Chapter 86: Urgent Matters

Once spring arrives, all things grow.

The sweet berry trees in the backyard of the Zhihai Stockade Yamen bloomed with clusters of purple flowers.

In the pavilion next to the fruit trees, Zhang Gui personally poured tea.

He also picked several bunches of fruit from the flower clusters of the berry trees.

He put them in a basket woven from willow branches and washed them with well water.

He placed them on the stone table in the pavilion.

"The berries from the sandy land are sweet and sour.

They are very delicious."

Guan Xihui picked up a bunch of fruit and swallowed it in one gulp, chewing with a mouth full of purple juice,

"Dudu Zhang truly has good self-cultivation; you calmed down your mood in just a few steps."

Zhang Gui smiled bitterly and said:

"I don't have good self-cultivation, but I need to do some extra things to calm down.

If the skin is gone, what will the hair attach to?

We are monkeys stealing fruit on this big tree of Song Ming.

It doesn't matter if the big tree is dry or flooded.

But if the tree falls, the monkeys will scatter."

Guan Xihui sighed after hearing this,

"Sure enough, you think the same as I do.

Even Yan Laoda feels that Ming Song has been established for hundreds of years, so it still has some foundation.

Even if it loses nine thousand-man Flower Dragon Cavalry, it won't be defeated like a mountain falling."

"That's because Yan Gong is also a hero of his time and is used to being the boss.

He is unwilling to admit how terrifying Chang Sheng Tie Mu, who has a similar background to him, is."

Old Guan was stunned, agreeing with Zhang Gui's statement in his heart, but he couldn't say it clearly, only vaguely saying:

"Now I only hope that I am overthinking it.

Or maybe it is rumored that Yuan Mountain is not good at water warfare, so even if the northern border is full of wolf smoke, the southern kingdom can still barely support it."

Zhang Gui sighed and said:

"That is indeed the only way to think.

However, I still have to thank you, Deputy Gang Leader Guan, for telling me this information early.

Giving me more time to prepare.

Although you definitely didn't come to Zhihai Stockade specifically to communicate with me."

"Hahaha, you kid."

Guan Xihui couldn't help laughing.

With his temper and character, even if he only occasionally used such a close tone and address to talk to Zhang Gui,

it could prove that the friendship between the two had changed from completely hypocritical to half-true and half-false,

and they talked for a while longer.

Someone came to report to Guan Xihui that the goods on the "Shrimp Soldier Boat" had been unloaded.

Since the successful opening of the Zhihai Stockade port, Old Guan had treated the 50,000 taels of silver bribe cleverly taken by Zhang Gui as an investment by the Daohai Gang in the military stockade dock.

The secret warehouse used for smuggling and selling stolen goods was changed into a bright and upright warehouse.

He also opened a merchant firm named "White Sail."

Selling weapons and small and medium-sized armed cargo ships.

And this further confirmed to Zhang Gui that after Zhang Yan and his group rebelled from the Pingyang Zhang family, they had created a new base.

And the scale was no smaller than the previous Blackwood Town.

Or perhaps as early as the Blackwood Town era, they were playing a dual-base strategy of one bright and one dark.

Covetous, Zhang Gui couldn't help but groan again,

"Deputy Gang Leader Guan, the weapon business is a huge profit.

The goods you sold at our dock just this month, the net profit is..."

Guan Xihui heard that he was about to lead the topic to money again, stood up and bowed,

"Earn a lot, spend a lot.

Besides, you only see prosperity here because we sell a lot of goods at your dock.

Doing big business, you can't just look at the immediate small profits and ignore the long term.

Alright, it's getting late.

I have other things to do.

Dudu Zhang, let's part ways here, see you next time."

Looking at his back as he walked away quickly, Zhang Gui shouted with a difficult face:

"Long term, if I keep 'making trouble' like this, I'm afraid that next time you come, the Dudu of Zhihai Stockade won't be me.

Let's agree, if I luckily hold on, next time you must pay the increased rent."

Old Guan, who had already walked to the courtyard gate, stopped and turned back with a smile:

"Dudu Zhang is joking.

In the whole Siyang, no, in the whole Ming Song, besides you, who else would have the whim to open a military stockade dock for business.

And dare to openly attract 'merchant firms' like us to cooperate.

Not only that.

I heard that you are also contacting some 'merchant firms' similar to ours in the Eastern Inner Sea.

This is wanting to be a 'big broker' communicating between black and white.

Although the climate is not yet formed, besides you, those who can handle this mess are unwilling to take the blame, and those who are willing to come can't handle it.

Plus now that the national war has had a big slip-up.

It really fulfills that sentence you often say, 'in some special periods, stability overrides everything.'

So we should also focus on 'stability' in everything.

Silver, 50,000 taels every year will definitely be offered before the first day of the New Year.

Shop rent, 5,000 taels every year starting from next year, I will offer it at the same time.

Besides that, not a single penny."

Afterward, he stroked his three long beards dashingly and walked away.

Ten days later, news of the Ming Song army's defeat in the national war began to spread among the people.

After all, such a big event would inevitably become impossible to block as time fermented.

Immediately afterward, another piece of news that could be called a "national nightmare" came.

The Yuan Mountain army did not talk about martial virtue.

With thirty thousand Canglang Guards and Bailu Army as the spearhead, they broke the main force of Ming Song's fifty ten-thousand-man infantry and cavalry armies.

Afterward, forty-five ten-thousand-man light cavalry covered and killed, winning a great victory.

In one fell swoop, they broke through Yanhan Pass and invaded the capital region.

Suddenly, the entire Ming Song country was in turmoil.

Even Yanjing, which was the best place in Ming Song and known as the "most prosperous hundred miles in the world," was thousands or ten thousand miles away.

Zhihai Stockade, hidden in the barren mountains and wild beaches, also became panicked.

On this day, the first floor of the restaurant "Yu Yu Yan" newly opened on the new street of the military stockade dock.

It was noisy and full of business.

A table in the corner.

Four or five middle-aged men wearing thin cotton shirts and several young men were sitting and waiting for food.

The young men stayed honestly, while the middle-aged men talked in low voices.

A thin man whose bruises could still be faintly seen on his face, with a gloomy face,

"At that time, the Yuan Mountain people set up a 'Sharp Tooth Formation.'

Canglang Guard in the middle, Bailu Army as the wings.

Under the charge, it was like mercury pouring into the ground.

Our Song Ming army, because of Zhao Xiaoshuai's order, set up a 'Ten-Mile Long Snake Formation' to defend against the enemy.

As a result, it was like a huge water flower vase hanging in mid-air, big and useless,

and was pierced through the formation by the spearhead of the Canglang Guard and Bailu Army as if it were nothing.

At that time, the commander's flag shook and military morale scattered.

Then they were covered and killed by the Yuan Mountain army's light cavalry, and suddenly they were defeated like a mountain falling.

The collapse of the broken bottle, the collapse of the broken bottle!

I read so many military books for so many years, and only then did I truly understand why it is said:

The collapse of the broken bottle cannot be blocked.

It is truly something even gods cannot help."

Seeing him trembling slightly while talking, as if he would hang himself from a southeast branch in the next moment, a fat, honest-looking companion persuaded:

"That's enough, Brother Sun, under the change of the general trend, we are all like ants.

Don't think about some things anymore.

The key now is to establish a relationship with the Western He Continent slave traders and save people back.

I think the dock of this Zhihai Stockade is quite prosperous.

If it can be grasped in our hands, it will be of great benefit to this matter."

One of the young men really couldn't understand and couldn't help but interject:

"Old Uncles, aren't we holding the letter from Benxiao Shaoye's silly classmate Zhang to report to the Dudu of Zhihai Stockade.

That someone is going to be unfavorable to him?

How did it become the other way around?"

Several middle-aged men looked at each other after hearing this.

Even Brother Sun, who was just dejected and seemed like he would hang himself in the next moment, didn't answer him.

Only the fat man smiled, "Little Guang, eat, eat.

Some things can only be understood and not spoken, you will naturally understand after experiencing them."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 87 =====