national surname chiming

Chapter 123 Sun Wu Reborn
The words are divided into two parts, not to mention how anxious Yang Sichang was in replying to Shen Shuren and Liu Guoneng, and how eager he was to urge Liu Guoneng to return to his teacher to rescue Luoyang.

Simply speaking, Yang Sichang's memorial to Chongzhen was delivered to the capital in just six days after it was sent out, and it was sent to the capital through an expedited delivery of [-] miles a day.

After all, this is not an imminent enemy situation, but a victory after the war. The overall situation has been settled, so there is no need to be too anxious.It is not worthwhile to travel six hundred miles a day and kill or injure a horse.

……

In the Forbidden City, Chongzhen, the more diligent the government is, the more helpful it is, the mood is also very complicated recently.

In the past one or two months, the government and military affairs have been mixed.

In terms of internal affairs, last year's drastic rectification to eradicate maladministration has yielded some results. In terms of finance, at least from the perspective of daily revenue and expenditure accounts, the deficit is gradually improving.

From the end of March to the beginning of April, the three pilot provinces in the south officially started to levy lijin.

After two months of testing, according to the mid-year data collected by the South at the end of June, it was reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs.It is said that they have already collected 50 million taels in total, so much money has been collected in just two months, and the local resistance has not yet been aroused. It seems that the money should be levied!
There are so many rich merchants in the Ming Dynasty, and there are collusion between officials and businessmen. Many of them are both officials and merchants. It is time for them to contribute to the country!
Chongzhen didn't dare to think of increasing business taxes before, not because he didn't want to.But when his elder brother was in power, the fierce resistance against the tax and mine supervisors in the south is still vivid in his memory, so he dared not levy for fear of causing trouble.

This time, there were also sporadic resistances in the south, but they were not violent, and everything was within the tolerable range——

Of course Chongzhen didn't know that all this was the result of Shen Tingyang and Shen Shuren's father and son's careful planning in advance.Before they promoted lijin, they had already won over the Zheng family in Fujian, Zhang Guowei from the Nanjing household department in Nanzhili, and Yang Sichang and Fang Kongzhang in Huguang.Without the full cooperation of these local real power factions, the "popular grievances" of the Lijin reform at the local level would have boiled long ago.

But Chongzhen thought it was all caused by his sagacity and imperial authority.He felt that if he knew that the southerners would not dare to resist violently this time, he should have collected this lijin a few years ago!

Although the imperial court in Beijing did not get a tael of silver from the lijin collected, it could at least cover the military expenses for suppressing thieves in the south.The capital can save a lot of money out of the country, and saving money is equal to increasing money.

During the whole process, the only obvious resistance and displeasure that Chongzhen felt came from the household system in Beijing and its nepotism network——

Originally, the military expenses of the imperial court had to be levied and distributed uniformly, and all military pay and households could pass through, but once it was handled, it meant getting a hand in oil and water.

Now the local government collects it and sends it directly, and it saves a lot of middlemen who make the price difference, so the middlemen complain, and there is nothing to be greedy.

However, the people in the place where the tax was collected did not call out, and it is definitely inappropriate for the people in the household department to go beyond their feet to complain.

Under such circumstances, whoever dares to jump out to plead for local interests clearly admits who was the culprit who got the most greed in the original payment of military pay, and that is to suspect that Chongzhen's knife for killing corrupt officials is not sharp enough.

Moreover, Jiang Dejin, who is currently in charge of the daily work of the household department, still protects Shen Tingyang a little bit. It is more difficult for others to bring down Shen Tingyang alone.

Therefore, those interest groups in Beijing who are in charge of paying military salaries, after a short period of dormancy and probing in April, finally found a useful and novel angle of impeachment in mid-May——

They no longer discuss the point of "whether Lijin exploits the local people or competes with the people for profit".

Instead, they focused their firepower on "the lijin system will lead to the distribution of local military salaries by the localities themselves, leading to the risk of returning to the Tang Dynasty Jiedushi system and separatism."

This point is really justified, because what these corrupt officials in the capital say is true, and there is indeed a trend of warlords in the south——

In history, the Qing Dynasty opened up Lijin to deal with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then the "Southeast Hubao" appeared later.When the Eight-Power Allied Forces came in, Southeast China could have a different attitude towards foreign affairs than Beijing, and even asked foreigners to "declare war only on the Beijing court, and not against the provinces in Southeast China".

Although all of this has not happened now, the people who are old in the officialdom can deduce it.

Starting in mid-May, within [-] days, rumors about Shen Tingyang's "may lead to warlord separatism in the future" flew into the cabinet and into the palace like snowflakes.

Chongzhen also sneered when he saw it.

He has already figured it out: the people who are now complaining about Shen Tingyang's "possible harm in the future" are actually the group of dog officials who were in charge of sending and receiving military pay before!Big greed!

Where did they impeach for the court!The real motive, of course, is that their middleman status for distributing money is bypassed!
Chongzhen's heart has already begun to accumulate murderous intentions, and he keeps every one of these impeachers in mind, only wanting to find an excuse in the future to ruthlessly slaughter them!
Of course, Chongzhen wanted to do this, not to protect Shen Tingyang, or to help the Shen family, he was not that kind.

He was just angry at the money embezzled by the "military middlemen" over the years.Shen Tingyang just happened to act as the bait for Chongzhen to catch the big fish.

"Shen Qing is a good official who is loyal to the country and collects money for the country... It's a pity that he has provoked so many people to hold grudges, and I'm afraid it's not easy to deal with. However, every word written by those officials who are greedy for money is clearly written. The righteousness is awe-inspiring, and it is impossible to find fault, and it is impossible to dismiss it.

Looking at such a posture, even if they want to transfer Shen Qing to Nanjing and surrender secretly, I am afraid that those who oppose it will still refuse to let go. I am afraid that what they want is to calm down this group of people. anger...

If there were some military achievements on the southern battlefield after the lijin levy was introduced, it would be good to find an excuse to stop the mouths of those officials, proving that 'after the lijin levy was introduced, the combat effectiveness of the southern provinces that raised their own military salaries has indeed improved'.But if there is no military victory, only the effect of 'saving money', I am afraid it will be difficult to convince the public..."

Chongzhen also fell into pain looking at the piles of impeachment memorials in front of him.After a while, I couldn't come up with an opinion on how to deal with it, so I leaned on the imperial case and fell asleep without knowing it.

Guess tonight is another time-wasting night of hard work, so much hard work, but nothing can be done.

After a long time, it was Empress Zhou who heard that His Majesty fell asleep in the study tonight, so she brought the maid to comfort her with supper, and wanted to wake the emperor up and go back to bed.

When Chongzhen was woken up, he was quite annoyed in his heart, feeling that he had done nothing and had been troubled all night in vain, feeling a sense of frustration.

He only felt that his temples were twitching, and he really wanted to find a eunuch or court lady who had made a mistake and scold him.

Fortunately, the eunuchs and maids have served him for more than ten years. Knowing that the emperor is helpless in government affairs, he gets up very angry, so he is very careful at this time, watching each one with his eyes, nose, nose and heart, so that Chongzhen can't find fault. Come.

Chongzhen became more and more depressed, and he was about to suffer from internal injuries.

Fortunately, at this moment, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps outside the palace gate, as if the eunuch who had been summoned came galloping.

Chongzhen raised his eyebrows and looked happy, before the eunuch entered, he got up and rushed to the door, and personally reprimanded him: "Why do you run away at night! Aren't you afraid of being surprised!"

The court ladies and eunuchs next to him felt a burst of grief, knowing that the person who ran to summon the messenger was probably going to be in bad luck.

Sure enough, the eunuch was so frightened by the emperor's scolding that he stumbled over the threshold and knocked out one of his front teeth, but he still got up quickly and explained in a vague voice, pleading guilty:
"Your Majesty, forgive me! I dare not drive in surprise! There is an urgent military report four hundred miles ahead. I want His Majesty to hear it sooner, so that I can be happy."

Chongzhen's throbbing temples finally calmed down with the word "good news", the blood pressure in his head also fluctuated, his face turned pale and turned red.

"Where is the good news! Bring it to me!" Chongzhen asked sharply while stretching out his hand, his body shaking in a daze.

Empress Zhou was by her side, she knew her husband too well, so she hurried up to give him a hug so that Chongzhen would not stand unsteadily.

Feeling his wife's consolation, Chongzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief, and listened to the eunuch's dictation while unfolding the good news.

"Your Majesty, this is the good news from Mr. Yang Ge from Huguang and Henan. In Huguang, the He Jin tribe of Gezuo Fifth Battalion was destroyed, and He Jin himself was beheaded by the army. In Henan, He Yilong's tribe was also wiped out, and He Yilong himself was killed." Beheaded. The two heads were sent to the capital together this time."

Chongzhen took a few deep breaths, held the victory report tightly, and said with hatred: "The fifth battalion of Gezuo, three of them have been destroyed! The thirteen heads of the thirteen families who dug up the Fengyang imperial mausoleum with Zhang Ni back then, now there are seven left." The eight families are alive!

Great ancestors!Zhu Youjian, the unworthy descendant, made an oath here, that sooner or later he will send good generals to kill all the thieves who excavated the ancestral tomb!Consolation to the spirits of our ancestors who are in heaven! "

After sighing with emotion, he gradually regained his senses, thinking about slowly watching the meritorious generals.

Only then did I notice that in this battle, He Jin and He Yilong joined forces to invade Huangzhou and Suizhou, but Shen Shuren, a soldier from Hubei Province, designed to lure the enemy and encircle and annihilate them in Tongbai Mountain.

Shen Shuren and Liu Guoneng attacked back and forth, trapping the enemy in a desperate situation.The [-] thieves were completely wiped out, and none of them slipped through the net!

In Yang Sichang's victory report, some details were whitewashed and some atmosphere was enhanced, for fear that the emperor would not know the topography of the Tongbai Mountain battlefield and how to win the battle.By analogy:
The Sun Wuzi who wrote "Sun Tzu's Art of War" back then, the "Battle of Baiju" that defeated the Chu army in the Tongbai Valley took place on almost the same battlefield.However, Shen Bingbei played the profound meaning of the art of war of "throwing into the dead and then living, and sinking into the dead and then living" to the level of Sun Wuzi.

After Chongzhen finished reading it, he was also fascinated leisurely.

God bless Daming!
Could it be that this Shen Shuren is really the reincarnation of Sun Wuzi, who saved my Ming from collapse!

(End of this chapter)