Chapter Twenty-Three: The Qing Envoy Arrives South

After Qian Qianyi's death, the taste of the year became more and more day by day.

Although the city of Nanjing has been full of disasters this year. But when the Chinese New Year is approaching, the people still want to have a good time.

Not to mention, the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed near Nanjing have also begun to be allocated holidays.

These soldiers came from all over the world, and many of them settled in the city of Nanjing. Therefore, tens of thousands of soldiers poured into the streets of Nanjing, bringing some different prosperity to Nanjing.

It seems that Nanjing's Jiangnan rouge gas has a little more flavor of Jin Ge Iron Horse.

However, an uninvited guest came to Nanjing today.

This person was none other than an envoy sent by the Manchus.

Dolgon was quite pragmatic, and when he found that he could not destroy the Southern Dynasty by force for a while, he naturally thought of other methods. In fact, the Qing court was quite flexible in its foreign policy. Not the kind of person who can't be flexible.

Dolgon didn't think about what kind of agreement he would make. But they are willing to engage in this area.

Of course, if there is another chance in the future, Dorgon will naturally tear up the agreement, as if it were a piece of waste paper.

The person sent by Dolgon, who was also the person he carefully selected, was his mastermind Li Wen.

Li Wen is a native of Qingpu, that is, a modern Shanghainese, and her poetry is very good. and Chen Zilong are called the three sons of Yunjian, when the Qing army entered the customs. Li Wen was in Beijing and was captured by the Qing army. was favored by Dolgon and was appointed as a scholar. Regarded as the mastermind.

Many of Dolgon's documents were written by Li Wen.

Historically, most of Dolgon's letters to Shi Kefa and others, and the documents issued by Nanming, were drafted by Li Wen.

When Dolgon wanted to send an envoy to the south, Li Wen also came into his eyes, first of all, Li Wen was his confidant. Secondly, Li Wen is a person from Jiangnan, and he has a very good relationship with the Donglin Party and others, and he has a good network, which is enough for him to find out a lot of inside information.

As for more things, Dolgon had no intention of entrusting Li Wen.

After all, this is only the first round of contact, and if it is really possible for the two sides to reach an agreement, then the negotiations between Qingxia and Xia will naturally be presided over by Manchu.

Li Wen took people to the Jiangbei camp first, Gao Yigong didn't dare to slack off, and sent someone to send him across the river, but as soon as he came from Jiangbei, he saw several heads hanging on the city, and each head was packed in a small wooden frame. Originally, Li Wen didn't care.

Because he's seen too much.

In troubled times, it should be re-enacted. He traveled all the way south, and saw many such situations in the places he passed, and beheaded them for public display. Hanging the city gates. It's no longer surprising, but when I got closer, I realized that it was Qian Qianyi's head, and I was immediately taken aback

was shocked, and suddenly felt sad about the death of a rabbit and a fox in my heart.

There has also been an intersection between Li Wen and Qian Qianyi, after all, Qian Qianyi's position as the leader of the literary world is not for nothing, but I didn't expect that when I said goodbye that day and saw him again, it was already like this. Although Li Wen also knew that Qian Qianyi deserved it, she couldn't help but secretly say: "Qian Lao is too, if you go north, why is this?" ”

Li Wen in history has a very heavy knot. After all, the killing of the Qing army in Jiangnan and his own shame as a retainer.

It's just that now he has the possibility of extricating himself, the reason is simple, when he was stranded in Beijing, the south had been beaten down by Cao Ying. After Beijing was conquered by Li Zicheng, the Ming Dynasty had no possibility of reviving in fact, and the remnants of the Ming Dynasty were chased north by Zhang Xuan and killed little by little. The stake with the Qing court was not too great. 、

In this way, Li Wen also has an understanding in her heart.

And today, he will be desperate to do things for Dorgon.

"After entering the city, I have to inquire about Qian Lao's family affairs to see if there is anyone left in the Qian family." Li Wen thought so in her heart.

Just when Li Wen had not yet entered the city, the news of Li Wen's arrival reached Zhang Xuan's ears.

Regarding the arrival of the Qing army envoys, to be honest, Zhang Xuan didn't think about it, but now he thinks about it. Sometimes when there is a war, they still talk while fighting, not to mention that now, before the Xia Qing Dynasty, tens of thousands of miles of fronts have ceased fighting.

Sending an envoy couldn't be easier.

Zhang Xuan's original intention was not to contact the Qing army, but the two armies were at war and did not kill them. Those who come are guests. Zhang Xuan always wanted to receive it, so he sent an order to Wen Anzhi and let Wen Anzhi deal with this matter, and the rest would wait for the New Year.

It's just that in private, Zhang Xuan still communicated with Zhang Qian.

"Your Majesty," Zhang Zhen said, "and now the situation is better to talk to the Qing army?" ”

Zhang Xuan said: "What does my brother mean? ”

Zhang Zhen said: "The minister knows that there will be a battle between the imperial court and the Dongyu, not to mention anything else, if he does not recapture Yangzhou County, even the minister is unwilling." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, indeed, the front line of Yangzhou, in the hands of the Qing army, Zhang Xuan was like a fish in his throat, and he couldn't swallow it.

Historically, the experience of countless confrontations between the north and the south told Zhang Xuan that defending the river must defend the Huai, and now the Qing army has advanced the battle line to the north of the Yangtze River, which is only a hundred miles away from Nanjing.

The stakes are a little too great.

Historically, the Son of Heaven of the Ming Dynasty guarded the country and was praised. But in fact, if you think about it, is the Son of Heaven used to guard the country? The military risk is too great. Now among Xia Jun's ministers, there are some who want to let Zhang

Xuan moved the capital back to Wuchang.

Wuchang is also much less risky militarily. Of course, there are also many people from the two lakes. Zhang Xuan raised troops from Wuchang, and it is normal for there to be some such people in the government.

Zhang Zhen said: "The minister doesn't know much about the war, but there is one thing, but the minister knows that the court has a huge expenditure, even if His Majesty has the heart to rectify the whole army and dismantle the army, this thing can be done within next year." ”

"In the opinion of the ministers, within ten years of the imperial court, it is impossible to speak of soldiers. Rather than this, it is better to ease up with Dongyu. ”

Zhang Xuan said: "Ten years, is it too long? ”

Zhang Zhen said: "Ten years is still a minister. He calculated carefully and said: "Next year, the number of troops will be reduced, the cost of resettlement, and the reconstruction of the disaster victims in various places, the reduction and exemption of money and food, there will be no deficit, and the minister will be thankful, in the opinion of the minister, in Zhaowu for three years, the treasury can have some savings, and in three years of accumulation for one year, in Zhaowu ten years, there is probably a balance of tens of millions of taels, enough for Your Majesty to fight a war, if Your Majesty wants to decide the victory or defeat in a war, these tens of millions of taels are still not enough." ”

"So ten years is still less."

Zhang Xuan had a slight headache, and said secretly: "I just think that when I had nothing, I could fight, but now I have half of the world, but I can't afford to fight?" ”

In Luo Rucai's army, where was there any salary? If you have a bite to eat, thank God, if you die, find a place to bury it, and forget it. Where a lot of money was spent, but now it is different.

Everything needs money, and everything can't do without money.

The salary of the army, the official salaries of officials, and even disaster relief, water conservancy, the construction of the manufacturing bureau, etc., Zhang Xuan was not used to many policies of the Ming Dynasty, but if he wanted to innovate, the first thing he thought about was money. Zhang Xuan defeated the forces of the remnants of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning, and he could still use war to support the war.

But now that we are fighting against the Eastern, we must not have this idea.

First, all the soft bones have been gnawed, and all that remains is hard bones. In the battle with Dongyu, Zhang Xuan didn't dare to take it so big.

Second, the north is far less rich than the south, and the east is still ruthless, even if he can win, how can Zhang Xuan bear to scrape the oil and water on the people who live such a difficult life. After thinking about it, Zhang Zhen is right, once the battle of the Northern Expedition is launched, it will not be possible to go down with thousands of taels of silver. 、

Where there is a limit to military spending, it is normal to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a fight. If you rely on the state's positive tax in an emergency, more than 1,000 stone of grain a year, at most about 10 million taels of silver. Three hundred taels of silver can be left in balance every year, which is a lot.

It took more than ten years to save up for military spending. With the accumulation of literature and scenery, there is the Northern Expedition of the Han Dynasty. This is right, but Zhang Xuan doesn't want to leave this matter to his children and grandchildren. For a while, Zhang Xuan didn't care about the affairs of the Qing envoy, and put his mind on finances.