The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"The radical change began with Ma Kun's proposal to reduce the amount of silver, and ended with Huang Maoguan's inspection of his wife's food supply. However, Cai Kelian, the minister, was ill and unable to serve, and Fang You, a foreign minister, was promoted to the chief minister, An Qian, and was released."

"Whose memorial is this?"

While the chamberlain was reciting the impeachment memorial from Nanjing in the palace, he was suddenly interrupted by Emperor Jiajing.

"Reporting to your Majesty, this is the memorial written by Liu Xingsu, the Nanjing science and technology official."

The little waiter replied hurriedly.

"Is there anything else later? Tell me."

Emperor Jiajing frowned and said.

"Yes, there is Zhao Shiqi, and..."

"That's enough, read them to me one by one."

Emperor Jiajing interrupted impatiently.

There were too many impeachment memorials in recent days, and he had no patience to listen to them anymore. He just asked the chamberlain to read the cabinet vote draft and settled it.

Therefore, in fact, the impeachment memorial written by the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate with great effort, which they hoped to use as a memorial for their career advancement, was actually not seen or heard by Emperor Jiajing at all.

Also, if you call me an outsider, I might be bored to death if I listen to dozens or hundreds of articles with similar content every day.

There were more than a dozen memorials from Nanjing Kedao to impeach Ma Kun. After listening to several of them, Emperor Jiajing became impatient because the contents of the memorials were all the same and the reasons for impeachment were mostly the same.

In fact, these memorials were not published by the Nanjing Kedao officials themselves. They were mainly under pressure from Xu Pengju, Li Sui and others.

Although the first official letter from the imperial court to Nanjing did not intend to hold Nanjing's powerful officials responsible for their negligence, when such a big thing happened, a scapegoat had to be found to shoulder all the blame.

After discussions between He Shou, Xu Pengju, Li Sui and others, they gradually set their sights on Ma Kun in the capital.

Ma Kun is now the Minister of Household Affairs, and he bears a sufficient responsibility. Moreover, the incident was originally caused by him cutting military pay, otherwise it would never have been the case.

Moreover, due to the impact of the riots at Zhenwu Camp, several recruitment camps in and around Nanjing have shown signs of instability recently. Li Tingzhu has been sent out to condolences the soldiers of each battalion, hoping to temporarily stabilize the morale of the soldiers.

Like Zhenwu Camp, they were recruited soldiers whose military pay had been reduced.

After seeing the trouble in Zhenwu Camp, not only were they not held accountable, but they were rewarded with one or two pieces of silver. They were all very jealous.

Without the intervention of Wei Guangde to find a reasonable reason for Huang Maoguan's death for the officers and soldiers of Zhenwuying, the mutiny spread quickly in Nanjing City after the outbreak, especially after Xu Pengju, He Shou and other powerful officials escaped from Nanjing City in embarrassment under the siege of the rebel army. Many soldiers from the military camp also joined the mutiny and looted shops and wealthy households in Nanjing.

However, at that time, not only Wei Guangde, but also Xu Pengju, He Shou and others who were in the vortex were not aware of the existence of such unstable factors, and thought that the Nanjing Camp was completely controlled by them.

It wasn't until recently that Li Tingzhu talked about how several military camps along the river had also had their military pay cut, and the soldiers were complaining. He had reported it in the past two days because of the Zhenwu Camp incident. There had been some commotion among the soldiers in the military camp recently, and this attracted their attention.

The soldiers of Zhenwu camp made trouble and killed a third-rank official of the imperial court. However, it turned out that nothing happened and they were even given money. This was undoubtedly a bad start.

The current solution is also very simple in their discussions, that is, to compensate all the soldiers whose military pay has been reduced, including a reward of silver. The standard is the same as that of Zhenwu Camp, one tael of silver per person, and the subsequent military pay will return to the old standard. Take care of your hair.

He just reported it directly but was worried that it would be wrong. Without doing anything, he had no choice but to convict Ma Kun of dereliction of duty in order to pay him. Li Tingzhu, on the other hand, rushed to the military camps non-stop to stabilize the morale of the army.

In Nanjing now, there must be no more mutiny among soldiers over pay.

As for Nanjing City, who should we target?

After many discussions, it seemed that the officials in each yamen had a good relationship with them, so it was really difficult, so we had to push out Cai Kelian, the old minister of the Ministry of Revenue, who was waiting to become an official.

I guess he didn't run away after he was dismissed from office this time, but it would be nice if everyone took more care of his family afterwards. He will ensure that Cai's family has a place in the imperial examination. As for whether he can become a Jinshi, that is his own business.

In addition, they themselves are guilty of negligence to some extent. They have to mention it in the impeachment memorial, otherwise it will not be justified.

The matter is settled like this.

The various officials contacted the officials who could appeal, and then the Nanjing Ministry of War and the Ministry of Science and Technology issued a collective memorial to impeach Ma Kun. They also sent a memorial to the capital about Huang Maoguan's harsh treatment of the soldiers and his desire to deprive his wife of his food. Qualitative.

"Give me Huang Maoguan's memorial."

Emperor Jiajing was sitting on the throne with twinkling eyes. The eunuchs and servants around him didn't know what he was thinking, but they quickly found Huang Maoguan's last memorial that had not yet been sent out and put it on the imperial desk.

Emperor Jiajing picked up the memorial and read it directly. The seal on it was correct. As for the other

"Has Huang Maoguan's handwriting been checked?"

This question was asked to Huang Jin next to him. Huang Maoguan was now dead. Without any evidence, even Emperor Jiajing, as an emperor, could not guarantee whether his officials would do anything wrong.

"The Superintendent of Ceremonies has compared the memorials written by Huang Maoguan in the past, and the handwriting is correct."

As he spoke, Huang Jin waved his sleeves, and the servant next to him brought up several memorials. They were all written by Huang Maoguan in the past, and they were naturally used when checking handwriting.

Emperor Jiajing was not completely reassured by Huang Jin's words. Instead, he took a memorial from the hand of the chamberlain, opened it, and compared the handwriting of the two memorials.

"snort"

After a long time, Emperor Jiajing snorted from his nostrils, and then said angrily: "Guan Huang Mao deserves to die. He is so harsh and vicious, no wonder the soldiers want to kill him."

Emperor Jiajing actually had no intention of pursuing the previous report from Nanjing. After all, it didn't cause any serious trouble. It was just a matter of issuing an edict.

Emperor Jiajing was already a little numb to things like mutiny.

Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houcon succeeded his cousin Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao. The year he took the throne was the 16th year of Zhengde.

At the beginning of Emperor Jiajing's accession to the throne, he changed some of the shortcomings of the Wu Zong Dynasty. Jiao Hong's "Guochao Xianzheng Lu" records that people at that time believed that Jiajing's New Deal was "the world is in disarray, and it is called the cloud of rebirth."

It was at this time that Emperor Jiajing ushered in the first mutiny in his emperor's career-the Ganzhou Mutiny.

Ganzhou and other five guardsmen were in chaos. They killed Xu Ming, the governor and censor, and "burned his corpse", crushing his bones and scattering ashes.

As for the reason for the mutiny, it was still a matter of money.

Xu Ming served as governor of Gansu Town and made a mistake in handling the monthly salary of sergeants.

He changed the soldiers' monthly salary from direct food supply to equivalent to the price of food, and issued silver coins equivalent to the amount of monthly food.

However, with such a mess, the sergeant's monthly salary will fluctuate due to fluctuations in market prices. Mishandling can easily lead to mutiny.

According to records, one stone of monthly grain in Ganzhou is equivalent to seven qian of silver. However, the price of rice was so low in the month of the mutiny that the grain price was only three qian of silver. The actual income of the sergeants was reduced by more than half. Who did this! Then the soldiers rebelled.

It was later discovered that the mutiny due to military pay was just an excuse. The real reason was the grudge between the governor Zhang Ming and the Gansu general Li Long. Zhang Ming blocked Li Long's financial path because of his appointment, so Li Long secretly instructed his soldiers to mutiny and killed Zhang Ming. Zhang Ming.

The Ganzhou Mutiny was originally a well-founded rebellion, but Shizong was young, indecisive, and could not finalize Li Long's crimes, which greatly affected the court's prestige, resulting in frequent mutinies and becoming one of the most serious problems for the Ming Dynasty.

There were mutinies before Jiajing, but they were small in scale and did not kill high-ranking officials. Mutinies were just a means for soldiers to express their protest to the court.

The Ganzhou Mutiny of the Jiajing Dynasty set the standard for future mutinies. The rebel soldiers targeted the governor and other high-ranking local officials. The governor and other high-ranking officials were killed one after another during the mutiny. The nature of the soldiers' mutiny also changed from a protest to ask officials for money. Pointed at the rebellion of the central court, soldiers became a problem that threatened the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Even if Li Long was beheaded in the end, the evil head had already risen and it would be difficult to stop it.

In the third year of Jiajing's reign, Zhang Wenjin, the governor of Datong and the imperial envoy of the capital, implemented cruel rule, which aroused resistance from the army.

The main leaders of the mutiny were Guo Jian, Liu Zhong, Chen Hao, Hu Xiong, Guo Scarzi and others. They raised fire as a signal at night, killed the corrupt official Zhang Wenjin, opened warehouses, distributed food, smashed open the prison, released prisoners, and occupied Datong City.

Nine years later, Zhu Zhen, who had served as the commander-in-chief of Shanyin, organized Wang Fusheng and other soldier leaders to launch a mutiny in Datong, burning the commander-in-chief's mansion, and commander-in-chief Li Dao committed suicide.

The imperial court sent the governor Liu Yuanqing and the general Gao Yong to lead troops to suppress the attack. The Ming army stationed in Jule in order to trap Zhu Zhen, who committed suicide.

Then, the Ming army arrested and killed more than 30 people including Wang Fusheng before quelling the mutiny.

Since Emperor Jiajing came to the throne, a mutiny every two or three years seems to have become an iron rule. In addition to the places constantly changing, from Liaodong Town from east to west to Gansu Town, the scale is also large and small, but the mutiny seems to have become a A common meal.

Jiubian had not calmed down much in those years. Either it was fighting the Mongolian Tatars or the soldiers in the guard were mutinizing on pay. However, there was also a mutiny on pay by soldiers in the center of the empire like Nanjing. This was something Emperor Jiajing had never thought of.

In his opinion, it should be the result of officials' collective exodus and corruption. They ate up the military pay and finally distributed too little money to the soldiers. Especially since Nanzhili suffered successive losses from last year to this year. Disasters make life difficult for soldiers.

Emperor Jiajing naturally knew about the officials' corruption, but what could he do?

Kill a group of officials, and the officials they replace will continue to be greedy.

What else can we do, we can only choose capable corrupt officials to work.

After all, all the decisions of the court need to be implemented by people below. We can't just kill people because of corruption. In the end, we can't find a clean person to handle the matter.

Emperor Jiajing actually despaired of the conduct of his officials.

But from today's perspective, it was a bit different from what he thought. This matter was really the responsibility of Ma Kun and Huang Maoguan, and it was caused by being too harsh on the soldiers.

As the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, Cai Kelian also failed to perform his duties. Although he was sick, he made such a big mistake, and he could not get away with it just because he was sick.

"The imperial edict was to remove the incorruptible officials, and order Kun to become an official. He was promoted to the throne and Qian was demoted to serve the people. Jue, Shou, etc. were retained. His salary was suspended according to the regulations, and he was ordered to report his crimes.

Twenty-nine people including the commander-in-chief Zhang Peng and others were demoted, arrested and punished for their mistakes. "

After considering all the situations carefully, Emperor Jiajing issued an order. Cai Kelian, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, was dismissed from his post. Ma Kun, the current Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, was appointed to serve as an official. Fang Youji, a foreign minister in Nanjing, and An Qian, the chief minister, were demoted to serve the people.

As for the more than 20 people who had been arrested in Zhenwu camp, they were convicted according to the law. They were all military households, so how could they be distributed. In the end, they were still used as military households, which meant that they were individually required to be demoted and used.

These are the people who have been dealt with, while others, such as the garrison eunuch He Shou and the Nanjing garrison Xu Pengju, etc., are only on probation and are being retained by Dai Zui.

"Inform the cabinet and ask the cabinet to recommend the candidate for the Minister of Household Affairs."

Ma Kun resigned, but the Ministry of Revenue had to have someone to talk to. The minister could not be in charge of the seal of the Ministry of Finance for a long time. He had to either strengthen the position or arrange for someone to take over. Therefore, it was also a top priority to decide on the candidate for the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue.

Huang Jin bowed slightly and said, "I obey."

Next, Gao Zhong held the newly written edict in both hands and sent it to the imperial desk, waiting for Emperor Jiajing to read it. After confirming that it was correct, it was printed and distributed to the outer court.

Ten days later, Wei Guangde, who was stranded in Nanjing, accompanied the Nanjing officials to receive the imperial edict from the capital.

The content of the imperial edict to be read was consistent with the conclusions they reached after previous discussions, and they were consequences they could bear, so everyone seemed a little happy after kneeling to receive the imperial edict and getting up.

Of course, there are also those who are lonely, and that is Cai Kelian, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing. He originally expected to be able to serve in this position instead of being dismissed. However, due to fate and career, he ultimately failed to wait for the honorable return to his hometown after becoming an official. .

He sighed in his heart and touched his gray hair with some lack of interest. The official hat was taken off by the accompanying royal guards when the angel of edict issued the decree. He is no longer an official and cannot even enjoy the benefits of official retirement. He was deposed.

But fortunately, he won a qualification for his children to be elected, and at the same time, they also had the title of scholar. With these things, his family could still be called a local gentry and would not fall into silence because of his resignation.

At this time, the dignitaries in Nanjing were all complimenting the angel who delivered the message. After all, it was hard enough to travel south to deliver the message at this time of year. Only Cai Kelian walked out of the crowd dejectedly and walked towards home.

At this time, Wei Guangde was also a little embarrassed. He was surrounded by the crowd and didn't know how to deal with the eunuch opposite.

Now Wei Guangde suddenly became the imperial envoy after receiving the order. As the saying goes, one thing does not bother two masters. Since there is a ready-made imperial envoy in Nanjing, Beijing did not send anyone south, and directly appointed Wei Guangde as the imperial envoy to supervise the soldiers who rebelled against the Zhenwu Camp. trial.

In fact, the so-called trial is just a formality, and everyone has already discussed how to handle it.

What made Wei Guangde a little embarrassed was that the angel delivering the message this time was actually Chen Ju.

In the past, Wei Guangde was naturally happy to see Chen Ju lead the emperor's mission, but now his mentality is a bit subtle.

Over the past year, he could naturally feel Chen Ju's intentional alienation, without even giving a reason. Until this time before going south, Chen Ju once again went to his house for a meal and a meal. Except for conveying the secret decree of Emperor Jiajing, he shook his head and remained silent. .

"Master Wei, please take care of me this time and complete the emperor's mission as soon as possible so that we can return to Beijing as soon as possible."

At this time, Chen Ju raised his hand to Wei Guangde.