I have a cornucopia

Chapter 330: You Can’t Be Loyal and Righteous at the Same Time
“I have already made your affairs very clear. Her Majesty the Queen does not want to delve further into Kang Miao’s death just for the sake of the overall situation. However, as Kang Miao’s daughter, she cannot forget this matter. Therefore, she cannot stop those subjects who are loyal to Kang Miao from seeking revenge for Kang Miao.

She can take the overall situation into consideration.

But she had no reason to stop those who wanted to avenge Kang Miao.

These people did nothing wrong. As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, she did need to stabilize the country. This was her duty. However, these people had to continue to avenge Kang Temple for the sake of loyalty and righteousness. This was also their duty as subjects.

What's more, the imperial court is now unable to stop it. The Ming Dynasty is no longer the same as it used to be. The imperial court has fewer soldiers than your militia, not to mention the Western Army. What can the imperial court do? The Ming Dynasty is now barely maintaining itself. There are soldiers in every place, just like a separatist regime. All I can do now is to be a paperhanger and keep the Ming Dynasty going. The rest is really beyond my ability to solve. Of course, if you want to talk, I can be the one who speaks up. They can still give me face in this matter."

King Yang looked at the elders who came to meet the Queen and spoke as if he was possessed by Li Ergui.

But he wasn't exaggerating.

Theoretically, the Ming Dynasty did not participate in the Jingnan Campaign, and the only regular official troops with the same level of field combat capabilities were the generals under his command, including Jin Shenghuan, Liu Yuanqing, Cao Youyi, and Huang Fei. Their total strength added up to only 70,000 to 80,000. Huang Fei had more troops, and Cao Youyi only had a few thousand...

Of course, these thousands are all capable of fighting.

If Yang Feng let them play as they did in the past, they could just recruit able-bodied men to expand the number to 100,000.

However, under the current model, a general has only tens of thousands or even thousands of soldiers under his command, and then there are the militia in their jurisdiction. The latter only get paid when fighting, and go home to farm when not fighting. At this time, Suzhou militia alone has expanded to 30,000, Zhejiang militia to 50,000, Songjiang militia to 10,000, but the navy is mainly composed of them, and the navy still has 15,000, and only Wuxi and Jiangyin Changzhou militia has 10,000, and the four militias add up to more than 100,000.

They are all capable of fighting.

In fact, most of them were veterans of militias from other parts of Nanzhili that had been disbanded one after another.

Including some veterans of Jiangxi militia.

The Jiangxi militia is also downsizing, or becoming more elite. After all, although the Jiangxi militia had a large number of troops in the past, their level was actually lower than that of Zhejiang. This time, under the banner of downsizing, the number of troops was reduced to 40,000, but most of the laid-off troops were hired by the Zhejiang militia with high salaries.

The current mercenary model in the Ming Dynasty has become very mature, and even truly professional mercenaries have emerged. After all, being a soldier really earns a lot of money. Farming can only leave you with little money after a year, but being a soldier can earn dozens or even hundreds of taels of silver a year.

You can buy more than ten acres of paddy fields in a year.

As for the danger…

Isn’t it just as dangerous not to join the army these days?
In fact, the chances of survival are higher if you join the army. After all, you have the ability to protect yourself if you encounter rebels or bandits.

The Ming Dynasty had not yet reached a period of peace and prosperity.

This was at most the early years of the Hongwu reign. The continuous chaos had already caused bandits and deserters everywhere, including Jianlu deserters. After all, the latter could pretend to be monks by cutting their tails and burning a few scars. It took Zhu Yuanzhang twenty years and countless heads to finally rebuild order. The era of the black shops selling human meat buns in Water Margin was actually the early Ming Dynasty. Shi Naian could not have imagined the Northern Song Dynasty hundreds of years ago out of thin air. His reference could only be the world around him. He even knew how to eat human flesh, instead of imagining Huang Chao to smash people into chicken bone paste like the literati of the Song Dynasty.

If Yang Feng wants to rebuild order, he has to learn from Lao Zhu and spend enough time.

"Your Majesty, we must cease fire during the negotiations. Now that the six-month ceasefire period is about to expire, the other party cannot launch a surprise attack during the negotiations."

Qian Shisheng said.

"Okay, they still have to give me this face."

Yang Feng said casually.

Qian Shisheng and the others looked at each other. They still believed in King Yang's promise. After all, the other party would really give King Yang face...

King Yang is the fucking mastermind behind all this. He was the one who ordered it all.

"Your Majesty, the military and civilians of the six prefectures can accept the imperial envoys sent by the court to conduct a thorough investigation of the regicide case in Kang Temple. The six prefectures are also subjects of Kang Temple. We are all loyal to Kang Temple and are not afraid of others' investigation. However, they are using the name of investigating the case to persecute the gentry and rob the people. Then we have no choice. Although the six prefectures are weak, we cannot let others bully us. Those who did participate in the regicide case must be punished according to the law, but those who did not participate were innocently implicated. Isn't it unfair? We are all old subjects of Kang Temple, and even served four emperors. We can't sit idly by and watch such an injustice."

Qian Shisheng said.

Other elders echoed.

King Yang smiled slightly.

"Everyone, it's useless for you to tell me. It's not like I want to attack you. You have to tell them this at the negotiation table."

He said.

The elders also smiled in response.

They just made their bottom line clear to Yang Feng. No matter what the negotiations were, in the end it was still him, the mastermind behind the scenes, who had to make the decision. They told him the bottom line first and showed him their determination to fight to the end if he disagreed. The rest was up to him to handle, and then they left.

As soon as they left, Li Zhifang, Gao Yigong, Gao Jie and others came out.

"Are you trying to cut off your wrist to survive?"

Li Zhifang sneered.

"You can take it all, but you still want to give us a piece of meat?"

Gao Yigong said.

"This bunch of people are like this. They have become stupid because of reading too much. They always think that they are the smart ones and everyone else is stupid. It's just like those salt merchants who wanted to bribe the Jianlu with hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. They thought that everyone else would be fooled by their small amount of money. Little did they know that if they killed them, all their silver would be ours."

Gao Jie said.

So there are no fools here.

The elders suggested that the court could send someone to investigate, which meant that they could sacrifice some gentry or even some elders. After all, two emperors had died, and there had to be someone responsible. They would hand over this part and let Yang Feng raid their homes.

But if you want to expand the scope of the campaign or resort to purges, that won’t work.

To put it bluntly, it is still the same idea as the Yangzhou salt merchants. It has to be said that with the previous experience of the Yangzhou salt merchants, it is really stupid for them to still think like this.

"They have lost their confidence. We should find a way to break down their strongholds. Once we break down one area, the common people will take care of the rest."

Yang Feng said.

"This is easy to handle. The man named Cha has already contacted some people in Hangzhou who are willing to surrender, including an elder. However, they want us to guarantee their property and give some other people's property as reward money."

Li Zhifang said.

It is true that these fortresses in Jiangnan are difficult to attack now, but it is different if there is an insider leading the way.

"How can there still be such a fool? Why do we keep him when we have already used him up?"

Gao Jie said.

"Well, then no one will dare to join us in the future, right?"

Gao Yigong said.

"Later? What later do we want? Do we want such a good thing a second time?"

Li Zhifang said in astonishment. Gao Yigong was speechless, it was obvious that he was still too naive.

Indeed, there is no need to consider future problems in such matters. It is a one-time deal. After the robbery, leave the hands. What happens next is the responsibility of the court. In this case, why bother about credibility? Do you still expect to have the opportunity to rob again?
"Quality, pay attention to quality!"

King Yang knocked on the table speechlessly.

……

Hangzhou.

"He really agreed?"

Chen Zhilin, an elder from the Zhejiang Elderly Association, looked at Cha Jiyou, a juren from Haining, who was standing in front of him.

The latter is what Li Zhifang was talking about.

The Cha family is also a family of Haining, but slightly inferior to the Chen family. Cha Jiyou is a juren, a member of the local elites association, and also controls part of the militia. This is the case in Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou now. Big and small tyrants use militia to control local areas, annex land and divide commercial interests.

Haining is a salt industry, but now the imperial court's salt industry system exists in name only.

Lianghuai is the warlord group led by Gao Jie.

Zhejiang is the coastal tyrants, and they have made salt cheaper and cheaper. After all, without the restrictions on salt permits, each one can compete for the market based on their own ability. At least in the early stage of this brutal competition, they must compete for the market based on price. In fact, it is the same in Yang Feng. Several salt fields in Shandong are also under the control of local tyrants, and even salt merchants are no longer restricted. For example, the mountain people in Huguang Mountain Area used to have to bear the sky-high price of salt from salt merchants, which was as high as 60 times the price, but now local merchants can go to these salt fields to sell it themselves.

No need for salt permits.

In theory, of course, the salt guide still exists.

But it is like waste paper.

It was actually similar in the past. After all, most of the salt consumed by the people in the Ming Dynasty was privately-owned salt. But at least it was still controlled by those business groups. But now the Yangzhou salt merchants have suffered heavy losses, and the imperial court is in name only. If you have the ability, just sell it. Who cares if you are a salt merchant or not? Even those in Huguang who sell grain downstream will bring salt back to Huguang on their return trip.

Of course it’s cheaper if you sell more.

As for production capacity...

How much has the population of the Ming Dynasty decreased? The salt fields will not disappear.

"What they want is Hangzhou. What can we have in Haining that is worth their while? Yu Gongxun and others always think of bribing them, but the salt merchants in Yangzhou are a lesson for us. In this world, propriety, righteousness, and integrity have long been thrown out of the window. Tigers and wolves are rampant, and the weak are preyed upon by the strong. The more money we pay, the more they know that we are rich.

buy?

If they kill us, all the money will be theirs.

Can we spend all our money to bribe them?
We can't follow Yu Gongxun and his people anymore, they will confiscate our property and destroy our entire family sooner or later."

Cha Jiyou said.

Haining is now at the forefront, and they are really anxious. Once a fighting breaks out, the result is obvious. Everything will be over when the shells fall. Even if Hangzhou is saved in the end, Haining will be destroyed. The Hangzhou gentry will definitely not pay them compensation, and at most they will praise them for their selflessness.

"But can Li Zhifang guarantee that he won't break his promise? Now he is using us, so naturally we will agree to anything. But after he is done using us, we will be at his mercy."

Chen Zhilin said.

This is actually the most critical issue.

We are all smart people. Li Zhifang is also a distinguished scholar. If we put ourselves in his shoes, we can understand each other. Tigers and wolves are rampant and the strong prey on the weak. This is indeed the case now. But if we surrender, won't we be the meat?

"His promise is of course useless, but Yang Feng's is different. We are also rebelling. The Zhejiang Elders participated in the regicide and raised troops to resist the royal army. Although Her Majesty is lenient and did not say that they were rebelling, they were clearly rebelling. We had no choice but to deal with them in the past. Now that the royal army has arrived, we will rebel in Haining and serve as the royal army's vanguard to open Hangzhou and capture these rebels. This can be considered as loyalty to the country. As long as Yang Feng pardons our crime of having to follow the enemy, it will be fine.

Yang Feng's words still count."

Cha Jiyou said.

Chen Zhilin had a thoughtful expression.

What he said seemed to be right. Although Yang Feng was a bad guy, he seemed to really keep his word.

Good reputation.

I have to say this is also very sad.

This evil guy who has done all kinds of evil seems to have more credibility than most decent people.

Of course Li Zhifang couldn't be trusted, but Yang Feng's promise was completely credible.

And more importantly, their defection was indeed a rebellion. No matter how you look at it now, the Zhejiang Elders' Council was also a rebel. How Kang Miao died was already known to everyone. Without the consent of the Elders' Council, the militia would never dare to bombard Xijiangkou.

Without the instructions of the Council of Elders, how could Du Yinxi dare to bombard the dragon boats in Jiujiang?
However, in the current situation, the court is a female emperor, and they don't want to cause a bigger war. After all, if the matter is investigated, the three provinces of Nanzhi, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang will be involved. But Yang Feng did not give up, and with the death of Li Zicheng, it eventually became the current situation where the Jingnan Army besieged the six prefectures. But in this war, the Jingnan Army represented loyalty. The empress was just afraid of a larger-scale war. It is also impossible to say that she did not want to avenge her father's murder. How could she forget the revenge for her father's murder? So their defection was equivalent to showing their loyalty to the empress.

They are loyal subjects.

As long as Yang Feng agrees to pardon them, they will become loyal subjects.

Become a loyal subject of Her Majesty the Queen.

Let the Empress see their efforts to avenge her father's murder. At that time, as long as Yang Feng promises not to pursue the previous matters, it will not be a problem for him to rise to prominence in the future. After all, Elder Chen is still eager to make progress. He was kicked out by Chongzhen because of his father's affairs, and has been dormant until now as the second place in the imperial examination. He is really eager to make progress.

As long as this bet is right, he will be a famous minister favored by the Queen, and will leave generations of wealth and glory to his descendants!

"When you go see Li Zhifang again, as long as there is an imperial edict, we will switch sides. It must be an imperial edict, and it must be written with that special ink."

Chen Zhilin said with determination.

The special ink is written with a marker. This kind of ink represents the true authorization of the empress or Yang Feng. More importantly, there is no need to worry about anyone going back on their word. As long as this imperial edict is taken out, everyone will understand that it is real and not forged by them. It can be said that this is a guarantee.

Cha Jiyou nodded, then stood up and left.

Chen Zhilin looked at the starry sky outside with an expression of concern for the country and the people...

"You can't have both loyalty and righteousness!"

He sighed.

Because of his loyalty to Kang Temple, he had no choice but to betray those friends.

Bah, what friends? They are obviously traitors!

At this time we should not sigh that we cannot have both loyalty and righteousness, but should shout loudly that we will kill all the thieves and slaves today, and take the golden seal as big as a bucket and tie it behind our elbow!

(End of this chapter)