Chapter 37: Can't Be Cannon Fodder for the Emperor
With the emperor's appreciation and promotion, Shen Shuren's new book "On Thieves" spread at the fastest speed in the capital and even the entire surrounding Beizhili region.
Suddenly, court officials in Beizhili, local officials, and ordinary scholars with the title of Juren or above all had to praise it and buy a copy to read it.
As for the scholars and even lower-level scholars, the imperial court had no control over them for the time being. Many scholars were not wealthy and had no time to read or pay attention to current affairs.
The vast majority of people who have read "The Theory of Rogue Thieves" can't help but feel refreshed in their hearts.
But on the surface, many people still choose to find fault and make arguments out of consideration for the literati.
Especially when you talk about "The Theory of Rogue Thieves" in front of classmates and colleagues in the same year as a casual conversation material, if everyone else has high opinions, but you just follow suit and cannot come up with some shocking views that reverse the verdict, you will also be criticized by others. Disdainful.
Especially in Shen Shuren's books, there are too many things predicted by the bold god, and many people calmly ridicule them with the mentality of seeing the joke being exposed.
For example, including the six bureaus in the capital, except for Yang Sichang, who was sent abroad, and Jiang Dejin, who had a good relationship with the Shen family, the other ministers of the four bureaus of official affairs, rites, punishment, and work, as well as most of the ministers, all made similar laughter:
"Huh? We have seen many people who talk on paper, but it is rare for Shen Shuren to speak with such certainty. Do you still dare to cut it straight and imitate Song Yi in predicting Xiang Liang's defeat?
Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong dared to say so confidently that they were definitely better than Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying in winning over people's hearts. This is something that can break up at any time. Let's just wait and see. In the end, Luo Rucai and other cunning people will... Can we connect horizontally and vertically?"
After everyone talked about it, they didn't bother to refute it directly theoretically, and just waited to see the show directly from the perspective of results.
But no matter what, during this period of time, scholars inside and outside the capital talked about this topic the most. The popularity could last for at least half a month or even a month or two before it was overtaken by new hot search topics.
…
The words are divided into two parts.
Here in the capital, the discussion on Shen Shuren's new theory has been so intense recently. On the Huguang battlefield where Shen Shuren worked directly, there was even more discussion about the wise military deeds and far-sighted judgments of Master Bingbei.
Half a month after the Battle of Tongbai Mountain, it was a day in late June.
Shen Shuren had just made general arrangements for "hunting down the remnants of bandits who had broken into pieces and fled into the mountains." At the same time, he followed Liu Guoneng to recover Xinyang County in Runing Prefecture.
Finally, we could withdraw our troops from the mountainous areas and station them in the Huainan Valley Plain on the edge of the Dabie Mountains to take a breather.
Shen Shuren was preparing to say goodbye to Liu Guoneng, but on that day, the imperial court's promotion order and the document requesting them to send troops to reinforce the battlefield in Henan were sent to Xinyang County -
It is said that the imperial envoys originally went to other places, but failed to do so. When they heard that they were here, they turned back and rushed to Xinyang. During war, the positions of the generals were unstable, and delays in delivering messages were common. Son.
Facing the angel, Shen Shuren and others could only accept the order respectfully. The eunuch who delivered the order did not hesitate and first talked about the reward.
"...I am hereby promoted to Shen Lin, the former Hubei Army Preparatory Officer, to serve as Huguang Army Preparatory Officer, and as the censor of Qiandu, to coordinate the affairs of Huguang and Runing Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture, and Anqing Prefecture to suppress thieves."
"... Commander-in-Chief Liu Guoneng, with the rank of general of the Tang Dynasty, will return to the division today to lead troops to reinforce Luoyang..."
Under normal circumstances, the Ming Dynasty did not give random general titles to generals, but systematically awarded military positions, such as commander-in-chief. But those who had performed meritorious service and were unlikely to be promoted would be given the title of general.
Zuo Liangyu had won the title of "General the Bandit" before, but Liu Guoneng had never received the title "General" in history. This time it was obviously a butterfly effect, so he took a name similar to Zuo Liangyu's and formed the title "General the Bandit".
This number originally did not exist in the late Ming Dynasty.
In addition to Shen Shuren and Liu Guoneng, other major generals also received promotions.
Zuo Zixiong was promoted to staff general, Zhang Mingzhen and Yang Jinjue were promoted to guerrilla.
Other military attachés below the guerrilla level do not need to be directly sealed off by the emperor's decree. They are dealt with as usual by the Ministry of War's official department under the assignment of Yang Sichang.
Among those who were originally assigned to the defense position, the best one or two can be promoted to the rank of Dusi, and a few generals who perform well can also be promoted to the position of defense. There is no need to go into details one by one.
In terms of civil servants, Zhang Huangyan, the general magistrate of Huangzhou, was promoted to Tongzhi of Huangzhou, and Yan Yingyuan of Xiaogan County was officially promoted to the general magistrate of Suizhou.
Even Zheng Chenggong, who was originally just a seventh-rank patrol officer under Yanfa Road, was praised by Chen Shuren for his contribution to "raising Hongyi artillery for the army and assisting in training and commanding the artillery to defeat the enemy." He took the opportunity to be promoted to From the sixth rank, he also serves as the general magistrate of Huangzhou.
The prefects of Huangzhou, Suizhou and other places naturally had people sent by the imperial court. The civil servants under Shen Shuren were not high enough, so it was impossible for them to directly serve as prefects.
Fortunately, the Shen family can also spend some money and try their best to find someone who has the right relationship with the family and a high enough level to be the prefect. This will ensure that the local area will remain the power of the Shen family and be monolithic in the future.
This matter can be postponed for a few months. There is no prefect for the time being, and daily affairs can be handled by co-prefects and magistrates temporarily.
In the future, Shen Shuren will slowly select from among his friends of the same year who passed the exam last year, and find a few who will be promoted faster, preferably Fang Yizhi, but if it doesn't work, others will do the trick.
The second-to-last batch of Jinshi who passed the examination in the late Ming Dynasty were generally promoted faster because there were too many vacancies. Wei Zaode could become the chief minister in four years, and it was not unreasonable for others to become the prefect in one and a half years.
…
"Congratulations to the Imperial Censor! You have made outstanding achievements, and the imperial court will naturally reuse you. The general will rely on the Imperial Censor for support in the future, and he will definitely advance and retreat together with the Imperial Censor in matters of pacifying thieves!
Xinyang is newly restored and the people are in decline, so today we have to prepare a small amount of wine to celebrate. When Master Bingbei returns to Huangzhou, it will be much more lively."
Later that night, at the banquet to celebrate his promotion in Xinyang County Yamen, Liu Guoneng was a little embarrassed. While he was full of praise, he did not forget to say a few words of humility.
His host was really not doing a good job. He had just recovered a poor area and couldn't get any good wine or meat. He could only ask his subordinates to temporarily hunt some mountain animals and game to entertain the superior.
"General Liu is too polite. I am happy with you. You are now the general of the bandits. I am just a censor of Qiandu, and I have not even been appointed as a governor. We are just friends. I am not a person who cannot bear hardships. I will go with the army. At that time, we also had wild vegetable dumplings. Today we have wine and meat, which is pretty good."
Shen Shuren picked up the glass, drank until the glass was dry, and put his chopsticks into all the dishes. He looked approachable and not picky about food at all.
Under the Ming Dynasty system, the General Soldier was already a second-grade military officer, so strictly speaking, Liu Guoneng's grade was not low.
According to court regulations, only civil servants above the governor level can generally become commanders of the general army without special authorization.
For example, Shi Kefa next door, when he first became the censor of Qiandu five years ago, theoretically he could not supervise the commander-in-chief Huang Degong in a superior-subordinate relationship. He did not officially become Huang Degong's superior until he was promoted to governor of Anlu the following year.
Chen Shuren's current promotion route is equivalent to copying Shi Kefa's five years ago.
After Liu Guoneng congratulated him for a few words, he quickly couldn't help but bring the topic back to some embarrassing things - after all, the court documents urged Liu Guoneng to go north again to reinforce Luoyang.
In theory, Shen Shuren was an army from Huguang and should not have reinforced Luoyang. But because he had invited Liu Guoneng to serve as a reinforcement before, he just happened to be there, so he inevitably got into some trouble.
Liu Guoneng was still loyal to the Ming Dynasty, so he did not want to directly disobey the court's strict orders.
Historically, in September of this year, when Li Zicheng continued to advance eastward after completely occupying the Luoyang Basin, he attacked and destroyed Liu Guoneng's troops in Ye County and Yancheng area, and Liu Guoneng also died here.
Therefore, at this moment, he asked directly: "Master Shen, the general is willing to comply with the imperial court's request for reinforcements this time. However, we have just fought a bloody battle and the prisoners have not yet been reorganized.
If you don't take these prisoners with you, they will inevitably cause chaos in the rear, and if you take them with you, you will be afraid of defecting in the face of battle. If you only use your own troops, you can only use 10,000 people. Even if you add thousands more troops, I am afraid that they will not be Li Zicheng or Luo Rucai's opponent.
It’s not that I don’t want to repay your kindness, nor am I greedy for life and afraid of death, I’m just afraid of leading my brothers into dangerous situations. I would also like to ask Mr. Shen to explain to me how to reinforce this reinforcement?”
When talking about such an embarrassing topic, Shen Shuren couldn't help but sigh.
Promotion does not come in vain. The higher the position, the greater the responsibility.
Of course Chen Shuren knew what was going on here, and he was not willing to stand up to Li Zicheng, who was in such troubled waters.
On the one hand, he knew his own strength. His previous defeat of Erhe was partly due to luck and situation. In addition, the gap in absolute strength was not too big.
The newly conquered soldiers have not yet been reorganized, drilled, or brainwashed. They can immediately follow Li Zicheng to defeat him, otherwise they will have to mutiny and surrender to the enemy. Therefore, the number of reinforcements that he and Liu Guoneng can use, uu Kanshu www.uukanshu.com, totals only more than 10,000. He still has to leave someone to guard the house.
On the other hand, Shen Shuren's previous plans were all based on "at that point in time, Chongzhen will still die." If history changes to the extent that Chongzhen will not die, everything will be completely out of control.
Chongzhen was a suspicious man who liked to kill ministers indiscriminately. If Shen Shuren was finally transferred to the capital, everything would be over. Not only would he be in danger, but the great cause of saving the nation from peril would also be severely frustrated.
Therefore, Shen Shuren's long-term plan was to "attack Zhang Xianzhong exclusively, expel Li Zicheng mainly, and push Li Zicheng as far north as possible."
However, his development was too fast after all. It was only halfway through the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, and he had already developed to this level of power.
Historically, in May of the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign, Chongzhen secretly ordered Sun Chuanting to kill He Renlong, who resisted the war and surrendered to the governor. The thief leader), Zuo Liangyu's domineering behavior, could not be prosecuted and controlled by the court until after this.
Therefore, if we look at the original history, Chongzhen still had about a year to ensure his authoritative control over the local area. Before this time point, the court's orders were still to be obeyed - and the reason why it was the fifteenth day of Chongzhen's reign In May of that year, Shen Shuren felt that this was related to the fact that Hong Chengchou's army was wiped out outside the pass and Hong Chengchou himself surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
After Hong Chengchou surrendered, all the elites from all nine sides were lost, and the emperor's control and authority over the local warlords was completely eliminated. From then on, the warlords could make their own arrangements.
In the last half year, the emperor still had to find a way to deal with the chaos in his life.