Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 124: Are you worried about the grain supply?

The canal has never been safe, and there are people who dare to rob the canal boats.

【Along the Caohe River, bandits were rampant, and the Cao troops killed and looted people.】

In the 32nd year of the Jiajing reign, a bandit named Li Ziming and others "robbed grain ships and killed and injured transport soldiers" in Jining and other places.

In the 16th year of the Wanli reign, thieves robbed grain ships at Shifo Gate. "On the day of Wuxu, they arrived at Shifo and robbed a transport boat, killing one person and injuring one person."

The canal between Changzhou and Zhenjiang is the northernmost section of the Jiangnan Canal south of the Yangtze River, which starts from Hangzhou. There are very few bandits here, and people were only in panic when Japanese pirates were rampant in the past few decades.

As the night deepened, the fleet was anchored in the middle of the river near Zhenjiang.

The white grain from the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou was almost arriving in Yangzhou, but the remaining grain from these five prefectures had not yet left the canal section south of the Yangtze River.

The task of transporting grain is heavy. Although we are in a hurry now, it is an iron rule to travel during the day and stop at night.

Most thieves commit crimes at night. Moreover, visibility is poor at night and the transporters are sleepy. If the rear ship collides with the front ship, they will be in danger of sinking.

There are also some rules for anchoring at night. If you cannot make it to a port with a large population and strict defenses, then you can anchor in the middle of the wide river. This way you can at least protect yourself from the large group of bandits who may suddenly attack from the shore.

During the grain transportation season, there are also patrol soldiers along the canal.

Logically speaking, the Caojun is always an army, but in reality the soldiers on the Cao boats did not have many weapons.

During the Zhengde period, Liu Liu and Liu Qi were causing quite a stir, so more weapons were distributed to them for a time: each ship was given ten sets of armor, five sets of bows and arrows, five spears and swords, and five blunderbusses.

Later it was gradually abolished, and at least only military officers had weapons.

Now, the grain fleets that had finally received the grain from Suzhou, Songjiang, Changjia Lake and sailed here could only arrange some small motor boats to dock at the front and back wings to keep watch and give warnings.

In the silence, a series of gong sounds suddenly sounded from the north side as a warning.

"There are Japanese bandits! The Japanese bandits are coming again!"

Fire soon appeared ahead, and oil fire pots were thrown onto the night watch boat to the north, which soon caught fire.

In the light of the fire, two Japanese pirates' plank-roofed boats, familiar to the people of Jiangnan, came towards them.

This type of boat has rows of oars on both sides and a neat cabin on board, with the rowers located at the bottom of the cabin.

The cabin roof was flat, with a sail and a lookout. The remaining space was wide enough for people to board the ship.

Now the oars were paddling the water in unison, and many short men who looked like Japanese ronin were shouting and waving long swords and bows and arrows.

They were also shouting in Japanese. They suddenly attacked in the dark night, and the transport soldiers who had just been awakened were immediately panicked.

Just as Tian Le said to Zhu Changluo, most of the grain transport troops were hired boatmen and sailors or even recruited military households.

When faced with such a situation, they are often like lambs to be slaughtered.

Although the regular officers and soldiers of the grain transport army had their duties and weapons, they were basically scattered among the ships due to the large shortage of grain transport troops.

The civilians jumped into the river to escape or made a mess, while the officers and soldiers on the ships looked terrified and had to resist.

How could there be Japanese pirates again?

After all, there are many grain transport ships, and there are quite a few military grain transport officers gathered here.

But it was of little use. The commander had to hastily abandon the five grain ships in front, and only then could the small boats carrying the military grain officers with weapons on the back ship form a fragile line of defense.

The Japanese pirates in front seemed to no longer have much appetite. After firing a burst of rockets, the two plank-roofed boats, one in front and one behind, surrounded the five ships and raised their sails and sailed away amid unbridled laughter.

For example, they brought a lot of sailors, and they were all skilled in operating the canal boats.

The commander of Longjiang Zuowei looked pale and could only say: "Send a message...send a message to Nanjing...Japanese pirates have appeared...robbed the grain...please send the navy..."

On the inland rivers of the Ming Dynasty, only the Yangtze River Navy was a real navy with warships and combat troops. "If the navy was useful, how could the Japanese pirates enter the Yangtze River and reach the Caohe River! Where are the soldiers patrolling the river?" They dared not fight but dared to be angry, but now they could only rage helplessly, "Who wants to kill us!"

They couldn't help but think: the current admiral Cao Jiang has gone to Beijing, and the only one who can dispatch them is Cao Jiang, the Chief Censor.

……

Of course, Jiangdu Yushi Cao could not and should not command the Yangtze River Navy.

He can train troops and take care of daily affairs, but he cannot directly mobilize the navy to do anything.

But now he can ask about it because the censor has impeached him.

"Although Xiangcheng Bo is in the capital, didn't he give any instructions before he left?"

After the news of the "bandit situation" reached Nanjing, Geng Dingli set out "overnight" and rushed to the riverside naval camp in charge of the river defense from Nanjing to the Yangtze River estuary.

"Master Geng..." The battalion commander was embarrassed. "What time of year is it now? All my men were on the boats during the New Year, but now they are all dispersed. Normally, when patrolling the river, they would not miss such a conspicuous boat as the Japanese pirates' plank-roofed boats... Could it be that the Caojun did this themselves?"

This was the first possibility that came to his mind at this moment.

"No matter what, since the Japanese are interested, how can we just sit back and do nothing?" Geng Dingli did not completely deny his guess, "Grain is the most important thing! No matter what, you have to dispatch a few warships to escort them!"

"We also need to inspect the illegal salt production. This..."

"Why can't you go in person?" Geng Dingli was furious. "This last batch of grain ships that have not yet crossed the river cannot be delayed by river defenses! Can you bear the punishment? Come with me!"

Seeing that Geng Dingli was going there in person, what else could he do?
Since the expulsion of the Japanese pirates during the Jiajing period and the repeated victories of Hu Zongxian, Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang in the southeast, the Japanese threat has become very rare.

He really suspected that it was the Caojun who lied about the Japanese invasion and might have transported the several ships of grain somewhere else.

This crime really cannot be attributed to the navy!
The Japanese situation here naturally had to be reported to the north continuously, and at this time, there were already a lot of problems on the long Caohe River.

I don’t know if it’s because the commander-in-chief of the grain transport army went to the capital to pay homage and hasn’t returned for a long time, but in any case, there are quite a lot of grain transport ships gathered in Huai’an this year.

After crossing the Huaihe River, some of the better protected harbors along the coast are no longer sufficient, and some guards can only anchor in unsafe sections of the river at night.

To this end, everyone is racing against time, and some bump into each other, while others get stranded because they stick too close to the side.

Naturally, some bandits who knew about "Zhou Duo" also rushed over after hearing the news.

Starting from February 18, urgent reports were delivered to Beijing intensively.

At first, the cabinet ministers thought it was normal.

Every year when transporting grain, it is not uncommon for the grain boats to encounter banditry, or for them to be hit or run aground due to heavy storms.

When transporting grain over thousands of miles, will there be no loss?

Besides, everyone knew it well, and it might be the soldiers who stole it: "Bannermen suffer from the water, the Huai River, and the Tongtong", "Many soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River lost their families because of the grain transport."

The soldiers of the grain transport army, the sailors on the grain ships, the boatmen along the coast... could all steal and rob the grain ships.

And there are also specialized bandits and pirates.

But later, this year, more canal boats encountered problems.

It was not until the 21st day of the first lunar month that urgent news came that Japanese pirates had appeared in the Jiangnan Grand Canal and were looting grain. Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue could no longer be said to be normal.

Zhu Changluo took Geng Dingli's test paper and shook it in his hand, his tone extremely cold.

"Please forgive me? Whose fault is it? Is it that he, Li Sancai, acted decisively and could not delay the grain transport? Is it that he was determined to abide by the rules and did not exceed his authority to command the river defense? Or is it that I kept the Earl of Xinjian for so long and kept the Earl of Xiangcheng in the capital until now?"

(End of this chapter)