Chapter 371 Dissolution of Parliament
Qi Jiguang was ordered to formally enter the palace with the main force of the Ming army, and formally began to set up fortifications around the palace.
The royal army was assembled, led by Count Sheticus, and left the palace to suppress the rebels.
When Essex led the rebels to the palace, the Ming army had already prepared defenses.
Nearly 20,000 Ming troops built a tight firepower network with sandbags and trenches. Soldiers with outstanding shooting skills on each floor of the palace were on guard with the best rifles.
The rebels seemed to be quite well-trained, and the types of soldiers were not so uniform. They all came towards the palace in an orderly manner.
The infantry were arranged in three columns, all holding matchlocks. There were also spearmen on the periphery. The spears were very long and densely covered like a forest.
There are also cavalry on both wings, all wearing silver armor and steel helmets, and they look very powerful.
This is the first time in this era that the Ming army has fought against the English army.
The rebel commander Essex was also very cautious about this, and could not help but ask Baron Fushun, a nobleman familiar with royal affairs, again: "Your Excellency, Baron Fushun, do these Ming troops really have no cavalry?"
"Earl of Essex, I swear to God, I absolutely did not lie to you. These Ming troops do not have cavalry, they just have sharper firearms than us!"
Fushun said.
"That being the case, it's easy to handle."
Therefore, Essex first ordered his infantry phalanx to attack from the front to attract the attention of the Ming army, and then ordered the cavalry to immediately outflank the palace from both wings in an attempt to break through the palace's defensive position from the side.
At the same time, Essex ordered the artillery to fire first.
Bang!
The first thing to be hit near the palace was the artillery bombardment. Missing solid iron bullets flew over and hit the wall of the palace, knocking away several stones.
Because the Ming troops were hiding in trenches or beside sandbags, they were not harmed by these solid shells.
Qi Jiguang also ordered the artillery to fire here. With the help of telescopes, the artillery commander accurately determined the location of the rebel artillery and issued a long-range howitzer firing order.
The howitzer showed its power, and its accurate aiming and agile rear-loading technology allowed the first round of shelling to quickly cover the rebel artillery position, and the explosions caused thick drums of dust and the sound shook the ground.
The rebel artillery was completely wiped out!
Essex was quite frightened and quickly ordered the attack to be accelerated. He wanted his army to launch an attack before the second round of artillery bombardment by the Ming army.
Although the hedgehog-like spear infantry phalanx speeded up, it was still very slow due to the need to maintain an orderly formation to ensure the effectiveness of lining up shooting.
"Fire!"
Qi Jiguang gave the order to fire again, and the howitzers brought by the Ming army once again showed their power. Ten shells accurately fell into the huge infantry square of the rebel army, setting off waves of heat and creating bloody pits.
Essex, the rebel commander in the center, was also stunned by the bombing. When the smoke cleared, his face had turned charcoal black, and what appeared in front of him was no longer a neat infantry phalanx, but A huge crater and countless broken bodies and limbs.
At the same time, the cavalry on both wings also came under shelling. Dozens of horses were frightened and ran wildly.
"The cavalry rushes over! Rush over immediately! Kill the artillery!"
The infantry phalanx was disrupted, and Essex could no longer rely on it to attract the main force of the Ming army, so he could only rush over with the cavalry immediately.
The cavalry increased their horsepower and their strong mobility allowed them to quickly approach the Ming army's defense line.
The Ming army immediately launched a firepower network to block the attack.
Thousands of grenades were thrown from three directions, like locusts, and a curtain of dust exploded in front of them in an instant. The rebel cavalry that rushed forward were in chaos. The horses neighed, the cavalry also screamed, and blood flowed from the smoke curtain. , the grass soon turned red.
At the same time, in the barrier composed of sandbags, the Ming army's machine gunners started shooting with the Ming version of the Gatling machine gun. They still ignored the charging cavalry and suffered intensive bullet fire. Some war horses lost too much blood due to being shot. He fell to the ground, and his cavalry flew into the trench and fell to death!
A dense firepower network composed of hundreds of machine guns was harvesting the lives of these cavalry, and even the war horses that rushed towards them were swept to the ground because of fright.
However, due to the strong mobility of the cavalry, some cavalry came over and jumped over the defense line, but they were only a few. These few cavalry rushed in and were inevitably shot dead by the Ming infantry on the second line of defense.
In addition to machine guns and grenades, there are also short-range artillery that from time to time look for enemy dense points to bombard.
Dust was flying around the entire palace, the sky was filled with sand, grass clippings and corpses were flying everywhere, the river was dyed red with blood, and dead horses were scattered everywhere like rocks in the river.
The surviving rebels began to flee frantically, regardless of the Ming army's artillery shells and bullets.
Essex also snatched a horse and fled.
"Reporting to the Supreme Emperor, the rebels suffered 46,146 casualties and our army suffered four injuries..." Qi Jiguang reported to Zhu Houzhao.
Zhu Houzhao nodded and said nothing more. Today's Ming army is fighting against the armies of other countries through dimensionality reduction strikes. It is not surprising that such a casualty ratio results.
Essex fled the city with hundreds of remaining soldiers.
And at this time.
Miss Catherine, Raylin and other rebel organizers did not yet know the news of the disastrous defeat in Essex. At this time, she was still presiding over the parliament, presiding over the parliament that repealed the anti-enclosure bill.
"Agree to repeal the anti-enclosure bill!"
"Agree to repeal the anti-enclosure bill!"
……
A group of members of the House of Representatives expressed their agreement to repeal the anti-enclosure bill. Miss Catherine expressed satisfaction with this and said: "Very good, Speaker Lei Lin and Speaker Jian Zhong, please sign."
Bang!
Sheticos broke in with the royal army. He first ordered the soldiers of the royal guard to shoot the parliament guards, and then directly ordered people to break open the door of the parliament.
As a royal general, Sheticos lived a luxurious life relying on the king's rewards and salary. He was relatively loyal to Zhu Zaixun, and in order to prove his loyalty and ability, he outflanked the parliament first.
Looking at these congressmen, Sheticos issued an order to Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Zaixun: "Kill them all, leaving no one behind!"
These members were all horrified. They did not expect that the royal army would come to the parliament so quickly. Miss Catherine shouted: "Shitikos, who gave you the courage to come here? Shouldn't you protect your tyrant now?!"
Xedikos first cut off the head of a councilor with a knife, letting his head and blood fall in the hall, and walked towards Miss Catherine step by step: "The king has defeated your army, I am here to serve you." I’m here to destroy you!”
Phew!
The sharp blade of Shetikos broke the neck of another congressman. The congressman covered his neck with blood pouring out in horror. Looking at Shetikos, he never thought that he would have such a day.
The soldiers under Sheticos also did the same thing. They grabbed a member of the council and brought down the knife with a knife. With a click, a bloody human head was lifted up by him.
For these officers and soldiers, the king's strength has been proven. Now they can only prove their loyalty to the king by killing the king's rebels. Therefore, they are not merciful, not to mention that in their view, these hypocritical MPs are not Necessity is worth being treated softly.
Some congressmen wanted to escape from here, but before they could escape, their heads flew out.
Some congressmen were so frightened that they became incontinent and hid under the table shivering, but they were still taken out and killed.
Seeing this, Leylin also hurriedly shouted: "Your Excellency Sheticos, I am willing to return to the king. Please spare me and let me see the king. I am willing to give up all my property!"
Xuedikos didn't say anything, but stabbed Leylin in the stomach with a knife, stirred it up, and left the dead Leylin aside, and only walked towards Catherine and Jian Zhong.
"Your Excellency Sheticos, I regret it. Please spare my life for the sake of God!"
Click!
Xuedikos still killed Jian Zhong, then pressed Catherine on the table and killed her with a knife.
After Catherine's blood was gone, Sheticus said to the empty parliament hall: "The king issued an edict to permanently dissolve the parliament! If the king establishes a parliament again in the future, the whole world will punish him! God will not forgive!"< br>
……
The armed rebellion of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie stirred up by King Zhu Zaixun of England forced Parliament to pass the Anti-Enclosure Act and bloodyly suppressed the vested interests of the enclosure in England was completely suppressed.
In the following period, all the princes and nobles who participated in the rebellion were found out and executed.
Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Zaixun to execute tens of thousands of people. In doing so, he naturally wanted to force Zhu Zaixun to learn to be a ruthless king. Moreover, he also knew that if he had not stationed here with tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, he would be pushed to the top. Only one's own son will be guillotined, and kindness to the enemy is cruelty to oneself.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao asked his son not to be merciful to these rebels when he now has absolute strength. He would rather kill three thousand by mistake than let one go. He must give the entire English bourgeoisie the harshest blow and make them fully aware of it. The majesty of a king.
In Zhu Houzhao's view, the reason why these bourgeoisie in England are so arrogant is because the previous kings were too polite to these people.
If we don’t attack the power of the bourgeoisie now when we have legitimate reasons, when will we have to wait? Is it possible that we really have to wait until they can counterattack?
Throughout England, it was not until three months later that Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Zaixu stopped the search, suppression and execution of rebels.
In order to avoid the bloody suppression of the English rebels by himself and his son Zhu Zaixun from causing dissatisfaction among the people of England, Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Zaixun to reward the large amount of property confiscated from the rebels to the royal army who still chose to be loyal to the king this time. with noble personnel.
Roger was made a duke, Sheticus also became a marquis, and other meritorious personnel were also awarded titles one after another, and were rewarded with countless money.
besides.
Even urban civilians and rural farmers who had nothing to do with this upper-level armed struggle received benefits. Zhu Zaixu issued an order to reduce rents on the grounds that the rebels had caused losses to the people.
Zhu Houzhao even used his birthday as an excuse to issue a subsidy of five Ming silver dollars to every citizen of London. This money was naturally made by Zhu Zaixun, and the source was naturally the proceeds of confiscation, and the use of Ming silver dollars was naturally to help the Ming silver dollars. Capture the English money market.
Although there were not many silver coins, it bought the hearts of the people. In any case, the people began to choose to forget some of the cruel methods of the Ming Emperor and their king.
But Zhu Houzhao knew that just doing this was not enough. If he wanted the people of England to accept the rule of the king ideologically, he could only strengthen the indoctrination of the idea of divine right of kings, and even have to engrav in the minds of the people of England that there would be no future without the king. thoughts.
The best at this aspect are naturally monks.
But there are two kinds of religious thought in England, one is Catholicism and the other is Protestantism. Protestantism advocates getting rid of the rule of the church and getting rid of the restraint of ritual law, which is in line with the interests of the bourgeoisie.
If Zhu Houzhao wanted to help his son establish royal rule, he could only support Catholicism, which focused on establishing etiquette and laws to restrain secular people. However, Zhu Houzhao could not let his son become a vassal of Catholicism.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao decided to change the rules. He asked Roger to be Archbishop Thomas, who had a high status among the English church.
"Sir Thomas, I can continue to support your religion as a country, and even in the future, I can help you become the archbishop of the entire Europe, but you have to explain a fact to the outside world," Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.
"I don't know the facts, please tell me," Thomas asked.
Zhu Houzhao just smiled, and immediately ordered someone to bring the electric lamp he brought from Daming and the recording box made by Daming, and turned on the light switch himself: "Look at this light, this is what I have brought to this world, I have brought it to this world." There is not only light in this world, but also this.”
Zhu Houzhao opened the recording box, and a piece of his own voice came out, which was in English. The content was: "I am God."
Thomas was already horrified when he saw the electric light, and now he was even more horrified when he heard the voice coming from the box. When he heard that the voice in the box was actually in English, and it was somewhat similar to the voice of the Oriental man in front of him, he trembled for a moment: "You Is it God?”
"If you say yes, then it is. If you say no, then it is not. But at least, I am more advanced than you people. I know the history of mankind and even the future of mankind, because I created them all! If I want, I In the future, something can be created that can directly destroy a city. Do you believe it? If you don’t believe it, I will take your life away with one shot and let you go to heaven!”
After Zhu Houzhao pretended to be mysterious, he pointed the gun at Thomas.
Thomas thought for a long time, and finally bowed to Zhu Houzhao: "You are God! His Royal Highness the King is the son of God. In Eastern terms, our King is the Son of Heaven. His power comes from God's grant and is sacred and inviolable!"
"You are very smart!"
Zhu Houzhao smiled and immediately said to Zhu Zaixun: "Xi'er, remember to reward Bishop Thomas well. From now on, help Mr. Thomas suppress Protestantism!"
Of course, if he wants to completely deify himself in England, Zhu Houzhao knows that it will take time. At the moment, he has to continue to push England towards centralization.
The victory of the anti-enclosure movement and the suppression of the rebellion were guaranteed, and England's capitalist development began to be hindered. Next, Zhu Houzhao followed the advice of England's conservative leader Roger and began to prepare to implement the strategy of banning sea and trade. .
At the same time, Zhu Houzhao formed an alliance with Thomas and other clergy monks, and decided to implement a hierarchical system of scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants in England to comprehensively suppress the development of English business and protect the interests of traditional aristocrats such as royal family members and church personnel.
(End of chapter)