Wang Changshun continued: "My emperor, please forgive the ministers for speaking out! Since the emperor rewarded beautiful women on the 28th of last month, there have been more cases of rape of women from good families!"

"After the Chinese New Year in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, our army was besieged in Shangluo Mountain, and the Ming Dynasty could not destroy us, all relying on strict discipline, and also relying on the poor people in Shangluo Mountain to be of the same heart as our army. Li Hongen is your brother-in-law, attempted to rape a people's daughter, your stepmother was widowed at a young age, only this one biological son, who rebelled with you before he grew up. ”

"For the sake of military discipline, you ruthlessly beheaded Li Hongen. At that time, how many people cried and interceded for him, and I also interceded for him with tears, and you cried too, but he was still beheaded by you. He fought bravely and strategically, and often made military exploits, if he had not been beheaded, he would have been made a marquis today. Xiao Chen has been thinking about Li Hongen's death every day in recent days, and his heart is very sad. ”

"At that time, our army fought a big defeat in the southern plains of Tongguan, trapped in Shangluo Mountain, and it was rare that the military discipline was strict and the people were united. Now that he has entered Beijing and won the country, the good military discipline of the past is gone, and the momentum of starting a business is gone. Your Majesty, if you encounter difficulties again, who will die for you? Li Hongen did not complain or cry when he was beheaded in Shangluo Mountain, and now his soul will surely cry bitterly when he sees this situation under the Yellow Spring. ”

"My majesty, my emperor, for more than ten years, the thousands of heroic ghosts who have followed your uprising have seen the situation of our Dashun army today, and it is strange that they don't cry bitterly in the underworld!"

Wang Changshun couldn't say any more, and fell to the ground and whimpered. It was the first time for Li Zicheng to hear such a blunt statement, and his heart was very shaken. Seeing that Song Xiance and Li Yan were still standing solemnly and waiting for orders, he did not dare to sit down, and he said in a reproachful tone: "You two are the chief and deputy military divisions; our army has recently been corrupted in military discipline, wantonly robbing property, and raping women, you must know, why don't you speak up to me? Why don't you come up with a way to rectify military discipline? Wang Changshun is not a civil and military general in the Dashun Dynasty, but just an old horseman who has been with me for many years, and he dares to speak to Gu bluntly, if it weren't for his loyalty and breaking into the palace today, I would still be kept in the dark!"

The chief and deputy divisions immediately knelt down. Song Xiance said: "The ministers are not ignorant, and they have wanted to speak out several times, but they have not yet received the appropriate opportunity. Today, Wang Changshun broke into the palace and said bluntly, making the ministers and others feel ashamed. Yesterday, the ministers went to the residence of Emperor Tian to discuss with the Marquis of Tian for the sake of rectifying the military chronicle, because the Marquis had beheaded two people for the adultery case, and his anger did not subside, so he resigned without a deep talk. ”

"What did he kill?"

Li Yan said: "Now that the military and civilians are mixed, rape is not stopped. Coupled with various reasons, rape is becoming more and more common. Ministers occupy the position of military advisors, and the crime deserves death. The two people you killed were not rape, they were just a pair of adulterous men and women!"

"A man and a woman killed?"

Song Xiance continued: "Yesterday, when the ministers arrived at the General General's Mansion of the head of the camp, a patrol team bundled up a pair of adulterous men and women and a plaintiff. Thou Hou still has the thunderous temper of the past, and told us to sit down and wait, and immediately beat the drum and ascend to the court, and interrogate the culprit. The woman was very young and still a little beautiful. The plaintiff man was old and ugly, and it was obvious that his wife was not the original wife, but a concubine or maid who had been bought to fill the house, and had no conjugal affection with her husband. ”

The woman replied, "I don't want the king's leader to die for me alone, but I would rather go to the Yellow Springs with the king's leader than return to my husband!" Then the marquis asked the little colonel, "What else do you have to say?"

"The little colonel knew that he was going to die, so he had no fear, and said loudly: Some generals have wives and children at home, and they have been blessed with beautiful women, and I have followed King Chuang's uprising for ten years, and I am still a bachelor at the age of twenty-eight. Although we are adulterous, I am willing to marry her, and she is willing to marry me. We can't get married while we live, but we can get married in the underworld! In order to prevent military discipline from being broken, the Marquis of Ru killed this man and woman in a fit of rage. ”

When Li Zicheng heard about this case, a series of questions arose in his heart, but he didn't have time to think deeply, and asked Song Xiance and Li Yan: "The current situation, you can't let it go, what are the good strategies of the two military advisors?"

Song Xiance replied: "The ministers and others are visiting Your Majesty today for two important things, one is to secretly show the movements of the Manchurians, and the other is to explain the recent situation in Beijing. The former is particularly important and must be prepared for in advance. ”

Li Zicheng was suddenly taken aback: "What is the movement of the Manchurian Tartars?"

Song Xiance said: "This matter needs to be played secretly. ”

Li Zicheng: "Is there collusion with Wu Sanhang?"

Li Yan hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, it is not easy for Wang Changshun to enter the palace to see Your Majesty, and his outspoken Chen Zheng is really rare. Please listen to Wang Changshun continue to play, and when he finishes playing, the minister and Song Junshi will secretly play the newly obtained important report to the emperor. ”

Li Zicheng understood that Song Xiance and Li Yan were going to play a very important military secret to him, so he ordered them to get up and sit down, turned to Wang Changshun and asked, "Wang Changshun, what else do you have to say to me?"

Wang Changshun understood that the two military advisors had important military information to the emperor, and he should retreat quickly, so he said: "Your Majesty! The minister is a horseman who has followed His Majesty for many years, and he can't recognize an oxcart in the big words. As the saying goes, if you are not in your position, you are not in your politics. The ministers only have one piece of loyalty, and they are afraid that all the emperor hears every day is to praise merit, and he will miss His Majesty's major affairs, so he risked his death to break into the palace and speak bluntly. Now that the words have been spoken, please punish the minister for the offense. ”

"After my Dashun army arrived in Beijing, there were robbers of the people, some raped women, and the good military discipline of many years was suddenly corrupted. I haven't been out since I entered the Forbidden City, so it seems that I should go out and see for myself, and I shouldn't just listen to the praises of the ministers, right?"

"Your Majesty, please forgive the minister for saying a few more blunt words, even if you walk out of the Forbidden City every day, you can't see or hear the real situation of the soldiers and civilians in Beijing. ”

"I'm not deaf or blind, why so?"

"Although the minister has never read the books of sages, he has experience in the world and people's hearts, and he has seen a lot and thought deeply. Before the attack on Luoyang, although His Majesty was known as the King of Chuang, the court and the government scolded His Majesty as a thief. But His Majesty is struggling to start a business, wandering around, wearing out and eating rough, sharing joys and hardships with the soldiers, and treating the poor people as fathers, brothers and sisters. Everywhere you go, because of your strict military discipline, benevolence, righteousness and love for the people, the common people dare to surround you and tell you what is in their hearts. Your ears are always deaf and your eyes are always bright. ”

"After breaking through Luoyang, you became the generalissimo of Fengtian Advocate Righteousness, with hundreds of thousands of horses under your command, the situation is very different from before, only the dozens of generals and cronies who can speak to Your Majesty's side can not see you casually, the soldiers and colonels can not see you casually, and even I, the old groom Wang Changshun, can not see you in an emergency. ”

"Don't say that you are called a king and an emperor, just take the people who are officials, they are all officials who are getting bigger and bigger, and they are getting farther and farther away from the people. Your Majesty, the minister's language is too straightforward, please forgive the minister's capital crime!"

"You're saying a good job, keep talking, I'm just about to listen to you!"

Wang Changshun hesitated for a moment, and then said: "After arriving in Xiangyang last spring, His Majesty's audience will support him, known as the King of Xinshun, and he has created a new imperial court and set up hundreds of civil and military officials. Since then, the situation has been different, the civil and military generals have to kneel down in front of you, and you only allow the chief whistle Liu Ye to be exempted. In October, I entered Xi'an, His Majesty took the palace of the Qin Wangfu as the palace of the new Shun Dynasty, and went to Baqiao every three days to watch the exercises, and the people along the way saw your yellow umbrella far away, and those who did not have time to avoid knelt on the side of the road and did not dare to raise their heads, so afraid that they trembled all over, and even the atmosphere did not dare to exhale. ”

Even the little baby who was crying heard her mother say: Don't cry, the emperor is coming! On New Year's Day this year, His Majesty announced to the world in Chang'an, set the name of the country Dashun, changed the Yuan Yongchang, and was congratulated by hundreds of civil and military officials, and now he has entered the city of Beijing, whether it is held or not, His Majesty is the current emperor, the lord of all the people in the world. Your Majesty wants to go out of the Forbidden City to listen to and take a look, but in fact, Your Majesty can't hear or see anything. ”

"Your Majesty wants to go out, the day before you have to scrub the façade along the road, fill in the ground, clean it, and then pave the road with yellow sand. On the day of leaving the palace, the street was quiet from early in the morning, and the ministers called it a policeman. ”

"Xiao Chen heard that the shops on both sides of the street along the road are closed, and every house is closed, except for the incense case at the door, no one is allowed to peep in the doors and windows, no sound is allowed, no children are allowed to cry in the deep courtyard, and no chickens and ducks are allowed to bark. On both sides of the street, five steps and one soldier, facing outward, with their backs to the center of the street, bows on their backs, knives at their waists, spears and swords in their hands, standing silently. The emperor sat on the dragon chariot carried by thirty-six people, through the bright veil, looking forward, you can only see hundreds of escorts on horses, followed by all kinds of flags fluttering, umbrellas, fans in pairs, followed by pairs of golden claws, axes, stirrups in the sky...... Deacons of all kinds. ”

"Behind it was a yellow umbrella, four attendants, and eight warriors on horseback and sword. What else, the minister just heard about it, and he couldn't say it clearly. In short, my emperor, please forgive the ministers, you can't see a single common person when you look forward, you can't see a single common person when you look left and right, and when you look back and back, you can only see the ministers and the cavalry who are obedient. There will never be the same scene when you sat affectionately with the poor people and gossiped and talked about their daily routines. Your Majesty, the minister's blunt words have been finished, please ask the emperor to treat the minister's nonsense, a great crime of disrespect!"

Li Zicheng looked at Wang Changshun and didn't know what to say. The old groom's blunt words were the first time he heard them, and his heart was suddenly surprised, and he suddenly understood, and he was refreshed, all in all, all kinds of mentalities appeared almost at the same time, very chaotic, so that he was at a loss for a while. He really wanted to keep Wang Changshun and tell him something about the situation in Beijing that he didn't know, but he also saw the heavy expressions of the two military advisors, waiting to show him a very important military secret, so he glanced at the faces of the chief and deputy military advisors, and asked Wang Changshun again: "Could it be that the Dashun army that came to Beijing is all the same, and the military discipline is broken?"

"No, Your Majesty, there are naturally good ones. ”

"Which units are better?"

"Your Majesty, the minister has nothing to do every day, with four personal soldiers, riding around to take a look, fortunately, I am familiar with people, and I can't hide anything from me. According to Xiao Chen, the 60,000 or 70,000 Dashun troops we came to Beijing did not have bad military discipline, but three of them maintained the military discipline of the past, and we did not hear of any robbery or rape......

"Which three?"

"The troops stationed in the Imperial City and guarding the Forbidden City are neat and disciplined, and it can be said that they have not plastered the emperor's face. A group of men and horses brought out by our deputy military division Li Gongzi from eastern Henan is now only more than 2,000 people, and 500 people are stationed in Andingmen, and the rest are stationed in the city outside Andingmen and in the area of Andingmen.

Li Zicheng smiled happily and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"Also, it's not in Beijing. The minister also went to Tongzhou, looked at the canal, looked at the barracks, and also went to the local people's houses to sit. ”

"What is the discipline of the men and horses stationed there, and what do the people say?"

"Oh, Your Majesty, many of our people are very different, and there is not much difference on weekdays, but now in Beijing, there is a celebration of victory, this victory can be like a furnace, who is real gold, who is gold-plated, who is brass, all show their true colors. People are flesh and blood, who doesn't love money, who doesn't love women, everyone has seven emotions and six desires!"

"My emperor, now that he has captured Beijing, the situation has changed, people's minds have changed, and military discipline has been relaxed, and the embankment of seven emotions and six desires has burst, and it is difficult for the officers and soldiers to remain unchanged. However, the 3,000 men and horses led by Luo Hu were stationed in the east of Tongzhou, which was different. In his barracks, he forbade gambling and loitering, and the whole battalion got up every day when the old eagles crowed, and practiced hard. ”

"Luo Hu leads by example, sharing weal and sorrow with the soldiers and eating the same meals. In his spare time for practice, he read and wrote, or invited famous local talents to give lectures to him, bowed humbly to the corporal, and everyone praised him, saying that he would become a famous general in the future. Now he is only twenty-one or twelve years old, and he shows that he is a general. It's rare, it's rare, it's rare. Your Majesty, there is such a famous general embryo in our Dashun army, the minister is happy in his heart, and he also celebrates His Majesty, but unfortunately there is only such a one in front of him. ”

He was so excited that he burst into tears, and said: "What the minister wants to say has been said, and the two military divisions have important confidential military information, so the minister retreats." ”