Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 302 Good News
In Qijiang, Sichuan Province, Zhu Lang was sitting in the government office, reviewing the memorial that Yunnan Province had just submitted to the court.

After the Ming army strangled the Qing army led by Nikan at Loushan Pass, they officially began to advance. When the Ming imperial army arrived at Qijiang, they found that the Qing army had already retreated across the river under the leadership of Hauge.

The Ming army occupied all prefectures and counties south of the Yangtze River in Chongqing without losing a single soldier.

After the Ming army arrived in southern Sichuan, they chose not to enter Chongqing, just like the Qing army did at the beginning. Instead, they stationed in the walled city of Qijiang.
Li Dingguo defeated the Mengzi Erge Longmu Village in early September. It was only mid-September when the victory report from Yunnan Province had already traveled thousands of miles to central Sichuan.
Zhu Lang looked at the memorial in his hand, and a hint of satisfaction flashed across his face.

"Ma Bao and Li Dingguo fought well. They put down the rebellion in Yunnan Province in just a few months. Well done."

Zhu Lang looked at the victory report sent by the three Yunnan Provincial Offices and the Governor's Office, and the more he read, the happier he felt.

The victory report not only reported the news that Li Dingguo and others had captured and killed Sha Dingzhou and other bandit leaders, but also reported the spoils of the battle in Yunnan Province.
After the Yunnan Province battle, after distributing rewards to the troops, the Yunnan Provincial Treasury still had 1.6 million taels of silver and nearly 10,000 kilograms of jadeite of various colors, with an estimated value of no less than 3 or 4 million taels.

In other words, after deducting the expenses from the suppression of the Yunnan rebellion, the Ming court earned a net income of 4 to 5 million taels.
Of course, although the three departments of Yunnan Province valued these jades at three or four million taels, they were all calculated based on the market price at that time.
If the Ming court put such a huge amount of jade into the market, the price of these jades would plummet in a short period of time. It would be extremely rare for this batch of jadeite with an estimated value of 4 or 5 million taels to be exchanged for 2 million taels in the end.

But even so, the Ming court could at least earn more than 3 million taels of silver from the battle to pacify Yunnan Province.
If we take into account the rewards given to the armies and the war expenses, the total amount of money seized by the Ming court in Yunnan Province this time is probably no less than 5 million taels.

Although the seizure in Yunnan Province this time was huge, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The five million taels seized in Yunnan Province not only included the hundreds of years of accumulation of the Duke of Qian in Yunnan Province, but also included the decades of accumulation of the entire Yunnan people.

Sha Dingzhou massacred people throughout Yunnan and plundered the accumulated wealth of the people of Yunnan Province, but these wealth only passed through Sha Dingzhou's hands once, and then all fell into the hands of the Ming court.

In a sense, Sha Dingzhou was a good man to the Ming court at that time. Sha Dingzhou took all the blame, and the money was collected from the people of Yunnan Province and passed to the Ming court. It was really the best of both worlds.

Zhu Lang put down the memorial from the three departments of Yunnan Province, and then opened the secret memorial handed over by Zhang Huangyan.

After reading it, Zhu Lang nodded slightly. According to Zhang Huangyan, not only was the military settlement in Yunnan Province progressing smoothly, but the new system of Lin'an Prefecture had also begun to be implemented.
Although Zhang Huangyan executed a group of Lin'an gentry who came to Kunming to protest their injustice, he did not really scare the people of Lin'an.
When Zhang Huangyan arrived at Lin'an Prefecture with a group of military officials, the gentry of Lin'an were quite submissive at first.
However, as Zhang Huangyan led his people to truly begin to survey and divide the land, the gentry of Lin'an finally could not stand it anymore and gathered together to cause trouble again.
To distribute the land, the first thing to do is to clear the land. However, after Zhang Huangyan led a group of scholars to clear the land in various counties, he found that there were very few unowned fields in Lin'an Prefecture. A large number of fields in Lin'an Prefecture were actually owned.

Lin'an Prefecture is Sha Dingzhou's old nest. Although Sha Dingzhou often slaughtered people in Yunnan Province, he did not kill people in Lin'an Prefecture.

The gentry of Lin'an Prefecture not only did not suffer much loss in the Yunnan rebellion, but took advantage of the rebellion to annex the land of the people and took a large number of people as tenants.

After Zhang Huangyan discovered this situation, he directly ordered that all land transactions established by Lin'an Prefecture since Sha Dingzhou's rebellion were invalid. In an instant, a large amount of land was taken back, and a large number of tenants were released.

Zhang Huangyan took the land and the tenants regained their freedom, so someone would inevitably suffer losses.
The gentry in Lin'an suffered heavy losses and were unwilling to be slaughtered, so they led the county students and others to block the Lin'an government office and demanded that Zhang Huangyan abolish the order.
Zhang Huangyan's response was simple, which was to catch
Li Laiheng led the Tengxiang Imperial Guards and arrested all the ten leading gentry families and put them in prison. He then announced that these ten gentry families were traitors.

Zhang Huangyan did not even need to fabricate charges to deal with these people. The gentry who were able to escape unscathed from Sha Dingzhou's rebellion, even if they had no relationship with Sha Dingzhou, must have been related to someone under Sha Dingzhou.

If the imperial court did not pursue the matter, then this would be nothing more than a temporary measure taken by the local gentry to protect themselves. But if the imperial court really wanted to investigate, these would be ironclad evidence of treason and collusion.
Seeing that the government office was arresting people directly, the gentry of Lin'an Prefecture naturally refused to sit still and wait for death. A group of old officials and gentry in Lin'an Prefecture who had made achievements immediately submitted a letter to the three departments of Yunnan Province, jointly impeaching Zhang Huangyan for corruption and abuse of power, and for harming the local people.

However, the memorials from the gentry of Lin'an Prefecture were useless. There were only three people in charge of Yunnan Province. One was the Governor-General of Yunnan Province, Yang Weizhi; one was the Admiral of Yunnan Province, Ma Bao; and the other was the Governor of Yunnan Province, Zhang Huangyan.
This impeachment by the gentry of Lin'an Prefecture is basically equivalent to someone suing me, and it is impossible to have any effect.
The gentry of Lin'an Prefecture were not unaware of the situation in Yunnan Province, but this was the only thing they could do.
The army of the imperial court had just killed so many people in Yunnan Province that no one dared to resist with force. They had no other options except to petition the Yunnan gentry and hope that Governor Yang Weizhi could come forward to stop Zhang Huangyan.
They wanted to submit a memorial to the court to impeach, which would have a greater effect. However, it was not until Ma Bao, Zhang Huangyan and others led their troops into Yunnan to quell the rebellion that the people of Yunnan Province learned that the Ming Dynasty had been ruled by Gui.

They didn't even know where the door to Gui's court was, so how could they submit memorials to the court?

The resistance of the gentry in Lin'an Prefecture also had no effect. All ten gentry families were confiscated for the crime of treason, the leader was beheaded, and four or five hundred family members were exiled. The gentry in Lin'an Prefecture were once again slaughtered in large numbers.

The Yunnan gentry, who were highly expected by Lin'an Prefecture, were silent at this moment. Although Zhang Huangyan acted harshly in Lin'an Prefecture, other places in Yunnan Province were quite restrained when implementing the military settlement system. Seeing this, the Yunnan gentry were also silent.

Moreover, the charges made by Zhang Huangyan made the gentry of Yunnan Province dare not touch it at all. The gentry of Lin'an Prefecture could only blame themselves for being in Lin'an. Who made them live in this den of thieves?
The rebellion in Yunnan Province has just been put down. Who dares to accuse me of treason?

After all ten gentry families in Lin'an Prefecture were executed and exiled, all the gentry in Lin'an Prefecture were finally frightened and moved to other prefectures, not daring to stay in Lin'an Prefecture any longer.
After Zhang Huangyan learned of the movement of the gentry in the mansion, he did not stop it, and even secretly ordered the three departments of Yunnan Province to assist these gentry families to relocate.
After all the gentry moved out of Lin'an Prefecture, the land distribution in Lin'an Prefecture was finally implemented smoothly.

All the land surveyed in Lin'an Prefecture has now been distributed to the refugees. Zhang Huangyan is leading the people to plant winter wheat. By next year, the new system of Lin'an Prefecture should begin to bear fruit.

Zhu Lang put down the memorial from Yunnan Province and took the letter from Guangdong Province. However, after reading the letter from Guangdong Province, Zhu Lang was stunned.

Li Chengzhi looked at His Royal Highness the Regent for a long time without saying anything, his face darkened, and he said

"Your Highness, something important has happened in the court." Zhu Lang came to his senses after hearing this and said

"Yes, but it's a happy event. The princess is pregnant."

Zhu Lang looked at the letter in his hand with a complicated expression on his face. He suddenly felt that his bond with this world had deepened.
After the great victory in Fujian Province, everyone in the court could see that the Ming and Qing dynasties had become a two-part world. Wang Yue had reached adulthood this year. After Zhu Lang returned to Guangdong Province from Fujian Province, he did not restrain himself and lived with Wang Yue.

Li Chengzhi, who was below, originally had a serious expression on his face. When he heard what His Royal Highness the Regent said, he was stunned for a moment, but then a look of surprise appeared on his face. He bowed and said loudly:

"Congratulations, Your Highness. The princess has given birth to an heir. Our Ming Dynasty now has a successor."

In fact, since the Guangdong War, some people in the court have begun to petition Zhu Lang to take in concubines.
But the situation of the Ming court was precarious at that time. There was no telling when the Qing court would invade Guangdong Province. Zhu Lang himself was always preparing to flee, so he had no time to care about these things.

After the great victory in Fujian Province and the Ming court's complete foothold in the south, more and more people in the court petitioned Zhu Lang to fill the harem.

This matter was not only of concern to the civil officials, but also to the military officials in the court. In fact, military officials such as Jiao Lian and Li Mingzhong paid more attention to this matter than the civil officials.
Now the military officials in the court are all Zhu Lang's confidants, including Jiao Lian, the Dragon Warrior, Li Mingzhong, the Warrior, Ma Bao, Zheng Wenxiong, the Gui Army, and Li Chengzhi, who controls the Jinyiwei.

Almost all the high-ranking military officials in the court were promoted by Zhu Lang himself after he ascended the throne. Even the middle and high-ranking officers in the various imperial guards were personally granted military honors by Zhu Lang and were given the title of "disciples of the emperor".

It was precisely because Zhu Lang controlled almost all the troops in the court that he could use his own will to implement the new system.
The most typical example is the system of the Military Affairs Council. Without the unconditional support of the military officials, this new system that deprives the civil officials of their military power would never have been passed in the court.
But this matter has both advantages and disadvantages. If Zhu Lang is still alive, the generals of the three armies will naturally submit and obey his orders. With Zhu Lang's status and prestige, he can gather a large army to fight at any time, and no general will dare to follow the orders of the court and not obey the orders as before.
But the downside is that once Zhu Lang has problems, the Ming army will immediately be in chaos, and this chaos is definitely not something that civil officials can solve.

Once Zhu Lang had an accident and needed to choose a new emperor, Jiao Lian, Li Mingzhong and others would have to choose a vassal king who was close to them to succeed him in order to ensure their own safety and military power.
This has nothing to do with whether Jiao Lian, Li Mingzhong and others are loyal to the country. After the new king ascends the throne, no matter who it is, he must take back the military power and let his confidants take charge of the army.

If they cannot let the princes who are close to them succeed to the throne, then when the princes recommended by others take the throne and stabilize the court, the military power in their hands will surely be taken away by others.
Who would be willing to lose military power for no reason and even lose their own safety?
By then, even if Jiao Lian and others don't want to fight for the sake of the overall situation, the generals under their command will force them to fight. By then, the Ming court may repeat the old story of the four towns in northern Jiangnan.
In the past, the four towns in Jiangbei fought internally, and the Ming Dynasty lost the Southern Capital. After losing the Southern Capital, the Ming Dynasty could retreat to Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. But if the Ming Dynasty had another rebellion in Jiangbei at this time, where could the Ming court retreat to?

There is only one way to solve this problem, that is, the successor must be Zhu Lang's heir, even if the successor is just a child of a few years old.

Only if Zhu Lang's offspring ascends the throne can the military officials of the various armies be convinced, and only in this way can the various armies feel at ease and the stability of the court be guaranteed.
Qu Shisi and others were aware of this danger, so they were unwilling to let Zhu Lang lead the army. At this time, the Ming court could not find anyone who could replace Zhu Lang.

However, the Ming court was in turmoil at this time, the Qing court was attacking everywhere, and there were military leaders everywhere. Many things could only be solved by Zhu Lang himself leading the army and relying on his status as regent. At this time, Qu Shisi and others had no choice but to let Zhu Lang go to the battlefield.

Li Chengzhi's face was full of excitement. After he stood up and saluted, he immediately spoke

"I will now report this happy event to Lord Qu and other ministers in the court."

Li Chengzhi was about to leave when he was suddenly stopped by Zhu Lang.

"The news that the princess is pregnant was announced several months ago, so there is no need to rush now."

"But this is indeed worth celebrating. The military officers in the court have fought bravely. Now that the court has recovered most of Sichuan Province, we will increase the salaries of the Sichuan troops by one month in the name of the princess' pregnancy. This can be regarded as a celebration for the court and the people."

Zhu Lang put down the letter in his hand, took the Yunnan Provincial Memorial and looked at it, thought for a moment, and then said

"The rebellion in Yunnan Province has been quelled, and the war in Sichuan Province has also been largely settled. In this case, Ma Bao and others do not need to stay in Yunnan Province any longer. Send an order to Yunnan Province, ordering Ma Bao, Li Dingguo and others to return."

Zhu Lang explained the arrangements for Yunnan Province to Li Chengzhi, and then Li Chengzhi bowed and left the room.

In Yunnan Province, Ma Bao and others received the imperial edict and began to prepare to return to the court. The 3,000 Tengxiang troops led by Ma Bao returned to the court, while the 2,000 Gui troops continued to stay in Yunnan Province.

Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu led 3,000 soldiers of the Loyalty Camp to return to the court, while the remaining 3,000 were led by Wang Shangli and Yang Wu to stay in Yunnan Province.
The 3,000 people who stayed were all soldiers and generals who were originally under the command of Sun Kewang, Ai Nengqi and others.
According to the report of Zhu Xuexi, the envoy of the Longxiang Army, all the generals who complained about the imperial court during the Yunnan pacification were also kept in Yunnan Province.
Sun Kewang wanted to wait for this group of people to pacify Yunnan before returning to the camp, but this was impossible.
In October, Ma Bao and his men returned to Guizhou Province. Zhu Lang led the court officials to welcome them out of the city. That night, a banquet was held in the city to welcome and celebrate the victory of the expedition to Yunnan Province.

Zhu Lang publicly rewarded the generals who pacified Yunnan at the celebration banquet. Ma Bao was finally promoted to Duke of Huai because of his several great victories in this Western Expedition and his great contribution in pacifying Yunnan Province.
At this point, the chief generals of the three imperial guards, Longxiang, Wuxiang, and Tengxiang, were finally all granted the title of Duke. In addition to Ma Bao, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, Li Laiheng and other generals who followed the army also received titles and rewards.

On the second day after the celebration banquet, the generals of the Tengxiang Army were still resting, but Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu had been summoned to the government office.
(End of this chapter)