Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 874 Yuan Jiashi

The Fan family in Jiexiu, Shanxi was almost wiped out. After Fan Yongdou fled to Liaodong, he asked the Jiannu to help him. Fan Wencheng agreed to Fan Yongdou's request on the surface and tried his best to appease him, but in fact Fan Wencheng just treated Fan Yongdou as a pawn. Not long after, he let Fan Yongdou return to the Ming Dynasty to make trouble, but he didn't expect that he fell into the hands of Zhu Shenzhui. After Fan Yongdou was arrested by Zhu Shenzhui, there was no news of him again.

If it goes as expected, Fan Yongdou would have been dealt with by Zhu Shenzhui, and the huge wealth of the Jiexiu Fan family would have fallen into Zhu Shenzhui's hands. From this point of view, the Fan family and the Ming Dynasty, especially the current Yongming Emperor Zhu Shenzhui, have a grudge of exterminating the whole family, and now there is only one person left in Fan Yongdou's clan, his grandson Fan Yuwei.

Although Fan Yuwei is young, he has been doing business with his father and grandfather since he was a child. He has not only been to the frontier, but also traveled between Daming and Liaodong. After the Jiexiu Fan family got into trouble, Fan Yongdou realized that the situation was not good, so he sent his grandson to Liaodong. When Fan Yongdou returned to Daming from Liaodong, in order to leave a way out for the Fan family, Fan Yongdou entrusted Fan Yuwei to Fan Wencheng. In his opinion, although Fan Yuwei was not very old, he was the best of the third generation of the Fan family. As long as Fan Yuwei was there, even if he got into trouble, with Fan Yuwei's ability and Fan Wencheng's protection, the Fan family would have a chance to make a comeback in the future.

As for Yuan Chongyu, it goes without saying that Yuan Chongyu was the younger brother of Yuan Chonghuan, the former governor of Ji and Liao in the Ming Dynasty. He was once the largest salt merchant and smuggler in Liaodong. When Yuan Chonghuan was the highest-ranking official in Liaodong, Yuan Chongyu took advantage of his brother's power to make his business flourish.

Yuan Chongyu not only relied on Yuan Chonghuan to almost monopolize the private salt and other material sales in Liaodong, but also colluded with Fan Yongdou to make huge profits by smuggling to Jiannu. Among them, the sale of Ming Dynasty's military supplies in Liaodong, including but not limited to weapons, food and other items, was the reason why Huang Taiji was able to survive the most difficult time with these supplies, and recover from the Ming Dynasty's blockade of the Later Jin at that time, thus firmly sitting on the position of Khan.

Not only that, Mao Wenlong's death was also closely related to Yuan Chongyu. The main reason why Yuan Chonghuan took action against Mao Wenlong was because Mao Wenlong controlled the maritime smuggling trade routes from Shandong to Liaodong, Korea and even Japan.

Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Town was founded by him. Not only did Mao Wenlong create Dongjiang Town, he also continuously launched wars against the Later Jin Dynasty at that time, rescued a large number of Liao people from the Later Jin Dynasty and settled them in Dongjiang, which led to a rapid increase in Mao Wenlong's strength and a large number of soldiers and civilians under his command.

However, the establishment of Dongjiang Town by the imperial court at that time was far less than the number of soldiers Mao Wenlong actually had. In the Ming army, it can be said that almost all the generals in command were eating empty quotas. For example, the imperial court allocated 10,000 soldiers, but there were actually only 8,000 or even fewer people, and the difference was the empty salary, and all the money for the empty salary fell into the hands of the generals.

This kind of situation is common in the Ming army. Otherwise, where would the generals get the money from? But Mao Wenlong was not like that. While others were eating empty quotas, Mao Wenlong was filling them with money. The court gave him a total of 28,000 soldiers in Dongjiang Town, but Mao Wenlong actually had nearly 100,000 soldiers. From this point of view, the court paid military pay for 28,000 soldiers, but Mao Wenlong had to use this limited military pay to support an army of nearly 100,000. There is a big difference between them.

This does not include the Liao people that Mao Wenlong took in. Over the years, Mao Wenlong has rescued hundreds of thousands of Liao people from the Jiannu. Most of these people were settled in various places in Dongjiang Town. Mao Wenlong allowed them to cultivate the land and save themselves, and gave them subsidies on a daily basis to feed these people.

So from these circumstances, Mao Wenlong's way of maintaining troops is completely different from that of other Ming army generals. Not only does he not take vacancies, but he also has to invest huge amounts of money and food every year to support these troops and civilians, which can barely maintain the operation of the entire Dongjiang Town.

But Mao Wenlong did not have mountains of gold and silver, and he was not a god who could not produce gold, silver and food. In order to support his troops and the people, Mao Wenlong could only solve this problem through other means. This method was to take advantage of his occupation of Pi Island and his powerful navy to engage in monopolistic maritime smuggling trade, and make profits from trade with Korea and even Japan, including trade with other tribes in Liaodong, thereby supporting the entire Dongjiang Town.

From this point of view, although Mao Wenlong's actions did not conform to the rules of the court, they were also excusable. After all, the court's military pay was insufficient, and the Ming Dynasty's military pay was always discounted. When the court could not collect taxes, it would often default on payments. Mao Wenlong had no choice but to do so.

But by doing so, he posed a threat to Yuan Chongyu, who monopolized the smuggling in Liaodong. The greater the profit Mao Wenlong made, the more unhappy Yuan Chongyu felt. In his eyes, his brother Yuan Chonghuan was the governor of Ji and Liao in the Ming Dynasty and the top leader in Liaodong. How could he not be jealous when Mao Wenlong made so much money right under his nose?

In this way, the greedy Yuan Chongyu found Yuan Chonghuan, and the words "I want you, brother!" made Yuan Chonghuan decide to stand up for his brother. Yuan Chonghuan did not intend to kill Mao Wenlong at first. After all, he knew that Mao Wenlong was not someone he could kill easily. He just wanted to use his power to teach Mao Wenlong a lesson and force Mao Wenlong to hand over all the monopolized trade routes. To this end, Yuan Chonghuan wrote a letter to Emperor Chongzhen, starting with Shandong on the grounds of reorganizing the army, directly cutting off Mao Wenlong's cargo channels in Shandong and forcing Mao Wenlong to negotiate with him. In this case, Mao Wenlong had no choice but to negotiate with Yuan Chonghuan, trying to reason with Yuan Chonghuan, inform him of the difficulties of Dongjiang Town, and ask Yuan Chonghuan to show some respect and not make things too difficult for Dongjiang Town for the sake of the overall situation in Liaodong.

But how could Yuan Chonghuan let Mao Wenlong go so easily? He immediately suggested indirectly that Mao Wenlong should retire and return to his hometown, and hand over Dongjiang Town, including the maritime smuggling channels, to him. How could Mao Wenlong agree to this? Mao Wenlong, who was straightforward, immediately became anxious. He was determined to fight the Jiannu and help the court recover Liaodong, but now Yuan Chonghuan actually asked him to return to his hometown to retire? He also took a fancy to the navy and smuggling channels in his hands. Isn't this digging up the roots of Dongjiang Town?

The meeting ended unpleasantly, and Mao Wenlong left angrily. Yuan Chonghuan was furious when he saw Mao Wenlong was so ignorant, so he made up his mind to get rid of Mao Wenlong. After that, Yuan Chonghuan found another reason to talk with Mao Wenlong again, and tricked Mao Wenlong into meeting again. Taking advantage of this meeting, Yuan Chonghuan forged an imperial decree in the name of Emperor Chongzhen and took out the imperial sword to kill Mao Wenlong. After Mao Wenlong's death, Yuan Chonghuan took over the entire Dongjiang Town and directly gave all the sea trade channels, including smuggling channels, that originally belonged to Dongjiang Town to his younger brother Yuan Chongyu.

When Emperor Chongzhen learned of this, he was shocked and angry, but considering the actual situation, he had no choice but to accept it. After Yuan Chonghuan took over Dongjiang Town, he had no ability to control his troops. Even after Yuan Chongyu obtained Mao Wenlong's sea trade and smuggling channels, he was unable to achieve the scale of Mao Wenlong's period.

In the end, Mao Wenlong, who was feared by the Later Jin, died, the powerful Dongjiang Town was abolished, Mao Wenlong's subordinates continued to rebel, and the sea trade routes and smuggling channels obtained were of no use in Yuan Chongyu's hands. In desperation, Yuan Chonghuan could only find a reason to throw away this hot potato of Dongjiang Town. In order to make up for Yuan Chongyu's investment losses, he once again secretly sold a large amount of supplies belonging to the Liaodong Ming army to Huang Taiji, which led to the dire consequences later.

After the Ji Yi Rebellion, Yuan Chonghuan led the Liao army into the pass to guard the capital. Soon after, Emperor Chongzhen arrested Yuan Chonghuan and put him in prison. After experiencing all these events, Emperor Chongzhen, who had long lost his patience, planned to settle both old and new accounts with Yuan Chonghuan. The once powerful governor of Ji-Liao became a prisoner overnight. When the news reached Liaodong, Yuan Chongyu instantly felt something was wrong. He was afraid that Yuan Chonghuan would implicate him. While the court had no time to deal with Yuan Chonghuan, he held a meeting overnight and took away all of Yuan Chonghuan's property. He even ignored his sister-in-law, nephews and nieces and fled overnight.

By the time the Ming court was preparing to confiscate Yuan Chonghuan's property and punish him, Yuan Chongyu had already run to Huang Taiji's side and directly surrendered to the Jiannu.

After Yuan Chongyu arrived in Shengjing, Huang Taiji did not treat him badly. Yuan Chongyu was Yuan Chonghuan's younger brother. If the two brothers had not sold so many things to him, Huang Taiji would not only have been unable to sit firmly on the Khan throne, but he could not even support the entire Later Jin Dynasty. It was thanks to the help of Yuan Chongyu and others that Huang Taiji was able to overcome the difficulties.

For a mere Yuan Chongyu, he was accepted for his previous help, which was like buying a horse's bones with a huge sum of money. In order to appease Yuan Chongyu, Huang Taiji not only gave him the status of a bannerman, incorporated him into the Plain White Banner, but also gave him a position as a Boshiku.

After Yuan Chongyu arrived in Shengjing, although he no longer had the glory he had when his brother Yuan Chonghuan was there, and he was always helpless living under someone else's roof, Yuan Chongyu's life was not bad. When he ran away, he not only took away all his gold and silver, but also took away all his brother Yuan Chonghuan's property. With a huge amount of wealth in his hands, and with Huang Taiji's kindness to him, Yuan Chongyu's life in Shengjing was considered good.

In order to integrate into the Qing Dynasty as quickly as possible, Yuan Chongyu also married the daughter of Dayinbu, the Niulu Zhangjing of the Plain White Banner, in Shengjing.

Dayinbu was a Manchu from the Tatara clan. He had followed the old Khan in the uprising as early as the Nurhaci period, so he was considered an elder of the Eight Banners. Although the Tatara clan was not as powerful as other clans, it had a deep foundation in the Eight Banners. The famous Concubine Zhen in history was from the Tatara clan. By marrying the daughter of the Tatara clan, Yuan Chongyu could be considered one of their own. Therefore, Yuan Chongyu deliberately changed his surname from Yuan to Yuan Jia, and suddenly became a real member of the Eight Banners.

On this day, Yuan Chongyu was teasing his little son in his house. Tara had just given birth to a son for him last year. The little guy was still drinking milk, and was fair and tender and very cute. Yuan Chongyu loved this son very much. He almost held him in his hands for fear of dropping him, and held him in his mouth for fear of melting him. He was lying on the ground happily, holding a rattle in his hand and playing with his son who could not speak yet.

(End of this chapter)