Chapter 792: Jiangnan is like eating raw rice in a pot
Not long after, shopkeeper Chang listened to Yuan Tong's story. He tapped the table with his fingers, pondered for a moment, and asked: "Mr. Yuan, has anyone come and go in the house recently?"
Yuan Tong did not answer directly, but asked: "Mr. Chang has never been to Jiangning before, right?"
Shopkeeper Chang said: "Chang came here two months ago and has been in Beidi before."
Yuan Tong nodded and said, "That's no wonder. Mr. Chang may not know something, but there are guests visiting Suiyuan every day. Some of these people are my father's friends, and some are brought by acquaintances. Some people, not to mention Yuan,
Even my father is not familiar with it."
Shopkeeper Chang said in surprise: "Does the house allow people to come and go at will?"
Yuan Tongtong: "My father is an open-minded man. As long as they don't enter the inner house, ordinary people can enter the garden to enjoy it."
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, large private gardens in the south of the Yangtze River were basically open to the public. Officials and literati, as well as traffickers and commoners, could enter and enjoy the gardens. Some gardens were even open to visitors with tickets.
The reason why there is an endless stream of guests in Suiyuan every day is not only due to Yuan Mei's fame, but also because he is greedy for enjoyment. The burning of the buns is so shocking that many people come here to see the strange things.
For example, before the emergence of flat glass in Beihai Town, the market price of a piece of 2.77-meter-long, 1.7-meter-wide flat glass imported from Guangdong Customs was more than 620 taels of silver. It was so expensive that even the Qing Palace did not dare to use it arbitrarily.
.
In the main hall of Suiyuan Xiaocangshanfang, there is actually a huge glass screen two meters long and two meters high! Such large flat glass is difficult to produce even in Europe today, let alone far away
Cross the ocean and then transport it to the East.
There is also a place called the "Glass World" on the south side of Xiaomianzhai. From the door to the windows, the house is all made of small pieces of five-color glass. When the sun shines, it becomes strange and strange.
Everyone is dazzled. Think of the five-colored glass windows in Western churches, that’s the tone!
In addition, the window glass of "Shashan Hongxue" is all red, the window glass of "Lvjingxuan" is all green; the glass of "Azure Sky" is all blue; the glass of "Shui Jingyu" is all white
of.
These luxuriously decorated rooms are filled with calligraphy and paintings by famous people. The furniture is either red sandalwood, huanghuali, or plum wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and carved with lacquer. The rare-to-find golden nan and mahogany are of the lowest quality.
This is true for furniture, not to mention dining utensils, which are either Ming blue and white official kilns or Kangyong porcelain. When hosting a banquet to entertain guests, the wine cups must be replaced four or five times for each meal, and each time they are replaced, everyone present will marvel.
Yuan Mei's behavior of burning buns doesn't stop there. There are several days when Suiyuan lights up lanterns and fireworks every year. He doesn't just enjoy it at home, but displays it overwhelmingly.
Because Suiyuan has no walls, going to the garden to view lanterns and glass has become a scene in Shangyuan County, Jiangning Prefecture. It doesn’t matter if you can’t enter the inner room. After passing the gatehouse, you can enter the garden on the south side along the fence, at the top of Qunyu Mountain.
Shuixi Pavilion, Shuanghu Lake, Peach Blossom Embankment, and Yuanyang Pavilion are all good places to watch lanterns. Not only the brothel girls in the Qinhuai River are vying for the first place, but even ordinary people are crowded with spectators. As the saying goes, "glazed light moves like a sea of lanterns,
Tour girls are rushing to see Ogura."
Shopkeeper Chang used to live in the north, and his time in Jiangning was short. He hadn't had time to see the luxury of Suiyuan. At this moment, he couldn't help but frown after hearing Yuan Tong's explanation. He thought to himself, this is just a big colander! Don't mention the one above.
As for the action team, even if we bring in two of them, we can't defend it at all.
Thinking of this, he said to Yuan Tongtong: "Mr. Yuan, I will report this matter as soon as possible. According to my estimation, your Majesty will definitely send someone to protect everyone in your house. I just hope that you can go back and make it clear to the layman of Cangshan that you should try your best to leave if you can.
Let’s go. As the saying goes, if you leave the green hills behind, you may be able to come back in a few days.”
"Okay, Yuan will try to persuade me when I go back." Yuan Tong looked bitter, stood up and said with his hands in his hands: "If my father insists on not leaving, the lives of more than thirty people in my Yuan family will be entrusted to King Zhao and Shopkeeper Chang!"
After saying that, he lifted up his robe and knelt on the ground.
"You can't do it! You can't do it!" Shopkeeper Chang hurriedly stepped forward to help him.
Late that night, a telegram sent from Sanshan Street passed through the North Korean Navy's relay stations in Rongcheng, Shandong and Anping Port on Jeju Island, and finally arrived at the Intelligence Bureau's headquarters on the east bank of the Falin River.
Because the telegram started with three "ticks", which meant "urgent and top secret," the deputy section chief of the telecommunications room on duty immediately called the home of his immediate boss, Wang Changsheng.
More than thirty minutes later, Wang Changsheng, who was wrapped like a bear, pushed in through the heavy snow, followed by two guards with guns. His home was in a small courtyard south of the Intelligence Bureau. If it weren't for the snowy road,
Come on, you can get there in twenty minutes.
Wang Changsheng frowned and read the contents of the telegram. After he signed the bottom of the telegram and returned it to the deputy section chief for archiving, he ordered: "Send this telegram to Kinmen immediately, word for word.
Your Highness will accept it personally."
"yes!"
"Is the phone still on at Sanshan Street?"
"It's open, waiting for our reply."
"Call them back and contact Fang Jingzhai of the governor's Yamen as soon as possible tomorrow to find out the time of attack on Yuan Mei. Then notify the Zhenjiang action team and order all members to bring all the equipment and enough ammunition to arrive at Jinwangdu at noon tomorrow for investigation.
Follow the surrounding area of the garden to see if there are any spies from the Qing court, and be sure not to alert the enemy. Also, keep the radio station at Jinwangdu on day and night."
The Fang Jingzhai he mentioned was the master of Ma Huiyu, the magistrate of Yangzhou a few years ago. He was ordered to investigate the Jiao Xunna case from the beginning. After Zhao Xin and Wang Yuanfang caused a sensational prison robbery in Yangzhou, Ma Huiyu was dismissed from his post.
Asked, Master Fang also lost his job and returned to his hometown in Suzhou. Later, he was recommended by others and became a staff member of the Jiangsu Governor's Yamen a year ago, responsible for criminal prosecution.
Now Fang Jingzhai has been successfully instigated to rebel, and the Intelligence Bureau's spying on the Qing court's officialdom in Jiangsu was mainly accomplished through him.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! While listening, the deputy section chief of the Telecommunications Office wrote down the contents of the telegram dictated by Wang Changsheng on the telegram draft, and then let him read it. Wang Changsheng made a few things after reading it
Modified, signed, and handed it back. Just as he was about to go out, he stopped again and said: "Send a copy of the telegram from Sanshan Street to the Alin Base Command. The recipient of the telegram is Lieutenant General Wu."
The deputy section chief said in surprise: "Alin Base?"
Wang Changsheng explained: "Yes! Lieutenant General Wu is inspecting over there. His Highness is not here. He is responsible for the daily affairs of the staff department."
The so-called "Lieutenant General Wu" is naturally Wu Siyu. The "Five King Kong" of the Northern Navy - Liu Sheng, Wang Yuanfang, Deng Fei, Wu Siyu, and Ding Guofeng now all have the rank of Lieutenant General, while Fan Tong, Sheng Haizhou and others
It is the rank of major general.
Today, Wu Siyu is the head of the "Northern Navy Training and Doctrine Command". He is mainly responsible for the formulation of training subjects for North Korean recruits and special operations units, the preparation of combat manuals, and assisting Zhao Xin in the newly established non-commissioned officer schools, junior military schools and officers.
The training class carries out daily management, and every day is busy without touching the ground.
As for the "Alin Base" mentioned by Wang Changsheng, it is a new training base being built by the North Korean Navy in the north of Vladivostok.
It is said that when Zhao Xin and the others went to Bear Island ten years ago, Vladivostok was a small fishing village with only about 20 households. Now ten years have passed, there has not been any development there, and as the fishermen have moved away one after another, it has become almost
Abandoned.
Different from the family-based small-scale peasant economy in the pass, Beihai Town engages in industrialized agricultural production. The population must be concentrated, that is, urban and rural areas are integrated, so small and remote villages are bound to disappear.
Speaking of which, there are so many places suitable for farming, fishing and hunting in the outer Northeast. The Sanjiang Plain and Songnen Plain alone have a combined area of more than 200,000 square kilometers. Now, the Liaohe Plain of 100,000 square kilometers has been included. Just these
The land and civil affairs department is too busy, and other scattered areas cannot be taken care of at all.
In terms of port conditions, Whale Bay is a naturally ice-free port. In the coldest winter, a thin layer of ice will form, which has no impact on navigation. In Vladivostok, the bay does not freeze in winter, but it will still freeze outside.
There are no ships, so neither the civil affairs nor the military have ever regarded Vladivostok as a development focus.
When Beihai Town was first founded, Zhao Xin and the others centered on the east and west banks of the Falin River estuary and expanded to the north, east and west; the west bank was the living area and the east bank was the industrial area.
The southernmost end of the east coast is the Dolphin Bay Military Port and Shipyard. At the foot of the mountain to the northeast of the military port is the thermal power plant. Directly north are a bunch of workshop-style factory areas such as early steel plants and arsenals. Further north is the training base.
As the size of the North Korean Navy has grown larger and larger over the years, and more and more recruits have been trained, the "Farin River Base" has become increasingly cramped. If nothing else, the staff can't even hold a regiment-level confrontation exercise.
, it is very troublesome to find a place separately every time.
Last summer, with Zhao Xin's consent, Wu Siyu arranged for people to survey and select sites in various places, preparing to move to a larger and more spacious place. After looking around, the person in charge of site selection finally settled on the area from Badahezi in the north of Vladivostok to the north.
The vast area between Shuli and Shuli.
It is located on the southern branch of the Sikhet Mountains and contains various terrains including hills, plains, dense forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, and seashores. It is very suitable for new recruits to fight and various tactical training. Because it covers an area of more than 600 square kilometers.
, which is five times larger than the "Faling River Base", and can be used for exercises.
The surveyors also had an unexpected gain during the site selection process, which was the discovery of hundreds of hectares of oak forest in the north of the fishing village of Vladivostok, almost all of which were more than two hundred years old. This made the navy very excited, and there was no need to build a large oak forest anymore.
I bought shipbuilding wood all the way from Southeast Asia.
Out of the need for confidentiality, the new base was named "Beijing Navy Alin Tactical Training Base" by Wu Siyu. Alin means "mountain" in Manchu. There are so many mountains in the Northeast. If others only speculate based on literal words, they will be shocked.
I can't even guess where it is.
Before walking out of the telecommunications room, Wang Changsheng looked up at the clock on the wall. There were still more than three hours until dawn. He was not sleepy at this moment and had no intention of going home, so he asked the two guards to go to the duty room to rest, and he came straight here.
We arrived at the office next to the telecommunications office.
As soon as he entered the door, a wave of heat hit him, and the earth heater in the room was very hot. After entering the room, Wang Changsheng turned on the kerosene stove to boil a pot of water, made tea for himself, and then sat back on a large chair.
While sipping tea, I was thinking about Yuan Mei.
The reason why his first reaction after reading the telegram was to report it to Zhao Xin was because he felt that the Qing government's attempt to arrest Yuan Mei could no longer be handled by the Intelligence Bureau alone.
Although the action team in Zhenjiang is considered elite, they are only good at assassination and sabotage, and are not a regular combat force. Even if twelve people brought long and short weapons, they could not stop the siege of thousands of Eight Banners soldiers in Jiangning City.
Not to mention that Suiyuan is still a big colander without walls, and there is no insurance to rely on.
What Wang Changsheng is most worried about now is the fight with the Manchus in Jiangning, and what kind of impact the resulting chain reaction will have on the entire Jiangnan.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jiangnan refers to the entire Jiangsu in a broad sense, that is, Southern Zhili in the Ming Dynasty; in a narrow sense, it refers to the eight prefectures and one prefecture including Suzhou, Songjiang, Taicang, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Jiangning, and Zhenjiang.
the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
As a close confidant of Zhao Xin, Wang Changsheng knew that his immediate boss had no plans for Jiangnan, nor did he not want to seize the most economically prosperous region in Asia. The key is that the biggest difficulty Beihai Town currently faces in conquering Jiangnan is, besides its military strength,
There is also a shortage of reception staff.
According to the census results conducted by the Qing government in the 45th year of Qianlong's reign, the total population of the Jiangnan region at that time was already more than 20 million. Now fifteen years have passed, taking into account factors such as population migration caused by famine, 30 million
Absolutely! And it wasn’t until Beihai Town conquered half of Shandong that its population exceeded 15 million.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! With the force of the northern navy, it is easy to attack the south of the Yangtze River. Send two regiments to land at Wusongkou, and with the cooperation of the navy, we can attack Wuchang from east to west.
It's as easy as squeezing out toothpaste. However, after squeezing it in, whether it can be digested and absorbed is the most important thing.
According to Beihai Town's practice, newly occupied areas are usually subject to military control for half a year to one year before the situation stabilizes. Even if one full camp is placed in each county, there are fifty-six counties in eight prefectures and one state, that is, Xiaosan
Ten thousand troops.
In addition, in accordance with the requirements of Beihai Town to "send political power to the countryside", in addition to the county magistrate, deputy county magistrate, and police chief, each county's administrative staff must have at least thirty administrative staff responsible for agriculture, industry, commerce, education, medical care, etc.
, and then select some from the previous officials, so that it is barely enough. And this alone requires an administrative reception team of two thousand people.
Furthermore, the south of the Yangtze River is not the north. There is no large-scale land annexation. Ten acres of land per capita is the norm. The relationship between landlords and tenants is more of a contract than exploitation. How should the agricultural cooperatives handle this situation?
The last step was to break away from the rule of the Qing Dynasty and provide a way out for hundreds of thousands or even millions of scholars. If the civil service examination and retraining system could not keep up in time, the so-called "humanistic source" would become a source of turmoil.
Just thinking about such a big game of chess makes Wang Changsheng feel numb. Although his hometown is in Chongming, and he is looking forward to returning home in glory as soon as possible, he knows that Zhao Xin will never do anything about it until sufficient personnel preparations are completed.
Jiangnan took action, preferring to let Manqing take care of it first.
Isn't it just some grain and silver? Beihai Town now has so much grain that it can eat a bowlful of it, and its silver reserves are as high as tens of millions of taels. Who cares!
Wang Changsheng thought about it and fell asleep in a daze. At eight o'clock in the morning, there was a call from the Telecommunications Office, saying that Lieutenant General Wu had called and asked him to go to the "Alin Base" in person to discuss something.
Although it was still snowing heavily outside, Wang Changsheng did not dare to neglect the call from Prince Zhao's close comrades. He asked his adjutant to prepare some information, called the guards, and hurried to the Dolphin Bay Military Port, where he boarded a naval patrol vessel.
boat.
Although it was already freezing cold, the sea surface of Ussuri Bay was not yet frozen. The patrol boat sailed westward along the coast and arrived at Mayan Port in three hours.
This is the mouth of the Mayan River, a tributary of the Fuljiaha River. "Mayan" means "arm" in Manchu and also means branch.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty in another time and space, the Han people who invaded Guandong called it "Ant Village" based on its homophonic pronunciation, and the Mayan River became the Ant River. After the Russians invaded the outer Northeast, this area finally became the "Ant Village" in the 1970s.
It became the "Shkotovsky District".
Even though he was the number one figure in the intelligence bureau, Wang Changsheng and his party still went through a rigorous inspection after landing ashore. In addition to checking their IDs, they also had to check their fingerprints and irises.
Then they boarded an off-road jeep, and after more than an hour of bumpy terrain, they finally arrived at a place called "Erpaozi", where the headquarters of the "Alin Base" is located.
Walking into the field tent, Wang Changsheng tensed up subconsciously, saluted a military salute, and said loudly: "Report to the leader! Wang Changsheng has been ordered to report here! Please give instructions!"
Wu Siyu, who was lying on the map table, raised his head when he heard the voice, stood at attention and returned the salute, and said with a smile: "You came quite quickly, take a seat."
The two exchanged greetings and waited for the orderly to bring water. Wu Siyu then said, "I came to see you because I want to hear your opinion on something. It's really inconvenient to send telegrams back and forth."
"Please tell me."
"I received your telegram last night. I didn't sleep all night. I exchanged several telegrams with King Zhao. It's night here, and it's daytime there."
Wang Changsheng nodded quickly and said: "Understood, I've heard before that the difference is 16 hours."
Wu Siyu took out a cigarette from his jacket pocket, lit one, and pushed the cigarette case to Wang Changsheng, saying: "King Zhao's opinion is that with the strength of your intelligence bureau alone, Jiang Ning's matter will not be solved."
Easy to solve."
Wang Changsheng took the cigarette case, smoked one and lit it, and explained: "Yes. We have an action team in Zhenjiang, but there are only 12 people."
"Well. This is a pot of raw rice. If we fight, we are not ready to accept it. If we don't fight, the Qing government will be like a mad dog. We cannot let the people who surrender to us feel cold."
"So King Zhao and I have the idea to secretly dispatch a company of special forces to Jiangning to help you guard Suiyuan. Since Jiaqing and the Ding Prince are going to cause trouble, then they should deal with him well. As a cooperation, the Navy
Two frigates and a supply ship will be sent to Wusongkou as a deterrent. If necessary, the fleet will enter the Yangtze River and arrive outside Jiangning City."
Wang Changsheng felt as if he had been hit by a pie in the sky, surprised and happy. Wusongkou, that was Chongming, his hometown!