There is a space for passenger planes in the late Ming Dynasty

The Forbidden City and Qianqing Palace in the capital.

Emperor Chongzhen walked around in his imperial study, sighing from time to time: "The soldiers are so deep in Jifu, it's like entering an uninhabited land, how good is it!"

After a while, he said to himself: "Oh, this Lu Xiangsheng is of no use at all. He allowed the Tatars to ravage the capital. He really betrayed my trust!"

After thinking for a moment, he mentioned Zhu's pen and wrote an edict, ready to blame Lu Xiangsheng for fearing the enemy and avoiding the battle, and had worked hard to no avail. He demoted his concurrent position of minister by one level to that of minister, and took back Shang Fang's sword.

This is Chongzhen's character. His trust in Lu Xiangsheng comes and goes even faster. After a while, he couldn't see any results, so he immediately became impatient and wanted to find someone to replace Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of the world, to reinforce the army.

As soon as Chongzhen finished writing the edict, the eunuch Wang Chengen, the eunuch Wang Chengen, the eunuch and eunuch, came in with a document and respectfully placed it on the imperial desk.

Chongzhen was afraid that there would be another bad military situation or famine, so he asked suspiciously: "What document?"

"Your Majesty, this is the memorial written by the great scholar Liu Yuliang." Wang Chengen replied.

"What's wrong with Liu Yuliang?"

"Because of the intrusion of the captives and the erosion of the capital, he begged the Lord Long Live to send him to supervise the towns for reinforcements."

Chongzhen was thinking about replacing Lu Xiangsheng. Hearing this, he was overjoyed and said, "What? He wants to ask himself to supervise the reinforcements in the towns?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Very good, I also have loyal ministers in the Ming Dynasty's cabinet. Please prepare a decree for me and send Liu Yuliang to replace Lu Xiangsheng as governor of the world's Qinwang troops."

"Where is Lu Xiangsheng?" Wang Chengen asked timidly.

"Let him come to Beijing to listen to the survey!"

Soon, Wang Chengen walked out with the edict dictated by Chongzhen, ordering Liu Yuliang to replace Lu Xiangsheng as governor of the world's Qinwang soldiers and horses.

Chongzhen then bent over the imperial desk to review the memorial. After a long time, lunch was all finished, and Liu Yuliang did not respond.

According to Chongzhen's idea, Liu Yuliang saw his edict after breakfast, so he should go to Shu to express his gratitude that morning, request his Majesty's resignation, and rush to the battlefield quickly.

Liu Yuliang was a civil servant, and Chongzhen did not ask him to lead the troops into battle. He hoped that he could go to the army with the prestige of the chief minister and inspire the morale of King Qin's army, so that the generals would no longer cower, and the states and counties would no longer encounter the Qing Dynasty. The soldiers disintegrated in anticipation of the wind.

As long as Liu Yuliang can do this, it will be considered a great achievement and enough to satisfy him.

Before and after lunch, he asked Wang Chengen twice: "Hasn't Liu Yuliang asked for your Majesty's resignation?"

"Going back to your Majesty, I haven't seen the chief minister asking for your Majesty's resignation yet." Wang Chengen replied cautiously.

"The ancients said, 'Your destiny does not end at home', why is he so slow?" Chongzhen said very unhappy.

It was around evening that Liu Yuliang thanked him and sent him to the palace. But this letter greatly disappointed Chongzhen. In addition to thanking the emperor for his gratitude, he asked the emperor to send him to supervise the armies, encourage morale on behalf of the emperor, and urge the commanders to fight, instead of letting him replace Lu Xiangsheng as governor of the armies.

At this time, Chongzhen suddenly realized that there was a difference between "supervising the armies" and "governoring the armies". Liu Yuliang's original request was only to supervise the armies, not to governor them. It was just because he was eager to send someone to replace Lu Xiangsheng to save the situation, so he did not clarify it and issued the edict in a hurry.

But he also saw through Liu Yuliang's thoughts of wanting to make meritorious deeds but being afraid of leading troops directly into battle.

"Sure enough, none of these ministers can take on important responsibilities. They all misunderstood me!" Chongzhen said angrily in his heart.

At this time, Wang Dehua, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, came in and told him: "Yang Sichang, the Minister of the Ministry of War, requested to be summoned."

Chongzhen asked: "What urgent matter does he have?"

Wang Dehua bowed and echoed: "I don't know. It may be because of the supervision of the great scholar Liu Yuliang."

"Then let him come in." Chongzhen understood and was ready to listen to his opinion.

Soon Wang Dehua led Yang Sichang in. After performing the usual court rituals, Chongzhen asked: "Sir, what do you want to report?"

Yang Sichang said: "I am asking to see your Majesty about the affairs of the great scholar Liu Yuliang, the governor."

"I have read his memorial. Liu Yuliang only wants to supervise the armies and does not want to be the governor-general of Qinwang's troops. What do you think, sir?"

"After receiving the memorial, His Majesty immediately ordered the chief assistant to go to the governor of the world to support the king's troops. This shows that he attaches great importance to the chief assistant to replace Lu Xiangsheng as governor.

However, the Tatars are currently powerful. Although Lu Xiangsheng is not in a position to stop the enemy, he is still a good soldier after all. Yu Liang, as the chief auxiliary, went to supervise the armies, which is enough to show the emperor's attention. At present, I think it is not appropriate to change the commander before the battle. "Although Yang Sichang had objections to Lu Xiangsheng's policy of pacifying the captives, he also understood that if Yang Yuliang replaced Lu Xiangsheng, it would only make the situation worse, so he advised carefully.

After hearing this, Chongzhen thought for a while and said: "Then according to your instructions, the previous edict is over and Liu Yuliang is sent to supervise the armies."

"I obey the order!" Yang Sichang kowtowed. Chongzhen added: "Currently, the captives are riding deep into Jifu Prefecture and County, and Wangfeng has collapsed, which makes me very worried. Now that Chief Assistant Liu Yuliang is willing to inspect King Qin's army on my behalf, I am very pleased. I hope he can make his trip as soon as possible and don't delay. Mr. Please get up!"

Early the next morning, Wang Chengen came in with another document.

"Big companion, what's the news?" Chongzhen asked worriedly, fearing that there would be some bad news again.

"Your Majesty, this is a good thing. Lu Xiangsheng reported that Lin Feng, the governor of northern Shaanxi Province, and his Zhenming Army have arrived at Qinwang in North Zhili. They fought several battles with the captives and beheaded more than 600 Tatars. It is said that they have already After inspection, they are all real prisoners, and there are two Tatar Niulu Ezhen." Wang Chengen said happily.

"Okay, it's really a great victory. It's a pity that it was the Zhenming Army. A rebel army dared to fight in the field with the Tatars, but Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army was unable to move forward. It's really hateful." Unexpectedly, Chongzhen held grudges against Lu Xiangsheng again. .

"Your Majesty, do you want to reward Lin Feng?" Wang Chengen asked.

"The Ministry of War will send personnel to inspect the heads and discuss the reward after verifying the military merits. In addition, Lu Xiangsheng is ordered to send troops to retreat as soon as possible. He can no longer avoid the enemy in fear of battle. Lin Feng's rebels can fight in the field, and the troops raised by the imperial court Isn't it possible?" Chongzhen ordered. Of course, he didn't want to reward a rebel leader in his heart, so he could only delay it for a while.

"According to the order, I will prepare the edict right now." Wang Chengen accepted the order and left.

In the afternoon, two more emergency reports were sent to the Supervisory Office of Secretary Li.

Chongzhen picked up a Tong newspaper and saw that it was from Tongguan, so he didn't open it immediately.

Not long ago, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting ambushed Li Zicheng's tribe from south Shaanxi in Tongguan Nanyuan. They reported a great victory and completely annihilated Li Zicheng's tribe, but the bodies of several bandit leaders were not found.

Sun Chuanting said in his memorial to report the victory that Li Zicheng and others seemed to have died in the rebellion, and their bodies were being found. He had always been dubious about this statement, doubting that it was inevitable, but he hoped that it would really be the case.

Seeing an emergency report from Tongguan today, Chongzhen couldn't help but expect that maybe the dead bodies of "giant thieves" such as Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin had been found?

But his hope disappeared in just a flash. If the body of the "traitor" is found, the new governor of Shaanxi and the Tongguan Road will rush to Beijing to report it. The Supervisor of Rites and even the cabinet will have come to report the good news long ago. The report sent silently is either not important. Or it's bad news.

Thinking of this, a dark cloud suddenly enveloped Chongzhen's mind, but he had to open the Tongbao with trepidation.

The Tang newspaper was very brief, with only one sentence: The intruder was not dead, but had fled into the Shangluo Mountains, and recently came out to attack surrounding counties.

When he saw it, it was like a ladle of cold water pouring over his head. He couldn't help but trembled and leaned back on the chair slumped.

After a while, Chongzhen picked up the second Tang newspaper and saw that it was from Henan Prefecture. He knew what was reported without reading the content.

But now that it was over, he had no choice but to open it and read it. The eunuchs and maids standing beside him saw that his expression became even more ugly, his eyes were burning with anger, and a vein on his temples was beating gently.

They were on tenterhooks, held their breath and retreated on tiptoes. Unexpectedly, as soon as they exited, they heard a crash and the emperor smashed the teacup in his hand.

So they quickly ran in, knelt down in front of Chongzhen, and said in a trembling voice: "Please calm down, Your Majesty!"

Seeing this newspaper, Chongzhen hated Sun Chuanting deeply in his heart. He gnashed his teeth with hatred. He suddenly jumped up from the dragon chair and walked around the pillars of Qianqing Palace angrily, as if to vent his depression.

After a long while, he sat down again at the imperial desk, picked up the ink pen, and planned to issue a handwriting order to severely punish Hong Chengchou, demote him to three levels, arrest Sun Chuanting and bring him to Beijing, and hand him over to the Ministry of Punishment for serious consideration. But I thought about it again and put down the pen.

Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting had led 50,000 King Qin soldiers out of Niangziguan and were on their way to the capital. Chongzhen understood that if Hong Chengchou was demoted and Sun Chuanting was arrested for questioning at this time, this Qinwang army might collapse.

Moreover, he thought that among the ministers, he had the most prestige and experience. Only Hong Chengchou would be able to guard Liaodong for him in the future to defend against the Qing troops. He had better forgive him for his minor offense and make him more grateful.

As for Sun Chuanting, he has decided not to forgive him, but it is not the time yet. After the Qing soldiers retreated, he called Sun Chuanting to Beijing to punish him. He picked up the two Tang newspapers again and read them. The anger in his heart subsided a little, but he felt extremely anxious and heavy.

He threw down the newspaper, leaned back on his chair, looked up into the air, and whispered to himself: "Oh, what should I do? It turns out that the intruder is not dead and escaped in Shangluo Mountain! Since he can attack Tongguan and Ling In Baoxian County, it can be seen that the entire army was not wiped out. There were hungry people everywhere in Henan.

If this bandit leader who slipped through the network is not quickly eliminated, they will soon be able to raise tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of rebel troops, and the hard work of suppressing bandits in the past few years will be in vain. "

After much deliberation, he asked a eunuch to inform the Ministry of War, urging Tong Guandao and the general He Renlong to leave the border immediately to "suppress the bandits". They must wipe out Li Zicheng's remnants of bandits in Shangluo Mountain, and they must not be allowed to come out again to hijack the hungry people. stand up.

As soon as the eunuch left, Wang Chengen, the eunuch with a pen, came in with a memorandum and placed it respectfully on the imperial desk.

"Whose memorial is it?" Chongzhen asked.

"It starts and dives high."

"What's the matter with him?"

"The high-ranking military supervisor reported that Lu Xiangsheng supported his troops and avoided the battle, but sat back and watched as the captives and cavalry penetrated deeper, causing the capital to rot."

Chongzhen stared, picked up the memorandum and read it briefly, then understood the entire content, and cursed bitterly: "Lu Xiangsheng! You really deserve to die!"

Wang Chengen knew that Gao Qiqian's words were unreliable, and he was the one who supported the troops and avoided the war, but he impeached Lu Xiangsheng. However, he knew that Emperor Chongzhen trusted Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian in his heart, and his words for Lu Xiangsheng would definitely make the emperor Unhappy, I could only tighten my mouth, not daring to say a word.

(End of this chapter)