Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 178: Huifu Army rebelled and the battle was reopened on the spot!

The imperial edict came.

Xie Chaoen, former commander-in-chief of Liaodong Town and current Minister of War, was beheaded on the spot.

The remaining crimes were not pardoned, so the Jinyiwei followed the map and killed all nine members of the Xie family.

Before the people near the capital could react, they heard that Zheng Yin, the former commander-in-chief of Gansu Town and current Minister of Works, was robbed and killed by the Embroidered Uniform Guards on his way to the capital with an imperial decree.

The remaining crimes were not pardoned, so the Jinyiwei followed the map to kill all nine members of the Zheng family.

Within a few days, two officials of the second rank and nine ministers of the Ming Dynasty were executed along with their entire clans.

The court officials were the first to realize that the previous transfer of the military commanders of the nine borders and nine towns was not a promotion for Xie Chaoen and Zheng Yin, but a coaxing of the two to peacefully hand over military power before executing them.

This is clearly a strategy of 'luring the tiger away from the mountain'.

The court officials had only thought of the second level, but the merchants of the Huizhou merchant group in Beijing had already thought of the third level.

Xie Chaoen and Zheng Yin were the only two major forces of the Huizhou merchants in the military. Now they were executed at the same time. Even a fool would not believe it if you say there is no connection between them.

Thinking back to the demise of the Shanxi merchants a few months ago, the Hui merchants in the capital area suddenly felt a chill in their hearts.

This was clearly a strategy used by the imperial court to "cut off the source of the trouble" against the Huizhou merchants.

Many Huizhou merchants did not understand at first that the officials funded by Huizhou merchants were spread throughout the Ming Dynasty court, the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and even in the cabinet, there was a "merchant leader" of the Huizhou merchant gang, but the Huizhou merchants knew nothing about the court's methods.

However, some Huizhou merchants have already understood that Hu Zongxian's dealings with Huizhou merchants in recent days may have been authorized by the cabinet or even the emperor, and his intention was to stabilize the Huizhou merchants.

And after stabilizing it, what should we do?
Of course he was killed.

Thinking of the Huizhou merchants on the fourth level, they did not even bother to pack up their gold and silver jewelry, and disguised themselves and prepared to leave the capital.

But thinking about the details of the Hu family handing over the family property to Hu Zongxian, and thinking about the Huizhou merchants on the fifth floor, he had already lost hope and did not put up any resistance. He opened the door as usual.

Standing in front of the gate were a hundred-man team of Jinyiwei. The Jinyi messengers were as fierce as wolves and tigers. In the eyes of the Huizhou merchants at that time, they were no different from the ghosts in the underworld.

If I'm not mistaken, all the roads in and out of the capital, big and small, had already been blocked by the Jinyiwei in advance.

This is a dragnet.

All Huizhou merchants are big fish in this net. They cannot escape, they simply cannot escape.

The execution ground at the West Market Archway reenacted the major case of the Jiajing reign. Many citizens of the capital could not tell which major case this was in the 40th year of the Jiajing reign.

Maybe it was the third time, maybe it was the fourth time, maybe it was the fifth time, or maybe it was the sixth time. In short, the roads and land in front of the West Market Archway have never been dry since the beginning of spring.

It is always wet and sticky, and when people pass by there, their noses are lingering with a strong "smell of rust".

Most court officials were happy about the sudden death of the "account master", but many civil and military officials who had been spoiled by the Hui merchants wrote memorials to the emperor to express their dissatisfaction with the deaths of Xie Chaoen and Zheng Yin, and the Jinyiwei's surprise raids on Hui merchants' shops, money houses and other industries in Beijing, and the arrests and killings.

The Cabinet and the Embroidered Uniform Guard had originally agreed that after eradicating the Huizhou merchants in the Ming Dynasty, they would purge the officials in the court who were funded by the Huizhou merchants.

However, the violent reaction of these officials showed that they were eager to commit suicide. Jinyiwei Commander-in-Chief Lu Bing went to the cabinet and, together with Zhang Juzheng and others, submitted a petition to the palace, demanding immediate action against these "loyal dogs of Huizhou merchants."

The decree from Yuxi Palace came quickly, two simple and clear words, "Approved!"

The Jinyiwei first arrested the loyal dogs of Hui merchants in the three government offices of the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and then asked the three judicial departments of Qingping to purge the loyal dogs of Hui merchants in other government offices. Under the bloody terror of crazy killings, the government offices in the capital area burst out with unimaginable efficiency, especially the three judicial departments, whose speed of arresting and killing people according to the map was not much slower than that of the Jinyiwei.

Under the instruction of the eunuch in charge of Silijian, Dongchang also came into action. Chen Hong, the chief eunuch of Silijian and the commander-in-chief of Dongchang, personally led a team to arrest those "dog officials". After their identities were verified, they were executed in the secret prison of Dongchang.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Eastern Depot, the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, the Censorate, and finally, even the Shuntian Prefecture Government Office got involved and cleaned up the entire capital.

For a long time afterwards, officials and common people in the capital area turned pale at the mention of the words "Hui" and "Shang", and tried to avoid them as much as possible.

The capital area is taking action, and so are Southern Zhili, the Thirteen Provinces, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The capture and killing of Huizhou merchants went smoothly in other places, but problems arose in Huizhou Prefecture, the Huizhou merchants' base camp.

After receiving the news from the capital, Wang Zhen, the pacification commissioner of the Nanjing Pacification Office, immediately rushed out of his office and rushed to Huizhou Prefecture, demanding with an imperial edict to take over the access roads in and out of Huizhou Prefecture.

What no one expected was that the imperial edict had lost its effect in Huizhou Prefecture, and the Huizhou government office and the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture refused to hand over the road rights.

What’s even more terrible is that the news of the imperial court’s action against Huizhou merchants leaked within Huizhou Prefecture.

Not to mention the uproar among the people of Huizhou Prefecture, countless Huizhou merchants were trying to escape by all means.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards tried to intercept them, but were attacked by the Huizhou Prefecture Army.

Many Huizhou merchants took the opportunity to break through the Jinyiwei blockade and escape.

No matter how dumb Wang Zhen, the pacification commissioner of the Nanjing Pacification Office, was, he knew that the Huizhou government and its people were all in the same boat with the Huizhou merchants.

The Huizhou government office was hopelessly corrupt, and even the Huizhou army was not spared.

After all, they were regular troops. In the confrontation with an organized force, the Jinyiwei were obviously at a disadvantage. More and more Huizhou merchants escaped through the gap opened by the Huizhou Prefecture Army.

After several fruitless conversations with the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture, Wang Zhen finally realized that he had been wasting his time, so he ordered people to go to Jinling, Hangzhou Prefecture, and Zhongdu Fengyang.

Under the imperial edict, the Xiaoling Guard, the Southeast Army, and the Zhongdu Liaison Office in Zhongdu Fengyang responded.

All escape routes of the Huizhou merchants were blocked from the east, west, south and north. All warships in the southeast set sail, and all ships were prohibited from going to sea, implementing an all-round blockade.

A large number of Huizhou merchants were captured and killed without even a trial. The encirclement continued to close, and the Huizhou merchants had to return to Huizhou Prefecture and rely on the power of the prefectural army to survive.

The Xiaoling Guard, the Southeast Army, and the Zhongdu Liaison Office were marching towards Huizhou Prefecture.

At this time, Wang Zhen received a petition from Chen Ping, the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture.

It was called a review, but in fact it should be considered a battle cry, which began by lambasting Jinyiwei Commander-in-Chief Lu Bing as "a treacherous commander who brought disaster to the merchants, whose power was so strong that there was no room for accusation, and who was no different from Yan Song and his ilk."

After scolding Lu Bing, the following words were even more unpleasant to hear: "I want to go to the imperial palace to write a letter to accuse the Jinyiwei of causing harm to the country and the people, and I want to raise an army to fight a decisive battle to punish the rebellion of the Northern Pacification Office."

Wang Zhen was dazzled by the words "raise troops and fight to the death", but Chen Ping, the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture, was still not done. After scolding the Jinyiwei, he directly threatened the court and the emperor: "The people are angry and clamorous. If the emperor is deaf and does not deal with it in time, it may cause a major change."

Wang Zhen took the application and his face turned pale. The paper slipped silently from his fingers and four words echoed in his mind.

"The people of Huizhou are rebelling!"

(End of this chapter)