"But what? Afraid that it will be difficult to go back? To whom are you going to be accountable? Your father, your sister, your Qian family or Wu Zheng? Shen Zhiyuan said leisurely, "In order to achieve the goal, I can do whatever it takes!" ”

"You ......, but once the war starts, it is my compatriots who die, and besides, what should you do if you really meet Wu Zheng on the battlefield?"

"In these years, there have been many deaths. If you really have compassion for others, you should stay at home and farm. As for Wu Zheng, you are too worried, you and I have learned our skills in muskets from him, if he can't even win against you and me...... Hehe, then his position as a general should be given to you and me. ”

"You're crazy!" Qian Qiaogong said angrily, "I will never agree." ”

Shen Zhiyuan suddenly sighed and said, "Why can't you figure it out? The Qing court wants to form a new army of muskets, and without you and me, it will not be built? Without you and me, the Han people in Jiangbei would not have been recruited to form a new army? Without you and me, this Han army would not have gone south to make enemies of its compatriots? You must know that this is a war of life and death, and there is no morality in war...... Do as I say, then at least you and I can control the situation and not make it too miserable, otherwise there will be many more deaths. ”

Qian Qiaogong was silent, and there was some truth in what he said.

But after being silent for a while, Qian Qiaogong raised his head and stared at Shen Zhiyuan's eyes and said: "I understand, in fact, what you said in the court is not false, but true, you really resent Wu Zheng and resented him for not giving you a chance to make contributions, so you just want to defeat him to prove that you are not worse than him...... Is that right? ”

Shen Zhiyuan was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "Although it is not successful, it is not far away." Wu Zheng and I are brothers, but brothers are not used to step up. ”

"That's not for betrayal, either!"

"You're paranoid. I never thought of betrayal, and I never regarded Wu Zheng as an enemy, enemies are meant to be destroyed...... If you have to do what you say...... That's probably competition. In fact, you understand, this is a good thing for me and Wu Zheng. ”

"I don't care what kind of competition you have, but you shouldn't risk the lives of countless compatriots to compete with Wu for his X!"

"Compatriots?" Shen Zhiyuan said with a sigh, "You are too self-inflicted, when those Han people cut their knives at their compatriots, they are no longer your compatriots, they are enemies, I just sent these people to Wu Zheng's gun." ”

Qian Qiaogong looked at Shen Zhiyuan's handsome face in a daze, "Are you really drunk...... You make me feel strange, no, you make me feel terrible! ”

Shen Zhiyuan raised his hand and touched his face in surprise, and said with a wry smile: "I also feel that I am strange, and it is a little scary." ”

Speaking of this, Shen Zhiyuan said solemnly: "But I don't regret making this decision. The reason why the Ming Dynasty died was because the Han people could no longer distinguish between the enemy and me, so use blood to let the people of the world understand who is the enemy and who is the friend. ”

Looking at Qian Qiaogong's already cold face, Shen Zhiyuan continued: "You and I have the same goal, that is, to expel the Tartars and return the world to the Han people. ”

Shen Zhiyuan slowly stretched out his hand to Qian Qiaogong, "As long as this bottom line is not broken, you have to listen to me, this is your promise." ”

Qian Qiaogong looked at Shen Zhiyuan's outstretched hand and said coldly: "But what if this bottom line is also broken?" ”

Shen Zhiyuan smiled slightly and said, "Then you let me stab me in the back, and then go back and tell Wu Xiaomei that I, Shen Zhiyuan, am a traitor." ”

Qian Qiaogong was stunned for a long time, and finally reached out and held Shen Zhiyuan's hand.

……。

Due East, a mansion near the Temple of Heaven.

This is the mansion of Fan Yongdou, one of the "Eight Great Imperial Merchants" of Shunzhi Qinfeng, in Beijing.

Within a radius of five miles, all of them were circled by him.

But the strange thing is that the furniture in the huge mansion is very scarce, and there are not even a few servants.

This may be a common problem of businessmen, who are extravagant on the outside, but stingy on the inside, to the point of turning a penny into eight flowers.

The stinky lard at home is an altar, but the meat is reluctant to buy four taels.

Even if the rice is only five dollars and one stone in the year of ripening, they only eat some gruel with clear soup and no rice.

The dish is simpler, either salted beans or salted duck eggs.

Pour a few salt beans out of a salt shaker, or eat half a salted egg to fill a meal.

Merchants with thousands of dollars in their pockets decently decorate outside, are accustomed to breaking into widows' doors, eating empty tea, and pretending to be in the wind and moon, but whenever they see a woman with a slight color, this eyeball will look at people half dead.

As for the matter of prostitution and concubines, they all spend a lot of money and are never stingy.

Of course, this is also to cater to the "elegance" of the scholars, if it is not for the climbing scholars, it will not be possible.

Today, Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou are here to discuss with the "Eight Imperial Merchants" who came by order to raise funds.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this official has already made everything clear, right? You're going to have a voice. Fan Wencheng said with Yan Yuese, after all, he was asking for money from others, besides, these people are all familiar faces, and they have dealt with each other in the past.

Two million taels, this number is not big, but it can be said to be small, definitely not small.

Now the price of grain in the capital is two stone japonica rice and three taels of silver, two million taels, which is equivalent to 13 or 400,000 stone grain.

Fortunately, Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou didn't urge them, they just looked at these local tyrants with a smile.

The imperial businessmen who sat in a pile exchanged heads and whispered.

Fan Yongdou got up and arched his hand and said: "The emperor's grace is vast, and we can't repay it." Originally, there was an envoy in the imperial court, and we must be afraid to do our best, but it was just ....... ”

Looking at Fan Yongdou's appearance of spitting and wanting to speak, Hong Chengchou frowned and reprimanded: "It's just two million taels, which is nothing more than a drop in the bucket for you and the others...... Why, the court gave you face, but you are still not happy? ”

Fan Wencheng smiled and said, "Lord Hong is really quick-tempered, you have to let people finish speaking, don't you?" …… Shopkeeper Fan don't be restrained, let go of the courage and say, what is really difficult, put it on the surface, this official and Lord Hong will definitely be the master for you. ”

Fan Yongdou wasn't afraid, he was just vague, what to say, at this time, he listened to Fan Wencheng's urging, so he arched his hand and said: "Two adults, this is definitely not a prevarication for us, it is indeed a difficult situation." In the past six months, a group of pirates has appeared in the waters from Hangzhou Bay to the mouth of the Yangtze River, and fleets have been repeatedly robbed in the past, and several merchant ships such as us have not escaped their doom. ”

Hong Chengchou frowned and said, "Aren't the merchant fleets under your command all equipped with escorts and cannons, why do you let the pirates be arrogant?" ”