Chapter 2207
For these pampered salt merchants, no matter how fierce the battle with their peers is, it is only reflected in the changes in the income and expenditure figures on the accounts. Even if there are occasional casualties, to them they may not even be able to call them by name. The subordinates who come up can just pay more pension money to settle the matter, and they don't have much sense of personal crisis.
But today, more than a dozen prisoners were executed in this way outside Daijiazhuang. The salt merchants who were watching were deeply touched. They also truly realized that this battle was not just about victory or defeat in business. It is a life and death struggle between you and me. If they hadn't invited the Jindun troops from Haihan Kingdom to serve as guards, they might have died in the opponent's attack.
Some people were also secretly glad that they followed Dai Yingda's suggestion and moved their family to Daijiazhuang to live temporarily. If they had stayed at their own home, they might not have been able to withstand such a big hassle last night. If the money is gone, you can make more, but if your life is gone, you will lose everything. Dang even decided to stay in Daijiazhuang until the situation calms down.
Yuan Tao had stayed up all night, and after finishing all this work, he had to take the time to rest. Although his side took advantage last night, he also knew that the opponent's vitality was still intact and could come back at any time, so he had to keep his spirits up and continue to prepare for the battle. There are at least three months until the salt merchant's children return from their studies. If nothing unexpected happens, during this period, the troops he leads will have to shoulder the responsibility of protecting the Huizhou salt merchants. This task is not easy.
Dai Yingda did not ignore Yuan Tao's contribution. As soon as Yuan Tao returned to his room, a Dai family servant brought a pot of ginseng tea and several exquisite pastries. There was also a stack of Haihan banknotes on the tea tray. Tao counted the amount, and it turned out to be as much as one thousand yuan. It was obviously an additional personal reward given to him by Dai Yingda. At that moment, he couldn't help but sigh that the salt merchant was really generous.
This amount of money is not a big sum for Dai Yingda. If you want to ask a high-status official in Yangzhou Yamen to do something, a thousand taels of silver is often just the starting price. Dai Yingda has realized Yuan Tao's ability through last night's battle, so establishing a personal relationship with him is a necessary measure in his opinion. Even if the children of the seven surnames return from their studies in the future, there is no need to let Jindun's troops in Yangzhou. Stationed for a long time, there may be times when Haihan needs help. Yuan Tao's identity will obviously be much easier to deal with than officials from Haihan, and some matters may no longer need to be communicated through official channels.
Yuan Tao drafted a brief battle report and gave it to the signal corps in the team to telegraph back to Zhoushan, and then he settled down to rest. He was so exhausted that night that he slept all day long as soon as he lay down and didn't wake up until dinner time.
The first thing Yuan Tao did when he woke up was to call his personal attendant to ask if Zhoushan had called back. After receiving a positive answer, Yuan Tao immediately asked someone to get the message.
The message was delivered in an envelope with a paint seal stamped by the signal corpsman on the outside to indicate that the contents of the message had not been read by others. The contents of such military-related messages are top secret and can only be read by Yuan Tao himself.
The content of the call back was actually nothing special. The main idea was that the Zhoushan headquarters was aware of the war situation and Yuan Tao was told to be cautious in Yangzhou and not to advance rashly. However, the message mentioned that the battle situation had been reported to Shi Diwen, which still made Yuan Tao a little happy. He knew that Shi Diwen always attached great importance to his men's actual combat results, and his performance in Yangzhou might also attract Shi Diwen's attention.
Although Yuan Tao is no longer in the military, he knows that Shi Diwen's status in Haihan's senior management is enough to affect his future promotion within Golden Shield. The Golden Shield organization is an extension department that takes orders from the military. It is inextricably linked to the military. Almost all the people who can move up are veterans of the Haihan Army, and the promotion mechanism is almost the same as that in the military. It relies on the accumulation of records and qualifications as capital to move up.
Yuan Tao is the boss of Jindun Zhoushan Branch. His head has reached the ceiling. There is no higher position for him to be promoted in the Zhoushan Colonial Zone. If he wants to climb up further, he must enter the top management of Jindun headquarters. But to complete this critical step, it is no longer enough to accumulate qualifications, but to make outstanding achievements in the current position. This is one of the reasons why he took the risk to personally lead the team to Yangzhou.
If Jindun can successfully complete its mission in Yangzhou, it will be equivalent to opening up the market for Haihan in Yangzhou, the center of the Ming Dynasty salt industry.
But Yangzhou is not just a salt business for Haihan. It is one of the wealth centers of the Ming Dynasty. Opening the door to Yangzhou is equivalent to finding a new export market for Haihan's many industrial products, and this market The consumption power is considerable, and the areas it can radiate are almost all wealthy areas. The executive committee is also very concerned about the long-term benefits that this direction can bring to Haihan.
Yuan Tao may not know the executive committee's plan, but he knows that completing this task will greatly help his future future, so the remuneration paid to him by the salt merchant is second best. Even for the sake of his future, he will do his best. to complete this mission.
Yuan Tao came together, and soon hot meals and dishes were delivered to his room, which had obviously been prepared for him. After Yuan Tao finished eating, he sent someone to invite Dai Yingfan to come over for discussion.
The part that Jindun is responsible for is mainly the defense of Daijiazhuang, while the reconnaissance and collection of external intelligence information are the responsibility of Dai Yingfan's people. After all, some jobs can only be completed by local snakes, and no matter how professional Jindun is, he cannot take care of them all.
The information Yuan Tao needs now is whether the other party reacted to it after the fight last night.
"Last night, I led people to chase the other party to the canal. I saw the other party leaving north in five boats. Although I later transferred the boats to chase him, I still lost track of the other party. Today I sent a few people to the city to inquire. The news just happened to come back. It is reported that what happened last night has not spread in the city yet, and there is no news from the government. "
The news brought by Dai Yingfan was calm, and it was considered a reasonable situation. However, this did not reassure Yuan Tao. He asked: "If the government knows what happened last night, will they intervene in the investigation?"
Dai Yingfan responded: "With such a big commotion last night, the other party should have contacted the government in advance. If we really want to investigate, no one's butt is clean. Lu Kangtai is not a fool, and he will definitely not do such a thing that is asking for trouble." .”
Yuan Tao smiled and said: "Of course this is the best, it can save a lot of trouble. But after suffering such a boring loss last night, Lu Kangtai must not be in a good mood. You try to keep an eye on each other's movements and say Maybe they will expose other flaws in their desperation." Lu Kangtai was not only in a bad mood at this time, but his lungs were about to explode. As early as a month or two ago, he began to plan the attack on Daijiazhuang. He tried to draw the floor plan of Daijiazhuang, used a sand table to deduce the details of the operation, arranged for his men to rehearse the operation, and made a lot of preparations. It is no exaggeration to say that this is probably the thing that he has devoted the most effort to in the past few decades. He also hopes that he can complete his victory in one battle, capture Daijiazhuang, and then defeat the resistance of the Huizhou salt merchants. .
But so much preparation work and all his ambitions all came to nothing after the intervention of the Haihan people. The hundreds of people sent to attack Daijiazhuang were beaten to pieces by a barrage of musket fire without even seeing what their opponents looked like. All action plans were thrown out of mind and they hurriedly left from the south bank of the canal. Withdrew.
In addition to the dozens of people who were trapped in Daijiazhuang, several more people were killed in the battle with the pursuing Daijiazhuang militia during the retreat. In the end, because we were too panicked when we boarded the ship in the dark to evacuate, several people fell into the water, and their whereabouts are still unknown. After counting the number of people after returning, there were as many as 60 missing persons.
It didn’t matter that they had lost so many people. Lu Kangtai was mentally prepared to lose hundreds of people in the operation. But the problem was that after paying such a price, they did not achieve the expected results at all, nor did they create any problems for the other party. Any trouble is just a pure failure.
Lu Kangtai had not imagined the outcome of failure, but he could not accept such a one-sided failure. After reorganizing the Musketeers and preparing carefully for such a long time, they fully hoped to defeat their opponents in one fell swoop, but the gap in the final result was too great.
Lu Kangtai even regretted that he should not have been too cautious yesterday and should have crossed the river in person to direct the operation. Maybe the result would have been different. He had carefully interrogated Xie Liang and Xun Fen, who had commanded the operation last night, and confirmed that there were no organized musketeers among the militiamen who later left the village to pursue them during their retreat.
He believed that this detail showed that the armed men who went out to pursue the village at that time were not the troops sent to Yangzhou by Haihan. If Xie Liang and Xunfen had not chosen their own route in a panic, they could have built a defense line by relying on the sailing ships along the canal and let the musketeers play their part. Some effects. Even if we want to withdraw, we should seize the opportunity to inflict some suffering on the opponent, and then retreat to the north bank of the canal.
The explanation given by his two leaders was that during the battle in Daijiazhuang, the opponent used extremely intensive firepower. They judged that if they used the musketeers to fight against the opponent, they might suffer extremely heavy casualties, so they decided to give up. The original action plan was to evacuate Daijiazhuang proactively. As for why they did not engage in combat with the pursuing enemies, it was because they believed that the opponent's purpose was to hold them back and then send boats to cut off their retreat across the river, so they chose to retreat as quickly as possible without any resistance.
Although there is some truth in this statement, Lu Kangtai still cannot let go of the results of the operation, believing that the on-the-spot command and response of the two leaders did not reach the level he expected. The only thing that made him feel a little lucky was that the musketeers, which had invested huge resources in re-establishing, basically did not directly participate in the war, so there was no loss of personnel and they were able to withdraw completely, which could be regarded as saving a breath of vitality.
He Huan and Wang Yu, who rushed to Lu Kangtai's house early in the morning to listen to the battle report, were disappointed with the result. Moreover, many of the men who were lost last night were good men selected by them from among their own children and guards. But now they can’t see their bodies alive or dead, and they can’t even report them to the official. This is really frustrating for them. Hard to accept.
"In my opinion, why don't we give some more money to General Gao Shen so that he can find an excuse to go to Daijiazhuang to beg for help?" Wang Yu had a nephew who was among the missing persons, and in desperation he also proposed a A very bold idea.
But this proposal was immediately rejected by the sullen Lu Kangtai: "This method is not possible. Not to mention that General Gao Shen was unwilling to intervene in the battle between us and the seven surnames, even if he accepted the money and was willing to help. , go to Daijiazhuang to ask for help. If the other party refuses to cooperate, do you think General Gao can still use force? "
Gao Yongshou is a wait-and-see who won't end easily. They all know this. Lu Kangtai spent a lot of money beforehand, but he just turned a blind eye and didn't even say a word of support for them. Pass. Now it is not difficult to imagine how difficult it would be for Gao Yongshou to stand up for them, let alone offend the seven major surnames.
Wang Yu still refused to give up this life-saving straw: "As the saying goes, money can make the world go round. If we offer a higher price, Gao Shenjiang may not be tempted..."
"Brother Wang, the high-ranking general is not as stupid as you think!" Lu Kangtai shook his head and said: "When I talked to him before, he made it clear that he did not want to go against Haihan. Dai Yingda hired Haihan to guard this person. The matter is no longer a secret in Yangzhou, and General Gao must have received the news a long time ago. I think he is probably afraid of avoiding it, so how can he take the initiative for us? "
Wang Yu said anxiously: "In this case, do we give up on those who were trapped in Daijiazhuang? Those are the elites of our families!"
Lu Kangtai said: "Brother Wang, if you come to ask for someone, you will give up your excuse and make yourself passive. Do you think Mr. Dai will return the person to us unconditionally? No matter what conditions the other party offers, they will definitely be harsh." Incomparable, what capital do we have to bargain with the other party? If you are asked to withdraw from Yangzhou, will you agree? ”
Wang Yu was silent. He had to admit that what Lu Kangtai said was indeed reasonable. After losing the battle, going to ask for help was actually tantamount to exposing his face to the other party and letting him deal with it. The struggle between Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants and Huizhou salt merchants was at its most intense. Doing so would not only dampen one's own spirit, but also allow the other party to take the moral initiative. If, as Lu Kangtai said, the other party sets out a bunch of conditions that are difficult to achieve, will it be agreed or not?
He Huan, who had been silent until now, spoke up: "You don't have to argue about this matter. In my opinion, even if Dai Yingda comes to ask for help, Dai Yingda will not let him go. If it was before, we might still have to talk about it, but now With the support of the Haihan people behind him, do you think he can still be willing to negotiate peace with us?”
(End of chapter)