"The Fan family has become desperate." Yang Yuan on the side answered.
Zhao Yutu was stunned for a moment, with a trace of doubt on his face.
Liu Heng explained with a smile: "The Fan family colluded with a Datong business called Xu Ji, and wanted to use Xu Ji to compete with us for the business roads on the grassland."
"Xu Ji?" Zhao Yutu frowned and said, "I have never heard of a business called Xu Ji in Datong before. Could it be that this Xu Ji is secretly supported by the Fan family?"
Before he went to Xuanfu, there was no Xu Ji store in Datong. If there really was a store that could smuggle with Beilu, as an important figure in the Tiger Flag, he would not know about it.
If you want to smuggle Beilu, your own strength is secondary. The key is to have your own connections in Beilu. Without the recommendation of people from Beilu, Ming caravans entering the grassland will only end up being robbed. Not only the horse bandits on the grassland They would plunder, and the herdsmen of various Mongolian tribes would also plunder the caravans of Ming people.
"The Xuji store in Datong is the business of Xu Tong, the governor of Datong." Yang Yuan said: "Now it is difficult for the Fan family to buy enough goods from the Xuanfu. Even if they can barely get it together, once they arrive on the grassland, they will only be beaten by our tiger-character flag. After the disaster, the Fan family chose to cooperate with Xu Tong, probably because they wanted to use Xu Tong to encroach on the trade route between our Tiger Flag and Beilu."
"If Xu Ji is Xu Tong's property, it will be difficult." Zhao Yutu frowned slightly.
Yang Yuan said: "It's not that there is no way, but it's a bit troublesome. We need to arrange for people to keep an eye on Xu Ji. As long as Xu Ji's convoy enters the grassland, we can send people to rob it. As long as it happens a few times, Xu Tong will give up. The idea of smuggling Beibei."
"Not necessarily." Zhao Yutu shook his head slightly and said, "Others may give up, but Xu Tong may not. Don't forget, the Fan family knows the profits from smuggling, and Xu Tong is a money-loving person, so he definitely won't If you let go easily, if things go wrong, you will forcefully attack our Tiger Flag so that you can monopolize the benefits of smuggling the Northern Lu."
Money attracts people's hearts. The tiger-character flag's business of smuggling northern barbarians brings millions of taels of profit to the tiger-character flag every year. With the Ming Dynasty closing down the horse market, the profits from smuggling will only increase.
He didn't believe that Xu Tong would not be tempted after knowing such a large sum of money.
"If you say that, it's really a bit troublesome. A greedy person like Xu Tong has millions of taels of silver in front of him. It's impossible for him not to be tempted." Yang Yuan frowned.
Since Xu Tong took over as the governor of Datong, he has levied bandit suppression taxes and called for payment. Many businesses in Datong Prefecture without backends have been confiscated by the governor's yamen through various means. Almost no one in Datong does not know about Xu Tong. Greedy by nature.
The local gentry in Datong also suffered from Xu Tong's losses and lost a lot of money. Because of this, some gentry with official connections in the capital kept asking people to impeach Xu Tong. It can be said that the impeachment of Xu Tong has been ongoing. Never broken.
Of course, this was also fueled by the Tiger-Character Banner. Some censors from the Metropolitan Procuratorate were bribed by the Tiger-Character Banner, and they were also constantly impeaching Xu Tong, the governor of Datong.
Although doing so could not temporarily change Xu Tong's position as governor, as the voices of impeachment continued, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the cabinet already had a bad impression of Xu Tong, the governor of Datong.
Hu Ziqi has always wanted to get Xu Tong away from Datong, but things are not that simple.
As soon as Liu Heng was introduced to the white body, facing the second-rank governor of Datong, he could only use a gradual approach to make the ministers and even Emperor Tianqi dissatisfied with Xu Tong bit by bit, and finally had the opportunity to transfer Xu Tong away from Datong.
The second-grade governor is already the pinnacle of local officials. If he is in charge of one side, the court will not easily transfer him at will unless his term expires. Just like the previous governor Liu of Datong, his term was long enough and it is no longer suitable to stay in Datong.
Liu Heng looked at Zhao Wu on the side and said: "In the name of the Military and Political Secretary, the troops with the Tiger Flag on the hills began to attack the gentry and clans of Datong. They selected a few notorious ones and killed a group of them. .”
"Yes." Zhao Wu agreed.
After Zhao Wu left, Zhao Yutu said: "It's not good to kill the clan, right? It's very easy to attract the wrath of the court."
Liu Heng said with a smile: "We are not afraid of the imperial court's anger. Even if the imperial court is really angry, it will be directed at Xu Tong and has nothing to do with our Tiger Flag."
Yang Yuan on the side said coldly: "None of these clan members are good. Most of the fertile land in Datong is in the hands of Prince Dai. This is not enough. They also seize the people's fields, forcing many people to have their families destroyed. Not just because of their clan status, in many cases, even the government does not dare to offend these clans."
"This is absolutely correct." Zhao Yutu said, "It is said that our Tiger Flag is the richest business in Datong. In fact, the richest business in Datong is probably Daiwang's Mansion. Not to mention the fertile fields of Daiwang's Mansion, just the salt Make Dai Wangfu extremely rich."
At this time, Li Yunqi from the Attendance Department came in from outside.
"Master, this is the news just returned from the spy at the governor's Yamen."
As he spoke, he delivered a bamboo tube to the desk in front of Liu Heng, and then stepped aside.
The top of the bamboo tube was sealed with wax oil. Liu Heng twisted it with his hands, broke the seal, pulled out the plug, and then pulled out a note from the bamboo tube.
The paper strips were rolled together to form a long stick. He held one end with his hand, pulled hard, and completely straightened the paper, and then read the content on it.
There are very few words on it, only a few sentences, which can be read at a glance.
After reading it, he said to other people in the room: "It seems that Xu Tong can't help but want to take action. The news just came back from Datong Mansion that Xu Tong is preparing to send soldiers and horses of Fubiao Battalion to Daliang Mountain to suppress the bandits."
"There is action so soon." Yang Yuan was startled and said immediately, "Not long after Cao Guang and the others in Daliang Mountain robbed Xu Ji's convoy, Xu Tong was about to go to Daliang Mountain to suppress the bandits. It seems that Cao Guang and the others did not solve the problem completely. , left alive."
Liu Heng nodded slightly.
If Xu Ji's convoy hadn't survived, he couldn't imagine how Xu Tong would have known so quickly that those who robbed Xu Ji's convoy were bandits from Daliang Mountain.
"Have you received any news from Daliang Mountain?" Liu Heng asked Li Yunqi.
Li Yunqi said: "As soon as the news of the bandit suppression came out of Datong Mansion, they were sent to Daliang Mountain."
Zhao Yutu on the side said: "Have you found out how many troops Fubiao Camp will send to Daliang Mountain?"
"Even if all the soldiers and horses of Fubiao Battalion are sent to Daliang Mountain, Cao Guang's brigade will be fine." Yang Yuan said, "Cao Guang's brigade now has nearly 400 people, and Xu Tong's Fubiao Battalion has a total of There are only a thousand people, and if four hundred of our tiger-character flag warriors fight against a thousand Shangguan troops, we will definitely win."
Zhao Yutu nodded in agreement.
Every soldier of Tiger Character Banner can be said to be an elite in the border army. Compared with the personal servants raised by the border generals, they are not inferior. Even if Cao Guang's brigade has many recruits, they are still better than Fubiao. The battalion is strong.
A tiger-character flag soldier only has armor, a kettle, a big teapot, leather boots, a felt hat, gunpowder, lead bullets, and many other odds and ends, which add up to no less than a dozen items. Two pieces of silver can be said to be soldiers piled up with silver.
Tiger Flag made a lot of money, but it also spent a lot of money, a large part of which was spent on soldiers.
Although such soldiers are piled up with money, they are still elite enough. With the same number of people, they have never encountered an opponent. They always fight with more than less.
