Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 218 Various Thoughts

"Teacher, could you tell me more about going out to sea to buy food?"

Although Qian Qianyi was fully focused throughout the meeting, due to various factors, he did not pay attention to the purchase of grain.

Of course, even if he noticed it, he would probably just think that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's idea would fail. Qian Qianyi, who had never been involved in worldly affairs since the day he was born, would definitely not think any more about it.

So when the older disciple asked about it, his face didn't look good.

Although this matter was arranged by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to the nobles of Yingtian, it was ultimately just a business matter. Now he was teaching everyone through today's meeting, but that older disciple only focused on dirty things. How could Qian Qianyi tolerate this?
"Teacher, please don't be surprised. My clan had several sea vessels in the early years. I have some doubts after hearing this today."

Seeing that his teacher was about to lose his temper, the older disciple immediately began to explain. Although Qian Qianyi was still a little surprised after hearing it, he finally endured it and decided to listen to his words first.

"Teacher, although my uncles are in charge of my clan's maritime trade, I know that the most critical one is the sea route. Now that Your Highness is planning to open up the sea route through the imperial court, then this matter is about 70% certain."

At this point, the older disciple couldn't help but look at his teacher's face. Seeing that he didn't seem angry, he continued, "Now that the national situation is somewhat stable, it's time for us to share the worries of His Highness. If those nobles really don't want to serve the country, I would like to ask the teacher to ask for some share from His Highness and do my best for the people of the world."

As soon as these words fell, Qian Qianyi's young disciples were filled with emotion for a moment.

Share your Highness's worries, serve the country, and do my best for the people of the world.

These words have always been the most likely to arouse young people's emotions, but how could Qian Qianyi be fascinated by such words?
When he connected the "maritime trade matter" with certain things that had happened in Hangzhou earlier, four words suddenly came to his mind.

profitable!

At the same time, his gaze towards the older disciple gradually softened.

"Dashan, it's worth it that you have followed me for so many years. You have finally achieved the unity of knowledge and practice in loyalty to the emperor and the country."

Having said this, Qian Qianyi drew out a long note, but the changes in his brows clearly showed that Mr. Qian's brain was working at a rapid pace.

"It's just that this mission was assigned to the nobles by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Although we are willing to help His Royal Highness, we still can't show too much eagerness."

The older disciple was obviously surprised to hear this, but before he could say anything else, he heard his teacher's voice again.

"Also, these things should not be revealed to others. Only my master and I need to know about them. Otherwise, if others hear about them, I don't know how they will interpret them."

The further he talked, the more nonchalant Qian Qianyi seemed, which really complemented what he said.

But for the older disciple, although he could understand every word of his teacher, he couldn't help but doubt in his heart whether there was something wrong with his ability to listen.

After suffering suppression from the eunuch party, the strength of the Yingtian faction has suffered serious damage. This loss is not only reflected in the reduction of official figures, but also in the series of chain reactions caused by it.

For example, properties acquired through certain means in the early years may change due to the replacement of local officials.

For example, when it comes to irrigation, they may not be able to compete with others because they have lost their support.

All in all, the Yingtian faction suffered heavy financial losses during the Hongguang reign.

Under such circumstances, according to what the older disciple thought, his teacher should take the initiative and try his best to grab this piece of fat meat before those guys who are used to making easy money can react.

just
Just as the older disciple was extremely excited, his fellow disciples had already begun to express their thoughts on the meeting, and Qian Qianyi just smiled and gave them instructions one by one, as if the matter of maritime trade did not occupy the slightest weight in his mind.

Seeing this, the older disciple became more and more anxious, but due to the current situation, he could only force himself to be patient.

After a while, Qian Qianyi commented on the experiences of each disciple. When everyone seemed to have gained something, he said "I'm tired", and the disciples could only disperse.

He knew exactly what his older disciple was thinking, but for some reason he did not say another word about it until the end, as if what he thought in his heart was exactly what he said.

Qian Qianyi was short of money, very short of it.

Of course, with the regular money allocated to his clan, he could live a comfortable life without any worries, but if he wanted to make a name for himself in the court, that little bit of money would be nothing.

But he also knew in his heart that he should not rush into anything and wake up those guys who were still dreaming.

However, this does not mean that he would just wait passively. After his disciples left one after another, Mr. Qian, who had just returned to the mansion, asked the servants to harness the carriage again.

He thought clearly that the nobles who were used to making easy money would probably not have much interest in the so-called maritime trade.

It’s not that those people don’t know that maritime trade is a very profitable business, but the Sanyang sea route is almost cut off, so how can His Royal Highness the Crown Prince make it happen just by saying so?

In addition, these people are still somewhat wary of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Even if this sea route can be opened up under His Royal Highness's operation, the nobles who have always attached great importance to safety may not be very cooperative before everything is settled.

It is undeniable that with so many nobles in Man Yingtian, there must be some who are willing to take the risk for various reasons.

But if you want to stabilize Jiangnan, you will need a huge amount of food. Even if half of the nobles are willing to pay, there will still be a lot of vacancies.

If it’s just a business that can make money, who would complain that they take too much of a share?
It would be even better if we could try to squeeze some more out of the nobles.

With the arrival of Zhu Cilang, the depression caused by the two-month blockade by the Tartars was suddenly swept away, and Yingtian City naturally became active again. However, when the news of the victory in the battle of Jiangnan spread to all parts of the Ming Dynasty, the reactions of the governors and governors-general of various parties were somewhat interesting.

"What do you think?"

When He Tengjiao's officials read the newly received report carefully, the atmosphere in the room immediately became weird.

This report was sent from Hangzhou. It recorded in detail the several battles fought by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince since he first arrived in Hangzhou, and listed the results of the battles one by one.

In the Battle of Suzhou and Songjiang, nearly 10,000 enemies were killed and Hu Maozhen and more than 30,000 of his subordinates were forced to surrender.

Nearly 20,000 Qing troops were gathered under the city of Hangzhou. In the bloody battle of Wuhu, nearly 40,000 Qing troops were defeated and countless spoils were seized.

According to common sense, after reading this report, even if the officials in Changsha were not happy or upset, they should not be like they are now.

But they had their own situation here, everyone just had a sad face, but no one realized that something was wrong.

Earlier, when Zuo Liangyu led his troops in rebellion, he invited He Tengjiao, who had also spoken for Zhu Cilang, to join him. However, He Tengjiao eventually felt that such behavior was not what a subject should do, so after rejecting him, he gathered his former subordinates to make a covenant and oath, and allocated horses, ships, and food to them, and established several armed forces with each of them as a leader.

Later, Li Zicheng died unexpectedly in Jiugong Mountain. His generals Liu Tiren, Hao Yaoqi and others planned to join He Tengjiao as they had lost their commander.

But they led 40,000 to 50,000 people and suddenly entered Xiangyin, which was only a hundred miles away from Changsha. Everyone in the city, from He Tengjiao to the common people, thought they were just bandits attacking, and some of them were scared out of their wits.

What happens next is long and complicated, so I won’t go into detail here.

In short, after some actions, He Tengjiao not only successfully recruited Liu Tiren and Hao Yaoqi, but also brought Li Guo, Gao Yigong and their 200,000 troops under his command.

What was even more unexpected was that when Hao Yaoqi and his companions saw that they had found a place to stay, they recruited his followers Yuan Zongde, Lin Chengyang, Wang Jincai, Niu Youyong and others to surrender, which suddenly increased the number of soldiers by more than 100,000 and greatly boosted the military's prestige.

By this time, He Tengjiao had nearly 400,000 men under his command, and if one looked at their strength on paper, their strength was even far superior to that of Zhu Cilang's small court.

But there is no such thing as free bread in the world.
With these invading troops, Ajige began to have doubts about advancing into Hunan, but at the same time, due to the huge gap in strength between the host and the guest, the situation faced by He Tengjiao became more complicated.

Fortunately, the rebel army at that time fell apart due to Li Zicheng's unexpected death. At this stage, most of the generals were just prepared to be Ming ministers for the rest of their lives, but they had never had the intention of taking over the throne.

This is not just speculation on the part of the author.

In the original history, after these generals returned to the Ming Dynasty, they insisted on fighting against the Qing court in Kuidong as Ming officials.

However, the Manchus had already taken control of the world by then, and they were trapped in a corner. Not only was their weapons and armor not guaranteed, but even their soldiers were getting older and older because they could not be replenished.

Finally, after nearly twenty years of resisting the Qing Dynasty, Liu Tichun was defeated and hanged himself, Hao Yongzhong and Yuan Zongde were captured and killed, and Li Laiheng, who was surrounded, saw that there was no hope of resisting the Qing Dynasty, so he distributed his gold and silver treasures to his soldiers and ordered his subordinates to break out and escape, and he and his family committed suicide by burning themselves. The last team of the Ming Dynasty's anti-Qing army on the mainland disappeared with such a tragic ending.

They emerged as peasant uprisings due to the court's incompetence, and finally disappeared as Ming troops due to national justice. It is truly a moving story.

But at this stage, they have become an insurmountable obstacle between He Tengjiao and the imperial court, or more precisely, between He Tengjiao and Zhu Cilang's small imperial court.

Why?

It should be noted that Zhu Cilang's cheap father hanged himself after the rebel army captured Beijing. It is not unreasonable to say that he died at the hands of Li Zicheng.

According to the original history, after the fall of the Hongguang court, Prince Lu became regent. After that, whether it was Longwu or Yongli, although they were all emperors of the Ming Dynasty, they were considered to be a separate branch and had little to do with Chongzhen.

In addition, the situation at that time did not support the court from making irresponsible remarks about local governors and governors-general. Although He Tengjiao's move to gather the remnants of the rebel army had some moral flaws, it would not cause too much trouble in the end.

But now?

The eldest son of the late emperor!
Based on these few words, He Tengjiao had to carefully consider the consequences of his actions of gathering the remnants of the rebel army!
just
"Commander-in-chief, you don't have to worry too much. It is not unreasonable for His Royal Highness to achieve such a great victory under such circumstances." At this point, Du Yinxi recalled the figures in the court newspaper and became more certain that His Royal Highness must be a wise ruler. "Why don't I go north tomorrow and explain the situation to His Royal Highness."

Du Yinxi was a native of Huaiyin. Although he was appointed as the deputy envoy of the Huguang Censorate and the director of education during the Hongguang period, due to the specific environment at that time, he was more diligent in training soldiers and explaining tactics.

In the original history, he had been leading his troops to fight against the Qing army in Jingzhou. During the several major battles, he suffered more defeats than victories due to various internal reasons, but it was not his fault.

Du Yinxi became ill due to overwork due to years of fighting. When vomiting blood became a common occurrence, he felt that his time was running out, so he bowed to the palace again and wrote a will to the emperor.

Although it is not explicitly stated above, it does reflect the contradiction between the old officials of the Ming Dynasty and the surrendered militia.

However, for him now, the relationship between the militia and the old officials is still in the honeymoon period, and what really worries him is how to convince His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

What he could think of, He Tengjiao could roughly think of as well.

joke.

In the previous situation, not only did the officials in the court feel that they could not stop the Tartars, but even the provincial governors themselves believed that Jiangnan was undefendable. The best outcome for the court was to rely on the terrain of Jiangxi to try to resist.

But under such circumstances, the "fake prince" who was imprisoned in the Ministry of War actually won victory after victory with the help of the garrison troops in the south of the Yangtze River.

There are probably only a few emperors in the history of the Ming Dynasty who can achieve this. How can such a person be incompetent?
just
If he wasn't stupid, would he have accepted the remnants of the bandit army calmly?
Even if he really didn't care about the reputation of "fake prince" and brought together the murderer who killed his father, would these generals who came to surrender to him be at ease fighting for the Ming Dynasty just because His Royal Highness the Crown Prince let them go for a while?

Yes.

In He Tengjiao's opinion, this is an unsolvable problem.

If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince really accepts this remnant army, not only will those in the court with ulterior motives make a big fuss about it, but the Tartars will also likely use various means based on it.

Under such circumstances, if he and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince were in each other's shoes, he would definitely not take the risk of shaking the foundation to gather these remnants of the army when the crisis is temporarily resolved.

Similarly, how would the remnants of the rebel army feel when they learned that the person in charge of the Ming court was the son of the emperor whom they forced to hang himself?

Do they think that this is just a delaying tactic of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and that he will settle the score thoroughly only when the situation is truly stabilized?

In addition, He Tengjiao is actually now at a disadvantage. If he really expressed his support after receiving the emperor Chongzhen's personal appointment of the prince as regent, who knows what Hunan would become?
In this situation, what else can he do except play dumb?

Oh~~, it’s difficult.

(End of this chapter)