Dominate the Country

[Thanks to ‘Dandansan’ for the 500 reward]

Beijing is bustling in late autumn, because the Mid-Autumn Festival is followed by the empress dowager’s birthday, and then the emperor’s birthday.

Even though the harvest of big green fruit is far less than three years ago, Beijing is still bustling during this period, with convoys of tribute from officials from all over the country coming and going outside Chongwenmen every day.

This year, the streets and alleys of Beijing are full of patrol camps, and the city gate is the top priority. Everything is to prevent the recurrence of the assassination activities of the Fu Han Army last year. Although only a few ordinary royal relatives were assassinated by the Fu Han Army last year, it directly disrupted the big event, didn’t it?

In May this year, Chen Ni proclaimed himself king, and the Sticking Rod Office also sent people to make trouble, and they were all dead soldiers. As a result, they couldn’t even get into Lushan City, that is, two explosions occurred in the southern suburbs of Lushan, killing and injuring several people. It’s a bit of a loss!

From the Qing Dynasty's perspective, this was a typical tit-for-tat, but people in Beijing were afraid that the Fu Han Army's secret camp would repeat the same thing when the Queen Mother's birthday came.

The sky was clear and blue, like a sapphire washed with clear water. Yu Zecheng stood on the third floor of the restaurant, looking at the surrounding streets and alleys, with a relaxed smile on his lips. This year, there was no letter from the higher-ups asking them to take action, so he looked at the Qing soldiers and yamen runners on the streets like watching a play, and they were so cautious that they were nervous.

Today, Yu Zecheng wore a Lu silk jacket on his upper body, and his lower body was blocked by the wall, so outsiders could not see it. Among the people walking downstairs, some were regular customers of Guangjuxuan, and they saw Yu Zecheng bowing and greeting him from a distance.

Don't get used to how hot Beijing is now, in Yu Zecheng's opinion, it's all fake. As August approached, bad news started to arrive in Beijing from the south. First, the Guangdong Navy, Fujian Navy, and Zhejiang Navy, which had assembled, fought a fierce battle with the Zheng-Zhang coalition forces on the Taiwan Sea, but did not achieve any gratifying results. They only separated Fujian and the Taiwan Strait again. This year, the Guangdong Navy's greatest contribution to the Qing Dynasty seemed to be protecting the grain ships, traveling back and forth between Tianjin and Guangdong twice, and delivering a small million shi of grain to Beijing.

Secondly, the militia and Qing soldiers assembled in southern Zhejiang only lifted the siege of Fuzhou, and they were unable to attack the Tiandihui rebels in Fujian. At the same time, Guangdong joined forces with part of the Guangxi army to attack Fujian, but only took down Yunxiao Hall. The progress of the war on the land in Fujian was also unsatisfactory.

Then there was Jiangnan. The main force of the Fu Han Army retreated, leaving a tail in Nanjing, with 20,000 people guarding three places, and the troops were weak. The Qing army surrounded and attacked fiercely for more than half a year, but failed to gain any good news. They gathered strength for two months in July and August, and launched a fierce attack on Zhenjiang and Yangzhou in late August, but they still sighed in despair. The Qing army cut off the connection between Nanjing and Zhenyang, but the navy and fleet of the Fu Han army could still communicate with the two along the Yangtze River.

Finally, there was bad news from the central part. A part of the Fu Han army captured Xing'an Prefecture, Chen Ming personally led his troops to capture Yichang, Hubei Governor Fan Shishou led the defeated troops to retreat to Nanjin Pass, and the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Zhu Gui was taken by Zhou Wenjue, the prefect of Yichang who surrendered to the Fu Han army, to ask for merit. When Fan Shishou's memorial was reported to the Forbidden City, Emperor Qianlong was furious and wanted to execute Zhou Wenjue's nine clans. The local officials on duty found that Zhou Wenjue's relatives had disappeared long ago, and even the side branches and in-laws fled. This became a "sign" of surrender!

At the same time, in mid-August, the troops from Yunnan and Guizhou that gathered in Hunan also launched an attack on Yueyang. There was no progress, and the Fu Han Army took advantage of the navy to seize Changde. When the Fu Han Army, with the advantage of the navy, crossed the entire Dongting Lake to attack Changde, the Qing army's reinforcements had just reached Xiangyin. If Dongting Lake is a circle, the Qing army has only walked a quarter of it, and after the Fu Han Army captured Changde, they were already packing up the spoils and preparing to go home.

In addition to the victory report from Shandong, saying that the Hunyuan Sect leader Fan Mingde's troops were defeated, because of Confucius's photo-editing, Shandong scholars hated the Hunyuan Sect. The Kong family and Shandong Tuanlian Minister Wang Qixu also seemed to have reached some agreement, calling on the majority of scholars to unite as one and wipe out the rebellious Hunyuan Sect bandits. The situation of the Hunyuan Sect is getting worse and worse. Fortunately, winter is coming soon.

In addition to this last trace of joy, the continuous "bad news" cast a deep shadow on the city of Beijing.

In the Yangxin Palace, under the plaque "Zhongzheng Renhe" written by Emperor Yongzheng, Emperor Qianlong on the throne is much older than three years ago. At that time, Qianlong, who was nearly sixty years old, was vigorous, with a red face and black hair, just like a middle-aged man in his forties, and there was no sign of old age at all. Now, Qianlong, who is sixty years old, looks like a real old man in his fifties or sixties among the people, with loose skin and gray hair.

The important officials of the Qing Dynasty watched Qianlong grow old day by day, but they didn't think much of it. But few people know that the glass mirrors in the huge harem of the Forbidden City have all disappeared in the past two or three years.

The entire Qing harem seems to have returned to the bronze mirror era a hundred years ago. There is no way, the glass mirror can see people too clearly. Qianlong looked at his old lady, thought about the current Daqingguo, and his useless sons. How could he accept the fact that he was aging rapidly?

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Zhu Gui has long been ungrateful to Your Majesty, and I believe that Zhu Shijun will never betray the Qing Dynasty." said Liu Tongxun, whose hair and beard had turned silver.

However, Emperor Qianlong, who had been very kind to Liu Tongxun since Liu Yong's death, did not respond immediately, and his face was still ugly and tight. Because recently the Fuhan Army circulated an article, issued in the name of Zhu Gui, which scolded all the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. Qianlong was so angry that his eyes turned black.

"Your Majesty, the next year. Zhu Shijun is fighting against Dai Kuang. He is in the right position. He is definitely not a traitor to our Qing Dynasty. I ask your Majesty to calm down..."

Fu Heng also knelt down. Since this article in the name of Zhu Gui reached Beijing, Zhu Gui's eldest brother Zhu Jun asked for death. Behind closed doors, people from Yingtianfu and the infantry commanding yamen also surrounded the Zhu family. Fu Heng really didn't believe that Zhu Gui surrendered to the enemy.

And to put it bluntly, Chen Ni is gaining momentum, and it seems that it can be suppressed in the short term. In the future, there will probably be only one or two civil and military officials who surrender to Ni. You can't just kill the whole family if one of them comes out, right?

Winter is approaching, and the cotton-padded clothes and quilts of the soldiers on the northern and southern battlefields, as well as salary, food and wages, etc., are the bulk of the problem. It is also urgent to organize the troops from Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan to break through Hanzhong as soon as possible. Compared with these things, Zhu Gui's incident is just a trivial matter.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Household Affairs has deployed manpower, set regulations, and is fully prepared. When winter comes, donation bureaus will be set up in Zhangjiakou, Yangzhou Lixiahe, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. According to the fertility of the land and the amount of farmland, according to the land Ding Yin numbers are donated separately, roughly The minimum donation per acre ranges from eighty to twenty cents. The method of donating rice merchants is implemented. For example, the rice merchants in Suhang and other places have a fixed donation of fifty cents per meter. All big business owners will donate a cent, which is roughly one cent per hundred.”

Fu Heng's proposal had been submitted the day before yesterday, but there had been no reply to this day. Fu Heng knew that this was because the emperor was reluctant to make this decision. He was also secretly saddened that the Huanghuang Emperor was bothered by Huang Bai's blocking of things. However, the Qing Dynasty is really out of money, and the treasury is struggling to survive. This year can go by like this, but what about next year and the year after that?

Many "discerning people" say that Chen Ni's approach is like a rabbit's tail and cannot grow. In the future, just one piece of money and grain will be able to completely drag down Chen Han's finances. But wasn’t this the case in the Qing Dynasty?

The artillery factory and the New Army in Beijing seemed like a bottomless pit, but the emperor always poured money into it unswervingly, and even used a lot of money to hire instructors from those red-haired ghosts, and there was still a whole Daqingguo to take care of outside, and Millions of Eight Banners disciples. The pressure of money and food is really heavier than Mount Tai.

Setting up local donation bureaus is a necessary and necessary strategy.

If the imperial court doesn't have enough money, it can only increase taxes and taxes. And because of Emperor Sheng Zuren's "never to add more gifts", people can only take the initiative to donate. It’s to ‘encourage donations’! Although Fu Heng could figure it out with his toes, this exhortation to donate could easily turn into extortion, forced donation, or exorbitant donation.

Therefore, the leadership of the Donation Promotion Bureau must be in the hands of the central government, led by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

If Chen Ni keeps making such a fuss, the power of the Donation Bureau will be stolen by local officials sooner or later, and it will be equipped with a group training. This is the foundation of the feudal town. But if God bless him, can Daqingguo wipe out Chen Ni before the power center of the Donation Bureau has to let go? Then this world is still the Qing world!

Fu Heng knew that the 'Donation Encouragement Bureau' was a glass of poisonous wine, and now he could only hope that the poison in this glass of wine would be eliminated before it poisoned him.

Returning to the apse, Qianlong sat on a chair, his face no longer filled with anger and coldness, but instead filled with endless fatigue.

Time and repeated bad news have not only affected his body, but also his energy.

"Your Majesty..." Wu Shulai said carefully and served Qianlong a bowl of ginseng tea. Old wild ginseng seems to be really effective. After drinking a bowl of tea, Qianlong's face became less tired and his complexion became more rosy.

"In the afternoon..." Wu Shulai looked at Qianlong and said hesitantly.

According to Qianlong's arrangement, he would go to the Jingshan Artillery Factory in the afternoon and then take a look at the new army trained with a lot of money.

Since contacting the Portuguese and British, the latter two have suffered blows from the Fuhan Army, but no matter how severe the blow is, it is impossible for the latter two to end their relationship with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but the arms trade has been suspended. No way, Europeans in this era really can't get too many firearms in East Asia, whether they are cannons or muskets.

Fortunately for the latter, the Dutch who occupy Indonesia are now allies of the United Kingdom. The Anglo-Dutch alliance led by William III had signed various treaties, and the Netherlands also lent Britain a huge amount of national debt. The relationship between the two is still very good.

As for Spain, throughout the eighteenth century, Spain was a vassal state of France, losing to the Bourbon dynasty.

Although Luzon has always been a "paradise", on such a sensitive issue as the arms trade, it was almost impossible for the British to persuade the Governor of the Spanish Philippines with empty words.

Nowadays, the Manchu Qing's new army and gun manufacturing still focus on self-reliance and struggle, but a touch of Western color is added to the training. Whenever Qianlong's country suffered a setback or was in difficulty, he would go to the artillery factory and the New Army. He saw cannons and firearms in production, and saw the Eight Banners New Army growing little by little. Only then could the anxiety in his heart calm down.

Qianlong did not speak, but glanced at Wu Shulai, who knelt on the ground. From the eyes of Emperor Qianlong, Wu Shulai felt as small as an ant - how can ants affect people's actions?