By the end of July, it had been less than a month since he returned to Suzhou, but Lin Daguanren, who had already vigorously refreshed his sense of presence, was ready to leave again.
The two pregnant women who were most reluctant to be released were the two pregnant women. Lin Daguan had to comfort them and promised to come back by the end of August.
Before leaving, Mrs. Fan said: "Leader Lu found me and said he wanted to resign as the leader."
Lin Daguan replied tenderly: "No matter what you say, as long as he still has breath, let him continue to work.
Anyway, he has no children, so the society is his home, and the society will provide him with care until the end of his life."
It sounds very humane and touching. There are not many societies these days that are willing to support people until they die.
Mrs. Fan asked again: "Now there are many other ministers in the county who have also applied to join the New Wu League. Will they accept them?"
After Guanren Lin pondered for a moment, he replied: "We won't accept them for the time being. If they want to surrender, they can become vassal members of the existing halls of the New Wu League."
In the nine capitals currently under the direct control of the New Wu Alliance, there were originally eleven Tangkou. Last year, Lin Daguan's men conquered from east to west, killing five and leaving six.
These six churches, including Anletang, are the original franchised churches of New Wulian.
Lin Daguan believes that it is enough for Xinwu Lian to maintain this scale for now, and if it expands further, it will do more harm than good.
First, the basic business of the society is only to collect taxes for the government, and it cannot make a lot of money on its own.
Second, controlling one-third of the county's money and grain collection is enough to influence the situation of the county. There is no need to continue to expand.
If you continue to expand, you will be forced to bear all financial and food responsibilities, but you will lose the flexibility to move forward and retreat freely.
Third, if there are too many members, coordination of interests will be a big problem. Until there is a big enough market, there is no need to have so many members, otherwise it will easily fall into civil strife.
Later, Official Lin warned: "Although the new Wulian no longer accepts churches from this county to join, if churches from neighboring Changzhou County or Wujiang County want to join, they are still welcome.
The word "Wu" in our new Wulian refers to the land of Wu, not just Wuxian County."
At Huang Wumei's place, Lin Daguan also encountered a similar problem.
"There are many boat owners from Wujiang County next door, Wuxi, and even Huzhou south of Taihu Lake who want to join us."
Regarding this kind of cross-border expansion, Huang Wumei did not dare to make the decision without authorization.
Instead, Lin Daguan asked an incomprehensible question: "Can there still be boat owners in Huzhou?"
Huang Wumei said doubtfully: "Huzhou is also a place close to Taihu Lake. Why are there no boat owners?"
Lin Tailai thought for a while and said: "Forget it about Huzhou. That is already Zhejiang Province. The situation is unclear. Other counties can be considered."
This is the benefit of building a platform. Once the platform is built and the model and direction are understood, expansion will automatically occur.
There is no need for Mr. Lin to fight for territory, others will naturally want to join.
After all the tasks that needed to be explained were handed over, and after ensuring that each of his bosses had phased tasks, Lin Daguan set off.
The Suzhou Guards and Horses heading north to Yangzhou this time were composed of two parts. One part was the transportation army responsible for transporting grain, about 500 people, led by a leader named Xue.
The other part is the sergeants preparing to garrison Shuicicang in Yangzhou, about 300 people, temporarily led by President Nian.
In addition, Lin Tailai took office as a new officer and was not familiar with the Suzhou Guards and troops, so he was worried that he would not be able to command the troops.
So he also transferred a hundred reliable elites from the society to accompany him in the name of servants as his personal soldiers.
It feels like having a "housekeeper" around me makes the atmosphere of the late Ming Dynasty authentic.
Five hundred troops were transported, three hundred troops were garrisoned, and one hundred servants were employed. This was the scale of the force of Lin Daguan's troops heading north this time.
Originally, Senior Official Lin wanted to transfer another 500 "housekeepers" to Yangzhou like last time, but Gao Changjiang stopped him by threatening to die.
Funds are so tight now that if we send out another 500 people for an "expedition", the society's finances will collapse.
With hundreds of canal boats and tens of thousands of grain cans, the march was much slower this time, but fortunately Yangzhou City was not too far away, and Lin Daguan and his people were not in a hurry.
In early August, the team arrived at Jingkou along the Grand Canal and prepared to cross the river.
In this era, crossing the river is not that simple. It is not just taking a boat and sailing across, directly entering the northern section of the canal.
Across the river from Jingkou is Guazhou Ferry, where a ship lock is built. Ships coming from the south of the Yangtze River need to pass through a series of ship locks in Guazhou before they can enter the northern section of the Grand Canal.
After Lin Daguan's team was stationed at Jingkou, he sent Xue Qianhu to Guazhou to negotiate and prepare for the crossing of the river.
Guazhou Ferry, which controls the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, is in a critical position. Therefore, the imperial court built a city wall in Guazhou to form a town, and also stationed a military battalion to garrison it.
In the evening, Xue Qianhu returned from the other side and reported to Lin Tailai:
"The command of the Guazhou Preparatory Army requires that our Suzhou Army Transport Army can only dock the canal at the dock, and then Yangzhou Wei will send people to take over the canal and transport it to Shuicicang through the Guazhou Ship Lock."
Official Lin frowned, not expecting such a problem to arise.
This means that boats can cross, but people cannot?
If you can't bring people and horses to Yangzhou City to show off your power, what's the point?
Immediately, Official Lin asked: "We are not just transporting troops here, but there are also three hundred sergeants who are stationed at Shuicicang under the orders of the imperial court. Do the Guazhou Beiyu Camp dare to resist the order and intercept them?"
Xue Qianhu reported again: "The Guazhou Preparatory Commander said that the Governor of Fengyang has issued an order. For the sake of caution, if the sergeants stationed at Shuicicang in Yangzhou want to cross the river, they must first verify with the court for confirmation. Before that, no one is allowed to cross the river.
Release."
Then Lin Daguan understood that regardless of whether it was 500 transport troops or 300 reserve warehouse troops, as long as they were his own troops, Governor Yang of Jiangbei would not let them go.
"How dare the remnant Zhang Siwei do this!" Official Lin slapped the case angrily and cursed.
It is now clear that this must be "revenge" from Governor Yang.
After returning to Suzhou, I was used to everything going smoothly, but suddenly I encountered someone who was rebellious, and I was actually a little uncomfortable with it.
Jiangbei is Governor Yang's territory, and Governor Yang also serves as the governor of water transportation. No matter what Governor Yang does within his authority, no one else can interfere.
Even if the Suzhou canal ships are docked at the dock and the Yangzhou cauldron troops are sent to take over the transshipment, it can be said to be a normal work arrangement within the responsibility of the Governor of Water Transport.
Lin Tailai was angry and asked casually: "How many troops are there in the Guazhou Preparatory Camp?"
Hearing Mr. Lin ask such a question, everyone was shocked!
Could it be that Lin Daguan still wanted to bring his soldiers and horses to directly attack Guazhou City like a society grabbing territory?
Xue Qianhu replied: "Beiyu camp has between one thousand and one thousand five soldiers. In addition, when my subordinates were in Jiangbei, they also heard that Governor Yang also sent hundreds of troops from Biao camp to Guazhou for temporary garrison."
Everyone: "."
Governor Yang thought highly of Lin Daguan so much that in order to prevent Lin Daguan from bringing troops into the country, he actually sent all the Biao battalion to Guazhou!
At this time, the number of the governor's Biao camp varied, but the soldiers of the Biao camp who were not governors of border towns generally only numbered in the hundreds.
Therefore, Governor Yang sent most of the Biaoying soldiers to Guazhou, which was a waste of money.
It is estimated that Governor Yang was afraid that the Guazhou Beiyu Camp could not withstand the pressure, so he sent his own soldiers to guard it.
Official Lin became even more angry, "When I came to Yangzhou, it was an act of goodwill. Why did Governor Yang do this!"
Such a big official must always pay attention to his own interests when doing things, so what good will it do him if he intercepts me like this!"
Others did not dare to speak, but Zuo Zuo Zhang Wen said cautiously:
"Is there a possibility that going to Yangzhou City to rob money would be tantamount to infringing on Governor Yang's interests?"
Governor Yang was also from a large Western Shang family, and he also wanted to make profits. The more officials Lin and his men robbed in Yangzhou, the less Governor Yang would have.
Lin Daguan was dissatisfied and said: "My idea of ​​promoting economic exchanges between the north and south of the Yangtze River is so obvious?"
Zhang Wen replied: "To be honest, it's just written on your face. There must be people in Jiangbei who are afraid.
Besides, when I passed through Yangzhou in February, I rented 7,000 salt coins from Zheng Jiaqiang. It has only been half a year, and others have not forgotten it."
After calming down, Officer Lin looked around at the others and asked in a deep voice: "Do you have any good ideas?"
Xue Qianhu frowned and said, "Everywhere in Jiangbei must have received orders from Governor Yang, and we will not be allowed to cross the river."
Zhang Wen, the Zuo protector, came up with an idea and said: "You can lead hundreds of warehouse soldiers and clerks in the palace, pretend to be merchants to cross the river, and attack the ship lock.
After controlling the ship lock, let the boat pass through the lock, and then leave the ferry to go north. This is called crossing the river in white!"
Official Lin shook his head and said: "Others are not puppets. They just watch us control the lock. There are too many uncontrollable factors."
Zhang Wu, the right protector, also expressed his positive attitude: "You can lead one or twenty guards while sitting in the pavilion, and you can cross the river with a boat, but the other side will be paralyzed and careless.
Wait in the hotel to meet with the officials on the other side, then capture him on the spot and use him as a hostage!"
Lin Daguan said angrily: "It seems that you two brothers have been listening to the Three Kingdoms Storytelling a lot recently!"
President Nian Ba, who had been silent until now, suddenly said: "We might as well retreat as an advance and let the 500 transport troops transport all the grain back to Suzhou.
To be continued...