Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 62 Zhongxian Goes Mad and Robs Money Everywhere (Part 2)

Wei Zhongxian went on a rampage in the Dai region, arresting princes and members of the royal family without any regard for consequences, and even ransacking their homes!

Such things can't be kept secret forever; even if he controls the post roads, it won't help.

The three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou already had their own communication channels, and they had even premeditatedly instigated the Dai princes to rob grain. It was naturally not so easy for Wei Zhongxian to block the news. The fact that they were transmitting messages through their own communication channels was only a little slower than the 800-li express courier service.

Within two days, the imperial court in the capital was in an uproar.

Wei Zhongxian has arrested hundreds of generations of imperial relatives and is currently ransacking their homes!

This guy is too arrogant. He arrested someone for robbing grain, and then he went and ransacked their house. It's obvious that he's shamelessly currying favor with the emperor by robbing the princes and royal family.

The homes of princes and members of the imperial family were all confiscated; the Ming Dynasty had never seen such an arrogant person.

Soon, impeachment memorials flew to the palace like snowflakes. Even those officials who had been beaten and were bedridden forced themselves to sit up and write their memorials, frantically impeaching Wei Zhongxian.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., Zhu Jue entered the main hall of Yu Xi Palace and saw that the memorials were much thicker than usual.

He glanced at the impeachment memorials again and couldn't help but sneer.

Han Kuang also wrote a draft of the memorials, which roughly meant that this matter was of great importance and that the princes should be appeased rather than suppressed, and that the princes' families should not be confiscated. Such oppression of the princes would likely cause unrest in the country.

This means that Wei Zhongxian is too arrogant. If he continues to copy like this, it may incur the dissatisfaction of the vassal kings, and even escalate into a rebellion by the vassal kings.

Perhaps the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou wanted to provoke the prince to launch a rebellion. Because many people in this world will say what others want to do based on what they are thinking, but in fact, others are not thinking, it is they who are thinking.

Han Kuang's proposed resolution also seemed to disassociate himself from the matter. He was implying, "Don't blame me for not warning you. If the vassal kings really raise an army to quell the rebellion, it has nothing to do with me. It's all Wei Zhongxian's fault."

These guys have a good idea: first, let the imperial family members of the Dai clan rob the imperial court of tax grain, and then let him, the emperor, send people to deal with it.

If he sends people to deal with it, they will definitely have to capture those members of the imperial clan who robbed the grain. If these guys then secretly stir things up, or even kill the imperial envoy and governor, just like the Chu vassal state did during the Wanli era, then things will get out of control.

The Chu vassal's robbery of tribute was secretly instigated by the Zhejiang faction in order to support the false Chu King Zhu Huakui to the throne. This time, the Dai vassal's robbery of grain is probably secretly instigated by the Jin faction in order to provoke the vassal king to launch a rebellion.

These guys are certainly calculating, but they overlooked one thing: the current vassal kings are no longer as ruthless as they were during the Hongwu and Yongle reigns. If the current vassal kings still had the same ruthlessness as during the Hongwu and Yongle reigns, the Ming Dynasty in history would not have fallen.

The current feudal lords are nothing but a bunch of good-for-nothings who only know how to indulge in extravagance and debauchery!

These useless idiots actually have the guts to start a rebellion?
They were lucky if they didn't wet their pants from being so scared of Wei Zhongxian.

Zhu Jue sneered for a while, then tore off Han Kuang's draft and handed it to Liu Ruoyu. He then said coldly, "Give the higher-ups a note: the imperial clansmen who robbed the grain only seized a hundred or so people and found over a million taels of real gold and silver. They are clearly rolling in money, yet they still gathered a crowd to rob the imperial tax grain. Why is that? Explain this to me."

This was his way of protecting Wei Zhongxian, but he didn't say it outright; he had Han Kuang clarify the matter.

How did Han Kuang resolve this doubt?

This clearly shows that someone wanted to incite the princes to rebel!
Han Kuang had a guilty conscience and dared not give a real explanation, so he could only give vague answers, and the matter of impeaching Wei Zhongxian was thus dropped.

When Wei Zhongxian saw that no one was going to stop him, he became even more frantic.

Zhu Jue really didn't have time to deal with Wei Zhongxian, as the construction of the eastern city was in full swing at the moment.

More than 300,000 able-bodied men from the garrison have been conscripted to build the northern city wall, and the factory buildings in the south are almost finished.

Materials such as pig iron, coal, quartz, feldspar, and clay are being continuously transported by canal boats, and the residences of artisans, farmers, and garrison soldiers are also about to be built.

He was so busy that his feet were practically touching the ground. Every day, after hurriedly finishing his memorials, he had to rush to the east city.

That morning, around 9 a.m., he had just finished processing the memorials and was about to head to the east city when Lu Xiang-sheng suddenly rushed over, cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty." Zhu Jue couldn't help but ask, "Jian Dou, how is the construction of the Jizhou garrison line progressing? Why did you come back?"

I've come to ask for your permission.

Lu Xiang-sheng quickly took out the map from his pocket and spread it out on the desk. He then explained in detail, "Your Majesty, as you can see, this is the core area of ​​Jizhou Town."

To the east lies the main Luan River, and there are cities such as Qian'an, Lulong, and Luanzhou. The distance between these cities is only a few dozen miles. We only need to build some beacon towers to connect these cities, and there won't be much of a problem.

The biggest problem for Jizhou Town right now is still near Zunhua City, because Zunhua City is on the north bank of the Shahe River, and the border wall north of Zunhua City has been in disrepair for many years with many gaps. The Jurchens are most likely to break in from this line of the border wall.

Fortunately, Zunhua City is located in a mountain basin, and is protected by three rivers: Shahe, Lihe, and Guohe. In addition, the mountains to the south of Zunhua City are blocked by Dongsheng Right Guard and Zhongyi Central Guard, so the Jurchens have no chance of breaking through these mountains.

The most crucial point now is the exits on the east and west sides of this basin. The western exit leads directly to the capital, but Jizhou City blocks the entire exit, and the city walls of Jizhou City are three zhang high. As long as we send tens of thousands of troops, plus the continuous support from the capital, the possibility of the Jurchens capturing Jizhou City is not high.

The situation is different to the east. There is only Santunying here, which can barely be considered a garrison town. However, this garrison town does not completely block the exit. It would be easy for the Jurchens to rush over, and it would not be a problem for them to besiege Santunying.

Your humble servant believes that Zunhua City is isolated and surrounded by basins and plains. We cannot risk confronting the Jurchens on the plains at present. Therefore, as long as the Jurchens attack, Zunhua City will surely be besieged.

There's nothing we can do about that right now.

Your humble servant believes that the only solution is to relocate all the civilians in the city to Santunying, expand Santunying into a larger city, block all the exits to the east, and leave only the border troops to guard Zunhua City.

In this way, we only need to stockpile about 100,000 shi of grain in the city, and Zunhua City can be besieged for a year without any problem. Even if the Jurchens break in through the gap in the northern border wall, they can only wander around the basin where Zunhua City is located and will not be able to get out at all.

Zhu Jue carefully examined the map, then nodded slightly and said, "Hmm, not bad. Once this defensive line is built, even if the Jurchens invade, they will only suffer setbacks in this small basin. Then expand the Santun Camp and relocate all the civilians of Zunhua City there."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng cautiously asked, "Your Majesty, is it alright for you to expand the Santun Camp and relocate civilians?"

of course.

Zhu Jue nodded without hesitation and said, "You can decide this yourself. There's no need to come back and ask me."

I also want to come back to select soldiers for the Beijing Garrison.

Lu Xiang-sheng quickly explained, "Your Majesty, once the expansion of the Santun Camp is finalized, the construction of the defense line over there will be almost done. Ying-yuan can stay there to supervise, and I don't need to go there."

"Your Majesty, I wish to select soldiers from the Capital Garrison as soon as possible. After all, the defenses there still need men to guard them. If there aren't enough men, the defenses won't be of much use once they're built."

Oh, so you've come back to select soldiers for the Beijing garrison.

Alright, the city wall here is being built very quickly, and the Beijing garrison has plenty of able-bodied men, so we don't need to worry about 50,000 more.

As they were discussing, Fang Zhenghua suddenly strode in, carrying a memorial, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, General Zhou Yuji has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

Zhou Yuji submitted a memorial?
I wonder if this guy got into a fight with Wei Zhongxian!
Zhu Jue took the memorial, opened it, and was speechless.

Zhou Yuji said that Wei Zhongxian had gone mad!

This fellow is stirring up trouble in Dai Prefecture. Thousands of Dai Prefecture's royal family members and relatives by marriage who participated in the grain robbery have been implicated in the case!

Wei Zhongxian didn't care whether his relatives by marriage were involved or not; once he caught them, he would carry out a frenzied confiscation of their property.

The confiscation of the property of the imperial family members and their relatives by marriage sparked public outrage, and several thousand able-bodied men gathered to seize the people!

At Wei Zhongxian's command, Zhou Yuji had no choice but to lead the Beijing cavalry into battle, resulting in the killing of dozens and the capture of several hundred.

This guy, Wei Zhongxian actually ordered people to raid the homes of these people again!
(End of this chapter)