Chapter 149: One Knife and Two Cuts

The richest people in the world are going to talk about these vassal kings, Emperor Chongzhen in the capital is known for his simplicity, but the princes and nobles below are all extravagant and extravagant, judging from these boxes, it is true.

Four wooden chests were neatly stacked with gold ingots, and a smaller one contained some fine jewels, and one of the chief guards said:

"Here are two thousand five hundred taels of gold, and there are some jewelry commonly used by girls, this time I brought them together, and I also accepted them from adults, after all, it is the heart of the palace."

Converted into a common currency, nearly 30,000 taels. If those jewels are bought and sold in the prosperous places in the south of the Yangtze River, I am afraid that the price is also amazing, and everyone who sees these things is a little dazzled, but Li Meng thought with some amusement, could it be that this gold and silver jewelry is the cost of Zhou Wangfu to feed the county lord.

When the matter was done here, there was no more to say, and several guards said a few polite words, and went out to the ferry to return to Henan under the escort of their own soldiers.

In addition to the box of jewelry, the rest of the gold was moved into the silver treasury by the soldiers, probably hearing the movement outside, Zhu Yunyao knew that there was nothing outside, the girl ran out of the house, ran around the yard a few times, and walked to her jewelry box again, and said in surprise:

"Oops, it's all for me."

I checked it, found a hairpin, put it on my head, looked up at Li Meng and said with a smile:

"Brother Li, do you think this looks good?"

The tears on the girl's face were not dry, and she was still wearing a puffy green cloth women's skirt, and she suddenly made this gesture, plus the ancient jewelry and the modern aesthetics are very different, in fact, the girl thought she was very beautiful at this time, which was quite ridiculous, Li Meng couldn't help laughing out loud.

The girl over there took out a bronze mirror in the box, and when she reflected it in the mirror, she immediately knew why Li Meng was laughing, and the girl rushed over with shame and annoyance.

The county lord of the palace is in such a big trouble, and today it is solved, he has obtained a lot of valuable gold and silver, and the identity of the girl has also been solved. Li Meng's mood also relaxed a little, stretched out his hand to rub the girl's head a few times, and said with a smile:

"Everyone else says it's Miss Qianjin, but you're worth ten thousand gold!"

Zhu Yunyao was obviously full of happiness, although she was more lively in the past, she didn't dare to make trouble around Li Meng like this, but today's incident is actually a person who admits that she is Li Meng in disguise.

During the middle of the movement, seeing the water stains on Li Meng's chest, knowing that it was her own tears, the girl immediately blushed, but heard Li Meng say:

"Your surname is not suitable for Zhu now, it is better to follow my surname, surnamed Li!"

Zhu Yunyao's head couldn't be raised immediately, who would have thought of Li Meng's next words and said:

"I recognized your sister, which is considered an additional relative."

The girl's face suddenly turned ugly.

Family affairs became easier, and because of the business turnover everywhere, the fleet of the Ba Min Commercial Bank pulled away the first salt, but the green salt that could come from western Henan was broken several times, and the amount was sometimes large and sometimes small.

However, Li Meng's business was still stable and growing rapidly, and the economic tension caused by the withdrawal of 50,000 taels of silver was finally alleviated.

The reason why Wang Hai walked so slowly on the road when he returned from Beijing at the end of March was that the responsibility of escorting 50,000 taels of silver was too heavy, and he had to be cautious, walking at most thirty to thirty-five miles during the day and staying in the town and the guard house at night.

Such a step and three defenses entered the Beijing Division, according to Wang Hai's words, the money was sent to Eunuch Liu's mansion, Eunuch Liu seemed to be still raising other silver taels, I don't know what he was doing, Eunuch Liu and several leaders in the mansion were very busy, just sent a few stewards to entertain.

Of course, this hospitality is still very warm, all with their own attitude to entertain, each other is not outside, when Wang Hai left the Beijing Division, Eunuch Liu summoned a meeting, each other is to talk about family life, and at the same time tell not to be impatient, as long as there are people above, it is not impossible to be a town general soldier in the future, and move forward steadily.

Li Meng couldn't figure it out, what did the other party want money for, but this kind of political investment was spent, and it was useless to think about it, so he just rewarded Wang Hai with a few words, and asked him to go home and rest for a few days, and then go to the barracks.

In April of the ninth year of Chongzhen, the false joyful atmosphere caused by the so-called great victory at the beginning of the year was finally swept away by the bad news from all over the world. The great famine in Shanxi, cannibalism. Henan drought, locust plague, Tang Wang Yu key on the report, saying that Nanyang, Henan, near Shanxi, because of the famine in Nanyang, Henan Province, a mother ate her daughter tragedy, asked the court for relief, Yongning miners gathered people to rebel, and defeated the people suppressed by the court one after another.

Li Meng found that his ability to bear it had indeed become very strong, and he could actually look at such a tragic description without any discomfort, and after the local table, the imperial court did make a timely response, and Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict to exempt the taxes of several prefectures and counties at the junction of Shanxi and Henan, and issued 3,500 taels of silver to help the victims.

Three thousand five hundred taels? The dignified Jingshi Imperial Court and the Imperial Palace took out 3,500 taels of silver for relief, and local officials at all levels were routinely deducting some of it, and how much would be left in the hands of those local disaster victims.

No wonder, the kings, the generals, the eight kings, the haters of the sky, Cao Cao, these generals of the thieves, there are many times when they fail, but they can recover in an instant, the court and the government are so factional, how can the people not rebel.

Li Meng looked at all this with some numbness, as if he was watching a joke, and he didn't know if history had changed anything because of his arrival, because the history mentioned by general education did not involve these places at all.

In fact, it is true, in normal historical time and space, a few years later, Li Zicheng besieged Luoyang, the defenders of Luoyang owed military salaries, and there was no morale at all, and King Fu was a person who was stingy to the extreme, and he was reluctant to take money to help the labor army.

And the big families who really have silver, those vassal princes and nobles, the court strictly forbade them to give money for relief, even if there is a good heart who wants to do something, because it is afraid that the vassal king will take advantage of this to invite people to buy people's hearts and take the opportunity to rebel, so it is strictly forbidden. But the king of Zhou gave Li Meng a lot of money to feed his daughter and seal his mouth at one time, which was nearly 30,000 taels of silver.

The world is one, the great famine in Henan and Shanxi, Shandong and North Zhili are also affected, the local situation is very unstable, Li Meng is also prepared, but Jiaozhou is not in any trouble because Li Meng is here.

In April, there was a strange thing that happened in various parts of Denglai, almost all the counties and towns of Dengzhou and Laizhou were posted by people to uncover posts and proclamations, and these notices were posted in the middle of the night.

The matter is mysterious, but the content of the notice is a great rebellion, shocking the world, saying that the number of great Ming Qi is approaching, the world is in calamity, and the evil is exhausted, which is a sign of the end of the world. The dragon qi has moved north, and the Emperor Taiji of the Great Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty obeyed the fate of the heavens, and at the request of all the people in the world and the emperor's throne, he respected Nurhachi as the Taizu, the year name Chongde, and changed the country name to Qing.

In fact, in Shandong, Beizhili, and the prefectures and counties near Shanhaiguan, this proclamation and unveiling post appeared, but it was quickly forbidden and destroyed by the tense local officials, but the news spread, and the city wall of the Ming Dynasty was like a sieve in front of Houjin's fine work.

Called the emperor, the establishment of the country, the change of the official system, this is to sort out their own political system, but also to set up a name for themselves, indicating the ambition of the world, although the Ming court is angry, but also helpless, this is the real sad thing.

The proclamation was destroyed in a timely manner, but people were panicked everywhere in Shandong, and there were even rumors that Kong Youde was crowned king, and he wanted to lead a large army to make a comeback and land in Dengzhou, but as a result, many frightened people ran to Laizhou Mansion, in any case, this public opinion offensive of Dongyu was very successful.

In April, Li Meng, as usual, arranged for a messenger to send a private letter to Liu Fulai of Jingshi, which was nothing more than a talk about family life, Li Meng did not mention the matter of the county lord of Zhou Wang in the letter, nor did he say that the 50,000 taels of silver, this kind of silver investment does not need to be announced, everyone can count it in their hearts.

Shandong's governor and general staff officer turned a blind eye to Li Mengdu, not because they offended anyone because of the trouble, but because they didn't know how to use Li Meng.

Li Meng is now the capital secretary, and he is led by soldiers who do not farm land with silver, and all wars should be mobilized, but there is a eunuch Liu behind him, and everyone is really unsure of what Eunuch Liu's attitude is, such as letting his own sons and nephews go to the battlefield to earn military merits, or being a peace officer in the rear, and being promoted steadily.

Liu Fulai, the eunuch of the celebrant and the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, has not expressed his position, and these Shandong officials are not easy to make decisions, but fortunately, the soldiers and horses accepted by Li Meng are more than 2,000 people, presumably for the army stationed in Dengzhou, it is really a fraction, with him and not much worse than him, it does not affect the overall situation, and it is placed in Laizhou.

There are some details that many people have not noticed, Dengzhou is stationed in the imperial army, but the territory is still rampant with bandits, pirates are also harassed from time to time, the only one in Laizhou Mansion can be regarded as a soldier, that is, the Jiaozhou battalion under Li Meng, Kelaizhou Mansion is stable and peaceful, and there is no one who dares to make trouble.