Chapter 1648

"Old Master is truly vigorous and energetic; it is truly not false."

Su Zixuan, who had experienced human affairs for the first time and was satisfied, drank chicken soup and gave sincere praise and heartfelt recognition.

"How does that poem go? 'The spring night is short and the sun rises high; from now on, the monarch will not attend the morning court.' Others also said, 'Pies won't fall from the sky.' What do you want?"

"Although the previous assassination had nothing to do with me, it was me who came to numb you first. This young woman has nothing to offer, so I can only use myself to apologize to you, Old Master."

Su Zixuan smiled, "Of course, more importantly, you have a heroic spirit, courage, and strategy; you are a rare man in the world. I, Su Zixuan, can be considered naturally beautiful, and naturally, I admire you. Could it be that you think I am not worthy, Old Master?"

"Average."

"Old Master is truly heartless; you don't acknowledge the account after sleeping with me?"

"It's mutual consent; what account is there to acknowledge?" Wang Yan smiled and shook his head, "You and I are already so familiar; it's too boring to go around in circles. It's better to speak directly."

"Good! Then let's speak directly!"

Su Zixuan straightened her sitting posture, "Then can you tell me how you view the Manchu Qing, and how you view the Heavenly Kingdom?"

"Neither is good."

"Not good?"

"Not good!"

"Then who is good? You?"

Wang Yan smiled and didn't speak.

Su Zixuan's eyes widened: "You also want to rebel and become Emperor?"

"I didn't think about it, just self-preservation. Right now, I only have a few thousand troops, and your Heavenly Kingdom treats me as a thorn in your side; what about when I grow even stronger? You must know that now there is chaos everywhere. Before you surrounded Huoshan, in just those two months, more than ten thousand people ran into Huoshan County. I want to earn more money, so I have to recruit more people, and more people mean more soldiers. If I station tens of thousands of soldiers here, can the Heavenly Kingdom tolerate me?

The Qing court is the same principle. Now that you two groups are fighting, I take the opportunity to gain benefits and develop and grow. By the end, no matter who wins, you won't let me go. So it's not a question of whether I rebel or not; at this point, even if I don't want to rebel, I have to. Otherwise, what will the people under my command eat and drink? They will push me to rebel.

And if I don't rebel, even if I surrender, I will be dismantled bit by bit until I have no power left, and then I will be beheaded and die."

Song Jiang didn't understand the source of power, and then he betrayed the source, which finally led to the lack of trust from above and the betrayal from below, and then he died.

Being a person requires moderation, but moderation is not retreating without a bottom line. In some things, retreating is not wisdom; it is looking for death.

Wang Yan has rich experience in being a big brother, and he has an intuitive feeling for the gathering of power that his subordinates want to pursue for progress. It's like greedy merchants longing for big business, greedy officials hoping for political achievements, young soldiers longing for merit, and chaotic bandits hoping for chaos in the world...

Su Zixuan understood Wang Yan's meaning, and she said: "Whether it is the Heavenly Kingdom or the Manchu Qing, they are destined not to tolerate you; you are destined to rebel."

"The summary is not bad; that is the meaning." Wang Yan smiled and nodded, "So in the future, I will be playing both sides, earning silver from both sides, and waiting for a suitable opportunity to raise the banner."

"When is a suitable opportunity? And what opportunity is more suitable than now?"

"Still inciting me? You should just give up this idea; I have my own plans. At this time, the difference between raising the banner and not raising it is not small. Look at Xiang and E; your Western Expedition this time was to fight for these two places, but they are not easy to deal with either. They are not banner soldiers, not Green Standard Army, but soldiers recruited with heavy money. It is not so easy for the Heavenly Kingdom to sweep Jiang Nan in one go."

"Then you should also understand that playing both sides means neither side is at ease."

"So what if they are not at ease? The Heavenly Kingdom is not at ease, but am I not still living well here?" Wang Yan ate meat and drank wine in large mouthfuls, "I thought you understood how I walked to today step by step, but now it seems you still don't understand. Who do you think I relied on for help? Wrong, from beginning to end, no one helped us. Instead, there were constantly people wanting to harm us.

The wealthy families pretended to be bandits, the security firm swung knives to snatch business, the officials ate, took, and demanded, and wouldn't do things without silver, and wanted more after giving silver. You also inserted people under my command to spy on news, and even assassinated me several times.

In the final analysis, we rely on strength, on having big fists. If not for this, no matter how well you talk, who would pay attention to you? Want to find a backer? Don't talk about entering the doors of those big figures; even approaching them is a crime."

Looking at Su Zixuan, who was silent, Wang Yan continued, "You must know that conspiracies and tricks are hard to achieve big things. Because only the weak side will think of using conspiracies, hoping to eliminate some key people and influence some things to level the gap between the two sides."

"It seems the Old Master still has resentment toward the Heavenly Kingdom."

"No, I am warning you. I am not afraid of being assassinated, but on that face of yours, there is clearly written some unspeakable secret."

Su Zixuan smiled, "Then tell me, Old Master, what unspeakable secret does this young woman have?"

"You are so intent on inciting me to raise the banner and rebel, which means you have dissatisfaction with the Manchu Qing. You, at first glance, are a young lady from a wealthy family who hasn't had her feet bound, and you must have been spoiled since childhood. It is estimated that your family did something wrong and was cleaned up by the Emperor, and you luckily ran out, thinking about taking revenge for your family. It's nothing new."

Su Zixuan didn't deny it, which was considered a default. She turned and asked: "Then tell me, what should I do?"

"Wait until I develop, and naturally, I will overthrow the Manchu Qing. Why think so much about messy things? It's just doing business, occupying more resources, raising more people, and the snowball will naturally roll bigger and bigger, and it will be out of control."

"If it were truly as easy as you say, how could only you, Old Master Wang, have reached this point in the world?"

"Of course it's not easy; they always fall halfway. Some people don't dare to use knives, don't dare to hit people, and even more don't dare to kill. Some people fear authority and kneel and bow to those who are rich and powerful, unable to raise the heart of resistance.

Some people lack wisdom, don't know who to kill first and who to kill later, don't know who is good to them and who they are good to. Some people are greedy and are bought off with just some money and low-level official positions. You tell me, how can I let them continue? Can you blame them for not being able to?"

Wang Yan waved his hand, "Go back and discuss with the Heavenly Kingdom; I want coal, iron, copper, and other mineral raw materials. You are widely connected, so you can definitely get them over. You don't even need to deliver the goods; my own brothers from the security firm will go. Wait until I can produce hundreds of thousands of guns a year, then I will have everything."

"Did you really research it yourself?"

"Don't ask silly questions. Things that even foreigners don't have; isn't this self-evident?"

Su Zixuan drank chicken soup and pondered for a moment, saying: "Have you heard of Li Wantang in the Jingcheng?"

"I have escorted many of his goods."

"He has a very good relationship with Prince Gong Yixin and is one of the top merchants in the north. He should be able to get you many of the things you need. Go contact him later. Also, there are firearms; the Manchu Qing will definitely want to buy from you too. Selling to Li Wantang and letting him get some benefits is good for both of us."

"Being able to let me earn silver and develop and grow is a good thing. If others can get benefits, that's even better."

"Good, I'll talk to him later, and you can contact each other. As for the Heavenly Kingdom, I'll discuss it with them later."

Wang Yan had no objection, so these things were decided, and both sides cooperated to get rich, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results...

Su Zixuan stayed in Huoshan County for half a month and spent a period of happy and comfortable days with Wang Yan, and then went to work for the Heavenly Kingdom.

Her throwing herself into his arms seemed more like she had poured a lot of expectations into Wang Yan after contacting him for such a period of time.

The more she understood, the more she discovered Wang Yan's ability; the more she contacted, the more she discovered Wang Yan's charm...

This battle in Huoshan County spread naturally as the soldiers who went out to do business reached various places.

The Qing court was naturally not ignorant of the movements of the Heavenly Kingdom. Those in the ruling class, especially those who were particularly concerned about their own lives, were also quite sensitive to various news.

They had long known about the Heavenly Kingdom's Northern Expedition and Western Expedition. Anyone with a brain knew that the Heavenly Kingdom couldn't sit idly by while Huoshan existed, and they hadn't heard the news of Wang Yan's surrender, so the two sides must fight; this was the consensus of the people.

But what they didn't expect was that the Heavenly Kingdom's more than twenty thousand people really couldn't take Huoshan. That wasn't all; even in such a situation, Huoshan divided its troops to cross the Dabie Mountains, raided Anqing, and destroyed the Taiping Army's supply line.

There is a saying that to judge a person, you must look at their opponent. As the mainstay of the Heavenly Kingdom and an important hero who had fought all the way to this day, Li Cheng's ability was recognized.

It didn't matter that Wang Yan didn't have such a record of large-scale army battles; Li Cheng had it. In Li Cheng's hands, the force of more than twenty thousand could be said to be invincible. Under such circumstances, Li Cheng attacked a small Huoshan but couldn't get in.

And he couldn't even beat the Huoshan people into the deep mountains.

Wang Yan building a bandit den in Huoshan was already famous; after all, he factually controlled the entire Huoshan, and he also openly recruited people, without any intention of hiding it.

This made the people of the world look sideways. Especially relative to the Taiping Army's invincibility so far, the battle of Huoshan made them look a bit prominent.

Even though the more prominent Taiping Army's Northern Expedition unit won every battle and had already fought to Hebei, and the masters in the Jingcheng were already burning their butts, they still turned their eyes to Huoshan.

After all, they always have to counterattack, right?

Especially hearing that Wang Yan had more advanced firearms in his hands, it was precisely because the firearms were more advanced that he could withstand the Taiping Army's attack with fewer firearms and fewer people...

"Hehe, greetings, Old Master. This subordinate greets the Old Master."

Lü Mocheng requested an audience for many days and finally saw Wang Yan, who was fishing by the river and grilling fish on a stone slab to drink with wine.

It was already autumn, and the sky was overcast again, often raining wetly. Wang Yan didn't have many entertainment activities, and there wasn't much entertainment at this time. There was a river on the side, so he occasionally came to fish and relax.

However, the current social environment was not good. Outside, people had started eating people, the mountains were bald, and the fish in the water naturally wouldn't be much better. He felt it was strenuous just fishing.

"What is the Great Master looking for this commoner for?"

"Old Master, don't mock this subordinate. This subordinate is wholeheartedly thinking for the Old Master. When fighting the Taiping Army earlier, this subordinate even picked up a gun and killed two people."

Wang Yan used chopsticks to pick up fish meat and drank mellow yellow wine: "It sounds like I forced you to go to the battlefield. Great Master, your life in this Huoshan is so comfortable, with food and drink. Don't you know how precious grain is now? People outside have already started eating people."

"It's all the Old Master's care; this subordinate is deeply grateful and will forever remember the Old Master's kindness."

"Sit down. You are also a Grade Seven County Magistrate, representing the face of the Qing court. What does it look like to be so servile?"

"Thank you, Old Master, for granting a seat."

"Let's have two drinks together."

"Thank you, Old Master."

Lü Mocheng seemed very excited, doing the surface work perfectly, drinking with Wang Yan, taking a bite of fish meat and savoring it for several minutes, praising him eloquently, and with just that bite of fish meat, he drank six cups of wine himself.

Wang Yan couldn't help but shake his head: "Great Master, are you greedy for wine?"

"The Old Master's wine is different; it's all stained with immortal energy. This subordinate has such a good opportunity, so naturally, I have to drink a few more cups. Please don't blame me, Master."

"You flatter me quite well. How come you are still a County Magistrate at over forty?"

"To tell you the truth, it's all because this subordinate's family assets are not rich, and I am unwilling to exploit the common people too much when serving as an official in the local area. Serving as an official in this Great Qing court without silver is truly difficult to move an inch. Speaking of it, it's all bitter tears..."

After chatting for a while, watching Wang Yan catch another fish, Lü Mocheng praised him again, and while Wang Yan was processing the fish's internal organs and preparing to fry the fish on the stone slab, he finally talked about serious business.

"This subordinate is here today to bring good news to the Old Master."

"You said the same thing last time."

"This time it's real good news." Lü Mocheng was not embarrassed at all, "The Emperor personally issued an edict, enfeoffing the Old Master as the Jianwei General, building the Wan Army himself, and the Old Master is the Wan Army Regional Commander, to clear out the Taiping rebels."

"Where do you think the joy is?"

"Old Master, although the Jianwei General is a virtual title, it is also a Grade One official. And letting the Old Master build the Wan Army himself and be the Wan Army Regional Commander is giving the Old Master the legitimate power. The Imperial Court enfeoffs the name, and the soldiers in the Old Master's hands are the tools. Both name and tools are in the Old Master's hands, and it is a chaotic world today; why should the Old Master worry about not achieving great things?"

Lü Mocheng's words were meaningful; he wanted to rely on Wang Yan and be Wang Yan's military advisor.

Of course, whether it's true or false, no one knows.

Wang Yan turned the sizzling fish meat on the stone slab: "What use is the name to me? If I don't have a name, I won't do things? Then how did the thousands of people under my command come about? Do I need the Qing court's approval? Instead, I took such a name, without any real benefits, and still have a rift with the Heavenly Kingdom. Although it doesn't matter if there is a rift, it's always better not to have one."

Looking at the County Magistrate Great Master who wanted to speak but couldn't, Wang Yan shook his head with amusement. The name of the Imperial Court is naturally important, but at this time, for him, it is useless; he doesn't need it at all.

"Same as last time, they are treating me like a fool. And same as last time, reply; it must be conveyed in place."

Lü Mocheng nodded in resignation, speechless...

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