Chapter 224: The Storm of Kyoto (III)

On March 22, the King of Yan arrived in Beijing, on March 24, the King of Qin arrived in Beijing, on March 25, the King of Jin, Liao and Ning arrived in Beijing at the same time. In the imperial study, Zhu Yunwen carefully looked at the reports of the kings' arrival in Beijing, but his brows were frowned. Among the more than 20 vassal kings, only Wu, Qing, Su, Lu, Min, and Gu, six vassal kings, entered the capital. Although the rest arrived in the capital, they were all stationed outside the city and did not enter the city. Two vassal officials, Muchun, the Marquis of Xiping and Li Weizheng, the Marquis of Dingliao, also arrived in the capital.

Zhu Yunwen was very angry in the first few days, but as the number of kings refused to enter the capital continued to increase, Zhu Yunwen began to realize the seriousness of the problem. He immediately summoned Huang Zicheng, Minister of War Qi Tai, Minister of War Fang Xiaoru, and Minister of Personnel Ye Tianming to discuss countermeasures.

"Dear friends, the vassal kings are unwilling to enter the capital at the same time. I am very worried that they have colluded with each other. If he unanimously requests me to abdicate in the ancestral temple, what will I do?"

Zhu Yunwen was very worried. Last night, he had a dream, dreaming that his uncles united and asked him to abdicate in the Taimiao. After waking up, he felt that this dream might indeed happen. If all the Zhu clans unanimously demanded that he abdicate and suppressed him with the spirit of their ancestors, he might not be able to withstand it. In addition, the vassal kings allowed to lead 3,000 troops, and they must be elite. There were not many soldiers separately, but if they were combined together, there were as many as 50,000 or 60,000 people. This army was enough to threaten his safety. Zhu Yunwen regretted it a little. In fact, he shouldn't let the vassal kings enter the capital. Last year, the emperor's grandfather also said that the vassal kings would not enter the capital for three years. This might be what he was worried about. He did not expect such serious consequences for the moment.

He looked at several important officials worriedly, and finally his eyes fell on Ye Tianming. The suggestion of the kings entering the capital was made by him. Ye Tianming was so smart. He quickly caught a trace of complaint from Zhu Yunwen's gaze. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Qi Tai wanting to speak again, and knew that this person was going to take the opportunity to take the opportunity to take the blame. He immediately grabbed the topic and smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry, the kings will not refuse to enter the capital. They are not afraid of your Majesty, but they are all ambitious and want to sit in that seat by themselves. How could they reach an agreement so quickly? Especially Qin, Jin, and Yan, before it is clear who is the leader of the alliance, how can you join forces? Your Majesty doesn't have to worry."

"What does it mean to sit in that seat? Ye Shangshu probably forgot that he was talking to His Majesty!" Qi Tai next to him grabbed Ye Tianming's grammatical affair and said coldly: "This is a ruthless statement. I think Ye Shangshu was not saying it wrong, but said it on purpose!"

"Shangshu Qi, now is not the time for us to have a gap within us. We should unite sincerely and share your worries for Your Majesty." Fang Xiaoru was quite sober and knew that there was no internal chaos now. He stood up and bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Ye Shangshu is right. It should be because they do not believe in Your Majesty and are afraid that Your Majesty will gather and kill him. I suggest that Your Majesty can issue an edict to ensure the safety of the vassal kings in the capital by edict. In this way, the crisis in front of you will be resolved."

Zhu Yunwen nodded, and he accepted the advice of Ye Tianming and Fang Xiaoru, "Okay! I will give them a guarantee according to the words of my two beloved ministers, but I also want them to know that I am a benevolent and righteous king. As long as they abide by the rules and regulations and do not have any improper thoughts, I will not make things difficult for them. On the contrary, they will also give their descendants a wealth and honor. Can you share my worries with me and tell my uncles separately?"

Zhu Yunwen did not want to reduce the vassals in recent years. He had to consolidate his throne first, hold the military power tightly, and slowly reduce the vassals when the conditions were ripe. Therefore, he had to reach a temporary compromise with several major uncles. Sending ordinary officials would not convince them, and it would be best if they were the four important officials in front of him.

"I am willing to share your worries for Your Majesty, and I am willing to talk about the two kings of Qin and Jin." Huang Zicheng spoke first, and then Fang Xiaoru also said: "I am willing to persuade King Yan and King Qi."

At this time, Qi Tai glanced at Ye Tianming and sneered: "Shangshu Ye is not going to persuade Li Weizheng!"

Even though Ye Tianming could tolerate it, he could not control himself. He stood up with a 'live', took two steps quickly, and knelt down in front of Zhu Yunwen, "Your Majesty, I have publicly declared two years ago that I have severed the relationship between my father-in-law and son-in-law with Li Weizheng. Although he married my two daughters, I will never recognize him as my son-in-law. I am aware of His loyalty to Your Majesty, and I beg Your Majesty not to be deceived by the words of villains and hurt Your Majesty's trust in me."

"Ye Tianming, who do you think is the villain!" Qi Tai was also angry.

"Don't quarrel, please don't argue." Zhu Yunwen has always had a headache about the conflict between Ye Tianming and Qi Tai. Both are his important officials, and one is his mentor. He is very embarrassed when he is caught in the middle. This bowl of water is not enough to be biased towards anyone at all.

"Let me do this! Let me get some assignment. Li Weizheng's side. I sent someone else to say that Shangshu Ye will persuade the two kings of Ning, Liao, and Shangshu Qi will talk to the Marquis of Xiping. I am very worried that he will be pulled into the water by Lan Yu."

Zhu Yunwen had decided that he would never summon Ye and Qi at the same time in the future, so as not to attack each other in front of him and make himself embarrassed.

Qi Tai bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am just for state affairs and have nothing to do with my personal grudges. Your Majesty Li Weizheng no longer needs to send anyone, I will talk to him."

Several important officials dispersed, Huang Zicheng walked around and came back, and the emperor just shook his eyes...

"Your Majesty, what should I discuss with you?"

Zhu Yunwen sighed and said, "Master, I feel very tired."

Seeing that he became his student again, Huang Zicheng felt a warm feeling in his heart, and comforted Zhu Yunwen and said, "Your Majesty, don't be so worried, because at the beginning, your mind is very messy, and you won't be so annoying when you slowly sort it out. I think the key is that Your Majesty cannot control the army, so he has no confidence and feels short of breath and worry."

"The master is right. I have no soldiers in my hands, so I am worried. In the last time of the Jinyiwei incident, Leng Qianqiu led hundreds of people all the way north, but no guard stopped them. This shows that the troops in various places were not really loyal to me. Once the vassal states were cut off, the situation would be worrying!"

Speaking of this, Zhu Yunwen pressed his temples, and a painful expression appeared on his face.

Huang Zicheng pondered and said slowly after a long time, "Maybe the layout of the army is a mistake for us. It is not a clever way to hand over all power to the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War is a literati. Letting the literati command the army makes Your Majesty feel ineffective. Moreover, the army is too scattered, and it is difficult to control by a Ministry of War directly facing hundreds of guards. I am not derogating Qi Tai. He is indeed inadequate in his ability to control the overall situation. Your Majesty, I have been thinking about this for a long time, and I want to propose a plan to innovate the army."

Huang Zicheng's words reached Zhu Yunwen's heart, and he hurriedly said, "Please tell me bluntly, I will definitely obey."

"Your Majesty, my plan is to follow the Tang system, with the capital as the main trunk and the local area as the branches and leaves, and concentrate the entire army in the capital and Fengyang, especially Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other coastal coastal areas to deploy a large number of troops to prevent Japanese troops. However, the Japanese pirates are now weak, and there is no need to deploy heavy troops on the coast. They can be transferred to Beijing and set up troops on the guards. They can be divided into several armies, with each army of 100,000 to 200,000. Then, experienced generals such as Li Jinglong, Xu Huizu, Xu Zengshou, Geng Bingwen, Zhang Yi, Gao Wei, Sheng Yong, etc., and directly serve as loyalty to Your Majesty. I have calculated that in this way, 1.5 million troops can be stationed in the capital and Fengyang area. With this one.5 million troops as the base, Your Majesty can train millions of troops in one or two years, so why worry about the overall situation."

Zhu Yunwen was already very moved, but he was still a little worried and asked again: "If all the troops were transferred to Beijing, the place would be empty, would the kings take the opportunity to expand?"

Huang Zicheng smiled and waved his hand and said, "Your Majesty did not understand what I mean. I have two.5 million troops in the Ming Dynasty, and there are five hundred thousand troops in the capital. In fact, I only transfer one million to the capital. This million is not the northern army. The northern army cannot move. It is jointly commanded by the commander and the governor to monitor the kings, or the commander of the Ministry of War. I refer to the troops of seven provinces including Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Huguang, Henan, Shandong, etc. They are far away from the vassal kings, so they can be transferred to the vicinity of the capital to deploy. In this way, the vassal states have daggers and the capital has iron fists. Whoever dares to move will attack. At most two years of preparation, Your Majesty can calmly reduce the vassal."

With a loud bang, Zhu Yunwen slapped the table, "What the master said is so true, I am allowed to report!"

Li Wei arrived in the capital on March 24th. Like the kings, he did not enter the capital, but lived in his home in the southwest of the capital. His three thousand troops were also stationed near his house and did not enter the military camp designated by the court. In fact, more than a dozen kings each brought their guards, and none of them entered the military camps of the court, but were deployed near the capital. Many vassal kings with good relations were connected. The king of Liao and Ning were stationed near Li Weizheng's house. With Li Weizheng's active mediation, the three of them had formed an offensive and defensive alliance, united to protect their own interests, and became an important force that cannot be ignored in the Ming Dynasty.

That afternoon, Li Wei was listening to Fang Lan's report. Fang Lan was indeed very capable. He made breakthroughs in what he told him. He also bought several eunuchs with some status in the palace. What made Li Wei Zheng satisfied was that Fang Lan found Qi Tai's weakness. However, what made Li Wei Zheng a little annoyed was that his father-in-law Ye Tianming once again stated in a public letter to sever his relationship with him, and pushed himself to the forefront. He didn't know that his doing so would make many people associate it, thinking that Zhu Yunwen was going to attack him, which would affect his plan. He really didn't understand why Ye Tianming did such an extreme action.

At this time, a personal soldier came to report: "Shangshu Qi is here and is waiting outside the palace."

Li Weizheng was stunned, but immediately smiled again. This morning he had received news. Zhu Yunwen issued a special edict to ensure the safety of the kings. He also pointed out his name Li Weizheng, which means that he also guaranteed his safety. He vaguely guessed the strategy of the court. Just as he thought, he would not reduce the vassal states for the time being, and stabilize the kings first, wait for the conditions to mature before taking action. Qi Tai came to him, just to explain this to him. Of course, since Qi Tai came, it means that Zhang Jie's chess piece worked.

"Open the door and welcome the Secretary of Qi!"

Li Weizheng immediately stood up and went out in person. Outside the mansion, Qi Tai was walking back and forth on the steps with his hands behind his back, and more than a hundred followers were waiting from afar. Indeed, Qi Tai took the initiative to find Li Weizheng this time, because his concubine advised him several times not to follow the crowd, and believed that Li Weizheng would rebel and leave a way out for himself. Maybe in the future, they would flee to Goryeo.

Although Qi Tai always believed that women should not interfere in politics, he himself privately agreed with his concubine's suggestion. In fact, he also knew that Li Weizheng was different from Lan Yu. Lan Yu clearly seized Guizhou and became independent. Li Weizheng's general of Liaodong, the Marquis of Dingliao, was appointed by the late emperor, and ordered him to attack Japanese pirates and take care of Goryeo and Jurchens. Although he refused to go to Beijing last time, he was also to avoid the evil actions of the late emperor. In fact, to a certain extent, Li Weizheng and Muchun, Yunnan are of the same nature, both territorial officials with military power.

The Xinhuang broke up with him and listened to his advice from Huang Zicheng. In fact, Qi Tai did not believe that Li Wei was willing to rebel. He was not a vassal king and had no personal interests with the Xinhuang. At most, he wanted to be the King of Goryeo, so he began to consider his retreat for himself. If the vassal was really defeated and he was taken away by the King of Qin or Yan, where could he escape? Hiding in any place in the Ming Dynasty would be reported. Goryeo is indeed a good place to go, and this is his consideration for self-interest.

For the sake of the public, as the master of the new emperor, Qi Tai also realized that the emperor should reconcile with Li Weizheng and win Li Weizheng to the court, so that he could not be gained by the King of Yan. Especially Li Weizheng and the two kings of Liaoning were obviously united, and Li Weizheng won Li Weizheng, which means he won more than 200,000 troops from three people. If the King of Yan rebelled, he could restrain him from going south.

It is precisely because of this idea of ​​public and private that Qi Tai deliberately aroused Ye Tianming and cut off the possibility of becoming Li Weizheng's contact person, but he came to seize this opportunity himself.

Qi Tai was thinking, the gate to Li Wei's mansion suddenly opened, and Li Wei was greeted with a smile, "There is no honor to be here, and welcoming you very much!"

Seeing that Li Wei was very polite and had a sincere smile, a little bit of his worry disappeared. He bowed and said with a smile: "General Li is polite. The Ministry of War has not taken good care of Liaodong. I will apologize!"

After saying that, he really saluted Li Weizheng. Li Weizheng hurriedly supported him and said solemnly: "Shangshu Qi must not do this. Liaodong is the Liaodong of the imperial court and has nothing to do with Li Weizheng."

Qi Tai's face showed a touch of emotion, "The emperor will be extremely relieved if General Li thinks this way. I am here today to talk to General Li on behalf of the emperor and eliminate some misunderstandings in the past."

Li Weizheng sighed slightly, and he took out a white silk from his arms and said, "I have never understood why the emperor is suspicious of me. I, Li Wei, are the ones who remember my kindness. This white silk is the last order of the crown prince. I always keep it by my side and dare not forget it for a moment. Please give it to the emperor for me. Please believe that Liaodong has always been the Liaodong of the court. It was the last, and it will still be in the future."

Qi Tai took the white silk and couldn't help but show a hint of shame in his eyes. He also said sincerely: "In the past, General Li was from the Jinyiwei and had no professional knowledge, so I always looked down on the adults. But the facts proved that I was wrong. A true loyal man has nothing to do with studying. I am willing to talk to the adults in detail to eliminate our past misunderstandings. I don't know if the adults are willing to let me enter this door."

"Shangshu Qi, please!"
Chapter completed!