At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was on his way to Datong. With so many troops marching, it would be impossible for them to move unnoticed.
Therefore, in name, this army without the emperor's banner was just going to Datong on orders. Because the former Datong Commander-in-Chief Wang Pugang was dealt with by Emperor Chongzhen, it is reasonable for someone to go to Datong to take over now, although the number of troops seems to be much larger. But other places in Jin had just been repaired by the three battalions. Under the cover of Hong Chengchou, the governor of Xuanda, no one dared to have any objections when troops came in and out.
Along the way, especially in the capital, Emperor Chongzhen personally experienced the desolate scene of a thousand miles without roosters and bones exposed in the wild. Especially since he comes from a later generation and has seen a lot of the bustle of people coming and going. Walking in the Gyeonggi region of this era, the feeling of desolation is even stronger.
Jianlu entered the pass again and again, causing too much damage to the capital. If possible, it would be best to prevent the Jianlu Tatars from entering the pass again!
Emperor Chongzhen looked at the people's livelihood along the way with a heavy heart, and at the same time he was also paying attention to the news coming from the eavesdropping seeds everywhere.
Turge, who was imprisoned in the prison of Guyuan Governor's Mansion, had Class A eavesdropping seeds on his body. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen knew about King Rui at the first time. In this regard, he had no thoughts at all that those ministers were worried about.
These feudal kings should have been dealt with long ago.
The Ming Dynasty raised pigs for nearly three hundred years. Now that life and death are at stake, it's time for a good harvest.
Using the Ming Dynasty Royal Bank's silver notes and food stamps to exchange the money and food in the hands of the feudal kings was a move he had long thought about. No matter what, at least it is tenable in theory. If the feudal king has some conscience, he should actively participate in it. For the sake of the credibility of banknotes and food stamps, Emperor Chongzhen did not intend to default on his debts. This kind of thing would be beneficial in the short term but could not be done in the long term. Just like the unlimited issuance of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, one can imagine what the outcome will be.
In the imperial edict, he used both hard and soft tactics, but his purpose was still to get the vassal kings from various places to spend money and food. If someone is ignorant, they still refuse to give out money and food. Then he doesn't mind, come and kill the chicken and scare the monkey, punish a vassal king ruthlessly, come and kill the chicken and scare the monkey!
In the past, Emperor Chongzhen may not have had this confidence. But now, with three major battalions in hand, the officials in the court have also changed a lot according to their own wishes. Even the harem has been rectified following the treason case. At this time, he had the confidence to do this.
Judging from his past performance, this King Rui will definitely not give up. He may even take the opportunity to have an excuse and refuse to exchange money and food stamps for banknotes and food stamps. If he really dares to do this, you might as well have him stabbed. And because he is the son of Wanli and the uncle of Emperor Chongzhen, maybe the effect will be better.
The only bad thing is that due to the sudden change of things, there was originally a Class A eavesdropping seed in Shaanxi, but he ended up taking over as the governor of five provinces. And in that place, there is already a Class A eavesdropping seed. As a result, the only one in Shaanxi is the one locked in the prison, and some things cannot be grasped immediately.
After thinking about it for a while, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly took the reins and let the horse step out of the official road and onto a slope. He seemed to want to see the scenery: "Li Qing can stay with me. Others can go first." !”
When Hu Dawei, He Renlong, Wu Sangui and the supervisors heard this, they knew that the emperor had something to say to the commander of the Jin Yiwei alone, so they quickly avoided it.
Li Ruolian was a little curious. He didn't know that the emperor came like this and suddenly wanted to talk alone. I wonder if there was something important?
"Li Qing, something happened over at King Rui of Shaanxi..." Emperor Chongzhen saw that only his eight personal servants could hear him, so he told him that Li Guoqi's soldiers had robbed King Rui of his land rent.
When Li Ruolian heard this, he quickly said: "Your Majesty, are you going to arrest Li Guoqi and hold him accountable?"
Thinking about it, this should be the problem. The emperor personally sent the royal guards there, which shows that the emperor attaches great importance to this matter, which should be able to appease King Rui's anger.
Just as he was thinking this, Emperor Chongzhen shook his head and said, "That's wrong. I want you to go on a trip, but it's not to arrest Li Guoqi and his men. It's to see how King Rui reacts." …”
Li Ruolian was slightly startled when he heard this, which was a bit beyond his expectation, so he listened carefully.
"...Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, will go to King Rui with my decree and exchange the silver notes and food stamps from the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty into money and grain. I am worried that King Rui will find excuses to disobey the decree, and may even Attack Zheng Chongjian, but instead ask Zheng Chongjian to deal with Li Guoqi and his men seriously..."
When Li Ruolian heard this, based on his experience, he thought that this would probably happen! In this case, what is the emperor going to do?
Just listen to Emperor Chongzhen continue to explain to him: "If King Rui can think about the country, put the Ming Dynasty and the country first, and do what a descendant of Taizu should do, then you don't have to do anything and just stay with Zheng Chongjian." Just stay by your side and watch him arrange the Loop."
At this point, he paused, his face became a little more serious, and his tone became colder: "What if King Rui only cares about his own interests and ignores the current situation of the border troops in Qin, and instead wants to take the opportunity to attack?" , he is no longer worthy of being a descendant of Taizu..."
When Li Ruolian heard this, he immediately felt that the matter might be serious, and he couldn't help but become serious. He listened attentively and did not dare to be distracted.
"...Why is it that the rebel rebellion in Qin has not been eliminated for a long time? It is because the border troops have been arrears with food and wages for a long time and can no longer survive, so they start to cause rebellion. However, the prince's palace has been hoarding money and food without using it, even if I I'm just borrowing it temporarily. I have food stamps and banknotes to offset it, but they still refuse to take it out. This is because they have bad intentions..."
"..." Li Ruolian was speechless. He had never thought that the feudal prince's palace would do anything for itself before, but when the emperor said this, it seemed like a big sin.
Emperor Chongzhen stared at Li Ruolian and continued to say in a cold voice: "If King Rui not only fails to provide money and food, but takes the opportunity to attack the Ming Dynasty's border troops, it will chill the hearts of those soldiers, and maybe even more soldiers will be killed." Soldiers join the ranks of rebels. What is the difference between driving border troops into the ranks of rebels and treason? I will never allow this kind of thing!"
Hearing this, Li Ruolian sweatdropped. He already understood what the emperor wanted him to do.
Sure enough, Emperor Chongzhen said sternly: "If such a thing really happens, you will take advantage of King Shirui's rebellious intentions. As for the means, it is up to you. In short, he was the former King Ning Do you understand what will happen to you?"
After finishing speaking, he stared at Li Ruolian, waiting for his reply.
As the commander of the Jinyi Guards, Li Ruolian actually had no choice. He also understood that if the emperor entrusted this matter to him, he had no choice but to do it, and he could not hesitate.
Besides, what the emperor said may not be unreasonable. Even if that King Rui really wanted to do that, he might not have any rebellious intentions, but he was really suspected of destabilizing the Ming Dynasty. It would make sense to punish him.
These thoughts quickly flashed through his mind. Li Ruolian did not dare to hesitate anymore and immediately responded: "Your Majesty, don't worry, the general will know what to do!"
Emperor Chongzhen was still satisfied with Li Ruolian's reply. After all, this Jin Yiwei commander was promoted by him and was his confidant, so it was impossible for him to help the feudal king. Therefore, he gave Li Ruolian a secret order, and then watched Li Ruolian lead the royal guards and horses away quickly, and rushed to Shaanxi for business.
Of course, Li Ruolian didn't know that Emperor Chongzhen had given him a Class B eavesdropping seed for this matter. However, the distance may not be enough. In order to ensure the timeliness of the message transmission, Emperor Chongzhen sent people to Xiangyang and asked Liu Yue, a member of the Jinyiwei family, to also rush to stay with Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides.
After finishing this matter, Emperor Chongzhen felt relieved.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there have been countless vassal palaces in various places. Moreover, most of them were enfeoffed in the Central Plains and north of the Yellow River, and these places were the hardest hit and the places where bandits made the most noise.
These vassal princes' palaces can be said to be the largest landowners in the area, and they are richer than the original Emperor Chongzhen. If these landlords can all come up with money and food, then at least the first wave of disaster relief, or the problem of lack of pay and food for the military, will definitely be greatly improved. If the follow-up disaster relief can be continued, it is likely that the problem of bandits in the Ming Dynasty will be settled as quickly as possible.
This operation was also the basis for Emperor Chongzhen's confidence in his personal expedition. From this perspective, he really hoped that King Rui could continue to display his selfish style of being a vassal king and waiting for death. Only by killing the chicken and scaring the monkey once and for all will the other vassal kings be obedient.
When Emperor Chongzhen arrived in Yanghe, he visited the Xuanda Governor's Mansion. Of course, in order to deceive others, Hong Chengchou was not asked to come out to pick him up. Otherwise, others would definitely wonder why the governor came out to greet him!
At that time, Hong Chengchou only knew that the emperor's cavalry personally conquered the bandits, so he was curious about why the emperor led the cavalry to Shanxi instead of going to the Central Plains.
However, he knew that he should not ask questions that should not be asked. His approach to being an official was different from Sun Chuanting's approach.
At first, Emperor Chongzhen only asked Hong Chengchou about things in Shanxi. After all, sometimes eavesdropping seeds are not a panacea. For example, he would not read out all the documents given to Hong Chengchou from various places, so it was impossible for the eavesdropping seeds to know everything that Hong Chengchou handled.
Hong Chengchou was indeed a capable civil servant. He took advantage of the fact that Jin was swept by the three major battalions, and kept inspecting various guard posts, assessing the military readiness of various places, and promoting promising generals. Even because of the elimination of the eight major Shanxi merchants, as well as the local generals and powerful men who colluded with the eight major Shanxi merchants, a large amount of farmland was cleared and returned to the guards.
Therefore, under such circumstances, health centers in various places are bursting with vitality. Everyone is very optimistic that with this year's harvest, health centers will no longer be hungry.
Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied with this and told Hong Chengchou: "Taking this opportunity, Hong Qing has organized and trained the Jin Guard troops well, so that they can have enough food and pay, and there can no longer be a servant system. We have calculated how many troops there are, That’s how many regular soldiers there are. When we defeat the Jianlu in Liaodong in the future, I hope to use the Jin army!”
The servant system is a system that was gradually formed because the court was unable to provide enough food and salary to support all the soldiers. This has been the case for many years in the Ming Dynasty's military system. Other frontier troops may not be able to completely abolish the clan system, but in Shanxi, after cleaning up Shanxi merchants, they had such a precious opportunity, and Emperor Chongzhen had to solemnly explain and explain again.
As a civil servant, Hong Chengchou did not enjoy the benefits of the servant system. He was not a general such as the General Soldier, so his butt was also sitting on the emperor's side. Of course he agreed with the emperor's explanation and immediately gave it to him. Emperor Chongzhen made a promise, saying that he would inspect various places, strictly inspect local areas, and would never allow the embezzlement of farmland and military pay to happen again.
On the Shanxi side, the various guards are considered to be the vested interests of the Shanxi merchants. They are on the side of the imperial court. Even if the imperial court is a little harsher on the Shanxi merchants this time, with the guards in place, the stability of the Shanxi region can basically be maintained.
After talking about the affairs of Jin, Emperor Chongzhen explained to Hong Chengchou the reason why he led the army here.
When Hong Chengchou heard this, he couldn't help but be shocked. He didn't expect that the emperor was clearly planning to conquer the bandits in person, but in fact he was secretly making plans to plot a conspiracy. This plan of concealing the truth from the outside world may have been concealed from everyone.
Speaking of which, if the Loop can be captured, there is no doubt that it will be beneficial to Ming Dynasty. First of all, it goes without saying that there are countless war horses. And it can attack those Mongolian tribes who have taken refuge with the Jianlu, telling them that the Ming Dynasty is capable of punishing them. In addition, it can also cut off the connection between western Mongolia and Jianlu, which has many benefits.
But there is one thing. After flattering the emperor, Hong Chengchou immediately reminded: "Your Majesty, you can capture the Hetao area, but you cannot send troops to occupy it. In my opinion, Ming Dynasty is not yet capable of occupying the Hetao area. Although it is fertile. , but this fat meat is not delicious..."
At this point, when he saw Emperor Chongzhen nodding, he felt happy. He understood that the emperor had no great success, so he continued to play: "The Loop was captured, and then I, the Ming Dynasty, withdrew and freed up this piece of fat for other Mongolian tribes. It is bound to share the power of the Mongolian tribes, which will be more beneficial to our Ming Dynasty to defeat the Mongolian tribes one by one. If the Mongolian tribes conquer each other for the fertile land of Hetao, it will be even more beneficial to our Ming Dynasty. As long as our Ming Dynasty solves the problems within the pass first, we can use all our strength Speaking to the outside world, there will be no problem if we occupy the Loop in the future!"
Emperor Chongzhen laughed and said, "I think so too!"
This is really not just to save face. For him, ideas and concepts come from later generations, and there is no such concept as people of this era who want to take the city and land as their own. What’s more, the idea is that if you save land, you will lose people, and you will lose both people and land! If you save people, you will lose land, and you will gain both people and land.
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