Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 469: The Ceremony of Victory and Surrender of Prisoners

There was actually another reason why Zhu Youjian lifted martial law so readily.

That is, more than four months after the order was issued, Zhu Xieyuan, Qin Liangyu and others finally brought the meritorious soldiers from the southwest to Beijing.

These were meritorious officials who were rewarded for their contributions after he ascended the throne. There was no doubt that they supported him as the emperor.

With these people in Beijing, Zhu Youjian didn't have to worry about another rebellion in the capital and whether the mastermind behind it could be found.

It would be fine if those people didn't jump out, but once they couldn't help wanting to jump out, these meritorious soldiers and the patrol battalion with initial combat effectiveness let them know what it means to suppress a rebellion by force.

Therefore, after these meritorious soldiers entered Beijing, Zhu Youjian no longer worried that anyone would dare to rebel, and he decisively lifted the martial law.

At the same time, a grand ceremony of celebrating victory and presenting captives was held for Zhu Xieyuan and others.

The significance of the Southwestern Victory was widely publicized in newspapers to clear up the panic caused by the rebellion in western Beijing.

The ministers in the court had actually known about this great victory that took place last September. The order for Zhu Xieyuan to be transferred to the position of the commander of the Great Wall had also been announced in the court bulletin.

But not many people care about it because the southwest is too far away from the capital.

However, after the emperor held a ceremony to celebrate Zhu Xieyuan's victory and a ceremony to present captives, the people of the capital finally understood the significance of the southwest victory.

This was the greatest victory after Wanli's three major expeditions.

Although it was not achieved against the biggest enemy, the Jianlu, after the She'an Rebellion was quelled, the imperial court would certainly be able to mobilize more troops to deal with the Jianlu.

The people living in the capital area can feel more at ease because of this.

In particular, the court's promise to cancel the Liao salary after pacifying Liaodong made many people look forward to it.

Those families who were granted Liaodong land certificates were even more eager to take Liaodong back.

It can be said that suppressing the Jianlu Rebellion is what people now want, and no one can stop this expectation.

Many people expected that this famous general Zhu Xieyuan could make new achievements and use his talents to defeat the Jianlu.

Therefore, when Zhu Xieyuan led his troops into Beijing, he was warmly welcomed by the people of the capital.

All officials also gathered in front of and behind Chengtian Gate to participate in this grand ceremony.

The ceremony of reporting victory and presenting captives originated from the ceremony of generals reporting victory and presenting captives in the early days of the country. It was redefined by Liu Zongzhou and others under the name of re-making rituals and music.

According to the arrangement of the ceremony, Zhu Xieyuan and others took the captives and paraded them in Chengtian Street for a while, then walked into Chengtian Gate with their heads held high, turned right to the Taimiao, and offered sacrifices outside the temple gate.

Then he went to the Meridian Gate and paid a visit to the emperor sitting on the top floor in front of the Meridian Gate Tower.

Zhu Xieyuan led all the generals in bowing four times, and Zhu Youjian issued an order to announce it to the whole country.

The officers led the prisoners to their positions, and the Minister of Justice knelt down to make a report and handed the prisoners over to the criminal officers.

Those who committed the most heinous crimes would naturally need to be executed. Some prisoners who had committed less serious crimes or had already surrendered were exempted from death by Zhu Youjian's order. They happily bowed four times and shouted three times to express their gratitude.

Then Zhu Youjian announced the rewards and granted corresponding well-fields according to the hereditary titles granted to Zhu Xieyuan and others.

In addition to being able to choose well-fields in Liaodong or to open up territories overseas, they had one more option than officials in the court, which was to choose well-fields in the southwest.

As with the area outside Liaodong, Zhu Youjian set Guizhou as a martial law zone and implemented special policies for the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou.

This is because there are too many chieftains in the two places. The Duke of Qian, who ruled Yunnan for generations, has farms everywhere. It is said that he has 360 farms in Yunnan. It takes a year to visit one farm every day.

It was impossible for Zhu Youjian to take over all these fields, so he formulated another policy to grant well-field system to nobles, chieftains and hereditary officials, and then implemented a policy of limiting land and rent.

The Duke of Qian's family was worried that the court would punish them for Mu Qiyuan's death, so they accepted this completely.

Moreover, according to the emperor's instructions, the heir of the Duke of Qian, Mu Tianbo, was sent from Yunnan to receive education in martial arts, and a princess was selected from the royal family for marriage.

It can be said that after this incident, the relationship between the Qianguo family and the royal family became closer.

Zhu Youjian also praised the Duke of Qian many times and widely publicized the story of their hereditary rule in Yunnan, using it as a model for aristocratic hereditary officials to show his sincerity in enfeoffment.

The effect is quite good. At least some nobles have become interested in overseas fiefdoms.

Even the Yingguo Duke family had sent people to Jiaozhi, preparing to find an opportunity to establish a fiefdom.

After the ceremony of celebrating victory and presenting captives was completed, all officials bowed four times again, and Zhu Youjian returned to the palace after the ceremony.

Then the court's proclamation was quickly announced.

All major newspapers were ordered to issue special editions to specifically publicize this triumphant ceremony of surrendering prisoners.

For a time, Zhu Youjian's reputation was at its peak in the capital.

Many people believe that the current emperor is a wise ruler who has both civil and military skills.

Moreover, this emperor was very close to the people and personally presided over a group wedding a few days ago.

This made Zhu Youjian's image more prestigious among the people and also more recognized in the military.

The Ming Dynasty also began to shake off the haze and decadence of successive defeats and showed signs of revival.
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However, this was only the view of the people. Zhu Youjian knew in his heart that although the She'an Rebellion was large in scale, it was in the southwest after all, and its impact was far less than the peasant uprising and the Jianlu Rebellion that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Just a few days before Zhu Xieyuan and others arrived in Beijing, the King of Qin had already hurried to the capital after learning that the crown prince was seriously ill. At the same time, Sun Chuanting, Yuan Shu and others who were in charge of Shaanxi's military and political affairs also came with him and reported the detailed news.

In this memorial, Sun Chuanting and others gave an overall report on what happened in Shaanxi last year.

It was pointed out that Shaanxi has been in drought since May last year.

And in winter, there was a frost disaster.

It can be said that although this year has just begun, a major disaster has been confirmed.

They asked the court to make preparations early and start disaster relief as soon as possible.

This news was also confirmed by the Yansui Military Guard. Zhu Tongmeng and other northern Shaanxi officials reported an even more serious situation.

Because Sun Chuanting and others collected the savings of the Qin Palace, the victims in Guanzhong were able to survive by relying on work-for-relief.

There is no food to be found anywhere in northern Shaanxi, and people are starting to starve to death.

Especially those who were wandering around and were not incorporated into the garrisons, they were killed everywhere.

The survivors could not rob the organized military and civilian households of the garrisons, so they could only flee south to Guanzhong and other places.

In order to prevent them from disrupting the entire Shaanxi Province, Zhu Tongmeng ordered people to intensify immigration propaganda and lure the victims to embark on the journey of migrating eastward to Cangzhou, which was said to have full granaries of grain.

He had already reported the matter to the Governor-General and Minister of Immigration Zhang Mengjing, and asked the emperor to issue an order as soon as possible to prevent the disaster victims from causing any trouble on the way of migration.

When Zhu Youjian heard the news, he was inconsolable. The joy of the birth of the eldest son was also dispersed by this bad news.

Last year, the summer and autumn immigrants lost more than 10%, and the winter immigration loss will at least double.

If there are disasters such as snowstorms and severe cold, the losses will be even greater. Less than half of the people may reach Cangzhou safely.

This is why he stopped migrating in the winter after completing the autumn migration.

Unexpectedly, northern Shaanxi could not even survive the winter and had to drive out the refugees and force them to migrate eastward.

At this point, he could not blame the officials in northern Shaanxi for their incompetence. His bottom line was that there should be no chaos in Shaanxi. It was rare that Zhu Tongmeng could take the situation in Guanzhong into consideration, and he could not make higher demands.

What we need to do now is to remedy the situation as soon as possible, send military households to organize the migration of disaster victims, set up more supply stations along the way, and distribute clothes to disaster victims to keep warm.

Because of this, he asked the Imperial Household Department and the Ministry of Revenue to allocate some money, and asked religious figures in the capital to organize a New Year's prayer ceremony to pray for the disaster victims in Shaanxi. At the same time, he called on believers to donate cotton clothes and other supplies.

These charitable properties will be exempted from taxes and delivered to the victims under the supervision of officials from the Ministry of Revenue, parliamentarians and journalists.

After the folk religious rebellion in the west of Beijing, Buddhism and Taoism had been thinking about how to please the emperor and avoid arousing more suspicion from the emperor.

They have spared no effort in this matter.

There were quite a lot of believers in the capital, and many of them participated in this prayer meeting in order to accumulate blessings for their descendants.

Later, this ceremony gradually became a tradition. After the ceremony, major religions would compete to show off their influence by collecting money and property.

There are also some Taoists who respond to the call of the City God Temple and go to the City God Temple and Land God Temple along the way.

The monk also got involved and fought for the right to be introduced to the City God for rituals.

They can participate in funeral ceremonies like Taoist priests.

This is because some people are devout Buddhists, and if the City God does not introduce them, they will look for it themselves privately.

Moreover, there are too few Taoist priests, and many of them are devoted to spiritual practice. If they were to perform rituals, the family members of the deceased might have to wait in line.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, the City God Division also included Buddhism in the mix, and will assign them to perform some funeral rituals in the future.

However, because the City God's Office is the Taoist City God Dao, and many of its priests are Taoists, the number of rituals allocated to Buddhism will inevitably not be large, and it is only used as a supplement.

In order to change this situation, Buddhism was very active in this disaster relief, demonstrating financial resources far superior to Taoism.

He also called on monks from Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places to participate in the disaster relief.

Zen Master Dongming, who had been begging for alms for more than ten years and was preparing to build Thousand Buddha Temple in Xizhou, responded to the call.

He gave up the idea of ​​building a temple and donated the money for disaster relief.

As a result, the famous Little Western Paradise in Xi County disappeared without a trace.

In fact, he would not have been able to build temples if he did not donate money, because after the surrender of Buddhism and Taoism, Zhu Youjian had taken advantage of the martial law to issue an order to stop the construction of temples.

Temples and monasteries across the country must determine their level and the temple properties they own.

New temples and monasteries are not allowed to be built before approval to avoid wasting money.

Therefore, the Little Western Paradise of Dongming Zen Master cannot be built now. It was a wise move for him to donate the money he raised to disaster relief.

Because of this move, Master Dongming was praised by the court, and later became the president of the Shanxi Buddhist Association. He was also invited by the Buddhist vassal states to be the national teacher. With the support of the vassal monarch, he established Xiaoxitian overseas. (End of this chapter)

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