Soon, he asked Liu De to write a letter by hand, and quickly sent it to Li Jian, the regimental training envoy of Eyuedu, along the post road, asking about the ins and outs of the matter.

"Teacher, now the river from Ezhou to Xuanzhou is full of thieves, killing people and goods, it is very dangerous, you can't go back to this Zhongling for the time being!" Then, he sent someone to quickly inform Wu Cailuan, who was packing up.

Half a month later, Li Jian's reply letter arrived, saying that not only the ships of your Xingyuan Mansion were robbed and people were killed, but also the ships of Ezhou and Yuezhou, as well as the ships of Shannan Dongdao and Jingnan.

At this time, Gao Yue knew that the "Yangtze River", the waterway connecting the southwest and southeast, had been completely cut off by the river robbers who poured out of Huaixi.

In the past, every spring and summer, the northeast wind together, is what people say tide letter, at that time, Xingyuan, Shu ships, along the Yangtze River to Xuanshu and then into the Jiangnan West Road, or in Yueyang into Hunan, some even sailed to Runzhou Jingkou and then to the southeast of the cities and towns, to carry out herbs, timber, silk, salt rice, fish, tea and wine and so on, and the big ships of Jiangnan and Jiangdong will also sail west into Shu, during which the officials, businessmen and people on three sides, the profits generated are millions of yuan, and countless states and counties along the Yangtze River are benefiting from it.

And Gao Yue worked so hard at the beginning, digging up the dangerous shoals and reefs of the Han River on the Yunzhou waterway, the purpose was to do the "feeder trade" between the Han River and the Yangtze River, and get a share of this huge wealth.

The effect is also very obvious, Xingyuan Mansion and Yangzhou and Jinzhou in the east, until Xiangyang, all over the grass market wharves by the water have been driven to prosper, and the household registration and wealth have grown quickly.

But now, the hateful river robbers have begun to cut off this lifeline unscrupulously.

According to Li Jian's letter, this gang of thieves not only robbed and killed the cargo ships coming and going on the river, but also openly went ashore to rob the grass markets of Qizhou, Huangzhou, Ezhou, and Shuzhou, and Lu Yan, which was extremely arrogant, but when Li Jian ordered soldiers and horses and warships to go to arrest them, this group of thieves hid the boats in the valleys and caves on the bank of the river, and then sold the looted goods in an instant, and the people rushed north, dissipating in the Daze wilderness south of Huaixi.

"Call Zhang Xi." Gao Yue angrily threw the letter on his desk.

Soon Zhang Xi came to the military mansion hall, he was originally a shooting general under Han Rong, a native of Runzhou, good at shooting crossbows, and later came to Xingyuan Mansion as a guest general, and now he also settled here and did not go back.

Because Zhang Xi was familiar with the inside story of the Yangtze River, Gao Yue called him to ask for advice.

"Da Yin, I know these people, they are both mountain sheds and river thieves. When the tide was in the past, they drove boats in all directions, raiding the caravans of the southeastern counties, and when the imperial court came to encircle and suppress, they would abandon their boats to climb the mountains, sometimes engage in tea to sell, and sometimes they would cultivate the fields in the mountains and fields for their own purposes, and they would form sheds with each other, forming groups in groups, and wandering outside the king's law and the township. ”

"Then why didn't this group of people make such a big noise before?"

Zhang Xi sighed, "When Han Jin Gong Festival Zhenjingkou, there were 10,000 elite tooth soldiers in the town navy, each heavy armor and crossbow, and quarrying and other places were guarded by strong town soldiers and fleets, and there were eight hundred to one thousand united sons in each state to prepare for emergencies, Han Jin Gong added a riverside beacon in Stone City, once something happened, the beacon fire spread thousands of miles away, and the warships had to be sent immediately, so the mountain sheds and river thieves in Huainan Road, Henan Province and Huaixi Province, how dare they act rashly?" Everyone was afraid that Han Jin Gong was afraid to death, and they all tied their hands, and they were taken advantage of the opportunity by Jin Gong to recruit a lot, so when Jin Gong was alive, whether the ship entered the Huai River, Bianshui, or went west along the river, it was all worry-free. But the Duke of Jin died ......"

Speaking of Han Yun, Gao Yue's eyes also turned slightly red.

No matter what, the imperial court just lacks a strong iron fist like Han Yun, a pillar who can be civil and martial!

Now he is dead in Xiaoxiao's hands, so on the land of Jianghuai, the group of bandits emerged from the dark lair again, showing off their might in the sun, and openly killing people.

What's worse is that after the town navy was reduced, many soldiers, shippers and even officials who had no way out actually turned into river thieves and colluded with Caizhou.

In short, in Gao Yue's eyes, this river thief is a freak with many colors mixed with "bandits, Fang Zhen, soldiers, merchants and indigenous land snakes".

"Behind this group of river robbers is the Wu brothers in Huaixi Town." Gao Yue was right.

He first secretly told this matter to the emperor of Zichen Palace.

The emperor was also furious, so he asked Yin Zhizhen and Guo Tuo to select some of the children of the city patrol division who were agile in their ears, eyes, hands and feet, disguised as merchants, or went out of Tongguan, or went to Shangluo Road, and went out to inquire about the news.

In the end, the answer was revealed: Wu Shaocheng recruited Jiangyang thieves and outlaws from Xianzhou, Yuzhou, Qizhou, and Yingzhou, and then mixed with Shenguangcai's local soldiers, built ships, robbed and killed merchants, and colluded with some indigenous merchants around to share and sell the stolen goods.

The money that was robbed, Wu Shaocheng asked the people of Caizhou to take it, exchange it for the skin of the merchants, go to Shouzhou, Shuzhou and even Xuanzhou in Huainan Province to buy tea, and then return to the states of Henan Province to make a profit.

I also inquired that Wu Shaocheng now asked the women of every household in Caizhou to plant mulberry trees and raise silkworms, and weave the so-called "soil silk", which is obviously inferior to Jiangnan Dongdao or Shu in terms of texture, but it is better than the low price, and it is also popular around for a while, making a lot of money for Caizhou; Not only that, Wu Shaocheng also secretly instigated the bandits to sneak into the mountains in the east, secretly dig and buy copper mines, and then transport them back to the town to mint fake money, and mix them with lead and iron and other things, mixed them into the market, and shoddy them, causing chaos in the entire southeast trade now, Han Wei sent troops into the mountains many times to arrest them, but with little effect.

The emperor asked Gao Yue what his strategy was.

Gao Yue asked the emperor to issue an edict to let the soldiers and horses of the Zhenhai Navy, Eyue, Hunan, Jingnan, and Shannan Dongdao be suppressed, and prepare beacons and clippers along the river to escort the caravan.

But another two months later, the situation was even worse.

Judging from various trends, Gao Yue keenly felt that it was definitely not Huaixi Town that was stirring up trouble alone.

Previously, Huainan Jiedu made Du Ya suddenly go up and down, saying that when Han Rong Town Xuanrun, the long gang boat used for the transfer patrol yard, although from Jianghuai to Bianshui, and then to Weishui to change different ships, but all Han Rong single-handedly handled the operation - Du Ya said that this kind of long gang boat model, caused great trouble to the military towns and counties around Caoyun, not only can not profit from it, but also have to bear the cost of repairing and carrying ships, so all roads are exhausted, so Du Ya strongly recommends that the local patrol courts be abolished again, and the towns and states themselves will preside over the transportation of the road section where they are located.

"This is Zhu Bajie going to divide his luggage." Gao Yue thought to himself.