Chapter 842 Xu Zhaojie’s forbearance!

As if remembering something, An Miaoyi continued to ask:
“What’s the current situation with Jiang Yuyan…”

Facing An Miaoyi's question, Qiqige thought for a while and said:
"Your Excellency has approved Rishengchang Bank to enter the Qilu market. It is said that Jiang Yuyan has met with Qilu Governor Sun Jing'an before and confirmed the cooperation intention of both parties. Now that you have approved it, if nothing unexpected happens, they will reach a cooperation agreement soon!"

Upon hearing the news, An Miaoyi's expression remained calm, except for a hint of strangeness in her eyes.

The great success of Rishengchang Bank in Hebei and Henan also attracted a lot of attention within the Fengwu Army. Officials from all over the country realized the huge power behind this matter and were actively working on it, wanting to set up similar banks in various places to use private savings to develop the economy and people's livelihood.

The reason why An Miaoyi attacked Jiang Yuyan was not only because she hated Jiang Yuyan, but there were deeper reasons as well.

With the help of Rishengchang Bank, Murong Yuliang's political achievements in Hebei and Henan were very impressive, much better than expected. This also allowed Murong Yuliang to wipe out the previous decline caused by the corruption case and became quite famous within the Fengwu Army.

If Murong Yuliang was proud, then An Miaoyi would naturally be uncomfortable with it. However, An Miaoyi also knew that although Ye Mingsheng allowed certain internal disagreements and struggles, he would never allow the two sides to trip up each other and hold each other back.

Whoever dares to cross the red line will have to bear Ye Mingsheng’s thundering wrath······················

Knowing how powerful An Miaoyi was, she naturally didn't dare to cross the red line, but she was also unwilling to let Murong Yuliang continue to steal the limelight.

So she just wanted to sow discord between Murong Yuliang and Jiang Yuyan. Through some channels, she learned that in order to pursue political achievements, Murong Yuliang had been constantly asking for money from Rishengchang Bank, causing Rishengchang's cash flow to be very tight, and cash flow is the lifeblood of a bank.

Once there is a problem with the cash flow of the bank, causing panic among the people and a run on the bank, it will be a fatal blow to the bank. Jiang Yuyan is also aware of this problem and has discussed it with Murong Yuliang, but Murong Yuliang, who is pursuing political achievements, does not care about it and says that Rishengchang Bank must cooperate with the government unconditionally.

After discovering this, An Miaoyi began to make a fuss about it. While Jiang Yuyan was in Yijing, she quietly reported the matter to the Attendant's Office, and then used the Attendant's Office to inform Ye Mingsheng.

Things turned out just as she had imagined. Ye Mingsheng took the matter very seriously and gave Murong Yuliang an order, telling him not to exhaust all the resources but to pursue long-term sustainable development.

In this case, even if Jiang Yuyan didn't take the initiative to tell on the spies, I believe this is also yellow mud falling into the crotch, it's shit if not shit!

Murong Yuliang must have felt that Jiang Yuyan was using Ye Mingsheng to pressure him, and conflicts and estrangements between the two sides naturally arose························
Not only that, An Miaoyi, who had the leverage over Murong Shengwu, also forced Murong Qingwu to deal with Jiang Yuyan. Murong Qingwu also saw through An Miaoyi's little thoughts, but because the leverage over her second brother was in An Miaoyi's hands, she was helpless and could only ask An Miaoyi to join in the fight.

With these two tricks, although An Miaoyi would not be optimistic that Jiang Yuyan would completely turn against the Murong family, the cooperation between them would certainly not be as harmonious as before.

Just as An Miaoyi was thinking, Qiqige beside her spoke up again:

"Madam, there is news from the Attendant Department that the Lord is currently secretly investigating some merchants in Qi and Lu!"

As soon as these words came out, An Miaoyi's interest was immediately aroused and she asked:
"Do you know what it is?"

Qiqige shook her head and said:
"My Lord has entrusted this matter to the Internal Guards, and the Attendant Department doesn't know much!"

An Miaoyi also started to think after hearing this. Given Ye Mingsheng's personality, he attached great importance to the matters assigned to the Internal Security Bureau. Although she didn't know what Ye Mingsheng wanted to do by doing this, after thinking about it carefully, An Miaoyi believed that this matter must be related to the banknote number.

Although the Fengwu Army had strict supervision over the Piaohao, and most of the money from the Piaohao was either used to lend to farmers or to build infrastructure, the rate of return itself was not high····························

However, the transactions of the banknote exchange houses were worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Even if they did not eat such fat meat, some grease would remain after passing through their hands, not to mention the various hidden benefits brought by running a banknote exchange. Therefore, after seeing the success of Rishengchang Banknote Exchange, big merchants from all over the country were also ready to move, thinking of becoming the next Rishengchang.

In the past few months, large businesses across the country have been thinking of ways to get a quota to open a banknote exchange. However, Ye Mingsheng has never delegated the final review authority of the banknote exchange, so these people can only worry.

However, based on An Miaoyi's understanding of Ye Mingsheng, she felt that after Ye Mingsheng learned about the effects of the ticket number policy from Jiang Yuyan's report, he would gradually relax the approval of the ticket numbers.

So now Ye Mingsheng asked the internal security to inspect the big businesses in Qi and Lu. I'm afraid the matter is also related to this.

Thinking of this, An Miaoyi remembered an interesting thing. Jiang Yuyan had spent a lot of effort to get Ye Mingsheng to allow Rishengchang to go to Qilu to develop the market. The idea was probably to monopolize the market in Qilu.

And now if Ye Mingsheng allows other people to open banks in Qilu as well, that would be a bit unfair to Jiang Yuyan!

However, An Miaoyi was happy to see this happen. Thinking of this, she instructed Qiqige:

“Let them keep an eye on it! If the Lord chooses someone, send a message over immediately…”

"Yes!"

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Huainan, Jinghai "Kill! Serve Marshal Xu faithfully!"

"The commander-in-chief has ordered that the first person to climb the city wall will be promoted three levels and rewarded with two silver coins! Take Jinghai and plunder for three days!"

"Brothers! Charge!"

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Amid the shouts of slogans, countless soldiers of the Zhennan Army, under the cover of firearms, carried ladders and battering rams and launched a new round of charge.

On a heavily guarded watchtower in the Zhennan Army's battle formation, Xu Zhaojie, with a gloomy look on his face, was holding a telescope and observing the battle situation in the attack on Jinghai County.

Over the past two months, his plan had generally progressed smoothly. He had basically suppressed some opposition voices in Huainan, stopped the Fengwu Army from being stationed north of the Huai River, and seized half of the land of Jingchu.

Although the plan went smoothly, there was one thing that Xu Zhaojie had not expected. That was that Cao Huan, who had fled to Jinghai County, had become a powerful figure!
Honestly speaking, after killing the old man of the Cao family, these scattered soldiers of the Cao family were no longer a threat in Xu Zhaojie's eyes, so he boldly led the Zhennan Army to charge into Jingchu.

At this time, Cao Huan, who had fled to Jinghai, began to endure hardships.

On the one hand, Cao Huan pledged allegiance to the Fengwu Army and expressed his irreconcilable hatred for his father's murder. As long as he had a breath left in his life, he would fight Xu Zhaojie to the end.

Although the strategic focus of the Fengwu Army is currently on Yunbing, thinking about defeating the Luoan court, the Fengwu Army naturally does not want to let Xu Zhaojie continue to grow and develop...
Therefore, he was happy to see Cao Huan contain Xu Zhaojie in Jinghai, and therefore asked the Coordination Office to provide Cao Huan with internal intelligence of the Zhennan Army.

When in contact with the Fengwu Army, Cao Huan also followed his father's instructions before his death and actively contacted the Jiangnan side. He even went to Jiangnan in person to meet with Governor Lu Jianchao, explained the pros and cons to him, and expressed his willingness to stop the Zhennan Army in Jinghai and protect the pure land of Jiangnan.

Lu Jianchao was already worried that Xu Zhaojie would invade Jiangnan, so Cao Huan's move was exactly what he wanted, so he secretly provided Jinghai with a large amount of money, food, and firearms.

Obtaining intelligence from the Fengwu Army and obtaining money, food and firearms from Jiangnan, Cao Huan quickly grew stronger in Jinghai. He soon expanded his force to 20,000 and repelled the encirclement and suppression troops sent by Xu Zhaojie.

In this way, Cao Huan finally attracted the attention of Xu Zhaojie. This time, the elite troops of Zhennan Army were deployed, and Xu Zhaojie personally led an army of 50,000 in order to completely remove the thorn of Jianghai.

Although Cao Huan had defeated several encirclement and suppression troops, in Xu Zhaojie's heart, he still did not take Cao Huan seriously. In his eyes, Cao Huan was still the second-generation ancestor of the Cao family who had no ability and relied entirely on his father's influence. He was a complete traitor!
Therefore, Xu Zhaojie thought that this time, the expedition to Jinghai would be a piece of cake, and it would only take three to five days to complete, including the round trip time.

However, the reality gave Xu Zhaojie a ruthless struggle. As the saying goes, one should look at a man with new eyes after three days of absence. The death of his father, Old Master Cao, made Cao Huan grow a lot.

In order to be able to chop off Xu Zhaojie's head one day to avenge his father, Cao Huan did not waste a single day during his time in Jinghai, and was always thinking about increasing his strength. So at the beginning of this confrontation, Cao Huan and the Jinghai Army actually gained some advantages unintentionally.

But Xu Zhaojie is Xu Zhaojie after all. Just when Cao Huan, who had gained the upper hand, gained confidence and was ready to lead the Jinghai Army to fight Xu Zhaojie to the death, Xu Zhaojie defeated Cao Huan in a few strokes and he had to flee back to the city and defend it.

To be honest, if both sides set up their battle array in the field, Xu Zhaojie has a hundred ways to defeat the Jinghai Army. He will make Cao Huan die the way he wants him to!
However, during the siege, even Xu Zhaojie did not have many options and could only order his Zhennan Army soldiers to continue attacking.

Although Jinghai is only a county town, in the past few months, because it has been facing the threat of the Zhennan Army all the time, Cao Huan has tried his best to strengthen the city defense. Thanks to his efforts, the city defense of Jinghai has been greatly improved.

And because of the funding from Jiangnan, the firearms of the Jinghai Army were more advanced than those of the Zhennan Army. Although they were not equipped with heavy artillery, they had thousands of Weiyuan guns and dozens of improved tiger squat cannons. These firearms formed a firepower network, causing the Zhennan Army to suffer huge casualties with every step forward.

It was with these that Cao Huan was able to accomplish what seemed like an easy task to Xu Zhaojie, but he managed to attack for ten full days, incurring more than seven thousand casualties, and still failed to completely capture Jinghai.

Looking at the situation on the Jinghai city wall, the gloom in Xu Zhaojie's expression eased a little. Although the performance of Cao Huan and the Jinghai Army far exceeded his expectations, that was all!

Although they have blocked the fierce attack from their side in the past ten days, their consumption is also very great. Judging from the current siege situation, the Jinghai Army is already at the end of its strength. Even if they grit their teeth and hold on through today, there is no way they can survive tomorrow!

Thinking of this, Xu Zhaojie also began to think about what to do next. Recently, Xu Zhaojie has been ordering his men not to have military conflicts with the Fengwu Army...
Doing so does not mean that Xu Zhaojie is afraid of the Fengwu Army, but because Xu Zhaojie has clearly recognized the gap in strength between the two sides!

When he was unemployed at home during the court's southern tour, he was filled with disdain when he heard that Ye Mingsheng was getting better and better in Liaoyang. He thought that if he were sent out, he would definitely do better than Ye Mingsheng and would definitely overtake him and defeat Ye Mingsheng!
But the reality is that in the struggle with the Fengwu Army, although he briefly gained the upper hand, the final outcome was often ended in his miserable defeat.

And now Ye Mingsheng doesn't even have to deal with him with all his strength. He only needs to send a small force to make him exhausted. If it were anyone else, they would probably be crushed by this feeling of powerlessness, but Xu Zhaojie didn't believe it. He never thought that Ye Mingsheng was better than him in personal ability.

Xu Zhaojie only thought that Ye Mingsheng was luckier than him, as he had entered the game earlier and had the upper hand. If he had also come to the local area and started to develop that year, he would definitely do better than Ye Mingsheng. It is even possible that he had already made Ye Mingsheng's head into his chamber pot by then!

Although he would never submit to Ye Mingsheng, Xu Zhaojie would eventually have to bow his head in the face of reality. He knew that if he made a high profile now and attracted the attention of the Fengwu Army, he would be completely finished. The current Zhennan Army could not withstand the thundering attack of the Fengwu Army...

Therefore, at this time, you must keep a low profile and try not to conflict with the Fengwu Army. It would be best to let the Fengwu Army ignore you!

As the saying goes, when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits. When the Fengwu Army and the Luoan court fight, one of them is bound to be injured. It is better for me to sit back and reap the benefits!
(End of this chapter)