xymnovel Chapter 357 Heroes
Chapter 357 Heroes
After a noisy meeting, the following consensus was basically reached:
First, the government is determined to suppress them. They haven't done so yet because the time isn't right and they don't have the resources, but it's only a matter of time. Second, as of today, in the seventh year of the Zhizheng era, offering amnesty is not feasible. The outcome might not be good, and the risks are high. Simply put, the conditions for offering amnesty are too poor, and the Yuan court cannot offer good terms. It is not cost-effective, so it is rejected.
Third, based on the above two points, make all necessary arrangements for the counter-encirclement and suppression campaign.
Fourth, try to postpone the outbreak of war as much as possible, even if it's just for an extra month, and strive for six months or even longer. Once the general direction is set, many things will be easier to handle. The difficult part is actually setting the direction, because internal opinions may differ.
This was also the first time that Shao Shuyi had gathered the vast majority of key personnel together to unify their thinking.
In the past, at most, I would only mention it in passing or in snippets to people around me; this is now a public and widespread announcement.
This was a successful meeting, at least on the surface. Although some people may still have doubts and be hesitant, they may have simply followed the crowd without objecting, but at least you made a public statement, and that's enough. Right now, that's exactly the kind of open stance you need.
People in the world are all different, and it's impossible for everyone to have the same thoughts. As long as he can achieve superficial unity, Shao Shuyi is already satisfied, as it represents his authority.
On the morning of June 12th, Yu Yuan was the first to return to Huangtian Port to carry out Shao Shuyi's first deployment: to persuade as many trained porters and laborers as possible to move their entire families to Matuosha, and at the same time to purchase strategic materials such as grain, cloth, medicinal herbs, iron, and timber, and transport them back to Matuosha for storage. At noon, Wang Xing received his first solo mission to carry out the second deployment: to go to Jiangyin to hire manpower to build warehouses, walls, wharves, and fortifications in Matuosha.
In the afternoon, Yang Xunchang, who held the position of deputy section chief at Shengye Trading Company, secretly returned to Changzhou. While purchasing building materials and grain, he also recruited people to reclaim wasteland in Matuosha. Changzhou had been facing difficulties recently, and the lives of the people were not as good as before. There should be people willing to come.
In the evening, someone was sent to Yang Jin, who was handling affairs in Huangbudun, to instruct him to check the stored grain and money, secretly purchase goods in Wuxi, and compile a list of those who had withdrawn from the association. In the past two months, for some unknown reason, several merchants who had joined the Wuyue Grain Guild had come to request to withdraw, clearly under pressure.
After nightfall, Lin Shanyi selected a few people and secretly sailed downstream to see if they could return to the state to make contact—the area was in chaos, with government ships and pirate ships constantly coming and going, so the risks were not low.
The 13th was also very busy. Shao Shuyi sent out several more messengers to Changshu Prefecture, Taicang, Yixing and other places to deliver messages and purchase supplies.
Salt distributors in Jiangyin and other places were also required to come and pick up salt, which is called "pushing inventory onto channels" in order to recover funds as soon as possible and purchase more war reserve materials.
On June 15, several boats returned to Ma Tuo Sha and moored in turn at the dedicated pier, which had been expanded into three piers.
The tigress, Madam Xu, swaggered off the boat, looking smug. Only when she saw Shao Shuyi did she slightly restrain her arrogance.
"Two people died," the mother tiger said. "The bodies weren't brought back; they were given a sea burial according to custom, and each was given a piece of clothing."
Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "Tell me what happened."
The guards brought tea again.
The female tiger picked up a bowl and took a sip, then her brows furrowed suddenly. It wasn't that it tasted bad, but that it was too hot.
"Actually, there's not much to say." After pausing, the female tiger said, "The archers in (Nan) Tongzhou have been dealt with several times. Those who dared to fight are all dead, and the rest fled at the first sign of trouble. If the ships hadn't been too full, I would have stayed a few more days. Today, I only brought back 300,000 catties of salt and 40,000 catties of salted fish. Most of the money was spent on buying salted fish."
Shao Shuyi hummed in agreement.
Actually, there was no need to buy salted fish on this trip, but the situation hadn't changed much before the mother tiger set off, so she instructed her to buy salted fish along the Tongzhou coast, bring it back, re-salt it, and sell it to some timid merchants, wasting a lot of money.
"Didn't you want to go to Tongzhou before? I think it's a good idea." The female tiger said to herself, "This time I also brought back more than a dozen families of people. They all hate the corrupt officials and want to join the heroes in rebellion. If we hadn't brought too few boats, we could have brought hundreds, let alone more than a dozen. Those beasts in Tongzhou actually use the lives of ordinary people as a means of gain. Why don't they rebel? In my opinion, we should gather our troops now and maybe we can take Tongzhou City, raise the banner of rebellion, open the granaries, and tens of thousands of people will be within our grasp."
Shao Shuyi couldn't help but laugh.
The mother tiger's earlier words made some sense, but later they started speculating. Shao Shuyi didn't believe it, unless the Yuan court made a few more disastrous decisions, and on a very large scale, such as abolishing currency, causing the wealth of all the people in the world to vanish overnight.
"You're back too late; the situation has changed again," Shao Shuyi said.
The mother tiger had just picked up her teacup for the second time when she heard this, and put it down in surprise, asking, "What change?"
Shao Shuyi recounted the recent attack on Su Tianjue in Jiangyin.
After hearing this, the female tiger was surprised for a long time, and then couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"What are you laughing at?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"When you were beating up Bi Si for that corrupt official, did you ever think of this day?" the female tiger retorted.
"Times have changed," Shao Shuyi said shamelessly. "Now I want to get closer to them."
"Oh." The female tiger sized up Shao Shuyi, her mustache twitching slightly, and mocked, "Brother Shao, you claim to be acting on behalf of Heaven. Those heroes of Huainan may kill corrupt officials, but they also kill ordinary people. What, are you going to join them in their evil deeds?"
"Watch your attitude," Shao Shuyi glanced at her and said, "You were captured by me, and you swore to obey orders. What, you've done a couple of heists and you think you're all grown up now?"
The female tiger's face stiffened, and she said, "I keep my word. It's just that I'm not happy about it; you don't treat me like one of your own."
Shao Shuyi was taken aback upon hearing this and said, "When we went to Tongzhou to collect salt before, I personally led the team. This time, I'm entrusting it to you because I don't trust anyone else. There are some things that only you can handle, otherwise, things will go wrong. Think about it again, do I really consider you one of my own?" Upon hearing this, the female tiger paused for a long time, then muttered, "You're quite good at talking, even if you're lying to me."
Shao Shuyi said in a tone of disappointment, "Fine, I lied to you. Just give up on yourself. There are some things I'm too lazy to say. I had another important matter to entrust to you, but it seems I should forget about it now."
The female tiger was silent for a moment, then said, "Tell me about it."
Tie Niu stood behind Shao Shuyi, his eyes slightly open, his gaze full of admiration.
It was understandable that my elder brother deceived Madam Zheng and Madam Shen before, since they each had their weaknesses. The former was naive and inexperienced, and while Tie Niu couldn't quite put his finger on the latter, he always seemed a bit rebellious and yearning for something new and exciting. But you even managed to deceive a tigress? Just the other day, he was even saying in private that Madam Xu's "thieving nature hadn't changed"...
Shao Shuyi didn't care what Tie Niu thought. You can't hide anything from the people around you, not even which woman you sleep in at night. At this moment, he just stared intently at the female tiger and said, "This is difficult."
"Tell me about it," the female tiger repeated.
"It's also very dangerous," Shao Shuyi added. "It requires someone who is both intelligent and brave."
The female tiger felt much better and said, "Hurry up and tell me."
"Do you know anyone in Huainan or Huaixi?" Shao Shuyi asked.
The female tiger slowly came to her senses, glanced at Shao Shuyi, raised her chin slightly, revealing two layers of wrinkles, and said, "I know some of them, but I don't know if they're still around. You know, 'heroes' sounds nice, but they're lucky if they live for three years. Most of them don't even live a year. They either get besieged by the government, die in internal strife, or die in battle while robbing wealthy people's mansions."
"It's clearly not going to work for them to run around like that," Shao Shuyi shook his head. "They don't even know where the money is; how can they live long? Do you know about the Longyun Grain Depot? When the autumn taxes from Huguang and Jiangxi are delivered, there are hundreds of thousands of shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain. Robbing this granary would make them rich overnight. As long as they have enough ships, they can transport the grain back to Huainan, recruit people to reclaim wasteland, and build their own fortified villages. Isn't that better than plundering everywhere and angering the government?"
Upon hearing this, the female tiger felt that there was some truth to it.
Many powerful figures in Huainan only aspired to be manor lords or fortress owners, and the government didn't really care. To put it bluntly, Shao Shuyi's strength wouldn't be a big problem in Huainan or Huaixi, but in Jiangnan, it would be quite conspicuous.
"The granary is a small city, it must be hard to attack, right?" Mother Tiger suddenly asked. "The government troops aren't good at field battles, they're only so-so at defending cities." "Just gather more men," Shao Shuyi said. "Besides, can't we use strategy? Why do we have to launch a frontal assault?"
"Are you doing this so that they'll become your scapegoats?" the female tiger asked again.
"They're not scapegoats, they're just showing them the way," Shao Shuyi said. "With all this indiscriminate looting and killing, they not only get nothing, but they also make a huge commotion. The government can't just turn a blind eye. Isn't that a loss?"
"It is a bit of a loss." The female tiger nodded hesitantly and said, "But they are ignorant, so this is the only way."
At this point, the female tiger glanced at Shao Shuyi and said, "I used to think he was just a handsome young man, but I never expected him to be so insightful and knowledgeable! You idiot!" Shao Shuyi felt a chill run down his spine and thought to himself, "Did I go too far? Don't come any closer!"
So he immediately changed the subject, saying, "Try your best to do this. If it works, great; if not, forget it. Anyway, I can't rely on them alone." "Who else can you rely on?" the mother tiger asked curiously.
"I'm going back to Taicang tomorrow; that's where I truly started," Shao Shuyi said.
"Alright, I'll give it a try. Now, let's collect the salt..." the female tiger said again.
"I'll find someone else to do it," Shao Shuyi said. "You just focus on contacting the powerful figures in Huainan."
Who to hire is the question.
Shao Shuyi secretly wondered if he should give Lao Wu another chance and let him go to the Liangzhe Transport Office to collect salt.
Furthermore, since we're brothers after all, there are some things I should remind him of.
On June 17, five days after Su Tianjue's assassination, Shao Shuyi arrived in Taicang by boat.
As soon as they landed, they immediately sent people to notify the boat managers scattered in various villages to gather at the old granary.