Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 133 Rebels' Plot Leads to the Fall of Zhongdu (Part 1)

Wei Zhongxian made his move.

This fellow is truly insidious and ruthless. He even deliberately hid half of his men on the ship to wait for the enemy to make trouble.

As a result, they wiped out all the ringleaders in one fell swoop, and almost all the young and strong men who participated in the riot were also arrested.

Immediately afterwards, he ordered that all the young men and their families involved in the riot be exiled!

It seems the local forces in Suzhou Prefecture are now helpless, as their secret leaders have all been killed, and those who dare to cause trouble are being exiled.

Those civilians who didn't participate in the riot were already timid; who would dare listen to them continue their rioting?
Zhu Jue was overjoyed upon receiving the news.

Now Wei Zhongxian could confidently and boldly confiscate land. At least half of the farmland in Suzhou Prefecture and the surrounding counties of Taihu Lake could be confiscated. Then, the disaster victims from Shaanxi could be relocated there to grow grain, cultivate sweet potato and potato seedlings, and even grow mulberry trees and raise silkworms.

Those young men and their families who were exiled to Dongfan were forced to work as laborers for free for three years.

With so much land and manpower, Xu Guangqi could certainly speed up the promotion of sweet potatoes, potatoes, or other products by more than double.

If the business deal with the Spanish is finalized, he will soon have money and supplies to provide disaster relief.

He was just thinking about providing relief to the disaster victims in the Northwest when it seemed that something big was about to happen in the Northwest.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., he arrived at the main hall of Yuxi Palace, opened the first memorial, glanced at it, and couldn't help but frown.

Hong Chengchou reported that the rebels in the Central Plains were already showing signs of uniting. He said that with 20,000 troops, it would be good enough if they were not wiped out by the rebels themselves, let alone wiped out the rebels.

This guy keeps requesting reinforcements, and this time he's requesting a whopping 100,000 troops!
Hong Chengchou had actually been submitting memorials to the emperor for the past few months, but they were all minor achievements that were of little significance.

The leaders this guy wiped out, such as Dian Dengzi, Yang Laochai, Duxinglang, Yitiaolong, and Du San, were all small-time leaders with only a few hundred men under their command. Compared to the rebels whose numbers had swelled to at least 100,000, they were really insignificant.

He pretended to urge this guy to quickly suppress the rebels, but the guy kept asking him for more men.

In fact, they were all secretly fattening up the rebels.

He wanted to fatten up the rebels before dealing with those wealthy and heartless princes and royal families.

Hong Chengchou wanted to fatten up the rebels so that they could cooperate with the Jurchens.

As for this fellow requesting to mobilize troops, it's simply because he wants to deplete his funds and provisions.

And you keep talking about 100,000 troops. Wouldn't it be better if I conscripted 100,000 soldiers from the capital garrison? Even if I mobilized 100,000 troops for you, that wouldn't be enough for you to send away. You could send away 130,000 elite border troops in one go!

After reading the memorial, Zhu Jue sneered, then handed it to Liu Ruoyu and said coldly, "Approve that he has no money or grain."

Uh, why doesn't Your Majesty mobilize a large army to quell the rebels?
Although Liu Ruoyu found it very difficult to understand, she didn't dare to ask.

At this time, the number of rebels in the Central Plains was not just over 100,000, but as many as 70 groups with more than 200,000 members!

These rebels were not just showing signs of uniting, but had already begun to unite. More than seventy rebel groups were converging eastward from Kaifeng like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, seemingly aiming to take down Zheng Fan in one fell swoop.

Whether Hong Chengchou was genuinely afraid of being killed by the rebels or already knew the truth, he continued to loiter in the Huaiqing and Weihui prefectures on the north bank of the Yellow River, refusing to cross the river.

What does it mean to have more than 200,000 rebels?
That was absolutely overwhelming!

Soon, counties east of Zhengzhou and south of the Yellow River, such as Sishui, Xingyang, Heyin, and Xingze, were captured by the rebels. Large groups of rebels even marched all the way to Guangwu Mountain north of Kaifeng, showing a strong momentum to block Hong Chengchou's reinforcements and take Zhengzhou in one fell swoop.

King Zhou was so frightened that he immediately sent a urgent message to the capital seeking help.

Around 9 a.m. that day, Zhu Jue had just finished reviewing the memorials when he led Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua and others straight to the newly built North City.

At this time, Lu Xiangshan, Huang Degong, Tian Hongyu and others were already waiting on the city gate tower of the north gate.

After everyone exchanged greetings, Zhu Jue asked directly, "Father-in-law, how is it? Is the moat to the north finished?" Well, how should I put it?

Tian Hongyu thought for a moment, then said cautiously, "Your Majesty, you said that the moat needs to be navigable by boats of 800 liang (a unit of weight), so it would be best to lay stone slabs on both sides as embankments. Otherwise, it may have to be dredged every year."

The moat to the north is no ordinary moat; it's over a hundred li long!

They gathered more than 300,000 able-bodied men from the Beijing Garrison and the Imperial Guards, and it took them nearly a month to dig to a depth of more than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters). If they had paved both sides with stone slabs, it would have taken an unknown amount of time.

This is because digging soil is easy, but chiseling stone is difficult. In those days, there was no equipment for cutting stone slabs; they were all chiseled out by hand.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then simply asked, "How long do you think it will take to pave the entire area with stone slabs?"

Tian Hongyu pondered, "That depends on how many stonemasons we gather to quarry and carve stones. Even if we send all the stonemasons in the capital, it would probably take about half a year to carve out enough stone slabs."

Half a year?

Zhu Jue shook his head repeatedly and said, "Forget it, let's release the water first. Half a year is too long, we can't wait."

This year we must complete the entire western city wall, and we also need to dig a moat, while simultaneously connecting the Yongding River and the Wenyu River, so that there will be enough water in the moat to carry boats.

Alright, you are the emperor now, whatever you say goes.

Tian Hongyu nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, when shall we begin constructing the western city wall?"

We'll have to wait for Wei Zhongxian to return and reclaim the land.

Wei Zhongxian is busy with something in Suzhou Prefecture.

Right now, they're arresting and exiling people and confiscating property over there, so we definitely can't bring them back at this time.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then decisively said, "After the moat to the north is dredged, let the able-bodied men of the Jingying Garrison go back and rest. They've been busy since the beginning of spring, and they deserve a break."

Uh, you just said that the western city wall must be completed this year, and that the Yongding River and Wenyu River must be dug together. Now you're saying that the able-bodied men of the Jingying Garrison should go back to rest!

Tian Hongyu was taken aback for a moment before nodding repeatedly and saying, "Your Majesty, I understand."

At this moment, Lu Xiang-sheng couldn't help but suggest, "Your Majesty, why don't we first recruit some infantrymen for training? Well-trained infantrymen can also build city walls and dig moats."

What you said makes sense.

The problem is that gathering troops requires paying them wages, weapons, equipment, and supplies.

Right now, they're only keeping going thanks to the money Wei Zhongxian confiscated from Suzhou. As for business, they made a fortune last year by seizing goods worth several million taels before the New Year. Now, all the shops in both the North and South capitals combined can only earn a few hundred thousand taels a month.

How many more men can they recruit?
As Zhu Jue was pondering this, a fast rider suddenly galloped in from the south.

A moment later, Fang Zhenghua hurried over with a memorial in his hand, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, His Highness Prince Zheng has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

Zhu Jue took the memorial and looked at it, his face filled with a strange expression.

Are these rebels about to take action against the vassal kings?
No, it's Xingyang!
These guys are up to something big!
What major event did the various rebel groups accomplish after gathering in Xingyang?
He really couldn't remember it for the time being.

This is because history is progressing so fast right now that the history in his mind is getting a bit messed up.

Of course, we can't ignore it just because we can't remember. No matter what big things these rebels are up to, we have to prepare in advance to deal with them.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "Jian Dou, you should first recruit 100,000 infantrymen for training."

At this point, we can't worry about supplies and pay. If we don't have enough troops and someone takes advantage of the situation, then it won't be a matter of money and supplies anymore.

(End of this chapter)