Lu Ming

Chapter 376

One emperor and one courtier.The current governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Wang Zunde, was previously the governor of Guangxi. Because he presided over a strong bandit suppression operation in office and had a clean reputation, Chongzhen promoted him to governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and governor of Guangdong after he came to power.

It can be seen from the long list of titles that this monarch has great power.However, there is a word called equal rights and responsibilities: since Wang Zunde is responsible for the military and government of Guangdong and Guangxi, he is now responsible for solving Liu Xiang's disaster.

It's a long story: in fact, Lao Wang didn't intend to go to war at first.

Wang Zunde was promoted to an official from the governor of Guangxi at the beginning. When it comes to his political achievements, being a clean and honest official cannot be counted, mainly because of his strong suppression of bandits.That is to say, in dealing with banditry, Wang Zunde's governance philosophy tends to be more forceful "suppression" rather than weaker "appropriation".

However, Lao Wang's ideas have encountered challenges after he came to Guangdong: back then, Guangdong and Fujian were plagued by bandits, everyone had headaches, and the eldest brother did not talk about the second brother.

Things changed suddenly one day: Xiong Wencan came from the north, and he appeased a group of "maritime merchants" on Yizhou Island with his words, and then the coastal area of ​​Fujian became "clear seas and rivers" overnight, "the road does not pick up lost things", every day Someone helped the old lady across the road.

This extremely strong contrast made Guangdong officialdom a little uncomfortable at first.

Although the complaints about Xiong Wencan's "raising tigers for trouble" and "causing a group of pirates to become big" have never stopped, but no matter how much he complains, the coast of Fujian is stable and stable, and it is true that Xiong Wencan even paid full taxes to the court on time in disaster years ——To be able to exchange "Ai Qing" from Chongzhen, this is what Xiong Wencan bought with real money.

Guangdong officials quickly gathered the correct information from official documents, letters from the same year in Fujian, and businessmen who had invested in their own shares: Hoklo's life is indeed getting better and better.Now the next door has not only wiped out the banditry, but also started a big business. All the goodies that have been popular in Guangzhou recently were all created by the Yizhou gang!
Thus came the first wave of criticisms against Wang Zunde's tough policy of suppressing bandits: It seems that the policy of appeasement is also very good?May we try it too?
Wang Zunde felt the pressure at that time.

However, changing course is not so easy.Lao Wang has always been pursuing a tough policy of uncompromising, and now he can change it if he wants to change it. Doesn’t that mean that Lao Wang was an idiot before?
So many things are so helpless.Even in later generations, some wrong things can only be changed after new people, new leaders, new presidents, etc. come to power.

Wang Zunde actually responded at that time - he convened high-level military attaches in Guangdong to discuss the matter of suppressing bandits, and prepared to implement his governance philosophy firmly.

However, he soon discovered that Guangdong is not Guangxi: the cost of suppressing pirates is much higher than that of suppressing mountain bandits. Needless to say, building a fleet and buying enough cannons can cost his old man As for whether the endless pirates can be dealt with by the officers and soldiers after having a ship, only ghosts know.

So this matter was so embarrassingly dragged down.

However, the world is impermanent, and soon, Pharaoh couldn't even procrastinate because Liu Xiang came.

Everything has a limit, and if it exceeds the upper limit, there will be a qualitative change.In history, it took Liu Xiang several years to use various methods including looting, killing, false recruiting and kidnapping officials, etc., to completely annoy the official circles in Fujian and Guangdong, and incur a special attack.

Now, due to the secret troubles of a certain bad water force, the damage to the officialdom in Guangdong has exceeded the threshold in just a few months-cutting a person's fortune is like killing his parents, this is the biggest hatred in history.

As a result, the official documents and statements sent to the governor's office not only became more and more violent, but also followed by "swearing posts".

It's not that only later generations forums have scolding posts.In ancient times, it was common for officials in the field and gentry to post posts and write letters criticizing the princes of the dynasty.The so-called court struggles and party struggles are carried out through posts, memorials, and articles.The opposition bigwigs of the Donglin Party will feel uncomfortable if they don't post a few posts and scold their political opponents.

This time Wang Zunde was not only scolded face to face by some retired officials in Guangzhou city, but he also got definite news: these people have already started to impeach him for the crime of "sit on the corpse and watch the remnants of the giant canal".

What should the leader do if a group of veteran cadres come to your door to scold you, and then encounter the veteran cadres jointly writing a letter to the central government?The leader is also very helpless. In fact, Wang Zunde can do nothing but appease.

Now is the seventeenth century, the proportion of literati is very small, and the power of the field scholar-bureaucrats is much greater than that of retired veteran cadres in later generations.These people can pass the documents of impeachment of Wang Zunde to Chongzhen's desk in minutes through the relationship between old students, in-laws, the same party, and the same year. By the way, they will also create a wave of public opinion to discredit Wang Zunde's reputation and give him a place in the court. Political opponents left behind.

Wang Zunde knew that it would be impossible not to respond.Looking at the official documents with more and more violent words, you can know that if this continues, the first thing I will lose is the support of lower-level officials-the decree will soon be unable to get out of the Governor's Mansion.

Followed by the emperor's family.

Before this, it was considered as an emotional dispute between my family and Xiong Wencan. However, when things have developed into the current bad situation, if I continue to be stubborn, Chongzhen's good sense of himself will soon be changed by the impeachment papers-after all, Fujian is very good. The situation is there, and Chongzhen is not blind.

Therefore, Comrade Wang Zunde had to be under the strong public opinion created by the Guangdong officials and gentry, at the end of June 1629, he held a "special military meeting to combat Liu Xiang's bandits" in the Zhaoqing Governor's Mansion where the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi was stationed.

The level of this meeting is relatively high.

In addition to the governor and governor of Guangdong and Guangxi Wang Zunde, the participants included Lu Wenli, the left governor of Guangdong, Wang Daoyuan, the right governor, and Zhang Bingwen, the inspector; and a group of senior generals from the commander-in-chief He Rubin to the civil and military officials in Guangdong. The boss was wiped out.

Sitting in the lobby of the governor's yamen, He Rubin, the commander-in-chief with a clean face, elegant appearance and three black beards, is sitting on the official hat chair without squinting, listening attentively to the conversation among the civil servants in the hall. answer.

He Rubin, who has written military works such as "Bing Lu" in history, is undoubtedly a Confucian general.Confucian generals are naturally smart: He Zongbing, who is well versed in the rules of the officialdom, is just like the military officers sitting below him at this moment, keeping silent and playing the role of a good listener with his heart.

In fact, if he really wanted to talk about major military affairs, Wang Zunde would never call so many people at once.First discuss with the staff in secret, and then discuss with the relevant people one by one. This is the formal procedure for discussing major issues.

And this so-called "enlarged military and political meeting", the convener usually has two purposes: one is to assign responsibilities, such as raising taxes in the whole province; the other is to throw the blame, such as a sudden change in policy.

So today's so-called meeting, in front of officials of He Rubin's level, has long since had no secrets at all - to put it bluntly, this is a "meeting to save face".Old Comrade Wang Zunde had to succumb under heavy pressure, and was forced to admit that the old Xiong's appeasement policy won the final victory, so the old man was upset and wanted to call everyone to lay the steps for him.

What a warrior can understand, how can a few literati not understand?It's just that these people have also been given a splitting headache by Liu Xiang recently. Now that Lao Wang is finally planning to change course, everyone is relieved.As for helping Pharaoh pave the steps, it's too simple, literati, who doesn't want to save face?Hooray for understanding.

So in the lobby of the Governor's Mansion, several civil servants started singing as soon as they came up:

"Now that Liu Xiang is so powerful, it is actually difficult to control the land in one province. In my opinion, the army might as well write about Fujian and Zhejiang. It is a good idea to invite the two Fujuns to discuss this matter."

"Now the treasury of the vassal is empty. If the army wants to raise troops to suppress the bandits, the vassal may not be able to do it."

"Then Liu Xiang was actually driven here by the Xiong Fujun from Fujian. According to this officer, he, the Xiong Fujun, cannot get away with it. He might not have sent some soldiers over here. It is justified to surrender the bandits together."

A few civil servants talked to each other, unknowingly, all the steps were paved, and the responsibility was also passed on to Xiong Wencan, who hadn't wiped out the bandits. Now, just wait for Wang Zhijun to nod, and this matter is settled today. alive.

However, Wang Zhijun still had to struggle for a while.After listening to the opinions of all the senior officials, he stared at Confucian general He with wide eyes: "He Zongzhen, what about Liu Xiang, as the commander-in-chief, do you have a plan to suppress the bandits?"

He Rubin didn't expect that there would be extra drama, but fortunately he was also experienced in many battles, so he replied immediately after being clever: "Marshal, it's not because our army is incompetent, but because Liu Xiang is too cunning and never confronts the officers and soldiers directly." It would probably be good if the enemy’s Xiongfu army in Fujian could send some fast boats to help them out.”

"Come on! Come on!" Hearing this, Governor Wang shook his sleeves deeply, got up and left: "Since you all agree, I agree with you."

With Wang Zunde's sigh, the battle between Fujian and Guangdong to suppress bandits, which lasted for many years, finally came to an end and opened a new chapter.

Not long after this meeting, an official document issued in the name of He Rubin, the commander-in-chief guarding Guangdong, requesting a joint suppression of bandits, quietly came to the Yamen of the Fujian Commander-in-Chief.

However, the new Fujian General Soldier recently was a fierce man.This person's name is Xie Hongyi, and he was the champion of martial arts in the Wanli period.Xie Hongyi once served as the commander-in-chief of Fujian during the Tianqi period, and participated in organizing the battle of Penghu in the Ming Dynasty to drive out the Dutch with the governor Nan Juyi. It was actually Xie Hongyi.

After that, Xie Hongyi was dismissed from office because of party disputes and went home for a while.At this time, another attribute of him broke out: this gentleman is not only the champion of martial arts, the chief soldier, but also a famous dramatist in the late Ming Dynasty and the author of the Kunqu opera "Butterfly Dream". He is truly capable of writing and martial arts.

When Writer Xie saw the official document from Guangdong, he was still a little confused when he just took office, so he honestly transferred the official document to the governor's office.

Then when Old Xiong saw this official document, he couldn't help laughing out loud.He saw through the tricks of the Guangdong officialdom at a glance: Wang Zunde, an old man, has given in!Well, come here, quickly invite General Cao to come to the house to discuss matters.

"Here!"

(End of this chapter)