Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 214 Where does the confidence come from?

"I, Zhu Cilang, hereby inform the elders that none of our Yingtian men retreat in the battle line! None of them surrender!"

As the words spread, everyone in the field instantly turned their attention to the white-armored knight.

Many people among the people of Yingtian had already seen Zhu Cilang. Adding the words "this palace", who wouldn't know that this knight in white armor was the Crown Prince who lifted the siege of Yingtian?

But when the people who were a little further away were preparing to perform the kneeling ceremony, several exclamations came from the crowd who were a little closer.

The old man who had cried out earlier even knelt down in front of Zhu Cilang.

"Your Highness! You."

He raised his hand and touched his face when he heard the words. When he felt the scar covered with a thick layer of blood scab, he reached out to support the old man in front of him.

"My men have fought for the Ming Dynasty on the battlefield with blood, so what does my little injury mean?"

Zhu Cilang's voice was not too loud, but it was clearly heard by the people around him. Then, the crowd, who had been whispering because of the scar on his face, immediately fell silent.

In just a few moments, the people around Zhu Cilang went from sadness to shock, and from shock to shock.

At the very end, for some unknown reason, several sobbing sounds were heard among the people in this area.

The people who were farther away naturally had no idea what was happening. From their perspective, they only saw His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, dressed in white armor, riding his horse out of the line, and then they heard crying from the crowd over there.

In such a situation, everyone was naturally a little anxious, and the old man in Confucian robes next to the Zhou mother and son even asked directly to the people who were a little further away.

"May I ask what happened up front?"

"Your Highness is injured."

The five short words drifted away with the breeze and disappeared without a trace in a moment, but it brought a huge shock to the people of Yingtian. It seemed that the old man in Confucian robes was so upset that he lost control of his emotions and didn't care about being polite at all. He knelt on the ground and cried.

"Your Highness is a precious person, and you are responsible for the safety of the Ming Dynasty. How can you not take care of yourself~~~~!"

As the cry was heard, the news that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was injured in the battle spread everywhere. But when the people were in tears, Xiang Rensheng, who was following Zhu Cilang, had a flushed face and wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

In the Battle of Wuhu, both the Ming and Qing sides continuously sent their troops into the battlefield. In the end, there were 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers fighting in such a small area.

At this point in the war, everyone knows that there is no other way to go except to win.

However, Yuan Jixian's troops had been fighting here for more than a month, and by dusk they were gradually showing signs of exhaustion.

Earlier, both Zhu Cilang and Yuan Jixian believed that no matter how this battle turned out, it would not have any impact on the overall situation in Jiangnan.

But when both sides have almost exerted all their strength, the victory or defeat of this battle is no longer unimportant.

Needless to say, if the Ming army was defeated, without this mobile force, Zhu Cilang would have to rely on Zuo Menggeng's troops to deal with possible attacks from the Tatars.

If the Qing army was defeated, then there would be no way to defend the city of Wuhu. Without the barrier to the south, the Qing army would not be able to retain a piece of territory in the south of the Yangtze River.

With this understanding, the entire Ming army believed that Tunqi and Tulai's plan was to use this merit to protect themselves, which was how they unexpectedly turned out the battle situation like this.

Although they understood the situation, the Ming army at that time was already in a difficult situation and had no choice but to go all the way.

In fact, if someone else had come to this point, they would have been defeated. At most, they would have been promoted to higher positions for Zuo Menggeng and his generals, and transferred them to guard against a possible counterattack by the Tartars.

But Zhu Cilang knew very well that the generals of the Ming Dynasty had a tendency to become warlords. If he did this to the left wing, how could he control the rest of the wing?

If he treated the other tribes in the same way, the warlordization of the Ming generals would be uncontrollable, and this great victory in Jiangnan would only be short-lived, just like Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong who later failed in a moment.

Under such circumstances, he suddenly realized that the potential danger of this battle was no less than that of being kicked.

Afterwards, he did not delay. While using the large banner to confuse the enemy, he saw an opening and led his guards to rush towards the Qing army's flag.

It is undeniable that this trick is extremely effective.

Although the guards, who had gone through several hard battles, could not compare with the elite white-armored soldiers in some aspects, their combat power was no less than that of Wu's A'mon.

When the main Qing army sent troops to intercept, the guards defeated the team of ordinary flag soldiers with just one charge.

Afterwards, under the attack of the imperial guards, the Qing army had to retreat, and the balance of victory completely tilted towards the Ming army.

Although Zhu Cilang's identity was not recognized by the Tartars, he was scratched on the face by a sword thrown from somewhere in the chaos.

Fortunately, the blade had already lost its power when it hit Zhu Cilang, and it only left a not-too-deep cut on his face.

Otherwise, Xiang Ren might be feeling more than just embarrassed.

"Your Highness! Please hurry into the city. Don't you still need to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers?"

Just as Xiang Rensheng was recalling the battle situation of that day, Qian Qianyi, Xu Yinjue and others who came to greet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince were a little panicked.

There are at least hundreds of thousands of people between the inner and outer cities of Yingtian, and the people's emotions have been aroused by the injury of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and a series of events.

If he really loses control, let alone whether there are evil-minded people among them, even if he is surrounded by the people, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince may be squeezed out and get into trouble.

Under such circumstances, Qian Qianyi, who had originally been somewhat critical of the Crown Prince's first stop after entering the city to pay tribute to the people, had to take this as a reminder.

Qian Qianyi was the Minister of Rites of the Hongguang Dynasty, so in his eyes, the sacrifice must be held on an auspicious day. To put it another way, the return of the Crown Prince was a triumphant return, and its significance was so great that it did not need to follow these customs and rituals. But even so, the place to go for the sacrifice should be the Xiaoling Mausoleum. Going to such an inappropriate place for no reason was simply inappropriate.

However, when General Zhu Cilang had just come to power, he did not dare to directly refute his opinions. How could he dare to say no to the Crown Prince, the Regent of the Ming Dynasty, who returned to Yingtian with a great victory?
After some persuasion and entanglement, Zhu Cilang was finally pulled back by a group of ministers.

Afterwards, surrounded by court officials and common people, he paid tribute to the fallen soldiers on the altar outside Chaoyang Gate. By the time he returned to the lobby of the Ministry of War, it was almost dusk.

After this incident, Zhu Cilang's prestige in Yingtian reached its peak. Even those families whose relatives had died in the battle directed all their hatred at the Tartars, but had only infinite respect for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who led them to the war.

At this point, Yingtian has become Zhu Cilang's stable base. Even if there are scoundrels who want to cause trouble, they will not be able to cause any waves in this city.

To be honest, for ordinary people, does it really matter who they pay taxes to?
It is said that the people's hearts can be used, but the people's hearts can be deceived.

Earlier, out of fear of what happened in Yangzhou, the entire Yingtian could unite around Zhu Cilang to fight against the enemy. But once the price had to be paid, who could guarantee that everyone would be able to feel at peace as usual?
However, although Zhu Cilang deliberately dressed all his guards in white today, it was really a surprise that the scars on his face were seen by the people, even though the effect achieved by this sight was even greater than any other.

As the people dispersed, the outer city of Yingtian returned to its former tranquility. However, Zhu Cilang, who was about to return, did not rest. Instead, he summoned several trusted court officials who remained in Yingtian to the back hall of the Ministry of War.

Rest, he naturally wants to rest.

But Zhu Cilang knew Yingtian's situation very well. Even if he really let him go to bed, he might not be able to sleep.

When he first came to power, he used the grain and silver seized from the Xincheng Earl's Mansion to control the young and strong people and the garrison troops in the city. Later, he used some leverage to squeeze more than 100,000 shi of silver from the Lingbi Marquis.

However, although the food had managed to hold out for two months of siege, there was not much left.

According to the situation in Jiangnan, if he did not take action to deal with it, and had to wait for famine to occur in Jiangnan, people in Yingtian City would starve to death first.

Of course, this is just one of them, and it is something that can be discussed openly. There are many other things, and although they all concern the future of this small court, only a few of them can actually be exposed.

Therefore, when Zhu Cilang summoned them, he could only use the reason of food.

"This is the result of my discussion with the merchant. What do you think should be done about this matter?"

After all, Zhu Cilang was not the kind of person who would waste time, so after everyone sat down, he talked about his idea of ​​purchasing grain from overseas.

He knew about the situation in Jiangnan, and the people present knew it too. However, it would cost a lot to alleviate the food shortage in Jiangnan through this channel. Even though there was still a lot of silver and money seized from the Xincheng Earl's Mansion, it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the entire Jiangnan.

"Your Highness, there are still 860,000 taels of silver left in the Yingtian Treasury. If we take away the rewards for the soldiers, there won't be much left."

Sure enough, as soon as Zhu Cilang finished speaking, Qian Qianyi, the head of Yingtian's ministers, stepped forward and put the practical difficulties in front of him.

Zhu Cilang had naturally anticipated this situation, but in his opinion, as long as there was grain circulating in the Jiangnan market, it didn't matter who was circulating it.

"I intend to leave this matter to the nobles."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone present looked at him in surprise.

This statement was extremely clear; he just wanted to use the money that the nobles had accumulated over many lifetimes to help the court solve this urgent problem.

joke!

How could the nobles be willing to do such a thing? If they could really do it, would the late emperor have to be hanged on Coal Hill?
If it was the case that General Jiang had dealt with the Earl of Xincheng, someone might have clearly put the difficulty of persuading the nobles in front of Zhu Cilang.

But now His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has proven his ability with one victory after another, and these trusted ministers can't help but wonder what the fundamental logic behind His Royal Highness's thinking is.

Seeing that all the ministers looked thoughtful after he finished speaking, Zhu Cilang wanted to let these loyal ministers figure out the key points themselves, but since this matter was just a matter of going with the flow and there were several difficult issues waiting to be addressed later, he did not want to waste time here.

"It may seem difficult to explain, but it is not difficult as long as you understand the relationship between them."

Zhu Cilang’s idea was actually very simple, which was to open up this trade route himself and leave the specific operations to the nobles.

You should know that maritime trade is a very profitable business. In the past few years, due to various reasons, the trade routes to Southeast Asia, the West Ocean and the East Ocean were almost cut off at the same time. Although the sea routes to Annan and Siam do not reach these places yet, once these foundations are established, it will be possible to open up the trade routes again.

In such a situation, once you seize the initiative, you will be able to gain an advantage in the maritime trade business. It is truly the case that the early bird catches the worm, and the late bird will suffer. With such a huge source of wealth, why would you worry about no one doing the deal?

"Your Highness means that the court is only responsible for opening up trade routes, and everyone is responsible for the profits and losses?"

After the explanation, everyone present turned their eyes to the greatest noble, Xu Yinjue. He also knew that Zhu Guobi was still in Hangzhou at this time, and only he could communicate with the nobles, so he took the initiative to step forward and ask a question.

The way he asked the question was very thoughtful. Although Zhu Cilang had previously mentioned "specific management", the implication seemed to be that he would not take a single cent.

But the intention was one thing, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not make his words clear after all, so he changed "specific operations" to "profit and loss matters" to determine his true meaning.

"Of course, they are responsible for their own profits and losses, but the court's opening up of sea routes is not without cost, and they still have to pay some commercial taxes."

At this point, Zhu Cilang paused, as if considering what the tax rate should be. After a while, he said helplessly, "I am not very good at this kind of thing. Whether it should be 20% or 30% or 40% should be decided after discussion by the Dukes and nobles."

Zhu Cilang's words were obviously meant to be a discussion, but several people in the hall felt that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was a little too confident.

These grains are used to stabilize the local area. It is conceivable that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will certainly not allow too much money to be earned here. Besides, the sea route has not even been planned yet. Who would risk a huge risk to show off their wealth in front of this gentleman?
Thinking about it this way, it is not certain whether the nobles are willing to get involved in this matter. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has already started thinking about collecting taxes. Isn't that too confident?

Thinking of this, everyone's expression became more and more strange, but at the same time, they couldn't help but think: His Highness is so confident, it is obviously not without reason, but they don't know where this confidence comes from.

emboldened.

Zhu Cilang is naturally confident, but he cannot explain it yet. He has to wait until another group of people makes a move.

(End of this chapter)