The ministry obviously didn't have a backstage in the matter, but he dared to stand up and argue with the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and he also had the attitude of being barefoot and not afraid of wearing shoes.

Anyway, he has the support of his fathers and elders in Shandong, even if he resigns and returns to his hometown, he can get along in Shandong.

Today's Shandong has formed an interest group headed by Zhao Yan, which is still a little immature compared with the Hui merchants and Jin merchants, but it is thriving.

On the other hand, Hui merchants, once the salt profit is repeated, it will inevitably be in a weak position for a long time.

Just when the previous document was issued, the team sent by Zhao Yan also transported three million taels of silver to Beijing, and Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw dozens of boxes of silver, and directly asked the eunuch who managed the internal treasury to put the silver two into the warehouse.

In addition to being overjoyed, Zhu Youzhen gave Zhao Yan a holy decree, so that he could directly go to heaven to listen to something he had, and the folds would be directly presented to him, and he was not allowed to go through the procedures.

As far as the salt tax is concerned, at the time of the apocalypse, the two Huai were only 700,000 taels, and when they arrived in Chongzhen, they once accumulated a loss of more than 200 taels, and the best result was 1.2 million taels. This salt tax has always been the largest source of internal funds, and the emperor's small treasury was once extremely full, but after three major battles, plus the continuous resounding of the Apocalypse, Shenzong has long been in a state of exhaustion.

The so-called rumor that Li Zicheng found tens of millions of taels in the interior after entering the customs is obviously not credible. If Zhu Youzhen was rich, it would be impossible for an ascetic monarch like Zhu Youzhen to do stupid things like asking for money and not dying. In addition, the income of the internal treasury has always been the salt tax accounting for the majority, and the salt policy at the end of the Ming Dynasty has always been weak, coupled with the silver that Zhu Youzhen issued every year, where can he accumulate tens of millions of taels.

Zhu Youzhen was often troubled by this silver problem, so much so that when he first mentioned the repair of the southeast water conservancy, he could only use the phrase 'can disturb the people?' 'Come and decline.

I was a little worried that I hadn't seen the silver before, but when I saw the silver this time, Zhu Youzhen was very relieved.

The next day, another official criticized Zhao Yan's decree that he was also the envoy of Shandong Salt Transport, which immediately provoked Zhu Youzhen, and I rectified my cake about your bird, and directly asked those officials to take off their hats and get out, in order to let Yue Zi live a leisurely life, Zhu Youzhen also specially added: "And never hir." ”

Although the officials are in the Yuhuang Emperor, the emperor's power is still very large, as long as he is not a warlord, as long as he is still under the rule, whoever wants to die will die.

But those officials are obviously not vegetarians, and the kung fu of yang and yin is not practiced today, just when Zhu Youzhen ordered Jin Yiwei to strictly check the list of salt merchants who took bribes, Jin Yiwei let those big fish not catch, and began to catch small ones everywhere.

…… Sun Yaoguang was lying comfortably in the bedroom in the backyard of the mansion, and Xinna's concubine was pinching her shoulders and rubbing her legs to serve, making Sun Yaoguang hum out comfortably, playing with a delicate jade elephant in her hand.

It's better to be an official outside! Don't look at the face of the yellow-faced woman at home, what makes Sun Yaoguang most proud is that another 50,000 taels of silver were recorded last month, and the two Huai salt merchants really acted generously.

In addition to 50,000 taels of silver, there are also some antiques and jade, all of which are exquisite and luxurious.

Generally, a prefect like him, unless the Huai merchants come here to sell salt, there will be no filial piety, but Zhao Yan offended the two Huai salt merchants, and the salt merchants came to him just to write the twists and turns of impeachment.

The person who impeached was Zhao Yan, and the two Huai salt merchants guaranteed that some colleagues in the officialdom would work together, so Zhao Yan would soon be overthrown.

Zhao Yan's strength, Sun Yaoguang knows best, tens of thousands of elite soldiers in his hands, although he sells smuggled salt, but the saint is obviously also a rat trap, and it is impossible to fall.

But even if it is impossible to fall, at least it will move to another place, and after figuring out the joints, Sun Yaoguang did not have any scruples, and still cooperated with Zhao Yan.

It is said that the iron Laizhou City is beaten and the paper lamp is pasted. What if he offends him, what about Zhao Yan, can he still enter Laizhou City and kill him? What's more, Sun Yaoguang said that what he saw in Denglai, although Zhao Yan was bold, he was still relatively peaceful in some things, and it was obviously impossible to enter Laizhou City to openly retaliate against him.

As for forcing him to rebel, it is generally impossible for Sun Yaoguang to think of it. Even if it were possible, it would be worth the fight for the 50,000 taels of silver.

After participating in Zhao Yan's book, Sun Yaoguang immediately asked people to strictly prevent bandits from attacking the city, and personally rectified the city defense, Laizhou City was surrounded by Kong Youde for several months, and the defensive ability was greatly strengthened, after all, many people have experienced that kind of battle.

Sun Yaoguang's wishful thinking crackled, but he didn't expect that the Jinyi guard who captured him had already entered Laizhou City, and when the Jinyi guard broke into the yamen, Sun Yaoguang was suddenly like a lightning strike.

When Sun Yaoguang was taken to Beijing to investigate, he was one of the small ones who was favored by Jinyiwei, and the other big fish were not caught.

In Beijing, Sun Yaoguang met several senior officials of the court, and they put on a compassionate face and hinted at something to him, and Sun Yaoguang hanged himself in prison that day.

The same is true of the two Huai salt transport envoys, who hanged themselves directly in prison.

Jin Yiwei's report was suicide in fear of crime, Zhu Youzhen's face was cloudy, and when asked about the bribe-giver, Jin Yiwei replied: "The prefect of Laizhou, the two Huai salt envoys have committed suicide in fear of crime, and there is no way to find out who bribe-givers." ”

Zhu Youzhen is sharpening his knife Huo Huo to pigs and sheep, his target is those two Huai salt merchants, Zhao Yan's suggestion made him very moved, and he wanted to take the opportunity to raid a few big households, but he didn't expect to pounce, and he couldn't even find a figure, how to check it?

Zhu Youzhen had a gloomy face, and the matter was over.

This is the officialdom of the late Ming Dynasty, officials regard the country as a place to make money and become famous, if the emperor is mediocre, it will be fine, and the monarch and the minister will be at peace.

However, Zhu Youzhen is not an aspirant king, and it is inevitable that conflicts will break out between the two sides.

This is not a contest between one person and one person, but a contest between one person and a group of people, even if this person holds the power of life and death of that group of people, but he cannot find a few trustworthy people.

The frustrated childhood and special environment also developed Zhu Youzhen's surname, especially after losing his biological mother, Zhu Youzhen was even more lacking in love, which also made him care about those vassal kings very much, and in those vassal kings, at least there was a little sense of family affection.

In order not to make the emperor feel incompetent, the commander of Jinyiwei specially handed over the confiscated more than 500,000 taels of silver, which made Zhu Youzhen's face look better.

The family of the two Huai salt envoys is more than that, but according to the convention, more than fifty percent of the confiscated income has to go into the pockets of the brocade guards, and this time there is some restraint.

In a short period of time, 3.5 million taels of silver were recorded, which made Chongzhen's pocket bulge suddenly, so he began to plan the encirclement and suppression plan of the Shaanxi thieves.

In the Central Plains, there is Lu Xiangsheng to suppress it, and the thieves obviously can't make trouble. In the east, there are thieves in Anhui who are very stubborn, but their strength is also not too strong.

However, the situation in Shaanxi is very bad, and there are 30,000 people in the general Li Zicheng, Guo Tianxing, Mantianxing, Chaotianxing and other departments, and tens of thousands of people are riding together.

Although the number of thieves soared to more than 2 million last year, Shaanxi lacked food after all, and most of the hungry people who were thieves died or were scattered in the cruel elimination.

The more than 100,000 thieves who stayed in Shaanxi were the essence of surviving from millions of people.

In November of the eighth year, Li Zicheng and Mantianxing, six teams, and four teams of Zhenggong Wang, a total of 13 battalions, with a total of tens of thousands of elite cavalry, went around to Hancheng from Xi'an through Tongguan, Yijun, and Yichuan, and planned to transfer to Shanxi after the Yellow River froze.

Hong Chengchou obviously saw the movement of the thieves, but he didn't make any moves, whether the thieves escaped from Shaanxi, then there was nothing to do with him.

Although he supervised the northwest, he had a clear division in terms of weight, for example, in Shaanxi, Sun Chuanting suppressed the south, and he suppressed the north. Anyway, if something happens, it's up to each other.

Hong Chengchou's mentality has also led the Shanxi authorities to often impeach Hong Chengchou for 'beggar-thy-neighbor'.

Seeing that the deadline for cracking down on thieves in June was approaching, but the thieves were not suppressed as expected, Zhu Youzhen not only became anxious, but in November of the eighth year, Zhu Youzhen issued another 1 million taels of internal funds as military funds, and instructed the Ministry of Troops: "Prime Minister Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou and the governors of Henan, Shaanxi, Yunyang, and Fengyang will issue a military order to suppress the Kou army in the next period. ”

exert pressure on the ministers, implying that if they can't settle the court on time, they will not be able to escape the court**.

At this time, the third battalion of Denglai had arrived in Huguang, and Lu Xiangsheng was overjoyed, and immediately issued a military order to Zhu Youzhen, and set to suppress Huguang before the beginning of spring next year.

Zhu Dadian also received support from Wang Zheng of the Yingzhou Regiment, which was established not long ago, but it was almost eight months old, and after eight months of training, two infantry battalions, an artillery battalion, and a cavalry battalion had been trained.

The infantry battalion was only equipped with four types of equipment: muskets, spears, artillery, and rockets, and the most expensive plate armor was not planned due to some financial constraints before, but now that the funds are relatively abundant, the Ordnance Bureau of Denglai has begun to step up the time to build.

The artillery battalion is fully equipped, and not a single of 500 75-mm cannons is missing. On the part of the cavalry battalion, there are currently only 3,000 men who can fight, and according to the regulations, the soldiers of the cavalry battalion should each have two war horses. The other 2,000 men continued to train and waited for enough horses before they were put into the battle sequence.

All the grassroots officers of the Yingzhou Regiment were transferred from Denglai, and although they had only been trained for eight months, their combat effectiveness should obviously not be underestimated.

The Yingzhou Regiment, which has reached 20,000 soldiers, needs a lot of combat experience, but it is just right to suppress thieves while training, and Zhu Dadian couldn't help but be surprised when he learned the strength of the Yingzhou Regiment.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Yan trained 20,000 soldiers and horses in Anhui quietly, what is his intention? What's the plan? After Zhu Dadian's thought flashed, he didn't think about it anymore.

No matter what Zhao Yan's plans are, anyway, the relationship between the two is good, and if they can borrow 20,000 soldiers and horses, the fifth battalion of the Gezuo in the mountains is obviously mixed up.

Zhu Dadian, who was overjoyed, also readily issued a military order to Zhu Youzhen.

And Hong Chengchou of Shaanxi also swore that he had set up a military order with Zhu Youzhen, threatening to eliminate the thieves in Shaanxi before the beginning of spring.

Of course, as for where to go, that's none of his business, let Shanxi have a headache!

…… On the Denglai side, the documents that concurrently served as Shandong's salt transport envoy had been delivered, but Zhao Yan was in full swing preparing for the war in May next year, so he didn't care about this matter for the time being. Although it was still early, in the face of the notorious Manchu Qing, it was obviously not sloppy.

"According to the report, the puppet king of Jiannu, Huang Taiji, is preparing to conquer North Korea in person, and Jiannu is afraid that the Ming will attack their lair, so next year they will send Azig to attack the Ming Dynasty, and the soldiers and horses should be between 30,000 and 60,000." Zhao Yan spread out the map that he had explored, it was a very large map, and there were many small maps in the big map, and the mountains and rivers on the small map should be drawn.

So far, Denglai has become four exploration teams, the last one is the Liaodong exploration team, a few days ago the Liaodong exploration team has been Jinzhou, Zhenjiang area of the terrain exploration into a map brought back.

"This is our Ming defense line, a continuous Great Wall, Jiannu has artillery, and can break through from any mouth, but the place of entry should be in the Jingshi, so Jiannu may break through from any point in this defense line." Zhao Yan looked around, and everyone's faces were a little nervous. couldn't help laughing and said, "What are you afraid of, Jiannu is not as terrible as rumored." They are a nomadic people, and the population itself is small. Therefore, they all have a characteristic in their operations, they cannot withstand heavy casualties, maybe dozens or hundreds of casualties, they will be defeated, and then our military system is dominated by pikemen, specializing in cavalry, if they face each other, Jiannu will inevitably not be able to get benefits. ”

"This time Jiannu invaded the pass, we have been training for several years, in order to fight to the death with Jiannu, and this time we will inevitably give them a head-on blow." Zhao Yan waved his hand and said, "But how to fight this battle is to be discussed." ”

Liu Heng took over at this time and said: "If our Denglai army goes out to fight with King Qin, if it will be defeated, it will be nothing more than the following factors, the first is the military rations, if the military rations are burned and cut off, it will be difficult to last. The second is to be attacked while marching, and the greatest weakness of our army is when it is on the march, and if the pikemen are attacked when they are not in formation, they will inevitably suffer heavy casualties. The third is to divide the troops and rush forward, which was broken by Jiannu one by one. ”

"In terms of military rations, with our supply system, it is enough to go on an expedition for a month and a half, but it is enough to fight against Jiannu, just in case, we should establish a few supply points in the Beijing Division, so that it is enough to be safe. The march was attacked, the north is a plain land, as long as the scouts do their duty, there is no need to worry, coupled with our vigilance and assembly speed at night, it is unlikely that Jiannu will succeed if he wants to attack at night, as for how to divide the troops, it is necessary to pay attention. Liu Heng concluded.

"I think that if we fight against Jiannu with a dignified array, with the sharpness of our firearms and the tenacity of our pikemen, we can completely defeat it. But Jiannu are all cavalry, come and go like the wind, defeat can go, so fighting with Jiannu, the most important thing is the ability to maneuver, in terms of the mobility of our army, if Jiannu wants to escape, it will not be able to catch up at all, but if they are looting in Beijing, it is not a problem to catch up. Zhao Yong got up and said, "If you attack the city and plunder the land in Liaodong, the infantry battalion is fully competent, and if you want to completely annihilate Kou Jiannu, the cavalry battalion must at least be expanded several times." ”

"Where's the horse?" Lin Yi said with a bitter face, the scale of the cavalry battalion has always been restricted by the number of war horses, and at present, the new battalion has trained more than 5,000 cavalry, but there are no horses, and the two cavalry battalions have only 4,000 people so far.

"The reason why Jiannu entered the Kou is because it is profitable to enter the Kou Pass, not only can you loot gold and silver treasures, but also capture the people of the Ming Dynasty to Liaodong as slaves, and it is not realistic for us to want to annihilate Kou Jiannu." Zhao Yan nodded and said, "So at the very least, we must make it impossible for Jiannu to conquer the town, so that Jiannu will not be able to grab many things, and then we need to cause them casualties and hit them until they are in pain, so that they will not dare to enter the Kou again." ”

(To be continued)