The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 183 Returning with a Full Load
December 6th, Yingzui Port, Weihaiwei.

More than 30 large Fujian ships are quietly moored at the harbor terminal. In the distance, on the Bohai Sea, ice floes are floating and a few lonely sails are hidden in the waves.

Bamboo whistles rang out from the dock, and seagulls that were foraging for food flew away from the beach. Teams of soldiers gathered at the harbor, with cavalry scattered far away on both flanks to keep watch.

The 17-foot-long general's flag was flying high above the dock. Under the big flag with red background and white characters, officials from Dengzhou Prefecture and Weihaiwei, accompanied by Governor Yuan Keli, rushed to the dock to perform for Ping Liaohou.

Liu Zhaosun looked at the familiar faces in front of him and said goodbye to them one by one.

Yuan Keli, with gray hair and beard, stood on the dock, supported by two servants, looking old and helpless.

Three days earlier, the military supervisor, Zhang Tiqian, had sent a report to the capital, reporting what they had seen and heard in Dengzhou to the Imperial Household Department and the emperor. The court began to grow suspicious of the Dengzhou governor, with officials impeaching Yuan Keli for failing to defend the city, allowing the Wenxiang sect to loot Wendeng, and befriending military commanders, suggesting he harbored rebellious intentions.

He was just short of directly naming Governor Yuan and Marquis Ping Liao to join the rebellion.

If the court had not lacked frontier talents, this veteran of four dynasties in the late Ming Dynasty would have been dismissed from office and punished in the winter of the first year of Taichang.

Liu Zhaosun looked at Yuan Keli with a smile. Old Yuan was dragged into this situation by him. Liu Zhaosun felt that he had an obligation to protect the old man now.

Ping Liaohou wanted to recruit Yuan Keli into his army. He believed that Yuan Keli's talent was far superior to that of Kang Yingqian, Yuan Chonghuan and others, and that he was a truly talented person who could take charge of the overall situation.

However, for an old minister like Yuan Keli, the Confucian belief of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism had long been ingrained in his bones, so it was obviously impossible for him to openly betray the court.

We still need to wait for the opportunity.

Ping Liaohou ordered the intelligence officers who stayed in Dengzhou to pay attention to strengthening the protection of Governor Yuan. If the court sent cavalry over, they could command the soldiers to kill him directly. Ping Liaohou concluded that Pei Dahu must have been killed by the East Factory, otherwise he would not have returned to Wendeng for so long.

Although it is not possible to rebel directly now, this kind of special information fighting can still be done. Wei Zhongxian dared to attack Pei Dahu, and Liu Zhaosun dared to kill the Jinyiwei.

"Take care, Governor Yuan. See you next year!"

Liu Zhaosun bid farewell to Yuan Keli and his party, walked across the sampan and boarded the Fu ship. Kang Yingqian, Qiao Yiqi, Shao Jiechun and others followed closely behind.

The cavalry pulled their war horses, stepped on the sampans, and carefully boarded the Fu ship.

The last batch of cavalry to leave Shandong consisted of 800 horses.

Ping Liaohou originally planned to take them across the Liaonan Isthmus and return to Liaodong by land to deal with Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang, and by the way, visit his father-in-law in Tianjin Wei whom he had not seen for a long time.

Last month, Liu Zhaosun received a letter from Yang Hao in Tianjin. In the letter, Yang Hao introduced his son-in-law to his life as the Tianjin Coast Guard. Between the lines, one can sense that his father-in-law is now living a comfortable life and has probably made a lot of money.

Yang Hao urged his son-in-law to restrain his influence and avoid excessive display. He also urged him to proceed with a more measured approach to farming and military expansion. He also urged that the Tianjin Tongzhi, Lü, had been seeking to impeach Liu Zhaosun. Finally, Yang Hao hoped that Liu Zhaosun would bring Yang Qing'er back to Tianjin to visit him next spring, as the old man had not seen his daughter for a long time.

Liu Zhaosun took the letter with him and returned it to Yang Qing'er, as she also missed her father.

Ping Liaohou grew increasingly concerned for his father-in-law's safety, fearing that the Dongchang guards, desperate to gain merit, would attack Yang Hao. The conflict between Kaiyuan and the capital was becoming increasingly acute, and Yang Hao, caught in the middle, was bound to become a victim sooner or later.

Sun Chuanting sent someone to deliver a report saying that Ye Bu Shou had recently discovered a large number of Jiannu scouts in Fushun, and scout battles broke out every few days, with two Ye Bu Shou dying every day.

Less than two years after the bloody Battle of Hunhe, Huang Taiji is about to cause trouble again.

Liaodong is the foundation and Shandong is just a branch. Ping Liaohou did not dare to delay and decided to postpone his trip to Tianjin and rush back immediately.

Finally, I can only hope that my father-in-law will be lucky enough to survive this winter.

~~~~
Thirty-two large Fu ships returned with full loads.

Each ship had a deep draft, with its harpoons almost level with the sea surface.

With the help of the north wind, the fleet slowly sailed out of the port, cutting through the waves and heading towards the depths of the Bohai Sea.

In the attic of the flagship Feilong, Liu Zhaosun rummaged through the drawers and found a large stack of manuscripts left in the bookcase by Jin Yuji. He had heard the Korean girl occasionally mention that she wanted to write the story of Yue Feimu of the Southern Song Dynasty. Liu Zhaosun wanted to read it several times, but Jin Yuji said that she had not started yet. It turned out that the draft was hidden here.

Liu Zhaosun looked through it carefully and found that they were all biographies of characters and the main storyline had not yet been laid out.

"Green Snake... Fahai... Qin Hui..."

Just as he was watching with great interest, the door was suddenly opened from the outside and Kang Yingqian was standing at the door.

"Does the Marquis of Ping Liao have such a refined taste? We're going back to Liaodong soon. I heard that Sun Chuanting and Yuan Chonghuan have recruited over 3,000 new soldiers. How much silver do we have left? Is it enough..."

Liu Zhaosun chuckled, put away Jin Yuji's draft, and patted Kang Yingqian on the shoulder:

"Let's go check under the cabin!"

~~~

Kang Yingqian walked down from the cabin and looked at the white silver and grain all over the ground. He kept his mouth open for a long time, and his sparse beard trembled like willow catkins in the wind.

The ballast stones at the bottom of the Fu ship were replaced with silver ingots and grain, piled up full.

Over the past three months, the Kaiyuan Army has transported two million taels of silver, one hundred thousand dan of grain, and tens of thousands of antique paintings and calligraphy from the Wenxiang Sect and the Confucius Mansion back to Liaodong and Kaiyuan in shiploads.

Kang Yingqian looked at the densely packed silver ingots under his feet and spoke incoherently with excitement.

"Okay, okay, Captain Liu, now we have money!"

Liu Zhaosun grabbed a shiny silver ingot, played with it for a while, and then threw it back into the silver pile.

"Yes, I'm rich now, but I don't know how many people will starve to death next spring after the devastation in Shandong. Jin Yuji, take good care of yourself in Wendeng..."

"Liu Qianzong, you'd better take care of yourself. Young men and women's love will always make heroes lose their temper. I am not lustful..." Kang Yingqian's attention was suddenly drawn to a reddish-brown coral tree. The coral tree had dense branches and shimmered brilliantly. It was obviously a top-grade tree, as if it had been moved from the Confucius Mansion. Kang Yingqian was overjoyed and hurried forward, stroking the coral tree while muttering:

"My goodness, I'm afraid even the Imperial Palace treasury doesn't have such treasures. How many skinny horses can this coral tree be exchanged for? No, I mean how many soldiers can it support!"

~~~~~

On December 12, Ping Liaohou led 3,000 troops and landed in Jinzhou. On the 15th, the army rushed to Fushun and rested for a day in Wengcheng.

Sun Chuanting was still guarding Kaiyuan and could not come back for the time being. Liu Zhaosun led people to inspect Fushun City and listened to the report of Fushun Civil Affairs Officer on the recruitment of refugees and training of soldiers in the past three months.

In four months, Fushun added 800 new combat soldiers and took in more than 1,000 civilian households, bringing the total number of stationed combat soldiers to nearly 4,000.

Considering that Liaodong has a sparse population, far less than Shandong, Ping Liao Hou Sun is quite satisfied with the speed of Fushun's military expansion.

He admired Sun Chuanting's talents even more. After encouraging the Fushun officials, he led his troops north to Tieling the next day.

That day, Yuan Chonghuan bid farewell to the Marquis of Ping Liao and led part of the 5,000th headquarters troops eastward from Fushun back to Kuandian. Yuan Ducha had been away from Kuandian for nearly four months, and a large number of matters had already piled up in Kuandian waiting for his return.

For example, the food and fodder needed by Wu Aheng's ships in Pi Island was originally supplied by Kuandian, but Yuandudu had been in arrears for several months...
When the army arrived in Tieling, the city's civil and military officials came out to greet them. After the previous year's execution of corrupt officials and replacement of generals, the Tieling garrison had no further problems.

Before going to Shandong, Tieling was under the jurisdiction of Shao Jiechun. His official position in Tieling was Tieling Military Preparations Commissioner, and he also served as the commander of the garrison.

There was a shortage of talent in Liaodong, and Ping Liaohou wished he could chop a person into several halves. He thought that once he controlled the Weihaiwei waterway and a large number of people from the interior poured in, he would be able to recruit enough talent.

Unfortunately, Shao Jiechun was good at military affairs but not at civil affairs. During the half year he governed Tieling, he made almost no progress in civil affairs, the business did not develop further, no new military garrisons were built, but he did recruit five to six thousand soldiers.

Later, due to insufficient money and food, another 3,000 people had to be dismissed. Ping Liaohou was quite angry about this matter, and it happened that the Wenxiang Sect riot broke out, so he did not hold Shao Jiechun accountable.

As a hawk in the army, Shao Jiechun advocated an immediate war with Liaozhen, seizing southern Liaoning, and then leading the army into the pass and capturing the capital.

Ping Liaohou placed him in Tieling, which is closest to Kaiyuan, for the purpose of convenience of control.

If he were placed in Fushun or Qinghe, he would have fought with Liaozhen long ago.

Looking at the bleak business in the city, Liu Zhaosun secretly made up his mind that he would replace a suitable civil affairs official to Tieling in the near future, who would be responsible for Tieling's business and reclamation affairs and remove Shao Jiechun.

Since Shao Jiechun was keen on fighting, he was arranged to be a thousand-man commander and concentrate on fighting. According to the current rate of troop expansion, the sixth and seventh thousand-man headquarters would have to be built. It is easy to get a thousand soldiers but difficult to get a general. Soon, there will not be enough generals for the Kaiyuan Army.

"Liaodong is a bitterly cold place, and there are still too few people."

~~~~
Ping Liaohou led his army out of Tieling and continued northward, arriving in Kaiyuan the next day. After four months of travel, from midsummer to midwinter, and thousands of miles, he finally returned home.

The lady of the imperial court led the officials who stayed in Kaiyuan to welcome the Marquis of Ping Liao in Nancheng.

After not seeing her for more than four months, Yang Qing'er had grown taller. She was wearing a jacket embroidered with flowers, and her figure was tall and graceful.

Yang Qing'er was full of affection and was about to speak when her husband embraced her in his arms.

Kang Yingqian, Qiao Yiqi and others were used to seeing Ping Liaohou behave like this, so they turned their heads away and pretended not to see anything.

Liu Zhaosun took Yang Qing'er's delicate hand and helped his wife onto the horse. The two of them rode side by side and slowly moved forward along the moat.

"Madam, you've been working hard in Kaiyuan these days. Lord Sun reported in the Tangbao that Madam is working part-time as an accountant at the Chamber of Commerce, helping to check the accounts of the southern goods store. Every few days, she also gives out porridge on the streets to help the refugees. Madam is truly my good wife."

Yang Qing'er smiled brightly when she heard her husband praising her. She knew that Liu Zhaosun loved Jin Yuji the most and had no intention of competing for his favor. She just saw that her husband was working too hard and wanted to share some of the burden with him.

"I have nothing to do anyway, so it would be great if I could share some of the burden."

Yang Qing'er smiled sweetly and looked around. Seeing that Jin Yuji was not there, she guessed that she was probably in Wendeng to take care of her pregnancy. Now that her husband had returned to Kaiyuan alone, it was a good opportunity for her to spend some time with him.

There have been some new changes in Kaiyuan. Nine new military forts have been built around the city, and the newly recruited refugees live in the forts.

The streets in the city have become wider and cleaner, and the business in the city is more prosperous and lively than it was a few months ago.

Liu Zhaosun held Yang Qing'er's hand and walked towards the general's mansion surrounded by guards.

~~~
After a day's rest, Ping Liaohou, regardless of the fatigue from riding, personally led 500 elite cavalry to Liaobei to meet up with Sun Chuanting and drive away the increasing number of Jiannu scouts appearing there.

On December 20th, outside Jing'an Fort, northwest of Kaiyuan.

Ping Liaohou led Sun Chuanting up a small slope and looked out at the scouts from both sides engaged in a clash in the distance. He asked in confusion, "What is Huang Taiji trying to do? Doesn't he know I'm back?"

Sun Chuanting, wearing an iron helmet, pointed to the smoke rising from the northwest:
"Marquis Ping Liao, this is already the tenth day, and the scouts are getting more and more numerous. Look, their war horses are weak, not any stronger than ours. They're running away when they can't win, and it's obvious they're not going to fight us to the death. I wonder what Huang Taiji is up to."

A hundred steps ahead, a dozen scout horses with blue flags on their backs were being chased by Kaiyuan cavalry, which was less than half their number.

Ping Liaohou gazed at the fleeing figures of his old enemies, shook his head and sighed, "Are these the cavalry of the Bordered Blue Banner? I didn't expect them to be so weak. I wonder if Jirgalang is dead?"

"With the arrival of the Little Ice Age, Huang Taiji has lost a large area of arable land in Liaozhong. With our smuggling efforts cut off, it's difficult for him to survive the winter without food. That's why he took such a risk. Let's ignore him for now."

Sun Chuanting didn't know what the Little Ice River was and was about to ask when he heard the sound of a galloping horse behind him.

A group of elite cavalry came galloping and was stopped by the guards of the central army when they were twenty steps away from Ping Liaohou.

Liu Zhaosun recognized this man and knew that he was a scout under Burhanggu's command, so he ordered the guards to move aside.

"Ping Liaohou, She Chongming has rebelled! The Tusi soldiers have massacred Chongqing."

(End of this chapter)