Chapter 1731 Ren Zijuan is obliged to make suggestions

Taking a long breath, Ye Xianggao rubbed his cheeks, and then said leisurely: "It seems that we old people are not as thorough as Ziying, a young man who sees things clearly and truly, and we still comfort ourselves all day long. I always feel that some things will not happen, some situations will not be so bad, and some problems can be solved, but what about the reality? Hehe, I am afraid that it is much worse than our worst prediction. This is not an illusion, but an imminent fact. .”

Ye Xianggao's frank admission surprised Fang Congzhe and Qi Yongtai, which means that the chief minister admitted and accepted Feng Ziying's predictions and assessments. The situation is really bad to this extent. Feng Ziying's predictions Is it really going to come true?

  Seeing that several people were in doubt, Ye Xianggao sighed, "Prince Yizhong came to me a few days ago, openly expressing his desire to supervise the country, but I flatly refused,..."

"After the refusal, he seemed very calm. At that time, I thought he might go to the Supreme Emperor to put pressure on me, so I was worried for a while, but now it seems that he should have gone to the Supreme Emperor first, but he didn't get a result, so The tranquility at that time should have been determined to leave and go south,..."

   "He is full of confidence. It is expected that we will not agree, but he is also confident. His confidence does not come from Niu Jizong's Xuanfu army, but has more reliance. We underestimated his determination and strength,..."

   Several people looked at each other, Li Sancai couldn't help but said: "But the Xuanfu army was still fighting fiercely with the Jizhen army at that time."

"The fierce battle may be a feint, or a feint. It's hard to explain the problem." Ye Xianggao shook his head, "Prince Yizhong can only go south in this situation. Even if the cabinet and the Seventh Ministry are established under the shelf of the Nanjing Seventh Ministry, then what should we do?"

"Then what else can we do? Then we can only declare him a traitor and immediately send troops to conquer. If there is any hesitation, the imperial court will lose all prestige and the country will lose the country!" Qi Yongtai said firmly: "No matter how difficult it is, how big it is Obstacles must be like this, Da Zhou cannot become a chaotic situation like the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it will only give the Mongols and Jurchens in the north an opportunity, and even become a repeat of the Mongol and Yuan era!"

  Qi Yongtai's words are indeed shocking, but if the Northland was not ruled by the Liao and Jin in the Song Dynasty, which made the Han regime weak, the Mongolian Yuan would eventually be swept away and the rivers and mountains would sink.

   Now if the Great Zhou becomes a long-term confrontation between the North and the South, can the North still withstand the invasion of Jurchen and Mongolia? Once the northern land falls and the lips die and the teeth are cold, how can the south of the Yangtze River be peaceful? Even thinking about it is impossible.

   "Brother Chengfeng is right. There must be no ambiguity in front of such big things. If we are hesitant, I am afraid that someone in the court will take the opportunity to deceive the public and confuse people's hearts and cause disaster."

  Li Sancai also seemed extremely determined at this time, but Qi Yongtai took a high look at him.

  He has always disliked this guy who was born in the north but was sticky with the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River. Moreover, this person was too close to the emperor, and he felt a bit of both sides, which also made many scholars criticize him.

  However, today's statement made by this person is much better. At least he did not take a shaky position on issues that are related to the life and death of the imperial court and the fate of scholars from the north and the south.

  Ye Xianggao and Fang Congzhe exchanged glances, and nodded slowly.

   Qi Yongtai and Li Sancai did not want to see this scene, but for them, they had no choice.

  Prince Yizhong chose Tang Binyin, Miao Changqi, Jia Jing, Zhu Guozhen, and Gu Tianjun. In fact, it was equivalent to drawing a clear line with their Jiangnan scholars in the court.

  In any case, it is impossible for Ye Xianggao and Fang Congzhe to play supporting roles for Tang Binyin and the others. This is related to Ye Fang's dignity as the leaders of Jiangnan scholars. Officials can be improper, but scholars must not lose their self-esteem.

Besides, although the current situation is dangerous, it is not without chance. With Zhengshuo in the hands of the imperial court, the imperial court still firmly overwhelms Jiangnan in terms of military strength. Wang Ziteng and Niu Jizong can certainly fight, but Feng Tang, You Shigong, Cao Cao People like Wen Zhao and Sun Chengzong are not bad, which is different from the situation during the "Battle of Jingnan" in the previous Ming Dynasty.

"Ziying, since you have seen through this a long time ago, and the situation is as dangerous as you said, the court has made up its mind. If Prince Yizhong dares to stand up separately, the court will declare it a rebellion and attack him immediately, but it is easy to say It’s difficult, we want to conquer and triumph, and there are quite difficulties in it, so I’m afraid we will start preparations from now on, do you have any good suggestions?”

  Fang Congzhe is the second assistant in charge of finance, and he understands the current difficulties of the court best.

Once Prince Yizhong pulls up the anti-flag in the south of the Yangtze River, the water transportation will inevitably be interrupted, and Wang Ziteng in Huguang will definitely start it immediately, which means that the food in the entire Northland will be in an emergency immediately. greater difficulty.

  Food for the frontier army cannot be in short supply even for a moment, and their salary can be suspended, but without food, how can soldiers live?

At present, the food in Jingtong’s second warehouse has not been replenished, and the real situation of the second water warehouse on the line from Shandong to Xuzhou is unknown. Moreover, Chen Jixian’s Huaiyang town lies across Xuzhou. It’s hard to say where he stands. Immediately it will become a brazier hanging above the head, once it is dumped, it will be a fire everywhere.

  This question is difficult to answer, even though Feng Ziying has thought about it countless times, but when faced with the real problem of how to deal with it, what should be done first, the priority, and the court's ability to bear it all need to be carefully considered.

  Feng Ziying is not quite sure how much wealth the court still has. Is there no strategy to deal with it, or is it just a careless underestimation of Prince Yizhong?

  Ye Xianggao and Qi Yongtai, of course, did not expect Feng Ziying to plan strategies for the court. They just wanted to take advantage of Feng Ziying's thinking of jumping out of the fence, and maybe they could find some different paths.

Feng Ziying also realized this, and after thinking for a while, she said: "Since we are going to prepare for war, the soldiers and horses will go first before the food and grass are moved. In addition to the risk of severe drought in the north and interruption of water transport, the court should first reserve enough food. It is the current priority. The Jingtong Second Warehouse, Linqing in Shandong, and the Water Second Warehouse in Dezhou must be cleaned up and replenished immediately. In addition, various methods must be adopted to encourage the private sector in the North to store grain for emergencies. We should also consider how to avoid triggering public panic,…”

   "Is there any specific strategy?" Fang Congzhe asked, frowning.

"Although Prince Yizhong is integrated with Jiangnan, Jiangnan does not represent the south, Huguang, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Southwest. As far as the students know, the gentry in these places do not approve of those in Jiangnan. Since the imperial court has temporarily lost control of Jiangnan , then we must firmly grasp these places, and although the grain from Huguang may not be transported by water due to the interruption of water transportation, it can still enter Henan by land, and the grain from Guangdong and Guangxi can be transported to Shandong, Beizhi and even Liaodong by sea. , as long as we grasp these two places, most of the suffering of food shortage can be alleviated,..."

  Feng Ziying's suggestion made several people nod slowly, and they were also aware of this.

In fact, the main area where grain is transported from the south to the north is not in the south of the Yangtze River. The grain in the south of the Yangtze River is at most self-protected. In the Songsu Lake area, there are more cotton of this kind and mulberry and sericulture. Now the main grain production area is Huguang, while the north area A considerable part of the grain is actually transported down the Yangtze River and then northward through the canal.

"In addition, from a military point of view, the conquest of the south of the Yangtze River should be urgent rather than delayed. If it is delayed, the food needed by the frontier army and the capital will make the court not enough to pay. But this scale of urgency also needs to be grasped. , I'm afraid it will backfire."

   This is a suggestion to the Ministry of War, Zhang Huaichang naturally understands.

"There is also the scramble for Jiangnan. The imperial court cannot give up Jiangnan just because those noisy Jiangnan gentry seem to be powerful and control the Seven Departments of Nanjing. This game cannot be let go easily. We only see those noisy people. But Jiangnan also has different opinions. The silent majority may not all support Prince Yizhong and Tang Binyin. The court will use various means to disintegrate and win over from within. There should be ways and means available, and from a business point of view, businessmen value profits, and they certainly don’t want to lose the big market of Beidi and even Gyeonggi, so luring them for profit can also divide them internally,..."

   I have to admit that Feng Ziying's ideas are beyond ordinary people's, and many ideas come at her fingertips, and both Ye Fang and Ye Fang nodded slightly.

   "Ziying, we all understand what you said, but you also know the difficulties of the court. The Ministry of Finance and Treasury are shy..." Fang Congzhe sighed.

"At this very moment, Prime Minister Fang should not be stingy with that bit of money anymore." Feng Ziying laughed, "Haitong Yinzhuang must be willing to borrow money from the court. King Zhongshun and the others are also very aware of the current situation, and there is Jiangnan It’s come to this point, why should the imperial court feel pity for Jiangnan? If it’s not possible, use Jiangnan’s taxes and even those rebellious family assets as collateral to borrow money from Haitong Yinzhuang. Maybe the shares in Haitong Yinzhuang will be repaid. Those rebellious ones in Jiangnan, wouldn’t they just be traded off in the future?”

Although Haitong Yinzhuang is mainly invested by the royal family in Beijing and wealthy businessmen, it still raised a lot of shares in Jiangnan, but that was all many years ago. At that time, Jiangnan gentry and merchants may not Just predict what will happen today.

Now that the imperial court is struggling, it is no problem from a commercial point of view if Haitong Bank borrows money for military expenses and grain purchases, but it depends on how the principals view the final outcome of the war, What if Nanjing also wants to borrow money?

  (end of this chapter)