Chapter 2816 2818 [Falling flowers and flowing water]

  The Qianlong envoy was transferred to Jinyiwei, and after turning from darkness to light, his strength expanded rapidly.

  Before, the number of people was only 3,000, but then the number expanded rapidly, reaching more than 20,000.

   And the 20,000 well-trained elite soldiers, once dispatched, those officials are naturally no match.

   So soon they were in prison, unable to resist.

  But those powerful families still refused to give in.

  In the first year of Tianshou, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River supported the fourth prince Li Chengyuan, and rebelled under the pretext of Xiang Nan's "seeking to usurp the throne and steal the great order".

   Within ten days, more than a dozen state capitals were captured, and the momentum was quite terrifying.

  At the same time, the gentry of Hedong Road supported the third prince, Li Chengwen, and rebelled in the name of "challenging traitors and restoring orthodoxy".

  In a short period of time, more than a dozen state capitals in Hedong Road were captured, and even Hebei Road and Henan Road were affected.

  The situation was extremely critical for a while.

  All the ministers wrote a letter, requesting Xiang Nan to stop implementing the New Deal to reassure the people.

  Xiang Nan didn't care, and sent Pei Zhao with 30,000 troops to fight the rebellion in the south of the Yangtze River; Zhao Jingyu was sent to the pass with 50,000 troops to fight the rebellion in Hedong Road.

   Seeing that Xiang Nan sent so many troops, the ministers thought that they would definitely lose.

  Because the number of rebels in Jiangnan has reached more than 100,000, and the number of rebels in Hedong Road has also reached more than 90,000.

  Their backbone is the private soldiers raised by the powerful and noble families, all of them are well-equipped, brave and good at fighting, even more than the elite of the imperial court.

   Therefore, they believed that Xiang Nan was really overconfident when he only sent these soldiers to counter the rebellion.

  Because of this, those rebels didn't pay attention to the imperial army, and concentrated their superior troops carelessly, wanting to start a decisive battle with the imperial army.

   Ready to defeat the imperial army in one fell swoop, and then gain fame and sweep the country.

  …

   March of the first year of Tianshou. The Jiangnan and Hedong rebels assembled their superior forces and fought a decisive battle with the imperial army.

  Among them, the Jiangnan army had 150,000 soldiers and the Hedong army had 160,000 soldiers, while Pei Zhao only brought 30,000 soldiers and horses, and Zhao Jingyu only brought 50,000 soldiers. It seems that the gap is quite large.

   Because of this, as soon as the war started, the troops in Jiangnan and Hedong went all out and launched a general attack on the imperial army.

   Unexpectedly, at this moment, nearly a hundred thunderbolt-like noises broke out suddenly, followed by a violent explosion in the rebel ranks, killing thousands of people at once.

  The war horses were frightened and ran around, and the soldiers were also blown into a circle. After the second round of volleys, the rebels completely lost their morale and all fled.

  Pei Zhao and Zhao Jingyu commanded the army to cover and kill the rebels all the way, killing the rebels without leaving any traces.

  In less than half a month, all rebellions were wiped out.

  The third and fourth princes, various gentry families, elites, corrupt officials, and local tyrants who participated in the conspiracy were all wiped out.

  Such a result surprised everyone.

  They originally thought that Xiang Nan's new emperor ascended the throne, and his foundation was unstable. Coupled with the fact that the rebel army was strong, it would not be uncommon for the suppression of the rebellion to take several years.

   Never expected that it would end so simply and neatly.

  How did they know that Xiang Nan knew that there would be a battle with the gentry and the powerful, so he cast a large number of artillery in advance, which is very powerful, comparable to the European howitzers of the eighteenth century.

   In comparison, the powerful and elite still use cold weapons. Under the volley of hundreds of cannons, it was completely defeated before it rushed to the front.

   Because of this, Xiang Nan beat him to the ground with ease.

  …

   "How will the emperor deal with King Rong and King Yun?" The Empress Dowager asked Xiang Nandao.

   "Although the third and fourth brothers conspired against each other, we are brothers after all." Xiang Nan said to the Empress Dowager, "I have already lost my eldest and second brothers, and I don't want to kill each other again.

  I am going to abolish their titles and put them under house arrest in the original palace. Grandma, do you think I can do this? "

  The Empress Dowager nodded.

   Li Chengwen and Li Chengyuan have committed treasonous crimes, and it is a special kindness to survive, and she dare not expect too much.

   "Since that's the case, then it's settled." Xiang Nan nodded and said.

  Subsequently, Li Chengwen and Li Chengyuan, together with their families, were escorted to the capital, and then placed under house arrest in the previous mansions of King Rong and King Yun respectively.

  The imperial court allocates 20,000 taels of silver every year for the two of them to live on. In addition, after they reduced the title to the people, their descendants would no longer inherit the title, but they could participate in the imperial examination.

  Xiang Nan is not afraid that Li Chengwen and Li Chengyuan will rebel again.

  To be honest, they're worthless.

   Those gentry families have been completely beaten to the ground, and the rest of the local tycoons, princes and ministers have no confidence to rebel.

  What's more, even if they want to rebel, Xiang Nan can beat them down again.

   When the time comes, he won't be lenient.

  …

   The rebels were wiped out with ease, making Xiang Nan's prestige reach its peak for a while.

   No matter whether it is a court minister or a local tycoon, no one dares to challenge Xiang Nan's authority and try the power of a cannon.

  Therefore, the new policy of "scaling the household to the mu", "officials and gentry work as one, and one mention of grain" was successfully implemented.

  This move has greatly reduced the burden on the people, so countless people are grateful.

  The "split into the mu", "officials and gentry work together as errands, and pay grain as one", also greatly increased the taxation of the imperial court.

  The tax tax for the year before the Feng Dynasty was only 30 million guan, but after it was divided into mu, the tax tax exceeded 50 million guan.

  Xiang Nan then introduced the systems of "returning consumption and envy to the public" and "raising honest banks".

  The so-called consumption envy means that when local officials collect money taxes, they will collect more money and silver on the grounds of depletion, which is also called fire consumption or consumption envy.

  But the scope of consumption is greater than fire consumption, and consumption also includes sparrow consumption and so on. The rice grain collected in Yunjing was stolen and consumed by sparrows, which is called sparrow consumption.

  During the Han Dynasty, every stone paid for grain added two buckets of consumption. During Emperor Yin of the Later Han Dynasty, the consumption of sparrows and mice increased from two buckets for one stone of grain to four buckets. For farmers, it is naturally a huge burden.

  After Consumption Xian was returned to the public, it was collected as a normal government tax, collected uniformly, kept in the treasury, and given discretion to civil servants in the province to support their integrity.

  This reform measure concentrated the power of tax collection, reduced the extra burden on the people, increased the salaries of foreign officials, and had a positive effect on rectifying the administration of officials and reducing corruption.

  In addition, Xiang Nan introduced the "Secret Zoubao" system, which stipulated that all central and local officials with a rank of four or more should directly submit the secret zhezi.

  A secret fold has special paper, a special box, a special lock, and a special key. It is difficult for ordinary people to open it, so as to ensure the confidentiality and safety of the memorial.

In this way, the officials supervise each other and restrain each other, which is a constraint for everyone; secondly, the secret papers can reach the heavens directly, which also helps to improve administrative efficiency; …

  Through a series of means, Xiang Nan's imperial power was greatly strengthened, which further consolidated his rule.

  Even Gao Yuming was afraid of this, worried that Xiang Nan would settle accounts with him at some point, so he proposed to retire and return home early.

  (end of this chapter)