The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde was still thinking about the title of "Fool General" when another figure flashed at the gate of the garrison. Not long after, an official in a red robe came over.

There was such a big chaos in Nanjing, so Xu Pengju naturally sent people to contact the officials in Beijing one by one.

In fact, at this time, many officials had heard that there was a rebellion among the officers and soldiers and were frightened out of their wits. Many of them had no time to collect their gold and silver and ran to the city gate with their families, planning to leave the city for safety first.

If the soldiers mutiny cannot be dealt with properly in a short time, the consequences will be very terrible.

Out-of-control soldiers would kill people, set fires, and plunder the city, but often only the first offender and the main accomplices could be dealt with afterwards, and the others could only forget the blame. Because the law does not punish everyone, should thousands of people be tried and dealt with at one time? Soldiers?

So although Xu Pengju sent a lot of people to summon the senior officials of Nanjing City to come here for discussion, the sedan that Wei Guangde saw when he entered the door showed that not many people came here.

The person here was really swaying as he walked, not showing any signs of panic, and behind him were two chamberlains in green robes.

Wei Guangde looked over carefully, and sure enough, this man was white-faced, beardless, and wearing a red robe. A name flashed in Wei Guangde's mind - He Shou.

At this time, Nanjing was the capital and there was no emperor. However, the palace was left with a great eunuch, who was the guarding eunuch of Nanjing.

It's just that the word "guard" on He Shou's title does not refer to guarding the palace.

In the Ming Dynasty, garrison was originally the title of a military attache. "Those who guard one area of ​​the city are garrison guards, and those who guard one area alone are sub-garrison guards."

The garrison is all held by the general military officer, and in a few areas the deputy general is the deputy general. The garrison is divided into multiple departments and is held by generals.

In the Ming Dynasty, every border town and provincial-level area had a garrison general officer. Naturally, the Ming emperor could not trust these general officers who had the power of military and horse power in one side and one province. They believed that the most convenient and reliable way was to He sent his trusted palace slaves to monitor the situation, so a guard eunuch was set up.

Speaking of the first guarding eunuch, it was in the eighth year of Yongle reign when he "ordered the internal official Ma Jing to inspect Gansu."

Although Ma Jing's official name was patrolling, the authority given to him was like guarding. By the late Yongle period, the number of guarding eunuchs sent to border areas gradually increased.

When Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing, he naturally left a guard eunuch in Nanjing, and he has retained this position for a long time to this day.

He Shou walked to the guard hall and saw Wei Guangde on the side.

He was not familiar with Wei Guangde, but when Wei Guangde got married in Nanjing City, He Shou had met Wei Guangde at the Wei Guogong Mansion, so his first reaction was that this sixth-grade official looked familiar.

You must know that those who walk in front of him are all of a certain rank in Nanjing City, and he does not even look at minor officials below the fifth rank.

When Wei Guangde saw He Shou walking up to him, he stopped and looked at him, and he quickly bowed slightly. This was just a habitual action to show politeness to others.

You know, there is a eunuch opposite, and there seems to be a natural incompatibility between civil servants and eunuchs.

"Guangde has met Eunuch He."

Wei Guangde had an impression of He Shou, but it was not that He Shou's impression of him was so shallow.

"Haha, who was I talking about? It turns out to be you."

Eunuch He's high-pitched voice sounded, "I don't even know when you arrived in Nanjing. Didn't you go to Suzhou and Hangzhou on business?

Oh, I understand. I think it’s all done and I’m going to transfer to Nanjing and plan to go to the capital. "

"Exactly."

Wei Guangde nodded slightly.

"Then why are you here? Come on, go in and listen. You have returned to the capital. If the emperor asks, you have to put in a good word for us."

At this point, He Shou sighed and continued: "Who would have thought that this would happen, and I don't know if Mr. Huang was really killed."

"Master Huang is probably broken."

Wei Guangde whispered.

"real?"

Just as He Shou was about to take a step forward, he stood still immediately after hearing Wei Guangde's words, keeping his eyes fixed on Wei Guangde.

"My uncle and I rushed to the primary school with our servants. We encountered rebels on the way, so we can be sure that Mr. Huang is dead."

Wei Guangde explained in a low voice.

"Let's talk inside."

Knowing that Wei Guangde had been involved in this matter, He Shou frowned, but nodded slightly, as if he was relieved.

After thinking about it, Wei Guangde understood that he had nothing to do with the Nanjing officialdom. If the matter had nothing to do with him, he could tell the truth after returning to Beijing. It would be uncertain what the words would be when they reached the ears of Emperor Jiajing.

But his father-in-law, Xu Pengju, has already been involved. Now that he is involved, at least he will not say anything else to expand the number of officials involved. Naturally, he, the guarding eunuch, will not be too involved.

Wei Guangde followed He Shou into the garrison hall. There were not many people inside, and most of them were people Wei Guangde had met before.

Nanjing's officialdom has not changed much in the past two years, so when Wei Guangde got married, all the famous people in Nanjing came. As the newly minted emperor's ministers, these people were relatively close to him.

In the hall, except for Xu Bangrui, who had the least presence and was hiding aside, everyone else was of higher rank than him, so Wei Guangde saluted them first when he came in.

Fortunately, after many years in the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde was used to it, and later generations also practiced etiquette, but it was not so troublesome.

Wei Guangde is still considered a minister of the DPRK. Although his rank is much lower than theirs, he is still an imperial envoy who has been ordered to go south on missions. Although others were very surprised by his sudden appearance here for a while, they soon figured it out. Reason.

Only Zhang Hao and Li Tingzhu, who had escaped with Xu Pengju before, knew that Wei Guangde had brought the servants from the Duke of Wei's mansion to meet them, and was still behind to break up the rear.

After getting off the sedan, they planned to send a cavalry team back to have a look. After all, Wei Guangde had to face extremely vicious soldiers, but they couldn't gather many men and horses for a while. Li Sui, the Minister of War, arrived again, and they were anxious. Discussing the troop deployment order.

When there was such a big mess, it was safe to surround the small school grounds with the rebels, lest they lose control and run out and cause even greater trouble. Therefore, before Wei Guangde arrived, they had already mobilized the peripheral guards to blockade the situation. Which streets were divided, Xu Pengju issued transfer orders in the name of Nanjing garrison, and the Ministry of War used the seal.

Wei Guangde came in at this moment and sat down to listen to them explain the deployment to He Shou again. However, He Shou was obviously not interested in these. He waved his hands and said: "Everyone doesn't understand the matter of leading troops. You can do it as you like." , as long as the rebels are not allowed to cause trouble in the city."

The troop deployment order has been issued, and the rewards from all parties will soon be sent one after another. At this time, Zhang Hao looked at Wei Guangde who was in charge and asked: "When did Shandai arrive in Nanjing? Why didn't you come to my house to sit down?" sit."

Wei Guangde stood up hurriedly and said: "We just arrived yesterday. I planned to visit you all in the next few days. I also asked the accompanying officials to rest in Nanjing for two days before returning north to Beijing."

"Hey, I made you laugh. I didn't expect that there was a big disaster last year, and there will be a big epidemic at the beginning of this year. Is there such a thing happening now?"

Zhang Hao shook his head and then looked at him again and said seriously: "What happened to that group of rebels? They ran out of the small school grounds. Did they burn, kill and loot outside?"

This is the topic that all the adults here are concerned about. If the Zhenwuying rebels are messing around in Nanjing, and the court investigates them, even if they can escape, they will still have to wear the label of dereliction of duty and useless. Don't count on it.

Wei Guangde thought about it for a while and said: "I have persuaded the rebel soldiers who were chasing over there to go back to the military camp and wait for the court's order. I think there won't be any more trouble in a while. I'm just worried that other people around the small school field will If there are still rioters breaking out on the streets, it will be troublesome to cause trouble."

"I have sent people to find out the news. I think there will be news soon."

Xu Pengju, who was above, answered at this time.

"If Shandai can really suppress the rebels and let them return to the military camp, it will be a great achievement."

At this time, He Shou suddenly interrupted with a high-pitched voice.

"Yeah, it's not easy. When the soldiers are in chaos, it's most difficult to control."

At this time, Li Sui also said that he had led troops and naturally knew that it was difficult to control the soldiers when they were in chaos. It was extremely difficult to get them to obey the command again.

Why there is a saying that "a defeat is like a mountain falling" is actually a true portrayal of victory or defeat on the battlefield being divided by time.

It is simply impossible for the defeated army to gather the soldiers into formation and retreat. Most of the soldiers will only think about leaving their robes and running away first, and their actions will also drive those soldiers who originally wanted to obey orders to eventually lose control completely.

At this time, the senior officials of Nanjing City sitting in the room were still thinking about how to control the mutiny of the sergeants. As for the aftermath, that would happen after the situation was under control.

As news came one after another, the three guards on Wei Guogong's side rushed to the small school field to rescue people on Xu Bangrui's order and encountered multiple groups of rebels. However, both sides were relatively restrained, and only sporadic fighting broke out.

It can only be said to be a firefight, because the two sides did not fight, but the soldiers in front separated after a simple conflict.

Everyone was from the military, and they used to look up and not look down at each other during school reviews. They were not acquaintances, but they were not outsiders either, so both sides soon chose to retreat to avoid a bigger conflict.

With the arrival of the sincere uncle Liu Shiyan, the news that he had scared off a group of rebel soldiers was also confirmed. On several roads outside the small school field, soldiers from the Beijing camp were stationed one after another to set up defenses, and the situation was barely controlled. .

"My lords, a sentinel just came back to report that the body of Mr. Huang from Huang Maoguan has been found. It was sent by people from Zhenwu Camp. They said that Mr. Huang fell to death while climbing over the wall. It had nothing to do with them. Their original intention was to find Mr. Huang was discussing the issue of salary arrears, but I never expected that such a misunderstanding would occur."

Just as the senior officials in the hall were congratulating themselves for having the situation under control so quickly, a captain came in from outside to report the latest intelligence.

"Did they send Mr. Huang's body here?"

Xu Pengju was stunned for a moment, then asked.

"Yes, it has been handed over to Wu Dewei. Commander Wei wants to know how to deal with it."

The captain said hurriedly.

"Let them send someone to the Huang family. How else can they deal with it."

Xu Pengju said immediately.

This incident was caused by Huang Maoguan being mean to his soldiers. If Huang Maoguan was still alive, Xu Pengju would have planned to write a memorial to impeach him. Even if he died, let's forget it.

In fact, Huang Maoguan was mean to the soldiers, so he was trying to reduce the financial burden on the court.

Before he took over as Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing, the Ministry of Household Affairs in Beijing agreed to the request of the Ministry of War due to supply difficulties in border towns and loaned out more than one million in grain money that should have been distributed to Southern Zhili, leaving the south's reserves empty for a long time.

By the time Huang Maoguan took office, the surplus grain in Nanjing was only enough to last for half a year, and he repeatedly petitioned the court to set aside part of the relief from the reserves sent to the north every year, but was rejected on the grounds that "border defense is the most important thing."

Under such a situation, Huang Maoguan had a sharp personality, so he started from two aspects.

On the one hand, strict audits are carried out to carefully investigate suspicions of fraud. On the other hand, the cycle of payment of food and salary is delayed as much as possible. They even plan to petition to stop the subsidy for those with wives, which is one of the salary conditions at the beginning of recruitment.

It's just that this memorial has been torn to pieces by the rebels and can no longer be presented to the court.

These measures of his were only focused on completing the tasks of his superiors, but he did not care about the people's livelihood in the disaster years. He did not care about the life and death of the sergeants, and how could he not arouse the hatred of the soldiers and kill him when he found an opportunity.

In fact, when Huang Maoguan was responding to requests for pay and food from each battalion and guard post, he shouted "Why not kill people" more than once.

Especially when the plague broke out in and around Nanjing, he wished that more sergeants would die, so as to reduce the pressure on the household department.

One of the very important reasons why Zhenwu Camp’s military pay was forcibly withheld this time was that during the plague, all battalions reported dead people, but only Zhenwu Camp did not, and the silver pay was still allocated according to the full request.

"Over at the small school field, we still need a general to control the field. I think it would be better to ask Mr. Liu to come over and take over the battalions temporarily so that emergencies can be dealt with in a timely manner."

At this time, Zhang Hao spoke.

The Beijing Camp surrounded the small school ground, and the people in the Zhenwu Camp were trapped inside and could not get out. The situation was under control, but the aftermath required a very small number of people to participate in the matter. After all, he and Xu Pengju were surrounded at the Office of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Some things are not easy to talk about publicly.

As Liu Shiyan went to the primary school field to set up defenses to prevent Zhenwu Camp soldiers from losing control and rushing into the market to cause trouble again, people from other government offices saw that the situation was under control and left one after another.

Soon, only Xu Pengju, He Shou, Zhang Hao, Li Tingzhu and Li Sui were left in the garrison hall. Of course, Wei Guangde was also sitting below.

Xu Pengju and Zhang Hao were both witnesses. He Shou was the supervisor sent by the royal family to Nanjing. The matter could not be hidden from him. Besides, they had worked together in Nanjing for many years and everyone was considered one of their own.

"How to deal with the follow-up? We can't arrest and kill everyone in Zhenwu Camp."

At this time, He Shou was the first to speak. He said this just to stir things up, but from the expressions of Xu Pengju and Zhang Hao, it seemed that these two people still had something to talk about.

"Well, it's not easy for soldiers, especially in this calamity year."

Xu Pengju sighed and said, and Zhang Hao nodded in agreement.

"How did you suppress those rebels over there?"

At this time, Xu Pengju seemed to suddenly remember, and asked Wei Guangde below.