Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 244: The faces of officials and gentry after learning of the defeat of Prince Ning

At this time, the imperial court's 100,000-strong army had all gathered in Jinxian, both by land and sea.

King Ning was now at a loss. Standing on the boat, he looked at the distant waterway and could only ask Li Shishi, Liu Yangzheng and other civil officials: "Gentlemen, what should we do now?"

Li Shishi, the retired Left Censor-in-Chief, did not know how to respond. He really did not expect that his 60,000-strong army would not even be able to defend the city of Nanchang. Even now, before the whole country was in chaos, he had to retreat to the water.

The same went for Liu Yangzheng. He had even begun to wonder what would happen to him if he was caught by the imperial court.

"Your Majesty, it's bad! There are many fire ships coming!"

At this time, an eunuch in Prince Ning's mansion shouted loudly. Prince Ning turned around and saw a huge fire rising in the sky, burning towards his warships connected by iron chains like a river swallowing up the sea. Some warships had even been engulfed by the fire.

Yi Gu, a family general of Prince Ning's Mansion, could not help but shout, "My Lord, hurry up and have them cut the chains. Don't let the fire spread to the main ship!"

King Ning also hurriedly followed Yi Gu's advice and ordered the connected warships to be cut off, and then ordered his officers and soldiers to escape first in his main ship. As a result, because they fled too hastily, they ran aground and the main ship could not move.

At this time, the government troops under the command of Wang Shouren had caught up.

As a result, Prince Ning was captured, and the civil and military officials who rebelled with him and even his concubines either had no choice but to jump into the water or were also captured.

The Ning Wang Rebellion, which lasted less than two months, came to an end.

The cities occupied by Prince Ning were also gradually recaptured by the government troops.

All the capital that Prince Ning had painstakingly built up over generations became the property of the imperial court.

The entire northern Jiangxi region returned to peace again.

However, Wang Shouren did not disband the 80,000 trained troops directly. He had to wait for the arrangements of Emperor Zhu Houzhao. At the same time, he had to prevent the officials and gentry who had not yet received the news that the Ning Wang rebellion had been quelled from taking the opportunity to cause chaos.

In fact.

Because the rebellion was put down too quickly.

At this time, except for Nanchang Prefecture and Nankang Prefecture, the officials, gentry and powerful people in other regions had not yet learned that the rebellion had been quelled. They were either in a panic or eager to take advantage of the chaos to make a fortune.

Jiujiang prefect Xu Zan, who should now be the Minister of Personnel under Prince Ning, did not yet know the news that Prince Ning's rebellion had been put down. At this moment, he was looking at the vast Yangtze River with a group of gentry, reciting poems and composing essays.

A group of gentry also echoed Xu Zan, among whom one student even knelt down and bowed, saying: "Your Excellency is the reincarnation of Wu Hou (Zhuge Liang). Now you are following Prince Ning to rectify the world. One day you will surely be crowned a king. I, Ye Meizhen, have no way to show respect to you. I can only treat you as my parents. I hope that Your Excellency will adopt me as your adopted son and my sister as your adopted daughter!"

Xu Zan was confused, but when he saw that the student was fair-skinned, he was overjoyed and helped the student Ye Meizhen up: "Very good, seeing that you are filial, I will adopt you as my adopted son and your sister as my adopted daughter. You can bring your sister to meet our parents tonight!"

"Thank you, parents!"

The student Ye Meizhen kowtowed again hurriedly.

Seeing this, some gentry hurried to congratulate.

Only Zeng Cunren, a student standing at the very end, could not help but shake his head: "The emperor spent ten years to make the people of the world not to kneel and kowtow easily, but it is a pity that even scholars now bend their knees and kowtow casually, and even casually recognize others as their parents. They are really shameless. I really don't know whether the court is sorry for them, or they are not worthy of being respected by the court!"

No matter how Zeng Cunren, a scholar and gentry who still had some self-respect, lamented in his heart for scholars like Ye Meizhen, Ye Meizhen herself was very happy. For Ye Meizhen, the prefect, or to be more precise, the Minister of Personnel Xu, had adopted her as his son. In the future, she would be able to follow Prince Ning and get a position in the government without having to wait for ten years of hard study and endure hardships.

But it was obvious that Ye Meizhen sold himself out too quickly. Not long after he appointed Xu Zan as his adoptive father, Xu Zan's generals came running over and whispered in his ear, "Sir, the Ning King was defeated! The officers and soldiers under the Ning King who escaped to Jiujiang by water said that the Ning King was captured alive by the court. The people also said that there was a fire on the water surface after Nanchang, which had not been extinguished for a day."

"How is this possible, how is this possible! This, this."

Xu Zan couldn't believe it, because he remembered that King Ning's manifesto said he had 100,000 troops! However, Xu Zan still returned to his government office on the pretext of something, and then immediately sent someone to confirm the news again. He paced anxiously in the room, wondering what he would do if King Ning was really defeated.

The next morning, Xu Zan, who had not slept well the whole night, heard his men coming back at dawn and saying, "Sir, King Ning was really defeated. The man we sent to contact King Ning escaped and told the news to our subordinates. He is waiting outside now. If you don't believe me, you can call him up and ask him in person."

Xu Zan then met the people he had sent to contact King Ning, and finally had to be convinced that King Ning had indeed been defeated. He immediately collapsed to the ground, unable to come back to his senses for a long time. He couldn't help but snatch the knife from his personal soldier, ready to commit suicide, but when the cold blade touched his neck, Xu Zan did not dare to cut it.

However, Xu Zan suddenly had an idea and ordered:

"Quick, quick, quickly lead the army to Nankang and say we are going to suppress the rebellion! Then we can chop off some civilian heads and say they are the heads of the rebels. We will have made contributions and the imperial court will not do anything to us."

Xu Zan could only hope that the imperial court was still unaware of his rebellion. He thought that he could get away with it by pretending that he was going to quell the rebellion.

But soon after Xu Zan finished speaking, shouts of killing were heard outside the government office. Xu Zan could not help but be shocked. But at this time, outsiders from the government office had already rushed in. The leader was Ye Meizhen, who had recognized him as his adoptive father during the day. Xu Zan only heard Ye Meizhen shouting:
"Traitor! You have surrendered to the rebel king and are a disloyal and unrighteous person! Today, I, Ye, and the villagers of Jiujiang will eliminate you for the court! I can give you a chance to hang yourself, otherwise I will hack you to death!"

Ye Meizhen also learned about the defeat of Prince Ning last night. He was very depressed about it. He had just acknowledged Xu Zan as his adoptive father, but he did not expect that the Prince Ning, whom Xu Zan defected to, was so unreliable. He was put down less than two months after he started the rebellion. As a result, he had no choice but to organize the villagers to kill Xu Zan. One purpose was to silence him so that the court would not know that he had defected to Xu Zan, and the other was to take the opportunity to show his loyalty to the court.

Xu Zan was also very angry when he saw this. He could not help but curse:

"Ye Meizhen, you shameless villain, yesterday you acknowledged me as your foster father, but today you want to kill me, you are unworthy of being a member of the Shilin community!"

"You are slandering me! I, Ye Meizhen, have been familiar with the classics since I was young, and I know the great principles of loyalty and filial piety. How could I recognize a traitor as my father? How could I betray the court and my parents to associate with a traitor like you? It is precisely because I have the court in my heart that I am willing to risk the crime of my entire clan and organize the local soldiers to kill a traitor like you! Villagers, kill this traitor for me! Whoever kills this traitor will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver! Whoever kills this traitor together with the traitor will be rewarded with 10 taels of silver!"

Ye Meizhen started shouting as he spoke, and because he offered a reward, the morale of the local soldiers was boosted, and they started fighting with the officers and servants in Xu Zan's government office.

Xu Zan was so angry that he was breathing rapidly. He simply shouted loudly: "Whoever kills this snob will be rewarded with 1,000 taels of silver!"

The fighting power of Xu Zan's personal soldiers was naturally stronger than that of these villagers. When they heard that their master had also offered a reward, they also rushed over bravely and defeated these villagers. Other officers and soldiers of Xu Zan also rushed over upon hearing the news.

Ye Meizhen's soldiers were attacked from both sides and were defeated in a short while.

Ye Meizhen did not expect that the local soldiers he brought with him would not succeed in killing Xu Zan, but would put himself in danger. Therefore, he became a little panicked, and knelt down in front of Xu Zan with a plop: "Adoptive father! I was just confused for a moment, please spare my life!"

Xu Zan was naturally in no mood to forgive Ye Meizhen, so he ordered his men to hack Ye Meizhen to death. He then wrote a memorial to the court, stating that a man named Ye Meizhen had defected to Prince Ning and become a rebel, and had attempted to seize the Jiujiang government office, but was killed by him. He also stated that he would lead his troops to Nanchang to participate in the suppression of the rebellion.

These civil servants and gentry who had blindly followed Prince Ning's rebellion became anxious. They either tried to cover up their mistakes or changed their original banner of supporting Prince Ning to directly fighting against the rebels. In short, there were many examples like Xu Zan.

For example, Yi Xizhi, the prefect of Anqing at that time, was so excited about the news that Prince Ning had led an army of 100,000 to rebel that he immediately ordered the opening of granaries to release grain and recruit soldiers. But just as he had gathered an army to respond to Prince Ning, he learned that Prince Ning's rebellion had been put down.

Therefore, Yi Xizhi could not help but hesitate for a moment, thinking to himself: "Oh my God, should I still follow Prince Ning in rebellion?"

In short, the fact that Prince Ning's rebellion was quickly suppressed revealed the true colors of many civil servants and gentry in the south who were dissatisfied with the court. They changed their faces faster than turning the pages of a book.

When Zhu Houzhao learned of Prince Ning's rebellion in the capital, he guessed that there would definitely be some civil servants and gentry who only cared about protecting their own interests and would take advantage of Prince Ning's rebellion to make a fuss, and even intend to disrupt the world. After all, if they failed, they could say that it was all caused by Prince Ning, and they would not have to take responsibility.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao immediately issued twelve imperial edicts, the first of which was to order local governments at all levels not to recruit soldiers and send troops to Jiangxi to quell the rebellion without authorization. At the same time, Zhu Houzhao also ordered these local governments and villagers to only be responsible for local defense work. The purpose was to prevent these officials and gentry with ulterior motives from acting rashly.

In addition, Zhu Houzhao also issued an imperial edict ordering military generals in various places not to lead troops across the river to quell the rebellion without authorization, and appointed Wang Shouren as the commander-in-chief of five provinces and the title of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, with full responsibility for suppressing the rebellion.

Zhu Houzhao did this naturally to prevent other non-local officials and troops of the court from taking the opportunity to go to Jiangxi to burn, kill and loot under the guise of suppressing the rebellion. After all, Zhu Houzhao knew the discipline of the local officials and troops of the Ming Dynasty. It was basically impossible to go to a place without robbing the people like a bandit, otherwise he would not be called a soldier bandit by the people.

Therefore, in order to avoid intensifying class contradictions, Zhu Houzhao strictly prohibited officers and soldiers from other places from taking any action without authorization, and only allowed Wang Shouren to be fully responsible for dispatching the officers and soldiers in Jiangxi Province. After all, most of the officers and soldiers in Jiangxi Province were local people and had relatively better discipline. What's more, they were recruited and trained by Wang Shouren according to Zhu Houzhao's requirements, and the military discipline itself was much stricter.

Moreover, Zhu Houzhao also believed that Wang Shouren could quell the Ning Wang Rebellion with the official troops in Jiangxi alone.

The main purpose of writing this chapter is actually to show the faces of some short-sighted civil servants and gentry. Thank you book friend Mo Yue Luo Yu for the reward of 100 starting coins. Suddenly my waist hurts a lot when I sit down. I wanted to stop updating, but after thinking about it, I decided to stick to it and observe for two days and continue to write the second chapter. After all, I have persisted for ten days and updated words a day. Please stop the waist pain.
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(End of this chapter)