Chapter 1992

Just as Ji Yuanqing thought, Gong Qiqi was not completely ignorant of the situation of Jianghuai Salt Industry. Especially after arriving in Zhoushan this time, in addition to several recent attacks, the files provided to him by Wanfa included

The content below is basically all kinds of information related to the industry, which naturally also includes the interest struggle between Shanxi and Shaanxi salt merchants and the latecomer Huizhou merchants. Before Gong Shiqi set off, he had already had some knowledge of this.

He had some special plans, but he did not want to announce his plan in the form of an order. Instead, he planned to test Ji Yuanqing's attitude first to see if this partner could keep pace with him.

Ji Yuanqing's idea is basically in line with Gong Shiqi's expectations. Taking advantage of the internal conflicts of Yangzhou salt merchants is a direction that may be easier to achieve a breakthrough. Since these salt merchants have different positions, it is like forming a faction to fight.

A group of traditional methods like this may work.

But there is also a premise, that is, they must first investigate clearly which group of salt merchants are taking a radical confrontational attitude towards imported salt, so that they can target those who should be attacked and pull those who should be pulled.

Of course, this was just a theoretical plan, and the actual operation certainly did not go as smoothly as expected. When Haihan built the salt farm in Ningbo, salt merchants from the north came to test their attitude, hoping to monopolize the output of the Ningbo salt farm, and

The conditions offered were not bad. However, Haihan considered that the good situation he had managed to achieve in Ningbo Prefecture needed to be continued and expanded through salt industry operations, so he ultimately rejected the Jianghuai Salt Merchant's proposal. At most, he could only give them

The local sales agent rights, and such an answer obviously could not satisfy the other party, so the negotiations between the two parties quickly fell through, and no actual agreement was reached.

At that time, the two salt merchant camps sent people to come to contact them, so in fact, in order to protect Ningbo's good situation, Haihan had already offended both groups of salt merchants. Now if he plans to win over one faction and fight the other, then Haihan

Han may need to make certain concessions in the management of the salt industry, otherwise it will be difficult to find other ways to win over one of the factions.

At that time, Gong Qiqi and Ji Yuanqing did not dare to discuss whether the higher-ups' decision to reject the cooperation intention of Jianghuai Salt Merchants and choose to support local forces in Ningbo was correct, and whether there were other better ways to do it. Now that what has happened, their responsibilities

It is to solve the problem rather than to investigate the root cause of the conflict.

Besides, given the speed of Haihan's external expansion, they believe that the current approach is quite restrained. You must know that just two or three years ago, Haihan would directly send troops to Hangzhou City to blockade the Qiantang River and force Zhejiang to issue the ownership of Zhoushan Island.

The government pinched its nose and signed the alliance under the city. If these nonsense things had happened at that time, I am afraid that General Shi Diwen would have led the East China Sea Fleet to attack Yangzhou.

However, since the current situation is no longer convenient to use military means to solve the problem, they can only settle for the next best thing and use other methods to achieve their goals. Perhaps simple and crude military means are not as effective as fast and effective, but they will try their best.

to achieve predetermined goals.

Sure enough, Gong Shiqi quickly shared the information he had, had someone take out part of the files provided by Wanfa, and explained to Ji Yuanqing: "At that time, the Jianghuai salt merchants who came to Ningbo to contact the salt field, in fact, we all

We have followed up and investigated, but we need to ask Brother Ji to help identify which camp they belong to."

Gong Shiqi spoke politely, but Ji Yuanqing understood that this was the other party showing him the trump card in his hand step by step. At first, he pretended not to know anything and asked for advice, but in fact the other party may not have any more information than he did.

No matter how bad it is, even the so-called help in identification now is probably just a formality, arranging a step for myself.

However, Ji Yuanqing's perspective on the problem will not be so limited. Looking at it from another perspective, this may not be a bad thing. The more Gong Shiqi understands the industry situation, the less likely he will make mistakes in subsequent actions. Ji Yuanqing originally

I was still a little worried that Gong Qi Qi was directing this operation as an outsider, and he might make mistakes because he didn't know enough about the local situation. But now it seems that I am a little worried. Gong Qi Qi looks like

He is a person with a straightforward temper and no scheming, but in fact his work style is extremely meticulous and meticulous, and he is indeed a gold-medal thug under the Ministry of Security.

Ji Yuanqing didn't say much at the moment, and immediately began to look through the files provided by Gong Qiqi. As expected, the records in the files were actually quite detailed, and were complementary to the information he had. And Gong Qiqi was quite impressed.

The bold action plan should also refer to various information previously collected by the Security Department. Although the content is not comprehensive, it is enough for Gong Shiqi to formulate an action plan.

"The Military Intelligence Agency should arrange for you to meet with me earlier, so that we can have more time to perfect the action plan and be more prepared." Gong Shiqi suddenly sighed: "We spend time with each other.

Too much time spent testing!”

Ji Yuanqing was slightly shocked. He didn't expect that the other party would talk about this issue so straightforwardly. In fact, he didn't have much knowledge, but he could understand why Gong Shiqi had to test himself so carefully.

In terms of position, similar measures will probably be taken. This is to confirm the thoughts and abilities of the partner. Otherwise, when it comes time to take action, how dare you easily hand over your back to your partner for cover.

"It doesn't matter, this is an inevitable process of building trust. At least we have been going smoothly so far without any conflicts of opinion." Ji Yuanqing said with a smile: "This is a good start, better than I expected."

Gong Shiqi also smiled. He did not ask Ji Yuanqing what the situation was originally expected to be. Since the other party could understand his approach, that was enough. It was extremely difficult and difficult to cultivate a tacit understanding so quickly between two people who had never interacted with each other before.

Extremely lucky.

The salt transport fleet sailed into the estuary of the Yangtze River one day after setting off and traveled upstream along the river bank. Yangzhou City was still more than 500 miles away from the estuary. During this period, they could continue to make plans for the action.

Further improvements.

At this time, someone in Yangzhou City had already received a message from Ningbo and learned the itinerary of Gong Shiqi's fleet.

"The people from Ningbo Prefecture are really haunted! They actually dare to come directly to their doorstep. Do you really think that I, the Yangzhou salt merchant, can be bullied?"

"Calculating the time, they still have at least two or three days before they arrive in Yangzhou, so we can make preparations and create a little surprise for them!"

"That's right! If you don't give them a hard blow, these people will probably never know how to restrain themselves!"

After reading the content of the letter passed by Fei Ge, several salt merchants who were discussing the matter together quickly made a decision to give this foreign salt merchant, who did not know the heights of the world, some color.

However, if they want to take action in Yangzhou, even the salt merchants who are well-versed in the matter will still have many concerns. After all, this is their own territory. If trouble occurs, not only will they feel bad, but the government will not completely sit idly by.

Therefore, in the previous operations, the salt merchants chose to carry out operations in other places on the other side of the river to avoid directly implicating themselves as much as possible.

The first thing they have to do now is not to organize manpower to study when and where to take action, but to inform the people in the government and get official permission - at least acquiesce. Otherwise, this action will be taken.

There is a high probability that someone will be killed. If the government is not prepared for this in advance, it will be very passive. Even if they want to help the local salt merchants, it will be troublesome.

Of course, this kind of greeting does not mean sending someone a message. It just says that I am going to do a big deal in a certain place on a certain day of a certain month. I hope the people in the government can avoid it in advance. For such a big thing, the relevant people must be informed first.

Everything needs to be done well, from the prefect to the police chief responsible for public security and criminal investigation, and even the local garrison commander must prepare a benefit. When calculated, these expenses are actually much greater than the cost of the operation itself.

.However, compared with the impact of imported salt on the Yangzhou salt industry, this cost is insignificant. As long as the purpose can be achieved, even if it costs ten times or a hundred times, it will be a good deal for the salt merchants.

After Gong Shiqi's fleet sailed into the Yangtze River, it had actually completely separated from several escort warships operating in the outer sea. These warships would definitely not sail directly into the Yangtze River unless they had to.

, and their planned location for the retreat of Gong Shiqi and others was mainly the coastline of Yangzhou. However, Yangzhou Prefecture administered three states and seven counties over a large area. The distance from Yangzhou City to the seaside was three hundred miles. If Gong Shiqi had

When the people retreat by land after the operation, the journey will be a great test.

Therefore, although Gong Shiqi will make some advance arrangements for the land evacuation route, such as arranging carriages and horses, etc., in fact, their first choice will still be the water route, and the land route is only the last escape route when there is no other choice. In theory, they

You can even sail across Yangzhou from west to east and take the inland waterway instead of the main Yangtze River to reach the coastline directly.

However, the waterways in Yangzhou are quite dense. Even though the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau have extremely accurate maps, there are still many areas where the distribution of waterways is blank. This is also because Haihan really does not have enough manpower to send to Daming.

To complete these fine surveying and mapping tasks, most of the details on this map came from the large database of Sanya. The topography and landforms hundreds of years later are actually quite different from the current environment, so while they were marching towards Yangzhou, they also

The map at hand has to be constantly revised and improved.

"Even if we didn't complete our original mission this time, if we can further improve the waterway map in this area, it will still be a great achievement after we go back." Ji Yuanqing stood up and stretched, feeling emotional.

Di said. Of course this is just a joke, but revising the map is really a troublesome job. The two of them specially set up a table on the deck. They took turns observing the terrain, and then leaned on the table to revise the details of the original map.

, after a long time, it really consumes your energy and physical strength.

Gong Shiqi also stretched his somewhat stiff wrist, and then poured Ji Yuanqing a cup of tea: "Fortunately, we just did it casually. If we were to do this job full-time, I'm afraid I would have to file a report and request to be transferred back to the field in less than half a month.

The action team has gone to do rough work."

"No profession is easy!" Ji Yuanqing took the tea and sighed again. In fact, both he and Gong Qiqi had received special training in surveying and mapping. They were not completely unfamiliar with this kind of time-consuming and laborious map drawing work, but they just usually

They rarely have the opportunity to do it themselves. And the surveying and mapping they do now cannot be said to be very precise. They basically rely on naked eye observation and then correct the obvious errors on the map.

It took them two and a half days to complete the voyage from Wusongkou to Yangzhou City. As for Yangzhou City, which is said to be one of the most prosperous cities in the Jianghuai region, almost all the information they have comes from

Written record. In other words, it was actually the first time for both of them to set foot in this city.

Yangzhou City is located in an important water transportation area. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is not far east of Yangzhou City. As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, it has become the hub of the water and land transportation network in the Jianghuai region. Grain, salt, iron, etc. between the north and the south.

The transportation of important materials all passes through Yangzhou, which has made Yangzhou's industry and commerce extremely developed and its economy has been prosperous for a long time.

Yangzhou City is divided into old and new cities. The old city was built in the late Yuan Dynasty. There are Haining Gate, Tongsi Gate, Anjiang Gate, Zhenhuai Gate in the east, west, south and north respectively. In addition, there is a small east gate in the east, a total of five city gates. However,

The area of ​​Yangzhou City in the Yuan Dynasty was small, and by the Ming Dynasty it could no longer keep up with the local industrial and commercial development. The area between the east side of the old city and the Grand Canal gradually formed a prosperous commercial district. By the Jiajing period, Yangzhou finally developed in the old city.

A new city was built in the area to the east, forming a parallel layout of the old and new cities.

The streets and lanes of the old city were straight and square, and they were mostly residential areas for the gentry and the seat of government offices. However, the planning of the new city was not so particular. In the early days, almost all salt merchants enclosed land and built houses here, so those with more money enclosed the land.

There are more, and the areas with less money have less land, and the blocks in the east and west are not particularly regular. But at the same time, the new city has more concentrated commercial institutions, so the prosperity is far better than the old city.

The destination of Gong Shiqi and his entourage is the new city where salt merchants live. In his words, this is like catching a tiger's cub if you don't enter the tiger's den. They go straight into the salt merchant's lair and see how the other party reacts.

.

Two salt-carrying ships sailed north along the canal to Yangzhou New City. Both of them marveled at the engineering miracle created by manpower. It is said that this section of the canal was dug by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. There are many things worth seeing on both sides of the river along the way.

Scenic spots.
Chapter completed!