Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Ever since the Beijing Camp fought against the Jianlu and won victory after victory, the morale of the Beijing Camp soldiers has been high, and even the new recruits are full of arrogance.

This arrogance was not arrogance, but rather the bad habits that the old soldiers of the Beijing camp had acquired from generals such as Zhang Shikang and Cizi Tuan, which made them look down on others and point fingers at everyone.

The new recruits of the Beijing Camp were also deeply influenced by this habit. Zhang Shikang liked the current temperament of the Beijing Camp Army very much. He believed that a truly strong army should be unruly, unyielding and have its own characteristics.

Zhang Shikang held an extraordinary status in the Beijing camp army. Officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp praised him to each other, including the new recruits, and knew that it was Zhang Shikang who gave the Beijing camp a new life and provided them with food and dignity.

Zhang Shikang's impassioned speech raised the morale of the 30,000 Beijing troops to the highest point.

They had a greater goal. Together with their commander-in-chief, they wanted to seize all the land in the world and return it to the people. They fought for His Majesty and for themselves.

"Must win!"

"Must win!"

Wave after wave of cheers came one after another. Sun Weifan looked at the results of his several months of hard work and smiled with satisfaction.

"Let's go!" Zhang Shikang mounted his horse, waved his hand, and ran towards the camp gate.

On the other hand, as soon as the morning court ended, the officials from the Ministry of Rites who were responsible for delivering imperial edicts came out.

Emperor Chongzhen issued three consecutive edicts to inform the people of the world.

First, refugees who participated in the riots and surrendered will not be punished.

Secondly, the gentry, landlords, and nobles who participated in the turmoil were guilty of treason, so the 60,000-strong army in the capital was declared 200,000 and sent out to suppress the rebellion.

Third, all the land occupied by the imperial farms and royal family was recovered, remeasured, and turned over to the Ministry of Revenue.

Abolish the poll tax, distribute the tax based on the amount of land, and never increase taxes again.

The three imperial edicts were more sharp and serious than the last.

Especially the last decree, if it were usual, it would definitely cause an uproar in the Ming Dynasty.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty had always shown preferential treatment to members of the royal family, especially the princes in various places, and this reform actually included members of the royal family as well.

Over the past thousands of years, reforms that were carried out against the emperor were rare, and this time, the sword hit the main artery of the royal family.

If they dared to take action against the royal family, ordinary bureaucrats and landlords would naturally be no problem.

This decree not only showed Emperor Chongzhen's determination to reform, but also issued an ultimatum to everyone in the world:

I don't even want the imperial farms anymore, and I'm going to take back even the land of the royal family. No matter if you are bureaucrats or gentry, you'd better be sensible. I am now sending a large army to conquer you, and wherever I pass, I will wipe out all the disobedience.

In short, the three imperial edicts were drafted basically according to the method discussed with Zhang Shikang, in order to express goodwill towards the grassroots people to the greatest extent and appease their emotions.

Of course, Zhang Shikang understood that most of those rioting refugees were actually led astray by people with ulterior motives.

They didn't even understand that the tax system reform was not a knife in their throats, and that the taxes collected by the court would be returned to them in the future.

This is the disadvantage of keeping the people ignorant. Often they have difficulty distinguishing right from wrong and are easily swayed and follow the crowd.

However, Zhang Shikang had already been prepared for this, and he had ignored it previously in order not to alert the enemy and make the Jiangnan bureaucratic group act as soon as possible.

Now that the truth has been revealed, there is no need to hide it.

You want to engage in a propaganda war? Let me teach you how to do it.

After more than half a month of overtime work, the Jinyiwei of the Eastern Depot finally completed the confiscation and statistics of officials in Beijing the day before yesterday.

Zhang Shikang only gave the factory and guards one day off. Before the army set out today, the factory and guards had already rushed to their respective prefectures.

The Jinyiwei was still responsible for investigating and confiscating corrupt officials in various places, while the Dongjishichang was responsible for reclaiming the land of landlords, gentry, and even royal family members.

In addition, officials from the Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue in the two capitals and thirteen provinces also traveled with the army to supervise, participate in, record, and verify the household registration and total amount of land in various places.

The tasks of the factory and the guards had different focuses and cooperated with each other. In Zhang Shikang's words, his expedition was nominally to suppress rebellion, but in reality it was to plow the land.

He plowed the Ming Dynasty again from north to south, with the Imperial Household Guards as the vanguard, and he himself led the army to patrol everywhere.

But there were some hard bones that could not be plowed, so the plan was to use courtesy first and then force, and let the Prince of Lu who was accompanying the army persuade them. As for those who were still sensible, the plan was to send generals to arrest them directly.

At the beginning, the operation went smoothly. All the wealthy families in Shuntian Prefecture, whether they were nobles or landlords, did not dare to disobey the army.

After leaving Shuntian Prefecture, the team continued to encounter troubles from royal family members. Fortunately, they only encountered royal family members at the level of Prince or General Zhenguo. They released the frightened Prince Lu with the imperial edict to scare them, and solved the problem without even sending out troops.

It was not until the army reached Henan Prefecture that it encountered a tough opponent - Prince Fu Zhu Changxun.

The guards from the East Factory were beaten until their heads were bleeding, and Prince Lu couldn't even enter the gate of Prince Fu's palace.

Prince Fu Zhu Changxun even declared to the outside world that the land of the prince's palace was given by the previous emperor and the current emperor had no right to take it back.

The reason why he dares to be so arrogant is very simple. The current Prince of Fu is the most favored son of Emperor Wanli, a party involved in the dispute over the national foundation during the Wanli period, and the cousin of the current emperor.

Although Emperor Wanli eventually compromised with the Donglin Party, he still treated his most beloved son with the greatest kindness.

The land granted alone was more than 40,000 hectares. What does 40,000 hectares mean? Four million mu! When the land in Luoyang was insufficient, the land in Shandong and Huguang was used to make up for it.

In addition, salt taxes and other taxes along the canal were also collected by Prince Fu Zhu Changxun.

Before Prince Fu was enfeoffed, Emperor Wanli spent 280,000 taels of silver just to build a palace for him, which was ten times more luxurious and grand than usual.

The Wanli Emperor's favor also caused Zhu Changxun to develop an arrogant and domineering character since childhood. After he became a fiefdom, he was extremely extravagant and licentious. The officials under the palace also relied on the power of the palace to bully the people at will.

During the Chongzhen period, Henan suffered from drought and locust plagues, and the people in Luoyang even resorted to cannibalism. Zhu Changxun not only did not open his granaries to release grain to the victims, but instead took advantage of the situation to seize their land.

By now, the fertile land owned by Prince Fu in Henan, Shandong and even Huguang has exceeded five million acres, and Zhu Changxun himself has eaten so much that he has become a fat man weighing three hundred kilograms.

Three hundred kilograms, which is rare even in later generations with extremely abundant material conditions, not to mention the reality of starving people everywhere in the late Ming Dynasty.

This is truly a true reflection of the fact that while the rich live in luxury, others freeze to death on the streets.

As the uncle of the current emperor and the closest blood relative of the current emperor, Prince Fu certainly has reason to be arrogant.

It’s just that Zhu Changxun chose the wrong opponent.

When it comes to arrogance, Zhang Shikang would like to have a competition to see who is more arrogant.

After learning the news, Zhang Shikang called over Fan Chengren, the lieutenant general of the Beijing Camp Army's quartermaster battalion.

"How is the army's food supply?"

Fan Chengren didn't know what was going on, so he replied honestly:

"Marshal, you can use it for another half month."

"Not much left." Zhang Shikang muttered in public.

"Let's go, follow me to Prince Fu's Mansion to get some food."

……