Located directly north of the Forbidden City and adjacent to Kunning Palace, Gonghou Yuan is very large, with a length of 80 meters from north to south and a width of 140 meters from east to west, which is close to the size of two standard football fields.

There are pavilions and pavilions in the five directions of the palace garden, and the verdant pine, cypress and bamboo in the garden are dotted with mountain stones, forming an evergreen garden landscape in all seasons, reflecting the traditional culture of the Han nationality that is the unity of nature and man.

In the Wanchun Pavilion on the east side of the palace garden, Emperor Chongzhen, Empress Zhou, and Zhu Cihong were sitting around the table, and it didn't take long for the Shangshan Supervisor to present another fried shrimp.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't move his chopsticks, pushed the only plate of meat on the whole table in front of Zhu Cihong, and said with a smile: "His Majesty, the eldest brother of the sunset, also likes to eat this fried shrimp, but I didn't expect the emperor to like it too, if your imperial uncle knows, he will be happy." ”

Zhu Cihong's imperial uncle is the emperor who likes to tinker with carpentry - Emperor Tianqi, thinking of the imperial uncle whose imperial tomb has just been destroyed by the Qing army, Zhu Cihong said: "Father, I heard that the emperor's uncle's tomb was destroyed, and his son wanted to repair it with 100,000 taels of silver, I don't know if His Majesty can allow it?" ”

According to the regulations, it costs millions of taels of silver to repair an imperial mausoleum, when the tomb was built, because the treasury was empty, the household department said that it could only take out a maximum of 500,000 taels of silver, and Chongzhen, who had just ascended the throne, was very helpless, and could only grieve his eldest brother Emperor Tianqi.

Zhu Cihong knew that Chongzhen wanted to repair the Deling Tomb very much in his heart, but because the treasury was tense all the year round, he didn't dare to open his mouth to the household, especially when the Deling Tomb was destroyed this time, the Emperor of the Apocalypse was not at peace, which made Chongzhen even more sad.

Emperor Chongzhen shook his head and said: "Now Jiannu is still rampant in the territory of Beizhili, and the imperial court needs a lot of grain and grass to fight, if you spend 100,000 taels of silver to repair the mausoleum of your imperial uncle, our two masters will definitely be scolded by the foreign ministers poking their backbones, let's take it slowly." ”

At this time, although Empress Zhou did not participate in the court politics, she still said dissatisfiedly: "Emperor, now that there is a shortage of food in Beijing, if you have so much money and food in your hands, you should give the court an emergency, how can you hold it in your hands?" ”

Zhu Cihong didn't know how, but if he wanted to solve the crisis in Gyeonggi, he had to drive the Qing army away as soon as possible, blindly delaying the war, no matter how much grain and grass he had, it was not enough for hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of people to consume, not to mention that the vicinity of Jingshi had been almost robbed by Jiannu.

Regarding Queen Zhou's woman's opinion, Zhu Cihong has no words, and she can't scold her mother in person.

Emperor Chongzhen said: "In a few days, Caoyun will transport a large amount of grain and grass from the south, and then the food problem in Beijing will be solved naturally, and the money and grain in the hands of the emperor will still be kept for emergency use. ”

Originally, it was a happy scene for the family to get together, but they were annoyed by state affairs.

In order to alleviate the atmosphere, Chongzhen said: "Emperor, the reward agreed by the Ministry of War is about to come down, and all the soldiers in the Yongwei Battalion have rewards, your crown prince's reward is not easy to handle, what reward does the emperor want?" ”

Chongzhen's words seemed unintentional, but they were testing Zhu Cihong to see if he wanted nothing.

As a profession with the most serious suspicions, the emperor is a crown prince who holds soldiers and horses and hoards grain and grass materials in his own territory, especially near the capital, no matter how old he is, it is always easy to arouse some suspicions.

Zhu Cihong looked at Chongzhen and said seriously: "The son wants peace in the world, there will be no more wars, he wants his father to stop working, and he wants to eat with his father and his mother's family often, enjoy the flowers and the moon." ”

Rao is Chongzhen was a little suspicious of him in his heart, and after hearing this, his heart was also soft, and he said: "Emperor, your filial piety I know that the matter of the reward can be completed in the near future, and I want to continue to postpone the prisoner sacrifice ceremony, and hold it together with Sun Chuanting's prisoner sacrifice ceremony, I want to hold a prisoner sacrifice ceremony in the capital to boost the army's heart!" ”

The two chatted for a while, and the family of three began to eat and laugh.

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In recent days, Zhang Fengyi, the secretary of the military department in Tongzhou, was very anxious, and he urged the Hou Sui of the household department to provide grain and grass many times, but he never waited.

There is not much surplus grain in the granaries of the household departments in Tongzhou and other places, and the soldiers can't eat enough, who still has the heart to fight.

Hou Sui was also very anxious, the reinforcements of the Nine Routes were guest soldiers, and according to the regulations of the imperial court, grain and grass had to be provided by the Beijing Division.

Originally, it was the harvest season of mango planting, and before the imperial court sent officials to collect grain, the grain that the people in the Gyeonggi area had just collected was robbed by the Qing army.

Jingshi's grain storage is not enough to eat even for himself, and the price of rice has risen to nine taels and one stone, so how can there be food for reinforcements from all walks of life. There is no food, and the reinforcements from all walks of life, who are already afraid of war, have even more reason not to send troops, which makes Zhang Fengyi, the secretary of the military department, extremely angry.

However, Hou Xie told Zhang Fengyi that the one million stone of grain transported north from the southern provinces would arrive in Tongzhou in three days, and Hou Xie promised to allocate half of it to Zhang Fengyi as military rations.

Zhang Fengyi was also helpless, so he had to wait for three more days. But no one expected that on the second day, Zhang Fengyi received military information that the grain transported north was intercepted by the Qing army in Tianjin!

Zhang Fengyi, who received the military intelligence, scolded and almost fainted, this is simply a stabbing thing!

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was even more furious and wanted to kill the Tianjin General Army.

For some reason, the news of the robbery of Caoyun grain quickly spread throughout the Beijing Division, and the grain merchants in the Beijing Division began to take the opportunity to raise the price of grain, and at the same time, some people were secretly buying the grain of the Beijing Division at a high price, and the entire Beijing Division had become panicked.

In the main hall of Wenhua Palace, Emperor Chongzhen was gathering several important ministers to discuss countermeasures.

"Your Majesty, these grain merchants are really hateful, or let your subordinates lead troops to seal them up, so that they can earn these black money."

The person who spoke was Feng Ying, the secretary of the Criminal Department, since Dong Xinghuai, the Yin of Shuntian Mansion, was automatically resigned by Zhu Cihong, Feng Ying concurrently served as Yin of Shuntian Mansion, in charge of the security of the Beijing Division.

Wen Tiren, the first assistant of the cabinet, said: "Your Majesty, the minister sees that this matter is not simple, how did Jiannu know about Caoyun's grain transportation to the north?" There is also the news of the food robbery in Jingshi that has spread too quickly, someone must be secretly operating this matter. ”

Wen Tiren, as the first assistant of the cabinet, has no fart skills on weekdays but always looks like a strategist, this time he also panicked, one million stone grain was robbed by Jiannu, which made the Jingshi turbulent, and he was the first assistant of the cabinet to blame.

Xie Sheng, the secretary of the ministry, said: "Does the elder mean that someone secretly colluded with Jiannu, and then deliberately raised the price of grain in Jingshi, making profits from it and causing turmoil in Jingshi?" ”

After hearing this, the others also nodded silently, agreeing with Wen Tiren and Xie Sheng's statement.

When the Hubu Shangshu Hou heard this, his face suddenly changed greatly, and he looked at the two of them and said angrily: "Elder Wen Ge, Lord Xie, what do you mean by this?" Do you mean that there are people in my household who collude with slaves and grain merchants? ”

Wen Tiren glanced at him and said, "The affairs of Caoyun have always been arranged by the Ministry of Households, there are so many officials in the Ministry of Households, and the old man suspects that you Lord Hou is alone, what are you nervous about?" ”

Emperor Chongzhen saw that a few people were about to fight again, so he hurriedly stopped: "Don't speculate anymore, the most important thing now is how to solve the food problem in the capital, and other things will be investigated slowly in the future." ”

Zhu Cihong, who was standing beside Chongzhen and listening, had a calm face, and saw that several ministers did not speak, so he said: "Your Majesty, Father, these grain merchants must have stored grain, and the ministers ask for an order to arrest all those profiteers, and then use their grain to stabilize the price of grain in the capital." ”

As soon as these words came out, they immediately caused the shock of several important ministers, if they really did what the crown prince did, then the crown prince's reputation would be completely stinky, and if it was not good, it would become a victim of calming the emotions of businessmen in the world.

Emperor Chongzhen vetoed him on the spot and reprimanded: "It's really nonsense, arresting people for no reason, do you want to provoke the world's merchants to confront the imperial court?" ”

Zhu Cihong had long expected that the emperor's father would not agree, so he continued: "In this case, the minister is willing to lead the Yongwei battalion to go out again and snatch back the one million stone grain from the slaves!" Solve this problem at the root. ”

Jiang Fengyuan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, said: "Your Highness must not act rashly!" According to the report of the Ministry of War, it was the pioneer battalion of the slave chief Azig who led the army to rob the grain, and there were tens of thousands of horses. ”

Zhu Cihong snorted lightly: "What is invincible, Erchen only needs four thousand brave guards to kill them without leaving a piece of armor!" Please also ask for your father's permission! ”

Although Zhu Cihong was full of pride, Emperor Chongzhen still refused Zhu Cihong's request to send troops on the grounds that the army of the slave chief Azig was too close.

As a result, after discussing for a long time, there was no good way, and finally Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to Zhang Fengyi, ordering him to mobilize a large army to attack the Qing army in Tianjin, and be sure to recapture Caoyun grain!

At the same time, Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to let the ministers of the court and the central government help raise military salaries to tide over this difficulty.