Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 228: Lady Matchmaker: There is indeed something wrong with him!

The rebel kings in various places were defeated, and Prince Xin's army became increasingly powerful.

Take Shi Daoshen as an example. Before and after his troops occupied Hangzhou, there was basically no major loss in scale. Instead, it maintained a very high level.

And because the policy of distributing land and exempting grain taxes was widely praised and touched the hearts of the people, many people would come to vote when they had the chance.

Even if they cannot join the army directly, they are willing to serve as the rebel army's baggage and logistics support.

In just over ten days, Shi Daoshen's troops increased from 150,000 before the siege to 200,000.

And this does not include the logistics and baggage troops, and Sun Kewang's troops will only be more, not less than his.

When the news was reported to Chongzhen, his whole mind was buzzing, "No... this method doesn't work!"

"What's the problem?" King Xiang walked in from outside and asked in confusion.

Chongzhen handed the message to Prince Xiang, "The court ordered us to reduce the number of bandits, but the problem now is that our troops have increased... to nearly half a million."

"Five... five hundred thousand?" Prince Xiang took the report in disbelief and stood there in a daze. "It's over, it's all over this time. You don't know how cruel the Ming Dynasty is to the vassal states. Many of our vassal states have been exiled to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces."

"I was just smug, saying that since you have completed this mission, you have also made military achievements, and the emperor will not settle accounts. But now, not only have we not reduced our troops, but we have increased them by a lot... What does this mean in the eyes of the emperor?"

"This is a sign of self-reliance and rebellion."

"If anyone puts a yellow robe into your mansion now, our lineage of King Xiang will be completely finished."

King Xiang cursed bitterly, and threw the newspaper in his hand into the fire while cursing, "Don't tell Old Han about this. This old man is close to the emperor. I will go find the old blind man to discuss it. After all, I still have a certain friendship with the old blind man, and he has always been sitting on our side."

"Father..." Before Chongzhen could finish his words, he saw Prince Xiang running out in a hurry.

He actually didn't know what to say. Just as Prince Xiang said, if he was not Chongzhen but Zhu Changgan himself, with 500,000 soldiers under his command, let alone 500,000, even if it was 200,000, he would have been unable to sleep long ago.

We must find a way to frame him for treason and have him killed.

Ok?
That’s not right. I was such a person before?
Chongzhen stood there for a long time, and finally he sighed, "Forget it, just let him find something to do."

Now that Suzhou City and Hangzhou City have been captured, the anti-king conference can no longer be postponed.

Wuchang City,
Countless colorful flags were flying, and the atmosphere of joy and encouragement among the people could be seen everywhere in the city.

Great victory!

Another great victory!

The cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou were captured one after another. Once the notice was posted, the people were all extremely excited.

Although it was already late autumn, people who were watching the fun were still standing on the street, tiptoeing towards the Governor's Mansion to look inside.

Because Prince Xin said that the day when Suzhou and Hangzhou cities were captured would be the day he agreed to meet with the rebel kings.

They all wanted to see whether Prince Xin had recovered after being attacked.

It was still early in the morning, but the streets were already full of people, talking and looking around...

Not far away, the first person to appear was Lao Huihui. He rode his horse from outside and got off the horse from a long distance away, then walked towards the Governor's Mansion.

Ge Liyan He Yilong also came.

And there is Zuo Jin Wang He Jin...

Next came Sheta Tian Li Wanqing, who also straightened his clothes and walked in.

The next people were King Climbing, King Taiping, and a tiger...

Soon there was another round of shouting, and it turned out that Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, had arrived.

The people shouted their names as if they were participating themselves.

Meanwhile, in the inner court of the Governor's Mansion, Chongzhen was talking in a low voice with Old Han and the old blind man. There was no trace of laughter, but rather a sense of tension.

"How's it going? Did you catch Lady Hong?"

"There shouldn't be a problem. We can take advantage of today's anti-king conference to take action. The other anti-kings shouldn't notice." Old Han said in a deep voice.

Seeing that Suzhou and Hangzhou cities had been captured, it would be unreasonable not to meet with the rebel kings, so Chongzhen, Old Han and the blind man made a plan.

That is to capture Hong Niangzi in the momentum of the anti-king conference.

Prevent accidents.

"Prince Xin, the rebel kings have arrived. You should go meet them first. If there is any news, I will inform you as soon as possible." Old Han looked at the time and advised.

"it is good!"

When Chongzhen entered the reception room in front, he found that the entire room was filled with rebel kings of all sizes.

"Prince Xin!"

"Prince Xin!"

“……”When all the rebel kings saw King Xin appear, they stood up one by one and greeted him.

Chongzhen quickly bowed and returned the greeting, saying, "Sorry to have kept you all waiting!"

"Prince Xin was assassinated and is feeling unwell. It's not a big deal if we just wait a while. Don't you agree?" Li Wanqing shouted at everyone.

"That's right!"

"It is a great blessing for us that Prince Xin can come to see us."

"Your Majesty, you are a man of great integrity. You conquered the two great cities of Suzhou and Yangzhou with your own strength, yet you wanted to share the glory with us. You are a model for me to rebel against the king."

The anti-kings responded happily one by one.

After everyone sat down, Li Wanqing stood up and continued, "Now our righteous army has suffered heavy casualties under the siege of Sun Chuanting. I hope that Prince Xin can promote the prestige of our righteous army."

"Yes, our teams have suffered heavy casualties. Sun Chuanting is so fierce that our teams have been crippled. I would like to nominate Prince Xin as the leader of the rebels, so that he can lead the rebel army and smash the Ming court's encirclement and suppression."

"Under the current situation, Prince Xin is still willing to stand up, which shows his righteousness. I would like to nominate Prince Xin as the leader of the righteous army."

"Believe in the righteousness of the king!"

"..." Chongzhen's old face turned red due to the enthusiastic flattery from the rebel kings.

It can be seen that these words are congratulations and praises from the heart.

As an emperor, he had never thought that he would have to do such a thing one day. Even though he knew that the other party was a traitor, he could not deceive him like this... Suddenly, he felt an unconcealable sense of shame.

"Come on, drink!"

After Chongzhen drank a few mouthfuls, he said to the crowd: "After you finish eating and drinking, don't leave yet. Each family should bring some silver back and share it with the brothers first."

"Oh, I wonder how much Prince Xin is going to give to everyone?!" Li Zicheng's pupils suddenly shrank when he heard this, and he stood up and asked.

He had already received Liu Zongmin's letter, and after discussing it with Niu Jinxing, he also felt that there was something wrong.

Why are everyone else's troops losing ground, while only yours is bucking the trend and rising?

Chongzhen took a sip of wine and said, "I don't have much spare money, but I can still take out three million taels."

"Three million taels..."

"Hiss~ what a big deal!" As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present was immediately excited and started whispering to each other.

Most of the rebel kings present were born into poor families and had never seen a huge sum of three million taels of silver. In the past, the best at making money among them was none other than the Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong, but it was said that the silver in his hands never exceeded one million.

There were even rumors among outsiders that the Ming Dynasty rebelled again because of an emerald.

Even Li Zicheng was startled. He looked at Prince Xin with eyes as sharp as nails, but saw that the other party was looking at him calmly and fearlessly. Obviously, what he said was true.

Niu Jinxing and Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, looked at each other and shook their heads.

The meaning is full of the same idea: such a large amount of money cannot be a fraud.

The old Hui Hui drank the wine in one gulp, stood up and said, "Prince Xin, I told you before that I will resign the Left Five Camps and join the Xin Banner, and serve you as king."

"It is better to do it now than to wait for a better day. Can we take advantage of this opportunity today and join the King of Xin?"

"This... is of course what I want." Chongzhen's mouth twitched, and he nodded in response: "But the military orders in our army are strict. I hope Brother Ma will consider this carefully."

"You told me this before. How could I not have considered it carefully? Please rest assured, Prince Xin."

"In that case, we are brothers."

"Good~ Congratulations to Prince Xin!"

"Congratulations to King Xin!"

"..."

All the rebel kings stood up and cheered.

Shetatian Li Wanqing also stood up and said, "Prince Xin, I am a humble man, but I would also like to join the Xin banner. I hope Prince Xin will not despise me."

"How could that be?" Chongzhen kept bowing and said, "I welcome you with both hands."

The atmosphere in the entire Governor's Mansion was as warm as fire, with people toasting each other.

It lasted until it was almost dark, when the rebel kings, supported by their subordinates, left one by one, feeling satisfied.

When they left the house, some of the rebel kings did not forget to shout, "Believe in the righteousness of the king!"

……

In the capital, at the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Changgan was looking at the report sent back by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Sun Kewang and Shi Daoshen killed the two major weaving factories in Suzhou and Hangzhou, tea merchants in the two prefectures, salt merchants, etc. The money and grain confiscated included more than 20 million taels of silver.

There were also hundreds of workshops, thousands of shops, and hundreds of thousands of acres of mulberry fields, worth more than 6000 million taels of silver.

Moreover, after these shops and merchants sold their properties, they had to pay millions of taels of silver in taxes to the imperial court every year.

This money is definitely enough to suppress bandits in the south and fight against the Later Jin in the north.

These people made a fortune by taking advantage of the Ming Dynasty's "loosening" policy, but when Chongzhen was executed, these people did not take out a penny.

Now, everything has fallen into Chongzhen's hands.

Cash did not dare to be transported to Kyoto on a large scale for fear of being seen by other rebel kings, but various things such as "salt permits", shops, mulberry fields, workshops, etc. were transferred to the capital by Lao Han as soon as possible.

Chongzhen was reluctant to use three million taels of silver to paralyze all the bandits at the beginning, but he thought that after the bandits were eliminated, the money would still be his.

In the end, he agreed to Zhu Changgan's plan.

at night,

Chongzhen returned to the Qianqing Palace, patted the land deeds and house deeds, and sighed: "Sixty million taels... There is no such thing as sleepless nights, it's just the discomfort caused by too little money in my hands."

"Wang Chengen, use some silver to raise my head a little higher."

"Here we go, my Lord!"

Wang Chengen brought a pillow made of a large piece of silver and placed it under Chongzhen's bedding. The emperor lay on it and soon began to snore.

Money is the best medicine to cure any disease. These 60 million taels not only cured Chongzhen's insomnia and nightmares, but also cured Zhu Changgan's anxiety about money. More than half of the more than 20 million taels of silver had now been spent.

With an additional 60 million taels of silver coming in at once, his spirits and energy improved a lot.

Wang Chengen saw all these changes. "After so long, I finally understand. Is this the root of the emperor's illness?"

In the past, when the emperor was ill, he had consulted several imperial doctors, who prescribed various prescriptions, but the attack would still occur at night.

But now... the emperor is in good spirits during the day, and enjoys everything he eats. At night, he no longer makes noises or makes a fuss, and he no longer has his previous hysteria. He falls asleep as soon as he touches the pillow.

The key point is that his personality has changed a lot compared to before. He is no longer suspicious or skeptical. Today, the sun actually rose from the west and asked if he wanted to introduce a partner to him.
Which Ming emperor do you know, Zhu Youjian?

……

Inside Sun Chengzong's mansion.

Several officials from his hometown wanted to visit him, but he had already declined several times. This time he could not refuse, so he asked his son Sun Quan to invite them in.

After exchanging pleasantries, Imperial Censor Qu Weixuan finally asked, "Sir, there is a saying in the Ming Dynasty officialdom that one should not interfere in government affairs if one is not in a position to do so. But if one is in a position to do so, one should at least interfere in government affairs, right?"

Sun Chengzong glanced at him calmly and said, "I know what you want to say. In the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, the amount of money embezzled over the past few decades is at least tens of millions of taels. Where did all this money go? You know better than me."

"I've told you guys a long time ago that you should be more restrained, but you just won't listen."

"If you had given some of them, His Majesty wouldn't have done such a drastic thing."

Qi Guan Shoujie, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, continued, "But the money did not fall into the hands of the court, but instead fell into the hands of the bandits. This is the most distressing thing!"

"How do you know that the money didn't fall into the hands of His Majesty?" Sun Chengzong said with a smile: "Have you not heard that the devil is one foot high and the Tao is ten feet high?"

Several people's eyes flickered suddenly, "What does the elder mean..."

"Do you really think that all the things were done by the people below? Without your Majesty's approval, would they dare to do anything? After all, the Ming Dynasty belongs to the Zhu family. Your Majesty holds hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers and generals in his hands. How could he allow the country to fall into ruin?" After Sun Chengzong finished speaking, he asked his son to pour tea for everyone.

"Come, drink tea!"

These people looked at each other and sighed, "To be honest with you, we were just guessing before we came here. Now that you said so, I think this matter is not far from being settled."

Sun Chengzong did not reply directly, but raised his hand and took a sip of tea. "The matter in the south is settled, and the battle in the north is about to begin. If there are any of you who know military skills, if you can seize the opportunity..."

……

"You mean to say that we did see a bald man being captured by the people from Prince Xin's Palace that day?"

In Wuchang Prefecture, Hongniang took some time to find out some clues. She found an old man who was picking gold juice that day.

"He really has a problem!"

Suddenly, she looked out the window and shouted, "Who?"

Gui Ning reacted quickly and pushed the table towards the door, but before she could completely block the door, two darts flew towards her from outside.

Then torches were thrown in.

"Cover your mouth and nose..."

Today is the anti-king rally. People gather and disperse in the city, and the orchestral music from the dance hall resounds through the streets and alleys.

When the fire broke out here, the rebel kings and the people did not take it as a big deal. After all, there would always be one or two fires during the holidays.
(End of this chapter)