Just when the turmoil in the capital was not over, Yunnan, a borderland with a very low sense of presence, began to have undercurrents again.
Since the emperor personally conquered the southwest and quelled the She'an Rebellion, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces have been pursuing the policy of returning natives to exile.
Although the process was quite bumpy and bloody, the government had the power of great victory, the support of big chieftains like Qin Liangyu, and Zhu Xieyuan's iron-blooded methods. Overall, the implementation went smoothly.
Many chieftains and private armed forces were either disbanded or conquered by officers and soldiers in this short period of one year.
The governments of Sichuan and Guizhou provinces began to recruit civilian laborers and displaced people to use work-for-relief methods to expand post stations and strengthen the government's control over the West.
All the inspected acres of land were confiscated by the government, and after calculation, they were uniformly distributed to the people.
However, the common people only had the right to use it and had no right to buy or sell it. This was similar to Zhu Youxiao's policy of dividing a small family into an equal amount in Datong.
After the news reached Yunnan, the chieftains and local leaders in Yunnan were deeply uneasy, fearing that one day Yunnan would follow suit.
In fact, they also know in their hearts that when the dust settles in Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, it will soon be Yunnan's turn.
They were already in danger, but during this sensitive period, they unexpectedly got in touch with the wealthy families in Jiangnan.
To be more precise, it was the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River who took the initiative to find these chieftains and sent them a lot of money and food.
The wealthy families in Jiangnan naturally had a purpose for doing this.
The emperor targeted them everywhere, and they were extremely frightened and frightened.
Therefore, in order to protect themselves, they maintain their privileged position, influence and voice in both the government and the public.
They must rebel against the emperor.
They also woke up at this time, relying on those officials, there is no way out.
The current emperor is neither Wanli nor Jiajing. He has hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers and is an emperor on horseback. He has sufficient military exploits.
It is simply not comparable to previous generations, so they can only resist through force.
It is impossible for them to rebel by themselves.
Not to mention whether you have the ability or not, even the courage may not be there.
Therefore, they can only continue to search for and support those forces who are capable of rebellion, and use them as representatives to fight against the emperor.
And they cooperated with the people in the officialdom and cooperated inside and outside. As long as the emperor could defeat the war or there was no military expenditure, money and food to support the war, they would take the initiative.
The wealthy families knew that the chieftain of Yunnan would not be captured without mercy, so they decisively sent envoys to contact him.
The result really did not exceed their expectations.
Many chieftains and leaders in Yunnan have already formed an alliance secretly. As long as the government dares to carry out any reform in Yunnan, they will immediately start an uprising.
When the chieftain leaders learned that someone was willing to provide money and food to aid them, they naturally felt that it was a timely help.
With the same purpose, the two sides immediately hit it off and started preparations.
The wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River also learned from their mistakes and knew that they could not pin all their hopes on Yunnan.
Therefore, they also contacted the Miao people in Huguang, and then they joined forces with the chieftains in Yunnan to launch an uprising, catching the imperial court off guard.
As the saying goes, Huguang is well versed in the world. As the most important grain production base of the Ming Dynasty, Huguang will have an impact on the north if chaos breaks out.
Why is the emperor not being choked by them now?
It is precisely because of the continuous supply of grain from Huguang to the capital and other northern provinces that it is stable.
If there is no food from Huguang, chaos will inevitably break out in the north, and the court will have to rely entirely on food from Zhili in the south.
If it really comes to that point, no matter how powerful the emperor is, he still has to bow to them. As long as the emperor bows his head, they can make conditions and exchange benefits.
After learning that this assistance was available, the chieftain chiefs in Yunnan became more confident.
After several months of intensive military preparations, the chieftain leaders of Yunnan have begun to plan how to quickly capture Yunnan and form a separatist regime.
In front of an extremely rough and simple map, there were more than a dozen people gathered around, looking for a breakthrough.
After an unknown amount of time, a tall bearded man leading the way pointed at Kunming with his finger and said:
"Prince Mu's Mansion is not easy to deal with. They have ruled Yunnan for a long time and have immeasurable influence in Yunnan."
"Although the officers and soldiers at the guard station are just a mob, there are still thousands of servants in Prince Mu's palace, and all of them are brave people."
"If we want to succeed, we must first get rid of the thorn in Prince Mu's side. Otherwise, we will have to follow She'an's retreat before the court's reinforcements arrive."
Everyone else who heard the sermon was also convinced.
Although Kunming is not a central area, Yunnan Prefecture is the area with the most prosperous economy and the largest population.
If they can't kill the Mu family and capture the key point of Yunnan Mansion, they are just talking nonsense if they want to separate themselves into kings.
"That's right. The Mu family is indeed a major obstacle to our success. We must get rid of them first."
"As long as the Mu family is eliminated, there will be no trouble in the government. Then we can occupy Yunnan and establish ourselves as king."
"The terrain in Yunnan is difficult and the passes are complicated. As long as we act quickly and have the support of those wealthy families, it will not be difficult to defend Yunnan."
When talking about how to deal with the Mu family, all the leaders became silent again and stared at each other. No one knew how to deal with it.
The Mu family is like an insurmountable mountain in Yunnan. It has been towering over chieftains like them for more than two hundred years.
Moreover, with the strength of the Mu family, if the imperial court had not insisted on carrying out this so-called reform, they would not have dared to have any dissent.
Naturally, the abnormal behavior of the chieftains in recent months could not be hidden from the eyes of Prince Mu's Mansion.
It's just that they didn't make any changes, and Prince Mu's Mansion also took the attitude that more things are worse than less things, so they didn't bother to take care of them.
They have been guarding here for generations and have conquered countless rebellious chieftains, so they have absolute confidence.
The solemn and luxurious residence of the Duke of Guizhou is one of the three hereditary Dukes in the Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, Mu Changzuo, who guarded a province, held military and political power and was actually the lord of Yunnan, did not care about this.
In his life, he had fought many battles with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and had wiped out more than a dozen chieftain rebel forces, large and small.
It's not like I'm going to be frightened by this slight disturbance.
But the emperor's massacre of nobles in the capital made everyone in the Mu family feel a sense of crisis.
Even Emperor Taizu had never done this to massacre nobles on such a large scale.
Therefore, she won the trust of Mu Changzuo. As her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Li could no longer see the situation clearly at this time.
I had to find Mu Changzuo specifically to answer his questions.
She basically handles all matters in the Mu family.
Mu Changzuo would only come forward after she couldn't figure it out. Perhaps because he was old, he didn't want to interfere too much with this common family matter.
"Your Majesty went on a killing spree in the capital. Except for the Duke of England and the Marquis of Wu Ding, all of them had their homes confiscated and their families exterminated."