The Twenty-Second Choice

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  Once again, it's called a recommendation vote...

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  The Shanxi merchants colluded with the enemy, which was still a relatively confidential matter at that time. Ordinary people would not have known about it.

  There are some people in high positions who know the inside story, but it's not a trivial matter. At the end of the Ming dynasty, the power of merchants was extremely strong, far surpassing the miserable situation of being bullied by anyone at will during the early and middle periods. Some high officials thought that having one less thing to worry about was better than having one more, while others sat back and divided the spoils, making a fortune together. Who would bother to restrict or prohibit them?

  So the Jin merchants with exceptional vision and cunning saw that doing business with the Eastern Barbarians was a great way to make a fortune. For the sake of silver, businessmen really are without a country...

  During the most intense fighting of the Ming-Qing War and when the blockade outside the pass was strictest, the Qing rulers were also poor at management, or rather, did not treat Han people as human beings, so production efficiency was low, and output could not keep up with consumption.

  Adding the severe natural disasters during the Little Ice Age, if Jianzhou was not supported by Shanxi merchants and desperately transported grain and cloth... this bandit group would have starved to death long ago.

  Of course, Shanxi merchants didn't give them away for free. A large number of furs, eastern pearls, ginseng and horses were traded out, with profits several times or even dozens of times higher in hand.

  The Ming dynasty perished and the Qing dynasty rose. Emperor Shunzhi even personally summoned the Jin merchants who had made great contributions, giving them a monopolistic position as imperial merchants. These businessmen indeed sold their country and ancestors at a good price...

  It's said that all these grains and cloth are to be transported to the Eastern Barbarians. Li Gong's fingernails were dug deep into his flesh, Wang Yuan bit his lip to death, and his lower lip was bitten by this rough and straightforward man, with blood dripping down... If not for this, he would have jumped halfway to heaven.

  A man who has been through a bloody battle in Songshan, how can he bear such big grains of sand in his eyes?

  Even if it's not Zhu Cixuan, it would be a family disaster. As long as we can get rid of this surnamed Fan from Shanxi, I'll consider it a success, no matter what the cost!

  Otherwise, I'm afraid it's hard to quench the surging passion in my heart!

  In front of the killing, blood flows like a river. How many great Han men have shed their hot blood in the white mountains and black waters, just to annihilate the ugly slaves and prevent them from harming the Chinese people again... But what's the result? The blood spilled in the front lines is in vain, while behind, they are busy selling out the country!

  "Shameless beast!"

  "Traitor!"

  "Damn it!"

  Everyone cursed in their hearts as they walked straight out.

  Several men clustered around Zhu Ciwen, their faces pale and their chests heaving, their fists clenched tightly, and as soon as they saw the attendants approaching from a distance, they were about to throw punches.

  "Lately, I've been thinking about the troops' equipment, armor, and rations." As he walked out of the hospital gate, Zhu Ciyan also let out a long sigh. Although it was something he had known for a long time, when it happened right before his eyes, he couldn't help but feel indignant.

  These Shanxi merchants are really asking for death.

  Looking at the crowd, Zhu Ciyan continued: "Of course, we also need horses. When I thought of buying horses, I sent someone to inquire. It turned out that the largest family in the capital who secretly did horse trading was the Fan family of Shanxi merchants. After another inquiry, it was found that they were also collecting grain and cloth in the inner land, as well as medicinal herbs. I was surprised, what were they doing with tens of thousands of stones of grain? Today, seeing is believing, and indeed, they are sending them to the outside of the pass, selling them to the Eastern Tartars for huge profits!"

  After finishing speaking, he let out a long sigh, and his expression was also gloomy and unhappy.

  Previously, he didn't pay much attention to it, but after seeing the luxurious appearance of the Fan family and so many grain stores, thinking that the owner was a Shanxi merchant and also a major grain merchant in Beijing, and then sending grain to Zhangjiakou... If there are so many clues and still can't figure out what's going on, then he is just a pig-headed person.

  "What to do with them?" This question was not only on the minds of these military officers, but also on Zhu Ciyan's mind.

  It is obvious that with the current governance of the Ming Dynasty, there are no officials who can manage these merchants. Even if he were to become Emperor, it would be difficult for him to sever the complex web of relationships that have formed over the years!

  The guards are useless, the army is useless, and the officials are disheartened and depraved.

  Merchants are powerful and difficult to control, inciting tens of thousands of people to resist taxes, and even killing the imperial tax supervisor. What else can't they do? Moreover, big merchants and officials, including royal relatives, have intricate relationships. Can Zhu Ciwen really eliminate all the royal relatives and officials of the country?

  In the early years of Chongzhen, it was just a matter of calling for donations, with slightly more extreme means... what was the result? The emperor suffered a great defeat and loss, making a big fuss and losing face, and the matter was hastily settled.

  Now if it were reported to Chongzhen, with his temperament, he would naturally want to investigate, but how could Zhu Ciren be certain that there was no imperial relative coming out to explain and reverse the black and white?

  How can it be determined that the inner monitors will not speak with one voice and say that this crown prince is talking nonsense?

  The officials come out in droves to make trouble, what to do with a broken shoe array?

  His old man dared to kill people, that's not wrong, but he didn't have the guts to spank hundreds of officials at once... If Chongzhen had this courage, he wouldn't have beheaded Chen Xinyi either...

  At that time, it is possible to fail in hitting the tiger and instead get hurt by it.

  In terms of the actual situation of politics in the late Ming Dynasty, Zhu Ciyan's worries are not only there, but also very likely to make himself a laughing stock...

  But just got the southern escape thing sorted out...

  Arriving at the entrance of the street market, back on the bustling streets, everyone had a feeling of suddenly waking up from a dream.

  Who would have thought that just across this deep mansion, in the capital's first good district, someone is openly doing such treasonous things?

  It can be imagined that those involved are not just one or several businessmen, and there is no way for the Jin merchants to do business on such a large scale without the participation of local and central officials.

  It's really rotten to the core...

  What's the solution then... Should I intervene or not... Zhu Ciwen was in tears... This multiple-choice question is really hard to answer...

  At this moment when the Crown Prince was distracted, Wang Yuan stepped forward and pulled his sleeve, saying in a low voice, "Young Master, you've run into these performers again."

  "How strange, what are they doing running around everywhere?" Zhu Ciwen also felt strange, and his eyes had a deep thinking color. This group of performers has been wandering around Xuanwu Gate to Qianmen area for several days, and they have bumped into them several times already.

  The group of outsiders performing acrobatics that Wang Yuan mentioned, three or four sturdy young men, some beating gongs, others maintaining order, a big girl wearing a tight-fitting outfit was doing flips in the center of the arena surrounded by the crowd.

  But seeing her waistband was tightly tied, her slender waist was less than a grasp, but in front of her chest was a mountainous ups and downs, all the way down to the ground, her face not red or panting, she bowed with a fist, her face full of heroic spirit.

  "Just speaking with a strong Central Plains accent, but also very pleasant to listen to, like the oriole's song: 'Young masters, I'm making a fool of myself.'"

  Among the cheers of the crowd, the girl retreated and returned, followed by the leader of the team, an old man who came up to say some polite words before starting his performance of swallowing a sword with his throat.

  Under the gaze of everyone, the old man raised his head to the sky, a three-foot-long Longquan treasure sword flashed with cold light, and was slowly inserted into his throat by the old man. The old man's movements were extremely slow, and the crowd also watched clearly, such a long treasure sword, just like that, straight into the entrance, the onlookers couldn't help but worry, fearing that the tip of the sword would come out from the old man's back again.

  With great difficulty, the old man finally swallowed it, but he still didn't move. The young girl who had just come out with a plate in her hand made a circle around the arena, seeing that some of the spectators had turned to leave, while others threw one or two copper coins. After making a circle, she came back with only a few scattered coins.

  "Thank you, thank you."

  The girl didn't seem to mind, but when she passed by Zhu Ciwen, she couldn't help but take a few more glances at this young man, despite his ordinary attire.

  Zhu Ci Yun smiled slightly at her, and unexpectedly made the girl's face turn red.

  "Are you from Henan? I'm guessing, from Xinyang Prefecture."

  Zhu Ciwen smiled and asked.

  "Not!" The girl's face was expressionless, and she replied in a crisp Beijing accent before turning her head away and walking off in another direction.

  "Heh heh."

  Zhu Ciwen stroked his chin, let out a dry laugh, and then gave Wang Yuan and the others a signal with his eyes before turning to leave.

  This gang... isn't his mother's scout team, it's a living devil!

  He remembered very clearly that before and after the New Year, Li Zicheng ordered Liu Tizhen's Xiao Liu camp to send a large number of scouts into Beijing, spreading rumors, buying off officials, creating public opinion, and intimidating and threatening the people.

  The previous efforts were well done, so when the rebels arrived at the city gate, the people inside the city had already been frightened and were waiting to surrender.

  Such tactics, even Zhang Xianzhong used them when he attacked Xiangyang, nothing special. Speaking of which, Jian Nu used them the best, Fu Shun, Tie Ling, Shenyang, all fell with such tactics, using inside and outside coordination to take them down. It's also a pity, the Ming dynasty nurtured the factory guards for over 200 years, but by the Chongzhen era, they seemed to have vanished...

  These performers in front of me, their business is doing well or badly, with a careless and nonchalant expression. Five or six people, over ten pairs of eyes, are looking around randomly, all staring at the high gates and mansions. Apart from that, they're just wandering around near the city gates... If they're not spies, I'd be seeing ghosts.

  It's indeed interesting, these past few days I've been out of the palace, I touched the door of a traitorous merchant who sells the country to the Jin dynasty, and coincidentally discovered a group of bandit scouts, it seems that chaotic times are approaching, demons dancing wildly...

  At the end of this season, the imperial court's control over the lower classes had indeed declined to an extreme point, and all sorts of chaotic phenomena were also thoroughly exposed.

  The country is powerless... In such a situation, who can remain loyal and virtuous?

  Coming out of the crowd, Zhu Cibei just blinked and walked ahead, with a vague idea in his mind, but it flashed by extremely quickly, and no matter how he grasped at it, he couldn't catch it.

  This thing just in front of me, this thing that just happened, seems to have a subtle connection... but when I try to grasp it, it flashes and disappears... frustrating!

  Just as he was deep in thought, worrying about the things before his eyes, Zhu Ciwen walked with a frown on his face. Suddenly, without warning, a loud shout exploded beside his ear: "Get out of the way, are you blind?!"

  Zhu Ciwen hastily yielded, and the whip lash just brushed past his ear. Turning his head to look, he saw a dozen or so burly men with shaved heads, all tall and majestic, wielding long whips that cracked loudly as they drove away pedestrians while guarding several large carriages with green canopies in the middle, making their way forward in a flurry of activity.

  "Whose family's servant and horse team is this, how dare they be so arrogant."

  Several scholars saw this and were also furious, rushing forward, scolding and cursing non-stop.

  A large group of Han people were driving away, seeing the scholars causing trouble, they were also annoyed. One of the Hans suddenly pulled the reins of his horse, which lifted its front hooves and was about to turn around, but just then an old vegetable vendor passed by, the horse was startled again and took a small leap, throwing the big Han off the horse's back.

  "You're going to die of old age!" The big man in the brocade robe got up from the ground, looking disheveled and embarrassed. He raised his whip and started lashing at the old woman's head and face.