"I see?" After Chongzhen saw it, he laughed and said: "This kid, every time there is an unexpected move~!" With that, he handed the secret report to Zhou Hou

After reading it after Zhou Hou, he also burst out laughing, but then said seriously: "Now that Song Youliang and the county lord of Laiyang have a skin-to-skin relationship, the future marriage of the county lord of Laiyang will become a problem~ This Song Youliang, the concubine thought that he should be convicted of a great crime of rebellion~"

Chongzhen also scolded with a smile: "What nonsense are you talking about, how can I execute a meritorious person on such a ridiculous charge?" Since he calls himself a county horse, and has a skin-to-skin relationship with the lord of Nalaiyang, I will give him a marriage and reward him for being a real county horse, what else do the noisy officials have to say? ”

Wang Chengen bowed and said: "Your Majesty is really gracious, but Song Youliang is a military household~!" ”

"What's the matter? Since I can give him a county horse, I can give him a free nationality. Chongzhen stood up, "I'll leave this matter to you." By the way~~ the 480,000 taels of silver~~"

Wang Chenen immediately replied: "It's all been filled into the inner money~!" ”

"Hmm~!" Chongzhen nodded with satisfaction

"Oh yes~" Wang Chengen said: "Then Song Youliang also sent a note, saying that the first evil of the Yuyuan thieves, Liang Min, Liu Shaowu, Ren Qi, etc., have all been subdued, and the rest of the minions are not enough to kill to establish authority, but not killing can show His Majesty's benevolence, so I ask for pardon for those minions and the people who were coerced." ”

"Hehe~!" Concubine Tian covered her mouth and smiled, "That kid really kissed Laiyang and touched Laiyang?" ”

Chongzhen smiled: "Hmm~ It is said that Liu De's old eunuch was so anxious that he almost wanted to fight with him!" ”

Zhou Hou also smiled, but then said: "Laiyang, this kid's life is hard, King De's lineage from the prince to several princes, and the county king are all people who only know how to eat, drink and have fun, if it weren't for the girl and the boy of Huanting, taking care of her inside and outside, I'm afraid it would have been a long time ago." ”

Chongzhen also knew that most of his clan were caged golden silk birds, so he sighed and said: "Since Laiyang and that Song Youliang have a skin-to-skin relationship, I intend to marry you, what do you think, concubine?" ”

After thinking for a while, Zhou Hou replied: "Since my dynasty became an ancestor, I have not allowed the vassal king to control the military power, so Song Youliang is already an official guerrilla and has soldiers and horses in his hands, I'm afraid it's not appropriate, right?" ”

Chongzhen smiled, "Concubine Ai is too worried, then Song Youliang only has more than 2,000 people under his command, and there are Jinyi guards who are closely monitored, do you dare to rebel?" Besides, King De is also a greedy person for comfort, where can he dare to be opposed? The reason why I have repeatedly reused Song Youliang is because he can make money and make money, and I really want him to become the son-in-law of our Zhu family and serve our Zhu family forever! ”

At this moment, Chongzhen was in a good mood and ordered to pass the meal immediately. The eunuchs of Shangshan Jian had already prepared the banquet, and as soon as they paging, the eunuchs and palace maids set it up on the Chengyuan Pavilion. There is a man-made nature here: there is a bamboo fence nearby. huts, a few paddy fields; On the shore of the lake there are orange trees and fishing nets to dry. Coincidentally, at this time, there was a pair of mandarin ducks lying by the water, and a white crane in the shallow water stood quietly on one leg, motionless. From his birth to the present, Chongzhen has only been to the Changping Imperial Mausoleum from afar, and has never seen the scenery of the southern countryside, and the queen and concubines have not been out of the Forbidden City since they entered the palace. They all felt very fresh and interesting. In order not to alarm the waterfowl and disturb the tranquility of the "countryside", he passed on the usual music before eating.

After lunch, after a short rest, Chongzhen took the concubines to leave Jinhai and took the chariot to Yuxi Palace to watch the play. His favorite thing to watch on weekdays is the Jin Opera. Each of these plays is very short, and there are about more than 100 plays, both elegant and vulgar. Ya is from the academy, and he doesn't talk about it. The vulgar drama is based on the life of the city, playing how a liar cheats, mocking a clumsy mother-in-law, a demented husband, or playing a cunning businessman, a tricky pimple, folk lawsuits and bribery, and all kinds of juggling. Compared with elegance and vulgarity, there are more vulgar drama programs and more interesting. There were originally three intentions for playing this kind of vulgar drama in the palace: the first was to let the emperor and the princes know some folk customs and so-called "folk sufferings" after watching the play, the second was to entertain the emperor and concubines, and the third was to make the emperor and concubines laugh happily. Because of these three purposes, the eunuchs of the Bell and Drum Division and the artists of the Jiaofang sometimes made short plays about themes or themes related to real politics.

On this day, the artists first performed two more elegant theater books, and then performed a play "Double Deception", which caused Chongzhen and Zhou Hou to smile. Then he staged a newly written play, which was a great victory of the Huguang official army out of thin air, capturing Zhang Xianzhong, and destroying all the peasant army. This play was choreographed overnight, hoping to win Chongzhen's pleasure.

The two actors pretended to be officers and soldiers, cut the hands of a playful who pretended to be a harlequin, and escorted them to Chongzhen, "Your Majesty, we have already captured the thief Zhang Xianzhong, how to deal with it, please show your Majesty!" ”

Chongzhen was very happy to see the consequences, and he raised his hand happily, "Launch the noon gate beheading!" ”

"Yes!" The two actors are about to leave with the play pretending to be Zhang Xianzhong

"Your Majesty spares your life, Your Majesty spares your life~~!" The clown pretending to be Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly burst into tears, snot and tears flowed together, and kowtowed like a chicken pecking rice.

"Hahaha~!" Chongzhen looked at the ugly "Zhang Xianzhong", still laughed three times, and still said: "Launch the noon gate beheading~!" ”

"Ah~!" "Zhang Xianzhong" screamed and "fainted"

An actor stepped forward to try his snort, and then said seriously: "Your Majesty, Zhang Xianzhong is as timid as a mouse, scared to death!" ”

"Hehehaha~!" Chongzhen smiled more and more happily, "Chop it up and feed it to the dog!" ”

"Yes!" The actors pretended to bet "Zhang Xianzhong" down

Chongzhen was in a much better mood, and immediately ordered a reward of ten taels of silver. Although an emperor said that such a reward was too little, all the artists still knelt down and kowtowed to thank him, shouting long live.

Just when Chongzhen was enjoying the lustful pleasure of capturing and killing Zhang Xianzhong, more than a dozen urgent military intelligence reports were sent to the duty room set up by the celebrant in the Yangxin Palace. Among them, Wang Dehua and Wang Chengen and several other eunuchs on duty were most shocked that Xiong Wencan and the governor of Yunyang respectively reported that the official army had failed to march on Luo Monkey Mountain west of Fang County, with 10,000 dead and wounded 10,000 or 20,000 people, and many military supplies were abandoned. Another important military situation is that Zheng Chongjian and Ding Qirui respectively reported the defeat of the Shangluoshan attack. However, because the official army did not lose a general in Shangluo Mountain, and Li Zicheng's righteous army was unable to break through for a while, the actual situation of the defeat was greatly concealed. The rest of the MI reports were about the Grey Eye. The activities of Zuo Jin Wang and Lao Huihui in western Anhui, eastern Hubei and southern Henan, as well as the "Tukou swarming" in eastern Henan, northern Anhui and Shandong, attacked cities and destroyed villages everywhere. Wang Dehua did not dare to go to Xiyuan immediately, until he found out that the emperor and the concubines had finished lunch, so he only came to Yuxi Palace with Xiong Wencan's urgent music, and ordered Wang Chengen to put the rest of the urgent music and Tang Bao on the imperial case of Qianqing Palace.

The next play to be performed is also a small play in a new row, which tells the story of the officers and soldiers breaking Shengjing and capturing Huang Taiji. Chongzhen was happy, and when he turned around, he saw Wang Dehua standing behind him with an uneasy expression, and couldn't help but be surprised, and hurriedly asked, "What is the emergency military situation?" Wang Dehua walked up to him, bowed, and presented his folded hands. Chongzhen took a look at it, his face turned pale, and he got up and walked inside. Zhou Hou was shocked, and hurriedly left his seat with Concubine Tian and Concubine Yuan, and followed in.

The play stopped. Everyone looked at each other. There was a deathly silence in the Yuzhao Palace. After a while, from the inner hall of Yuxi Palace, a message from Chongzhen came out: immediately drive back to the palace.

On the way back to the palace, Chongzhen seriously considered the issue of sending Yang Sichang to Huguang to supervise the teacher, but he still couldn't decide. Playing chess with Tian and Yuan Erfei on the Chengyuan Pavilion, and watching the golden scene of capturing Zhang Xianzhong alive in Yuxi Palace, although these pleasant things have only passed for a short time, they seem to have been separated for a long time; It was as if I had two bizarre short dreams, and now I woke up from them. He was determined to change the current military situation in Huguang and Shaanxi, to eliminate Zhang Xianzhong at the junction of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Chu, and to eliminate Li Zicheng in the Shangluo Mountains. However, he believed that in order to change the unfavorable military situation, it was necessary to release Yang Sichang from Beijing and hand over to him the heavy burden of commanding the military of the provinces to "suppress thieves."

On the second day after returning from Xiyuan, Chongzhen issued an order to reduce Xiong Wencan, listen to the inquiry, demote the chief soldier Zuo Liangyu by three levels, and reduce the other chief soldier Zhang Renxue to the people. That afternoon, he summoned Yang Sichang in the Wenhua Hall to discuss the plan.