In the fourth year of Jianwen, the first year of Huali, winter came very early. A heavy snowfall fell on Beiping City at the end of September. In early October, heavy snow covered the entire northern region, and the snowflakes also drifted across the Yangtze River. Jinling City turned into a
The city was frozen. The officials of the capital, big and small, got up early despite the severe cold. After breakfast, they rushed to the imperial city to participate in the daily morning ritual.
The morning court is usually held in the Fengtian Hall in the palace. Of course, not all officials from the capital are qualified to go to the palace to meet the emperor. However, the offices of the six departments, six departments, five military governors and other military and administrative departments are located on both sides of the Qianbu Corridor outside the palace. Many small Beijing officials
Most of the officials waited outside the Meridian Gate to wait for the announcement, and after the morning court, they had to go to their headquarters to sit in the hall and do their work.
As the center of power of the Ming Empire, Jinling was indeed a place of royal power. Unfortunately, it was separated from the north by a river, and its control over the area north of the Yangtze River was greatly reduced. As early as the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had considered moving the capital and spent a lot of money on it.
He made great efforts to build the central capital in his hometown of Fengyang. He also designated Luoyang as Beijing and sent the prince as governor to inspect Xi'an. However, these places were not ideal and the idea of moving the capital was abandoned.
Now that Emperor Jianwen has come to power, he still has the courage to move the capital, and the imperial court does not have the financial resources to move the capital, so it can only make do. However, not long ago, earth-shattering news came from the north, which made the Ming court, who was living in the south of the Yangtze River,
back.
What news?
It was the news that the Ming Army's 40,000-strong army was completely wiped out by the Peking Army in the first battle. This news was brought back by Xie Jin, who was sent to supervise the army. He had been following Yu Min, the commander-in-chief of the Navy, when the Peking Army and the Army attacked Dagu at night.
When he was in Hong Kong, he was smart and escaped with General Yu. After escaping to Shandong, General Yu secretly ran away to Liaodong, but he ran back to Jinling at night to report the news.
When the imperial court received this news, there was no reason not to be furious. This was the first time that the Peking Army took the initiative to attack the Ming Army. It was obvious that they were going to rebel. Of course, Emperor Jianwen selectively forgot about his breach of contract by sending troops to the Peking Army first.
, so the self-defense counterattack was regarded as rebellion, and the Peking Army was identified as rebels.
In addition, there has been no news from the Ming Navy for a long time. The Ming Navy may have been completely wiped out, which made the court feel that the situation is more serious. The pirate army that can destroy 300 warships of the Ming Dynasty must
How powerful it is, and Jinling is right on the Yangtze River. If the pirate army goes south and goes upstream along the Yangtze River...
When the important ministers in the court thought of this, they broke out in cold sweat! The seemingly powerful Ming Empire was actually very fragile!
While the Ming court was debating whether to move the capital away from Jinling, the Peking Army began mobilizing, targeting Baoding Prefecture and Hejian Prefecture, located south of Shuntian Prefecture. Due to the Yellow River North Movement last year, these two prefectures were actually included in the Yellow Flood Area.
Being isolated from Shandong Province, the imperial court was naturally beyond its reach. Coupled with the local government's inability to provide refugee relief and resettlement, the people of these two provinces were very disappointed with the imperial court and had long wanted to leave.
Of course, before dispatching troops, the united front work still had to be done. Under Wan Lei's instructions, Zhang Yan sent hundreds of elite guards to sneak into Baoding and Hejian Prefectures. First, they went deep into the countryside to promote Tianshun's various policies to benefit the people.
, win over local elders to win public opinion, then infiltrate into the military, government and business circles to win over supporters, and finally sabotage and kill some extreme diehards.
While infiltrating and destroying, the Peiping Army sent 20,000 troops to the southern border, always ready to attack; it also deployed 20,000 elite troops in the northeast to prevent the 100,000 Ming troops guarding Yongping Prefecture from going south. The remaining troops were sent
To the west, they stopped the reinforcements coming from Shanxi, while the navy sent two gunboats and fifty ships to attack the coastal areas of Shandong as suspects, creating smoke to seize Shandong, so that the main force of the Ming army did not dare to detour northward for rescue.
The main attack, auxiliary attack, and feint attack are all ready, and we are waiting for the order from the Military Commission. Of course, to capture the two Hejian Prefectures in Baoding, we must not only have strong military power, but also have abundant resource reserves. If nothing else, just
The food distributed to refugees costs more than 100,000 dan. Without visible and tangible benefits, the local people will not be convinced.
In addition, various administrative talents must be equipped. After all, the Peking Army is not a bandit who just grabs a vote and leaves. Officials must be sent to manage the areas they occupy, and local governments must be established as quickly as possible to safeguard the local area.
To achieve stability and implement various new policies of Shuntian Prefecture, a large number of administrative and educational personnel will be needed.
Fortunately, the Peiping Army is equipped with military and political commissars at all levels. These people are actually administrative officers. They can fight when mounted, and manage the military and civilians when dismounted. They are elite talents trained in military schools, and they are all members of the Zulong Party.
party member, to the organization
He is extremely loyal and is a "frontier" official worthy of being entrusted. Moreover, Baoding's Hejian Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture are not too far away, and a large number of Jingzhong Guards have penetrated in. Even if something goes wrong, Jingzhong Guards will be the first to do so.
It was discovered in time and reported to Wan Lei.
In a large village not far outside the city of Baoding Prefecture, a strong man carried a large handful of firewood to the outside of a somewhat dilapidated compound and called out: "Uncle Wang, I'm here to bring you firewood."
"Oh, it's Brother Zhao, come in quickly." An old man hurriedly came over to answer the door and welcomed the visitor in.
The visitor carried the firewood into the yard and laid it out before taking the bowl of hot tea handed over by the old man. After drinking it in one gulp, he said: "Oh, it's getting colder and colder today. It's really not easy for people to live."
"No, it's much colder this year than in previous years." The old man's face full of vicissitudes of life has a few deep marks. This old man's name is Wang Siyuan, and he is the head of Wangjiazhuang. He used to be very prosperous.
However, since the King of Yan raised his troops to the north of the Yellow River, his family has suffered miserably due to natural and man-made disasters. Most of the family property has been taken away by the rebels and the government, and now he has ended up with no one to rely on.
There are hundreds of families scattered in Wangjiazhuang, mainly with the surname Wang. In the Ming Dynasty, the power of the court generally could only extend to the county level, and the countryside was still autonomous by the local squires. The squires were generally the patriarchs or heads of local surnames.
In order to ensure their own rights, the Wang family, like other surnames, lived in clusters and liked to stick together. Therefore, although the head of Wang's family fell into decline, but his skinny camel was bigger than a horse, he was still the leader in Wangjiazhuang.
It's a pity that his sons were either dragged to fill gullies or died of illness, leaving him and his wife homeless. Fortunately, not long ago, he showed kindness and saved the little brother named Zhao in front of him, and let him live in the Wang family.
Zhuang. And this young man repaid his kindness and came over every three days to help, either delivering firewood or helping with menial work, which moved him deeply.
"Oh, by the way, I went to the market a few days ago and bought some cloth. I don't need so much for making my own clothes, so I brought it to sew some socks for my aunt. I hope you don't dislike it." Then.
The young man surnamed Zhao took out a large pile of white woolen cloth and handed it over. "This, this can't be used, this woolen cloth is so valuable." Old man Wang hurriedly refused to say that it was any scraps, it was just a whole piece of good cloth.
, which can be sold for several taels of silver.
"Uncle, please don't refuse. I don't have any other abilities, but I still have the ability to make money. Now that I have found a way, I will soon be rich. This is a trivial matter."
"Connections? Brother, you can't be..." Uncle Wang looked at the other party in horror. He remembered that a few months ago, this Zhao family guy was a refugee and almost froze to death on the roadside. It was he who took action.
He saved his life only by rescuing her, and it was his kindness that allowed him to take her in. Now he actually has a way of making money, but I'm afraid that this way of making money is not right.
"Don't worry, uncle, it's a legitimate way. I have a cousin in Shuntian Prefecture. He is a cloth merchant. He wants to open a branch here in Baoding Prefecture. Let me help him be the shopkeeper."
"Shuntian Prefecture? Cloth merchant?" Old Wang's eyes widened and he said in horror: "Well, that is treason with the enemy. If the government finds out, he will be beheaded. Brother, you must not do this."
"Uncle, you are too worried. Many people in our Baoding Prefecture do business with the Shuntian Prefecture, and even the higher-ups are related to the Shuntian Prefecture." The boy from the Zhao family lowered his voice and said: "Uncle, you may not know that we here
Many people there have defected to the Shuntian Prefecture, and the Chen Bing border over the Shuntian Prefecture will soon change."
"Change?!" Old Man Wang was even more horrified. He was already a long time ago and had already experienced the change in the Ming Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty. Now it was about to happen again. He was even more frightened in his heart and asked: "This, this
Is it accurate?"
"It's absolutely true. Everyone in Zhoujiazhuang next door knows it. They have been preparing to defect to the Peking Army for a long time. They have also sent people everywhere to spread the word that once the Peking Army comes, defectors can be divided into fields and become citizens. They will be exempted from taxes for five years and will never have to join the army.
If you don't join the Peking Army, you can only be a resident and cannot be exempted from tax. If you help the officers and soldiers, you will be classified as a pariah and have to pay heavy taxes and perform hard labor." The boy from the Zhao family said this, which made Old Wang look even more serious.
It's nervousness.
"Uncle, I'm just telling you so much because you are my savior, and you are the head of Wangjiazhuang. As for how to choose, you have to make plans early. If you wait for the Peking Army to go south,
, I'm afraid it will be too late to make a decision." Brother Zhao added another sentence.
"Well, this Peking Army is just a warlord. Can it, can it defeat the imperial court?" Old Man Wang was really anxious, but he still has determination at his age. Of course, he is not a fool, and he will not be foolish and loyal.
What kind of person is only loyal to interests and power? Now that his family has fallen into decline, switching to a new master may change his destiny, but he is still not very optimistic about the strength of the Peking Army.
"You don't know something. The Peking Army is very strong. I heard from people in Zhoujiazhuang that the Peiping Army just defeated tens of thousands of Ming troops. It also has a powerful navy. The Ming Army can't do anything to it. And we are separated from Baoding Prefecture.
Along the Yellow River, it's easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the Ming army can't do anything to us." said the young man from the Zhao family.
"I really need to think carefully about this." Old Man Wang was a little moved. After all, those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes. Now, not only the head of his royal family, but also many members of his clan are being squeezed by the government to the point where they can't even afford shoes.
Of course, he had nothing to miss about the imperial court. Seeing that Old Man Wang was moved, the Zhao boy said no more, just drank a bowl of hot tea and left.