Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 242: I Follow the Heart of People

Although spring rain is as precious as oil, the people of Nankang Prefecture at this time could only watch helplessly as the young crops in their fields were trampled into mud by King Ning's soldiers and bandits.

The people working and doing business in Nankang City could only watch as factories shut down and trade routes were cut off because of Prince Ning's troops besieging Nankang.

The people of Nankang Prefecture never expected that in this era when everyone had enough food and clothing, there would still be people who rebelled.

But for Wang Shouren, the Deputy Censor-in-Chief of Jiangxi Province, who was standing in the Nankang Prefecture at that time, Prince Ning's rebellion was something he had expected.

However, what Wang Shouren did not expect was that Prince Ning would suddenly rebel while he was inspecting Nankang City and capture the prosperous city of Nanchang in one fell swoop.

Looking at the Ning Wang rebels spread all over the plain outside the city, and the heads held in front of him by Ning Wang, Wang Shouren still calmly commanded his officers and soldiers to load the cannons with gunpowder and the musketeers to prepare for shooting.

Wang Shouren recognized the head. It was the head of Deputy Censor Zhuang Dian. It was obviously chopped off by Prince Ning as a sacrifice to intimidate the court officials like him.

But Wang Shouren was disappointed that there were not many officials who were obviously brave and unyielding. The only one he knew of was the Deputy Censor Zhuang Dian, while the Governor Pei Xin and the Censor Pang Zhengjia had already defected to Prince Ning. Among them, Pei Xin had even transformed himself into the Chief Censor under Prince Ning and came to the outside of the city to persuade him to surrender.

"Brother Bo'an, Zhengde is not of Emperor Xiaozong's bloodline, but a wild scoundrel from the common people, a 14-year-old fool who ascended to the throne and built a leopard house to indulge in sensual pleasures, cockfighting and horse racing, and killed treacherous officials with ten clans. Now he is even killing loyal officials based on public opinion, and using the torture of skinning and stuffing with straw. He is a cruel king!"

"Your Highness Prince Ning is the descendant of Taizu. He is respectful to the wise and humble. He cannot bear to see the Ming Dynasty ruined by the hands of a tyrant and treacherous ministers. He follows the will of heaven and rises up to punish the tyrant. Pei specially appoints His Highness Prince Ning as his Highness. I hope that Brother Bo'an will know the times and distinguish between loyalty and treachery, and join our king to prevent the people of Nankang Prefecture from suffering! When he achieves great success in the future, our king will surely reward him with a high position and generous salary!"

After Pei Xin said this, Wang Shouren also stood on the Nankang City Wall and replied with a smile: "You obey the will of heaven, but I obey the will of the people. Brother Zong Pu, Bo'an advises you to hang yourself now, so as to avoid the calamity of the nine clans. I will also write in the memorial that you hanged yourself because you cursed the thieves, leaving you with the reputation of a loyal minister!"

"Humph! Zhu Houzhao is a tyrant and not of Emperor Xiaozong's bloodline. Pei Xin is a minister of the Ming Dynasty, so how could he recognize a bastard like him as his king! Wang Shouren, I advise you again. You'd better surrender now and obey the will of heaven! Otherwise, after the 100,000 troops under the command of Prince Ning break into the city, they will definitely destroy everyone in Nankang!"

Pei Xin became a little angry and said it again.

"I don't want to waste time talking to you. If you really follow the will of heaven, I will follow the will of people! If you don't believe me, I will ask the people in the city for you!"

Wang Shouren turned around and looked at the militia behind him, and shouted, "Fellow villagers, do you want to follow this Prince Ning in rebellion?"

"No! Who wants to rebel? The world is so good now, the government has repeatedly reduced rent and interest, only those who have nothing better to do will rebel!"

A few of the braver people replied.

In recent years, Prince Ning has repeatedly occupied official and private fields in order to expand his military forces, resulting in more and more people being displaced. Wang Shouren would take advantage of this opportunity to recruit these refugees to Nankang and Jiujiang to open up new fields, or directly open factories in Nankang City to recruit them as workers. He also secretly trained troops with Wu Wendi, the prefect of Ji'an, in the name of suppressing bandits.

Therefore, at this time, the people of Nankang City were not desperate because of Prince Ning's ruthless land grabbing. On the contrary, they were very disgusted with Prince Ning's rebellious behavior, especially after Wang Shouren asked the officials with the background of the Loyal Emperor Society who accompanied him to secretly spread the word. Everyone knew that Prince Ning wanted to rebel and become the emperor to cause chaos in the world, and he took in some ambitious thieves who robbed everywhere.

Because of this, when Wang Shouren asked this question, the people of Nankang City all echoed him and expressed that they were unwilling to rebel.

"Then do you think the current emperor is a good emperor? Is it wrong for the current emperor to kill corrupt officials? Should the current emperor be overthrown?!"

Wang Shouren continued to ask.

"The emperor is of course a good emperor. The adults have said that it was the emperor who exempted us from taxes due to the flood last year, and the fields we have now were also given to us by the emperor. How can he not be a good emperor!"

"That's right! Much better than that King Ning, who only knew how to let his officers and soldiers seize our land!"

"You're eating without paying!"

"My 100 stone tea leaves are collected just like that!"

"He also said that we planted his land and asked us to pay more taxes and grain than we paid to the government. What's so good about His Royal Highness Prince Ning!"

"The Emperor is much better than Prince Ning. He said that cloth is not as valuable as before and that it might hurt farmers, so he reduced corvée labor and gave subsidies!"

"The emperor today is a good emperor, the best emperor in history. He is the only emperor who gives money to us common people!"

……

The people started talking about it, praising the Emperor Zhu Houzhao and talking about the crimes of Prince Ning. Wang Shouren smiled smugly at this. The people's likes and dislikes strengthened his determination to quell Prince Ning's rebellion, and made him more convinced that the current emperor was popular with the people, a legitimate ruler who was truly supported by the people, and the true orthodoxy of the world. So he shouted again:
"Brother Zong Pu, take a look at the public opinion in this world. Who is the legitimate and wise ruler and who is the traitor who loses the support of the people? Do we still need to distinguish them?!"

Wang Shouren shouted loudly, then waved his hands and shouted: "Fellow villagers, follow me and shout to punish the rebels and protect peace! Governor Xu Tai has led 30,000 border troops, Governor Liu Hui and Gui Yong have led 20,000 guards, and Wu Wendi of Ji'an, Qin Jin of Huguang, Yang Dan of Guangdong and Guangxi, a total of 160,000 imperial troops have come day and night, because I have already predicted that Prince Ning will rebel. Now as long as we hold on to Nankang City, Prince Ning, the rebel, will definitely be eliminated! At that time, the land occupied by Prince Ning will return to your hands!"

Wang Shouren waved his hands and shouted: "Destroy the rebels and protect peace!"

"Destroy the rebels and protect peace!"

"Destroy the rebels and protect peace!"

"Destroy the rebels and protect peace!"

……

Other officials and citizens in Nankang City also started shouting.

Pei Xin was naturally speechless when he saw this. He even felt scared. Although he reminded himself countless times in his heart that he had to surrender to Prince Ning because the current emperor was too cruel and harsh to the gentry, he still couldn't help but feel that the people's hearts seemed to be on the side of the court. That's why he felt a little scared and rode his horse back in disappointment.

Prince Ning also saw this scene, and his face darkened for a moment. He thought that if he had not learned that the captain who smuggled weapons to him was killed by Wang Shouren, which led to his early rebellion, he would not have let Wang Shouren show off in Nankang City.

At this time, Pei Xin also came before King Ning and reported to him in detail the news that the imperial court's 160,000 troops were about to arrive.

King Ning asked the civil servants Li Shishi and Liu Yangzheng who had come to him, "Gentlemen, do you have any good strategies to defeat the enemy?"

"Now that Wang Shouren refuses to surrender, Nankang City is no longer in our hands, and we cannot go north across the river. At present, the best strategy is to hold on to Nanchang!"

Liu Yangzheng, who was appointed as the right prime minister by King Ning, replied at this time. As a scholar who followed King Ning in the rebellion, he knew better than anyone what kind of people King Ning's army was. Naturally, he did not think that King Ning's army could capture Nankang City, so he simply suggested that King Ning defend Nanchang.

Li Shishi, who was appointed as the left prime minister by Prince Ning, also agreed with Liu Yangxing's suggestion. As a senior civil servant who once served as the left censor-in-chief of the imperial court, he hated the behavior of Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao who did not value Confucianism. Otherwise, he would not have followed Prince Ning in rebellion with the status of left censor-in-chief. However, he was not a very good military strategist. After seeing the determination of the people in Nankang City and Wang Shouren to defend Nankang to the death, he backed down and suggested that Prince Ning return to defend Nanchang City.

Prince Ning was also a mediocre prince with ambition but no wisdom. When he saw that the two prime ministers around him both suggested this, he also returned to Nanchang City.

That night.

Wang Shouren got the news that Prince Ning was returning to defend Nanchang through an undercover Jinyiwei agent, and he laughed: "Sure enough, he was frightened by the 160,000-man army. Pass the order down and organize the villagers to post notices everywhere in Nanchang Prefecture to let more people know that the 160,000-man army is coming."

The officials of Nankang Prefecture immediately agreed and left.

Wang Shouren immediately summoned Zhang Lun and other Nankang City defenders to discuss the matter, saying, "Now that Prince Ning has rebelled, I predict that if he wants to take over the world, there are only three strategies he can adopt. The best strategy is to attack the capital with a surprise attack, which is more difficult to deal with and will inevitably lead to chaos in the Central Plains. The middle strategy is to take Nanjing along the river and establish an independent regime in the south. The worst strategy is to hold on to Nanchang and wait for the arrival of our imperial army, so that we can easily suppress him!"

"If Prince Ning implements the best or the middle strategy, he must capture Nankang and Jiujiang to seize the crossing point, so Nankang City must be defended!"

Zhang Lun also replied.

"Well, only Nankang will not be lost, so Prince Ning can only hold on to Nanchang. Although the news that the imperial court has 160,000 troops coming soon is fake news, we have already trained 80,000 soldiers and horses. We can take advantage of this opportunity to quell Prince Ning's rebellion in the Nanchang area and prevent the war after Prince Ning's rebellion from spreading to other prefectures and causing harm to the people!"

As Wang Shouren was speaking, Wang Shuo, the Jinyiwei in charge of intelligence, ran over and said, "Young Master, Your Excellency, something bad has happened. Jiujiang Prefect Xu Zan has also rebelled! He killed Tongpan Yuanzong and responded to Prince Ning, saying that it was in accordance with the will of heaven and the foolish monarchs. He also called on all the gentry in the world to raise the banner and help Prince Ning!"

"What!" Zhang Lun shouted in surprise.

Wang Shouren could not help but frown: "There really are scholars in the world who only care about their own interests and ignore the interests of the country! These people have read the books of sages in vain! They are really stupid!"

"Sir, now is not the time to talk about this. Once Jiujiang is lost, Nankang City will be attacked from all sides. I am afraid there is no need to defend it. Moreover, we cannot be sure whether other officials and gentry will be influenced by Prince Ning's rebellion and follow suit!"

Zhang Lun said.

The plot about King Ning here is basically adapted from the original historical data. In history, Wang Yangming did use the false news that 160,000 troops were coming to scare King Ning at the beginning, causing King Ning to miss the best time to send troops across the river immediately. In history, the literati Liu Yangzheng who defected to King Ning did write a manifesto that called Zhengde a bastard, saying that Zhengde was a child found by eunuch Li Guang among the people and pretended to be the son of Emperor Xiaozong, so he followed the order of the Queen Mother to kill the tyrant Zhengde. Of course, King Ning in history rebelled in the 14th year of Zhengde, but here it was advanced, because Zhu Houzhao used public opinion to control the gentry, making the gentry more bound and restrained. Some ill-intentioned literati would be more eager to have someone come out to rebel, and King Ning was undoubtedly very suitable. The author also designed a direct reason here, that is, Wang Shouren found corrupt officials who smuggled weapons to King Ning. There are also examples of court officials and King Ning communicating privately in history, so it is not surprising. Okay, I will continue to code. Book friends, please continue reading. Also, if you don't like this book, please delete it, but please don't curse it too viciously. In fact, I didn't expect that I would really meet such vicious people when writing a book, but there are indeed some. But now I am almost used to it. I will delete it and ban it. I am too lazy to respond. After all, it will delay the time of writing. But I still want to remind you, please leave if you don't like it.



(End of this chapter)