On the morning of the 28th, the Ming army completed the construction of two other floating bridges on the Yellow River: the Fenglingdu Floating Bridge and the Sanmenxia Floating Bridge.
Fenglingdu is in Tongguan. There used to be a permanent pontoon bridge there, but it was blown up. However, various infrastructure, such as the wharf, the big iron bulls on the embankment that fixed the pontoon steel cables, and the big piles are still there, and it will be more difficult to repair them.
Hurry. Fenglingdu will be repaired on the afternoon of the 27th. Sanmenxia is about 20 kilometers east of Hangu Pass, which is where the Sanmenxia Reservoir will be later.
In this section of the Yellow River, after crossing the river, there is Zhongtiao Mountain running across the north bank, running east to west, about 60 kilometers long, and these two pontoon bridges are at the east and west ends of Zhongtiao Mountain. There is no need to cross the mountain to cross the river.
You can directly enter Shanxi.
More importantly, the Fenglingdu and Sanmenxia pontoon bridges are right next to the Qinqi Railway. To exaggerate, the troops can get off the train and get on the pontoon bridge. They no longer have to walk along the Longmen pontoon bridge when they get off the train at Tongguan, as they did before.
The highway goes north for more than a hundred kilometers.
Therefore, although the number of pontoon bridges of the Ming army only increased three times, the speed of transporting troops into Shanxi suddenly increased to five times that before.
The secret envoy of the Northern Qing Dynasty strongly requested both sides to stop at the same time and negotiate first. However, the Ming army did not give up on his tactics. Given such a favorable situation, it would be crazy not to seize it quickly.
By the evening of the 28th, when the Ming army stopped advancing and camped for the night, the Ming army in Shanxi had advanced to the Lingshi County-Changzhi County line. The southern third of Shanxi had been occupied, and the northernmost vanguard was only 130 meters away from Taiyuan.
kilometers.
Beijing can no longer tolerate such rapid progress.
At noon on the 28th, an unmarked Junkers-52 took off from Beijing, first flew to the southwest, landed at Zhengzhou Airport, then flew to the southeast, and landed at Nanjing Airport at 5:00 p.m.
Two inconspicuous cars were waiting there, and they immediately picked up the people who got off the plane. Followed by a truck of guards. The car drove south from Xianlin Airport, bypassed half of Zijin Mountain, and arrived at the south side of Zijin Mountain.
Xiaoling Guard did not go further west into Nanjing City, but entered a garden villa at the foot of Purple Mountain opposite Xiaoling Guard.
On a piece of bluestone at the entrance of this garden villa, moss covers four powerful characters: Wuwang Villa. The signature is: Zheng Chenggong.
…
This is an authentic "ancestral home" of the old Zheng family.
Wuwang Villa is a "historic-level" garden villa. It was a villa built outside Nanjing when Zheng Chenggong regained Jiangnan and sealed Queen Yanping. The reason why it is called "Wuwang Villa" is because in front of it are Sun Quan and others.
Madam’s mausoleum. Of course, in addition to Sun Quan’s mausoleum, further up the mountain is the Xiaoling Mausoleum of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. This house is adjacent to the mausoleums of two great historical figures, which can be said to be a geomantic treasure.
Of course, when Zheng Chenggong took a fancy to this place and wanted to build a villa, many loyal ministers opposed it on the spot. After all, it was too close to Taizu's mausoleum. Building a villa here was somewhat disrespectful. But
Firstly, Zheng Chenggong was too powerful at that time. He had great achievements in saving the country and married Empress Changping, making him almost the number one figure in the Ming Dynasty. Secondly, Empress Changping herself at that time had an indifferent attitude. Empress Changping said on the spot
:
"Oh, what are you all arguing about? Isn't it just a broken mausoleum? Why can't we build a villa down there? Isn't it disrespectful? Isn't it boring?"
The ministers were so shocked that they almost vomited blood. Even Zheng Chenggong did not expect Her Majesty the Queen to say such "avant-garde" words.
Some people also tried to please Zheng Chenggong and asked whether Sun Quan's tomb should be moved to another place if this was the case. Zheng Chenggong laughed and said:
"Sun Quan is also a hero, so let him stay here for Gu Zhenzhai!"
So, the garden was built like this. This is not Zheng Chenggong's mansion, but a villa, so it cannot be called "Yanping Prince's Mansion" and can only be given another name. It is adjacent to the tombs of two great historical figures, so the name should have some characteristics.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang's achievements and status were much higher than that of Sun Quan, he couldn't call it "Taizu Villa", right? So he called it "Wuwang Villa", which was grand enough and suited Zheng Chenggong's taste.
Over the next two hundred years, this Wuwang Villa changed hands several times among the Zheng clan. In the second half of the 19th century, it was in the hands of a cousin of Zheng Gongyin. At this time, the Ming Dynasty was already vigorously pursuing constitutional government. To implement constitutional government, then
These royal relatives, powerful people with vested interests, naturally have interests
The group of people who suffered the most had their power restricted, their royal food supply greatly reduced, and they also had to pay taxes. As a result, many royal relatives felt embarrassed and began to expand their business scope to "supplement their family income".
". The foundation of Zheng's business empire in Nanming was laid at that time.
At the end of the 19th century, railway construction became popular in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, investing in railway construction was a profitable business. However, because the investment in railway construction was too large, few people could invest independently. They usually issued railway stocks and railway bonds to raise funds. At that time, Zheng Gongyin
My cousin also wanted to do it, and he just happened to have it
The Wuwang Villa there was unoccupied and unoccupied, and it was quite valuable, so I mortgaged it to the bank, took out a huge loan, and partnered with others to open a railway company to build railways. But later, for some reason, the railway company went bankrupt.
The Wuwang Villa was auctioned by the bank, and it was separated from the Zheng family for more than 30 years.
Until the end of last year, on the eve of the Manchu Qing's invasion of the south, war clouds were gathering on the Yangtze River, and real estate prices in cities along the river plummeted. The owner of Wuwang Villa, a business tycoon, could no longer stand it and decided to cut his losses.
List the property for sale at a low price. But at this time, everyone is selling off real estate, and it cannot be sold no matter how low the price is.
During the Battle of Nanjing, after Xiang Xiaoqiang foiled the plot planned by Zheng Gongyin and Mrs. Li to kidnap Zhu Yourong and escape and abandon Nanjing, Zheng Gongyin knew that he had to coexist with Nanjing, so he simply bet bigger and began to acquire Nanjing on a large scale.
Real estate. Because it was a bargain, I managed to buy a large number of them at a low price, including Wuwang Villa, for only a fraction of the money.
The war ended in the New Year of the Ming Dynasty and the two sides ceased fighting. In the past ten months, real estate prices in Nanjing have gradually returned to pre-war levels. After the Northern Expedition began, the Ming army quickly occupied large areas of land in the north of the Yangtze River. The cities along the river were no longer at the border outpost and were no longer threatened by war.
,price
The real estate prices in Zheng Gongyin's hands increased significantly, and Zheng Gongyin made a lot of money from the real estate. Coupled with Xiang Xiaoqiang's mining cooperation, Zheng Gongyin was so happy that he even felt that Xiang Xiaoqiang was the most noble person in his life.
I wish I could recruit him as my son-in-law right away.
Now, Wuwang Villa is a mansion in the hands of Zheng Gongyin. It is currently idle, so Zhu Yourong used it as the residence for this secret negotiation and the arrangement for the Northern Qing envoy.
The negotiation location was chosen here not only for the beautiful scenery, the convenience of keeping secrets outside the city, and the fact that my uncle's "expropriation" did not matter, but also because it is close to the Purple Mountain Fortress, and the highest core members of the Ming Dynasty are now in the fortress, so they can negotiate frequently.
Convenient on site.
…
Tonight, a company of Imperial Guards and a dozen Dongchang and People's Guard agents were stationed at Wuwang Villa. However, except for those dozen agents, none of the Imperial Guards of that company knew who was coming today.
What kind of person is he?
At 7:00 in the evening, a small banquet was set up in the small banquet hall of the villa.
The last time Xiang Xiaoqiang went to the north to negotiate, Beiqing also entertained him with a banquet. When he arrived at the summer resort, Guangwu even put on a "lite version" of a Manchu and Han banquet to receive him. Therefore, it is not rude to come and not go back.
This time, the negotiating envoy sent by Beijing was of a high level. When Xiang Xiaoqiang got off the plane in Nanjing, he received a call and was told that it was actually Yonggui, the current right deputy director of the stick-stick department!
So he was itching and planned to personally meet the current big boss of this sticky place. At least one of the two big bosses.
When Fourteen Princess heard about it, she was filled with emotion. Now she is familiar with the two deputy commanders at Sticky Post, and they were all her subordinates at the beginning. So she also planned to attend tonight's reception banquet to "catch up on old times" with her old subordinates.
…
Before the banquet, Yonggui was drinking tea and chatting with Tumache in the lounge. The top spies from the two opposing camps were chatting happily and being affectionate like good brothers.
Suddenly, a familiar voice behind his head laughed:
"Yonggui, it's been a long time."
Yonggui felt a shiver in his heart, and his spine suddenly jumped up like an electric shock.