Chapter 339: The Lords are furious and are lijin

In March of the 15th year of Chongzhen, the news came back to the capital. Songshan City, which had been withheld for half a year, was broken by the Qing army. The commander Hong Chengchou and the large group of troops led by him fought fiercely in the city, but they were still defeated.

The governor of Ji Liao, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Liaodong, Qiu Minyang, the general Cao Bianjiao and others all died in a desperate battle. Only one or two of the Ming troops surrendered in the city.

It is somewhat strangely similar to the proverb that there is no filial son in front of the bed for a long time. It is different from the news of Songshan's defeat in July of the 14th year of Chongzhen that the world was shocked by fear. After half a year, the city of Songshan was broken and the civil servants and military generals died in a fierce battle. From the emperor to the civilians below in the capital, they all accepted all this with a very calm or numb attitude.

After Songshan was besieged, the fate of the soldiers who went to war had already been decided. Everyone had expected this result, just sooner or later.

The commander Hong Chengchou died in battle. When he thought about Ding Qirui, the commander who suppressed the bandits in Henan, he couldn't help but sigh that no one was available to the Ming Dynasty anymore.

It is one thing to accept numbly. In order to show the world and to encourage the ministers, Emperor Chongzhen commended Hong Chengchou as a loyal and martyrdom minister after the news came back, and gave him a beautiful posthumous title and a public offering to summon souls.

"Hong Hengjiu is not dead. The Tartars are reluctant to kill such a person."

The news was delivered by the Lingshan Trading Branch in Luanzhou, and the speed of receiving the news in Jinan City was one day faster than that in the capital.

The news of Songshan City being broken was strictly blocked. Except for the few people in the accountant who knew about it, Li Meng and Sun Chuanting were able to understand it.

After hearing the news that Songshan City was destroyed and Hong Chengchou died for his country, Sun Chuanting seemed to have aged for ten years. After a long time, Li Meng could understand the other party's emotions. After Sun Chuanting recovered, he sighed and said:

"This...the Ming Dynasty is over..."

The words were extremely desolate, but Li Meng pondered for a moment, but said this sentence, "Hong Hengjiu is not dead." Looking at Sun Chuanting's wide eyes, Sun Boya, who is a virtuous minister, rarely had such an expression.

Hong Chengchou is a few of the historical knowledge of Li Mengdi. It is also the character's fate that is too attractive. It played a great role in the late Qing Dynasty entering the pass, and there is also the so-called "scandal". Too many modern film and television dramas and legendary novels are all focused on a lot.

Li Meng knew about that era of information explosion, and even though he had seen it, he still made this judgment.

At this time, Sun Chuanting did not wear an iron mask. His eyes looked strange when he looked at Li Mengdi, and his expression was as scattered as possible, but he could still see anger emerging.

It must be that the man is dead and has been shown to be loyal and wise by the court. Why do you actually say such words? Isn’t this an insult to the dead?

Li Meng naturally knew what Sun Chuanting's expression was. Jiaozhou Camp had no intelligence network outside the pass, so he could have said that just now, like a charlatan who was a prophet. Li Meng was also a little confused. Will history change anything because of his arrival?

However, the existence of Jiaozhou Camp has at least no intersection with the Tartars outside the pass. The history of the mainland is also slowly developing according to the original trend. There should be no changes.

"What Li said should be 80% accurate. Mr. Sun, don't look at me like this. Is Li the kind of person who speaks nonsense?"

This back-question really asked Sun Chuanting. Li Meng never said anything casually. Any judgments in the land were basically reasonable and accurate. It was because of this. Sun Chuanting had a vague idea in his mind, that is, destiny was on Li Meng. After Li Meng asked this back-requested by Sun Chuanting, he immediately accepted Li Meng's judgment in his heart.

After accepting this judgment, Sun Chuanting's next thoughts made him even more heartbroken:

"If Hong Hengjiu is alive, if he is really used by the Tartars, it will be a great harm to the world. He..."

Hong Chengchou did not die in the street fighting. Deputy General Xia Chengde sent his son out of the city to collude with the Tartars, and took his son as a hostage to win the trust of the other party. He made an appointment to open the city gate in the middle of the night and let the Qing army enter the city.

This selling oneself and joining one another also requires a heavy meeting ceremony. As the highest-ranking official, the supervisor Hong Chengchou is a suitable choice.

That night, Xia Chengde arranged for his confidants to open the city gate as agreed, and took his subordinates straight to Hong Chengchou's official office, and rushed in while the chaos.

Although Hong Chengchou was ready to die for his country, when things came, the sword placed on his neck could not be cut anyway. Xia Chengde's subordinates rushed in took the sword away, tied it up and sent it to the Qing army.

Governor Qiu Minyang and general Cao Bianjiao did not die in the street fighting, but were captured by the Qing Dynasty in a hurry. However, when the Qing Dynasty surrendered, they would curse and sacrifice their lives for their country.

The governor of Ji Liao, Hong Chengchou, also cursed and refused to surrender, but the Qing army did not kill him. Perhaps it had been a greeting in advance and sent Hong Chengchou to Shenyang directly.

With the information about the Ming Dynasty outside the pass, it was impossible to know about this at all, so I had to publicize it as a sacrifice to the country.

The destruction of the Songshan army represents the defeat of the last war-capable army in the north of the Ming Dynasty. Since the end of the Wanli period, the central government of the Ming Dynasty has implemented the strategy of "fighting outside the pass and protecting the pass", striving not to allow the war to occur in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty.

But after the defeat of Songshan, Jinzhou will not fall for too long.

If Jinzhou falls, all the fortresses and fortresses behind Jinzhou cannot hold on for a long time, so they can only retreat to Shanhaiguan. Although Shanhaiguan is known as the world's number one pass, its defense is too thin.

If Shanhaiguan is broken, from Shanhaiguan to the capital, there will be a flat horse and no danger to defend, not to mention that there will be no soldiers available in the Ming Dynasty.

If you have a little analysis, you can see a terrible future, but few people are willing to think in that direction, just thinking that there may be a turning point.

On that day, Emperor Yingzong of Ming led an army of 500,000 to conquer the twa sect, but the entire army was wiped out and the emperor was captured. The Ming Dynasty still supported it. Today's situation is not as bad as it was back then.

I hope that after the decisive battle in Henan, I will completely annihilate the bandits of Li Chuang and then mobilize their forces to deal with the Tartars outside the pass again, but this idea is just a fantasy.

Anyone who understands it also knows that there is not a great hope, but the result is too terrible. No one wants that result to happen. There are frequent disasters and internal strife and external troubles. Is this a scene in the end of the world? Many people dare not think about this.

Since receiving the letter from the Confucius Mansion, Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, first encouraged the court to issue an order to promote the title of Chen Liu, the general of the Huaiyang Army, and to be promoted to the deputy general of Shandong. After accepting this title, Chen Liu did not show any self-reliance, but instead increased his patrol in the two Huaihe areas.

After Chen Liu was promoted to deputy general, the Kong Mansion immediately contacted several private salt dealers in Huaibei, preparing to sell salt goods to the Kong Mansion privately.

These salt dealers were caught by Chen Liu without any surprise. They chopped their heads. Once this move was done, everyone naturally knew that this differentiation strategy had failed.

The operation of checking the troops was even more disappointed. Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, broke his head and did not expect that the Shandong soldiers were actually not even vacant. Chen Xinjia did not believe this result, but the documents signed by Zhang Ruoqi and Shandong officials were there.

The military and horse points were clearly checked, but Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, just said that the money should be used to prepare the new army in the capital, and the matter was prioritized. The matter of paying the military and horses in Shandong was naturally postponed. As for when to push it, God naturally knew...

What made Chen Xinjia even more angry was that for some reason, the result of checking the troops, which he wanted to keep strictly confidential, was spread in the capital. There were some censors, censors, censors, and idle literati who wrote articles and praised them, which caught Chen Xinjia off guard.

Among the three pre-planned methods, two of them have failed. Chen Xinjia also heard from some news channels that it was the eunuch Wang Chengen who had privately joked about him, saying that he had decided on the comments and made plans, and he was purely a good person. Chen Xinjia was so shameless when he heard this.

The matter is going on in a dilemma, but if it is not carried out, it is probably even more embarrassing. After the court's ceremony of commemorating the soldiers who died in Songshan, the Minister of War Chen Xinjia submitted a memorial to the capital, saying that the time for training new recruits was shortened in the short time, and foreign troops needed to be transferred to the Northern Zhili guards.

Shandong had sufficient troops and troops, and Shandong troops should be transferred to Zhending Prefecture to garrison. Emperor Chongzhen had no impression of these things, so he was directly corrected. The court issued an order and the Ministry of War to transfer the troops of Shandong General Li Meng to Hengshui, Zhending Prefecture and Yizhou to garrison.

The Shandong Army and General Li Meng, who had always been low-key, were rarely noticed in the capital for a while because of this result of the inspection of the army.

I thought it was just a short episode, but who would have thought that this conspicuous thing would continue, but the praise and good words at the beginning lasted for a short time, and the next thing was a wave of criticism.

Because at the end of February, Shandong soldiers and horses began to set up checkpoints on the canal to collect money, which was called Shandong canal transportation of gold. None of them missed the net from official ships to civil ships.

It took some time for the news to be transmitted from Shandong to the capital. On February 25, the canal port in Jiningzhou was already in trouble. The water flowed slowly in the canal and the ships were unhurried.

When the owner heard that he had to charge taxes based on one percent of the value of the goods on the ship, the ship owner was very uproar, but the ship could not run fast, so he had to get on the ship by himself by the people who collected lijin in Jiningzhou.

At the beginning, the ship owners were in an uproar and were unwilling to pay the money. They always felt that no matter how arrogant the Shandong soldiers were, they would not dare to offend the public. Moreover, the law did not blame the public. So many people were making trouble here, and the tax collectors in Shandong were afraid of it. As long as one person did not pay, everyone would not pay the money.

"Do you know who this guy belongs to? This is Mr. Zhou Yanru, the chief minister of the cabinet at the time. You Shandong Governor and General have to kowtow when they see Lord Zhou. They dare to come up to collect taxes. How brave are you? If you offend Lord Zhou, you will be crushed to pieces if you make a note!"

On a large ship, a businessman was cursing there. Behind him were a group of boatmen and sailors, each with bad looks, staring at the Shandong taxpayers who were on board to collect taxes.

Just now, these tax officials were on board to check the goods, but they were stopped by the merchant. When both sides pushed him a little, they cursed and reported their own name.

This ship sailed on the canal. As long as it was reported by Zhou Yanru, no one dared to stop it. Who would have thought that in Jiningzhou, Shandong, he would be stopped and even taxed.

"Is this money worth collecting land?? It's not that your corrupt officials in Shandong want to fill their pockets, just put them in this boat. If you don't let them go, you Jining, you Shandong officials are waiting to get rid of the black shirt!"

After hearing this, I don’t know if he was the chief minister or Zhou Yanru was the chief minister. There was a lot of noise here. Merchant ships at the docking site of the docking port of the dock and river, all of whom were coming. Looking at the opposite taxpayers with a gloomy face and silent, they all started to make noises. The situation was out of control for a moment.

The merchant said that the foam was flying, and he heard the sound of the surroundings and was even more excited. He was about to talk about how Zhou Yanru was favored by the emperor. If he offended the chief minister Zhou Yanru, it would be equivalent to offending the current emperor, then he would be the crime of deceiving the emperor.

The tax collector who looked like a master in front of him kept holding the account book while he was scolding, and more and more ships gathered around him. There were more and more people cheering. The tax collector closed the account book and said coldly:

"Where did you come from so much nonsense? You don't pay tax resistance. Go down the river!"

When the merchant was just talking, he heard the other party say something. Just as he was about to continue cursing, he saw several tax officials coming over, holding about five or six feet of bamboo poles in his hand, driving away the servants and servants beside him, and worked hard together, pushing the merchant down from the ship.

With a "pop" sound, the person had fallen into the river. The sound of clamoring around him suddenly became less. The merchant should be able to water, but he actually started to suffocate when he fell into the river. However, the tax officials took out a bamboo pole more than ten feet long, and there was an iron hook in the top of the bamboo pole.

A taxi holder with the iron hook and stretches down to hook the back of the merchant's long gown. Everyone around him became brave and thinks that these Shandong taxi really dare not hurt lives.

The merchant from the Zhou family's cargo ship was also very brave and was about to say something harsh. The taxpayer above used his arms and the iron hook hooked the man's clothes. He couldn't break free and directly stuffed it back into the river.

In February, the river water was open and the canal transportation had just begun to sail, but the water temperature was very cold. The merchant was stuffed back into the water for a while, which was extremely painful.

With a "slam" sound, the taxpayer raised the merchant again, and walked to the side of the ship with the account book, and asked leisurely:

"Is this relative of Grand Secretary Zhou willing to pay taxes to assist in the canal transportation?"

The businessman was about to open his mouth, but he was stuffed back into the water again. When he was lifted up again, his face was already pale and he shouted at the top of his throat as soon as he came out of the water:

"The young one is willing to pay taxes, and he is willing to pay taxes, so he will pull me up and pull me up."

The master nodded and nodded at the Taicing beside him. Two more people came over and pulled the merchant in the river onto the boat. After the merchant got on the boat, he could no longer speak and was shivering there with a piece of felt.

Seeing such a vicious tax officer, the merchant's servants and servants were all arrogant and did not dare to give up. Several tax officers and several civil servants began to inspect the goods in a swagger and estimate the value.

The people on the boat who were watching around were now quiet. No one expected that these Shandong taxpayers were so fierce. The merchant on the boat just now jumped and said that he was the chief minister of the dynasty and the chief minister of the cabinet, Zhou Yanru, and the owner of Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. This boat was the property of Grand Secretary of the Zhou Dynasty.

The subordinates of Shandong Taxing were merciless and knocked the person down into the river. Judging from the situation, if they did not agree to inspect the goods, they would probably have been pressed into the river and drowned.

He used this businessman to clamor and scold, and then attracted ships on the river to gather, and used fierce means to establish his authority. He specifically found this businessman with reliance, and even killed chickens for monkeys to see, which was very effective.

However, all the ships surrounding them were ships from other places. Jiningzhou and other ships from Shandong had long been docking and actively requesting inspection of goods and paying liquors.

It is not necessary to make a lot of profits from being able to go south and north on this canal.

"Silk, fine porcelain, spices are a total of seven ships, and there are... According to the Jining price estimate... there are a total of 38,000 taels of silver and 380 taels of gold."

After a while, the accounting offices and tax officials from various places gathered on the ship and began to report the goods they ordered one by one.

For this taxation, the tax collector, composed of Lingshan Trading Bank and armed salt dynasty personnel, prepared a lot of preparations. He learned about the value of various goods on the market in advance, and after checking the goods, he directly quoted the unit price. At the bow of the cargo ship, several accountants quickly made a calculation and quickly obtained the value of the goods.

The merchant wearing felt was so cold that he felt extremely uncomfortable. The boatman quickly made a pot of hot soup. He was drinking it there in big mouthfuls, thinking that this time it would be a big loss. Wouldn't these wolves and tigers be blackmailed to him?

Sitting at the bow of the boat, he heard the other party report the value of the goods and the amount of land tax to be collected. The merchant was stunned. The other party's estimated value of the goods was very fair.

Strictly speaking, the estimated value of these tax collectors is slightly lower than their real value, because the profits of selling goods to the capital area are much higher than those in Shandong area.

Moreover, the other party said that he was one out of 100 goals, but the real one out of 100 goals was one out of 100 goals. There was no increase in the amount, which was fair. Unlike what he expected, the businessman was a little speechless and had to ask the servants to get the money to pay the bills.

Take deterrence first and then fairness, the first step of tax collection is excellent. The master led by Taxation Ding Zhong recorded the first silver he collected in the account book, and couldn't help feeling a little proud. Hou Shan and Huang Ping had communicated for a long time before he decided on such a form.

He knew that the owner of the ship that he had taxed just now was not intimidating. It was indeed related to Zhou Yanru. After the goods on the ship were sold in the north, 70% of the profits would be included in the pockets of the head of the dynasty Zhou Yanru. However, the more such a background, the more effective the chicken that killed the chicken to warn the monkey.

However, among the memorials sent back by the capital, there is a special one, Liu Zongzhou, the censor of the Zuodu. He said in the memorial that, looking at the documents of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War, the Shandong military has not paid any salary for several years. This matter is inconsistent, but it is understandable.
To be continued...