Chapter 490 489 Who Is "Zhang Lian"

At this moment, a figure flashed outside the palace gate. A young eunuch was already standing by the door and whispered to the inside: "Report to the emperor, the two cabinet ministers Xu and Yuan and the Minister of War Yang Bo want to see you."

Hearing the eunuch's report, Emperor Jiajing frowned.

The cabinet assistants and the Grand Marshal of the Ministry of War came together, there must be important military reports, and the important military reports must come from the north.

Could it be that Altan Khan led his troops to block the pass again?

I suddenly felt very irritated, but I didn't delay and nodded slightly.

Then, Huang Jin beside him walked over quickly and whispered a few words to the eunuch, who turned around and ran out.

Huang Jin stood in front of the palace gate and watched for a while. Not long after, he hurried back to the throne and whispered to Emperor Jiajing: "Your Majesty, it looks like good news."

"Well, that must be Fujian."

Hearing Huang Jin's words, Emperor Jiajing's brows relaxed.

The current Emperor Jiajing, following the same concerns as the previous emperors, is most worried about the threat from the northern grasslands, and the current combat power of the Ming army in the border towns really cannot make them feel at ease.

As for Emperor Jiajing, he is still worried about the Fu Guangrao bandits.

Half a year ago, the Ming army in Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi was defeated by the so-called Flying Dragon Army brought by Zhang Lian, and the troops were heading straight for Zhejiang and Nanzhili. At that time, he also had a deep fear of Zhang Lian.

As for the Japanese pirates, Emperor Jiajing was more furious. After all, the Japanese pirate disaster began with the Mongols and Yuan Dynasty. It was actually intermittent from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to now, but it has become more and more serious in recent years.

Even when he heard that the Japanese pirates were approaching the capital Nanjing, he had no fear in his heart, only deep anger. He was shocked by the strong combat power of the Japanese pirates and was even more worried about the poor combat power of the Ming army in Jiangnan.

Emperor Jiajing certainly knew the principle of taking advantage of your weakness to kill you. After the Zhejiang Ming army defeated Zhang Lian with great difficulty, Zhang Lian had to withdraw his troops. It was the time when the rebels were in low morale. If they could not be completely wiped out at this opportunity, it would be even more difficult to deal with them once they revived.

After the three people entered the Yuxi Palace, after paying their respects to Emperor Jiajing, they looked at each other, but no one spoke.

If it were normal times, Emperor Jiajing would have been unable to sit still at this time.

Fortunately, since the three people entered the palace, Emperor Jiajing saw that it was not a bad thing, because although the three people's faces were serious, they could not hide the smile at the corners of their mouths.

The three of them hesitated for a long time before Yang Bo walked out at the signal of Xu Jie and Yuan Wei, bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhang Nie, and the general Chen Wangmo sent a military report. Zhang Nie and others used the Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Jiangxi troops to suppress the three Raos. The bandit leaders Zhang Lian and Xiao Xuefeng were captured, and more than 1,200 heads were beheaded."

After the words fell, the hall was instantly quiet. The Emperor Jiajing on the throne had widened his eyes, holding the armrests tightly with both hands and looked at Yang Bo.

This news is really too big. He never thought that Zhang Lian was caught.

"Is the news true?"

Emperor Jiajing was a little excited and couldn't wait to ask.

"Your Majesty, it is absolutely true. The victory report was jointly reported by the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhang Nie, and the general Chen Wangmo. It must be true."

Yang Bo still looked humble and replied.

"Good, good, good."

Excited for a while, Emperor Jiajing said three good words in a row.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, there have been rebellions, but there has never been a rebellion like Zhang Lian, who destroyed four provinces. Most of them were just jumping around in a provincial government and would be wiped out soon.

Those who rebelled were actually not as hard to suppress as mountain bandits.

But this time was different. Many of the people in Zhang Lian's network were bandits who were difficult to suppress. The key point was that the common people were also incited by him, and they actually pulled out a scale of more than 100,000 people.

In fact, Emperor Jiajing knew why this happened. Wei Guangde had reported it when he came back. Although there were some deviations between the prediction and the result, it was actually the case.

Slowly loosening his hand that was tightly grasping the armrest, Emperor Jiajing tried to calm down his excitement.

Yang Bo had a memorial in his hand, and Huang Jin also stepped forward quickly to take the memorial and turned to hand it to the emperor's desk.

"The news of victory in Guangdong, the Ministry of War requests that the bandit leaders Zhang Lian and Xiao Xuefeng be sent to the capital to be surrendered, and the remaining gangs that have not been pacified should be pacified and suppressed as soon as possible, and the inspectors should be ordered to verify the merits and crimes and report to the emperor."

The memorial reached Emperor Jiajing, and then Yang Bo, the Minister of War, told the Ministry of War about his plan.

The bandit leaders were tied up and escorted to the capital to hold a surrender ceremony, which could also highlight the achievements of the Ministry of War.

Emperor Jiajing certainly listened to Yang Bo's words, but did not express his opinion immediately. Instead, he picked up the memorial on the imperial desk and read it carefully.

In fact, this cannot be considered a memorial, but a victory report, a victory report submitted to the Ministry of War, and a more detailed memorial should be sent to the capital later.

However, this victory report was enough for Yang Bo to send him to the emperor.

The content of the victory report was exactly the same as what Yang Bo said. The two bandits Zhang Lian and Xiao Xuefeng were captured, and the bandit army had been defeated and fled in all directions. Now Zhang Nie and Chen Wangmo were urging the various Ming troops to wipe out the remaining bandits.

However, Emperor Jiajing also saw another name in the victory report. Although it was only mentioned once, it was obvious that he also made great contributions in this battle.

"Dayou set an ambush to capture Xiao Xuefeng?"

Emperor Jiajing muttered, "Were Zhang Lian and Xiao Xuefeng captured separately?"

In response to the emperor's question, Xu Jie and Yuan Wei's eyes naturally fell on Yang Bo.

Although they had read the memorial, they had only read it briefly and not in detail.

"From the victory report, it is indeed the case."

Yang Bo said: "Combined with the previous Fujian war report, this war should be that the two thieves Zhang and Xiao led their troops to attack Pinghe County, but were defeated by Hu Qiheng's troops. Yu Dayou, the deputy general of Nangan, took the opportunity to lead his troops to raid the thieves' nest. When Zhang thief returned to rescue, he was ambushed by Yu Dayou halfway and defeated. Xiao Xuefeng was captured. After that, Zhang Nie and Chen Wangmo led their troops to capture Zhang Lian under the siege of the various troops."

After seeing the victory report sent by the Guangdong governor, Yang Bo looked through the previous war reports and quickly connected the relevant clues to roughly understand the course of the war.

Although there are minor discrepancies, it is generally not bad.

Nodding slightly, Yang Bo's words made the doubts in Emperor Jiajing's heart disappear, so the only thing left in front of him was the surrender of captives proposed by Yang Bo.

Emperor Jiajing thought for a moment before saying, "Each department has made contributions in suppressing the rebellion. The inspectors should be ordered to examine the merits and demerits in detail, and the Ministry of War will determine the rewards and punishments accordingly.

As for the offering of captives, our ancestors have long prohibited Zhao Wenhua from pretending to be a thief and claiming credit, which caused the court to be burned. This place has become a place for annual incense and silk since the Circular Mound. If you want to pacify a country, you may use the same ceremony. Now this great treasonous evil was originally because the ministers wanted to cause more disasters and deceived the emperor. Recently, you have decided to attack and captured him. You can behead the leaders of the local punishment and behead them in three provinces to avenge the anger of the people."

When Yang Bo heard the latter, he knew that Emperor Jiajing did not agree with the proposal of the Ministry of War to hold a ceremony to offer captives, and directly convicted and beheaded Zhang Lian and other bandit leaders.

Although a little disappointed, Emperor Jiajing was still right.

Offering captives, if it is to pacify a country, it is indeed a bit too much to offer captives just to eliminate a few bandits.

Perhaps, if the border town can capture Altan Khan, the emperor will decide to hold a ceremony to offer captives.

"Yes, I command."

At this time, the two cabinet ministers and the Minister of War all received the order.

The emperor had already decided on how to punish, and all they had to do was to draft the order and issue it according to the emperor's order.

"After the Ministry of War returns, combine the war reports sent by various ministries, and list the details of the war process separately."

Finally, Emperor Jiajing gave Yang Bo an order, and when he spoke, his eyes were fixed on the victory report on the imperial desk.

The words were intriguing, but Yang Bo had already understood that the emperor had discovered the hidden tricks in the war report.

The news that the thief Zhang Lian was captured had spread in the officialdom of the capital from the moment Yang Bo walked into the Western Garden. The six ministries and various government offices in Beijing knew about it in a very short time.

It is true that the Ministry of War has not been able to produce any outstanding results recently. Suddenly, they got such good news. It would be strange if the people of the Ministry of War did not take the initiative to spread it.

With the achievement of pacifying Fujian, the Ministry of War should have no problem in this year's assessment.

"From the victory report, it should be Zhang Nie and Chen Wangmo who captured Zhang Lian, and Yu Dayou who captured Xiao Wan."

In Prince Yu's mansion, Prince Yu, Yin Shizhen and others were also circulating the copy of the victory report from the Ministry of War, and finally analyzed it after it fell into Wei Guangde's hands.

"Zhang and Chen's victory reports are well written. If you don't look closely, no one will notice that line in the text."

Tang Ruji sneered.

Yin Shizhen just nodded slightly, while Zhang Juzheng remained silent.

He didn't know Chen Wangmo, but he knew Zhang Nie. This person had some connection with his teacher Xu Jie, and he was recommended by Xu Jie to be the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

In fact, when he saw the victory report, he also found some of it strange.

The entire victory report mostly talked about how Zhang Nie led Chen Wangmo to eliminate Zhang Lian's bandits, and only mentioned Yu Dayou when talking about capturing the two bandits.

"I think the details will be reported soon."

Prince Yu, who was sitting on the throne, didn't care about their conversation. He was happy now.

After the Zhang Lian rebel was wiped out, the situation in Jiangnan was stable. Although there were still Japanese pirates harassing, suppressing the rebels and resisting the Japanese pirates were not the same thing after all. They were two different things in nature. Zhang Lian was a rebel.

As for who wiped out the rebels, the court would decide the right and wrong. After all, the transcript they saw now was just a victory report. A more detailed description of the battle would be sent to the capital later, and the local inspectors would also verify it. It was impossible to falsify it.

Prince Yu also heard the conversation between Wei and Tang just now, but he was not paying attention to it at the moment.

In his opinion, it was enough to win the battle and wipe out the chain bandits. As for grabbing the credit,

If it was really Zhang Nie and Chen Wangmo who defeated the bandit army, he would have nothing to say. But if Yu Dayou won the battle and someone took credit for it, then Prince Yu's Mansion could not sit idly by.

However, these things had to wait for the memorials from below to be decided, so there was no rush.

In the southern suburbs of Pinghe County, Fujian, at the foot of Tashan, a huge military camp was surrounded by wooden fences, with flags and tents everywhere.

At this time, a fierce conversation was erupting in a huge tent in the center of the camp.

"Admiral, the one you caught was Yang Shun, not Zhang Lian. If you report your merits like this, you will be punished once you are found out."

Yu Dayou had already moved to Zhang Nie's camp, mainly to transfer the captured Xiao Xuefeng. Hearing that he had caught Zhang Lian who had escaped, he naturally had to go and see.

However, when he saw the person and identified the captives he had captured, he found that the so-called Zhang Lian was actually Yang Shun.

This news scared Yu Dayou half to death.

Zhang Nian thought he had caught Zhang Lian, so he hurriedly sent people to the capital to deliver the victory report that day. The formal memorial was still being drafted. The main purpose was to wait for him to come over and send him detailed battle reports of the consecutive battles since he sent out troops. Come, polish it and put it into the memorial.

In addition, the credit book he drafted also needs to include people from Yu Dayou's side.

Speaking of which, although Yu Dayou has been promoted to deputy commander-in-chief, he still has many people in charge of him.

The Ministry of War issued a document asking him to follow the command of the Governor Liu Xian and annihilate Zhang Lian's rebels. However, the cabinet also issued a document asking Zhang Zhen, who was in charge of the military affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi, to be the governor of Fujian to annihilate the traitors, not to mention Hu Zongxian, who had been appointed governor of the military affairs of Jiangnan provinces long ago. .

After ambushing Xiao Xuefeng's troops, Yu Dayou could only send people to detect the movements of Zhang Lian's remaining troops while sending military reports to Liu Xian and Zhang Nie.

Unexpectedly, after Zhang Lian learned that Xiao Xuefeng's troops had been destroyed, perhaps because he was worried about being surrounded by the Ming army, he did not rush back to his home base with his troops in desperation. Instead, he summoned three people to return the same way and fled eastward.

After that, Zhang Nian led the general Chen Wangmo to mention the encounter between the Guangxi wolf soldiers and Zhang Lian's tribe. After a fierce battle, he received a battle report from Zhang Nian, saying that Zhang Lian's tribe was defeated, Zhang Lian was captured alive, and more than 30,000 people were captured. At the same time, He was also ordered to take Xiao Xuefeng to reunite with him as soon as possible.

However, at this time, there were only three people left in the Chinese army's tent: Admiral Zhang Nian, Commander-in-Chief Chen Wangmo, and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Yu Dayou. The others had been driven out of the tent.

"General Yu, we have found many thieves to confirm. There is no doubt that the person is Zhang Lian. Please stop messing around."

Perhaps because he was afraid that Yu Dayou had a background in Prince Yu's palace, although Chen Wangmo was the commander-in-chief, he still repeatedly explained to Yu Dayou that it was nothing more than the identification they asked the prisoners to do.

"Mr. Chen, I also asked Xiao Wan's personal soldiers to identify them. They have been following those thief leaders all year round and will never admit their mistakes. The person you arrested is the thief leader Yang Shun."

When the two people were talking fiercely in the hall, Admiral Zhang Nian who was sitting in the seat also frowned slightly.

Of course he had also identified the good news about Zhang Lian's capture on the spot, but the thieves he had picked out were just some minor officials among the rebels.

Although he didn't believe everything Yu Dayou said, it did make some sense. He captured Xiao Xuefeng, and at the same time there were his own soldiers. These people who were following Xiao Xuefeng must know Zhang Lian.

If the person caught was not Zhang Lian but Yang Shun, Zhang Zhen felt sweat on his forehead when he thought of the official documents he sent out a few days ago.

"Although he is not Zhang Lian, catching Yang Shun is still a great achievement. Next, we will continue to lead troops to encircle and suppress the remnants of the rebels. We will not worry about catching anyone."

Yu Dayou was still arguing with Chen Wangmo, but Chen Wangmo was still listening at this time.

After he and Zhang Nian caught the man, they found many prisoners to identify him. They kept saying that he was their leader, and some of them accurately said that he was Zhang Lian. There was definitely no mistake on their part.

Yu Dayou said these words because he was jealous of his first victory.

He wanted to teach Yu Dayou a lesson, but thinking of Prince Yu's Mansion behind him, he could only shake his head in his heart and forget it.