Chen Shuren's promotion has been temporarily set to the tune of "more real power can be given, but the level and salary cannot be raised too quickly."
I believe that this tone is something Shen Shuren himself is willing to accept - in these troubled times, what he needs most is real power, and as for official positions, they are all illusory.
Chen Shuren knows that there are still a few years left in the Ming Dynasty. When the time comes for the real power of heaven, it will depend on how many resources each person can actually control, and the false reputation will be of no use at that time?
As for remuneration, salary, opportunities to be greedy for money... Haha, the Shen family has never expected to get money from being an official, they have always paid to be an official!
However, Chen Shuren himself thought so, but others did not know it. As the decision-maker of the official appointment, Chongzhen felt a little guilty about this in his heart.
Therefore, during the period after the tone was set, while Chongzhen was diligent in his administration, he also began to take a rare interest in the recent achievements of his minister Shen Shuren in various aspects, and even asked Wang Cheng'en to collect more stories about Shen Shuren.
To put it bluntly, I just want to examine this talent more comprehensively and see if there is anything else worthy of praise.
There is no airtight wall in the world. The emperor was concerned about this matter. Wei Zhaocheng, the official minister who was handling the matter, certainly knew it well, so he later took the opportunity to give the emperor several advices.
Wei Shangshu’s meaning is nothing more than this: “Although Shen Shuren made extraordinary achievements this time, it was the result of the cooperation of Yang Gelao to coordinate the anti-bandit forces of the two provinces. Shen Shuren was only the beneficiary of the decision.
The key to success is that the military resources on the battlefields in the two provinces were all diverted to Suizhou and Xinyang battlefields. But a few days ago, Henan reported that Li Zicheng left Shangluo Mountain in early June, defeated Luonan and Luoning, and came from the south Luoyang was surrounded on the side.
If Mr. Yang Ge cannot reverse the overall situation and only diverts resources to local battlefields, but causes mistakes in other directions, then Chen Shuren's achievements are nothing more than based on the defeat of others.
This fault may not necessarily be placed on Shen Shuren, but there must be some officials and generals in the Huguang and Henan theaters who failed to coordinate well or were afraid to move forward. When the overall situation was damaged, Shen Shuren was promoted too quickly, fearing that Even so, you can’t convince the public.”
To be honest, Wei Zhaocheng was very sincere in what he said, and the emperor listened to it, and finally gave up all other thoughts.
This is just like if there is a large group company in the future, if the parent company and the group company's overall performance are not good, but a subsidiary company with internal related transactions has good performance individually, then the CEO of this subsidiary company will not Maybe he was promoted with too many exceptions and generous rewards.
Because who knows the performance of this subsidiary? Is it because related transactions were falsified and other brother companies were allowed to supply raw materials at low prices and buy finished products at high prices to promote this subsidiary to a star company?
There shouldn’t be too many listed companies in later generations that fake accounts like this. To be conservative, we can say that more than 10% of listed companies have fake accounts like this.
Yang Sichang was responsible for the overall suppression of thieves in the Central Plains. If Yang Sichang was unjust and poured resources into the local battlefield of Shen Shuren, causing the collapse of other places, then Shen Shuren should not be promoted too high even if he still has merit.
…
After Chongzhen listened to Wei Zhaocheng's words and temporarily relaxed on this matter, Wang Chengen was unaware of his master's change of mentality.
A few days ago, Chongzhen ordered him to collect information about Chen Shuren through other channels, and Wang Chengen always kept it in mind.
On June 20th, which was the fifth day after the victory over Erhe, Wang Chengen actually found something good and sent it directly to Chongzhen through internal channels.
It was a thin booklet, with only a few dozen pages. The thread-bound books of the Ming Dynasty did not have many words per page. This kind of booklet had only two hundred words per page, and only four to five hundred words on the front and back. So it was A paper of 20,000 to 30,000 words would require fifty or sixty pieces of paper.
"What is this?" Chongzhen was puzzled when he saw Wang Chengen sending him a letter.
Wang Chengen: "Your Majesty, what is written on the cover is that this book is called "The Theory of Rogue Thieves". It is signed by Shen Shuren and edited by Gu Yanwu. I have asked about it. It is a new book that has appeared in the capital recently. It is from Henan and Huguang." Bian, it may have been published more than half a month ago.
I don’t understand the content of the book very well, but I heard that it was written by Shen Bingbei, which analyzes the gains and losses of thieves in the past dynasties in the world, and analyzes which thieves are the most dangerous, why they are dangerous, and which thieves are relatively incapable of success."
"Oh? This Chen Shu man has been suppressing thieves for several years, but he has learned a lot about it. As expected of someone who was born in the second rank of Jinshi, he went to suppress thieves. This is a combination of civil and military skills."
Chongzhen was also quite pleased when he heard this. Over the years, he had read various practical memorials on how to suppress thieves issued by civil servants, but they all talked about details and operations. No one had ever discussed the methods of rogue thieves from the level of political philosophy system theory. Historical lessons.
If Shen Shuren can write like this, he probably has something in his heart.
Chongzhen quickly opened it and read it. Not to mention, in just a few minutes, he was attracted by Shen Shuren's discussion.
The content of Shen Shuren's discussion was nothing more than what he discussed about the dangers of thieves from all walks of life in the world when he asked Fang Kongzheng for help.
But at this moment, the text that Chongzhen saw was much more complete and meticulous than when Shen Shuren originally dictated it. It cited scriptures, was clear and convincing, and was very convincing. This was obviously the result of Gu Yanwu, a great writer and philosopher, ghostwriting.
"It turns out that the bandits are so sharp, but the official army is hampered in every way. It's not just that the officers and soldiers are weak in combat, but that the way the bandits organize people is inherently conducive to battles and not conducive to stabilizing the world?
Is the rogue bandit a kind of existence that does not consider how to prevent civil strife or seize power from the beginning to the end? It is all about improving military combat effectiveness and has no time to consider the long term? This view is interesting. Indeed, the former Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty both had constraints. Military ministers, there are internal checks and balances, but the bandits are in danger, so why worry about long-term stability? What is the best way to fight at the moment? Let's get through it first."
"In the past dynasties, Chen Sheng and Huang Chao were not unable to defeat Qin and Tang militarily, but they were able to defeat Qin and Tang militarily. After internal divisions and internal divisions, Chen Sheng was harmed by military officials, and Huang Chao was harmed by Zhu Wen...
From this point of view, I should now think about who is the military minister under Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, Zhu Wen. Last year, when Shen Shuren Palace was trying to make a policy inquiry, he suggested that I would embrace Rou Yuanren and seduce the two thieves Li and Zhang to kill the master and surrender. Even their adopted son can persuade them, I'm afraid they already figured this out at that time..."
"Huh?! It turns out that in Shen Qing's eyes, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are more dangerous than Chen Sheng and Huang Chao? Just because the two thieves Li and Zhang not only have the advantages of thieves in all dynasties, but also have the evil spirits and crooked ways of all dynasties, such as Taiping ,Bailian’s advantage?
Just because the two thieves Li and Zhang, one eunuch and the other injured and disabled, are both destitute of descendants, so their adopted sons and generals support them like evil monks and Taoists support their leader, and are unwilling to betray them easily?
Because they all know that if they betray, the other adopted sons and generals of the two thieves Li and Zhang will not betray. Instead, they will be happy to see him betray. They will kill him to show their loyalty to Li Zhang and reduce the competition for inheriting the Li Zhang family business in the future. opponent?
Because everyone in the generals knew that King Chuang could not pass on his son, the thieves who were ordinary poor and lowly backgrounds trying to harm each other to seize the industry changed to competing for this great cause. "Everyone adds fuel to the fire, and the flames are high". First, when King Chuang dies in the future, he will naturally be able to peacefully inherit his family business?!"
When he saw this, Chongzhen's eyes almost popped out of his head, but when he thought about it carefully, everything Shen Aiqing said was a wise saying. Although he had never heard of it, he really couldn't fault it.
So that’s it! So that’s it!
No wonder it was so difficult for the Ming Dynasty to deal with the bandits. It was much more difficult than the Qin Dynasty to deal with Chen Sheng and the Tang Dynasty to deal with Huang Chao!
It turns out that the root cause lies in the fact that one of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong was a wounded eunuch, and the other was a heavenly eunuch, which made the internal cohesion of the bandits much higher than that of other bandits who continued to have no descendants in the past dynasties!
For a moment, a terrible thought even flashed through Chongzhen's mind:
If I also want to cut off my descendants and recruit only one son-in-law, I will recruit the most capable general in the Ming Dynasty as my son-in-law. Or even as my son-in-law and adopted son, that is, I must first give my son-in-law the national surname Zhu and the treatment of the emperor's adopted son, and then Let him marry the princess and pass the throne to this fierce general son-in-law in the future.
Then maybe even if there are ten million bandits, they would have been killed by the "quasi-consorts" who want the throne like wolves and tigers!
He remembered that when the emperor's brother was in power, Mr. Xu Ge translated some history books of the Western Roman Empire, which mentioned that the most powerful period of Rome's Five Wise Emperors was the succession of five generations of sons-in-law.
In his later years, the old emperor chose the most capable general in the empire as his son-in-law to pass on the throne. As a result, during the Five Dynasties of Emperors, Rome expanded its territory and became invincible in the West, beating other countries to their knees.
It was not until Emperor Aurelius, the last of the Five Wise Emperors, felt that his own son Commodus was also very capable, and insisted on passing the throne to his own son, which led to infighting between his son and his son-in-law, a bloody storm in the center, and the gradual decline of Rome.
Fortunately, this terrible thought flashed through Chongzhen's mind. He is still a very strong person, and would rather break than bend.
Not to mention that he already has three sons, even if he has no sons now and only has Princess Kunxing (Zhu Aona, later Princess Changping) at his knees, he will never really think wildly.
However, Chongzhen feels that Shen Aiqing's book is really valuable and has been widely promoted.
Especially in the later part, he saw that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were described in it. In the future, when the bandits attempt to harm each other, they will definitely have an advantage. Because Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong have no sons, their subordinates' cohesion and loyalty will definitely be better than that of Luo Rucai and Ma Shooying. His subordinates are highly loyal.
No matter what, as long as these remarks are analyzed logically and circulated, the thieves will definitely kill each other!
In order to inflict internal friction on the thieves, this costless alienation strategy should be promoted!
"Wang Cheng'en!"
"The old slave is here!"
As soon as Chongzhen opened his mouth, Wang Chengen, who was hiding in the dark and trying not to disturb the emperor, appeared just in time.
Chongzhen's eyes were full of admiration: "This book is interesting. Let the Hanlin Academy take it and publish it widely, so that all civil servants in the dynasty can read it! It should also be spread vigorously in places where the number of bandits is serious!"
"Old slave, let's do it now."
"etc!"
"What other orders does your Majesty have?"
Chongzhen's decree twitched: "That's all, if it will cause trouble, it's okay not to let the Hanlin Academy undertake it."
Wang Chengen was puzzled: "The Hanlin Academy has the duty to promote civilized governance, how could it go wrong?"
Chongzhen sighed: "I remember that during the imperial examination last year, Wei Zaode and others who were the number one scholar were just like Shen Shuren and Fang Yizhi, who were the last ones to deal with.
When you go to the Hanlin Academy, remember to remind him that he is not allowed to change a single word of Chen Shuren's writings. He is not allowed to change a word. He will be published in the world exactly as he is. If he dares to change a word, he will not be allowed to stay in the Hanlin Academy. ”