Chapter 223: Kyoto Storm (2)

In addition to Liaodong, Li Weizheng's bases are almost overseas, such as Goryeo, Taiwan, Ryukyu, Japan's Tsushima Island, Danluo Island, etc., but in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, there is another place that has also become Li Weizheng's base. This is Penglai. Penglai Qianhu Lai Yongguo secretly defected to Li Weizheng as early as the previous year. On the one hand, although it is because Li Wei was his old boss and they have a close relationship, they are more important than that Penglai's strategic position is extremely important to Liaodong. It is the entrance of Liaodong to enter the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, when Li Wei was granted the title of Liaodong, he reached a tacit understanding with Lai Yongguo. Penglai Qianhu was nominally the Qianhu Lai of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact it has become the military guard of Liaodong. Li Wei deployed 6,000 troops in Penglai Port, completely blocking the import and export of the Bohai Sea.

Only the former commander of Shandong, Ye Sheng, was unfortunately killed in the Feng Fu case, and the commander of Xindu was delayed in taking office, so the secret was covered up. This was also a serious consequence of Zhu Yuanzhang's conspiracy of the Feng Fu case. All commanders were killed, and senior military generals with qualifications were also killed. Therefore, when Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, he could not find a senior military official who could serve as commander of the commander of the capital. He had no choice but to give priority to ensuring that the commander of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan and other places were served by senior generals with little experience, most of the other provinces were temporarily appointed as civil servants like the governor.

At the same time, in order to hold the military power tightly, Zhu Yunwen no longer appointed a new governor of the Five Armies. This made the governor of the Five Armies an empty yamen, with the Ministry of War directly commanding the world's guards, and all military power belongs to the Ministry of War.

Penglai Institute is an independent Thousand Household Office, and he is directly under the commander-in-chief of Shandong like normal military guards. However, this is just a nominal. The Thousand Household Office of Penglai belongs to the imperial court in name, and various forms of documents and reports are still reported. But in fact, the Penglai Institute has been loyal to Liaodong. Even if the Shandong Commander comes to inspect, he cannot go out to sea to explore the islands such as Changshan Island where the truth is hidden. This is not a special situation for Penglai Institute. In fact, many military and guards in various vassals have only nominally been under the jurisdiction of the imperial court.

This was unexpected by Zhu Yuanzhang before launching the Feng Fu case. It should be said that his idea was correct to some extent. Lan Yu appeared. Li Wei was so ambitious that separatist warlords were so ambitious. But the problem was that those who should be killed did not kill, and those who should not be killed died. On the other hand, Zhu Yuanzhang planned to establish a new military system after the Feng Fu case. He had the ability and authority, but he died and died before he could do anything, leaving a mess to his most inexperienced and authoritative grandson.

It was the chaos in the Ming army that made Zhu Yunwen reluctant to cut down the vassals and also made the vassal kings find opportunities to expand their troops. Li Weizheng was no exception. After successfully seizing Penglai, his target was on the entire Shandong Peninsula, that is, the entire Dengzhou Prefecture, including the four guards of Weihai, Chengshan, Jinghai, and Dasong. However, he could not move now. Before the court and the vassal kings broke up, he did not want to be the first person to take the lead, but he secretly sent people to contact the above four guards.

Li Wei stayed in Penglai for two days and set off for the capital again. Although he was not a vassal king, he also used the highest guard of three thousand people like the vassal king. The difference was that he also sent a navy team, waiting for him on more than a dozen military ships on the sea in the Haimen area. Once Zhu Yunwen had murderous intentions on him, he would evacuate from the sea. He knew that Zhu Yunwen would not be charged with killing his uncle, especially his uncle came to pay tribute to the previous emperor, but he was different to himself. Even if he killed himself, the people in the world would not say anything about him. If the king wanted his minister to die, the minister had to die.

But Li Weizheng was unwilling to catch a handle for Zhu Yunwen. He summoned himself to the capital to pay homage to the late emperor. Like the vassal kings, he had no reason to refuse. If he didn't come, he would have completely failed politically and he was no different from Lan Yu. So he resolutely decided to enter Beijing. Although he had inferred that Zhu Yunwen would not act rashly when the kings gathered, he was still prepared. On the one hand, he left a lasting fate for Liaodong. If he could not come back, whether he was killed or imprisoned, the Liaodong army would immediately support his son as the King of Liaodong; on the other hand, he also made careful arrangements in the capital. He believed that he could fight with Zhu Yunwen. The three thousand most elite Liaodong cavalry secretly carried the most advanced weapons and strictly guarded his lord towards the direction of the capital.

At this time, the capital was already very lively. In order to welcome the kings to the capital, Zhu Yunwen specially issued an order to mobilize the military and civilians to thoroughly clean up the capital. In addition, Taichang Qing Huang Zicheng was in charge of the extremely important gathering of the imperial clan. This gathering will determine the future of the Ming Dynasty to some extent.

The lively and prosperous capital was not just because of this gathering of kings. As early as the beginning of the new emperor's ascension three months ago, the court relaxed many harsh provisions that restricted the people, such as the relaxation of clothing and clothing. Half a month after the new emperor ascended the throne, the new emperor issued an order that military and civilians must not exceed the rules during the filial piety period. The seven-seven filial piety period was full. Except for the three colors of red, yellow and purple and the official uniforms of ordinary people were not allowed to go at will, the rest were not restricted. This decree was equivalent to abolishing Zhu Yuanzhang's strict clothing regulations. Therefore, at the end of February, the entire capital became colorful and colorful, and the people's desire for beauty that had been suppressed for many years suddenly burst out, making the major clothing shops in the capital extremely prosperous.

In addition, the Xin Dynasty canceled the tax bureau, the river office and other tax yamen, and at the same time encouraged industry and commerce, relaxed restrictions on merchants, and canceled special clothing that was discriminatory to them. The children of merchants could enroll in school locally, and the imperial examinations were all the same as ordinary people. These measures were widely welcomed by merchants, but this was not the reason why the capital suddenly became prosperous. The real reason was that in the first month, Zhu Yunwen made an average tax on Jiangsu and Zhejiang taxes in response to the predatory tax discrimination policy implemented in the Hongwu period of the Hongwu period, not only land tax, but also commercial tax. The introduction of this policy encouraged the huge merchants and merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and they all brought huge sums of money to Beijing to seize business opportunities. In just two months, the rent of the store rent in the capital doubled. It was these measures that were beneficial to people's livelihood that made the capital prosperous unprecedentedly.

At the same time, in order to create a peaceful and united atmosphere for the gatherings of the kings, Yingtian Mansion specially decorated the lights and hangs new peaches and new talismans in front of every house, which was filled with joy and joy. Of course, this was just the peace and festiveness of the people, while the imperial city and the government office were still solemn and solemn, maintaining mourning for the late emperor and preventing the kings from finding fault.

Although the court tried hard to create an atmosphere of peace and unity, after mid-March, as the first batch of vassal kings such as Wu, Lu, Chu, and Xiang entered the capital, the atmosphere in the capital began to change subtly and became a little nervous.

There is a mansion in Taipingfang in the capital city, covering an area of ​​about one acre. This mansion is no different from other mansions. It is very ordinary. Passers-by come and go by, and they don’t pay special attention to it. The owner of this mansion is not a high-ranking official and powerful man, but is just an ordinary commoner. The owner’s surname is Zhang and is called Zhang Jie. He was originally a small landlord in Huzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. He studied for a few years and failed the scholarship. He sold his ancestral home land two years ago and came to the capital to buy the mansion. He opened a tavern called Ruyiju on a not-so-busy small street. He had a wife and a concubine, a son and a daughter, and lived a plain and peaceful life.

Zhang Jie is about thirty years old. Although his life was dull, it does not mean that he is willing to live a poor life. In fact, he went to Beijing from Huzhou to dream of making a fortune and living a luxurious life. Zhang Jie had such an idea and did not dream in daydream. He relied on it. His younger sister married a high-ranking official in the capital three years ago as a concubine and gave birth to a son for him. His sister is very beautiful and good at understanding the master's thoughts and catering to his preferences, so that he will be more proud of his bride than his youth. Therefore, she is extremely favored. In addition, she gave birth to another son, which made her even more loyal in front of the master.

It was because of such a sister that Zhang Jie dreamed of getting the best of his brother-in-law and moved from Huzhou to the capital. But to his disappointment, his brother-in-law's family was not much better and could not provide him with a dream of wealth and wealth. He fell into extreme depression and could not go back to his hometown, and wanted to make a lot of money but was incompetent. In his depressed mood, Zhang Jie gradually became obsessed with eating, drinking, gambling, and for more than a year.

He squandered all the little money left by his ancestors, closed the tavern and owed a lot of debts. Although his sister paid off a lot of debts for him, the old debt had just been cleared and the new debts came again, and his sister had no choice. In order to avoid the urging of the creditors, Zhang Jie hid in and hid, and his family suffered all the hardships for him. He had made all the valuable things, and the family had no money at home. Even his wife and children were queuing up to receive porridge for food, and he fell into the same fate as a beggar.

However, Zhang Jie has been working from time to time in the past two months. He met a generous and rich friend. He not only paid off his debts, but also gave him a large restaurant, and gave him a lot of money from time to time. Zhang Jie's life began to become rich. His wives and concubines wore gold and silver, and his children were also rich in food and food. With maids and servants, the family really lived a life of wealth in their dreams. Of course, Zhang Jie was not a fool. He knew that his benefactor would not give him money for no reason. He tried his benefactor's intention several times, but the other party waved his hand generously and made friends. Although Zhang Jie was a little uneasy, he had already tasted the rich life and refused to kill him. In this way, Zhang Jie was completely lost in wealth.

At noon that day, Zhang Jie was about to go out for tea when his wife ran over in a panic and said, "Master, benefactor is here!" Zhang Jie was shocked and almost crawled to meet him.

At this moment, Zhang Jie's benefactor sat in the living room and was drinking tea leisurely. This benefactor was no other person, Fang Lan, the spy leader of Li Wei in the capital. Fang Lan accepted Li Weizheng's secret mission and began to go to Beijing to arrange the matter. He got all the information he wanted from Fitingan and soon found a breakthrough. It was Zhang Jie. Although Zhang Jie was a useless waste, his sister married an extremely useful person. The man she married was Qi Tai, the Minister of War.

The reason why the Jinyiwei is famous is its omnipresence. Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid that the grandson would go astray, so he ordered Jinyiwei to investigate his masters in detail. Qi Tai was one of them. The Jinyiwei investigated him not only his usual words and deeds, but even dug out his privacy: he obeyed his concubine on the bed, and even to the point of being bowing his head, everyone had weaknesses. This was Qi Tai's biggest weakness, almost no one knew it, but Fang Lan got this extremely valuable information and immediately started to use it. Zhang Jie was already addicted to it under his step-by-step temptation. Seeing that his lord was about to enter Beijing, Fang Lan began to close the net.

Fang Lan was drinking tea. He was originally from the Jinyiwei and had a vicious way. He had many methods, including the Qixiang Pills given to him by Li Weizheng, as well as the death threat, etc. However, when dealing with a small person like Zhang Jie, he did not need to use a slaughter knife. He just gave him some small favors and tasted the taste of wealth. Although he gave Zhang Jie a lot of money, the heat was just right. It was enough for Zhang Jie to squander him, and it would not be his own. The restaurant was not his. It can be said that as soon as he stopped, Zhang Jie would immediately crawl and beg him.

At this time, there was a sound of running outside. Zhang Jie rushed in almost all the way, knelt down on both knees and said, "My benefactor is here, I will bow to you."

Zhang Jie was very afraid of his benefactor. Once he had his hands taken back, he would immediately return to his poor days. He was afraid that his benefactor would even reach the point where he would immediately give up the bed if his benefactor fell in love with his wife. It would be even more worth mentioning.

Fang Lan smiled, quickly helped him up, and whispered to him: "It is inconvenient to speak here, go to your inner room."

Zhang Jie hurriedly led Fang Lan into the inner room. His wife didn't know what happened, so she followed her. Fang Lan gave him a wink, and Zhang Jie immediately drove his wife out, closed the door, and smiled carefully, "My benefactor, what's the matter?"

Fang Lan put a wooden box he carried with him on the table and opened it. The room suddenly had a dazzling light. The small wooden box was filled with boxes of gold jewelry. Zhang Jie's eyes suddenly widened. He stared at the jewelry in front of him greedily and swallowed a few saliva.

Fang Lan grabbed a handful of pearls and fell from his fingers. He smiled and said, "Do you want it?"

"I want to!" Zhang Jie said tremblingly. At this moment, even if he sold his mother, he would be willing.
Chapter completed!