After the Battle of Fushun, Wu Bondang always traveled between Liaodong and Shandong.
In the circle of civil servants and military generals, Wu Bondang's public appearance was that he was Qi Jin's adopted son. However, because he had no ability to serve as a civil servant or a military officer, he did business with Zheng Haizhu and ran errands for her.
When Qi Jin, as the commander of the Zhejiang guest army, led his troops to withdraw from Liaodong where the war had subsided, Zhang Chengyin, Zou Chuxian and other Liao generals even joked with Qi Jin: "Old Qi, Wu Weizhong, the only grandson of Wu Weizhong, is probably going to step in for Miss Zheng." My uncle."
Qi Jin responded with a haha at that time: "If you cut the door upside down, cut the door upside down, isn't it the first born's surname is Zheng? Then among the next few boys, as long as one of them is named Wu. I hope you guys are lucky, if this boy is really like Miss Zheng A woman of good character has flesh and blood, and Old Wu will laugh in his coffin."
Unfortunately, the good stories that these older generation of proletarian military strategists expected did not come true.
As the shopkeeper of Haoming Trading Company, Miss Zheng promised several Liao generals who defended important border trade towns the supply of Songjiang cotton, Hangzhou satin, Hu brocade, and Fujian-Taiwan black tea, and then left like the wind to the south. A few months after the end of the Luowan naval battle in the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Chengyin, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, and others saw Zheng Haizhu's name in the imperial newspaper, together with Yan Siqi, the chieftain of Xuanfu in Taiwan, hanging on a string of Fujian navy generals. behind.
Looking at Wu Bondang again, in the past two years, he has either been delivering goods in Liaodong, or he has been transporting young men to other countries with Mao Wenlong, his adopted son, Kong Youde, who looks naive but is actually smarter than a monkey.
The first few batches of young men were all from Tieling, Kong Youde's hometown, and went to Lu Fan to dig coal in Yanzhou Prefecture, Shandong. Liaodong, a place far away from the emperor, was originally out of the court's sight to press for taxes. Tieling was even more impoverished, and the local officials were eager to get some of their young people out to avoid civil unrest, so they let it go.
By this spring, the people Wu Bondang brought out of Liaodong were no longer ordinary hoarders from Tieling, but Han people from Liaodong who had a bloody feud with the Jianzhou Jurchens. The destination for transporting people is no longer the coal mine in Prince Lu's Mansion in Shandong, but the base Zheng Haizhu plans to build himself in South Zhili.
At this time, at the dock of Wusongkou, Shanghai County, Mao Wenlong's eldest son Mao Chengbei and Xu San, a close confidant of the Mao family, took stock of northern specialties such as mink skins, ginseng, deer antlers, mountain mushroom medicinal materials, marine fish and shellfish, etc., and first gave them to Songjiang The tax collector at the Customs Superintendent's Office presented him with filial piety, and after paying about 20 taels of silver for the shipping fee, cargo tax, etc., he dared to call the shopkeepers who had orders from Haoming Trading Company and take away 60% to 70% of the goods.
The rest will be transported by the trading company to the headquarters in Hangzhou for further sales.
"Miss Zheng, this ship can probably bring in a net profit of almost three thousand taels of silver." Mao Chengbei estimated.
Zheng Haizhu was happy.
The sea trade between Liaodong and Zhejiang Province is not comparable to the cross-ocean sea trade that can earn three to five times or even ten times the profit from one ship trip, but in terms of time cost, the profit is still considerable.
It takes one or two days from Lushun to Dengzhou, and only ten days from Dengzhou to Songjiang, which is much faster than traveling by land.
After the ship in front of us has finished unloading its cargo, the silk and rice from Hangzhou will arrive at Wusong Port in the next two days, and will be loaded onto the ship together with Songjiang cotton. If we turn around and head north, we should still be able to earn a few thousand taels of silver.
Zheng Haizhu finished staring at the cargo ship tax payment section when he suddenly heard a voice calling "Master Huang" from behind him.
When he turned around, Huang Zunsu had walked straight up.
Zheng Haizhu hurriedly led Mao Chengbei and Xu San to salute, and said with a smile on his face: "Master Huang, as soon as February comes, the North Ship can also sail over. Looking at this situation, Shanghai's tariff money will definitely exceed Yuegang this year. "
Huang Zunsu had been promoted to Tongpan last year, and the prefect Zhuang Yumin relied on him more and more because of the excellent management of the sea channel.
But Huang Zunsu showed up at the customs today, partly to inspect customs affairs and partly because he was thinking about Zheng Haizhu.
He then did not accept Zheng Haizhu's flattery. He only raised his eyes and asked, "Where are you pretending to be from Liaodong?"
Zheng Haizhu understood immediately, pointed to the large number of strong men Wu Bangtang was eating dry food not far away, and said with gratitude: "Master Duo Cheng is thinking about it, so they all got off the boat, a total of one hundred and thirty-nine people."
Huang Zunsu said "hmm" and glanced at Mao Chengbei. Mao Chengbei understood, bowed and stepped away.
Huang Zunsu then whispered to Zheng Haizhu: "After Yao Zongwen returned to the capital, he read a book and said that he was a Jin gentry in southern Zhili. The number of livestock and servants was shocking, especially in the Susong and Song Dynasties."
When Zheng Haizhu heard this, the smile on his face quickly faded.
When she was in Fujian, she heard Zhang Yanke, who was well-informed, say that Fang Congzhe, the first assistant, sent fellow countryman Yao Zongwen to patrol southern Zhili, and everyone in the court was waiting to watch the show.
Of course Zheng Haizhu understood the profound meaning of these words.
Fang Congzhe, the current chief minister and the "independent prime minister" of the cabinet, was a leader of the Zhejiang Party. Yao Zongwen, a public official, had always been the most vicious official in impeaching the Donglin faction. Yao Zongwen went on a tour to Nanzhili, why didn't he dig up more "dirty information" and go back to claim credit from his chief minister?
Therefore, after the Battle of Minghe, Zheng Haizhu, who returned to Songjiang, was relieved to hear that Huang Zunsu of the Donglin faction had excellent performance in the examination and was successfully promoted.
Today, I heard from Huang Zunsu that it turned out that Yao Zongwen bit him after all.
Historically, in the year just past, that is, in 1619 AD, the Battle of Sarhu between the Ming Army and the Later Jin Army took place. After the Ming Army was defeated, the imperial court asked Xiong Tingbi, who was idle at home, to enter the Liao Dynasty and reorganize the army. Yao Zongwen, who had served in the same term as Xiong Tingbi, was ignored because he begged for support. He was angry and impeached Xiong Tingbi for neglecting his duties. Xiong Tingbi was dismissed from office and replaced as governor of Liaodong by Yuan Yingtai, an official from the Ministry of Industry who had no knowledge of military matters. Later, the Liao Shen fell and other major losses.
In this time and space, due to the victory in the Fushun Defense Battle, Zhang Chengyin, Zou Chuxian and other Liaodong defenders were still alive and well. The Battle of Saarhu did not come as scheduled. Later, the Jin army turned to gather forces to attack its old enemy Yehe Jurchen. Xiong Tingbi is still idle in the countryside.
But a good-looking mouse excrement will never miss an opportunity to disturb the soup and porridge.
Yao Zongwen's role changed from impeaching Xiong Tingbi to impeaching Donglin officials in Southern Zhili.
In the sea breeze at Wusongkou, Zheng Haizhu thought for a moment and said bluntly to Huang Zunsu: "This Yao Zongwen, I heard that like you, I am also from Ningbo. Could it be that this time is not only the battle between Qi, Chu, Zhejiang and Donglin, but also the battle between Qi, Chu, Zhejiang and Donglin? Are the gentry over there in Ningbo unhappy with the Songjiang switch?"
Huang Zunsu actually also made this guess.
Shuangyu Port near Ningbo Prefecture was successively controlled by Chinese pirates who hired Japanese, and by the Spaniards who were unable to get Macau like the Portuguese, and became a stronghold for maritime smuggling.
Many officials in the DPRK knew very well that the wealthy wealthy gentry in the Ningbo area, and even as far north as Hangzhou and as far south as Wenzhou, were probably involved in the smuggling maritime trade at Shuangyu Port. The Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy actually made them a lot of money. The bowl is full.
When Emperor Longqing allowed the opening of Yuegang in Fujian, merchants from Zhejiang and Zhejiang areas were still prohibited from going to trade. Therefore, the Yuegang switch does not affect smugglers in Zhejiang too much. But last year, Songjiang was successfully opened and closed. Because Hangzhou was too close to Songjiang and had the richest silk brocade output. Emperor Wanli, who loved money to his bones, did not order a ban on merchant ships from Zhejiang entering Wusongkou.
There is no gray area anymore, and the forces in the dark will naturally send spokespersons to jump out.
Huang Zunsu then said to Zheng Haizhu: "Yao Zongwen is making trouble, no matter what your personal interests are, you should be careful when recruiting so many people to Chongming this time."
Zheng Haizhu pretended to listen to the teachings and said solemnly: "Don't worry, Mr. Huang, although I have received the order now, I still consider myself a small commoner. Just because Chongming Island is sparsely populated, the test firing of artillery and training of gunners will not be like in the suburbs of Songjiang." It was so disturbing to the people that I wanted to build another artillery factory there. When I visited Chongming Island carefully, I didn’t expect that it was not all blisters like Liaodong. The county boss said that there were more than 7,000 acres of official and private land during the time of Taizu. Only then did the idea come up to bring the Han people who were about to starve to death in Liaodong to work in the fields."
Huang Zunsu saw that she was getting more and more nervous as she spoke, so he comforted her and said, "Everything about farming and growing grains is fair and just, and you have the order of Mrs. Anyuan, so don't be too panicky. You are usually busy with farming. , Just stop the group training in moderation. The prefect of Suzhou is also my disciple of Donglin."
The implication is very clear, as long as the Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang Party in the DPRK do not come to frame you for raising private soldiers, I, the officials from the Donglin faction of the Susong Second Mansion, will not be able to protect you.
Zheng Haizhu was busy with gifts and thanks.
In later generations, Chongming Island was affiliated to Shanghai City. At this time, the Ming Dynasty was under the jurisdiction of Suzhou Prefecture.
Zheng Haizhu has long been interested in Chongming Island. It was only after she came back last year and received the order of "Mrs. Anyuan" in exchange for two military exploits in Fushun and Fujian that she was free and qualified to invest in Chongming. Summary.
Chongming Island was regarded as the gateway to the eastern seaboard when the Ming Dynasty was founded, and the imperial court had thousands of households. During the Jiajing Japanese Rebellion, Chongming County repeatedly became the frontline of the anti-Japanese war.
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During the Wanli and Tianqi dynasties, military affairs in Chongming and other places were depleted. However, after the Qing army entered the pass and headed south, some capable Ming officials from Nanjing immediately arrived at Chongming Island and quickly established a navy, gathered warships, and stockpiled military supplies. , and recruited warriors from the south of the Yangtze River, preparing to use Chongming Island as an important military base to resist the Qing Dynasty. Later, the Qing army did suffer a lot due to the combination of the Ming army's naval power and land power on Chongming Island.
It can be seen that Chongming’s status cannot be underestimated.
Zheng Haizhu liked Chongming because it echoed Yan Siqishang's base in Daishan, Zhejiang, from the north to the south. It happened to be sandwiched between Songjiang Customs and very close to Qi Jiajun in Zhenjiang.
In this era, it is necessary to have your own armed forces. Even if you gather more than a thousand people, it is still good.
Last year, Wu Bangde returned to Jiangnan and reported to Zheng Haizhu on the establishment of trading companies that were actually intelligence agencies in Fushun, Liaoyang, Dengzhou, Yanzhou and other places. Zheng Haizhu asked him to recruit people from Liaodong as soon as possible, preferably if the family died of his daughter. Survivors of real life. Those trackers from Shandong back then have now been trained by Qi Jiajun's instructors into skilled servants who can relay train Liaodong people.
At this moment, Huang Zunsu was led by Zheng Haizhu and walked to the other side of the pier to see the Han people from Liaodong who were about to board the small sand boats commonly seen in the Yangtze River to ferry to Chongming Island.
Zheng Haizhu didn't know that not far away, there was a pair of eyes full of hatred, staring at her.
The owner of the eyes is also from Liaodong, but to be more precise, he is also a Songjiang person.
