You can't only love the Qing Dynasty when you're eating the fruits of others' labor.

Chapter 278 The Jingnan Campaign?

In the capital, very few people have sweet water wells; eight out of ten wells are bitter.

It's common for half the people in the alley to rely on a single sweet water well for their livelihood.

The Ninth Banner is full of locals!

Locals can cause damage without taking detours, achieving twice the result with half the effort.

The evil Ninth Banner silently evolved a special behavior of polluting the Sweetwater Well with their own excrement, thus enabling them to carry out large-scale, precise strikes against the Bannermen of the capital.

The next morning.

The Manchu people came one after another to the nearest sweet water well to fetch water. After taking it home, they ate countless E. coli bacteria in three meals.

People kept discovering feces in the water, stunned and furious, cursing in the streets.

……

In broad daylight.

Ninth Banner member Guarjia Liushu involuntarily returned to the scene of her crime from the previous night: a contaminated sweet water well.

A group of Manchus were cleaning a well while cursing and swearing.

"Grandpa, what's going on?"

“Damn it XXXXX”.

Guarjia Liushu had a very good mental fortitude; she endured the scolding for a while, then changed the subject.

"You all know about the Ghost Festival, Blood Moon, Heavenly Dog Eating the Moon, Nine Purple Fire, Red Horse and Red Sheep, right?"

"No way? So many unusual celestial phenomena? Is something bad about to happen?"

"Oh no, it's all over."

Guarjia Liushu looked grief-stricken.

The people of the Ninth Banner hated the Qing Dynasty as much as they hated Jiang Qingyun. They had long held a consensus: Jiang Qingyun = the Qing Dynasty; if either one was killed, the other would also perish.

In order to realize their ideals as soon as possible, they transformed into dandelions, spreading rumors by day and E. coli by night, and personally undermining the Qing Dynasty.

……

Shanxi.

Taiyuan.

All members of the Jin People's Self-Government Association gathered together.

Governor of Shanxi:

"Gentlemen, the imperial court is pressing us very urgently. Eight imperial edicts have been issued in succession, demanding 1200 million taels of military pay. We must come up with a plan as soon as possible."

Wang Dengku:
"Since ancient times, no one has achieved the greatest merit than serving the king. I think this business is good. It's a timely help, and the profits will be at least a hundredfold in the future."

Fan Yongdou shook his head:
"I suggest you be cautious."

"Why?"

"Jiang Qingyun has been away from Beijing for four months. Have the Eight Banners troops in the capital attacked Baoding? No! Gentlemen, it's not that I'm being paranoid, but everyone knows that the Eight Banners troops are formidable in field battles. Yet now they don't even dare to leave the capital. Don't you find that strange?"

After thinking about it, everyone realized that it was indeed strange.

Everyone turned their questioning gazes to Gang Atai, the general of Xuanfu, who was present.

Gang Atai shook his head: "I can't say for sure either."

suddenly~
"Report: A letter has arrived from the capital."

Fan Yongdou quickly opened it, and after reading it, his expression changed drastically.

"what happened?"

"Gentlemen, Grand Secretary Fan Wencheng has written to warn us that this is a trap. Jiang Qingyun failed to fool us last time, and this time he's trying to fool us again with a different trick."

The crowd was in an uproar.

Wang Dengku: "This guy must have been a ruthless and unscrupulous merchant in his past life."

……

The following day at noon, the imperial merchants enjoyed a banquet.

Shanxi cuisine has a relatively limited variety of dishes, and the daily diet is mainly based on carbohydrates.

Even at such a grand banquet, the dishes on the table are nothing more than braised pork, braised pork belly, and chicken with mushrooms, with a few cloves of garlic in a large bowl of noodles.

Affordable but not refined.

Wang Dengku was very dissatisfied: "Old Fan, are we just going to wait here and do nothing?"

Fan Yongdou slurped down his large bowl: "We've been buying grain, leather, ironware, cloth, and salt. We've been doing this all along."

"Hold your positions and wait for the right opportunity?"

"Yes. For businessmen of our caliber, we absolutely refuse to do business with a profit margin of less than fifty times."

"By the way, Governor-General Meng Qiaofang of Shaanxi and Gansu has sent someone."

"What to do?"

"They've come to buy grain from us." "Is Shaanxi short of grain this year?"

"The shortage is severe."

"First, we cry poverty, then sell them three to five thousand catties, wait three or four months, then dig out the moldy sorghum from our granary and sell it to Shaanxi, where the price doubles, hehehe."

"Old Fan is wise."

When the Shanxi merchants talked about profits, they were very knowledgeable and articulate.

Fan Yongdou ate a few more bites of braised pork, then went to take a nap, which lasted for half an hour. People from Shanxi must take a nap.

Merchants rebelling are hesitant and indecisive.

A scholar's rebellion will fail after ten years.

The farmers rebelled, charging and causing chaos.

The powerful families rebelled with the force of thunder.

The military leaders rebelled, and they rebelled without hesitation.

The Shanxi merchants did not disappoint Jiang Qingyun's expectations.

Fan Wencheng was a key pawn in the fraud orchestrated by Jiang Qingyun.

Fan Wencheng dared not disobey, for his son, Fan Chengmo, who was serving as a county magistrate in Yangzhou, had already been summoned to the imperial envoy's headquarters to write documents. Jiang Qingyun also sent a personal letter: "If you harbor any disloyal thoughts, I will first execute your son, then exterminate your entire clan!"
Everyone in Beijing's officialdom knows that Chiang Kai-shek has never shown mercy and has never suffered a defeat.

Could Emperor Shunzhi win?
The answer lies in people's hearts.

……

Suzhou Prefecture.

Jiang Qingyun stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the busy Grand Canal with a worried expression. Behind him were Zhou Shao and Zhu Guozhi, and further away were guards wearing blue-tasseled hats.

Zhu Guozhi: "Prime Minister, the Ghost Festival coincides with unusual celestial phenomena, and rumors are rampant. We..."

"Are all preparations made for public executions?"

"Everything is ready. There are a total of 92 Donglin prisoners and 134 corrupt officials on death row."

"Are there any other people or events in the Jiangnan region that have aroused great public resentment?"

"Bandits of Taihu Lake".

“Capture one or two hundred river bandits to accompany the execution.”

Zhu Guozhi looked troubled.

"is it hard?"

"The river bandits appear and disappear without a trace. The vast expanse of Taihu Lake stretches for five hundred li. The imperial court would need to concentrate at least tens of thousands of troops, plus the support of the navy, to succeed."

Jiang Qingyun turned his head, his face flushed with anger.

"Zhu Guozhi, you're confused."

"Your humble servant is muddle-headed."

Looking at Zhu Guozhi kneeling on the ground, Jiang Qingyun sneered.

"First, take dozens of death row inmates from the prison, beat them so badly they wouldn't recognize their own parents, and declare them to be bandits from Taihu Lake. After that, send people to investigate along the shore, find out the bandits' receivers of stolen goods, and get them to turn against the bandits and cooperate with the government to lure and capture them. Do I really need to teach you something this simple?"

"This humble official is foolish and ignorant, and I know my fault."

“Three days later, right here, you will personally oversee the execution, using five hundred severed heads to intimidate and appease the people.”

"Whoo."

……

After Zhu Guozhi left, Zhou Shao asked in a low voice, "Prime Minister, are you worried about the unusual celestial phenomena?"

"The impact is unpredictable."

Are you worried about Wu Sangui?

"Correct."

Jiang Qingyun suddenly stopped and stared at Zhou Shao.

"If I were him, I would gather all the cavalry and launch a 'Jingnan Campaign' on a whim, heading straight for the capital. After all, I have Wu Yingxiong as an inside man!"

Zhou Shao felt a chill run down his spine.

"can you?"

“This man has always been very suspicious and hesitant in his actions. But I worry that the series of unusual celestial phenomena during the Ghost Festival might stimulate his ambition, and he might think that God is encouraging him.”

A moment of silence.

Jiang Qingyun added.

"Of course, I wasn't completely unprepared. Last year, I sent my trusted confidants to take over as the garrison commanders of Hanzhong and Xiangyang."

"In addition, half a month ago, I sent someone to inform Zhuo Butai, the governor of Hunan, that a large number of Wu's spies had infiltrated Changsha and were waiting for an opportunity to act. They would cooperate with Wu Sangui to capture Changsha. I told him to be careful."

(End of this chapter)