Beijing is now immersed in a festive atmosphere, with officials and people enjoying a rare holiday and delicacies that they usually don’t want to enjoy. Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, also took this opportunity to move around, hoping that the Minister of the Regent would understand his difficulties and agreed to withdraw his troops from Chongqing.

Although the court firmly disagreed with withdrawing troops from Chongqing at the beginning, after seeing Li Guoying repeatedly pleading hard, and analyzing the pros and cons of sticking to Chongqing for the court regardless of his moral integrity and identity, even the Empress Dowager and the Minister of the Administration were moved. Although he was very dissatisfied with Li Guoying's openly slashing the court's face and destroying the court's stage in the memorial, the Empress Dowager, after reading the memorial that Li Guoying begged to enter Beijing to report, he sighed to the officials on the left and right: "Li Guoying is still loyal."

Although Li Guoying was defeated as a victory, he tried his best to shirke responsibility, blame others and desperately exaggerate the enemy's losses after every defeat, unlike modern countries, the autocratic country's requirements for loyalty are very low. Just like in Deng Ming's Opium War in his previous life, Lin Zexu's memorial to Daoguang was also trying his best to conceal the news of defeat and use the Qing army's victory to make the emperor happy, resulting in Daoguang's ignorance of the combat effectiveness of the British army and the actual level of the Qing army. On the front line, he had already known nothing about the British army's combat effectiveness and the actual level of the Qing army.

When the army was defeated, Daoguang thought that the Qing army was moving from victory to a new victory. In modern countries, if the front-line commander did this, he would be sent to the military court. But in an autocratic country, even if Lin Zexu did this, he was still a loyal and good minister of Emperor Daoguang, because he did not completely turn black and white, did not call his brothers and brothers to the British commander, and did not send trucks of redemption expenses to the British camp while receiving the victory.

Under the chain of loyalty, the honor and disgrace of ministers and slaves are all dependent on the emperor. If the emperor is not happy, he will not be able to do his job. He will be replaced by colleagues who dare to lie and tell lies with his eyes open. A wise ruler is able to select people from the general lying ministers who can not only lie but also do things. The reason why Daoguang is a fool is that he bombarded Lin Zexu, who has a low degree of lying, but replaced him with people who are unscrupulous.

The Empress Dowager and the Minister of the Administration both entered Beijing from outside the pass, which was obviously more clear than Daoguang, who had lived in the Forbidden City since childhood. Although they had some opinions about Li Guoying, they could still realize that this person was available.

When he agreed to let Li Guoying come to Beijing to report the right, the Minister of Regent had already intentionally approved the withdrawal of troops from Chongqing. However, the court made great efforts to reinforce Sichuan, allocated a large amount of food and salary, and also drew a huge amount of manpower from Shanxi. Who would bear the responsibility in the future? Since Li Guoying is so loyal, there is no need to find another person. The Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi returned to Beijing to report the right. The court agreed to withdraw the troops out of trust in the front-line leaders who are most in-depth in the actual situation and agreed to withdraw the troops. It is naturally wise to be aware of the bride's approval for the trust of the front-line leaders who are most in charge of the actual situation.

The act; and if the princes take advantage of the situation in the future, they can also push the responsibility to Li Guoying, saying that the court's decision to support Sichuan is not wrong, and the situation in Sichuan is not small but big, but Li Guoying is greedy for life and fears death, and in order to save his life, he actually entered Beijing to report the matter. The court just did not investigate for a moment, and believed the words of this dog slave who looked loyal and treacherous, which ruined the great situation in Sichuan.

When he came to Beijing, Li Guoying also guessed the first half of the story. In his opinion, this was a manifestation of the court's importance to his opinions. Since the court was willing to listen to his voice, it should not be difficult to convince the court to give up Chongqing. When he first arrived in Beijing, the tone of the regent ministers also showed obvious loosening, and no one planned to be stubborn on the Chongqing issue. The reason why it was impossible to form a resolution immediately was that the court wanted to take it slowly, reveal the news a little, and then suddenly do the matter - wasn't it that Yu Qi, who was about to deal with Shandong's rebellion, even the excuses were ready-made. When the battle was halfway, he said that the troops were tight, and temporarily gave up support to Chongqing for the sake of the safety of the capital. After the Shandong chaos was eliminated, everyone pretended not to remember to let the army return to Yucheng.

Li Guoying was a loyal minister of the Qing court. Since he heard such hints from the regent ministers, he would wait with peace of mind and never urge him, so as not to prevent the Empress Dowager and the regent minister from coming to Taiwan.

But the storm has gradually changed in the past two months. As Jade comes to Beijing, the Manchu Taijun in Beijing knows that there is an important town in the northwest called Chongqing. Sichuan Governor Gao Mingzhan is busy fighting and can seize many treasures in the battle with the rebels.

Since Chongqing has become the focus of the young and old men of the Eight Banners, the Minister of the Regent began to look around and talk about him, and no longer mentioned the withdrawal of troops. Instead, he rushed to Chongqing by letter one by one, eight hundred miles. Every time the envoys came back, not only did princes and ministers often have a share, but even messengers who ran errands could make a fortune. With jade and gems on the wrists of the princesses, or were grabbed by the Manchu Taijun to enjoy, Li Guoying found that he was becoming less and less popular in the Beijing officialdom.

Today, Li Guoying was waiting outside Lord Ebilong's mansion early in the morning. He heard that the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi came to congratulate the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The Minister of Responsible did not let him wait for a long time. Ebilong's housekeeper also went to the door to greet him, and took Li Guoying's gift list with both hands. After quickly glanced at the gift list, the housekeeper's face remained silent and smiled and led Li Guoying to the door of Ebilong's study.

After paying tribute to the regent minister, Li Guoying quickly got to the point and began to ask indirectly when the evacuation of Chongqing's defenders could be officially approved. Ebilong immediately smiled and looked at Li Guoying seriously: "In the past three years, your governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the court has invested a lot of military pay in Chongqing. I asked several times if there is a solution to the self-sufficiency of the Sichuan army, even if it is slightly reduced to the burden on the court, but you can never come up with a solution."

"This..." Li Guoying secretly complained in his heart. It is unrealistic to rely on military garrisons to achieve self-sufficiency in the garrison. Tens of thousands of troops need 100,000 strong men to farm. In addition to eating, the army also needs weapons and armor. If all of these are to be produced by themselves, a large number of craftsmen and miners will further increase the demand for military farming. In order to protect military farming and mines, more troops will need more military farming. It is okay for one or two years. If the victory is far away, these people have to dress in addition to eating, and have wives and children. Deng Ming is also eyeing him. At the beginning, the Ming Dynasty believed in the lies of the Liao people who raised the Liao people, thinking about making Liaodong self-sufficiency, and finally being dragged down.

Emperor Chongzhen was born in the inner palace and believed Yuan Chonghuan without understanding the world, but Li Guoying felt that Ebilong could not understand this truth.

"This is Gao Mingzhan's latest memorial, I copied it out." Ebilong threw a note to Li Guoying.

The governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi hurriedly picked it up, opened it and took a look, and screamed in his heart: "It's bitter."

In an urgent letter from Beijing to Chongqing a few years ago, the issue of military expenditure was raised again. Gao Mingzhan said that western Sichuan was full of jade and ivory. As long as they were provided with enough weapons and armor, the Qing army could plunder Deng Ming's mine while fighting with Deng Ming and traffic the seized stones back to the mainland for part of military expenditure.

Li Guoying felt that Gao Mingzhan might not have realized what impact his words would have on the court's strategy. Li Guoying knew clearly how Gao Mingzhan came from the city of Chongqing. He wanted to drag Gao Mingzhan from Chongqing to his eyes and cursed: Sichuan doesn't even have elephants. Do the ivory everywhere grow from the ground? Can ivory be dug out of your mine?

However, Li Guoying certainly did not dare to tell the truth to the Minister of Respondents, and what's worse was that Gao Mingzhan had witnesses. In the twelfth lunar month, a group of ivory-carved Guanyin statues flowed into Beijing, with a vivid face and were sold out by dignitaries. Such a small thing was also fryed for one or two gold.

After seeing this thing as valuable, Beijing asked again about the source of ivory. While Gao Mingzhan's memorial with ivory everywhere in western Sichuan was sent to Beijing, Yuan Jiawenbi, Hu Wenke and a Niulu who were stationed in Chongqing to defend the Eight Banners also arrived in Beijing. On the note from Ebilong, in addition to the excerpts of Gao Mingzhan's memorial, there were also testimony from these three people.

Niu Lu said: Sichuan thieves all have ivory, jade and gems on them. This thing is like vegetables sold on the streets in western Sichuan, so everyone will carry them as amulets. In short, when fighting with Sichuan thieves, even if there is no beheading, there will be jade and ivory seizures. Chongqing's goods are absolutely legitimate. It is reasonable for soldiers to sell spoils, and the court also saved a reward for beheading.

Hu Wenke said: There are indeed not many elephants in Sichuan (Li Guoying almost bit her teeth when she saw this. There are not many, but there are not many elephants in Tibet at all!), but the elephants in Tibet are all seas, and in the distant Lhasa, the female elephants there have four teeth, the male elephants are all seven, eight long, and they also change their teeth every year. As for jade, people who have been to Tibet know that there are no bricks to cast the city there, and the jade walls and gems are used to build dams.

The key is that Tibetans will die from dry stools if they don’t eat Chinese tea. Nine out of ten Tibetans die like this, so they cry all day long and shouted to exchange ivory, jade and gems for tea in the hands of western Sichuan people. This has been the case since ancient times, and it has never changed for thousands of years. Hu Wenke’s testimony mainly explains the rationality of Niu Lu’s statement, so that the court can understand why gems, jade and ivory are at the same price as green vegetables in western Sichuan.

Yuan Jiawenbi did not reveal any more information. But on the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, Yuan Jiawenbi met with an envoy of the Han Eight Banners sent back to Beijing after the New Year in Chongqing, and suddenly remembered that there was another important situation that needed to be reported to the auxiliary ministers. According to him, when the thieves in western Sichuan trained recruits, they also had to train gun skills? Their training method was to stab a white ivory ball with a wooden gun to hit another colored ivory ball with the purpose of hitting the color ball into a small hole - through this training to train the recruits' accurate head of the gun, it can be seen how rich the ivory in Xichuan is.

It’s okay to forget Niu Lu’s report. Li Guoying knew that he had to hide the truth. Although Hu Wenke’s report was outrageous, Li Guoying was not very sure whether there were elephants in Tibet. Besides, he could understand that this was Hu Wenke to help the former make a lie. But for what Yuan Jiawenbi said, Li Guoying really wanted to ask: “Did you say storytelling and then change your career to join the army? Who can be rich enough to make a ball as a toy? You dare to tell such an absurd story!”
Chapter completed!