In fact, when Zuo Liangyu's men and horses first began to attack the mountain, Chongzhen ordered Yang Sichang to take the two-year-old crown prince Zhu Cihong and Empress Zhou to break through from the path behind the mountain.

After all, his goal is too big, and these thieves will not give up if they don't find themselves.

Chongzhen hopes that he can win a glimmer of life for his wife and children.

For this reason, he ordered Cao Bianjiao to personally lead the army to open the way for Yang Sichang and others.

Therefore, Wen Tiren and these ministers also broke through with Yang Sichang.

It's not that they think they have much chance of breaking through, but if you stay by Chongzhen's side at this time, you will have to die for Your Majesty!

Of course, you can also choose to surrender, but at this time, surrendering will definitely be saddled with the infamy of "betraying the lord and killing the king", and it will be stinking for 10,000 years!

In the history books, he will definitely be scolded more than Zuo Liangyu, who forced Chongzhen to death, and Wen Tiren can't afford such an infamy.

So in the end, there was only one Wang Chengen left by Chongzhen's side!

Although Yang Sichang and the others took advantage of the chaos to successfully run into a valley at the foot of Bagong Mountain, the surrounding roads had been blocked by Zuo Liangyu's Yulin camp.

Cao Bianjiao led people to rush a few times, but he couldn't kill them.

Even he himself was wounded in multiple places!

At this time, there were only a few dozen people left around them.

Wen Tiren quietly pulled Yang Sichang aside and said softly: "Yang Benbing, according to His Majesty's temperament, he will never be willing to be a prisoner and be escorted back to Beijing by the thief soldiers. ”

"Next, the thieves will definitely search the mountain and arrest Queen Zhou and the crown prince, we can't escape!"

Yang Sichang sighed, knelt down and kowtowed in the direction where Chongzhen was, and said, "Weichen is incompetent, and he failed to protect His Majesty from the encirclement!" ”

At this time, Wen Tiren glanced at Yang Sichang with contempt.

I thought to myself, what kind of drama are you still playing in front of me!

If you are really a loyal minister, you should be like Wang Chengen at this moment, staying by His Majesty's side to die!

Yang Sichang didn't answer because he wanted to let himself say it.

At this time, the two of them are grasshoppers on the same rope, can you Yang Sichang be alone? Wen Tiren adjusted his breath and said: "If we are searched out by the thieves, even if we don't die, our careers will be ruined, and future generations will also be implicated." If we sacrifice Empress Zhou and the crown prince, although we can't be reused, we can still keep a career after all. ”

"At least you and my descendants can still participate in the imperial examination, and there will be no day when they will never come out!"

Yang Sichang said: "I'm afraid that Cao Bianjiao will not agree, his uncle died at the hands of Zuo Liangyu, how can he be captured?" ”

Wen Tiren said with a smile: "Just send your henchmen to find the thief army to show that you and I are willing to sacrifice the crown prince, and then lead them here!" ”

However, when Wen Tiren's people attracted Zuo Liangyu's subordinates, they found that everyone was there, only Yang Sichang and the two-year-old crown prince Zhu Cihong disappeared.

Zuo Liangyu's people searched for several days but could not find any trace of Yang Sichang, so they had to give up.

Li Xianzhong is still satisfied with the result of Chongzhen's self-hanging of Bagong Mountain, although he ran a Yang Sichang and Zhu Cihong, but it does not affect the overall situation.

As Zuo Liangyu, who bears the blame for himself, he still has to be rewarded.

Li Xianzhong said: "General Zuo not only intercepted Chongzhen this time, but also decisively rejected the temptation of Hou Sui and others to reward him with silver, Your Majesty will be very pleased if he learns!" ”

"Your Majesty has always had clear rewards and punishments, and this king has truthfully reported the merits of General Zuo to Your Majesty, and asked for a knighthood for the general, I believe that there will be good news in the near future!"

As soon as he heard about the knighthood, Zuo Liangyu was very excited.

It seems that I made the right bet this time!

hurriedly said: "The last general, thank you for the cultivation of the prince, and you will definitely do your best to contribute to the imperial court!" ”

After Zuo Liangyu left, Zhang Zhiji said: "There are not a few people who have made great contributions to my Liaodong soldiers who have entered the customs this time, and no one has been knighted so far. ”

"If Zuo Liangyu is knighted this time, will it cause dissatisfaction among the generals!"

Li Xianzhong understood what Zhang Zhiji meant, but he said with a smile: "This king has already spoken with the civil and military forces of Liaodong, and after the world is determined, he should be rewarded for his meritorious deeds!" ”

"Zuo Liangyu is just a title of Hongguang Dynasty, Liaodong Wenwu won't care!"

I don't care about the title of the Hongguang Dynasty, then I naturally want the title of the new dynasty.

Li Xianzhong did not shy away from himself, obviously he had already regarded himself as a confidant, Zhang Zhiji was naturally overjoyed!

He hurriedly said: "The last general is fortunate to benefit a lot from following the prince's side, and he should do his best to help the prince rule the world!" ”

Zuo Liangyu forced Chongzhen to death, and he must have to bear the infamy, and he asked Zhu Yousong to order Jin to make him Dingnanbo, naturally in order to connect this matter with Zhu Yousong.

Li Xianzhong made a good coffin and temporarily parked Chongzhen's coffin in Fengyang, the central capital.

As for Wen Tiren, who surrendered, and Empress Zhou, who was Chongzhen, they were sent to Jingshi by Li Xianzhong, and let Zhu Yousong deal with these troublesome things himself.

learned from Wen Tiren that the hostage in Chongzhen's hands was left in Kaifeng because his true identity had been exposed.

They have been stranded in Beijing as hostages, and they have suffered a lot over the years, and Li Xianzhong has given an order to the Intelligence Department to rescue them.

Su Tai was originally his nominal concubine, although the two children were not related to him, but after all so many years in the name of his son, he was ready to recognize the two as righteous sons.

Li Xianzhong built a new tomb for Cao Wenzhao next to the tomb of Lian Po at the foot of Bagong Mountain, and went to pay tribute in person.

Cao Bianjiao finally agreed to serve Li Xianzhong, and Li Xianzhong appointed him as the chief soldier of the conquest, and he was dispatched by Zhang Zhiji, the governor of the left capital.

Due to the successive losses of Huai'an, Fengyang, Shouzhou and other places, the Ming army's Huaihe defense line has actually been fully broken through!

As the news of "Chongzhen's self-hanging Bagong Mountain" spread, the Jianghuai region lost the will to resist.

When Zhang Zhiji's army went south, Luzhou, Hezhou, Chuzhou, Anqing and other places south of Fengyang all surrendered without a fight.

And the 30,000 army led by Mao Wenlong went south from Huai'an Mansion to occupy Baoying, Gaoyou, Xinghua, Taizhou and other places!

In just over ten days, the provinces in Jiangbei have almost fallen from the wind, and only a lonely city in Yangzhou remains!

Originally, there were more than 10,000 remnants of Zhu Dadian, the governor of Caoyun, in Yangzhou City, and Zhu Dadian learned that after Chongzhen hanged himself, he directly abandoned the official and returned to his hometown.

These soldiers also fled in all directions, and when Shi Kefa returned to Yangzhou with 3,000 remnants, Yangzhou City was almost an empty city.

Shi Kefa knew that if he wanted to hold Yangzhou, he had to get the support of those salt merchants!

So he soon came to the mansion of Wang Shiming, the general merchant of the salt industry!

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty adopted the "open China method", salt merchants exchanged grain for salt, and a large number of merchants went to the frontier Tuntian.

The Jin merchants took advantage of their geographical advantages close to the "nine sides" to take the lead.

However, during the Hongzhi period, Ye Qi, the head of the household department, reformed the tax system, and the salt merchants no longer had to go to the frontier to pay grain, but allowed them to pay silver taels directly in exchange for salt.

The implementation of the "open in the fold of color method", the so-called near the water building first to get the moon, which made the Hui merchants close to the two Huai gradually occupy the upper hand in the competition with the Jin merchants.

After several generations of hard work, the Wang family finally became dominant among the Hui merchants.

Now Yangzhou City is in danger, as the leader of Huizhou businessmen, Wang Shiming actually sticks to it in person.

In fact, not only the Wang family, but also the Wang, Xi, Li, and Ye families, who are also the four major families of Hui merchants, also have the principals of the families staying in Yangzhou.

This made Shi Kefa very excited, at least it showed that the Hui merchants had not given up on Yangzhou like others.

But it turned out that he was thinking too much, and Wang Shiming didn't want to see him at all.

In the end, he just asked the housekeeper to take out 2,000 stone of grain and send him away.

After Shi Kefa left, Hui merchant Ye Tianpeng said: "Mr. Wang, the people we sent to Fengyang haven't come back yet, in case the talks with the king of Liaodong County collapse, we have to leave a way back for ourselves, right?" ”

Wang Shiming glanced at Ye Tianpeng, and then said slowly: "According to the latest news, the sailors of the Liaodong Army have occupied Chongming, and they will soon go to Nanjing and Yangzhou on the river, where does the shopkeeper Ye think our back road is?" ”

Ye Tianpeng sighed helplessly, how could this kind of major event of changing the dynasty be controlled by these businessmen?

At this time, Wang Shiming's brother Wang Shiyou had already arrived in Fengyang.

He first showed his hole card, and Huizhou businessmen fully supported the "Hongguang New Deal" and did not engage in land annexation.

In fact, Huizhou is mostly mountainous, and there are very few fields in itself, although the price of acres in Huizhou is high, but Huizhou people do not rely on farming to eat.

Because it is impossible to support themselves from farming, almost seven or eight out of ten adult Huizhou men are engaged in commercial activities, so Li Xianzhong's "gentry pay for food" has little impact on them at all.

There are two things they are worried about: first, will the salt tax of Lianghuai change?

Second, it is said that the backer behind those Jin merchants is Li Xianzhong, the king of Liaodong County, whether he will support the Jin merchants to suppress the Hui merchants.

There was an essential difference between the Hui merchants and the gentry groups in Jiangnan, although they also added a lot of land in other places, but land was not their core interest.

Relatively speaking, the contradiction between Hui Shang and Li Xianzhong is not big.

Therefore, Li Xianzhong also treated them differently, and he decided to obtain the support of the Hui merchants first, so that he could concentrate on dealing with the more difficult Jiangnan gentry.

As for the salt tax in Lianghuai, Li Xianzhong promised not to make major changes within three years, and still adopted the existing policy of contracting the salt industry in Lianghuai to Huizhou merchants.

However, Li Xianzhong has a request, he wants to set a ceiling price for salt in various places.

Salt in the Lianghuai area is usually 8 to 1 tael of silver per 100 catties, and Li Xianzhong demanded that the highest selling price in the market in the future should not exceed 8 yuan.

If anyone is found to be selling salt at more than this price, they will be beheaded.

In this way, compared to limiting the profits of these salt merchants, even if they achieve a monopoly in the region, they will not be able to increase prices arbitrarily.

As for the lowest price, Li Xianzhong didn't bother to care.

Of course, there is another one, it is necessary to ensure that the salt on the market is sufficient, if there is a shortage of salt in the market in Lianghuai, the government will directly sell it at a price lower than this.

At present, there are nearly 1.5 million taels of salt tax in the Chongzhen Dynasty every year, but less than 1 million taels are actually collected.

Li Xianzhong didn't have any arrears here, and he would directly raid his house if he didn't have any money.

Of course, in addition to threats, we also have to draw cakes.

Li Xianzhong said that after the reunification of the Ming Dynasty, he would completely open the sea ban.

As long as taxes are paid in accordance with the law, he encourages all businessmen to invest in foreign trade and make money from foreign devils.

This can be regarded as a wake-up call for their Hui businessmen to prepare early.

As for their security concerns, the merchants could form a joint merchant fleet to hire the armed escort ships of the East Ryukyu Company.

In addition, he also introduced the services of the Liaodong Bank to Wang Shiyou, and the meetings of the Liaodong Bank were held in Yangzhou, Nanjing, Tonghuizhou and other places in the future.

In this way, the safety and efficiency of their merchants will be greatly improved, and Hui merchants are welcome to send people to Liaodong to investigate.

This salt tax of Lianghuai is the lifeblood of the imperial court in the Chongzhen Dynasty, and it is really nothing here in Li Xianzhong.

The high salt tax of the imperial court was actually obtained by exploiting the people through these salt merchants, and he really didn't like this silver.

It's just that he has offended a large number of people by reforming the land tax, and it is not appropriate to continue to make a big deal about the salt tax at this moment.

After Li Xianzhong showed great sincerity, these Hui businessmen would naturally not be stingy.

The Wang family took the lead, and the Hui merchants in Yangzhou took out 4 million taels of silver and 1 million stones of grain to show their support for the Hongguang court.

At this time, I am afraid that the only thing left to be poor Shi Kefa is still fantasizing about sticking to Yangzhou.

Originally, Li Xianzhong was preparing for Mao Wenlong to directly attack Yangzhou.

However, the Wang family said that this little thing does not need to bother General Mao.

Up to the prefect of Yangzhou, down to the city gate officials, the appointment and dismissal of officials in Yangzhou City has never been the final say of the Ming court.

It was decided by the Hui merchants of Yangzhou City.

In fact, the situation is similar to that in Qixian County, Shanxi Province, and those big businessmen have a great influence on the local area.

Soon, under the instigation of Hui Shang, the defenders of Yangzhou City opened the city gate and put the Liaodong Army into Yangzhou.

Fortunately, Shi Kefa's usual popularity is good, so he was able to escape from Yangzhou City in embarrassment.

The investment of Huizhou businessmen has ensured the commercial integrity of Yangzhou to the greatest extent.

It also extinguished the resistance of the Jiangbei gentry.

They gave a lot of silver, and Li Xianzhong naturally had to be appeased.

So he personally came to Yangzhou City and met with many businessmen, including the four major families of Hui merchants.

Li Xianzhong also briefed them on overseas trade, which made these Hui merchants very interested.

Wang Shiming said that he would deposit 1 million taels of silver at the Yangzhou branch of the Bank of Liaodong.

After that, all the big and small Hui merchants expressed their support.

Li Xianzhong almost turned this meeting into an investment conference.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Wang Shiming said: "Does the prince know what is the biggest specialty of Yangzhou, Yangzhou thin horse is a must in the world?" ”

Originally, Li Xianzhong wanted to refuse, after all, his current identity can't just find a woman outside.

As soon as he wanted to refuse, he heard Wang Shiming say: "Miss Ying Lian is a famous singer from Songjiang, not only has outstanding literary talent, but also has excellent color and art, the prince will definitely like it!" ”

Li Xianzhong immediately became interested and asked, "The shadow girl that Wang Zongshang said is called Yang Yinglian?" ”

Wang Shiming was very surprised, this Yang Yinglian is only 13 years old this year, and he just found it from Songjiang last month, how could Li Xianzhong know her name?

However, he still said: "It's Miss Yang Yinglian!" ”

Although Yang Yinglian is not famous, she has another name that everyone knows in later generations, that is, Liu Ruyi, the head of "Qin Huai Bayan".

Qin Huai Bayan, except for Ma Xianglan, who has passed away, should all be just little girls now, and Li Xianzhong didn't care about it originally.

Unexpectedly, he actually met Liu Rushi in Yangzhou, he naturally wanted to see him!

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(End of chapter)