Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 136 Convening the Highest Level Military Meeting

Gao Hongtu's whistleblower made Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian realize that the enemies he was facing now were not limited to slaves, bandits and warlords from the outside world.

What he had to admit was that there were still Donglin officials who were still unwilling to give up and were unwilling to lose their control over politics.

The pursuit of interests has prompted these so-called elites to challenge Zhu Youjian's bottom line again and again. Of course, it is not only Zhu Youjian who has to be their enemy.

In fact, in the original history, after the Manchu Qing ruled the Central Plains, these Donglin Party officials who surrendered to the Manchu Qing in an attempt to continue their second-class masters were not reconciled to being deprived of political power, and began to surrender and rebel.

For example, Qian Qianyi and his like, if they really wanted Ming Dynasty and fought for Huaxia, why wait until the overall situation is settled before suddenly fighting for Ming Dynasty? It is obviously dissatisfied with the fact that the military aristocrats of the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not give them ideal political treatment.

Zhu Youjian felt like walking on thin ice, as if he was dancing on the tip of a knife, and he would be stabbed inadvertently and covered in blood.

However, in any era, there are rational people who are not completely blinded by their own class interests. Although Gao Hongtu is a big boss in Donglin, he may also be cowardly, but at least he can distinguish right from wrong. After being frightened by the head, he finally chose to stand on the emperor's side.

Zhu Youjian's original purpose was this. He wanted to disintegrate the Donglin Party through certain means.

The Donglin Party is just a collective representing the gentry group in the south of the Yangtze River, without a clear political program and political leadership. From a certain point of view, it is just a general loose sand, not a political party. The political parties that dominate the world and even the global situation are even further behind.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian's goal is easily achieved. Once a person like Gao Hongtu realizes that the cost of betraying the king is out of proportion to the gains and losses of consolidating his own class interests, he will not hesitate to betray other members of the Donglin Party. After all, the current Donglin Party does not have any clear political beliefs. It is nothing more than a dispute over how many of the six cabinets in the court are people who speak for businessmen and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Zhu Youjian did not choose to execute Gao Hongtu because he needed this kind of person who betrayed his own class. Once such a person betrayed his own class, he would become a loner, and he could only fight side by side with him and become his confidant.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian will continue to reuse Gao Hongtu, and now he let Gao Hongtu continue to play the role of double agent between himself and the Donglin Party as the second assistant of the cabinet.

Or Zhang Shenyan and others think that kidnapping the cabinet deputy Gao Hongtu is tantamount to placing an eyeliner around Zhu Youjian, and they can also create a bright Donglin Party leader. Even if they launch an offensive, they will let Gao Hongtu's disciples do it, and he To be the boss behind the scenes is like the trick played by Gu Xiancheng, the founder of Donglin Academy.

However, what Zhang Shenyan didn't know was that Gao Hongtu, the second assistant to the cabinet, was not Wang Jiaping of the Wanli Dynasty, Zhu Youjian was not Wanli Zhu Yijun, and today's Ming Dynasty was not the Wanli period when the prosperous age was still there.

Naturally, Zhang Shenyan would not have thought that Gao Hongtu had actually become Emperor Zhu Youjian's eyeliner in the Donglin Party.

When Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian asked Gao Hongtu to continue acting as the second assistant of the cabinet and Donglin boss, Zhu Youjian immediately convened officials from the Generalissimo's Office and the Ministry of War to discuss Chongzhen's 18-year military strategy.

Gao Hongtu's informant revealed a relatively important military intelligence, that is, the Donglin Party also has its own army near Nanjing City, and although this army is not large in number, it is actually cavalry. Although it is not a big threat, it is also Can not ignore.

Li Banghua, Zhou Yuji, Ma Shiying, Liu Fangliang, Li Mingrui, Shi Kefa, Jin Xuan, Lu Zhenfei, and Liu Kongzhao were ordered to enter the palace successively.

After all the important officials involved in the military system had arrived, Zhu Youjian began to gather these ministers to the Grand Marshal's Mansion of the Qianqing Palace.

The so-called Grand Marshal’s Mansion is actually a military institution composed of a row of low wing rooms by Zhu Youjian in the Longzong Gate on the left side of Qianqing Gate. It is in Nanjing and it is in Daming, so it is called the Grand Marshal's Mansion.

The cabinet of the Ming Dynasty was in Wenyuan Pavilion, and the Grand Marshal's Mansion was in Qianqingmen. The Grand Marshal's Mansion was obviously the closest to the emperor Zhu Youjian, which also showed that the military power of the Grand Marshal's Mansion was above the cabinet.

Since this is an era of war, Zhu Youjian wanted to emphasize military rule, and naturally no one raised any objections.

It's just worth mentioning that since then, the Ministry of War has been considered a relatively complicated department, because it has to accept the dual leadership of the Generalissimo's Office and the Cabinet.

Fortunately, Ma Shiying, Minister of the Ministry of War, is both a member of the cabinet and a member of the Generalissimo's Mansion, so it is convenient for him to manage the Ministry of War as Minister of the Ministry of War.

But in this way, his authority is not insignificant, he is equivalent to the chief assistant of the cabinet, with one person under ten thousand.

At the moment when Zhu Youjian intends to clarify the separation of military and political powers, there are not many military and political officials like Ma Shiying who can be caught by the military and government. In addition, because he is an eunuch, he is easily envied by the Donglin Party.

"The spring breeze is green on the south bank of the river. When will the bright moon shine on me? Although it is spring now, like me, you all bear the heavy responsibility of the safety of this beautiful river and mountain, and you all bear the responsibility of the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty and the recovery of the northern capital by hundreds of millions of people. I have a hunch, and I believe you can also realize that the first half of Chongzhen's 18th year is definitely more dangerous than that of Chongzhen's 17th year. The bandit Li Zicheng has been recuperating for half a year, and his heart of peeping in the south is clearly revealed. Zuo Liangyu, a family thief, wants to raise millions of soldiers to cross the river without any secrecy. Even children in Jiangnan know that he is going to raise troops, which shows how powerful this person is. Madness!"

"Ma Shiying, you are the chief of staff of the Generalissimo's Mansion. Let me tell you about it. Now I have a clear understanding of the strength of each army and the real strength of these enemies. Then we will discuss how to prepare!"

After Zhu Youjian said that, he asked all the officials present to sit down. Although there are differences between monarchs and ministers, there is no need to ignore the physiological structure of people in order to emphasize the hierarchical order. It is true that standing for a long time cannot concentrate on thinking about strategies.

What's more, everyone is busy preparing the army and dealing with the political situation in the court, and they are all very tired. Zhu Youjian's gift to sit down and discuss matters is also a show of favor.

According to the information provided by Jin Yiwei Wu Mengming, Ma Shiying made preparations all night, and when he stood up at this moment, he replied with confidence: "Everyone knows that the army currently controlled by the Ming Dynasty mainly consists of the Guards and the Guards. According to the statistics of the Ministry of War, there are now more than 180 million troops in these two types of troops!"

(End of this chapter)