Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 167 Killing Monkeys to Scare Monkeys

But Prince Xiang looked at Chongzhen, his face turning green. As soon as Sun Kewang left, he said, "My silly son, how can you promise him this?"

According to the Great Ming Law,

Rebels will have their nine clans executed, and although teachers are not included in that group, what does Your Majesty think of you?
"I didn't admit that I was his teacher. I just promised to teach him how to read and write. Even if he was caught by the government troops, it wouldn't be my fault."

Prince Xiang was stunned for a moment, then looked at the captain of the Jinyiwei, "Lord Han, you saw it too. If I don't do the apprenticeship ceremony, I can't be considered a disciple. Don't exaggerate when the time comes."

The captain of the Imperial Guard looked at Prince Xiang speechlessly, "Stir it up, stir it up, stir it up, and when your son is really implicated, you will cry for the time being."

After spending these days with Prince Xiang, Captain Han found that this old man was a good person. Compared with other vassal states, Prince Xiang really cared about the Ming Dynasty.

The two even became friends regardless of age difference.

But no matter how good their relationship is, he still has to stick to his principles when it comes to major issues.

"I..." King Xiang was helpless, "Lord Han, please help me persuade him. My son has more ideas than I did when he was younger."

……

As night falls,

Chongzhen and Zhu Changgan exchanged bodies again. As usual, he rubbed his forehead and listened to Wang Chengen telling what happened during the day.

When Huo Ran heard that the emperor had imprisoned dozens of ministers, he stood up instantly with an extremely grim expression, "Even if they did something wrong, it shouldn't be this serious? Killing ministers in the street, do you still want to save the Ming Dynasty's reputation?"

"Go, let Mashwi come to see me."

"Hmm?" Chongzhen looked at Wang Chengen, who didn't move, with a cold light in his eyes, "Why, I can't order you anymore?"

"Your Majesty, please don't be impatient. During the day, His Majesty had a word with the eunuchs. If His Majesty wants to release these officials tonight, please tell His Majesty."

"What?"

"Your Majesty, do you prefer the Ming Dynasty or the emperor's reputation and solar terms?"

The anger on Chongzhen's face suddenly stopped, and then slowly receded like a tide, "I actually told you this during the day... I know, you can leave now!"

He understood that this was what Zhu Changgan said to him on purpose. He had not said it for such a long time before, but this time he specifically reminded Wang Chengen. It seemed that the significance of this time was extraordinary.

Chongzhen sat there for a long time before he murmured, "Are we going to move against the civil service group now? Isn't it too early?"

As an emperor, he naturally understood the purpose of Zhu Changgan's visit.

It does not lie with the few officials in the court, but with the civil service group, with the officials, taxes, and land in several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River.

As King Xiang traveled such a long way, he increasingly understood where the country's difficulties lay, which was in finance.

When the state cannot collect taxes and cannot solve its financial problems, it will turn to putting pressure on the peasants. The peasants cannot bear the taxes and will either rebel or flee from their land to become vagrants. The unemployed will run around and become bandits, pirates, ruffians and hooligans, creating a situation full of instability.

The entire Ming Dynasty was filled with violence and distortion. People were beaten and killed at every turn. There was violence among the entire nation and even women were fighting.

They do not believe in the authority of the government, and prefer to believe rumors, rumors spread by bandits, rumors spread by neighbors, and they do not believe in the government.

The common people didn't believe it, and the bandits didn't believe it either. Just like Sun Kewang, he didn't believe what others told him. He insisted on learning it himself and seeing it for himself.

Everyone is in a state of high tension and mutual distrust.

Killings were everywhere, bandits, government troops, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, the Manchu Tartars...

The source of all this is the collapse of the country's finances.

Chongzhen actually knew it all along, but he had no way to deal with it. Now, Zhu Changgan has targeted the root cause in just over two months.

Therefore, Chongzhen’s first reaction was not excitement, but more fear and trepidation.

That night, the Qianqing Palace was brightly lit.

Wang Chengen was waiting outside. He did not leave, but the emperor did not let him go to the imperial prison to pick up the person.

……

Zhu Changgan slept peacefully among the peasant army for a whole night, and when he appeared in the court meeting again, he was in high spirits.

Faced with the fact that nearly half of the court was vacant, he finished the morning court session as if he ignored it.

After the morning court session, the capital city welcomed the Jinyiwei's house-raiding, which was what the people talked about the most. Among the civil servants who had been arrested and imprisoned before, more than a dozen people were found to be guilty of convicting them in just one night. All of them had their houses raided, the men were sent to exile, and the women were imprisoned in the Jiaofangsi.

Cao Huachun's battle with Mongolia south of the desert cost more than three million taels of silver, and Zhu Changgan needed to make up for it.

Thirty million taels of silver are not worth spending.

Moreover, due to the obstruction of the civil service group, the tax collection in various parts of Jiangnan was delayed again and again, and the national treasury was extremely empty. Zhu Changgan had no choice but to allocate 3 million taels to the Ministry of Revenue for emergency use.

This made Zhu Changgan's money even tighter, and he urgently hoped that Sun Chuanting could speed up the process.

But after thinking about it, he decided not to issue an order to urge him to do so.

In his previous life, it was because of Chongzhen's repeated pressure that Sun Chuanting was not adequately prepared, which led to his defeat and death, and his wife and daughter committing suicide.

Don't use the suspect, but don't use it.

This awareness still exists.

Just as he was about to go to Chenghua Palace, a eunuch came in to report, "Your Majesty, Zheng Hongkui has come to the capital and is seeking an audience outside the palace."

Zhu Changgan stopped suddenly and said, "Let him in."

……

"Your Majesty, I, Zheng Hongkui, bow to you. Long live your Majesty! Long, long live your Majesty!"

"prosper!"

Zhu Changgan asked Wang Chengen to help Zheng Hongkui up, "Didn't Fusong come with you?"

Zheng Fusong, also known as Zheng Chenggong, was only 14 years old at the time. He had not yet been given the national surname, and naturally had not been given the name Chenggong.

"Your Majesty, Fu Song is not feeling well and the journey is long, so he is not with me."

"It will be the same if you come." Zhu Changgan asked Wang Chengen to serve tea to Zheng Hongkui. "I want to form the Jiaodong Navy. You are a military candidate in the second year of Chongzhen, and a guerrilla general in Dengzhou. I want to hear your opinion."

"I dare not!" Zheng Hongkui was flattered by such a situation. Besides, he was just a young man in his twenties. Being treated with such courtesy by the emperor made his blood boil.

Zhu Changgan didn't know that Zheng Zhilong had come to Beijing, so it was the same whether it was his son or his brother.

Because at present, the only surface naval force of the Ming Dynasty is Zheng Zhilong.

When Zheng Zhilong was a pirate, he had more than 30,000 men and horses. After he was recruited, he had more than a thousand ships. In addition, he also had thousands of Fujian navy soldiers.

Today, Zheng Zhilong is hard to rival on the seas of East Asia, and Zhu Changgan is targeting his ships.

"Hongkui, are you willing to do something for the Ming Dynasty?"

"I am willing to serve your majesty at the cost of my life!"

"I appoint you as the deputy commander of the Jiaodong Navy. As for the personnel, you can rest assured. I will give you 10,000 people. As for the ships, I have already sent people to build them. However, the war in Jiaodong is about to start, and I am afraid that there will not be enough time. I want you to go back and borrow some from your brother. You can only borrow them for one year. After one year, all the ships will be returned in full."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I will go back and discuss this with my brother."

"Don't worry. It's not easy to come to the capital. It will take a few days to make the deputy general's uniform and official clothes. Have a good time in the capital for a few days. I'll let Gao Yu take you to have a good look and buy some things for your brother and nephew."

Although Zhu Changgan was very anxious in his heart, he appeared extremely calm on the surface. He did not ask for too many ships. A hundred ships would be enough to deal with the next battle.

Even if he couldn't borrow a ship, it would only be a deputy general title without real power.

If you can give it away, you can naturally take it back.

Watching Zheng Hongkui leave, Zhu Changgan waved at Wang Chengen and said, "Go pick out a set of porcelain that I use and give it to him."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

...In the next few days, the court calmed down completely, and Zhu Changgan also became relatively calm, going to Chenghua Hall to sit from time to time.

I had sex after dinner and felt as happy as a god.

Chongzhen was extremely busy. Zhang Xianzhong took his troops to avoid Zuo Liangyu and went to Fengtian via Anlu. In addition to traveling and taking care of the wounded, he also had to give lectures to Sun Kewang.

Information always flows in both directions. Chongzhen gave lectures to Sun Kewang and also gained something from him.

"Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang?"

"Yes, it's a pity that we were defeated. The Ming Emperor was still powerful after all. A militia led by him left many rebels without food.

"The princes were all frightened by the news that the captured vassal states would be demoted by three ranks. They not only summoned a large number of servants and guards, but also distributed their food to the people so that they could resist the rebels, which almost doubled the defense of the big cities."

Prince Fu?

What is that thing? How could Chongzhen not know? He wanted to stuff all the things into his own pocket, but he could also distribute food and take the initiative to participate in suppressing bandits?

"I never thought that after the crime of losing the vassal state was reduced, it would have such a great effect."

“Of course!” Sun Kewang shook his head and sighed, “The princes didn’t take Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao seriously in the first place, and now that their crimes have been mitigated, they don’t need to be taken seriously anymore. In order to protect themselves, these princes have no choice but to recruit family guards and take out their own food and grass…”

"Sir? Sir?"

Hmm? Chongzhen suddenly realized, "General Sun, please speak."

"I heard that the Ming Dynasty has defeated the Mongols in the north again. Will they attack our peasant army or the Later Jin next?"

Chongzhen shook his head, "I can't say for sure. I'm just a scholar and I don't understand military matters."

After learning the lesson from the last incident at Siwang Mountain, he was determined not to "predict" in order to prevent himself from being framed by these bandits again.

Sun Kewang wanted to say something, but a soldier ran over and whispered something in his ear.

"Sir, let's stop here today. I have something to take care of."

"Please!"

Chongzhen's hand slowly clenched, "Is it so different?"

He was talking about group training.

Last year, Chongzhen adopted the suggestion of Deputy General Yang Dezheng.

He believed that the reason why the "bandits" were difficult to suppress was because they appeared and disappeared at random and were constantly moving; in order to "eliminate the bandits", the key was to strengthen local armed forces.

Therefore, he suggested that local governments implement the "reduction of training". Specifically, the prefecture should abolish the Tongpan and establish the post of Lianbei, whose rank is equivalent to the garrison of the official army; the state should abolish the magistrate and the county should abolish the Zhubu, and add the post of Lianzong, which is equivalent to the rank of Bazong.

Lianbei and Lianzong were under the jurisdiction of the prefect, state magistrate and county magistrate, and were specifically responsible for training local soldiers. The local soldiers' task was to defend their hometown and they could not be transferred elsewhere. There were also fixed numbers for them: each prefecture had 1,000 soldiers, each state 700, and each county 500.

In terms of effect, the militias in various prefectures, counties and districts were nothing more than paper talk. Each place simply reported a false training number and then desperately extorted money in the name of "training and paying for the soldiers".

"When the tax increases, the fields become barren; when the taxes are urgent, the population decreases."

Not only did it fail to achieve the desired effect, but because of the increased taxation, a large number of people fled.

Chongzhen thought for a long time and finally figured something out. He murmured, "Increase taxes, increase taxes... It's all because of the corruption of officials. They deserve to be killed!"

……

The next morning, the capital city was in an uproar.

Not only were the common people excited, but there was also constant discussion throughout the court, because the emperor was going to personally supervise the execution of important officials of the Ming Dynasty.

The first and second rank official titles in the imperial court were all honorary titles, such as Grand Tutor, Grand Protector, Junior Protector, Cabinet Scholar, and officials of various ministries. The Shangshu was only a second rank.

Tian Weijia, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, was a third-rank official, a true high-ranking official in the imperial court.

All the hundreds of civil and military officials in Beijing carried straw mats and rushed to the execution ground.

The shirtless executioner was sharpening his knife on the field.

Outside the cordon, the people were surging like a tide. The Five Cities Army sent thousands of soldiers to maintain order, but it still couldn't stop the people's enthusiasm. It wasn't until the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang people showed up that everyone suddenly became much quieter.

So when this news was released, it immediately caused a huge reaction. For the imperial court, it was an earthquake, but for the people, it was the most popular program.

"Corrupt officials are like tigers. Your Majesty has finally taken action against the big tiger!"

"Your Majesty the Holy Ming..."

"Hey, did you take quite a few people this time?!"

The supervising officer was the Minister of Justice Liu Zhifeng, who kept asking his subordinates, "What time is it?"

"Your Excellency, it's three quarters past noon!" The head of the Ministry of Justice replied, "It's still a long way from three quarters past noon. I really don't know why Your Majesty asked us to come here so early in the morning?"

"Talk less and do more. We are not the only ones here. Can't you see that all the civil and military officials are here..." Liu Zhifeng scolded the person in charge and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He glanced at the dozens of officials in the execution van near the execution ground, and finally his eyes fell on Tian Weijia's face. He used to be so glorious, but now his face was full of dejection.

Liu Zhifeng certainly knew what the emperor was thinking. This was "killing the monkey to warn others!"

The hundreds of officials sitting around the execution ground waiting to watch the execution are clear evidence of this.

As the sun slowly rose, the temperature on the ground began to become scorching. The officials watching the execution were all thirsty and waited until noon, when finally the emperor's carriage appeared in their sight.

Hundreds of officials and common people shouted in unison: "Long live His Majesty, long live His Majesty!"

"Your Majesty, long live..."

Zhu Changgan asked everyone to stand up, and then he sat in the WIP room built next to the execution ground.

Under the pergola.

Zhu Changgan quickly glanced around and asked, "Why didn't Lord Sun and Yang Sichang come?"

"Your Majesty, Elder Sun and Minister Yang said that he was feeling unwell. He must be sick."

"Are they sick?" Zhu Changgan laughed. "Let my imperial physician go over. If they are not seriously ill, let them come over. If they are seriously ill, let the imperial physician prescribe some medicine for them and take good care of themselves."

Sick? How come you are sick by chance?

Most likely it's a mental illness.

Whether it was Sun Chengzong or Yang Sichang, although they were loyal to the Ming Dynasty, there was one thing that could not be changed: they were representatives of the civil service group.

Now that dozens of officials including Tian Weijia have been tortured, it is natural that they cannot bear to come.

But he was "killing the monkey to scare the monkeys", and the two monkeys he was scare were Sun Chengzong and Yang Sichang.

Sun Chengzong did have certain skills in identifying and employing people, but there was also a tendency for him to form a clique like Wen Tihen. Whether Yang Sichang recommended Xiong Wencan or wrote a memorial to slander Sun Chuanting, the situation did not stop.

It's not that easy if you don't want to come.
With the emperor's order, the two finally arrived before 15:30. Zhu Changgan greeted them, "Lord Sun, Minister Yang, I have reserved two good seats for you two."

Wang Chengen placed the two men's chairs in the front row, right in front of the awning, just a few dozen steps away from the execution ground.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The two men sat down. Sun Chengzong was fine, but Yang Sichang's face turned pale. They were both smart men, so how could they not understand the emperor's meaning?
Just then, several cannon shots were heard outside, and it was three quarters after noon.

Tian Weijia was dragged out of the prison cart by the Imperial Guards. He was terrified and still wanted to struggle, shouting "Unjust, Unjust, Unjust... Your Majesty..."

But the executioner didn't care about that. He pressed the man down on the beheading platform, swung his sword, and with a "puff", blood splattered several meters away. The head rolled forward and landed not far in front of Yang Sichang.

He was so frightened that his face turned pale and his feet moved backwards involuntarily.

"Pfft~"

Another big head rolled over, bumped into Tian Weijia's head, and pushed forward a little...

(End of this chapter)