Chapter 283 No wonder civil servants can be killed
Just after the Lantern Festival, a new war situation in Laizhou was reported. The rebels were still sparing no effort to attack Laizhou City. Even after the imperial court recruited the envoy Qu Yiyang to go to Dengzhou to have secret business with Kong Youde, Kong Youde still ordered Li Jiucheng who attacked Laizhou to continue the attack.
Don't worry about appeasement.
In Laizhou City, Denglai Governor Xie Lian and Magistrate Zhu Wancheng and others had been persuaded by Qu Yiyang and were willing to come forward to preside over the affairs. However, the rebels once again betrayed their trust and attacked the city. They no longer believed that the affairs could be accomplished, so they strengthened the city defense.
Military and political officials patrolled the city in batches day and night. Supervisor Li Jiucheng attacked fiercely for several days, but still failed to succeed. Although the city was depleted of food, the soldiers and civilians still persisted in resisting and refused to surrender. The two sides remained in a stalemate.
After Xu Congzhi was hit by rebel artillery fire and died of serious injuries, Xie Lian immediately sent someone to sneak out of the city at night and sent a memorial to Beijing. The memorial said that Laizhou was at its last moment, but the imperial reinforcements were more than 20 miles away.
They backed up the troops but refused to save them, and just sat back and watched the rebels attack the city. They asked the emperor not to recruit any more troops, but to go all out to encircle and suppress the rebels, and to severely punish the commander of the reinforcements, Gao Qiqian, who was as fearful as a tiger.
The memorial reads: "Laicheng was besieged for fifty days and was in great danger. I looked for reinforcements day and night, but when they did not arrive, I knew that the proposal must have been made in error. The ministers of the state sent letters to the ministers, copied the edicts internally, and included the edicts from the Ministry of War.
The minister has reported to the emperor, and the sage has listened to it. My husband, the minister, was so affectionate that he could not bear to deceive the sage and fall into the border. When I die, I should be regarded as a ghost to kill thieves. I will never dare to caress the supreme, confuse the state, mistakenly seal the border, and kill him.
Life." The official mentioned in the letter was Zhang Guochen, the head of the Ministry of War who advocated recruitment.
It can be said that this memorial is the most important and urgent military message sent out by Laizhou City after the last one against recruitment. However, Chongzhen did not see such an important memorial. Even Wen Tiren, the chief minister of the cabinet, did not see it.
did not see.[
The memorial was suppressed by the General Affairs Department controlled by the Donglin Party, and the messenger sent to the Ministry of War was casually dismissed by Liu Yulie, the right minister, and others. The official Xiong Mingyu had no idea that an envoy was coming from Laizhou.
Nowadays, the capital is full of appeasement. Under the strong pressure of the Donglin Party, the first assistant, Wen Tiren, does not dare to mention the word war.
On the 22nd, at the initiative of the Donglin Party members, Chongzhennai sent Zhang Guochen, the director of the Ministry of War, who had the highest official rank among Liao civilian officials, to Xiaoguantun to discuss recruitment matters with Gao Qiqian, Jin Guoqi, Lin Jiantai and others.
Zhang Guochen was eager to seize the victory, and rushed to Xiaoguantun on a light horse with only a dozen of his entourage. After arriving, he immediately sent Qu Yiyang as an imperial envoy to negotiate with the rebel Li Jiucheng again. After receiving Kong Youde's secret order to fake surrender, Li Jiucheng
They stopped the attack on Laizhou City, saying that they had long been willing to accept the imperial court's appeasement, but they were unable to do so because the officers and soldiers of Laizhou City repeatedly attacked them. Since the emperor personally sent people here this time, they naturally would not betray their trust again, but
The prerequisite must be that the Ming army in Laizhou City can no longer fire on the rebels outside the city.
In order for the Ming army not to fire at the rebels, they must first stop attacking Laizhou and retreat ten miles to show their sincerity. However, the rebels had no intention of retreating at all, and instead transferred three thousand elite soldiers from Dengzhou
Come over. There are various signs that the rebels have no intention of accepting recruitment.
However, the hot-headed and bookish Zhang Guocheng actually believed Li Jiucheng. In the name of the imperial envoy, he ordered the soldiers and civilians in Laizhou City not to harass the rebels outside the city, let alone fire without permission. At the same time, at Gao Qiqian's request,
, and the emperor issued an order to justify Gao Qiqian's behavior of holding back his troops - "Without the consent of Fu ministers, reinforcements from all walks of life are not allowed to go to war without authorization, so as not to damage the Fu bureau."
After hearing the news, Shi Dayong was stunned and immediately burst out laughing. No wonder Chongzhen said before his death that all civil servants could be killed. The state affairs of the Ming Dynasty were ruined by these self-righteous idiots. It would be unjust not to kill them!
The imperial court controlled by Donglin wanted to be comforted, the cabinet scholars wanted to be comforted, the six ministers wanted to be comforted, the imperial envoy ministers were to be comforted, and the eunuchs who were in charge of the army were to be comforted. What Shi Dayong, the little Jinzhou general, could do, all he could do was
Train his troops well.
Guo Yi has returned from the capital. He went to see the old governor, but the old governor was extremely ill. He was in a coma most of the day. Even when he woke up, he could not recognize people and could not even speak. Guo Yi asked
The Qiu family said they were afraid they wouldn't make it to the end of the month. However, Guo Yi could only leave five hundred gold to say goodbye.
After coming out of Qiu's house, Guo Yi went to Dongchang outside Dong'an Gate to ask for an audience with Cao Huachun, the factory owner. However, Dongchang's boss told him that the factory owner was not in Beijing. Guo Yi asked when Cao Eunuch would return to Beijing, and the other party replied that he didn't know.
Guo Yi had no choice but to ask to see Wang Chengen again, but he was not familiar with the place in Beijing. How could he know where to find Wang Chengen? How could he enter the palace if he said he could? The old man was ignorant and could not give him any advice.
One or two, after Guo Yi wandered around the capital for three days, he still decided to start from scratch, so he had to go to Changping first to look for the general's sister.
Guo Yi was a personal soldier of Shi Dayong's brother Shi Dazhi earlier. He followed Shi Dazhi to Shi Xiaomei's husband's Jiang family, so he knew the way. However, when he arrived at the Jiang family, he did not see the general's sister. The person who came to receive him was
The general’s brother-in-law—my aunt Jiang Qing.
Knowing that Guo Yi came to visit his wife on behalf of his uncle Shi Dayong, Jiang Qing's reaction was neither cold nor indifferent. He asked a few questions about where his uncle was currently serving the country. Guo Yi replied one by one and asked why he didn't see the lady.
Jiang Qing looked a little strange and said that his wife had caught a cold and was ill and could not leave the room to see guests.
Guo Yi was puzzled. After he entered the house, he found that the Jiang family looked at him a little strangely, but he didn't think much about it. Since the young lady had caught a cold and it was difficult to see him, then she shouldn't see him. He handed Shi Dayong over to him.
I handed the letter to my aunt, and also handed over the thousand taels of silver notes that I had cashed out in the capital.
Jiang Qing did not refuse, and politely asked Guo Yi to stay at the Jiang Mansion for dinner. Guo Yi said that he still had things to do in Beijing, so he would not stay any longer. He just asked his aunt to ask the lady's regards. Jiang Qing did not try to persuade him to stay.
He personally escorted his wife's family out of the house.
After coming out of Chiang Kai-shek's mansion, Guo Yi was anxious about the matters assigned by the general, so he did not stay in Changping and quickly entered Beijing again. Because he thought that Wang Cheng'en was the eunuch of the inner court, as long as he could find the eunuch in the palace, he would definitely
You can find Wang Chengen through him. Guo Yi will wait at the outer gate of the palace every day for the eunuchs who are waiting to leave the palace to purchase goods.
The emperor paid off and asked him to wait for a eunuch from the Inner Court Department to come out to purchase. After giving the eunuch fifty taels of silver, the eunuch readily agreed to go back to the palace for him and send a message to the prince.
After being there for a long time, Guo Yi thought he had been deceived and was very angry. However, in the evening, two young eunuchs came over and asked him if he was from Jinzhou General Shi. Guo Yi hurriedly said that he was, and those two
The little eunuch didn't ask any questions and took him directly to a mansion at the palace gate.[