Chapter 688 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
Chapter 688 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
Eighty miles southeast of Lu County, there is a town called Changhai. This town has only been around for thirty years and was named after the Changhai Tavern. As people kept coming to do salt workers' business, more and more shops were built around the tavern, and Changhai Town was formed.
Confucius said, "When three people walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher." This means that where there are people, there are leaders, and where there are leaders, there is a world of martial arts.
There were more than 100,000 salt workers in the whole Langya County, basically concentrated in the northern part of Langya County. In order to grab the territory, salt fields and reeds, more than 100,000 people gathered together and fought constantly, and gradually formed seven or eight salt workers' gangs, with as few as 7,000 to 8,000 and as many as tens of thousands. The largest salt gang was called Changhai Salt Gang, with 30,000 salt workers.
You can also understand these salt gangs as industry unions in the Sui Dynasty. The salt gangs mediated conflicts, distributed benefits, and protected salt fields. Du Fuwei grew stronger in Donghai County by selling salt. After occupying Langya County, he also dealt with all the salt gang leaders and gave them enough benefits. These salt workers became his army. They were salt workers at ordinary times, and gathered together as an army when needed, under the euphemism of protecting the interests of the salt workers.
At noon that day, three people came to Changhai Town. Two warriors were guarding a scholar in his twenties, who was Li Jing.
Li Jing and two of his men walked into the Changhai Restaurant. A waiter came up to them and said, "Welcome to our restaurant!"
Li Jing looked around the restaurant and saw a group of strong men sitting in the lobby, so he asked, "Are there any elegant rooms?"
"There's one on the second floor, please come in!"
The three of them went up to the second floor and walked into an elegant room. Li Jing ordered seven or eight dishes and a pot of wine, then said to the waiter, "Please ask your shopkeeper to come over. I have something to talk to him about."
After a while, the shopkeeper came in hurriedly and said with a smile: "I am the shopkeeper of the restaurant. What do you want to see me for?"
Li Jing nodded, "I came to Linhai Town specifically to look for your owner Zhao Changhai. Can you ask him to come over?"
The shopkeeper's smile disappeared, and he said coldly, "My boss has a special status, not just anyone can see him."
Li Jing sneered and said, "Your boss is nothing more than the leader of the Changhai Gang, but my master is His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin. Is His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin also a nobody?"
After saying that, Li Jing took out a gold medal and placed it on the table. On the medal was the word "King of Jin".
The shopkeeper's face changed drastically, and he bowed quickly and said, "I am blind, please forgive me, sir!"
"I won't bother with you, go and invite your owner over!"
The shopkeeper left in a hurry, and Li Jing asked his two men to sit down and eat together.
Not long after, the door of the elegant room was suddenly pushed open, and a man in his fifties came in. The man was not tall, but had a cold look, dark skin, and a long scar on his face. You could tell at a glance that he was a ruthless character.
"I am Zhao Changhai. What can I do for you, sir?" Zhao Changhai looked at Li Jing warily.
Li Jing smiled faintly and said, "There are only three of us. It would be easy for you to kill us. Why are you so nervous? Please sit down and let's talk!"
The vigilance on Zhao Changhai's face did not subside. He sat down and said, "I am not vigilant against the three of you, but His Royal Highness Prince Jin sent a gentleman to find me, so I am vigilant about this matter."
Li Jing said slowly, "Although you are the leader of the Changhai Salt Gang, His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin still does not take you seriously. His Royal Highness just pities the lives of hundreds of thousands of salt workers and does not want them to die under the iron hoofs of the cavalry. The 200,000 troops of the Prince of Jin are about to encircle and suppress Du Fuwei. Now I have a message for you. I hope the salt workers will no longer work for Du Fuwei. After the war, the salt workers can continue to supply salt to the Jiangnan Salt and Iron Bureau. According to our Jiangnan price, each bucket of coarse salt is twelve cents."
Zhao Changhai hesitated for a moment and asked, "What will happen if we don't agree?"
"If you don't agree, then we'll meet on the battlefield. Once you become a prisoner of war, according to the rules of the Prince of Jin's Mansion, you must serve three years of hard labor. This is only a punishment for the soldiers. As for the leader of your salt workers' gang, you will be convicted of the same crime as Du Fuwei, and your entire family will be exterminated!" Zhao Changhai's face changed, his eyes suddenly became fierce, and he said viciously: "How dare you say such words in front of me, you are tired of living!"
Li Jing laughed loudly, but then he stopped smiling and slammed the gold medal on the table. He said coldly, "You have been living on the edge of a knife for decades, and you dare not even listen to the truth. You instigated the salt workers to work for Du Fuwei. Do you think you will have a good ending?"
Zhao Changhai's face turned red and white. He stared at the gold medal and said, "You just talked about the benefits of salt workers. If our salt gang prevents salt workers from joining the army, what benefits will it bring?"
Li Jing said slowly: "Your Highness the Prince of Jin does not allow the existence of salt gangs. You salt gang leaders can be promoted to salt officials, responsible for managing salt workers for the Salt and Iron Bureau. This is your best way out!"
Zhao Changhai was excited to be able to become a salt official. This was something he had never dared to dream of. Being an official would not only bring honor to his ancestors but also protect his descendants.
Zhao Changhai quickly changed his attitude, bowed and said, "Please forgive me for being rude just now. I am willing to serve His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin!"
"Your Highness Prince Jin doesn't look at what you say, but what you do."
Zhao Changhai nodded and said, "I will definitely do my best, but I can't guarantee that other gang leaders will listen to me."
Li Jing smiled slightly and said, "Just do your best!"
Li Jing returned to Xiaqiu County, Lu County, and said to Luo Shixin: "It has been arranged. General, you can send troops immediately!"
Luo Shixin was overjoyed and immediately sent a fast horse to deliver a letter to Qin Qiong, informing Qin Qiong to head north immediately.
Luo Shixin himself led 30,000 troops to advance rapidly eastward and arrived at Sishui County three days later. At this time, Qin Qiong also received an express letter from Luo Shixin. He had already made preparations and immediately led 20,000 troops with You Junda to the north to Langya County and attacked Linyi County.
Du Fuwei made two major strategic misjudgments. The first major strategic mistake was that when Qin Qiong led his army to capture Donghai County and wiped out Fu Gongyou, Du Fuwei was not alert, but secretly felt fortunate that the Sui army in the south of the Yangtze River had eliminated Fu Gongyou for him.
The conflict between Du Fuwei and Fu Gongyou was not just one or two days old. At the beginning, Fu Gongyou tried his best to persuade him to form an alliance with Li Zitong. Later, after the two armies defeated Chen Ling in Pengcheng County, Du Fuwei was stabbed in the back by Li Zitong and had to retreat to Donghai County with heavy losses. He even gave up Xia Pi County. Du Fuwei was extremely dissatisfied with Fu Gongyou. It was this incident that planted the seeds of division between Du Fuwei and Fu Gongyou.
The second thing was that Du Fuwei formed an alliance with the Xu family of Donghai and switched to the salt business. Fu Gongyou disagreed with forming an alliance with local tyrants, but the benefits brought by the salt profits were real. Although Fu Gongyou was dissatisfied in his heart, he did not show it.
But the real reason for the two of them falling out was that Du Fuwei listened to the advice of his military advisor Xu Liang, which was actually the advice of the Xu family, and made a strategic shift from Jianghuai to Shandong Peninsula. This violated Fu Gongyou's bottom line. Fu Gongyou was determined to develop in Jianghuai. The two had a big fight and went their separate ways. Fu Gongyou led 30,000 troops to stay in Donghai County, and Du Fuwei led 30,000 troops to move north to Langya County.
At Xu Liang's suggestion, Du Fuwei carried out a military reform, spending a lot of money to train 30,000 elite troops. The remaining 80,000 troops implemented the system of using salt to support the army. They were salt workers in peacetime and soldiers in wartime. In this way, he did not have to bear a penny of military expenses. Langya County alone could support more than 100,000 troops, which was a miracle and made Du Fuwei very proud.
The second major misjudgment made by Du Fuwei was that he listened to the advice of his military advisor Xu Liang, who advised him not to attack him as long as they did not attack Gaomi County and did not give the King of Jin an excuse to send troops.
Although this was the advice of military advisor Xu Liang, in fact, it was Du Fuwei who made the final decision himself.
Du Fuwei has been a little bit arrogant in recent years, thinking of himself as a local lord and having hallucinations. Of course, he is not the only one who has this hallucination. Xu Yuanlang and Li Zitong also have it. Since they were respectively named King of Huai, King of Lu and King of Peng by the Western Sui court, they thought they were princes on an equal footing with the King of Jin.
Two major strategic mistakes ultimately caused Du Fuwei to pay a heavy price.
(End of this chapter)