Chapter 650 The tree fell and the hozens scattered
Do you need to be loyal to your fellow ministers?
This is another controversial topic.
This sentence triggered a large-scale debate between scholars and students. Some people supported Jiang Tianyi and believed that deceiving other ministers and villains was not cheating, but that it was justice. Others believed that faith is faith and that double standards cannot be adopted depending on the target.
Both sides hold their own opinions, and no one can refute the other.
In the end, even Wang Jiayan was stunned.
I don’t know whether I should deceive Hong Chengchou or other ministers.
But Chongzhen's inner compass never wavered.
Jiang Tianyi proposed that the legal principles are nothing more than human relationships, but as a time traveler, Chongzhen hated human relationships the most. It is precisely because of this human relationship that weaves the entire society into an intricate network of relationships. People in the network of relationships, no matter what they want,
If you want to do something, even if you just seek medical advice or read a book, you have to find connections everywhere.
It is also this human sophistication that covers up all kinds of social chaos and lawlessness and discipline.
As a result, speculators are prevalent in the world. Those who are upright, have outstanding abilities and are not good at speculators are ostracized. Over time, a broken window effect is formed in which bad money drives out good money.
If so, this country will be finished.
The Song Dynasty ended like this, and the Ming Dynasty also ended like this.
Even the modern Republic of China fell like this.
The prince's iron-fisted anti-corruption campaign in Shanghai ended up encountering the greatest human and sophistication.
The reason why the Chinese revolution was successful was also because the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries broke away from worldly sentiments, were truly selfless, and strictly followed the rules no matter what.
No matter what happens in the future, no matter whether it can be achieved or not, one of Chongzhen's grand goals as a time traveler is to break away from the world and realize the true Confucianism and Legalism, that is, the rule of law.
It is to use Confucian principles to educate the people.
But at the level of governing the country, Legalist principles must be adopted.
Therefore, Chongzhen did not participate too much in tonight's debate.
In fact, most of the time, Chongzhen just acts as a listener.
Because his identity is too sensitive, he is the current emperor, and he also has the aura of "Meishan Enlightenment", so once he ends up participating in a debate, the opponent will soon be cautious about his words and deeds.
After returning to the camping tent, Chongzhen suddenly asked: "Gao Banban, did you accept the gift?"
Gao Qiqian was so frightened that he suddenly jumped up and quickly knelt down and begged for mercy: "Long live my Lord, I didn't say anything, let alone plead for Hong Chengchou and other ministers."
"Get up, have I told you to punish you?" Chongzhen said angrily, "Tell me, who has given you gifts?"
"Long live my lord, that's a lot." Gao Qiqian pointed and counted in detail, "The first one is Hong Chengchou, the second one is Wu Sangui, there are also Jiang Xiang, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi, Wang Fuchen and so on.
, there are quite a few others, but I can’t remember the names right now, there must be about thirty of them.”
"There are more than thirty?" Chongzhen shook his head and said with a smile, "This is called the tree falling and the monkey scattering."
"That's right, the tree fell and the hozens dispersed." Gao Qiqian echoed repeatedly, "The big tree Dorgon has fallen. Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui, Kong Youde and other hozens will collapse without their backbone."
After a pause, Gao Qiqian asked in a low voice: "Long live my Lord, how should I reply to these hozens?"
"Are you testing my tone?" Chongzhen said with a smile, "Or do you want to teach me how to do things? Otherwise, you can teach me how to deal with these hozens?"
"Long live my Lord, how dare I have such wild and rebellious thoughts?"
As soon as Gao Qiqian stood up, he was so frightened that he fell to his knees when he heard the words. He thought to himself, Lord Long Live is really a sharp eye now, and he will see clearly every little thought in his heart.
At that moment, Gao Qiqian hurriedly said: "Old slave, I will hand over the gold and silver jewelry given by the two ministers to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From now on, I will not dare to accept other people's gifts, not even a penny."
Chongzhen smiled, the old eunuch was quite clever.
It's no wonder that so many emperors like to use eunuchs.
First of all, eunuchs are the emperor's domestic slaves and can be killed at will.
Secondly, some eunuchs are indeed smart and capable.
However, it was absolutely impossible for him, Chongzhen, to give eunuchs another chance to gain power.
As for Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui, and Jiang Xiang, let's take this opportunity to deal with them all. It would be more troublesome to keep them, mainly because it doesn't take much trouble to deal with these two ministers.
…
Chongzhen didn't want to give these hozens a chance to return to the Ming Dynasty, but Fulin was worried that these hozens would rebel against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty.
Especially Hong Chengchou, it had been almost half a month since he received the imperial edict, but he was still entrenched in Tianjin Guards and refused to lead his troops back to the capital. This made Fulin suspicious.
So Fulin gave another order to Ye Bilong and Sony who were halfway there, asking them to change their route to Tianjin and join Hong Chengchou's army before returning to Beijing.
By early June, Sony and Ye Bilong led the main force of the Eight Banners to Tianjin Wei.
Because Hong Chengchou could not wait for Chongzhen's reply, he gave up any thought of rebelling and immediately mobilized hundreds of thousands of Manchu and Han troops and Sony to stop Bilong from returning to the capital.
One more thing must be said here: Even if Hong Chengchou rebels, he won't be able to take many people with him.
Dorgon's reform of the Eight Banners military system was quite reliable. It separated the personal dependence between generals and soldiers to a large extent. Because of the land rewarded by the emperor, and because most of his parents, wives and children were in Beijing, so
Speaking of the Eight Banners Mongolia, the Eight Banners Han Army and the Green Camp soldiers are still very determined in their fighting will.
Therefore, Hong Chengchou's betrayal could at most take away a small number of his servants.
Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi and others are similar.
Their original team had long been torn to pieces by Dorgon.
In this way, on the one hand, they could not wait for Gao Qiqian's reply, and on the other hand, the troops in their hands were really limited, which was not enough for them to support themselves. Therefore, when Sony and Ye Bilong arrived one after another, Hong Chengchou, Kong Youde, and Geng Zhongming
, Shang Kexi and these other ministers had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow Sony and the others back to Beijing.
On June 15, the army led by Sony, Ye Bilong and Hong Chengchou arrived in Tongzhou.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Although Sony and Ebilong are the main combatants, they still know their troops. The garrison in Tongzhou shows their ability, because in this way, they can form a horn with Beijing.
With the situation strong, the Ming army was in a position of being attacked from both sides.
At this time, the Qing army gathered in Tongzhou included 70,000 Eight Banner Manchus, 20,000 Eight Banners Mongolians, 110,000 Eight Banners Han troops, 40,000 Green Battalion and 200,000 Lian Yong troops, totaling 440,000 horses.
Overnight, Tongzhou turned into a huge military camp.
There are 20,000 Eight Banner Manchus and 100,000 practicing bravery in Beijing.
At the same time, Ming Dynasty also increased its troops again and transferred two infantry towns from Nanjing.
By mid-June, excluding the second town left to protect the grain road between Dagukou and Beijing, the Ming army gathered outside Chaoyang Gate had reached 7 infantry towns and 1 cavalry town, with more than 185,000 people.
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By this time, the decisive battle between the Ming and Qing armies was imminent.
…
But Fan Wencheng and Ning Wanwo did not give up. They took Hong Chengchou, who had just returned to Beijing, and the three of them went into the palace to find Bu Mu Butai, trying to persuade the Queen Mother to stop the decisive battle.
"I'm waiting to pay my respects to the Queen Mother." Hong Chengchou and the other two knelt down to pay their respects.
"Get back on your feet." Bumbutai signaled the three of them to stand up, and then asked, "Mr. Hengjiu was not in danger when he entered the city, was he? In the past month or so, the Ming army's scouts have been extremely arrogant."
"Back to the Queen Mother, my servant is not in danger." Hong Chengchou replied.
"The Ming army has lifted the blockade of Beijing and has withdrawn to the camp outside Chaoyang Gate."
"That's good." Bumbutai said happily, "The late emperor often spoke to the Ai family. You are a national scholar, and the regent also highly respects you. Therefore, if you are good or bad, it will be a great loss to the Qing Dynasty."
"I am so ashamed of myself." Hong Chengchou said again, "Your Majesty, I have a lot of things to say from the bottom of my heart."
"Sir, you are a national scholar. What you offer must be good strategies for governing the country, and what you make forward must be good words of gold and jade." Bu Mu Butai said, "The Ai family is here to listen attentively."
Hong Chengchou said solemnly: "The Ming army has sharp weapons and is at its peak. The defeat at Hunhe, the two defeats at Dagukou, and the defeat at Guting Town are enough to prove that the Ming army today is no longer the Ming army in the past.
It is hard to say that our Qing army will win in a decisive battle with it, so I think we should avoid its sharp edge now and wait until the veterans of the division are tired and forced to retreat, then pursue and attack it."
"The slaves and others also seconded the proposal." Fan Wencheng, Ning Wan and I also said in unison, "We must not engage in a decisive battle with the Ming army at this time."
Bumbutai smiled and said warmly: "The Ai family has little knowledge, but they have read a few Han history books. There are indeed many such precedents in Chinese history. When the foreign armies from the north moved south in large numbers, the people from the south
The Han dynasty often held firm and waited until the foreign armies were tired before attacking, such as the Battle of Feishui, the Battle of Caishiji in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Battle of Diaoyu City."
"What the Empress Dowager said is absolutely true," Hong Chengchou said, "For the weak side, the only strategy is to not fight with deep ditches and high bases, but to wait until the veterans of the strong enemy divisions are tired and then pursue them and attack them."
Bumbutai asked rhetorically: "But are there any counterexamples?"
"Counterexample?" Hong Chengchou didn't respond immediately.
Bumbutai then said: "In the history of China, has the foreign army in the north failed to fight in deep ditches and high fortresses, and finally defeated the southern army?"
"This?" Hong Chengchou was speechless.
There seems to be no such precedent in history?
Fan Wencheng said quickly: "Queen Mother, the reason why there is no such precedent in history is because the Han people are not warlike, but the foreign tribes in the north are martial, and their people are brave and good at fighting. Therefore, in history, the foreign armies from the north often suppressed the Han people in the south.
Fight, but the Han people in the south rarely have the ability to fight back."
"So, why was the Qing Dynasty an exception?" Bumbutai said with a smile, "Historically, the foreign armies in the north always suppressed the Han armies in the south. How come it changed in the Qing Dynasty? It became
The Han army in the south suppressed the foreign army in the north and fought? Isn’t this justifiable?"