In the Forbidden City, Emperor Chongzhen had just left the morning court. When he saw Chang Yu, he said: "I heard that you captured the assassin. Who was behind it?" Chang Yu was shocked. He captured Zhongchuan outside the city last night and entered the city early in the morning. The emperor
How could he not be surprised to know this so quickly? It also sounded the alarm for him. Don't be too arrogant. The emperor is still the emperor after all, and your uncle is still your uncle.
Chang Yu shook his head: "He is a wanderer from the Japanese country, and he even found out the mastermind behind it."
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was startled and became furious: "Who actually colluded with the Japanese pirates to assassinate the admiral of Dongchang? It's not enough to collude with the Tatars, but they also collaborated with the Japanese pirates. It's really hateful. I will investigate this matter thoroughly. No matter who it is, I will
We want to kill all nine of his tribes!"
"I will investigate it carefully." Chang Yu bowed and said. He secretly glanced at Emperor Chongzhen and saw that his expression was solemn and a little irritable, but it was definitely not because of who colluded with the Japanese pirates to assassinate him: "Your Majesty, could it be that today?
Don…?”
Emperor Chongzhen snorted coldly: "These people who are full of food and have nothing to do. They started to get angry again not long after they stopped. Whenever they get the opportunity, they will keep scolding me. They will really make me angry to death."
..." As he said that, he spat at Chang Yu. Sure enough, it was because of things in the court. There have been a lot of things in the court recently, such as negotiations with the bandit army, what should be the next step after capturing Li Zicheng, and the Yellow River.
How should border defense be adjusted? How should Zheng Zhilong contact the reward when he comes to Beijing? What measures should Zuo Liangyu take, who is the most suitable recommendation for officials in a certain place who need to fill a vacancy, and the military affairs in Ningyuan...
It can be said that there is a lot of noise in the court every day. Although most of the responses to state affairs were discussed by Chongzhen and Chang Yu and communicated with the cabinet, there are always other voices among the officials.
, and shouting loudly, "This is not okay, that is inappropriate, it is impractical to accept him. If you do not respond to him, he will jump up and scold you, saying that you are dictatorial and can't listen to advice."
You have to listen when he scolds you, but you can't retaliate. If you don't retaliate, he will scold you even more vigorously.
Do you think it's annoying?
Don’t believe it, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was indeed often scolded. This was because the Ming Dynasty implemented the system of speaking of officials. The Ming Dynasty also emphasized freedom of speech. From national affairs to trivial matters in the harem, ministers were free to mention them.
Opinions, as long as you have ideas and opinions, you can freely speak and scold without fear of offending the emperor at all, because the emperor is not willing to bear the reputation of "foolish king" and "killing remonstrating officials".
Just a meal of the royal stick.
To scold the emperor directly, to scold without mercy, the Ming Dynasty was the most prominent in the entire history of China. For example, during the Wanli Period, Luo Yuren, the Zuo Pingshi of Dali Temple, wrote "Four Admonitions of Wine, Sex, Wealth and Qi" and pointed at Wanli's nose and scolded,
He is said to be lustful, greedy, cruel, lazy, stupid, and incompetent. In short, he has all five evils and is useless.
Emperor Wanli was directly scolded by him for being autistic. He suffered from depression and did not go to court for nearly thirty years. However, Luo Yuren was only dismissed from his post to serve the people.
In the early days of the Chongzhen Dynasty, because of the fall of Wei Zhongxian, the civil service group was in the limelight without any rivals, and they became even more unscrupulous. They scolded the emperor three times a day, and once every three days, and barely took action.
As a result, Chongzhen was sprayed with more saliva than Wanli at that time. It was not until Chang Yu was born that Dongchang skyrocketed overnight, using his illustrious military exploits as the foundation and letting the civil servants shrink back, and Emperor Chongzhen's life became slightly easier.
A little more.
However, because Chang Yu did not act as cruelly as Wei Zhongxian and attacked officials directly, gradually, these officials began to act recklessly again. Although they were not as bottomless as before, they already made Emperor Chongzhen angry.
"The duty of the Yanguan Yushi is to spit. If he keeps his mouth shut, he will have nothing to do. Now that the Ming Dynasty is in ruins and waiting to be revived, the emperor should give top priority to state affairs. As for the Yanguan Yushi, he will let them spit. I really can't turn back with anger.
Go and beat him up." Chang Yu comforted him. After Emperor Chongzhen vomited his bitterness, he felt a little better and sighed: "You can't scold him, you can't hit him, and Dongchang can't even reach out. If you reach out, it will be terrible. Then it will happen.
More saliva is coming, and I can’t resist it.”
Chang Yu smiled: "You can't beat them, you can't scold them, but you can't let them too much. You have to teach them some lessons at the appropriate time. The king is the king, and the minister is the minister. If you have opinions, you can raise them and you can scold them, but you can't overdo it.
"The line. As a minister, you must know how to measure, otherwise it will be a mistake."
Chongzhen was very impressed by what he heard. After Chang Yu came to power, besides going on conquests, another thing he did was to strengthen the imperial power and centralize the imperial power. This was particularly appreciated by him. After all, the emperors in the previous ten years had been too cowardly.
"Why did you come to the palace today? But there is good news about the intruder." The only thing that Emperor Chongzhen could not forget was to capture and kill Li Zicheng who escaped to his door.
Chang Yu shook his head lightly: "We are still being hunted, but there is another good news." He handed over Li Yan's secret letter.
Good! Emperor Chongzhen saw the results and was immediately overjoyed. He looked at Chang Yu and said, "This Li Yan is considered one of the truly blessed generals!"
The flowers bloomed on many branches. I turned back to express my gratitude to Li Yan.
A few days ago, when Chang Yu was shocked to find out that Li Zicheng had appeared in the capital, he carried out a large-scale search and reported to Li Yan immediately, ordering him to step up patrols and interceptions along the Yellow River.
The bridgehead is to use this to confuse the situation and put the rebel army in a completely passive situation whether it is fighting or negotiating peace.
After receiving the secret order, Li Yan immediately discussed military affairs with military advisor Gu Junen and a group of generals. In a very short period of time, he made a decision that coincided with Chang Yu's. He muddied the water first and then fished.
This way you can get twice the result with half the effort.
So they immediately sent people across the river to spread the news, saying that Li Zicheng secretly followed Song Xiance to the capital to negotiate peace with the court, but his whereabouts were exposed and he was captured. Without saying much else, just this sentence can set off huge waves on the other side, which will make the thieves
There are countless different plots in the army's own mind, but the results are the same: the army is confused and the people are scattered.
At the same time, Li Yan also sent people to inform Wu Sangui on horseback. Ma Ke and others quickly sent troops to Tongguan to contain the rebel army there. After all, although the Yellow River where the two armies were facing each other was hundreds of miles long, and there were five or six cities, they could contain one
To activate your whole body, you must make a complete plan.
Last year, Chang Yu led tens of thousands of troops to march thousands of miles to the Yangtze River to pacify Baiwang. He ordered Huang Degong to guard Anqing, Liu Liangzuo to guard Luzhou, and Gao Jie to guard Xuzhou. In fact, he asked the three of them to train soldiers and horses. After all, they had been following the southern and northern wars for most of the year.
The horse is tired early.
However, Wu Sangui, Ma Ke and others were asked to march westward to garrison Luoyang, while Zhang Qingzhen, Liu Wenbing, and Wei Shichun, three nobles, led the Beijing camp and personal guards to garrison Kaifeng.
There is a deep meaning behind this arrangement. Kaifeng and Luoyang are both along the Yellow River, and they can be defended or moved into the two places. Wu Sangui and Ma Ke were in urgent need of military exploits, so they were arranged to garrison in Luoyang. They could go west to Tongguan City along the river at any time. That honorable man is
Those who came here to gild, lacked actual combat experience and could not use it on the tip of the sword, so Kaifeng, who was stationed at the back, could assist Wu Sangui and Ma Ke no matter whether they were advancing or retreating.
The original deployment was all aimed at Xi'an, in order to prepare for crossing the river in the spring this year. Although the three places are hundreds of miles apart, they have established a rapid communication mechanism. If there is an emergency military situation, they can be reached in one day, and several generals will go there more than once.
There is a meeting in Puzhou.
After Chang Yu came back from strolling across the bank two years ago, Li Yan held a military affairs seminar and based on the intelligence at hand, the generals formulated several attack plans as backup. Just a year ago, the generals had set off and marched westward to Shaanzhou (today's Shaanxi Province).
Sanmenxia) was stationed, which was only 200 miles away from Tongguan.
Moreover, among these soldiers, part of a special force was sent directly to Puzhou City to join Li Yan years ago. Over there was the Shenji Camp.
The Shenji Battalion is a firepower unit, consisting of musketeers, cavalry, musketeers, infantry and artillery.
As one of the three major battalions of the Beijing Camp, the Shenji Battalion is already famous, but it has never had the opportunity to exert its full strength. Until Chang Yu was dragged to the battlefield alone, its powerful fire suppression power was fully displayed, and on several occasions
He played a decisive role in every battle.
For this reason, the Shenji Battalion has become more and more valued, and Chang Yu has invested more and more in it. In the past few months after Bai Wang was suppressed, Chang Yu used his power to replenish it with new firearms and ammunition from various places, such as ordering
After Xu Hongji returned to Nanjing, he not only had to prepare food and fodder for the westward marching troops, but also sent Nanjing's firearms and ammunition there. He also recruited skilled craftsmen to develop new firearms.
The commander of the Shenji Camp is Wu Weiying, who was originally just a marquis who was just messing around. There were many nobles like him in various yamen in Beijing. Fuyin, the family leader, worked as a monk for a day and clocked the clock, so he had no ambitions.
I don’t have much pursuit. After all, no matter how hard I try, I can’t surpass my ancestors and just be granted the title of Duke or something.
But the amazing thing is that after Wu Weiying followed Chang Yu around the customs and fought in several battles, his passion was ignited, as if he had suddenly found his direction in life, and he felt more and more glorious and proud.
He feels that he is different from those nobles with false titles in Beijing. I am a commander who has actually been on the battlefield. I have real military power! I have participated in more than ten battles, big and small, and played an important role. I have played an important role.
There are meritorious deeds on my body, and the merits I earn are not the blessings of my ancestors. Also, even if I can't be promoted anymore, I can still help the next generation of the Wu family to make a bright future.
So Wu Weiying is proud. After all, she is the most popular among the nobles of the Ming Dynasty and holds military power. Didn't you see that Wei Shichun and others came to imitate him?
Why, it’s not like I can only do odd jobs and support, so how can I compare myself to it? That’s why Wu Weiying is not only proud but also proud.
Of course, Wu Weiying is also proud of being in charge of the Ming Dynasty's only firepower unit. Even Chang Yu looks up to him, at least that's what he thinks. Otherwise, why didn't he and Wei Shichun and others be allowed to garrison the rear a few years ago?
Kaifeng instead stationed Wu Sangui and Ma Ke on the front line in Luoyang, which meant that he and Wu Ma were on an equal footing!
In addition to his noble status, Wu Sangui and Ma Ke were very respectful to him, but Old Wu did not show off in front of them. He was an old man and knew that these two people would be unlimited figures in the future according to Chang Yu.
One day, the Lord would step in and be equal to her, but there was only one person who really made Wu Weiying put down her dignity.
Not Chang Yu.
But Li Yan!
This right-hand man who had a perfect tacit understanding with Chang Yu only surrendered for half a year and became one of the Eight Pillar Countries with military exploits. In the future... it's amazing. In addition to knowing that Li Yan has great potential in the future, Wu Weiying also admires Li Yan's talents from the bottom of her heart. Regarding Li Yan's
His military talent was obvious to all in the army, and he was able to outwit and be tough, which earned him the trust of Chang Yu and the imperial court. Otherwise, why would the Governor of the Yellow River fall to him if there were so many strong men on the front line?
At the military intelligence seminar two years ago, Li Yan asked the Shenji Battalion to be stationed in Puzhou. If a fight started, it could provide firepower to suppress the troops on the other side and cover the troops crossing the river. However, Wu Sangui and Ma Ke were unwilling. If a fight started, the Tongguan side would undoubtedly be theirs.
Life is a tough nut to crack, and they both need Wu Weiying's firepower assistance.
After some discussion, the generals decided to divide Shenji Camp into two to prepare for the needs of both sides. Then Wu Weiying led some troops to cross the Yellow River and stationed in Puzhou while the ice was frozen.
How to conquer the imperial court?
This issue had been discussed repeatedly with his subordinates when Li Yan was stationed in Puzhou years ago. After all, this was the number one goal as soon as the war started, so how to conquer the imperial court was not a new problem for Li Yan at all, and it had long been
Be prepared.
"In a small place, in the words of Lord Du Gong, you don't need to put in any effort at all. Just be simple and rough, and it will work!" This is what Li Yan told his generals.