I have a cornucopia

Chapter 253 The Man Who Wants to Become the Emperor

"Ha ha ha ha……"

The Deputy Marshal of the Ming Dynasty's Army, Grand Tutor, and Governor-General of Military Affairs of Six Provinces, His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin walked away with a wild laugh, acting like a typical villain.

The Emperor, who was curled up beside the pillar, was trembling weakly like a girl who had been bullied...

Of course, it’s not that exaggerated. At most, it’s just a lingering fear.

His Majesty the Emperor, who had been imprisoned for a year and a half, had long lost his former spirit. After all, he was not a strong and resolute person. At most, he had never experienced setbacks in the past, so he was a bit ignorant and fearless. Besides, in history, he did not really want to die. He just wanted to run away but was shot back by the soldiers. He wanted to hide but was rejected by the ministers. Knowing that he was deserted by his friends and relatives, he had no choice but to hang himself.

But now, he has experienced a lot. He was besieged by his subjects in the capital, was killed in Lugou River, and encountered chaos in Baoding...

It’s really a lot.

And a year and a half of imprisonment also made him calmer.

But the more this happened, the more afraid he became of death. After all, he had gone through so much and survived, so he was even more reluctant to die.

Besides, he survived after going through so much, doesn't this prove that there is still hope for him? He is destined to survive after going through all kinds of dangers. No matter how rebellious Li Zicheng is, doesn't he have to respect him as His Majesty?

There is still hope for him!
"Since ancient times, there has never been a country that has not perished. What is the point of my life?"

After Li Zicheng's back disappeared, he suddenly regained his spirit and stood up, and by the way, he COSed as Yuan Shanjian. After all, there should be no one who could punch the emperor three times at this time.

"Your Majesty, this is an opportunity. If we can follow Li Zicheng south, we can contact Yang Feng and maybe we can get away."

Wang Chengen said quickly.

"Didn't this traitor say that Yang Feng fell into the water and disappeared?"

Chongzhen sat down on the throne again, took the tea handed to him by Concubine Yuan and said.

"He just said that. Most of the news from Nanjing to here are actually rumors. After all, it is far away, and there are no official bulletins like in the past. Rumors are spread by private merchants. There are many rumors. Even if they were sent by Li Zicheng's spies in the capital, they may not be accurate. Besides, Yang Feng has extraordinary skills. How could he die in the water if he just fell into the water and couldn't be killed by bullets?
That's too unbelievable.

What's more, even if he didn't have those strange skills, it would be strange for him, who grew up by the sea, to die after falling into the Yangtze River.

The waves on the Yangtze River are just like a bathtub compared to the sea. What I saw in Tianjin is not comparable to the Yangtze River."

Wang Chengen said.

He still didn't believe that anything would happen to Yang Feng if he fell into the water.

As a person who was used to seeing Yang Feng's abilities that could be described as miraculous, Lao Wang was already convinced that there was a god backing him up.

"But, will Yang Feng help us?"

Concubine Yuan said cautiously.

The scene became awkward in an instant.

Indeed, why should Yang Feng help them!

Or what benefit would it bring to Yang Feng if he helped them escape from Li Zicheng's clutches or even returned to Nanjing to regain power?

It is obvious that Yang Feng was pushing the princess. Even if he was unwilling to admit it, he knew that Yang Feng was pushing the princess. He first sent her to Nanjing, and then when Nanjing was leaderless, he pushed her out to become the leader, and then pushed her step by step to become the regent and forced Li Zicheng to accept it. In this way, his disappearance is also problematic. It was his disappearance that made the abdication in Nanjing successful, allowing those who pushed for this to let go. So it is hard to say whether his disappearance is real or fake.

It is not even ruled out that Yang Feng was behind all this.

As for whether the princess was involved, I really can't say for sure. After all, for power, the prince can cooperate with Dorgon. So for power, what's so strange about the princess colluding with Yang Feng? We can't even use the word collusion. After all, Yang Feng's special relationship with the princess is obvious. From the beginning, this guy coveted the princess...

"Thieves, they are all thieves!"

His Majesty the Emperor suddenly exploded.

He stood up suddenly and kicked the table in front of him, but because it was too heavy, he didn't knock it down and instead hit his toes.

Then he jumped on one foot in pain, becoming more and more manic.

"Sons are unreliable, daughters are unreliable, ministers are unreliable, and unruly people are unreliable. They are all thieves, traitors, and rebels!"

he roared.

He had actually thought about these questions a long time ago.

He has been under house arrest for a year and a half. During this period, what else can he do except have wild thoughts? He is basically in the delusional stage.

Concubine Yuan's words were equivalent to tearing apart the last bit of resistance in his heart.

He was forced to face the things that he had been thinking about before but was afraid to admit.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, these are just speculations, don't take them seriously. The princess has been filial since she was young. You have watched her grow up, don't you know her personality? Even if she is the regent, she has no choice but to do so. It is only out of filial piety that she protects Your Majesty from being coveted by other clans. Moreover, she is just a princess and cannot succeed to the throne. Why do these things? If so, wouldn't it give those vassal kings a handle? After all, Yang Feng does not have the final say in this world. Even Li Zicheng would not agree to it. Don't worry too much."

Lao Wang quickly supported him and advised him.

Of course, he also knew that this was pure nonsense...

Those vassal kings are nothing. If they really want to cause trouble, there is no need for Yang Feng. The Elders' Council can just send a battalion of militia to surrender their weapons immediately.

It was not only Yang Feng who pushed the princess to the throne, but also the local elders' associations, who were even more active than Yang Feng. Now the princess was generally accepted by all the forces in the south, and even the royal family did not want to resist her. There were really few ambitious royal family members, even Prince Fu and Prince Lu. They had all experienced mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and their only thought was to survive. The current prosperity of the south also made the lives of these exiled royal family members stable. Although they were no longer as prosperous as before, the princess did not completely ignore them. For example, those who were really in difficulty were taken to Nanjing.

They don't want to mess around anymore.

After all, they have all experienced bloody wars.

Once chaos breaks out, they will be slaughtered by others because of their identity issues, which is inevitable.

In fact, many members of the royal family have changed their names and hidden themselves among the people. This kind of thing did not happen only in the late Ming Dynasty. It does look like raising pigs that the royal family of the Ming Dynasty only focused on those few princes, but in fact, the life of the lower-level royal family has been difficult for a long time.

There are even people begging on the road.

However, their status as members of the royal family restricted their ability to make a living, so changing their names and hiding among the people was an inevitable choice for those members of the lower-class royal family who had a hard life.

The only ones who had some ambitions before were Prince Huai and Prince Jingjiang, but the fundamental reason was not that they wanted to rebel and become emperors, but that the local gentry were encroaching on their lands, and they just wanted to protect their wealth.

But these have been suppressed.

It is said that the Jiangxi militia suppressed the King of Huai with only a thousand people, and the latter surrendered under the siege.

The Prince of Jingjiang is still imprisoned in the palace by Qu Shisi. It was only when the regent sent someone to check on him that they relaxed a little. Originally, the Guangxi Elders wanted to starve his family to death in the palace, so that they would never have any trouble again. After all, they have already divided up the land and shops of the Prince of Jingjiang. So it is a joke to say that the princes would cause trouble.

But Li Zicheng really couldn't accept it...

He is also a vassal king.

"Humph!"

His Majesty the Emperor suddenly sneered strangely, as if he was possessed by a ghost.

Both Old Wang and Concubine Yuan were frightened.

"Summon the King of Qin to the palace and tell him that I have something important to discuss with him."

His Majesty the Emperor said.

……

Outside the palace.

"Why are you back again?"

Yang Feng looked at Li Zicheng curiously as he hurried back.

He is now wandering around and doesn't care about the affairs in the south at all. After all, everything is developing in a direction that is favorable to him.

Of course, as a loyal minister, he cannot hang out with these traitors.

He just needed to wait for them to resolve everything, then show up and accept the reality. He even had an excuse for his disappearance ready...

After the King of the East Sea fell into the water, he hit a rock and fainted. He had eaten an elixir, so he was immortal. Of course, he never told this secret in the past, but now he is not pretending. He is immortal, but immortality is not immune to coma. In short, he was washed downstream by the river while in a coma, and then washed into the sea. This can also explain why he could not be fished out of the Yangtze River. In short, he was in a deep coma, drifting in the Yangtze River, and when he woke up, he was already in the vast ocean.

Then he kept drifting looking for a boat.

How long it would take to find the boat depended on when he wanted to show up.

There's no need to take a made-up story too seriously. No matter how outrageous it is, people will believe it anyway. So just make it up casually.

In that case, let’s just wander around for now.

He has actually been in Xi'an for two days.

The current situation in the city is not bad. Although it cannot be said that they have enough food and clothing, no one has starved to death, because most of them are under military management. Some of them are soldiers who followed Li Zicheng. These people are paid silver and food, and the standard is to feed a family of five. Another part is the camp households, that is, those who belong to those generals. They do not undertake military tasks, but are only managed by the military to farm. They do not pay taxes, but the lost soldiers are recruited from their young and strong, which means they have the obligation to serve as soldiers.

Of course, soldiers will receive military pay.

However, the land of the camp residents was not their own, but was allocated to them as share land.

In fact, it is similar to the Weisuo system, or the Fubing system. These have been similar since ancient times. They designed a class that is different from pure farmers, and they are responsible for military obligations, but they are given some benefits...

Being a military household also has many benefits at the beginning!

Schools, also known as Weixue, hospitals, also known as Huijun Pharmacy, clothing, cloth was given in different seasons, and Zhu Yuanzhang even distributed pepper. In short, there were constant rewards, not to mention the looting in wars. The collapse of the military household system had nothing to do with the system itself. It was just that the upper class that maintained the system was rotten, and instead of maintaining it, they deliberately destroyed it, which led to the corruption of the military household system.

However, as a newly established system, Li Zicheng's system, coupled with an upper echelon that has not yet become corrupt, is still very vibrant.

Another part is the purely civilian households, which currently do not pay taxes, including gentry.

Of course, they only farmed and it was difficult for them to have other income, but the camp residents could serve as soldiers and then use the military pay and go out to loot to get higher returns.

This is Li Zicheng's management system, with the army supported by military pay, the barracks households providing reserve soldiers, and the civilian households not providing reserve soldiers.

Of course, the basis of all this is still money.

Or it could be said that it was the nearly 30 million taels that he brought from the capital to Xi'an.

At least he could maintain this system before the money was spent. However, because of his extortion of the South and his exploitation of the Qing Dynasty through the salt industry, the actual reduction this year was not much.

He did not collect taxes from farmers, nor did he not collect taxes from merchants. In fact, his business taxes were very high, and he also controlled many highly profitable industries.

The Hedong Salt Lake alone earned him several million taels a year. This salt lake was the main source of salt for Shanxi, Shaanxi, and part of Henan. He also controlled the trade in the Western Regions, which was another considerable income. Even his merchants were already heading to the Western Regions. After all, Shaanxi people were still very interested in doing business. Moreover, through his concubine or Lin Danhan's wife, his relationship with the Tumed tribes was basically restored to the Shunyi King era. The latter also needed his trade, which was nothing more than paying homage to Dorgon on one side and to Li Zicheng on the other.

Li Zicheng didn't care about this, and although Dorgon was unhappy, he didn't have the ability to do anything at that time.

In fact, it is not just the Tumed tribes. Currently, all the Mongolian tribes from Xuanda to the west are vassal states of both sides.

The only people who truly submit to the Qing Dynasty are the nomads in Eastern Mongolia and the Northeast.

In short, Shaanxi is now in a prosperous period compared to the Chongzhen period...

If there weren't so many starving people in these days, it would already be a prosperous time.

The prosperous era of the Qin Dynasty.

It's like a black humor.

Shaanxi, which had resisted Li Zicheng for more than ten years, finally stopped starving to death under Li Zicheng's governance.

Sun Chuanting’s coffin lid can’t hold it down anymore!

Yang Feng stood outside the palace gate and watched Li Zicheng rush in on horseback again. He looked around, quickly found a suitable position, and then slipped over.

This temporary palace was actually the Prince of Qin's Palace, but because the original palace was too troublesome, many city walls were torn down to facilitate passage through the city. The only part left for Chongzhen was the innermost part. As for guards, there were not many, and mainly because it was impossible for Chongzhen to escape. Now in Shaanxi, especially in Guanzhong, there was widespread support for Li Zicheng. Even if Chongzhen escaped from the palace, he could not escape the encirclement of his subjects.

Even the gentry would not allow Chongzhen to escape. After all, Li Zicheng relied on the money and grain extorted from the south by Chongzhen to reduce the burden on Guanzhong.

Chongzhen escaped?

Then there would be no money and food from the south, and Li Zicheng would have to ask them for financial support.

They knew very well that the reason why His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin was so kind now was mainly because he had no shortage of money. But that didn't mean that His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin had turned over a new leaf. His new-style clamps had not yet been destroyed!

Yang Feng quickly found a place without guards, and then relied on his speed to climb up the city wall and climb in in the shortest time possible.

He took a quick look inside and determined where Chongzhen lived, then quickly moved over and climbed onto the roof before the patrolling soldiers found him...

(End of this chapter)