Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 116
"Old Duke, do you really think that it is so easy to organize and train an army?"

In the British government, as Zhang Weixian expected, when he convened all the nobles in the Shuntian government to discuss Zhu Youxiao's thoughts, he was immediately questioned by Cheng Guogong Zhu Chunchen.

In the main hall of the mansion, a crowd of thirty or so nobles sat on both sides, Zhu Chunchen and Dingguo Gong Xu Xigao sat first on the left and right, and Zhang Weixian sat on the main seat.

With Zhu Chunchen's opening, the other nobles behind him also dared to open their mouths.

The first to speak was Gongshun Hou Wu Ruyin, who was nearly sixty years old, and said to Zhang Weixian:
"Not to mention anything else, when the Xuzhou and Huai'an government guards in Nanzhili were abolished, the old man has already said that if the guards are not stopped, Wansui will definitely abolish the guards in the future."

"Right now, let's see, is it as the old man said?"

As soon as Wu Ruyin opened his mouth, other nobles also spoke in agreement, and when Wu Ruyin saw someone agreeing with him, he boldly said:

"There were four guards and three guards before, but now we have to abolish more than [-] guards in Shuntian Mansion, Tianjin, and Yongping."

"If you go further, do you want to abolish the entire Rear Army Commander's Mansion and the [-] Guards of the Shangzhi?"

"After finishing it, we will finally abolish the five army governors' mansions in Xingzai (Shuntian) and Nanjing?"

Speaking of this, Wu Ruyin hates iron for not being a steel road:

"Long live the difficulty, we all know that if you can't collect taxes, if you don't go to the civil servants, what are you going to do with me?"

What Wu Ruyin said was also funny. If Zhu Youjian was here, he probably punched this old Qiuba in the face.

The army of the world has nearly [-] million farms. How much have these nobles swallowed, and I haven't counted them yet?
Let’s not talk about anything else, if the army’s farmland can honestly pay the army’s seed grain, according to the Yongle and Hongwu years, it will feed back more than [-] million shi of grain to the national treasury every year, let alone use more than five million taels of silver a year in Liaodong , even more than [-] million can support it.

As a result, in recent years, the paper data of the army's seed grain is only about [-] million. In the end, we cried poor here and there.

Now that the Ming Dynasty is half buried, they still refuse to give up their profits.

That is to say, Zhu Youxiao was still thinking of Zhang Weixian, and asked someone to tell him that if Zhu Youjian would directly use a knife to kill this group of unclean guys.

Zhu You couldn't fight against many parties because they controlled more than [-]% of Daming's taxable land. What about Xungui?

Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty managed to get the Jingying and Yumajian in order, and the Jingying was handed over to Xungui. As a result, it became useless after twenty years of absence.

The Yumajian was handed over to the eunuchs for management. In the Zhengde period, the Yumajian dared to get on his horse and Zhu Houzhao to kill the little prince. This group of nobles was not as good as the eunuchs.

Chenghua, Zhengde, Jiajing, Wanli...

These four generations of emperors have not thought about rectifying the Beijing camp and supporting Xungui, but Xungui himself cannot support the wall with mud.

Among other things, at the moment, whether the [-] Beijing battalion can pull [-] people out of the city to fight in the field is a problem.

As long as Zhu Youxiao speaks, even if his soldiers have only been training for more than two months, Zhu Youjian dares to take them to cut down Jingying and Xungui.

It’s just such a waste group of people, it’s fine if they don’t recognize their own waste, but now they still think about not listening to the emperor, it’s really against the sky...

Looking at the people in the main hall, Zhang Weixian suddenly felt exhausted.

He thought that the nobles would come up with some good ideas, but he didn't want to push taxes to civil servants in the end.

If this news is known by the five parties of Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuan, and Kun, it is estimated that one-third of the people in Xungui will be impeached the next day, which is still the kind of hard evidence.

In other words, as long as Zhu Youxiao speaks out, the additional money will be exempted, and the land tax will be changed from [-] one to [-] one, but the condition is that the five army governors' mansions will be abolished, and all the army farms will be redistributed. They estimate that they can beat the chicken blood to kill the nobles and the Weisuo system.

The civil servants have always looked at Xungui as disliked, and they are nothing more than waste, and they still occupy so many military farms.

If the emperors of all dynasties had not supported the nobles and prevented them from falling, almost the nobles would have been dealt with one by one after the civil fort change.

Right now the emperor just wanted to take back a little bit of troops to garrison the land, so they started barking.

The owner raises the dog because he is obedient, and if the dog dares to bite the owner, he will be beaten to death with a stick in the next second.

Zhang Weixian is very aware of this matter, so he has been paying attention to the royal family.

It's a pity that Zhu Changluo passed away too quickly, and Zhu Youjian shot too quickly, which led to him not getting any credit that night.

Well now, wrong step, wrong step.

The emperor is now going to rectify the guard system. If Xungui is disobedient, he will probably be punished as well.

Thinking of this, Zhang Weixian suddenly felt that he had nothing to say to this group of nobles, even if he was a god, he couldn't move a group of guys who wanted to hold back.

Zhang Weixian, who was accused of going too far by the nobles, suddenly turned on the bad show mode, and stood up abruptly.

At his stop, the nobles who were still noisy suddenly shut their mouths.

At this moment, the bullying and fearful character of most of them is vividly reflected.

Zhang Weixian really looked down on them in his heart, so he said directly:

"Long live to mobilize the army to garrison the fields, because the country's affairs are difficult!"

"Ask yourselves, how do the emperors of the Ming Dynasty treat us and other nobles? Right now, the guards of Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion are just abolished, and you react so strongly. If you want to close the Five Armies Commander's Mansion, are you going to rebel? !"

Zhang Weixian lost his temper, and no one dared to dissuade him for a while, Zhu Chunchen was sweating coldly on his forehead, and Xu Xigao could barely change his face.

As for the other nobles, some nobles looked down on other nobles, so they stood up directly and said:
"Old Duke, although I, the Marquis of Yongkang, have not yet inherited the title, I, Xu Yingyuan, will support the abolition of the guards of Yongping and Shuntian Prefectures long live!"

Xu Yingyuan, he is the younger brother of the former Marquis of Yongkang, and Xu Xiyin, the son of the former Marquis of Yongkang, was too young to inherit the title, so he was in charge of the Marquis of Yongkang.

With Xu Yingyuan's beginning, there will be more honorable rises.

"Marquis of Wu'an, Zheng Weixiao, support Long Live's will!"

"Huaining Hou Mansion, Sun Jijun, support the will of Long Live!"

"Xincheng Hou Mansion, Wang Guoxing, support the will of Long Live!"

"Ping Jiangbo Mansion, Chen Zhi'an, support Long Live's will!"

"Xuancheng Bofu, Wei Shitai, support the will of Long Live!"

"Uncle Zhangwu's Mansion, Yang Chongyou, support the long live will!"

A ridiculous scene appeared, among the more than [-] nobles, only seven nobles stood out, and among them, Wang Guoxing and Yang Chongyou were only sixteen or seventeen-year-old boys.

If Zhu Youjian were here, he would definitely recognize that most of these seven nobles were loyalists who either set themselves on fire or died in battle when the city of Beijing fell during the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

"Okay! Then my British government can't lag behind!" Zhang Weixian looked at the huge main hall, and there were still nobles who dared to stand up, so he was not afraid that there would be no successors for the nobles.

He glanced at Zhu Chunchen and Xu Xigao, then mocked:
"Since you don't want Long Live to move Shuntian and Yongping's guards, you can go and talk to Long Live yourself!"

"Shi Ze!" Zhang Weixian yelled, and then a boy of twelve or thirteen stood up from the chair next to him.

He is Zhang Shize, the eldest grandson of Zhang Weixian, and facing his grandson, Zhang Weixian said to him: "Tell your father, tell him to enter the palace to face the saint."

"Send up the Hopper list that was agreed just now, and the British government can't control the rest."

"Yes, Grandpa." Zhang Shize bowed and saluted, then turned around and was about to leave.

Seeing this, Zhang Weixian also said to the many nobles:
"The curfew is about to come, I won't let you guys eat, let's disperse..."

"This... old duke!" Seeing that Zhang Weixian was acting badly, some nobles who had ridiculed him earlier panicked immediately.

But he didn't want Zhang Weixian to turn around and leave without giving them a chance, while the other nobles who supported the abolition of the guards also left in a huff.

In the end, there were only thirty-two or three nobles left, and they stayed in the main hall in embarrassment.

Everyone turned their attention to Xu Xigao and Zhu Chunchen, after all, it was Zhu Chunchen who took the lead in singing the opposition.

But they still overestimated Zhu Chunchen. Facing so many people's gazes, Zhu Chunchen, who had just turned thirty, could only say disheartenedly:

"Long live if you really want to do it, I can't deal with it..."

His words immediately received countless contemptuous looks.

Co-authoring this guy is playing tricks on everyone?A group of people were here to accompany him to act in a play, but in the end he gave up, which made the people who followed him now look like human beings.

"Retire, I will go to the palace and discuss with Long Live later."

There was no other way. Facing the teammate Pig who was holding back, Xu Xigao came on stage again, got up and comforted everyone.

But after comforting him, he still sighed and said:
"However, what Wanzai has to do, I'm afraid it's hard to resist if I wait alone."

Xu Xigao is really a little afraid of the two brothers Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian now.

Looking at people and animals harmlessly back then, especially Zhu Youjian, he only knew that he cowardly hid behind Zhu Youxiao.

But looking at it now, Zhu Youjian is the guy who hides the deepest.

Those cowardices in the past were all fake. It took less than three months to go back and forth to Changping, and they pulled out [-] soldiers and horses. They also helped the Donglin Party seriously injured the five parties of Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuan, and Kun.

It's all right now, after finishing the south field of the Yumajian, it's time to start attacking the north again.

To be honest, Xu Xigao also had a very headache, but he had no choice but to take advantage of the dark and hurriedly called a carriage to take him to the palace.

In the sound of communication, he saw Zhang Zhiji who had just walked out at the gate of Qianqing Palace.

"Zhiji, what about Long Live?" Seeing Zhang Weixian's son Zhang Zhiji, Xu Xigao forced a smile.

But he didn't want to, Zhang Zhiji glanced at him, and said coldly: "Long live, I want to know what you will say, Duke Ding..."

"I...hehe..." Xu Xigao was stunned, and was speechless for a while, then looked at the figure of Zhang Zhiji who left after bowing, and secretly cursed this kid and his father as bad guys.

"Dingguo Gong, Long Live has been waiting for you for a long time."

Suddenly, Wei Zhongxian's sneering laughter sounded, making Xu Xigao goosebumps all over his body.

After Xu Xigao turned around and saw Wei Zhongxian, he bowed to him and said, "Wei Zhangyin, how does Long Live feel?"

"Hmm...of course it's not very good." Wei Zhongxian rolled his eyes and responded in a deep voice.

His response was seen through by Xu Xigao at a glance, so he could only curse secretly in his heart, and said to Wei Zhongxian with a smile:

"I heard that Wei Zhangyin is from Suning, Hejian. To tell you the truth, my subordinates have been running a farm there, but they are not very familiar with the water and soil of Suning, so the harvest has been failing year after year."

"I don't know if anyone under Wei Zhangyin is familiar with the water and soil there, can you send them to help?"

"Of course there are, that is, our family is all peasants. We don't know the size of the farm, and we don't know how many people to send there." Wei Zhongxian responded with a smile, and Xu Xigao also smiled and said:
"The farm is not big, about [-] acres, and it is estimated that [-] people can handle it."

"Hey, fifty people is not a lot. People eat horse chews, and they have to eat a lot." Wei Zhongxian pretended that he couldn't afford so many people, but actually wanted money.

The so-called helping with the management is nothing more than giving away land in disguise, and now Wei Zhongxian wants to get both land and money.

Xu Xigao didn't expect that he would also need to bribe a eunuch who he once looked down upon, but even though his back molars were all crushed, he still had to make amends and said with a smile:

"That's true. People eat horse chews. Without food, they can't do their jobs."

"How about this? How about I ask someone to send two thousand taels of silver to the farm and buy ten cattle?"

"That's almost the same, but I don't know if they can get some rewards after they manage the farm well?" Wei Zhongxian continued to squeeze with a hidden knife in his smile, and Xu Xigao could only smile and say:
"Come on, rewards are too much to see? If you really take care of the fields and have a bumper harvest in the coming year, you will naturally have to give gifts according to the wages in the capital."

The so-called bumper harvest is just an excuse. To put it bluntly, it is to see if things can be done, and if you, Wei Zhongxian, can help.

If things are good, I can give more in the future, if not, then naturally I will give less.

For this kind of words, Wei Zhongxian naturally understands, so he said with a smile:

"Naturally, there will be a good harvest. Duke Ding can rest assured about this. How about you wait here for a while, let's go in and tell Long Live that you are here."

"Hey, please trouble Wei's palm print." Xu Xigao responded with a smile, and Wei Zhongxian also turned around and walked towards the Qianqing Palace.

After crossing the long Qianqing palace road, Wei Zhongxian stepped over the gate and entered the Qianqing palace, and bowed to Zhu Youxiao who was processing memorials in the Hall of Mental Cultivation:
"Long live, Duke Ding is here."

"Well, tell him to come in." Principal Zhu You didn't look up, as if he had expected Xu Xigao to come.

But when he finished speaking, Wei Zhongxian said:
"Long live, Duke Ding is here to admit his mistake."

"Huh?" Zhu Youxiao put down the memorial in his hand, frowned slightly and raised his head, and Wei Zhongxian also flattered:

"Ding Guogong said that he is not reluctant to part with the guards in Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion, but he is worried that Wansui will abolish too much and cause turmoil in the guards."

"You pass him in." Zhu Youxiao's frowning relaxed.

For a person of his age, he who is in charge of the supreme imperial power can only follow it, not against it.

He naturally knew that Wei Zhongxian had taken advantage of Xu Xigao, after all he had seen too many such things.

But since Xu Xigao paid the favor, it means that he is also afraid.

As long as he is afraid, then things will be much easier to handle.

Seeing that Zhu Youxiao agreed, Wei Zhongxian bowed with a smile, and then glanced at the little eunuch at the door.

"Duke Xuanding enters the palace for an audience..." The little eunuch sang loudly knowingly, and Xu Xigao, who was at the gate of the Qianqing Palace, hurried into the Qianqing Palace after hearing it.

He walked fast all the way, and after a dozen or so breaths, he stepped into Qianqing Palace, facing the Hall of Mental Cultivation that Wei Zhongxian was facing, bowed his head and said:
"Chen, Xu Xigao, Long Live Saint Gong'an..."

"Zhen'an" Zhu Youxiao picked up the memorial, read it and said:

"What's the matter with the Dingguo Office..."

"I heard that Wansui is going to abolish the guards of Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion, so I entered the palace because I wanted to..." When talking about this, Xu Xigao changed his tone after hearing Wei Zhongxian's soft reminder:
"I want to remind Long live that even if the guards are to be abolished, at least we have to see if the Yumajian really has the strength to suppress the guards."

Xu Xigao is very smart, but also very stupid.

He is clever in clarifying things and pretending to be a loyal minister, but his mistake is that he doesn't trust Zhu Youjian.

"Long live!" At this moment Wei Zhongxian hastily smiled and said:
"Although Ding Guogong's words are a bit worrying, they are indeed for the sake of Long Live and Daming."

"It's been more than two months now, and Wansui has not seen how the training of the Seven Guards and the First Battalion is going. The other His Royal Highness has also been to Tianshou Mountain for more than half a month, so it is better to take advantage of the Qingling Mausoleum to be fully repaired in a few days. How about going in person?"

Wei Zhongxian helped Xu Xigao's words come back very well, and accurately hit Zhu Youxiao's thoughts.

Zhu Youxiao misses Zhu Youjian very much, and Wei Zhongxian knows this best.

Almost every day, Zhu Youxiao would talk about Zhu Youjian at least ten times, and Zhu Youxiao also wanted to go out of the palace to have fun.

He said more than once that the palace was too stuffy and wanted to go out for a walk.

Right now, it is just possible to go out of Beijing under the pretext of going to worship after the Qingling is repaired, and then spend some time in Tianshou Mountain in Changping.

"Um……"

Sure enough, as soon as Wei Zhongxian finished speaking, Zhu Youxiao's eyes lit up, and he nodded instantly: "Zhongxian, what you said is not bad."

As he spoke, he looked at Xu Xigao again, and then said:

"Duke Dingguo is also doing it for me. It's better for Duke Dingguo to go back and discuss with Duke Yingying and Duke Chengguo. When the Qingling Mausoleum is completed, I will go to Tianshou Mountain with all the civil and military officials to pay homage to the past emperors."

"The minister leads the decree..." Xu Xigao breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.

He was even a little secretly happy in his heart, and wanted to take this opportunity to expose the true colors of Zhu Youjian's seven guards and one battalion, so that the emperor would give up the matter of abolishing the Yongping Mansion and Shuntian Mansion Guards.

"In that case, then Duke Ding should step down first. I will announce this in Chang Dynasty when the Qingling Mausoleum is repaired."

Zhu Youxiao waved his hand, and Xu Xigao completed his goal, bowed in return, and then withdrew from the Qianqing Palace.

He was extremely satisfied in his heart, but after he withdrew, Zhu Youxiao immediately put away the smiling face just now, and his face became gloomy.

This scene made Wei Zhongxian's scalp tingle, but Zhu Youxiao scoffed at Xu Xigao's actions in his heart.

Xu Xigao's small thoughts were clearly seen by him, the reason why he cooperated was nothing more than to use this matter to settle the matter of abolishing the Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion Guards, and changing the defense of Ji Town.

Don't all civil and military officials believe that their brothers have military power?That's good, the two brothers show their cards directly, and let them know that the seven guards and one battalion of Yumajian are not just talking about it.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Youxiao wanted to take this opportunity not only to make achievements in the military, but also to let civil servants know that the imperial power and military power were once again closely linked politically.

His method is the method Ming Xianzong used to play back then.

Civilian changes, civil servants are powerful?So what?

Ming Xianzong's method was very simple. He selected [-] elite troops from the Beijing camp, known as the [-]th Regiment Battalion, and the sergeants were known as the frontrunners.

Not only that, but he also asked Wang Zhi to practice the four guards and one battalion of the Yumajian.

In this way, Zhu Jianshen has [-] soldiers and horses in his hands, and he has nothing to do with the civil servants, who can't get involved at all.

Relying on his military power, Zhu Jianshen quickly resolved the mess left by Zhu Qizhen bit by bit. It can be said that it was the most appropriate and correct way to follow in the late Ming Dynasty.

In history, Zhu Youxiao had no choice, the nobles could not support them, and the military generals were all related to civil servants, so they could not cultivate their own military power.

But it's different now. Zhu Youxiao believed in his brother with all his heart, and Zhu Youjian did not live up to his expectations.

From some of Yang Lian's actions, Zhu Youxiao could see that the fighting power of the Seven Guards and One Battalion was definitely not comparable to that of the Beijing Camp and the Frontier Army.

Right now the training time is short, but Zhu Youxiao also said, that is to go to sacrifice after the repair of Qingling.

How long will Qingling need to be repaired?This question is very vague, because there is no time limit, so whether it is four months or half a year, this time is decided by Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian.

So Zhu Youxiao gave his younger brother enough time to train his troops. As long as Zhu You checked nothing wrong, then when the accompanying civil servants saw the combat effectiveness of the Seven Guards and One Battalion, at least they would not be as aggressive as before.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, there were only seven emperors with military power.

Except for Zhu Yunxuan who was limped by the civil servants and Zhu Qizhen who committed suicide by himself, the other emperors said the same thing to the civil servants.

Zhu Youxiao wants to follow the old path, and this path must be supported by his good brother.

Therefore, after keeping his face gloomy for a few seconds, Zhu Youxiao picked up a blank memorial again, wrote the memorial with pen and ink, raised his head and threw the memorial in front of Wei Zhongxian.

"Snapped"

The sound of Zuo Shu falling to the ground almost made Wei Zhongxian kneel on the ground in fright.

"Send this manuscript to Yanshan Daying, and no one else can read it except my brother...including you."

"The servants lead the decree..." Wei Zhongxian was taken aback, thinking that the emperor was going to kill him.

After hearing this, he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, then knelt down to pick up the handwriting, returned a salute, then turned around and walked to the palace gate, but at the gate of the palace gate he paused again, turned to Zhu The school bowed and said:
"Long live, do you want to arrange for someone to send some food to the Yanshan Camp? I am afraid that His Highness Fifth Highness will not eat well."

"Well, you can figure it out." Zhu Youxiao also nodded when he heard the words, and then bowed his head to deal with the memorial.

Wei Zhongxian was overjoyed when he saw that he had hit what he liked, and then he withdrew from Qianqing Palace and asked Wang Tiqian to honestly send letters, bear paws, shark fins, bird's nests, and various tribute teas and wines to Changping.

Wang Tiqian got the order, and quickly sent ten factory guards from the East Factory to escort the handwriting and eat.

Before the evening drum was sounded, these factory guards quickly fetched things from the Ten Treasurys of the Inner Mansion, and then rode on fast horses and rode from Andingmen towards Changping.

Soon, under Zhu Youxiao's indulgence, rumors about his conversation with Xu Xigao spread in the outer court.

The civil officials on duty in the Wenhua Palace knew that after the repair of the Qingling Mausoleum was completed, the emperor would take all the civil and military officials to Tianshou Mountain to worship the imperial mausoleum.

A small number of civil servants are worried, but more civil servants still laugh it off as a joke.

Perhaps in their view, training soldiers and horses for two or three months is nothing but a shameful thing...

(End of this chapter)