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They successfully captured Anqing and captured nearly 20,000 Qing troops, including the main generals Kong Youde and Shang Shan. This time Shang Kexi, Tulai and others were no longer lonely, as they had more and more friends.
In addition to the captives, what surprised Qin Mu even more was the large amount of supplies seized. Together with those from Tulai, a total of more than 30,000 war horses, more than 80 large and small artillery pieces, and countless weapons and armor of various kinds were seized.
There were also more than 80,000 dan of grain and more than 1.3 million taels of gold and silver. The reason why there was so much gold and silver was that both the Manchu and Mongolian banner soldiers and the Green Camp soldiers looted as much as they wanted all the way south, and everyone got a lot of property.
Due to the constant marching and fighting, these properties could only be carried with him all the time, which made Qin Mu pick up a big bargain. More than 1.3 million taels, almost enough to reward merit and pension for the Eastern Expedition.
In addition to collecting spoils of war and settling prisoners, the army needed two days of rest after fighting for more than half a month. In Anqing City, the soldiers who had just won a great victory and had a rest were all very happy.
Seeing Qin Mu was also smiling, Hong Niangzi became displeased. She was probably the only one in the world who dared to be so arrogant to Qin Mu. At this moment, Qin Mu threw a green apple to her and said with a smile, "Peel the fruit."
Hong Niangzi became even angrier. Ever since Qin Mu saw her amazing fruit peeling skills that day, there was always an apple on the table, and he would ask her to peel an apple whenever they met. Whether she ate it or not was one thing, but he just enjoyed the process of watching her.
This trick was originally one of Hong Niangzi's signature performances when she was traveling around the country performing arts. Now, seeing that Qin Mu always asked her to peel the fruit, as if he was treating her as an artist, she couldn't help feeling angry.
Throwing the fruit, she drew her knife, and in the dazzling flying knife shadows, she peeled an apple at an amazing speed. However, this time she did not do it as usual. She immediately threw the peeled apple back to Qin Muzhong.
She put away the knife, opened her mouth, and with a click, Hong Niang took a big bite herself, then sat on the low table next to her, complaining as she ate, "It's so sour, you eat this all day, it's so unpalatable, I'll give it back to you."
Hongniang threw the half-bitten apple back to Qin Mu. Qin Mu quickly took it and looked at the apple that looked like it had been gnawed by a dog, feeling a bit amused.
"Ying'er..."
Clang! Hongniang's precious sword was unsheathed again, pointing directly at Qin Mu's face: "Try to scream like that again!"
"Okay, okay, Red Lady, Red Lady, put away your knife quickly. Look, I was planning to give you several thousand men and horses. But after you scared me, I forgot how much I was going to give you."
"Really? How much are you giving? Tell me now."
"Ying'er..."
"I forgive you this time, tell me how many men and horses you want to give me."
"Hahaha!"
"You fool me!"
"No, no, this is true." Qin Mu grabbed her finger that was pointing at his forehead. In fact, this girl is easy to coax. She is straightforward and sometimes even pretends to be stupid, which makes you feel very accomplished.
Lady Hong forgot to withdraw her hand. She asked anxiously, "Then tell me how many troops you want to give me."
"I want to give you a huge army..." Qin Mu looked at her towering breasts and slender waist, and added in his mind, "hundreds of millions of descendants."
"Don't give me so many. Just give me 3,000 men. Aren't there 22,000 Tartars in Tongcheng? I'll go and take them down for you."
"Hahaha... ."
"Why are you laughing? I'm serious."
"Second Tartar, hahahaha... you don't want to learn the good things. I just said these once, but you learn them quickly."
"Don't worry about these. Zuo Liangyu's men have long been scared by our attacks. Give me three thousand men and I promise to take Tongcheng."
"Will you come back?" Qin Mu suddenly asked affectionately.
Hong Niang was stunned for a moment, and then a blush appeared on her pretty and heroic face, which was very touching. Qin Mu continued, "I don't want to give you horses because I'm afraid you will go out and have fun and don't want to come back."
"What nonsense are you talking about? Who doesn't want to go back? Why should I come back? Humph!"
"Ying'er, how old are you this year? You must be about twenty-four or twenty-five. Look at you, you are not young anymore..."
"What's it to you!" Hong Niang struggled against his grasping fingers and ran out of the tent in anger. Qin Mu looked at her back and smiled. It was actually very easy to get rid of this girl, wasn't it
He sniffed the lingering fragrance on his hands, ate the remaining half of the apple in big bites, and then opened the memorials submitted from various places. One of them was written by Ma Liuliang. From the handwriting, it was obvious that he had asked someone to write it for him.
Qin Mu saw that the guy was asking for battle again. He had submitted three petitions asking for battle. He had been stationed in Hengyang all this time. Seeing that his former brothers were fighting happily in the front and getting rewards for their merits, he could no longer stay in Hengyang.
Qin Mu knew that if he didn't give this guy some peace of mind, he might cause some trouble, so he picked up his pen and wrote: Focus on leading the troops to practice mountain warfare and guard the southern gate. When we take Guangxi and Yunnan in the future, you will be the vanguard.
The next one is by Liu Boquan, which mainly reports on this year's summer grain harvest and tax collection. Due to the promotion of new crops such as corn, the grain output in Huguang and Jiangxi is more than three times that of the past.
In terms of taxation, because a large number of "black fields" were distributed to ordinary people, the total number of acres of taxable fields increased by a full four times, and the land tax revenue converted into silver reached 3.8 million strings of silver, almost equivalent to the national tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty. This shows how serious land annexation was in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
"King Qin, I have an urgent matter to report." Yan Gaofei's voice suddenly sounded outside the door.
"Come in, what's going on?"
"Congratulations, King Qin, congratulations, King Qin..."
"Is the princess pregnant again?" Qin Mu asked.
Yan Gaofei paused for a moment, and said quickly, "That's not the case, King Qin. This time there is another great happy event. Commander Ma of Luoyang has reported that a man named Feng Xin in Luoyang City dug up an iron box with traces of fire while digging bricks and stones under the ruins of Xuanwu Tower. There is a jade seal hidden in the box."
"Imperial Seal? Tell me, what's going on?"
"King of Qin, yes, it is a jade seal, four inches square, with five dragons on the top, and eight characters 'Received the Mandate from Heaven, May You Live Long and Prosper' engraved in seal script on the front. One corner of it was damaged, so the damaged part was inlaid with gold."
Qin Mu stood up suddenly and repeated in a low voice, "Ordered by Heaven, may you live long and prosper... This is the Imperial Seal. By the way, who did you say found it and where?"
"Reporting to the King of Qin, it was found by a man named Feng Xin in Luoyang City while digging bricks and stones at the ruins of Xuanwu Tower."
"Xuanwu Tower?" Out of his desire for the imperial seal, Qin Mu had learned something about this seal of extraordinary significance. It was said that when the Later Tang Dynasty was defeated, the last emperor Li Congke climbed up to the Xuanwu Tower with the imperial seal in his arms, and the imperial seal disappeared since then.
During the reign of Emperor Zhezong of Song Dynasty, a farmer named Duan Yi found an imperial seal while ploughing the land and presented it to the emperor. After extensive research based on records from previous dynasties by thirteen university scholars including Cai Jing, it was determined that the seal was made for the First Emperor.
However, many knowledgeable people in the court and the public at that time suspected that it was a fake, and believed that it was just forged by Cai Jing and others in order to please Song Zhezong.
When Emperor Huizong of Song came to power, he added ten seals to downplay the incident. The seals were looted when the Jin army broke into Bianliang, and then fell into the hands of Emperor Yuan. They were passed down to the hands of Chahar Khan Ligdan Khan. Dorgon defeated Ligdan Khan and obtained the imperial seal, which he presented to Huang Taiji. Huang Taiji changed the name of the country from "Jin" to "Qing". He called the Ming Dynasty the "False Ming" because he obtained the imperial seal, and believed that he was the orthodox Chinese.
But if the imperial seal that Song Zhezong obtained was really forged by Cai Jing and others to deceive Song Zhezong as the knowledgeable people of the Song Dynasty believed, then it means that the imperial seal in the hands of the Qing Dynasty now is a fake.
"Come here, call the Sima scholar, the Lu scholar and others to come together to discuss the matter." Qin Mu ordered loudly. His mood had slowly eased. The imperial seal was indeed extremely important to him.
He claimed to the outside world that he was the successor of the First Emperor's legal lineage. If he could obtain the First Emperor's imperial seal, then Longwu would not be a problem. The imperial seal would make everyone believe that he was the one destined to succeed, and no one would make irresponsible remarks about his succession of the First Emperor's legal lineage.
Because the imperial seal has long been regarded as a symbol of imperial power and a symbol of unification of the world.
If an emperor ascended the throne without the imperial seal in his hand, he would be ridiculed as a "blank emperor". This means that you are the emperor yourself, and there is no way to prove that you are appointed by heaven. The edicts they issued without the imperial seal were naturally not so convincing.
But there are too many fake imperial seals, so it’s better not to be happy too soon.
Sima An, Lu Zhenfei and more than 20 others arrived soon. Yan Gaofei recounted the story, and everyone was overjoyed. Sima An said first, "King Qin, do you know why the court and the people of the Song Dynasty believed that the imperial seal presented by the farmer Duan Yi was a fake?"
"Mr. Sima, do you know the reason? Please tell us quickly."
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.(To be continued..)
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