In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, in February, Shengjing outside the Guan, Xinuan Pavilion.

More than a dozen people dressed in fine clothes gathered around a large table, all staring down, and although it was dusk, the room was lit with butter candles, illuminating the room as if it were noon.

"Your Majesty, we have already grabbed enough gold and silver population on the territory of the Ming people, enough for us Jurchens to live a good life for a few lifetimes, and the soldiers and horses of the Ming people are also afraid of us, why don't we enjoy the blessings?"

The man who spoke was tall, and although he had a coiled beard, he was actually very young when he looked closely, and although he did not have a high status in the room, he did not care what he said.

"Duoduo, where is there a place for you to speak, the affairs of the Great Qing Kingdom, only Your Majesty can make up your mind, where do you grab something."

A young man standing next to Duoduo scolded and said, this person was wearing the robe of Prince Heshuo, his face was handsome, and he looked very dazzling among these people in the room, after scolding, he looked at Emperor Chongde standing on top gently and obediently - later generations are generally called Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, this Emperor Chongde just looks at the appearance, far less than the other Manchurian prince Baylor in the room, he is just fat, thin eyebrows and fine eyes, usually drooping eyelids, as if absent-minded, hearing the young man's scolding, he did not look up, But he still stared at the desktop, where there was a map of the territory of the Ming Dynasty, which marked the provinces, prefectures and counties, and great rivers and mountains in Han and Mongolian characters.

"Dolgon, these false things you learned there, listen upset, tell me, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty is smart, Your Majesty has an idea, and your subordinates will do it as they are, the Qing Dynasty has already occupied the land outside the Guan, and Korea and Mongolia are all attached to me. The flag is brave and unparalleled, there is no shortage of gold, silver and food, and the population is not lacking, and it is also possible to enjoy peace and wealth in the good place left by the ancestors, and enter the customs ......."

Listen to Dolgon's slick and neutral words. Huang Taiji's brows gradually furrowed, but the attention of others was focused on the map, and suddenly heard a "plop" sound, everyone was alarmed, Huang Taiji looked sideways, and asked a little strangely:

"Mr. Fan, why is that?"

The middle-aged man on the ground, who looked like a scholar, kowtowed a few times in a row, with great force, his forehead was bloody, and he said earnestly:

"Your Majesty. The destiny of heaven is in my Daqing. If you don't take it, it will hurt the hearts of the people and the people, Your Majesty, make a decision as soon as possible, and take the world from the Ming Dynasty! ”

Today's Guanwai. The status of the Jurchen Manchus is much higher than that of the Han people, they are called pigs and dogs, they are killed and robbed, and the situation is slightly better than the Han Eight Banners, because their combat power and firearms technology are a very important supplement to the Manchu Jurchens, which is also the reason why Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and others were crowned kings.

The status of the Han people in the Qing Dynasty, the warriors were far higher than the literati, and the current Manchu Eight Banners were still just a barbarian military group. War is the number one priority.

In such a situation, there is only one person who can appear in the collegial discussion of the Manchu royal family and nobles, and dare to admonish the Han literati with such an attitude, Fan Wencheng, a scholar of the Manchu Inner Secretariat Academy, who is called by Huang Taiji, one of the best traitors at this time.

Huang Taiji had actually already made up his mind, and Fan Wencheng's kneeling was just to set off the atmosphere. It's just a matter of giving Huang Taiji a chance to swing. It's just that this kneeling is even more favored by Huang Taiji.

Thirteen years before Chongzhen. There are also arguments among the relatives and nobles of the Manchu Dynasty, on the one hand, they feel that the land outside the Guanxi is vast, the Manchu Qing Dynasty is strong, and countless gold and silver men and women have been plundered in the Ming Dynasty, and it is the right way to enjoy wealth and wealth between the white mountains and black waters, and the other side is that the Qing Dynasty has risen, and the martial arts are unparalleled, and the Ming Dynasty has civil strife, and the great mountains and rivers in the south are ripe fruits, and it should be the turn of the Manchurians to sit and sit.

With Mongolia, Korea, and the resistance of Daming Liaozhen has been gradually swept away, and the Qing army already has a stable rear, and it is necessary to consider the next general direction.

In this collegiate meeting, the princes and generals of the Manchu Qing Dynasty finally unified their minds and joined forces to attack the Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji's opinion is naturally to attack Ming, but the reason why he can reach a collegial agreement so smoothly is that Fan Wencheng's cozy attitude is also one of the important factors.

In February of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, in Agate Mountain, Taiping County, Zhang Ling, the general of Sichuan, Zheng Chongjian, the governor of Shaanxi, Zuo Liangyu, the general soldier, and other generals, led the Ming official army to surround Zhang Xianzhong's troops on all sides, and Yang Sichang was in Xiangyang to assemble the army and supervise the division. This kind of supervision still played a certain role.

Although Zhang Xianzhong recovered a certain amount of vitality, he did not expect that the Ming army would suddenly show such great determination to fight the encirclement station, and the preparation was somewhat insufficient.

Under the attack from all sides, the formation was in chaos, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were completely defeated by officers and soldiers, and the generals and military divisions of his cronies were either killed in battle or captured, Zhang Xianzhong was slightly luckier than Li Zicheng, who was ambushed in Tongguan that day, and he also had time to break through with more than 1,000 cavalry, and fled in panic.

According to this, Cao Cao and Luo Rucai's sixth battalion, which was not far away, were hospitality-friendly to Yao Zongzhong, the envoy of the cold ice Taoist sent by the superintendent Yang Sichang, Luo Rucai always had a certain illusion about being appeased, and the reason why he rebelled again from Fang County was just to get a better price in the bargaining with the imperial court.

Originally, Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, led more than 1,000 people who had worked hard to collect each other and Luo Rucai, but he was extremely disgusted by Luo Rucai's hesitant attitude, and Luo Rucai's hookup with the Ming army's envoys also made Li Zicheng feel dangerous, so he simply retreated to the Yubei Mountains in the Wuba area with his troops.

Supervisor Yang Sichang was the beginning of the encirclement and suppression of the Shaanxi rebellion, and the idea of appeasement in the court was forceful, and after the real front line, it really had a certain effect, and Zhang Xianzhong's Tuotian King led his subordinates to surrender, which was also the reason for Zhang Xianzhong's defeat

In February, it was still quite cold in the Padang Mountains, but in the camp of King Chuang in the deep mountains, most of the soldiers' clothes were single shirts, and their clothes were still in tatters.

In the past few months, the soldiers under King Chuang have been fleeing, they have been defeating, and the morale of the army has dropped to a low point.

Gao Yigong's position was in the middle position, but his attention was not looking at the open space. From time to time, he looked at the horses and the packages around the horses in the upper wind, and the army stumbled all the way to the present, in the deep mountains to supply food.

In some critical situations, gold and silver are also needed to buy through the levels. The Chuang army didn't have much money before it was ambushed in Tongguan, and it was still able to support it, all thanks to the general in Shandong who generously gave 50,000 taels of silver.

Gao Yigong bit a grass stalk, feeling a little ridiculous, thinking that hundreds of thousands of troops crisscrossed five provinces back then, and now there are only more than 1,000 people, relying on these tens of thousands of taels of silver to support, and it has not been spent for a while and a half, which is really the end of the road.

In the central open space where King Chuang was encamped, several people dressed as officers and soldiers looked around nervously. Although the ragged men around them were listless. But they knew that these people were going to cut themselves into a thousand knives and chop them into pulp, but they had to do it with a gesture.

One was dressed in a big hat. The tall man with the red tasseled felt hat was saying sharply:

"Wang Guangen, if the two armies don't come in front of the formation, if you make noise again, I will break this rule!"

Looking at King Chuang's army, that is, this tall man is still dressed like this, but if you look closely, this dress is also tattered, and if you can dress up like this, it is naturally King Li Zicheng.

The man he scolded was a middle-aged man dressed as a businessman. A smile was forced on his face, but it was extremely ugly.

Most of the troops in the hands of the superintendent Yang Sichang were used to pursue Zhang Xianzhong, as well as to arrange the offensive against Luo Rucai, and there was no spare strength to deal with King Chuang, and he felt that King Chuang was already forced into a desperate situation and did not need to spend too much thought, so he sent Wang Guangen into the mountain to surrender.

Who would have thought that he was scolded back by Li Zicheng. Fell into disgrace. Supervisor Yang Sichang couldn't help but exclaim:

"It's better to be stubborn than to be aggressive."

The profits of Shandong's private salt suddenly soared, and the two Huai salt merchants promised to land 1.2 million taels of silver a year. At the beginning of the year on the first day of February, Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui looked at each other and smiled bitterly, thinking that this chief soldier of his own family was really very capable, and the financial gap, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, was actually made up in this way, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is magical.

It's just that he persuaded his own adults to save money, but he found a way to spend money for you, which is really speechless, but it is true that you can't say anything, what is wrong with a large amount of money.

In the past, the Ming official army stationed in Haizhou had military camps built by salt merchants in good condition both inside and outside Haizhou City, but the Jiaozhou Battalion did not enter these camps.

They are all levies and large-scale construction, and these silver and Huai salt merchants are all willing to put forward the burden according to the rules, and Jiaozhou camp has no objection to this.

The location of the station, Haizhou City, is naturally the best and easiest place to control, but Li Meng asked to be placed in Linhong Town and Gaoqiao, two places that are a certain distance away from Haizhou.

The soldiers mobilized from all over the country began to be stationed in Haizhou and Shuyang, and Zhang Jiang, who led the troops, was promoted to the general of the town side, and his heart was excited to speak, he thought that when he came to Huaibei, all the systems were carried out in accordance with the system of the camp in Jiaozhou, Shandong, and he just obeyed it.

Who would have thought that there was a big difference here, first, where there were military camps, there must be shops in Lingshan Commercial Houses, even if they opened shops in those places could only lose money, and then, in each military camp, there were some recruits who didn't know how to come from, and they were all famous gentry in the Jiaozhou camp system, and even Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui came forward to persuade these recruits to join Huaibei

If this is in other armies in the Ming Dynasty, it is an extremely incredible thing, a good child, let him be a soldier for what, isn't that forcing the child to a dead end, in the Jiaozhou camp is very unsystematic, soldiers who have not been trained and guaranteed to enter the barracks, the relevant responsible persons will be punished.

Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, has never been a magnanimous person, and such unruly things will inevitably be punished heavily. Zhang Jiang had just arrived in this position, and he acted more cautiously, for fear that he had done something wrong, so he could send someone to write a letter to tell Li Meng about these things.

To his surprise, Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, actually agreed to all of them, which made him really a little confused, but he naturally complied with all the above words.

Moreover, there is a small-scale rotation system of the pro-soldier team, in the Huaibei armies, the generals of more than 1,000 generals, and the pro-soldiers around them must be rotated with the Yanzhou army.

Fortunately, most of the pro-soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion were officer reserves. It is not the elite core troops around the generals, and this kind of rotation will not affect anything, but the most important thing in the Jiaozhou battalion is the word rules, and these things are against the norm. But Li Meng completely allowed it, which made Zhang Jiang really confused.

Because he is about to be transferred to other provinces, Zhang Jiang has a rare vacation, let him go back to the Lingshan Guard to reunite with his family, one person in the Jiaozhou camp as a thousand generals, this is already a glorious thing, and he has to go to Huaibei to do the capital, although the official rank is not high, but everyone knows that this is to be the middle of the four generals, and it is even more honorable.

The old soldiers* who trained the horse army really had a bright face. His own nephew has such an achievement. It's not all because he taught well, anyway, all these old military households related to the Jiaozhou battalion are now big families, and the scene is very wide. Zhang Jiang's parents are honest farmers and soldiers, and the so-called bow and horse things are all * to teach, and these foolish things are naturally used to ask.

The old military household* had rare insight and flexibility among the residents of this Lingshan Guard, and after hearing Zhang Jiang's narration, he laughed there for a long time, and then said with a smile:

"It's normal for high-ranking officials and generals to do these things, but it's normal for General Li to do it, if you don't do it. On the contrary, it is surprising, child, follow Master Li hard, you will be indispensable for prosperity and wealth in the future! ”

The old soldier's emotion did not answer any questions from Zhang Jiang at all, but the next words were analyzed and understood.

"What is Haizhou City, it is the heart of the two Huai salt merchants. Where the salt is produced. You go over there to guard it, and the soldiers are coming. That is the grandfather of those salt merchants, they must flatter you respectfully, and when the time comes, the gold and silver women must be sent to the door in large numbers. ”

Hearing this, Zhang Jiang scratched his head, hehe laughed a few times, Zhang Jiang is not very old, very simple, he is very proficient in marching and fighting, and he doesn't know so much about other aspects, hearing his uncle's description, he feels that this prospect is very good, and he can't help laughing out loud.

* Seeing his nephew smirk, he put down his wine glass, slapped him on the back of the head, and shouted angrily:

"You kid are still smirking, don't you even know that the catastrophe is coming?"

The slap suddenly stunned Zhang Jiangfan, and said in a deep voice:

"You took the gold and silver woman, then what did the salt merchants ask you to do, you take other people's hands short, can you still speak hard, in the style of the Jiaozhou camp, it is also a big crime for you to collect money, those salt merchants must hold your handle, how do you do it in the future." Do you think that if the old man thinks of the ground, then Mr. Li can't think of it? ”

Zhang Jiang's body was a little cold when he heard this, he stretched out his hand to wipe his sweat, and the old soldier's face became extremely serious, and he said in a cold voice:

"The shop of the Lingshan Commercial House outside is staring at what is going on in your barracks, those soldiers who intercede into your barracks are spies planted, as for those pro-soldiers in rotation, they will cut off your head when you are disobedient!"

* Drinking a glass of wine on the table, he said:

"This is still on the surface we can see the ground, secretly, Li Zongbing still doesn't know how many means of prevention have been set up, yesterday I heard the guerrilla Chen Liu's uncle say that the Yanzhou Army's garrison moved southward, and changed the state and county where it was stationed, where it has always been a peaceful ground, why move the army, I think, just to guard against you!"

As soon as he finished saying this, Zhang Jiang, who was sitting on the kang, jumped off the kang with an exclamation of "ah", Zhang Huang looked left and right, obviously panicked to the extreme, who would have thought that there was such a killing machine in this promotion, and he was at a loss, * picked up the chopsticks in his hand and threw them over, and opened his mouth to reprimand:

"Look at your unpromising appearance, you are now also a general who leads thousands of soldiers, how can you get back like a fried child!"

"Uncle, can't we go, follow the handsome, go out to fight hard, even if you lose your head, you won't be so frightened."

"Bastard, you see this danger, in addition to General Li and the four cronies and brothers around us, how many people have reached your status, at the moment there are four armies, a total of thirty thousand generals, a total of seventeen of our Lingshan Guard, just one to achieve the position of the general of the town, what Uncle Fang said is what you are guarding against, you have to be cautious, that is the general of one party. Uncle gave you those who didn't dare to do it to make it clear, went to Huaibei, listened to General Li in everything, and stayed away from those salt merchants. Restrain the military discipline of the people below, and this will keep you safe and worry-free in the future. ”

After saying so much, * couldn't help but laugh a few times, pointed at Zhang Jiang and said:

"This is a great thing, to add glory to the faces of your father and uncle, otherwise, what is the purpose of putting on the lights and setting off firecrackers!"

Hearing these words, Zhang Jiang was deeply vigilant and came to Haizhou. It's really unexpected. In fact, everyone expected that the Haizhou salt merchants would immediately send people over to woo them in every possible way, but they were all rejected by Zhang Jiang.

During the Spring Festival of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Ding Xu, the mine supervisor of Laiwu City, gave a generous gift to Wang Chengen, the chief eunuch of the Beijing Division. However, after giving this batch of gifts, he could not be happy in any way, although the gift did not cost much, but it was not the production of iron ore, but his own savings.

The iron mine has been stopped for so long, the income from the iron industry has long disappeared, and the system of giving forty percent to Wang Chengen cannot be easily changed.

I saw it near the various workshops of the Laiwu City Iron Smelting Institute. In fact, this is the so-called Jiaozhou Battalion Weapons Manufacturing Bureau, and Ding Xu also knows that many small iron mines near Laiwu have been quietly started, and they have started trading with the Jiaozhou Battalion in private.

But Ding Xu, the mine supervisor, did not have the slightest solution, because in December of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the governor of Shandong, Yamen, came forward and transferred more than 1,000 soldiers and horses originally stationed in Laiwu to Dengzhou to guard the water gate. And the guard mission of Laiwu City. There is a Jiaozhou battalion to take over the defense.

Not to mention the soldiers defending the city, even Laiwu County ordered the officials around him to arrest quickly. have all been completely replaced by a group of people, and Ding Xu has vaguely heard of the origin of these people, what is it called.

At this time, in Laiwu City, the warriors with knives and guns were all directly under the Jiaozhou battalion, and the life and death of the mine supervisor Ding Xudi was already in the hands of the other party, so how could he dare to express any opinion on the other party's actions.

The ambassador of the Laiwu Iron Smelting Institute was originally desperate for the order of the mine supervisor Ding Xu, but now the contacts have gradually become less, and he runs to the blacksmith shop opened by the Lingshan Commercial Bank outside every day, and the mine supervisor Ding Xu also knows that the ambassador has been poor for a few days, and these days he is shaking again.

Ding Xu, the mine supervisor, has been calculating how many times he can send his money to Wang Chengen, and if he has no money to send, he will be recalled to the palace of the capital to do a chore, Ding Xu also pondered, so he simply sent the land once and asked to be transferred to other places to be a town guard, which is also better than being trapped in this place and suffering a living crime.

He thought so, but the situation made him more desperate, and the soldiers stationed in Laiwu City completely surrounded the mine supervisor Yamen on the grounds that there were traitors in recent days, and called it "protection".

It was okay for the servants in the yamen to go out to buy food, but there were people who followed them closely, and they were not allowed to leave Laiwu City, and Ding Xu, the mine supervisor, tried to send a few letters outside, but they were all sunk in the sea, and there was no news.

The servants who served Ding Xu also felt that the big thing was not good, but the situation in front of them was quite embarrassing, even if they wanted to run, the soldiers guarding outside would never agree, and they were all stuffed back.

Ding Xu is now completely desperate, when the sun is out of Beijing, there was an old eunuch in the palace who gave him a bag of poison, saying that if he went out of the town, he would inevitably encounter some turmoil, if he was unlucky, he needed to be tortured and dying, he didn't have the courage to be tortured, and he just took medicine to give himself a good time.

It was also painful to be stabbed neatly, but the Jiaozhou camp outside the city was slow to move, which was embarrassing, and Ding Xu really didn't have the courage to take the medicine if he didn't force it.

It was delayed until the end of February of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, and Sun Hedou and Guo Dong, the directors of the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau, took the initiative to come to the Yamen of Laiwu Mine and asked to see Ding Xu.

Ding Xu, who received the report from his subordinates, sighed, but he was helpless, and reached out to touch the poison paper bag in his pocket, but now he didn't know when, and the paper bag didn't know where it went.

The Jiaozhou battalion is inevitably deceiving people too much, forcing people to not survive, how can they die?

When the poison was wrapped in the body, people still had a hard breath, thinking that as long as the Jiaozhou battalion forced to come to the door, they would die immediately, and when the time came, the emperor's house slave died in Laiwu City, and he died unexplained. Li Meng, the chief soldier guarding Shandong, must bear the responsibility.

But just thinking about it like this, eunuchs are always prone to extremes, and after getting into the tip of the horns, people will inevitably want to be extreme.

But that's just a breath of air. Touching the poison bag around his waist and disappearing, this breath suddenly disappeared without a trace, and this poison bag is placed in the clothes every day, and he only leaves his side when he sleeps every day, and it actually disappears, and the one who can do this must be a personal servant.

Thinking of this, Ding Xu, the mine supervisor, looked at the servants in the courtyard who were a little panicked because of the Jiaozhou camp's visit, and felt that everyone looked sneaky and had a ghost in their hearts.

Ding Xu thought to himself that if he hanged himself or killed himself, maybe someone would stop him immediately. While convincing yourself with this reason. Trembling, he walked out the door.

Speaking of different situations, people's states are also different, that day, the soldiers and horses of the Jiaozhou battalion killed in Laiwu City. After catching those bandits and beheading them on the spot, mine supervisor Ding Xu didn't feel much fear at all, but was full of anger and prepared to use his backstage. Now the representative of the Jiaozhou battalion politely asked for a meeting, but time has passed, but Ding Xu, the mine supervisor, feels that the fear is abnormal, only to feel that the end is approaching, and the catastrophe is coming.

At present, the mansion of Ding Xu, the mine supervisor, is surrounded by officers and soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion, and his daily life is like house arrest, and he does not know what to do with Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong. My heart was full of anxiety and anxiety. This invisible refusal, but no matter what, he didn't dare to say it.

He could only simply clean up, and Ding Xu came to the main hall of the mine supervisor's yamen in fear, and saw three guests waiting in the hall, and a shopkeeper of the Lingshan Commercial Bank stationed here, which was often seen bargaining with himself.

There are also two rough men in long robes. Although the clothes on his body are a bit of a scholar's appearance. But there are some traces of smoke and fire on his face and hands, no different from a blacksmith.

Mine supervisor Ding Xu entered the main hall. The shopkeeper of the Lingshan Commercial Bank over there stood up from his seat, smiled and made a big gesture, and opened his mouth to congratulate and said:

"Congratulations to Father-in-law Ding, a great joy!"

Now that this situation has become a situation, Ding Xu, the mine supervisor, really can't see where the joy comes from, but he stiffly stretched out his hand and made a gesture of invitation, but the shopkeeper was out of sight, stretched out his hand and said:

"These two are the leaders of our Lingshan Craftsman's Workshop, this is the shopkeeper Guo Dong, and this is the chief Gongsun Dou."

Guo Dong and Sun Hedou are dealing with outsiders in this name outside, although Sun Hedou is a scholar full of talent, but he has a rough appearance, and he works on the front line of the craftsman's furnace every day, and he can't pay attention to the instrument when he is smoky and burning, and he is not only Eunuch Ding alone.

The shopkeeper raised his hand and introduced Guo and Sun, then lowered his hand to Eunuch Ding, and said with a smile:

"Shopkeeper Guo, Mr. Gongsun, this father-in-law is the father-in-law of Laiwu Iron Smelting Institute that we often talk about."

Seeing the appearance of this shopkeeper, mine supervisor Ding Xu was angry in his heart, when the shopkeeper was introduced, he regarded the shopkeeper and the main thing very much, and he didn't take himself very seriously, the two leaders who contributed to the effort, what is there to value.

But when the two of them heard the introduction, they all stood up politely, and bowed their hands, there is really no royal law, and the common people from the craftsman family actually dared to meet with themselves, the eunuch who guarded one side, although the mine supervisor Ding Xu was angry in his heart, he still squeezed out a smile and hugged his fists in return.

The "Gongsun Master" behaved a little strangely, and when he heard that he was the mine supervisor of this iron smelting station, he did not sit down after seeing the salute, but said with great interest:

"These days in the vicinity of Laiwu travel, looking at the iron mines, iron smelting furnaces and mountains and waterways are very comprehensive, which can facilitate the entry and exit of coal and wood, and do not block the transportation of iron ore and iron goods, the workshops here are very neat, the tools are classified, and I have also been to many mines and smelting places in the Ming Dynasty, and I have done the best, but also to say that this Laiwu iron smelting place."

Trembling and apprehensive, Ding Xu, who was trembling and apprehensive, heard the other party's words, although he knew that the occasion was wrong, but he still felt a sense of pride in his heart, and where did the head of Gongsun say, "The ambassador of the Iron Smelting Institute said that this is all the credit of Gonggong Ding, which is really admirable", the corners of Eunuch Ding's mouth even hung an arc, and there was a smile.

The shopkeeper of the Lingshan Commercial Bank on the side saw that something was wrong with this scene, and couldn't help coughing dryly, stood up and said with a smile:

"Father-in-law Ding, my master said, give you two ways to go......"