The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 380 "The people are upright and the court is prosperous" in the last years of Chongzhen

It is true that Wei Zhaocheng only had one year's experience as Minister of War and had no experience in leading troops. Chongzhen was really worried that he would be "incompetent as one general and exhaust the three armies." So he thought for a moment and said, "Then give Wu Zong the title of Minister of War." , let him serve as the governor of Xuanda."

The so-called "Governor of Xuanda" refers to the governor of the military affairs of Xuanfu and Datong.

Wu Yanren is not here, so he will naturally not object.

With the current situation, even if he does not want to take office, he still has to consider whether he can bear Chongzhen's wrath.

Although it is still the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen has actually reached the point where there are almost no useful talents in the court.

This will become clear if you look at the people in the current Ming Dynasty’s cabinet and six ministries.

Zhou Yanru, the first assistant, has some insight and cleverness, but he is bent on pursuing selfish interests and has no public intention at all.

Although Xie Sheng, the second assistant, was a veteran of the Four Dynasties, his abilities and virtues were average. Except for serving as county magistrate several times in his early years, and later serving in the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites, he had no military or national strategy.

This person had been dismissed from office at this time in history, and he served in the Qing Dynasty after the Qing army entered the Pass. He entered the Third Academy of the Qing Dynasty alongside Hong Chengchou and Feng Quan.

As for Zhang Sizhi, Chen Yan, Wei Zhaocheng, and Feng Quan, they were either mediocre and incompetent, or selfish and without virtue.

The top official among the six ministers was originally Zheng Sanjun, a veteran of the Four Dynasties - this man was more capable and more virtuous than Xie Sheng.

However, because he was from Jiande in Chizhou Prefecture, he was already suspected by Chongzhen after Nanzhili was captured by the Yi army. Later, a bribery case broke out when Wu Changshi, who he recommended and appointed, was impeached and dismissed from office. Now he lives in the capital.

Under them, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel was Li Yuzhi, and the right minister of the Ministry of Personnel was Li Jiantai. Chongzhen could not decide who should take over the post of Minister of Rites.

Li Yuzhi was born as an admonishment officer. After serving as an official for decades, he was either dismissed or served as an envoy in the court, or was given a non-practical position such as Shizhong or Minister of Taichang Temple. It can be said that he was virtuous and incompetent.

As for Li Jiantai, he was a native of Quwo, Shanxi. He was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Tianqi's reign. After becoming an official, he worked as a minister of the Imperial Academy for many years. In the past two years, he was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel and was promoted to the position of Minister. His virtue and talent are not obvious, and his qualifications are also low.

At present, Chongzhen prefers Li Yuzhi to succeed him as Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

Jiang Dejing, the Minister of Rites, has some talents, but the affairs of the Ministry of Rites can no longer affect the overall situation. In addition, Jiang Dejing joined Nestorianism overseas and would occasionally mention the teachings when meeting Chongzhen, so Chongzhen did not like this person very much.

The cabinet minister Chen Yan served as the Minister of Household Affairs.

Although it was not uncommon in the Chongzhen Dynasty for cabinet ministers to serve as ministers, it was rare, so it can be seen that Chen Yan was quite favored by Chongzhen.

Historically, after Zhou Yanru's death, Chen Yan became the new chief assistant.

However, this person entered the official career from a Shujishi of the Hanlin Academy. He successively served as Hanlin editor, Shao Zhanshi, Hanlin bachelor, imperial lecturer, right minister of the Ministry of Rites, associate minister Zhan Shifu, left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Dongge bachelor (entered the cabinet) ), the Minister of Rites, and the Minister of Hubu who was re-appointed this year.

Chen Yan is a native of Sichuan. He was a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi. If he could be selected as a Shujishi, he must be among the top Jinshi in the same subject. His IQ must be high, but he is not used on the right path.

What this person is best at is actually flattering Chongzhen. In addition, he also imitates Zhou Yanru, colludes with the internal servants, and takes corruption and bribes.

It's a pity that these Chongzhen don't know about it, and they still regard Chen Yan as an alternative first assistant and dote on him - after all, people who speak well are always liked.

As for the Minister of War, after Chen Xinjia was found guilty and executed, Chongzhen originally intended to transfer Zhang Guowei to the capital to take up this position.

However, Li Qingshan disrupted Shandong, and the rebel army also took the opportunity to invade. Zhang Guowei lost most of Shandong, regardless of whether he was guilty or not, and Denglai and other places were isolated from the capital on land, and could only barely communicate by sea.

Since the second half of the year, sea connections have also been cut off.

If this were not the case, Chongzhen would probably have Zhang Guowei and other Shandong governors arrested and imprisoned in the capital for questioning.

Therefore, the current Minister of War is Feng Yuanbiao, the former left minister of the Ministry of War.

This person was from Cixi, Zhejiang Province. He was a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi's reign and had outstanding political achievements when serving in the local government. But after being transferred to the central court, his performance was very mediocre, and he successively served in the Sixth Section, Taichang Temple, Taipu Temple, General Affairs Department, and the Ministry of War.

There is nothing outstanding about this person's moral integrity. The most important thing is that he is not in good health this year. He has been the Minister of the Ministry of War for several months and has frequently asked for sick leave, dawdling around and doing nothing.

Under him are Wu Yan, the left minister of the Ministry of War, and Zhang Jinyan, the right minister of the Ministry of War.

Wu Zong was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli. He was already in his sixties and was also a veteran of the Four Dynasties. He served as county magistrate for several terms in his early years, and later became an imperial envoy. He was dismissed from office because he opposed Wei Zhongxian and other eunuchs.

After being established in the Chongzhen Dynasty, he successively served as governor of Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi. He had experience in serving as a local official and suppressing bandits.

This is the reason why Zhou Yanru recommended Wu Di and Chongzhen also agreed that Wu Di should be appointed governor of Xuanda.

But because Wu Di was from Xinghua, Yangzhou, Chongzhen had some reservations about Wu Di. Chongzhen now regarded many ministers in the court as suspicious, and felt that the other ministers were either compliant or unruly, and even worse, they had liaisons with slaves.

As for Zhang Jinyan, he was a Jinshi in the fourth year of Chongzhen and was only 43 years old. Now he can become the minister of the Ministry of War, which is completely over-promoted.

In fact, this man had no military strategy and no experience in leading troops. He took the same path as Chen Yan to get to the top. Chen Yan took advantage of the opportunity of serving as a close minister to say things that appealed to Chongzhen and was favored, while Zhang Jinyan relied on specifically impeaching people who were angry and disliked by Chongzhen.

Historically, this man became the Minister of War after Feng Yuanbiao. Various confusing operations were one of the important reasons for the Shun army to quickly attack the capital. Later, he, Wei Dezao, Chen Yan and others welcomed Li Zicheng into the capital and congratulated him.

If Chongzhen suspected that Zhang Jinyan was smooth, maybe he was right.

Unfortunately, in Chongzhen's eyes, Zhang Jinyan was considered one of the few close people in the court. He was a good match and he felt that he had the talent of a great Sima.

As for the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Punishment among the six ministries, they are actually as irrelevant as the Ministry of Rites now.

Xu Shilin of the Ministry of Punishment was also a veteran of four dynasties, and he was considered to be a man of both political integrity and talent. Unfortunately, his words were ineffective and he was unable to help Chongzhen resolve the current almost desperate situation.

Liu Zunxian, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, was getting old. He repeatedly requested to serve as an official to provide for his retirement, but Chongzhen refused. He simply followed Feng Yuanbiao's fishing example and stayed in office to provide for his retirement.

To sum up in one sentence, the center of the Ming Dynasty in the last years of Chongzhen can be regarded as "the most upright and prosperous court" in another sense.

It can only be said that Chongzhen has a pair of "insights" and is really "awesome" in terms of employment...

Of course, after being the emperor for more than ten years, Chongzhen was no longer the novice he was before, and he had developed some skills through experience.

At this time, the decision was made to appoint Wu Yan as the governor of Xuanda. Chongzhen looked at Zhou Yanru and other cabinet ministers and asked: "Then, which troops should be deployed to reinforce Xuanfu?"

This question made Zhou Yanru and other ministers silent for a while.

Because Ming Dynasty really has no soldiers left.

Although the Beijing Camp claims to have 200,000 troops left, the number on paper is only over 100,000, and in reality there are only tens of thousands.

Moreover, most of the tens of thousands of soldiers in the Beijing camp were weak soldiers who lacked armor and training, and were even owed wages. They and their families were starving, and it was difficult to use them.

To use these Beijing soldiers, they must first make up for the arrears of pay, and even distribute money and food as rewards; secondly, they can be trained a little to make them capable of defending the city.

Even so, there are not many that can be transferred out for use, because Beijing is a huge city, divided into three levels: the Imperial City, the Inner City, and the Outer City, and tens of thousands of people are needed to patrol.

In addition, there are Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, and Tang Tong, the commander-in-chief of Miyun.

The peace talks between the Ming Dynasty and Jiannu still failed to succeed, but now the Ming army is forced to retreat to Shanhaiguan - guarding a powerful pass does not require so many troops, so now there is only one general soldier in Shanhaiguan, and that is Wu Sangui.

As for the several general soldiers who escaped from the Battle of Songjin before, Wang Pu was executed, Ma Ke, Bai Guangen and Sun Chuanting went to Shaanxi. It is not known whether they are dead or alive.

Three generals, Cao Bianjiao, Yang Guozhu, and Wang Tingchen, died directly in the Battle of Songjin.

Li Fuming, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Province, was also defeated in the battle of Mingshun in Shanxi Province a month ago.

There is also Liu Zhaoji, the commander-in-chief of the reinforcement and suppression force from Southern Zhili. When he escaped from the Battle of Songjin, he brought few troops with him and became a scapegoat. Now he is in the sky prison.

In the eyes of Chongzhen and the current ministers of the court, it would be useless to release such generals without troops.

Therefore, under Chongzhen's gaze, Zhou Yanru thought about it and had to come up with a compromise idea, saying: "Maybe Miyun Commander Tangtong can be adjusted to garrison Juyongguan. One can provide backup for the officers and soldiers of Xuanfu, and the other is Then we can prevent the intruders from sending elite troops to take a detour to raid the capital, and the third one can take care of the defense of Miyun."

This section of the Great Wall Pass where Miyun General Soldier is stationed is also very important - if Jiannu enters the Pass from here, it may not take more than a day to reach the capital city.

And given the vigilance and ability of the Beijing camp, maybe Jiannu invaded the Forbidden City and captured Chongzhen, and the soldiers of the Beijing camp might not be able to react.

Or, after reacting, the first choice is to leave in a hurry.

Although Chongzhen is not very clear about the details of the Beijing camp, he does know a little bit about it. Hearing this, he sighed: "That's all it can do."

Seeing that Chongzhen accepted his suggestion, Zhou Yanru couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself: Isn't it true that we have been fooled again today?

Unexpectedly, just after he thought this, Chongzhen spoke again.

"With Yuan Fu's arrangement, I can feel a little relieved in the north. However, Shandong intruders stormed Hejian Mansion. Baoding Governor Zhang Fuzhen and Hejian Magistrate Li Huaxi have repeatedly asked for help from the capital in recent days.

If the Shandong intruders break through the defense line of Hejian Prefecture, they can directly enter the capital from the south. This matter must be guarded against.

After much thought, I can only ask Yuan Fu to lead 30,000 soldiers from the Beijing camp to support Hejian Mansion, so that I can feel at ease. What does Yuan Fu think? "

　First update.

　　[After understanding the history of the Chongzhen period, I found that the Zhongzheng in the early years of Chongzhen was really much stronger than the "Zhongzheng" in the last years of Chongzhen. After all, the "Zhongzheng" in the last years of Chongzhen were all based on his "intelligent eyes" and various operations for many years. Later he stayed in the court. 】

　　

　　

　

(End of this chapter)