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During the morning court session that day, two pieces of good news came in succession.
One was a report that the Left Army Commander-in-Chief Ma Yongzhen had conquered Datong City, captured Jiang Ge alive, and annexed all the sixteen prefectures and counties of Datong. Thus, the entire territory of Shanxi was brought under the rule of Daqin.
The other one was sent back from the Khorchin grassland. The "Eight-Party Allied Forces" led by Aobai marched northward. Niu Wanchuan won the first battle and defeated the 2,000 cavalry of Arushi, the general of the Chitate tribe, with 500 rifles.
This victory report only showed a victory of annihilating 500 to 600 enemies, but it was of extraordinary significance. It meant that the Qin Dynasty had a powerful weapon to restrain the cavalry.
Seeing this victory report, Qin Mu was happier than seeing Ma Yongzhen capture Datong. Coupled with the deterrent power of the "Eight-Party Coalition" organized by Meng Ke, Liaodong was settled!
As for the entire southern desert, we have to do it step by step. It is impossible to solve it all at once. At present, as long as we can ensure the stability of the northern border and prevent it from being affected by the wars of the various tribes in southern desert, that will be enough.
In terms of selecting talents, the Ministry of Personnel has basically completed the selection of those who can be selected.
The work of searching the entire inner city was also declared completed.
According to the report of Yang Chao, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, six warehouses were seized from the homes of the Jurchens in the inner city, including Dorgon, Duoduo, Ajige, Jierqialang, Daishan, Fan Wencheng and other Manchu nobles, as well as 87,000 taels of gold, 17 million taels of silver, and a large number of other materials.
If you really count it, the Qing Dynasty was really poor. The entire Manchu city, including princes and nobles like Dorgon, only confiscated these valuable things, which was only slightly more than the Eight Families of Shanyou.
Qin Mu was very impolite and asked the Ministry of Revenue to allocate one million taels of silver for the construction of the imperial palace in Xijing.
After learning that the King of Qin only requested the transfer of one million taels, many officials secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The palace city of Nanjing cost more than four million taels, and Xijing only needed one million taels. Now everyone finally believed that the King of Qin really had no intention of moving the capital to Xijing.
Give it to me, isn't it just one million taels? Give it to me!
This time, even the most "wild" imperial censor did not say anything. He was afraid that Qin Mu would regret it, so he immediately asked the Ministry of Revenue to settle the amount, and then based on this amount, the scale of the Xijing Imperial Palace was determined to be one million taels, and not a penny could be increased. Whoever overspent, I will drown him with my saliva!
Qin Mu sat on the dragon throne, watching the imperial censors who came with the emperor from the north vying for the Ministry of Revenue Assistant Minister Yang Chao to quickly allocate funds. If one didn't know better, one would think that they were loyal to their master and were concerned about what the king was concerned about.
"Cough cough!" Qin Mu coughed twice and rescued Yang Chao from those imperial censors.
Imperial Censor Wu Shixing bowed respectfully and said loudly: "My king, looking at the world, the Central Plains has been settled, Liaodong has gradually stabilized, and except for the border areas of Guangdong and Guangxi, our Great Qin has already occupied all the lands in the world. The King of Qin raised his army when the nation was in danger, drove out the barbarians, wiped out the stench, and restored our country. He saved the people from hanging, was benevolent to all things, and his virtue spread throughout the world. Now there are hundreds of millions of people under the rule of the Great Qin. They all look forward to our king ascending the throne soon. I ask our king to follow the will of heaven and the people's will and rule the world as soon as possible."
"That's right. We, the ministers, are looking forward to the Holy Lord's coming to the world as soon as possible. As long as our king does not ascend the throne, the people of the world will be uneasy. We hope that our king will return to the south as soon as possible and ascend the throne to bring peace to the world."
"The world cannot be without a ruler for a day. Our king is the one who was given the mandate by God. He is rich in the world, but he still regards himself as a king. And the rest of the people in Guangdong and Guangxi regard themselves as the king. Isn't it strange? I hope our king will follow the will of God and the people's will, and take the throne as soon as possible to set things right and bring peace to the world."
With one person leading the way, all the ministers came forward and urged Qin Mu to ascend the throne as soon as possible. In fact, it was not just them, including Lu Zhenfei, Yang Lin and other ministers who stayed in Nanjing, as well as officials from various provinces, all of whom petitioned Qin Mu to ascend the throne as soon as possible.
Qin Mu had no intention of delaying any further. It would indeed be inappropriate if he did not ascend the throne.
However, he knew very well that he had great popularity in the south, but he might not have much reputation in the hearts of the scholars and common people north of the Huai River. After all, these lands had only been under his rule for two or three months.
It was difficult for news to spread these days, so it was not surprising that many northern people, even the King of Qin, had just heard about it. In addition, he was too young and rose too fast, which might have caused doubts among the northern people.
Although the will of the people cannot be seen or touched, it does exist and is very important. If you cannot make the people agree that you are orthodox, rebellion will easily occur once someone incites you.
The reason why slogans like "The blue sky is dead, the yellow sky should be established" could incite so many people to rebel is that these slogans denied the legitimate rule of "orthodoxy".
Qin Mu knew the importance of the people's hearts, so from the beginning of the uprising, he paid great attention to the righteous cause. When Ganzhou was in the most difficult time, he was forced to that point, and he hesitated whether to raise his own flag immediately, which was also because of his consideration of the righteous cause.
At this moment, facing the situation where all the ministers begged him to ascend the throne as soon as possible, Qin Mu made a decision that no one expected.
Amid the astonishment of his ministers, he solemnly announced: Let's go to Guanzhong to pay homage to the tomb first.
This move was a surprise to everyone, including Sima An, but Sima An reacted quickly and was the first to stand up and support Qin Mu's decision.
Immediately afterwards, Li Yuan, Yang Shen and others came out to express their agreement.
In line with the principle of being low-key in life and high-key in work, Qin Mu also issued an edict to the world regarding his trip to Guanzhong to worship the tomb.
Let everyone in the world know how humble he, the King of Qin, was. Under the repeated urgings of his ministers, he was "afraid that his virtue and reputation were not enough" and "afraid that the heroic spirit of his ancestor would not bless him", so he went to Guanzhong to offer sacrifices to his ancestor first before he dared to talk about the affairs of the world.
The ministers began to make intensive preparations for the emperor's visit to Shaanxi to offer sacrifices to the mausoleum. Qin Mu returned to the rear court, summoned Yan Gaofei, and said to him: "You should immediately send a pigeon letter to have Song Xiance, the governor of Guanzhong, as well as Li Dingguo, Yu Chenglong and others prepare for the sacrifices in advance. It must be carefully prepared, and it must be grand and solemn, in accordance with ancient etiquette;
Over the past few hundred years, first the Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Mongols, and now most of the country has fallen under the iron hoofs of the barbarians. People all suspect that China's fortune has been damaged, and therefore it has been bullied by foreign races time and time again.
This time, I am going to Shaanxi to worship the mausoleum in order to boost the morale of the people and rebuild the soul of China. Therefore, even if there is some waste, it does not matter. I can save money on food and clothing on weekdays, but I cannot save anything when it comes to worshiping the ancestors. "
"I obey your order!"
Yan Gaofei responded solemnly and was about to leave.
Qin Mu suddenly remembered something and stopped Yan Gaofei again: "Wait a minute, pass on my order to bring all the princes and ministers of the Qing Dynasty, as well as traitors such as Fan Wencheng and Sun Zhixie, as sacrifices for my ancestors.
This time, I will let the world see what it means that when the Hu people are gone, the Han Dynasty will prosper. Hahahaha... I will step on the intestines of the Hu people and wade through their blood, hang the Hu people in the blue sky, and bury the Hu people beside the purple pass. When the Hu people are gone, the Han Dynasty will prosper. "
“Yes!”
As soon as Yan Gaofei left, Dayu'er, who was serving in the palace, felt her legs go weak and she fell to her knees, begging with tears in her eyes: "King of Qin, King of Qin! Please spare Fulin's life. King of Qin, Fulin is just a child who knows nothing and has never done anything to harm the world. King of Qin, Fulin was only six years old at the time. The decision to enter the pass was made by Dorgon and his men. Fulin... he... .. wuwuwu, it was all my fault. I shouldn't have let him sit in that position in the first place..."
Dayuer was really confused this time and cried like a tearful person. She only had one son, and she had tried her best to please Qin Mu these days. All she wanted was to save her son's life.
Seeing that Qin Mu did not make any comment, she knelt and crawled over, lying at his feet and begging, "King Qin, you are the wise ruler of the world, Fulin is just a child, please spare him, King Qin, I will serve you like a cow or a horse in this life or the next, and repay your great kindness with a gift of grass and a ring, King Qin..."
"okay!"
Qin Mu said this calmly, then walked away.
Indeed, Fulin was just a little kid and he did not do anything against the law. The decision to enter the pass and the order to massacre the Han people were all made by Dorgon and others. This is true.
But who made him the emperor of the Qing Dynasty? No matter how young you are, you are still an emperor, so you have to pay a price.
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.(To be continued..)
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