Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 37 The Great Victory in Northern Shaanxi!!! The Great Victory in Southwest China!!!
The great victory in northern Shaanxi! Our army has achieved a great victory over the rebels, beheading the rebel leader Wang Er and defeating over ten thousand enemy soldiers!
A great victory in the Southwest! Our army annihilated 5,000 enemy soldiers, beheaded the rebel chieftain She Chongming, and forced An Bangyan to kneel and surrender!
On September 12th, news of victory arrived frequently throughout the day. The news of the great victory thrilled officials and people throughout Beijing. Victory reports from the southwest and northwest were delivered to the imperial court via official post stations. During the morning court session, the emperor presided over the "announcement of victory," ordering the contents of the victory reports to be read aloud in court. The victory reports were copied, enlarged, and displayed on one side of the nine gates of the capital for the entire city to admire.

When Zhu Youjian received the news, he was still somewhat dazed, thinking, "When did my Great Ming become so powerful?"

It's understandable that he made arrangements in Shaanxi. Wasn't the She-An Rebellion not quelled until the third year of Chongzhen's reign? He even subconsciously thought, somewhat pathologically, that this was another despicable and shameless attempt to cover up a defeat. But when he saw the incredibly detailed battle reports, with the astonishing gains and negligible casualties of the Ming army, it proved that these were two absolute and complete victories.

Because both victories came so suddenly, without even the imperial court sending censors or military supervisors, Qin Liangyu and Du Hongyu requested the Ministry of War to send officials to verify their achievements as soon as possible in their victory reports. This clearly showed their confidence and that they were not trying to kill innocent people to claim credit.

The Ministry of War officials were grinning from ear to ear. The Ministry of Rites joined in, hoping the Emperor would report the victory at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, since national affairs revolved around sacrifices and warfare. Only the Minister of Revenue wore a bitter expression. According to the Ming Dynasty's merit-based system, how was he possibly going to come up with the tens of thousands of taels of silver reward? Couldn't they have been more careful with those two murderers?
"Your Majesty, the court should dispatch the White-Spear Army from Sichuan and the cavalry under Deputy Commander Du to Liaodong, and with the momentum of a great victory, recapture Liaodong in one fell swoop!" the Liaodong Circuit Inspector shouted excitedly, only to be met with stares from many, including the Emperor, as if he were a fool. However, considering his identity as an "Easterner," his desire to reclaim his homeland was not incomprehensible, especially on this joyous occasion, so it was not appropriate to criticize him.

However, Qin Liangyu was an honest woman. She truthfully recounted the events of the She Chongming rebel army's attack, which led to panic and infighting, resulting in the complete annihilation of the rebels. She did not boast that she had led the army to kill them. After all, a casualty rate of zero to over five thousand was simply too outrageous, so outrageous that even Qi Jiguang's army could not achieve it. She was too embarrassed to brag about it.

Therefore, a huge disagreement arose in the court regarding how her military merits should be calculated. Ultimately, it came down to poverty; the Ministry of Revenue insisted that they could not be calculated according to normal executions, since Qin Liangyu's case was too opportunistic, and at most, they should be counted as one-third of the total number of heads.

The nobles were unhappy. Although they were extremely jealous, they spontaneously began to protect the interests of their military group. How could they tolerate their military achievements being constantly discounted?

The most vehement reaction came from Duke Zhang Weixian of Yingguo. He grabbed Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Revenue, by the collar and raised his fist, as big as a sandbag, to smash it into the old man's face. Marquis Deng Wenming of Dingyuan followed closely behind, grabbing Zhang Weixian's leg to urge him not to act impulsively, while secretly observing the emperor's expression. Seeing that the emperor looked amused, he pushed Zhang Weixian forward a little further.

"Take a shortcut?! Why don't you, Minister Guo, lead your troops to climb the walls of Shenyang in the middle of the night, kill the slave chieftain, and show His Majesty a shortcut?!" Zhang Weixian said with a mocking expression.

Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Revenue, was not easily intimidated. He indicated that he could accept the full amount, but the Ministry of Revenue would be short of funds, and the Ministry of War would have to contribute a portion of the horse-related taxes. The Emperor could no longer remain hidden; he knew that the Emperor had recently been embezzling and selling off palace assets, and now had money.

Seeing their fierce argument, Zhu Youjian assumed it involved a large sum of money. However, the Ministry of War stated that each head of a Western barbarian was only worth ten taels of silver, meaning five thousand men would only amount to fifty thousand taels at most. He simply waved his hand and ordered it all to be paid from the imperial treasury. The Ministry of War objected, "Your Majesty, what are you trying to do? Bribe generals? No, no, absolutely not! These are the imperial army, not your private army! Your Majesty, you should stick to your tens of thousands of old, weak, and disabled Imperial Guards."

The Minister of War stepped forward and stomped on Guo Yunhou's foot, while the other ministers rushed over to separate the two. These were all high-ranking officials of the second rank; such shoving and pulling was utterly disrespectful! Finally, they gritted their teeth and scraped together 100,000 taels of silver for Qin Liangyu. Fifty thousand taels were a reward for her outstanding contribution, and the other fifty thousand taels were for her extraordinary feat of killing the bandit leader and forcing An Bangyan to surrender.

Next came the discussion of Qin Liangyu's personal rewards. Qin Liangyu was already a first-rank imperial consort; any further reward would have to be a proper noble title, not just a title to appease her. However, bestowing a title upon a woman was unprecedented and met with strong opposition. Now, the civil officials and nobles stood together, believing that the merits of their military exploits could be relinquished to Qin Liangyu's son, but not to her personally. However, in matters of bestowing titles, the emperor held absolute power. If Emperor Daojun could, in a good mood, restore the titles of a group of founding nobles who had long been stripped of them, Zhu Youjian could certainly do the same.

Generally speaking, the emperor was only unwilling to bestow titles because he was stingy. Besides, Qin Liangyu's achievements were not lacking; the only difference was her gender.

The Wanli Emperor broke with the tradition that "the hereditary chieftainship required a male heir" and directly appointed Qin Liangyu as the Pacification Commissioner of Shizhu. The Tianqi Emperor appointed Qin Liangyu as a general and specially granted her permission to "raise her own provisions and prepare defenses." Everyone knew that both the Zhu family grandfather and grandson were very fond of Qin Liangyu.

Zhu Youjian then generously bestowed upon Qin Liangyu the title of Earl of Loyalty. However, not wanting to provoke the group of nobles who exuded a sour aura, Zhu Youjian did not grant Qin Liangyu an "iron certificate," meaning her title was not hereditary. As a result, the opposition was not so intense.

There was no consensus in the court regarding whether to accept An Kunihiko's surrender. After all, An Kunihiko had a history of surrendering and then rebelling multiple times, and his credibility had long been exhausted.

However, the supporters also had their reasons: the last time the court forced someone to commit suicide, promising not to kill his family. How could they recruit a rebel like that? Wasn't that just forcing someone to rebel? Moreover, the court was short of money. The She'an Rebellion had dragged on for so long, and the southwestern rebellion had also dragged on for so long. The tax revenue from several provinces had been used up. The court should know when to stop.

Even if he rebels, that's a matter for the future; we can suppress him then. The most important thing now is to find a way to take advantage of the opportune moment when the old servant has just died and Huang Taiji has suffered repeated setbacks in Liaodong, so that the court can concentrate its efforts on recovering Liaodong in one fell swoop.

When in doubt, they would draft a resolution; if the resolution was unsatisfactory, they would keep it in the palace without issuing it. Zhu Youjian interrupted the argument and continued the court session. He couldn't wait to go back and share his joy with his wives; he didn't want to waste time arguing with these old fogies in court.

Du Hongyu was an honest man. Although he claimed to have defeated more than 10,000 enemy soldiers, he only reported 3,000 bandit heads. Moreover, civilians were worthless; only able-bodied men were worth money, and even then, each head was only worth five taels of silver.

Du Hongyu sent what he claimed was a victory report, but half of the report was a complaint, saying that the court owed them twenty-three months' worth of military pay and that the soldiers in Yansui Town were starving to death. He hoped the court would pay them as soon as possible. His victory report was used to demand their pay.

The Ministry of Revenue's opinion was that a small reward was acceptable, but a paltry sum would suffice. As for military pay, why couldn't the Yansui Garrison understand the court's difficulties?!

(End of this chapter)