"There is no vassal king in Qufu!"

Although Liu Zongmin did not have much education, he was very familiar with the situation of the Ming Dynasty court.

"There were six princes in Shandong during the Ming Dynasty. The prince of Qi was granted a fiefdom in Qingzhou Prefecture, but was abolished during the Yongle period. The prince of Han rebelled, and he and his twelve sons were all executed by Zhu Zhanji, and the lineage of the prince of Han was cut off from then on."

"The fief of King Jing was in Yizhou, but he was abolished during the Jiajing period because he had no sons."

"The fief of the King of De was in Dezhou. In the 12th year of Chongzhen, the Jiannu invaded the south and the King of De, Zhu Youshu, and his family were captured. In the 13th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youshu's younger brother, Zhu Youli, succeeded him as the King of De."

"The fief of King Heng is in Qingzhou, and the fief of King Lu is in Yanzhou."

"If the emperor is interested in the wealth of these princes, why not attack Qingzhou or Dezhou instead?"

Liu Zongmin knew that Li Zicheng was short of money, and if he wanted to get a large amount of money in a short period of time, he could only attack the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty.

Since Liu Zeqing was eliminated by Liu Wenyao, the soldiers under his command were also taken to Beijing.

Shandong is full of garrison troops, and there are very few available combat troops.

This is definitely the best time to attack Shandong.

Li Zicheng looked at Liu Zongmin and whispered, "There is indeed no vassal king in Qufu, but there is a man who is richer than the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty."

Liu Zongmin was surprised: "Kong...Kong Mansion?"

"Yeah!" Li Zicheng nodded maliciously.

"This... this is inappropriate! The Kong Mansion is the residence of Confucius' descendants, and it is also a holy place for scholars all over the world. If you rob the money of the Kong Mansion, it is equivalent to being an enemy of scholars all over the world."

“This…this…”

"Your Majesty...Your Majesty should not have this idea." Liu Zongmin reminded with gritted teeth.

Liu Zongmin never thought about the consequences of robbing the Confucius Mansion, nor did he dare to think about it.

Hao Yaoqi and Gao Yigong lowered their heads and thought about it, but did not express their opinions.

They have no good feelings towards scholars, and have no respect for the descendants of Confucius.

In the final analysis, they were forced to rebel by the scholars who served as officials in the court.

They did whatever Li Zicheng asked them to do.

Li Zicheng smiled coldly: "Didn't I just say that Jiannu were found near Juzhou. Juzhou is less than 400 miles away from Qufu. We can disguise ourselves as Jiannu and go to Qufu to cause chaos."

"Even if something happened, it was done by Jiannu. What does it have to do with Dashun?"

"But..." Liu Zongmin wanted to persuade him, but couldn't find a suitable reason.

After thinking for a long time, he finally said, "We speak a different language from the Jiannu, and I'm afraid we'll be exposed."

"No way!" Hao Yaoqi became interested. "The Jiannu had eight Han banners, and they spoke the proper Central Plains dialect."

Seeing that Liu Zongmin was still hesitant, Li Zicheng said, "Zongmin, do you know the current predicament of Dashun?"

Liu Zongmin raised his head and opened his mouth but no sound came out.

How could he not know Dashun’s predicament?

The current situation in Dashun is very serious.

Two words: lack of money!

Before the 16th year of Chongzhen, the Shun army fought on the move and had no territory or need to defend any city.

In addition to paying military salaries, the rest of the money was used to purchase war horses, weapons, armor, and food.

After establishing its capital in Xi'an, Dashun occupied the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.

The more territory you have, the more places you can spend money.

The court and local officials need to be paid salaries, the soldiers guarding the city need wages, and repairing the city and city defense equipment all require money.

Especially those surrendered Ming troops, once their salaries were stopped, they would immediately defect to the Ming court.

Under all kinds of pressure, Li Zicheng was extremely eager for silver.

Dashun currently has almost no income from land tax and corvée, and the commercial taxes collected are also very few. It can only rely on robbing silver to maintain the operation of the court.

After their defeat in Beijing, they wanted to plunder the two kings of Zhao and use them to subsidize the imperial court.

Unexpectedly, he was rescued by Huang Degong.

Liu Zongmin knew the difficulties of Dashun and Li Zicheng, but he still had awe for the Confucius Mansion in his heart.

So he advised again: "Your Majesty, I think if this matter is leaked, Dashun will face many difficulties in the future! So..."

"That's why I asked you to come here to discuss what to do!" Li Zicheng said while motioning everyone to sit down.

After everyone was seated, Li Zicheng continued, "The Duke of Yansheng has been submitting his surrender to me for generations. Dynasties come and go, but the Confucius family remains forever! Sooner or later, the world will belong to the Great Shun. Sooner or later, the Duke of Yansheng will submit his surrender to me and become my subject."

"Is it wrong for me to borrow some money from my own subjects?"

Li Zicheng's words completely dispelled Liu Zongmin's doubts.

Duke Yansheng is just a tool of the dynasty!

After untying this knot in my heart, I began to think deeply with my head down.

Li Zicheng added: "Gentlemen, there are three difficulties in this matter."

"First, the soldiers must act like they are real."

"Second, you have to act quickly. It shouldn't take more than one day from start to finish!"

"Third, we must make the Ming court and the people believe that this was done by the Jiannu and has nothing to do with our Dashun."

The king and his four ministers discussed the matter until midnight and finally decided it quietly.

The next morning.

The two Ming army prisoners were taken out of the city by Shun army soldiers.

After leaving the city, the two were first severely beaten.

Then his hands were tied with ropes, and he was escorted by Shun army soldiers on horseback towards Wei County.

Halfway through the journey, they encountered scouts from the Ming army.

Both sides stopped at the same time and became alert.

The Shun army soldier pulled the reins of his warhorse and said to the Ming army captives beside him: "Did you remember what I told you to convey?"

"Remember." The two Ming soldiers answered honestly.

"That's fine. I'll only give you ten days. No more waiting after that!"

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