Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 443 The emperor sent troops to protect the orphan, and Yang Tinghe was targeted!

In April of the seventh year of Jiajing, in addition to the Shuntian Prefecture's provincial examination being held ahead of schedule and the number of admitted scholars being expanded to 180, Princess Yongchun's wedding was also successfully held during this period.

Because the son-in-law Chen Zhao was chosen from an orphan adopted by Zhu Houcong, Zhu Houcong suddenly thought of visiting Xingming Academy when the princess got married.

In any case, these orphans he adopted were the basis for him, the emperor, to be so arrogant and domineering.

So, naturally, he needs to come and see it often.

Xingming Academy, which was specifically responsible for raising and teaching orphans, was located to the north of the teaching ground in the imperial city. It covered a vast area and integrated raising and teaching.

When Zhu Houcong suddenly came here, many wet nurses hired by the officials who were still sitting in the streets and alleys of the living area of ​​the academy to bask in the sun, had to hurriedly put away the big white tiger's heads, stop breastfeeding, and kneel on the ground holding the babies who had just been adopted into the academy when they heard the clapping.

And not long after.

Many eunuchs came running along the streets, clapping their hands.

Zhu Houcong also came here later and saw the babies lying in the arms of these wet nurses.

Seeing these rosy faces, Zhu Houcong couldn't help but smile, and suddenly felt a sense of accomplishment.

Because if he had not worked hard to govern the country and greatly increased the financial resources of the inner court, he, as the emperor, would not have been able to adopt so many infants and young children.

In this case, many of these infants and young children would be abandoned and become slaves in wealthy families. Some of them would be considered lucky, but most would be drowned to death.

But now, these infants and young children who had no parents or adopted relatives survived because of him, the emperor.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong had a concrete sense of accomplishment about this.

In Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, Emperor Jiajing issued an edict that adopting orphans for the royal family would be considered a merit. Therefore, the officers and soldiers who participated in suppressing the rebellion were very enthusiastic about adopting orphans.

Bao'er, the young child of the inspector Mao Zhong who was brutally killed by the rebels, was sitting on a ox-drawn cart with other collected orphans, escorted by government soldiers such as Li Zhong, and heading towards Nanchang.

According to the arrangement, they would take a boat after arriving in Nanchang, then go to Nanjing by water, and then go north to the capital.

Li Zhong also felt a sense of accomplishment in the task of escorting these orphans.

Whenever he saw with his own eyes the orphans and children abandoned because of the turmoil change from crying to laughing, he felt that he was participating in a very meritorious deed.

Especially when he received a letter from his family saying that his newly married wife was found to be pregnant two months after he left Beijing for her wedding, he looked at these orphans with even more loving eyes, always feeling that by taking care of these children he was also taking care of his own future children.

After receiving his salary, Li Zhong was reluctant to spend it on drinking and eating meat, as he wanted to save the money to support his family. However, when he passed through the market town, he would still use his salary to buy some candied haws for the orphans, just to see a few more smiles on these children's faces.

Of course, the rebels also knew that Zhu Houcong took advantage of the rebellion in Jiangxi to adopt orphans and children.

This made the leaders of the rebellion, former Chief Censor Fang Huai and military general Fang Liang very depressed.

Of course they knew that the emperor's actions would not only help expand his base, but also further demonstrate how unjust their rebel side was.

Therefore, Fang Huai and others discussed with the wealthy and luxurious families in the non-rebellious areas who had secret contact with them, and asked these wealthy and luxurious families in Jiangxi who were dissatisfied with the imperial court's military reform to use their local advantages to mobilize bandits to attack the official army teams escorting orphans and children, so as to prevent the emperor from successfully obtaining too many orphans.

Because of this, orphans and children would occasionally be attacked by bandits on their way to the capital.

Zhu Houcong sent special government troops to escort them because he took this into consideration. He never dared to underestimate the shamelessness of the local tycoons.

When Li Zhong was escorting Bao'er and his group of orphans into Jinshan, they encountered a group of bandits rushing down from the mountain.

In order to increase the level of terror on their side, or also to avoid being discovered killing these orphans when they returned home, these bandits all wore masks with green faces and fangs, making them look extremely creepy.

Many timid orphans were frightened and started crying.

The government troops escorted by Li Zhong couldn't help but feel a little frightened.

Li Zhong couldn't help but swallow, and his legs even felt a little weak.

Although he was a regular soldier and had received some training, he had almost no practical experience. So when he really encountered these vicious bandits, he couldn't help but feel a little scared.

Li Zhong even wanted to turn around and run into the dense forest behind.

But when he thought that he could not ignore his family, nor could he take the monthly rations and wages from the court for nothing, especially when the crying of the orphans and children beside him continued, and a three-year-old girl who was in the same industry and even familiar to him hugged his legs and hid behind him, he didn't know how he mustered up the courage, he clenched the spear in his hand, pried open the little girl's hand, then performed the combat moves he memorized during training, and waited for the order from the general flag in front.

"Formation!"

When the general flag in the front gave the order, he cooperated well and walked to the front under the leadership of the small flag on his side, gritting his teeth and watching the bandits rushing towards him.

When the screaming bandits saw that the government troops in full armor and armed with spears did not run away, they lost some of their courage. When the fierce bandits in front rushed over and were shot and killed in large numbers by bird guns, many of them stopped advancing. At this time, Li Zhong discovered that the general flag on his side had issued an order to actively charge and repel these bandits.

So, after hesitating for a while, he rushed towards the bandits with a spear in hand.

When the spear pierced into the chest of the oncoming bandit, he subconsciously closed his eyes and felt a layer of warm liquid suddenly foaming on his face and flowing into his mouth, which tasted fishy.

Then, Li Zhong opened his eyes, and saw a man with a green face and fangs spitting blood in front of him, and then fell down limply, and he himself was stunned where he stood.

He didn't expect he would kill someone.

But Li Zhong did not remain stunned for long. When he saw a bandit behind the bandit shooting at his side's general flag with a bow, he drew his spear and rushed forward without hesitation, stabbing the spear into the back of the bandit holding the bow.

The bandit didn't expect that there were government troops behind him, so he fell to the ground after looking back in shock.

General Hu Zongwen noticed this scene and realized that if it weren't for Li Zhong's quick stab, he, the highest-ranking officer escorting this group of orphans, would probably have died here today, and his team escorting the orphans would have been leaderless, giving these bandits a chance to defeat him.

However, Hu Zongwen does not have to worry now, because as Li Zhong and others took the initiative to rush towards the bandits, the bandits have begun to collapse and fled into the mountains.

After these bandits withdrew, Li Zhong sat down on the ground dejectedly, as if all his strength had been drained away. He just let out a long breath and couldn't help smiling.

Hu Zongwen walked towards him at this time: "What's your name?"

Li Zhong quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "To the general flag, my name is Li Zhong!"

"Bi Xiaoqi in your Jianyang Guard was just shot dead by a bandit. You will take over as Xiaoqi!"

Hu Zongwen then gave instructions to Li Zhong.

Li Zhong was naturally overjoyed and hurriedly thanked Hu Zongwen.

Because Zhu Houcong now carried out military household reforms and improved the treatment of ordinary military households.

Therefore, the fighting spirit of the military households was greatly improved. Even non-main force soldiers like Li Zhong, who were only responsible for escorting orphans and children in the rear, dared to take the initiative to fight against the bandits, and in many cases they were able to suppress and wipe out the bandits.

Naturally, it was not uncommon for people like Li Zhong to repel bandits.

But this made Fang Huai and Fang Liang, the wealthy and powerful people on the rebel side, very depressed.

"It seems that there is no way to stop the court from accepting orphans indiscriminately to increase the number of future successors!"

Fang Huai couldn't help but say with a gloomy face.

Liao Daonan, who had returned home, had some contact with the bureaucrats who burned the military household registers in Nando. So after hearing about the rebels and the arrest of the bureaucrats involved in the burning of the military household registers in Nando, he secretly came to Jiangxi in the first month of the seventh year of Jiajing and joined the rebels. Because of his status as a Hanlin, he entered the cabinet together with Xia Liangsheng, the former chief academic officer of the Imperial College, and discussed confidential matters with Fang Huai every day.

Now, after hearing what Fang Huai said, Liao Daonan also sighed and said, "It is difficult to stop it, so let's think of a way to capture Nanchang first?"

Fang Huai nodded.

Liao Daonan: "I have an idea. Why not send someone to Sichuan secretly to recruit Yang Xindu! He is a senior official who makes decisions. If he joins, my campaign to quell the rebellion will surely win more support from the people of the world! In this way, Nanchang may fall without a fight!"

"Yang Xindu?"

Fang Huai was greatly shocked after hearing this.

Liao Daonan nodded: "That's right! His students and former officials are all over the country. Even in the Hanlin Academy and the Censorate, there are still many of his students. There are also many provincial governors and military governors in various places who are his followers."

"That's a good idea. I also think that when we go to recruit a family teacher, we should always give it a try whether he is willing or not."

As Yang Tinghe's student, Xia Liangsheng also strongly advocated recruiting Yang Tinghe at this time.

Fang Huai looked at Xia Liangsheng and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you to write a letter to recruit us!"

Xia Liangsheng nodded and agreed.

So, Yang Tinghe received Xia Liangsheng's letter at the end of March in the seventh year of Jiajing.

"Let me go to Jianchang and help with the rebellion?"

After reading the letter, Yang Tinghe asked about the person who delivered the letter.

(End of this chapter)