Today's Yangzhou, the excitement is unprecedented, the emperor is coming, the vassal kings and ministers who have been waiting for a long time are waiting in the ten mile pavilion outside Yangzhou City.

"Report! ——Your Majesty, Zhu Yihai, King of Lu, Zhu Gongqiao, King of Zhou, Zhu Yuyun, King of Tang, Zhu Yousong, King of Fu, and Mu Tianbo, King of Yunnan Mu, led a group of ministers to meet them in Shili Pavilion in Yangzhou City. ”

Obediently, these kings are all historical celebrities, King Fu and Tang Wang will not talk about it, this Yunnan Mu Wangfu Mu Tianbo is also a mediocre person, although these guys are loyal and do not say it, but it is really difficult to be a big responsibility in the place, none of these vassal kings can let them leave Nanjing, this is Gao Yiming's idea.

In the crowd, Gao Yiming saw a female general with gray hair, thinking that it was Qin Liangyu, since ancient times, the female general was also afraid of the white head, Gao Yiming sighed in his heart, and he couldn't say that he scolded Chongzhen again, it was all his sin, if he didn't destroy the Great Wall, how could Daming be here.

When he came to Yangzhou Mansion, Gao Yiming did not summon a group of vassal kings first, but first met with Shi Kefa, the governor of Caoyun and the governor of Fengyang, who used to be the biggest official in Yangzhou.

"Minister Shi Kefa visits the emperor, long live long live!"

Gao Yiming looked up and saw a middle-aged man in a red robe and a majestic appearance, with the demeanor of a heavy minister, if he hadn't fled the capital, Shi Kefa at this time should have already supported King Fu who stayed in Nanjing to be called the emperor.

"Master Shi, please get up quickly." Gao Yiming personally helped him up: "I first came to Jiangnan, you first tell me about the situation of the Qinwang army from all walks of life." ”

"Yes, there are currently more than 600,000 vassal kings in Yangzhou, in addition to Zuo Liangyu's 500,000, Qin Liangyu's old general's 10,000, plus the defenders of Yangzhou and Nanjing, the total number is no less than 1.3 million."

"The vassal king has so many troops?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, among the Eighteen Road Vassal Kings, King Tang has the most people, about 100,000."

Gao Yiming nodded, this was a bit beyond his expectations, he thought that with Zuo Liangyu's 500,000 horses, there would be a million to reach the sky, but he didn't expect there to be so many.

Later, Gao Yiming asked Shi Kefa about the Yangzhou garrison and the transportation of Caoyun, you must know that Caoyun is related to the transportation of grain and grass of soldiers and horses.

Who knew that when he asked, his heart was sudden.

Shi Kefa said: "Your Majesty, due to the continuous war, there is no more than one out of ten, so the canal is in disrepair and silted up in many places, and now if you want to dredge, it is impossible to do it without three or five years." ”

Gao Yiming nodded, and asked him something about the salt tax, and when he asked Gao Yiming, he was indignant, good guy, how stupid is the emperor at the end of the Ming Dynasty to make such a stupid move, and he actually threw the salt class to the local management, isn't this a fat place and an empty court.

Gao Yiming said: "I will give you a holy decree to ask you to go and pay the two Huai salt taxes, do you dare to go?" Gao Yiming is ready to take advantage of the fact that the imperial army is there, and use strong means to return the salt tax to the imperial court, obediently, this is a cornucopia, I don't know what these last emperors of the Ming Dynasty think, no wonder the imperial court taxes will not be able to make ends meet, and the big head will be lost.

Hearing that Gao Yiming wanted to collect the salt tax of the two Huai, Shi Kefa agreed with one hundred people, and after being in Yangzhou for so long, he knew the importance of the salt tax.

"Your Majesty, it's not difficult to recover the salt tax, but it's not a fundamental law."

"What do you think should be?"

"The minister thought that the imperial court should monopolize the sale of salt, and nationalized the two Huai salt merchants and private workshops for a fee, and if they were unwilling, the imperial court would not give them salt introductions, and then the imperial court would open its own salt farms, sell them at low prices, and occupy the market."

"Good! Now that you have an idea, I will order you to be the salt patrol envoy of the Ming Dynasty, starting with the recovery of the two Huai salt taxes, the court has not seen it in the past two or three years, in order to give you convenience, officials below the four grades do not have to report it, and the illegal businessmen are cut at a time Below five people, including five people, you decide for yourself, I only need silver, of course, it is silver belonging to the imperial court, understand? ”

"Yes! Obey! Shi Kefa secretly clasped his hands, for Lianghuai, these salt merchants who are rich and unkind, and are so rich that they have long wanted to clean up, and now that they are instructed by the emperor, there are still more than a million troops, and he is not afraid that they will not give in.

The reason why Gao Yiming dared to do it in this big way is because it is now a big rear, and he is not afraid of its chaos, in the war era, whoever dares to take the lead in making trouble, he will be used as a typical example, and kill a group of honest people.

Even if there was relevant legal protection before, Gao Yiming was not ready to let them go easily, and he had to scrape a layer of oil out of it, and more than a million people and horses were waiting for military salaries.

"You first put down everything at hand, hand it over to your deputy, concentrate on this matter, and go immediately, I will grant you the right to fight, and if you encounter someone who dares to resist the law, you will take a strong shot."

Shi Kefa is a hero who can be a pillar at a critical moment, and he is not ambiguous, he bid farewell to the emperor and immediately took his people to do things.

At this time, all the vassal kings gathered here at King Fu.

"What is Your Majesty doing, let us wait here for so long, and finally came, and he didn't say to summon us, but went to meet Shi Kefa first, and I would have left if I had known." Tang King Zhu Yu said.

"What nonsense! Your Majesty, take care of your beak! Zhou Wang Zhu Gong reprimanded.

"Who are you talking about! I don't have as much money as you, kill a thief and reward five taels of silver, it's really generous, why don't you give me some flowers. ”

"Say less!" King Fu came forward to play a round.

"Since Wang Chengen arrived in Nanjing, Jinyiwei has made a lot of trouble in the entire southern provinces, and the gold and silver treasures looted are as many as mountains, what does he want to do? King Fu, you don't care. Tang Wang Zhu Yuyun continued.

"What's the matter? He acted on the orders of the emperor, and if you have any opinions, you will meet the emperor in person for a while. ”

Thinking of this, King Fu was angry, there were originally people secretly wanting to support him as the emperor, who knew that the enthronement ceremony was half prepared, and suddenly Chongzhen's five edicts before the army came, and everyone in the world knew that he was still alive, if you didn't know that he was still alive or the five edicts before the army came out a day and a half at night, and he ascended the throne with his head covered.

But as soon as Chongzhen's edict spreads all over the world, and you ascend the throne as the emperor again, this nature is different, if it is serious, it is a blatant rebellion, who would dare? So since I knew that Chongzhen was still alive, no one dared to risk the world's condemnation to mention this matter, although the old people in Nanjing were pedantic, but they were still loyal, and they looked forward to Chongzhen coming to Nanjing to reorganize the mountains and rivers all day long.

Among the people who supported him, there was Shi Kefa, I don't know if Chongzhen summoned him because of this matter, if so, then the matter is big, but this matter can't be hidden, there are too many people who know, and there are many people who opposed it at that time.

The most annoying thing is that Wang Chengen, who is a dog and a human power, came to Nanjing with a gang of beasts in Jinyiwei, directly faked the holy decree, and controlled the palace in Nanjing, and then slaughtered all the rich people in the south with lightning speed, and the worst thing is that he still has a reasonable basis, if it is not so, he estimates that Wang Chengen has already died thousands of times.

Because of Chongzhen's great changes, the vassal kings everywhere could only swallow their anger when they saw Wang Chengen jumping up and down, and no one dared to do anything to him, waiting to see Chongzhen.

While they were arguing, they heard the sergeant report: "Ladies and gentlemen, Your Majesty has summoned you!"

The grumpy Tang King Zhu Yuyi pushed away the sergeant and took the lead to walk out, and when he came to the main hall, there were already forty or fifty people standing quietly in the hall, and when they saw a group of vassal kings coming, they all got out of the way, and after saluting each other, they waited for the emperor to arrive.

Gao Yiming didn't let them wait for a long time, the key is that his time is precious and he can't afford to delay.