My life skills in Daming Liver

North Korea's occupation quickly entered a state of stalemate with the Ming court's military attack.

The Progressive Party led by Yi Sun-shin took advantage of the artillery imported from the southeast to occupy North Korean cities.

Relying on reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty, North Korea captured some rural areas and fought with the urban areas controlled by the Progressive Party.

In areas near the coast, Yi Sun-shin's Progressive Party had the absolute upper hand. The Ming Dynasty's army did not have control of the sea. The Progressive Party had the advantage of naval gunboats and could block maritime trade.

After experiencing several battles, Yi Sun-shin also discovered that he did not have the strength to fight to Pyongyang.

The Ming court's army also found that attacking cities was not a good choice. Everyone in this era understood one thing. Rushing to attack trenches with mature defenses would be a very disadvantageous thing.

Wuyuan City.

Yu Dayou stood outside the city, enthusiastically welcoming the caravan heading to Wuyuan City.

A young man came out of the caravan. Yu Dayou looked at this young man and it overlapped with a middle-aged man in his memory.

Then he realized it wasn't this old friend.

When Hu Zongxian was imprisoned in the capital, Gao Gong was only Prince Yu's lecturer.

Gao Gong, who had a strong sense of justice, often visited Yu Dayou in the cell and improved the environment of Yu Dayou's cell.

So Yu Dayou was very grateful to Gao Gong. Now seeing Gao Wuguan in disguise, Yu Dayou stepped forward and took his hand and said:

"The Grand Governor is finally willing to send talents to the grassland! I have been looking forward to you, Senior Staff Officer, for a long time!"

Gao Wuguan was also a little excited. He had served as a combat consultant under Yu Zigao, and he had heard of Yu Dayou's reputation at that time.

Although Yu Dayou mobilized troops in the north and established a Han stronghold in Wuyuan City to fight against the grassland people, although there was no large-scale publicity, it was not a special secret within the southeastern military.

The two of them felt like meeting old friends. Yu Dayou welcomed Gao Wuguan into Wuyuan City.

The interior of Wuyuan City, including the city walls, was rebuilt based on the previously abandoned city.

With the efforts of Lu Tianshou, the head of the Capital Intelligence Station, he established a relationship with the Qingyuan Bo Li family and successfully transported ten cannons to Wuyuan City through a caravan bearing the name of the Li family.

Nowadays, these ten cannons are installed on the city wall. As an artifact to intimidate the prairie people, they ensure the security of Wuyuan City.

Now, Lu Tianshou has successfully established a business under the Li family through affiliation, which is responsible for smuggling various things into the grassland.

Even Lu Tianshou now feels that with the banner of the Li family, it has become very easy to smuggle weapons to the grasslands. The corruption of the Ming court is shocking.

The tribute market in Jiubian has been completely corrupted. As long as the officials in charge of the tribute market are bribed enough, anything can be transported to the grassland.

In the name of being a powerful person in the capital, these tribute city officials would not even dare to inspect.

In addition, tax evasion in Datong trade is also shocking.

When Gao Gong first opened the tribute market, the qualifications for selling in the tribute market were still open to question. Only merchants who had paid franchise fees could do business with the grassland. At that time, the Ming court could not only collect taxes from the tribute market, but also qualified for selling. Can make a fortune.

Even when Long Qing first ascended the throne, it was the Jiubian Gong City that stabilized the Ming court's finances, and Gao Gong relied on the Jiubian Gong City to obtain financial power.

By the time Zhang Juzheng came to power, the sale system had been destroyed by the Li family and other powerful officials in the capital.

Many businessmen directly took the names of these families and went directly to Gong City to do business, regardless of the quota.

And those Shanxi merchants who spent a lot of money to buy the qualifications for negotiation and sale from the imperial court stopped participating in the subsequent negotiation and sale.

Zhang Juzheng was also very aware of the interests involved, but in order to stabilize the political situation, he turned a blind eye to these.

However, Zhang Juzheng still strengthened the tribute tax system of Jiubiangong City. Whoever does business in Jiubiangong City must pay sufficient taxes, and it is strictly prohibited to smuggle weapons and steel into the grassland.

Although smuggling had become rampant in the later years of Zhang Juzheng's rule, Jiubian's municipal taxes were still sufficient, which was also an important part of the Ming court's finances.

But by the time Zhang Juzheng came to power in the later years and Li Chunfang came to power, the Ming court's control over local areas had been completely reduced.

Smuggling continues in Jiubian, and there are countless merchants who bypass Gong City for direct transactions, and they are often backed by dignitaries from the capital or military leaders from Jiubian. Gong City has become in name only.

Not to mention the business tax collected based on the value of the goods, or the business stall tax collected from fixed stalls, it is already difficult to collect it.

At this time, Jiubian's tribute envoys simply started to mess up. They directly charged merchants a protection fee that was far lower than the court tax, and allowed merchants to enter the grassland to do business. As for smuggling contraband and the like, they openly Close one eye.

Since the prohibition on alcohol was implemented in the grassland, the alcohol trade in Jiubiangong City has continued to grow.

Selling wine is really very profitable.

For the purpose of intelligence work in the capital and the north, Lu Tianshou also opened a distillery in Taiyuan, Shanxi, using the latest southeastern distillation technology to produce high-quality wine.

Lu Tianshou's original intention was to use this winery as a cover to carry out intelligence work.

But no one expected that the technology of this winery was more advanced than that of Mingting's official winery, and the high-altitude wine produced was mellower and higher in alcohol content.

The winery was unexpectedly popular, and businessmen waiting to buy wine from the winery lined up at the gate of Taiyuan City. Lu Tianshou made a lot of money from his side business.

Lu Tianshou was also scared to death. He was the head of Southeast's intelligence station in the capital. Su Ze didn't ask him to come to the capital to make money. It would be terrible if his identity was exposed.

In the end, Shen Guanyi came forward and solved the problem.

Shen Yiguan approached Li Wei's son Li Changfeng, offered shares to the Li family and his son, and successfully placed the winery under the name of Uncle Qingyuan.

With the Li family's skin, Shanxi locals did not dare to exploit the winery, and Shen Guanyi suggested that Lu Tianshou organize a caravan with great fanfare and directly conduct grassland trade.

This time, with Gaowu Guan, we could go from the capital to Wuyuan City unimpeded.

"General Yu, the Grand Governor has appointed you as the commander of the Northern Independent Division."

Yu Dayou knew that today's military units in the southeast are brigades, and divisions are larger units than brigades.

This Northern Independent Division is nothing more than an empty frame, but it also represents the importance Su Ze attaches to the grassland army.

Yu Dayou felt warm. When he was imprisoned, it was Su Ze who went to the capital to protect him. After accepting the appointment, he once again expressed his gratitude to the Governor's Office.

Gao Wuguan continued: "General Yu, I also brought a batch of grenades this time. Recently, stationmaster Lu planned to smuggle some production lines for assembling grenades into Wuyuan City."

"In this way, we only need to transport the raw materials for gunpowder to Wuyuan City, and Wuyuan City can assemble the grenades by itself."

Yu Dayou was overjoyed. Hand grenades were the most powerful weapon on the grassland. It was by relying on the tactics of the grenadier cavalry that Wuyuan City was able to gain a foothold when surrounded by foreigners and successfully deter the Mongolian tribes that far outnumbered the Han people in the grassland.

However, to transport grenades from the southeast to the grasslands, the journey is too long and the cost is too high. Even with the support of the Jingshi Intelligence Station, it is difficult to transport too many grenades.

This is also the reason why Yu Dayou is still unable to expand the scope of control of Wuyuan City even though the population of Wuyuan City has expanded. He has too few grenades in his hand.

Unexpectedly, Gao Wuguan would bring himself such a solution as soon as he came to the grassland.

"Consultant Gao, is it really possible?"

Gao Wujian nodded and said:

"The iron casing of the grenade does not require fine iron, it can be produced using cast iron molds. The wooden pole and lead wire are not difficult to make, and the craftsmen I brought here can produce them."

"The most important thing is gunpowder. This cannot be mass-produced in the grassland, but we can smuggle the gunpowder through caravans."

"If you only smuggle gunpowder, then the gunpowder smuggled by a caravan can produce 500 grenades, and the risk of smuggling gunpowder is much lower than smuggling grenades."

Gao Wuguan continued: "Even the raw materials of gunpowder can be smuggled separately and mixed after arriving in Wuyuan City. This way the smuggling risk is lower. Even if they are caught by the grassland tribes, they can still be said to be smuggled medicinal materials."

Yu Dayou and Lu Er looked at each other, and both said overjoyed: "Thank you, Governor, for sending us talents! Counselor Gao is really a great talent! He solved the big problem that troubled us all at once!"

But Gao Wu Guan gave Yu Dayou more than just surprises.

He took out a hand-drawn map and said:

"General Yu, this is the power map of the nomadic tribes near Wuyuan City. It was a map that was researched and confirmed by subordinates and businessmen."

"I think it would be a pity if the smuggling route is only used to smuggle weapons and food to Wuyuan City. We can do some trade along the way."

Yu Dayou and Lu Er listened very carefully. Gao Wuguan investigated the special products and needs of the tribes along the way very clearly, and they could indeed organize a trade route.

By relying on Lu Tianshou's winery in Shanxi, he could exchange a lot of goods and maintain stable trade with these tribes.

Yu Dayou and Lu Er were also surprised. For a long time, the tribes around Wuyuan City have been hostile, which made Yu Dayou always be wary of these tribes.

The new ideas provided by Gaowu Guan can connect these tribes through trade.

Gao Wuguan then said: "General Yu, I have another idea, which is to travel along the Silk Road."