"Li Thief is turning back to the southeast, but there is still some distance from Haiyan. I suggest that we take advantage of the victory and capture Kanpu."
Zhang Mingzhen, who had just returned from Kanbei to participate in the battle of Xuyuan, pointed to the map and said, "Kanpu is very empty. There is only one battalion to surrender the traitors, with a strength of 500. The actual number of soldiers is no more than a hundred, and there are only a few dozen who can fight."
Guarding servants. But Kanpu is very wealthy. There are thirty-five salt fields in Zhejiang and Jiaxing, five in Jiaxing, and three in Haiyan County. Among them, Kanpu is the salt transportation center of Baolangchang to the west."
"Hangzhou has two Zhejiang Province salt envoy offices. There are four branches in Jiaxing, Songjiang, Ningshao, and Wentai. There are four batch inspection offices in Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, and Wenzhou. This Kanpu was originally the Kanpu under Haining Wei.
Later, there was a salt department and a salt patrol. The Baolang Salt Farm in Kanpu had a total of 21 salt regiments, 141 stoves, and 5,720 stoves.
One person can produce 7.05 million kilograms of salt annually, and this is only the official figure. In fact, Kanpu's private salt production is more than three times the official figure."
There are sun-brine salt fields everywhere along the coast of Haiyan. The vast majority of people are engaged in sun-brine-related industries or are engaged in the underground smuggling of salt.
A Kanpu Institute may seem inconspicuous, but it is the distribution center of private salt underground in Haiyan. There are a large number of salt warehouses and many private salt dealers there, and the wealth is astonishing.
The newly conquered Xu family is actually just a land snake. The Xu family controls many salt fields, has many salt stoves and salt cubes, and participates in private salt production.
"We are now taking advantage of the victory to capture Kanpu, which is better than the hundreds of Xuyuan we captured. The salt and money we obtained are enough for our Zhejiang soldiers to feed for several years."
Zhu Yihai didn't think that just after Zhang Mingzhen was promoted from commander-in-chief to admiral, he got carried away and started talking big words. Everyone knew how rich the salt merchants were. The Yangzhou salt merchants in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were extremely rich.
When the salt administration in the past dynasties was strong, private salt was the most profitable industry. Huang Chao, Wang Xianzhi, Wang Jian, Qian Liu and others in the late Tang Dynasty all started selling private salt. They later became emperors and kings, such as Chen Youliang in the late Yuan Dynasty.
They all started by selling private salt.
Those famous private salt dealers must be tycoons, ruthless and able to repay more money with more brothers.
Of course, for the imperial officers and soldiers, no matter how powerful the private salt dealers are, they will never have much visibility. After all, the national army is the most powerful violent institution, unless it is the end of the dynasty and the collapse of the country.
Admiral Zhang Mingzhen, the chief military officer of Zhejiang Province, obviously wanted to take advantage of the underworld. In the past, Zhang Mingzhen would also participate in some private salt smuggling and selling when he was in Shipu, but it was just a small incident at most.
“Will attacking Kanpu now alert others?”
"I think that we should capture Kanpu before Li Yuchun arrives, so that we can have a solid foothold. We can advance, attack, retreat, and defend. We can even use Kanpu City as an ambush.
Thief Li's prison is waiting for you to set up a net."
Zhang Mingyang also agreed with his brother's suggestion at this time.
They had just won another battle, and everyone was very happy. Although this victory seemed insignificant, as they just defeated a group of rogues, but when you think about it, it was not simple. This was their first victory since their journey to the north.
In particular, this victory also indirectly proves that the strategy proposed by Lu Jianguo is feasible. Another point is that the battle last night was indeed a beautiful one.
They defeated a rabble and captured all of them, more than 3,000 people. However, they only dispatched half of the flag-bearing battalion and some local warriors. However, none of their soldiers died in the battle, and only a few were slightly injured. It was still dark.
Accidentally sprained or injured your foot.
Such a victory is certainly something to be excited about.
Although Kanpu is a fortress with a garrison camp, its defense is even more empty, yet there is so much money here.
"Those salt merchants and private salt dealers must also have many thugs and servants, right?" Zhu Yihai proposed that the strongest force in Kanpu City is not the garrison that surrendered, but the private salt dealers who took any risks and made huge profits.
Criminal transactions must be supported by sufficient force.
Which of the drug lords and gangs in the Golden Triangle, Mexico, Brazil and other places where drugs are rampant in later generations is not strong in force? It is even stronger than the local police force.
"After all, private salt dealers are just a group of smugglers. Compared with the army, they are insignificant. They are like rats in the underground, quietly doing shameful things in dark corners. If they really want to fight openly and openly, they will not
It’s worth mentioning.” Zhang Mingzhen said disdainfully.
At this time, in the Jiangnan region, except for the heavy Tatar troops stationed in Nanjing and Hangzhou, other places were actually relatively weak, especially in the western Zhejiang region. After Duduo occupied Nanjing, he sent envoys to Wuyue to persuade them to surrender, and Qian Qianyi also sent
My own disciples who recruited customers went with me.
Then the surrender envoy met Yang Wencong, Ma Shiying's brother-in-law, on the way. Although this great talent in the late Ming Dynasty was Ma Shiying's brother-in-law, he was very loyal and brave. Before the fall of Nanjing, he was the governor of Zhenjiang and Changzhou, and supervised Jiang's waterproof division. Ma Shiying was also outstanding.
A battalion of Guizhou soldiers was given to him.
When the Qing army crossed the river, Zhenjiang Commander-in-Chief Zheng Hongkui and others abandoned the river and fled. However, Yang Wencong led his troops to fight in several battles. Unfortunately, as the governor and supervisor of the army, he did not actually have any actual military power. The troops were in the hands of various military leaders.
The military leaders fled without fighting, and Yang Wencong finally had no choice but to fight and pass, retreating all the way to the Changsu area.
Encountering Qian Qianyi and Duoduo's envoys heading south, Yang Wencong directly led his troops to intercept them halfway.
Duduo of Nanjing was furious when he heard this. He followed Qian Qianyi's suggestion and sent Boluo to divide his troops southward to suppress and plunder Jiangnan by force.
Boluo marched southward at a rapid pace. Along the way, almost all the defeated soldiers who had withdrawn from Nanjing fled, and the local garrison officers and officials in Suzhou and Hangzhou surrendered one after another.
Boluo arrived in Hangzhou almost without a fight, and captured King Lu, who had just been in charge of the country for five days.
Precisely because of its rapid march south, although the Qing army stationed a large force in Hangzhou, there were actually not many soldiers in Changsu, Songjiahu and other places between Nanjing and Hangzhou. Basically, they were all local Ming troops who surrendered at that time.
Later, he was promoted to a higher position and stayed where he was.
For example, Chen Wu, who was killed by Zhu Yihai before, was originally a general in Hangjiahu. When the Qing army arrived, he immediately surrendered and was appointed deputy commander-in-chief by Boluo.
It turned out that Chen Wu was also a talented person. As soon as Boluo's former army left, he went to support King Yiyang and was named the commander-in-chief. Then he became the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian and went south. In the end, he died at the hands of Zhu Yihai.
Historically, the anti-Qing upsurge that broke out in the Wuyue area in June and July was ostensibly caused by the hair-cutting order, but in fact it was because the Qing army at that time was only focused on going south to attack the newly established Lujian Kingdom in Hangzhou.
However, there was not much suppression of the garrisons in various places, and there was not enough force to deter the local areas. Many soldiers, gentry and officials in Jiangnan continued to resist the Qing Dynasty, which was why the subsequent great uprising was triggered by the hair-cutting order.
The Qing army later violently suppressed the rebels in various places, causing more than a dozen massacres.
So what Zhang Mingzhen said is correct. In fact, the Sanwu area from the south-eastern bank of the Yangtze River to the northeastern bank of Hangzhou Bay is now in a special vacuum period.
The regular army of the Ming Dynasty either lost or surrendered in the previous Nanjing Qinwang and fled, or the remaining second and third-line troops who stayed behind surrendered directly.
Then the Qing army went directly to Hangzhou without leaving troops or horses along the way.
As a result, various places were basically temporarily in a window of no one to control them. Many of the pseudo-prefectures and pseudo-prefectures appointed by the Tatars to surrender were originally low-status, and they were assistant officials or even just minor officials. For example, those in the capital of Jiaxing County
The fake county magistrate Hu Zhichen was just a charlatan selling medicine in front of the Tianning Temple in the county town when the Tatars passed by. Because he took the opportunity to greet the Tatars, flattered the Tatars, and offered medicine, he was directly captured by the commander.
He was awarded the title of magistrate of Xiushui County, Jiaxing Fucheng.
A charlatan selling counterfeit medicine suddenly became a county magistrate, but after all, he had no foundation, and if he wanted to carry out the order, he naturally had to use others, such as recruiting scoundrels, or even contacting some local wealthy families and chambers of commerce.
, and even cooperate with some underground black forces.
But this will inevitably lead to chaos.
During this period, it was indeed a time when everywhere was in chaos. Originally, with the Ming Dynasty, at least a superficial balance could be maintained. But now this balance has been broken, and all kinds of demons and ghosts have jumped out, and even some secret churches have begun to
The underground became public.
Take the city of Kanpu, for example. On the surface, the former guard officer who was promoted to garrison after surrendering to the Tatars was in charge, but in fact, the power was divided between several major families in Kanpu and the salt gangs.
Li Yuchun was originally on his way to Tongxiang to rob. Because of his big appetite and greed, he almost robbed all the way, grabbing whatever he went. As a result, he was delayed for some time on the way. In more than ten days, he still hadn't arrived in Tongxiang.
When he had almost plundered and was approaching Tongxiang, letters for help from the pseudo-officials in the rear who had surrendered before were sent to him like a snowflake.
At first, there were only sporadic letters asking for help. A group of remnants of the Ming Dynasty appeared in a certain place and invaded under the banner of a volunteer camp in a certain place. However, there were more and more letters like this.
There are also more and more soldiers and horses in the volunteer camp in the letter.
Five hundred here, a thousand there.
In the end, those pseudo-officials could only huddle in county towns and towns, not daring to leave their homes.
Anyway, later on, their rescue letter was very desperate, saying that these rebels had appeared outside the town and tried to attack the city every night.
They urgently needed the rescue of Li Junmen's soldiers and asked him to rush to suppress the rebels.
Li Yuchun originally wanted to rob Tongxiang first before going there. Anyway, it was just a little rebellion. Even if they killed those officials who had half a penny to do with him, the people who died were not one of his own. After they died, he would still be responsible for it.
It's better to arrange your own people.
But later, when even Bo Luobele from Hangzhou and the newly arrived Governor Zhang Cunren and Tian Xiong Town sent people to urge him to quell the chaos, he had no choice but to turn around and go south.
Of course, he still didn't believe the nonsense that there were remnants of the former dynasty's rural regiments all over the place.
What a fool, how could there be so many rural volunteer camps?