The fleet traveled for more than ten days, getting closer and closer to Jining Prefecture. That night, the night was dark. In the darkness, Wu Shigong held the passionate Qiong Niang from his back and felt the gentle movement of the boat under him.
Shaking, I felt very peaceful in my heart.
But Wu Shigong suddenly noticed that Qiong Niang's body was shaking slightly. Wu Shigong touched Qiong Niang's face and found that her hands were full of tears. Wu Shigong asked softly: "What's the matter?"
When Qiong Niang heard Wu Shigong's concern, she couldn't help turning over and leaning on Wu Shigong's chest and said: "Master, the slave family is afraid. The slave family is afraid of returning to De Mansion."
Wu Shigong understood Qiongniang's worries. After all, Qiongniang used to be the wife of the magistrate of Qi County. There were always some official family members coming and going in Guide Mansion, and there would be some acquaintances. Qiongniang was afraid that these acquaintances in Guide Mansion would recognize her.
Wu Shigong could only stroke Qiong Niang's smooth back and comfort her: "It doesn't matter, we will only stay in Guide Mansion for a few days. As long as you stay in the inner house, no one will know your identity. In a few days,
In a few months, we will move to Runing Mansion, and by that time, no one will know you."
Although Wu Shigong's comfort could not completely dispel Qiongniang's worries, Qiongniang still felt very warm in her heart. She said: "The slave family knows that the master is good to the slave family. The slave family has known about the master's good temper before."
"Oh? How did you know before?" Qiong Niang's words immediately aroused Wu Shigong's interest.
"It's the old man...it's what my late husband said to me during a casual chat."
Qiong Niang's words made Wu Shigong even more interested. He quickly urged: "Then what did County Magistrate Qi say about me? Tell me quickly." Everyone is interested in what others say about themselves behind their backs.
, Wu Shigong is no exception.
"The slave has told me, master, please don't be angry."
Wu Shigong smiled and patted Qiong Niang's pink buttocks and said, "I'm definitely not angry."
"My late husband said: I look like a warrior, and he is brave and capable in battle, but in the officialdom, he is just...just..."
Wu Shigong patted Qiong Niang's pink butt again and said, "Speak quickly."
"He looks like a strong man and has a heart like a woman or a child."
Wu Shigong was stunned by County Magistrate Qi's previous comments about him. He was indeed a little annoyed. According to Magistrate Qi's comments, didn't he become a sissy?
But when Wu Shigong calmly thought about it, he realized that County Magistrate Qi's comments still made some sense. In the past, in order to keep the official position of acting as agent for Qianhu, Wu Shigong always intentionally or unintentionally avoided any conflicts in his actions, and did not take advantage of his own strength.
What benefits have they obtained for themselves by using force? Until now, they have only collected a few hundred taels of "protection fee" every year in the small town under Qianhusuo Fortress.
However, Wu Shigong's behavior was very inconsistent with his official position. In the Ming Dynasty, which was a completely official system, Wu Shigong's behavior could be said to be that of an otaku.
And this time Wu Shigong came back to expand the army, it was completely desperate and burning the boat. Wu Shigong decided that since the world was about to be in chaos, after returning this time, Wu Shigong would completely tear off the mask of hypocrisy on his face and take out the
The arrogant nature in the previous life comes from.
Seeing that Wu Shigong remained silent, Qiongniang carefully rubbed her body against Wu Shigong and said, "Master, are you angry at what I said?"
Unexpectedly, Wu Shigong turned over, pressed Qiong Niang under him, and said with a smile: "Little lady, now let you take a good look at what kind of man I am."
"Master, I don't want it! My family can't bear it."
…
When the fleet finally arrived at Jining Prefecture Wharf, Wu Shigong was surprised to find that Zhang Xuebin, Yuan Xingshan and Zheng Zhen all arrived and greeted Wu Shigong at the wharf.
Seeing the worried looks on the faces of the three people, Wu Shigong knew that there must be some trouble in Qianhusuo Fortress. He first arranged for the officers to let the soldiers disembark, and then took the three people to his cabin and asked Qianhu
What happened in the fortress comes.
After the three people sat down, they immediately reported to Wu Shigong: Ever since Wu Shigong led the army to Qin Wang, news about the Tatars raging in the capital has spread in Guide Mansion.
And because Wu Shigong did not follow the army of King Qin of Henan and did not go to Tongzhou to join the army of King Qin of Henan in the end. Therefore, many rumors spread about Wu Shigong's army. The most exaggerated rumor is that Wu Shigong's army
The army met the Tatar army and was completely wiped out.
Therefore, the relatively calm situation that was originally suppressed by the strong force of Wu Shigong's army has become somewhat chaotic. In addition, there has been a severe drought in Henan this year, and the number of refugees has suddenly increased. Now the situation in Guide Prefecture and Runing Prefecture can be said to be...
Chaos.
Under the influence of this situation, Wu Shigong's industry has also been greatly affected. The income of those workshops has dropped sharply, and has fallen to about half of last year.
But this is not the most important thing. First of all, the bandits who surrendered to Wu Shigong last year and the year before last and were sorted out by Wu Shigong became chaotic. At the beginning, those bandits were still taking advantage of Wu Shigong's reputation and did not dare to openly quarrel with each other.
The orders issued by the fortress are at best followed and disobeyed.
However, as rumors spread that Wu Shigong would not come back, and with the addition of the refugees, the bandits became more and more powerful, and these bandits were ready to move. However, because the number of soldiers remaining in Qianhusuo Fortress was not
However, out of concern, Xue Yongli did not dare to send large troops to exterminate those disobedient bandits.
However, when the bandits saw that their disobedient behavior did not arouse any reaction from the Qianhu fortress, the bandits immediately became emboldened. They returned to their true nature as bandits and began to plunder everywhere.
The situation is even more serious for the bandits in the mountainous area in the northern part of Runing Prefecture. After learning about Wu Shigong's departure, Li Yaozi somehow came back. He attracted some of the villagers who had been close to him in the past and recruited some refugees. His power soon increased.
It grew stronger.
Li Yaozi's move would definitely arouse the reaction of Lei Ying, the bandit boss in the northern mountainous area of Runing Prefecture. Lei Ying gathered more than 600 of his men and notified Qian Qi, who was stationed at Li Yaozi's village, to let him
Qian Qi led some soldiers and joined Lei Ying to destroy Li Yaozi.
However, the news of Thunder Eagle's dispatch was betrayed to Li Yaozi by one of Thunder Eagle's traitors. Li Yaozi took advantage of the situation and set up an ambush on the road where Thunder Eagle and Qian Qi met, catching Thunder Eagle off guard. Most of the men gathered by Thunder Eagle were lost.
, Lei Ying was also seriously injured. If Qian Qi had not noticed that something was wrong and accelerated and arrived in time, Lei Ying would have died in the ambush.
However, after receiving this blow, Li Yaozi's momentum suddenly grew stronger, and more and more bandits joined him. Therefore, in the mountainous area in the northern part of Runing Prefecture, only the area close to Wu Shigong's Qianhu fortress is still intact.
Except for the control of Qian Qi and Lei Ying, the rest of the place was controlled by Li Yaozi.
Because the bandits were raging, and because those bandits no longer accepted the Qianhusuo fortress, and even bandits like Li Yaozi had a blood feud with Wu Shigong, during the process of escorting the caravan, the escorting soldiers and the bandits had exchanged fire for three times.
Four games. Fortunately, Wu Shigong still left a little prestige after all. So the bandits did not dare to do anything wrong. Therefore, the soldiers escorted by Wu Shigong only suffered seven or eight casualties in the exchange of fire.
But even the loss of such a negligible manpower was unacceptable to the Qianhusuo Fortress at that time. In the end, Xue Yongli had no choice but to give up the trade route to Runing Mansion and only maintained the
Escort work on the trade route from Guide Prefecture to Jining Prefecture.
There is another very important reason why Xue Yongli gave up the trade route to Runing Prefecture: that is, since the beginning of this spring, the salt business of Lu Jianchen and Wu Shigong has stopped.
In fact, at the end of last year, Lu Jianchen sent someone to the Qianhusuo Fortress to inform them that the Lu family had lost the qualification to do salt business. Starting from this year, the Lu family would no longer be able to supply salt to Wu Shigong.
After the beginning of spring, the Qi family, who was also a Yangzhou salt merchant, sent a steward to Qianhusuo Fortress and Lu Yunhuan respectively, telling them that starting from this year, their Qi family would provide salt. However, the supply to
The price of Wu Shigong's salt products will be increased from one tael of silver per stone to two taels of silver.
After getting the news, Yuan Xingshan and Zheng Zhen, who were in charge of business, visited Lu Yunhuan, who had a close relationship with the Lu family, and asked him to find out what happened?
However, Yuan Xingshan and Zheng Zhen did not find out anything from Lu Yunhuan, and they later learned that the price of salt supplied to Lu Yunhuan by the Qi family had not increased. Yuan Xingshan and Zheng Zhen analyzed it and thought that the price increase was
This situation should also be related to the rumor that Wu Shigong will not come back.
In addition, a large part of the mountainous area in the northern part of Runing Prefecture is already controlled by Li Yaozi. Therefore, starting from this year, Wu Shigong's salt business can be said to have been paralyzed for a large part, and his income is only what it was last year.
Two or three percent.
Also, although Henan suffered from a severe drought, in previous years Wu Shigong organized manpower to clear rivers and overhaul water conservancy. Therefore, this year Wu Shigong and nearby Yao Yuanwai's fields were not affected by the disaster, but also obtained a relatively good harvest. This is why the three people today
When reporting to Wu Shigong, the only good news he said was.
But because of this good harvest, it also brought trouble. Some gentry nearby coveted the 7,000 acres of land purchased by Wu Shigong to provide money and food for the militia. They took out some old land deeds from whom they did not know where they came from.
They insisted that some of the land belonged to their family and took the lawsuit to the county magistrate Yu Zilian.
Due to Yu Zilian's bias, the prospect of that lawsuit was not good. If the exact news of Wu Shigong's defeat had not been received, Yu Zilian might have already awarded the land to the gentry.
But with so many unfavorable things, because of what Wu Shigong once explained before setting off - under the principle of maintaining the status quo and avoiding conflicts as much as possible, the people staying in the Qianhu fortress did not dare to make drastic actions at will, so that
Now the income of Qianhusuo Fortress has shrunk to less than half of last year.
After reporting all this, Zhang Xuebin looked at Wu Shigong's face and asked carefully: "Sir, just come back. We finally have a backbone. But sir, what should we do in the future?"
Wu Shigong kept listening to the bad news. Although he frowned, his face remained calm. After hearing Zhang Xuebin's words, Wu Shigong slowly replied: "There is nothing to do. There is no time now, let alone the leisure time.
Go ahead and talk."
While Wu Shigong was speaking, he kept looking out the cabin window. Zhang Xuebin, Yuan Xingshan and Zheng Zhen followed Wu Shigong's gaze and saw that a group of soldiers were pushing an artillery piece from the ship to the shore.