Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 266 The Ming Dynasty, number one in the world!

"The minister is here."

Shandong Governor Yuan Hongyu stood up, blood was still oozing from the corner of his mouth, and his words were somewhat inaudible.

When Lu Fang offered the golden cup of wine, Yuan Hongyu, who was not good at drinking and was injured, didn't want to take it, but he had to.

"As the governor of Shandong, some people call you a cruel official, but I think that you have been effective in suppressing the rebellion in Shandong, so your good deeds can cover up a hundred bad deeds."

Zhu Houcong looked at Yuan Hongyu, whose face looked like he had opened a soy sauce shop, and couldn't help but smile a little. He said, "Although there are some ugly parts of you, I don't want to see you anymore."

The unsightly image and the disrespect of the blood-stained palace were no longer taken into account.

"Your Majesty's kindness in recognizing my talent will never be forgotten."

Yuan Hongyu drank the wine in the cup in one gulp. The pain from the strong wine touching his wounds overshadowed his drunkenness. He said stubbornly, "But I still hope Your Majesty will think about and be cautious about the memorial I submitted."

"When I was impeaching Yan Song and his cabinet, they said that they were only short of impeaching me. Your memorial fulfilled my words."

Zhu Houcong thought of the memorial that said "All officials have been disloyal to the emperor for a long time", and his expression did not change. He said, "However, I still say the same thing. If officials of the Ming Dynasty feel that they cannot survive in the court, they may resign. I will not blame them and will not disapprove of it. This will save the emperor and his subjects from having to do things reluctantly."

The Holy Eyes looked down at both sides of the hall. These words were obviously not only spoken to Yuan Hongyu, but also to all the cabinet elders, ministers of the six ministries and nine departments, and governors and provincial governors.

Wherever his eyes went, all the ministers bowed their heads.

Under the sun.

There is nothing easier than being an official. Although the paperwork is tiring, it cannot compare to the hardship of being a foolish man who works hard in the fields.

However, from the Governor of Huguang Xu Lun, to the Governor of Sichuan Tan Lun, to the Governor of Henan Wu Shilai, to the Governor of Jiangxi Zhang Chong, the emperor's dissatisfaction with the provincial governors was self-evident, and everyone knew exactly what he wanted the provincial governors to do.

You can't not leave just because you don't want to.

Rather than wasting time writing in the inn, Yuan Hongyu thought it would be better to speak directly. He smiled bitterly and said, "I am a very stupid person. I have been in the court for fifteen years. I feel that I am not smart enough to continue. I respectfully ask the emperor to leave."

"The most difficult thing for a monarch and his subjects to get along with is to have a good beginning and a good end. In the palace examination in the 26th year of Jiajing, I chose you to enter the court. I still remember your essay. There was nothing outstanding about it, but between the lines, it revealed your tenacity and frankness. People say that I am a great person, but you did not avoid offending others and were able to speak frankly and give advice. This is not something that everyone can do.

The ancients said: A wise ruler must have ministers who dare to speak out against the emperor, so that the ruler can make fewer mistakes.

I think you, Yuan Hongyu, have some of the demeanor of an ancient sage!" Zhu Houcong affirmed Yuan Hongyu's character and writings, and he was not wrong about him.

Yuan Hongyue was moved and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Now that you feel you are overwhelmed and want to leave, just go. I will miss you often." Zhu Houcong said.

Yuan Hongyu left his seat, came to the center of the hall, knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I bow to thank you."

The ceremony is over.

Yuan Hongyu took off his official seal, official hat, and official uniform. After bowing again, he stood up and bowed to the door of the hall, then turned around and left.

The life of a high-ranking official came to an end.

Zhu Houcong looked at the civil and military officials and said, "Don't think that I am only like this to Yuan Hongyu. I am the same to you all. You are officials with great responsibilities and face many difficulties. Even if you are slightly careless, as long as you still have a loyal and filial heart towards me, I am not willing to care. This is what the common people say, turn a blind eye."

As a minister, I serve as a king.

This has been a crime punishable by death in all dynasties. What's more, Yuan Hongyu disrupted the imperial celebration banquet. He had no intention of living and even gambled with his wife and children at home.

The fact that Yuan Hongyu had to resign and return home was beyond many people's expectations. At least Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui did not expect Yuan Hongyu to return home alive.

What was even more unexpected was that the emperor gave a guarantee to all provincial governors and high-ranking officials, and the case of forging memorials was defined as a minor carelessness of the governors and provincial governors, and the case was just let go.

As long as you submit a letter of resignation, all your crimes will be forgiven, and your life and family will be free of worries.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Juzheng stood up and raised his wine glass, saying, "The Northern Expedition was a great victory, and the emperor has given us a banquet. We, the ministers, would like to offer you flowers and wine to wish you a long life!"

All the ministers stood up and toasted, "May Your Majesty live a long and healthy life!"

"I accept your drink!"

Zhu Houcong picked up the wine glass on the imperial desk and drank it all together with his ministers.

"Lu Fang."

"The servant is here."

"Please offer a toast to Wang Chonggu on my behalf."

"Yes…"

Before Lü Fang finished his words, he heard Zhu Houcong say, "Wait, I'll come in person."

talking.

Zhu Houcong walked down the imperial steps and walked towards Wang Chonggu's desk.

Wang Chonggu quickly stood up, took out the case, and knelt down and said, "I will never be able to repay Your Majesty even if I die."

Zhu Houcong took the wine from Lu Fang and handed it to Wang Chonggu. The wine was higher than his head. Wang Chonggu took it with both hands and said tearfully, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Houcong reached out his hand and helped Wang Chonggu up. He turned and looked at Zhang Juzheng opposite him and said, "You guys, don't be suspicious just because you see how much I value Wang Chonggu. Don't think I will do this or that."

"We dare not!" Zhang Juzheng stood up again and answered.

However, he was secretly resentful in his heart. The emperor was not only promoting Wang Chonggu, but also the entire military. No one could fail to see that this was to motivate the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty to continue fighting bravely.

The Tatars surrendered, and the grasslands all returned to the Ming Dynasty. In the entire northern part of the Ming Dynasty, only the Jianzhou Jurchens in the northeast remained.

The Cabinet and the six ministries had recently received orders to prepare food, fodder, and military equipment. Liaodong had already begun mobilizing troops. The Ming Dynasty's conquest would not stop from now on.

Zhu Houcong smiled and walked back to the throne and sat down. He looked at Wang Chonggu standing there and said, "Wang Chonggu."

"I'm here." Wang Chonggu clasped his fists and bowed.

"When you go to war, you will take 100,000 people with you, right?"

"Your Majesty, later two musket battalions and two firearms battalions were added, totaling 110,000 people," Wang Chonggu replied.

These two musket battalions and two firearms battalions were all equipped with the new weapons of the Jinyiwei. There were not only Ming Dynasty soldiers, but also people from the Jinyiwei and some from the Eastern Depot.

This does not mean that the Jinyiwei and Dongchang will have an army, but as the overseas battlefields are opened, especially the battlefields where the Ming Dynasty does not directly send troops, it is the Jinyiwei who support the puppet war. The assassination, intelligence and other covert methods that the Jinyiwei are good at are gradually not enough to support the overall situation. It is necessary to train a group of Jinyiwei who can plan coups overseas to seek greater benefits for the Ming Dynasty.

To deal with those natives, muskets and firearms are the simplest and most brutal means. The Jinyiwei and some Dongchang people mainly learned this.

"How many people did you bring back?" Zhu Houcong asked.

Wang Chonggu replied: "One hundred and one thousand people, as long as they are still alive, I can bring them back to Your Majesty, not one less."

The northern expedition against the Tatars, to be more precise, was the expedition against the northern barbarians.

The Ming army coordinated the attack with the cavalry of Sun's army. The most direct and brutal part was basically the Death Squad and the cavalry of Sun's army who were in the front.

When Senggelinqin surrendered on behalf of the Northern Tartars, the Ming Dynasty's 10,000-man death squad was almost wiped out, and more than half of Sun's tens of thousands of cavalry were also lost.

The losses suffered by Sun's cavalry were even greater than those suffered by the Ming army.

One point that needs to be mentioned is that Zhang Juyi, the younger brother of Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister of the cabinet, had some real skills. In the death squad camp, he charged into dozens of battles without suffering any serious injuries. He also killed generals and captured flags several times, making considerable contributions.

However, in order to separate the imperial court and the military, Zhang Juyi had to die. This led to the incident where the Death Squad pursued the fleeing Altan Khan, got lost in a snowstorm and died.

Qi Jiguang found Zhang Juyi who was frozen in ice, collected his body, cremated it together with other soldiers who died in the battle, and then brought back the ashes with the triumphant army, preparing to return them to the prime minister's residence.

Nothing will be left behind that can be brought back.

If you can’t bring it back, you can only return the ashes.

This plain sentence instantly struck the heart of Zhang Juzheng who was sitting opposite Wang Chonggu. His eyes immediately turned red and his breathing became heavy and irregular.

His poor brother.

"During the Zhengde period of our late emperor, he personally led six divisions and led the army to fight in the northwest for three months, but still failed to achieve a complete victory and suffered tens of thousands of casualties. You won a complete victory in this battle, which is a brilliant achievement and your name will go down in the history of our Ming Dynasty," Zhu Houcong said with emotion.

The previous emperor was Emperor Zhengde, also Emperor Wuzong. That battle was also called Emperor Wuzong’s Northern Expedition.

In August of the twelfth year of Zhengde, Emperor Wuzong went on a tour to Changping.

In September, he was stationed in Yanghe and signed himself as "Generalissimo, Governor of Military Affairs and Commander-in-Chief of the Mighty General". The place where he was stationed was called "Military Gate". All orders for conscription were issued by the Mighty General.

Suddenly, he heard that the Tatar Khan Dayan Khan had led 50,000 cavalry to station at the border and was about to attack internally, so he ordered the general Wang Xun to station in Datong, the Liaodong lieutenant general Xiao Zi to station in Julubao, the Xuanfu guerrilla Shi Chun to station in Tiancheng, the deputy general Tao Jie, the lieutenant general Yang Yu, and the Yansui lieutenant general Hang Xiong to station in Yanghe, the deputy general Zhu Luan to station in Pinglu, and the guerrilla Zhou Zheng to station in Weiyuan, to set up a battle array to fight against Dayan Khan.

On September 28, Dayan Khan attacked from the south. Wang Xun led his troops to resist.

Wuzong ordered Shi Chun and Gao Shi to take a detour behind enemy lines, and transferred Xuanfu General Zhu Zhen and Lieutenant General Zuo Qin to Yanghe as flanks, with Lieutenant General Jiang Huan to provide support.

On the second day of October, the two armies met. Wang Xun led his troops to fight on foot, and Dayan Khan fled south to Yingzhou.

The next day, Wang Xun chased to Wulizhai, north of Yingzhou City, and fought for dozens of rounds, but the outcome was unclear.

On the fifth day, Wuzong led the eunuchs Zhang Yong, Wei Bin, Zhang Zhong, and the governor Jiang Bin from Yanghe to support, and commanded the troops to fight to the death, and the Mongolian troops retreated slightly.

The next day, after more than a hundred rounds of fighting, Dayan Khan retreated westward.

In this battle, 16,000 enemies were killed, 52,000 Ming soldiers were killed, 5,630 were seriously injured, and Emperor Wuzong's carriage was almost lost.

Despite such a huge casualty ratio, the Ming Dynasty still won. The reason is very simple. Infantry is always at a disadvantage against cavalry. Being able to narrow the enemy and our own casualty ratio to 1:4 was a victory that was never achieved after the Yongle Dynasty.

In particular, Emperor Wuzong's opponent was Dayan Khan, who unified the grassland and was known as the lord of the revival.

For such a great victory, the imperial court promoted and rewarded tens of thousands of people.

But after the Battle of Tumu, the atmosphere in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty was weak. Some were anti-war, or weak-kneed and cowardly, and they even spread rumors that Wuzong killed only sixteen enemies in a northern expedition, while fifty-two government soldiers died and five hundred and sixty-three were seriously injured. They deliberately discredited Wuzong's military achievements with malicious intentions.

"Your Majesty, I rely entirely on your instructions when I command the troops. Moreover, during the Zhengde period, the national treasury was empty, and the expedition to the northwest was always a war for food and money. The late emperor was worried about food and money while fighting. I, your humble servant, lived through the prosperous Jiajing period, when the national treasury was full and food and money came in continuously. Therefore, morale was high and we were unstoppable. The great victory in the northwest is actually all due to Your Majesty." Wang Chonggu attributed all the credit to His Majesty.

Of course, Wang Chonggu's evaluation of the late Emperor Wuzong came completely from the heart.

After the Battle of Tumu, the civil and military officials of the imperial court never allowed the emperor to appear on the battlefield again. However, Emperor Wuzong was able to break through the numerous restrictions of the imperial court, lead the army in person, and even killed the generals on the battlefield to win the victory. Among all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, his military ability ranked third.

Emperor Taizu Gao is first, Emperor Chengzu Wen is second, and Emperor Wuzong is third.

After all, the civil servants during the Zhengde period were a drag, so it’s better not to mention them.

Zhang Juzheng was immersed in the grief of his brother's death and did not hear Wang Chonggu's words clearly. However, Gao Gong, the deputy prime minister, heard them clearly and knelt down on the stool, saying, "Long live the emperor!"

Zhang Juzheng and his ministers finally realized what was happening. They knelt down as if a mountain had collapsed, and praised the emperor, "Long live the emperor!"

Zhu Houcong looked at Wang Chonggu, his mind full of thoughts. After a long while, he said, "The soldiers who went north are as powerful as tigers. You and other soldiers are worthy of praise. With you, I am more confident and confident. Ming! Number one in the world!"

"The Ming Dynasty is number one in the world!"

Wang Chonggu, Zhang Juzheng and all the others followed suit and kowtowed.

"Wang Chonggu."

"Wei Chen is here."

"You fought well in this battle. I've thought about it. From now on, you will enter the cabinet and participate in government affairs. The military affairs will be left to Qi Jiguang!" Zhu Houcong made a decision and said.

Wang Chonggu did so much just to seek stability for himself and his family. He had already made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty, so just let him do as he wished.

"Your humble servant bows to thank the Holy Lord for his great grace!" Wang Chonggu prostrated himself on the ground to thank the Holy Lord for his great grace.

After smoothly handing over the military power, he finally didn't have to worry about being too successful and endangering the emperor. Even if he had a title, just like Hu Zongxian, he had nothing else except an extra salary and benefits from the title.

Zhu Houcong nodded, looked over, and said, "Write the appointment letter to Qi Jiguang and tell him to lead the army of the Ming Dynasty well."

"The minister obeys the order."

"All the soldiers' beheadings, military merits, and rewards should be checked by the Cabinet and the Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Revenue, and Ministry of War as soon as possible, and then distributed. Remember that the salary cannot be delayed or withheld, and must be distributed on time and in full. In addition, the soldiers' reward silver and salary silver should be urged to be sent back home to supplement their families, and gambling and prostitution are prohibited."

"Please rest assured, my Lord. The army has iron laws. Those who gather for gambling will be beheaded, and those who commit prostitution will be castrated!"

Zhu Houcong laughed heartily.

The roar of praise rose again, "Long live the emperor!"

(End of this chapter)