Taiyuan, the Palace of the Prince of Jin. The Jin Palace, located in the northeast of Taiyuan City, was completely modeled after the Imperial City of Nanjing, but the specifications were slightly lower. It was not only grand in scale, but also magnificent. His Majesty Jiajing was stationed in Taiyuan, so he naturally stayed in the East Wing of the Chengyun Palace in the Jin Palace. Chengguo Duke Zhu Xizhong, the veteran general who came from Huamachi on horseback - the governor of the three sides Tang Long, Guyuan's general Zhou Shangwen, and Ningxia's general Ren Jie all knelt on the ground without saying a word. Jiajing sat on the chair, his lips tightly closed, his eyes rolling on the three of them, with a somewhat gloomy and uncertain expression on his face. The Ming Dynasty was an important city on the nine frontiers, and the more than 200,000 soldiers and horses on the west and three sides could be said to be the elite of the frontier armies. The border governor controlled the three border towns of Yansui, Ningxia, Gansu, and Guyuan. Not only did he have strong troops and horses, but he was also located in a bitterly cold area. There had been constant wars for years. The officers and soldiers had been in battle for a long time, and their combat effectiveness was much higher than that of the officers and soldiers of other towns. But Tang Long, the governor of the three sides, begged not to mobilize troops from the three sides. There were two reasons. One was that the road was far away and the army was moving slowly. When the troops and horses were gathered to arrive in Taiyuan, it was already winter and there was no way to counterattack the capital. Then all the troops on the three sides will be mobilized, and the Tatar cavalry will inevitably move south in a large scale, and may even echo the Yiwang rebels to form a pincer attack on the border troops. Chengguo Gong Zhu Xizhong knew Jiajing's idea very well. He wanted to mobilize all the frontier troops in the nine-border town to counterattack the capital and kill all the Yiwang rebels. When the Tatar cavalry went south, Jiajing might not take it seriously. Keeping the throne was the most important thing for Jiajing, but being attacked from both sides by the Tatar cavalry and King Yi's rebels was something Jiajing could not bear. The atmosphere I saw was a little stiff, and I thought about it a little. Zhu Xizhong boldly said: "Your Majesty, can you mobilize 20,000 to 30,000 cavalry? One man and two horses, galloping here?" Although he knew Zhu Xizhong had good intentions, Tang Long still didn't think about it and refused in one breath: "Your Majesty , There are not so many war horses, one person and two horses, only the Tatar cavalry can be so luxurious." Seeing that Tang Long was not able to advance, Jiajing's face suddenly became longer. At this time, Huang Jin reported at the door: "Your Majesty, Mr. Yan Ge and other ministers are outside asking for an audience, saying that there is an urgent report from the capital." Hearing that there is an urgent report from the capital, Jiajing said in a deep voice: "Let them come in." Yan Songji A group of ministers came in, glanced at the generals kneeling on the ground, and quickly took the lead to kneel down to salute, and then said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty. The rebels have invaded the palace, and the rebel king Zhu Houye issued an edict to declare to the world " He said and hurriedly handed over the urgent report. After reading the urgent report, Jiajing's face was particularly ugly. After a while, he said: "Passing the decree, the guards in royal robes will strengthen the surveillance of the vassal kings in various places. Strictly prevent the vassal kings from leaving the feudal country." As he said that, he swept the kneeling people on the ground. The ministers glanced at each other and said in a calm tone: "Have you ever been tempted by the doubling of your salary?" Hearing this, everyone's hearts skipped a beat. These words are very heartbreaking and cannot be easily answered. For those who live on salary, who wouldn¡¯t be happy if their salary could be doubled? It can¡¯t be said that these high-ranking officials don¡¯t live on their salaries, right? Yan Song hurriedly kowtowed and said: "Back to the emperor, the salary of officials was decreed by Emperor Taizu Gao. How can it be changed at will? The emperor is considerate of his ministers and gives rewards from time to time. How can minor ministers forget their righteousness because of small profits?" Jiajing naturally understood. Ministers like the capital do not live on their salaries, nor do local state and county officials live on their salaries. Whether they are the officials in the capital or local governments, they all have ways to make money. Zhu Houye's hope of increasing his salary to win over the officials is simply a joke. None of the ministers wanted Jiajing to continue talking about this topic. Mao Bowen said immediately: "Your Majesty, not only must you control the vassal kings in various places, but also local officials, especially those in Nanjing, must be strictly controlled " "Your Majesty." Zhang Bi, the Minister of Rites, bowed and said, "I dare to say that even if I control the vassal kings and officials from all over the world, I can't stop King Yi from ascending the throne in the capital." Hearing this, everyone felt in their hearts. It all fell down. This was the last thing they wanted to think about and the last thing they wanted to say. They didn't want Zhang Bi to expose it directly in front of Jiajing! King Yi is a Jingnan, a rebel, not an inheritor of the throne. He occupies the capital. As long as he is happy, he can ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor at any time. There is no need for a vassal king or hundreds of officials to support him. It is not that Yiwang Mansion and Dongxing Port cannot find officials. , which was also the fundamental reason why most officials opposed abandoning the capital. "That's wrong." Zhai Luan then said in a deep voice: "King Yi is a descendant of Emperor Gao and the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty! He is flying the banner of the Qing emperor, not a rebellion of refugees! Now the emperor is on a tour to the west, and his majesty is stationed in Taiyuan. Dare to disregard his righteousness and dare to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor? How will he face his descendants? How will he face the pedantry of the world? You should ask Emperor Wen Zhu Di about this and see how he faced it! All the officials secretly slandered, but no one was willing to speak out. If King Yi really ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in the capital, what would be the situation for Jiajing and them? There are two capitals and thirteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the capital, there is also the capital.?¡ªNanjing, but Nanjing is not far from the sea. The warships of Dongxing Port can go up the Shuo River to attack Nanjing. Jiajing cannot gain a foothold in Nanjing at all, and King Yi will not let Jiajing gain a foothold in Nanjing. The safest place is to stay in a corner of Pian'an. ¡ª¡ªStay in Taiyuan or Xi'an! But this is not a problem at all. With the powerful Dongxing Port fleet, King Yi can easily control the coastal provinces and cut off taxes, especially those in Jiangnan. Even if King Yi does not come to attack them, where will Jiajing get the money and food to support these few people? One hundred thousand frontier troops? The Tatar cavalry will not attack them because of their pitiful situation. In a few years, all the wealth in the northwest will be wiped out. By then, they will either be destroyed by the Tatars or King Yi! Jiajing ignored everyone. He didn¡¯t think that far either. It wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t think of it, but that he didn¡¯t dare to think of it! He glanced at Yan Song coldly and wondered secretly, whether killing Yan Song or deposing Yan Song would prevent King Yi from ascending the throne? This would give King Yi even more excuses to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor! As soon as this thought flashed, he gave up. The talk about Qingjun's side was all lies, and it was just a cover for usurping the throne. At this point, King Yi had no way out. He could only go to the dark side, even if he was killed. Yan Song, King Yi would also find another excuse, and he would really deal with Yan Song. On the contrary, it will make people feel distracted. Yan Song was so startled by Jiajing's sight that he broke out in a cold sweat. He had been avoiding visiting alone these days. Not only was he afraid of being punished, but he was also afraid that Jiajing would find an unfounded crime to kill him. After thinking for a while, he said in a deep voice: "In the past, when Emperor Gao was fighting for hegemony in the world, Mr. Fenglin once said, 'Build walls high and store grain widely. Slowly claim the title of king.'" Hearing this nonsense. Everyone was a little confused. What did this mean? Although Jiajing has lost his capital now, he is still the most upright and upright Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Why delaying the title of king, isn't this a false accusation? Jiajing also stared at him with a puzzled expression. After a brief pause, Yan Song continued: "The emperor has been on the throne for more than 20 years. Officials, gentry and people all over the world know it. The emperor is the legitimate emperor of the Ming Dynasty! No matter what King Yi does in the capital, he can be king or emperor. No matter what, there is no need for the emperor to be distracted by this. In the end, it still depends on who can win the final victory! !" As he said this, he glanced at everyone. Said: "Everyone calm down and don't let the other side disturb your mind. If you mess up the steps, the people Zhu Houye relies on - Dongxing Port has only 60,000 troops. The troops attacking the capital are only 40,000 troops, and the frontier troops are more than 400,000. I want All his efforts were completed in one battle, and the Dongxing Port was completely crippled in one battle, and the scourge of Dongxing Port was completely eliminated!" "As he said, he waved and said: "Everyone, please retreat." Yan Song and other civil servants retreated. Zhu Xizhong, Tang Long and others. Several generals did not dare to move. Jiajing glanced at a few of them and then said in a deep voice: "Which is more serious or less important, has Yu Zuo weighed it clearly?" After listening to this for a while, Tang Long naturally understood how serious Jiajing's situation was. It's not good. He knew very well that if he persisted, he would be humiliating himself. After thinking for a while, he said: "Back to the emperor, it is more than three thousand miles from Ganzhou to Taiyuan. Even if you travel sixty times a day, it will take two During the month, we sincerely prayed that officers and soldiers from Ningxia, Suide, Guyuan, Huamachi and other towns would be sent to Taiyuan, and soldiers from Ganzhou would backfill Ningxia and Huamachi. In this way, we could also mobilize an army of 120,000. " Jiajing point. He nodded and said: "One hundred thousand is enough, but it must be elite. Bring all the war horses from the four towns. The soldiers in Dongxing Port are far from comparable to the Tatars. The Tatars have always invaded from Huamachi. Even if they temporarily abandon Ganzhou, they cannot Let Huamachi fall. "Wei Chen obeyed!" Tang Long bowed hurriedly. Jiajing breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Yu Zuo is a rare veteran in this dynasty. Stop traveling back and forth. Just live in Taiyuan and discuss with Duke Cheng Guo how to fight this battle successfully!" "Wei Chen obeys the order. !" Tang Long was both excited and worried. This is a battle that affects Jiajing's life and death. If he wins, he may be granted the title of Bo or Marquis. If he loses, it will be a dead end! Dongxing Port is not that easy to fight! As soon as Zhu Xizhong and Tang Long exited, Huang Jin bowed in and said, "Your Majesty, Wang Gao, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Mao Bowen, the Minister of War, have not left. They are still waiting outside." Jiajing was about to get up and move around when he heard this After saying that, he sat back and said, "Let them come in." After Wang Gao and Mao Bowen came in to see the ceremony, Wang Gao said in a deep voice, "How dare I ask the emperor how many troops he wants to gather?" After a slight ponder, Jiajing glanced at him and said, "Is Jingchu worried about money and food?" "Exactly." Wang Gao bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am worried about not only military pay, but also food and grass. There are two to three hundred thousand troops and tens of thousands of horses." War horses, this will cost at least three to four million silver dollars, and the food and grass supplies along the way must also be carefully planned." Jiajing glanced at him, knowing that he must have only realized that he was gathering today.Hundreds of thousands of troops counterattack the capital? Worried about this, he immediately said: "I have issued an order a few days ago to mobilize soldiers from Shandong and Henan provinces to intercept all the grain going north in Dezhou, and transfer it to Zhending, Baoding, Hejian, and Cangzhou, as well as to Shandong and Henan is preparing for the summer supply, and has also issued an order to go to Taiyuan." Hearing that Jiajing had already prepared, Wang Gao couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately bowed: "Your Majesty, your Majesty." Mao Bowen bowed. : "Your Majesty, there are many soldiers in the border army who are recruiting troops. One silver dollar per month. This is a huge expense, and it is not appropriate to default" Hearing this, Jiajing couldn't help but frown, Hongzhi Zhengde Since then, the number of recruited soldiers in the border army has increased year by year. Since he took the throne, the situation has not improved at all. The number of recruited soldiers in several border towns has now reached almost half of the number of troops. The salary of these recruited soldiers was originally border guards. The government and the imperial court each contribute half, and now he has to contribute, which is indeed a big burden. I don¡¯t know how many recruits there are for the 100,000 soldiers on the three sides, but I guess it should be slightly better. But even so, it would cost at least 100,000 silver dollars a month. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh to himself. Although there were only 60,000 soldiers in Dongxing Port, the military pay was two silver dollars a month. I really don't know where Dongxing Port got so much silver! This is indeed a troublesome matter. The combat effectiveness of those recruited soldiers is much stronger than that of the guards, but if the pay cannot be paid on time, the morale of the military will definitely be unstable. There may even be a mutiny or an elopement! When he came out of the capital, he didn't have much money. There wasn't much money in the treasury to begin with. Life in the court has been tight these years, so he had to find ways to raise money! In the next two days, the news of the complete destruction of the Haizhou Navy Fleet and the Jinling Newspaper's publication of King Yi's decree came one after another, indicating the destruction of the Haizhou Navy Fleet. Jiajing was not very angry. After all, he had been mentally prepared for it. Since the Dongxing Port fleet destroyed Tianjin's fleet, it would never let go of Haizhou's fleet! "But the Jinling Newspaper published King Yi's decree, which made Jiajing very angry. What is the relationship between the Jinling Newspaper and the Charity Association?" He naturally knew that if Jinling reported this move, the Charity Association would openly announce its support for King Yi! Over the years, charity associations have played an increasingly important role in relieving victims. The imperial court¡¯s expenditure on disaster relief has been decreasing year by year, and the scale of the ¡°Huitong Bank¡± under the charity association has also snowballed. Rapidly expanding, connecting the world. It is no longer just a slogan, now the banknotes of "Huitong Bank" can be passed through the Ming Dynasty, Beijing and 13 provinces! It is precisely for this reason that he has never had the idea of ????Charity Association. He does not believe that the Charity Association has such a huge fortune and dares to openly get involved in this battle for the throne! But that¡¯s exactly what the Charity Association did! When things have reached this point, Jiajing is 100% sure that the Charity Association has never left Dongxing Port! After pacing back and forth in the room for two cups of tea, Jiajing said in a deep voice: "Pass the order! Five hundred miles to rush to report to Nanjing, seal the Charity Federation, and ban the Jinling Newspaper! Send the order to all provinces to immediately seal the name of the Charity Association. All the bank accounts!" After hearing this decree, the eunuchs on duty were so shocked that they didn't come back to their senses for a long time. They didn't have the courage to speak out, so they sent a young eunuch out to spread the news. As soon as the news spread, all the ministers, eunuchs, and all civil and military officials of fourth rank or above who came out of the capital had black eyes. All their belongings were in the "Huitong Bank" of the Charity Association. When they escaped from the capital, who Didn't everyone exchange a large amount of cash for banknotes from "Huitong Bank"? There are also countless rare treasures and banknotes stored in the treasure chest of "Huitong Bank"! Now that Jiajing has banned charity associations and seized the "Huitong Bank", all the wealth they have accumulated over the years as officials has been wiped out in one day! The capital was lost, and they bid farewell to their wives and children and followed Jiajing to Taiyuan. They couldn't bear it! In this shabby place like Taiyuan, there is no good place to live, no good food to eat, and they have endured the miserable life! But if they are all turned into paupers in one day, no one can bear it! For a moment, the whole city of Taiyuan was agitated. Hundreds of ministers and civil and military officials gathered outside the palace of the Jin Dynasty. They all whispered to each other and whispered, "Get out of the way, the chief minister is here. Duke Cheng Guo is here." , please give way." All the officials immediately gave way to a passage. Zhu Xizhong, Duke of Chengguo, Zhang Rong, Duke of England, Zhu Yue, Marquis of Funing, Jiang Chuan, Marquis of Dingxi, and other ministers whom Jiajing usually relied on, Yan Song, Zhai Luan, Xu Zan, the chief officials of various ministries, and all the people in the Beijing camp The generals of the second rank and above entered Prince Jin's Mansion one after another and announced outside the Chengyun Hall. In the hall, Jiajing was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back. He listened to the report and had no intention of asking them to come in. He naturally knew the situation outside and knew why these officials came. After a long while, he ordered: "Ask them all to come in!" " When all the honorable ministers, civil and military officials came in, they knelt down in darkness. After everyone in Jiajing's room bowed, they said, "Have you read the Jinling newspaper?""Go back to the emperor." Yan Song hurriedly replied: "This Jinling News has been circulated in Taiyuan City." "I know that you all exchanged a lot of "Huitong Bank" banknotes when you left the capital." Jiajing said slowly. Said: "What is the relationship between the Jinling Newspaper and the Charity Association, and what is the relationship between the Charity Association and Dongxing Port? There is no need for me to talk about this. Now that the Charity Association has openly expressed its support for Zhu Houye, you think for yourselves, should the "Huitong Bank" be closed down?" Seeing that Yan Song remained silent, Zhai Luan said: "Your Majesty, the good name of the Charity Association is now resounding throughout the thirteen provinces of Ming Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, and it has a high reputation among the people! The banknotes of "Huitong Bank" are also widely circulated, and wealthy businessmen from the north and south The wealthy businessmen all had a lot of banknotes in their hands, and they rashly sealed the "Huitong Bank", which was detrimental to the emperor's reputation." Seeing him going around in circles, Chengguo Gong Zhu Xizhong frowned in dissatisfaction and bowed: "Your Majesty, follow your Majesty. Almost all the belongings of the officials on the Western Inspection were exchanged for banknotes from the "Huitong Bank", and the "Huitong Bank" was seized. Wei Chen was worried about the instability of the people! "A bunch of trash! Yan Song secretly cursed before bowing and saying: "Your Majesty, since the Charity Association dares to publicly express its support for Zhu Houye, it is natural that the court will seize the Charity Association's bank accounts in various provinces. It should have been prepared. If the "Huitong Bank" is seized at this time, "No." The good thing is that the Charity Association fell down, but the blame fell on the imperial court. I sincerely pray that the emperor will think twice." This is to the point. Jiajing pondered for a moment and then said: "What do you think it should be?" "Wei Zhong. I believe that not only does the Charity Association not need to be closed down, but the Jinling Newspaper also does not need to be closed down." Yan Song said solemnly: "The Jinling Newspaper still publishes the imperial newspaper as usual. We cannot give the world the wrong impression that the Charity Association is supporting the rebel king Zhu Houye!" "That makes sense!" Jiajing nodded slightly and said, "The eunuchs on duty were all supposed to be killed with a cane, but they were replaced with twenty canes."