Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 81 Plan
Chen Qiyu sighed and said: "I have thought about giving me the emperor's book, but, Shi Liang, have you thought about it? Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty has internal and external troubles, and there are many crises. My emperor wears clothes and food, and works day and night for state affairs. I am exhausted physically and mentally." I'm exhausted; as a subject, I don't know how to solve my emperor's worries and problems, and I have to ask my emperor for all kinds of support in case of trouble, so what is the use of me waiting?"

Hearing this, Chen Liangmo got up and bowed solemnly to Chen Qiyu: "The words of Futai make the officials feel ashamed! My emperor is responsible for the peace of the world, and he cares about the responsibility of hundreds of millions of people to live in peace. How can he take care of everything? We wait Reading the books of sages and sages, learning the policy of governing the country, is for the purpose of guarding the side of the emperor, so that the people under the rule will not suffer from poverty, disease, and helplessness, but will have a warm and upward heart! In the past, the lower officials used to write vegetarian meals to impeach important officials in the court. What is the difference between what I said just now, and those clay-bodied wood sculptures? Thank you, Futai, for your teaching!"

Chen Qiyu secretly said: "Teaching you is just incidental. I am afraid that I will lose points in front of the emperor and leave an impression of being incompetent and mediocre. Then how will I return to the court in the future?"

Chen Qiyu said with a smile: "Shiliang's words are too serious, he can't talk about teaching, he just sends out his feelings; the most urgent thing at the moment is how to deal with unpredictable disasters, otherwise Fengyang may be the burial place for you and me!"

Chen Liangmo said frankly: "The lower officials don't know anything about military affairs, and they are great talents. They were already famous when they suppressed the bandits a few years ago. The lower officials admire them very much. But they have strategies, and the lower officials just follow them!"

Chen Qiyu thought to himself: I didn't intend to discuss it with you, you are just a critical censor, when it comes to military and political matters, I dumped you three blocks, and today I even coaxed and lied, just wanting you to be obedient.After two years in prison, Chen Qiyu, who was originally a pioneer, also became tactful. He didn't want to enter that dark place again and suffer from the jailer's cruelty.

Thinking of this, Chen Qiyu said: "Since we want to defend the enemy with the soldiers of the guard, the Fengyang Guard must be inspected. There are Fengyang Right Guard, Central Guard, Huangling Guard, Fengyang Guard Left Guard, and Fengyang Guard. Left behind Zhongwei, Changhuaiwei, Huaiyuanwei Hongtang Qianhusuo and other seven guards and Qianhusuo, according to the ancestral system, these six guards plus a thousand households, the number of soldiers and horses should be more than [-], ha ha, actually Well, Shi Liang, you should also know how corrupt the inland guards are! I estimate that it is not bad if the soldiers can make up [-]% of the original staff!"

Chen Liangmo said: "Although the lower officials have been serving in the capital, they have heard of the corruption of the guard system in various places and the cowardice and incompetence of the generals and soldiers; according to the lower officials, if Futai wants to have strong soldiers, it must It is impossible to subdue with an iron fist, and heavy codes are needed in troubled times. Only by strong suppression, eliminating the black sheep in the army, and supplemented by gentle means, can the soldiers' fighting spirit and morale be improved, so that they will not disperse when the thieves are overwhelmed."

Chen Qiyu clapped his hands violently and said, "Here! Shi Liang's desire coincides with this officer's! How about this, the two of us secretly visited each guard station separately, and picked one with a shallow background but deep evil, most of the soldiers were dissatisfied The general of the guard, after finding out his bad deeds, chooses a day to disclose his crimes and behead him! The charges are embezzlement of military pay, enslaving soldiers, and he is in danger of mutiny! I will make a copy of the aftermath. Deal with it again!"

Of course, Chen Liangmo knew what the aftermath meant, that is, family property. If the emperor agreed to act as the son of Fengyang Fuya, he could give some of it as salary to the soldiers to show the court's favor and buy people's hearts; There is one advantage: other soldiers of the guard who were in similar circumstances would have serious dissatisfaction with their superiors.

Don’t worry about widows but unevenness. Everyone is the same. The imperial court has been in arrears all year round. The officials and soldiers are like slaves. They are all poor and can’t eat enough to marry a wife. Now that the money is in vain, and the daughter-in-law is about to come to the door, why should we continue to be exploited and eat chaff?

At this time, if someone stirs up, it may cause quite a commotion, and then the governor's yamen can justifiably rectify the guard. If the method is effective, the military power of the entire Fengyang guard will be completely controlled by the governor.

Chen Liangmo said with a smile: "My lord, what a good way! If it goes well, not only will there be soldiers to defend against the enemy, but it will also greatly deter those local tyrants and evil gentry, and lay a good foundation for my lord to manage Fengyang in the future. I admire you! However. .”

Chen Qiyu laughed and said, "Shiliang is afraid of stirring up a mutiny and getting himself burned?"

"That's exactly what I mean! I'm afraid that if you are a little careless, the situation may get out of control! The consequences will be unimaginable!"

Chen Qiyu said in high spirits: "I am trusted by my emperor. I have supervised tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in five provinces. Those are not comparable to the soldiers of the guards. They are all frontier soldiers! Such a strong army often lacks food The salary is low, but I am afraid of the power of the court, and I dare not even think about mutiny, let alone these guard soldiers who are not much better than peasants!"

"Master Futai, you should act with caution! After all, the world is unpredictable. If the worst happens, Fengyang and even Nanzhili will not be able to bear it!"

"Relax Shiliang, I have always been cautious in doing things. The first thing I need to do is to get my emperor's consent. Secondly, I have written a document to the Nanjing Ministry of War. Due to the lack of troops, the imperial mausoleum needs to be stationed to prevent the eight-year disaster of Chongzhen from happening again. The reason for asking Nanjing to send troops to help is not to scare me, if the imperial mausoleum is destroyed by thieves again, and the blood on the heads of Yang Yipeng and Wu Zhenying is still wet, I don’t know who will follow in their footsteps!"

Chen Liangmo laughed loudly and said, "Wonderful! The day the Nanjing reinforcements arrive, someone will confer the head! Futai is really a talent!"

Chen Qiyu secretly made up his mind that if he wanted to make some political achievements in Fengyang, he had to crack a hard bone this time, so as to completely deter those gentry and wealthy businessmen.

In a large-scale mansion in Fengyang, Yang Ze, the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, Zhu Guoxiang, the commander of the left-behind office, Chen Hongzu, the commander of the left-behind central guard in Fengyang, and Chen Qizhong, the commander of the imperial guards, were drinking in the flower hall.

After the bandits invaded Fengyang and burned the imperial mausoleum at the beginning of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the then governor Yang Yipeng and the inspector Wu Zhenying were all beheaded by the imperial decree. Yang Ze should have been beheaded, but he collected a lot of money and sent it to his godfather to serve as a ceremony The eunuch Wang Dehua was in charge of the supervisor, and then Wang Dehua persuaded Wang Zhixin, Gao Qiqian and others to intercede for Yang Ze in front of Chongzhen. The foreign ministers were extremely dissatisfied and distrustful, but they trusted the domestic slaves a lot, so they believed the lies of several people. In the end, Yang Ze was convicted of negligence and was punished by staying in his job.

The last time he bribed his godfather and everyone in the palace spent a total of 5 taels of silver, and Yang Ze spent most of the family property accumulated over the years, which made him extremely painful, but in order to save his life, Yang Ze could only reluctantly cut his flesh .

Over a year after the matter was settled, Yang Ze became more greedy in money and acted more unscrupulously in order to recover the lost loss. He reported to the palace several times, saying that the thief burned the dragon with the inscription of Emperor Taizu. There are 67 houses in the Xingsi Temple, 24 halls in the left-behind administration, and hundreds of barracks for the high-walled army and the mausoleum guards. These buildings require 30 taels of silver and [-] civilian labor, and it takes two years to complete the renovation.

Before Zhu Zhenqing crossed over, Chongzhen was an extremely face-saving emperor. After receiving several reports from Yang Ze asking for funds to rebuild the imperial mausoleum, regardless of the fact that there was still a major gap in the salary needed to exterminate the thieves, he still went from the inside. 10 taels of silver were allocated from the funds and delivered to Yang Ze, allowing him to repair the damaged imperial mausoleum buildings as soon as possible, and restore the old appearance of the imperial mausoleum as soon as possible. The insufficient funds will be raised by him.

Chongzhen’s stupid move made Yang Ze feel like a fish in water. He immediately summoned gentry to raise donations in the name of the palace. Zhang Heming, Minister of the Ministry of War, who was in his 5000s, donated 2000 taels generously. They also donated 3 taels. Driven by these two highly respected and respected ministers, other people donated silver and food one after another, no matter whether they were voluntary or forced. In the end, they raised [-] taels of silver and more than [-] shi of grain. There is a big gap between my psychological goals, but it is already a considerable fortune.

Later, Yang Ze forced Li Qimei, the prefect of Fengyang, to recruit civilian men to repair the destroyed buildings, and asked Chen Hongzu and Chen Qizhong to call his soldiers to participate in the labor. All civilian officers and soldiers in this matter.

If Yang Ze used the money allocated and raised by the emperor for this reconstruction, although there is still a shortfall, it is still barely enough; but how could Yang Ze let go of such a chance to make a fortune, all the recruited civilians must not only bring their own The rations and wages are not even given a penny; the officers, soldiers and soldiers have been deducted from their salaries by their superiors, and now they have to work hard to do hard work. A big grain of salt consumes a lot of physical strength all day long, but the nutrition can't keep up. If you slack off a bit, you will be scolded and whipped by Hou Dingguo and his minions. As time goes by, whether it is a soldier or a civilian, dissatisfaction gradually accumulates .

It is inevitable to use bricks and stones to build a house. Although some bricks and stones in the destroyed buildings can still be used, there is a huge gap in the wood. It will cost a lot of money to buy it at the market price, but Yang Ze has made up his mind to put the money for rebuilding into It was in his own pocket, so he was not willing to spend money to buy it. After discussing with Chen Hongzu, Chen Qizhong, Hou Dingguo and others, Yang Ze sent someone to directly ask for it from the merchants who deal in various timbers in the name of expropriation.

Chen Hongzu and Chen Qizhong had been in the army for a long time. Although they were not very capable, after spending a lot of money to get to know and bribe Yang Ze, Yang Ze used his relationship in the palace to greet the Ministry of War and was directly promoted by Qianhu as a commander. People thought they hugged their big thick legs, and they were even more devoted to Yang Ze, and they treated his words like an imperial order.

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(End of this chapter)