The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 726 I Came to Find You to Get Rich Together

Back to July [-]th.

Xie Zhiliang was thinking about something at the top of the city, thinking that Ding Yi had swept Datong Town in about two months and completely controlled Datong Town. Compared with him, he has been in Taiyuan for more than a year, and the people below are still obedient and obedient. inside.

Suddenly, a group of cavalry appeared rumbling in the distance, and then there were more and more cavalry, and there were dark infantry behind them, with about 5000 people in front and behind.

Someone from below immediately came to report: "General Town, Datong General Fang Duotai brought a five thousand step horse and asked to enter Taiyuan?"

Xie Zhiliang said calmly, "Quick release."

"The Central Plains is full of thieves, and the imperial court wants to transfer them to the Central Plains. The governor's office and the town know about this. Let them temporarily stay in the west of the city. After the governor's office supplies them with supplies, they will leave."

The people below responded.

Not long after, Fang Duotai rode out of the city with big strides.

Although there are 5000 people on his side, it is actually [-] regular troops and [-] soldiers.

Behind the soldiers are mules pulling carts, a total of [-] carts, but most of these carts are now empty.

At this time, Taiyuan is organizing the transportation of cattle, mules and agricultural tools to Datong, so Fang Duotai can only lead the troops and wait outside the city gate.

In the past two months, Shanxi Cheng announced that the political envoy ordered the entire province to organize the purchase of [-] head of cattle, tens of thousands of farm tools, and various stockpiling materials from various places. They were first assembled in Taiyuan and then transported to Datong.

Although Ding Yi gave 5 taels of silver to the governor's office, the 5 cows and all the farm tools and seeds added up to more expensive than [-] taels of silver.

But the hoarding of land was ordered by the imperial court, and it used the manpower and material resources of the imperial court.

The 5 taels of silver from the governor’s yamen can be allocated by the governor Cai Maode himself, including training the governor’s battalion, supporting his own staff, and repairing the city defense of Taiyuan. Cai Maode is still very happy to have this money. He is an upright official and spends a lot on city defense And Taiyuan Minsheng above.

He and Ding Yi can be regarded as an equivalent exchange.

Both parties have benefited.

Fang Duotai stood outside, watching the continuous stream of cows and mules pass by the gate of the city, heading towards Datong, feeling very proud.

Master Ding is awesome, he got the acting king and the two deputy generals, and the court has nothing to do with him.

The key is that Ding Yi did not act recklessly, and got a balance with Governor Cai Maode.

"These cows and mules belong to Datong?" Guerrilla Song Limin rode to Fang Duotai's side, excitedly.

Fang Duotai nodded and smiled, "Master Ding won it for us."

"These idiots." Song Limin chuckled.

In their eyes, Ding Yi was no different from rebellion in Datong. He killed people on behalf of the palace and robbed the money and land from the palace.

The imperial court is so unbearable, and these generals have strengthened their determination to follow Mr. Ding to fight the country.

"Either the imperial court knew, or they didn't know, because they were also dissatisfied with the local clan."

"Either I really don't know, or everyone else knows. Emperor Chongzhen was kept in the dark."

Fang Duotai said directly.

Lu Chao bought and made friends with ministers everywhere in the court these years, Ding Yi became bigger and bigger, Chongzhen became more and more opinionated, but the courtiers, no one said much.

If there is a famous minister like Lu Xiangsheng or Sun Chengzong in the cabinet, he must find a way to deal with Ding Yi.

The two were communicating, and several fast horses in the city ran out.

Fang Duotai took a closer look and saw that it was Xie Zhiliang, the commander in chief.

"Thank you, Commander."

"General Fang."

The two said hello.

Fang Duotai thought for a while, jumped off the horse, and saluted him.

Xie Zhiliang said: "This side is leaving the city, you can enter from the south gate."

Fang Duotai nodded, and with a wave of his hand, ordered the whole army to go south.

Xie Zhiliang also jumped off his horse, leading the horse and walking with Fang Duotai.

Xie's servant quickly fell behind, and Fang Duotai and Xie Zhiliang walked in the front.

"What suggestion does President Ding have? What do we want us to do?" Xie Zhiliang said directly.

Fang Duotai asked back: "How is your investigation?"

Xie Zhiliang said in a deep voice: "Fan Yongdou, Wang Dayu, and Tian Shenglan are in Jiexiu, but most of the Fan family's property is in Zhangjiakou, Fan Yongdou should also be in Zhangjiakou, and Wang Dayu's property is mainly in Guangling."

"Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, and Liang Jiabin are in Taiyuan."

"Zhai Tang and Huang Yunfa are in Pingyang."

Fang Duotai nodded: "These eight merchants will all be searched. The adult men and women in the clan will be beheaded, and the children will be sent to Jeju."
He couldn't help it a bit: "What the hell did these eight families do?"

"Fornication to build slaves, smuggling goods."

Xie Zhiliang was furious when he heard the words: "If it's true, everyone should be executed."

Fang Duotai said: "Your servant leads the team, my men and horses are divided into seven groups, and the properties of the seven families are stolen, and all the land belongs to us."

"I'll give you and the governor [-]% of the money."

It is said that [-]% is a bit low, but Xie Zhiliang and Cai Maode are not corrupt officials, and Ding Yi is doing this matter, so naturally there is nothing to say.

Xie Zhiliang smiled and said, "Lord Du Xian and I are not doing it for money."

Fang Duotai glanced at him, and continued: "Many officials and generals in Shanxi have been bought by the eight major merchants, so don't leak any news."

"Don't worry, the team will be led by my family's cronies I brought from Guangdong."

"You didn't tell me first, did you?"

"No."

"Very well, let's talk about it when we act."

The two discussed together and soon entered Taiyuan City.

A large group of troops from Datong came to Taiyuan, and rumors arose in the city. Many people said that the imperial court wanted to send troops from Datong to the Central Plains to suppress bandits.

The largest rice shop in Taiyuan City is Wangjia Rice Shop.

Wang Dengku's family has more than 1 mu of grain fields. In addition, the grain depots of Prince Jin in Taiyuan are all under his management, and he handles all the rice that cannot be used by Prince Jin's mansion.

He was the biggest merchant who sold grain to Manchu in the late Ming Dynasty.

There were many guests at Wang Dengku's house on this day, including Jin Liangyu and Liang Xingguo (brother Liang Jiabin).

In fact, Fang Duotai's Datong soldiers knew about it before they entered Taiyuan.

After all, with so many soldiers and horses coming, someone along the road will see them.

Before Fang Duotai arrived in Taiyuan, the Shanxi merchants in the city already knew that Datong troops were coming.

If Ding Yi hadn't deliberately held a meeting before and used the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce to confuse them, they might have run outside the city and hid to see the situation.

Because Ding Yi didn't talk about martial arts in Datong, it really scared the Shanxi merchants.

Now Ding Yi is using the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce as bait, and these people are gathering together to discuss the possibility of the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce.

Liang Jiabao will go to Beizhili to purchase goods, and his eldest brother will be present. The three of them read the documents given by Ding Yi for a while, and they all feel that the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce can do it.

But there are still many merchants in Taiyuan City, not just the three of them.

Now they all gather at their house and ask to join together.

Jin Liangyu said: "Fan Yongdou from Zhangjiakou has done a lot of business in the past few years. If Ding Yi wants to make a lot of money, he must rely on him. This person is the best candidate for the vice president."

Liang Xingguo and the others nodded.

Then he looked at Wang Dengku: "Treasurer Wang's rice shop is the crown in Shanxi, and the other vice president must be in the treasurer's pocket."

Wang Dengku's face showed complacency. With King Jin's back and a huge amount of food in his hands, being the vice president is a sure thing.

"The price of sugar is too low now, and I hope that you will propose to increase the price of sugar in the future." At this time, a sugar merchant hurriedly said.

The chamber of commerce will decide the prices in the future, and they have already thought about raising prices together.

"What goods are not cheap now, they will have to be raised in the future." Someone shouted.

Everyone said yes.

In fact, it will be the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the prices of many commodities will be extremely high, but businessmen are looking for profit, so they naturally want to sell as high as possible.

Everyone discussed things and thought about a bright future.

On the other side, Fang Duotai and Xie Zhiliang were looking at the map to determine the locations of Jiexiu and Pingyang.

They wanted the seven families to do it together, so they didn't touch Taiyuan City for the time being.

After taking a good look at the map, he took Xie Zhiliang's hundreds of servants, and Fang Duotai dispatched a thousand soldiers and horses to leave the city with a large number of carriages and soldiers.

Arrive at Jiexiu on the [-]th and dispatch [-] troops to Pingyang.

On the [-]th, the other part went to Pingyang.

On the [-]th, people from Pingyang, Jiexiu and Taiyuan attacked at the same time.

After the shot, even Xie Zhiliang's servants didn't know what they were going to do.

Fang Duotai's soldiers and horses used the governor's warrant and the Taiyuan Commander's Order to arrest and build slaves, and attacked with thunder.

The army broke into the homes of Jin Liangyu, Liang Jiabin, Wang Dayu, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, Huang Yunfa, and Wang Dengku in batches, arrested all seven families, and confiscated all property, property, and shops.

They arrested people in the morning and interrogated them at noon. After finding out where all the wealth and food were hidden, they chopped up all the adult men and women of the seven families in the afternoon.

The speed and efficiency of its actions shocked the businessmen of the whole province.

Afterwards, merchants from all over Shanxi became afraid when they saw Datong soldiers and horses, wondering who they came to search again.

Among the seven families, Liang Jiabin escaped without returning after buying goods in Zhili.

But Liang's family property was confiscated, and the family property was sufficient, so he could not return to Shanxi, so he ran out of the pass.

After the seven were seized, a total of more than 4000 mu of land and more than 300 shops and houses of various types were acquired.

The grain was 32 shi, most of which were freshly harvested summer grain.

There are also various properties, equivalent to about 400 million taels of silver.

Fang Duotai brought several hundred and two large carts, plus carts found in three places, and thousands of carts of all kinds of property and food. Because of insufficient manpower, the soldiers also acted as grooms and pulled the carts to Datong.

Fang Duotai also left a team in Jiexiu and Pingyang. It took a month to deal with all the shops and houses at low prices, and he got tens of thousands of taels of silver. The mu was sold at a low price, and another 3+ silver was obtained.

While the shops, houses and land properties were sold at a low price, other local businessmen were wooed and appeased.

Those left behind posted notices in the three places that these seven shops were colluding with slavery and smuggling goods. Mr. Ding only killed traitors and did business in an orderly manner, so he was at ease.

In fact, this meeting is in Shanxi, and these eight companies are not the only ones involved in smuggling, but these eight companies have been relatively large and famous in history.

Ding Yi's killing of chickens and monkeys like this immediately shocked the whole of Shanxi.

At this time, all the exits from Shanxi were in the hands of Ding Yi. Anyone who dared to smuggle could only go to Zhangjiakou, where the general soldiers of the Xuanfu were stationed.

And Ding Yi arrived in Zhangjiakou as early as July [-]th.

He wanted to see for himself how the Fan family, the largest smuggling business in the late Ming Dynasty, perished.

On July [-], Ding Yi personally led the troops to Xuanfu Town.

Xuanfu was one of the nine important towns in the late Ming Dynasty, and it was a big town.

There are 110 and 270 miles of border walls in Xuanfu, 190 and [-] side piers, and [-] entrances.

The town of Xuanfu, where the General Army Mansion is stationed, is more than [-] miles southwest of Zhangjiakou, and the city wall has a circumference of more than [-] miles. Like Datong Town, it is a big town.

In the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637), when Lu Xiangsheng came to the field for inspection, he finally summarized and reported to Emperor Chongzhen: "The original number of Mabu officials in this town is 15, and there are 450 officers and soldiers except for those who escaped during the festival. One thousand three hundred and four members. The original number of horses was fifty-five thousand two hundred and seventy-four, except for the exception of festivals, the actual horses were thirty-two thousand four."

Looking at the gap back then, there were 15 frontier soldiers on the register, but actually only more than 8, and 3 horses on the register, but the actual number was only more than [-], which was just over half.

If it weren't for Lu Xiangsheng's on-the-spot investigation, the imperial court would have been kept in the dark, but the result of reporting in this way is that the imperial court paid more than 8 yuan, and the generals below could not get much spare salary, and they were even more harsh on the soldiers. more soldiers.

In the tenth year of Chongzhen, there were still [-]. Now the whole town is less than [-], which is a full half. Of course, Xuanfu participated in many wars in the middle, and it also suffered a lot of damage, and most of them were elites.

During the Battle of Songjin, Yang Guozhu, the former chief soldier of the Xuanfu, brought out [-] soldiers and horses, all of whom were the elite of the Xuanfu, and they were killed in the first battle.

It can be said that none of the [-] soldiers and horses in the hands of Wang Chengyin, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, are capable of fighting.

In history, before Li Zicheng took the capital, Wang Chengyin took the initiative to offer a surrender table when he arrived in Shanxi. He probably knew that his soldiers and horses could not fight.

Ding Yi took one thousand cavalry and one thousand one hundred horses all the way from Shanxi to Xuanfu. He deliberately passed Huaianwei and Wanquan Zuowei along the way. When they came, they all shrank into the pier, and no one dared to come out to inquire.

When they arrived at the town of Xuanfu, there was another flurry of chickens and dogs jumping outside the city. The guards ran desperately into the city and closed the city gate.

The people who went in and out fled in all directions.

When they saw clearly that it was the Ming army, they cursed again and walked out swaggeringly.

Following Ding Yi was Zhou Guangbao, the battalion commander of Yuan Youcai's cavalry division.

Seeing the corrupt appearance of the Ming army along the way, Zhou Guangbao couldn't help it: "Master Ding, Xuan Mansion is an important town on the nine borders, and the frontier army is so miserable? It's really unbelievable."

"The elite of the Xuan Mansion were wiped out in the battle of Julu Lu Xiangsheng and the battle of Songjin. It is estimated that the soldiers and horses of the Xuan Mansion are all old and weak, not even as good as the peasant army." Ding Yi smiled. With a wave of hands, the whole army headed towards the town of Xuanfu.

Their horses rushed to the front, and the defenders of the city hurriedly asked, "Who is here?"

Zhou Guangbao looked contemptuous, because the gates of the city were still open, if Qing soldiers pretended to be Ming soldiers, wouldn't they rush in?

"General Ding of Datong has something to ask you, General Bing Wang, get out of the way." After Zhou Guangbao finished speaking, he sped up his horse and rode straight in without paying attention.

The Ming army screamed at the door and hurried out of the way.

Ding Yi's cavalry rushed in like a tide, and the Xuan Mansion's soldiers all cursed at them.

Ding Yi entered the city in the last wave and drove in slowly.

There were a hundred horses behind him carrying packages, and when he reached the gate of the city, one of the packages suddenly fell.

"Clatter" a large bag of silver fell to the ground.

Wow, the guards of the Xuan Mansion screamed in shock, many people's eyes glistened and they swallowed.

If it weren't for Ding Yi's elite soldiers and horses, all of whom were wearing iron armor, these people would probably be able to go up and grab them.

"A bunch of idiots, put on your act." Ding Yi immediately cursed.

The soldiers quickly picked up the silver.

Ding Yi stretched out his hand, and someone picked a few and handed them to Ding Yi.

"It's for you." Swish, swish, and threw a few large silver ingots of ten taels towards the guards at the gate of the city.

The defenders were ecstatic, and received them one by one.

"Thank you, Mr. Ding."

"Thank you, sir."

"Master, Wanan."

All the soldiers knelt down on the ground and thanked them one after another. There were still many soldiers watching on the city wall, their eyes were red and their ears were red, and they were angry and anxious. They knew that they would be on duty today.

"Let's go." Ding Yi also rushed into the city.

Wang Chengyin of the General Military Mansion soon knew that Ding Yi was coming.

He was in a daze. He didn't know Ding Yi well. He went to Datong to meet Ding Yi because Datong was very close to Xuanfu Town, and everyone was the neighbor next door. He didn't expect that when he arrived, he found out that the Jiang brothers were very fond of Ding Yi. His attitude was extremely bad, he saw something strange, after thinking about it, he didn't want to offend the Jiang brothers, and finally left early.

But not long after, he heard the news from next door that Ding Yi had killed Wang Quan and arrested Jiang Guan and Jiang Xuan brothers. Datong Town was firmly controlled by Ding Yi overnight.

At this time, Wang Chengyin already felt that Ding Yi was a little scary, and began to consider repairing a relationship with Ding Yi.

Unexpectedly, Ding Yi suddenly led his troops into Xuanfu City.

Wang Chengyin was startled and angry. Firstly, he couldn't believe that Xuan Mansion was such a big town with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and Ding Yi's thousand cavalry rushed in so easily.

Second, I don't understand why Ding Yi brought his troops here. Could it be that he wants to fuck me?No reason?
Shocked and shocked, Wang Chengyin immediately ordered his subordinates to gather troops and prepare to meet Ding Yi.

"Wait a minute, I still don't want it." Wang Chengyin thought about it, now that he is gathering farts, Ding Yi's soldiers and horses rush into the city, and it will be useless to gather again by himself.

Besides, he never thought that Ding Yi would have a reason to attack him.

Everyone is a famous general, different generals, why is Ding Yi beating me up?
He was still in a good mood, and immediately decided to put on a low profile.

Historically, Jiang Guan served as the commander-in-chief in Datong, and he was in the Xuanfu. The surrender forms of the two were delivered to Li Zicheng one after the other on the same night. The distance between his Xuanfu and Li Zicheng is more than twice as far as that of Datong. , It can be seen how afraid of death this guy is, and how self-aware he is.

Wang Chengyin put on some clothes, and led others to stand outside the General Military Mansion, posing in a low posture.

Sure enough, after a while, Ding Yi's cavalry arrived.

Ding Yi's cavalry rushed on the streets of Xuanfu City, jumping like chickens and dogs.

Wang Chengyin's face was ugly, but when he saw Ding Yi, he had to smile: "General Ding is here, I don't know what to teach you, please, please."

"Hahaha, Brother Wang, I'm here to make a fortune with you." Ding Yi was more polite.

Wang Chengyin's eyes brightened when he heard the word "facai".
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Zhangjiakou.

There are people coming and going in the Fan family compound, and news is gathered here from time to time.

Fan Yongdou was squinting his eyes, lying on the couch, listening to the people below report the information.

"Ding Yi brought Qianqi into Xuanfu City."

"A parcel fell at the gate of the city, and it was full of silver."

"He told Wang Chengyin to make a fortune with him."

When Fan Yongheng heard this, he smiled and said, "It must be that Wang Chengyin joined the chamber of commerce together. That's what Ding Yi said that day."

Fan Yongdou's left eye twitched a few times, feeling something was wrong there.

He thought for a while, and said slowly: "He asked Wang Chengyin to cooperate, why did he bring so many soldiers and horses?"

Fan Yongheng was taken aback for a moment, then disturbed his head: "Maybe I'm afraid that the road is not safe."

"This is a military town, Ming army is everywhere, how can it be unsafe?" Fan Yongdou's face sank, and he stood up abruptly: "Let's be careful, Ding Yi has a bad reputation in Shandong."

"What he likes to do the most is to seize military power and raid wealthy households. That's why I don't want to go to Datong."

"No way? This is the Xuan Mansion." Fan Yongheng couldn't believe it.

"He even searched Wang Quan and Jiang's family. If there is anything he can't do, come here."

"Patriarch." Several elite men appeared from outside the door.

Two of them were Jurchens. They looked like they were full of murderous looks, and they looked like they were from the elite of the army.

"Call all the buddies, prepare to issue weapons, and return to the yard to stand by."

"Yongheng, you and I are going to see Liu Gueran."

Then he secretly called the brothers from the other clan to the side: "Yongping, take the brothers from the inner clan and prepare a large number of carriages, and move half of the wealth to the carriages first."

Fan Yongdou made some arrangements and took Fan Yongheng to meet the guerrilla Liu Changguang stationed in Zhangjiakou.

The Fan family gave Liu Changguang 5000 taels of silver a year, and with Liu's protection, he could enter and exit Zhangjiakou freely, and the business grew bigger and bigger.

Liu Changguang is more than 40 years old, and he looks quite strong, and he has followed several Xuanfu generals.

Xuanfu town has a chief soldier and a deputy chief soldier, seven guard generals, three guerrilla generals, two officers in the camp, and 31 guards.

Among them, the defenders of Zhangjiakou Fort are sometimes guerrillas and sometimes defensive.

But no matter how it changes, Zhangjiakou Fort is the fattest vacancy among all the resident places, and it has always been a place that everyone competes for.

Some people would rather not be promoted to generals, but to stay in Zhangjiakou.

For example, Liu Changguang is.

When Yang Guozhu was in Xuanfu, he wanted to promote him to be a general, but he refused at that time, and he still wanted to stay in Zhangjiakou.

After Wang Chengyin arrived, Liu Changguang immediately asked Fan Yongdou to give him 5000 taels of silver, which he sent overnight.

Wang Chengyin was satisfied and let him continue to do guerrillas here.

Hearing Fan Yongdou's visit, Liu Changguang was also very polite, and he must be his rich man.

He called the two of them to the mansion.

"Cao Min pays homage to General Liu."

The Fan Yongdou brothers knelt down obediently as soon as they met, with extremely respectful expressions.

Liu Changguang was very satisfied with their attitude, and waved his hands with a smile: "Please hurry up, the two shopkeepers, they are both my brothers."

If there is nothing to go to the Three Treasures Hall, Liu Changguang guessed that the two of them came to the house on business.

"What's the matter with the two shopkeepers?"

"General Liu." Fan Yongdou said with a mournful face, "I'm afraid we are going to be in great trouble."

Liu Changguang was puzzled and asked him what happened.

Fan Yongdou said, Ding Yi is here, and Ding Yi, the General Soldier of Datong, arrived at the Xuanfu, bringing a large number of soldiers and horses with him.

Liu Changguang still doesn't understand what it means, what is the relationship between the General Soldier of Datong and our Xuanfu?
"Ding Yi is a shameless man. When he was in Shandong, he had a very bad reputation. He specialized in seizing military power and raiding wealthy households."

"Our Fan family is in Zhangjiakou. Thanks to the general's support and love, our business is booming. The surname Ding must be jealous and wants to trouble us."

Liu Changguang was furious. He patted the table and said, "Damn it, this is Xuanfu Town, not Datong. Ding Yi is an idiot. Don't panic, two shopkeepers. I, Liu Changguang, will keep you safe."

(End of this chapter)