Chapter 287: Things in the world are arrogant at first and respectful at the end

In February of the 13th year of Chongzhen, Shengjing outside the pass was the West Warehouse.

More than a dozen people in gorgeous clothes surrounded a large table, staring down at it. Although it was dusk, butter candles were still lit indoors, making the room look like noon during the day.

"Your Majesty, we have already grabbed enough gold and silver population on the territory of Mingren, enough for us Jurchens to live a good life for several lifetimes. The Mingren's soldiers are also afraid of us, so why don't we enjoy happiness?"

The man who spoke was tall, although he had a curly beard, but when he looked closely, he was actually very young. Although his status among the people in this room was not high, he didn't care about speaking.

"Duoduo, there is no place for you to talk here. Only Your Majesty can make up his mind to grab what you are doing in the Qing Dynasty."

A young man standing next to Duoduo scolded him, wearing a Prince Heshuo robe, with a handsome face, and looked very eye-catching among the people in the house. After scolding, he looked gentle and respectfully at Emperor Chongde who was standing on the top. Later generations were generally called Emperor Chongde, Huang Taiji of Emperor Taizong of Qing. Looking at the appearance alone, this Emperor Chongde was far less tough and strong than other Manchu princes in the house. He was fat and had thin eyebrows and thin eyes. He usually drooped his eyelids, as if he was absent-minded. When he heard the young man's scolding, he did not look up, but still stared at the table, which was covered with the territory map of the Ming Dynasty, and marked with provinces, prefectures, and great countries with Han and Mongolian characters.

"Dorgon, you are upset to listen to these vulgar gifts you learned there, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty is smart, and your Majesty makes the decision, so the ministers will do what they want. The Qing Dynasty already occupied the land outside the pass, and both North Korea and Mongolia are in my favor. The bannerman is unparalleled and the population of gold, silver and food is not short of. You can enjoy wealth and honor in a good place left by our ancestors. Enter the pass..."

Listening to Dorgon's smooth and moderate words, Huang Taiji's brows gradually frowned, but the others' attention was focused on the map. Suddenly, he heard a "thump" sound, and everyone was alarmed. Huang Taiji looked sideways and asked strangely:

"Mr. Fan, why is this?"

The middle-aged man who looked like a scholar on the ground kowtowed a few times, exerting great force, blood on his forehead, and said earnestly:

"Your Majesty, the destiny of heaven is in my Qing Dynasty. If you don't take it, it will hurt the will of heaven and the people. Your Majesty, make a decision early and attack the Ming Dynasty and take over the world!"

Now outside the pass, the Jurchen Manchus have a much higher status than the Han people. They are called pigs and dogs, and they are in a slightly better situation. The Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty are a very important supplement to the Qing Jurchens. This is also the reason why Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and others were crowned kings.

The status of Han people in the Qing Dynasty was far higher than that of literati. At present, the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty were just a military group of barbarians, and war was the top priority.

Under such circumstances, there was only one Han literati who could appear in the collegial discussions of the royal family of the Qing Dynasty and dared to give in this attitude. Fan Wencheng, a great scholar in the Qing Dynasty's Secretariat, who was called Mr. Huang Taiji, was one of the top traitors at this time.

Huang Taiji had actually made up his mind long ago. Fan Wencheng's kneeling was just to set off the atmosphere and give Huang Taiji a chance to play. However, this kneeling was even more favored by Huang Taiji.

Before the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, there was still debate among the relatives and nobles of the Qing Dynasty. On the one hand, he felt that the land outside the pass was vast and the Qing Dynasty was powerful in its military power. He plundered countless gold and silver men and women in the Ming Dynasty. It was the right way to enjoy wealth and honor among the white mountains and black waters. On the other hand, he believed that the Qing Dynasty had risen and its martial arts were unparalleled. The Ming Dynasty was in chaos, and the beautiful mountains and rivers in the south were ripe fruits. It was the turn of Manchus to sit down.

As the resistance of Mongolia, North Korea, and Liao Town in the Ming Dynasty was gradually swept away, the Qing army had already had a stable rear and had to consider the next general direction.

During this collegial discussion, the princes and generals of the Qing Dynasty finally unified their thoughts and worked together to attack the Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji's opinion was naturally to attack the Ming Dynasty, but the reason why Fan Wencheng's hypocritical behavior was also one of the important factors.

In February of the 13th year of Chongzhen, in Magnolia Mountain, Taiping County, the Sichuan general Zhang Ling, the Shaanxi governor Zheng Chongjian, the general Zuo Liangyu, and other generals led the Ming Dynasty's official army to encircle Zhang Xianzhong's troops on all sides. Yang Sichang met the troops in Xiangyang and supervised the troops forward. This kind of supervision still played a certain role.

Although Zhang Xianzhong recovered a certain amount of vitality, he never expected that the Ming army suddenly had such great determination to surround the station, and there was some lack of preparation.

Under the attack from all sides, the team was in chaos, and tens of thousands of soldiers were completely defeated by the officers and soldiers. The trusted generals and military advisors were either killed in battle or captured. Zhang Xianzhong was slightly more lucky than Li Zicheng who was ambushed in Tongguan that day. He had time to break through with more than a thousand cavalrymen and fled in panic.

However, Cao Cao, Luo Rucai, who was not far away from this, was kindly entertained by the envoy sent by the commander Yang Sichang. Luo Rucai always had a certain fantasy about being recruited. The reason why he revived from Fang County was that he wanted to get a better price in bargaining with the court.

Originally, the King of Breaking Li Zicheng led more than a thousand people who had worked hard to collect Luo and Luo Rucai as a supporter, but he was extremely disgusted with Luo Rucai's hesitant attitude. Moreover, Luo Rucai's engagement with the envoy of the Ming army also made Li Zicheng feel dangerous, so he simply led his troops to retreat to the Yufu Mountains in Wuba area.

The commander Yang Sichang started his career by encircling and suppressing the Shaanxi chaos army. He advocated the pursuit of pacification in the court. After he really arrived at the front line, it really had a certain effect. Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates led his subordinates to surrender, which was also one of the reasons for Zhang Xianzhong's great defeat.

In February, the mountainous areas of Badong were still quite cold, but in the deep mountains, the soldiers' clothes were mostly single shirts, and the clothes were still torn.

The soldiers of the King of Chuang have been fleeing and defeating the war for the past few months. The morale of the army has dropped to a low point. In the camps on the mountain, they all sit or lie down listlessly, looking at the open space in the center.

Gao Yigong was in the inner place, but his attention was not to look at the open space, but to look at the horses in the wind and the packages around the horses. The crusade army stumbled all the way to the present, supplying food and fodder in the deep mountains.

When some situations are critical, gold and silver are needed to buy the level. The crusade army had no money before being ambushed in Tongguan, and it could still support it. It all depends on the 50,000 taels of silver given by the Shandong general.

Gao Yigong bit a grass stem and felt it was a bit ridiculous. He thought that the army of hundreds of thousands of people was spreading across the five provinces back then, but now there are only more than 1,000 people. With these tens of thousands of taels of silver, it has not been spent in a while. It is really a dead end.

In the central open space where the King of Chuangzhan camped, several men dressed as soldiers looked around nervously. Although the ragged men around were all listless, they knew that these people were going to cut themselves into pieces and chop them into meat paste, which was a small task.

A tall man wearing a cloak and a red-taxed felt hat was sternly saying:

"Wang Guangen, the two armies will not be killed in front of the battlefield. If you make noise, I will break this rule!"

Looking at the army of the King of Chuang, this tall man was dressed in a good look, but after careful consideration, the clothes were also torn. If you could dress like this, it was naturally Li Zicheng, the King of Chuang.

The man he scolded sternly was a middle-aged man dressed as a businessman. He forced a smile on his face, but it looked extremely ugly.

Most of the troops in the commander Yang Sichang's hands were used to pursue Zhang Xianzhong and arrange an offensive against Luo Rucai, and he had no spare energy to deal with the King of Chuang. Moreover, he felt that the King of Chuang was already forced into a desperate situation and did not need to spend too much effort, so he sent Wang Guangen into the mountain to surrender.

Who would have thought that Li Zicheng would scold him and fell into a dusty face. Supervisor Yang Sichang couldn't help but exclaim:

"Nothing is more stubborn than a general."

The profits of private salt in Shandong suddenly rose sharply. The Lianghuai salt merchants promised 1.2 million taels of silver per year. At the opening of the account on the first day of February, Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui looked at each other and smiled bitterly, thinking that the general of their family is indeed very capable. The financial gap and the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were actually made up for. It is not exaggeration to say that it is magical.

But he persuades his own adults to save money, but he finds you a way to spend money. This really makes people have nothing to say, but it really can't be said. What's wrong with buying a lot of money?

In the past, the Ming Dynasty official army stationed in Haizhou had salt merchants invested in and outside the city of Haizhou. They were in good condition, but Jiaozhou camp did not enter these camps.

They were all recruited and built on a large scale. These silver and salt merchants in Lianghuai took the initiative to raise burdens according to the rules. Jiaozhouying did not object to this.

The location where Haizhou City is naturally the best and easiest to control, but Li Meng asked to place it in Linhong Town and Gaoqiao, a town with a certain distance from Haizhou.

The soldiers mobilized from all over the place began to garrison in Haizhou and Shuyang. Zhang Jiang, who led the troops, was promoted to a general who left the town. He was excited and had no need to say anything. He thought that when he came to Huaibei, all systems would be carried out in accordance with the system of Jiaozhou Camp in Shandong, and he would just follow it.

Who would have thought that it would be very different here? First, where there are military camps, there must be stores of Lingshan Trading Company. Even if opening stores in those places can only be a loss of money. Moreover, among the various military camps, there are some new recruits who don’t know what their origin are, and they are all famous gentry in the Jiaozhou camp system. There are even Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui who come forward to persuade these new recruits to join the Huaibei Army.

This would be an incredible thing in other Ming army. What should I do if the child is good, and he will be in the army? Isn’t it forced the child to go to the dead end? It is very inconsistent with the system in the Jiaozhou camp. If soldiers who have not been trained or guaranteed enter the military camp, the relevant responsible persons will be punished.

Shandong General Li Meng has never been a magnanimous person. Such non-rules-based matters will inevitably be severely punished. Zhang Jiang just arrived at this position and acted more cautiously, fearing that he would do something wrong, so he sent someone to write a letter to Li Meng to tell them all.

To his surprise, Shandong General Li Meng actually agreed to it all, which made him a little confused, but he naturally did everything when he said it.

There is also a small-scale personal army rotation system. In the Huaibei army, the personal soldiers around the generals of the thousand generals must be rotated with the Yanzhou army.

Fortunately, most of the personal soldiers in Jiaozhou Camp are officer reserve teams, not elite core troops around the generals. Such rotation will not affect anything. However, the most important thing in Jiaozhou Camp is the word "rules". These things are contrary to the rules, but Li Meng completely allowed them, which made Zhang Jiang very confused.

Because he was about to be transferred from other provinces, Zhang Jiang had a rare holiday and asked him to go back to Lingshan Guard to reunite with his family. He was the Qianzong in Jiaozhou Camp alone. This was an extremely honorable thing. He also wanted to work as a Dusi in Huaibei. Although his official title was not high, everyone knew that this was a person who wanted to be one of the four generals, and it was even more honorable.

Zhang Lin, an old military clerk who trained the horse army, had a gloomy face. His nephew's achievements made him well-teached. Anyway, all these old military clerks who are related to Jiaozhou camp are now wealthy families, and the scene is very broad. Zhang Jiang's parents are honest military clerks. The so-called archery and horse affairs are taught by Zhang Lin. These confused matters are naturally used to ask about them.

The old military clerk Zhang Lin has the rare insight and flexibility among the residents of Lingshan Guard. After hearing Zhang Jiang’s narration, he laughed there for a long time, and then said with a smile:

"It is normal for high-ranking officials and generals to do these things, but it is normal for General Li to do it. If he doesn't do it, it will be surprising. Child, follow Lord Li to fight hard, you will be bound to be rich and powerful in the future!"

The old military householder's feelings did not answer any questions at all, but the following words were analyzed and understood.

"Where is Haizhou City? It is the heart of the salt merchants in Lianghuai. The place where Huai salt produces it. If you go there and guard the troops, you will be the grandfathers of those salt merchants. They must respectfully flatter you. At that time, the gold and silver women will definitely come to their doors in large numbers."

Hearing this sentence, Zhang Jiang scratched his head and laughed a few times. Zhang Jiang is not very old and very simple. He is very familiar with marching and fighting, and he doesn't understand other aspects so well. Hearing his uncle's description, he felt that the prospect was very good and couldn't help laughing out loud.

When Zhang Lin saw his nephew giggling, put down his wine glass, slapped him on the back of his head, and shouted angrily:

"You kid is still giggling, don't you know that the disaster is coming?"

A slap immediately stunned Zhang Jiang, and Zhang Lin said in a deep voice:

"You took the woman with gold and silver. What will the salt merchant ask you to do at that time? Can you still speak hard when you take someone's hands short? In the Jiaozhou Camp system, it is a serious crime to collect money. Those salt merchants must have held your handle. What do you do in the future? Do you think I thought about it, then General Li couldn't think of it?"

Zhang Jiang felt a little cold when he heard this, and he reached out to wipe his sweat. The old military clerk Zhang Lin's face became extremely serious and he spoke coldly:

"The shops of Lingshan Trading Company outside are staring at your military camp. Those soldiers who pleaded with you are trapped. As for the rotation of personal soldiers, they will be chopped down your head when you are disobedient!"

Zhang Lin drank the glass of wine on the table and said again:

"This is something we can see on the surface. In secret, General Li doesn't know how many precautions have been set up. Yesterday, I heard the guerrilla Chen Liu's uncle say that the Yanzhou Army's garrison moved south and changed the prefectures and counties stationed there. There has always been a Pacific ground. Why do we need to move the army? I think it's just to guard against you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Jiang, who was sitting on the kang, jumped off the kang with a scream of "ah". Zhang Huang looked left and right, obviously panicked. Who would have thought that there was such murderous intent in this promotion? Just when he was at a loss, Zhang Lin picked up the chopsticks in his hand and threw them over, scolding him:

"Seeing your unpromising appearance, you are now a general who is in charge of thousands of soldiers. Why are you like a furious child coming back!"

"Uncle, can't we go? Follow the general and go out to fight hard. Even if you lose your head, you won't be so worried."

"Are you bastard, you see this dangerous place. In addition to General Li and the four trusted brothers around us, how many of our Lingshan Guard have reached your status? There are four armies, a total of 30 thousand generals. There are seventeen of our Lingshan Guards, and only one of them is the general of the branch town. What the old uncle said just now was that you were wary of, you must do it carefully, that is, the generals of one side. Uncle has explained to you those who dare not do it. When he went to Huaibei, he listened to General Li in everything. Stay away from those salt merchants and restrained the military discipline of the people below. This will ensure you are safe and worry-free in the future."

After saying so much, Zhang Lin couldn't help but laugh a few times, pointing at Zhang Jiang and said:

"This is a great thing. It will give your parents and uncle a gloss to their faces. Otherwise, what are the things to do if you set up lights and set off firecrackers!"

Zhang Jiang was deeply alert when he heard these words. After coming to Haizhou, Zhang Lin was not expecting it. In fact, everyone expected that Haizhou salt merchants immediately sent people to win over them, but they were all turned away by Zhang Jiang.

During the Spring Festival of the 13th year of Chongzhen, Ding Xu, the mining supervisor of Laiwu City, gave a generous gift to Wang Chengen, the eunuch of the capital's literati. However, after giving these gifts, he was not happy no matter what. Although the gift he gave was not much money, it was not the production of iron ore, but his own savings.

The iron ore has been stopped for so long, and the income from iron industry transactions has long disappeared. Usually, it is divided into 40% for Wang Chengen. This system cannot be changed easily. Ding Xu, the mining supervisor, originally regarded money as more important than life, but Wang Chengen's money must be given away, otherwise there would be nothing left.

Seeing that the blacksmith shops belonging to the Lingshan Trading Company were built in large numbers near the various workshops of the Iron Molding Institute in Laiwu City were built in large numbers. In fact, this is the so-called Jiaozhou Camp Weapon Manufacturing Bureau. Moreover, Ding Xu also knew that many small iron ore near Laiwu had already started construction quietly and started trading with Jiaozhou Camp in private.

But the mine supervisor Ding Xu had no choice, because in December of the 12th year of Chongzhen, the Shandong Governor's Office came forward and transferred more than a thousand troops stationed in Laiwu to Dengzhou Prefecture City to guard the Shuimen. The guarding mission of Laiwu City was Jiaozhou Camp to take over the defense.

Not to mention the soldiers guarding the city, even the yamen runners and constables around the Laiwu County Magistrate have been completely replaced. Ding Xu vaguely heard about the origin of these people, "Salt Ding".

At this time, in Laiwu City, the warriors with swords and guns were all directly under the Jiaozhou Camp. The life and death of the mining supervisor Ding Xu was already in control by the other party, so how dare he express any opinions on the other party's actions?

The ambassador of the Laiwu Iron and Metallurgical Institute was originally devoted to the orders of the mining supervisor Ding Xu, but now the interactions are gradually getting less. He runs to the blacksmith shop opened by Lingshan Trading Company outside every day. The mining supervisor Ding Xu also knew that the ambassador had been poor for a few days, but these days it had shaken again.

Ding Xu, the mining supervisor, has been calculating how many times his money can be given to Wang Chengen. If he has no money, he might be recalled to the imperial palace in the capital to do a chore. Ding Xu also thought about it and simply gave it to him once and asked to be transferred to another place to be guarded. It would be better than being enclosed here to suffer.

He thought so, but the situation made him more and more desperate. The soldiers stationed in Laiwu City completely surrounded the mine supervisory yamen on the grounds that there were traitors recently, calling it "protection".

The servants in the yamen could go out to buy food, but there were people following each other and were not allowed to leave Laiwu City. Ding Xu, the mining supervisor, tried to send a few letters outside, but they were all sank to the sea and there was no news.

The servants who served Ding Xu also felt that something was wrong, but the situation in front of him was quite embarrassing. Even if they wanted to run away, the soldiers guarding outside would never agree, and they all sent them back.

Ding Xu is now completely desperate. When he left Beijing that day, an old eunuch in the palace gave him a pack of poison and said that he would inevitably encounter some storms. If he was unlucky and needed to be tortured when he was dying, he would not have the courage to be tortured, so he would just take medicine to give himself some pleasure.

It was so easy to get the knife, but Jiaozhou Camp outside the city was reluctant to take action, which made people embarrassed. Ding Xu really didn't have the courage to take the medicine without being forced to do that.

It was delayed until the end of February of the 13th year of Chongzhen that Sun Hedou and Guo Dong, the head of the Weapon Manufacturing Bureau, took the initiative to come to the Laiwu Mining Supervision Office to ask for Ding Xu.

Ding Xu, who received the notice from the servant, sighed, but was helpless. He reached out to touch the poison paper bag in his pocket, but found that he didn't know when and where the paper bag went.
To be continued...