On the ninth day of the first month of March, Li Zhi sat in the Qianqing Palace, facing Zhu Youzhen, the son of heaven, who was sitting behind the bookcase.

It is a great honor for ordinary ministers to be given a seat in the Qianqing Palace and sit and talk freely with the Son of Heaven about national policies. Ordinary ministers sit in such chairs, and they sit on the chair with half of their buttocks, leaning forward, with a respectful expression on their faces.

However, for a prince like Li Zhi, the dignified King Qi naturally does not need to put on such a humble posture.

The chair that Li Zhi sat on was a rosewood chair with a backrest, and it was very comfortable to sit on. Li Zhi sat on such a chair and discussed things with the Son of Heaven, not like a respectful listen, but more like discussing important matters together.

Zhu Youzhen took out a letter from the bookcase, looked at it, and handed it to Li Zhidao: "King Qi take a look at this letter." ”

Li Zhi opened the recital.

The chapter was written by Zhang Guanghang, a scholar of Dongge University, and the thing he played was to ask the Son of Heaven to arrest Jia Sanwei, the squire of the Ministry of War, Dong Jiuqi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Zhao Guangqing, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, and Wang Heze, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple. The three divisions were asked to carefully examine whether these seven people communicated with the traitors Shi Kefa and Wu Sangui.

Li Zhi saw the list of these seven people and knew that these were the seven civilian officials who jumped out when the Jiangbei Army was besieging the city some time ago. At that time, the city of Beijing was about to be breached, and the civil officials were extremely arrogant. Among the arrogant civil officials, these seven are the most outstanding.

That Wang Heze even called on the ministers in the court to kill Zhang Guanghang at that time. If it weren't for Zhu Youzhen's protection of Dongchang, Zhang Guanghang would have died a long time ago.

Now that the Jiangbei Army has failed, Zhang Guanghang must of course fight back against these seven people. Not only Zhang Guanghang wants to fight back, but the Son of Heaven also has to fight back.

But before fighting back, you can't help but consult Li Zhi's opinion.

Now there are actually three forces in the government and the opposition, the unarmed civil officials and gentry still control Jiangnan, and the Son of Heaven who only has 20,000 new troops is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Zhi, who has hundreds of thousands of strong troops and 60,000 tiger army, controls one town and nine provinces.

The Son of Heaven appointing these nine civil officials is tantamount to punishing the betrayal of civil officials and gentry, and it is tantamount to attacking the gentry who rebel collectively. Without Li Zhi's support, he would inevitably be counterattacked by the gentry.

The gentry's Jiangbei army was destroyed, but the new army of the Son of Heaven was also destroyed. If Li Zhi did not support the Son of Heaven, the gentry would have enough time to pull out another Jiangbei army in Jiangnan.

At this time, the Son of Heaven urgently needed Li Zhi's support.

So the Son of Heaven invited Li Zhi to the Qianqing Palace and showed Li Zhi this letter. Zhu Youzhen needs Li Zhi's statement.

But seeing the actions of the Son of Heaven and pondering the thoughts of the Son of Heaven, Li Zhi was a little unhappy.

After looking at the recital for a while, Li Zhi asked, "The Holy Lord showed this recital to the ministers, did he suspect that the ministers and the civil officials were on good terms?" ”

Hearing Li Zhi's words, Zhu Youzhen was not embarrassed.

Indeed, there have been too many rumors inside and outside the palace recently, which made Zhu Youzhen a little suspicious of Li Zhi's position.

Recently, it was rumored in the palace that Li Zhi agreed to Chen Wenyue's banquet and wanted to meet the civil officials of the Chen family conference and repair the relationship with the civil officials.

Now Li Zhi can be said to be above 10,000 people under one person, and his power has become overwhelming. And Li Zhi sent a signal at this time to make friends with the civilian officials who have always been hostile, what does this mean?

Even if the Son of Heaven believed that Li Zhi was a loyal minister, he could not help but suspect that Li Zhi befriended civil officials in order to control the imperial court.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen is not sure whether he and Zhang Guanghang's pursuit of the behavior of these seven people can be supported by Li Zhi. If Li Zhi is really ready to use the military power in his hands to be a powerful minister and prepare to make good friends with civilian officials, then Li Zhi will not support himself.

In that case, if Zhu Youzhen started a war against the civilian officials, he would fall under siege by officials and gentry from the north and south of the river.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen urgently needs Li Zhi's statement.

Li Zhi put Zhang Guanghang's recitals together and said slowly: "The minister thinks that such an operation is very inappropriate. ”

Hearing Li Zhi's words, Zhu Youzhen's eyes widened, and he couldn't react for a long time.

His face turned white, and his eyes already showed helpless and depressed emotions.

Wang Chengen, who was standing on the side, heard Li Zhi's words, and his face was flushed with excitement all of a sudden. He pointed at Li Zhi sharply! shouted loudly: "Li Zhi, do you really want to control the court, do you want to be Cao Apu and He Liuhun?" ”

Zhu Youzhen heard Wang Chengen's scolding, his face changed, and he shouted angrily: "Shut up!" Wang Chengen, I am discussing with King Qi, when will it be your turn to interject? ”

Wang Chengen glared angrily, but instead of looking at the Son of Heaven, he glared at Li Zhi angrily, as if his thin body was full of strength. He took a step forward and said to Li Zhi: "Li Zhi, you heard clearly, if you want to be Cao Apu, I, Wang Chengen, will be the first to rush up and stab you to death!" ”

When Zhu Youzhen heard this, he glanced at Li Zhi in a panic, slammed his hand on the bookcase, and shouted in a loud voice: "Presumptuous! ”

Wang Chengen put away his hideous face at this time, and knelt on the ground with a plop, prostrate and couldn't stand up.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Chengen on the ground, his eyes rolled, and he didn't speak for a long time.

Zhu Youzhen was worried about Wang Chengen's safety.

Wang Chengen said such cruel words, if Li Zhi really wanted to be a powerful minister and control the dynasty, he would never let Wang Chengen go. Wang Chengen is a close confidant brought out by Zhu Youzhen from the palace of King Xin, how can Zhu Youzhen watch him say such suicidal words?

However, Wang Chengen's words have been spoken, and water has been spilled.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Chengen on the ground, closed his eyes, and sighed helplessly.

Opening his eyes, Zhu Youzhen looked at Li Zhi and asked, "What does King Qi think should be done with these few ministers who are waving their fists in the court?" ”

Zhu Youzhen heard Li Zhi say that "such an operation is very inappropriate", and thought that Li Zhi was undoubtedly going to marry a good civil official. At this time, he no longer expected Li Zhi to kill these seven people, so he no longer said that the seven people threatened him, but just said lightly that the seven people wanted to beat Zhang Guanghang.

No matter how bad Li Zhi is, he is better than Shi Kefa of the Jiangbei Army, right? He has gotten along very well with Li Zhijunchen over the years, and Li Zhi must at least save some face for himself, the son of heaven? At the very least, we have to demote these seven people who are rebellious, right?

Li Zhi looked at Wang Chengen, who was prostrate on the ground, and said, "The saint has misunderstood the minister. ”

"The minister's meaning is not not to deal with these seven people, but to deal with them, it shouldn't just be these seven people!"

"The minister meant that he should not only kill these seven people. In Yichen's view, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, and the 1,161 civil and military generals in the capital who secretly communicated with the Jiangbei Army Shi Kefa can all be killed. ”

Hearing Li Zhi's words, Wang Chengen on the ground raised his head abruptly and stared at Li Zhi with wide eyes.

Zhu Youzhen seemed to hear a thunderclap, and was stunned. Unable to react at once, he dropped the book-pressing stone in his hand on the table with a clatter.

His body froze there, staring at Li Zhi in a daze, unable to react for a long time.

"A thousand... Thousand? … To kill 1,161 officials? ”