The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 143 Redeem Yourself, Redeem Your Sins, Redeem Your Rebels, Redeem Your Spies (asking for monthly tickets)
Iron Buddha Temple outside Changsha City.

When Wang Kuiyi, who was wearing a green robe and a small hat and had his braids cut off, limped to Tiefu Temple with the support of Jin Aduo, it was already the afternoon of the second day after Changsha was captured by the Taiping Army.

The battle in Changsha City has been suspended. The Qing army has secured the two strongholds of Tianxin Pavilion and Yingchun Gate, and there is also an Iron Buddha Temple outside the city. The total force is still 7,000 to 8,000. Although it is not as strong as the combined forces of the Taiping Army and the Tiandihui in the city, it is still more than enough to hold on.

Yingchun Gate was relatively easy to attack, as you could attack along the walls on both sides without having to climb the city walls directly. However, Tianxin Pavilion and the Iron Buddha Temple outside the city were not easy to take down, so you could only take your time and waste time.

For Luo Bingzhang, Luo Raodian, Shengbao, Fucheng and others, the battle situation in Changsha remained like this for the time being, so they were not worried. What really made them uneasy was how much money the Taiping Army in the city were going to ask Emperor Xianfeng for?
If they asked for too much, Emperor Xianfeng would be furious and would confiscate their property to offset the loss!

When these gentlemen were in a large meditation room, feeling terrified, they suddenly saw the master Zuo Zongtang walk in with great vigor, clasped his fists and said, "Gentlemen, Jin Aduo is back, and he brought Wang Bowen, the former governor of Daozhou!"

"Wang Bowen, the former governor of Daozhou? Why did he come back?"

Luo Bingzhang, who didn't even know when he would be "taken to Beijing and handed over to the Ministry for punishment", was a little confused for a moment when he heard Zuo Zongtang say that the unlucky Wang Kuiyi had returned.

Why did you come back after all that? You could hide quietly, at least you could be considered "lost in the chaos"! Now that you are running back, isn't that the same as walking into a trap? In this situation, if you are locked up in Beijing, won't you be beheaded by a blunt knife at the market?
"Mr. Ru, he came to ask the emperor for money!" Zuo Zongtang's answer was even more shocking.

"Asking the Emperor for money?"

"Is he crazy?"

"Isn't this courting death?"

Shengbao, Luo Raodian and Fucheng were all shocked.

Zuo Zongtang had already entered the meditation room at this time. He clasped his fists to Luo Bingzhang, Shengbao, Luo Raodian, Fucheng and the other four, then found a seat and sat down in a dignified manner. Someone immediately served him tea.

Zuo Zongtang was in no hurry to speak. He took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, then said with a smile, "He is not courting death, nor is he crazy. He is just running errands for Chang Mao and delivering a message, just like that Jin Aduo. The only difference is that Jin Aduo is running errands for us now, while he is running errands for Chang Mao. Gentlemen, would you like to meet him?"

That must be seen!

Luo Bingzhang sighed and said to Zuo Zongtang, "Let's meet them, Ji Gao, let them in."

Zuo Zongtang did not move, but just opened his throat and shouted: "Aduo, Bowen, come in!"

It turned out that Jin Aduo and Wang Kuiyi were already outside the door. After Zuo Zongtang called out, he saw Wang Kuiyi walking in from outside with Jin Aduo, and as he walked, he said to Jin Aduo with concern: "Master Jin, your legs and feet are not good, you must be careful."

Jin Aduo was also very polite and replied with a smile: "Master Wang, you have worked so hard."

After entering the room, Wang Kuiyi first helped Jin Aduo, who had difficulty walking, to sit down. Then, without kowtowing to the adults in the hall, he clasped his fists like Zuo Zongtang did, and then he found a seat by himself, picked up his robe, and sat down in a dignified manner.

"uh-huh!"

Luo Bingzhang couldn't stand it anymore, his face darkened and he snorted.

Wang Kuiyi was not afraid of him now, he just smiled and said: "My lords, this is going to cost a lot of money! More than 450 soldiers of the Eight Banners, more than 1,000 soldiers of the Green Camp, among whom there are about 100 officials, and there are also more than 20 Han Chinese civil servants. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has already settled the bill, and they want a total of 350,000 taels of silver. Pay the money and release the people! How do you think? Write a petition to the emperor to ask for the money!"

"What? Three hundred and fifty thousand is impossible!"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"Mr. Wang, you are crazy about money, right? Three hundred and fifty thousand, why don't you just rob?"

"How could the emperor agree? There's no door, not to mention windows!"

Wang Kuiyi chuckled a few times, "It's just 350,000. My Daozhou prefect spent more than 20,000 taels of silver from the time he was appointed to the time he filled the vacancy, of which 15,000 taels were loan sharks from Prince Dun's palace! I spent more than 20,000 for a fifth-rank prefecture. Now the Taiping Army has more than 400 Eight Banners and 120 officials in their hands. Only 350,000 taels, can it be considered expensive? There are also more than a thousand Green Camps, which is simply an extra."

"Wang Bowen, what you said are all outdated rules. When will they be put on the table?" Shengbao said with a green face, "The Changmao wants 350,000, which is simply a foolish dream. He is really thinking too much!"

When Wang Kui heard this, he sighed and said with a smile: "Sir Sheng, I also think they are overthinking those dozens of Han officials and the thousand green soldiers. The emperor will not pay for them, right?"

Fu Cheng nodded and said: "That's nonsense! Those people are not the emperor's own servants."

"Mmmm!"

Shengbao coughed quickly - what truth is this?
Wang Kuiyi smiled and said, "In that case, there are only about 400 Eight Bannermen. This can save a lot. One thousand Green Camp soldiers can save 30,000. Twenty Han civil officials and twenty Han military officials can save at least 20,000.

But, we only want bannermen, not Han people. Can this matter be discussed in the court?" Shengbao, Fucheng, Luo Bingzhang, and Luo Raodian all turned pale.

Not only can we not discuss it, we can't even report it!

Submitting a memorial would make things difficult for the Emperor!
It would definitely be a loss to spend fifty thousand taels of silver to redeem a group of Green Camp soldiers and corrupt Han officials who can only eat but not fight. But if the emperor says to redeem only the Bannermen and not the Han people, it seems inappropriate.

If Shengbao and his people reported this matter, then the emperor would either have to pay money to redeem all the captured Eight Banners, Green Camp, Han officials, and Bannermen, which would make him a fool, or not redeem any of them. Wouldn't the Eight Bannermen in Beijing cry to death?
Fucheng was the most honest among them. He shook his head and said, "Even if 50,000 is deducted, there is still 300,000 left. It's too expensive!"

Shengbao also let out a long sigh.

Luo Bingzhang and Luo Raodian remained silent.

Zuo Zongtang had been staring at Wang Kuiyi and Jin Aduo. Seeing that they looked calm, he knew that they had a plan. He immediately bowed to Wang Kuiyi and said, "Sir Wang, I know that you are resourceful. You must have some tricks to help Sir Sheng and Sir Fu solve their problems, right?"

Wang Kuiyi smiled and bowed, saying, "Brother Ji Gao, I am a criminal now, how can I deserve you to call me 'Sir'? After I was arrested and brought to the capital, I had to go to the vegetable market, right?"

Zuo Zongtang said: "It's hard to say. If it were in the past, it would indeed be difficult to handle. But now, alas, there are so many Eight Banners children waiting for the emperor to spend money to redeem them, and many of them are officials.

Besides, you are now doing work for the Emperor, rescuing people for the Eight Banners! Can't your merits and demerits offset each other?"

Wang Kuiyi turned around and looked at Shengbao and the others.

Jin Aduo, who came back with Wang Kuiyi, said, "Master Sheng, Master Fu, when Master Wang and I were on our way to the Iron Buddha Temple, he had come up with a clever plan that will surely get us over the hump."

Well, I am going to deceive you again.
Shengbao, Fucheng, Luo Bingzhang and Luo Raodian all felt a little ashamed.

"Bo Wen," Luo Bingzhang said with a smile, "The fall of Daozhou is indeed not your fault! Yu Wanqing's 2,000-man army was completely wiped out. What can you, a prefect, do?"

Luo Raodian also said: "That's right, you also brought out 800 militiamen from Daozhou. Not bad! Ru Weng and I will go to the court together to plead for you and ask for you to be given a chance to make amends for your crimes!"

Wang Kui smiled and said, "Mr. Ru, Mr. Su, am I not making contributions now?"

He looked at Shengbao and Fucheng again and said, "Master Sheng, Master Fu, the Changmao want silver! It can't be less than 300,000 taels, and the rest is easy to negotiate."

"Too much!"

"no."

"Wait, don't say no yet," Wang Kui said with a smile, "Listen to me, both of you. Let's first count the one thousand Gansu and Shaanxi Green Camp soldiers as killed in battle! Then the only ones who need to be redeemed are the hundreds of Eight Banners soldiers.

Secondly, we can report the captured Bannermen among the hundreds of officials and ask the emperor to pay for them. As for the Han officials, we won't report them and let them pay to redeem themselves! Even if they have never been captured, there is a big difference between redeeming the Bannermen and releasing the Han officials, right?

Those captured Han officials were either waiting for appointment in the governor's office or leading officers in the Gansu-Shaanxi Green Camp. Once they fell into the hands of the enemy, they could not die, and had to ask the emperor to spend money to redeem them. Not to mention whether they could be officials in the future, they should go through the process of waiting for appointment and being a candidate again, right? The money spent on paving the way before would be wasted! It would be better to spend three or four thousand taels of silver to redeem themselves, and pretend that they had never been captured. "

"Three or four thousand taels? Not that expensive, right?" Luo Bingzhang immediately realized something was wrong. "Fifty or so civil servants would cost at least 150,000 or 160,000 taels, right?"

"Yes, 150,000 or 160,000!" Wang Kuiyi said, "We will split the money with Changmao 30% and 70% respectively. We take 70% and Changmao takes 30%."

"Ah? You're also greedy?"

Fucheng looked at Wang Kuiyi in surprise.

"How is it greed?" Wang Kui said with a smile, "Since you are asking the emperor for so much silver to redeem people, shouldn't you give part of it even if you sell all your property? It should be split 30% to 70%, with us paying 30% and the emperor paying 70%. I am also in prison for entering the capital, so I should also pay more than 10,000 taels of silver, right?"

Shengbao frowned and said, "But how can those Han officials captured by the Taiping have the money to redeem themselves?"

"You can borrow it." Wang Kui said with a smile.

"Borrow? Who can I borrow from?" Shengbao asked.

"Borrow it from Mr. Zuo and the Hunan gentry!" Wang Kuiyi turned his head and looked at Zuo Zongtang. "They were captured to protect Hunan. They are military officers who can serve the Hunan militia and can serve as civil officials as county magistrates in various parts of Hunan. Mr. Ji Gao, are you willing to help them?"

"Of course I am willing!"

Zuo Zongtang said "yes" but he knew in his heart that that Luo Tianshi was up to no good again!
(End of this chapter)