Anti-Qing: Starting from the Reincarnation of the Ming Dynasty

As soon as Zhu Jing'an finished speaking, all the generals took the initiative to stand up and speak.

"Your Highness, I would like to ask you to lead the troops to stay in Suiyuan."

"Your Highness, the last general invites you to fight!"

"Your Highness, the general, is willing to issue a military order. If there is any mistake in Suiyuan, the general will come to see you!"

"..."

At this time, the Ming army was at its strongest combat effectiveness.

The stacking of victories one after another made the Ming army full of confidence in the outcome of the war.

In addition, their invincibility since the Northern Expedition has given them the belief of invincibility in their hearts.

It is precisely because of this that everyone wants to take the initiative to take on those more dangerous and challenging combat missions.

Because danger and reward are always directly proportional. The more difficult the task they complete, the more successful their military achievements will be, and the more generous the rewards issued by the court after the war will be.

When Zhu Jing'an heard this, he looked around and nodded.

"Huang Wei, I will leave the task of defending Suiyuan City to you this time."

"In addition to your headquarters division, I will also leave a cavalry brigade and an artillery regiment in Suiyuan City."

"You must ensure that Suiyuan is not lost!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Wei stood up and clasped his fists to take orders.

"Well, I will obey your orders!"

"If there is any loss in Suiyuan City, I will finally bring it up to see you."

Huang Wei is from Guangdong and one of the members of the Tiandihui who joined the Ming army after they recaptured Guangzhou City.

After joining the Ming Dynasty, Huang Weixian was arranged to enter the Royal Lecture Hall Military Academy for further study.

After completing his studies, he was assigned to join the army as a company commander.

Huang Wei participated in all the subsequent large-scale battles, and was now promoted to division commander along the way, and was considered a member of the senior generals of the Ming Army.

Zhu Jing'an still trusted Huang Wei's abilities.

Huang Wei is an old comrade who has been tested in countless wars, and his ability must be passable.

He believed that with Huang Wei's presence, the safety of Suiyuan City could be guaranteed.

After receiving Huang Wei's promise, Zhu Jing'an nodded slightly and then spoke.

"Send the order, the army is ready to return!"

After saying this, Zhu Jing'an looked towards the north, his eyes dark, and he couldn't help but feel a little lucky in his heart.

Fortunately, the allied forces of Tsarist Russia and Mongolia have not gone south yet, otherwise, he would not be able to return if he wanted to.

Once the allied forces of Tsarist Russia and Mongolia choose to pursue the Ming army when they withdraw, the Ming army will be in big trouble.

Since ancient times, whether you can retreat safely when the enemy is pursuing you has been an important criterion for measuring whether an army is elite.

Even if the Ming army could pass the test, Zhu Jing'an was unwilling to take risks.

……

In early May of the sixth year of Xuanwu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jing'an led his troops to return to the capital from Suiyuan at high speed.

As soon as he arrived in the capital, Zhu Jing'an entered the palace and asked to see Zhu Jianzhuo.

In the Yangxin Hall, father and son sat opposite each other.

Zhu Jing'an asked.

"Father, how is the situation in Huai'an now?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jianzhuo took a deep breath and spoke with a solemn expression.

"The situation is very bad. Although the rioting canal workers in various places have not raised the flag of rebellion, the scale of the riots is getting bigger and bigger. Now the riots have spread, not just in Huai'an."

"There were riots by water workers in Linqing, Dongchang, Jining, Gaoyou, Yangzhou and other places along the canal."

"The rioting water workers have already cut off the canal, expelled the Ming Dynasty officials along the canal, and robbed passing merchants. This is no different from rebellion."

In just one month, the situation along the canal has taken a turn for the worse.

Zhu Jing'an took a deep breath, his expression became a little serious, and he asked.

"It was just a riot and no flag was raised. It seems that they want to negotiate with the court and force the court to make concessions!"

"Father, what does the Governor of Water Transport say?"

This large-scale waterworks riot was instigated by the Water Transport Governor's Office and its officials, so Zhu Jing'an asked this question.

Zhu Jiazhuo took a deep breath, shook his head and said.

"The Governor's Office of Water Transport sent a letter to the imperial court, saying that as long as the imperial court ordered the termination of the railway construction project, the water transport riots would be quelled."

"Otherwise, they will not be able to quell the riots and the canal will never be open again."

"Isn't this clearly threatening the imperial court with millions of canal workers?"

Zhu Jianzhuo was furious now. Ever since he led his troops to rebel against the Qing Dynasty, no one had ever dared to talk to him like this! !
He, Lao Zhu, can't bear this grievance!

When Zhu Jing'an heard this, he pondered for a while and then spoke.

"The court must not give in this time!"

"Otherwise, if the imperial court wants to implement any reforms in the future, the people below will just imitate it!"

"This is something that touches the bottom line of the court!"

Zhu Jing'an's attitude is very clear.

Even if one person is killed, the railway construction project must continue.

This is not negotiable!
Why did the gentry in Jiangnan during the pre-Ming Dynasty dare to incite peasant rebellions to resist taxes?

To put it bluntly, isn't it just because the imperial court was timid in giving in at the beginning?
As long as the Ming Dynasty can resolutely suppress it several times and use the heads of a few big households to scare the monkeys, I don't believe that there are still people in Jiangnan who dare to resist taxes.

Even if there are still people who dare to resist taxes, it is at best tax evasion. No one will dare to violently resist taxes by instigating riots.

Tax evasion and violent tax resistance are two different things.

Zhu Jiazhuo nodded when he heard this.

"It should be suppressed."

"It's just that the prince thinks how to deal with the follow-up of this matter?"

Zhu Jing'an said with a cold face and murderous intent.

"After the fire workers who participated in the riot were suppressed, they were all sent to hard labor camps and forced to build the Yellow River embankment."

"In addition, all officials involved in the riot, regardless of their size, were beheaded and their families were exiled to Liaodong or Hainan."

Zhu Jing'an has now made up his mind to use those officials to scare the monkeys in this incident, so naturally he will not forgive them easily.

The whole family is exiled, that's what it should be!

Of course, the main reason why Zhu Jing'an acted so ruthlessly and decisively was because the Ming army had now completed the great cause of unification.

In the past, when there was the external threat of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Zhu Jing'an was very gentle towards the officials within the Ming Dynasty.

Even if an official makes a mistake, he or she will only receive a minor punishment or a major warning, which can be called a model of a "benevolent monarch and holy master".

But that's not because Zhu Jing'an is really so easy to talk to and has a temper as soft as dough.

It's because Zhu Jing'an knows what to do and when to do it.

At that time, there was still the external threat of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. It was not only the Ming Dynasty family that could be awarded official titles. Those who were officials had a second choice.

Zhu Jing'an was afraid that he would make people desperate, and those officials would defect to the Manchus again.

But now it doesn’t matter! The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been completely destroyed. The Ming Dynasty has completed the great cause of unification and has become the only court in China that can issue official titles.

In this case, Zhu Jing'an will naturally not spoil them anymore.

Since those people took the initiative to hit his gun, don't blame Zhu Jing'an for killing people ruthlessly.

It’s time to start a cleansing of the officialdom!

Zhu Jianzhuo and Zhu Jing'an looked at each other and understood the meaning in each other's eyes. Zhu Jianzhuo took a deep breath and asked with a serious expression.

"Jing'an, is it really okay to do this?"

"Will the harsh treatment of a group of officials by the imperial court lead to the death of other people in the court?"

When Zhu Jing'an heard this, he just shook his head and said.

"Father, you are too worried. The officials in the court are not of the same mind."

"They are eager for the court to expand its handling of this matter to free up a few more vacancies for their respective factions."

The current Ming Dynasty court is mainly divided into two factions.

One is the Yuan Cong faction and the other is the Gui Jiang faction.

There is no need to explain the meaning of Yuancong faction. Wang Shun, Li Mu, He Shou and others are its representatives.

Most of them have deep qualifications and have been following Ming Dynasty since Guangxi.

The Yuancong sect is also divided into two factions, one is the Hakka and the other is the Tujia, and they dislike each other.

The surrender faction were Qing officials who later surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, these surrender officials are not of the same mind.

Among the surrender faction, officials from the Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan factions were very close to the Yuancong faction.

The Jiangnan faction is the strongest, and the Guangdong and Guangxi factions of Yinyin and Hunan faction are not able to deal with each other and form their own faction.

In addition, there is also the dispute between the southern faction and the northern faction, the dispute between the merchant faction and the gentry faction...

With so many factions, each of which is not dealt with, it is impossible for the officials in the court to form a joint force.

As long as the officials cannot form a joint force, Zhu Jing'an can play checks and balances, and there is no need to worry that they will overturn the situation.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the reason why the civil servant group was able to compete with the imperial power was even faintly overwhelming the imperial power.

To put it bluntly, because the Donglin Party has grown bigger, officials in the south have formed a joint force.

However, the Jin Party, Shaanxi Party and other northern parties are still scattered. Especially after Wei Zhongxian's eunuch party was dealt with, the northern parties were completely unable to check and balance the Donglin Party.

Only then did the chaos in Donglin happen.

If Zhu Jing'an is placed in Chongzhen's position, then first of all he will never deal with Wei Zhongxian, but will let Wei Zhongxian continue to check and balance with Donglin.

Moreover, he would also fight against one faction of the Donglin Party and cause division within Donglin by supporting small collectives such as Fushe.

This will make Donglin fight among himself!
Only by preventing Dong Lin from forming a joint force can the court have a way to check and balance the monster Dong Lin Party.

Rather than being like Chongzhen, he first killed Wei Zhongxian, and then discovered that the Donglin Party had grown bigger, and hurriedly suppressed the Donglin Party.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty was directly at odds with its rulers and ministers, Jiangnan was at odds, and the North and the South were seriously separated.

Zhu Jing'an really couldn't complain about this operation.

Chongzhen was a real novice in politics.

Having said that, the officials of the Water Transport Sect that Ming Dynasty had to deal with this time were just a small branch of the Northern Sect.

Besides, this time it was not the imperial court that took the initiative to deal with them, but they chose to "rebel."

This is really asking for death!
Under such circumstances, no one would confront the imperial court for the sake of proactive water transport officials.

Zhu Jianzhuo nodded when he heard this.

"What Jing'an said makes sense!"

After saying that, Zhu Jianzhuo continued to ask.

"When is Jing'an going to send troops south to fight against the thieves?"

"There has been some food shortage in the capital recently, and food prices have risen a lot. It would be better to open up water transportation as soon as possible."

Ever since the canal was cut off by rioting water workers and the grain transportation to the north was terminated, there was a big gap in the capital's food supply.

Even though the Ming Dynasty urgently took the sea route to transport grain from North Korea and Jiangnan to supplement the gap, it was unable to completely fill this gap.

So much so that now the price of food in Beijing has risen a lot!
What's more serious is that since water transportation was cut off, even the army's food supply has inevitably had some problems.

And this is why water transport officials are confident in controlling the imperial court.

They felt that as long as water transportation was interrupted, Beijing would be short of food, and even the army would be short of food.

In this case, the court could only surrender to them in exchange for the canal being reopened.

However, what they didn't expect was that times had changed.

Although water transportation was cut off, the Ming Dynasty was able to transport grain by sea, filling most of the gaps after the water transportation was cut off.

Although the food shortage is real, it is not to the point of running out of food.

Zhu Jing'an heard this and spoke.

"Returning to my father, the army has just returned to the capital from Suiyuan City outside the Pass. After traveling nearly a thousand miles, the army will inevitably be exhausted."

"It takes a few days to repair before we can send troops south!"

When Zhu Jianzhuo heard this, he nodded in approval.

It is natural for an army to need some refreshment after a long journey.

Otherwise, it is definitely not a wise thing to fight the enemy with a weak force.

Seeing this, Zhu Jing'an continued to speak.

"Father, have the prices of food in the capital increased significantly recently?"

Zhu Jianzhuo nodded.

"It is inevitable that water transportation is cut off, and people in the capital are panicked. If the imperial court could not transfer grain and grass to Tianjin by sea, and then transfer grain and grass to Beijing by railway, it would not be a matter of rising grain prices."

When Zhu Jing'an heard this, he touched his chin and said.

"Father, I think the imperial court should perhaps step in to stabilize food prices and limit the increase in food prices to protect people's livelihood."

Food is about people's hearts and minds.

Whether food prices rise or not, even in future generations, is a very important matter.

Not to mention this era when all kinds of survival materials are relatively scarce!

Zhu Jing'an always believed that if the court allowed food prices to skyrocket without using administrative means to restrict them, there would be big problems.

As the saying goes, if there is a 20% shortage of food in the market, then food prices will not just rise by 20%, but will continue to rise until 20% of people starve to death.

In order to protect people's livelihood and prevent unscrupulous profiteers from taking this opportunity to enrich the country, it is very necessary for the court to issue laws and administrative measures to limit the rise in food prices.

Because only in this way can we try to prevent people from starving to death!
Zhu Jiazhuo heard this, thought for a while and then nodded.

"What the prince said is reasonable. I will hold a meeting with the cabinet to discuss the matter later."

Originally, Zhu Jianzhuo didn't pay much attention to the rise in food prices.

Because, no matter how much food prices rise, they won't be able to rise as much as he does.

But after Zhu Jing'an said this, he realized that this matter was actually quite serious.

Seeing this, Zhu Jing'an nodded first, and then spoke again.

"Father, I think it may be possible to increase the functions of the Price Administration Bureau and give it certain law enforcement powers to ensure stable prices for materials related to people's livelihood..." (End of Chapter)