Fenghou

Hu Yun sighed and said: "The key is the timing. This time the imperial court suffered a disastrous defeat. They were actually defeated by the signing army. The entire army of [-] troops was wiped out. How many people have completely lost hope in the imperial court."

Zheng Tongquan pondered for a moment and said, "I can give you a suggestion!"

"Please say!"

"In fact, there is still a chance for the imperial court to revive. If the emperor abandons the past and reuses famous generals such as Li Gang, Zhang Jun, Wu Yi, Liu Ziyu, and Yue Fei, to prevent this from happening, I think the special envoy must take countermeasures."

"Does the proprietor have any good suggestions?" Hu Yun asked after a while.

Zheng Tongquan said indifferently: "Zhao Gou is very suspicious. He dismissed Yue Fei because he suspected that Yue Fei had colluded with King Yong secretly. The same is true for others. The special envoy can make a fuss about it, such as sending someone to send Yue Fei and others Good wine and tea, winter clothes and medicines, Jingzhao local products, etc., the person monitoring Yue Fei will definitely report to the emperor immediately. With the suspicious character of the emperor, he will only demote Yue Fei and others farther and farther, and will never Will use him again."

Hu Yun nodded, "I know what to do."

At this time, Hu Yun suddenly remembered something, and said with a smile: "I almost forgot, I plan to ask you to borrow 8 taels of silver as a working capital to help those wealthy businessmen who want to go to Jingzhao leave."

Zheng Tongquan stroked his beard and smiled happily: "I have the money, I will give it to you when I arrive in Lin'an!"

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

When Hu Yun returned to Lin'an, Dong An found him. Five wealthy businessmen were willing to pay [-] guan, hoping to leave Lin'an as soon as possible and go to Jingzhao.

At noon, Hu Yun met five proprietors. Besides Wang An from Lao Yao Teahouse, Hu Yun also knew another person, Li Shao, the proprietor of Qingyun Restaurant.

"Why, Li Dongzhu is leaving too, and Qingyun Restaurant is sold?"

Li Shao sighed, "Uncle Wei Guo took a fancy to Qingyun Restaurant, even drank five glasses of wine, and paid me ten taels of silver for each one, even if I sold it at half price, no one dared to accept it. I can admit it, and leave with the house deed and title deed, I believe that one day when I come back, that piece of land will still be mine."

Hu Yun comforted him and said: "There is no other way. He can occupy your restaurant, but he cannot occupy your land in a short time. Even if he colludes with the government to forcibly change the land lease, you can still change the land lease by appealing in the future. But it takes time and luck."

Of course, Hu Yun can only comfort him. In fact, once the land deed is changed, basically he will not come back. Just like Bianliang, many houses that were taken back by the puppet Qi officials were taken back, but all of them were used as official houses, and they were not returned. to the original owner.

Hu Yun called the five people together, and said to them: "Treasurer Dong told you the plan, do you all accept it?"

The solution Hu Yun said was to exchange their copper coins for silver, and then give them the copper coins in the same proportion after arriving in Jingzhao.

Wang An raised his hand and said, "May I ask Special Envoy Hu, we also have some gold and silver, do we want to exchange them together?"

Hu Yun asked, "How much gold and silver do you have?"

"Each family has a few hundred taels of gold and a few thousand taels of silver, which are accumulated little by little."

"What else but gold and silver?"

"The others are some jewellery, which don't occupy much land, such as house land, silks, jade and other properties. They are all sold. If they can't be sold, they are also given to relatives."

Hu Yun nodded, "I bring the gold, silver and jewelry with me. I only exchange everyone's copper coins. Let me make a count and see how much copper coins need to be exchanged."

Hu Yun made some statistics, five households, a total of 30 guan, it needs 6 taels of silver.

He said to everyone: "I will tell you the process. First, everyone will go back and put all the copper coins in boxes or sacks. Then tonight and tomorrow night, I will send ships and warriors from door to door to receive the copper coins. The day after tomorrow Early in the morning, everyone will go to Xiaoshan County by boat and exchange for Wanshi Seaship in Xiaoshan County. At that time, you will see your own silver. Here I want to emphasize that since you choose me, you must trust me, trust me or trust me His Royal Highness King Yong, please sign and pledge, there is still time to withdraw, but we must keep it a secret for everyone."

The five rich merchants have been thinking about it for a long time, and their property has been sold, so it is too late to turn around now. More importantly, they dare not go to the black market to exchange too much silver, and they will be watched by robbers. After much deliberation, they can only trust King Yong. people.

Without any hesitation, the five of them signed and pledged on the entrustment agreement, entrusting their wealth and lives to Hu Yun.

……

That night, Wei Yanzong led more than a dozen cargo ships to transport the copper coins of each household to the special envoy of King Yong. It was the safest place. Zhao Gou reached an agreement that there are three places in Lin'an City that belong to Prince Yong's Mansion, one is the Special Envoy's Mansion in Yujie, the other is the "Beijing News" newspaper office, and the other is the warehouse in the south of the city. If the Song army forcibly breaks into these three places , it is regarded as declaring war on the Western Army.

On the third day, at dawn, the five families came out from the back door of the "Beijing News" newspaper office with their families. They lived in the newspaper office last night. They all carried a few heavy boxes, which were their own gold and silver.

The samurai carried the big box to the big ship for them, and everyone boarded the ship with their wives and children. The two big ships sailed out of the city with the banner of the Western Army.

If it is an ordinary cargo ship, when going from the city to the canal, there will be two checkpoints. One is at the city gate, and the other is the checkpoint outside the city entering the canal. There were not many checkpoints before.

But now the imperial court is becoming less and less confident, and the inspection is becoming more and more strict. Unless there is a special pass, all ships must strictly check the tax bill and board the ship for search.

There are special ships with special passes, such as official ships, military ships, and special envoy ships. At present, there are only two special envoy ships, the special envoy ship of Jin Kingdom and the special envoy ship of King Yong.

In the past, special envoy ships were exempted from inspection for passenger ships, but since last year, if there are less than three special envoy Qianshi cargo ships, they can also pass without inspection.

Therefore, it is basically impossible for the five wealthy businessmen to smuggle 30 copper coins and a large amount of gold and silver out of the city privately, unless they file with the government, find someone to guarantee or pay tens of thousands of guarantee money, or buy goods and pay taxes. Tax bills out of town.

The two large ships arrived at Nantumen. Outside the city was the moat, and then entered the canal from the moat. After traveling south for more than ten miles, they sailed into the Qiantang River.

Nantumen is the same as other city gates. There are guards and tax collectors. When goods enter the city, they have to pay taxes, and when goods leave the city, they need to check the goods list. The goods list is somewhat similar to the invoices of later generations. After the tax collectors get the goods list, they disembark with the soldiers. Go to check, the goods are all right, and the tax collector will stamp a stamp on the list.

When going to another city to sell goods, you need to show the list for tax payment. After returning to Lin’an, the businessman has to submit the list and tax bills to the tax office, and the business is considered over.

In the past, there was no need for any list, and there was no need to go to the so-called review of the tax office. However, in the early years, Sichuan and Shaanxi implemented commercial tax exemption, which led to a large number of merchants purchasing goods in Jiangnan and then going to Sichuan and Shaanxi to sell them instead of selling locally in Jiangnan. There were shortages, rising prices, and the imperial court had no business tax revenue.

The imperial court had to take measures. Since last year, it has added tax cards in various places. It is possible to sell goods in Sichuan and Shaanxi, but you must pay the tax before leaving. The imperial court is afraid that merchants will escape the checkpoints by taking small paths, so they implement a cargo list and review system. Merchants If you don't take the tax bill and the goods list to the tax office for review within one year, it will be regarded as tax evasion and arrest, and you will not only be fined heavily, but also convicted and exiled.

Of course, there are still many ways to evade taxes. The most common way is to take advantage of the difference in tax rates. For example, the goods purchased on the cargo ship are silk and satin, but the cargo list says hessian cloth. The tax rate for silk is one cent, and the tax rate for hemp is only three Percentage, there is a [-]% tax rate difference in the middle, and the quantity is often underreported.

But this kind of tax evasion is often the talent of the powerful. The tax card does not dare to offend the powerful. It often says as much as it is, and it is what is written on the list. It will not disembark to check the goods carefully.

Ordinary businessmen dare not evade taxes easily. Ordinary businessmen use the method of bribing checkpoints, but there are many checkpoints along the way, and the money for bribes is often much higher than the tax money. .

A dozen ships were queuing out of the city. Checking the list and searching the ships was slow. Two large ships passed by, and the soldiers shouted "Stop!"

Wei Yanzong stood at the bow of the boat and held up a gold medal for exemption from inspection. Only the special envoys of Prince Yong's Mansion and the envoys of the Kingdom of Jin have gold medals for exemption from inspection. Several soldiers shrank back in fright and asked, "Is it also in the back?"

"Two ships together!"

The soldier waved his hand and shouted, "Let go!"

The two large ships sailed out of the city gate and headed south along the moat. There was a checkpoint at the mouth of the canal ahead, but it was unimpeded for the special envoy ship...

In the afternoon of the same day, five wealthy businessmen and their families changed into the Wanshi Sea Ship in Xiao County, and they also got their 6 taels of silver.

It was only at this time that all the people finally gave up their hearts. They handed over the copper coins they had accumulated for several generations, but they didn't get the silver. For two days, their hearts were hanging in the air.

Two hours later, the Wanshi cargo ship set off, slowly turned around and headed towards the Yangtze River.

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

The Nanqing River has always been the third largest river on Shandong Road, second only to the Yellow River and Jishui. The river is wide and gentle, and has always been an important waterway in Shandong Road.

This morning, a small passenger boat of [-] stone sailed from the south. There were three boatmen, one boatman and two apprentices, and the guests were two young men, one tall and one short, both wearing warrior uniforms with long swords on their backs , at first glance, he looks like a ranger wandering in the rivers and lakes.

There are so-called martial arts sects in any dynasty, which are basically temples and Taoist temples, but Jianghu sects like the Huashan sect that purely focus on martial arts training generally do not exist. The reason is also very simple. Shaolin sect, Wudang sect, and Quanzhen sect exist. It is because of faith, why does the Huashan School exist?

However, in the major counties, there are many industries that rely on martial arts for a living, mainly martial arts, which take over business such as security, guards, escorts, etc. A large number of low-level warriors also rely on martial arts to earn a living.

In addition to the martial arts hall, there are also many freelancers with martial arts skills. They travel around with their backs on their backs. They seem to be doing nothing, but in fact they are not.

Either they are assassins, accept high rewards, assassinate the employer's enemies, change their names after killing, and wander around the world, but the most common warrior profession is bounty hunters, looking for targets based on various rewards, usually using heads to receive rewards , not only the official rewards, as long as there are rewards, there will be them.

A little farther away, these two warriors are not rangers, they are scouts of the Western Army, the taller one is called Huang Dong, a deputy commander of the scouts, he shot and killed the leader of the Jin army Zheke at the head of Luoyang City the year before last He was promoted by Chen Qing to be the head of the scouts, and then he went deep into Shandong Road to investigate the military situation.

Although Huang Dong is from Guanzhong, he can speak a Laizhou accent, and he is very alert. Last year, he searched for information on Shandong Road, but was not discovered by Jin Bing.

This time he was ordered to inquire about the situation of Jin Guo's navy. Several of his subordinates dressed up, three of them dressed as boatmen, Huang Dong and another of his subordinates pretended to be boat passengers, they were all in the same group, but they pretended to be two identities.

The boatman's surname is Han, and he is the head of the scout. He looks like he is in his forties, but he is actually only 30 years old, and he looks old.

Han Dutou smiled while shaking the oar: "Commander, Liang Shanshui is too big, with a radius of hundreds of miles, and it is not easy to find enemy warships. I suggest finding a fishing village nearby. Asking about it, they might know where the golden soldier warship is hidden?"

Huang Dong nodded, "I also have the same intention, but let's go around Liangshanpo first, if we can't find it, then go to the east coast of Jeju. There are many fishing villages there, so we should be able to find clues."

Not long after, their boats sailed into Liangshan Water Park. Liangshan Park is located between Jeju and Yunzhou. It was called Juyeze or Dayeze in Sui and Tang Dynasties. Because the northernmost mountain was called Liangshan, it was called Liangshanbo in Song Dynasty. , Song Jiang and other 36 people gathered here to revolt, leading to a "Water Margin", which became famous in later generations.

The boat sailed into Liangshan Po, the sky began to rain lightly, and the lake was completely white. The boat walked along the shore as far as possible. In the afternoon, a small fishing village appeared in front of it, surrounded by lush reed ponds.

"There's an old man over there!"

One of his subordinates had sharp eyesight and found a fishing boat moored by the reed pond, and an old man was sitting on the fishing boat to adjust the fishing nets.

"Go up and ask!"

The boat went up to meet him, Huang Dong cupped his fists on the bow: "Ask the old man!"

The old man glanced at them and said with a smile: "You want to find out where the golden soldiers are? Right!"

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, this old man is amazing!He could see through them at a glance.

Huang Dong asked confusedly: "How does the old man know?"

"Aren't you avoiding the golden soldiers to catch the strong men?"

Only then did everyone understand that this was the guess. Huang Dong laughed dryly and said, "We are afraid of encountering the Jinbing navy, so we dare not walk along the main waterway. It is best to know where the Jinbing is? We can avoid it. "

"You should walk along the east bank. Jinbing Water Village is on the Liangshan side, and it's easy to find it if you go west."

Huang Dong was overjoyed, he got the clue of Jinbing Water Village so quickly.

"Thank you old man, let's turn around!"

The ship turned around and headed east again...

Night fell quietly, and a bay in the west of Liangshan was brightly lit, and the shore was full of tents. It was difficult to find Jinbing Water Village during the day, but at night, it could be seen at a glance from a long distance on the water.

At this time, the small boat that Huang Dong was on gradually approached the water village along the shore. The boat was hidden behind a boulder on the water. Huang Dong took two of his men into the water silently and swam towards the water village.

Not long after, they got close to the outer wooden fence of the water village. The wooden fences were so densely spaced that people couldn't get through, but they could see the situation inside the water village through the gaps.

The water surface in the water village is not large, and it is full of boats, but they are not warships, but converted from civilian boats, all of which are under a thousand stones, and the number is about [-].

Huang Dong secretly counted, there are about 4000 thousand stone warships, and the rest are sentinel ships. Looking at the camp on the shore, plus logistical support, the naval army only looks like three to four thousand people.

Huang Dong observed for a while, and he probably had an idea in his mind.

"let's go!"

He made a gesture, dived into the water with his men, and swam to the distant hiding place.

……

The Western Army has already built three pontoon bridges on the Yellow River, and the point of crossing the river is in Xiao County, where the water is the most gentle and it is easy to build pontoon bridges.

It took 20 Song troops two days to cross the New Yellow River. On the east bank of the Yellow River, Liu Qiong led an army of 20 troops who had already arrived one step ahead, ensuring that the [-] troops crossed the Yellow River smoothly.

Liu Qiong stepped forward to salute Chen Qing, "Please refer to Your Highness for humble posts!"

Liu Qiong is one of Chen Qing's confidantes. He is good at using strange soldiers. In the army, he has a nickname called Firefox. He is said to be as cunning as a fox when he is calm, but when he gets angry, he is as violent as fire. This nickname was given by Chen Qing. He started.

Chen Qing nodded with a smile, "This time I captured Donghai Island and Haizhou, I will remember your great achievements, and when you make another great contribution, I will promote you to the commander of the upper army!"

The promotion of generals includes rank officials and rank officials. Rank officials rely on seniority, and they are promoted to one rank in three years. Two revolutions for merit, three revolutions for great merit, and five revolutions for extraordinary merit.

But when it comes to the level of capital control, it will not be transferred. Instead, it will be appointed by Chen Qing after a comprehensive assessment. Liu Qiong has been in command of the military three years ago. It is not so easy for him to be promoted to the command of the military.

Now King Yong personally promised, immediately made Liu Qiong overjoyed, and hurriedly bowed: "I implore Your Highness to give this humble job a chance!"

Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "The opportunity will come soon, you will go back after you report the situation to me, and the court will soon negotiate with Xu Xiangguo and me, and then you will send [-] Song troops to Yangzhou."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Liu Qiong briefly reported the latest situation of Haizhou and Donghai Island to Chen Qing, and then led an army of [-] to return to Haizhou.

After the 20 Western Army crossed the New Yellow River, they continued to go north and arrived in Feng County that evening, and then set up camp outside Feng County.

The reason why Chen Qing camped in Feng County was that there was a river flowing from Songcheng County into the Yellow River, and from the Yellow River eastward through Feng County and Pei County into Nanqing River, so various logistics materials could be transported from Songcheng County to Feng County by water.

Another reason is that Feng County is less than a hundred miles away from Jeju, and Wanyan Wushu stationed [-] heavy troops in Rencheng County of Jeju.

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

That night, Yang Zaixing led the scout leader Huang Dong to Chen Qing's tent.

"Your Highness, there are scouts reporting important information just discovered."

Chen Qing was standing in front of the sand table and considering the battle plan. He smiled slightly and said, "What important information!"

Huang Dong stepped forward and knelt down on one knee to salute, "Please refer to Your Highness for humble posts!"

Chen Qing glanced at him, feeling a little familiar, he thought for a while and smiled, "I remember you assassinated that scout Zhe Keqiu in Luoyang City, right?"

"It's the humble rank, the humble rank Huang Dong, who was promoted to deputy commander by General Yang last year!"

"Not bad! Not bad! It seems that you made a lot of contributions last year. Tell me! What important information?"

"Beizhi led his men to discover the Jinbing Water Village in Liangshanbo."

Chen Qing lifted his spirits. This is the military situation he has always been concerned about. He pointed to the sand table and said, "Where is the golden soldier water stronghold?"

Huang Dong picked up the wooden pole and pointed to Liangshan on the sand table and said, "This is Liangshan, which is located in a bay on the west side of Liangshan. I really can't find it.

"How many ships? How many people?"

"The humble officer observed at night and roughly counted. There are more than 240 thousand-stone warships, and more than 4000 other hundred-stone sentry ships. There are no ships that exceed the thousand-stone ships, and they are all refitted civilian ships. The big camp is on the shore. The humble officer estimates that there are troops. Three to [-] people."