Quzhou is named after the thoroughfare because it connects the four provinces of Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Fujian and Jiangxi. Local merchants prospered very much because of the important location of the thoroughfare. Looking at ancient China, the name of Longyou merchant gang can also be included

After Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants.

Because Quzhou borders Huizhou, there are extremely frequent commercial exchanges between the Longyou merchant gang and Huizhou merchants. Some goods from Zhejiang and Jiangxi enter Huizhou northward through this, and the same goes for bulk tea, silk and other goods from Fujian. Some,

It's just a matter of whether you can go directly from northern Fujian to Quzhou through Xianxia Pass, or go through Wenzhou or Chuzhou and use Songyang Danda to transfer to Quzhou.

In peacetime, these two routes were very busy with trade. Nowadays, the southern part of Quzhou has become a battlefield. The commercial routes are cut off, and the governments of both sides have blocked the border. The usual trade routes can no longer be used.

Officially speaking, this is naturally the case. But in this world, profit cannot be achieved without taking risks. There is no chance at Xianxia Pass. After all, no one can smuggle under Zheng Chenggong's nose. Those are all leftover by the Zheng Group.

But on the line from Funingzhou to Wenzhou, on the trails between hills and mountains, small groups of caravans were guarded by men with weapons and money tails, and they did not dare to make a big noise.

He just sneaked towards his destination, lest he be discovered by the patrolling Ming and Qing troops.

On the other hand, there is a saying that keeping one's hair is a docile citizen, and shaving one's hair is a refugee. Therefore, people like them, who have been traveling around the areas controlled by the Ming and Qing Dynasties all year round, have no hair.

A money rat tail is also convenient.

In fact, most of those who are able to make such a frivolous business are filial to both black and white secretly, and even the government officials are involved. However, it is wartime now, and the Ming and Qing armies are engaged in attrition wars in Quzhou day and night.

Stop, Taizhou's tug-of-war and Ningshao's harassment will never stop. Under such circumstances, it is better not to encounter the army.

The smuggling team marched on the small road. Although there was not much goods, things were always rare in this world. Now that the trade routes in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces are cut off, the profits of the goods will naturally increase significantly, which is why

Such huge profits motivate them to take risks.

From Funing Prefecture to Wenzhou Fucheng, from Fu'an, we took Shouning, crossed Taishun, and boarded a boat on the Anyang River. Wenzhou's local partners had already made arrangements for the rest of the journey, and everything was well planned up and down.

The border is so dangerous. However, it is helpless to take such a route after all. For example, the caravans used to take Tongshanbao and Fenshui Pass, all the way along the official road of Wenzhou, crossing the Qiancang River, Pingyang County, and passing Feiyun.

From the pass to Ruian County, and finally to Wenzhou Fucheng on the bank of the Ou River in the north, there are many mountains and dangers along the way, and the time and energy consumed are by no means comparable to the former.

After finally arriving in Wenzhou Fucheng and unloading the goods, they were no longer needed for the rest of the journey. The local merchants organized Songyang to transport the goods to Quzhou via the prefecture. It was already nighttime, and the boat and carriage were tiring.

I need to rest for a night before setting off back to Fujian.

"The current situation has been bad recently, and there are tight checks in the city. If you can, don't leave the inn, so as not to get into unnecessary trouble."

"Don't worry, I'll know the severity soon."

When the goods arrived, they could not return empty. Logically speaking, the goods sent to Fujian should have been ready that night. However, the situation was not good, the ground was unstable, and the goods were not collected for a while, so we had to let the goods arrive.

The smuggling team continued to rest for a few days.

In the next two days, two more smuggling teams came to the city one after another. With so many Fujian people in the city, the local government and the green camp were a little nervous. However, money can make things work, and this

The principle is still applicable at all times and in all countries. If the money is in place, and the three smuggling teams combined can only amount to a hundred people, which is completely negligible compared to the two thousand green camps stationed in the city, the worries can naturally be thrown away.

aside.

The goods were collected a few hours after the third smuggling team arrived. Unfortunately, the city gate was still closed at that time, so we had to wait until tomorrow before setting off. The city gate was closed, and the sun would not really go down.

As soon as we reached the horizon, the curfew in the city had already begun.

This Wenzhou capital city was built during the Taining period of the Jin Dynasty. It is said that the person responsible for the site selection and design at that time was Guo Pu, a prodigy of the Jin Dynasty. His design concepts were quite advanced. When climbing Guoshan Mountain in the west, he saw "several peaks standing staggered, like a mountain".

For example, "Beidou, Huagai Mountain locks Doukou", so it is recommended to build a city across the mountains and lay out the city based on the principles of leaning on the river, negative mountains, connected to the water and Dongmiao, Nanshi, Xiju and Beibu.

Guo Pu's design made Wenzhou Fucheng quite easy to defend and difficult to attack even if it still had the structure of a medieval city wall. For example, the Fangla Uprising in the late Northern Song Dynasty swept through Mu, She, Hang, Wu, and Qu in just three months, covering the six states.

, but facing Wenzhou, they attacked Wenzhou for more than 40 days but could not break the city. Fang La was like this. During the Jiajing Japanese Rebellion in the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese pirates repeatedly attacked coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangzhou, and captured many cities. In the forty-third year of Jiajing,

, Japanese pirates also invaded Hangzhou and burned down the Leifeng Pagoda. In the eleven years from the 31st to the 42nd year of Jiajing, Wenzhou City was invaded by Japanese pirates six times, but the Japanese pirates failed to invade the city.

This corresponds to what Guo Pubu said after the city more than a thousand years ago: "If the city is surrounded by mountains, it will gather wealth and prosperity, but war will inevitably happen; if the city is built on mountains, the invaders will not be able to fight, and the security will be long."

Yi."

Wenzhou City is easy to defend but difficult to attack, which has been proven for thousands of years. However, despite this, the security of Wenzhou City here is still very tight. This is because although Wenzhou City has an advantageous terrain, it is located in the lower reaches of the Oujiang River and is far away from the mouth of the sea.

It is only a few dozen miles away. At the mouth of the Oujiang River, the Dongtou Islands where the Ming fleet is entrenched block Wenzhou Bay, just like Chongming on the Yangtze River and Zhoushan off Ningbo.

The commander of the Ming fleet occupying this place was none other than Zhou Rui, the Marquis of Min'an who occupied this place at that time.

Back then, the Zhou brothers parted ways in Wenzhou. However, after joining the Zheng Group in recent years, the strength of Zhou Rui's group is actually much stronger than when the brothers joined forces before.

The large Fu Chuan and Guang Chuan were on the side, casting a shadow over the minds of the Qing army, and the black muzzles of the cannons made their eyes widen and their mouths went dry.

The Ming fleet cruised along the coast, covering the passages between Fujian, Taizhou, and Zhoushan, and often harassed prefectures and counties. Since the Qing army's pitiful Taizhou navy no longer existed, various places along the coast of Wenzhou had long since

It was too much to disturb. As the Ming army had gained momentum in recent years, anti-Qing people inside and outside the country were indispensable to exert local constraints. Although the local Qing army had grown from a two thousand army shortly after Fujian fell into the hands of the Ming army.

The People's Association expanded to a town of 3,000 people, plus some troops guarding key points, but it still appeared to be trembling in the face of the actual threat from the Ming army.

Since Zheng Chenggong vowed to fight for the Northern Expedition in Fuzhou, the Ming army in Zhoushan and Taizhou is only a partial division. The scale of the war is not too large. Basically, it is concentrated in Quzhou. In Wenzhou, it is generally as good as Zhoushan and Taizhou, or even worse. However,

Even so, the local area will still be affected.

The city defense was tightly guarded by the Qing army. Inside the city, the curfew system was strictly enforced. There were dense torches on the city head, and there were constant patrols of soldiers, lest they be attacked by the Ming army at night.

It was the same in the past, and it is the same today. However, when the Ming army's artillery fire sounded, it was so dark that if it hadn't carried that trail of fire, it would have been hard to tell what the sudden attack was even if the shells were bombarding the city wall.

It will be a Ming warship coming from the Oujiang River.

"Enemy attack!"

With roars, fires, and vibrations, the Qing troops on the city wall seemed to be frightened by birds in the forest, and there was a commotion immediately. The officers, who were quite experienced, quickly organized the soldiers to defend themselves - notifying the generals, county officials, and civilians,

Carrying garrison equipment, allocating crenels, artillery positions, etc., etc., was so busy that it was so busy. However, anyone with a discerning eye could see that the Ming army suddenly appeared on the Oujiang River outside the city. Obviously,

Over the years, the outposts and fortresses set up by the Qing army on those Jiangxin Islands and along the river were either successfully attacked by the Ming army or successfully instigated by the Ming army. Otherwise, if the Ming army warships invaded the Oujiang River, they would definitely not be as clueless as they are now!

This was a well-planned attack, and it was bound to be a thunderous one. As expected, it didn’t take long for the Ming and Qing armies to smear each other. In the south direction of the city, there were dots of fire in the distance, like a sudden river, flowing towards the city.

.

At this point, there is no longer any need to have any doubts. The Qing troops guarding the city were fully mobilized, and the county government also urged the petty officials to organize civilian workers. In the dim night of southern Zhejiang, Wenzhou

The lights in the city are brightly lit, and the chickens and dogs are jumping around. It seems to be louder than the noise outside the city.

As time went by, the Qing army prepared in a hurry, and the Ming army also rushed to the city at a speed that seemed to be a rapid march, and immediately dispatched a large number of troops to attack the city wall carrying ladders.

At this time, they didn't even have time to rearrange their formation!

The Ming army's imminent attack on the city really caught the Qing army's surprise. However, with the "early warning" of the previous shelling, the defenders had relatively more time to prepare. In terms of odds of victory,

The disconnection between the navy and land divisions of the Ming army has affected the effect of the raid. If not for the dark night, the Qing army would not have dared to rush out of the city to fight. I am afraid that Liu Wenxiu's tragic defeat in Changde would have emerged today.

.

Such a precedent, for an experienced general like the general, even if he could not cite a few examples, he could still see the Ming army's concerns at the moment. However, under such a night, he was determined not to dare

Anyone who easily leaves the city is afraid of being ambushed by the Ming army. What's more, from the light of fire in the distance, it seems that the number of the Ming army is no less than four or five times that of the defenders, and the gap is still widening.

"Come here, strictly monitor the movements in the city. If there is any slight movement, you would rather kill the wrong one than let it go!"

With the sentries in Jiangxinzhou and along the river, and the precedent of the fortress, the Wenzhou general soldier could feel by intuition alone that the Ming army would definitely sneak into the city and conduct careful operations, which made him feel a huge sense of crisis.

Just in case, the chief military officer quickly made preparations and took every precaution. As a result, it didn't take long. As the Ming and Qing armies fiercely fought offensive and defensive battles around the city wall, a place in the city not too far from the county government office was reached.

The inn was on fire and quickly spread to the surrounding area.

"Quick, suppress Xizuo as quickly as possible, no matter male or female, shoot to death!"

After giving the order, the response force that had already been prepared set off immediately. The commander-in-chief looked at the back of the response force that was rushing towards the scene of the incident, and felt a little at ease. But before he could turn his head back, he focused again on the man who was shouting to kill.

The siege battle was so loud that he felt a chill on his neck, and a steel knife was already placed on his neck.

"You want to betray the imperial court!"

His gaze extended along the blade of the knife, three feet back, to the handle. There, there were trembling arms holding the steel knife tightly. Thinking about it, his hands were already sweating profusely. And looking back, he saw a very familiar face.

It's filled with shrinkage and guilt.

"Commander, I have seen with my own eyes how Fujian was lost. With Guo Xingye here and Chen Fujun here, the Tatars will be driven out sooner or later. Now..."

"How dare you betray the Lord and be ungrateful?"

The anger of the chief soldier made the officer grit his teeth fiercely. The next second, the sword flashed, and the angry head was freed from the restraints of the body. And this scene became a signal.

.The shouts of "The city is broken, the Ming army has entered the city" quickly rang out from the top of the city. Suddenly, the defenders who were still trying their best to fight the Ming army, and even had a geographical advantage, died in the screams.
Chapter completed!