At this moment, from the direction of Tongguan Wei, Shaanxi Chengxuan, a herald drove out of a herald, with the word (order) pennant behind him, and quickly rushed towards the official road of the capital, and when he passed Tongguan and prepared a thousand households, he began to take a boat, and crossed the Yellow River to Shanxi Chengxuan, Pingyang Prefecture, Jiezhou.

It seemed that the herald was in a hurry, and when he was resting at the post house, he only ate two steamed buns, and immediately changed his horse and passed through two stations in Anyi County and Wenxi County one after another.

The time came on February 16th, and there was a large-scale outbreak of plague infection in the Central Plains of the Ming Empire! Tens of thousands of people and some defenders in various cities fell ill and died, and the epidemic also spread to Shuntianfu, Tianjin Sanwei, Changping Prefecture, Wanquan Dusi and Datong Mansion.

The people held funerals day and night! Relatives wept and mourned for the deceased, and the lights were on every house, and the corpses were piled up.

Thousands of people wrote this matter into a chapter and handed it over to the local parents and officials to deal with, and when the officials of the Ming states and counties saw this, some of them directly reported the chapter to the imperial court, and some of them did not report it! Even those who abandoned their positions and fled were not unleashed for fear of being infected by the plague.

The reported chapters were piled up in the imperial capital (Yamen of the General Administration Division), which often troubled the Ming Tong political envoys: Huang Fansheng, at first, the Ming Tong political envoys thought about slowing down this matter, so as to share the worries and solve the difficulties for His Majesty and fulfill the duties of the courtiers, and he also thought to himself; Maybe the plague will be quelled by the local officials?

Unexpectedly, the epidemic is getting bigger and bigger! Therefore, he had to bring the matter to the court, and the Ming Tong envoy sent the Ming Tong political envoy governor: Mo Zhishu, who entered the Forbidden City with the concert and prepared to present it to His Majesty.

But as soon as he arrived at Guangning Gate, he met the Ming Household Department Shangshu who came over: Hou Xun, this person is a loyal minister, and when he saw an official of the General Administration Department and Yamen entering Beijing, he knew that there must be something important? The Ming Household Department Shangshu hurriedly asked, "Where is the governor of the general political envoy going?" The governor of the Ming Tong political envoy immediately saluted and said, "The lower official will meet the Lord of the Household Department, and the Lord of the Household Department will return to the Lord of the Household Department, and the lower officials have a batch of recitals to be handed over to His Majesty to watch." ”

The Ming Household Department Shangshu said, "Is it urgent?" The governor nodded quickly.

So the Ming household department Shangshu took the governor of the Ming Tong political envoy, from Xian'an Gate through Wuyingmen in the detour to Chonglou to the Wenhua Palace, the two hurriedly asked the Ming Si Rite Eunuch: Fang Zhenghua, to inform His Majesty the Emperor to let him meet him, and the Ming Si Rite Eunuch asked them to wait outside the hall, and he closed the door and walked slowly into the hall.

At this moment, Emperor Chongzhenlie of Ming Yi Zongxin: Zhu Youzhen is checking the recitals of taxes in various places in the Cultural Palace, and the eunuch of Ming Si Rite saw His Majesty who was middle-aged, and he actually grew a trace of white hair because of his state affairs! He couldn't bear to be disturbed, but he had to mention it for a reason, so he said, "Your Majesty, there are two officials outside the palace, the head of the household department and the governor of the general political envoy, who want to see you. ”

But Ming Yizong said, "Oh, let them wait outside the hall first, I still haven't seen the funds outside the Liaodong Metropolitan Division!" The eunuch had no choice but to say, "Yes." Then he informed the two ministers of his withdrawal from the palace.

Knowing that His Majesty was busy, the two ministers anxiously wandered back and forth waiting, and it happened that Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the Ming Cabinet, wanted to discuss state affairs with His Majesty, but when he saw the two ministers waiting in the palace, he thought; Could it be that these two people have important matters in the temple?

He stepped forward to greet him and asked, "Oops! The secretary of the household department and the governor of the general political envoy, the two of them are? Seeing this, the Ming Household Department Shangshu immediately told him about the plague, and the first assistant of the Ming Cabinet learned that there was such a thing? He was taken aback and said, "No! Your Majesty must be informed that the two silver relief funds will be issued to quell the epidemic. ”

After speaking, the first assistant of the Ming cabinet took the lead in breaking in, knelt under the Wenhua Hall and said, "The old minister sees Your Majesty, and the minister has a report?" Ming Yizong hurriedly put down the music in his hand.

At this time, the Ming household department Shangshu and the governor of the Ming Tong political envoy also walked into the hall together, and the two hurriedly saluted the Ming Yizong, and then the governor of the Ming Tong political envoy handed over the chapter and said, "Your Majesty, this is the complaint of the people of the state capitals and counties, and please look at it." The eunuch of the Ming Si ceremony took the chapter to Ming Yizong to watch.

Ming Yizong opened the folded piece and read a few pieces, then said angrily, "What? There is a plague in the Central Plains? Why didn't anyone play it to me? Or did the ministers know about it and didn't report it? ”

Seeing His Majesty so angry, the two ministers in the hall did not dare to speak, only the first assistant of the Ming Cabinet stood up and swore and said, "Your Majesty, there is a reason for this epidemic, and it is spreading very fast!" Therefore, many officials have just learned about this? At present, the old minister implored His Majesty to quickly adjust the treasury and silver taels, and the old minister was willing to act as a messenger and personally take the silver taels to the disaster area to relieve the epidemic and calm the epidemic. ”

This made Ming Yizong decide that the first assistant of the Ming cabinet was reliable, so he agreed, and immediately ordered the eunuch of the Ming Dynasty to pass on the decree, so that the Taifu Temple, Guanglu Temple, and the Ming Household Department Shangshu would send 300,000 taels of silver and 150,000 taels of gold together, and the first assistant of the Ming cabinet would serve as the Qin messenger to go to various places for disaster relief with the silver.

The first assistant of the Ming cabinet, who was originally loyal in front of His Majesty, began to pamper as soon as he left the capital, wantonly accepting silver taels from local officials, and also deducting the imperial court's disaster relief silver taels, only giving 130,000 taels of silver and 50,000 taels of gold to local officials for disaster relief, and the rest of the gold and silver taels all went into the pockets of the first assistant of the Ming cabinet.

The local plague became more and more serious, and the funds allocated were embezzled by local officials, and most of the silver taels that finally arrived in the hands of the local Langzhong were less than 3 taels of silver, and the medicinal materials for the treatment of the plague were very expensive, so the number of infected patients did not decrease but increased!

Due to the increasing number of parents and officials, they are unwilling to directly isolate the people from the officials and people in the city, and some state and county officials have no choice but to roll up the silver and abandon the officials and flee! Since then, the Central Plains has been everywhere with the wailing and wailing of residents.

At the same time, the heralds also passed by Zhending Mansion from Beizhili to Zhuozhou area of Shuntian Prefecture through Baoding Mansion, and the heralds also learned the news of the local epidemic along the way? He found that many county towns were either very small or uninhabited, and the stench spread within three miles.

Fortunately, the herald walked the official road relatively quickly, which was also indirectly avoided by the epidemic infection, and the herald entered the Yongding Gate of the Forbidden City at the beginning of the time, and the herald quickly dismounted and handed over the letter to the Ming Tong political envoy for processing.

The political envoy of Mingtong, who is still dealing with affairs, heard that there is news from the border gate again? He immediately took the letter and informed the envoy of the Ming Tong Political Secretary: An Daojie, and ordered him to hand it over to His Majesty as soon as possible.

The Ming Tong Political Secretary took the letter, and went directly to the Yangxin Hall under the leadership of the Ming Division's ceremonial eunuchs, only to see the Ming Tong Political Secretary experience envoy saluted the temple and said, "Your Majesty, this is the border pass 800 miles of urgent military information!" Please also ask Your Majesty to take a look. ”

Ming Yizong learned that it was an urgent military situation at the border pass, he didn't dare to be sloppy, and hurriedly took the letter and opened it to look at it, and found that it was actually Governor Sun who was urging the imperial court to send food, silver, and elite soldiers. Now I have to ask me for silver, food, and soldiers! ”

The Ming Si Rite Eunuch on the side hurriedly came over and said, "Ouch! Your Majesty, please look at the old slave, if you really want to think about what Governor Sun said, there is not enough food, not enough silver, and the soldiers are too weak! So why not give him a chance? ”

But Ming Yizong said: "If you rely on him, if you don't send troops to suppress the thieves, wouldn't you raise another He Renlong?" The following Ming Tong political secretary said to him, "Your Majesty, you can follow one of the three conditions." In the end, after careful consideration, Ming Yizong decided to allocate 100,000 stone of grain from Taifu Temple, and the Ming Xingren Division: Gao Jingfeng, who was responsible for escorting the grain and the heralds to Shaanxi together, Cheng Xuan Zhengsi also asked him to bring a secret decree.

On the other side, Wu Junzhen and Ma Wei said goodbye to the rescued girls, and they also came to Tongguanwei one after another, and saw a group of people surrounding the city gate.

Wu Junzhen cautiously squeezed through the crowd to see, and found that this was a conscription list, and the two planned to join the army to serve the court as soon as they combined, so they walked towards the city gate without hesitation, but were stopped by the soldiers defending the city with spears and asked, "Are you here to join the army?" ”

They nodded and said, "Dare to ask, little brother, are there any other conditions for joining the army?" The soldiers defending the city said, "That's no condition, but according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, you are not allowed to run away at will. Wu Junzhen took the lead and said: "We will never be deserters, please rest assured." ”

Then the soldiers defending the city took him to see the Mingtong Guanwei Zhenfu: Wang Yifan, who was counting the number of people at the moment, and the Mingtong Guanwei Zhenfu and the Mingtong Guanwei guard: Mo Linkun, saw the two men in front of him wearing Xuanyi and cloth scarves, and asked, "You are here to join the army?" ”

The two nodded together, and the guards of Mingtong Pass asked them to write their names and make a register, and then took them to the barracks to hand over to the small banner of Ming Dynasty: Chen Guangshen.

The Ming Dynasty Yi Xiaoqi with a serious expression saw that there were recruits coming to report, so he accepted the two of them and walked to the guard command post, preparing to see the Ming Xi'an prefect: Lu Huaol, and asked him to issue armor to these two people, because the Ming Dynasty Yi Xiaoqi walked in front, so Wu Junzhen and Ma Wei did not feel depressed, among which Wu Junzhen suddenly found that some of the soldiers around the barracks seemed to be holding an iron rod in their hands?