Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

"Haha, even with all the soldiers and guns of the imperial court, it's hard to fight the Tartars. But I heard that the thief Jiang has all these new weapons from foreigners."

Everyone in the hall was talking, and there was not a trace of respect for the Ming Dynasty court in their words.

The Eight Major Shanxi Merchants mainly dealt in grain and various daily necessities in Zhangjiakou, most of which were smuggled to Mongolia and Liaodong Qing Dynasty. The trade with Manchuria and Mongolia was very profitable. In previous years, the property looted by the Qing army when it entered the pass would be sold to the interior through the Eight Major Shanxi Merchants in exchange for grain and military supplies.

Not only the Eight Major Shanxi Merchants, but also many merchants from the Nine Borders are engaged in smuggling at the frontiers, and have long formed a huge interest group with complicated connections. For the imperial court, these people are too big to be dealt with. To them, the imperial court is dispensable, and it is nothing more than a way to make money.

Huang Yunfa, the head of the Huang family, said, "Yes, the chief minister of the cabinet, Yang Sichang, entered the cabinet from our Xuanda. The court does not need to worry too much. You must know that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty cannot do whatever he wants. Didn't two princes die some time ago? I believe he will learn a lesson."

Tian Shenglan, the head of the Tian family, said: "This Jiang thief is not easy to deal with. He has weapons in his hands and is also a greedy person!"

Speaking of Jiang Han, several people couldn't help but feel their hearts skip a beat, remembering how he massacred eight families' businesses in various places in Nanzhili. The eight Shanxi merchants naturally had businesses in Nanzhili, and they suffered heavy losses after being bought up by Jiang Han for zero dollars.

Moreover, this person was extremely ruthless. When he heard that it was one of their people, he killed him without saying a word, which made people wonder if they had a grudge against this person.

Jin Liangyu, the head of the Jin family, said worriedly: "According to the news from Jiangnan, it seems that Jiang Han can really survive in the hands of the Tartars. If we let him become powerful, we are afraid that..."

"Why are you panicking? Our business is all over Ming Dynasty. Are we afraid of a big thief? Are you afraid that he will attack us?"

The Eight Great Shanxi Merchants were large and powerful, so naturally they had a lot of armed forces at their disposal. They even formed a force of servants using muskets. In the late Ming Dynasty, due to lax supervision, many landlords and merchants bought muskets for self-defense. Some even set up small workshops to make them, and the quality of their products was better than that of the garrisons.

With these armed forces, ordinary forces in Shanxi did not dare to offend the Eight Major Shanxi Merchants. Not only that, many civil servants and military generals in Shanxi were bribed by them. Although Chongzhen had slowly replaced a batch of them in recent years, he could not withstand their spending.

It is difficult for anyone to remain calm in the face of the huge amounts of silver and the endless supply of beauties and treasures. The land of Shanxi has been run by them like an iron plate.

It was obviously unrealistic to let the local army deal with the Eight Shanxi Merchants, so they had to transfer troops from other places. However, after a hundred years of development, many officials appeared in the families of the Eight Shanxi Merchants, and they had long since developed into the gentry class.

If the imperial court used the army to suppress them, it would offend the gentry class throughout the world and cause unrest. Not to mention that Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang had always treated the gentry well, and later emperors did not dare to touch them easily, which made them fearless. The Ming court could not touch us, so what could you, a small rebel, do?

It’s not that no one had thought about it. For the rebels, Shanxi was a major granary, but all the granary was taken away by the rebels.

Fan Yongdou said: "Our family business has been accumulated over a hundred years to reach its current level. Now, the thief Li in the north is aggressive, and the thief Jiang in the south is starting to grow bigger and bigger. The big tree of Daming is slowly becoming unreliable..."

He stood up and said, "I invited all the shopkeepers here today because I hope that all the families can continue to unite and deal with various emergencies. If we don't unite, then I can only go to the Qing Dynasty with my whole family!"

"Deserting to the Qing Dynasty? Master Fan, the current Qing Dynasty can't even take Yangzhou. I'm afraid this is not the best choice!"

Fan Yongdou said: "It's not like the Qing Dynasty was weak before, but it grew bigger step by step. Even though we didn't take Yangzhou, it doesn't mean that the Qing Dynasty is doomed. The other day, Prince Rui wrote me a secret letter, promising to guarantee that we would become the imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty!"

"Prince Rui? Wasn't it Fan Wencheng who contacted us? After that guy died, it was Ning Wan who took over. Why did Dorgon write to us?"

Fan Yongdou walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, came to the front of the hall, and said: "Who knows, the weather of the Tartars can change at any time..."

Volume 367: Chapter Chapter : Incident in Shandong

"General, report from Yangzhou"

Hong Chengchou was in the military tent of Yingtian Prefecture, waiting for the new military report from Yangzhou.

In fact, when Hong Chengchou sent Cao Bianjiao to Huguang to pursue Zhang Xianzhong, his attention had already shifted from Yangzhou to Huguang.

No matter how much he paid attention to the battle situation in Yangzhou, the part he could participate in it was limited. After all, it was just a fight between two hooligans, and he just went up to clean up the mess. On the contrary, having fought bandits for many years, he knew very well that Zhang Xianzhong was not an easy character to deal with. It would definitely not work to leave everything to Cao Bianjiao, so his mind was always on this.

"Read!"

The battle report from Yangzhou, could it be that Yangzhou City was captured? He had previously instructed his subordinates to only tell him relatively important news, and not to tell him news like winning a game today and losing a game tomorrow, for fear that his heart would not be able to bear it.

"Yes! Five days ago, the Jiang bandits took advantage of the Tartars' camping and attacked out of the city, defeating the slave army head-on. The 40,000-strong army of the slave chief Jirgalang collapsed in the battle. The bandit army chased them for dozens of miles, leaving tens of thousands of corpses and staining the river with blood. The Jiannu army was driven to flee in the direction of Shandong, and the siege of Yangzhou has been lifted."

“?” Hong Chengchou’s eyes widened like bells, as if he had heard some Arabian Nights fairy tale.

"My ears may not be very good just now. What did you say just now?"

"Marshal, that thief Jiang has driven the Tartars away..."

"Oh, that Jiang thief drove the Tartars away..." Hong Chengchou nodded.

"??"

“…!!!??”

"No"

Hong Chengchou was confused. "Brother, you lost in my six-fold leveraged poker, but you won. What does that mean?" Everyone put on their scarves and laid out the table, waiting for the feast to begin. But the main dish, roasted whole lamb, suddenly jumped up and slapped the chef in the face.

What's going on? How can you win with 10,000 against 200,000? Are Jiang Han's subordinates some kind of heavenly soldiers and generals, with three heads and six arms? How did they win?

Hong Chengchou felt that he was at a loss for words: "How did this Jiang thief... win?"

"I don't know... But the battle report sent over said that Jiang Han's army seemed to have the help of gods. When fighting the Tartars, they even had giant beasts to control and a big monster to help. The monster was several feet tall, invulnerable to swords and spears, and immune to water and fire..."

"Alright, that's enough..."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Hong Chengchou stopped his men from continuing to talk. The more they talked, the more outrageous it became. The big monsters that were invulnerable to swords and spears and immune to water and fire have come, and soon a giant spirit will descend to the earth. I asked you to tell me about the battle treasure, but you came to tell me a story in the tea garden.

But no matter how the process is described, the current problem is that Jiang Han actually won. What should we do?

How can you win? Hong Chengchou was puzzled.

Whether from a military perspective or a planning perspective, Jiang Han should not have won this battle. He was a discarded pawn, a lone boat on the sea with absolutely no one to help him, surrounded by an army of 200,000. How could he win like this?

What on earth are these Tartars doing? Why are they so fierce when fighting the Ming Dynasty, but so weak when they meet Jiang Han? He couldn't figure it out. The situation was not urgent. In order to give the Ming Dynasty a chance to catch its breath, the emperor had listened to Yang Ge Lao's advice and negotiated peace with the Jiannu. In fact, he gave up Yangzhou to protect the entire Ming Dynasty. Besides, Yangzhou would have to be taken back later.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty got a chance to catch its breath. The Yangzhou thief Jiang Han was defeated, and the Ming Dynasty was able to take back Yangzhou. It was a good thing that killed three birds with one stone. Now, the thief Jiang won, and everything became a little weird.

There were no problems with all the links, however, there was a big problem with the most critical part, which was very uncomfortable. Hong Chengchou, who had a keen political sense, quickly realized that the consequences of this matter could be very serious.

There is a great possibility that His Majesty will vent his anger on me, even if I have done nothing. But sometimes, doing nothing is precisely a mistake.

I must pass on this blame and then ask Lord Yang and others to say a few good words for me.

But good words are not free, one must pay some price for them. Fortunately, his subordinate Cao Bianjiao pointed out a clear way early on.

What bright way? Of course, it was his old profession, suppressing bandits.

"Comer"

Hong Chengchou felt relieved and quickly called someone over.

"Now quickly draft a message saying that my army was ambushed by the bandits, causing a lot of losses. I will start chasing the bandits today. The army has already set out and will fight to the death."

"Order the army to quickly head to the Huguang area to wipe out the bandits! Surround and kill them!"

In Dongchang Prefecture, Shandong, Huang Taiji's face turned pale and his hands trembled slightly.

"Brother Emperor, I was defeated because of my incompetence. I deserve to die." Jirgalang knelt down in front of Huang Taiji and cried loudly. He never thought that he would be defeated so miserably.

In fact, the entire army formation did not have 100,000 troops deployed together. There were still intervals between the eight banners. Jirgalang's main formation had only more than 40,000 people, and the others were managed by Duoduo and some of Daishan's men. The three families supported each other and looked after each other.

As a result, the central formation was defeated too quickly. Before the two sides could even react, Jirgalang's army formation had already been broken. When the central formation collapsed, they could only flee with it. The result was a vicious cycle.

Huang Taiji said in a deep voice: "Are these the only people left in the Three Banners?"

"Your Highness deserves to die... But, Your Highness refuses to accept... That thief Jiang is unreasonable!!!"

Jirgalang's heart was filled with grief and indignation. You said that you are better at strategy than me, you are better at commanding troops than me, and your subordinates are braver than me. I admit that, but what kind of people are those you released? How do you want me to fight them?

Huang Taiji took a long breath, suppressed the anger in his heart, and asked: "What's the matter with the bloodstain on your neck?"

Arjin, the chief of the Bayala Banner of the Zhenglan Banner, said: "Your Majesty, the prince wanted to commit suicide to apologize, but was stopped by me..."

Huang Taiji suddenly shouted: "Why stop him? Why don't you let him die!"

Aljin knelt down on the ground immediately. Jirgalang did not expect Huang Taiji to say such critical words. He was completely stunned. After a few seconds, he suddenly drew his sword and was about to commit suicide, but was stopped again by Aljin and other generals. For a while, the tent was extremely noisy.

Jirgalang shouted: "Don't stop me, let me die!"

Huang Taiji was so angry: "With an army of 100,000, you couldn't even hold out for three days, what else can you do?"

Huang Taiji was so worried. Why hadn't everything gone smoothly since he came south? Wasn't it said that there would be a strange sign from the sky, which would be beneficial to him? Wasn't it? What went wrong?

But before he could rest for long, he heard the Grand Secretary Ebilun rushing in and reporting: "Your Majesty, the Mongolian Zasaks of the Chahar, Tumed, Ordos, and Urad tribes have returned to Mongolia with their troops!"

"What!" Huang Taiji exclaimed, and then spat out a mouthful of blood, scaring the ministers around him so much that they screamed and supported him.

Huang Taiji only felt a piercing pain in his head, but his heart hurt even more at this time because his son-in-law ran away!

After being crushed by Zhu Yuanzhang and his nephew Zhu Di, the tribes of today's Mongolia are divided into three major parts with the desert as the center. The tribes south of the desert are called Southern Mongolia, and they are close to the nine border towns of the Ming Dynasty.

The Mongolians south of the desert are connected to Shengjing and Heilongjiang in the east, Yili East Road in the west, the Great Wall in the south, and the desert in the north. It stretches for more than 10,000 miles and has many tribes, including the Khorchin, Aohan, Balin, Khalkha, Urad, Kharchin, Ujumchin, Chahar, and Tumed.

Most of the Mongolian tribes lived by following water and grass and engaged in a nomadic animal husbandry economy. The tribes were not subordinate to each other, and conflicts often occurred between them in order to plunder livestock, property and pastures for survival. They would conquer and kill each other if they disagreed.

The tribal leaders were not strong and powerful people. In order to protect and strengthen themselves, they all looked for support from behind the scenes. They first turned to the Ming Dynasty, and when the Ming Dynasty failed, they turned to the Jian Nu. Ultimately, it was a matter of interests.

The Mongolian tribes and the Jiannu were all fighting for the position of overlord in the north. The Mongols only calmed down after their defeat. However, after their defeat, their survival became better!

In order to win over the various tribes, Huang Taiji adopted a conciliatory policy, including marriage alliances, official titles, various marriages between Manchus and Mongols, and the appointment of various princes and dukes. He also issued bounties and five gold and one insurance every year.

Of course, such good benefits are not for nothing. Every time Huang Taiji sent troops south, he would bring along the Mongolian tribes and let them serve as cannon fodder. After several major wars, the Mongolian tribes suffered serious casualties, and even the young and strong people of some small tribes had been killed or wounded.

This time, when they followed Huang Taiji to fight, their men suffered heavy casualties, especially the war horses, the loss was particularly huge. Such losses made the Mongolian tribes dissatisfied and full of distrust of Huang Taiji. Now that they have suffered a defeat, it is foreseeable that they will have to go to Liaodong to help Huang Taiji defend his hometown. They came out for nothing, their money was deducted more than 700 yuan, and their lighter was also lost. There is no doubt that this is unacceptable to the Mongolian tribes. They also heard that Huang Taiji even schemed against his own brothers and was a bit unreliable, so these people just took advantage of it.

Huang Taiji had a splitting headache, but now was not the time to recuperate. After a series of defeats and changes in the army, Huang Taiji urgently needed to rebuild the morale of the army. The quickest and most convenient way was to win a battle and then vent his anger.

"Let Dorgon come with his white flag! Follow me to Shandong. After we capture the city, we can do whatever we want! We will not put down our swords for ten days!"

Now, the Plain White Banner under Dorgon's command, as the most capable of the Eight Banners, is given special care by Huang Taiji. He also knows Dorgon's character well. Dorgon is indeed power-hungry, but in terms of blood relationship, he is also the son of the old Khan Nurhaci. The old Khan's foundation is facing unprecedented danger. Will Dorgon stand idly by?

Even now, Huang Taiji still felt that his people were more reliable, at least better than the Mongols. If there was a chance, he would not mind taking down Dorgon and seizing his military power...

Shandong, Dongchang Prefecture.

Shandong General Liu Zeqing, after having in-depth exchanges with some Confucian scholars in the mansion and learning a little about poetry and classics, began to pretend to be a cultured person every day. He recited poems and sang every now and then, and often summoned guests to drink and sing together to show off his pitiful knowledge. He especially liked to recite poems and compose couplets. His poetry writing level was basically equal to 0.5 of Qianlong's, which is probably at the level of a toad on a lotus leaf, which jumps up and down when poked.

On this day, Liu Zeqing was in a poetic mood, and he held a grand banquet to entertain everyone, allowing people to listen to him reciting poems and composing couplets. The guests all flattered him and praised him highly.

Only a young man who looked elegant remained silent. Young people, especially those with some education, still had some contempt for Liu Zeqing, a half-baked person.

Young people, still too young

Liu Zeqing has very sharp eyes. Seeing this man acting so pretentiously in his own house, he feels unhappy. "My uncle Liu is very happy that you can come to his party, but I don't like your attitude."

But how to deal with this young man? His eyes rolled and a plan came to his mind. Liu Zeqing was a man with strange habits. Once a person has money, he likes to seek excitement. Liu Zeqing is the same. He has always called himself a Pokémon master and raised a large number of exotic beasts in his own general mansion, such as tigers, big turtles, bears, tigers, and everything else. At this moment, he had an idea. He slowly poured the wine into a large golden cup, and then summoned the monkey he raised in the general mansion, and asked the monkey to kneel down and hand the wine cup to the young man.

The monkey was tall and looked very ferocious. Everyone knew how unlucky the monkeys in Mount Emei looked. It kept walking forward with the golden cup in its hand. The young man saw such an ugly and ferocious thing toasting him. He had never seen such a scene before. He was so scared that he trembled all over and hesitated to accept it.

Liu Zeqing laughed and said, "Sir, are you scared now?" He was full of contempt for this scholar in his heart. "You little jerk! The emperor's order prevents me from touching scholars. I can't kill you openly. Just wait and see how I torture you to death."

As he spoke, he ordered the soldiers to bring in a prisoner, and beat him to death on the spot in the hall. Then he cut out his brain, heart and liver and put them in a wine glass as seasoning.

The monkey brought the golden cup filled with wine to him. Liu Zeqing laughed loudly, took it and drank it while chewing it in his mouth. It made a crunching sound just like Hou Zhen eating cashew chicken. His face did not change at all. Everyone at the table was terrified.

Liu Zeqing laughed heartily, feeling quite pleased with himself, and it was unclear whether it was a real laugh or a fake one. The raw brain and raw liver were served with wine, but no cooking wine was added to remove the fishy smell. Only he knew whether it tasted fishy or not.

But Liu Zeqing's happy time did not last long, and a spy came to report: "General, !! General!! It's bad! The Tartar army has entered Shandong Prefecture, captured three cities in a row, and is heading straight for our Dongchang Prefecture!!"

"What!!!" Liu Zeqing was surprised and didn't have time to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. He stood up suddenly with blood splashing: "Didn't they say that these dogs went to Nanzhili to cause trouble for that Jiang thief? How come they ran to Shandong!"

He dared to hold a party in Shandong only because he received reliable information that the Ming Dynasty and the Tartars had already negotiated peace and that the Tartars were all in the Yangzhou area. What should he do now that he is fired?

Lieutenant General Yao Wenchang was also anxious: "General, what should we do now?"

Liu Zeqing threw the cup and said, "What else can I do? Can you beat the Tartars or can I beat the Tartars? Why don't you pack up and run away?"

Volume 368: Chapter Chapter : Bravery

"How could ten days pass so quickly..."

Jiang Han looked at the countdown in the card pool and sighed in his heart. He had been busy with post-war production recovery and spoils collection these days. He didn't know what was wrong with Brother Sixteen these two days. He would pull him to the elbow without saying a word every night and beat him violently. Jiang Han was in a trance these two days.

I haven't had time to draw cards for several days, and in the blink of an eye, there are only two days left for the event.

Where's the time?

Jiang Han now feels like the National Day holiday in his previous life. He closes his eyes and opens them again, and seven days have passed. It’s so scary!

This is not a good way to go. Not to mention that there are only two days left in the event, and I didn't draw many good stuff. I was supposed to draw a three-star boss, but after drawing from the poison pool for so many days, I only got myself a White Impermanence. Just for the sake of my health, this is not a good idea. These T-dolls are really outrageous. I don't know where they learned this. They can eat melted ice cream without even dripping on their feet. It's really horrible.

I have to think of a way to improve my living conditions, at least I have to get past Brother Sixteen first... um...

"Have it!"

Jiang Han hammered his palm and came up with an idea: "Let's go sleep at M4 tonight!"

This is a great idea, I am simply a genius, Jiang Han secretly felt proud of his foresight.

"With M4's shy personality, I will definitely be able to sleep well tonight, okay? Hehe, brother 16, no matter how strong you are, you still dare to rush into M4's room and embarrass me?"

Speaking of Bai Baozi, I was busy with work today and didn’t go to see her. I don’t know how she is doing.

Eleanor was very happy after coming to this world. Everything here was new and new, something she had never seen before. She was excited about life without the concrete jungle, and Jiang Han was also very happy for her.

It's just that this child, I shouldn't say it, maybe because of his past experiences, his thinking and world outlook are quite different from those of normal people, and he still needs Jiang Han's care and guidance.