Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 300 Getting into trouble
In June of this year, Zuo Liangyu fled to Jiujiang. The prefect of Jiujiang wanted Zuo Liangyu to give him [-] soldiers, but Zuo Liangyu sternly refused. As a result, there was a gap between the prefect and Zuo Liangyu, and the prefect always refused Zuo Liang Yu entered the city, but Zuo Liangyu ransacked all around in a fit of anger.

As a result, a large number of refugees appeared in Jiujiang. Along the Jiujiang River, many people floated down the river, and some people fled to Nanjing.

In addition, besides Jiujiang, Huguang, Wuchang, Xiangyang and other places upstream were occupied by the peasant army of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, which also caused a large number of refugees. In the past few months, the number of refugees flocking to Nanjing may not be [-]. This is because this is Ming Dynasty, if it is placed in later generations, hundreds of thousands of refugees may not be able to stop under such a disaster.

For an excessive agricultural economy like the Ming Dynasty, a sudden influx of 10 people in a city can only cause two results, one is to raise prices, the other is to lower wages, and ultimately it is more difficult for everyone to make a living .

This is also the reason why Yang Chao was able to recruit a hundred scholars who were trained, otherwise these people would definitely not be 'humiliated' in the military camp.

The impact on Nanjing also affected Yang Chao. Most of these people's first destinations along the river were around the Longjiangguan Wharf. After Yang Chao started to build the Shuying Wharf, Bai Lei, the craftsman, recruited a large number of refugees. More refugees came, and in the end, a large part of the refugees from Longjiang Pass were attracted, basically tens of thousands of people gathered here.

But Bai Jiangtou only recruited 3000 people, which was at the request of Yang Chao. Bai Jiangtou originally planned to recruit a few hundred people, but later expanded to 1000 people, and finally reached 3000 people.

Yang Chao was out of the mentality of helping the victims, and being able to give them a job is equivalent to giving them a bite to eat, but he did not expect to attract too many refugees, all wanting to find work here, wandering on the pier every day, even The wages given by Bai Jiangtou are only enough to make ends meet, but they still hope to work for Bai Jiangtou.

But with 3000 people, it is obviously impossible for everyone to have a job. In addition to some of the families of the recruited workers, there are also a large number of unemployed young adults on the dock.

Young and strong have no work to do, and wandering around all day is prone to accidents, so fights, fights, and theft happen from time to time on the pier, which makes Yang Chao very headache. Yang Chao can't do anything about mobilizing the army to suppress these people, and he has no response With the experience of this kind of thing, it would be bad if it could not be turned into a massacre. The court's punishment is still a trivial matter, and the key is that Yang Chao's conscience can't bear it.

But no matter what you don't care about, if you dare to steal today, you will kill tomorrow if you don't do it well.

Yang Chao urgently discussed with Jiangning County, but the county magistrate didn't know what to do. There were too many refugees, and the yamen was eager to get rid of the relationship, so they just perfunctory Yang Chao and didn't take any practical action at all.

The only thing Yang Chao can do is to continuously increase the number of workers, but it is far from keeping up with the number of refugees, and the more you add, the more people you will attract, and the greater the hidden danger, unless Yang Chao can get all the [-] refugees hired.

However, to hire 10 people, even if it is only one tael a month, it will cost an additional 1 taels of silver. The wages are still a trivial matter. The problem is that after increasing the number of workers, there must be a corresponding increase in materials, tools, and management skills. If you don't have three or five thousand taels a month, you can't get it down.

Moreover, 10 people work on the wharf. The daily food supply, housing problems, and even drinking water are all big problems. If they are not handled well, it will be a disease, and then the plague. If these people are hired to work, they must provide simple houses. Even if it is a shack, it is a lot of money, at least tens of thousands of taels of silver, and Yang Chao has no experience in disease prevention and epidemic prevention.

Yang Chao originally wanted to shirk, but suddenly his heart moved. He is not a person who is easily intimidated by difficulties. Doesn’t his lack of experience just accumulate? It is true that he does not have the experience of managing 10 people now, but it does not mean that he will not have it in the future. Reaching 1000 people does not mean that we will not lead thousands of troops in the future. We will still have to face the difficulties of evading such a large-scale manpower organization in the future.

Now that there is a problem, it only affects the refugees. In the future, if there is a problem with the [-] troops, it will affect the outcome of the war and the rise and fall of the country.

So Yang Chao not only did not back down, but took the initiative to find Shi Kefa, reported the problems here in Xinjiangkou, and expressed his willingness to share the worries of the imperial court, and hired a large number of people to build the pier. As a result, Shi Kefa was happy and allocated a large number of stone materials to Yang Chao. , and assigned dozens of craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry to Yang Chao.

With this group of craftsmen, it will be possible to organize large-scale construction.

As a result, refugees flocked to Xinjiangkou day by day, and the number increased from 1 to 3 in less than a month, and the momentum of growth continued to grow.

At the same time, thousands of boats were rented, and the monthly rent was 10 taels of silver. This was because most of them were small boats, and a big boat like a boat could not be rented without hundreds of taels of silver a month.

This is a very terrible thing. Yang Chao is already able to earn a lot of money. He has already reached the limit of 1000 taels a day for shipping, but it is only 3 taels a month. Jinchai Building can earn more than 1 taels a month. , but Yang Chao only took one-third of the shares of Jinchai Building, and even if he borrowed Kang Xiaobao's share, he could get 1 taels at most a month. Another industrial exchange is still under development, and he can give Yang Chao a month. The profits brought are negligible, only a thousand taels of silver.

Therefore, Yang Chao's income is about 4 taels a month. Soldiers' salaries are indispensable, and they have to deal with various consumption in the army, such as the salary of documents, maintenance of weapons and equipment, etc., at least 5000 taels a month. Two taels of silver, the construction of dikes, the rest of the barracks, etc., need another 5000 taels, so Yang Chao’s monthly activity funds are actually only 3 taels, but only 8 people are hired, which is already [-] to [-] taels overspend Two silver.

Relying on the one hundred thousand taels of silver shipped back from Haizhou, the 5 taels of silver accumulated in the dividends of Jinchai Building, and the surplus of shipping last year, there are more than 20 taels, which can last for three months. After three months It can only go bankrupt.

However, it is obviously impossible to complete the construction in three months. According to Bai Lei's estimation, it will take at least a year to hire [-] laborers. Sometimes, the more people, the faster the speed. With such a scale, a year is considered a miracle.

And even if the project is completed, what will happen to the 10 people?When the time comes, they will face unemployment again, and who knows what will happen.

These are Yang Chao's considerations. Even though Yang Chao is not afraid of trouble by nature, he still has some headaches.

But misfortunes never come singly. When Yang Chao was worried about the source of funds, it was his own cash cow industry, and the shipping industry was in trouble.

One day in late October, Yang Chao's three ships suddenly returned to the pier in disgrace, and the soldiers walked off the ship in disgrace, looking dejected, like a defeated rooster!
It took less than a quarter of an hour for the three rushing boats and four shallow boats to berth at the pier, when Yang Chao hurriedly brought a dozen of his own soldiers to the pier.

"what happened?"

As soon as Yang Chao arrived at the pier, he boarded the ship and checked the situation. Zhang Dawei followed Yang Chao in frustration.

"My lord! It's sincerity."

"I know it's sincerity."

Yang Chao already knew the simple situation. He came to the pier to see the specific situation. He heard that Bo Chengyi Liu Kongzhao had deployed more than 30 large ships near Yanziji, intercepted Yang Chao's fleet, and even fired artillery shells on the ships. Team.

"The boat looks all right? Are you sure no one was hurt?"

After Yang Chao inspected it, he found that there were only some scratches on the outer shell of several ships, and there was no need to repair them.

Zhang Dawei said: "Our people are fine, but a few merchants were beaten to death."

Liu Kongzhao's fleet bombarded Yang Chao's fleet. Yang Chao not only had a few warships and the tank boats behind him, but also dozens of merchant ships.

Liu Kongzhao is the Duke of Chengyi, a descendant of Liu Bowen, the founding hero, and one of the most prominent families in the Ming Dynasty. The Liu family has also served as the admiral of the navy.

In the past, the admiral of Caojiang in Nanjing was Gu Zhaoji. Although Gu Zhaoji was not a good official, he connived his brother-in-law Cui Wei into causing trouble, but at that time Yang Chao had Xiong Mingyu under his care, and his strength was strong enough. Gu Zhaoji's well water does not violate the river water.

However, after the captive soldiers entered the bandits, there was some turmoil in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. When the Eastern captives entered the bandits, all kinds of conflicts were overwhelming. As soon as the Eastern captives withdrew their troops, a large number of officials impeached Gu Zhaoji, saying that during the war, he Zhang Xianzhong in the Jiangnan area repeatedly attacked the Anqing area, but Gu Zhaoji, who was guarding the quarry, never sent troops.

As a result, Gu Zhaoji was dismissed by the emperor. Of course, there was also a reason for political struggle. I heard that Gu Zhaoji had a close relationship with Zhou Yanru, and he also contributed to Zhou Yanru's rise to power. Obviously, he was implicated by Zhou Yanru.

After Gu Zhaoji resigned, he was succeeded by this Liu Kongzhao. Compared with Gu Zhaoji's inaction, Liu Kongzhao's action power is still very large, and this person is very courageous. When he was summoned by the emperor before he took office, he was very bold. He cried to the emperor, saying that civil officials had done bad things. If he had been supervised by civil servants in the Jiangnan navy, he would be constrained and it would be difficult to do well.

The emperor was already very disappointed with the civil servants, even Zhou Yanru, who he trusted, was that kind of guy, so he agreed to Liu Kongzhao and removed the civil official censor in the admiral's yamen of Cao Jiang.

It is recorded in Chongzhen's Records: "Liu Kongzhao cried, civil servants controlled the elbow, and powers were different, so there was a destiny. However, Kong Zhao did not have a film director, but he used empty words to encourage the Lord, and he believed it. He actually stopped the civil servants from mixing with Jiang."

Removing the literati in the admiral's yamen of Caojiang is equivalent to handing over the control of the navy in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to Liu Kongzhao. Liu Kongzhao immediately became the most powerful person in the south of the Yangtze River. The useless posture is obviously a person who will not give face to the civil servants, so even Shi Kefa can do nothing to him.

But Yang Chao really didn't know where he offended Liu Kongzhao and caused such a big trouble. This is the real big trouble.

(End of this chapter)