Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 148 Shameless

Initially, Ma Wensheng and others were reluctant to let Zhu Houzhao send the First Division of the Guards out of the city, but Zhu Houzhao said that the Guards were now conducting field training, and it would be more appropriate to go out of the city for field combat. There were already enough troops to defend Nanjing City. Finally, Ma Wensheng and others had no more objections.

When Zhenjiang General Tian Zheng arrived at Nanjing City with his more than 8,000 officers and soldiers, Zhu Houzhao and a group of civil and military officials were also on the main gate wall of Nanjing.

However, when Zhenjiang General Tian Zheng arrived in Nanjing, he was also dumbfounded, because he did not expect that there would be so many officers and soldiers outside Nanjing. Especially when he saw Qiu Yue leading 10,000 guards outside the moat, he could guess at once that this army was very powerful, so he could not help but ask Gu Xinlei:
"Master Gu, didn't you say that Nanjing City was not well guarded and had less than 5,000 soldiers? This is more than 5,000, this is more than 10,000! And they are all well-trained elite soldiers!"

Gu Xinlei was speechless for a moment and didn't know how to answer. He just wanted to mobilize a group of soldiers to rebel and avenge his father. He didn't think too much and just said, "That's just nonsense. I don't know how many soldiers there are in Nanjing. It's just speculation. Are there really 10,000 of them?"

Gu Xinlei might not be good at math and didn't know how to calculate, but he had to admit that there were indeed too many officers and soldiers in front of him, but he still had to say:

"General Tian, now that things have come to this, no matter how many enemies there are, let your men charge in. Don't be afraid, there will definitely be gentry in the city to support us. I'm afraid there will be gentry leading troops to help us!"

Tian Zheng felt a little relieved after hearing this, and he also knew that he had to shoot the arrow on the string, so he hurriedly began to order a charge into Nanjing City, but at this time, a soldier with good eyesight shouted:

"That's the emperor! That's the emperor! The emperor is in the city, sir, why should we kill the emperor!"

When the other officers and soldiers heard this, they were also surprised and asked, "Didn't we say we were here to kill corrupt officials? Why are we here to kill the emperor? Aren't we going to rebel?"

All of a sudden, half of Tian Zheng's soldiers lost their morale before they even charged. When they saw a well-trained elite force in front of them, the remaining half of the soldiers also almost lost their morale.

Tian Zheng was anxious and angry, and ordered his officers: "What are you standing there for? Charge!"

"Sir, the Emperor is up there. Do we really want to charge?" the officer asked timidly.

"Useless things, those who disobey orders will be killed! Listen up, rush in and massacre the city for three days! Anyone who kills one person will be rewarded with ten taels of silver! Kill!"

After Tian Zheng shouted like this, hundreds of servants under his command rushed forward, and more than a thousand officers and soldiers also rushed forward. However, what made people laugh was that hundreds of officers and soldiers were running back.

At this time, the First Division of the Guards also began to attack. The rhythm of the attack was steady and orderly. The sword and shield soldiers were in the front, followed by the spearmen, the musketeers and archers in the middle, the short cannons and crossbowmen at the end, and the cavalry on both wings also attached to the two sides of the main force, and gradually surrounded the group of rebellious officers and soldiers step by step.

Many officers and soldiers in the First Division of the Imperial Guards were veterans who had experienced actual combat. Even those who had not experienced actual combat became excited by the shouts of the members of the Loyal Emperor Society, and they all shouted, "Fight for His Majesty! Fight for the Ming Dynasty! Cleanse the world! Open up new frontiers!"

boom!
boom!
boom!
A volley of artillery fire first dispersed the charging rebel officers and soldiers, followed by bursts of musket bullets and the sound of arrows breaking through the air. The hundreds of charging rebel officers and soldiers were wiped out without a single encounter. The remaining thousand or so rebel officials ran back directly, and even Tian Zheng's sword-wielding attack from behind was of no avail.

At this time, countless shouts were heard everywhere. Tian Zheng looked back and saw that it was countless gentry who came with the militia. He began to feel a little confident and said with a smile: "Mr. Gu, it seems that you are right. The gentry have finally come to help me. No wonder you asked me to propose the slogan of exempting the gentry from paying taxes. It really won the hearts of the people!"

"The imperial court is now unjust and has trampled on the dignity of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River! All the people in the world hate it! As long as someone raises an army, they will definitely respond, and heroes will rise up, and the world will be in chaos. General Tian will also become a hero in troubled times, until he can quell the chaos and become emperor and ascend the throne!" Gu Xinlei said with a smile, fooling Tian Zheng.

But after a while, Tian Zheng heard these gentry shouting "Go to the King and save him!" He was shocked and asked, "What's going on? Are they here to deal with us?"

At this time, Cheng Jian also rushed to Zhu Houzhao and started cursing on the city wall: "Tian thief! You are a disloyal and unfilial man! You eat the salary of the court! You receive the grace of the king! But you dare to rebel, which is simply unforgivable! You also slandered Ma Gong as a traitor, which is really ill-intentioned! You turned black into white! You framed Ma Gong and plotted rebellion, I wish I could eat your flesh and sleep on your skin!" Cheng Jian's cursing was so harsh that even Ma Wensheng felt it was a bit too much. He thought to himself that he was not that angry. After all, many people called him a traitor. But why was Cheng Jian even angrier than himself?
Zhu Houzhao was also very surprised. He looked at Cheng Jian and wondered who was being called a traitor, Ma Wensheng or Cheng Jian? Why was it Cheng Jian who was so angry? Shouldn't he and Ma Wensheng and others be the ones who were excited now? Why were the Jiangnan gentry Cheng Jian and others so excited?

Not only was Cheng Jian scolding Tian Zheng and other rebellious officers and soldiers, but other gentry from the south of the Yangtze River who came to support the king were also scolding them.

"Tian thief! You have no respect for your father and your lord. You deserve to be cut into pieces!"

"Death to Tian the thief! Daring to rebel is tantamount to betraying the world!"

"Your evil is comparable to that of Yu Wenhuaji. Your crime deserves the death of all nine generations of your clan!"

These Jiangnan gentry cursed extremely harshly, and Zhu Houzhao was extremely confused by this. He didn't understand why these Jiangnan gentry suddenly hated the rebels such as Tian Zheng more than themselves, and seemed very loyal. Moreover, as far as he knew, the slogans of this group of rebels included one for exempting the gentry from food taxes, which obviously meant that this group of rebellious officers and soldiers had the support of the gentry behind them.

Zhu Houzhao had to admit that these gentry were too shameless. Since they knew that the rebellion was unlikely to succeed and chose not to rebel, there was no need to treat your own allies like this. After all, they rebelled for you, so you should at least sympathize with them.

Tian Zheng didn't expect things to turn out like this. He looked at Gu Xinlei who had encouraged him at the beginning, and Gu Xinlei pointed at Tian Zheng and cursed: "Traitor! It was you who encouraged me! It was you who forced me to be your military advisor, and you forced me to rebel with you!"

Click!

Tian Zheng chopped Gu Xinlei to death with one blow!

At the same time, Tian Zheng looked at the gentry behind him who were cursing him, the gentry on the city wall who were cursing him, the guards and the huge crowds of people who were loyal to the king. He felt extremely angry and desperate, and resolutely drew his sword and cut his throat. Before he committed suicide, he cursed: "It is true that the literati are the most shameless in the world!"

Tian Zheng is dead!

The rebel officers and soldiers, whose morale had long since collapsed, were even more leaderless!
Therefore, at this time, the Jiangnan gentry who were loyal to the king also seized the opportunity and rushed over with their militia, hacking and killing wildly. The rebel officers and soldiers who were defeated and fled in panic were all killed on the spot. Even Tian Zheng himself was chopped into meat paste!
Then, these Jiangnan gentry cheered.

"The rebels have been defeated!"

Then, these Jiangnan gentry shouted "Long live Zhu Houzhao" and were all extremely excited.

But for some reason, Zhu Houzhao himself couldn't get excited.

Thanks to my book friend "That Year, That Rabbit" for the reward of 100 Qidian coins. I don't know what happened, but a bloody and tragic plot was turned into a farce in my writing. Instead, I felt that those who directly rebelled were not so hateful, and the truly hateful ones were those who stood on the dry shore. Well, my original purpose was just to satirize the hypocrisy and shamelessness of the gentry.



(End of this chapter)