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Chapter 850 Salt Affairs 2
The court was temporarily quiet, but some provinces began to riot. Salt administration has always been a monopoly industry, and it is also the industry that gathers the most termites. Generation after generation, they have been living a life of luxury, and suddenly it is gone. The anger is not just about the loss of wealth, it is like digging up the spiritual veins of their ancestors!
There is no doubt that they must oppose it, and both the civil and military officials must oppose it. They withheld all the salt that should have been handed over to the Salt Company and secretly hid it, causing a shortage of salt on the market and a sharp rise in the price of salt. They put the blame on the Salt Company, saying that there were treacherous people who deceived the emperor and must be eliminated in order to bring the price of salt down.

Then they colluded with private salt dealers and salt workers from various salt fields to gather people to cause trouble and openly resist the staff of the Salt Company. If necessary, they would stage another drama of the miners being desperate and beating and killing the unscrupulous mine supervisors to continue to put pressure on the court.

If the navy wasn't so strong, it wouldn't be too difficult for the Japanese pirates to attack again. As long as their own interests were satisfied, what would it matter if a few counties were burned? What would it matter if tens of thousands of people died?

But what is different from the past is that as the base camp of the Jiangnan bureaucratic gentry group, Yingtian Prefecture seemed a bit lukewarm or even indifferent after the promulgation of the Salt Law.

Officials who held idle positions here rarely moved around except for necessary social engagements, and even avoided frequent gatherings. The once bustling Qinhuai River became much quieter.

Could it be that these guys suddenly had a collective epiphany, began to consider the gains and losses of everyone, and were willing to give up some of their own interests? That's impossible. Even if a dog doesn't eat shit, they won't stop digging a shovel of wall.

The collective low-keyness this time was completely due to the intimidation of one person and an army. They did not dare to act rashly before figuring out the other party's intentions.

This man is called Wang An, the former seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, the emperor's secret companion, and now the imperial envoy. This army is called the 17th and 18th guards of the Ming Army. They were originally stationed in the capital area. Unknowingly, they were transported to Nanjing along the Yangtze River by dozens of large ships and immediately took over the city defense and nearby military camps.

According to the documents from the Ministry of War and the General Staff, several garrisons previously stationed in Nanjing and its vicinity will be transferred north to the capital for further arrangements starting today, while the two army garrisons will serve as the court's garrison to guard Nanjing city for a long time.

If only Wang An came, it would not matter whether he was an imperial envoy or not. All he could mobilize were the Nanjing Jinyiwei and the guards of the imperial mausoleum. No matter what he wanted to do, the news would spread quickly.

We can't confront them openly, nor can we retreat. You can't find anyone you want to find, and after a month or so, the opportunity is gone, and you can only return to Beijing in disgrace.

But the emperor sent the army here, and it was a permanent place, which was a big problem. The army had been operating near the border wall all year round, and to Jiangnan, they were no different from foreigners. They didn't know any of them, and had never even heard of them.

If you want to rely on connections or friendships, it will definitely not work. Even if you want to win someone over with money, silver, or beautiful women, you have to establish friendships first. I have never heard of someone showing sincerity when they meet for the first time, when no one knows each other, and no one introduces them. That is not sincerity, but malice.

But even if we can't make friends, as a local tyrant, we still have ways to deal with Wang An and this newly arrived army. We will send people to patrol near your base, and if we find any movement, we will take a shortcut and pass on the news. No matter where we go, we can't fly all the way there, so as long as we walk, there will definitely be traces.

What should we do if the Marine Corps arrives? There is a way. No matter where the navy comes from, it must first stop at a port, such as Songjiang Port. We also send people to keep an eye on it. As long as we find a large number of ships from the Navy and the Marine Corps entering the port, we will quickly tell others.

Let the bandits, robbers, and rioters in various places stop in advance, put down their steel knives and pick up hoes to do what they should do, without delaying anything. The land warfare commanders can't spread out to every county and village in Nanzhili and Zhejiang like beans, and then continue to make trouble when they withdraw, and see who can outlast the other! Will this trick work? It does work. In the words of later generations, it is like being caught in the vast ocean of people's war. There is no gain from advancing, and no gain from retreating. The longer the time drags on, the greater the pressure on the court.

However, just when the bureaucrats and gentry in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang focused most of their attention on the army and navy, a large number of civilian ships suddenly docked at the piers of Jiaxing Prefecture, Hangzhou Prefecture, Ningbo Prefecture, Taizhou Prefecture, and Wenzhou Prefecture.

Teams of soldiers wearing various armors came down from above, all led by Jinyiwei, holding badges of the Patrol Department. There were also clerks from the General Staff and the Ministry of War, who said they came here specifically to eliminate the banditry in Zhejiang and the salt field bullies.

"Mongol!"

Soon, those who were well-informed found clues from the appearance and words of these soldiers and generals, and then they felt a chill on their backs, and were deeply worried about the private salt dealers, salt guards, servants of various governments and local people who were disguised as bandits.

No one expected that the emperor would resort to such a despicable trick. He left the army, navy, new army, and garrison troops unused and instead secretly called in the Mongols to come south to help.

Compared with the nomadic peoples who are used to fighting, the Han people certainly cannot gain an advantage in terms of fighting power, and the Han people in the south of the Yangtze River are even worse.

Judging from their armor and clothing, these Mongolian soldiers were most likely elite. If the most elite border troops were to fight against them, the odds would be evenly matched. Wouldn't it be a waste of talent to wipe out a mob?

"The northern barbarians are good at riding and shooting, but they may not be able to use it in the mountains where they are unfamiliar with the place!" Some people are more pessimistic, while others are relatively objective. The Mongolian cavalry came and went like the wind, and they were indeed famous. But it is not absolute, and it requires the corresponding environment as a prerequisite.

Leaving the grasslands and plains and arriving in the mountains south of the Yangtze River, without the assistance of horses, the combat effectiveness would certainly be greatly reduced. If coupled with unfavorable factors such as unfamiliarity with the terrain and lack of cooperation from the locals, it is hard to say whether the troops would eventually fail to adapt to the local climate and have more noise than rain.

What was the actual situation? Three days later, a battle report came from Wenzhou Prefecture. Three hundred Mongolian soldiers landed near Hai'an in Wenzhou Prefecture at night, and in three hours they traveled 50 miles. In the early morning, they attacked the Yongjia Salt Field on the south bank of the Yongning River, killing more than people on the spot and capturing more than .

Then, based on the confessions of the salt workers, they entered Wenzhou Prefecture on the same day and arrested the three salt merchants who instigated the plot. With the Jinyiwei following them and the documents from the General Staff and the Ministry of War, the local officials were not only helpless, but also forced to provide food, fodder and horses.

With the horses, only a few of the 300 Mongolian soldiers were left to cooperate with the Jinyiwei to guard prisoners and confiscate property. The rest of the soldiers were divided into two groups, one in the south and one in the north, heading straight to Rui'an and Yueqing Salt Fields. They looted as they went, and requisitioned all the horses they encountered, whether from the government or the people. Soon, they changed from infantry to light cavalry.

(End of this chapter)