Martial Arts World Assassin

Chapter 180 Money Warehouse and Treasures

Seeing that Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi and others had no objections, Huang Sixi asked Fang Yi to arrange accommodation for them.

Let them rest for a few days before taking up their posts.

After watching them leave the hall, Huang Sixi continued to discuss military secrets with He Tieshou.

Huang Sixi had previously mentioned to He Tieshou the situation of abolishing agricultural taxes.

But He Tieshou did not think that Huang Sixi would implement it immediately. After all, the Tartars had not been expelled yet, and it was not yet time to govern the world.

Just now, He Tieshou heard Huang Sixi discussing with Gu Yanwu and others. Huang Sixi actually wanted to promote the national policy of abolishing agricultural taxes in Yunnan and Yunnan first. He felt that it was inappropriate.

However, when Huang Sixi summoned Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi and others, he did not talk about anything else but only talked about agricultural taxes. This shows that Huang Sixi had thought it over carefully and it was definitely not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

He Tieshou did not try to persuade Huang Sixi to change his mind. She only expressed her own opinion to Huang Sixi: "In our Yunnan and Yunnan Yi ethnic group, most of the good farmland is concentrated in the hands of chieftains, officials and gentry. The situation in other parts of the Central Plains must be similar. If the agricultural tax is really abolished, the beneficiaries will mostly be officials and gentry!"

Huang Sixi smiled slightly: "I just want to benefit the officials and gentry. If I don't let them benefit, how can they willingly surrender during the Northern Expedition in the future?"

The situation of the Central Plains land is actually different from that of the Yunnan and Yunnan Yi peoples.

Because the Tatars are involved.

After the Tartars entered the Pass, most of the Manchus of the Eight Banners moved to the Central Plains. In order to reward these bannermen, the Tartar emperor allowed them to freely enclose land in the Central Plains.

This is also the infamous "Enclosure Order", in which the Tartars directly and openly robbed the land of the officials, gentry and common people in the Central Plains. As long as the Eight Banners Manchus took a fancy to good land, they would take it all for themselves.

The Manchu cities currently spread all over the Central Plains mainly source their wealth from the fertile lands they have looted.

It can also be said that half of the fertile land in the Central Plains was in the hands of the Eight Banners royal family, nobles and bannermen, and the remaining half was mostly in the hands of Han officials and gentry. The people of the Central Plains generally became long-term laborers of the Eight Banners Manchus and Han officials and gentry.

In order to consolidate their rule, the Eight Banners Manchus had spent the past thirty years trying to win over Han officials and gentry. Through the imperial examinations, marriages, and raising the banner, the interests of both sides had become tied together.

Huang Sixi was going to launch a Northern Expedition. He not only had to deal with the Eight Banners Manchus, but also the Han officials and gentry who had accepted the interests of the Tartars.

These officials and gentry are not good at field combat, but they are experts in defending cities. If they firmly support the Tartar rule, it will cause extremely serious obstacles to Huang Sixi's Northern Expedition in the future. Every time a city is recaptured, a heavy price will be paid.

If Huang Sixi promotes the policy of abolishing agricultural taxes, he will be able to easily undermine the resistance determination of officials and gentry in various parts of the Central Plains.

At the same time, Huang Sixi could also take over half of the fertile land in the Central Plains that was seized by the Eight Banners Manchus.

At that time, this half of the fertile land will become Huang Sixi's personal treasury, which can ensure that Huang Sixi can stabilize the situation in the world.

If it were any other dynasty, Huang Sixi's abolition of agricultural taxes might have caused unrest, but in this special era of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the benefits definitely outweighed the disadvantages.

As long as Huang Sixi succeeds in his Northern Expedition, he can occupy half of the farmland in the Central Plains.

By then, whether it is resettling refugees, building infrastructure, distributing military pay, or paying officials' salaries, land resources can be allocated with ease.

He Tieshou was not aware of Huang Sixi's long-term plan, so she asked again: "The officials and gentry are powerful. Once the agricultural tax is abolished, they may seize the good farmland of the common people in order to gain more income from the good farmland. When the common people lose their farmland and their livelihoods, there is no guarantee that they will not revolt and cause unrest?"

Huang Sixi had no such worries: "The present is different from the past. The situation in the world is in a period of change. The income from farmland will become less and less in the future. Even if the people lose their land, I have a way to resettle them."

After Huang Sixi recovered the Central Plains, the next step was to expand outward.

But the people in the Central Plains are accustomed to guarding their own piece of land, and if not forced by the situation, they are all unwilling to leave the Central Plains.

After the national policy of abolishing agricultural taxes is implemented, if the situation that He Tieshou is worried about really occurs, where the people's fertile land is seized by officials and gentry, causing the people to be displaced, it will be a good opportunity to guide them to emigrate.

Australia and America are all unowned lands at present. It would be strange if Huang Sixi did not allow the people of the Central Plains to seize these fertile lands! They must all be seized, not even an island can be abandoned!

Huang Sixi's national policy of abolishing agricultural taxes was in line with the development of the future great navigation situation.

Seeing that Huang Sixi had her own ideas, He Tieshou smiled and stopped asking about the details of the agricultural tax. She only said, "The money and grain accumulated by Wu Sangui is only enough for us to use in the Northern Expedition! When we recover the Central Plains in the future, we will need to distribute salaries to officials in various places. Where will the money and grain come from?"

The court expenses of this era actually only had three items: the emperor's expenses, military pay, and official pay. As long as these three items were taken care of, the court basically did not need to spend any more money.

The most outrageous thing is that the emperor’s expenses actually accounted for the bulk of all court expenses, which means that the people of the world had to work hard to support the emperor’s family.

Huang Sixi started an uprising against the Qing Dynasty. Whether he wanted to or not, he would become the emperor in the future. If he did not become the emperor, the generals under his command would not agree.

But Huang Sixi would try his best to reduce the emperor's expenses and use the money and grain on national defense and people's livelihood.

In recent months, He Tieshou recovered from her old illness at the Five Poisons Sect headquarters and immediately rushed to Kunming to reunite with Huang Sixi. Huang Sixi handed over the financial management to her.

She gave priority to the Northern Expedition expenses, but the officials' salaries were not allocated.

Huang Sixi signaled her to rest assured: "The official salary is hidden in Sichuan and Shu. When I go north to recapture Sichuan and Shu, you won't have to worry about the salary anymore."

He Tieshou smiled and said, "Sichuan and Shu are right next to Yunnan and Yunnan, so I'll wait and see how you can turn the salary into something."

In the following months, Huang Sixi methodically reorganized the military affairs and government of Yunnan and Yunnan.

Once Yunnan and Yunnan were completely under Huang Sixi's command, the Northern Expedition began.

Before the Northern Expedition, Huang Sixi had made all the preparations. He first replaced the Qing imperial palace, then replaced the government offices in various parts of the Central Plains, and then won over local officials and gentry by abolishing agricultural taxes.

All factors that resisted Huang Sixi have been completely eliminated.

Huang Sixi led the Dragon Subduing Army into Sichuan and encountered no resistance at all. The entire Sichuan surrendered.

After recovering Sichuan and Shu, the Dragon-Subduing Army temporarily stopped at Jiange, the border between Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

That day, Huang Sixi led a group of generals under his command to Jiange to visit a strange man in the martial arts world.

This strange man was called Gui Tianlan. He was originally a subordinate of Li Dingguo, a famous general who fought against the Qing Dynasty. After Li Dingguo passed away in grief and anger, the anti-Qing army of Li Dingguo also collapsed and everyone sought their own way of life. Gui Tianlan chose to live in seclusion in Jiange.

After Huang Sixi found Gui Tianlan, he directly proposed to take out the "Li Dingguo Treasure" for the anti-Qing cause. Gui Tianlan had long heard of the reputation of the Dragon-Subduing Hero, and immediately led Huang Sixi to the hiding place of the "Li Dingguo Treasure".

In fact, this "Li Dingguo Treasure" can be traced back to Zhang Xianzhong's army during the Chongzhen period.

Li Dingguo was originally a general under Zhang Xianzhong.

In the past, Zhang Xianzhong rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and established the Dashi Kingdom. He plundered countless wealth from all over the world. When Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and injured, and was dying, he once dealt with the looted wealth.

Before Zhang Xianzhong died, he sank some of his gold, silver and jewelry into the Sichuan River to be buried with him, and the rest was obtained by Li Dingguo.

After Zhang Xianzhong's death, Li Dingguo abandoned the Dashi Kingdom and turned to support the Yongli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Later, the Yongli Emperor was chased all the way by Wu Sangui. Knowing that there was no hope of restoring his country, the Yongli Emperor handed over all the wealth hidden by the Ming Dynasty to Li Dingguo.

In this way, Li Dingguo inherited a huge fortune from both the Atlantis Kingdom and the Ming court, totaling 180,000 kilograms of gold, which was absolutely an astronomical figure. In order to ensure the safety of the gold, Li Dingguo carefully selected 300 confidants, cast the gold into 18 golden arhats, transported them into the cave under Jiange, and sealed them up from then on in case of anti-Qing activities.

Gui Tianlan is the leader of Li Dingguo's three hundred confidants. He lives in seclusion in Jiange in order to protect the "Treasure of Li Dingguo".

The reason why Huang Sixi visited Gui Tianlan was naturally to open the treasure in the cave under Jiange.

"Marshal, please look! These eighteen Buddha statues are made of gold! They weigh a total of 180,000 kilograms and have been sealed here for ten years!"

In the cave, Gui Tianlan led Huang Sixi and others to the place where the treasure was buried.

Gui Tianlan invited everyone to push down one of the Buddha statues and take out a brocade box from the base.

There was a piece of letter in the box, and Gui Tianlan handed the letter to Huang Sixi.

Huang Sixi unfolded the letter and saw the following words written on it: "In the year of Yiyou, the first month of autumn, the great thieves moved the country, the royal family moved south, and fled to the border of Yunnan. There is no hope of revival if they leave. In the next life, Dingguo, in accordance with the will of the Great Western King and the imperial decree of Emperor Yongli, has cast 18 Arhats with 108,000 kilograms of gold and hidden them in this cave! Leave it to heroes and heroes to use as a resource for the restoration of the country! Anyone who uses it for personal use will be punished by both humans and gods!"

This is a handwritten letter from Li Dingguo. Before his death, he planned to entrust 100,000 kilograms of gold to the anti-Qing heroes.

In fact, Li Dingguo's approach was exactly the same as Huang Sixi's.

When Huang Sixi left "Blood Rivers and Lakes", he entrusted the treasure of Tianning Temple outside Jingzhou City to Tie Luohan and Hu Guinan, and also left instructions that the treasure could only be used to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and restore the Central Plains.

Gui Tianlan was a loyal and righteous man. He strictly followed Li Dingguo's teachings. Seeing that Huang Sixi had recovered Yunnan, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and the restoration of the Central Plains was just around the corner, he revealed the location of Li Dingguo's treasure and presented the treasure to Huang Sixi.

A full 100,000 kilograms of gold, equivalent to 10 million taels of silver, is enough for He Tieshou to allocate and use.

After transporting the 100,000 kilograms of gold out of Jiange, Huang Sixi immediately led his troops into Hubei Province.

In the Tianlong Temple outside Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, there is another treasure waiting for Huang Sixi to take.

On this day, Hu Guinan and Tie Luohan arrived at the temporary residence of the Grand Marshal outside the city of Jingzhou.

After not seeing each other for thirty years, Hu Guinan and Tie Luohan are both over sixty years old, but they are still in good health and have never forgotten the responsibilities that Huang Sixi had entrusted to them.

"My husband, the golden Buddha in Tianning Temple is intact, and Luohan and I have never touched the jewels inside the Buddha. It is still the same as when my husband handed it to us!"

Hu Guinan stood beside Huang Sixi and smiled as he told him about the treasure of Tianning Temple.

Although Huang Sixi had given instructions to Hu Guinan and Tie Luohan: "If one day in the future I encounter an accident, but the Tartars come back and occupy the Central Plains, then you must hand over this golden Buddha and jewels to the anti-Tartar rebels."

But Hu Guinan and Tie Luohan did not believe that Huang Sixi would die, and they were looking forward to Huang Sixi's return to the Central Plains.

To this end, they hollowed out the ground of Tianning Temple, sealed all the golden Buddhas and jewels in the temple underground, and temporarily sealed this treasure, waiting to open it after Huang Sixi's return.

This is also the reason why Huang Sixi found that Tianning Temple had been razed to the ground when he first went south to Yunnan and Yunnan through Jingzhou City.

After Hu Guinan and Tie Luohan buried the treasure of Tianning Temple underground, they left Jingzhou City separately, one went to Tibet and the other went to Liaodong. They did not go to the Central Plains for decades until they heard that Huang Sixi had vowed to fight against the Qing Dynasty, and then they rushed to meet Huang Sixi.

The two seemed to have telepathic connection and arrived at Huang Sixi's residence on the same day.

Huang Sixi learned that the treasure of Tianning Temple was intact, and smiled at He Tieshou beside him and said, "The value of the treasure of Tianning Temple is roughly the same as the treasure of Jiange. It is estimated to be 100,000 kilograms of gold. Are you still worried about lack of money in the future?"

The golden Buddha in the Tianning Temple treasure weighs only tens of thousands of pounds, but inside the Buddha's belly are a large number of pearls, gems, gold objects, white jade, jadeite, corals, emeralds, and cat's eyes, which together are worth several pounds of gold. Overall, the treasure of Tianning Temple is actually richer than the treasure of Jiange.

He Tieshou found it unimaginable to receive two huge treasures in a row.

Unexpectedly, Huang Sixi said, "There is another treasure in Liaodong. If it can be excavated, its value will be greater than that of Tianning Temple and Jiange combined."

What Huang Sixi was talking about was the "Treasure of Luding Mountain".

The dragon vein of the Qing Dynasty Tartars is hidden under Luding Mountain, so the treasure is also buried with the coffins of Qing Dynasty emperors, including the burial objects of Nurhaci and Huang Taiji.

The exact location of the treasure is rumored to be hidden in eight volumes of the "Sutra in Forty-two Chapters".

Huang Sixi had no idea in whose hands these scriptures ended up, but he knew that the treasure was buried under Luding Mountain. As long as he found Luding Mountain, he would be able to dig out the treasure.

Hu Guinan had been lurking in Liaodong for many years and was familiar with the terrain of Liaodong. He happened to know the location of Luding Mountain.

He only said: "There is indeed a Luding Mountain in Liaodong, but the mountain is located in the extreme north of Liaodong, bordering the Luosha Kingdom. It has now been occupied by the Luosha Kingdom. They have built a fortress on the mountain. If you want to recapture Luding Mountain, you must first defeat the Luosha Kingdom's garrison."

Huang Sixi said: "The Luosha Kingdom has few soldiers and they know nothing about the treasure of Luding Mountain. In fact, there is nothing to be afraid of! The Northern Expedition has already begun. Every place that the Dragon Subduing Army passes through can be recovered with great momentum. In the future, there will definitely be defeated soldiers of the Eight Banners who retreat to Liaodong. These are the people we should guard against."

Huang Sixi said this and ordered Hu Guinan: "You must return to Liaodong, take charge of a troop, and stay in Liaodong to wipe out the defeated Eight Banners soldiers."

Hu Guinan immediately replied: "I already have troops in Goryeo, so I don't need you to allocate additional food and money. I just need you to send me a message about the situation of the Tartars' defeated troops in time."

"Then let's do it."

Huang Sixi turned his head and looked at Tie Luohan again: "Tibet is adjacent to Sichuan, Shu, Yunnan and Yunnan, and its importance is no less than Liaodong. Luohan, you have to go back too. After the Central Plains recovers, I will use Tibet as a springboard to send troops to Tianzhu and the Western Regions. You must be prepared to welcome the Dragon Subduing Army."

Tie Luohan couldn't guess Huang Sixi's intention. India and the Western Regions are 18,000 miles away from the Central Plains. Why send troops there?
But he did not ask any more questions, only said: "Sir, just send the troops, I promise that Tibet will not resist the visit of the Dragon Subduing Army."

(End of this chapter)