Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 248 We are all on errands for His Majesty

a few days later.

Above the Jingying University Campus.

Zhang Fu wore armor and rode a group of big brown horses. Surrounded by a group of soldiers, he slowly walked towards the ring surrounded by a crowd.

This group of people are the "old, weak, sick and disabled" selected from the Fifth Army Camp, Three Thousand Camp, and Shenji Camp.

Chen Mao and Zhu Neng had been waiting for a long time. When they saw Zhang Fu dismounting from his horse, they hurriedly greeted him.

Afterwards, the three of them stepped onto the stage that was temporarily used as a podium.

In recent days, in accordance with Zhu Gaoxu's "guiding ideology", they have checked people who have falsified military status one by one. Those who should be expelled should be expelled, and those who should be punished should be handed over to the competent authorities for handling and transfer. Then they returned the occupied playgrounds and fields to the officers and soldiers.

After such an operation, those unstable people's hearts have gradually settled down.

But after getting rid of the shortcomings of occupying playground fields and false military status, the next step is to eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled.

At this time, the vast majority of the people surrounding the ring were officers and soldiers who were identified as "old, weak, sick and disabled" waiting to be dealt with.

Among the old, weak, sick and disabled, "old" refers to the elderly, "weak" refers to the weak children, "sick" refers to the sick, and "disabled" refers to the disabled.

The "weak soldiers" in the Beijing camp are mainly young soldiers, which is a situation where the father dies and the son succeeds.

Zhang Fu glanced at the crowd around the ring and estimated that there were tens of thousands of people, and his expression suddenly became very ugly.

At its peak, the number of soldiers in the Beijing camp was more than 16. Since the [-]th year of Yongle, after officers and soldiers from the Beijing camp were continuously sent to station in local areas to help build canals and dredge rivers, the number quickly dropped to more than [-].

After the Beijing camp has gradually declined in the past nine years, desertion has become very common, resulting in a year-by-year decline in the number of real officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp. Excluding the tens of thousands of people who pretend to be nationals to receive food and pay, the current three battalions combined include the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled. Inside, there are only 19 people left!

Among the remaining nearly 20 people, the elderly, weak, sick and disabled account for more than 14%, approximately [-] people!

Do not check, I don’t know, I’m scared.

When Zhang Fu, Zhu Neng, and Chen Mao saw the results of the investigation, they were all horrified. They finally understood why Zhu Gaoxu did not hesitate to kill Ma Qi that day, and even wanted to kill everyone in the Beijing camp. Officers, commanders, commanders and other officers.

At the same time, they also deeply felt Zhu Di's tolerance for their group of meritorious officials!

Take Zhang Fu as an example. There are several generals in the Fifth Army Camp who were his former soldiers or confidants.

These people invaded the playgrounds and fields of the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp. Zhang Fu naturally knew about it. He believed that it was a prosperous time and those people did not dare to be too arrogant.

This is also true. The generals and commanders promoted by Zhang Fu are indeed not an exaggeration in terms of individuals. Each of them occupied hundreds of acres of land, ate thousands of empty wages, and risked the military membership of nearly a thousand people to receive food and wages. That’s all.

Zhang Fu felt that it was reasonable for the court to be rich and for the peace and prosperity of the brothers to risk their lives to indulge in pleasure, so he could just turn a blind eye.

But adding together the fields these people occupied, the empty wages they ate, and the wages they received from fake nationality, it was not a small sum of money!
If it were placed in the Hongwu period, not to mention Zhu Neng, a minister who was obedient to the dragon, even Zhang Fu, whose sister married Zhu Gaoxu, would definitely be executed by the order of the murderous Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang for indulging his trusted officials in corruption and harming the soldiers!

Zhu Di handed over all power to Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu did not hold up the butcher knife, obviously thinking of the contributions of Zhang Fu and others.

"Marquis Xincheng, just in case, the officers and soldiers who came to listen to the Holy Order this time are only one-tenth of the many officers and soldiers to be eliminated."

Chen Mao saw that Zhang Fu's face was not very good, and hoped to complete this lecture as soon as possible, so he came to Zhang Fu and introduced him softly.

He can especially understand Zhang Fu's current mood, because many middle-level officers such as commanders and commanders in the Beijing camp are also his confidants or soldiers.

Chen Mao was the son of Chen Heng, the general of the Hongwu Dynasty. He was courageous and good at riding and shooting. When he was weak, he joined the army with his father as a samurai. Later, he participated in the Western Expedition and the Northern Expedition and made many meritorious services. In the end, he was named a marquis for his merits and was awarded the title of Marquis. Zhu Di was promoted to one of the honorable ministers in charge of the Beijing camp.

After listening to Chen Maozhi's words, Zhang Fu nodded and said: "First stabilize people's hearts before speaking, so as to avoid chaos."

While investigating the occupation and illegal citizenship, he realized that many officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp were very dissatisfied with the inaction of the imperial court, but they just dared to be angry but dared not speak out.

The officers and soldiers would not secretly insult Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu. After all, Zhu Di and his son had always been benevolent and righteous, and they often practiced benevolent policies, such as never increasing taxes and allowing the people to buy Western bonds to make money.

But they will target high-ranking military officials like Zhang Fu and Chen Mao with all their hostility!

In the eyes of many suffering officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp, it was the connivance of high-ranking officials like Zhang Fu and Chen Mao that allowed the middle-level officers in the Beijing camp to unscrupulously harm the officers and soldiers at the bottom.

As for those officers and soldiers who had been insulted by mid-level officers and even had deep hatred against them, they had long decided to fan the flames and prevent Zhang Fu and Chen Mao from coming to power, so that Zhu Gaoxu could punish them.

Zhang Fu and Chen Mao can also think of this.

Therefore, after Zhang Fu said something to Chen Mao, he walked to the front desk, looked around at the officers and soldiers, and shouted loudly: "Your Majesty has an oral message!"

After hearing this, all the officers and soldiers slowly knelt down to listen to the order.

"His Majesty ordered: 'Among the officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp, the old, weak, sick and disabled who have been eliminated should not be driven away at will. A camp should be selected for them to live temporarily. Although it is now difficult for them to go into battle to kill the enemy, they were once brave and fearless, and even among them There are many people who have followed my father on expeditions across the desert. Once a soldier, always a soldier! In life, I am an officer and soldier of the Ming Dynasty, and in death, I am a soldier of the Ming Dynasty! As long as I live, no one is allowed to treat me harshly. !anyone!'"

Zhang Fu recited aloud the exact words Zhu Gaoxu said a few days ago, and then asked loudly: "You still don't want to thank the emperor for his kindness?"

"Your Majesty is wise! Your Majesty is wise!"

Many veterans were moved to tears, knelt down and shouted.

Their hearts were greatly comforted, and they felt that Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di had not forgotten them.

This kind of cry came and went, and it lasted for a long time before gradually dying down.

Seeing that people's hearts could be used, Zhang Fu took a deep breath.

Chen Mao was not so optimistic. Instead, he looked anxiously into the distance. When he saw a person riding a fast horse in the distance heading towards the ring, he couldn't help but frowned.

"Marquis of Xincheng, what exactly do you plan to do with us?" After the officers and soldiers stood up after receiving the order to express their gratitude, someone in the crowd suddenly asked loudly.

"Yes, what does Your Majesty plan to do with us?"

"How can disabled veterans like me spend our remaining years peacefully?"

"A person like me who just lost an arm can still go to the battlefield! I am still young and can serve His Majesty!"

Someone took the lead to ask, and others followed suit.

For a time, various questions rang out from the crowd.

Zhang Fu responded loudly: "Don't worry, His Majesty will issue an edict soon, and he will make sure to properly arrange the brothers."

"What you say doesn't work, we want to see His Majesty!"

Suddenly, someone shouted in the crowd.

"We want to see His Majesty!"

The next moment, the crowd burst into even stronger shouts.

Among the crowd, there were some people who were full of hostility and felt that the imperial court was trying to kill the donkey.

As for those who had grudges against Zhang Fu's officers, they took the opportunity to fan the flames and wanted to make the matter bigger, preferably by going to Zhu Gaoxu.

Just as the situation was getting out of hand, a knight rode a fast horse to the outside of the crowd.

"Get out of the way!"

shouted the knight.

Chen Maoding took a quick look and found that it was his own soldier, so he quickly ordered someone to respond.

After a while, the knight stepped onto the ring and saw Chen Mao.

"Your Majesty, the grain and silver coins we prepared were intercepted by Governor Zheng (Zheng He) on the way!"

The knight clasped his fists and reported.

Chen Mao was worried that officers and soldiers would take the opportunity to cause trouble. In order to appease people, he raised a batch of grain and silver coins in advance and decided to distribute them as food and wages to stabilize the many old, weak, sick and disabled people who were selected.

"Duke Zheng? Where is he now?"

Chen Mao said in surprise.

The knight replied: "We are riding on a fast horse and are coming this way."

Before he finished speaking, Chen Mao turned to look in the direction where the knight had just come. Sure enough, he found Zheng He, the eunuch of the Three Treasures wearing a python robe and a jade belt, riding a horse to the outside of the crowd.

Several knights in purple costumes followed Zheng He and soon arrived at the outside.

"The decree has arrived!"

After Zheng He's entourage gathered behind him, he took out a roll of imperial edict from his arms, raised it high in the air with his right hand, and shouted loudly.

When the officers and soldiers heard this, they quickly moved out of the way.

Seeing this, Zheng He got off his horse and climbed onto the ring through the corridor.

"I've met Mr. Zheng!"

Zhang Fu, Chen Mao, and Zhu Neng went up to greet Zheng He.

Zheng He cupped his hands and returned the greeting: "I have met three princes."

After the ceremony between the two parties was over.

"The Marquis of Xincheng."

Zheng He handed the imperial edict in his hand to Zhang Fu and said confidently: "This is your Majesty's edict to set up a retired military bureau to be responsible for the placement of retired officers and soldiers. From now on, you have full authority over the placement of retired officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp. Leave it to the retired army for suspension."

"Thank you Mr. Zheng!"

Zhang Fu accepted the imperial edict and thanked Zheng He.

Zheng He returned the gift with his hand, then looked at Chen Mao and said bluntly: "The Marquis of Ningyang paid for the food himself. Although it was to appease the officers and soldiers, you are doing errands for His Majesty. After those officers and soldiers took your benefits, they will listen to Your Majesty in the future." Yes, or do I listen to you?"

After hearing what Zheng He said, Chen Mao's heart felt as if someone had pinched him, his face instantly turned pale, and he was so shocked that he couldn't say a word.

Zheng He said with a smile on his face: "In order not to embarrass His Majesty, and also to not embarrass Marquis Ningyang, Zheng took the initiative and paid for Marquis Ningyang's things in His Majesty's name, and sent people to report the matter to His Majesty. This matter."

Chen Mao's back was soaked with cold sweat. He heard the last half of Zheng He's words and knew that he had escaped. He immediately faced Zheng He, cupped his fists and held his hands in gratitude and said: "I can't thank you enough for your kindness. Mr. Zheng has given me this kindness." , Chen took note of it!”

"Okay, we are all on errands for His Majesty, and we are all ministers of the Ming Dynasty. Don't say such disrespectful things."

Zheng He reached out and patted Chen Mao on the shoulder and said cheerfully.

(End of this chapter)