Not only was Yongping City much smaller than Beiping City, it was also beaten to pieces by the rebels. Wan Lei was led into the city, and when he saw the dilapidated buildings on both sides of the street, he felt as uneasy as the bumpy streets. To
Know,
There is no fear of poverty in this world, only poverty. The "former enemy headquarters" that was supposed to be located in Peiping was moved to this shitty town. Mr. Xu must have a lot of grievances, and the angry old man must not
So comforting.
When Wan Lei was thinking about how to balance the gap in Mr. Xu's heart, he was taken to a dilapidated government office. Judging from the blackened city wall, the fire must have happened not long ago. It didn't take much to think about it.
It is the "masterpiece" of the rebels.
This house is still the best-preserved house in Yongping City. The roofs of the houses, shops, warehouses, etc. were burned off, leaving only four walls. This shows how huge the destructive power of the Yan rebels was. If Peking
If we don't hold on, Yongping City will definitely end up like what it is now.
Since Peiping was saved by the Peiping Army, it is right for the Peiping Army to occupy the territory and not move away. Who made the imperial army so useless that they could not save the city, and in the end they could only rely on the militia to defend the city. When Wan Lei thought of this, his mentality became correct, and he
He adjusted his gray Taoist robes to make himself look more like a Taoist priest who was indifferent to worldly affairs, and was in the best condition to deal with the upcoming verbal battle.
Although he has only been in Ming Dynasty for a few months, Wan Lei has already followed the local customs. He wears a set of gray Taoist robes sewn by Wei'er, which fits him well. His hair is well-kept and his black hair is tied into a bun with a square and straight Chinese character.
His face looks red and white, and he has a short beard on his chin. He looks like a Confucian scholar. People who have never seen him will definitely not think that he is the "coach" who defends Peiping.
Wan Lei had just been sitting in the living room for a while when he heard the shout of "Wei Guogong has arrived" coming from outside the door. He hurriedly stood up to greet him, and saw Xu Huizu coming in with a golden sword, followed by several fully armed men.
The soldiers looked murderous.
"Mr. Xu, I've taken the liberty to come here to visit you." Wan Lei bowed his hands and bowed deeply, saying that he was not hasty.
"You are getting more and more courageous. How dare you come here? Aren't you afraid that I will chop you up alive?" As Wan Lei expected, Xu Huizu looked furious.
"You are invited by Mr. Xu, how dare you not come? I suddenly heard that Mr. Xu has been appointed as the president of both parties, so I am here to congratulate you." Wan Lei looked like a tiger with a smile on his face, not fighting with the other party.
"Rongren? I was sent here just because of your blessing to clean up the mess, what's the reason to congratulate?!" Xu Huizu rolled his eyes at Wan Lei, but saw that Wan Lei still looked like a tiger with a smile on his face and refused to scold back.
As the saying goes, don't hit the smiling person. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't get angry, so he could only wave his hand and said: "We are all guests from afar, take a seat."
Wan Lei was not polite to him, and sat back in the guest seat with his hands in hand, but his eyes were closed tightly, as if he was in meditation, and said nothing.
"You are so brave, you actually colluded with profiteers to smuggle prohibited items. Do you know that this is a serious crime of beheading!" Xu Huizu became furious again.
"Of course I know that Peiping is short of food and pay, and it can't get support from the court. If we don't get some money to supplement one or two, the Peiping army will not be able to eat and pay. I'm afraid that a mutiny will be difficult to control. I'm afraid this
It's the lesser of two evils." Wan Lei opened his eyes and looked at the furious Xu Huizu with a half-smile.
"You?!" Xu Huizu was extremely angry again. Wan Lei's argument that I am smuggling is justified made him very angry. He pointed at Wan Lei for a while and said angrily: "Don't be arrogant, kid. Don't think that your hand is right."
If you have an army, you can do whatever you want, but the court will not let you continue to act so arrogantly."
"As long as they can eat and pay, the Peiping Army will not mess around. As the saying goes, the emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers. If they cannot guarantee food and pay, then even the king of heaven will come and I will not be able to suppress them. Xu
The prince is the one who leads the army. He understands these principles better than anyone else. An ordinary person has little knowledge, so I won’t say more."
"Huh, you're just waiting to raise an army privately, but you come to me to cry out for food and wages. Do you think I'm a three-year-old child?!" Xu Huizu slammed the table and cursed fiercely.
"I don't dare, I don't dare to hope to raise a private army, let alone ask the court for money and food, but I have to say an ugly word: If a person has no way of living, he can do anything. This is like a dog jumping over the wall.
The rabbit is in a hurry to kick off the eagle. To put it bluntly, the government forces the people to rebel and they have no choice but to rebel."
"What a great example of officials forcing the people to rebel! When did the imperial court ever force you? It's true that you forced the imperial court!"
"My lord, if you say that, it's boring. The Peking Army defeated the Yan rebels, and holding the city of Beiping means guarding half of the imperial court. And what did the imperial court give to the Peking Army? A reward? No! No official title.
?None! Fief? Never! The Peking Army just wants autonomy. Its purpose is not to separate and stand on its own, but to protect itself."
When Wan Lei said this, he ignored Xu Huizu's murderous look and said calmly: "The imperial army repeatedly attacked Peking City and even abandoned the city. It is really disappointing. I have experienced it.
After such a tragic encounter, the soldiers and civilians of Shuntian Prefecture were really frightened and had to form their own army to defend their own territory, lest they be abandoned by the court and lose their livelihood. Isn't this small request too much?"
"That's nonsense! If you support your troops and respect yourself, isn't that self-reliance? If you have an affair with Bei Yuan, isn't that an intention to rebel? If you are allowed to become powerful, wouldn't it be a legacy of raising tigers?!"
"Mr. Xu, you have determined that the Peiping army will rebel, so just raise troops to conquer. Anyway, the imperial army has many soldiers, so it is not a problem to destroy the small Peiping army. I just want to mention that the imperial court was able to destroy the Peiping army, but it did not
Without justice, the imperial court can get Shuntian Mansion back, but it cannot win back people's hearts."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, are you threatening me?" Xu Huizu laughed angrily.
"I don't dare. I'm just a commoner. How dare I threaten the Duke of the DPRK? I'm just being outspoken and telling the truth." Wan Lei still had a calm smile.
"How can you be so unruly and arrogant among ordinary people?"
"Mr. Xu is so complimentary, I don't deserve it." Wan Lei still had a nonchalant expression on his face.
"You dare not take it?! How dare you take it seriously? My secret agent said that your kid is going to liaise with Bei Yuan and not only buy salt privately, but also buy iron tools privately. Such an act of subsidizing the enemy is no different from betraying the country. My father-in-law
I want to know who gave you the courage to openly act as a traitor to the enemy and the country?!"
"So it's because of this!" Wan Lei secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said: "The imperial court does not provide money and food, and the Peking Army has no food and salary. If you want to survive, there are only two ways at the moment, either smuggling or rebellion. The Peiping Army
Smuggling without rebellion is the lesser of two evils, and the main blame lies with the lack of magnanimity of the imperial court and its unwillingness to give preferential treatment to meritorious soldiers."
"You're such a treacherous citizen. You publicly insulted the imperial court. Are you not afraid that I will take you down and punish you for making false accusations and slanders?!"
"There's no need to accuse me of more crimes. I've already charged enough. It doesn't matter if I take one or two more charges. Anyway, justice lies in the hearts of the people. Even if my head is lost, it's just a scar as big as a bowl. It will last for eighteen years.
Then he became another good man."
"You!" Wan Lei looked like a dead pig not afraid of boiling water. Xu Huizu was completely angry and stared at him for a long time without saying a word.
Even so, Xu Huizu was not carried away by anger. As a mature general, he naturally knew that Wan Lei could not be moved. If this person was moved, the north would be in chaos for at least a few years. In a peaceful and prosperous era, it would not matter, but now
The imperial court's military and financial resources were exhausted, and it really couldn't afford to deal with it; but if he could not move this man, he was afraid that the Peiping Army would be in great trouble, so he was really in a dilemma and hesitant to decide.
Since we can't take advantage of it yet, we must first find ways to suppress it. Xu Huizu frowned, suppressed the anger in his heart, and said: "After all, don't you just want money and food? How much do you want? Just care about the lion.
Open up, even though the imperial court is poor, it can still afford this amount of money."
"The Peiping Army has always been rewarded with high military pay and merit. I am afraid that the imperial court will not be willing to give it, and people in the world will say that the Peiping Army is taking advantage of the fire. I still believe that since Shuntian Mansion is a chieftain's mansion, the court should not interfere with military, financial and taxation matters, so as not to
If outsiders see it, they will say that the imperial court has gone back on its word and is not trustworthy."
"Now that you are collaborating with the enemy, how can the imperial court not interfere?!" Xu Huizu slammed the table again.
"The purpose of opening the mutual market was to seek peace on the border, not to collaborate with the enemy. Shuntian Prefecture has suffered repeated military disasters, the people are poor and the army is short, and it really cannot afford to fight. And the imperial court has blocked us, so that we can't even carry out normal trade.
Then we can only seek help from others. If the court still regards us as one of its own, it shouldn't be so ruthless."
"You, you're such an unruly boy, are you still justified in collaborating with the enemy to benefit the enemy?"
"It's unreasonable for us to open a mutual market privately, but the imperial court blocked our Shuntian Mansion first, so we took this decision because we had no way to survive." Wan Lei still said in a calm tone.
"What a bad idea. You can't sell anything. Why do you specialize in salt, iron, tea and other prohibited items?!"
"Shuntian Prefecture has no other special products, it can only produce iron and salt, and the Mongols only want these things. If we don't sell these, what are we selling? Are we selling people?"
"You can still sell salt and tea privately, but you can't sell iron! Selling to Tatar ironware is like digging your own grave!"
"Not necessarily. Even if the Mongolians don't have iron tools, they can still get into the meat. Besides, what we sell are iron pots, not swords. If they take them, they can only use them as pots."
"Smash the pot and you can use it to forge weapons!"
"Don't worry, sir. I guarantee that those iron pots can only be used as pot cooks, and they can never be used to make weapons."
"What guarantee do you have?!"
"This iron is smelted here, and other materials will be added to it. With the Mongolian technology, if you want to use it to temper the fire to make weapons, I'm afraid it will be more difficult than re-smelting iron from iron ore. If you don't believe me, I will send it to you the next day.
Come over with a sample and you will know it at a glance."