The end of the military era

Page 239

"But these nine feudal towns are actually just a mess. If the Zhou family attacks Yannan Town this time, they may not even send troops to the Beijiedu Mansion to rescue them.

And I still have some friendship with Zhou Rui, even if Zhou's Bank swallows Yan's bank, it will not be too ugly to eat. "

On May 1543, 5 in Tianyuan, the Fengwu Army under the jurisdiction of the Zhou family directly dispatched 15 infantry divisions, and the troops were divided into three groups to attack Nan Town.

Feng Zhihuan, the Southern Jiedu envoy, saw that Zhou Jiazhen sent troops, and immediately asked for help from the other three feudal towns of the Southwest Alliance and the five feudal towns of the Northwest Alliance.

At the same time, Feng Zhihuan began to dispatch troops from the direct line of Yannan Jiedu Mansion, as well as troops from various families in Yanan Town, to block the three-way army of Fengwu Army.

However, to the surprise of the outside world, the other three feudal towns of the Southwest Alliance, including Beibei Town, which has been allied with Beinan Town for many years, only strongly condemned the Zhou family's invasion of Yannan Town, but never participated in the war. mean.

The five feudal towns of the Northwest Alliance suggested that the Zhou family and Yan Nan Jiedu Mansion should sit down and have a talk, not to fight each other because of a gold mine.

The other three feudal towns of the Southwest Alliance and the five feudal towns of the Northwest Alliance did not send troops, so it is foreseeable what will happen to the south town.

But no one thought that the battle in Yannan Town would end so quickly.

After Fengwu Army's three-way army invaded Yanan Town, many direct-line troops of Yanan Jiedu Mansion turned their backs one after another.

As a result, it took less than 10 days for the Fengwu army to capture Zeyang City, the capital of Yannan Town.

Immediately, the major families in Nanzhen expressed their willingness to submit to the Zhou family, and even many families expressed their willingness to hand over the family's army to the Zhou family and give up their military power.

Zhou Rui put the telegram in his hand on the table, and then said to Zhou Xiaorong: "I didn't expect the Yan family to have such a great influence in Yanan Town. The 5 infantry divisions and 4 mixed brigades of the direct line troops of Yanan Jiedu Mansion, Under the Yan family's arrangement, they all chose to surrender without a fight."

Zhou Xiaorong said: "The Yan Family Bank is almost equivalent to the purses of Yannan Town and Beibei Town, and it can be said to be deeply rooted in the two towns, so it is not surprising to be able to do such an operation.

Marshal, will you still send troops to Beibei Town next? "

Zhou Rui said with a smile: "At first, I was worried about the Southwest Alliance and the Northwest Alliance, but from what happened in Nanzhen, we can see how unreliable the so-called alliance is.

Now that there is an internal response from the Yan family, there is no reason to let Beizhen go! "

Chapter 2 pension

On May 1543, 5 in Tianyuan, 27 infantry divisions of the Zhenwu Army and 4 infantry divisions of the Fengwu Army under the jurisdiction of the Zhou family suddenly invaded Beibei Town without warning, and the soldiers pointed directly at Beibei Jiedu. Several cities controlled by the government.

Seeing that the Zhou family extended their hands to Beibei Town again, the remaining two towns in the southwest region, Boting Town and Deyang Town, finally couldn't sit still.

It can be said that Feng Zhihuan, the Jiedu envoy of Yanan, did it on his own when your Zhou family sent troops to Weinan Town.

But Beibei Town did not provoke your Zhou family. Even if your Zhou family sent troops to attack Nannan Town, not a single soldier from the direct line troops of Jiedu Mansion of Beibei and the troops of the major families of Beibei Town entered Yannan Town. .

Your Zhou family invaded Beibei Town at this time, obviously planning to annex the entire southwest region.

Immediately, Boting Jiedu Mansion and Deyang Jiedu Mansion immediately began to assemble the troops of this town, preparing to enter Beibei Town to participate in the battle.

However, after the troops of the direct descendants of Bei Jiedu's mansion turned their backs one after another, the army of the Zhou family entered the territory of Beibei Town, and it took only a week to capture Zeyang City, the capital of Beibei Town. He was also defeated and captured.

Boting Jiedu Mansion and Deyang Jiedu Mansion saw that the Zhou family was effortless, so they made Bei Bei Jiedu envoy Wang Yongxing a prisoner, and immediately suspended the plan to send troops.

Boting Jiedu Envoy Ma Sheng and Deyang Jiedu Envoy Xia Shijie were already stupefied at this time. The military strength of the Nan Jiedu Mansion and the Bei Bei Jiedu Mansion were both higher than their two Jiedu Mansions. As a result, the direct line troops of the Nan Jiedu Mansion and the Bei Jiedu Mansion all surrendered when facing Zhou's army.

This made Ma Sheng of Boting Jiedu and Xia Shijie of Deyang Jiedu couldn't help worrying whether the generals leading the troops under their command were also bought by Zhou's family money?

So the two Jiedu envoys immediately began to investigate the direct troops under the opponent, and even arrested many suspected officers.

Originally, the five Jiedu mansions in the northwest region also wanted to join the war when they saw the Zhou family sending troops to Beibei Town, but the Beibei Jiedu mansion was defeated too quickly, and the five Jiedu mansions in the northwest region also canceled their plan to send troops. plan.

After Zeyang City, the capital of Beibei Town, was conquered by Zhou's army, the major families in Beibei Town who were mobilizing for war suddenly didn't know what to do next.

The more than [-] descendants of the Beijiedu Mansion defected one after another, and even Wang Yongxing, the envoy of Beijiedu, became a prisoner of the Zhou family, making the major families in Beibei Town without a leader. Like some families in Nanzhen, they expressed their willingness to submit to the Zhou family and to hand over their own family's army.

After taking control of the Yannan Jiedu Mansion and the Beibei Jiedu Mansion, the Zhou family immediately began to confiscate the military power of the major families in the Yannan Town and the Beibei Town.

Facing the strength of the Zhou family, even some families were unwilling to hand over the army in their hands, but they had to grit their teeth and endure it.

The key point is that the Zhou family is too ruthless, if you don't hand over the military power, the Zhou family's army will directly fight over. At that time, let alone the military power, the whole family will be wiped out.

Although there were some twists and turns in the process of incorporating the armies of the major families in the Nanzhen and Beibei towns, by the end of July in 1543 Tianyuan, the Nanzhen and Beibei towns had all been owned by the Zhou family.

Zhou Rui's official positions include the Yannan Jiedushi and the Beibei Jiedushi, and the Weinan Town and the Beibei Town also started to set up the Yannan Army and the Beibei Army in accordance with the Zhou family's previous practice. .

And not long after the Zhou family sent troops to Beibei Town, the forbidden army of the Han and Tang Empires suddenly gathered millions of troops and invaded Jinggu Town in the northeast.

Jinggu Town, Zhongfang Town and Yongwei Town in the Northeast have already formed the Northeast Alliance. When the Imperial Guard invaded Jinggu Town, Zhongfang Jiedu Mansion and Yongwei Jiedu Mansion immediately stated that they would send troops to enter Participated in the war in Jinggu Town.

However, the troops from Zhongfang Town and Yongwei Town had not yet entered Jinggu Town, and the Imperial Guard mobilized another 20 infantry divisions to attack Zhongfang Town in three ways.

At this moment, something that shocked the outside world happened. Shuodong Town, the largest feudal town in the Han and Tang Empires, sent hundreds of thousands of troops into Yongwei Town.

You must know that the outside world has always believed that once the imperial court intends to annex Jinggu Town, Zhongfang Town, and Yongwei Town, Shuodong Town will inevitably send troops to prevent the imperial court from annexing these three towns.

But in the current situation, it seems that the imperial court and Shuodong Town have secretly negotiated to carve up Jinggu Town, Zhongfang Town and Yongwei Town together.

What's happening here?

In a study room in the Jiedu Mansion of Thirteen Towns in Ganyang City, Zhou Rui smiled and said to Yan Shaoqiu: "Boss Yan, thanks to the help of your Yan family this time, otherwise the Zhou family would not have annexed Yannan Township and Xibei Town."

Since Zhou Rui had two more official positions, the Jiedushi of the South and the Jiedushi of the Beibei, the Jiedu Mansion of the Eleven Towns became the Jiedu Mansion of the Thirteen Towns.

Yan Shaoqiu said in a respectful voice: "The commander-in-chief is too humble. With the current strength of the Zhou family, even without the help of our Yan family, those families in the south town and the north town of Yan will not be the commander-in-chief's opponent."

Zhou Rui went on to say: "Gong is merit, and I will never forget the merit of your Yan family this time.

I came here today to discuss with you about the Yan Family Bank.

Boss Yan must also know that among the various feudal towns of our Zhou family, the only bank or bank that can issue gold and silver notes is Zhou's Bank. "

Yan Shaoqiu hurriedly said: "Marshal, our Yan family is willing to unconditionally merge the Yan family bank into Zhou's Bank."

Zhou Rui waved his hand, "It is the general trend for Yan Family Bank to be merged into Zhou's Bank, but Zhou's Bank will not take it by force.

Boss Yan, do you think this is good? I will use 20.00% of the shares of Pingluan Gold Mine in exchange for the entire Yan Family Bank. "

When Yan Shaoqiu heard that Zhou Rui was going to exchange 20.00% of the shares of Pingluan Gold Mine for Yan's Bank, he couldn't help but get excited.

Although there are more than 30 billion silver coins in the treasuries of the Yan family bank, there are still hundreds of millions of silver coins in loans that have not been recovered.

However, taking into account the gold and silver notes issued by the Yan Family Bank, as well as the current fixed deposits, and some loans that have been irrecoverable, such as the 3 million silver coins that the Yan Family Bank lent to the Yuannan Jiedu Mansion, in fact, the Yan Family The bank is still short of hundreds of millions of silver coins.

Of course, if the value of the Yan Family Bank itself is included, the deficit of hundreds of millions of silver coins is nothing, and the entire Yan Family Bank is still very valuable.

However, no matter how valuable the current Yan Family Bank is, it should not be as valuable as the 20.00% shares of the Pingluan Gold Mine. You must know that the gold reserves of the Pingluan Gold Mine exceed 6 tons, and it is currently the fourth largest gold reserve in the world. mine.

Although Yan Shaoqiu was very interested in the 20.00% shares of Pingluan Gold Mine, he still insisted: "Marshal, our Yan family is sincere and willing to merge the Yan family bank into Zhou's Bank for free."

Zhou Rui said with a smile: "Boss Yan, just relying on the name of the Yan Family Bank, it can be worth hundreds of millions of silver coins, so don't talk about free money.