In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, August 25th, Zi hour.
It was the darkest time of the day, and the entire Forbidden City was quiet. Only the Wenhua Hall where Zhu Youjian, who had just become emperor, lived, was still brightly lit, and noisy sounds could be heard from time to time. It turned out that the young emperor who had just ascended the throne held a banquet in the Wenhua Palace to reward the eunuchs and guards who followed him from King Xin's mansion into the Forbidden City.
Because too many things happened in the Forbidden City in the past two or three days, Emperor Tianqi died of illness, King Xin entered the palace and ascended the throne, and the enthronement ceremony was held... This also involved huge changes in interests and reasons. The resulting backroom deal. It is no exaggeration to say that all the prominent figures in the Forbidden City have been working around the clock for the past two or three days. After finishing their work on the stage, they have to be busy behind the stage. I was busy until the new emperor's enthronement ceremony was over.
The power structure within the Forbidden City does not seem to have changed much. Wei Zhongxian should have retained his power, and he is still in control. He has great power both inside and outside the general... The young emperor still relies heavily on Wei Zhongxian, otherwise he would not have been specifically informed to let him wear the imperial coat. The duke's clothes were worn for the coronation ceremony.
Therefore, the foreign ministers and internal servants who relied on Wei Zhongxian inside and outside the Forbidden City could finally sleep peacefully tonight.
As for the "gentlemen" who oppose Wei Zhongxian, they have nothing to think about for the time being... The emperor is young after all, and he is a bit cowardly. It seems that he can only wait for a while!
Fortunately, the young emperor still respected the emperor's sister-in-law very much. He wanted to adopt his eldest son to his brother-in-law and let this adopted son inherit the throne in the future.
With this promise, the anti-eunuch party forces with Queen Zhang as the core have hope and can sleep peacefully. At worst, wait a few more years. When the young emperor has a son and Empress Zhang can become Empress Dowager Zhang, it won't be too late to deal with Wei Zhongxian!
So tonight, not only did most people in the Forbidden City sleep very peacefully, but most of the officials and nobles outside the Forbidden City, whether loyal or traitorous, fell asleep soundly.
Even Wei Chengyun, the godson who was sent by Wei Zhongxian to monitor the Wenhua Palace and the eunuch of the ceremonial hall, Wei Chengyun, after arranging the young eunuchs to take turns to watch the Donghua Gate and Huiji Gate, found a place to squint - the so-called Surveillance is actually to prevent the young emperor from colluding with the civil servants and nobles of foreign dynasties.
Donghua Gate and Huiji Gate are the two must-pass roads from Wenhua Palace to the Forbidden City.
If there were no so-called ministers from the outer dynasty to help the young emperor in his revolt, how could a seventeen-year-old bare emperor and the dozens of eunuchs and guards he brought into the palace be able to overturn the situation?
And looking at the little emperor's subservient look, he probably isn't that brave!
However, Wei Chengyun, who is also known as Grandpa Xiao Wei, never imagined that in his eyes, the 9900-year-old grandfather who could do anything and become an immortal with wings would not be in the eyes of the young emperor at all... It is too easy to kill Wei Zhongxian. What is more difficult is how to make Wei Zhongxian's death worthwhile enough!
To be honest, Wei Zhongxian showed his teeth and claws like this. He looked like a bad guy at first glance, but he didn't have much strength. Zhu Youjian had never seen another opponent who could die in one kill in his last life!
Moreover, killing Wei Zhongxian is an opportunity to "kill monsters and upgrade". If you kill him, you can not only turn a bare emperor into a horse-riding emperor with elite soldiers, but also pick up treasures all over the place. With the treasure of this place, the emperor can be stable.
It would be foolish not to take advantage of this opportunity!
...
"The strong soldiers in the capital are the three battalions of Zhongyong, Siwei and Warriors under the jurisdiction of the Royal Horse Guards. The three of you are from these three battalions respectively. You should know the true and false. I ask you, how many elite soldiers are there in these three battalions? ?”
In a side hall of the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Youjian was sitting on an armchair with a stern look, looking at the three loyal men in front of him asking questions with burning eyes.
Zhu Youjian is going to seize the army... seize an army that belongs to him in the original history!
This thing seems to have happened many times, but Zhu Youjian, who has studied the "Emperor's Classics" with Shengjun Nizi for more than fifty years, now knows that the captured army and the inherited army have different levels of mastery. of.
Only by first seizing the army, then taking them with him to kill the thieves and quell the chaos, and then reward him based on his merits, can Zhu Youjian truly establish his absolute authority and become the real and only supreme leader of the Royal Horse Imprisonment Army.
Moreover, taking advantage of the opportunity to seize the army, Zhu Youjian could also clean up the three battalions of Zhongyong, Fourth Guards, and Warriors, and kick out all those who had no intention of eating, or those who had ulterior motives, or those who only knew about corruption but did not know how to do anything. ... This kind of kicking people out is easiest to do when the whole army is crazy about following a new master to get promoted and make a fortune.
Because everyone wants to perform well at this time, and everyone is eager for the Lord's favor, so it is unlikely to get together and cause trouble.
Moreover, eliminating some soldiers who are not very useful can also let the remaining elite soldiers know how to cherish them, so that they can work harder.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian must first find out the true details of the three battalions of Zhongyong, Siwei and Warriors.
Sun Yingyuan is the oldest among the three loyal men, has the highest official position, and has served as the Royal Horse Supervisor for the longest time.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian's question was answered by him, "Long live my lord, our Yumajian Third Battalion has a total of 6,500 troops on the books. The shortage is not much, the actual number is almost 6,000, but the nine are dispatched abroad." Da Xun, the former supervisor of the border army, often brings some warriors from the third battalion to protect them. Therefore, there are less than 3,600 soldiers left in the Yu Ma Supervisor camp, and among them there are 3,000 loyal and brave warriors!"
"Are all 3,600 people in the camp?" Zhu Youjian asked again.
"We usually take turns on duty, and there are always 2,000 people waiting in the camp, but these days are extraordinary times, and there will be rewards as usual, so naturally everyone is in the camp."
The book figure is 6,500, the real figure is 6,000, and the average number in the camp is 2,000... This is already very reliable among today's Ming army. Not to mention, 3,000 loyal and brave warriors can be selected from the 3,600 soldiers and generals in Beijing.
But don’t think that 3,000 loyal and brave warriors are few. They are real strong soldiers, servants of the emperor, and they are all warriors selected from the Jiubian Military Town. Almost everyone has been on the battlefield and has seen mountains of corpses and blood. ocean. For example, Huang Degong, a frontier soldier in Liao Town for generations, went into battle with a knife at the age of 12 and hacked to death two invading Tatars (probably Mongolians) in the first battle. He was truly fierce!
The Beijing camp troops in Beijing cannot compare with them at all, let alone Wei Zhongxian's Nanhai Zijing army.
"Okay!" Zhu Youjian nodded heavily, "3,000 elites are enough... I want 3,000 people!"
His eyes swept across the faces of Sun Yingyuan, Zhou Yuji, and Huang Degong, "Tonight, I will give each of you 10,000 taels of gold and order you to use the gold to select 1,000 elites. Can you do it?"
10,000 taels of gold!
Divide it among 1,000 people and average it out to 10 taels of gold!
Although the third battalion of Yumajian has always had sufficient food and salary - their food and salary are not provided by the Ministry of Household Affairs, but by Yumajian from the income of Huangzhuang and Huangdian. Therefore, there was never any arrears of pay or food, and the admiral eunuchs and governor eunuchs in charge of the army did not dare to deduct money from them.
But 10 taels of gold was still a huge sum of money to them, and the money was personally given by the owner of the Third Battalion of the Yumajian, His Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty, so it was justifiable.
"Of course such a heavy reward is enough!" Sun Yingyuan nodded.
Zhou Yuji said, "Long live my Lord, 10,000 taels of gold is a lot. The average person has 10 taels!"
Huang Degong also said: "Yes, it is worth the head of a real prisoner!"
Zhu Youjian smiled and said: "Can these 10,000 taels be shared equally among the people below? The officers leading the troops must take more. If it falls into the hands of the soldiers below, it would be good to have 5 taels. And my emperor Whether we can be comfortable and secure depends on whether these 3,000 brave men can sacrifice their lives! So I will give you enough gold and silver...I will not let the loyal and righteous people die in vain!"
