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"Bastard, who made them do this!" Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, slapped the rosewood table angrily, and then swept it away, and the tea set on the table fell to the ground and shattered. The table didn't move much, but his hand ached.

Geng Jingzhong's handwritten letter had been delivered to him for five days, and when he saw it, he immediately launched an investigation into the matter of the conquest of horses in various places. To tell the truth, Wu Sangui did collect ordinary horses from the mainland to trade with Geng Jingzhong. He is still a little reluctant to trade high-quality Tibetan horses through the guò tea and horse market.

These horses are not a little stronger than the horses in the mainland, and they are no worse than the Mongolian horses, and now Wu Sangui's Guanning iron horse is all equipped with Tibetan horses. One person and three riders, which requires a large number of 10,000, plus other troops, the demand for horses is very huge, therefore, it can be saved.

Although Wu Sangui was going to collect ordinary horses for trading with Geng Jingzhong, he also allocated money to buy horses, and as a vassal king, he still had basic principles. If he wants to give orders to rob the common people's things, he can't do this kind of thing. But if he can't do it, it doesn't mean that the officials below can't do it. Officials in various localities happened to use chicken feathers as arrows, taking advantage of this opportunity to fill their pockets and make money on a large scale.

In the past, as long as the people below didn't go too far, they would turn a blind eye. But now the situation has changed, and the 100,000 taels of silver that he allocated have been embezzled in this way, and few taels have not fallen into the hands of the owner of the horse at all. In this way, he could not be angry, and no matter how much money he had, he would not spend it like this.

"Ahem. Rajah. Why be so angry? The people below have gone a bit too far. But it is enough to catch a few and punish them severely, and it is enough to make an example of chickens and monkeys. Now is the time for extraordinary times, and it is not appropriate to have a big mess! cough cough cough "Liu Xuanchu's body is still relatively weak, in this warm Kunming, he still feels cold all the time, he wears more clothes than others, and he always coughs.

"It's not that I don't know what the people below are doing, all along, as long as they can do everything I tell me to do. I just turned a blind eye and let it go, but this time they went too far, especially Wu Pingfeng, the bastard, who was so arrogant and domineering, and almost hit Geng Jingzhong's head with his idea. Wu Sangui angrily slapped the table again. What's more passive is that with Geng Jingzhong's mind, he must be able to think of my intention to recruit horses, so in the next transaction, this king can no longer use these ordinary horses to exchange artillery with him. That's a big loss! ”

"Someone!" Wu Sangui shouted outside the hall.

"In!" Two guards stood out of the door and replied in unison.

"Passed on the royal decree. Ordered Hu Guozhu to immediately take people according to the list, and no one was allowed to be missed! Wu Sangui said. While stretching out his hand and pinching his nose, he really moved to kill, this time he was going to kill the chicken and make an example of the monkey, he also came to kill the monkey and set an example, but now what he needs is internal stability, Liu Xuanchu said well, it is better not to move if he doesn't move. This Hu Guozhu is none other than his eldest son-in-law, who can be said to be the confidant of his henchmen, and he is similar to his son.

Although Hu Guozhu is not as famous as Wu Sangui's second son-in-law Xia Guoxiang, he is more loved and reused by Wu Sangui. Xia Guoxiang was only in charge of part of the affairs of the army, in charge of thousands of soldiers and horses, while Hu Guozhu was responsible for assisting Wu Sangui in handling the government affairs of Yunnan Province, and his power was no less than that of Wu Sangui's cousin Wu Sanrong. This horse conquest incident was presided over by Hu Guozhu, and the list of officials who committed the crime was also submitted to Wu Sangui by him.

Wu Sangui's main areas for collecting horses this time are Sichuan, Guizhou and Jiangxi, and Yunnan Laochao does not need to collect them, because there are no extra horses to collect here. There are officials who committed crimes all over the place, and all of them are Western election officials, since Wu Sangui is not satisfied with these people, just replace them, anyway, Wu Sangui can immediately send other people to the top. According to the list, Hu Guozhu arrested more than a dozen county commanders and county officials, and they were all taken to the entrance of the vegetable market to be beheaded for public display. These dozen or so people are also unlucky, they are the ones who forcibly levy horses without paying a penny, and they happened to be killed by Wu Sangui as a chicken to kill chickens and set an example for monkeys.

More than a dozen bloody human heads were passed to several provincial capitals and counties, so that those officials who were full of private pockets were suddenly shocked, and hurriedly paid all the silver owed by the horses, not only did not owe a tael or two, but also paid two or three percent more of the price of the horses out of their own pockets, for fear that the owners of these horses would go to the top to complain. This time, those prefects and other officials did not move, but they were all shocked, how many years has the prince of Pingxi not exerted his power, and it is still so terrible to launch a threat.

These horses have already been recruited, and although they are not very good horses, they are okay to say. Even if the Guanning Iron Cavalry can't look down on it, those second- and third-line troops are still very eager for these horses. Since Geng Jingzhong already knew about his conquest of horses, and specially wrote a letter to send someone to inform him, he could no longer use these horses in the future. He can only import a batch of good horses from Tibet to trade with Geng Jingzhong, speaking of which, his own huge army is also short of horses, and he is very reluctant, but there is no way, who makes himself more greedy for those powerful artillery!

Many officials in Yunnan were frightened and trembling, but in the past few days when Geng Jingzhong returned to Fuzhou, he was nostalgic for the gentle township all day long, while accompanying his son. Since giving birth to this son, she has not been pregnant for several years. I asked a special doctor to see it and said that she was deficient in qi and blood, and it was impossible to get pregnant in the future. This made Huan Xi and Geng Jingzhong's old mother sad for a while. At the insistence of Huan Xi, Geng Jingzhong also accepted Huan Xi's personal maid Chunzhu as a concubine.

Originally, Chunzhu married into Jingnan Wangfu with Huanxi, basically a person who belonged to Geng Jingzhong, a girl in the room, but Geng Jingzhong has not put much thought into women, so things have been dragged on, and now Chunzhu is already in her twenties, and she has already married a woman in someone else's house, and it was not until last year that Geng Jingzhong officially accepted her as a concubine.

In the past few days, I have been lingering in the gentle country, and I haven't even touched the edge of the horsetail. Until Lee Kwang Di sent someone to invite. Geng Jingzhong reluctantly rode on the horse. Rushed to the Mawei barracks. Time flies. It is no wonder that the ancients used the idioms of white horses passing through gaps and time flies to describe them. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, he set out from Mawei Military Port to enter Beijing, and now he has returned here, two and a half months have passed. Most of this time is spent on the road. If this is placed in the future life, it will only take a few hours to run between Yunnan and Beijing, and it will only take a few hours to take a train, and it will only take more than two months to take it. This traffic. In the future, it is necessary to vigorously develop transportation.

"Shizi, there is an urgent report from the capital, and the third prince of Zhu has sent someone to contact Ah Hou, saying that the prince should hurry up and prepare the goods for trading. Son, what exactly are you trading? Ah Hou doesn't have the slightest information on his side! After Li Guangdi came to the barracks, the first thing he asked was this.

Geng Jingzhong was stunned, ho, this Yang Qilong's speed is fast enough, it has only been a month and a half since they last met, and they have already sent someone to deliver the news. It seems that Yang Qilong's people are learning from the imperial court to use six hundred miles to expedite! Previously, Geng Jingzhong was thinking about slowly trading with him in the future. But Yang Qilong couldn't wait, and found Geng Jingzhong again before leaving the Pingxi Palace. Ask for as much as you can trade. Or he could deliver some weapons earlier, so Geng Jingzhong gave him a low-underground intelligence office built by Ah Hou in the capital, and through this location, he could contact Ah Hou, and if there was any information that could be passed through Guò Ah Hou and transmitted to Fujian.

"This was not very urgent, and it is estimated that it will not be implemented until September, so I will not tell you about it immediately. That's the case, I thought during this time, if we take Luzon Island in a few months, we will inevitably move a large number of people to the island, but there are not many people who can move here in Fujian, so I thought of looking for people from other places. But we need a population of not a small number of 350,000, 2.35 million, maybe more, and this is a huge process, which is estimated to last several years. It just so happened that this fake Third Prince Zhu had this ability, so I made up my mind from him! Geng Jingzhong shrugged his shoulders at Li Guangdi and Yao Qisheng and said.

"But Shizi, such a big movement is bound to attract the attention of the imperial court, and when the time comes, I'm afraid it won't be very beneficial to us!" Yao Qisheng said worriedly.

"Mr. Yao is too worried, I have already passed on a book to you on this trip to the capital, and the imperial court is ready to do something to us, but the primary target is Wu Sangui, the strategy of the imperial court is to collect Yunnan and Guichuan first, and then map my Fujian and Guangdong in the south, so before the imperial court and Wu Sangui do not distinguish the winner or loser, Kangxi will definitely turn a blind eye to our small actions. Besides, he doesn't know what we want to do with such a large number of people, and when the time comes, it's a big deal to find an excuse to say that it is to be sent to an island in the open sea to open up wasteland, and it will be enough to fool the court anyway! ”

Yao Qisheng and Li Guangdi glanced at each other, and they both saw worry in each other's eyes, things are still changing a little fast, they both thought that it would take five to ten years for the imperial court to tear their faces, but from the current form, at most, in these three or two years, the world will have to change greatly!

"By the way, the deal I negotiated with the third prince of Zhu is to exchange our useless equipment for their people, aren't the large number of spears and broadswords that we exchanged a few years ago piled up in the warehouse, all of them are cleaned up, see if there are enough of them, and send them a batch secretly first, and they will often come to call for them." Geng Jingzhong raised a hand, waved it and said.

"Shizi, the armory is not far from here, why don't we go and have a look now? The self-fighting soldiers are all equipped with muskets, plus they are all equipped with Japanese katanas, and those spears and weapons have not been checked for a long time, and I don't know if the spear heads are rusty! Li Guangdi knows more about these things, but in the past two years, he has been focusing on muskets, artillery and other ammunition, and he has really not checked the cold weapons.

"Alright, let's go after lunch!" Geng Jing nodded and said.

A few people together, just a simple lunch point, and then immediately rushed to the armory. This armory was not far from the barracks, and several of them did not ride horses, so they went directly on foot. The armory here seems quite deserted, a little to the east, is the musket workshop, and a little further inside is the artillery workshop, anyway, this slippery armory workshop is very close, this armory is also located next to the workshop. But this place is not like the fever in the workshop, where the soldiers on guard patrol every day in addition to standing guard, although it is boring, but no one dares to slack off.

Several people came to the armory. After arranging for someone to open the storeroom. Geng Jingzhong entered the armory under the leadership of the treasurer and began to inspect. The scope of this warehouse is very vast. All kinds of different things are stored in the warehouse in different categories, swords, guns, swords, halberds and the like, although Geng Jingzhong has no interest, but these things are very important to Yang Qilong, who is preparing for the incident.

After walking for a long time, this area is a warehouse of cold weapons, and the Mawei Army has long since used these things, but there has been no good way to deal with them. It's too wasteful to melt down and forge other weapons. It's also quite wasteful and takes up space. Without thinking of a good way to deal with it, these cold weapons were left on hold here. Although it has been kept in the warehouse, these weapons are well preserved, they are basically smeared with oil, and the knife edge and gun head are rarely rusted.

In addition to this cold weapon, there are more than a dozen cannons, but they are all old-fashioned artillery, which is extremely heavy and heavy. Geng Jingzhong knew at a glance that it was not the type that was suitable, and the Mawei Army had long been eliminated. He didn't bother to pay attention to it, Geng Jingzhong was also half an expert in the artillery of this era, this kind of cannon was temporarily erected on the battlefield, and every time a cannon was fired, the artillery had to be erected and reloaded with ammunition, and generally speaking, a big pit had to be dug behind the artillery, which was very troublesome.

There are cannons like Hongyi or Furlong cannons, which have been improved by the firearms workshop, and are much lighter and more powerful. But as soon as these new artillery pieces were built, they were immediately pulled onto battleships, or they were pulled by Yang Jian into the newly built artillery division, and naturally there would be no stock in the warehouse.

Walking all the way on, you finally saw the storeroom where the armor was stored. Most of the whole army of the Mawei Army wore cloth clothes, that is, new military uniforms, and there was no need for these bulky armors, even leather armor was never worn. The Mawei army was equipped with quite a few shields, so there were not many left in the warehouse. In the entire armor room, there are 1,000 pairs of iron armor stored at the moment, but there are 3,000 sets of cotton armor and only 600 sets of leather armor.

"I've cleaned up all these things, polished them back up when they've rusted, and repaired them for my broken weapons and armor. We don't need it, but someone needs it. Now we can make a lot of money again. Geng Jingzhong said with a smile and a low Li Guang.

"Yes, Shizi, these are piled up here to take up space, so it is better to dispose of them earlier. I also thought about whether to contact Shang Zhixin to see if he needed it, but after all, the timing was not right, so I didn't bring it up next. Now is the right time, these things can't all be given to the fake third prince Zhu in the north, and some good ones can be sold to Wu Sangui, Shang Zhixin or the Zheng family. Besides, there are more than 50,000 Japanese samurai swords in the warehouse next to us, so we don't lack weapons to use at all. Li Guangdi also responded with a smile.

"It's up to you. Well, the management here is still in place, orderly, not bad. After agreeing with Li Guangdi's statement, he then praised the management of the armory. The treasurer of the armory behind him smiled, and he could be praised by the prince, that was the biggest gain.

This armory is really big enough, bigger than the musket workshop next to it, and the musket workshop is not as big as the armory here even if it includes the test ground. Geng Jingzhong and the others walked around for an hour and a half before reading everything, and then returned to the camp. Geng Jingzhong not only had a deal with Yang Qilong this time, but also reached a deal with Wu Sangui and Shang Zhixin, so he still needed to return to the camp to discuss.

"What? Exchange our artillery for Wu Sangui's military horses? Shizi, have you negotiated the exchange rate? Yao Qisheng asked loudly in surprise when he heard Geng Jingzhong's words. He was familiar with military affairs and knew that this artillery was the foundation of the Mawei Army, so he did not agree to trade artillery. But Geng Jingzhong has already negotiated with others, and he can only ask about the conditions.

Geng Jingzhong smiled and said: "Of course, a Hongyi cannon will cost him six thousand taels of silver, and even the Franco cannon will have to cost him three thousand taels." A good horse is less than two hundred taels of silver, do you think I will make a loss-making deal? We are willing to do it, he is short of guns, I am short of horses, just a deal. Mr. Yao, don't worry, I have a sense of proportion, the last transaction with Wu Sangui gave him was our defective products, it's not that it can't be used, it's just that the power is one or two levels weaker than our artillery! ”

"Oh, hahaha! Humble understood! Yao Qisheng was stunned for a moment, and instantly understood Geng Jingzhong's plan, he was going to deliberately build an old-fashioned and bulky cannon for Wu Sangui, so that there would be no threat to himself, but it could help Wu Sangui and kill two birds with one stone. Killing two birds with one stone again.

"Actually, I'm quite envious of Wu Sangui. He had direct contact with Tibetan lamas and tribes, both large and small. The tea and horse market was opened, and a large number of horses entered every year. Tsk tsk, that's exactly what we're missing! On land, cavalry is far more powerful than infantry! Li Guangdi pursed his lips and said, a little greedy for Wu Sangui's horses.

As early as 10 years ago, Wu Sangui reached an agreement with Tibet and Mongolia, in which he ceded the Jindian and Zhongdian regions outside the Jinsha River to Tibet and allowed Tibetans and Mongolians to live as herdsmen. In exchange for Tibetan and Mongolian horses.

The mutual market projects between the two sides are mainly to trade tea and horses, that is, Yunnan to tea for horses, and Tibet for horses for tea. This imperial court also allowed it, but of course it was the most beneficial to Wu Sangui. The specific method of mutual market is that the household department proposes that the tea required for the opening of the market can be purchased by Yunnan Province or other provinces, and whether it can be compared with the Xining Mutual Market. King Pingxi should be invited to consider it.

Wu Sangui once played, and Beishengzhou did not pass through the river. The transportation is inconvenient, and businessmen from other provinces will not come. However, in the Pu'er region of Yunnan Province, there is not much tea, so it is very limited to buy it from other provinces, shoulder to shoulder, and trek to thousands of mountains, which is difficult to compare with the Xining example, and it is not possible to sue the household department for tea introduction. Is it possible to order merchants to collect tickets on the Yiyan Road in Yunnan, go to Pu'er, Sichuan, and Lianghu to buy tea, and go to the Beishengzhou Mutual Market, and after the government has checked it, they are allowed to trade with Tibetans, and collect three cents of tax and silver for every two teas, and if the Tibetans lose money in trade, they are allowed to trade with each other in the "official settlement office". For example, those who carry private tea and buy horses privately will be punished by law. This opinion was very reasonable, and it was quickly adopted by the imperial court.

Geng Jingzhong thought that if Wu Sangui was not engaged in military affairs, he would definitely be an extremely successful businessman. According to reliable information, Wu Sangui's trade footprint was not limited to Tibet, but also to Liaodong. The Liaodong region is rich in ginseng, and ginseng, as a precious medicinal material, is known as a treasure in Kanto, and is in great demand in various places. Wu Sangui saw the opportunity and shipped a large number of ginseng to various places for sale. Sichuan Bashu real estate Coptis chinensis and aconite are also precious medicinal materials. Wu Sangui monopolized his own rights, forbade private sales, strictly forbade the establishment of official offices, and punished those who violated the prohibition with death. Without competition, the prices of these medicinal materials have grown wildly, making Wu Sangui earn a lot of money. He also used the name of dredging channels and building cities to collect heavy taxes. In Yunnan and Guizhou, the water and land are rushed, and henchmen are dispatched to guard and "collect market goods". It's no wonder that Wu Sangui is not interested in sea trade, Geng Jingzhong proposed it twice, and Wu Sangui prevaricated in the past.

In the past two years, Wu Sangui has become more and more bold and unabashed, and his unscrupulous behavior has also attracted the attention of some officials in the imperial court. The year before last, Wang Xi of the Imperial History of the Zuodu was ordered to investigate the matter, and he Geng Jingzhong was also counted, and Wang Xi, the Imperial History of the Zuodu, said that in Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Huguang and other coastal and transportation areas, local officials "bought their own goods" nearby and sold them to their subordinates, and made a profit.

Wang Xi didn't dare to directly target Wu Sangui, so he directly pointed the accusation to Shang Kexi's Guangdong and his Geng Jingzhong's Fujian. It is said that the lending of money by officials in these two places and the smuggling of private banks to the sea are extremely rampant. As everyone knows, in Yungui, Wu Sangui's behavior is far above their two kings. Geng Jingzhong has not sold illicit salt, and Wu Sangui's generals often make a fortune by selling smuggled salt.

Forced by Wu Sangui's influence, although Wang Xi acted on orders, he did not dare to directly name Wu Sangui. Prior to this, Yushi Yang Suyun and others had impeached Wu Sangui, but the result was that Wu Sangui was not only not overthrown, but he lost his official position for this and almost died. The Qing court naturally understood the weight of Wu Sangui, and has repeatedly tolerated him over the years, but after all, there is a difference between monarchs and ministers, and there is still a bottom line for things that may shake the foundation of the court's rule.

Just last year, Kangxi instructed various ministries to formulate specific punishment regulations. One of them was that if the vassal king connived at his family to "forcibly occupy the important land of Guanjin and did not allow merchants and traders", he would be fined 10,000 taels of silver to the vassal king himself, and the officials who managed the household affairs of the feudal king would be dismissed, and all civil and military officials below the rank of general, governor and governor would be dismissed from their posts. After this regulation was put in place, other officials who violated it were basically punished, but the "three feudatories" violated the ban, and it was often only the subordinate officials who were punished. In this matter, the principle of the imperial court is to knock on the mountain and revitalize the tiger, but save enough face for the vassal kings, and hope that they will not go too far.

"It's okay, won't we have it soon, we can also form a cavalry!" Geng Jingzhong looked out the window, and a reverie appeared in his mind.

Yao Qisheng and Li Guangdi also nodded at the same time, cavalry, Li Guangdi has also been looking forward to it for a long time. (To be continued......)