Chapter 368 Borrowing money from the King of Shu

Chen Shiqi, who was on the side, saw that the governor and the governor were about to quarrel, so he quickly smoothed things over.

"Liao Futai, I think Liu Xunjian is only concerned about the defense of Chengdu and has no other intentions. As for letting General Liu go out to meet the enemy, it is really inappropriate.

Nowadays, most of the more than 30,000 soldiers and horses in the city are weak soldiers, and the Wei army has been invincible against the imperial soldiers and horses before. I am afraid that it cannot be defeated with three times the number. "

Chen Shiqi was a scholar in the 43rd year of Wanli and a Jinshi in the 5th year of Tianqi. Now he serves as an academic administrator in Sichuan.

When he was young, he felt that the world was about to be in chaos, so he studied military books and liked to talk about strategies. After he came to Sichuan to serve as an academic administrator, he often called scholars (scholars) to teach military art and horse riding and archery in order to cope with changes in the current situation.

Therefore, in later history, some courtiers first heard about Chen Shiqi's reputation in military affairs and recommended him to be the deputy military envoy of Sichuan. Later, Liao Daheng was dismissed from office due to civil unrest in Chengdu, and he was even appointed governor of Sichuan.

Unfortunately, Chen Shiqi did not have much experience in actually leading troops in combat, and at that time the Ming army in central Sichuan had the same problems as the Ming army in other places. Therefore, he failed to prevent Zhang Xianzhong from entering Sichuan. He was captured in Chongqing and died unyieldingly.

Liao Daheng actually regretted his proposal to let Liu Zhenfan go out of the city to fight against the Yi army. After hearing Chen Shiqi's words, he took advantage of the steps and said, "Well, let's just defend the city. The more than 10,000 soldiers who were staying outside to suppress the rebels came back. It should be no problem to defend Chengdu for a while."

Chen Shiqi offered another suggestion: "The city of Chengdu is too big, and the more than 30,000 soldiers and horses defending the city are a bit nervous. I thought I could recruit strong people in the city."

Liao Daheng's eyes flashed slightly after hearing this, "If you want to recruit people, you can't do it without money. But now that the public treasury is so clean that it can run away mice, how can we have money?"

"Please ask the King of Shu to use some money to defend the city."

The wealth of the King of Shu in the Ming Dynasty is known all over the world.

The King of Shu became a vassal in the early Ming Dynasty and was quite favored. It has been passed down for more than 260 years. If you think about it for a moment, you will know how rich the King of Shu's palace is.

During the Jiajing Dynasty, Yan Shifan once made a list of the richest people in the Ming Dynasty. The top of the list was Zhu Rangxu, the ninth generation king of Shu at that time.

Later, there were sayings such as "the royal palaces in the world are the richest, but Shu's palace is the richest" and "the wealth of Shu's palace is the best in the world".

As Sichuan officials, Liao Daheng, Chen Shiqi and others naturally knew how wealthy the Shu Palace was. When the Sichuan government agencies were in short supply of money and food, they also considered "borrowing" some from the Prince of Shu's Mansion.

But there must be a good "excuse" for this, otherwise it would be difficult to get Zhu Zhishu, the contemporary king of Shu, to pay money because he is greedy and stingy.

Now that the Wei army is approaching the city and Chengdu is in imminent danger, it is a good reason to "borrow money" from the Shu Palace.

After all, if Chengdu is captured by the Yi army, it will be difficult to preserve the wealth of the Shu Palace and the gold and silver treasures accumulated over more than two hundred years.

For Liao Daheng personally, it means that he may have the opportunity to get his hands on it and make some money from it.

In order to get Yang Sichang's introduction to serve as military supervisor and governor, he had spent a lot of money on up and down management, and he has not yet recovered the money.

After thinking about it, Liao Daheng said: "If I go alone, I'm afraid it will be difficult to convince His Highness the King of Shu. Why don't some of you come with me?"

Liu Zhibo and others also believed that the king of Shu should be allowed to use some money and food to defend the city. After all, the world belonged to the Zhu family, and the vassal king was originally granted the title here and had the responsibility of guarding it.

Immediately, Liao Daheng asked Liu Zhenfan and other generals to take charge of city defense, while he took Chen Shiqi, Liu Zhibo and others to the Shu Palace.

The city of Chengdu is quite large. After getting off the city, everyone rode horses or sat in sedan chairs. It took a while before they arrived outside the palace of the King of Shu.

It is said to be a royal palace, but it is actually a royal city.

How favored the king of Shu was in the early Ming Dynasty can be seen from the city of the king of Shu in front of you.

Its layout is completely modeled after the Forbidden City in Nanjing and was built before the Forbidden City in Beijing. The outer wall of the royal city has a circumference of nearly nine miles, and the inner palace wall has a circumference of 5.5 miles. The palace city alone covers an area of ​​thirty-eight hectares!

After everyone informed them, they were allowed to enter the Shu King City. After waiting in the Chengyun Hall for a long time, they saw Zhu Zhishu, the contemporary King of Shu, who was as white and fat as a wealthy businessman.

After he sat on the throne, he said with a warm expression: "I heard that the bandits have arrived outside the city of Chengdu. If you don't go and take charge of defending the city against the enemy, why are you here to find yourself alone?"

Liu Zhibo, the patrol commander, was impatient and did not want to waste time with Zhu Zhishu. He immediately said bluntly: "Since the king knows that the bandits are approaching the city, he should also know that Chengdu currently has insufficient troops and the current situation is critical, so it is necessary to recruit strong people to help defend the city.

In addition, battalion soldiers, rural soldiers, rural warriors, etc. have also not received sufficient military pay for a month or two, and they also need money and food. Therefore, I sincerely request your Majesty to release some silver and old grain to save Chengdu! "

After Liu Zhibo finished speaking, Chen Shiqi also wanted to say a few words.

Zhu Zhishu said impatiently: "The current situation is critical, isn't it a good time for you to serve the country? What are you doing here?

Besides, didn’t you like to talk about the Ming Dynasty ancestral system the most in the past? So you should know that the ancestral system stipulates that the vassal king can only supervise local officials, but cannot interfere with local government affairs, let alone support troops with money and food, otherwise he will be accused of rebellion.

I only have one head. If I obey your request today, I may not be able to chop it off in the future. "

These words made Liu Zhibo so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. Liao Daheng and others were also very angry.

Liao Daheng immediately spoke up and said: "Your Majesty is now stingy with money. Aren't you afraid that the Yi army will attack Chengdu, destroy the accumulated wealth of the Shu prince's palace in one day, and all the Shu kings will perish at the hands of the Yi thieves?!"

It is of course false to say that Zhu Zhishu was not worried about the Yi army conquering Chengdu.

But it’s also true that he doesn’t want to take out money and food.

On the one hand, he was stingy and greedy by nature, but on the other hand, because he was a vassal king, he was often disgusted by local officials in Sichuan in the past. Now that these people are asking for help, he naturally wants to disgust them.

Chen Shiqi believed that he and Zhu Zhishu got along well at the cultural conference in the past, and even received gold and silver as a reward from Zhu Zhishu. At this time, he said warmly: "In fact, the king does not need to spend too much money and food this time, fifty silver Ten thousand taels is enough.

As for food, as long as the king takes out the accumulated old food, he can get the thanks of the poor people in the city. Why not? "

Zhu Zhishu snorted and said, "Now that I know that I'm asking Gu to borrow money and food, I usually say that there are corrupt people in the local government collecting rent from tenants. Why don't you deal with it?"

Liao Daheng saw that there was something wrong with the matter and hurriedly said: "Isn't it true that our court has only been in office for a short period of time and there is no time to deal with it? This court guarantees that as long as the traitors retreat and the chaos of the people in each county subsides, justice will be administered to the Prince of Shu's palace!"

"Is this what Liao Futai said?" Zhu Zhishu was not stupid at all. He knew that it would be unreasonable not to give out money and food today, so he walked down the steps with Liao Daheng's promise, "Five hundred thousand taels of silver, ten thousand shi of food, later. Liao Futai just needs someone to take him away."

Thinking that Bai Huahua's silver was about to be obtained, Liao Daheng couldn't help but smile and complimented: "Your Majesty understands righteousness, and when the thieves retreat, we will write to the court and ask for your Majesty's commendation for your Majesty!"

Zhu Zhishu didn't care about this and said, "I hope the thieves can really retreat."

Then Zhu Zhishu served tea to see off the guests.

After everyone came out, Liu Zhibo suddenly said: "Liao Futai, you can send someone to receive the money and food, but the lower officials must send someone to supervise it to prevent corruption.

Now that the enemy is facing us, if corruption happens again and the soldiers and the people are resentful, the city of Chengdu will not be able to be defended. "

Liao Daheng was disgusted by Liu Zhibo.

When Liu Zhibo said this, he obviously didn't believe him.

Seeing Chen Shiqi and others looking over, Liao Daheng could only nod his head and said, "This is what it should be. Just send someone over."

 Second update.

  Good night~

  

 

(End of this chapter)

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