Jiajing Chengming

The Jinshi candidates admitted by Zhu Houcong himself naturally had a better impression of him as the emperor.

It was during the reign of Emperor Zhu Houcong that these people personally felt the changes in their lives that came with their sudden rise to prominence.

Therefore, they regarded Zhu Houcong more as their emperor and father.

For the ministers who passed the imperial examination before Zhu Houcong ascended the throne, the emperor or father they were most attached to was basically the emperor when they first passed the examination.

It's just like in love, first love is always special.

What's more, Zhu Houcong treated these middle and lower-level officials, who were basically admitted as Jinshi after the 16th year of Zhengde, even better.

Therefore, in today's bureaucratic group, the middle and lower-level bureaucrats basically respect and love him as the emperor.

It just so happens that the main force in implementing the reform is these middle and lower-level bureaucrats.

The reform of military households is still ongoing. After verifying the military households, the occupation of military land will be checked and the grains from the military farms will be recovered.

Although, due to various factors, military fields belonging to the state were largely occupied by military officers and powerful families, the imperial court had to begin to recognize that these fields belonged to the occupiers. It was difficult to prevent them from producing on them, after all, the original owners of these fields had fled.

However, the grains from the military farms must still be recovered.

Moreover, the standard for levying taxes must be based on civilian land, because these fields will no longer be recognized as military land, but will be directly recognized by the court as their land.

However, many officers and powerful families who occupied military land were not satisfied with this and wanted to occupy the land without paying taxes.

Therefore, it is necessary for court officials to investigate and recover the stolen money.

The officials who directly implemented this policy were the Qing army censors and trial censors, all of whom were Jinshi admitted after Jiajing ascended the throne, and the same Jinshi trained in the Daming Practical School.

Naturally, they encountered great resistance to reform when implementing it.

There are those who attempt to bribe.

Some even plan to get away with it by muddling through.

There were also those who falsely accused the Qing army censors of extortion and even rape of women.

Although, no one has yet directly launched an uprising like the retired Chief Censor Fang Huai and the Fujian Xingdusi Chief Commander Fang Liang.

But more serious incidents also occurred during the investigation of the occupation of military land.

Gu Mengting, the imperial censor of the Qing army, was inspecting military fields in Suiyang Wei, Henan, and happened to find that more than 3,000 hectares of land had been occupied by the Wei commander Qing Gong, who had also forced hundreds of military households to farm and serve as slaves.

The commander of the Wei army, Qing Gong, had a violent temper, otherwise he would not have dared to so blatantly occupy military land and enslave military households.

Therefore, when Gu Mengting was inspecting the military fields, the guard commander Qing Gong took a bow and shot Gu Mengting and the accompanying trial censor who were inspecting the fields to the ground.

Then, Qing Gong, along with his servants, walked towards Gu Mengting and the others who were lying on the ground, and said in a cold voice: "Investigation, you just want to investigate, I'll kill you first, and see how you investigate!"

As Qing Gong spoke, he pulled out a knife and brazenly stabbed it into Gu Mengting's chest.

Gu Mengting spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at Qing Gong in disbelief.

Qing Gong also ordered the imperial censors to be killed.

Knowing that he would not have a good ending, Qing Gong simply fled to Jiangxi with his family and servants.

Although Gu Mengting and other Qing army censors and Qing army trial censors who came to inspect the military fields were only civil servants, they had the support of state power behind them.

In Henan alone, there were secret scouts of the Qing army's trial censors who were supervising the censors, and secret scouts of the governor-general and the chief censor, who were keeping an eye on this matter.

Therefore, Henan Governor Yan Song soon learned about this matter.

Yan Song has also been urging all officials under his jurisdiction to escort the verification of military households and military fields.

Therefore, before Qing Gong and his family and servants could escape from Guide Prefecture, Henan General Xinning Earl Tan You, in the name of Yan Song, led his troops to surround him, and tried to induce surrender and captured them all alive in front of Yan Song.

Yan Song ordered, "Kill them all, bring their heads back to the guards, and hang them up for public display! Within the jurisdiction of this court, no one is allowed to disobey national policy and still keep his family alive!"

"Mr. Yan, you are so serious about promoting a national policy that is not in the interests of you, the literati. What good will it do you?"

Qing Gong struggled with this and questioned Yan Song.

Yan Song just had a gloomy face.

"Ah!" At this time, Qing Gong's son had already been killed.

Qing Gong suddenly lost his voice and pouted as if he was about to cry.

"master!"

Qing Gong's wife was stabbed to death just after she finished shouting.

Qing Gong gritted his teeth and glared, and could not help but stand up and roared at Yan Song: "Yan, I will fuck your ancestors!"

Just as Qing Gong finished cursing, he was stabbed and vomited blood on the spot.

Yan Song just smiled coldly, and then submitted a memorial to Jiajing to explain the situation.

"very good!"

After Zhu Houcong received Yan Song's memorial, he blurted out two words.

Then, Zhu Houcong said: "The censors who died in the line of duty and the censors who were to be examined should be buried with honor and given an additional three ranks posthumously. If they have sons, they will be given the same favor as the third-rank officials, and one of their sons will be made an official student. If they have no sons but have younger brothers, their younger brothers will be made an official student!"

"Your Majesty is wise and wise. If this happens, the Qing army censors and trial censors will be even less afraid of lawless officers and powerful families committing cruel acts!"

Yang Yiqing flattered and echoed at this time.

Zhu Houcong said: "I just want them to not be afraid to continue the investigation because they are afraid that those officers with swords and guns and the powerful families will mess around!"

Zhang Cong then said, "Your Majesty is right. But since the inspection of military farms, violent obstructions to national policy have occurred from time to time. Previously, there was an officer who beat up the Qing army's censor, and then he brazenly took his servants to secretly go south to join the rebels. Now there is even a case of killing the censor. I am worried that if the people below react violently, the ministers in the court who are dissatisfied with the reform will also react violently!"

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong nodded slightly.

"Report! Your Majesty, the governor of Datong reported to the Ministry of War that Li Jin, the lieutenant general of Datong, escaped with his servants! According to investigation, he escaped across the border and joined the Tartars!"

At this time.

Qin Wen delivered a new report to the emperor.

Zhu Houcong, Yang Yiqing and Zhang Cong were all stunned when they heard this.

"Shameless!"

Zhu Houcong then said this first, and then said: "Even if he was killing officials and rebelling, I could still respect him as a hero, but he actually surrendered to the Tartars!"

"Does he expect the Tartars to bring him justice?!"

Zhu Houcong laughed angrily as he spoke.

Yang Yiqing then said, "Your Majesty, the strength of the little prince's army should not be underestimated. They often intend to invade the border. Xuanfu and Datong have repeatedly sent warnings. Lieutenant General Li Jin is a veteran of a town. If he defected to the Tartars, the little prince would be more aware of the strength of Datong, so we must be careful!"

"I know!"

Zhu Houcong rubbed his hands and replied, then continued: "But I don't believe that Li Jin can really cause chaos in my border town! At worst, I can use offense as defense, empty the treasury for supplies, and raise 100,000 soldiers to take the initiative to conquer this little prince!"

"He comes to plunder my people, can't I just plunder his cattle and horses?!"

After Zhu Houcong said this, Yang Yiqing and Zhang Cong were both stunned.

They had only one thought at this moment.

A wealthy emperor is majestic and powerful.

At this time, Zhu Houcong had just finished speaking when Qin Wen came over again: "Your Majesty, I just received a report that the Left Commander of the Nanjing Army Command Office, Chongxin Bo Feizhu, hanged himself, leaving a message saying that he would rather die than suffer the humiliation of checking the military households and military fields!"

"What does this have to do with humiliation!"

"Do I have to protect them from using the military households and occupying the military lands in order for me to respect them?!"

Zhu Houcong took the memorial, read it, and then threw it directly on the carpet, with his hands on his hips, saying: "He wants to die to oppose the national policy, so I will punish him for the crime of threatening the emperor with death!"

"Your Majesty, please think twice!"

At this time, Yang Yiqing spoke and bowed his head. (End of this chapter)