Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

On November [-], the seventh year of Chongzhen, in the Forbidden City.

Emperor Chongzhen opened the window slightly, and a gust of cold air rolled in with a few snowflakes.Emperor Chongzhen reached out and grabbed a snowflake, and the snowflake immediately turned into a small drop of water in his palm.Emperor Chongzhen sighed and said, "It's snowing!"

Wang Chengen, who was behind him, immediately stepped forward to close the window, then bowed and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "It's cold outside, the emperor still stays by the brazier. You see, there is only one brazier in the room. Even if the emperor wants to save money, he can't put it on." Is my body freezing to death? Add two more braziers!"

Emperor Chongzhen shook his hand, walked to his seat and sat down: "I know that Wang Banban cares about me! I also know that I can't save much refined carbon. But I have to set an example! When the country is in crisis, the warehouse is empty, and I have to be diligent and thrifty. For the country!"

After finishing speaking, Emperor Chongzhen picked up the "Ting Yi Zhu" in front of him and read it again.

A few days ago, Emperor Chongzhen convened all the cabinet, six ministries, nine ministers and other important officials to discuss the domestic situation.The first is the dismissal of Chen Qiyu, who caused the change in Chexiangxia, and the appointment of Hong Chengchou as the new governor of the five provinces.

Then, during the court meeting of the important ministers, they decided to take advantage of the temporary silence of the Houjin outside the pass, concentrate all their forces, and completely encircle and wipe out the peasant rebel army across the Central Plains.

This court meeting was an important turning point in Ming court policy.In the past, no matter how jubilant the peasant rebel army was, the Ming court still treated it as a local rebellion.But after this court meeting, the Ming court will elevate the peasant rebel army to the same status as the post-Jin army, and treat it as a serious problem.

For this reason, in court discussions, Emperor Chongzhen, the Ministry of War and the ministers of the Ministry of Households formulated a huge plan to increase troops and pay, intending to end the seven-year rebellion within six months.

This plan plans to mobilize 5000 soldiers and 77 horses from all directions.The salary is [-] taels.This is the maximum military and financial resources that the Ming Dynasty can mobilize at this stage, and it can be said that it has used the wealth of the Ming Dynasty.At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had made up his mind to tighten his belt and accomplish all his achievements in one battle.

And this also marks the change of the strategic focus of the Ming Dynasty from Hou Jin to the peasant rebel army.

In this plan, Hong Chengchou, governor of the five provinces, will lead troops to attack from west to east, Shandong governor Zhu Dadian will lead Shandong soldiers to attack from east to west, while Henan governor Xuanmo will support them in the middle, and local officials in other areas will guard their own borders.

Emperor Chongzhen carefully looked at the "Ting Yi Zhu" and considered what he had missed.Suddenly he raised his head and said to Wang Chengen, who was standing by the side: "Send someone to Zhang Shangshu to say something! Another [-] Guan Ning's iron cavalry will enter the pass. General Qin's [-] white-armed soldiers will go out of the river, and they must complete their meritorious service in one battle!"

Wang Chengen hurried to the front of the hall, summoned a young eunuch and gave them careful instructions.But when he turned around, he saw Emperor Chongzhen falling asleep on the chair.

Wang Chengen immediately gestured to a court lady in the room to take something, and then walked lightly to Emperor Chongzhen's side.Put the brazier at the feet of Emperor Chongzhen.The court lady quickly brought a piece of brocade fur, and Wang Chengen covered it carefully for Emperor Chongzhen.

There was a moment of silence in the room.Only the meditation incense in the incense burner is slowly emitting blue smoke.But not long.As soon as Emperor Chongzhen moved his body, he noticed the brocade fur on his body, and immediately sat upright, and said with some self-deprecating: "I never thought that I would fall asleep while sitting."

Wang Chengen immediately bowed and asked: "The emperor is too tired, should he take a rest on the soft couch at the back?"

Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said, "I took a nap. I feel much better already. There are still some memorials that have not been reviewed yet."

Then Emperor Chongzhen picked up a memorial on the side, but before he opened it, he suddenly asked Wang Chengen, "Do you think I am a good emperor?"

Wang Chengen was so startled that he immediately raised his head, and he saw Emperor Chongzhen in his twenties.There are already a few strands of white hair on the sideburns.Wang Chengen immediately felt that he couldn't bear it, his nose was sour and tears came out of his eyes, and his emotions suddenly lost control.

Wang Chengen immediately made a detour in front of Emperor Chongzhen, knelt down and wailed: "What's wrong with the emperor! Save money and let Yuan Chonghuan beat the tartars, but he sent all the tartars to Beijing. Trust Chen Qiyu in every possible way, but he Let the Shaanxi bandits in the cage go. But what kind of life does the emperor live? They are all wearing patched dragon robes, what do those foreign ministers think? Dealing with state affairs all night long, those foreign ministers What else do you want? The emperor has done nothing wrong, but those civil servants who shouted loyalty to the emperor and patriotism every day are white-eyed wolves. Woohoo!"

"Hey!" Emperor Chongzhen stopped Wang Cheng'en's nonsense, "You can't say that, it's because I don't know people well!"

"Why don't you know people?" Wang Cheng'en went all out today, "I don't understand state affairs, and I really can't explain those Taoisms, but who recommended Yuan Chonghuan at that time? The emperor ordered those civil servants to pay attention, no It is possible for the Shaanxi bandits to cross the Yellow River, but did the Shaanxi bandits cross the Yellow River in the end? The emperor ordered Chen Qiyu to arrange a battle strategy, but did Chen Qiyu listen to the emperor? Tell him to pay attention to false surrender! He is good, he is incapable of deceiving the country! Woooo— —!”

Emperor Chongzhen smiled wryly a few times, but Wang Chengen's words really touched Emperor Chongzhen's heart, and Emperor Chongzhen also felt a lot better in his heart. He sighed and exclaimed: "The country is in trouble and I think of a good minister!"

Wang Chengen immediately knelt and raised his head: "Your Majesty, you can't be depressed! Back then, Grandpa Taizu and Chen Youliang were indomitable and established the Great Ming Dynasty in the battle of Poyang Lake. Shengduo conquered Nanjing. The emperor is just unlucky for a while now, with his great talent, general strategy, and diligence in governing the country, he will definitely reach Tailai and become a king of Zhongxing."

Emperor Chongzhen smiled wryly again, and sighed: "I don't want to be the king of Zhongxing anymore. As long as the Ming Dynasty is well governed and he is handed over to Cihong (Prince Zhu Cihong) safely, I will be satisfied!"

Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen still didn't lift his spirits, Wang Chengen burst into tears with a "Wow!", and his body immediately collapsed to the ground.

……

same day.Governor Lu is in the camp.

Xuan Mo, governor of Henan, sat on a chair with a gloomy face and said nothing.After a while, Master Wang, a staff member beside him, said, "I didn't expect Wu Runing to do all of this!"

Since Xuanmo took office, he has been leading the Ming army in Henan to fight against the peasant rebel army, and he has no time to pay attention to the internal government affairs.But gradually, Xuan Mo discovered a very strange phenomenon.

The entire central and northern parts of Henan are in chaos, but Runing and Guide in southern Henan are eerily calm.According to the local officials, they live and work in peace and contentment, and it is a scene of prosperity.What's more strange is that the bandits who swept across Henan were unwilling to go there no matter what.

Xuanmo also knew that there were three strong armies in the area, namely the Ye County Battalion under Li Zongbing, the Runing Battalion under Wu Baiding, and the Guidewei under the command of Zhao.But these three strong armies just refused to move their nests. When there were bandits approaching there, these three strong armies would immediately show their fangs and ruthlessly gnaw those bandits to their bones.Successively created brilliant victories in Ruzhou and Nanyang.

But when the bandits were far away, the three powerful armies were like dozing tigers, turning a blind eye to the wolves around them.It's not that he turned a blind eye completely. At that time, Wu Baiding's Runing Battalion chased and fought and wiped out the Leopard Head rebels.

When he heard that the Runing Camp changed its style and went abroad to fight, Xuan Mo at that time was still happy that the Runing Camp had changed its temperament, so he suppressed those memorials that harmed the people and killed innocent people indiscriminately.But it was later discovered that the leopard-headed gangster suffered such bad luck because he robbed Wu Baiding's business.

And this time Xuanmo recruited Li Zongbing's Nanyang camp, but failed repeatedly, Xuanmo knew there was a problem here.To be honest, Xuan Mo didn't know anything about these three powerful armies, he only knew that they had been in arrears of food and wages for a long time.

Xuan Mo also looked through the account books of soldiers' rations and salaries in the past few years, and found a very strange phenomenon, Li Zongbing's Yexian camp was better, but Wu Baiding's Runing camp had been in arrears for several years.Although it is very serious that soldiers in the world are in arrears of food and wages, other soldiers can pay more or less, and it is rare to have no money like the Runing Camp.

However, the grain and silver handed over by Guidewei, commanded by Zhao, was not reduced or exempted according to the disaster situation.What's even more strange is that in the past few years, Wu Baiding and Commander Zhao even sent official documents to the governor's office and the chief envoy's office to cry a few times, but they have been silent in recent years.

Xuan Mo is also an old official, he knew that it must be because of the great conflict between the three powerful armies and the governor's office and the chief envoy's office.

But it doesn't matter if there are some conflicts on weekdays. When it's time to deploy troops to fight, these three strong armies will die if they don't move.So Xuan Mo also specially granted 8000 taels of silver to Runing Camp, wanting to make up for their relationship.

Unexpectedly, the situation would remain the same, so Xuan Mo became a little angry.He had learned from Chen Qiyu's account of the Chinese army at that time that these three powerful armies were in an alliance, so he wanted to completely tame this tiger head.

So who is the tiger head?Of course Xuanmo thought it was the "famous general" Li Lu.So he took the initiative to find out from the officials who escorted the grain and grass in Nanyang Mansion, and wanted to know everything about Li Lu himself and Ye County Camp.

But the result shocked Xuanmo, the officials of Nanyang Mansion didn't know anything about Ye County Camp.He just vaguely told Xuanmo: Zongbing Li and Wu Baiding were doing private iron ore business together in Ye County.

Xuan Mo immediately understood that he was heading in the wrong direction.He recalled that in Chen Qiyu's tent of the Chinese army, Wu Shigong skipped Li Lu and Zhao Ming, two high-ranking military officers, and took the initiative to answer Chen Qiyu.

Xuan Mo analyzed the relationship between these three people again. Zhao Ming was Wu Shigong's general in the past, and Li Lu has always called Wu Shigong "brother-in-law!", but there is no relationship between Li Lu and Zhao Ming, so this tiger head It must be Wu Shigong. (To be continued..)