The news of the victory reached the ears of Emperor Chongzhen of Jingshi, and the young impetuous emperor was overjoyed.

You must know that since the White Lotus Sect uprising, it has successively plundered the two big cities of Nanjing and Quanzhou.

Here, one is the vice capital of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is a well-known harbor city.

In modern terms, both of these cities were large cities with great domestic and international influence, but they both fell under the attack of the White Lotus Sect. This made Emperor Chongzhen, as the supreme ruler of the Ming Dynasty, lose face.

If it weren't for the fact that the northern part of the Ming Dynasty is now facing the double pressure of the Manchurian Tartars and the peasant uprising, the stability of the south must be ensured, otherwise Chongzhen, the son of heaven who is extremely face-heavy, would have already wielded a butcher's knife and purged these cowardly officials in Jiangnan.

And this battle report from Ji Qingwen was like a long drought, which re-moistened Emperor Chongzhen's depressed heart, which had already cracked, and made Emperor Chongzhen extremely excited.

I only heard this emperor, who still had a hint of childishness on his face, said in a voice full of joy, in front of the three ministers of the cabinet, Zhou Yanru, Wen Tiren, and Xu Guangqi: "Ji Qingwen, this dog is really effective, and the White Lotus Sect is just a rabble, but it can run rampant in Jiangnan and be unscrupulous. Ji Qingwen's battle finally suppressed the arrogance of the White Lotus Sect Xu Hongru. In this way, I will make an order to knight Ji Qingwen, as for what title? What kind of title to give, the three Aiqing can discuss it first. ”

Among the three cabinet ministers, Xu Guangqi has the best relationship with Ji Qingwen, and when he heard that the emperor was going to knight him, Ji Qingwen was naturally happy from the bottom of his heart. However, because of this relationship, Xu Guangqi could not express his opinion first at this time, but waited and waited for the statements of the other two cabinet ministers.

Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Wen Tiren, the second assistant, have all received the benefits of Ji Qingwen, and they are not considered to be the hardcore members of the Donglin Party who have been married to Ji Qingwen, so there is no deep hatred between them and Ji Qingwen.

However, the word "jealousy" is more unrelenting than the word "hatred".

Especially the second assistant of the cabinet, Wen Tiren, he has been young, he has been in the officialdom for twenty or thirty years, although he has also become the second in command of the cabinet, but there is still a squatting on his head Zhou Yanru, the first assistant who is ten years younger than him.

That's it, it's just that Ji Qingwen, who doesn't even have a background, is only twenty-three or four years old, and he is about to be knighted!

This is something that Wen Tiren can't accept no matter what, so he opened his mouth and said: "Holy Lord, although Ji Qingwen has a lot of credit, he still relies on the Holy Hongfu. He had only defeated more than 2,000 White Lotus Cultists, and his merits were not very great, and it seemed that he was not even able to be knighted......"

In the cabinet, if Wen Tiren agrees, Zhou Yanru needs to oppose it as usual.

Correspondingly, Wen Tiren objected, and Zhou Yanru naturally wanted to agree.

I only heard Zhou Dashoufu say with a smile: "Although Lord Wen's words have some truth, he may not be able to understand the emperor's painstaking efforts. Since last year's battle in Beijing, our dynasty's martial arts skills have not flourished, and the morale of the generals has been low, and we are looking for an opportunity to inspire the hearts of the people inside and outside. The reason why the emperor wants to reward Lord Ji Qingwen is because of this intention. ”

These words really spoke to Emperor Chongzhen's heart, which made the young Supreme Long Yan happy, and said: "That's right, that's the truth. In fact, when he fought with the Manchurian Emperor Taiji last year, Ji Qingwen's dog only defeated the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners one-on-one a few times, which was enough to be knighted. But it was a big defeat at that time, but because of this, the officers were rewarded, and some people will inevitably say that the rewards and punishments are unknown. Now the two merits add up, which is enough to give Ji Qingwen a knighthood, and it can be regarded as an explanation to the people of the world. ”

Wen Tiren listened to Emperor Chongzhen's unreserved statement, and then realized that he had undoubtedly said the wrong thing.

So Wen Tiren rolled his eyes, decided to retreat as advance, and took the initiative to admit his mistake: "The emperor's teachings made the ministers suddenly open, and the title of Lord Ji should be sealed, should be sealed, and should be sealed, but it is not good to seal it at this time." ”

Emperor Chongzhen looked sideways and said, "Oh? What do you mean by that? ”

Wen Tiren thought about it for a while and said: "What the minister thinks about is that things on the battlefield are changing rapidly, and the emperor's current title of Lord Ji can certainly boost the morale of the three armies. But if Lord Ji is slacking off and falls short, won't it seem that the saint has no knowledge of people? ”

Wen Tiren took a great risk when he said these words.

However, his almost gambling stance eventually succeeded.

Emperor Chongzhen listened to Wen Tiren's advice, his face immediately calmed down, and he turned his head and asked Xu Guangqi: "Elder Xu Ge, I know that you have the best relationship with Ji Qingwen, and I know him best. You say, "Should I reward him with this title?" ”

As far as Xu Guangqi is concerned, he naturally hopes that Ji Qingwen can get this rare title, but he is also afraid that Ji Qingwen will be held too high by Emperor Chongzhen, so that he will follow in the footsteps of Yuan Chonghuan.

Therefore, Xu Guangqi pondered and said: "Your Majesty, the old minister still agrees with Lord Wen Tiren's point of view, the title should be sealed, but he is not in a hurry. When this rebellion of the White Lotus Sect is completely subsided, and the generals will be rewarded for their meritorious deeds, it will not be too late to knight him again. ”

As soon as Wen Tiren heard that Xu Guangqi was on his side, he echoed himself: "Lord Xu, this is the words of Lao Cheng to seek the country, and I hope that the saint will accept it." ”

There are a total of three ministers in the cabinet, and two of them are standing opposite him, and Emperor Chongzhen's heart is also a little shaken, which makes Zhou Yanru can no longer adhere to his own views, and can only be like a "meat selling" in the stock market, giving up his position first and stopping losses in time.

I only heard him laugh dryly twice, put on a posture of the head of the cabinet of the leader of a hundred officials, and said: "The words of Lord Xu and Lord Wen are reasonable. After thinking about it again and again, he still felt that Lord Ji's merits were worthy of the reward of a knighthood, but it was also the best of both worlds to be rewarded for the time being. Please also ask the Holy One to be arbitrary and dictatorial. ”

Zhou Yanru's words are equivalent to saying that the result of the discussion between the other two is his own opinion, which can be described as extremely spicy.

But Emperor Chongzhen was young after all, and he couldn't hear the deep meaning of his words, so he only thought that he was the one who was in charge, so he said happily: "Okay, that's fine." However, Ji Qingwen's title of the dog, the three Aiqing can be drawn up, lest the rebellion of the White Lotus Sect be calmed down like a big water and sand, and the reward will be in a hurry. ”

As he spoke, Emperor Chongzhen laughed out loud proudly.

The matter of rewarding Ji Qingwen has come to an end for the time being, but the main force of the White Lotus Sect is still wreaking havoc in Zhejiang and Fujian, and the three backbones of the sect leader Xu Hongru, the holy woman Zhou Xiuying, and the senior brother Xu Daoqing are still on the run, and there is still a long distance and time before it is completely calm.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen took advantage of the great opportunity of interest, and after consulting Sun Chengzong in Shanhaiguan, he successively issued orders to send 800 miles of expedited horses to the front line of Zhejiang and Fujian through the Yamen of the Ministry of War.

Among the wills, Zhang Yandeng, the governor of Zhejiang, was required to deploy defenses in Wenzhou and Quzhou to strictly prevent the main force of the White Lotus Sect from entering Zhejiang.

The governor of Fujian, Zou Weilian, was asked to gather all the troops and horses of the Fujian Guard, Xiangyong, Tulian, Tusi, etc., and on the premise of finding out the specific movements of the Lotus Sect, he would not suppress them, but first avoid a decisive battle with the main force of the White Lotus Sect, but try to compress its roundabout space - Emperor Chongzhen and Sun Chengzong did not have much confidence in the battle of the Fujian army, and did not expect them to be able to eliminate the main force of the rebels in their own province.

He also issued an order to Liu Kongzhao, the commander of the Nanjing garrison, and Han Zanzhou, the eunuch of the Nanjing garrison, to hurry up the reorganization of the army and go south to help quell the rebellion.

In addition, Emperor Chongzhen issued a decree to go straight to Sichuan, asking the Sichuan Tusi to step up the dispatch of troops, and quickly arrive in Fujian on the fast boat set up in the Yangtze River by the governor of the river, Yamen, to assist the imperial court to quell the rebellion, and there will be a heavy reward after success.

As for Ji Qingwen, Emperor Chongzhen did not issue a clear decree as usual, but asked Sun Chengzong to write a letter, and he wrote another note in the letter, praising Ji Qingwen and encouraging him to be the main force to quell the rebellion of the White Lotus Sect, continue to intensify the battle, and not to live up to the holy hope.

In this way, although I still don't know where the main force of the White Lotus Sect is hidden in the mountains of the hills and mountains in the south of the Yangtze River, an overwhelming net has slowly unfolded.