Jiang Beiming and others in Beijing were also discussing the expedition to Mongolia. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"The family has agreed to our expedition." Jiang Beiming took the information he had just gotten back from Ge Tao, "But the family's opinion is that we should move Chongzhen and let the Ming army also participate in this operation." ”

"I don't need to say this, we have to do it too." Han Wantao said, "Relying on the two regiments of Zhou Lei and Wang Qianxiang alone is not at all, and the Mongols cannot be defeated without tens of thousands of people." ”

"Xu Lang, what's the situation over there?" Jiang Beiming asked.

"I went to Wang Chengen and Wen Tiren." Xu Lang replied, "Their attitudes are all ambiguous, and I guess they are speculating on what Chongzhen means." ”

"What does Chongzhen mean?" Zhang Hai asked.

"I really don't know." Xu Lang smiled, "It's not so easy for us to meet this Long Live Lord, but according to Wang Chengen, he thinks Chongzhen should support this idea." ”

"Why?" Han Wantao didn't understand why Chongzhen would support the expedition.

"The reason is very simple, it's competitive." Xu Lang explained with a smile, "Since Bei Ming showed Chongzhen that world map, we have already hooked up the psychology of this young Long Live Lord. This expedition is to expand the territory for him, can he disagree? Besides, when he was his grandfather, the three major expeditions were famous, so he had to catch up with his grandfather. ”

"Then why is Wen Tiren ambiguous?"

"Wen Tiren is probably thinking about the cost." Xu Lang said, "The current imperial court is not as good as the Wanli period, any war is fought with money, and Chongzhen has no money." ”

"That's a real problem." Jiang Beiming looked at the other three people, "If we want to go on an expedition this time, the number of troops will be at least tens of thousands, and we can afford the Yulin Army, but we definitely can't afford so many Ming troops." ”

"Actually, I have an idea, but I don't know if it's suitable or not." Xu Lang said, "According to historical records, the current Mongolian population is about five or six hundred thousand, and the number of deaths will not exceed 1 million. The purpose of our expedition is to prevent the union of the Mongols and the Manchus, and at the worst to consume his strength. And Mongolia's strength is actually its population, so I wonder if we can do a sweep. ”

"How do you want to sweep?" Zhang Hai asked, "Wouldn't it be Sanguang too?" ”

"You don't need three lights, you can do two lights." Xu Lang said with a smile, "Loot it, burn it all, move all the Mongols back inland, and control them." ”

"You can't do that." Jiang Beiming shook his head, "Although it is said that assimilating them is the best choice, for now, it is unrealistic. Let's not say that our army of tens of thousands of people can't control all the Mongols at all, even if you forcibly move them back, how to settle them will be a big trouble. If the resettlement is not good, once these Mongols make trouble, it will be tantamount to asking for trouble for themselves. ”

"What then?" Xu Lang made Jiang Beiming have no idea, "If this method doesn't work, we can't really slaughter the city, none of us can do such a thing." ”

"The best way to do that is to win them over." Jiang Beiming said, "At the very least, let the Mongols remain neutral and not fall to Huang Taiji." ”

"It's all an afterthought, what's the use of you talking so far." Han Wantao was dissatisfied, "Let's discuss how to solve the cost of this expedition first." ”

"If we can't move the Mongols back inland, then what about we move to Mongolia?" Zhang Hai made a suggestion, "Tens of thousands of troops can implement tuntian in Mongolia, or recruit a group of people who are willing to go to Mongolia, anyway, there is a place in the steppe." ”

"You can't do that either." Jiang Beiming vetoed it again, "Do you know why the Central Plains Dynasty has to build the Great Wall for thousands of years, we are a farming nation, and we are not interested in the land that cannot be cultivated." Even if you give away the land for nothing, no one will want to go to such a remote and cold place. ”

"Xu Lang, why don't you speak." Han Wantao asked, "Don't you usually have the most ghost ideas?" ”

"A question occurred to me." Xu Lang raised his head and said, "We are only thinking about how to fight the Manchus militarily, but we forget that there is actually another battlefield that can defeat him." ”

"And a battlefield? What battlefield? Jiang Beiming and the others asked together, "Are you talking about espionage?" ”

"No, it's not espionage, it's the economy, if we can defeat the economy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, then we will get twice the result with half the effort."

"Xu Lang, come, let me see how your head grows." Zhang Hai moved Xu Lang's face, "We're talking about the Mongolian issue, hello guy, you jumped directly to the Manchu Dynasty." ”

"Aren't they all the same thing?" Xu Lang took Zhang Hai's hand away, "Isn't our expedition to Mongolia just to defeat the Manchus?" ”

"Now that you're talking about the economy." Jiang Beiming asked thoughtfully, "Xu Lang, think about it again, can our expedition to Mongolia make the Ming Dynasty government make money." If it could make money instead of spending money, then maybe the Ming Dynasty would agree to this expedition. ”

"Make money? How to make money? Han Wantao asked first, "There are only two ways to make money, either grab or do business." But who have you ever seen doing business with someone with a knife or a gun? ”

"It's not for nothing." Xu Lang said, "Wasn't the Opium War of 1840 just a business that the British came to do with the Qing Dynasty with knives and guns? ”

"Do you mean we're going to do business with the Mongols?" Zhang Hai asked again.

"Yes." Xu Lang replied, "When Lu Lao originally talked about the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, you all heard of 'I answer to pay tribute'. The Ming Dynasty proclaimed me the king of Shunyi and opened 11 border trade ports, enabling the Mongols to obtain Chinese resources through trade. And the benefit to the Ming Dynasty is that the north of the Ming Dynasty has indeed not used military revolution for hundreds of years. But now, due to various reasons, mutual trade has been cut off, and the power of Mongolia has declined rapidly, which has given Huang Taiji an opportunity. ”

"But if we reopen trade, I'm afraid it won't be so easy." Jiang Beiming said, "During our time in Beijing, we also came into contact with many officials of the Ming Dynasty, and there were few who could really support the friendship with the Mongols, and now Chongzhen's policy towards Mongolia is also reversed, which led to Mongolia's final inclination towards Huang Taiji." ”

"That's why we have to hurry up and fight for it." Xu Lang explained, "Since Nurhachi, the Manchu Qing have co-opted and disintegrated the Mongol tribes. After Lin Dan Khan died, Huang Taiji was even more coercive and tempting. If we don't give the Mongols a little benefit now, then it will be equivalent to giving Mongolia to Huang Taiji. ”

"But even if you can make money in business, there has to be a cycle." Han Wantao remembered his experience in business in his previous life, "What we need now is upfront investment, who can pay for it?" ”

"Someone can come out." Xu Lang suddenly said such a sentence.

"Who can get out?" Everyone asked in unison, is there really any money?

"Jin Shang."

The history of the Jin Shang Dynasty has a long history, which can be traced back to Wu Zetian's father, Wushi Mi, between the Sui and Tang dynasties. When Li Yuan and his son raised troops from Taiyuan, the timber merchant Wu Shi vigorously funded it financially, and Li Yuan and his son began to seize the national power with the most elite Taiyuan army and Wu Shi's financial resources at that time.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, some Shanxi merchants used Zhangjiakou as a base to travel back and forth between inside and outside the Guan, engaged in trade activities, transported materials to the Manchu regime, and even passed on documents and information. According to the "Qing Shilu", in the third year of the Mandate of Heaven (1618), there were 16 traders in Fushun from Shandong, Shanxi, Hedong, Hexi, Suzhou and Hangzhou. The trade activities of Shanxi merchants inside and outside the customs gave great support to the Later Jin regime in terms of materials, and the Later Jin regime also gave courtesy and attention to Shanxi merchants. The Shanxi merchants played a role in helping the Qing rulers strengthen their rule over the Mongol region.

In the third year of Jin Chongde (1637), Huang Taiji ordered the Manchu nobles to lead 100 Han merchants from the interior to carry goods to Guihua City for trade. In this regard, Zu Kefa and Zhang Cunren, who participated in the politics of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, once suggested: "Shandong is the way of grain transportation, Shanxi is the way of businessmen, and it is urgent to appease them. Therefore, the Later Jin regime mostly adopted a policy of appeasement towards Shanxi merchants.

In the early years of Shunzhi, the Qing government summoned Fan Yongdou, a wealthy businessman in Shanxi Province, as the imperial merchant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the process of unifying the whole country and in the large-scale military operations of the previous dynasties, most of them received financial support from Shanxi merchants.

Xu Lang briefly introduced the situation of some Jin merchants, and Zhang Hai was the first to shout: "Since you know that the Jin merchants are now transmitting information for Huang Taiji, then how dare you use them, aren't you afraid that they will sell us?" ”

"There's nothing to be afraid of." Xu Lang said, "The nature of businessmen is to chase profits, and whoever can make them make money, they will take refuge in whomever they want." For thousands of years, we have been heavy on agriculture and suppressed business, which has created the bottom of the status of merchants. If we can make use of these people and use their capital, then the matter of money will be solved, and we can also win them over. Ladies and gentlemen, the current situation is like this, for any neutral forces, if you don't win them over, the Manchus will go. Instead of pushing them over to the side of the Manchus, why can't we use them? ”

"That's what you're talking about, but let's look for Wen Tiren again." Jiang Beiming finally said, "Let's see how much money the Ming court can give and how many troops it can send, listen to what they mean, and let's plan it again." ”

Wen Tiren received Jiang Beiming and Xu Lang in his living room.

"You two have worked hard." Wen Tiren looked at the two of them with a smile, "It's really not easy for the two of you to train the Divine Machine Camp for the Long Live Lord these days, and the court has a good evaluation of you." ”

"It's not hard for the lower officials." Jiang Beiming said politely first, "These still rely on Wen Ge Lao's care." ”

"General Jiang is serious, the old man has nothing to take care of, it is still your own ability."

"Elder Wen Ge." Xu Lang felt that it was better to get straight to the point, Wen Tiren's Tai Chi kung fu was probably one of the best in the entire Ming Dynasty, "Xia Guan came this time to ask Elder Wen Ge, what is the imperial court's opinion on the expedition to Mongolia?" ”

"That's a question." Wen Tiren narrowed his eyes, "Our cabinet has also discussed it with the celebrant supervisor, I'm afraid it will be difficult." Now our silver is spent in Liaodong and the important towns of the nine borders, if you want to go to Mongolia, the silver is not easy to do. ”

"But Ge Lao." Xu Lang said, "Emperor Taiji of the Reverse Jin Dynasty has conquered the Mongolian tribes several times, and now only a few tribes such as the Chahar Department and the Ordos Department have not yet been attached to the Reverse Jin. If we don't act and let Huang Taiji conquer the whole of Mongolia, the north of our Ming Dynasty will be completely controlled by the reverse Jin. ”

"Xu Qianhu, the old man has also thought about this problem you said." Wen Tiren narrowed his eyes again, "But it's still silver, and silver is not easy to do." ”

Jiang Beiming looked at Wen Tiren: "Ge Lao, what if we can earn silver from our expedition to Mongolia?" ”

"Earn money?" Wen Tiren's eyes opened, "General Jiang, battles have always been spent on money, I don't know what method General Jiang can use to earn silver." ”

"Hehe, Ge Lao." Jiang Beiming said with a smile, "As soon as the cannon sounds, there are ten thousand taels of gold." How about we reopen the mutual market with the Mongolians? (To be continued.) )