A hundred flavors of life

Chapter 909: The tragic Wenxiang Sect, Ximen Chuxue was seriously injured! (Please subscribe!)

Zhu Youxi suddenly became a monk and passed the throne to Ye Gucheng. The royal family was shocked and princes from all over the country wrote letters to express their opposition. Among them, the reaction of Prince Pingnan Zhu Wuzhen was the strongest.

Zhu Wuzhen, the Prince of Pingnan, is the eldest son of the old Prince of Pingnan and is Ye Gucheng's eldest brother in name, but now the other party obviously does not even want to give him the title in name.

  Zhu Wuzhen said in his memorial that although Ye Gucheng was a member of the royal family, he was incorporated into the royal family later, and his identity was questionable. Moreover, even if Ye Gucheng was indeed the illegitimate son of the old King of Pingnan, he was a child born to a maid. How could a person of such a humble origin inherit the throne?

Hua Shier was so angry that he laughed when he saw this memorial. Sometimes the people who can't stand seeing you do well are often these so-called relatives.

To everyone's surprise, the civil service group, which should have strongly opposed this matter, was surprisingly calm. Only some idle officials expressed opposition. On the contrary, those powerful civil and military officials in the court, as well as local governors, were all indifferent. They honestly accepted the reality and welcomed the new emperor.

This is the result of his visits to Hua Twelve over the past few months. Now, the fourteen governors-general, thirty-one provincial governors, twenty-one inspectors, and twenty-one generals of the Ming Dynasty are all his own people.

These people were gradually replaced by Hua Twelve over the past few months using the boiling frog method.

No one would notice this kind of thing at the beginning. For example, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi died when he fell off his horse because his horse was frightened while hunting outside the city. Then the court would naturally select officials from the Ministry of War to take up the post. The transfer of power was normal.

For example, the governor of Jiangsu Province was having too much fun playing games with the skinny horse from Yangzhou that was offered by the salt merchants in the middle of the night. He accidentally got a stroke and died the next day. After that, the court selected an official to replace him. There is nothing to say about this.

A few months passed like this, and by the time some people realized something was wrong, all the local governors were Hua Shier's men. These people formed the most powerful and influential force in the Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that even if Hua Twelve does not rely on military force, his position is as stable as Mount Tai and no one can shake it.

Faced with the memorials of opposition from local princes, a few months ago, Hua Shier could not do anything to them in order to stabilize the overall situation, but now he can take action against these people without any scruples.

Throw the memorial from Pingnan Prince Zhu Wuzhen to Jinyiwei Commander Luo Sigong:

"Ever since the death of the old Prince of Pingnan, Zhu Wuzhen has been managing Qiongzhou and has long had rebellious intentions. This matter will be handled by the Jinyiwei. If the evidence is conclusive, his fiefdom will be cut off, his property will be confiscated, and he will be executed on the spot!"

Luo Sigong hurriedly obeyed the order. He knew in his heart that even if there was no real evidence, there had to be solid proof.

  Hua Shier also picked out some memorials from other vassal kings who firmly opposed his enthronement:

"Let's deal with these rotten sweet potatoes and stinky bird eggs as well!"

With this order from King Xiaoyao, the Jinyiwei immediately regained their glory as they had during the time of Emperor Hongwu. They attacked from all directions, traveled thousands of miles, confiscated homes and exterminated families, and royal families from all over the country trembled in fear.

Before Hua Twelve officially ascended the throne, half of the more than sixty vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty were wiped out. The silver seized from the confiscations could no longer be stored in the national treasury and the imperial budget, so it was piled in the empty palaces in the palace. Countless fields were confiscated and all were nationalized.

After Hua Twelve ascends the throne, these fields will be rented out cheaply to landless people in various places for cultivation as a sign of the emperor's grace.

More than thirty princes were destroyed, and the rest of the royal family were terrified. The remaining princes wrote letters to the emperor and sang praises. Countless auspicious signs appeared in various places, and they sent people to send them to the capital.

Unfortunately, it is too late to change attitude now. These people are destined to be gradually cleared out, it is just a matter of time.

In fact, even if these princes of the royal family supported Hua Shier from the beginning, he could not tolerate so many pig-like princes. Killing them would not only make him a fortune, but also reduce the heavy burden for the Ming Dynasty, so that he could go into battle with light equipment from then on. Why not do it!

However, Hua Shier still went to see those so-called auspicious signs, such as giraffes, albino tigers, antelopes, hippos, giant alligator turtles, and so many other things that it was almost as big as a zoo.

  In addition to animals, there are also auspicious items. Hua Shier saw a one-eyed stone man at that time, and he was immediately confused. He thought, "Is this a sign for me? It must be a sign for me!"

He asked the officials around him: "Is this a good omen?"

The officials around him were sweating profusely and didn't know how to answer.

Hua Twelve asked again: "Is this a good omen?"

Except for a few of his close associates, all the officials knelt down.

Hua Twelve was too lazy to look at it anymore, so he turned around and left, leaving behind a sentence: "Cao Zhengchun, I leave it to you!"

The official in charge of collecting and recording auspicious signs was thrown into the Heavenly Prison, and the prince who paid tribute to the stone man was immediately stripped of his fiefdom and his property was confiscated.

On the eve of Hua Twelve's ascension to the throne, public opinion unfavorable to him arose. Luo Sigong, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, reported the intelligence immediately.

It turned out that the civil officials in the court were controlled by Hua Shier, but the literati among the people started to make trouble. They wrote all kinds of articles to slander the free and easy king, saying that he was a traitor, saying that he was a Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao before, and now he wanted to be Sima Zhao.

He also said that the emperor had been controlled by Ye Gucheng, and that the so-called becoming a monk was just an excuse to deceive the world.

Hua Shier thought to himself that what these guys said was absolutely right.

He wanted to raise his butcher knife and have the Jinyiwei kill all the literati who dared to scold him, but then he thought that such a rough solution was not very appropriate.

It's just a war of public opinion, as if everyone can do it.

Hua Shier immediately called Cao Zhengchun and explained everything in detail.

Then it became lively. There were quite a few scholars in Jiangnan, all from the Donglin Academy. They had recently become famous in the Jiangnan literary world for their article Yin Yang Ye Gucheng. It was said that these people didn't even have to pay Piao Chang anymore, and those Jiangnan courtesans who admired him were all trying to get him to pay for their work.

Then these scholars got into trouble. After a banquet on a flower boat, many articles appeared, cursing Emperor Taizu Hongwu and Prince of Yan Zhu Li. From the handwriting to the style, to the signature, it was obvious that they were written by them.

Then these people were arrested on the same day for blasphemy and thrown into death row.

From then on, if anyone made remarks or wrote articles insulting King Xiaoyao, then within a few days there would be remarks and articles attacking Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, and then the Jinyiwei would come to arrest people.

After a few days, no one dared to write!

Moreover, not long after, articles and poems praising Hua Twelve appeared continuously in various places. This was because Cao Zhengchun hired more than a thousand down-and-out literati to serve as writers to sing praises for their master.

These writers don't have to do anything every day but type. They write articles that are flourishing and simple in content, and all they have to do is praise King Xiaoyao. They are paid one tael of silver for an article, ten taels of silver for a good poem praising his merits, a hundred taels of silver for an excellent poem, and a thousand taels of silver for an excellent poem that is passed down from generation to generation.

These down-and-out literati are crazy. They have been studying without doing any work, and their families have no income, and they are almost starving to death. Now they have a way to make money, and it is something they are good at, so they don't even need to take the imperial examination. Let's make money first. Those who write articles can write more than 10,000 articles a day, and those who compose poems can compose ten or eight poems a day.

After these things were written, there were also special writers who spread them outside. Various experts, professors, and big Vs of this era came out to explain how well these things were written and how true they were. These people were also paid, so they worked very hard. There is a saying in later generations that a lie will become the truth if it is repeated a thousand times. This is also the case now. After a period of positive public opinion bombardment, those uneducated people all know that Ye Gucheng is a sage king comparable to Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang.

So when Hua Twelve ascended the throne, those scholars and nobles who were dissatisfied with him pulled their hair out in hatred at home, while ordinary people took to the streets, beating drums and gongs, singing and dancing, celebrating that the eternal sage Ye Gucheng had finally ascended the throne and that the people of the world could finally live a good life.

Well, that’s what the promotional copy said, and the simple people of the Ming Dynasty believed it.

Of course, Hua Shier was not just talk. After ascending the throne, the first thing he did was to order that taxes would never be increased again.

Didn’t Kang Mazi say that taxes would never be increased? Hua Shier simply stopped increasing taxes, of course, this refers to agricultural taxes.

Not only did he not increase taxes, but he also reduced them. It was already difficult for farmers to survive during the Little Ice Age. His tax reduction and exemption helped countless farmers and people survive. It can be said that his meritorious service is immeasurable.

In addition, Hua Shier also issued an edict that the land seized from local princes should be rented out at low prices to the landless people.

This large amount of land originally belonged to the princes, and the imperial court could not make any profit from it. Hua Shier simply generously gave it to the people to cultivate for free for ten years, and promised that there would be no need to pay any fees. The imperial court also issued one or two taels of silver as start-up capital for the farmers to buy grain seeds.

Then he specifically ordered the Jinyiwei in various places to post notices to make the matter known, and also said that if any local officials made up excuses to demand money from the people because of these fields, or withheld the money for planting grain, they would be guilty of treason, and if the people reported them, the court would give them generous rewards.

The farmlands seized from more than 30 princes totaled nearly 300,000 hectares. These lands were used to resettle the propertyless people, and the problem of refugees in the Ming Dynasty was almost instantly solved.

Now that these refugees had land to farm, they became law-abiding citizens again, which greatly reduced the possibility of rebellion. It would not be so easy for the likes of King Chuang and Zhang Xianzhong to rebel again in the future.

This is not just a casual statement. For example, when he ascended the throne, there were some hidden bugs who believed that King Xiaoyao's ascension to the throne would inevitably lead to chaos in the world, so these people took the opportunity to jump out and raise the banner of rebellion, trying to fish in troubled waters.

The Wen Xiang Sect launched an uprising simultaneously in Jingzhou, Jizhou in Hebei Province, and Yuncheng in Shandong Province. These people had been planning for a long time, and in a short period of time they gathered tens of thousands of refugees.

As a result, when Hua Shier issued the decree after he ascended the throne, the refugees who had just revolted heard that the government offices in various places were registering and distributing land, and that they would be free to plant without paying taxes and would also be given silver. So when half of the tens of thousands of people ran away that night, and the other half ran away after dawn.

It is said that the leader of the Wen Xiang sect cried at that time because he couldn't stop it, he couldn't stop it at all.

The core members who had joined the sect for ten years all ran away. In the end, only the leader, deputy leader, a few protectors, and a dozen incense masters were left to rebel. The rest turned over a new leaf and signed up to farm the land.

The imperial court was about to send troops to suppress the rebellion, but when they heard the news that the rebels had disbanded on the spot, all the civil and military officials in the court were at a loss whether to laugh or cry. Then there was a new wave of praises for the new emperor. This was what a benevolent government was.

Although these people may not think so in their hearts, they certainly say so, which has also led to the increasingly good reputation of Hua Shier among the people.

Half a year after Hua Shier ascended the throne, good news came frequently from Fuso. Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami, with the support of the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty and Ximen Fubuki, had almost taken over the Tokugawa family's territory.

Now Tokugawa Ieyasu has deployed his troops in Fushimi Castle, ready to fight a decisive battle with Yagyu Tajima-no-kami. This is probably the last battle to unify Fuso.

Hua Shier was waiting for news of his cheap father-in-law's victory, but a few days later, a letter arrived. This letter was completely different from the previous one. It was a letter asking for help.

The letter said that three sieges on the city during this period all ended in failure. Finally, Ximen Chuxue led his troops to charge the city and cut down the city gate with a sword, but he was unexpectedly ambushed by a Fuso master and was seriously injured.

Now the troops of the Yagyu family retreated fifty miles and set up camp, asking for help from the King Xiaoyao of the Central Plains.

The people in Fuso didn't know that Hua Shier had ascended the throne as emperor, so they still called him King Xiaoyao.

Along with the letter came a detailed painting, which was extremely realistic. It depicted a large rock with a cherry tree next to it.

This painting was requested by Hua Shier. Before Yagyu Tajima-no-kami went to Fuso, he told his cheap father-in-law that if the war was going well, he would let them do what they wanted. If they were facing a situation of failure, he would ask someone to draw a realistic picture of the scenery near the army and send it to the Ming Dynasty, and he would rush to rescue them as soon as possible.

Hua Shier asked someone to call Liu Sheng Piao Xu, who had been canonized as a concubine. When the latter came, he smiled and said:

"Let's go back to your hometown!"

Liu Sheng Piaoxu was confused: "Your Majesty, it takes a long time to get to my hometown from here. You just ascended the throne."

Hua Twelve knew what she meant and waved his hand with a smile: "Soon, you will know!"

He took out the Anywhere Door, held the door handle with his hand, imagined the scene in the painting in his mind, and then pushed the door open. Outside the door was the big rock and the cherry tree.

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom at this time, and the fragrance of the flowers wafted over as soon as I opened the door.

Liu Sheng Piaoxu widened her eyes, full of disbelief. You know, just now they were in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and the emperor took out a strange door, and when he opened it, another world appeared, and there was her favorite cherry tree.

"This"

"What's this? Come with me and take a look!"

Hua Shier pulled Liu Sheng Piaoxu and walked over. Outside the door was a high slope, and at the bottom of the slope were the camps of the Liu Sheng family and the Ming army. He put away the portal, put his arms around Liu Sheng Piaoxu's waist, and flew down directly.

The soldiers below were startled to see someone flying over and started to make a commotion. Yagyu Tajima no Kami came out and saw it, and surprise immediately showed on his face.

When I saw Ximen Chuxue again, the Central Plains Sword God had been seriously injured. He was stabbed in the back by a surprise attack and his heart was almost injured. Although he was fine at the moment, he still had a high fever. However, his skills were profound, so he remained conscious.

Hua Twelve asked as soon as they met: "With your swordsmanship and martial arts, you are among the top five in the Central Plains. Even if it is a sneak attack in a small Fusang, who can hurt you? Who is the person who sneak attacked you?"

  Ximen Chuxue looked at Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami, who seemed a little embarrassed;

"The one who attacked Ximen Chuxue was my great grandfather, the Yagyu Killer."

Thanks to: 08a, Brother Xiao Xiaohu in the Demon World for the reward, and thanks to the brothers who voted for monthly votes and recommendation votes, thank you very much.