Lu Ming

Chapter 416

Tianjin, known as Zhigu in ancient times.

After the mid-Yuan Dynasty, Zhigu Village, which was still a big fishing village, was renamed Haijin Town and became the grain transshipment center at that time.

In the second year of Jianwen in the Ming Dynasty (1400), Zhu Di, the king of Yan, crossed the Grand Canal and went south to fight for the throne.After this trip, Zhu Di kicked his nephew off the stage and grabbed the dragon chair.Later, Zhu Di, who was transferred from King Yan to Emperor Yongle, changed the name of this place to Tianjin, which is the ferry that the emperor passed by.

As an important military location and transportation hub in the north, after Emperor Yongle moved his capital to Beijing, he soon began to build a city and set up a guard in Tianjin in the second year of Yongle, which was called Tianjin Wei.

Tianjin Acropolis is located in the old city of later generations.The entire Acropolis has a circumference of nine miles and a total area of ​​1.64 square kilometers. It is wide from east to west and narrow from north to south. It is shaped like an abacus, also known as Abacus City.

The layout of the Acropolis is similar to that of a traditional Chinese county town. There are cross streets connecting north and south, east and west, and drum towers are built at the intersections of the cross streets.

In the Acropolis, the imperial court not only set up the commanders of the guards, the thousands of households, the Zhenfu Division, the Experience Division, the Qing Military Office and other military government offices, but also arranged a series of civil servants such as military equipment, general judgment, water transportation, grain and salt, etc. yamen.

Although it shows that the imperial court did not pay attention to Tianjin's geographical advantages in sea transportation, Tianjin easily became the water transportation hub in the north of Ming Dynasty only by relying on the Haihe River system extending in all directions and the North-South Grand Canal.

Therefore, since the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, Tianjin has been a large commercial port with many masts and sculls, many temples and many households.

On January 1630, 1, Dagukou, Tianjin.At the estuary of the Haihe River, which is familiar to future generations, billows of black smoke rose from the open sea early this morning.

The reason why Dagukou is so famous is probably because of the battle between the British and French allied forces in the late Qing Dynasty.However, in the Ming Dynasty, Dagukou was actually an important place for coastal defense.

Although there were not as large-scale artillery positions as in the late Qing Dynasty, in the Ming Dynasty, Dagukou also had piers and garrisons with artillery.

So at this moment, the fourth son of the defense general who was crawling on the pier of Dagukou, his scalp was a little numb.

The water of the Haihe River mixed with muddy yellow silt collides with the blue-green seawater in winter at the estuary, making the sea surface turbid and black-yellow in color.

On the black and yellow sea, a large ship with black smoke has filled the river mouth.Some of these strange ships had white sails, and some had Chinese-style hard sails. Without exception, all the ships were emitting thick or light black smoke.

Although during this period of time, Qian Bazong has seen this kind of strange ship with black smoke many times.But when he saw so many black smoke ships covering the sea early this morning, he still couldn't help feeling a sense of fear and depression.

"Fortunately, it's my own soldiers and horses. This group of southerners are weird." Accompanied by Mr. Qian Bazong muttering to himself, it was the approach of sea ships: the Northward Fleet had all sorted out its team, and the "surveillance team" that arrived earlier Under the leadership of the No. [-], they lined up in a line and slowly entered the mouth of the Haihe River.

One and a half months ago, just like today, the surveillance ship appeared at the mouth of the Haihe River in the early morning.

At that time, Qian Bazong immediately ordered to ignite the smoke: Tianjin Wei had never seen a Western-style soft sailing ship since it was built, and Qian Bazong, who was born and bred, naturally would not regard the strange ship as his own.

At that time, the Qing Dynasty had just besieged the city, and Wen Wenwu of Tianjin Wei, who was close to the capital, had already been shocked three times a day, and his nerves were tense to the extreme.

So after seeing the wolf smoke coming from the relay, the whole city was shocked, and the merchants at home and abroad ran wild, and the scene was chaotic.Then the main force of the water battalion, led by the commander-in-chief Wang Hong himself, came out aggressively and went down the river, preparing to meet the Tartar water army for a while.

The reason why the water battalion was so brave was that, as a bridgehead for gathering troops to pay, the Tianjin soldiers knew very well that the Tartar navy was nothing but chicken feed, so they killed the generals.

Then when Zongbing Wang rushed to Dagukou, he saw the monitoring number with white sails floating far away, all of them were dumbfounded.

After seeing the real master, the Surveillance ship rowed out a small boat and dispatched envoys to meet Wang Hong with documents.

When Wang Hong finished reading a bunch of official documents and letters sent from the governor's office in Fujian, he couldn't help pointing at the courier, jumping up and down and cursing. He almost pushed this strangely dressed short-haired pirate to beheaded——I was so scared to pee out Can you show me this?Do you know how much loss of life and property this behavior has brought to the people of Jinmen?
However, for the oolong that day, the Surveillance can't really be blamed.

As early as when the monitoring number went to Fuzhou to pick up the documents and set off, there were another eight hundred miles to rush the official documents to the Ministry of War in the capital.It has already stated that there will be a ship going north to Tianjin in the near future. Please ask the Ministry of War to forward Tianjin Wei. This is a formal procedure.

Unexpectedly, when the document arrived in the capital, the nine gates were closed because the Tartars were fighting fiercely below the city.As a result, it took a long time for the document to find an opportunity to hang it from the bottom of the city.

As for what to say about forwarding receipts and the like, this is really gone.Recently, the number of postings of military intelligence documents from all over the world has increased dramatically, but the capital’s information channels have been intermittent, so low-level documents like Fujian’s were kept in the Ministry of War until the surveillance number came. On the day of Dagukou, the Ministry of War did not send anyone to Tianjin to inform
Ever since, the Surveillance Ship originally thought that it would wait for a steward, but it never thought that the Tianjin General Soldier would personally bring a large number of ships and kill them out.
After explaining the oolong clearly, Wang Zongbing also finished his anger, so the two sides formally connected, and the surveillance number returned to Tianjin City with the team.

Unexpectedly, after arriving in Tianjin City, the Surveillance Ship replenished coal, water and food on the spot, and set sail again two days later, leaving the confession to go to sea to investigate the situation of the Tartars.
This time, the commander-in-chief was furious again.

However, the Surveillance is King Qin's guest army. Theoretically speaking, this ship is not under the jurisdiction of the Tianjin General Soldier and the Governor's Yamen——the officers of the Ministry of War who are in charge of commanding the defense of the capital are the supervisors of the Surveillance.

This highlights the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty's lack of emphasis on the navy: reinforcements from the sea like the Beishang Fleet, the commander-in-chief trapped in the capital, or Chongzhen himself, actually had no way to directly command.In other words, after Cao Zongbing came ashore in the future, he could use the reason of "unreasonable military orders" to stay in Tianjin and not leave, but Tianjin locals can't do anything about this group of people.

Of course, this is the soldiers and horses of the crossing crowd.

Normally speaking, since food and fodder logistics need local supply, no matter what the guest army does, it depends on the face of local officials, and it is impossible to be so arrogant.

But the Surveillance is so arrogant: After throwing out boxes of Cao Datou, all kinds of high-quality coal, glutinous rice, fruits, vegetables and meat were continuously sent to the ship by local merchants. Bailiang". Where does this come from.

So even though the chief soldier was upset, no one cared about his temper in front of the local tyrants.

So the monitoring number went to sea for three days and took two days to rest, using Tianjin Wei as a hotel.In one and a half months, all sea areas including the Bohai Bay and even the coast of Dalian and North Korea were run by the surveillance ship.

But on January 1th, for the first time ever, the Surveillance Ship did not go to sea again. While staying in Tianjin to rest and recuperate, it notified the government offices: Fujian's Qinwang Fleet is about to arrive at the port, so don't make another oolong this time.

On the 9th, the Surveillance took several Ming army sentry ships out to sea and waited. On the morning of the 10th, on the pier at Dagukou, Qian Bazong saw the Northward Fleet.

After seeing several battleships that were exactly the same as the Surveillance, Mr. Qian learned his lesson this time, and he honestly didn't smoke.Then after a communication and communication, the Beishang Fleet, led by the Surveillance and several open ships, slowly sailed into the Haihe River and headed straight for Tianjin Wei.

Like Guangzhou City, Tianjin has many rivers because it is also an estuary to the sea.There are more than 300 tributaries of streams and rivers coming from the upper reaches, and the Haihe River, which eventually gathers hundreds of rivers and rushes into the sea, is the largest river in North China.

The Dagukou of later generations is about [-] kilometers away from the old city.However, in the Ming Dynasty, because the coastline had not been extended, the fleet sailed along the river for less than [-] kilometers, and saw the rectangular Tianjin Acropolis from a long distance.

The station of Tianjin Acropolis is at the so-called Sanchakou, which is the confluence of Haihe River, Weihe River and Ziya River, also known as Xiaozhigu.

To the southeast of the Acropolis is Dazhigu, a water transportation hub that joins the North-South Canal and the Haihe River.Standing at the bow of the boat, Dazhigu is full of ships, mansions, and terraces, as if there is no war in the capital in the north.

After the Northward Fleet arrived outside the gate of the Acropolis, they did not all enter the city: Although the Acropolis has water gates and water fortresses, firstly, the space is not big, and secondly, the government offices and private houses have already crowded that part of the city, so there are many households. The Northward Fleet, which has more privacy, must find another station.

So the fleet anchored outside the city.Only the flagship of the fleet, the "Zhengfeng" with the three big flags hanging on the mast, slowly sailed into the water gate of the Acropolis.

At this time, the governor of Tianjin, Zhai Fengchong, and the commander-in-chief, Wang Hong, had already brought all the officials in the city and waited at the pier of Shuizhai.

Zhai Fengchong is from Shandong. He was rejected by Wei Zhongxian before and was stripped of his nationality as a citizen.Later, Chongzhen started as the right servant of the Ministry of War. Last year, he succeeded Cui Erjin, the servant of the Ministry of household affairs, and was transferred to be the governor of Tianjin.

In Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty, there were no two civil and military officials, the governor and the general soldier.After Emperor Yongle built Tianjin City, he mobilized three full guards to guard Tianjin, namely Tianjin Guard, Tianjin Left Guard and Right Guard.

These three guards are units at the same level, and there has never been a higher-level official in charge of Tianjin.

However, in the Wanli period, because Japan invaded North Korea, the Ming Dynasty sent troops to rescue on the one hand, and on the other hand set up a governor and a general soldier in Tianjin to be responsible for maritime defense and defend the capital.Only two short years later, after the incident in Japan, these positions were revoked again.

In the Tianqi period when the Manchu Qing Dynasty was powerful in the north, due to the increasing strategic position of Tianjin, the imperial court re-appointed the governor and the general army in Tianjin.

So these two, in fact, can only be regarded as pocket bosses in the township at the same level: the territory is only in the area around Tianjin, and the responsibility is only Haiphong.

"Hahaha." After a burst of hearty laughter, Cao Zongbing, who was wearing a bright red official robe, walked steadily off the ship's board, stepping on the official steps that he had successfully cultivated in recent years.From afar, he cupped his hands and saluted: "Your Majesty, Cao Chuan, see Governor Zhai, Zongbing Wang."

"Hurry up and get rid of the courtesy!" Zhai Fengchong and Wang Hong hurriedly treated each other with respect: the Ming Dynasty army paid attention to "respect of size", not to mention Cao Chuan, the deputy commander of the guest army, is not under the jurisdiction of these two pocket bosses, so everyone agrees. It is a colleague of the same level.

After the bosses greeted each other, Cao Zongbing and Bing Beidao, Zhen Fusi, and several mid-level civil and military officials from the Qing Army Hall also greeted each other.

After that, it was the turn of several hereditary commanders of Tianjin Sanwei in red robes to visit.

In the late Ming Dynasty, as the guards gradually turned into farms and their military functions weakened, the social status of military households and officers in the guards also began to decline. "The title is the commander, and he wears golden and purple clothes, bows his head, and runs before the envoys." , Ruo Li died."

It can be seen from this that the commander of the guard station, who is known as the third grade, has lost his dignity in front of low-level civil officials, and has completely degenerated into a rural landlord wearing high-level official uniforms.

Today, in front of Cao Zongbing, who holds a heavy army, several hereditary commanders of the Tianjin Sanwei, the commander Tongzhi, are the same.Although this group of people said that their official uniforms were high-ranking, their status was low, and they were all at the end of the row.

However, Zhang Dongdong did not discriminate against these local snakes, and still maintained a standard etiquette: After this, everyone still has a lot of dealings to fight, so there is no need to freeze the relationship now.

After the meeting and formalities, Cao Zongbing followed the officials to the lobby of Shuizhai to discuss matters.Recently, many of the King Qin soldiers and horses coming from all over the country passed through Tianjin, so these local officials have no enthusiasm, and there is no such thing as welcoming and sending them.

Everyone's task now is to hold the meeting as soon as possible. After Cao Zongbing stated the requirements, and then discussed with several civil officials about the logistical issues of supplying food and fodder, the matter was considered over.

After the meeting, Cao Zongbing was not polite, and first raised the question of where he was stationed: since the soldiers and horses he led were from the southern army, they were not used to the cold climate in the north, so they had to rest in Tianjin for a period of time before considering where to stay. Problems on the battlefield.

Therefore, Qin Wangjun needs to requisition the old school yard and several dock warehouses in Dazhigu Port for rest.

Prior to this, the monitoring number was not in vain in Tianjin Wei, and the information of all stations had already been investigated.

As Tianjin Wei is a military city, there are naturally many schools outside the city.The old school field is a place name, the location is a little bit far away, on the bank of the Ziya River in the north.Before the Taichang year, it was still used by the garrison. Later, after several floods, the doors and walls of the houses were damaged, so they were abandoned.

After hearing Cao Zongbing's call and request for the garrison old school field to rest, the officials in the city did not object. In short, it is an abandoned field, and if it is given, it will be given.

As for the wharf warehouse, some people here are upset.

Thinking that both sides of the canal in Dazhigu are land with every inch of land, if it is expropriated for no reason, some people here will always feel heartache.

Fortunately, Cao Zongbing knew the elegant meaning when he heard the string song. Seeing the Governor struggled to squeeze out a wharf and a warehouse, and the constipated expressions on the faces of the water affairs and grain supervisors present, he laughed: "No In this way, three piers and eight large warehouses, I can pay the rent here, and you don’t need to make it difficult.”

(End of this chapter)