When the Tiger and Leopard Army seized Huairen County, which had been burned into ruins from the rebels, a routine court meeting in the Golden Palace of Beijing was in full swing.

Faced with the memorials of the Ming Dynasty that either bandits were rampant and demanding the court to send troops to reinforce, or the local area encountered natural disasters and demanding the court to provide relief. Since he sat on the dragon throne in the Golden Palace, Emperor Chongzhen's frowns had never relaxed.

Just after Emperor Chongzhen refuted a memorial asking the court for disaster relief, a eunuch suddenly walked in from the side door of the Golden Palace. Without everyone paying attention, he handed the two memorials to the eunuch general manager Wang Chengen and whispered a few words.

At the beginning, Wang Chengen, who was solemn when Chongzhen frowned, showed a hint of joy in the blink of an eye.

He quickly walked to the center of the hall and bowed to Chongzhen on the dragon throne and said, "Your Majesty, I have good news here... Here are two urgent memorials just sent by the General Office of Datong... The counterattack battle of the Tiger and Leopard Army against the Shanxi rebels has begun, and it is the first battle to win. This is a memorial to report the victory. Please read it..."

"The Datong Army Newspaper, and it's a great victory..." Chongzhen's brow was still frowning, and quickly stretched out. He shouted at Wang Chengen: "Then why are you still standing there? Come on the express delivery... I have been in court for so long, and I finally heard good news... Hurry, big companion, bring up both memorials immediately..."

The first memorial that Chongzhen saw was undoubtedly a letter of victory signed by General Wei Zheng and Supervisor Cao Huachun.

When he saw Cao Huachun's signature and the war damage of the Tiger and Leopard Army, Emperor Chongzhen, who had always been self-centered, believed in the content of the memorial without thinking.

Not only that, the suspicion of the Tiger and Leopard Army's self-respecting force disappeared instantly due to the heavy casualties of the Tiger and Leopard Army.

Then, he ordered Wang Chengen: "Take another memorial to me, and read the content of this memorial to all court officials without missing a word, so that all court officials will be happy..."

When Chongzhen finished reading the second memorial, his face quickly turned from sunny to dark, revealing a hint of embarrassment. Wang Chengen had already finished reading the first memorial in front of all the court officials.

At this time, Wei Zheng was always regarded as his own. In the eyes of other forces in the court, Wei Zheng was also named his own. Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyiwei, who was the first to stand up and compliment Emperor Chongzhen.

"Congratulations to Your Majesty, the Tiger and Leopard Army was able to counterattack the rebels in such a short time and win the first battle. It was caused by your keen eye for your wise eyes... If it weren't for Your Majesty, you ordered Eunuch Cao to go to the Tiger and Leopard Army as the military supervisor, insisting on letting Wei Zheng make meritorious contributions and continue to stay in Datong Prefecture as the general of Datong, this holy war would never have come so quickly..."

After Luo Yangxing finished speaking, the other court officials reacted from the shocking good news.

At this moment, no matter whether they were willing or not, they all followed Luo Yangxing, knelt on the ground with their legs, and spoke to Chongzhen on the dragon chaise and said, "Congratulations to Your Majesty for his keen eyes..."

Seeing the smile on Chongzhen's face lasting for only a blink of an eye, it was quickly replaced by a hint of embarrassment. Luo Yang's personality, who was also very good at observing words and expressions, spoke very promptly.

"Your Majesty, the Tiger and Leopard Army has achieved such a great victory in Datong Prefecture. According to this momentum, it will not take long for the rebels entrenched in Shanxi to be eliminated by the Tiger and Leopard Army... Such good news, I am not very happy about Your Majesty..."

Chongzhen shook his head and replied: "The Tiger and Leopard Army lived up to expectations and counterattacked the rebels and won the first battle. I feel so relieved and happy from the bottom of my heart... But all my dear friends know one truth: war requires money..."

Speaking of this, Chongzhen waved his second memorial directly, and then spoke.

"This is the second memorial written to the court by Wei Zheng, general of Datong Prefecture, and Cao Huachun, general supervisor of the Tiger and Leopard Army... Because the Tiger and Leopard Army expand their army, the Datong General Office has reached a point where it is too late to make ends meet."

"The Datong General's Office has reached a point where it is unable to support the counterattack... In this case, in order to ensure that the counterattack continues, in order to allow the fallen soldiers to get full pensions, and the meritorious soldiers can get full rewards. The two jointly wrote memorials to me, asking the court to allocate the first silver for the counterattack rebels, 500,000 taels..."

"Everyone tells us, should the counterattack food and wages of 500,000 taels of silver be allocated or not..."

As soon as Chongzhen spoke, the Minister of Revenue in the hall stood up and said passionately: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue has no silver since last month... Even if Your Majesty agrees to allocate this food and money, the Ministry of Revenue cannot afford a tael of silver. Therefore, the old minister thinks that since the court gave the Datong General Office an imperial edict and asked the Tiger and Leopard Army to raise all the food and money by themselves, the 500,000 taels of silver should be solved by General Wei himself..."

The three people in the court, except for Emperor Chongzhen, the commander of the Jinyiwei Luo Yangxing, and Cao Huachun's direct boss Wang Chengen, did not want to see Wei Zheng make great contributions again, regain the trust of Emperor Chongzhen and be promoted.

Therefore, as soon as the Minister of Revenue finished speaking, the Minister of War followed and complained: "Your Majesty, not only does the Ministry of Revenue have no money, but the Ministry of War has no money either... The old minister thinks that the court can ignore the memorials of the General Office of Datong..."

"Yes... Why should Datong General Office ask for silver from the court? The court will give it to him. Shandong General Office asks silver from the court, but the court will not... You know, Shandong's bandits are no less likely than Shanxi..."

"If the court really has money, the most important thing to do should be disaster relief, not to give to the Datong General Office... If the court does not provide disaster relief, those hungry victims may very likely turn into new rebels..."

The more I spoke in front of me, the more I felt, but there was only one meaning, that was the court officials who refused to give silver. A hint of helplessness flashed across Emperor Chongzhen's face, because when the court was unable to make ends meet and had no money or food in his hands, even if he was the emperor, there was no way.

Reluctantly, Chongzhen was very unwilling to accept it.

Because, from the memorial sent by Cao Huachun and Wei Zheng, Chongzhen clearly felt the shortage of food and salary in the Tiger and Leopard Army, and the importance of the 500,000 taels of silver to the Tiger and Leopard Army launching this counterattack.

To put it more directly, with these 500,000 taels of silver, the Tiger and Leopard Army would have sufficient food and salary and high morale. They would take Huairen and Shanyin in one go and destroy the rebels. However, without these 500,000 taels of food and salary, the Tiger and Leopard Army would not only be unable to eliminate the rebels, but they would also face violence due to shortage of food and salary*.

And this ending was definitely not what Emperor Chongzhen wanted to see.

Therefore, when the court officials once again focused their eyes on themselves, Emperor Chongzhen said with a last glimmer of hope: "My dear friends, have you never thought about what kind of ending this counterattack launched by the Tiger and Leopard Army would end?"

"If the Tiger and Leopard Army is defeated, the rebels will definitely take advantage of the situation to launch an attack on Datong Prefecture. At that time, not only Datong Prefecture, but also Beijing City where we all are, may be attacked by the rebels..."

"So, what I mean is: give the Tiger and Leopard Army this money... As for where this money comes from, my dear friends need to find a way to solve it myself..."

Unlike the politicians who were talking about it, Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyiwei, had sharp eyes, stared at Emperor Chongzhen sitting on the imperial throne from beginning to end.

Facing the imperial edict without any negotiation tone and the changing face of Chongzhen, Luo Yangxing immediately had an idea in his mind: "The Tiger and Leopard Army, the Tiger and Leopard Army commanded by Wei Zheng, won the trust of Emperor Chongzhen again through this counterattack.

After reminiscing about the content of the memorial again, Luo Yangxing immediately found the key to the problem.

"Although the Tiger and Leopard Army won the first battle, it lost 1,500 soldiers in just one victory. For the Tiger and Leopard Army, which has a total strength of only 1,500, 1,500 people can definitely be called a trauma."

"However, in this case, Wei Zheng did not ask the court for retreat, but asked the court for money and continued to attack the rebels regardless of the losses."

"In this case, it would be ridiculous if anyone else said that Wei Zheng had a strong army in Datong Prefecture."

"As for why Emperor Chongzhen believed in the content of the memorial so much, it would be even simpler. For the conceited Emperor Chongzhen, Wei Zheng might not be trustworthy, but Cao Huachun, who signed with Wei Zheng and promoted by Emperor Chongzhen, was very credible. In other words, as long as Cao Huachun recognized the content of the memorial, Chongzhen believed in the content of the memorial."

After thinking through the cause and effect relationship, a strange smile quickly flashed from Luo Yangxing's face.

Because, in his analysis, he had discovered a way to improve his position in Chongzhen's mind again and even attack political enemies.

Just as the expectant expression on Chongzhen's face slowly turned into disappointment because of the silence of the court officials, Luo Yangxing, who had already thought about his words, stood up decisively.

"Your Majesty, I have something to say..."

After receiving Chongzhen's acquiescence, Luo Yangxing no longer hesitated and continued: "As far as I know, Your Majesty asked the General of Guard to make meritorious service as the General of Datong Prefecture, and sent a military supervisor. There were still many ministers in the court who spread the word that the Tiger and Leopard Army held their own troops in Datong Prefecture and had the intention of being unjust..."

"But, what I want to say here today is that Wei Zheng, the general of Datong, not only did not have any disobedience, but instead was drawn to my Ming Dynasty and loyal to Your Majesty. He was a rare loyal minister in my Ming Dynasty..."

"Please read the memorials jointly submitted by Lord Wei and the general of the military commander Cao... The Tiger and Leopard Army lost 1,500 soldiers in the first battle with the rebels alone... If Lord Wei Zhengwei really planned to gain self-reliance, and the Tiger and Leopard Army had already suffered such great losses, would Lord Wei still order the troops to continue attacking the rebels..."

"So, I think that even in order to restore the reputation of Lord Wei and the Tiger Leopard Army in the court, the court should allocate the 500,000 taels of silver that Your Majesty had already agreed to... Otherwise, how can the soldiers on the front line trust our court, trust Your Majesty, and continue to fight bloody battles on the front line for Your Majesty and the court..."

The hook is ready, just waiting for the fish to take the hook...

Just when Luo Yangxing kept silent and turned his gaze to Chongzhen, who had already appeared on his face, the Minister of Rites, who had always acted as a civil servant, stood up and retorted loudly at Wei Zheng.

"Your Majesty, I think the commander of the Jinyiwei, Lord Luo, is too serious... None of us knows whether there are any false reports on military information in the memorials sent by the Datong General Office to the court, the number of casualties and results of the memorials, and whether there are any false cases... Therefore, I think that the suspect of the Datong General Office's military command and the self-respecting force cannot be ruled out. Please observe clearly..."

The fish is hooked...

Luo Yangxing thought to himself in his heart, and after a strange smile flashed on his face, he stood up directly from the list. He pretended to be angry and pointed at the Minister of Personnel and asked loudly.

"Mr. Wang, what you mean is that the memorials from the Datong General Office to the court are all fake..."

The Minister of Rites' face changed, as if he realized something, and quickly replied: "Your Majesty, Lord Luo, I did not say that the content of the memorial was fake, I just doubted... Before sending an imperial envoy to Datong Prefecture for confirmation, no one can guarantee that the content of the memorial was true."

What the Minister of Rites, who was eager to argue, did not see that when he said this, Emperor Chongzhen's expression instantly became solemn.

However, with a serious face, he did not rush to speak, but watched quietly and waited for the following text.

Standing in the hall, Luo Yangxing, who was also watched by Chongzhen, did not miss this opportunity to attack political enemies. He said to the Minister of Rites with a tit-for-tat look: "Mr. Wang, what I want to tell you is that you can doubt other memorials, but you must not doubt this memorial. Because this memorial was written to the court by Datong General Wei Zheng and General Cao Gonggong."

"You suspect this memorial, just doubt that Eunuch Cao..."

"Eunuch Cao is the eunuch in charge of the army sent by His Majesty to the Tiger and Leopard Army, and his Majesty's confidant eunuch... Don't you think that doubting Eunuch Cao is just doubting His Majesty's use of human vision?"

Hearing this, the Minister of Personnel's face, which had just spoken righteously, immediately turned pale.

Subconsciously, he knelt down on the ground and begged for mercy to Chongzhen on the imperial throne and said, "Please forgive me. I am unintentional. Please forgive me..."

The court officials were led by the nose at the entire court meeting. Chongzhen, who was so angry, finally found a vent, but of course he would not give up.
Chapter completed!