Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 277 Attacking the inner court, the reckoning begins!
Plundering Liaodong.

This eventually led to the execution of eunuch Gao Huai, the mine supervisor and tax collector, and governor Zhao Ji.

The general Li Chengliang rebelled against Goryeo, killed the King of Goryeo in the capital Seoul, and proclaimed himself king.

This battle.

It allowed the unconquered countries to have a clearer understanding of the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, and also made the eyes of the envoys of various countries stationed in the Ming Dynasty clearer than ever before.

Among the fifteen countries, Japan ranks first in national strength, Goryeo ranks second, and Annan ranks third.

It turned out that because of the end of the Northern Expedition and the "martial arts performance" in front of Deshengmen, people who had doubts about the national and military power of the Ming Dynasty, regained their sense of reason. Dad, it's still the same dad.

The second oldest, Goryeo, was gone just like that. The envoy of the third oldest, Annan, immediately wrote a letter to the court, stating that Annan would always be the most loyal son of the Ming Dynasty.

The envoy of Annan, who had previously protested against the Ming court's assistance to Champa in restoring its country and clamored to declare war on the Ming court, made it clear in the letter that it was a misunderstanding.

The restoration of Champa had absolutely nothing to do with the Ming court. The mysterious army with obvious Middle-earth style that helped Champa to restore its independence was just a group of people in disguise, whose purpose was to deliberately destroy the friendly father-son relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Annan.

In short, all the previous things were misunderstandings and it was all Annan's fault. In order to make up for the mistake, the Annan envoy announced that starting this year, the amount of tribute Annan paid to the Ming Dynasty would be increased.

The second one was gone, the third one was scared, the fourth and twelfth ones, the Ryukyu Kingdom and the Little Ryukyu Kingdom, directly submitted to the Ming Dynasty, and the fifteenth one, the Champa Kingdom, obeyed the orders of the Ming Dynasty.

The envoys from the nine countries of Cambodia, Siam, Sumatra, Java, Penang, Srivijaya, and Brunei could not help but cast their eyes on the first-ranked envoy from Japan, Hosokawa Fujitaka.

Hosokawa Fujitaka was very tough and even protested to the Ming court in the form of a letter, accusing the Ming Dynasty of an undeclared war against Goryeo and a naked invasion, which was simply a show performed by the Ming Dynasty and Li Chengliang.

The courage of the Japanese envoy was beyond the imagination of all the other envoys. For the first time, the envoys of the nine kingdoms of Zhenla felt respect for the despicable and shameless Hosokawa Fujitaka.

He who dares to expose the hypocrisy of the Ming Dynasty and dares to be the first in the world is a real man.

Regardless of the current situation on the peninsula, or whether it was a play performed by the Ming court and Li Chengliang, the Ming court had gained unimaginable benefits. The area north of Pyongyang was completely occupied by the Ming army. The envoys of various countries did not believe that the Ming court would give up this piece of meat in their mouths.

People have always speculated about others with the greatest malice, especially in interactions between countries, they will use all their imagination to speculate about the big countries that they cannot contend with.

Thanks to the bravery of Hosokawa Fujitaka, the nine kingdoms of Zhenla successively submitted letters, accusing the Ming court of violating the ancestral constitution, not conquering other countries, destroying Goryeo, and invading and occupying the peninsula.

When the only son of the deceased Goryeo King Yi Ho, the Goryeo Crown Prince Yi Hyeong, who was enthroned by the Ming Dynasty, fled to the Ming Dynasty by boat, he was moved to tears by the support of the Ten Countries. In the name of his deceased father, he protested to the Ming court and accused the Ming Dynasty of its atrocities!
There was an uproar in the government and the country.

cabinet.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang, and Wang Chonggu, the five cabinet ministers, all had their mouths twitching slightly.

Li Yang and the envoys from the nine kingdoms of Zhenla are stupid, and the envoy from Japan, Hosokawa Fujitaka, is really bad.

The current situation on the Japanese island is not much better than that on the peninsula.

The entire western part of Japan was under the control of the Amago family controlled by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and almost all western Japanese people were mining for the Ming Dynasty.

After digging at Iwami Silver Mine, they went to dig at Sado Gold Mine. There was endless work to do all day long.

Even so, the Jinyiwei still felt it was too slow. In order to show their loyalty, the Amago clan took the initiative to abduct people from the territories of the Hojo clan and the Takeda clan in Eastern Japan to mine.

There is no doubt that the actions of the Amago clan angered the head of the Hojo clan, Hojo Ujiyasu, and the head of the Takeda clan, Takeda Shingen, and even caused the two families, which had been hostile to each other for hundreds of years, to temporarily give up their hatred and unite to fight back against the Amago clan.

However, the widow mine is still showing its power. Although the Jinyiwei has experimented with many new types of firearms, many of which are better than the widow mine, the Niwa clan only loves the widow mine.

The head of the Amago clan, Amago Yoshihisa, the nominal overlord of western Japan, demanded more widow mines from the Imperial Guard than all other firearms combined.

This kind of firearm, which was more insulting than lethal, frightened countless troops of the Hojo clan and the Takeda clan, causing them to retreat step by step on the battlefield.

After the war, Amago Yoshihisa would order his family soldiers to capture the two families' soldiers who were injured in the lower body and then give them medical treatment.

This was not out of pity, but because Yoshihisa Amago discovered that the Japanese, without "worldly troubles", could dig more mines!
But the medical level in Japan was just that level. It was extremely difficult to save a person who was seriously injured by a widow mine. At this time, Yoshihisa Niwa would think of his "kind father".

Nizi Yoshihisa made a request to the commander-in-chief of the Jinyiwei Governor of Wadao, asking the Ming Dynasty to send a team of medical officers to Japan to treat these "excellent" "oxen and horses".

The Ming Dynasty dispatched many medical officers to Japan for this purpose. Later, at the suggestion of Li Shizhen, the director of the Imperial Medical Service, not only experienced medical officers but also a large number of medical apprentices were sent to Japan.

Today, Japan is regarded as a "holy land" in the eyes of many doctors in the Ming Dynasty.

Where can there be so many patients? Where can I verify all the prescriptions in my mind?

A few days ago, Zhang Juzheng caught a cold. When Li Shizhen went to treat him, they chatted for a while. He said that in the Ming Dynasty today, as long as the external injuries and injuries to the lower body are intact, they can basically be healed, and it is not impossible to cure them according to different situations.

However, Li Shizhen also had concerns. There was actually not much difference between doctors and butchers. They were indifferent to life. The leading medical officer in Japan reported that he found doctors "tearing apart" the Japanese to look for meridians and acupuncture points.

If the Empress had not been pregnant, Li Shizhen would not have been able to leave for the time being and would have gone to Japan to reform medicine.

It can be said that the east and west of Japan are full of vitality and everything is flourishing, but all this has nothing to do with the Muromachi shogunate and the envoy Hosokawa Fujitaka sent by the Muromachi shogunate to the Ming Dynasty.

The Muromachi shogunate existed in name only, so Hosokawa Fujitaka simply became a troublemaker in the Ming Dynasty.

The envoys of the nine Zhenla states, who knew nothing, and Li Yang, whose father died and his country was destroyed, made a big fuss in the capital, causing chaos.

But it was not difficult to crack. Zhang Juzheng said, "Li Chengliang's envoy will soon arrive in the capital. When the time comes, let all countries participate in the negotiations and witness Li Chengliang's rebellion with their own eyes."

It is true that the inclusion of the Na Peninsula into the Ming Dynasty was part of the strategy, but Li Chengliang also really rebelled, and the Ming court was not at all panicked.

negotiation.

It must be carried out, not for anything else, but just to stop the world from talking nonsense.

The Ming Dynasty was certainly not satisfied with the current land north of Pyongyang, allowing the rebellious Li Chengliang to rule in the south.

However, the righteous army of the Ming Dynasty must have sufficient reasons to be able to legally control the peninsula after defeating Li Chengliang and killing the rebels.

As for the Ming Dynasty, it is necessary to show Li Chengliang's crimes to the greatest extent possible, which takes time.

In addition, there were many disagreements in the court regarding the issue of the counties and prefectures on the peninsula. Led by Deputy Prime Minister Gao Gong, this group of conservatives were strongly opposed to helping the indigenous people of the peninsula out of poverty after occupying the peninsula. It would take time to unify the opinions of all the ministers.

Gao Gong made two suggestions. The first was to send the indigenous people of the peninsula to the Wa Islands to mine. There was a large gap in the number of miners at the Iwami Silver Mine and the Sado Gold Mine. The peninsula and the Wa Islands were very close, so it was convenient to transport people there.

The second is to make the indigenous people of the peninsula disappear, disappear in the true sense of the word, just a few million people. They can be driven into the sea, or the court can pay money to let those ruffians of the Ming Dynasty "hunt" on the peninsula. Conservative officials in the court such as Gao Gong are willing to support this part of the expenditure.

Orthodox Confucian officials such as Zhang Juzheng and Li Chunfang could never accept Gao Gong and his group of officials who thought the radicals were too conservative.

If all the people of a country are turned into slaves or massacred, this method is too harmful to the harmony of nature.

The matter came to a stalemate. Gao Gong proposed two solutions, but neither Zhang Juzheng nor Li Chunfang could accept them. Gao Gong also could not accept treating the indigenous people of the peninsula as citizens of the Ming Dynasty.

Continue to discuss.

Zhang Wei, the secretary of the cabinet, was sent to inform Li Yang and the envoys of ten countries including Japan, Annan and Zhenla to participate in the negotiations. As soon as Li Chengliang's envoy arrived in Beijing, all the arrangements would be made.

At present, the cabinet has an important matter to discuss, which is "mining tax".

Since the Yongle period, the Ming Dynasty's treasury had been in a state of deficit all year round. In order to alleviate the "cash shortage" situation, the war-loving Emperor Chengzu used eunuchs to "develop" many ways to make money. One of them was to send mining supervisors and tax collectors to various places to openly plunder wealth.

As a result, eunuchs began to run rampant, bringing severe disasters to the officials and people of the Ming Dynasty.

The eunuchs sent to various places gradually controlled the country's economic lifeline through various means.

Tax management, mining, annual affairs, procurement, imperial stores, warehousing... the eunuchs made a fortune, while the imperial court became increasingly poor.

In the 40th year of the Jiajing reign and before, the outer court was corrupt, and the inner court was corrupt too. The outer court and the inner court were corrupt and emptied the world. However, in the 40th year of the Jiajing reign and until now, the emperor's blame has mostly fallen on the heads of court officials, and the eunuchs in the inner court have always escaped the law by relying on the emperor's power.

The mining disasters and civil uprisings in Kaihua and Dexing, Zhejiang, exploited the people of Liaodong, and the rebellion that followed gave the civil and military officials an opportunity to strike back against the inner court.

Starting with the mine supervisors and tax collectors, officials from the two capitals and thirteen provinces (the fourteenth province, Beiyuan, was still uncivilized and had not been touched) worked together to collect solid evidence of the arrogant and domineering behavior of the mine supervisors and tax collectors in various places.

The three of them were the most arrogant and domineering and were regarded as examples.

Chen Zeng, Chen Feng, and Gao Huai.

Chen Zeng was a eunuch in the 20th year of Jiajing's reign. He was later sent to Shandong as a mining envoy to raise funds for the construction of a palace for the emperor.

After arriving in Shandong, Chen Zeng intervened in local affairs and came into conflict with Wei Guoxian, the magistrate of Fushan.

Chen Zeng falsely accused County Magistrate Wei of obstructing the opening of a mine, and had him arrested, interrogated and dismissed from his post. Shandong councilor Wan Xiangchun only said a few words in defense of Wei Guoxian, but his salary was also suspended.

Chen Zeng then forced large-scale mining in Shandong, randomly selecting able-bodied men to dig mountains and mine, causing many people to die in the mines. Chen Zeng sent a small amount of the proceeds to the court, and put most of it into his own pocket.

Some officials were dissatisfied with Chen Zeng's practices and wrote letters to expose them. However, the situation in the inner court forty years before Jiajing was self-evident. As a result, Chen Zeng was not punished, but the officials who exposed him were punished instead.

And Chen Feng was definitely the most arrogant mining tax collector during the Jiajing period.

He was originally an imperial stable officer, and in the 27th year of Jiajing's reign he was sent to Jingzhou to collect taxes.

He held several positions at the same time and had great power and influence. He was extremely arrogant and robbed merchants and oppressed officials and civilians wherever he went. If his demands were not met, officials would be whipped.

His followers broke into people's houses, raped and killed women, and committed all kinds of evil. Many wealthy families were forced to pay bribes. What's worse, Chen Feng dug up graves in Jingzhou, showing his complete lack of conscience.

Chen Feng's actions provoked popular uprisings many times. For the same reason, the inner court before the 40th year of Jiajing was keen on making money and repeatedly supported Chen Feng to suppress local officials and people.

Wherever Chen Feng went, there was chaos and the people were living in misery. He used military force to brutally suppress the rebellious people, and many officials who opposed him were also persecuted.

Gao Huai was originally a street scoundrel, but later he castrated himself and entered the palace, where he was appointed as the Chief Supervisor of the Imperial Kitchen. When the time came to send out inspectors of mines and taxes, Gao Huai saw this as a good opportunity to make a fortune, so he bribed Chen Hong, the former chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department and the governor of the Eastern Depot, to take on the post of mine tax collector in Liaodong.

After Gao Huai arrived in Liaodong, local ruffians flocked to him to serve as tax collectors. They either openly robbed or extorted money, drained people's property, and raped other people's women. The people of Liaodong were in dire straits.

Those merchants and civilians who dared to resist, regardless of age, were captured and taken to Tennoji and tortured.

Some were hung in a well with their feet tied up, which was called "hanging with the head in a well"; some were hung upside down on a tree, which was called "feet facing the sky"; some were tied around the waist and hung on a pillar, which was called "waist-tied Lu Gong belt"; some were placed on an iron sheet with a raging fire underneath, which was called "burning and warming the kang". As for beatings, kickings, whippings and floggings, they were commonplace.

Gao Huai also registered the wealthy families in Liaoyang and extorted them one by one, ranging from several thousand taels to several hundred taels, and at least dozens of taels.

Originally, "the Liao people were capable of defending the Liao land", and the imperial court's soldiers and civilians outside the Great Wall could resist the Jurchens. However, due to the misconduct of the mining supervisors and tax collectors, the people lost their support. Before the 40th year of Jiajing, the situation in Liaodong became increasingly dangerous.

Gao Huai was tortured to death by slicing, then his bones were cut into pieces and his ashes were scattered. All nine clans were exterminated and there was nothing left to pursue for his crimes. However, the ministers wanted to use Gao Huai's crimes to prove the evil of the eunuchs in the inner court.

During the 41 years of the Jiajing reign, some inhumane mining supervisors and tax collectors were too lazy to even carry out nominal "management" of the almost stagnant mining industry. They "broke into people's homes at will, claiming that there were mines there and demanded taxes be paid regardless of whether they were mined or not." Millions of ordinary people could not bear the exploitation and abandoned their fields and homes, fleeing and becoming refugees.

This account must be settled!

The chief minister of the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng, wrote a memorial in his own handwriting and handed it over to the civil and military officials to write down their names. The five elders of the cabinet and the ministers of the six ministries and nine departments went to Yuxi Palace to meet the emperor...

(End of this chapter)