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After the second pass came out of the map point, the generals were all begging for a sharp look. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info The public sacrifice is rough, and Wang Tong found out the original in the official office of a thousand households. It was already covered in dust and moth-eaten.

Now the generals are looking for painters to copy it, the location is not accurate, even people like Wang Tong who have little grasp of the map know that it is wrong, that life is good to run in Hebei and Shandong, not to mention things like scales.

The generals leaned over to look, except for those from the Zhen family, everyone else's eyes were a little ignorant, judging from the simple points on the map, it was really difficult.

Wang Tong sighed in his heart, he used to think that this military was nothing more than leading troops to fight, but after experiencing it himself, he had a lot of things to worry about, and there were too many things to worry about.

"I will inform you three days before the departure, and now you will go back to the camp to arrange for the New Year, and you can not go out of the exercise tomorrow and the morning after tomorrow, and start the combat readiness in the afternoon of the day after tomorrow."

Everyone agreed, and Wang Tong put down the bamboo pole. Said with a smile:

"The military quartermaster buys pigs and sheep, and the fish and shrimp are also prepared a lot, tonight you will lead the children below to have a fat year, a year of nervousness, it is good to be loose and loose, disperse!"

The following generals bowed down together, said goodbye and said goodbye, Wang Tong's side except for the port generals are older, the other officers and non-commissioned officers are not too old, this is their first Spring Festival in the barracks, everyone has no homesickness, but feels very fresh.

When these people dispersed, Wang Tong said to Cai Nan:

"I also have to bother Cai Jianjun to run once, and the food of each battalion must be good tonight and tomorrow, which is considered labor, and each battalion must be checked once to avoid any arsenic leakage.

It stands to reason that this is also the duty of the supervising army, Cai Nan hurriedly nodded and went out to Wang Tong, and Zhang Shiqiang on the side said:

"Brother Zhang will go to the bow of the boat once, and he will take a look with Pan Ming, of course the sentens don't have any work, but don't make things that can't last the next year, such sinners still need to be relieved, after all, these people we will use in the future."

Zhang Shiqiang also received the order here, and there were only a few people left in the house, Wang Tong looked at Yang Sichen on the side, Yang Sichen nodded, and opened the book in his hand. 禀报 says:

"The New Year's Qian Mi of the Jinyi Wei Baihu Hang Bridge and the former Tianjin Jinyi Guards have gone down, and the Qian Mi of the Haihe River Patrol Tangshan and the sailors and boatmen on the five ships have gone down. The rewards of Qiao Da and the three masters of the craftsman workshop and the apprentices of the craftsmen below have also gone down, and the money and rice of the fire organ workshop this year have also been reduced, and the craftsmen have also received the money and food for the New Year. ”

After the report from front to back, Yang Sichen still had a flattery at the end, Wang Tong smiled. The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty are like semi-slaves, and the wages for the work of the government are deducted so badly that they can't even eat, not to mention any enthusiasm for labor. During the Chinese New Year, he also took special care of the extra month's remuneration, which was really compassionate to the craftsmen who were used to it.

After finishing speaking one by one, the general on the side added with a smile:

"The head of the official workshop has arrived, his family Granny Ma is entertaining, and the New Year's gifts sent by the adults in Beijing arrived yesterday, if the lord wants to see it, wait to move over."

Wang Tong nodded, laughed and laughed at himself:

"Chinese New Year's Eve is not idle, Mr. Yang, I bother you to entertain the next director, there is still some military affairs on the officer's side."

Yang Sichen bowed down and said goodbye, and when he went out, the door was closed, and only Wang Tong, Ma Sanbiao and the general were left in the room.

"Sanbiao, the day after tomorrow, you take them from Tianjin Wei to that Zhuangzi, ride a horse, recognize the road, and this operation will not start until you come back."

Ma Sanbiao hurriedly got up to receive the order, and Wang Tong said with a wry smile:

"In this way, the official only knows the road from Beijing to the Tianjin Acropolis, and other places are completely black-eyed, so it is really uneasy to lead the soldiers on the road like this." "The master is also thinking a little left, how can the army know the road every time it travels, isn't it just a thief who is familiar with the terrain."

Hearing the general's words, Wang Tong shook his head and said in a deep voice:

"Now it's rather difficult than simple, it's a big matter to fight that Zhuangzi and train the army, and today you also see that the generals below are a little ignorant, always doing it behind closed doors, and they can't practice anything."

Since he said this, the generals fell silent. On the contrary, Ma Sanbiao on the side said with a big grin:

"Why should you be so careful, it's just a Zhuangzi, our Fenghu's soldiers and horses drove over, and it was not as simple as pinching the ants to death."

"The lion and the rabbit must not be lost, marching and fighting is a matter of using swords and soldiers to die, of course be careful, and there is a group of salt barons and bandits selling smuggled salt in the Zhuangzi, this time it is not to deal with those bow incense."

"Salt baron?"

General Chen couldn't help but be surprised, Wang Tong was the first time to tell them who to deal with this time, originally thought that Zhuangzi was just Shi Xie Yimi.

The salt tax is one of the most important financial revenues of the Ming Dynasty, and the trafficking of illicit salt and the evasion of the salt tax are also the most punishable crimes.

There are people who sell illicit salt in all parts of the provinces, some of them take risks in order to get three meals and clothing, and more are gangsters who sell them everywhere.

However, the largest traffickers of illicit salt are the officially recognized salt merchants, who have salt in their hands, but in addition to this load of official salt, they have to sell ten or more taels of illegal salt, and a considerable part of this illegal salt is bought in rural villages and towns.

To transport these illicit salt to various villages and towns, it is necessary to ensure that it is sold, to ensure that it is not infringed upon by those local tyrants, and to ensure that the transportation along the way is not robbed by bandits between the mountains and wilderness, and not to be caught by the government's inspection and other private armed forces of salt merchants.

The so-called bandits ringing horses, with a steel knife and a spear in their hands, are considered the main force in the team, and the others are holding farm tools and wooden sticks, which are completely rabble.

The teams below the salt owls are different, and if they have money, they have a way, so they can naturally get sophisticated weapons. Broadsword spear. Standard longbows, armor on the leader's body are common, and horses lack nothing.

In addition, the scale of this trafficking in illicit salt is large, and the backbone minions below make a lot of money, and there are often soldiers who join in the country, and bandit outlaws are often recruited to the past, and they are even stronger.

In a sense, in peacetime, the strongest illegal armed forces in the region are these salt barons.

This kind of salt lord is often a local tyrant, familiar with his hometown, and the local government helps him, and trafficking in illicit salt makes him powerful and extremely difficult.

General Zhen was surprised, for him the salt lord is also like that, the battle array, thousands of troops, plugged outside the wheel captive, the southeast of the gang, that is not a hundred times more vicious than this salt lord, Ma Sanbiao is even more arrogant and doesn't care, and after they dispersed, they went straight to Zhang Chunde's house.

When everyone was gone, Wang Tong returned to his study, opened a locked cabinet on the bookcase, took out two volumes from it, and read them carefully.

The reason why the salt lord was picked this time was not arbitrary, before and after the incense on the bow of the ship, more than 100 vacant boats appeared on the canal wharf, and after a brief inspection, it was found that these boats had been loaded with salt.

Wang Tong has always had a judgment, that is, Tianjin Wei is just the front desk of a certain force, and any maritime trade and illegal salt trafficking are all for the purpose of collecting money. For who to collect money, how to collect money, Wang Tong can not make a clear judgment, it is one thing to be short of manpower to keep an eye on it, in addition, after Wang Tong highlighted the strange soldiers to occupy both sides of the Haihe River, it was already a grass startling snake, after the occupation to the bow of the ship, I don't know how many related people disappeared from the Tianjin Acropolis during this time, and later although Panda and Wan Dao did not run away. But many of the errand workers below are nowhere to be found.

There is no human evidence, only physical evidence, and there is no specific thing to find out at all, but there is one thing that Wang Tong has learned in the process of continuous learning.

Trafficking in illicit salt does not mean that this salt package can be sold along the canal on a boat, but the common people buy it for one and a half catties, and the big families buy it for ten catties and 100 catties, is it worth letting the big ships dock for loading and unloading once?

This kind of sales requires a large number of salt lords along the way to buy, and then they will distribute and retail, as long as you find these salt lords who buy in large quantities. You may be able to find further clues or news.

It's easy to make this judgment, but how to find these salt lords is a problem, Wang Tong currently has a public security department in Beijing, and he has his own team in Tianjin Wei, and the news he may hear is these two places, so the big salt lords will definitely not be in places like Beijing and Tianjin.

If you want to check, the intelligence system of Dongchang and Jinyiwei is not used at all, and the public security department can't use it, so can't you send people out of the city to inquire everywhere?

However, Wang Tong also had a way, through Yang Sichen wrote a letter to Shen Shixing, a cabinet scholar, Shen Shixing has a lot of people who can be used in the Criminal Department, and the Criminal Department has close ties with local prefectures and counties, so please ask the local local snakes to investigate, this matter is much simpler.

In the middle of the lunar month, a catcher in Qingxian County came to Tianjin Wei and took the initiative to go to the Jinyi Wei Qianhu Official Office to ask Wang Tong to see him, and told him about the situation of the Zhuangzi, the local great benevolent man Shan Wen, who was secretly called the "fat wolf" of the big salt owl, and the trafficking scope included the big tycoons of Beizhili and several provinces in Shandong.

The magistrate of Qingxian County is about to step down, and he is also bolder in doing things, and wrote a letter directly to Hejian Mansion, saying that there is such a big trouble in the locality, please send troops to Shangfeng to suppress it, and then under the promotion of several aspects, intentionally or unintentionally, it has become a large army garrison that cannot be easily mobilized.