national surname chiming

Chapter 44
On the Yangtze River, a fleet of [-] or [-] large sand ships sailed upstream with full sails.

Shen Shuren stood on the bow of the boat, watching the mountains on both sides of the strait receding one by one, still feeling a little uneasy.

After all, it was the first time for him to visit the inland provinces in his two lifetimes.The visual impact of seeing it with your own eyes is far beyond the geography knowledge in textbooks.

"Hiss... Am I going to Huguang to be an official? If the map didn't clearly say that this is Huangzhou, I would have thought that I was going to enter Sichuan via the Three Gorges." Shen Shuren couldn't help feeling emotional.

"The young master hasn't traveled far except for the capital, right? That's normal. Those of us who are used to running the Yangtze River know how dangerous it is to cross the lake. Otherwise, why would Jiangxi's grain grains be charged an additional two dollars for crossing the lake?" Shen his attendant Fu has traveled far and wide, and has been to all the provinces on the Yangtze River, explaining it nonchalantly.

At this moment, the fleet has entered the boundary of Huangzhou, and has passed the two counties of Huangmei and Guangji on the other side of the mouth of Poyang Lake, and then Qizhou.

Huanggang, the prefecture, was still under the control of the thieves, so the temporary office location Shen Shuren chose for himself, a fellow magistrate of Huangzhou, was in Qizhou.Qizhou goes further upstream through Qishui County, and further away is the enemy-occupied area.

When passing through Huangmei and Guangji yesterday, Shen Shuren thought that there were many plains in the boundary of Huangzhou, but only now did he know that those two counties were just special cases, and they were plains formed by the fluctuations and siltations of Poyang Lake over thousands of years.

After passing the mouth of Poyang Lake, there are high 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.There are only small rivers that flow down from the Dabie Mountains and flow into the Yangtze River, with some narrow valleys and plains on both sides.

The various counties are distributed on these river valleys and plains, so that there is no land route between them, and they need to climb very dangerous mountains.

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

But even so, it is cost-effective to travel by water. Who makes the cost of water transportation low?

"I threw myself into a trap and became an official in a place with poor mountains and rivers. This is not only a problem of thieves, but even the environment is so bad."

Seeing the pier in Qizhou County appearing on the river level ahead, Shen Shuren couldn't help laughing at himself.

Fortunately, he is very good at self-comfort, and after a little thought, he figured it out—if it wasn't for the dangerous place in the Dabie Mountains, how could he rely on the sky and the emperor to build his base far away?

Fertile plains are really cool, but the imperial court will see you farming well, and they can transfer you away with just a transfer order.Where mountains and rivers are blocked, the imperial court's control is also weak.

Otherwise, in "Three Kingdoms", Liu Yan, the warlord who was the first to move the heart of separatism in the late Han Dynasty, wanted to ask himself to be the shepherd of Yizhou, isn't it because the emperor in the mountains couldn't control it.

Others had to wait for Dong Zhuo's chaos in 190 years before they could switch from the logic of officialdom to the logic of fighting for hegemony. Those who switched early were wiped out by the court.As long as Liu Yan releases the rice thief Zhang Lu to intercept and kill the Han envoy, he can switch to the logic of separatism and hegemony in 187 and become his own emperor.

Space can be exchanged for time.The more inconvenient the traffic, the longer the time difference.

And at that moment, at this very moment.

Anyone who wants to be a warlord in an area with convenient transportation will be killed by the emperor in the 15th year of Chongzhen at the latest - "History of the Ming Dynasty" records that He Renlong preserved his strength and fell into the second governor. ?

It can be seen that Chongzhen was still able to kill local generals indiscriminately until 15 years ago.In history, Yang Sichang died at the end of the 14th year of Chongzhen because of fear of falling into the domain, which shows the emperor's control.

Zuo Liangyu's wolfish ambitions were exposed later than He Renlong's. After the beginning of the 16th year of Chongzhen, it was never heard that the emperor had the power to control the killing of local generals.

It can be seen that in that year, the world has completely shifted to the logic of "you have nothing to do with the imperial court, but you can only support you".

But Shen Shuren doesn't have to wait until the beginning of Chongzhen's 16th year to separate himself!He can exchange space for time, and start planning with the thinking of fighting for hegemony two and a half years in advance!

Set a small goal first, and become the overlord of the Dabie Mountains in the 15th year of Chongzhen!After solidly operating the base area and ensuring that the emperor's control is abolished, then swagger to expand the territory in the plains!

Using the title of Chongzhen Slaying the Herenlong, grasping this fleeting "window", the rhythm must not be chaotic.

Half a step ahead of the pace of the times, and may become a pioneer.One step ahead of the pace of the times, you will become a martyr directly.All the loyal acting skills that have been piled up before will be wasted in vain.

The Shark Arms who randomly segregated without thinking about the underlying logic are courting death.

……

The fleet quickly approached Qizhou Wharf.

When the tree sinker disembarked, a group of officials and soldiers on the shore had already lined up to greet him.It seems that the sentinel ship sent by the Shen family before was quite powerful.

But Huangzhou is a poor place after all, there is no ostentation, there is no display on the pier, and the planks of the trestle bridge look a little rotten, but everyone who should arrive has arrived, that's all.

After all, even in the 21st century, Huanggang is still a relatively poor city in Hubei.Otherwise, since ancient times, it would not have been used as a place of exile for officials who failed political struggles like Su Shi.

"Zhao Yunfan, Magistrate of Qizhou County/Jiangcheng, Magistrate of Huangmei County, met Tong Zhi."

Shen Shuren was stepping on the trestle bridge with trembling steps, and just landed and stood firm, when several county-level officials nearby came to greet him, and their attitude was not very positive.

It is estimated that the Shangguans who come here are used to being downcast and out of power, so there is no need to be too ingratiating.

"Thieves are rampant, and it is not easy for you to guard your place. This official is hereby ordered by the emperor to expel Liu Xiyao. In the future, I will ask you to work together to repay the country's grace."

Shen Shuren nodded kindly to everyone without putting on airs.Of course, he didn't know any of these small officials at the magistrate level, and it was impossible for him to leave his name in the history books.

Those few officials listened to Shen Shuren's tone of determination, and then carefully observed his appearance, and realized that this Shangguan was really young——

In the Shangguan resume they received before, there was no such unimportant information as Next Year Geng.The information in these small mountainous places is also blocked, and officials are not very well informed about the political changes in the outside world.

The leader, Zhao Yunfan, sighed: "My lord is full of vigor and determination to forge ahead. You must not have been driven to Huangzhou by your political opponents, right? I admire you for taking the initiative to take up the job here.

However, money and food are scarce in Huangzhou, and the population is dispersed. Now it is not easy to barely maintain the four counties.If it is necessary to send more military rations and forcefully conscript the villagers, I am afraid that more people will be forced to make a living.At that time, let alone expelling Liu Xiyao, even... Sigh. "

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

Shen Shuren's expression remained unchanged, he just confirmed the situation gently:
"How do you say 'barely maintaining the four counties'? Before I took office, the Ministry of War said that four of the nine counties in Huangzhou fell into the hands of bandits, and the five counties in the southeast were relatively affluent places, which were still under the control of the imperial court. Could it be that just when I took office? In more than half a month, another county was lost?"

Zhao Yunfan shook his head helplessly: "My lord, if you want to talk about five counties, that's fine—Luotian County is located in the upper reaches of Bashui River. It is said that it is still under the steadfastness of the local classics and history, and no bandits have been surrendered. Because it is too poor and remote, the bandits have not gone to attack. .

However, Huanggang, the prefecture in the lower reaches of Luotian County and at the mouth of the Bashui River, is now occupied by Liu Xiyao.Therefore, the roads leading to Luotian along the Yangtze River and Bashui waterway in the remaining four counties of Huangzhou have been cut off.Your Excellency wants to restore the whole territory of Huangzhou, Luotian's little money and food cannot be dispatched. "

Shen Shuren nodded, this is equivalent to an enclave in the mountains, and it is really impossible to count on it.

He tidied up his words and said encouragingly: "It seems that the situation is indeed not optimistic, but since I am here, you can rest assured that I will lead you to expel Liu Xiyao and make contributions together. As for searching for people's fat and anointing, this official will not do it.

All the recruited countrymen and soldiers of the original guards will not suffer from military rations and salaries. They only need to worry about training hard and fighting hard.This official has already made plans to spend money to become an official! "

Shen Shuren has already figured it out, the current territory is too small and too poor, it is impossible to maintain the operation of suppressing bandits by farming and producing blood by themselves.

Therefore, the Shen family can only rely on the Shen family to contribute money to overcome the initial difficulties and build up confidence.

Farming also requires planting, but the self-sufficient hematopoietic ability will take a year or two to slowly build up, and there is still time.The key now is to expand the territory as soon as possible.Otherwise, there are only a few counties, and there is not much profit from planting.

Zhao Yunfan and Jiang Cheng were quite surprised when they heard the words: What is the background of this Shangguan?In the Ming Dynasty, there were still good people who gave money to be officials?

"Okay, don't be dazed anymore, aren't you tired standing here, go to the county government office first, I brought some thin wine with the boat, please have a drink with my colleagues."

Shen Shuren didn't even intend to make the local officials pay for the banquet, he knew they couldn't afford it.

As they said, a lot of weapons, goods, money and food, various overseas crop seeds, poultry eggs, cubs, and hundreds of armed servants were brought down from the Shen family's fleet one after another.

The Shen family has one or two hundred seagoing ships, and usually has seven or eight thousand sailors and more than 1000 armed servants.

Shen Shuren's performance has been so good recently, of course his father gave him full authorization, and he would not let his son take risks alone.So the family gave him at least several 10 taels of cash dispatch, and also allocated five or six hundred armed servants, and five or six hundred sailors with weapons.

To put it bluntly, Shen Shuren, a colleague, came to the post with an armed force of 1000 people. This is also the largest resource that the Shen family can mobilize.If there are more, the safety of the sea and water transportation cannot be guaranteed, and there will be troubles.

Zhao Yunfan and Jiang Cheng were dumbfounded, but they didn't dare to ask him directly, so they finally found the opportunity to find Shen Shuren's entourage and ask him about his identity:
"My little brother, what is the background of this Shen Tongzhi? Why is he able to make such a bold move? We have lived in remote mountains for a long time, and our eyesight is really dull."

Shen Shuren's follower, Shen Fu, couldn't help being very proud when he saw that several county magistrates were smiling at him:
"You don't even know this? How about you don't know it? Our family is the richest man in Suzhou, and the imperial shipping is handled by the Shen family. My young master is doing this for the country and the people. He also took the initiative to ask to be released, to come here to be an official!"

Zhao Yunfan was in awe, his face full of incredulity: "The family of the richest man in Suzhou can still produce two Jinshi and Hanlin Xiuzhuan? Such a good prospect and he took the initiative to come to Huangzhou? Isn't this jumping into the pit by yourself? It's really... high-spirited and bright!"

A sense of despair rose in the hearts of several officials.What do you mean by "people who are richer than you work harder than you", I guess this is the feeling.

Everyone is the richest man in Suzhou, and he can still pass the imperial examination!Is it possible to say that there is no blessing of ghosts and gods and stars?
(End of this chapter)