When Zhao Zhilong and Li Zunzu entered Beijing, of course they had to go back to their respective homes and find their respective mothers.
Zhao Zhilong is a veteran nobleman. When Wei Zhongxian was in power, he was pro-Donglin and anti-eunuch Party. Logically, he should stand with Sun Chengzong and others. However, the Donglin Party has now gone bad. It actually took over the business of the Salt Transport Yamen from the emperor and wants to fully restore the open law... Although Sun Chengzong wanted to stabilize the salt industry, he did not swallow up the interests of the honorable nobles. .
But since the Donglin Party has taken over the salt business, it has become the enemy of the nobles in the north and the south!
Because of this incident, Zhao Zhilong has understood the true face of the Donglin Party, so in the past few months, the relationship between him and the Donglin traitor Party has cooled rapidly, and now they are no longer friends but enemies.
After breaking with the Donglin Party, nobles like Zhao Zhilong will of course have to find new allies in the court. Those who can form an alliance with them are, of course, Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, and Zhang Ruitu, the remnants of the eunuch party who consider themselves "not eunuchs."
After parting ways with Li Zunzu, Zhao Zhilong did not go back to his residence to rest for a while, but went straight to the Yamen of the Ministry of Civil Affairs where the cabinet's academics were holding a small meeting. In the middle hall of the Ministry of Personnel, I saw several old monks gathering together and staring at each other.
Seeing Zhao Zhilong coming in covered with dust, Huang Liji, the first assistant academician, hurriedly stepped forward to greet him, took Zhao Zhilong's hand and asked: "Uncle Xincheng...are you back from Datong? What's going on in Datong?" How's it going? Did the emperor really win or..."
His speaking skills are still very high, but he dare not say that the emperor lied about a great victory or something... The crime of slandering the emperor is very serious, and he has to buy many indulgences to atone for it.
The Minister of War, King Wang, who was on the side, was considered a "non-partisan" in Jin Dynasty, but he was actually a fox. When there was a "dispute over the basis of the country" before, he didn't say a word! Now he was feeling at ease, and he came up with a smile: "Of course it was a great victory over Datong... The pro-army in front of the tent are elite troops, far more capable than Hutu Dun Khan's men and horses, even Hutu Dun Khan Khan’s iron cavalry can’t even defeat the front army!”
You old fox... why didn't you tell me earlier!
In the middle hall of the official department, several resentful eyes were shot at Wang Zaijin - Wang Zaijin was not a good person to begin with. The hundreds of thousands of Liao troops counted him as more than 60,000. How can such a person be cured?
Huang Liji didn't have the same experience as Wang Zaijin. Wang Zaijin was called a "lone minister". He had no party or faction, and he didn't bother to form cliques with others. He also always did things that made his colleagues gnash their teeth.
For the Ming Dynasty, this evil person is a must, but it is impossible to be the chief minister... he is too good at offending people! Therefore, Huang Liji was not very worried about Wang Zaijin. He was worried about Sun Chengzong. Sun Chengzong was good at using the Ming Dynasty's money to win over his allies, and he was a figure who could handle everything.
Huang Da's chief assistant ignored Wang Zaijin and just looked at Zhao Zhilong. Zhao Zhilong said: "What a great victory! The emperor bravely defeated the three armies and took the lead. He killed Gui Yingcha, the first warrior of Mongolia! He was so killed that the Han army was defeated and dozens of corpses were laid on the ground. Inside, all the way out of the Datong border wall..."
What?
The emperor killed the most powerful Mongolian warrior and returned to lead the army... Is this true? It doesn’t even sound like it! Huang Liji had lost his ability to judge and turned to look at Wang Zaijin.
Wang Zaijin frowned and said: "The report from Datong Town to the Ministry of War also mentioned that the emperor led his troops to attack and won a great victory... But if there was such a great victory, why didn't the emperor return to the court with a victory?"
It turns out that Wang Zaijin didn’t quite believe the battle report of Baishan Mountain’s victory... It looked too fake. How could the emperor go into battle and find someone to challenge him? How is it possible to charge into battle personally? How could it be possible to use a cannon?
After hearing Wang Zaijin's words, Zhao Zhilong sighed: "The emperor stayed in Datong, which was called a westward expedition to Tumotechuan... but in fact it was to rectify the affairs of the Eight Guards and Sixty-Four Forts in Datong Town and the palaces of various families. "
"What?" Huang Liji didn't understand, "Your Majesty wants to..."
The king next to him in Jin was more knowledgeable than him, so he immediately asked: "Is the emperor inspecting the fields and ordering troops?"
Zhao Zhilong sighed: "The emperor just wants to check the military camps in Datong, and then collect a lot of grains... In addition, he also needs to rectify the Datong army, with 130,000 soldiers. The emperor doesn't believe it. The emperor wants it. We need to organize 40,000 to 50,000 elite soldiers in Datong, and we also want to recruit another 1,500 servants of the emperor."
Wang Zaijin frowned and said: "There are at least more than 2 million acres of military farmland in Datong Town. Even if 2 million acres can be found, if one acre can harvest two or three buckets of grains, it can still be 500,000 dan! If If the money and food sent to Datong by the imperial court and Shanxi remain unchanged, the salary of Datong Town will be at least 15.6 million, which is enough to support 50,000 capable soldiers." He stroked his beard, nodded and said: "Five If you can raise the most powerful soldiers, you will be absolutely foolproof in the direction of Xuan Da Da!"
Zhao Zhilong smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid that the emperor will regard Datong as the national government of Xuanfu!"
Huang Liji was startled: "What's going on?"
Wang Zaijin also asked: "What do you mean?"
Zhao Zhilong said: "When I left Datong Mansion, Long live the Lord said... Beijing is too hot, Datong is cool, it is a good place to escape the summer heat."
...
Imperial City, Supervisor of Ceremonies.
"What? Long Live Master is going to Datong to escape the summer heat? He also wants the Queen and the two noble concubines to go with him..."
At this time, Li Zunzu was conveying the emperor's edict to Xu Yingyuan, eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch who was responsible for the ceremony, and Xu Yingyuan, the eunuch who was in charge of the Dongchang affairs.
After reading the edict, Eunuch Xu was also shocked.
In his edict, Zhu Youjian ordered Xu Yingyuan to immediately prepare to move the harem to Datong. However, he did not say that he would establish a Zhenguo Palace, let alone build Xijing. He only said that it was "to escape the summer heat" because it was hot!
"But summer is almost over now!" Shang Fuming, the chief of the Royal Horse Supervisor, also came to the Li Supervisor. After hearing Xu Yingyuan's words, he intervened.
It is already the end of June in the lunar calendar, and autumn is about to begin. Why should we avoid the heat?
Xu Yingyuan glanced at Shang Fuming, "Old Shang, maybe the emperor thinks that autumn in Beijing is also hot?"
As soon as he reminded him, Shang Fuming also knew that he had made a mistake just now, so he immediately took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat, "It's true, today...it's almost July, and it's still so hot. I really need to go to escape the heat. .”
Xu Yingyuan nodded and said to Li Zunzu: "Uncle Ning Yuan, our family and Shang Zhangyin have to go to Kunning Palace to report to the Queen..."
Li Zunzu stood up quickly and said, "I have to go home and take a look. I'll take my leave now."
Xu Yingyuan said "no", stood up, and went to Kunning Palace with Shang Fuming to report to Queen Zhou.
Li Zunzu didn't go home either. After leaving Xihua Gate, he went straight to Sun Chengzong's residence. Sun Chengzong now controls the Yanyun Yamen and has millions of salt profits in his hands, which is really hot. Many Donglin Party members who were driven out of Beijing by Wei Zhongxian gradually gathered under his sect. Some were arranged by him to manage salt in Huaiyang, and some were still running for election in Beijing.
When Li Zunzu visited, there were two visitors from the south of the Yangtze River in Sun Chengzong's home. One of them was Qian Qianyi, the leader of Donglin in the south of the Yangtze River, and the other was a student named Shen Tingyang. The two of them came to Beijing together. Among them, Qian Qianyi came to seek an official position. He was the leader of Donglin, so he was excluded by Wei Zhongxian and stayed at home for several years. He thought that Wei Zhongxian would be able to stand up after his death, but Zhu Youjian did not expect that. I ignored him at all...so I had no choice but to shamelessly come to Beijing to exercise.
And Shen Tingyang came here to open up China. The Shen family was a large businessman in Jiangnan and the leader of the Haisha Gang. This Haisha Gang is different from Zheng Yiguan's Shibazhi. They do not go to the far sea, go to Southeast Asia, and do not go to Japan. Instead, they go to the northern route, as far as North Korea. Mao Wenlong, the current commander-in-chief of Pingliao, cooperated with them to sell North Korean ginseng and leather goods. Needless to say, it definitely stole a lot of people’s business!
In addition, the Haisha Gang has been trying to steal the canal's business and transport grain north by sea. In fact, most of the landowners and profiteers in Huai'an and Yangzhou want to abolish the canal and switch to sea transportation. Because to ensure the smooth flow of the canal, the Yellow River must be allowed to seize the Huaihe River, and the Yellow River's usurpation of the Huaihe River will cause siltation in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River, thus affecting the flood discharge capacity of the Huaihe River. As a result, the Huaihe River floods every two or three years.
And if water transportation is to be abolished...it will affect the livelihood and financial resources of a lot of people!
