Chapter 113: The Twilight of the Kings

The palaces of the Ming Dynasty were very unfriendly to a person who had to work long hours at his desk.

Summers are too hot, winters are too cold, and the world is leaky and humid.

Yun Zhao, who had sat in the class for several years in his previous life, had already passed the process of looking good and atmospheric, and compared with comfort, those useless added values were not attractive to him.

It's like wearing silk clothes that look good in winter and you try it in winter.

Yunzhao has its own requirements for the office environment, sunny, ventilated, and the scenery outside the window is good!

And his large study was built in strict accordance with his requirements.

Especially the floor heating facilities under the floor of the large study, not only Yun Zhao likes it, but Yang Xiong also likes it, which is why he has an office and has to move a desk to work when winter comes.

The secretary and the supervisor saw that the county respected Yang Xiong did not take Yang Xiong, so they did the same, and the final outcome was that everyone was crowded together to work, but I didn't expect that after doing this, the efficiency improved a lot, and Yun Zhao let it go.

The beautiful Qin Wang's Mansion is not without good rooms, some of which can even be called luxurious, and there is a place called "Leopard Room", which is a paradise for men and women to play games.

What is the use of such a place for Yun Zhao?

Even if he secretly wanted to go, as far as Feng Ying and Qian Duoduo's temper were concerned, eighty percent would not agree.

Therefore, they are all waste-like existences.

It's better to open all the palaces of the Qin Dynasty, the scholars of the Ming Dynasty like this set the most, and they have a mysterious love for the king who is self-denying and dedicated.

They even think that the best appearance of a king is to live a life like Chongzhen and do the same life as Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.

As for the humble ones, it doesn't matter, they can live a life like a drunken dream and death of the Song Shishi doctors, and they don't have to worry about being beheaded by the emperor.

Sure enough, after Yun Zhao gave up the Qin Palace, everyone in Lantian County was happy, and even Xu Yuanshou, who had always been wise, was smiling.

After Da Honglu Zhu Cunji came to his house to eat that meal, his whole person changed, and he became a little dissolute, and he stayed in the Spring Breeze and Mingyue Building for half a month.

When he was carried back by his mother, he was still drunk, and the world thought that he was distressed that his family property was deprived, but he did not expect that after he woke up, he began to build his own Dahonglu Temple.

He also suggested to Yun Zhao that in the future, Lantian County's reception of foreign vassals would be handled by him.

Since people have job requirements, Yun Zhao readily agreed, allowing him to build the Honglu Temple Yamen and Pavilion Post in Yushan, and allocated 20,000 silver dollars!

There are actually many Fanstates that need to be entertained in Lantian County now, from the Wusi Tibetans to the Mongols, to the people of the Western Regions who ride camels, and even the red-haired people from the far west.

Zhu Cunji likes to deal with the stench of the Wusi Tibetans all over his body, and he also likes to deal with the Mongolians who wear a leather robe for a lifetime, and even when dealing with the red-haired people, he can throw out a few Western words from time to time, and the whole person is radiant and different from the past.

Speaking of which, Zhu Cunji lost his fiefdom, lost most of the Qin Palace, and lost the title of King of Qin, who had no power for a long time, but his family wealth did not decrease, judging from his large number of shops in Xi'an City.

Within ten years, he could build another Qin Wangfu somewhere else.

Of course, this is just a statement.

After Li Hongji captured Luoyang, he stopped there for half a month, and then once again attacked Kaifeng City.

This time, he will face his old rival Sun Chuanting.

That is, this time, the king of Zhou, who had been reprimanded and punished by Emperor Chongzhen, no longer continued to forbear, and he generously stated: "The city wall is trapped, and the body is not there, but what about Jinhu?" If the city is safeguarded, why should there be no gold"?

King Fu's fate strengthened King Zhou's confidence in resisting Li Hongji's subordinates, and he was unwilling to let his accumulated gold and silver become Li Hongji's military resources.

Therefore, tens of thousands of taels of silver were taken out from the treasury to reward the defenders, and a notice was posted to offer a reward for recruiting warriors, saying that anyone who could repel the peasant army would be rewarded with 100,000 taels of silver, and that he would be promoted to the imperial court.

As soon as the money was scattered, the effect was immediately apparent, and the enthusiasm and morale of the soldiers and civilians defending the city were quickly stimulated.

The thieves bravely attacked the city, and the offensive was wave after wave, the Kaifeng city wall was blown down in more than 20 places, but the defenders rolled wood and stones, hot oil arrows poured down, fought to the death, and quickly blocked the gap with sandbags, so that the thief army could not enter the city after paying the heavy price of casualties.

Sun Chuanting, who was fighting outside the city, took the opportunity to ambush Luo Rucai, a thief who was preparing to attack Kaifeng City left and right, in Helongtan, and this battle defeated Luo Rucai's 50,000 thieves and beheaded countless people.

Li Hongji saw that Kaifeng City could not be taken down for a long time, and Luo Rucai was defeated and Longtan again, so he had to lead his subordinates to retreat to Luoyang.

The two attacks on Kaifeng did not go smoothly both times, which made Li Hongji extremely jealous of Kaifeng City.

King Zhou was lucky to win, but King Chu in Wuchang was not so lucky.

The tragic death of Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, was responsible for the extermination of Li Hongji, and Yang Sichang, an important minister of Zhang Bingzhong's court, could not escape the blame.

Hearing that Li Hongji had entered Kaifeng again, Yang Sichang was very worried, and six days later, he died of illness in Shashi.

Wang Wenzhen, Zuo Liangyu, and He Renlong saw that Zhang Bingzhong's thief forces were blazing again, and they had to retreat to Wuchang.

After reading the military report, Yun Zhao looked at Qian Shaoshao and said, "Do we have any business dealings with the King of Chu?" ”

Qian Shaoshao's eyes rolled and said, "Brother-in-law, do you think King Chu will be finished this time?" ”

Yun Zhao said in a low voice: "There is more than one bad luck. ”

Qian Shaoshao said: "It's a pity that the king of Chu has saved millions of gold beads." ”

Yun Zhao said: "It's all people's fat and people's ointment, take it back." ”

"The Yueyang Group is handling this matter, but this King of Chu and King Fu are all the way, and I heard that he is also a dime a dime."

Yun Zhao thought about it for a moment and said, "Leave it to Da Honglu to handle it, and tell him that the King of Chu only has one chance to trade." ”

"The same 100,000 taels of gold?"

Yun Zhao nodded and said, "That's right, I can't live with the life of King Chu." ”

There is no harm in doing this kind of thing for Zhu Cunji.

As the former Daming Clan, he is more familiar with the King of Chu, who is also a clan.

At the same time, he is also most familiar with the psychology of King Fu and King Chu who are unwilling to pay to help the court resist thieves.

Speaking of which, these clansmen in other places did not have much gratitude to the Ming Dynasty, on the contrary, they were more angry, perhaps because they were angry for too long, and they slowly thought that they were outsiders.

The family world created by Zhu Yuanzhang gives the people of the world the greatest feeling that the rise and fall of the dynasty has nothing to do with individuals, and this world is the emperor's world, not the world of small people.

Therefore, expecting these people to defend their homes and the country is a big joke.

There is only one thing they can do to get them into battle—and that's silver.

But all the armies that can fight and dare to fight in the Ming Dynasty are piled up with silver, including the Qi family army, and the same is true for the white pole army, those simple people will not carry their heads to the battlefield if they are not for the sake of making more money.

The vassal kings who have been wandering outside the power center of the Ming Dynasty for a long time naturally think the same way.

The thieves came to attack the city, and it was the responsibility of the local officers and soldiers, and it had nothing to do with them.

This led to the collapse of the family world that Zhu Yuanzhang thought back then, and the clans not only failed to become the emperor's help, but also became the biggest drag on the imperial court.

You must know that it costs far more money to feed a million clans than it does to feed an army of a million.

Today's Ming Emperor Chongzhen can still get some silver, feed the Liaodong soldiers, feed some general soldiers, and wait until the emperor can no longer come up with the money, and the end of the Ming Dynasty will come.

Li Hongji and Zhang Bingzhong only captured the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but Yunzhao captured the Ming Dynasty to win the hearts of the people.

Compared with the two, Yun Zhao seems harmless, but in fact, just like many prescient traitors of the Ming Dynasty, Yun Zhao is the most dangerous enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

His soldiers do not go out of the pass, but his name has spread all over the territory of the Ming Dynasty, although he has always lowered his eyebrows and paid taxes to the emperor, but the name of Lantian County's wealth has become famous all over the world.

The officials in Guanzhong have forgotten that there is still the Ming Emperor in this world.

The same court has treated them as rebels, and for so many years, not only have they not been paid, but they have never even been promoted, degraded, or become officials in other places.

Therefore, these officials spontaneously believe that now, the object of their allegiance is Yun Zhao.

Because in the past ten years, the person who distributed them to them was Yun Zhao, and the person who controlled their promotion and debasement was Yun Zhao - at this time, Yun Zhao had already become a veritable king of Guanzhong!

Zhu Cunji was extremely excited to participate in such a high-level meeting in Lantian County for the first time.

After listening to the speeches of the senior officials attending the meeting, many of the confusions suddenly became clear.

It was at this meeting that Zhu Cunji learned about a real Lanlantian County.

He knew that the boundary monument in Guanzhong was secretly marching towards Chongqing, and he knew that the army of Ningxia Town had begun to slowly move eastward, and in three months, the vast area from Lantian City to Ningxia Town would be brought under the rule of Lantian County.

He also knew that the only reason why Yunfu's army was stationed at Zijing Pass was to wait for the fall of Wuchang so that he could further encompass the Nanyang Plain.

At the end of the meeting, he finally knew the real reason why he would attend this meeting - he came back with 100,000 catties of gunpowder and 2,000 cannons in exchange for 100,000 taels of gold from the king of Chu.

At the conference, Zhu Cunji first affirmed that it was not difficult for the King of Chu to take out 100,000 taels of gold, and then told everyone present that it was impossible for the King of Chu to take out 100,000 taels of gold to buy weapons to help Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong and others guard Wuchang.

"If you don't take gold out to buy your life, it's a death!"

Yun Zhao ended the meeting concisely, and at the same time ordered Qian Shaoshao to help Zhu Cunji complete the task.

After Zhu Cunji left the venue, he convened a meeting of the Zhu clan, and the topic of the meeting was only one, how to exchange 100,000 catties of gunpowder and 2,000 cannons from the king of Chu for 100,000 taels of gold.

This is the first time that Zhu Cunji has really participated in the politics of Lantian County, and he hopes that he can succeed immediately, so as to completely integrate into Lantian County.