In Nanjing, the New Year atmosphere is strong.

Outside the stone city gate of Nanjing City, soldiers and horses of the Chinese army stood in the white snow, but thousands of people did not make any sound. The whole team was filled with a chilling atmosphere.

Wan Jun finally made arrangements for everything in Nanjing and took Cui Ziyi out of the city.

Nanjing still needs soldiers and horses to intimidate, and the marching speed of the large groups of soldiers and horses is limited. Wan Jun only brought four regiments of troops on this trip. After arriving in Wuchang, he led the troops northward from Wuchang.

Ten thousand troops were riding on their horses, riding forward against the cold wind, hoping that Lucheng would be able to sustain themselves until they arrived.

There was a sound of horse hoofbeats, and Cui Ziyi and one person ran closer.

Wan Jun was shocked. In Wan Jun's mind, a person who should not be here the most, happened to be here.

Wan Jun asked anxiously, "Tian Chaoqun, why are you here? You shouldn't be guarding in Lucheng?"

Following Cui Ziyi was none other than Tian Chaoqun, the commander-in-chief of Lucheng County's city defense. Tian Chaoqun said, "I don't remember, sir. Before the Battle of Anqing, our troops were ordered to go south for reinforcements."

Before the Anqing War, in order to gather enough troops, all available troops and horses were taken away from Shangzhou Prefecture to Xiangfan.

Wan Jun suddenly remembered this matter and secretly cried out, "How many soldiers and horses are there in Lucheng?"

Tian Chaoqun said, "When we left, there was only one regiment of soldiers left in Lucheng."

The strength of a regiment! There are only a thousand men in a regiment, but there are 200,000 Qing soldiers!

Wan Jun said nothing more, and slapped the horse's buttocks with the whip more quickly.

The noisy city of Nanjing suddenly fell into a dead silence. The beginning of spring in the lunar calendar has passed, but the whole Nanjing is filled with a cold atmosphere.

According to the Law of Accounting, industrial and commercial owners, large landowners, and gentry who have a property of more than 500,000 yuan will receive one tael and five for every ten taels of silver, and those with a property of more than one million will receive two and a half of silver for every ten taels of silver. If there is any concealment, it must be hidden.

If there is any family property, all the property will be confiscated. If there are reports and verifications, half of the property will be divided.

The Chinese military's calculation method is based on the calculation method used during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The assets of each family have been clearly explored in advance, and no one in each family can escape at this time.

In just five days, Zhao Boyuan had collected more than six million taels of silver.

Compared with Li Zicheng's monthly salary of 70 million taels, in the prosperous Jiangnan, 6 million taels was just a drop in the bucket.

Compared with the time when the land was being inventoried, the officials and gentry in Nanjing did not react much after the announcement of the law of calculation and taxation of the gentry. However, Zhao Boyuan knew that this kind of calmness was too abnormal, and no reaction was the biggest reaction.

.

Outside the Xuanwu Gate of Nanjing City, Xuanwu Lake is covered with a thin layer of ice. The mountains in the lake are covered with snow, and the blue lake water looks peaceful and beautiful.

On a small island in the middle of the lake a few hundred meters away from the big island, there is a lake-center corridor pavilion. There are four men in the pavilion, sitting or standing.

"It's really too much!" A man in blue and gold shirt said angrily, "Oh, I didn't expect that they were the same thieves as Li Chuang. I really shouldn't have welcomed them into the city in the first place."

An old man with a white beard said, "What are you talking about? If we don't welcome them, the barbarians are still in Nanjing. No matter how bad it is, they are better than the foreigners in Manchuria."

Hearing this, the man in blue and gold shirt looked at the old man and said, "Mr. Chen, the Hu people didn't ask us to pay taxes based on our family property, right?"

"Humph, haha." The old man sneered and sighed for a long time.

"How good is the Ming Dynasty? It has collected half of our tax money? What is the result? The whole Jiangnan surrendered to the Hu people without blinking an eye. What is the result in Yangzhou? The Hu people are enemies of the country and the family. What's the matter? It's not time for China to do so.

Did the army drive away the barbarians?"

After saying that, he stretched out his hand and touched his head. It was pitch black.

But her hair was removed like a hat, revealing half an inch of white hair on her head.

"I regret very much. If I hadn't just focused on those yellow and white things of my own, how could the Ming Dynasty be where it is today, and how could we be where we are now, where we let the barbarians force us to shave our heads, and we will never be able to face our ancestors in the future.

"

A man with a gray beard and a slightly fat body sitting in the pavilion, like an old monk in meditation, slowly opened his eyes, "Yun He, don't say that, property tax is nothing, it's just some yellow and white things outside the body. The world.

It’s not peaceful, the practice of paying taxes has been around since ancient times, but isn’t this tax a slap in our face?”

Another person said, "Mr. Yang is right. In the ancestral system established since Taizu, scholars are the foundation of the world. They have the privilege of not paying taxes. Now that we are asked to pay taxes, where is the dignity of scholars? We

What’s the difference between it and Mudlegzi?”

The man in blue and gold shirt said, "This is to make enemies of the scholars in our world. Without us, how could they enter Nanjing City. Since ancient times, the emperor has been in charge of the world, and scholars rule the world. How can the Chinese army treat scholars like this for a long time?"

Huh?"

"Oh, I'm tired." The old man put on his hair again, walked out of the pavilion, waved his hand, and a small boat slowly approached from a distance.

"Before I leave, I would like to advise you, the world is going to be destroyed, and you are still thinking about the silver. Don't you know that every man has a lot of silver without guilt, and is no more than a fat pig waiting to be slaughtered."

After getting on the boat, the old man clasped his fists and said, "Goodbye, gentlemen, please take good care of me."

A small boat gradually moved away, leaving only three people looking at each other in the pavilion.

The wind blew the willow branches, the snow fell, and another burst of snowflakes flew in the courtyard.

There was silence in the pavilion for a long time. The man sitting in the pavilion, the old monk in meditation, tightened his clothes and asked, "Is there anyone else you want to leave?"

When no one answered, he said, "Since the Chen family wants to be a weakling, then it's okay not to want him."

The other two people looked at the man with gray beard and hair, "Here, what is Mr. Yang's plan?"

"I had already had an affair with Mr. Mu Zhai when I came here."

The man in blue and gold shirt was impatient and asked, "Mr. Mu Zhai is the Taishan Beidou of Donglin. What does he say?"

Yang Laodao said, "The Ming Dynasty treated us well in the past. Mr. Mu Zhai loves the Ming Dynasty and intends to welcome the Holy Master back."

"But, but, the Holy Master has been captured by the Qing Dynasty."

"Yes," another person followed, "and Emperor Longwu has also been killed, and several vassal kings including King Zhou, King Hui, and King Chong have also been taken captive."

Yang Laodao said, "The two wise brothers are confused. On the first day of the first lunar month, King Lu has ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, with the title of Datong."

The man in blue and gold shirt said, "But, as far as I know, this King Lu is a sideline, and the throne is not for King Lu. It stands to reason that King Gui and King Tang are more qualified."

Another person said, "Brother Zhao's words are wrong. The King of Gui and the King of Tang are not powerful enough, and they are far away in Guangdong and Guangxi. King Lu has the support of Zheng Zhilong, and all of Zhejiang and Fujian. Now that the country is in crisis, it is natural for King Lu to proclaim himself emperor."

"That's right," said the man named Mr. Yang, "At first, King Lu was a wise man, and Mr. Mu Zhai was worried about the state affairs and pushed King Lu to inherit the throne. However, he was manipulated by the warriors of the four towns and made King Fu the emperor. As a result, the mountains and rivers are now

The ancestral temple collapsed."

The man named Zhao secretly slandered that the situation in Jiangnan collapsed after King Fu registered, but King Lu did not see any great virtue. On the contrary, after Hongguang was captured by the Qing army in Wuhu, King Lu was captured in Hangzhou.

Everyone supported the establishment of the Jianguo Kingdom, but King Lu's performance was not as good as that of Emperor Hongguang.

Not only inferior, but worse

One point is that when the Qing army attacked Hangzhou, Ruan Dacheng and Zhu Dadian still had more than 10,000 troops. King Lu not only failed to boost morale, but instead wanted to surrender to the Qing army.

When the Qing army attacked Kinmen in the city of Hangzhou, the Ming army fought bravely, and all the tribes were not at a disadvantage. However, King Lu completely ignored the soldiers who were fighting fiercely with the Qing army below the city, and actually sent people from the city to reward the Qing army with wine and meat.

The army was fighting desperately, and the soldiers were bleeding and dying, but King Lu openly gave food and drink to the enemy. Such ridiculous behavior directly caused all the soldiers of the Ming army to be in an uproar and cross the Qiantang River to the east.

Under the example of Lu Wang Zhu Changzhen, the Ming vassal kings who had taken refuge in eastern Zhejiang and officials from Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Ningbo, Yanzhou and other prefectures and prefectures all accepted land to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, which directly led to the Qing army taking over half of the country without a single blow. Jiangnan.

"What a wise King Lu." Hearing that Mr. Yang was telling lies, the man in blue and gold shirt was a little confused on his face and sneered secretly in his heart.

Prince Lu was already well-known as a coward in Jiangnan. Mr. Yang probably felt that it was shameless to say that Prince Lu was wise, so he quickly changed the subject and said, "The situation is critical now. Emperor Datong is bold and wise, I will wait for you." Welcoming the Datong Emperor back to Nanjing to preside over the world is a move that obeys the will of heaven and the people, and will surely become a good event that will be passed down through the ages."

Compared with King Lu, King Zhu Yihai of Lu was indeed not a bit stronger. When eastern Zhejiang was surrendering one after another, King Lu was determined not to surrender, and the envoys of the Qing troops who persuaded him to surrender were directly beheaded.

"Although King Gui and King Tang also proclaimed themselves emperors, King Lu had the support of Zheng Zhilong and was the strongest in the south."

"Zheng Zhilong killed Emperor Longwu, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and rebelled again. He had no other place to go except King Lu, so he had no choice but to fight to the death. With the support of the Zheng family, it is only a matter of time before the south is pacified."

"If the south is determined, then send troops north to destroy the Chinese army, and then force the Manchus to withdraw from the pass. We will all be heroes in reviving the Ming Dynasty."

"Even if we cannot make the Northern Expedition, as long as we guard the Yangtze River, we will imitate the ministers of Anguo in the Southern Song Dynasty."

Both of them asked, "What does Mr. Qian Ge mean?"

"Yes, Mr. Qian Ge is willing to bear the humiliation and bear the heavy burden for the Jiangnan scholars, welcome the Datong Emperor back to Nanjing, and then carry out Shaobao's move to revive the Ming Dynasty. By then, the Jiangnan scholars will be able to remain wealthy forever."

The man in blue and gold shirt said, "That's it! Scholars cannot be like fish and are always oppressed by others."

Another person said, "It would be better for the Ming Dynasty not to collect taxes from us or seize our property."

This statement does not sound very popular. Jiangnan Shilin attaches great importance to the morality of monarchs and ministers, benevolence, righteousness, and integrity. How can this scholar do things without covering them with a layer of benevolence, righteousness, and morality? Wouldn't it be unconventional to raise money so nakedly?

But the big deal has been decided, and Mr. Yang doesn't care so much. Besides, in this small pavilion in the middle of the lake, there will be no spare ears to hear anything said.

Mr. Yang stretched out his hand to stroke his beard, and said with a smile, "In that case, Brother Wang and Brother Zhao, please wait with peace of mind. We have sent envoys to Shaoxing, and they will come back soon with the reward order from Emperor Datong. By then we will Let’s accomplish great things together.”

The man in blue and gold shirt changed his mind and said, "There won't be any trouble in the Chen family, right?"

"What Brother Wang said is absolutely true. Let's send people to keep an eye on the Chen family for the time being. It's best to be cautious for now."

Yang Laodao said, "Remember to keep it secret these days. Just like when we wiped out the Manchus, each family gathered their servants and made preparations."
Chapter completed!