The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 190
Zhu Cihong threatened to cut down mulberry trees to restore the farmland, and felt that he was cheating, but those officials and scholarly families didn't think so.

In the past, Jiangnan was a land of fish and rice. Later, the sea trade flourished and the textile industry developed. In order to benefit from it, a large amount of fertile land was turned into mulberry fields. In the end, the self-produced grain in Jiangnan was not enough for self-sufficiency, and Jiangxi and Huguang needed to deliver grain.

This kind of behavior of turning farmland into mulberry fields in pursuit of profit, resulting in a reduction in food production, regardless of the life and death of the people in the world, is something that Confucianism is not ashamed of, and it is also an act of emphasizing business and suppressing agriculture.

If the emperor wanted to change all the mulberry fields in the south of the Yangtze River into farmland and replant rice under the banner of thinking for the people of the world, it would be righteous.

At least on the surface, no one dares to object.

In ancient times, morality was often above the law, especially in the Ming Dynasty, which ruled the country with benevolence and filial piety.

So those officials and scholarly families in the south of the Yangtze River were really frightened by the emperor's threat to cut down mulberry trees and restore farmland, and those silk merchants were also frightened.

In fact, the officials and families in the south of the Yangtze River were afraid of the emperor's direct violence. Now that the emperor took a step back, he naturally chose to compromise by taking advantage of the slope.

Although the price of raw silk has tripled, it is not as good as the dedication of those merchants in the past, but some losses have been recovered after all.

And those silk merchants also happily accepted that although it would cost three times the unjust money, it was still worthwhile to completely get rid of those official families.

However, the official families in various places did not completely give up their own silk reeling and weaving. While building looms, they organized merchants and farmers to weave at home, while looking for new small merchants to support and let them sell.

Apparently these official families also know that production and sales cannot be completely controlled by those merchants, otherwise even if they control the raw silk raw material, they will be controlled by others in the future.

After all, the regulations are dead, and people are alive. It is entirely possible for those mulberry farmers to weave the cloth and sell it to the merchants they support for sale, and they only need to collect money from both the mulberry farmers and the merchants. There is no such thing as Sell ​​cloth business.

Zhu Cihong was naturally aware of the petty thoughts of these officials and families, so he didn't bother to care about them for the time being.

With the compromise of the official and scholarly families who controlled a large number of mulberry fields, the silk weaving industry in the south of the Yangtze River finally began to recover, but the price of silk rose sharply.

After some landlords and gentry were confiscated in various places, other gentry and landlords also compromised and retreated, setting the rent at about [-]%, never more than [-]%.

There is no way, everyone wants to take the imperial examination to become an official, and the land rent is too high, which will inevitably affect their reputation.

At that time, even in high school, the emperor's hat of being a fish and meat village will be deducted, and he will not be admitted, and there will be no place to justify it.

After temporarily stabilizing the business in the south of the Yangtze River, it was already February. Zhu Cihong did not delay any longer, and began to dispatch troops and generals. While preparing to implement the New Deal in the southern provinces, he was preparing to deal with the two anti-kings.

The first is to send garrisons to the seven provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi.

Similarly, each county and Sanzhou set up a hundred-household office with [-] to [-] troops, Zhili prefecture and prefecture set up a thousand-household office with [-] to [-] troops, each province set up a guard, and the capital government office directly Garrison five thousand.

Yunnan and Guizhou border Sichuan, and the New Deal will not be implemented for the time being, and the chieftains in the seven provinces will not implement the New Deal for the time being.

As soldiers and horses continued to go to the provinces, the cabinet also began a series of personnel transfers. First of all, senior officials such as the inspectors and political envoys of the seven provinces were all transferred to the Eighth Ministry of Nanjing.

Then seven Zuo Shilang were selected as the governors of the provinces, and they took a large number of officials to form eight departments in each province.

It wasn't until the new governor took office and the provincial branches were established that the cabinet followed the original process of Nanzhili, first reporting the list of officials to the Ministry of Officials for record, then awarding ranks, and finally swapping each other.

With the example and experience of Nanzhili, as well as the vigorous propaganda of the Propaganda Supervisor, the implementation of the provinces now seems to be handy, and it has also gone smoothly.

Obviously, whether it is the officials of the provinces, the landlords, the gentry, and the common people, they are all prepared in their hearts, and they also know that it is useless to resist crooked thoughts, and they will only suffer in the end, because lessons abound.

The landlords, gentry and officials in Southern Zhili are much smarter than those in other provinces.

At the same time, after the new year, Hong Niangzi also began to dispatch troops in the north, hoarding food, grass and weapons on a large scale.

In Henan alone, no less than millions of grains have been hoarded. In Taiyuan, Beijing, and Shanhaiguan, each has also hoarded 200 million stone grains.

The first town of Liu Zeqing and the sixth town of Tangtong were all transferred to Luoyang, and Wu Sangui was ordered to lead the former army south to Henan.

Zhu Cihong also asked Li Dakai to lead the ninth town to Chongqing, and the eighth town led by Qin Lihua also entered a state of combat readiness. After the autumn harvest last year, Huguang's grain was also continuously transported to Shizhu.

Such a large-scale dispatch of troops and generals from the north and the south at the same time, to transport food and grass, almost all fools know that the imperial court is finally going to clean up the two anti-kings who ruled in the southwest and northwest.

Zhu Cihong's plan is to deal with King Chuang first, and then the Eight Great Kings.

The ninth and eighth towns of Chongqing and Shizhu stood still to deter Zhang Xianzhong, and then Wu Sangui led the former army and four towns of Liu Zeqing, Gao Jie, Tang Tong, and Zuo Menggeng, with a total of 18 troops, and attacked from Henan.

And Hong Niangzi led the Central Army, the Left Army, Liu Liangzuo's Department in Shanxi, and part of the Royal Forest Army, a total of 16 troops, attacked northern Shaanxi from Shanxi, and attacked from two directions.

Zhou Yuji's rear army still guarded the front line of Ji Town, Shanhaiguan, Huang Degong's right army stayed behind in the capital, and Liu Fangliang and Wu Sanfu, who guarded the Datong Xuanfu, also did not move.

But the plan could never keep up with the changes. Just when Zhu Cihong sent people to Chang'an, Chengdu to pass the decree, proclaimed Qin King Li Zicheng, and Shu King Zhang Xianzhong entered Beijing to face the saint, and then started the fight on the grounds that the two kings did not obey the emperor's edict, the Jiannu in the northeast were not willing to be lonely.

Dorgon issued an appeal in March, accusing the Tumed Department of treachery and killing the Prince of Qing by despicable means, announcing a crusade, and vowed to kill the Tumed Department.

The exact date of the rise of troops was not stated.

In fact, after the beginning of the new year, with the large-scale deployment of the Ming army, Dorgon realized that the Ming army might have to clean up King Chuang and the Eight Great Kings, and immediately transferred Hong Chengchou from North Korea to Shengjing to ask for advice.

As the saying goes, the enemy of the enemy is an ally. Even without Hong Chengchou's explanation, Doer Gun knew that Daming must not let Daming wipe out the two anti-kings.

But Daming's three sides are strong and well-defended, not to mention that it is difficult to break through the barrier now, even if they can break through, Dorgon will not dare to rush in casually like before.

But if the Qing Dynasty did not take action, King Chuang and the Eight Great Kings would definitely not be able to resist the Ming army. When the two anti-kings were eliminated by the Ming Dynasty, they would definitely turn around and clean up the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, under Hong Chengchou's suggestion, Dorgon also actively prepared for the war, and at the same time sent envoys to contact Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, hoping to reach a tripartite alliance, and issued a call to action threatening to conquer the Tumote Ministry.

If the Ming army really ignored it and attacked King Chuang, then the Qing Dynasty would also directly march westward, destroying the Tumote tribe, and then go south from Hetao to the northwest to assist King Chuang.

If the Ming army stood still, then the Qing Dynasty also stood still.

The facts were indeed as Hong Chengchou expected. Ever since the Jinyiwei general Jiannu was also dispatching troops and actively preparing for the war, Hong Niangzi only let Wu Sangui go south to Henan, while the Central Army and the Left Army temporarily Stayed in Datong Xuanfu, did not continue south.

Because if the Ming army did not help, the Tumote Department would definitely not be able to defeat the Jiannu Eight Banners.

(End of this chapter)