The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 380 Kill Until You Are Afraid

In history, there was only one butcher named Zhu in the southeast.

That was Zhu Wan, the governor of the Jiajing Dynasty.

Wanli actually sent another butcher named Zhu to the southeast to kill people indiscriminately.

The butcher Zhu Wan in history had a very tragic ending.

He was ordered to wipe out pirates and Japanese pirates, but he was dismissed from office and stripped of his official title despite doing a good job, and was eventually forced to commit suicide by drinking poison.

It's different now.

Butcher Zhu Guozuo killed even more cruelly than Butcher Zhu Wan, but he was not harmed at all.

Not only did Wanli ignore the impeachment memorials of those officials, he even sent someone to convey his oral instructions to him, praising him for the good killing and allowing him to continue.

Zhu Guozuo became even more unscrupulous after receiving Wanli's oral order.

This guy actually ordered the Jinyiwei and the Beijing camp soldiers to thoroughly investigate those people they had killed, and once they found out, they would confiscate their homes and not let any of them go!
To be honest, this does seem like forcing people to rebel.

It was already excessive for him to just kill people at random, and now he even wants to raid their houses. Does he really think that the local forces are so easy to bully?
The relatives and friends of those local tyrants and gentry, and their relatives and friends, by doing this he has provoked all the local forces in the southeast coast.

These local tyrants are not so easy to mess with.

The reason why they were so easy to kill at the beginning was that they did not expect that the butcher Zhu Guozuo would dare to kill so indiscriminately.

Now they all knew that Zhu Guozuo dared to kill people indiscriminately, so naturally they would not allow anyone to attack with hoes or kitchen knives.

They also have weapons, and wrought iron is available everywhere now, so it is not difficult to make weapons.

A few days later, someone gathered young and strong men and took up weapons to fight against the Jinyiwei and Shenshuying soldiers.

Although they did not openly rebel, they clearly wanted to kill the Jinyiwei and Shenshuying soldiers in revenge.

Moreover, this time they were not just going out to scare people in a random manner. They gathered at least a hundred people and rushed forward to fight against more than twenty Jinyiwei and Shenjiying soldiers.

The Jinyiwei and Shenshuying soldiers seemed to still use the old method: if they couldn't win, they would run away and escape to the navy's speedboats.

This time, the navy officers and soldiers responded differently.

They took out the kerosene cans and sky bombs used to fight the enemy!

The local forces are numerous and powerful, and we may not be able to defeat them if we only use cold weapons or even ignition guns.

It would be a different story if the kerosene cans and the thunder bombs were taken out.

Both of these things can cause large-scale damage.

It would be useless even if more young and strong people from the local area came, even if they were armed with knives and guns.

Hundreds of young and strong men threw more than ten bombs to explode them, and then threw more than ten kerosene to burn them, and that would be enough.

If it really doesn't work, the navy still has gunboats.

If the local forces gather too many troops, the navy warships can completely pull the Jinyiwei and Shenshuying soldiers to hide first, and then pull the gunboats over to bombard them!

Of course, the local forces in the southeast are not yet strong enough to this extent.

In other words, they simply couldn't gather too many people before they gathered to rebel.

The navy officers and soldiers didn't even need to bring in gunboats to bombard the area. The use of kerosene cans and bombs would be enough to bring down the local forces.

Zhu Guozuo's reckless killing spree really scared the local forces along the southeast coast.

This guy is a butcher. He kills tens of thousands of people a day without any hesitation.

Who wouldn't be afraid of him killing people like this?
No one is so fearless of death.

The local forces in the southeastern coastal areas felt that their numbers and strength could scare Zhu Guozuo or the little emperor.

Who knew that Zhu Guozuo was not afraid at all. No matter how many people there were, this guy would kill them all.

The young emperor was not frightened. No matter how many people impeached Zhu Guozuo for killing innocent people, the young emperor ignored them.

With such killing, who would dare to resist?

In the end, Zhu Guozuo didn't know how many people he killed, and the local forces in the southeast finally became obedient and dared not resist anymore.

The next step was to search the house.

The southeastern coast was originally a prosperous area, and the forces in these places were basically wealthy people. Zhu Guozuo killed and looted people without any regard for the consequences, and the amount of things he looted was really scary.

The amount of gold and silver they confiscated was more than 20 million taels, and no one knew how much grain they had. Anyway, two or three thousand navy centipede ships were constantly pulling it towards Xinzhou.

There are also fields, which are even more frighteningly numerous.

For these wealthy families, a hundred acres of land is considered a small amount. Some have hundreds of acres, thousands of acres, or even tens of thousands of acres.

The land deeds they copied alone amounted to tens of millions of acres.

There were also pots, pans, utensils, and other household items, all of which were actually confiscated for the use of the artisans. Originally, the hundreds of thousands of artisans who were forced into a desperate situation could simply board the navy's centipede ships and head to Xinzhou, without having to bring anything with them.

The shabby things in their house can't compare to those in rich people's houses.

Their bedding is all wrapped in silk, many of their household items are made of precious wood, and they have so many pots, pans, and utensils that they can never use them all.

All they had to do was take their families to Xinzhou to build houses and workshops.

The southeastern coastal prefectures and cities had been in chaos for quite a while since the artisans started to cause unrest, especially during the period when Zhu Guozuo killed people without any regard for anyone. The situation in the southeastern coastal prefectures and cities was even more chaotic than when pirates and Japanese pirates were rampant during the Jiajing period.

Those local forces have all started fighting against the Jinyiwei, the Shenshuying soldiers, and the navy soldiers. They are just about to raise the banner of rebellion.

However, after the chaos, the states along the southeastern coast were unusually peaceful and tranquil.

Because almost all those who were dishonest were killed, and the remaining ones were all honest people, so naturally they would not cause trouble again.

Wanli also made a fortune because of this.

Originally, the Zhejiang Party's evil plan was to make him take out 20 to 30 million taels to solve the problem of the hundreds of thousands of craftsmen causing unrest, so that he would have no money to fight the Japanese pirates.

Who knew that he would come up with an even more vicious plan, framing and killing everyone, and then confiscating their property!

This kind of thing is not something that an ordinary person can do, nor is it something that an ordinary emperor would dare to do. Even if an emperor dares to do so, he has to consider whether he can suppress the local tyrants.

Wanli dared to do this because he had sufficient military force and could suppress the local tyrants.

As a result, he made more than 20 million taels of real money.

And there is also the food and the land, whose value is unknown.

Anyway, he won't have to worry about the food supply for the craftsmen in Xinzhou anymore, and he won't even have to worry about the food supply for the navy officers and soldiers.

At this time, he was thinking about the problem of artisans, or the problem of the artisan system.

He had already started recruiting craftsmen a long time ago, and almost all the craftsmen in the capital and Nanjing had been recruited by him.

This time, together with the hundreds of thousands of craftsmen along the southeast coast, he had recruited at least eighty to ninety percent of the craftsmen in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. He planned to recruit the remaining one or two percent to Xinzhou.

Anyway, the place is big enough, and once all the workshops there are built, it will definitely not be enough to accommodate more than 100,000 craftsmen.

Originally, he was planning to build workshops on an area of ​​more than 100,000 mu, but who knew that the Duke of Wei's Mansion would directly give him a huge sandbar of more than 300,000 mu.

If all the workshops there were built, there wouldn't be enough for 200,000 craftsmen.

Therefore, he wanted to take this opportunity to recruit all the craftsmen in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty and reform the craftsman system.

Early that morning at about noon, as soon as he finished dealing with the memorials, he summoned the chief minister of the cabinet Shen Li, Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi, Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen, Duke Yingguo Zhang Yuangong, Duke Weiguo's son Xu Weizi, father-in-law Wang Wei, father-in-law Zhang Zhen, father-in-law Zheng Danian, Li Jianzhong, Wan Bangzhong, Zhou Danquan and others to the side hall where the map was placed.

These people had already received his notice that there would be a meeting this morning, so they came early to wait.

At his call, all these people arrived.

He recruited quite a few people this time, and no one knew what he was going to do.

He didn't say much. After everyone stood around the long table, he pointed to the map and said, "Zhonghua, go to the Ministry of Culture and Industry and ask them to recruit all the craftsmen in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty who are still in the local areas to come to Xinzhou.

We will reform the artisan system. From now on, artisans will no longer have to perform labor service, but will only need to work in the workshops and factories we run.

Moreover, we pay them a starting salary, at least one tael of silver and one shi of grain per month. The specific amount depends on their own ability. We pay them by piece or by labor rate. The more work they do, the more they get paid."

what?
Upon hearing this, Shen Li couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Your Majesty, do you dare to recruit them all without leaving a single one?"

Wanli nodded without hesitation and said, "Yes, all of them will be recruited. No one will be spared. All artisans must be concentrated in our workshops and factories or in factories under the Ministry of Industry to work. They are not allowed to stay in the local areas."

I'm afraid this won't work.

Shen Li explained carefully, "Your Majesty, there is a reason why the craftsmen stay in the local area, because the local area cannot do without them.

For example, carpenters make all the household items and even doors and windows in the area. Blacksmiths make all the farm tools and daily ironware in the area.

If we conscript all the local artisans to work in our workshops and factories, the local people will be short of many things. "

This is not a problem.

Wanli directly said to his father-in-law Zhang Zhen: "Zhang Guozhang, let's set up a Wanshengtang business. From now on, all the daily necessities needed by the people will be sold by Wanshengtang business."

what?
Upon hearing this, the father-in-law Zhang Zhen was also surprised and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. There are too many kinds of daily necessities for the common people. I am afraid I can't prepare them all."

Wanli shook his head slightly, then explained in detail: "From now on, you don't have to worry about production issues, you just need to be responsible for sales, whether it's in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty or overseas.

As for production, we set up businesses similar to Wanshengtang Pharmacy to do it, such as Wanshengtang Cloth Shop, Wanshengtang Steel, Wanshengtang Shipbuilding, Wanshengtang Tea, Wanshengtang Silk Shop, Wanshengtang Ceramics, Wanshengtang Coal, Wanshengtang Weapons and Equipment, etc.

I have called everyone here today to discuss this. We must establish various businesses, appoint specific people to be in charge, coordinate all the craftsmen and resources, and manufacture everything we need."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in sudden realization.

It turns out that His Majesty wants to do big business, the largest and most comprehensive business in the world!

(End of this chapter)