On November 13th, Li Zhi discussed matters with the generals in the second hall of the Duke's Mansion.
As soon as they came up, Han Jinxin reported worriedly: "The Duke of the State, Li Jiantai, a scholar of Dongge University, suggested that the emperor split a town in South Zhili into Jiangbei East Town and Jiangbei West Town, with a troop strength of 30,000 in each town. This matter is quite serious.
It’s strange.”
Li Zhi asked: "What's so strange?"
Han Jinxin said: "The so-called problem of bandits is that the people are hungry and cold first, and then bandits rise up, just like what happened in Shaanxi and Henan. However, the south of the Yangtze River where the 'Jiangbei Second Town' is located is rich and the people are well-fed, so there has never been the worry of bandits.
.The soldiers and horses of a town in South Zhili are enough to guard the south of the Yangtze River. Historically, neither intruders nor thieves have been able to penetrate the belly of South Zhili."
"And now the Donglin Party is suddenly planning to add 60,000 troops to South Zhili. This is obviously not to prevent bandits."
Li Zhi nodded, and Han Jinxin added: "After Li Jiantai sent the memorial, the emperor did not reply immediately. Three days later, Zhang Jinyan, the Minister of War, immediately sent a memorial to discuss the matter of adding two new towns. He showed the momentum of not giving up until the goal was achieved.
The emperor had no choice but to agree to this matter, but did not allocate any food and salary to the second town."
"On the first day of November, the civil servants seemed to have made an agreement to appoint Zuo Liangyu as the commander-in-chief of Jiangbei West Town and Wu Sangui as the commander-in-chief of Jiangbei East Town."
"After the establishment of the second town, Qian Qianyi's house was busy with traffic after he had reduced his registration and returned to his hometown, and celebrities from all over the country came to visit him. An informant in Jiangnan said that Qian Qianyi was about to start raising money for the second town."
Hearing this, Li Zhi frowned.
Obviously, these two towns were established by the Donglin Party. The Donglin Party is actually willing to use its own money to raise funds to raise troops. It must be up to no good. He is the Donglin Party's number one enemy, and these two towns may be specifically designed to deal with him.
established.
Li Laosi said: "Wu Sangui has always been praised as young and promising, and his troops are quite effective. Although Zuo Liangyu always engages in private plunder, he was promoted by Hou Xun, a member of the Donglin Party, and has always been extremely powerful.
They respect scholars and are regarded as reliable by the Donglin Party. Both of them are known for their good fighting skills. The Donglin Party chose these two people to be the general soldiers of the Second Town because it wants to turn the Second Town into a country that only listens to the Donglin Party.
The dispatched private soldiers can fight."
Everyone was silent after hearing what Li Laosi said. The Donglin Party wants to develop a private army that is good at fighting. This is a new situation. If Li Zhi wants to develop his power south to Zhili in the future, there will be military resistance. Like
The direct attack on Suzhou City like the killing of the leaders of Fushe was probably difficult to replicate.
I just don’t know what kind of weapons these two towns will be equipped with in the end. Will they be equipped with firecrackers and cannons like the emperor’s new army?
Li Zhi thought for a while, stopped thinking about this problem, and asked instead: "What's the news from the Tatars?"
Han Jinxin replied: "The Tatars and Shanxi merchants have purchased a large amount of grain and cotton in the past few months. It seems that they are preparing to attack North Korea southward in the winter and re-integrate North Korea into the Tatar system."
Hearing again that Shanxi merchants were collaborating with the enemy, Li Zhi said unhappily: "These Shanxi merchants are so lawless."
Han Jinxin said: "These Shanxi merchants and Tatars do business every day or two, and the amount of business is very huge. But because the money is well managed, the local military attachés are colluding with them, and the civil servants in the court also turn a blind eye to this.
Close one eye. If it weren't for these Shanxi merchants, the Tatars' military equipment would be much weaker."
Li Zhi thought for a while and said nothing.
Han Jinxin took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it to Li Zhi.
Li Zhi took the piece of paper and looked at it. It was the amount of materials that Han Jinxin had inquired about flowing from Zhangjiakou to the outside of the Great Wall in the past few months. Those figures were huge and shocking.
Li Zhi gave the piece of paper to Li Xing and asked him to pass it on to other generals.
Zhong Feng looked at the piece of paper, his eyes widened, as if he didn't believe it. Then he cursed "What a thief."
"Commander, let's send troops to Shanxi and kill all these Shanxi merchants. Otherwise, if these Shanxi merchants are allowed to trade with the Taqing, the Taqing will soon recover."
Li Xing patted the coffee table and said, "Brother, these Shanxi merchants are extremely rich. If we deal with them, we will definitely make a lot of money."
Li Zhi thought for a while and said: "These Shanxi merchants who have fornicated with the Eastern slaves deserve to die. Since we want to conquer the Tatars, we should first arrest the Shanxi merchants in the Ming Dynasty."
"However, these Shanxi merchants are far away in Shanxi. It would be too overbearing for us to cross the capital and directly kill and confiscate their homes. We petition the emperor to allow us to go to Shanxi to examine the Shanxi merchants."
####
In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youjian looked at Li Zhi's memorial and was silent.
Wang Chengen secretly watched the memorial from behind for a while, then spat.
Zhu Youjian asked: "Wang Chengen, what are you spitting?"
Wang Chengen bowed and said: "Your Majesty, I think Li Zhi's hands are too long. He wants to take care of Tianjin's affairs, he wants to take care of Shandong's affairs, and now he also wants to take care of the Shanxi merchants in Shanxi?"
"Your Majesty, how much money does this Shanxi merchant give to the civil servants in the court every year? If Li Zhi kills the Shanxi merchant, those civil servants will be furious."
Zhu Youjian said calmly: "I just promised the Donglin Party to set up Jiangbei Town and Jiangnan Town, which is considered a favor to the Donglin Party. Now the Donglin Party's thoughts are on the construction of the second town. Let Li Zhi go at this time If we go to raid the traitorous Shanxi merchants, even if the civil servants are dissatisfied, they won't make a big fuss."
Wang Chengen thought for a while and felt that this was the truth. Now the Donglin Party was focused on developing the army, as if it only took a year to pull out an army in South Zhili that could rival Li Zhihu's army and look down on the world. The Donglin Party was trying to hide its power for this Jiangbei army, so it was a good opportunity to deal with the Shanxi merchants.
Wang Chengen bowed and said: "Your Majesty, Sheng Ming."
Taking a breath, Wang Chengen said again: "I just let Li Zhi raid Shanxi merchants like this. Your Majesty, wouldn't the Duke of Jin want to make it bigger? Li Zhi said that he will conquer the Tatars next year. If Li Zhi really succeeds, If he does, then thousands of miles of fertile fields in Liaodong will belong to him, and it will be even harder to weaken him in the future."
Zhu Youjian put Li Zhi's memorial on the imperial case and said calmly: "The Duke of Jin is loyal. I don't think Li Zhi has any thoughts of rebellion. On the contrary, the Tatars are restless day and night and will enter the pass to plunder at any time. They are eyeing the country of Ming Dynasty. If the Duke of Jin destroys the Tatars, it will be a good thing."
"This time the Duke of Jin attacked the Dongnu, I did not give the Duke of Jin a tael of silver for military expenses. These Shanxi merchants should be regarded as the military expenses I gave to the Duke of Jin."
Zhu Youjian thought for a while and said: "I agree to let Li Zhi handle the review of Shanxi merchants. However, I asked the eunuch to bring a message to Li Zhi. Once the conclusive evidence is found, the homes of Shanxi merchants will be confiscated. Li Zhi cannot embezzle all the money. , I want five million taels of silver from this!"
