golden scales

In the 17th year of Chongzhen, there has been no auspiciousness from the beginning of the year.

On the first day of the first lunar month, a strong wind shook the houses in Yanjing City, flying sand and rocks, and the sun was not visible at a distance.At that time, people thought it was ominous, and there were even rumors that followed the wind, saying: This wind starts from the position of cadres.

Emperor Chongzhen got up early in the morning, worshiped the heaven and the earth, dressed in a crown, and went to the Huangji Hall to receive the congratulations from the officials. However, there was only one censor on duty in the hall.The bell for going to court has already rung, but no one is seen going to court.At that time, Chongzhen's face was pale, his lips were blue, and his heart was blank, thinking that the officials no longer regarded him as the emperor in their eyes.

The censor and the emperor looked at each other, and it took a long time to react, and said: "Your Majesty, it must be very windy outside, and the officials didn't hear the bell ringing, so they thought the emperor hadn't come out. Please order the bell to ring again to open the East and West Chang'an gates."

Only then did Chongzhen regain his strength, spit out the word "ke" from between his teeth, and immediately said: "The bell keeps ringing, don't let it stop."

After a while, civil and military officials entered through the east and west gates of Chang'an one after another, but they saw that the emperor was already sitting in the palace, under Tian Yan's eyes, he was afraid and dared not pass through the middle gate.So the civil servant broke into the martial arts class directly, crouched under the chi head, and entered the east class with a bow.Wuchen could only follow suit, from squatting in the Wen class to standing still in the West class.Originally, it was just a moment of embarrassment, but it turned out that rumors spread wildly that civil and military disobedience would cause disaster within a hundred days.

On the ninth day of the first lunar month, the Ministry of War received an ultimatum sent by Li Zicheng, writing to the reign of Dashun Yongchang, agreeing to a decisive battle in Shunming, and declaring that the army must arrive at the military division on March [-].Emperor Chongzhen was so anxious about this that he couldn't eat a bite of food for several days.In this way, the idea of ​​imperial conquest arose again. After several times of persuasion by the cabinet ministers, he gradually calmed down, but he always felt that some of the cabinet ministers learned from Zhou Yanru and deliberately deceived him.

On the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, an urgent military report from eight hundred miles was sent to Chongzhen from the bank of the Yellow River. It contained the victory report of the battle on the river, and also mentioned the burning of tens of thousands of stones of food and grass for the trespassers.In the following letter from the prince's family, he also mentioned the battle of Hancheng, the blowing up of gunpowder for thieves, and the burning of Hejin City. ——This is certainly an exaggeration, but it can be regarded as comforting the Sacred Heart.

However, at this time, Chongzhen had been tortured to the point of madness by the thieves approaching day and night. Feng Yuanbiao could no longer comfort Sacred Heart by "not judging victory or defeat based on one city and one place", so he had to resign because of the failure of Shaanxi and the Yellow River.

On the day when Emperor Chongzhen dismissed Feng Yuanbiao, he returned to the inner palace, restless.The emperor, who has never talked about ghosts and gods, can only look to the spirit of heaven and ask the Taoist priests in the palace to help divination.Who knows whether the Taoist priest really had the ability to communicate with the heavens, or if he wanted to make the emperor's heart even more blocked, so he presented the words of the real fairy, but wrote:

"The emperor asks about the affairs of the world, and corrupt officials ask for money.

There is chaos in all directions and seven places, and nine out of ten stoves are smoke-free.

The people of Li are suffering, and the world is upside down.

From now on, the war will start, and there will be no peace. "

Chongzhen was hit one after another, and at dinner, he received an urgent report from the Ministry of War, saying that Li's army of thieves was approaching Pingyang Mansion.Chen Shangzhi, the general of Pingyang, retreated to Niyuan Mountain, and Zhang Lin, the prefect of Pingyang, suddenly opened the city to surrender the bandits.

Pingyang fell.

Taiyuan was completely exposed to the bandits.

In Kunning Palace, Empress Zhang, Empress Zhou and Concubine Yuan were relatively silent.

After a week, her eyes were red and swollen, and she cried day and night.When the news came from the front that the prince had won the battle, she would cry with joy; when the news came that the army was advancing, she would worry about her son, and she would wake up crying even in her dreams.Since Zhu Cihong's expedition these days, Zhou Hou has lost her human form, and even Chongzhen couldn't bear to look at her.

"Your Majesty! The emperor is here." The palace lady hurried in and announced, "It's already at the gate of the palace."

"Got it." Zhou Hou wiped away tears.

Empress Zhang and Empress Zhou were not allowed to come out to greet her, so Concubine Yuan had to come out alone, before she reached the door, she was almost bumped into by Emperor Chongzhen who rushed in in a hurry.

Chongzhen threw the red book (Zou Shu) in front of Zhouhou, and said angrily: "This is your good son! My good prince! The intruders have already hit Taiyuan Mansion, and he dares to lie about his defeat and retreat. Good news!" The emperor's backlog of emotions completely exploded, and it really roared like thunder.

Zhou Hou opened the memorial and saw that it was Wang Zongyou, the censor of Shanxi Province, who led Shanxi Governor Cai Maode to abandon the river and not guard it, so that the intruders easily crossed the river.Although he didn't yell at Zhu Cihong, he solemnly pointed out that His Highness the Crown Prince "neither knows how to fight nor has the heart to fight."

"I just said, there is no reason in the world to win battles one after another and retreat step by step!" Chongzhen was furious. If Zhang Hou hadn't been sitting in the hall, he would have wished to tear down the Kunning Palace!

Zhou Hou is a woman from a Taoist family, so naturally she can't say "trade space for time".Even if Feng Yuanbiao said this, it was useless.Now there are rumors in the outer court arguing about moving to the south or the prince going to Nanjing to supervise the country. Some people also propose to transfer Guan Ning's cavalry into the pass to defend the capital.All kinds of discussions fell into the ears of Chongzhen, and they were all words of subjugation.

"What's so angry, Your Majesty!" Empress Yi'an raised her brows, put one hand on the sobbing Empress Zhou's knee, and said angrily, "Could it be that the emperor only trusts outsiders, but not his own family!"

Chongzhen's anger just vented was blocked back by Zhang Hou's words, his heart was on fire, and he was confused: Who is lying to me?Everyone is lying to me!I will not fail the people of the world, why should the people of the world bear me!

No matter how difficult it was for the emperor to stay in the palace, he turned around and ran out, his trombone raised to the sky.

Within two hours, this little disturbance in the Great Inner Palace had already been written down, and they were on their way to Shanxi.

……

Zhu Cihong sat in the main hall of Jinwangfu, looking at Cai Maode who was next to him.There is also a reason for choosing this interview method.To put it simply, Cai Maode rejected Zhu Cihong's solicitation and insisted on staying in Taiyuan.

"You have already been exempted from being the governor of Shanxi, why should you stay!" Zhu Cihong really found it difficult to understand this stubborn ascetic.

Because of Wang Zongyou's memorabilia, Chongzhen was greatly stimulated, and the first order he issued was to dismiss Cai Maode from his post as inspector and make Guo Jingchang the governor of Shanxi.Logically speaking, even if Guo Jingchang did not arrive in Taiyuan, Cai Maode could no longer serve as governor, and could only properly prepare for the handover of government affairs.

However, Cai Maode silently vowed in Taiyuan to live and die with Taiyuan City.

Zhu Cihong seldom has officials he likes. Now that he has finally found a good governor, he would rather die than leave. How can he feel at ease?It was Zhu Cihong's last hope to use the way of receiving the emperor and ministers: he hoped that he could use the power of the emperor to force Cai Maode to follow him.

Cai Maode just lowered his head, and said calmly: "The minister should die and seal the border." (To be continued.)