"Wu Yong, do you still hate me?" Wu Dong asked while sitting on the boat.
"I don't dare." Wu Yong said hurriedly.
"Oh, you don't dare? So you still have hatred, but you don't dare to show it?" Wu Dong said.
"No, no, Wu Yong doesn't have the slightest hatred for the big leader." Wu Yong felt sweat breaking out on his head.
After finally no longer having to do "re-education through labor", he finally felt relaxed, but he never wanted to go back to that place. You must know that he is a literati, even though "re-education through labor" was much easier than the life-long labor of this era, and he had food and food every day.
Drink, but working from dawn to dusk, especially in the winter, when it snows and you have to go out to open fields, is a great torture for him.
In the past few months, he had suffered enough, so he never dared to offend Wu Dong again.
"You will serve as my staff from now on. If you perform well, I will not forget your contribution." Wu Dong said.
"Yes!" Wu Yong suddenly felt that his future was bright.
For Wu Dong, Wu Yong is a smart man after all, and he is the only scholar around him, so even if this person has some quality problems, he still has to be used. Besides, Wu Yong's family are all in Liangshan, so he is not afraid.
What's wrong with him again?
The boat sailed very fast, and soon it reached the shore. Everyone got ashore one after another and headed towards the east.
The 200 soldiers were all dressed up as ordinary people at this moment. Some went ahead, some followed Wu Dong and others, and some would set off later. Everyone took different routes, but their goals were different.
They all agree - Dengzhou.
"Brother, what are we doing there?" Hua Rong was the person Wu Dong decided to take with him at the last moment, so he didn't know much about it yet.
"Of course it's to go to sea." Wu Dong said.
"Going to sea? What are you going to sea for?" Hua Rong was surprised.
"Go to sea to earn wealth! Ocean trade contains huge wealth, which can make Liangshanbo no longer short of gold and silver! Also, in addition to wealth overseas, there is also a large amount of land." Wu Dong said.
Ruan Xiaowu and Ruan Xiaoqi are more interested in going to sea. The two of them were originally heroes in the water. They grew up by the water, but unfortunately they have never been to the sea. At this moment, they couldn't help but feel faintly excited.
"I heard that the sea is truly vast and boundless. It is much bigger than our Liangshan Lake. I don't know if it is true or not?" Ruan Xiaoqi asked excitedly.
"Of course it's true. Compared to the sea, our Liangshanbo is just a small mud puddle! The fish in the sea are much bigger than the fish in Liangshan, the largest one is a hundred feet long! The waves in the sea are also bigger than those in Liangshan.
The waves are much bigger, like hills, like a small boat in Liangshan. If it goes into the sea, it will be overturned at once. You two are the leaders of the navy. I wonder if you can adapt to it when you get there?" Wu Dong said.
.
"There must be no problem." Ruan Xiaoqi said, and Ruan Xiaowu nodded accordingly.
Everyone laughed and looked forward to the future.
******
Within a day, we first arrived at Qingzhou, where we stopped for a while, then Laizhou and Dengzhou.
I stayed in Cao Zheng’s hotel along the way. Now there are hundreds of Cao Zheng’s hotels, all over Shandong. In addition to small shops at the intersection, there are many big hotels in the prosperous areas of the state capital. Otherwise, explore various places.
Party news.
If you stay in Cao Zheng's hotel, you won't have to worry about official inspections. It's very safe.
When I visited Dengzhou in March, it was already springtime and the flowers were blooming. The sea breeze was blowing constantly, which was extremely comfortable.
They were wandering around the streets of Dengzhou. After walking for several streets, they saw shops everywhere, and they were all businessmen. It was extremely prosperous.
"How many shops should there be here? How many businessmen should come and go here every day?" Hua Rong said.
"It would be great if we could take control of Dengzhou Prefecture." Wu Yong secretly said.
At this time, there was a sudden noise from the front, and more than a dozen officials were seen coming in this direction.
Seeing these officials, the expressions of countless shop owners changed, and some even wanted to close their shops and flee.
"What's going on? What are these officials doing here?" Wu Dong and others were in a shop at the moment, Wu Dong said.
"Collect taxes." The owner of the shop also looked unhappy.
"Since it's a tax collection, then just give it to them." Wu Dong said.
"Sir, you don't understand! I gave them more than half of my monthly income, but they are still not satisfied, so they came again today! It seems that this business can no longer continue!" said the boss.
"How could the Song Dynasty have so many taxes?" Wu Dong said.
As far as Wu Dong knows, the Song Dynasty still protected industry and commerce, and industrial and commercial taxes were not very high, generally only one or two percent, but why did it collect so much tax here?
"Hey, it's not Liangshanbo's fault! The government said they were going to encircle and suppress Liangshanbo. There was no military pay, so the merchants had to pay taxes." The boss said with a sad face.
The expressions of Wu Dong, Hua Rong and others also changed. Wu Dong felt that Liang Shanbo was really shot while lying down! Originally, Liang Shanbo was far away from Dengzhou and could not be contacted at all. But because of Liang Shanbo, the government here had to collect a lot of taxes.
, and the businessmen still blamed Liangshanbo.
"Grandma's." Ruan Xiaoqi couldn't help but curse.
At this time, the officials had already arrived at the shop. The leading petty official ignored Wu Dong and others, but grabbed the shop owner by the collar and said fiercely: "Pay the taxes quickly!"
The boss had no choice but to take out 10 taels of silver and said: "That's all, there really is none."
The junior official was furious and said: "Why is it only 10 taels? At least 30 taels?"
The boss was about to burst into tears and said, "There really isn't any. If there is, I'll give it all to you, boss."
The junior officer gave an order and said: "Search for me! If there is no money, smash everything here!"
At that moment, the officials started rummaging around in the shops. In the end, no money was found. They only heard the sound of "bang bang bang". Countless goods were smashed into pieces. The boss sat on the ground blankly, his face dull.
Hua Rong, Ruan Xiaowu, Ruan Xiaoqi and others were angry, but Wu Dong signaled them not to do anything and immediately left the shop.
"If the big leader hadn't been here, those officials would have been killed!" Ruan Xiaowu said.
"This is Dengzhou Prefecture, not Liangshan. If we kill them, we will only be happy for a while, but we will not be able to go to sea to do things." Wu Dong said.
"The government of the Great Song Dynasty was really annoying...all the officials were corrupt and deserved to die," Hua Rong said.
"Wu Yong, do you think there is any way for us to quietly take control of the Dengzhou Prefecture and let us manage it under the control of Liangshan Bo...but not the imperial court?" Wu Dong suddenly looked at Wu Yong and said.
"This...I'm afraid...it's difficult..." Wu Yong's forehead was sweating. He didn't expect that it would be so difficult for Wu Dong to ask him a question for the first time.
"We need to stay in Dengzhou for a while to understand the situation here... You can slowly think of a solution," Wu Dong said.
Wu Yong had no choice but to agree and began to think hard.
******
At this time, Cao Zheng had already arrived at Dengzhou Mansion.
He was the intelligence chief second only to Zhu Gui and knew everything about Shandong Province, so Wu Dong had already informed him to come.
They met in a hotel in Dengzhou, and Cao Zheng immediately reported the situation in Dengzhou.
"The number of people in Dengzhou Prefecture is small, but the number of merchants is extremely large. There are people from Bianliang, Hangzhou, northwest, southwest, and even Xixia, Tubo, Liao, and Jin people here. As for the Koreans and Japanese
There are countless people." Cao Zhengdao.
"When people from Xixia, Tubo, Liao and Jin come here, don't the government care?" Hua Rong asked curiously.
"How can the government dare to take care of them? These people are tyrannical in Dengzhou Prefecture, and Dengzhou Prefecture still protects their interests at all times, while other businessmen dare not speak out." Cao Zhengdao.
"There is such a thing." The last time Wu Dong passed by Dengzhou, he came in a hurry, so he only saw some Koreans and Japanese people. They were more respectful to the Han people and did not see these Liao people.
Golden man or something.
"The prefect of Dengzhou is called Tong Xiang, and he is Tong Guan's nephew. He is domineering in Dengzhou Prefecture and does all kinds of evil. There are more than 100 officials in Dengzhou Prefecture and more than 300 navy troops. In fact, the number of navy troops should be
There were three thousand people, but they were all eaten up by Tong Xiang." Cao Zhengdao.
"It turns out he is Tong Guan's nephew." Wu Dong nodded lightly.
Tong Guan was a eunuch, but he headed the Privy Council. He was Huizong's confidant. He controlled the monarchy in the northwest. He was the eunuch with the greatest military power in history and the eunuch with the highest title.
His status in the court was second only to Cai Jing, and even Gao Qiu was not as good as Tong Guan. And because he was a eunuch and had no sons, this nephew was just like his son. He loved his nephew extremely much and sent his nephew to Dengzhou Prefecture to make a fortune.
.
"This Tong Xiang may not look like Tong Guan's nephew, but in fact he is a strict wife and is extremely afraid of his wife. He has a sweetheart outside and doesn't dare to bring him home. He only goes to her home a few times a month.
." Cao Zhengdao.
"Oh? Where does his sweetheart live?" Wu Dong said.
"It's in Chaoyang Lane not far away." Cao Zhengdao.