"Your Majesty, Hong Chengchou is meeting you outside the palace."
"Xuan."
In the autumn wind, the red leaves are dyed all over the forest. After the rain, the mountain fog spreads and dances. The thick fog on the top of Xiangshan Mountain rises with the air, just like the smoke from the incense burner. It is a spectacular sight.
In an attic in the palace, Zhu Yihai summoned Hong Chengchou.
"Yu Jintan's father died of illness, and he wrote a letter to his father Ding You. Although there is a rebellion in Shaanxi and Gansu, I cannot take away his love. I have allowed him to return to his hometown in Jintan to observe his filial piety."
Yu Jintan is the current governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Yu Dafu Yu Yuanjian. He is a native of Jintan, Changzhou, a Jinshi in the 35th year of Wanli, and Conglong Yuanxun.
When Zhu Yihai raised troops in Taizhou, he happened to be the Taizhou Army Bei Dao, the real Conglong Yuanxun. When Zhu Yihai led Wang Chuangzi to kill the Northern Envoy and raised troops, he also had a battalion of coastal defense soldiers under him, and he was the first to support him.
Zhu Yihai supervises the country, so he was also awarded the title of general envoy.
But if we really talk about Yu Dafu, he was actually beaten into the eunuch party in the early Chongzhen period. In the early Chongzhen period, he was ordered to commit a rebellion. As many as 258 officials were implicated. The chief culprits were Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka family, and the chief culprits were six accomplices.
For example, Cui Chengxiu, Ning Guogong Wei Liangqing, Jin Yiwei commander Hou Guoxing, eunuchs Li Yongzhen, Li Chaoqin, Liu Ruoyu, close aide and admiral Cao Jiang Liu Zhixuan, etc.
Yu Dafu was not among those 258 people, but he did not escape. In the second year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen took advantage of the capital inspection to dismiss a large number of officials. Among them were Zhang Yandeng, governor of Zhejiang Province, governor of Zhejiang Province, and Tian Yang, governor of Sichuan Province.
.
Yu Dafu was a doctor in the Ministry of Rites at the time. After he was dismissed and returned to Changzhou, he devoted himself to being a landlord and built a famous Jiangnan garden, Yuyuan Garden.
Later, King Fu was established in Nanjing, and Ma Shiying came to power. He wanted to repay Ruan Dacheng for helping him come back, so he strongly recommended Ruan Dacheng to come back as the right minister of the Ministry of War. However, he was concerned that he was a member of the rebel party and worried about public opinion, so he invited Donglin leader Qian Qianyi
Come forward.
As the leader of Donglin, Qian Qianyi was also a speculator who took advantage of the wind when it came to supporting King Fu Wang Lu. In order to make up for the mistake of making the wrong bet at the beginning, he strongly supported Ma Shiying and openly cheered for him, writing
The long memorial to serve the country, under the guise of upholding discipline and cherishing talents, put forward the slogan that we should no longer use the party to discuss similarities and differences.
Don't talk about the Eunuch Party or the Donglin Party anymore. Let's put aside the past grudges and overturn the counter-indictment. Anyone with talents can be used. He also first introduced Yu Dafu, Wu Kongjia, Yang Weihuan and other counter-indictment parties. He used them as examples and recommended them to test
Sound of wind.
In the end, with the strong push of people like Ma Shiying and Liu Kongzhao, Ruan Shicheng successfully overturned the verdict and came back. Naturally, Yu Dafu also took a ride and came back to serve as a councilor in Jiangxi. Later, he was appointed to participate in politics in Zhejiang and the Taizhou Coast Guard. Yu Dafu had good luck and went to Taizhou to follow Lu
Wang Tongcheng kept him company and got along well with him. When Zhu Yihai raised troops, he responded immediately.
So he became Conglong Yuanxun, and he has been a central official in the past few years, from general envoy to cabinet bachelor to co-organizing bachelor, and then to governor of Shaanxi and Gansu and governor of Shaanxi.
In comparison, Hong Chengchou, who rose to prominence in the Chongzhen Dynasty and became famous all over the world, is now the censor of Youdu, but he is not as trusted as Yu Dafu.
"I plan to let you replace Yu Dafu and serve as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu and the governor of Shaanxi. Are you willing?"
Hong Chengchou was obviously surprised.
He glanced at the emperor and then at the prince, feeling a little confused for a moment. He knew very well his position in the emperor's heart. Whether he was admonishing the officials on the left or the censor on the right, they were actually just tools of the emperor.
But who allowed him to defeat Songjin, become a prisoner in the end, and eventually surrendered to the Manchus, but in the end he miscalculated and the Tatars were actually defeated.
"When Hong Qing was in the Chongzhen Dynasty, he was a civil servant who was capable of both civil and military affairs, and was the most capable of leading troops, whether as a general or as a prime minister." Zhu Yihai said with a smile, but Hong Chengchou even said he didn't dare.
"What's so modest about this? When you were encircling and suppressing bandits, you killed people without blinking an eye. You were nicknamed Hong Butcher. Some people also called you Hong Madman. It is said that in the Shaanxi-Gansu area, even now, your name is Hong Chengchou.
It can still stop a child from crying."
Sweat broke out on Hong Chengchou's forehead.
Hong Chengchou and Hong Hengjiu, who came from a poor family in Fujian, dropped out of school at the age of 11 to help his mother make dried tofu and sell it on the street. Later, in his free time, he went to the family school to sit in outside the window, and occasionally paid money to help students with their homework. Because he did so well, he was noticed by the teacher in the school.
When he came out, he found that this tribesman was very talented and ambitious, so he accepted him as a disciple for free and taught him carefully himself.
He passed the imperial examination at the age of twenty-three, and the following year, in the forty-fourth year of Wanli's reign, he passed the imperial examination and won the Jinshi.
In the first year of Chongzhen, there was a great uprising of refugees in northern Shaanxi. Yang He, the governor of the three sides, suppressed and appeased both sides. He focused on appeasement, but the more he appeased, the more refugees there were. Hong Chengchou, who participated in politics in Shaanxi at the time, had only been in office for 12 years, but he was only 36 years old.
When he was a civil servant, he took the initiative to lead troops into battle and killed three hundred enemies. He became famous in one battle and was known as Madman Hong.
After that, he advocated a tough crackdown on bandits. In just three years, more than 10,000 peasant soldiers died at the hands of Hong Shenzheng, and he was given the new nickname Hong Butcher.
Because of his ruthlessness and achievements, he was promoted to governor of Yansui. Comparing the tough Butcher Hong with the weak Yang He, Chongzhen chose to put Governor Yang He in prison and let Butcher Hong, who had only been governor for one year, do the job.
New Governor.
From then on, Hong Chengchou went from Shaanxi and Gansu to Jiliao, from the three sides of the governor to the military affairs of the five provinces. He defeated Chuang King Li Zicheng and only had eighteen riders left to escape into the Shangluo Mountains.
Some people once said that Hong Chengchou suppressed bandits for twelve years, and at least 100,000 bandits died at his hands.
Although Hong Chengchou was defeated by Song Jin in the end and became a prisoner, he was indeed one of the few civil servants in the late Ming Dynasty who was more capable of fighting.
And he is almost a jack-of-all-trades.
Zhu Yihai put him in the Admonition Court. For several years, he did very good things in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, even better than expected. If he had not been demoted to the Qing Dynasty, he would probably be even more famous than once having his head shaved.
On the western front of the Ming Empire, among the many civil servants and generals in the late Ming Dynasty, including Yang He, Chen Qiyu, Lu Xiangsheng, Xiong Wencan, Yang Sichang, Sun Chuanting, Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, etc., only Hong Chengchou was truly undefeated on the western front.
"You served in Guanzhong when the Apocalypse began. After that, you worked in Shaanxi, Gansu and other places to supervise divisions and suppress bandits for many years. You are familiar with the northwest, especially in quelling chaos. You have rich experience in military affairs and money and food. I need such a handsome man now to serve me.
Governor Guanzhong, quelling chaos.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! You will succeed Yu Dafu and be the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu and the governor of Shaanxi."
Hong Chengchou couldn't believe it.
Although Zuo Jianyi and Youdu Yushi are both first-class officials and important positions with real power, they are under the emperor's nose, and they are the head of the Kedao officials. They are responsible for biting people, not in charge of the cabinet or the six ministries.
or military.
But now the emperor actually wants him to be the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu and the governor of Shaanxi?
The governors and governors of the Shao Dynasty were different from those of the Chongzhen Dynasty, and their powers had changed greatly.
A very important point is that the main force of the imperial army is the imperial camp, but now the imperial camps stationed in each province are commanded by the imperial camp admirals, who directly obey the emperor's orders. The governors and governors have no authority to command and mobilize. There are more governors and governors now than in the previous two years.
These military powers, namely the newly reorganized patrol and garrison battalions in each province, were under their control.
However, the patrol garrison battalion also has an admiral in charge. The governor-general also oversees military affairs, money and food, and now the governor-general and governor no longer have a battalion directly under their own control.
So in the final analysis, the current governors and governors focus on local government affairs, while the military is more concerned with money, food and supervision.
But even so, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu is still the governor of the military and administrative affairs of the two provinces, and he is also the governor of Shaanxi.
Can the emperor really let him leave the capital to take up such an important position?
The emperor smiled slightly, as if he had already read his mind.
"Hong Qing has worked hard in the court in the past few years and is extremely loyal. I have seen it all. When he was captured by the Tartars, he took a detour in a confused way. It is always good to correct mistakes, let alone now.
He proved his repentance with practical actions."
These words were very harsh in Hong Chengchou's ears, and made him understand that the emperor had never forgotten those things, and would never treat him as his true confidant.
The emperor now wants him to succeed Yu Dafu as governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. It is obvious that the emperor still wants to use him.
What to use him for?
Being an admonishing doctor and censor of Youdu is to use him to supervise all officials, and even to bite those who are loyal to the dragon.
And now let him be the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu?
He thought of the emperor starting to talk about his former nickname, Hong Butcher.
He understood immediately.
Mila Yinding Guodong of Gansu rebelled in Lanzhou, and all the Hexi prefectures also rebelled. Even He Hongqi, who was born in Shunying, was in trouble now. He always found excuses not to join the court. In addition, the Governor of Turpan of the Yarkand Khanate,
The governor of Hami began to raise troops and even sent troops to reinforce Lanzhou.
Mila Yin and others were originally Hui Hui officials, but now they call Gansu the Gansu of Gansu people, and there are even rumors that they want to build a Hui Hui country.
At this time, the emperor named him, Butcher Hong, to take over as governor.
This is asking him to kill people.
The problem is that there are so many civil servants and generals under the emperor's command, and just two of them can pacify Shaanxi and Gansu. Why should he be asked to go there or be the governor?
"I remember that Liang Guogong Wu Sangui used to be your student. When you were in Liaodong, your relationship was not bad?"
Hong Chengchou had no choice but to say that he accepted Wu Sangui as his student because of the favor of the eunuch Gao Qiqian. He also accepted him as his student for the sake of Wu Xiangzu's birthday and others. He was not a real teacher and student, and he was not familiar with him.
Zhu Yihai laughed at the unfamiliarity and didn't mention it much.
"As long as we know each other, it doesn't matter whether we are familiar with each other. You guys fought together outside the customs. There are three gangs for each good man. If you want to be the governor, I can't let you go alone.
I will appoint Wu Sangui as your partner and serve as governor of Gansu."
"I will select some more generals, Zhang Guozhu, Gao Jinzhong, Xu Yong and Zhao Liangdong, the generals from Guanzhong who were previously attached to me. I will also select some brave young men from the troops and horses that were attached to Huguang in Guanzhong to form the left and right vanguards of the Western Expedition.
The army will be handed over to Governor Hong and Governor Wu respectively, which can be regarded as Governor Biaoying under your direct command."
"You go and stabilize the situation first. I have already sent people to mobilize troops, artillery, money and grain to enter Guanlong. In addition, I have also sent envoys to contact Gushi Khan of the Khoshote Khanate in Qinghai and Batur Khan of the Junggar Khanate in the Western Regions.
, the Chechen Khan of the Yili Jielut Khanate, and Dulbert Khan, etc., invited them to join forces and send troops to besiege Yarkand together and cut off the reinforcements from the Milayindingguodong and other retreats."
"I have only one decree for you: Those who rebel with weapons will be killed without mercy!
I will capture the heads of the rebels and reward you for your merits!"
"In the future, when the rebellion of Guanlong is put down, I will reward the soldiers with the fertile fields of Guanlong, and I will reward the soldiers with wives and daughters of the thieves to start families."
The emperor said with a smile, but Hong Chengchou's heart was filled with waves. He heard it and understood it completely. The emperor really wanted him to kill people. He even sent Wu Sangui out, and even specially gave him a chance to escape from those who surrendered.
Soldiers, some kind of new vanguard army for the Western Expedition should be formed among the prisoners.
They were the sword that the emperor took out. He clearly had the sharper imperial sword, but he did not pull it out of its sheath. Instead, he temporarily recruited them to form a vanguard army for the Western Expedition. It was obvious that the emperor did not want to dirty his precious sword.
