Lu Ming

After hearing this, County Magistrate Yu stroked his short beard under his chin, and then said with a half-smile: "Hehehe, Mr. Li has a heart for his hometown, and he has a heart."

... Following the words of the magistrate to smooth things over, the cold scene that had been disturbed by Li Qianhu suddenly heated up again.And several businessmen headed by Dong Daxing hurriedly started their flattering journey again.

And at this moment, a loud yamen servant standing high on the pier suddenly shouted: "The boat is coming..."

After hearing the sound, everyone in the pavilion got up one after another and walked to the pier.

Chapter 280 Longyan Battle ([-])

The counties in the mountainous areas of western Fujian are rich in water, and Longyan is no exception.

There are many streams and rivers in the county. In later generations, the annual runoff here is 190 billion cubic meters.And the amount of water in the 17th century far exceeded that of later generations, so the historical mountain and water disasters in these mountainous counties in western Fujian have been comparable to banditry.

The Longjin River, which surrounds Longyan County, diverges from a T-junction outside the Nanmen Wharf.The waterway diverges from here and goes straight southward, and eventually it will pass through hundreds of miles of mountains, and after several twists and turns, it merges into the Jiulong River and rushes into the sea.

Just as the leading figures in Longyan County came to the pier, a row of small boats was slowly coming from the downstream river.

Standing at the bow of the boat, Ding Liqiu couldn't help but sighed as he watched the pier getting closer.

He has been called "Ding Chunqiu" since he was a child, and he also didn't run away after time travel.After discovering that this guy studied history at the university and was from Fujian, the big office kicked Comrade Ding Chunqiu back to his hometown with a smile, and arranged him to be a teacher in the general's mansion in Caochuan.

Ding Liqiu, the master, should be called the "Minister of Outreach of the Fujian Military Division" in the system of the crossing people - he is responsible for dealing with people from the Ming Dynasty.

So he grew his hair long and tied it up in a bun, who traveled relatively late in time, and usually used his identity as a "Cao family" to socialize among various officials and business gentry, discussing some "business matters" that could only be discussed in private.

And this bandit suppression operation from Zhangzhou to Longyan in the north was carried out in order to cooperate with the established policy of the crossing country: to open up channels for the export of industrial raw materials in key areas of Fujian.

As the result of Ding Liqiu's recent efforts, the relevant yamen of Zhangzhou Mansion have given a lot of convenience to the bandit suppression operation in the early stage.But after bringing the troops to Longyan today, Ding Liqiu knew that he would spend some time in this small county and fight for a while, so he was still a little nervous.

……

The Ming people who were already standing on the pier were also in mixed feelings.

With the increasing number of bandits in various places after the middle of Ming Dynasty, generally speaking, the government has headaches and is exhausted.In recent years, the law and order environment in mountainous counties like Longyan, where banditry is common, has become increasingly corrupt.

In fact, Longyan can be said to be one of the most sensitive areas to bandits: because bandits will not only rob houses, but also become rebels.

During the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, Deng Maoqi and others gathered a crowd to revolt in Jixianli, Longyan County. After being suppressed, the government set up the East and West Ocean Inspection Department in the territory of Dongxiyang (the stream is called Yang in the local area).

In the 39th year of Jiajing (1560), a peasant uprising led by Suap broke out in the local area, and it was not suppressed until the 45th year of Jiajing (1566).

Then in the first year of Ming Longqing (1567), the imperial court really couldn't stand this poor land with many rebels, so it took the Eastern and Western Inspection Department in Longyan County as the main part, merged part of Yong'an County, and part of Datian County into Ningyang County ——Taking the meaning of "peace the east and west".

...Ningyang County, a county specially established to suppress bandits, lasted for less than 400 years, and was abolished by the State Council in 1956.

Therefore, the leading figures in Longyan still welcome foreign reinforcements very much, because they can all feel the deterioration of the entire social environment in the Little Ice Age.You know, if those big men in the mountains want to make trouble again, the county magistrate and the guard will definitely have no good fruit after the incident.Not to mention rich households and merchants, these people have been fat sheep since ancient times, and they are the first to be slaughtered when there are rebels.

This is the reason why the officials and gentry have mixed feelings: they hope that the guest army will show their power to wipe out the bandits, but they are also afraid that these people are like silver spears, which will only harm the local area and will not help.

……

A string of flat-bottomed boats slowly approached the pier.

The one who got off the boat first was Ding Liqiu who was wearing a scholar's robe.And when the guests saw this smiling, rich and handsome man who looked like a teacher, he started to salute a few steps away, and they all bowed their hands in return.

The two sides exchanged pleasantries, and after learning that this is the master of Cao Chuan's army, no one put any airs on Ding Liqiu—everyone present knew that he was a serious master, but he was the key person.

The next scene was a bit ugly: when Wei Yuan, who was 1 meters tall, had a big bald head, stepped on the wooden boards on the pier with a ferocious face, and walked over step by step, the Ming people suddenly gasped. Take a breath.

The 6-foot giant who looked like a bear brought tremendous pressure to the small mountain people, and when Wei Yuan bowed and clasped his fists and said loudly: "The Red Spear Battalion will see the general Wei Yuan to all adults", blocking the Among the group of people in front of him, quite a few were scared back...

After teasing the Ming people, Wei Yuan has no interest in talking to these people anymore.He turned around and waved, and then a large number of soldiers rushed up from the pier... The 200 officers and soldiers of the Red Gun Battalion quickly rushed to the open space outside the pier to line up.

These people uniformly wore green canvas training uniforms, high-top cowhide boots for mountain combat, and short-brimmed canvas flat caps on their scalps with green stubble.

The weapons in the hands of the officers and soldiers are the traditional red-tasseled guns, broadswords, bird guns, three-eyed guns and matchlock guns: in order to match these five kinds of big killers, 5 people formed a neat 200-row square formation on the pier.

After a series of resonant whole teams, counting, taking a break, and standing at attention, the large troops who had pretended to be strong began to move towards the Tianhou Temple camp—at the same time, the loud and clear singing voices of 200 people also resounded all the way. "I am a soldier, with the gun on my shoulder, the bullet loaded, the bayonet shining."

……

During the whole process, except for the soldiers' passwords on the pier, the rest were silent.It wasn't until the large army left that a group of Longyan gentry woke up like a dream and recovered from their stunned state.

"It's no wonder that you can capture the giant canal on the sea. Guishang is really good at managing his subordinates. He is such a master of tigers and wolves!" Shocked by the uniform movements, muscular body, powerful passwords and visual effects, the queue marched through the sky The county magistrate Yu Da let go of his reserve at this moment and started to like it.

"Mingfu is too famous, hehe." Ding Liqiu naturally had to be modest at this moment.

"He's a good soldier, but this outfit is a bit weird." Although the black fan Li Qianhu said that he has no good soldiers, but he has also commanded military households and bandits to fight on weekdays, so he can't speak nonsense against his conscience, so he just I can black out from the dress.

"Hehe, Mr. Li doesn't know that the general's mansion is dedicated to training soldiers. It's Sha Guerrilla. This man came from a Buddhist family, and his subordinates are all monks and soldiers. As for the attire, you have to be economical."

Yu County Magistrate knew that these so-called officers and soldiers were actually Cao Chuan's private soldiers, and he was not interested in what clothes the warlords wore for his subordinates. In fact, the original Zheng Zhilong did not match Ming's military uniforms to the tens of thousands of pirates under his command.

County Magistrate Yu was interested in another point: "Oh, so these soldiers are vegetarians?"

"Oh, this has never happened. Vegetarians are weak and weak, unable to fight, unable to kill the enemy, and this meaty smell still has to be touched."

"Hehe, it turned out to be Monk Hua."

"My lord, you are joking, the monks and soldiers of the Shaolin Temple in Songshan are also vegetarians."

……

The pier scene that shocked the viewers ended here.And when the troops entered the Tianhou Palace camp, they quickly set up sentries inside, and the sentries with swords and spears also guarded the gate, looking stern and stern.

At the same time, a reception banquet hosted by businessman Dong Daxing was also held in the Chunfeng Building in the county seat.Ding Liqiu, Master Ding, was naturally attending the banquet on behalf of his own general. During the banquet, he talked and laughed happily, talking about the past and the present, and his conversation mixed with the history and knowledge of later generations made County Magistrate Yu look up to him.

After everyone dispersed after the banquet, it was finally office time.At this time, Mr. Ding had already watched tea with the county magistrate Yu in a side hall of the county government office, and there was no one else present except a county government officer.

At this point, there is no more courtesy.Ding Liqiu immediately put forward a request to Yu County Magistrate: conscript corvee in the county and dredge the Yanshi River.

Yanshixi is the main waterway of Longyan County and one of the tributaries of the upper reaches of the Jiulong River.However, although the Yanshi River in the 17th century had a large water flow, this primitive river had shoals and dangerous reefs, and many sections could only be passed by small boats or rafts, which was extremely inefficient.

Like Ding Liqiu and the others who came to Longyan this time, they changed boats halfway, and a lot of supplies and equipment are still waiting for the boat in Jinshan Town.

... After the guest army arrived at the field, they didn't talk about the food for a while, and they didn't ask about the banditry. Ding Liqiu's strange request made the county magistrate confused for a while.

After picking up the tea bowl and taking a sip, County Magistrate Yu calmed down and asked kindly: "Mr. Ding has put the cart before the horse? I think the banditry should be the most important right now?"

Ding Liqiu secretly rolled his eyes.

He couldn't give the 17th-century antique science popularizer in front of him the truth of "If you want to get rich, build roads first", so he could only pick out some things that the other party could understand and fool him first: "The Ming government doesn't know something, and the army still doesn't know it." A large amount of luggage is still in Jinshan Town, including two cannons that General Cao set aside, and if the Yanshi River is blocked for a day, the supplies shipped from Zhangzhou will not be used for a day, which is very troublesome."

After listening to the other party's explanation, Yu Yinggui also rolled his eyes in his heart.

He is not the kind of nerd who studies hard, so Ding Liqiu's explanation doesn't work for him: How much baggage does a mere 200-member army need?Those small boats can send people today, but can't they send some food, fodder and weapons?

Even if there is a general cannon, it is enough to send some civilians to pick it all the way from Jinshan, it is nothing more than a few dozen miles of mountain roads.Besides, when the Yanshi River is dredged to the point where large ships and cannons can be transported, it is unknown whether the bandits will die of old age.

Full of doubts, Yu Taizun had no choice but to pick up the tea bowl and take another sip. Taking advantage of this gap, he secretly winked at the master at the side.

The master's surname is Wang, and his name is Wang Haogu.After seeing the wink from the Dong family, the well-known Master Wang coughed lightly, and then opened his mouth and asked: "General Cao sent you here not only to suppress the bandits, but there must be something hidden in it? Mr. Ding, why don't you just ask?" Say."

Ding Liqiu nodded: "My lord is very careful. After the place is calm, I have some things to do."

Chapter 281 Longyan Battle ([-])

In later generations, Longyan has proven 64 types of minerals, including gold, copper, iron, coal, kaolin, limestone and other 16 kinds of mineral reserves ranking first in Fujian Province, and it is a well-deserved mining leader.

For the traveler, what they need most right now is the copper mine in Zijin Mountain.

Zijin Mountain, which is less than 20 miles away from Longyan County, has five beautiful peaks, the rising sun is shining, the setting sun is reflected, and the color is purple like gold. In later generations, it is not only a mining area, but also a tourist attraction.

Zijin Mountain lives up to its name.There are not only gold reserves of more than 150 tons, but also copper reserves of more than 200 million tons. It is the second largest copper mine in China. It is vividly compared to "a copper baby wearing a golden hat" in later generations.

Travelers don't particularly care about gold mines, but copper mines are different.

In fact, due to the lack of copper materials, a lot of silver ingots in the kiln area have been made into wires-the finance of the country is now based on wires.

The Manhattan Project sounded very high, but it was nothing in the 17th century. Silver mines all over the world were waiting to be dug by time travellers.

In addition to the most urgently needed copper mine, the Makeng iron mine in the northeast of the county is the largest iron mine in East China; the "Donggongxia" kaolin mine in the north of the county is one of the four high-quality kaolin mines in China.In addition, the coal fields in Baisha, Changfushan and other places, and the limestone in Zhangpingling are also famous in later generations.

In short, to clean up the ghosts and ghosts around Longyan, and at the same time to dredge the waterways, and make preparations for the export of various ores, this is the task of Ding Liqiu and Wei Yuan, the vanguard of the group, who came here.

In fact, Longyan County was the most important foreign investment of Traveling Kingdom in 1628-1629.People in the Ming Dynasty could never have imagined how many resources Longyan, which has been designated as a mining base, would receive in the future, and what earth-shaking changes would take place.

……

And in today's meeting with County Magistrate Yu, Ding Liqiu naturally didn't need to speak in such detail. If the chapter was too grand, he was afraid of scaring Master Yu.So Mr. Ding just picked some parts that people can understand and talked about it: focusing on coal mines and iron mines.

As for the Zijinshan Copper Mine...that place will not be explored until the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" period in later generations, and people don't know about it yet.

"So that's it! So that's it! Hmph, is your tail exposed?" Yu's parents seemed to be disdainful, but his body leaning against the back of the chair and the corners of his slightly raised mouth had already betrayed himself.

... When Yu Yinggui listened to Master Ding's explanation, a big stone in his heart finally fell: This bandit suppression operation, which was weird from beginning to end, finally has an explanation.

Yu's parents were not afraid of outsiders digging some iron ore in Raoshizi Coal Mine.

The forest coverage rate of Longyan in the later industrial world was 78%. In the primitive era of the 17th century, the forest coverage rate was more than 85%, so the local young and old did not have the habit of digging coal at all.

There are firewood everywhere, who would bother to dig out those dirty black charcoal...even though everyone knows where the charcoal is.

As for iron ore, this is even simpler.Iron has been produced in Longyan since ancient times, and there are many private kilns in the mountains. The Cao family dug them if they wanted to, and County Magistrate Yu would not interfere.Of course, it is still necessary to start a class.

He had a lot of worries before.The first thing I fear is the army of five scumbags who come to fight the autumn wind; what is even more fearful is that this is a high-level PY transaction-get a group of young soldiers to gild the second generation of an official, pretend to suppress bandits, and report military merits. kind.

In the latter case, if something goes wrong, he, Old Yu, will have to bear political responsibility, so ever since he met Ding Liqiu, Master Yu has been asking about the real purpose of the cross-travelers.

It's all right now. After figuring out what this group of outsiders were thinking, Yu's parents immediately felt at ease.

Be practical, and your IQ will come back.At this moment, Master Yu was leaning comfortably on the back of the chair, holding a teacup in his hand, and his expression changed into a half-smile: "Mr. Ding clearly learned that Longyan County is poor in mountains and rivers, and the people are short of resources. Speaking of corvee, this... In the past few days, the Tianhou Palace has been repaired, and the county has recruited some craftsmen."

After taking a sip of tea, Lao Yu continued: "If it's a big job, this...would hurt the people too much, it's really not easy to recruit!"

Corvée is the most precious wealth of the feudal government.The adult males who served in the army had to provide not only people but also food themselves. It can be said that most of the government's projects were completed by the corvee levied every year.

Throughout the dynasties, corvee has been the cruelest form of tyranny, forced labor, miscellaneous labor, and military service. These methods of oppressing the people have ruined many families.

The corvee in the Ming Dynasty was divided into three types, one was Lijia service, which was the affairs of one li;

And the corvee that Ding Liqiu and Yu's parents are talking about is the latter two.

After hearing the prevarication from County Magistrate Yu, Ding Liqiu didn't feel annoyed: "The county respects the people under its rule, which is really respectable. But the old parents probably misunderstood, the corvee that the students here need to collect is paid for."

When Ding Liqiu said this, he tapped the table twice with his middle finger, and then added two words firmly: "Rice, salt."

"Huh? Give me money?" After hearing the money, County Magistrate Yu and Master Wang's ears perked up: "How to give?"

"All civil servants who serve in the army are in charge of food and housing, and their wages are settled daily. Silver, rice, and salt are all acceptable." Ding Liqiu said this, and knocked on the table again with a smile: "My lord only needs to call the idlers in the mountains and so on. That’s fine, the rest of the expenses, hehe, to tell you the truth, don’t put it on my general’s mind.”

"Hiss..." Hearing this, Yu Yinggui couldn't help but gasped: "These pirates are really rich! If that's the case, it might as well be on this generation!"

Thinking of this, Master Yu immediately regained his spirits.He straightened his back, looked at Ding Liqiu with piercing eyes, and then slowly said: "General Cao wants to come to Longyan to do something, he is also a courtier, and the students want to help him with all his strength. It's just that there is something that is delaying The hands and feet of the students are blocked, I don't know..."

When Ding Liqiu heard this, he knew that the meat was coming: "They are all from my own family. If the county lord has something to say, you might as well speak up."

After Yu Yinggui took a long breath, he slowly uttered two words: "Build the bridge!"

"make a deal!"

While the magistrate was stunned, Ding Liqiu took the words smoothly, as if he knew it long ago.

In fact he just knew.In history, this county magistrate "donated money" from rich local households to build bridges. Today, when he sees a wealthy family, he naturally cannot change his nature. I've figured out my temper: it's either for fame or profit, and it always takes the lead.

When the county lord confirmed that a bridge would be donated and built in his name, the biggest problem was solved.

In fact, crossing the future will repair several bridges.Whether it is gold and copper mines, coal mines or iron ores, these ores need to build bridges and pave roads to transport them out of the mountain, so bridge building was originally planned.

After the key agreement is reached that the county government recruits and distributes civilian husbands and travels through the public to pay the bill, there is nothing left to discuss.

As for the suppression of the bandits that the two sides were supposed to discuss, it was naturally impossible for Ding Liqiu to tell the county official the true strength of the 200 soldiers - originally these soldiers were showing weakness with swords and spears today.

So in the end, he could only use the reason of "there are reinforcements" to fool the county officials... You should hurry up and deal with the civilians, and forget about the bandits.

……

After everything was discussed, it was already evening.After Ding Liqiu left the county government, he returned to the Tianhou Palace barracks.

At this time, it was already dark, and battery lights had been turned on in key positions in the barracks, and a fire was lit in the middle of the compound. The soldiers were eating around the fire, and everything was in order.

The 200 soldiers that Wei Yuan called "Red Spear Battalion" were the first group to start training in the country of crossing: the elite of the Army's first company (reinforced company).

With the influx of large numbers of immigrants and the exponential increase in the permanent population of Dayuan, the troops who traveled across the country were also supplemented in numbers.From the initial company of 100 people, the army has now grown to more than 2000 people and 4 battalions.

The soldiers who came to Longyan to suppress bandits this time were those 200 troops with imported mahogany rifles.And sending this direct descendant to suppress the bandits, the army side has carefully considered.

First of all, this is the first time that the army has been stationed and fought on the mainland of the Ming Dynasty on a large scale.

Secondly, the Army Command is preparing for the enthronement ceremony one month later.

According to the regulations that have been drawn up, on the day Emperor Cao ascends the throne, some individuals and units will be entrusted.Among them, the first company of the army will definitely get the title of "Royal Forest Army" or "Royal Musketeer Battalion".

So this is the reason why they were sent deep into the Ming Dynasty to suppress bandits: with real military exploits, they will be able to accept the title logically at that time.