Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 68 The Bizarre Story of Chengchou's Deceitful Deeds (Part 2)

Wang Jiayin led his army to defend Dezhou, and the cabinet recommended Hong Chengchou.

Zhu Jue felt nauseous just seeing the name Hong Chengchou.

That guy is a real scoundrel.

Could he really appoint this fellow as governor of Shanxi?

That actually works!
All because he needed to take the blame, and Yang He and his son Yang Sichang needed to take the blame even more.

Originally, he intended for Yang He and his son Yang Sichang to appease the peasant rebels and allow them to deal with the vassal kings.

However, this plan has a major flaw.

That is the question of who should take the blame.

If a vassal king were to be dealt with by a peasant uprising, it would be a serious matter, and someone would have to take responsibility.

If Yang He and his son Yang Sichang were to be in charge, then executing their entire family would be considered lenient.

He naturally didn't want Yang He and his son Yang Sichang to take the blame.

So, who will take the blame?

He used to need to look for it, but now he doesn't.

Hong Chengchou was the perfect scapegoat!
This guy might wipe out Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong, but he definitely can't wipe out Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong.

That's how it is in history. This guy led his army to suppress the rebels for seven or eight years, but he couldn't do anything to Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. As soon as Sun Chuanting took over, he immediately captured Gao Yingxiang.

As a result, Sun Chuanting was extremely unlucky. He was framed in various ways and was imprisoned and tortured in the imperial prison for three years.

Hong Chengchou, however, was promoted to Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, Minister of War, and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate for his merits, and went to be the Governor-General of Jiliao, thus burying the last 130,000 elite troops of the Ming Dynasty.

Later, he was promoted to Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, Minister of War, Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, and Grand Secretary of the Military Affairs Commissioner for Pacification of the South in the Qing court for his merits, thus helping the Qing court to conquer most of the Ming Dynasty's territory.

Hong Chengchou was most likely an internal traitor. If he didn't want to eliminate Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong, then he had no choice but to follow behind them, pretending to pursue them. In doing so, the vassal kings along the way would be doomed.

When the princes perish, the blame will fall entirely on Hong Chengchou!
If Yang He and his son Yang Sichang led 10,000 elite Guan Ning cavalry to garrison Shaanxi, the rebels would not dare to return unless they numbered over 100,000, and they would not have to take the blame at all.

This is how you should use Hong Chengchou, that traitor!

With this in mind, Zhu Jue handed the memorial directly to Liu Ruoyu and said authoritatively, "Granted."

Hong Chengchou was truly strange; in just four days, this fellow actually submitted a memorial to the throne.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., Zhu Jue had just arrived at the main hall of Yuxi Palace when he saw a memorial with an urgent stamp placed on top of the pile of memorials.

He opened the memorial and couldn't help but snort coldly.

This memorial was submitted by Hong Chengchou. This fellow has already arrived in Pianguan Town to take up his post, and he even asked the court to allocate provisions and supplies for 100,000 troops to suppress the rebels!

How many tens of thousands of rebels are there?
You actually want to mobilize 100,000 troops to encircle and annihilate us!
How many troops were there in the three border towns of Shanxi?

You want to control all the people and people in Shanxi, right?

That's not even the point.

The key point is that the combined forces of Liaodong Garrison, Jizhou Garrison, and the capital city don't even amount to 100,000 troops!
These despicable scoundrels are playing a clever game.

If Shanxi were to gather 100,000 troops, the annual cost of their salaries alone would be over one million taels of silver. Add to that the costs of provisions, rations, pasture, and the wear and tear on weapons and equipment, and the annual cost would be at least four to five million taels of silver!
There's also the Liaodong Army, which has over 70,000 troops, including more than 30,000 cavalry. That alone would cost three to four million taels a year.

These despicable scoundrels just want to deprive him of supplies so they can expand the Beijing garrison!

Hello, you're trying to rob my money and provisions!
Zhu Jue frowned and pondered for a while, then decisively said, "Summon Wei Zhongxian to come and pay his respects."

Wei Zhongxian had just finished acquiring the land in Tongzhou and was waiting in the palace. Soon, he came running over, bowing respectfully and saying, "This servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Have you finished acquiring the land in the southeast city?"

Wei Zhongxian nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, the land in the southeast of the city was acquired the day before yesterday, and now Minister Tian and Minister Yuan have already mobilized manpower to build the city wall."

I should go and take a look too.

Zhu Jue then asked, "How much silver is currently in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury?"

Wei Zhongxian estimated, "These days, the salt tax and commercial tax have been almost all paid up, and the Ministry of Revenue's silver reserves have exceeded three million taels."

These scoundrels want Hong Chengchou to deplete the Ministry of Revenue's treasury, leaving me to starve next year!

I'll make sure you all starve tomorrow!

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then decisively said, "Don't wait for some dark and windy night. Tonight, go to the Ministry of Revenue's treasury and transfer two million taels of silver to the Imperial Treasury. Tomorrow morning, you will begin to execute those members of the Dai princely clan who participated in the grain robbery."

Uh, you want me to steal two million taels from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury in one go!
You're even more ruthless than me!

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhongxian was taken aback for a moment before quickly bowing and saying, "This servant obeys the decree."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then waved his hand.

Wei Zhongxian quickly bowed and took his leave.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then handed over the memorial and said coldly, "Ruoyu, approve it. There are only tens of thousands of rebels. Why do we need 100,000 troops?"

If all the troops in the border towns of Shanxi are thus withdrawn, wouldn't the three major border towns become useless?

If the Jurchens were to seize the opportunity to invade Shanxi, wouldn't the entire province be plunged into chaos and suffering?

Yang He could frighten the rebels into not daring to cross the river with 10,000 cavalry, and Hong Chengchou could easily mobilize 20,000 elite infantry.

The Ministry of Revenue was ordered to allocate 300,000 taels of silver as provisions for suppressing bandits in Shanxi.

This has the advantage of having Liu Ruoyu write the imperial edicts on his behalf; he can write whatever he wants, and Liu Ruoyu will naturally embellish it into something like a classical essay.

He said this not because he feared the Jurchens would take the opportunity to invade Shanxi.

It was impossible for the Jurchens to invade Shanxi, because the eight imperial merchants were all based there, and the Jurchens relied on them for military supplies. If they invaded Shanxi, the Ming Dynasty would definitely mobilize a large army to support them, and then military supplies would not be able to be delivered to them.

Therefore, even if Shanxi had no ability to resist, the Jurchens would not have been able to break in.

He said that simply to find an excuse to suppress Hong Chengchou's grain and salary expenditures.

The Ministry of Revenue's treasury currently holds over three million taels of silver. He ordered Wei Zhongxian to steal two million taels and transfer them to the inner treasury. Then, he allocated three hundred thousand taels of grain and salary to Hong Chengchou. The remaining seven or eight hundred thousand taels would be enough to pay officials' salaries for three months and maintain the normal expenses of the outer court. As for the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party, they'd be left to starve!

That very night, Wei Zhongxian secretly stole two million taels of silver from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury and transferred it to the inner treasury.

The next morning around dawn, Wei Zhongxian ordered his men to set up a stage in the West Market and set up a battle formation. Then he dragged along the members of the Dai princely family who had participated in the grain robbery and began to behead them!

To establish his authority, this fellow sat on the stage the entire time, coldly watching the performance; his chilling gaze was truly unsettling.

He even deliberately ordered that the members of the Daifan clan not be choked, and their wailing and howling could be heard in the Yuxi Palace.

The people of the capital were thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. More than three hundred people were killed at once, and they were even princes and members of the imperial family. It seemed that such a grand event had never happened before in the Ming Dynasty.

The Donglin and Qi-Chu-Zhe factions in the court were all quite uneasy after being beheaded. Wei Zhongxian was truly ruthless; he had killed more than three hundred princes and members of the imperial family!

Zhu Jue didn't react at all to the wailing and howling. He wanted Wei Zhongxian to make an example of him and warn the other princes and members of the imperial family to behave themselves and not cause him any trouble.

(End of this chapter)