Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 363
The snow is fluttering, and the outside of Suzhou is a vast expanse of whiteness.

Twenty miles north of Suzhou City, Hushuguan Town.

The right wing of the imperial camp is here to set up the base camp, but although it is called a pass, it is not a dangerous pass like Yanmen Pass, Shanhai Pass, and Tongguan. There is neither a grand pass nor a pass.

It is located on the east bank of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, in the north of Suzhou City. It is known as the key point in the south of the Yangtze River, and is known as the Wuzhonghuo Wharf. In the fourth year of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, Hushu was established in Hushu Town, Changzhou County, Suzhou. One of the passes, known as the largest town in Wuzhong.

There is a saying, first there is Hushu Pass, and then there is Suzhou City.

This is a thousand-year-old town that was first built on Qin Shihuang's southern tour. Qin Shihuang saw a white tiger squatting on Tiger Hill. After chasing it for twenty miles, he failed to catch up. The place where it disappeared was Hushu Pass, so Qin Shihuang named it Hutan .

In the Tang Dynasty, the taboo of the tiger was avoided, so it was renamed Xu Yu, and in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, it was renamed Hushu to avoid the taboo of Wuyue King Qian Liu.

But now it is called (xu) Shuguan, and the reason is very simple. During the last Northern Expedition, Zhu Yihai passed by here and saw the monument erected in front of the ancient town. The word, blurted out, so later this Hushu Pass was directly changed to Xuyin.

When Lu You passed Hushu Pass in Suzhou, this place was actually called Xushi, so Zhu Yihai was not completely wrong. Lu You also wrote a poem, Fa Fengqiao, dawn passed Xushi, and there were a lot of people.

In the Song Dynasty, Xushi was already a bustling market, and after the construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the Yuan Dynasty, Hushu Pass became an important hub for north-south communication. It will be immersed in the sea, and it is known as the thoroughfare of the fourteen provinces. Ships come and go, it is really a boat at the gate of Dongwu.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty set up a banknote pass here, which became one of the seven major banknote passes in the Ming Dynasty, and the annual tariff is quite high.

Tu Guobao led Yang Guohai, Cao Hu, two trusted generals, and a team of servants to ride on horseback in the vast snowy field. Looking at the bustling Hushu ancient town, which has now become a fortified Ming army camp, he can only feel infinitely moved.

He hasn't been in Suzhou for a long time, but he has made a lot of money from here.

Although Hushuguan is not as good as Shandong Linqingguan, which occupies the first place among the seven major banknote customs, the banknote tax of Linqingguan for one year is actually more than the tax tax of the whole province of Shandong, and not only is it more, but also more outrageous, as high as more than ten times.

Tu Guobao once regarded Hushuguan as his cash cow, and even two of his standard battalions were stationed here. He collected taxes on merchant ships traveling north and south, which was in addition to normal tariffs. All in his personal pocket.

But now, this cash cow has become the possession of the Ming Dynasty.

"I heard that the Ming army set up a lijin bureau here, which not only collects customs fees from passing merchant ships, but also collects market fees from shops in the town, and those silk weaving and other workshops also collect production fees." Yang Guohai said.

Tu Guobao curled his lips, "Now the canals are frozen, and the shipping on the canals has stopped. Ice trucks run on the canals, not to mention the erosion in the south of the Yangtze River. How can there be any commercial cargo transportation here? You can't collect much, can you?"

"Uncle, it's too late. Hushu Pass is busier than before. Salt, tea, grain, and cloth are all gathered here. This is the busiest place in the entire Suzhou Prefecture."

No matter how chaotic the war is, the common people still have to eat salt, eat, and wear clothes. There is still demand.

Hushuguan is now under the control of the Ming army. It is very safe and orderly. It also put an end to many bad practices before, and reduced a lot of extortion.

More profitable than in the past.

The Suzhou market, which had been stagnant, became active again. The economy, which was sluggish due to the war, became hot here.

"I heard that they are making money every day." Yang Guohai is very envious and even jealous. He is also a general now, but he still likes to be busy smuggling around.

But compared with the Ming army, his smuggling business seems a little stingy.

"Now the salt fields in the two Huaihe Rivers and Zhejiang provinces are basically under the control of the Ming army. They hold the salt in one hand, control the salt in the kitchen households, and hold the salt in the other hand, and then force the salt merchants to pay in their hands. They also took the initiative to lower the salt tax and salt price, and did not set up special merchants in the salt area, so now the salt is flying all over the sky.”

"Salt sales are profitable and there is no monopoly. Who wants to buy salt and sell it? Although those big salt merchants are dissatisfied, they can't stop it."

In the past, when the salt merchants were monopolizing the area, the salt merchants divided the sales, monopolized sales, and secretly carried private salt, resulting in a serious loss of salt tax although the salt tax was high.

It has enriched the salt merchants and local officials, but it only caused the court to lose tax revenue, and even the common people had to eat high-priced salt. Now the Ming army is pushing the new salt law, breaking the identity of the salt merchants and the monopoly of the salt area, providing A steady stream of salt suppressed the market price of salt, the common people ate cheap salt, and the Ming army received a sufficient amount of salt tax. Under this new policy, there is basically no private salt trade now.

One is that the source of salt is controlled, and the other is that there are no restrictions on sales. Although the profit of selling salt is not as good as before, it is still a high-yield industry. Countless people are pouring in. There is no monopoly, so there is no need for smuggling.

"These Ming soldiers are really rich and powerful. They marry wives to soldiers and share the land. The emperor pays for them to marry wives. They pay ten liang of gifts and then give five liang of dowry. The land requires money, but the price is cheap, and it can be repaid in installments, with extremely low interest, and the good benefits make my mother's heart flutter."

Cao Hu sighed and told Tu Guobao, "My lord, the hearts of our Biaoying brothers are shaken now. Many people are spreading the benefits of the Ming Army, and many soldiers want to run to the opposite side to join the Ming Army, especially those who Fucking bachelors, especially some recruits."

Tu Guobao was also helpless when he heard this.

He now claims to have ten thousand soldiers, but among these soldiers, seven thousand are new recruits, and the three thousand are not much better. Except for his own few hundred old servants, the rest are unreliable.

The combat power is low, and the treatment is actually not high.

Not to mention the extremely low rate of wearing armor, the lack of knives, guns, etc., not to mention the food and salaries. The Nine Kings did not go north, and his bidders could still get their salaries on time. Three buckets of grain and a few coins, but at least there is still some.

But now except for his servants, the rest of the soldiers are basically in arrears, and only occasionally rewards are given, and that is when they are facing the enemy.

The usual food is also very bad.

Tu Guobao reluctantly supported this kind of treatment, after all, today's Jiangnan is too difficult to describe.

Compared with the Ming army now, especially under the people's deliberate propaganda and agitation, his 1 troops, especially those recruits, are really shaking people's hearts.

I can’t get enough to eat here, but the Ming army still has the emperor pay for them to marry a daughter-in-law, not to mention marrying a daughter-in-law for nothing, and immediately get a sum of five taels of dowry silver, if the gift of ten taels It's even more amazing if you can go back to a little bit, not to mention that after you get married, you can get a piece of land. You don't have to pay for it yourself, and the emperor pays for a low-interest loan directly, and you can pay back a little every year.

Who the hell wouldn't be tempted by such a good thing.

Da Mingzi is really willing to spend all his money, and he is really kind to these soldiers.

No wonder these soldiers dare to fight and can fight.

Last year, they swept across the Central Plains, pursued Li Zicheng for thousands of miles, and crushed the Qing army of the Hongguang Dynasty invincibly. As a result, they have suffered repeated defeats in front of the imperial camp of Emperor Shaotian.

He Tu Guobao used to be a titan, but lost Suzhou three times, and now he is surrounded again.

After thinking about it, Tu Guobao felt something was wrong.

The Son of Heaven sprinkled money so generously, and he gave a share of the money. The money he gave to the Ming army for the redemption of the city and the standard camp was worth 10 taels, let alone him. He also sold a lot of gunpowder, knives and guns to the Ming army.

When he thought that the Ming army was so strong today, it was actually a credit to him, and he felt extremely absurd.

He has fattened up the imperial camp, and now the imperial camp has come to besiege his Suzhou city again, this is really not enough to feed.

Along the way near Hushu Pass, there are countless sentry patrols.

After many inspections, they finally arrived at the entrance of the town. The town wall has been obviously strengthened, and even a lot of forts, arrow towers, sheep and horse walls, urn city, and small villages have been repaired.

Seeing the pitch-black cannon muzzle, Tu Guobao's scalp tingled a little. The strength of the right wing of the imperial camp was stronger than he had imagined.

It was even stronger than when the Nine Kings first attacked Suzhou City. At that time, he escaped from Suzhou and fought against the Nine Kings on Qionglong Mountain, so he could last at least half a day.

But now, he felt that if he brought his 1 horses to fight Huye Town, he might not be able to get in even if they were all here.

This made Tu Guobao understand more and more that it was unrealistic to blindly fight against the Ming army.

Thinking of Yan Jinglue in Jiangning City, Tu Guobao's scalp became numb.

What is going on in this world?
When the Qing army marched south, people from all over the country surrendered in anticipation, and the honorable ministers in Nanjing surrendered with an army of more than [-] without any resistance.

Now, the tables seem to be turning.

The Qing Dynasty has collapsed in the south of the Yangtze River and even along the entire Yangtze River.

Although Su Songhang still has nearly 7000 Manchurian elites, he is very clear that if only relying on these [-] people, he will not be able to turn the tables at all. What's more, Jiangning has Yan Wogong, and Suzhou has other national treasures. With one heart, Zheng Jiwu, the super brave Duke, Li Yuchun, the governor, and others in Hangzhou are by no means loyal ministers.

After all, how did Li Yuchun get started?He came together with Yan Wogong to pacify West Zhejiang and recruit Su Song, and Zheng Jiwu was a famous general who surrendered and turned back, but was recruited by Yan Wogong.

Thinking about it this way, it seems that there is a bigger conspiracy in the west of Zhejiang. No wonder these people are outshine. Damn, they must have been enlightened long ago.

Thinking about it this way, his national treasure is even more dangerous.

If the troops from western Zhejiang came north to Suzhou, it would not be to join forces to rescue the siege, it would simply be to kill them.

(End of this chapter)