Above the Yangtze River, a fleet of 20 or 30 large sand ships was filled with sails and upstream.

Shen Shuren was independent of the bow of the boat, and watching the mountains on both sides retreat one after another, he was still a little nervous.

After all, this is the first time he has been to an inland province in two lives. The visual impact of seeing it with his own eyes is far from comparable to the geographical knowledge in textbooks.

"Hiss... Am I going to Huguang to become an official? If it weren't for the map that it was clearly Huangzhou, I would have thought it was going to enter Sichuan by passing the Three Gorges." Chen Shuren couldn't help but sigh.

"Young Master has never traveled far away except to go to the capital. This is normal. We are used to traveling to the Yangtze River and we all know that it is dangerous to cross the lake. Otherwise, why should we charge two more coins for crossing the lake silver?" His follower Chen Fu ran across the long voyage, and he had been to all provinces of the Yangtze River, and explained without caring about it.

At this moment, the fleet had entered the boundary of Huangzhou, about the other side of Poyang Lake mouth, Huangmei and Guangji counties, and further forward was Qizhou.

The government of Huanggang was still under the control of the bandits, so the temporary office location chosen by Chen Shuren, the Tongzhi of Huangzhou, was in Qizhou. Qizhou went upstream through Qishui County, and further away there were enemy-occupied areas.

When I passed by Huangmei and Guangji yesterday, Chen Shuren thought there were many plains in Huangzhou. Now I know that those two counties are just special cases, and they are plains silted from the waters of Poyang Lake for millions of years.

After passing the mouth of Poyang Lake, there are mountains on both sides of the Yangtze River, the south bank is the Luoxiao Mountains on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, and the north bank is the Dabie Mountains on the border of Hubei, Henan and Anhui.

Most of the entire Huangzhou is in the Dabie Mountains. Only one stream of flows down from the Dabie Mountains and flows into the small rivers of the Yangtze River, and there are some narrow river valley plains on both sides.

All counties are distributed on these river valley plains, so they are blocked by land and require the dangerous mountains to cross.

When locals go to neighboring counties, they always take a boat downstream and enter the Yangtze River, then sail to the estuary of another small river, and then go upstream. The final actual mileage may be more than three or five times longer than the straight-line distance between the two counties.

But even so, it is cost-effective to take the waterway, so who makes the water transportation cost low?

"I'm just falling into the trap and going to a poor place to become an official. This is not only a problem for thieves, but also the environment is so harsh."

Seeing the pier in Qizhou County in front appearing on the river surface, Chen Shuren couldn't help but laugh at himself.

Fortunately, he was very good at comforting himself, and after a little thought, he figured it out - if he was not in a dangerous place in the Dabie Mountains, how could he rely on the emperor to set up his own base?

The fertile plain is indeed awesome, but the court will see you farm well and you can transfer you away with a transfer order. Where mountains and rivers are blocked, the court's control is also weak.

Otherwise, in the "Three Kingdoms", Liu Yan, the warlord who was the first to be separatist in the late Han Dynasty, would have asked himself to be the governor of Yizhou, because the emperor in the mountains could not control it.

Others had to wait for Dong Zhuo to disrupt the government in 190 before he could change from the logic of the officialdom to the logic of hegemony. Those who had moved early were wiped out by the court. As long as Liu Yan released the mi thief Zhang Lu to intercept the Han envoy, he could switch to the logic of separatist struggle for hegemony in 187 and become his own local emperor.

Space can be exchanged for time. The more inconvenient the transportation, the longer the time difference you can get.

And that moment, just like that moment.

Those who want to be a warlord in a convenient area will be killed by the emperor until the fifteenth year of Chongzhen. The "History of Ming Dynasty" records that He Renlong preserved his strength and lost the Second Supervisor. Wasn't it just that he was cut down by Sun Chuanting's order in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen?

It can be seen that Chongzhen was still able to kill local military generals until the fifteenth year. Yang Sichang died in history because of his worries and fear in the end of the 14th year of Chongzhen, which shows the emperor's control.

Zuo Liangyu's wolf ambition was exposed later than He Renlong. After the early 16th year of Chongzhen, he never heard of the emperor having the control of killing local generals, so Zuo Liang's jade tail was too big and became a disaster in the Southern Ming Dynasty.

It can be seen that the world has only been completely transferred to the logic of hegemony that "if you separatist the court, you can't do anything to you, you can only hold you."

But Chen Shuren doesn’t have to wait until the beginning of the 16th year of Chongzhen to re-severe! He can exchange space for time and start to plan with a competitive spirit of hegemony two and a half years in advance!

First set a small goal and become the overlord of the Dabie Mountains region in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen! After the base area is managed in a solid manner and the emperor's control is destroyed, then expand the territory to the plains!

Taking Chongzhen as the name of killing He Renlong, seize this fleeting "wind", the rhythm must not be chaotic.

If you have a half-step ahead of the rhythm of the era, you may become a pioneer. If you have a one-step ahead of the rhythm of the era, you will become a martyr. All the loyal and righteous acting skills you have built before will be in vain.

The shark arm, who was randomly divided without thinking clearly about the underlying logic, was seeking death.

...

The fleet quickly approached the Qizhou Wharf.

When Shen Shuren got off the boat, a group of officials and soldiers were already lined up on the shore to greet him. It seemed that the Shen family had sent a message to report it before was quite powerful.

However, Huangzhou is a poor place after all, and there is no show or paving on the pier. The wooden boards on the pier look a little decayed, but everyone who should be there has arrived, that's all.

After all, even in the 21st century, Huanggang is also a relatively poor city in Hubei. Otherwise, it would not have been exiled as a place for officials such as Su Shi and the failed political struggle.

"Qizhou magistrate Zhao Yunfan/Huangmei magistrate Jiangcheng, I have met Tongzhi."

Chen Shuren stepped on the trekking step by step and stood firmly on the shore. Several county-level officials next to him came to greet him, but his attitude was not very positive.

I guess I am used to seeing Shangguans coming here are all down and out, so there is no need to be too flattering.

"The thieves are rampant, and it is not easy for you to keep the place carefully. I have come to this point and was ordered by the emperor to expel Liu Xiyao. In the future, I would like to work together to repay the country's kindness."

Chen Shuren nodded to everyone kindly without taking airs. Of course, he did not recognize any of these small officials at the county level, and it was impossible for him to leave a name in history books.

The officials were quite enthusiastic when they heard Chen Shuren's tone, so they carefully observed his appearance and realized that this Shangguan was so young that he was unreasonable.

The Shangguan resume they received before did not contain any unimportant information like Geng next year. The information in these small mountainous areas was blocked, and officials were not very familiar with the changes in the outside world's government.

Zhao Yunfan, the leader, sighed: "My lord is full of energy and enterprising. He should not have been driven to Huangzhou by his political enemies, right? I dare to take the initiative to take on the errand here, and the officials admire him.

However, Huangzhou has few money and food and people are scattered, so it is not easy to barely maintain the four counties now. If you have to send additional military rations and force the village to recruit brave people, you are afraid that more people will be unable to live. Then, let alone expel Liu Xiyao, even...ah."

The following words were too discouraged and he was embarrassed to say them.

Shen Shuren's expression remains unchanged, but he just gently confirmed the situation:

"How to say that it is 'barely maintaining the four counties'? Before I took office, the Ministry of War said that four counties in the nine counties of Huangzhou were in the hands of the thief, and the five counties in the southeast were relatively rich, and were still controlled by the court. Could it be that the more than half a month after I took office, another county was lost?"

Zhao Yunfan shook his head helplessly: "You must talk about five counties, it's okay - Luotian County is located in the upper reaches of the Bashui River. It is said that it is still under the insistence of local dictionaries and has not surrendered thieves. Because it is too remote, the thieves did not attack.

However, the downstream of Luotian County, Huanggang, the capital at the mouth of Bashui River, is now occupied by Liu Xiyao. Therefore, the other four counties in Huangzhou along the Yangtze River and the Bashui Channel have been eliminated. If you want to restore the entire territory of Huangzhou, the small amount of people, money and food in Luotian cannot be dispatched."

The Shen Shuren nodded. This was equivalent to an enclave in the mountains and I really couldn't count on it.

He sorted out his words and encouraged him: "It seems that the situation is not optimistic, but since I am here, don't worry, I will take you to expel Liu Xiyao and make achievements together. As for plundering people's wealth, I will not do it.

Any local tyrants recruited, the original soldiers of the garrison, and military rations and pay will not cause them to suffer losses. They just need to worry about training hard and fight well. The official has made plans to pay for money to become an official!"

Chen Shuren has figured it out. At present, the territory is too small and too poor. It is impossible to rely on farming to make blood on its own to maintain the operation of the thieves.

Therefore, we can only rely on the Shen family to pay for the money, first overcome the initial difficulties and build up our confidence.

Farming also requires planting, but it is still time to build the self-sufficient hematopoietic ability after spending a year or two to slowly build it. The key now is to expand the territory as soon as possible. Otherwise, there will be only a few counties, and there will be no big profit if you plant it.

Zhao Yunfan and Jiang Cheng were both quite surprised when they heard this: Who is this Shangguan? There are also good people who paid money to be officials in the Ming Dynasty?

"Okay, don't stand there. Wouldn't you be tired when standing here? Go to the county government first. I brought some wine with the boat and asked my colleagues to have a drink together."

Chen Shuren had no intention of connecting to Fengyan to make money, and he knew they could not afford it.

As he said that, many weapons, goods, money and grain were moved from the Shen family fleet to ask about the overseas crop seeds, poultry eggs, cubs, and hundreds of armed servants that Zheng Chenggong was looking for.

The Shen family has one or two hundred sea boats, and they usually have seven or eight thousand sailors and more than one thousand armed servants.

Chen Shuren has performed so well recently, so his father of course gave him a complete authorization and would not let his son take risks alone. So the family gave him at least hundreds of thousands of taels of cash dispatch, and also allocated five or six hundred armed servants and five or six hundred sailors who accompanied the weapons.

To put it bluntly, Chen Shuren, a Tongzhi, brought a thousand armed forces to take office, which is also the biggest resource that the Shen family can mobilize. If there are too many, the safety of the sea-to-strait transport side cannot be guaranteed, and chaos will occur.

Zhao Yunfan and Jiang Cheng were stunned and did not dare to ask him directly. It was difficult to seize the opportunity to find the follower of Chen Shuren and ask him about his identity:

"Who is this young man, who is this Chen Tongzhi? Why can he take such a broad attack? We have lived in remote mountains for a long time, and we are really clumsy."

Chen Shuren's follower Chen Fu looked at the magistrates smiling at him, and couldn't help but feel proud:

"You don't even know this? Otherwise, you don't know that. Our family is the richest man in Suzhou, and the imperial shipping was undertaken by the Shen family. My young master is for the country and the people. He is obviously a Jinshi on the list and a Hanlin editor. He also took the initiative to ask for an outgoing person to come here to be an official!"

Zhao Yunfan was solemn and looked incredible: "Can the richest man in Suzhou still produce two Jinshi and Hanlin editors? Such a good future, he took the initiative to come to Huangzhou? Isn't he jumping into the pit? It's really... a noble character!"

A few officials actually felt despair. What does "a person who is richer than you work harder than you" mean? It is probably this feeling.

He is the richest man in Suzhou, and he can still become a Hanlin editor! Is this possible without the blessing of ghosts and gods and blessings of stars?
Chapter completed!