Chen Guang refused to give in, leaving these civil servants at a loss.
Not to mention the past, even now, among the commanders of the guard posts and the local military attachés, who among them would not kneel down respectfully to pay their respects?
They have never met such a general who dares to fight with them.
Now that he is here, things cannot be explained clearly in a few words. Wu Yizhong thought for a while and said sharply:
"You allowed your soldiers to arrest people arbitrarily and harm the people in the city, causing anger and resentment. Now you actually dare to tell lies with your eyes open?"
"I have jointly drafted a book of ten thousand people with all my fellow martyrs. Hundreds of thousands of people in Xi'an will testify about your evil deeds since entering the city!"
"Now I'll give you a chance to immediately release the people you arrested for no reason. We may write a memorandum to intercede for you, otherwise you will be wiped out!"
The overseer in charge of law and prisons echoed:
"Yes, our Ming Dynasty has its own laws. The imperial court has also set up government officials to govern the place. It has its own royal laws and justice. You dare to infringe upon the government and commit treason. I must write to the imperial court and your majesty to punish you. Kill the nine tribesmen!"
After hearing what these people said, Chen Guang suddenly realized that they were here to save people. No wonder even these gentry came.
Some of the people he arrested were indeed the children of these wealthy gentry families, and several were even the legitimate sons of the eldest family. It was not surprising that they were so nervous.
I was feeling depressed for a while just now, because these despicable people who only knew how to do things behind the scenes were actually meddling in this kind of thing from the front.
"You want me to let him go just because of your words? You think too highly of yourself!"
"This general will act in accordance with the law. Since he has taken over the city's defense, he must be responsible for the safety of the people in the city. How can you, the turtle bastards, just let him go?"
The more Chen Guang interacted with them, the more arrogant he became. At this moment, he finally understood what His Majesty said.
Don't be timid when encountering problems, especially towards these scholar-bureaucrats, you must have a tough attitude, otherwise you will only suffer the consequences.
Why military generals have a low status while civilian officials have a transcendent status is actually due to the decline of imperial power.
In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats shared the world, which meant that the scholar-bureaucrats class had special privileges, and the political power they controlled was complementary to the imperial power.
The military generals were far behind. Not to mention the Jinshi who entered the officialdom, even the ordinary scholars and scholars might not look down upon a general.
In their eyes, military generals are only a little better than those mud-legged civilians, but they are still as cheap as dogs.
In the early Ming Dynasty, how could military generals be on an equal footing with civil servants without falling behind in the slightest?
That's because the imperial power can suppress civil servants, and military generals are mostly descendants of the founding heroes. They also have privileges and are deeply trusted by the emperor.
Therefore, even if military generals commit any illegal behavior, as long as it is not too excessive and has too much impact, the emperor will still speak for them, so it is very difficult for civil servants to frame them with words.
But now the situation is different. Not to mention these generals who go straight and have no city government, even the emperor has seriously lost power and it is difficult to fight against the scholar-bureaucrat class.
Otherwise, why would Emperor Wanli be pointed at and scolded by them, but he could only endure not farting in the Qianqing Palace? He really had no choice.
Since the Battle of Tumubao, when the Mongolians had a hodgepodge of military power, Xungui had been slowly declining ever since.
In order to dismantle the power of the Xungui Group, the civilian officials in the name of the Ministry of War seized all the power of the Five Military Governor's Office, and then firmly controlled the power of selecting military attaches and appointing promotions.
Then they vigorously supported and appointed some people from poor backgrounds. Over time, the nobles finally became the mascots in the army.
In the late Ming Dynasty, dozens of noble families, large and small, in Beijing held positions in the Beijing camp and pro-military guard posts, but they were only in name only and could not command at all.
Some people have never even set foot in a military camp in their lives, and have probably never even seen the armor and swords of the Ming army, but they have been receiving military pay from the imperial court.
Among these nobles in the capital, the one who truly holds military power is the British Duke. Starting from Zhang Fu, he has been leading the military power in the capital for generations.
It's not that the civil servants have never thought about snatching it, but they just can't do it. This can be regarded as the emperor's last fig leaf, leaving the nobles with the last face.
However, even though the military power held by the British Duke could not be commanded and mobilized at will, it also required imperial edicts and documents from the Ministry of War.
The main reason why both parties are in charge is that the power to appoint and remove generals and the supply of food and supplies to the army are in the hands of civilian officials.
This is why Zhu Youxiao would rather spend his own money and provide food to support his troops. Food is the lifeline of the army. If the food is cut off, it will be useless even if you share the joys and sorrows with the sergeants every day.
Why did the great eunuch Wang Zhi create the military examination system? It was because he was finding another way to take back the powers that originally belonged to the emperor and military attachés from the hands of civilian officials.
It's a pity that he failed. Emperor Xianzong's funeral was too sudden. Without the emperor's support, how could he, a eunuch, sing this one-man show.
During the Wanli period, civil servants, nobles, military generals, and eunuchs all worked together to deceive the emperor, eating a lot of food and drinking soldiers' blood, and the Beijing camp was completely destroyed.
Historically, when Li Zicheng attacked Beijing in the 17th year of Chongzhen, there were no more than 200,000 troops in the capital, and the Beijing camp was already an empty box.
The few soldiers with combat effectiveness in the Beijing camp were all transferred to the south to suppress the peasant army, and tens of thousands of them followed.
When it comes time to be destroyed, the remaining troops in the Beijing camp are either empty or just waiting to die. How can they go to the battlefield to kill the enemy if they can't even wield a weapon.
If the Beijing Camp really still had fighting capacity, the British Duke Zhang Shize would not just lead his own servants to fight to the death, and the guards guarding the imperial city would not be mainly the pure army of the Royal Horse Prison. (Jingjun is the eunuch)
Why have civil servants been so anxious since Zhu Youxiao organized and trained the Yulin Army?
It was because he had all the power he should have in his own hands that the generals of the Yulin Army took orders directly from him and no longer had to be restrained by civilian officials.
Chen Guang, who came from a military household, had nothing to do with civilian officials. Unlike other senior generals, he had a natural fear of civilian officials.
He has the emperor's iron-clad support behind him. Even if he breaks the sky, he will still have the emperor to support him. Therefore, he has nothing to fear and everything will be done in full compliance with the emperor's orders.
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