Huai'an Prefecture, Miaowan Town, Clam Port.

A cavalry of more than a hundred people galloped in. The knights were all riding big horses, wearing mercury-colored cotton armor. Even the war horses were wearing vests, and they looked fierce.

Since the eighth year of Wanli Dynasty, in order to eliminate the flooding in Sheyang Lake, the Sheyang River was dredged eastward, diverted water through Miaowan, and Clam Port entered the sea. With the transportation of Sheyang River, the Yanyan River connecting the Grand Canal and the coast, Clam Port quickly opened

It becomes a lively and wealthy town.

There are piles of clams and merchants gather.

After experiencing the depression caused by the war, it is now booming due to the rapid redevelopment of shipping.

Clam Harbor is an immigrant town. Every time there is a major disaster, many victims come here. The busy industry and commerce here also attracts people from all over the world. Over time, it has become an immigrant town from all over the world.

"Which troop is this?"

During the Jiajing period, Clam Town had a glorious record of annihilating four thousand Japanese pirates.

The Ming army now stationed troops in this port. A small fortress was built at the port, and a navy fleet was stationed there.

This mighty cavalry came, but the Ming army stationed there did not panic, because now the entire Fengyang and Huai'an Prefectures had been occupied by the Ming army.

Whether they come from Xuzhou, Pizhou, and Suqian in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, or from Shouzhou, Fengyang, and Sizhou in the upper reaches of the Huaihe River, they are all areas controlled by the Ming army.

To be able to come all the way to this beach must have gone through numerous inspections.

The arrival of this horse team did not affect the people and merchants in Clam Harbor Town and the port. Everyone is now at ease. With the sun and moon flags flying and the emperor's imperial camp stationed there, there is no panic at all.

Recently, the Tatars are all trapped in Xuzhou City, where do they dare to come?

The people support the Ming Dynasty very much, especially the Ming Dynasty today.

During their brief occupation here, the Tatars brought only endless turmoil, inhumane killing and looting, and even ordered to move to the sea.

A group of patrolmen came out and met him.

The first general in the cavalry team is Xu Zhongyi, the commander-in-chief of Guide, Henan, riding his beloved Mo Qilin. This time he brought a hundred soldiers with him from Guide. He was going to Fengtian City in Tokyo via Clam Harbor to pay homage to the emperor.

At the same time, there was Fatty Wang.

He was very excited and drove faster all the way, hoping to see His Majesty the Emperor as soon as possible.

Ever since he received the emperor's summons, he had been so excited that he couldn't sleep at night. Along the way, he was thinking about how to report what he had done during this time after seeing the emperor.

Since the Yellow River Battle, the situation in Henan is now very chaotic.

On the one hand, there was a major disaster, in which countless people were affected by the disaster and starved, and the following epidemic was also very serious. Li Jiyu was attacking Luoyang, Xu Dingguo was besieging Kaifeng, and Li Huajing was at the 800-mile Dongping River, roaring across the west of Shandong.

He, Xu Zhongyi, was stationed in Guide, sandwiched between Xu Ying's two Qing armies. Fortunately, he had the support of the Ming army in the south, which was not bad. During this time, he had been busy recruiting troops, building equipment, gathering refugees, and re-establishing

After resuming farming and so on, Guide Mansion found a rare peace.

However, Guide Prefecture also had many problems. First of all, there was famine, serious epidemics, severe food shortages, too many refugees, and bandits everywhere. Although there was no Qing army to attack, he still suppressed bandits everywhere and kept the people in peace.

Xu Zhongyi was born as a tenant farmer. He knew very well what the people needed. What they needed was stability and survival. If they could live a stable farming life, they would not mind paying taxes to the court or paying rent to the landlords, as long as they paid back

As long as they can have something to eat and support their wives and children, they can still bear it.

Xu Zhongyi and his old lady are now in Gui De, working hard to reestablish order. They began to implement the Shao Tian Dynasty's New Deal, clearing out ownerless fields, farming and guarding the fields, restarting taxation, etc.

However, these are all facing resistance from various local villages. Henan has been in chaos for too long. These powerful people who stick together to defend the villages are basically completely autonomous and do not pay taxes or serve in the military.

You have to rely on yourself for everything, including guarding by your own soldiers, resisting foreign enemies by yourself, even collecting taxes by yourself, etc.

All these are dividing this land. If we want to restore peace, this will definitely not work.

To clear the fields and measure the land, to allocate people into acres, and to ask the officials and gentry to pay grain, they must first face these local fortresses and powerful people. Faced with the uncooperative local fortresses, whether to fight or not to fight, this is what Xu Zhongyi and Old Master

There are some hesitations.

They informed the emperor about the situation here, and the emperor specially summoned them.

The Clam Town patrolman came forward and asked for his identity.

"Xu Zhongyi, the commander-in-chief of Guide Town, Henan Province, has been ordered to go to Tokyo to face the Holy Spirit!" Xu Zhongyi said on his horse, and asked his soldiers to come up with the emperor's decree and so on.

"It turns out that the senior brother of the Red Spear Club is here. Please come quickly."

The name of the Red Spear Club is getting louder and louder now. Not only in Yongcheng, but also in the entire Guide Prefecture, there are Red Spear Clubs. Even in Huainan, Zhili and other places in Shandong, Red Spear Clubs have begun to spring up like mushrooms after a rain.

come out.

The reputation of the senior brother of the Red Spear Club is better than that of the General Soldier of Guide.

After all, many leaders of the local villages also hold the title of deputy general of the general army. For example, Li Jiyu held the title of general of the general army during the Chongzhen period.

Led by patrolmen into Clam Harbor, Xu Zhongyi also looked at the place curiously.

He had been here before, when he came to sell smuggled salt, grain, cloth, etc. At that time, it was not as lively and peaceful as it is now. It feels that the current Clam Port is even like his hometown Huangtian Port in Jiangyin, and even a bit more lively.

The officer stationed at Clam Port told him that although Clam Port is not as important as Haizhou Port in the north, it is also a very important transportation port and terminal, especially it has direct access to Huai'an.

The great breakup of the Yellow River has resulted in a reduction in the amount of water flowing southward, and the Yellow River has become a dry embankment. The Sishui River and the Huaihe River are transferred to Changzhou Port through Hongze Lake and are connected to the canal and Yan River through the Shehong River and the sea.

, naturally it became an important terminal.

Especially after the imperial court moved its capital to Dengzhou and changed it to Fengtianfu in Tokyo, money, food and supplies from the south are now being transported continuously from the north, and there are often ships relying on supplies at Clam Port.

Superintendent Zhang Guowei's regiment was stationed in Huai'an Prefecture, and the garrison at Clam Port was actually the Central Northern Expeditionary Army.

"Our Imperial Camp is being reorganized. The Four Towns on the Right Side govern Jiangsu. Our place will soon be reorganized into the Four Towns on the Right Side. It seems to be one town for the Navy and three towns for the Army."

Xu Zhongyi chatted with the garrison officer for a while, and after waiting for the boat to be arranged at the dock, he said goodbye and took the boat north.

They did not take the Langya Passage directly overland and the coast to Denglai, but took a boat at Clam Harbor, which was faster.

Because there were more than a hundred of them, all the ports directly transferred a navy ship to him to transport them, and a group of people went to Dengzhou with them. Most of them were local officials who were going to Beijing to report on their duties, or who were going to be candidates for the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Former official, Jinshi candidate, etc.

Everyone was very polite to this general, and a few Jinshi even asked carefully about the current situation in Henan. We had a good conversation along the way.

He could feel that in these troubled times, these generals, especially his status as a royal soldier, allowed him to gain the respect of these Jinshi gentlemen. This was something that would have been impossible before.

Even if he is a genuine general soldier, it is probably difficult for him to gain the respect of the Jinshi, not to mention that he is a wild general soldier.

I heard that the imperial court was reorganizing all the troops this time. In addition to the imperial camp in Beijing, the provincial camp was abolished, but seven outer towns were retained, all of which were Jiang Yu, Jin Shenghuan, and Geng Zhongming. Xu Dingguo in Henan

, Li Jiyu, Li Huajing from Shandong and others are not within the Qiwai Town.

Xu Dingguo also didn't know how the imperial court planned to arrange these soldiers and horses in Shandong and Henan.

The journey was smooth. The ship stopped at Qingdao once, and a few people got off and another group came up, and then it sailed all the way to Penglai Port.

There are more ships coming in and out of Penglai Port. Although there are several port terminals here, there are still long queues to come in and out. The navy's sail warships are parked on the sea like hills, and the rows of cannons on them make him envious.

Endless.

The water villages, water cities, coastal defense forts, and bastions along the coast are also full of artillery and are heavily guarded.

With such a Tokyo city that reaches directly to the heart of the Tatars, it is estimated that even if the Tatars can break through the perimeter and attack, they will only be defeated, or even the entire army will be annihilated.

"My Ming Dynasty has been revived!"

Looking at those sun and moon flags, Xu Dingguo, who was waiting in line on the ship to enter the port, could not help but clenched his fists and shouted,

"The sun, moon, mountains and rivers will always be there,

The Ming Dynasty will last forever,

Long live our emperor!"

His soldiers also raised their arms and shouted.

Chen Twelve, who was following the team, was even more excited than Xu Dingguo. Along the way, the ruins of Henan, the desolation of Huainan, then the excitement of Clam Port, the heat of Qingdao, plus the vitality of Penglai, made this Henan

A fire rose in the young man's chest.

When I was in Yongcheng, I thought the Red Spear Club was powerful enough, but now I can see it all. Giant ships, cannons, and groups of armored cavalry. This is the real heavenly army.

"The Emperor has summoned you!"

Not long after Xu Zhongyi landed ashore, there were armored soldiers leading the servants over there.

The dock was very close to the water city that served as the palace. The chamberlain led him all the way, while Chen Twelve and other soldiers were temporarily stationed at the Shahekou military camp.

At the west gate of the palace city, the chamberlain brought him a third-grade purple robe and jade belt, a gold quilt belt and a gold fish charm.

"Please shower and change clothes first!"

After bathing and dressing up, Xu Zhongyi looked at the bronze mirror and felt that he could not recognize the person inside. Zhao San, the former tenant, was scolded by Mr. Zhao that you are worthy of my surname Zhao. Now he has a purple robe and jade belt, which is very powerful.

After tidying up his clothes, he even smelled his body, fearing that the smell might irritate His Majesty.

Everything is fine.

Follow the chamberlain and pass through numerous guards to the palace east of Xiaohai.

This palace was originally the palace of the Japanese capital, the former government office and the back residence.

Now he is the emperor's bedchamber.

Xu Zhongyi had met the emperor before in Jiangyin, but only from a distance. This summons was the first time the emperor summoned him, and it was also the first time he met the emperor at such a close distance.

The emperor was sitting on the Panlong throne waiting for him. Xu Zhongyi bowed his head and knelt down at the entrance of the palace, holding a wat tablet in his hand, waiting for questions.
To be continued...