(Let’s first say a few words about the controversy in the previous chapter. The original text of Zhang Xianzhong’s biography in “History of the Ming Dynasty” reads: “In the first month of the fourteenth year... Xianzhong Guo came out from the east... He led his light horse to ride three hundred miles day and night... and fell into Xiangyang City.
, Fu Xiang Wang Yi's inscription was placed in the hall, and the wine he owned said, "I want to borrow the king's head so that Yang Sichang can be trapped and executed. The king tried his best to drink this wine," and then killed him.
I didn't plan to write the plot of these two chapters in detail, but the events that happened in the official history are now delayed and deformed due to the butterfly effect of the protagonist. I have to explain that I can finish this part of the plot today. Zhang Xianzhong's first chapter in history
When Xiangyang was conquered once, there were indeed not many troops. Later, Xiangyang was again controlled by the imperial court and then controlled by Li Zicheng.
It can be inferred that Zhang Xianzhong came this time, at least not intending to occupy it for a long time. He just wanted to kill the feudal king and frame Yang Sichang, rob a large sum of money, give money to win people's hearts or recruit troops, and then kill some officials. Whichever goal is more important is reasonable.
, especially the purpose of framing Yang Sichang, is evidenced by the original dialogue in "History of the Ming Dynasty".
In addition, based on inferences from official history, it can be determined that Zhang Xianzhong must have spies in Xiangyang City and around Yang Sichang, so he dared to find weak times and places to take advantage of loopholes.
Shen Shuren appeared unexpectedly and was not expected by Zhang Xianzhong's intelligence network. Therefore, the people he sent for a sneak attack did not have time to retreat. They killed and robbed for a while and failed to control the time. I think this is very reasonable. There is no surrender for Zhang Xianzhong.
Wisdom. These are all things he has done in history. How can they bring wisdom?)
——
The great tomorrow in July of the twelfth year of Chongzhen was really full of things and dramatic changes.
After Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang, in just twenty days, a series of chain reactions occurred all over the world, which was simply more exaggerated than the bombing of an ammunition depot.
King Fu was killed, Yang Sichang pleaded guilty, and Zuo Liangyu was implicated, and he was removed from the general and moved to the town... It was only five days after these news were returned to the capital.
Another heavy news came from Huguang: "Thieves in Xiangyang disguised themselves as common people and entered the city to infiltrate and cause chaos and assassinate the vassal king." The emperor and officials in the capital were completely confused by the commotion.
No one wants to see this situation except a group of officials who are not afraid of making trouble.
This time the news was urgently sent by Shen Shuren from the Huguang Military Preparatory Service six hundred miles away. Just two days later, Yang Sichang also sent another confession.
It is said that when Yang Sichang heard that King Xiang and King Gui were killed, he was so furious that he vomited blood and fainted. Fortunately, his life was not in danger for the time being. After he recovered, he could still hold his breath and continue to serve as the governor.
It should be that Shen Shuren sent someone to comfort Yang Sichang as soon as possible, and tried to vent his words to Yang Sichang, so that Yang Sichang would not die of fear and hunger strike like he did at the same time in history.
Because he had committed the major crime of "losing land and seizing a feudal lord" in history, he felt that he would definitely be punished and executed, and it might also bring harm to his family, so he hoped to "die in the line of duty" as soon as possible in order to gain dignity.
Now Shen Shuren's remedy is to stick to the nature of the matter as "assassination" rather than "losing territory and seizing vassal power". There is a turning point, which gives Yang Sichang hope and can continue to ignite the will to survive for a while.
Of course, Yang Sichang will definitely let his confidants in the capital keep an eye on the news to see how Chongzhen finally qualifies this matter. If Chongzhen can accept the characterization reported by Shen Shuren and decides that it is "infiltration and assassination", then Yang
Sichang was not in a hurry to die.
If Chongzhen finally refused to accept the characterization of Shen Shuren's report and insisted on "losing territory and seizing the vassal state", then Yang Sichang would have to commit suicide before the judicial process was completed to protect his family.
This kind of life of waiting for news to decide whether to commit suicide is really not what people should live.
…
"In just a few days, so many vassal kings were killed by bandits! What on earth did Yang Sichang do for food! I want to destroy his clan!"
In the Wenhua Palace, Chongzhen, who had just heard the bad news, was still very irritable and smashed a lot of porcelain and jades out of anger. The eunuchs and maids beside him, including Wang Chengen, were all too angry to express their anger.
After a while, the admonishers from the Sixth Section of the Sixth Section, who were summoned by the emperor, also came to the palace one after another to discuss the finality of the matter.
The final determination is definitely not for the small officials at the level involved in the matter, but they represent the opinions of the relevant officials. The emperor also has to refer to external opinions on the matter to see if it will lose face to the emperor.
Chongzhen was very face-conscious, so sometimes the decision-making factor in whether he should kill or not was not based on whether the other party should be killed because of his crime, but "whether people outside would look down on the emperor because he didn't kill anyone this time, and feel that the emperor was embarrassed."
So much so that the Chongzhen Dynasty also secretly mastered this rule in the affairs of various departments. For the political opponents they wanted to criticize, once the opponent got into trouble, when they were summoned by the emperor, they would add insult to injury and say, "This time the matter will be revealed outside." I know, and the news has spread like wildfire. If Your Majesty does not strictly enforce the law, I am afraid he will be ridiculed by the scholars all over the world."
In this way, the probability of framing the death-criminal minister can be increased by a few percent.
Of course, this trick cannot be tried every time, otherwise all the civil servants in the Chongzhen Dynasty would have been framed and killed by political opponents. Chongzhen also had its limits.
If a Kedao official dares to exaggerate and is ultimately found to be just trying to fan the flames, he will pay a corresponding price. If he is found guilty of false accusations, he will be beheaded.
This time, to convict Yang Sichang of negligence, the first person Chongzhen summoned was Shen Xun from the military department.
Fortunately, Yang Sichang was not stupid. He left the capital to supervise the division. Of course, the military affairs department that stayed in the capital were all his confidants. Historically, Shen Xun and the later Minister of War, Chen Xinjia, were both Yang Sichang's foreign ministers. They were put aside and selected as the eyes and ears of the Ministry of War in the capital.
When Yang Sichang was alive, the relationship between Shen Xun and Chen Xinjia was okay, and both of them were loyal to Yang Sichang, who promoted them.
But after the death of Yang Sichang, the conflict between Shen Xun and Chen Xinjia intensified. In the end, before Chen Xinjia was impeached and executed, Shen Xun added insult to injury. As a result, when Chongzhen heard about it, he was a little disdainful and even said to him, "Yang Sichang promoted you back then." Two, if I ask you to fuck me, you might as well be Chen Xinjia."
Therefore, although all this has not happened yet, Shen Xun is loyal to Yang Sichang and will not jump back at this moment.
Facing the emperor's inquiry, he also said sincerely: "Your Majesty, I believe that the changes reported by Shen Shuren in Huguang are indeed justified. Zhang Xianzhong failed to capture Xiangyang and occupied it for a long time. He only sent some dead soldiers to infiltrate Enter the city and assassinate.
None of these people wore armor, and their weapons were smuggled into the city separately. It was really difficult for the imperial army to be responsible for investigating these assassins. As the so-called profession has specialization, if something like this happened, it should be the palace guards, local historians, and government officials The culpability of the police.
If, after discovering the infiltration of the bandits, they cannot defeat the dead soldiers of the bandits with swords and guns, leading to the fall of the city, then it is the responsibility of the defending officers and the supervisor."
Chongzhen didn't really want to punish Yang Sichang severely at first, because he had read the entire petition of Shen Shuren carefully and understood that "Zhang Xianzhong plotted to kill the vassal king because he wanted to frame the governor and use the loopholes in the Ming Dynasty law to cause the court to self-destruct." "The Great Wall".
In this case, Chongzhen was not stupid and could not fall into Zhang Xianzhong's scheme.
Therefore, as long as the emperor does not lose face and can step down, he does not need to kill Yang Sichang. At most, he will only be punished and demoted, his salary reduced, and his salary fined, but he will still take care of the original business.
The salary can be reduced, but the power cannot be changed arbitrarily, and the great cause of suppressing thieves cannot be undermined. Just like Zhuge Liang was defeated in Jieting and was demoted to three levels. Although he was given the title of General Right, he was still in charge of the original business.
Chongzhen tested Shen Xun again and again, and when he saw that the other party was sincere in his words and had a step forward, he put the matter aside for the time being.
Then he summoned Chen Xinjia, who was still the minister of the Ministry of War, and asked him about it. Chen Xinjia had similar opinions, so Chongzhen decided to wait for a few days and wait for the limelight to pass before making a final judgment.
(Note: Historically, Chen Xinjia was already the Minister of the Ministry of War at this time, and Yang Sichang had been dead for half a year. However, due to the butterfly effect, Chen Xinjia is still the minister, and it will take a while before he is officially promoted to the Minister.)
…
However, what Chongzhen didn't expect was that at this juncture of the Ming Dynasty, there would never be a shortage of troubles between the same parties and different parties attacking each other.
Before Yang Sichang left, he arranged for all the officers in the military department to be his own, but it was impossible for him to arrange all the officers in the six departments and all the officials in the department to be his own.
There were also many disputes between Yang Sichang's faction and Dong Lin, so soon some officials who were not responsible for military affairs also began to criticize Yang Sichang, and they were not convinced that "the death of Prince Xiang Gui was an assassination".
I also objected to the court clearly explaining the relevant laws and regulations and clarifying the time scale for "losing territory and seizing a vassal state". I feel that the situation of "temporarily being infiltrated by assassins and disrupting a certain city for a few days, and then being driven back to defeat the thieves by the imperial army" should continue to be counted as "lost territory". .
How can "lost ground" not be considered lost just because it was a sneak attack, temporary and short-term? Not even a day!
Donglin's "Public Justice" has never allowed any moral flaws. How can we give a grace period for issues of principle?
The two people who criticized the most harshly in the letter were Fang Shiliang and Ma Jiazhi - coincidentally, these two people were the ones who impeached and killed Chen Xinjia a year later.
But it's normal to think about it carefully. Chen Xinjia is Yang Sichang's remnant party. Those Donglin Zhongzheng who have fought with Chen Xinjia to death will naturally be the ones who want to give Yang Sichang eye drops at this moment.
Fang Shiliang and Ma Jiazhi tried their best to add fuel to the fire, exaggerating, "Now the scholars outside the Qing Dynasty are laughing at His Majesty for his lax enforcement of the law, his inability to control the local governors, and allowing the local governments to lower the standards of territorial protection at will, which insults the majesty of our Ming Dynasty, which is upright and will never retreat." So much.
Chongzhen was so humiliated that he inevitably had the idea of killing Yang Sichang.
In such a situation, Shen Xun, who wanted to mediate for Yang Sichang, had no choice. After all, he was just a supporter, and it was impossible for him to quarrel with a group of other supporters. That was not his responsibility. If he acted too aggressively, he would be suspected - —
The value of the existence of the public speaking officer is to check for leaks and fill in the vacancies. How can the impeachment officer use his main firepower to criticize other public speaking officials? What are your intentions?
Therefore, only Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, who was beholden to Yang Sichang, could reluctantly support him there, but it was difficult to support him alone.
…
Three or four days later, things finally turned around, mainly because Zuo Zixiong finally escorted Ai Nengqi to the capital.
The one who delivered the letter before had to rush 600 miles, and it was impossible to escort the prisoner so fast. Even if there were cavalry and fast horses to escort him, it would be more than double the time of the messenger. It is normal.
It was already the end of July when Zuo Zixiong arrived in the capital. The matters concerning prisoners of war and bandit prisoners were of course under the control of the Ministry of War, so Zuo Zixiong sent them directly to Chen Xinjia.
Chen Xinjia solemnly met with Zuo Zixiong in person, who had just been promoted to General. Apparently, he wanted to dig up some material that would be beneficial to Mr. Yang Ge from the front.
After reading the letter Shen Shuren asked Zuo Zixiong to carry with him and listening to some additional statements from Zuo Zixiong himself, he became slightly happy and quickly confirmed:
"Oh? When Shen Bingbei quelled the assassins in Xiangyang, he also seized part of the property of Prince Xiang's Mansion, Prince Gui's Mansion, and other murdered gentry that were robbed by the assassins? And he also escorted part of it to the capital?"
Zuo Zixiong replied sincerely: "It is true as the minister said, there were hundreds of vassal kings, wealthy families, and wealthy households killed in the city at that time. However, for those who mourned without closing their doors and their entire clan was destroyed, Shen Bingbei found the victim. , returned the robbed property to the owner.
Only those who were exterminated and had no victims to return were brought to the capital, and should be turned over to the national treasury. However, not all, but a considerable part of the heavy property, mainly grain, silks, cloths, and utensils. Zhang Ni's adopted son, After the thief general broke the government, he chose to distribute it directly to the people in Xiangyang City to win people's hearts and recruit new soldiers.
Shen Bingbei was afraid that forcibly confiscating the property that the thieves gave to the people to buy people's hearts would lead to people's hearts turning more towards the thieves, so he acquiesced in this part. It is up to Chen Shilang to decide how to clarify it to the court."
Chen Xinjia nodded, knowing that the money could still be used, and he could also find a way to help Yang Sichang clear things up in the capital. In addition, he also knew that Shen Shuren must have left a lot of money, and would not be so kind as to give it all away.
It is impossible to send millions of taels of property to the capital in a hurry. Someone will be interested in the wealth halfway, and even the escorting army will be tempted to betray him if he sees the wealth.
Chen Xinjia continued to read, paying attention to a few more points, and asked emphatically: "According to your statement, when Shen Bingbei sent you to escort Ai Nengqi, he had already thought that Zhang Xianzhong might send someone to intercept him halfway, or he might want to snatch it back With these money, Shen Bingbei actually arranged two teams, one bright and one dark, to escort the bright ones and ambush the dark ones.
In the end, I really waited for an ambush attempt by Zhang Xianzhong's troops, but you successfully delayed it until the secret escort appeared, and defeated Zhang Xianzhong's prisoner team again? More than a hundred people were killed, and dozens of horsemen were captured?
In addition, according to Shen Bingbei's investigation, it can also be confirmed that there are indeed Zhang Xianzhong's spies around Mr. Yang Ge and in Xiangyang City. How can he predict the enemy's opportunities in this way? And you also tortured Ai Neng to identify the identities of these spies. Qi and the other captured officers above the commander-in-chief of the Rogue Bandit Bureau, how many of them were asked?"
Zuo Zixiong admitted very candidly: "It is true that as the minister said, I escorted this time and killed a wave of prisoners on the way, but I really don't dare to take credit. Shen Bing prepared carefully, and I was just doing it." Takefu.
Shen Bingbei also said that Zhang Xianzhong was suspicious. If he really encountered a prisoner and was successfully defeated, it would further make Zhang Xianzhong suspect that his adopted sons were fighting among themselves. However, Shen Bingbei could not predict the specific development and use of it. .
He said that he has long heard that you, Chen Shilang, are the most resourceful among the officials of the Ministry of War promoted by Mr. Yang Ge. I believe that you can adapt to the situation and make full use of these conditions."
Chen Xinjia was a little proud after hearing the flattering words relayed by Zuo Zixiong. If nothing else, he was at least repaying kindness and being pragmatic.
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the captives this time could be of great use. After all, the confessions of the captives were very lethal, especially as it proved that Zhang Xianzhong was indeed good at buying traitors and informants. If this was dug out, it would be a big case.
Soon, Chen Xinjia came up with a poisonous plan - the conscience of heaven and earth. This was entirely Chen Xinjia's own desire to attack his political opponents and had nothing to do with Shen Shuren.
Shen Shuren didn't want to get involved in the dirty factional struggles in the capital at all. He just didn't want the imperial court's strategy of suppressing thieves to be repeated.
…
A few days later, Chen Xinjia's counterattack was really organized.
On the one hand, Zhang Xianzhong was also the one who helped. After the troops who robbed and killed Fan Xiangyang were severely damaged and almost wiped out, the prisoner-robbing team that went to rescue Ai Nengqi was also killed.
Zhang Xianzhong became angry because of shame. In order to kill Yang Sichang as soon as possible for the crime of framing the vassal, he spared no expense and organized several scenes of infiltration of dead soldiers and assassination of the vassal king. Most of them were unsuccessful, and a few were successful, but because they were all small groups of assassins, There is no other income, no property can be snatched, and even if it is snatched, it cannot be transferred out. Basically, it is a dead soldier who has never come back.
On the other hand, after Chen Xinjia tortured the prisoners who were sent to the capital again, he obtained some new "confessions": Zhang Xianzhong repeatedly emphasized in his army many times that the top priority now is to take advantage of Yang Sichang's fear of the general because of King Fu's death. Death, we must quickly add fuel to the fire to confirm Yang Sichang's death.
Therefore, he bribed the court officials to make the damage done to Zhang Xianzhong's ministry out of a trivial matter, bringing more shame to the court, and encouraged Chongzhen to kill more local governors, killing every governor who resisted the thieves most fiercely.
What was originally an act of "assassination" was to make these officials escalate the matter to the point of "losing territory and seizing the vassal state", making it impossible for the emperor to step down.
In the end, Chen Xinjia also obtained a confession: Fang Shiliang, the official in charge of the incident, had received money from Zhang Xianzhong and wanted to cooperate inside and outside to expand the "assassination" into "losing territory and trapping the vassal". As Zhang Xianzhong's internal agent, he helped frame Zhang Xianzhong. Local governor!
After Chongzhen got this confession from "Zhang Xianzhong's righteous son", he was really furious. He also had an excuse and immediately arrested the most capable official Liang Liang on the charge of "collaborating with thieves and inside." In the end, Indeed, more than 100,000 taels of property of unknown origin were confiscated from Fang Shiliang's residence.
In the conscience of heaven and earth, this amount of money really does not need to be framed, because it is normal for any Beijing official to confiscate his house and get a hundred thousand taels. At most, Chen Xinjia played a little auxiliary trick.
The stolen goods were obtained, and there was also a confession from the bandit's side, which was completely consistent with the bandit's motive for framing the governor. The official Fang Shiliang, who was born in Donglin, was involved in the incident, and three tribes were wiped out in this way - the traitor inside. This is definitely the way to deal with the crime.
For a moment, other Donglin officials were as silent as a cicada.
Even the biggest troll, no matter how strong he was originally, didn't dare to speak now.
It was nothing more than death, but to die in such a cowardly manner, to be confessed by the adopted son of an exiled bandit chieftain that he was Zhang Xianzhong's internal collaborator, was simply an insult to eighteen generations of ancestors.
Even if this matter is over.
Yang Sichang still needs to be punished. As mentioned above, he will be demoted, fined, and his benefits cancelled. The original business will still be taken care of.
The title of Minister of the Ministry of War was also completely removed. Taking this opportunity, Chongzhen also promoted Chen Xinjia, the minister of the Ministry of War, and officially became the Minister of the Ministry of War.
After Chen Xinjia took office, of course he completely recognized Shen Shuren as his friend. From then on, among the six departments in the capital, at least Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, and Jiang Dejing, the Minister of Household, were the die-hard allies of the Shen family.
The local living environment of Shenshu people can obviously be optimized.
Don’t worry too much about whether Chongzhen will be emotionally unstable and mess around with personnel in Huguang in the last year or so. Chongzhen only has one year left to control the local area. Even though he still has two and a half years to die, Hong Chengchou will be demoted to the Qing Dynasty. After that, Chongzhen had lost actual control over the place.
——
ps: There is some clarification at the beginning, and there is some historical data in this chapter, so it is only 5,500 words. Excluding the explanation at the beginning, the main text is at least 5,000 words.
This book is less than one-tenth of the price of "Three Kingdoms Fool". It is definitely impossible to make more updates. No one will make more updates for 2,000 yuan a month (the minimum wage in Hangzhou is 2,600) , I don’t even get the subsistence allowance). My character ensures that I can finish the book and write it down well, that’s it.
Today is actually only 9,000 words. Although I don’t publish updates, I often write big chapters, and there are many days when I have 8,000 to 10,000 words. I’ll be content with that.