Fenghou

The water surface of Xiangjiang River is wide, and boats are constantly coming and going, which is very lively. It is not uncommon to see a fleet of dozens of cargo ships connected together. After entering Dongting Lake, the water surface is as wide as the sea, with more ships, and flocks of seagulls soaring and singing in the sky.

In the morning, a fleet of more than [-] thousand-stone flat-bottomed cargo ships was sailing towards the north. At the front was a car and boat, with rolling blades and white waves, leading more than a hundred cargo ships to the north with ropes. .

This fleet was the salt transport team of the salt lord Zhang Tai. They traveled back and forth between Poyang Lake and Xiangjiang River in almost ten and a half months, and sold a large amount of private salt to the states and counties on Jingnan South Road.

This time they also completed the task of transporting salt, just as the inner guard came again, the fleet returned to Poyang Lake immediately.

The leader of the fleet is Zhang Cai, Zhang Tai's nephew. He has a big shoulder and a round waist, and he has sturdy muscles. He has been on this line for seven or eight years and has never had any problems. He has deeply realized that as long as he buys off the government, even if he goes to Lin'an to sell salt, no one will How dare you take him.

"Third brother, Baling is ahead, do you want to get some food, the meat is gone!" a member of the staff shouted.

"No, go directly to the Yangtze River!"

Zhang Cai was not afraid of what would happen to the government, but Yuezhou was not their territory, and there were also salt lords controlling it, and it was Zhang Jun's army salt lord, so he was afraid of causing unnecessary misunderstandings.

The fleet continued to go north, and the outline of Baling County was clearly visible not far away, and the water in front of it narrowed. Suddenly, a crew member shouted: "There is an unknown ship approaching us from behind!"

Zhang Cai looked back and saw five or six ships approaching the cargo ship. At this moment, he suddenly saw groups of soldiers jumping on board the fleet.

"Oops!"

Zhang Cai realized that he was in trouble. The opponent was a regular army with too many people. They were no match at all. He shouted, "Cut the rope!"

At this time, like a gecko, he was about to cut off his tail to survive. A dozen of his men swung their knives and slashed at the rope. After a while, the rope was cut off, and the main ship and more than a hundred cargo ships separated, and the two quickly separated.

But before he could be happy, another four or five warships surrounded him. There was a loud noise from the waterwheel, and the boat stopped. A boatman shouted: "Third brother, the paddles are entangled, and the boat can't move!"

Zhang Cai ran over, and saw that the water tanker was tightly entangled by the fishing net, and there were more and more warships around, there were already a dozen of them, all of them were soldiers holding crossbows.

Zhang Cai was terrified, and he pulled out the water thorn and shouted: "Brothers, dive into the encirclement!"

As soon as he jumped down Dongting Lake, his subordinates followed suit. Zhang Cai had just jumped into the water when someone grabbed his arm. There were water ghosts all around him. What he encountered was the Jiaolong army from the scout battalion, a professional water ghost. Specially trained in underwater combat, although Zhang Cai is excellent in water, he is far from being an opponent for the three opponents to encircle and suppress. With three moves and two moves, Zhang Cai was captured alive by the water ghost, and other subordinates were also captured by the water ghost , tied up and thrown on board.

In less than half an hour, Zhang Tai's salt fleet was captured by the long-awaited western army.

Next came the interrogation, a high-intensity and cruel interrogation, interrogating the location of Zhang Tai's lair, which is the specialty of the inner guard.

"Although you kill me, do you think I will give in? Bah! Ah——"

Zhang Cai's miserable screams resounded through the night. Both of his legs were broken, his teeth were pulled out, his ears were cut off, and his face and body were bloody. Refuse to confess.

Deng Jinshan, the deputy commander, nodded, "As expected of Yan Xiao, he is really brave enough to drag him in front of the others, and cut off his head in public!"

Zhang Cai, who was tortured to the brink of death, was dragged in front of the other [-] people. He was stripped of his clothes and tied to a chair. However, the others were silent, and no one showed panic.

Deng Jinshan yelled: "Everyone dragged out and lined up, come one by one, kill one by one, if you dare to say a word, you will cut off your head!"

Deng Jinshan was nicknamed the barber in the inner guard. He was cruel and murderous. This time, Chen Qing specially appointed him as Zhong Huan's deputy. Zhong Huan's biggest weakness was that he was not cruel enough.

When [-] of the [-] salt lords were brutally killed, the remaining eight boatmen completely collapsed and confessed to their lairs in Poyang Lake.

At noon the next day, Zhong Huan returned to Baling County with [-] cavalry.

The deputy commander, Deng Jinshan, held a detailed map and said to him: "General, this is the map of the salt lord's lair we drew based on the confessions of the eight boatmen."

"It's not easy to interrogate!"

Deng Jinshan nodded, "This group of people is not afraid of death, no one is willing to recruit, even if they are all killed, they will not be recruited. In the end, the boatman recruited them. They have all been to Zhang Tai's lair."

Chong Huan looked at the map carefully, pointed to the old nest marked with a red circle and asked, "Is this an island?"

"It's called Changshan Island. It consists of a series of small islands. The old nest is on Changshan Island. I asked two local boatmen. They confirmed that there are water thieves near Changshan Island, and no boat dares to approach it. Go around Changshan Island."

"Does the local government not care?"

"They didn't say it, and they probably don't know. They should have been bought."

"Head the brothers to assemble, we are ready to go!"

The main reason for the unceasing flood of private salt on Jingnan South Road is that the source is not dead, so it can be revived every time, and a steady stream of private salt is transported from the lair of salt lords in Poyang Lake to Tanzhou and other state capitals.

So this time Zhong Huan was ordered to crack down on private salt. The goal is also very clear, that is, to crack down on the salt lords at the source. Of course, Zhang Tai is not the final big salt lord, he also takes goods from bigger salt lords, which is difficult to track down. .

That night, [-] warships carrying [-] soldiers left Baling County and headed for Poyang Lake, hundreds of miles away.

It has been a month since Chen Qing returned to Jingzhao. After the conflicts about finance and land were eased, everything started to work normally.

Chen Qing also kept going out to inspect, but his inspections were all short-distance, and he would come back in a day or two.

This afternoon, Chen Qing came back from his inspection in Lantian County. As usual, Chen Qing came directly to his official room.

Chao Qing quickly followed Chen Qinghui and reported: "His Highness, Wei Sima has visited His Highness twice today, and it seems that there is something urgent."

Chen Qing nodded, "Go and find him, I'll wait for him."

Chao Qing went there in a hurry, Chen Qing sat down, picked up today's "Beijing News", and roughly browsed through it. The first page of today's "Beijing News" has a notice of the Taixue autumn exam. One and a half months after the Fuqiu test ended.

According to Chen Qing's thoughts on Taixue's reform, Taixue will focus on cultivating professional officials, and professional officials will also be reformed in the next step to distinguish them from civil officials. All official positions will also be divided into three categories, civilian officials, workers Officers and Military Officers.

According to Chen Qing's idea, for example, a county currently has four officials, magistrate, county magistrate, county lieutenant, and master boss. Chen Qing considers adding a county worker in the future. It belongs to the official of the labor rank, and the county lieutenant will belong to the military rank of the official.

The most important county magistrate is rather vague. Generally, civilian officials are the main ones, but industrial officials and military officials can also serve. This depends on the characteristics of the specific county. For example, a county with mining as its main industry may be employed Officials serve as county magistrates, and for counties with relatively important strategic positions, such as Datong County, it is likely that military officials serve as county magistrates.

The improvement of this reform idea will be published in newspapers for discussion by the whole people, and it is also a psychological preparation for everyone.

At this time, Chao Qing said at the door: "Your Highness, Lu Sima is here!"

"Let him in!" Chen Qing put down the newspaper, not knowing what urgent matter Lu Wei had for him.