People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 465 The civil officials knelt on the ground and surrendered! !
Everyone unanimously agreed that they should go and make it clear to Zhu Di right now that it was not them who wanted to oppose the intelligence you reported.

Rather, the Minister of Rites had strong dissatisfaction with the reform.

So he tried every possible way to find loopholes in the reform from all angles, hoping to use them to attack the reform.

And we are all victims.

What we uphold this time is fairness and justice.

I hope to help the generals in Beiping Prefecture explain the incident clearly.

In fact, it is not us civil servants who suspect that there is something wrong with this matter.

But most people in the world think that this casualty ratio is a bit problematic.

That's why some people want us to come.

After they had prepared themselves mentally, they immediately made preparations.

But the Minister of Rites was kept in the dark.

Before coming, the Minister of Rites specifically found the investigation team that was going to the north for investigation.

Tell them how we are going to investigate Zhu Di and others' fraud this time.

How do we figure out some of the things going on here?

How can we prevent people like Zhu Di from fooling us?

When the officials heard this, they all frowned.

Because when the Minister of Rites put forward these premises, he completely held a negative attitude towards the information reported by Zhu Di and others, and did not believe it at all.

That is why it is required that the officials under investigation must find all kinds of loopholes from all angles.

But now after arriving in Beiping Prefecture and completing the investigation, we found that there were no flaws at all and there was nothing worthy of suspicion.

He went crazy again and felt that Zhu Di and the others must be hiding something.

He just wanted to find a way to pick the bone out of the egg.

Other officials would not follow him to die.

The other officials actually know it very well.

During the investigation, they discovered that the weapons used by the Beiping army were different from those used at other times.

Not only did they use advanced firearms, but the level of training was also higher than they had imagined.

They even saw with their own eyes that during training, the soldiers were able to knock down targets from hundreds of meters away using muskets and artillery.

The civil servants believed this to some extent.

With Chen Han's reforms, not only did the people have more money in their hands.

Not only did the soldiers who were fighting everywhere bring back gold, silver and spices from all over the place.

There are more upgrades in weapons and equipment, which have already formed a huge generation gap.

Those Mongolian Tartars who still fought with scimitars and bows and arrows became so vulnerable when they encountered the advanced weapons of the Ming Dynasty.

Once upon a time, they were indeed invincible.

The Mongolian Tartars once did have absolute advantages.

Their cavalry has very strong archery capabilities.

Their horses are nimble and maneuverable.

They even had three war horses each.

One was used to transport food and supplies, one was used for rest, and the other was used for fighting.

They can take turns resting on horseback.

Even the war horses could get some rest.

They had vast grasslands and could raise countless war horses.

However, the Central Plains was a place where there was a shortage of horses.

When fighting against the northern nomadic peoples, there is often a lack of well-trained cavalry.

So I suffered a lot of losses.

But it is different now, even though the Ming Dynasty has fewer cavalry than the northern nomadic peoples.

However, because of the absolute advantage of the weapons in their hands, they made up for the defect of having fewer cavalry, thus achieving an absolutely astonishing casualty ratio.

When other officials except the Minister of Rites came to Zhu Di's mansion, Zhu Di and his colleagues were actually quite shocked.

Zhu Di, Yao Guangxiao, Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng were in the mansion at that time.

Although they did not send anyone to keep an eye on the Minister of Rites and his men.

But it can be seen from the hostility they showed during the investigation.

They must have come with bad intentions this time.

Especially when entering the city of Beiping, the people hit them with rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs.

The faces of these civil servants were rubbed on the ground.

They were even more unwilling to cooperate with Zhu Di.

Therefore, their investigation report must be full of unfavorable information against the Northern Expedition Army.

Zhu Neng was very angry.

He has a rather impatient temper.

He stood up and said, "Your Highness, why bother with them so much.

As we say, the innocent will be cleared, and we ourselves know what we have done.

We know our own weight.

The reason why we were able to pin the Tartars in the north to the ground and crush them this time was not just because of our courage.

What’s more, the Duke provided us with very good weapons this time.

It is the timely logistical support that gives us more confidence.

This is why we won the battle.

We don't underestimate ourselves, but we are not that vain either.

There was indeed some element of luck involved this time.

But it also fully demonstrates that the firearms reform proposed by the Duke is very necessary.

This can be used as a successful experience case and promoted to all the armies of the Ming Dynasty so that all armies can use firearms.

If we are afraid to promote firearms just because of the words of these civil servants, I think this will be the biggest loss for our Ming Dynasty."

He is much more open-minded now.

Of course, at first he felt that it was excessive for the civil servants to be so lacking in understanding.

He even wanted to lead his troops to directly besiege the inns where the civil servants lived.

But I still calmed down.

When he spread this sentiment to the soldiers under his command.

The soldiers also felt that now that they had won a great victory, it was enough for them to know it.

As for others’ misunderstanding, let them not understand.

There is no way we can make them all understand.

They did not see how victorious we were in battle;
They did not see the miserable state of the nomadic people when they were attacked by us;

They didn't even see the shock that cannons and muskets brought to people.

This is indeed understandable.

At first, when everyone heard that the civil servants from the capital were coming to investigate them, they were indeed very angry.

But think about it the other way around.

If you were thousands of miles away.

Hearing that the North had won such a great victory, and that more than 100,000 enemies were captured with the loss of only a hundred people, it did seem a bit far-fetched, and I probably didn't quite believe it.

So they comforted Zhu Neng instead. Zhu Neng also thought that this was the case.

So it's calmer now.

Zhu Di, Yao Guangxiao and even Zhang Yu were all pleased after seeing Zhu Neng's performance.

I really didn't expect that such a rough guy could be so calm.

Zhu Di even stood up and said, "After listening to what you said, I think it is true.

It is infuriating to be misunderstood after winning a great victory.

But it's human nature, there's no need to worry so much about it, just know what to do.

This great victory fully demonstrated one thing, that is, the reform of firearms must definitely be put on the agenda.

We still had some doubts before.

I feel that there is no way to use it flexibly on the battlefield.

It can't even deter distant enemy forces.

But after this battle, I think our entire army should have seen one thing.

What a role firearms played in warfare.

Our soldiers are brave, our logistical support is timely, and our morale is high.

But we must understand one thing.

That is, the victory in this battle was 90% due to the deterrent effect of our artillery and muskets on the nomadic peoples.

They didn't react the first time they saw it, they didn't have time to fight back.

They had never expected that there would be such a weapon, so they were caught off guard.

We should not underestimate ourselves, but we must never overestimate ourselves.

We should make good use of the fruits of this victory.

Think carefully about how we should carry it forward in the next step.

The effect achieved by firearms on this occasion was enormous.

Firearms have given us absolute overwhelming power in this battle, which is of absolute significance.

We must compile all the processes and experiences of this battle and send them to the court.

Let His Majesty and the Crown Prince see this, let the entire army draw lessons from it, and let the Ming army, with the cooperation of muskets and artillery, be able to exert a more powerful effect from now on."

Zhu Di now knew very well that Mu Ying, who was fighting against the Japanese devils in the east, did not bring with him as powerful muskets and artillery as the ones he had now.

I also know that Lan Yu and his men in the south are not as powerful in their muskets and artillery.

Therefore, their experience in fighting nomadic peoples in the north is particularly valuable.

As a commander who had dealt with nomadic peoples on the border for so many years, Zhu Di understood very well how valuable his experience of leading the army to fight against the nomadic peoples this time was.

This is a very valuable experience gained by using firearms on the grassland.

He believed that even the battlefields of the Japanese devils in the east and the Indochina Peninsula in the south were definitely not so representative.

The area where the Japanese devils in the east are located is a mountainous and hilly area.

The Indochina Peninsula in the south is a tropical rainforest area.

There was no large-scale, deep artillery and firearms confrontation.

There was no mobile and flexible cavalry confrontation.

Therefore, their experience in using firearms this time is truly worthy of promotion and summary throughout the army.

Just as they were discussing the experiences and lessons learned from this war.

The housekeeper of the palace came hurriedly to report: "Your Majesty, all the civil servants who were involved in the investigation, except for the Minister of Rites, have come to the palace. They said they have important information to report."

Zhu Di and Yao Guangxiao looked at each other, wondering what those civil servants were planning.

Zhu Di said to Yao Guangxiao: "Master, in your opinion, what do they want to do this time?"

Yao Guangxiao frowned and replied, "I don't know either."

Zhu Neng said carelessly: "What else can I say? They just took their so-called investigation results and told us that this is how we forged it.

They even want to use this as a threat to force us to give them some benefits or something else.”

After listening to Zhu Neng's words, Zhang Yu and Zhu Di knew in their hearts: If this is true, then these civil servants are too shameless.

They tolerated it again and again because they did not want to have conflicts with officials in the capital.

After all, there is a lot of intrigue in the officialdom. If you conflict with them too much, they might do something behind your back.

It is also possible that he would stab the generals in Beiping Prefecture at that time.

So most of the time they try to be as tolerant as possible.

But if these civil servants are still so shameless this time, they don't mind driving them away directly.

However, Zhu Di still wanted to hear what they could come up with, so he ordered: "Let them in!"

The butler left, and not long after, he heard hurried footsteps.

Then, the civil servants came to the gate under the guidance of the butler.

Then I saw them running towards me with their heads down and in small steps.

Finally, under the astonished gazes of Zhu Di, Yao Guangxiao, Zhang Yu, and Zhu Neng, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Zhu Di to apologize: "Your Highness, we were deceived by the Minister of Rites and offended your Highness and the generals of Beiping Prefecture.

I also ask the generals to forgive us for our ignorance and for not being guilty.

Your Highness, we have now completed the investigation, and the result is just as the generals said, there is no false information.

There were even several generals who brought back many prisoners, which was something we civil servants were unaware of.

Now the Minister of Rites is deeply prejudiced against reforms, so he wants to find something to break.

We stopped at the brink and decided not to go along with this person.

We are willing to report the true situation of the current investigation to the higher authorities, and we hope that you and His Highness will not be offended."

This shocked Zhu Di, Yao Guangxiao, Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng very much.

We were just discussing that these officials might be using the so-called investigation report as a threat.

Maybe he felt that the generals in Beiping Prefecture were easy to bully.

But unexpectedly, these people came directly to apologize.

This feels particularly fresh.

Because when they first arrived, the faces of these civil servants were so angry that they jumped up to the sky.

They thought that they had something on the military generals and could threaten them at will.

And the generals in Beiping did not indulge them.

We did not compromise with them, allowing them to investigate and go in and out of various places.

Even military secret areas were allowed to be entered.

Allowing them to collect information completely.

If the investigation method is so open and transparent, they will find fault with everything.

Even if Zhu Di had to go to the capital to sue, he must seek justice for the soldiers.

So in fact, they had already thought about how to deal with the random slander of these shameless civil servants.

But he never expected that at this last moment, these officials, except the Minister of Rites, suddenly ran to his mansion and knelt on the ground to beg for mercy.

That means there were some misunderstandings between us before.

We didn't understand it clearly, but now we must explain it to you all.

We did not go along with the Minister of Rites.

Yao Guangxiao asked again: "Why was there such a deep prejudice against reform at that time? Why couldn't he see the benefits of reform? Can you answer?"

……

(End of this chapter)