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

"The Emperor is entrusted with the destiny of heaven, and the edict says: Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the former Ming Dynasty, who knows the heavens and responds to the people's hearts, has led 30,000 soldiers to surrender to our Dashun. He is now specially named Zuofu..."

I don’t know who Li Zicheng asked to write this imperial edict. The writing is quite straightforward and there is no literary flair, but the meaning of the imperial edict is very clear.

That is to make Zhou Yanru the Zuofu of Dashun, similar to the cabinet minister of the Ming Dynasty, and let him set off immediately to take up his post in the capital.

As for the 30,000 soldiers from the Beijing camp who surrendered with Zhou Yanru, they were recruited on the spot and awaited arrangements by relevant Dashun officials.

Zhou Yanru was overjoyed when he heard that he was named Zuofu.

Although he had not decided whether to surrender to Wei or Shun before, he had some knowledge of the official positions in both courts - mainly because the sources of information were limited, otherwise he would have studied more thoroughly.

As far as he knew, there were people in the Dashun court who were responsible for assisting the emperor in handling military affairs, and were called military advisors. Currently, the military advisor on the left was Li Yan, and the military advisor on the right was Gu Junen.

In addition, there were Prime Minister, Left Prime Minister, Right Prime Minister, Zuo Assistant, and Right Bi to assist Emperor Dashun in handling government affairs.

The Prime Minister of Dashun is Kong Yinzhi, Duke Yansheng, who surrendered last year. The Left Prime Minister Niu Jinxing and the Right Prime Minister Lai Yi also took the initiative to defect to Li Zicheng at the beginning of last year, and they are quite senior among civil servants.

His appointment as Zuofu should be the highest official position that Li Zicheng granted to the Ming Dynasty after the Shun army defeated the capital.

From this it can be seen that he was right to surrender - if he crossed the sea and returned to Zhili in the south, he would have no power and no troops. How could he directly enter the Da'ei cabinet?

"I accept the order and thank you!"

Zhou Yanru was in a good mood. After receiving the imperial edict, he signaled to his staff and secretly handed a hundred taels of silver to the eunuch who passed the edict.

The eunuch who delivered the order also smiled even more happily and said, "Without further delay, Mr. Zhou Ge must quickly clean up and follow me back to the capital to see His Majesty as soon as possible, right?"

"Okay, no problem." Zhou Yanru did not doubt that he was there and happily agreed.

As for how Dashun would arrange the 30,000 soldiers in the Beijing camp in Tianjin, he didn't care at all - even if Dashun didn't pay a penny, what did it have to do with him to send all these people home?

Anyway, these Beijing soldiers have already been sold at a good price in his hands.

One day later, Zhou Yanru returned to the capital.

The city was still the same, but its owner had changed. The many Dashun soldiers walking in the city made Zhou Yanru feel strange to this familiar city.

But he didn't feel anything, but waited expectantly for Li Zicheng's summons.

He believed that when he saw him, Li Zicheng would know what the real talent of a prime minister was.

After all, he was the number one scholar in the Ming Dynasty who almost won three yuan in a row, while Li Yan and Niu Jinxing were just candidates who failed to succeed in many trials. There was absolutely no way they could compare with him in terms of knowledge and literary talent.

However, when Zhou Yanru returned to his residence and waited patiently for a day, he was not summoned by Li Zicheng the next day. Instead, a group of elite soldiers came to his residence.

The leading young general said unceremoniously: "Zhou Yanru, your lord, please go to his place."

Liu Zongmin is almost the most famous general in Dashun today, so Zhou Yanru naturally knows about his title.

He was a little dissatisfied with the young general's attitude at first, and then felt strange, thinking: What does Liu Zongmin ask me to do? Could it be that after learning that Li Zicheng appointed me as Zuofu, he wanted to treat me to a banquet and make friends with me?

If he goes, will it make Li Zicheng unhappy?

Thinking of this, he asked: "May I ask why your Lordship invites me over?"

"You'll know when you go there." The young general replied firmly.

After hearing this, Zhou Yanru felt that he would probably offend Liu Zongmin if he didn't go, so he packed up a little and left with the elite troops.

When he arrived at the place, Zhou Yanru realized something was wrong - because he was actually taken to the Yamen of the Ministry of Justice!

After he was stunned for a moment in front of the gate, he asked in surprise and confusion: "Didn't I say that Your Majesty wanted to see me? Why did you bring me here?" "Your Majesty is working in the Yamen of the Ministry of Justice. Where else could I meet you here?" "

Is this really the case?

Zhou Yanru walked into the Xingbu Yamen in confusion. As soon as he passed through two courtyards, he heard a faint scream coming from a courtyard in the distance.

"No more, my family really has no money, wuwu..."

What's the situation?

Zhou Yanru was even more surprised.

I thought to myself, could it be that someone was imprisoned just a few days after Dashun took control of the capital? Or did Li Zicheng throw the Ming ministers who were unwilling to surrender to him into prison?

Just as Zhou Yanru was making random guesses, he was taken to the lobby of the Ministry of Justice and finally met Liu Zongmin.

Liu Zongmin was seen sitting on the main seat in the lobby wearing armor, looking this way with an extremely unkind look.

Zhou Yanru was shocked when he saw it, but he still bowed his hands in greeting and said, "I have met you, Marquis Ru."

Liu Zongmin had no intention of getting up and returning the salute, and said in his loud voice: "Zhou Yanru, logically speaking, you brought 30,000 people to surrender, so we should not embarrass you.

However, His Majesty heard that officials in the Ming Dynasty were seriously corrupt, and he was worried that this unhealthy trend would spread to E Dashun and make all E Dashun officials become corrupt officials. In that case, Dashun would not be able to survive.

Therefore, His Majesty has granted you the right to control all civil and military officials, and to pursue the dirty money from the former Ming ministers - as long as you hand over all the corrupt money honestly, you can be my Dashun. Zuosuke.

Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't be able to wear the official title of Zuofu. "

below.

Zhou Yanru was stunned after hearing this.

He never expected that just a few days after the Shun army broke through the capital, and Dashun had powerful enemies from the north and the south, Li Zicheng would actually seek dirty silver from them, the old officials of the Ming Dynasty!

And even he, the former chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty who just led 30,000 troops to surrender, is no exception!

Recovering from his daze, Zhou Yanru didn't have time to think about how Li Zicheng came up with such a bad idea, so he shouted: "It's unfair! Your Majesty sees it clearly, your lord sees it clearly, I, Zhou Yanru, have been serving as an official since I became an official in the Ming Dynasty. He is known for his integrity and devotion to duty, but he has not even been greedy for a penny in all these years!"

Liu Zongmin smiled sarcastically after hearing this, and then hummed: "You are not greedy for any money, because you don't value it at all. Don't think you don't know. Since you resumed your position as the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty last year, you have at least accepted He paid hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in bribes!"

Zhou Yanru was stunned again.

Unexpectedly, Liu Zongmin knew about this.

But he soon realized that someone had probably betrayed him.

who is it?

Thinking that after returning to the capital yesterday, he had not seen Dong Tingxian, a close aide who stayed in the capital, Zhou Yanru couldn't help but guess: Could it be that Liu Zongmin had already caught him and revealed his details?

Ouch!

Liu Zongmin, who was in the position of chief official, was suddenly shocked and said: "Zhou Yanru, if you don't hurry up and recruit me truthfully, how much people's wealth and wealth have you embezzled?!?"

Zhou Yanru's heart was beating wildly, but his reason was still there and he knew that he must not admit it.

For one thing, a lot of the money he embezzled has been spent and has not come back at all. Secondly, even if he does take out the corrupt money, he will be confirmed as a corrupt official and will have no future in Dashun.

He then wailed with a face full of injustice: "I am really not corrupt. If you don't believe it, you can send people to search my residence! Although there is some money there, I brought it from my hometown. The money that is corrupt is really Not a cent!”

"Search?" Liu Zongmin sneered, "Who knows how many houses you have in the capital? We don't have time to search slowly.

Well, I know you are just like those dog officials who won’t shed tears until they see the coffin. Someone, bring this former Ming Dynasty chief assistant a new pair of sticks, and let’s see if he can move or not with the sticks! "

With Liu Zongmin's wave of his hand, several soldiers standing in the hall immediately came to hold Zhou Yanru down. At the same time, one of them brought a pair of praising sticks. (End of chapter)