After a while, Zhangguan Chang finished listening to Yuan Tong's story. He tapped the table with his fingers, pondered for a moment, and asked, "Master Yuan, have there been no strangers in the mansion recently?"

Yuan Tong did not answer directly, but asked back: "Mr. Chang hasn't been to Jiangning before, right?"

Manager Chang said: "Chang came two months ago and has been in the north before."

Yuan Tong nodded and said, "No wonder. Mr. Chang is afraid that he doesn't know anything. Guests come to visit Suiyuan every day. Some of these people are friends of their fathers, and some are brought by acquaintances. Some people, let alone Yuan, are not even familiar with their fathers."

Manager Chang said in surprise: "Will people just come in and out at home?"

Yuan Tong: "My father is open-minded. As long as he does not enter the inner house, ordinary people can enter the garden to enjoy it."

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, large private gardens in Jiangnan were basically open to the public, from official literati to peddlers to visit. Some gardens even had takeout tickets and visited with tickets.

The reason why Suiyuan has endless guests every day is that Yuan Mei is famous, and that he is greedy for enjoyment and burns the buns so much that it is so shocking that many people come to see the strange things.

For example, before the flat glass in Beihai Town appeared, a 2.77-meter-long and 1.7-meter-wide flat glass imported from Guangdong Customs was more than 620 taels of silver. Its price was so expensive that even the Qing Palace dared not use it on a large scale.

In the main hall of Xiaocang Mountain House in Suiyuan, there is a huge glass screen that is two meters long and two meters high! Such a large flat glass is difficult to produce even in Europe today, let alone transport it to the east through the ocean.

Also, on the south side of Xiaomianzhai, there is a place called the "Glass World". From the door to the window, the room is inlaid with small pieces of five-color glass splicing. When the sun shines, it is bizarre, and everyone in it is dazzling. Think about the five-color glass windows in Western churches, that tone!

In addition, the window glass of "Yishan Hongxue" is made of red, the window glass of "Lujingxuan" is made of green, the blue sky is made of blue, and the water essence field is made of white.

In these luxuriously decorated houses, the furniture is hung with calligraphy and paintings of famous people. The furniture is either red sandalwood or yellow rosewood, or sea plum wood, and mother-of-pearl inlaid and carved lacquer. Like the golden nanmu and mahogany that are hard to find in later generations, they are the second most.

This is the case with furniture, let alone catering utensils, either Ming blue and white kilns or Kangyong porcelain; when guests are held, they have to change the wine cups four or five times for every meal, and each time they change, they will be praised by the people present.

Yuan Mei’s behavior of burning bags is more than that. Suiyuan has several days of lighting up the lights and fireworks every year. He doesn’t just have fun at home, but is spreading overwhelmingly.

Because Suiyuan has no walls, going to the garden to watch the lanterns and watching the glazed glass became a scene in Shangyuan County, Jiangning Prefecture. The Qunyu Mountains, Shuixi Pavilion, Shuanghu Lake, Peach Blossom Dike, and Yuanyang Pavilion in Suiyuan are all good places to watch the lanterns. Not only the brothel women in the Qinhuai River are rushing to the top, but even ordinary people are also watching. As the saying goes, "The glazed light moves the lamps like the sea, and the wandering girls are rushing to see Xiaocang."

Zhang Guest Chang used to live in the north, and he had been in Jiangning for a short time. Before he could see the luxury of Suiyuan, he couldn't help but frown after hearing Yuan Tong's explanation, thinking that this was just a big colander! Not to mention that one action group was transferred above, even if two were transferred, they could not be able to defend themselves.

Thinking of this, he told Yuan Tong: "Master Yuan, I will report this matter as soon as possible. According to my estimate, I will send someone to protect your entire mansion. I just hope you will go back and tell the lay Buddhist Cangshan that you should try your best to leave. As the saying goes, it is good to keep the green mountains. Maybe you will be able to come back in a few days."

"Okay, Yuan will persuade you when he goes back." Yuan Tong looked bitter and stood up and bowed: "If my father insisted on not leaving, the lives of more than 30 people in the Yuan family's house will be asked to King Zhao and Manager Chang!"

After saying that, he lifted his robe and knelt on the ground.

"Not allowed! Nothing allowed!" Manager Chang hurriedly stepped forward to support him.

Late at night that day, a telegram from Sanshan Street was sent through the relay station of the North Navy at Rongcheng, Shandong and Anping Port, Jeju Island, and finally arrived at the headquarters of the Intelligence Bureau on the east bank of the Falin River.

Because the telegram was opened with three times "Did" and represented the meaning of "emergency top secret", the deputy section chief of the telecommunications office on duty immediately called the home of his boss Wang Changsheng.

More than thirty minutes later, Wang Changsheng, who was wrapped in like a bear, pushed the door in the snow, and two guards with guns were following behind him. His home was in a small courtyard south of the Intelligence Bureau. If it weren't for the snowy road, he would have arrived in twenty minutes.

Wang Changsheng frowned and read the contents on the telegram. He signed the lower end of the telegram and handed it back to the deputy section chief for file, and ordered: "Send this telegram to Kinmen immediately without missing a word, and your highness will receive it in person."

"yes!"

"There are still a machine on the other side of Sanshan Street?"

"Open, waiting for us to reply."

"Call them back and contact Fang Jingzhai from the Governor's yamen as soon as tomorrow. Be sure to find out the time to attack Yuan Mei. Notify the Zhenjiang operation team and order all the staff to bring all the equipment and ammunition, and arrive at Jin Wangdu at noon tomorrow to investigate the surrounding area of ​​Suiyuan to see if there are any spies from the Qing court. Do not alarm the snake. In addition, let Jin Wangdu keep the radio station on day and night."

The Fang Jingzhai he mentioned was the magistrate of Yangzhou Ma Huiyu a few years ago. He was ordered to investigate Jiao Xun's case at the beginning. After Zhao Xin and Wang Yuanfang caused a sensation in Yangzhou, Ma Huiyu was dismissed from his post and asked about it. Master Fang also lost his job and returned to his hometown in Suzhou. Later, he was recommended by someone to work as an aide to the Jiangsu Governor's Office a year ago and was responsible for the criminal name.

Now Fang Jingzhai has been successfully instigated, and the Intelligence Bureau's spy on the Jiangsu officialdom of the Qing Dynasty was mainly achieved through him.

While listening, the deputy section chief of the telecommunications office recorded the content of the telegram orally told by Wang Changsheng on the telegram manuscript, and then let him read it. After reading it, Wang Changsheng made several modifications, signed the letter, and was about to go out, but he stopped and said, "Give the telegram from Sanshan Street to the Alin Base Command, and the telegram recipient was General Wu."

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! The deputy section chief said in surprise: "Alin Base?"

Wang Changsheng explained: "Yes! General Wu Zhong was inspecting there, and His Highness was not here, and he was responsible for the daily affairs of the General Staff."

The "Lin General of Wu" they mentioned is naturally Wu Siyu. The "Five Kings" of the Northern Navy - Liu Sheng, Wang Yuanfang, Deng Fei, Wu Siyu, and Ding Guofeng are now all rank lieutenant generals, while Fan Tong and Sheng Haizhou are rank ranks of major generals.

Today, Wu Siyu is the head of the "North Navy Training and Order Command", and is mainly responsible for the formulation of training subjects for the North Navy recruits and special operations units, the compilation of combat manuals, and the assistance of Zhao Xin in the daily management of the newly established non-commissioned officer schools, young military academies and officer training classes, and he will not touch the ground every day. The "Alin Base" is a new training ground located in the north of Vladivostok, and is still under construction.

Ten years ago, when Zhao Xin and his friends went to Xiong Island, Vladivostok was a small fishing village with only more than 20 families. Now ten years have passed and there has not been a development there. It is mainly because although Vladivostok is known as a "unfreezing port", the sea outside the port will still be frozen in winter. Whale Bay is a natural unfreezing port. When it is the coldest in winter, it will form a layer of thin ice, which has no effect on navigation.

The reason for opening a new site to build the "Alin Base" is mainly because the training ground on the east bank of the Falin River is no longer enough.

When Beihai Town was founded, Zhao Xin and others expanded to the north, east and west sides at the mouth of the Falin River; the west bank was the living area and the east bank was the industrial area.

The southernmost end of the east coast is the Dolphin Bay Military Port and the Shipyard. The thermal power plant is at the foot of the mountain to the northeast of the military port. The early steel plants and arsenals are a lot of workshop-style factory areas. Further north is the training base.

As the North Navy grew larger in recent years, the training area on the east bank of the Falin River became increasingly cramped, and the General Staff could not even put up a regiment-level confrontation exercise.

Last summer, Wu Siyu arranged for people to survey and select locations in various places, preparing to change to a larger and spacious place. After searching for it, he finally selected the vast area between Bachahezi and Beishu and Zuo in the northern Vladivostok.

It is located in the southern branch of the Sikht Mountains, including hills, plains, dense forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, and seashores, which are very suitable for new recruits and various tactical training. Because its area is more than 600 square kilometers, five times larger than the "Falin River Base", the regiment-level exercises are completely opened.

The surveyors also had an unexpected gain in the process of selecting the site, that is, hundreds of hectares of oak forest were found in the north of Vladivostok fishing village, almost over two hundred years old. This made the navy excited and no longer had to buy shipbuilding wood from Southeast Asia far away.

After the people below reported, Wu Siyu went around in person and was very satisfied. For the need to keep it confidential, he named the new training ground "Northern Navy Alin Tactical Training Base".

Alin means "mountain" in Manchu language. There are so many mountains outside the northeast. If others only make literal speculations, they can't guess the specific location even if they break their heads.

Before walking out of the telecommunications room, Wang Changsheng looked up at the wall clock on the wall. It was more than three hours before dawn. He was no longer sleepy and did not plan to go home. So he asked the two guards to go to the duty room to rest, and he went straight to the office separated by a wall from the telecommunications room.

As soon as he entered the door, a wave of heat came over me, and the heater in the room was very hot. After Wang Changsheng entered the room, he turned on the kerosene stove to burn a pot of water, brewed tea for himself, and then leaned on the wide chair, sucking tea while thinking about Yuan Mei.

The reason why he first reacted after reading the telegram was that he felt that the Qing court wanted to arrest Yuan Mei was no longer able to deal with the power of the Intelligence Bureau alone.

Although the operation team in Zhenjiang is elite, they are only good at assassination and sabotage, not regular combat troops. Even if the twelve men brought all the long and short weapons, they could not stop the siege of thousands of Eight Banners soldiers in Jiangning City. Not to mention that Suiyuan is still a large colander without a wall, with no danger to be taken.

What Wang Changsheng is most worried about now is the fight with the Qing Dynasty in Jiangning, and what impact will the chain reaction caused by this have on the entire Jiangnan?

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jiangnan refers to the entire Jiangsu in broad sense, that is, Nanzhili in the Ming Dynasty; in narrow sense, it refers to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River including Suzhou, Songjiang, Taicang, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Jiangning, and Zhenjiang eight prefectures.

As Zhao Xin's confidant, Wang Changsheng knew very well that his immediate boss had no plans for Jiangnan. The key was that Beihai Town currently had the biggest difficulty in conquering Jiangnan. In addition to the military strength, it was also insufficient personnel.

According to the results of the Qing Dynasty's census in the 45th year of Qianlong's reign, the total population in the Jiangnan region was already more than 20 million. Now fifteen years have passed, and considering the population migration caused by famine, 30 million is definitely true! And Kong Shaoan has captured half of Shandong, and the total population inside and outside the pass has exceeded 15 million.

With the current force of the Northern Navy, fighting Jiangnan is easy to fight. Sending two regiments from Wusongkou, and with the cooperation of the navy, fighting from east to west to Wuchang is like squeezing toothpaste. However, after the fight, whether it can be digested or absorbed is the top priority.

According to the practice of Beihai Town, the newly occupied areas usually implement military control for half a year to one year. During this period, the public security police system and administrative system must be established. With the population size and complexity of the people in the Jiangnan region, each county must station a full camp of 300 people; eight prefectures and one prefecture, fifty-six counties, which are 300,000 troops.

According to the requirements of Beihai Town's "government to the countryside", in addition to the county magistrate, deputy county magistrate, police station chief, and other administrative personnel in charge of agriculture, industry, commerce, education, medical care, etc., there must be at least 30 administrative personnel responsible for agriculture, industry, commerce, education, medical care, etc., and then select some from the previous officials, so that this is enough. This alone requires an administrative reception team of 2,000 people.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! Furthermore, Jiangnan is not the north, and there is no large-scale land annexation, and ten acres of land per capita are the norm. The relationship between landlords and tenants is more of a contract than exploitation. In this case, the constitution of the Agricultural Association must not be the same as Jiaodong.

The last is the canal transportation. Taking over the eight prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River will inevitably be interrupted in the transportation of the Grand Canal. Those boatmen and sailors who make a living by transportation of canals will become a big burden in Beihai Town. The matter of canal transportation is on the surface 128 ship gangs from north to south, more than 100,000 sailors, and behind it are countless families and millions of people.

You should know that inland boats are not the same as at sea. The low-rise canal boats on the side of the boat cannot be used as sea boats, and the boatman who supports artemisia and pulls fibers cannot immediately become sea boat sailors.

Zhao Xin once talked to Wang Changsheng that the Qing Dynasty's canal transportation system was already rotten from top to bottom, and it was necessary to re-establish a new inland transportation system to establish a new inland transportation system.

Such a complicated game of chess, just thinking about it made Wang Changsheng feel numb on his scalp.

Although his hometown is Chongming, he hopes to return home in glory as soon as possible, he knows that Zhao Xin will never attack Jiangnan before completing enough personnel and financial preparations, and would rather let the Qing Dynasty take care of him first.

Isn’t it just order grain and silver? Beihai Town now has so much grain reserve that it can be eaten and poured one bowl, and the silver reserve is as high as tens of millions of taels. Who cares about it?

At eight o'clock in the morning, news came from the telecommunications office, and Wu Siyu asked him to go to the Alin base for an interview.

It was still snowing outside, but in the face of the call of Prince Zhao's close comrades, Wang Changsheng did not dare to neglect, so he asked the adjutant to prepare some information, called the guards, hurried to the Dolphin Bay Military Port, and boarded a naval patrol boat.

The sea surface of Ussuri Bay has not been frozen yet, and the patrol boats are heading west along the coast and arrive at the newly built Mayan Military Port three hours later.

This is the estuary of the Mayan River, a tributary of the Furjaha River. "Mayan" means "arm" in Manchu, and it also has a branching meaning.

In the late Qing Dynasty in another time and space, the Han people who broke into Guandong took the homonym of it and called it "Anttun", and the Mayan River became the Ant River. After the Russians invaded the outer northeast, this area eventually became the "Shkotovsky District" in the 1970s.

Even as the number one figure of the Intelligence Bureau, Wang Changsheng and his party still went ashore and went through strict inspections. In addition to checking the documents, they even had to verify their fingerprints and iris.

Afterwards, they boarded an off-road jeep, and after more than an hour of bumpyness, they arrived at a place called "Erpaozi", where the command center of "Alin Base" was set up. Amidst the mountains and forests, there is a large area of ​​newly completed wooden houses.

Walking into the command center that was still emitting rosin, Wang Changsheng subconsciously tightened his body, saluted a military salute with a "splash", and shouted: "Report to the leader! Wang Changsheng is ordered to report! Please instruct!"

Wu Siyu, who was lying on the map table, raised his head when he heard the sound, stood attentively and returned the greeting, and said with a smile: "You are here quite quickly, sit down."

The two of them asked about their well-being and waited for the orderly soldiers to bring water, Wu Siyu then said, "I'm looking for you, there's something I want to hear from you. It's really inconvenient for the telegram to come and go."

"Please say it."

"I received your telegram last night. I didn't sleep all night and I sent several telegrams back and forth with King Zhao. It's night here and it's day there."

Wang Changsheng nodded quickly and said, "I understand, I have heard of it before, it's 16 hours away."

Wu Siyu took out a cigarette from his top pocket, lit one on his own, and pushed the cigarette box to Wang Changsheng, saying, "The view of King Zhao is that with the power of your intelligence agency, Jiangning's affairs may not be solved."

Wang Changsheng took the cigarette box, smoked a tin, and explained: "Yes. We have an operation team in Zhenjiang, but there are only 12 people."

"Well. This is a pot of raw rice. We are not ready to accept the regime. If we don't fight, the Qing court will be like a mad dog, and we cannot let those who surrender to us feel cold."

"The opinion of King Zhao and I is to transfer a company's special forces to Jiangning, cooperate with your intelligence agency's operation team to rescue Yuan Mei's family. Since Jiaqing and the Prince Ding are going to make trouble, let's deal with him well. As a cooperation, the Navy will send two frigates and a supply ship to Wusongkou to show deterrence. When necessary, the fleet will enter the Yangtze River and go straight outside Jiangning City."
Chapter completed!