Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 176 The Empress Dowager reminds me that Qianlong’s sword points to the south of the Yangtze River
Niu Hulu asked in a low voice:

"Is Jiangnan safe now? Don't let another son of the Fucha clan get trapped."

"Hahahaha, the sea in the south of the Yangtze River is clear. I also want to take you on a tour of the south of the Yangtze River next spring."

She smiled, pleased with the emperor's filial piety.

But I know my own health well, and I will never leave the capital again in this life.

"The Ai family is old and talks a lot. Has the Jiangnan incident really subsided?"

"What does Er Niang mean?"

"That kid from Fukang'an is so smart. After all these years of fighting in the north and south, the boat capsized in the gutter of the south of the Yangtze River. The Ai family doesn't think it's worth it even if they think about it."

Qianlong said seriously:
"Don't worry, E Niang. My son has appointed Qian Feng as the censor. He will definitely give me a satisfactory explanation."

"That's fine, that's fine."

Mr. Niu Hulu finally breathed a sigh of relief and his expression became much more relaxed.

Looking at the eunuchs and maids standing far away around him, Qianlong took a deep breath and asked slowly:
"If E Niang is worried about Fu Changan's safety, my son will let him stay in the capital and serve as an official."

"No need, only by contacting more places can you understand the Qing Dynasty."

"What E Niang said is true, so my son visited Jiangnan, Shengjing, Mount Wutai, and Dongling because he was afraid of being deceived by local officials."

"When you said this, the Ai family suddenly remembered what your emperor Ama said back then."

"Which sentence?" Qianlong immediately became vigilant. He was extremely disgusted with his father Yongzheng.

"Your Majesty Ama said that if the problem cannot be solved, there is only one possibility. The person responsible for solving the problem is the person who created the problem!"

Qianlong nodded thoughtfully and changed the topic.

The next month, the Empress Dowager Niu Hulu, accompanied by a large number of eunuchs and maids, moved to the Old Summer Palace!

Until his death, he never set foot in the palace again.

……

"Your Majesty, I await the death penalty."

Everyone in the Military Aircraft Department had actually been waiting near the Royal Garden for a long time.

Feng Jia had been waiting for the Queen Mother to leave before she dared to come to see her.

"What do you want, sir? It's cold, get up quickly."

Qianlong was in a good mood, probably because he saw that his mother was in good health.

Zhang Jing, a military officer, handed over the certificate.

Qianlong noticed that his hands were shaking violently, and an ominous premonition suddenly filled his heart.

I opened the booklet and soon started to shiver myself.

Qian Feng, the imperial envoy, reported the news of the stone man unearthed in Yangzhou, as well as the six-character motto.

Everyone in the Military Aircraft Department knelt on their knees, angrily cursing Mr. Qian in their hearts. How dare you write such words as "the bow factory will be divided after death" in the booklet?

To avoid the taboo, Hongli (Gong Factory) lacks pens, but there are a lot of them.

"Your Majesty, it must be the work of a demon."

"Such a clumsy handwriting, trying to shake the foundation of our Qing Dynasty is really ridiculous."

Qianlong, who was almost on the verge of breaking out, came to a rare emotional halt.

In an instant, he became calm and relaxed, extremely easy-going.

Throwing the fold to the little eunuch, he said:
"You're just pretending to be a god and playing tricks on me."

"My dear friends, please get up and follow me for a walk."

Everyone was greatly surprised. The scenery of the imperial garden was naturally good, and the emperor seemed to be in a good mood too!

When he reached Duixiu Mountain in the garden, Qianlong inadvertently looked up.

The four stick guards were waiting faithfully on the top of the mountain, paying attention to any changes in the palace.

The Sticky Rod Department is nominally part of the Internal Affairs Bureau system.But it is a self-contained secret service organization led by the emperor himself.

Returning to the imperial study, he summoned the commander of the guards from Sticking Branch.

……

"Are there any differences among the officials and people in Jiangnan?"

"A small group of thieves are infested, and rumors are spreading among the people."

"Is there any lost city?"

"No, but the Zhenze County government office was attacked by bandits, and the county magistrate died in the battle."

"What are the rumors you're talking about about?"

Akqi, the guard at Sticky Rod, was too embarrassed to answer.

Seeing his embarrassment, Qianlong had already understood and sneered:
"Is it a rumor about the royal family and me?"

"Yes."

"Deploy more manpower, conduct overt and covert inspections, and monitor the officials and people of Jiangnan as a whole."

"Whoo."

The guards retreated, Qianlong closed his eyes and meditated.

His memory was still surprisingly good, and suddenly he remembered a memorial.

"Come on."

"Find me a report from Li Shiyao, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. It is about the price of Guangdong iron that has skyrocketed and the supply exceeds demand."

Every detail of the feudal officials cannot be ignored.

The Military Aircraft Department quickly found it from the archives, and He Shen submitted it in person.

Qianlong read it carefully twice, his face gradually darkened:

"Rumors, steel, rogue thieves, and the general who killed me. Someone is trying to dig into my empire? Heshen, what do you think?"

"This slave is waking up from a dream. Someone is going to rebel and disrupt our Qing Dynasty!"

"There can be no chaos. I have been in trouble for forty years and have never seen any big storms." Qianlong was confident and dictated the secret order, "Deploy 2000 Heilongjiang cavalry and 800 Sauron Xibo. From now on, they will secretly go south to receive the order in Tongzhou. Order Jingzhou to garrison The Eight Banners prepared their warships and soldiers, ready to sail down the river to quell the chaos."

"Your Majesty, do you have any wishes for the Eight Banners of Jiangning and the Eight Banners of Suzhou?"

"No need, they are insiders."

He Shen quietly exited the imperial study room, feeling something was wrong.

Is the emperor worried that the Jiangning Eight Banners and the Suzhou Eight Banners have been infiltrated and the secrets will be leaked?
……

The two sons of the Fucha family have new positions.

One is Fu Chang'an, who was appointed as the prefect of Jiangning and the deputy governor of Xiangbai Banner, and also took charge of some flag affairs.

Another one was Fucha Yeercan from Hangzhou Banner Camp, who was transferred to the position of deputy capital commander of Suzhou.

Immediately, Fucheng, the supervisor of Xushuguan, added another errand and was promoted to the agent of Suzhou Weaving.

These are the candidates after Qianlong thought about it.

In his opinion, it is the most loyal and suitable.

A teahouse in Fucheng,
The moment Li Yu received the newspaper, his smile was bright, but then it solidified.

It is naturally a great thing to become a sworn brother, Fucheng, and become Suzhou Weaver.

But the placement of the two Fucha children revealed a big problem. Qianlong became extremely suspicious of the Jiangnan area.

He no longer trusts the local officials and gentry in Jiangnan.

The secret order to dispatch the Eight Banners was naturally not written in the Di newspaper. It was impossible for Li Yu to predict it beforehand. He just instinctively felt a little crisis.

"got windy!"

"The trees are not moving today, where did the wind come from?" Fucheng opened the door and came in with a bright smile.

As expected, people are in high spirits and look surprisingly good during happy events.

"Brother Fu, congratulations."

"We rejoice together, we brothers join forces to do something great."

Li Yu asked quietly:
"What business?"

"Of course it's to get promoted and get rich, and to play with women."

"Brother Fu is domineering, but I would like to ask, what are the main inputs of Suzhou Weaving?"

"Since Emperor Yongzheng, weaving has also been in charge of the customs of the government. This is the largest piece of input, followed by shares in the silk industry, and third by the filial piety of local officials and gentry, who are afraid that I will sue them."

As the son of a former Suzhou weaver, Fucheng is of course the son of Menqing.

Seeing his complacent look, Li Yu didn't pour cold water on him.

Instead, I asked:
"How many years does this job usually last?"

"Two or three years, and then someone has to be replaced. People from the Ministry of Internal Affairs are waiting in line eagerly."

"So, Brother Fu, you have to hurry up (hug the money)."

……

Fucheng suppressed his smile and nodded.

"I know you have someone, lend me some."

"No problem, I'll lend you the men and weapons. But as a brother, I suggest you build an armed force. These days, if you don't have a knife, you won't be strong-willed."

"Would it violate any taboo?"

"You can use the name of the anti-smuggling team to crack down on the hoarding of illegal silk merchants. The number of people does not need to be too many, one or two hundred is enough."

"it is good."

Fucheng slammed the table excitedly. He thought this was a good idea.

With this anti-smuggling team, we can have a tighter control over tax customs and collect more tax money.

People who come from the Ministry of Internal Affairs have one characteristic.

The motivation to do anything is money!If you have more money, you will have enough motivation.Without money, there is no motivation.

I don't care about reputation, official career, or the laws of the Qing Dynasty.

This is because the servants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs do not hold "official positions" but "errands" and are temporary special commissioners.

Their career life is short and there are few promotion channels.

It's all the emperor's words. If you say it goes up, it goes up, and if you say it goes down, it goes down.

Therefore, when you are in office, you must hurry up and earn money for your pension.

"Brother Li, how long has it been since we last visited a brothel?"

"Nowadays, it's different from the past. We are all people with status. Suzhou is shaking when we stomp our feet. If we go to a brothel, we can't save our face."

"Ah, I forgot, Brother Li already has a family." Fucheng suddenly realized and slapped his forehead, "I have a bold idea, let's go to Hangzhou together someday?"

"what?"

"Hangzhou Fengyue, and no one knows us there, hehehe." "It seems possible to consider it."

……

"By the way, is there any letter from your father in Chaozhou?"

"Have."

"Is there any breakthrough in the negotiations with the British businessmen?"

"The talks broke down and we almost got into a fight."

"What's going on? Are the British barbarians so cruel? Do you still want to hang out in the Qing Dynasty in the future?"

"Their bastard East India Company came with six armed three-masted merchant ships and wandered on the sea every day. One sailor drank too much and the cannon misfired."

"Is there anyone dead?"

"I blew up a cow on the shore and paid 50 silver dollars as compensation."

"It seems that the British businessmen are still restrained and do not want the contradiction to continue to expand."

Fucheng took a sip of tea and frowned:
"My father said that the British businessmen were very united this time and wanted to use the losses caused by the suspension of trade to make the court bow."

"How big can the damage be?"

"It's very big. The imperial court lost at least 300 million taels of customs duties. Tea, silk, and porcelain can only be sold domestically and cannot be sold at high prices."

"This is also a kind of war, a trade war!"

"You're right!"

After sending Fucheng away, Li Yu began to think about how to take advantage of the current chaos.

Jiangnan is not chaotic enough. According to the prior arrangement, Miao Youlin should lead hundreds of green forest heroes at this moment to begin the siege of Wujiang County.

Of course, the green forest heroes are huge and the encirclement action is slow.

The magistrate of Wujiang must have time to send a messenger to ask for help.

Ta-ta-ta, a horse ran quickly across the street.

Look in the direction, it might be him!

It's been almost a year since he wore the Qing Dynasty. Li Yu was moving up and down, racking his brains.Finally got rid of the fate of chess pieces and became a chess player!
……

At this time, Wujiang County, 100 miles south of Fucheng, was in mourning.

The magistrate stood on the city wall, his face ashen.

"Which bandit is this?"

No one could answer his question, and everyone was terrified.

Suddenly, a row of firearms came from the thieves below the city, and Master Xing Ming of the county government screamed and fell off the city wall.

The rest of the people crouched down quickly, climbed to the stairs, and slowly descended the city wall.

Outside the city, gunfire rang out every now and then.

I could also hear the rude yelling and cursing: "Conquer Wujiang City, there will be money, food, and pretty girls."

Miao Youlin pressed his hand on the handle of the knife and looked very calm.

As a former Green Camp military attache, he knew how sparse the defenses of ordinary small towns were.

As long as you are ruthless, use human lives to pile up, and use the people in front to consume the arrows.

Or maybe with a few 12-pounder artillery, Wujiang City can be captured today.

However, the lord said it was a feint attack, the thunder was loud and the rain was small.

Wujiang is prosperous, but farmland outside the city is scarce.

Due to commercial development, the shops are lined up one after another, and they are usually densely populated, but now they are all gone.

Of course, Miao Youlin was not polite. He looted everything and then set it on fire.

This is called "work must leave traces"~
Otherwise, how can you prove that you have been here once you are gone?

These burned ruins are the best proof of the "unstable situation" in Jiangnan.

It is Li Yu's request to spread the cold air to everyone.

When everyone believed that "the situation in Jiangnan was unstable and war was around the corner," Dongshan Group Training was able to step into the sunshine.

At that time, in the balance of weighing, wealth and life will obviously be more important.

No one would say that private team training is against the rules.

On the contrary, they will acquiesce that there is such an armed force to maintain a new order.

The resistance and resistance from Jiangnan officials and people will be reduced to a minimum.

……

Fucheng, magistrate's office.

Zhu Gui, Huang Wenyun, Hu Zhihuang, Li Yu, and the four co-leaders from Mancheng were all present.

The atmosphere was serious and silent.

"Everyone, the magistrate of Wujiang is asking for help. Should we save him or not?"

Hu Zhihuang immediately took over the conversation:
"Save! The general is willing to lead his troops to rescue."

Zhu Gui and Huang Wenyun exchanged glances and reached a consensus, save!
However, the only armed forces in Suzhou City now include the city guard camp and the Mancheng bannermen.

How to allocate and distribute is a difficult problem.

A co-leader from Beijing Banner in Manchu City quickly stopped their thoughts:
"We are stationed at the Eight Banners and are not subject to local control. Unless there is a military order from General Jiang Ning or a decree from the imperial court, we and the Eight Banners soldiers will defend the city to the death."

The other co-leaders all agreed.

When you Han people fight and kill each other, we bannermen will not get involved.

Zhu Gui's expression was normal, everything was as expected.

Huang Wen turned his head and looked at Li Yu:

"I remember that you still have a Dongshan regiment in hand. What is its size? How is its combat strength?"

"Two to 300 people. Although we are poorly equipped and have no armor or horses, we have a loyal heart."

"Okay, if you are ambitious. Then temporarily transfer to Fucheng and take charge of city defense. Mr. Zhu, what do you think?"

Zhu Gui was surprised. Huang Wenyun had not communicated this matter to him beforehand.

This caught me off guard.

His mind was spinning rapidly, and while he was thinking about how to answer this obviously illegal proposal,
The leader of the Beijing Banner Association spoke:

"This is not in compliance with the ancestral rules. How can the city defense be left to the regiment? The regiment has a bunch of Ni Yue quitters who have never seen anything in the world."

……

Zhu Gui remained silent. Huang Wenyun was a little angry and asked:

"Leader A, who should we entrust the city defense to?"

"That's your business. I don't like to meddle in other people's business."

"you~"

Zhu Gui quickly reconciled the situation and proposed a compromise:

"Let's do this. The government office will pay the money and the city defense will be handed over to the bannermen all over the city. How about that?"

"Based on the head count, the starting price is 3 taels of silver, and the city defense fee is 1 tael per day. Don't eat thin food for breakfast, have meat for lunch, and have some wine in the evening. Isn't it too much?"

"make a deal."

"Then when will the money be paid?"

"Rijie, is it done?"

"It sounds fine, just leave it like that."

Huang Wenyun and Zhu Gui looked at each other, smiled bitterly, and nodded in acquiescence.

The other co-leaders all looked happy, having taken on a good job.

The men under his command cried about poverty every day, and finally they were able to earn some decent money.

Put on the armor of your ancestors, step on the steel sword, stand on the city wall for a few days, and you can make a small fortune.

Cost-effective!

On the same day, the city guard camp hurriedly went out to fight.

100 swords, 50 pairs of bows and arrows, and 100 shotguns were temporarily taken from the arsenal, but the arrows and arrows were useless.

He also spent money to temporarily rent 100 war horses from Mancheng.

That's right, I borrowed it with money.

Both parties have written in black and white, and the money and goods have been cleared.

If a war horse dies, the city guard camp will have to pay 50 taels, and Li Yu is the guarantor.

According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, if the city guard camp cannot afford to pay, then Li Yu will have to pay.

To rent a hundred war horses, the daily rent is 300 taels.

……

After the meeting, in the back hall of the government office,

Huang Wenyun sighed, feeling that he had been busy since he became the prefect.

All kinds of responsibilities, all kinds of pressure.

"I don't know when the Yizheng Canal will be opened to navigation. I haven't been able to get this grain to the capital for a day, so I have been thinking about it."

"Master Huang, don't worry. Your Majesty is wise. It's not your turn to take the blame."

"At such a young age, I don't know what to say."

During the Dongshan team training, the reasonable opportunity to appear in Suzhou City fell through.

However, Li Yu was not angry at all.

When it comes to calculations, he has never been afraid of anyone.

Take the rental guarantee for 100 war horses just now. If nothing else happens, these horses will all be on the "killed list".

Then, Hu Zhihuang spread his hands and said, "I have no money, you go find a guarantor."

Li Yu was furious and compensated 5000 taels!By the way, I broke up with my sworn brother Hu Zhihuang!

Then, there were a hundred more war horses in the stables on Xishan Island.

The bannermen all over the city will also have fun secretly and earn 50 taels!
Not only that, the deposit of 3000 taels for renting a horse will also be withheld and will not be returned.

Inside and out, I'm making a lot of money.

An ordinary transaction can make both the buyer and the seller feel that they have made a profit, and Tao Zhugong will be nothing more than this in his reincarnation.

……

(End of this chapter)