Hu Chen looked at the exquisite embroidery, and his heart was also a little shaken, he had worked for Dashun for so many years, if he could get married, it would be compensated.

"Let's take this piece to my sister-in-law, and when I get hired, I will show it up, and it will also make the neighbors shout good." Zhang Shubo smiled and put it back into the baggage, and there were many good things that could not be said to be common people in Beijing, even Dashun officials, such as ambergris from the East China Sea, two Hainan pearls, and fine Jiangnan tea, which were all fine products that Zhang Shubo took from different smuggling ships (this kind of goods would be bought by the subordinates of high-ranking officials waiting in Tianjin almost as soon as they arrived in Hong Kong, and flowed into the black market at extremely high prices). At the beginning, Hu Chen braved the rain of bullets from the new army twice to carry him off the line of fire, and today he finally has a chance to repay one or two.

Zhang Shubo's face showed mystery, and he lowered his voice and asked Hu Chen: "Does my brother know whose embroidery this piece is?" ”

"Who's?"

Now there are fewer and fewer smuggling ships, Zhang Shubo told many court officials have related households waiting in Tianjin all day long, once a new ship arrives, they will rush up to divide the goods inside, the last time the ship in the Su embroidery was bought by Li Jiantai Ge with equal weight of gold, Li Ge Lao had fifty concubines in the pre-Ming Dynasty, Dashun opened the country and asked for a few new favorites, the harvest festival just to make new clothes at home needs a lot of Jiangnan embroidery.

Other officials, wealthy families, although it is now a war, but they are not willing to wronged the female relatives of the family, the last time the minister celebrated his birthday, the dazzling array of congratulations sent to the Chinese martial arts, Zhang Shubo secretly left and just transferred to Hu Chen The pearls leaked from the fingers of the Ouchi purchase, and the largest one hundred of them were given to the minister by the high queen.

"We need machines and munitions,......" Hu Chen remembered what Xu Ping had said to him, although Dashun had opened its own arms production factory, and the number of smuggling was declining under the blockade of the Ming army, but it was always better than nothing: "It will be a long time before a ship succeeds in smuggling, right?" ”

"It's a long time before a boat succeeds in smuggling," Zhang Shubo knew what Hu Chen was thinking, and as a coastal garrison, smuggling trade was one of the top priorities he was responsible for, and he disagreed with Hu Chen's concerns: "The army consumes tens of thousands of ammunition on the front line every day, even if these two burdens are not filled with fabric but saltpeter, how many people can be helped?" In the final analysis, it is up to us to produce our own products. ”

After speaking, Zhang Shubo couldn't help but push the burden in front of Hu Chen: "Brother, don't think about it, how can the victory or defeat of hundreds of thousands of troops be decided by this one burden?" ”

Although he relied on this fat shortage to catch a lot of oil and water, but Zhang Shubo thought that he was still conscientious, he meticulously inspected the coastal defense, dredged the waterway, and never was negligent in military affairs, a few days ago he just racked his brains to find a way to salvage the ironclad ship that the Ming army sank in the harbor, and the two super cannons on it were also carefully taken down by him to strengthen the fortress, and also reported to the governor of Tianjin to find skilled craftsmen to try to repair.

Now the work efficiency of the Shun army is incomparable with the pre-Ming period, in the short term they probably will not fall to the end of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhang Shubo always listens to the governor and other officials discuss the past of the dynasties, the Zhongxing of the Southern Ming Dynasty is likely to be a flash in the pan, the founding of the Great Shun for nearly ten years, the people's hearts have been decided, according to the past practice, the war cannot end in a short period of time, and the final result is likely to be the separation of the north and the south; Even if there is a real Zhongxing in the Southern Ming Dynasty that is rare for all dynasties, then with the momentum of the new founding of the country in Beishun, the outcome of the war may not be seen by a generation, and generally the dynasties that have declined to the extreme can rely on half of the country to support for decades.

Before Hu Chen left, Zhang Shubo asked for leave to accompany him to visit Tianjin City, where a large number of merchants from the north gathered, and the feudal kings in the west also had special people to come here to purchase for the palace. Merchants from privileged backgrounds sold their purchases at a markup and then changed hands on top of each other, but the merchants were still cheerful to ship away the luxury goods, which could be sold for a good price anywhere with the disruption of the overland trade route to Gangnam.

After returning to Beijing, Hu Chen was busy with the appointment to complete all the marriage procedures as soon as possible, and at the same time took the time to see a few old comrades-in-arms who stayed in Beijing, one of whom supervised the production of gunpowder in the Beijing Gunpowder Factory, he heard that Hu Chen was going to get married, and immediately patted his chest and said that he could provide a batch of gunpowder for him to make firecrackers - in order to save gunpowder, Dashun had ordered to stop setting off fireworks.

Hu Chen has also heard of this ban, but this comrade-in-arms thinks that he is too worried, although civilians do not have the right to set off firecrackers, but when high-ranking officials in Dashun marry their daughters-in-law or celebrate birthdays, they will always put a pass, how can Hu Chen also be an old man from Henan from the dragon, as long as the pomp is not too big, no one will compare: "Brother Hu, every day the pharmaceutical factory is thousands of catties of gunpowder, you just use a few dozen or a hundred catties, will it delay the general's affairs?" Do you think that if you miss a few catties of medicine, an army of 100,000 will affect the victory or defeat because of this? Is the general short of these pounds? ”

That person felt that Hu Chen was suspected of looking down on Xu Ping when he conceived like this, and actually thought that a few catties of gunpowder would affect the victory or defeat of the general. Another person from the workshop said that he could ask his craftsmen to work overtime to make firecrackers for Hu Chen, and he would definitely be able to complete it before he got married.

At present, Xu Ping is training his recruits in a timely manner, Hu Chen knows that the training on the front line is also very expensive, but the old comrades-in-arms of the gun factory have also seen the world: "Now they are all doing this, last time on the birthday of the Lord, the Prime Minister's Mansion ordered to build fireworks for three days, and I just asked a few craftsmen to add two or three shifts this time, so as not to delay things, and to die, how many soldiers can be trained with this bullet?" The general has tens of thousands of male divisions, do you still owe one or two recruits? ”

……

When Hu Chen returned to Anhui to report to Xu Ping, the Shun army had just repelled several tentative attacks by the Ming army on the Jianghuai region, and in Xu Ping's opinion, the other party's offensive was not violent, and this year he had the spare strength to continue to train his supplementary troops in the rear.

After listening to Hu Chen's truthful report on smuggling in Tianjin, Xu Ping sighed, he couldn't intervene at all with the governor of Tianjin, and it was difficult to say that if the imperial court wanted to buy military supplies at an astonishingly high price - Xu Ping was not a three-year-old child, and he now knew that everything would be lost when officials bought it, and if they wanted the smugglers to take greater risks to smuggle machines, the profits would have to be higher than what they were doing now, which meant that the imperial court would have to come up with an astonishing amount of funds. Now the serious businessmen are not willing to do business with Beishun now, and they are very concerned about the flow of important military materials, although Xu Ping does not understand why they have money and do not make money, but in short, it has become very difficult to import.

"No matter what, we have to import some machines," judging from the information from the south, the machines under the rule of the Duke of Qi played an increasingly important role in production, Xu Ping pondered and planned to send a letter to the Prime Minister's Mansion, if the imperial court was unwilling to allocate funds, he planned to take out a sum of money from the military budget to offer a reward to import the machines into the smugglers in Beishun, and Xu Ping felt that if he sent someone he could trust, maybe the loss in the middle could be less: "There are also many craftsmen in the army, at least we will take it in our hands and see if we can imitate it." ”

Hu Chen put Zhang Shubo's cloth dedicated to Xu Ping in front of his eyes, Xu Ping has been sharing weal and woe with the soldiers for several years, and all the gifts given above were handed over to the military treasury, this time after seeing the cloth, Xu Ping said without thinking: "Send it to the quartermaster." ”

"My lord," Hu Chen persuaded, "the army is not inferior to these two black cloths, right?" ”

"It's not bad," Xu Ping nodded, when he led the Evergreen Battalion through Shandong, he didn't think that the new army would be short of this when he took the gold and silver gifts given by several heroes, and when he sent troops to escort the heroic team, he didn't think that the new army was just that little bit of soldiers-especially when he hadn't encountered the enemy at that time: "But it's always two pieces of cloth, not without any weight." ”

"It's just that if the army is defeated, I will bear the heaviest responsibility, and I will be overwhelmed." Xu Ping nodded to the two pieces of cloth: "I can't carry more responsibilities, and I can't carry more - send it to the quartermaster." ”

After Hu Chen left, Zhou Dongtian took a person to meet Xu Ping, this was sent by the military department of the DPRK to escort the military salary, the last time one reported some loss, Xu Ping sent his cronies to Beijing until Li Zicheng lost his official position, this time the Prime Minister's Mansion simply sent the military department to escort him, compared to the number of things actually shipped on the list is not too short. Xu Ping was very satisfied with this, it can be seen that as long as the officials are serious about everything, they don't dare to stretch out their hands, as for those little shortcomings, Xu Ping doesn't plan to care, he pondered for a while and decided not to do things too much.

"The coarse tea and light rice in the army are sluggish." Xu Ping said politely to the escort officer.

"Don't dare to be," the soldier fell to the ground with a bow: "The general is really hard." ”

"I'm not a general yet, I'm the military governor of Zhezhilu." Speaking of this, Xu Ping smiled bitterly in his heart, Zhejiang under his name was completely lost, and most of the other Nanzhili was in the hands of the Ming army, making his official title sound quite ironic.

The person who came first apologized, and then looked around at no one on the left and right, so he secretly told Xu Ping before leaving, and the scholar Li Jiantai always spoke ill of Xu Ping in front of King Shun, saying that he had nothing to take from gold and silver, and nothing to hide from his beautiful relatives, and his ambition was not small. After saying these words in a hurry, this squire of the military department also asked Xu Ping to be careful not to be framed by the villain. Xu Ping thanked the Beijing official, but said that he did everything out of public intentions, and he also had an attitude of correcting the criticism of the lords in the DPRK and the central government.

After the escort officer left, Zhou Dongtian stood beside Xu Ping and looked at him deeply, and finally couldn't help but persuade again: "My lord, there is a way: three people become tigers." ”

"I won't give him the honor money, the war is in full swing ahead, and the money is not enough, where is the surplus? There is no need to say anything more about this matter," Xu Ping buried his head in looking at the reports of the Shun troops from all walks of life, and thought that his recital could be delivered to Li Zicheng unimpeded, Xu Ping had no fear of these Beijing officials, and replied without raising his head: "The Lord has no gap with my monarch and ministers. ”

"How long has it been since you have seen the Lord?" Zhou Dongtian asked loudly.

"When I was in Henan, I always fought with the lord in the army, the lord knows me very deeply, you don't have to worry blindly, and I have already had the idea of retiring, when the time comes, I will resign and tell the old, why be afraid of people's words?" Xu Ping no longer talked to Zhou Dongtian, he believed that his friendship with Li Zicheng was still enough for a while, and now that the situation was so tense, Xu Ping didn't believe that those officials in the court would find trouble for him.

……

Zhang Jinyan, who served as the secretary of the Dashun Military Department, did not live too smoothly, and those who obeyed the king were not much better than the military generals of the Ming Dynasty, and Xu Ping was one of the best, but if there was anything that did not suit his mind, he would have to sue Li Zicheng for the imperial complaint.

The squire of the military department who returned from Jianghuai arrived in Beijing in the evening, and he did not care about going home to rest, so he came to report the process of the trip to Zhang Jinyan, and it was exactly the same as Zhang Jinyan expected, Xu Ping still insisted on his true nature of eating alone, and did not intend to share the benefits with the military department at all. Zhang Jinyan didn't expect Xu Ping to send his military salary to the military department like that, and he didn't even expect it to be half a percent - after all, this was the beginning of a new dynasty, and Xu Ping and King Shun could also be called friends, as long as General Xu was a little more interesting, let Zhang Jinyan know that the general had him in his heart, and remembered that the military department had served him before and after the saddle. But Xu Ping can be so greedy that he is reluctant to spit out even such a small amount of money on the scene, and now he is so stingy when he still needs the military department, how can Zhang Jinyan expect Xu Ping to contribute in the future...... Even if it's a word of help?

General Xu also specially recruited more than 3,000 female soldiers, and made them wear Ming army uniforms to sing and dance to help the wine, and when they drank to the hearty, General Xu made a tiger on the left and right, and each caught a woman back to the camp, saying: Capture the life and capture the prisoner......" The waiter told Zhang Jinyan about what he saw and heard in the Jianghuai military camp, and listened to the latter angrily.

"Shameless contemptible, no wonder there have been repeated defeats, and even Nanjing has been lost." Every time Zhang Jinyan thinks that Xu Ping has an army of more than 100,000 troops and takes away millions of taels of military salaries and military expenses from the imperial court every year, but he is unwilling to spit out a penny to let others drink the soup, he will always be angry, and although Zhang Jinyan is psychologically prepared, Xu Ping's arrogance and lasciviousness are still beyond his imagination: "This contemptible! Don't you know that 'if the skin does not exist, the hair will be attached'? ”

Although historically, the dynasty that has been defeated to only a few provinces is not able to grow a rabbit's tail even if it is Zhongxing, but Zhang Jinyan is still very angry, if Xu Ping is allowed to do this nonsense, maybe Dashun will not even be able to keep Shandong, then he will be blamed by the lord and the prime minister.

When Zhang Jinyan asked whether the morale of the army could still be maintained, his deputy immediately reported: "The subordinate officers visited the battalions, and as soon as the generals heard that the subordinate officers had come on the orders of the lord, they all cheered. ”

"Huh." Zhang Jinyan touched his beard slightly, and his face couldn't help but show a look of self-satisfaction, in the past few years, he has served diligently for Dashun, and all the military horses have become very respectful of him (Lord Zhang has a lot of eyeliner, as well as deputies and officials of the military department, they all pointed this out in unison. At first, Zhang Jinyan was still a little unconfident, but after a few years, his ears were almost cocooned with this kind of words, and he realized that he was really a talent, and he could be called a deep military heart in Ming and Shun.

"Since the beginning of the previous dynasty, the adult's military department is a heavy burden of ten thousand catties, and the errands done by one department are several times more than the other five departments combined, but the other departments are all in chaos, and only the adult's military department is in order. Alas, if Lord Chongzhen reuses the Lord, can the Lord sit in the Jinluan Palace......"

"Nonsense!" Zhang Jinyan's face tensed: "The Lord is the true dragon son of heaven." ”

"The lower official is in vain." The squire hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed three times to Zhang Jinyan, and after Zhang Jinyan was angry, he got up again: "If the Lord lets the Lord be the prime minister......

"Nonsense!" Zhang Jinyan reprimanded again, but it was obviously much calmer than the one just now - in fact, he was just posturing in that sentence just now.

"The lower official is in vain." The squire knelt on the ground and kowtowed a few more times, and once again carefully leaned behind him to Zhang Jinyan's side and secretly reported: "The lower officials have found out something, and General Xu has sent millions of taels of silver to Li Ge Lao. ”

"Hmph." Zhang Jinyan sneered from his nose, but he was terrified in his heart, Li Jiantai is the person Zhang Jinyan currently hopes to replace the most, if Xu Ping and Li Jiantai form an alliance, then when will he be able to replace him and further step on the throne of prime minister?

……

"When the subordinate officers of the military department inspected Jianghuai, as soon as the soldiers saw them, they ran to tell each other, saying that the prime minister had sent someone to work the army again." Niu Jinxing walked in front with his head held high, Zhang Jinyan bent over and followed him in small steps all the way, and then behind him was the squire of the military department who was also full of sneers: "Hearing that the prime minister still sent people to work in his busy schedule, the soldiers were all grateful and wept, and swore to repay him with death." ”

Niu Jinxing listened with a smile, he was just an unambitious person before, and he was put on death row because he offended his fellow countrymen, at that time he was very depressed and felt that he was useless, and he was conscientious after entering the camp, but there were often omissions, although he tried his best to assist Li Zicheng, but there were often times when he was helpless against the situation. As a result, Niu Jinxing only found out that he was born to govern the great country of the genius, since he became the prime minister, the national strength of Dashun is thriving, although the front line is losing because of the incompetence of the military, but under his own leadership can always make up for the losses on the front line in time, although he has lost a large amount of territory, but the household department reports that the tax has increased, the military department reports that the military strength is strong, and the people's livelihood is even more gratifying, and the ballad of singing praises to the Lord and the prime minister of Niu is spread everywhere, Even those rebellious vassal kings praised Niu Venus's talent.

"The prime minister's talent through heaven and earth, there is no second person who can compare with it throughout the ages, right?" Zhang Jinyan sang in an emotional tone.

"Hehe," as early as seven or eight years ago, when Niu Jinxing first entered Beijing, he heard such praise, and at that time he was so frightened that he jumped up, his face changed greatly, and he waved his hand again and again to say that he was ashamed; Four or five years ago, Niu Jinxing still felt harsh, and he would say seriously: He thought that at least Xiao He could fall two streets behind him, and Zhuge Kongming could also fall at least one and a half streets behind him; But now, Niu Jinxing just said politely: "Is Xiao Cheng, the prime minister of Han Taizu, very bad?" ”

"Where can you compare with Cheng?" Zhang Jinyan was surprised and said: "The prime minister will soon be able to assist the lord to calm the world, and the horse can open a peaceful world for the country. The overlord of Western Chu is just a reckless man, and he does not have the profound foundation of the former Ming Dynasty for three hundred years, and he will be swept away by the prime minister in a few years; And Xiao He has the danger of Hangu outside, and the inside is about the fertile fields for thousands of miles, attacking the helpless Xiang Yu, and still making the country poor and the people poor, so that Han Taizu wants to ask for four horses of the same color can not be obtained, and the prime minister met in the year of the catastrophe, in the Central Plains four wars and battles, since entering Beijing, three years exempt from the heart of the four seas, hundreds of millions of happy faces, can still be the general ministers, discipline, and serve the strong domain...... How can Xiao He be in the same column as Cheng? ”

Niu Jinxing looked up to the sky and laughed, full of pride, although there were more and more troubles in the south, but Zhang Jinyan's words were like a spring breeze to sweep away the gloom in his heart.

However, when Zhang Jinyan began to report the truth of the Jianghuai Shun army, Niu Jinxing's good mood quickly disappeared, and Xu Ping's army was corrupt and arrogant, and the soldiers were lazy, which was ten times more serious than he initially thought. Many people have impeached Xu Ping for withholding military salaries, appointing private individuals, and shielding fugitive generals, but Niu Jinxing took the initiative to block these impeachments for Xu Ping without Li Zicheng saying it, because he always believed that now was the time for the imperial court to employ people, and Xu Ping was a small section even if he was greedy, and it was not important compared with defeating the Ming army.

But Xu Ping obviously lived up to Niu Jinxing's hard work, not only fled back to Jiangbei, but also refused to counterattack the Shandong coast, hiding in the barracks every day to prostitute himself, so rampant that even the eyes and ears of the military officials did not avoid. Niu Jinxing began to wonder if it was a wise thing to help Xu Ping hide so many crimes in front of Li Zicheng, corruption is not a big problem, as long as you can win the battle, it is easy to discuss together, but corruption costs millions of military expenses of the imperial court every year, but you will only stay in the barracks and enjoy yourself, then it has to be another matter.

"The lower officials also heard about one thing, Elder Li Ge asked General Xu for a silver tattoo." Zhang Jinyan, who had been carefully observing Niu Jinxing's face, felt that the time had come, so he tried to see the dagger.

"Oh?" Niu Jinxing's face really sank as Zhang Jinyan expected, everyone knew that Xu Ping and Niu Jinxing had contradictions, and the political meaning of Li Jiantai's request for money from Xu Ping was really obvious - he took the initiative to ask to become Xu Ping's ally in the court.

"What did General Xu say?" Niu Jinxing asked coldly.

"This subordinate doesn't know, and this matter was also learned by chance," Zhang Jinyan had already thought of the answer: "But in the past two months, it seems that Li Ge Lao has not said anything bad about General Xu again, right?" Even if there is, it doesn't hurt. ”

Niu Jinxing's face became more and more gloomy, and Zhang Jinyan behind him looked at the prime minister's robe with a gaze full of envy and jealousy, thinking in his heart: "You are a little poofer who has never been out of the ranks, how can you be the opponent of Li Ge Lao's kind of Jishi?" Those of us who have university questions are officials, you are too bad so you have to fall into the grass, and as a result, Mingzuo was cut off, the dynasty was replaced, and you were robbed of the position of prime minister by mistake...... If I don't help you, you don't know how you died—no matter what, I have to let you and Li Jiantai fight to the end of the game. ”

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