"Sir, I admire you for your filial piety!" Zhu Cixiang said with sincerity, "But your hometown, Henan, has been plagued by wars. Where is there a pure land where you can observe your filial piety? Why don't you stay in the imperial court and serve as the Grand Scholar of Dongge University?" , assist me in suppressing thieves and captives, and wait until the world is at peace, then go and observe filial piety for your majesty."
Hou Xun was indeed satisfied. If he was not satisfied, he would have to drink wine as a penalty instead of toasting!
And he was different from Shi Kefa and Qian Qianyi. He was released by Zhu Cihong and brought Dagong Kou along with him. This is tantamount to being labeled as a prince! If he refuses the prince's invitation now, it would be simply stubbornness.
Hou Xun no longer shied away, and immediately stood up and bowed to Zhu Cihong, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that it is very good, and I am willing to do my best!"
His statement happened to be overheard by Feng Yuanyang, who was rushing to ask Chongzhen when he could go south to Jinling.
Feng Yuanyang and his brother Feng Yuanbiao were also members of the Donglin Party and had a very good relationship with Hou Xun, so they immediately recognized Hou Xun's voice and were shocked - was he defecting to the prince on behalf of the Donglin Party?
Will Shi Kefa and Qian Qianyi agree?
"Feng Futai, Mr. Qiansui invites you."
When Feng Yuanyang was considering whether the Donglin Party would collectively defect to the crown prince, Huang Xiaobao had already come out to announce his entry.
Feng Yuanyang quickly followed Huang Xiaobao into the lobby. Well, it was actually just an ordinary hall, not big at all.
"I, the Governor of Tianjin, Feng Yuanyang, met with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince..."
Seeing old man Feng tremblingly about to kneel down in front of him, Zhu Cixiang smiled and waved his hand and said: "No courtesy, no courtesy... Feng Futai is a minister of great merit! If you hadn't made arrangements for me and His Majesty, There is no way out, I am afraid that our Ming Dynasty has been destroyed by rebellion! When I arrive at Liudu, I will ask the Holy One to confer an earl on Futai, so that the descendants of Futai can retire with the country!"
"What I have done is within my scope of duty, why should I take credit for it?" Feng Yuanyang said polite words, but he was a little grateful to Zhu Cihong in his heart.
"Why did Feng Futai come here today?" Zhu Cixiang asked with a smile.
"Your Highness, the Holy Emperor has come to ask this old minister, when can we leave for the south?"
Are you in a hurry to go south now? Zhu Cixiang thought to himself: He must have thought that no one here in Dagukou would listen to him, so he wanted to try his luck in Nanjing, right?
"Now is not the time," Zhu Cixiang frowned, "Now there are tens of thousands of people gathered here in Dagukou. There are 500,000 dan of food, as well as many carriages, horses and luggage. There is still money in the mansion of the Generalissimo of the Fu Army. More than four million yuan need to be distributed and shipped.
Moreover... Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, is still stationed in Yongping, and the commander-in-chief Gaodi is stationed in Shanhaiguan, both of which have no less than 50,000 troops! If King Qin's army also arrives in the south, they may be able to defeat the capital! "
...
What? What did you say? Then...the prince said he wanted to conquer the capital? "
When Emperor Chongzhen heard the words of Zhu Cihong brought by Feng Yuanyang, he couldn't help but want to jump on his feet and scold the traitor.
Who was in the capital city who was eager to escape at that time? In order to escape for his life, he even launched a palace coup at Huangjimen... This is treason!
Now we have arrived at Dagokou, and the ships are all ready. We can sail to Denglai immediately, and we can reach Nanjing in a month at most... He actually said that he would conquer the capital again!
You want to conquer the capital now, why did you bother to flee from Beijing in the first place? You don’t mind the hassle of going back and forth!
"Your Majesty," Feng Yuanyang continued, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also wants me to take the sea route to Shanhaiguan to meet with Wu Sangui and discuss the attack on the capital."
"What's the prince's plan?" Chongzhen asked.
Feng Yuanyang said: "The prince believes that the Donglu outside the pass will definitely not give up the opportunity to take advantage of the fire, and it is very likely that they will mobilize troops to detour through the Yanshan entrance of the Great Wall and attack Beijing.
However, Li Zicheng's foundation in Beijing was not stable, and he was ruthlessly plundering and extorting wages. He had lost the hearts of the people and would never dare to defend the city. If they hear that the captives are coming, they will either abandon the city and run away, or they will fight outside the city. No matter what the rebels choose, the capital will fall into the hands of Donglu. As for us, we only need to strictly guard Shanhaiguan, wait for the opportunity to regain Tianjin Wei and clear the country, and then move eastward across the sea to rebuild Dongjiang Town.
This formed a way to strangle the captives' southward plundering route, control the east-west movement of the captives, and constantly harass the Liaodong coast. Putting the captives into a situation where they can't attack, have difficulty moving, and have no way out. If it can be delayed for a long time, the captives will have to negotiate peace with me, and by then I can regain the capital with a year's worth of coins. "
"This, this, this..." Emperor Chongzhen was stunned after hearing this.
This method seems to work! How did I give birth to such a powerful son?
"Your Majesty," Song Quan, the governor of Shuntian on the side, whispered, "I am 70% to 80% sure of this plan! If we can succeed, we will have a chance to revive the Ming Dynasty!"
Yes, I will be great when the time comes! Chongzhen thought to himself: If Brother Chun returns to the capital, the ministers will probably cry and shout for him to ascend the throne as emperor, right?
"Your Majesty," Feng Yuanyang was still hesitant and looked at Chongzhen, "do you want to make this trip?"
Chongzhen thought for a moment, "Go ahead...If you don't go, he will let someone else go." He suddenly lowered his voice, "But I want to give Wang Yongji a secret order. You can bring it to me." ...Remember, never let the prince know!"
Does the prince know? Feng Yuanyang said to himself: Your son is a human spirit. Does he not know that he is close to the emperor? Doesn’t he know that Wang Yongji still has 2,000 supervision bids on hand, and Shanhaiguan Commander-in-Chief Gao Di has thousands of people who can also give orders?
"I accept the decree."
Feng Yuanyang naturally had to accept the emperor's decree, so Old Feng still respectfully accepted the handwritten edict written by Emperor Chongzhen - now Emperor Chongzhen only had handwritten edicts to issue. There was no cabinet vote, and even the emperor's twenty precious seals were controlled by Zhu Cixiang's confidant Huang Dabao.
Without Zhu Cihong's order, it would have been impossible for Emperor Chongzhen to issue a formal edict!
...
"Your Highness, do you really want Feng Yuanyang to go to Shanhaiguan?"
"Your Highness, he belongs to the Emperor!"
"Your Highness, my son Sangui can rest assured, but Wang Yongji and Gao Di still have more than 10,000 troops..."
"There's no need to worry. The sea transportation is in my hands, and the land route is cut off by rogue bandits. They can't get through."
In the Fujun Grand Marshal's Mansion, four guards commanders including Wu Xiang, Cao Youyi, Li Ruolian and Shen Tingyang were advising Prince Zhu.
Zhu Cixiang listened to them while looking down at the money and grain income and expenditure accounts prepared by Huang Jiang and Su Sheng of the camp office.
It is now mid-April, and his new army has just paid out a monthly salary. The military pay level offered by Zhu Cixiang to his army is not low!
The lowest-level guards of the Shuai Mansion also get one tael and five taels of monthly salary, the knights of the Shuai Mansion can get 2 taels, the captains get 3 taels, the small flags get 4 taels, the general flags get 5 taels, and the trial of 100 households gets 6 taels, and the 100 households get 6 taels. There are seven taels. The deputy of a thousand households jumps to ten taels. The deputy of a thousand households has fifteen taels. The town governor gets twenty taels. The commanding officer gets thirty taels. The commander of the colleagues gets 40 taels. The commander gets fifty taels. The governors on the left and right received a monthly salary of 100 taels, while the general Zhu Cixiang received a monthly salary of 200 taels.
Now everyone in the Fujun Generalissimo's office is paid according to this standard, including Zhu Cixi's three lecturers, as well as Bi Jiucheng, Huang Xiaobao and others, who have all been awarded corresponding military ranks. According to the military rank, the camp office will pay them. . The only exception is the Navy Guard, which is in charge of Shen Tingyang. The Navy Guard is outsourced to the Shachuan Gang. All personnel, including the former officers and soldiers of the Tianjin Guard Navy, were paid for by Shen Tingyang. All ships, including the sand ships originally belonging to the Tianjin Guard Navy, were also transferred to the Sha Chuan Gang.
Moreover, the Shachuan Gang also obtained the authority to manage Beiyang maritime trade! Without the consent of the Shachuan Gang, no merchant ship is allowed to engage in trade in the Beiyang waters.
Therefore, the Shachuan Gang has the right to levy taxes on merchant ships traveling to and from Beiyang!
In exchange, Shen Tingyang not only had to undertake the Beiyang maritime operations, but also transport personnel and supplies to Zhu Cixiang, and also provide a certain number of artillery, blunderbuss, and gunpowder for free.
In addition, starting from the 18th year of Chongzhen, Shen Tingyang also needed to pay 300,000 taels of "tax-covered silver" to the Fujun Grand Marshal's Mansion every year - this amount of money was not a burden to Shen Tingyang, because he originally paid various taxes to various parties. The cost of paying tribute is even more than this amount!
Shen Tingyang is one of those legendary Ming Dynasty officials and merchants who didn't pay taxes, but not paying taxes doesn't mean he doesn't have to pay tribute to various big shots.
Now Commander-in-Chief Shen is the Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Guard of the Fujun Grand Marshal's Palace, a dignified third-rank military attache, and a close confidant of the Crown Prince!
Asking him for a bribe is almost the same as asking Luo Yangxing, the commander of Jinyiwei, for money... Moreover, Zhu Cixiang has repeatedly issued decrees strictly prohibiting others from accepting bribes from Shen Tingyang, so Shen Tingyang now only needs to pay Zhu Cixiang, the prince of Fujun. , Three hundred thousand taels is really not much!
"Wumei," Zhu Cixiang called Shen Tingyang's number directly after reading the account book, "Has the ship been arranged? Chen Yuanyuan is also going together, so there can be no mistakes."
"Don't worry, Lord Qiantose," Shen Tingyang said with a smile, "I will choose the best ship and the best sailors."
Zhu Cixiang nodded: "The 7,000 people and the 100,000 stone grains sent to Governor Su and the New Army's Left Division must be shipped as soon as possible. The sooner they arrive in Dengzhou, the sooner I can feel at ease!"
"I have made arrangements," Shen Tingyang said. "Within three days, as long as the wind direction is suitable, we can start the operation."
Since there were so many people and materials gathered at Dagukou, it was a bit difficult to ship them. Although Shen Tingyang now has a hundred or dozens of large sand ships, he still cannot transport all the personnel and materials from Dagukou at once.
In addition, Zhu Cixiang had to leave a group of sand ships on standby at Dagukou - if Li Zicheng took the wrong medicine and led the main force to attack Dagukou, Zhu Cixiang and Chongzhen would have to escape by boat, so the personnel and materials would be divided into installments. The batch was shipped away.
"Okay!" Zhu Cixiang nodded approvingly, "By the way, Wu Mei, I want to discuss something with you."
"What are your orders, Lord Chitose?"
Zhu Cixiang said: "Can you lend me the Navy's turtle-dove-footed muskets and Folan cannons?"
"How much does Chitose Master want?"
"I'll give you 1,000 turtle-dove-footed muskets and 12 Folan cannons...can you get them?"
Shen Tingyang thought for a moment and nodded: "I can tell...it is that the ship's defense will be lacking, but it will take a month or two to make up for it."
Zhu Cixiang thought for a while and then said: "If I give an order to Zheng Zhilong and ask him to purchase 1,000 bird cannons or turtle dove foot cannons, and 12 red barbarian cannons, can he agree?"
Shen Tingyang smiled and said, "1,000 fire cannons are short. Ask the Zheng family for 5,000 fire cannons. A turtle dove holding its feet up to the sky is worth four taels of silver, 5,000 is only 20,000 taels, and 12 Hongyi cannons are worth at most 2,000 taels of silver. It's not a big deal for Southeast maritime merchants. It's just that the supply of goods is difficult, and Jiangnan doesn't produce firecrackers or cannons.
However, the Zheng family has a supply of goods. Their Anping Town produces firecrackers and artillery. The supply of firecrackers in Guangdong is also controlled by their family. There is also a supply of goods from Japan. Japan is rich in firecrackers, and tens of thousands of them can be purchased...it just takes a while. "
"Then we need 10,000!" Zhu Cixiang said to Shen Tingyang, "Wumei, your 1,000 turtledove legs and 12 francjis have to be lent to me.
Because I want to train troops and deploy defenses on the sandy island... meet the legendary Eight Banners for a while! "
