Eight hundred and fortieth chapters Zhengde personally expedition
Zhengde acted very quickly and soon sent people straight to the grassland. However, it was a long way and he didn't know when he would get a reply.
Emperor Zhengde naturally couldn't place all his hopes on An Dahan's borrowing of troops. Borrowing troops was just one of his countermeasures. At the same time, he also sent people to start mobilizing the remaining troops from border towns and northern provinces.
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In recent years, during the military reform initiated by the Ming Dynasty, the southern provinces were training new armies, and the northern provinces were also training new armies on their frontiers. Most of the various new guns and cannons manufactured by the capital and other northern provinces were equipped
The frontier army and the Beijing camp, as well as the new armies of the northern provinces.
These newly trained armies have already mobilized no less than 100,000 people to go south, which has seriously affected the defense of the north, but Emperor Zhengde didn't have to worry about it at that time.
Now, the situation is more dangerous than last year. Today's Emperor Zhengde is already preparing to mobilize all the northern provinces and border troops. Even if the northern defense line is empty, Anda Khan will not hesitate to take advantage of it.
If we don't deploy troops to defend the Shandong and Henan front lines, the Ming Dynasty will be doomed. Why should we care about the safety of the northern defense line!
Even if the deployment of troops would lead to a sharp increase in civil strife in various provinces, even to the extent of siege of cities and territories, Emperor Zhengde ignored it. Although the rebels in other places were also a headache, their threat level was not as high as that of the Puppet Tang Dynasty in the south.
It's not worth mentioning.
As long as he can block the momentum of the puppet Tang rebel army heading north and give him a certain buffer time, he can revive the army!
At this moment, the Ming Dynasty has reached its most dangerous period, and its level of danger far exceeds that of the Tumubao Incident. After Zhengde made up his mind, he directly mobilized troops from various places to go south with thunderous means.
And this time, he doesn't plan to send any ministers from the DPRK to supervise the war, he wants to conquer it himself!
When Emperor Zhengde said that he would personally conquer the country, the ministers of the Ming Dynasty were frightened half to death. They all cried and told his Majesty to think again, but Emperor Zhengde remained unmoved.
Damn it, if I don't personally supervise the war, the Ming Dynasty will be completely defeated by you.
Today's Emperor Zhengde has seen through it. Although there are still many loyal ministers and some hard-core officials in the court, most of them are weaklings. Today they may be ministers of the Ming Dynasty, but they may not be members of the fake Tang Dynasty tomorrow.
I am a minister.
Emperor Zhengde understood the mentality of these scholars, and they were loyal to the emperor.
But they don't really care who the emperor is. As long as the emperor meets the standards in their hearts, then they will offer their knees without hesitation!
And what standard?
Naturally, it depends on whether the knife is sharp or not, and whether it can bring them benefits!
Didn’t you see that every time the puppet Tang thief army captured a place, the local scholars and gentry were scolding them before, but in the end they still didn’t pay the taxes obediently, and they even rushed to participate in the imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty.
He went to become an official of the Tang Dynasty.
Damn it, when Emperor Zhengde planned to open a business donation in Jiangnan two years ago according to Zhang Yue's proposal, a group of ministers were crying and shouting in opposition, just like Emperor Zhengde wanted to kill their parents, and there were several people who bumped into each other.
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But now!
Now Emperor Zhengde is a little envious of the fake Tang Li Xuan in the south. Look how comfortable he is as emperor. Anyone who objects will be killed. If he wants to collect commercial taxes, he will collect commercial taxes. If he wants the gentry to pay taxes as one, he will pay taxes as one.
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Emperor Zhengde is about to go on an expedition himself, and he plans to take a big risk and directly bring all the troops that can be mobilized from the north. But going out for a large army requires money. Where will the money come from?
The national treasury? The treasury of the Ming Dynasty in the past two years was so empty that it could starve to death.
In the royal family's inner treasury, Emperor Zhengde also accumulated some wealth in the early years. However, due to the wars in recent years, Emperor Zhengde spent a lot of money every year. Now, there is only less than a million taels of silver left.
And all this money was the result of Emperor Zhengde secretly asking his confidant eunuchs to take some of the treasures in the palace and sell them on the market.
Emperor Zhengde felt that he was unlucky enough by selling his treasures to raise military expenses!
Moreover, Emperor Zhengde knew that of all the money he had taken out before, less than half of it was used as military expenses for the army, while the remaining half went into the pockets of many ministers in the court.
The army is about to go on an expedition, but what should we do if we don’t have the money?
Is it possible that it should be served cold? This is not the style of Emperor Zhengde!
He is not the late emperor, he has a strong character, and he never plays his cards according to common sense, so he raised his butcher knife and started to confiscate the property!
Li Xuan over there was having fun with ransacking homes to make money, why couldn't he Zhengde be there?
The ministers in the court would kill one by one, but none of them would be wronged. Therefore, Zhengde dug out many impeachment reports that had been left unpublished in the past, and then analyzed with a group of eunuchs which ministers had more money.
This time Emperor Zhengde committed a heinous crime by confiscating his property. Whether he was central or not was not the criterion for judgment. There was only one criterion for judgment, and that was who had the money!
So, three days after the news of the tragic defeat in Yangzhou reached the capital, Emperor Zhengde arrested more than a dozen officials from the court and central government, including Yan Song and his son, for various reasons including collaborating with thieves and failing to supervise the war.
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To be honest, he quite admired Yan Song. If it weren't for his excessive wealth, Emperor Zhengde would be reluctant to kill him.
Such a commotion caused panic in the entire capital for a while, but now, the furious Emperor Zhengde didn't care much anymore. He simply made a list according to whose family had more money, which meant arresting and ransacking the houses.
As for the objections of those courtiers, Zhengde did not care about it. He did not raid the houses randomly. He targeted the civil service system, but the nobles and relatives did not touch them. Of course, what is more important is that the two people in the capital today
Ten thousand capital camps are all under the control of Xungui.
And these nobles welcomed Emperor Zhengde's suppression of civil servants with both hands. This has nothing to do with personal preference, because it means that their nobles will rise again and suppress the civil servants again.
Once the house is ransacked like this, the money will come!
And this money was more than Emperor Zhengde expected!
When Emperor Zhengde learned from Jin Yiwei that more than three million taels of gold, silver and other assets had been confiscated during the house raid, he couldn't help but curse: "These treacherous ministers, the Ming Dynasty allowed them to be corrupted!
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These words made the Jinyi guards and noble generals below feel a little embarrassed. It was not just the civil servants who corrupted the Ming Dynasty. These nobles also contributed a lot of effort.
Moreover, they did not tell Emperor Zhengde that they had confiscated nearly twenty ministers this time. Among them, Yan Song's family alone confiscated nearly two million taels of silver, and the total amount exceeded six million.
You want to ask where the remaining three million taels of silver go!
Well, everyone is so tired of confiscating homes, and a group of Dongchang, Jinyiwei, and soldiers in the Beijing camp have to share the profits. It is normal to deduct half, okay? Big shots like them can only distinguish two of them.
Just one million taels.
It’s only two million. There’s no need to talk about such a trivial matter!
Emperor Zhengde naturally didn't know these details. Even if he knew, he couldn't care about them. Now he has a treasury of one million taels, and the proceeds from confiscating the house are 3 million. The total is 4 million, which is enough for him to personally conquer.
of military spending.
Therefore, Emperor Zhengde immediately led the 20,000-strong Beijing camp and 30,000 border troops drawn from various places. A total of 50,000 troops went south to Shandong. At the same time, he also spread the imperial edict to Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Liaodong, asking them to mobilize troops quickly.
King Qin, join us at the Shandong front line.
Later, he sent people to Huguang to confer Zhang Yue the title of 'Young Master'. This was a title given to one of the three orphans. In the huge Ming Dynasty, few people could obtain the title of the three orphans, and then asked Zhang Yue to dispatch
A partial force marched eastward to Henan to join his main army. At the same time, Zhang Yue was asked to guard the Huguang and Sichuan front lines to prevent the situation in the southwest from collapsing.
This time, Emperor Zhengde will personally lead an army to fight to the death with the puppet Tang traitor army!
I have to say that among the many emperors of the Ming Dynasty, only Emperor Zhengde dared to play like this!
Now, he didn't even care about whether someone in the capital would rebel. For example, those panic-stricken civil servants had a high probability of coercing the prince into rebellion.
But he doesn't care anymore!
However, at this time, Emperor Zhengde also had a backup plan. He had already officially sent his other two sons to serve as vassals.
The place of the vassal is quite interesting. The third prince, King Jing, was sent to Sichuan by him, while the other sixth prince, King Hui, was sent to Liaodong by him. He also authorized the two vassal princes to organize 50,000 royal guards on their own. At the same time,
He was assigned the task of supervising local military and political affairs.
This arrangement can almost be seen at a glance. Emperor Zhengde was leaving a backup plan for the Ming Dynasty. If he failed in his personal expedition, his two sons who were valued by him might still have hope to continue to resist.
Go down.
As for the prince, he has no hope!
Let him supervise the country in the capital!
If he wins the decisive battle with the puppet Tang bandits in Shandong, the prince will be nothing. If he fails, then the prince will definitely follow in his footsteps.
Emperor Zhengde used thunderous means to raise military funds and then led his army southward. This caused great shock in the north, and even the news quickly spread to the south.
After Zhang Yue received the imperial edict from Zhengde, he sent someone to rush five hundred miles to deliver a secret envelope to Emperor Zhengde. The envelope reiterated that Zhang Yue was a member of the Ming Dynasty in life and a ghost of Ming Dynasty in death, and he would be loyal to the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming royal family fought to the death, and soon a 30,000-strong Huguang training army would march eastward to Henan to join the conquest army.
In addition, he also expressed implicitly that if the situation changes, he will continue to fight under the command of the third prince, King Jing!