"Master Kong, it's not appropriate for you and me to talk like this in front of the Great Khan Tent, why don't you sit down with me and talk about something!"

Kong Youde was only reacted by Yue Tuo's reminder, he looked left and right, and sure enough, the people who came and went looked at him with strange eyes, wondering how he could dare to be so rude to Yue Tuo, he had to blush and whisper: "Thank you for the reminder, just follow what the adult said!" ”

Kong Youde followed Yue Tuo to his residence, and as soon as he sat down, he hurriedly explained: "Heshuo Belle, I don't want to-"

"I understand. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info" Yue Tuo interrupted Kong Youde's explanation: "You don't want to be involved between me and the Great Khan, so as not to cause trouble, right?" ”

"This-!" Kong Youde didn't expect Yue Tuo to put the contradiction between him and Huang Taiji on the table, and he didn't know how to answer for a while, and after a while, he replied weakly: "Lord Yue Tuo, I didn't mean that, it's just, it's just-" Speaking of this, I don't feel like I can make it up.

"Master Kong, we Jurchens don't have as many fancy intestines as you Han people, so I'll spread out the truth and tell the truth!" Yue Tuo smiled, and his face became solemn: "The Great Khan's western expedition this time, although he became the Bogda Chechen Khan, but he lost his eldest son Haoge, and his eldest son Ye Bushu is a doll who can just walk, and the child is just a Yan Zashi." The Great Khan was afraid that I would join forces with Amma to threaten his children, so he took this opportunity to drive me out of Shengjing, do you understand? ”

Kong Youde glared at Yue Tuo without saying a word, his eyes clearly said: "Of course I understand, but this is a family matter of your Aixin Jueluo family, and it is a matter of our Han people?" ”

"Yes, I know it's a no-brainer for you, but isn't it for me?" Yue Tuo sneered: "Did I let Hauge go after the Chahars?" Did I ask Hauge to divide his troops? If it weren't for the selfishness of the Great Khan, who asked me to besiege the city of Guihua, while Haug went after the Chahars, none of this would have happened. I am also the Great Khan's most trusted nephew, Hauge's retainer who suppressed the Dorgon brothers after his accession to the throne, and now that Hauge is gone, I have changed from a vassal to the eldest son to a threat to the younger son, do you think all this is ridiculous? ”

"No, no!" Kong Youde was stunned by Yue Tuo's stormy outing, and the secret of the political struggle between the high-ranking Manchurian nobles revealed in it made him shudder. Just like Nurhachi and Shulhaqi, the second and third generations of the Aixin Jueluo family (counted from Nurhachi) are divided into several groups according to their maternal bloodline, kinship, strength, and of course, the most important thing is that they are divided into several groups, and they are engaged in brutal infighting for power, and Huang Taiji's succession does not mean the end of infighting, on the contrary, it is only the beginning of a new round of infighting. After defeating the other three Baylors who were tied with him, Huang Taiji had achieved absolute superiority over the other brothers, but time was fair to everyone, as he grew older, and the three younger brothers of Azig, Dolgon, and Duoduo, who had a grudge against his mother, grew up, a new question was in front of him: how to ensure that the Khan throne fell into the hands of his bloodline after a hundred years?

The easiest way is to eliminate Azig, Dolgon, and Duoduo, but Dolgon and Duoduo brothers respectively hold the two banners of Zhengbai and inlaid white, and they are strong, and when Huang Taiji forced his mother Abahai to be martyred for Nurhachi, he once swore in front of everyone that he must treat these three young brothers well, which will not only intensify internal contradictions, but also politically tantamount to giving people authority, and after his death, someone will definitely use this as a reason to deal with his heirs. Then the choice to take a step back is to leave one person to contain Azig, Dolgon, and Duoduo, and the object chosen by Huang Taiji is Yue Tuo, the reason is very simple, in addition to himself, there were Mang Gurtai, Dai Shan, and Amin who forced Abahai to be martyred, and now Mang Gurtai and Amin were punished and died early, and Dai Shan retired, and only his son Yue Tuo still holds power. If all goes well, the two reds of Yue Tuo's father and son, the two yellows of the Son of Heaven, and the blue of Haoge will add up to more than half of the Eight Banners, which is enough to suppress potential opponents. But Haoge's disappearance broke all this, Huang Taiji's eldest youngest son is still young, and it will take at least ten years to have the ability to govern and run the army, if he dies during this time, the fragile political balance will be broken, and the two yellows of the Son of Heaven, the two whites of the three Dolgon brothers, and the two reds of Yue Tuo's father and son, neither side can occupy an absolute advantage, which is tantamount to a nightmare for the nascent Houjin regime. Therefore, for Huang Taiji, the first task after the end of the Western Expedition is to reshuffle the cards politically and rebuild a new political balance, and the first target is Yue Tuo, after all, he has been in charge of the military department for many years, and it is in the prime of life, and the siege of Guihua City is fruitless, which is the best choice.

"Master Kong, there are too many things in this world that you can't help yourself, I know you don't want to be involved, but is that up to you? You had no choice but to rebel against Ming in Denglai, right? Our Manchurian soldiers are long in field battles and shorter than defending cities, your Han army is just the opposite, and you still have red-coated cannons and other weapons in your army to defend the city, of course I want you to come! ”

"Since you've talked about it, I don't have anything more to say!" Kong Youde smiled bitterly, in order to kick Yue Tuo out of the center, don't say that there is only one Kong Youde, even if the conditions are harsh, Huang Taiji will agree, and he has no choice at this point.

Datong, Xia Mizhuang.

"My lord, there is Xia Mizhuang in front, I will rest here for one night tonight, and I will be able to go to Datong Town tomorrow!"

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng looked at the lively market town not far away, and nodded with satisfaction, at this time he was sore, tired and hungry, and the inside of his buttocks and two thighs had been blistered by the saddle, which was the result of seven consecutive days of marching on horseback. A total of 3,000 cavalry, with infantry and baggage behind, they entered the secondary side first, and then followed the inner side of the secondary side to Datong, which was a farther and safer route. After Liu Cheng's cavalry entered the side wall, and then marched eastward along the inside of the side wall, almost all the places he passed along the way were empty, regardless of farmland, villages, fortresses, and towns, all of which ended up in the same way, the Mongols and Jurchens burned and killed if they could, and the fish that slipped through the net were swept away by routs and bandits, and a few were in a precipitous area, and the forts that survived were firmly defended and stared at Liu Cheng's army with vigilant eyes, and if they got closer, they would be warned by bows and arrows and stone throws. Therefore, when Liu Cheng saw the people in front of him, what he missed was a hot bath, a soft bed, and food that could be eaten.

"Lord Zhentai!" After checking Liu Cheng's guide, Mr. Qian, who was on duty, hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed, and said with a smile: "The lowly party is the duty, and please forgive me for the rudeness!" ”

"It's okay, it's all for the imperial court!" Liu Cheng smiled generously: "You also saw that there are thousands of cavalry behind me, can you point to a place to camp?" ”

"That's easy to say!" Mr. Qian pointed to a place not far away: "My lord, do you see that big locust tree?" There are four or five tunzi over there, which were originally used by the soldiers, and the place, drinking water, forage and so on are all ready-made, and the superintendent came to deploy soldiers and horses, clean up the military tun, and the place was vacant, just for the adults to use! ”

"Oh, even the forage, so convenient? Wave the flag and give some silver to this brother, which is regarded as the chief soldier thanking him. Liu Cheng was overjoyed when he heard this, these are all cavalry under his command, all the way over, many horses have lost weight, he was thinking about how to get some forage to raise well, but he didn't expect it to be solved so easily.

Hao Shaoqi answered, and threw it away from a small leather bag, and the Qian Zong hurriedly turned it out, opened it and saw it, and his eyes immediately narrowed: "Oh, it turned out to be eagle money, this is a good thing, thank you for the reward!" ”

Liu Cheng saw that Mr. Qian kowtowed, took out a silver coin, blew it and listened to the sound in his ear, looking extremely familiar, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "Oh? Do you recognize the money? ”

"Of course I recognize, this is the eagle money issued by Chaoyi Hongyang, the weight is sufficient, the reputation is good, there are special lines on the edge, others can not imitate it, the merchants who come and go like it the most, a full enough is worth nine dollars and five cents of Songjiang silver, if it is variegated silver, it can be worth more!"

"Nine coins and five cents of Songjiang silver? This eagle coin weighs about nine coins, why can it be exchanged for nine coins and five cents? Liu Cheng was stunned when he heard it, the Songjiang silver in the mouth of the thousand general manager was the silver coins minted by Songjiang Mansion (today's Shanghai) at that time, due to the developed local trade with domestic and foreign countries, it was an important import place of silver at that time, and the silver coins minted by the local government were purer in quality, so they were well-known at home, and the purchasing power of silver coins from other sources was higher. Liu Cheng took out the reward for the thousand total silver coins, which were naturally silver coins produced by his own mint, and their value was probably only nine coins of silver, how did it become nine coins and five cents?

That Qian is always a talkative, seeing that Liu Cheng is a generous general, secretly thinking that if he pleases, maybe he can get some benefits, so he smiled and said: "My lord, you don't understand, this money is sent by the Hongyang in Chaoyi, Shaanxi, there have been many business travelers over there in recent years, tea in the south of the Yangtze River, salt in Hedong, fur outside the plug, felt, tendons, livestock, jewelry, especially iron and cloth are a must, that is, the world-famous Songjiang cloth, and Bingzhou iron can not be compared." Such a large amount of goods trading, silver money turnover, then Hongyang minted gold, silver and copper three-color coins. If you think about it, if you buy it directly with silver, there is no accurate amount of it, and you have to cut out some bits and pieces of silver with pliers every time, and the color and texture are not easy to distinguish, and it is very troublesome to do business. The coins issued by Hongyangzhuang are different, the weight is sufficient, and the size is a specification, it is convenient to carry and count, many merchants are naturally willing to use it, and some rich families also hide these coins in the cellar, so that they are naturally more valuable than Songjiang silver. ”

"I didn't expect to be able to collect seigniorage so soon!" Listening to the words of the thousand presidents, Liu Cheng couldn't help but secretly rejoice in his heart, playing credit currency at the end of the Ming Dynasty must be a dead end, but it is still possible to rub some oil with insufficient metal currency, in fact, the Ming Dynasty itself did not collect less seigniorage, but the officials' discipline and ability are too cheating, and the appearance is too ugly, and the taxes received fall into the pockets of officials, but the credit of the imperial court has plummeted to the bottom, and finally made a huge empire, which actually relies on the original state of silver ingots and foreign inflows of silver dollars as circulating currency.

"Your Excellency!" Mr. Qian looked at Liu Cheng and said boldly: "Those forts are very bitter, but the Tongfu Inn in this Xia Mizhuang is also passable, the kang is hot, the chef is a master from Beijing, and he cooks good northland dishes, and there are also a few little ladies who sing songs and play strings to relieve boredom for adults." ”

"Oh? So there's a bathhouse in that inn? Liu Chengzheng was thinking about his own thoughts, and he was happy to hear the words of Mr. Qian, this person's words were a bit like the hotel staff soliciting customers at the gate of the railway station before the crossing, which made him feel a little strangely familiar.

"Yes, of course, there is not only a bathhouse in there, but even a good back-rubbing master." The thousand always hurriedly shouted injustice: "Don't look down on this Xia Mi Zhuang, this Datong is the first important town on the nine sides, when the king of Shunyi was cared for, the horse market opened by the imperial court is here, and the goods in the north and south of the Yangtze River have everything, and this Xia Mi Zhuang is the gateway to Datong in the west, you look at the ruts on the ground, if it is not for the war and depression in the past few years, this village has long been full of people, just the cart that pulls goods can be discharged two or three miles!" ”

Hearing that there is a bathhouse, Liu Cheng's body became more itchy, during the march, the fleas treated the general soldiers and the people equally, and the two deep ruts on the hard bluestone road extended to the Zhuangzi in the distance like a knife

"It's okay, Gesang!" Liu Cheng summoned his subordinates: "I'll take a good bath in Zhuangzi tonight, and tomorrow I'll see the governor, and the matter of camping will be handed over to you, don't do anything wrong!" ”

"Lord Jinong, please rest assured, the last general must be careful." Behind him, Gesang hurriedly bowed down to receive the order. Liu Cheng nodded and said with a smile: "Let's go, wave the flag, let's take a bath in Zhuangzi tonight, so that we can rest for a while." ”

The bathhouse of Tongfu Inn is a low, dark, and misty room, which is placed with more than ten and a half large wooden barrels, when Liu Cheng entered, a shirtless, only a rag around his waist A man stood aside, Hao Shaoqi said in a low voice: "My lord, this person is the bath master, but he brought a few knives in, saying that it was for you to shave, and his subordinates were brave-"

"Don't be afraid, if you are waving the flag, who can hurt me?" Liu Cheng unbuttoned his clothes, threw them on the wet ground, and clumsily climbed into the wooden bucket filled with hot water, stretching his body until the steaming hot water reached his chin. (To be continued.) )