#老十四拥有20多万军队, the soldiers are strong and strong, why don't they dare to rebel and overthrow the Yongzheng Emperor #
On November 13, 1722, the Kangxi Emperor died of illness in Changchun Garden, on the northern outskirts of the capital. Seven days later, on November 20, the fourth crown prince of the Kangxi Emperor, Yin Chan, was ordered to succeed to the throne at the Taihe Temple as the Yongzheng Emperor.
After the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne, he successively collected several brothers who had competed with him for the throne. One of them was the fourteenth son of the Kangxi Emperor, Yin Yu, known as the "FourteenTh Brother". The fourteenth brother was stripped of his title and imprisoned in the Jingshan Shou Imperial Palace for more than ten years, until the Qianlong Emperor took the throne.
Therefore, some people say: At that time, the fourteenth brother controlled an army of 300,000, why didn't he send troops to overthrow the Yongzheng Emperor, but let it be slaughtered and ended up in a tragic end?
Let's start at the beginning.
One
The FourteenTh Brother is 10 years younger than the Yongzheng Emperor. The Kangxi Emperor was very fond of the fourteen brothers who had a straightforward personality and a heavy heart.
After the Qing Dynasty passed through the initial state of chaos, few princes were sent out to lead soldiers to fight. On the one hand, this is not necessary, on the other hand, it is also to prevent the crown prince from grasping the military power and making a big market strong. However, the Kangxi Emperor trusted the FourteenTh Brother and in 1718 appointed him the General of Fuyuan and commanded the Qing army to the northwest frontier to quell the rebellion. The Kangxi Emperor made the Fourteenth Brother the Great General King, marched with the specifications of the Tianzi Himself, and rewarded him with 100,000 taels of silver.
When the Kangxi Emperor died of illness, the Fourteenth Brother, as the Great General King, commanded the Eight Banners and Green Battalion troops stationed in the northwest frontier region, claiming to be 300,000 troops. Although the actual strength of the army is only more than 100,000 people, it is also an armed force that cannot be underestimated. After all, on the eve of the Qing Dynasty, the total strength of the Eight Banners and Green Battalion troops of the Qing Army was also about 500,000 people, and the fourteen brothers took away almost a third of them.
Two
We believe that if the Fourteenth Brother can really lead more than 100,000 troops back to the capital, it will definitely be a terrible military force. It will be a repeat of the Ming Dynasty's "Battle of Jing".
However, unlike Zhu Di, the King of Yan, although there were more than 100,000 people under the FourteenTh Brother, it was not his own army. Zhu Di was able to launch the "Battle of Jingnan" because, as the king of the domain, he had a private army of more than 10,000 people, known as the "Escort Army". In an emergency, Zhu Di was also able to mobilize the town guards where the kingdom was located for his own use.
However, this army led by the Fourteenth Brother had both the Eight Banners Army and the Green Camp Army, each commanded by him, and was a senior general of the imperial court. In addition, all the officers and men were paid by the state. Would they obey the orders of a great general who had been temporarily sent to command them, and follow him to the capital to overthrow the Yongzheng Emperor?
Before the expedition, the generals of successive dynasties would leave their families in the capital, one was taken care of by the imperial court, and the other was taken hostage. Once these generals had a disturbance, their families left in the capital would be the first to suffer. At the same time, plotting to reverse the list at the top of the "ten evils" is a felony to destroy the Nine Tribes.
What conditions could brother fourteen prescribe to persuade his generals to risk the huge cost of the entire family and follow him back to the capital? It is clear that the costs and benefits are grossly disproportionate. Instead of this, everyone might as well tie up the fourteenth brother and return to the capital to receive the reward.
Three
We now imagine that the ancients plotted rebellion, which is a matter of "raising the arm and calling, and the responders gather", which is simple and easy. In fact, rebellion is not an easy task. Those who really have such ideas will certainly carry out several years of preparatory work before they start an army.
For example, preparing grain and grass, preparing weapons, recruiting people and horses, etc. The mere preparation of grain and grass and the preparation of weapons were enough for the FourteenTh Brother to be busy for several years—in these few years, the imperial court could not find out, otherwise he would be stillborn.
Let's take Zhu Di as an example. In May 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died, and the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao took the throne as Emperor Jianwen. At this time, Zhu Di already had the idea of rebellion, but did not attack on the spot, but ostensibly claimed to be ill, dispelled Emperor Jianwen's concerns, and secretly quietly made pre-war preparations, until July 1399, in the name of "Jing Difficulty" for the country, he swore to go out on a campaign and kill the capital.
Zhu Di had been the king of the domain for 18 years, and had been operating hard in Beiping for so long, he still did not dare to raise an army immediately after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, how could the fourteenth brother dare to announce the uprising in the northwest frontier where he had no foundation? If nothing else, the issue of food and pay alone can make him a failure. Fourteen brothers and more than 100,000 troops, all of which were provided by the imperial court and the localities. He announced the first day of the army, the next day the food was cut off, hundreds of thousands of troops drank the northwest wind?
In fact, the Yongzheng Emperor was such a clever man that no matter whether the Fourteenth Brother had the intention of starting an army or not, he would take precautions and lift the fourteenth Brother's military power as soon as possible. Therefore, the day after the Kangxi Emperor died of illness, the Yongzheng Emperor ordered Bei Zi Yanxin to rush to Ganzhou in the starry night and take charge of the Fuyuan general Yinxin in place of the Fourteen Elder Brothers. That is to say, the FourteenTh Brother lost his military power at the first time, and it was nothing but to be slaughtered.