Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 690 Postscript ([-]) Shaoqing New Style

"boom!"

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month in the ninth year of Xianjia, when gunshots rang out in Persia, it also meant that the 70-year peace in the area had been broken.

The Ming army's offensive was like an erupting tsunami, rushing irresistibly towards the positions of the Persian frontier.

In just one morning, the originally clean and tidy frontier defense line became a prison.

The soldiers in the trenches were miserable, with projectiles flying over their heads and the rare rain soaking their clothes.

Crouching in the blast holes, they could clearly smell the putrid smell of human remains in the air, and any soldiers who tried to stand up and fight back would be torn to pieces by the bullets.

Although the officers continued to order counterattacks, the Persian soldiers were desperately unable to resist under the artillery fire of the Ming army's cannon that eroded hundreds of steps.

A 15-year-old Persian boy pulled out his wooden whistle and was killed by a cannonball before he could blow it.

To the Persians, they are like a piece of meat. Everyone who stands up will be killed by the barrage, and they can't even fight back.

Finally, when the sound of the charge was getting closer and closer, the Ming army finally captured the defense line, and the Persians hiding in the trenches walked out of the artillery hole with their hands raised.

They have two options. The first is to become civilian husbands of the Ming army, so that they will not be held accountable after the war, and they can also go to the four provinces of Tianzhu in the Ming Dynasty and get ten acres of land for each family.

Such a choice made most Persians choose to surrender without hesitation and become civilian husbands.

For them, who becomes the Shah actually has little to do with them.

The so-called belief, for ordinary people in this era, is an existence that can be abandoned with only ten acres of land.

At dusk on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Amu-An Diku defense line collapsed, and the Ming army drove straight in.

On the sixth day, the Ottoman defense line in Mosul collapsed, and Yue Zhongqi led [-] Ming troops to enter Mosul.

On the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, Zhu Bomu led his army to capture Mashhad, the second Persian defense line was disintegrated, [-] of the [-] Persian army fled, [-] surrendered, and [-] were killed.

On the [-]th, Yue Zhongqi captured Fancheng, and Nian Gengyao, the commander of the Ganges, captured Adana.

On the [-]th, Qin Guogong Li Sijian captured Kerman, and Yongwang Zhu Heping captured Amadan. The main force of the Ming army was less than [-] miles away from Isfahan.

On the first day of the first lunar month in the tenth year of Xianjia, when the people of Ming Dynasty celebrated the New Year, Zhu Bomu led his troops to capture Yazd and joined forces with Li Sijian's department. At this time, they were less than [-] miles away from Isfahan.

Upon hearing the news, Persian Shah Tahmasp II fled westward to Qazvin with tens of thousands of nobles and guards on the third day of the first lunar month.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Isfahan was captured by the Ming army. At this time, the controllable territory of the Safavid Persian dynasty was less than a quarter.

On the [-]th, the Ming army was short of civilian husbands. Zhu Bomu ordered a large number of Persian farmers to be recruited as civilian husbands, and gave them a reward of [-] mu of land per household after the war.

At the same time, Zhu Bomu opened the Persian granary and used the grain as wages to hire peasants at the price of one bucket per person per day.

This move allowed a large number of poor peasants at the bottom of Persia to sign up enthusiastically, and the supply line of the Ming army was extended.

On the [-]th day of the first lunar month, Zhu Bomu led his army to Qazvin, Tahmasp II surrendered, and since then the whole territory of Persia has surrendered.

After the news came back to Ming Dynasty, it was already February [-]th, and at this time, Emperor Xianjia was not satisfied with a Persia, but was planning to plan the eastern Ottoman territory.

He summoned Tian Wenjing, the chief assistant of the cabinet, but Tian Wenjing said that "the war started less than three months ago, and the military expenditure was 2000 million yuan. The country should take it slowly..."

Emperor Xianjia was displeased and reprimanded Tian Wenjing. At the same time, Tahmasp II, who had surrendered, was canonized as the "King of Persia", and the treasury paid 3000 taels of silver to build a palace for him in Anxi City.

On the thirteenth, Emperor Xianjia divided Persia into three, and set up Dawan Province, Guishuang Province, and Persia Province from east to west.

At the same time, Emperor Xianjia ordered Zhu Bomu to continue marching westward, and appointed Yan Jiayin, the eldest son of Lu Guogong and Minister of the Household Department, as the Minister of Persia;

Emperor Xianjia ordered three political envoys to select [-] officials from the [-] officials selected by Enke last year to go to the three provinces, and arrest all the nobles who had ties to the former state as labor reformers.

At this time, about 1000 million students in Ming Dynasty took the Enke examination every year, but only [-] officials were selected each year.

In order to reserve officials, the imperial court specially set up "reserve officials", that is, there are no official positions, and they receive five taels of salary each year to wait for their posts.

The attack on Persia and Ottoman this time was also for Emperor Xianjia to solve the problem of increasing officials.

On the first day of March, Emperor Xianjia ordered the Ministry of Industry to send people to the three provinces of Persia to investigate the field and draw blueprints for the construction of the railways in the three provinces.

On the seventh day of March, Zhu Bomu, General of the Western Expedition, received the imperial decree and continued to command the army to march westward.

On March [-]th, Zhu Bomu led his army to recover the Kurdistan region and marched towards Asia Minor.

At such a critical moment, a large number of nobles arrested in the three provinces of Persia gathered their troops and the supply line of the Ming army was cut off. The army left a small number of troops stationed there, and then led the troops back to suppress the rebellion.

In May, the rebellion was quelled, but at this time the military expenditure for the Western Expedition had reached 600 million taels.

On the second day of June, Tian Wenjing, the chief assistant of the cabinet, went to Shu, admonishing the emperor to stop the Northern Expedition, so as not to squander all the treasury saved by the former emperor.

The emperor was furious and wanted to dismiss Tian Wenjing, but the crown prince Zhu Bohai also went to the embassy at the same time, saying that the Western Expedition had affected the people and should be stopped.

Emperor Xianjia didn't believe the crown prince's words, but when he read the documents of Jin Yiwei, he found that the price of grain among the people had risen by [-]% compared to before the war. Such a huge grain deficit was obviously not caused by the First World War. .

What made him feel even more wrong was that the military expenditure in the Western Expedition was too large, which was somewhat unreasonable.

On the tenth day of June, Emperor Xianjia sent Jin Yiwei to the three provinces of Persia to check with Zhu Bomu the details of military expenditures.

On the first day of August, Ma Chaofeng, the commander of Jinyiwei, arrived in Persia (Qazvin) and compared the documents of the five armies' governor's mansion and household department with the documents of the frontline army.

Faced with the emperor's suspicion, Zhu Bomu, the general of Zhengxi, had to temporarily hand over the general's power to verify military expenditures with Ma Chaofeng.

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, after the two of them collected evidence in various ways, they discovered the tricks in the military expenditure.

Profiteers, this is not a special product of a certain period and a certain region, it is a group of special groups that have always existed in the world.

If such a group wants to implement their ideas, they must find a backer they can rely on.

Facts have proved that in the face of huge interests, there are always some people who are dazzled by the interests and dare to earn any money. There are especially many such people even in times of war.

During the Western Expedition, although Zhu Bomu had prepared five medical battalions in advance to protect the lives of the soldiers, the extremely poor battlefield medical environment still prevented many soldiers from receiving timely medical treatment, and finally their conditions deteriorated and they died.

On the battlefield, Zhu Bomu didn't have the energy to take care of all aspects, but when he let go of his military power and walked out of the command tent, what he saw almost made him grit his teeth.

During his investigation, many medical supplies brought in from the rear were not guaranteed.

Not only are there a large number of counterfeit and shoddy products in medical supplies, but there are also a large number of fake and shoddy products in food and daily necessities.

Some soldiers ate expired canned food, fell down with acute gastroenteritis, and died on the march.

Among the large quantities of expired cans seized, Zhu Bomu saw that the oldest can was produced in Yongchang 24 years ago, more than ten years ago.

Regarding these things, the lieutenant soldiers have long complained, but their reports have been blocked layer by layer.

As the commander-in-chief of the army, Zhu Bomu didn't know it, which made him feel ashamed and cut his hair with a knife to apologize to the soldiers.

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Bomu and Jin Yiwei commander Ma Chaofeng returned to the capital with a train full of evidence.

When the train was traveling to Anxi, it overturned, and several carriages containing evidence were artificially set on fire.

Zhu Bomu was so angry that he immediately reported to Qianqing Palace by telegram.

Knowing about these dirty things, Emperor Xianjia slapped the table angrily, immediately summoned Tian Wenjing, Zhang Tingyu, and Zhu Bohai, and asked them to immediately set up a Beijing police team to arrest all the officials, merchants, and their families of the nine clans involved in the case. Keep.

Soon, a huge Beijing police operation started.

More than 80 Jinyiwei and [-] local soldiers and soldiers arrested the officials involved. On the eleventh night of the twelfth lunar month alone, more than [-] officials were arrested.

Among them, the highest official positions are Zu Zeqing, the governor of the Five Armies, Wu Shilin, the uncle of Pingxi, and Yan Zuyi, the boy of Haicheng.

On the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhang Zhaoyi, the grandson of the former British Duke Zhang Shize, was arrested.

In addition to them, in the next two months, Jin Yiwei arrested a total of 32 criminals and 450 civil servants above the fifth rank.

Among them, the person who made Emperor Xianjia most angry was Liu Shen, the chief official of the sixth rank of the "State-owned Huangdian Armament Medical Factory".

He replaced all the [-] catties of high-quality cotton used to make first-aid kits and triangular scarves with second-hand cotton. It became a first aid kit and sent to the battlefield.

This kind of behavior directly led to the deterioration of many soldiers' injuries. Some of them were directly amputated due to frostbite, and even more serious were directly sacrificed.

Not to mention that, he also bribed some officials in the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, sold a lot of fake medicines, and gained a lot of benefits from it.

In addition to him, there are many, many other state officials who have been found to be cutting corners.

Zhang Miaoxin, the chief official of the "State-run Huangdian Cannery Factory", made canned food from moldy and stinky beef.

Zhang Xicheng, the chief official of the "State-owned Bag Rice Factory", mixed moldy rice into the vacuum rice.

Shi Liru, the chief officer of the "State-owned Vacuum Vegetable Factory", made a large number of rotten vegetables into vegetable bags and sent them to the front line.

These are just a corner of the state-run factories, and besides the state-owned factories, private factories are also very dirty.

In order to support the private sector, each government department will distribute part of the orders to private factories as appropriate when placing orders, and this has also led to the involvement of many private factories this time.

Qian Shengxing, a businessman in Suzhou, did not dry the dried tofu, cut corners and put less salt and soy sauce in the production of dried tofu.

Fearing that the matter would be exposed, he immediately went around and bribed hundreds of officials. In the end, he was not only exempted from responsibility, but also got an order worth 10 taels of silver.

Wu Defu, a businessman from Hangzhou, was in charge of making [-] shovels for the Western Expeditionary Army. As a result, [-] of them were made of pig iron, which would bend when touched.

Ma Hengqing from Songjiang Prefecture was in charge of making [-] pairs of military shoes for the army. As a result, he cut corners and materials, and the shoes he made broke when worn. I use it, I take care of him."

Those who were considered big at the time could be named. Other private businessmen who committed crimes ranged from large to small. There were more than [-] people, and more than one million family members and nine clans were involved. It was called "the crime of Yisi" in history.

Such a result made Emperor Xianjia furious, especially what Ma Hengqing, a businessman from Songjiang Prefecture, made him faint on the spot.

When he woke up, he immediately demanded that Ma Hengqing, Qian Shengxing, Zhang Miaoxin and other officials involved in cutting corners be punished as "Lingchi", all three clans be beheaded, and four and nine clans be exiled to the three provinces of Persia.

Since the Ming Dynasty has not had the punishment of Ling Chi for many years, facing the more than [-] nobles, merchants, and officials who committed serious crimes who will be Ling Chi, the officials of the Criminal Ministry can only find out from the internal files of the Yamen. Master who has lived to this day.

Afterwards, they arrested another hundred murderers from the prison and required them to learn the skill of "Ling Chi" within three months.

If you learn the craft, then the death penalty can be sentenced to life, and if you don't learn it, you will be beheaded immediately.

In March of the 11th year of Xianjia, after three months of study, 42 people finally passed the assessment, and then executed more than [-] nobles, merchants, and officials.

At this time, Emperor Xianjia's physical condition was no longer optimistic. Since he was fainted by Ma Hengqing, his physical condition has plummeted, and he still has headache symptoms from time to time.

Therefore, in order to deter all officials, Emperor Xianjia ordered [-] criminals to be tied up in Chang'anmen Square, and ordered officials of the fifth rank and above in Beijing and the fifteen provinces of the Central Plains to come and inspect.

According to historical records, there were tens of thousands of officials who visited that day, and facing the cruel scene of Ling Chi, many officials were fighting with each other. Without the support of others, they almost collapsed.

This incident greatly shocked the officials, but at the same time it also dragged down Emperor Xianjia's body.

In May of that year, Emperor Xianjia divided Kurdistan and parts of Asia Minor into two parts, and at the same time granted the titles to the Kingdom of Wei and the Kingdom of Xu, and made Wei Wang Zhu Yicheng and Xu Wang Zhu Botang the domain.

In the same month, Emperor Xianjia summoned Qi Shizi Zhu Yiming to Beijing.

When Zhu Yiming arrived in the capital at the end of June, Emperor Xianjia had a long talk with him, and explained many matters to Prince Zhu Bohai, and then dismissed everyone.

On the second day of July, Emperor Xianjia Zhu Yixuan died in Qianqing Palace at the age of 62, and the 45-year-old crown prince Zhu Bohai took the throne.

On the third day of junior high school, before Zhu Bohai had time to deal with the national funeral, another uprising broke out in Persia.

He promoted Nian Gengyao as the governor of the Western Army and ordered him to suppress the rebellion, and at the same time appointed Yue Zhongqi as the governor of the Southern Army.

When the appointment was issued and Zhu Bohai was just about to issue an order to summon all feudal vassals to Beijing, another slap in the face of Ming Dynasty appeared in the Sidang area of ​​India.

On the fifth day of July, friction broke out between Deyang County and Zhou State.

Since Zhou's elite were all in the north, Deyang County won this conflict, and more than a hundred people were killed or injured on both sides.

After this incident broke out, Zhou Wang Zhu Huisong led an army of [-] to go south to conquer Deyang County.

Zhu Jinkui, the king of Deyang County, asked for help from Zhu Jincheng, the king of Shu. Seeing this, Zhu Jincheng led an army of [-] to prevent Zhou from entering the border of Deyang, and the two sides were at war.

Zhu Bohai can't remember clearly the grievances between Zhou Guo and Deyang County, but this kind of thing still made him feel disgraced and a little uncomfortable.

He issued an imperial decree to reprimand the three parties, ordering the three countries to take back their troops, and at the same time sent Si Jincheng, the supervisor of Xiaoxiyang, to lead the troops to reprimand them.

On July [-], the Three Kingdoms received the imperial decree and withdrew their troops under Jin Cheng's order.

A wave of unrest, a wave of up again.

On July [-], Baiguan Xungui and Shangshu believed that there were many people who had been framed in the previous "Crime of Yisi", and asked the new emperor to retry the case.

Facing the threat, before Zhu Bohai could figure out how to deal with it, Zhu Yiming, the son of Qi who had been staying in Beijing, scolded all the officials, saying "the emperor Daxing's funeral is not yet over, and the officials forced the palace, it can be regarded as treason".

Afraid of the strength of the Qi State, the officials had no choice but to give up, but everyone knew that Prince Qi would always return to the Qi State, so they didn't care about it, and just secretly accumulated strength.

In August, the feudal lords came to Beijing one after another, and the ministers calmed down a little.

On the first day of September, Zhu Bohai led the vassals, ministers, and nobles to escort Emperor Xianjia to the burial, and proposed "Emperor Zhongzong Kang" for him in Minglou.

Thanks to the presence of all the vassals, Zhu Bohai set the year name as "Shaoqing". At the same time, he continued to appoint Tian Wenjing and Zhang Tingyu as assistant ministers, and announced the investigation of the imperial store.

After the national funeral, Zhu Bohai stayed in Beijing for several months, and took the opportunity to find Tian Wenjing, Zhang Tingyu, Zhu Yiming, and Zhu Bomu to discuss national policy.

Tian Wenjing believes that in order to restore the domestic economy, King Wen of Qi took a series of political and economic measures, one of which was to adjust the relationship between public and private, labor and capital, and production and sales in the market economy.

Such an adjustment does not matter, but the Taiping during the Yongchang period led to the formation of a solid interest group within the Huangdian.

After Emperor Yongchang repeatedly cracked down on such behaviors, but when Daming pointed the finger at the outside during the Xianjia period, these interest groups developed rapidly.

At the same time, the private economy of the people was also intervened by nobles, and so far a situation of state-run civil servants and private nobles was formed.

The state-run faction is lying on the body of the imperial shop to suck blood, while the private-run nobles are squeezing the people.

Both of these are great harm to the Ming Dynasty, and their performance in this Western Expedition further shows that they are not satisfied with obtaining general profits in the normal way, and try to use their power to do anything wrong.

The private honorary faction mainly focuses on bribery and tax evasion, while the state-run civil servant faction seeks huge profits by defrauding state-owned property, cutting corners, and stealing national economic information.

They caused great losses to the court economically, so their actions must be curbed.

After Tian Wenjing raised the question and the phenomenon, Zhang Tingyu suggested launching an anti-corruption and anti-bureaucracy campaign within Huangdian.

The "three antis" policy of "anti-bribery, anti-tax evasion, and cutting corners" is carried out in the private market.

In addition, it is necessary to carry out the three positive behaviors in the army, such as "correct troop numbers, correct discipline, and correct thinking".

And the three-increase policy of "increasing salary, increasing military pay, and increasing wages" in the overall market.

After that, Zhang Tingyu worked out the content of the policy carefully, and worked out a general policy with Tian Wenjing, Zhu Yiming, Zhu Bomu and others.

After the policy emerged, Zhang Tingyu and Tian Wenjing assembled a group of honest officials, and then made more detailed requirements and terms for the policy.

Until the new year's bell rang, the first year of Shaoqing officially arrived, and this policy of governing the country was also made known to the world, known as the "New Style of Shaoqing" in history.

(End of this chapter)