Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 177: A strong army makes a difference, the eunuch was caught!
"All my nine ministers are good people, there are no bad people!"

Zhu Houcong said this lightly.

"Stand back!"

Zhu Houcong waved towards Zhao Huang.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Zhao Huang quickly stood up and went to his seat.

Zhu Houcong looked at the cabinet ministers and nine officials.

"What I want to tell you is that I am a protective person, and Zhu Xizhou is the one I want to protect! To oppose Zhu Xizhou is to oppose me!"

"So, any of you who claim that Zhu Xizhou is guilty is trying to depose me and rebel against me!"

Zhu Houcong's tone was stern and intimidating without him being angry.

Liang Chu and other ministers all bowed and said, "We dare not!"

"It's better if you don't dare!"

"There is no doubt that they are against Zhu Xizhou. They are already in rebellion, so we must put down the rebellion!"

Zhu Houcong said this calmly, then glanced at Wang Yangming: "The Ministry of War will dispatch another force from the Weiwu Camp to Nanzhi to quell the rebellion! Let the Southeast Governor Zhu Xizhou command them, and let Hui'an Earl Zhang Wei be the admiral, and Yingtian Governor Wu Tingju supply the military supplies."

Wang Yangming bowed and said yes.

Wang Yangming had actually prepared for this a long time ago, so at the beginning of the month he recalled the Yanshan Guard of the Mighty Camp that had gone to fight against the little prince's troops outside Jizhen.

Soon after, Hui'an Earl Zhang Wei was able to lead 5,000 troops of Yanshan Guard south, including more than 3,000 regular troops and more than 1,000 auxiliary troops.

The force is not large, but fortunately even the auxiliary troops are armored soldiers with practical combat experience and excellent equipment, and their combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the southern official army controlled by the powerful and aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River.

The cabinet ministers and nine officials were not surprised at the emperor's choice to stand on Zhu Xizhou's side, and some even secretly admired him.

Because they actually knew very well what Jiangnan's real purpose was in forcing the emperor to kill Zhu Xizhou by crying in the temple to protest against taxes, and they also knew very well what kind of person Zhu Xizhou was essentially.

Therefore, just for various purposes, many of them needed to pretend to be stupid, pretending that they didn't know Zhu Xizhou well enough, and didn't know the essence of Jiangnan's crying temple and resisting taxation.

If Zhu Houcong looked down on them and thought they were useless, he would naturally fall into their trap.

But Zhu Houcong did not despise them, and even said that they were all good people, so that they would not have the opportunity to mislead himself, the emperor, and distract his attention from internal strife in the court when he needed to protect Zhu Xizhou.

Zhu Houcong knew that he had to protect Zhu Xizhou now!

To protect Zhu Xizhou is to protect the new policy that he is now implementing in the southeast.

If Zhu Xizhou was killed or even dismissed from his post, it would be a failure for Zhu Houcong.

of course.

As for the nine ministers of the ritualist faction like Zhao Huang who did not support the reform in their hearts, they secretly admired him but were also a little disappointed.

However, Zhao Huang could not express his disappointment and could only express his admiration for the emperor.

Therefore, when Zhao Huang left Wenhua Palace and met two southern officials, Yan Hong, the Right Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, and Yang En, the Imperial Censor, who came to ask about how to deal with Zhu Xizhou, he only said:
"In such a turbulent time, it is rare for Your Majesty to be as steady as a rock and to point out that opposing Zhu Xizhou is opposing the imperial court and the great cause of the restoration of the country. Such insightful words!"

"The country has a sage ruler, and it is a blessing for the country!"

Zhao Huang sighed again about this.

Yan Hong and Yang En both looked extremely disappointed.

Yan Hong asked directly: "So, Your Majesty has no intention of killing Zhu Xizhou according to the will of the people of Jiangnan?"

Zhao Huang suddenly asked in a stern voice: "How can we possibly get the wishes of those wealthy and powerful people in Jiangnan who have no regard for the imperial court?!"

"If I were those wealthy people in Jiangnan, I would honestly stop crying in the temple and stop resisting taxes!"

"And we shouldn't think of pretending to be bandits and starting a rebellion when we can't force the court to kill Zhu Xizhou. After all, the court has already determined that this is a rebellion and has begun to dispatch elite troops to the south."

"We shouldn't think that even though we don't dare to start a rebellion, we can ask the gentry in Jiangnan to clean up our own internal affairs and destroy Zhu Kunshan's nine clans! Dig up Zhu Kunshan's ancestral graves!"

"This won't scare Zhu Kunshan! No one knows him better than me!"

"Even if it can scare Zhu Xizhou, it can't scare all the ministers in the court! There will be people who dare to offend these powerful people for your majesty and the people of the country! At least, I, Zhao, dare to sacrifice the lives of my entire family for your majesty!"

After Zhao Huang said this, he turned around and left.

Yan Hong couldn't help but look at Yang En: "The court is going to send more elite troops south?"

Yang En nodded: "It seems that the emperor is unwilling to give up, but the suggestion of the Grand Marshal just now is not bad. We can spread his words to the south."

Yan Hong nodded: "The truth is revealed. If Your Majesty doesn't kill Zhu Xizhou, then Zhu Xizhou will die! Even his whole family will have to pay with their lives!"

……

……

The end of December in the first year of Jiajing.

Wang Jun, the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, received an urgent letter from the capital.

This urgent letter was sent by his student Yan Hong from the capital.

Because when he was a Hanlin official, he presided over the Nanzhi County Examination and admitted Yan Hong and others, so Yan Hong became his disciple early on.

Wang Jun also learned that Zhu Houcong tried his best to protect Zhu Xizhou, and also characterized the Jiangnan scholars' crying in the temple and resisting taxation as rebellion.

"The emperor with strong troops and horses is different!"

After knowing this, Wang Jun said this with a wry smile.

then.

He called the spy of the eunuch Liao Tang, who was in charge of Nanjing garrison, and the clerk who served as his duty clerk in the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, and asked him to meet Liao Tang at the old place.

Since he was transferred to the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel as the Left Vice Minister and then promoted to the Nanjing Ministry of Rites Minister, he has been in Nanjing for more than a year and has made friends with many Nanjing dignitaries.

Liao Tang and Liang Yongfu were the eunuchs and nobles with whom he had the closest connections outside the civil service group.

The reason why Wang Jun has such close ties with these two is so that he can have support from both the inner court and the Five Military Commander's Office when he has the opportunity to return to the imperial court in the future.

Needless to say, the inner court.

For civil officials, if they can make friends with the eunuchs, they can naturally find out more about the emperor's situation, and even manipulate the imperial power through the eunuchs. This goal can be achieved more easily, especially by colluding with the eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department.

This was not uncommon in the history of the Ming Dynasty, where many cabinet ministers and even the ministers of the six ministries colluded with eunuchs to seize power.

Although the nobles mainly controlled the Five Military Commanderies.

The Five Military Commandery no longer has much real power.

But now the nobles of the Five Military Commission are still responsible for leading the troops and managing the military households throughout the country, and the Ministry of War is only responsible for mobilizing troops, commanding them and even providing logistical supplies.

Therefore, this also allowed many nobles to control the government troops and make them work for them.

However, the severity of the control over the government troops varies. The mildest cases involve forcing the government troops to work, repairing walls for themselves, and extorting property from military households. The most serious cases involve turning one's own slaves into garrison officers, or turning garrison officers into one's own slaves, in order to control the army.

in this way……

As long as a civil official forms an alliance with a nobleman, lets a nobleman lead the core troops, and then gains the power to deploy these troops by controlling the Ministry of War, and if the eunuchs in the inner court also cooperate with him, then their political alliance can undermine the emperor.

Although it is difficult to achieve this step, many civil officials in history have not done so.

But for many ambitious civil servants, since they know that doing so will help them gain greater power, they will naturally make such a move when they have the opportunity.

Thus.

Although he looked like a civil servant, and had always been in a clean position in the Hanlin Academy or the two capitals and six ministries before becoming a cabinet minister or even the prime minister, and had no power, in fact, he already had a large group of accomplices, and they were widely spread in the inner court and military merits.

of course……

The same is true for the eunuchs and military honors in the inner court. If any of them is ambitious, they will consciously play chess and make friends with civil officials and eunuchs.

Because, any smart person would do the same to make as many friends as possible.

Wang Jun is no exception.

He has many students and old friends, spread across various groups.

Therefore, he was not afraid that Zhu Xizhou would impeach him for passing messages for the briber and he would lose his political future.

He believed that when the time was right in the future, his accomplices who had invested in him would revive him.

In particular, if Liao Tang became a eunuch in the Imperial Household Department, he would definitely find a way to get the emperor or the future emperor to reinstate him.

As a civil servant from the Hanlin Academy, all he had to do was to guard against arrogance and impatience, relax his mind, take good care of his health, and wait slowly for this day to come.

But he still found it difficult to remain calm when he saw the hired workers wearing the epaulettes of the workers' society and the small vendors wearing the epaulettes of the trading society in Nanjing, with the support of the officers and soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion, taking some hooligans who maliciously withheld wages and disrupted the market and cruel officials to file a complaint with the authorities.

Although he knew that this would help honest factory owners gain greater wealth, merchants and ordinary people to have a better business environment, and would also reduce the number of evil clerks, bullies and hooligans in Nanjing, he still resisted and even felt afraid to let the common people follow the example of the scholars and officials and form a united cooperative.

After all, if the people could form associations and work directly with the government to suppress cruel officials, evil officials, and hooligans, then what would the gentry do?
Then what can the gentry rely on to build up an image of themselves as local sages who help the poor and needy and uphold justice for the people?

When Wang Jun was thinking this, Liang Yongfu, Marquis of Baoding, suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Where are you going, sir?"

Liang Yongfu therefore asked.

Wang Jun replied, "I was just about to go see Eunuch Liao."

Liang Yongfu asked hurriedly after hearing this: "But is there any new news?"

Wang Jun nodded and looked around. Seeing that there was no suspicious person, he asked Liang Yongfu to go with him to a flower boat on the Qinhuai River to talk in detail.

then.

The two men came on a flower boat, without calling any girls, but only had their own people serve and watch over them.

Wang Jun then said to Liang Yongfu, "There is news from the capital that your majesty wants to protect Zhu Xizhou and has classified the crying in the temple and resisting taxes as rebellion. He has sent more troops to suppress the rebellion. In addition, the establishment of agricultural, industrial and commercial cooperatives is also in accordance with your majesty's will."

"What a clever emperor! He is really amazing!"

Liang Yongfu couldn't help but put his hands on his hips and sighed, saying, "My people failed to stop the Yongwei Camp at Tongji Gate this time because he sent the Jinyiwei in advance and asked Duke Wei to interfere in the matter, forcing me to send one of my loyal servants to the Jinyiwei he sent. I wrote a letter to accuse myself of saying that it was all my servant who falsely conveyed my orders. Now I didn't expect that he not only sent the Jinyiwei, but also asked Zhou Shangwen to organize a common people's society!"

"Is it really impossible to get rid of Zhu Xizhou?"

Liang Yongfu then asked Wang Jun another question.

Wang Jun stroked his beard and said, "If the court doesn't get rid of Zhu Xizhou, then the people can do it! In short, he, Zhu Xizhou, must be eliminated! And if the court gets rid of him, Zhu Xizhou may be able to save his life, but if the people get rid of him, his whole family will be wiped out!"

“This is hard!”

Liang Yongfu waved his hand and said, "Gu Dingchen wanted to use the power of the people to get rid of Wang Yangming's family, but he was stopped by the Jinyiwei who were arranged in Yuyao in advance and the county officials and people. He ended up being executed!"

"Gu Dingchen is a Nanzhi noble who wants to take revenge on the Zhejiang nobles. He needs to use the power of the pirates, which is inevitably inconvenient."

"But this time, the Nanzhi gentry can eliminate the traitors within themselves, just like the emperor's purge of the inner court, they are cleaning up their own doors. As long as there are gentry children in Nanzhi who are willing, especially those in Jiangnan who are willing, we can easily wipe out their entire family!"

"Because whether it's the Jinyiwei or the Qinjunwei going to Suzhou, the locals will find out in advance!"

Wang Junyan said.

Liang Yongfu asked, "But are the Suzhou nobles willing to clean up their house?"

"The Suzhou gentry didn't dare to do so, but the gentry in Songjiang, Yingtian, and Changzhou were willing to do so. After all, when the court blamed them, they could put the blame on the Suzhou gentry, and restrict the Suzhou gentry from taking the imperial examinations and pursuing official careers."

Wang Jun replied.

Liang Yongfu nodded: "That makes sense!"

"But destroying a noble family is not bullying the common people. I'm afraid you will have to provide armor and firearms. You are the nobles of Nandu and have lived in Nanzhi for generations. You have many marriages with the nobles of Yingtian, Songjiang, and Changzhou. It is your duty to facilitate this matter."

Wang Jun said.

Liang Yongfu smiled faintly: "Of course! This time, his Jinyiwei can't stop me from associating with my relatives, right?"

Wang Jun also smiled slightly: "After all, you are the descendant of a meritorious official. Without solid evidence, it would be difficult for the emperor to punish you. If the truth is revealed, it would be nothing more than letting one or two loyal servants take the blame."

"Exactly this!"

Wang Jun met Liang Yongfu before going to see Liao Tang, but Liao Tang had already been stopped at home by Zhu Qi.

"Oracle!"

Zhu Qi also shouted this.

Liao Tang knelt down hurriedly, thinking to himself that it must be because his behavior of suppressing the crying scholars at the temple scene in the past was recognized by the new emperor, so he wanted to formally transfer me back to Beijing to serve? Even if he didn't transfer me back to Beijing, he still wanted to affirm me, right?

"You are such a bold servant!"

(End of this chapter)