Chapter 354

Just as Cheng Shijie left Yanqing and headed south, Emperor Chongzhen was talking with Li Guofu, the new superintendent of the Ning Navy. Emperor Chongzhen still thinks that the whole world is his private property, and he can take whatever he likes, and the wealth of the Liaodong region not only makes Wenchen salivate, but he himself is also very blushing.

There are large-scale steel mills, there are excellent salt pans, there are excellent farms and factories that are well run, and most importantly, there is an invincible iron army in the world, these are the assets of the king, as long as he can take the Liaodong region, he can be vigorous, and why is it difficult to reproduce the majesty of Taizu and Chengzu!

Although Cheng Shijie is his brother-in-law, the problem is that he is not at ease with who will control him, it is better to take it directly into his own hands!

He talked with Li Guofu for four or five hours, Li Guofu's eloquence was extremely good, under his depiction, he decided to take three steps, first to divide the internal contradictions of the Ning Navy, first to provoke Zhou Yandong, the titular deputy marshal, the big housekeeper and Cheng Shijie thundered, of course, Zhou Yandong with red mouth and white teeth will not be fooled, this requires the cooperation of Emperor Chongzhen, he needs to come up with something that can win over Zhou Yandong.

In Li Guofu's view, Zhou Yandong, as the deputy marshal of the Ning Navy, does not have any military power, he will definitely have complaints, and he needs Emperor Chongzhen to take out the title of a national duke, hereditary replacement, and then take a false title of the secretary of the military department and the title of the governor of the five armies.

In other words, everything Cheng Shijie has now is equivalent to putting it on Zhou Yandong's head, and the first step is to take out the temptation that Zhou Yandong can't refuse. As long as Zhou Yandong's ambitions are provoked, Zhou Yandong has two sons, who hold important positions in the Ning Naval Army, his second son Zhou Zi, who serves as the chief of the general staff of the Ning Navy, and the eldest son Zhou An is currently the garrison of the Quang Ninh Garrison Division.

Fighting tiger brothers, going into battle with father and son, as long as Zhou Yandong is moved, he has a great chance to win over several of Cheng Shijie's henchmen, just like Zhang Yu, Chen Dayong and Liu Qingsong, which are all a faction of Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu, and the boss of this faction is Zhou Yandong.

As long as the Ning Navy is divided, when the time comes, Cheng Shijie will definitely need the help of Emperor Chongzhen, no matter how to help Cheng Shijie, or to promote Cheng Shijie's name and surrender secretly, as long as Cheng Shijie stays in the capital, then everything can sit and wait for the melon to ripen.

Naturally, there are no secrets in the palace, just when Emperor Chongzhen and Li Guofu were talking about this matter, Concubine Li Kang, as Cheng Shijie's cheap mother-in-law, got the news as soon as possible.

Concubine Li Kang is the person that Emperor Chongzhen wants to strangle to death in his dreams, but the problem is that Emperor Chongzhen can't do this, because Concubine Li Kang is his mother, and his adoptive mother has the grace of nurturing, if Emperor Chongzhen deals with Concubine Li Kang, even if it is an accidental death, or it is engraved and touched, it is a ghost made by Emperor Chongzhen, and this account will be counted on Emperor Chongzhen's head.

In this case, the more arrogant Concubine Li Kang is, the more Emperor Chongzhen has no choice, after Zhu Weiyuan marries Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie will also borrow Zhu Weiyuan's name to send some property to Concubine Li Kang, and Concubine Li Kang, who has money, has a lot of energy in the inner palace.

Concubine Li Kang knew that writing a letter was unreliable, so she secretly ordered the eunuch Yang Shizhong next to her to quietly leave the palace, and came to Cheng Shijie's mansion in Dongzhimen as soon as possible.

Chen Guodong didn't dare to be careless at this time, and hurriedly turned around and went to intercept Cheng Shijie, he was really afraid that Cheng Shijie would go to the capital.

Although Cheng Shijie did not go to the capital, but his resignation was in the hands of Emperor Chongzhen, looking at Cheng Shijie's resignation, in the fold, Cheng Shijie's tone was very sincere, he explained to Emperor Chongzhen that he was sick because of physical reasons, this time he was tired repeatedly, the old injury recurred, and he could no longer bear the heavy responsibility of the country.

Cheng Shijie was very simple this time, and directly resigned from all his positions.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at this twist and turn, and jumped up excitedly: "God really help me!" ”

Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen was so happy, and he still had so much energy when he hadn't slept for two days in a row, Empress Zhou frowned and said, "Your Majesty, is this a good thing?" ”

"A good thing? Why isn't it a good thing! ”

"Your Majesty, have you forgotten what happened a few years ago?"

Chongzhen frowned and asked, "What happened a few years ago?" I have never forgotten! ”

Empress Zhou smiled bitterly and sighed again and again: "You must have forgotten...... At the beginning, His Majesty took Wei Zhongxian as soon as he ascended the throne, and his decisiveness and careful deployment were praised by the world, and His Majesty was called Mingjun, but what about after taking Wei Zhongxian? ”

Chongzhen's expression suddenly became strange: "After taking him?" ”

After Wei Zhongxian was taken down, the Donglin Party successfully joined the party, and the eunuch party was like a rat crossing the street, everyone shouted and beat him, and for a time Emperor Chongzhen's virtuous name was known to the world.

During that time, Emperor Chongzhen lived quite comfortably every day, and then the question was...... The state affairs are becoming more and more difficult, Shanxi and Shaanxi are full of wolf smoke, Jiannu breaks through the barriers, and the lives of Gyeonggi are devastated.

Empress Zhou continued: "Wei Zhongxian died innocently, but with him, the taxes in the world can still be collected, although the border passes are constantly fighting, the vicious battles are continuous, and the money is like flowing water, but the border army has never lacked food and salary, and the people have not increased taxes much, because the salt tax, tea tax, mining tax and the commercial taxes collected by the shipping divisions are a lot, and the burden on the people is not so heavy." ”

Speaking of this, Emperor Chongzhen's eyes were slightly red, the Emperor of the Apocalypse, that is, his elder brother died suddenly, although the treasury had no money, and there was a deficit of 1.27 million taels of silver, but in the inner treasury, he left him more than 7 million taels of silver, and at the same time, he also gave Emperor Chongzhen a large number of elite soldiers.

To say that Chongzhen can break through the second year of Jiannu, in order to solve the financial crisis, Chongzhen adopted two methods to reduce the military salary of ordinary soldiers. Sending more to the common people.

Regarding the Chongzhen Dynasty's additional faction, it is mainly the Liao salary plus faction and the additional salary and training salary. The key Chongzhen Emperor forced the 100,000 troops of Ji, Miyun and Yongping Mansion to surrender to Jiannu, and the 100,000 troops surrendered to Jiannu when they saw Jiannu arrive, Fan Wencheng stayed in Zunhua with 800 men and horses, but the 14 passes of the Great Wall defense line surrendered to Jiannu.

This pot, Emperor Chongzhen can't shake it off.

Empress Zhou continued: "But. After Wei Zhongxian was taken down, these taxes could no longer be collected, so he could only increase taxes on the people again and again, and finally made the people everywhere. Moreover, Wei Eunuch has been in power for more than ten years, the civil and military officials have dedicated and filial piety to him, and he himself has looted and saved how much money he has saved, I am afraid that even he himself does not know, but after the destruction of Wei Eunuch, how much money is really handed over to the treasury? ”

Emperor Chongzhen's expression became more and more strange......

The answer is not much, not much. At that time, he looked at the list handed in by the official in charge of copying the house, and was shocked, he couldn't believe that Wei Zhongxian had been greedy for more than ten years, and he was so wealthy, and all the officials said that Wei Gelding's henchmen might have transferred their property a long time ago, and the things copied out were pitiful.

At first, he really believed this set of nonsense and ordered a strict investigation, but as a result, a bunch of officials were implicated, and many people's homes were raided, and the property handed over was still pitiful! He finally figured out that the point handed over to the treasury was left over by the ministers, and the beneficiary of taking Wei Zhongxian was not him, but these ministers who were suppressed by Wei Zongxian!

Seeing that his expression was changing, Empress Zhou slowed down her tone and said: "This is still in the capital, under Your Majesty's nose, from Beijing to Liaodong, it is more than a thousand miles away, Your Majesty, can you guarantee that these old things will not be repeated?" Do you have any close ministers who can take over the assets of the entire Heluo region for you, put them in your hands, and take care of them for you? ”

Emperor Chongzhen's complexion changed even in a variable manner, and finally he sighed: "I didn't expect that I wouldn't even be able to get the property copied from the courtiers!" ”

If an emperor is mixed up to the point where he can't even collect the money from his courtiers, it is enough to make a pocket. Although he was very reluctant, Chongzhen had to admit that if he really wanted to copy Cheng Shijie's property, he might not even be able to get some scum, and the ministers rushed over.

Then, after eating a mouth full of fat, he turned around and told him: "I didn't expect that Haiguo Gong is an honest official, his family has no money to spare, and he is a very good official, we have all wronged him, we are guilty!" ”

As soon as he thought of this, Emperor Chongzhen was as disgusting as swallowing a hundred flies. According to Queen Zhou's analysis, although Cheng Shijie is strong and powerful, with his temperament, can he swallow this evil breath? You have to rebel! And with his prestige, as soon as he ascended to the heights, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in an instant, and swept the world, so what's the difficulty!

Empress Zhou sighed and said, "Over the years, it is not the Chinese military officials of the dynasty who have tolerated Haiguo Gong and Cheng Qing, but Cheng Qing who has tolerated the civil and military officials of the dynasty!" ”

Emperor Chongzhen was shocked and completely dispelled the idea of taking advantage of Cheng Shijie's resignation to make a windfall.

Emperor Chongzhen naturally would not admit his mistake, he pointed to the fold and said: "This is Cheng Qing's own resignation......"

"Why did Cheng Qing resign, didn't Your Majesty know it in his heart?"

Empress Zhou can't think about it, Emperor Chongzhen's brain circuit, let go of the whole world, who is with Emperor Chongzhen? It's not Cheng Shijie yet, others are officials, they are all trying to make money by all means, only Cheng Shijie wants to hand over the treasury and send money to Emperor Chongzhen after making money.

Cheng Shijie is Emperor Chongzhen's right-hand man, no matter how hungry he is, he can't cut off his arm to eat, right? But Emperor Chongzhen actually wanted to cut off his right-hand man.

Emperor Chongzhen calmed down now, and then thought about what had happened over the years, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he felt. Cheng Shijie, at least the commercial taxes in Liaodong and Jiangnan can be collected, and there are more than four million stones, six or seven million taels of silver, mainly from the merchants, the merchants are quite conscious, it can be said that Liaodong and Wusongkou have become the most important tax sources of the Ming Dynasty.

(End of chapter)