The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 275 A Farce

The clan rebelled, there was a great earthquake in Guanzhong, and there was danger both inside and outside.

In particular, Zhu Chixiu also asked Sun Jingwen, his confidant, to write hundreds of edicts and orders, and copied hundreds of them, accusing the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao of being stupid and immoral. When you make trouble, you want to clear the emperor's side.

This is what is commonly known as righteousness.

Since ancient times, names and tools cannot be faked.

Just like what happened when Emperor Taizong Wen launched an army to quell the troubles, Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen was not only the dynasty heir appointed by Emperor Taizu Gao, but also came from the direct lineage. Therefore, Emperor Jianwen represented orthodoxy, while King Yan Zhu Di was regarded as the vassal The king's branch went against the main line, which was unpopular in itself and violated the etiquette system recognized by the world.

The name of righteousness that King Zhu Di of Yan was looking for was a Jingnan instruction left by Taizu when he was in power.

When Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was in the country, he was afraid that powerful ministers would usurp power, so he stipulated that the vassal kings had the right to send documents to the central government to demand treacherous ministers and raise troops to clear the emperor's side!

It is clearly written in the "Huang Ming Ancestor Instructions": "If there are no honest ministers in the dynasty, and there are traitors and traitors in the dynasty, troops must be raised to punish them in order to clear the emperor's side."

King Zhu Di of Yan used this as a reason to accuse Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, the court officials of Jianwen, as treacherous ministers who needed to be punished. He also called his actions "Jingnan", which means "Jingnan".

"When you come, please immediately order the General Administration Department to spread the news of Zhu Chixiu's rebellion to the world, so as to reassure the people!"

Soon the news spread that Zhu Zhixiu's rebellion was put down, and the ministers were overjoyed, with a heart in their stomachs, and hurried to attend the impromptu court meeting.

The news that the rebellion was put down was confirmed by His Majesty the Emperor himself, and everyone present secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Tang Hao is also on this list. With the retirement of the British Duke Zhang Mao, he is now the leader of military honors, so it is naturally impossible for him to be absent at this time.

Therefore, "Fengtian Jingnan" is just an excuse and reason for King Yan Zhu Di to seize the throne, and it is also a righteous claim that he wants to silence the world.

Coupled with the overt and covert fighting between Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao and the civil servants and gentry, it made people in the capital panic and uneasy, and it seemed that a storm was about to come.

As the news of Anhua King Zhu Zhixiu's rebellion spread, the whole world was shaken and uneasy.

However, there is another rule in Emperor Taizu Gao's law, which adds restrictions to this Jingnan legacy. That is, the emperor must first summon the vassal king, and then the vassal king can raise troops. After successfully eradicating the traitor, it will take five days. Nei Li Beijing.

At the beginning of the court meeting, Xiong Xiu, the left minister of the Ministry of War, read out the contents of the official document of the great victory in front of everyone, and heard the ministers talking about it.

"In addition, we will convene all civil and military officials to discuss matters. I will reward the meritorious soldiers!"

Xiong Xiu, the left minister of the Ministry of War, happily delivered this urgent document to His Majesty the Emperor. Zhu Houzhao squinted his eyes and looked at it carefully, and then couldn't help but clasp his hands in admiration.

"This Qiu Yue is indeed a loyal and loyal general!"

There was a fierce battle between the rebels and the official army along the Yellow River, which ended in the defeat of the rebels. Then Yang Yiqing ordered the Lingzhou garrison to command Qian Shi Yong to seize the ships on the west bank of the Yellow River, park them on the east bank, camp in the east of the river, and secretly send The servant asked Qiu Yue to be the internal correspondent, and Cao Xiong, the commander-in-chief of Shaanxi Province, also asked Shi Yong to write a secret letter to Qiu Yue asking him to take action.

Time gradually passed in this strange atmosphere. Just when the government and the public were still worried about the rebellion, an unexpected news suddenly arrived in the capital.

Therefore, Zhu Di's slogan is "Qing the emperor's side, Jingguo is in trouble", in which "Jingnan" means to quell troubles, quell wars, and wipe out treacherous ministers.

Originally, Qiu Yue had no choice but to join the rebel army because he was worried about his wife and children who were still in Ningxia. However, Zhu Zhixiu seized his army and distributed it to the battalions of his close associates. This was equivalent to removing Qiu Yue's military power in disguise and annexing his subordinates. , and also used gold and silk to reward these soldiers.

After all, they don't want to experience a "Jingnan War" personally and then suffer the pain of displacement due to war!

At this moment, Zhu Zhixiu faced the same situation as Emperor Taizongwen Zhu Di. Since he wanted to rebel, he had to take the lead in occupying the rightful position. The rightful position Zhu Zhixiu chose was not "Jingnan" but the "Qingjun side" in Taizu's legacy!
The reason why it is not "Jing Nan" is because Emperor Taizong Wen himself conquered the world in this way, so he set strict rules for his descendants. Anyone who dared to use "Jing Nan" as an excuse to declare war would be regarded as a plotter. Rebellion, the whole world will fight against it!
Zhu Chixiu can be considered a smart man, and he is surrounded by Confucian counselors such as Sun Jingwen, Meng Bin, and Shi Lian. Even if there are no outstanding counselors among them, at least they are those who have read poetry and books and are literate, so he directly copied Zhu Di, the king of Yan. There is nothing wrong with conspiracy and rebellion.

It turned out that after Yang Yiqing learned about the rebellion of Anhua King Zhu Zhixiu, he was shocked and angry and immediately controlled the local army and horses as the Minister of War. Then he ordered the soldiers along the Yellow River to guard and defend to the death, and the rebels must not take the opportunity to cross the river.

Afterwards, King Yan successfully rebelled against the main line, and the Yan vassal line became the main line. After decades of stable rule, the government and the public had long recognized the orthodox identity of their lineage.

This is an official document of great victory. Zhu Zhixiu's rebellion has been completely put down. It lasted only 18 days. It is not an exaggeration to call it a farce.

Qiu Yue saw that Zhu Zhi did not have great talents and far-sighted strategies. Since the army was captured, Qiu Yue simply claimed to be ill and went home to comfort his wife and children. In fact, he secretly recruited strong men who were loyal to the emperor and the court in preparation for the opportunity.

Zhu Zhixiu's confidants He Jin and others believed in Qiu Yue and often asked him about his plans. Qiu Yue pretended to be confidant and even deliberately sent people out of the city. When he came back, he falsely reported the movements of the army and said that the army had arrived overnight, misleading Zhu Zhixiu, He Jin, and Ding. Troops were sent out to guard the ferry to prevent the officers and soldiers from crossing the river.

Zhu Zhi was afraid, so he sent He Jin and Ding Guang to command Zheng Qing and other three thousand people to go out to guard the ferry dam. Only Zhou Ang stayed behind. In addition, Zhu Zhixiu also sent envoys to show off their teeth (in ancient times, troops were sent out to hold flags). ) called Qiu Yue in his name, but Qiu Yue kept complaining that he was ill.

Later, Qiu Yue learned that instead of blaming him, His Majesty the Emperor did not consider him guilty of surrendering to the enemy at all, and appointed himself the Deputy Chief Military Officer. He was even more grateful to His Majesty the Emperor, and became determined that "a scholar will die for his confidant", so Qiu Yue Yue is ready to respond to the imperial army's internal and external cooperation.

Because it was unfavorable to cross the Yellow River eastward, Zhu Chixiu sent his confidant Zhou Ang to Qiu Yue's home to visit him and ask for advice. Qiu Yue was very happy to see this and said happily: "The two murderers are far away from here, and this thief is alone. Fortunately, he came back on his own initiative now." , God helped me to win.”

So Qiu Yue wrapped his head in a turban and put on his armor and went to see Zhou Ang. He deliberately lured Zhou Ang into the bedroom, and then ambushed Zhou Ang between the screens in the courtyard. He made an agreement in advance: "If you call for tea, you will attack."

The servants Tao Bin and Laide killed him with Tieguduo, beheaded him, and directly started to bring order to the chaos.

Qiu Yue took Zhou Ang's head and announced loudly in the market: "The traitor has been brought to justice, can everyone act with me? Wealth can be obtained in a moment, and those who don't understand will not be spared."

For a time, there were tens of thousands of followers, so Qiu Yue personally mounted his horse and went out to command the strongman Yang Zhen and more than a hundred people to directly attack the Anhua Palace. He led them to directly surround Zhu Zhixiu's residence, and shouted that he was serving the emperor. His Majesty the Emperor has ordered a crusade against the traitors. Anyone who dares to be his enemy will be regarded as traitorous and the nine tribes will be killed!
At that time, Zhu Zhixiu's soldiers were still guarding him. Qiu Yue killed dozens of the leaders and said to the remaining party: "You are all people who have been coerced and followed. If you can lay down your arms and come to submit, don't ask any questions, otherwise it will be regarded as a conspiracy." Go against the rules and kill the nine tribes!"

Under the threat of the Zhujiu clan, the rebel soldiers did not dare to resist Qiu Yue's troops, and were quickly killed and retreated.

In the end, Qiu Yue successfully entered the Anhua Palace, killed eleven rebel masterminds including Zhu Xia, Sun Jingwen, and Shi Lian, and captured alive Zhu Jixiu, his son Zhu Tailu, Yibin Xie Tinghuai, Han Tingzhang, and party members Li Fan, Zhang Huitong, etc. A group of rebel leaders completely ruined Zhu Zhixiu's grand hegemony.

Qiu Yue greeted Yang Ying's army, sent word to Zhu Chi to summon He Jin and others to return, and secretly informed his subordinates about the situation of Zhu Chixiu's capture alive. He sent Gu Xing'er to inform Zheng Qing to let him go anyway. When He Jinzheng returned to the army, Zheng Qing and others immediately used his troops to kill Hu Xi, Wei Zhen and more than ten people, and then went to the mouth of the river to capture and kill Liu Yue and Jiang Yong. The rebels were defeated. He Jin, Ding Guang, Xu Qin, Yang Tai and Wang Fu fled into Helan Mountain alone and were captured by Luo soldiers. Shen Jujing and others were also captured alive.

After that, things became much simpler. Even the senior members of the family were all taken out by Qiu Yue. The rest of the rebels had no courage to continue the rebellion, so they just surrendered. The imperial army put down the rebellion almost without any blood.

Looking at the entire counter-insurgency process, there is no doubt that the most outstanding person is Qiu Yue, the deputy commander-in-chief who is extremely resourceful and courageous.

Even Yang Yiqing, the Minister of War, only coordinated the overall situation and forcibly stabilized the situation without allowing the rebels to expand their results. However, Qiu Yue really used his own power to go straight to Huanglong and capture all the rebel masterminds alive. It is not an exaggeration to say that he single-handedly put down this rebellion.

Even though Tang Hao had listened to the whole thing at this moment, he was also a little emotional. This Qiu Yue really has some abilities. No wonder he came into the eyes of the British public Zhang Mao. He once became the nine-sided general selected by the Xungui Group and the spokesperson of the Xungui Group in the future.

It's a pity that he had a bad life and met Tang Hao who suddenly came to Ming Dynasty, so the trajectory of his life changed slightly.

However, the more brilliant Qiu Yue was, the happier Tang Hao was.

The reason is very simple. The Ming Dynasty now has too few useful generals.

Tang Hao wanted to revive the Ming Dynasty, wanted to make a difference in this era, and wanted to change the collapse of the last Han Dynasty. It was not enough for him alone.

To do all this, Tang Hao must cultivate countless like-minded people, and let more people enjoy and obtain benefits in the process, thus becoming his supporters and followers, just like The same goes for Tang Mu, Xu Tianci and others.

Today, the political structure of the Ming Dynasty is deformed and ridiculous. The civil servants and gentry control the government and constantly seize profits and consume the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty. So much so that Tang Hao and Zhu Houzhao had to take risks and bring the power of the clan into the dynasty to fight against the civil servants and gentry.

In this era, all discourse power and knowledge dissemination were in the hands of Confucian literati.

These disciples of famous religions controlled the power of the Jin gentry in the court, and also controlled the voice of the court; in the countryside, they were the gentry, controlling local fields, holding the lifeblood of the people, and also controlled the local voice in disguise.

Therefore, all the right to speak is in the hands of these gentry and famous disciples.

However, this Confucian thought has long been decayed and lost its vitality. In other words, due to generations of misinterpretation and development, it is no longer suitable for the needs of society.

All scholars, all disciples of famous religions, hold the Four Books and Five Classics that have been passed down for thousands of years all day long. Even if they cannot memorize them by heart, they must also memorize the annotations of mountains of saints and great scholars, and then rely on this kind of rote memorization. He went to take the imperial examination by memorizing it, and then entered the official career and continued to hold power.

Having developed to this point, it is almost destined that Confucianism will only slowly hinder the progress and development of society. In addition, the popularity of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism has directly imprisoned the thoughts of the people!
Because society's thoughts are tightly imprisoned, any innovation or change will be regarded as heresy, as a strange technique, and the final result is that society will stagnate and no longer develop, and even the castrated Confucianism will become Manchu and Qing Dynasty. An excellent weapon to enslave the Han people, it also led to the arrogance of seclusion.

It just so happens that it is such literati and officials, such decadent castrated Confucianism, who have the right to speak in this era, or in other words, everything in this era!
Therefore, no matter what, Tang Hao must break the layers of Confucian blockade on the Ming Dynasty!

And this Qiu Yue has proved his personal ability to Tang Hao by putting down the rebellion. There is no doubt that he is a rare warrior nowadays.

Naturally, Tang Hao would not leave such a general without any support, or do something to suppress him selfishly because of his power. That would be real stupidity.

So Tang Hao took advantage of the discussion among the ministers and immediately came out to play aloud.

"Your Majesty, it took less than a month for the traitor Zhu Chixiu to start a rebellion and finally put it down completely. It was a farce."

"In addition to Yang Yiqing, Cao Xiong, Yang Ying and others who worked together, the one who made the greatest contribution in this battle was Qiu Yue. He is both wise and brave, and has unparalleled bravery. The court should praise it generously, so that the soldiers can be fiercely loyal to the country. !”

As expected, the first words out of Zhongshan Hou's mouth were to ask for credit for Qiu Yue.

After all, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the reason why the suppression of the rebellion was so smooth and fast was all based on Qiu Yue's heroic performance. Otherwise, it is impossible to say how long this rebellion would have lasted!
The longer the rebellion lasts, the greater the impact on the court's prestige. Not to mention that Qiu Yue captured all the masterminds including Zhu Zhixiu alive in one fell swoop. This achievement is enough to arrogant everyone and no one can deny it.

At this juncture, Yang Tinghe, Wang Hao and others did not say anything.

After all, the facts are right in front of us. As expected, Qiu Yue will definitely be promoted to a higher position.

Qiu Yue's previous official position was that of Ningxia guerrilla general and concurrently serving as the commander of the capital. Later, in order to allow him to coordinate internally and externally, the court added the deputy commander-in-chief. Now that Qiu Yue has lived up to expectations and made such great achievements, it would be unjustifiable if he was not knighted!
According to the Ming Dynasty system, no one can be granted a title without military merit, and putting down rebellions naturally also belongs to military merit.

Therefore, it is natural and reasonable for Qiu Yue to be promoted to an official position.

Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao also reacted. Whether it was to fight against the civil servants and gentry, or to obey Tang Hao and support him, he should stand up clearly at this moment and ask for credit for Qiu Yue.

"Your Majesty, what Marquis Tang said is absolutely true!"

"I second the proposal!"

Xing Wang Zhu Youqi was not idle either and also came out to second the proposal.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Houzhao smiled and nodded, very satisfied with the two kings' wise knowledge.

"Of course I will not treat my meritorious ministers unkindly, let alone such a loyal, brave and brave general, how can I let the soldiers of the three armies feel cold?"

"Draft an edict to confer Qiu Yue the title of Xianning Bo. He will be promoted to the rank of Xuancheng Xuanli Military Minister, Special Administrative Officer of Ronglu, and Zhuguo. He will receive a thousand dan per year and be granted a hereditary title. He will be promoted to the General of the Western Conquest. Commander-in-Chief Qianshi, and the Chief Military Officer of Ningxia!"

Hereditary earl, this title is quite good.

After all, with the decline of military commanders and nobles day by day, most of these so-called princes are just wastes lying on the merit list of their fathers and waiting to die.

Well, except for Tang Hao, Marquis of Zhongshan, but as a hereditary marquis, in addition to his own role in saving the country, he also inherited the title of the founding general Tang He, so there is no comparison.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, a general who could obtain a hereditary earl by virtue of his military merit was considered a natural born general.

Hereditary earl, governor Qianshi, and chief military officer of Ningxia.

Because Qiu Yue put down the rebellion this time, it is no exaggeration to say that he reached the sky in one step.

The next step is to decide on the rewards for others.

After all, without Yang Yiqing, Cao Xiong and others taking charge of the overall situation and blocking the rebels at the mouth of the Yellow River, Qiu Yue would not have the opportunity to directly attack Huanglong and make great achievements.

Finally, after discussion among the officials, the heroes who helped quell the chaos were rewarded with financial rewards.

Jiang Han, the commander-in-chief of the Yansui Army, received an imperial edict for his son Jiang Shi's memorial, and was granted a memorial ceremony. An altar was added for sacrifice, and a tomb was built by Yousi for burial. Jiang Shi requested to inherit the original post of Yulin Guard, which was approved, and he was appointed as one level higher than his original position. Cao Xiong, the commander-in-chief of Shaanxi, was promoted to the governor of the left, and his son Cao Mi was also promoted to Qianhu. Yang Yiqing, the Minister of the Ministry of War, was promoted to the state of Zuozhu... The meritorious officials were awarded platinum and colorful brocade.

If there are rewards based on merit, there will be severe punishment based on crime.

Needless to say, Zhu Chixiu was the mastermind. As early as after he openly rebelled, Zhu Houzhao sent officials directly to the ancestral temple to remove Zhu Chixiu from the title of prince and prince. He was removed from the Ming Dynasty clan and was reduced to a commoner, just like a lonely ghost. At this moment If he is captured alive and sent to the capital, he will be beheaded together with his followers!
There was also Zhu Taihang, the king of Qing. As the main vassal king, he could not restrain the clan members in the vassal line, which caused such a catastrophe. Zhu Taihang was naturally guilty of negligence, so Zhu Houzhao cut off his bodyguards. , one-third of the revolutionary salary, and his long history of being demoted to guard the border can be regarded as a clear case for the new system of vassalage!
It can be said that Zhu Zhixiu's rebellion lasted for only eighteen days, and was finally put down by Qiu Yue on his own. The impact was not very great, and it was indeed a ridiculous farce.

(End of this chapter)