Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 378: Chongzhen and the End of Yuan

After the salary rules were determined, the meeting was considered over. On the military side, the standards for rewards and pensions were finalized. There was also still things to do, including the defense of eastern Zhejiang, the reorganization of the army, and the strategic arrangements for the coming year. However, these were all internal matters of the Martial Academy and did not need to be brought up at the meeting.

In terms of civil affairs, the plan for issuing new banknotes, tax standards, household registration, resumption of production, preparations for spring ploughing, and the formulation of ideas for officials' salaries were determined.

Finally, Lu Jin specifically mentioned the Construction Department. Now that Chang Yuchun had reached Jing County, the time was ripe to open a second iron smelting base. So Lu Jin decided to let Xu Jichuan, the director of the Construction Department, bring technical backbones from Luzhou Iron Works across the river after the fifth day of the New Year to start preparing for the Dangtu Iron Works and Jingxuan Coal Mine to increase the production of armor as soon as possible.

In terms of manufacturing, Jiankang's banknote printing factory also needs to expand its scale and reserve more new banknotes as soon as possible. It is planned to officially start launching them from March or May next year. The specific number of new banknotes printed at that time will depend on the actual situation.

In addition, time was also set aside for the newly annexed territories to register their population as quickly as possible, to recruit men to form internal security forces, to divide them into town-level administrative units, and to set up local supply and marketing cooperatives before new banknotes could be issued.

Another key construction project is the Longwan Shipyard in Jiankang, which is presided over by Wang Dayuan. The shipbuilding speed can only be accelerated after Fang Guozhen sends the shipbuilding craftsmen from Taizhou.

As well as the reconstruction of various salt fields in Huaiyang and eastern Zhejiang, the focus is currently on restoring production. After production is restored, technology will be upgraded next year. In the future, firewood will no longer be used for boiling salt, but coal will be used instead to save wood resources. Then a pilot project for salt drying technology will be opened, and the technology will be promoted after it matures.

For various policies, Lu Jin is in charge of the overall strategy and solutions, which are then supplemented and improved by the people below.

For example, Zhou Zhen, the head of the Finance and Household Department, proposed that with regard to the salt and iron sold by the supply and marketing cooperatives, in order to reduce management difficulties and save administrative costs, the town-level supply and marketing cooperatives should only provide retail services and implement a purchase restriction policy to prevent deliberate runs on the stocks.

If merchants wanted to exchange new banknotes in large quantities, such as exchanging gold, silver or copper coins for new banknotes, or wanted to use new banknotes to wholesale large quantities of salt and iron, they could go to the prefecture-level supply and marketing cooperative headquarters for exchange and wholesale. Each prefecture had an outlet, and merchants needed to first go to the county to get a letter of introduction before they could go to the prefecture to exchange large quantities of cash and wholesale salt and iron. They also had to state the purpose or sales area to facilitate tracing of the destination later. This proposal was also agreed by everyone.

After the meeting, everyone started to get busy with their own things. Lu Jin also specifically explained that the New Year was coming soon, and it would definitely be too late to give rewards and pensions to the army now, but the reward plan must be notified to each army first to make the soldiers happy and calm the emotions of the army.

In addition, according to the principle of distributing physical objects directly home and banknotes to soldiers' personal wishes, if they are willing to give them directly to their families, they will be sent home together with the rewards. If they want to apply for cash, they can also wait for new banknotes to be printed and sent directly to them at the front line.

As for the specific method of distribution, the in-kind and monetary pensions for the fallen martyrs must be distributed by the magistrate, the county magistrate, and the chief clerk of the local county government. One of the three must be present. The local garrison or internal guard must also send an officer to express condolences on behalf of the military and political circles. The ceremony should be grand and the pensions should be distributed personally to the families, who will be asked to put their fingerprints to ensure receipt.

Give him a death notice and a martyr certificate, and bestow a plaque with the words "Pillar of Loyalty and Martyrdom". Even if the martyr's family is so poor that they have no house, you have to hang the plaque for me even if you have to use only two wooden sticks!

If the families of martyrs are in difficulty, a support group should be organized in the village to provide assistance to the families. If someone bullies the families of martyrs, they can go to the county government to file a complaint. If the county shirks its responsibility, they can go directly to the garrison or the internal security army government to file a complaint, and then report to the commander-in-chief of the provincial military region through the military system. When the time comes, the county magistrate will be in trouble, as he will not be able to punish you.

Of course, if the relatives of martyrs take advantage of their power to bully the villagers, the county magistrate does not have to tolerate it. However, cases involving military families must be handled together with the training officers of the garrison. At that time, you will know the difference between the military court and the civil court, and don't wait to be dealt with by military law.

In addition to the rewards, the families of other soldiers who have made special contributions will be given a plaque of "Outstanding Merit"; the families of disabled veterans will be given a plaque of "Loyal Warrior"; and ordinary soldiers will be given congratulatory messages and a wooden board with the words "Family of Honor".

This thing has existed since ancient times. In the Tang Dynasty, it was called "Fa Yue". It was two pillars at the door. The "Fa" on the left was written with "merits", and the "Yue" on the right was written with "what official positions" he had held. However, these aristocratic families were later killed by Huang Chao.
Later, it was changed to a memorial archway, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties, when people were particularly fond of this thing. If a heroic woman appeared in a local area, it would be reported to the central government, and then the state would allocate funds to build a chastity archway in the local area as a commendation. In addition, there were also memorial archways for top scholar and Jinshi.

However, the army had too many people, and it was too costly to build archways for all of them, so they simply issued a plaque and hung it up to enhance the soldiers' sense of honor. It also served as a talisman. If there were petty thieves or those who wanted to bully military families, they would have to think about whether they could afford to offend them when they saw the plaque.

The day after the meeting, on the 27th day of the 12th lunar month of the 12th year of Zhizheng, Lu Jin left the palace in the morning, carrying a shoulder bag containing a power bank and a mobile phone, and walked to the Marshal's Mansion to work.

Ever since crossing the river, he asked Zhang Wen to pull the car over from Luzhou. Lu Jin has been thinking about how to charge his mobile phone. He needs to use the offline map software on his mobile phone to determine the detailed latitude and longitude coordinates of various parts of the world to draw accurate nautical charts, but he had not started working because he could not charge it.

At first he wanted to remove the built-in generator on the car and convert it into a hand-cranked one, but he only had one car and it would be a pity to remove it, as he might never be able to put it back. However, if he wanted to generate electricity, he had to either make his own chemical battery or find a permanent magnet motor. Later he turned the equipment on the car upside down, and finally he found it: the multi-functional electric air pump that he had bought for more than a hundred yuan before, which was used to inflate tires.

This thing has a permanent magnet motor and a small battery. It can not only be used for inflating, but also serve as a backup power source for the car. When the main battery is out of power, this thing can be used as a backup power source to restart the engine. Lu Jin studied it and decided to keep the car and dismantle the air pump.

He installed this permanent magnet motor on an ancient pedal spinning wheel, which was then powered by human power to drive the motor to rotate and charge its own battery, thus regaining a steady supply of electricity. Now all his electronic tools have been revived.

As the end of the year approaches, people come and go in Jiankang city. Although the people don't have much money, they still have to celebrate the New Year, so they are buying all kinds of New Year's goods.

Lu Jin was walking down the street with a few guards when he suddenly heard a peddler shouting, "Peach charms, spring charms made from new peaches this year, would you like to buy one, sir?"

"Give me a piece."

Lu Jin thought the voice sounded familiar, so he looked in the direction of the voice and discovered that the person buying the peach charms was Chen Yu, the one who compiled the general history. Chen Yu was a native of Jiankang, so it was not surprising that he bought this thing. However, Lu Jin was still quite curious because he had never seen what a peach charm looked like, so he walked to the front and waited for him.

When Chen Yu passed an intersection, he was stunned when he saw Lu Jin, "Marshal?"

"Well, Mr. Zhonghang is buying peach charms?"

"Yeah." Chen Yu was a little confused about what Lu Jin meant.

Lu Jin took it and looked at it. He found that it had the words "farewell to the old and welcome the new, good fortune shines brightly" written on it. He immediately asked curiously, "This is the peach charm. Isn't it written on paper?"

Chen Yu immediately reacted and remembered that Lu Jin claimed to be a returnee from overseas. Maybe he didn't understand the current customs? So he immediately introduced it.

"There are some written on paper, called 'Spring Stickers'. Marshal, you don't know that before the Song Dynasty, paper was quite expensive. After the papermaking technique was improved in the Song Dynasty and more materials were available for papermaking, the price of paper gradually became cheaper, to the point where ordinary people were willing to use it, especially the cheap bamboo paper, which was only available in the early Song Dynasty. Spring Stickers also began to appear in the late Song Dynasty, but peach charms were still used more often.

"But I heard that there is a legend about the Nian monster in Hangzhou, which says that the monster is afraid of the color red. In recent years, people in Hangzhou have started to use red paper to write spring talismans."

Lu Jin suddenly realized, "So that's it."

In fact, what he didn't know was that the legend of the Nian beast became popular during the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. As for writing Spring Festival couplets on red paper, it was Zhu Yuanzhang who promoted it.
Zhu Yuanzhang had a huge influence. Many habits of later generations came from him, including the change from the round tea of ​​the Song Dynasty to the later method of drinking tea by directly brewing tea leaves, which were all habits promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Chen Yu asked curiously, "Do you want to find red spring stickers?" Lu Jin nodded, "I do have this idea, but I just want to buy some red paper to write on myself."

So he immediately turned to his little follower Li Dingbang and said, "Dingbang, go buy me some red paper, buy more."

"Yes!"

Chen Yu also became interested. "What do you want to write, Marshal? I heard that people in Hangzhou are also writing poems on spring symbols. Do you want to write a poem, Marshal?"

"No, I want to write couplets."

The group walked and talked, and soon arrived at the Marshal's Mansion. Li Dingbang also bought red paper, and Lu Jin immediately wrote with ink, the couplet 'Spring thunder roars to clean away the dirt, and sweet dew moistens the hungry scales', with the horizontal banner: Spring is back to the earth.

After writing it, he had it posted on the gate of the general's mansion, which immediately attracted passing scholars to stop and comment.

"This couplet is so well written. I wonder who wrote it. The roaring of spring thunder refers to the uprising of the righteous army. The expulsion of filth and dirt refers to the expulsion of the Tartars. And the sweet dew moistening the hungry scales clearly refers to the Marshal's benevolent rule saving the people. The return of spring to the earth refers to the fact that the harsh winter under the brutal rule of the barbarians has gone, and our Han country will welcome back its original owner! What a great couplet, what a great sentence! I will copy this sentence and post it on my door."

"Let's go together."

At the same time, unlike the thriving Jiankang, where the military and civil officials of the Marshal's Office were busy preparing for the coming year, the brutal Yuan Dynasty was rushing forward on a dead end with no sign of turning back, just like the winter that was about to pass away in Lu Jin's couplet. More than a year earlier than in the original history, on the last two days of the end of the 12th year of Zhizheng, Tuotuo was dismissed from his post.
The cause of the incident started with a memorial from Dong Shouqun, the Inspector of East Zhejiang.

On the 25th day of the twelfth month, after Yang Jing led the main force of the First Army to capture Suzhou, the senior officials of the Zhejiang East Provincial Government entrenched in Jiaxing fled in panic. Pingzhang Dingding ran to Shaoxing, while Dong Shouqu ran to Qingyuan Road and submitted a memorial to Emperor Shun of Yuan, impeaching Dingding and others.

He said that they were incompetent and could not stop the Red Turbans under Lu Jin's command. Now that they saw the enemy army advancing on two fronts, the eight routes in eastern Zhejiang would soon be lost. He felt ashamed of the court. He also included Lu Jin's letter and sent someone to deliver it to Dadu by sea.

This memorial floated on the sea for nearly half a month and was finally delivered to Dadu on the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month. Hama, the favorite minister of Yuan Shundi who was hosting a party with him, was overjoyed when he received the memorial. He joined hands with Empress Ki to complain to Yuan Shundi and asked him to dismiss Toghto from the position of prime minister.

As mentioned before, these two people were Toghto's political enemies. Hama wanted to drive Toghto away and replace him, while Ki Queen wanted to gain the support of the prime minister and make her son of Goryeo descent the crown prince of the Yuan Dynasty, but Toghto had always disagreed.

So the two formed a political alliance. As long as they could get rid of Toghto and put Hama in the throne, they would support Ki Queen in establishing the crown prince.

It's just that the two of them had no reason to do so before. The fall of eastern Zhejiang completely cut off the source of grain, and the fall of Huaiyang area caused a sharp drop in the court's salt tax. Tuotuo's attack on Xuzhou was slow, and after a month of fighting, he failed to capture a single city. In addition, Lu Jin wrote the heart-piercing words in his manifesto, "Obstructing the establishment of the Eastern Palace is harbouring evil intentions", these three factors combined were enough to put Tuotuo to death!
Hama immediately presented the facts and reasoned with Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty.

Your Majesty, you see, Tuotuo is a man who is very ambitious and always looking for trouble. He was in charge of compiling the history books of the Song, Jin, Liao and Three Kingdoms, and then he gave himself the title of editor-in-chief and took credit for it.

Completing the history book was not enough. In order to take credit for himself, Tuotuo insisted on opening the river to control the floods despite the opposition of his ministers. As a result, in order to raise funds for the flood control, he issued treasure banknotes indiscriminately and caused the Red Turban Disaster. Now the country is full of rebels, and it was all his fault.

After provoking the Red Turban Rebellion, he was unable to quell it. At the beginning of the year, he asked his younger brother Yesen to lead an army of 300,000 to attack Liu Futong. However, he was afraid to move forward and was seized by Liu Futong, who wiped out his entire army. Only 10,000 of the 300,000 troops returned.

It would have been reasonable to say that since Yesen had committed such a big mistake, he should have been dealt with according to the law. However, Tuotuo still protected his brother. Anyone who dared to say a bad word about Yesen would be dismissed from office at best, and beheaded at worst. This showed the power of a powerful official.

Now he has personally led an army of hundreds of thousands to fight against the Red Turbans. After two months of fighting, not only has he failed to capture a single city, he has also watched the Luzhou bandits seize Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Huaiyang. The court's food and salt taxes have all been gone. This is all Tuotuo's fault. Your Majesty, you must not tolerate this bandit. Remove him from office immediately. Otherwise, if Tuotuo continues to cause trouble like this, the Yuan Dynasty will be finished!
Your Majesty, please take a look at the manifesto written by the rebels in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They have cursed Your Majesty in it, and even the rebels can see that Tuotuo has evil intentions.

Ki Queen was also assisting Hama. She was crying and whispering to Xiao Tieguo, saying that Toghto was blocking the establishment of the Crown Prince and had been preventing His Majesty from appointing a crown prince. Everyone knew what Toghto's intentions were. Even the rebels knew about it and said in the manifesto that he wanted to usurp the throne. With such a powerful minister in power, how could the country not perish?

As for Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty, his attitude towards his subordinates was like that towards toilet paper: he would kill them after they were used up.

You must not think of him as a white lotus controlled by powerful officials. Xiao Tieguo is actually a person who is particularly good at using the opponent's force to his advantage.

When he first ascended the throne, the powerful minister Bayan was still in control of everything. Emperor Shundi of Yuan Dynasty was like a mascot, at the mercy of others. But one day, Tuotuo, who could not stand his uncle's evil deeds, suddenly found Xiao Tieguo and said, "Let's drive Boyan away together, so that Your Majesty can rule the country yourself." Xiao Tieguo immediately agreed to the plan, and together with Tuotuo, they staged a Yuan Dynasty version of the Gaopingling Incident. While Boyan was out hunting, they took control of Dadu, closed the city gates to prevent him from coming in, and then exiled Boyan to Yashan.

During the whole incident, Xiao Tieguo seemed to have done nothing. He just agreed to Tuotuo's suggestion and used Tuotuo to easily drive away Boyan and achieve his own seizure of power.

If you ask Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty what his attitude towards Tuotuo was, there is actually no essential difference between Tuotuo and Boyan. In Xiao Tieguo's eyes, the uncle and nephew are both the same, both are powerful ministers.

But Tuotuo was the one who helped him take power. It's not true to say that he had no feelings for him. If Tuotuo just failed to win Xuzhou this time, he wouldn't have abandoned Tuotuo. But Lu Jin successively captured Huaiyang and Jiangsu and Zhejiang. He couldn't stand it. That was my money! My food! Now it's all gone.
If Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Huaiyang were lost, could the small iron pot destroy Tuotuo so decisively?

If we only talk about Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty, many people may not understand what kind of person he is, but if you are familiar with the history of the late Ming Dynasty, you should know Chongzhen. Chongzhen's reign lasted for a total of more than ten years, and he replaced important cabinet ministers one after another. They were either dismissed from office, died, or imprisoned. Almost none of them had a good ending.

It is said that Chongzhen was mean and ungrateful, but the little iron pot was even worse!

During the reign of Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty, except for the first two prime ministers, Boyan and Tuotuo, after they were dismissed, he seemed to have given up on himself and replaced more than 20 prime ministers in a row. Until he was driven to the northern grasslands, until his death, he killed more than 500 first-rank officials in total, and he never regretted it. He killed them with a clear conscience.
The original text of "Gengshen Unofficial History" says, "How could the Gengshen Emperor be so indecisive? Since the change of the reign title to Zhizheng, all powerful and well-known ministers have died at his hands. He has even killed more than 500 high-ranking officials without any hesitation, and he has never regretted killing them. So why did he lose the world? It is because of his viciousness!"

From this we can see that Xiao Tieguo is not an indecisive person. On the contrary, he is a very decisive person. This can be seen from the fact that he was able to decisively believe in Tuotuo and launch a coup to drive Boyan away. If he was an indecisive person, who would not think carefully for a while about such a life-threatening event as a coup?

He didn't even think about the small iron pot and just did it!
He killed more than 500 first-rank officials in his life and never felt any remorse. This showed his cruelty, viciousness and ungratefulness to the extreme. How could such a person be lenient towards Tuotuo?
If the loss of grain tax revenue from Huaiyang and Jiangsu and Zhejiang was not enough to put Tuotuo to death, then the sentence "blocking the establishment of the Eastern Palace is a hidden evil intention" in Lu Jin's edict became a critical blow to Tuotuo.

Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty lived under the shadow of Boyan since he was a child. He was fed up with being manipulated by powerful ministers, especially those before Boyan, who were so bold as to depose and enthrone emperors. It was precisely because of these powerful ministers that the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty were replaced so frequently in a short period of time. On the contrary, Xiao Tieguo, who was ruthless to the powerful ministers, became the longest-lived emperor of the Yuan Dynasty.

He has already had some complaints about the word "powerful ministers". Now even the rebels are saying that Tutu has ulterior motives in not allowing the establishment of a crown prince. So what exactly does he want to do?
Tuotuo doesn't like money or women, so what does he want? Power? But he is already the prime minister, second only to the emperor! Does he also want to depose the emperor and become Sima Yi?

In that case, go away and never come back. Emperor Shundi of Yuan Dynasty directly issued an imperial decree to exile Tuotuo to Tengchong, Yunnan.
(End of this chapter)