In the first two months of the seventh year of Jianwen, there were three things that the government and the opposition of the Ming Dynasty paid attention to, namely, the suppression of bandits in Shandong, the handling of the rebellion of the king of Chu, and the implementation of military restructuring.

The king of Chu has been under house arrest in the Zongren Mansion for more than a month, during which only a few people such as the king of Shu and Liu Zhen have gone to see him, and the courtiers involved in the rebellion of the king of Chu have gone up to the second grade Shangshu and the second grade of the capital, down to the small officials of the micro end, there are more than 2,000 people, all of whom are imprisoned in the prison of the criminal department and Dali Temple.

The Shandong rebellion was also relatively smooth, Mahamu and Arutai two Mongols, after careful consideration, determined to make contributions in the Ming Dynasty, so under the command of Qu Tao, they worked hard and gave full play to the advantages of the Mongols who endured hardships and stood hard work, and long-distance running, and went north along the Daqing River, on the 22nd, a surprise attack on Le'an, and on the 23rd defeated the Shouguang defenders, cutting off the connection between the bandit army on the north bank of the Daqing River and the Qingzhou bandit army, and then leaving a small part of the cavalry to cover the northern line, Qu Tao quickly led the cavalry south, bypassed Qingzhou, and defeated the defenders of Weixian County on the 26th, On the 28th, Anqiu was captured, thus cutting off the connection between the bandit army in Changyi, Jiaoxian, Gaomi, Pingdu and other places in the east of Qingzhou City, and completely isolated the Qingzhou bandit army.

Xu Huizu led his army eastward along the line of Zhangqiu, Zichuan, and Shangshan, and defeated the bandit troops who tried to obstruct them along the way, and arrived at the outskirts of Qingzhou on 7 February, besieging the city of Qingzhou.

According to the battle reports of Xu Huizu and Tie Xuan, in half a month at most, the army can conquer Qingzhou and purge the leaders of the chaotic party, as for the rebels in other places, they will not hold out for long without a leader, and by early March, the final good news should be delivered.

These two things were expected by Zhu Yunwen, but the military restructuring soon ran into trouble.

The military system of the Hongwu Dynasty is simple and effective, the army is distributed all over the place, forming a guard, belonging to the management of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, the appointment and promotion of officers are attributed to the Ministry of War, and the "Horse Talisman" of sending troops and transferring troops is divided into two pieces, which are kept in the Governor's Office of the Five Armies and the Ministry of War, the generals of the unified army must get the talisman card to go to the local point to select generals, and the generals of the unified army are the founding princes, they live in Beijing, they have no actual military power, they have nothing to do, and they have something to go out, this system has been running very well in the early stage of the founding of the country.

But in the last years of Hongwu and the early years of Jianwen, this system encountered problems, one reason was that Zhu Yuanzhang killed the founding prince too ruthlessly, the imperial court lacked the ability and prestige to convince the generals, Geng Bingwen, Guo Ying and others were too old, and the ability was also insufficient, which led to Zhu Yunwen having to use young generals such as Ping'an, Sheng Yong, Qu Neng and others, so that he successfully survived the biggest crisis since he ascended the throne; Another reason is the problem of the hereditary system of generals, the second-generation princes such as Li Jinglong and others do not have the talent of their parents to command the army, only Xu Huizu can be appointed, and the local hereditary commanders are not much better, such as Qu Neng's level is even more handful, these generals are not able to command the army, but they are corrupt and bribery, buying and selling officials, but they are self-taught, which directly leads to the decline of the combat effectiveness of the guard's army.

In order to solve the urgent need, he ordered the elite of the guard to form a guard army, but the elite of the guard army was built on the basis of high military spending and the further decline of the guard station's combat power, and such a large standing army also caused the worries of the important ministers of the DPRK. Zhu Yunwen had a disagreement with important ministers in the court such as Wang Du, Qi Tai, Yu Xin and others on how to control the Guards, and the ministers advocated the reduction of the Guards, and if the emperor was really reluctant, they could replace the emperor's pro-army with part of the Guards, which in their opinion was the best of both worlds. It's a pity that this result does not meet Zhu Yunwen's expectations, his idea is to divide the power of the chief general through decentralization and supervision, that is, the separation of command, supervision and logistics supplementation, in this way to control the army, it can be said that it is an unprecedented attempt, but this way, whether it is a civilian or military, in fact, there is a certain degree of resistance, although in the end, under Zhu Yunwen's strong request, the courtiers reached an agreement, but all parties are actually wait-and-see.

Almost at the same time that the war report from Shandong arrived in Beijing, the military reform also met with "gentle" resistance.

Jingshi, Qianqing Palace.

"How many are these?"

"Back to the emperor, this is the third chief tuntian envoy to resign!"

"Yes, it's the third one, I'm afraid there will be more in two days! Is this to show me a face? Zhu Yunwen muttered.

“......”

Zhu Yunwen flipped through the folds in front of him, and suddenly said, "Zhong Jing, what do you think is the best way to deal with it?" ”

"This," Liu Jing has been pondering how to answer the emperor's question since he received the first recital, and at this moment, seeing that the emperor asked, he was already confident, so he thought for a while, and arched his hand: "Your Majesty, these people cannot be tolerated, because they have forgotten the duty of their courtiers, the so-called king wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die, and they are not afraid of death, are they still afraid of turning into a military household?" ”

"How about giving them death?"

"No! Your Majesty! Liu Jing was shocked, and he hurriedly knelt on the ground: "Although these people are narrow-minded and unwilling to share their worries for Your Majesty, they have been conscientious and conscientious over the years, and have managed the military households in Huguang, Sichuan, and Zhejiang in an orderly manner, and the grain stocks have continued to increase. ”

"Hehe, I know that Tian Qing, the head of Huguang Tuntian, has been in office for five years, and the annual evaluation is excellent, not only the health of Tuntian has achieved remarkable results, but also reported the illegal things of four Wei commanders and fifteen thousand households, most of which have been investigated and dealt with by dismissal and demotion, and have a very high prestige in Huguang. Even I can't help it! ”

"Your Majesty, it's not like this, Tian Qing, Cai Quan and Hai Fengnian are all loyal to Your Majesty, Weichen dares to guarantee that they have absolutely no second thoughts, and I hope Your Majesty will see it!" While speaking, Liu Jing kowtowed frequently.

"Really? You vouch for it? You are by my side, they are far away in the sky, you dare to say such things, do you have a close relationship? Zhu Yunwen's voice suddenly turned cold, and there was a chilling chill in his words.

"No, absolutely not! Your Majesty, Weichen has always been cautious in his words and deeds, and he has only met a few times with the three adults, please be aware of it! ”

For a long time, looking at the bruise on Liu Jing's forehead, the chill in Zhu Yunwen's eyes gradually faded, and then he raised his hand and said, "You get up, I still believe in you, you are a noble son, different from others, I also hope that you can grasp the balance, understand?" ”

"Yes, Weichen understands!" Liu Jing wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and bowed three times before standing up.

"These Tuntian envoys were originally going to be transferred to the General Supervision Department, but their twists and turns were sent directly to the Ministry of Officials, which is very interesting! Liu Zhen, send someone to call Song Sheng and Hou Tai over, I want to see what they say? ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

It didn't take long for Song Sheng, the secretary of the General Supervision Department, and Hou Tai, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, to rush to the Qianqing Palace almost at the same time, first bowed to Zhu Yunwen, and then stood aside.

"Liu Zhen, show these folds to the two Shangshu!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Hou Tai gently flipped through the folds, and immediately understood what the emperor meant, he had seen all these folds, he looked at Song Sheng slightly, but found that Song Sheng's gaze also swept over, the two looked at each other, quickly separated, lowered their heads and made a look of continuing to look at the folds, but in his mind he was thinking about how to answer the emperor's question.

Song Sheng has been in Liangzhou for more than 20 years, has managed the army well, is thoughtful, and has prestige in the border, which can be said to be a deep plan. The emperor summoned him to Beijing to serve as the superintendent of Shangshu, he understood what the emperor meant, so he was conscientious and very cautious, but in all fairness, he had no idea how to be a good superintendent Shangshu, and sure enough, as soon as he took office, he received a large number of dismissals.

Even so, Song Sheng was not angry, he knew that these things were inevitable, and he also knew the stinky problems of some literati, in the eyes of those people, soldiers and generals were uneducated rough men, ashamed to be in company, so he was not surprised at all that these Tuntian envoys wanted to resign in protest. His reaction was simple, which was to report the matter and wait for the emperor's decision.

"Hou Tai, the affiliation of these people has been transferred to the General Supervision Department, didn't the Ministry of Officials inform them?"

Hearing the emperor's question, Hou Tai was immediately stunned, he didn't expect the emperor to ask this sentence, affiliation? Wasn't the decree made clear the other day? Do you still need to be notified by the ministry? But he didn't hesitate, but said: "Your Majesty atoned for your sins, Weichen was a little negligent. ”

"Well, these people have been ordered to go to Beijing to report on their work, if they find the officials, do you know what to do?"

"Wechen knows!"

"Song Sheng!"

"The last general!"

"These people are your subordinates, what do you think should be done with them?"

"Back to Your Majesty, since these people belong to the army, then the last general will naturally demand them with military law!"

"Oh? Military? ”

"Yes, disobedience in the army, no mercy will be given!"

"Good, good!" Zhu Yunwen suddenly laughed, pointed at Song Sheng and said, "They are subordinates of the Ministry of Supervision, you send someone to escort them to the capital and punish them for disrespecting military orders!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty, no, no!"

“......”