To the north of the inner city of Nanjing, close to the bank of the Yangtze River, there is a low mountain called Lion Rock. On the top of Lion Rock is a world-famous unfinished building called Yuejiang Tower. This Yuejiang Tower is called a building, but in fact it only has a huge stone base and nothing that looks like a building.
The reason for this is that when Emperor Hongwu built the Yuejiang Tower, he only completed the base and then changed his mind. Perhaps he felt that it was too much money and was meaningless. So it was ruined, and it lasted for hundreds of years.
However, the base of the Yuejiang Tower, which sits high on the top of Lion Rock and has a panoramic view of the spectacular scenery of the Yangtze River to the east, has become a good place for the emperors, generals, ministers, talents and beauties in Nanjing to climb up and have a panoramic view. .
Today, it seems that a big shot is here at the base of Wangjiang Tower on the top of Lion Rock. The cuirass cavalry riding tall horses guarded the steps leading to the top of the mountain. They also erected a sign with the words "No Passage" tattooed on it. Big flag.
On the inner street of Yifengmen at the foot of the Lion Rock, there was a long line of carriages and horses parked, as well as officers and soldiers in bright uniforms guarding them. It's meal time now. Under the command of the officer, these officers and soldiers are sitting neatly on the ground in units of "leaders" (equivalent to companies), taking out the dry food and eating it bought from a restaurant on the street inside Yifengmen. Broth, eat with relish.
It seems that a certain important official is traveling far away today, and other dignitaries are farewelling him at Yuejiang Tower on Lion Rock.
Looking at the base of Yuejiang Tower, a large golden-domed tent has been erected for some reason, and a shed has been set up next to the tent. Inside the shed is a mobile kitchen, and several cooks are busy frying and boiling beside the stove. . The fragrant hot dishes were cooked one after another. After being put on the plates, several middle-aged women wearing cross-collar short coats and horse-faced skirts carried them into the big tent on trays.
Within the tent, sitting there for a few days, were Zhu Heji and Yang Qilong in the middle. Both of them are wearing brand-new black cotton robes with cross-collars - this is the latest product of the Weaver Palace. It is a cotton robe dyed with sulfur black.
These are also the "only two" pieces of clothing in the world that are dyed with chemical synthetic dyes... Although black is not a particularly high-priced color, it is a good start after all!
Accompanying Zhu Heji and Yang Qilong is Yang Ziyun. Today she is wearing a rouge red dress, a red short coat on the upper body and a red horse-faced skirt on the lower body. The bright red color is in great contrast with her jade-white skin. Coupled with her beauty and curvy figure, she is an eye-catching presence wherever she goes!
It's a pity that the two men in the tent today don't seem to be interested in this beauty like her. Ever since the farewell banquet, the topics between the two of them have never left the topic of salt, salt households, salt merchants, silver numbers, silver yuan, silver notes, white silk, etc. Cotton yarn and so on.
Of course Zhu Heji had a big goal when he sent a character like Yang Qilong to Jiangbei!
And what can be called a "big goal" is certainly more than a little salt tax. Now Zhu Heji has only two big goals. One is to achieve equalization of land in the four provinces of Jiangbei, Jiangnan, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi.
The second is to build the Ming Dynasty's silver dollar empire.
Achieving these two big goals is inseparable from the efforts of Yang Qilong, the governor of Jiangbei, especially the establishment of the Yinyuan Empire.
If the Silver Dollar Empire wants to succeed, of course it cannot do without the blessing of bulk commodities... In fact, the Spanish Silver Empire was able to succeed because of the large international trade products such as silk, porcelain, tea, and sugar. support.
It is no exaggeration to say that the reason why the Spaniards can buy and buy with silver is because they can exchange silver for silk, porcelain, tea, and sugar produced in China. Once China stops exporting, or Europe stops importing these things from China, then the Silver Anchor will cease to exist.
Since silk, porcelain, tea, and white sugar can support silver's status as an international reserve currency, Zhu Heji certainly wanted to use Ming domestic commodities such as salt, raw silk, and cotton yarn to support the silver coins issued by the Ming Dynasty East Silver Coin Factory.
Compared with raw silk and cotton yarn, salt, which is sold by the government, is of course the most valuable and profitable pillar.
"The salt tax in the 10th and 11th years of Emperor Kangxi's reign was about 3 million taels, of which Huaiyan salt accounted for more than half...about 16.7 million taels! And the Huaiyan salt tax The sales revenue is estimated to be over 10 million yuan.
Brother Qilong, I will give you three years to settle all Huaiyan salt transactions in silver coins. In addition, it will take you three years to complete the equalization of land in Jiangbei Province.
As long as these two major things are accomplished, we can use the next five years to wipe out Qingyao's home base of Liaodong! This is called "three years without war, five years of peace". "
Zhu Heji was talking to Yang Qilong about his plan - no war in three years and peace in five years!
"No war for three years?" This was the first time Yang Qilong heard Zhu Heji talk about this. "My lord, do you mean that starting from this year, we will not fight for the next three years?"
"Yes!" Zhu Heji said, "Starting from June this year, for the next three years, we will not take the initiative to find anyone to fight... If someone wants to fight, the Gu family will be happy to accompany them. "
"Your Majesty," Yang Qilong said, "Now the general trend of the world is in our favor!"
Zhu Heji said with a smile: "Before the Battle of Chibi, the general situation of the world was still favorable to Cao Cao!" He paused, "Brother Qilong, we have risen too fast in the past two years...the foundation is not stable. , relying on Wu Sangui’s attack and the power of sugar and medicine, Kangxi was beaten into confusion."
In the history without Zhu Heji, sugar pills, and "Kaqiu Sha" rocket launchers, Wu Sangui also displayed a devastating momentum when he started his army.
If the three assistants of Shang Zhixin, Geng Jingzhong, and Zheng Jing were not too sparse and favored each other, the Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River would not have been able to stop the combined efforts of these three parties.
Zhu Heji's tone became a little heavy: "But Kangxi's chaos does not mean that we are solid! We won so easily before, which was actually caused by us and Wu Sangui playing two against one. But now Wu Sangui is dead, and Wu Yingxiong seems to have stabilized Understand the internal situation in Wuzhou.
This Wu Yingxiong has no ambition to conquer the world, but only wants to maintain three points in the world, so he will definitely unite with the Qing Dynasty to rebel against the Ming Dynasty!
So in the next few years, we will be one against two! If we cannot truly govern the six provinces in our hands, this Three Kingdoms trend may be maintained for a long time like the Three Kingdoms of the Later Han Dynasty. "
Yang Qilong thought for a while, "Isn't there Wu Yingqi? He still has a large army in his hands!"
Zhu Heji shook his head and sneered: "This Wu Yingqi may not be Yuan Tan, but he is definitely not a hero who can take the world by storm... He is not even as good as his father Wu Sangui!"
...
The whole city of Kaifeng Mansion is plain and lifeless.
After Wu Yingqi was defeated by Kang Mazi, he naturally settled in this famous capital in the Central Plains. At the same time, he also divided two armies, Wu Guogui and Ma Bao, to march westward to Henan Prefecture and Shaanxi Province. Prepare to swallow these two pieces of fat first!
According to his thoughts, the peace treaty with Kang Mazi was just a scrap of paper. After he digested the Henan prefecture he had just captured, he would send his army westward and capture Shaanxi and Gansu.
Isn't this what Li Zicheng did back then? After defeating Sun Chuanting in Henan, he did not immediately attack Beijing. Instead, he marched west to Shaanxi. After he ascended the throne in Xi'an and proclaimed himself emperor, he left Shaanxi and went to Shanxi to fight all the way to Beijing.
This route looks good. He, Wu Yingqi, can also take a look. What if he succeeds? By then he will be "Wu Zicheng".
However, the development of things was far beyond Wu Yingqi's expectations. He thought he could be "Wu Zicheng", but he didn't expect that God would give him a "Yuan Tan's script" - his father Wu Sangui was killed!
And this enemy who killed his father is probably his seemingly loyal elder brother Wu Yingxiong... Now Wu Yingqi doesn't know what to do!
Let's raise troops to attack Wu Yingxiong. It seems that he has really become Yuan Tan, and let Zhu Heji pick up what he has already done.
Let's admit Wu Yingxiong's leadership... This guy's father would be killed, let alone his brother?
So Wu Yingqi had no direction and kept hesitating here in Kaifeng Mansion, and this hesitation... He seemed to be in trouble even with Yuan Tan!
