Feng Quan always thought that Cui Wensheng was following the path of Wei Zhongxian, but he didn't expect him to be Li Xianzhong's person.

It seems that this Duke of Liao is not as indisputable as he seems.

Feng Quan knew through Tian Ergeng that the "heaven and earth" that was famous in Beijing was actually Li Xianzhong's industry, but he didn't expect that the hand of the Duke of Liao Guo had already reached Jiangnan.

Not only does Nanjing have heaven and earth, but even Nanjing's town guards and eunuchs are also his people.

Now Cui Chengxiu is the first celebrity next to the "nine-thousand-year-old" Wei Zhongxian, and whether he offended Cui Chengxiu and left Jiangnan alive is a question.

Even if Cui Chengxiu doesn't attack himself and arrests so many Donglin Party members in Jiangnan, I'm afraid these Donglin Party members will not let him go easily.

The world is so big, in fact, there is no place for itself.

He said: "Feng no longer has any official position, can the Duke of Liao still look up and down?" ”

Cui Wensheng said with a smile: "Liao Guogong is interested in the talent of Feng Daxue, not your identity. ”

"Han Rizhang, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, has returned to his hometown, and our family will recommend Scholar Feng to Gonggong Wei to take over!"

Feng Quan is talented, otherwise he would not be able to serve as a scholar in the Ming and Qing dynasties in the future.

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, Feng Quan was deeply trusted by Duo Ergon, and as the leader of the "Northern Party", Feng Quan even started the "North-South Party Struggle" in the Shunzhi Dynasty.

However, at present, Li Xianzhong is interested in his identity.

The main reason is that Li Xianzhong is really unavailable in the court, although Xiong Tingbi is also a cabinet scholar, but with the temper and character of "Xiong Barbarian", it is difficult to push him to the position of first assistant.

Moreover, Xiong Tingbi was born in Hanlin, and it is already an exception to be able to enter the cabinet, and it is impossible to go further.

Relatively speaking, this Feng Quan is "rooted and miaohong", and now he is at a low point in his life, and Li Xianzhong can fully support him to the position of the first assistant to the cabinet in the future.

To be honest, Feng Quan still has a lot of concerns about staying in Jiangnan, after all, he has offended so many people in Jiangnan.

However, now that he has the support of Cui Wensheng, the dignified Nanjing garrison eunuch, and has hugged the "thigh" of Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao, he does not have so many worries.

Of course, what impressed him the most was the official position of the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites.

Because there is an unwritten rule in the Ming Dynasty, the first assistant of the cabinet must serve as the main hall of the Ministry of Rites.

The reason why he couldn't get the position of the first assistant of the cabinet was because Cui Chengxiu and others made rumors that he relied on "male sex" to get to the top.

Another big reason is that he has not served as the chief and deputy official of the Ministry of Rites.

Now Liao Guogong's move is undoubtedly telling Feng Quan that one day he will return to the cabinet, or even become the first assistant.

For the "nine thousand years old" Father-in-law Wei, he is really a little chilled.

So Feng Quan said: "Then I will thank Gonggong Cui and Duke Liao for their cultivation!" ”

Cui Chengxiu didn't expect Feng Quan to launch a surprise attack on Chongming Island in the past few days.

and successfully attacked Chongming Island, but the official army actually suffered a heavy defeat.

thought that after this big defeat, Feng Quan would definitely not be able to turn over completely.

Unexpectedly, Feng Quan was recommended by Cui Wensheng, the eunuch of Nanjing.

After Jin Yiwei commanded Tian Ergeng to return to Beijing, he also actively interceded for Feng Quan.

The relationship between Tian Ergeng and Wei Liangqing is also extraordinary, and Wei Zhongxian remembered that Feng Quan had contributed a lot to the Donglin Party before, so he approved him as the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites.

This made Cui Chengxiu feel very unhappy, now that he has completely torn his face with Feng Quan, it is easy to be retaliated by the other party if he does not die.

But now that the wood has been completed, Feng Quan can only be allowed to retire in Nanjing first.

He is now the secretary of the ministry and the imperial history of the left capital, and he has been added to the cabinet, can he still be afraid of Feng Quan, a secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites?

The most difficult thing at the moment is to solve the problem of Suzhou merchants' strike as soon as possible.

Previously, he still had a little friendship with the merchants in Jiangnan when he was governor of Huaiyang, but now it is not possible to make some concessions inappropriately in the situation in Suzhou.

Soon he was negotiating with the local gentry and merchants of Suzhou under the help of Hui merchants.

Choi Chengxiu knows the essence of negotiation, but negotiation is not an art of taking, on the contrary, it is an art of compromise.

Feng Quan is young and vigorous, and he pursues perfection too much, so it is easy to intensify the contradictions.

Cui Chengxiu agreed to halve the labor tariff, gate tax, dam tax, ship tax and other tax rates in Hushu Pass.

In addition, for large merchants who support tax collection, if the tax payment in the current year exceeds 10,000 taels, the tax will be directly reduced by 10% in the second year.

It was also agreed to re-assess the tax of the city's merchants, and the chamber of commerce in Suzhou could send representatives to negotiate with the tax supervisor the annual tax and silver of each shop.

Cui Chengxiu deserved to deal with these businessmen frequently, and these measures were quickly accepted by the businessmen in Suzhou.

Merchants in Suzhou have also begun to reopen.

However, the biggest headache at the moment is the problem of Chongming Shuikou.

According to Yuan Keli's report, there were a large number of water bandits on the island, and the 2,500 officers and soldiers who landed on the island were wiped out by the water bandits in just a few hours.

It is estimated that there are at least thousands of thieves on the island, and it is definitely not the hundreds of thieves who originally said.

In addition, not only does the Shui Kou have 3 large Western sailing ships, but there are also forts on the island, and the Shui Kou also has many birds.

If you want to attack Chongming, it is estimated that you must prepare at least tens of thousands of soldiers and horses and a large number of naval ships.

He suggested recruiting the water bandits, so that the problem of the Yangtze River estuary being blocked could be quickly solved, and a large amount of military expenses could be saved, and the casualties of officers and men could be reduced.

Although Yuan Keli said it very tactfully, Cui Chengxiu heard his extraneous voice, which meant that even if he went to suppress the bandits, he might not be able to win.

If it weren't for Feng Quan's last landing on the island, maybe he would still have the intention of completely exterminating this water bandit.

In this situation, it is obviously inappropriate to suppress bandits again.

For him, extermination and appeasement are both great achievements, and there is no need to choose the more risky extermination.

Of course, it was naturally impossible for Cui Chengxiu to go to Chongming to negotiate such a dangerous matter in person, but he was not at ease with the local officials in Suzhou, so Ruan Dacheng, who had just taken refuge in himself, took on this arduous task.

Ruan Dacheng was a Jinshi in the forty-fourth year of Wanli.

He was a disciple of Donglin boss Gao Panlong, and he was also a fellow villager of Zuo Guangdou, and with these connections, Ruan Dacheng quickly emerged in the Donglin Party.

After that, he made a contribution to the "struggle" of defeating the non-Donglin Pavilion old Shi Jikai and others introduced by Fang Congzhe, so he was ranked among the backbone of Donglin, and was nicknamed "Unobstructed" in "Donglin Point Generals".

However, since Zuo Guangdou was killed and Gao Panlong was dismissed, he was ostracized by the Donglin Party.

Ruan Dacheng was angry, and Suo Xing took refuge in the eunuch party.

This time going to Chongming to recruit Encore is a good opportunity to make meritorious contributions, and Ruan Dacheng is naturally very attentive.

Soon, he rushed to Chongming, accompanied by Liu Ziguang, a wealthy businessman in Suzhou, to recruit these Taihu Lake water robbers.

When Ruan Dacheng saw the warships and forts of the water robbers at the Chongming Wharf, as well as thousands of water robbers with distinct armor, he was also shocked, he originally thought that Yuan Keli deliberately "released the water", but now it seems that this group of water robbers is really difficult to deal with.

According to Cui Chengxiu's original intention, this group of water robbers was recruited, and an official position was given to them to be stationed elsewhere, and the imperial court sent someone to take over Chongming County.

But now the "Lang Li Fei" insisted that they be stationed in Chongming, but they agreed that the imperial court should send officials to take over Chongming County.

Ruan Dacheng didn't dare to make decisions on his own, so he had to bring Shui Kou's request back to Suzhou Mansion and let Cui Chengxiu make a decision.

Cui Chengxiu is also unwilling to delay more in Jiangnan, after all, now that Suzhou's taxes have been resumed, he is prone to accidents if he is not in Beijing for a long time.

Feng Quan is a good example.

In the end, after receiving some "filial piety" from the businessmen, Cui Chengxiu still completed this recruitment.

Shui Kou "Lang Li Fei" was appointed as the general of Chongming, and the sailors and 3,000 men and horses under his command were recruited into the Ming army.

With Chongming Island under the control of these Ming troops, it also became the purchase place of the East Ryukyu Company.

Merchants in Suzhou sent large quantities of goods to Chongming, which Zheng Zhilong bought at a price 20% higher than the market price.

Merchants in Suzhou also financed the expansion of the wharf's port.

As for the previous incident of the people of Suzhou rioting and killing Jinyiwei, Cui Chengxiu still needs to give Tian Ergeng an explanation.

So the businessmen in Suzhou spent money to find Yan Peiwei, Yang Nianru, Shen Yang, Ma Jie, and Zhou Wenyuan to come to confess.

In the end, these five people were directly beheaded by Cui Chengxiu in Suzhou.

However, as a typical example of the people of Suzhou rebelling against the eunuchs, the gentry and wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan spoke highly of these people.

The merchants not only paid for the construction of tombstones for the five men.

Zhang Pu, the leader of the Restoration Society, wrote a "Tombstone of Five People" for them, recording and praising the heroic deeds of the people of Suzhou who dared to fight against the evil forces, and enthusiastically praised the heroic deeds of the five martyrs who were unyielding to death.

Zhang Pu spoke highly of their spirit of "dying in the spirit of righteousness", affirmed the great significance and immortal achievements of the struggle, and then revealed the theme idea of "the greatness of life and death in the Ming Dynasty, and the importance of the husband is more important than the society".

Cui Chengxiu's concessions on Suzhou's commercial taxes and the recruitment of "Lang Li Fei" and others were regarded as a major victory for the people of Suzhou under the leadership of the Fushe against the eunuchs.

And this "Tombstone of Five" also made Zhang Putong's reputation gradually increase, and there was a tendency to replace the Donglin Party in Jiangnan.

Zhang Pu and others also realized the importance of armed struggle, otherwise they could only be obediently slaughtered in the face of the butcher's knife of the eunuchs.

And Shen Zhengzong, a wealthy businessman in Wujiang who scattered his family wealth to recruit the rebels, also became one of the core figures of the Restoration Society.

Through Chongming's smuggling, these merchants accumulated wealth and continued to recruit private armed forces, which caused the number of regimental training in the Suzhou area to increase dramatically.

When Feng Quan heard these news, he scolded even more: "Cui Chengxiu's move is misleading the country, he did this on the surface to temporarily quell the riots in Suzhou, but it left a huge hidden danger. ”

"Especially this elite water team in Chongming, if they don't cut them to the roots, I'm afraid there will be a big mess in the future."

When Cui Wensheng saw Feng Quan's angry look, he knew that he still hadn't let go of his resentment, but now he had to let him understand his mission.

Cui Wensheng said: "It's okay to be chaotic in this world, if the world is really peaceful, where is the opportunity for me to get rich?" ”

"I'm afraid that the Duke of Liao will be recalled by His Majesty to the capital to be a rich and noble Duke of the Kingdom!"

Cui Wensheng obviously has something to say, he is right, there are indeed too many people who don't want to make the world peaceful.

Feng Quan said: "Father-in-law Cui can rest assured, Feng will never forget the kindness of the Duke of Liao. When I return to the court one day, I will definitely remove the obstacles in the Qing Dynasty for the Duke of Liao! ”

Cui Chengxiu's trip to the south of the Yangtze River was said to solve the strike in Suzhou, restore taxation and transportation, and also recruit Chongming's water cowards.

However, the tax revenue in Suzhou has been reduced a lot, so that the fiscal deficit in the three years of the Apocalypse is destined to get bigger and bigger.

The drought in the north has not yet ended, the Yangtze River has entered the flood season again, the water level of Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake has skyrocketed, and the associated Han River and Ganjiang River have burst their banks.

The floods in the Jianghan Plain and Jiangxi completely crushed Li Ruhua, the head of the household department, and he was seriously ill at the age of nearly 70, and his days were running out.

At the beginning, Emperor Wanli gave King Fu as much as 40,000 hectares of Zhuangtian, and Li Ruhua could not get it together after many books, and finally Emperor Wanli agreed to reduce it by 20,000 hectares.

But now in the face of the deficit of the imperial court, this household secretary is at a loss, and he has to rely on the internal funds of the Emperor of the Apocalypse to barely maintain it.

Now the Hubu Shangshu is a hot potato, although Wei Gonggong levied a large number of commercial taxes, but now Taicang is still empty!

Otherwise, Li Ruhua would not have been served as the head of the household department.

In line with the idea that fertile water does not flow to outsiders, Wei Zhongxian soon appointed his righteous son Tian Ji as the head of the household department.

Tian Ji was originally just a county magistrate, but after being "nine thousand years old", he was promoted all the way to Taichangqing, and now he has become the head of the household department.

Tian Ji also knows that this household secretary is not good now.

In order to perform, he can only start from open sources and reduce expenditure.

The "open source" eunuch party has also tried its best, and even triggered a popular uprising in Jiangnan in order to collect commercial taxes.

As for the field tax, the Ming clan's clan occupied a large number of acres of land.

Emperor Wanli's younger brother King Lu occupied 40,000 hectares of land, King Fu occupied another 20,000 hectares, and there were countless vassal kings with more than 1,000 hectares of land.

Of course, the Emperor of the Apocalypse himself was the real landowner, and he had about 200,000 hectares of Huangzhuang in Jingshi Shuntianfu and near Beizhili, accounting for almost one-third of all cultivated land.

The noble bureaucrats also occupied a large amount of land, and the 9,000 hectares of land occupied by the Mu family of the Duke of Qianguo in Yunnan also reached almost half of the cultivated land in Yunnan.

In the sixth year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng counted that there were about 7 million hectares of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty, and now most of them are not subject to tax.

The remaining small half of the taxed acres have not been fully taxed due to various natural and man-made disasters.

So Tian Ji can only make a fuss about throttling.

Since Gonggong Wei controlled the harem, it was impossible for Tian Ji to ask for the dismissal of eunuchs and palace maids.

After thinking about it, there are not many wars in the Ming Dynasty now, and some troops can be appropriately considered.

After all, military spending is a big one.

Even if you cut it by a tenth, you can save a lot of money.

Tian Ji's idea of disarmament aroused unanimous opposition from all over the court.

As soon as the army is reduced, the corresponding equipment and supplies will be reduced, which will affect the oil and water of many people.

However, it was supported by the Emperor of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao.

The main targets of disarmament were the towns of the Nine Sides, as well as the three battalions of the Beijing Division.

On the eighth day of October in the third year of the Apocalypse, Emperor Zhu Youxiao ordered the towns on the nine sides and the Beijing camp to take the initiative to report the number of personnel that could be laid off according to their own conditions.

This can be described as a stone that stirs up a thousand waves.

Whether it is the chief military governor of the towns on the nine sides or the magnates of the Beijing camp, they are eager to skin and cramp this guy Tian Ji.

Where is this disarmament, which is clearly cutting their money?

The most headache is naturally Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, and Zhang Weixian, the Duke of the United Kingdom.

This is because almost two-thirds of the people in Beijing are paid empty salaries, which is far higher than the 30 percent empty salaries of ordinary border troops.

Moreover, after all, the nine sides are far away, and it is relatively easy for them to fool the people sent by the imperial court.

But Jingying is at the foot of the Son of Heaven, where is it so easy to fool?

Although it has undergone several reductions, the Ming army under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Town and Nuergandu Division still has 95,000 people, ranking the top of the nine sides.

The Ming army stationed in Korea was not included in the scope of this reduction because it did not need to be paid by the imperial court.

Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, soon went to heaven and earth to ask Mao Yuanyi and Li Xianzhong's thoughts.

He said anxiously: "I don't know what Your Majesty means this time, but I am the only one who is the head of the Liao Kingdom." ”

Mao Yuanyi said with a smile: "The situation in each town is different, and the situation in Beijing and Liaodong is naturally different, Chengguo Gong should repay Your Majesty according to his own situation!" ”

"The Duke of Liao Guo naturally understands His Majesty's difficulties, so this time Liaodong will cut another five thousand soldiers!"

Zhu Chunchen originally wanted Li Xianzhong to express his attitude, after all, among the towns, only his Liaodong army was full and not afraid of the imperial court verification.

However, it is obvious that Li Xianzhong is unwilling to be this "rising bird", and he still feels disappointed.

Soon Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao, was the first to reply. Li Xianzhong said that Liaodong Town has a vast area, and Nuer Gandu Division also needs to garrison troops, but in order to save money for the imperial court, he still took the initiative to lay off 5,000 people. And attached to the Emperor of the Apocalypse the number of troops deployed in various parts of Liaodong.

After Li Xianzhong's statement, Jizhou, Xuanfu, Datong, Taiyuan, Yulin, Guyuan, Ningxia and Gansu towns also appeared on the table.

However, their troops were not as good as those in Liaodong, so there were not many troops to be dismantled. The largest number of people in Taiyuan is only 1,500, while the smallest number of people in Datong is only 500.

In the end, the other eight towns proposed to lay off a total of 8,000 people, including the towns on the nine borders of eastern Liaoning, which took the initiative to lay off a total of 13,000 people.

These people can actually save more than 200,000 taels of silver a year, but they have given the Emperor of the Apocalypse a clear attitude! Nine sides support the resolution of the imperial court!

At this time, the Beijing camp had to express its position, and finally Zhu Chunchen and Zhang Weixian reported the dismissal of 15,000 people.

The Emperor of the Apocalypse did not reply to the towns' attitude, but only said that he would send ministers to confirm on the spot whether the towns' troops could meet their defense needs after being reduced.

Obviously, this is a fat difference, and the generals of the towns have to pat the sycophants of the Qincha.

Wei Zhongxian did not avoid relatives and recommended his nephew Wei Liangqing.

As soon as Wei Liangqing appeared, Cui Chengxiu and others, who were originally eager to try, had to give up!

However, Emperor Tianqi did not use Wei Liangqing, but let his teacher Sun Chengzong as the left attendant of the military department and the scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion as a messenger with the sword of Shang Fang to inspect the Beijing camp and the towns on the nine sides.

Sun Chengzong's first stop was naturally Jingying.

There are 170,000 officers and men in the three battalions of the Beijing Division, and even after the 15,000 men they declared before, there are still 155,000 men.

At present, there are only 60,000 people in the camp.

Where will these 95,000 people go together for a while?

Even if you can hire so many people for money, there are not so many vacant military uniforms.

So Zhang Weixian and Zhu Chunchen took the initiative to invite Sun Chengzong to a banquet in heaven and earth.

It is not a secret in the imperial court that the Beijing camp eats empty salaries, and the entire army of the Ming Dynasty is not fully staffed except for Liaodong Town.

It's just that no one has come to check it before.

Sun Chengzong took the lead in saying: "The empty salary in Beijing is also a problem left over from history, presumably it will be this mess when the two take over!" ”

Sun Chengzong's words quickly eased the tense atmosphere, making the two of them feel that there was something to talk about.

Zhu Chunchen said: "It's still Sun Ge Lao who understands the situation, and I won't tell you that when Zhu took over the Shenji Battalion, it was really a mess, not to mention the lack of personnel, these soldiers can't be used to fight at all." I have worked hard with the British Duke for many years, and only then can I train the Beijing camp to be able to fight. ”

Sun Chengzong said: "Although empty salary is a historical issue, but everything must have a degree, and now that the state affairs are difficult, I hope the two of you can share the worries for Your Majesty!" ”

"Your Majesty hopes that the actual number of people in the Beijing camp will not be less than fifty percent."

Zhu Chunchen, who was still smiling just now, immediately turned into a bitter gourd face, what are you kidding?

This is equivalent to the dismissal of 85,000 people, which is more than 1.5 million taels of silver a year, although this money does not just fall into their pockets.

But the loss is too great!

In the end, after some bargaining, 30,000 people were laid off, from the original 170,000 to 140,000.

However, Sun Chengzong demanded that the 30,000 must be a pure reduction, and the actual number is not allowed to be less.

After that, Sun Chengzong spent more than 2 months all the way from Jizhou to Jiayuguan.

During this period, he carefully reviewed the establishment and defense of the towns on the nine sides.

He was very aware of the current situation of the Ming army, so he did not make it too difficult for the towns in terms of establishment, but just asked them to train their troops well.

The actual number of soldiers should not be less than 70 percent of the number of soldiers, and this is his bottom line.

With the exception of Datong Town, which had reduced the number of people from 500 to 1,000, the other towns were disarmed according to the number they had reported.

In the end, Sun Chengzong finally arrived at Shanhaiguan in the first month of the fourth year of the Apocalypse.

Sun Chengzong's whereabouts have long been under Li Xianzhong's control.

Li Xianzhong said: "Don't look at Sun Gelao who has been shopping for many months and has traveled all over the towns on the nine sides, in fact, there are only two real goals. One is naturally Jingying, and the other is probably our Liaodong, have they all been arranged? ”

Li Sanshun said: "Liao Guogong, please rest assured, all the Western-style warships have already left the port, and the caravans in the area that Sun Ge Lao passed through have been restricted, and he definitely can't see what he shouldn't see." ”

"It's just that the prosperity of Kaiyuan City may not be able to hide it, and in addition, if he goes to Pingyu Castle, he may be exposed!"

Li Xianzhong said: "It's okay, Pingyu Fort is not in the establishment of the Liaodong Army, and Sun Ge Lao should not go." Even if you go, just ask Fan Wencheng to give the workshops a holiday. ”

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(End of chapter)