A few days later, Li Ming, Song Tao and others, together with Zhou Billy and others from the Intelligence Department, left Luoyang, Henan Province by boat, and sailed along the Yellow River towards Shanxi. In order to ensure the safety of the journey, the Ministry of Intelligence dispatched dozens of second-line armed intelligence officers from the Central Plains Intelligence Station. The two sailing ships were accompanied by two platoons of officers and men of the overseas brigade.

In addition, there is also a fleet of river aircraft and sailing boats loaded with weapons and equipment and various supplies, which are ready to make an agreed deal with several tribes of the people's army along the Yellow River in Shanxi.

The sailing fleet entered the Yellow River along Luoshui, passed through Mengjin, Sanmenxia, Lingbao and Tongguan, and then sailed all the way north. Through the radio, he got in touch with the intelligence officers in Shaanxi and met with the leaders of several tribes of the people's army.

Li Ming also finally met the real leader of the peasant rebel army in this era, and he was greatly disappointed. The leaders of these outcasts are actually a gang of bandits, not only brutal and ferocious, but also very cunning.

The Far Eastern Company simply could not control these displaced people. This gang of outcasts has evolved into bandits, who only know how to coerce the homeless, loot and kill everywhere. This also made him determined, and decided to follow Zhou Billy's method to completely control several exile armies with Far Eastern officers and soldiers as the backbone.

The river fleet in the Far East removed a large number of cold weapons and materials from the sailing ships in exchange for gold, silver, jewelry, porcelain, lacquerware, calligraphy, painting, antiques and silk brocades looted by the Wanderer Army.

The two sides happily ended the transaction, and Zhou Billy and the leaders of these exile armies finalized the approximate time of the next transaction. Then the fleet loaded with gold, silver, jewelry and other valuables went south to Henan, while Zhou Billy and Li Ming and others took two modified sex sailboats and continued north.

Two sailboats sailed into the Longmen River section of the Jinshan Gorge, which is the ancient road ferry connecting the Jinshan traffic, and the situation is dangerous. The cliffs on both sides of the strait are like knives and axes. Longmen Mountain on the left bank and Liangshan Mountain on the right bank face each other across the river, and the river channel is only about 100 meters.

In this era, on the Yellow River in the Jinshan Gorge section, there were very few large ships going upstream, and most of them were small boats that chose to carry goods north. Although every year, thousands of large ships full of goods drift down from the upstream to Guanzhong in Jinnan and Shaanxi. Even the goods in Henan and Shandong were sold, but in the end, they were sold to local traders with the goods by boat, and then returned with the money.

Because of the huge drop in this section of the river, many sections of the river need to rely on the ancient plank road on both sides of the river to pull the fiber on the north side of the river, so as to go up the Yellow River. Along the way, you can often see naked Yellow River slender men, who use their bodies like a question mark to pull wooden boats on both sides of the river, and go against the current all the way.

Fortunately, for two modified sailboats. This is not the case, and the strong power ensures that the two sailing yachts sail with ease. However, there are many flooded beaches in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and in order to ensure safety, Zhou Billy still hired a few old men who are familiar with this waterway as guides in the local area, and went all the way north.

Even so, the sailing of the two sailboats was full of dangers.

When the boat went up to the mouth of the pot, the wind was high and the waves were strong. The waterfall has a huge drop, and it is impossible for passing boats to pass through it. No matter how powerful the sailboat is. It is also necessary to cross Hukou Waterfall by boat on the shore of Hukou Waterfall at the water and dry dock of Longwangyuan.

A few old men hired by Zhou Billy were very familiar with the waterways here, and they commanded two sailing boats to moor the boats at a place where the current was slower three or four hundred meters south of Hukou Waterfall.

A few of the bosses negotiated the price with the old man. Then a group of villagers scrambled to unload the cargo from the two sailboats, and then used donkeys to carry the goods to the "Tekou" where the water flows gently north of Hukou Waterfall.

The rest of the people, led by a few heads, tied two or three hemp ropes as thick as a flat pole to the bow of the boat, and there were logs under the boat, and hundreds of people pulled and pushed. With the high-pitched sound of the trumpet, the two sailboats slowly dragged northward, slowly bypassing the Hukou Waterfall and arriving at the "Tekou" stone gap.

There are also carpenters who repair the bottom of the boat, inspect the bottom of the boat on dry land, and if the boat is in good condition, they push the boat down the Yellow River and load the goods onto the ship. Because everyone was working hard all the way north, Li Ming decided to rest for one night in Longwangyuan.

These passing ships of Longwang Yuan, loading and unloading goods here, repairing ships, burning incense and praying, and trading accommodation and food, often have to be held for several days, and the Longwang Yuan on the shore of Hukou Waterfall has also formed a water and dry wharf.

There are nearly 100 businesses here, hundreds of holes in caves, and three streets up and down, which are lined up and down from afar, and have a unique style. There are money shops, pawnshops, liquor stores, restaurants, inns, salt shops, dyeing shops, leather shops, grocery stores, pharmacies, and other shops.

Although Hukou Waterfall is the biggest obstacle to water transportation in the Jinshan Gorge of the Yellow River, through the method of "boating on dry land", there are as many as 4,000 or 5,000 boats passing through the dry wharf of Longwang Yuan in normal years, forming a waterway navigation route that runs north and south along the Yellow River. Under the conditions of the time, this was probably the best choice for water transportation through Hukou Falls, and Longwang Yuan also became an important land and water wharf and one of the more prosperous commercial market towns in this section of the Yellow River.

After many days of sailing, everyone worked very hard, they chartered a hotel in Longwang, washed up, and then had a good meal, and then went back to their rooms to rest. After Li Ming, Zhou Bili, and Song Tao finished eating, they led the special combat team members back to the ship, replaced the officers and men of the overseas brigade guarding the ships, and kept vigil on the two ships.

They bought some snacks on the shore, Li Ming took out two bottles of wine, and the three of them drank them on the deck. Billy Chow's alcohol consumption is also somewhat famous in the company, although he never fights alcohol, but he has never been inferior to other people's wine, and no one has ever seen him drunk.

Song Tao raised his wine glass and took a sip, wiped his mouth, and then frowned and said, "The Hetao base area wants to transport supplies through the Yellow River, but now it seems that it can't be counted on. This Hukou Waterfall alone is a hurdle that cannot be crossed. ”

Li Ming smiled indifferently and said: "Before we came, we had expected that the Yellow River waterway would not be able to guarantee the materials needed for the base area on a large scale, so we had to rely on the grain and gold and silver stored in those traitors and Jin merchants in Shanxi to meet our initial infrastructure construction. We continued to sail north for a while, inspected the situation in various sections of the Yellow River, and then went ashore to Yuci, Taigu, Pingyao, Jiexiu, Pingyang and other places where traitors and Jin merchants gathered. Lao Zhou, your intelligence department must give me a thorough understanding of the situation of these traitors and merchants, this is a major matter related to the initial construction of our base area. (To be continued......)

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