The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 209: Cutting down one vassal to scare the monkeys

The Dai Wangfu is collaborating with the enemy and selling out the country!

As soon as the official report came out, the whole country was in an uproar.

The articles written by the top scholar Li Tingji are really not exaggerated.

He didn't need any real evidence to portray the Dai Wangfu as a traitor who collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country.

What's more, the secret guards also found out a lot of things, and it was true that Zhu Yunzhuo, the general of the Hechuan Fengguo Palace in the Jiajing Dynasty, colluded with Altan Khan to plot a rebellion.

These are all real evidence. If he polishes them up a bit, the Prince of Dai's Mansion will become a traitor who collaborates with the enemy and betrays the country, just like the three major families in Puzhou.

As soon as the court bulletin came out, the entire Ming Dynasty was in an uproar.

The princes were all collaborators and traitors to the country. This is not false. During the Jiajing Dynasty, the general Zhu Yunzhuo of the royal palace colluded with Altan Khan to plot a rebellion. This was a sensation known to the whole world.

It was a fact known to everyone in the government and the country that the three major powerful families in Puzhou were collaborating with the enemy and selling out the country.

Judging from the articles in the court gazette, the three major wealthy families in Puzhou were most likely cultivated by the Dai Wang Mansion.

Because after the Prince of Shanyin and the Prince of Xiangyuan of the Dai Palace were enfeoffed to Puzhou, the three major powerful families of Puzhou miraculously rose to power. Moreover, after the nine clans of the three major powerful families of Puzhou were implicated, all the land under their names became the property of the Dai Palace.

Now the Dai Wang Mansion is still managing those fields and working hard to grow grain. The granaries are full but they refuse to sell any grain and are still working hard to build granaries.

What do they want to do?
It is obvious that these grains were prepared for the Northern Tartars, but the Northern Tartars failed to capture Datong Town last year, so these grains were not transported away by them.

There is something even more suspicious.

Datong Town, where the Dai Wang Mansion is located, is the place where the Northern Tartars have caused the most trouble. No one knows how many times Datong Town has been invaded by the Northern Tartars. During the Jiajing Dynasty, Altan Khan almost captured the entire Datong Town.

In this case, the population of the royal family of Daifan was actually one of the largest among all the vassal kings, and the land of Daifan was also one of the largest among all the vassal kings.

why?
Would the Northern Barbarians not kill the royal family members of Dai and rob the money and food of the Dai Palace when they saw them?

That's the only way to explain it.

Otherwise, how could the Dai clan have so many people and how could the Dai palace have so much land.

In short, once the official report was published, the charge that the Dai Wang Mansion was treasonous and betraying the country was confirmed.

Wanli took action based on the exact date the court bulletin would be published.

In this way, not only will the news not leak out in advance, he won't have to waste time explaining anything and can just directly reduce the power of the vassal states.

After he captured Prince Dai Zhu Naixuan, he sent out the imperial guards and light cavalry to capture all the members of the Dai royal family in the city.

Immediately afterwards, the 80,000 cavalrymen of the Beijing camp also dispersed and attacked, heading straight for other cities in Datong Town and Pingyang Prefecture.

The Datong Acropolis was suddenly filled with the figures of the imperial guards and cavalry, and wherever they passed, there were cries of grief and howling of ghosts and wolves.

The entire Datong Town and Pingyang Prefecture were also filled with troops of the Beijing Camp Cavalry. Wherever they went, there was chaos and people running around.

It was at this time that the remnants of the three major families in Puzhou finally understood why the scouts from the Beijing camp were searching everywhere. It turned out that these guys were trying to determine the locations of all the royal family members of Daifan.

They hide in the dark and are difficult to catch.

The royal family members who served as vassal states usually acted arrogantly and relied on their status as royal relatives to beat up even the county magistrate, prefectural magistrate and prefectural governor. They were so arrogant that everyone in Datong Town and Pingyang Prefecture knew them.

This is the retribution for committing many evil deeds in daily life.

In the past, they relied on their status as royal relatives and no one dared to offend them, so they acted with impunity. But now, once something happens, they become rats crossing the street, and everyone will shout and beat them.

Now, no member of the royal family can escape, and if they do, they will be caught.

In three days, one prince, eighteen dukes, and more than five thousand members of the royal family of Dai were all arrested.

At about 5 p.m. on the third day, Qi Jiguang arrived outside the Datong City Wall with 80,000 soldiers from the Shenshu Camp, 16,000 chariots, and more than 20 inspectors.

He still hadn't figured out what was going on, and the twenty or so inspectors had no idea why they were following the army. No one delivered reports to them during the march, and they didn't even know that the Dai vassal state had been abolished.

Soon, they were brought into the huge commander's tent.

Ma Gui, Shan Sinan, Peng Zungu, Huang Chengxuan and a group of generals from the Shenwu Camp and the Shenji Camp had already lined up in rows and were standing inside. Wanli had also been sitting in the commander's chair waiting.

After a brief exchange of greetings between the emperor and his subjects, Wanli raised his hand and invited them to stand in formation. He then solemnly announced, "The Dai clan has been implicated in treason. All members of the royal family have been captured. The next step is to confiscate their property. Xing Can, you will arrange for inspectors to conduct searches in Datong Town and the counties of Pingyang Prefecture. All property, grain, and land under the Dai Palace's name, including any hidden population, must be registered."

Upon hearing this, Huang Chengxuan hurriedly stepped out of the train, bowed and said, "I obey your command."

Wanli then ordered, "Shengwu, Bangping, Lujiao, and Shigong, arrange for your officers to lead the cavalry to assist the inspectors in the confiscation."

Upon hearing this, Liu Jing, Qin Bangping, Zhao Lujiao, and You Shigong hurriedly stepped out of the formation, bowed, and said, "We obey your command."

Wanli then said to Qi Jiguang, "Yuan Jing, you lead the soldiers of the Shenji Camp and the Shenshu Camp to transport the army's food and fodder. This time, the Shenshu Camp's chariots should also take some food with them to the grasslands south of Maoerzhuang.

First, use 16,000 chariots of the Shenshu Camp to surround a square city over there. Let the chariots of the Shenshu Camp watch over the food that is transported there, and then let the food carts of the Shenji Camp transport it back and forth continuously.

Also, don't leave the 16,000 war horses of the Shenshu Camp idle. Send 10,000 soldiers from the Shenshu Camp riding 10,000 war horses back and bring the remaining 8,000 chariots here."

This time Qi Jiguang finally understood.

It turns out that the army's food and fodder were copied from Dai Fan!
No wonder they set out on the expedition without even preparing food and supplies.

He quickly bowed and said, "Your humble servant obeys your command."

Wanli then said to Ma Gui, "General Ma, you should also arrange for your grain carts to continuously deliver grain to the chariot array south of Xuandewei. You should let the grain carts from Xuanfu Town transport the grain back and forth on their own. The same goes for the grain carts from Jizhou Town and Pianguan Town. You should just let them transport the grain back on their own.

Also, I will issue an order tomorrow for Datong Town to recruit another 50,000 border troops for garrison. You will undergo a brief training and selection process, and then we will send them to build a city north of Maoer Village. This year, you must build a Yunzhongwei City with a radius of at least ten miles, capable of storing at least one million dan of grain."

Now the number of troops in Datong Town will reach 100,000!
Ma Gui bowed with some excitement and said, "I obey your command."

The next step is to confiscate the property of the Dai Wang Mansion.

Wanli learned the lesson from the last investigation into the three major powerful families in Puzhou, and did not reveal his intention to reduce the power of the Dai clan in advance.

He went on the expedition suddenly, and after he came and prepared, he captured all the royal family members of Dai. All the properties under the name of Dai Wangfu were surrounded by the Imperial Guards Cavalry and the Shenwu Camp Cavalry, and were not moved at all.

This time he finally made a fortune.

The Prince of Dai's Palace was truly wealthy, with over 30 million dan of grain reserves. The gold and silver seized from over 5,000 palaces of the imperial clan amounted to no less than 5 million taels. Furthermore, there were shops, houses, fields, and hidden populations, and it was unknown how long it would take to count them.

Not only will there be military rewards for this war and compensation for casualties, but there will also be more than enough food for hundreds of thousands of troops. Even nearby border towns can bring over one or two years' worth of food and stockpile it.

In addition, the navy warships are constantly transporting food to the newly built citadels in the south of the Beipingdusi by water, so the Beijing camp does not have to worry about food issues in the past few years.

The Dai Wang Mansion did a good thing by preparing enough food and fodder for them to conquer the Northern Tartars.

In addition, even if the royal family members really rebelled, there would be no such thing as punishing all nine generations of their clan.

Wanli even deliberately gave him a lenient sentence.

He directly issued an edict to the world

The Dai Wangfu collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country, colluded with the northern barbarians and the three major powerful families of Puzhou to plot a rebellion, and the crimes they committed were too numerous to list. It would be against the will of heaven if the Dai vassal state was not abolished, so the Dai vassal state was abolished, and all the royal family members of the Dai vassal state were demoted to commoners and taken to Fengyang Prefecture to guard the imperial mausoleum. Each person was given 20 stone of food rations per year.

In fact, he also meant to kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

He clearly threatened the other princes, saying, "I am so reckless, I am so rebellious. Don't think that I dare not depose you just because you are a member of the royal family."

I'll cut one for you to see.

Will you hand over the land you accepted as donations?

If you don't pay it, you will most likely be "rebelled" and have your territory reduced.

This really scared the other princes.

The little emperor really dares to reduce the power of the princes!
Moreover, the one being reduced was one of the most powerful vassal states in the world.

If they do not hand over the land they have donated, will their land also be cut down?
As for charges such as treason and conspiracy to rebel, these charges were actually very easy to fabricate.

If the young emperor really wanted to reduce the power of the princes, they would be falsely accused of plotting rebellion even if they did nothing.

The Hongwu Dynasty is a clear example. How many of those dukes and nobles really wanted to rebel?
As a result, almost all of them were falsely accused of plotting rebellion, and out of fifty or sixty people, only less than five were left!
So, are they really planning a rebellion?
No, it should be said that we raised an army to quell the rebellion.

This is really a difficult decision. Is it worth the risk of rebellion to offer such a small amount of benefits?
(End of this chapter)