The Longqing Parade ended in one day. After the military formation drill of the frontier army, some self-sustaining and powerful troops performed archery and horse drills in Beijing and the generals and commanders of the Beijing camp.
For them, the chance of meeting Emperor Longqing in the past was very slim. Today, His Majesty the Emperor and the important ministers of the court are all here, and they are still trying to express themselves, hoping that their martial arts can join the big shots. With your Dharma eyes, you will have the opportunity to rise to prominence in the future.
For the nobles, although it is a hereditary military position that can guarantee food and clothing, there is also a chain of contempt within the noble group.
This actually has little to do with the inherited title. It does not mean that the earl will definitely be afraid of the marquis or even the duke. Everything depends on their status in the emperor's mind.
The simplest comparison is the size of official positions in the court.
The level of position not only represents the benefits that can be obtained, but also represents the closeness to the emperor.
Although Wei Guangde does not think that these martial arts are all silver-like wax spear heads, and some of them have acceptable martial arts, but after all, they have lived in the capital all their lives and are not willing to go to the border towns to suffer. Naturally, they lack Practical experience.
As for fighting, although there are some so-called geniuses, such people are in the minority after all. They still need to accumulate experience through each battle to grow.
It just depends on the value of force, but he is just a reckless man, so naturally it is not worth the investment.
In fact, the Ming court was not unwilling to let these nobles go to the border towns to lead troops to fight. There was no need to worry about them becoming disobedient. There were not so many taboos.
The main reason is that they are unwilling to endure hardship and would rather work in Jiangnan than in border towns.
The grand Longqing Parade ended. Emperor Longqing was very satisfied, and the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty were also very satisfied. It can be said that Wei Guangde's operation was very successful and was unanimously recognized.
At the end of the parade, Emperor Longqing was still very excited. Perhaps he was infected by the grand scene. After all, in the environment he was familiar with, he had only been accompanied by those eunuchs who were neither yin nor yang for a long time. At this moment, tens of thousands of Ming Dynasties were under the high stage. The heroes of the dynasty lined up.
As the Gongshun Marquis Wu Jijue, the Left Minister of the Ministry of Personnel Wang Bengu, the Left Minister of the Ministry of Households Liu Ziqiang, and the imperial censors Xiangcheng and Su Shirun reported the results of the review, Emperor Longqing was also very happy, because all the three armies passed the drill, and there was no Failure occurs.
In fact, this is natural. After Qi Jiguang's selection, the unqualified soldiers were cleared out long ago, and those who remained in the field to perform martial arts were naturally those who were good at it.
"Your Majesty, please refer to the generals and Hou Bo's royal guards who have been classified according to the number of shots. The first class is Funing Marquis Zhu Gang and other sixty-six people, the second class is Qingping Marquis Wu Jiayan and ten others, and the third class is Xiangcheng. Bo Li Yingchen, Zhongjun Shang Rui and other five people stood under the high platform and loudly reported the results of the nobles and generals who performed in the parade.
"Okay, the silver coins are like rewards for the ministers, so I hope you can encourage me."
At this time, Emperor Longqing had already stood up and stood at the edge of the high platform, and said loudly to the kneeling general below.
“I thank you Lord for your kindness, long live long live long live.”
See the generals and nobles immediately shouting thanks.
However, Emperor Longqing still felt a little unfulfilled. He still stood on the edge of the stage and looked at the reorganized military formation not far away. Each one was very powerful, so he said loudly:
"Jie Rong Promote martial arts, protect the country's prosperity, and train well, and the country's prestige will be strong. I'll wait for him to encourage me."
After saying that, Emperor Longqing turned around and returned to the throne. At this moment, the musicians from Taichang Temple, Jiaofang Division and Bell and Drum Division were already waiting on the left and right sides of the high platform. The "Warrior's Song" began to be played, and all the noble officers and soldiers below the high platform sang in agreement.
The poem says: My emperor read the martial arts and formed the Jianrong Brigade. The Imperial Dragon Banner shone on the Tiger and Leopard Camp. The six commanders were surrounded by armor and showed their mighty spirit. The barbarians were shocked and chanted by the broadcast, and the world was peaceful and clarified.
On that day, Emperor Longqing came to the altar in uniform, and the army was in order. The soldiers of the six armies were all doing their best, and no one dared to make a noise and disobey the order.
"Feng, Heaven has carried the emperor, and the imperial edict said, I have nothing more to do with the king than to serve the heaven, and nothing to protect the country more than the ancestor; the way of being a minister is not to be loyal to the emperor but to love others. I inherit the great industry, but Tianwei pays tribute to his ancestors. He works hard and thinks hard, and does not dare to be lazy.
Those who govern the people love the people wholeheartedly. Those who run the army love the army with all their heart.
The current cabinet scholar Wei Guangde does not live up to my expectations. He is honest and upright. >
Wei Guangde, the bachelor of Jindong Pavilion, is the bachelor of Wuyingdian, Taibao and Prince Shaofu"
Meng Chong stood in the cabinet courtyard and read out the imperial edict just issued by Emperor Longqing in the eunuch's unique drake voice.
"Thank you Lord for your kindness, long live my emperor."
Wei Guangde knelt down among them. After listening to the imperial edict read by Meng Chong, he immediately replied loudly.
Then he stretched out his hands and stood up after receiving the order from Meng Chong.
“Congratulations, Shandai, who has been promoted to an official position and a title, must have two tables set up to celebrate.”
"Congratulations on the loan first, and then ask for a drink."
Cabinet Li Chunfang and other cabinet ministers were also present at this time. After receiving the imperial edict, they came over to congratulate and asked Wei Guangde to set up a banquet to celebrate.
Wei Guangde's face was also flushed at this moment, and he was all excited.
Now his rank has surpassed that of Yin Shizhen and is the same as Zhang Juzheng.
Although the three of them still have little place in the cabinet, inferior to the first and second assistants, their voice has definitely become larger.
"I will be down to welcome the guests tonight, and cook with gold and jade."
Wei Guangde said cheerfully to his colleagues, and then stepped forward to exchange a few words with Meng Chong. After all, this was the message he sent.
In fact, last night, Wei Guangde had already learned about the emperor's reward from the note sent by Chen Ju's messenger, so he had already prepared a red envelope in his sleeve.
While chatting with Meng Chong, it was handed over to Meng Chong inadvertently.
Don't think that these great eunuchs will not accept gifts when they come out to read out the imperial edict. This is an unspoken rule. Eunuchs of any rank must receive red envelopes.
For someone like Meng Chong, the things he sent over were not too light. There was a 600-tael meeting ticket.
After receiving the red envelope, Meng Chong showed a bright smile on his face, quietly put it into his arms, said a few more festive words, and left.
As for Wei Guangde's invitation to drink at night, Meng Chong just pretended to be helpless and said: "On duty tonight, I have failed Shandai's good intentions."
"It doesn't matter, I'll meet you another day. Let’s set up a table to invite Eunuch Meng to come.”
“Okay, that’s settled”
After the eunuch sent them away, Wei Guangde returned to the courtyard and saw that Li Chunfang, Chen Yiqin and others were still here. They had not left to go back to their houses to work. He felt a slight movement in his heart and knew the reason.
"Good loan, wedding banquet in the evening, now everyone should go to my place to discuss something."
Li Chunfang said.
"Okay."
Wei Guangde followed them and went directly to Li Chunfang to check in. Wei Guangde did not sit behind Chen Yiqin, but still chose to sit in the original position, that is, to sit further forward. Let Yin Shizhen sit down.
"We'll talk about the celebration tonight. Now let's talk about the news that has spread between the government and the public in the past two days. It is that His Majesty plans to recall Gao Gong. I don't know why, but it has spread like wildfire."
Li Chunfang said immediately. .
"Yes, some people came to my house last night to inquire about this matter. I could only try my best to deal with it. I don't know what your Majesty was thinking." Chen Yiqin answered.
Emperor Longqing intends to recall Gao Gong, and everyone here knows it. Perhaps he is worried that if the edict is issued directly, he will be opposed by the ministers and cause trouble, so he has been holding back. .
As for the news that Gao Gong was going to return to the court one day after the end of the parade, Wei Guangde actually suspected that Emperor Longqing spread it deliberately, and the purpose was naturally to test the reaction of the officials.
After all, many people in the court were involved in forcing Gao Gong to become an official.
Although times have changed, their current hearts may not have changed.
If Gao Gong is recalled suddenly, someone may join forces and jointly file a petition against recalling Gao Gong again, which will make things ugly.
“Is there no message over there?”
Wei Guangde asked hesitantly, looking at everyone while speaking.
Zhang Juzheng and Yin Shizhen shook their heads directly. Although Chen Yiqin and Li Chunfang did not speak, it was clear from the fact that they had just asked this question that they did not know about it beforehand.
As for the "over there" that Wei Guangde said, everyone knew exactly who he was referring to.
"Since there is no decree, we are afraid that we can only deal with it for now."
Wei Guangde didn't say that. In fact, everyone had been asked by the emperor and there was no need to say anything more.
"I thought so before. I just called everyone to ask to avoid making mistakes.
Since there is no word from the palace, we should keep it secret for now and pretend we don't know about it."< br>
Li Chunfang said seriously now.
Just like what Wei Guangde and others discussed at the beginning, not only did they not like Gao Gong's return to the court, but Li Chunfang also didn't like it. Zhang Juzheng should also have this attitude in their opinion.
"In that case, everyone should go back to work."
Seeing that no one had anything to say, Li Chunfang spoke again.
Wei Guangde and others all stood up, bowed their hands to Li Chunfang, then turned around and were about to go out, when they saw a member of the Zhongshu House holding a document in both hands walking in quickly from outside the house. He didn't have time to salute other cabinet ministers. He said urgently to Li Chunfang: "Sir, Chief Assistant, the battle report for eight hundred miles in Fujian."
The battle report, eight hundred miles, is obviously an urgent matter and very important.
Just when everyone's expressions changed drastically, Wei Guangde asked: "Is it good or bad?"
"Old Wei Ge, I don't dare to open the seal without permission. I don't know."
The person in the middle school room said hurriedly.
While talking, Li Chunfang had already taken the urgent letter from the stranger. She was still checking the wax seal. When she saw that the seal on it was intact, she quickly opened it and took out the battle report document.
Chen Yiqin, Zhang Juzheng and others looked at Li Chunfang nervously, hoping to see clues from his face.
If it is good news, Li Chunfang's old face will definitely be filled with joy, but if it is bad news, it will definitely be very ugly.
In just a moment, Li Chunfang's still serious face suddenly turned into a chrysanthemum, and she unconsciously stroked her beard and smiled.
Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Good news, otherwise the chief assistant would not have this expression.
Sure enough, when Li Chunfang raised his head and looked at everyone, the first words he spoke made everyone feel happy, and then they became extremely excited.
“Liu Tao, the governor of Fujian and Guangdong, and Tu Zemin, the governor of Fujian, jointly reported that the big pirates who have been traversing the waters of Fujian and Guangdong for many years have all been wiped out, haha.”
In Li Chunfang’s cheerful laughter , Wei Guangde was the first to come to his senses.
He raised his hands and said to Li Chunfang: "Master Chief Assistant, has the great pirate Zeng Benben been captured?" They were completely wiped out. Although a few were scattered around, they were already out of control.”
As he spoke, Li Chunfang said. He handed the memorial in his hand to Wei Guangde, "Let's take a look. After reading it, we have to send it to the palace immediately.
Well, we also need to find someone from the Ministry of War to figure out how to reward the meritorious soldiers."
< br>Wei Guangde reached out to take the memorial from Li Chunfang and browsed it quickly, hearing the words of his second assistant Chen Yiqin.
"In recent years, Japanese pirates have almost disappeared along the coast of Jiangnan, and a small number of Japanese pirates have also attached themselves to those pirates.
After the Wu Ping pirates were killed before, only this one was left at large. Today, he was captured. The southeast coast should It’s a great joy to be able to stop.”
“Indeed. In fact, I have also paid attention to the report from the Southeast this year. It seems that this group of pirates was once the last group. Now that it has been eliminated, peace has really returned to the southeast coast. It should be reported to His Majesty as soon as possible. "
< br>They were chatting and laughing there. Wei Guangde had roughly read the memorial and already understood the story of the battle.
The Fujian and Guangxi naval forces led by Yu Dayou and Li Xi successfully attacked Tuoling Port. When the Ming Navy arrived at the port, Zeng Yibu's pirates did not know the news in advance.
It was not discovered until the Ming Navy navy rushed into the port with the Fengzhou-class warship and unleashed firepower wantonly on the Japanese pirate warship from a high position.
Despite the success of the Ming army's raid, the pirate army had no intention of fighting and could only flee in chaos by boat.
Although the sneak attack was successful, only the elite of the pirates survived. In such a chaotic situation, nearly fifty of them got out of the Ming army's siege and broke through the Ming army's last interception force in a deadly battle. Later he fled overseas.
However, after passing this stop, there were only more than 30 large and small warships left by the pirates, including 11 large black ships.
Yu Dayou was naturally dissatisfied with the outcome of the battle, and immediately led the Dafu Ship, Dragon Boat Clippers, etc. to pursue them, and deliberately pressed the pirates toward the southwest sea.
Finally, during the pursuit, the remnants of the pirates ran into 170 warships of the Guangdong Navy that were heading north to join Yu Dayou and Li Xibu.
After a fierce battle, most of the pirates were wiped out. Zeng Yiben's flagship was destroyed by the Guangdong Navy's black ship. Zeng Yiben fell into the water and was captured by the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty.
Speaking of which, it was unexpected that the battle merit of capturing Zeng Benben unexpectedly fell to Guangdong Commander-in-Chief Guo Cheng and General Wang Zhao.
However, for Yu Dayou, the military exploits of annihilating the main force of pirates were indeed real.
Nowadays, coastal officials have actually more or less seen that the pirates are in decline because there are no new forces to join. Now the main thing is to eliminate the old pirates involved, so that the situation in the southeastern sea can be alleviated.
It should be said that this battle was basically completed as Yu Dayou expected, and it was considered a perfect victory for the Ming Navy.
When handing the memorial to Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde also sighed: "It's Guo Cheng's luck that 170 warships blocked the remnants of more than 30 pirates. If it weren't for the victory in the battle of Tuoling Port, the pirates would have gathered together. We are afraid that the Guangdong Navy will be in danger."