Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 337 The battle between loyalty and treachery has always been like this
If you want to deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your own people. Showing weakness to the enemy will paralyze their vigilance.

Although Bai Jiawen said almost nothing in the hall, he was observing everyone calmly.

Who is the fence-sitter who tries to please both sides, who is the sycophant who is bent on currying favor with the rebels, and who is the loyalist who still has the Ming Dynasty in his heart even at the risk of being exposed.

It is obvious that after a heated discussion, at least 20% of the gentry still remained loyal.

If these people were to encounter an opportunity to save the Ming Dynasty, they would definitely devote all their wealth and strength to it. Bai Jiawen regarded them as solid allies.

As for those villains who have forgotten the Ming Dynasty, Bai Jiawen has his own ways to force them to change their stance.

Nowadays, which tyrant who accumulates wealth and land has not taken a few lives? How can you accumulate huge wealth without using violence? You can't expect a pie to fall from the sky and hit your family, right?
Even if the tyrant himself has no intention of trampling on the law, his relatives and servants will show off their power, abducting women today and annexing shops and fertile land tomorrow. In the end, won't the head of the family have to clean up the mess?

Fortunately, you guys are skilled and decisive in cleaning up the mess, and you have already cleared out some of the related people. Without any victims to complain, the Red Scarf Bandits cannot catch the big guys by the tail.

However, those insects who were extremely infuriating but did not know how to restrain themselves were already wiped out by the "Jiaodong Hero" who sneaked into their homes.

In Denglai Prefecture alone, no less than twenty wealthy families were killed.

Bai Jiawen recalled that the "family massacre" took place about half a month after the Lunan Red Turban bandits were pacified.

Oh, and this rebel army that landed in Shandong also called itself the Red Turban Army!

Bai Jiawen slapped his thigh and cursed himself for being stupid. He should have thought of such a coincidental detail a long time ago.

At that time, the Red Turban bandits rose rapidly, sweeping across more than ten counties in southern Shandong, killing the entire family of Duke Yansheng and Lu Fan. They were soon completely pacified by the Black Flag Camp, and the remaining troops were incorporated into the Beiwei Army.

The bandits endured humiliation and hardship under the Beiwei Army, secretly accumulating their own strength.

Now the commander of the Beiwei Army has died in an accident, and his troops have split into several factions that do not obey each other.

Seeing that the shackles on their bodies were loosening, these red-turbaned bandits immediately changed their flag and established their own independence, attempting to establish their own grand ambitions.

Just as Fu Jian of the Former Qin Dynasty suffered a great defeat in his attack on the Jin Dynasty, the surrendered princes under his command rebelled one after another.

Yes, yes!

Bai Jiawen suddenly felt that some messy clues were connected together, and all these incidents were closely linked.

As the Beiwei Army was on its way to Dengzhou to set up camp, there were many reports of soldiers deserting.

At that time, these bandits were lurking in various places in Dengzhou.

Some bandits even used the pseudonym "Jiaodong Hero" to rob houses in Denglai Prefecture and burned all the loan notes and indentures, but they called it robbing the rich to help the poor, which was clearly a violation of the world order.

It is no wonder that Dengzhou City, which had been reinforced many times and could not be opened by the Red Cannon, fell in half a day.

It turns out that the rebels had long harbored rebellious intentions.

It’s a pity that the Beiwei Army was not prepared. Now that the Beiwei Army has completely rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, there is no room for maneuver.

This makes sense. Most of the Red Turban bandits came from the lower classes and had a natural hostility towards the gentry, so once they came to power they would severely suppress the gentry.

Of course, after the Red Turban Bandits suffered defeat in southern Shandong, they followed the Beiwei Army to gain experience in various places, and their experience in handling affairs became more and more sophisticated.

Judging from the series of actions of the Red Turban rebels, suppressing the powerful is their foundation, just like Liu Han's system of tomb removal to suppress the powerful. The difference is that the gentry under the rule of the rebels do not need to move.

The bandit soldiers essentially forced the powerful to give up extra land.

Once the Red Turban bandits got their hands on excess land, they would give it to small civilian households at a fair price. This was to, on the one hand, settle the refugees and restore local security, and on the other hand, to control local finances and taxation. By using the policy of "spreading the land tax over the land", they could keep the land and population firmly in their hands.

If the Red Turban rebels had not rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, Bai Jiawen would have admired the rebel soldiers for their courage to think and act.

They seemed crude and brutal, but they were actually very prudent. They tightened the ropes around the necks of the powerful step by step. First, they issued a decree to strictly investigate surrender and fraudulent donations, forcing a large number of tenants to abandon the gentry. Then they used "progressive taxation" to further suppress the gentry.

Bai Jiawen naturally would not confront the rebels openly, and would even cooperate with the rebels to sell a large amount of land under his command.

It is not easy to sell thousands of acres of land in normal years, and sometimes it takes several years.

But if his guess about the policy direction was correct, the Red Turban bandits would certainly add fuel to the fire and help him sell all the land in a short period of time. After all, the bandit soldiers were still waiting to resettle a large number of poor farmers and refugees.

Although it was very painful to sell 90% of the land, one cannot catch a wolf without sacrificing the child. The funds obtained from the sale of the land could also be used to replenish "military funds" so that they could be used when the government troops came.

Now he has accidentally discovered the "dark history" of the Red Turban bandits, which he can use to his advantage. Sometimes public opinion can hurt people more than swords.

Just imagine, if the gentry who were originally stingy heard about the "origins" of the Red Turban bandits, would they generously donate money to help the government troops fight the bandits?

Even those who are fence-sitters under the rule of the rebel army will give up their rebellious thoughts of clinging to the rebel soldiers after hearing this "anonymous propaganda".

However, anonymous exposure alone is not enough; we also have to "create" some tragic cases to help these fence-sitters take sides.

You have to know that the Bai family is one of the largest families in the local area, and they have countless "black materials" in their hands.

In the past, under the Meiji era, the leverage he had was only used to exchange for benefits with others, and even if the situation got out of hand, both sides would suffer.

Now that the more brutal Red Scarf Bandits have arrived, any secret piece of black material can destroy a family.

He also wanted to see how cruel the Red Turban bandits were. Would they exterminate the entire family for serious crimes, or just confiscate the family property?

If the Red Turban Bandits changed their foolish thinking and cooperated with the gentry to govern the country, his grand plan would be difficult to implement and he would have to live in seclusion at home until he was buried in his coffin.

I hope that the Red Turban bandit will remain evil and his vision of restoring the Ming Dynasty can be realized.

Bai Jiawen called his trusted butler and asked him to personally handle some secret matters.

We must be very careful in this matter and don't let the enemy soldiers find out about the Bai family.

……

Zhu Youjian has been very anxious recently.

Originally, most important officials thought that the Beiwei Army was just one of the heroes who recovered Liaodong, and that they were lucky enough to have taken over the Liaodong army. It would take several months to reorganize the internal affairs, and the decisive battle would take place half a year later.

But who knew that the Beiwei Army used some unknown method to quickly complete the integration, and all the Ming troops, whether from Liaodong or not, were swallowed up by them.

As for those officers and soldiers who were coerced, no one knew what kind of drug they had taken, but they actually followed the Beiwei Army in rebellion wholeheartedly.

The rebels had very few troops in total, so how could they have the spare strength to attack in two directions, one attacking western Liaoning and the other attacking Shandong, and even both directions being swift and strong?

Guangning, which the Guanning Army had been unable to recapture for a long time, was recaptured by the rebels within a month, and half of the prefectures and counties in Shandong were captured.

Before the many bandits were pacified, a new wave of rebellion arose with unstoppable force. Even though the Ming Dynasty had a respite for half a year after regaining Liaodong, it could not withstand such turmoil.

Zhu Youjian sent three successive contingents to persuade the Beiwei Army to surrender, promising them the same privilege as Li Chengliang defending Liaodong if they would retreat. Each attempt was rejected. The conciliatory troops were slain, with only one member remaining to report back. Were the rebels determined to persevere through their rebellion, storming the capital to purge the imperial court, or perhaps killing the Zhu family and taking the throne?

Zhu Youjian thought that if he continued to lose like this, he might not even be able to protect the capital!
He sent people to contact the Korean vassal states by sea, intending to join forces with them to attack the rebels from both the north and the south. However, he did not expect that the sea control of the Bohai Bay was also controlled by the rebels.

Not to mention the messengers, any merchant ships active in Bohai would be seized, and all officials would be executed.

So he could only send people to go to Nanzhi by land, and then take a boat to Korea, hoping that the Korean king would still consider the "etiquette of vassalage".

Having said that, when the Jiannu rebels were in Liaodong, they also controlled the sea power of Bohai Bay, but they never set foot on the land of Dengzhou, nor did they seize the three prefectures of Shandong.

Lu Wenjin was truly incompetent and hateful. He gave up the three prefectures without even firing a shot.

According to the report from the Imperial Censor, in order to stop the rebels, Lu Wenjin actually ordered the burning of the granaries in the three prefectures, which triggered a chain fire and harmed countless innocent people.

Extremely hateful!

Zhu Youjian thought to himself that the people affected by the disaster would not only scold you as a mediocre minister, but would also scold me for not being able to judge people well, and even make it seem like I was the one who ordered the fire under the orchestration of the bandits!

Zhu Youjian has become the "Zhao Gou" of the Ming Dynasty and is about to become a tyrant who harms the people!

Even though this guy saved Prince Heng's family and did not commit the serious crime of "losing a relative vassal", Zhu Youjian could not let him off easily.

He originally wanted to discuss with important ministers and exterminate Lu Wenjin's three clans.

However, most Shandong officials submitted petitions to defend Lu, claiming that the rebels were coming with great force and had already colluded with various treacherous people and rebel factions. Even with all his strategies, Lu Wenjin couldn't stop the collusion between the inside and outside.

If Lu Wenjin had not implemented the good strategy of "fortifying the walls and clearing the fields" and forced the bandits to stay in the three prefectures in eastern Shandong, I am afraid that the bandits would have already entered Zhili and even approached the capital.

As for the rumors of burning the city and harming the people, they are all nonsense. When the granary was burned, all the necessary precautions had been taken. No one knew that it would spread to the nearby areas.

Besides, all prefectures and counties had already made fire prevention arrangements. It was the evil people who took advantage of the fire and expanded the fire. How could Lu Wenjin be blamed for this?

Moreover, Lu Wenjin preserved the manpower, increased the chances of success for the subsequent counterattack against the rebels, and escorted Prince Heng's family in times of crisis. He was truly dedicated to the public good, so how could he be punished?

At present, the rebels are killing the gentry and the people, frantically extorting money and grain to give to the treacherous people. A large number of treacherous people have already defected to the rebels. If Lu Wenjin is executed at this time, it will lose the support of Shandong people and give the rebels an opportunity to exploit.

It would be better to allow Lu Wenjin to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence, and stabilize Shandong's defense line.

Lu Wenjin committed such a heinous crime, yet so many people still spoke up for him?! This is clearly a case of officials protecting each other, colluding with each other, and flattering the superiors and bullying the subordinates!
Zhu Youjian thought of the "civil servant group" mentioned in the poster, and the real case once again fits the "rumor".

I didn't expect that this group of people had actually formed an invisible network, and they could work together to make black look white.

Even some important officials in the court advised Zhu Youjian to put the overall situation first, leave Lu Wenjin, who knew the real situation in Shandong, and transfer troops from Zhili and Nanzhili to jointly suppress the rebels.

Governor of Ji and Liao, Hong Chengchou, also requested additional food and fodder. At present, the troops were insufficient to leave Shanhaiguan, and the mistake of the "Siege of Dujiatun" must not be repeated.

There were military emergencies everywhere, and more food, fodder and soldiers were needed, but the guilty officials could not be severely punished, and the government troops in various places were also stopping and not advancing.

Have they reached an agreement with the civil service group to sit back and watch the Ming Dynasty fall?
This bunch of insects forced the generals to rebel, burned the people, and drove his Zhu family to death. Could he just watch stupidly and watch the butcher knife fall on his head?

Zhu Youjian wondered what would happen if he insisted on his own way and sent the imperial guards to capture Lu Wenjin and bring him to justice.

He suddenly thought of Gao Qiquan's sudden death in Shandong. He had offended civil and military officials in the same way, and the real culprit had not been caught until now.

Previously, the beggar bandits were crazily slaughtering the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty. He allowed the uncle to move to another vassal state to avoid danger, which opened a loophole.

At this moment, the "civil service group" used this as an excuse to force the princes to leave their fiefdoms and seize the "backups of imperial power" in their hands.

If he tramples on the "bottom line of the civil service group", will the other party help him to get out of trouble and then establish a new monarch to form a "New Ming Dynasty"?
Ahhhhh!
Zhu Youjian suddenly felt a cold sweat on his back.

He knew very well that the rebels were his mortal enemies, and the civil service group was also his mortal enemies.

Fortunately, the two are at loggerheads with each other, and there is no sign of them uniting at the moment.

He must keep these two fighting each other in order to secure his throne, otherwise his brother would fall into the water and that would be his fate.

These rats in Shandong actually want to dispatch the Black Flag Battalion for rescue. They must want to wipe out the entire Black Flag Battalion so that Zhu Youjian will have no one to use!

He immediately rejected the other party's request and ordered the Ministry of War to urge the Black Flag Battalion to enter Beijing as soon as possible.

Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, was transferred to take charge of the defense of Shandong and control the reinforcements from Nanzhili. He was required to suppress the Shandong rebels as soon as possible and urge Hong Chengchou to go out of the country as soon as possible to fight the rebels.

He would not allow the "civil service group" to easily win over the hearts of the people.

After arranging the military strategy, he will next focus on administrative affairs.

He was determined to carefully distinguish all the officials in the capital, big and small, to see who was a member of the "civil service group" and who was a loyal minister to the emperor.

Let’s start by removing the spies of the “civil service group” from the cabinet.

Anyone who said anything good about Lu Wenjin would be kicked out of the cabinet, and the Jinyiwei would be sent to investigate their background.

Of course, the anonymous post also hinted that in the Ming Dynasty, where conspiracies were everywhere, the top brass of the Jinyiwei might have been corrupted by the "civil service group" long ago.

So Zhu Youjian changed his previous habit of doing things, picked up the list of Jinyiwei and randomly selected a few small centurions to do this task, and finally directly contacted Wang Chengen.

After all, Wang Chengen and he had a life-and-death friendship that had transcended the ordinary relationship between a monarch and his subjects, or a master and his servant.

If you don’t check, you won’t know. If you check, you will be shocked.

A certain deposed prime minister could accept tens of thousands of taels of silver in gifts every year, not to mention the extra fees for "requesting favors" and "delivering messages."

Zhu Youjian was no saint, but he knew that clear water holds no fish. When his brother died suddenly and he was "guarded" by Wei Zhongxian that night, he even paid out silver to bribe the guards around him.

Sometimes he would turn a blind eye when he knew that officials were making some money, but he never expected that the ministers of the Ming Dynasty would be so corrupt to such an outrageous degree.

When the finances were tight, he asked all the important officials to "donate", and each of them gave at most a few hundred taels, and some even cried poor. Now, he didn't expect that he could easily take out ten thousand taels.

The hatred of being deceived was like a thousand arrows piercing my heart.

They took tens of thousands of taels and gave me hundreds of taels of silver!
It's exactly the opposite!
"You rat, you insect! Hateful!" Zhu Youjian roared angrily at the imperial desk. "You act so righteous and upright in front of me, always pleading for the people, but behind my back you engage in despicable corruption! You deserve to be killed! You deserve to be killed!"

Zhu Youjian lowered his head to read the secret report handed over by the Jinyiwei. When he raised his head again, his eyes were already bloodshot with anger.

Catching all the insects in one fell swoop would be an offense to the "civilian group", but he decided not to sit idly by and wait for death.

Even if the road ahead is full of difficulties, even if there is the risk of "falling into the water", even if it takes half a year to barely kill one, he will eradicate these rats one by one, and then put their property into the treasury to cover military expenses!
The battle between Zhu Youjian and the "civil service group" began, and no one could stop him.

(End of this chapter)