Chapter 350 The porter Xu
Guo of the Ming Dynasty also acted very quickly. Although the emperor and King Yu fled and took away a lot of food respectively, because they fled in a hurry, they did not have time to take away most of the food from the capital.
Especially for the sake of safety, Emperor Jiajing took away the red-helmeted imperial guards and the elites of the Beijing camp. Among the 10,000 people, except for the imperial guards who were notified earlier and brought ten days of rations, the soldiers of the Beijing camp could only bring them with them in a hurry. Three days of food rations.
Xu Guo used to work in Taipu Temple, but after all, he was a Hanlin official and had access to the court's confidential regulations. He was also familiar with the affairs of the Ministry of Household and Ministry of Works.
Su Ze appointed Xu Guo as the ambassador to the Governor-General's Office in Cangchang, with overall responsibility for the capital's food work.
The first thing Xu Guo controlled was the largest granary near the capital, also known as "Taicang". When he led his troops there, some soldiers from the capital camp had already surrounded the granary and were preparing to rob it.
But after the chaos in the capital, a household head named Zhang Shirui immediately rushed to the granary outside the city. Under the command of the Ministry of Commerce, he controlled the soldiers guarding the granary and was confronting these rebels.
Xu Guo immediately asked the soldiers around him to step forward, defeated the rebel soldiers besieging the granary, and rescued Zhang Shirui.
Zhang Shirui was just the head of a small household department, but he had such insight. The Ming Dynasty did not lack capable bureaucrats, it just lacked the eyes to appreciate them.
Xu Guo immediately said:
"Master Zhang has done a great job, I will report the merit to you immediately."
Zhang Shirui looked happy.
Xu Guo quickly asked: "How is the situation in the granary?"
Zhang Shirui said: "It's not good. In addition to the four gate granaries in the imperial city, there are 11 granaries in Beijing, including the old Taicang, the new Taicang, and the water transport granary. There are 15 official granaries in total. , there are 67 guard warehouses (i.e. army granaries), and there are 4 granaries in Tongzhou."
Hearing what Zhang Shirui said, Xu Guo knew that he was knowledgeable and immediately asked: "What is the condition of these granaries?"
Zhang Shirui said : "Because there are too many warehouses in the old and new Taicang, there is still food. The four gate warehouses in the imperial city were attacked by the rebels and have already fallen. I am afraid there is not much food left now. The water transport warehouses have long been exhausted to support the border troops going south. As for the guards, Those warehouses have never been filled, and the Beijing camp had taken them all away when they left."
The situation was more serious than Xu Guo imagined. He immediately asked his men to occupy the old Taicang, and then asked Zhang Shirui:
" Where is the Tongzhou Granary?"
Zhang Shirui immediately said: "There is grain in the Tongzhou Granary! In addition, there are private warehouses of large grain merchants outside the city. I wonder if the Governor has any orders?" Xu Guo immediately said: "The Governor gave me a warrant, and the capital
city All the private granaries outside are confiscated!"
Zhang Shirui said immediately: "Then please Master Xu and I will take over these granaries quickly!" The
owners behind these private granaries are all dignitaries of the capital.
Now the dignitaries of these capitals have fled, and these private granaries have also fallen into chaos.
Some of the guards who guarded the granary were on the lookout for theft, and the minions and slaves of the powerful, who knew about the granary, also went out of the city to rob it.
But these were ordinary gangsters. Faced with the cannonballs of the New Army soldiers, order was quickly restored in these private granaries.
Xu Guo was also very decisive. After taking over these granaries, he transported part of the grain to the capital camp. In addition to being used as rations for the new army, the remaining grain was loaded in carts and transported from the gate to the capital city.
The officials on Wang Xijue's list were indeed capable. Those gangsters who took the lead in making trouble were sent to the prison of Shuntian Mansion. Some of the rebels with bloody hands were directly sentenced to beheading by Wang Xijue. When the sun was about to set, the security of the capital was very good. About to be pushed down.
At this time, Xu Guo escorted the grain into the city, and then Su Ze announced the distribution of rations in the capital with the order of the Governor's Office.
The grain stores of these grain merchants have been requisitioned, starting with mills. People who need rations will register at the office of each mill tomorrow, and rations will be distributed on a household basis.
Then Wang Xijue asked Su Ze for manpower. Registration naturally required a large number of people who could write and calculate, but this was not a problem in the capital.
The capital had a large literate population, as well as the Imperial College and a large number of grassroots officials. Su Ze rewarded them with more rations and allowed them to work anonymously.
Seeing the state of public security in the capital, some scholars stood up and were willing to work for Su Ze. Su Ze packed them all and handed them over to Wang Xijue, and these personnel were assigned to various offices.
By distributing rations and registering them, Su Ze quickly grasped the approximate population of the capital. After obtaining the rations, the security of the capital quickly improved.
On April 22, Su Ze's army entered the capital. On April 25, the unrest in the capital had been suppressed, and Su Ze began to lead people to sort out the treasury of the Ming Dynasty.
Su Ze only took away valuable gold and silver from the imperial treasury, not jewelry or other items. His main target was the archives of various yamen of the Ming court.
All these materials were packaged and shipped southward to Tianjin through the North Canal, and then transported from Dagu Port to the warships of the Southeast New Army.
Under the leadership of Wang Xijue and Xu Guo, Su Ze entered the palace. He did not search Emperor Jiajing's inner treasury, but went directly to the Hanlin Academy.
The Hanlin Academy was located inside the imperial city, and the Hanlin Academy was originally a Hanlin official belonging to the inner court.
Most of the Hanlin officials were taken away by King Yu, and there were only a few eunuchs guarding the Hanlin Academy. Su Ze quickly entered the Hanlin Academy. When he saw the Hanlin Academy's collection of books, he immediately said to the soldiers around him. : "All books and files, pack them up and take them away!"
Su Ze called to a eunuch guarding the door and asked: "Where is the "Yongle Dadian"?" "
Go back to the Governor, the "Yongle Dadian" is in Wenyuan Pavilion.
" "Yongle Dadian" is actually divided into original copies. The original is hidden in the Wenyuan Pavilion of the Nanjing Imperial Palace, while the copies are stored in the Capital Palace.
However, after Su Ze conquered Nanjing, he did not find the original copy of the "Yongle Dadian" in the Wenyuan Pavilion of Nanjing. After asking Nanjing officials, he found out that it was because of the previous fire in the three main halls that the copy of the "Yongle Dadian" in the Wenyuan Pavilion of the capital was destroyed. After the fire burned down, Emperor Jiajing ordered Nanjing to send the original copy to the capital for copying.
However, before these works could be carried out, various wars were encountered, and even the construction of the three main halls was suspended. The original copy of "Yongle Dadian" was stored in Wenyuan Pavilion in the Forbidden City.
Su Ze immediately asked the eunuch to lead the way and opened the door of Wenyuan Pavilion. When he saw the "Yongle Dadian" piled up like a mountain, Su Ze said with joy: "Come here!
Move all the "Yongle Dadian"! One volume "
Yongle Dadian" is a collection of ancient Chinese classics compiled by Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Jie Jin, Yao Guangxiao and others during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. It was originally called "The Dacheng of Documents". Later, Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty wrote the preface himself and gave it the name "Yongle Dadian". There are 22,877 volumes in the book (60 volumes in the catalog, a total of 22,937 volumes), 11,095 volumes, and about 370 million words. It brings together 7,000 to 8,000 ancient and modern books.
In the first year of Yongle (AD 1403), Zhu Di determined to write a masterpiece to demonstrate the country's prestige and benefit all generations. The purpose is to "collect all the books on classics and history from hundreds of schools since the time of the Deed, and compile them into one book on astronomy, geographies, yin and yang, medical divination, monks' Taoism, and craftsmanship."
The contents of "Yongle Dadian" include classics, histories, chapters, and collections, involving astronomy and geography, yin and yang medicine, divination, interpretation of Taoist scriptures, drama, crafts, and agriculture, covering thousands of years of knowledge wealth of the Chinese nation.
For Su Ze, the biggest gain in the capital is this encyclopedia!
In fact, last year, someone from the Nanjing Imperial College wrote a letter requesting the imperial court to open the "Yongle Dadian" and print part of it as a book against the new learning. But the emperor was naturally unwilling, and the matter went nowhere.
Su Ze called in his personal guards to personally supervise the transportation of the "Yongle Dadian" and formulated strict transportation and handling procedures to ensure that these books could be transported back to the southeast.
He called the eunuch again and asked: "Where is the history of the country?"
The eunuch immediately said: "The history of the country is in the National History Museum in Chongwen Hall."
"Take me there quickly!"
The history of the country is a history book. He is a historical researcher. Of course he knows the preciousness of historical data.
Fortunately, the emperor and Prince Yu left the capital in a hurry, and Su Ze took over the capital quickly, so these things were not destroyed.
Arriving at the National History Museum, Su Ze immediately saw several panicked historians and a huge warehouse storing national history.
The sky creates water, and black represents water, so the roofs of the buildings housing the books are all black glazed tiles.
The Chongwen Museum and the National History Museum also had a solemn black roof. Su Ze saw rows of history books.
This includes the daily notes of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the "Records" of each emperor compiled based on the daily notes.
However, the work of compiling history in the Ming Dynasty was very slow. The actual records of the Jiajing period were only revised until the Zhengtong year, and the subsequent actual records were not revised until the Wanli period.
These are first-hand historical materials of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, Su Ze would not let them go and immediately ordered all these national histories to be packed away!
Su Ze called another historian and asked:
"Where is the history of the Yuan Dynasty? Where are the history books of the Song, Liao, Jin, and Xia dynasties?"
All dynasties have the habit of compiling histories for previous dynasties. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the great scholars Song Lian and Wang Ye to follow the imperial edict. Order, in charge of editing.
In addition, Tuotuo, the prime minister of the Yuan Dynasty, also compiled the history books of the Song Dynasty in Dadu (the capital of Yuan Dynasty).
However, the history books of the Song Dynasty are composed of Song History, Liao History, and Jin History, and they also have very high historical research value.
The historian immediately said: "It is also hidden in the history museum. Please come with me, Governor."
The group came to another warehouse and opened the locked warehouse. Su Ze saw the volumes of history books. He immediately waved and said: "Take them all away!"
Except for the "Yongle Ceremony", relevant memorials from the Hanlin Academy, and the history books in the history museum, Su Ze was not interested in anything else in the palace.
He ordered the eunuchs who stayed behind to seal up the palace, and then led his troops to leave the palace without any intention of visiting the palace.
The eunuchs left behind in the palace were basically frustrated young eunuchs. These eunuchs were originally ready to seek refuge with Su Ze, but they found that Su Ze had no interest in the palace at all.
Instead, these eunuchs were a little at a loss.
The last eunuch who had served under Eunuch Hu asked to see Su Ze.
The eunuch’s surname was Wang. He was sent to Yeting because of Eunuch Hu’s involvement. When he saw Su Ze, he immediately knelt down and bowed. After Su Ze asked him to stand up, Eunuch Wang asked cautiously: "Grand Governor, since
that faint king fled west After that, I would like to ask the Grand Governor to decide how to deal with the remaining eunuchs and maids in the palace."
Su Ze put down the "Yongle Dadian" in his hand and said:
"Our army has issued a notice. As long as the eunuchs and maids in the palace are not evil, Anyone who can do it can be released from the palace, and your belongings in the palace can be taken away."
Eunuch Wang said cautiously: "We eunuchs and maids are used to serving others, and maids can still match others. We eunuchs But what should we do? Please ask the Governor to give us a way out."
Su Ze looked at Eunuch Wang and said: "You have hands and feet, so why don't you have a way out? I know what you are thinking, it is nothing more than to welcome the Forbidden City. A new master, let the new master continue to suck the blood and marrow of the common people like the Zhu Ming royal family, and you will still make a living on the new master."
Su Ze's words were very serious, and Eunuch Wang knelt down again and said: "Servant I don't dare!"
Su Ze said: "The people of the capital can live, and so can the eunuchs and maids. The governor's office has issued an order to take out the land of the imperial palace and the dignitaries of the capital and grant it to the people near the capital." Eunuch Wang was shocked
. It is not that there is no land near the capital, but most of the good land has become the land of emperors or powerful people.
I didn't expect that Su Ze would take out these fields and give them to the people. This step was too cruel!
The people got the land. Since the emperor returned to the capital, the people had to resist the emperor and take back the land for the sake of the land.
Eunuch Wang looked at Su Ze in horror, only to hear Su Ze continue:
"Eunuchs in the palace are also granted land according to the standards of men. Unmarried palace maids are granted land at half the rate. After marriage, land is granted per household."
Su Ze He continued: "You go back to the palace and bring up the list of eunuchs and maids who are willing to accept the land grant. If you are not willing, you can continue to live in the palace."
After saying this, Su Ze directly asked people to see the guests off.
Just when Su Ze was busy calming people in the capital and carrying the documents from the capital onto the ship.
On April 28, Prince Yu, the crown prince, rushed all the way to Yanqing. With the assistance of Gao Gong, he summoned the troops around Yanqing.
Yanqing is an important town northwest of the capital. In order to defend against the nomads in the north, the Ming court set up three guards in Yanqing.
The Yanqing Guard's combat effectiveness was pretty good. It originally had 30,000 troops, including 3,000 cavalry on the Yanqing Right Guard.
However, Yang Bo took away 5,000 people. The commander of the Yanqing Guards, Mao Wenzhao, was a descendant of Mao Xiang, the first commander of the Jinyi Guards in the early years of Hongwu.
King Yu took the seal of the Prince of the Supervisory State, and with the help of Gao Gong, and the gold, silver and jewels he brought as rewards, he quickly took control of the Yanqing Guard.
With soldiers in hand, King Yu finally felt a sense of security. When Gao Gong returned to the temporary palace after a busy day, King Yu immediately summoned Gao Gong.
"Master Gao, are we going to continue to the west?"
Gao Gong nodded and said: "Xuanfu is an important town on the nine borders, and there is an elite cavalry remaining on the border. In addition, Datong is the place where the imperial court and Anda trade. The cavalry from the north provides war horses. As long as His Highness can control Xuanfu Datong, there is a chance to recapture the capital!"
(End of Chapter)