Daming Military Empire

Chapter 76 A new look

It was snowing heavily in the capital in December, Zhu Cijiong finally returned to the Forbidden City after nearly two months of tour.When he left the palace, there were Qin Mingyue and Cao Huachun by his side, but when he came back, there were two extra oil bottles.

One is naturally Zheng Sen, the son of the South Prince of Xinke Town. Zhu Cijiong was afraid that if he stayed with Zheng Zhilong for a long time, he would become a merchant's philistine, so he simply brought him to the capital.Although Zheng Chenggong was a famous hero in Nanming, he still considered his own interests too much in some things. Zhu Cijiong wanted Xu Guangqi and others to educate him well, so that he could lose his selfishness and become a pure patriotic youth.

The other one was not Wang Zhengnan but Liu Rushi. After all, Wang Zhengnan was a young man of fifteen or sixteen years old, and it was inappropriate to bring him into the palace. Zhu Cijiong directly asked him to follow Qin Yiming and the others to the Beijing camp.Liu Rushi is different, she is a beautiful little beauty herself, and she was bought out by Xu Wenjue, so she is the confiscated family members of the convicts, and should be treated as slaves, Zhu Cijiong thought he was pitiful, so he simply took her as well. together into the palace.

Of course, this was not because Zhu Cijiong was lustful. At his age, he couldn't even think about sex. He was mainly thinking about Zheng Sen.Isn't Zheng Sen only six years old, and he needs someone to take care of him in daily life. It just so happens that Liu Rushi is dedicated to serving people, and he is proficient in all kinds of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, so it is perfect for her to take care of Zheng Sen.

Zheng Sen was the most active at this age, he had just got off the dragon carriage, and when he saw the snowflakes all over the sky, he pulled Zhu Cijiong's sleeve and said excitedly: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, let's build a snowman to play together! "

He finally knew Zhu Cijiong's identity, and stopped calling "third brother, third brother", but his tone didn't sound like he was talking to the emperor!

Zhu Cijiong didn't really care about this. He was a modern person, and he didn't pay much attention to superiority and inferiority. He reluctantly pretended to be in front of ministers, but he didn't even bother to pretend in front of his own people.

He was still a little moved by Zheng Sen's suggestion. Although it's not interesting to build a snowman with a kid, it's different when there are two stunning beauties next to him.

Naihe really didn't have time, so he could only regretfully say: "I still have a lot of things to do, Mingyue, you can take them to play, and arrange a place for them by the way, just choose a compound in the East Sixth Palace. No one lives there."

Sometimes Zhu Cijiong is really lonely. In the huge palace, there are only three masters living in him and the empress dowager. The rest are eunuchs and maids. He can't find a playmate, and he can be regarded as the loneliest emperor in history.

Now that he had Qin Mingyue and Zheng Sen, he was not so lonely at all. Looking at their backs going away, Zhu Cijiong smiled and shook his head, then turned and walked towards the imperial study.

Before he left the capital, although he ordered the regent Zhu Youjian to handle state affairs with full power, but some things could not be done without the nod of the real emperor.

For example, Han Kuang, Minister of the Ministry of Officials and a scholar of the Wuyingdian University, resigned. Would Zhu Youjian dare to criticize it?
For another example, Sun Chengzong, the Grand Tutor, the Grand Master of the Zhongji Temple, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and the chief assistant of the cabinet, asked himself to stay in Jiliao forever. Would Zhu Youjian dare to agree?

The first thing Zhu Cijiong had to deal with was these two matters. These two were cabinet scholars. You must know that there are only four people in the cabinet. This is half gone. If they don't deal with it, the entire court will be paralyzed!

When he came to the imperial study, he carefully read Han Kuang's memorial. The reason for his resignation was very simple. He was old and frail and could no longer serve as an official.Well, Han Kuang is over 60, he is indeed old, but the problem is that Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong are older than him, why are these two people not old and frail?

In fact, Zhu Cijiong knew that the real reason was the corruption scandal of Qian Qianyi and others in the Donglin Party.Corrupt officials have appeared in the Donglin Party, which has always been advertised as clean and honest, and not just one or two. Han Kuang, as the veteran of the Donglin Party and Minister of the Ministry of Officials, has brought up many of them. How embarrassing do you think this is? Ah, he really had no face to stay any longer, so he resigned.

Zhu Cijiong feels that this is good. Once the official secretary of the Donglin Party comes to power, they will have fewer opportunities to promote officials. slow to heal.It's not that he must have trouble with the Donglin Party, but that he already dislikes all acts of forming cliques for personal gain. He will try his best to suppress any clique, whether it is the Donglin Party or the Fushe.

Now that Han Kuang has submitted his resignation, of course Zhu Cijiong will not hold him back. He signaled Zhu Youjian to approve a "permission", and then asked Cao Huachun to draw up an imperial decree to commend Han Kuang's achievements and reward him with ten thousand taels of silver. Han Kuang went home to retire in peace.

Like Han Kuang, Sun Chengzong was ashamed by Qian Qianyi's corruption scandal. He originally wanted to resign, but he was the teacher of the first emperor. Emperor Tianqi took Zhu Cijiong's hand and entrusted him to him when he was dying. Wouldn't it be a disservice to the late emperor if the emperor let go of his pick before he grew up?
Sun Chengzong was a man of affection and righteousness, and his affection for the first emperor was particularly deep. Since the first emperor entrusted him with his loneliness, no matter what, he would not let him go until Emperor Chongzheng came of age.After thinking twice, he chose to go far away to Liaodong. Now the biggest threat to Daming is Houjin. He is going to go all out to deal with Houjin and try his best to drag Houjin to Liaodong, so that Daming will lose a deadly threat. , Slowly he will be able to regain his vitality. If he can persist until the day of Daming Zhongxing, he will be worthy of the late emperor.Of course, if he can defeat Houjin and regain Liaodong in his lifetime, then he will die without regret.

Zhu Cijiong read Sun Chengzong's memorials carefully, feeling his sorrow and unswerving loyalty to Daming until his death, and he couldn't calm down for a long time.How could such a loyal minister and good general let him die tragically in Liaodong? After thinking for a long time, Zhu Cijiong suddenly stood up and said in a loud voice: "The decree is to make Sun Chengzong the Duke of the Town, and the hereditary will not replace him. Both the guards and the frontier troops will be under his command, and a reward of 100 million taels of silver will be used as a means of payment."

Zhu Youjian glanced at Zhu Cijiong in surprise. This is nothing more than the Duke of the Town. The soldiers and horses in Liaodong, Shandong, and Jizhou account for more than half of the current Ming army. Is it appropriate to hand them all over to an outsider?But he thought about Sun Chengzong's character carefully, and he was relieved again. Sun Chengzong is indeed a trustworthy person, and it is impossible for such a person to rebel.

After dealing with Han Kuang and Sun Chengzong's affairs, the next step is the promotion of officials. There are too many Donglin Party members involved in the Jiangnan corruption case, and a large number of officials have been sacked, so it is natural to find someone to replace them.

Not to mention the officials sent to Shaanxi by Qian Qianyi, they have already arranged for people from Fushe to take over. There are still many Donglin party members in the court who have been implicated. It is the "speech officer" that even the emperor dares to scold.

It can be said that Zhu Cijiong has suffered enough from these "speech officials", and memorials fly over like snowflakes at every turn. It's okay if you don't listen to them. Noisy, making the whole court restless, because of the ancestral system, you can't clean them up, it's really 'the tofu fell into the ashes, you can't blow it, you can't beat it. 'Can annoy people to death.

This time the group of 'tofu' were all rotten, Zhu Cijiong naturally stepped them into the ashes unceremoniously, and then replaced them all with Jinshi in the first year of Chongzheng. He made a fuss.After a big change of blood, these officials are really supervising the officials for the emperor, not the emperor for the officials.

With the problem of the speech officer solved, only the candidate for the Minister of the Ministry of Officials is left. Zhu Cijiong was not polite this time, and directly promoted Yang Sichang, the right-handed governor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who is still unknown, as the Minister of the Ministry of Officials!

Although Yang Sichang is not famous at all now, he was the most famous "Old Yang Ge" when Chongzhen was in power. I have always trusted Youjia, even if he was defeated and committed suicide in the end, Emperor Chongzhen did not blame him, but lamented unceasingly, as if he had lost his siblings.

However, Yang Sichang's reputation at that time was not good. Li Zicheng and other leaders of the peasant uprising army compared him to a treacherous official worse than Qin Hui. Many officials in the Ming court also believed that he was the chief culprit who killed Lu Xiangsheng.

In the chaotic history of the end of the Ming Dynasty, it is really hard to tell whether he is a good person or a bad person, but Zhu Cijiong values ​​him the most, that is loyalty. In such a desperate situation, he did not evade, but faced up to the difficulties, and personally led the army to deal with the enemy as the chief assistant. In the end, he failed, and he did not shirk his responsibility, but committed suicide and apologized.

In fact, Chongzhen did not misunderstand Yang Sichang. Yang Sichang has abilities. If nothing else, his ability to know people and make good use of them is unmatched. Like Sun Chuanting, he can be said to be the number one general in the late Ming Dynasty. Zuo Liangyu and Hong Chengchou, though They all surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in the end, but it is undeniable that they are all generals, and the leaders of the battles are more fierce than each other.

Even the much-maligned Xiong Wencan is an expert negotiator, Zheng Zhilong was the one who tricked him into surrendering, and Zhang Xianzhong was also persuaded to surrender by him.Of course, surrender and rebellion have become commonplace for a capricious villain like Zhang Xianzhong, and his thick skin is unmatched. When encountering such a guy, Xiong Wencan can only be blamed for being too reckless, and he cannot be said to have a problem with his ability.

After some adjustments, the Ming court has taken on a new look. The four great scholars in the cabinet, Xu Guangqi and Yang Sichang are all trusted followers of Zhu Cijiong, Sun Chengzong is far away in Liaodong, and basically no longer expresses any opinions. The officials of the Shangdonglin Party were almost cleaned up by him, and no one would jump out to speak against him again. Only at this time did Zhu Cijiong truly achieve the golden eloquence and keep his promises.

So far, the internal friction problem of the Ming Dynasty has been solved, and there is no need to worry about the lack of funds. Not counting the confiscated [-] million taels of silver, the tax revenue for one year alone is enough for all the current expenses of the imperial court. With the income of the Daming Western Trading Company, expanding the army is no longer a dream. The peasant uprising army and the post-gold iron cavalry will be dealt with one by one, and the road to becoming a powerful country will begin from here.

(End of this chapter)