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Fan Yongdou hurried to Yanjing and was received by Dorgon, the regent of the Qing Dynasty.
In the lobby of the Regent's Palace, Dorgon wore a round warm hat with a ruby top bead, the middle of the hat was decorated with a hat weft made of red silk ribbon, and under the top bead was a two-inch long feather tube with peacock feathers inserted into it. He wore a dragon robe embroidered with five claws and nine dragons, and sat on a chair, looking majestic without being angry.
Fan Yongdou felt a strong pressure from Dorgon, so he prostrated himself on the ground and kowtowed deeply, showing great respect.
"Get up, you've come so quickly. Do you know why I summoned you?"
"The Regent's summons are a great favor. How could I not rush here day and night? But I am ignorant and dare not speculate on the Regent's intention." Fan Yongdou got up and stood in the hall with his body bowed.
Dorgon said calmly, "Please sit down. Bring me some tea!"
"I dare not, I dare not. There is no place for me to sit in front of the Regent. The Regent is embarrassing me."
Seeing that he was in a state of fear and trepidation, Dorgon stopped being polite and said, "Before the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass, your Eight Shanyou Families made great contributions to the Qing Dynasty. With the integrity of the Qing Dynasty, anyone who holds a dragon ticket will not be forgotten. I intend to report to the emperor and make your Eight Shanyou Families imperial merchants, specializing in foreign trade. But..."
When Dorgon mentioned the dragon ticket, Fan Yongdou was delighted, thinking that Dorgon was going to repay his debt.
During the Nurhaci period, due to the shortage of materials, Nurhaci borrowed money from Shanxi merchants with whom he had trade relations. In order to show his integrity, Nurhaci issued tickets with imperial seals to the merchants, which were called dragon tickets.
Fan Yongdou and others held a lot of dragon tickets, but after Manchuria entered the Pass, they dared not mention the dragon tickets anymore and ask the emperor for debts. I'm afraid only during the reign of King Nan of Zhou did anyone dare to do so.
If Dorgon took the initiative to repay the debt, conferred them the title of imperial merchants, and gave them the privilege of trading outside the Great Wall, that would be something they could wish for.
But Dorgon then said "but...", and Fan Yongdou immediately understood that it might not be that easy to become a royal merchant.
He quickly expressed his opinion: "What are the instructions of the Regent? But please allow me to do so. I will repay the Regent's kindness with my life."
Dorgon was silent now, and it was Fan Wencheng's turn to speak. He talked about everything under the sun.
Fan Yongdou is a complete profiteer. Before Fan Wencheng even got to the point, he started complaining about being poor, saying that goods from the south were not coming in, and that medicinal herbs from the north were scarce. He had a large group of people at home, but could barely pay their wages, and so on.
Fan Wencheng is known for his intelligence and strategies, but he is helpless in front of Fan Yongdou. It is not appropriate to rob him now.
Fortunately, Fan Yongdou cried poor just to show how difficult his life was. He came here first in order to seize the opportunity before the other seven families, so he would not be really stingy.
Especially the privileges of trade outside the Great Wall mentioned by Dorgon, although it is impossible to monopolize them, but he can grab the fattest piece first. Therefore, after crying poor, he pretended to sell everything he had and promised to collect thirty taels of money and grain.
Dorgon was very happy after hearing this, but he did not immediately express his opinion to make him the head of the eight imperial merchants.
When the seven families of Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang and Huang Yongfa all arrived in Yanjing, Fan Wencheng seized the initiative and obtained a huge amount of two million in money and grain from these Shanxi merchants in exchange for the privileges of trade outside the Great Wall and the salt distribution rights of Changlu Salt Field.
This result was a win-win situation for both parties. Two million may seem like a lot, but for Fan Yongdou and others, a family's assets exceeded this amount.
Now their business is indeed not as good as before. They have become imperial merchants, obtained the monopoly privilege of trade outside the Great Wall, and also obtained the salt distribution rights of Changlu Salt Field. In their view, this is worth far more than two million taels.
Dorgon raised two million taels of money and grain through the transfer of some distribution rights. This was like a timely help to Dorgon who was in dire straits. With this money and grain, the Qing army was able to organize a full-scale offensive quickly.
Dorgon in Yanjing breathed a sigh of relief, but Longwu in Fujian became an ant on the hot pan.
It was not known whether the "letter of treason" that was burned in public outside the Meridian Gate was true or false, but many ministers secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
In fact, Longwu wanted to use this action to show the Zheng family that he was magnanimous and would not care about their past acts of collaborating with the enemy.
This trick would have been very effective. If Zheng Zhilong had not hurried back, Longwu would have really had the opportunity to "tour the South". Unfortunately, he was unlucky. Zheng Zhilong did not return early or late, and just when he arranged the schedule for his "Southern Tour", Zheng Zhilong came back.
As soon as he heard that he was leaving, Zheng Zhilong immediately stopped him. Now the Qin army was approaching, and Qin troops were being mobilized at Fenshui Pass and Xianxia Pass. Fujian was facing a dangerous situation where a storm was about to come.
Qin Mu was still randomly labeling people as traitors. With Longwu around, he could get rid of most of these labels. It was he who sent himself to the "Northern Expedition" in the first place.
If Longwu ran away, all the labels would be put on his head, so Zheng Zhilong would never let him go at this time.
When Longwu realized that he couldn't leave, he panicked and found an excuse with Empress Zeng to leave the palace. Then, under the protection of dozens of people including Jinyiwei commander Lu Kunheng, they fled to Guangdong in disguise.
However, after escaping for only a few dozen miles, he was chased back and forth by Zheng's army.
Zheng Zhilong did not make this matter public, but fearing that Longwu would escape again, he placed him and Empress Zeng under house arrest in the palace.
The Minister of Personnel and Grand Secretary of Wuying Palace Huang Daozhou, the Minister of Revenue and Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion Jiang Dejing, the Minister of Rites and Grand Secretary of Dongke Zhu Jizuo, the Minister of Works and Grand Secretary of Dongke Zeng Ying and others went to the palace to seek an audience many times but were stopped every time. Everyone felt that something was wrong, which further confirmed the fact that Zheng Zhilong had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
Huang Daozhou, who was upright and unwise, was shocked and angry. He led the 2,000 soldiers he recruited and rushed straight to the palace, intending to rescue Longwu.
As a result, his shoulder-pole army was vulnerable. Zheng Zhibao led only 200 soldiers of the Zheng family and defeated his 2,000 shoulder-pole army. He himself was taken prisoner.
Zheng Zhilong then wanted to kill Huang Daozhou on the grounds of mutiny and treason. After Zheng Sen's repeated persuasion, Huang Daozhou was finally spared, but was also detained by Zheng Zhilong.
This great change came suddenly, and it caused a great shock to the whole of Fujian, and many local officials actually abandoned their posts and fled.
Even the Cabinet Grand Secretary Su Guansheng and the Minister of Rites Zhu Jizuo fled.
For a time, the whole of Fujian was in unrest and rumors were spreading.
Unfortunately, the Qin army had only a few thousand troops stationed at Xianxia Pass and Fenshui Pass. The two passes were easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the defenders were all close confidants of the Zheng family, which did not give the Qin army any opportunity to take advantage.
In the study of Duke Pingguo's mansion, in addition to Zheng Zhibao and Zheng Cai, even Zheng Hongkui, who was originally stationed at Fenshui Pass, was hastily called back by Zheng Zhilong.
The four of them closed the door and secretly discussed countermeasures in the study.
Everyone looked solemn, including Zheng Zhilong. No one expected that Huang Daozhou, a stubborn guy, would suddenly lead his troops into the palace.
Although the Bantan Army was vulnerable, the consequences put the Zheng family in a very passive position. Although he claimed that Huang Daozhou was the traitor, anyone with a discerning eye could tell the truth from the wrong.
"Brother, what should we do now?" Zheng Zhibao asked worriedly.
Zheng Zhilong was also a little confused and did not answer for a while.
Zheng Cai, who was named Earl of Yongsheng, said: "I think we should just go all out. Keeping those whining guys like Jiang Dejing will only make things worse. It's better to kill them all in the name of treason. Then we can go all out. With Xianxia and Fenshui Pass in our hands, Qin Mu may not be able to do anything to me."
"No." Zheng Hongkui said quickly: "Killing these people will not help, it will only bring more enemies to my Zheng family. Brother, I think we should send someone to talk to Qin Mu."
"What to talk about?" Zheng Zhilong frowned.
"Brother, what can't be discussed now? As long as Qin Mu agrees to let my Zheng family stay in Fujian forever, we will serve him as emperor. Qin Mu is now under attack from all sides, so he may agree to this condition."
"Okay, then you send someone to talk to Qin Mu." Zheng Zhilong seemed to have no hope for this.
Although it didn't matter to him who was the emperor. When he first communicated with Hong Chengchou, he actually just regarded it as a business deal. But now he and Qin Mu had broken up, and Qin Mu's attitude towards traitors made him worried.
In view of this, he felt that he had to make another plan and leave a way out for himself. He sighed and said, "It seems that I have to fight a bloody battle."
Zheng Zhibao and Zheng Cai asked in unison: "Who are we fighting against?"
"Red-haired ghost."
"Red-haired ghost? Brother, at this time..."
"We have to prepare a fallback route first, just in case."
.(To be continued..)
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