Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 219 King Xiang sets himself on fire
"It's Juntian again! He shouldn't have been given this power in the first place!"

At the end of October, in the Wuying Palace in Beijing, when Zhu Yunwen saw the Bohai intelligence sent by Liu Wu and others, he immediately slapped the memorial on the table in anger.

In addition to him, there were Huang Zicheng and Li Quan in the hall.

"Your Majesty, please don't be angry. King Bohai is just giving some small favors to the people. How can he compare with the great favors from the imperial court?"

Huang Zicheng spoke eloquently: "Furthermore, King Bohai pays his soldiers so high and uses grain to cultivate land to win people's hearts. How much grain does your Majesty think this will cost?"

Before Zhu Yunwen could speak, Huang Zicheng continued: "I'm afraid it's quite a lot."

"Therefore, if Your Majesty wants to dismantle King Bohai, you only need to start with money and food."

"Sir, what you mean is..." Zhu Yunwen said slowly: "Reducing Bohai's money and food?"

"Nothing!" Huang Zicheng was even more ruthless than Zhu Yunwen thought, and he also elaborated on his thoughts:
"If Bohai treats the people like this, their money and food will not be rich."

"In addition, the winter in the Bohai Sea is long, and every year the court needs to transport a batch of grain and grass before May to survive. Once the court stops allocating grain and grass, I am afraid that the more than [-] people in the Bohai Sea will have to endure hunger, and they will not have the strength to fight with them. Is the imperial court against you?"

"I think that we only need to use Liu Wu and his soldiers as the internal response at the moment, and then wait for next spring, when we can send troops and horses to Jilin City in the name of escorting grain and grass, and then raid the Bohai Palace!"

"There will be no food in the Bohai Sea. Even if the King of Bohai has any objections, it will be difficult to resist..."

Huang Zicheng's vow made Zhu Yunwen interested, but he still knew that the reduction of vassal status must be combined with military affairs, and the two of them were not proficient in military affairs, so he looked at Li Quan aside: "Go and summon Duke Cao Guo. Mr. Qi."

"Yes..." Li Quan agreed, and then sent someone to summon Li Jinglong and Qi Tai.

About two quarters of an hour later, Li Jinglong and Qi Tai, who were on duty at Wu Tower and Wenhua Palace, appeared in Wuying Palace.

I don't know whether it was because of the forced reduction of Zhou Fan to a commoner, but Li Jinglong was a little thinner than he was two months ago.

In front of the two of them, Zhu Yunwen condensed Huang Zicheng's words to Li Jinglong and Qi Tai, wanting to know their opinions.

When he learned that Zhu Yunwen wanted to kill Zhu Gaoxu, Li Jinglong was opposed in his heart, so he bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the King of Bohai is outside the customs and has a close relationship with the imperial court. He has repeatedly made military exploits, not only for the people of Bohai, but also for Daning and Liaodong. The soldiers of Dusi were also full of praise for it."

"If we want to cut down the Bohai vassal, I'm afraid it will chill the hearts of the border soldiers..."

This was the first time that Li Jinglong participated in the topic of reducing vassal status, but his attitude made Zhu Yunwen not so happy.

"If it's heartbreaking, can Duke Cao be sure that the King of Bohai in the future will not raise troops to cause the destruction of Liaodong people?"

"Even if it can be guaranteed that King Bohai will not do it, can Duke Cao be sure that the descendants of King Bohai will not do it?"

"The same principle applies to cutting down vassals!"

Huang Zicheng spoke loudly and advised Li Jinglong: "The imperial court naturally has another way to deal with meritorious kings."

"There are many royal palaces in Beijing. For example, Prince Zhou's palace can be cleaned up and repaired, and a plaque can be replaced for Prince Bohai to move in."

"Of course, his annual salary is huge and it will naturally need to be reduced as appropriate, but King Bohai must also understand the court's difficulties."

After all, he is a Confucian scholar, so Huang Zicheng still has two skills with his words.

Li Jinglong naturally knew how to refute him, but when he caught a glimpse of Zhu Yunwen's expression, he resisted the thought of refuting.

Seeing that Li Jinglong didn't speak, Qi Tai also stood up, but he was not speaking for Zhu Gaoxu, but explaining his own views.

"Although the king of Bohai County has served the court, he has indeed violated the laws of the court. For example, he met with the Jurchens in six cities in private, and also opened a trade without authorization, trading iron tools and grain with the Jurchens. Both of these are capital crimes."

"For his meritorious service, exploiting his bodyguards is already an act of mercy outside the law. As long as he obeys Wang Hua, the imperial court can still retain his title and salary and allow him to live in the capital."

The story of Zhu Gaoxu opening a trade in the Bohai Sea and meeting Jurchens in Six Cities had already spread as early as the Hongwu period. Some people were impeaching him at that time, but Zhu Yuanzhang dismissed the memorials and said that outside the customs were different from those inside the customs and he should act in accordance with the laws of the Bohai Sea.

Now that Qi Tai is talking about this again, he obviously wants to tell Li Jinglong that the world has changed, Hongwu has passed, and now it is Jianwen.

Li Jinglong heard the meaning of his words, so he did not continue to argue. When Huang Zicheng saw this, he also bowed to Zhu Yunwen and said:

"Your Majesty, I think that after the winter comes, I will order Wu Gao and Liu Zhen to lead Liaodong soldiers and horses to garrison [-] guards. When spring comes, I will enter Jilin under the pretense of transporting grain and ask the Bohai County Prince to go south to the capital."

"Just follow what you said." Perhaps Li Jinglong saw the contempt for him by the military attachés. This time, Zhu Yunwen did not make any concessions and directly agreed.

Such a move made Li Jinglong sigh in his heart, and Zhu Yunwen continued: "There are still seven months before the spring of the Bohai Sea begins. During these seven months, will the imperial court just wait to cut the Bohai Sea and rest and recuperate during the rest of the time?"

"Of course not..." Huang Zicheng continued: "Cutting the Bohai Sea is nothing more than cutting off Yan Fan's arms. In Yan Fan's arms, King Qi, who fought with King Yan out of the fortress, was too close to the canal. Once King Yan moved, King Qi could quickly Take the Shuicicang of Dezhou, Linqing, Dongchang and other Shuiyi."

"Therefore, if we want to start with Yan Fan, we must first start with Qi Fan."

"Taking advantage of the heavy snowfall in winter and the isolation of the mountains inside and outside the pass, the imperial court should start to reduce the Qi vassalage before April. At the same time, I read the memorial of Qi Shangshu. Therefore, I think that if we want to prevent the Yan King from fleeing, we should deal with him. Only if the feudal lord takes action can the guard general Fang Zhao be able to guard Huai Lai with peace of mind."

As soon as Huang Zicheng opened his mouth, the two vassal kings were in trouble.

King Dai and King Qi became a stumbling block in the court's way of dealing with King Yan. Moreover, these two people had many crimes, and they were well-known for cutting down the vassal.

"The King of Qi has a military strategy and has prepared borders with King Yan several times. King Dai, King of Shu and King of Gu are brothers. If they cut off the vassal, will it cause turmoil?"

After calming down, Zhu Yunwen began to worry about his own reputation and the consequences of cutting off the feudal clan.

But in response to his words, Huang Zicheng said calmly: "Seeing that Zhou Fan was being undermined, the vassals did not dare to ask the imperial minister for three months in a row. How could they dare to cause trouble?"

"Besides, these two kings have done many illegal things when Emperor Gao was still alive. Your Majesty stands on the basis of righteousness, why can't you cut down the vassal?"

Huang Zicheng said this, Zhu Yunwen also nodded in approval, but Qi Tai and Li Jinglong frowned.

Qi Tai thought that Huang Zicheng was too anxious to cut off the vassal, while Li Jinglong felt that it was a bit too much to cut off the three kings of the vassal in one go less than half a year after Zhu Yuanzhang's death.

He naturally knew that many of Zhu Yuanzhang's many sons were very shameful, but to cut down the vassal vassal, methods and steps had to be followed.

Throughout the ages, there has never been such an urgent situation to reduce vassal status.

Qi Tai and Li Jinglong stopped talking. Seeing this, Zhu Yunwen gave Huang Zicheng instructions to deal with the Qi and Dai vassals.

Not long after, the three of them exited Wuying Hall.

In the same month, Zhu Yunwen continued to implement the New Deal and stipulated that if the whole family lived in Xingzhou, Yingzhou, or Kaiping and served as a soldier, one person in the household would be released as a citizen.

In all the guard posts in the country, all those who have only sons serving as soldiers will be released as civilians.

After the implementation of this policy, coupled with the previous merger of prefectures, counties, and health stations, the number of health stations in the country dropped sharply from 320 internal and external guards and 65 thousand-household guards during the Hongwu period to 290 internal and external guards and 47-household guards. [-]. More than [-] guardsmen were disbanded and became civilians. A large number of military attaches only had empty titles but no real power.

When it comes to real power, civilian positions are only mentioned on an equal footing with military attaches. However, since most civilian officials have real power, in terms of power distribution, civilian officials have actually overtaken military generals. The New Deal seems to be balanced, but in fact it is Breaking the balance.

In the twelfth month of the same year, Zhu Yunwen once again exempted the arrears of taxes and taxes from all over the world, and ordered local governments to take care of the old, weak, sick, disabled, and widowed and lonely people, focus on agriculture and mulberry trees, build schools, and once again exempted and exempted the extremely heavy land taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Because most of the taxes in the Ming Dynasty were 25 taxes per [-], only Jiangsu and Zhejiang were [-] taxes per [-], so Zhu Yunwen reduced the taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to [-] taxes per [-].

When the time entered the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Yunwen posthumously named his father Emperor Xiaokang, and the temple name was Xingzong.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Yunwen named his aunt Chang as Empress Xiaokang, his biological mother Lu as the empress dowager, and his concubine Ma as the queen.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Yunwen named his younger brother Zhu Yunxi as King of Wu, Zhu Yunxi as King Heng, Zhu Yunxi as King Xu, and made the emperor's eldest son Zhu Wenkui the crown prince.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Yu Xin, the minister of household affairs, went to court again and asked Zhu Yunwen to stop cutting local officials.

Yu Xin believed that there were more than [-] counties in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang calculated the officials in each county extremely accurately, which was just enough for management. If there were too few officials, he would be more dependent on local gentry, which would cause the hidden worry of local clan separatism. Therefore, he believed that reducing the number of officials would The policy was not suitable for implementation, but the memorial was shelved by Zhu Yunwen.

In early February, Zhu Yunwen further reduced his sentence and asked the Justice Department to judge the "Da Ming Code" and not allow him to be more severe.

In addition, the "Great Edict", which imposed harsh punishments, was quietly abolished.

In just one cold winter, many national policies during the Zhu Yuanzhang period were overturned and rebuilt, and the entire Ming Dynasty fell into a strange calm.

In mid-February, after Zhu Yunwen confirmed that the vassals had no courage to rebel, he further reduced the vassals and ordered the kings to no longer control civil and military officials, and civil and military officials were no longer allowed to submit to the vassal king.

After this move was implemented, it was equivalent to the superiors of the royal officials changing from the vassal to the imperial court. In order to show their loyalty, many royal officials began to expose the faults of their highnesses in private.

In February, the last royal palace chief, Shi Shu, impeached the king for being cruel and unkind. He used fists and kicks against the people and arbitrarily beat the palace officials.

After learning the news, Zhu Yunwen summoned the ministers to discuss matters in Wuying Hall, but this time Li Jinglong was missing. It was obvious that Li Jinglong's speech last time made him feel uncomfortable.

"I think you all have read the memorial of Shi Wangmu, the acting head of the palace. I wonder what you think?"

Zhu Yunwen asked the question knowingly, and all the ministers in the six tribes also knew what the emperor meant. Bao Zhao stood up first and said: "The vassal king violated the law and the common people committed the same crime. I ask your majesty to punish the king on behalf of the king."

"The minister waits for a second opinion..."

Bao Zhao stood up and took the lead in expressing his stance, and the other six ministers, except Yu Xin, also bowed in agreement.

Seeing this, Zhu Yunwen looked at Huang Zicheng, and when Huang Zicheng nodded slowly, he said: "In this case, according to my decree, I ordered that the acting king Zhu Gui be deposed as a commoner and moved to Shu, under the strict supervision of Shu King Zhu Chun."

"..." After hearing Zhu Yunwen's words, many officials who had agreed a second ago raised their heads in disbelief and looked at each other with their colleagues on the left and right.

They can still understand that King Zhou was deposed as a commoner. After all, King Zhu Rui of Zhou left the fiefdom privately during the Hongwu period and met Feng Sheng privately. His relationship with the emperor was not good during the Hongwu period, so it was normal for him to be deposed. However, the acting king Zhu Gui just He beat civilians but didn't kill anyone, so he had to be deposed as a commoner anyway.

At this moment, many people regretted standing up and echoing, but Zhu Yunwen felt that it was not enough and took out another memorial that had just arrived.

"Someone in Jingzhou has accused the King of Xiang of forging treasures and using them for pleasure. What do you think?"

He glanced at the officials, but their faces were filled with astonishment.

The King of Xiang is not a person who has sinned like the King of Zhou and King Dai. Since he became a vassal at the age of 14, he has taken care of the people internally and put down rebellions externally.

He and Chu King Zhu Zhen led the troops to put down the three rebellions of the Guzhou barbarians, and he also led the troops to put down the Wukai barbarian rebellion.

The rebellion of the Mongolian Yuan army that surrendered in Changde, Huguang, was also due to Zhu Bai's courage, courage and proper command. He finally defeated the enemy and won a complete victory.

Even the late emperor praised Zhu Bai many times, and later even summoned him to the capital to express his condolences. Now suddenly someone said that Zhu Bai had forged treasure banknotes.

Not to mention whether this accusation can be substantiated or not, it is not something that can be discussed by ministers. After all, this is the emperor's family matter.

"The King of Xiang has merit. He should investigate the matter thoroughly first and establish the facts before judging the crime..." Even Bao Zhao, who was filled with righteous indignation before, was cautious when facing this topic, which shows that Zhu Bai is indeed the representative of the virtuous king.

"I think..." After Bao Zhao finished speaking, Huang Zicheng took the initiative to stand up and bowed: "I think that King Xiang's counterfeiting of treasure banknotes needs to be thoroughly investigated, but for the sake of precaution, troops should still be sent to protect the censor."

"Send troops? No!" When Yu Xin heard Huang Zicheng's words, he immediately retorted: "Since it is an investigation, it is enough to send an inspection censor. Why send troops?"

"Huguang territory is uneasy, so what's the problem with sending troops to protect the censor?" Huang Zicheng responded calmly, and said at the same time: "Besides, the King of Xiang has three guards with more than [-] soldiers, in case the King of Xiang makes any changes, so it is natural to send some troops. "

"If he is really guilty, King Xiang will naturally follow the censor to the capital to explain. But if he sends troops, how will the vassals view the imperial court?"

Yu Xin was still arguing, but Zhu Yunwen no longer cared about this old minister. He nodded and affirmed Huang Zicheng's suggestion: "In that case, let's send the censor and select three thousand guards to escort him to Jingzhou."

Zhu Yunwen expressed his stance, and he was more straightforward than Huang Zicheng.

Huang Zicheng only said to send troops, but did not say the number, but Zhu Yunwen said three thousand troops.

This posture is not like going to investigate a case, but more like going to arrest.

"In addition, officials in Qingzhou impeached the King of Qi for treason, officials in Lanzhou impeached King Su for seizing horses from Hami and killing his guards, and officials in Yunnan impeached King Min for seizing seals from various departments and killing officials and people. What do you think?"

Zhu Yunwen didn't wait for the ministers to respond, and then raised the question again about King Qi, King Su, and King Min.

At this time, all the ministers understood clearly that the emperor wanted someone to stand up and take the blame, so that he could deal with his uncle selflessly.

If this thing is done, the person who stepped forward will naturally get the credit.

Perhaps the King of Qi, King Su and King Min had problems, so many ministers agreed to recall them to the capital for interrogation this time.

Seeing that the ministers were like this, Zhu Yunwen also nodded and said: "Just do as you say."

In a few words, less than a year after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Yunwen once again raised the sword to cut off the feudal vassal, but this time he did not cut off just one, but five at a time, which was more than in history. One person.

Before the news spread, Geng Cheng, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, led [-] soldiers and went straight to Jingzhou by boat. Officials from Lanzhou, Yunnan, Qingzhou, and Datong each went there with a small number of soldiers.

In mid-to-late March, when the Yangtze River mist filled Jingzhou City, Geng Cheng led three thousand soldiers to surround the Prince of Xiang's Mansion.

Zhu Bai, King of Xiang, who was in the palace, heard the sound of armor. He was practicing martial arts and got off a white horse. He handed the bow and arrow to the eunuch next to him. After wiping his sweat, he asked several hundred officials beside him: "What's the matter?" There are so many sounds of armor? It’s not time to change shifts yet, right?”

Zhu Bai looks handsome and behaves very chicly. In addition, he likes white horses and white clothes, and he seems to have a somewhat ethereal fairy spirit.

Seeing him asking, several officials from hundreds of households looked at each other, not knowing why, so they could only send people to find out the news.

But before they could send someone to leave, they saw the Qianhu official on duty at the palace hurriedly running over.

"Your Highness! Inspector Geng Cheng led his troops to surround the palace!"

The Qianhu officials half knelt and bowed. Zhu Bai was surprised when he heard this, and then became angry: "A patrol censor dares to surround my royal city!"

After that, he took his left and right people to the royal city, and after searching for traces, they found Geng Cheng, the censor who was patrolling outside the Chongli Gate.

Zhu Bai didn't know him, and he had no fault, so he asked Geng Cheng: "Who sent you to our city of Xiang? Are you not afraid of being accused?"

Geng Cheng had the emperor's backing. Even when he saw Zhu Bai, who was holding a heavy army, he was not timid. Instead, he sneered and scolded: "Crime Zhu Bai! You killed people in Jingzhou and forged treasure banknotes privately. Now that the soldiers have arrived, You won’t be captured without hesitation!”

"Fuck you!" Hearing Zhu Bai being scolded, the officers and soldiers guarding King Xiang yelled.

Geng Cheng was scolded again, and he was so angry that he pointed his riding crop at Zhu Bai on the top of the city: "You are an unfaithful and unfilial traitor, and you dare to lead your own troops to defend yourself against the imperial court."

Zhu Bai was puzzled by Geng Cheng. He was clearly staying in the city, but how could he become a person who resisted the imperial court.

"If you want to harm Gu Gu, you don't need to make any groundless accusations!"

"It's unfounded? How dare you slander His Majesty!"

Although Zhu Bai liked to talk about scriptures, he neglected to debate. Seeing Geng Cheng slandering him, he clenched his fists in anger.

"Your Highness, it seems that the imperial court is planning to cut down the vassal vassalage. You must not go to the capital with this dog-man. It's the opposite!"

"That's right! It's the other way around!"

Zhu Bai was popular among the three guards, so when they learned that the emperor wanted to attack Zhu Bai, and the emperor's example of cutting off the Zhou vassal and deposing them as commoners last year, the generals all tried to persuade Zhu Bai.

Geng Cheng outside the city felt guilty when he saw the generals at the top of the city admonishing Zhu Bai.

Zhu Bai's three guards were just outside Jingzhou City. If Zhu Bai really rebelled, they would be able to reach the capital in less than seven days.

Thinking of this, Geng Cheng became a little scared. He quickly took a breath and admonished Zhu Bai: "King Xiang, as a son of a man, do you want to raise an army to rebel and bring shame to Emperor Gao?"

"As the commander-in-chief of the three armies, are you going to lead the three armies to raise troops and cause death to the generals and their families?"

"As a human subject, do you want to raise an army to rebel and be known as disloyal, unfilial and unjust?"

"you……"

Geng Cheng cursed while talking, as if he wanted to ruin Zhu Bai's reputation.

The generals persuaded Zhu Bai to raise troops, but Geng Cheng led thousands of soldiers outside the city and shouted in unison that he was unfaithful, unjust and unfilial.

Listening to these noises, Zhu Bai felt a splitting headache.

He didn't like fighting for power. He practiced Taoism in his spare time in Jingzhou, and marched and fought wars outside to suppress rebellions.

He was extremely filial to Zhu Yuanzhang, and he could not do anything to make him rebel. Moreover, the imperial court had millions of troops, but he only had 1 people in his three bodyguards.

Not to mention the million-strong army of the imperial court, it would be difficult for him to defeat the [-] soldiers and horses of Huguang Dusi alone. If he raised an army, it would really harm the three armies and their families.

"I won't go to the capital with you!"

Zhu Bai looked at Geng Cheng who was approaching him step by step outside the city, and loudly expressed his decision. This made Geng Cheng pale and the guard generals were happy.

However, Zhu Bai's next words left Geng Cheng confused: "I will not rebel and be unfaithful, unjust and unfilial."

"You said that Gu brought shame to Emperor Gao? Gu is the twelfth son of Emperor Gao, Taizu. Gu only made Emperor Gao proud and did not do anything to bring shame."

"It is your majesty and nephew who will be shamed!"

After Zhu Bai finished speaking, he turned around and walked down the city wall. The generals followed him one after another, but Geng Cheng looked confused.

"Disgraced the emperor? Why did the emperor disgraced Emperor Gao?"

He was confused, but Zhu Bai persuaded the generals to retreat and let them defend the city, explaining that he was going to the rear palace to wear armor and fight alongside them.

Hearing this, the generals thought that Zhu Bai was going to raise troops to prove it, so they all stopped and said, "Your Highness, we are waiting for you!"

"Okay!" Looking at the generals, Zhu Bai turned and walked to the rear palace, where he met Wu, the daughter of Duke Hai, who had just learned the news.

Wu was in her twenties, eight years younger than Zhu Bai. She gave birth to two daughters for Zhu Bai, but they both died in infancy.

"How is it?"

Wu asked worriedly, but Zhu Bai said: "I'm afraid that today, like your brother, we will be accused of unwarranted charges."

"How could it be..." Wu's brother Wu Zhong was expelled because of the Hu Weiyong case, so she knew her brother's fate very well.

When she thought of such an end, her face turned ugly.

"Fortunately, we don't have any children, so they and I will not suffer."

Zhu Bai held her hand, and Wu's face turned pale. She looked at Zhu Bai and said, "What are you going to do, Your Highness?"

Faced with the question, Zhu Bai was silent for a moment, and then slowly said: "I think the previous ministers who were imprisoned in a violent dynasty often committed suicide."

"As the son of Taizu, my father passed away. I can neither visit him nor attend the funeral. I feel so sad and regretful. There is no joy in living in this world."

"Today, Geng Cheng, who is just a slave, dared to insult me. If I end up in the capital, I will inevitably be deposed like a commoner like Fifth Brother."

"Rather than be deposed as a commoner and be humiliated as a slave, I would rather die to clarify my ambition than live an ignoble existence!"

"I'll accompany you..." Without any other answer, Wu picked up the wine flask from the Eight Immortals table and poured a glass of wine for each of them.

"I have pity on you..." Zhu Bai said to Wu, but Wu shook her head and said nothing more.

The couple drank together as if they were newlyweds, and then Zhu Bai put on his armor with Wu's help.

He went to the stable to bring out the white horse he had been riding on when he was pacifying the Guzhou barbarians. Wu also had people prepare tung oil and fill the front palace with it.

Not long after, she stood at the palace gate, holding a torch and waiting for Zhu Bai.

Seeing Zhu Bai coming on a white horse, she threw down the torch and the fire ignited the front palace.

Zhu Bai watched Wu walk into the fire, then lowered his head and glanced at the white horse: "That's all, you should stay in this world. If you get a good general in the future, I can lead you to conquer all directions."

"Xilulu..." The white horse seemed to understand the meaning of Zhu Bai's words, but instead of confirming Zhu Bai's dismounting, it suddenly started running and rushed towards the ignited front bedroom.

"Your Highness!!"

The three guards and generals of King Xiang who came after seeing the fire saw Zhu Bai riding a white horse and holding a bow.

They tried to stop them, but they didn't have time to stop them. They could only watch Zhu Bai riding a white horse and jumping into the fire...

"Zhu Yunwen, I want to see who brought Huang Kao to shame!"

　Today's morning meeting took too long, so the second update will probably be late. It should be updated around [-] o'clock.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)