Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

At the end of August in the ninth year of Chongzhen, at the gate of the county government office in Huanggang County.

Tang Liu stuffed a small package containing silver into the hands of a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar, then cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, sir."

The middle-aged scribe shook the weight of the small package, and replied flatly: "No problem! But Mr. Tang, don't come to Huanggang either."

Tang Liu clenched his teeth, tried hard to swallow the anger in his heart, and replied: "The villain will take people away."

After finishing speaking, Tang Liu greeted the dozens of attendants he had brought, loaded the two wounded people who were thrown out of the county government into the cart, and then walked outside the county seat.

This time Tang Liu went out to find a pier for the navy of the Runing Army. With Tang Liu's relationship with the Cao Gang, it went smoothly in Hongze Lake.But when he came to Huanggang County, he was immediately thrown out by the local evil gentry.

I won't say much about the specific process of being cheated.To put it simply: that is, Tang Liu took a fancy to a piece of land that could be used to build a wharf, and the gentry who owned the land immediately raised the price.

Tang Liu swallowed his anger and bought it at a high price, but the gentry secretly mobilized the locals to sabotage it.Tang Liu spent more money to settle the locals, but when he saw that Tang Liu had a lot of stupid money, the gentry immediately colluded with the government and even snatched the money.

Out of anger, Tang Liu wanted to argue, of course, but the magistrate arrested two of Tang Liu's followers, beat them up and threw them into prison.If it weren't for Tang Liu's official body given by the Runing Army, maybe Tang Liu would also be caught and thrown into prison. [

So Tang Liu immediately sent a letter to Wu Shigong for help, but he didn't expect the reply to be: Regardless of the lawsuit, rescue the person as soon as possible and rush back to Runing Mansion.

Of course Wu Shigong would not explain to Tang Liu that the Runing Army is about to start a battle with the Peasant Army in Xiangyang, so all nearby Runing Army personnel will evacuate.

So Tang Liu who left Huanggang County was quite depressed, he thought angrily: "I will definitely get it back this time!"

Not to mention Tang Liu's depression, Wen Tiren, the chief assistant in Beijing, is also quite depressed.

Wen Tiren is this person.In fact, there are many similarities with Emperor Chongzhen.They are the same clean and self-disciplined; the same headstrong; the same mean and cruel;Perhaps it is this kind of fit in character that is the real basis for their meeting between monarchs and ministers.

However, as the war situation at home and abroad became more and more corrupt, people in the ruling and opposition circles and even ordinary people became more and more dissatisfied with the imperial court.In particular, the two rampages of the Manchu Qing Dynasty on the outskirts of Beijing caused the nobles and common people in the capital to lose a lot of property, which caused the dissatisfaction of the officials and people in the capital to the imperial court to rise sharply.

Of course, those people in the government and the opposition did not dare to target Emperor Chongzhen, so they concentrated their hatred on the chief assistant Wen Tiren.

In the seventh year of the Chongzhen Examination, Wen Tiren was the chief examiner, and one of the examiners named Qi Yuan dared to make use of the questions in the examination paper.It is disrespectful to benevolent and disrespectful.Wen Zhenmeng, the house examiner who marked the test papers, was overjoyed to see such an article, and commented: "I want to meet him."

Wen Tiren knew that he was scolding himself, but he chose Qiyuan calmly.It was only after the exam that he complained in the cabinet: "Outsiders said that we have to enter the examination room to accept a few students. Our status today does not depend on the students. Besides, there are people who scold me in the examination room."

Colleagues asked what was going on, and he said: "At the end of his stereotyped article, he specifically talked about disrespectful ministers. Dare not to take him? Where dare not to take him?"

From this point of view, Wen Tiren at this time already knew that he had become a scapegoat for the crimes of Emperor Chongzhen, and he also realized that he had betrayed his relatives.

Later, the scholars in the capital compiled a pair of couplets according to current affairs, because Huang Shijun, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, was the number one scholar in Ding Weike.Kong Zhenyun and Chen Zizhuang, the servants on the left and right, won the No. [-] and Tanhua respectively. The three chief officials happened to be Sanding Jia, and it was said to be a good story, so the first couplet is "The Ministry of Rites re-opened the Tianbang. No. [-], No. [-], Tanhua, some panic ( Huang, Kong)", although it is slightly sarcastic, it is still well-intentioned.

But the second couplet is very unsightly. It uses the Xieyin of several cabinet ministers from their hometowns. Become a brothel, tortoise (return), bastard (ba), bamboo strips, always suffer from plague (warm)".

Because of the relief, this pair of calling the cabinet a brothel was widely circulated inside and outside the capital, and the cabinet ministers could only smile wryly when they heard it.It should be said: The scholar who compiled this kind of couplet is definitely a master at writing Weibo and short messages nowadays.As for whether it will be forwarded [-] times?That depends on his luck.

If he just moved his mouth, Wen Tiren wouldn't be afraid of being scalded by boiling water, but at this moment, someone made a move. [

The mother of Chengde, the former magistrate of Ziyang, who was severely punished, waited for Wen Tiren's sedan chair on Chang'an Street for days in the ninth year of Chongzhen.

You know, although Chengde, the former magistrate of Ziyang County, was responsible for losing the city, his time in office was so short that even Emperor Chongzhen thought he was guilty, but Wen Tiren never mentioned the word probation, and Chengde was finally executed.

But when Emperor Chongzhen found out about this, he specially sent fifty guards for Wen Tirenjia, but he was unwilling to go to war with a rambunctious old lady.This made Wu Shigong feel ashamed.

Of course Wen Tiren knew about this bad situation, and in order to keep his position as chief assistant, he brazenly decided to stand up.And this time his target was Qian Yiqian, one of the leaders of the Donglin Party.Wen Tiren was determined to really kill a big tiger and show it to the officials.

But Wen Tiren didn't know that, unknowingly, there was a minister who quietly replaced Wen Tiren's position in Emperor Chongzhen's heart, and that was Yang Sichang.

Yang Sichang, with weak writing skills, was born in a scholarly family.Both Yang Sichang and his father Yang He were born as military supervisors.

Yang Sichang is the son of Yang He, the former governor of Shaanxi Province. Yang He was arrested and punished for the failure of the peasant uprising. He was serving as a soldier in Shanhaiguan. Wei Chongjun.

So from this point of view, Emperor Chongzhen had a personal favor for Yang Sichang, and Yang Sichang was very grateful for this, and he was loyal to Emperor Chongzhen.Yang Sichang is erudite and strong in memory, and has been in the army for many years. He has his own opinions on military strategy, and he is excellent in writing and eloquence, and is good at expressing. appreciation.The most important thing is that Emperor Chongzhen believed that Yang Sichang was a loyal minister and filial son.

In the summer of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang was promoted to be the censor of Youqian capital and governor of Yongping Mountains and Seas, taking on the important task of defending the Qing army;But in the second year his father died in the garrison, and soon his stepmother also died at home. According to the usual practice, he left his post and returned to his hometown to guard the system. It is reasonable that he should not be appointed by the court until the three-year period expires.However, when the country was in urgent need of talents, Emperor Chongzhen finally decided to seize the situation, and Yang Sichang succeeded the Minister of the Ministry of War.

It should be said that Yang Sichang is a very capable person, and he also has unique insights in the military. He is not a person with great ambitions and few talents as described in some romances.

But Yang Sichang has two major flaws in his character: one is that he is jealous of the virtuous and capable, and wants to take power alone; the other is that he is too entrusted to others and cannot bear his due responsibilities.So in the chaos of the late Ming Dynasty, his performance was destined to be a tragedy.

Because the Qing army entered the inland one after another, like entering the land of the people, which greatly stimulated Emperor Chongzhen, and also aroused his desire for capable military talents.Before that, he had personally promoted Wang Qia and Liang Tingdong to be Ministers of the Ministry of War, but they were not satisfied, and because the Qing army came to the city, one was executed and the other committed suicide.

At this time, there were vacancies in the two important positions of Shangshu of the Ministry of War and Governor of Xuanda. He hoped to appoint someone who was truly talented and courageous and could help him save the situation.

After careful deliberation, Emperor Chongzhen finally decided to transfer Lu Xiang, the Prime Minister of the Five Provinces, who was on the front line of encircling and suppressing the peasant army, to be promoted to Governor of Xuanda, and appointed the former Governor of Xuanda, Yang Sichang, who was mourning at home, as Minister of the Ministry of War.

In the nine-year reign of Emperor Chongzhen, this time the personnel arrangement was probably the most careful and appropriate.Lu Xiangsheng was young and resolute, and he managed the army well. He showed extraordinary talents in dealing with the peasant army for many years, and was recognized as one of the courtiers with the most military talents.

Since the peasant uprising eased a little after Gao Yingxiang was captured, Emperor Chongzhen transferred Lu Xiang to an important northern town. On the one hand, he wanted to strengthen the defense force in the Gyeonggi area, and on the other hand, he wanted to conduct further investigations on him nearby for future presidency. Candidates for the Ministry of War.

As for the appointment of Yang Sichang, it was beyond the surprise of ordinary courtiers.Because the Ming Dynasty has always advertised filial piety to rule the world, under normal circumstances, it is always necessary to avoid the occurrence of seductive things, and occasionally, most of them will cause criticism from court officials.However, Emperor Chongzhen knew that this decision might be opposed by many people under the situation that the courtiers were singing the high-profile Neo Confucianism, but he still made up his mind.

The appointment of Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang seems to indicate that the Chongzhen emperor has now ruled, and he feels more deeply the importance of using practical talents with real talents and practical learning.Although Wen Tiren and Yiliu are easy to use and easy to communicate emotionally, it is somewhat unreliable to rely on them to get out of the crisis.

Probably it was this kind of thinking that made his love for Wen Tiren suddenly cool down. Although he still liked this veteran minister who was connected with him emotionally, he no longer had the enthusiasm to defend his position as chief assistant for him.

But it's still too early to say all of this, and Yang Sichang's performance will depend on Wen Tiren's resignation.

As for the current Runing Army, all their attention is focused on Xiangyang where the peasant army is gathered. (to be continued...)