Xu Guansan was restrained by Ma Chengzu, but if Ma Chengzu's orders were not favorable to the King of Chu, he could not carry them out. You must know that Xu Guansan still has an order from the King of Chu, and he can make a decision at a critical moment. Now seeing that this strategy is only good for the King of Chu, there is no harm, of course Xu Guansan has to do it according to Ma Chengzu's arrangement.

Five thousand prisoners were captured, and about four thousand were good in their legs and feet, and seven or eight hundred were wounded. Xu Guansan ordered that the seriously injured should be put on the ground and left to fend for themselves, and that all the lightly injured and uninjured should be sent to the coal mining plant.

Ma Chengzu was not idle here, found the unlucky prince Zheng Rong, and asked him to bring a letter to Zheng Ying. You must know that now Annan is basically the same as the mainland of the Central Plains, using Chinese characters, speaking Chinese, and wearing Hanfu. The Latin-style Vietnamese script of later generations has not yet appeared, so Ma Chengzu's letter is not dyslexic at Zheng Ying's point.

The content of the letter is very simple, first reprimanded the injustice of North Vietnam, he is a Ming official, and he is only a legal business here, why should he send a large army to attack him? The second is to tell how awesome the combat effectiveness of your side is, how the soldiers use their lives, and how your North Vietnam has been defeated. Thirdly, he said that he was the kingdom of the Heavenly Empire, and he would not bother with your country, so he quickly ransom your soldiers with silver, and it would be okay if he didn't have silver or rice. Ma Chengzu, who had a black heart, added a seemingly unintentional addition at the end of the letter, I heard that your North Vietnam was defeated by South Vietnam, and I happen to have some weapons in my hand, and I can sell them to you if I need them.

Zheng Ying, the king of Jingdu in North Vietnam, was also surprised when he received a letter from his hapless son. This 10,000 people is all his mobile people, Zheng has a total of less than 100,000 people, and nearly half of them were killed and wounded in the battle with the Nguyen family a few years ago, plus they have to be stationed in various places, and now their nest Hue can be said to be undefended.

The conditions given by the Daming County Order in the letter are very tempting, and some worthless rice can be exchanged for soldiers, which can be considered. What made Zheng Ying more interested was the last paragraph, you can sell yourself weapons, if it is that kind of powerful cannon, it would be great, with a cannon, can you still be afraid of Ruan?

Zheng Ying looked at his unlucky son Zheng Rong who was kneeling below, and asked, "Are the Ming people's firearms really so powerful?" ”

When Zheng Rong came back, in order to reduce his responsibility, he naturally exaggerated the power of the weapons of the Ming army, what cannon eroded hundreds of miles, and what Ming soldiers were demons of hell and so on.

Zheng Ying is also an old fritter in the rivers and lakes, so he can believe this kind of nonsense. But the power of the Ming army's firearms is certain.

Zheng Ying thought about it, no matter what, the five thousand soldiers must be redeemed, as for the weapons, if it is really that good, some can be purchased.

made up his mind that Zheng Ying sent Zheng Rong as an envoy again to negotiate terms with the Ming people.

When Ma Chengzu heard that North Vietnam was going to sell artillery, it must not be sold. However, I have a good batch of stainless steel knives, which can be sold to North Vietnam.

Zheng Rong heard Ma Chengzu say this, thought for a while and asked, "Treasure Knife?" Don't know what it's like? Can you take a look? ”

Ma Chengzu asked people to take a ductile iron horizontal knife produced in Dongguan and send it to Zheng Rong.

Zheng Rong looked at the knife in his hand, it was a bit like a sword, but the back of the knife was straight, which should be very conducive to stabbing. Zheng Rong looked at the Persian sword he took out, this was the treasure knife transported by the Franco.

Zheng Rong held his treasure knife and slashed at the horizontal knife hard, only to hear a piercing sound, and the two knives were broken one after another.

Zheng Rong was taken aback, he didn't expect Mingren's weapon to look inconspicuous, but it was so sharp.

Zheng Rong asked, "Dare to ask my lord, how much does this steel knife cost?" How many? ”

Ma Chengzu twisted his goatee in his hand and said with a smile: "Your Royal Highness the Prince, this kind of knife is used by ordinary soldiers in our Daming, as many as you want." A knife is ten taels of silver, a spear head of the same material is three taels, and a half-body armor is twenty taels. Is this price prince satisfied? ”

You must know that the production cost of this kind of cast weapon in Dongguan is only two dollars of silver, and Ma Chengzu sold it at fifty times the price, which is really a profiteer.

Zheng Rong didn't expect this knife to be so expensive, but it was a reasonable price, and his Persian treasure knife with refined steel would cost a hundred taels of silver.

"Your Excellency knows, our Annan is barren and doesn't have so much silver, can I exchange it for rice?"

Ma Chengzu is waiting for his words, you must know that in Annan, this stone of rice is only seven dollars of silver, and if it is transported to Dongguan, it is two taels and one stone, and if it is transported to the north, it is seven or eight taels and one stone.

Ma Chengzu, a profiteer, pretended to be very difficult to make a decision, and said in a deep voice: "Prince Zheng, you also know that your rice is not worth much, so we will suffer a loss." ”

When Zheng Rong saw Ma Chengzu like this, he knew that this was a benefit, so he hurriedly called in two selected beauties from outside, and said: "I see that the adults have no family members here, and these two daughters are the daughters of my North Vietnamese criminals. ”

Ma Chengzu saw that these two women were petite and cute, which was very in line with his own aesthetic views. He pretended to be very determined, and said, "Well, since His Royal Highness the Prince is so sincere. The official is in charge, a knife is ten stones of rice, the head of a spear is three stones, and the armor is twenty stones. What does the prince think? ”

Rice is seven dollars and one stone, and Ma Chengzu said one or two stones, so the Zheng family took a big advantage. Zheng Rong said happily: "Thank you, my lord, we first need 5,000 steel knives, 10,000 spearheads, and 3,000 armor." As for the soldiers, how about five stone of rice per person? ”

This transaction earned 160,000 stone of rice, Ma Chengzu was overjoyed, and said: "His Royal Highness the prince is happy, but we only have five hundred horizontal knives in our hands now, and the rest can be shipped in half a month, please rest assured, prince." ”

Ma Chengzu hurriedly wrote a letter to Fu Wenlong afterwards and told him the details. Fu Wenlong also agreed with Ma Chengzu's method and transferred the official letter to the Chu Wangfu in Dongguan.

When Zhu Hongsan saw Ma Chengzu's official document, he didn't expect that this Ma County Cheng was quite capable, and he exchanged some cold weapons for 160,000 stone of grain, that is, more than 7,000 tons.

Zhu Hongsan picked up the pen and wrote a reply letter to Fu Wenlong. In the letter, he affirmed Ma Chengzu's approach, and proposed that he should not just make a fuss about the Zheng clan in North Vietnam, but also contact the Nguyen clan in South Vietnam. The arms business is to make money, but what makes money by eating at home and eating at home? Also, don't stick to weapons, you can sell them some daily necessities, salt, sugar, paper, farm tools, etc., and let them dig iron ore and coal mines if they don't have enough rice.

Zhu Hongsan remembers that there are several large iron ore mines in the area controlled by North Vietnam, which is one of the world's largest iron ore belts. Its own Shiroku iron ore is only the tail end of this iron ore belt, so there are hundreds of millions of tons of reserves, can Vietnam in the middle of the iron ore belt be missing?

After receiving the order of Zhu Hongsan, the king of Chu, Ma Chengzu even ate the plaintiff and the defendant, fanning the flames everywhere on the land of Vietnam. Originally, the Zheng clan of North Vietnam had been greatly injured by the Nguyen clan of South Vietnam, but he didn't expect that with Daming giving him a blood transfusion in the back, he won a few battles on the local battlefield. After learning that the Ming Dynasty supported the Zheng clan, the Nguyen clan of South Vietnam also approached Ma Chengzu and wanted to sell weapons. Ma Chengzu was overjoyed, and he was very happy to be a second-hand arms dealer in Vietnam.

While Zhu Hongsan was making a fortune in Vietnam, the ordinary people of North China were living in dire straits. The climate of the Xiaoice River in the north is still continuing, and the grain in places such as Beizhili Shanxi last year was only 50% of that of previous years. Henan is now a three-way zone, and the Manchus and Li Chuang are fighting for Shaanxi.

Now that Zhu Hongsan's strategy of economic warfare set a few years ago has begun to take effect, the already small grain in the north has been drained, and the lack of materials represents a high price hike, and now a stone of white rice in Beijing is sold for eight taels of silver, which may not be able to be bought. In some remote villages, "human markets" have begun to appear, that is, markets that mainly sell human flesh, and the northern land is starving.

Beijing still had a population of one million when it was ten years in Chongzhen, and after several years of war and plague, there are only more than 200,000 people in Beijing now, which includes a large number of Manchu nobles.

These Manchurian aristocrats did not care about the life or death of the Han Chinese, and after entering Beijing, they began to stake their land in the areas of Beizhili and Shanxi. In order to prevent serfs from escaping, the Manchu court issued a draconian fugitive law, stipulating that the entire family of fugitive slaves should be executed.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance, and under the cruel rule of the Manchus, the people in the north could not bear it anymore and raised the banner of rebellion against the rule of the Manchus. In the first month of the first year of Hongguang, there were more than 20 uprisings in Beizhili alone, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty suppressed and extinguished fires everywhere.

When the iron cavalry that had begun to suppress arrived, the rebels immediately scattered and fled, but in February, the rebels began to resist the Manchu officials and troops head-on. This is due to Zhu Hongsan, who sent a small detachment of 200 people to infiltrate the north a few years ago, and with the help of Qian Lide's intelligence network, he provided weapons, training, and intelligence to the rebellious peasants in various places, which made it more difficult for the Manchus to occupy northern China.

At this time, the strategic center of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was to first shun and then Ming, and first send a large army to eliminate Li Chuang in Shaanxi. Therefore, there is really no energy and strength to suppress the uprisings in various places in Beizhili.

However, the situation of the battle changed in February of the first year of Hongguang, and Li Chuang, who had been fighting with the Manchus for more than half a year, was finally defeated at Tongguan. After besieging Tongguan for two months, the Manchus used Hongyi cannons brought from outside the pass to collapse the walls of Tongguan, rushed into Guanzhong and occupied Xi'an. Li Zicheng saw the general trend and led the remnants of the army south to Huguang.

After the defeat of Li Chuang, the eloquent Dolgon realized that the contradiction with Nanming had risen to the main contradiction, so after ending the battle of Annihilation, he left Prince Azig to continue to pursue Li Zicheng south. Transferred back Duoduo, who could fight, and prepared to conquer the Southern Ming Hongguang regime in the south.

On March 15 of the first year of Hongguang, Duoduo led an army of 240,000 troops to leave Beijing and go south, aiming to eliminate the small court of Hongguang in the Southern Ming Dynasty.