The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 550 Who is the enemy within the Ming Dynasty?

Who is the enemy within the Ming Dynasty?
This problem is indeed difficult to see when you are in the situation.

In other words, it is difficult to tell for the young Zhu Changxun who was born in the Ming Dynasty.

Who could have imagined that the Zhejiang Party would secretly communicate with Japanese pirates for the benefit of overseas trade?

Who could have thought that it was the Donglin, which was regarded as serving the country and the people by the Qingliu, that ultimately led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty!
If Wanli had not gained a few hundred years of experience, he would never have imagined that the Zhejiang Party had been secretly colluding with the Japanese pirates.

It was even more impossible for him to imagine that Yang Bo, Wang Chonggu, Zhang Siwei and other people who were packaged as loyal and honest people would suddenly become the eight imperial merchants who sold the Ming Dynasty to the Later Jin!
In history, Shen Weijing, who had secret dealings with Japanese pirates, was also the envoy for negotiations between the Ming Dynasty and Japan.

In history, Yang Hao, who had secret dealings with Japanese pirates, was still the commander-in-chief of the Ming army.

In history, Han Yu, who had secret dealings with the Qing army, was still the chief minister of the Ming cabinet!
Were Wanli, Tianqi and Chongzhen in history all mentally unstable, specifically employing traitors who collaborated with the enemy and sold out the country?
They're not mentally ill, they just don't see it.

From this we can see that it is difficult for people in the situation to see who the enemy is within the Ming Dynasty.

Now Wanli even didn't know how to explain this problem to young Zhu Changxun.

Because some of the things he knows have not happened yet.

He thought about it carefully, and finally explained in words that little Zhu Changxun could understand: "The enemies within the Ming Dynasty are those who put their own interests above the interests of the Ming Dynasty. They are willing to sell out the Ming Dynasty for their own selfish interests, such as the Zhejiang Party and the Donglin Party."

Upon hearing this, little Zhu Changxun was still somewhat puzzled and asked, "Father, you mentioned the Zhejiang Party and the Donglin Party. Who is the Zhejiang Party and who is the Donglin Party?"

This really deserves to be explained to you.

Wanli thought for a while, then explained in detail: "The so-called Zhejiang Party is an interest group centered on the wealthy maritime merchants in the Zhejiang and Fujian areas who developed by engaging in illegal overseas trade.

It is impossible to verify when the Zhejiang Party originated. It may have been during the Hongzhi reign of Emperor Xiaozong, or during the Chenghua reign of Emperor Xianzong, or perhaps even earlier.

This is the most terrifying thing about these civil servants with ulterior motives. You don’t even know when they will appear.

If they don't jump out to seize the imperial power, you won't even know they exist. By the time you know they exist, they may have already spread throughout the court and even covered the sky.

The Zhejiang Party had gradually been exposed during the Jiajing period. The reason they were exposed was the Yuyao Xie family massacre caused by their competition for overseas trade interests.

If there had not been the Yuyao Xie family massacre, few people in the court would have known that the pirates and even the Japanese pirates on the southeast coast were supported by the Zhejiang Party.

The Zhejiang Party secretly colluded with Japanese pirates for the benefit of overseas trade. They put their own interests above the interests of the Ming Dynasty. For the huge profits from overseas trade, they would do anything.

The reason why the southern Japanese pirates had not been completely eradicated after 20 to 30 years of suppression during the Jiajing period was because they were secretly passing information to the Japanese pirates, making them seem to have divine help and appear and disappear at will.

When my father conquered Japan, we had to keep it a secret from them. Otherwise, with their secret assistance, it would be difficult for us to wipe out the Japanese pirates.

Although the Japanese pirates have been wiped out, the Zhejiang Party is still there. The reason why my father has not dealt with them is because of Donglin.

The harm caused by Donglin was greater than that of the Zhejiang Party, because the remnants of the three major powerful families in Puzhou were using Donglin and even secretly controlling it.

You may not be very familiar with the three major families in Puzhou, because your father destroyed their lair before you were born.

The so-called three major families of Puzhou are the Yang family of former Minister of Personnel Yang Bo, the Wang family of former Minister of War Wang Chonggu, and the Zhang family of former Chief Minister of the Cabinet Zhang Siwei.

On the surface, they were all capable officials and even virtuous ministers, but in fact, they had been secretly communicating with the Northern Tartars and doing business with them.

They were the main culprits for the increasingly serious disaster caused by the Northern Tartars during the Jiajing period, because they secretly sold a lot of contraband to the Northern Tartars and even tipped them off, causing the Northern Tartars to become increasingly powerful and frequently invade the border.

When my father was dealing with the Northern Tartars, he originally wanted to deal with them all at once. Unexpectedly, Wang Chonggu was so cunning that he actually hid the relatives of the three families in advance.

This was a huge mistake. My father didn't want to make the same mistake again, so he kept the Zhejiang Party to fight against the Donglin Party, hoping to use this to lure out the remnants of the three major families in Puzhou.

Now it seems that this was also a huge mistake. They have already figured out the emperor's previous routines and even temper. It is simply impossible for the emperor to use the old tricks to deal with them.

As for who in the court is the Zhejiang Party, who is the Donglin Party, and who is the enemy within the Ming Dynasty, this cannot be determined in one sentence.

For example, the Zhejiang Party. On the surface, Zhao Zhigao, Lu Guangzu, Sun Yu and others were all members of the Zhejiang Party, but in fact, the real enemies of the Ming Dynasty were Shen Yikuan, Yang Hao, Li Dai and others.

For example, Donglin. On the surface, Gu Xiancheng, Zhao Nanxing, Ye Xianggao and others were the core of Donglin, but in fact, the real enemies of the Ming Dynasty were Han Yu and the remnants of the three major Puzhou families behind him.

Of course, these superficial Zhejiang Party and Donglin Party may also be used by Shen Yikuan and Han Yu to become enemies of the Ming Dynasty, and may even gradually conspire with Shen Yikuan and Han Yu to become enemies of the Ming Dynasty.

This cannot be determined in a single word; we must observe their words and actions to determine who are the enemies within the Ming Dynasty."

Who is the enemy within the Ming Dynasty? Does it still need to be determined?
Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun frowned and pondered for a while, then asked, "Father, do we still need to make a judgment? If we kill all the Zhejiang Party and Donglin Party, wouldn't that be enough to eradicate them completely?"

Tianqi and Chongzhen probably both thought so, but in the end, neither of them could find out the real enemy within the Ming Dynasty.

In history, both the Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties carried out large-scale killings, seemingly to eradicate the entire Ming Dynasty. However, in the end, not a single hair was left of the eight imperial merchants who actually sold out the Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that both Tianqi and Chongzhen were used by them, and I don’t know how many dissidents they eliminated.

Therefore, it is definitely not a good idea to kill them indiscriminately, because the people you kill may very well be the dissidents they want to eliminate!
Wanli shook his head slightly, then said solemnly: "Shen Yiguan and Han Yu probably want us to kill them all to wipe out the roots.

You think you can eradicate the internal enemies, but in fact you will only kill more and more internal enemies, and you don’t know how many officials they have deceived.

For example, most of the Qingliu now call themselves Donglin. Have you killed them all?

That's exactly what they want. Haven't you noticed that Li Dai is just randomly accusing people of corrupt officials? He seems to be accusing them of corrupt officials, but none of them are their people. Even if we kill 70% to 80% of the officials in the court, it won't hurt them at all.

Corrupt officials should be killed. Even if they account for 70% or 80% of the population, we must get rid of them.

Just think about who will be left after the cleanup.

Now that the corrupt officials have been cleared out, are most of the remaining ones clean officials?
If you kill all the upright officials, how many officials will be left in the court?
Are we going to rely on the hundreds of imperial factions we have cultivated to govern the vast Ming Dynasty?
You should know how big the Ming Dynasty is now. Such a vast territory cannot be governed by even a few hundred officials, let alone thousands of officials.

Therefore, we cannot just kill everyone indiscriminately.

If we just kill them randomly, we'll fall into their trap."

As he was speaking, Shan Sinan suddenly shouted from outside: "Report, Your Majesty, the Nurgan Regional Command has sent an urgent report from 800 miles away."

Something happened to Nurgandusi?!
Upon hearing this, Wanli said without hesitation: "Present it."

Shan Sinan walked in quickly, bowed and handed over the urgent report with both hands.

When Wanli opened it, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

This memorial was written by the Northern King Zhu Changxu himself.

The little guy was asking him whether he should mobilize a large army to encircle and suppress the Jiannu this year.

This should have been taught by Qi Jiguang.

The little guy began to grow up slowly under Qi Jiguang's guidance, which was something to be thankful for.

However, it was quite troublesome for this little guy to submit a memorial.

He hasn't earned enough money yet!

It took dozens of corrupt officials in the Ministry of Revenue to seize two or three million taels of silver, and only a few million taels of silver were seized in the following days.

This amount of money is only enough to provide food for the more than three million garrison households in the Nurgan Regional Administration for one month.

He simply did not have enough money and food to mobilize a large army to encircle and suppress the Jiannu.

Once the war begins, the rewards for military merit and compensation for casualties will be at least several million taels.

Food and supplies must be prepared in advance.

If they wanted to encircle and suppress the Jiannu, they would have to gather a large army in the Shuangchengwei area, but that place was too far away from the Central Plains.

It was very troublesome to transport food and supplies from the capital. If they went by land, they had to travel at least five or six thousand miles, and if they went by sea, they had to travel another five or six thousand miles.

If they wanted to completely wipe out the Jiannu, they would have to mobilize at least millions of troops to surround the mountainous area covering thousands of miles in radius.

The food and fodder consumption of these millions of troops alone is millions of stones per month. Even if we use centipede ships of 800 tons, at least 2,000 ships will be needed.

What's more, it may take more than a month to make a round trip across such a long sea route, so he had to mobilize 4,000 centipede ships to transport the goods in turns to be safe.

It is really troublesome to transport food over such a long distance, so it is unrealistic to mobilize food from the capital or even the Central Plains and transport it over.

They either purchased it from the Liaodong Regional Military Commission and transported it overland, or they directly grew crops there.

Originally, he planned to mobilize the garrison troops to grow crops there this year. This would not only save money on purchasing food, but also avoid the need to mobilize a large number of centipede boats or even horse-drawn carriages for transportation.

The problem is that if they want to store tens of millions of dan of grain a year, they will have to recruit at least 200,000 garrison troops.

He simply doesn't have that much money to support the migration of 200,000 garrison troops.

Moreover, the spring plowing season there has passed, so even if we plant crops this year, there is no guarantee that we will have a harvest.

This is such a hassle.

If the remnants of the three major wealthy families in Puzhou had not lured the king's uncle Wang Bing into embezzling tens of millions of taels of lamp oil money, they would probably have already begun mobilizing a large army to encircle and suppress the Jiannu.

You guys, don’t let me catch you. If I catch you, I will cut you into pieces!

Wanli gritted his teeth secretly and then began to write quickly.

He ordered Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Pianguan Town, Yansui Town, and Guyuan Town to each dispatch 20,000 elite cavalry to Shuangchengwei to set up camp and herd horses, to assist Liangyu in defense, and to prevent a surprise attack by the Jiannu.

Let’s hold on this year first and discuss the encirclement and suppression of the Jiannu next year.

This is the emergency plan he came up with in the past few days.

There was no other way. He really didn't have enough money to mobilize troops to deal with the Jiannu, so he could only dispatch 100,000 cavalry to deal with the emergency.

At this moment, he is still cleaning up the corrupt officials in the court, and then he will have to deal with the Zhejiang Party and Donglin. The entire court will definitely be in turmoil this year, and it is not appropriate to start a war lightly at this time.

(End of this chapter)