At six o'clock in the morning, the Forbidden City was still asleep, and the palaces were quietly lying in the darkness like giant beasts. A team of eunuchs walked slowly from the west side of Donghua Gate with palace lanterns, and Emperor Chongzhen walked at the end, pacing slowly with his hands behind his back. Chongzhen's face was gloomy, his face was blue, his eyes were bloodshot, he had hardly slept all night, in fact, he hadn't slept for more than a month.

Just a few months ago, Hong Chengchou, the minister of the Northwest Economic Strategy, and Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, led hundreds of thousands of troops to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the northwest, and fought several big victories one after another. Li Zicheng's army was beaten and fell apart, and fled in the wind, Li Zicheng only fled into Shangluo Mountain with a small remaining group of cronies and hid. At that time, Chongzhen once painted a beautiful prospect for his future: "Once the bandits are eliminated and the domestic situation is stabilized, the imperial court can organize the army to go north, and teach the Houjin who frequently invaded the south a good lesson, so that they dare not underestimate the Chinese Celestial Empire." After only a few years, when the country has built up enough strength, it will be able to sweep away the Japanese invaders, expedition to other countries, expand the territory, and establish a more powerful and broader Great Ming Dynasty. At that time, he will go to the temple to comfort his ancestors, I, Zhu Youzhen, have not lived up to the trust of the emperor, worthy of the ancestors of the Zhu family and the people of the world, I am also a generation of lords, the saint of the world! What an exciting picture! However, a rare drought in the north in the summer and autumn of last year shattered Chongzhen's dream!

"Providence, providence! This is because God thinks that the hardships I have suffered are not enough, and he refuses to fulfill my Zhu Youzhen! Chongzhen looked at the gray sky and sighed helplessly.

Thinking back to what has happened in the past few months, the more Chongzhen thinks about it, the more upset he becomes. As soon as the drought in the north first appeared, he summoned officials from the cabinet and the household department to check the account books of the grain depots in various prefectures and counties overnight and calculate the amount of grain stored in various parts of the country.

But the development of the situation was beyond Chongzhen's expectations, with the passage of time, more and more people from all over the country, have poured into the city to flee the famine, forming a huge tide of refugees, Chongzhen ordered the local government to open a warehouse for relief, but with little effect, the refugee tide not only did not ease, but intensified, he sent people to investigate, the result shocked him, almost all the local government is using bran to fool the victims, and there is not much food in the government treasury around the country! The official food that belonged to the imperial court in the account books had been divided up by the rats of the city fox society, and what was even more infuriating was that these local officials were also in arrears in the routine supply of food and salary to support the front line in the name of disaster relief, according to the report of the Ministry of War, the northwest front line was already short of food, and ordinary soldiers could only eat half a meal a day. Chongzhen was angry, and picked the tops of several provincial and provincial officials in a row, and issued an order to the provinces to levy additional salaries, but it was still useless. As soon as he thought of this, Chongzhen hated the root of his teeth, "Three points of natural disasters, seven points of man-made disasters!" Chongzhen muttered silently as he walked.

When passing by the noon gate, Chongzhen remembered that he had made an order yesterday to kill Shang Dayong and Wang Qiang at noon today, and couldn't help but think silently: "Shang Dayong, this bastard, actually led the troops to mutiny and leave the battlefield, so that Li Zicheng took the opportunity to go south to Henan, and the encirclement and suppression of hundreds of thousands of troops fell short, and Hong Chengchou's request to enter Beijing was nominally to ask for guilt, but everyone knew that he was here to urge the grain and salary, and Xingshi asked for guilt, but at this time, this Wang Qiang actually took the food and salary in front of the branch for disaster relief without authorization, Xiao Duozi, you are mistaken!" I know you're loyal to me, but I must kill you today, or I'll have to tell the soldiers on the front lines how to explain it! They will say that I protect the courtiers, and if I don't kill you, I will chill the hearts of the soldiers in front of me! Chongzhen thought of killing Wang Qiang, and he felt uncomfortable in his heart.

"Your Majesty, the Wenhua Palace has arrived." Lin Zhe, the eunuch of the six palaces who followed behind Chongzhen, said softly. Chongzhen raised his head, and saw that he had unconsciously arrived at the door of the Wenhua Palace, and looked in along the open door of the palace, and could see the dragon chair, he sat on the chair every day to meet the courtiers, and watched the subordinates bow to himself there, only he knew the uncomfortable feeling of sitting on the dragon chair on all sides. Chongzhen sighed softly, silently walked into the main hall, and asked, "Have they all arrived?" ”

The chief eunuch on duty in the Wenhua Hall hurriedly replied: "Back to the emperor, the cabinet ministers have arrived, and Lord Hong Chengchou has also arrived, and he is waiting for the decree in the west hall. ”

"Let him come in too." Chongzhen commanded, turned around and walked into the Xinuan Pavilion. Cabinet scholars (equivalent to vice premiers of the cabinet) Wen Tiren, Zhou Yanru, Qian Qianyi, Chen Shaoliang, Yang Guangguang, secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Zhang Bingkun, secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Versace and other cabinet ministers saw Chongzhen come in and knelt down and saluted together.

Chongzhen walked to the imperial desk and sat down, and said casually: "Get up." ”

The ministers got up and stood in two compartments, and Chongzhen said with a melancholy face: "Now that the state affairs are complicated, bandits are rampant, and the situation in the world is turbulent, I am deeply disturbed. Today, there are many military and government affairs to be implemented in the DPRK Congress, so I will ask you to discuss it first, and you should give priority to state affairs and know everything. ”

When all the ministers heard this, they all bowed down and said yes.

At this time, the eunuch led Hong Chengchou in. Hong Chengchou first gave Chongzhen three bows and nine bows, and then knelt on the ground and said: "Long live, the criminal ministers are not effective in supervising the teacher, and the subordinates are not strictly controlled, resulting in the escape of the thief. ”

Chongzhen said with a smile: "Aiqing is exempt from courtesy, come on, give Lord Hong a seat." ”

"Your Majesty." Hong Chengchou got up and sat on a few benches next to him, then looked at Chongzhen and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the Tongcheng Rebellion has made the imperial army lose its achievements in encirclement and suppression for several months, and the rebel general Shang Dayong is a subordinate of Weichen, and the blame of the minister cannot be escaped. ”

This Hong Chengchou is old enough to seek the country, deeply understand the strategy, command the military of the five northwestern provinces, beat Li Zicheng's bandit army to scatter and flee, and has made outstanding achievements, and is the general that Chongzhen relies on the most. When Chongzhen stared at Hong Chengchou's feet, he saw Hong Chengchou's face with a frosty face, gray hair, red silk eyes, and three vertical wrinkles in the middle of his eyebrows. Chongzhen said to Hong Chengchou in a gentle tone: "Aiqing doesn't have to blame herself too much, the crime of the Tongcheng Rebellion lies in that Shang Dayong, and I have ordered him to be executed today to thank the world." Qing is the pillar of the country, and the Northwest Front is inseparable from you, so there is no need to mention the discussion of dismissal and investigation. I know your hardship, the front-line food is not enough, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers are hungry to fight, you are difficult to be a commander! If you want to talk about responsibility, I have no way to govern the country, and I have treated the soldiers in front of you badly! ”

Hong Chengchou was originally worried that Chongzhen would attack himself because of the release of Li Zicheng, but now when he heard that Chongzhen was so important to himself, he took the initiative to take responsibility, so he quickly fell to his knees and said in a crying voice: "Why did the emperor say this, it was the incompetence of the ministers, and after a few years, the teachers were paid lavishly, and they failed to completely eradicate the rebellion, so that the emperor was worried. ”

Chongzhen was very satisfied when he saw that his warm words and consolation had received results, and instructed the eunuch to wipe Hong Chengchou's face with a towel, and said: "Hong Aiqing's loyalty to the country is very rare, since this is the case, then he will be punished for one year as a punishment!" ”。

"Long live thanks! Weichen was impulsive and lost his temper. Hong Chengchou stopped crying and sat back on the stool.

Chongzhen nodded and smiled: "Hehe, you are loyal to me, I know it in my heart, okay, now that the situation ahead is worrying, I convened the cabinet to discuss important military affairs, and I also want to hear your opinion." ”

Hong Chengchou listened to Chongzhen turn the topic to the front-line military, and then said with a straight face: "Back to the emperor, the Tongcheng Rebellion has given Li Zicheng an opportunity, and now the thieves have fled to Henan and conquered three county towns in a row, and there is a great tendency to resurrect. What is even more worrying is that last year's severe drought in the north caused hungry people everywhere, and the thieves went out of the mountains this time to rob the official treasury everywhere to release grain, and the hungry people turned to the wind, so that the bandit contingent developed very quickly and gained quite a great momentum. Wechen has ordered his headquarters to rush to the aid of Xuchang, Luoyang and other places to avoid the continued spread of bandit forces. ”

"Well, while the bandit has not gained a firm foothold in Henan, it is very necessary to quickly crack down, and it will be difficult to suppress it after he is big. Aiqing has a good plan. Chongzhen said.

"Your Majesty, although the bandits are now strong, their foundation is not stable, there is a shortage of weapons, there is no food supply, they are still rogues, a large number of hungry people join the bandit team just for food, but it becomes a burden, although there are many thieves, they are a rabble, and they have no combat effectiveness. The minister thinks that now it should be used to suppress and appease, and to take care as the first. ”

"Well, go on." Chongzhen nodded.

"This appeasement is to appease the homeless. Now that there is a shortage of food in Henan Province, the emperor quickly sent personnel to Henan for disaster relief, as long as there is food, he can appease the displaced people and cut off the bandits. Then send heavy troops to stick to Luoyang, Xuchang and other important towns, block the way out of the bandits, so that the bandits can not break the city to supply, cut off the source of food for the bandits, once the bandits are exhausted, they will collapse without a fight, and then the court will encircle and suppress the heavy troops, why worry about the bandits will not be removed. As soon as the grain is ready this summer and the famine is overcome, the north will be settled and the bandits will be eliminated. ”

"Good! It's a good one to use together, take caress first! After listening to Hong Chengchou's strategy, Chongzhen's heart was determined, and his spirit was a town.

"However, at present, the front line is in urgent need of replenishment of food, due to the lack of food, the morale of the front line is low, soldiers flee and loot the people from time to time, if you want to trap the bandits, this food and salary can no longer be in arrears, so Weichen hopes to bring enough food and salary to Beijing this time, in order to boost the morale of the army, and hope that the emperor will miss the minister's heart." Hong Chengchou stated the main purpose of this visit to Beijing.

Chongzhen couldn't help but hesitate when he saw Hong Chengchou say the right thing, stood up and paced, and said with a heavy face: "Alas! I'm afraid it won't be as you would like this time. You should have heard that this time I aimed to increase the salaries in the provinces south of the Yangtze River, and originally raised tens of thousands of loads of grain, but it was used by that Wang Qiang for disaster relief without authorization, and it has been exhausted. Wang Qiang missed the major military affairs, and I have issued an order that he will be beheaded at the noon gate today to comfort the hearts of the soldiers in front of him. ”