Ming Empire

Chapter 282 Unexpected surprise
During this time, Cao Yue felt that everything was going smoothly and there were too many unexpected surprises.

The Battle of Liaocheng, the Battle of Dezhou, and the Battle of Tianjinwei all achieved overwhelming victories. Jiannu was hit hard one after another, and there was no way to break the Ming firearms. This situation directly led to the recovery of Beijing by the Ming army.Originally, Cao Yue thought that it would be an accident and a surprise to regain Beijing in two years, but he did not expect that this huge victory would come inadvertently.

Cao Yue also knew that these few victories he personally led, coupled with the recovery of Beijing, had raised his prestige to the extreme.None of the officials in the court dared to openly oppose him anymore, and the same was true for those members of the royal family. The power in his hands became stronger and stronger.

The two women, Hong Niangzi and Bumbutai, finally belonged to him and became his women, which was of course an unexpected surprise.

As a man with a very strong possessive desire and yearning for beautiful women more than normal people, it is of course a huge achievement for Cao Yue to get these two strange women who are famous in history.

In particular, Bumbutai was originally a woman of the enemy. In the original history, this woman was a legend, closely related to the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty.Of course, the sense of pride is very strong for such a woman to submit to him, physically and mentally.

The conquest of Hong Niangzi and Bumbutai not only takes their beautiful bodies as their own, but also gets a lot of things by the way.

Hong Niangzi has tens of thousands of people under her command. She herself is also a general who can recruit and fight well. She can stand alone, and she was originally a member of the peasant army. Maybe in the future someone will vote because of Hong Niangzi.

Bumbutai’s role is greater than that of Hong Niangzi. She and her son Fulin are the symbols of the Qing Dynasty. Both mother and son are willing to surrender and represent the entire Manchurian tribe in removing the country. The impact on the situation is so great that words cannot express it. It's easy to describe.It can be said that the surrender of their mother and son has already indicated that the Manchu Qing Dynasty has perished and the threat of slavery has been eliminated.Although Dorgon, Duoduo, Azig and others still have hundreds of thousands of troops in their hands, it is still unknown whether they can stabilize the situation in the Qing Dynasty and disrupt all forces into a monolithic one.

At least Cao Yue believes that the attachment of Bumbutai and Fulin can make many Manchus lose their fighting spirit, especially those nobles who have become accustomed to a luxurious life.If they knew that they could continue to enjoy the glory and wealth after joining Ming Dynasty, but if they went against Ming Dynasty, they might be smashed to pieces, they would definitely weigh it carefully.

In addition, with the surrender of Mongolian women such as Bumbutai, Zhezhe, and Namuzhong, it will be a matter of time before the Mongols defect from Jiannu.

In addition to these unexpected surprises, after Cao Yue stabilized the situation in Beijing, he also got another unexpected harvest.This unexpected gain almost made him jump for joy.

7000 million taels of silver, gold and other valuable artifacts worth at least 5000 million silver, these are the trophies obtained by the Ming army after they regained Beijing.

Most of the 7000 million taels of silver were originally owned by the important officials and dignitaries under Emperor Chongzhen.At the time of the national crisis, these people cried poorly and were unwilling to donate property for military supplies. However, after Li Zicheng captured Beijing, he squeezed nearly 7000 million taels of silver from them.It's just that Li Zicheng fled Beijing in a hurry after he was defeated in the battle of Pianshi, and it was too late to take the wealth away, and finally fell into the hands of Jiannu.After the Jiannu captured Beijing, they also did not take this wealth away. The Jiannu who planned to use Beijing as the capital of the "Great Qing" not only kept these wealth in Beijing, but also transported a large amount of property from Shengjing.

The Ming army led by Cao Ming, Cao Yue's capable subordinate, broke through the city of Beijing when Jiannu was caught off guard. In the end, most of the property fell into Cao Yue's hands.

Cao Yue, who had always been worried about the lack of wealth in his hands and the inability to support more troops, passed out from happiness after hearing that he had won so many spoils.The wealth equivalent to 3000 million taels to [-] million taels of silver is estimated to be the tax revenue of the Ming court for several years. It is the wealth that the Cao family can only earn at least ten years according to the current operation. It suddenly fell into his hands. Of course he was so happy that he almost fainted.

Cao Yue knew very well that the finances of the Ming Dynasty were on the verge of collapse, and the recovery of the treasury would not be able to support so many troops, let alone support such a large-scale war.If it wasn’t for the support from the Cao family and some other families, and Cao Yue’s instructing Gao Hongtu, the Minister of the Household Department, to use a “financial product” similar to war debts to raise money and food from the people, the current Ming court would not even be able to get a single copper coin. up.

It's all right now, so much wealth has been created out of thin air, at least within a few years, Cao Yue doesn't have to worry about "money". The money, together with the recovery of the treasury and others, can last for several years.

After ordering people to carefully count the money and things, Cao Yue finally left 2000 million taels of silver and 2000 million worth of gold and other treasures, as well as those treasures in the Forbidden City that could not be estimated with gold and silver, and other tens of millions of taels of silver and other treasures. Cao Yue ordered the naval warships to transport the gold and valuables to Nanjing and hand them over to Sun Chuanting and Gao Hongtu for disposal.The navy officers and soldiers led by Cao Ming immediately carried out this task even more difficult than attacking Beijing after resting, escorting hundreds of millions of gold and silver back to Nanjing, and carrying more firearms back to the north.

Before Cao Ming led the naval warship to set off, Cao Yue also wrote secret letters to Sun Chuanting and Gao Hongtu to inform them of the situation.

After receiving a secret letter from Cao Yue, I learned that Cao Yue had sent people to escort money and goods worth more than 1 million taels of silver to Nanjing. It was a headache to raise funds for the war. Sun Chuanting and Gao Hongtu, who were about to become lunatics, were also like Cao Yue. I almost fainted with joy.

"Hahaha, God really took good care of me, Daming, and sent us such a huge amount of wealth!" After receiving the secret letter, Sun Chuanting stayed alone in the study and went crazy for a long time, and after thinking about it for a long time, , decided to convene Ma Shiying, Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu and others immediately to discuss the recruitment and expansion of troops, the construction of more arsenals, firearms workshops, and the manufacture of more artillery and muskets.

After Gao Hongtu received the secret letter, he also had the same thoughts as Sun Chuanting. He felt that he would never worry about money and food again. This huge fortune can solve all problems.

After discussing in secret about Cao Yue's sending of huge amounts of money and his instructions, several important officials in the court all had such feelings: "It will be just around the corner that the internal strife will be settled and the foreign captives will be wiped out."

"Everyone, no one doubts the foresight of the Queen Mother and His Majesty the Emperor to appoint Cao Dadu to oversee military and state affairs, right?" Seeing that everyone was full of emotion, Sun Chuanting also bragged a few words for Cao Yue: "I made a great Ming like Cao Yue." It is a great blessing for such an outstanding person as the governor. In the future, we can reap more surprises. Maybe in a few months, there will be news that Li Zicheng will be awarded the head, Zhang Xianzhong will be destroyed, and all the slaves will be attached. At that time, the world will be peaceful, hahaha!"

Sun Chuanting's words naturally attracted everyone's support, whether they sincerely agreed or expressed concern about the growing power in Cao Yue's hands, but in public, they dared not say anything against it.

(End of this chapter)