1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2201
Since last year, the battle between the two major salt merchant groups in Yangzhou has become increasingly fierce, and the situation has gradually developed from a mainly civil fight to a semi-public fight, and even some external forces have been involved, such as the transportation of Haihan refined salt His caravan was attacked several times by armed men on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Of course, the Shanshan salt merchants who planned and directed these attacks behind the scenes also paid a very painful price. The musketeers they trained so hard were wiped out overnight by the armed squad sent by Haihan, and the Huizhou salt merchants were wiped out. The process of being expelled from Yangzhou was also interrupted, and the good situation was ruined.

But the fierce battle that took place on the canal that night also completely intensified the contradictions between the salt merchant groups. Both sides realized the shortcomings of their own strengths, and no longer limited the competition to the scope of business, but each began to fight hard. Prepare to use force to resolve grievances that have lasted for generations.

Shanxi salt merchants are still repeating the previous method, establishing private armed organizations by purchasing standard weapons from outside.The Huizhou salt merchants also believed that this was the only effective means to greatly increase their armed strength in a short period of time. The difference was that they chose to cooperate with Haihan, which they had originally regarded as a competitor.

For Huizhou salt merchants, they chose Haihan as their cooperation partner out of helplessness at the beginning, but as they got to know more about Haihan, they also found that this may be the most sensible choice they have made in recent years.What Haihan can provide them is not only advanced weapons, but also a complete set of solutions to help them solve their competitors. This kind of assistance has actually greatly exceeded the expectations of Huizhou salt merchants.

Of course, this is all aid in exchange for real money, and it may even cost more money than the aid the opponent obtained from Japan.If the Anhui salt merchants don't want to lose their money, they can only follow the plan arranged by Haihan and implement it step by step.

Haihan didn't want to take the risk of offending Daming and sent troops directly, so he sent a paramilitary organization like Jindun to Yangzhou to preside over the overall situation. Centered defense scheme.

For Yuan Tao, the most ideal situation is of course that the arrival of the Golden Shield can deter the opponent from making a move. His wife spends three months peacefully, and when the trainees sent to Zhoushan come back to take over the defense, the Golden Shield can be successful. Return.

But judging from the information they have now, the other party may not have the patience to wait for a few more months, and if they know the situation of Haihan and Huiji salt merchants joining forces, it will certainly not be difficult to make a clear judgment, that is, Huiji The armed strength of the salt merchants will become stronger and stronger, and if it continues, it will only lead to endless dreams.

Therefore, Yuan Tao judged that during the period of Golden Shield's garrison, the opponent would definitely be unable to hold back and launch an offensive. The preparation measures to be taken now are not only the emergency construction of fortifications, but also the control of intelligence information is an aspect that cannot be ignored.

In order to minimize the leakage of information about Jindun, from the day they arrived at Daijiazhuang, people entering and leaving the village have been strictly restricted.From the second day onwards, Jindun's people had been dispersed and deployed to various places in Zhuangzi. These people were originally from the Ming Dynasty, and there was no big problem in integrating into the local environment.

Although the people in the Zhuangzi have learned that Dai Yingda has invited a group of people from Haihan to help, but what are the identities of these people, what weapons and equipment they have, and what is the purpose of coming to Daijiazhuang, but only a very small number of core personnel know. clear.

This also means that the outside world may get the news that Haihan sent people to Yangzhou to support Huizhou salt merchants, but it is difficult to get more inside information.Yuan Tao believes that standing still is the best way to lure the enemy, but at the same time, purposely releasing some news that is both true and false will also increase the suspicion of the opponent and make them speed up their actions.

The restaurant with the best business in Yangzhou City is generally recognized as Qingfenglou. It is said that the backer behind it is the current Yangzhou magistrate. Therefore, thanks to this special background, local dignitaries are willing to go to Qingfenglou for consumption, especially if they are not short of money. The salt merchants are the most famous, almost every day there are large and small salt merchants entertaining guests in Qingfenglou, and seven out of ten of them are people in the yamen.

But in fact, it is too troublesome to send money to the magistrate in this way. Well-connected salt merchants naturally disdain to go this way. There is no need to worry about accidents when negotiating with salt merchants from the opposite camp.

But in the past few days, the business of Qingfeng Building has suddenly become sluggish at a speed visible to the naked eye.Usually there are at least [-] to [-]% of the seats at the meal time, but these days, even half of the seats are not enough.

"Duan San, see how many private rooms are reserved for tonight!"

Business is not good, of course the shopkeeper is the most anxious.The shopkeeper Ge of Qingfenglou has been in charge of this restaurant for more than three years, but he has never seen such a situation where the business is getting worse day by day.Although he had asked the same question an hour ago, he couldn't help but ask it again as the meal was approaching.

"Treasurer, today... two private rooms have been booked in total. One is reserved by Zhangzhi County, Taixing County, who is here on business in Yangzhou City. He is hosting a banquet for his colleagues. He has already arrived. The other private room is reserved by Lord Lu Kangtai. , didn’t say which distinguished guest was invited, and the person hasn’t arrived yet.”

Duan San's answer made the shopkeeper Ge a little frustrated. Usually, the booking situation of several private rooms in the restaurant is always good. When the business is good, it even takes several days to book in advance. There were only two groups of guests in the private room, and Lu Kangtai was a regular customer of the restaurant.

"Usually these regular customers, I don't know where they have gone recently..." Shopkeeper Ge said with a sullen face: "Did the colleagues in the city do something weird to pull all our regular customers away?"

Duan San lowered his voice and replied: "Shopkeeper, it's not that the regular customers have been intercepted by others, it's... that something big is going to happen outside!"

"What's the big deal?" Shopkeeper Ge stayed in the Qingfeng Building every day, but he didn't hear of any big news happening in the area.

Duan Sandao: "I heard that the seven surnames spent a lot of money to invite Haihan people from Ningbo to come over and fight Lu Ye and the others to the death!"

Shopkeeper Ge's eyes popped out of his eyes when he heard this: "Haihan people? A fight to the death? Why are Haihan people coming to Yangzhou again? Don't they have a festival with the local salt merchants?"

Duan San explained: "The ones who have a problem with the Haihan people are Master Lu and the others... In short, once the Haihan people came, many people did not show up again. Shopkeeper, do the people with the seven surnames disappear these days? "

Shopkeeper Ge touched his fleshy chin, nodded slowly and said: "You say that, it seems that in the past few days, no one with the seven surnames has come to our restaurant to eat... That's not right, no If people dare to make trouble in Qingfeng Building, they have nothing to fear, right?"

Duan San pretended to be mysterious and said: "Treasurer, you don't know something. It's a matter of time before the seven surnames go to war with these Shanxi salt merchants in the east of the city. People with the seven surnames are also afraid that they will not be able to get out after entering the city! "

Shopkeeper Ge made sense after thinking about it. The territory of the seven major surnames is in the suburban area south of the canal, and in Yangzhou City, the Shanxi salt merchants have the final say. Range is also a wise move.

Shopkeeper Ge didn't care about the fights among the local salt merchants. No matter how fierce these salt merchants were fighting, they would definitely not dare to make trouble in Qingfenglou.Besides, the battle among salt merchants did not just start recently, but has been fought for several generations. After this wave, it is not business as usual.

It's just that these guys fought so hard that it affected Qingfenglou's business, which made shopkeeper Ge very upset.He knew that Lu Kangtai was a big shot in the Shanshan-Shanxi salt merchants, so he decided to find a chance to chat with Lu Kangtai later, and find out how long it would take for the commotion to subside.

However, the shopkeeper Ge did not fully accept the information provided by Duan San, and he specifically told Duan San a few words: "You don't want to spread the hearsay news everywhere, if it is heard by the adults in the yamen , you kid can't eat and walk away!"

Duan San quickly responded: "Young one, I remember!"

In fact, the news that Duan San knew had spread slowly inside and outside Yangzhou City in recent days.At the beginning, few people believed the authenticity of these rumors, but the seven surnames disappeared from Yangzhou City almost overnight, which confirmed the authenticity of these rumors in disguise.

Of course, no matter how fierce the salt merchants fight, they dare not make troubles under the nose of the government, so the social order in Yangzhou City has not been significantly affected by this, but high-end consumer places like Qingfeng Building have relatively large The fluctuation of the price caused the group with the most spending power to disappear by half directly. The usual scenes of salt merchants competing for financial resources and flaunting their wealth that shopkeeper Ge liked the most have not been seen these days.

At this time, customers with spending power like Lu Kangtai are particularly important.So when Lu Kangtai's carriage arrived at Qingfeng Building, the shopkeeper Ge warmly greeted him outside the gate, and personally led Lu Kangtai to the private room.

"I don't know which distinguished guest Mr. Lu invited today? The restaurant just arrived yesterday with dozens of jars of sorghum wine sent from the north. If you like to drink baijiu, you can try it." Shopkeeper Ge found an excuse, and then logically tried Lu Kangtai.

Lu Kangtai is so shrewd, he can understand the other party's implication as soon as he hears it, and immediately responded with a smile: "I am inviting General Gao today. I think shopkeeper Ge knows better than me what kind of wine he likes to drink?"

Shopkeeper Ge quickly responded: "General Gao is from Shaoxing, and he likes to drink Shaoxing rice wine. It happens that there are two altars of high-quality rice wine in the store. I will bring someone over later. Master Lu needs to find someone to sing a few A little song to help the fun?"

The "Gao Canjun" that Lu Kangtai mentioned was Gao Yongshou, the leader of the Yangzhou City Defense Army, and he was also a frequent visitor of Qingfenglou, so Shopkeeper Ge was so familiar with it.

Lu Kangtai waved his hands and said, "General Gao and I have business to discuss, we can't have strangers around, and there's no need to sing."

Shopkeeper Ge responded, but he didn't intend to leave. Lu Kangtai saw this and said, "Treasurer Ge, do you have anything else to say?"

Shopkeeper Ge said: "I heard that some Haihan people have arrived in Yangzhou recently, intending to harm Master Lu. Master Lu should be more careful when going in and out."

Shopkeeper Ge pretended to be concerned, but in fact he wanted to gain a little word from Lu Kangtai. As for whether the Haihan people came to Yangzhou to fight against Lu Kangtai, or for some other reason, he didn't really care.Even if the Haihan people came to Yangzhou to open a restaurant, shopkeeper Ge would not worry that his business would be taken away.

Lu Kangtai said: "The shopkeeper Ge is very well informed! He even knows about the Haihan people coming to Yangzhou... But as the saying goes, if the Haihan people really intend to harm Lu, they have to do it well." Prepare for not getting out of Yangzhou!"

Hearing Lu Kangtai's tone, shopkeeper Ge didn't seem to deny the rumors, so he immediately asked: "Then I don't know if Master Lu will take action and drive them out of Yangzhou?"

Lu Kangtai smiled and said, "Shopkeeper Ge is a little too curious. You probably shouldn't ask about these things."

Shopkeeper Ge smiled awkwardly and said: "I am purely curious. Since it is inconvenient for Master Lu to disclose, then I will pretend that I have not asked. I will go to the kitchen to urge the dishes. Later, when Gao Shen will arrive, Master Lu will give you an order." You can sit down."

Shopkeeper Ge didn't find any valuable news from Lu Kangtai, so he didn't take it seriously. He was just trying to satisfy his curiosity, but Lu Kangtai refused to disclose it. He would find other ways to inquire later.There are many local dignitaries coming in and out of Qingfeng Building every day. If you really want to inquire about something with peace of mind, there are actually many sources of information.

Not long after, Gao Yongshou arrived at Qingfeng Building with two personal guards on horseback.Shopkeeper Ge knew that this was Lu Kangtai's guest, so he led him directly to the private room.

After the two greeted each other in the private room, they withdrew their respective followers.They arranged this meeting, of course, not just to have a meal together.

"Lord Gao, we are old friends, so I'll just say it straight. Recently, a group of Haihan people came to Yangzhou. These people hid weapons privately, and their intentions were wrong. I just wanted to ask Lord Gao, whether the city defense army will take care of this matter. in spite of?"

As soon as Lu Kangtai opened his mouth, he pointed out his intentions. He hoped that the government could interfere with the rescue soldiers brought by the Huizhou salt merchants, and it would be best to expel them from the country, which would save a lot of trouble.

"The Haihan people... this matter is not easy." Gao Yongshou shook his head and said: "Now the imperial court is counting on the Haihan people to drag the establishment of slaves in Liaodong, so they turn a blind eye to the various movements of the Haihan people in our country Eye. I have also heard about what you said. It was the seven surnames who invited Haihan’s bodyguards to visit the nursing home. If the government directly intervenes in this matter, the Haihan people will make a fuss. Who can bear the responsibility? ?”

"Could the prefect turn a blind eye to this?" Lu Kangtai secretly thought something was wrong, but he still asked.

Gao Yongshou said: "Don't talk about the magistrate, even if this matter goes to the Yingtian Mansion, no one will be willing to take the lead."

(End of this chapter)