People in Zongwu: Starting with the Yin Gui Sect

Chapter 183

"By the way, brother Wu, I heard that you have a skill that can cure the world's strange poisons. It just so happens that a friend of mine in the capital has a strange disease, and many famous doctors can't help him. Later, we suspected that he might have been poisoned, so I hope you can go with me to see my friend."

Lu Xiaofeng, who had recovered from his shock, began to talk about another thing.

"A friend out of nothing?"

When Wu Yu heard the words "I have a friend", the first thing he thought of was a friend out of nothing, but when he thought of Lu Xiaofeng's character, it was obviously impossible for him to do such a thing. Since he said there was one, then there was one.

However, since he didn't say much about that friend, Wu Yu didn't ask much. It just so happened that Ye Gucheng and Ximen Chuxue's battle in the Forbidden City would happen in a while, and he would naturally go to watch the battle at that time, so Lu Xiaofeng's invitation was just a little earlier.

Of course, the premise is that they can successfully rescue Ximen Chuxue this time, otherwise even Ximen Chuxue will be gone, and there will naturally be no so-called battle in the Forbidden City.

Of course, Wu Yu didn't know that Lu Xiaofeng's so-called friend was not a friend in the traditional sense, but the contemporary ruler of the Ming Dynasty, that is, Emperor Tianqi Zhu Youxiao.

And his so-called treatment for his friend was just a cover, because Bai Xiaosheng had already said that Tianqi was not sick at all, let alone poison, but a backlash of national destiny, which could not be cured.

The reason why Lu Xiaofeng said so was actually just an excuse for Wu Yu to meet Zhu Youxiao in advance.

Originally, according to Zhu Youxiao's intention, he was not allowed to disturb his fifth brother during this period, but after listening to what Wu Yu said about the Little Ice Age, Lu Xiaofeng changed his mind.

Although Wu Yu also said that the Ming Dynasty could not be saved, the strange look that flashed just now still did not escape his eyes.

So in his opinion, Wu Yu must have been hesitant and did not say it. If he knew his identity at that time, he might not have any more concerns.

Wu Yuzi didn't know what Lu Xiaofeng was thinking. Instead, looking at the barren land of Shaanxi, he thought of a person, a person who completely closed the coffin for the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion.

However, at this time, Brother Li should not be called this name, let alone the King of Rebellion, but Li Hongji, and his identity was just a little postman who was unknown.

Later, in the first year of Chongzhen, because the court's finances were not enough, Zhu Youjian abolished the post stations in most parts of the country at the suggestion of the ministers, and Li Hongji lost his postman job on which he depended for survival.

Later, when he returned home, he found that his wife had committed adultery with Gai Hu from the same village, and he killed the two in anger.

Li Hongji, who was carrying a life, had to run away, and finally in the second year of Chongzhen, he and his nephew Li Guo surrendered to Gao Yingxiang, who had revolted in Gansu.

Then in the ninth year of Chongzhen, Gao Yingxiang's uprising failed and was killed. Li Hongji was also elected as the new King of Rebellion at this time, and he officially changed his name to Li Zicheng.

In the 17th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, led the rebel army to attack Beijing. Since then, the Ming Dynasty established by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, officially came to an end after 276 years.

What is really interesting is that after Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, he gradually found more than 70 million taels of silver from the homes of those officials.

You should know that in order to raise military funds, Chongzhen was willing to be humble just to borrow one million taels from the officials.

But those civil officials and nobles cried poor, one donated dozens of taels, and the other donated hundreds of taels. In the end, even if Chongzhen borrowed from all the civil officials and nobles, he could only get tens of thousands of taels, which was not even enough for the military expenses.

But as Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, those ministers who cried poor in front of Chongzhen handed over a total of more than 70 million taels of amazing wealth before the torture of the army.

It can be seen that these ministers have already emptied the country's wealth and ignored the people's livelihood. It is no wonder that Chongzhen said that all civil officials should be killed before he hanged himself.

"If I have a chance, I really want to meet this King Chuang!"

Looking at the devastated land, Wu Yu couldn't help but murmured.

"What King Chuang?"

Wu Yu's mumbling still couldn't hide from the ears of Lu Xiaofeng who had been secretly paying attention, but how could he have never heard of this name, and he dared to call himself King Chuang, obviously that person was either a bandit or a traitor.

"Sorry, I was a little distracted and talked nonsense. Brother Lu, don't worry about it. Let's rush to Yumen Pass as soon as possible."

Realizing that he had let the cat out of the bag, Wu Yu quickly changed the subject and tried to bring the attention of several people back to the issue of saving people.

Lu Xiaofeng knew that the other party was deliberately changing the subject, but he didn't ask much, but secretly wrote down the two words King Chuang, thinking that he would pay close attention after the rescue operation was over.for a moment.

Unfortunately, his idea was doomed to fail, because the name of King Chuang had not yet appeared. It would not be until the first year of Chongzhen, that is, two years later, that the first generation King Chuang, Gao Yingxiang, would officially use this title.

The three people who had regained their composure continued on their journey. Soon, they left Shaanxi and officially entered Shanxi. It was only two days before the agreed meeting place, Yumen Pass.

Two days later, the three people who had traveled all the way finally arrived at their destination, but they came earlier and Chu Liuxiang and the others had not arrived yet.

It was still early, so the three of them did not wait. They first found the restaurant of the Hua family in this area, and then they dispersed after agreeing on a time to meet again.

Let’s not talk about the other two people, but Wu Yu planned to have a good stroll.

However, after the stroll, Wu Yu was greatly disappointed, because compared with the Yumen Pass that was developed into a scenic spot in later generations and was crowded with people, the Yumen Pass at this time was really too desolate.

Yes, it was desolate. Not to mention pedestrians, there were few soldiers stationed here. You have to know that this is Yumen Pass, the western gate of the Ming Dynasty. Such an important gate has only a few soldiers stationed here. How much better can other borders be?

But after thinking about it carefully, he understood that the Ming Dynasty was notoriously poor now. It was almost impossible to pay the military salaries. Some places had even owed salaries for several years, but the court still had no intention of paying them. It was not that they didn't want to, but that they really didn't want to.

Because the money of the Ming Dynasty had long gone into the pockets of those civil officials, nobles, gentry and landlords, while the emperor, as the master of the Ming Dynasty, was so poor that he couldn't even pay the military salaries.

And this is not just happening now. This situation had already begun to appear in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

Why was Emperor Wanli stingy? Because he was really afraid of being poor. Even though the civil and military officials had repeatedly requested that he take out part of the treasury to help the local areas because of the financial constraints of the court, they were all rejected by Emperor Wanli without exception.

It's not that he didn't want to, but he knew too well the nature of those civil servants. Even if he was really willing to allocate money and grain from the treasury, no more than 10% would actually reach the local level, and the rest would be embezzled by those officials. So it's not that the Ming Dynasty had no money, but that the emperor had no money and the treasury had no money.