Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 178 The Nanzhi nobles kneel to welcome the royal army: We surrender!
After interrogating Chen Pan, Zhu Qi immediately reported to Zhu Houcong, accusing the eunuch Liao Tang, the garrison commander of Nanjing, of harboring evil intentions.

After reading it, Zhu Houcong also issued a handwritten order, asking Zhu Qi to directly work with Zhu Xizhou to interrogate and detain him.

However, because it was an imperial edict, Zhu Houcong's reply was rather casual and he did not use a formal document, so he simply scolded Liao Tang in the edict.

"You have clearly long been disloyal to the palace and dissatisfied with me, yet you still want to deceive me and play with me!"

"It can be seen that you are not afraid of my power!"

"Immediately dismiss the eunuch from his post as garrison commander, and have him interrogated and detained by Zhu Qi, the Northern Pacification Office, together with Zhu Xizhou, the Right Censor-in-Chief and Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and the Governor-General of Southeast Military Affairs!"

After Zhu Qi finished reading the imperial edict, he looked at Liao Tang and said, "Eunuch Liao, please come with us."

Liao Tang fell to the ground and closed his eyes involuntarily.

"go!"

When Zhu Qi saw that he didn't get up, he just picked him up and dragged him out.

Naturally, Liao Tang's family members did not dare to stop him.

But his brother Liao Peng immediately came to see Wang Jun and said to him: "The Jinyiwei took my brother away. I think it's because Chen Pan was caught by the Jinyiwei!"

Wang Jun was suddenly shocked after hearing this.

"How could Chen Pan be caught by the Jinyiwei? Wasn't he planning to flee to Prince Yi's Mansion in advance?"

then.

Wang Jun asked in confusion.

Liao Peng said: "I don't know either, but since His Majesty has discovered that my brother is not right, it can only mean that there is something wrong with Chen Pan!"

Wang Jun was silent for a while.

then.

Wang Jun couldn't help but mutter to himself, "How come even his Jinyiwei are different from others? Your brother acted so tough in front of the scholars crying in the temple, but he was still spotted by the Jinyiwei!"

After Wang Jun said this, he still felt scared.

He began to regret instigating Liang Yongfu to murder Zhu Xizhou's entire family.

This made him want to persuade Liang Yongfu to give up.

But when one thinks about it, whether Zhu Xizhou's entire family can be exterminated is related to whether the new emperor's subsequent series of reforms in the southeast can be successful.

He still didn't want to dissuade her.

Zhu Houcong also knew that whether Zhu Xizhou could be kept was the key to whether his reforms in the southeast could continue.

to this end.

Half a month ago, in the middle of the twelfth lunar month, when Hui'an Earl Zhang Wei was about to leave Beijing, he said to Zhang Wei:

"Although you have received an order to go south to quell the rebellion, it is hard to say who the rebel will be in Jiangnan at this time."

"It could be the Nanjing Garrison troops, or the nobles, or even bandits!"

"But what is certain is that as long as they intend to rebel, their next goal will only be to dig up Zhu Xizhou's ancestral graves, wipe out Zhu Xizhou's entire family, and stage a drama of murdering Zhu Xizhou's entire family!"

"So, you lead your troops to Suzhou and Kunshan first, and send someone to convey my secret order to the Suzhou nobles, telling them that if the Zhu family fails, all Suzhou nobles will be disqualified from taking the imperial examinations, all Suzhou nobles will be stripped of their honors, and the incumbent Suzhou officials will be dismissed and sent home!"

"Also, tell the local officials of Suzhou to unite with the local officials and organize volunteers to prevent the rebels from attacking the Zhu family."

"By then, there may be a battle in Suzhou, or there may not be, but I am sending you there to prepare for this battle."

"We will not give up until we reach the Yellow River. If we don't let them believe that their military strength is like an egg hitting a rock in front of the imperial army, they may not be convinced in the end."

After Zhu Houcong gave such instructions, Zhang Wei followed the order after leaving the capital.

……

……

Nanjing.

"Are there a large number of outsiders in Suzhou?"

Because this day was Liang Yongfu's birthday, Wang Jun, who also came to his house to celebrate, found an opportunity to ask Liang Yongfu about instigating the Nanzhi gentry to eliminate the Zhu family.

Liang Yongfu said, "No! I have already sent many people to watch at important places such as Changmen in Suzhou. There are not many people coming from the north."

After hearing this, Wang Jun nodded and swallowed back the words he wanted to say to persuade Liang Yongfu to stop, thinking that perhaps the emperor would not pay attention to anything other than crying in the temple and resisting taxation.

Liang Yongfu then said: "The nobles in Songjiang, Changzhou and other places have sent people to Suzhou to lurk. They have also bribed the inspectors along the way and smuggled a lot of military equipment and armor. They plan to raise the banner of eliminating traitors on the night of the Lantern Festival and wipe out the entire Zhu family!"

Wang Jun smiled slightly, but he felt a little uneasy, so he said: "We still need to pay attention to the situation of the Yanshan Guard led by Hui'an Bo, and don't let them go to Suzhou Kunshan!"

Liang Yongfu nodded.

After the Yanshan Guard led by Zhang Wei, the Earl of Hui'an, set out in the middle of the twelfth lunar month in the first year of the Jiajing reign, the soldiers he sent to convey the emperor's orders had already arrived in Suzhou in the beginning of the first lunar month. The messenger ordered Ma Lu, who was temporarily stationed in Suzhou, to summon all the Suzhou gentry to the government office and convey the emperor's latest orders to them.

"What you mean is that if the Zhu family is defeated, all the scholars in Suzhou will have no fame and no chance of becoming an official?"

"Isn't this forcing us to give up our own wealth to organize a volunteer army to protect the treacherous minister's family?!"

"In this case, doesn't it mean that we'd better hope that no thieves are bold enough to target the Zhu family?"

The Suzhou gentry were greatly shocked by this and began to discuss the matter.

Bang bang!

Qin Jin, who resigned as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and returned home, as a representative of the Suzhou gentry, could only tap his cane and say:
"Everyone! This is the will of the emperor, and we should obey it. Let's quickly discuss the rules. How much silver and volunteers can each family contribute? Don't be lucky. If there are thieves who really go to Kunshan to retaliate against the Zhu family, we will all be implicated!"

"Why!"

At this time, someone still responded unconvincedly.

"Because we are Zhu Kunshan's fellow villagers!"

Qin Jin replied.

"Who wants to be his fellow villager?"

"He was the first to betray his fellow villagers!"

"You're right. We hate Zhu Xizhou to the core, so how could we be willing to protect the Zhu family!"

"Indeed, we all want to dig up Zhu Xizhou's ancestral grave and burn down his ancestral house. If it weren't for the fact that he is His Majesty's favorite, the Governor of Southeast, we would have done so long ago!"

"Now we have to spend money and send people to protect him. This is really unacceptable!"

……

Many of the Suzhou gentry's children who were dissatisfied still expressed their opposition.

Qin Jin said in a deep voice: "This is not a discussion, it is the king's order! In short, even if other noble families are exterminated by thieves, we cannot let the Zhu family be exterminated!"

Although many of the sons of the noble families were still dissatisfied, they could not resist the persuasion and admonition of the wise people in the family and still accepted the imperial edict. Therefore, next, these Suzhou nobles had to contribute money and manpower to cooperate with the government to organize volunteer soldiers and then march to Kunshan, Suzhou.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, the main force of the Yanshan Guards landed in Zhenjiang to rest and suddenly headed towards Suzhou instead of Nando. Soon, Liang Yongfu's secret sentry informed Liang Yongfu of the news.

Liang Yongfu was shocked when he heard this, and quickly ordered to inform the anti-espionage team lurking in Kunshan, Suzhou, to abandon the action.

However, the so-called anti-espionage team had already had hundreds of people hiding in armor and weapons and lurking in Kunshan County, and another nearly 20,000 people had also gathered in Zhenyi Town, not far from Kunshan City, Suzhou.

This is because, what Liang Yongfu and Wang Jun did not know was that the descendants of the Nanzhi gentry had organized their own council, and under the call of Ouyang Yu, Xu Cheng, Li Yi and others in the form of crying in the temple, a lot of people had already gathered.

When Liang Yongfu sent people to contact them and supported them in exterminating the entire Zhu family and clearing out the clan, they agreed to do so without hesitation. It can be said that they hit it off immediately and organized many sons of the gentry and the powerful slaves and militiamen of their respective families.

Therefore, when Ouyang Yu received the news sent by Liang Yongfu in Zhenyi Town, he was both frightened and disappointed.

What was shocking was that the imperial court actually sent official troops to Suzhou Kunshan.

What was disappointing was that the armed force that they had organized with great difficulty and their plan to wipe out the entire Zhu family seemed to be on the verge of failure.

You know, it is not easy to organize nearly 20,000 people, and the sunk costs in time and money are very high.

What's more, this is their only chance to prevent reform.

"Are we really going to give up like this?"

Li Yi also asked everyone in the council about this at this time.

"We can't just give up like this!"

"After all, we are almost at Kunshan! We still have time to kill all the traitors!"

"Besides, even if the government troops come, what can we do? We have more soldiers than them. We also have armor and firearms given by Nandu, and we have adopted escaped border soldiers to train our courage. And we are fighting in our own hometown. It can be said that the time, place, and people are all on our side!"

Ouyang Yu said resolutely at this time.

To sum up Ouyang Yu’s words in one sentence, no matter what, twenty thousand versus five thousand, the advantage is on my side!

Li Yi agreed with this and said, "Then we will continue to head towards Kunshan!"

Xu Cheng followed suit and said, "Okay! I heard that Zhu Kunshan has an only daughter who is quite pretty. She is perfect to be a prostitute in the anti-traitor army camp!"

After hearing this, everyone laughed expectantly.

But when the anti-traitor army arrived in Kunshan, they found that a large number of volunteers had already gathered in Kunshan.

then.

They learned from an insider who escaped from the city that the emperor had already forced the Suzhou nobles to protect the Zhu family in advance.

The Suzhou gentry did not expect that not long after they organized volunteers to gather in Kunshan to strengthen the defense against the Zhu family, the so-called anti-traitor army really came to Kunshan.

This made him quite surprised at the emperor's brilliant strategy.

Ouyang Yu and other people from the Anti-Traitor Army Council could not help but discuss again whether to withdraw.

However, it was too late for them now, because the Yanshan Guards led by Hui'an Earl Zhang Wei were already waiting for them in Zhenyi Town. When they retreated here, they ran into the Yanshan Guards.

"It seems that we have no choice but to fight!"

Ouyang Yu couldn't help but say something on the sedan chair.

Li Yi was still sitting on the sedan chair and said confidently: "Wait for us scholars to defeat the enemy!"

Xu Cheng couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's a pity that it's so cold and I didn't bring my feather fan!"

Next, the two sides actually started fighting.

At the beginning, Zhang Wei ordered the firearms battalion to launch a tentative attack on the right wing, while the cavalry did not move.

The Firearm Battalion was fighting against the armed forces composed of the Songjiang gentry.

Here, Ouyang Yu said: "Let Yingtian Prefecture and Changzhou Prefecture reinforce Songjiang Prefecture and encircle the government army's firearms soldiers."

However, Han Luan, the leading scholar of the council of Yingtian Prefecture, advised the leading sons of the various noble families on his side at this time, "Let the people from Changzhou Prefecture go first to reinforce them. After both sides are defeated and the sons and servants of the local militia and family members have suffered heavy losses, we will go and decide the outcome in one fell swoop!"

However, Song Fuli, the leader of the Council of Affairs of Changzhou Prefecture, also said to his leading disciples at this time: "Wait for the people from Yingtian Prefecture to go up first, and when they are in a deadlock with these court lackeys, we will go to reinforce them!"

So, neither side moved.

Ouyang Yu and Li Yi were shocked.

"what happened?"

The Yanshan Guard Firearms Battalion had already marched in front of the armed forces from Songjiang, directly picked up the matchlock guns and fired, and also transported the submachine guns up in time.

In an instant, a large number of young men from Songjiang Prefecture were killed on the spot, and the army was defeated.

Zhang Wei laughed when he saw this, and then decisively dispatched a thousand elite cavalry to sweep away the sons of the gentry from Songjiang, and ordered the firearms battalion to attack the sons of Yingtian Prefecture, and sent another thousand cavalry to harass and warn the sons of Changzhou and other prefectures from both wings.

Not long after, Yingtian Prefecture also suffered a major defeat, and Changzhou Prefecture and others saw this and simply chose to flee without a fight.

But the cavalry had quickly surrounded them, forcing the sons of these states to kneel down and surrender.

Even Ouyang Yu, Li Yi, Xu Cheng and other deacons of the council had no choice but to kneel down and surrender.

After all, they usually traveled on sedan chairs, so their physical strength was limited. Not to mention that they couldn't outrun the cavalry, they couldn't walk far even if they walked on foot.

So, when their slaves who were carrying the sedan chairs ran away, they had no choice but to kneel down and surrender.

"We are willing to pay one million taels of silver to redeem ourselves. Please give us a chance, Earl Hui'an, and allow us to go home and pretend that you didn't see us coming to Suzhou!"

When Ouyang Yu and others were still being brought to see Zhang Wei, the Earl of Hui'an, they flattered him in the official language of the Ming Dynasty and proposed a method of buying life with money.

After all, the Jiangnan gentry have plenty of money, but they only have one life.

"Yes, two million is fine!"

Li Yi followed up.

"three million!"

"If that doesn't work, five million!"

Xu Cheng simply gritted his teeth and said a bigger number. He remembered that his family had at least five million in cash. In order to persuade Marquis Hui'an to hide the fact that they had been here, he offered a higher price.

But it must be admitted that this is the most powerful weapon of the Nanzhi gentry. The officers and soldiers around Earl Hui'an were all horrified and looked at Earl Hui'an Zhang Wei.

Because these amounts far exceeded the salaries given to them by the court.

What's more, the Ming Dynasty is now short of silver, so silver has always been a scarce commodity with increasing appreciation in the Ming Dynasty.

Especially the figure of five million taels, which means that each person in Yanshanwei can get a bribe of nearly one thousand taels on average!

Even Zhang Wei, a Beijing nobleman, was shocked when he heard the numbers reported by these children of the aristocratic families.

After all, the savings of the northern big families are generally not as good as those of the southern big families. What's more, these are the richest children of the Jiangnan gentry.

(End of this chapter)