Dashun Yongchang

"I heard that you play the piano very well. I haven't slept well in the past two days. You can play me two songs outside, some soothing music. Well, if I fall asleep, you can leave by yourself. wake me up."

Chen Yuanyuan froze on the spot, wondering what Li Zicheng asked her to come here for a while, until the other party asked her again, she agreed in a panic, went to the table and sat down to calm her breath, then put He straightened the guqin on the table and played "Xiaoxiang Shuiyun".This famous song recorded in "Magic Secret Spectrum", which means the change of water and clouds, is melodious and self-satisfied, and it is very suitable for sleeping.

Someone soon fell asleep amidst the faint sound of the piano, and when he opened his eyes again, the window was already white.Well, this is about the second good night's sleep since time travel, the first one was a nap while soaking in hot water in the capital, other times he couldn't fall asleep because of tossing and turning.After all, someone knew better than anyone else that if the main force of the Dashun Army was defeated here, then he, the Emperor of Dashun, would really want to see Chang Kaishen.

Although he is also a person who has died once, he doesn't want to face death every now and then.Besides, God knows where that damned judge is going to throw him if he dies this time.Therefore, it is better to live than to die.

After getting up, Li Zicheng casually asked the guards beside him while washing up, "When did Mrs. Chen go back last night?"

The personal guard thought for a while and said, "Ms. Chen stayed in the yard for about an hour, and she returned when it was almost midnight."

Li Zicheng thought to himself, this sleep aid effect is really good, it seems that it can be arranged several times in the future.He was thinking about what was there, when Li Laiheng came to report to him: "Mr. Song and the former deputy envoy are here. The troops who left the city last night captured a big man. It is Wang Yongji, Governor of Jiliao, Ming Dynasty."

Li Zicheng then threw down the towel and said to Li Laiheng, "Take them to the second hall, I'll change my clothes and go there."

The second hall of the governor's yamen is actually a living room. It is usually the place where the governor receives guests. Wang Yongji and Yuan Yuzong sit on the grand master's chair on the right, and Song Xiance sits opposite them. The upper one is naturally left for Li Zicheng. of.

Sitting there, Wang Yongji talked to Song Xiance and Yuan Yuzong without saying a word, covering his mouth with his hands and yawning from time to time, as if he hadn't rested well.Although he did not have a good rest these days, he was not so exhausted. Wang Yongji just didn't want to talk to the two of them. He really didn't think highly of Dashun, who even lost Beijing after relying on Li Zicheng.

The three chatted with each other for a while, and saw a big man wearing a blue arrow suit coming out of the back hall. Song Xiance and Yuan Yuzong immediately got up to greet him. Although Wang Yongji also stood up, but For a while, he didn't know what etiquette should be used to pay a visit to Li Zicheng, and finally he bowed to Li Zicheng in a hurry and said: "Wang Yongji, Governor of Jiliao in Ming Dynasty, pays homage to Emperor Dashun."

The guards behind Li Zicheng glared at him immediately after hearing this, but Li Zicheng waved his hands casually at the three of them and said, "Sit down, sit down. This is not a court, everyone should be more casual."

Then Li Zicheng looked at Wang Yongji for a while, and then asked him: "You are Governor Wang. You are better than Gaodi and Wu Sangui. At least you are the one who is willing to return to Beijing to help teachers, and you did not follow them to borrow teachers from the Manchus." , You can come back from the rebel army, which is very good. I wonder what you want to do next, Governor Wang?"

Wang Yongji felt that Li Zicheng's question was absurd. As the governor of Ming Dynasty, although he did not approve of borrowing troops from the Qing Dynasty to suppress bandits, at least he had the responsibility to organize troops to destroy Dashun and restore Ming Dynasty.You, an anti-thief leader, asked me what this Ming official wants to do in the future. Is this digging a hole for yourself?Or is it stupid?

However, Wang Yongji is indeed not a strong person, and he will not think that Li Zicheng is a fool. He can only say honestly: "The guilty minister was entrusted by the late emperor. The defense line of Ji and Liao has been broken by the northern soldiers. The Ming Dynasty no longer exists. The viceroy, the guilty minister, naturally no longer exists. Now the guilty minister just wants to go to worship the late emperor, and then return to his hometown to work in agriculture and study, and ask His Majesty the emperor for permission."

Li Zicheng said disapprovingly: "Although the old Ming Dynasty no longer exists, there may not be a new Ming Dynasty. The Shun Dynasty is the number of days, and it is the common wish of the people all over the world to choose the Great Ming Dynasty. Only Sangui When the Qing soldiers are introduced into the customs, for the Chinese people, resisting foreign enemies has become the top priority.

In order not to let the story of Wuhu Chaohua and Jinmeng's invasion of the Central Plains repeat itself, I have decided to help the prince of Ming Dynasty to restore his country, and Shunming will form a united front to defend Chinese civilization.Governor Wang probably hasn't read my sacrificial oration to Emperor Lie, so I'll send you a copy to read it carefully.In short, the purpose of my rebellion against the Great Ming is to set things right, to reshape the Great Ming for the common people that the Taizu wanted to build, and to destroy the evil Ming that was controlled by corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry, and this is what Lie Huang wanted to do during his lifetime..."

Wang Yongji: "..."

In his heart, he only felt that Li Zicheng was really shameless, but he quickly realized that it should be other people who are shameless. How could Li Zicheng, a thief, think of such fallacies.

It's just that he really couldn't object to what Li Zicheng said. It wasn't that his bones were not strong enough, but that the prince was in Li Zicheng's hands. He really didn't know how much the prince had promised Li Zicheng.He didn't want to stand on the opposite side of the prince when he refuted Li Zicheng, which was obviously against ethics.

From Dong Zhongshu’s proposal of a unified ethics, to the rise of Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty, to the further improvement of the status of Confucianism in the early Ming Dynasty, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, many Confucian scholars realized that there seemed to be something wrong with Confucianism.

The reform of Wanli greatly stimulated the commodity economy of Ming Dynasty, and made Jiangnan's academics develop the free thought of "dressing and eating are human relations and physics".At this time, what exactly is the Ming Dynasty has become a gap in front of the ideological circle of the Ming Dynasty.

The development of the commodity economy in the south of the Yangtze River is destroying the discourse power of traditional Confucian scholars. A group of Confucian scholars who came from businessmen began to resist the strict hierarchy of the three cardinal principles and five constant ethics. control.

One of the most critical questions is, does the emperor and the court represent Ming Dynasty, or ordinary people represent Ming Dynasty?The Donglin Party, a loose political and academic group, is, in a sense, the self-correction of Confucianism.However, the big merchants and landlords represented by the Donglin Party members were not powerful enough, but they possessed a large amount of social wealth, which still relied on the accumulation and preservation of the old social ethics.

As a result, the Donglin Party members showed the duality of reformers and conservatives. While demanding the weakening of imperial power and centralization of the imperial court, they opposed any reform that touched their own interests.The two-faced nature of the Donglin Party members made them both resented by the royalists and unable to get the support of the people at the bottom.

Therefore, even if the Ming Dynasty was over in the 17th year of Chongzhen, the academic circles of Ming Dynasty did not really set up the banner of "the common people are the Ming Dynasty", but already hung the old banner of "the emperor is the Ming Dynasty".

Li Zicheng wanted to inherit the behest of Taizu and Liehuang, and also helped the prince to restore the country. From an ethical point of view, any attack on him would violate and destroy the ethical order of the three cardinal principles and five constant principles, and put himself in a same big In the unfavorable situation where Shun and Daming confront each other at the same time.

After thinking for a long time, Wang Yongji could only reply vaguely: "Your Majesty's words are really shocking. The guilty minister will reflect on it after paying a visit to the prince..."

Chapter 65 Preliminary route

The meeting with Wang Yongji was mainly for Li Zicheng to justify his name. As for getting some information about the Manchu Qing and Guanning Army from the other party, it was a trivial matter.

In addition to refusing to be recruited by Li Zicheng, Wang Yongji was quite cooperative in other matters, but he was not very clear about the dynamics of the Manchu and Guanning Army. After all, Wu Sangui and Gaodi did not want to borrow troops. Let Wang Yongji be the leader.In addition to Wang Yongji's unwillingness to borrow troops from the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the demise of the Ming court also made Wu Sangui unwilling to live under Wang Yongji.

Li Zicheng, who saw Wang Yongji's mentality, kept silent and stopped mentioning the solicitation.For Li Zicheng, Wang Yongji is not a great person who must be recruited, and he also has the prince as a backup, and doing things for the prince is also doing things for Dashun. In fact, they are all the same. After resigning himself, he also opposed his allegiance to the prince.

Of course Wang Yongji didn't dare. Last night when the Dashun army dispatched to wipe out the rebels near Tianjin, he knew that he could only stick to being a loyal minister of Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, if Li Zicheng killed him, no one would complain for him.No matter where Li Zicheng learned this fallacy, there is still a saying that is quite correct. He is neither loyal to Da Ming nor loyal to Da Shun.

So the two sides talked enthusiastically all morning. After Li Zicheng invited him to have lunch together, Wang Yongji was finally sent to Jinghai to pay homage to the emperor.In the afternoon of the same day, Li Zicheng continued to summon Yuan Yuzong, and further questioned the former deputy envoy of military preparations about the situation in Tianjin.

While the two were chatting about it, the four armies dispatched last night finally returned to Tianjin Acropolis one after another.According to the news brought back by these troops, except for a few members of the target families who fled, most of the target families were successfully captured, except for a very small number of diehards who were killed by the army on the spot, and many of them accepted the public trial of the villagers .

The results of these public trials have been mixed, but at least one thing the villagers have not refused is to carve up the fields and heavy furniture of these traitors.After helping the officers and soldiers to attack the homes of the squires, the villagers were actually terrified, but after the officers and soldiers took away the squires' families, the villagers became bolder. Under the auspices of the leaders elected by the village, The village divided the traitor's fields and heavy furniture equally.

This kind of equal sharing is actually mandatory to ensure that everyone gets the property of the traitor, so that everyone becomes the enemy of the traitor.Even if some escaped traitors returned after the officers and soldiers left, the people in the village would not be willing to accept these traitors anymore.Officers in various armies also reported that they did not participate in the distribution of this kind of property, and completely let the villagers divide it themselves.

After listening to these reports, Li Zicheng felt relieved after knowing that the army's missions out of the city were completed well last night, and he didn't pay much attention to the harvest brought back by the army. He just ordered Song Xiance to enter the account and cash it out to the army as rewards.

The investigation of the situation in Tianjin for two consecutive days also allowed Li Zicheng to basically understand the situation in Tianjin in this era, so after dinner that night, he convened the first military council meeting after the establishment of the Marshal's Mansion, and asked the civil and military officials under the Marshal's Mansion to Senior officials attended the meeting.

When thirty or forty military and government officials sat around the lobby of the governor's office, Li Zicheng walked out of the back hall and sat down on the main seat. After saluting with everyone, he said straight to the point: "Today is the first day since the establishment of the Marshal's Mansion. Before the second military meeting, let me talk about the situation in Tianjin Wei.

Everyone has seen the Tianjin Acropolis where we are now. The roof tiles in the city are depressed, and about half of the land has become wild grassland. Not to mention rabbits, there are even many weasels in the city.But outside the city, especially along the river to the north and east, there are densely populated places.Of course, due to the spread of the plague last spring, at least [-]% of Tianjin's local population died, and many houses outside the city were vacant.

Tianjin is the place at the bottom of the Nine Rivers, and the rivers are densely covered, which is not suitable for cavalry to come and go. Therefore, the Qing soldiers did not set their main target here when they entered the pass several times.This also means that Man Qing is not familiar with the geography of this place.Of course, Guan Ningjun will not be ignorant of Tianjin's geography. After all, Tianjin is where the grain platform outside the pass is located.

Therefore, the conclusion I discussed with several generals and military advisers is that Tianjin can fight the Qing army and the Guanning army, but it is not conducive to our army if we want to stay for a long time, because there is no grain from the south, and Tianjin is a city. lonely city.

Similarly, along the canal all the way to the south, both sides of the canal are densely populated places, but the prosperity on both sides of the canal is maintained by water transportation.Without the maintenance of water transport, the prosperity along the Grand Canal would cease to exist.Therefore, if we want to borrow the manpower along the canal, we must first get through the water transport from the south, otherwise we will not only not be able to borrow the manpower along the canal, but we will also have to bear the burden of food and clothing for millions of water workers.

The Grand Canal connects the north and the south with Beijing, and is also the main transportation route for materials from Suzhou and Hangzhou to Nanjing.Therefore, if we want to open up the Grand Canal and restore water transportation, we must have the ability to threaten Nanjing and make the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River surrender to Nanjing.

In order to achieve these two points, we must do the following: first, establish a southern regime and maintain it; second, make an alliance with it to send supplies to us; third, control the Grand Canal north of the Yangtze River part.

We have basically reached the first and second clauses. We support the crown prince’s restoration of the country and reached an alliance with the prince after the restoration of the country. So what we need to do next is to move the main force southward along the Grand Canal, control the area along the canal, and Make the southern provinces support the crown prince.As for Tianjin Wei, a partial division was left to deal with the Qing army for a few days, and then went south.

Everyone may wish to talk about their views on it. "

What Li Zicheng said was basically the result of the generals' discussion yesterday, but he added some political content, such as why he should help the Ming Dynasty to restore the country and how to stand firm on the way south.

Of course, after adding these political contents, this has become a complete southward development route. For these military and political officials in the Marshal's Mansion, the prospect of Dashun suddenly becomes clear, and it is no longer like leaving I was so hesitant in the capital.

Therefore, everyone had no doubts about the southward development route proposed by Li Zicheng, and they could not propose many major changes. They only raised many questions on the details of the southward movement, and finally came up with a relatively safe southward strategy.

First of all, the East Route Army’s own army should be divided into four parts. The first part is a small number of elite cavalry, who will go south along the canal to identify the situation of the enemy and us in the towns along the canal, and finally join forces in Xuzhou with the troops sent south to Huai’an to stabilize the situation in Xuzhou. , waiting for the arrival of successor troops.

The second part is the elite horse step, wipe out the identified enemies along the canal, and clear the way for the rear army; the third part is to carry the Lie Huang Zi Palace, the prince and the southward officials and gentry. In the name of reassuring the hearts of the people, he further screened the tendency of the gentry along the way, and recruited those troops loyal to Ming Dynasty by the way.

The fourth part is the rear troops, responsible for delaying the Qing army and the Sangui army, and protecting the safety of the supply troops.In addition, Yuan Zongdi in Xiangyang was ordered to move closer to the Shangqiu area to protect the west of Xuzhou.Then order Guo Sheng and Zhao Yingyuan in Shandong to shrink the line of defense and move closer to the canal to meet the main force going south.

In addition, the Marshal's Mansion should issue a notice to let the Ming clans from all over the country come to pay homage to the Emperor Lie and meet the Prince, and discuss the restoration of the country.In order to prevent those ambitious people from supporting the Ming clan to rebel and causing chaos in the local area.

Li Zicheng accepted these opinions and decided to let Zuo Guang lead the first army first; Liu Zongmin lead the second army; Zhang Nai lead the third army; he led the fourth army in the rear, and appointed Li Guo as his deputy.Then Yang Chengyu, Gu Junen, Song Xiance, Yuan Yuzong, and Zhou Zhong were asked to write the proclamation, and then ordered the scriptures to be hand-written and distributed.

On the morning of May [-]th, many squires suddenly came to Liehuang's sacrificial site in Jinghai. Chen Mingxia, who presided over the sacrificial ceremony, asked someone to inquire and realized that they were frightened by Li Zicheng.

When Chen Mingxia passed on the news to several colleagues around him, Li Shichun couldn't bear it and said: "This is too cruel. If you don't obey the edict, your family will be punished. Isn't there anyone who was wronged?"

Feng Quan didn't take Li Shichun's statement seriously. He refuted him and said: "There is an excuse for not obeying His Majesty Yongchang's edict, and not being favored by the new dynasty, but they haven't received the favor of Ming Dynasty? It's not that they are required to be loyal to Ming Dynasty now. If you just ask them to come to pay homage to the Lie Huang, if you don’t even reach this point, what’s wrong with you?”

Chen Mingxia only tried to persuade Feng Quan to make peace in the middle, and favored Feng Quan a little, but he didn't express his opinion.After being escorted out of Beijing by the Dashun Army, except for a small number of people who hid among the people, most of the officials in the capital followed the army, so everyone had to start supporting the theory of the crown prince's restoration of the country.Then the three factions of Li Shichun, Chen Mingxia and Feng Quan formed around the prince.

Most of the people around Li Shichun were old people from the Eastern Palace and lonely ministers who were loyal to the Emperor Lie. Those who followed Chen Mingxia were mostly Qing Lun and Donglin party members, but the officials around Feng Quan overwhelmed the former two by far.After all, the officials who stayed in the capital once wanted to take refuge in the new dynasty, and refused to worship Chongzhen at the beginning, so they were deeply jealous of the prince.

It's just that everyone didn't expect that Li Zicheng was so unreliable. They were all planning to work for the new dynasty, but the other party also came up with a trick of torturing and recovering stolen goods, and they treated everyone as bricks and tiles on the side of the road.This put these officials staying in Beijing in an awkward position. On the one hand, they betrayed the old master, but on the other hand, they were not accepted by the new dynasty.

According to the normal historical development, after the Dashun Army withdrew from Beijing, these officials would inevitably surrender to another new master.But now they were forcibly taken out of the capital by Li Zicheng and asked them to choose between Dashun and Daming to surrender. Facing the Dashun Dynasty who was unwilling to treat them favorably, these officials finally chose the old master.

However, although they chose the old master, they didn't believe that the prince could really restore the country, or that he would not hold grudges after the restoration.Therefore, when joining Feng Quan's family, he was still half-hearted, ready to wait for the situation to be clear before making a final decision.Chen Mingxia couldn't win over this group of people. At present, this group is the most powerful, and it is getting stronger and stronger. Because of Li Zicheng's suppression of thieves, some bureaucrats and gentry had to send their nephews to the prince to protect the family. Everyone naturally chose Feng Quan, the leader of the northern gentry.

Chapter 66 Conditions for Restoration

At this time, Chen Mingxia realized that although Feng Quan was an eunuch, under the threat of Dashun, the northern gentry no longer cared about this. They only needed a representative who could stand up and communicate with Emperor Yongchang.Li Shichun and him were both from the south, and these northern gentry didn't trust them, but Feng Quan was also a victim of Dashun's series of policies, so he was able to represent everyone to ask Dashun to protect his own rights.

It is a good thing that these northern gentry do not seek refuge with Li Shichun. After all, Li Shichun is much closer to the prince than he is, but they all gather around Feng Quan, which makes Chen Mingxia feel uneasy.

Now Chen Mingxia's position next to the crown prince is completely appointed by Li Zicheng. He is neither as close as Li Shichun and the crown prince, nor as charismatic as Feng Quan. Even if he returns to Nanjing, the southern gentry has his own leader. There are some literary names in the southern officials in the north.

This situation made Chen Mingxia quite anxious. He was very worried that after the restoration of the country in Nanjing, he would be dumped by the new Ming court, and he would be given a vacant position and left aside. Then his current efforts would be in vain. .

He really wanted to get close to the crown prince, but now the crown prince only believed in Li Shichun and Princess Kunxing, and others thought they were subjugated ministers who ruined Daming and his father. A small part of the reason for gathering under Feng Quan's banner was because they felt that they could not bear the prince's grudge.

As for Feng Quan, this remnant of the eunuch party didn't want to go south at all. If Li Zicheng hadn't taken most of the family's land and was threatened, Feng Quan actually wanted to stay in his hometown and wait and see.However, his wait-and-see is between Li Zicheng and Man Qing, and he doesn't take the revival of Ming Dynasty seriously.

Just like now, Feng Quan does not think that he was sent by Li Zicheng to assist the prince in restoring the country, but to supervise the prince on behalf of Li Zicheng.Therefore, his attitude towards the prince was lukewarm, but towards him and Li Shichun he was quite superior.

This made Chen Mingxia feel that although he opposed the Dashun Dynasty's policy of confiscating land, he was in favor of confiscating the land of these eunuch remnants.Although Li Zicheng asked the prince to sign to buy the land of these northern gentry, everyone thought it was just Li Zicheng's way of reneging on his debts. How could the prince have the money to pay it back?Is it really going to plunder the property of the southern gentry and return it to them?It really doesn't make sense...or it makes sense.

When Chen Mingxia was thinking about his life in his hut, his friend and confidant Liu Yumo rushed in and said to him, "Baishi, Zhou Jiesheng has arrived, and he came with Governor Wang Yongji of Jiliao."

"Please hurry up." After Chen Mingxia finished speaking, he immediately felt that something was wrong. Liu Yumo was his same year but not his servant, so he immediately tidied up his clothes, then walked out the door and said, "I'd better go to meet Mr. Senior."

But when the two of them walked to the gate of the Jinghai County Yamen, they found that Zhou Zhong was the only one standing there. Looking at Chen Mingxia's puzzled eyes, Zhou Zhong responded with a trace of bitterness on his face: "Governor Wang asked to go to visit first." Prince, then go to pay homage to Emperor Lie, and leave with Lord Li. I thought, I should meet you first before going to see the prince."

Chen Mingxia could understand Zhou Zhong's mood. As the first group of Ming officials in central Beijing who were recruited by Li Zicheng, although Zhou Zhong had suffered a lot less, the Zhou family was a big family in the south of the Yangtze River. After Li Zicheng lost the opportunity to quickly unify the world, he In a rather awkward position.

But Chen Mingxia can only pretend not to know Zhou Zhong's mood. Although everyone is in the same year, as long as Da Ming can restore the country, he will own half of the southern country. The end of the "false Chu".So Chen Mingxia is not willing to have too in-depth communication with Zhou Zhong now. Of course, he still hopes to have a good relationship with this same year. After all, the other party has a close relationship with Gu Junen who is next to Li Zicheng.

Chen Mingxia then sighed and said: "Senior Wang seems to be still worried about not being able to enter the capital in time to protect Liehuang that day. Also, if the Guan Ning Army's schedule was faster that day, maybe Liehuang would not have to die for his country. "

Zhou Zhong glanced at the same year a little speechlessly. He felt that the application of the eye drops was too urgent. He didn't have any opinion on Wang Yongji, and neither side was loyal to the same emperor.

But he turned his head and thought, Wang Yongji, as governor of Jiliao, even though he failed to enter the capital, he was still better than the Ming officials who opened the door to welcome Dashun and watched Dashun attack the city, and Wang Yongji's status was higher than that of the prince. The three people around him are all tall. Although Feng Quan has been in the cabinet, he has never been an official in the Chongzhen Dynasty.

I sighed in my heart, the prince has not returned to the country yet, you have started to fight back and forth, aren't you afraid that the bamboo basket will be empty?But on the surface, Zhou Zhong did not accept Chen Mingxia's words, but straightened his face and said: "I follow His Majesty's order, besides sending the Governor-General, there are other matters that I want to discuss with the Crown Prince, but it is best to discuss these matters first." It's better for you to give the prince a thorough understanding, and I'll convey it to the prince."

After hearing this, Chen Mingxia immediately turned around and made an inviting gesture and said, "Then go to my room to talk, no one should come to disturb us now."

Zhou Zhong nodded and followed Chen Mingxia. When he reached his room, Chen Mingxia suddenly grabbed Liu Yumo and said, "Go to the sacrificial shed and watch for me, and see how senior Wang, the crown prince, Lord Li, and Lord Feng are doing. What did you say. This matter is very important to us, you must be sure."

Although he really wanted to stay and listen to what Zhou Zhong had to say, Liu Yumo agreed to Chen Mingxia's request and left, knowing that he was not qualified to stay now.

Chen Mingxia's office was originally the county magistrate's office. Although it was a bit cramped than the county magistrate's main hall, it was large enough for the conversation between the two of them.After the clerk delivered two cups of fragrant tea, Chen Mingxia, who was sitting opposite Zhou Zhong, finally couldn't help asking about Li Zicheng's will brought by the other party.

Zhou Zhong took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, and then he opened his mouth to Chen Mingxia and said, "Your Majesty was busy with the evacuation from Beijing before, so you haven't talked with the Crown Prince about the restoration of the Ming Dynasty.

Now that the crown prince and Emperor Lie Zigong had escaped from the Jiannu soldiers, His Majesty thought it was natural to talk about the restoration of the Ming Dynasty.I don’t know Brother Baishi, what do you think about the restoration of the Ming Dynasty? "

Chen Mingxia pondered for a long time, then stood up and cupped his hands towards the north, and said: "I will never forget the kindness of your majesty for the rise and fall of your Majesty. After the crown prince inherits the Datong, he should treat him as an uncle. From now on, Dashun and Daming will be The country of uncles and nephews..."

Although he knew that he should look at the problem from Dashun's side, Zhou Zhong was still uncomfortable with Chen Mingxia's words.He quickly picked up the teacup and took a sip of the tea, swallowed the discomfort in his heart, coughed a few times, and said to Chen Mingxia: "What Baishi said is true, but what is the division of the territory between Dashun and Daming?" place, have you considered it?"

What he said before was all lies, and even Chen Mingxia knew that it might not be feasible to let Li Zicheng help the crown prince to restore the country based on these words alone.It's just that Li Zicheng hadn't talked about the asking price for the restoration of the Ming Dynasty before, so Chen Mingxia could only wait patiently.Hearing Zhou Zhong's question today, he finally let go of a stone in his heart, knowing that Li Zicheng did have the idea of ​​letting the prince go south to restore the country.

However, he still asked Zhou Zhong very cautiously: "I wonder if Jiesheng can teach me anything?"

Zhou Zhong immediately lowered his face and said, "I don't understand Baishi's words. Now you are supporting the crown prince to restore the country. How can you ask me? I am a subject of His Majesty Yongchang."

Chen Mingxia thought for a while and said: "If Daming can restore the country, I will keep the Zhou family safe and sound. Jiesheng, you must know that if the crown prince cannot go south, the south will not submit to Dashun. There are more than a million clans in the Ming Dynasty. Supporting one person will be able to unite and resist Dashun's southward movement.

Afterwards, Jiannu and the Sangui army pursued, while the southern officers and soldiers resisted before. Isn't His Majesty Yongchang in a dilemma?It is not only the luck of Da Ming, but also the luck of Da Shun that the crown prince went south to restore the country.Only Daming revived by the crown prince is the friend of His Majesty Yongchang.And Shunming lived in peace, so the Zhou family could be safe and sound.I don't know what Jiesheng thinks? "

Zhou Zhong was silent for a few seconds, then nodded and said: "It seems that those southerners who are loyal to His Majesty naturally hope for harmony between the north and the south. Anyway, this is not a secret. Anyway, I will tell the prince later, so I will tell you Let me say a few words.

First, after the crown prince goes south to restore the country, he cannot cut off the commercial routes in the north, and must continue to provide grain to the north. You can think about it for yourself, but the water transport cannot be less than half of the past, that is, 1000 million stones of grain and grain a year. 200 million tax silver. "

Chen Mingxia looked at Zhou Zhong in a daze and said, "This is too much. If we add the loss, what is left in the Southern Capital? We can't let Nanjing officials drink the northwest wind, can we?"

Zhou Zhong remained silent, Chen Mingxia could only grit his teeth and ask, "Then what are the other conditions?"

Zhou Zhong then went on to say: "Dashun and Daming are bounded by the Yangtze River. There is no naval force on the Yangtze River. However, everyone can jointly set up a marine police force to inspect smuggling and fight water bandits. In addition, Dashun merchant ships or warships The southern port has the right to berth for supplies, and Da Ming cannot refuse or impose taxes..."

Chen Mingxia thought for a long time before saying: "It's fine to give up the north of the Yangtze River, but how can Fengyang be allowed? If Your Majesty can keep Fengyang as a place for me, and reduce the number of water transportation before, this is not impossible. talk…"

Chapter 67 Preparation

On the morning of the 16th, Li Zicheng had an in-depth conversation with Wang Zeyao and Yuan Yuzong. The main content of the conversation was about the resettlement of the Tianjin guard.

Previously, Wang Zeyao was ordered to preside over the land distribution of Huangzhuang and Weisuo around the capital. Although his work was not completed due to the retreat of the Dashun Army from Beijing, he had accumulated a lot of experience.Yuan Yuzong, as the deputy envoy of Tianjin Bingbei Dao, is more familiar with the situation of the local guards in Tianjin.

Therefore, after talking with the two men all morning, Li Zicheng made up his mind and said to them: "The No. 2500 Battalion of Seawater and Land in Tianjin has about 1500 people, of whom about [-] are from the South, and the farmland is about [-] hectares.

There are 8810 main soldiers in the Tianjin Sanwei, and there are 3 guest soldiers in addition. The Sanwei farms about 4000 hectares, with a year of nano beans, ten thousand stones, and more than ten thousand taels of silver, but there are not even three thousand soldiers who can go into battle.

It can be seen from this that Tianjin Weisuo has completely become a group of farmers.Taking advantage of Jiannu and Sangui Army's pursuit, I think the Tianjin Coast Defense Battalion and the Left and Right Guards were simply abolished, and the Tianjin Guard also removed the number of guest soldiers.Divide all the fields in the guard, let these farmers go home and farm.

Those guest soldiers who are willing to go back to their hometown will be allocated travel expenses, and those who are willing to follow us south will be allocated to the supply camp.In short, except for the troops to maintain law and order, there is no need to keep others.

After solving the problem of the Tianjin Guard Army, the next step is to solve the problem of the residents around Tianjin Guard.First of all, all kinds of craftsmen in the Acropolis must go south with us, and the shipyards and ship gangs outside the city must also go south with us, and then the shops...

After removing these people, what remains are the local residents. I also saw it on the city wall yesterday. The bustling area around Tianjin Acropolis is only on the east and north sides, with about thousands of households.

Yuan Counselor, you register and inspect these households, and ask them if they are willing to go south with our army. If they are willing to go south, they will compensate each household with 30 taels of silver, and then let 12 gangs of sea ships send these households to Tangtouzhai for resettlement. Local officials will also be ordered to give them land to rebuild their homes.As for those residents who were unwilling to leave Tianjin, they were asked to leave temporarily for a month, and each household was given a settling allowance of 10 taels of silver.

Otherwise, our army will not be responsible for their losses if we fight with no eyesight. "

Wang Zeyao agreed with Li Zicheng's proposition in his heart. These local guards were incapable of fighting and unreliable. No matter where they were placed, there were hidden dangers. It was indeed best to drive them home.And those who are willing to follow the army to the south, at least they have selected a group of available manpower.

However, after all, Yuan Yuzong had direct contact with Li Zicheng for the first time. He felt that Li Zicheng's offer was too good, so he could not help confirming to him: "It is His Majesty's benevolence to give some compensation to the relocated households, but The annual income of a local farmer household is only 8 to 9 taels. If these households are given 10 taels to avoid it for a month, is this price too high? Calculated in this way, just letting the residents near the Acropolis of Tianjin leave It will cost tens of thousands of taels of silver..."