Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 184: Destroy Yang Xiuqing’s entire family!
From this perspective, the Qing Dynasty had really good luck!
It seemed that the Qing Dynasty was about to be destroyed, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom broke out into civil strife, which gave the Qing Dynasty a new lease of life.

Li Liang continued.

"Your Majesty, there is one more thing I need to report to you."

Li Yi nodded slightly.

"Say it!"

Li Liang took a deep breath and then said.

"In reply to your Majesty, Yang Fuqing, who led the army stationed in Taiping Prefecture, received the secret envoy from the Tang Dynasty and gave a response."

"He said that he could lead his troops to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang Dynasty needed to agree to several conditions."

Li Yi raised his eyebrows, an interested expression appeared on his face, and spoke.

"Tell me what the conditions are!"

In Li Yi's opinion, Yang Fuqing now has almost no choice.

Yang Xiuqing died, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could not tolerate him.

Surrendering to the Qing demons will not work either.

Because when Yang Xiuqing massacred the Eight Banners of Jiangning in Jiangning, Yang Fuqing was the one who performed the surgery.

There is absolutely no way the Qing Dynasty would let Yang Fuqing go.

As for raising the flag of independence?

Yang Fuqing is not Xiao Chaogui and Shi Dakai. He lacks prestige and the strength he has is too weak.

If they really raise the flag of independence, Yang Fuqing alone will not be able to control the situation.

All in all, surrendering to the Tang Dynasty is definitely the best choice, or even the only choice, facing Yang Fuqing's troops now.

But even so, Li Yi was willing to listen to what conditions Yang Fuqing was going to propose.

If it's not too much, there's no harm in agreeing to it.

Li Yi was still thinking about continuing to incorporate the remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the future, so he couldn't be too harsh on Yang Fuqing.

However, from this perspective, it seems that the final winners of the Tianjing Incident were not just the Qing Dynasty.

Although Li Yi did not win as much as the Qing Dynasty, he at least took some of the losses caused by Yang Xiuqing.

Well, a small win!
Upon hearing this, Li Liang replied.

"In reply to your Majesty, the conditions given by Yang Fuqing are mainly the following three."

"First, after he led his troops to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, he would not fight against the Heavenly Kingdom."

Li Yi nodded to show his agreement. Yang Fuqing probably said this because he cared about his reputation and didn't want to be called an ungrateful person.

Understandable!

"Secondly, Yang Fuqing requested that the Tang Dynasty allocate him some money to help him comfort his soldiers."

Li Yi nodded again.

It’s just money. What Li Yi lacks the least now is money.

Even if we deduct the Tang Dynasty's fiscal revenue from agricultural taxes, commercial taxes, customs duties, salt, iron, tea and other aspects this year, the money and grain that Li Yi obtained from the confiscation of the Eight Banners and Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou has not yet been used up.

Li Yi is really rich now!

Li Liang continued.

"Third, Yang Fuqing hoped that after he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty would ask the Heavenly Kingdom to return the remains of the families of his soldiers."

At this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still adopted a strict system of separating men and women into separate camps.

Therefore, although Yang Fuqing was leading his troops outside, the families of his soldiers were stranded in Tianjing.

During the Tianjing Incident, these people were brutally killed by Wei Changhui.

In line with the idea of ​​reuniting families and returning to their roots, Yang Fuqing wanted to retrieve the remains of the families of his soldiers.

However, because he was concerned that his reputation was not big enough, Hong Xiuquan might not listen to him, so he wanted Li Yi to come forward.

Upon hearing this, Li Yi nodded without any hesitation.

"can!"

After speaking, Li Yi thought for a while and then said.

"Send someone to contact Yang Fuqing again and tell him that I agree to all his conditions and ask him to lead his army to surrender as soon as possible."

Li Liang nodded in agreement, then took his leave.

……

When it was daybreak, Zhou Wu stretched, threw back the quilt and prepared to get up.

After a quick wash, Zhou Wu put on his patrol uniform, stepped on his official boots with thousand-layer soles, put on his wide-brimmed hat, put his baton on his belt, and strode out of the house.

He was going to have breakfast first and then lead his men out on patrol.

Born a soldier, he once followed Li Yi to fight from Guangxi to Guangdong, but after the Tang Dynasty conquered Guangzhou, he was discharged from the army due to injury.

He then changed his career and became a patrolman, and was assigned to the Guangzhou dock area, where he was responsible for security patrols and assisting tax officials in tax audits. The job was quite lucrative.

If Zhou Wu had not been a soldier, or had not become a captain of the police due to injury, such a lucrative job would definitely not have been his.

Arriving at the breakfast stall, Zhou Wu found a table and sat down.

The waiter came up and greeted him warmly.

"Hey, Mr. Zhou, you're here. Come and sit down. I've reserved a seat for you."

Zhou Wu is one of the chief constables in the dock area. He is not a high-ranking official, but to these street vendors, he is the sky above their heads.

Because Zhou Wu often eats breakfast at their house, the street thugs no longer dare to come to their stall to cause trouble or collect protection fees.

It can be seen that Zhou Wu's influence was not small.

The waiter was naturally very enthusiastic about him.

Zhou Wu smiled when he heard that, and sat down under the guidance of the waiter. The waiter poured him tea while asking questions.

"Zhoutou, are you still the same today?"

Zhou Wu nodded and said.

"Yeah, it's still the same."

"Soy milk, fried dough sticks, barbecued pork buns, and a serving of rice noodle rolls."

Upon hearing this, the waiter immediately responded.

"Okay, Zhoutou, please wait a moment, I will serve you the meal right away."

Zhou Wu nodded, then picked up the teacup and started drinking.

While drinking tea, he caught a glimpse of a few people sitting at a table in the corner.

With dark skin and simple clothes, this is the obvious attire of a poor farmer.

But their expressions were not the hopeful smiles that ordinary farmers would have on their faces after the Tang Dynasty organized the land distribution.

Instead, he was holding a bag carefully in his arms, looking a little sneaky. Zhou Wu felt something was wrong.

Zhou Wu asked casually when the waiter brought the food he ordered.

"Do you know who are the people at that table? I don't think they are locals."

Upon hearing this, the waiter also responded casually.

"You are a wise man. They are definitely not from here. Judging from their accents, they seem to be from Jiangxi."

Zhou Wu became even more alert after hearing this.

People from Jiangxi are behaving suspiciously in Guangzhou. There must be something going on. There is no way to escape.

He nodded, then whispered instructions to the waiter.

"I suspect there is something wrong with the people at that table."

"Help me keep an eye on that table of people. I'll be back soon."

"If you do a good job, you will be rewarded handsomely in the future."

Upon hearing this, the waiter nodded hurriedly.

Zhou Wu got up, left the stall, and walked towards the yamen.

……

The people at that table ate very quickly.

After eating, he put down his bowl and chopsticks, picked up the package and prepared to leave.

Seeing that Zhou Wu had not returned yet, the waiter could only step forward to stop him.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?"

"Why are you leaving when you haven't paid yet? Are you trying to dine for free?"

In order to make stopping the person seem less abrupt, he made up an excuse that the other person had eaten without paying.

Being stopped and accused of eating and dashing, the dark-skinned man in the lead said with a flushed face when he heard this.

"You, you waiter, don't talk nonsense. I... I have already paid you."

The waiter heard this and said without blushing or panting.

"You are such a rude outsider, how dare you slander someone's innocence out of thin air?"

"One is one, two is two, and it's never been married, so why would I talk nonsense?"

The man said again.

"You...you are extorting people! Everyone, come and take a look. The breakfast vendor is extorting people."

The waiter's momentum was not weak at all.

"I also ask all the neighbors to come and bear witness. My family has always run a business with integrity. When have we ever cheated anyone?"

Seeing that the momentum overwhelmed the other side, the waiter spoke again.

"I'm telling you, either you pay the bill obediently, or I'll take you to see the official!"

While all the commotion was going on here, Zhou Wu also led his men back to the stall.

Seeing the commotion here was about to break out, Zhou Wu was worried that someone had already taken advantage of the chaos to leave, but when he looked closely he discovered that the waiter was arguing with the people at that table.

He praised the waiter in his heart, then waved his hand.

"Follow me!"

After he finished speaking, he stepped forward, dispersed the crowd that were watching the excitement, and walked into the shop.

After making eye contact with the waiter, Zhou Wu immediately spoke.

"What's all the fuss about? What's there to fuss about?"

"You didn't pay for the meal? Or are you blackmailing me? What's the point of making a scene in public?"

"You want to make trouble, right? Come back to the government office with me, and I'll let you make as much trouble as you want!"

After saying this, Zhou Wu waved his hand and ordered his men to take away the group of outsiders and the waiter, and brought them back to the government office to be interrogated separately.

Zhou Wu ordered his men to open the packages carried by those people and inspect them.

A patrolman looked at the contents of the package and asked with a strange expression.

"Fuck, they are sick."

"Isn't this just a bunch of broken branches with leaves? Why are they packed in boxes in large and small packages?"

"I thought it was something valuable!"

However, after seeing what was in the package, Zhou Wu's face changed. He glared at his subordinates in annoyance and said.

"What a bullshit branch. Go back and read more books. This is a tea seedling!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of several subordinates changed, and they all realized that something big might happen.

Tea seedlings?

If they remembered correctly, tea seedlings, kaolin, and silkworm seeds were all on the list of items strictly prohibited from export as stipulated by the imperial court.

But now they have found tea seedlings at the dock in Guangzhou, and it is clear that they are preparing to ship them out.

This is a big problem.

Once the court makes up its mind to deal with it severely, I am afraid that many people will lose their heads.

However, this is a good thing for Zhou Wu and other managers...

After all, without merit, how can they be promoted?

You know, there is no clear boundary between officials and clerks in the Tang Dynasty now.

If an official performs his work well and makes contributions, he can also be promoted to become a local official in charge of a region.

In the past, such examples were not uncommon due to the lack of officials in the Tang Dynasty.

It is also because of this that the officials of the Tang Dynasty now do their work not by muddling through like they did in the Qing Dynasty, but are all full of subjective initiative.

They all hope to make achievements and then complete the status transition from clerks to officials!
It is precisely the subjective initiative of these officials.

Therefore, many of the Tang Dynasty's policies could be implemented smoothly.

Zhou Wu obviously realized this as well, and then said.

"Keep an eye on the evidence. I will report to the higher authorities."

"Remember to take good care of everything. If this case is proven true, our brothers will at least be promoted several levels. By then, their status may not just be the clerks they are now!"

Zhou Wu was afraid that his subordinates would not pay attention, so he gave a special instruction.

……

PS: I just got home today and started writing when I got home. That’s all I have to say. Wait for me to adjust myself and I will start writing more tomorrow to make up for the debt…

(End of this chapter)