Wandering the Heavens

As the main culprits, Xu Youzhen, Zhang Ji and Shi Heng were given priority for execution. Cao Jixiang was a eunuch of lower status than them, and there were only three gallows, so he could only be arranged in the next batch. The clerk brought the executioner to the three men to verify their identities, and after reading the verdict for the last time, they were taken to Xingtai.

"Everyone, see you on the road to the underworld later!" After listening to the verdict, Xu Youzhen turned around and greeted several familiar ministers with a smile.

"You...you are so arrogant!" Chen Xun looked at the man in front of him with gnashing teeth in hatred.

If they had not launched a desperate coup to restore Zhu Qizhen to the throne, his plan to support the lineage of Prince Xiang would surely have succeeded. However, because of people like Xu Youzhen, not only did his years of planning fail, he was also labeled as their accomplice and executed together with them.

Xu Youzhen looked down on me, and I also looked down on people like Xu Youzhen because his official position was too low!

After all, only a few people could still think of these twists and turns when they were about to die. Most of the prisoners in the execution ground lost the desire to vent their emotions when they saw someone being taken to Xingtai. They all looked at Xu Youzhen and others who were being roped up in panic.

During the entire hanging process, intermittent cries of injustice could be heard.

As Yu Xian was the person who personally handled the case of the Seizure of the Gate, he certainly knew that the injustice these people cried out was true, except that they were wronged by the charges. These people who should have been killed in the tenth year of Xuande lived for twenty more years, so in the final analysis they gained.

Soon they discovered that in addition to hanging, some prisoners were taken to the side and kneeled on the ground, where they were shot directly on the back of the head by Beidouwei soldiers with muskets. Seeing people who were just alive die so miserably, the prisoners waiting to die were scared and turned pale, and the smell of feces and urine filled the entire execution ground for a while.

"None of them is decent, none of them is decent! They all die in such a miserable way!" Yu Xian complained while fanning himself.

As the sun set, Yu Xian came to Xianling alone and burned the list in front of the stele.

"Empress Dowager, I, Yuxian, have an order to report to you. All those who spread rumors in Beijing have been arrested and brought to justice, except for those who died of old age. They will all be executed today. You can rest in peace now."

Taking Xu Youzhen's forced restoration of the emperor as a breakthrough point, Yu Xian launched a bloody purge despite the court's great mourning, paving the way for the disciples he trained and clearing away the resistance to reform.

Starting from the eighth year of Jingtai, there were frequent personnel changes in the court. Young and vigorous people began to emerge and forcibly changed the direction of the empire.

The first blow of the reform fell on the royal family. In the first year of Chenghua, Prince Xiang Zhu Zhanji submitted a memorial to reform the current royal family system and requested to lower the level of the Prince Xiang's Palace. This caused an uproar and the royal family reacted violently.

However, apart from their violent reactions, they did nothing else. After Zhu Di's reduction of the power of the princes, seven or eight out of ten people around them were spies sent by the court to monitor them. Before the new patriarchal system was implemented, illegal royal families from all over the country were arrested and imprisoned in Fengyang one after another.

It took a full five years for the new clan system to be conceived and officially implemented. It adopted a system of demotion, with the clan titles registered in the first year of Chenghua as the standard. After five generations, they would no longer be recorded in the clan's jade books and could participate in social activities as individuals.

The system of officials and guards for royal family members was abolished, and all royal family members were sent to attend schools built in Beijing after they turned six.

Regardless of the rank of nobility, the upper limit of land ownership was 500 acres. The excess land, which was legally granted, was redeemed by the royal family and the court. Salaries were reduced in stages, with a two-thirds reduction for princes and a one-fifth reduction for the lowest-ranking general.

The limited liability period for historical issues is based on the time when King Xiang submitted a petition to reform the system in the first year of Chenghua. Crimes committed before that, except for treason and murder, will be forgiven. Crimes committed after that will be punishable by death according to the new patriarchal system.

As for the relatives by marriage, in line with the idea of universal peace, marriages between men and women are the same as those among the common people. They can no longer be granted titles or stuffed into the Jinyiwei to deal with their treatment. Not only that, the Ministry of Rites also has requirements for the upper limit of dowries or rewards given by the royal family.

The above is for those princes who just want to eat and wait for death. There are also those who are unwilling to be mediocre and want to pursue careers. If you want to continue to keep the throne, you can do so. I will give you money and soldiers, and you can also recruit a bunch of followers, and then leave the Ming Dynasty. No matter how large the territory you conquer is, it is yours, as long as you still remember your ancestral tomb in Fengyang and still recognize Zhu as your ancestor, and send people back to pay homage from time to time.

Of course, it doesn't mean that you can get money and soldiers easily if you want to go out and work alone. First of all, the Five Military Commandery and the Cabinet will examine and comprehensively evaluate the princes who apply for this. Those who are rebellious should not think about staying in Ming Dynasty and just eat and wait for death. The princes who pass the first level will enter the special training class in the Military Academy.

After studying, they submitted a strategy for establishing a country to the court. The content included but was not limited to the basic situation of the site selection of the vassal state, the reasons for choosing there to establish the country, the objective difficulties, how many soldiers were needed, how many civilians needed to be recruited, and so on.

The reason why the new patriarchal system was implemented in the fifth year of Chenghua was that before the fifth year of Chenghua, Empress Dowager Sun and Zhu Gaoxi and Zhu Gaosui, who had been imprisoned for many years, died one after another, and Zhu Qizhen had been forgotten by everyone. Otherwise, with their identities and positions in the clan, they would inevitably have a great impact on this reform.

Thanks to the mature operating system of the General Military Affairs Council, Yu Xian did not have to worry about such matters. He just needed to grasp the general direction and let them formulate the detailed content, and he would be responsible for reviewing and stamping it.

Yu Qian also carried out drastic reforms on the current central court institutions. All the six ministers were included in the cabinet and a large staff team similar to the Grand Council was established. The difference was that this staff team did not have any power, and the vast majority of them were not officials, but outstanding figures in various industries.

The supervisory agencies, the Censorate and the Six Ministries, were merged to report directly to the emperor.

After the reform was on track, Yu Xian set his sights on the Western Regions.

In the spring of the second year of Chenghua, the Duke of Xuanwu, who was in his seventies, personally led a large army out of Jiayuguan to the west and ordered the Mongolian nobles of Hami Guard, who had long surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, to move inland and be directly guarded by the Ming army. They established Anxi Prefecture. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty once again launched a large-scale immigration, moving one million people from Huguang, Nanzhili and Shandong into this land.

As the immigrants arrived in Anxi, Yu Xian led his army to continue westward, trying to recover the former Anxi and Beiting areas of the Tang Dynasty. On the way, he encountered the former enemies, the Oirat and the Tatar.

When Mahamu left Beijing in disgrace, the Oirat and Tatar tribes fought a civil war for years under the instigation of the Ming Dynasty, almost exhausting all their strength. The nobles became rootless and floating. They finally reconciled and gathered their few remaining forces to migrate westward to avoid the encroachment of the Ming Dynasty.

But no one expected that after fleeing so far to the west, they would actually encounter the Ming army.

Their commander, the old man with hair as white as snow, held the "Book of Han" and "Book of Tang" in his hands and announced that the Ming Dynasty had the natural ownership of the land under his feet. If they couldn't reach an agreement, they would fight! They were cavalry and the Ming army was infantry, but who knew that the Ming army didn't play by the rules. The fire guns in their hands were beyond the imagination of the remnants of the Mongolian nobles. For the first time, the invincible cavalry seemed so powerless in the face of the attack.

Their commander was even more unreasonable, charging at the Mongol cavalry alone and killing them. This reminded the nobles of the Oirat clan of their fathers of the experience their fathers had told them of: in the 20th year of Yongle, when Mahamu was badly defeated, a young general of the Ming army also fought against the Oirat cavalry alone and escaped unscathed.

How come this old guy is still alive after almost forty years, and is still the commander of the Ming army!!!

They wanted to fight but couldn't, but they were unwilling to surrender. Finally, after a great defeat, these people packed up their belongings and continued to migrate westward. With their departure, Anxi Prefecture was upgraded again and became Anxi Provincial Administration.

The immigrants left their homes and came to the distant Western Regions. From Lanzhou, they embarked on a road specifically designed to strengthen the connection between the Central Plains and the Western Regions. They passed through the Hexi Corridor, out of Jiayuguan, and came to Anxi Prefecture to register.

The houses, the first year's food and winter supplies were already prepared. They moved into their new homes under the guidance of the local government officials and claimed the allocated land. Then they were dumbfounded. How could they possibly plant all the land? The land allocated to you by the court was evaluated based on the number of people in your family. Besides, the farm tools were upgraded for you. You might as well try to plant all the land.

When they heard what they were going to plant, they were dumbfounded. They mainly planted cotton, and all of it was purchased by the court. The purchase price was set by the court. There were two ways of payment: one was to give money directly; the other was to give part of the money and equivalent grain.

At the same time, the government also paid special attention to some families who were meticulous in their work, and asked them to plant a local crop similar to dandelions. After the crops grew up, they would extract the juice from their roots, which was also purchased by the court and was more expensive than cotton.