More than a month has passed in the blink of an eye, and nothing major has happened in this month or so, but a lot of small things have happened. First of all, there were personnel changes in the six ministries, Cui Jingrong, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Lin Yaoyu, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Gu Bingqian, the assistant minister of the Government Council, went home to report to his grandson, and Ye Xianggao, Zhao Nanxing, Han Yi and others from the Donglin Party returned to the DPRK, Ye and Han directly entered the Government Council as associate ministers, Zhao Nanxing was reinstated and became the heavenly officials of the Ministry of Officials, Gao Panlong and others may have been heartbroken and claimed to be old and infirm and refused to come out as officials again, and Tianqi did not force good words to comfort them and give them a fair name. Wei Guangwei, Wang Shaohui, Zhou Yingqiu, Cui Chengxiu and others, who were friends with Wei Zhongxian, also felt "the wind, frost, and sword are pressed against each other" every day in the summer under the cold face and indifferent eyes of the Donglin Party.

The Military Affairs Yuan is also operating efficiently under Sun Chengzong's dedicated care, and the order to evacuate Jinzhou, Yizhou, and Youtun has long been issued, and the army will be withdrawn to protect the people when Xiong Tingbi repairs Ningyuan Pass. For the generals who did not understand, such as Ning Qiandao, Yuan Chonghuan, Shanhaiguan General Ma Shilong and others, they also went to the text again and again, patiently persuaded and explained repeatedly, and until the beginning of August, there was no chaos. At first, Yuan Chonghuan was very unconvinced, saying that he was unwilling to evacuate Jinzhou and Youtun if he used troops to advance and retreat, and even said that if he wanted to withdraw the army, he would withdraw his officials first, and what should he do if Sun Chengzong couldn't make a decision to let Tianqi see it? Tianqi has long understood that this intellectual is an intellectual, even if he is stripped naked and thrown into the barracks to melt with the bitter soldier for three years, he still can't develop the good quality of being upright and obedient, and whenever he is dissatisfied, he will naturally express his bad habits such as breaking yarn hats and burdens. Tianqi didn't say anything, but only sent two internal guards to deliver the decree, and asked Yuan Chonghuan and Ma Shilong to sing "Three Disciplines and Eight Attentions" with them, Tianqi changed the lyrics slightly, and the front was changed to: All soldiers in the Ming Dynasty should keep in mind, and they should pay attention to the three major disciplines and eight points. First, they were required to sing twice a day, in the morning and evening......, and to write down their experiences after singing, and finally asked them to preach the importance of obeying the command in all actions among the middle and lower rank officers, and since then both have stopped.

In the past month or so, the main business of the letter king has been to issue a number of orders in the name of the Government Council, mainly to clear the acres of land, report disasters and clear the official warehouse. In order to protect their vested interests, officials at all levels tried their best to talk about the small when they cleared the fields and the official warehouses, and when they reported disasters, they made the king of letters who saw all kinds of data frown every day, and according to the eunuchs who served around him, the king of letters did not say that the tea and dinner were not fragrant for months, and he did not even appreciate the beautiful maid ring.

Apocalypse threw the burden out, and that day he had a whim, thinking that the "he" that Bai Guang said would be "it"? It was the yellow jadeite that brought him, thinking about whether it would fall into the water when he came, so he asked Tan Jing to bring more than a dozen eunuchs with good water properties to fish in the place where he fell into the water, and after fishing for a long time, there was nothing but half of the broken bowl. Later, he asked someone to draw a picture according to his description, and asked people all over the country to look for it, and for more than a month, he found dozens of pieces of similar appearance and color, but none of them were there, and his heart gradually faded. In the past month or so, in addition to going to the Military Affairs Yuan and the Government Affairs Yuan every day to show that he was very busy, he stayed with Yang Lian and the six of them in the Metropolitan Procuratorate all day long, muttering and discussing something mysteriously.

I don't know when it began, gossip about the apocalypse circulated among officials in Beijing, saying that he lost half of his soul when he fell into the water in May, and later he asked dozens of eunuchs to fish for three days and three nights but did not catch it, and finally asked someone to do a ritual to no avail. If anyone doesn't believe the messenger, say, "You know the Hakka, right?" That's the emperor who doesn't eat for a day, how about the emperor's soul being lost? It is said that if it is buried alive, it is said that before being buried alive, people were also allowed to eat feces in the septic tank; How is Wei Zhongxian? It turned out that the old man who was particularly trusted, the emperor's soul was lost, and he said that if he didn't recognize it, he wouldn't recognize it, and he grabbed the stick and beat it, Wei Zhongxian saw that the opportunity was wrong and ran to Nanjing overnight. "It's like having a nose and eyes.

It was rumored that Wei Zhongxian was beaten away to Nanjing by the Apocalypse, but in fact Wei Zhongxian was indeed in Nanjing, and he was very busy. In the more than two months since he came to Nanjing, Wei Zhongxian has asked his nephew Wei Liangqing to write nine secret reports to Tianqi on his behalf, in addition to reporting the astonishing family assets of Ye Xianggao, Han Yi, Liu Yixian and other high-ranking officials of the Donglin Party, he also described in detail their family members and nephews forcibly buying people's land and bullying and dominating the market. In addition to the Liangjiang area, including Sichuan, Shaanxi, Liangguang and other huge wealthy, the illegal acts of Dongchang are also recorded, with names and surnames, numbers and specific locations, which proves the efficiency of Dongchang and its absolute loyalty to the emperor. In a recent report, Wei Zhongxian made a small request, saying that someone had discovered Dongchang's recent behavior, and took the bribe to him and asked him to raise his noble hand, saying that he would not confiscate the bribe for the time being, but if the emperor agreed to accept it, he could divide the money with the emperor equally, of course, he would never deceive the emperor because he received the money.

Tianqi praised his recent achievements in his reply, but also rebuked his greed with a little dissatisfaction, telling him that the idea of half equal division was wrong, the bottom line that the emperor could accept was three seven open, Wei Zhongxian three emperor seven, and Wei Zhongxian and his subordinates The monthly gray income cap should not exceed 10,000 taels, every once in a while, Tianqi will send internal guards to Nanjing to count and check the accounts, if there is a case of deception, it will not be spared, and three pits have been dug somewhere in Beijing just waiting for their three to make mistakes.

After reading Tianqi's reply, Wei Zhongxian hurriedly played a defense, saying that he completely agreed with Tianqi's proposal to open the three sevens and cap 10,000 taels per month, and once again reiterated that he himself, including all the staff of the East Factory, was absolutely loyal to the emperor, and finally praised the Jinyi guards who were willing to cooperate with the work by the way.

If the rumors of the emperor's loss of soul are just a joke, the other rumors make people laugh. The first rumor was that the emperor was so poor that he wanted to start selling his official beard to make money; The second rumor is that the emperor suddenly has an inexplicable hatred for corrupt officials and wants to raid every official's home; The third rumor says that one day the emperor suddenly laughed when he saw the phrase "the whole world is not the king's land", saying that in this case he would take back all the land under the world and make it his private imperial estate. These three rumors came out of the mouths of the eunuchs in the palace, and their credibility was very high, which made the clear streams, rich people, and big landlords in the court like ants on a hot pot, and asked to see King Xin and Sun Chengzong, a scholar, one after another, hoping that the two emperor's most trusted people could persuade the emperor to retract his absurd ideas.

Later, the apocalypse also heard about it, and he was silent for a while and said: "Tomorrow morning, the officials above the fourth rank in Beijing and all the personnel of the Metropolitan Procuratorate must arrive, and I will personally explain these rumors." ”

It was late August, and the apocalypse got up in the morning, ran and hurriedly ate two bites before going to the court. In the past three months, I have been running every morning and practicing at night, although I dare not say how healthy my body is, at least I can be like a normal person, not like the weakness when I was scooped up after falling into the water. Tianqi first rested in the apse, and by the way, he exchanged opinions with King Xin, who was in charge of the Government Affairs Yuan, and Sun Chengzong, who was in charge of the Military Affairs Yuan, and then asked the eunuch to talk about Jingxuan Baiguan going to the court. After the ministers stood up and made a big salute and were called flat, Tianqi said softly: "Recently, there have been some rumors that have made officials uneasy about doing things, which is not good. Of course, these rumors are not entirely groundless, I do have some considerations in this regard, I wanted to talk about it when the time is ripe, but now the rumors are boiling and causing people to talk about it, I want to explain it but I don't know where to start, so if you have any questions, just say them, and I will answer them one by one. ”

As soon as the apocalypse finished speaking, the ministers, you look at me, I hope you don't speak. This questioning of the emperor can easily arouse the emperor's anger, everyone understands that it is okay to follow others and start a coax, but it is completely unnecessary to rush to the front and set yourself on fire.

Apocalypse saw everyone's thoughts and said, "First of all, I declare that no matter who says something, they will not be punished for this, so you can rest assured and speak boldly. ”