Chapter 233 Your Majesty, Please Be Careful When You Speak

Since meeting many ladies in the mansion of Duke Chengguo, Liu Qing's life in the capital has become colorful.

This week I had tea with Mrs. Xia and Mrs. Yang and played "Zombie Hunt".

Next week, Miss Zhu invited her to join the poetry club and play "Hunting Zombies".

The next week, Mrs. Qiu asked her to play chuiwan. She didn't play "Zombie Hunting".

This time it was Liu Qing's turn to feel uncomfortable. Mrs. Qiu actually just set up a game of chuiwan. What a simple and honest person!

Although it is a bit unexpected, reality is so weird.

Women in the Ming Dynasty often participated in sports, two of the most popular ones being Cuju and Chuiwan.

There is a poem saying:
It is February and the fragrant wind is blowing down the two beauties.

Sweat stains the powdered face and the flowers are covered with dew, dust brushes the beautiful eyebrows and the willows are covered with smoke.

The green sleeves hang low to hold the jade tablet, and the red skirt is lifted to reveal the golden lotus.

After being kicked away several times, Jiao was speechless and hated the beautiful young man in Chang'an.

Moreover, the sport of Cuju was not only popular among the common people, but also among the concubines in the palace. They even formed a group that specialized in playing Cuju and performed Cuju for Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty.

Chui Wan is a simplified version of golf. In the "Ladies' Scroll" by Du Jin of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to women's Cuju, there is also a scene of "Chui Wan".

Du Jin, whose courtesy name was Ju Nan, failed the imperial examination in the early years of the Chenghua period, so he lived in the capital as a literati and professional painter. He also traveled to Nanjing, Jiangsu and other places, and had many friends among the famous literati and officials of the time.

Therefore, his paintings have high historical significance and artistic value, and Tang Yin's figure paintings were influenced by him.

At this moment, Liu Qing was staring at the ball nervously, watching whether it would roll into the hole in the shadow.

In addition to the four "official team members", there is a maid holding a golf cue next to them, and a woman holding a jar a little further away. They are the service staff of the competition. One is responsible for providing spare golf cue, and the other is responsible for supplying "pills" for the competition.

Watching the ball roll through the goal and into the hole, Liu Qing laughed happily. Madam Qiu, who was on her team, walked over excitedly and said, "Madam Ou has great control over her strength. She doesn't look like a novice!"

"Maybe it's because I've been practicing sword since I was a child, and I'm already used to how to use force!" Liu Qing explained with a smile.

"So that's how it is. Today I am the one who got lucky by following Mrs. Ou." Mrs. Qiu said with a smile on her face. Winning a game of Chui Wan is nothing, but winning with a novice is amazing.

"Then we will be in the same group with Mrs. Ou next time." Two ladies from the other group came forward and started teasing with a smile.

While the ladies were happily playing and making friends, the officials in the court gathered together to discuss matters of family and country.

In the Imperial Palace, the four great cabinet kings Li Dongyang, Yang Tinghe, Liang Chu and Fei Hong were all present. After Liu Zhong was frightened by Zhengde and developed high blood pressure last time, he refused to work anymore and resigned to retire at home.

Although Emperor Zhengde was reluctant to let her go, he did not have the face to force her to stay, so he could only give her a monthly stipend and serve her for the rest of her life.

At this moment, Emperor Zhengde held Ou Zanghua's memorial and looked at the Four Heavenly Kings and asked, "What do you think of this proposal, my dear ministers?"

Ou Zanghua's proposal was the memorial he wrote to Emperor Zhengde in Xiangyang. He proposed to transfer all the rebel soldiers to Yixing and establish the Yixing Commandery.

Yixing was under the jurisdiction of Beiping Prefecture, adjacent to the nomadic areas of the Kalachin, Wengniud, Chahar and other Mongolian tribes, and was one of the frontiers of the Ming Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, Xu Da supervised the construction of the Great Wall here.

Later, in the first year of the Longqing reign, another famous general came here, that was Qi Jiguang.

Liang Chu slowly said, "Your Majesty, according to the memorials sent by Xianning Bo and Censor Peng, their captives total more than 25,000, plus Ou Keqing's more than 14,000, a total of 40,000 people is a huge burden for the court."

"That's true," Fei Hong also said, "Even if we follow Ou Keqing's idea and let them be self-sufficient, they will still need the court's help in the first two years. More importantly, Yixing is suffering from severe floods. Once these people lose their homes, they will definitely start a rebellion. This place is only 500 miles away from the capital, and the troops will be at the gates of the city in less than half a month."

After listening to the two people's analysis, Emperor Zhengde couldn't help but nodded.

He then asked, "Then according to you, what should be done with these prisoners?"

Yang Tinghe stood up and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, I think Ou Keqing's proposal can be improved. There is no need to establish the Yixing Commandery, but to assign the more than 40,000 rebel soldiers to the nine frontier military garrisons. In this way, we can supplement the nine frontiers and we don't have to worry about them rebelling again."

Emperor Zhengde's eyes lit up, but he did not agree immediately. Instead, he turned to look at Li Dongyang.

The Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty looked a little pale. He thought for a while before speaking: "The border troops are brave and courageous men who are not afraid of life and death and dare to fight. Most of the captives are those who escape from the battlefield and are afraid of death. If all of them are recruited, it will affect the morale of the border troops. It is better to select those who are brave and resourceful to join the border troops, and those who are timid and cowardly will be exiled to Guizhou Province."

After these words were spoken, the other three cabinet ministers looked at each other and felt that the opinion put forward by the Prime Minister was the most appropriate.

Emperor Zhengde also thought of Guizhou. Since Emperor Taizu, the Ming Dynasty had been continuously implementing the policy of converting native peoples into officials in Guizhou.

In the 11th year of Yongle, Emperor Taizong abolished two of the four chieftains, Sinan and Sizhou, and killed Tian Chen, the envoy of Sizhou and Tian Zongding, the envoy of Sinan. He set up eight prefectures and four states in the two envoys' areas, and established Guizhou Provincial Administration Commission on this basis, making Guizhou, an area that had long been part of Sichuan, Yunnan, Huguang and other provinces, an independent province-level administrative region.

The Tusi and local officials who were the actual rulers of the local areas were abolished, and a system of itinerant officials directly appointed by the central government began to be established.

Due to geographical limitations, Guizhou was not suitable for the development of traditional planting agriculture. Therefore, during the Ming Dynasty, the area was still in a state of poverty and backwardness, and the supply of soldiers and food and fodder all relied on neighboring provinces.

The situation of "more barbarians than Han people" meant that Guizhou was always in a tense military situation. Not only did large-scale rebellions such as the Battle of Bozhou and the She'an Rebellion occur, but it was also common for the "Sheng Miao" to rob merchants and attack cities.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty had been implementing the immigration policy of "relocating to spacious villages", encouraging people from the densely populated areas of Jiangnan and Jiangxi to migrate to Guizhou, and granting them land to form "civilian settlements".

However, Guizhou was full of miasma and deep swamps, and was even more infested with snakes, insects, mosquitoes and ants. It was difficult for the people in Jiangxi and Jiangnan to adapt to the environment, so after the "relaxing the countryside" policy lasted for a while, its effect became increasingly worse.

But these bandit soldiers don’t receive the same treatment as ordinary immigrants. Don’t you want to go?

No, you really want to go.

As to whether they will start a war again.
Anyway, the ones who are most likely to cause trouble have been selected and sent to the nine borders to guard the country, and the rest are all honest people.

"Li Qing is really cunning!" After Emperor Zhengde figured it out, he couldn't help but praise him.

Li Dongyang's pale face became even paler. "If you don't know how to use idioms, don't use them randomly. Won't this ruin your reputation?"
Yang Tinghe glanced at the historian standing beside him, writing furiously, and quickly corrected him, "Your Majesty meant that he was worldly-wise!"

"Is there any difference?" Emperor Zhengde asked with some confusion.

The four great kings of the cabinet were all stunned at the same time, which made a huge difference.

So, four well-read scholars of the time immediately sent two people to give lessons to Emperor Zhengde, telling him to be more careful with his words next time.
(End of this chapter)