After returning to the palace from the school grounds, Zhu Cixiang did not dare to be idle for a moment. He summoned Li Ruolian and Wang Dehua again and began to assign new tasks.
"Li Aiqing, how many Jin Yiwei men can you actually mobilize in Beijing now?"
"Your Majesty, there are about 5,000 people. However, because there are too many new recruits, some of them are good and bad. Here is the roster. Your Majesty, please take a look."
As Li Ruolian said this, he took out a roster from his sleeve and handed it over.
Zhu Cixi just flipped through it casually and put it on the Dragon Case.
He said: "It doesn't matter if there is a mixed bag of good things and bad things. As long as you can do things and be obedient, it will be fine. You can slowly straighten things out in the future."
"Wang Dehua, where is Dongchang?"
"My lord, not counting the pure army, I have nearly a thousand soldiers under my command to mobilize." Wang Dehua quickly replied.
"Well, although it's a little less, it's rare to see such a scale in just a few days."
Zhu Cixiang nodded, and then his face straightened.
"Next, in addition to continuing to recruit people, the main task of Dongchang and Jinyiwei is to go to nearby counties and counties to buy grain from the local gentry!
I will first allocate one million silver to each of you according to the price of two taels of silver per load of grain and ten taels of silver per load of salt.
Remember, you are buying food, not robbing it. I don’t want this to cause the gentry in the states and counties near the capital to be in disarray and alienate from the imperial court.
Afterwards, I will summon the gentry from various states and counties to inquire in person. If I find that the price given to them is less than one tael for grain and less than five taels for salt, and there is a problem in that county, I will kill all the officials responsible for purchasing in that county.
Staff, we will never tolerate it!”
At the end of his speech, Zhu Cixiang's tone was harsher than ever before.
The reason for going to nearby counties to collect grain.
First of all, 200,000 stone of food may not be enough, so I want to stock up on more.
Secondly, I wanted to fortify the walls and clear the fields so that intruders would have nothing to eat.
"Your Majesty, don't worry. I will strictly supervise you!"
Both of them felt anxious and quickly answered, but at the same time they also understood that this was definitely a fat job.
After the two returned, they first gave warnings to all their subordinates, and then began to set up the arrangement.
In the next few days, almost all the people from Jinyiwei and Dongchang mobilized and went to various states and counties to collect grain.
The nobles were also busy recruiting people and raising weapons and supplies. Zhu Cixiang didn't care about them. Instead, he urged the Military War Bureau to work overtime to build weapons and manufacture gunpowder.
At the same time, people were sent outside the city to recruit refugees, and several refugee settlement sites were set up in the city, from which young and strong men were selected to be added to the generals of the Han Dynasty.
For a time, everything inside and outside the capital was extremely lively.
Only the civil servants were left alone with nothing to do.
Because let alone going to court, Zhu Cihong didn't even bother to take a look at the question book sent by the cabinet, let alone go to the palace to see it.
But when the military generals came to visit him, Zhu Cixiang immediately summoned him.
"Your Majesty Tang Tong, please bow to my emperor. Long live my emperor!"
Tang Tong, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen, immediately bowed and bowed three times after being brought into the Nuan Pavilion.
Apparently, he had also heard about what happened in the capital in the past few days, and he did not dare to have the slightest contempt for the young new king.
"Pingshen!"
Zhu Cixiang's tone seemed neither cold nor indifferent.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Uncle Dingxi has worked hard all the way, please come and give me a seat!"
In fact, Zhu Cihong didn't have a good impression of Tang Tong, but his impression was very bad.
Because this person is completely a villain who is at both ends of the spectrum. When the intruders come, he surrenders to the intruders, and when the Tatars come, he surrenders to the Tatars. He has no moral integrity at all.
Historically, Chongzhen assigned him to garrison Juyongguan, but this guy and the eunuch Du Zhizhi surrendered directly, leaving the capital without any barrier.
However, now is the time to recruit people, and this person is the first general officer who is ordered to lead troops to defend the capital, so he still needs to win over him.
The day after Zhu Cihong ascended the throne, he issued several sealing orders.
Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, was granted the titles of Ping Xibo and Prince Shaobao respectively.
Zhou Yuji, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Province, was the loyal uncle and the prince Shaobao.
Liu Zeqing, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province, was appointed Bo Dongping.
Tang Tong, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen, was named Ding Xibo.
The chief military officer Gao Jie was named Xing Pingbo.
The chief military officer Liu Liangzuo was Guangchang Bo.
Huang Degong, the commander-in-chief, was appointed Jingnan Bo.
And let the above generals lead their troops to defend the capital.
Even Jiang Yu, the general of Datong, and Wang Chengyin, the general of Xuanfu, and Zhu Cixiang gave them a chance, named Prince Shaobao, and asked them to lead troops to support Ningwuguan.
As for Zuo Liangyu, Zhu Cihong had completely given up hope.
First of all, the guy doesn't have much time to live, and his son is a loser, so he's not worth winning over anymore.
Secondly, that guy has millions of troops in Huguang. Even if he is made the Duke of the country, he probably won't come, so he simply doesn't bother to make him a prince.
Of course, he knew that even if he sealed all these generals, only a few would be able to lead an army to defend the capital, but he still chose to seal them.
After all, he was forced to take the throne.
And these people are now the general officers of the Ming Dynasty who hold heavy troops, and for the time being they can only choose to win over them.
At this moment, Tang Tong was still very excited. After thanking him again, he carefully sat down on the low stool beside him.
"Uncle Dingxi, how many troops did you bring this time?"
Zhu Cixi didn't hesitate and asked directly.
Although he believed that those nobles could gather 80,000 people, only the devil could tell how powerful they were.
So I still have high hopes for this guy and his troops.
After all, this guy is a veteran who has experienced hundreds of battles. No matter how poor his troops are, he should still have some fighting ability.
"Your Majesty, I have brought eight thousand soldiers and horses this time."
Tang Tong answered honestly.
Although I was a little worried that His Majesty was too little, I didn't dare to make false reports.
Sure enough, when Zhu Cihong heard that there were only eight thousand, he showed a hint of disappointment on his face, and then he concealed it and said: "Okay! Tang Aiqing, you will bring the troops into the city and station them at the Imperial City Camp Campus first. I will personally inspect them tomorrow!"
"I obey the decree!"
Tang Tong immediately stood up and replied, obviously being a count made him feel quite grateful to the little emperor, which was why he arrived in just a few days.
Zhu Cihong encouraged him a few more times and rewarded him with a jade belt and some gold cakes before letting him resign.
………
The next day, early in the morning, Zhu Cixi arrived at the school grounds northwest of the imperial city.
There are several school grounds like this in the inner city, each of which can station tens of thousands of troops.
Tang Tong and his generals had already assembled eight thousand soldiers and horses and were ready.
Perhaps they had time to prepare, but these eight thousand people looked decent. Standing there, they at least showed the fierceness that a soldier should have.
It can be seen from this that these people have fought in battles and seen blood, and are more than a little stronger than the soldiers in the Beijing camp.
"Okay! You are indeed the mighty master of my Ming Dynasty!"
"Tang Aiqing, pass on the order, I will personally reward these soldiers who have fought for our Ming Dynasty through life and death!"
Zhu Cixi admired without conscience.
The reason why I didn't say "sound" but "reward" was because I was afraid that he would have too many thoughts.
After all, these soldiers are no more the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty than the Jingying camp, but it is more appropriate to say that they are the private soldiers of Tang Tong.
"yes!"
Tang Tong had no choice but to answer.
This time, Zhu Cihong was more concerned. He ordered someone to bring a chair, and he really took the trouble to personally reward each soldier with five taels of silver.
The effects produced are needless to say.
One by one, the soldiers took the silver from Zhu Cixiang's hands. They were so excited that their whole bodies trembled, and their foreheads were bruised when they thanked him.
Especially the one who received some words of encouragement from Zhu Cixiang, who wished he could die for His Majesty right away.
Tang Tong and the other generals stood aside in silence, feeling helpless to the extreme.
Everyone knew that if the emperor ordered these soldiers to kill them at this moment, they would probably execute it without hesitation.
Zhu Cixiang rewarded eight thousand people from morning until dusk.
During this period, a large number of food, wine and meat were brought in as rewards.
Of course, Zhu Cihong also rewarded all the generals one by one, and finally left one eunuch to supervise the army before returning to the palace.
