352 entered the capital

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Li Zixiao took Quartz and a group of 500 soldiers to escort Kong Youde and escort several large cars to an inn five miles away from the capital in five days.

Along the way, Li Zixiao didn't worry about it, and was tormented by Kong Youde's shriveled calf thing.

This guy should know that Li Zixiao is going to take him into Beijing, and he himself knows very well that if he falls into the hands of Chongzhen, he may end up miserable.

So, this guy sought death along the way, but fortunately, Li Zixiao had been prepared for a long time, and someone was always by his side to prevent him from committing suicide.

This guy simply went on a hunger strike, planning to die of hunger strike, but the helpless Li Zixiao sent someone to forcibly pour rice soup on him, and he must hang his life.

The dead Kong Youde is far less valuable than the living Kong Youde, which is one of Li Zixiao's bargaining chips to curry favor with Chongzhen in Beijing.

After all, five days is not too long, and when Li Zixiao arrives at the boundary of the capital, he can be relieved.

Moreover, soon Hao Jian led a team of men and horses to come out to meet them, and Hao Jian returned to the capital before Li Zixiao and them returned to the capital to resume their lives.

"Lord Li, it's finally time for you, Lord Lu is waiting for you at the inn in front!"

Hao Jian greeted him and said politely to Li Zixiao.

"Let's go, take me to Lord Lu." Li Zixiao smiled slightly and said.

"Master Lee."

Soon, when Li Zixiao and his party arrived at the inn, they found Lu Xiangsheng coming out to greet them.

"Lord Lu, I don't even bother you to come out to greet you." Li Zixiao said with a smile.

"Haha, why should Lord Li be polite, you have a life-saving grace for Lu!"

While the two were talking, they entered the inn and sat down, this inn had already been fully occupied by Lu Xiangsheng, and there was no one else.

"Lord Li, I have already dredged up for you on the Shengshang's side, and the Shengshang was overjoyed after hearing that you had captured Kong Youde, and the thousands of Tartar heads I brought brought made the Shengshang eliminate his previous prejudice against you."

Lu Xiangsheng said so easily, but Li Zixiao knew that it would definitely take a lot of effort for Lu Xiangsheng to convince Chongzhen.

"Thank you Lord Luo for your kind words in front of the saint, this time the lower official not only brought a gift to the saint, Lord Lu, please come with me."

Li Zixiao took Lu Xiangsheng to the backyard of the inn, where more than a dozen carriages brought by him were parked, and more than 300 soldiers of the White Dragon Army had been left here to guard them.

"What is this?" Lu Xiangsheng asked suspiciously, in fact, he already had some guesses in his heart.

"Lord Lu, according to our previous agreement, there are a total of 1.5 million taels of silver in these carts.

Among them, 500,000 taels are for Lord Lu, and the remaining 1 million taels are for the saint, after all, the saint needs this silver more than the next.

However, there are also thousands of soldiers under the subordinates, and when they go back, they have to pay for the families of the thousands of soldiers who died in the battle and reward the soldiers, so they leave half of them.

Whoever let the imperial court never pay us a military salary, the lower officials can only find their own way, and I hope Lord Lu understands. ”

"What do you say? Here are 1.5 million taels? 500,000 taels for me? Lu Xiangsheng was also shocked by Li Zixiao's generosity.

"Could it be that Lord Lu is too little?"

"No, no." Lu Xiangsheng hurriedly smiled and waved his hand, he was too little, too much.

"Lord Li is really loyal to the Holy Lord!"

Although Lu Xiangsheng also knew that Li Zixiao had received three million taels from King De, it was certain that he would have a share, and Li Zixiao had previously promised to share Chongzhen's share.

But Lu Xiangsheng really didn't expect Li Zixiao to be able to pit out a full five million taels from King De's hands, and now Li Zixiao actually wanted to divide him with 500,000 taels, which really made his hands tremble.

"Lord Li's kindness, the official understands it, but the 500,000 taels can't be accepted, I only take 100,000 taels, and this silver Lu will also be used for pensions, and the families of those soldiers who died with me in Jiazhuang before.

The remaining 1,400,000 taels of silver, the official will transfer all the silver to the Holy One for Lord Li, and say that you took it back from the hands of the Tartars. ”

Lu Xiangsheng never accepted bribes, but in order to fulfill his promise to those fallen soldiers to pay for their families, he had to find a way to get a sum of money.

Because at that time, Lu Xiangsheng knew that the entire imperial court, including Chongzhen, was poor as pants, and he couldn't get the pension for the families of the fallen soldiers.

This is also the reason why Lu Xiangsheng was willing to cooperate with Li Zixiao before and cheated King De.

However, Lu Xiangsheng never thought that Li Zixiao could pit out a full three million taels from King De, and he thought it would be good to have 500,000 taels at first.

Now, Lu Xiangsheng only takes 50,000 taels to compensate the families of the fallen soldiers, and the rest is given to Chongzhen.

In fact, at this time, Lu Xiangsheng wanted not to want a penny, and handed it all over to Chongzhen, and the province was discovered by someone with a heart, so that he would be stigmatized for corruption.

However, then Lu Xiangsheng thought again, even if the more than one million taels were handed over to Chongzhen, I am afraid that in half a day, he would be asked for by those ministers who were short of money every day.

When the time comes, it is simply impossible to ask those ministers to give tens of thousands of taels of silver to compensate the families of those fallen soldiers.

Thinking of this, Lu Xiangsheng decided to accept 100,000 taels of silver, even if he was known in the future, he didn't care, but he couldn't lose his trust to those Ming soldiers who died.

"Okay, it's all up to Lord Lu."

Li Zixiao thought for a while and said.

Li Zixiao was not surprised that Lu Xiangsheng only accepted 100,000 taels of silver, and handed over the remaining 1.4 million taels of silver to Chongzhen.

For Li Zixiao, this silver is going to be given away anyway, and Lu Xiangsheng receives more and receives less, which is almost the same for him.

Moreover, Li Zixiao believed that he entered Beijing this time, and he had Kong Youde in his hand, and he gave 1.4 million taels of silver, as well as more than 3,000 Tartar heads before.

With these achievements, Chongzhen just wants to embarrass him, but it's impossible.

Even Li Zixiao expected that Chongzhen would definitely praise him greatly and push him out to set an example for the world's generals.

And this is exactly what Li Zixiao needs, he needs to use this to gain fame, wait to become famous in the world, and increase his officials, and even gain the trust of the court and even Chongzhen.

In this way, in the future, he can use the power of the imperial court to develop and strengthen him, and with his reputation and official position, he can recruit talents and continue to expand his territory.

And it is justifiable, it will no longer be encircled and suppressed by the imperial court, only 1.4 million taels, as long as this trip can achieve these purposes, it will be worth it.

Subsequently, Lu Xiangsheng took Kong Youde and a convoy of 1.4 million taels of silver into the city in advance, and the silver was secretly given to Chongzhen, and he would not go to the imperial court.

It was handed over to Chongzhen by Lu Xiangsheng, it was too eye-catching to have such a large sum of silver, and Lu Xiangsheng also suggested that he do it.

After Lu Xiangsheng entered the city, Li Zixiao entered the capital under the guidance of Hao Jian, which was also the first time Li Zixiao entered the capital of Daming.

It's just that when Li Zixiao came to the capital, he found that this Daming capital was not as prosperous as he imagined.

From the outside, this is indeed a magnificent and huge city, more than ten meters high city walls, tall city towers, wide moats, all highlight the majesty of this capital.

But at this time, Li Zixiao rode on horseback and entered the city through the city gate, but saw the quaint and old streets and houses in the capital.

The streets were full of ragged beggars, Li Zixiao never thought that he could see so many beggars when he entered the capital of Daming.

Li Zixiao was a little sad and thought: "Is this the world's largest and most populous city in the world?" ”

Looking at the streets, there are endless homeless beggars, and many people who are out of business on the side of the road, motionless, I don't know if they are dead or not.

Li Zixiao sighed and said to Hao Jian beside him: "Brother Hao, this capital is not good, how can there be so many homeless beggars?" And most of them are old and weak, women and children.

Even in Yongcheng County, which I manage, those homeless people still have food to eat, but at the feet of the Son of Heaven in the capital division, how can they be like this? ”

Hao Jian, who was following on the side, heard Li Zixiao ask, and immediately explained to him: "These homeless people have all poured into the capital in the past two months.

Most of them were the people of the cities around the capital, and their homes had been looted and burned down by the Tartars, and they were homeless, and they had no food to eat in the winter, so they had to pour into the capital.

The Holy One was merciful and couldn't bear to see so many homeless people freezing to death outside the city, so he ordered the old and young women and children to enter the city, and most of the remaining homeless people were actually outside the city.

The government has set up several soup kitchens outside the city, barely allowing those displaced people to survive, and now how to deal with these displaced people has become the most headache for the saints. ”

"Alas! I see. Li Zixiao let out a long sigh and stopped talking.

But Li Zixiao thought in his heart, Chongzhen is just acting like a show, and he dares to let these old, weak, sick and disabled people into the city to beg for food.

Those young and strong homeless people outside the city, it is estimated that Chongzhen will not dare to put them in, otherwise once there is a riot, it will be a big trouble.

Moreover, these old, weak, sick and disabled people who were put in were all in the outer city, and they were not allowed to enter the inner city.

Walking towards the inner city along the way, Li Zixiao saw some brightly dressed Haoqiang, businessmen, and wealthy family slaves, who were dressed in fresh clothes and angry horses, hugging each other and hugging each other, passing by on the street.

Looking at their arrogant demeanor, as well as the homeless beggars around them, their faces numb or envious, Li Zixiao shook his head.

And what he saw more was a hateful look, and Li Zixiao finally felt the phenomenon of 'Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road' today.

Seeing Li Zixiao, he said in his heart: "No wonder the Ming Dynasty will perish, the court that has lost the hearts of all the people at the bottom, if it doesn't perish, then it's hell!" ”

And Li Zixiao also knows that don't look at the streets outside the capital at this time, there are homeless beggars everywhere, and the cellars of many eunuchs, merchants, and nobles in the capital are estimated to be full of gold and jewelry!

In Li Zixiao's view, poverty is not terrible, what I am afraid of is the rich and poor class in society, which is too disparity and too big a gap.

When the vast majority of the people at the bottom can't even solve the most basic food and clothing problems, the people at the top live a life of singing and dancing, drunk and dreaming of death.

This will inevitably intensify the hatred of the majority of the grassroots people against the upper class.

As the saying goes, 'we don't suffer from inequality', and too much disparity in wealth will certainly exacerbate social turmoil and instability.

No wonder in a few years, when Li Zicheng's army of rogues came to the capital, most of the people flocked to welcome Li Zicheng as if they were celebrating the New Year!

It's a pity that in the face of all this, Li Zixiao still hasn't changed his strength, so he can only watch silently.

"I need fame, official positions, talents, generals, territory, silver, to speed up the expansion of my forces, otherwise I still have no ability to change all this, time is pressing!"

Li Zixiao shouted in his heart.

After entering the inner city, Li Zixiao was arranged to rest in an official post and waited for Chongzhen's summons tomorrow.

"Master Li, Hao is going back, you can rest here with peace of mind, someone will come to lead you into the court tomorrow morning."

"Brother Hao, junior brother asks, how is the eunuch now?"

"Hmph, that dog thief has been put on death row by the Holy Lord, and is waiting for his verdict in the future! This gelding almost killed Lord Lu, and even more so killed thousands of our brothers, and Lord Lu would never let him go. ”

Hao Jian heard Li Zixiao mention Gao Qidive, and said with a cold face.

Then, Hao Jian left.

"Hey, Chongzhen, this is letting Gao Qiqian take the blame for himself!" Li Zixiao sneered and thought in his heart.

He knew that Chongzhen had the idea of making peace with the Tartars, so he didn't hand over the Guanning Iron Cavalry to Lu Xiangsheng, and he was worried that after Lu Xiangsheng took control of the Guanning Iron Cavalry, he would really fight with the Tartars.

Chongzhen had no confidence in defeating the Tartars, and was even more afraid that once the trump card in his hand, Guan Ning Tieqi, was also defeated, he was afraid that the capital would not be able to hold it at that time.

Only then did Chongzhen send Gao Qiqian as a supervisor, and handed over the Guanning Iron Cavalry to Gao Qiqian's command.

Of course, Chongzhen was right in order to preserve the strength of Guanning's iron cavalry, but he definitely didn't let Gao Qi dive, seeing Lu Xiangsheng trapped in Jiazhuang, and seeing death was not saved.

Now, Chongzhen estimated that it was to calm Lu Xiangsheng's anger and retain Lu Xiangsheng, so he dealt with Gao Qiqian in this way.

But Li Zixiao has a hunch that if he dives this gelding dog to the end, I'm afraid Chongzhen will still not kill him.

………………………………………………

Not long after Li Zixiao entered the city, in a mansion far away in the east of the city, Yang Sichang also received a message from the house slave and knew that Li Zixiao had entered the city.

"I didn't expect the saint to really summon this person to Beijing, if the fold sent by the prefect of Shunde before was true, then this Li Zixiao is really not simple!

Hmph, it's a pity, he is already Lu Jiandou's person, that is the old man's enemy, tomorrow after the court, see how the old man deals with you.

There are as many as six or seven thousand guerrillas under the command of a mere miscellaneous cantonment army, which is simply appalling, and the old man can send you to prison just because you recruit soldiers privately. ”

Yang Sichang thought sinikerly in his heart.

At this time, Yang Sichang of course also noticed Li Zixiao.

The battle of Maguanying, which few people know, or the battle of Shunde, or the battle when Jiazhuang rescued Lu Xiangsheng and captured Kong Youde alive.

By this time, it was gradually beginning to be known.