At the end of June of the tenth year of Chongzhen. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The Forbidden City.

Xiyuan Taiye Poolside.

When Li Xiaozheng was promoting the implementation of the new military rank system in the whole army, Emperor Chongzhen, accompanied by the eunuch Wang Chengen, sat alone by the Taiye Pool in a daze.

The West Garden is located outside the Xihua Gate, which is the West Imperial Garden of the Yuan Dynasty. "The west of Xihua Gate is the West Garden. The list is called the West Garden Gate, and the entrance is the Taiye Pool. "Since the time of Jinsheng, it has been known as the Xiyuan Taiye Pool. Famous relics such as Qionghua Island Guanghan Temple Zhusheng, the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the benefits of the garden pond along the Buddha change, and then for recreation only. "From the time of the Jin Dynasty, after the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the West Garden is the place where the emperor plays, the pavilions and pavilions of this place and the Taiye Pond complement each other, the scenery is magnificent and beautiful, it is a good place to pleasing the eye.

It's just that Emperor Chongzhen, who is now sitting in the lakeside pavilion, has no intention of having fun, he is holding the secret music sent by Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, and the emperor's face is obviously flustered and uneasy.

"This Li Xiao, who didn't show the court in advance, actually made such a ruthless method, killing all the four commanders of the guard, and killing all the officials of the four Davids, it is really too bold and reckless."

Chongzhen stared blankly at the sparkling lake, muttering softly.

Casually, anger swelled up on his face: "Although Li Xiao is the chief military officer of Dengzhou Town and has the right to control the subordinate guards, but without reporting, he killed four guard commanders with the rank of third-rank in one go, in his heart, did he still put me and the court in his eyes!" ”

Seeing the emperor's angry words and looks, the eunuch Wang Chengen on the side trembled, and he, who had been favored by Li Xiao, thought for a while, and then interjected in a low voice: "The emperor is angry, why don't you go and call Yang Shangshu from the military department and let the emperor ask what is the matter?" “

"Well, you go and call Wen Qiao, I want to see if he, the secretary of the military department, knows anything about Li Xiao."

"The slave obeys."

Not long after, Yang Sichang came in a hurry under the guidance of Wang Chengen.

"Minister, Yang Sichang, the secretary of the Ministry of War, knock on Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

"Well, Wen is weak, it's hard work, let's calm down quickly."

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the secretary of the military department in front of him, who had only been in office for more than half a year, and he was already tired and haggard, with a little gray sideburns, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

From last year to the present, Yang Sichang, the newly appointed secretary of the military department, has been implementing his plan to suppress bandits in all directions, six corners and ten sides.

This plan can be briefly described as follows: With the officers and armies of Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Jiangbei as the four positives, they are responsible for dividing and suppressing special defenses; Yansui, Shanxi, Shandong, Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan are the six corners, and they are responsible for their division of prevention and suppression. These four corners have their own focus and cooperate with each other, and the two important ministers of Governor Yang Sichang and Prime Minister Xiong Wencan are responsible for the overall coordination and deployment, so as to realize the encirclement and suppression of the rogue from all sides, so that all kinds of rogue thieves will not escape from this time.

From a fair point of view, Yang Sichang's strategy does not have too many loopholes in theory, and he can be regarded as having some understanding of the general trend of domestic rogue bandits beginning to erode day by day, but the reason why this strategy was completely bankrupt in the end was that Yang Sichang did not consider it enough in many aspects.

In the final analysis, the fundamental reason for the bankruptcy of Yang Sichang's strategy lies in one point, that is, Yang Sichang's strategy requires a large number of troops and food as basic support. And this is the most difficult thing for the current Ming Dynasty to do.

At Yang Sichang's suggestion, the imperial court increased the number of troops by 120,000 and increased the salary by 2.8 million taels as his capital to quell the chaos.

However, this point really has the flavor of talking on paper, because in order to increase the number of troops by 120,000, it is necessary to vigorously increase the grain and salary, but where can the 2.8 million taels of grain and salary in this plan come from?

After listening to Yang Sichang's plan that day, Emperor Chongzhen hinted at him obscurely, "The inner money is empty, and there is no money in the interior." ”

So, Yang Sichang proposed four fund-raising strategies to Chongzhen. "First, because of the grain, because of the addition of the old amount, the mu loses six he, the stone is converted into eight coins of silver, and the land is not connected, and the silver is 1,929,000 per year; Second, those who overflow the land and the soil field overflow the original amount, verify the loss, and the age is very 46,000; Third, the case, that is, the rich people lost money as prisoners, and the fourth, the post delivery, and the silver cut by the post post was paid 200,000 taels. ”

Yang Sichang's four money policies moved Emperor Chongzhen, and he issued an edict: "Temporarily accumulate my people for a year, and get rid of this big trouble." Then, changing the law of grain to equal loss, he issued an edict and proclaimed it to the world.

This policy was later referred to by historians as wage suppression.

It's just that what Emperor Chongzhen didn't expect was that this policy, which was originally scheduled to be only accepted for one year, would almost become a permanent custom once the levy began, and the Ming Dynasty would eventually fall without being abolished.

In fact, this policy of grain was first proposed by Lu Xiangsheng, that is, the landlord with a lot of land should pay more money to the court according to the amount of excess land. But now Yang Sichang in order to exterminate the rogue as soon as possible, he rushed to the doctor in a hurry, he changed the grain to the average loss, that is, spread evenly on the ordinary people, in this way, it is simply to drive the finch for the cong and drive the fish for the abyss, so that countless good people who can't survive are crushed by the last straw, and since then they have joined the team of thieves with an iron heart, and have become an endless source of rogue soldiers, which is really embarrassing.

Of course, although Yang Sichang's plan to suppress bandits has fundamental flaws, it cannot be reduced to uselessness because of this; after all, in the official history, Yang Sichang's plan to suppress bandits with a net spread out on all sides has achieved fruitful results in the first year of its implementation.

In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and other rogue soldiers were defeated and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and Li Zicheng was completely defeated by Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting in the southern plains of Tongguan in Weinan, and took Liu Zongmin and other remnants of 17 people to hide in Shangluo Mountain in southeast Shaanxi, surviving for a long time.

The real devastating blow to Yang Sichang's four-square, six-corner, ten-sided net plan, or the winter of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the fourth southern invasion of the Qing army's three-way army, Yang Sichang had to divide the elite bandit soldiers and horses, to resist the Qing army into the Kou, with the transfer of the elite soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty, with the suppressed Liukou forces, re-flourished, like the water of the embankment, can no longer be contained.

And the leaders of the Ming army, such as He Renlong and Zuo Liangyu, all had an obvious tendency to be warlords at this time, supporting the troops and respecting themselves, and not listening to the dispatch, so that Yang Sichang was helpless. Therefore, Yang Sichang's plan to open up the net of ten nets has also become a broken net full of loopholes, and the situation of suppressing bandits across the country has completely collapsed.

In such an irretrievably decadent situation, Yang Sichang's tragic fate is actually doomed.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng captured Luoyang, killed the blessed king Zhu Changxun, Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang, killed the king of Xiangxiang Zhu Xuming, and two important vassal kings were killed one after another, which shocked the government and the opposition.

Under this tremendous pressure, Yang Sichang was full of fear, the old illness recurred, in order to avoid dying in prison, and finally committed suicide by poisoning, this Yang Gebu, who left a strong mark in the history of the late Ming Dynasty, ended his life of ups and downs.

"Yang Aiqing, Li Xiao, the chief military officer of Dengzhou Town, killed four commanders without authorization, did Yang Aiqing ever know?"

After Chongzhen waited for Yang Sichang to get up, he couldn't wait to whisper to him.

Yang Sichang saw that it was Chongzhen who asked about this, but his heart trembled.

It turned out that after Li Xiao killed the four commanders, he immediately reported the matter to the military department.

In the letter, he said that because these four commanders were plotting to cause chaos, he was fortunate to discover their plot in time, so he sent troops to kill them and eradicate the original forces of the four Davids. Because the matter is urgent, it is too late to report to the imperial court, if the military department does not believe it, you can send someone to inquire.

Li Xiao's letter made Yang Sichang, the secretary of the Ministry of War, jump in shock after reading it, and then sighed.

He didn't expect that Li Xiao's shot would be so ruthless and decisive, and it was a complete posture of cutting first and then playing. This is the Ming military attache of Zheng Sanpin, Li Xiao didn't report to the court in advance, so he said kill it? Under the current emperor's suspicious and narrow-minded personality, Li Xiao's actions like this are only afraid that he will cause him big trouble.

Yang Sichang also secretly considered whether Li Xiao was really as righteous and strict as he said, or whether he had hidden many ulterior personal ambitions.

So, how should I treat Li Xiao?

Do you want to report this matter to the emperor truthfully?

After careful consideration, Yang Sichang decided to quietly suppress the matter first, and not to report to the emperor this matter that made Li Xiao's image greatly deteriorate and his loyalty was questionable.

Because, Yang Sichang believes that now that the four commanders have all died, and his subordinates have been eliminated by Li Xiao, it is actually useless to delve into this matter when the raw rice has been cooked.

And now, in order to implement his own plan of spreading the net on all sides, Yang Sichang has been suffering from a lack of troops, and he has long been thinking that he will transfer troops and horses from Li Xiao to Shanshan or Huguang and other places to clear out the Liukou, if he fights with Li Xiao for this matter, it is not worth it.

Besides, compared to Li Xiao's killing of four small commanders of the guard, the rogue who is now raging in Huguang and Shanxi is the henchman of the imperial court, and the gravedigger who is most likely to cause the death of the Ming Dynasty. If you let the rogues not deal with it, and punish Li Xiao, who has always been loyal to the imperial court, it will inevitably chill the hearts of the soldiers, and secondly, it will also be suspected of putting the cart before the horse.

What Yang Sichang didn't expect was that now that almost a month has passed, Jinyiwei still reported Li Xiao's unauthorized killing of the four commanders of the guard, and it seems that today, he still has to explain it to Emperor Chongzhen.

"Back to the emperor, the minister already knows about this matter."

"If you know, why don't you come and report to me quickly?"

Chongzhen's face was visibly filled with anger.

Yang Sichang sighed lightly, knelt on the ground, and said loudly to the emperor: "Your Majesty, the reason why Weichen did not report this matter to the emperor is that he is busy with the affairs of suppressing bandits, and Weichen, as the secretary of the military department, has to run around, so that the time for reporting is delayed. The second is that Weichen privately believes that although Li Xiao's killing of the four commanders of the guard is inappropriate to ignore the imperial court, compared to the extermination of the thieves who can be regarded as a great danger to his heart, his matter is still slight. “

"Hmph, Wen Weak, how can you speak for Li Xiao like this. Although Li Xiao was trusted by me, was promoted to hereditary earl, and was added to the chief military officer of Dengzhou Town, this does not mean that I can let him do whatever he wants, be good at prestige, and have no court! You, the secretary of the military department, are a little too indulgent to Li Xiao! “

Chongzhen said the back, obviously aggravating his tone, with a look of anger.

Yang Sichang sighed secretly in his heart, the emperor was really still narrow-minded, and he was worried about Li Xiao's killing of the four guard commanders, and it seemed that he had to think carefully before answering.

He was silent for a while, and then said slowly: "Then according to the emperor, how to punish Li Xiaofang?" “

Chongzhen, who was furious, didn't expect Yang Sichang to ask himself like this, he was stunned for a moment, and then said, "Oh, you still come to ask me?" Let me ask you, Li Xiao acted so rebelliously, according to you, how should he be punished, is it appropriate? “

Yang Sichang knelt on the ground and bowed for a long time: "Your Majesty, please forgive the minister. “

"You say."

"Your Majesty, in the opinion of the ministers, Li Xiao is now the chief military officer of Dengzhou Town, and he can dispose of the officials of his subordinate guards according to the law. Moreover, His Majesty handed over Nadengzhou to him with full authority, Li Xiao was young after all, and he was proud for a while, and he made something wrong against the holy will, but it was understandable. If His Majesty needs to investigate Li Xiao's responsibility, the ministers are afraid that they will chill the hearts of Li Xiao and his elite subordinates. “

Hearing Yang Sichang's words, Chongzhen's face was suddenly full of complicated feelings.

Of course, he also knew that he had just put such a high faith in Li Xiao, promoted him to become a hereditary earl, and became the first chief military officer who had full authority to take charge of the affairs of the military and civilian departments in Dengzhou.

"This, Wen is weak, according to what you say, then Li Xiao's act of ignoring the court like this, can't he just let it go so lightly?" Chongzhen's face flashed with a look of unwillingness and hesitation.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that since Your Majesty has reused Li Xiao, he should not be suspicious, and he should not be suspicious. From the minister's point of view, His Majesty can actually control Li Xiao from two aspects to test his ability and loyalty. Yang Sichang replied slowly.

"Oh, Aiqing can tell me more." Chongzhen's eyes lit up unconsciously.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty appointed a martial artist like Li Xiao to govern Dengzhou in the future, and from the perspective of the minister, Li Xiao can be examined from both the sides of civil governance and martial arts." Yang Sichang straightened up and said eloquently: "In terms of cultural governance, it is required that Li Xiao must pay a full amount of taxes in Dengzhou every year to keep Dengzhou quiet and the people's lives stable. In terms of martial arts, Li Xiao was required to eliminate all the bandits in the Dengzhou area, and at the same time dispatch elite soldiers, in cooperation with Weichen's plan of spreading the net on all sides, and transfer his subordinates' elite soldiers and horses to Huguang and Shanxi, and work with other kinds of officials and troops to vigorously exterminate the Liukou. If Li Xiao can do these two things, his merits are considerable, so why should Your Majesty catch him and kill the four commanders of the guard post who are in rebellion? “

Yang Sichang's words made Emperor Chongzhen nod again and again.

Seeing Chongzhen nodded, Yang Sichang's heart was greatly relaxed, and he hurriedly took the opportunity to say: "If Your Majesty still has doubts in his heart, Weichen asks the emperor to send Weichen to Dengzhou, Shandong, to personally investigate Li Xiao's matter." Weichen also happened to discuss with Li Xiao how to transfer troops from Shandong to Shanxi and Huguang to suppress the thieves. “

Chongzhen's face finally flashed with a smile, and he said loudly: "What Aiqing said is very kind, so I will go to Shandong with you to investigate Li Xiao's matter in detail." As for how to transfer troops from Li Xiao's subordinates to Shanshan and Huguang, please ask Aiqing to discuss with Li Xiao on her own. “

"Wechen obeys."