Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 180 The Butcher is born, kill all the rebels!
The divine decree came.

Hu Zongxian looked as pale as death.

The entire prefecture has become rebellious.

The Xiaoling Guard, the Southeast Army, and the Zhongdu Liaison Office used all means to kill the Huizhou rebels and were able to flatten the Huizhou Prefecture.

Hu Zongxian hated the Huizhou merchants to the core, but for the sake of his native people, he took two steps forward on his knees, tears streaming down his face as he said, "Your Majesty, the Huizhou people are ignorant and were deceived by Chen Ping and the Huizhou merchants with silver and grain. They are not traitors. I hope Your Majesty will understand!"

The Huizhou merchants stunned the entire Huizhou with hundreds of millions of taels of silver. Under the huge profits, the ignorant people thought that the law did not punish the masses, so they clamored for Chen Ping and the Huizhou merchants.

But he believed that the people of Huizhou Prefecture really had no intention of rebelling or purging the emperor's court.

Zhu Houcong in the Jingshe did not give any feedback to Hu Zongxian.

Hu Zongxian, in a desperate situation, knelt down and tried to move forward to plead for the people of his homeland.

At this time, Lu Bing took out something.

The record of the secret envoy of the Jinyiwei in Huizhou Prefecture.

Huizhou merchants were not fools. Although they spent a lot of money, "no one is smarter than the emperor, and no one is more clever than the worldly people." Huizhou merchants were the smartest people in the world. When giving silver and grain to the people of Huizhou Prefecture, they asked the people of Huizhou Prefecture to write their names and even those who were illiterate put their fingerprints on the money.

The reason why Huizhou merchants dared to threaten the emperor unscrupulously, clamor for a purge of the emperor's side, and even demanded an imperial edict of repentance was that they held the lives of 2.5 million people in Huizhou Prefecture.

Two and a half million names and fingerprints of traitors, something that has never been seen before in all dynasties. Even if the historians do not record it, it can be passed down in the unofficial history of later generations.

How should people in later generations evaluate Huizhou?

How should people in later generations evaluate the emperor’s rule?

Did the officials force the people to revolt? Or was it because the officials were so cruel that the people suffered so much during the reign of Emperor Jiajing that they had to revolt?
This is an eternal infamy!

This is something that no emperor can tolerate!

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin stood on the sidelines. The Huizhou merchants went to extremes and the Huizhou people were also blinded by the silver and grain.

The five demands of the Huizhou merchants were a huge gamble with the emperor, involving the lives of 2.5 million people in Huizhou Prefecture.

If Your Majesty gives in, lets the Huizhou merchants leave the country, lets the people of Huizhou go, and issues a self-blame edict, Your Majesty will surely become a laughing stock for all eternity.

Moreover, merchants are the most vengeful. Let the Hui merchants flee to the West. Relying on the money they earned from treason over thousands of years, the Hui merchants can live well in the West.

Once Huizhou merchants have established a firm foothold in the West, how should they promote the Ming Dynasty in the West? How should they promote the Ming Dynasty in the world? How should they promote the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the world?

The imperial court had already experienced the merchants' ability to stir up trouble in Huizhou Prefecture.

'If you don't remove the roots, the grass will grow again in the spring breeze.'

It is said that rumors stop at the wise, but how many people care about the truth?
Just smile and it will be over, why care about the hurt caused to others?

The grand secretaries in the hall clearly understood the principle of 'three people make a tiger, and many mouths can melt gold'.

The imperial court would not destroy the reputation accumulated by the great Eastern country over thousands of years just for the sake of the rebels in Huizhou who were willing to leave their names on the anti-treason book.

And the most important thing is that His Majesty will not accept any form of threats, whether they are officials, scholars, or ignorant people. Since they have chosen to go to the opposite side, there is no turning back.

As if in an instant, Hu Zongxian lost all his strength, smiled miserably, and said, "I understand."

……

The imperial edict was sent to the Xiaoling Army, the Southeast Army, and the Zhongdu Liushou Division. The commanders of the three armies immediately ordered the entire army to speed up their march and officially enter the war. Cannons appeared in the army, fire guns were equipped in the hands of soldiers, and armor covered the three armies, heading towards Huizhou Prefecture.

The warships on the sea were running at full speed, and all the cannons on board were loaded with live ammunition, hunting on the sea.

According to military orders, if any non-warship is found on the sea, it must be sunk immediately.

People in the court stopped all communication with Huizhou Prefecture, including letters.

The court’s response.

This was far beyond the expectations of the rebels in Huizhou Prefecture. They sent out letter after letter of protest to the court and asked for peace, but all of them fell on deaf ears.

As time went by, the encirclement was about to be completely formed. Chen Ping and the Huizhou merchants also became ruthless and spread the "anti-intelligence" documents of 2.5 million people in Huizhou Prefecture.

With the help of officials funded by Hui merchants in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, it quickly spread throughout the Ming Dynasty.

The words "powerful traitor" and "tyrant" gradually spread among the people in the Ming Dynasty.

But the Jinyiwei were not pushovers. The list of officials sponsored by Huizhou merchants had long been in the hands of the Jinyiwei. Without waiting, the Jinyiwei immediately arrested people.

If anyone was caught spreading rumors of being a "corrupt official" or a "tyrant", they would be beheaded on the spot without even having to give him a trial.

The Jiangnan region is the most prosperous place for scholars. They have long been dissatisfied with the emperor's "inhumane" purges among the scholars and the means of stripping scholars of their various benefits. At this time, of course, they will not sit idle.

Poetry and literary gatherings were held in the south of the Yangtze River. The poems were satirical about the court, and the essays were implicitly belittling the emperor, criticizing the emperor, the cabinet, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

However, the Jinyiwei did not tolerate these poems and literary gatherings. Instead, they directly rushed into the scholars' gathering place to arrest people. Anyone who dared to resist was executed on the spot.

Anyone who wrote anti-government poems or articles at the meeting would be executed along with his entire family.

Anyone who was present at the meeting would be reported to the court, stripped of their honors and titles, and never employed again.

More than 50,000 Jinyiwei and Tiqi were arresting and killing people in the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

More and more Chinese people are realizing the seriousness of the matter and feeling the heavy atmosphere of terror.

The places shrouded in terror included Huizhou Prefecture, She County, Yi County, Jixi County, Wuyuan County, Qimen County, and Xiuning County, which were completely surrounded by the troops of the Xiaoling Guard, the Southeast Army, and the Zhongdu Liaison Office.

The three armies continued to advance forward, while the rebels led by Chen Ping and Hui merchants kept retreating and shrinking their formation.

After advancing to a sufficient distance, thousands of artillery pieces of the three armies aimed at the government offices of Huizhou Prefecture's one prefecture and six counties. At a single order, thousands of cannons fired at the same time.

In an instant, a government office and six county offices were razed to the ground, and countless rebels were killed on the spot.

The sound of cannons that resounded through the heavens and earth finally awakened the people of Huizhou who were immersed in the dream of getting rich without being punished by the law. The sound of surrender spread throughout Huizhou.

Chen Ping had not died yet and was still resisting stubbornly. Although he knew deep down that he had failed irreversibly, he still asked the Hui merchants to reward the rebels with a large sum of money to allow them to fight against the Xiaoling Guards, the Southeast Army and the Zhongdu Liaison Office.

Except for the former provincial army of Huizhou Prefecture, the hastily assembled rebels were simply no match for the real elite troops.

The rebels collapsed at the first blow and chose to flee.

Chen Ping was trampled to death by the defeated army, and countless Hui merchants were hacked to death by the rebels who turned against them.

The entire Huizhou Prefecture was in chaos, and the three armies of Xiaoling continued to encircle and kill the rebels until the last rebel was killed...

The flowers are in full bloom and the moon is full, and everyone is at peace on earth!

Killing a dragon in the river
2024.9.17
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(End of this chapter)