"Zhao Junchen! I regard you as an ally and treat you with all my heart, but you actually regard me as a chess piece and use it at will! When this matter comes to an end, I will definitely not be done with you!"
Looking at the confrontation between the officers and soldiers of the Jiangfang camp and the Jin gentry forces from a distance, Huang Yourong cursed viciously.
But in fact, Huang Yourong's words obviously greatly beautified himself.
After Huang Yourong collapsed and lost power, he quickly took over the position of governor of Southern Zhili under Zhao Junchen's operation. Although he could not continue to influence the court's policies, he was still an important feudal official. Since then, he and Zhao Junchen
He turned enemies into friends, formed alliances, and assisted Zhao Junchen in many things, which was considered a return favor.
But to say that Huang Yourong confides in Zhao Junchen is definitely an exaggeration and sheer nonsense.
At least, after seeing Zhou Shangjing's action of embezzling the "United Shipping Company", Huang Yourong had no reaction from beginning to end and stood aside all the time.
The reason is also very simple - Huang Yourong is not willing to offend the Jiangnan Jinshen Group for Zhao Junchen.
Therefore, when Zhao Junchen made up his mind to become an enemy of the Jiangnan Jinshen Group, he could not count on Huang Yourong at all under normal circumstances. If Zhao Junchen asked Huang Yourong to personally support him when he was competing with the Jinshen forces, Huang Yourong would definitely not be grateful.
Zhao Junchen was also very aware of this, so he did not directly ask Huang Yourong to come out to support him personally, but sent someone to send a message to Huang Yourong.
According to Zhao Junchen, he had found conclusive information and found that the group of gangsters who had turned Nanjing upside down some time ago and even kidnapped the seventh prince Zhu Hejian were now hiding at the junction of Nanjing and Suzhou, and asked Huang Yourong as soon as possible
Send troops to encircle and suppress this group of ruthless bandits.
At the same time, Zhao Junchen also deliberately emphasized that in addition to himself, Zhou Shangjing, the seventh prince Zhu Hejian and others also discovered the whereabouts of this group of bandits, so Huang Yourong had better lead his troops to surround and suppress the bandits in person, in case it was Zhou Shangjing.
Zhu Hejian and others grabbed the credit.
After hearing the news, Huang Yourong was immediately overjoyed!
Suzhou and Nanjing are only half a day's journey apart, so Huang Yourong is also very aware of the heinous crimes committed by "Chaofeng" during this period, including killing people in downtown, looting military camps, hijacking charity halls, kidnapping princes and other crimes, which can be said to be the most heinous crimes.
, the murderous reputation is so great that it is enough to be specially recorded in the history books!
If Huang Yourong could personally capture this gang of gangsters, it would be a great achievement!
Considering that the current situation in the center of the capital is turbulent, all forces are being purged by Emperor Deqing, and several cabinet ministers are also in danger. It is also said that Zhou Shangjing is also dying soon, so after Huang Yourong has accomplished such a remarkable feat,
, maybe he can return to the cabinet and assist in government again!
Therefore, after Huang Yourong received the news, he naturally gathered his troops without any delay and wanted to personally lead the troops to suppress the bandits!
Considering the reputation of this group of fierce bandits, even all the officers and soldiers in Nanjing City could not do anything to them. Moreover, according to Zhao Junchen, Zhou Shangjing and Zhu Hejian may also compete with him for credit, so Huang Yourong spared no effort when mobilizing troops.
, all the soldiers and horses near Suzhou were summoned by him, with a total of four thousand, and even five hundred cavalry!
However, when Huang Yourong led his army to the junction of Suzhou and Nanjing in great excitement, he did not see the group of ruthless bandits that Zhao Junchen had mentioned. Instead, he saw the Jiangfang camp detaining the Jinshen cargo ship and blocking the river.
Just when Huang Yourong was scratching his head, the Jin gentry quickly arrived with a crowd and confronted Jiang Fang camp, ready to start a war at any time.
After seeing this scene, Huang Yourong vaguely realized that he might have been tricked by Zhao Junchen!
Under normal circumstances, after learning about the confrontation between the Jiang Fang camp and the Jin gentry forces, Huang Yourong would definitely pretend to be ignorant and try his best to avoid being involved in it.
After all, although Huang Yourong was the governor of Southern Zhili, and nominally Nanjing was under his jurisdiction, Nanjing was also the capital of the Ming Dynasty. It had always been a collection of various yamen, with various forces checking and balancing each other, and various dignitaries dissatisfied with each other.
, the successive governors of Southern Zhili were unable to control the situation. Until the late Chongzhen period of the previous dynasty, the then governor of Southern Zhili simply moved the official office from Nanjing to Suzhou and stopped interfering in the situation in Nanjing completely.
In this way, even if there was a large-scale conflict between the Jiangfang camp and the Jin gentry forces in Nanjing, Huang Yourong could completely ignore it. When the court investigated the responsibility afterwards, he had every reason to distance himself.
But it is a pity that because of Zhao Junchen's misdirection, Huang Yourong has personally led his troops to the scene of the confrontation between Jiang Fang Camp and the Jin gentry forces. If he still sat back and ignored the large-scale conflict between Jiang Fang Camp and the Jin gentry forces, the court would hold him responsible afterwards.
At this time, he has no reason to distance himself anymore. Let alone return to the cabinet, I am afraid that he will not even be able to keep his position as governor of Southern Zhili.
However, Huang Yourong initially took a chance and believed that a real conflict between the Jiang Fang camp and the Jin gentry forces might not break out. Therefore, after he led his troops to the nearby area, he hid in the distance and secretly observed changes in the situation.
At the beginning, the Jiangfang camp and the Jin gentry forces were relatively restrained. They spent a whole afternoon in repeated negotiations, but there was no sign of direct war.
But just when Huang Yourong secretly breathed a sigh of relief, the situation suddenly deteriorated as the sky dawned. Jin Shen's side tried to attack Jiang Fang Camp's defense line without any warning, as if they were crazy. The conflict finally broke out.
However, when the conflict broke out at the beginning, Huang Yourong still took a chance and was completely unwilling to intervene personally. He also hoped that the conflict would not be particularly intense and that it could be covered up afterwards.
But then, Huang Yourong received all kinds of bad news one after another.
The strong men under Jin Shen's command launched a fierce attack, while Jiang Fang's battalion used various types of ordnance to counterattack and suppress it. In the end, they narrowly repelled Jin Shen's attack, causing a certain number of casualties...
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! After the first attack of the Jin Gentry forces was thwarted, they did not give up. Instead, they organized their teams again and tried to attack Jiang Fang camp again. It was clear that they wanted to fight Jiang Fang camp to the death...
…
Jiang Fang camp directly set fire to three cargo ships, and directly collided with the ships of the Jin gentry force with the fire ship formation. The Jin gentry who were hiding on the ships to watch the battle also suffered casualties...
After receiving this news, Huang Yourong finally couldn't sit still. If he didn't step in and intervene, the conflict would definitely get out of control, and there would be more and more casualties on both sides. This conflict would eventually shock the government and the opposition.
At that time, your career will be completely over!
Therefore, Huang Yourong had no choice but to summon his officers and soldiers to come on stage and try their best to quell the conflict!
At the same time, Huang Yourong also completely confirmed that Zhao Junchen was plotting against him, so he was naturally resentful of Zhao Junchen, completely ignoring the fact that he had been standing by and watching.
On the other side, Xu Qingyan secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Huang Yourong finally couldn't hold himself back anymore.
With Huang Yourong personally leading the army on the stage, this conflict has come to an end for the time being.
Wanting to get here, Xu Qingyan raised his head and looked in the direction of Nanjing, thinking to himself: "As a last resort, I finally used the fire ship collision technique, which may have caused the death and injury of some Jin gentry... In this way, the young master and the
The relationship between the Jiangnan Jin gentry will also completely deteriorate. The statement that the young master is an enemy of the Jin gentry all over the world may only be a lie...
However, I finally completed the young master's instructions with great difficulty. Not only did I regain part of the property of the "United Shipping Company", but also preserved the evidence of smuggling and tax evasion among the gentry. I also forced the gentry to have a head-on conflict with the imperial officers and soldiers.
The label of mass rebellion was pinned on the Jin Gentry, and as the Jin Gentry forces and the grain gang continued to mobilize manpower to support, Zhou Shangjing's remaining power in Nanjing has been weakened a lot. The rest will depend on the young master's combination of horizontal and vertical methods.
!”
*
At the same time, in Nanjing city.
Just as Xu Qingyan expected, Zhao Junchen has not been idle in the past two days. He is seizing the time to join forces, hoping to take advantage of the conflict between the Jin gentry forces and Jiang Fang camp to form an army in Nanjing that can compete with Zhou Shangjing.
strength.
News about the confrontation and conflict between the Jin gentry forces and Jiang Fang camp had already reached Nanjing.
However, after receiving the news, all the forces in Nanjing City have been slow to respond. This is because the situation in Nanjing City has been secretly operated by Zhao Junchen. In the past few days, it has been extremely tense and chaotic.
Being stretched thin, there is no time to be distracted.
First of all, under Zhao Junchen's temptation, Nanjing's guarding eunuch Xi Cheng couldn't help it. Although he only sent a large number of spies to closely monitor the movements of all walks of life in Nanjing, Xi Cheng's abnormal behavior still aroused Zhou Shangjing's attention.
Zhou Shangjing was extremely alert and suspected that the inner court forces might end up supporting Zhao Junchen and the "United Shipping Company", so Zhou Shangjing also sent a large number of manpower to try to monitor and restrict the activities of the Jinyi guards under Xi Cheng.
As a result, the two forces monitored each other and suppressed each other. Naturally, there were constant frictions and small-scale conflicts occurred repeatedly. The conflict between Zhou Shangjing and Xi Cheng also became more and more serious. They both believed that the other party was hostile. The entire city of Nanjing
The atmosphere became increasingly tense as a result.
Secondly, when the news of the confrontation between Jiangfang camp officers and soldiers and the Jin gentry forces reached Nanjing, Zhao Junchen quickly gathered many family members of the merchants who joined the "United Shipping Company" and divided them into two groups, blocking Zhanyuan and Dongyuan respectively.
Weeping and crying at the door, begging Zhou Shangjing and Zhu Hejian to stand up and seek justice.
When these family members blocked the door and complained, they also had a reasonable argument - why did the franchise merchants of "United Shipping Company" only commit the minor crime of raising prices and have their property confiscated and be arrested and imprisoned, but the gentry also committed smuggling and tax evasion?
, there was another rebellion, but the Nanjing government ignored it at all? Does the imperial decree only apply to merchants and not to gentry?
Therefore, these family members strongly demanded that Zhou Shangjing and Zhu Hejian be treated equally, or the punishments of the merchants who joined the "United Shipping Company" should be reduced, or the crimes of the gentry should be severely punished with the same standards!
After seeing this situation, Zhou Shangjing made a decisive decision and quickly sent an order to the Nanjing government to directly arrest the families of these merchants in an attempt to minimize the impact.
But the seventh prince Zhu Hejian has always taken care of his own image. When he saw a large group of old people, weak women, and children standing outside Zhanyuan crying, it was naturally impossible for him to directly arrest people, and he even actively refused the Nanjing government's attempt to arrest people.
The method was not only to let these family members cry and fuss, but also to send people to bring food and drinking water.
In this way, Zhu Hejian's forbearance not only made the incident more serious, but also further highlighted Zhou Shangjing's bad behavior of favoring the gentry and suppressing the old and the weak, which greatly affected Zhou Shangjing's reputation and image.
Finally, Zhao Junchen sent people to spread rumors everywhere and slander Jin Shen.
Since taking over the various industries of "United Shipping Company", the gentry have been selling all kinds of daily necessities to the people of Nanjing at normal prices. They are completely different from the franchise merchants of "United Shipping Company" who take the opportunity to hoard and quickly stabilize the city of Nanjing.
Prices have won praise from the people of Nanjing.
As a result, the reputation and image of the gentry reached unprecedented heights.
But the rumors created by Zhao Junchen took a different approach.
According to the content of the rumor, after the seventh prince Zhu Hejian sent people to seize the properties and materials of the "United Shipping Company", he originally planned to directly open a warehouse to release grain. The people of Nanjing did not have to pay any price and could get all kinds of daily necessities for free.
However, the gentry were worried that Zhu Hejian's decision would affect their business, so they jointly put pressure on the Seventh Prince, and they took over the entire "United Shipping Company" industry, and still sold various materials to the people at normal prices.
Therefore, the Jin gentry seemed to have stabilized prices, but in fact they did not pay any price when they took over the various industries of the "United Shipping Company", so they still made a lot of money, but they only suffered for the ordinary people of Nanjing, which should have been
Various materials were obtained for free, but in the end due to the interference and greed of the gentry, they still had to pay a large sum of money to purchase them!
All human negative emotions are due to contrast.
Materials that originally needed to be purchased at a high price could be sold by the Jin gentry at a fair price, and the people of Nanjing would naturally miss the benefits of the Jin gentry.
But if the materials that were originally distributed for free are actually required to be purchased at a reasonable price, the people of Nanjing will naturally be aggrieved!
Under such comparison, the reputation and image of the gentry also took a sharp turn.