Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

A few days later, more than two thousand soldiers from Xuanfu, who were being rotated out of the city, arrived near the capital.

These soldiers were originally under the command of Yang Guozhu, the general of Xuanfu, but Zhu Jian transferred them to the command of Wu Aheng, the governor of Jiliao, and stationed them in Yutian, under Wu Aheng's unified control.

Shanxi merchants had long been based in Shanxi, smuggling goods to the border regions through Xuanfu and Zhangjiakou. Zhu Jian certainly wouldn't believe that these border troops were unaware of this, but he couldn't kill them all like Qi Jiguang's army. So he devised a plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain, sending Sun Yingyuan, Zhou Yuji, and Wang Tingchen to Xuanfu, Datong, and the three towns of Shanxi to relieve them, and then transferring them to the vicinity of the capital to distribute pay.

"Your Majesty, although the people in the capital are no longer prohibited from going out on the streets, how long should the city gates remain closed?" Li Banghua asked worriedly from the side.

The capital has been under martial law for ten days now. If it remains under martial law for another ten days or so, supplies in the city will become scarce, and prices will start to rise.

"How much longer can we hold on?"

"Ten days!"

"Enough! I plan to leave the capital for Shanxi in five days, and martial law will be lifted in the capital in ten days!"

Zhu Jian didn't just confiscate the Shanxi merchants' properties in the capital. He was heading to Shanxi, and there would definitely be more in his base of operations. Besides, the charges against him were already set, so there was no reason not to take them.

"On this trip to Shanxi, we will leave Yang Zhuguo's troops, Li Fuming's troops, and Ma Ke's 10,000 troops to garrison the capital!"

"Hong Chengchou, Cao Bianjiao, Gao Jie, Liu Guoneng, Hu Dawei, Meng Ruhu, and He Renlong will lead 50,000 soldiers to accompany me!"

"Sun Xianzhu and Zuo Guangxian will train new recruits under Sun Chuanting!"

"There is no need for Your Majesty to go to Shanxi in person; I can do it for you!" Li Banghua said, cupping his hands in greeting.

For Li Banghua, it was better for the emperor to stay in the capital and take charge of the overall situation. If he kept leaving the capital, he would inevitably be accused by other court officials of inciting His Majesty to leave the capital... and then impeachment and factional strife would begin again!

Zhu Jian glanced at Li Banghua and asked, "If you encounter the obstruction of the Jin and Dai princes, can you handle it?"

Zhu Jian believed that the two vassal states of Jin and Dai occupied half of Shanxi's arable land, and the grain produced would definitely be sold to Shanxi merchants. When the vassal kings intervened, Li Banghua would be no match for them.

"This..." Li Banghua really didn't expect Prosecutor Zhu to ask such a question, but then he thought about it and it didn't seem like there was any problem. These merchants must be connected to the Prince of Jin's mansion and the Prince of Dai's mansion, although it couldn't be said that it was the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Dai themselves...

"You and Grand Secretary Sun will remain in the capital to handle the memorials forwarded by the Office of Transmission with Wang Chengen of the Directorate of Ceremonial!"

"As you command!"

.......

Two days later, Wang Pu, the general of Datong, led several thousand border troops to the vicinity of the capital. As soon as Wang Pu arrived in Huairou, he was summoned to the palace by Zhu Jian.

Meanwhile, Lu Xiang-sheng, Cao Bian-jiao, and Tang Tong, who were in Huairou at the time, took over these garrison troops and began distributing military pay after Wang Pu left. These people were all soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, not warlords' personal guards, so they were quickly incorporated and reorganized after Wang Pu left.

Wang Pu was the first to flee during the Battle of Songjin, which exacerbated the Ming army's defeat. Therefore, in Zhu Jian's view, he was usable but not to be given important responsibilities. Only those who fought to the death and refused to surrender could be given important responsibilities, and Wang Pu clearly did not meet this requirement.

When Wang Pu arrived at the palace, it was just noon. Zhu Jian laid out several dishes: "General Wang, you have worked hard guarding Datong. Today, I am hosting a welcome feast for you in the Wuying Hall!"

"This humble general, Wang Pu, pays his respects to Your Majesty! Long live the Emperor!"

Zhu Jian glanced at Wang Pu and waved his hand, "No need for formalities!"

"I recently fought a battle with the Jurchens who invaded the border, and both sides suffered losses. Do you have any objections to transferring all of your troops from Datong to Wu Aheng's command at the Ji-Liao headquarters?"

After Zhu finished speaking, he kept glancing at Wang Pu's reaction out of the corner of his eye.

"This humble general will obey Your Majesty's decree!" Although Wang Pu was unwilling, he did not show it much. When Zhou Yuji led his army to Datong, he heard that the entire town was being rotated and that more than 8,000 soldiers from Datong were going to the capital to receive their pay. He then felt a chill.

But when the soldiers heard that they would receive pay in the capital, their eyes lit up and they wanted to rush to the capital overnight. Wang Pu saw that the morale was not good and did not resist, so he led his soldiers to the capital overnight.

Seeing that he didn't react, Zhu Jian nodded slightly, glanced at the eunuch serving beside him, and pointed to the wine cup in front of Wang Pu: "Pour wine for General Wang!"

The young eunuch worked swiftly, slowly pouring the cloudy wine from the porcelain pot into the wine cup in front of Wang Pu.

"You must be tired from your journey, let me offer you a toast!"

After saying this, Zhu Jian raised his wine glass slightly and drank it all in one gulp.

Wang Pu looked at the wine in the glass in front of him, his throat bobbing. When he arrived, Zhu Jian's wine glass was already full, but his wine was freshly poured from the porcelain pot. He didn't know if there was anything else in the wine.

He didn't want to die, but he couldn't refuse the wine the emperor had offered. After much deliberation, he knelt down with a thud, his voice trembling with tears, "Your Majesty, please spare my life!"

Zhu Jian's face darkened, and his voice was hoarse: "Were you involved in the Shanxi merchants selling goods to the border regions?"

"I...I know..."

"This humble general and his subordinates, including the lieutenant general, captain, and battalion commander, have all... given some... tribute..."

Zhu Jian wasn't too surprised by Wang Pu's words; without the border troops' tacit approval, the supplies couldn't have been sent out.

"Get General Wang paper and pen, and write down the names of all the people who gave gifts!"

When Wang Pu heard Zhu Jian ask him to write down names, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he cried out in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, please spare the lives of these soldiers! These soldiers have suffered so much. Without pay, they have no choice but to resort to desperate measures to make a living... Moreover... Moreover, this has existed since the time of Emperor Shenzong... The court has turned a blind eye to it all these years..."

Wang Pu was not lying. This had been the case on the border for the past two or three decades. They exchanged supplies for warhorse pelts and other supplies from the north. The court, needing warhorses, had tacitly approved of this. However, they were unaware that intelligence was also mixed in with these supplies.

If it were simply a matter of exchanging goods with the Chahar, Ordos and other tribes, Zhu Jian wouldn't have gone to such lengths. However, these goods eventually ended up in Huang Taiji's hands, so he had no choice but to completely abolish them.

"Your Majesty, the soldiers of Datong Garrison are in great distress, but they have no choice. I hope Your Majesty will remember that they have guarded the border for many years and forgive these soldiers..." Hong Chengchou, who was accompanying him, advised Zhu Jian upon seeing this.

Hong Chengchou feared inciting a mutiny, given the large number of people involved. Besides the border troops in the three towns, local magistrates, prefects, and even the provincial governors would be implicated. For the sake of caution, it was best to minimize the damage and let the matter drop. The Ming Dynasty could no longer afford further turmoil...

Just then, the young eunuch retrieved the paper and pen and gently placed them in front of Wang Pu.

Zhu Jian said, "Forget about the soldiers, just write down any merchants you know who were involved in this!"

"No upper limit!"

Inspector Zhu didn't intend to pursue the soldiers' case. After all, they were risking their lives to guard the border, and even if they were corrupt, he could let them off the hook, since they never knew when they would lose their heads. But as for these traitorous merchants, gentry, and officials, he wouldn't be so lenient...

Seeing this, Wang Pu silently calculated in his mind, and soon wrote down a list of participating merchants. These included not only the eight major families, but also many small and medium-sized merchants, all of whom were involved, except for the names of any officials.

"Your Majesty...and...this humble general has heard that there are also some local officials involved, but whether it's true or not, this humble general does not know..." Wang Pu was unsure whether to write about these unsubstantiated rumors. If he wrote too much, he wondered if the emperor would execute him first to suppress the matter...

Keep writing! There's no limit!

Hearing Zhu Jian's words, Wang Pu had no choice but to continue writing. At this moment, Hong Chengchou got up, took the list of merchants written by Wang Pu, came to Zhu Jian's side, and whispered, "Your Majesty, this involves so many merchants... I'm afraid it will cause a disturbance..."

"Throughout history, it has always been soldiers and farmers who rebelled; I've never heard of merchants defying the heavens!"

"Since they are ruthless, don't blame me for being unjust!"

After Zhu Jian finished speaking, Wang Pu wrote down a list of officials he had heard about who were involved in the sale of goods, a dozen or so in total: "That's all I've heard..."

Zhu Jian stepped forward, grabbed the list, and looked at it, nodding slightly.

He then went to Wang Pu, who was kneeling on the ground, bent down and patted Wang Pu's shoulder: "Drink the wine in your cup, then go outside the city to assist Sun Chuanting in training the new recruits!"

"Don't worry, there's no poison in the wine!"

Having said that, Zhu Jian, clutching the list, strode out of the Wuying Hall and ordered the already assembled soldiers to break camp and leave their post first...