Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 353: Operator Zang Xian

Chen Hutou looked at Pei Yuan, then at the surrounding Jinyiwei and asked, "Mr. Zhuge, is it convenient to talk here?"

The Jinyiwei around Pei Yuan were the ones who had followed him through life and death countless times, and they were his personal soldiers who escorted taxes and silver.

Pei Yuan naturally trusted them, so he said, "They are all my brothers in life and death."

Chen Hutou breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand. Several boxes were immediately opened by his men, revealing the boxes that were filled with gold, jade and jewels.

Not even any silver was seen.

Pei Yuan's eyelids twitched and he had a rough guess in his mind.

These properties were either brought into the capital city bit by bit by the Bazhou Army using a large number of manpower, like ants moving house.

Or maybe one of their people made a big fortune in Beijing.

Pei Yuan motioned Chen Toutie to come over and whispered a few words to him.

Chen Toutie left in a hurry.

Chen Hutou didn't care about all this. He came here to redeem himself for his crime. Even if he was arrested by the imperial court, he had nothing to complain about.

So he said to Pei Yuan in a deep voice, "Deputy Commander Zhao estimated the value of these treasures and antiques, and the total value should be no less than 100,000 taels of silver. This is what our entire Bazhou Army has collected. In order to collect enough good gold, even the wives of the two commanders broke their gold hairpins and melted them into gold ingots."

"This is the sincere sincerity of our Bazhou Army."

Chen Hutou's words were sincere, but Pei Yuan felt tremendous pressure when he looked at the treasures.

Now the Bazhou Army regards me as the last straw to save them. Once I disappoint them, one can imagine what kind of backlash will come.

At this time Chen Toutie came back and said a few words in Pei Yuan's ear.

He had quickly received reports from his spies that there was no trouble in the city.

In other words, these gold, jade, jewelry and other things were really brought into the city bit by bit by the Bazhou Army.

So how many Bazhou troops are there in the city now?

Three to five hundred is possible.

Pei Yuan had a subtle mentality and showed some sincerity towards Chen Hutou.

"So, what do the two commanders mean?"

Chen Hutou replied with a heavy heart, "The Bazhou army is now attacking everywhere and has suffered repeated setbacks. It is difficult to hold on. After we entered Huguang, we were forced to the river by the imperial army several times, but we didn't dare to abandon the cavalry, so we didn't dare to cross the river easily."

"A few days ago, the army was forced to move south along the Yangtze River and attacked Huangzhou and Jizhou. Although we won a small victory, we lost a large number of war horses."

"Now even Master Qi, who insisted on staying in Jiangbei, has begun to waver on crossing the river."

Pei Yuan listened and roughly understood the rhythm of the Bazhou army.

According to the original rhythm of history, they would be forced into a corner by the imperial court and would have to go to Tuanfeng Town to seize boats and enter the river.

That Tuanfeng Town is the ancient Wulin, the place where Cao Cao sang "Duke Zhou spits out food to feed his guests, and the whole world is at peace."

After getting the boats, the landlubbers of the Bazhou army began to have bad luck.

First, Liu Liu died when his boat capsized, and then the others hurried down the river.

However, without their war horses, the Bazhou army, which relied on boats, had completely lost its fighting power. They tried to go ashore and attack the city many times, but were repelled every time.

Finally, when they fled to Langshan in Tongzhou, Jiangsu, they were surrounded by the government troops who were well prepared.

Liu Qi and Qi Yanming were both killed in the battle.

Afterwards, the six major bandits led by Liu Qi, Qi Yanming, Zhao Sui and others were skinned by Zhu Houzhao and made into saddles.

Pei Yuan asked Chen Hutou in confusion, "Now that things have come to this, what's the point of you coming to me again?"

Chen Hutou replied, "Mr. Zhuge once said something to Master Qi, which he has remembered till now and dare not forget."

"Oh?" Pei Yuan was surprised and thought quickly in his mind, did he let something slip and reveal some historical process?
Chen Hutou looked at Pei Yuan and said very seriously, "Charging money will make you stronger."

"Hiss——" Upon hearing this, Tian Fu, who was standing behind Pei Yuan, immediately took a breath of cold air.

Although this sentence has no beginning or end, it seems to be full of powerful persuasiveness.

Pei Yuan turned around and glanced at Little Brother Tian, ​​then looked at the property in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.

Then he said to Chen Hutou, "You go back first. Let me think about this matter more."

Chen Hutou immediately asked, "Then these things..."

Pei Yuan smacked his lips as if he had a toothache, "Forget it, stay here for now. Come see me again at this time tomorrow."

Chen Hutou was overjoyed when he heard this, and he said goodbye and left with his men.

Chen Toutie came up and took a look at the valuables, and said, "These guys are really bold."

Pei Yuan said indifferently, "That's because they are not afraid that I will regret it."

Then he gave his own guess, "These Bazhou troops are estimated to have infiltrated the city by three to five hundred men."

Chen Toutie laughed disdainfully, "Our Zhihua Temple cannot be conquered even with a few more 300 or 500 people, let alone 300 or 500 people."

Pei Yuan rolled his eyes and was speechless.

"I can't stay in Zhihua Temple forever."

Pei Yuan signaled the Jinyiwei to carry the box away.

Pei Yuan initially hid 60,000 taels of silver in Zhihua Temple. Later, in order to support Cheng Leixiang in recruiting soldiers in Tianjin Wei, he asked Chen Toutie to send him another 20,000 taels.

Not counting the tens of thousands of taels that were deposited into the public account when the temple was confiscated, Pei Yuan's personal wealth saw another surge.

But this money is not easy to get.

After Chen Hutou left, Pei Yuan asked Tian Fu, "Why did Fengchu teach me?"

Tian Fu felt a little dizzy after hearing this.

How come I am a phoenix chick?

And those things just now really broke his cognition.

When the Bazhou army was on the verge of despair, the first thing they thought of was not to flee in all directions or fight desperately, but to collect some money and come to this Jinyiwei captain for advice.

Tian Fu's opinion of Pei Yuan was already quite lofty.

Without waiting for Tian Fu to say anything, Chen Toutie suggested, "Captain, should we bring them to Luo Sect?"

Pei Yuan asked, "Aren't you afraid that someone will take over your nest?"

Chen Toutie immediately became obedient.

Pei Yuan continued to ask Tian Fu, "In your opinion, if these people want to find a way to survive, what other options do they have?"

Tian Fu didn't expect such a big trouble to fall on his head. He hesitated and said, "The Bazhou Army is too famous, and now it has actually been burdened by its reputation."

"As far as I know, in neighboring Jiangxi alone, there were rebellions led by Wang Yuwu of Fuzhou, Wang Chenger of Raozhou, Luo Guangquan of Ruizhou, He Jiqin of Ganzhou, and Hu Leier of Jing'an County. They set up strongholds in the valleys and mountains, and echoed each other from afar, making a lot of noise. But now the court's attention is on the Bazhou army, whose momentum has greatly decreased, and it has invested little in the rebellion in Jiangxi." Pei Yuan nodded slightly after listening. Huangzhou and Jizhou were already close to Jiangxi.

The one who is now suppressing bandits in Jiangxi is the Right Censor-in-Chief Chen Jin. Zhu Houzhao appointed him as the general commander of military affairs, and he has great real power, so he is also known as the Chief Censor-in-Chief.

During the rebellion in Jiangxi, the emperor specially permitted all civil and military officials in Nanji, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Huguang to obey Chen Jin's orders, and also allowed him to act at his own discretion. If anyone under his command disobeyed his orders, he could execute him first and report to him later.

Chen Jin's fight was not going well at the beginning, but this guy was a ruthless man. He understood that the court had given him so much power and all he wanted was a result.

So he immediately recruited wolf-earth soldiers from Guangxi.

Although the wolf-earth soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were powerful in combat, they also had great destructive power.

According to the Ming History, "Jin repeatedly defeated the bandits, but the soldiers he used were greedy, cruel and bloodthirsty, and plundered even more than the bandits. There were large families with hundreds of people killed. The women they captured were generally identified as bandits and taken away on thousands of ships. There was a popular rumor: 'Local bandits are still okay, but local soldiers will kill us.'"

The local soldiers robbed and killed more cruelly than the local bandits, so the local bandits naturally could not survive.

Chen Jinming knew that the people were deeply troubled by this, but he turned a deaf ear and did nothing for the sake of his political achievements in suppressing the rebellion.

Moreover, this man was greedy by nature, and he also took a share of the things that the soldiers looted, so he became even more unrestrained.

Chen Jin was a man of mediocre ability. Every time he went to fight the enemy, he made a mess. But he knew how to report his achievements, so he did not delay his promotion.

The reason why this man was able to have a successful career and make great achievements in the Ming Dynasty was entirely because he had a good son-in-law.

That is Jiang Mian, the current Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and later the Chief Minister of the Cabinet.

Speaking of which, Captain Pei has some connection with this Chief Censor-in-Chief.

When Captain Pei was "bullied" by someone, Captain Han sent him a falconet in anger. In addition, in order to ensure that Pei Yuan had sufficient supplies, he also obtained a lot of sub-guns directly from Chen Jin's army that was suppressing the rebellion.

At that time, Pei Yuan looked down on Chen Jin.

It can be said that a Chief Censor-in-Chief is incompetent for his management of the army to be so lax to such an extent.

Pei Yuan said to Tian Fu, "The chaos in Jiangxi will not last long. As for the Bazhou Army, it is indeed not over until Liu Liu and Liu Qi are dead."

Pei Yuan paused here, then smiled calmly at Tian Fu, "If they don't die, how can I grant you a special examination?"

The smile on Pei Yuan's face was very faint, but the meaning of his words was full of cruelty.

Tian Fu was horrified when he heard this. He didn't expect Pei Yuan to have such thoughts.

Pei Yuan thought for a while and asked Chen Toutie, "Did the new Right Censor Li Shishi send anyone to visit him?"

Chen Toutie replied, "Not yet."

Pei Yuan sighed and said, "How ignorant! He has already reached the rank of Second Grade, but he doesn't even understand the ways of the world."

After saying that, Pei Yuan said to Chen Toutie, "Find out where he lives, and I'll go meet him."

After that, he added to Chen Toutie, "When the time comes, you will come with me. This person has a good relationship with King Ning. The two are relatives."

Chen Toutie is very sensitive about Prince Ning.

He immediately connected Prince Ning with Chen Hutou who had just left. He thought for a moment and asked, "Is the captain planning to have these Bazhou troops surrender to Prince Ning?"

Pei Yuan shook his head.

The big deal of several divisions he had done with King Ning before was done through Han Qianhu's people, who contacted King Ning privately.

At that time, it was simply to make a quick buck, and there was a large element of fraud.

If I were to step out and act as a middleman now, wouldn't that be revealing my identity?

By then, King Ning will have the evidence against him.

He and Captain Han asked King Ning for 100,000 taels of silver. Now 80,000 taels have been received, and the only thing left is the final installment to be paid into Jiangxi.

Pei Yuan can mess around with the short-lived Bazhou Army, but it will be a long time before Prince Ning is finished.

If he was forced by Prince Ning to take a political stance, he would be completely passive.

At least for people like Tian Fu and Huo Tao, if Pei Yuan lost his political independence and the unlimited possibilities from above, wouldn't it be better for them to surrender to King Ning themselves than to surrender to Pei Yuan?

Therefore, letting the Bazhou Army go to find Prince Ning is obviously the simplest option, but it is also the most difficult decision for Pei Yuan to make.

As Li Shishi had just arrived in the capital's officialdom and was about to take charge of the Censorate, his every move was watched closely.

It was not difficult to find out his temporary residence.

Not long after Chen Toutie went out, he reported back that Li Shishi was now staying in the Dongyue Temple.

Dongyue Temple is one of the nine temples in the capital that are worshipped by the Ming Dynasty, and it is the highest level temple that enjoys the Tailao offerings.

Li Shishi's stay in a temple was actually a very common phenomenon in official circles.

Just as the censor prohibited eating geese, the imperial court also had strict restrictions on officials' accommodation conditions.

——"Any official who occupies the upper room in the main hall of a post station while on official business shall be flogged fifty times."

Li Shishi was not on a business trip, but as the censor who needed to avoid suspicion the most, and the second-in-command of the censors, he certainly could not allow himself to be criticized.

Therefore, before the housing problem is solved, staying in a temple is undoubtedly the best option.

The overall atmosphere of society today is to worship Buddhism. Some of the more famous temples are all magnificently and beautifully built, with quiet and elegant environments, and the vegetarian meals are also exquisite and delicious.

Some temples are even graded and cannot be disturbed by outsiders, and the level of comfort of accommodation is comparable to some clubs in later generations.

The key point is that temples are places away from the secular world. Even if you can enjoy a higher level of comfort when staying in a temple, it will not cause too much criticism.

When Pei Yuan arrived, Li Shishi was still in the Censorate and had not returned, so Pei Yuan summoned the local Taoist Zhenji to conduct a routine investigation.

Dongyue Temple, as one of the nine temples in the capital, has always been under the control of Qianhu Suo, so the Taoist Zhenji was also very respectful to Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan asked in detail about the people Li Shishi had met in the past two days, and instructed the Taoist Zhenji to help him keep a close eye on Li Shishi's movements.

The Taoist priest Zhenji from the Dongyue Temple knew Pei Qianhu's recent reputation, so he naturally did not dare to neglect him.

At this time, a Jinyiwei came to report urgently, "Captain, the Right Censor Li Shishi has come to the Dongyue Temple, and there are officials accompanying him."

Upon hearing this, Pei Yuan immediately ordered, "Immediately ask Chen Toutie and Yun Buxian to identify and find out the identity of the person accompanying him."

After saying that, he signaled to the Taoist priest, "You should leave, so as not to alert him."

Taoist Zhenji's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't dare to say anything more and quickly retreated.

Pei Yuanjing waited for a moment, and another Jinyiwei reported, "Captain, Right Censor Li Shishi has entered the Dongyue Temple."

Pei Yuan said "hmm".

Before this Jinyiwei left, another Jinyiwei came over and hurriedly reported, "General Yun recognized that the man following Li Shishi was Zang Xian, the Fengluan of the Jiaofang Division."

Pei Yuan suddenly realized that it was him.

Even though this person is only a ninth-rank official, he is not a simple character.

This is Prince Ning's manipulator in the capital who is responsible for winning over officials!

(End of this chapter)