Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 173 Not only will I lead the army in person, but you civil servants must also follow me!
Seeing that His Majesty was so determined, all the civil and military officials were afraid and anxious, and they were about to knock their heads against Zhu Youtang.

Among these people, there were some officials who were purely worried about Zhu Youtang's safety, but they were very few in number.

There were also concerns that Zhu Youtang would follow in the footsteps of Emperor Yingzong and never return after going on the expedition.

They were not concerned about Zhu Youtang himself, but were worried that they would be purged by their political enemies after the change of imperial power.

Throughout the dynasties, every change of imperial power meant that the power of these ministers would also undergo a power reshuffle.

If you are lucky and a senior official who is on good terms with you comes to power, you will also be able to rise in status and benefit your family members.

If you are unlucky and become the one who is cleared out, the best outcome is to retire and go home, while the worst outcome is to start looking for a good feng shui location for yourself and prepare for your funeral.

But more of them were civil servants who had secret dealings with the generals in the border towns and exchanged interests with them.

There are the most officials in this group, especially Xu Pu and Liu Daxia, who are really angry this time.

These civil servants really did not want Zhu Youtang to lead the army in person and inspect the nine frontiers.

Seeing that Zhu Youtang refused to listen to his advice, Xu Pu simply gritted his teeth and gave him frank advice.

"Your Majesty! In the past, Emperor Yingzong led the army in person, but encountered the Tumu Incident, and Emperor Yingzong was captured. The country was on the verge of collapse. Your Majesty, do you want to..."

"Be bold!"

Zhu Youtang became furious when he saw that Xu Pu dared to bring up the old events of Emperor Yingzong.

He slapped the dragon throne, stood up suddenly, and pointed at Xu Pu.

"Not only do I have to lead the army in person, but all of you have to follow me as well!"

"You, the Minister of Revenue Xu Pu!"

"And you! Minister of War Liu Daxia!"

"You will all follow me into battle tomorrow!"

"what?!"

When Xu Pu and Liu Daxia heard Zhu Youtang's order, they were so frightened that they stood there in a daze.

They never expected that Zhu Youtang would not only lead the army himself, but also take the two Shangshu with him.

In fact, Zhu Youtang had decided from the very beginning that he would take these two people with him to lead the army in person.

It was said that he was leading the army in person, but in fact he was just patrolling the border.

On the border of Walakou, Zhu Youtang knew that this was fake news, and it was to prevent him from checking the number of soldiers in the border town.

The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War are definitely involved in this, and the officials of these two ministries cannot stay in the capital.

Moreover, Zhu Youtang would not only bring two ministers with him on this expedition, but he would also bring half of the officials of the court with him.

Once I leave, I don’t know how much trouble these officials will cause in the capital.

Only by keeping these unstable officials by my side can I feel a little more at ease.

"Tu Yu!"

"The minister is here."

"You, the entire Metropolitan Censorate, more than 2,000 censors, will all follow me into battle tomorrow. No one can be left behind!"

Tu Yu felt bitter and wanted to die, but he did not dare to disobey the order and could only kowtow and obey.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"All the officials of the six departments will also follow me to the battle tomorrow."

After hearing Zhu Youtang's words, the six officials kowtowed as if they had lost their parents, their faces turned pale, and they agreed.

Zhu Youtang did not stop yet, and continued to call out the official titles and names of court officials one after another like the King of Hell calling out their names.

"In addition, there are Cao Ding, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and a Bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, Ding Xuan, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Wang Yonghe, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works."

"The Imperial Academy's Attending Scholar Zhang Yi, the Ministry of Rites' Director Yin Chang, and the Ministry of Public Administration's Right Minister Gong Quanyan."

"Liu Rong, the Minister of the Imperial Household, Ma Yu, the Junior Minister of the Supreme Court, Huang Yangzheng, the Junior Minister of the Imperial Household, Ling Chu, the Junior Minister of the Imperial Treasures, and Liu Xin, the Director of the Imperial Observatory."

"The Ministry of Revenue doctor Qi Wang, the Ministry of War doctor Cheng Siyun, the chief official Yu Jian..."

"All of you will follow me tomorrow, and I will lead the army in person!"

Every time Zhu Youtang read out a name, the faces of the civil servants whose names were called turned paler.

Among the officials called by name by Zhu Youtang, 80% of them were registered in the Jiangnan region.

There is no need to say much about Xu Pu and Liu Daxia. Ding Xuan, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, is from Ganzhou.

Wang Yonghe, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, was from Nanzhili.

Gong Quanan, the left Tongzheng of the Tongzheng Division, was from Zhejiang.

Huang Yangzheng, the Shaoqing of the Imperial Palace, was from Zhejiang...

They wanted to persuade Zhu Youtang not to lead the army in person.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Youtang not only insisted on leading the army himself, but also wanted to bring half of the civil servants in the court to join him.

The sky is falling!
How can you go to war without military officers and soldiers? You are taking half of the civil officials with you?

Is this going to war?!
This kind of expedition arrangement has never been seen before!

Apart from Emperor Yingzong who led the army in person and brought along half of the court's civil officials, who else could have arranged the troops in this way? !
Can fighting a war be the job of a civilian? !
All the civil servants in the court were filled with despair, only the military generals were secretly proud.

When these civil officials leave the capital, won't the status of their military generals in the court rise?

But it was obvious that Zhu Youtang had no intention of letting these generals go.

"Pingning Marquis Zhang Fu, Taining Marquis Chen Lei, Pingxiang Earl Chen Huai, Xiangcheng Earl Li Zhen, Suian Earl Chen Yun, Xiuwu Earl Shen Rong, and the imperial son-in-law He Yuan..."

"Follow me tomorrow and lead the army in person!"

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will obey your orders!"

Each of these meritorious military generals has a title.

Many of them were royal relatives and served in the Five Military Commanderies.

However, these people are different from the Zhou brothers of Changping and the Wang brothers of Jinghai. They did not obtain the title simply by virtue of their status as the empress dowager or the queen's brothers.

Instead, they are meritorious military generals who have actually fought on the battlefield and performed military exploits.

However, many of these meritorious military generals were also involved in Yang Tong’s border town smuggling case.

These military generals, like the civil officials, were scared to death and felt extremely terrified.

Zhu Youtang mobilized thirty-five military generals at once, which was already a considerable number.

But compared with the number of civil servants, it was still not worth mentioning. They were not afraid of going to the battlefield and were much calmer than those civil servants.

Those civil officials, except for a very small number of senior officials like Xu Pu and Liu Daxia, actually did not know that the news about the Wala Koubian was fake.

They really believed that the Wala had come to invade the border and they really had to go to the front line to fight.

When thinking about going to the battlefield, some civil servants remained relatively calm, while others were so scared that they were shaking all over.

People will die on the battlefield. Don't let this time you go, you won't ever come back, right?
Zhu Youtang already suspected that a mutiny had occurred in the border town.

So Zhu Youtang brought all the people who might participate in the mutiny with him.

After confirming the accompanying personnel, Zhu Youtang began to arrange the troops that were actually going to the expedition.

Although the news about the Wala invaders was fake, the facts were that the border generals deceived their superiors, smuggled arms, withheld food and wages, and drew salaries without doing anything.

If Zhu Youtang found out about these things, these border generals would definitely lose their heads.

Therefore, in order to prevent the border generals from becoming desperate, Zhu Youtang had to lead an army to protect his own safety and the safety of the civil servants.

"Marquis Wuding, Gao Shun!"

"I am here!"

Gao Shun walked out from the ranks of military generals and came before Zhu Youtang to pay his respects.

"I order you to lead 50,000 soldiers to follow me into battle tomorrow."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will obey your orders!"

Gao Shun immediately bowed his head and accepted the order without saying a word.

There were only 50,000 soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp left in the Xishan military camp in front of the capital.

Zhu Youtang took away all 50,000 soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp in one breath.

This kind of situation means that they are not even prepared to give up the capital city in order to regain control over the border towns of the Ming Dynasty.

But Zhu Youtang still felt that the 50,000-man Xianzhen Camp was not enough.

"Wang Zhi, Mou Bin."

"Wei Chen is here!"

Wang Zhi, the director of the Western Factory, and Mou Bin, the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who were accompanying him, immediately knelt down and listened to the order.

"Wang Zhi, Mou Bin, each of you will select 5,000 Western Factory guards and Imperial Uniform Guards, and follow me in person tomorrow."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Wang Zhi and Mou Bin accepted the order with solemn expressions.

The Western Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard had a huge business and required a lot of people.

Deploying 5,000 men at one time is already their limit.

As a result, Zhu Youtang's actual combat strength reached 60,000 people.

Sixty thousand people is more than enough.

After deciding on the candidates and troops for the expedition, the next step is to prepare the army's supplies and food.

"Qiu Jun."

When Qiu Jun, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, heard his name, he was shocked, thinking that Zhu Youtang was going to take him with him to the expedition.

Qiu Jun replied tremblingly: "I am here."

"I order you to start collecting food for me immediately. Before tomorrow, you must gather ten days' worth of food and fodder for 70,000 men."

"Tomorrow at 7:00 pm, the expedition team will set out on time!"

If the soldiers and horses are not moving, the grain and grass will go first.

This kind of behavior of suddenly sending troops without preparing food and fodder in advance is a big taboo in military strategy.

Except for the fact that Zhu Youtang dispatched 100,000 troops to form the Xianying Camp last year to intercept and kill the little Tatar prince at Tumu Fort, he did not mobilize food and grass in advance.

Last year's expedition to the Chagatai Khanate in the northwest and the recent expedition to Annan in the south both began mobilizing food and fodder nearly a month in advance.

The time when the Xianzhen Camp went to Tumubao was entirely because Tumubao was right at the gate of the capital city, and it would only take a few hours to go back and forth, so there was no need to prepare food and fodder.

The Xianzhen Camp was composed of the Tatar prince and others who were ambushed in the afternoon and returned to Changtong for dinner that evening.

The reason why Zhu Youtang had to leave in such a hurry this time was that he only had less than a day to raise food.

This was because he was very sure that there must be officials in the capital who were tipping off the generals in the border towns.

And there must be more than one official who reported the news.

So he had to set out as early as possible, the sooner the better, to catch the generals of the border towns off guard.

There must be no time to give court officials and border town generals time to inform each other of the situation.

Moreover, about ten days of food and grass were enough for Zhu Youtang to inspect the two border towns of Xuanfu and Datong.

If that is not enough, there are many granaries to the north of Juyongguan that were built during the Yongle period by Emperor Taizong for the Northern Expedition.

They can get supplies in these granaries.

At the same time, you can also check these granaries as well.

Let's see how bold the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War are and whether they dare to touch these military warehouses.

Qiu Jun had only been promoted to the position of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue for over a month. He had previously served as Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.

Therefore, it is unlikely that he will be involved in the border town food and salary case.

Zhu Youtang felt more at ease letting Qiu Jun be in charge of food and fodder before the expedition.

When Qiu Jun heard that Zhu Youtang was not going to take him to the battlefield, but instead asked him to be responsible for gathering food and supplies, he first breathed a sigh of relief.

But later, when he heard that Zhu Youtang wanted him to collect so much food in less than a day, he was completely stunned.

"Your Majesty, the food and fodder stored in Northern Zhili has almost been withdrawn."

"How can I gather so much food and fodder in such a short time?!"

Zhu Youtang was determined to lead the army himself this time: "I have given the Ministry of Revenue special permission to gather grain and grass from the imperial farms in northern Zhili."

"If that's still not enough, we can buy grain from the major grain merchants in the capital, and use the money from the treasury!"

"I have only one request, that the army should set out on time tomorrow at noon!"

(End of this chapter)