Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 371 Dissolution of Parliament
Qi Jiguang, in compliance with imperial orders, led the main force of the Ming army into the palace and began to set up defensive fortifications around the palace.

The royal army was assembled and led by Count Shetikos to leave the palace to suppress the rebels.

When Essex and his rebel army arrived at the palace, the Ming army had already prepared fortifications.

Nearly 20,000 Ming troops built a tight firepower defense line with sandbags and trenches. On each floor of the palace, soldiers with outstanding shooting skills were on guard with the best rifles.

The rebels seemed to be well-trained, and their troops were not of a single type. They all marched towards the palace in an orderly manner.

The infantry were arranged in three rows, all holding muskets, and outside them were spearmen with very long spears that were as dense as a forest.

There were also cavalry on both wings, all wearing silver armor and steel helmets, looking very majestic.

This was the first time in this era that the Ming army fought against the English army.

The rebel commander Essex was also very cautious about this, and could not help but ask the noble Baron Fushun, who was familiar with royal affairs, again: "Sir Baron Fushun, are these Ming troops really without cavalry?"

"Earl of Essex, I swear to God, I am not lying to you. These Ming troops have no cavalry. They just have more powerful firearms than us!"

Fushun said.

"If that's the case, it's easy to deal with."

So Essex first ordered his infantry phalanx to attack from the front to attract the attention of the Ming army, and then ordered the cavalry to immediately outflank them from both wings in an attempt to break through the palace's defensive position from the side.

At the same time, Essex ordered the artillery to fire first.

boom!
The first thing that came to the vicinity of the palace was artillery fire. Solid iron bullets with no accuracy flew over and hit the palace wall, knocking off several stones.

Because the Ming army was hiding in trenches or near sandbags, they were not killed by these solid shells.

Qi Jiguang also ordered the artillery to fire. With the help of a telescope, the artillery commander accurately determined the position of the rebel artillery and issued an order to fire long-range howitzers.

The howitzers were powerful. With accurate aiming and agile rear-loading technology, the first round of shelling quickly covered the rebel artillery positions, and the explosions raised thick dust and shook the earth.

The rebel artillery was completely wiped out!
Essex was quite frightened and quickly ordered to speed up the attack. He wanted his army to launch the attack before the Ming army's second round of artillery bombardment.

Although the hedgehog-like spear infantry phalanx increased its speed, it was still very slow due to the need to maintain a neat formation to ensure the effectiveness of line shooting.

"fire!"

Qi Jiguang once again gave the order to fire, and the howitzers brought by the Ming army showed their power again. Ten shells accurately fell into the huge infantry formation of the rebel army, creating waves of heat and bloody pits.

Essex, the rebel commander in the center of the army, was also stunned by the explosion. When the smoke cleared, his face had turned charcoal black, and what appeared before his eyes was no longer a neat phalanx of infantry, but a huge bomb crater and countless broken bodies and limbs.

At the same time, the cavalry on both wings were also bombarded, and dozens of war horses were frightened and ran away.

"The cavalry charge! Charge immediately! Kill their artillery!"

The infantry phalanx was disrupted, and Essex could no longer count on it to attract the main force of the Ming army, so he could only immediately lead the cavalry to charge forward.

The cavalry increased their horsepower and strong mobility, allowing them to quickly approach the Ming army's defense line.

The Ming army immediately launched a fire network to block the attack.

Thousands of grenades were thrown from three directions, like locusts, and a dust curtain exploded in front in an instant. The rebel cavalry rushing to the front was in chaos, the horses neighed, and the cavalry followed with screams. Blood flowed out from the smoke and soon dyed the grass red.

At the same time, in the barrier made of sandbags, the machine gunners of the Ming army began shooting with the Ming version of the Gatling machine gun, still ignoring the intensive bullet fire on the charging cavalry. Some horses fell to the ground due to excessive blood loss from being shot, and their cavalry even flew into the trenches and fell to their deaths!
The dense firepower network composed of hundreds of machine guns reaped the lives of these cavalrymen, and even the war horses that rushed forward out of fright were swept to the ground.

However, due to the cavalry's powerful mobility, some cavalry did come over and jumped over the defense line, but they were only a minority. These few cavalry who rushed in could not escape being shot and killed by the Ming army infantry on the second line of defense.

In addition to machine guns and grenades, short-range artillery also occasionally seeks out enemy concentration points for bombardment.

The area around the entire palace was filled with flying dust and sand, grass debris and corpses were flying everywhere, blood dyed the river red, and dead war horses were scattered everywhere like rocks in the river.

The surviving rebels began to flee frantically, regardless of the Ming army's artillery and bullets.

Essex also grabbed a horse and escaped.

"Reporting to the Emperor, the rebels suffered 46,146 casualties, and our soldiers suffered four casualties..." Qi Jiguang reported to Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao nodded without saying much. The current Ming army's battle against the armies of other countries is a dimensionality reduction attack, so there is no need to be surprised at the ratio of casualties.

Essex hurriedly fled the city of London with hundreds of remaining soldiers.

And at this time.

Miss Catherine and other rebel organizers such as Lelling did not know the news of Essex's defeat. At this time, she was still presiding over the parliament, presiding over the parliament that repealed the Anti-Enclosure Bill.

"Agree to repeal the anti-enclosure bill!"

"Agree to repeal the anti-enclosure bill!"

……

All the members of the House of Representatives expressed their agreement to repeal the Anti-Enclosure Bill. Miss Catherine was satisfied with this and said, "Very good, Speaker Lei Lin and Speaker Jian Zhong, please sign it."

boom!
Shetikos broke in with the royal army. He first ordered the soldiers of the royal guard to shoot the parliament guards, and then directly ordered people to break down the door of the parliament.

As a royal general, Shetikos lived a luxurious life relying on the king's rewards and salaries. He was also quite loyal to Zhu Zaikun. In order to prove his loyalty and capability, he took the initiative to outflank the parliament.

Looking at these parliamentarians, Shetikos issued an order to Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Zaiyuan: "Kill them all, leave no one alive!"

The members were all horrified. They had not expected the royal army to arrive at the parliament so quickly. Miss Catherine shouted, "Shetikos, who gave you the courage to come here? Shouldn't you be protecting your tyrant now?!"

Shetikos first chopped off the head of a congressman with a knife, letting the head and blood roll in the hall, and walked towards Miss Catherine step by step: "The king has defeated your army, I am here to wipe you out by order!"

Pfft!

Shetikos's sharp blade cut off the neck of another congressman. The congressman covered his neck, which was bleeding, in horror and looked at Shetikos. He never thought that this day would come.

The soldiers under Shetikos did the same thing. They grabbed a congressman and slashed him with a knife. With a click, a bloody head was immediately lifted up.

For these officers and soldiers, the king's strength has been proven, and they can only prove their loyalty to the king by killing the king's rebels. Therefore, they are merciless. Moreover, in their opinion, these hypocritical parliamentarians do not deserve to be shown mercy.

Some congressmen wanted to escape, but before they could escape, their heads flew out.

Some congressmen were so frightened that they lost control of their bowels and bladder and hid under the table trembling, but they were still brought out and killed.

Seeing this, Lelin also shouted, "Sir Shetikos, I am willing to return to the king. Please spare me and let me see the king. I am willing to give away all my property!"

Shetikos said nothing, but stabbed Leylin in the stomach, stirred it, and threw the dead Leylin aside, and walked towards Catherine and Jian Zhong.

"Sir Shetikos, I repent, please spare my life for God's sake!"

Click!

Shetikos still killed Jian Zhong, then pressed Catherine on the table and killed her with a knife.

After Catherine's blood had all flowed, Shetikos said to the empty parliament hall: "The king has issued an edict to dissolve the parliament forever! If the king sets up a parliament again in the future, the whole world will punish him! Even God will not forgive him!"

……

The armed rebellion of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, which was aroused by the King of England, Zhu Zaiquan, who forced Parliament to pass the Anti-Enclosure Act and bloody suppressed the vested interests of enclosure in England, was completely suppressed.

In the following period of time, all the princes and nobles who participated in the rebellion were arrested and executed.

Zhu Houzhao ordered Zhu Zaikun to execute tens of thousands of people. He did this naturally to force Zhu Zaikun to learn to be a ruthless king. Moreover, he also knew that if he had not stationed here with tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, it would be his son who would be pushed to the guillotine. Being kind to the enemy is being cruel to himself.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao told his son that he did not need to be merciful to these rebels now that he had absolute power. He would rather kill three thousand people by mistake than let any one go. He had to give the entire English bourgeoisie the most severe blow to make them fully aware of the king's majesty.

In Zhu Houzhao's view, the reason why the English bourgeoisie was so arrogant was because previous kings had been too polite to them.

If we don’t strike the forces of the bourgeoisie now when there are legitimate reasons, then when will we wait? Do we really have to wait until they are able to counterattack?
It was not until three months later that Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Zaigui stopped searching for and executing rebels throughout England.

In order to avoid causing dissatisfaction among the people of England due to his and his son Zhu Zaikun's bloody suppression of the English rebels, Zhu Houzhao ordered Zhu Zaikun to reward the large amount of property confiscated from the rebels to the royal army and nobles who still chose to be loyal to the king this time.

Roger was made Duke, Shetikos became Marquis, and other meritorious personnel were also granted titles and rewarded with countless wealth.

Besides.

Even urban civilians and rural farmers who had nothing to do with the upper-class armed struggle were benefited. Zhu Zaiyuan issued an order to reduce rent on the grounds that the rebels had caused losses to the people.

Zhu Houzhao even issued an edict on the pretext of his birthday to give every citizen of London a subsidy of five Ming silver dollars. This money was naturally paid by Zhu Zai'an, and the source was naturally the confiscation proceeds. The use of Ming silver dollars was naturally to help Ming silver dollars occupy the English currency market.

Although the amount of silver dollars was not much, it won the hearts of the people. In any case, the people began to choose to forget some of the brutal methods of the Ming Dynasty's retired emperor and their king.

But Zhu Houzhao knew that this alone was not enough. If he wanted the entire people of England to accept the royal rule ideologically, he could only strengthen the indoctrination of the idea of ​​divine right of kings, and even engrave in the minds of the English people the idea that there would be no future without a king.

The monks are naturally the best at this.

But there are two religious ideologies in England, one is Catholicism and the other is Protestantism. Protestantism advocates getting rid of the rule of the church and the constraints of etiquette and law, which is in line with the interests of the bourgeoisie.

In order to help his son establish royal rule, Zhu Houzhao could only support Catholicism, which focused on establishing rituals and laws to restrain secular people. However, Zhu Houzhao could not allow his son to become a vassal of Catholicism.

So, Zhu Houzhao decided to change the rules. He let Roger visit Archbishop Thomas, who had a high status among the English church.

"Sir Thomas, I can continue to support your religion to become a country. In the future, I can even help you become the archbishop of the whole of Europe. However, you have to explain one fact to the outside world," Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.

"I don't know what the facts are, please tell me, Your Majesty," Thomas asked.

Zhu Houzhao just smiled, and immediately ordered someone to bring the electric light and the recording box made in the Ming Dynasty that he brought from the Ming Dynasty, and turned on the light switch himself: "Look at this light, this is what I bring to this world. I bring not only light to this world, but also this."

Zhu Houzhao opened the recording box and heard his own voice in English, which said: "I am God."

Thomas was already horrified when he saw the electric light, and now he was even more horrified when he heard the voice coming from the box. He then heard that the voice in the box was actually in English, and it sounded a bit like the voice of the Oriental man in front of him. He shuddered for a moment: "Are you God?"

"If you say it is, then it is. If you say it is not, then it is not. But at least, I am more advanced than you. I know the history of mankind and even the future of mankind, because I created them all! If I want, I can create something in the future that can directly destroy a city. Do you believe it? If you don't believe it, I will shoot you to death and let you go to heaven!"

Zhu Houzhao said this in a mysterious manner and pointed a gun at Thomas.

Thomas pondered for a long time, and finally bowed to Zhu Houzhao and said: "You are God! Your Majesty is the son of God. In the words of the Orientals, our king is the Son of Heaven. His power comes from God's grant and is sacred and inviolable!"

"You are very smart!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled and immediately said to Zhu Zaiyuan, "Ziyuan, remember to reward Bishop Thomas well. From now on, help His Excellency Thomas suppress Protestantism!"

Of course, Zhu Houzhao knew that it would take time to completely deify himself in England, and for now he had to continue pushing England towards centralization.

The victory of the anti-enclosure movement and the rebellion were ensured by suppressing it, and the development of capitalism in England began to be hindered. Next, Zhu Houzhao followed the advice of Roger, the conservative leader of England, and began to prepare to implement the strategy of banning sea and trade.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao formed an alliance with clergy monks such as Thomas and decided to implement a hierarchy of scholars, farmers, workers and merchants in England in order to comprehensively suppress the development of England's commerce and safeguard the interests of traditional aristocrats such as royal family members and church personnel.

(End of this chapter)