The so-called kind words sometimes do not mean good words. Under Wan Lei's instruction, when giving gifts to Concubine Shu, Grandma Liu found the right opportunity to talk about how miserable Peiping was now and how the people could not afford to eat or wear clothes.
As soon as the emperor left Peiping, a plague broke out, and many people died every day. Seeing that there was no way to survive, she took a group of "daughters" south to Jinan to escape the disaster.
No one knew whether Concubine Shu was true or not when she made a tragic speech that brought tears to her eyes. However, she also shed tears and said that when she returned to Beijing, she would report the matter to the emperor and ask the emperor to help the people of Peiping.
.At this time, Aunt Liu said that she did not dare to disturb the Holy Emperor with such trivial matters, lest the Holy Spirit worry about damaging the dragon's body, which would be bad.
Concubine Shu was also not very experienced in the world, so she didn't know that Aunt Liu was talking nonsense and not telling the truth. She was so moved by the deception that she even took off a gold hairpin on the spot and said that she would give it away to the people for disaster relief.
Aunt Liu was "touched" by Concubine Shu's act of kindness. She kowtowed and thanked her, and then "reluctantly" and "full of gratitude" accepted the golden hairpin. Even when she left, she held it high and shouted loudly.
He spread the word about how benevolent Concubine Shu was, attracting countless people to watch. These actions made Concubine Shu, who had no experience in life, be fooled again, and praised Aunt Liu as a good person.
Concubine Shu is just a little woman who is not experienced in the world and is easy to fool, but the eunuch around her is not so easy. However, as the saying goes, money can make the world go round. Grandma Liu is a lowly person and did not give any money.
I sent a lot of high-end facial creams to these people, saying that they were worthless things, so you can use them as you like, please.
Of course, "not valuable" is just a polite way of saying it. Those given to the eunuchs are all high-end goods, which you may not be able to buy even if you have money. Even if you want to buy them, it's only one tael of gold or one tael of goods, which only rich young ladies can afford. As for Concubine Shu,
There were four eunuchs and ten maids around, and each of them got at least two kilograms. This was like taking twenty taels of gold in disguise!
After sending out high-priced goods that were equivalent to gold, Grandma Liu followed Wan Lei's instructions and hinted that after these eunuchs and maids returned to the palace, they kept singing about evil, natural disasters, and man-made plagues.
Everyone inside and outside the palace, especially the emperor, knew that Shuntian Mansion had been "condemned by heaven".
No, in early March, before the returning team returned to the capital, various gossips in the palace began to spread. At the foot of the rockery in the Royal Garden, several eunuchs gathered together mysteriously. Eunuch A said: "
Fortunately, Your Majesty left Peiping a few days early, otherwise it would have been dangerous. Our family heard that a plague broke out in Peiping City, and hundreds of thousands of people in the city were about to die. Oh, the dead people in the city are really miserable.
"
Eunuch B disagreed and retorted: "This is called being sent by heaven. Those people in Peiping refused to save them until they died. Many princes and princes, ministers and people died outside the city. Now that we don't have the protection of our holy God, God will send down punishment."
Those chaotic people who are greedy for life and afraid of death and refuse to save them."
Eunuch B nodded repeatedly: "That's right, our Holy God brings great blessings to the sky. We go north to Beiping to help those in troubled times in Beiping City to ward off disasters. They don't know how to do evil, and they dare to ask for rewards randomly, so God can't stand it and sends a heavenly dispatch.
."
These young eunuchs discussed for a while, and more eunuchs were invited to participate in the discussion. After that, the gossip spread like wildfire among the eunuchs. Some middle eunuchs heard the news and wanted to exchange their thoughts with their beloved palace maids.
, only to find that their information was better than theirs, which made them very embarrassed.
The rumor that Shuntian Mansion was condemned by God spread a lot in the palace, and almost everyone believed it to be true. Finally, it reached the ears of Emperor Jianwen. Of course, he didn't believe it because he didn't receive a report from the local government. However, several eunuchs swear by it.
He said that this matter must be true, because everyone in the palace said so. It was the dirty officials of Shuntian Mansion who deliberately concealed the truth, so they did not report it.
After listening to the eunuch's explanation, Emperor Jianwen felt so happy, and the depression for half a month was gone, because he "knew": he was the emperor, and God was still protecting him. No one could get past him.
You just can't get along with God. What happened to the gang of rioters in Shuntian Prefecture is proof of this.
Based on this understanding, Emperor Jianwen did not bother to send people to find out whether the matter was true, so he put aside the idea of retaliating against Shuntian Mansion. But no, God has punished him. As the emperor, he should not compete with God.
Now that business is over, let’s think about how to manage the mess that is the court.
Not to mention, since the Yan rebellion alone, the war lasted for nearly two years, with more than a million soldiers and civilians dead. The imperial army was insufficient, and the border defenses were empty. The Tatars in the north were still evil-minded, and they would get into trouble from time to time, either robbing things or killing people.
I wanted to send a good general to guard the border, but I found that all the generals in the court who could fight were killed by his grandfather, and the rest were just drunkards and rice balls. The Peiping Army can fight, but these guys are unruly and cannot be tamed.
use.
In a word, annoying.
And the more troublesome things are still to come. On the fifth day of March, a violent news came from Liaodong. Liaoyang, the important town in Liaodong, was captured by the Yan rebels.
It became a separatist territory for the Yan rebels.
The news of the resurgence of the Yan rebels shocked the court. Emperor Jianwen had no choice but to convene various court meetings to discuss counter-rebellion matters. Most military generals believed that it was not appropriate to raise troops now that they were short of horses and soldiers, so they suggested a strategic southward strategy.
Instead of moving to the bitter cold land of Liaodong, we should concentrate our troops to defend the Shanhaiguan area to prevent the Yan rebels from going south. When the imperial court regains its strength in the future, we can send our troops north to quell the rebellion.
Rarely, most of the civil servants who did not like the generals also supported this suggestion. Even Qi Huang and others who had always been "proactive" also agreed. Of course, these civil servants had their own little calculation in mind, which was to use Peking to
The army came to stop the Yan rebels, and the imperial court sat in the rear and watched the Peiping army and the Yan rebels fight in the Yanyun area. After they both suffered losses, they then reaped the benefits.
In order to achieve this effect, Huang Zicheng even privately suggested to Emperor Jianwen to withdraw the garrison from Shanhaiguan to Juyongguan, so that the Peiping Army would be directly exposed to powerful enemies such as the Yan rebels, the Duoyan Three Guards and the Tatars. Emperor Jianwen had already
With this intention, he immediately ordered the troops on the front line of the Great Wall to withdraw south and return to the south of Shuntian Prefecture to garrison.
Just when Huang Zicheng was feeling proud that his "good idea" was adopted by the emperor, he did not expect that he would set the Ming Dynasty on a path of no return. He himself would probably be remembered in history like a traitor like Shi Jingtang.
Infamy, because like Shi Jingtang, he gave up on the Sixteenth State of Yanyun!
The so-called Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun is a large area at the foot of Yanshan Mountain centered on Beiping. More than 400 years ago, Shi Jingtang rebelled against the Later Tang Dynasty and established himself on his own. He recognized the Khitan Lord as his father and called himself the son emperor. He dedicated the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun to the Khitan.
, since then, the people of the Central Plains have fallen into hundreds of years of suffering.
Why?
Because the people of the Central Plains are good at defense, the nomads in the north are good at attacking. The Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun is located in the north of the Yanshan Defense Line and is a dangerous place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If there were no Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun, there would be no danger to defend in the Central Plains.
The land was exposed to the iron hoofs of the northern nomads. The Song Dynasty fell into decline and destruction because it could not recover this line of defense.
Now, Huang Shusheng actually suggested that the emperor abandon the Yanshan defense line without any reason. This is really a scholar doing harm to the country. No, as soon as the news came out, Xu Huizu took the lead in writing a letter of opposition, and there was a lot of trouble in the court.
Wan Lei didn't know or wanted to know about the messy affairs in the imperial court. At this time, he had already packed his bags and left Jinan on his way back. On the way back, of course, he had to go to various counties and villages to pay homage to the people.
Grain merchants who purchased grain gathered together. Wherever the mighty grain transport team passed by, it would definitely arouse the suspicion of the government.
However, Wan Lei had already expected it and prepared money to buy the road. He didn't have many conflicts with the local government along the way. Some petty officials who didn't give face insisted on leading people to seize food. Wan Lei didn't talk nonsense to them and commanded.
The escort team immediately drew their knives and prepared to use force to protect the food.
Facts have proved that these petty officials are all cowards who bully others and are afraid of hard ones. When they saw thousands of people drawing knives at the same time, they immediately softened and did not dare to attack the grain team again. Wan Lei did not bully others too much. As long as the other party did not give him too much trouble, he would
He also paid for the road trip, so his reputation in places such as Jining Prefecture and Hejian Prefecture is pretty good.
After passing Hejian Prefecture, the food purchasing team came back. Wan Lei totaled more than 170,000 shi, of which 110,000 shi were purchased with money, and 60,000 shi were shipped from Jinan City's Zhou Zhennan.
Yes, only half of the payment for this portion of food was paid, and the remaining half was agreed to be paid in Peiping.
Wan Lei obtained 170,000 shi of grain in one go. Looking at the grain transport team with thousands of horses and carts, Wan Lei felt quite accomplished. After all, today is different from that of later generations. At this time, the transportation was backward, and tens of thousands of tons of grain were needed.
It would take thousands of horse-drawn carriages to pull it.
Just as the grain transport team was heading north non-stop, a cavalry team quickly headed south. The soldiers who were leading the way did not panic when they saw the person holding the Qinglong flag of the Peking Army. They continued on their way. The person who came was the messenger sent by the Peking Army.
, as soon as they saw Wan Lei, they presented a letter written by Tie Xuan, saying that something big had happened in Beiping City and that Wan Lei should go back immediately to take charge of the overall situation.
Wan Lei took a look at the letter and understood the whole story. It turned out that a refugee team consisting of more than 10,000 people poured into Beiping City from outside the customs. Tie Xuan didn't know how to deal with these people, so he sent someone to ask Wan Lei
Come up with ideas, after all Wan Lei is recognized as the big leader.
If it had been in the past, Tie Xuan would resettle the refugees without saying anything when he saw them. However, these refugees are special, coming from Liaodong, and Liaodong has now become the separatist territory of the Yan rebels.
Without the spies planted by the Yan thieves, no ghost would believe it.
In addition, resettling refugees requires food and cultivated land. Everything in Shuntian Mansion now was built with real swords and guns by the Peking Army. It is the common property of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Peiping City. It is not Tie Xuan who has the final say.
The generals of the Peking Army all had the same opinion, which was to send these refugees south to return to the Ming Dynasty, so as not to cause trouble in Shuntian Prefecture.
"General Zhao, you are responsible for escorting the food and ensuring that the food is not lost. I will go back to Peiping first." Wan Lei jumped on the horse after giving the order and followed the messenger to gallop.