Chapter 2203

It has to be said that Lu Kangtai still had a relatively clear understanding of his own situation. After he received the news about Haihan's expedition to Hirado, he keenly realized that he did not have much time left to act.

Our side's channels for obtaining assistance from overseas have been cut off, but the opponent has gained the support of Haihan at this time. Under the circumstances, Lu Kangtai is convinced that his opponent will never be able to settle down. In time, they entrust the Haihan people to train them.

Once the armed forces are formed, the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants may not be able to withstand the attacks of their opponents.

Therefore, Lu Kangtai's attitude was very determined, that is, he must take action before the situation reverses and kill the leading Huizhou salt merchants first.

"Just imagine, if the Haihan people lose their support object in Yangzhou, what will they do?" Lu Kangtai put forward a very bold idea: "Will they raise troops to avenge the seven surnames? No! With the shrewdness of the Haihan people,

They will not do something with only risks and no rewards. I think they will give up their original plans and look for a new partner."

"It doesn't have to be us, right? After all, they had a lot of trouble with us before. They can't let go of this grudge so easily, right?" He Huan still has a lot of doubts about Lu Kangtai's views.

Lu Kangtai said: "In last year's incident, we were the ones who suffered a big loss. The Haihan people did not suffer much direct losses. At most, they only lost a few lives during the fight. Now they want to sell the salt beyond the Yangtze River.

Bei, then they must find a partner in Yangzhou to help them distribute. If the Seven Big Surnames can't do this, then their only choice is us."

In fact, Lu Kangtai was not absolutely sure about Haihan's position, but now he had to try to convince his companions, so he proposed such a possibility that sounded very tempting.

His inference is not entirely unreasonable. Haihan indeed chose to cooperate with Huizhou salt merchants and provide them with military assistance because he needed powerful local distributors to provide sales channels. If the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants

If you take the initiative to discuss cooperation with Haihan before the Huizhou salt merchants do, you may have the opportunity to become Haihan's distributor, and you may even have in-depth cooperation.

However, these assumptions are no longer valid under the current situation. Haihan has chosen Huizhou salt merchants as its cooperation partners, so it must ensure that it can win in the brutal competition of Yangzhou salt merchants. If Haihan is just a target of Yangzhou

If the situation remains on the sidelines, then Lu Kangtai's idea of ​​eliminating the seven surnames and replacing his Haihan partners is still possible, but now Haihan has taken action and sent people to Yangzhou to assist the Hui salt merchants in the defense organization.

This actually made it clear that they would not stand by and watch the battles between salt merchants.

If Lu Kangtai wants to take action against the seven surnames now, it is equivalent to taking action against Haihan. The nature is not what he understands. As long as he takes action, there will be no room for resolution afterwards.

But now it is a dead end for the Shanxi and Shaanxi salt merchants. If they take action, they will definitely offend the Haihan people. If they don't take action, they will be suppressed by their competitors sooner or later. Therefore, for Lu Kangtai, the only way to change the situation is to make a desperate move.

direction.

Although He Huan and Wang Yu had doubts about Lu Kangtai's statement, they could not come up with a better way to deal with it.

"Kangtai, this matter involves the century-old foundation of our Shanxi and Shaanxi salt merchants in Yangzhou. We must be cautious and make sure nothing goes wrong!" He Huan had no choice but to give a few more instructions, hoping that Lu Kangtai could

Implement his plan smoothly.

"We will do our best!" Lu Kangtai responded firmly.

Lu Kangtai had already formulated a battle plan against the seven surnames before the Golden Shield troops arrived in Yangzhou, and even sent a secret letter to Yang Chengye, warning him to leave Yangzhou as soon as possible.

At that time, because there was no intervention from Haihan, Lu Kangtai was very confident in his battle plan and was not worried that Yang Chengye would leak the secret. But recently, after he learned that Haihan sent people to Yangzhou, he wanted to contact Yang Chengye to inquire about the news.

But they found that Yang Chengye seemed to have disappeared from Yangzhou.

Lu Kangtai could not confirm whether Yang Chengye listened to his advice and quietly fled Yangzhou, or whether he hid in a relatively safe place, such as Daijiazhuang, where the Haihan people settled. If it was the latter, then the Haihan people had probably learned about it.

Knowing Lu Kangtai’s intentions, some targeted defensive deployments were made.

But even in this worst situation, Lu Kangtai does not intend to give up his plan. Judging from the information currently available, the number of troops sent by Haihan to Yangzhou is not many, and their combat effectiveness should not be as terrifying as that of the Haihan army.

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The most important thing is that Lu Kangtai believed that in last year's battle with the Haihan people, if the opponent did not slip fast enough and was intercepted by his own troops on the canal, it would be entirely possible to annihilate them all. If the battle that day happened again,

Lu Kangtai believes that the results can be changed.

After obtaining the consent of He Huan and Wang Yu, Lu Kangtai had no internal resistance and could freely act according to his own intentions. After he returned home, he summoned several of his leaders and made some plans overnight.

layout.

Lu Kangtai knew that the monitoring of the various estates where the seven surnames lived on the south bank of the canal was not enough, but the action was imminent, and he had to grasp the daily movements of these target persons. Therefore, the first thing he arranged was to send people to disguise themselves

He became a fisherman and a salesman and sneaked into the south bank of the canal, trying to find out the recent movements of the seven major surnames and the news about the Haihan people who settled in Daijiazhuang.

The second thing is to revise the previously formulated battle plan. Lu Kangtai already has the floor plans of each manor of the seven surnames, but this kind of information is hand-drawn by insiders based on impressions, and the degree of precision is definitely limited, so based on

The combat plans drawn up on these maps are actually rather sloppy.

Of course, Lu Kangtai's Musketeers have a greater strength advantage, and it is not a big problem to forcefully defeat the opponent. Therefore, Lu Kangtai's deployment of the battle plan was not too detailed before this, and he made up his mind to become the overlord.

But now that the Haihan people have intervened, he has to re-examine his battle plan and brace himself to deal with it carefully.

Lu Kangtai had two generals under his command, named Xie Liang and Xun Fen. Both of them had military experience in the early years and fought with the peasant army in the Central Plains for several years. Later, they lived in Yangzhou and met by chance.

Lu Kangtai admired their ability and hired them as his bodyguards.

When Lu Kangtai organized the training of the musketeers last year, these two people were actually one of them, but they were lucky enough to avoid the killings that night when they went out on business. Lu Kangtai reorganized the musketeers, and these two became the leaders of the new musketeers.

Soldiers, the battle plan against Hui salt merchants was basically the result of discussions between Lu Kangtai and these two people.

"What do you think of the troops sent by Haihan to station in Daijiazhuang?" Lu Kangtai asked.

Xie Liang was the first to answer: "Although the Haihan people are powerful, the number of troops sent is limited, and they should only be able to protect one place in Daijiazhuang. If they disperse and settle in various families, it will be even more undesirable."

Xun Fen said: "But the Haihan people are not stupid. They have no reason to divide their limited manpower. I think they will concentrate their manpower on Daijiazhuang. After all, Daijiazhuang is the largest and has built some fortifications before.

, it will be much easier to guard than other Zhuangzi."

Lu Kangtai nodded and said: "Xunfen's idea is similar to mine. Although the Haihan people sent people over, judging from the scale, they obviously have not really made up their mind to intervene in the battle between us and the Huizhou salt merchants. They just want to

This is a way to show our attitude and let us retreat in the face of difficulties. If they feel that we dare not take action, that is the best time for us to take action! Only by proving our strength can we win the awe of the Haihan people!"

In a place like Yangzhou, as long as you are willing to spend money, there is basically no information that cannot be found, so the surveillance investigation targeting the seven surnames quickly made progress.

According to the information collected, starting from the second day after the Golden Shield troops arrived at Daijiazhuang, the seven major surnames issued announcements to their tribes, warning the tribesmen not to go to Yangzhou City in the near future to avoid accidents. Lu Kangtai believes that

There are only two reasons for this situation. One is that Yang Chengye issued a warning to the Huizhou salt merchants after receiving his secret letter. The other possibility is that the Haihan people will carry out some special operations in Yangzhou in the near future to avoid involving their own family.

into it.

In addition, it seems that the core members of several of the seven surnames no longer live in their own manors and have secretly moved to other places recently. This means that if Lu Kangtai attacks these manors, it will probably be a futile effort.

Daijiazhuang, where the Haihan people have settled, has now been closed off. It is difficult for outsiders to know the situation inside the village. However, Dai Yingda has appeared near Zhuangzi recently to appease the tenant farmers who rent the fields in Daijiazhuang, telling them not to worry about Daijiazhuang.

Feeling nervous due to the access control, this is also the only family head among the seven surnames who has appeared in public in recent days.

These signals forced Lu Kangtai to focus on Daijiazhuang. Although he knew that a group of Haihan people were stationed in Daijiazhuang, it seemed that there was no other option to choose from. He could only hope to destroy them in Daijiazhuang.

After Daijiazhuang, try to capture as many Haihan people alive as possible, so that you can have some confidence in bargaining with the Haihan people later.

"Keep an eye on the movements in Daijiazhuang and take action in three days!" Lu Kangtai knew that the situation at this time could no longer be dragged out slowly. Even if this battle was against the Han people in Shanghai, he could only choose to fight quickly.

.

"If the opponent wants to attack Daijiazhuang, they must not come during the day, otherwise they may be exposed before they cross the canal. Therefore, our defense focus is on the period from nightfall to before dawn, especially the monitoring of the nearby canal banks.

, can’t relax for a moment!”

While Lu Kangtai was intensively preparing the attack plan, the defense preparation meeting chaired by Yuan Tao in Daijiazhuang was also constantly revising and strengthening defense measures.

In an environment like Daijiazhuang, where both sides of the northwest are not far from the canal bank, it is indeed not difficult to arrange peripheral warnings. After all, if the opponent wants to attack in a large scale, they will definitely have to organize people to concentrate on crossing the river nearby. But Yuan Tao is still a little worried.

It is difficult for personnel with formal military training to remain vigilant about the monitoring scope for a long time, so the importance of monitoring must be emphasized at every meeting.

At present, Daijiazhuang's defense force mainly consists of three parts. One is the Golden Shield troops as the main force, with a total of more than 130 combatants. The second is Daijiazhuang's own young and strong militia, which also has more than 100 people. The third is the

There are more than 200 reinforcements from the seven major surnames. However, most of these people are personal guards of important figures from various families. They temporarily live in Daijiazhuang with their masters. Without unified organization and command, it is difficult to count on this group of people when the war starts.

What role do people play?

However, Yuan Tao believes that as long as the opponent's traces can be discovered in time, it will not be too difficult to rely on the existing defenses to block the opponent's attack. He believes that the only suspenseful thing is how much damage he can inflict on the opponent in this confrontation.

's killed.

Yuan Tao had carefully asked Ji Yuanqing about the situation in last year's battle with the Shanshan Salt Merchant Musketeers before setting off, and he could basically confirm that Jindun's combat effectiveness was superior to the opponent's. If we rely on Daijiazhuang's existing defense

measures, the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides will be further widened.

But the problem is that Jindun is on the defensive. If the opponent finds that they can't beat it and retreats, then Yuan Tao doesn't seem to have a good way to keep the opponent.

Unless he puts all the ships he has brought into action and clears the river channel after the opponent completes crossing the river, cutting off his retreat. But the risk of doing so is extremely high, because he has no way of determining how many ships the opponent will mobilize to participate in this operation.

, if you are not careful, you may be self-defeating and get the ships like Golden Shield and their crews involved. After thinking about it, he finally rejected this risky plan.

But in this way, as long as the other side is not willing to fight, it is basically impossible for the defenders to completely wipe out the invading enemies and completely solve this hidden danger. However, the Seven Major Surnames do not have the obsession to complete the victory in one battle. Dai Yingda said that as long as

As long as you can protect Zhuangzi and severely injure your opponent, you don't have to go to great lengths.

Yuan Tao didn't quite understand the idea of ​​the Huizhou salt merchants at first, but then he thought about it again. The Huizhou salt merchants had been fighting each other for several generations, and they were probably used to the back and forth of winning and losing.

They may really want to drive each other out of Yangzhou completely, but when such an opportunity does come, they may not think that they can achieve the results they expect.

However, this is not a bad thing for Jindun. Since the Huizhou salt merchants do not insist, Jindun naturally does not have to work too hard. As for how the Huizhou salt merchants will resolve the grievances between them and the other party, that is not

Yuan Tao has something to worry about.

Through this mission, the Huizhou salt merchants were firmly tied to Haihan's chariot. This was the real purpose of Jin Dun's trip.
Chapter completed!