Before hanging himself, Chongzhen lifted the table

Chapter 83 Shameless Play

He soon saw another group of people coming from the front yard, led by civil servants and military generals, who should be the leader.

So, he hurriedly greeted him, a smile appeared on his face, and he bowed and said: "Huang Yongfa, a common man, I wonder what your honor is for coming to this humble house?"

The visitors were Shen Yixiao, the new magistrate of Xuanfu, and He Zhen, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing Cavalry Battalion.Among them, Shen Yixiao only received the order this morning and knew what to do, because He Zhen was responsible for confiscating the properties of the eight major Shanxi merchants in Xuanfu, and his cooperation was needed to arrest the criminals.

Generally speaking, those in charge are civil servants, but this time, it was He Zhen who said: "The traitorous beast has been caught by me!"

Shanxi merchants strengthened the Jianlu for their own selfish purposes, which led to the decline of the state to this point. As a military general, he suffered the most.So when he heard that the man in front of him was one of the eight major Shanxi merchants mentioned by the emperor himself, a surge of anger immediately surged in his heart. While shouting angrily, he took a step forward and slapped him away.

"Snapped!"

What a bang!
Huang Yongfa was slapped by He Zhen, and a mouthful of blood spurted out. At the same time, Huang Yongfa fell back and was slapped back into the hall.

Behind He Zhen, there were a group of guards in golden uniforms. After hearing He Zhen's words, they immediately rushed forward and arrested everyone in the lobby, including Huang Yongfa who fell to the ground and cried out in pain.

This scene made Shen Yixiao stunned.

He originally wanted to announce the charges and see if Huang Yongfa would plead guilty, but He Zhen actually slapped him and arrested him directly.

"Search!"

After He Zhen gave the order, she turned to look at Shen Yixiao: "Master Shen, there is too much work today, shall we go to the next house first?"

Although the eight major Shanxi merchants are based in Zhangjiakou, Xuanfu is the capital of Zhangjiakou, so they all have industries here.Arresting them one by one, conducting house searches and counting, and coordinating with the payment of arrears, time is indeed very tight.

After hearing this, Shen Yixiao, maybe because he really realized that time was urgent, or because he was attracted by He Zhen's strength, he immediately agreed and went to the next house with He Zhen.

All kinds of shops in Xuanfu City, as long as they are large-scale, basically belong to the industries of the eight major Shanxi merchants.He Zhen and Shen Yixiao searched one house after another. In the end, there were not even enough manpower, and they had to go back to the military camp to recruit soldiers who were on rotation to continue the search.

From time to time, guards in golden uniforms would rush to the governor's office from all over the city, pass through the courtyard where the officers who were revising the account books were sitting, and go to report the news to the emperor.

I have to say that this search operation was indeed a bit loud and scared many people, including officers from more than a hundred households in the governor's Yamen, who were also a bit shocked.

They were hungry and continued to rectify the roster. At present, there were still not many people who dared to continue to fool around in order to get through.

As a result, some officers are struggling. They don't know what to do with the booklet?

It’s not a matter of changing it, it’s also not a matter of not changing it. It’s a dilemma!

In the end, they had to explain the situation to the clerks who helped them edit the books.

"I can't remember some of them, what should I do about this?"

"I have so many people missing here. Will I be punished if I present them later?"

"..."

Of course, there are also some books with few changes or no problems, which are the first batch to be delivered to the lobby.

On Emperor Chongzhen's desk, on one side were these rosters, and on the other side was the list of confiscated proceeds sent by the Imperial Guard.

He didn't look at it much, and directly threw the roster to Ning Long and Liu Jiuqing and said, "You go and collect the money, and pay the arrears according to the roster. If there is any discrepancy in the roster, the official will be killed."

"General, I obey the order!" After hearing this, Ning Long and Liu Jiuqing immediately responded with fists clasped.

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen explained: "If the soldiers are strong and available, and if you have a young family, you can choose to join the Beijing camp!"

It is necessary for Jia Xiao to move into the capital. On the one hand, he lives with the soldiers in the same city, and on the other hand, he might as well be a hostage.

From a certain point of view, it can be regarded as borrowing flowers to offer Buddha, directly confiscating the properties of the eight major Shanxi merchants, and then settling the outstanding wages.

Speaking of which, the border army's lack of pay has been a common phenomenon since the Tianqi years.However, there were basically only a few soldiers of the frontier army who were still alive from the Tianqi year to the 17th year of Chongzhen.Not to mention the number of times they were transferred to Liaodong to suppress the rebels, I just transferred the border troops to fight against the rebels. I don’t know how many there were.

Therefore, the soldiers of the border army at this time would not have been in the army for long.

The new governor Zhu Mintai was in charge of verifying military pay and moving the families of soldiers from the Xinjing Camp to the capital. He also had to participate in the distribution of military pay.In addition, the royal guards representing the emperor will also go to the scene to supervise.

It is true that time is too tight, so we cannot wait for the results of all the house searches to come out, so we can only hand out military pay while searching the houses.It can be said that everyone here in Xuanfu is very busy.

Although Xuanfu City was under martial law, there was a lot of movement from Xuanfu City. Especially when a cavalry army went straight to Zhangjiakou, the movement was even greater.There are also locals who are looking forward to it, wondering if they will get the money after calculating the arrears.Therefore, the news is still spreading slowly.

The Governor's Mansion of Yanghe Xuanda finally received the news.

In the lobby, Wang Jimo stood up in shock, looked at an officer in front of him who had just finished reporting and asked: "What, the Xuanfu is calculating the arrears, when did it happen?"

"Back to the Governor, the Governor of the Xuan Mansion sent people to the local area overnight yesterday to deliver the order. He also said that anyone who dares to take advantage of free money or make mistakes in the list will be killed! Anyone who dares to commit fraud will be killed! Anyone who delays the arrival will be killed!"

After hearing this, Wang Jimo was still in disbelief and said: "It sounds impressive, but as far as I know, the Xuanfu also has no money. Where does this give you the confidence to calculate the dues? If you do this without money, Aren't you afraid of a mutiny?"

Originally, the matter of being owed wages is real, but the superiors and subordinates never mentioned it, so it was treated as if it did not exist. If you bring this matter to the surface but do not solve it, it will immediately arouse the soldiers' hatred for being owed wages. The resentment is still there, and under the circumstances that Li's army has already invaded Shanxi, there is really a high probability that they will mutiny.

At least on Yanghe's side, he knew that this would definitely happen.

"Back to the Governor, yesterday evening, a cavalry army, estimated to number tens of thousands, entered Xuanfu City. It may be related to this, but there is no further news yet. I don't know which cavalry army it is?"

When Wang Jimo heard this, he went through it in his mind, but he still couldn't figure out where the cavalry was from?
The most likely one is, of course, the Guan Ning Cavalry!

However, it is absolutely impossible for Guan Ning's cavalry to come out in full force.If Shanhaiguan is empty and is successfully attacked by Jianlu, then Yanyun's land will be unsafe and the capital will be completely exposed to the front of Jianlu's troops.

Taking a step back, the troops on the front line of Guan Ning are actually in the hands of the Wu family. It is absolutely impossible for the Wu family to draw the army into the pass and consume it!
Where will the cavalry in Xuanfu come from?As soon as he arrived at Xuanfu, Zhu Zhifeng had to settle the unpaid wages?
No matter how much he thought about it, Wang Jimo couldn't figure out what was going on, so he didn't think about it anymore and immediately ordered: "Pass on my order and ask Zhu Zhifeng, the governor of the Xuan Mansion, to come to Yanghe immediately to discuss the matter."

He is the governor, in charge of Xuanfu and Datong. Since he doesn't understand, just call him over and ask.

When the officer who came to report the news heard it, he was overjoyed. He quickly received the military order and set off immediately.

Later, the news that Yang He said that Xuan Mansion had money flew up as if it had wings and spread quickly.

"Have you heard? The Xuan Mansion is calculating the arrears and is about to issue military pay!"

"This is impossible. Where does the court get the money?"

"This is news from the Governor's Mansion. It is said that the Governor does not believe it, but it is true in the Xuan Mansion. The Governor has sent an order to the Xuan Mansion and asked the Governor of Xuan Mansion to explain it!" "Is it true? It's like a dream. , are you really rich?"

"Who knows, let's see. Anyway, if you don't have money, who can use a knife or a gun?"

"..."

Yanghe, in its original history, had no intention of fighting.When Li Zicheng's army came to kill him, Governor Wang Jimo fled and led his troops to escape with more than 1 taels of silver. As a result, his troops refused and directly robbed the bank and dispersed, leaving Wang Jimo alone as a bachelor commander. Capital.

Now, the butterfly wings are flapping, and it has obviously begun to affect Yanghe.

However, there is obviously no impact on Ningwuguan, and it is no different from history.

At this time, the vanguard of Li Zicheng's army had arrived in front of Ningwuguan, thinking of taking Ningwuguan in one go and offering a big gift to Li Zicheng who was about to arrive.Because of this, a big war just broke out.

Ningwuguan City is surrounded by Huagai Mountain to the north and Fenghuang Mountain to the south. The Huihe River flows from the south of the city to the east. The two wings of the city are built along the river. It can be said that it is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

It's just a pity that Huihe River is a seasonal river. In February, the water volume is very small, and people and horses can cross it by wading.

But at this time, the river water was dyed red.There are also corpses strewn on the slopes from the river to Guancheng.

It is conceivable that at the top of Ningwuguan City, the officers and soldiers bombarded with artillery from a high position, especially when they got close, they fired shotguns. Li Zicheng's army was attacked from behind and suffered heavy casualties.The corpses all over the ground were proof.

The gunpowder smoke had dissipated, severely injuring the bandits, but Zhou Yuji didn't look happy at all while standing on the top of the city.He just looked at the bandits below collecting the corpses on the battlefield, and then looked up at the endless bandit camps in the distance, with an extremely serious expression.

The fighting that broke out today just heralded the beginning of the arduous fighting here in Ningwuguan.Most of the bandits killed and wounded were just the officers and soldiers who had taken refuge with the bandits.For rogue thieves, it doesn't hurt their elite skin at all.

As for the fighting methods of the stray thieves, he was very familiar with them as he had fought against them for many years.

If you think about it with your toes, you will know that the elites of the rogue thieves will not be used easily. They will only use non-lineage troops and what the rogue thieves consider to be miscellaneous troops. They will first consume their enemies' troops and supplies. Even earlier, they would also use ordinary people. To consume, but now the thieves have also learned to buy people's hearts, so they don't use ordinary people to consume.

The grain and grass supplies in Ningwuguan are the most abundant among the three passes, but there are too many thieves. So Li Thief used this shameless method to consume the grain and grass supplies in Ningwuguan, especially gunpowder and the like. Ningwu Pass I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on for a few days.

It is estimated that reinforcements are impossible, so the only way to get them to withdraw is to find a way to beat the bandits hard and let them know that Ningwuguan cannot be defeated!
Such a thought came to Zhou Yuji's mind, and he couldn't help but clenched his fists. He had to fight hard!

The raids on homes and arrests in Xuanfu City continued until the evening, and then gradually became less frequent.

This is still being led by He Zhen, who has a military style and is decisive in doing things. Otherwise, according to Shen Yixiao's approach, one day may not be enough.

However, even so, the verification of the store warehouse is expected to take a day or two before the results are available.

In the evening, the results of the preliminary inspection were placed on Emperor Chongzhen's desk.

In Xuanfu City, eight major Shanxi merchants had their houses, and they had all been inspected.Among them, Huang Yongfa was arrested, and the other seven major Shanxi merchants were not in Xuanfu City.According to preliminary interrogation information, it was Li Zicheng's army that invaded Shanxi. Especially after the fall of Taiyuan, these large Shanxi merchants all moved to the safer Zhangjiakou side.

The cash seized was only about 30 taels, including the cash stored in the seized shops, and the gold was only about 1 taels.

The types of goods in the shop are mainly cloth, salt, grain, iron materials, medicinal materials and leather materials. The quantity is large, but the specific quantity will not be known until verification.

Emperor Chongzhen was still a little dissatisfied when he looked at the inspection results.The eight major Shanxi merchants only had about 40 taels of silver in cash. If divided, one family would only have 5 taels.Moreover, many of the 5 taels were not recovered from the house, but were stored in various shops.

However, he was actually not surprised by this result.

After all, you are a businessman or a big businessman. When it comes to using money, you probably have more turnover. Only with high turnover can you make more money.Rather than like ordinary people, if you have money, you can buy grain fields or store it in cellars.For businessmen, this is simply a waste of money.

In addition, the hometowns of these eight Shanxi merchants are not Xuanfu City, but are distributed in different places throughout Shanxi.Even if they save money, they must keep it separately, and it is impossible to put it all here in Xuanfu City.

Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen could only look forward to the harvest in Zhangjiakou. After all, that was where Shanxi merchants did business with foreigners.

Of course, the interrogation of the eight major Shanxi merchants and their families is still ongoing, and the places where the property was hidden may be uncovered later.

After reading this, Emperor Chongzhen went back to see the calculation results of outstanding wages that Fang Zhenghua had compiled for him.Based on the revised roster, the Xuanfu will distribute about 50 taels.The most outstanding pay is that a soldier can receive nearly 100 taels, but the smallest soldier can only receive about [-] taels.

The total amount is not high because there are so many deserters in the Xuan Mansion, and only [-]% of the [-]% soldiers remain.The same is true. Emperor Chongzhen casually flipped through the pile of rosters, and all the names were crossed out.In other words, these names were originally meant to be paid for free.The name is still there, but the person has already run away!Even so, there are still some officers who were found to be eating empty pay and had their heads chopped off.

The matter of deserting soldiers was already very common in the late Ming Dynasty.Emperor Chongzhen also expected this, but he didn't expect that Xuanfu Town, one of the important towns on the nine sides, would have so many deserters!
If you don’t have money, who else will work for you?
What a complete mess!Emperor Chongzhen sighed in his heart and estimated that after selecting some of the existing soldiers to join the Beijing camp, Xuanfu would recruit new soldiers.But with the guarantee of military pay, we should be able to recruit people.

While he was thinking, the fast horse from Zhangjiakou came back.

Wei Shizhen hasn't come back yet, so he sent a messenger back to report the news from Zhangjiakou.

Four of the remaining seven Shanxi merchants were arrested in Zhangjiakou, namely Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, and Zhai Tang.Jin Liangyu and Fan Yongdou left the customs two days ago, carrying a large amount of supplies. It is said that they were in order to avoid the army of Li thieves and were not in Zhangjiakou.There is also Wang Dengku whose whereabouts are unknown and are being hunted.

The cash seized in Zhangjiakou was about 110 million taels, and there was a lot of gold, more than 10 taels.There are probably two houses stacked with antiques, calligraphy and paintings, etc., and their value is immeasurable.

The warehouses of each shop also mainly contain cloth, salt, grain, iron, medicinal materials and leather, as well as a lot of sulfur and saltpeter.

There are also some cattle, sheep, and more than 500 horses that have just returned from trading in the grasslands.

The messenger looked at the emperor who seemed to have finished reading the submitted list, and immediately said: "Your Majesty, Marshal Wei is asking for instructions, do you want to go out to pursue Jin Liangyu and Fan Yongdou's caravan?"

Emperor Chongzhen was silent for a while after hearing this.

Wei Shizhen's troops are all cavalry. If he pursues a caravan that doesn't know the situation, it is possible to catch up after only two days.However, it is also possible to get wrong information and not pursue the right place, which may waste time and make you busy in vain.

The most important thing is that Wei Shizhen's troops are going to reinforce Ningwuguan. If they are sent to pursue the caravan, it will delay the time to reinforce Ningwuguan.The rescue of Ningwuguan is the top priority, and there cannot be any mistakes.

After weighing this, he ordered: "Send an order to Wei Shizhen and tell him to act according to the plan without going out to pursue him."

After hearing this, the messenger immediately agreed, and then hurried back to Zhangjiakou that night.

Fang Zhenghua cleaned up the desk for Emperor Chongzhen, sorted out the collected information, and then said with some emotion: "Long live my lord, this money is still a little short!"

He originally thought that such a big businessman would have more than 500 million taels of silver, but unexpectedly, the total was only about 250 million taels.

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said: "I don't know how many goods were seized. If there are a lot of goods, it is actually more affordable than silver. It saves the process of buying goods with silver, and it can be used to support Ningwuguan." For war use!”

When Fang Zhenghua heard this, he immediately slapped his forehead, smiled and said back to Emperor Chongzhen: "Long live the Lord, it's better to think carefully, otherwise if you only have money, I'm afraid there won't be any place to buy it in such a short period of time!"

Emperor Chongzhen smiled again after hearing this, and then began to sort out the next plan.

(End of this chapter)