In the Forbidden City in the capital, Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty looked at the memorial sent by Xing Guobo Li Zhi, his hands trembling a little.
Behind Zhu Youjian, the eunuchs Wang Chengen and Wang Dehua stood on tiptoe to peek at the memorial in Zhu Youjian's hand, with nervous expressions on their faces.
Wang Chengen brought the memorial, but it was too important. Wang Chengen did not dare to peek on the road, so he ran all the way to the emperor. Now that the emperor was watching the memorial, Wang Chengen also wanted to know what was written on the memorial.
What Li Zhi, the uncle of Xingguo, did recently is really shocking.
Li Zhi collected taxes from the gentry in Tianjin. As a result, the gentry all over the world blocked Li Zhi's products and raw materials at the call of Fushe Zhang Pu. Logically speaking, since Li Zhi was blocked by the gentry all over the world, he should admit defeat and change his ways, and change his ways to deal with the gentry.
The plan to collect taxes should be abandoned. Even the commercial taxes collected in Tianjin should be stopped altogether and obediently beg for mercy from the gentry all over the world.
When the emperor and Wang Chengen heard the news that Zhang Pu had blocked Li Zhi's property, they both thought that the matter would end like this.
The emperor was still secretly happy in those days, thinking that Li Zhi was in trouble now. Li Zhi's property was finished, and he might not be able to raise soldiers in the future. From now on, he could only ask the emperor for money every day and become a loyal dog of the emperor.
But Li Zhi was not like this. Instead of admitting defeat, Li Zhi bucked the trend and sent troops to Xiangyang, Jinan and Suzhou, and captured the three prefectures of the Ming Dynasty. He killed the prefects and governors who had cut off his raw materials, and summoned the world
Zhang Pu, Zhang Cai and Chen Zilong were also killed when people banned him.
The three big cities of Xiangyang, Jinan and Suzhou were all captured by Li Zhi. In the Ming Dynasty, no one had ever traveled thousands of miles to attack a city because of private matters. If you attack the imperial city, what is the difference between that and rebellion?
No one has ever captured a city thousands of miles away and killed a governor of a province or a magistrate of a prefecture. Even the emperor's royal guards went to the south of the Yangtze River to fetch people, and sometimes they were besieged by the local people. But Li Zhi was in Xiangyang, Jinan
He and Suzhou arrested and killed hundreds of people. Almost all the gentry and officials who participated in the campaign to ban Li Zhi were killed by Li Zhi.
What Li Zhi did can no longer be understood in terms of human subjects.
There has been a lot of commotion in the outer court these days.
At first, when they heard the news that Xiangyang was captured, the civil servants were very angry. They said that Li Zhi was rebelling, that they would use the most severe means to attack Li Zhi, and that they would send troops to attack Li Zhi. But the court debated for several days.
, and couldn't tell which reliable troops to mobilize to attack Li Zhi.
Ji Liao's soldiers and horses were restrained by Dongnu, and most of them could not move. Henan's 50,000 troops were encircling Li Zicheng in the mountains. If they withdraw their troops at this critical moment, Li Zicheng will definitely reappear and will be unable to move. At most, some of them will be withdrawn. The ministers discussed
They came to discuss it and found that the Ming Dynasty could not gather 100,000 troops to attack Li Zhi.
With the combat power of Li Zhi in the eleventh year of Chongzhen's battle against Yue Tuo at Fanjiazhuang, and with the combat power of the Ming Dynasty's army, it would take at least 100,000 troops to encircle and suppress Li Zhi. Without 100,000 troops, Li Zhi would not be Li Zhi at all.
Zhi's opponent.
Li Zhi's cavalry in Xiangyang can quickly return to Fanjiazhuang. The troops in Jinan are close to Tianjin and can return to Tianjin in a few days. The troops in Suzhou go by ship, and it only takes ten days to return to Tianjin by ship.
.If the imperial court recruits a large army to attack Li Zhi, Li Zhi's troops may immediately gather in Tianjin as soon as the news leaks out.
I'm afraid that before the imperial troops have gathered together, Li Zhi's 20,000-strong army is already waiting in Tianjin.
After several days of discussion, all the ministers in the court were exhausted. Everyone discovered the dismal fact that the Ming Dynasty could not attack Li Zhi at all. This was not a question of whether to fight or not, but a question of whether they had the ability to fight.
Although Dong Nu did not enter the pass, and although Li Zicheng had fled into the mountains, Dong Nu and the Liu bandits still restrained the main force of the Ming Dynasty. To defeat Li Zhi, it was necessary to establish another terrible enemy besides Dong Nu and the Liu bandits. The Ming Dynasty
This body can hardly bear the third enemy.
The final result of the discussion among the ministers: To defeat Li Zhi, I am afraid that the entire Guanning defense line must be abandoned, 500 miles of land abandoned, and the Jiliao border troops mobilized to attack. This is not enough, and the risk of Li Zicheng's resurgence must be mobilized from the Central Plains to suppress the attack.
The strength of thieves.
The consequences of such a deployment of troops were unbearable for the Ming Dynasty.
Next, when the ministers were helpless, bad news came one after another. Li Zhi not only captured Xiangyang, but also Jinan, and even Suzhou, the richest city in Jiangnan.
Li Zhi went on a killing spree in three major cities, killing hundreds of gentry and officials. Li Zhi's troops raided the gentry's homes and exterminated their clans. His atrocities were too heinous to be recorded.
The civil servants immediately jumped into action and confronted the emperor on the spot at the court meeting. They said that it was the emperor's connivance to Li Zhi over the years that gave Li Zhi the capital to rebel today. It was the emperor who cultivated such a rebel.
The civil servants attacked the emperor swarmly, and even cursed him loudly.
These days, Emperor Zhu Youjian had trouble sleeping and eating. Zhu Youjian could not have imagined that Li Zhi actually rebelled. The emperor originally thought that Li Zhi would be suppressed by the gentry, gradually lose his strength, and shrink into a small local military leader.
Unexpectedly, Li Zhi used iron-blooded methods to kill Zhang Pu and bring down all the gentry in the world.
Li Zhi not only successfully controlled the raw material production areas of the industry, but also brought an army of gentry under his control, making the gentry who smashed Fanjiazhuang's goods fearful.
Zhu Youjian sent three groups of eunuchs to Tianjin in the past few days, asking Li Zhi to stop and withdraw his army quickly. But Li Zhi didn't even see these eunuchs.
News came out a few days ago that Li Zhi also killed Li Jizhen, the governor of Tianjin.
Zhu Youjian was desperate. He secretly had no choice but to abandon all the land north of Shanhaiguan and only defend Shanhaiguan. He mobilized most of Guanning's troops to enter the pass, and at the same time mobilized 50,000 bandit-suppressing troops from Henan to go north to attack Li Zhi together.
Suddenly this memorial came up.
Zhu Youjian's hand holding the memorial was trembling, and he finally finished reading the memorial.
After reading the memorial, Zhu Youjian couldn't react for a while.
Wang Chengen stood on tiptoe behind the emperor, and also read Li Zhi's memorial. After reading the memorial, Wang Chengen, with a smile on his face, knelt on the ground with a bang and sang: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, Li Zhi did not rebel!"
Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen, his face was uncertain, and he was speechless for a long time.
Wang Chengen sang: "Your Majesty, Li Zhi said that the 1.31 million taels of silver obtained from the confiscation of the homes of forty-two gentry families, two governors and two magistrates in Xiangyang, Jinan, Suzhou and Tianjin will be given to the emperor as internal funds.
, Li Zhi wants to be a loyal minister!"
Zhu Youjian placed the memorial on the imperial desk, put his trembling hands on the armrests of the throne, and said in a trembling voice: "Loyal minister? Is there such a loyal minister in the world?" (To be continued...)
