(The second update, ask for a red ticket)

The salt area of Changlu and northern Shandong is close to the Bohai Sea, which is an inland sea, and has little interfluence with the outer sea current, while the river system that flows into the freshwater is very large, and the salinity of the seawater is relatively light, and the salt is obtained due to large input.

The coastal areas south of Binh Giang Province are not conducive to salt production due to the rainy and sunny climate.

The two Huai salt areas have favorable geographical location, natural time, and abundant output, which is the crown of the four major salt areas, and because of the convenience of transfer, the supply of official salt to the counties accounts for sixty percent of the total output of the four major salt areas.

After autumn, the weather is dry and rainless, it is the peak season for boiling sea frying salt, and the salt production of the two Huai salt areas accounts for more than seventy percent of the whole year from September to the rainy season before the rainy season of the next year.

At this time, the salt area south of Sheyang was completely destroyed, and the salt guards were not effective in the field, so they could only retreat to Dasai Sheyang, and the salt area in Sheyang to the north to Qingjiangpu and even Tinghu was also threatened by the guerrilla attacks of the East China Sea Kou at all times.

It is extremely difficult for salt households to cook sea frying salt, and it takes ten coins to fry a bucket of salt and sell officials, and catch some fish and shrimp in the sea in the rain, and they are ragged all year round, but no matter how hard they work, they can still struggle to survive - at this time, their lives are also threatened, and there is nothing worth nostalgia for this kind of life, and a large number of salt households have fled to become displaced people who have left their homes, and salt ponds have begun to be abandoned.

If the situation is not stopped if the situation is not stopped, let alone the black veil on the top, Zhang Yan is afraid that the head on his neck will not be able to be saved.

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Zhang Yan served as a salt and iron envoy in the first year of Delong, and did not give the new emperor any suspicion to continue to stay, so far it has been 12 years, not how honest he is, the key is that he is not confused - as long as he keeps the salt profit limit of two million taels of silver per year, he does not mind that the officials below will have an affair with the salt lord, nor do he mind that some places are controlled by the salt lord, and the price of salt is several times or even dozens of times more expensive, on the contrary, he also wants to get a piece of the pie.

At first, Zhang Yan also held the attitude that the well water did not interfere with the river water, and was quite annoyed that Song Xiaobo, the capital supervisor of Hecheng, actually begged for shelter in Chongzhou. Mao Wenjing had earlier rejected Lin Binding's proposal to join forces, but Zhang Yan did not express his position in Weiyang, but he knew about this matter - it was he who indulged Mao Wenjing that led to the defeat of Dafeng on the 25th.

Although the salt is very profitable, its abundance is that when Weiyang resold it to salt merchants, the salt and iron division cut off a huge profit of 190 yuan per bucket of salt, and its profit was intercepted in Weiyang, but as far as the salt-producing areas are concerned, they are extremely poor and embarrassed. In addition to the officials who participated in the sale of smuggled salt with the salt lords, the salt households were mostly poor, far less rich than Chongzhou, Haiyu and other counties, so the Donghai Kou usually did not go to the salt area to loot - although the salt area was also threatened by the Donghai Kou before, the threat was far less serious than that of Chongzhou, Haiyu and other places, and the officials and generals of the Salt and Iron Division were inevitably slack.

Moreover, the previous Donghai Kou were all scattered and brave, and the powerful ones were only one or two thousand, and the Yantiesi had little intersection with the locality, even if Chongzhou destroyed the city to the Dakou in early April, the Yantiesi only thought that the Chongzhou defenders were too weak, and did not fully realize that the Donghai Kou in the past two years were far from being comparable to the past.

Before the Battle of Dafeng, Mao Wenjing gathered 6,000 salt guards in Sheyang in a short time, and his confidence was inflated to counterattack in the south, planning to recover the Hecheng military fortress within ten days.

When passing through Dafeng, he encountered a small group of pirates who went ashore to grab grain, and for the sake of greedy military merit, Mao Wenjing actually let the Chinese army in front of the tent also participate in the pursuit - the formation of the 6,000 army was actually dispersed for the pursuit of two or three hundred Kou soldiers, and when the large group of Kou soldiers landed from the side and back, Mao Wenjing had no ability to organize resistance at all, and almost instantly collapsed and retreated.

Retreat to Sheyang to gather the remnants of the army, the strength is less than 3,000 - but it allows the Kou soldiers to regain some morale in the salt protection army.

At this time, Zhang Yan realized that although the Jiangdong Left Army could easily kill and capture two or three thousand Kou soldiers in Chongzhou, the Kou soldiers who landed on the shore this time were not something that the salt guards in the salt area could deal with - Zhang Yan first summoned Mao Wenjing to Weiyang, scolded the dog's blood, and at the same time sent someone to find Liu Shidu to talk about the project in the middle, and personally came to Chongzhou to talk to Lin Tie about the joint army.

Due to Mao Wenjing's non-cooperation, Lin Jian could not keep abreast of the situation in the salt area north of Hecheng. Two days later, Liu Shidu sent someone to inform Wu Meijiu that he was going to come to Chongzhou with Zhang Yan to inspect, and Lin Jian knew the details of the disastrous defeat of the salt guard army in Dafeng.

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Standing on the top of the garrison platform more than six zhang high, standing against the female wall, looking at the Hecheng military fortress in the distance, Lin Jian pointed to the terrain around the military fortress, and personally introduced the offensive and defensive situation to Zhang Yan and Liu Shidu: "Even if there is no water in the river, the soft mud at the bottom of the river is very deep, which also forms an obstacle to the rapid passage of the army, as long as the salt and iron division can quickly build a strong camp for confrontation on the north bank, the situation in the salt area will not deteriorate again......

Zhang Yan held the battlement with his hand to look at the terrain in the distance, he didn't understand the military, and he couldn't see any clues, so he asked Mao Wenjing: "What Lord Lin said, you can do it with the soldiers and horses in your hands?" ”

Dafeng learned a lesson in the first battle, Mao Wenjing's face was ugly, and he thought: With Lin Lian saying so easily, Dafeng will not be so miserable in the first battle.

He stubbornly said: "If you want to build a fortress on the north bank, you still need the Jiangdong Left Army to suppress the Kou soldiers and dare not attack out of the fortress to succeed......"

"It doesn't matter, my Jiangdong Left Army is here to suppress the Kou soldiers for General Mao." Lin Jian said.

Mao Wenjing's face rose even more like a pig's liver, six days ago, he sent a letter to Lin Jian to strictly prohibit the Jiangdong Left Army from interfering in the defense of the salt area, and also transferred the nearly 1,000 Hecheng army that had been assembled with great difficulty.

Zhang Yan couldn't guess for a while what conditions Lin Jian had to meet before he was willing to join forces to fight, so he glanced at Liu Shidu, hoping that he could make peace on his behalf, and also give the two sides room for change and discussion.

Liu Shidu knew that he wanted to help Zhang Yan speak at this time, ease the stiff atmosphere, and said: "The safety of the salt area is very important, everyone should cooperate sincerely and tide over the difficulties together is the ......."

"Of course," Lin Jian said with a haha, "Chongzhou has gathered five thousand soldiers and horses here, plus the people, hard labor, and two or three hundred stone of rice and grain per day, not to put on any pomp here, of course, to drive the Kou soldiers into the sea." ”

"The capital of raising the army......" Zhang Yan said, "This is easy to say, the military capital of the Jiangdong Left Army, the salt and iron division should pay for it, I will first allocate 20,000 taels of silver to this side for temporary support, okay?" ”

Lin Jian secretly said that the salt and iron division was really generous, and the shot was 20,000 taels, and refused: "Although the Jiangdong Left Army is poor, the military and people of Chongcheng are very supportive. In the past few days, the townships have donated rice and money, accumulated grain into mountains, and accumulated money for vehicles, barely enough to cope with the war in March and May......

"......" Zhang Yan looked at Lin Yan, waiting for him to finish speaking.

Lin Jian showed a look of embarrassment and said, "I received an ultimatum letter from General Mao a few days ago, saying that the Jiangdong Left Army is a hometown army defending the land, and the defense area is limited to Chongzhou and Jiangkou, and it is already the world's tolerance to borrow Jiangmen—since General Mao's tone is so serious, I think unless I get a letter from the Ministry of War to classify Hecheng as the defense of the Jiangdong Left Army, otherwise the cross-border conquest is really unknown......"

Mao Wenjing's mouthful of blood almost spurted out, and Zhang Yan's face became extremely ugly: Lin Lian's mouth was also too open, and he actually wanted to swallow the Hecheng grassland into the defense area of the Jiangdong Left Army.

Lin Tie exposed his hideous minions, Liu Shidu could only smile, at first when he saw Lin Tie, he was all kind, and he thought it was very easy to talk - her mother is a fake, how can she be so easy to talk about when she returns to Chongzhou, who will uproot the power of Chongzhou Monastery once she returns to Chongzhou?

"Don't you think Lord Lin is too much of a deception?" Mao Wen said angrily.

"General Mao, what are you talking about," Lin Jian asked in surprise, "Heaven and earth conscience, have I ever deceived people?" ”

"The Hecheng grassland is related to the plan of supplying grass and boiling salt, and there is no room for error, Lord Lin wants to divide the Hecheng grassland as the defense area of the Jiangdong Left Army, what is his intention?" Zhang Yan stared at Lin Jian with compassion.

"I know that the grassland in Hecheng is related to the plan of boiling grass and salt, so I have to shoulder the burden of guarding against the soldiers," Lin Jian was righteous and awe-inspiring, his eyes squinted slightly and looked back at Zhang Yan, and he said bitterly, "My Dan heart can learn from the sun and the moon, what does Lord Zhang think I want?" As usual, my hand is a little long, but for the sake of the imperial court, the situation in the salt area is like this, and my worry is not a little worse than that of Lord Zhang......"

Lin Yan said it well, Zhang Yan naturally wouldn't believe him for half a point, but he also restrained himself from completely stiffening the relationship, and said: "It's not early, maybe I suffered some wind and cold when I was in a hurry, and I had a headache on this platform, I'll go back to the camp to rest first......" took Mao Wenjing and other subordinates to the platform first, Song Xiaobo was in a dilemma, and when he saw the look that Lin Mengde gave him, he followed Zhang Yan first.

Liu Shidu still stayed on the stage, and said embarrassedly: "Why bother, isn't it better to be in the same boat?" "Although he is the prefect of Hailing, but in today's Chongzhou, money, grain, taxes, and defense are not under the jurisdiction of Hailing Mansion, and the officials can manage Wu Meijiu, but Wu Meijiu is also the master of the overhead in Chongzhou, and he knows that his words do not have much weight in Chongzhou and in front of Lin Bin.

"Lord Liu, I won't hide it from you," Lin Jian said, he knew that if he wanted to negotiate the conditions, Liu Shidu would also be the middleman, "To be honest, I don't trust the salt pawn to be able to hold Hecheng, just as Chongzhou is the surface of Hailing Mansion, and Hecheng is also the surface of Chongzhou - you can't recapture Hecheng for the Salt and Iron Division today, and throw it away for them tomorrow - whether the Salt and Iron Division can withstand the toss, I don't care, Chongzhou can't withstand such a toss!" ”

"Aren't you going to protect the Song Metropolitan Eunuch? The responsibility for the loss of this crane city seems to be better not to mention. Liu Shidu said earnestly.

"That's just saying this in front of you, old sir," Lin Jian said, "Mao Wenjing is not in Dafeng fiasco?" Song Xiaobo still has some military merits! ”

Heart-wrenching? Liu Shidu sneered in his heart, and secretly said that Song Xiaobo was as fat as a pig, and if he has military merits, you didn't force him to give him? His demeanor was still serious, and he said: "The Lianghuai Salt District needs to get seven or eight million grass from Hecheng every year, and the burden is so heavy, it is a matter of idleness, no wonder Lord Zhang does not dare to entrust others easily, you have to understand him......"

"This is really strange," Lin Jian asked with a smile, "Since the Salt and Iron Division can't trust the Jiangdong Left Army to defend Crane City, why did he come to ask me to send troops to help?" The chief of the Hecheng Division is all awarded by the Salt and Iron Division, so is it possible that I need to ensure the amount of grass supplied to the Hecheng Grassland every year to be at ease? ”

No matter what action he wanted to do behind his back, he naturally refused to admit it, Lin Jian looked very wronged, and said to Cao Ziang angrily: "Pass on my military order, Feng Libu Battalion's eight hundred elites will immediately pull out the camp and return to Chongcheng to garrison, and the township soldiers and people will choose their strength and strength, and they can ...... if they stay in the army."

Lin Tie reduced the strength of this side during the war, that is, only three out of five, leaving only 2,000 soldiers to defend the garrison, in the name of the Jiangdong Left Army, it can also prevent the Kou soldiers from entering Chongzhou in the west, but it is also an objective fact that the pressure of the Kou soldiers in Hecheng has been greatly reduced, and the situation in the salt area in the north is even less optimistic - Liu Shidu sighed slightly, and said secretly: Zhang Yan, Zhang Yan, it's not that I don't help you, who let you have a pigtail in the hands of others, and said to Lin Tie: "Don't be busy withdrawing the army for the time being, I'll go and discuss it with Lord Zhang again." ”

"Feng left the camp and withdrew to Chongcheng, which is really something I decided a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with the discussion of the joint forces...... In a short period of time, the Kou soldiers did not dare to sneak out of the fortress to attack, so that the Salt and Iron Division could build a camp on the north bank, and Feng Li's camp could do it without being here. Lin Jian said, motioning to Cao Ziang to pass the military order.

Liu Shidu didn't believe what Lin Yan was talking about, since Lin Jian had spread out all the conditions, he could only spread the word in the center, everything depended on how Zhang Yan decided, first temporarily resigned, and went to Lin Tie to find Zhang Yan in the temporary camp they set up nearby.

Watching Liu Shidu and Wu Mei go down for a long time, Lin Lian reined in his appearance as a businessman, and his expression became cold.

Lin Mengde clapped his hands and chuckled, and said, "Such a good opportunity, if you don't blackmail the Salt and Iron Division, when will you agree to include the Hecheng grassland in the defense area of the Jiangdong Left Army?" ”

"As far as the military layout is concerned, it is in line with the defense strategy principle to include the Hecheng grassland in the defense area of the Jiangdong Left Army," Lin Lianwei sighed, "It's just that the concept of territory in everyone's hearts is too deep......

"Do you think Zhang Yan will join the Yan?" Lin Mengde asked again.

"Unless he has the ability, he can solve the current crisis facing the Tiyan area without relying on our Jiangdong Left Army." Lin Jian said that even if the Hecheng grassland was classified as the defense area of the Jiangdong Left Army, he would not be able to openly reclaim the grain fields, but to complete the layout of Chongzhou's periphery, Hecheng Port was an indispensable link.