Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 436: Swapping Prisoners
Beijing.

The cooperation between Zhou Rui and Diao Erdou has been very successful. By sending 100 million dans of grain to Beijing every year, their business here is extremely successful, not only in business, but also in contacts.

There are no less than ten dignitaries in Beijing who have close relations with them, and they are all emerging Manchu dignitaries.

To be precise, it was Zhou Rui who had a good friendship with these people, and Diao Erdou was just Zhou Rui's shopkeeper.

But in fact, Zhou Rui is only one person, and Diao Erdou is doing the specific things, including importing food and selling it.

Through various relationship networks, Beijing's intelligence was continuously sent back to Nanjing, and there was even a lot of news from the court.

In the communication with Nanjing, written letters have never been used, but word of mouth, so no one has doubted them. In fact, even if someone doubts them now, they probably won’t do anything to them. After all, if they didn’t come With millions of dans of grain, Beijing is about to starve.

However, Zhou Rui is not losing money in the grain trade, because the price given by the Qing court is very attractive. Up to now, the price of grain in Beijing is still hovering above three taels, while buying grain in Hangzhou only costs a little more than one tael. Even in a city like Nanjing, the price of grain is only two taels of silver, and it is at least double the profit when sold to Beijing.

Yang Chao knew all this clearly. At the beginning, he was a little surprised by Manqing's financial resources. Later, he saw that they ate a large amount of food without any change, and did not even frown when they paid for the money. Combined with Manqing's military operations, Yang Chao couldn't help but There is a guess, maybe they chase after Li Zicheng after entering the customs, not necessarily because of the political vision that Li Zicheng is their biggest opponent, but probably because of the tens of millions of taels in Li Zicheng's hands.

If it is said that the Manchu Qing has captured the wealth in the hands of Li Zicheng, then it can explain the reason why the Qing court can still function after they win over the occupied areas and take a series of measures of tax exemption and tax reduction, only relying on the support of the Liaodong base Even if Yang Chao was killed, he wouldn't believe it.

In addition to Diao Erdou and Zhou Rui opening up the door of the upper class, the development of the middle and lower classes mainly depends on Bian Er.

At the beginning, Bian Er's progress was not smooth.

Diao Erdou's targets are often favored by him, and he informs him that Bian Er often enters a certain family's house at night, and makes a statement in front of the window: "I am a subordinate of Uncle Loyalty of Ming Dynasty, would you like to work for Daming!"

In this way, several downlines have been developed, but the speed is too slow, and people are often frightened and dare not agree at all.

However, the situation has recently reversed, and the speed of Bian Er's development has been several times faster.

The reason is that the Manchu Qing policy of enclosing land in northern Zhili allowed a large number of generals of the Eight Banners to obtain land, but left more landlords and peasants with nothing. These unemployed people were all the goals of Bian Er's development, and the success rate was extremely high.

Among the grain shops in Tianjin, the shopkeeper Diao Erye, who came to inspect today, suddenly wanted to check the accounts and closed them for a long time.

"The Qing government sent Hong Chengchou to go south, to inform the adults as soon as possible, and tell the adults to take good care of this person!"

Diao Erdou quietly told a worker who just came to the grain shop with the grain delivery ship today to wait.

The clerk said, "Don't worry, shopkeeper Diao, is there anything else?"

Diao Erdou shook his head: "Not for the time being. But tell your lord when you go back, send a shipment of food as soon as possible, and I will find out what Hong Chengchou is going to do as soon as possible. I heard that this person is difficult to deal with. The deep captive chief Dorgon thinks highly of him." , Three interviews before leaving, talking about military aircraft at night until dawn, I'm afraid it will be disadvantageous to adults."

Diao Erdou hasn't got enough evidence yet, but these days the nobles of the Eight Banners in Beijing are talking about Yang Chao. Obviously, Yang Chao has become a thorn in the side of the Eight Banners. He just occasionally heard it from a drunk dignitary In other words, Hong Chengchou was going to deal with Yang Chao, but he didn't say much. Obviously, the Eight Banners disciple didn't think much of Hong Chengchou either.

These Eight Banners disciples are over the top, but now they are beaten by Yang Chao. A small half of the Eight Banners died at the hands of Yang Chao. No matter how they died since entering the customs, more than half of them can be counted. On Yang Chao's head, someone in every family either died at Yang Chao's hands, or a relative died at Yang Chao's hands, no wonder they lost confidence in Yang Chao.

It's just that Diao Erdou didn't know how Hong Chengchou would deal with Yang Chao for a while, but he didn't really believe that Hong Chengchou had such a great ability, but he was able to meet Dorgon many times. Officer, maybe it can cause some trouble for Yang Chao, so it's better for him to find out.

After seeing off the buddy, Erye Diao finished checking his accounts and continued to open the door for business. He immediately changed into a smiley look, shook the satin robe on his body, put his hands together on his stomach, and smiled when he saw everyone bowing slightly.

"Second Master, my son Bei is here to invite you!"

At this time, a Geshha came on horseback, entered the shop and shouted very familiarly, and then looked at him indiscriminately.

Diao Erdou immediately greeted him: "Hey, isn't this the master of Kechu? It just so happens that the villain has a catty of good Jiangnan tea here. Hurry up and bring it to the uncle of Kechu."

Ghosh chuckled: "Second Master is too polite. My son Bei is here to meet you at Nuanxiang Pavilion tonight."

Diao Erdou said: "That's a good relationship. It seems that the new food from Master Bei's family has arrived."

Nake cupped his hands and turned to lead the horse.

Diao Erdou sent it to the door: "Mr. Kechu, let's go!"

The food sold by Zhou's big store was not only sent by sea from the south, but the Eight Banners nobles around them were all big customers.

For example, the Beizi Fulata of Zhengbaiqi, the grandson of Shuerhaqi, and the son of Fei Yanggu, this time the land enclosure insisted on enclosing [-] mu of fertile land, which was [-] mu more than other Beizi's, but it didn't matter. It's in the hands of others, and now it's a big seller in the grain store. This time Diao Erdou must be invited to deal with the old grain. Of course, his family's summer grain must have been collected, after all, Beizi's family has a lot of expenses.

After thinking about it for a while, Diao Erdou suddenly called out when he was about to go to the banquet: "Come here, bring me that big blue and white porcelain pot, and let Master Bei Zi fight crickets."

……

"Hong Chengchou, this is a character!"

After receiving the information, Yang Chao fell in love. Hong Chengchou's name was probably Yang Chao's most caring surrender besides Wu Sangui.

However, after this person surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he has not been reused, and has been idled with a vacant title of a bachelor in the inner courtyard, but he did not expect to be released at this time.

"However, Duduo, Azig, and Haoge are not good enough, so what if Hong Chengchou is here?"

Yang Chao sighed softly in his heart. He didn't believe that Hong Chengchou would cross the river. A large regiment of tens of thousands of people was fighting. How much effect can one person's strategy have. As long as he doesn't make mistakes, Hong Chengchou can't do anything.

Yang Chao is more concerned about the lives of the Eight Banners disciples, who have too many demands and a lot of work.

"This is really good at playing!"

Yang Chao looked at the various purchase lists that Diao Erdou sent back. Porcelain, jade, gold, silver and jewelry are nothing. There are also those who want goldfish, potted plants, and the most outrageous ones who want Yangzhou skinny horses and troupes. of.

"It seems that the disciples of the Eight Banners have made a lot of money. This money is not for nothing!"

Yang Chao sighed, but there are some things he really can't provide, such as Yangzhou skinny horses and theater troupes. Yangzhou has long banned the sale and purchase of human beings. After the abolition of citizenship, these are free people, and the government cannot touch them.

However, gold and silver jewellery, porcelain and jade, and goldfish bonsai can be opened up for supply and play, so that the masters of the Eight Banners can have fun and promote Chinese culture.

Yang Chao didn't expect these Eight Banners elites to degenerate so quickly. They just walked out of the mountains and forests, and they have been like this for a few years. It seems that the place in Beijing is really evil. In a few years, I don't know if they will still ride or not. If you have a horse, you can't hold a knife.

After reading these invoices, they handed them over to Li Feng and asked him to take people to the city to buy them.

Li Feng is now the head of the grain, fodder, chariot and horse department in the army, with the rank of lieutenant general, and is responsible for the logistics and supply of the entire army.

The logistics department like this also includes the Military Merit Assessment Department and the Salary Clearing Department, which are respectively in charge of Huang Yuan and Chen Jiujin. The former is responsible for the file registration and military merit records of all soldiers, and the latter is responsible for the payment of officers and soldiers and the accounting of various accounts.

These three were the sons of the officers in the old water camp. Li Feng was the son of Li Fu who grew vegetables, Chen Jiujin was the son of Chen Kuan who raised pigs, and Huang Yuan was the son of Huang Chong who reclaimed wasteland by the river. Literate, so in addition to serving as Yang Chao's personal soldiers, they also helped Huang Feng's mansion with logistics. In the end, Yang Chao simply appointed them to be the masters.

It is much easier for Yang Chao to do things with these three parallel military affairs divisions.

"Yu Jiye!"

"arrive."

At this time, Yang Chao called a soldier.

It was Yu Jiye, the youngest son of the veteran Yu Chengwu, who served as the sword officer for Emperor Zhu Cihong. When his father died, he was kept by the emperor and was deeply trusted by the emperor.

That day, he protected the emperor from leaving, and in the end he cut off the empress to cover the emperor, but he was the only one left who died.

After he escaped from the pursuit of the Eight Banners soldiers, he turned around to look for the emperor, but he was nowhere to be found.

A person searched nearby for three months, and when he returned to Nanjing, he was like a beggar.

After seeing Yang Chao, he knelt on the ground and cried in the dark, as if his old man Yu Chengwu died again.

"Jiye. You want you to go on a mission to Beijing!"

"As ordered!"

Yu Jiye didn't ask the reason. After the emperor was captured, he started a hunger strike. Yang Chao persuaded him with the excuse that the emperor was not dead and could be rescued.

"I want you to negotiate with Dorgon, and say to exchange Hauge for His Majesty."

Yu Jiye's eyes suddenly lit up. Although he was young, saving the emperor Zhu Cihong was his only wish in this life, and he took it as his mission.

"Subordinates, subordinates obey."

Yu Jiye's tone trembled a little when he spoke.

Yang Chao sighed: "But you are going to be very dangerous. Remember to make a big fanfare along the way. When you arrive in Shandong, you will send a document to the Shandong Qing court. Everyone must know, otherwise Dorgon will kill you."

Yu Jiye could no longer control his own safety: "Subordinates are not afraid of death."

"I know you are not afraid of death, but I want you to come back. If the Qing court is not willing to exchange, you have to come back. Tell me everything you saw along the way. If the Qing court is willing to exchange, you will leave the escort Your Majesty will come back together."

"Yes!"

After Hauge was captured by Yang Chao, Dorgon in Beijing lived a happy life, but Yang Chao has always been worried about being used by Dorgon, and he was upset to see Dorgon better than himself.

How about not causing Dorgon some trouble?
Yang Chao knew that it was impossible for Dorgon to exchange Zhu Cihong for Hauge, and he wished Hauge would die, but Yang Chao made a big fanfare and let out the wind, and the dignitaries of the Eight Banners would have an excuse, and Dorgon might have to win over these dignitaries again , The land in Hebei has been divided, and the land in Henan should be divided again.

Yang Chao wanted to see what Dorgon would use to fight after all the land was divided.

(End of this chapter)