Chapter 430: Xiao Yan takes charge of the army, the emperor’s secret decree!
“Don’t be afraid when attacked.”

“When faced with change, stay calm.”

"He remained fearless in the face of danger, acted decisively in the midst of chaos, saw the truth in the chaos, and presented memorials to the court to offer advice for the country."

"They are like a mountain that is collapsing before them, yet they are not moved at all..."

In the main hall of Wanshou Palace.

While the ministers were still guessing what the emperor was going to do next.

Jiajing, however, spoke loudly with a smile on his face.

then.

He coughed twice, causing Lu Fang, who was serving beside him, to look up silently and pay attention, then frowned slightly.

But Jiajing still had that smile on his face. He looked at Yan Song and said with a smile: "Lord Yan, you really have a good grandson!"

Without waiting for Yan Song's response.

Jiajing said in a deep voice: "I also have a loyal and brave minister!"

After saying this.

Jiajing finally burst into laughter.

Yan Song smiled, bowed and nodded while sitting on a soft stool, and spoke slowly: "When the holy monarch comes to power, all evil will retreat. In this wise and enlightened world, there will be countless loyal and good ministers who will serve the monarch."

He responded politely and as usual, put all the credit on the emperor.

But Yan Song was worried.

The eldest grandson's trip to the south would attract attention from all parties and would also trigger a lot of resistance.

But he could never have imagined that his eldest grandson would be assassinated by rebels on the way before he even reached Nanjing.

Fortunately, nothing happened this time.

But what if there is a next time?

Yan Song glanced slightly to the side, with sharp eyes looking at Yan Shifan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, who was standing behind him.

Yan Shifan understood.

He immediately stood up again.

When he stood up again, he immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Yan Shifan's face was solemn, holding the tablet in his hand, he bowed and spoke in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the White Lotus rebels have been entangled with the court for more than a hundred years. They have been purged for a long time, but they are like a worm on the heel, and have not been completely eradicated. I think that the court is currently promoting good policies, and there are countless ministers in the court who work together to hope that a prosperous era will come. With such a sign of prosperity, I think we must not allow those jumping clowns to cause people to do evil. The court will immediately issue a strict order to eliminate the White Lotus rebels and the officials of various departments from the list of merit evaluations. The thieves must be eliminated seriously, and the rectification of official administration is the basis to prevent local officials from killing good people and taking credit, so that good policies can be turned into harsh policies!"

Inside the hall, Yan Shifan spoke in a loud voice, appearing to be upright and incorruptible.

Everyone was speechless.

Who could have thought that one day, Yan Shifan, who was known as the Little Prime Minister in the past, would be able to give such fair advice, and even consider the whole story, mentioning the need to prevent local officials from killing innocent people to claim credit, and using good policies to harm the people.

Is this still Yan Shifan?

Jiajing laughed even louder, waved his finger at Yan Shifan, and then looked at everyone present: "Look, what Yan Shifan proposed is quite in line with my opinion. What do you think? Should we do the same?"

Everyone in the hall looked around.

As mentioned in the previous article, due to various reasons, the White Lotus rebels have been the mortal enemy of the imperial court since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. They need to be completely wiped out, which is the top political correctness issue of the Ming Dynasty.

Don't think too long.

Everyone clasped their fists and bowed in support of the motion.

Jiajing immediately waved his hand and said, "Then the cabinet will draft it. I will ask the Imperial Household Department to approve it and issue an edict."

Yan Song, Xu Jie and others immediately bowed and nodded again.

"Wei Chen takes orders."

in this way.

Just when everyone thought that today's events should be over.

Jiajing looked at the Minister of War Yang Bo again.

"Yang Bo."

Yang Bo raised his eyebrows when he was named, and immediately stepped forward and said, "I am your humble servant."

Jiajing said, "Earlier you mentioned that Yan Shaoting submitted a petition to build the Qingjiang Port, and your Ministry of War agreed to it. I think you also weighed the pros and cons."

Yang Bo nodded and explained: "The Grand Canal is nearly 5,000 miles long from north to south. Now our dynasty uses it mainly to transport goods from the south to the north. Therefore, the court has set up many large warehouses in Xuzhou, Huai'an, and Yangzhou to store goods from various parts of the south. Nanjing also has a governor's grain storage office and a minister to manage the transportation of money and grain stored in Yingtian Prefecture to the north.

"Among all the places, Huai'an Prefecture, where the Office of the Governor of the Grand Canal is located, is the most important. It is a major town on the north and south sides of the Grand Canal. The area along Matou Town and Qingjiangpu is the largest shipyard for the Grand Canal. More than 500 ships are launched every year, and more than one million dan of grain and fodder are stored and transported.

"Guest Yan requested to build Qingjiangpu because of the attack on Matou Town. Since the bandits can sneak into Matou Town, Qingjiangpu can also be sneaked into by the bandits. Once Huai'an is in chaos, the bandits will definitely target Qingjiangpu, which has countless food and ships stored.

Because of this, the Ministry of War, after receiving the message sent back by Yan Binke in Huai'an Prefecture, convened its members to discuss the matter, and they all agreed that Yan Binke's request should be approved. "

In fact, Huai'an Prefecture was not without imperial garrison troops stationed there.

At the beginning of the country, the imperial court established Huai'an Guard and Dahe Guard in Huai'an Prefecture to protect Huai'an Prefecture and the canal.

Huai'an Wei had a total of eight thousand households.

But until now.

The officials in the court naturally knew that apart from the nine border troops and the Beijing garrison, the combat effectiveness of the local military farms and garrisons in the Ming Dynasty could not be compared with that at the beginning of the country.

In fact, in addition to the agreements reached between Yan Shaoting and Zhang Xialing, Yang Bo also had this consideration before agreeing to build Qingjiangpu in the name of the Ministry of War.

The newly built Qianhu Suo is definitely stronger than the old Wei Suo.

The fact that the White Lotus rebels were able to carry out an assassination in Matou Town this time also shows that the rebels' potential power in the Lianghuai area is far deeper than the court officials imagined.

same.

At this moment, everyone in the hall was making similar considerations, which was why no one stood up to object.

After all, those officials in Beijing knew very well the importance of the canal.

Once something happens to the canal.

The supply of more than half of the imperial court’s food and fodder in the north would be in trouble!

Everyone couldn't help but look at the emperor.

Once the emperor decides on this matter, there will probably be nothing to do today.

Under the gaze of everyone, Jiajing remained calm.

He even smiled faintly.

Then everyone looked forward to it.

Jiajing smiled and waved his hand: "It's just a thousand households, with only a thousand people. Is it appropriate to use this to deal with the rebels?"

Yang Bo immediately said, "In fact...if we build another Qingjiangpu Station and order Huai'an Guard and Dahe Guard to train and fill the vacancies, I think we can also deal with the possible actions of the rebels in the future."

"not enough!"

As soon as Yang Bo finished speaking, Jiajing immediately frowned and rejected it.

Yang Bo was stunned: "This..."

Jiajing spoke directly: "Last year, the White Lotus rebels were able to collude with the Mongols and help them sneak into the capital. This year, they spied on the imperial envoy's journey south and set up an ambush on the way. It can be seen that the rebels are now aware of their power and are ambitious. The court should strictly order the local authorities to eliminate them. However..."

Jiajing paused and looked around at everyone present.

Then he continued to talk.

"Of course, the local government's soldiers and officials may be able to catch bandits, but if they are used to eliminate rebels and thieves, they may not be able to do enough."

Yang Bo couldn't help but ask: "According to the emperor's opinion, what should we do?"

Jiajing sneered, "I think we can set up a loyal and brave bandit-suppression camp in Jiangnan. I heard that Qi Jiguang's method of training soldiers is very good. We can draw generals from him to Nanjing to recruit young men and train them into an army to deal with the purpose of clearing out the White Lotus rebels!"

"This..." Yang Bo was becoming increasingly speechless.

Everyone in the hall changed color.

The emperor actually wanted to build a loyal and brave anti-bandit camp in Nanjing.

According to the imperial court's system of recruiting soldiers, a battalion of soldiers would consist of 3,125 people.

Even if we use Qi Jiguang's method of training soldiers to organize a loyal and brave bandit-suppression camp, there will be 2,697 people.

Three thousand soldiers and horses.

It is specifically used to wipe out the White Lotus rebels.

Saying too much is not too much, saying too little is not too much.

But if they were to be trained according to the imperial military camp system, firearms would certainly account for the majority, and basically everyone would have to wear armor.

This kind of equipment combat power.

Even if it is placed in the Nine Frontiers, it can garrison a section of the border wall over a hundred miles long.

Able to engage in direct confrontation with more than 10,000 unarmored enemy infantrymen.

The Minister of Revenue Gao Yao is not present today.

But Gao Gong stood up immediately.

"Your Majesty, the court wants to wipe out the rebels in Huaibei and Jiangnan, so it must reorganize the army. However, if we want to reorganize a loyal and brave bandit-suppression battalion of more than 3,000 people, where will the money, food and supplies come from? A battalion of 3,000 people, not counting weapons and firearms, the officers and soldiers alone will consume 10 dan of food and grass every day, 300 dan a month, and a full 3,600 dan of food and grass a year!"

According to the imperial court's custom, one stone is estimated to be about 150 kilograms.

According to the camp regulations, each soldier needs about half a pound of food every day.

At that time, prices for ordinary people had not yet inflated, but one stone of grain still cost about one tael of silver.

The imperial court would have to pay 3,600 taels of silver for the 3,600 dan of grain a year for this loyal and brave bandit-suppression camp alone.

According to the current military pay standards of Qi's army, the imperial court would need to spend about 18 taels of silver on one officer or soldier per year.

Three thousand people.

That’s a total of more than 50,000 taels of silver.

According to what Gao Gong said, the total of rations and military pay was basically the same as the pay standard of Qi's army.

According to Gao Gong, although the court was now well-off, it was unnecessary to suddenly increase expenditures by more than 50,000 taels of silver for this purpose.

There are more than 50,000 taels of silver here, and tens of thousands more taels elsewhere.

Does the Ministry of Revenue still want to be in charge of this family?
But Jiajing seemed to have made up his mind.

After Gao Gong finished talking about the issue of money and grain expenses, he simply waved his hand to reject it.

He put his hands on his waist and said generously, "The court is in trouble, I know it. I am not blaming the court. All the money and food expenses of this loyal and brave bandit-suppression camp will be paid from the inner treasury. Lu Fang will make a note of it now and transfer it to the inner treasury today for processing."

Lu Fang immediately bowed and nodded to accept the order.

Gao Gong stared with his eyes wide open, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.

The emperor had to use his own private money from the treasury to subsidize the loyal and brave bandit-suppression camp that had not even appeared yet. Who could still use the excuse that frugality was the main focus of court spending?

just.

Gao Gong still felt a little uneasy.

Although everyone knows that the treasury is now rich, the emperor is not such a generous person.

But when I think about the fact that the 50,000 to 60,000 taels of silver that the imperial treasury spends every year will be spent in Nanjing, thousands of miles away, there doesn't seem to be any problem or hidden danger.

I thought about it for a long time.

Gao Gong finally suppressed his thoughts and retreated.

But after he retreated, Xu Jie smiled and said, "The emperor cares about the people of Huaibei and Huainan, and cannot tolerate the harassment of the White Lotus rebels. This is because the emperor loves the people. But after the establishment of this loyal and brave bandit-suppression camp of more than 3,000 people, should the court select a good general to lead this camp?"

Jiajing glanced at Xu Jie and said calmly, "Isn't Yan Shaoting in Jiangnan? Before he left Beijing, I also issued an edict ordering him to supervise the military affairs in Nanjing. Since the Loyal and Brave Bandit Suppression Battalion will be organized and trained in Nanjing, he will still be in charge of military affairs, and Qi Jiguang will dispatch generals to assist him."

Xu Jie was also stunned like Yang Bo before.

Then he reacted.

The emperor said so much today, probably just for this dish.

Let Yan Shaoting take charge of another battalion of troops in Nanjing!
He wanted to say something more.

But Yuan Wei has already stood up.

Yuan Wei smiled and said, "Your Majesty is wise and wise. His orders come from one place. Now Yan Binke is in charge of military affairs in Nanjing, and the rebels of the Huai River and Huai River are causing chaos. Let him take charge of the Loyal and Brave Bandit Suppression Camp, and train with the generals sent by Qi Jiguang. I'm afraid the army can be formed this year. By then, the local government will have completed the investigation, and the army can go forward to eliminate the rebels!"

With Yuan Wei's flattery.

Jiajing immediately smiled and said, "What Mr. Yuan said is exactly what I want. If you have no objections, let's draft a document today and do it."

Seeing the emperor behave like this.

Even Xu Jie shut his mouth.

Anyway, the 3,000 soldiers who had not yet appeared were in Nanjing. Could the emperor let these people suddenly fly to Beijing overnight after forming an army?

then.

At Lu Fang's announcement of departure, everyone left Wanshou Palace with their own thoughts.

On the throne.

Watching the backs of everyone leaving.

Jiajing suddenly coughed violently several times.

Lu Fang hurried forward: "Master..."

Jiajing stretched out his hand to stop him, looking over with his pale face: "Lü Fang, tell the inner court to carefully check the money and grain, not a single cent should be missing, so that Yan Shaoting can train the Loyal and Brave Battalion into an army as soon as possible!"

Lu Fang's eyes flickered, and her lips moved a few times before she nodded heavily: "I obey your command, but..."

Jiajing smiled and shook his head, then looked outside the empty palace gate again.

He sneered: "My health has been deteriorating this year. I have been practicing Xuan for many years and I know myself..."

There was a pop.

Lu Fang had already knelt heavily on the ground, his eyes flickering: "Master!"

Jiajing snorted coldly: "It's not a big deal to me! It's just that I often think about my brother's past actions these days..."

Hearing this, Lu Fang trembled all over.

Royal brother.

The "brother" the emperor was referring to was naturally the previous emperor, Emperor Zhengde.

As for the actions of Emperor Zhengde in the past...

Lu Fang couldn't help but feel a little fear and uneasiness in his heart.

Jiajing looked coldly at Lv Fang who was kneeling on the ground: "You dog slave, I am not dead yet, why are you crying? Get up and write a secret decree for me!"

Hearing the word "secret decree", Lu Fang was shocked again and quickly looked up at the emperor.

Jiajing was already leaning on the throne, closing his eyes slightly, and spoke softly.

"Edict: If I die..."

"Urgently order Yan Shaoting to lead the loyal and brave bandit-suppression camp back to the capital and into the palace to intimidate the ministers and villains!"

…………

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(End of this chapter)