Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 687 Liquidating the Northern Gentlemen
Looking at the dilapidated South Gate Tower in Changping, Chongzhen felt emotional.

The Changping City in front of him looked even more dilapidated than it was five years ago.

Chongzhen beckoned Wang Jiayan to come forward, and asked: "Wang Qing, do you still remember the situation in March of the Jiashen year, when you and my ministers came here after we broke out from Beijing?"

"Why don't you remember?" Wang Jiayan sighed.

"I was ordered by the emperor to lead more than fifty family members to sneak into Changping city in advance pretending to be hungry people, and opened the gate of the city at night, and received hundreds of horses including the emperor into Changping Prefecture, and the horses of the emperor and ministers were full."

"I still think about it, it's like a dream." Chongzhen also sighed.

Then he turned back and asked Sun Fanzhi, "Sun Fanzhi, how many people are there in Changping Prefecture?"

Sun Fanzhi replied: "Reporting to the Holy Majesty, according to the Yulin Atlas approved in the sixth year of Wanli, Changping Prefecture is also in charge of the three counties of Shunyi, Huairou, and Miyun, with a population of more than [-]."

Chongzhen nodded and said, "That's more than [-] people."

In Ming Dynasty fish scale albums, generally only the number of dice is recorded.

The reason is also very simple, women and children do not need to pay small taxes, so there is no need for statistics.

After a pause, Chongzhen asked again: "Now, how many people are left in Changping Prefecture?"

Sun Fanzhi sighed softly and replied, "Currently there are only three thousand or six thousand mouths left in Changping Prefecture."

Hearing this, the expressions of the accompanying scholars suddenly froze. The ancients often used Dingkou to describe disasters, but the loss of Dingkou in Changping Prefecture was more than nine out of ten?
While speaking, the monarch and his party had already entered Changping City from the south gate.

After entering the city gate, there are two ancestral halls. Judging from the remaining architectural forms and scales, these two ancestral halls must have been magnificent and majestic before they were destroyed by military disasters.

The Garrison Mansion, Shenshou Palace, Nursing Home, Reserve Warehouse and even Changping Prefecture City in the back are also dilapidated and desolate, and there is hardly a single intact building as far as the eye can see.

Those houses are even more dilapidated.

Some people came out of the dilapidated house when they heard the movement, and when they saw Chongzhen's emperor and ministers, they hurried back into the house again, and only looked at them secretly through the crack of the door, showing extremely indifference.

Sun Fanzhi wanted to go forward to reprimand the people, but was stopped.

"Don't blame them, it's my fault." Chongzhen sighed, "If it hadn't been for my inaction for 17 years after Yuji, the mountains and rivers would not have been turned upside down, and the people would have been reduced to the fish of thieves and slaves, so all mistakes are my faults. wrong."

Wang Jiayan and Sun Fanzhi sighed upon hearing this, but everyone cheered up soon.

The old atmosphere of Chongzhen 17 years ago is in the past, what is important is the new atmosphere of the new Ming Dynasty.

Chongzhen asked again: "Sun Fanzhi, I asked you to check the current situation of the rich clan in Changping Prefecture. How is the situation?"

Sun Fanzhi replied: "The gentry clan in Changping Prefecture is dominated by the Chen and You surnames. However, the main branches of these two big clans have been exterminated by bandits and slaves, and now only the side branches remain."

"Except for Huangzhuang, Changping prefecture has the most cultivated land in these two houses."

Speaking of this meal, he went on to say: "But now, more than a dozen side branches have emerged claiming the right to inherit the real estate and cultivated land of the Chen family and You family, and request inheritance."

"It's a good idea." Chongzhen sneered, "Have the Chen family and You family ever surrendered bandits to become slaves?"

"Naturally." Sun Fanzhi said, "Both families surrendered to the bandits first, and then the slaves. What's ridiculous is that neither the bandits nor the slaves let them go."

Chongzhen said coldly: "Go back and tell the offshoots of the Chen and You families that it is not impossible to inherit the property and cultivated land of the Chen and You families, but the crimes of the Chen and You families must be liquidated first."

Speaking of this meal, Chongzhen turned back to the other scholars and said, "The same goes for the rest of the prefectures and prefectures."

"Your servants, please follow the holy order." Zhu Yanzuo, Ji Yunhong and other dozens of Qinwang scholars immediately responded respectfully.

These dozens of scholars are about to be sent by Chongzhen to various state capitals in Beizhi to investigate the crimes of collaborating with the enemy.

This was also planned by Chongzhen a long time ago. Whether it is surrendering openly or secretly, as long as you have surrendered to a thief or a slave, you must deal with it. The minimum is to confiscate your family property and cultivated land. railway.

In a word, adults must be responsible for their own actions, and they must be punished if they do something wrong.

In order to win over the northern gentry, there is no such thing as lenient treatment. From the very beginning, Chongzhen had planned to deal with the northern gentry seriously, otherwise there would be no way to solve the land annexation dilemma.

Therefore, Chongzhen must obtain first-hand information before dealing with it.

……

Lu Zhenfei, Meng Zhaoxiang and other cabinet ministers mostly advocated leniency.

The only one who advocated serious treatment was Zhang Shenyan, the second assistant.

Although Zhang Shenyan was an out-and-out Shanxi native, he had no intention of shielding the northern gentry at all.

"Right is right, wrong is wrong. If you are right, you should be rewarded, and if you are wrong, you should be punished. There is nothing to say." Zhang Shenyan said loudly, "The gentry and gentry in the northern provinces first surrendered thieves and then slaves. Abandoning Daming is like contempt. Lu, if such a shameful act is not punished, how can the country's laws exist? Where is the justice?"

"Miao Shan, no one is against punishment, and punishment must be punished."

The only one who can call the second assistant Zhang Shenyan by his title is of course the first assistant Lu Zhenfei.

After a pause, Lu Zhenfei went on to say: "The problem is the intensity of the punishment and how to define the scope? I think the punishment is too harsh, or the scope of the punishment is extended to all the gentry in the northern provinces. This is extremely undesirable. , because doing so is not conducive to stability, it will cause unrest among the people, and the hearts of the people will be scattered."

"What's worse is that it will create a bad atmosphere." Meng Zhaoxiang continued, "After hearing the news, the gentry and gentry in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Sichuan will inevitably lament the sorrow of rabbits and foxes, and thus become more determined to follow the thief. Even if the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty can recover Shanxi, Shaanxi and Sichuan, they will definitely spend ten times as much manpower and material resources."

"Meng Ge's words are very true." Wang Yingxiong said, "We still need to learn how to calculate the general ledger."

Wang Yingxiong, a native of Ba County, Sichuan Province, was too poor to study when he was young, and was able to study and take the imperial examination with the support of his family.

Therefore, Wang Yingxiong still has feelings for the Wang family in Ba County, subconsciously he does not want the Wang family to be liquidated, even though the Wang family does have a bad record of being a thief.

"Wang Yintai's theory is absurd." Zhang Shenyan retorted sharply, "There are murderers in the market, and the government servants are in danger of retaliation and death when they go to Yina, so the government needs to deal with the perpetrators leniently, so as to relax their ambition of retaliation?"

"How can these two be confused?" Wang Yingxiong frowned and said, "Northern gentry don't kill people."

"What Wang Yintai said is absolutely true," said Liu Shizhen, Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice. "The northern gentry are only seeking to protect themselves, but they are actually unwilling to abandon the Ming Dynasty in their hearts."

"It's good to seek self-protection." Zhang Shenyan retorted, "If we follow the theory of Da Sikou, traitors such as Wu Sangui and Jiang Yu are only seeking self-protection, Hong Chengchou, Sun Zhixie and other ministers are also only seeking self-protection. Therefore, Wu Sangui, Hong Chengchou and others also need to be dealt with leniently?"

"Mr. Zhang Ge, you are making too much sense." Liu Shizhen said, "Wu Sangui and others led wolves into the house, Hong Chengchou and others helped the tyrants to abuse the tyrants. The chaotic officials and thieves of that generation did countless evil things and bore countless blood debts on them. However, most of the gentry and gentry in the north were forced by the situation and could not If you don't stoop to being a thief, but you haven't done any evil since becoming a thief, how can you not be lenient?"

"It's a good thing that one has never done anything evil, and the chief commander should be punished for this!" Zhang Shenyan said furiously, "If there is no help from the northern gentry and gentry, how could the rogue sweep the north in just a few months? With the help of the gentry, how come the money and food are used repeatedly against the Ming Dynasty, and how come the copper and iron craftsmen to make cannons and blunderbusses?"

"In the 17th year of Chongzhen, the entire territory of the northern provinces fell in January, all thanks to the northern gentry."

"After Jiannu entered the customs, he used troops against the Huanghuai defense line three times successively, causing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians of our Ming Dynasty to be killed or taken away. This is also thanks to the northern gentry!"

After a short pause, Zhang Shenyan reprimanded Liu Shizhen again: "Such evil deeds and such bad deeds, but in the mouth of the chief commander, it turns out that they did not do any evil. This theory should be punished!"

Liu Shizhen was so trained that his face was flushed, and he was speechless for a while.

Because Zhang Shenyan's words have no problem at all in terms of morality or law.

But from reality, from the sophistication of the world, it is absolutely impossible to deal with it like this.

Not to mention anything else, just a sentence that does not blame the public is enough to explain the problem.

With such a large-scale political liquidation in several northern provinces, does Daming still want peace in the north?

Without the full support of the gentry and gentry in the northern provinces, Ming's laws and government orders would be difficult to carry out in the northern provinces, and it would be impossible to implement effective rule over the north.

But such words cannot be said on the stage.

Some things can be said but not done, and some things can be done but not said.

The lenient treatment of the northern gentry belongs to the latter, which can be done but cannot be said.

But Zhang Shenyan was stubborn and insisted on bringing this matter to the table.

This made the other ministers of the cabinet and the officials of the six ministries very speechless. Zhang Shen said that if you are so independent, you will easily have no friends and become a loner in the end.

In the end, Lu Zhenfei could only say: "Let's discuss this matter after the interview. Now that we are discussing the supervisor of the Imperial Palace in Beijing, the action of Pu Guansheng seems to be replacing the Ministry of Rites Examination with the Imperial Examination. I don't know if you think so?"

"This is absolutely impossible." Wang Duo, who is the Minister of Rites, immediately stood up and objected.

"How can the talent ceremony that lasted for thousands of years be abolished easily? This is absolutely impossible."

The Ministry of Rites originally did not have much authority, but now the Holy Majesty is trying his best to promote the reform of etiquette laws, and many of the etiquette laws have been abolished one after another. If he exists again, he, the Minister of Rites, should retire.

However, Wang Duo's remarks did not resonate.

In fact, the officials present at the cabinet department tended to use the Guozi Examination instead of the Ministry of Rites Examination to select officials. Among other things, the admission of tens of thousands of students every year is far better than the admission of three or four hundred students every three years in the Ministry of Rites Examination.

Because after the addition, the chances of the pilot test for the children of each family will be greater.

But there is a premise, that is, the right to select must be exercised by the Ministry of Officials!

[There is another chapter in the afternoon]

(End of this chapter)