(Thank you Houde Liren and Baihu Lao Xiong for voting for your valuable monthly tickets, and thank you for choosing the middle route and the reward of the Demon Thieves Group, thank you.) ）

The scout soon came back to report, after the people of the Changle County Chamber of Commerce returned to the county, a large number of people immediately went to the Chamber of Commerce to concentrate, the scouts paid attention to the observation, the number of people was at least about 100 people, and the atmosphere in the county immediately began to become tense, and people continued to check and guard on the street, the four gates of the county, the southeast, northwest and northwest, the sergeants guarding also became nervous, looking like a big war was coming, in fact, after the Jiangning battalion entered Fujian, because of the transmission of news, some officials have begun to get nervous, It's just that the message is transmitted slowly, and the atmosphere of the big war is not yet very obvious.

The bigger change was still to come, and the scouts found out that people in sturdy attire were constantly leaving Changle County, and I don't know where the road went, these people were riding horses and did not take the official road.

The scout found that the situation was not right, and quickly left the county, that is, after the scout left the county, the city gates in the north, west and east of the county were all closed, and the south gate was open, but the people who entered the city were particularly carefully reviewed, and there were not too many restrictions on those who went out of the city.

After listening to the scout's report, a sneer appeared on Su Tiancheng's face.

Lu Xiangsheng, He Renlong, Liu Tiehan, Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Chenggong and others were all standing by Su Tiancheng's side, the army temporarily stopped marching, they all came over, to see if there was any change, He Renlong and Liu Tiehan vaguely felt that Su Tiancheng was afraid to change his thinking.

It was Liu Tiehan who spoke first, and his qualifications in the Jiangning camp were the oldest.

"My lord, how should the army act?"

Su Tiancheng looked at Liu Tiehan and did not answer directly, but spoke to Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Chenggong.

"Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Chenggong. You have been in Fujian for a long time, you are familiar with the situation here, you tell me what kind of power the businessmen in Fujian have, you tell the truth, don't have any worries. ”

The implicit meaning of Su Tiancheng's words. It's their own decision-making, I'm afraid there will be problems, and the biggest problem in Fujian may not be the government, nor the health office, but these businessmen.

Sure enough, Zheng Hongkui spoke.

"Since the lord said it, his subordinates said bluntly that the businessmen in Fujian are different from those in other places. General Xiong knows better, but General Xiong has not been in Quanzhou for a long time, and he has not had a lot of contact with these merchants, and he does not fully understand them. It can crack down on smuggling merchant ships in other places, but generally do not touch the merchant ships in Fujian. The force behind them is huge. ”

Su Tiancheng smiled and interjected.

"I'm afraid you have to think like this, you and your family are in Quanzhou, Fujian, and you have offended the businessmen of the entire Fujian, your life is not easy, and your family's life is even more difficult."

Zheng Hongkui's face turned a little red. He did not deny such a view.

"What the adults said is yes, the eldest brother also took this into account back then, but as long as there is enough strength to deter, it will not be like this, under the command of the eldest brother. There were more than 20,000 sergeants who also considered cracking down on Fujian's merchants, these businessmen's smuggling was too arrogant, but what made the eldest brother hesitate was that even if more than 20,000 sergeants were recruited, there were also those who supported the merchants, and I am afraid that there were spies arranged by the merchants. ”

After Zheng Hongkui finished speaking, Zheng Chenggong continued to speak.

"My lord, the subordinates have something to add, the subordinates first declared, it is by no means alarmist, the subordinates have lived in Fujian for many years, between hearing and witnessing, knowing that there are some things, following General Xiong over the years, and also directly contacted some businessmen, subordinates believe that the businessmen of Fujian can completely control the government, their strength, infiltrated into the government, all because they have silver, the officials in Fujian, in fact, are very poor, the officials' salaries are very low, the businessmen also fancy this opportunity, A large amount of money was donated to the government, but the merchants did so for a purpose, their purpose was to ask the government to serve them, not only to control the decisions made by the government, but even to control the army of the guard. ”

"I am in the Ming Dynasty, I am afraid that only Fujian Province has such a situation, the strength of the Shangjia's guards, far stronger than the strength of the official army, the subordinates are not polite, the security of the Fujian station, the Shangjia can also be controlled."

Su Tiancheng nodded, in fact, the situation that Zheng Chenggong said, after a few hundred years, is not a matter at all, the economic base determines the superstructure, and businessmen can control the government when they have money, and they can take out a lot of money to make their spokesperson the head of the government, so that all the decisions made by the government are in their own interests.

It's just that this truth is impossible to imagine in the Ming Dynasty, which was dominated by agriculture.

"Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Chenggong, I believe the situation you mentioned, during the Jiajing period, the Japanese invaders were rampant along the coast, and there were many businessmen in it, they colluded with the Japanese inside and outside, regardless of the life or death of the people, the purpose was for the smuggling at sea, in order to earn a large amount of silver, the Japanese were completely defeated, but these merchants still had to earn silver, so their objects were transferred to the government and officials."

"I have long said that money can make the devil grind, where does the silver of those merchants come from, that is, relying on smuggling and selling illicit salt at sea, it is impossible for businessmen who really do business to accumulate such huge wealth in a short period of time, businessmen have money, they need to ensure their own interests, I once described rich businessmen, like a child, walking on the street with gold ingots, and being robbed by someone without paying attention, how can they allow such a situation to occur, so they must protect their own interests."

"The government must protect the interests of these businessmen, otherwise it is no wonder that the businessmen themselves will find a way, but the government protects the businessmen who are doing business properly, and as for those businessmen who are traitors, the government must crack down on them. The governments of various parts of the Ming Dynasty have not done a very good job in this regard, and this must be admitted. ”

"Fujian's businessmen, the reason why they are special, because they are in a different position, the interests of protection are not the same, their behavior, by no means the object of government support, Zheng Chenggong is right, Fujian businessmen's strength, extraordinary, because their wealth is too easy, they use a small part of the wealth to protect their own interests, to earn more silver."

"My consideration, our deployment must be changed, it seems that the main opponent of the Jiangning battalion in Fujian is not the army of the guard, but these merchants, I can make an inference that the most powerful force in Fujian is the escort of these merchants, they control all aspects, and even decide the actions of the government, and it is probably these merchants who are fighting against our Jiangning battalion."

"It is almost impossible for many officials in Fujian, including many officials, to say that they have no connection with businessmen."

"If we directly conquer the government, the process may be very simple, and we will soon be able to control the government at all levels, but then our governance will encounter major problems, and the businessmen of Fujian will not support us, and will make other actions behind the scenes, and when the time comes, Fujian is afraid that it will be a place where bandits are rampant."

"So we first want to exterminate the merchants in Fujian."

"Everyone, remember, the merchants we need to exterminate are those who have been engaged in sea smuggling and selling illicit salt for a long time, these merchants are called rich in Fujian, and the amount of protection in their hands must not be weak, Liu Tiehan, order the scouts to rush to Xinghua Mansion immediately, inform Qu Qingze and Xiong Zijian, and focus on cracking down on these rich people in Fujian."

Everyone was very quiet, listening to Su Tiancheng speak.

The most surprising thing is Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Chenggong, they have been in Fujian for so many years, they have been deeply involved in it, and they have observed these situations, to put it mildly, Zheng Zhilong did the same back then, and he didn't expect Su Tiancheng to explain the truth in a few words, and he said the solution.

The itinerary of the army was quickly adjusted, and after Su Tiancheng discussed with everyone, it was decided that the army would be temporarily stationed outside Changle County and launch a small-scale attack on Changle County, but not really fight.

Su Tiancheng's explanation is also very simple, this battle, can be declared to the outside world, is to attack those so-called rich people in Fujian, these rich people engaged in sea smuggling and trafficking of illicit salt, seriously damaged the interests of the imperial court, and after defeating these rich people, you can get evidence of collusion with officials and collusion from their mouths, so that it becomes logical to clean up the official mansions in Fujian, which makes Zhou Yanru, who is sitting on pins and needles in the capital, live a better life.

As for not launching a large-scale offensive in the first place, the purpose is more clear, that is, waiting for the guards of these rich people, a large number of them will begin to concentrate, cutting the grass and eradicating the roots is Su Tiancheng's request, Fujian's rich people are strong and strong, and there are many guards, these guards are concentrated, so that they can be easily exterminated, if they are scattered, it will cost a lot of strength in the future.

The Jiangning battalion was stationed outside the county seat of Changle, in fact, it was the tactics of besieging the city and sending reinforcements, allowing the rich to mobilize guards to protect their own interests.

The situation of Changle County is special, that is, there are many rich people here, and there are many rich people, a large amount of money and goods, are concentrated here, I believe that many rich people will spare no effort to protect.

The army was quickly prepared, but did not attack for the time being.

The scouts began to try their best to enter the county seat to investigate and obtain relevant information, but it was still difficult for the Jiangning camp scouts to be in Changle County.

With the beginning of the investigation, the information that Su Tiancheng expected was slowly confirmed, and in two consecutive days, a large number of young people began to enter Changle County, and the security in the county town became even stricter. (To be continued......)