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

Chapter 217 Jiangnan Carnival, Zhu Youtang returns to Beijing!

As soon as Yu Shen received the approval from the Imperial Household Department, he ordered people to send Zhu Youlang's imperial edict to Nanzhili, Zhejiangzhou and Ganzhou.

At the same time, Zhu Youtang was defeated in Tumu Fort and captured by the Oirat people.

Yu Shen was given the task of recommending Prince Xing Zhu Youlang as emperor to fight against the Oirat Mongols. The news also spread throughout the Ming Dynasty.

When this imperial edict was delivered to the hands of the privileged classes such as gentry, wealthy businessmen, landlords, local tyrants, officials, and nobles in the Jiangnan region at full speed.

The privileged classes throughout the Jiangnan region celebrated with drums and gongs as if it were Chinese New Year!
The happiest people were probably the scholars from the Jiangnan region.

This year is the year of the provincial examination, and every student is preparing for the autumn examination.

The Jiangnan region is wealthy, and only places with money can develop good education.

The aristocratic families in the Jiangnan region have accumulated a terrifying amount of wealth through hundreds of years of continuous smuggling, tax evasion, trade, and other means of making money.

And after becoming rich, these aristocratic families have no qualms about investing in the education of their sons.

Because they knew that in order to maintain the favorable policies in the Jiangnan region, there must be more people from Jiangnan in the court.

The investment of Jiangnan people in education can be seen from the number of academies in each region.

During the Ming Dynasty, there were 287 private academies in Ganzhou.

However, Shuzhou, the richest province in the southwest and known as the Land of Abundance, has only 63 academies.

After investing a huge amount of resources, the cultural level of scholars in the Jiangnan region is overwhelming that of people from other places.

However, due to the existence of the system of dividing the list into the north and the south, many scholars from the south of the Yangtze River who failed the provincial examination ranked among the top in the north and southwest.

As time went on, people in the south of the Yangtze River began to complain about the system of dividing the list into the north and the south.

It is obvious that their cultural level is high, so why should we give official positions to those poor people in the north and southwest?
This is not fair!

Because of this, people in the south of the Yangtze River have a deep obsession with abolishing the system of dividing the rankings between the north and the south.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not fools. How could he abolish the system of dividing the list between the north and the south and allow the people from the south of the Yangtze River to dominate the court?

Therefore, once the Ming court issued an imperial decree to abolish the system of dividing the north and south lists, it would definitely indicate that the emperor had been completely sidelined by the civil servants in Jiangnan.

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, the first announcement to abolish the North-South division was during the Jingtai period. Under Qian's leadership, Zhu Qiyu was forced to agree.

And this second time, it was because Shen took the lead and Zhu Youqiu was threatened to agree.

In the imperial examination in the second year of Jingtai, there were a total of 201 Jinshi, of whom 174 were from the south.

With such an inspiring example before them, how could the scholars in Jiangnan not be happy?

"Hahaha! The system of dividing the rankings between the north and south has finally been abolished. This year should be the year for our southern scholars to rise!"

"It should have been cancelled long ago! Lord Yu Qian did a great job back then. It would be fair to cancel the North-South division!"

"Those northerners and southwesterners simply can't pass the exam as well as us southerners, but giving them the chance to become Jinshi is simply favoring them!"

"Lord Yu Shen is truly a good official, a truly honest and upright official. We will write a biography of Lord Yu Shen and pass on his good name."

"Yes, yes, yes. We want Lord Yu Shen to be like Lord Yu Qian, and become a good official and an honest official praised by generations!"

"..."

The scholars in Jiangnan jumped for joy, and the aristocratic families in Jiangnan were grinning from ear to ear.

They had accumulated huge wealth through smuggling by sea.

Then they used the wealth to engage in business, to annex land, to collude with officials, and eventually formed large families.

These Jiangnan families lived a relatively comfortable life during the Hongxi and Xuande periods.

But after six years of orthodoxy, they found that everything had changed.

Emperor Yingzong was actually preparing to take action against them.

In order to safeguard their own interests, these Jiangnan families have made many efforts, but all have failed.

The smuggling industry, on which they depended for their livelihood, was about to be wiped out by Emperor Yingzong.

Thank God, the Battle of Tumu happened!
Emperor Yingzong was captured, Zhu Qiyu came to power, Yu Qian was in power, all crises disappeared, and their smuggling heyday came again.

The Jingtai period was the time when these Jiangnan wealthy families who made their fortunes through smuggling lived the most comfortable lives.

Yu Qian completely opened the country's doors to these smuggling groups, allowing them to smuggle with impunity.

At the same time, various taxes were reduced or exempted, allowing these Jiangnan gentry to make a fortune.

Faced with such a good official who knew how to seek benefits for his hometown, how could the aristocratic families, landlords, gentry, and noble civil servants in Jiangnan not respect and love him?
In the eyes of these privileged classes in Jiangnan, Yu Qian is like a living Bodhisattva and their real God of Wealth.

Later, Emperor Yingzong was restored to the throne, and the good days of these Jiangnan gentry came to an end.

The harder it was for them to make money under the rule of Emperor Yingzong, the more resentful they became towards him.

At the same time, they also missed Yu Qian and Zhu Qiyu more and more.

They say Yu Qian is the hero who saved the Ming Dynasty, so Yu Qian is the hero who saved the Ming Dynasty!

Because they have the final say and are the ones compiling the history books, all interpretations belong to the Jiangnan gentry.

Ordinary people have no channels to speak out and no right to speak!
So they built temples, monuments, and ancestral halls for Yu Qian. Even after Yu Qian was exterminated by Emperor Yingzong, they still built a tomb for him and worshipped him every year.

That’s because they long to return to the prosperous Jingtai era!

Let’s go back to the prosperous era in the south when officials could embezzle at will, smuggling gangs could smuggle at will, landlords could annex land on a large scale, and scholars from the south of the Yangtze River occupied the entire court!
And now, the appearance of Yu Shen will once again lead these Jiangnan gentry back to the prosperous era they dream of!

Now, in the eyes of these Jiangnan gentry, Yu Shen is a hero second only to Yu Qian!

"Great! It's really great! Lord Yu Shen is going to take us back to the prosperous Jingtai era!"

"What's the Jingtai Era? The new emperor's reign title has already been decided. We should call it the Jingyuan Era."

"Right, right, right! Lord Yu Shen has taken such good care of us, we must not let Lord Yu Shen down! We must spread Lord Yu Shen's heroic deeds!"

"Lord Yu Shen accepted the order in a time of crisis to save the Ming Dynasty from danger and continue the Ming Dynasty's national prosperity!"

"Master Yu Shen, you have made great contributions to rebuilding the Ming Dynasty!"

"Quick! Send someone to Qiantang County in Hangzhou Prefecture to erect another statue for Lord Yu Shen next to the statue of Lord Yu Qian!"

"Let the money for the statue be paid by the unruly people down there. How can they not show any appreciation for such a great hero from their hometown?!"

"..."

The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were grinning from ear to ear, and the officials in the south were equally delighted.

The only regret is that the capital of the Ming Dynasty was not changed from Beijing to Nanjing.

However, they have also received the news that they will start moving the capital once the situation is completely stabilized.

The officials from the six ministries in Nanjing were so moved that they wanted to cry when they thought about the nearly century-old dream of moving the capital.

They are finally no longer dispensable and sinecure positions, and they are finally beginning to enter the center of power in the Ming Dynasty!

In the month that followed, the entire Jiangnan region was immersed in carnival joy.

During this month, Yu Shen's defense of the capital city was gradually improving.

Large numbers of soldiers continued to gather around the capital.

At this time, the number of troops around the capital had reached 250,000.

Among them, only 50,000 were border troops brought by Cao Li from Liaodong.

The other 200,000 people were gathered together by Yu Shendong and transferred from various places.

At this time, Yu Shen had already spread the news that Zhu Youtang had been captured by the Oirat people.

The confused people of the Ming Dynasty believed it to be true because of the example of Emperor Yingzong being captured.

Therefore, the defense work around the capital at this time was carried out on the scale of the defense of the capital.

In order to prevent Zhu Youtang from returning to Beijing, Yu Shen spent a huge amount of money.

In addition to the 10,000 chevaux de frise that he had the Ministry of Works hastily make, he also gave each of the soldiers he transferred to the capital one or two taels of silver.

Yu Shen took this silver from Zhu Youtang's treasury.

Subsequently, Yu Shen developed a complete reward mechanism.

All the soldiers in Beijing will be rewarded with ten taels of silver and the general flag will be raised if they kill a bandit!

Kill two thieves and you will be rewarded with 20 taels of silver and promoted to a hundred households!

Kill the deputy general and you will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver and promoted to a thousand households!
Anyone who can kill the general and seize the flag will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver and promoted to commander!
As long as Zhu Youtang can be prevented from returning to Beijing, what would it matter even if his treasury is emptied?
The last time such a large amount of rewards appeared in the Ming Dynasty was during the defense of the capital organized by Yu Qian.

The civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were always extremely stingy in their treatment of soldiers. On weekdays, they could not even guarantee that the soldiers' food and wages would be paid on time.

Yu Shen suddenly became so generous, he really wanted to stop Zhu Youtang from returning to Beijing, and he would do anything he could.

After mobilizing a large number of troops, Yu Shen began to set his sights on the East and West Factories and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Yu Shen still remembered how cruel and domineering these guards were during Zhu Youtang's reign, suppressing the officials in the capital.

Yu Shen was simply drooling over the powerful force of the Factory Guards.

It's not just the military strength of the factory guards themselves, but also their intelligence network.

Because the imperial guards were directly under the emperor's command, Yu Shen asked Zhu Youlang to issue an order to mobilize some of the remaining imperial guards in the capital.

But what surprised Yu Shen was that those factory guards simply did not obey Zhu Youqiu's orders.

Even though Zhu Youlang had ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, he was unable to mobilize a single soldier from the imperial guards.

In the capital, no matter who gave orders to the factory guards, they would be ignored.

This made Yu Shen very angry. He was very depressed that he couldn't get the fat piece of meat from the factory guards.

He wanted to reorganize the factory guards, but he no longer had time.

Because there was a battle report from Juyong Pass.

The retired emperor Zhu Youtang led his troops back to the capital!

(End of this chapter)