Just when the situation in eastern Liaodong is changing, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, has been having a headache recently.

His headache was not that there was an abnormality in Jiannu reported by Zu Dashou, but that he had a headache about Kong Youde's surrender to Jiannu, how to explain it to Emperor Chongzhen.

Originally, when Kong Youde fled from Shandong to the islands of the Bohai Sea, there were only more than 10,000 people. But Kong Youde is Mao Wenlong's righteous son, and many of the defenders of the Bohai Islands are Mao Wenlong's old troops.

These "island defense troops" are quite hard, and the soldiers of those military towns on the land cannot be supplied with food and salary, let alone the island troops who are isolated overseas. Therefore, as soon as Kong Youde raised the slogan of "defecting to Shenyang, eating pigs and sheep," the island defense troops followed him for more than half of the more than 20 islands -- nearly 20,000 people joined Kong Youde as slaves.

It's hard to explain this Nima Hong Chengchou, the entire northeast area is his jurisdiction, and now the "island army" has surrendered to the enemy, what can I say?

Therefore, at this moment, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, was in the study of the yamen of the governor of Jizhou City, secretly thinking about how to deal with it.

Under Hong Chengchou, the one who stood under his bow and waited for dispatch was his henchman Hong Antong......

Hong Antong is also a relative of Hong Chengchou's distant uncle and uncle, and has been following Hong Chengchou's side to do some "liaison things", that is, those things that are not visible in the officialdom.

Hong Chengchou pondered for a long time, and finally spoke: "Antong, how much money has been transported from Jingshi this spring?" ”

Hong Antong felt a pang in his heart, the old man asked about this matter knowingly - most of the salary was intercepted before he left the Beijing Division, and only 1.5 million taels were sent to Jizhen.

Hong Antong didn't dare to think about it, and replied loudly: "Return to the master." One and a half million taels of spring pay arrived in Jizhen -- 800,000 taels have already been loaded into trucks and are ready to be sent to Shanhaiguan, Ningyuan, Guangning, and other places. ”

Hong Chengchou nodded. Silence began again.

Originally, this Liaodong silver was sent directly to Shanhaiguan when Fu Zonglong, the last governor of Jiliao. Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang took out a quarter of the silver to bribe Fu Zonglong. He didn't care about it, he just collected the money when the time came, and ended up idle.

However, Hong Chengchou has come to Jizhen, as the so-called "three fires for new officials to take office", the first fire is that all the silver is sent to Jizhen, and then he distributes it......

Therefore, Fu Zonglong was only greedy for a quarter of the military salary, while Hong Chengchou was even darker and wanted to eat half of it.

Zu Dashou didn't dare to put a fart on Hong Chengchou, and Governor Hong was different from Governor Fu - first of all, Hong Chengchou himself was a "soldier". There are many victories and few losses in the battle against the peasant army, and the battle exploits are there; Secondly, behind Hong Chengchou is the first assistant Wen Tiren, and Zu Dashou is also trying his best to tie up Wen Tiren at the moment, how dare he go against Hong Chengchou?

"Don't send the 800,000 taels of silver to Jizhen, and then take out 200,000 taels from the governor's treasury, and make up enough 1 million taels of silver to send it back to Master Jingshi Wen directly."

Hong Chengchou bit his lip, his tone was full of unwillingness, obviously his heart was dripping blood......

Hong Antong replied in a low voice: "Yes, master." ”

Hong Chengchou added: "Since the silver was not sent to Liaodong this time. I can't let Zu Dashou drink the northwest wind, and the grain and grass in Ji Town will be transported to them......"

Hong Antong nodded in agreement, he knew that the largest income of the Liaodong Army was at the moment. Actually, it doesn't come from money. Almost all the salaries and silver have been exhausted by the civilian officials, and the soldiers and generals guarding Liaodong have to survive, right? At present, a small part of the grain of the Liaodong Army is used for its own use, and a large part is sold to the Mongols.

As for why the Mongols don't eat cattle and sheep. But they came to eat food, and this was not a matter of concern to everyone - anyway, the Mongol merchants sold to whomever they liked. I heard that the buyers found by the Mongolians are "stupid and have a lot of money", and they are all guys who have no capital to buy and sell. Such as businessmen from Shenyang.

……

In the past few days, Emperor Chongzhen's small life has been good, and a month before and after the Wanshou Festival, the twists and turns presented by Lord Wen are quite "happy".

Most of the people around Emperor Chongzhen liked were clever words, that is, some people who were originally quite upright, and in the past few years, because they saw the fate of the righteous gentlemen in the court - the height of the grave grass, they also learned to keep their mouths shut.

At present, the news reported by Lord Wen is as good as possible and not bad, especially after receiving one million taels of silver from Hong Chengchou, the news of Kong Youde's annexation to Huang Taiji has been diluted to the point that Kong Youde only led one or two hundred remnants of the army to flee into the Houjin country, and the governor of Hong, who was strategizing, based on the principle of "poor people do not chase", only chased to the border line and adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

What makes Chongzhen even more happy is that Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, has outstanding military exploits, even exaggerated. He led 10,000 Ming troops and beat the 30,000 Kong Youde rebels to only 1,200 people, and the Kong thieves almost committed suicide by jumping into the sea......

Of course, under the instruction of Lord Wen, the beginning and end of Hong Chengchou's recital on Kong Youde's deeds repeatedly emphasized that the establishment of all these "great achievements" was caused by the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty and the wisdom and martial arts of His Majesty the Emperor!

When Emperor Chongzhen received such a report, the direct reaction caused by his heart was, of course, only joyful and not worried. He soon forgot about the name "Kong Youde", which seemed weightless and insignificant in the recital. As for the name "Hong Chengchou", he was overjoyed, and he issued a commendation again and again, and praised Wang Chengen, the great eunuch beside him:

"With a capable minister like Hong Chengchou doing things for me, what are you afraid of? Hmph, Jianbu jumping beam--isn't that Nu Chief Hongtai just a beam-jumping clown? ”

Since the emperor said so, of course, the servants around him were even more happy to welcome him so much. As a result, deliberately downplaying Kong Youde's defection and emphasizing Hong Chengchou's exploits became the common voice of the Manchu ministers - especially under Wen Tiren's skillful secret operation, Emperor Chongzhen's ears were full of voices singing praises of virtue, and he was really "dragon-faced and happy"!

But isn't it, the emperor was in a good mood and decided to reward Hong Chengchou heavily, so today he called Wen Tiren to the Qianqing Palace for discussion.

In the Qianqing Palace, Wen Tiren touted merits such as "the emperor's wisdom" for a while, and then waited for the emperor to speak.

Chongzhen's face flushed slightly, since Wen Tiren became the first assistant recently, it seems that the state affairs have improved a lot - the thieves seem to have disappeared, and Jiannu did not toss, and it is just a trivial matter for a rebel general to abscond from Shenyang.

At present, the governor of Jiliao, Hong Chengchou, has such outstanding military exploits, it will not be long before Liaodong can be pacified, right? (To be continued.) )