Beijing City, the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month of the Ming Dynasty.
In the Taiye Pool next to Qionghua Island, a palace dragon boat race is in full swing.
As part of the New Year temple fair arranged by Liu Jin, the dragon boat race was the highlight. The ladies, eunuchs, women in the leopard room, and the guards formed their own teams to compete. The scene was in full swing.
Zhu Houzhao stood on the tall waterside pavilion in the water market, looking with joy at the red and colorful dragon boat races on the Taiye Lake. Listening to the sound of drums, the rising and falling of the oars, the surging water, and the scene of women shouting in unison,
It's hard to scratch the itch of joy.
"Can the women in the Leopard Room with me be a match for the guards?" Zhu Houzhao asked with a smile.
"If the emperor goes into battle, he will definitely win. The emperor alone is worth ten people. No, twenty people." Liu Jin chuckled from the side.
"I don't believe it, I want to try it myself. I want to choose someone to compete in the dragon boat race." Zhu Houzhao stood up excitedly.
Liu Jin was startled and hurriedly stopped him: "Your Majesty, please don't participate. In this winter, the water in the lake is bone-chillingly cold. Besides, you have to learn dragon boat racing. Although your Majesty is a genius and can learn it in one go, you still have to do it after all.
If you take the time to maintain a balance, you might as well learn to wait for the Dragon Boat Festival to be held again. It is also a battle of preparation."
Zhu Houzhao was unhappy and insisted on participating in the competition in person. Of course Liu Jin refused. What Liu Jin did not tell Zhu Houzhao was that in order to practice dragon boat rowing, several palace maids drowned some time ago. The balance of the dragon boat is so exquisite that it can easily cause trouble if you are not careful.
It will capsize. A few days ago, a boat of palace ladies capsized in the lake. Although they were rescued quickly, three people still drowned.
Zhu Houzhao wanted to participate, but Liu Jin did not dare to agree. He had to persuade him hard. But once Zhu Houzhao had his mind set, he would not listen to anyone's persuasion. He went downstairs to the trestle and ordered the dragon boat to come and get on the boat. Liu Jin hurriedly knelt down and persuaded.
When the commotion was getting louder, Commander Shi Wenyi of the Jin Yiwei came flying along the floating street.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Eunuch Liu, this is terrible, something big has happened." Shi Wenyi shouted breathlessly.
"You bastard, what nonsense are you talking about? I'm just happy. If anything happens, I'll talk about it later." Zhu Houzhao scolded.
Shi Wenyi blushed and gasped.
Liu Jin frowned and asked, "Why is Commander Shi so panicked? What happened?"
Shi Wenyi swallowed a mouthful of spit and said in a deep voice: "Hebei urgently reports that the people have rebelled."
"What?" Zhu Houzhao and Liu Jin screamed at the same time.
"In Wen'an County, the Liu brothers rebelled and killed the county magistrate and local gentry. They gathered four to five thousand rebels. Li Yongcheng, a member of the Baoding Guards of Thousand Households, led his troops to suppress them. More than 600 officers and soldiers were wiped out..." Shi Wenyi said in a low voice.
"Ouch!" Zhu Houzhao's legs went weak and he almost fell into the lake under the trestle.
"Does this allow me to live in peace? Why did you go against it again? Does the minister know about it?" Zhu Houzhao frowned and shouted.
"The ministers of the cabinet have already gone to Fengtian Palace. I would like to invite the emperor to discuss countermeasures." Shi Wenyi said hurriedly.
…
The panic among the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty was actually not serious. After research and judgment, the ministers believed that although the riot occurred suddenly, it was not large-scale. Something like this happened every year in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. Small-scale riots never stopped.
However, this time they were too close to the capital, and the attack was fierce. Within a few days, the rebel army had grown to several thousand in size, and even the officers and soldiers of the Baoding Guard Station were wiped out. This was unusual.
Liu Jin, Jiao Fang, Xu Jin and others all believed that there was no need to panic about this matter. As long as troops were quickly dispatched to suppress and suppress the situation, it would soon be quelled. After all, the rebels seemed to be powerful, but after all they were just a mob and should not be feared.
After all, during last year's Anhua King Rebellion, tens of thousands of troops were well-equipped and well-trained, and that was the real threat.
After Zhu Houzhao heard these words, he felt relieved. But it was really ugly. Three years after he ascended the throne, there were chaos, which was the last thing he wanted to see. At the beginning of last year, King Anhua of Ningxia rebelled, and at the beginning of this year Who can bear it if this happens again?
Therefore, even though he judged that there was nothing to fear about the situation, Zhu Houzhao still ordered that the chaos should be quelled as quickly as possible.
On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, the imperial court issued an imperial edict. Zhang Wei, Bo of Hui'an, and Ma Zhongxi, the left deputy censor of the Supervisory Yuan, jointly led the army to encircle and suppress the rebels. In addition to the Shenwu Zhongwei under Zhang Wei's command, the Shenyang Zhongtun Guard stationed in Hejian Prefecture was ordered to , the two guards and horses of Datong Central Tunnel were under the command of two people.
In this way, the three guards and more than 18,000 soldiers and horses were devoted to the encirclement and suppression of the rebels. The force strength was more than sufficient.
The candidates for this proposal were also jointly proposed by the inner court and the outer court through consultation.
Zhang Wei, the uncle of Hui'an, had secretly taken refuge with Liu Jin a long time ago and was already one of Liu Jin's men. Originally, his Shenwu Central Guard troops were stationed in Zhending Mansion, so it was reasonable to lead the army to put down the rebellion this time.
This is actually one of the reasons why Liu Jin dared to list Hebei as a pilot project for Ma Zheng and land reform. Because Hui'anbo Zhang Wei would strictly follow his orders to control the situation and restrain and control some behaviors of local people and officials.
Ma Zhongxi is a veteran of the foreign court. After the Eight Tigers impeachment case, when the cabinet was discussing candidates, Ma Zhongxi was one of the candidates for the foreign court. However, this Mr. Ma had a bad temper and offended many people. As a junior minister, he was not allowed to join the cabinet in the end. In order to compensate Ma Zhongxi, Li Dongyang gave him the position of left deputy censor of the Supervisory Yuan.
The reason why Ma Zhongxi was chosen to lead the army was because when he was the governor of Liaodong, he had successfully quelled the rebellion of the people in Liaodong. He was believed to have experience in dealing with people's riots.
At the same time, the imperial court also urgently ordered the Tianjin Three Guards to reinforce Bazhou and block the rebels' plan to go north. Because Bazhou is the gateway to Gyeonggi, if anything goes wrong, it will pose a threat to the capital.
Zhu Houzhao's strict decree required that the riot must be quelled within half a month.
Liu Jin also personally sent a letter to Hui'an Bo Zhang Wei, asking him to make every effort to put down the rebellion as soon as possible.
Liu Jin did this because he felt vaguely worried. Hebei was the place where Ma Zheng and the new land reform policy were implemented. Now that the people are rebelling, someone will soon blame his new policy for this incident. If the rebellion is not suppressed effectively, he will Once again, we are in an embarrassing situation. If Zhu Houzhao thinks that his New Deal is the culprit, he will be blamed.
Just like when King Anhua rebelled, Liu Jin was responsible for these things. King Anhua rebelled, and it can also be said that he had ambitions and coveted the throne of the Ming Dynasty. But the current rebellion cannot be explained. The only explanation is that the government forced the people to rebel, which is naturally Liu Jin's fault.
In fact, Liu Jin already knew the movements of officials from the foreign court. Yang Tinghe had already begun secret negotiations with some officials from the foreign court to jointly impeach Liu Jin on this matter. However, Yang Tinghe felt that it was not the right time yet. At this time, the rebellion was not over, and an impeachment meeting was launched in the DPRK. Causing chaos is not conducive to countering the rebellion. When accountability is held after the rebellion subsides, impeachment will be a matter of course.
Ma Zhongxi and Zhang Wei took action immediately. According to the news, they learned that the rebel soldiers and horses were gathering here after capturing Xiong County. All the 10,000 soldiers and horses under the control of Shenwu Zhongwei were dispatched on the 19th of the first lunar month. From Zhending Mansion from the south to
Go straight to Xiong County in the north.
The two guards of Hejian Prefecture approached Xiongxian from the southeast to the northwest. Together with the three guards of Tianjin to reinforce the soldiers and horses of Bazhou, they formed a three-sided encirclement, hoping to encircle and kill the rebels in Xiongxian.
Everyone is still very optimistic about the situation, except Zhang Yanling.
In fact, Zhang Yanling was not surprised when he learned the news. In the past year, Zhang Yanling passed through Hebei several times. Not only did he see the boldness of the thieves in attacking the county town, he also saw the ferocity of the local officers and soldiers in arresting the people. He also saw Ma Zhenghe.
Zhang Yanling has always been worried about the various shortcomings of the New Land Deal, which is that it will trigger civil unrest.
Now, all this has finally happened. Zhang Yanling even felt that it all came too late. He underestimated the people's endurance.
But Zhang Yanling had no idea about it at first. It wasn't until she heard the names of the Liu brothers that Zhang Yanling realized that this was exactly the great uprising that occurred in the fifth year of Zhengde's reign recorded in later history books. The leader was the Liu family.
Brother, it’s just that in this time and space, time has been messed up and everything is accelerating. This can also explain why this great uprising broke out in the fourth year of Zhengde.
Perhaps the rule is that some things that should happen will definitely happen, but the time will be accelerated. Some things can be avoided unless there is early intervention. This uprising may be the kind that will definitely happen.
Zhang Yanling did not wait for Zhu Houzhao's summons, and no one mentioned the counter-insurgency to him. This made Zhang Yanling realize that Liu Jin would probably not let him participate in this matter. Liu Jinhe had the credit for this counter-insurgency
Yang Tinghe refused to let him get it anymore. Besides, he was still within the period of punishment.
But Zhang Yanling was not disappointed at all, nor did he look forward to participating in this counter-rebellion. This was different from dealing with King Anhua. Although he was facing the same rebels who rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, these people were all common people who were forced to resist.
.If the imperial court ordered Zhang Yanling to quell the rebellion, Zhang Yanling really didn't know how to quell the rebellion. Zhang Yanling still had some mental barriers to deal harshly with the people who were forced to rebel.
Therefore, apart from submitting a memorial, Zhang Yanling asked the court to pay attention to the people's uprising in Hebei, and suggested that the strategy of pacification and guidance should be used to distinguish who are the rebels and who are the people who are being coerced.
Say something else.
And his memorial was obviously ignored.
On the twenty-fourth day of the first lunar month, the Shenwu Zhongwei and Hejianfu guards attacked outside Xiongxian County in a pincer-like force. However, they failed. In the past few days, they were still building city walls in Xiongxian County and hoarding supplies for city defense.
All the rebels who made weapons and armor disappeared.
Just when Ma Zhongxi and Zhang Wei sent troops to inquire around, news came from Renqiu County, located between Xiong County and Hejian Prefecture, that a large group of rebels was trying to attack Renqiu County.
Ma Zhongxi and Zhang Wei were extremely surprised. Two days ago, two guards from Hejian Mansion had just passed by Renqiu. How did the rebels arrive at Renqiu under their noses? This is confusing. But Renqiu only had
The mere guards of hundreds of soldiers and horses were obviously unable to withstand the attack.
It needs to be saved, but Ma Zhongxi and Hui Anbo have differences of opinion.
Ma Zhongxi suspected that this might be the other party's plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain. How could the other party suddenly appear on the road where the two guards from Hejian Mansion came? Could it be that they had wings and flew over? There might be some deception involved.
But Zhang Wei believed that since the enemy was discovered, he had to encircle and suppress them. They did not dare to stay in Xiongxian County because of the power of the army. Therefore, they only needed to send a thousand people each to defend Xiongxian County and occupy Wen'an County.
.The remaining army can chase the rebels around until they are cornered.
Zhang Wei also said that although he currently has tens of thousands of troops in his hands, he is still timid and allows the rebels to capture other counties. Not to mention that the court will blame him, and his face will be lost.
Ma Zhongxi was convinced. He did not want to fall out with Zhang Wei. So he decided to personally lead the Hejian Second Guards back to rescue Renqiu County. Zhang Wei led the Shenlong Central Guards' 6,000 troops to occupy Xiong County and Wen'an County respectively.
Recover lost ground and stabilize defense.
How could they have imagined that Liu Liu, Liu Qi, Yang Xiong and others had formulated a strategy to lure the tiger away from the mountain and eat them one by one.
The mob they thought was actually led by people with brains. And in the past ten days or so, they had gained a powerful helper. That was a man named Zhao Sui who was a scholar.