Chapter 187: Heart full of anger

"Jiang Tu's matter will be discussed later."

Emperor Taixing didn't even want his face, publicly expressing that he was determined to protect Jiang Tu. Whoever mentioned Jiang Tu, whoever made things difficult for Jiang Tu, was making things difficult for him.

This attitude... made the officials present very cold-hearted.

His Majesty is old and confused!

Dim-witted!

Dim-witted monarch!

It would be better to let the Crown Prince come forward to supervise the country, and the old Emperor would rest assured in the Taiji Palace to practice Daoism and seek longevity. Perfect!

Unfortunately, the old Emperor was reluctant to let go of power, and even wanted to take back the power in the Crown Prince's hands. In the past, he still let the Crown Prince ask about politics, but now he moved to find an excuse to confine the Crown Prince, prohibiting the Crown Prince from contacting foreign officials, thus cutting off the possibility of the Crown Prince asking about politics.

Simply absurd!

Guarding against the Crown Prince to such a degree, many officials were worried, fearing that unspeakable things would happen.

Unfortunately, the Crown Prince was also becoming more and more licentious, and his actions were becoming more and more frantic, with a momentum of breaking the jar. Some people said that the Crown Prince did this to make the old Emperor feel at ease.

However, in this way, the old Emperor had more reasons to dislike the Crown Prince for not being serious.

In short, everything had two sides, advantages and disadvantages. Being suppressed and confined, if the Crown Prince showed that his ambition remained unchanged and still actively made suggestions, I am afraid the old Emperor wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully, and would face greater suppression.

Appearing a bit absurd, at least the old Emperor's guard against the Crown Prince might be relaxed, and occasionally, when his conscience was discovered, he would still let people send some memorials to the Eastern Palace, letting the Crown Prince express his views on the memorials.

Every time the old Emperor defended Jiang Tu, the court officials would have the rebellious idea of letting the Crown Prince take his place. If someone instigated the Crown Prince to seize power at this time, I am afraid there would be many followers.

It's just that no one dared to come forward. Even if someone came forward, the Crown Prince probably didn't have the courage to take this step. Even if he had the courage to take this step, the Forbidden Army was not a vegetarian. The Commander of the Forbidden Army was the loyal hunting dog of the old Emperor; don't forget the Imperial Horse Supervisor, which also had thousands of soldiers, all of whom were the old Emperor's people.

The old Emperor had no sense of security, so he cared more about the defense of the Imperial Palace than anything else. In key positions, he placed people he could trust.

Last year, taking advantage of the Jinzhou rebels' disturbance, he also replaced the people of the Military Horse Division, all of whom were replaced by people the old Emperor considered reliable.

All-round locked the Imperial Palace and the capital, and no one could turn over any waves.

Helpless!

Unless, unless one could invite a ninth-rank martial artist, or even a Grandmaster martial artist to come forward.

A Grandmaster was worth ten thousand troops.

However, Grandmasters belonged to scarce resources.

It is said that there were Grandmaster martial artists in the palace, but they were still the old Emperor's people.

The talents available to the Crown Prince were still too few. Unable to compete with the old Emperor.

The officials had no choice but to continue to endure the crazy old Emperor.

It was fine to protect Jiang Tu, but pay money.

The court officials united to force the old Emperor to bleed, not only to transport materials and rewards to the Jinzhou pacification army, but also to pay the salaries of the capital officials in the capital. Not to mention paying all of them, paying three or five months was always necessary.

Otherwise, Jiang Tu must die!

The court officials united, especially when the two Prime Ministers also publicly expressed their positions, the power was terrifying, and even the old Emperor who had mastered the court for decades could not ignore it.

The old Emperor was anxious and smashed his most precious whisk.

Forcing him to pay money was equivalent to cutting his meat. Jiang Tu helped him make money in the front, and had to stick the money out in the back; this was unreasonable!

Dare to say that the court officials were all staring at his money bag, not willing to let him have a peaceful day.

"Can taxes be increased?"

"No! There was a flood in the south last year, and a drought in the north this year. The people are miserable, I hope Your Majesty will understand."

"Is there any other way?"

"There is no other way for now. Unless Your Majesty is willing to share half of the mining tax with the Ministry of Revenue."

Absurd!

Talking and talking, they were still thinking about his small treasury.

The crowd of officials was surging, and the old Emperor had to retreat.

Both sides fought for several days, back and forth, dividing interests, dividing power, various personnel changes, and the old Emperor finally was willing to take money out of his small treasury to subsidize the Ministry of Revenue.

Afterward, the Ministry of War hurriedly transported materials and silver to Jinzhou. The supplies were halfway there, and news came from Jinzhou that Marquis Pingjiang, leading the pacification army, had a siege battle that lasted for half a month and finally successfully captured the city.

Killing over ten thousand rebels, capturing tens of thousands, a great victory!

It was just a pity that the rebel Great Ming King and the rebel elite infantry and cavalry escaped.

However, they captured the sworn brother of the rebel Great Ming King, the third-ranked figure of the rebels, which was enough to make the old Emperor smile. Perhaps the previous harm to the Li family manor could also be handled lightly.

The victory report reached the capital, and the Taiji Palace, which had been gloomy for several days, finally heard laughter.

The old Emperor changed his stingy and mean attitude and demanded a heavy reward for Marquis Pingjiang.

"Chen Qingzhi is not very good at doing things in the court, but he is still very good at fighting. This time, he can be considered to have completely solved the Jinzhou rebels. It's just a pity that the Great Ming King and his group escaped."

"The Holy Lord is in power, so there is this great victory. Marquis Pingjiang's great victory is all thanks to Your Majesty."

"Hahaha..." The old Emperor was very happy and liked to hear people flatter him. "Pass the order down, send the sworn brother of the Great Ming King to the capital, and cut him into a thousand pieces. I want the world to see what the end of killing officials and rebelling is. See if anyone dares to rebel in the future!"

The old Emperor was full of killing intent.

Qiu Defu bowed and accepted the order.

The rebel leaders captured this time were more than just one sworn brother; among tens of thousands of prisoners, there were hundreds of leaders of all sizes. How to deal with these prisoners, the old Emperor spoke, the primary rebels must be beheaded, and the rest of the rebels should be identified, those who should be beheaded should be beheaded, and those who should be recruited should be recruited.

The old Emperor's meaning was to kill until heads rolled, killing until the ordinary people at the bottom dared not rebel.

Marquis Pingjiang was actually full of anger, although everyone was surrounding him and flattering him, saying how good this battle was and how well-commanded it was.

According to his deployment, as long as the soldiers obeyed orders, the Great Ming King would have no chance to escape at all. The court army could completely annihilate the rebels in one fell swoop, and Jinzhou would be peaceful from then on.

He bought off the traitors among the rebels, and with so many traitors inside the rebels cooperating, the result was still that the Great Ming King escaped, and the elite infantry and cavalry escaped. It was equivalent to the rebels being defeated, but the core was still there, and the foundation was still there. Just pull up a group of people, and they could make a comeback in the blink of an eye.

Damn it, such a perfect tactical layout, and with traitors inside and outside, the result was that the battle was fought into this ghost appearance, only capturing a sworn brother of the Great Ming King and tens of thousands of mobs; what kind of victory was this? It was nothing more than looking good on the face.

The Great Ming King was still there, and the elite infantry and cavalry were still there. At this time, talking about annihilating the Jinzhou rebels in one fell swoop was too early. The war in Jinzhou still had repetitions!

Marquis Pingjiang looked at the rolling mountains, his heart very melancholy.

He knew that his mission to pacify the rebels in Jinzhou was completed, and he would soon return to the capital. The old Emperor would not allow him to stay in Jinzhou for a long time and truly control such an army with combat effectiveness.

As for the Jinzhou rebels making a comeback, it was no longer his turn to worry.

If the court officials were more efficient and transported materials and rewards in time, the situation of soldiers not listening to orders wouldn't have appeared.

He understood politics!

According to his past temper, if they dared not listen to orders, he would have beheaded them long ago. Now, he submitted a memorial, asking the court to deal with it. ===== CHAPTER 188 =====