The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

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After Liu Mu finished speaking, seeing that Li Meng still looked unconvinced, he was about to say something more when the sound of hooves came. Liu Dingbian, who had already changed into armor, entered the room with his head down.

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Guards are all present!"

Li Meng, who was standing to the side, was completely dumbfounded upon hearing this.

This is the emperor.

So you were just cursing the emperor to his face?

Liu Mu didn't abuse his power; he patted Li Meng on the shoulder.

"Come with me on this trip, and today I'll broaden your horizons and show you what corrupt officials are really like."

Li Meng was quite shrewd; knowing that the outcome would be the same no matter what, he quickly followed behind Liu Mu, even turning back to greet him.

"Grandma, remember to save some food for me!"

Seeing this, Liu Mu smiled and shook his head.

People are born different. Some are born into imperial families but live their whole lives in meekness and subservience, while others are born into poor families but are never self-conscious or cowardly.

In conclusion, Liu Mu liked Li Meng very much, and only someone like him could help an emperor achieve his hegemony.

……

This place is only ten miles away from Tianjin Weicheng. When the three thousand troops came from three sides along the field road, the soldiers on the city wall had already sounded the alarm.

Liu Dingbian rode his black dragon steed to the city walls, then suddenly pulled on the reins. The steed reared up, neighing towards the city walls.

"His Majesty the Emperor is on an inspection tour!"

"Where is the commander of the city?"

"Open the city gates immediately!"

Liu Dingbian's Chinese was already very fluent, and coupled with his naturally loud voice and the emperor's ceremonial dragon banner, soldiers would generally open the door immediately.

But the soldiers of Tianjinwei were clearly different; some of them actually began to draw their bows and nock arrows, especially the centurion who was leading them, who stuck his head out.

"In Tianjin, you don't need to acknowledge the emperor!"

"We only recognize Lord Zhao!"

Liu Mu was furious when he heard this. This place had already been established, and it was one thing if the officials of the Han Dynasty didn't find it during their inspection, but did the spies of the Imperial City Guard not find it either?

Just as Liu Mu ordered the attack on the city, the city gates were opened, and what came out were not soldiers, but the families of the Han garrison soldiers, mostly the elderly and children, numbering over a thousand.

Similar to those in Lijia Village, they were all dressed in rags.

The centurion on the city wall could no longer be arrogant and soon disappeared from the city wall.

The people gathered together, and after a while, a middle-aged man who was dressed a little better came to the Imperial Guards with a frightened look on his face.

"Song Jiu, Inspector of Tianjin Garrison, pays his respects to the Emperor!"

Upon discovering that the prosecutor was there, Liu Mu, who had thought he was dead, dismounted and approached Song Jiu.

"What a terrible situation you've caused! The families of soldiers in Tianjin are living in such poverty!"

Hearing Liu Mu's reprimand, Song Jiu let out a long sigh.

"Your Majesty, I am a specially granted scholar-official. Due to my lack of experience and ignorance of the court's situation, I was deceived by the later commander, Zhao Jujie, who claimed that the army's southward march was unsuccessful and required a large amount of provisions, which is why he exploited the families of these guards!"

"But when I heard that His Majesty's entourage had arrived and the soldiers still hadn't opened the city gates, I knew that Zhao Jujie was lying to me, so I led the people to open the city gates!"

Liu Mu fell silent after hearing this. Back then, there weren't that many officials, and a large number of scholars were indeed granted official positions through special permission. He never expected them to be so incompetent.

It should be noted that although the position of prosecutor is a seventh-rank official, it can impeach a third-rank commander.

Moreover, the commander named Zhao Jujie is different from the commander who leads troops; he is merely a civil official of the fifth rank.

It was because the Han Dynasty had only been established for less than three years and was in dire need of military generals that civil officials were selected from the Ministry of Personnel to manage the families of the garrison commanders. Their positions were comparable to those of prefects.

Fortunately, this was just a problem caused by the weakness of officials, rather than a problem with the garrison system itself, which put Liu Mu at ease.

If the system itself is flawed, then other garrisons will follow suit. If Shaanxi is so poor that it's practically on fire, they might have already started to rebel.

Just then, Liu Dingbian led the Imperial Guards, escorting a middle-aged man wearing a blue robe with flying crane patterns, and more than a hundred soldiers out of the city.

It turned out that as soon as the city gates were opened, Liu Dingbian led the Imperial Guards into the city to make arrests.

The middle-aged man who was arrested, and the centurion, both had shifty-looking faces and were clearly not good people. How did they get to where they are today?

Even though the country is in turmoil now, it is still a fifth-rank official position, even though it is only a civil official acting in his place. It seems that the Ministry of Personnel also has problems. I will have to investigate when I get back.

Upon seeing the emperor looking at him, the commander immediately stepped forward and bowed deeply once more.

"Your Majesty, I am Zhao Jujie, Commander of Tianjin Garrison. I was unaware of Your Majesty's arrival and have been very disrespectful!"

Liu Mu didn't want to waste words; he still had to return to the capital to check the Ministry of Personnel, so he took the lead and entered the room alone.

"Tell me, where is my money?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jujie knew that the matter had been exposed and that the people had already filed a complaint. Now, he was doomed to die anyway. So, he changed his previous demeanor, straightened his back, and looked inside with disdain.

"Your money is the money of my Great Qing Dynasty!"

"You, Galdan, are nothing but a Tartar from the Western Regions. What face do you have to control this beautiful land?"

Upon hearing these unusual words, Liu Mu instantly realized that this was another person with the Qing Dynasty in mind. He couldn't say that the person was wrong; after all, everyone has their own preferences, and some people just like to eat shit. You can't force them to.

"Drag him away and feed him to the dogs!"

After Liu Mu finished speaking, he waved his hand, and Liu Dingbian immediately stepped forward and picked up Zhao Jujie as if he were a chick.

"Galdan, you are nothing but a slave of the Oirat Mongols, yet you dare to try to seize the throne by siding with the Han. I bet any random Mongol from Chahar has a much higher bloodline than you!"

"You were born a slave, hahaha!"

Zhao Jujie was being dragged along, but he continued to curse Liu Mu. However, Liu Dingbian's voice soon followed.

"You old scoundrel, try spouting nonsense again!"

puff! ! !

……

A short while later, Liu Dingbian returned, wiped the blood off his hands, and immediately reported back.

"Your Majesty, the man's head has been cut off and handed over to the night watchman. After it's processed, the guard dogs will be given extra food."

After hearing this, Liu Mu nodded and then looked at the soldiers of the Tianjin Garrison. These men were all promoted by Zhao Li, and they looked ruddy-faced, so they should be doing quite well.

"These people and their entire families will be exiled to Malacca, their household registration permanently reduced to slavery, and their descendants will be barred from schooling for generations!"

As soon as Liu Mu finished speaking, the centurion and most of the soldiers fell to the ground with a thud.

Compared to the other deceived people in Tianjin, do they know how much the Han Dynasty treated its soldiers? Now they have lost what they had and their whole families are being exiled!

Before they could beg for mercy, the Imperial Guards stepped forward, gagged them, and dragged them away one by one.

The main reason Liu Mu didn't kill them was because higher-ranking officials have absolute power; if they didn't obey, there were plenty of others who would do the same, perhaps even more ruthlessly.

After finishing, Liu Mu looked at Rong Jiu.

"Where is my money and provisions?"