The armed tax resistance that broke out in Jiangnan was unprecedented, which not only alarmed Wei Zhongxian, but also shocked Zhu Youxiao, the Emperor of the Apocalypse.

Without him, it is really that the taxes of the two prefectures of Su and Song are too important for the Ming Dynasty.

Suzhou, together with the five provinces bordering Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou, accounted for almost 3% of the taxes paid by the Ming Dynasty.

If this place is in chaos, I'm afraid the entire Ming Dynasty will be completely chaotic.

At present, although the war in Liaodong has stopped, there is no sign of the famine in the world.

Shaanxi has suffered a severe drought for two consecutive years, and the Guanzhong Plain, the original grain producing area, now has to rely on the relief of the imperial court to survive.

Hanoi, Shandong and other places still need relief from the imperial court.

The burning of Hushu Pass directly caused the suspension of the Hangzhou-Suzhou section of the Grand Canal.

If the money and grain in the south of the Yangtze River cannot be transferred to the north through the canal in time, the entire north will face a food crisis.

Now that the Donglin Party has been completely driven out of the court, the "nine-thousand-year-old" Wei Zhongxian naturally wants to be this family.

There are also big differences within the party on how to deal with this eunuch party.

In addition to the celebrant eunuch and the confidant eunuch of the inner court, the two major henchmen of the "nine-thousand-year-old" Wei Zhongxian are Feng Quan, the secretary of the ministry, and Cui Chengxiu, the left superintendent.

The two teamed up to use this year's "Jingcha" to expel the Donglin Party members from the court.

But it also ended up as a bond.

Originally, the first assistant of the cabinet was vacant, and Feng Quan, who is a member of the cabinet, is very hopeful to serve as the first assistant of the cabinet.

Unexpectedly, Cui Chengxiu secretly made a mistake, and on the grounds that Feng Quan was too young to convince the public, he pushed Gu Bingqian, another cabinet minister who had taken refuge in Wei Zhongxian, to the position of first assistant.

Although it has been nearly ten years since he joined the company, Feng Quan is still not 28 years old.

Feng Quan's life is undoubtedly an open life for many people.

At the age of 18, he became a high school jinshi, and at the age of 19, he became a Hanlin Shujishi, not only handsome, but also good writing.

Xiao Feng Hanlin's hairpin flower Xiaokai is very famous.

However, at that time, the Hanlin Academy was mostly controlled by southerners, and he, a talented man from the north, was bullied by many Donglin Party members in the Hanlin Academy.

Last year, Feng Quan fought hard and took refuge in Wei Zhongxian, not only becoming a secretary of the ministry, but also a cabinet minister.

However, Feng Quan did not have much of his own power in the court, and only Jinyiwei commanded Tian Ergeng to make friends with Feng Quan.

This age is indeed a bit of a disadvantage for Feng Quan, coupled with the fact that he was insulted by Donglin boss Miao Changqi and others before, for a while the rumors that Feng Quan served others as a man spread in Beijing.

Not only are there rumors that Feng Quan and Tian Ergeng share the same bed, but there are even rumors that Feng Quan tempted Wei Zhongxian to take the throne with a male color.

Under such a reputation, Feng Quan naturally cannot compete for the position of first assistant.

Through Tian Ergeng's investigation, the driving force behind it is Cui Chengxiu.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, when Cui Chengxiu served as the governor of Huaiyang, he paid a salt tax of up to 2.5 million taels of silver a year, setting a record in the history of the Ming Dynasty and winning the trust of Wei Zhongxian.

He is better at handling contacts than Feng Quan, Wei Zhongxian's nephew Wei Liangqing, and now the first assistant Gu Bingqian are good friends with him.

Although he knew that Cui Chengxiu was secretly playing a black hand on himself, Feng Quan could only endure it for the time being.

The two had a huge disagreement over the anti-tax incident in Jiangnan.

As a northerner, Feng Quan has always had no good impression of these southerners, and he advocated a quick knife to cut through the chaos, and these armed riots should be suppressed as soon as possible.

lest it continue to spread to more areas.

In addition, you can take this opportunity to get rid of some Donglin party members in Jiangnan.

After all, Cui Chengxiu served as the governor of Huaiyang and knew the power of these southern businessmen.

The reason why he was able to receive so much salt tax was mainly because he reached an agreement with the salt merchants in Yangzhou, and he gave all the salt from Lianghuai to the rising Hui merchants, making them monopolize the salt industry in Lianghuai.

Those salt merchants also reciprocated the favor and took the initiative to pay part of the arrears of salt taxes over the years.

Cui Chengxiu believes that this matter should not be expanded, and the "Flying in the Waves" of the water that attacked Hushu Pass must be eliminated as soon as possible.

However, for the matter of killing the Suzhou tax supervisor, they arrested a few Donglin Party members to take the blame, and the big thing was turned into a small one.

If things get bigger, they will get out of hand.

Regarding the armed rebellion in Suzhou, "9,000 years old" was naturally very angry, and this was not one or two times.

After all, now that he is in power, can he swallow his anger anymore?

Feng Quan also saw this, and Jin Yiwei commanded Tian Ergeng to add fuel to the fire, saying that Jin Yiwei would definitely do his best to quell the riots in Jiangnan.

So Feng Quan was appointed as the minister of the Qincha and rushed to Jiangnan to quell the turmoil.

Jin Yiwei commanded Tian Ergeng to accompany him to the south.

Wei Zhongxian even ordered Cui Wensheng, the eunuch guarding Nanjing Town, to fully cooperate with Feng Quan, and to ensure that the taxes and transportation in Jiangnan were restored as soon as possible.

Although the Nanjing Sixth Department was nothing more than a retirement home for officials in the eyes of many people, officials who had failed in ordinary political struggles were relegated to Nanjing.

However, the garrison eunuchs and the six departments in Nanjing still held considerable power.

Needless to say, the household department of Nanjing is responsible for the money and grain of Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang provinces, and is also responsible for the exploration of Caoyun and salt.

It can be said that the financial lifeline of the Ming Dynasty is to hold the household department of Nanjing.

Nanjing's Ministry of Rites is also an important department.

Although the Ministry of Rites is only responsible for some of the sacrificial ceremonies of Nanzhili, such as the memorial to the Ming Tomb.

However, there are generally vacancies in the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, and the vacancies are generally filled by the scholars of the Ministry of Rites.

In particular, many of the first assistants of the cabinet will hang the title of secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

There is an unwritten saying that the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty must have served as the main hall of the Ministry of Rites.

However, there is only one secretary of the Ministry of Rites in Beijing, and he is often concurrently served by the first assistant of the cabinet.

For example, the previous cabinet chief assistant Han Yi was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the new cabinet chief assistant Gu Bingqian is now also the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

Therefore, the value of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites is reflected, and the Nanjing Ministry of Rites is the reserve of the cabinet ministers and even the future chief assistant.

There was no commander in the Nanzhili area, so the power to transfer troops in Nanzhili was actually under the direct jurisdiction of the Nanjing Military Department, and the power to command the troops was respectively under the responsibility of the Nanjing military generals and the Nanjing garrison eunuchs.

The Nanjing Military Department also manages the military affairs of Nanzhili, the promotion of military generals, and other matters, and also governs the affairs of Nanzhili's official horses, official posts, and official ships, so the Nanjing Military Department is also very oily and watery.

Because the secretary of the Nanjing military department can directly transfer troops, the secretary of the Nanjing military department generally adds the title of "counselor and machine service", and the Nanjing town guard eunuch and Nanjing military generals constitute the three giants of Nanjing's military power.

At this time, the garrison eunuch of Nanjing was Cui Wensheng, the garrison of Nanjing was Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, and the secretary of the military department was Yuan Keli, a member of the Donglin Party.

Yuan Keli was also able to serve as the secretary of the military department in Nanjing, and the reason why he was able to control the military power was because Nanjing's Jingcha was carried out independently, and although Feng Quan was the secretary of Beijing's ministry, he had no right to interfere with Nanjing's Jingcha.

Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, was a nobleman, and the Duke of Wei sent people to levy and extort money in the south of the Yangtze River, which directly affected the income of the Xungui Group.

Xu Hongji and other Nanjing nobles must be secretly supportive of Suzhou's tax resistance.

Yuan Keli is a member of the Donglin Party, and he is definitely not willing to cooperate with the Eunuch Party.

And Cui Wensheng is Li Xianzhong's person, Li Xianzhong naturally hopes that the more chaos in Jiangnan will be, the better, and he hopes that these Jiangnan gentry will directly organize the rebel army to confront the imperial court, so that the court's attention will naturally not be on Liaodong.

And the local government in Suzhou has long colluded with the local wealthy businessmen, and they will not assist Feng Quan to arrest the real murderer.

Therefore, when Feng Quan and Tian Ergeng came to Nanjing, the officials of Nanzhili made almost no progress in resisting taxes.

Cui Wensheng said: "The Suzhou prefect has arrested more than a dozen people who made trouble. However, the scene at that time was quite chaotic, with tens of thousands of people participating, and there was no way to find out who did it. ”

However, Feng Quan didn't seem to care, he said: "Since the government can't find the real culprit, then go and arrest the mastermind behind it." ”

"As for the detection of the case, I don't bother Suzhou Mansion, I believe that there will be an answer soon!"

Tian Ergeng said: "Feng Qincha rest assured, the mob killed the mine supervisor Jinyiwei has already raised eyebrows, and I believe that the mastermind behind it will be found out soon!" ”

Feng Quan had already thought about this, they would definitely not be able to catch the real murderer, and it would be impossible to arrest all the tens of thousands of Suzhou people as mobs.

Then they simply arrested the Donglin Party members in Jiangnan as the masterminds. Take the opportunity to get rid of these stumbling blocks!

Of course, I still have to do it, and Jin Yiwei still has to pretend to investigate.

However, compared with a major case such as the burning of Hushuguan, the killing of a few tax supervisors in Suzhou is nothing at all.

Feng Quan said: "Since we already know that the mastermind of Hushu Pass is the Taihu Lake Water Kou 'Flying in the Waves', can you exterminate this water Kou? ”

Yuan Keli, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, said: "The Military Department has mobilized the naval division to meet with Su Song's military preparation to conduct many searches and arrests in Taihu Lake. However, these water cowards are cunning and rabbit three holes, and the officers and soldiers have pounced on the air several times! ”

Feng Quan said: "The emperor and the celebrant Wei Gonggong attach great importance to this matter, and demand that this water gang be wiped out and the 100,000 taels of silver they snatched from Hushu Pass must be recovered. ”

As soon as Feng Quan's words came out, several people looked at each other.

I thought to myself, you Feng Quan is too dark, where did Hushu Pass get the 100,000 taels of silver?

It must be this group of eunuchs who swallowed the silver that Hushu Pass had transported to Beijing before, anyway, now that people are dead, Hushu Pass has also been burned, and this bad debt is directly counted on Shui Kou's head.

If you don't see through this kind of thing, you can't say it, anyway, this money is not out of them.

Cui Wensheng said: "Feng Qin sent the governor of Tian to work hard all the way south, and we specially prepared a table of banquets for the two of them. ”

So he beckoned Feng Quan and Tian Ergeng to come to the Qinhuai River.

It's just that Feng Quan didn't expect that there were also "heaven and earth" by the Qinhuai River.

The two of them are naturally no strangers to the "heaven and earth", but after all, it is the land of fireworks in the south of the Yangtze River, and both the maidservants and those "Yangzhou thin horses" here are better than those of Jingshi.

In order to prove that the two did not have a habit of breaking their sleeves, Feng Quan and Tian Ergeng respectively chose a "Yangzhou thin horse" to spend the Spring Festival together.

At this time, on the beach of Chongming Island, Shen Zhengzong, a great merchant from Wujiang, was trading with Zheng Zhilong's East Ryukyu Company.

Shen Zhengzong was a member of the 31st year of Wanli, a 35-year Ding Weike Jinshi, the director of the Ministry of Engineering, promoted to the Wailang, and later transferred to the Ministry of War.

However, Shen Zhengzong publicly defended Gu Xiancheng and other Donglin Party members, saying that Gu Xiancheng and others were good ministers and were dismissed and returned to their hometowns.

Since then, he has run the family business, and the Shen family is a big family in Wujiang.

At this time, he still has an identity, that is, the big financier behind the Restoration Society, and he is also one of the masterminds of this attack on Hushu Pass.

I saw Shen Zhengzong say to a young man: "Brother Yiguan, it is really hard for you to come to trade in person this time. ”

Zheng Zhilong said: "Brother Shen, you have thought about it, the silk, tea, and porcelain used to trade this time are worth 500,000 taels!" ”

Shen Zhengzong said: "The Portuguese refused to sell warships to us, and now only the Eastern Ryukyu Company of an official brother can meet Shen's needs!" ”

Zheng Zhilong pointed to the three warships parked on the river and said: "These three are warships renovated from the Spanish Galen merchant ships, with a full load displacement of 480 tons, equipped with 48 6-pounder Franc machine guns and 8 12-pounder Hongyi cannons. ”

"This kind of firepower is enough for Brother Shen to dominate the Yangtze River."

"There are also 1,000 good bird guns in the cabin, and the armor-breaking distance is more than 60 paces, ensuring that you have the advantage of range when facing the officers and soldiers."

"In addition, there are 20 Tiger squat guns and 12 Franc machine guns, as well as a large number of shells."

"As for cold weapons, I brought 100 pieces of piercing armor, 1,000 pieces of heavy cloth armor, 300 iron shields, and 5,000 spears and broadswords."

After hearing Zheng Zhilong's words, Shen Zhengzong looked very excited and said, "Great, I really didn't expect that Brother Yiguan would really get so many firearms and armor. ”

These warships were first converted by Li Xianzhong from the merchant ships that he bought from the Portuguese.

Now that the Liaodong Sailor has long been replaced by a large ship, it is naturally the best that these second-hand ships can be disposed of at a high price.

As for those knives, guns and armor, they are naturally captured Tartars, and they can be regarded as waste utilization.

Anyway, the ship is Portuguese, and everything else is Tartar, even if it is finally captured by the official army, Li Xianzhong's head cannot be found.

As for those artillery, Li Xianzhong has long left the mark of the commander of the artillery of Bugalao in Macao.

Zheng Zhilong said: "I have also recruited hundreds of Portuguese sailors and artillerymen for Brother Shen, and they should be able to let your people quickly master the use of these weapons." ”

"At the beginning, I invited you to smuggle with me to be a maritime merchant, and you said that you didn't want to do the business of killing people and stealing goods, why is this directly going to rebel now?"

Shen Zhengzong smiled bitterly: "Where does Shen have this ability?" It was really the eunuchs under Wei Zhongxian who were tyrannical and tyrannical, forcing us businessmen to desperation! ”

"Shen is just doing this to protect himself."

"So many goods, it's not something that my Shen family can get together, this is the big businessmen in Suzhou who raised funds together, and we have to fight these eunuchs to the end this time!"

Zheng Zhilong smiled heartily and said, "The eldest husband was born between heaven and earth, so he naturally wants to do a good job. ”

"Don't worry about the warships of my East Ryukyu Company, although these three ships are small, there is no problem to deal with the Yangtze River sailors of the Ming Court."

"If Brother Shen really can't hold on, even inform my brother that the warship under Zheng's command will definitely help Brother Shen at that time, and no matter how bad it is, Brother Shen can be taken to Ryukyu, at least it can keep your family safe!"

Then he pointed to a young man beside him and said, "This is my brother Zheng Zhibao, he is proficient in water warfare and should be able to help Brother Shen!" ”

After that, Shen Zhengzong watched his old mother, wife and children, and some members of the Shen family follow Zheng Zhilong to embark on the warship bound for Ryukyu.

Zheng Zhilong is also in a good mood at the moment, or Liao Guogong is right, selling arms is the most profitable, after all, you have no place to buy these things if you have money.

Even if it is sky-high, someone will obediently pay for the silver.

Now I take away the goods, which are better than silver, and once these silks are resold to Japan, they will be at least 1 million taels.

However, in this way, the Japanese market will not be out of stock in the short term.

As for tea, you can go to Macau and sell it to the Portuguese, anyway, Daming's fist products don't have to worry about no buyers.

Feng Quan naturally didn't know about all this, he was rushing to Jiangyin at the moment to see an old acquaintance.

It was his old friend Miao Changqi in the Hanlin Academy.

Miao Chang period is the forty-first year of Wanli (1613) Jinshi, the selection of Hanlin Yuan Jishi, the appointment review.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, he was appointed Zuo Zanshan, and later promoted to Yude, an early figure of the Donglin Party.

However, since Yang Lian and others were killed, he has felt a crisis. In addition, after Feng Quan defected to Wei Zhongxian and was reused, he was afraid of Feng Quan's retaliation, so he took the initiative to resign and return to his hometown.

For this Donglin boss who once insulted him in public, how can Feng Quan forget?

His main purpose of going south to Jiangnan this time was to seek revenge on Miao Changqi.

Soon Jin Yiwei ransacked Miao Changqi's home and imprisoned him for inciting the people of Suzhou to beat the mine supervisor to death.

No way, who told this Donglin boss that his hometown is so close to Suzhou?

When he saw Feng Quan, Miao Changqi's face was like earth, and he knew that he was in a catastrophe this time!

Facing this sixty-year-old Donglin boss with a gray beard, Feng Quan deliberately leaned on Tian Ergeng's chest.

Jiao Sheng said: "Miao old thief, when you bullied me back then, did you ever think that you would end up today? ”

Tian Ergeng had long known about Miao Chang's rape of Feng Quan, and naturally there were various punishments to greet him in Jinyiwei's prison.

In addition to Miao Chang, he also had Gao Panlong, Zhou Shunchang, Zhou Qiyuan, Li Yingsheng, Zhou Zongjian, and Huang Zunsu arrested.

These Donglin Party members are also Jiangnan people, like Zhou Shunchang and Zhou Zongjian, who are also from Suzhou.

They usually don't attack nine thousand years old, and now they just use this excuse to take them down.

After many days of visiting, Jinyiwei finally found out that the nest of Taihu Lake Koukou "flying in the waves" is in the Changbaidang area of Taihu Lake.

Soon, Tian Ergeng gathered with Su Song's men and horses and the Ming army sent from Nanjing, totaling more than 3,000 people, to launch a purge on Changbaidang.

Although they captured Feiying Island, the old nest of the Shui Kou, they only took an empty lair.

Instead, he was led into Changbaidang by these water cowards, and in the face of the endless reeds, the official army instantly lost his way.

And these water thieves even sent "water ghosts" with excellent water properties to secretly scuttle Feng Quan's boat.

If it weren't for Tian Ergeng, who is proficient in water, desperately rescued him, Feng Quan would probably have been feeding the fish in Taihu Lake at this moment.

And these water cowards took the opportunity to ignite Changbaidang and burned many officials and soldiers to death.

Most of the Jinyi guards under Tian Ergeng were northerners who were not accustomed to water, so they were drowned.

In the end, instead of exterminating the water bandits, they lost more than 500 people.

Feng Quan, who had lingering palpitations, no longer dared to go deep into Taihu Lake to suppress bandits, so he had to order all the officials and troops to blockade Taihu Lake and besiege this group of water bandits.

As the saying goes, "Blessing is incomparable, but disaster is not a single line", Feng Quan just escaped from Taihu Lake when the news of the Suzhou riot came.

When Jinyiwei arrested Zhou Shunchang, Zhou Zongjian and others in Suzhou, the people of Suzhou were dissatisfied, and they protested against Jinyiwei's indiscriminate arrest and carried out another strike.

At this time, Feng Quan, who was helpless, had to transfer the soldiers and horses besieging Taihu Lake back to Suzhou.

As a result, they clashed with the people, and several Jinyi guards were killed by the people of Suzhou, and of course the people of Suzhou were also hacked to death and dozens of people were injured.

Although they eventually took the prisoners away, the whole of Suzhou was completely shut down, and the merchants went on strike.

Hundreds of people gathered in front of the yamen of the Suzhou prefect to demand that the government release a large number of innocent people who were arrested yesterday.

Looking at the group of Suzhou people who were extremely excited with hoes and sticks, even Tian Ergeng, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, who had always been ruthless, was scared.

He said to Feng Quan: "My scholar Feng, I can't go on like this anymore. Now there are only a few dozen brocade guards left under my command. If they really rush in, the brothers won't be able to stop it at all! ”

Although Feng Quan was very unwilling, in the end he had to give in, release the people who were arrested for making trouble, and promised in public that the matter would not be pursued.

But the matter is not over, this is the order of Wujiang County to report, Taihu Lake Shui Kou "Lang Li Fei" and others, taking advantage of the official army to return to Suzhou, broke through the blockade overnight, all the way down the Wusong River, towards Chongming Island!

Feng Quan will not be accustomed to these water cowards, he knows that these officers and soldiers under the Suzhou Military Preparation Road are not reliable at all.

So he ordered the Yangtze River Naval Division in Zhenjiang to move eastward, and mobilized 2,000 defenders of Nanjing to go to Chongming to suppress bandits.

Unexpectedly, these water bandits turned into sea bandits in a blink of an eye, and three large Western sailing ships appeared on the Yangtze River.

Those Western sailing ships relied on their powerful firepower to sink seven or eight ships of the Yangtze River sailors in a short time.

The remaining naval warships saw that the situation was not right and hurriedly retreated.

In this battle, the sailors of the Yangtze River Naval Division and the infantry on board the ship were thousands of people.

And those arrogant water robbers occupy Chongming County.

Although Chongming Island at this time was not as large as in later generations, it was only composed of several small islands.

However, there is a county seat on the island.

The water coward "flew in the waves" and even arrogantly sent people to deliver letters.

said that as long as the eunuch party does not stop the expropriation of Suzhou for a day.

He will use Chongming to completely block the waterway of the Yangtze River, and even go up the river to block the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

And Feng Quan, who was threatened by "flying in the waves", was at a loss.

He knew that this time the Jiangnan messenger was smashed by himself, and instead of recovering, the tax revenue was even more lost.

In desperation, Feng Quan had to ask the imperial court to mobilize the Denglai Naval Division and the Tianjin Naval Division to go south to suppress this rebellion!

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(End of chapter)