Zhu Cijiong put forward two requests to send troops at the same time, one in the city and one in Jiangbei.

These two requirements were of course tailor-made for Geng Jingzhong and Liu Jinzhong, and they were measured by Wang Zhongxiao, Lu Sanhao, and Chen Yonghua, three loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty.

First of all, this arrangement in one city and one north of the river separated Geng Jingzhong and Liu Jinzhong.

Although the two of them can't be completely regarded as a group, the Geng family has the grace to support Liu Jinzhong after all, so Liu Jinzhong has been calling himself Geng Jingzhong's old subordinate all these years. Moreover, Liu Jinzhong's troops in Nanjing were far less than Geng Jingzhong's, who brought a full 10,000 elite soldiers, while Liu Jinzhong only brought 3,000 men and 10,000 against 3,000, and the advantage was in Geng!

If Liu and Geng are not separated, Geng Jingzhong is likely to absorb Liu Jinzhong's people. Even if he doesn't do this, Liu Jinzhong and Geng Jingzhong are crowded together in Nanjing, and there is no chance to become bigger and stronger. Even if the oil and water in Nanjing City is really sufficient, it must be Geng Jingzhong who eats more and Liu Jinzhong who eats less.

Secondly, although this "one city, one Jiangbei" is a "multiple-choice question", which was chosen by Geng Jingzhong and Liu Jinzhong, the two loyal ministers, but anyone can guess the answer, Geng Jingzhong will definitely choose to stay in Nanjing - he is here for Nanjing!

There are both oil and water in Nanjing and Emperor Ming Xian, and Geng Jingzhong will certainly not give up.

Geng Jingzhong's troops are powerful, and if he wants to stay in Nanjing, Liu Jinzhong has no choice but to cross the river and go north to fight Jiangbei. And although Jiangbei is poor, but. Poor mountains and bad waters produce elite soldiers!

Jiangbei has always been the place to be used, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a group of Huaixi heroes appeared, and Zhu Yuanzhang laid down the Ming Dynasty for three hundred years. Later, in the late Qing Dynasty, there was a twisting army, and the last prince monk who could fight in the Qing Dynasty was "crushed to death"!

Therefore, as long as Liu Jinzhong can gain a firm foothold in Jiangbei, as long as he has silver in the future, he will be able to pull up the Jiangbei regimental training. According to the standard of the regimental training in the south of the Tianjiang River, an expenditure of 780,000 taels a year is enough to maintain the regimental training armament of 17,800 people.

The Jiangnan regiment of 17,800 people is at most self-protecting Jiangnan, and that's all there is to it!

But 17,800 Huaixi group practice, hehe, that's amazing!

As for the expenses of seven or eight hundred thousand taels of silver that year, it was not too much for Wang Zhongxiao, who held the Guangdong Customs Road and "Made in Foshan" in his hands.

Moreover, Wang Zhongxiao can also get back far more than 780,000 taels a year from Chaozhou Mansion through "escrow" Chaohai Town - it's not that Chaozhou can collect so many taxes a year, and Chaoshan people's taxes are not so easy to collect!

Rather, the Chaoshan people have always had a tradition of going to the South Seas, and now the Chinese society in the South Seas and the Indochina Peninsula is almost half Chaoshan and half Fujian.

The boss of the Hokkien people is the Zheng family, and Wang Zhongxiao doesn't want to and can't fight. But the Chaoshan people now have no big man who can be called, if Wang Zhongxiao takes Chaohai Town, he will have the opportunity to run Nanyang and Indochina Peninsula.

"King, let's go to Jiangbei!" It was Liu Jinzhong who proposed to go to Jiangbei, and his expression looked a little sad and indignant, "I think that the jurisdiction of the Yasukuni Duke was in Jiangbei back then, and his Chinese army was stationed in Zhenzhou, but unfortunately he was not able to manage Jiangbei well, so that the country collapsed!" If the minister goes to Jiangbei again this time, he must learn the lesson of Huang Jingguo, and he will not be dishonored, if he can't clear the Tartars and restore Jiangbei, the minister vows not to return south! ”

"Good!" Zhu Cijiong slapped his thigh, "What Daming needs is a hero like Liu Zongzhen. Li Zhongtang, Chen Zhongtang, the two of you are responsible for providing Liu Zongzhen with the ferry and the military salary needed to run Jiangbei. ”

Although the true body of "Li Zhongshan" has been exposed, Zhu Cijiong doesn't care, he still treats Wang Zhongxiao as Li Zhongtang.

"Decree of the Minister!"

"Obey the order!"

Wang Zhongxiao (Li Zhongshan) and Chen Yonghua bowed their hands to Zhu Cijiong together, took the order, and then the two of them patted their chests at Liu Jinzhong.

Wang Zhongxiao said with a smile: "Mr. Liu, the silver you need to fight and operate in Jiangbei will be paid by us in Guangdong, and we will give you 50,000 taels a month first!" If it's not enough, let's discuss it again. ”

Chen Yonghua also looked generous: "Mr. Liu, the boats, gunpowder, shotguns, and artillery you need to cross the river are covered by our Yanping Palace!" Not to mention more, a thousand shotguns, ten small cannons in red clothes and a thousand catties of gunpowder will be given to you immediately! ”

Liu Jinzhong is also a sensible person, and immediately bowed his hand to Wang Zhongxiao and said: "Brother Shikai, I don't want you to pay 50,000 yuan a month in vain, and the festival of Chaohai Town, please find someone for generations." ”

"It's easy to say, the affairs of Chaozhou will be taken care of by the younger brother. When Brother Liu doesn't want to stay in Jiangbei anymore, and when he comes back to Guangdong, the younger brother will definitely return to Zhao! Wang Zhongxiao didn't ask the third prince Zhu for advice, and directly agreed.

Fang Zhen of the Ming Dynasty was taught and accepted privately in this way. And these two. No matter how you count it, they are all loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty! Now the loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty are much more powerful than the loyal ministers of the former Ming Dynasty!

Seeing the generosity of Wang Zhongxiao and Chen Yonghua, Geng Jingzhong muttered a little in his heart. Wang Zhongxiao and Chen Yonghua are sending silver and arms, are they trying to win over Liu Jinzhong?

But now the most important thing is to enter the city of Nanjing!

As long as you can enter Nanjing City, you can coerce the Son of Heaven and order the princes!

Liu Jinzhong is still loyal to Daming after all, otherwise wouldn't it be good for him to spend his birthday with Shang Shuying in Chaozhou? He can pinch most of the Chaozhou Mansion in his hands, and he will be peaceful in the world, relying on most of the Chaozhou Mansion and thousands of elite soldiers, and he can't exchange for a hereditary Hou Ye?

So as long as Emperor Zhu is in hand, he is not afraid that he will not be able to control Liu Dazhongchen.

Thinking of this, Geng Jingzhong hugged his fists at the third prince of Zhu: "King, those bannermen in the imperial city of Nanjing will be handed over to the ministers, the ministers have 10,000 troops, all of them are elite soldiers, and there are fierce generals Shang Zhixin, who are not afraid that they will not be able to take down those bannermen." ”

Shang Zhixin is a fierce general?

Wang Zhongxiao pondered: Could it be that this person died because of his broken family, and he was brave after knowing his shame? Be careful when you meet him in the future.

"King Geng, have all your 10,000 troops entered Nanjing City? Don't leave a little elsewhere? ”

It was Lu Sanhao who asked Geng Jingzhong questions, he was Wu Sangui's person! And he is also the "big brother with the group" of Jiangnan regimental training, although the Jiangnan regimental training has not yet become an army, but the head has been gathered.

With 10,000 and thousands of regimental exercises in hand, and controlling the administration of Yingtian's five counties, Lu Sanhao certainly dared to fight Geng Jingzhong.

Geng Jingzhong's face sank, and he said coldly: "There are many elite soldiers and fierce generals under the command of this king, who have been stationed in Dangtu, Wuhu, Fanchang and Xuancheng, and after this king takes the imperial city, he will also divide his troops to take Chizhou, Huizhou, Quzhou and other places, so as to completely open up the connection with Fujian." ”

It turned out that Geng Jingzhong did not drive into Nanjing with all his men and horses, and when he was besieging Wuhu, he had already ordered Chen Shikai to lead 2,000 troops to attack Xuancheng, the capital county of Ningguo, Wang Jinzhong to lead 1,000 troops to attack Fanchang in Taipingfu, and Ma Weixing led 1,000 troops to attack Dangtu, the capital county of Taipingfu.

And his ultimate goal is to take down the entire southern Anhui and Quzhou in Zhejiang, and open up the connection with Laochao Fujian.

In this way, he can coerce the Son of Heaven and order the princes to control Fujian remotely, without pulling down at both ends, which is quite beautiful to think.

Lu Sanhao asked again: "King Geng, how will your 10,000 elite soldiers be paid after they are stationed in Nanjing?" Is it to use the tax expenditure of Taiping Mansion, Ningguo Mansion, Chizhou Mansion, or "

Geng Jingzhong said: "Of course, it was Nanjing Hubu who raised it for this king!" He paused, "I don't want much, and like Liu Zhen, I get 50,000 taels a month, isn't it much?" ”

50,000 yuan a month is not a small amount for Lu Sanhao, the household secretary, and the Nanjing household department is not Wang Zhongxiao's Yuehai Town, it is not so wide.

Of course, Wang Zhongxiao can generously promise Liu Jinzhong the 50,000 monthly salary, he has the two cornucopia of Guangzhou Mansion and Guangdong Customs Road, and he can also find some from Chaozhou, 50,000 yuan a month is not available at the moment, but 20,000 yuan is not a big problem, and it will lose more than 300,000 yuan a year.

However, Nanjing's household department is not as wide as Yuehai Town, and there is no place to make up for it, giving Geng Jingzhong 50,000 yuan a month, which is 600,000 a year, plus 770,000 a year of Jiangnan group training, that is, 1.37 million. I have to give out 120,000 taels of silver a month!

It's four thousand taels of silver a day!

In addition, there are still many officials and their yamen to support in the Nanjing court, and soon there will be a puppet emperor Ming Xiandi to support, but I am afraid that I will have to add another one or two thousand taels a day.

At present, the Nanjing household department guards a few counties outside the city of Nanjing, and collects five or six thousand taels of silver a day. It's daunting!

Seeing Lu Sanhao's embarrassed face, the third prince of Zhu was also a little anxious - he was also counting on the Nanjing household department to live!

He was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and the cost of 10,000 taels in the palace in a month is not too much, right?

"Three good," the third prince of Zhu asked, "is the silver enough to spend?" Do you want to use your internal money? ”

Also inside. Do you have one? Do you think you really inherited a Ming Dynasty?

Lu Sanhao really couldn't cry or laugh, but he didn't dare to tell Geng Jingzhong that he had no money, so he had to squeeze out a little smile: "King, don't worry. The minister will not spend your inner money, it is a big deal to suffer the people! ”

"Suffer the people." Zhu Cijiong pondered: The loyal ministers of this Ming Dynasty seem to be a bit bad!

Zhu Cijiong inquired with Lu Sanhao again: "I don't know how to suffer the people? ”

"How else can it be bitter? Yes, definitely. The business tax has been increased! Lu Sanhao is quite familiar with this number, "But you can't add too much." ”

"Yes, yes," said the third prince of Zhu, "water can carry a boat, and it can also capsize a boat!" We have to think long-term. King Chuang is in Wuchang now! ”

Although he is dedicated to the emperor, he also wants the Ming Dynasty to be able to fish sustainably this time.

But in a few days, someone is going to "meet the king" again.

"The king is right," Lu Sanhao said, "we can still sell our fame!" ”

"Selling fame?" The third prince of Zhu asked, "Someone buys it?" ”

"There must be!" Lu Sanhao nodded and said, "That Zhu Guozhi engaged in the sales case, and got rid of more than 10,000 people who raised people and showed off their fame, and I don't know how many people here in Jiangnan want to be famous. Now you can spend a little money to make a Ming Dynasty famous, and in the future, when the Ming Dynasty will pacify the southeast, they will be able to come to the Jinshi examination if they have a meritorious reputation, and they can even become officials directly! How could no one buy such a good thing? ”

"But we only have five counties in Yingtianfu!" When the third prince Zhu said this, his eyes were on Chen Yonghua.

"The king," Chen Yonghua did not shirk, "The matter of going to Tianfu to sell fame will be taken care of by the ministers, but the people of Jiangnan hate Zhu Guozhi deeply!" ”

The people of Jiangnan may not particularly hate Zhu Guozhi, but the gentry of Jiangnan must hate him very much! Moreover, when Zhu Guozhi was the governor of Jiangning (the governor of Jiangsu), he also vigorously rectified the coastal defense, and the people of the Zheng family of the pirates also hated him, and now it is time to declare a personal vendetta!

"Criminal Department!" The third prince of Zhu hurriedly asked Zheng Desheng, the secretary of the Criminal Department.

Zheng Desheng said: "King, this Zhu Guozhi is too hateful. When he handled the Crying Temple case, he also killed a lot of scholars in Jiangnan! This time, we can collect his enemy's money to handle the case, as long as the money is enough, we will put him to death! ”

Collect money to kill. This is what the Ministry of Criminal Affairs can say?

The third prince of Zhu could only sigh, he was the alternate emperor of Ming Xian. That's all it can be!

"If you don't have any objections," Zhu Cijiong said, "then find a way to raise money!" King Geng, we will find a way to raise the silver, and this battle of the Imperial City of Nanjing will be pleased. ”

"Don't worry, it's on me!" Geng Jingzhong finally patted his chest now, and his face was loyal.

On the Nanjing side, when the newly baked loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty were all kinds of bad things, on the side of Xiangyang Mansion, Huang Zhisheng, the envoy of Li Zicheng, the alternate loyal king of the Ming Dynasty, had already met Wu Yingxiong, the son of the Western King of the Ming Dynasty, and Wu Shifan, the grandson of the Western King.

"What? Li Zicheng wants to carve up Jingzhou with me? Has he forgotten who he is? ”

Although Wu Yingxiong was already determined to take a stand for his wife and children, when he saw Huang Zhisheng, he still looked furious.

"Lord Shizi, you are angry," Huang Zhisheng and Wu Yingxiong actually knew each other for a long time, and they also knew what he was like, so they didn't worry about him turning his face and killing people, they still looked unhurried, and said with a smile, "King Chuang will not be long before he will be in the same palace as you." ”

"A minister in the same hall? For whose vassals? Wu Yingxiong was stunned.

"Da Ming!" Huang Zhisheng said with a smile, "The prince won't forget that you and Ling Zun are both loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty, right?" King Chuang also plans to let the little prince come out to face the third prince of Nanjing City Zhu to be a vassal and ask for the title of loyal king, and the little prince will be the king of the Ming Dynasty in the future, and the king of Chuang is the old loyal king! ”

"Old Loyal King? Li Zicheng? He still wants to be the old loyal king? Wu Yingxiong didn't know what to say.

Wu Shifan, who was on the side, frowned and asked, "Does Li Zicheng still want to be on an equal footing with my grandfather King Xi?" ”

Huang Zhisheng said with a smile: "How can King Zhong be regarded as an equal to the King of the West? On an equal footing with the king of the west, it should be the king of the east, the king of the south, and the king of the north! ”

"It's already sealed?" Wu Shifan's brows furrowed even tighter.

Huang Zhisheng smiled: "I don't know, but it's a matter of time before I think about it." ”

Of course, Wu Sangui, the king of the west, was unwilling to sit on an equal footing with the kings of the east, the south, and the north.

But it is unlikely that the new Ming Dynasty will have only one king of the west, and no king of the east, south, and north.

In addition, the third prince of Zhu is not completely in the hands of Wu Sangui, the king of the west, and this matter is not very easy to handle!

When Wu Yingxiong and Wu Shifan, father and son, were complaining in their hearts about the third prince Zhu "indiscriminately sealing the king", Wang Shirong on the side took over the topic with a smile and asked: "Then said it, you King Li Zhong are really not afraid of settling accounts after the autumn?" ”

"I was scared when I settled the accounts after the autumn!" Huang Zhisheng said, "It's just that there is really this autumn queen, and I'm afraid it's not only the loyal Wang family who will be settled, right?" No one will settle the accounts of your Xiwang family? Who killed Emperor Yongli? Long live not your King of the West? Although the third prince of Zhu is not the son of Yongli, Yongli is also the emperor of the Ming Dynasty after all, and after the third prince of Zhu becomes the emperor, he probably can't help but regard it as Zhengshuo, right? If Yongli becomes Zhengshuo, then who will destroy the former Ming? ”

Yongli is definitely going to be the Ming Zhengshuo, he is not right, who is the Zhengshuo in the world? Is it counted on Shunzhi's head? That's a no-no!

Since Shunzhi is not Zhengshuo, then Yongli must be Zhengshuo.

And as soon as Yongli is in power, then Wu Sangui's trouble will be big!

Wu Sangui is to capture and kill Yongli is to destroy the Ming Dynasty. The last Ming Dynasty was not destroyed by Li Zicheng, but by Wu Sangui!

Even if the third prince of Zhu is weak and does not dare to investigate Wu Sangui's crime of destroying the Ming, but whether there is a day after the autumn, who dares to guarantee it?

Huang Zhisheng said again: "Although Chongzhen was forced to death by King Lao Zhong, King Xiaozhong is not the grandson of King Lao Zhong, he is the son of King Xingguo, Duke Xingguo is not the son of King Lao Chuang, he is a few years older than King Lao Chuang!" Therefore, the crime of Lao Chuang King forcing Chongzhen to death will not necessarily fall on King Xiaozhong. But the sin of the West King who destroyed the Ming Dynasty, can you run away from the prince? ”

(End of chapter)