Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 598 Countdown to Destruction

Blossoms bloom inside the wall and fragrance outside the wall. When the bourgeoisie of the Ming Dynasty is ushering in a new spring in Japan and Southeast Asia, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, as the ruling center, has already fallen into the coldest cold moon of the severe winter. The blizzard from the north is overwhelming. It soaked through the whole Hebei land, making people feel cold.

Zhou Yanru is like this.

In Tongzhou government office, sixteen symphony singing girls are stacked on top of each other like lotus flowers, and their waving sleeves are like cherry blossoms moving with the wind in the spring breeze. In the whole lobby, more than a dozen stoves were set up for heating. But even so, Zhou Yanru still felt the biting cold wind, and couldn't stop pulling the big padded jacket on his body a little tighter.

The chill comes from the heart.

The current situation couldn't be more obvious. The tens of thousands of people from the Jingying and Jizhen are not the opponents of Jiannu at all. Go out to fight?I'm afraid that if you don't go out of the city, you will have to collapse yourself. In the second and third years of Chongzhen, when King Qin's edict was issued, the scene of King Qin's soldiers swarming from all directions is gone. The soldiers from Huguang, Shaanxi can't get through, and the rest of the people are not wronged. Talking about the lack of food and pay, they simply dragged their illnesses out, and some even handed over their resignations to the Ministry of War. Even Xuanda's frontier soldiers, who used to be a barrier for the capital, sent more than 1000 old, weak and sick just for symbolic purposes this time. Disabled.

There is no way, the imperial court is really chilling, not to mention the lack of food and pay, the general who fought loyally for the imperial court to the last soldier was executed for the crime of defeating the war, and those cunning people who hid far away He was rewarded for his work, let’s take Song Qingshu, the general of the Huaihe River, as an example. If these credits were enough in the past, General Pingliao was only reluctantly granted the title when the court wanted to send him to Liaodong to rescue Hong Chengchou. Zuo Liangyu, the top general, has a high gold content.

Come and go, who is willing to give his life to the dog emperor!
However, it was a different scene when the battle fell into Zhou Yanru's hands.

"I report to Your Majesty, the minister in charge of the Beijing camp, Wang Shipinghu, strangled and killed the captives. He worked conscientiously. He did not dare to fall asleep day and night. He worked hard in the army and marched through thorns and thorns. Finally, at noon on the [-]th, he chased the enemy to the south of Jimen. In the decisive battle, three battles and three victories, the captive fled to Pi County on the night of the [-]th, I owed the holy grace, and failed to complete my meritorious service in one battle, please punish me!"

After the main content was written, some plain and parallel prose was added before and after to embellish it. A ten-thousand-word memorial that pleaded guilty in name but actually pleaded for merit was written. After drying the ink, Zhou Yanru carefully sealed the yellow paper, and immediately faced it. They clapped their hands outside the door.

"Send it to the capital!"

More than a dozen cavalry cavalrymen riding on the imperial horses were all glamorous and full of energy. They rode tall horses and rushed out of the government office. At the gate of Tongzhou City, every one of the "Army of Victory" was ragged, yellow and thin, and yawned lazily. Opening the city gate, before these military masters could go out, outside the city gate, refugees from Jimen County who had just "greatly won" rushed in, crying and panicking. The eyes are like being in the ghosts and ghosts, which makes people shudder.

These imperial horse inspectors were still whipping their horsewhips before rushing out of the crowd abruptly.

Tongzhou is only half a day away from the capital, and that night, this memorial was placed on the dragon case of Emperor Chongzhen.

Although the country is raging with war, these days are indeed the happiest days since Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne. He asked for this memorial from the cabinet almost immediately. Zhou Yanru read every word of the whole nonsense, and then patted his legs and shouted excitedly.

"Okay, what a Zhou Yanru, you are worthy of being the chief assistant of the imperial court, and won the battle of Jimen again! The prisoner fled to Pi County, and he will be expelled from our Ming Dynasty in a short time!"

Nodding his head in approval was not enough, so Emperor Chongzhen swiped his pen again, and wrote four large characters at the back of the memorial.

What a crime!

After reviewing it in person, Emperor Chongzhen shouted excitedly to the door again: "Big companion, pass on my will, allocate 1000 taels of internal funds, ten boxes of brocade satin, East Sea pearls, and Sichuan tribute tea, and give them to Zhou University. In recognition of his warlord’s hardships! For his achievements in victory, Zhou Xingli, the son of Zhou Yanru, was born in a thousand households, and he will leave Beijing immediately!”

The first companion was Wang Chengen, but the emperor's excitement did not make him excited. Instead, he stepped in with a frown. His old slack face seemed to be tangled up for a few minutes before he made up his mind and took out a black book from behind. When the leather memorial came, he hurriedly handed over the dragon case with both hands.

"Your Majesty, Commander Luo Yangxing of the Jinyiwei has sent an urgent report, please read it!"

Jinyiwei belongs to the emperor's private intelligence organization, which specializes in inspecting officials. However, Jinyiwei and Dongchang have also become tools for party struggle. When the power ministers Yan Song and Zhang Juzheng were strong, the reports of Jinyiwei had to be reviewed by the chief assistant. , Jin Yiwei's eyes, ears and tongue fell into their hands again, in short, it was not in the emperor's hands.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen was not surprised at all by Wang Chengen's acceptance of the memorial. On the contrary, he frowned and took it in astonishment. He stretched out his hand and knocked all the memorials on the table to the ground.

"You bully me, you are shameless, you bastard!"

Emperor Chongzhen was trembling with anger. Luo Yangxing's memorial completely revealed the source of his happiness during this period, Zhou Yanru's. The facts revealed above are simply outrageous. Zhou Yanru There was no command to fight a battle at all, and they kept retreating in Tongzhou with the army, and sat and watched as the Houjin army entered the pass from Qiangziling, penetrated Shandong, and fought all the way to Haizhou on the border of South Zhili, and finally returned with a full load, calmly Retreat along Hebei to Liaodong.

Every time Zhou Yanru repays his meritorious service, the local government reports where it was breached and where it was looted. Jin Yiwei has a rich source of information, and almost every memorial for his meritorious service can be reported with the local government for his funeral. match.

"Is this true?"

After all, Emperor Chongzhen was suspicious and lost his temper for a long time, but he restrained his anger, sat back on the dragon chair gloomily, and asked Wang Chengen, but Wang Chengen clasped his fists in a very flat manner.

"Your Majesty, this old slave doesn't know either!"

"However, the cavalier knight who came to report his meritorious service is still in the palace. Why don't His Majesty inquire?"

After all, Zhou Yanru, as the chief assistant, has a general overview of power, jealousy in the court, and too many gossips. I don’t know how many imperial envoy memorials impeach Zhou Yanru every day. Under suspicion, the emperor still summoned the knights who reported the news, and even sent trusted eunuchs Went to Tongzhou to verify, and finally, after several months, the biggest lie of the Ming Dynasty was exposed.

The wall was overthrown by everyone, and as the lies about false military achievements were shattered, letters of impeachment from the imperial envoy officials who were dissatisfied with Zhou Yanru's monopoly flew to the Forbidden City like snowflakes.

On the third day of August, the Qing army withdrew from the customs, and Zhou Yanru was ordered to return to Beijing. On the fifth day of August, once again, the majestic first assistant university scholar of the Ming Dynasty was directly deprived of all positions and detained at home, waiting for the joint trial of the three courts. Zhou Yanru wrote several times to commit suicide. Please exile, Emperor Chongzhen, who was in a rage, didn't even agree.

The causal relationship between events in the world is really amazing. The Qing army entered the pass, and the suffering of the Ming Empire came to an end temporarily. However, the matter of Zhou Yanru caused another event.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and the Forbidden City is busy preparing for the festival again. The eunuchs are diligently cleaning the palaces, and the nobles in the palace are also preparing chrysanthemum wine and moon cakes. However, what happened to Zhou Yanru? Thinking about the festival, just after dealing with Zhou Yanru, Zhu Youjian locked himself in the imperial study angrily.

But at this time, another military report from afar was rushed into the palace, this time it was from Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, asking for payment from the emperor.

Since the defeat of Persimmon Garden last year, the Shaanxi government army has been recuperating behind Tongguan. Established a regime in Xiangyang.

However, Zheng Chongjian's situation is much more difficult than that of Sun Chuanting in history. In terms of governing the people's livelihood, Zheng Chongjian, who was born as a governor of Shaanxi, may be better than Sun Chuanting, but his only shortcoming is that he is not ruthless enough!
In order to support the army, Sun Chuanting, like a robber, forcibly collected salaries from the big landlords in Shaanxi, recovered the taxes owed over the years, and collected the land occupied by the local tyrants. There are 2 famous train camps, but Zheng Chongjian is not Sun Chuanting after all, he does not have the courage to offend the tyrants in Shaanxi, and Emperor Chongzhen only gave [-] people less than half a year's military pay. Much weaker.

Zheng Chongjian did not promise five thousand elite soldiers to fight against the bandits, so he had no choice but to send a memorial to the court asking for payment!
Today, however, coincided with the day when Emperor Chongzhen was the most angry and the officials under Duo's hands were the most distrustful, so the Pandora's box was opened!
"Damn things!"

The memorial for payment was torn to shreds, rage stood up, and Zhu Youjian's aging face due to anxiety was distorted like a pig's liver, roaring and kicking over the table.

"Zheng Chongjian supervised the Qin division for a year, wasted his salary, and made no achievements. He is simply mediocre! Come, pass the decree to the cabinet, and immediately order Zheng Chongjian to go out to fight against the bandits. Otherwise, he will be dismissed and investigated immediately!"

"Your Majesty!"

As soon as Emperor Chongzhen finished yelling this sentence, Wang Chengen, who was waiting beside him, was frightened, knelt down in panic, and knocked his head heavily in front of the imperial case.

"Your Majesty only has this one property, please think twice!"

(End of this chapter)