Chapter 405: Is it money and death?

The Heng Palace is located on the west side of the south gate of Qingzhou City. In the 23rd year of Chenghua in the Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty (1487 AD), Emperor Zhu Jianshen named his fifth son Zhu Youhui as King Heng. In the 12th year of Hongzhi (1499 AD), King Heng was vassal of Qingzhou. Before Zhu Youhui arrived in Qingzhou, Qingzhou City built a magnificent royal palace for him. The architectural style of the royal palace was very imitated by Beijing's imperial palace. The decorations, organizational settings, and the equipment of followers were similar to the palace, and it was all in one place, just like a country in the country.

Now, this exquisite and magnificent building has been trapped in a rain of bullets. The guards retreating to the royal palace rely on different buildings to block them step by step. The Hu Ben Army attacking the royal palace is fighting against the enemy one by one, chasing them closely. No matter how magnificent the place is, there are only flying bullets and people falling to the ground. Of course, the most unabashed thing is blood.

"Bang bang bang!"

"Swoosh swish swish!"

"Ding Ding Ding!"

Whether it was the attacking Hu Ben Army or the defending royal palace guards, there were constant gunfire. Amid the gunfire, there was also the sound of whizzing bows and arrows breaking through the air, as if someone was using bows and arrows. There was also the sound of ding-ding weapons colliding, as if the two sides had already started a hand-to-hand combat. In the midst of the gap, screams and moans of people, or the sound of the collapse of the building complex. It seemed that this was not the Heng Palace at all, but the Shura Hell.

In the Hengwang Mansion, the gardens are full of picturesque scenery. It was March, and many flowers were already in full bloom, among which peach blossoms were the most brilliant, decorating the entire Hengwang Mansion very brightly. Street battles were carried out in a blooming environment. The passing bullets drove the flowers flying up, and they drifted with the wind. The blooming clusters were swept by strings of bullets and were scattered on the ground, and the ground suddenly fell red.

Neither of the fighting side was in the mood to appreciate the beautiful scenery around him, and he wanted to kill each other. At this point, the Hengwang Mansion Guard had to fight to the death because they had no way out. However, even if they fought to the death, they were no match for the Hu Ben Army. When Zhang Zhun attacked Tianheng Island, there were only a few hundred people. Now there are thousands of people. No matter how powerful the Hengwang Mansion Guard Guard is, it is not comparable to the Tartars in Tianheng Island.

King Heng Zhu Youque was shocked and angry, but there was no way. Even the guards of King Heng's mansion were not Zhang Zhun's opponent, let alone other Ming troops. There was no way, so he had to find a place to hide and wait for the counterattack of the Ming army in Jinan's mansion. As long as he could survive until that time, there might be a glimmer of hope.

"withdraw!"

"Retreat to the underground palace!"

Zhu Youque hurriedly said to his confidant.

Soon, Zhu Youche's figure disappeared on the ground of Hengwang Mansion.

After about an hour of fierce fighting, the battle was basically over. The guards of the Hengwang Mansion were either killed and injured, or surrendered, becoming prisoners of the Hu Ben Army. The Hu Ben Army completely controlled the entire Hengwang Mansion. A small number of troops inspected the houses one by one, while the rest went to the streets to support the battle. Outside, there were some sporadic group trainers and servants who were fighting stubbornly.

Zhang Zhun then came to Prince Heng's Mansion.

The beautiful Heng Palace did open your eyes, and it felt like you would enter the Forbidden City in later generations. Everything here is a little smaller than the Forbidden City in later generations. The rooms may not be as many as 9,999 rooms, and the other decorations are basically the same. Although Heng is the prince of the side branch, he is still the prince after all, and the specifications of the royal palace are definitely the highest.

According to relevant historical materials, when the Heng Palace was built, it cost a lot of money. Such a gorgeous palace could not be built without three million taels of silver. If it were placed in later generations, such a palace would be circled and classified as a scenic spot, and would collect tickets every day, and tens of millions of yuan a year, without any problem.

Unfortunately, Zhang Zhun came for money. Therefore, these real estates were not in his eyes at all. The most urgent task was to find the warehouse of the Heng Palace. Unfortunately, the Hu Ben Army had not found any trace of King Heng, and all the backbone figures of the Heng Palace had not been found. According to speculation, they should have been hiding in the so-called underground cave.

According to the information provided by Yuan Xinyong, in a corner of the Heng Palace, King Heng built an underground palace as a refuge. After the battle, the soldiers of the Hu Ben Army searched for traces of the underground palace around. At the same time, the captured servants, servants, maids and other servants were also carefully asked to inquire about the underground palace.

Of course, it is impossible for such an underground palace to leave no clues at all. Yuan Xinyong was originally a very smart person. Based on various information, he quickly concluded the general location of the underground palace: in the courtyard northwest of the Heng Palace, under a rockery.

Zhang Zhun and others immediately rushed to the courtyard and started a careful search. Sure enough, there was indeed a lonely rockery here. Judging from the footprints around the rockery, there were indeed traces of people escaping from here. There were also some scattered gold, silver and jewelry around the rockery, which should have been left behind accidentally when they were evacuating. However, there was no obvious mechanism outside the rockery.

After Yuan Xinyong carefully checked the information, he said affirmatively: "Governor, it should be here."

Zhang Zhun nodded and said slowly: "Is there a way to open it?"

Yuan Xinyong thought for a while and said, "Sun Xin can."

An old man immediately called an old man and asked him to open the rockery. The old man, whose name was Sun Xin, was originally from a tomb robber, which is the legendary Jinshi Captain. Ma Yi's Maoyan Department and mouse's intelligence department were actually mixed with all kinds of people. A serious person could not do intelligence work at all. Therefore, as long as the intelligence work was efficient, Zhang Zhun would just ask who was there. Whether it was a formal establishment or a money-based service, as long as you could do it. Sun Xin should be the kind of person who used money to do it.

Sun Xin carefully checked the surrounding terrain and determined the location where the mechanism was opened. Sure enough, the mechanism of the rockery was very clever. It was on a very inconspicuous pattern of eye size. If it weren't for the special gold-touching lieutenant, he would not have noticed it at all. However, although he found the mechanism, he found that the mechanism had been blocked and could not be opened from the outside. If he wanted to enter, he had to flatten the entire rockery.

Zhang Zhun immediately arranged a team of Tiger Army soldiers to help flatten the rockery. Worrying that it caused damage, Zhang Zhun did not use explosives. It was not difficult for dozens of soldiers to do it together. They found hoes, pry poles, shovels, big hammers, and ropes. After more than an hour of busy work, the rockery was leveled.

After the rockery was flattened, there was indeed a staircase down below, which must have led to the underground palace. After careful inspection, I found that there were also scattered pearls on the stairs. I thought that the escaped person fell down accidentally. Following the stairs, the light gradually became dark. Xie Zhiyou and others walked in front with a torch and searched carefully.

Soon, a heavy stone door appeared.

The stone door was locked from inside, and Sun Xin could not open it.

"fry!"

Zhang Zhun said without hesitation.

So hundreds of kilograms of black gunpowder were piled up again.

Everything is ready and everyone is far away from the rockery to avoid accidental injury.

"Boom!"

A moment later, there was another loud noise in Qingzhou City.

After the explosion, the stone gate was blown down, and the surroundings were full of chaos. The strong smell of gunpowder made people cough continuously. The power of hundreds of kilograms of black explosives was extraordinary. When the gunpowder gradually dissipated, Xie Zhiyou and others covered their noses with wet towels and took the soldiers in to search slowly. After a while, Xie Zhiyou came out to report: "Governor, everyone inside was shocked to death."

Zhang Zhun frowned and said, "Look at the back! There should be no one who is not dead yet."

After the smoke continued to dissipate, Xie Zhiyou continued to enter and carefully searched for the innermost part of the underground palace. Sure enough, in the innermost part of the underground palace, there were some living people all stunned. These people were dressed in gorgeous clothes, probably King Heng, Zhu Youcai and others.

"Catch them all!"

Zhang Zhun said lightly.

Soon, these living people were raised and placed in the open space in the middle of the courtyard. There were more than 30 people in total. Each of them was very particular about their clothes, which should be Zhu Youqun, his nephews, concubines, etc. One of them was so fat that he could hardly walk, with at least 300 kilograms of fat on his body. The Hu Ben Army used four soldiers to carry him out, and it must be King Heng. The soldiers brought pots of clear water and poured it directly on them, and the people naturally woke up soon.

Zhang Zhun looked at the fat man in yellow outfit and said calmly: "King Heng? Zhang Zhun, a polite person, saluted the prince."

This person is King Heng Zhu Youche. He was suddenly awakened by cold water. He saw everything in front of him in horror. He looked at the person in front of him. He was so shocked that he couldn't help but take two steps back and said stutteringly: "You, what are you going to do?"

Zhang Zhun said as if nothing had happened: "Your Majesty, what do you think?"

Zhu Youque was even more shocked and said incoherently: "Don't kill me."

Zhang Zhun said lightly: "Then you want to do it, Prince?"

Zhu Youcai hurriedly said, "I, I, I will give you all the things,"

Zhang Zhun nodded indifferently and said slowly: "Prince, what can you give me?"

Zhu Youche said sadly: "Give you everything, and you will give it to the entire palace. As long as I have it, I will give it to you, and all the women around me will give it to you. Please don't kill me, don't kill me!"

Zhang Zhun nodded and said with satisfaction: "Mo Yu, have a good chat with the prince."

Mo Yu said excitedly: "Okay!"

Zhang Zhun glanced at everyone behind and said thoughtfully: "Your Majesty usually eats too much fish and meat, which is not good for your health. From now on, don't eat it for the time being. Just give him clean water to clean up your stomach."

Mo Yu smiled and said, "Okay!"

He understood what Zhang Zhun meant was to scrape out all the assets of the Heng Palace. As long as it was possible to hide the assets, King Heng would not let King Heng eat. The pampered King Heng could not bear such torture, so he naturally had to spit out every penny of silver. The huge Heng Palace could not be moved back to Laizhou Palace, but we had to take away all the things that could be moved here.

King Heng fainted again when he heard Zhang Zhun's words.

Not being able to eat is even more uncomfortable than killing him.

"Statistics!"

"Transport back!"

Zhang Zhun, who was in charge of the Heng Palace, quickly issued an order.

The purpose of his arrival in Qingzhou City was to loot wealth, not kill people. Therefore, plundering valuable materials was the primary task. The Qingzhou Prefecture government office naturally had to search, and the ten warehouses were also to plunder. The gold, silver, jewelry, grain and food supplies in the Hengwang Mansion were even more than 230,000 taels of silver, about 800 stones of food, and countless other materials were found.

For a royal palace, such gains are indeed a little. Of course, considering that the Heng Palace is just a branch prince and does not have too many assets, it is also possible. Moreover, there should be some assets in King Heng that have not been dug out. Zhang Zhun believes that Mo Yu can definitely cut out all the last copper plates of King Heng.

The amount of gold, silver and treasures is not very large, but the amount of black gunpowder is quite large, with a total of more than 100,000 kilograms. The quality is pretty good, just enough to meet the combat needs of the Hu Ben Army. Qingzhou Prefecture has always been a strategic location, with many garrisons in daily life, and the equipment of various types of weapons is quite complete, and the amount of gunpowder is even more sufficient. However, the old saying is that the decisive factor of war is people. If people don’t do it, no matter how good other factors are, they will be useless.

In addition, there were thousands of seized clamps, all left over from the escaped Ming army. As for weapons such as swords, spears, bows and arrows, there were even more. Although these weapons were not used by the Hu Ben army, they were good weapons for the whole people to be soldiers. Zhang Zhun was going to take them back for the people of Changle County to use them, and organize an outpost battle in Changle County to counterattack the attack of the imperial army.

After bombarding Nanjing City, Zhang Zhun also picked up the Heng Palace. Needless to ask, the court would definitely be furious again. No matter how hard the Ming army fighting in the Central Plains would all be transferred back to deal with him. At the same time, the main force of the Ming army in Dongjiang Town should also be dispatched. The storm will come soon. But it doesn’t matter. The soldiers come to block the generals, and the water comes to cover the soil, so I’m afraid of a bird!

All the supplies were quickly transported onto the car and transported back to Laizhou Prefecture.

Zhang Zhun himself naturally continued to dig in Qingzhou City. He finally came here. If Qingzhou City was not dug up to the sky, Zhang Zhun would never leave. In addition to the Hengwang Mansion, there are many big fish in Qingzhou City. These big fish are naturally the big families in Qingzhou City. Although their personal assets are not as large as Hengwang Mansion, there are many people. They add up in scattered areas and accumulate a lot, which is also a good number.

Under the escort of the Hu Ben Army, all these wealthy families were concentrated on the guard training ground of the Hengwang Mansion. Zhang Zhun stood on the high platform and looked at everyone expressionlessly. All around the training ground were the Hu Ben Army. As long as Zhang Zhun gave the order, all of them would be beaten to death in the training ground.

"I believe everyone knows who I am."

"I believe everyone knows why I came to you."

"I'm here to ask for money. If you hand over your money, land deeds, and house deeds, you can leave."

"If you want money, you will be dead, you can choose whatever you want. If you want money, I will give you a free bullet. If you want death, you will do what I say."

Zhang Zhun said coldly, with no room for maneuver in his words.

The wealthy families below, look at me, and in a panic, they secretly felt unexpected. Unexpectedly, Zhang Zhun was willing to let them live. Although all the money had to be handed over, there was nothing we could do. Having a way out is already a blessing in disguise. If they didn't hand over, they believed that Zhang Zhun would never be stingy with such a bullet. Soon, they handed over all the wealth, land deeds, land deeds, and housing deeds.

Zhang Zhun's robbery was definitely successful. From these people, they extorted more than 500,000 taels of silver, as well as various gold, silver jewelry that could not be counted for the time being, and hundreds of taels of gold. The silver they received was naturally transported back to Laizhou Prefecture quickly. As for the land deeds, land deeds, house deeds, etc., they were burned directly after they got them.

All the savings of life or even several lifetimes have been gone to nothing. The mood of these wealthy families can be imagined. However, in the face of the force of the Hu Ben Army, they had no room for resistance. When they left Qingzhou City in shame, they all hated Zhang Zhun and vowed to persuade the Shandong Governor's Office in Jinan Prefecture to send troops to destroy Zhang Zhun. However, even themselves had no confidence. Can the Ming army in Shandong really destroy Zhang Zhun?

Afterwards, Zhang Zhun appeared in the prefectural office of Qingzhou Prefecture. There were many official documents here, which Zhang Zhun needed. The information recorded in the official documents involved all aspects, and Zhang Zhun had to take them all back and hand them over to Liu Rushi for research.

The first message he saw was that the battle in Fengyang Mansion was over. The rebel army finally did not capture Fengyang Mansion and fled. He fled towards Tongcheng. Although Yang Yipeng and others barely defended Fengyang, they suffered great losses and had no ability to pursue. Yang Yipeng, who was still in a state of fear, was furious and studied under Hong Chengchou's book, saying that Hong Chengchou was too slow and the chaos army had reached Zhongdu. He was still procrastinating in Shaanxi and obviously did not dare to fight against the chaos army.

In the memorial, Yang Yipeng used the sentence "The national traitor is not enough to calm the anger of the people" and was full of gunpowder. Chongzhen felt it made sense when he received the memorial, so he scolded Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou was furious and immediately submitted a memorial, accusing Yang Yipeng of being incompetent and commanding tens of thousands of elite troops. He could not resist the attack of the chaotic army. He almost threw it into Zhongdu and scared the imperial tomb, which was also a serious crime to destroy the nine clans. As a result, the beam between Yang Yipeng and Hong Chengchou was formed like this.

The second piece of information that attracted Zhang Zhun's interest was about Shi Kefa. It turned out that after Shi Kefa returned to Beijing, he truthfully reported his experience in Yangzhou City to the emperor. At the same time, he also accompanied a statistical data. The content of the data was said to be the new salary in the eighth year of Chongzhen. In addition to the Qiang, the Ministry of Excuseum was 6.8 million stones, and the annual output was 7.86 million stones, with an annual output of more than 700,000 stones. In other words, the previous fiscal deficit was further expanded.

"This Shi Kefa is such a naughty man."

"If Chongzhen doesn't ask you for trouble, who will he ask for trouble?"

Zhang Zhun shook his head in sighing and said to himself.

On the one hand, I told the emperor that I could not get money when I arrived in Yangzhou. On the other hand, I said that the fiscal deficit of the Ministry of Revenue is getting bigger and bigger. Isn’t this intentional stimulation of Chongzhen’s anger? Chongzhen was originally not aware of the food and couldn’t sleep at night because of money and food. Who would you deny?

In fact, before that, on the 25th day of the first lunar month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen distributed 200,000 taels of gold to help suppress the money and stored it in Kaifeng, which was a moderate place for the army. He sent 100,000 taels of gold to Xi'an from Taipu Temple, and left 100,000 taels of food to be paid in Xi'an. He also left 190,000 taels of food to be paid in Huguang, and 190,000 taels of food to be paid in Zhenzhi and other soldiers. Sichuan left 40,000 taels of salt and 200,000 taels of salt to be stored in Huaiyang to prevent the enemy from being attacked.

From the above figures, we can see that Chongzhen's treasury was also very empty. To destroy the rebel army, he only sponsored hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, which was not as good as 100,000 taels of property as a salt merchant in Yangzhou. He, as an emperor, did a sad enough job. When did Zhang Zhun rob these salt merchants? They were rich enough to compete with the country!

Three days later, King Heng finally couldn't stand it anymore. During these three days, Mo Yu did only give him water, not to eat, and deliberately held delicious food to seduce him in front of King Heng. King Heng's eyes turned green, his face turned blue, and he kept choking and almost swallowing his tongue. There was no way, so he had to vomit about 150,000 taels of silver in multiple places.
To be continued...