"You mean I can only agree to give you money and food?" Chongzhen said with an ugly face.
Zhou Yanru said: "I think we can give them some money and food first, and wait for the army to arrive in the capital to make up for the rest. In this way, the court will not be stretched by spending a large amount of money and food all at once."
"Then let the Ministry of Revenue prepare it." Chongzhen said in a bad tone.
Zhou Yanru said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid I can't count on you from the Ministry of Revenue. Otherwise, Your Majesty, you should first come up with a sum of money and food, which will be borrowed from your Majesty by the Ministry of Revenue."
"The Hubu has taken so much from me, and they have never come back once. Now they are still trying to plot against me. If I let all the money go, what else will I do to the Hubu!" Chongzhen said angrily.
A penny is difficult for a heroic man. Since Chongzhen ascended the throne, his subordinates have been asking for money and food every day. The internal funds that were still some savings have now been spent almost, and the internal funds can almost only be withdrawn. It is not as good as when the emperor My brother's income was high when he was in power.
"Your Majesty, the top priority is to guard against tiger thieves. We can talk about other things later. As long as the tiger thieves are eliminated, Your Majesty, are you still worried that there will be no money and food available? By then, the money and food from the south can be transported to the capital smoothly." Zhou Yanru advised. .
Sitting on the dragon couch, Chongzhen's face changed color several times.
Finally, he said with a dark face: "According to Aiqing's wishes, I will temporarily use part of the internal funds to solve the problem of Liaodong soldiers and generals, but as long as the tiger bandits are solved, the Ministry of Revenue must return it immediately."
"Don't worry, your majesty. I will keep an eye on the household department. As soon as the household department has money and food, it will be returned to your majesty immediately." Zhou Yanru assured, and at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief.
If Chongzhen insisted not to pay the money and food from internal funds, he wouldn't know what to do.
Fortunately, everyone is happy now. As soon as the soldiers and horses from Liaodong arrive, he can continue to be the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty with peace of mind.
Chongzhen agreed to take out the silver, and the Ministry of Finance quickly contacted the money. In addition, Zhou Yanru personally watched the money. Once the money arrived at the Ministry of Finance, it only circulated once and was immediately sent to Liaodong.
The money was escorted by a group of soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp and a group of royal guards.
The team escorting the silver left the capital and traveled through Tongzhou, Jizhou, Zunhua, and finally reached Shanhaiguan via Jizhou Town.
However, as soon as this Yunyin team arrived in Tongzhou, they were targeted.
The entire Ming Dynasty was like a sieve, and no news could be retained.
Before the money came out of the household department, the route of transporting the money had already been leaked.
"Have the people sent to find out the news come back?" Wang Zi asked the person next to him.
The other party replied: "Not yet."
"It's been so long, why haven't you come yet? Didn't you say that the army will take this road?" Wang Ziping glanced at the official road in the distance from time to time.
He learned that the army would leave Beijing with a sum of money, so he personally brought a team of troops to set up an ambush in Tongzhou, preparing to intercept the money.
"You can't be wrong. There is only one official road nearby. The officers and soldiers can only go here if they want to go to Jizhou. And with so much money, other small roads cannot be used." The person next to him said firmly. .
After hearing this, Wang calmed down his anxiety, simply sat on the ground, took out his pipe, and smoked to relieve his tension.
After almost a pack of cigarettes, a horse galloped towards me from afar.
When the cavalry came close, they dismounted and shouted: "The army is coming, there are still five miles left."
Upon hearing this, Wang stopped smoking. He knocked all the tobacco out of the pot, stubbed it out with his feet, and said, "Tell our people to prepare for battle."
Someone ran to the side to convey orders to others.
Wang himself bent down and listened to the official speech in the distance, holding a rifle tightly in his hand.
After almost half an hour, I finally saw the appearance of a Ming army team from one end of the official road. Walking in front were a dozen cavalry and royal guards, followed by soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp, all carrying the flag of the Beijing camp.
The place for the ambush was specially selected by the king himself.
In addition to the fact that this place was suitable for an ambush, another reason was that he needed time to recruit people from various places to participate in the ambush.
Because the time was too short, he only gathered more than a hundred people.
Because time was so tight, I only had time to prepare two Crouching Tiger Cannons. It was too late to get the other cannons, and it was inconvenient to transport them to Tongzhou. After all, cannons are too conspicuous and are not as easy to carry as Crouching Tiger Cannons. and hidden.
As the Ming army's troops got closer and closer, Wang Zi's palms began to sweat.
Although he had killed many people before, this was the first time he faced the Ming army head-on. Even the Ming army in front of him only had three or four hundred people.
Beep! Beep!
Wang blew the bronze whistle hanging around his neck on his own, and at the same time picked up the musket in his hand and struck at the officers and soldiers on the official road.
Not only him, but also the people who were ambushing here fired the firecrackers in their hands.
These people did not fire cannons in neat rows like the soldiers in the Tiger Banner Army, so the sound of the cannons was a bit messy, and the firing time was inconsistent.
In addition, the distance was quite far, so not many Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers were killed, and most of the guns were empty.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"
One of the leaders of the Ming army always hid in the opposite direction as soon as the gunfire sounded.
The team of several hundred people in the Beijing camp dispersed with a roar.
He had never been on the battlefield. As soon as the gunfire sounded, he ran away. No one stayed and thought about counterattack. Even the generals from the Beijing camp who led the troops immediately rode away.
On the contrary, the dozen or so people in Jin Yiwei looked more stable. Although they were also evading, they were obviously not running around like headless chickens like the soldiers in the Beijing camp, but retreated to the sedan chair of the civilian officials leading the team.
Two of the Jin Yiwei helped the civil servants out of the sedan, and led the civil servants to retreat with the people in the Beijing camp, while looking warily at the direction from which the firecrackers were coming.
As for the bearer carrying the sedan, he had already abandoned the sedan and ran away.
"How come there are bandits here! How come there are bandits." The civil servant kept repeating this sentence when he was helped out of the sedan by the Jin Yiwei.
His legs were like noodles, slumping to the ground.
"Sir, these are not ordinary bandits. With so many muskets, I'm afraid they have encountered a powerful bandit." Jin Yiwei said nervously.
He bluntly said that the bandits with so many guns were probably deserters who went to the mountains to become bandits.
It would be great if an average bandit stronghold could only have a few firecrackers. Only officials could handle such a large number of firecrackers.
"kill!"
As the shouts of killing came out, Wang rushed out with hundreds of people.
At this time, the front end of the fire gun in Wang Ziqing's hand had already been equipped with a bayonet, and the others around him were also carrying bayonets to chase the fleeing officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp.
(End of chapter)
