On November 3, the seventh year of Chongzhen, in the Forbidden City.
Emperor Chongzhen opened the window slightly, and a burst of cold air immediately rolled in with a few snowflakes. Emperor Chongzhen reached out and grabbed a snowflake, and the snowflake immediately turned into a small drop of water in his palm. Emperor Chongzhen
He sighed deeply and said, "It's snowing!"
Wang Chengen, who was behind him, immediately stepped forward and closed the window, then bowed and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "It's cold outside, so the Emperor should go to the brazier and stay there. You see, there is only one brazier in the house. Even if the Emperor wants to save money, he can't."
Are you freezing your body? Add two more braziers!"
Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand, walked to his seat and sat down: "I know Wang Banban cares about me! I also know that I can't save much refined carbon. But I have to set an example! The national crisis is facing us and the warehouse is empty, so I must be diligent and frugal.
For the country!”
After finishing speaking, Emperor Chongzhen picked up the "Tingyi Notes" in front of him and read it.
A few days ago, Emperor Chongzhen convened all the cabinet, six ministries, nine ministers and other important ministers to discuss the domestic situation. The first was to question Chen Qiyu, who had led to the Chexixia Incident, and appointed Hong Chengchou as the new governor of the five provinces.
Then, during the court discussion among the important ministers, they decided to take advantage of the temporary silence of Houjin outside the pass to concentrate all their forces to completely encircle and suppress the peasant rebel army across the Central Plains.
This court meeting was an important turning point in the Ming court's policy. In the past, no matter how joyful the peasant rebel army was, the Ming court still treated it as a local rebellion. But after this court meeting, the Ming court will
It will elevate the peasant rebel army to the same status as the post-Jin army and treat it as a serious threat.
For this reason, during the court discussion, Emperor Chongzhen and his ministers from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs formulated a huge plan to increase troops and increase pay, intending to end the seven-year rebellion within six months.
This plan planned to mobilize 75,000 soldiers from all directions, 15,000 horses, and 770,000 taels of pay. This was the largest military and financial resources that the Ming Dynasty could mobilize at this stage. It can be said that it used the Ming Dynasty's family wealth.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had already made up his mind to tighten his belt and achieve success in one battle.
This also marked the shift of the strategic focus of the Ming Dynasty from the Hou Jin Dynasty to the peasant rebel army.
In this plan, the governor of the five provinces, Hong Chengchou, will lead his troops to attack from west to east, the governor of Shandong, Zhu Dadian, will lead his troops to attack from east to west, and the governor of Henan, Xuanmo, will provide support from the center, and local officials in the remaining areas will guard their own territory.
Emperor Chongzhen looked at the "Tingyi Notes" carefully, thinking about what he had missed. Suddenly he raised his head and said to Wang Chengen, who was standing aside: "Send someone to Zhang Shangshu quickly! Let's make another mistake."
Thousands of Guan Ning's cavalry enter the pass. General Qin's three thousand white-armed troops leave Sichuan and must complete their achievements in one battle!"
Wang Chengen hurried to the front of the palace, summoned a young eunuch and gave detailed instructions. But when he turned around, he saw Emperor Chongzhen sleeping on his chair.
Wang Chengen immediately made a hand gesture to a palace maid in the room, then walked to Emperor Chongzhen's side softly, and placed the brazier at Emperor Chongzhen's feet. The palace maid quickly brought a piece of brocade. Wang Chengen
It was carefully covered for Emperor Chongzhen.
The room immediately fell into silence, with only the Jingxin incense in the incense burner slowly rising into green smoke. But not long after, Emperor Chongzhen moved. He noticed the brocade fur on his body, and immediately sat upright, saying somewhat self-deprecatingly: "No.
Just thinking about sitting down makes me fall asleep."
Wang Chengen immediately bowed and asked: "Your Majesty is too tired. Why don't you go to the soft couch in the back and rest for a while?"
Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said: "I feel a lot better after taking a nap. There are still some memorials that have not been reviewed."
Then Emperor Chongzhen picked up a memorial beside him, but before he opened it, he suddenly asked Wang Chengen: "Do you think I am a good emperor?"
Wang Chengen was so startled that he immediately raised his head. He saw that Emperor Chongzhen was in his twenties, but there were already a few strands of white hair on the temples. Wang Chengen immediately felt that he was unbearable, his nose was sore, and tears burst out of his eyes.
Suddenly out of control.
Wang Chengen immediately detoured to Emperor Chongzhen, knelt down and wailed: "Why is it so bad, Your Majesty! He was frugal and allowed Yuan Chonghuan to fight the Tatars, but he sent all the Tatars to Beijing. He trusted Chen Qiyu in every possible way, but he
The Shaanxi bandits in the cage were released. But what kind of life did the emperor live? He was all wearing patched dragon robes. What did those foreign ministers want? They stayed up all night to deal with state affairs. Those foreign ministers
What else do you want? The emperor has done nothing wrong, but those civil servants who shout about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism every day are white-eyed wolves. Wuwu——!"
"Alas!" Emperor Chongzhen stopped Wang Chengen's nonsense, "You can't say that. This is because I don't know people well!"
"How come you don't know people well!" Wang Chengen took the risk today, "This old slave doesn't understand state affairs, and those words really can't be explained clearly, but who unanimously recommended Yuan Chonghuan at that time? The emperor's oral instructions told those civil servants to pay attention. No.
It was possible to let the Shaanxi bandits cross the Yellow River, but did the Shaanxi bandits finally cross the Yellow River? The emperor's imperial edict gave Chen Qiyu a strategic plan, but did Chen Qiyu listen to the emperor? Let him pay attention to the false surrender! It's good for him, he can't harm the country! Wuwu—
—!"
Emperor Chongzhen laughed bitterly a few times, but Wang Chengen's words did speak to Emperor Chongzhen's heart. Emperor Chongzhen also felt a lot better in his heart. He sighed and said: "The country is in trouble and we miss our good ministers!"
Wang Chengen immediately knelt and raised his head: "Your Majesty, you must not be depressed! I think back then, Grandpa Taizu and Chen Youliang fought hard and established the Ming Dynasty in the Battle of Poyang Lake. When Grandpa Chengzu was in trouble, he used his young master to
Sheng Duoli defeated Nanjing. The emperor is just unlucky now. With the emperor's talent and strategy, and diligent governance, he will definitely become a rejuvenating king in time."
Emperor Chongzhen smiled bitterly again and sighed: "I don't want to be the king of ZTE. As long as I manage the Ming Dynasty well and hand it over to Cixi (Prince Zhu Cixiang) safely, I will be satisfied!"
Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen still didn't lift his spirits, Wang Chengen burst into tears with a cry of "Wow!" and his body suddenly fell to the ground.
…
On the same day, Governor Lu was in the camp.
Xuan Mo, the governor of Henan, sat on his chair with a gloomy face and said nothing. After a while, Master Wang, the aide next to him, said: "I didn't expect that Wu Runing was responsible for all this!"
After Xuanmo took office, he has been leading the Ming army in Henan to fight against the peasant rebels, and he did not have time to pay much attention to the government affairs. But gradually, Xuanmo discovered a very strange phenomenon.
The entire central and northern parts of Henan are in chaos, but Runing and Guide in southern Henan are strangely calm. According to reports from local officials, people live and work there in peace and contentment, and it is a scene of prosperity. And it is very strange.
What's strange is that the bandits sweeping across Henan are unwilling to go there no matter what.
Xuanmo also knew that there were three strong armies in the local area, namely General Li's Ye County Battalion, Wu Baiding's Runing Battalion, and Zhao's Guide Guard. However, these three strong armies refused to move and acted as if there were rioters.
When they approached there, these three powerful armies would immediately show their fangs and gnaw the bandits until their corpses were gone. They successively created the brilliant results of the Ruzhou Victory and the Nanyang Victory.
However, when the rebels were far away, these three powerful armies were like sleeping tigers, turning a blind eye to the wolves around them. It was not that they were completely blind. At that time, Wu Baiding's Runing Battalion fiercely pursued and wiped out the leopard-headed rebels.
When he heard that Runing Camp had changed its behavior and went abroad to fight, Xuanmo was still happy that Runing Camp had changed its attitude, so he suppressed those memorials that harmed people and killed innocent people indiscriminately. But it was only later that he found out that the leopard
The bandits suffered this bad fate because they robbed Wu Baiding's business.
And this time Xuanmo recruited General Li's Nanyang camp, but failed again and again. Xuanmo knew there was a problem here. To be honest, Xuanmo knew nothing about these three powerful armies. He only knew that they had been detained for a long time.
The land is in arrears with food payments.
Xuanmo also looked through the account books of the food and salary payment to soldiers in recent years, and found a very strange phenomenon. General Li's Ye County camp was better, but Wu Baiding's Runing camp had been in arrears for several years. Although the soldiers in the world were in arrears,
The situation of arrears in food and salary arrears is very serious, but other soldiers can get some pay, and it is rare to have no penny like the Runing camp.
The grain and silver handed over by the Guide Guards commanded by Zhao were not reduced or reduced according to the disaster situation. What is even more strange is that in the past few years, Wu Baiding and Commander Zhao even sent official documents to the governor's Yamen and the Chief Envoy's Yamen and cried a few times, but they
They have become silent over the years.
Xuanmo was also an old official, and he knew that this must be a huge conflict between these three powerful armies and the governor's yamen and the chief envoy's yamen.
But it doesn't matter if there are conflicts on weekdays. When it is time to mobilize troops for war, these three strong armies will be doomed if they stand still. So Xuanmo also specially approved 8,000 taels of silver for the Runing camp, hoping to make up for each other.
relationship.
Unexpectedly, the situation remained the same, and Xuan Mo became a little angry. He learned from Chen Qiyu's Chinese army tent that these three powerful armies were in an alliance, so he wanted to completely tame this tiger head.
.
So who was the tiger head? Of course Xuanmo thought it was the "famous general" Li Lu. So he took the initiative to find out from the officials who escorted the grain and grass in Nanyang Prefecture, and wanted to know everything about Li Lu himself and the Yexian camp.
But the result shocked Xuanmo. The officials of Nanyang Mansion did not know anything about the Yexian camp. They only vaguely told Xuanmo that General Li and Wu Baiding were working in private iron mines together in Yexian.
Business.
Xuan Mo immediately understood that he was going in the wrong direction. He recalled that in Chen Qiyu's Chinese military tent, Wu Shigong jumped over Li Lu and Zhao Ming, two high-ranking military attaches, and took the initiative to answer Chen Qiyu.
Xuan Mo analyzed the relationship between the three people again. Zhao Ming was the original general of Wu Shigong, and Li Lu always called Wu Shigong "brother-in-law!" However, there is no relationship between Li Lu and Zhao Ming, so this tiger head