Chang Yu winked at Wu Mengming and asked him to lead the team out of the city first, and then turned back to Zhou Yuji: "Is there anything wrong, General Zhou?"
Zhou Yuji had already approached, and after saluting Chang Yu with cupped fists, he said, "I have something to tell you. There is a serious shortage of food and grass in the city, and nearly 30,000 reinforcements are even more stretched. It is estimated that they will not be able to last for seven days, and the imperial court is in arrears of pay for more than half a year, leaving a gap of fifty Yu Wan, we must quickly find a solution now, and we must not disrupt the morale of the army before the war."
Chang Yu was a little surprised when he heard this: "The gap in salary arrears is more than 500,000 yuan, how can it be so much?"
"Taiyuan originally had more than 100,000 troops, and it owed more than half a year's pay. According to the book, it is indeed more than 500,000. Of course, the water content is not small, but the specific amount will not be calculated until tomorrow at the earliest. But even if you exclude the water content, the difference is not big. ". Zhou Yuji explained.
no big difference? The difference is huge, Chang Yu chuckled to himself. Historical data records that when the rebel army attacked Taiyuan, Taiyuan had one hundred thousand troops. In fact, sixty or seventy thousand of the old, weak, sick and disabled were enough to survive, and the water content was 30 to 40%. How big.
But at this time, the specific statistics had not been released, and he could not say anything. He just nodded: "Our family has brought 400,000 taels of silver from Datong. We can use it for emergencies first. We will distribute it after we have calculated the strength of the troops tomorrow. But our family hopes that Don't make any deductions in this. Please ask Commander-in-Chief Zhou to inform your subordinates. You don't have to correct the past, but the current one, hey, Jiang Yu in Datong is a precedent."
When Chang Yu said this, he stared at the generals next to Zhou Yuji and saw that several of them changed their expressions. In fact, during the discussion in the city tower in the afternoon, Chang Yu had already informed these subordinates about Jiang Yu's murder.
"I'm sorry they don't dare." Zhou Yuji's face was cold, and then he said: "The matter of food and grass..."
"Our family informed Wang Jimo when we came from Datong, and he will escort the food and grass over later, but it will take some time." He said with a slight pause: "Well, wait until I come back tomorrow to borrow some from the Jin Prince's Mansion."
Zhou Yuji nodded slightly and glanced in the direction of the city gate: "Is the factory supervisor going out... for business? By the way, when the general was in the barracks just now, he saw the army guards marching out and said they were leaving the city..."
Zhou Yuji was in charge of Taiyuan's military affairs at this time, and he had the authority to control the deployment of any troops. However, he was still unsure whether these emperor's personal guards who came with Chang Yu were included. He wanted to ask but couldn't say clearly. At this time, it seemed Just ask casually, and actually use this to get an answer.
"Well, our family has ordered them to go out of the city to do some errands." Chang Yu said calmly and looked at Zhou Yuji, but saw his eyebrows raised. He really had doubts: "Eunuch Chang is out of the city at this time..."
It is indeed doubtful that Chang Yu led a large group of troops out of the city at this time. It is to spy on intelligence. There are professional night guards in the army, so there is no need for factory supervisors to come out. Even if you can send Dongchang Fanzi or Jinyiwei to spy But there is no need for such a big battle, not to mention the fact that the factory supervisor and the commander of the Jinyi Guards personally went out to fight. It is even more impossible to go out to challenge the rebels. They just arrived in Taiyuan, and after less than half a day's rest, they rushed out of the city. There is something fishy about it.
In fact, if others have doubts, they won't ask because they don't have the guts.
But Zhou Yuji was different. First of all, this man was brave and straight-tempered. In addition, he was in charge of Taiyuan's military affairs and had the power to intervene. Secondly, he and Chang Yu had a good conversation all the way. They knew that he was not evil and they were both good-natured people. I won't blame you for being abrupt.
Um... Chang Yu was about to find an excuse to get rid of it, but after thinking about it, he told the truth. He reached out and waved away the people around Zhou Yuji, asked him to move forward, and then whispered: "Do something you despise."
Zhou Yuji was startled at first, then frowned and looked at Chang Yu in disbelief: "Robbery?"
Chang Yu nodded slightly: "So."
"Then how is this move different from that of a thief?" Although Zhou Yuji's voice was low, his mood was extremely full, and it was obvious that he was a little excited.
"Of course we are different from thieves! Our family does not rob or kill civilians. We only take the wealth that is due to us." Chang Yu's tone hardened and he roared in a low voice: "Where the thieves' army passes by, not even a blade of grass grows. Our family does not Taking advantage of the traitor is free. At this time, the national treasury is in short supply. If we don’t take it, we can provide the soldiers with a living. Why should we let them sacrifice their lives for the country? Although this matter is despised, we have never hidden anything for the sake of the country and the people. Our family is willing to bear the responsibility. Such infamy!”
He had never seen Chang Yu so excited before, and even his eyes turned red. Zhou Yuji was quite surprised. Although he knew that Chang Yu was excited, it was difficult to understand the pressure he was under. However, from his words and demeanor, he also knew that he was a public servant and did not hide his private thoughts. Wronged.
So he took a deep breath and said, "What is the wealth that should be taken?"
"Tatar spies, collaborators and profiteers" Chang Yu also exhaled and calmed down a little.
Zhou Yuji stopped talking and didn't even ask if there was evidence. Based on his understanding of Chang Yu, he would not take action without evidence. Based on his understanding of Dongchang, he could produce evidence even if there was no evidence. He knew that this matter was unstoppable.
"You need to be careful on this trip. As the bandit army goes north, there will definitely be many spies or small groups of people scattered around. It is very likely that you will encounter them."
"It's not what I asked for." Chang Yu chuckled and raised the long knife in his hand: "If you don't sharpen it, it will get rusty." He turned around and rode away.
Zhou Yuji frowned deeply, looking at the running figure in the snow. He didn't look like a eunuch, but looked like a majestic general.
It's true that Chang Yu went out of the city to rob, and this was also the bait he used to lure Wu Mengming to Taiyuan.
Robbery who? Naturally, they are not ordinary people. Going south from Taiyuan, all the way to Taigu, Qixian, Pingyao, and Jiexiu, they are all places where Shanxi's wealthy businessmen gather. For example, seven out of ten of the eight Shanxi merchants in the Qing Dynasty came from these few places. Although the place was not as well-known throughout the country as it would later be, it was still rich in wealth.
But none of these people were among Chang Yu's plunderers. As he said, he only went to get the money he deserved. Although there were many wealthy households in these places, no evil deeds of collaborating with the enemy and treason were found. His target was the Manchu Emperor who was later Fan Yongdou was named the leader of the eight imperial merchants!
The Ming and Qing dynasties were the beginning of Shanxi merchants' fortunes. Most of them were grain merchants at first. This benefited from the imperial policy. At that time, it was inconvenient and expensive to transport grain from Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi, and the imperial court couldn't afford it. So some people asked merchants to do the work for them in exchange for salt. The imperial court approve.
As a result, a large number of merchants helped the imperial court transport grain in exchange for salt, and then went to the salt mines to obtain salt and sell it in designated areas, similar to the tobacco management of later generations.
But at that time, salt was a delicacy, one of the urgently needed materials for the Manchu and Mongolian grassland peoples. In addition, the trading city of Zhangjiakou was opened at that time to recruit merchants from all over the world. So these Shanxi merchants took advantage of the trade opportunities to go out of the customs, and then hired people in the outsourcing areas of the customs. People farmed and sold grain and developed again. In addition to oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, horses and iron trade gradually made a fortune, and gradually everyone became spies.
Among them, the eight major businessmen headed by Fan Yongdou are the largest, and Fan Yongdou is even more like the richest man in Shanxi.
Some people may wonder, Fan Yongdou is in Zhangjiakou, but Chang Yu goes to Taiyuan to rob someone!
That's because Fan Yongdou's ancestral home is Zhangyuan Village, Jiexiu, Shanxi.
Some people may ask whether people from their ancestral home will have money.
The answer will be yes!
In later generations, people who came from small villages and prospered in the city would go back to their hometown to build a building, even if no one lived in it. This mentality can be understood as a kind of homesickness, but it is more of a tradition.
Now we are in a traditional era. From Jiexiu to Fan Yongdou, the Fan family has been for eight generations. In the local area, they are rich, wealthy and arrogant. However, it is Fan Yongdou and his father Fan Ming who really go out and make the business bigger. When he grew up, he took his eldest son Fan Yongkui out. By the time Fan Yongdou showed his talents and expanded the Fan family's business territory, Fan Ming had retired to Zhangyuan Village in Jiexiu, and Fan Yongkui also returned to his father to take charge of the local business.
The ancients never forgot their roots. No matter how much money they made outside, most of it would be transported back to their hometown, except for working capital. This can be seen in the TV series, Walking to the West Exit, Breaking Through Guandong or Qiao's Courtyard.
Therefore, Chang Yu concluded that Fan Yongdou's hometown in Zhangyuan Village, Jiexiu, was definitely not short of money at this time. Fan Yongdou in Zhangjiakou could not be moved for a while, so he would go to his hometown to get some books first.
It is nearly 300 miles from Taiyuan to Jiexiu, but Zhangyuan Village is in the northeast of Jiexiu and close to Pingyao. It is actually only 200 miles away. If the two horses change horses, two or three hours will be enough based on the average speed of the war horses of 60 kilometers per hour. , but obviously even a magical horse cannot carry a person on its back and run for hundreds of kilometers without stopping at this speed, so he expected to reach it at dawn.
A group of one hundred and twenty people, fifty Jinyi guards, fifty Tengxiang guards and twenty Changyu eunuchs left the city in the snow.
When they reached the wilderness five miles outside the city, Chang Yu stopped the team and glanced at his men. They were all carefully selected strong men, but most of them looked tired. After all, they had just arrived in Taiyuan after sleeping rough all night and couldn't rest. Halfway through the day, he was pulled out again.
"Do you know the purpose of this trip?" Chang Yu asked with a smile.
Everyone shook their heads and didn't know. Even Cheng Ming and others didn't know, so how could these little soldiers know about it.
"Go do some dirty work." Chang Yu chuckled. Everyone understood but were not sure. They looked at each other with doubts.
"It's done, one hundred taels of silver for each person!" Chang Yu said lightly, and the hundreds of people immediately burst into laughter, almost cheering, "One hundred taels of silver!" ! ! It’s like winning five million in future generations!
"Factory Supervisor, can you give me more details?" Cheng Ming asked closer.
Chang Yu shook his head: "You don't need to know too much. Kill when you want to kill, and run when you want to run. Follow orders and get the silver when the job is done."
"Yes, I humbly obey orders," Cheng Ming and others responded quickly.
Chang Yu turned his head slightly, the sky was getting dark, and there were vague figures and the sound of horse hooves in the distance. He knew that it was the Three Hundred Mansion Army Guards led by Tang Potian who were following closely, just in case something unexpected happened. After all, according to the timeline, the rebel army was at this time We should also be in Fenzhou territory, and Jiexiu and Fenzhou are close at hand, so there is still a chance of encountering the bandit army.
From Taiyuan south, it is divided into east and west roads. The west road goes to Qingxu, Jiaocheng, Wenshui, and Fenzhou. The east road goes to Jinzhong, Taigu, Qixian, and Pingyao to Jiexiu.
Chang Yu led his troops to gallop through the snow, heading straight for the east road, with the Jin Yiwei leading the way.
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