Under the pressure of tens of millions of dollars, the Jiangnan gentry quickly began to clarify their positions.

The vast majority don't pay for it.

Even those who paid for it all withheld the ropes, allowing Zhang Guowei and other Donglin sages to constantly send cronies to lobby in various places and advocate righteousness in the newspapers they controlled......

Of course, this is not the emperor's ransom.

Their slogan was to donate money to support the King of Qin in his western expedition for the Ming Dynasty and to recover the homeland of the Western Regions of the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Previously, Yang Qing's loan had been secured, and Li Zicheng handed over the control area of Hebei Erfu to the Nanjing Prison State, and when Yang Qing described this matter in the newspaper, he used the adjective of the Qin king's western expedition to recover the homeland of the Western Regions of the Han and Tang Dynasties. He is to form this understanding among the people, so that the common people can recall that the Western Regions was also a land of China, after all, it has been lost for many years, and it is difficult for the people to have any impression of it. But this just gave Donglin Qunxian a good fig leaf, it is undoubtedly difficult to hear that it is difficult to raise money to redeem the emperor, but it is much more glorious to raise money to help King Qin go west, even if everyone understands what is going on, after all, it looks much better.

Well, it's a lot weirder, too.

The Jiangnan gentry donated money to the thieves to go west......

This style of painting is really strange, and it's also messy!

But even this did not gain much, and it was not until mid-March, when all the representatives of the four people from all over the country had arrived, that they scraped together a paltry 200,000 taels of silver......

As much as Chongzhen's harvest.

I have to say that there are so many festivals in Nanjing and Beijing.

As for Yang Qing, he was watching the excitement from the sidelines.

He himself donated 5,000 taels, which is already a lot, and he can be ranked in the top 10 on the donation list, and those civil officials have 100 taels and dozens of taels! Wang Chengen is actually the most, he donated a full 10,000 taels, Zhang Yan and Concubine Yuan sold their jewelry and made up 10,000, and Huaiyuanhou made up 5,000 despite the disaster at home, which is as much as Shui Tailiang's family. Princess Kunxing actually sold her calligraphy and paintings for 10,000 taels, she actually didn't even have private money, but she was usually very good at piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

This is the handwriting of the prison state.

It's not difficult to sell 10,000 taels.

In short, the city of Nanjing has made up these, it is only 200,000 taels, this result makes the sages of Donglin want to cry one by one, just at this pace, the whole country can make up two million to the sky, it is impossible at all, it is obvious that Yang Qing has a little error in estimating the value of their face before.

But they are not the most tragic.

The most tragic of all was Dolgon.

Haizhou.

"Another price increase?"

In the living room of the back house of a grain store in the city, Cao Sanxi, the coat of our Qing Dynasty Internal Affairs Office, exclaimed dissatisfiedly.

"Liu Gong, let's do business with faith, why has the price of this negotiation risen again?"

He went on to say.

"Brother Cao, I can't help it!"

The old squire opposite him held the teacup and said slowly: "Now that the imperial court is about to meet it, then Li Zicheng has offered a price of fifteen million stones, how can the imperial court have so much grain, and in the end it has to be purchased from the people." Don't say that the price of rice has risen here, that is, the price of rice in Jingshi has risen to almost one or two, and there is still no price in the market, waiting for the price to continue to rise. I'm selling you two taels and one stone now is already a conscience price, but I'm doing a head-killing business, if I am found by Jinyiwei, I will have to raid my house! ”

This is the main export point for grain smuggling in the Qing Dynasty.

The grain in the south of the Yangtze River continued to reach Huai'an through the canal, and in Huai'an, a grain distribution center, small boats were quietly loaded, mixed into the salt boats returning to the north to enter the salt river, and then reached Haizhou all the way. After negotiating a deal between the officials and merchants of the Interior Government and the local smugglers in the south of Haizhou, the latter was responsible for bribing the local officials and garrisons, and then transported them to sea in small boats, and the two sides traded on small offshore islands such as Dashan Island. The Manchu merchant ships then avoided the Ming army's maritime patrols and transported the grain to Jiaozhou, and from Jiaozhou to Beijing......

This shipping line is cumbersome.

It can be said that it is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and inefficient.

But Dolgon had no choice, it was impossible to transport ships directly from Zhejiang to the north, because Denglai was stuck in the middle, and the Beiyang sailors were eyeing each other, and all the merchant ships that crossed the Changshan Islands were sunk, and it was even more impossible to smuggle in the canal. Smuggling by land is also very difficult, Henan and Luxi buffer zone is uninhabited for hundreds of miles, except for the cavalry patrol of the Ming army, and from Haizhou to the north by land can not pass the northern checkpoints.

This is the only option.

And this price ......

Well, we don't have a say in this price.

"Brother Cao, we are all old friends, I'll tell you the truth, you can buy it at this price, don't buy it, don't talk nonsense, I'm waiting for the court to make a decision, it's also indispensable to make money, and it's safe to make less money!"

The old squire said.

"But I brought 10,000 taels of silver this time, I can't bring back the food, and if I don't get it right, I will cut off my head, you will be accommodating when you are old, and you really can't do it in half or two!"

Cao Sanxi pleaded.

He is a native of Shanxi, and he used to do business outside the Guan, so he took the line of our Daqing Dynasty, but he is only a small role, and he can't be compared with the Fan family, and as the situation changes, his business is also on the verge of despair. Fortunately, at this time, a new business opportunity appeared, and in order to feed the hardcore crops in the north, Dolgon could only smuggle grain from the south when the common people could not find it. He then forcibly recruited a large number of unsustainable Jin merchants into the Ministry of Internal Affairs, controlled various monopoly industries, including the salt industry, and used this wealth to smuggle grain from the south as an imperial merchant while looting private wealth.

Cao Sanxi is one of them.

But because of his low status, he could not continue to be a salt merchant like the Fan family, so he could only be sent out to do the most dangerous thing, but fortunately, the danger has always been linked to the profit, because he smuggled a lot of grain, not only has it entered the eyes of the regent, but also earned a lot of money.

In the past, he bought it here at a price of one or two, and then transported it to Jiaozhou, and then transferred to the Jiaolai River to go to sea to go to the shallow coastal waters, so as to avoid the patrol of the Ming Army's Beiyang Naval Division in Laizhou Bay, and transported the grain to Tianjin, and then sold it in Beijing at the price of two taels, but now this price is ......

The price is also acceptable.

"Gong Liu, you want my life!"

He lamented.

"You just have to die, and then you have to rise!"

Liu Gong drank tea and said indifferently.

In fact, he is pure blackmail, although the price of rice has risen, but it has only risen to eight yuan, of course, he does this kind of business of raiding the family and destroying the door, and it is unreasonable not to make more than double the price difference.

Cao Sanxi finally left with sadness, and then boarded a fishing boat at the outer pier, paid a large commission for the fishing boat to send him out to sea, and arrived at Darshan Island the next day. Another day later, several large sea-going ships appeared at sea level, and when they docked, they carried crates of silver, and that evening small boats carrying grain began to arrive one after another. When the small boats arrived at one, they quickly transferred the grain to the larger ship, and then he paid for the food. After a whole night of busy work, the five thousand stone grain was all loaded onto the ship, and the ten thousand taels of silver he had brought with him were spent, and then he looked at the last departing boat gloomily, and gave the order to set sail.

"The owner, how can you sell it at such an expensive price!"

His buddy said cautiously.

"How to sell it? The regent only needs food, so he doesn't care about the price! Go back and sell three taels and one stone, if you like to eat or not, it is the time of the spring famine, if you don't eat this, let those officials and old men go out to gnaw the bark and dig wild vegetables like the poor ghosts! Silver is not to be eaten. ”

Cao Sanxi sneered.

Indeed, he is also eligible for price increases.

Last year, grain production in the north continued to decline, and the cold weather intensified, although Dolgon also followed Li Zicheng's method and used high-priced smuggled sweet potatoes to promote new crops, but because of the limited quantity, there was no substantial change for the time being. There was no way to loot the common people, and there was an endless stream of people fleeing to the south to the areas controlled by the Ming army or to the west to the areas controlled by Li Zicheng, and there were continuous rebellions in many places because of famine, and the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners were exhausted to suppress them, and as a result, more and more rebels were formed.

It's almost time to catch up with Chongzhen.

In the final analysis, it was all about food, and even the Eight Banners were now difficult to eat, and even the Eight Banners had mutinies in some places.

Dorgon now only needs food.

He doesn't care about anything else, as long as he can get him food, he can sell it at whatever price he likes, otherwise those imperial merchants have no motivation to smuggle, they run to the area controlled by the Ming army to smuggle, once they are discovered, there is only a dead end, and if they don't let them make enough money, which of them will really do things for the Qing Dynasty?

"Let's go!"

Cao Sanxi said.

"The owner, the Ming Army Sailor!"

Suddenly, the sailor on the mast exclaimed.

"Panic what!"

Cao Sanxi shouted.

He sighed and waved to the side, and a guy hurriedly brought a small box over, at this time several warships appeared in the distance, and soon the two fleets met.

"Stop the ship and check!"

Shouted for the officer on the first ship.

"General Wang, they are all old friends, what else is there to worry about, I am just going to Dengzhou to transport some goods."

Cao Sanxi said with a smile.

"Ah, if you go to Dengzhou, then you don't need to check, you won't lie to me, and then go to Jiaozhou halfway, right?"

General Wang said.

"No!"

Cao Sanxi said with a smile while holding the box.

The box with the lid open was glittering with gold.

In this way, several Ming warships turned aside, a small boat came to take the boxes, and Cao Sanxi, who had lost 1,000 taels of silver, continued to move forward with a fleet loaded with 5,000 stone of grain, and by the next morning they saw Jiaozhou Bay. But at the same time, two patrolling warships sailed over, and the mast of this warship fluttered the dragon hugging the sun and moon flag of the Ming Navy.

Cao Sanxi sighed, then endured the pain of blood dripping from his heart, and took out a smaller box. Soon two new warships slowly passed by his fleet, one on the left and one on the right, and the cannons were rolled out one after another from the open gun doors, and under the horrified eyes of the sailors, the black holes of the guns were aimed at them.

Cao Sanxi didn't say a word.

He simply opened the box to the officer on the deck of a battleship, and a few gems inside reflected the brilliant light.

The officer smiled with satisfaction.

"Let's go back and sell it in half!"

Cao Sanxi said to the guy with an expressionless face.