plumnovel Chapter 24 Sacrificing the Qin Prince's Mansion to Reorganize the Embroidered Uniform Guard
Chapter 24 Sacrificing the Qin Prince's Mansion to Reorganize the Embroidered Uniform Guard
Li Ruolian returned to the capital at the end of February after completing the inventory and sale of the assets of the eight major Shanxi merchants.
He left Hong Chengchou with two million taels of confiscated silver in one go—this was also Chongzhen's intention.
Those two million shi of grain cannot be moved lightly now. Emperor Chongzhen has great uses for them and is ordering people to store them in batches in key locations such as Taiyuan, Baoding, and Tianjin.
The Qin army's pay was two taels of silver per person per month, which was more than enough for the next year. The extra hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were used by Chongzhen to buy grain with Hong Chengchou.
This doesn't mean that Hong Chengchou should use the current high market price to buy from the landlords and wealthy gentry in the Guanzhong Plain, but rather that he should buy from the current "wealthy prince" Prince Qin.
Although Zhu Yi, the Prince of Qin, was timid and fearful and did not cause any major trouble for the court during his more than 50 years on the throne, his greed and stinginess were well-known far and wide.
At this stage, Emperor Chongzhen did not want to directly break ties with these local princes, but he could still use some means to extract some land and grain from them.
The problem lies with their own dirty laundry. Why did they have to get involved with those eight great Shanxi merchants?
Now, the account books and letters of evidence of collusion between Fan Yongdou and his associates and the wealthy and powerful merchants throughout the Ming Dynasty have all been delivered to Emperor Chongzhen by Li Ruolian.
If Emperor Chongzhen hadn't made a move, these letters would have remained just that—letters.
But if he wanted to, this evidence would be a weapon in his hands to cut flesh. The King of Qin, the King of Fu, and the King of Chu, these parasites, would not be able to escape and would be at his mercy.
The secret edict he had Hong Chengchou deliver to the old King of Qin was also very simple.
The Prince of Qin's mansion had to "voluntarily" hand over 100,000 mu of medium-sized fields in Guanzhong to Hong Chengchou for military farming and training, and then sell 500,000 shi of grain to Hong Chengchou at a price of one tael of silver per shi of wheat.
Two conditions must be met, otherwise Chongzhen will punish the Prince of Qin's residence for treason and rebellion.
It should be noted that there is now conclusive evidence that the Qin King's Mansion colluded with the eight major Shanxi merchants to sell strategic materials such as grain, salt, and iron to the Jurchens outside the Great Wall.
Under these circumstances, no one dared to plead for the Prince of Qin's family in the imperial court, and Emperor Chongzhen would certainly not show any mercy to the Prince of Qin's family, who were exploiting the Guanzhong region.
After Hong Chengchou clearly understood Emperor Chongzhen's intentions, he felt a great sense of satisfaction.
When he and Sun Chuanting were training troops and suppressing bandits in Shaanxi, they had repeatedly asked the Prince of Qin's mansion for help because they were short of silver and grain.
But the old King of Qin was greedy all his life. He had a fortune but never gave away a penny. He even threatened to make things difficult for them on several occasions, which really angered him and Sun Chuanting.
Now that Emperor Chongzhen had handed the knife to him, Hong Chengchou sneered inwardly as he recalled how he had been harassed and looked down upon by the steward of the Prince of Qin's mansion.
With a capable emperor backing him up, the Prince of Qin's mansion was nothing to him, as long as no one died...
He has plenty of ways to make that old King Qin feel sorry and regret it.
Knowing Hong Chengchou's abilities and methods well, Emperor Chongzhen no longer cared about matters in Shaanxi.
He was much more clear-headed than his predecessor. If you want to use important local officials like Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangshan, you should give them a lot of power and trust.
To put it bluntly, as long as the central government provides sufficient support and does not hinder or doubt these kinds of officials, they can navigate the local areas with ease and achieve great things.
Having served as an official in the local area for many years, he understands the current problems of the Ming Dynasty better than many officials in the central government, and he also knows how to win over and divide local forces.
Lu Xiang-sheng could train troops in Xuanfu without alienating the local gentry and thus build a formidable field army.
Hong Chengchou was naturally able to use the support and resources given to him by Emperor Chongzhen to cultivate land, accumulate grain, train troops, and suppress bandits in Guanzhong.
Even if it doesn't completely resolve the chaos in the Northwest, it can at least stabilize the situation and buy him time for his new reforms in the Northern Zhili region.
The Prince of Qin's mansion was just the beginning. When he needed to continue deploying personnel in Huguang and Henan, the Prince of Chu and the Prince of Fu would also be caught in the crossfire and would have to hand over their flesh and grain to him...
Li Ruolian made a great contribution in the investigation and confiscation of the property of the eight major Shanxi merchants. Knowing that he was loyal and reliable, Emperor Chongzhen spared no effort in rewarding and promoting him.
After returning to the capital, Li Ruolian rested for only two days before Emperor Chongzhen appointed him as the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
This imperial favor startled Li Ruolian, as such an appointment meant he was about to become the second-in-command of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
This also indicates that the Emperor now has doubts, or even dissatisfaction, with the Jinyiwei's competence and loyalty.
His current superior, Wang Chongde, the head of the Northern Garrison Command, is not only mediocre but also sycophantic and fearful of authority.
Under his rule, the Northern Garrison Command's elite guards were lax and rife with corruption, failing to achieve their intended effect of intimidating officials as the emperor's henchmen.
As for Wu Mengming, the current commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he is an even more cunning and greedy person who attaches himself to the Donglin Party.
In recent years, the reputation of the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been almost ruined by these two leaders.
In comparison, Luo Yangxing, as the Vice Commander-in-Chief, seemed to be a capable person.
But now that the emperor has chosen to promote you instead of him, it can only mean one thing.
That guy is capable, but the emperor doesn't trust him.
As a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, loyalty must come first, followed by ability.
To paraphrase a later saying about the emperor's attitude towards the core members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it was that loyalty had to be absolute.
Loyalty that is not absolute is absolute disloyalty. If a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard violates this taboo, then he is worthless in the emperor's eyes.
Knowing that he had gained the emperor's trust and that he was about to shoulder a heavy responsibility, Li Ruolian accepted the imperial decree appointing him.
It's likely that before long, all the officials in the court who hear this news will try to befriend him and get closer to him.
A purge within the Embroidered Uniform Guard was inevitable.
Li Ruolian's acceptance of the appointment signified that he was ready to wield the knife and purge the rotten flesh from within the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
This is definitely a job that will offend people, but if he wants to truly take control of the Northern Garrison and wield the power of execution and killing, this is the only way for him.
Emperor Chongzhen's trust was his greatest source of confidence and support.
With the emperor's power by his side, Li Ruolian feared no one in the capital. He believed that as long as he remained absolutely loyal, the emperor, whose temperament had changed, would protect him to the end and would not let him take the blame and die.
However, before these upheavals swept through the capital, Emperor Chongzhen, who had sent one million taels of confiscated silver to the Ministry of Revenue to silence the officials, had already quietly left the capital and set off north with the Tiger Guard Battalion and the reorganized Imperial Guard.
Before them, the imperial court purchased a large number of female ducks and ducklings from coastal towns in Tianjin and Shandong.
These were strategic treasures that Emperor Chongzhen valued highly; they were his army for exterminating locusts.