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

Chapter 211 Taking over the defense of the capital!

Yu Shen's conversation with these southern officials did not last long.

In less than an hour, Xie Qian, Peng Shao and others walked out of Yu Shen's house with cold faces.

It seems that the southern officials are not in a very good mood.

But Yu Shen, who personally escorted these officials out of the house, could not hide the smile on his face.

"Thank you, Lord Peng, don't worry."

"After the matter is accomplished, I will definitely do what I said!"

Yu Shen added again behind the two of them.

"Humph! I don't think you'd dare to break your promise!"

"If you dare to play any tricks, the spit of the southern folks will drown you!"

Xie Qian snorted coldly, and left with a group of southern officials, looking depressed.

It’s so frustrating! It’s so frustrating!

Xie Qian didn’t want to see Yu Shen again at all. He felt sick just looking at him!

"Despicable villain, shameless bastard!"

Peng Shao was so angry that his whole body was shaking and his beard was quivering.

But now the situation has changed dramatically, and the offense and defense have changed.

The little minister whom they once looked down upon is now no longer the same person as before.

Compared with the anger of southern officials such as Xie Qian, Yu Shen's mood had visibly improved.

He no longer looked as gloomy as he did in the palace.

Yu Shen and the southern officials finally reached a cooperation agreement.

The content of the deal between them was actually very simple. The southern officials agreed to help Yu Shen control the palace and support Zhu Youlang to become emperor.

Yu Shen promised these southern officials that once the Battle of Tumu was completely resolved, he would immediately order Zhu Youlang to move the capital.

Yu Shen kept saying that this was a win-win cooperation.

But in fact, the officials in the south all knew that from such cooperation, Yu Shen would gain much more benefits than they, the southern officials.

If Yu Shen had not agreed to a few more conditions at the end, they would never have accepted such an exchange of interests.

Too bad!
It’s really a big loss!

Seeing that Yu Shen got such a huge bargain, Xie Qian and others were extremely envious and jealous.

But there is no way, because he has a good relative who leads troops.
Moreover, he himself happens to be the most critical Minister of War.

If he had been a minister from any other ministry, he would not have been able to enjoy such tremendous wealth and honor.

After the southern officials left, Yu Shen immediately launched his plan to seize power.

The first step is to mobilize troops into Beijing!

After all, Zhu Youtang’s life or death is still unknown, and there has been no news of Zhu Youtang’s death from the front line.

There is no clear news of Zhu Youtang's death, which proves that he may still be alive.

As long as Zhu Youtang is still alive, he will be at risk of returning to the capital.

As soon as Zhu Youtang came back, Yu Shen and other people who participated in the mutiny would all be finished.

Therefore, Yu Shen’s most important task at this moment is to prevent Zhu Youtang from returning to the capital.

There is only one way to prevent Zhu Youtang from returning to Beijing, and that is to seize the military power in the capital first.

Yu Shen quickly came to the Ministry of War, and without caring that it was already evening, he immediately asked the head of the Ministry of War to issue instructions to military agencies at all levels in all places according to his orders.

"Order all the guards in Luzhou to immediately dispatch 4,500 elite soldiers to the capital to defend the king!"

"Order the canal supervisors along the Grand Canal to dispatch 36,000 canal soldiers to Beijing immediately."

"Yes, Lord Yu!"

In the absence of Minister of War Liu Daxia, the Left Vice Minister of War Yu Shen is the highest official in the Ministry of War.

The head of the Ministry of War did not dare to disobey Yu Shen, so he quickly wrote a document, stamped it with the seal of the Ministry of War, and sent someone to deliver it to Luzhou at an accelerated speed of 800 miles.

The elite soldiers of Luzhou refer to the soldiers prepared to fight against the Japanese pirates, because there were many Japanese pirate attacks along the coast of Luzhou.

Therefore, Luzhou had thousands of elite soldiers in Dengzhou Wei, Weihai Wei, and Laizhou Wei.

But these 4,500 Luzhou troops preparing for the Japanese invasion can only solve the urgent problem temporarily.

The most important military force was the 36,000 canal soldiers transferred from the canal supervisors along the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou.

The Caozu were soldiers who were responsible for transporting grain along the rivers and waterways within the Ming Dynasty.

Their main job is to use rivers to transport food to various places.

The main purpose is to transport grain from the south to the north.

Strictly speaking, these soldiers belong to the logistics troops.

Generally speaking, they will not go into battle to kill the enemy.

Yu Shen dispatched these grain transport troops to Beijing because there were really no troops left around the capital.

The order from the Ministry of War was quickly transmitted through postmen to the military officers of the garrisons throughout Luzhou and the governors of the grain transport system in various places.

When the officers and soldiers of the garrison and the governor of the grain transport system saw that it was an order to mobilize troops from the Ministry of War, they did not dare to delay and immediately counted the soldiers and set out for Beijing overnight.

The soldiers in Luzhou were closer to the capital and rode directly into the capital on horseback.

It was even more convenient for the water transport troops along the canal, as they could directly take the water transport ships to enter Beijing.

The next day, the Luzhou troops who were dispatched by Yu Shen to guard against the Japanese invaders and the grain transport troops on the Grand Canal had not yet entered Beijing.

But Yu Shen still felt unsafe, so he dispatched several civil servants from the Ministry of War from the capital to the five places of Beizhili, Yuzhou, Shanzhou, Luzhou and Jinzhou to urgently recruit soldiers.

He ordered each of the five prefectures to select two thousand strong and capable militiamen to come to the capital and await deployment.

These people were temporary recruits, not the Ming Dynasty's regular army.

These five places, including Beizhili, Yuzhou and Jinzhou, each have eight prefectures.

Luzhou had six prefectures, Jinzhou had nine prefectures, and all five places together had a total of thirty-nine prefectures.

Each prefecture recruits 2,000 militiamen, which makes a total of 78,000 people.

Adding the more than 40,000 troops dispatched yesterday, Yu Shen dispatched nearly 120,000 people to Beijing in just two days.

The next period of time is to wait for these troops to assemble.

The fastest troop to arrive was the 36,000 canal transport soldiers who came by water.

By the afternoon of the next day, they had assembled outside the capital.

The second group of soldiers sent by Luzhou to prepare for the Japanese invasion also hurriedly arrived the next night.

Four thousand five hundred cavalrymen, plus thirty-six thousand troops, were enough for Yu Shen to seize control of the capital.

So that night, Yu Shen ordered people to open the city gates.

After a large number of soldiers entered the city, their leader hurriedly ran to Yu Shen and saluted with his fists.

"This humble general greets His Excellency the Minister!"

"No thanks. You will follow me immediately and take over all defense of the capital."

"Yes, my lord!"

After these soldiers entered the city, Yu Shen led a large army to forcibly take over all the defense of the capital.

It was a dark night and there were few people on the long street. Only Yu Shen and his soldiers hurriedly climbed up the city wall.

After Yu Shen climbed up the city wall with the troops he dispatched to the capital, he gave orders to the soldiers of the Beijing Guard Command who were stationed in the capital.

"All the people from the Beijing Guard Command Headquarters, listen up!"

"From now on, the Ministry of War will take over the defense of the capital. All officers and soldiers of the Beijing Guard Command will return to the capital and wait for orders."

The soldiers of the Beijing Guard Command on the city wall looked at each other, then hesitantly turned their gazes to Cai Zhen in front of them.

At this time, the defense of the capital was under the charge of Cai Zhen, the commander of the Beijing Guards and the son-in-law of the emperor.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Fuma Duwei was an official position and also a title, ranking above the earl.

This position is usually held by the princess's husband, commonly known as the princess's consort.

Cai Zhen was Zhu Youtang's uncle and married Princess Chun'an, the third daughter of Emperor Yingzong.

But Cai Zhen had many complaints against Zhu Youtang.

Before dealing with the murder case of the previous emperor, Zhu Youtang had fined a group of officials who did not attend court.

He was among the officials whose salaries were fined.

Moreover, Zhu Youtang had taken action against the royal family many times, which made Cai Zhen quite afraid of him.

Cai Zhen had witnessed Zhu Youtang's slow execution of the Zhou brothers and the Wang brothers.

Cai Zhen had no doubt that if Zhu Youtang found out about his previous acts of accepting bribes and lending money at high interest rates.

Zhu Youtang would order his execution without hesitation!

So Cai Zhen hoped from the bottom of his heart that Zhu Youtang would die outside and never return to the capital.

At this moment, Cai Zhen was facing Shen leading his troops to seize power.

He surrendered without any resistance or hesitation, just like his soldiers.

There was no way to refuse surrender, so when Zhu Youtang personally led the army to patrol the border, he took away all the elite soldiers around the capital.

The troops that Yu Shen transferred from other places are more than the troops in the capital. What else can he do except surrender?

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

"All soldiers of the Beijing Guard Command, listen up, immediately hand over the defense of the capital, everyone follow me out of the city!"

After Cai Zhen finished speaking, he was the first to walk down the city wall of the capital.

The soldiers under his command also followed Cai Zhen and left.

In this way, Yu Shen took over the military power of the capital without losing a single soldier or even shedding a drop of blood.

After Yu Shen took control of the capital, the next step was to take over the palace.

If he wanted to take over the palace, it would definitely not be possible relying solely on his soldiers.

If they really break into the palace, it wouldn't be a coup d'état or a mutiny, it would be a full-blown rebellion.

Yu Shen was also an official who cared about his reputation.

Therefore, if we want to take over the palace, we have to rely on that group of southern officials.

Yu Shen's move to lead his troops to take over the defense of the capital was a big one and soon became known to everyone.

When Liu Jian and Li Dongyang found out, they were so scared that they couldn't sleep, and they went to the palace at night to ask for an audience with Empress Dowager Zhou.

At this time, Zhou had moved back to the Cining Palace.

When Liu Jian and Li Dongyang arrived at the Cining Palace, they happened to see Zhou in a rage.

"What?! This is outrageous! This is outrageous!"

"What on earth is Prince Chong thinking about? He actually refused to enter the capital to supervise the country!"

"He refused to be the emperor. How could there be such a stupid person in the world?"

"He even dared not listen to my words. He is such an unfilial son and grandson. How unfilial!"

"..."

In the room, Zhou angrily scolded Prince Chong Zhu Jianze, calling him stupid or unfilial, which was enough to show how angry she was.

Fu Dahai stood in front of Zhou, hunched over, sweating profusely.

Liu Jian and Li Dongyang understood a little bit. It should be that Prince Chong was unwilling to go to Beijing to supervise the country, which made Zhou so angry.

Liu Jian and Liu Dongyang looked at each other, and finally gritted their teeth and sent someone to report.

"Your Highness, the Empress Dowager, the Cabinet Grand Secretaries Liu Jian and Li Dongyang request an audience."

(End of this chapter)