In the Nuanxin Pavilion, Chongzhen, who was wearing a bright yellow dragon robe, stood in front of the desk and was furious. In front of him, Wen Tiren and Yang Sichang both crouched on the ground tremblingly, not even daring to raise their heads.
"Eight thousand troops were made into dumplings without even touching their sides. Even the coach and the imperial envoy were captured alive. Liu Zeqing and Chen Xinjia are just two losers, and you two are the chief assistant.
One is the Minister of War, tell me what responsibility you should bear!"
Pang Gang's voice roared in the Nuanxin Pavilion. Except for Wang Chengen and the two bosses, the other eunuchs and maids in the Nuanxin Pavilion all hid outside the palace and did not dare to come in.
Wen Tiren and Yang Sichang adhered to the principle that silence is golden and lay on the ground without saying a word. After years of ups and downs in officialdom, they knew that now that Chongzhen was angry, whoever spoke would be unlucky.
Chongzhen almost threw all the memorials, pens, inks, paper and inkstones on the desk to the ground. If the desk was not so heavy that Chongzhen thought he could not move it, he would have even overturned the desk.
"There is also that traitor who has repeatedly received favors from the emperor, and now he dares to fight against the imperial army. He is ungrateful and extremely shameless!" After scolding Wen Tiren and Yang Sichang, Chongzhen turned away and cursed Pang Gang.
Wen Tiren and Yang Sichang still dared not say a word below. Although they had different political opinions, they had the same view on Chongzhen's handling of Pang Gang. That is, Chongzhen's handling method this time was too hasty. How could Zhejiang rely on Zhejiang alone?
Why did an official rashly take people to Beijing for questioning after just saying a few words? It should be noted that Pang Gang is not a weak scholar with no power to tie a chicken, but a general who commands an army. The rabbit is so anxious.
If you dare to kick an eagle, haven't you ever thought about rising up if someone gets in trouble? It's okay now, are you in trouble? Are you dumbfounded?
Seeing the two people who had been lying on the ground since they came in, Chongzhen became even more angry. He stepped forward, pointed at the two of them and cursed: "What are you doing lying on the ground? Get up! Don't think so."
It’s okay to pretend to be dead. If you don’t come up with a charter for me today, you won’t even think about going back!”
The two laughed bitterly, slowly got up from the ground, patted their knees and sleeves, and Wen Tiren said slowly: "Your Majesty, Mr. Liu and Chen Shilang are still captured by Pang Gang. We must find a way to capture them."
You have to get it back, otherwise the majesty of the imperial court and the dignity of the Ministry of War will be lost."
"Yes!" Chongzhen nodded and said in a bad tone: "Wen Shoufu's words are reasonable. Yang Aiqing, your Ministry of War is most responsible for the defeat this time. How do you, the Minister of War, plan to deal with the aftermath?"
Yang Sichang secretly resented that this old man Wen kept talking about the Ministry of War. Didn't you, the chief assistant, have no responsibility at all?
But since the emperor asked, he had to answer: "To report to the emperor, I believe that this defeat is not a crime of war."
"Oh? A crime other than war?" Chongzhen's eyebrows began to rise again upon hearing this, "Then Yang Sichang, tell me what the reason is."
"The reason why General Liu and Chen Xinjia were defeated this time and 7,000 soldiers were captured was because, firstly, the soldiers under General Liu were all from Shandong, and there would inevitably be some resistance to attacking the nearby Qingzhou. But General Liu was because of the
Pang Gang had fought side by side against the Tatars, and naturally he had some incestuous feelings, so he couldn't bear to be cruel, so he would naturally be caught off guard by Pang Gang. Besides, Pang Gang was not a good person, so he thought
The emperor also saw with his own eyes the fierce battle with the Tatars in front of the city gate that day. Just imagine, with his unruly and unruly temperament, how can he be someone who just sits there and waits to be killed?"
At this point, Yang Sichang's words implicitly accused Chongzhen of acting impatiently. However, Chongzhen did not have an attack. He just sat on the dragon chair and thought about his thoughts. A few days ago, he arrived in Zhejiang
When the official handed over the memorial, he immediately became furious and immediately sent Chen Xinjia, who had recommended himself. Just in case, he sent Liu Zeqing to lead his troops to accompany him. Unexpectedly, this move completely destroyed Pang Gang's stunned young man.
He was forced to rebel. Thinking of the scene he saw on the city wall when Pang Gang was fighting the Tatars, Chongzhen felt vaguely that he had done something stupid and forced a brave general to the opposite side.
However, Chongzhen would naturally not express these thoughts. As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he naturally could not make mistakes and would not make mistakes, let alone an impetuous and arbitrary master like Chongzhen. Since the emperor was not wrong, then he was wrong.
Of course it was the official below. Chongzhen snorted slightly and said unhappily: "Yang Sichang, I haven't blamed you yet, but you still have the guts to shirk Chen Xinjia and Liu Zeqing? I'm asking how to deal with the aftermath, not listening to your sophistry!"
"
Seeing that he was forced into a corner, Yang Sichang had no choice but to say: "This depends on whether the emperor wants to continue to encircle and suppress the rebels. Since General Liu has been defeated, Shandong has no way to resist Qingzhou's troops. If he wants to continue to encircle and suppress the rebels, he must
You cannot mobilize troops from elsewhere."
Chongzhen said noncommittally: "In your opinion, where should we deploy our troops?"
"We have to ask Wen Tiren about this. After all, this matter still needs to be decided by the cabinet and the emperor's Holy Judgment." Yang Sichang lightly kicked the ball to Wen Tiren's feet.
When Wen Tiren heard this, he was angry. This Yang Sichang is really not a thing. He has been talking about feelings for a long time and has not said anything constructive at all. It is all nonsense.
But no matter what he was thinking, Chongzhen turned his attention to Wen Tiren, as if to say, you, the chief minister of the cabinet, are not just decorations, you must come up with some opinions.
Wen Tiren gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, I think that if we want to annihilate this rebel army, we must let Lu Xiang, the governor of the five provinces of Xuanfu, marry him."
"What?"
"No!"
Chongzhen and Yang Sichang were shocked. Although Chongzhen was impatient, he was not stupid. He immediately reprimanded: "Confused, Lu Xiangsheng has a heavy responsibility. He must not only resist the Qing troops, but also guard against Mongolia's southward movement. How can he act lightly? You are stupid!"
Wen Tiren felt frustrated and became more and more angry, so he simply stopped talking. Chongzhen lost his temper for a while but could do nothing. Finally, he looked up to the sky and sighed: "I didn't expect that as the king of a country, I could not use a general. It's really
I am ashamed of my ancestors."
At this time, a young eunuch trotted in, knelt down in front of Chongzhen and raised a small box above his head: "Your Majesty, the commander of Qingzhou, Dingyuan General Pang Gang, has arrived to explain himself."
"Bastard!" Chongzhen was furious when he heard this. He stood up and kicked the young eunuch aside. He said angrily: "Bold slave, I have revoked all the duties of that traitor. How dare you call him
General Dingyuan, come here, drag this slave out and beat him to death with sticks!"
Immediately, two strong eunuchs came in from the door and were about to drag the little eunuch away.
"Your Majesty, have mercy on me." The little eunuch who didn't expect the trouble to come out of his mouth was so frightened that he almost fainted and collapsed on the ground.
Wang Chengen, who had been standing behind Chongzhen without saying a word, saw that Chongzhen was about to lose control of his emotions. He quickly stood up and begged for mercy: "Your Majesty, please calm down. Although this slave is ungrateful, he is still young after all. Your Majesty, please forgive me."
I'll spare this slave's life. It would be better for your Majesty to read Pang Gang's self-defense letter first."
Wang Chengen was an old man who followed Chongzhen. He had been loyally accompanying Chongzhen when Chongzhen was still a believer in the king. Although Chongzhen had a suspicious personality, he still trusted the eunuch who had accompanied him since childhood. Therefore, he listened to him
After saying this, Chongzhen snorted coldly, "Since I have begged for mercy for this slave, I will spare his life and get out of here!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for not killing me, and thank you, Your Majesty, for saving my life." The little eunuch who escaped from death thanked Chongzhen and Wang Chengen and crawled out.
Wang Chengen came to the desk, picked up the small wooden box, opened it, took out a memorial, and handed it to Chongzhen with both hands.
Chongzhen took it angrily: "I want to see what this traitor wants to say? Well...impossible?"
The expression on Chongzhen's face, which was holding the memorial, was very strange. It was red and white at the same time. It was hard to tell whether he was happy or angry, but the hand holding the memorial was trembling slightly and his eyes were straight.
"Your Majesty, what exactly is said in the memorial?" Wen Tiren and Yang Sichang asked almost simultaneously.
"Well, this... I don't know how to explain it to you." Chongzhen smiled bitterly and handed the envelope to the two of them.
Yang Sichang, relying on his youth, took the book and started reading it first. Wen Tiren didn't care about the chief assistant's face and leaned his head over to watch. The two of them looked at each other with the same expressions as Chongzhen just now, constantly changing.
Go, it's as wonderful as a kaleidoscope.
After a while, Yang Sichang exclaimed in amazement: "This Pang Gang is actually willing to hand over one million taels of silver to replenish the national treasury!"
"You are still willing to release Chen Xinjia, General Liu and the captured officers and soldiers under his command, but I just ask the emperor not to listen to the villain's rumors?" Wen Tiren's words were also full of exclamation and suspicion.
There was silence in Nuanxin Pavilion. After all, this news had such a huge impact on them that they could not digest it for a while.
After a long time, Chongzhen asked in a low voice: "Two dear friends, what do you think about Ni...and what Pang Gang said are all true?"
Wen Tiren and Yang Sichang looked at each other before slowly nodding. When things got to this point, they thought that Pang Gang would not lie. After all, releasing Chen Xinjia and Liu Zeqing might be a trivial matter to him, but handing over a hundred
Thousands of taels of white silver are real things and cannot be faked in the slightest. One million taels of silver accounts for two and a half percent of the Ming Dynasty's annual tax. With this one million taels of silver, what can the Ming court do?
A lot of things have been done.
"Humph, this Pang Gang, does he think that by letting my imperial envoy go and paying some money, I can pardon him? It's not that easy..." Chongzhen's voice became lower and lower after talking about it.