Chapter 135: Capture the Envoy

Emperor Chongzhen in Beijing was indeed having a hard time. The defeat of the Songjin War made the stormy Ming Dynasty even worse. In this battle, the Ming Dynasty invested more than 100,000 troops, from February of the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639) to April of this year (1642 of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen), the war lasted three years and ran out of grain. It also wiped out the elite of the Ming Dynasty and greatly damaged its vitality. What is even more hateful is that a large number of high-ranking generals were afraid of the battle when they were about to fight, and they were defeated and surrendered. Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen felt a little depressed, he let out a long breath and sighed: "Alas! He thought to himself that thanks to that showy businessman Zhang Zhimu, if he hadn't lifted the siege of Kaifeng and let the thieves occupy Kaifeng, the situation would have been even worse. Thinking of Zhang Zhimu, he thought again, I don't know what Zhang Zhimu did in Zhangjiakou.

Maybe it was because he had a heart, but at this time, the eunuch of the East Factory rushed in a sheepskin bag. Emperor Chongzhen knew that this was the pocket of Dongchang to send confidential information, and this sheepskin pocket was the logo of Dongchang.

It turned out that when the prince in Zhangjiakou knew that Zhang Zhimu had an urgent secret letter to send to the emperor, he knew that this matter must be extraordinary, and he did not dare to slack off, so he immediately sent a team of Dongchang commanders to take the soldiers, one person and two horses, and galloped back to the Forbidden City in Beijing.

The little eunuch helped open the sheepskin bag and handed a paper bag sealed by Zhang Zhimu to Emperor Chongzhen, who took the paper bag and said, "Okay, you go down!" ”

After the little eunuch went down, Chongzhen saw that the upper right corner of the paper bag read Respect to His Majesty the Emperor, and in the lower left corner it read Xiurong merchant Zhang Zhimu respectfully. hasn't read the content yet, Chongzhen was already overjoyed just when he saw the three words Zhang Zhimu, and only these three words Zhang Zhimu have often been associated with happy events over the years. However, Chongzhen was made to laugh by Zhang Zhimu's crooked words and strange format. He shook his head slightly, and slowly tore open the paper bag, as if to taste the delicious food slowly. Although he was very anxious to know what was inside.

When he opened Zhang Zhimu's letter and looked at the small dense words inside that he didn't know what pen to write, he couldn't help but laugh out loud before he read the content. He thought to himself that no matter what kind of magical power this Zhang Zhimu has, just with your words, it will be far from me. I don't know when Chongzhen has compared Zhang Zhimu with him.

By the time Chongzhen carefully read Zhang Zhimu's letter, Chongzhen had long forgotten the ugliness of Zhang Zhimu's characters. I thought to myself that this Zhang Zhimu is simply a worm in my belly, how can he know my heart so well. Especially his analogy of dead and living horses is too interesting. Thinking of this, Chongzhen couldn't help but blurt out, "I want a live horse!" At this time, a palace maid who came in to pour water was startled when she heard it, and she was so frightened that she quickly knelt down. Chongzhen looked at it and laughed and said, "Get up, it's none of your business." It's been a long time since I've been so happy. Chongzhen thought that it would be easy to kill a few people to relieve his hatred, but if he spared two people, he could get two million taels of silver, which was a great thing. Just as Zhang Zhimu said in his letter, if you kill these two people and confiscate their family property, you won't get much cash. Even some of them will have a lot of loss, and this loss is enough to see Zhang Zhimu's cleverness. This loss is actually the greed of officials at all levels, and Zhang Zhimu said everything without saying it explicitly. Now that the treasury is empty, and there is waiting everywhere for silver, there is such an opportunity that must not be missed. Zhang Zhimu is really a genius, why don't these ministers around me have such a person, if this Zhang Zhimu is by my side, how much worry can he share for me. But Chongzhen thought about it again, he must not let this Zhang Zhimu come to his side now, otherwise the ministers around him will be jealous of him, and it will be difficult for him to make a difference. If you don't get it, his life is at stake, these bastards can't do the right thing, but they're especially good at making some crooked ways. Let's let this Zhang Zhimu do something practical outside.

Thinking of this, Chongzhen picked up the pen and replied to Zhang Zhimu with a letter, which contained only four words: "I want a live horse". Then he wrote a letter to the prince-in-law, asking him to act in full accordance with Zhang Zhimu's opinion when dealing with these merchants in Zhangjiakou. After writing the letter, Chongzhen immediately asked the head of the East Factory and the servants who sent the letter not to rest, and immediately returned and sent the letter to the prince.

The correspondence between Zhangjiakou and Beijing took several days to be delivered back and forth with the chief of the East Factory and the two men riding fast horses. But in the past few days, the situation in Zhangjiakou has changed a lot.

After Zhang Zhimu handed over the letter and the handwritten documents of Huang Yongfa and Wang Dayu to Wang Gonggong, he returned to the inn and asked Li Zhi to tell Huang Yongfa and Wang Dayu that the letter had been sent to Beijing as soon as possible, and asked them not to act rashly and not to miss the horse's feet.

After Chen Yufeng returned to the inn, he said goodbye to Zhang Zhimu and came to live with Liu Yun and them outside the city, so that he could make a judgment as soon as possible when something happened, otherwise these thousands of people would not be able to decide how to act at that time.

When Zhang Zhimu received news of the Manchu army's activities in the Ming Dynasty, Fan Yongdou also received a secret report. The reason why Fan Yongdou has not acted is that he has always been struggling, hoping that the Ming Dynasty still has not grasped his ironclad evidence and will not move himself; Another reason was that the Manchu envoys, Yan Jinghua, did not agree to their withdrawal now, because the Manchus wanted them to help transport food and materials, and if they defected, it would be of little use. Yan Jinghua said that they were just scared by themselves, don't worry, if there is really something, King Khan will come to help them as soon as possible.

Fan Yongdou knew that this was some empty talk, and there was nothing he could do. When Fan Yongdou got the news of the Manchu Qing's activities in the Ming Dynasty, he wanted to gather these eight together, inform them of the good news, and cheer them up. But after Huang Yongfa got the news of Zhang Zhimu, he never went to Fan Yongdou's house again. This time, Fan Yongdou invited him over to discuss the matter, but he also pretended to be sick and couldn't go. This made Fan Yongdou suspicious, and after Fan Yongdou reported the situation to those people, he immediately took a car to Huang Yongfa's house to visit the patient. This Huang Yongfa heard that Fan Yongdou was coming to visit the patient, and he was scared to death. Fortunately, a person sent to him by Li Zhi said by his side: "You don't have to worry about your safety, Fan Yongdou doesn't dare to do anything to you, you just need to go to bed and pretend to be sick." ”

Huang Yongfa climbed onto the bed in a panic, covered his head with a wet cotton towel, and began to pretend to be sick. Waiting for Fan Yongdou to enter the bedroom, Huang Yongfa began to cough constantly. Fan Yongdou asked a few words, and Huang Yongfa didn't play very neatly. Fan Yongdou asked him, are all the things to be transported from the house ready? He nodded and coughed, "It's ready." In short, there is no loophole in the question that Huang Yongfa answered. But Fan Yongdou heard a little problem in the answer that there was no loophole at all. Because Huang Yongfa is also a rare rich man, he usually doesn't remember many details, but today's questions are surprisingly fast. In particular, Huang Yongfa's eyes have always been evasive, and he didn't dare to face him.

This Fan Yongdou knew that Huang Yongfa must have had an accident, and at this time he knew that if he didn't leave, he wouldn't be able to leave.

Just as Fan Yongdou left the mansion of Huang Yongfa's mansion, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, and Tian Shenglan came in. Huang Yongfa had no choice but to continue pretending to be sick, but Liang Jiabin, who entered the house, didn't speak, so he grabbed the wet cotton towel on Huang Yongfa's head and threw it away, "I told you to pretend to be sick, you old thing, you take care of your own life, you don't even pull an old friend, what kind of thing are you?" ”

Huang Yongfa couldn't pretend anymore, so he had to get up. frowned at Wang Dayu, obviously Wang Dayu betrayed him. Wang Dayu hurriedly said: "Hey, I didn't say anything, this is a matter of life and death, I won't talk nonsense." ”

Tian Shenglan, who came with him, said: "Don't say anything from him, we asked him what your illness is, and he said he didn't know. Usually you two have the best relationship, you are sick and he doesn't know what the illness is, we made an appointment to see you, and he didn't want to come, obviously you two have something to hide from us. ”

"Yes, at this life-and-death juncture, Fan Yongdou asked you not to go, obviously I have found a way to get out." Liang Jiabin said.

Huang Yongfa suddenly felt that he had made a serious mistake by not attending the meeting convened by Fan Yongdou today. Thinking of this, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, he thought badly, if there was no news from the emperor at this time, he was already showing his stuff in Fan Yongdou, how could this be good. There is no way, let's quickly tell Zhang Zhimu about them. Huang Yongfa hurriedly said: "Everyone, wait, I have something urgent to do." After speaking, he came to the backyard to see the people left by Li Zhi, told him everything about today, and asked him to report today's matter to Li Zhi quickly. When this person heard this, this fool made such a low-level mistake, and his heart was puffing up, but now he can't help but be angry, so he should go back and report it quickly.

Huang Yongfa, who returned to the inner room, knew that he couldn't hide the matter, so he told Liang Jiabin and Tian Shenglan about the events of the past few days.

After listening to Huang Yongfa's words, Liang Jiabin said: "We don't want to leave here, let's die here." I just beg you to go and talk to Zhang Dongjia again, this matter is everyone, and we are the same as you. Even if we die, the four of us have companions, as long as we can save the lives of our families. ”

Huang Yongfa said: "Someone has already gone to report your matter to Zhang Dongjia. We have always thought that we are still very smart, in fact, we have long been under the surveillance of Zhang Dongjia, you look at the ability of people under them to do things, compared to it, those masters we raised are not bullshit. ”

This Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, and Tian Shenglan waited for this Fan Yongdou to leave Huang Yongfa's mansion before entering the Huang Mansion, they thought they were very smart, but Fan Yongdou was much smarter than them, and as soon as they entered, someone went to send a letter to Fan Yongdou. So as soon as Fan Yongdou went home and entered the door, he knew that Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, and Tian Shenglan had entered the Huang Mansion. This Fan Yongdou was so angry that he wanted to kill these four people immediately, but he knew too well what he should do at this time. He knew that it might be too risky for him to send his gold and silver out of the country now, and now that the Manchu army was operating in the Great Wall, it was better to send someone to pretend to be a caravan to transport all the gold and silver out of the city, and go straight to the location of the Manchu army to seek their protection, so that the gold and silver would be safer. The remaining key people in the family can be evacuated through Yan Jinghua's channels.

Now the eight major businessmen have been divided into the main escape faction and the main surrender faction, which is also divided according to the usual relationship. Usually, Wang Dayu has a very good relationship with Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, and Huang Yongfa. And the remaining four people are usually very good. Fan Yongdou immediately invited three other people, and as soon as he told the matter, these people were so angry that they gritted their teeth. Fan Yongdou said: "Now is not the time to be angry, we should not delay for a moment, and immediately go back to transport our gold and silver to the Manchu army." It might be too dangerous to get out of here now. We waited a moment before the gates of the city to close, and drove the silver chariots out of the city disguised as wagons for caravans to pull goods. They didn't have time to react when they got the news. Everyone hurry back and prepare, don't bring anything unimportant, just keep the gold and silver, and you can earn everything else. ”

The three of them said yes and went back to get ready to go. In fact, they did not hide in their own mansions, they were all hidden in the outer house, and these silver carts dressed as caravans were finally gathered in one freight yard, with a total of more than 200 carriages. When these carriages were gathered together, it was almost time to close the city gate, so they immediately drove the carriages to the city gate, and finally all left the Zhangjiakou city gate before closing the city gate.

The people sent by Li Zhi had been monitoring the surroundings of these people's mansions, and they had not noticed that their fineness had been transported out of the city. When the people sent by Li Zhi to Huang Yongfa's mansion reported the situation to Li Zhi, Li Zhi gritted his teeth angrily and scolded: "These fools. Then he turned around and ran to Zhang Zhimu's room, and told Zhang Zhimu about the situation, Zhang Zhimu also felt that it was time to close the net, otherwise it might be too late. But until now, I don't know if the emperor's letter has been delivered, so I will take action here, and I can't explain it to Huang Yongfa.

Zhang Zhimu hesitated for a moment and said: "The Manchu envoy will be arrested immediately after he comes out, don't use our car, you and Li Jing will arrange it, as long as the location of the captured person is kept secret." I immediately went to inform Gonggong Li and asked him to send someone to guard the city gate, just don't let these people go. After saying that, Zhang Zhimu and Li Zhi went their separate ways, and Li Zhi took Li Jing to arrange the capture of the Manchu envoy.

Zhang Zhimu took Yang Yulin to the garrison yamen, and it happened that the garrison Li Qing and Wang Gonggong were here. Zhang Zhimu told the two of them about the situation, and the prince said: "Zhang Dongjia said that he would do what to do about it, and I didn't dare to delay the letter you gave me for a moment, and sent a captain with a team of soldiers to send it directly to you." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Then in this way, Master Li chose to send some people who knew these eight merchants, and cooperated with the people of the prince to wait at all the exits, and did not allow them to go out of the city, but if they encountered them, they could be persuaded to return, and there was no need to arrest them." In addition, there are also people around their mansions to be monitored, and I have already sent people to several mansions. There are also a few mansions, Lord Li and the princes, you should send people to monitor them. I want to catch the Manchu envoy first. ”

Wang Gonggong said: "I said Zhang Dongjia, no wonder the emperor takes you so seriously, you really do a good job in case of trouble, admire." We will do what you do right away" After speaking, he asked Li Qing again: "Do you say okay?" Master Lee. ”

Li Qing knew that the prince asked him about this little garrison, which was completely to give him face, so Li Qing hurriedly said: "I will listen to the two orders, and I will arrange for someone to do it immediately." Li Qing didn't expect this Zhang Zhimu to be so valued by the emperor, and said that fortunately Wang Shichang introduced him, our relationship was handled very well, if you don't know, you will not have good fruit to eat if you accidentally offend such a person.

A few people were talking here, and the gate army came in to spread the news, saying that someone outside the yamen asked Master Zhang from the kiln gang to hurry back. Several people were stunned when they heard this, they knew that there was no urgency, and the people from the kiln gang would not come to ask Zhang Zhimu to go back at this time.

Yang Yulin said: "I'll ask what's wrong? With that, he got up and went out. Yang Yulin came back after a while, and when she entered the house, Yang Yulin said: "Let's go back quickly, Mr. Lu sent someone to say please go back quickly, and I don't know what is the matter?" ”

Zhang Zhimu got up and said: "The city gate has been closed today, and the matter of guarding the gate will start tomorrow, and there will be two laborers in this matter." I have to go back now. ”

Wang Gonggong said: "Don't worry about the things arranged by the Zhang Dong family." Please come back quickly, there must be something going on at home. ”

Zhang Zhimu returned to the inn, and Mr. Lu and Lu Chengxiang were there. Zhang Zhimu entered his guest room, and before he could speak, Li Zhi, who followed up, closed the door and said, "The person has been caught." ”

Zhang Zhimu asked: "So fast, tell me what's going on?" ”

It turned out that Li Zhi and Li Jing didn't expect things to happen so quickly. They took a few people to the small courtyard rented by Li Zhi outside the back gate of Fan's mansion, ready to observe and see where to set up an ambush. They were sticking out their heads in the courtyard to look at the back door of Fan's Mansion, and the back door of Fan's Mansion suddenly opened, first poking out a head to look out, and then walked out and looked around. Seeing that there was no one around, he turned back and beckoned to the door, where two carriages were driven out. After the carriage went out, the people who came out of Fan's Mansion immediately returned to the door and closed the door. But when the carriage came out, the curtains in the carriage flashed, and someone looked outside. It was at this glance that the intelligence officer who had been in charge of monitoring found that the person who was exposed was the Manchu envoy, and then another car was pulling bundled items, and the intelligence officer was very alert and said: "It's not good, he wants to run!" Otherwise, it won't pull things away. Li Zhi and Li Jing glanced at each other, and the two decided to do it immediately. Several people jumped out together when the carriage was about to pass by the courtyard gate. The coachmen of the two carriages before and after the Fan Mansion came out were the two bodyguards of the Manchu envoy Yan Jinghua, who were also masters of one top and one top, and suddenly saw someone jump out, these two people were in danger, and they pulled out their waist knives together and jumped out of the carriage to meet them. Li Jing knew that he couldn't drag on here for too long, and it was impossible to catch them all alive, so Li Jing sold a flaw, and at the same time that he dodged the knife in front of him who thought he had a chance to slash suddenly, Li Jing's right hand knife pierced under his right rib, and then turned the knife with his wrist to stir up with this. The man threw down the knife and fell backwards, and the other person who was fighting back to back with this man was stunned when he heard the screams behind him, and one of Li Jing's hands raised the knife and fell, and the right hand of the person holding the knife was cut off with a knife, and the right hand fell to the ground along with the knife. Then the man was kicked over and tied up. Li Zhi's people came over and took out the golden gun medicine and quickly applied it to this person, and then bandaged him tightly, otherwise he would bleed and die.

After these two people were dealt with, Li Jing and Li Zhi came to the carriage that pulled people, and Li Jing lifted the door curtain with the tip of a knife to look inside, and was startled. It turned out that this person did not move during this time, and he was tearing up the letter in the car. Li Jing saw that the car was full of scraps of paper, and he had destroyed a lot of letters. This guy saw Li Jing pick up the curtain, and quickly stuffed a handful of shredded paper into his mouth, because of the nervousness and the force of the plug, he choked himself, and he squirted out all the shredded paper. Now the car is even more chaotic. The angry Li Jing dragged this guy down as soon as he reached out and stepped on the ground. They tied him up and stuffed him into the car. As soon as Li Zhi and the others saw that someone was already paying attention to this side, they hurriedly drove the car away, and after going around a few times, they found that there was no tail. Only then did he drive the car to the backyard of Sun Yujiao's inn. Li Zhi hurried up and immediately began to interrogate this guy, but this guy was obviously a slippery head and didn't say a word. He didn't say it, but the guy with the severed hand wanted to say it. He said to his captors, "My name is Huang Zhi, and I have an urgent matter to see your leader. Then he bowed his head and remained silent. ”

When Li Zhi and Li Jing heard the news, they came to the house where the man was being held. The man said, "I want to meet Zhang Zhimu, there is something very important. I can only tell him about this, this matter is very urgent. ”

Li Jing said: "Since this matter is so urgent, then don't delay, tell us quickly." ”

Huang Zhi said: "Since you are afraid of delay, let's hurry up and invite Zhang Zhimu." Otherwise, it's really too late. And then I won't talk about it. ”

Zhang Zhimu listened to this and said, "Then I'll go and meet this person now, see what he has to say, I guess he can have some bargaining capital with us." ”

A few people left the inn, went out for a few turns, and changed carriages before coming to the backyard of Sun Yujiao's inn. Zhang Zhimu entered the house and met this person who wanted to see him. This man was obviously a martial arts practitioner, although he had just been severely wounded, bleeding profusely, and his face was pale. But there was still a sparkle in his eyes.

Li Jing said to Huang Zhi: "This is the person you want to meet, if you have something, you can say it." ”

Huang Zhi said: "What I want to say is very important, and I can only talk to Zhang Dongjia alone. ”

Zhang Zhimu motioned for Li Jing and the others to go out, and then said to Huang Zhi: "Let's talk about it now." ”

Huang Zhi said: "Zhang Dongjia, I will provide you with a very important piece of news, and I want to exchange my life with you." There is no one else in my family, only my old mother is waiting for me to feed, and I can't die. If I die, my mother won't survive. Besides, I'm also Han, and I hate the Manchus to death. I worked as Yan Jinghua's bodyguard to support my mother. In the territory occupied by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was very difficult for the Han people to survive, and I couldn't even support myself without doing this, let alone my old mother. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Listening to what you say, you are still a filial and sensible person. But what you are committing now is not a trivial matter, what can you do to exchange your life. ”

Huang Zhi hesitated for a moment and said, "I'll just say the matter, if Zhang Dongjia thinks what I said is worth my life, let me go." If you don't think it's worth it, I don't have anything to say. ”

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By the way, I recommend "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty", similar to this article, it is also a "technology flow" through the novel, but it takes place in the Southern Song Dynasty, Yashan, Anti-Yuan, Restoration, and European World Wars.