Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 89: The royal robes bow down, the imperial power is the only one!

imperial power.

It is the power that belongs to the emperor alone.

It cannot be replaced by other people or other government offices.

The former Imperial Household Department and the current Imperial Guard were both committing crimes in the local area under the banner of the emperor.

It is true that the Ming Dynasty valued culture over military affairs.

It is true that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty used civil power to control military power.

However, from Emperor Taizu Gao to the present day, in nearly two hundred years, through eleven emperors, there has never been an official decree that civil officials have a higher status than military generals.

There had never been an official imperial decree allowing civil officials to order and command the army at will.

The reason why military generals at all levels were afraid of civil officials was that the emperors were deliberately taking sides. The military had suffered a lot of losses, so they dared to be angry but not speak out.

This meant that even a third-rank general like Huaiyuan would be the first to salute when meeting a small seventh-rank censor.

Over time, military generals became afraid of civil officials, afraid of eunuchs who waved the emperor's banner, and now, they are afraid of the Embroidered Uniform Guards as well.

However, except for the emperor's explicit edict, civil servants, eunuchs, and the Imperial Guards could not interfere with any of the army's actions.

Zhu Houcong knew that the civil servants in the court and the Imperial Household Department in the inner court had coveted military power for a long time, and the military generals would tolerate it again and again and give in when possible.

But now, Zhu Houcong has slaughtered all the civil officials in the court, and the Silijian has lost most of its power and no longer has the right to approve documents.

Zhu Houcong thought that the Ming army would gradually get rid of their fear of these non-military people, but he never expected that after the explosion at the North Wharf of Jingu, a captain of the Jinyiwei and a dozen Ti cavalrymen suppressed nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Three Guards of Jingu for several hours and made them dare not move!

Since the Lantern Festival, the Jinyiwei has continued to increase its strength, reversing the decline of the past hundred years, reversing its own status, and also taking over a lot of invisible power from the Silijian.

But whether it was the Imperial Household Department or the Embroidered Uniform Guard, none of their powers involved ordering or commanding the military!
Throughout the Ming Dynasty, all military movements in the two capitals and thirteen provinces had to be approved by Emperor Zhu Houcong.

army.

It is the most important support for imperial power, no doubt about it!

However, the behavior of the Jingu Jinyiwei made Zhu Houcong see the hidden crisis. A captain of the Jinyiwei could stop the important reserve troops in the capital with just his sweet words.

After Lu Bing, the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, arrived, the commanders of the three guards of Jingu chose to withdraw their troops and return to the camp without any negotiation.

The imperial edict ordered Lu Bing to return to Beijing immediately, not because he suspected that the explosion of Prince Jing's treasure ship was related to the Jinyiwei, but because the deterrent power of the Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty exceeded Zhu Houcong's imagination.

How could a special organization on a covert front be so high-profile?

The daring actions of the Jinyiwei's thousand-household offices in the two capitals and thirteen provinces were beyond Zhu Houcong's imagination.

Just based on a "collusion hypothesis" with an extremely low possibility, he dared to draw his sword against an army of tens of thousands of people!

Similarly.

The cowardice of the commander of the three guards of Jingu made Zhu Houcong extremely angry.

What was the commander of the three Jingu guards army afraid of before seeing the imperial edict?
but.

None of these were important to Zhu Houcong. As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he wanted to make people see the price of trying to touch military power, and also let the military generals in the two capitals and thirteen provinces understand that they should not be afraid of any person or object other than the emperor and the imperial edict.

otherwise.

dead!
There are only two kinds of people that Zhu Houcong can trust: one is a stupid person, and the other is a straightforward person. Huang Jin is the kind of person who is both stupid and straightforward.

Huang Jin was shocked by the Emperor's heartfelt words.

Zhu Houcong knew that Huang Jin could figure it out, so he walked out of the temple, and Huang Jin hurriedly followed.

In the main hall.

Before the audience, Lu Bing changed into court clothes and knelt there. After he returned to Beijing, he received the news from Jingu. Chen Hong did not conduct any screening, and arrested the commander of the three Jingu guards and Wang Min, the captain of the Jingu Qianhu Division of the Jinyiwei, with an imperial decree.

Rectify the law on the spot!

The crime charged against the commander of the three guards of Jingu was cowardice and fear of fighting.

Wang Min’s crime was usurpation of power.

This had nothing to do with the emperor's suspicion that the Jinyiwei were involved in the explosion of Prince Jing's treasure ship, as he had guessed on the way back to Beijing.

Lu Bing was a smart man. On the way to Yuxi Palace, he figured out the key to the problem.

The confrontation between the Three Guards of Jingu and the Jinyiwei Jingu Thousand Households attracted Longmu's attention.

Compared with the life and death of Prince Jing, what the emperor cared more about was that the Jinyiwei had usurped the imperial power and interfered with the military power. He issued orders to the three guards of Jingu, and the three guards of Jingu actually listened to them!
The death of the commander of the three guards of Jingu was a warning from the emperor to all the generals of the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Min’s death was a warning from the emperor to all the Jinyiwei of the Northern Pacification Division.

When it comes to your duties, you don't have to obey any orders other than the imperial edict.

Never reach out for power that is not within your responsibility.

Lu Bing knew that the Jinyiwei had been growing wildly these days, meddling in the affairs of local government offices and interfering with the actions of local troops more than once or twice.

Almost all the Jinyiwei were immersed in power, and they dared to control those under their command, regardless of whether they were within the Jinyiwei's power or not.

Fearing the Jinyiwei's crazy massacre in the two capitals, the local government offices and the army dared not speak out.

But Wang Min's death also made Lu Bing experience this feeling. With the majestic power of the emperor, the Jinyiwei dared not be angry, let alone speak out.

The sound of footsteps came.

Lu Bing regained his composure, knelt upright, and moved with the emperor's movements. When Zhu Houcong walked to the throne, he knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I, Lu Bing, kowtow to you!"

Zhu Houcong stood in front of the throne, but did not sit down. He just held the armrest on one side of the throne with one hand and looked at the person kneeling on the ground indifferently, "Is Shou's mother in good health?"

When Zhu Houcong looked at Lu Bing, he thought of his wet nurse when he was a child. Lu Bing had been entering and leaving the palace with his mother since he was a child, and forty or fifty years had passed in the blink of an eye.

"Your Majesty, my mother is in good health." Lu Bing replied hurriedly.

Zhu Houcong nodded and said, "Don't let the old lady send off the young one."

If it weren't for his mother's birthday, Lu Bing would have met with Lu Fang in the imperial prison at this moment to discuss his experience of usurping the imperial power.

But Lu Bing is not Lu Fang, and he probably doesn't have a set of evidence against all officials to exonerate himself.

Lu Bing was terrified and kowtowed again, saying, "I started the anti-revolutionary campaign when I returned to the Northern Pacification Office. I guarantee with my life that there will never be any usurpation again."

"A loud drum doesn't need a heavy hammer, I hope."

Zhu Houcong raised his voice and asked, "Have you found King Jing?"

"Your Majesty, Prince Jing has not been found yet. The Jinyiwei in Tianjin are stepping up their search and rescue efforts," Lu Bing replied.

The treasure ship exploded.

It was extremely strange that Prince Jing was nowhere to be seen alive or dead. Lu Bing had an immature idea that perhaps Prince Jing was not on that treasure ship!
If it’s not on the treasure ship, then where is it?

But I can't say any of this in front of the emperor.

Zhu Houcong could see what he was thinking, so he waved his hand and said, "The search and rescue will continue, but don't give up on tracking down the murderer. Enough of my sons have died."

Thousands of kilograms of gunpowder could mysteriously appear on King Jing's treasure ship. So, could it also appear in Yuxi Palace?

Just like the fires, fires and palace maids that he had encountered in previous years, all without any warning.

(End of this chapter)