Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 179: The law does not hold everyone responsible, please confess your sins!
The officials and businessmen of Huizhou Prefecture took the people hostage and rebelled.

It spread throughout the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty at the fastest speed.

There was an uproar in the government and the country.

No one expected that someone would launch a rebellion when the emperor was so wise and powerful.

In one prefecture, officials and businessmen colluded with each other and coerced the people into rebellion.

After several major purges during the Jiajing reign and a bumper harvest across the country, the capitals, provinces, prefectures and counties of the Ming Dynasty enjoyed a rare peace and quiet.

But this was an era when ordinary people lacked entertainment. When they heard about such an explosive event, while they were worried about the emperor and the court, they were more happy.

Huizhou Prefecture was unprecedented in its development and attracted the attention of the entire country, with tens of millions of people talking about it.

Later, more news came out that thousands of people in Huizhou Prefecture gathered in one place, blocking the road and making noise.

From the perspective of the imperial court and the people, the rebellion in Huizhou Prefecture was already a foregone conclusion.

Perhaps to confirm what the officials and the people thought, a large flag was erected in front of the city of Huizhou Prefecture with a long banner on it: "Huizhou people are law-abiding, but the corrupt officials are in power and causing chaos. Your Majesty will kill them at the least, or implicate countless people, and bring disaster to Huizhou Prefecture."

The momentum is just short of being filled with "acting on behalf of Heaven" and "obeying Heaven's will to clear the emperor's side".

The old story of Emperor Chengzu Wen may happen again.

This made the court officials and the general public feel a chill from the bottom of their hearts.

In order to prevent Huizhou Prefecture from falling into an irretrievable situation, Wang Zhen, the pacification envoy of the Nanzhili Pacification Office, once again talked with Chen Ping, the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture.

Even though Wang Zhen guaranteed that the Jinyiwei would not take action against Chen Ping, Chen Ping still dared not step out of Huizhou Prefecture.

In this strange atmosphere, Wang Zhen chose to enter Huizhou City and have a conversation with Wang Zhen.

Even the Jinyiwei did not expect that what was waiting ahead was an even more bizarre situation.

Huizhou Prefecture actually became autonomous!
Chen Ping, the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture, was a man with a heroic temperament. When the imperial court wanted to punish the Huizhou merchants, he joined the Huizhou merchants in showing kindness to the people of Huizhou.

There were no local big families or influential gentry or officials in Huizhou Prefecture, only big Huizhou merchants.

Therefore, as the Huizhou merchants connected with each other everywhere and spent money lavishly, the morale was high, and Chen Ping's reputation soared, making him the most popular person.

When Chen Ping felt that he had gained the support of the people in Huizhou, as the climax of the whole incident, Chen Ping actually led the Huizhou merchants to set up a council in the government office, as if to set up a new center and become an autonomous place within a country.

As the highest-ranking figure of the Jinyiwei in Jiangnan, Wang Zhen boasted that he had seen and participated in many big scenes, including the purge of the Nanzhili officialdom, the killing of Jinling scholars like butchering dogs, and the intimidation of the Weiguo Mansion into surrendering. Wang Zhen was present in all of these.

After being mentally prepared for the situation in Huizhou Prefecture, Wang Zhen was still frightened by the corrupt situation in Huizhou Prefecture.

The Huizhou merchants spent money on the people of Huizhou Prefecture regardless of the cost, and even the Jinyiwei could not make an effective estimate.

Ten million taels of silver? Tens of millions of taels of silver? Or even more?
Huizhou Prefecture had jurisdiction over six counties, with a total of 560,000 households and nearly 2.5 million people.

The Huizhou merchants spent 10 million taels of silver, and regardless of whether they were women, old or young, each person received 4 taels of silver.

Relying on a few acres of land, a family in Huifu could hardly earn four taels of silver a year. After spending all the expenses, not only could they hardly save any money, but they even spent more than they earned.

For example, a household with five people can get twenty taels of silver without doing anything.

With a family's five years' income just like this, how many people can keep their composure?

However, the Huizhou merchants spent much more than that. Among the tens of millions of taels of silver, each person could get at least 40 taels, and a family could get at least 200 taels.

It can be said that this is an amount of money that most families in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty could never earn in their entire lives.

This was not all the Huizhou merchants had to do. In order to increase their power, the Huizhou government began to recruit soldiers. Anyone who joined the army would receive 100 taels of silver. The more momentum they created, the more money and food they would receive. Crazy! Completely crazy! The people of Huizhou were in a state of madness.

Before, the Huizhou government office blocked the streets and made a commotion, and also required the participation of ordinary citizens of Huizhou Prefecture. By the time Wang Zhen came out of Huizhou Prefecture, the military strength of Huizhou Prefecture had already exceeded 10,000 people.

This is the charm of countless money and food.

The conversation between Wang Zhen and Chen Ping can be said to be a unilateral proposal by Chen Ping, the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture.

1. Please release all the arrested Huizhou merchants.

2. Please forgive all the people in Huizhou Prefecture.

3. Please ask Your Majesty to execute Lu Bing, the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

4. Please order the Southeast Army to lift the maritime blockade.

5. Please ask His Majesty to issue an edict of repentance.

Each condition was more unreasonable than the last. When Wang Zhen, the pacification commissioner of the Nanjing Pacification Office, heard the edict of confession, he knew that the dialogue had failed. He immediately made an excuse to leave Huizhou Prefecture and rushed 800 miles to convey the demands of Huizhou Prefecture Governor Chen Ping and Huizhou merchants to the capital.

After the post horse left, Wang Zhen looked at the big flag in Huizhou City from afar. It was between Chen Ping and the Huizhou merchants. This flag had a name: the radical change flag.

What is radical change?
Chen Ping and the Hui merchants were afraid that the imperial court would not regard them as traitors.

The news reached Beijing late at night.

Jinyiwei Commander-in-Chief Lu Bing immediately went to see the emperor, but when he arrived, the chief minister Zhang Juzheng, the second minister Gao Gong, and the other ministers Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang, and Chen Yiqin had already arrived.

go to bed?

The situation in Huizhou Prefecture is about to turn upside down. No one can sleep.

An autonomous country within a country.

The rapidly growing Huizhou Prefecture Army.

The one shouting loudly to cleanse the emperor's side.

Even Hu Zongxian, who was born in Huizhou, could not name the officials, merchants, and civilians of Huizhou Prefecture. This was not a rebellion, but a complaint.

The Cabinet and the Embroidered Uniform Guard made all kinds of plans and transferred the Liaodong Town General Xie Chaoen and the Gansu Town General Zheng Yin to the capital to capture and kill them, but they forgot that the Huizhou government office and the Huizhou army were very likely in collusion with the Huizhou merchants.

One careless move gave the Huizhou merchants time to breathe and fight back. Hu Zongxian could not imagine how the Huizhou rebellion would be quelled and what would be the fate of the people of Huizhou.
Lu Bing presented the demands of Chen Ping and the Hui merchants, but Zhu Houcong did not even look at them and asked Lu Bing to read them to Zhang Juzheng's cabinet.

When he heard the first request, the corners of Hu Zongxian's mouth began to twitch.

The current emperor is not a person who would "eat and throw up". He released all the captured Huizhou merchants. Chen Ping and the Huizhou merchants were just blinding their minds.

When he heard the second request, Hu Zongxian's cheeks twitched.

After causing such a huge mess and raising the slogan of "clearing the imperial court", everyone still expects to leave safely?
The third request was that the person who was required to be executed was reading out the requests of Chen Ping and the Huizhou merchants. Throughout the whole incident, the Jinyiwei played the role of "butcher's knife" from beginning to end, and all the orders were issued by Yuxi Palace and the cabinet.

What Chen Ping and the Hui merchants wanted to kill was not Lu Bing, but the emperor and these ministers.

The fourth request made it clear that Chen Ping and the Huizhou merchants, the source of the chaos, wanted to escape by sea. Hu Zongxian never thought that the emperor and the cabinet would agree.

The people in the hall thought that the demands of Chen Ping and the Hui merchants would end here, but as soon as the "edict of confession" came out, Zhang Juzheng's cabinet knelt down immediately.

"There are no safe people in Huizhou Prefecture anymore. I order the troops of Xiaoling, Southeast Army, and Zhongdu garrison to kill them all by any means necessary!"

(End of this chapter)