"Yes, we are willing to serve the imperial court!"
"Isn't it just money? If you don't bring it with you in life, you won't take it with you in death... As long as the saint who supervises the country and the court can allow us to hold a consultation meeting, why don't we worry about not being able to raise millions?"
"That's right! If there had been this council back then, we would have paid for Governor Yuan's five-year Pingliao money in Jiangnan!"
"That's right! Qingyao is so abominable, even if you throw money at them, they will be killed!"
"Qingyao is not dead yet! We must continue to smash money and smash them to death!"
Of course a bunch of training leaders are willing to raise money for Zhu Heji's court... First of all, they really hate Qingyao. How abominable Qingyao is. They have killed so many people, and they also have to engage in literary inquisition. Moving the border along the coast will not allow people to live a peaceful life!
Secondly, to raise money... they went to the small landowners, small businessmen, and ordinary people below to raise money. Zhu Heji took at most 50% of the money raised, and the rest was theirs!
Moreover, Zhu Heji had to give them complete legitimacy so that they could help Zhu Heji raise the money.
Thirdly, Zhu Heji is actually very efficient in spending money. He really does things with the money, and he does it beautifully.
After spending more than 10 million yuan on military spending, Kang Mazi lost the three provinces of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Jiangnan... It cost about three to four million yuan each. How many provinces did Kangxi have now? It seems that there are eight provinces in Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Jiangbei, and Huaibei. If you throw 30 million taels of silver at it, wouldn't you be able to turn Kang Mazi into Emperor Shun of the Qing Dynasty?
If you had given Emperor Chongzhen this number, he wouldn't have been able to kill Huang Taiji!
Wan Sida and Huang Baijia looked at each other and laughed.
Vance laughed and said: "Since everyone has this intention, the Saint of Supervising the Country will not refuse to convene the council."
Huang Baijia also smiled and said: "Of course, now Wu Sangui will soon send troops to the Northern Expedition... If Wu Sangui is allowed to enter Beijing first, it will be hard to say who will be the master of the world in the future! Are you willing to contribute military expenses? Funding the Jianguo’s Northern Expedition makes the Jianguo even too late to be happy, so how could he refuse?”
...
Zhu Heji, who had been in Nanjing for almost half a month, actually learned from his attendants that many big businessmen from Jiangnan and Zhejiang and "donated classes and group training" were called to Nanjing by Huang Zongxi... However, He did not stop it, partly because he also wanted these people from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui to have a good talk, and they might not be able to reach an agreement!
On the other hand, this Northern Expedition is not over yet. Therefore, Zhu Heji focused most of his attention on the battlefield.
On the eastern front, Jiangbei Camp in Guazhoubu was Zhu Heji's next target. Without taking the Jiangbei camp, the main force of the New Ming Dynasty would not be able to move north along the Grand Canal to defeat the Qing Dynasty, and it would also be difficult to open the Yangtze River waterway.
It's like putting people's necks in trouble, and the small court in Jiangnan is worried!
On the western front, Prime Minister Zhuge has concentrated the forces of two towns to attack Anqing... The Qing army has been deployed in Anqing for a longer time, and the defense line is stronger!
Moreover, the combat effectiveness of the Xianghuang Banner and Zhenghuang Banner new armies in Zhuo Butai's hands was stronger than that of Sun Sike's Zhenglan Banner and Xianglan Banner new armies.
In addition, Zhuo Butai also had more troops than Sun Sike. The former Qing Army Governor of Anhui's Du Biao, Anhui Governor's Fu Biao and Anhui Admiral's Ti Biao, a total of 6,000 green battalion troops were surrounded by Zhuge Sanhe in Anqing. Inside the city. Moreover, these six thousand Green Camp soldiers were all recruited from Huaibei. Their hometown was still under the firm control of the Qing Dynasty, so they were relatively reliable.
Therefore, Zhuo Butai's actual military strength was as many as 16,000!
Moreover, Prime Minister Zhuge couldn't spend money on a psychological battle like Zhu Heji, so there was no way to force Zhuo Butai out, so he had to gnaw at the hard bones bit by bit.
On the third day after Zhu Heji entered Nanjing, Zhuge Sanhe had just cleared the outer strongholds of Anqing City and began to bombard the Anqing City Wall with rocket launchers and ten-pound cannons. At the same time, he also sent engineers to use hollow-charged sugar explosives to blast mines. Anqing City Wall.
Zhuo Butai sent soldiers from the Eight Banners New Army to repair the damaged city walls like crazy.
The two sides fought hard for seven days. On September 21st, Zhuo Butai finally exhausted his strength and retreated to his last stronghold in Anqing City - the Chief Minister's Yamen. However, he still led the There were less than a thousand elite soldiers, relying on the Chief Minister's Yamen to fight to the end... The fight lasted until September 25th, when the entire army was annihilated and defeated.
When the news reached Nanjing, it was already the evening of September 26th.
Early the next morning, Zhu Heji, who was in a good mood, called all the ministers, generals and senior military officers in Nanjing to the Wuying Hall, and announced to them in public that the Battle of Anqing had been completely won. good news.
"The Prime Minister can indeed fight. Zhuo Butai is Obai's brother, a veteran who has been famous for decades. King Li Jin was defeated by him at Mopan Mountain. Otherwise, it is very possible to kill Wu Sangui! But that's it. The veteran and famous general was also beheaded by the Prime Minister in Anqing City. The 20,000-strong army he led was also wiped out. However, the actual army used by the Prime Minister to attack Anqing did not exceed 20,000... Such troops His ability is no worse than Zhuge Liang in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", right?"
Zhu Heji was very interesting to Zhuge Sanhe. Although his battle in Anqing was not very good and could even be described as "mediocre", Zhu Heji still had a blast.
After he finished blowing, he kept winking at the people below, meaning that he wanted them to help him play together.
"Jianguo," the first person to stand up from his chair was Taishi Huang Zongxi, "I thought that after the Anqing war, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River were in my hands, and Prime Minister Zhuge could do his best to guard against Wu Zhou, so the western front could rest easy. Seeing that Wu Sangui no longer has the opportunity to attack my back, he will definitely make an all-out Northern Expedition... For our country, the top priority is to launch the Northern Expedition as soon as possible, and we must seize Beijing before Wu Sangui."
"Oh," after Huang Zongxi said this, Zhu Heji had no intention of imitating Zhuge Liang anymore, but frowned and said, "Now four of the five towns in Jiangxi are exhausted... ..The Second and Seventh Towns in Jiangdong are also a little tired. It’s time for them to rest after taking Yangzhou Prefecture. And now that the weather is getting colder and colder, the soldiers who came from Guangdong and Fujian have difficulty adapting. In addition, the military expenses for successive years of expeditions have increased. The cost is huge and it will take time to raise some funds.
Therefore, I am afraid that the large-scale Northern Expedition will not be until next summer. "
In fact, Zhu Heji had arranged for a special force for the Northern Expedition, but this special force could not be discussed with people like Huang Zongxi.
So he came up with a bunch of excuses and even said the start time of his next march north would be next summer.
However, what Huang Zongxi said next made Zhu Heji a little surprised. He said: "The Supervisor just said that military expenditures are insufficient? The lack of military expenditures is easy to explain. You can convene the Jiangnan Consultative Council and apportion military expenditures to the counties in Jiangnan... ....There is plenty of money in the south of the Yangtze River, and the gentry and businessmen in each county are willing to contribute. Once the consultation meeting is held, the military expenses of 10 to 20 million taels can be raised!"
Hold a conference to raise money?
Zhu Heji immediately became vigilant and thought: "What do you want to do? Do you want to hold a three-level meeting?"
He remained calm, shook his head and said, "Isn't that wrong? Back then, my grandfather forced the people to rebel because of the extra three wages, which caused a series of foreign and domestic troubles. He was unable to cope with it and ended up destroying the country."
"Don't worry," Huang Zongxi said. "Back then, the late Emperor Wei Miao didn't know who was rich in the world, so all the money fell on the poor.
Moreover, due to natural and man-made disasters in Shaanxi back then, the people were already in dire straits, and there were rebels like Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong who caused trouble, so the world was in chaos.
Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty is in good weather, the people are well fed and clothed, and there are no rebels anymore... So as long as the consultation meeting is held, money can be raised. "
There are no rebels now? Zhu Heji felt a little wrong after hearing this! What's the meaning? The rebels are now the grandsons of the prison, so no one will rebel anymore?
Thinking of this, Zhu Heji asked coldly: "Master, in addition to raising funds, does this council have to discuss other things?"
