Yuan Xingdi took five taels of silver and put them on the plate brought by the man.

Seeing the heavy ingot of silver, the man's eyes suddenly lit up, and when he looked up, he saw Mo Qian and several personal soldiers standing in front of him.

As soon as the man saw Mo Qian's identity and dress, he guessed that Mo Qian's background was extraordinary, and in these years, those who can afford to wear this dress must be from a big family.

Several of the pro-soldiers around Mo Qian were also, all crawled out of the sea of corpses and blood in the old battalion, and their hands and feet were a little hard-working, and when they saw the calluses on the tiger's mouth, the man concluded that several of them were people who danced knives and guns all year round.

"Thank you for the bounty of several uncles, thank you uncle!"

"You're welcome, when you go out, you will inevitably encounter difficulties, this big brother, I don't know where he came from?"

"This son is polite, my daughter and I fled from Henan and arrived in Hangzhou for the first time."

"Henan? This big brother, how is the situation in Henan now? ”

"Alas, this son is polite, Henan is miserable now, King Chuang and the official army are fighting in Henan, the people are ten rooms and nine empty, my family has five people, two sons and my mother-in-law died in the military disaster, only the little girl is left, in order to survive, I have to take the little girl south to beg for a living."

"Oh, I see!"

Mo Qian said a few more greetings, and didn't ask for much useful information, the man only knew that Henan was fighting very chaotic now, with Li Zicheng's army, Hong Chengchou's official army, and some of Zuo Liangyu's troops.

Mo Qian wandered around the street for a while, and then returned to the governor's yamen, just when Huang Duanbo came back from outside.

As soon as he saw Mo Qian, Huang Duanbo grabbed Mo Qian and said, "King, you came back just in time, there is one thing, and the subordinates don't know how to decide. ”

"What's the matter?"

"About Hangzhou's commercial tax."

"Business tax? Why, the merchants in Hangzhou don't want to pay taxes or what? ”

Some time ago, the governor's yamen issued a notice stipulating that taxes should be drawn from the profits of merchants at a rate of twenty and one, and that all merchants should register their goods in the books, and that the prices of purchases and sales should be recorded in detail in the account books, so that the yamen could collect taxes.

But these merchants are very cunning, they forge the ledger, the selling price is lowered, the purchase price is raised, in order to avoid paying taxes, at present, the Hangzhou prefect Yamen has found that three merchants have evaded taxes, is asking the ministers, how to deal with this matter! ”

When Mo Qian heard that someone was evading taxes, his face suddenly darkened.

He said: "Paying taxes is the obligation of every businessman, how did these three tax evasion and tax evasion be discovered? ”

"It was found from the account book of their purchase, and the people from the prefect's yamen went to check the price of their purchase, and then took the price to the purchaser to check the price of the shipment, and found that the price was not matched, and then they knew that they had evaded taxes."

"How much less did they pay in taxes? Which three? ”

"A total of 150,000 taels of silver, of which 100,000 taels belong to the Xu family in Songjiang, and the remaining 50,000 taels belong to the Xu family and the Zhao family."

"What is the origin of these three?"

"The Xu family is the descendant of Xu Jie, the first assistant of the Jiajing Dynasty, and the other two are all century-old wealthy families in Hangzhou, the Xu family operates a rice and grain business in Hangzhou, the Xu family is a freight forward, and the Zhao family sells cloth!"

Hearing that he was Xu Jie's descendant, Mo Qian was even more unhappy in his heart.

The people of the Xu family were still collecting grain in Wuchang and Nanchang before, and almost collected all the grain of the people of Wuchang.

Not long after they conquered Songjiang, they haven't gone to their troubles, but they are good, and now they dare to evade taxes in Hangzhou under their rule.

"It seems that it is not possible to open the killing ring without a big fight!"

Hearing this, Huang Duanbo was suddenly startled, and he advised Mo Qian: "King, you can't kill people casually, these three families have great influence in Suzhou and Hangzhou, if you kill people casually, I'm afraid that something big will happen!" ”

"Big deal? What could happen? As far as the widow knows, the land of his Xu family has exceeded 300,000 mu, and the fields of the entire Suzhou and Songjiang are his family's, and their family resells grain everywhere, and also sells the grain to the Jin merchants in Shanxi, who in turn sell the grain at a higher price to the Tartars outside the Guan.

What is it? This is a capital enemy!

Tartar has been eyeing the Central Plains of China, and now the number of Ming Qi is approaching, and the one who can compete with the widow in the future is either Li Zicheng or Huang Taiji outside the gate.

The widow doesn't want to have a group of powerful merchants in his rear, transporting grain and grass to his enemies in the rear of the widow, what is the difference between this and handing a knife to the enemy?

Songjiangjiang, you are in charge of you, and you don't have to worry about the affairs of the Xu family for the time being, but this surnamed Xu and Zhao, you have to deal with it for me, arrest all the people of these two families, kill a few people to make an example of chickens and monkeys, I see who will dare to evade taxes when doing business in the future, taxes are our foundation, there is no money to pay taxes, what do the widows take to give you money, what to use to raise the army of hundreds of thousands, this matter is so decided, after I meet with Zheng Zhilong, I want to see the results! ”

Mo Qian had a tough attitude, and Huang Duanbo could only agree first.

He immediately sent the messengers and soldiers of the governor's yamen, and immediately went to the Xu family and the Zhao family to get people, and raided the two families.

......

On the first day of September, the agreed meeting time arrived.

On this day, Mo Qian got up early, got dressed and tied his hair under Yang Suxin's service.

Yang Suxin was bored in the Nanjing Imperial Palace, and actually ran out secretly with a few maids and a team of soldiers and came to Hangzhou to find Mo Qian.

Mo Qian couldn't say anything about his wife, so he could only let her stay by his side for the time being.

Women in this era do not have much freedom, and since Yang Suxin followed him, the couple did not spend much time together.

At the end of the day, under the escort of the brigade, Mo Qian went out of Hangzhou City and came to the sea outlet in the east of the city.

An hour later, dozens of warships appeared on the coast, and the flotilla under the banner of Zheng Zi sailed into the harbor, and Zheng Zhilong landed under the guidance of small boats.

As soon as he saw Zheng Zhilong, Mo Qian hurriedly greeted him, and said to Zheng Zhilong with a smile on his face: "General Zheng came all the way from Fujian, Mo Qian has missed the welcome, please don't blame General Zheng!" ”

Zheng Zhilong was also flattered, and hurriedly bent down to bow to Mo Qian, saluted and said: "If the King of Han can agree to come to see me, a young general, he is already a person who looks up to me as a pirate.

Being able to occupy the five southern provinces in just three years, the King of Han deserves to be the hero, I Zheng Zhilong admires, King Han, please allow me to introduce you. ”

As he spoke, Zheng Zhilong pulled a man who looked similar to him behind him and introduced, "This is my fourth brother, Zheng Zhifeng." ”

"It turned out to be the fourth general, polite!"

Zheng Zhifeng saw that Mo Qian called him the fourth general, and hurriedly replied: "Zheng Zhifeng has seen the King of Han!" ”

Zheng Zhilong on the side explained: "My fourth brother was hit by the martial arts of the imperial court last year, and my second brother Zheng Zhihu was ambushed when he fought with Liu Xiang last year, and was brutally murdered. ”

As he spoke, Zheng Zhilong showed a sad expression, as if he was missing his second brother.

Seeing this, Mo Qian had no choice but to comfort him and said, "General Zheng Er is also a hero!" ”

After the two sides pretended to be sorry for a while, Zheng Zhilong pulled out a boy who was only thirteen or fourteen years old and introduced him to Mo Qian: "This is my eldest son, Zheng Sen, Sen'er, hurry up and give a gift to King Han!" ”

Zheng Sen stared at Mo Qian with a pair of bright eyes for a while, and then suddenly asked, "Are you really the Han King who defeated the five southern provinces?" ”

Mo Qian was also very curious about this national hero, and when he saw the young Zheng Chenggong like this, he suddenly smiled and said, "I am Mo Qian, like a fake!" ”

"Why are you so powerful, I don't think you're a few years older than me, how can you fight so well? My dad said that if it were him, he wouldn't necessarily be as good as you! ”

Hearing that someone praised himself, and he was also a national hero praising himself, Mo Qian's inner sense of accomplishment and honor was full.

He laughed and said: "Your father is wrong in what he said, when it comes to fighting, I can't say that I am invincible, but the battles I fight are all fought on land, and your father is an undefeated and victorious general at sea.

In this way, I am at war with your father, it is not equal, I am a victorious general on land, your father is the overlord of the sea, and the two of us are half against half! ”

Zheng Zhilong, who was on the side, heard Mo Qian praise him like this, and suddenly had a smug smile on his face.

"King Han has praised it, I, a little guerrilla general, where can I compare with you!"

"Yes, why not, General Zheng, with your ability, I think that the Ming Dynasty only named you a small guerrilla general, that is too much to look down on you, if I were Chongzhen, I would at least give you a naval commander and the position of Fujian General Army, which is worthy of your military exploits!"

"What is the commander of the Navy?" The young Zheng Sen couldn't help but ask curiously.

"The commander of the navy is, the biggest officer of the navy, and the navy all over the world has to listen to your father, understand?"

When Zheng Sen heard this explanation, he suddenly realized, and then turned to Zheng Zhilong and said, "Dad, if you become the commander of the navy, you can really be amazing, how many sailors will you get in the whole world!" ”

Zheng Zhilong laughed, touched Zheng Sen's head and said, "Even if there must be tens of thousands of boats, hundreds of thousands of people!" ”

"It's the most basic!" Mo Qian interjected.

"Huh? Hahahaha! Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized.

The two parties exchanged pleasantries on the dock, and Mo Qian invited Zheng Zhilong's family to follow him into Hangzhou.

After this meeting, Zheng Zhilong felt that Mo Qian was a good person, so he took five hundred soldiers and followed Mo Qian's personal army into the city.

On the way back to Hangzhou, Zheng Zhilong and his son were arranged in a carriage, and Zheng Zhifeng jumped into the carriage after a while.

The brothers sat in the car, and Zheng Zhifeng opened his mouth and said: "Big brother, let's bring five hundred brothers ashore, and we will enter Hangzhou later, this surnamed Mo won't have a Hongmen banquet, right?" ”

Zheng Zhilong shook his head and said: "It's not quite like that, I heard that although this Han King is young, he is very benevolent and righteous, and he never harms people with black hands.

Besides, our family still has thousands of boats and tens of thousands of horses, if something happens to us in Hangzhou, and my tens of thousands of troops in Fujian are not finished with him, he will not be stupid enough to attack our brothers in Hangzhou. ”

"Then when we enter the city, will the man surnamed Mo agree to the conditions we propose? He wrote back that he agreed, but what if he repented? ”

"Repentance? My Zheng family has thousands of boats, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses are not vegetarians, and every province in Fujian is in our hands, if he doesn't agree, then he has to send troops to fight with us, I believe he won't be stupid enough to come to this point, right?

Live, now he is not the only one in the world, now the Ming Dynasty has not been extinguished, we are now both ends, whoever gives more benefits, we will go with whom! ”

"That's still the same as this surnamed Mo, Chongzhen is too stingy, how many military exploits have you made, eldest brother, you haven't given you the governor of Fujian until now, and you still have the official position of a guerrilla general, others have less military exploits than you, either the chief soldier or the marshal, let's be good, suffocate to death!"

Speaking of his official position, Zheng Zhilong had a fire in his heart.

He asked himself that he had made a lot of military exploits for the Ming Dynasty, at least the cleanliness of the southeast sea was inseparable from him.

Now that Liu Xiang is dead, the court doesn't take him seriously, which makes Zheng Zhilong a little unhappy.

"Let's take a look first, when we get to Hangzhou, wait for Mo Qian to mention the conditions, if he dares to lower the conditions, let's turn around and leave!"

"Cheng, then let's take a look first!"

Entering the city, the large army returned to the governor's yamen, which had become Mo Qian's temporary palace.

In the palace, Mo Qian hosted a banquet for Zheng Zhilong's family and his subordinates.

The two sides first chatted with cups and lamps, and after three rounds of drinking, Mo Qian threw out the true purpose of the meeting.

"General Zheng, now that Jiangnan has been settled, only Fujian Province is still under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, and few people know that Fujian is General Zheng's final say.

The general trend of the world, since ancient times is divided for a long time must be divided for a long time, now the widow intends to unify the world, now Fujian is a corner of peace, the general holds a heavy army, the widow wants to invite the general to join my Han country, in order to show sincerity, the widow is willing to worship the general as the commander of the navy of my Han country, the commander of the naval division, and canonized the general as the prince of Zhenhai, hereditary replacement, I don't know what the general wants? ”

Zheng Zhilong, who was drinking with a wine glass, suddenly widened his eyes when he heard the words Commander of the Navy, Zhenhai Gong and others.

He hurriedly put down the wine glass, got up and came to the center of the hall, kowtowed respectfully to Mo Qian and said: "The last general, who was originally the king, went to the soup to fight the fire, and he did not give up, where the king pointed in the future, the last general will fight, as long as the king has the place where the last general is useful, the last general will be crushed, and he will never regret it!" ”

82 Chinese Net