Ushijie opened the curtain of the four-wheel carriage and looked out through the glass window. The street was full of vendors selling Huanxi Tuo, noodle nests, tofu skin, hot dry noodles, and lard pastry.

The high and low voices of hawkers drifted into the car through the cracks in the car windows, together with the alluring aroma of food. This street was very prosperous because it led to the dock. In addition to the vendors selling food, there were many other shops along the street.

Shops are lined up in rows, all the way through the city gate to the South Pier outside the city. There are many pedestrians on the street, half of them are merchants or residents of Jiangling City who make a living around the South Pier, and the other half are in ragged clothes and holding hands.

Refugees old and young.

That’s right, they are refugees!

When Niu Jie saw these refugees, the corners of his mouth turned up into a sarcastic smile.

The prosperous Ming Dynasty and the splendid dynasty are all superficial glory! Look at these refugees who have lost their fields and cannot even be tenants, so they can only wander and beg for a living! How could there be such a prosperous dynasty in ancient times?

When the carriage approached the south gate of the Wengcheng, there were so many refugees that they almost filled the entire Wengcheng. However, these refugees did not block the road and quickly dispersed to both sides of the road after entering the Wengcheng.

Niu Jie, who had been wandering around the Ming Dynasty for several months, knew that these refugees were going to the porridge factory to find food.

Porridge factories that provide porridge to feed hungry people also exist in Dashun, but they are rare and not permanent. They are not opened in cities. Instead, they are set up in the countryside during famines. Usually they are established in the disaster-stricken villages.

The big soldiers in the government took the lead, provided some rice from their own homes, and then asked the government to provide some rice relief, and cooked porridge in the villages and towns to give food to the hungry people.

However, most of the porridge factories in the Ming Dynasty were set up in cities, and they were permanent. No matter whether there was a famine or not, and whether the people who came to beg were hungry people, as long as the clothes were worn and dirty enough, there would be a meal of porridge to drink. But it couldn't be done.

To take it away, you have to finish the porridge in front of the porridge servant.

Jiangling's porridge factory is located in the two barbicans in the south of the city. There are small doors on both sides of the barbicans for hungry people to leave. After drinking the porridge, they are not allowed to stay or queue up again. They must leave immediately. The Jiangling County government is still there

There are many wooden fences installed outside the porridge factory, which separate many one-way passages, so the queues to receive porridge are in good order.

After leaving Wengcheng through the small gate, it is not easy to go back and line up again. Because the small gate can only go out but not in, and there are local soldiers from Jingzhou Prefecture and local troops from Jingzhou Prefecture standing guard at the gate of Wengcheng, and refugees in ragged clothes will enter the city.

Refugees can only enter through the east gate of Jiangling City.

In the east city of Jiangling, a corner of the original Royal City of Jiangling, a "refugee camp" was built specifically for the refugees to live in. After the refugees who were able to move left to look for food, there would be small officials from Jiangling County who went to the refugee camp, which was inconvenient.

The elderly in action, giving porridge to the sick.

In addition, in Wengcheng to the east of Jiangling City, there are many shops of colonial trading houses, all of which deceive people into going to Nanyang to Xinzhou. They are all very shady, and they often ask people to sign a three-year or five-year commitment contract!

Oh, there are also people who can collect money from colonial trading houses! If any refugee family has unmarried girls or widowed young women, and is willing to let them go to Xinzhou to get married, you can get a sum of money, which varies according to age and beauty.

It’s also different, you can get hundreds of taels if you have more.

However, Niu Jie is very doubtful about this. How much does it cost to "buy" a girl and transport it to Xinzhou for a hundred taels? How much does it cost to "marry" her and make a profit? At least 500 taels, right? Who will buy it? It can cost 500 taels.

Will a man who has money to marry a wife be desperate and go to the United States of New Zealand to seek life? Is it possible that there is really gold and silver there?

So these traffickers must be selling good girls to brothels!

The government of the Ming Dynasty is really incompetent to the extreme. They don't care about such blatant human trafficking and abduction of women from good families!

"Master Li, the dock has arrived!"

At this time, the carriage Niu Jie was riding in had already stopped outside Jiangling South Pier.

The driver was also a lurker from the Dashun Dynasty. This yamen, affiliated to the Trade Department of the Dashunhu Government, was founded by Gu Junen. It was in charge of both foreign trade and intelligence collection!

Ushijie got out of the carriage, looked around, and saw a merchant ship with a tailwind flag already moored at the dock.

The backend boss of Shunfengxing is the Trade Department of the Household Government in Dashun, and he has branches all over Jingchu.

Ushisuke, who was dressed in military uniform, walked up quickly, and two men dressed as sailors came forward and stood in front of Ushisuke.

Niu Jie cupped his hands, then patted his left chest with his right hand, and said with a smile: "The boss will make a fortune, everything will go smoothly, and the wealth will be great! I'm going to Nanhai Li Yijie, you're polite!"

"So it's Young Master Li," one of the sailors also clasped his fists, and then patted his right chest with his left hand, "Young Master is here to study or do business in Gangneung?"

Niu Jie said: "I'm here to visit a friend."

The sailor asked: "I wonder where your friend lives?"

Niu Jie said: "Jingzhou Prefecture, Hulin Prefecture... I wonder if I can catch a smooth sailing?"

"What a coincidence, my sand boat happened to pass through Hulin Prefecture."

"Then excuse me!" Niu Jie held his hand again, "The shipping fee is negotiable."

"Please come on board!" The sailor made a respectful gesture, and then led Usuke onto the ship.

In the cabin, ten men of his age, dressed as businessmen or scholars, were already waiting there. When Niu came in, they all turned to look at him.

"Li Yijie, I have met all of you brothers."

Everyone stood up and saluted Niu Jie with clasped fists: "I have met Mr. Li."

Ushijie smiled, then strode to an empty chair at the top and sat down in a grand manner. Then he waved his hand to the ten people in the cabin, "Sit, everyone, sit down."

Seeing everyone sitting down, Niu Jie looked serious and said, "Tell me, how many heroes have you contacted?"

A strong man with a beard, a high nose and deep eyes said: "Master Li, we have already contacted five or six thousand heroes!"

"So many?" Niu Jie was stunned.

"Master Li doesn't know something," the bearded man said, "Nowadays, there are many refugees in Jingchu area, and the Zhu family's court has neglected to control them, so there are many refugees forming gangs and groups. We just need to recruit a group of gang leaders to form a group."

With just one leader, we can gather hundreds or even thousands of heroes. We have contacted five gang leader leaders, and we can recruit a total of 2,000 strong men!"

Another middle-aged man dressed as a scribe added: "In addition to wooing the gang leaders, our Dashun also has a foundation in the Jingzhou Prefecture area. At that time, we persisted in the mountains and valleys in Badong and Guizhou for many years.

Later, although the support could no longer continue, it only died down and was not eradicated by the red thieves. People from the Trade Department have been keeping in contact with them secretly, and now they have been mobilized, and there are more than 1,000 people in Dingzhuang. "

The control of the countryside by the Ming Dynasty was incomparable to that of the Dashun Dynasty, which had 600,000 military households scattered throughout the countryside!

Most of the counties and lower areas in the Ming Dynasty had considerable autonomy. As long as they could pay enough taxes, the court would not have much control over them, and it would be difficult to control them.

Only in important places such as Yingtian, Wuhan, Shanghai, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Huai'an, Tianjin, Tianhe Yingkou, and Lushun, the imperial court's ability to control the countryside was relatively strong.

There was also a fat man who looked like a businessman and said: "There are also people from our trade department in Shunfengxing. There are no less than a thousand people who can fight. Everyone has a musket and chain armor, which can serve as the backbone!"

These more than a thousand people are elites selected by the Department of Trade from the military households of Chongqing and Kunming Prefectures. They were specially trained before being sent to the Ming Dynasty. They are not only highly skilled in martial arts, but also very reliable!

A man in his thirties working as a fortune teller continued: "We have also recruited some poor men in Huya Mountain, and we have also recruited a run-down clan. There can be more than a thousand strong men, and the number of five thousand is

No problem."

"Has the Zhu Ming government noticed?" Niu Jie asked, "The Emperor Zhu is in Wuhan. There should be many spies from Jin Yiwei and Dongchang in the Jingchu area, right?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Li," the bearded man who spoke first said with a smile, "We are very careful in our work, and no lackey named Zhu Thief noticed."
Chapter completed!