Chapter 124 Honorable men who are as rich as the country
"Ying'er, it seems that the situation in Jiangnan is more complicated than we expected. I'm afraid it will be a little difficult to handle next!"
In the palace, Zhang Yan frowned slightly, with a worried look on her face. Although she knew that the civil servants today were probably testing her, she was still very disappointed in her heart.
"Auntie, my nephew-in-law thinks it's quite simple. I've already sent people to inquire about it. Although the Nanjing camp has tens of thousands of troops, it's already so bad that it can't even be considered a mob."
The red lady waved her hand indifferently.
She originally thought that Nanjing was prosperous and that the hundreds of thousands of troops in the capital must be well-equipped and have good combat effectiveness. Who would have thought that they would be worse than the original refugee army?
With only 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, what could these noble civil servants do to fight her?
Originally, they planned to recruit troops, divide and disintegrate, and gradually plan for success, but now they are too lazy to take other actions.
"Ying'er, what do you plan to do next?"
Seeing her indifferent attitude, Zhang Yan's heart skipped a beat.
After getting along with her for a while, she also got to know her a little bit. She was absolutely fearless, and there was probably nothing she wouldn't dare to do.
"It's easy to handle. After the two million stones of grain are received and shipped, we will first use the nobles to operate on them, eat them all in one pot, confiscate their homes and send them to Qiongzhou, then reorganize the capital camp, recruit and train troops, and kill anyone who is disobedient.
If things don’t go well, someone’s house will be ransacked!”
If the capital was not in urgent need of food, she wanted to transport some food back first to satisfy the little emperor's immediate needs, so today she would serve those nobles in one pot.
After learning about the situation of the 50,000 to 60,000 Beijing troops, Lady Hong no longer paid attention to those nobles, and she also no longer had any worries.
"Ying'er, this...isn't this too radical? These nobles have been guarding Nanjing for more than two hundred years. They have deep roots and complicated relationships. If we arrest them all rashly, it may cause great turmoil, and maybe the entire Jiangnan city.
The vibration, how about you slow it down a little and try it slowly?"
Zhang Yan gasped when she saw that she was so crazy and even thought about eradicating all the nobles.
When he came, Xinger said that in addition to transporting 5 million silver and 5 million shi of grain to the capital every year, another point was that the provinces south of the Yangtze River must be stable and not cause too much turmoil.
"Auntie, it's because they are deeply entrenched and have complicated relationships, so we have to cut through the mess quickly and with one knife, catching them off guard and not giving them any chance to react.
Those nobles are probably still thinking that when we first arrive, we will definitely try to appease them and win them over, but we will never go too far, but I am going to use violence directly.
As for the turmoil, well, someone will jump out and take advantage of the general situation to confiscate the house, so I won’t have to worry about money and food for a year or two!”
The red lady finally said, with a flash of gold in her eyes. With five million taels of silver and five million shi of grain every year, she had to support an army of one hundred thousand and build big ships. Taxation alone would definitely not be enough.
Relying on those corrupt officials to collect taxes will probably end up stealing all the money, causing public resentment to boil over, and throwing the blame on her and the Queen Mother.
Seeing the hesitation on Zhang Yan's face, the red lady lowered her voice, came closer and said: "Mother, according to the information I have found out, this Wei Guogong is extremely rich, with fertile land, mansions, manors, and shops all over the southern Zhili and
In Zhejiang, I’m afraid the gold and silver in our homes have already piled up like mountains…”
Zhang Yan couldn't help but smile bitterly when she saw that her face was excited and she looked like she was obsessed with money. She didn't have any of the reserved manners of a noble concubine.
"If you don't believe me, I'll call Chen Yuanyuan and you can ask her face to face." Lady Hong thought she didn't believe it, so she rushed outside to say hello.
Chen Yuanyuan was brought in not long after.
"The concubine pays homage to the Queen Mother, and pays homage to the Imperial Concubine. The Queen Mother, the Queen Mother is a thousand years old..."
"Okay, Yuanyuan, tell the Queen Mother how rich this Duke of Wei is. Tell me everything you know."
"It's the empress!"
Seeing that the matchmaker was impatient, Chen Yuanyuan did not dare to be obedient to please her, so she told her everything she knew about Wei Guogong and the nobles in Nanjing.
Not to mention being a high-ranking courtesan on the banks of the Qinhuai River, Chen Yuanyuan's previous contacts were all dignitaries from Jiangnan, and her network of connections was extremely large.
At least he knew the situation around Nanjing very well, especially his understanding of the local nobles and nobles, which was far better than that of ordinary civilian officials.
After hearing this, Zhang Yan was stunned and could not close her mouth in shock.
Obviously, I didn’t expect that the nobles in Nanjing would be so extravagant and wealthy. How could this be a sign of wealth? It was clear that the wealth could rival the country!
"So, most of the brothels and painting studios along the Qinhuai River are the property of these distinguished nobles?"
"Back to the Queen Mother, even if some of them are not entirely true, nobles still occupy most of them."
Chen Yuanyuan replied in a low voice that the brothel she used to live in was the property of Wei Guogong's family, but very few people knew about it.
bump!
Thinking of the difficulties faced by the imperial court and the people in the north living in dire straits over the years, and thinking of the nobles who spent their days drunkenly and squandering money, Zhang Yan couldn't help but slap her palm on the table, her face turned livid.
Chen Yuanyuan was so frightened that she immediately fell to her knees.
"Yuanyuan, please go down first." The red lady waved her hand towards her, and after she stepped back, she said to Zhang Yan: "Auntie, my niece-in-law didn't lie to you, did she? Shouldn't those nobles confiscate all their homes?
exile?"
If not for His Majesty's instructions, she would have really wanted to kill all these nobles.
"Ying'er, are you absolutely sure?" Zhang Yan took a deep breath and then looked at her.
"Don't worry, Auntie. When the time comes, we will all move inside and outside the city, and there won't be any trouble. Even if we have 20,000 troops in hand, how can we cause chaos?"
The red lady waved her hands, she was really not afraid at all.
Not to mention she has 20,000 strong men, even 10,000, she can kill the city of Nanjing and turn it upside down.
What's more, she knew that when she dealt with these nobles, most of the gentry and civil servants in Jiangnan would choose to watch, or even applaud her.
"Okay, then Ying'er, just go ahead and do it!"
Seeing how confident she was, Zhang Yan relaxed and nodded.
After all, the task assigned by Xun'er is too heavy, and I'm afraid it won't be completed without resorting to extraordinary means.
The red lady was overjoyed and immediately went down to arrange it.
Although the Queen Mother did not agree, she still wanted to do it, but Zhang Yan was an elder, and His Majesty had promised to let her go, and it was not good for him to have a bad relationship with her.
As everyone knows, Zhu Cixi also told Zhang Yan to give in to the red lady as much as possible.
Three days flew by.
Not to mention, the influence of Qian Qianyi, Hou Xun and others in Jiangnan cannot be overshadowed.
In just three days, the two million stone tax grain that had been misappropriated was returned to the warehouse on the other side of the dock.
"Your Majesty, I have already ordered people to count the two million stones. Not one stone is too much, not one stone is too little. They can be shipped and shipped at any time!"
Qian Qianyi said proudly, but he did not expect that the red lady would come to the dock in person.
"Well, it seems that Qian Aiqing, the second assistant, is quite competent. Don't rush the shipment now. I'll do the inventory and inspection later." The red lady nodded, her tone softened a little, and then she waved her hand.
Immediately, five hundred female soldiers led thousands of soldiers into each warehouse and began to inspect them one by one.
The female soldiers can read some words and understand some arithmetic. They mainly check whether there are any shortages and whether the quantity is sufficient, while the male soldiers check the food inside.
All the civil servants were dumbfounded as they watched them carry out bags of grain, weigh them, and then open them one by one to inspect them.
Although they have explained it repeatedly, they still feel a little uneasy in their hearts. After all, they don't know the character of those people.
As several soldiers came over carrying several bags of food, the civil servants looked at each other with embarrassment on their faces.
