The canal ship arrived at Huai'an Shui Pass. Because Li Guoding's reminder, Min Yuanqi did not directly carry the salt bags to the usual trading business, but took Min Yuanjin and Liang Shifa to inquire about the news first.

Min Yuanqi was not too worried that the other party would take action in Huai'an Prefecture City. There were sub-patrol yamen, Huai'an Prefecture Bureau, and county yamen. Due to the war in the north, there were also some battalions and soldiers sent from Nanjing to Huai'an. The city was almost full of people from the government and garrison officers and soldiers. Once there was a dispute and conflict, it was afraid that things would cause a lot.

There are also many officers and soldiers in the garrison in the city, but like Min Yuanqi and others, they are of the lowest level in the social class.

In addition to the civil servants and the camp garrisons, there are also Dahewei and Huai'an guards in the city. Although the guards were defeated, both yamen were built quite magnificently.

There are 6,000 households in Huai'an Guard, with nearly 7,000 soldiers. By the end of the Wanli period, there were actually 3,301 soldiers. This is the number of the Qing army more than 20 years ago, and it is estimated that it will decrease slightly.

There are more than 800 soldiers guarding the city and training the Huai'an Guard. This number is not enough for each city to have one person, so more and more soldiers have been dispatched recently.

In addition, there are 6,040 weapons made every year, more than 710 hectares of farmland, 10,55 stones of grain annually, 223 canal ships, and the annual task of transporting grain is 70,000 stones.

Dahewei had eight thousand households, with more than 5,000 soldiers, more than 1,530 garrison officers and soldiers, built 6,400 weapons every year, 949 hectares of farmland, more than 14,000 stones of grain annually, and owned 336 grain ships, and transported 120,000 stones of grain each year.

Judging from the numbers, the strength of the Dahe Guard is far above the Huaian Guard. However, when Min Yuanqi passed by the command of the yamen, he found that there were no soldiers in the yamen standing guard. The soldiers on the top of the city and the gate were all battalions. The commanders of the yamen did not even raise many servants, and they completely lost any guards.

As for the two guards who made a total of more than 10,000 weapons and guards in the year, according to the regulations of the early country, there are several bows, strings, swords and guns, and armor and shields.

Each guard has more than 100,000 mu of military farmland, plus a large number of remaining resident. If the training is carried out, weapons, armor, and food are arranged according to the arrangements of the early country, and these two guards alone can fully guard Huai'an.

In addition, the garrison office also has the inner garrison, schoolyard, garrison, shipyard, and ordnance bureau. If all functions are complete, both military and civil affairs can be afforded.

Unfortunately, everything was abandoned.

When Min Yuanqi got ashore, many Lifu at the wharf were wearing fat jackets, and many of the coolies in the city, including the waiters in the hall, were dressed in the flag army of the ward.

Of course, the most powerful men in the flag army were in shipyards and civilian farming. There were also many on the canal boats, and most of them gathered at the docks in the city. Most of the military farms were occupied by officers. Many flag soldiers simply stopped farming and worked hard labor everywhere.

Min Yuanqi's military officer robe did not add much color to him. In fact, no one cared about it at all. Even if someone took a look at him by chance, he would not take it seriously.

Huai'an Prefecture City is also a big city. The old city is ten miles long and the new city is seven miles long. It was built in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. The old city was still built in the Jin Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, the rammed earth city walls were wrapped in bricks, and four gates including Yingxun Chengen were set up. The main commercial area was still in the old city.

There is also a Jiacheng between the old and new cities, which was built during the Jiajing period when the Japanese were prepared. Now it is mainly used for garrisons.

After all, it is one of the only two prefectures in Jiangbei. Although Huai'an Prefecture is not as good as Yangzhou, it is located in the north and south to the canal transportation center and a shipbuilding center. In addition, the salt industry is as developed as Yangzhou, so the gap between the two is not big.

Min Yuanqi walked along the way, looking at the city walls and the lazy guards, the long spears, the large swords and iron spears, and the long shields. A few archers were wearing long stair bows on their backs. Most of the battalions were equipped with ordinary equipment, and most of them were thin. The court had heavy troops rather than army, but these battalions looked really ordinary.

When we arrived in the old city, there were more shops and houses in the business, and more ordinary people.

In Min Yuanqi's eyes, the picture of history is even more vivid. Faces are all old and young, both young and old, long robes, square robes, square net scarves and various hats, or Guizhou heads with only bald hair tied with cloth strips, sitting in sedan chairs, driving cars, pushing carts, shouting, standing at the street corner to bask in the sun and laughing... The dialect is still the same. Except for some words with strong ancient rhymes, it sounds not much different from Huaian dialect hundreds of years later.

The aroma of food is also very strong, and Huai'an is also a gathering place for salt merchants. These guys come too easily. Apart from building houses and buying land, the rest is to study food, eat food, and never get tired of fine food. Anyway, you can do whatever you spend money and make it exquisite.

This trend also affected the people. Huaiyang cuisine was in the early exploration at this time, and after a hundred years, it basically took shape.

For Min Yuanqi, he was satisfied with buying a basket of buns on the street and eating two at will. Unlike ordinary soldiers in the garrison, his first thing to do when he arrived in Huai'an was to get rid of salt, and then he found a good restaurant to eat and drink well.

In places like Yuntiguan, the most grand building is the guard office, and the rest of the buildings are schools, temples, restaurants and restaurants, not to mention the high-end restaurants in Huai'an Prefecture City.

The three of them ate buns and had a more local bun. When they arrived at the place where salt merchants gathered, they were either rich or noble when they were traveling. The robes were mostly silk, and the inside was lined with fox fur or mink fur. When they saw these three flag soldiers passing by, these wealthy merchants avoided a few steps, and some even covered their noses.

"These bastards..." Min Yuanjin cursed unanimously: "Without our constant boiling salt, our eyes were red, our bodies were smoked and we suffered from all the hardships when we got up early and went to bed late. How could they have such a good way to grow hair!"

Liang Shifa didn't say anything. He always looked hardworking and cautious, and his cautious attitude was placed on his face. This man was very clever and scheming. Min Yuanqi's previous performance had a strong impact on Liang Shifa and others. Although he was just a reckless person on the surface, afterwards and analysis of the future trends were not available to Liang Shifa.

According to the true intention of this small banner official, he looked down on Min Yuanqi before that. Liang Shifa was five or six years older than Min Yuanqi. When he was a child, he was an apprentice in a business company. He recognized many words, was proficient in math, knew business, knew how to communicate with people, which made Liang Shifa very popular. Everyone said that this was a smart and smart person... Such people looked down on aristocratic family who was not qualifying and incompetent. Besides, Min Yuanqi was not a family of wealthy businessmen, officials and gentry. He only had hereditary military positions in the garrison, and was only at the level of a hundred households. What is this thing worth?

Liang Shifa was determined to save money and would do business in Yuntiguan in the future. As for the future of his official position, this small banner official had never considered it at all.

In fact, the small flag officials were also hereditary. This thing has been ruled since the early Ming Dynasty. Some generals and their children became commanders as soon as they became adults. At least one thousand households started. Then they served as the battalion and military officer, commander, commander, commander, battalion soldiers to guerrillas and generals, and finally the deputy general, general, and the governor of the Governor's Office. The crown prince Shaobao led Shang Fangjian and took charge of the most important ministers in the position.

The start is different, and the ending is of course different.

Liang Shifa never dreamed of being the governor and general, but he had done the dream of being a general in Yundiguan many times. He felt that people should not only be smart enough to make money, but also have to know the general trend. Most of the great merchants were great gentry, or had close contacts with the gentry class. One was to be protected by the gentry class, and the other was to know the general trend of the imperial court, so that they would not suffer too much.

Under this understanding, after Min Yuanqi analyzed the future trend that day, Liang Shifa admired Min Yuanqi and was overwhelmed!

Only scholars and husbands have always understood this kind of thing, and they have to be gentry students from large places in the city. They are not gentry students from remote areas, and they can't tell any of them.

Min Yuan’s journey shows that this young household is not as mediocre as it appears, but has been considering the future of Yuntiguan and the one household.

This is quite rare!

After Liang Shifa was convinced, he focused on doing what was happening in front of him.

After several small salt shops, Liang Shifa pointed to a medium-sized salt shop and said to Min Yuanqi: "Sir, more than half of our salt products are sold in Huai'an. The people are responsible and the price given is fair."

Min Yuanqi narrowed his eyes and looked at it. The simple word "salt" on the cover, and the words "Zhangjia Old Shop" were written on the door.

According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, official salt can only be sold in Fucheng and county towns. However, now there are salt sold in towns and villages, and the main source is that small vendors come to Fucheng to wholesale.

The source of salt in the salt shop is of course mainly from hereditary stove owners, and they are the ones who cook private salt.

Min Yuanqi smiled slightly and shook his head and said, "I remember this shopkeeper, like Shifa, you are smart and cautious. The more you are, the more afraid of offending others, he will not accept our salt."

Liang Shifa's eyes narrowed, and he obviously thought of this.

Things were indeed as Min Yuanqi expected. After Yang Shida spoke, the people in this business would never dare to collect salt goods from Yundiguan.

Although he was polite, his attitude as a god of plague made Liang Shifa and Min Yuanjin very angry.

Min Yuanqi was also a little depressed. If Huai'an was not allowed to accept everything, it would be really troublesome.

It would take a few more days to go to Yangzhou, and he was still in a hurry to pass the cloud ladder.

The salt-boiling process can be improved, and there is also farming. Min Yuanqi also has his own ideas. In addition, he plans to use the people around him as the backbone, and choose a group of young and strong people to train troops seriously.

It is February of the 17th year of Chongzhen. Min Yuanqi doesn't remember when the capital was captured, but he thought it must be the first half of the year, so there is really not much time left for him.

The other salt shops have almost the same attitude, friendly and polite, but they are determined not to accept salt.

There are thirty or forty salt shops in this street, which is almost the limit of Huaian’s one city. Yangzhou has a wide radius, and the number of salt shops must exceed 100. After all, Huaian is a little worse.
Chapter completed!