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

Chapter 194: The two factories of the Eastern Factory are dispatched to investigate Xuanfu!
Mona's face turned red instantly. She felt extremely humiliated and lowered her head in hatred.

Boluohan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly winked at several other Oirat people.

Several Wala people standing behind Mona quickly opened the boxes in their hands, which were filled with gold and special decorations.

"Your Majesty, this is Mona's dowry. Please accept it."

Zhu Youtang looked down upon these things: "Put them all away."

"As for Mona's position, she is a Hu woman after all, so her position should not be too high. Let's make her a concubine first."

"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty."

After successfully sending his sister away, Boluohan even wanted to thank Zhu Youtang.

Mona also gritted her teeth and reluctantly bowed her head to express her gratitude.

Even though Mona had already prepared herself mentally many times, she was still feeling a little depressed at this moment.

"Okay, everyone, please step aside."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After Zhu Youtang dismissed everyone, Boluohan returned to the post station alone.

Mona and several other Oirat women were arranged by the eunuchs around Zhu Youtang to live in the government office in Xuanfu.

These Wala women are all considered Mona's dowry maids, and they will follow Mona back to the Forbidden City in the future.

After Mona was brought into the Xuanfu Yamen by the eunuchs, she was arranged to bathe and change clothes in preparation for sleeping with Zhu Youtang.

After Mona finished her bath, she put on her Hu clothing again and put on the characteristic ornaments of the Oirat.

She looked at her radiant self in the mirror and felt mixed emotions.

When every girl was a child, she would fantasize about who would be the person she would spend her life with in the future.

What does he look like? What’s his personality like? Is he tall? Is he handsome?

Although Mona has not met a man who makes her heart beat so far.

But Mona always felt that her future husband must be a hero who could ride a horse across the grassland and sweep across other tribes.

Her home is the grassland, and she will gallop across the grassland like an eagle.

Instead of going to the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty and spending your life in depression like a canary locked in a cage.

In Mona's impression, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not free and could not leave the Forbidden City in his entire life.

What she hated was not Zhu Youtang, but the loss of her freedom.

Moreover, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not seem like a hero who could fight on the battlefield.

She never thought that she would leave the grassland one day.

But now, for the sake of the tribe, after tonight, she will enter the mysterious Forbidden City.

Thinking of this, Mona's eyes turned slightly red.

"Yijin, it's getting late, it's time to go to bed."

The Wala woman who came with the dowry felt bad seeing Mona looking so sad.

Both for Mona and for myself.

None of them knew what kind of life they would lead after returning to the Forbidden City.

"understood."

Mona sighed, took one last look at herself in the mirror, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and followed the eunuch to Zhu Youtang's palace.

In the palace, the young eunuch had cleaned it inside and out, making it spotless without a speck of dust.

The bedding and daily necessities used in the room were all replaced with royal standards.

The young eunuch came to Zhu Youtang and reported first: "Your Majesty, Mona's concubine selection is here."

Zhu Youtang, who was already lying on the bed, half-raised his body and said, "Let her in."

"promise."

After the young eunuch left, Mona came to Zhu Youtang alone.

"I have met His Majesty."

Mona saluted stiffly, her expression stiff.

Zhu Youtang likes to see Mona like this, who is reluctant in her heart but her body still obeys him obediently.

"Come up."

Zhu Youtang patted the empty seat beside him. Mona lowered her head, came to Zhu Youtang, sat down and began to take off her clothes.

Zhu Youtang raised his eyebrows and held Mona's hand.

Mona's face flushed, and she turned to look at Zhu Youtang, staring at him with her watery eyes. She tried hard not to let her tears flow out, and said in a somewhat angrily manner.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to sleep with me?"

Zhu Youtang pinched Mona's chin: "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"The Hu clothing you are wearing looks good, so wear it."

"what?"

Mona looked at Zhu Youtang in confusion, with a look of surprise on her face.

……

There was peace inside the Xuanfu government office.

But outside the Xuanfu government office was a living hell.

After Zhu Youtang gave the order, the entire Xuanfu was in motion.

First, Gao Shun led the Xianzhen Camp to take over all the city defense work in Xuanfu. All the Xuanfu troops were required to immediately disarm and accept Xu Chang's investigation.

This step is to find out those Xuanfu soldiers who participated in the mutiny and then surrendered.

At the same time, Wang Zhi also led the Western Factory's men and the Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate to investigate the military affairs of Xuanfu.

The contents of the inventory included the specific number of soldiers in Xuanfu, weapons reserves, the whereabouts of food and wages, and the financial status of officers at all levels in Xuanfu.

You don't know until you check. Once you check, you will find that the situation in Xuanfu is simply shocking.

According to data from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War, starting from the 19th year of Chenghua, the amount of weapons and equipment shipped to Xuanfu every year was an astronomical figure.

But at this moment, the equipment in Xuanfu’s arsenal can only be said to be barely sufficient.

There were only 90,000 bows, 210,000 arrows, 40,000 muskets, 130,000 long swords, and 50,000 war horses...

This amount of equipment is simply a drop in the bucket when used to arm a border town army of more than 100,000 people!

Moreover, the roster of Xuanfu clearly recorded that there were more than 112,000 officers and soldiers.

But now in Xuanfu, including the rebels who have been killed, there are only 70,000 people.

Adding the 20,000 personal soldiers of Yang Tong who were executed by Zhu Youtang at Tumu Fort, the total number of Xuanfu soldiers was only 90,000.

Yang Tong lied about the number of people and collected the salaries of 20,000 people without any evidence.

In just one year, he would have to eat up nearly three hundred thousand silver coins in empty salary!
At the same time, through visiting the grassroots soldiers, Wang Zhi discovered another frightening thing.

The amount of food and wages owed by Xuanfu to the lower-level soldiers has reached an astronomical figure.

The Ming Dynasty stipulated that the annual salary of each border general and soldier was approximately 24 stone of grain.

More than half of the grain must be distributed in kind, and the rest will be converted into silver.

In the Ming Dynasty, food was much more valuable than silver to ordinary people and soldiers.

The lower-level soldiers were all willing to take the food, and the exchange of it for silver was simply a compromise they were forced to make because there was not enough food.

By this calculation, the soldiers should receive 12 shi of grain and 7 taels of silver every year.

But in fact, starting from the 19th year of Chenghua, the lower-level soldiers could only receive about eight stone of grain and four taels of silver each year.

Each soldier was owed four stone of grain and three taels of silver per year.

There were more than 60,000 low-level soldiers in Xuanfu.

In other words, from the 19th year of Chenghua to the 2nd year of Hongzhi, it has been more than six years but less than seven years.

Xuanfu owed a total of more than 1.6 million shi of grain and 1.1 million taels of silver.

Where did all this money and food go?!

Wang Zhi immediately arrested a group of military officers from Xuanfu, as well as several officials from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue who had accompanied them.

Qi Wang, the Langzhong of the Ministry of Revenue, Cheng Siyun, the Langzhong of the Ministry of War, Yu Jian, the chief official... and others were all imprisoned and interrogated.

Of course, the most important leaders of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War, Minister of Revenue Xu Pu and Minister of War Liu Daxia, were the first officials to be interrogated.

Zhu Youtang brought these people out specifically so that he could arrest and interrogate them on the spot after finding out the problems.

In addition, the Censors and Six Departments’ Secretaries who were involved in supervising these border generals and civil servants were also imprisoned.

The Five Military Governors' Office and the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War, which were involved in the promotion assessment of border generals, and the Civil Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel, which was involved in the promotion assessment of civil servants, will all be held accountable.

Among these people, some were still in the capital and were left alone for the time being, while the officials who followed Zhu Youtang to the expedition were imprisoned and tortured on the spot.

After this mutiny, all power institutions in the Ming court that were involved in the northern military power would be purged.

Wang Zhi led the Western Factory's men and was very busy investigating, arresting and interrogating people.

The entire Xuanfu was shrouded in a low pressure atmosphere, and not only the generals of the Xuanfu military, but everyone else felt insecure.

Even ordinary people in Xuanfu hid in their homes out of fear, closing the doors and windows tightly.

Compared with the big moves made by the Western Factory under Wang Zhi, the Eastern Factory led by Liu Jin made much less noise.

But what Liu Jin did made all the middle-level generals and civil servants in Xuanfu feel terrified.

At this moment, Liu Jin was interrogating Yang Tong, Xu Pu and Liu Daxia.

In the dark military prison, Yang Tong, Xu Pu and Liu Daxia were tied to the execution rack.

Yang Tong felt disheartened, he lowered his head and said nothing.

Xu Pu and Liu Daxia looked at Liu Jin in horror, their bodies shaking slightly uncontrollably.

This time, Xu Pu and Liu Daxia no longer had the calmness and composure they had last time.

Now Zhu Youtang had entered Xuanfu and confirmed Yang Tong's mutiny.

The problems of Xuanfu's arrears of food and salary, smuggling of arms, and collecting empty salaries were also investigated.

The charges against Xu Pu and Liu Daxia were already set in stone.

Liu Jin tortured them however he wanted, without any scruples!
The most effective punishments are often very simple and plain.

Liu Jin came up to Yang Tong with a red-hot iron and gave him a sinister smile.

"Yang Tong, when you sent people to assassinate our family before, you never thought that this day would come, right?"

"Tell me! Who are the people involved in this mutiny?!"

"Also, tell us the cause and process of your mutiny in full, without leaving out any details!"

Liu Jin shouted loudly, but Yang Tong kept his head down and said nothing.

Liu Jin twitched his face twice viciously, and without hesitation pressed the branding iron in his hand on Yang Tong's chest.

"Ahhhhh!!!!"

Yang Tong, who had been silent all this time, finally couldn't help but let out a terrible roar.

(End of this chapter)