Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 15: Partisanship
He never imagined that there would be such a thing as a French cannon in a duke's mansion.

This was an era when the Ming Dynasty was closed to the outside world and the great maritime trade had not yet been fully launched.

Western cannons are durable and not prone to explosion, and are extremely valuable.

All the major military leaders of the Qing Dynasty were vying for it.

Even during the Wanli period when the three major camps had not yet completely collapsed, the Shenji Camp had only a little over a hundred field artillery pieces.

Moreover, most of them are cup-mouthed general cannons manufactured by the Ministry of War.

That is the elite firearms unit of the entire Ming Dynasty!

There are more than 30 French cannons in the Duke Dingguo's Mansion.

How could Zhu Youjian not be surprised?

Continuing to look down, the other nobles were fine.

Just hide some armor, bows and crossbows and so on.

Zhu Youjian didn't look at them one by one carefully, and directly asked Li Ruolian to report the total number.

"Your Majesty, from the homes of forty-two dukes and marquises, including Duke Dingguo and Duke Chengguo, a total of 142 million taels of silver, 7,000 taels of gold, over 1,300 sets of armor, 800 bows and crossbows, and a number of other valuable treasures and paintings were seized."

More than 1.4 million taels of silver was not much different from Zhu Youjian's expectations.

Although there is money in the capital, there are also many people.

There are more than 300 nobles above the rank of earl.

There are more than 2,000 officials, big and small.

There are countless merchants.

There are still only a few corrupt officials like Zhou Kui. Most of them have tens of thousands or thousands of taels of silver at home.

Small amounts accumulated over time allowed Li Zicheng to plunder 70 million taels of silver.

However, Zhu Youjian did not expect that thousands of iron armor bows and crossbows would be found in the homes of nobles and relatives.

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, there were no restrictions on swords and knives, and it was normal to carry a knife on the street.

However, the circulation of armor and crossbows is strictly restricted.

If you hide a piece of armor at home, you will be sentenced to exile.

If the number exceeds five, it will be treated as treason and the three clans will be exterminated.

I don’t know why these nobles secretly keep armor.

But now it just happened to solve Zhu Youjian's urgent problem.

Putting the accounts on the desk, Zhu Youjian pondered for a moment and gave instructions to Li Ruolian.

"All the silver was stored in my private vault, and all the calligraphy and paintings and treasures were exchanged for cash when they were brought to the market."

"Send the armored bows and crossbows directly to the inner training grounds. Find Wang Erhu and have him select one thousand sets of armor from those repaired and copied by the Ministry of Works. Everyone in the Brave Guard Battalion must wear them."

"Leave the Franco-Machine Cannon to Li Guozhen, the Earl of Xiangcheng. Have him take those from the Divine Machine Battalion who can operate the cannon and report to Wu Xiang."

"Little Zongzhi."

Li Ruolian immediately bowed and was about to leave, but was stopped by Zhu Youjian again.

"How's the Donglin Party investigation going?"

"In reply to Your Majesty, based on the evidence 'found' in Zhou Kui's home, I have already identified more than a hundred officials, including former Jinyiwei Commander Luo Yangxing, Zuo Du Yushi and others who have been arrested, but their homes have not been searched yet." Li Ruolian replied again.

Zhu Youjian rubbed the accounts and thought about it.

"So, assign some people to spread the news about what happened last night. Say that I'm going to wipe out the Donglin and Zhejiang factions. See how many people are secretly contacting each other, and how many are sending messages to the rebels."

"First, escort the silver from the nobles' homes here. When daybreak comes, you can lead your men to raid the homes of these officials with great fanfare."

"Little Zunzhi!"

This time, Li Ruolian waited for a while, and only left cautiously after seeing that Zhu Youjian had no other instructions.

The door of the Qianqing Palace was closed.

There was dead silence all around.

Zhu Youjian, who had not slept for a day and a night, had no desire to sleep at this time.

He was also not sure whether it was feasible for him to ask Li Ruo Lian to go fishing in a high-profile manner.

But by daybreak, or at the latest after noon, Li Zicheng would have almost arrived.

If he didn't take this opportunity to uncover the surrenderists and traitors within the court, it would likely happen like in his previous life, with officials opening the city gates to welcome the rebel king. And by then, he would definitely have to focus most of his energy on defending the city.

If the unstable forces in the court are not eradicated, mistakes will easily occur.

But if we act rashly, we might provoke a counterattack from within the city.

Although he had just dealt with several high-ranking officials who surrendered, the connections between officials and factions in the late Ming Dynasty were too deep.

A complete industrial chain has even been formed.

Local powerful people sponsored students' studies, bribed examiners, and used money to make arrangements to help students become officials in the court. After one or two high-ranking officials became officials, they continued to promote local students, forming court factions headed by officials from the local household.

Then they protected local tyrants and allowed them to make a fortune, and the tyrants in turn provided operating funds for the officials.

Both parties support each other and become bigger and stronger together.

Moreover, these factions often relied on the ample funds and smuggling routes provided by the powerful to bind the nobles and relatives together.

Nobles and relatives represent military power, high-ranking officials represent political power, and powerful people represent financial power.

The three powers were integrated and developed over two hundred years during the Ming Dynasty.

This pattern is deeply ingrained and affects the entire system.

That is why the previous emperors did not dare to touch the cake of a certain party at will. They could only support the eunuch party headed by the emperor to compete with many parties.

Even Zhu Youjian.

They only dared to arrest many high-ranking officials in the middle of the night, leaving the various parties leaderless and beating up some while others were defeated.

The disaster was shifted to the newly promoted Ni Yuanlu, Zhang Shize and others.

Finally, they took advantage of the pressure from Li Ruolian's public house confiscation and the panic caused by the imprisonment of party leaders to uncover a number of party backbones.

The only purpose is actually to bind the hearts of the people in the court to defend the city.

This series of analyses and plans has drained Zhu Youjian of all the political schemes that a modern man could think of.

If there are any more accidents, we can only rely on the army rewarded by the system to suppress them forcefully.

As he was thinking, Zhu Youjian finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell into a deep sleep on the dragon throne.

……

When I woke up again, it was already daylight.

Wang Chengen had been standing aside waiting for a long time.

"Bang bang~"

When two drum beats sounded, Zhu Youjian was startled and quickly sat up.

"What time...what time is it?"

"Your Majesty, it's only the middle of the morning, please rest for a while."

Wang Chengen said with some heartache.

Our emperor is usually very diligent in his work, but he has never been like he has been in the past two days, losing his appetite and even daring not to sleep.

Zhu Youjian ignored Wang Chengen.

First I calculated the time to clear my mind.

It was past the middle of the Mao hour, which was probably six o'clock in my previous life.

I breathed a sigh of relief, as long as I didn't sleep.

If he sleeps until noon, all his plans will be ruined.

He took the tea handed to him by Wang Chengen and moistened his hoarse throat.

Then he stood up from the dragon throne.

"Wang Banban, has the noble's dirty silver been deposited?"

"Over one million taels of dirty silver have been deposited into the treasury, and another four hundred thousand taels are on the way. Just after the hour of Mao, Commander Li arrived and told me to inform His Majesty that the armored vehicles and artillery have been delivered, and that we can go to Luo Yangxing's residence at the hour of Chen."

Although Wang Chengen felt distressed, he still told Li Ruolian everything she said.

Zhu Youjian nodded, straightened his clothes, and walked straight out of the hall.

"Wang Banban, have the Yongwei Battalion eat immediately. At noon, march out of the Meridian Gate in full armor and report to Wu Xiang's residence. Tell him to be energetic and spirited!"

(End of this chapter)