Chapter 2207

For these pampered salt merchants, no matter how fierce the battle with their peers is, it is only reflected in the changes in the revenue and expenditure figures on the accounts. Even if there are occasional casualties, to them they may not even be able to call them by name.

The subordinates who come up can just pay more pension money to settle the matter, and they don't have much sense of personal crisis.

But today, more than a dozen prisoners were executed in this way outside Daijiazhuang. The salt merchants who were watching were deeply touched. They also truly realized that this battle was not just about victory or defeat in business.

It was a life-and-death struggle. If they hadn't invited the Golden Shield men from the Haihan Kingdom to serve as guards, they might have died in the opponent's attack.

Some people are also secretly glad that they followed Dai Yingda's suggestion and moved their family to Daijiazhuang to live temporarily. If they had stayed at their own home, they might not be able to withstand such a big toss last night. If the money is gone, you can still make more. This life

If you lose it, you will lose everything. Dang even decided to stay in Daijiazhuang until the situation calms down.

Yuan Tao had stayed up all night, and after finishing all this work, he had to take the time to rest. Although he had taken advantage last night, he also knew that the other party's vitality was still intact and he might come back at any time. He had to

Just keep your spirits up and continue to prepare for war. There are still at least three months until the salt merchant's children return from their studies. If nothing unexpected happens, during this period, the troops he leads will have to shoulder the responsibility of protecting the Huizhou salt merchants. This work can be combined with

Not easy.

Dai Yingda did not ignore Yuan Tao's contribution. As soon as Yuan Tao returned to his room, a Dai family servant brought a pot of ginseng tea and several exquisite pastries. There was also a stack of Haihan banknotes on the tea tray.

Tao counted the amount, and it turned out to be as much as one thousand yuan. It was obviously an additional personal reward given to him by Dai Yingda. At that moment, he couldn't help but sigh that this salt merchant was really generous.

This amount of money is not a big sum for Dai Yingda. If you want to ask a high-status official in Yangzhou Yamen to do something, spending a thousand taels of silver is often just the starting price. Dai Yingda has realized Yuan Tao's ability through last night's battle.

So instead of establishing a personal relationship, he thinks it is a necessary measure. Even if the children of the seven surnames return from their studies in the future and there is no need for Jindun's troops to be stationed in Yangzhou for a long time, there may still be a need for Haihan's help.

time, and Yuan Tao's identity will obviously be much easier to deal with than officials from Haihan, and some matters may no longer need to be communicated through official channels.

Yuan Tao drafted a brief battle report and gave it to the signal corps in the team to send back to Zhoushan by telegram, and then he settled down to rest. He was so exhausted that night that he slept all day long as soon as he lay down, until dinner time.

Just woke up.

The first thing Yuan Tao did when he woke up was to call his personal attendant to ask if Zhoushan had called back. After receiving a positive answer, Yuan Tao immediately sent someone to fetch the message.

The sent message was packaged in an envelope, and there was a paint seal placed on the outside by the signal corpsman to indicate that the contents of the message had not been read by others. The contents of such messages involving military matters were classified as top secret and could only be opened and read by Yuan Tao himself.

The content of the call back was actually nothing special. The main idea was that the Zhoushan headquarters had been informed of the war situation, and Yuan Tao was asked to be cautious in Yangzhou and not to rush in. However, the message mentioned that the war situation had been reported to Shi Diwen, which still made Yuan Tao a little happy.

, he knew that Shi Diwen always attached great importance to the actual combat results of his men, and his performance in Yangzhou might also attract Shi Diwen's attention.

Although Yuan Tao is no longer in the military, he knows that Shi Diwen's position in Haihan's senior management is enough to affect his future promotion within Jindun. Jindun is an organization that takes orders from the military and has thousands of connections with the military.

Due to the close relationship, those who can move up are almost all veterans of the Haihan Army, and the promotion mechanism is almost the same as in the military, relying on the accumulation of performance and seniority as capital for advancement.

Yuan Tao is the boss of Jindun Zhoushan Branch. His head has reached the ceiling. There is no higher position for him to be promoted in the Zhoushan Colonial Zone. If he wants to climb up, he must enter the top management of Jindun headquarters. But

To complete this critical step, it is no longer enough to accumulate qualifications, but to make outstanding achievements in the current position. This is one of the reasons why he took the risk to personally lead the team to Yangzhou.

If Jindun can successfully complete its mission in Yangzhou, it will be equivalent to opening up the market for Haihan in Yangzhou, the center of the Ming Dynasty salt industry.

But Yangzhou is not just a salt business for Haihan. It is one of the wealth centers of the Ming Dynasty. Opening the door to Yangzhou is equivalent to finding a new export market for Haihan's many industrial products, and this market

The consumption power is considerable, and the areas it can radiate are almost all wealthy areas. The executive committee is also very concerned about the long-term benefits that this direction can bring to Haihan.

Yuan Tao may not know the plan of the executive committee, but he knows that completing this task will be of great help to his future future, so the reward paid to him by the salt merchant is second best. Even for the sake of his future, he will do his best.

to complete this mission.

Yuan Tao came together, and soon hot meals and dishes were delivered to his room, which had obviously been prepared for him. After Yuan Tao finished eating, he asked people to invite Dai Yingfan to come over to discuss matters.

The part that Jin Dun is responsible for is mainly the defense of Daijiazhuang, while the reconnaissance and collection of external intelligence information are the responsibility of Dai Yingfan's people. After all, some tasks can only be completed by local snakes, and Jin Dun can't do it all no matter how professional he is.

Contract it.

The information Yuan Tao needs now is whether the other party reacted to it after the fight last night.

"Last night, I led people to chase the other party to the canal. I saw the other party leaving in five boats to the north. Although I later transferred the boats to chase him, I still lost track of the other party. Today I sent a few people to the city to inquire.

The news, I just came back, it is reported that what happened last night has not spread in the city yet, and there is no news from the government."

The news brought by Dai Yingfan was calm and reasonable. However, this did not reassure Yuan Tao. He asked: "If the government knows what happened last night, will they intervene in the investigation?"

Dai Yingfan responded: "With such a big commotion last night, the other party should have contacted the government in advance. If we really want to investigate, no one's butt is clean. Lu Kangtai is not a fool, and he will definitely not do anything like this to ask for trouble."

."

Yuan Tao smiled and said: "Of course this is the best, it can save a lot of trouble. But after suffering such a boring loss last night, Lu Kangtai must not be in a good mood. You try to keep an eye on each other's movements and say

Maybe they will expose other flaws in their desperation."

Lu Kangtai was not only in a bad mood at this time, but his lungs were about to explode. As early as a month or two ago, he began to plan the attack on Daijiazhuang, trying to draw the floor plan of Daijiazhuang and use a sand table to deduce the action

details, arranged for his men to rehearse the operation, and made a lot of preparations. It is no exaggeration to say that this is probably the thing he has devoted the most to in the decades since he was born. He also hopes that he can accomplish it in one battle.

Capture Daijiazhuang and then defeat the resistance of the Huizhou salt merchants.

But all the preparation work and all his ambitions came to nothing after the intervention of the Haihan people. The hundreds of people sent to attack Daijiazhuang were dismissed without even seeing what their opponents looked like.

The musket fire was so heavy that all plans of action were abandoned and they hurriedly withdrew from the south bank of the canal.

In addition to the dozens of people who were trapped in Daijiazhuang, during the retreat, they fought with the pursuing Daijiazhuang militia and lost several more people. In the end, because they were too panicked when they boarded the ship in the dark to evacuate, several more people were killed.

A man fell into the water and his whereabouts are unknown so far. After he came back and counted the number of people, it turned out that there were as many as 60 missing people.

It didn't matter that they had lost so many people. Lu Kangtai was also mentally prepared to lose hundreds of people in the operation. But the problem was that after paying such a price, they did not achieve the expected results at all, nor did they create any problems for the other party.

Any trouble is just a pure failure.

Lu Kangtai had not imagined the outcome of failure, but he could not accept such a one-sided defeat. He reorganized the Musketeers and prepared carefully for such a long time, fully hoping to defeat the opponent in one fell swoop, but the gap in the final result was too great.

.

Lu Kangtai even regretted that he should not have pursued too much stability yesterday and should have crossed the river in person to direct the operation. Maybe the result would have been different. He had carefully interrogated Xie Liang and Xun Fen, who had directed the operation last night, and confirmed that they had

During the process, there were no organized musketeers among the militiamen who came out of the village to pursue.

He believed that this detail showed that the armed men who went out to pursue the village at that time were not the troops sent to Yangzhou by Haihan. If Xie Liang and Xun Fen had not chosen their own route in a panic, they could have built a defense line by relying on the sailboats along the canal and let the musketeers play their part.

It has some effect. Even if we want to withdraw, we should seize the opportunity to inflict some suffering on the opponent, and then retreat to the north bank of the canal.

The explanation given by his two leaders was that during the fight in Daijiazhuang, the opponent used extremely intensive firepower. They judged that if they used the musketeers to fight with the opponent, they might suffer extremely heavy casualties, so they decided to give up.

The original action plan was to evacuate Daijiazhuang proactively. As for why they did not engage in combat with the pursuing enemies, it was because they believed that the enemy's purpose was to hold them back and then send boats to cut off their retreat across the river, so they almost did nothing.

Resistance chooses to retreat as quickly as possible.

Although there is some truth in this statement, Lu Kangtai still can't let go of the results of the operation. He believes that the on-the-spot command and response of the two leaders did not reach the level he expected. The only thing that makes him feel a little fortunate is that huge resources have been invested.

Since the reorganized musketry team basically did not directly participate in the battle, there was no loss of personnel and they withdrew completely, which can be regarded as saving a breath of vitality.

He Huan and Wang Yu, who rushed to Lu Kangtai's house early in the morning to listen to the battle report, were greatly disappointed with the result. Moreover, many of the men lost last night were taken from their own children and guards.

The selected experts are now unable to live or die, and cannot even report to the officials to find them. This is really hard for them to accept.

"In my opinion, why don't we give some more money to General Gao Shen, so that he can find an excuse to go to Daijiazhuang to beg for help?" Wang Yu had a nephew who was among the missing people, and in desperation, he also proposed an idea.

A very bold idea.

But this proposal was immediately rejected by the sullen Lu Kangtai: "This method is not possible. Not to mention that the high-ranking general is unwilling to intervene in the battle between us and the seven surnames, even if he accepts the money, he is willing to help.

, go to Daijiazhuang to ask for help, if the other party refuses to cooperate, do you think the high-ranking general can still use force?"

Gao Yongshou is a wait-and-see who won't let things go easily. They all know this. Lu Kangtai spent a lot of money in advance, but he just turned a blind eye and didn't even say a word of support for them.

However, it is not difficult to imagine how difficult it would be for Gao Yongshou to stand up for them, let alone offend the seven major surnames.

Wang Yu still refused to give up this life-saving straw: "As the saying goes, money can make the world go round. If we offer a higher price, Gao Shenjiang might not be tempted..."

"Brother Wang, the high-ranking general is not as stupid as you think!" Lu Kangtai shook his head and said: "When I talked to him before, he made it clear that he did not want to go against Haihan. Dai Yingda hired Haihan to guard this person.

The matter is no longer a secret in Yangzhou, and General Gao must have received the news a long time ago. I think he is probably afraid of avoiding it, so how can he take the lead on our behalf!"

Wang Yu said anxiously: "In this case, are we going to give up on those who were trapped in Daijiazhuang? Those are the elites of each of our families!"

Lu Kangtai said: "Brother Wang, if you come to ask for someone, you will give up your excuse and make yourself passive. Do you think Mr. Dai will return the person to us unconditionally? No matter what conditions the other party offers, they will definitely be harsh.

Incomparably, what capital do we have to bargain with the other party? If you are asked to withdraw from Yangzhou, will you agree?"

Wang Yu was silent. He had to admit that what Lu Kangtai said was indeed reasonable. After losing the battle, he came to ask for help. In fact, it was tantamount to showing his face to the other party and letting him deal with it. The Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants

The struggle between Huizhou salt merchants is at its most intense. Doing so will not only dampen one's own spirit, but also allow the other party to take the moral initiative. If it is as Lu Kangtai said, the other party will fire a

There are a lot of conditions that are difficult to achieve, so should we agree or not?

He Huan, who had been silent until now, spoke up: "You don't have to argue about this matter. In my opinion, even if Dai Yingda comes to ask for it, Dai Yingda will not let him go. If it was before, we might still have to talk about it, but now

With the support of the Haihan people behind him, do you think he can still be willing to negotiate peace with us?"
Chapter completed!