Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 209: Appointing loyal ministers, rebellion breaks out

On the third day of March in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, in Nanjing City, Zhu Yuanzhang was still reviewing memorials.

Of course it was impossible for him to just sit there and do nothing in Nanjing.

Now memorials from all over the south will be sent to Nanjing, and there are many things to deal with in various places.

For example, this year's water transport, local tax-free policies, the salaries of remaining officials after tax reductions, local disaster relief, and staff vacancies and other issues.

Everything else was easy to deal with. The policy was to exempt the grain transport from tax for one year, and the salaries of officials would be paid from the homes of corrupt officials and landlords who were confiscated. In addition, the salaries of all officials were increased threefold.

The biggest problem is the lack of official staff.

The number of officials in the Ming Dynasty was actually not large, except for the middle of the Ming Dynasty, from the Chenghua to the Zhengde period, when there were more than 20,000 civil officials and more than 80,000 military officials, totaling more than 100,000 officials.

By the late Ming Dynasty, the number of officials continued to decline. During the Chongzhen period, the number of civil officials remained at around 20,000, and the number of military officials was about 30,000, totaling about 50,000 to 60,000.

It seems to be more than in all previous dynasties, but in fact, the number of officials in all dynasties basically only counts civil officials, and military positions in the army are often not counted.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty had many military guards, and a large number of military positions were just empty positions. Many civil servants and military officers held several positions. Therefore, the actual number of officials was relatively medium among all dynasties.

With the uprisings of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and the continuous attacks of the Qing Dynasty outside the Great Wall, the number of civil servants and military generals decreased sharply, and vacancies appeared in many places.

The most typical examples are Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang and other areas severely affected by the uprising. In many places, county and state governments were vacant, and the number of vacancies increased greatly, so that Chongzhen had to constantly reinstate dismissed officials to fill them.

Now that Zhu Yuanzhang has arrived in Nanjing, he will hunt down and kill a large number of traitorous officials in the South. The number of officials in the South will naturally drop sharply again, with at least several thousand vacancies.

Therefore, when it was impossible to hold imperial examinations to select scholars, Zhu Yuanzhang could only ask senior officials in Nanjing to recommend candidates, including Ma Shiying and Shi Kefa.

In fact, it just means asking them to call people from their respective parties.

There are still quite a few eunuchs left, most of whom have betrayed their country and surrendered to the enemy, but there are still some who are loyal and died for their country.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party was in name only. However, there was a Fushe Society which could be regarded as a small Donglin Party. Zhu Yuanzhang also allowed them to nominate scholars from the society who had passed the imperial examinations but had not entered officialdom.

of course.

The prerequisite is definitely that one must be loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and not surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

At this moment, Zhu Yunfeng, who was beside Old Zhu, was also helping him read the memorial. He asked Old Zhu, "Grandfather, what do you think of Fang Kongzhao? He was recommended by Chen Zilong, and he is a member of the Fushe Society."

"What about the character's biography?"

Old Zhu asked.

"He and his son Fang Yizhi did not surrender to the Qing Dynasty, but lived in seclusion. Moreover, Fang Yizhi was also a loyal minister. When Chongzhen hanged himself, he cried bitterly in front of the coffin. He was beaten by Li Zicheng's men until his condyles were exposed, but he still refused to surrender. After Li Zicheng was defeated at Shanhaiguan, he escaped from Beijing with difficulty. After the Qing army marched south, he still refused to surrender."

Zhu Yunfeng searched for the character's information on his notebook.

There were at least hundreds of thousands of people with names and surnames at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, they did not have the ability to remember all of them, so they could only download the information and search for them using key words.

"Yes, Not Bad."

Old Zhu nodded with satisfaction and said, "Then let's recruit them. Summon both father and son."

"Ok."

Zhu Yunfeng wrote the word "OK" on the memorial.

He can also be considered as the acting emperor.

"Several other members of the Fushe Society are also recommended, but none of them are as dignified as Fang Yizhi. Some of them live in seclusion in the mountains, some concentrate on writing, and some, Wu Weiye and Hou Fangyu, serve in the Qing Dynasty."

"Wu Weiye and Hou Fangyu were sentenced to death, but the others can also be recruited. As long as they are capable and have not served in the Jiannu army, I can recruit them."

"That's fine."

"Ancestor."

Ji He beside him also said: "Ma Shiying recommended Peng Yuying, the head of the Nanjing Military Department, as the Zhejiang Provincial Governor to replace Zuo Guangxian."

"How is this guy?"

"Excessive greed leads to civil unrest."

"Ok?"

Old Zhu put down the memorial in his hand, frowned and looked at Ji He and said, "How dare Ma Shiying recommend such a person?"

Ji He turned his notebook over to show Lao Zhu, and said, "But this man served as an imperial censor during the Hongguang Dynasty after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and was also in charge of Zhangzhou. When the Qing Dynasty in Nanjing was captured and the Hongguang Dynasty was destroyed, he followed the King of Tang and the King of Lu and defended the city of Zhangzhou for three years. Wu Sangui sent people to persuade him to surrender, but he killed the messenger to show his determination. After that, the Qing court continued to recruit him, but he refused again and vowed to never surrender. Finally, the Qing army captured the city, and he hanged himself and died for his country."

"Well, thinking about it this way, sending him to Zhejiang Province as the inspector general is a good way to make the best use of his talents. Since he is a cruel official, let him confiscate the property of corrupt officials, landlords and gentry and distribute it to the people."

When Old Zhu heard that Peng Yuying was loyal and unyielding, his brows relaxed.

He really doesn't care about corruption now.

After all, martyrdom is the highest state of mind. Compared with martyrdom, corruption can only be regarded as a minor offense.

It's the same as Chongzhen and Liu Xiang. One of them was almost the culprit for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and the other was levying heavy taxes in Sichuan.

But as long as they die for their country, their reputation will quickly rise.

So even though Peng Yuying was a corrupt official, as long as he was loyal to the country and the Ming Dynasty, he could be used.

"This Zhao Hongfan is not bad either. He is teaching in Jiading now. Although he did not die for his country, he refused to be recruited by the Qing court many times after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, his family is very rich, extremely rich. He once spent a lot of money to transport a rare stone from Yunnan to Jiading."

"If he is conscripted, let him donate his property. Why would a loyal and patriotic person need so much money?"

"Okay, there is also this one, Yang Weiyuan, who was recommended by Ma Shiying. He is now a soldier in Huai'an. He was a member of the eunuch party. After the fall of Nanjing, he took his two concubines, dressed up, and hanged himself."

"Also come."

"Zhang Huangyan was quite good. Although he was only a juren, he was proficient in both civil and military affairs. He was also an important official of the Southern Ming Dynasty. He was known as the Three Heroes of West Lake together with Yue Fei and Yu Qian. He died heroically in the battle of Zhoushan."

"Not bad, not bad. This is the kind of loyal minister that my Ming Dynasty wants."

Old Zhu was still very pleased.

The Ming Empire, which he founded, nurtured scholars for three hundred years, although many traitors and traitors emerged and defected to foreign races to serve as running dogs.

But there are still many people, even corrupt officials, who did not sell out their country for personal gain, but went to their death calmly.

Even many of them may have become corrupt officials because of their own fault.

Because he set the officials' salaries too low, coupled with the inflation of the treasure money, officials were forced to engage in corruption in order to avoid starvation.

So be greedy if you want.
As long as there is the noble cause of martyrdom for the country, some things can always be tolerated.

It is better than those who talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality but secretly submit to the Qing Dynasty, such as Qian Qianyi of Donglin.

While they were checking which officials could be appointed and which could not, Mao Xiang walked in and said, "Your Majesty, there are urgent reports from Zhejiang and Jiangxi."

"Oh?"

Old Zhu put down the memorial, raised his head and said, "Is there turmoil?"

"It's just as Your Majesty expected."

Mao Xiang laughed and said, "Many people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang joined together to rebel, and some overseas bandits participated in it. There was also a large-scale rebellion in Jiangxi, and the momentum was huge."

"It's not surprising that they are joining forces to rebel. What's surprising is that there are pirates. But I think it's Zheng Zhilong."

Zhu Yunfeng thought for a while and said.

There were actually quite a few naval forces along the southeastern coast in the late Ming Dynasty.

In addition to the pirates composed of Han fishermen on the southeast coast, there are also Japanese pirates, Dutch devils, Portuguese and so on.

But by the 17th year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong was basically the only force left.

Because his wife was Japanese, he recruited all the Japanese pirates, and most of the Han fishermen and pirates on the southeast coast were also annexed by him. The Dutch devils replaced the Portuguese and were defeated by Zheng Zhilong. So now Zheng Zhilong is the real Pirate King, with more than 100,000 soldiers under his command, and controls all marine trade in the entire southeast coast.

If the big landlords and big businessmen in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian wanted to do foreign trade, they had to go through Zheng Zhilong, so it was normal for those big landlords and big businessmen to collude with Zheng Zhilong.

"Humph."

Old Zhu snorted coldly and said, "You are a traitor and a traitor. You just gave birth to a good son."

"There is no other way. Zheng Chenggong's achievements are too great."

Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head and said, "Let's recruit them."

"Well, print out a copy of the information about Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong."

"it is good."

Zhu Yunfeng used the small printer on his laptop to print out a copy of the two people's information.

After the information was ready, Lao Zhu said to Mao Xiang, "Ask Shi Kefa to come in."

"Yes."

Mao Xiang went out immediately.

After a while, Shi Kefa, who was now the Grand Secretary of the Nanjing Cabinet, came in and said, "Your Majesty."

"Here is the information of Zheng Zhilong and his son. Go and draft an imperial edict to confer the title of Marquis of Zhenhai on Zheng Chenggong and the title of Earl of Disloyalty on Zheng Zhilong! Ask them to come to Nanjing to see me."

Old Zhu pointed to the printed A4 paper on the table and said.

Unfaithful uncle?
Shi Kefa was stunned. He took the information and took a quick look at it, then he immediately understood what it meant.

It turned out that Zheng Zhilong later surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, but his son Zheng Chenggong became a national hero and had been fighting against the Qing Dynasty.

He originally wanted to say that Zheng Zhilong had a large number of troops. Wasn't it a bit inappropriate to insult him like this?
But obviously, after spending some time together, Shi Kefa also understood that Zhu was not a person who wanted to be questioned, so he swallowed what he wanted to say and said respectfully: "Yes, I will draft the imperial edict immediately."

"Ancestor, even an unfaithful man can be given the title of Earl. Isn't this an insult to Zheng Zhilong?"

Zhu Yunfeng became happy.

Old Zhu said calmly: "I just want to humiliate him. If he didn't have a good son, I would have sent troops to Fujian immediately."

Although Zheng Zhilong has a large number of soldiers and horses, Fu Youde's 500 men should be enough.

After all, no matter how good a ship is, it cannot withstand the Shenwei General rapid-fire cannon and mortar with a range of more than ten kilometers.

Caliber is justice, range is truth. Zheng Zhilong's red cannons with a range of three or four kilometers would be blown to pieces before they even get close.

"What about Jiangxi?"

"Kuang Zhao is really useless. Send a telegram to Xu Da and ask him to send 200 people."

"Row."

Zhu Yunfeng walked to the back side hall and asked the telegraph operator to send a telegram to Xu Da.

Old Zhu still has this habit.

Wherever you go, you have to set up a command post.

The current command post is located in a side hall of the Qianqing Palace, with various radio stations contacting Tang He in Sichuan, Xu Da in Hunan, Feng Sheng in Hubei, and the young Zhu Di who is still chasing Li Zicheng.

Compared to sending people from Nanjing to Jiangxi to suppress bandits, Changsha is definitely closer, so it is normal to ask Xu Da to send people there.

After the telegraph operator gave Xu Da the instructions given by Zhu, Zhu Yunfeng immediately said, "Contact the Prince of Yan."

"Yes."

The telegraph operator then sent a signal to young Zhu Di.

After a while, little Zhu Di replied: "Hello, hello."

"I can hear you."

Zhu Yunfeng put on his headphones and asked as if he was on the phone, "What are you doing?"

"Fighting."

"You are so useless. It took you so long to deal with Li Zicheng."

"No, you really don't know how fast he can run. The enemy's cavalry accounted for 70% of the total number. After the battle of Tongguan, they had so many of them that only the horses were left. What could I do?"

"Where are you now?"

"Li Zicheng has fled to the Dabie Mountains and is climbing the mountain. It's really difficult. Our rapid-fire guns are too heavy to be pulled into the mountains."

Little Zhu Di's tone was very helpless.

Li Zicheng initially fled towards Xuzhou in Huainan, but was intercepted by him.

After being beaten up, Li Zicheng had no choice but to flee south to Anhui.

Anhui was garrisoned by He Tengjiao, the deputy military commander of Huaixu. However, He Tengjiao did not have enough troops, only a few thousand men. He was unable to defeat Li Zicheng and could only defend Hefei.

Li Zicheng rushed to the city of Hefei and launched a fierce attack, but could not get in. Seeing that young Zhu Di was chasing him, he fled to the Dabie Mountains in the southwest.

Zhang Xianzhong had hidden in the Dabie Mountains before. The terrain there is complex and there are many mountains and forests, making it very suitable for hiding.

Although young Zhu Di was full of martial virtues and brought automatic rifles and rapid-fire cannons, they were not very useful in the mountains, especially the rapid-fire cannons, which were difficult to pull in.

Therefore, the situation was at a stalemate for a while, and they could not find Li Zicheng's main force and destroy it in one fell swoop.

After all, young Zhu Di was best at outdoor encounters. He was not very good at pursuit battles, as could be seen from his five expeditions against Mongolia.

In particular, Li Zicheng was a professional escapee who had been running around the Central Plains for more than ten years and was very experienced. When it came to escape ability, Sun Yuanliang was like a rookie in front of him.

After hearing about the situation on the young Zhu Di's side, Zhu Yunfeng said happily: "Then you should work hard. The old ancestor will soon deal with the south, and we will have to go to Beijing in a few months. If you can't even deal with Li Zicheng, the old ancestor will probably be unhappy."

"Okay, I'll die first. Then we'll see if we can find Li Zicheng's main force and bomb him flat with mortars."

Little Zhu Di hung up the shortwave radio communication.

After coming out of the side hall, Zhu Yunfeng saw that Old Zhu was writing an imperial edict, so he went over and asked curiously, "Ancestor, what are you writing?"

"Didn't you notice that there was something wrong with the intelligence system?"

Old Zhu raised his head and said.

"In the late Ming Dynasty, neither the East Factory nor the West Factory of the Imperial Uniform Guard was good enough."

Zhu Yunfeng said casually.

"After the rebellion is quelled, someone still needs to investigate. Jiang Lin must reorganize the Jinyiwei."

Lao Zhu said calmly: "You have to have a knife in your hand and eyes."

Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He looked at each other.

What eyes.

In fact, it is to kill people.

But it doesn’t matter.

There had to be a reshuffle. The corrupt officials and gentry in Jiangnan should have been killed long ago.

(End of this chapter)