th year of Chongzhen, Lianyungang City was still on a large island, which was stationed on this island with a thousand-household office of the Ming army in the Southern Zhili Province - the East China Sea Middle School.

However, the officers and soldiers of this Thousand Household Office have long lost their combat effectiveness. The reason for their lack of combat effectiveness is not the common deduction of military pay and the drive of officers and soldiers to be serfs, but the fact that they live too comfortably. When they serve on the island, they have enough military pay every year. If they are lucky, they can get three or four times the income.

The reason is very simple. The East China Sea faces a city across a narrow strait, and that city is the richest place in the world - Haizhou.

Huai Salt Marketing was in the Ming Dynasty. The production base of Huai Salt was Haizhou. Everyone knows that salt merchants are rich in the world. However, for most of the time, salt merchants specifically refer to Yangzhou salt merchants. Salt merchants from Shaanxi, Shanxi and Huizhou Anqing live in Yangzhou and sell Huai Salt to the world.

The production base of the salt goods sold and shipped by these salt traders is Haizhou. The seawater near Haizhou has high salinity, and the sun exposure time and wind power are particularly suitable for salt production. Except for the short time in the late twelfth lunar month and the early lunar month, salt can be produced continuously on the other days.

Most of the salt merchants in Yangzhou have their own representatives and semicolons in Haizhou. The Haizhou Prefectural Office and the nearby Donghai Zhongsou all have excellent treatment from civil servants and generals of grades to the servants and soldiers below. To put it bluntly, it is like raising watchdogs, but there are too many foods to feed.

Relatively speaking, the salt workers working in the salt farm near Haizhou are treated slightly better than other places. They worked hard for a year and only had more than ten days to starve, not to mention the year of such a disaster everywhere.

The production of salt goods in Haizhou is not enough, because two-thirds of the world eat Huai salt. In areas not within the scope of official salt marketing, salt merchants always have a way to occupy this market with private salt. The two Huai salt merchants have accumulated over a hundred years of accumulation, whether in the officialdom, the military or the so-called gangsters of the world. These deep-rooted backgrounds make their business more convenient and smooth.

Fujian's salt shortage has almost become one of the weaknesses of the Zheng family. However, even with the Zheng family's strong maritime strength, they have not won their territory in the salt field. They can only deal with the Lianghuai salt merchants in a low voice.

Over the years, there has been only one variable in the market controlled by the Lianghuai salt merchants, that is, Shandong. There are almost no local salt merchants in Shandong, and the local salt farms only rely on small trafficking to maintain the situation. However, a salt merchant suddenly emerged and squeezed them out of Shandong Province.

This salt dealer has no official connections and does not know any means of doing business. He just gathered some poor and crazy military households, used thick bamboo poles as spears, and killed everyone who blocked them. Everyone made money with kindness. How could such a barbaric rough man come in?

The salt merchants in Lianghuai have encountered such tyrants who have been doing more than a hundred years in business, but the salt merchants naturally have the means to deal with them, either bribing the bandits or bribing the generals to fight violence with violence and killing people.

Who would have thought that the salt dealer in Shandong defeated every effort of the salt merchants in the two Huai Rivers. In Caozhou General Liu Zeqing was suddenly killed by the "rioters". Several salt warehouses belonging to the Huai Rivers in Jining Prefecture were destroyed, and nearly a thousand children and confidants of the Huai Rivers died after Shandong.

The salt merchants of Lianghuai, who have always been superior, finally dared not continue to fight like this, especially their enemies have gone from inspectors of the Salt Administration to become garrisons, chief ministers, and generals. Now they are the generals of Shandong, and the left governors are the garrisons of the governors. The generals who lead the troops are also supported by the eunuchs of the Nanjing garrisons.

If the fight continues like this, the only result is that both sides suffer losses or die together. The salt merchants from both Huaihe finally compromised and withdrew from Shandong.

When the Qing Dynasty invaded, the salt merchants in Lianghuai were not worried about the invasion of these beasts, but were gloatingly waiting for Li Meng to be unlucky. Some people had already discussed in advance how to allocate the salt farms and territory in Shandong. Although Shandong had suffered major disasters over the years, the salt goods market had already made Li Meng very mature and turned into a piece of fat meat.

Of course, the result disappointed them again.

Recently, the fall of the eunuch Liu Fulai, the governor of Nanjing, gave them new hope. However, these salt merchants are not as ignorant as Ding Lei, the mining supervisor. They know that Li Meng’s actions are not based on so-called shade, and their own strength is even stronger.

Sure enough, after Liu Fulai fell, Shandong was calm and everything was normal, so the salt merchants in Lianghuai ignored it. Anyway, there were many opportunities, just wait patiently, and do their business well first.

However, this year of disaster, there were chaos in the mainland and border areas. The sales of Huai salt merchants from both Huaihuai also decreased. The way to increase sales and increase revenue is to expand new markets. Moreover, this new market must be Taiping, and residents have a certain consumption capacity. Shandong is the best choice.

So after Liu Fu came to the fall of the market, the Salt Merchants Association decided to send someone to use the money to find old relationships everywhere, and maybe some cheap things can be made.

In early October, there are still two months left before the end of the year, but for the salt farm in Haizhou, it is the peak season for production again. We need to increase the amount of salt to produce more to provide the needs of the first month of the Spring Festival.

In the salt field by the sea of ​​Haizhou, the foremen kept walking on the salt fields, loudly urging the salt workers to do their work and not slacken.

On the fourth day of October, the late autumn in Haizhou was already quite cold, but the salt workers were still busy in the biting sea water. What they comforted themselves was that at noon, when the sun was in the middle, it would be warmer.

Just after Chen Shi, when they entered Si Shi, the salt workers and foremen working on the seaside saw a cargo ship driving into the strait. The strait between Haizhou and the East China Sea was too narrow. Merchant ships traveling between ports usually walked on the sea outside, rather than on this strait.

However, some ships that want to enter the Huai River will take this route, but it is also very inconsistent. There are few people who have not been in charge of old sailors who have been in charge.

When a boat passed by, only some salt workers turned their heads and looked at it, and the foreman shouted loudly, "Work quickly, have you never seen a boat in your life?"

More and more merchant ships entered this waterway. These merchant ships were parked as close to the shore as possible and put down their sails. The salt workers working in the salt fields did not care about the foreman's scolding, and looked at the fleet that appeared here in shock. Even the foreman forgot to supervise and looked at the sea surface there.

The strait is too narrow, and the ship is close enough to the shore. People on the shore can even hear the loud shouting and urging people on the shore.

Twelve large ships and thirty small boats. People standing on the shore saw the mermaids on the large ships descending into the small boats, and the dozens of small boats were filled with people. The small boats began to turn slowly and began to sail towards the salt field on the shore.

"Japanese pirates!!"

I don’t know who was on the shore shouting heart-wrenchingly. All the people who were busy in the salt field reacted and didn’t care about anything for a moment. They threw away the tools in their hands and ran towards Haizhou City.

The boat was rowing in the sea by manpower, and after all, it was not as fast as the people on the shore. However, the sharp shouts of the salt workers and foremen on the shore could be heard clearly by the wind. The young man with a hot temper immediately stood up on the boat and pointed at the shore and cursed:

"You are the Japanese pirates, your whole family is all Japanese pirates!"

The person who stood up was immediately scolded by the leader behind him:

"What are you doing when you stand up? I'll sit down and row a boat, and I'll be slutty, and I'll throw you into the sea to feed the fish!!"

After these small boats boarded the shore, the people on the boat did not rush to chase them, but rushed to the low dam that intercepted the sea water, and started digging with the tools left by the salt workers. Some people were responsible for the alert, and some people were digging desperately and taking shifts. People were constantly putting down the dozen large ships.

Half an hour later, the low dam was dug up, and the sea water poured into the salt field at high tide. Every time the salt field was released, it was dried in a step by step, and lime and other things were mixed to boil and dry out salt. If the sea water was soaked at will, the salt field would probably be abandoned.

However, looking at these people who came ashore, it is probably their purpose to destroy the salt field. The boats kept transporting personnel to the shore, and soon a large team had already gathered.

It was still the same chaotic appearance. The small and medium-sized leaders were yelling there, and the people below were also shouting, but the speed of gathering into the team was still very fast. Although it was not up to the point, they gathered together quickly. The strait was indeed not wide. The movement in Haizhou gradually became bigger, and the East China Sea Central Institute was naturally heard.

For these officers and soldiers, the salt merchants in Haizhou were more effective than the Secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of War. When the Qianhu Office heard the sentry's report, after a stick of incense, they "hurriedly" gathered their troops to run towards the coast. They and the land opposite had to transport supplies and personnel through ships, so there were also many ships.
To be continued...