All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 85 Yangzhou City

Almost all the officials in Yangzhou city fled.

At this time, the Salt Merchants Guild was in control of the city.

The reason they didn't run away was simple: this was their old nest.

The tycoons who leave their old nests are like fat pigs waiting to be slaughtered.

In the Salt Merchants Guild, a group of salt merchants gathered here, anxiously waiting for the envoy to return.

When the head of the guild, Jiang Chun, walked into the main hall, all the salt merchants stood up to greet him.

As soon as Jiang Chun sat down, an impatient person asked in detail, "Captain Jiang, has the Grand Commander replied?"

"Bo Yue." Looking at the person who spoke, Jiang Xingshou, who had a well-maintained complexion, immediately frowned, "How can you be so ignorant of the rules?"

Nowadays, the higher a person's status, the more they pay attention to rules.

When people hold a meeting, they first have tea and chat, then listen to music and drink, and then they talk about business.

If you get straight to the point right away, you will be laughed at.

"Captain Jiang." The salt merchant, whose given name was Boyue, looked anxious and no longer respectful as usual. "The enemy is at the gates of the city, what rules are we still talking about! If they really break into the city."

“I can’t get in!”

Jiang Chun coughed lightly and said, "The messenger has returned. The Grand Commander only replied with two words."

"No!"

There was an uproar in the hall.

Everyone was inevitably in a state of panic, talking nonsense to each other, and looked completely at a loss as to what to do.

In the past, they had ways to bribe and deal with even the Duke of Wei on the other side of the river.

But this Grand Commander Chen.
"What should we do?" someone asked anxiously, "Is the family really going to be ruined?"

"Who knows what this Grand Commander likes?" The impatient people have already started to make random suggestions. "Is it because the money we gave is not enough? Let's all make some more."

"Does the Grand Commander like beauties? All the thin horses in my family are stunningly beautiful, and they are proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting."

"If you like, you can share the peaches. I have many handsome men in my house, and you can eat the peaches with your words."

"Give him whatever he wants, rare treasures."

Seeing that the argument was getting louder and louder, Jiang Chun simply put the tea bowl in his hand heavily on the table.

When everyone looked over, he sneered and said, "The messenger said that the governor wants to reform the salt policy. From now on, all salt affairs will be taken over by the court!"

"What?! This is cutting off our source of income!"

"Destroying someone's financial resources is like killing his parents! Let's fight him!"

The salt merchants were extremely angry and shouted that they wanted to fight to the death.

In fact, even if Chen Ran asked them to lose everything they had, or even hand over their wives and children, the salt merchants would grit their teeth and obey.

As long as we can keep the salt administration in our hands, no matter how much we lose now, we can earn it back double in the future.

But Chen Ran wanted to abolish the salt administration and take it back into the hands of the court, which was touching the bottom line.

"Everyone." Jiang Chun raised his hand and pressed it down, signaling everyone to be quiet.

"It's time now. No matter if you are from Shanxi or Lianghuai, we all have to work together to protect our industry."

He coughed lightly and told his plan, "Those of us who have money will contribute money, and those who have people will contribute people. No matter what, we must defend Yangzhou City."

This is the base camp of the salt merchants.

Their wealth, their families, their power, their warehouses, their businesses, etc. are all concentrated in this city.

Once the city is breached, everything will vanish into thin air.

Everyone understood and said that they had no problem paying the money, and they could also contribute the salt workers they had at home to defend the city.

When the conversation paused, Boyue spoke out everyone's concerns, "Chief, how long will we hold out?"

"Everyone, don't worry." Jiang Chun laughed, then immediately put away his smile and said, "I have already contacted Jinling on the other side of the river. The imperial army will cross the river to help in half a month at most!"

This court is not that court. In fact, the Ming Dynasty has two sets of court teams.

The capital's is orthodox, and Nanjing also has a complete court system.

It was originally intended to be used as a backup in case of emergency.

However, under the operation of civil servants, it has now become a place for them to retire.

The salt merchants were not stupid, and they all wondered, "Can the court send reinforcements?"

No one knows the character of the imperial court better than them.

How can there be reinforcements if the benefits are not given?

Sure enough, Jiang Chun raised his hand and gestured with the number seven, "Seven million taels, this is the military expenses promised to Duke Wei and his men."

"What? This is too much!"

Although the salt merchants were rich, seven million taels was too exaggerated.

"Everyone."

Jiang Chun sneered, "The great commander outside is about to attack us. Who are you guarding the silver for?"

This makes sense.

If the city is really breached, no matter how much silver and money you have, they will all become someone else's spoils.

"Seven million is seven million. As long as the imperial army can rescue us, I will give it to you even if I sell everything I have!"

"In that case." Jiang Chun nodded with satisfaction, "Then each family should contribute money and recruit strong men to defend the city."

Outside Yangzhou City, on the observation platform. Putting away the telescope in his hand, Chen Ran turned his head and looked at Zhu Laitong. "The defenders of Yangzhou City look quite tough."

"These are worthless garrisons." Zhu Laitong had a good relationship with Wu Xiang. They often drank and sharpened their weapons together. Zhu Laitong learned a lot of news about Jiangnan from him. "These are the salt soldiers employed by the salt merchants."

"Salt?"

"It's the smugglers who transport the smuggled salt!"

By strictly following the court's system and selling official salt, salt merchants could make money but could not get rich.

They got rich by selling contraband salt under the guise of the imperial court.

The salt merchants worked together to raise the price of official salt and make the quality of official salt extremely poor, to the point where people would feel sick at the sight of it.

Then he sold his own salt privately, and all the money he earned went into the pockets of the salt merchants.

It is precisely because of this that the court’s salt tax has been reduced year after year and has almost disappeared.

There is no doubt that this is a typical case of poaching from the Ming Dynasty.

The reason why no one cared was naturally because everyone from the court officials to the royal relatives, from the imperial censors who inspected salt to the constables in the Yangzhou government office were all well fed by the salt merchants.

The money lost by the court was the emperor's money, and the money they earned was their own, so of course no one objected to the exposure.

Those who dared to oppose and expose the truth were basically drowned.

"These armed salt guards are not there to deal with government inspectors, but to deal with private salt dealers from all over the country."

Zhu Laitong showed off his knowledge, "Smuggling salt is very profitable. There are people everywhere who are willing to risk their lives to sell it."

"They were fighting each other in order to seize the goods, business, sales routes, and salt-selling territories. It was said that these salt sellers were brave and aggressive and were all desperate criminals."

"Desperado?"

Chen Ran looked towards the top of Yangzhou City again, and said calmly as always, "That's good. The soldiers are dedicated to killing desperate criminals!"

The numerous red cannons unloaded from the canal boats were pulled by oxen and pushed by men to the outskirts of Yangzhou City.

Previously, Sun Yuanhua brought the new army of Denglai to surrender, bringing with him dozens of red cannons weighing more than a thousand pounds.

Together with the ones Chen Ran brought from Ningjin Liaodong and those built by the Firearms Bureau, more than a hundred heavy cannons were lined up outside the city, starting the rumbling bombardment mode.

On the first day, the outer wall of the east side of Yangzhou City collapsed, revealing large stone slabs inside.

The next day, the stone slabs were shattered, revealing the clay inside, which collapsed under continuous bombardment.

That night, the salt merchants paid a large sum of money to gather a group of desperate criminals, who were forced to escape from the city by ropes, in order to launch a night attack on the artillery.

As a result, they were all annihilated by the government troops.

Early on the third day, with muskets providing cover on both wings, soldiers wearing triple armor formed a battle formation, holding swords and shields, crossed the collapsed city walls, and poured into the city.

By the afternoon, the fighting had gradually subsided.

As for those desperate salt soldiers, they are either dead or still being hunted down.

In front of an organized army, any desperado is a joke.

"Most of the people in Yangzhou work for the salt merchants, and some are even the family members of the salt merchants."

In Jiang Xingshou's luxurious and beautiful mansion, Zhao Rujiao suggested to Chen Ran, "If you have much hatred towards the government troops, why not..."

He crossed his hand across his neck.

Chen Ran ignored him and focused all his attention on the two lines of subtitles floating before his eyes.

'Historical records: Duoduo attacked Yangzhou and ordered a massacre in the city. He did not stop for ten days. Corpses were piled up, hands and feet were placed on top of each other, blood flowed into the water, turned into five colors, and the pond became flat. 'The number of corpses recorded in the cremation records was about 800,000.' You have rewritten this bloody history, and now I will give you a reward.'

'Note: The historical deviation value is 12 points.'

"Eight hundred thousand lives." Chen Ran looked around at the beautiful gardens. "The guilty will be dealt with according to the law."

"Take orders."

The reinforcements from the other side of the river miraculously arrived on time.

It took Duke Wei Xu Hongji only ten days to gather an army and board Jiang Cao's fleet to sail downstream to Yangzhou.

The reason why such high efficiency was achieved was entirely because the salt merchants offered a huge amount of travel expenses, a full seven million taels!

The Jinling court was almost unable to survive due to lack of money.

All the ministers and nobles were worth millions, but no one was willing to spend a penny to maintain the situation.

After all, my family’s money is mine, so what does the court’s shortage have to do with me?
The salt merchants offered an astonishing price, and the bigwigs in Jinling City burst out with unprecedented action capabilities, sending reinforcements in just over ten days.

He even had no time to take care of Li Zicheng, the bandit who was wreaking havoc in the south of the Yangtze River.

The Jinling court's intelligence gathering capabilities were very poor. After all, the court did not even have the money to embezzle from the bigwigs, so naturally it could not afford to pay the salaries for intelligence work.

As Xu Hongji led his fleet towards Guazhou Ferry, he was still wondering, "Where is the salt merchant's fleet?"

This is the most prosperous ferry terminal in Yangzhou.

A large amount of illegal salt was loaded onto illegal salt ships from here and sent to various places along the river.

In the past, the Guazhou Wharf was extremely prosperous and busy. Even at night, the lights were on and smuggled salt was shipped all night long.

But at this time, there was not a single ship to be seen on the river, and the dock was empty without even a ghost in sight.

Xu Hongji, who grew up in a wealthy hometown, lacks the most basic military knowledge.

With seven million taels of silver in mind, he hurriedly urged the fleet to dock without even doing the most basic investigation.

With such a commander, it would be hard for the Ming Dynasty to avoid destruction.

The dock is very large, with dozens of plank roads extending deep into the river, enough to accommodate a large number of ships.

Xu Hongji was about to give the order to go ashore, but he was shocked to see cannons being pushed out from the rows of warehouses not far away.

The black muzzle of the gun was pointing directly at the fleet!
(End of this chapter)