Two months later.
Late Ming Dynasty
A shocking incident occurred in De'an Mansion, Huguang.
The Wang family, a wealthy family in De'an Prefecture, was attacked by a group of bandits who appeared out of nowhere. All the 1,368 men in the family were killed and the female family members were robbed. After burning, killing and looting, the bandits set up a rebellion. The banner claims to have an army of 100,000, and its leader calls himself King Yi. He is currently attacking De'an City.
This incident was reported back to Nanjing, and everyone from Emperor Chongzhen to the civil and military officials were furious.
Since the Chongzhen Dynasty, although rogue bandits have been rampant and have continuously attacked cities and territories, such direct annihilation of a large clan has rarely happened, especially in the south where civil unrest is not particularly serious nowadays.
Because these large families have their own armed forces, like the De'an Wang family, which maintains more than two thousand militia troops, and has tens of thousands of slaves who can be converted into armed forces at any time.
As long as the Wang family wants to, there is absolutely no problem in having an army of 20,000 to 30,000 in a few days.
In addition, the officials of De'an Mansion are basically controlled by the Wang family or fed with money. It can be said that in De'an Mansion nowadays, the Wang family is the emperor.
Ordinary rebels would never touch a local wealthy family that was armed to the teeth like this. Even if they did, they would only be beaten to a bloody head. Those rebels usually plundered were small country squires and civilians, at most In other words, they just "borrow" some food from these big families.
But for such a family, the city wall built by them was suddenly attacked by bandits. This is simply unbelievable.
"Your Majesty, Wang Chun'an is a member of the Wang family. Now he is the chief envoy of Guangzhou. The thieves massacred his family. This is too shocking. We must send a large army to encircle and suppress them. We must give justice to the Wang family and Mr. Wang. Otherwise, I am afraid that the world will suffer. Scholars are heartbroken!" Qian Qianyi, the newly appointed Minister of Rites, said with a solemn expression.
"What Qian Aiqing said is true. Is there anyone you can recommend?" Emperor Chongzhen nodded with approval.
He had been suffering from rogue bandits since he came to the throne. He thought he could calm down a little after moving the capital to Nanjing, but he didn't expect that he only lived in peace for a year before it started again.
He is now very optimistic about Qian Qianyi, thinking that he is a great talent who can save the world and the people, just like when he trusted Sun Chengzong, Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, and Yuan Chonghuan.
As for Li Banghua, who had gone south with him, as a returnee from the north, he had completely lost power in the political struggle and was forced to return to his hometown to retire.
"I recommend Liu Zeqing, the governor of Huguang, so that he can act nearby to encircle and suppress the rebels!" Qian Qianyi said.
"No!"
"Liu Zeqing wants to control the entire territory of Huguang. Don't make any moves lightly. You can let Huang Degong force 50,000 new troops, and then send Gao Ze, Yu Chuan and others to Huguang to cooperate with Huang Degong to suppress the bandits!" Ma Shiying, the chief assistant of the cabinet, said.
"I don't agree. Liu Zeqing is the most suitable candidate. Even if a new army is sent, Guangchang Bo Liu Liangzuo should lead the army." Qian Qianyi said tit for tat.
"Your Majesty, I agree with Mr. Ma Ge's opinion.
"I object!"
"be opposed to!"
Listening to the noisy quarrel below, Qian Qianyi and Ma Shiying's eyes immediately closed, and they both tasted the smell of gunpowder in each other's eyes.
Unlike in the original history, Ma Shiying directly bulldozed the Donglin Party by supporting the Fu Wang Zhu Yousong and winning over the generals of the four towns in Jiangbei. In this life, because Chongzhen crossed south and at the same time held 100,000 soldiers who dared to fight, the four towns in Jiangbei The warlord regime was not formed. Although Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo and others were still generals, they did not have as much power as they had in history.
Correspondingly, the Donglin Party did not cross over. Now it is having a great time fighting Ma Shiying, Shi Kefa and others in Nanjing.
On the high platform, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty who were arguing increasingly loudly, and pinched his eyebrows with a headache.
He couldn't help but miss the scene again when the emperor came to court more than a year ago. At that time, the emperor was standing in front of him. Who in this court dared to bare his teeth at him like this!
"Okay!" Emperor Chongzhen was so annoyed that he had no choice but to shout to stop the chaos in the court.
"We will discuss this matter another day. Next, let's discuss Zuo Liangyu's request for help. This matter is also very important. Who should we send north to support Zuo Liangyu?" Chongzhen asked.
"This matter belongs to Zhou Yuji!" It was Qian Qianyi who spoke again.
"I second the proposal!" Ma Shiying glanced at Qian Qianyi and stepped forward to agree loudly.
"I second the proposal!" A group of ministers agreed this time and there was no problem.
"Ah……!"
At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was standing outside Fengtian Hall and disguised as an official from a hundred households, couldn't help but sneered when he saw this scene.
"Do you understand?" he asked Mu Ying beside him.
"Is it to compete for military power?" Mu Ying said slightly hesitantly.
"Yes, these people are not stupid. In today's troubled times, only those with military power have the right to speak. Otherwise, who would listen to them as a civil servant?"
"Both Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing have defected to the Donglin Party. Huang Degong is Ma Shiying's man. As for Zhou Yuji..."
Zhu Yuanzhang thought of the northern man he had met more than a year ago, and couldn't help but reveal a strange expression on his lips: "He is a dead-headed man who doesn't seek refuge with anyone. Naturally, he will be sent to the north to die by these people."
"Then what should we do?" Mu Ying asked with a hint of eagerness in her eyes.
"Let them fight for power here!"
"We just want to kill people!"
"If the De'an Wang family dares to sell grain to the north, we will slaughter them first. The next ones will be the Shi family in Yanzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang, the Xu family in Songjiang Prefecture, South Zhili, and the Hua family in Suzhou Prefecture. Let's kill these people one by one. After killing them, it’s time to kill these people in the court.”
When Zhu Yuanzhang said this, he couldn't help but think of what Xu Da had just sent last night about the results of the search of Wang's house in De'an.
Nearly two million taels of silver, thirteen thousand taels of gold, and more than 80,000 shi of various grains.
It is definitely not an exaggeration to describe this family as being as wealthy as the country.
Not counting gold and silver for now, just talking about these grains, there should be no problem in supplying 100,000 troops with military rations for three months.
This does not include the Wang family's shops, mansions, acres, etc. If these are included, the Wang family's assets will immediately double again.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at these data and thought of his founding policy of hiding wealth from the people, and felt extremely ridiculous.
It is indeed possible to hide wealth among the people, but it is a pity that the money is hidden in a few big families.
This also strengthened Zhu Yuanzhang's determination to kill.
If it were at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang might have to consider the issue of employment. However, thanks to the prosperous imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, the number of scholars in the Ming Dynasty was more than ten times that of the Yuan Dynasty, and some were poor who could not afford to eat. Scholars are willing to use themselves, and these noble families are not irreplaceable.
After an unknown amount of time, the wrangling in the court finally ended, and Zhu Yuanzhang took Mu Ying and left the inner city of the palace.
On the way, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly said: "Mu Ying, we want you to bring people to contact Zheng Zhilong. Do you dare to go?"
Mu Ying knew Zheng Zhilong, a big pirate who was entrenched on the coast of Fujian. It was said that he had hundreds of warships and more than 10,000 sailors.
"Your Majesty wants to recruit them?" Mu Ying asked.
"With this consideration in mind, I also want you to learn the experience of naval warfare. After returning home, maybe we will also build a navy and let you be the commander-in-chief."
"yes!"
"I will definitely live up to His Majesty's trust!" Mu Ying looked excited.
He is only twenty-five years old now and has never led an army alone before. Now that he has Zhu Yuanzhang's promise, how can he not be excited.
