The three boats stopped directly on the river beach. Yang Qin and others jumped off the river beach and came to see Han Qian.
This is also the reason why almost all flat-bottomed boats are built in Jianghuai, Sichuan and Hunan. The main reason is to facilitate docking on the beach. It is replaced by a large pointed bottom boat with a draft of five or six feet deep. Like the shallow silt near Canglang, it takes about ten meters long.
A trestle can be used to connect to the land.
At that time, the level of cast iron was limited, so it was very difficult to get a large anchor weighing more than 1,000 kilograms. There were no big trees on the beach that could be moored, and there were no anchors heavy enough to grab the river bed, so anchoring the ship in the water was also a problem.
Therefore, the Xuzhou Shipbuilding Yard, which is under construction, has many difficulties to overcome in order to build a true fast sailing ship.
Many people even think that there is no need to build the Xuzhou Shipbuilding Yard.
Han Qian was determined to have his own way in this matter. Whenever Ji Xiyao received a letter from him, he would reply first. Not only would he provide financial and food support, but he would also provide as much detail as possible for any technical difficulties Ji Xiyao encountered while preparing the shipbuilding yard.
To solve the problem, Ji Xiyao boldly tried the method he thought of.
It was a huge expense, and he shouldered it with all his strength. At the same time, he also tried his best to send those young craftsmen in the workshop who others thought were restless and unfettered by tradition to Xuzhou and transferred them to Ji Xiyao.
"You want to build a stronghold here?"
Yang Qin came to see Han Qian and was shocked to learn why Li Zhigao and Li Chong continued to go up the Danjiang River, but Han Qian stayed here with Tian Cheng and others.
Is this something that Zuo Si can do right now?
Yang Qin had been in the world for many years, and he dared to assassinate imperial officials to make money at Ji Li's instigation. He could be said to be a bold and arrogant person, but he never thought of building a city here.
Of course, if they can recruit three to five thousand capable civilians and have the money and food to support these civilians, this would be a logical thing, but where is the money and food, and where are the civilians?
At this time, the Zuo Si scouts who were transferred to Deng Xiang, plus the boat gang guards and sailors, totaled less than eighty people. How should this be done?
Capture wild people?
Although it is said that there are a large number of fugitive households living in strongholds in the deep mountains and wild ridges, most of these fugitive households are controlled by the remnants of the defeated side who have been defeated in the Deng-Xiang wars for decades.
After the war has subsided, perhaps all it takes is an edict from Jinling to allocate land, and these fugitive households will come out one after another to become naturalized citizens. But now we have to send people to recruit civilians in a peaceful manner, and not be shot back by a bunch of random arrows. That's called
Damn it.
Zuo Sicai is such an elite person, so don't think about being able to storm the stronghold.
The Longque Army may have been able to capture several mountain villas by force, but the Longque Army lost its troops and captured the stronghold. The money and food must have been divided into rewards for the brave generals and the captive mountain residents who had fled. They built a building at Jingzikou.
Building and building a stronghold does not require a large number of capable civilians?
Yang Qin was worried that Han Qian was squeezing the new ship gang too much, so he bluntly stated all the difficulties he could think of.
"There is a business in this world that has resulted in the death of countless people in recent decades, but it has been repeatedly banned. What do you think it is?" Han Qian asked Yang Qin with a faint smile.
Yang Tan Water Stronghold was first destroyed by him, and was later destroyed by Zhong Yanhu. Although when he destroyed Yang Tan Water Stronghold, we were enemies and Yang Qin could not blame him afterwards, but Yang Qin later attached himself to him, more because of the situation.
At this time, Yangtan Water Village was rebuilt in Xuzhou, and Guo Nuer, Lin Zongjing and others were also incorporated into the boat gang. Han Qian was not worried that Yang Qin would have different intentions, but it was obvious that he could not expect Yang Qin to have no ideas of his own and only treat him.
Fate is obedient.
When it’s time to persuade, you still have to be adaptable to persuasion.
"Smuggling salt?" Yang Qin asked in surprise, "Is it really possible for us to do this?"
The civil unrest that completely shaken the rule of the previous dynasty and swept across the country twenty or thirty years ago was originally caused by a group of private salt dealers.
Whether it was to learn lessons or to raise military funds, the suppression of illegal salt sales in Da Chu since the founding of the country was more severe than that of the previous dynasty. Every year, the number of salt criminals whose heads were beheaded for selling more than one stone of salt was not one thousand, but eight hundred.
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However, as far as the world is concerned, the profit from salt is too huge. Even if there are many people, it is still not possible to completely ban private salt.
When Han Daoxun and his son entered Xuzhou, the state prison was noisy. At that time, the state prison held 900 prisoners, 60% of whom were salt prisoners.
Yang Qin could easily think of the answer to Han Qian's question.
However, salt profit is currently one of the main sources of raising military resources. The iron and salt transfer envoys have such great authority that they have become the household department, above the department envoys. Salt officials are spread throughout the prefectures and counties, and they have many eyes and ears.
Not to mention, they still don't know how many people under Zhao Mingting, the Chief of Staff, are watching them.
If they really want to do this, why don't they hand the handle into the hands of Anning Palace and the Prince's family?
When the matter is exposed, not only will their lives be in danger, but the third prince who has offended the public will not want to fight for the heir, right?
"Where are you thinking," Han Qian said with a smile, "Why can't we sell salt openly? Yangtan Water Village has probably done a lot of selling and buying private salt in the past. You can't even think of this!"
"How can you sell salt openly?" Although Han Qian said that he should be able to think of it, Yang Qin was suddenly confused.
"Between the Jianghuai River and the Huaihe River, salt is transported and sold by officials, but salt in Xuzhou is transported and sold by merchants. Let me ask you, at this time, should the salt be transported by officials and sold by officials, or by merchants and merchants?" Han Qian asked.
"There is a Salt and Iron Institute Supervisor in Xiangzhou City. All salt used by officials and people in Xiangzhou must be bought from official shops. Naturally, it is official transportation and official sales here, right?" Yang Qin said uncertainly.
"Wrong!" Han Qian said, "Du Chongtao serves as the governor of Xiangzhou and also serves as the defense envoy of Deng and Xiang. In other words, he is in charge of the military and political affairs of Xiangzhou and the defense of Xiangzhou and Dengzhou. But don't forget, we are at this time
Standing on the territory of Junzhou. Not to mention civil affairs, in fact, Du Chongtao can't even get involved in local state soldiers, public security and other matters! Is it possible that the little supervisor of Xiangzhou Salt and Iron Academy can extend his tentacles to Junzhou?
Can you manage the salt affairs in Junzhou?"
"Ah? Is this really possible?" Yang Qin asked stupidly, but his face was still full of confusion.
"Can you straighten up? Our backer is His Highness the Third Prince, but he is also the deputy commander of the entire Northwest Army. How can you be so useless?" Han Qian asked with a smile.
The Dachu salt system implemented a system of official property, official transfer, and official sales. Any illegal salt exceeding one stone would be punished by execution. It was extremely strict, but there were very few exceptions.
Border states such as Chenxu are located in remote areas, and there are many water bandits and mountain bandits along the way. The salt business in these border states is implemented by government property, official collection, and commercial sales.
Junzhou has long been deserted.
In a hurry, the imperial court did not think of relocating Junzhou, but in order to limit the power of the frontier commander, the imperial court did not include Junzhou into Xiangzhou. It only temporarily handed over the defense of the Shu army in Liangzhou to Deng Xiang's defense envoy.
Government control.
However, Han Qian speculated on Du Chongtao's mentality, and he did not want to remind the imperial court of the resettlement of Junzhou.
On the one hand, there are no people here who can be naturalized, and the village will not accept recruitment. If the new prefectures and counties are established, what else can they do except waste money and food to support a group of officials?
On the other hand, when new prefectures and counties were established, the court was bound to send new governors. Why did Du Chongtao welcome a heavyweight official to share his authority?
If it were anyone else, trying to take advantage of this would undoubtedly lead to their own demise.
Ordinary people, whose surname has a long life, dare to say that the salt affairs, city building and other civil affairs here are not under the jurisdiction of the Xiangzhou Salt and Iron Academy, the Xiangzhou Governor's Office, and the Deng Xiang Defense Envoy's Office?
Others can't, but the third prince Yang Yuanpu can.
Theoretically, as long as the boat gang can get the salt, they can buy salt in bulk from the Yanguan at a price of one thousand yuan per stone and transport it to Junzhou for sale.
Of course, if there is really no people within the old territory of Junzhou, the trafficked salt will be in vain; if you dare to cross the border to sell salt to Xiangzhou or other prefectures and counties at this time, it will also be a death penalty, but the problem
It was Han Qian and the others who had just found out that there were a large number of runaways hiding among the mountains on both sides of the Han River and Danjiang River.
If Han Qian tried to register these fugitives in the state and collect taxes and corvee at this time, he would only arouse strong resistance. However, he could sell salt to them at a relatively low price, or exchange supplies with them, or even
Do they send people out to work in the mountains?
Chen Xu and other salt merchants in Bianzhou have been monopolized by wealthy families. Han Qian did not want to intensify the conflict and had no way to forcefully intervene in the salt affairs. But in the direction of Xiangzhou, how could he not take advantage of such a big loophole?
However, the salt incident was just an excuse used by Han Qian to persuade Yang Qin and others to work hard and support the matter. His more fundamental purpose was to promote the reorganization of Junzhou.
Yang Qin slowly digested it and thought carefully about the benefits that the salt matter might bring to Zuo Si, while Han Qian stood by the river and looked at the clouds and water in the distance.
In early September, after Han Qian knew that Liang Guo was actively preparing for war, he tried to persuade Li Pu, the Marquis of Xinchang, and others to get the Dragon Bird Army to participate in the war. But what could the Dragon Bird Army do when it participated in the war? This was what Han Qian had been thinking about for more than a month.
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If the Liang Army had no plan to invade the Nanyang Basin this winter, and had no plan to launch an offensive from Wuguan, would the Dragon Bird Army have taken a trip to Xiangzhou, and then just patted its butt and transferred to Jinling?
Perhaps most of the generals and even generals may think so in their hearts.
For people like Guo Rong, Guo Liang, Gao Chengyuan and others, even if they do not have outstanding military achievements, they still have hard work without merit. Their seniority in the military will be somewhat thickened, which will also make it easier to obtain better generals in the future.
job.
After all, there are only a few generals who have their heads tied to their waists and are ambitious enough to compete for military glory on bloody battlefields.
Even Shen Yang, deep down in his heart, hopes that the countries can settle their disputes.
From the bottom of his heart, Han Qian also hoped to be able to wander in the gentle countryside and never leave. However, the cruel reality forced him to suppress this desire and extravagant desire in the deepest part of his heart, preventing it from sprouting even a little bit.
Even if the war that Liang Army is going to launch this time is mainly against the Shouzhou Army and will not send large numbers of troops into the Nanyang Basin, its Guanzhong troops will only strictly guard the gate in the direction of Wuguan and will not make any unnecessary moves. Han Qian will definitely not
This will prevent the Longque Army from doing anything more in the next three to five months.
That is equivalent to the Dragon Bird Army wasting three to five months of precious time!
Thinking that Emperor Tianyou would probably have less than three years left to live, Han Qian wished he could divide his time into several parts to spend.
The best result that Han Qian can see at present is that Liang Jun invades now and then holds the Nanyang Basin for two or three years. The Longque Army is also forced to stay in Xiangzhou until the death of Emperor Tianyou.
Even if the prince successfully ascends the throne and the An Ning Palace takes over the power, as long as Han Qian stays in Xiangzhou with an elite group of Dragon Bird Army, he will have more choices and will not have to worry about his head falling to the ground at any time and his life being in danger.
Of course, given the current situation between Liang and Chu, no one has the strength to continue a war spanning thousands of miles for two or three years without withdrawing their troops.
However, the Longque Army can still strive for the opportunity to at least secure one of its troops to station on the western frontier and not withdraw to Jinling.
This is the reason why Han Qian tried his best to encourage the Dragon Bird Army to take over the defense of the three counties of Dengxi when he was in Jinling, and persuaded Li Pu, the Marquis of Xinchang, to operate in Jinling and strive to restore the Junzhou establishment.
It has not been a special case since the previous dynasty for princes or ministers to control prefectures and counties from afar.
The so-called remote leadership actually means that the third prince can stay in Jinling, but he can still hold the posts of governor of the state, even defense envoy, military envoy, etc., and then send his direct subordinates to stay in the state and county to manage military and political affairs.
When Han Qian was in Jinling, he expressed his idea of striving to establish a new Junzhou. Xinchang Hou Li Pu and Li Zhigao also felt that this was a wonderful strategy to expand the strength of the Longque Army. However, if this strategy was not implemented at this time, there would be controversy.
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After all, the Dragon Bird Army is too short of money and food now.
The potential of Wan Honglou and Xinchang Hou had been drained, otherwise they would not have allowed Han Qian to raise large amounts of loans in the name of the third prince.
Of course, Han Qian couldn't beat his chest and swear that the old guy, God You Emperor, would definitely not live for three years, so everyone just put their heads in their belts and do it.
In the eyes of Xinchang Marquis Li Pu, Emperor Tianyou, who was over sixty years old, was still very energetic. At this time, Emperor Tianyou had obviously cultivated the third prince, and he did not want to be too eager, lest any link go wrong and the success would fall short.
Lose everything.
At this time, Han Qian needed to find another way, and the first lever to pry open these many things was the salt matter.