The officials of the Tea Horse Division returned to the official office one after another, and they were relieved.
Because the newly sent surveillance eunuch from the imperial court failed to request an interview with Liu Chengzu on the second day after his arrival, he settled for the next best thing and met with Wang Kun, who was in charge of Juerwan Market.
After that, Eunuch Zhang transferred many tea bricks from Sichuan and also invested in the vigorous smuggling business.
The middle-ranking officials sent by the imperial court to monitor the Tea Horse Division have all joined in the smuggling. What else is there to fear from other officials? Everyone should just order and drink tea.
Only Cheng Yun's father-in-law, Wang Kun, knew what happened.
Wang Kun was a lawyer by background and had never experienced the war between Liu Chengzong and the Ming Dynasty. Even during the entire rebellion, he relied on the protection of Mr. Liu and Chengyun to live comfortably in Yan'an Fucheng. The things he was most involved in were grain trade and paying tribute to the officials in the Fucheng. Salary.
He didn't like war, especially he still had a lot of awe for the Ming Dynasty. In his opinion, the best situation between the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion and the Ming Dynasty was not to go to war.
On this point, the eunuch Zhang Yuanheng could reach a consensus with him.
As long as we have this consensus, the rest will be easy to discuss.
But what Zhang Yuanheng wanted was not smuggling, but completing his mission. The mission given to him by the court was to monitor the Tea Horse Company, and the deeper purpose was to let the Xining Tea Horse Company deliver horses to Guyuan.
Because in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, there was a shortage of war horses.
This sounds like a joke. Why is there a shortage of horses in the northwest?
Originally there was no shortage, but Liu Chengzong went there and found that it was missing.
Where Liu Chengzong walked, the horse gardens were cleared out, and the horses continued to die in places he had not visited. In the past, they could get thousands of war horses from Namafan every year, but now Namafan no longer accepts horses.
Guyuan is in short supply of war horses.
Zhang Yuanheng wants to perform well. He only has this opportunity in his life and must seize it.
Anyway, the eunuch guarding Guyuan said that as long as there is no war, let him do whatever he wants... Isn't it easy to get a horse?
In the past, tea was exchanged for horses, but now tea cannot be exchanged for horses, but official tea can be exchanged for sheep by smuggling, and sheep can be used to buy horses among the people in the northwest. Isn't this also a way to solve the problem?
In fact, Wang Kun was rather disgusted with this method. He wanted Zhang Yuanheng to exchange tea bricks from him for mules and hand them over to the court. However, Zhang Yuanheng insisted on sheep, and he had no choice.
Because Zhang Yuanheng wanted to exchange sheep and cooked horses for horses from Hezhou and Taozhou in the southeast of Xining, which were not under the control of the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion.
Wang Kun did not make any decision on his own, and only asked Zhang Yuanheng to make tea first, saying that he would send someone to Kangning Mansion to ask the Generalissimo what he meant.
The people sent to inquire had just been on the road for a few days when a soldier full of murderous intent came from the south. He looked very arrogant and did not have a good face towards the supervisory eunuch: "The generalissimo wants to see you, so he will set off immediately."
There was no relief for a moment, which made Zhang Yuanheng feel suffocated but did not dare to explode.
He had contact with soldiers from Xining Guard's Tuncheng Banner Army and Zhenhai Camp. Except for the different accents, the feeling given to him by these soldiers was almost the same as that of his elder brother who was a soldier in Beijing Camp.
In the days when there were no officials in the Tea Horse Division, his daily meals were provided by the Tuncheng Banner Army. In five days, he had two fire meals, one of which was stuffed with donkey meat.
Zhang Yuanheng initially thought that this was because Liu Chengzu, the commander of the Xining Guard, was caring and knew that he was from Baoding. After asking, he found out that all the soldiers in the city were eating this. If it weren't for the fact that there were more sheep and fewer donkeys recently, they would eat it every ten days. The menu has three meat dishes.
People say this is a famous delicacy in northern Shaanxi and a donkey meat roast in Henan. It is still 98 years away from being a century-old restaurant.
The soldiers in Xining City are well-equipped. Many of them wear military uniforms that are different from the Yuanyang War Jackets. The materials are solid and wear-resistant and the workmanship is very fine. Some soldiers have the murderous spirit of being stationed at the border fortress all year round, but they respect the eunuchs very much.
Some people thought he had no respect, but with the sly rustic manner of farmers in the fields, they whispered from a distance. When he came closer, the nonchalantness disappeared again when he answered.
But that was not the case for the soldiers who came from Kangning Mansion.
Under their armor, they wore khaki uniforms with very rough workmanship. They had the murderous aura of the frontier soldiers but lacked the respect the frontier soldiers had for the eunuchs. They looked at him like they were staring at a piece of meat.
This was the first time he truly realized that although the Xining Guard could no longer be said to be the imperial court's border defense, it was far from being considered an enemy territory.
Being trapped by the guards of the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion to the west of Xining, and embarking on the road to Kangning Mansion, that is called real enemy territory.
There are several huge barracks, a huge market, and the soldiers in bright armor at the entrance of the valley are fierce and commanding slaves captured in the war to carry stones and build small fortresses with wood and stone structures.
The fortress archery tower built against the mountain is heavily guarded, with long cannon tubes extending outward, aiming at the Fanzi Tatars who are driving livestock to the market for trade.
The veteran who took him to Haibei said that those were not slaves, but nobles, chieftains, housekeepers and soldiers from the south who were unwilling to surrender. The generalissimo was in charge of the labor reform and let them know how hard it was for slaves.
Zhang Yuanheng didn't care about nobles or slaves. He was just a mutilated eunuch who was neither male nor female. He had no interest in classes in the world. A slave may not be a human being, but he must not be a human being.
He was more concerned about the huge weapons bureau in the valley at the source of Huangshui River. He couldn't describe whether those long and thin tubes were big guns or small cannons. In short, the muskets protruding from the small fortresses all came from the huge weapons bureau in the river valley. arms workshop.
People call the place west of Xining the Marshal's Mansion in Qinghai, and he wanted to know where the Marshal's Mansion in Qinghai is.
To the west of Xiningwei, the closest place to Qinghai Marshal's Mansion is in Haibei. There is a large town there, about the size of a rural capital in the mainland, but the city wall has not yet been built. It is surrounded by pastureland in the distance and farmland nearby. The innermost town The market town was protected by chest-high loess walls and ditches.
The Qinghai Marshal's Mansion was not here either. He saw the tall wooden archway and huge warehouses stretching all the way to the seaside. When he got closer, he discovered that there were six big characters written on the archway - Qinghai Navy Yamen.
But when he looked at the sea, he could not see the scene of the navy's oars blocking the sky. Instead, there were many simple-structured oars and fishing boats, which were driven by military men and went boating on the sea quite freely.
In the deep water far away, there was a small sailboat anchored, looking particularly lonely.
The guard had never bothered to talk to Zhang Yuanheng, not to mention he was also afraid of these Ma Bian who stared at him and wanted to kill him, but at the Qinghai Navy Yamen, he saw an official.
The nominal second person in the Qinghai Xuanwei Envoy Department was Tongzhi Zhou Qiang.
Sunday Qiang served as the magistrate of Ningzhou and was very happy with Zhang Yuanheng's arrival. He originally wanted to invite him to stay at the Navy Yamen for a few days, but he gave up after hearing that the general had summoned him.
After some inquiring, Zhang Yuanheng found out the confidential information of the Naval Yamen. The Naval Yamen under Marshal Qinghai had 19 generals and officers, including Sunday Qiang, commanding a battleship with 400 materials.
There are no sailors, and all the eighteen Arhats in the navy are officers.
It is said that after the commander-in-chief launched the southern expedition, he forcibly summoned the entire remaining army on Sunday to search for people who could sail and steer and were proficient in water skills. They found a total of eighteen people and were immediately promoted to noble ranks. Now each of them has the title of instructor.
However, the Navy Yamen only had instructors and no soldiers, because recruiting soldiers was very difficult. Within the jurisdiction of the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion, recruiting sailors was much more difficult than recruiting coachmen.
The veterans guarding the border are willing to take a boat but not sail a boat, and are willing to eat fish but not fish. What's more, the general has fought a devastating war in the south. They are all looking forward to the start of the next war. They will also serve as sailors in Qinghai Lake and directly become The Qinghai Overlord may never have a maritime overlord who can compete with them in this life, and basically loses all chances of war.
But this is only a secondary reason.
The main reason is that Sunday Qiang's position in the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion is awkward. In name, he is under one person, but in fact he is slightly higher than his toes.
Therefore, Sunday Qiang is the person in the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion who most hopes that Liu Chengzong's troops will return to the court. Without Liu Shishi's chicken feather command arrow, he can't control anyone except the Eighteen Arhats, and he can't even think of doing anything.
Even if he wanted to come over after looking at the dried trees in Xifanbu, Shanghai, no one would give him the chance to do so.
Otherwise they would have two wheeled warships by now.
The scientific name of the wheeled warship is the wheeled warship. It was originally a ship shape in the Tang Dynasty. Paddle wheels were placed on both sides of the ship, and the interior was connected by an axle. One axle and two wheels formed a cart. From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the number increased from two carts to thirty or forty years old. There are cars and ships.
However, there were not many such ships in the Ming Dynasty. It was a kind of warship. It was expensive to carry more soldiers. The water area it was suitable for was relatively narrow. Because the hull was heavy and the draft was deep, it could not be used in shallow water. If the ship was tall and narrow, it would be difficult to use it. It prohibits sea breeze, so it is usually used for river defense in large lakes.
In the Great Unification Dynasty, the demand for internal large lake and river defense was low, so it was used more in the Song Dynasty.
During the Battle of Xiangyang, Zhang Gui and Zhang Shun built hundreds of chariots and boats at the mouth of the Danjiang River in the Han River. They gathered salt, cloth and supplies to rush into the besieged Xiangyang, which greatly encouraged the besieged Song army in the city.
An account was made on Sunday. For the Qinghai Navy, the ship does not carry cannons, but is only equipped with muskets. It focuses on the speed of sailing from north to south. The demand for freight is not too great, and vehicles and ships are very suitable.
The wheeled warship parked on the sea has two sails and two vehicles. It carries seventy soldiers, boatmen and twenty riders. It uses sails and the terrifying Ape erectus as power, and consumes twenty bowls of fried noodles per 100 kilometers.
When Zhang Yuanheng was forced to introduce the warship on Sunday, Zhang Yuanheng looked very novel and felt very happy.
Until a shore gun placed on the pier was fired. It was a Buddha-Wolf machine that had been moved from the Xining Acropolis. It was an old thing from the Jiajing period. It had been exposed to the weather and was not well maintained, and the air leakage was very serious. But it was better than The sound is loud.
Amidst the sound of cannons and horns, the fishing boats were returning one after another. The Eighteen Arhats were summoned to Zhou Qiang's side. Everyone happily embraced Zhang Yuanheng and boarded the fishing boat. Also on board were twenty Mongolians from surrounding market towns. Riding Zhengfu, the mighty fleet of fishing boats sailed towards the car and boat.
Zhang Yuanheng gradually realized that something was wrong: "No, Mr. Zhou, why are you taking a boat? Riding a horse is good."
Zhou Qiang was so excited. The escort not only came to pick up Zhang Yuanheng, but also asked Zhou Qiang to report the situation of the Navy Yamen to the south. For him, what situation was more convincing than asking the escort to sail from Qinghai Lake?
"It's not as good as riding a horse. Let me tell you, this boat is very fast."
Involuntarily, the fishing boat was rowed next to the vehicle and boat. Everyone climbed up the rope one by one. Those in front climbed up and those behind pushed. Zhang Yuanheng couldn't help but hesitate, and people were already standing on the vehicle and boat.
This ship has two levels of cabins. The bottom cabin can hold some cargo. The upper cabin is in the middle of the hull, half under the deck and half on the deck. Two axles run through the middle. The side of the hull protrudes one foot, and the wheels are put on it. Half of it is protected.
After a while, the sails were raised, and twenty sailors boarded two cars on the deck, ten in a row, facing the stern of the ship and standing in front of the axle with pedals, holding the guardrail in front of them and shouting slogans. Get on the pedal and sail slowly with the car and boat. The four round wheels on the side of the boat slowly rotate, and the resistance becomes smaller and smaller.
These pedal soldiers are all carefully selected fat men. As human power, the pedals cannot be stepped on with strength alone. They follow the drums on the forecastle like climbing stairs, using their weight and strength to accelerate the hull.
Zhang Yuanheng didn't have time to appreciate this crystallization of human wisdom, he was panicking.
A person's feet cannot stand on the earth, which always makes people uneasy, especially when he regards the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion as a hostile force, which intensifies his panic.
This made Zhang Yuanheng restless and asked in a low voice to the energetic Sunday: "Mr. Zhou, you asked me to get on the boat, didn't you want to harm me?"
"oh?"
Sunday forcefully pulled on the sleeves of his official robe. In Qinghai, he was probably the only one still wearing the official uniform of the Ming Dynasty. He smiled and asked Zhang Yuanheng, "Why did Zhou harm you?"
Zhang Yuanheng stood on the upper deck and took a step back. He stretched out his palm and slashed at the wave that was separated by the bow of the ship. His eyes widened with fear and anxiety: "Drown me."
"Hahaha!"
Sunday Qiang was so amused that he burst into laughter: "What silly things did Mr. Zhang say? You and I are officials in the same dynasty, why did Zhou want to drown you?"
Officials in the same dynasty?
Zhang Yuanheng's pupils shrank suddenly, "Which fucking dynasty are you talking about?"
But he didn't dare ask.
Zhou Qiang wanted to laugh when he saw his nervous look. He was like this when he was first sent to Liu Chengzong by Yang He. He was no better than Zhang Yuanheng.
Don't you feel normal now? Why don't you work with a salary?
Apart from being a little homesick, there was nothing different. It was just a little more worried about something big happening, but this kind of worry always existed even in Ningzhou.
When you are in Ningzhou, don't you worry about the peasant army falling into the city and killing you? Don't you worry about Hou Jin entering the customs and harming your family?
it's the same.
It's just that now he is more worried that Liu Chengzong will enter the customs and let the court harm his family in Baoding.
Thinking of this, Sunday Qiang turned to look at Zhang Yuanheng: "Don't worry, since the commander wants to see you, he won't harm you. If you think about it carefully, if he really wants to harm you, do you still need Zhou to invite you to the boat and push you into the sea? Where can Xining not bury a dozen of you?"
When Zhang Yuanheng thought about it, it seemed like this was the case.
"Let's see. If you're worried, the Navy Yamen has nothing else to do. I'll take you to Kangning to see the commander, but when you get back, you have to do me a favor."
Zhang Yuanheng's strong sense of Sunday was pretty good, at least much better than those cold-faced guards. He asked, "Mr. Zhou, please tell me."
"I'm sending a few people to Baoding and they'll be back after the New Year." Zhou Qiang said, looking at Zhang Yuanheng and saying: "In the name of your tea horse, I will say that they are your followers and return to your hometown to do something."
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