"Here, take one, two and a half cents of silver! This is given to you by the President and Minister!"
"Thank you, Minister President!"
On the school grounds, when a small piece of silver is placed in a pair of rough hands covered with calluses, those alternate bosses from the Jingwu Academy who are responsible for paying will emphasize who gave the silver?
The person who gave the money was not Kangxi, but the President and Minister Wang Fuchen!
Of course, this kind of operation is a bit suspicious of running a private army (actually, it is!), but these days, most of the Green Camp military leaders are very tight on military power - most of them are from the Ming Army, Shun Army and Daxi Army. Those who led the troops in the camp to surrender.
Those soldiers are their official foundation and lifeblood, how can they let them go so easily?
As for the young Emperor Kangxi, the Green Camp soldiers were all low-cost cannon fodder, regardless of whether they were old or new. Cheap and easy to use is the way to go. It doesn't matter who owns it. Anyway, after defeating Wu Sangui, there won't be many left.
Moreover, Kangxi did not think that these green camp soldiers were his slaves. These green camp soldiers did not give him the qualifications to be his slaves.
The elite soldiers of the Three Towns and Eight Banners trained by Yue Le and several princes at Fengtai Camp are Kang Mazi's real slaves!
The treatment for Kang Mazi as a slave is nothing to mention. Not only does he get to eat the hard-core crops, he also gets a generous salary, which is fourteen or fifteen a year! Those Eight Banners soldiers would envy the soldiers of the Green Camp for the food and drink they enjoyed in the ranks.
The most enviable thing is that those Eight Banners soldiers can be assigned as cannon fodder of the Green Camp New Army at a one-to-one ratio - the Three Town Green Camp New Army trained by Wang Fuchen and others in Cangzhou Prefecture.
In the future, if we fight Wu Sangui, the Green Camp will be in front with artillery fire, and the Eight Banners New Army will be hiding in the back. Life is precious!
When Wang Fuchen looked at the neat formation of the Sixteenth Battalion on the school field, he couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth with a proud smile.
The sixteen battalions here, plus the thousand pacesetters (directly affiliated teams) directly under him as the president and minister, are the capital for him and his son Wang Zhongxiao to separate themselves from each other in the future!
Wang Fuchen has a relatively clear view of the future situation. He knows that the world is going to be in chaos! However, he didn't have much ambition, and he wasn't very interested in what his son had done with the Tiandihui. All he wants to do is to control an army in troubled times, then separate one side and watch the changes in the world.
And he felt that his requirements were not high. If Wu Sangui could dominate the world in the future, he would be satisfied if he was given a double-kingdom according to the standards of the Xu Da family.
If Wu Sangui cannot conquer the world for a while, then his goal will be raised a little higher, and he will first dominate Guangdong and Guangxi!
He is now the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi!
Although there are three vassals in Guangdong and Guangxi: Ping, Ding, and Xu (Xushungong), the only areas that can really be controlled by him as the governor are Zhaoqing Prefecture and Luoding Prefecture. But Kong Sizhen, the heroine of Ding Fan, was his sweetheart. And within Ping Fan, there were troubles among the princes seizing the legitimate sons, and the Shang family was extremely unpopular in Guangdong.
Therefore, Wang Fuchen still felt that he might collude with Kong Sizhen and swallow up the territory of Guangdong and Guangxi together.
If the world cannot get better all of a sudden, then he will be the "King of Guangdong and Guangxi" from now on, which will be much more glorious than Shang Kexi, the King of Pingnan!
Just as he was thinking about something good, he suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves. When he looked back, he saw Kong Sizhen, wearing a blue coat and wearing a seventh-grade plain gold crown on his head, coming on horseback.
The "role-playing" game between him and Kong Sizhen is still going on. Kong Sizhen would often dress up as his Goshha during the day, and at night he would change into a camp prostitute who slept with him. He was so good at playing that it almost seduced Wang Fuchen's soul. After leaving, the Zhang Xiaoyu who stayed in Beijing was no match for this eldest sister!
Because Kong Sizhen was currently playing the role of Goshiha, Wang Fuchen did not go to greet her. He still rode on his horse and watched the disciples of Jingwu School pay his soldiers.
In the blink of an eye, Kong Sizhen flew to Wang Fuchen's side. She skillfully reined in the horse, then jumped down, walked to Wang Fuchen, and gave a standard greeting, "Junmen, someone is coming from the palace." , there is an order from the emperor, it is in Xiaozhan City!"
"Do you know what it is?" Wang Fuchen asked.
"It is said that Wu Sangui fell ill!" Kong Sizhen replied.
"What?" Wang Fuchen was stunned and frowned, "Let's go!"
"嗻!"
Kong Sizhen responded, stood up, and climbed onto the horse again with extremely vigorous movements.
Wang Fuchen really liked her indescribably when he saw her neatness. Seeing Kong Sizhen riding away, he quickly followed him. The two of them rode side by side and rushed to Xiaozhan City together.
Kong Sizhen noticed that Wang Fuchen was following him, so he slowed down his horse, and then said to Wang Fuchen: "The Empress Dowager also sent someone to pass me on. The person who came to tell me also told me that Wu Sangui was born because of his son-in-law, Prince Zhu San. He and his daughter were killed, so he suffered a stroke! Brother Wang, was your son among the people who killed Prince Zhu and Wu Sangui’s daughter? "
Wang Fuchen nodded and said: "It is true that Quanzi is involved. So what do the Emperor and the Empress Dowager mean?"
"The emperor and the empress dowager all mean that Xiao Wu replaces old Wu," Kong Sizhen said. "They couldn't trust Wu Sangui. Now they are taking advantage of this opportunity to let Wu Yingxiong go south to Yunnan to succeed. If Wu Yingxiong succeeds, the world will be in trouble. We can be stable. Brother Wang, this matter is also an opportunity for us!"
"What opportunity?" Wang Fuchen asked.
"Of course this is an opportunity to take control of Guangdong and Guangxi!" Kong Sizhen said, "Brother Wang, your recruits are almost fully trained, and you are leading them south to Guangdong and Guangxi. This time I will go with you, and you will be able to withdraw Sun Yanling's Guangxi general and let him Ji Qing takes his place!"
"Ji Qing becomes a general?" Wang Fuchen thought for a while, "I have no objection, but can the Empress Dowager agree? What about Sun Yanling?"
"The Empress Dowager will definitely agree!" Kong Sizhen gritted his silver teeth. "The evidence is conclusive that Sun Yanling colluded with Ao Bai. Moreover, he has been hugging Wu Sangui's thigh very tightly recently. How can the Emperor and the Empress Dowager tolerate him?"
"What about my father-in-law?" Wang Fuchen asked, "Should he also go south? If he misses this opportunity, he may be far away from the throne."
"I was just about to talk to you about this!" Kong Sizhen said, "If we want to gain a firm foothold in Guangdong and Guangxi, we have to let my father-in-law inherit the position of King Pingnan. The current old King Pingnan is too much trouble. , and he is holding the richest Guangzhou Prefecture in Guangdong and Guangxi! If we don't help my father up, we won't have much money to spend when we get to Guangdong and Guangxi."
"That's a good reason!" Wang Fuchen said with a smile, "I heard that old guy Shang Kexi earns more than one million taels of silver every year from the Xiangshan Mutual Market. As long as we can share half of the profits, we can then get more from Zhaoqing, If Guilin scrapes a little more, we will have the expenses for a 20,000-strong army. By then, we will be able to maintain the situation in Guangdong and Guangxi without any money from the court."
Kong Sizhen also nodded and said with a smile: "If we can maintain it ourselves, the pressure on the court will be lightened, so the emperor and the empress dowager will definitely agree to Shang Zhixin's move south! Then we can join forces with Shang Zhixin and Geng Jingzhong , let’s work on Southwest Mutual Insurance together!”
Wang Fuchen nodded and thought to himself: Guangxi, Guangdong, and Fujian together constitute Southwest? It seems like there are still a few provinces missing?
Shihu Hutong, Princess Jianning's Mansion.
This is a compound consisting of courtyards on the east and west sides with more than a hundred rooms in total. It is also the home of Wu Yingxiong, the consort of Heshuo and the eldest son of Prince Pingxi. However, the owner of this courtyard is not Wu Yingxiong, but his wife Heshuo Jianning Princess Ajige.
At this moment, Wu Yingxiong and Ajige were hugging each other and crying in the study!
Ajige is Huang Taiji's youngest daughter. She is only twenty-eight years old this year. She is the most good-looking among Huang Taiji's children. She has an oval face, thin lips, and delicate eyebrows. Although she is now "young" She is "mature" at her age, and although she is a little put on weight, her appearance is still above the line, and her relationship with her husband Wu Yingxiong is also very deep.
She was less than eleven years old when she married Wu Yingxiong, the "eldest brother". Wu Yingxiong was twenty-two at the time, which was exactly twice the age of Ajige. If this matter is left to future generations, it will be enough for Dorgon, Shunzhi, Bumubutai, Wu Sangui, Wu Yingxiong and others to go to jail. But who could control them during the Shunzhi period?
As for Ajige himself, because he was too young and ignorant, and his parents were both dead, his brothers and uncles were too busy scheming and had no time to care about her, so it was pointless to stay in the palace, so he also felt that Wu Yingxiong, the eldest brother, was very kind. good
So this couple, composed of the eldest brother and the little sister, lived a happy life as a wealthy family for the next sixteen or seventeen years. Until just now, someone from the palace informed them that their financial backer, Wu Sangui, was because of The rebellion plot was exposed by the wise and powerful Emperor Kangxi and he was so frightened that he had a stroke. He was unable to manage politics and affairs.
For the sake of stability in the southwest of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi asked Wu Yingxiong, the prince of Pingxi Prince, to leave as soon as possible and go south to Yunnan to take over the military and political power of Pingxi Fan!
Although Wu Yingxiong had written several "confession letters" to the now "ashed" Ao Bai to get rid of the suspicion of colluding with Ao Bai, the contents of those letters were not true. He just wanted to sleep with Ajige in Beijing, and was not willing to go south to pick up the mess left by his father Wu Sangui. Moreover, he felt that he didn't have the ability either!
He has never been to a serious class in his life. He has been playing with his little sister at home for the past ten years. Now he is suddenly asked to go to Yunnan to become a big warlord with a hundred thousand soldiers. How can he do this?
When he copied Wang Zhongxiao's "confession letter" to the draft, it was one thing to write that he wanted to cooperate with the court in reducing his vassal. Now that he is going to do it for real, who will obey you? Wu Yingxiong can also cut down the feudal vassal. He can go back to Beijing and continue to win, but the gang of governors, generals, deputy generals, generals, guerrillas, garrison, etc., as well as the hundreds of thousands of strong men below, can cut off the feudal lord. What to do?
When the time comes, the first one to be beheaded may not be King Pingxi's vassal, but his head, Wu Yingxiong!
How can you not cry when parting between life and death?
At the end of crying, Ajige pushed Wu Yingxiong away suddenly, and then shed tears: "Brother, let's not cry anymore. Let's go to the palace together to beg the Queen Mother. This King Pingxi should not be the head office, right? They didn't think about it anyway. Let you take it!"
Wu Yingxiong sighed, shook his head and said: "It's useless for me, Amma, to collude with Obai and the third prince Zhu to rebel! If I can't stand on the side of the court to divide Pingxi Fan, the emperor and the empress dowager will still keep me. What are you doing? To be unfilial, luckily my Ama fell down this time, and the emperor needs me. Otherwise, instead of going to Yunnan, I would go to Caishikou on a business trip!"
Ajige said sadly: "But when the emperor really pacifies Yungui, will he still need you? You are dedicated to pacifying Yungui for the emperor. Those people left behind by your Ama will not be loyal even if they are not destroyed." You. When the time comes, you will be helpless. What will you do?"
Wu Yingxiong sighed again: "What else can we do? We can only take one step at a time. As long as my brother can hold on for a while, the emperor will not kill me!"
When he was thinking about "raising a younger brother to respect himself" and living a few more years, his son Wu Shilin's voice suddenly came from outside the study: "Amma, the shopkeeper Yang Da of Ruixin Hall wants to see you!"
Ajige was a little surprised when he heard this: "Shop Manager Yang of Ruixin Tang? What is he here for?"
But Wu Yingxiong stood up, as if he saw hope, and said to Ajige: "He is here to save me. Hurry, please come to the inner hall to meet him."
Yang Qilong is now a well-informed person. He is probably the fourth group of people in Beijing who learned that Wu Sangui was about to suffer a stroke - the first group was of course Kang Mazi, and the second group was in the South Study Room to discuss how to build a structure with Kang Mazi. The third group of ministers in the "Sangui (Yingqi) Surrounding Network" were Prince Yu Fuquan, Prince Pingxi Prince Wu Yingxiong, and Prince Pingnan Prince Shang Zhixin.
Yang Qilong got the news from Fuquan. After getting the news, he immediately went to see Shang Zhixin. After meeting Shang Zhixin, he disguised himself and went to Princess Jianning's house in Shihu Hutong to see Wu Yingxiong.
"My dearest son, I give you my regards, Princess!"
In the inner hall of Jianninggege Mansion, as soon as Yang Qilong saw the frowning Wu Yingxiong and the sighing Ajige, he immediately stood up, picked up his robe, and saluted them both.
"Brother Yang, please sit down quickly, please sit down quickly." Wu Yingxiong called Yang Qilong to sit down and said with a sad face, "Brother Yang, to be honest, something happened in my family. I'm in such a mess now that I don't even know how to survive. Where is it?"
"There is a way out. Isn't the way out now?" Yang Qilong smiled and patted his chest, "That's why I'm here!"
"That's great, that's great!" Wu Yingxiong said with a sad face, "Brother Yang, you are really my savior. But I am in big trouble this time!
My Ama has suffered a stroke, and most of the province of Yunnan is now controlled by my two brothers. Although I am the heir apparent, I have no foundation in Yunnan. What should I do? "
As he spoke, Wu Yingxiong almost cried.
Yang Qilong smiled and said: "Master, don't worry. There is a way, there is a way!"
"What can we do?" Ajige interrupted and asked, "Mr. Yang, please stop being so pretentious. My eldest brother (she has called Wu Yingxiong her eldest brother since she was a child) is almost dying of anxiety!"
Yang Qilong said: "Master, have you forgotten my brother-in-law Wang Shikai?"
"Shikai? But he is..." Wu Yingxiong remembered it now and put his hand on his forehead, "I almost forgot, he is also my niece-in-law!"
Yang Qilong nodded and said with a smile: "Master Shizi, his father also served as the general soldier in Yunnan for many years! You have no foundation in Yunnan, but he has a way."
"But..." Wu Yingxiong said, "But my third brother and my second brother have always been good friends!"
"How good is it?" Yang Qilong said, and made a gesture of counting money, "What can you give, can the Second Young Master give? Sir, let me tell you this. If the prince can still manage politics, The Third Young Master will never betray the prince no matter what. But now, what you can give to the Third Young Master, the Second Young Master will never give to you!"
Wu Yingxiong asked: "What can I give to the third child? I don't have much money!"
"Can you be the general of Yunnan for the Third Young Master!" Yang Qilong said, "Because you don't want to be the King of Pingxi at all. In your opinion, the position of Lord of Pingxi is very hot! So now you just follow Sun Yanling's example and let him The Third Young Master will be the general of Yunnan. You give up Yunnan to the Third Young Master, and you will become a prince in Beijing! Can the Second Young Master give you this benefit?"
It turns out that Yang Qilong’s trick for Wu Yingxiong was to win over Wu Guogui and betray Wu Yingqi.
"Okay!" Wu Yingxiong clapped his hands, "This is really good of me. I will hand over Yunnan to my third brother, so he should be satisfied!"
Seeing the impending disaster, Wu Yingxiong had no choice but to pay homage to his brothers!
Yang Qilong smiled and asked again: "Master, do you have any way to contact the Third Young Master?"
"I" Wu Yingxiong was stunned, "I have to think of a way."
Yang Qilong smiled and said: "You don't have to think about it, isn't Wang Shikai a suitable candidate?"
"Yes, yes!" Wu Yingxiong nodded repeatedly, "He will definitely be able to talk to my third brother!"
Wang Zhongxiao is Wu Guogui's good son-in-law, and he is also the brother of Wu Guogui's son Wu Shijue. Of course he has a way to contact Wu Guogui and Wu Shijue!
Yang Qilong followed Wu Yingxiong's words and said: "Since Wang Shikai has a way, then you have to take Wang Shikai to Yunnan together. If you don't see the emperor, you can talk to the emperor and let Wang Shikai go to Yunnan with you. Are you afraid that you can't contact your third brother if he helps you contact him? You are not familiar with Yunnan, and his going in and out of Yunnan is almost like going home. His Ama has been a general soldier in Yunnan for more than ten years, and he is the one around Qujing Half of my hometown!”
"Then what kind of errand should I arrange for him?" Wu Yingxiong asked again, "Shikai is now a third-grade imperial guard and a stick commander. According to the rules, he is a deputy general."
"The deputy general is too young," Yang Qilong shook his head, "Why should we arrange a commander-in-chief, right? Wasn't his Ama the commander-in-chief of the Yunnan Aid and Suppression Forces in Youzhen? You might as well hire this job for him, which can be regarded as inheriting the legacy of the father. "
"Okay, that's the arrangement!" Wu Yingxiong said with a smile, "Let my third brother be the general of Yunnan, and Wang Shikai be the commander-in-chief of the Yunnan aid and suppression campaign in Youzhen. The two of them have the final say in the future of Yunnan!"
(End of chapter)
