Chapter 43 Why do you pretend to be slapped in the face, just make a fortune in silence
The words are divided into two parts.
When the capital was entangled over whether the murder of King Xiang and other vassal kings was considered an assassination attempt by bandits, or a loss of territory and the vassal trap.
On the Huguang battlefield, Shen Shuren was already busy with his own affairs, frantically taking over and expanding the territory, and formally exercising his power as the Huguang Bingbei Qianshi and the Qiandu censor.
He knew that in putting down the rebellion in Xiangyang and avenging the noble king of Xiangyang, no matter what, he himself had absolutely no merit or demerit.
Even if there is a crime, it is still the fault of Yang Sichang and others.
Shen Shuren himself definitely only has the possibility of being further rewarded, and there is no need to worry about his personal future. After all, when he came to Xiangyang to quell the chaos, the control of Xiangyang had not yet been handed over to him. The other Huguang areas were not originally under his jurisdiction. also the same.
To put it bluntly, the role played by Shen Shuren is just like Sima Yi who had just been restored to military power by Cao Rui in history and caught up with Meng Da to respond to Zhuge Liang's rebellion on his way to office.
At that time, Sima Yi had no obligation to "immediately quell Meng Da's rebellion". He traveled 1,200 miles from Wancheng in eight days and twice to get to Shangyong and defeated Meng Da in seconds. Of course, it was a great achievement to defeat Meng Da in seconds. Not to defeat him in seconds. It's not Sima Yi's fault either.
In the last few days of late July, Shen Shuren quickly achieved control over all aspects of the situation in Xiangyang by taking advantage of the remaining power after Xiangyang was destroyed by Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry troops——
Speaking of which, he had to thank Zhang Xianzhong for clearing the way for him to take power with an iron fist in the local area. Because as we all know, after Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry entered the city, they burned and killed them for more than an hour. They not only killed two vassal kings, but also Many ministers.
The "History of the Ming Dynasty" records that "Yunxiang Dao Zhang Kejian, the official Kuang Yueguang" and other important officials in Hubei were all killed when King Xiang was killed. However, other officials with lower official positions were not recorded in the history books, but in fact they were. There must have been a lot of killing.
Zhang Xianzhong freed up at least two Taotai-level and three to five prefect-level official positions around Xiangyang. After all, Xiangyang was originally the residence of Yang Sichang, and there must have been many senior civil servants.
It will take several months to complete the vacancy statistics for these personnel. At present, Chongzhen is still busy processing Yang Sichang's characterization.
Even in peacetime, there is a three-month deadline for the handover of officials, let alone the complicated wartime. Therefore, throughout the autumn of the 14th year of Chongzhen, it was impossible for the court to discuss how to replace these officials. It is expected that after winter, Discussion, but including the term of office, he would not have to wait until the spring of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen to take office.
During this half-year gap, these killed officials could only exercise their powers by relying on Yang Sichang's temporary instructions and finding some people to work part-time.
Shen Shuren's favor of "saving Yang Sichang" was there. Yang Sichang had the final say, which was equivalent to Chen Shuren's decision.
Shen Shuren would not be polite to Yang Sichang. After capturing Ai Nengqi and destroying Zhang Xianzhong's surprise attack team, he immediately went to Nanyang in private to pay a visit, on the one hand to show his merit and on the other hand to offer conditions.
After this incident, the relationship between the two became more and more serious. Yang Sichang was already in his dying years. He had been dead for half a year at this time in history. Now that Chen Shuren had saved his life, he was seriously ill and did not dare to do so. Putting on the pretense of being an official, we just treat each other as friends.
Chen Shuren also gave him enough face, and the conditions he proposed were ostensibly out of public interest, in order to restore the ruling order around Xiangyang as soon as possible. While he proposed to let his men temporarily take charge of the government affairs of Xiangyang and other places, he also proposed a Pile up candidates for promotion.
"Lao Ge, there is no more chaos in Xiangyang, Yunyang and other places. For the officials who are vacant, I have thought of a few reliable people here and asked Lao Ge to help mediate so that they can be appointed after the year.
Chen Xinjia and Chen Shangshu also have a certain say in the appointment of local officials in the war zone, so I can only count on you to say hello to Chen Shangshu."
With that said, Shen Shuren reported a few names.
He hoped that at the beginning of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, his friend Fang Yizhi of the same year and Ge Shizhen, who was the top two in the same year, could serve as the prefects of Xiangyang Prefecture and Wuchang Prefecture respectively.
Fang Yizhi had family power to help him perform meritorious service, and Shen Shuren also helped him before he had a good relationship with him, so now he has become a co-president of Anqing Prefecture.
The rank and status of Anqing Prefecture is not low. After all, the place name "Anhui" in later generations comes from Anqing Prefecture and Huizhou Prefecture. Fang Yizhi was promoted to the deputy position in Anqing Prefecture at the beginning of this year, and he has completed his first anniversary. Later, he performed well and was promoted to prefect, which was normal in the last years of Chongzhen.
Ge Shizhen's family background is not prominent, but he was historically ranked second in the 13th year of Chongzhen. Now, due to Shen Shuren's butterfly effect, all the first-class trio of that year have been replaced by traitor surrenderers of later generations, and Ge Shizhen has been squeezed out. Chuanlu reached fourth place on the overall list.
As a successor, after passing the palace examination, he will also be qualified to serve as a sage, and his promotion speed will be much faster than those who are directly sent to other places in the same year. Therefore, Shen Shuren wants to use him as the prefect and use his years to fill the position. It makes sense to be one's own confidant.
As for the other friends Shen Shuren made at the same age, they may lack merit or qualifications, so it is impossible for them to function at the prefect level, but there is no problem in being a fellow magistrate and a judge.
Among these people, many who lack connections are still serving as local county magistrates. Shen Shuren is willing to help and support them in the friendship of the same year. They will naturally feel Chen Shuren's kindness, and their loyalty and control will be absolutely guaranteed.
Of course, in order to save enough face for Yang Sichang, Shen Shuren never said from beginning to end, "Which person I want to be assigned to which position specifically?" He just introduced the list and resume, and said the level of the vacancy he hoped to fill. .
As for who should be appointed as which officer within the same level, it all depends on Yang Ge’s advice!
In other words, Yang Sichang could decide whether to make Fang Yizhi the prefect of Xiangyang, or the prefect of Wuchang, or even the prefect of Hanyang. Shen Shuren only wanted these few people to be prefects, and who knew which prefecture, and Shen Shuren fully respected him.
Fortunately, Yang Sichang didn't think it was too much. He just looked at the list of Shenshu people fairly and said in a matter-of-fact manner: "This Ge Shizhen is a Chuanlu after all, and he has also been among the common people. It is understandable that he would be promoted faster.
Fang Yizhi is just like you, only one of the last among the top two, but you have so many achievements, what does he have? If you want to be the prefect of Xiangyang or Wuchang, you can only hope to make some more achievements in the second half of the year——
Three of Gezuo's five battalions have now been destroyed. Ma Shouying, the strongest in the west, has defected to Li Zicheng. Lin Chengcheng, the weakest in the east, is still entrenched in the mountains between Huangzhou and Anlu.
If you can completely solve the problem of Lin Chengchang in the second half of the year, and let Fang Yizhi make some contributions during this period, your appointment can be realized. Also, don't you want to support Zhang Huangyan, Zheng Chenggong, if you can deal with it In the process of cultivating Lin, let them take some credit, and these appointments can be realized."
Chen Shuren achieved his goal, so he respectfully thanked:
"In this case, the students will go and make arrangements. After a series of battles this year, it's time to take a break. Zhang Xianzhong was wiped out by us in several groups of dead soldiers who made sneak attacks. Coupled with the 'Ten-Sided Net' deployed by Mr. Ge, the part targeting Zhang Xianzhong was also It has not been breached. He should be unable to launch any more large-scale raids.
I think that in the second half of this year, the military will be able to breathe a little easier. We will step up efforts to restore people's livelihood in Huguang, plant more corn and potatoes, promote fast-growing chickens, fish, and pig breeds, and try to cover military expenses with the Lijin commercial tax to ease the burden on farmers.
Then, if the land belonging to the vassal kings and powerful people who were attacked and killed by Zhang Xianzhong is rented to poor farmers at low rents, I believe that the people's hearts in Xiangyang, Wuchang and other places will be restored quickly."
It is now the end of July and the beginning of August. When the Chenshu people clean up the situation, there will definitely be no food to plant this year. At most, you can plant some winter wheat in a place closer to the north. In addition, you can plant some short-growing vegetables to barely support it. one time.
The disasters and harvests in the late Ming Dynasty were mainly severe in the north, and the two lakes areas could barely sustain themselves. This time, Zhang Xianzhong killed many vassal kings and dignitaries, and also freed up some ownerless land. After reducing rents for poor peasants, the situation should be better. Much better.
The area of royal estates occupied by the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty was very exaggerated. For example, Prince Fu, who was killed by Li Zicheng in Luoyang, was awarded 40,000 hectares of land by Emperor Wanli when he became a vassal in the last years of Wanli, which is four million acres.
Basically, he occupied a small half of the fertile land in the Luoyang Basin. Later, in the years of Tianqi and Chongzhen, King Fu continued to amass money and annexed land. It is really difficult to estimate how much he had before he was finally killed. But it is said that he occupied the Luoyang Basin. More than half of the fields are probably not unjust.
The land of other vassal kings is not as exaggerated as that of King Fu, but there are still several thousand hectares. The group of people killed by Zhang Xianzhong this time created at least millions of acres of unclaimed land, which really relieved the Chenshu people. the burden of governance.
One piece and one piece of relaxation, the way of civility and martial arts.
Shen Shuren has been fighting for so long this year and has been busy with the military for four months. Seeing that the autumn harvest is approaching, it is time to take a break and deal with domestic affairs and farm.
…
After reaching an agreement with Yang Sichang regarding his request for official position and power, it was time for Shen Shuren to leave Nanyang again and officially return to his own territory to enjoy the fruits of victory.
Xiangyang Prefecture has been taken over, but there are also Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture that should also belong to him, but he has no time so far and has never been there even once.
However, just as he was about to leave and return south in the morning, Chen Shuren's men were still doing the final packing. Suddenly, a huge army came outside the city. Yang Sichang did not allow the army to enter the city and garrison it because there was no room for it. , let them camp outside the city.
Chen Shuren and his confidant bodyguard officers were inevitably curious. They went to the top of the city and took a look, and it turned out that it was Zuo Liangyu's flag. In the case of the previous murder of King Fu and the fall of Luoyang, the emperor's opinions were finally implemented.
Zuo Liangyu, who was punished with the title of Pingtei General and ordered to move to Nanyang, finally did not dare to directly and openly rebel. He chose to admit his defeat and abandoned his territory and population in Wuchang and Hanyang, as well as the local guard force. Only He took his direct troops and all transferable movables north to Nanyang, and was responsible for intercepting Li Zicheng's southward movement.
Enemies were naturally extremely jealous when they met. After all, Shen Shuren also knew that the daughter of a rich man could not sit down in court, so he would not deliberately provoke Zuo Liangyu in person.
Otherwise, if Zuo Liangyu is emotionally unstable and tries to become a rebel and wants to take revenge, Shen Shuren will be in trouble. People with such a background are more likely to be impulsive and reckless than Chen Shuren. This kind of gentleman with a scholarly background is much taller.
Since the frame-up is successful, it is enough to just keep silent and make a fortune, why bother pretending to be a provocateur in front of the villain when he succeeds?
At most, the best thing to do is to go back and take care of Li Xiangjun, which can bring a perfect end to the frame-up of Zuo Liangyu.