There was no court inn in Siming Mansion, and Gao Pingshi didn't plan to walk the whole way back this time, so he first went north to Jiangzhou, then turned slightly northwest and walked a few dozen miles to Taiping Mansion.
Taiping Prefecture is a magical place. The magical thing about this prefecture is that except for the prefect himself, who is a floating official, all other officials are native officials, and the states and counties under its jurisdiction are also chieftains.
Among these chieftains, the Huang family is the most numerous and the most powerful. Next is the Zhao family, second only to the Huang family, but the main energy of the Zhao family has been put on the Sien Mansion. As for the Taiping Mansion, they have even planned to give up Longzhou to gain the support of the Huang family. Judging from this approach, Zhao seems to be determined to avoid Huang's pressure and develop eastward.
But these are not what Gao Wuzhen is concerned about now. He already has a package solution to the problem of Guangxi chieftains, and it is a solution that achieves multiple goals with one stone. At this time, he will not worry about a certain prefecture, a certain state, etc. Not only is it pointless, it’s unnecessary.
Therefore, he didn't even bother to inspect Taiping Prefecture, and went straight to the Zuojiang Water Station to get on the boat. He planned to take the waterway to Nanning Prefecture first, then transfer to the horse station, pass through Wuyuan County, Binzhou and then to Qianjiang County. When you get to Qianjiang County, you can change back to the water station and walk to Bin County, Xiangzhou, Luorong County, and then to Liuzhou, which is only twenty or thirty miles away.
Since arriving in the south, he has found that traveling by water is much more comfortable than traveling by horse. As long as you don't get seasick, it is fast, stable and easy. Therefore, wherever he can travel by water, he will definitely not travel by horse. .
Taiping Prefecture does not need to inspect, but Zuo Jiang needs to know more about it, because according to his vision, the most important support for the upstream section of the business network built to control the chieftains in western and southern Guangxi is Zuojiang and Youjiang.
According to his inquiries from the ship boss, the Zuojiang River is obviously the largest tributary of the Yujiang River, an upstream tributary of the Xijiang River system. It was called Jinnan Water and Jinyuan Water earlier and originated from Kulong Mountain at the junction of Annan and Guangxi. The upper reaches is called Qiqiong River in Annan territory, also called Li River. It is called Pinger River after it enters Daming territory at Pingerguan. After flowing to Longzhou, the tributary Shuikou River merges into it, and the following is called Zuojiang River.
The Zuojiang River flows eastward to Longzhou, and the section from Longzhou to Shangjin is also called Lijiang. It flows through Jiangzhou, and another large tributary, Heishui River, joins from the left. The main river flows to Nanning and joins the Youjiang River in the Tianzhou section of the Yujiang River, which is the traditional starting point of the Yujiang section and the Yongjiang section of the Yujiang river.
According to Gao Pangshi's observations along the way, starting from the time he boarded the boat in Taiping Mansion, the Zuojiang River is not too wide and there are some shoals. However, as long as the hydrology of the main river is understood, there is no problem in navigation - he here Navigation refers to inland waterway transport vessels, which are required to be able to transport giant trees.
It's easy to say that it can transport giant trees, which means that this waterway can always be used, because the Zuojiang River and the Mingjiang River are also connected, which means that both Siming Prefecture and Siming Prefecture can carry out water trade routes through the Mingjiang River to the Zuojiang Channel.
Gao's pragmatic business network plan has basic support - after all, he can't have people carry those giant trees from the deep mountains and old forests of Shiwanda Mountain all the way to Qinzhou or even Guangzhou.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic was overly worried. The main channel of Zuojiang River would be able to accommodate large ships in later generations. How could the inland river vessels of these days not be able to do so? You must know that after the reform and opening up in later generations, freighters often transported some local products here, such as asparagus, jute, kenaf, soybeans, red melon seeds, etc., to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao and other places. It can only be said that his understanding of Guangxi in his previous life was really insufficient.
Gao pragmatically asked the boat boss if there were any bandits and water bandits on the river. The boat boss said: "I don't know, this area is full of chieftains. Those wolf soldiers are more bandits than any other bandits. They went up the mountain to follow the monkeys." It seems that no mountain bandit can stand up. As for the water bandits, don't mention them. Water bandits can't sleep in the water all year round. They have to have a nest on the shore, but how can they be the opponent of the wolf soldiers on the shore? So there are no mountain bandits or water bandits along the way, but once we enter Nanning, we can’t tell for sure. It’s okay for the officers and soldiers to fight the chieftains, but it’s really unreliable to suppress the bandits..."
Gao pragmatic was speechless for a while. The area governed by co-chieftains had better public security than the area governed by official officials from the imperial court. As for the officers and soldiers being able to defeat the chieftains, Gao Pragmatic knew very well. That was because the officers and soldiers could easily fight tens of thousands against thousands, or more than 100,000 against ten or twenty thousand. If they still lost, the chieftains would have to be turned into back money.
Fortunately, the Cen and Huang families check each other...
It was a safe journey to Nanning Mansion, but Gao Pingshi still concealed his identity - in fact, he had no choice but to hide it. He didn't have a customs seal or even an official robe. If he said that he was a master of the press, who would believe it? So I found an inn to stay temporarily.
Nanning Prefecture is a migrant officialdom, and its strength is not weak. The city of Nanning is also guarded by Nanning Guards who are also not weak in strength, so Gao Pragmatic felt much more at ease as soon as he entered the city.
It stands to reason that he is in Guinan Tusi's territory, and he is followed by the wolf soldiers sent by Huang Zhiting. In fact, there is really nothing to fear. Guinan is the basic base of the Huang family, and there are probably not many people who will not give Huang Zhiting face. But that's how people are. He considers himself a court official, and when he stays in the chieftain's jurisdiction, he always feels that he lacks a little bit of support.
Now that he had arrived at Nanning Mansion, which shocked Guinan, he felt much more at ease. He did not want the wolf soldiers to guard him. He generously gave the wolf soldiers a half-day holiday, and rewarded each of them with three coins of silver, leaving them to their own devices. Go out and drink.
The reward of three taels of silver was probably the lowest reward given by Gao Pragmatic in the past ten years, but there was nothing that could be done. Huang Zhiting only gave him 50 taels of silver for "travel expenses". He only spent three taels of reward this time. , I am no longer stingy... To be stingy is Huang Zhiting's stinginess.
However, Gao Pragmatic estimates that Huang Zhiting may not really have much cash on hand. After all, even the court knows that the chieftains are poor. They typically have manpower and material resources, but no financial resources.
After the wolf soldiers left, Gao Qingshi was alone in his room thinking about how to control the chieftain.
Now the general direction has been thought out, but the details are not yet available at all, and the detailed arrangements are about to start, so he can't afford to delay anymore - this is why he took the opportunity to ask to return to Liuzhou this time. He must quickly contact his own people and hand over the arrangements for various preparations to specific subordinates.
In addition, war reserves must be started, such as muskets, artillery, gunpowder, and projectiles, which are indispensable. At the same time, food must also be stored - he does not believe that the supplies stored by the Cen and Huang families are enough to fight a war. In the war between the two countries, even if the opponent is only half the size of Annan, it will not work, unless the Cen and Huang families have long wanted to rebel, but judging from the current situation, they do not have this intention, nor do they have the ability.
Therefore, these material reserves have to be prepared in advance in a pragmatic manner. When the time comes... of course there will be no free support, and there will definitely be an exchange of benefits. The key is that the preparation for these things cannot be carried out directly with high pragmatic orders, and some cover must be carried out. At least these things cannot be hoarded near Gyeonggi. Otherwise, if someone is reporting it, even if Zhu Yijun does not believe it, I am afraid that he will have to do it. The skin is peeling, so if you want to stock up, you can only stock up in Guangzhou.
Fortunately, the Port of Guangzhou has been expanding and there must be a lot of room for warehouses.
But when he thought about Guangzhou Port, he started to have a headache again about where to build his first shipyard in the south. Guangzhou is the largest city in South China and a port city, so it obviously has the advantages of talents and human resources; and Qinzhou is close to Tusi If the jurisdiction is close to Shiwanda Mountain, it will definitely have advantages in materials... It's hard to decide.
Just as I was thinking about it, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
