Chapter 19         Sleepless Night

After Zhou Mengchen sent the prince of Ryukyu away, Zhou Mengchen immediately asked his servants to send a basin of ice water. Zhou Mengchen buried his face in the ice water. A trace of ice water with a cool breath rushed towards Zhou Mengchen's forehead. Zhou Mengchen suddenly became energetic and his brain began to move rapidly.

Zhou Mengchen suddenly got up, and the water droplets were dried. He wiped his face with a towel. He knew that today was a sleepless night.

Zhou Mengchen pressed his hands on the copper basin, looking at himself in the copper basin. In the waves, his face was full of depression. Zhou Mengchen is now in his thirties. Without disguise, he no longer has the aura of youth. He has been in a high position for many years and has used his authority for his own use. Naturally, he has a sense of awesomeness. When his face is expressionless, he naturally feels like he is not angry and powerful.

As the water surface in the basin gradually calmed down, Zhou Mengchen looked at the water surface and said, "Mr. Xu."

Xu Wei said: "I am here."

Zhou Mengchen said, "Immediately write a letter for me to Lu Bing, and ask him what the Jinyiwei has to eat. Didn't it be agreed that he has sent someone to Japan. What does this mean? The intelligence network of the Ming Dynasty is not as good as Ryukyu. Ask him where Lu Bing's face is?"

When Zhou Mengchen saw Lu Bing, he was a little nervous. Now Zhou Mengchen can scold Lu Bing mercilessly. What can Lu Bing do to him?

In fact, he also knew that the Ming Dynasty's intelligence network may not be as good as Ryukyu. After all, Lu Bing was also very attentive in his job. Moreover, the Jinyiwei faced the imperial court in Japan's intelligence network, and was directly responsible for Lu Bing, not Zhou Mengchen. With intelligence, he also went to the capital from Japan first, and then after Lu Bing looked at it, he felt it was necessary to send it to Zhou Mengchen.

With the transportation conditions of this era, no information is useful in this turn.

Zhou Mengchen beat Lu Bing in this tone, but in fact he wanted Lu Bing to place the command of Japanese intelligence with him. After all, Zhou Mengchen's intelligence network in Jiangnan is too shallow. It would be nice to be optimistic about Jiangnan and could not cover Japan at all.

"Yes." Xu Wei said.

Zhou Mengchen added: "Remember to hurry up and send 800 miles to speed up."

Xu Wei said: "Yes."

Zhou Mengchen turned around, threw the towel aside, and said, "Mr. Lu, you have lived in Jiangnan for a long time. Can you tell me when the wind direction in Jiangnan will change, when will the sea wind change from the north wind?"

Lu Yi was silent for a while and said, "Sir, this is not accurate. It is generally around the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, there are many typhoons in summer and autumn, so it is hard to say when the southeastern wind weakens, and the north wind blows."

Zhou Mengchen said: "There is nothing to say. I will leave this matter to the teacher. If you ask the teacher to find someone, you may not give me a definite answer. If the wind direction changes, when should it be? It should be within ten days."

"This-----" Lu Yi didn't know what to say for a moment. The sea monsoon is naturally regular. Children know exactly what time and time each year. But if you want to be precise, it will not be easy to deal with. There is no other way, the wind direction is constantly changing. Just like in the Battle of Red Cliff, there are still a few days of east wind in winter. Because of typhoons or other problems, it is normal to blow the southeast wind for a few days, or cool down in advance, and it is very normal to blow the north wind suddenly.

Zhou Mengchen's tone also eased a little, and he said, "Try to do it as much as possible. This will affect whether the people in the southeast will suffer again."

As mentioned earlier, but when it is smooth sailing, you can reach the Zhoushan Islands within a few days from Nagasaki. This is the most convenient route between China and Japan. Zhou Mengchen estimated that this time the Japanese pirates went south, taking this route. After all, when Wang Zhi was at Shuangyu, he traded with Japan many times, and both sides were familiar with it.

If they intercepted them when they first arrived in Zhoushan, they might be able to catch them all in one go. If they could not intercept them and let these Japanese pirates be dispersed, although the Jiangnan army had already been well rectified by Zhou Mengchen. However, it would take some effort to clear these Japanese pirates. During this period, it would be very normal for some people to be invaded by Japanese pirates.

Lu Yi's tone became heavier. The Lu family had suffered from cholera from Japanese pirates. He could feel this feeling even more. He said: "Sir, I can only guarantee to do it with all my heart. As for whether it can be done, it is not mine."

Zhou Mengchen said, "Planning depends on people and accomplishing things depends on heaven." Zhou Mengchen's voice was a little higher and said, "Send an order to order General Yu, the general of the East China Sea Navy, to come to see me immediately. The faster the better."

"Yes." A person outside immediately agreed and began to prepare.

Zhou Mengchen looked at Xu Wei and said, "What's the war over Qi Jiguang?"

Zhang Lian was indeed difficult to deal with. As the general officer, Qi Jiguang was the governor, and Tang Shunzhi led the troops of the four provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, of which 40,000 were Fujian troops and 20,000 were Zhejiang as the main force. Ganzhou militia and Guangdong garrison troops were assisted, with a total force of about 120,000 to 130,000, and they entered the mountains to encircle and suppress the troops, and fought back and forth at the junction of the three provinces.

If Zhang Lian dared to fight Qi Jiguang, this battle would have been over long ago.

But Zhang Lian was not a fool. After a while with Qi Jiguang's headquarters, he lost thousands of soldiers and mourned several generals, Zhang Lian knew that he could not defeat Qi Jiguang. So the garbage time between the two sides entered the battlefield was playing hide-and-seek.

Never fought with the Zhejiang Fujian Army, specializing in fighting the Ganzhou militia, and with the Guangdong garrison. Qi Jiguang woke up after suffering a loss and never got involved in the trap, but the war between the two sides slowed down.

There was no news for several months. It seemed that so many troops on both sides were not fighting, but were going around in circles.

At this time, Zhou Mengchen had to admit that he had sent Tang Shunzhi to find the right person.

Tang Shunzhi did not participate in Qi Jiguang's command. During the early battles, he sat in the central army's tent and read local information every day. It seemed that he was here to be a archway. In this way, he could fully utilize Qi Jiguang's abilities.

But in the second half of the war, Tang Shunzhi began to do things. Instead of interfering in the command of the army, he led the guards and ran all over the mountains and fields. He went deep into the mountains and forests and talked with the local people. Within a few days, each of the villages felt that Lord Tang was the heart of Chicheng and no longer helped Zhang Lian.

As a result, Zhang Lian had less and less room for circling, and Qi Jiguang's ears were easy to catch up with in the mountains.

Both sides played hide-and-seek, and Qi Jiguang was always unable to catch the other party's tail. It was not that Qi Jiguang was not as good as Zhang Lian, but that there were villages in southern Gansu. If Qi Jiguang was not obeying the supervision of the court, Qi Jiguang could not help but pay the price one mountain at a time. If the price was really cleared like this, it would cause the people in southern Gansu to join Zhang Lian's command, and the situation would become more and more unfavorable. If they didn't pay the price, they would communicate with Zhang Lian more and more. Zhang Lian seemed to have a clever eye and was in a good way, so Qi Jiguang naturally could not catch up with him.

But now it's different.

With these eyes and ears, Qi Jiguang naturally had a way to deal with Zhang Lian. Gradually, good news came, but there was no final result. Now he was still dragging on it. However, depending on the situation, good news was not far away.

From this perspective, Qi Jiguang is very outstanding in martial arts, but he does not know that the generals have reached a certain position and are not distinguished from civil and military affairs when thinking about issues. He did not expect to appease the people and make them home.

Tang Shunzhi also encountered many dangers when he went deep into the mountain village. He generally understood some of the voices of the people in the mountainous areas. He had reported to Zhou Mengchen to give good governance and set up several new counties to govern the area. He also registered and established households for tax reductions. He did not allow them to be discriminated against outside the mountain. He sent some scholars to the mountain to teach, so that their children could study and make progress, etc.

This won the hearts of the people in the mountainous areas, thus reversing Zhang Lian's advantage.

However, Zhou Mengchen thought about it again and seemed to think that Qi Jiguang did it intentionally, and he might not know what to do, but a general cannot be too popular. In the eyes of many civil officials, military generals should be vulgar and uncivilized, obey orders, and dare to fight and kill.

But in fact, no one who can be called a famous general is like this. Even if Ma Fang was born as a slave, his knowledge is not good now and he can only read and write. However, it cannot be said that Ma Fang is a reckless man. On the battlefield, Ma Fang certainly has heroic and almost reckless places, but also has his own carefulness.

Zhou Mengchen couldn't help but wonder if Qi Jiguang was foolish and deliberately kept his weakness. This was also in line with Qi Jiguang's personality and also in line with Qi Jiguang's self-positioning.
Chapter completed!