In fact, through eavesdropping on the seeds, Emperor Chongzhen already knew that the Huguang patrol named Huang Shu was indeed doing the thing of plucking the feathers of the geese.

Liu Yue arrived in Yicheng secretly, and after a little investigation, this kind of thing couldn't be hidden from him. Showing the identity of Jinyiwei, there is the emperor's will, not to mention that it is just a patrol, even the governor, and it is not wrong.

Therefore, Liu Yue came back this time to escort Huang Shu and his accomplices, a total of five officials, to come back with the fleet and vehicles that transported the grain, and the people who transported the grain were also witnesses.

This news is not good news, if it is possible, Emperor Chongzhen certainly hopes that the officials under him are honest and honest. Generally speaking, however, hope can only be hope.

But the other piece of news is really good news.

Lu Xiangsheng's Grade A eavesdropping seed feedback, just yesterday, Zheng Zhilong personally led three hundred warships of various sizes to Dengzhou Mansion and met Lu Xiangsheng.

What surprised Emperor Chongzhen even more was that this Zheng Zhilong actually brought twenty grain ships to the north, took this as a meeting gift, and called Lu Xiangsheng for free.

In the conversation between Lu Xiangsheng and Zheng Zhilong, Emperor Chongzhen also understood Zheng Zhilong's thoughts.

Because of the matter of collecting protection money at sea, he himself has pointed out in the secret decree. In order to show his sincerity, he knew that there was a shortage of grain in the north, so he collected twenty grain ships and headed north. Although it is said to be given to Lu Xiangsheng, in fact, it is not for himself.

Emperor Chongzhen thought so, and suddenly his heart moved.

Zheng Zhilong's fleet controlled the entire southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, and even his power reached as far as the South Seas, but on the South Ocean side, there was a lot of grain. In this case, it is possible to let Zheng Zhilong transport grain from the South Seas to the north. Of course, Zheng Zhilong must not be allowed to do it in vain, so that he can continue to transfuse blood for Daming.

In response to this matter, after Emperor Chongzhen considered it, he drafted a holy decree and sent it to Dengzhou.

Two days later, the thieves had been wiped out, scattered and scattered into the mountains and dense forests, and they could not all be found, and a general report about the thieves was presented to the emperor.

Before the war, there were nearly 200,000 thieves;

Now there are less than 150,000 left.

Among them, there are about 15,000 thieves who have been more than a year old; There are nearly 50,000 thieves under a year and more than a month; The rest are all thieves who have been around for less than a month, and there are more than 90,000 people.

Now these thieves are all being detained outside Nanyang City.

And now the official army in Nanyang has three major battalions brought out of Beijing by Emperor Chongzhen, as well as more than 1,000 cavalry troops from Guanning; The Qin army led by Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, numbered more than 30,000; Ma Xianglin's white pole army led by more than 7,000 people; Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces, mobilized more than 30,000 troops from other places.

All of them are counted, and the officers and troops gathered in Nanyang are about nearly 100,000 horses. The most striking is the more than 20,000 cavalry.

When all the armies gathered, communication was naturally indispensable, and in addition to the great victory, the generals from all walks of life did not have particularly strict constraints, so the deeds of Emperor Chongzhen quickly spread.

"What, are you saying that the emperor first detoured to the grassland, and then wiped out the Tumut department?"

"Is this true? Those Mongolian Tartars are all horses! And even the whole tribe is served, won't they run? ”

"The emperor commands the war, is it really so powerful? What kind of famous generals in the past, I'm afraid they can't do this, right? ”

"But no, does Zhuge Liang know? Shake his goose feather fan to figure out what his opponent is doing? Our emperor is similar, and he took us to the old Anbian camp to block those Mongolian Tatars! ”

"Come on, come on, I'll tell you about ......"

“……”

For the encirclement and suppression of rogue thieves, maybe these Ming soldiers still feel bad, after all, the official army is basically much better than the upper thieves, and less defeated; However, the war on the steppe was rare, and just like that, the wind spread among the armies.

Of course, the soldiers of the Qin army also talked about other things about the emperor, that is, the matter of exterminating the locusts in Jingyang, and by the way, the army on the side of Nanyang also told the Qin Dibu army and other later troops who rushed to tell the emperor about saving the people of Nanyang.

These two things, as soon as they tell each other, it confirms one of their views, that is, the emperor loves the people like a son! It's not the kind of emperor who said that he loved the people like a son in the past, but really loved the people like a son in his heart! At least the people of Jingyang and Nanyang can testify to this.

Of course, in addition to talking about these things, there are also some people who are talking about things that are not mainstream.

For example, the emperor used the silver stamps and grain stamps of the Ming Royal Bank to exchange a lot of money and grain from the vassal palace; There are also things about King Rui, things about King Qin, and so on.

Most of the Ming soldiers had close contact with their own emperor for the first time, so as long as it was about all aspects of Emperor Chongzhen, they were secretly spreading and relishing it.

In this way, through them, these things about Emperor Chongzhen spread among nearly 150,000 thieves.

In the custody, he was idle and panicked, and these things spread very quickly among the thieves.

For these, in fact, Emperor Chongzhen knew about it a long time ago, and of course he was happy to let them spread it. In any case, this time the royal expedition can deepen the goodwill of the Ming army and the people, which is his biggest gain. If they spread the word, even if some ill-intentioned pens want to say something bad, it is estimated that not many people will believe it.

In other words, Emperor Chongzhen's prestige will be higher, and it will also be of great help to him in the subsequent innovation of the court!

Emperor Chongzhen felt that the time was almost up, so he issued a decree to deal with the matter of the thieves early tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, if it drags on forever, so many people are concentrated in Nanyang, which is a bit unbearable.

Early the next morning, when the rising sun jumped out of the eastern sky, the army was all dispatched, and nearly 150,000 thieves were divided into three queues and stood outside the south gate of Nanyang.

At the head of the city, everywhere under the city, there are soldiers of the Ming army who are waiting for battle, and there are cavalry troops monitoring the periphery outside the city, but they are not on horses, but they are scattered around the periphery with the reins.

At the head of the city, there are also officials and soldiers, looking at the bottom of the tiger. The military flag, under the blowing of the morning breeze, hunted and roared.

Seeing this scene, all the thieves knew that the time had come to decide their fate.

They understood that the people in the three queues must have been treated differently by the imperial court. Otherwise, you wouldn't have spent so much effort to distinguish them beforehand. Those who have been thieves for less than a month feel fine, because they feel that, no matter what, their fate will not be worse than that of the other two queues.

Thinking so, Wei Chao and Sun Hanqing, who were standing in this queue, looked at each other and encouraged each other with their eyes.

And in the queue of thieves for more than a year, they are the most worried. If the emperor wants to punish the thieves severely, they will definitely bear the brunt. They know this.

For this reason, Sun Kewang, who was unfortunately captured, stared at Li Dingguo standing in front with anger.

Before, he had already complained, blaming Li Dingguo for directly identifying him and putting him in this queue. This Li Dingguo, can't he pretend that he has just joined the ranks of thieves and put him in the queue with the largest number of people. Anyway, there are so many people, and the officials and soldiers may not be able to know!

I don't know what's going on, aren't Li Dingguo and the four of them here to send them to death? But it seems that they have worked hard for the officials and soldiers. It's just funny that in the end, they still stay in this queue, but they stand at the front. What's the difference between this and yourself?

Sun Kewang thought so, and there were many people who thought like him. While they fear their fate, they also hate those who identify them.

Suddenly, a shout of "the emperor has arrived" sounded at the head of the city, and I saw that the city and the city, the officials and soldiers all greeted the emperor together, and shouted in unison: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" ”

Whether the thieves are willing or not, for the sake of their own fate, at this moment, they all shouted: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" ”

Emperor Chongzhen appeared at the head of the city in a dragon robe, and behind him were Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, and Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces, wearing a big red robe; and the generals of the various armours in bright armor.

The vassal kings, officials, and people in Nanyang City were all in the city, and they were not allowed to come out with them.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the densely packed and boundless people, and he could determine their fate with a single word, and he felt a kind of pride rising from the bottom of his heart. After calming down, he looked out of the city and said loudly: "I am driving this expedition to make my people no longer suffer from the chaos of war. And to do this, not only from the Ming Dynasty to no more thieves, but also to allow the people to have a bite to eat. Therefore, when I left Beijing, I had already sent a message to Huguang and all parts of the southern part of the Yangtze River to deliver grain to the disaster area......"

His words are naturally passed on layer by layer by people at the bottom.

With such an audience, even the megaphones of later generations are not good, and only by using this stupid method can it reach everyone's ears.

Most people didn't know that the emperor had already sent a decree to send grain to various places, so they were a little surprised to hear this. Especially the thieves, who were even more surprised. From this, they could see the emperor's determination!

While they were thinking about it, suddenly, the emperor at the head of the city became a little more stern in his tone, and shouted: "However, even if I am here, there are still officials who want to make a fortune from it, and as long as they handle the grain, they want to get some benefits......

Hearing this, most of the thieves, even those soldiers of the Ming army, thought in their hearts, those who were officials in the Ming Dynasty were not like this!

For this, they all empathize, and they don't see too much in their daily lives!

“…… Can the thieves be suppressed for so many years, but they have not been able to be destroyed? Is it a so-called natural and man-made disaster? Emperor Chongzhen continued to shout, "In my opinion, man-made disasters are far worse than natural disasters!" If natural disasters are merciless, no matter how big the natural disasters are, locust plagues? Earth dragon turned over? I've seen it all, it's nothing, disaster relief is! However, if there is still a man-made disaster in the face of natural disasters, it is the reason why the thieves will not be destroyed! ”

"This time, even if I exterminate the thieves, if the follow-up food is not delivered in time, and people starve to death, then I believe that as soon as I leave, there will be new thieves." When Emperor Chongzhen said this, he glanced at the faces in his line of sight below, and said loudly, "Therefore, I will never tolerate the corrupt officials and corrupt officials who still want to get rich in the face of the catastrophe and ignore the disaster!" ”

After saying this, he waved his hand, and saw that on the head of the city, two brocade guards in a group, escorting five officials to the head of the city, appeared in front of everyone under the city.

Jinyiwei commanded Li Ruolian to step forward and read out the charges of these five officials, that is, Huang Shu and others.

The thieves below, as well as the Ming soldiers, were listening to Li Ruolian's words while staring at the five officials, and their eyes were full of anger.

Daming is because there are too many corrupt officials like this, which makes it difficult for them to live, or even not survive at all.

At this time, the thieves and the Ming soldiers had a rare hatred of the same enemy.

After Li Ruolian read out the indictment, he paid the decree to Emperor Chongzhen.

At this time, everyone looked at Emperor Chongzhen, wondering how the emperor would send down these five corrupt officials?

Emperor Chongzhen had a cold face and shouted loudly: "Cut it, the head will be spread to the north and south of the river, and the yamen of the provinces, so that other officials can take it as a warning and set an example!" ”

As soon as this decree was made, the captain of the Jinyi Guard stepped forward to carry it out.

Seeing these five corrupt officials beheaded, the Ming soldiers were a little restrained because of military discipline. But among the nearly 150,000 thieves, many of them shouted loudly.

"Good, good kill!"

"It's good to kill it clean!"

“……”

For a moment, they even forgot who they were thieves, as if they were just watching the execution of a deserving prisoner on the execution ground.

However, the soldiers of the Ming army who were guarding the nearest place immediately shouted and reprimanded in a low voice, so that these applause voices quickly disappeared.

In front of the thieves and soldiers, after punishing the corrupt officials and corrupt officials, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the three queues of thieves. Obviously, since there is no explanation, the next step is to punish them.

As the supreme ruler of the empire, the emperor's punishment is the final punishment. What will be the fate of so many thieves? With the exception of a few who knew beforehand, the others were either worried or a little curious. However, there were no exceptions, and they were all silent, ready to listen to what the emperor had to say next.

There are so many people and horses, except for the sound of the war horse, there is only the "whoosh" sound of the flag being blown by the wind.

Emperor Chongzhen's face softened slightly, looked at the queue with the largest number of people, and began to speak under their apprehensive listening.