Four days later, on the river downstream of Jiangwan Village, a huge fleet of ships was sailing upstream! Because it is a countercurrent, the boat speed is very slow. The entire fleet looks very ordinary, just larger than an ordinary fleet.
On the bow of the first ship, a big man was sitting on the bow with his feet hanging down, enjoying the river breeze comfortably! Looking at his clothes, he looks no different from an ordinary boatman, but if someone he knows is around, he might be surprised to find out that this person is Zuo Liqiu, the general of the Yangtze River Navy!
At this time, there were footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw that it was the servant who had been following him for many years. So he turned around and squinted his eyes and said, "Have you told your brothers?"
The servant sat down cross-legged behind him and said, "I've already said it! I told the brothers that if you persist for two days at most, you should get results! And I also told them as the master ordered, the reward for this transaction will be tripled, and the brothers will very happy!"
Zuo Liqiu said with a smile: "If you round up and suppress a group of incompetent water bandits, the reward will be tripled. These guys are lucky! But fortunately, we don't have to spend our own money. Wu Ninghou has plenty of money!"
At this time, the servant behind him said: "But I just don't understand why you want to take this errand, sir? Once we fight, our identities will definitely not be concealed, and this will really offend those salt merchants! We can They are all on the ground of those salt merchants. If they get angry, I'm afraid..."
Zuo Liqiu chuckled twice and said, "I thought so too! But Wu Ninghou made the interests clear in his letter, so I decided to go to Beijing to see him."
The servant twisted his body curiously and said, "Then what did the Marquis say?"
Zuo Liqiu did not answer his question, but asked slowly: "You have been to the capital with me, and you also know the current price of salt in the capital! And the news we have learned is that the price of salt north of the Yellow River has completely dropped. Well, do you think this kind of low-priced salt can be promoted throughout Daming?"
The servant was stumped by this question and was scratching his head in anxiety for a while! But after thinking for a long time, he still said seriously: "It should be possible, right?! It might just take a little longer!"
Zuo Liqiu turned to look at him in surprise, and said with a smile: "Hey, you are already thinking about it! Then can you tell me why it can be popularized?"
Hearing the master of the house talking about him in a mocking tone, the servant not only didn't get angry, but said happily as if he had received a compliment: "That's what the villain thinks! There is no such thing as low-price salt, and everyone can't see it. I can bear it! But this thing has come out now and is sold everywhere in Jiangbei. How can people in Jiangnan bear it! They will definitely try their best to get some low-priced salt to eat! As time goes by, it will naturally be promoted slowly Already!"
Zuo Liqiu said: "That's the truth! And let me ask you another question, do you think those salt merchants are more powerful, or our Ming Dynasty Prime Minister Zhang is more powerful?"
The servant slapped his thigh and said, "Do you still need to ask? Of course Prime Minister Zhang is great! He is the prime minister. Apart from the emperor, he is the biggest in the entire Ming Dynasty!"
Zuo Liqiu said: "Wu Ninghou told me in his letter that Prime Minister Zhang never stopped him after he started to promote low-priced salt. Instead, he just sat on the sidelines and neither encouraged nor supported him! Especially since he was Nanmian is already having a huge quarrel with the salt merchant, but he still remains silent! Then guess what Mr. Zhang is thinking?"
The servant scratched his head again before tentatively saying, "Sit on a mountain and watch tigers fight?"
Zuo Liqiu nodded and said: "Wu Ninghou said the same thing! And he also said that after reaching the position of Prime Minister Zhang, there is nothing else he wants. What he wants is probably to leave his name in Qingshi! And let Quan Daming's people Eating low-priced salt is something that none of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors have ever done before! He would not miss such a great achievement, so he just stood aside and watched with cold eyes, waiting..."
The servant felt that he was very smart at this time and said: "When Wu Ninghou wins the salt merchant, he can issue a decree to promote low-price salt throughout Daming! If Wu Ninghou loses, he will take care of those Salt merchant, after all, the final credit belongs to him, right?"
Zuo Liqiu shook his head and said: "That's not what Wu Ninghou said! He said that if he loses, low-priced salt will only reach the Yangtze River, and Prime Minister Zhang will make it
Gradually develop southward through infiltration. In the end, those salt merchants will succumb sooner or later, it just takes a little longer! "
The servant sighed repeatedly: "It is indeed Mr. Zhang, this is called sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai!"
But then he said with a smile: "Master, isn't it a bit unethical for us to deal with the salt merchants after receiving their money?"
Zuo Liqiu laughed and said: "Who took the money? Did I take the money? It's just that the battalion officer below took the money, I can't confiscate it! And I think Wu Ninghou is absolutely sure that he can win this time! "
The servant said: "Master, if he was sure, why would he beg us? Don't you think wrong?"
Zuo Liqiu sneered and said: "Wu Ninghou came to us because he abides by the rules! If he didn't abide by the rules, do you think he wouldn't do what we did when we brought people to dress up as water bandits? There are more than 10,000 people in Tianjin. The Wu'an Army and the tens of thousands of people in the navy outside are at sea. Is it difficult to just randomly pick out the salt merchants and kill them all?"
The servant gasped when he heard this and said, "Oh! It's really not difficult to say that! We all live on the water, and we all know that those bastards in the sea are much more ruthless than us! Especially those who are pirates and kill whole families. Without blinking an eye!"
Zuo Liqiu said with a smile: "That's why I placed my treasure on Wu Ninghou! Especially because Wu Ninghou recommended me to meet the Holy Sage, and the Holy Sage also told me that I should do more to promote low-price salt and help me more. , so I agreed to Wu Ninghou to help him!"
The servant slapped his thigh again and said, "So that's it! Then we are sure to win! When the time comes, the master will be promoted and make a fortune, and the younger ones will enjoy some benefits! That old turtle is going to be deflated!"
Zuo Liqiu smiled proudly and said: "I'm afraid he doesn't even know that we have already locked him up and are familiar with him! At first, he didn't seem to cause much trouble, so we wanted to save it for future use! But this time he jumped out and figured it out. He's unlucky!" Kan Shula
The servant also sneered and said: "That dead Tuanyu still thinks that he is being cautious and has been sending ships to follow us. He thinks that we don't know! Does he think that our navy members are all fools?"
