Chapter 2281 Guizi scroll cartilage, imperial party

  The two of them walked slowly, and neither spoke again.

Qi Yongtai also realized that his disciple's growth rate was astonishing, from Xiao Feng Xiuzhuan of the Imperial Academy, to the Tongzhi of Yongping Mansion, to the Chancellor of Shuntian Mansion, and then to the Youqian Du Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Right Master of the Ministry of War. The servant and governor of Shaanxi, and finally the current right servant of the Ministry of War, in just a few years, he has completed the magnificent transformation from a young scholar who has just entered the official career to a third-rank official.

From the beginning, he could only offer opinions on some specific matters, but now he is able to put forward detailed and specific systematic planning suggestions on affairs in a certain field. For example, now that he is the Minister of the Ministry of War, he can come up with a whole set of plans according to the changes in the battle situation. Suggestions, and all of them are supported by evidence, are not aimless.

   It's no wonder that Ye Fang and Li are all envious of having such a disciple, and they only say that there are successors.

  Like the negotiation between the imperial court and Nanjing, Qi Yongtai actually didn’t want to tell Feng Ziying, because there were too many intrigues and insidious mysteries in it.

The will of the Supreme Emperor, the purpose of Prince Yizhong, the interests of the Zhang family, the rights and interests of the scholar group, the delicate relationship between the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River and the scholars in the north, plus the suppression and prevention of the warriors by the scholars, and internal worries The interactive relationship formed by foreign aggression made this negotiation full of turmoil.

  Qi Yongtai worried that letting Feng Ziying do it would only make Feng Ziying be contaminated by these filthy things at a young age, which would not be conducive to Feng Ziying's growth.

   But now it seems that I still underestimate Feng Ziying. Feng Ziying's growth rate has greatly exceeded expectations. Perhaps this has something to do with his family background. The other party has been able to deal with everything that represents the dark side very calmly and even with ease.

  Since this is the case, Qi Yongtai can put aside those original worries, and even discuss these topics with Feng Ziying.

"Ziying, the current situation of the imperial court is probably worse than what the outside world sees, even worse than you imagined. The money raised from Haitong Yinzhuang through various methods has basically run out, and the official salary owed for a year in the early stage It must be reissued, the reconstruction of the three towns of Shanxi, Datong, and Xuanfu, the suppression of the rebellion in Shanxi, the suppression of the rebellion in Shandong, the war in the southern Zhili, the northern front army is now going east to Liaodong, and the suppression of the rebellion in Huguang. They all need silver, but the taxes in Jiangnan cannot be increased, and the tax reduction and exemption in Northland is also a last resort. In this way, eight million taels of silver sounds like a huge amount, but once it is spent, it is found that it is not enough at all, and this Facing the aggression of the Chahar people and the Jianzhou Jurchen, and having to spend money, where does the money come from?"

Qi Yongtai sighed deeply, "A penny can't beat a hero. The court is heavily in debt. If it wins this battle, the court will find a way to repay the debt. If it loses, I don't know what the final result will be. Maybe many people can only retire and go to the field, and spend their lives in poverty."

"So the imperial court wanted to win Jiangnan as soon as possible, pacify Shanxi, and solve Huguang in Sichuan. However, in the face of Nanjing's sky-high asking price, the imperial court had to insist. This became a vicious circle. It depends on who can stand the torment. If there is a slight change, I am afraid it will be a disaster for everyone."

  Feng Ziying suggested: "So Jiangnan will not move for the time being, but Shanxi, Liaodong, and even Sichuan must pay close attention to it and try to solve it as soon as possible. This will force Nanjing to dare not delay any longer."

  Qi Yongtai nodded slightly, but easier said than done, the Liaodong situation can maintain the status quo, which is considered good. Yuan Keli only went to Shanxi, and it didn't take half a year. Can it be resolved?

  There is also Sichuan, which is the most dissatisfied court. The huge cost far exceeds the court's initial prediction, and even doubled it several times.

Preliminary calculations show that in the past few years, the Bozhou Rebellion plus the consumption of grain money that the two An She families joined in later exceeded six million taels of silver, while the cost set for the Southwest War was two million taels. Silver, this has more than doubled.

At the beginning when Xiong Tingbi went, everyone had high hopes. As a result, after more than a year, Feng Ziying settled the chaos in Shaanxi, and Xiong Tingbi was still fighting with several chieftains in Sichuan. This was because Wang Ziteng had voluntarily left Huguang. Now that Yang Yinglong is about to be put to death, and Anshe and Anshe's family are at the end of their ropes, it is estimated that the southwestern chieftain's rebellion will come to an end within half a year.

  Feng Ziying’s Qing campaign against Shaanxi only cost the court 300,000 taels of silver in name, but it was far more than that.

Not only Shanxi merchants supported hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, the key is that Feng Ziying adopted the method of supporting wars, using the rebellious army as the king's forerunner, massacred and exterminated the local powerful gentry, ransacked their families and exterminated their families, and obtained money from these local gentry. Come to extract oil to feed yourself.

Feng Ziying also calculated that he squeezed more than three million taels of money from these powerful and evil gentry alone. Without such a huge income, he could not afford to support these rebels, and then turned them into guards. It is also impossible to help the victims so that they will not continue to become refugees and rioters. How can the civil chaos in Shaanxi be calmed down so easily?

   Now that Yuan Keli is going to Shanxi, the situation is not so simple.

The Shanxi scholars are the mainstream of the northern scholars in the court. Qiao Yingjia, Han Yu, Sun Juxiang and Sun Dingxiang are the two brothers. These are the leaders and the backbone of the northern scholars. They are closely related to the local scholars in Shanxi. This way, three or five can be suppressed, and Chaoli can tolerate it. If you go all the way, slaughter all the way and clean up the whole way like you did in Shaanxi, and rely on this method to raise food and wages, it will definitely attract countless criticisms, and Yuan Keli can't bear it.

  In addition, in the north of Shanxi, there are Bailian and Tumot people in Fengzhou. The scholars still support the imperial court's resistance, so they can't directly swing their swords at them, right?

   What's more, Yuan Keli may not have the guts to raise Kou Zonghu. These literati cherish their own feathers very much, so they are so unscrupulous and unscrupulous like him.

  So Shanxi can definitely win this battle, but it depends on the full support of the imperial court.

  Feng Ziying knew that Yuan Keli was going to Shanxi, and the Ministry of Household Affairs first gave him one million taels of silver as the capital of the bottom of the box, and he would continue to give full support in the future. This is quite different from going to Shaanxi by himself.

  But Feng Ziying is not jealous, this is actually a recognition of his own ability.

"The cabinet and the Ministry of War sent a letter to Xiong Tingbi before you came back, asking him to resolve the Sichuan war before the end of the year. He wrote back saying that he would try to resolve it by the end of February next year, and the court agreed." Qi Yongtai took a long time to say something. : "The consumption of this Sichuan war has greatly exceeded the imperial court's expectations and disrupted the imperial court's plan, which is why it has led to such passive embarrassment. Xiong Tingbi's performance is not satisfactory, which is disappointing."

"Master Qi, it's not bad. Brother Zhisheng shouldn't be allowed to come to the future. He is already familiar with the situation. Ten birds in the forest are worse than one bird in the hand. If brother Zhisheng is allowed to directly take over the entire Sichuan Huguang military affairs, I dare say The Southwest War ended in the first half of this year. Brother Feibai had to re-acquaint himself with it. After half a year, Yang Yinglong, An Bangyan and She Chongming had a chance to breathe. It was inevitable that the war would be delayed. Brother Feibai would still fight the war. Now, the imperial court can’t be too demanding.”

Qi Yongtai was slightly surprised by Feng Ziying's words, and after thinking for a while, he explained: "There is a reason for letting Zhisheng come back. Yang He didn't play well, and letting Zhisheng take over will make the Huguang scholars feel sad. , Fei Bai went, they are all from Huguang, so Dongxian (Guan Yingzhen) and Zishu (Chai Ke) have no objection."

  Feng Ziying suddenly realized that there was another reason behind this.

Scholars from the central and northern regions and Huguang scholars form an alliance and have a harmonious relationship. Master Qi must take this into consideration. Not beautiful anymore.

   "Then Mr. Zhang (Li Tingji) has retired, but the officials and teachers are going to join the cabinet?" Feng Ziying asked.

Qi Yongtai hesitated for a moment, then shook his head slowly: "This is also a key issue that the imperial court is negotiating with Prince Yizhong. Nanjing proposed that one of their people join the cabinet, which is to see the vacancy left by Er Zhang Zhishi. , but the cabinet is unwilling to accept this condition, I hope that Dongxian will join the cabinet, but Ye Fang and the two are not too supportive."

"Oh? There are candidates for Ye Fang? Who? Cunzhigong (Gao Panlong)? Mingqigong (Huang Ruliang)? The two of them are not qualified enough to convince the public. It can't be Jihuigong (Liu Yixiu), right? That is ridiculous, and you will never agree." Feng Ziying was surprised.

If Ye Fang and Ye Fang pushed another Jiangnan scholar into the cabinet, it would be a crushing advantage to the Northern scholars. Of the five cabinet ministers, Ye Fang and Ye Fang were originally the first and second assistants. Although Li Sancai's native place is Scholars from the north, but their attitude has always been towards the south of the Yangtze River. If there is another scholar from the south of the Yangtze River, it will be three and a half Qi Yongtai and one scholar from the north.

"You think Ye Fang and the two are too simple. Of course they know that I won't promise you to talk about those people, so they are also very contradictory." Qi Yongtai stroked his beard and pondered, "Well, there is one more thing, Liuji (Gu Bingqian) came to me and hoped that I would support him to join the cabinet. I was a little surprised, but Liuji came to me and asked me to recommend him,..."

  Gu Bingqian? This previously recognized soft bone in history? A Fu Wei Zhongxian's guy?

  Gu Bingqian's qualifications are not a problem. He has served as Minister of the Ministry of Rites for many years, and he was the Minister of the Ministry of Rites during Emperor Yuanxi's time, with profound qualifications.

But this person has a problem, that is, he was born in the south of the Yangtze River, a native of Kunshan, Suzhou. It is reasonable to say that he is a scholar in the south of the Yangtze River, and he should be the leader of the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River. He was favored by scholars in the south of the Yangtze River because he was too trusted by Emperor Yonglong, and he was an imperial party through and through.

   Among the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, there are two people who are not liked by this group. One is Gu Bingqian and the other is Zhang Jingqiu. Both are from Southern Zhili, and both are from the imperial party.

  (end of this chapter)