Chapter 179: Money is King

After a two-day journey, the cavalry could quickly arrive at Fangjin, and Sun Chuanting reported the battle situation of the Kamiya River to Chen Cao as soon as possible, of course, judging from Sun Chuanting's appearance of the old god being safe with Lu Xiangsheng, the battle of the Kamiya River should be expected by Chen Cao.

He was accompanied by a messenger from Toyotomi Hideyori.

"Tokugawa Hidetada is dead..."

"Dead?"

Sun Chuanting heard Chen Cao say this, and then exclaimed: "That's hundreds of thousands of troops, and the Japanese people attach importance to the relationship between master and servant, how can they escape..."

"Hattori Hanzo covered Hidetada's evacuation to ten miles outside Hagiyama Castle, and was intercepted by the troops led by the lord of the Choshu domain, Mori Hide, and Hanzari scolded the rebellious Mori Hide, when Teruma arrived, and talked with Hidetada for a long time, Hidetada knew that the general trend had gone, so he cut his abdomen and let Terugen cut off his head;"

Hyakhe, who was in charge of the contact, said: "After Hidetada's death, Teruma knelt in front of Hidetada's corpse and cried loudly before he broke himself, and before he died, he asked Hattori Hanzo to cut off his head. ”

Chen Cao nodded, and then asked, "How was the shogunate army after the battle of Kamiya River?" ”

Baihu said: "Back to the Hou Ye, the Choshu Domain was intercepted from behind, and the defeated shogunate army was defeated again, I heard that it was the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings who finally withdrew with the shogunate army, and the Toyotomi army captured countless on the battlefield in this battle, and nearly 200,000 prisoners were captured. ”

"Tokugawa Hidetada and Iemitsu are dead, who will the next governor of the Tokugawa family fall on?" Sun Chuanting asked.

Hyakuho shook his head: "I don't know, now the remnants of the shogunate army are less than 100,000 people, and they have retreated to the territory of Izumo Province, and the Toyotomi army has also stopped pursuing, and the battle line is too long, so they will stop in the territory of Zhoufang, and they have to digest so many troops." ”

Chen Cao touched his bare chin, and then shook his head: "After this war, the Toyotomi family and the Tokugawa family formed a strong trend, but the shogunate was newly defeated, and the two governors died, which was a big blow to the Tokugawa family, and the Toyotomi family has already occupied the absolute upper hand in the Wa country." ”

"Master Hou's plan is to let them fight in the nest and lose both." Sun Chuanting interjected.

"Hahaha..."Chen Cao laughed a few times: "Boya is Boya, when I have a roundworm in my stomach, that's right, although the Toyotomi family has the upper hand, but it can only occupy the land of Kansai, the Japanese country has been peaceful for more than 20 years, and the Tokugawa family has a lot of supporters, even if two governors die, but the Tokugawa family has not perished, so the Japanese will be in chaos, this chaos, we will have the opportunity to make a fortune, and the Toyotomi family will ask us for all kinds of armaments and food, this is my purpose." ”

"Then the Hou Ye is in a hurry to summon us back?" Lu Xiangsheng spoke.

"Someone from the imperial court is here, let us go back..."

Chen Cao's face was serious after speaking: "The matter of the Japanese Kingdom is almost over, Fangjin must keep people, I have decided to leave the third division in Fangjin;

It is also necessary to set up a Ryukyu general to manage the first line between Ryukyu and Fangjin, and Song Che is the Ryukyu general as the deputy chief of the Dingwu Army, and the station is located in Fangjin, and Fangjin is to be built into the first and largest port of my Ming Dynasty overseas. ”

"Master Hou, what do you get?" Sun Chuanting asked again.

Chen Cao laughed, and then waved his hand: "No matter what Toyotomi Xiulai sends, we will accept it, and Shi Xiu also heard it," he said and looked at Song Che on the side: "As for the taxes of Fang Jinqi or what they want, they must be firmly grasped in our hands." ”

"The harvest this time is still considerable, at least it can make me fully prepared for a long time," Chen Cao thought and ordered: "Leave the left wing battalion of the sailor division to stay in Fangjin, and the remaining first and second divisions will start boarding the ship tomorrow, and we will set off and go back immediately." ”

.

"I'll leave it to you here, don't worry about it at home when you go back, everything is still with me."

The night before leaving, Chen Cao and Song Che talked alone.

Song Che nodded: "I am relieved to have Hou Ye here, and I hope that Hou Ye will take more care of me at home." ”

"Don't worry, run the Ryukyus and Fangjin with peace of mind, and I will come back in the future," Chen Cao said and instructed: "You must remember that you can't let the Toyotomi family eliminate the Tokugawa clan, and you can't let the Tokugawa clan eliminate Toyotomi." ”

"The two weigh each other, they are opponents, and they must be in civil strife."

The corners of Chen Cao's mouth rose: "I know that you are not stupid, he is a thing in my bag, and if he wants to belong to my Ming Dynasty, how can he let them have it, although the Japanese country is barren, but the land is a good thing after all, by the way, the Ryukyus are the same, the Shang family can only be a puppet, and they will all move to our Ming Dynasty in the future." ”

"I know..."

"Keeping you here can be regarded as a bargaining chip," Chen Cao took a drink to himself: "In case things are not harmonious, I still have the foundation of the Third Division, and Fangjin and Ryukyu can be used as transit bases, so the port construction must be perfected, and the best thing is to build a port city in Fangjin." ”

"Port City?" Song Che frowned.

"Surround Fangjin in the city, build a city wall on the periphery, if the enemy really wants to attack, you have to come from the sea, and now the Japanese country has no capital to fight with our sailors, so you can only choose to attack by land."

"What if the Toyotomi and Tokugawa families accept the emperor's reconciliation?"

Chen Cao smiled bitterly and looked at Song Che: "You can think of it, I can also think of it, the two of them can be described as a feud, and the Tokugawa clan also forced Toyotomi Hideyori's mother to death, this kind of feud should not be underestimated in my Ming Dynasty." ”

"I'll leave everything here to you..."

"Peace of mind..."

...

On October 21, the fifth year of the Great Ming Dynasty, Chen Cao, the Marquis of Dingwu, who had gone victoriously, left the Wa Kingdom with the Dingwu Army under the protection of the sailor troops and returned to the Ming Dynasty.

On December 14, after nearly two months of sailing, the fleet arrived safely at the mouth of the Longjiang River in Nanjing, and the reason why it was much later was also because of Chen Cao's previous plan.

And Chen Cao will not go straight home, because he received the holy decree, and after making arrangements, he went to Tianjin with the money and the troops, and he had to go to Beijing to reply to the decree.

On the 23rd, the fleet arrived at the port of Tianjin, and twenty carts of gold and silver went to Beijing under the escort of the Dingwu army.

After Chen Cao arrived in Jingshi, he first went to the General Administration Department to reply to the will, and the rest was to wait for the summons.

The last great dynasty was at the end of the month, and there were still four days, and according to the etiquette system, Chen Cao had to wait until after the great dynasty if he wanted to see the emperor in private, so the first place he went to was the mansion of Zhang Wenda, the former secretary of the ministry.

When Ran Er arrived at Zhang Wenda's house, he found that the owner had changed.

"Zhao Xin, immediately go to Beizhen Fusi to ask Yang Huan, where Zhang Wenda's family went."

Chen Cao's face was gloomy, although Zhang Wenda was dead, his family still had official relatives and a son who was an official in Shaanxi, and he would not even sell the mansion.

Not long after, Zhao Xin also came back with a gloomy face, and Chen Cao frowned when he saw this: "What's the matter, you have eaten the closed door?" ”

"Not really," Zhao Xin shook his head: "The subordinate went to Beizhen Fusi to find that Yang Huan, that guy was arrogant and rude, and happened to meet Wei Liangqing, the Duke of Ningguo, his subordinates didn't recognize him, and he was scolded a little, he heard that his subordinates were your people, so he let me go, hey, my heart was slightly uncomfortable;

Master Hou, Wei Liangqing's title of Duke of the Kingdom was also paid for by you..."

The reason why Wei Liangqing won the title of Duke of Ningguo was that Wei Zhongxian gave Wei Liangqing the credit for repairing the three major halls, and the key point was that the money for repairing the three major halls was given by Chen Cao.

Chen Cao frowned, and suddenly felt that something was wrong in his heart, since Wei Zhongxian and the others killed Gu Dazhang, he, the sixth person in the eunuch party, was actually not as good as Yang Huan, who ran errands in Beijing, so he was also on the edge of the core and outside the core, which was very embarrassing.

"What about things?"

Zhao Xin reacted: "I asked, after Zhang Wenda's death, their family sold the mansion in the city and moved to live in the outer city, and I heard that the Zhang family is going back to their hometown in Shaanxi." ”

"Have you found out where you live?"

"Subordinates will lead the way."

.

The old housekeeper of the Zhang family opened the door and saw that it was Chen Cao, and he was overjoyed, he knew Chen Cao, and immediately felt that he had found a savior, while enthusiastically bringing Chen Cao and his party into the house, while running into the house to call someone.

Zhang Wenda's eldest son, Zhang Yingnan, walked out of the so-called middle hall with great joy, ran down the steps quickly, and bowed down to Chen Cao: "The grass people have seen the Marquis of Dingwu..."

"Grass people?"

Chen Cao looked at him suspiciously, although he had never seen Zhang Yingnan, but he had heard about it from Zhang Wenda's mouth, and when he looked up, the Zhang family, who were originally dressed in fine clothes and fine food, now appeared under the eaves of the middle hall wearing ordinary satin clothes, looking at Chen Cao and a group of others.

"Big brother, what are Jinyiwei doing again? Our family has already given enough money. It was Zhang Yingnan's younger brother Zhang Yingwu who spoke.

Zhao Xin and more than a dozen people behind him were wearing the flying fish suits of Jinyiwei, Zhang Yingnan turned around and scolded: "Second brother, come on, this is Dingwu Hou, have you forgotten what your father explained before he died?" ”

"Dingwu Hou?"

Zhang Yingwu ran down the steps quickly and knelt down towards Chen Cao: "Boy Zhang Yingwu, meet the Marquis of Dingwu." ”

Chen Cao stretched out his hand to help Zhang Yingwu up, with a solemn face, then turned his head to look at Zhang Yingnan: "Take Benhou to give Uncle Zhang a stick of incense." ”

.

"My father's coffin has been transported back to my hometown in Shaanxi, and the imperial court asked my family to contribute 100,000 taels to help the military expenses of Liaodong, but my family really has no money, so I can only sell the mansion in the city, and raise money everywhere, and I can get 50,000 taels of silver to hand over, if it weren't for Zhang Weishu and Lord Zhang's words, my Zhang family could only go to the prison of Fusi in Beizhen."

Zhang Yingnan, a middle-aged man who was nearly forty years old, cried when he said this, and all the Zhang family members behind him cried.

"You call yourself a grass people, haven't you lost your office?"

Zhang Yingnan nodded towards Chen Cao, and it was really embarrassing for a northwest man to cry like this: "Don't hide it from the Hou Ye, the people of Shaanxi are in great turmoil, and the grass people are implicated, so I have been dismissed from the official position of the Left Senator, and now my family is an ordinary person;

Before my father died, I told my second brother that there was anything to find Dingwu Hou in Nanjing, but Dingwu Hou was not in Nanjing at that time, and we really couldn't help it..."

The faint crying in the hall continued, but Chen Cao found another beauty, and thought that it was either the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family or the baby daughter of Zhang Wenda.