Shocked by the bad news, Zhu Cijiong instantly felt that the whole person was not good, he barely kept smiling, looking at the exclaimed expressions of the officials, but he was thinking in his mind: "What is the problem, Daming is very good now, there is no sign of decay!" ”

The internal causes of the decline of the Ming Dynasty are not yet clear, but the external causes are very clear, nothing more than the Later Jin invasion in the northeast and the peasant uprising in the northwest.

However, in the northeast, Huang Taiji was newly defeated, and he was temporarily unable to organize a large-scale attack, and it was impossible for the Ningjin defense line to be broken in the near future.

In the northwest, Shaanxi and Sichuan have indeed had a great drought this year, but the disaster relief silver has already been allocated, and now the treasury is quite abundant, and Zhu Cijiong has allocated five million taels of silver for disaster relief at one time, which should be enough.

He really couldn't think of any problems, so he had to let go of his worries, accompanied Sun Chengzong and them to tour around, and then called Xu Guangqi and other cronies to a study of the Ministry of Industry's Camp and Qing Officials Division, drew the drawings of the flintlock pistol one by one, and explained to them in detail the function of each part.

Other people may not be able to understand the principle of the flintlock pistol for a while, but Bi Maokang understands it at a glance, and he will learn it as soon as he learns it, he has already begun to develop the flintlock pistol, but he has been suffering from no reference, so the entry is not very fast, and now there are ready-made drawings in front of him, and he naturally quickly grasped the essence of it.

After the flintlock pistol explained that the inspection was successfully over, it was waiting for Bi Maokang and them to make samples to test. Zhu Cijiong hurriedly met with the officials at all levels of the Camp Qing Division, and after a few words of encouragement, he drove back to the palace.

He wants to go back to the palace as soon as possible to look through the recent twists and turns, to see if there are any mistakes, only to find out the problem, can be solved, this does not know what the problem is, and then want to solve it is a mouse and turtle have nowhere to put their mouths.

Actually, he was completely wrong, he couldn't see anything wrong with the twists, many things were not as simple as he imagined, Daming was far less calm than he seemed to be, many problems were on the verge of eruption, and decay was only a matter of time.

............

At noon on July 25 in the first year of Chongzheng, Ningyuanwei, the capital of Liaodong.

The weather was sunny and sunny on this day, which was a rare good day. It stands to reason that the weather is so good, these border soldiers should be in a happy mood, but everyone is sad and can't hold back a trace of energy. It's not that Houjin is guilty, but that there is no pay, and there is no pay for four months!

Speaking of this salary, we have to say that the income of the border army, in fact, the treatment of the border army in the Ming Dynasty is still good, there are grain and grass, silver, clothing, and rewards for winning battles, and compensation for losses, and there are more settlement expenses for those who die.

After all, these soldiers are basically the main laborers of a big family, and you send people over to work hard to protect the family and defend the country, it is not enough for him to feed alone, he still has a large family to support. Many people who didn't know the situation at that time said that the border soldiers of the Ningjin defense line had nothing to eat, and they couldn't stand it when they were hungry! It's all, you find someone who will be hungry for a few months and then try to fight someone, let alone wielding a weapon, it's a question of whether you can crawl or not.

This is not paid silver, the soldiers in other places are a little better, but the soldiers in Sichuan and Shaanxi are a little unbearable, because of the drought in Sichuan and Shaanxi for many years, there is no harvest, most of the families of Sichuan soldiers and Shaanxi soldiers are waiting for this money to live, and if they don't pay again, they will really starve to death.

On this day, Yang Zhengchao, a Sichuan veteran in Ningyuan's army, happened to receive a message from his family, the message was very simple, if he didn't send money, all five members of his family would starve to death! He naturally couldn't sit still when he heard the letter, what should he do?

He thought about it for a long time, but he really couldn't think of a way, so he could only find Zhang Sishun, a fellow villager in the same village, this Zhang Sishun is a team leader, and he is a better fellow villager, and everyone goes to him if they have something.

When he came to Zhang Sishun's camp, Zhang Sishun happened to be resting, Yang Zhengchao walked over and asked eagerly: "Lao Zhang, do you have any money, lend a few to your brothers, the family really can't survive." ”

When Zhang Sishun heard this, he said with a sad face: "Alas, where did I get the money, my family came to me last month, and the rice has long been eaten, and I have been digging wild vegetables for a few months." ”

When Yang Zhengchao heard this, he said angrily: "When will this salary be paid, it's been four months, and there is not even a word, so don't let people live?" ”

Zhang Sishun was also angry, and vented: "Yes, we are working hard here for Daming, and the family can't even eat and don't pay them, and these officials are too bad things." Why don't we organize big guys to surround the governor's yamen to ask for an explanation? ”

Yang Zhengchao also let go, and he responded loudly: "Okay, I'll call someone." ”

Zhang Sishun grabbed him and said angrily: "If you want to go, go together, and let you do it alone!" ”

So the two of them each ran to the familiar villagers to agitate, this agitation is terrible, who is not short of money, not only Sichuan soldiers and Shaanxi soldiers, Ning Yuanwei's fourteen battalions, tens of thousands of people were all agitated, everyone ran out of the barracks, and noisily followed Yang Zhengchao and Zhang Sishun to gather in the governor's yamen in Ningyuan City.

As soon as there are many people, they are easy to mess, tens of thousands of people came to the governor's yamen in a mess, and I don't know which bastard was the first to rush in, and everyone didn't pay attention to the rules, so they rushed in directly.

Governor Bi Zisu was convening a meeting of officials, but before he could figure out what was going on, he was surrounded by a swarm of rebels, and everyone had only one question: "Lord Governor, when will you pay the money, if you don't pay your family, you won't be able to live." ”

Bi Zisu was anxious when he saw this situation, his sleeves were clear, where did he get the silver, and he could only patiently explain: "I don't have any money, I'm asking the court for it, and I'll send it to you as soon as I arrive." ”

As soon as these rebellious soldiers heard that they had no money, they were anxious, and they beat Bi Zisu when they caught him, and the clever officials next to him ran away as soon as they saw that the situation was not right, and the chief military officer Zhu Mei, the general judge Zhang Shirong and the push officer Su Hanchun were still a little conscientious, and they actually ran up to dissuade them. These rebels are already red-eyed, no matter who you are, dare to come up and persuade you to fight, and even beat you together.

After being beaten for a long time, Bi Zisu was about to be beaten to death, still muttering that he had no money, no money. It seems that he really has no money, these rebels can't do it for a while, and they don't know who has a bad idea, so they simply tie them all to the bell and drum tower to show the public, and let his relatives and friends use the money to ransom people.

As a result, a mutiny evolved into a kidnapping, the governor Bi Zisu, the chief military officer Zhu Mei, the general judge Zhang Shirong and the magistrate Su Hanchun were all tied to the bell and drum tower, and the rebels surrounded the bell and drum tower, threatening not to let people go if they didn't take the money.

It stands to reason that even if their relatives and friends have money, they don't dare to ransom people, because there are tens of thousands of people here, and if you have money, you can have hundreds of thousands of taels, and if you don't have hundreds of thousands of taels, you can't make up for this arrears.

But there is really someone who is not afraid of death, this person is Guo Guang, the deputy envoy of the military garrison, he scraped together 20,000 taels of silver, and came to ransom people.

The rebels naturally quit, this Ning Yuanwei has fifty or sixty thousand people, how can twenty thousand taels be enough. Guo Guangyi gritted his teeth and simply went to the merchants in the county town and borrowed them door to door. If they don't borrow it, they threatened: "You can see, there are rebels everywhere, if you don't borrow it, they will always gather in the city, and if you start to rob it, you won't be able to collect the IOU." ”

In this way, he borrowed 50,000 taels of silver to redeem the people, but the rebels said: "This matter is not over, if you don't pay them all the money, they will continue to make trouble." ”

Governor Bi Zisu thought that the supervision was unfavorable, and hurriedly wrote a note, explaining Ning Yuan's situation, and then took advantage of the unpreparedness of others to hang himself!

This is the famous Ningyuan Mutiny in history, Emperor Chongzhen sent Yuan Chonghuan to solve the mutiny, and who would Emperor Chongzheng send to solve this problem?