Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 148 Duke Yansheng dies, and the Jingguan on the frontier!
On September 30th of the 40th year of the Jiajing reign, the weather was extremely cold. The biting north wind kept blowing, making a strange "woooo" sound. The dead branches and leaves on the ground were picked up by the wind and tumbled in the air. Most of the people in the capital stayed indoors and stayed around the stove to keep warm.

Today is the day of execution after autumn. Many prisoners to be sentenced to death are collectively escorted to the execution ground. After the supervisor gives the order, the executioner will pull out the eyes on the prisoner's back, spray a mouthful of strong liquor on the blade of the sword, and with one cut, the body will be cut in two.

Gao Gong, the second assistant minister of the cabinet, braved the cold wind and walked to the execution ground, despite his still unrecovered body, to see his old friend off for the last time.

The executioner had Ge Shouli untied in advance, let Gao Gong walk into the execution ground, and then served him a bowl of wine.

Gao Gong and Ge Shouli looked at each other in silence, with tears falling down their cheeks. After Ge Shouli finished drinking the wine in the bowl, he walked under the executioner's knife.

Gao Gong closed his eyes and shed tears. Ge Shouli's head was thrown high into the air, then fell heavily to the ground, rolled a long way away, and landed at the feet of Kong Shangxian, the last Duke of Yansheng.

As an important figure in this execution, Kong Shangxian was placed last, but he kept seeing people's heads falling to the ground. Although he had not been executed yet, he was almost scared to death.

In a way, the process of waiting for death is even more terrifying than having your head chopped off.

At this point, Kong Shangxian was the only prisoner who had not been executed. Kong Shangxian did not have to remain in fear for long as the supervising executioner ordered the executioner to give Kong Shangxian a quick death.

After all the prisoners were executed and verified to be correct, the supervising executioner ordered the security to be relaxed, and many family members of the prisoners who were to be executed rushed into the execution ground to collect the bodies and heads of the prisoners.

Some people took advantage of the chaos to sneak into the execution ground, took out the still warm steamed buns from their arms and soaked them in fresh human blood.

Ge Shouli was sentenced to death for inciting candidates to boycott the exam and intending to rebel, but because his plan failed, only Ge Shouli was executed, and no other members of the Ge family were executed.

However, if one died of treason, his family could not collect the body, but his head had to be hung on the flagpole at the execution ground for several days before it could be taken down.

Although the weather was a little cooler, the corpse and head had been separated for several days and the skin had rotted, so even the best leatherworker would not be able to sew them properly.

Therefore, only Ge Shouli's eldest son came, took the body back from the execution ground and cremated it.

Wait a few days to remove the head, and then cremate it.

The ashes are placed in a urn, and when they return to their hometown, a tombstone will be erected and they will be buried.

And the body of Yansheng Duke Kong Shangxian.

In accordance with the emperor's order, the Ministry of Justice cremated his body and scattered it into the rivers, lakes and seas of the Ming Dynasty.

The bones were reduced to ashes and could never be found again.

After bidding farewell to his old friend's family, Gao Gong did not return home to recuperate, but went to the cabinet.

Gao Gong walked in.

Zhang Juzheng, Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin were all stunned. They really did not expect that the Second Prime Minister would return to the cabinet at this time.

"Cough cough!" Gao Gong's weak body caught a cold and he couldn't help coughing twice.

Zhang Juzheng shook his head, not knowing what to say.

While Hu, Li, and Chen buried their heads in handling the administrative affairs on the files, Hu Zongxian had already taken over the actual posts of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Works, especially the Ministry of Justice. Ge Shouli was gone, and Hu Zongxian took over the post of Minister of Justice as a cabinet minister. The administrative affairs of the two ministries of justice and industry were heavy, and mixed with many difficult and complicated cases and special and complicated situations, which were quite troublesome and difficult to handle.

In addition, Hu Zongxian was concerned with the details of the national policy of separation of military and politics, so he naturally became the busiest person in the entire cabinet.

For many days, Hu Zongxian did not return to the residence given by the emperor. Although it was very close, Hu Zongxian often passed by his home without entering.

Gao Gong seemed unaware of the strange atmosphere in the cabinet. He walked to his own desk, sat down, picked up the Ministry of Revenue document on the table, and began to handle the matter.

Zhang Juzheng had dealt with all the more urgent documents submitted by the Ministry of Revenue in the past few days, but those documents from the Ministry of Revenue that were not particularly urgent were still piled up on his desk.

Gao Gong had a hot temper and was quite tall, but when he sat among the government affairs, he seemed invisible.

But not being able to see people has its advantages. The atmosphere in the cabinet suddenly became much more relaxed. Zhang Juzheng picked up a document, cleared his throat and said, "The Tatars have formally submitted a family letter to the Ming Dynasty court, expressing their willingness to submit and pay tribute, and requesting the emperor of our dynasty to grant them a title.

There are 45,678 traitors on the board, and the Tatars will hand them over to the Ming Dynasty in three batches. Among the first batch of 20,000 traitors, 16 people including the traitor leaders Zhao Quan and Qiu Fu are all there.

Wang Chonggu, the governor of Xuanda, built a surrender city twenty miles outside Datong Town, and killed 19,984 traitors on the spot except for 16 rare leaders such as Zhao Quan and Qiu Fu. After burning the bodies of the traitors, he built a memorial outside the city with their heads.

Zhao Quan, Qiu Fu and others were being escorted to Beijing at a distance of 120 miles per day.

At the same time, the 100,000 cattle, sheep and 10,000 sheepskins that the Tatars presented as tribute to the Ming Dynasty court were also transported to Datong Town. Wang Chonggu, the governor of Xuanda, sent a letter asking what to do with the tribute?
Which border town should be chosen as the place for trade between the Ming Dynasty and Tatar?
Tatar requested that the first batch of trade goods include as much grain as possible. What should be the amount of grain in the first batch of trade goods?"

Just like the vassal states near the Ming Dynasty, the Tatars paid tribute and pledged loyalty. As the suzerain state, the Tatar Khan Altan should be granted a royal title.

For example, in the case of Wa, the king was named after Wa, and in the case of Goryeo, the king was named after the country. This is the simplest way.

But Tatar is not a complete country, and in the minds of the people in the Central Plains, the areas north of the Great Wall, the grasslands, the northern desert, and the vast sea have always been regarded as unrecovered Han lands.

The people in the Central Plains did not recognize the Yuan court’s orthodox rule, but they acknowledged that the territories during the Yuan court’s heyday were all Han territories. The lands in the far north and the far west were all Han territories since ancient times.

It was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to confer the title of Tatar King or Grassland King on Altan Khan, which would have given Altan Khan the legitimacy to unify the grassland.

The Yuxi Palace issued an edict, asking the cabinet to think of several suitable names for the king and submit them to the palace, and then choose one of them to confer the title of king on Altan.

The killing of nearly 20,000 traitors was decided in advance by the emperor and the court. After handing over the traitors, the Tatars, who were already short of food, seemed to have gotten rid of a big burden. It was impossible for them to provide food for these traitors. Although the Ming Dynasty had plenty of food, not a single grain could be given to the traitors.

Rather than letting ordinary traitors waste the Ming Dynasty’s food, it is better to kill them on the spot.

Zhao Quan, Qiu Fu and other traitorous leaders can live longer. Once they are escorted to the capital, the Ming court can guarantee that they will make Zhao and Qiu regret why they did not die immediately.

For the Ming Dynasty, which had abundant money and grain, the tribute from the Tatars was insignificant, but it was not completely useless to the Ming Dynasty, especially the cattle, which were needed by countless people to cultivate the land.

Cattle were distributed to the people, sheep were slaughtered on the spot and eaten by soldiers in border towns, and the hides were brought back to the capital to be processed into clothing.

As for the grain that the Tatars urgently requested, the 40 million kilograms of grain from the Shanxi merchants could come in handy.

(End of this chapter)