open sea

Chapter 106 March
Wu Duan's death touched Chen Mu a lot. The feeling of leading the guard alone is fundamentally different from when he was in Qingyuan Guard, more free and more restrained.

Freedom is because there is no past boss like Bai Yuanjie, and restraint is because of the cautiousness from the heart, and the promotion of official position cannot change the danger of doing wrong things.

On the contrary, a higher official position will make him more dangerous.

With the three hundred banner troops in Xiangshan County being hooked into the Thousand Households Office, Chen Mu's sense of power was greatly enhanced.

Besides money, he wants more, which can be put on the agenda.

He wanted to build a shipyard and gun factory in Xiangshan, and change Guan Yuangu's past state of building bird guns like a small workshop in the Zongqi Yamen, which was too petty for him.

How petty is it?
When he saw Guan Yuangu jingling the gun barrel in the yamen of thousands of households, he felt uncomfortable all over.

However, there were no private gun factories and shipyards in the Ming Dynasty. The guns and cannons were all made by the Bingzhan Bureau; Gun, in fact, is going to be sent to prison.

It's just that the quantity is small, and it can still be concealed. Even if it is discovered, no one is full enough to report it.

But Chen Mu still went to Governor Zhang Han's mansion with his waist card and cried poorly.

From morning to noon, Zhang Han left him to eat two pieces of snacks, which meant he needed [-] spearheads, [-] waist knives, and [-] quick guns.

Originally, Zhang Han also said to send dozens of firecrackers to the Xiangshan Guard, but Chen Mu didn't want it.

The blunderbuss he wanted and the profits from the battle of Wengyuan and Heyuan were all divided up by the Guangdong battalion soldiers, so the blunderbusses he wanted were meaningless to him.

The fast gun is for Deng Zilong. The old boss is very happy to use the fast gun to his face before charging on the battlefield. He was suddenly transferred to the guard system. Deng Zilong is not used to it.

In addition, there are gunpowder and lead pills, but these are not under the control of the yamen, and you have to go to the capital to ask for them.

He disappeared before finishing his weapons. Governor Zhang Han asked him some questions such as the situation of the Xiangshan Garrison. Chen Mu answered them fluently. After leaving, he wandered around the governor's office.

Regardless of whether it is the seventh rank or the eighth rank, if you say that you are a brother, you must be a brother. Even the governor's concierge let him chat for a while, and at the end he handed over two taels of silver.

When he came out of the governor's yamen, the sky was dizzy, he got stuck at the closed city gate and ordered out of the city, went to the Drum Belly Building where Yan Qingyao was guarding for some food, and asked Long Junxiong to run back to the Qianhu House with a torch in the starry night.

When he went out in the morning, Long Junxiong made a special trip to carry more than 50 taels of silver. When he returned to the Qianhu Office, he was relaxed and only had five taels left.

There is no other way for Chen Mu to deal with people. Above the eighth rank, respect in speech and behavior. For those above the eighth rank, chat first, and then give some small favors at the end.

This method is actually useless, it is nothing more than forming a good relationship, making people think of him when needed, and doing it with little effort.

"Chen Qianhu, the [-]-family banner army, I will hand over all the officials to the Qianhu Office."

In the end, the accounts of the [-] Banner Army households were handed over to the Qianhu Office, and Wei Balang led a team to gather outside the yamen. Zhou Xing said to Chen Mu, "When will Chen Qianhu be able to wipe out the local bandits in Huangliang?"

Zhou Xing wanted to get rid of the local bandits in Huangliangdu as soon as possible so that he could go to Haojingao and inspect the extrajudicial land that belonged to the edge of the Ming Dynasty. In the end, this became what he had to do.

"Hong Kong can only be banned for one month. If barbarians and merchants are allowed to take my Ming people away, Zhou will have no face to serve as the magistrate of Xiangshan County!"

"Cut off food, cut off the food in Haojingao, and ban Hong Kong for three months, can you?"

Zhou Xing was in a hurry, but Chen Mu was even more anxious than Zhou Xing.

He didn't know it before, and he didn't have the ability to take care of it when he knew it. Now he has the ability. If barbarians and merchants take away the Ming Dynasty women like livestock trafficking under his nose——he will be damned alive!

"Don't even talk about eight hundred thieves in Huang Liang. You brought them to Chen and sent them to death in a month." Chen Mu gritted his teeth and said, "Three months, not more than a day, Not even one day less.”

"The state capital's weapons have not been adjusted, the flag army's drills are not good, the supply of food and grass is not enough, and none of the soldiers and food skills are good. How do you ask Chen to take them to fight against the bandits?"

Not to teach the people to fight is to abandon it.

Chen Mu glanced at the Hundred Banner Army assembled outside the yamen. They still had the panic and uneasiness of suddenly becoming military households. Such soldiers are not enough to fight, so let them hold the best weapons of this era. , the battle can only fail.

Zhou walked away, and the state government didn't even allocate weapons to the Xiangshan Qianhu Office. He had no choice but to follow Chen Mu's suggestion to negotiate with the Portuguese in Haojingao.

With the threat of food shortages, they tried to ban Hong Kong for three months, and the merchants who were resident in Haojing were to coerce those merchants who were eager to leave Hong Kong.

This is not difficult, because there are still an endless stream of merchants from Fujian who travel far and wide. This has become a rule in Haojingao. It is only in June every year that Yi merchants earn enough goods to sail away, and there are still two months left.

At the same time, the Xiangshan Thousand Households Office has become even stricter in guarding against merchants who go away.

The three hundred banner troops were organized under the subordinates of Shi Qi, Wei Balang, and Lou Qimai, and were stationed at the Dufang Baihusuo, Dongan Baihusuo, and Qianhusuo respectively.The banner army trained in rotation for two days to ensure that three general banners were drilled outside the Yamen of Qianhusuo every day, and the other three general banners were responsible for patrolling and escorting missions respectively.

Their warships were docked in the river on the east bank, and there were countless Japanese pirates in Xiangshan. While leaving a general flag to guard the fleet, Qi Zhengyan also trained the flag army to become sailors there.

Monk Tianshi is capable, although many people gossip about this great monk's unscrupulous behavior, but his ability to use spears is nothing to say in the entire Qianhu House, and Long Junxiong is practicing in the Qianhu Yamen Teaching Banner Saber Technique is neither Shao Tingda's Bright Sword Technique nor his Japanese Sword Technique.

Time was running out, and under Chen Mu's suggestion, Monk Tianshi and Long Junxiong only taught the flag army one move - stabbing and chopping.

For the rest of the time, Chen Mu would personally lead the team of professors.

Taking advantage of the gaps in travel, Fujian merchants made Shi Qi and Lou Qimai, who led a team to patrol the territory, reap a lot of money. Almost every day, one or two merchants who led a smuggling team were caught, and they were taken to the prison in Xiangshan County. The escorted grain, saltpeter, sulfur, iron, and copper were detained and sent to the warehouse of the Qianhu Office.

In just over a month, more than 200 shi of rice grain were deducted.

As May approached, the Fanyi merchants in Haojing finally couldn't sit still, and repeatedly asked Xiangshan County to buy grain and go to sea.

Chen Mu sent a message to Chen Lin, who was in charge of coastal defense, asking him to transfer a general to Xinhui Port to inspect the sea after Zhou Xing informed the barbarians and merchants of the opening of the port in July.

At the same time, he sent Fu Yuan to Macau again, and invited Die Niang to come to the yamen of Qianhusuo.

He needs that team.

(End of this chapter)