The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 449: Sinner’s Edict

On October 30th of the first year of Wuding, the remnants of the bandits who had been entrenched in the city of Jinan for half a year were surrounded by the army and civilians of the Great Qi. They were forced to surrender due to internal and external troubles.

On that day, the main force of the 14th Guards Army entered the Jinan Prefecture City, and Tai'an, Laiwu, Dezhou and Binzhou were recovered at the same time. The entire Shandong Province was under the jurisdiction of the Great Qi.

The population of Jinan City is still 400,000, and despite the war, the city walls are still relatively intact.

In the fourth year of Hongwu reign of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, the government carried out large-scale renovation of Jinan City. The original earthen wall was replaced with a brick wall. The circumference of Jinan City was 12 li and 48 zhang, 3 zhang and 2 feet high, with 3350 battlements, and several corner towers, enemy towers, and artillery towers.

Jinan City is high and the moat is deep, it is as solid as a rock and could have been fought.

However, the people had lost their support. Not only did they not help defend the city, but they continued to attack the bandits. In addition, the Qi army swept through Shandong with ease, and threatened to massacre the entire city if they did not surrender. The people became even more terrified and were unwilling to help defend the city. The bandits lost their will to fight and had to surrender.

After surrendering, a large number of bandits were sent to Zhaoyuan and Qixia to mine. They would spend the rest of their lives in the dark mines. A total of 76 bandit leaders above the rank of head of a family were taken to the North and South Streets of the city and executed by slow slicing.

There were 200 wealthy merchants in Chengzhou County, and regardless of whether they were good or evil, their property and land were all confiscated.

The property of more than 3,650 merchants of all sizes in the city was also confiscated, and all their private property was put into the treasury of the Great Qi.

On the first day of November, the emperor issued an edict that anyone who provided financial support to the Ming army and bandits during the siege of Linqing City, regardless of whether they were young men, merchants or officials, would be executed for treason.

On the second day of November, Daming Lake, west of Jinan City, was covered with withered lotus leaves and withered willows. Amidst the bitter wind and rain, the violent Qi butchers swung their knives, and more than 3,000 rebel heads rolled down, turning Daming Lake into a river of blood.

However, hundreds of thousands of Jinan citizens cheered loudly and complained that the emperor had killed too few people, because according to the "Land System of the Qi Dynasty", all the people of the Great Qi would be divided into the land and grain obtained from the confiscated properties.

The civil officials of the Great Qi in Shandong had already prepared for the capital in advance. As early as the beginning of October, there was a constant stream of carriages and pedestrians on the official road from the five prefectures of Qi and Lu to Jinan Prefecture. Large quantities of food, wood, and stone were transported to Jinan to prepare for the construction and expansion of the new capital.

More than 3,000 craftsmen were recruited to Jinan and began to expand the city wall of Jinan in the severe cold.

On the eighth day of the eleventh month, Emperor Wuding's palace was moved from Linqing Prefecture to the renovated main palace of Prince De's Mansion in Jinan.

The Prince De's Mansion was originally the palace granted by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to his great-grandson Zhu Shouqian, and now it has become the palace of Emperor Wuding.

The Prince De's Palace was a miniature version of the Forbidden City. Its walls formed a "U" shape with the outer city walls. It contained the Chengyun Hall, the Huandian Hall, and the Cunxin Hall; it also had the Main Palace, the East Palace, and the West Palace, all with a variety of structures and designs. At approximately one-third the size of the Forbidden City, it was clearly inadequate for the imperial palace of the Great Qi Dynasty.

In times of emergency, everything should be kept simple, and the emperor was not prepared to make Jinan the capital for a long time.

Jinan was just a transition in the early days of the empire. After occupying Huguang, Da Qi would carry out large-scale capital construction activities in the areas of Junzhou, Xiangfan, Nanyang Gucheng, and would have to mobilize at least 300,000 manpower.

On November 12, Emperor Wu Ding reviewed the three armies at Qichuan Gate (East Gate) in Jinan.

The whole city was in an uproar, the military and civilians were cheering, and a total of 45,000 troops from various units of the Guards marched in formation past the Qichuan Gate in turn. The scene was spectacular.

After four months of crazy military expansion, the number of troops under Liu Zhaosun's command had soared from thirteen at the time of the "Southern Hunt" to 45,000.

Together with the farmers' associations, chambers of commerce, workshops, and trading companies in the counties and prefectures of the six prefectures of Qi and Lu, the total number of young and strong people who can be mobilized to join the army under the rule of the Great Qi is close to one million.

Thanks to the implementation of the Qi Dynasty's Land System, millions of farmers, military households, and boatmen across Qi and Lu were fully mobilized, unleashing their war potential to its fullest. Shandong province alone could provide the emperor with 50,000 high-quality soldiers.

This war machine, which relies on war to support war, kills the rich to help the poor, and controls everything with force, will continue to advance rapidly, sweeping across Henan, Hebei, and the capital region.

There was nothing new in the following battles. The scene of the people welcoming the royal army with food and drink would be repeated again and again in counties and prefectures across the country.

The life of a time traveler is so boring and monotonous. It is hard to imagine how much this war machine will grow in five years.

Perhaps five years later, the time traveler will have already unified the north and the south, and things will have returned to the way they were originally.

~~~~~~
On November 15th, Emperor Wuding issued an edict to change Jinan to the Eastern Capital and establish the capital there.

On November 18th, the emperor, contrary to his usual behavior, issued an edict of repentance.

Excerpts from the imperial edict are as follows:
I, with my virtuous heart, have inherited the great throne. Since ascending the throne, I have striven to bring peace and prosperity to the nation and prosperity to the people. I have worked diligently and cautiously, tirelessly day and night, without a moment's slack, exhausting all my energy and devoting all my blood and sweat. Can this be summed up simply by the word "hard work"? The six lines of the Dun Gua in the Book of Changes never mention the duties of a ruler, demonstrating that a ruler has no place to rest or retreat, but must devote himself to his work. This is truly what it means. Yet, Heaven's wrath has befallen us, fueling resentment among the people. Disasters have plagued us, and wars have raged. North and South clash, East and West stalemate. Merchants have been shut down, scholars have been forced into the wilderness, children have become bandits, and fertile fields have been turned to weeds. Mausoleums have been devastated, and ministers have been slaughtered. No national disaster has been greater than this. In the year of Guiwei last year, bandits besieged the city, and a devastating epidemic spread from house to house. Entire families were lost, with no means of collecting the graves. Countless bodies were lost, the dead piled up, nine out of ten houses were empty, and even the living and the dead mingled. Even at dusk, no one dared to walk!

I was hastily led south, my soldiers scattered, my ruler and his ministers looking back, not knowing where to return. I am the people's parent, yet I cannot protect them; the people are my children, yet I cannot cradle them. I have allowed Qin and Yu to become ruins, and Jiang and Chu to become filthy, bringing shame to our nation and guilt to the people. This is not my fault, so who else can bear the responsibility?

If it were possible for a good harvest and peace to prevail over the world, and if the disaster could be diverted from my own body to save all nations, that would be what I wish for, and I would do it with all my heart!
November 18th, the first year of Wuding
The general meaning of the edict is:

Since assuming the throne, I have diligently and conscientiously dedicated my life to the people of the land. Yet, disasters and plagues have plagued the land, leaving thousands of miles of land devastated, the people displaced, bandits rampant, countless casualties among my subjects, and even the Empress's mausoleum plundered. Now divided between North and South, with the Jiannu rebelling, and provoking Korea and Japan, the Emperor believes all these disasters are due to his own immoral and ineffective governance (e.g., his soft-heartedness, his willingness to kill too few people, and his willingness to feed the enemy at the cost of his own life). The Emperor has declared that the policies of the Great Qi will shift from lenient to strict, meaning he will become a true tyrant and kill more people. Therefore, everyone must strictly abide by the law, or else, don't blame me for being rude!
Finally, the emperor expressed his position to the people: In order to let the people live and work in peace and contentment, he hoped that God would bring all the disasters upon him alone and not involve others.

This edict of self-criticism was the first time that Emperor Wuding, in his long reign (as the retired emperor), reflected deeply on himself to his ministers.

For a time traveler who is extremely arrogant and conceited, issuing such a "confession of guilt" with such deep self-blame is a last resort.

Only by recalling Liu Zhaosun's grand ambition to open the country, transform the barbarians into Xia people, and become a sage for all ages, can we understand the pain and sorrow of the emperor when he personally wrote the edict.

~~~~~
On November 19th, at the first quarter of the morning, the lights in the West Palace of Prince De's Mansion began to light up.

Today, the emperor took some time off and came to the bedrooms of Queen West and Concubine Chen.

Shortly after dinner, Liu Zhaosun was about to go to bed with the two beauties when Zhang Dong hurriedly delivered several memorials from Dengzhou.

As it was concerning the war situation in Liaodong, Liu Zhaosun did not dare to hesitate, so he sat back in front of the desk piled high with papers, and wrote quickly, reviewing memorials.

After leaving the capital, like a phoenix reborn from the ashes, the body occupied by the time traveler was completely different from the previous one. Simply put, Liu Zhaosun had become a completely different person.

The emperor was now full of energy, as if he would never get tired.

According to the records of the Emperor's daily life written by Dongfang Gonggong, the eunuch of the Imperial Household Department (Dongfang Zhu, who had been castrated, could only peek at the emperor's daily life)

The emperor would often review memorials from early morning (6 o'clock) to midnight (midnight). After a tiring day, he would throw down his brush and immediately jump onto the dragon bed to show his favor to the empress and concubines. Sometimes, he would even need two beautiful maids to help him to enjoy himself.
After tossing and turning until the late night at Chou time (3 o'clock), the emperor finally fell into a deep sleep. However, he only slept for two hours and woke up full of energy and unstoppable.

When Old Song was taking Emperor Wuding's pulse, the pulse he felt between his fingers was like the wild horses in Liaodong growing wildly in the spring.

The various miraculous pulse patterns displayed by the Emperor's dragon body caused Old Song, who claimed to be the best doctor in Liaodong, to become mentally confused. This made him doubt his profound medical skills acquired through many years of practice, and he even had the urge to give up medicine and devote himself to literature.

~~~~
When Chen Yuanyuan came to urge him to go to bed for the third time, Liu Zhaosun hesitated and was about to hug the beauty's slender waist and take her into the bed.

Suddenly, a memorial on the desk caught the emperor's attention.

"Chen Xin, the magistrate of Wendeng?"

He read two lines hastily and his brows suddenly furrowed.

(End of this chapter)