Chapter 364: The Emperor's Gift (1)

Zhu Pingjin hid in a small city in the southwest and calculated Emperor Chongzhen. And thousands of miles away, Emperor Chongzhen and his courtiers were also calculating Zhu Pingjian.

On the first day of the first month of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Jingshi ushered in a rare bright and brilliant morning.

Yesterday's heavy snowfall piled up several feet of snow in the streets and alleys of Jingshi, and also hid countless frozen corpses. However, in the center of the Beijing Division, on the Huangji Hall Square wrapped in the majestic palace of the Forbidden City, there are no white traces on the ground. Thousands of low-status eunuchs and palace maids, braved the cold and stayed up all night to clean the snow, just for the upcoming New Year's Day ceremony on the first day of the first lunar month, which can bring some festive and auspicious atmosphere to the emperor and civil and military officials who participated in the ceremony.

Facing the rising sun in the east, rushed to the Huangji Palace Square Station early to line up the civil and military officials, wearing a beam crown, wearing court clothes, holding a wat board, under the leadership of the prince and the prince, the official department, the scholar of the Zhongji Palace, and the first auxiliary minister of the cabinet, Zhou Yanru, has finished the procession, just waiting for the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen to take the crown prince Zhu Cihong (LANG) and the princes to appear.

As the first assistant of Congyipin (Note 1), Zhou Yanru's position is outside the Imperial Palace, above the platform. As for the other civil officials, they are to his left and right and below him. The ranks of hereditary lords and military attaches are on the right side of the ranks of civil officials.

Zhou Yanru, the word jade rope, is a native of Yixing on the west bank of Taihu Lake.

In the forty-first year of Wanli, Zhou Yanru, who was only 20 years old, participated in the examination and was the first in high school. After a month, he participated in the palace examination, won the first place and became the star of the opera in the opera. He wore red and hung colors, played horses on the street, drank and feasted on Qionglin, and became famous in one fell swoop.

After that, Zhou Yanru, who was a young man, entered the Hanlin Academy for revision, moved to the right Zhongyun, and was in charge of the Economic Bureau. Soon he was promoted to Shao Zhan Shi and took charge of Nanjing Hanlin Academy.

Chongzhen ascended the throne, and Zhou Yanru was transferred back to Beijing to serve as the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites. Soon after, Zhou Yanru conspired with Wen Tiren to overturn the conclusion of the court induction of the cabinet personnel, and got rid of Donglin boss Qian Qianyi and others. In March of the second year of Chongzhen, the emperor worshiped Zhou Yanru as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of the East Pavilion University, participated in the pre-aircraft service, and officially entered the cabinet. In February of the third year of Chongzhen, the emperor added Zhou Yanru to the prince Taibao and changed the scholar of Wenyuange. In September, Zhou Yanru was the first assistant.

This year, Zhou Yanru, who was a supreme minister, was only thirty-seven years old.

After all, Zhou Yanru was born in Donglin. He made money and humble gains, but it was only for personal gain. The starting point of his behavior is completely different from Wen Tiren of "Su Qiu" Donglin. Soon, Zhou Yanru passed Chongzhen's four-year examination and reconciled with the Donglin Party as before. Zhang Pu, the party chairman of the Restoration Society, became a Shu Jishi, and Wu Weiye, a cadre, was a high school leader. Of course, while mending the relationship with Donglin Fushe, Zhou Yanru did not forget to pick up some private goods - his brother-in-law Chen Yutai won the first place in the court.

Just when Zhou Yanru was lying leisurely in the protective net woven for him by the party of the Donglin Restoration Society, he realized what it means to be "sinister officialdom and ups and downs in the sea".

Zhou Yanru didn't take a few steps on the road to prime minister for the first time, and was attacked and stepped down by his former accomplice Wen Tiren. The deep-seated reason behind it is precisely because the emperor discovered that he had a close relationship with the Donglin Restoration Society.

Since then, Zhang Zhifa and Xue Guoguan have become prime ministers one after another, and the country's situation has become more and more depressed. At this time, Zhou Yanru, who had been dormant in his hometown for 12 years, received the great assistance of his student leaders Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi, and finally got the emperor's re-appreciation, and went to Beijing in September last year to serve as the first assistant.

However, there are those who can share in the suffering, but not in the joys. The sudden change in Zhou Yanru's identity has turned his help yesterday into today's burden.

Zhang Pu pinched Zhou Yanru's handle, and held his own merits, interfering in his political affairs. Especially in the personnel layout, Zhang Pu blindly pressed him.

Before Zhou Yanru left for his post, Zhang Pu gave him two lists, one for appointment and one for killing, which became a lingering heart disease for him. Fortunately, Zhang Pu had a short life, and soon after he took office last year, he died in his hometown.

Wu Changshi, the head of the Ministry of Rites, has now become his right-hand man, and Wu Changshi can find out the news from the inner court, so that he can accurately kick the holy will at any time, so that his grace is growing.

In just a few months after being reactivated by the emperor, Zhou Yanru successively introduced several new policies of the Zhou family, including the appointment of Donglin, the elimination of maladministration, the return of old ministers, and posthumous gifts to deceased ministers

The public opinion of Shilin has greatly increased his prestige in the government and the opposition.

These officials and gentry were not blind or foolish. They praised Zhou Yanru because it was nothing more than a political deal that everyone knew it was, and because they had to give a proper political return.

The prestige of the DPRK and China is just an unattainable mirage. The Beijing officials are all political veterans, and as long as the saints are no longer there, those people will immediately turn their faces. Zhou Yanru knew that without internal and external military victories, these short-term prestige would still not be able to maintain his position. And in order to achieve a military victory, he must start from the economic roots of the Ming Dynasty and solve the problem of eating the common people.

The people have no food to eat, either starve to death or rebel, how can there be any other way?

On the second day of the first lunar month of last month, Zhou Yanru took advantage of the opportunity of the ticket to approve the use of wheat to replace the rice transported to Beijing in Qianshan, Suqian, Taihu, Huai'an, Tongcheng, Wangjiang and other disaster-stricken counties under the jurisdiction of Anqing Prefecture in Nanzhili, with a substitution ratio of 60%. Soon, Huai'an and Yangzhou were also allowed to follow the story of Anqing Mansion.

It's just that in the situation of losing and retreating in the battlefields of Liaodong and the Central Plains, how much can Zhou Yanru do?

The finances of the imperial court are like a bottomless pit of dissatisfaction, do you want him to fill in his private wealth? Even if he really fills it in with his heart, he may not have any good results.

The emperor will be happy for a while, but the powerful officials and gentry who are forced to follow the trend and donate silver will hate him for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, the so-called good governance that Zhou Yanru can implement is like a fig leaf covered with two fingers wide, which can only ensure that it is not exposed, and other things that should be exposed are still exposed.

Everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty is terminally ill, and no matter how grand today's ceremony is, it is just a return to the light of the Ming Dynasty before its death.

Except, of course, the emperor.

The emperor thought that he was autocratic, killed Xue Guoguan, enabled Zhou Yanru, and revitalized the country, and was overjoyed. Zhou Yanru heard the exact news from Wu Changshi from the palace that the emperor would make a positive political statement to him at today's Zhengdan ceremony.

The flags were unfurled, the Shao music was bursting, and the dragon chariot that the emperor rode finally arrived. As the ceremonial officials raised their pitched voices, the officials bowed northward to show their submission to the Son of Heaven. But only they know how many personal calculations are mixed in this submission.

After the worship was completed, the civil and military officials finally stood up from the cold and biting gold bricks, and everyone was amnesty.

Zhou Yanru is young and strong, can climb up, stand firmly, his eyes are not dizzy, and his head is not dizzy, unlike the appearance of other ministers who are old. He bowed slightly, using the wat board as a cover, and his eyes quietly glanced into the hall.

The emperor on the throne took off his shabby regular clothes today and changed into a formal crown robe, and finally regained the luxury and dignity of the great emperor. The crown prince, Zhu Cihong, who was not yet fourteen years old, stood solemnly by his father's throne, holding the armrest with one hand, and looked curiously at the group of ministers outside. The crown prince was born after Zhou, and he was still short, and he was not as tall as his father's shoulders when he stood.

I don't know if this son is comparable to the little boy in Shu?

Zhou Yanru glanced at the crown prince, but thought in his heart: "If the emperor's edict is right today, and he is talking about the little boy in Shu, do you want to take out the countermeasures discussed a few days ago?" ”

……

Jingshi has always been the center of the whirlpool of political rumors. The wind and grass in the officialdom all over the country will converge, amplify and deform in the land of right and wrong in Beijing.

The king of Shu bizarrely abandoned the country in the middle of last year, and once set off a wave of conspiracy theories in the Qinglou, a court wine shop in Beijing. Whether it was a minister or a prostitute, they all had a heated discussion about the Shu clan. For the first time, the daimyo of Zhu Pingjian, the son of Shu, entered the sight of the circle of right and wrong in Beijing.

Fortunately, the truth of the incident was soon revealed, which made many people who were full of food all day long but had nothing to do lose their interest in Shudi. They refocused their attention on the increasingly difficult Rogues and Tartars, who lived up to their expectations and quickly satisfied their thirst for knowledge:

First of all, Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue, the two governors of Wenchen, were dumped by He Renlong and other generals who led the troops, Fu Zonglong lost his life as if he were dead, and Yang Wenyue fled in a hurry and picked up his life.

Hong Chengchou was surrounded by Songshan, cut off the news, his death is uncertain, and Wang Pu, the first general soldier of Datong, outran the Tartar pursuers, but he still couldn't run away from the claws of death.

It's just that Shudi is really lively, although it is remote, there are still all kinds of big news. The most shocking news in the first two months was that a rebel army called the "Caravan Guard" in Shu defeated the thieves with thousands of soldiers on an unknown hill in northern Sichuan, killing more than 10,000 enemies. The Jingguan built by the head of the thief is like a hill.

Later, the handsomeness and gold of the prince of Shu, and the fierceness and jealousy of his fiancée, gradually became one of the themes of the Jingshi circle of right and wrong to discuss Shu.

It is said that this Shu Shizi was originally the reincarnation of a boy who scattered wealth, and wherever he walked his feet, gold ingots would grow on the ground. The king of Shu was buried, and the emperor did not give a penny to the Shu domain, but asked him to pay for it himself, which is proof.

It's a pity that this little prince is really miserable, and the countless gold ingots he planted were all taken away by a medical woman. This doctor woman is not only extremely ugly, but also ruthless. I don't know what kind of psychedelic drugs I gave the little prince, but the little prince actually fell in love with her. It was not enough for her to take away the gold and silver mountains of the Shu Palace, and she put a tight spell on the little prince. As soon as he glanced at the other women, his head would split.

Zhou Yanru, who was the first assistant, only laughed at these street discussions, but he did not lose his due vigilance against the Shu prince named Zhu Pingjin.

There were many rebel vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty, some failed and some successful. Today's son is the descendant of the successful rebellion of the vassal kings.

A few months ago, Zhou Yanru received a private letter from Zhang Jimeng. The letter said that the Shu Wangfu accepted contributions, organized and trained private soldiers, colluded with the feudal lords, and communicated with the Tusi.

Zhou Yanru was also taken aback at first glance. Just halfway through it, he burst out laughing.

The emotional Zhang Jimeng died of his father, and the resentment in his heart was really deep! Liao Daheng couldn't move, so he came to the Shu Palace.

Accept contributions, and the vassal king in the world does not accept contributions? Even if he Zhou Yanru himself, he also received a lot of donations in his hometown in Yixing.

Traffic toast is nothing more than smuggling tea horses. Several vassal kings on the border plug: King Mu of Kunming, King Jingjiang of Guilin, King Qin of Xi'an, King Dai of Datong, King Su of Lanzhou, King Qing of Ningxia, King Han of Pingliang, which one did not smuggle tea horses? The powerful people in the south of the Yangtze River, and those who made their fortunes by private maritime traders, abound.

Collusion, collusion what? How to collude? There is no evidence, it's all hearsay.

Liao Daheng and other provincial government officials seized the ironclad evidence that Chen Shiqi and Fu Chongqi colluded with the traitors. The emperor under the anger couldn't wait for the prisoners, so he issued an edict to Sichuan to behead Chen Shiqi and Fu Chongqi on the spot, and there was no need to send them to Beijing. The emperor was also very pleased that Liu Zhibo copied 150,000 taels of silver from Fu Chongqi's house, and asked the cabinet to praise Liao Daheng and Liu Zhibo. Now Liao Daheng is taking advantage of the Shengjia and Erqi case to chase and beat the Donglin Party in Sichuan, and under the pretext of the difficult military situation in Sichuan, he drove Zhang Jimeng away through impeachment, saying that he, as a land defender, actually lost one state and two counties in Bazhou to the local rioters.

If the two sides tear up in the court, if you don't say anything, you know, it will be Zhang Jimeng who will suffer. Therefore, in order to save Zhang Jimeng, Zhou Yanru could only write to him to stop and let him "endure for the country".

Note 1: The rank of the auxiliary ministers of the Ming Dynasty was determined according to their titles and officials, and was not fixed. Zhou Yanru is the prince and the prince, so the grade is from the first grade.

Note 2: There are errors in some historical records. Suqian County should be Susong County; Huai'an County should be Huaining County, that is, Anqing Mansion Yiguo.