Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 236: It is better to remove the firewood from under the cauldron than to add more water to stop the boiling water.

"What's the evidence?"

"We can risk our lives for you, but getting us to trust the court is harder than killing us..."

Chongzhen smiled bitterly and said, "This is a handwritten letter from the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. You can take a look at it. It was originally written for emergency use. Now that you want to read it, I'll give it to you."

Chongzhen handed out several letters he had written earlier to everyone.

Sun Kewang took it with half belief and half doubt, looked at the handwriting on it, then looked at the seal of the Imperial Household Department below, and looked up at Chongzhen several times in the middle.

"This is the seal of the Imperial Household Department... This should be Zhu Youjian's private seal."

"Everything seems to be fine."

"..."

"Originally, I wanted to show you these things, but I just didn't know how to say it. Now that you asked, I'm relieved." Chongzhen looked at the people in front of him and sighed, "Now you can rest assured."

"After you are recruited, you can completely get rid of your status as bandits. Those who don't want to join the army can live cleanly on the land of Ming Dynasty from now on."

"Those who want to join the army can continue to do so. From what I understand, the Ming Dynasty will soon be in a war with the Qing Dynasty. This is a good opportunity to make achievements and establish a career. It will be just around the corner for you to be granted a title of nobility."

"That's all I can do."

Looking at the things Chongzhen took out, Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and others were all silent for a moment.

Complex emotions flowed in his eyes.

In the Ming Dynasty, no one dared to forge the seal of the Ming Emperor, not to mention that the soldiers outside were from the Beijing camp, so even Prince Xin could not forge it.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Dingguo asked, "Prince Xin, let me say something disrespectful. Even if your identity has been confirmed, how can you guarantee that the Ming court will not treat us the same way it treated the Eight Great Kings before?"

"This is different. Zhang Xianzhong's death was due to his repeated false surrenders."

Chongzhen continued, "The Ming Dynasty, from top to bottom, has suffered several heavy losses at the hands of Zhang Xianzhong. They regretted missing the opportunity to severely inflict heavy damage on Zhang Xianzhong, so they naturally kept an eye on him. When Gucheng discovered that he showed signs of rebellion again, they naturally struck him with a thunderbolt."

In November of the sixth year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen and all the civil and military officials in the court believed the bandits' large-scale false surrender.

At that time, a total of 61 bandit leaders surrendered to Ming officials. The scale of this false surrender was probably even larger than the later Chexiang Gorge incident.

The consequences of this false surrender were also very shocking, and it was called "Mianchi Crossing".

This false surrender allowed the bandits to cross the Yellow River on a large scale for the first time and sneak into Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan, Huguang and Anhui.

It was also during this time that the bandit problem evolved from a local issue in the northwest into a serious threat to the Ming Dynasty.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, Chen Qiuyu, the governor of five provinces, rushed to Junzhou and surrounded Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and many other bandits in Chexiang Gorge, and was about to wipe out all of them.

But unfortunately, Chen Qiuyu believed the false surrender of these bandits and missed the opportunity to capture them all in one fell swoop.

A few months after Chen Qiuyu accepted the false surrender, Zhang Xianzhong broke into Fengyang and dug up the ancestral tombs of the Ming royal family. The entire Ming Dynasty was filled with weeping.

On the surface, the Ming Dynasty had good intentions and was deeply in love with Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhang Xianzhong was there when the enemy pretended to surrender at "Mianchi Ferry", Zhang Xianzhong was there when the enemy pretended to surrender at Chexiang Gorge, Zhang Xianzhong was there when the ancestral tombs of the Ming royal family were dug up, and he was also there when Yang Sichang was ambushed from all sides.

Zhang Xianzhong shouted "I want to surrender", and the Ming court accepted Zhang Xianzhong's surrender and allowed him to maintain independent arms and organization.

Zhang Xianzhong pretended to surrender once and twice. Are all the people in the Ming court stupid?

No, one of the very important reasons that Chongzhen did not mention was that the Ming court had its own difficulties: the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty could not win a battle at all.

This is like the Green Camp soldiers in the late Qing Dynasty, who had no combat effectiveness at all.

There is a saying: "The enemy passes by like a comb, and the soldiers pass by like a comb."

This is talking about the late Ming Dynasty. During this period, there was almost no big difference between the officers and soldiers and the bandits, and the reasons why they took up weapons and went to the battlefield were also similar.

If the Ming central government could really expand the official army by tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, the bandits would definitely disappear immediately and instead sign up to join the army and serve the government.

Unfortunately, the Ming central government was so poor that it couldn’t even support the existing army. Not only did it often embezzle funds, but it also often owed wages.

As a result, the hungry young men and soldiers had no choice but to become bandits.

The reason why there were frequent wars between officers and soldiers and bandits was that officers and soldiers had to kill or surrender a group of bandits every once in a while, otherwise they would not be able to report to the Ming central government and Emperor Chongzhen.

This is the whole motivation for the war between officers and soldiers and bandits, but this motivation is not enough to drive officers and soldiers and bandits to fight to their lives.

In other words, the officers and soldiers only wanted to fight the bandits to keep their jobs, rather than risking their lives.

The success of the anti-bandit commander was nothing more than the officers and soldiers tacitly allowing the bandits to rob in other provinces; nothing more than the officers and soldiers accepting the bandits' false surrender; nothing more than a game of chopping off hundreds of heads from hundreds of thousands of bandits.

They have already formed a tacit understanding with each other.

It is precisely because of this that the bandits are so difficult to suppress.

The contributions of generals such as Zuo Liangyu, Hong Chengchou, and Yang Sichang in suppressing bandits became greater and greater, and their official positions were promoted again and again, but the crisis of banditry in the Ming Dynasty became more and more serious.

Didn’t Chongzhen know the consequences of doing this?

No, he knew, but what good could he do?
The most fundamental issue is to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people.

If this problem cannot be solved, then no matter whether we suppress or appease them, we can only drive the bandits and hungry people away everywhere, but we will not be able to reverse the situation at all.

Chongzhen could only be deceived by the civil officials who used the excuse that the army had absolute superiority and believed the enemy's false surrender.

He knew everything, but still had no solution to the problem.

If Zhu Youjian issued a strict order: if there is a mistake in killing, no one will be let off.

Then when things go wrong, the bureaucrats will naturally put the blame on Emperor Chongzhen. At that time, the work of suppressing bandits will only become more passive.

The civil servants would even say empty words: "It's all because of your majesty's cruelty and lack of understanding of the way of the saints that the rebellion of the bandits cannot be quelled."

Furthermore, the bandits were wreaking havoc just to make a living; the officers and soldiers were suppressing the bandits just to make a living.

Both the officers and soldiers and the bandits were playing with unspoken rules and infernal affairs.

It is not a question of who gives the order. Someone who is pretending to be asleep cannot be woken up, and it is easy for both parties who are wholeheartedly playing with tacit understanding to reach a consensus.

So much so that every time great progress is made in suppressing bandits, it is often a sign that the bandit problem is getting worse.

This kind of success of trying to stop the boiling water by adding more water will always remain on the surface.

Chongzhen looked straight at everyone and said, "But now everything has changed. The court has money and the people have land. Zhang Xianzhong has repeatedly pretended to surrender, so the court will definitely kill him."

"It is also because we have money that the imperial court can naturally recruit people like you and provide us with enough money to support your food and wages."

Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and others fell silent again.

a long time,

Sun Kewang finally made up his mind: "We can surrender, but there is one condition."

"You said."

"You must still be our leader."

Chongzhen was stunned for a long time... and finally nodded, "Okay, I will report to the court and continue to be your leader. If the Ming court wants to take action against you, you must kill me first."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the peasant soldiers relaxed and put down the swords and guns in their hands.

Seeing this, Chongzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhu Changgan’s prescription for the Ming Dynasty: It is better to remove the firewood from under the pot than to try to stop the boiling water by adding more water.

I didn't take it seriously at first, but Chongzhen was watching me step by step.

Now that the medicine has finally taken effect, I suddenly feel a sense of infinite sigh and relief in my heart, "I have finally given you an explanation."

"What about me? Have you thought about how to explain to me?"

A roar of anger hit Chongzhen's ears.

Hongniang was still surrounded, her eyes were red, the spear in her hand had been knocked away, she only had a short sword in her hand. She was usually ruthless and decisive.

At this moment, a sense of grievance and resentment finally appeared on his face.

She bit her lip tightly. "Whether you are a vassal of the Ming Dynasty or a prince of the Ming Dynasty... you should have left after Siwang Mountain. Why did you come back?"

"Why? Why? I let you go... We have been distributing land and exempting grain, why do you insist on killing us all?"

Hongniangzi's eyes were red, with an indescribable emotion flowing in them, turning into tears and falling to the ground.

I had clearly let him go. If I hadn't let him go, how could he have left so easily?

It’s because I don’t want to kill him and don’t want to fight with him again.

I was the one who did that, but he still chose to get involved, and became the leader of the rebel king, putting all the righteous armies in the world, including his own Red Lady Army, into the trap.

He seized the rebel army's favorable situation in one fell swoop.

Chongzhen looked at him and moved his lips, "No reason, I told you at the beginning that if you want to save the people of the world, you have to sacrifice many people, right?
The same is true for the distribution of land and exemption of grain, and the same is true for the Independent Commission Against Corruption...but the longer it is delayed, the more people will die."

Red Lady stared at him with red eyes, her gaze as fiery as fire.

After a long time...she suddenly put away her dagger, turned around, staggered to the position of her iron spear, and grabbed it in her hand.

She walked out step by step, tears streaming down her face.

At first it was a low voice, but as he walked, it became louder and louder, and his shoulders began to shake.

Hong Niangzi has been practicing acrobatics with her master since she was a child. No matter how much hardship she has endured, she has never cried. But now... she can't suppress the emotions in her heart.

Compared to what she had carried over the years, compared to his betrayal and escape, there was another aspect in her heart: she had no way to get over this hurdle in her heart.

What the other party said is right.

Her army of red women consisted of only 100,000 people, but there was already a lot of corruption and unfairness, which was completely different from the ideal she had originally wanted to establish.

Whether it was distributing land and exempting grain taxes, or clean government...what she did was not comparable to that of the other party.

Compared with the opponent, I was defeated miserably.

"Wow~" Hong Niangzi suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and fell softly to the ground.

He had not yet recovered from the typhoid fever he had suffered before, and coupled with the long journeys, this battle caused his Qi and blood to flow backwards, and he suffered another mental blow.

Finally, he couldn't hold on any longer and fainted on the ground.

Chongzhen hesitated for a moment, then ran over and helped the man up, shouting to everyone, "Quick... call the doctor."

"Old blind man, where is your life-saving mountain ginseng?"

……

(End of this chapter)