Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

When news of the successive fall of Xiangyang, Wuchang and other places and the rebellion of Zuo Liangyu's tribe came one after another, Emperor Chongzhen decided that Wu Sheng would go to Huguang as the assistant minister.When he summoned his courtiers, he said to Wu Xin with tears in his eyes: "Qing has worked in a place where banditry is rampant for many years. If you have a strategy of war and defense, you can go to Huguang to be my supervisor."

Before that, except for Sun Chengzong in the early years of Chongzhen and Yang Sichang later, the ministers who supervised the division generally held the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War at most, and seldom were directly held by cabinet scholars.Therefore, the appointment of cabinet ministers and supervisors this time shows that Emperor Chongzhen is quite solemn.

But Wu Tong was very reluctant about this appointment.He knows that the general situation in the world is gone now, it is difficult for the officers and soldiers to restrain themselves, and it is impossible to wipe out the "rogue bandits".Since it is doomed to be impossible to succeed, going out to supervise the teacher is tantamount to going out to die, either at the hands of the peasant army, or being executed by the emperor after failure, or dying inexplicably like Yang Sichang, who will stay for a lifetime after death infamy.

But as a minister, Wu Xuan had to serve the king, and he could not do it.After accepting the appointment, he proposed: first, there should be [-] elite soldiers under his own command; second, he should first go down the canal to Nanjing, and then go back up the river.

It should be said that it is not too much for Wu Xuan to make these two demands.After all, the Qing army was still fighting in Xuzhou and the Grand Canal area at that time. When Wu Sheng went south, he was likely to meet the Qing army returning north.

However, in the view of Emperor Chongzhen, this was an excuse for Wu Sheng to deliberately avoid the important and ignore the minor.When discussing the matter with his cabinet ministers, he was very unhappy and said: "The capital is using troops against the Tartars. How can [-] elite soldiers be gathered in a hurry? Besides, Nanjing is far downstream, so why go to retreat now?"

But Wu Xuan replied: "Zuo Liangyu is arrogant and domineering. At that time, Yang Sichang, the supervisor, issued ten orders in a row, but he did not send a single soldier. What's more, Wu Shigong was crouching beside the tiger. The minister's talent is not as good as Yang Sichang. And Zuo Liangyu is currently The power is greater than before. The ministers have no soldiers in their hands, and they cannot control it, which will only damage the majesty of the court. It is very easy to attack Nanjing from Xiangyang downstream, so we should take care of it, not retreat."

And Emperor Chongzhen couldn't refute what Wu Zhen said, so he had to ask the Ministry of War to dispatch troops quickly, but he was extremely dissatisfied with Wu Zhen in his heart.The state affairs are in critical condition, and even the ministers don't need their lives, which makes him burst into anger.

But here we go.It can be seen that there is a little mystery, Emperor Chongzhen and the court have actually completely abandoned Hou Xun.As for why Hou Xun was not removed from his official position, it was just that the court wanted to use him to control Wu Shigong and Zuo Liangyu.

Fortunately, at this time, another auxiliary minister showed "good qualities", which made Emperor Chongzhen feel better.

That is the Chief Academician Zhou Yanru.According to the customs of the Qing army entering the customs.Just wait until the beginning of April, after the Qing army has finished looting.Will go back to the outside of the teacher.And on the way back to the teacher.The Qing army will pass by the capital again.Even though Emperor Chongzhen and his courtiers knew that the Qing soldiers were probably just passing through the capital this time, they still couldn't help feeling nervous.

And Zhou Yanru, who has always been shrewd, knows that the Qing soldiers will bring a large number of captured population, and he definitely has no intention of fighting again. He will never suffer any big losses in the military affairs of the defense of the capital, and as long as the Qing soldiers are sent out safely Outside the Great Wall, you can get rid of the enemy bandits.Defending the imperial court's great achievements.

Zhou Yanru also knew very well that the emperor was annoyed by Wu Zhen's procrastination and refusal to leave Beijing after he was appointed, and he needed a role model of courage among his ministers.For this reason, on the fourth day of April, he invited the governor of Beijing to defend against the enemy.And in the history of the Ming Dynasty.There has never been a precedent for the chief assistant personally commanding troops to fight.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied with Zhou Yanru's ingenious application, and was very happy. He felt that after all, he was his most trusted minister, who could help him solve problems in times of crisis, so he immediately approved Zhou Yanru's request.

However, Zhou Yanru's dispatch of troops this time was really swift and resolute. On the second day after the emperor's approval, he did not make any preparations at all, and left the city with a small number of officers and soldiers from the Beijing camp.

At this time, there were still three or four governors, five or six governors, seven or eight general soldiers in the Gyeonggi area, and there were more than [-] troops.But the commanders from all walks of life have set a policy of not contacting the enemy, just watching from the sidelines or slowly following them, so there is no battle to fight at all.

Zhou Yanru was well aware of these situations, but he also made up his mind that more things are worse than less things. He thought that the Qing army would go back to the country sooner or later anyway, so he just drank and had fun with his staff every day, and didn't care about the military situation.His wishful thinking really hit "bang bang", waiting for the Qing army to rush home and don't want to fight a tough battle, they will go straight to the Great Wall east of the capital, and then walk away leisurely.

Zhou Yanru is very familiar with the tricks in the officialdom and on the battlefield. He beheaded the stragglers and some innocent refugees captured by the officers and soldiers from all walks of life, and reported to the emperor that he had killed more than a hundred people in the battle with the enemy. expelled from the border.So a big victory and so on.They treated Emperor Chongzhen as a fool.

And Emperor Chongzhen was really happy that the first assistant governor had won the flag, because after all, there were too few good news of victory over the years.He rewarded Zhou Yanru time and time again, bestowing gold coins, and he also wanted to wait for his class teacher to return to the court, and then promote him to the Grand Master and Grand Master of Zhongji Hall.Under such a contrast, Emperor Chongzhen hated Wu Zhen even more, and soon issued an order to reprimand Wu Zhen for delaying his stay, ordering him to stop joining the direct cabinet.Wu Xuan had to apologize and asked to resign from his post.This request was granted immediately.

But paper can't contain fire at all, and Zhou Yanru can't cover up his true thoughts at all.Because the most critical point is: the current Qing army has not returned to the north at all, they are still fighting fiercely with the Runing army in the Xuzhou-Heze area.

So some officials impeached Zhou Yanru for "cunning and deceiving the emperor, and losing his teacher and humiliating the country".And Emperor Chongzhen didn't really believe it at first, but later Jinyiwei's spies reported the situation they found in Zhou Yanru's army, nothing more than saying how he wandered around the suburbs of Beijing and ignored military affairs; .

Only then did Emperor Chongzhen get furious, and even felt sad from it, feeling that all the ministers of civil and military affairs from the first to the first assistant were so fooled and deceived, and all of them were so irresponsible for the terrible situation in the world, and there was really no hope of turning the tide.

For many years, Emperor Chongzhen had always believed that the courtiers' party formation and perfunctory blamed the country's major affairs. At this time, the various performances of the two assistant ministers and supervisors proved the cunning, incompetence, shame and hatefulness of the courtiers.

At this time, the Qing army had not yet left the customs, and the Shun army was racing in the northwest again. Emperor Chongzhen was going to wait until the war came to an end before settling accounts later in the autumn.But he never expected that he would never wait until the day when the fall would be settled. (To be continued..)