To the east of the Forbidden City, on Dongtangzi Hutong, which is very close to Dong'anmen and Donghuamen, there is a magnificent house. The front door alone is as big as the hall of Mingzhu's house. There is also a hanging on the door: "First Class" plaque. There are guards with plain gold roofs at the door, and horse posts are lined up in rows, all polished. Several of the horse tethers were tied to tall horses with bright coats, and there were several carriages leaning on the roadside. There were also a circle of guards holding swords around the carriages. They were all in high spirits, and seemed to be talking to the people at the entrance of the mansion. Guards don't show any signs.
The owner of this mansion, which has a plain gold roof as its guard, is the most powerful figure in the Qing Dynasty today, Guarjia Obei!
Obai's house has always been a bustling one, and this minister who discusses government affairs and leads the bodyguard really treats the affairs of the Qing Dynasty as his own family affairs. So he often called his closest confidants to hold small meetings at his home...Military and state affairs were often finalized at Ao Bai's house. Meetings with kings and ministers to discuss government affairs were just a formality. Kangxi's little pockmarked just sat in the palace. .
However, the "first-class duke" who visited Ao Bai today is indeed not a confidant of Ao Bai, nor is he a powerful figure, but Wu Yingxiong, one of the three major hostages in Beijing.
Wu Yingxiong, Wu Guogui and Liu Xuanchu came to visit him together. As usual, he also gave Ao Bai some local specialties from Yunnan - real local specialties, not gold, silver and jewelry. The treacherous sycophant Ao Bai doesn't take bribes very much, nor is he greedy for beauty. He just likes to seize power.
Therefore, it was useless for Wu Sangui to send money to him, so he could only be cruel to him.
But Wu Sangui's precious son Wu Yingxiong was a master who could not be fierce. He was already scared when he saw Ao Bai looking like he wanted to eat a living person. He sat in the second hall of Ao's mansion, holding a tea bowl and his forehead. There were beads of sweat all over him, and he could no longer speak fluently: "Grand Master... My Amma is still loyal to the Qing Dynasty. What he does now... is also forced to be helpless. Ping Xi There are more and more people in the vassal, and there are more and more disciples in Yun and Guilv camps... The people he recruited in order to appease the Chuang and Xian remnants of the party can't just ignore it... You Look, what can I do?"
Seeing Wu Yingxiong's cowardly look, Obai became anxious for him. With such a coward, how come he is Wu Sangui’s eldest son? Is it biological? It doesn't look like...you picked it up, right?
In the future, old guy Wu Sangui will go to the eighteenth level of hell. Can this coward Wu Yingxiong be the home of Pingxi Prince's Mansion?
Thinking of this, Obai was not in the mood to listen to Wu Yingxiong's ramblings, and pointed directly at Wu Guogui, who was sitting next to Wu Yingxiong with his head held high, "Wu Dutong, you should speak for your brother...what will happen to King Pingxi?" What do you want?"
Wu Guogui looked very happy. Hearing Obai's question, he smiled and replied: "When I return to the Grand Master, what my father means is that Yunnan alone now has 100,000 elite soldiers to support...this is all They are elites who have been on the battlefield and have seen the world. Many of them are old soldiers who have been with the Ming Dynasty, the invaders, and the Western bandits. These people don't know much about being loyal to the emperor and patriotic. They join the army just to have good food and drink, so The military expenses for next year must be increased!"
His words didn't make much sense, but Obai remained calm. Because Master Ao knew who was under Wu Sangui? Well, anyway, there are no good people and no loyal ministers. They are just a group of capricious veteran rebels. The reason why they are not rebelling now is that the Qing Dynasty still supports them. If one day the imperial court no longer wants to support them, this group of people will definitely steal their weapons and start a war with the imperial court.
And Ao Bai does not want to go to war with Wu Sangui now... If there is no war, the myth of the Eight Banners and the invincible heavenly soldiers will not be shattered, and the Qing Dynasty will be stable.
If a war breaks out, it's not certain who will win!
Oboi nodded and said: "I know the difficulties faced by King Pingxi, but the court has also been in difficulty these past few years! The pirates on the southeast coast have been so violent that the court had no choice but to relocate to the coast... .With this border relocation, the tax revenue of many coastal states has been greatly reduced. Although I have tried every means to save money, the imperial court is still tight!"
"Hey, aren't they just a few pirates?" Wu Guogui said with a smile, "Master, if you can trust our Pingxi Palace, we can send 50,000 troops to help Ping Fan and Jing Fan fight... This military expense We at Pingxi Palace can wait until the pirates are defeated, and then we can ask the merchants of Guangdong and Fujian to pay."
When Obai heard this, his face darkened, and he glared at Wu Guogui fiercely, but Wu Guogui looked unconcerned, while Wu Yingxiong beside him was so frightened that his face turned pale.
But Ao Bai can't break up with Wu Sangui now, because Wu Sangui really has one hundred thousand elite soldiers, and if he offends these one hundred thousand elite soldiers, they will really rebel, and then it won't be a matter of hundreds of thousands more taels of silver. .....
Thinking of this, Ao Bai snorted and said: "As for the military expenses, let the people below slowly sort out the details. Let's set a large number today. Next year, Yun and Gui will be given three million for their military expenses!" "
Wu Yingxiong breathed a sigh of relief and was about to agree, but Liu Xuanchu next to him coughed. Wu Guogui immediately said, "Grand Master, three million is not enough, at least four million is needed. Otherwise, Pingxi Fanxia and Yungui Lvying will not be as good as each other." With so many people, it’s really not enough money!”
"No! No!" Ao Bai shook his head repeatedly, "Too many, too many... The land taxes and commercial taxes of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are not paid to the imperial court, and they have to be paid again every year. How can this be done when the imperial court has four million in its hands... The maximum is 3.2 million."
"Grand Master," Wu Guogui said seriously, "King Pingxi took care of tens of thousands of people under the command of the two thieves Chuang and Xian on behalf of the imperial court... Those are all people who have fought for the rest of their lives! If it wasn't delicious and delicious, No matter what, they really rebelled. Although I, the son of Pingxi Fan, can bring them down again for the imperial court, tens of thousands of casualties are inevitable. Are the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers not worth a mere one million taels of silver? "
Wu Guogui's words almost frightened Wu Yingxiong to death... If you dare to speak like this to Obai, you are rebelling!
And Obai didn't expect that Wu Guogui would say such words, and he was a little unsure for a while. Because based on his understanding of Wu Sangui, he knew that this old immortal was very cowardly and unlikely to rebel. But this old immortal likes to collect rebels too much! In particular, there are tens of thousands of officers and soldiers from the camp of thieves and thieves. If these people want to rebel, it is hard to say whether the soldiers and generals under Wu Sangui will follow them to rebel, or they will suppress them for the imperial court!
Judging from Wu Guogui's attitude, I'm afraid...
Obai gritted his teeth: "Three hundred...three and four hundred thousand, it can't be more!"
When Wu Yingxiong heard Obai say this number, he didn't know whether he should be frightened or stunned.
However, Wu Guogui still looked very dissatisfied and wanted to ask Obai for more money. Wu Yingxiong on the side could no longer bear the pressure and spoke before Wu Guogui: "Okay, okay, okay...three hundred 400,000 is 3.4 million!”
Seeing that Wu Yingxiong gave in, Wu Guogui had no choice. Who made Wu Yingxiong the heir apparent? So he could only nod his head and said to Ao Bai: "Master, since the prince has spoken, I have no choice but to agree... Although 3.4 million is really not enough money, I The troops of Yunnan and Guizhou can still get by if they tighten their belts.
By the way, there is one more little thing. My father wants to recommend someone to be the imperial guard... He is just from a mixed background, so I asked the Grand Master to make it easier. "
With that said, he took out an envelope and handed it to Obai with both hands respectfully.
"What? Recommend someone to be a bodyguard?" Obai negotiated the military salary for the coming year, and he felt a little more comfortable. Hearing that Wu Sangui wanted to recommend a bodyguard, he felt a little strange, so he took the envelope and asked, "I want to recommend him." who?"
Here Wu Yingxiong continued the topic and said: "My mother would like to recommend Wang Zhongxiao, Wang Fuchen's son. Wang Zhongxiao is a man of Zhengbai Banner. He will be selected this year. With his ability, there is no problem in choosing a worship Tang'a, but choosing a I'm afraid it's a bit difficult to be a bodyguard, after all, his background is not very good. But I love talents and want to support the younger generation, so I want to recommend him as a blue feather bodyguard."
"That's right..." Obai had already taken out the letter and looked at it. In this letter, Wu Sangui praised Wang Zhongxiao so much that it almost reached the sky.
After reading the letter, Ao Bai was silent for a while, and then slowly said: "So, Wang Fuchen and his son are both members of King Pingxi?"
"Of course," Wu Yingxiong smiled, "otherwise I wouldn't have written a letter asking you to sell him this face."
Wu Guogui also smiled and said: "Grand Master, Wang Fuchen is the subordinate brother of a humble son, and Wang Zhongxiao is the subordinate brother of a humble son... They are both members of our old Wu family!"
After hearing what they said, Obai was certainly relieved. Because what he is mainly wary of now is the young Emperor Kangxi rather than Wu Sangui. If Wu Sangui wants to rebel, he will have to rebel in Yunnan, and it is impossible to rebel in Beijing!
So if Wang Zhongxiao was Wu Sangui's man, there was really no need for Obai to step on him... This Wu Sangui couldn't collude with Kangxi to rebel, right?
Thinking of this, Obai said: "I will always give King Pingxi some face. When the time comes, I will go and see for myself. If he is really capable, I will make an exception and promote him."
