scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 121
With the arrival of the first day of the first lunar month in the ninth year of Kang Mazi in the Qing Dynasty, the Pingxi Palace, which lives in a corner, also ushered in the best era since the establishment of the mansion and the establishment of the vassal.In the past year, relying on monopolizing the exclusive planting rights and export tax exemption rights of the Eight Banners Fushou Gao, the Pingxi Palace has earned more than 320 yuan just by relying on the Eight Banners Fushou Gao grown in the vassal land controlled by the Wangfu itself. The fiscal revenue of tens of thousands of taels of silver went up to the prince Wu Sangui, down to the ordinary soldiers and vassals. Needless to say, all of them made a lot of money, and it completely made up for the fatal weakness of the Pingxi Palace's inability to be self-sufficient in food and salaries. The necessary degree of financial dependence has also been greatly reduced.

Faced with such a situation, most of the civil and military generals of the Pingxi Palace and the family members of the vassals and vassals are of course blushing, their wallets are bulging, and they worship Wu Sangui and Fatty Lu who brought them this fetish like gods. Wu Sangui has also done it several times. Waking up from the dream with a smile, I am extremely grateful to God for giving me such a living treasure as Fatty Lu——living treasure for short.But some people of insight in the Pingxi Palace, such as Wu Sangui's four great think tanks Hu, Liu, Wang, Fang, and Wu Sangui's Xia Guoxiang, Liu Yi, Gao Dejie, Guo Zhuangtu, Qiu Kesun and Yang Shanzi, etc. , but they were all worried about this situation, discussing with each other to find an opportunity to remind Wu Sangui.

The best opportunity is undoubtedly in the few days after New Year's Eve. In order to celebrate the New Year, most of the backbone of Pingxi Palace, including Lu Fatty, the number one rising star of Pingxi Palace, all returned to Kunming with their families, and Wu Sangui celebrated the Spring Festival together. Basically, apart from Wu Yingxiong, who was held hostage by Xiao Mazi in the capital, all the wolves, tigers and leopards in the Pingxi Palace had arrived.After a few days of intense preparation, on the second day of the first lunar month, the four major think tanks of Pingxi Palace, Lu Fatzi, Xia Guoxiang, Liu Yi, Gao Dejie and more than ten people came to Yin'an Hall together, and jointly asked Wu Sangui to receive him. .

After waiting patiently for a long time, Wu Sangui, who was still drinking on his face, finally came to the Yin'an Hall. He was not wearing the prince's formal attire, but casual clothes. I sent people to drink and celebrate with you, why did you all refuse? Why are you all here now? Walk around, it’s rare to have a good year, and you need to celebrate more, and accompany me to Anfu Garden to drink. Let’s talk about what’s going on there.”

"Father-in-law, if we have something important to report, we should ask father-in-law to speak in the Yin'an Hall." Hu Guozhu, the eldest son-in-law of the traitor Wu, kowtowed.

"Important matter?" Wu Sangui was taken aback, and said, "For the New Year's Eve, is there any important matter that we can't talk about in a few days?" Even so, Wu Sangui still didn't insist on objecting when he saw many hard-core confidants kneeling in Yin'an Hall with serious faces. Soon he sat on the Tuanlong Chair in the middle of Yin'an Hall, accepted the etiquette of the hard-core dog legs according to the rules, and said: "Pingshen, if you have anything to say, just say it."

Everyone was not in a hurry to talk, only Hu Guozhu gave a wink to Cao Zhangyin Liu Yi, the number one financial expert in Pingxi Palace, Liu Yi understood, came out and knelt down on his knees, holding out a thick account book but did not open it , and said directly: "My lord, the financial revenue of my Pingxi Palace in the eight years of Kangxi's reign is as follows: Yunnan land tax, Ding tax and salt tax and other taxes, a total of 29 six taels and three cents in silver, Guizhou Various taxes and silver amounted to 320 seven taels and one penny, Yunnan Eight Banners Fushou Gao received 290 taels, and the imperial court allocated 320 million taels of military salaries."

"The total income is 610 cents. Compared with last year's 370 taels, the increase has almost doubled!" Speaking of this, Liu Yi paused. After a pause, he said in a low voice: "If we add in the secret income of my Pingxi Palace's private mining of copper to cast coins and mining of gold sand, the financial revenue of my Pingxi Palace this year has actually exceeded 800 million taels! Excluding military pay, weapons, Salary and other expenses, the actual savings are more than 480 million taels!"

"Zuochang (character Liu Yi), Gu has asked you for this number several times, and how many times have you reported it carefully?" Wu Sangui said with a smile on his face: "These are all thanks to you, especially Yifeng, your Eight Banners Fushou Ointment has really helped our Pingxi Palace a lot, starting from this year, we no longer have to be afraid of being choked by others."

"Father-in-law, please listen to Master Liu's performance first." Hu Guozhu reminded with a serious face.Wu Sangui was taken aback, quickly lifted his spirits, and made a gesture to Liu Yi to continue talking.

"My lord, because the imperial court is investigating the grain case in Gansu, Wang Hongzuo, the former Minister of the Household Department and a native of Baoshan, Yunnan, has been dismissed and interrogated, and replaced by Hao Weina, who is at odds with our Pingxi palace, so the ministers and others can no longer directly control the imperial court. The financial revenue and expenditure can only be inferred based on public information analysis, roughly estimated." Liu Yi said unhurriedly: "Weichen and others estimate that the imperial court's treasury revenue in the eight years of Kangxi should be only more than 1000 million taels. The income from the internal treasury will never exceed 800 million, and the total will be around [-] million taels."

"Really? What's the matter?" Wu Sangui didn't come to his senses for a while, and asked in confusion.

"My lord, I have an absolutely accurate piece of news." Liu Yi sighed and said, "In the eighth year of Kangxi, the imperial court's salt tax revenue from Lianghuai was 2308 cents and 670 cents. It is 87 one-two-five cents less than the income of our Yunnan Eight Banners drug ointment—My lord, I dare to ask, seeing such a figure, can you still laugh?"

Wu Sangui couldn’t help but laugh, and Wu Sangui was not a political idiot. Seeing such shocking figures, Wu Sangui certainly understood Liu Yi’s implication—the income from Yunnan’s Eight Banners drug products had surpassed the Lianghuai salt tax, which was the number one pillar of Qing’s fiscal revenue. What would Xiao Mazi and the Qing court think?Could it be that there will be an imperial decree to praise Wu Sangui for his financial management and encourage Wu Sangui to continue eating alone to make a fortune this year?That little pockmark and the mite Qing court are really idiots!

"Father-in-law, I'm not guilty, but I'm pregnant." Hu Guozhu said darkly: "Although the imperial court has no way to grasp the real financial revenue and expenditure of our Pingxi Palace, it can probably be estimated. Such figures are considered by the emperor. In his eyes, what will the emperor think? Do you think that our Pingxi Palace is already very rich, and next year's food and salary will allow us to be self-sufficient?"

"Or, does the emperor think that if you are his courtier, my lord, your money should be his money?" Fang Guangchen's voice was not that warm.

"What do you mean, you are worried that the emperor and the imperial court will take advantage of our Pingxi Palace money?" Wu Sangui's expression finally became serious.

"My lord, this is obvious." Wang Shirong rushed to speak, and said, "Your lord, you don't know how narrow-minded our emperor is. In the sixth year of Kangxi, the financial revenue of our Pingxi Palace was not as high as it is now. Half of it, the emperor thinks that it is too much, and he will force you to cut the military salary. Now our financial income is more than double that of Kangxi in the sixth year—our emperor should not feel sorry for the money until night Can't sleep?"

"Mr. Wang, that's not certain." Fatty Lu added viciously: "Maybe it's because after flipping through the signboard, he wrapped the concubine in yellow silk and carried it to our emperor, our emperor suddenly remembered our Pingxi Palace this year. Financial revenue—then the poor concubine comforted herself with her hands all night."

"Hehe. Hahahahaha." Everyone including Wu Sangui smiled, and Xia Guoxiang and Gao Dejie simply laughed out loud—Xia Guoxiang was a big boss who claimed to be comparable to Wu Yingqi in history, definitely not According to the legend, he was as brave and resourceful as he was fighting wits with Lord Wei, but his position in front of Wu Sangui was far less important.Fatty Lu's teacher, Liu Xuanchu, scolded: "Yifeng, above the Silver Palace, don't be presumptuous!" But after scolding the students, Liu Xuanchu couldn't help laughing himself.

"You, can't you be more respectful when you mention the emperor?" Wu Sangui also smiled and pointed at Fatty Lu with a look of hatred for iron.Fatty Lu raised his fat head and said, "The next official belongs to the prince, not to him."

"Okay, okay, don't change the topic." Wu Sangui waved his hand very satisfied, stopping Fatty Lu from continuing to say those outrageous words.At the end, Wu Sangui put away his smile again, and said seriously: "So, the reason you came to see me today is to remind me to prevent the emperor and the court from envying my king's Eight Banners drug income?"

"Father-in-law, this is obvious." Hu Guozhu spread his hands and said, "The imperial court will never allow us to be rich with silver in Pingxi Palace, because with silver, we can get rid of the last shackles of the imperial court. To expand the army, you can train troops, forge cannons to make weapons, arm the newly recruited troops, and buy back all the horses in the snowy area, increase our cavalry, and even buy salt and grain, so that the vassals of the Pingxi Palace will no longer Troubled by salt and food shortages, and growing rapidly, will the imperial court allow such a situation?"

"To be precise, we don't want poor people to drink a bowl of porridge." Fatty Lu chimed in, "The imperial court only hopes that our Pingxi Palace will become poorer, not that we will become richer."

"The latest news." Liu Yi said coldly: "Because our Pingxi Palace purchased a large amount of grain, the price of grain in Yunnan and Guizhou has dropped by more than one yuan per shi, while the price of grain in the grain-producing areas of Jiangnan and Huguang has risen per shi Two to three silver coins, the price of grain in the grain-producing areas is still the same, let alone other places? Will the imperial court tolerate this situation for a long time?"

"My lord, in another situation, if you were sitting in the Qianqing Palace, wouldn't you envy our Pingxi Palace?" Wu Sangui's other confidant, Guo Zhuangtu, asked, "Will you try to weaken our Pingxi Palace?" ? Let us Pingxi Palace continue to suffer from poverty and continue to be troubled by the lack of military pay and food?"

"That's right, our financial revenue last year will definitely arouse the vigilance of the imperial court. The imperial court will definitely not let us continue to make such a huge profit this year." Many of Wu Sangui's confidantes echoed, pointing out to Wu Sangui in one go - ——Xiao Mazi and the Qing court will never allow the Pingxi Palace to get rid of the control of finances and pay. If they are independent, they will definitely use all means to weaken the Pingxi Palace, at least let the Pingxi Palace become the gatekeeper and gatekeeper of the Qing Dynasty in the southwestern border dog!

When the dog legs scolded Xiao Mazi incessantly, Wu Sangui remained silent until the dog legs yelled dry and he calmed down, Wu Sangui asked unhurriedly: " What you said is very reasonable, and the imperial court will indeed not watch our Pingxi Palace go on like this for a long time, but the handle of the knife is in the hands of others, and the imperial court does not allow our Pingxi Palace to make more money, what can we do?"

This time, Fatty Lu and Wu Sangui's four think tanks exchanged glances with each other, and then, Fatty Lu stepped forward and saluted and said, "My lord, the handle of the knife is indeed in the hands of others, but we may not be completely under the control of others, as long as we take proper measures , the imperial court may not dare to cut it off with a meat-cutter knife."

"So, have you prepared countermeasures for this king?" Wu Sangui is also used to the tricks of the dog-headed military divisions now - if you don't secretly connect with each other in advance, discuss and unify the caliber, you will never appear in front of yourself. bad idea.

"My lord is a bright candle, and the lowly officials have indeed prepared three strategies for the lord, for the lord to choose." Fatty Lu first flattered the old man Wu, and then asked: "I just don't know whether the lord wants to listen to the lower plan first or not?" Middle policy?"

"Let's talk about the worst policy first." Old man Wu sat up straight and listened attentively.

"The next policy is very simple and relatively safe." Fatty Lu said: "That is to ask the prince to go to the court to ask the court to reduce the food, grass and military pay of our Pingxi Palace, and to ask the court to take back the tax-free privilege of the Eight Banners. The seeds of Fushou cream let the imperial court spread widely, and it also makes our Pingxi Palace weak again, and Yunnan and Guizhou poor again, and can be slaughtered by the imperial court and others. In this way, the emperor and the imperial court may be merciful , is no longer full of hostility towards our Pingxi Palace as it has been these years."

Fatty Lu's words are vain, and Wu Sangui, who has no profit in himself, agrees to this bad idea even if he takes the wrong medicine, the gang of wolves, tigers and leopards under Wu Sangui will force Wu Sangui to take back his life, so Wu Sangui snorted coldly and said : "What about the middle policy?"

"The middle strategy is also very simple." Fatty Lu said in a deep voice, "Please take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, take advantage of the Emperor and Ao Zhongtang's restraint on each other, and have no time to take care of our precious time, and spend the more than 400 million taels of silver that we have saved this year. Take out 200 million taels, cast [-] Hongyi cannons, manufacture [-] to [-] new rockets and supporting rocket vehicles, and then make more safety explosives and explosive cotton invented by the humble for the prince, in addition to muskets, swords and For bows and arrows, you can forge as many as you can, and finally, please ask the prince to divide our vassals in Pingxi Palace into batches, take turns to train, and serve as farmers in leisure time and soldiers in wartime!"

"In this way, our Pingxi Palace will have enough self-protection ability, and our words in the court will have weight, and some people will not dare to take the prince's money casually. In one corner, I also have the capital to protect myself, so I don’t have to worry about threats from others.”

Wu Sangui bowed his head and remained silent. After a long time, Wu Sangui raised his head and asked, "What's the best policy?"

"My lord, I don't dare to talk about my lowly position." Fatty Lu replied honestly.

"Father-in-law, the best policy is based on the middle policy." Hu Guozhu said cautiously: "If my father-in-law accepts our middle policy, then if the best policy is not implemented, I have to ask my father-in-law to make a decision."

Wu Sangui was silent again, and after a longer time, Wu Sangui looked around the crowd and said, "So, you all hope that the king will accept the middle policy?"

"The minister is willing to serve the prince! He will go through fire and water, and he will do whatever he wants!" All the lackeys of the Pingxi Palace present knelt down together, and answered in unison - there is no way, there are too many rebellious boys in the Pingxi Palace, and the rebellious bones are too thick .

"Very good." Wu Sangui, who has always been known for being indecisive, suddenly went uncharacteristically this time, pointing to Liu Yi in the palm of Cao's hand, and asked, "Commander, tell me again, what was our financial surplus last year?"

"Return to the lord, 480, 550, [-], [-], [-], [-] cents!" Liu Yi straightened his waist, and quickly answered the numbers that he had already memorized by heart.

"Then you hope that this king will draw out 200 million taels of silver to expand his armaments, and how do you plan to spend the money?" Wu Sangui asked again.

"Return to the lord, the ministers and others have already listed the expenditure details!" Liu Yi raised his hands above the head of the account book in his hand, and said in a deep voice: "The humble staff have been working non-stop these days, and they have already listed a detailed list of armaments. Guaranteed Spend every penny of the prince's money wisely, please take a look at it!"

"Don't look at it." Wu Sangui waved his hand, suddenly slapped the Tuanlong case in front of him, and shouted: "Add double to me, and do the calculation again! Don't you want 200 million taels? I will give you 400 million taels." The king is already 56 this year. If you don’t bring the silver with you when you live or die, instead of leaving it in the treasury to mold, it’s better to leave some life-saving magic weapons for the descendants of the Pingxi Palace! Let people all over the world dare not take it! Our Pingxi Palace is like a fish butcher!"

"My lord is holy, my ministers and others swear to be loyal to my lord!" Fatty Lu and the others were overjoyed, kowtowed and shouted together, Liu Xuanchu, Fang Guangchen and other old people even burst into tears, and finally saw Wu Sangui's high spirits for once.

"Also, give Yifeng 5 taels alone!" Wu Sangui pointed at Fatty Lu again, and shouted: "Yifeng, you can continue to make those Western things you told Gu back then, the more the better! The more powerful the better! Good! Also, the airship you mentioned last year to Qi and Gao Dejie, which can let lonely soldiers fly to the enemy to throw explosives on the airship, you must make it for Gu! It’s done, Gu Daigui Be the master, I promise you my granddaughter Xiaotu!"

"Thank you for your trust." Fatty Lu replied loudly: "Within this year, if you can't let the prince's sons fly into the sky and fly freely, I ask the prince to punish you!"

"Okay, Gu believes in you!" Wu Sangui took another look at the Tuanlong case, suddenly slowed down, and said with a smile: "Okay, if there is nothing else, let's accompany me to Anfu Garden for a drink. It was grabbed from the wine table, but the guests over there are still waiting for Gu."

(End of this chapter)