Zhu Youxiao was not sure who was better between the more than 10,000 horses Duduo brought to pacify Jiangnan in history and the more than 10,000 horses he mobilized in the West Factory.
But Zhu Youxiao believed that the soldiers and horses he temporarily mobilized for Xichang would not be worse than the butcher Duduo.
Needless to say, Qi Jin and his Zhejiang soldiers, the loyal and brave army that was wiped out by the Ming Dynasty in history, inflicted heavy losses on the Eastern captives in the bloody battle of the Hun River. Moreover, Wu and Yue had deep grievances. Taxation would undoubtedly be very motivating.
Not to mention Qin Minping's white-pole soldiers. Like the Zhejiang soldiers, they had just fought against the Donglu. They could even defeat the Tatars, and it was impossible to defeat the powerful slaves of the gentry.
Zhao Lijiao was a general of the border army. He had previously accepted the emperor's instructions to expose the disappearance of civil servants, which shows that his loyalty was reliable. Historically, he was also a heroic general who died in battle for the Ming Dynasty.
The same goes for Mangui. He is a naturalized Mongolian and has little connection with the southern gentry. Moreover, he also died fighting for the Ming Dynasty in history, so his loyalty is reliable.
It is impossible for Zhu Youxiao to wait for his pro-army to be trained on a large scale before collecting taxes.
Because the powerful gentry would definitely not just watch as the emperor's pro-armies grew in number and strength.
These powerful gentry who control most of the Ming Dynasty's food resources will definitely limit the flow of food into the hands of the emperor. Now the emperor raises more pro-armies.
Therefore, if Zhu Youxiao wants to raise more powerful armies, he must control more food resources. Silver alone is not enough, it must be food. After all, food is the most important strategic resource. If it is only silver, others will not sell it. When it comes out, the money can only be money and cannot be used to fill the stomach.
Therefore, if Zhu Youxiao wanted to control more grain, he had to ensure that the gentry paid the grain tax in full.
To do this, he had to use his status as emperor to first recruit one group of gentry to fight another group of gentry, and at the same time use the loyal northern military landlords to fight against the disloyal southern gentry-landlords, or conversely, use the loyal southern gentry to fight against the disloyal ones. Northern military landowners.
Then, Zhu Youxiao took this opportunity to reap the benefits and slowly expand the scale of his own army.
"Ministry, General Manager, I would like to ask why your Majesty suddenly wants us to go south to cooperate in collecting taxes?"
On the way, Qi Jin, Zhao Lijiao, Man Gui and other generals couldn't help but ask about Wang Yingjiao and Li Yongzhen out of curiosity. After all, they suddenly received a secret edict and urgently transferred them to the capital, so they thought something had happened in the capital, so they needed these things from themselves. People are diligent, so they rushed to the capital without taking off their armor.
But they didn't expect that the imperial court would let people like them who went to battle to kill the enemy become the tax supervisors of Xichang.
"Because the imperial court can no longer collect taxes, many people below do not take the emperor's orders seriously, and no one pays attention to them even if they issue orders to urge them. Therefore, your majesty has no choice but to mobilize troops and set up the West Factory to collect taxes."
Wang Yingjiao replied.
"Who the hell dares to ignore the emperor? Are you going to rebel? I will kill him! Ministry Hall, tell me, what does the imperial edict say? How many tribes will be destroyed!"
Zhao Shujiao suddenly shouted loudly and pulled out his knife.
After Zhu Youxiao ordered the Baigan soldiers and Zhejiang soldiers to assist the Jinyi guards in confiscating the Shanxi merchants, he did not abolish the border trade function of the Shanxi merchants, but replaced it with the Municipal Ship Bureau. Therefore, the food of the border town officers and landlords was They acquired it on a larger scale than Shanxi merchants, hoarding it as important strategic resources or selling it to the Mongolian tribes in the name of the government as an economic weapon to control the Mongolian tribes.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao controlled the economic interests of the border town officers, making these border town generals not only not dissatisfied with the imperial court because of the raids by Shanxi merchants, but also became more loyal.
Zhao Shujiao was so excited. On the surface, he was impulsive and reckless, but in fact, he was just showing his loyalty.
As a result, Li Yongzhen couldn't help but turn pale, and said with an embarrassed smile: "General Zhao, don't be impatient. The main purpose is to ransack the house, not to kill."
At this time, Man Gui said: "No wonder the rations and wages have not been paid this year. I wonder if the ministry can pay our rations first. To be honest, the officers and soldiers below have already complained."
Wang Yingjiao said: "Food and salary will be paid, and His Majesty specially intends to issue performance rewards in addition to military salaries. Whoever pays back more taxes will get more rewards, even the lowest soldier will not It’s less than fifty taels! But it can’t be paid now, because your food and salary are still in the hands of those who are unwilling to pay the tax, and the court will have to recover the tax before it can be paid to you.”
"The soldiers are all less than fifty taels? Why don't we go to the south of the Yangtze River? We don't have to go to the border towns to endure the freezing cold wind this winter. I didn't expect such a good job."
The eyes of all the officers and soldiers shone brightly.
And because of this, the people from the West Factory were very motivated to go south and their speed was very fast, almost three to five days faster than expected.
This time, Zhu Youxiao asked a group of people from Xichang and Feng Quan to sit directly in Suzhou, and temporarily used the Suzhou magistrate's office as the southeast governor's office and the official offices of Xichang.
After confiscating some gentry who really wanted to resist the tax to the end, they reported the gentry's residence as the official office of the Southeast Governor and officials of the West Factory.
Therefore, Wang Yingjiao and other people came directly to Suzhou after arriving in South Zhili.
As soon as Wang Yingjiao and Feng Quan arrived in Suzhou, they immediately summoned the governor of Yingtian, Xiao Jingao, and the governor of Susong, Sun Chengzong, and other Southern Zhili officials, and asked these officials to immediately notify the people in their jurisdiction to make up the payment within a half-month deadline. They asked these officials to immediately prepare to clear the land and clarify taxes.
Local officials such as Nanzhili and the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River had learned from various channels that the imperial court had sent a large number of troops and some important ministers to Nanzhili as early as when Wang Yingjiao and others left Beijing.
However, because Zhu Youxiao did not allow the imperial edict to mobilize troops to Beijing to establish the West Factory to be announced to the outside world through Di Bao and Huangming Pao, and the Dongchang secretly adopted confidentiality measures, even though the local officials of Nanzhili and the gentry listened, There have been some rumors, but the purpose of the imperial court sending large-scale troops and some important ministers southward is not very certain.
Now that they learned the true purpose of the imperial court, local officials of all sizes in Southern Zhili were naturally surprised.
However, because they were worried about the black gauze hat on their heads, some civil servants did not dare to openly resist the imperial edict at this time, even though they wanted to side with the Jiangnan gentry.
Therefore, next, the matter of recovering the Fu tax and clearing the father-in-law's land went smoothly at first.
In particular, the governor of Yingtian, Xiao Jingao, and the governor of Susong, Sun Chengzong, were more supportive. After all, it was hard to disobey the emperor's order.
Therefore, officials at all levels informed them about the recovery of their taxes and the upcoming clearing of their land.
But as soon as this decree was announced, it caused great shock among the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.
"How could the imperial court do this? They sent so many soldiers and horses to collect taxes! Are they really trying to force us to rebel?"
Wang Shiqi became furious and slammed the table.
Dong Zuhe, who was discussing the matter with him in the Xu Garden, sneered: "Needless to say, this tyrant is really mean and unkind! Sometimes I really want to rebel!"
"Don't say that, be careful of the disaster caused by the nine clans! Although the emperor is innocent, he is still the master of the world. In my opinion, don't worry about it in advance. As long as we don't rebel, the court may not kill us. After all, there is no use in killing us. Almost all the gentry are trying to get riches. Unless they kill us all, can the court kill us all? If we kill us all, will they still want Jiangnan? If the court wants to rule Jiangnan, it cannot do without us."
Shen Yongjia spoke.
"That's right, building bridges, building roads, relieving victims, controlling the livelihood of the common people, guarding against pirates and Japanese pirates, educating the neighbors, and training people to govern the country. We gentry are all required to do these things for the court. Even if he, Zhu Youxiao, wants to cause chaos, Those veterans in the court will not agree! This is what my grandfather Xu Wenzhen said. If the emperor wants to have long-term peace and stability in the country, he cannot do without scholar-bureaucrats to rule the country for him."
Xu Yuanqing started talking.
"But don't be too dismissive. Let's take a look at the situation first. If the court is strict in demanding payment, we don't have to hold on! Anyway, it is the entire Jiangnan gentry who is collecting taxes, not just a few of us."
Shen Yongjia spoke.
Everyone else nodded.
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