Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 360 Kneeling to welcome the Ming army, Yan Shifan saw the kneeling statue!

That day, it was just before noon.

The city gates of the inner city were wide open under the bright autumn sun.

Otomo Yoshiaki, wearing a Japanese hat and Wu clothes, with a Japanese fan on his waist, came to the outside of the palace with a group of retainers who were also dressed in luxurious clothes and knelt on both sides.

"Long live His Majesty the Ming Emperor!"

"Long live His Majesty the Ming Emperor!"

"Long live His Majesty the Ming Emperor!"

……

then.

When teams of camp guards came over with Huo Tao, Zhang Tong and Yu Dayou, they shouted this sentence in Chinese.

It’s just that the shouting was not very coordinated and the voice was clumsy, after all, he was just learning it.

They followed into the city only after all the people, including the staff, cooks, laborers, and servants, had left.

The Ming army guarding the camp set up camp inside the east gate near the sea and took over the defense of the city gate here.

Huo Tao and others also met Otomo Yoshiaki in the camp.

"I would like to ask you, why did you invade our southeast, even trying to kidnap our great scholar, and even sending tens of thousands of people to occupy our islands?"

Huo Tao first questioned Otomo Yoshiaki.

Otomo Yoshiaki followed the etiquette stipulated in the memorial, gritted his teeth and kowtowed, saying, "It was all caused by the instigation of the southern barbarians and the unscrupulous retainers who privately traded in human beings. I am willing to hand over the instigators and issue a ban on private human trading to prove my sincerity in changing my ways. I also want to cede territory and pay compensation to atone for my sins. I hope that His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming will show mercy and forgive me!"

"Your Majesty has issued an order. If you surrender the instigators and promise to control the Japanese from sailing out to sea without permission, you will be considered to have sincerely repented. If you are willing to cede land and pay compensation to atone for your sins, you will not be punished. The Ministry of Revenue will be allowed to claim compensation based on the amount of losses reported by the governors in the southeast. Your domain will pay 2 million koku of grain and cede Hiji Town in Hayami County as a berthing area for the direct command of the Ming Dynasty. I decree this!"

Huo Tao then relayed Zhu Houcong's imperial edict, and then said to Otomo Yoshikame: "Thank you!"

"Thank you, His Majesty the Ming Emperor, for your kindness!"

Otomo Yoshiaki bowed his head and asked in a deep voice.

The fingers of his hands were clasped tightly on the ground, and veins were bulging on his oily, turtle-shell-like head.

The retainers of Otomo who were also kneeling had their faces twitching and their eyes widened with anger.

After all, Bungo Province was only a Reitoki province with a koku of more than 400,000 koku.

The two million koku of grain were naturally the savings of the Otomo family in Bungo Province who had protected them for many years.

This compensation is truly a huge loss.

Hinode Town is also a good sheltered merchant town, and many trading ships come here to trade.

Once ceded, it would be like giving up a rich land for Bungo Province.

But Otomo Yoshiaki couldn't refuse.

He now just regrets his decision to provoke the Ming Kingdom.

Of course, he did not expect that the Ming Kingdom would come to teach him a lesson and ask him to pay compensation and cede territory.

In his impression, the Ming Dynasty only liked to have other nations come to pay tribute, and would not show off its power to other nations, or even demand money from other nations. It would even rather sacrifice its own people than show favor to other nations.

Moreover, the Ming people also told him that the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty also left a family precept, listing Japan as a country that would not be conquered.

But now that the Ming Kingdom came to hold him accountable and demanded that he pay compensation and cede territory, he dared not refuse at all.

Because he also knew that the other party said it was an inspection, but if he didn't obey, they might really treat him as a traitor who was rebelling against the country and eliminate him first, and say that he was not the legal owner of this place, but a rebel who had ceded the land to establish himself.

"Your Majesty has issued another decree. As long as you obey the decree and show your loyalty, this imperial envoy will allow you to trade with the Imperial Ming Dynasty!"

"So, if you really have people without grain who need to be sold, you can come to the Imperial Ming Direct Control Area and sell them to the imperial merchants as slaves."

Huo Tao started talking again.

After hearing this, Otomo Yoshiaki thanked him again.

He was willing to allow his people to trade with the Ming Dynasty, after all, this could bring him new commercial taxes.

then.

Huo Tao then asked Otomo Yoshiaki: "Do you have anything else that you want me to report to His Majesty?"

"The Ouchi clan has invaded many of our Bungo territories and is trying to destroy our Otomo. Please, Emperor Ming, make the decision!"

Otomo Yoshiaki then answered.

After listening to the interpreter's retelling, Huo Tao said, "I will definitely submit a memorial to the emperor, and send a letter to persuade them to stop fighting and withdraw their troops! You should also attach a copy of this memorial and send it to the emperor together."

Naturally, Otomo Yoshiaki then expressed his gratitude.

At present, the Japanese emperor has long been sidelined by the shogunate, and the Muromachi shogunate has been sidelined by the retainers, the kanrei, and the kanrei Hosokawa clan is no longer able to suppress the local daimyo.

Naturally, Otomo Yoshiaki could no longer count on the Emperor and the Muromachi shogunate to stop the Ouchi clan, so he decided to see whether the Emperor of the Ming Empire had the ability to do so.

If the emperor of the Ming Empire had this ability, his compensation and cession of territory would not have been in vain, nor would his kneeling be in vain. Therefore, Otomo Yoshiaki took the initiative to accuse the Ouchi clan of their crimes.

But Otomo Yoshiaki did not expect that the Ming envoy was really willing to help.

In fact, Zhu Houcong had already issued a relevant imperial edict to Huo Tao, asking him to find a way to intervene in the disputes between Japan and other countries and act as a mediator in order to maximize the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

In Zhu Houcong's view, with the Ming Empire's current national strength and mature centralized system, it would be a pity not to play the role of world police.

Even though the limitations of communication conditions make it impossible to influence the order thousands of miles away in a timely manner, the order in the surrounding areas can still be intervened and maintained.

Two months later, on the tenth day of the eleventh month of the fifth year of Jiajing.

Lu Tan returned to the Ming Dynasty with two million grains and Huo Tao's memorial to Emperor Jiajing, as well as Otomo Yoshiaki's petition for apology and request for help.

During this period, Peng Ze, Yi Wang's relative Zhang Sheng and other main culprits who plotted to establish Yi Wang as the king, as well as Wang Yue, Wu Jian, Zheng Liang and other main culprits who plotted to murder the imperial envoy who was inspecting Japan, were also escorted to Beijing one after another.

Let’s talk.

Peng Ze is Mr. Duizhai as mentioned by Wu Jing. The story of his plot to establish King Yi started after Yang Tinghe met Lin Jun in Nanchang.

Yang Tinghe asked Lin Jun to overthrow Fei Hong, who betrayed the Qingliu, after returning to the court in order to punish other Qingliu ministers. Lin Jun agreed at first.

But after Lin Jun came to Beijing, he gave up on overthrowing Fei Hong because he learned that Fei Hong had evidence that Yang Tinghe had colluded with wealthy people in Fujian to seize the Donglai gold mine.

As Yang Tinghe had been waiting for the news of Fei Hong's downfall but could not get it, he informed his disciple Peng Ze about it.

Peng Ze went to Beijing specifically to ask Lin Jun in person.

Lin Junze informed Peng Ze that Fei Hong had evidence against Yang Tinghe.

Peng Ze immediately informed Yang Tinghe about this.

When Yang Tinghe learned about this, he was wrapping book covers at home. For this reason, he threw the unique copy in his hand to the ground on the spot, and his face was gloomy for a long time.

"Fei Qianshan, you are such a cunning thief, why didn't the heaven take your life long ago!"

Yang Tinghe even roared in anger because of this, and became sick because of this. He began to be anxious day and night, and asked his own children to give gifts to Fei Hong on every three festivals.

The reason, of course, was that he knew it would be easier for Fei Hong to deal with him now.

Naturally, Yang Tinghe no longer had the intention to defeat Fei Hong, and even his desire to return to the court faded.

But Pengze was unwilling to accept this, because Yang Tinghe promised that he would replace Wang Xian as the Minister of War after the emperor ascended the throne. However, the emperor did not dismiss Wang Xian and asked Yang Tinghe to abdicate early. As a result, Pengze could only command the three borders as the Minister of War and failed to become a soldier.

Now, he was dismissed and sent back home because he changed the military pay system in the border town and tried to forcibly convert it into silver to pay the pay, regardless of the actual situation in the border town.

This naturally made him, who was extremely power-hungry, very unwilling.

Therefore, even though Yang Tinghe advised him to give up and admit defeat, Peng Ze still chose to use the fact that he was once the Left Censor-in-Chief and the number one disciple of Yang Tinghe, and that he held a lot of evidence of Yang Tinghe's accomplices, to manipulate the court and even make double arrangements, following the example of the previous generation of literati and contacting Zhang Sheng, a relative of Prince Yi.

Zhang Sheng and other relatives of Prince Yi became resentful of Jiajing because they instigated Prince Yi to ask for the title of commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and other officials and to ask for tax money from the Qingjiang Town Tax Bureau after Jiajing ascended the throne. When Jiajing refused, they became resentful of him.

In addition, they saw that after Jiajing ascended the throne, the old people in the Xingwang Palace became prosperous, so under the instigation of some frustrated scholars and officials, they began to consider establishing the Yiwang.

Especially after Peng Ze, who had commanded troops in the border town and served as the Left Censor-in-Chief in the capital and had evidence of many court officials' crimes and had many Qingliu accomplices joined the group, they naturally became more determined to plot this matter.

However, they did it very secretly, and were still struggling between raising an army directly and murdering Jiajing and his descendants and letting Prince Yi succeed to the throne through rotation. Even their actual actions were just to manipulate the court and overthrow the two foreign relatives, Guo Xun and the Zhang family.

But what they didn't expect was that the emperor still found out.

Peng Ze didn't expect that the emperor would discover the secret thing they did.

Before the Jinyiwei came to arrest him, he had already learned about the successful departure of the fleet inspecting the East Ocean before his accomplices in the capital, and he also knew that he and the wealthy families along the coastal areas had been deceived by Huo Tao.

Peng Ze was very angry about this and said to Zhang Sheng and others: "It seems that Huo Tao really thinks we are just trying to scare him. We should just send people to kill all his family members!"

But in mid-September of the fifth year of Jiajing, the fleet inspecting the East Ocean had arrived in Japan. When Zhu Houcong in the capital also sent the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest him, he learned from the people sent to Guangdong that Huo Tao's family had long been gone from their hometown.

This made Peng Ze very disappointed: "Someone has already protected his family in advance?"

Simultaneously.

He was horrified and could not help but say: "Jinyiwei? It should be Jinyiwei who did it. The emperor must have ordered Jinyiwei to do it. It turns out that he has long thought the worst of us, the upright officials!"

What Peng Ze didn't expect was that the Jinyiwei knew that he had been hiding in Nanchang instead of in his hometown of Lanzhou, so they captured him in Nanchang next.

So, when Peng Ze was taken to the capital, he was completely frightened.

"Mother, why is the statue of this man kneeling?"

Yan Shifan, who was leaving Beijing with his mother to visit his hometown, happened to pass by Chongwenmen by boat when Pengze and others were escorted to Beijing.

But Yan Shifan, who was only fourteen years old, was not interested in the prisoners such as Peng Ze who were escorted to Beijing. Instead, he was interested in the kneeling statue at the city gate. He pointed at the kneeling statue of Tao Xie and started asking questions.

Yan Shifan's mother, Ouyang, said: "Because he did something extremely treasonous! Just like Qin Hui in the play, he was made into a kneeling statue."

Peng Ze happened to be escorted to Chongwenmen at this time, and heard the conversation between Yan Shifan and his mother.

This made Peng Ze even more uneasy. He was afraid that he would also be made into a kneeling statue, so he suddenly went crazy, shaking the prison car and shouting:

"I want to see your Majesty, I want to see your Majesty!"

(End of this chapter)