Along with fifty-nine other prospective Jinshi, they left at the emperor's request.
Only Chongzhen, Shen Shuren, and some palace maids and eunuchs were left in the Wenhua Palace.
The leading eunuch, Wang Chengen, was not very aware of the current situation and was still standing there.
However, Chongzhen quickly ordered: "Wang Daban, you should also retreat."
Wang Chengen was quite surprised.
Chen Shuren listened below and realized that the person standing next to the emperor was Wang Chengen. He originally thought that Cao Huachun should be accompanying him in such a formal occasion today.
This is also due to Shen Shuren not studying carefully - Cao Huachun just retired and returned to his hometown last year.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" says that Li Zicheng entered the capital four years later and Cao Huachun presented the gate. He, a retired old man, did not have the power. It was probably offered by another eunuch who was responsible for guarding the gate, but he was not famous, so he had to find someone with a name to take the blame. , serving as the code name for the entire eunuch group.
After all the eunuchs had left, Chongzhen spoke: "In your opinion, how should we control the civil and military forces who surrounded and suppressed Zhang Ni in order to encourage them to use their lives? You must have been confident in your daring to contradict me just now, right?"
Now that there is no one around me, I might as well speak from my heart. I hate Zhang Ni more than Li Chuang. This thief destroyed the Fengyang ancestral mausoleum five years ago, forcing me to issue an imperial edict to plead guilty to my ancestors. It is a sin in ancient and modern times. , nothing like this.”
Chen Shuren confirmed that speaking now would not embarrass the emperor in public, so he dared to speak uprightly: "Your Majesty, I don't dare to say for sure. But I speak from the bottom of my heart. I dare to say that after Zhang Ni's rebellion, the other families in the south will turn around again and have many thieves. They are all forced to have no choice,
I'm afraid that His Majesty will think that 'they and Zhang Ni were both recruited by Xiong Wencan, and Zhang Ni's repeated rebellion will make His Majesty suspicious of them.' Under mutual suspicion, they will become corrupt and completely out of control. In the final analysis, it is The heart of fear is at work.”
Chongzhen's face turned cold: "You are blaming me for being so harsh, are you forcing them to rebel?"
Chen Shuren: "I don't dare! No one can guess what the bandit leaders are thinking in their hearts, and neither can I. But now that the matter has come to this, I feel that we should look forward and do our best to restore the imperial court and the repentant thieves." The trust between us can be saved as many as possible. Only by preventing Zhang Ni from coercing more people can we have hope of completely defeating the thieves."
Chongzhen adjusted his breathing, endured the twitching of the nerves at the corners of his mouth, and asked patiently: "How to repair it?"
Chen Shuren responded: "In ancient times, Shang Yang moved to Mu Lixin. For today's plan, we should first reward the others who once made trouble with Zhang Ni, and then they were recruited by Xiong Wencan together with Zhang Ni. Now Zhang Ni has rebelled against them. The surrendered general remained unmoved and insisted on loyalty to the imperial court.
In this way, we can set an example that the court will never abandon a general who has reformed and is loyal, and will show the prosperity of the relationship between the monarch and his ministers."
Chen Shuren’s suggestions are very specific and practical.
Having said this, Chongzhen's expression finally warmed up a little, and he realized that the courtier in front of him was really helping him with advice for the sake of the stability of the world.
"Is there such an example? Even if there is, is their loyalty to the court reliable?"
Chen Shuren came prepared and knew the history, so he immediately said with certainty:
"Yes! Liu Guoneng, who was recruited by Xiong Wencan along with Zhang Ni and others the year before last, did not follow Zhang Ni's rebellion but insisted on fighting against him.
So far, Liu Guoneng is still fighting for the country against bandits in Nanyang, working together with Zuo Liangyu. Please imagine, your majesty, if a former bandit chose to rebel because he was afraid of being implicated by Zhang Ni and the court would be suspicious of him, then he would have died last autumn at the latest It's time to do the opposite.
It has been nine months since Zhang Ni revolted, and he still insists not to join the rebellion. Naturally, he wants to leave a good name in the history books and is sincerely loyal to the court. Shouldn't such an example be set and should not be saved? If the court is allowed to be disrespected by civil and military officials, As for them, if we don’t provide them with food, wages and support, it will chill people’s hearts, and it will be difficult to divide and disintegrate the thieves in the future.”
Liu Guoneng's original bandit name was "Chuang Taotian", and he was very fierce and stubborn when he was a bandit. He even pretended to surrender once when he was in the hands of Chen Qiyu in Shaanxi Province.
But Shen Shuren dared to give this example because he knew that in the "History of the Ming Dynasty" Liu Guoneng ended up fighting to death with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and after being defeated, his whole family died for the country.
When he wanted to clarify his point of view, he couldn't cite a better example, so he could only use Liu Guoneng as a benchmark - he couldn't persuade the emperor to give preferential treatment to Zheng Zhilong, right? After all, Zheng Zhilong had been a traitor in history.
Liu Guoneng will be relatively easy to control in the future, and providing help in times of need is more likely to make people grateful than adding icing on the cake.
After hearing this, Chongzhen was silent for a long time.
He didn't understand the situation very well, so he had to go to the entrance of the palace in person, call Wang Chengen back, and ask him to get the resume information of Liu Guoneng, the surrendered general, so that he could check it himself.
Wang Chengen didn't know what was being discussed in the Wenhua Hall, but he was secretly frightened when he saw this posture:
Didn't His Majesty say that he wanted to scold and scold this Shen Lin? Why did he still need to take the general's resume information while cursing him? Is this scolding or asking for advice?
Fortunately, as a senior eunuch, he knew he shouldn't ask questions, so he didn't guess and just did his duty.
After Chongzhen got his resume, he read it over and over and discussed it for a long time. Finally, he had to admit that the idea Shen Shuren gave him was absolutely correct, beneficial and harmless, and had no sequelae.
"You are a man of practical ability. Although you don't know the general situation, you can't sit in the pavilion and talk about doctrines. But you are a good hand at the local level to help the people, manage finances, and divide the thieves." Chongzhen held it in for a long time before he uttered such a compliment.
Shen Shuren's pragmatism in doing specific work once again left a deep impression on him. It also reminded him of the previous case of water transportation reform in the Ministry of Revenue.
If there were many people, Chongzhen would not say it so bluntly, but now that there is no one, it is rare for the emperor to say what he wants, and it is very tiring to keep pretending.
After the atmosphere became harmonious, Chongzhen did not hesitate to take the opportunity to ask more questions, and while chatting, he focused on how to completely solve Zhang Xianzhong.
Seeing that the heat was coming, Chen Shuren also gave the emperor his second piece of advice: "Your Majesty, I have always believed that the main reason why Zhang Ni is rampant is that he is good at coercing good people to become thieves. To deal with Zhang Ni, we must cut off his pull and bite. The ability to coerce others.
Since Your Majesty is already willing to reward and reuse Liu Guoneng, why not go one step further, offer a heavy reward, tell the world, and encourage all available people to contain Zhang Ni?"
Chongzhen thought for a while, but his face was still a little ugly: "You mean, even if he is currently a gangster, as long as he kills Zhang Ni and offers his head as a sacrifice, the court will pardon his previous sins? I also swear to the world that, Can’t the guarantee be fulfilled?”
Chen Shuren shook his head: "This is okay, but I'm afraid the effect is not enough. Rewards and punishments come from His Majesty, and I dare not make any arbitrary comments."
Chongzhen said solemnly: "Isn't this enough? Do we have to guarantee that the person who killed Zhang Ni will be given an official title or title? What if it were the thieves around Zhang Ni, or even his adopted son, seeing that he was gone, and wanted to get some credit? This Is it possible to forgive even the kind of people who want to be punished?
What if Li Chuang kills Zhang Ni because of the thieves? He also needs to be made a marquis? How can the court lose face like this? People in the world will easily cause chaos in the future. Anyway, in the end, as long as the leader of the thieves is killed, the crime can be washed away!"
Chen Shuren knew that the most important thing for Chongzhen was his face, so he hurriedly struck while the iron was hot: "Your Majesty! People in the world will not laugh at you. I, the Ming Dynasty, have always attached great importance to filial piety. Zhang Ni's crime is different from that of other thieves. Five years ago, Feng Feng When Yang destroyed the mausoleum, he was the chief culprit, and the rest were just coerced. Now that he has surrendered and returned, he is the chief culprit again.
Your Majesty is benevolent and filial. In order to be worthy of your ancestors, you have even issued edicts to punish yourself and issued extra rewards to those who killed Zhang Ni. Your oath to the heavenly alliance will be fulfilled. This is also a manifestation of filial piety. People in the world will only think that your Majesty is a benevolent monarch!
If you really feel that you can't live with it... I know that Your Majesty is not willing to forgive Xiong Wencan, who is still in prison. It is better to clarify the scope of Xiong Wencan's crimes when passing the sentence on him:
Xiong Wencan was not at fault for appeasing the other thieves. His fault was simply that he believed in Zhang Ni. No matter how your Majesty punishes Xiong Wencan, if you keep the crime to death on this one, it will also make other surrendered generals feel at ease and let other rebels see that they have done something wrong again. hope.
In this way, in the end, whether it was Li Chuang who wanted to harm himself because of the poor power of the thieves, or whether Zhang Ni's confidants were forced to escape the crime by the army and killed the leader when they were cornered and surrendered, at least this serious trouble could be eliminated."
Shen Shuren's thinking was very clear: the biggest boost to Zhang Xianzhong's rise was that Chongzhen would destroy those who could not kill Zhang Xianzhong and destroy the Great Wall.
Therefore, to deal with Zhang Xianzhong, we have to do the opposite and let the emperor, who has been mean and unkind all his life, use all means to deal with this issue.
"No matter how much crime others committed originally, if you kill Zhang Xianzhong, you will be exempted from crime! And you will be granted the title of marquis!"
Moreover, if Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo choose to kill their father to protect themselves at some point in the future when Zhang Xianzhong is at the end of his rope, Shen Shuren will also be happy to see the result. After all, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo can still be saved, and there is no need to be buried with Zhang Xianzhong.
Historically, the generals under the Great Western Army still had a certain sense of national integrity in resisting the Qing Dynasty. It was best to only punish the culprits.
After hearing this step, Chongzhen was finally shaken.
Indeed, Shen Shuren helped him solve the problem of face and gave him a solution: Zhang Xianzhong had a reason to be more sinful than other bandit leaders. He hated Zhang Xianzhong so much that it would not embarrass the emperor.
The imperial mausoleum was destroyed and the imperial edict was issued, so the face that should be shamed has been lost long ago.
The final conclusion of the Xiong Wencan case can still be manipulated, and face can be saved no matter what.
The most important thing is that Shen Shuren's strategy was offered in private so that the emperor would not lose face.
"In a town of ten households, there must be loyalty. I have learned my lesson. Please step aside first and I will think about it carefully." Chongzhen did not want to make a decision in person. He did not want to embarrass himself in front of his ministers.
Chen Shuren knew that he could no longer persuade him at this time, so he retreated.
…
Two days later, it was the day when the results of the imperial examination were officially announced.
As expected, Wei Zaode became the top pick, and Gao Eryan, a guy in history who was later demoted to the Qing Dynasty and became a traitor, was also promoted to the second place among the top picks because of the butterfly effect.
Ge Shizhen, the original second place candidate, was demoted to the second place because of his more pragmatic speech and became Chuanlu.
Fang Yizhi, who was originally ranked fifty-seven, was implicated by Shen Shuren. Because his political attitude was more pragmatic than before, and he was not favored by the emperor, he fell to fifty-ninth.
Chen Shuren was gloriously at the bottom, ranked 60th in the overall list and last in the second-tier ranking.
But everyone in the government and the public knew the reason why he was deposed: he was outspoken in admonishing the emperor and seeking truth from facts, which led to his lower ranking.
After a lot of hard work, Shen Shuren finally succeeded in becoming a Jinshi.
And he also knew that the emperor would give him a promotion in the future, but the reason for the promotion had to be concealed, so as to shame the emperor. His actual future was definitely much better than those of those top scholars who had no name. After all, he was secretly helping the emperor. The people who do the dirty work are not known to outsiders.
A few days later, Chongzhen secretly issued a decree, pretending that it had nothing to do with the advice of any previous ministers, and that it was entirely the emperor's own idea.
The causes and consequences of the will are nothing more than this:
The emperor said that he was entrusted with a dream by his ancestors, saying that it had been five years since the Fengyang Ancestral Tomb was destroyed, and the souls of his ancestors could not be stable. He was ashamed to be a descendant of human beings, and felt that the sinful edict on the issue of the Ancestral Tomb issued five years ago was not enough. It was thorough, so I added some oaths.
Chongzhen swore an oath to his ancestors in the Ancestral Temple:
Anyone who kills Zhang Xianzhong can be granted the title of Duke if he has been a minister of the Ming Dynasty from the beginning.
If a person was once a thief but later turned against the enemy, he could also be granted the title of Marquis.
This oath is valid for everyone in the world except Zhang Xianzhong’s own children. (Zhang Xianzhong currently has no biological sons)
In other words, even if Li Zicheng killed Zhang Xianzhong and offered his head as a sacrifice, he could still be granted the title of marquis.
At this point, Chongzhen had completely figured it out: What was there to fear about pardoning Li Zicheng? If he really killed Zhang Xianzhong, he would have weakened the bandits' power by half, so a pardon would be a pardon.
At worst, if Li Zicheng really has ambitions again, he can attack him next time he causes trouble. No matter how he can get this reward, Zhang Xianzhong has already died, and the bandits have also fought among themselves, and the court has not lost, so why bother to be stingy? What's the reward?
As an emperor, you cannot be too mean and ungrateful.
Of course, Chongzhen was still a little coy, so he added a sentence at the end of the oath at the Ancestral Temple:
If in the future Zhang Ni has been defeated and is in a desperate situation and is surrounded, and the thieves under his command suddenly take the initiative to kill the master and surrender because of the situation, then they will not be able to make him a marquis. They can only be exempted from the previous crimes and promise not to pursue him.
This was also Chongzhen's last fig leaf to prevent the bandits from "resisting if they could, and then killing the master and surrendering when he couldn't resist anymore" to use his merits to defraud the marquis.
Writing it in such detail also greatly increases the credibility of the Ancestral Temple oath. I believe that after the thieves in the world see it, anyone who wants to ask for forgiveness from the imperial court will consider it.
After issuing the oath of alliance at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Chongzhen made up for another mistake:
He asked the Minister of Punishment to expedite the trial of Xiong Wencan's case. He concentrated Xiong Wencan's charges on "colluding with Zhang Xianzhong" and deleted all charges of Xiong Wencan's relapse after recruiting other thieves.
In other words, the rebellion of other bandits was also designated by the emperor as "being coerced by Zhang Xianzhong", rather than "having long-planned rebellion." Therefore, Xiong Wencan's behavior in ordering them to be safe is not considered a crime.
Historically, Xiong Wencan was not finally beheaded until the Autumn Battle of the 13th year of Chongzhen. Now, in order to cover up his shame, the emperor also killed him several months in advance in the spring.
Make a decision without waiting.
On the day of the execution, the vegetable market entrance in the capital was crowded with people and it was suffocating.
The emperor's decree was made clear: Xiong Wencan was not guilty of many other actions, but colluding with Zhang Xianzhong was the only crime that was unpardonable.
After the beheading, the details of Xiong Wencan's crimes were revealed to the world in Jiubian and the Central Plains.
On the day of the execution, Shen Shuren also gathered at the entrance to the vegetable market in the capital to watch. In all conscience, he was not the one who instigated the killing of Xiong Wencan. He even wanted to save him.
When he mentioned Xiong Wencan to Chongzhen, he only mentioned the charges from beginning to end, not the sentencing, hoping that by reducing Xiong Wencan's charges, the emperor could commute his sentence.
But Chongzhen insisted on going his own way for the sake of face. Even if he only retained this one crime, he still had to execute him alone to emphasize the seriousness of this crime. Shen Shuren had no choice.
Chongzhen was too liberal in some aspects, so he had to be more mean and unkind in other aspects to regain his psychological balance.