Chapter 335: The Siege of Jiangning (IX)
The Chen family finished their dinner. The three of them moved to the living room, drinking tea and chatting. Chen Mingtai looked calm, "If we take control of Xianxialing, will the Qing army in Fujian be powerless?"
Chen Tuiyi told Chen Mingtai what he had heard. Xianxia Ancient Road was originally a military passage, not wide, only one or two feet wide, and the road was over mountains and ridges, which was quite dangerous.
However, it is still the shortest, most convenient and safest passage connecting the Qiantang River system and the Minjiang River system. Therefore, since the Tang Dynasty, countless Zhejiang merchants have transported tea, silk and other commodities to Fuzhou and Quanzhou ports through the Qiantang River system, Xianxia Ancient Road and Minjiang River system for sale overseas.
Xianxia Ancient Road was created because of war, so it certainly has important military value. Xianxia Ancient Road is located at the transportation hub of Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi, and is a "throatland" that has been fought over by military strategists since ancient times. Therefore, since the Tang Dynasty, Xianxia Ancient Road has been "extraordinarily lively", and as long as there is war on the male side, this place will not be idle.
"The Fujian Qing army has limited strength. This number of people is fine for controlling Fujian and even Guangdong. But using them to counterattack Jiangsu and Zhejiang is too much. Dad, I don't fight, so I don't know what the Qing army thinks. According to the principle taught in school, there is no victory in war without victory in field battles. The Fujian Qing army is a guest army and has no foundation at all. The imperial court is not conquering everywhere, but defending big cities such as Suzhou and Hangzhou. Do the Fujian Qing army dare to provoke a field battle?"
"As a girl, you shouldn't speak so harshly." Mrs. Chen was somewhat dissatisfied with her daughter's description.
Chen Mingtai wanted to comment on what his daughter said, but he did not comment on it. Instead, he continued to ask, "What if the Qing army bypasses Jiangning and attacks Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and Zhenjiang?"
Chen Tuiyi did not answer immediately, and seemed to be troubled by this question. Looking left and right, and biting his lip, Chen Tuiyi mustered up the courage to say, "Dad... only a scholar like you would fight like this."
Chen Mingtai was stunned for a moment, then he laughed, "Haha, you're right. Only a scholar like me would fight like this. That's why I won't go to war."
After saying that, Chen Mingtai said, "Go about your business," and went to the study. Mrs. Chen complained that her daughter was being disrespectful and didn't care about her father's face at all. Not to mention that Chen Mingtai's words might not be wrong.
Chen Tuiyi didn't say anything, because if he did, he would be scolding me. It didn't matter what I thought. Compared with what the school teacher said, not to mention my knowledge, even my father's knowledge seemed weak. What's more, with my father's cultivation, he shouldn't care at all.
Chen Mingtai didn't know what his daughter was thinking, but he actually cared about her evaluation. It had been less than a year since his daughter joined the Chinese imperial court, and besides training and work practice, she was studying. She felt like an outstanding student favored by the teacher in the Imperial Academy. This made Chen Mingtai very pleased.
Now his daughter's knowledge has indeed improved, especially her perception of power, which makes Chen Mingtai feel a little shocked. Chen Mingtai didn't think his daughter had the generous and tragic style of Yanzhao before, and he doesn't think so now.
The next day, Gao Pang received a letter from his teacher, "...the fresh wind of the court at the beginning of the country has the spirit of soaring to 90,000 miles..."
Gao Pang was overjoyed to see that the teacher had given in. However, he did not dare to say too much, and directly attached this letter to his own recommendation letter and sent it to Huo Chong.
Huo Chong was preparing for the Battle of Jiangning. Three divisions with 30,000 troops had already arrived in Yangzhou, and another three divisions were heading straight to Yangzhou. The navy's paddle steamers and related tugboats went to Zhenjiang to wait for the transport troops to Jiangning.
Seeing Chen Mingtai choose to surrender at this time, Huo Chong felt a little embarrassed. If Chen Mingtai surrendered earlier, Huo Chong would be willing to arrange a good position for Chen Mingtai. It would be best to be a salt administration job.
At this time, Chen Mingtai's surrender seemed a little late. Huo Chong thought about it and found that he still had expectations for Chen Mingtai. He didn't want to just settle him down. Huo Chong was a little surprised. He didn't expect that he actually had expectations for the intellectuals of the Qing Dynasty.
Finally, Huo Chong wrote an instruction, appointing Chen Mingtai as the salt administrator of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which was considered to have fulfilled his past promise to Chen Mingtai on salt administration affairs.
Since it was Huo Chong's instruction, the transmission speed was the fastest. Three days later, Chen Mingtai was invited to the Governor's Office of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Gao Pang showed Chen Mingtai the letter of appointment and Huo Chong's instruction. Chen Mingtai was touched and felt that Huo Chong was really magnanimous.
"Gao Pang, since we are both master and disciple, I have something to tell you."
"Please give me some advice, teacher."
"Mr. Huo... the emperor is too stubborn and probably doesn't like to recruit surrenders or traitors. What do you think?"
Gao Pang thought about it and felt that the teacher's evaluation was correct. However, Gao Pang did not like to recruit traitors and quite agreed with Huo Chong's style. After a moment of hesitation, Gao Pang tried to test: "Teacher, are we so anxious about this matter?"
"This is a matter of utmost urgency. Have you ever heard the saying, 'You can guard against thieves day and night, but you can't guard against thieves in your own house. The thieves in your own house can break the roof beams.' Let alone the imperial court, even a small fleet of gangsters or a family, what they hate and fear the most is a traitor within their house."
"Yeah." Gao Pang nodded in agreement, but no matter how right the teacher was, Gao Pang could not feel the slightest sense of identification with the traitor.
"Don't act on impulse. The emperor has an aloof personality, is both virtuous and talented, and has a strong character. It is a good thing to have such a heroic ruler. However, Yang cannot grow alone, and Yin cannot last alone. As his subjects, we should find out the shortcomings and make up for them."
"Teacher, don't underestimate the lord. The lord is a hero and never regards others as slaves. Our Chinese court is unifying the names. All those who are picked up are ordinary cadres. As long as they agree with the philosophy of our Chinese court, they are comrades. Since we are comrades, there is only a difference in responsibilities, and there is no distinction between high and low."
Chen Mingtai was both angry and amused when he saw his apprentice Gao Pang start to talk big. This was the Gao Pang that Chen Mingtai knew, an overly idealistic bastard.
Since Gao Pang was such a bastard, Chen Mingtai thought for a moment and had a way to deal with him. "If that's the case, then we should give him a chance to survive. We can't force him to death. It's not nice to recruit traitors, so we can say that we finally understand the elegant politics of the Chinese court. People should always give others some face."
Gao Pang felt that his teacher was just so worldly-wise, but he could not say that he was wrong. After all, his teacher could serve as an official under Huo Chong, and Gao Pang was very happy.
After the teacher was appointed, Gao Pang urged the teacher to get to work quickly. Chen Mingtai did take up his post immediately. The salt administration was in Yangzhou, not Zhenjiang, just across the river. Moreover, the academy originally had branches in both places, so it was no different from going home.
When he arrived in Yangzhou, Chen Mingtai immediately arranged for his friends in the academy. Hearing that Chen Mingtai was going to be an official, everyone in the academy looked a little disappointed. However, Chen Mingtai ignored this and asked directly if there were any talents who could give advice.
After all, the academy is about teaching and educating people, and the academy has seen many people. They immediately said that they would recommend someone to come.
Chen Mingtai knew that he couldn't just do this, so he began to perform his duties. He first invited a group of salt industry personnel to a meeting, and saw that these Huaxia Dynasty cadres were really young. The oldest was only in his early thirties.
As we talked, we felt that these people did not come from prominent backgrounds, and were even very ordinary. When they talked about work, their words were not complicated. They were all very simple. Chen Mingtai initially thought that these people were just simple and uncultured, but after reading what they said, he felt that things might not be like that.
At this time, the salt policy of the Chinese court was no longer the old model of collecting salt from various private salt fields and then implementing a monopoly. All salt fields were state-owned, and the private part of them hired people according to the salt production process and paid them according to different work divisions.
There was indeed nothing wrong with doing this, but Chen Mingtai felt that something was wrong. This approach was completely different from the previous rules.
After listening to the work report, the next step is the work process. The salt industry arrangement here is very simple, just follow the regulations.
After being evaluated, salt was sent to the supply and marketing cooperatives of the Huaxia court for sale. If there was any difference, in the supply and marketing cooperatives of the Huaxia court, if it was in an area where land reform had been completed, it would be purchased with banknotes. If it was in an unstable area, it would be purchased with silver.
It was really unclear what the key points were. Chen Mingtai asked these people, but they couldn't explain anything special. They just said that this was the rule. If you use banknotes, the price is very stable. The problem with silver coins is that copper coins exist in every dynasty, and the copper-lead ratio and weight are different. As for silver, the quality is very different. So it is very troublesome to set the price.
Finally figuring this out, Chen Mingtai invited the salt merchants he knew to dinner. The salt merchants all brought gifts, and Chen Mingtai's face turned stern when he saw them, "Who do you think I am?"
The salt merchants hurriedly replied with a smile: "Mr. Chen is a learned man, so of course he should give us some face."
Chen Mingtai was not fooled by these guys. He sneered and ordered, "Then send these back. If you came here by yourself, take them back now."
When the salt merchants saw Chen Mingtai's behavior, they knew that he was a noble man, so they quickly asked the people who followed him to send the gifts back. Chen Mingtai didn't want to pursue the matter, so he invited everyone to take their seats and said with a smile: "Although I can live without accepting gifts or money, I can't afford a banquet, so please eat whatever you want."
Everyone had been to the scene before, so they knew that the purpose of this time was not to eat. Seeing that the dishes were good, they didn't say much. After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Chen Mingtai put down his wine glass and explained the new salt administration process he had mastered to the salt merchant, and then continued to ask: "I don't know how these methods are different ."
The salt merchants all looked gloomy. The leader took a sip of absinthe and sighed, "Too clean. Lord Chen, the court's salt administration is too clean. Our salt administration has always been the emperor's money bag, with millions of taels of silver every year. Doesn't the emperor of the Chinese court care about money?"
Chen Mingtai was also very curious about this. He asked Gao Pang this question, and even asked Huo Chong this question when he met him. At that time, Huo Chong was extremely arrogant and said that salt, a product related to the daily life of the people, should not be a profitable business.
Gao Pang said that the business that the Chinese court made money from was not this, but some "bulk commodities", such as coal, cloth, and ironware.
The officials and cadres who were originally farmers in the salt business only knew that they had to perform their duties, and they made the salt administration, which was full of mystery, so simple. This made Chen Mingtai feel that it shouldn't be so simple.
Chen Mingtai finally chose the bottom line, "Do you think the salt administration is so clean that it will lose money?"
"Haha." The salt merchants laughed bitterly, "Master Chen, if the price of salt is as high as before, everyone will make money from the salt administration. That will be a loss. Now the salt administration is so clean and the salt price is so low. If you want to lose money, someone must make a fortune. But I heard from Master Chen that the court is very clear about it. It is some bureau in the local government of the court that directly pulls salt from the salt field and sends it to various places to buy it at the salt price set by the court. If you want to make money, only a few people can do it. Master Chen has given us face and invited us to dinner. I will tell you the truth. In the past, anyone could make money from the salt administration. Everyone was not clean, except those who blocked everyone's way and were arrested. In the current situation, only a few people can make money, and they can either keep it stable. Otherwise, if the court investigates casually, they will not be able to escape."
Chen Mingtai was stunned. This was a very insightful statement. It seemed that Huo Chong had really eliminated the stubborn problems of the salt administration for hundreds of years.
In the subsequent conversation, the salt merchants were too lazy to talk about salt. They just asked how the battle in Jiangning would go, and some asked Chen Mingtai if he had other ways to make money.
Chen Mingtai didn't like to hear these people talk about the war. After all, Chen Mingtai decided to follow Huo Chong because he believed that the Chinese court would win.
As for other ways to make money, Chen Mingtai never paid attention to them.
In the following days, there were official meetings every day, during which the latest government affairs and current affairs were reported to everyone.
In addition to understanding what happened and the work that each government office had to do, the rest was learning.
The political philosophy of the Chinese court is very simple and clear. Chen Mingtai summarized it after listening to it. It is nothing more than "management" and "production". The other thing is "don't bully others". The same is said in the question bank of his daughter Chen Tuiyi, the examiner.
As for the battle in Jiangning, the Qing army had already completed the siege of Jiangning. The Chinese army's troops in Yangzhou and Zhenjiang were waiting for the Qing army to launch an attack on Jiangning City. Once the Qing army launched an attack, according to the report, "they would be pinned down under Jiangning City." At that time, the Chinese army could achieve the greatest results if they attacked again.
Chen Mingtai didn't quite understand what he heard. He just thought it made sense. Just as he was waiting for the battle to break out, the person recommended by the scholars in the academy arrived. Although the job of the salt administration was not easy, there were rules. Chen Mingtai didn't even need to worry too much, he just had to work hard.
Then I have time to meet these people. After meeting them once, I just feel that they are not good enough. Perhaps because of the disappointment in my heart, my expression inevitably changed. The last student who came for the interview hesitated for a moment and said, "Master Chen, I don't understand one thing. Lianghuai already has a strong army. Why do you spend so much effort on land reform in various places when Lianghuai is not used?"
Chen Mingtai was somewhat happy. He finally met someone who could talk to him.
After a little inquiry, he heard that this person actually kept it a secret and did not explain this in detail. Chen Mingtai got angry, "The best thing in the world is to do twice the work for half the result, or do half the work for twice the result, or get one point for one point. Don't be afraid of slowness, just be afraid of standing still. Mr. Huo is a man of strong character. At this time, he has the strongest army in the world. It is a thankless task to first carry out land reform and then recruit soldiers to fight. It is only a matter of a few days earlier or later to seize the world. Although many of the students I have taught are talented, my favorites are those with calm and solid personalities. They follow the rules, and even if they are not prominent, they will never regret their lives. If you want to stand out with extraordinary strategies, why not be as calm as these people."
The man was reprimanded and looked very unconvinced. In the end, he just asked to meet again. Chen Mingtai couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "Forget it, everyone in the world thinks that they are the most talented, but they don't know that the world is so big and there are many talented people. You don't need to come."
"Mr. Chen, the plan I just mentioned was not my own. It was suggested by a friend. However, this friend's family is from an official family, and the court confiscated the land of the official family and was unwilling to appease them. Although the friend knew that the world was changing drastically..."
Chen Mingtai shouted, "No need to talk nonsense! Let that person come to see me!"
"But……"
"Since he asked you to spread the word, he still wants to work. Go back and tell him that a real man can bend and stretch. Even if he bows to the court, it's not a face-saving thing. If he really has the ability, he can work for the court and bring honor to his family. If he hides at home and complains about himself, his opportunities will be taken away by others!"
After driving this guy away, Chen Mingtai didn't take it too seriously. Unexpectedly, the guy came again the next day, bringing another person with him.
Chen Mingtai saw that this man had a handsome face and an educated manner. However, he looked to be in his twenties and still looked a little dissatisfied. He must have been very unhappy after hearing what Chen Mingtai said. Maybe he came here to save face.
Chen Mingtai smiled slightly, "I wonder what advice this brother has for you."
"Mr. Chen was able to teach the imperial court's top scholar, so I dare not teach him how to teach an expert. I just have one thing to say. The people in Huaibei and Huainan lived in a miserable state. The Chinese imperial court, although carrying out land reform, did not do it in Huaibei and Huainan, but instead carried out land reform in wealthy areas such as Shandong, Henan, and northern Jiangsu. I know that after land reform, we should seek benefits. Land reform in such wealthy areas will certainly bring good benefits. However, this is a chaotic era, and Huaibei and Huainan have always produced guards. If we carry out land reform there, it will not be difficult to gather 100,000 guards. If the imperial court loses to the Chinese imperial court in the Battle of Jiangning, we can rely on these 100,000 guards and go up the river. Fight to the entrance of Sichuan. Everything south of the Yangtze River will belong to the Chinese imperial court. It is really puzzling to seek something far away instead of something near."
Chen Mingtai immediately felt a desire to admire talent and said with a smile, "Haha. You don't need to tell me this. Someone will naturally listen. I just want to ask you why you are so dissatisfied with Mr. Huo."
"All my property has been confiscated. If I say I'm happy, I'd be lying."
"Then why not go to the Qing Dynasty?"
"The Manchus fled Hangzhou and Jiangning, and would rather lose their face than escape alive. I thought the court would immediately raise an army to counterattack, but it has dragged on until now. The odds of winning or losing this battle are at most fifty-fifty. If they lose, Jiangnan will never return to the court. There is really no way they can be buried with the court again."
Chen Mingtai deliberately didn't treat this guy well, "Humph! You should get ready to go out. I want to recommend you to someone."
