The time soon came to accompany the evening. Since the beginning of the Youshi period, there has been an endless stream of people coming and going at the gate of the former Shenglong Prefecture. Although the first few were wearing silk clothes, their clothes were still simple, and they could not speak Chinese well.
People came to ask for money. At first glance, these people were the most common local gentry or officials.
Immediately, dozens of horses stopped at the door of the government office. Two people wearing the costumes of the Ming Dynasty princes got off the horses and were welcomed into the mansion by Mu Sheng. After that, many people in gorgeous clothes and servants came to the door of the government office one after another.
Hearing that the Ming soldiers guarding the door did not allow their servants to enter, some people showed unhappy looks on their faces, but they did not dare to say anything and asked the servants to wait at the door; only Ruan Chongru, the former Taichang of the Annan Chen Dynasty, was allowed to take the lead.
Enter with the servant.
At Youshizheng, no one came here anymore, and the door suddenly became quiet. The soldiers guarding the door lit giant lanterns and stood guard at the door.
The porter stayed in the small room and fell asleep. The person who can be the porter now is of course Mu Sheng's confidant, the servant he brought from Kunming. He helped Mu Sheng get up before dawn this morning, and rode all the way here.
When I arrived at Thang Long City, I didn't sleep at noon. When I had something to do, I was fine. When I didn't have anything to do, I sat on a chair and kept "nodding".
While half asleep, he suddenly heard the shouts of "The common people send off His Highness Prince Jingjiang, His Highness Prince Min, and Lord Mu" coming from the palace. He suddenly got excited, picked up a towel, wiped his face, and stood in the hut.
door.
After a while, people came out one after another. They gathered in small groups, talking in words that the concierge couldn't understand, and some of them argued quite fiercely.
Suddenly, a large group of Annan people appeared in front of the concierge. These people were scattered around an old man and stood on both sides. They listened to what the old man said in Chinese and nodded in agreement from time to time.
The concierge didn't pay attention to what they said, but noticed that the old man was an Annan gentleman whom Master Mu Sheng had specially asked to allow his servants to bring into the mansion. He also remembered his other teachings and walked out of the house and said to the man: "Go well, Mr. Ruan.
"
Ruan Chongru hesitated slightly after hearing his words, then responded with a smile and left the original Shenglong Mansion Yamen.
Ruan Chongru quickly got on the carriage and returned home after leaving the government office. It was already getting late, but he did not return to his yard to rest. Instead, he came to a side hall of his home.
When he came to the side hall, there were already two middle-aged men waiting inside. When they saw Ruan Chongru, they bowed hastily and asked eagerly: "Brother, what did the people in the Ming Dynasty say?"
"Yes, brother, what did they say? I heard that the prince of Ming Dynasty is here?"
Ruan Chongru sat on his seat without any hurry, took a sip of tea and said: "Why are you panic! I am the original Taichang of the Chen Dynasty, and I did not serve as a seal official in the Hu Dynasty because of my old age. I am just an idle civil servant. The Ming Dynasty
You have to respect me no matter what, why are you so anxious?"
The two of them did not refute his words at all, and stood aside to listen to the instructions honestly.
"Besides, what can the princes of the Ming Dynasty say?" Ruan Chongru added: "It's just to calm everyone's minds and get everyone to support the Ming Dynasty. There are no new tricks. It's the same as when the Hu family and his son first succeeded to the throne."
"Is it the same as when the Hu family and his son just succeeded to the throne? Is the rumor true, that the Ming Dynasty is going to swallow up Annan?" asked one of Ruan Chongru's younger brothers, Ruan Mingru.
"I think so. But instead of setting up three divisions, we will appoint a vassal king to Annan as king. Judging from today's situation, it is probably King Jingjiang." Ruan Chongru said.
"King Jingjiang? It doesn't matter who becomes the king. It doesn't matter as long as it's not under the direct control of the Ming Dynasty." Another younger brother Ruan Xinru said.
The Ruan family had long discussed how to deal with Annan if the Ming Dynasty swallowed it up. The conclusion was that they could accept the addition of a vassal king, but they could not accept direct jurisdiction by the Ming Dynasty.
If they were directly governed by the Ming Dynasty, they would have to pass the imperial examination to become officials like the scholars in the Ming Dynasty. Although it was very attractive to serve as officials in the prosperous land of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination examination made it impossible for them to inherit their current position hereditary, and their families
If you serve as an official in a place thousands of miles away, most of the local officials are Han people who came from the Ming Dynasty headquarters, and they will inevitably be unable to maintain their current power.
But it is different when a vassal king is in charge of this place. In their opinion, there is not much difference between a vassal king being in charge and a local monarch being in charge. They both have to appoint local people as officials, and the family's power will not decline. So they
We can accept being ruled by a vassal king, but we cannot accept being directly governed by the Ming Dynasty.
The two put aside their worries and asked Ruan Chongru a few questions about King Jingjiang. They wanted to know his preferences in advance so that they could suit him. Ruan Mingru suddenly thought of something and asked: "Brother, can Daming be the king?"
Want to collect food?"
"Of course they have to requisition grain. Before they left, the Hu family and his son scattered most of the grain to the people, leaving little food left in the granary. The Ming army also had to eat, so they had to requisition grain."
"However," Ruan Chongru said with a sneer: "As long as he does not send troops to seize food but collects food, it will be the same as taxing the Chen Dynasty or the Hu Dynasty. They can't help what they say."
"Food, cloth and even money must be given as much as possible, but you cannot give Ming people as much as they want. Annan has been independent for hundreds of years and has its own rules. If Ming people want to grab a handful and leave, they don't have to obey these rules.
Since you want to rule Annan in the future, you must abide by Annan's rules."
"Brother is right!" Ruan Xinru said: "Annan has always ruled the world with the scholar-bureaucrats, just like the Song Dynasty, no, even more powerful than the Song Dynasty, just like he ruled the world with the nobles during the Wei, Jin and Southern Dynasties. Important affairs of the court,
But you can’t just say what the king says.”
"That's right! There is a war going on now. You guys can understand and give money to support it. But when the war is over in the future, we have to discuss with you how to collect taxes and who to collect taxes from. In this Annan world, we still have to rely on
The scholars from Annan came to manage it. Even if one or two Han people come to serve as officials, can they manage such a large place?" Ruan Mingru said.
The two of them started talking to each other.
After they talked for a while, Ruan Chongru coughed and said: "Mingru, you will send people to various aristocratic families in the city tomorrow to talk to them about this matter and make them feel at ease. The same goes for you, Xinru, so you don't have to betray others too much."
Find officials in the city who have taken refuge with the Ming Dynasty..."
The two of them agreed in unison. The three of them said a few more words, and Ruan Chongru finally said: "We are not going against the Ming Dynasty, but we must let His Highness King Jingjiang know the rules of Annan. The rules of hundreds of years cannot be messed up like this.
!”
…
…
Just when the Ruan family was talking about this in their own courtyard, there were countless people in the entire Thang Long Mansion who were talking about the same thing, and the content was almost the same, except for one family.
"I'm so angry!" Zhu Zanyi threw her hat on the table and said loudly: "These Annan gentry are so arrogant!"
"In the face of the Ming Dynasty's request for food and salary collection, they dared to push back and forth, and everyone cried out that they were poor! Damn it, who didn't know that it was possible for them to say that there was not much money, and there were not many places in Annan that produced gold and silver;
But you are lying when you say you don’t have much grain in your hands! Annan is a place where grain is harvested three times a year. Even if the output of each crop is not as good as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the total grain in a year is more than Jiangsu and Zhejiang. You really think I am so easy to fool.
!”
Zhu Ming also had an angry look on his face: "These people are too arrogant. Last year when I conquered Ava, the powerful people in Ava were very respectful. How can they be so arrogant like them!"
Mu Sheng's face was not good-looking: At today's banquet, the surrendered officials in Shenglong City were just paying off. Although the local gentry was respectful on the surface, anyone with a discerning eye could see their inner resistance. They were even more arrogant than the gentry in the Ming Dynasty.
More! Ever since the late emperor used his thunderous methods to attack the gentry in the country by using the Hu Weiyong case, the Kongyin case and the Guo Huan case, the gentry have always kept their tail between their legs. How dare they behave like these people!
"We must not let them go. I originally thought that the Annan people also advocated Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and were no different from the people of the Central Plains, and were more tolerant to the barbarians. But now it seems that we may be more tolerant to ordinary people, but we are not to treat these
The gentry must not be merciful. I will be the first king in the future. If a rule is formed in my hands, it will be impossible for future generations to change it. Their arrogance must be resolutely suppressed. Let them understand who is the master of this land!
"Zhu Zanyi said. Now that there were only two people in the room, Mu Sheng and Zhu Zhen, he continued to leak the secret and revealed that he had been appointed as the king.
Naturally, the two of them had already guessed this and were not surprised. They continued to denounce the gentry of Thang Long City.
The three of them cursed for a full quarter of an hour before they stopped, picked up their teacups, took a sip of tea, sat on the chairs, and began to discuss countermeasures.
It's easy to scold people, even if you scold those gentry in front of them, it's okay, but how to solve this matter is not that easy.
There is a way to solve this matter, and that is to directly arrest and execute the gentry who do not obey orders. This method is simple and straightforward. The soldiers they have now are all transferred from the country and have nothing to do with the local area.
There may be situations like Emperor Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, when even if he ordered his soldiers to arrest people and confiscate their homes, they would not execute the order. There is no need to worry about ineffective execution.
But there are two problems: first, after hearing this, the gentry in all the cities will definitely resist resolutely, and the war will probably drag on for a long time; second, even if the war is over, they will face even more "brutal" than the Hu family and his son.
, and do not trust the local government, the local people will launch a large-scale uprising. The military expenditures spent by the Ming Dynasty to maintain its rule will probably be astronomical. Even if Yunxi's support is firm, it may not be able to withstand it. In fact, Yunxi is in
Before leaving, Zhu Chanyi and others confessed: The battle against Annan is three-quarters military and seven-cent politics. We must pay attention to uniting local people who are willing to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty and resolutely eradicate those who oppose the Ming Dynasty.
"But His Majesty did not say how to deal with these people who are both cooperative and antagonistic!" Zhu Zanyi said to herself.
"Before you two came," Mu Sheng suddenly said, "Jingchang suddenly came over from the original Hanoi County Government and put forward suggestions on how to treat the local gentry."
"He said that the gentry in Shenglong City are all people with both ends of the spectrum and cannot be trusted. It would be better to use the Hongmen Banquet to execute them all, then ransack their homes, and the matter in Shenglong City will be solved."
"Well," Zhu Zhen said, "Jingchang's judgment is correct. They are indeed the leader and the rat, but they cannot kill them all. They can kill a few to scare the monkeys, but if they are all dealt with, there will really be no way to rule Annan in the future.
.”
"Then kill a few chickens first to warn them?" Zhu Zanyi said suddenly.
"That's okay, but what if it doesn't work?" Mu Sheng asked back: "Besides, there is still a war. If they see that Ming Dynasty treats the gentry more harshly than the Hu family and his son, they may change their current attitude of supporting Ming Dynasty.
It will be difficult to fight in future battles."
"This,..." Zhu Zanyi didn't know what to do.
They talked for a few more words, and Zhu Ming said: "In my opinion, Zhu Zanyi, you should wait until the war is over, and all the participating forces of the Hu family and his son in the country have been eliminated, and then we can talk about dealing with the gentry. Didn't my father unify the country back then?
Are you just rectifying the gentry? I was in Ava, and it was only after the war with the Bago people ended that I returned to the city of Ava and started to deal with such two-pronged people in the city."
"But there is one thing you must do immediately: the fields that originally belonged to the Hu Dynasty must be immediately inventoried, registered and collected, and distributed to the soldiers who stayed in Annan in the future."
"Also, don't reward the women who were 'captured' in the war. In the future, all rewards will be given to your generals; don't be greedy for petty gains and sell these people to the merchants accompanying the army. If you sell them all, how can you let them go?"
Do your soldiers marry wives? These women will be very useful in the future, enough to make the soldiers loyal to you."
"Also, Your Majesty will agree that the soldiers staying in Annan will definitely include soldiers who were exiled from the north during the Luxie Rebellion. You'd better care about them and don't let them be angry with you. I remember that one of them is Zhang Fu
My father? Talk to him more when you have time..."
Zhu Chanyi nodded while listening to Zhu Xi's teachings. After listening to this paragraph, he was about to nod when he suddenly realized: "Aren't we discussing how to deal with the gentry in Shenglong City? Why did the topic turn to how to govern the country? We will talk about this topic later.
It’s not too late either.”
"Didn't we discuss it and decide that it would be best not to go to war with them now? So we started talking about this."
