"Your Majesty, it's time to eat." After Chongzhen sat like a puppet for a morning, the eunuch Wang Chengen whispered on the side.

"I don't have an appetite, so you can step down." Chongzhen waved his hand, with a bored look on his face, and he didn't want to talk to him at all.

Wang Chengen looked helpless, so he could only respond and bowed back. Speaking of which, Emperor Chongzhen can be called the most bitter emperor in the Ming Dynasty, and it is not an exaggeration.

Since the eighth year of Chongzhen, after the ancestral tomb of Fengyang was excavated, Chongzhen cried and confessed to the Taimiao, and since then he has worn cloth clothes and eaten vegetarian food.

Officials advised him not to be so himself, but he was sternly refused. In June of the following year, his maternal grandmother dreamed of the Empress Dowager Xiaochun and asked her to tell the emperor that except for the sacrifice, the death day, and the first and fifteenth days of the new year

Except for "fasting", meat can be eaten on other days. For this reason, he specially issued an edict to his subjects that starting from June 22, they would no longer eat vegetarian food.

Although meat food was resumed, Zhu Youzhen and Empress Zhou still insisted on eating vegetarian food for ten days a month

"Fasting". This is really a big test for the emperor and queen, who never get tired of eating.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen's frugal and hard life is not only out of consideration for family life, but more out of thinking about the country and the people, which seems to be his consistent attitude.

Soon after he ascended the throne, faced with the mess of the country and the people, he resolutely announced the cessation of the activities of Suzhou and Hangzhou weaving (a government-run institution dedicated to the silk in the palace) on the grounds that he could not bear to trouble the people.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Empress Zhou ordered the eunuchs to buy 24 cotton spinning wheels in Suzhou, send them to the palace, teach the palace maids to spin, and cultivate an atmosphere of diligence and thrift.

Although because the palace maids in the north couldn't learn the delicate craftsmanship of the Jiangnan village girl, it finally didn't work, but

"The sound of the spinning wheel blowing into the heavenly palace" cannot but be said to be an ancient anecdote in the Forbidden City. According to the records of Sun Chengze in the household department, the Guanglu Temple, which was in charge of the palace meals, reported the imperial meal expenses of Chongzhen in the fifteenth year: the emperor's meals were 1,0046 taels of silver per month; The queen's meal was three hundred and thirty-five taels of silver per month; The imperial concubine's meal was one hundred and sixty-four taels of silver per month; The crown prince's meal was one hundred and twenty taels of silver per month.

These are certainly not small numbers, but compared to the Wanli period, they are already very frugal.

Especially in September of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen took the lead in saving money in consideration of financial difficulties, and announced that his meal expenses would be reduced by half, the concubines and others would be reduced by four-tenths, and the palace maids and eunuchs would be reduced by three-tenths.

A month later, he again advocated frugality against luxury, leading by example, in addition to sticking to what had been previously announced

In addition to the "reduction of food and entertainment", it is stipulated that only gold and silver utensils can be used in major festivals, and tinware, wood, and porcelain are all used in daily life, and it is hoped that ministers will follow suit.

If they continue to turn a deaf ear in the future, they will be severely punished. In fact, this is his consistent style, and since his ascension to the top, he has always maintained the virtue of frugality.

At that time, Wu Weiye, who served as the editor of the Hanlin Academy, recorded that whether it was a monthly banquet or a quarterly banquet in the harem, former relatives or married princesses sent food on time, and after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he specially issued a holy decree to prohibit it.

At the beginning of the first year of Chongzhen, since the announcement of the cessation of weaving in Suzhou, the emperor often wore old clothes that had been washed many times, and the socks were sewn with cloth soles.

He often said: I am calling on the world to return from luxury to simplicity, and if we want future generations to know the difficulties, can we not start from ourselves?

There are many such examples. Li Qing, who was in charge of the ministry at that time, said in "Sanyuan Notes": The emperor was worried about the country's financial constraints, so he took the Liaodong ginseng stored in the harem for decades to the market and sold it.

Li Qing once bought some of them in the market, all of which were excellent wild ginseng, with a hard texture and a timeless taste, which was completely different from ordinary ginseng.

I heard that in this ginseng trade, you can get tens of thousands of taels of silver. Wang Yuchang's "Chongzhen Palace Ci" talked about such a trivial matter.

One day, when the emperor went to listen to the teacher's lecture, the sleeves of the underwear he was wearing were torn, and it was very unsightly to be exposed, so he stuffed it in to cover it up from time to time.

Witnessing this subtle movement

The "speaker" said to him: Although wearing shabby clothes is too frugal, it is a virtue, so why hide it. For this reason, later generations have poems that praise: Saintliness should only be thrifty and sought, not to mention obedience as a plan.

The profit and loss are calculated, and the accumulation must be thousands of miles. Inspired by the emperor's strict self-discipline style, the harem had a quiet and simple atmosphere that was rare in the past, and there was no such decadent scene of drunken dreams and death when the country was on the verge of death.

As Wu Weiye said in "Suikou Jiluo": The emperor is in the deep palace and does not smile. The words and deeds of his crown prince and other children were based on etiquette.

Therefore, the harem did not play with the entertainment of pearl jade, there was no performance of singing and dancing, and in leisure time, only the elegant sound of the guqin lingered.

The emperor said: This kind of piano sound is enough to entertain the mind and is better than other music. This Asu, who is strict with the law, will make such a mess of state affairs, this history is really full of paradoxes.

Chongzhen was extremely confused, why was he so diligent and thrifty, so energetic, why was this state affair still so boiling, and the situation was getting worse and worse, what was going on?

This almost unsolvable question made the emperor feel extremely bad, but he could not find the answer to the question. And today, in addition to the chaos of state affairs, Chongzhen has no intention of eating, there is another very important reason, that is, Chongzhen received a letter from Li Xiao.

In the letter, in addition to reporting in detail to the emperor about his achievements in sweeping away Jinzhou, slaughtering the entire city of Hetuala, and destroying it to the ground, Li Xiao also had a very important point, that is, to solemnly remind the emperor not to easily negotiate peace with the Qing Dynasty.

Li Xiao said, although my Ming Dynasty has suffered a heavy blow, but I have also hit the Qing court hard, so on the whole, although the Ming Dynasty lost a lot, the Qing court also fought a big defeat and suffered a lot of losses.

Therefore, there is no need for the emperor to lose confidence, there is no need to be frightened by the Qing people, and there is no need to be led by the nose by the Qing court.

Li Xiao assured the emperor that although the Qing court had won a great victory in western Liaoxi, there was no need to worry about the Qing army going south because Jinzhou and Hetuara had been destroyed.

In his opinion, even if the Qing army wanted to enter the customs to fight again, it would have to rest for a long time, so there was no need for the Ming court to be frightened by the Qing army, so it signed the peace agreement in a panic.

Li Xiao wrote this letter, in fact, because he knew the real historical process of the late Ming Dynasty, so he took precautions and sent this letter to the emperor as a reminder.

Emperor Chongzhen was originally a hesitant and unassertive person, but when he saw Li Xiao's letter, he didn't feel that he had no appetite and was bored.

At this time, Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, asked to see him. Chongzhen hesitated, but summoned him anyway.

As soon as Chen Xinjia saw the emperor, he immediately knelt down and fell to the ground. When Chongzhen saw his appearance, he guessed in his heart that he must have some harsh words, and wanted to say to himself, but he felt more and more irritable, but he couldn't have a good seizure, so he could only say coldly: "Aiqing, if you have any words, you can play them one by one." Chen Xinjia took a long breath, straightened up from the ground, and arched his hand: "Your Majesty, forgive the minister, now after the battle of Songjin, my Ming Dynasty has been defeated, if you don't hurry up and come up with a countermeasure, the minister is only afraid of ......" The latter words, Chen Xinjia deliberately interrupted, and the emperor heard this, his face was already gloomy.

Of course he knew what Chen Xinjia wanted to say to him next, since the end of the Songjin War, such a topic has become a scar in the emperor's heart that has been repeatedly lifted and cannot be healed.

Chen Xinjia slowly raised his head and said to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, the minister has a plan, I don't know whether to talk about it." ”

"Say it."

"Your Majesty, now that I have lost the battle of Songjin in the Ming Dynasty, my troops are extremely broken, and I really have no ability to fight against the Tartars and the Liukou at the same time, I ask the emperor to agree, hurry up, and negotiate peace with the Tartars, so as not to be attacked on both sides, and the final situation is irreparable!" Chen Xinjia looked pained.

When Chongzhen heard the word "peace", he couldn't help frowning again. Almost instantly, he thought of the results of the previous peace negotiations with the Qing court since the Apocalypse year, all of which ended in failure.

Especially last time, he solemnly asked Li Xiao to send an envoy to the Qing court, and even the agreement was negotiated, but in the end, it was also hindered by the face and the court, and the matter was closed.

Seeing that the emperor was hesitant, Chen Xinjia said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, now is an extraordinary moment, in order to protect the foundation of the country, the emperor must not hesitate, think about the story of Song Liao......"

"Shut up! How can the story of Song Liao be compared with the current situation. The Emperor snapped him off.

"Now that the Qing court is holding on to the aftermath of a great victory, if you want to negotiate peace, you will ask for everything you can, and a lion will open your mouth. Besides, Tang Guogong swept away Jinzhou one after another, conquered Hetuala, and dealt a serious blow to the Qing court, how could he be so frustrated and raise the enemy's might? "There is a letter from Li Xiao as a reminder, and the emperor still sees one thing very clearly about the current situation.

That is, the Ming and Qing dynasties negotiated peace, and the story of Song Liao, there is no comparison at all, the most fundamental point is that if the peace negotiation is successful, let me ask, the Ming Dynasty, which has just experienced the defeat of Songjin and the destruction of the 130,000 Ming army, what strength does it have to make the Manchus abide by the promise of peace?

Therefore, the emperor still knows very well, and it is better not to compare the alliance of Song Liao and Yuan with the present.

In history, after the alliance of the Song Dynasty, it is true that the Song and Liao Dynasty did not break out in war for more than a hundred years, in fact, the Song Dynasty had no ability to stop the Liao army from sweeping the Song border, how could it give the Liao Sui coins if they had the ability?

There is also the alliance of the Yuanyuan, soon after the Empress Dowager Xiao died, and then the Liao went to war with Goryeo, and the two sides fought for more than ten years, and he didn't care about dealing with the Song Dynasty, but he didn't want to go to war, and then the Liao didn't force the Song Dynasty to increase the currency and cut the land.

If we explain the conditions for peace negotiations, I am afraid that no matter how well we negotiate, we will have to compensate the Manchus with their property, and it is really not a good way to weaken our own strength and increase the strength of our opponents in vain.

At the beginning, when Yuan Chonghuan wanted to negotiate peace with Huang Taiji, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was at the peak of internal fighting, and Huang Taiji's position was unstable.

At that time, as long as he didn't get nervous, he would never have really negotiated peace with the Ming Dynasty, and it was impossible for the Manchu Qing Dynasty to agree to peace at that time.

Therefore, realistically speaking, at this stage, it is fundamentally wrong to propose by oneself and negotiate peace with the Manchus, the Ming Dynasty has a huge gap with the Manchus at the military level, and there is no ability to guarantee that the Manchus will abide by the agreement, and if the Manchus make small moves in the future, or simply break the treaty, it will definitely be the Ming Dynasty that suffers.

You know, in real history, the peace conditions opened by the Manchus were like this. "The Records of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty" recorded the conditions given by Huang Taiji: first, the two countries have auspicious and evil events, and they must send envoys to each other to celebrate and hang; Second, every year of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty gave the Qing State 10,000 taels of gold and 1,000 taels of silver, and the Qing Dynasty gave the Ming 1,000 catties of ginseng and 1,000 mink skins; Third, the Manchurians, Mongols, and Han Chinese on the Qing side, and the Koreans who entered the Ming Dynasty must be arrested and sent to the Qing Dynasty; Those who rebel into the Qing territory must also be arrested and sent to Ming; Fourth, each monarch has its own country, with Ningyuan Shuangshupu in the middle of the soil ridge as the Ming border, Tashan as the Qing border, and Lianshan as the moderate place to carry out mutual trade.

However, Huang Taiji also insulted: "If you don't want to reconcile, don't send an envoy to the letter...... If it does not arrive in September, the army will be ordered. "To the effect that either you will give a million taels of silver right now, or I will take it myself in the winter.

To put it mildly, it is to give a million taels of silver, is it not that Huang Taiji will not come to the Central Plains to loot in winter?

It's hard to say. Huang Taiji did not give a guarantee, saying how long he could maintain peaceful relations with the Ming Dynasty in the future.

This condition is too hard, you know, after the Songjin War, Ming Ting can still make a million taels of silver, and it's a fart!

The army has long been transferred from the interior to continue the fight. You must know that Song Liao's peace negotiation is only 100,000 taels, and it has dragged on for a long time.

What's more, Huang Taiji has impatiently said that as long as the silver is not yet in September, he will rob it, where will the Ming court get the silver, and rob it openly in the capital like Li Zicheng?

In addition, even if Chongzhen tried his best to get rid of his underwear in exchange for a million taels of silver, in exchange for a peace treaty, it is difficult to say what real value it can have.

Of course, Huang Taiji did not promise nothing, as long as he gave silver before September. Then I won't come to the south to hunt this year.

As for next year, the year after that...... How do I know so far away? Unexpectedly, Li Xiao's letter turned a corner in history, and Chongzhen did not agree to Chen Xinjia's proposal as in history, and then sent an envoy to the Qing court to negotiate peace.

After listening to the emperor's words, Chen Xinjia, who was kneeling on the ground, was stunned for a moment and couldn't reply.

"Your Majesty......

Chongzhen waved his hand and said to Chen Xinjia with annoyance: "There is no need to talk about the matter of peace, you can step down." ”

"Uh, Wechen obeys."