Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 19 Betrayal of Yang Tinghe

"The heir really loves the people like his own children!"

"There is hope for the revival of the country!"

April of the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign, Xinchou (twenty).

Near the Beijing suburbs Xingdian.

Zhang Cong couldn't help but say this as he watched the large number of refugees who followed Zhu Houcong's carriage and, under the guidance of the accompanying officers, set up camp, made fires and cooked in an orderly manner outside the palace.

Zhang Cong, who had passed the imperial examination in the 16th year of Zhengde and was waiting for the new emperor to ascend the throne so that he could take part in the palace examination, left the city and came to the suburbs of Beijing because the successor Zhu Houcong had not yet ascended the throne. So he came here with several friends who had taken the same examination, led by his teacher Yan Song, to watch the imperial carriage.

What Zhang Cong did not expect was that after he arrived in Liangxiang, he saw with his own eyes the scene of a large number of refugees following the emperor, and he also learned the reason why these refugees wanted to follow the emperor to Beijing.

Not only Zhang Cong, but all the officials and scholars who had come to Liangxiang in advance to wait for the emperor were shocked by the scene before them.

Because they didn't expect that the successor emperor Zhu Houcong would bring so many refugees with him when he came to Beijing.

Originally, they all thought that Zhu Houcong, the weak successor, could not bring many people with him, and many of them even had the same intention as Yang Tinghe to bully the small foreign clans.

But the scene before them forced them to re-examine Zhu Houcong.

The key is.

There were also refugees from nearby areas constantly flowing towards the Holy Chariot.

The size of the refugees accompanying the emperor was also constantly growing.

Voices of laughter, as they heard that the successor emperor who was leading them north would soon arrive in the capital and ascend the throne, continued to appear in the gathering places of the people who were accompanying the emperor.

Therefore, not only Zhang Cong, but also Jiang Ruobi, a fellow tribute student, could not help but have tears in his eyes. He nodded and echoed Zhang Cong: "How lucky we are to have such a holy and benevolent ruler in power!"

Yan Song, their teacher, frowned and said, "You can be moved, but you must think about the future. There are no less than 200,000 unemployed refugees. How to settle them is a big problem!"

Speaking of it.

Yan Song stood up, holding his belt, and said, "Besides, the Prime Minister has decided to lay off more than 100,000 Jinyiwei, internal supervisors, flag officers, and laborers left by the late emperor. Not all of these people have land and property. After being dismissed, they can return to their hometowns to farm and support their families. I am afraid that many of them will become bandits or slaves in the capital. Now there are so many refugees. Can the Prime Minister handle them well without causing starvation, bandits, and even chaos in the capital?"

“Students think this is not difficult!”

Zhang Cong directly responded to Yan Song's words and said:

"I have a plan to solve this problem. Let alone resettling 200,000 refugees and 100,000 military schools, even if there are 1 million refugees and 1 million military schools to resettle, it won't be a problem."

Yan Song was always kind to others, and he was not disgusted by Zhang Cong, who was very aggressive. He smiled and asked, "What's your strategy?"

……

"Brother, what strategy do you have to deal with the refugees that the heir has brought into the capital?"

"But the heir has already said that because he believes you are a capable minister, he decided not to drive away the refugees and bring them to the capital."

Yang's house.

After Yang Tinghe said this, Yang Tingyi asked Yang Tinghe a question with great concern.

Yang Tinghe was silent for a long time before he said, "We do have a strategy, but to implement it, we must reform the system."

Yang Tingyi couldn't help but ask, "What system should be changed?"

"Do you think this is the real purpose of the heir?"

Yang Tinghe did not answer, but asked about Yang Tingyi.

Yang Tingyi thought for a moment and said, "I have the same concern, but I cannot confirm it, because I cannot tell whether the successor is truly kind and benevolent or just pretending to be so scheming. But he has indeed given us a big problem now."

"Whether the heir is truly kind or just pretending to be kind, as long as he is willing to make this gesture, there is a way to control him."

"I'm afraid that the successor will be like the late emperor, unwilling to even make a gesture."

After Yang Tinghe said this, he picked up the Liang Guan on the table and said to Yang Tingyi:
"You go back and meet the heir first, and tell him that I will come immediately with the other officials to welcome the heir after I persuade the Imperial Household Department to ask the Queen Mother to issue an imperial decree to persuade him to ascend the throne."

After Yang Tinghe said this, he held Liang Guan in his arms and walked out with a stern expression.

Yang Tingyi bowed and said yes.

Then, Yang Tingyi really returned to where Zhu Houcong was staying.

But after he came back, he did not go to see Mao Cheng first, but went directly to see Yuan Zonggao, who was in charge of the refugees accompanying the emperor. During this period, according to Yang Tingyi himself, he was impressed by Yuan Zonggao's methods of helping the people accompanying the emperor, preserving the benevolence of the successor emperor, and making the people safe and the emperor happy, so he was willing to follow Yuan Zonggao's lead.

Yuan Zonggao did not refuse Yang Tingyi's offer of allegiance because he did not have many old friends and students and needed to expand his own power.

Therefore, although Yang Tingyi is still nominally on the same side as Mao Cheng and both belong to Yang Tinghe's party, he has secretly moved to Yuan Zonggao's side.

Just like, in history, when Yang Tinghe looked down on Liu Jin, he secretly went against his brother's wishes and attached himself to Liu Jin. It was not until the eve of Liu Jin's downfall that he told the outside world that he had listened to his brother's advice and realized Liu Jin's treachery.

"Mr. Yuan, my brother said something after learning that the heir was unwilling to enter the capital as the crown prince."

After meeting Yuan Zonggao, Yang Tingyi relayed to Yuan Zonggao the content of the conversation between him and Yang Tinghe, thus betraying his brother without hesitation.

Yuan Zonggao asked hurriedly: "What did he say?"

"My brother said: How can the successor love the people so much?!"

Yang Tingyi answered truthfully.

Yuan Zonggao couldn't help laughing and asked, "What about the more than 200,000 refugees who followed the emperor? Did he say how to settle them?"

Yang Tingyi replied: "My brother said that only by changing the system can we settle them, and I suspect that the successor intends to change the system."

"It is not the successor who intends to change the system, but I who intend to change the system."

Yuan Zonggao replied with a laugh, "It seems that he understands that in order to settle these refugees and preserve the virtue of the successor, the only strategy is to change the old system that Taizu issued an edict that newly reclaimed farmland in the north will never be taxed, clean up the farmland, and take all the uncultivated farmland in the capital as official land and rent it to the people."

……

“Students believe that the only coping strategy is to reform the system!”

The outskirts of the capital.

In a teahouse not far from the hall.

After Yan Song asked this, Zhang Cong replied in a high-pitched voice.

Although Zhang Cong was five years older than Yan Song, in the Ming Dynasty, the relationship between teachers and students was always judged by their academic qualifications. Yan Song was a Jinshi in the 18th year of Hongzhi, and was now a reader in the Hanlin Academy. He also served as an examiner in this year's joint examination, while Zhang Cong was only a new tribute scholar, so he could only be called a student in front of Yan Song.

After hearing what Zhang Cong said, Yan Song said nothing and just smiled awkwardly.

When the other bureaucrats and scholars who were present heard that a large number of people had accompanied the emperor to the capital and had come to see him, they all looked at him with awe.

no way.

Zhang Cong said this in a loud voice, as if he was afraid that others would not understand his ambition.

But at this time, Xia Yan, the Right Secretary of the Military Department, heard what Zhang Cong said and came over to ask, "How should we change it?"

"In the 26th year of Hongwu, Taizu issued an edict that newly reclaimed land in the north would never be taxed again."

"So from then on, no tax was levied on newly reclaimed land in the north."

"At the time, Taizu's move was a good strategy to strengthen the north and win the hearts of the people in the north, but today, this system has become a big disadvantage!"

"Because now, the northern army and civilians have already fled in large numbers, and most of the land has already been taken over by the rich and powerful, and all of these lands have been designated as newly reclaimed lands, causing these lands to be monopolized by the rich and powerful, which in turn caused the land rents to be high. High land rents inevitably make it inevitable that some people would rather become bandits, boatmen, or domestic slaves than to pay rent, which has caused many fields to be abandoned. Even outside the gates of the capital, there are large amounts of wasteland."

"So we should change this system, clear out the wasteland, and rent it back to the people. With the scale of wasteland in the capital today, it would be no problem to accommodate not only 200,000 refugees, but even 2 million, and we could also increase tax revenue."

After Zhang Cong said this, Xia Yan looked as if he was thinking seriously.

But before he could even open his mouth to ask, Yan Song pulled Zhang Cong aside and said to him in a serious tone, "Bingyong! You must be careful not to show off too much. Besides, you are going to be an official in the future. You should know the dangers of officialdom. You must not show off your true colors easily, otherwise your career as an official will not last long. Think twice!"

"You should know who is in charge of the country right now. That's Yang Xindu, who is obsessed with restoring the Hongzhi reign! Do you think what good will come out of your words if they get to his ears?"

"I thought you were older and should be more calm than those new scholars, but I didn't expect you to be more flamboyant than those young scholars!"

Yan Song then criticized Zhang Cong for a few more words, then he put his hands behind his back, looked forward, and said to Zhang Cong with his back to him in a condescending manner:
"I'll give you a piece of advice: an official should be humble and modest!"

Let me tell you, historically, Yan Song passed the imperial examination earlier than Zhang Cong. When Zhang Cong passed the imperial examination, he was already a Hanlin. However, like Zhang Cong, he was arranged to Nanjing by Yang Tinghe in the early stage of the Great Ritual.

Those who are familiar with Ming history know that being assigned to Nanjing as a Beijing official was equivalent to being demoted.

But the information found now cannot prove that they had a teacher-student relationship, nor can it deny that they had a teacher-student relationship. The author only set them up as a teacher-student relationship based on the fact that Yan Song was demoted together with Zhang Cong during this period, and later rose with the help of Zhang Cong, and did not retaliate against Zhang Cong after coming to power. This was required by the novel and a reasonable interpretation, and it is not necessarily true.

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(End of this chapter)