Chapter 84                                                             �

Tongzhou, as the gateway to the east of Beijing, is also an important place for the transportation of canals to land transportation. It is very important.

After the king delivered the order, he came to Tongzhou City day and night.

But the king came quickly, and the Tartars came slowly.

Almost as the king finished the Tongzhou city, the vanguard of the Tatars cavalry had arrived.

Although there are only a few hundred people, they look huge and arrogant.

Fortunately, Tongzhou is a must-see rush to the water and land, and there are many rivers. The Taurus cavalry cannot rush directly to the city of Tongzhou, and must cross the river.

Without saying a word, Wang Shu ordered thousands of canal soldiers and asked them to set up boats on the river to arrange their ships. They placed crossbows on the boats, and if the Tartars didn't come, they would shoot them. Once they came, they would shoot them with strong bows and hard crossbows.

However, Wang Shu also knew that this would not last long.

First of all, the soldiers, what kind of soldiers are the canals? They are boatmen and porters on the canal. They have not fought for many years. I can't imagine how beautiful the war they can make.

The second is the geographical advantage.

It is true that the river is in Tongzhou, and Tongzhou is the northern end of the canal, where several rivers meet here, but the rivers in the north are different from those in the south. Even if they do not dry up, the width of the river is limited, and it is definitely impossible to stop the cavalry.

Now that we can block the vanguard of the Tartars, it is not because the canal soldiers can fight.

But the number of Tartars is too small.

When the Tartars arrived, it would be difficult to deal with.

When Wang Shu saw the Tongzhou Warehouse that lasted for several miles outside the city of Tongzhou, he immediately ordered: "Give all the officials and generals in the city a year of food and salary, but they all have to go to the Tongzhou Warehouse outside the city to collect. He also ordered the people to help the court transport grain from the Tongzhou Warehouse into the city, and move one stone and give one stone."

"Only today, it's expired."

Wang Shu personally took charge of the Tongzhou Warehouse, and saw that the people in Tongzhou and even near Tongzhou had their whole family advanced and brought their elderly and children to transport food.

You should know that the harvest of dry land in the north is only two or three stones a year. In addition to costs, taxes, and land rent, a mu of land may not necessarily bring about the income of one stone of grain. Now, only if you have to resist two stones and enter the city, one stone is your own. Aren’t the people desperately moving?

However, there is too much grain in Tongzhou warehouses. In addition to the grain from the government, there are still many warehouses in Tongzhou.

These warehouses are supplies transported by merchants. But no one cares about them at this time.

Countless people were carrying supplies on torches. Looking from a distance, it was like a long dragon made of flames on the ground. Each spot of light was moving little by little.

Just like this, the night passed.

Wang Shu had red eyes and stared at the grain in Tongzhou warehouse.

There was too much food. It was so much that the overnight pass, and the transportation was not yet halfway.

But at this time, it is time for Wang Shu to make a decision.

Because of news from the front line, the Cao soldiers collapsed.

Thousands of canal soldiers are on the river, and there is still a distance from the riverside. Both sides can only shoot with crossbows. Logically speaking, it is not a problem to be able to block for a period of time. However, no one can do anything.

Not all the Tartars can't swim.

After all, Mongolia actually has many rivers and lakes. The Tartars defeated the canal soldiers with seemingly incredible tactics and swam onto the boat.

That's right. The canal soldiers are on the canal all year round and can swim one by one more day. However, facing the Tartars who are swiming by biting weapons, they only dare to shoot arrows and not go down to fight with each other. Moreover, the so-called strong bows and crossbows of the canal soldiers are all on paper, so it's okay to deal with thieves. However, it's far from being able to deal with elite Tartars.

It even appeared, and several Tartars were shirtless and had several arrows hanging on their bodies, and they could actually jump onto the boat.

Whenever there is a close situation, the canal soldiers will be like a balloon pierced by a needle and will suddenly fade away. It is the beginning of a great escape.

Fortunately, the canal soldiers knew that they would run a boat and escape faster, otherwise they would throw the boat to the Tartars and would cry without tears.

What blocked the Tatars for a longer period of time was not the battle of the canal soldiers, but the Tatars' crossing the river.

After Wang Shu got the news, he looked at Tongzhou Cang. Although he knew that it was full of people's wealth and ointment, there was no other way. Wang Shu called out an order and said, "Set the fire."

The fire head that had been prepared was lit from several places, and along the buried turtle oil and gunpowder, it spread throughout the warehouse in a short while. At least one million stones of grain was buried in the sea of ​​fire. Wang Shu looked at the raging fire, sighed, and the last one returned to Tongzhou City.

While the Tongzhou city gate was closed, the smoke and dust of the Tatar cavalry had already arrived outside Tongzhou city.

When Altan looked at the raging fire in front of him, he felt extremely distressed. This million stone of grain was enough for Altan's tribe to eat for more than half a year. The Ming Dynasty actually said it would be burned, and it would be burned. It was such a big deal and a rich family background. It made Altan very envious.

At the same time, I also felt the gap between Mongolia and Ming Dynasty.

In Altan's opinion, this fire was also a reflection of the strength of the Ming Dynasty. Altan's mind just came out of his mind to destroy the Ming Dynasty, and he was extinguished by himself. After all, compared to Mongolia, the Ming Dynasty was too big and too rich.

Master Xiao didn't know what Altan was thinking. He approached and said, "Khan, the Ming Dynasty's official warehouse is gone. However, as the key point of the Ming Dynasty, there are countless merchants' warehouses near the dock, and they cannot be burned by a fire."

Altan was shocked and said, "Xinai."

Xin Ai Nai was Altan's eldest son, and he immediately stepped out and said, "The son is here."

Altan said, "Take your people to the pier and have a good look."

This fat man, Altan will naturally leave it to his son.

Xin Ai led his troops away.

Sure enough, Master Xiao made a good judgment.

Although the most important thing about the canal transportation is to transport grain to the government, grain, as a bulk cargo, is also the commodity with the most transported by the canal, so that the grain that passes through Tongzhou to Beijing every year will be transported in Tongzhou Warehouse. This is the reason why there is so much grain in Tongzhou Warehouse.

However, with the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty's commerce, whether it is entrained or official cards on the canal. In short, many goods are transported in one's name. Of course, there are also normal merchant ships. The goods of these people also need to be transported when they arrive at the Tongzhou Wharf.

And Wang Shu also knew that there were a lot of things here.

But he was helpless. Even Wang Shu occupied a large amount of transportation capacity in order to transport food. Near Tongzhou, almost all the men were put into transporting food. Who would transport things to the merchants? He had to do so, so these merchants could only try their best to get the supplies from the water, load them onto the boat, and go to Tianjin along the canal.

It's a pity that it's a little too slow.

The things on the Caoyun Wharf were swept away by Xin Ai. They were almost dazzled.

Poor Xinai is also considered a prince of the Tartars, but who has seen the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. Various fabrics, gold, silver jewelry, and other things are something Xinai has never seen before. Xinai couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "It would be great if I could be born in the Ming Dynasty."

Xin Ai’s harvest is the fattest among all the Tartars. But it does not mean that the harvest of others is smaller.

In terms of economics, the Ming Dynasty actually showed a trend of intersection between the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Canal Economic Belt. Tongzhou, Linqing, Qingjiangpu and other cities on the canal were all very prosperous. Even some cities were the most prosperous era, such as Qingjiangpu. At that time, it was a prosperous area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, and no one heard of it in later generations.

Tongzhou is the northernmost end of the canal. Relying on the canal, it is quite wealthy, both in the official and in the people. Not to mention that there have been no wars for many years. The last war was the rebellion between Liu Liu and Liu Qi during the Zhengde period. It was all about the incident forty years.

Of course, Tongzhou has the legacy of Liu Liu and Qi. It is the Tongzhou city wall.

After the Liu Liu and Liu Qi Rebellion, a climax of strengthening cities appeared in the entire north. Including Tongzhou City, there were no city walls to build city walls and renovate city walls with city walls. If you look at local chronicles, you will find that many cities in Hebei were rebuilt or renovated in this era.

This inheritance also saved Tongzhou.

Although the city reinforced forty years ago is not a top-notch city in the world, it is definitely not something that the Tartars can conquer. Even though there are not many soldiers in the city, most of them are the strong people and the local people who were temporarily recruited by Wang Shu. However, relying on Tongzhou City is enough to protect themselves.
Chapter completed!