Chapter 475: Everyone underestimated the royal heritage and Chongzhen
"Duke Wei, how is the reorganization of the Beijing Camp going?"
The Imperial Study in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, in the Imperial City of Nanjing.
Because of the backlash of the decline in national fortune, Emperor Chongzhen, with gray hair and wrinkles on his forehead, sat upright on the dragon throne and asked Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, who was in front of him.
"Reporting to His Majesty, the 300,000 warriors of the Capital Camp have been selected and are currently undergoing daily training in the military camp."
Xu Hongji reported solemnly, "In a year at most, the reorganized soldiers of the Beijing Camp will be ready to serve Your Majesty."
Compared with Duke Cheng Zhu Chunchen, Duke Wei Xu Hongji is superior in many aspects.
After the Ming Dynasty court moved south to Nanjing, Emperor Chongzhen, after much reflection, finally realized that it would be impossible to succeed without sufficient military force to intimidate his ministers.
After months of calculations and exchanges of interests, he took back the control of the Beijing Camp from Duke Cheng Zhu Chunchen and handed it over to Duke Wei Xu Hongji, thus diluting Zhu Chunchen's all-powerful power in the city of Jinling.
The reason why Emperor Chongzhen was able to do all this was that he agreed to Zhu Chunchen's proposal to let Liu Zeqing serve as one of the generals of the four newly established towns.
Today, with the full support of Duke Chengguo Zhu Chunchen, Liu Zeqing is in a high position of power.
Not only did he serve as the Governor-General of Lianghuai, he also controlled million soldiers.
Although most of these soldiers are new recruits at the first level of warriors, it cannot be denied that Liu Zeqing has become one of the new elites of the current Southern Ming Dynasty.
No matter what, the Duke of Wei's Mansion, which strictly abides by the ancestral teachings and lives and dies with the country, is more loyal to the royal family than Duke Cheng Zhu Chunchen.
Of course, when it comes to loyalty, Duke Yingguo Zhang Zhiji is much stronger than Zhu Chunchen and Xu Hongji.
However, Duke of England Zhang Zhiji had lost power after the death of the previous Duke of England Zhang Weixian, especially after the Ming court moved south to Nanjing, and was severely suppressed by the faction of Duke Chengguo Zhu Chunchen.
Even if Emperor Chongzhen wanted to support the lineage of Duke Yingguo, he was unable to do so.
After all, the aristocratic families in Jiangnan were too powerful, and the successive Dukes of England who refused to go along with them were certainly not well received by the other side.
The only top dignitaries they would cooperate with are Zhu Chunchen, Duke of Cheng, who is only interested in personal gain and has no loyalty to the emperor or patriotism, and Xu Hongji, Duke of Wei, who is good at making friends and changing his attitude according to the situation.
Today, the Duke of Yingguo's Mansion has almost completely retreated to the second line. Emperor Chongzhen has no choice but to support Duke Wei Xu Hongji to compete with Duke Cheng Zhu Chunchen to prevent them from dominating the city of Jinling.
Ever since the Ming Dynasty moved its capital south to Nanjing, the already weak imperial power has become even weaker as Nanjing is the base camp of the Jiangnan aristocratic families.
It can be said that the Zhu royal family has almost become a decoration and no longer has much weight.
In the past, the aristocratic families, officials, gentry and dignitaries had to cover up their actions, but now even this step is skipped.
All court meetings, big and small, became a time for civil and military officials to divide up the benefits.
Emperor Chongzhen was certainly not stupid. He was just deceived by everyone in the past and got used to being fooled.
But no matter what, he still has some people who are willing to serve him.
For example, most of the eunuchs and the 30,000 elite soldiers of the Yongwei Camp.
The Yongwei Battalion, led by Zhou Yuji and his wife, may not have many people, but its combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated.
Emperor Chongzhen, who recognized the reality and reflected upon it, showed much like the ancient wise king Goujian, who slept on firewood and tasted gall.
He took advantage of Duke Wei Xu Hongji's ability to please everyone and began to try to save himself.
One of his moves was to employ Xu Hongji to reorganize the Beijing camp.
"Duke Wei, the rebel Li Dingguo in the north is now powerful. I want to kill him, but unfortunately I am powerless."
Emperor Chongzhen lamented with a sad face, "I have been unable to sleep or eat well recently. I want to increase the number of people in the Yongwei Battalion led by Zhou Yuji, at least to ensure the safety of the imperial city."
"After much deliberation, I have decided to select 70,000 soldiers from the 300,000 new recruits from the Beijing Camp to supplement the Brave Guard Camp."
"As for the size of the Beijing Camp, I can give you an order to allow you to secretly expand it to 500,000 soldiers. What do you think?"
He knew very well that if Xu Hongji, the insatiable Duke of Wei, agreed to his demands, he would have to exchange benefits for them.
He was being watched too closely by various forces. If he expanded the Yongwei Camp in the conventional way, the civil and military officials in the court would definitely not agree.
Only by bribing Duke Wei can he achieve his goal.
"Let Zhou Yuji go to the newly reorganized Beijing Camp and pick out 70,000 new warriors?"
Xu Hongji was stunned at first, and then he was overjoyed when he heard His Majesty propose to expand the Beijing camp to 500,000 combat troops.
As the richest and most powerful person in the Ming Dynasty, he could easily support not only 500,000 soldiers, but even a million soldiers.
In the past, they were restricted by various means and could not legitimately expand their military power.
In the past, his position as the commander-in-chief of the Five Armies Commandery was just a title. The court allowed him to control no more than 50,000 soldiers, which was a huge gap compared to the position of the Grand Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies in the northern capital.
Now that the imperial court has moved south, the two capitals have been merged into one, and the Five Military Commission and the Beijing Camp have become the only two military forces in Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
As the new commander-in-chief of the Beijing Camp, he is no longer a figurehead, but a person of real power and authority.
He was ordered to reorganize the Beijing Camp. Although he knew that the little money and food allocated by the court was not enough to support 300,000 soldiers in the Beijing Camp, let alone expand the army to 500,000?
But the imperial court had no money, while the Duke of Wei's Mansion, which had been passed down for thousands of years, had plenty of money and grain, which they could not spend all. They had no worries about not being able to support 500,000 soldiers, and could even easily arm them to the teeth.
The current chaotic world is in a complete mess, and the military force in one's hands has become the confidence of all forces.
Duke of Wei Xu Hongji was just greedy, but not stupid. How could he not know the purpose of the transaction proposed by His Majesty? It was extremely tempting.
Even with this deal premise, he first agreed to let the commander of the Yongwei Camp, Zhou Yuji, pick out 70,000 elite warriors from his 300,000 new recruits, but in return he got 500,000 quota places in the Beijing Camp.
Anyway, with the financial and material resources of the Duke of Wei's Mansion, as well as the large population of Jiangnan, it would be easy to select hundreds of thousands of new soldiers as long as there were legitimate reasons.
From this perspective, agreeing to Zhou Yuji's transfer of 70,000 elite recruits to the Beijing camp was not a big deal at all.
What's more, the 100,000 brave guards under the personal control of His Majesty are only useful for protecting the royal family, but if they want to do anything else, it will still be a joke.
"Your Majesty, I have no objection. Your Majesty can make the final decision."
In a flash, Duke of Wei Xu Hongji had already thought through the pros and cons, and was delighted. He immediately accepted the order and said.
Now the contradiction between the royal family and various forces has been laid bare.
The civil and military officials representing various aristocratic families have been vying for power and profit lately and are too lazy to even pretend. They do not take the emperor seriously at all and only regard him as a mascot.
The sky of Jiangnan belongs to these great Jiangnan families. They have great control over it and no one can make any waves, not even Emperor Chongzhen.
If they felt threatened by Emperor Chongzhen, they would not mind replacing him with an obedient emperor. In fact, in recent months, some civil and military officials have discussed whether to depose Chongzhen and support the lustful and timid Prince Fu to take the throne.
It was just that they did not put it into action because they saw that Chongzhen had become very sensible.
"it is good!"
Emperor Chongzhen was secretly delighted and said to Xu Hongji, "My dear minister, please go back for now. Tomorrow morning, I will send Wang Chengen with the imperial edict to go to the Duke of Wei's Mansion with General Zhou Yuji, and go to the Beijing Camp to select 70,000 new soldiers."
When Xu Hongji left, there were no more strangers in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Chongzhen's face changed, his eyes became extremely cold, and he sat on the dragon chair and said to himself, "Haha..."
"All of you civil and military officials can be killed!"
"Do you think that the throne of our Zhu family was picked up?"
"If he didn't have a few trump cards, how could the old man Taizu reach the supreme position?"
"Originally I couldn't make up my mind whether to give it a try, but now it seems that it is imperative!"
Since going south to the Yangtze River Delta, after seeing the true faces of those civil and military officials and aristocratic families, Emperor Chongzhen's hatred for these traitors even exceeded his hatred for Li Dingguo!
If it weren't for the evil deeds of these traitors, how could there be chaos in the world?
If there had not been chaos in the country, there would not have been common people rising up in rebellion, and naturally there would not have been traitors like Li Dingguo, Gao Yingxiang, and Li Zicheng who were so powerful and difficult to control.
Ultimately, these traitors and aristocratic families within the Ming Dynasty are the real culprits.
He stood up with an indifferent look on his face, walked to a secret room near the study that was specially used for the emperor's training, closed the door, activated the protective magic circle, sat cross-legged on the ground, and took out a small blood-red palace from his arms.
Everyone in the world believed that Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was invincible and that he conquered the country single-handedly, relying entirely on his natal artifact, the Haotian Tower.
In fact, Taizu not only obtained the Haotian Tower, but also a natal artifact, the Wushen Temple, which had never been revealed to the public.
It was precisely because of the little bit of the Witch God's blood remaining in the blood pool in the Witch God Temple that Taizu was able to transform from a cowherd to a powerful man in the early stage of the Spirit Refining Realm in a short period of time and suppress an entire era.
It's a pity that it became the blood of God, and it was also the blood of God that led to my failure.
The divine blood made Zhu Taizu invincible, but it also caused him to die unwillingly a hundred years after he ascended the throne, as his body could no longer withstand the backlash of the divine blood.
Before he died, he used his life as a sacrifice to seal the Temple of the Witch God, and left a family precept that no descendant of his generation could open the Temple of the Witch God unless they were in danger of the country being destroyed and had no other options. Only then could they attempt to open the Temple.
However, during the Battle of Tumu, the imperial palace was in chaos, causing the Temple of the God of Witches to disappear, leaving only the ancestral precepts that have been passed down to this day.
The reason why Emperor Chongzhen was able to obtain this artifact was that he picked it up in the corner of the bottom shelf when he was moving the books in the Qianqing Palace in the imperial city.
He also couldn't have imagined that the Witch Temple, the legendary artifact that had been stolen for a long time, would return to his hands in this way.
Emperor Chongzhen was still hesitant about the huge risks emphasized in the ancestral teachings.
But after the capital was moved south to Nanjing, the civil and military officials in the court and those aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River were too lazy to even pretend and completely ignored him, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty!
How could the always arrogant Emperor Chongzhen tolerate this?
He had no other options left, so he decided to give it a try. If he failed, he would die!
If things continue like this, the Ming Dynasty won’t survive for long.
Either he would be killed by corrupt officials, or he would be destroyed by Li Dingguo. There was no third way.
"puff!"
Chongzhen no longer hesitated, and the triple peak warrior's qi and blood in his body reversed, forcing out a drop of his own blood essence, which fell on the blood-colored palace in his hand.
This is the only way passed down by our ancestors to break the seal of this divine weapon and make it recognize its master.
And he must be the contemporary Ming emperor.
This is the last trump card that Zhu's ancestor left for his descendants in a special way. Naturally, he would not let this inherited artifact fall into the hands of others and be able to use it normally.
As long as one's cultivation level does not exceed the peak of the early stage of the Spirit Refining Realm before Taizu's death, he will not be able to use other means to break the seal he set.
Any practitioner who attempts to break the seal by forcing himself to do so will be immediately killed by the full-strength attack that Taizu left at the Witch God Temple!
Even the current Li Dingguo cannot withstand attacks of this magnitude, let alone other practitioners in the world today.
After all, the full-strength attack of a peak powerhouse in the early stage of the Spirit Refining Realm far exceeds that of a powerhouse in the Qi Refining Realm.
As Emperor Chongzhen's life essence and blood were absorbed by this mini blood-red palace, an extremely rich blood-red light flashed out and enveloped Chongzhen's entire body.
"Whoosh!"
In an instant, the blood-colored light disappeared without a trace, and the figure of Emperor Chongzhen also disappeared. The Wushen Temple, which had been unsealed, turned into a speck of dust and fell to the ground, disappearing without a trace.
"This... is this the interior space of the artifact left by Elder Taizu?"
Chongzhen, with a pale face, found himself inside a huge blood-red hall.
Looking at the interior space of this divine weapon which was a hundred miles in radius, he couldn't help but be shocked.
Chongzhen's health was not good to begin with, and he had just lost a drop of his lifeblood, so his figure was a little shaky.
Surrounding this hall, there are large amounts of gold, silver, treasures, various top-level cultivation resources, magic cores, soul beads and other supplies, and even several small hills made of spirit stones, which made Chongzhen feel dizzy.
There were so many spirit stones, treasures, and various cultivation resources, the quantity was beyond imagination. Where had he seen them before?
According to conservative estimates, even with the annual treasury revenue of the current Ming Dynasty, it would take at least a thousand years of accumulation to raise this much.
What shocked Emperor Chongzhen even more was that in the middle of the hall was a small pool of blood.
Although it is not big, it is still nine zhang in radius.
The blood pool had dried up, except for a face-sized drop of blood in the middle, which exuded a terrifying aura of oppression.
If he hadn't been protected by the country's destiny, he would have been crushed to the ground.
"Is this the last bit of divine blood that Taizu used to transform himself and rise against the heavens?"
Chongzhen was overjoyed to have discovered the cultivation treasure mentioned in the last words of the old man Taizu. He quickly strode forward and walked towards the target with a very determined look on his face...
(End of this chapter)
