June 26.

In fact, after an interval of about a week, through the military intelligence agency, the results of the Jiangnan War were transmitted to the imperial court and learned by the center of the Ming Dynasty.

Beijing, Forbidden City.

At the regular court meeting this morning, Xiong Mingyu, an official of the Ministry of War, broke the silence and went out to start the matter.

"Your Majesty, the 200,000 army in Jiangnan was wiped out, and Xujiazhuang sent only a few thousand, so it won a complete victory, Your Majesty, Xujiazhuang has become a general trend, it depends on when I have the ambition to swallow my Ming."

It was like a stone cast on the surface of a calm lake.

Buzz.

The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty began to talk about each other.

Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, also had to stand up and said: "Your Majesty, Xujiazhuang is becoming a success, and the harm to my Daming Sheji has surpassed Liukou, more than the Jiannu outside the Guan, at most in another three or five years, Xujiazhuang will annex the land of Jiangnan wealth, and then swallow my Daming Jiangshan, and with the merchant habits of Xujiazhuang, do not value Confucianism, do not respect the imperial power, if Xujiazhuang takes over the world, the ministers and Your Majesty will have no place except for dying in battle!" ”

The second assistant Wen Tiren also said: "Your Majesty, if Xu Jiazhuang takes over the world, my Chinese clothes and Taoism will be extinct, the ethics of respect and humility will be lost, the words and rituals will be crippled, and the royal family and nobles and gentry will not be rich, and its harm will not be less than the Central Plains artifact of Wuhu Chaohua and Yuanhu Lord!" If we don't take action to deal with it, we will all die and have no place to be buried. ”

All the ministers came out one after another, and said in unison: "Your Majesty, Xu Jiazhuang can't let it go any longer, and the court can't help but take action!" ”

On top of the dragon chair.

In the face of the request of the civil and military ministers, Chongzhen and Zhu Youzhen realized the seriousness of the problem, and realized that it was impossible to maintain a quiet and silent state on the Xujiazhuang issue.

The 200,000 troops organized by the Jiangnan gentry to attack Xujiazhuang ended in the annihilation of the whole army, if the 200,000 troops sent by the imperial court could defeat Xujiazhuang? Or is it quite a five-five fight?

Or will the imperial army also end in a crushing defeat or even the total annihilation of the army?

Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen, who has been the emperor for five years, is actually a little self-aware, and understands a simple truth: governing the country is like governing the family, fighting a war is money and food, and relying on spiritual will and loyalty and patriotism alone, you can't win a war at all.

Therefore, when Li Jinniu, deputy of Yangzhou Jinyi Guard, secretly said in May: Wei Guogong successfully raised 10 million taels and raised 20 million stones of grain and grass, Zhu Youzhen was very envious and jealous, and also felt extremely jealous, raised so much money and grain, and secretly formed an elite army of 200,000, what did Wei Guogong want to do? Is it really just to destroy Xujiazhuang? And after destroying Xujiazhuang, the Jiangnan army was not disbanded, will there be bad intentions?

So under strong jealousy.

Regarding the formation of the Jiangnan Army, Zhu Youzhen has always held a cold sidelines, never supporting but not opposing it, after all, Xujiazhuang is also a big threat.

There is a kind of snipe and clam fighting for the fisherman's profit, and it is best for the Jiangnan nobles and gentry to fight with Xujiazhuang after losing both! The imperial court benefited from this.

But the result is still greatly beyond Zhu Youzhen's expectations, not to mention that Xujiazhuang has won a complete victory, the loss is also very slight, and the foundation has not been damaged at all, and after consolidating the existing territory, it will only become more powerful, and its momentum will be more unstoppable!

Can't sit still!

Such a terrible result made Chongzhen unable to sit still, and now he was threatened by the court's civil and military officials.

"Ministers Aiqing, Xu Jiazhuang is so threatening, what should the imperial court do, and how should I do it?" Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but stand up and asked.

Seeing that the emperor's attitude was consistent with his own, the ministers and officials couldn't help but be relieved and secretly happy, and they made suggestions one after another.

The Hubu Servant Hou inquired and said: "Your Majesty, for the sake of today's plan, we should cut off all commercial contacts with Xujiazhuang, destroy and close all shops related to Xujiazhuang's goods, confiscate all goods, block the customs and water and land transportation in various places, and not allow a single piece of Xujiazhuang's goods to flow out, nor allow any grain, minerals, gold and silver to flow into Xujiazhuang, trapping and starving to death!" This generation of merchants made a living from trade, and if they cut off their trade routes, it would be like a blood vessel that would suffocate and die without a fight. ”

For this strict blockade plan.

Although there are large voices expressing support, saying that all the goods from Xujiazhuang will be burned, and all the life-length glass mirrors with 10,000 taels of silver will be smashed, and no one will be left.

But this has also been opposed by many ministers.

"It is not feasible to destroy the shops and burn the goods, Xujiazhuang does not have any shops, those shops are opened by agents, and the goods are also wholesaled from Xujiazhuang, Xujiazhuang has already made money, why does the court harm the interests of agents? Isn't that the wrong child? ”

"That's right, the agent is not too guilty, as long as the cooperation with Xujiazhuang is canceled, and the goods of Xujiazhuang will not be purchased in the future, and then the traffic roads can be tightly blocked."

"Blockade the entire Yangzhou Mansion?"

An official from Yangzhou had to stand up and say: "Yangzhou has three prefectures and seven counties, there are more than five million people, Xujiazhuang only controls two million, most of the people are the people of the imperial court, and the county seats, state governance, and Yangzhou City are still in the hands of the imperial court, and they are not occupied by Xujiazhuang. What's more, Yangzhou is a heavy tax place, and more than one million taxes are paid to the imperial court every year. ”

Another Yangzhou official also said: "Your Majesty, the blockade strategy is not feasible, kill 1,000 enemies, and lose 800 yourself, but the next volume!" ”

Immediately, these two Yangzhou officials were criticized verbally and written, thinking that they were helping Xujiazhuang to speak, and as the representative of Xujiazhuang's interests, they must have received money Yunyun, and the two Yangzhou officials argued with reason and sprayed with them.

In the Jinluan Palace, it suddenly buzzed and turned into a vegetable market.

Seeing the chaos of the scene, Wang Chengen, the eunuch who was close to him, leaned into the ear of Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen and said: "Your Majesty, the goods of Xujiazhuang cannot be banned, and now Your Majesty, among the dozens of imperial stores, the goods of Xujiazhuang are the best-selling, and with the help of the general manager of Fang, you can enjoy the purchase discount of three or five percent of the price, and bring hundreds of thousands of taels of profit to Your Majesty's internal funds every month, which is one of the important sources of wealth for Your Majesty. ”

These words shocked Zhu Youzhen's body.

He remembered that at the beginning of this year, his inner money was empty enough to run mice, and he went back to the days of bitter haha, Fang Yizhi, who returned to Beijing, was very distressed when he saw this, so he helped to match, and won the qualification of Xujiazhuang cargo agent for the royal family, and also entered the list of friendly agents, not to mention the price reduction of three percent, for the sake of Fang Yizhi's face, Xujiazhuang was discounted by 5%, so that the imperial store had a competitive advantage of low purchase cost, and earned more than 200,000 taels in the first month, triggered a wave of price reductions of Xujiazhuang goods.

The profit margin is lower, but there is at least 100,000 taels of net profit every month.

Moreover, the royal family members in the palace can also buy glass mirrors, watches, lighters, toilet paper, bicycles, soap, sugar, canned food and other goods in Xujiazhuang at the cost price of purchase, and the quality of life has been significantly improved.

Even Zhu Youzhen himself is also accustomed to this kind of high-consumption life where he can wipe his mouth and buttocks with soft toilet paper, if he wants to go back to the past......

Shaking his head, he said aloud: "Ladies and gentlemen, since there are still millions of my people in Yangzhou, the blockade strategy is absolutely infeasible, and there is no need to discuss this matter again!" ”

Hou Xun's proposal was rejected, which made him quite frustrated, but it also made him realize that there were not half of the ministers in this court who had business dealings with Xujiazhuang, but at least one-third, including the emperor's imperial store......

Next, on how to restrict Xujiazhuang, the ministers and officials came up with a lot of methods, and some of them can be called brain-opening.

Some proposed to send spies into Xujiazhuang to assassinate the owner Xu Yuan and other important figures.

Some proposed to send a number of Confucians into Xujiazhuang to find a way to influence the people of Xujiazhuang.

There are also proposals that the ministers' families select school-age children, and then marry with the high-level personnel of Xujiazhuang, such as Xu Yuan, the owner of Xujiazhuang, who has no wife so far, if he marries a royal princess or a daughter of the clan to him, and then affects the thinking of the high-level of Xujiazhuang, and finally achieves the purpose of changing or assimilating Xujiazhuang.

There were even several officials who directly persuaded the emperor not to borrow money from Xujiazhuang anymore to express their dissatisfaction with Xujiazhuang.

And so on and so forth.

These sound okay, but in fact, they are more than a bad idea, so Zhu Youzhen shook his head again and again, noncommittal.

The discussion lasted for several hours, from the morning morning to the noon.

Still haven't been able to discuss a reliable enough solution.

"Duke Chengguo, Duke of England, Uncle Xiangcheng, and the ministers of the Ministry of War, if within three years, the imperial court raises enough money and food, trains 300,000 elite soldiers, and then sends troops to exterminate Xujiazhuang, I don't know if it will succeed?"

In the end, the impatient Zhu You checked the names of Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, Zhang Weixian, the British Prince, Li Guozhen, the Duke of Xiangcheng, and the officials of the Ministry of War, and asked this question.

"Uh......"

Silence, these military attachés and ministers, all bow their heads and are silent.

"Can it be?" Zhu Youzhen patted the dragon chair and asked in a loud voice.

"No, no." Zhu Chunchen said.

"The minister is not sure, unless he gives the minister 500,000 elite soldiers!" Li Guozhen shook his head.

"The ministers are dying and old, and they can't lead the troops." Zhang Weixian said.

The officials of the Ministry of War also shook their heads or were silent, and no one dared to stand up and say such big things.

"Retreat!"

Zhu Youzhen shook his sleeves with a calm face, and the shrill voice of the ceremonial eunuch sounded, this court meeting that had been held for a long time was still anticlimactic, except for empty words, no results were achieved.