Chapter 67 Gu Dayong's Empathy
Chapter 67 Gu Dayong's Empathy
Pei Yuan's heart was pounding rapidly.
He quickly opened Gu Dayong's map again to confirm his direction of movement.
As the positions of Gu Dayong and Liu Qi were synchronized in Pei Yuan's mind, Pei Yuan clearly realized that the two were almost moving in parallel, one above and one below.
Liu Qi moved southward near the canal, not too far away, while the main forces of the court led by Gu Dayong and Lu Wan tried to wedge their troops in the direction of the inner side of the canal, as if they were going to strike straight down and drive the rebels away from the canal completely.
It can't be such a coincidence, isn't this right on his route?
Pei Yuan couldn't help but become nervous, and tried hard to think about the subsequent actions of the Bazhou rebels in history.
The rebels in Bazhou suffered heavy losses in the earthquake in the capital. After dividing their troops and moving south, they operated in Henan along one route and moved south along Shandong along the other.
Pei Yuan was unable to compare the limited historical records with the map in front of him, but he remembered the final outcome of this rebel army.
The place where Liu Liu and Liu Qi suffered heavy losses again was in Huangzhou, Huguang, and where they were finally destroyed was in Langshan, Jiangsu.
If they attack Huai'an first, they will inevitably be caught by Lu Wan and Gu Dayong outside the city of Huai'an, and a decisive battle is inevitable.
Therefore, judging from the results, this attack on Huai'an must have been a feint!
Pei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, fortunately, no matter what kind of armed escort, it cannot withstand the baptism of the battlefield.
Pei Yuan checked the map bit by bit and had already made an assessment of the current situation.
The rebels in Bazhou are now being attacked very hard by the main force of the imperial court, and are almost being passively driven towards the Jianghuai area with its dense water network.
Once the Bazhou rebels entered the small area surrounded by the Huai River, the Yangtze River and the Dabie Mountains, it would be extremely difficult for them to escape.
However, with their remaining troops and defeated generals, they would not be able to break through the encirclement defense line if they wanted to return to the Central Plains.
Liu Liu and Liu Qi were obviously aware of this. After fumbling around like headless flies for a while, they directly targeted Huai'an.
Huai'an is one of the two major north-south hubs on the Grand Canal, corresponding to Jining.
The reason is very simple.
Like Huai'an and Jining, there is a large lake next to it, Hongze Lake, which can accommodate a large number of grain ships.
The grain taxes from Jiangnan and other places must first be transported to the Shuici Warehouse in Huai'an, and then transported to the Jining Warehouse by a large number of grain ships. After that, part of the grain is transferred in Jining for payment, and part of the grain continues to be transported northward to the Tongzhou Warehouse.
Because the transportation process was very long and it was by water, in order to avoid losses along the way, the court required local governments to pay for the transportation themselves. In other words, in addition to taxes, local governments had to collect some additional grain as losses.
This really made both groups very angry.
One group is naturally responsible for transporting grain to the Jiangnan area. You should know that the Jiangnan area is a famous free shipping area. Paying for the freight yourself is simply treasonous and against the will of heaven!
When Zhu Yuanzhang established Nanjing as the capital, the freight costs were not too high, so he just tolerated it. But when Zhu Di fled to Beijing, the cost of the journey became a huge number.
Therefore, when Jiangnan was still dominated by agriculture, officials from Jiangnan were eager to move the capital back to Nanjing every day.
When Emperor Yingzong was captured during the Battle of Tumu, many officials' first subconscious reaction was to almost laugh.
——Doesn’t this mean that we can move the capital back to Nanjing?
Therefore, the biggest trouble that Yu Shaobao faced at that time was not the Mongolian Grand Tutor Yesen who led two thousand soldiers to escort Emperor Yingzong everywhere, but the southern ministers who were excited and clamoring to move the capital in the court.
As for the Battle of Beijing, according to the record of Jinyiwei Commander Ha Ming, who was "on the scene", it was roughly like this. --Yesen was escorted to the earthen city of Deshengmen. Emperor Jingdi promoted Wu Liang and other officials and sent Honglu Qing Zhao Rong to see him. The emperor asked: "Why don't you send ministers to come?" Yesen asked who these officials were. The emperor said: "They are all minor officials." Yesen said: "Why don't the ministers come to greet me? Even a dog recognizes its master. I am escorted to the city gate, but you don't come to greet me." The emperor ordered everyone to go back and ordered the ministers to see the Grand Tutor. When Zhao Rong and others returned, Yesen was angry and immediately escorted the emperor north.
More than 100,000 defenders and all the civil and military officials in the court suffered from Yesen's violent insults, which hurt their hearts and caused zero casualties.
As for later on, the business in Jiangnan began to expand rapidly and grow wildly.
Then they found out, hey, there wasn't much commercial tax.
Then, when an emperor wanted to move the capital back to Nanjing, they sealed the gates of the palace.
As for the other group that was harmed by the water transport policy, they were naturally the various garrisons.
The reason why they suffered losses is very simple.
If I don't get any advantage, I'll be at a disadvantage. Damn it, those damn transport soldiers are making a profit from the price difference.
Later, these two groups of people pushed the court together to come up with a strange policy.
That is, the officers and soldiers of the garrison could lead their own troops to transport grain, and the local government would give them a sum of money which would be converted into handling fees.
This policy eliminates the middleman, and there are no middlemen making a profit from the price difference, so great!
Huai'an and Jining are two places that, as distribution centers for grain and fodder, are of self-evident importance. It is no exaggeration to say that they are the two eggs of the Ming Dynasty.
Now that the Bazhou rebels have burned down Jining and are marching towards Huai'an, how could Gu Dayong not feel the same way about such a sharp move?
Jining has been lost, Gu Dayong must not give up Huai'an!
Pei Yuan’s actions against the Bazhou rebels became more and more ingenious.
By threatening Huai'an and forcing the main force of the Ming army to go around the inner circle of the canal, they could then break through the weak north of the Ming army and lead the army back to the Central Plains.
Pei Yuan looked at the map and analyzed it slowly, enjoying the pleasure of being omniscient and omnipotent. While feeling proud, he couldn't help but want to touch Liu Liangzhizi next to him.
Well, about two taels.
Hmm? Six taels, two taels.
Pei Yuan's hand had just reached into his collar when he suddenly became stunned.
Then, a thought flashed through his mind quickly.
Huai'an City is the most important material distribution center in the south. If it is attacked by the Bazhou rebels, will the goods in the city worth six taels drop to two taels?
Maybe, one or two?
Pei Yuan became excited instantly.
When I got excited, my fingers became a little heavy.
Erliang's eyes soon filled with tears.
Pei Yuan had no time to care about her at this moment.
A plan quickly formed in his mind.
Why the hell do they have to go to Yangzhou to purchase goods?
You can just take the silver to Huai'an directly, and then wait until the rebels from Bazhou attack, and then start bargaining like crazy!
As soon as the Bazhou rebels who made a feint attack leave, prices will inevitably rise again quickly. Even if they don't go north at all and sell directly on the spot, they can still make several times the difference!
Eighty thousand taels of silver could very likely become four hundred thousand taels, or even five hundred thousand taels, in just a few days!
There could be a huge profit of four or five hundred thousand taels of silver. Even if Captain Han let some slip through his fingers for him, how big a fruit plate would that be?
Pei Yuan thought about it, turned his head and took a look, and instantly felt that the ground under his hand was not smooth again.
(End of this chapter)