"Your Majesty, how can the decree of the imperial court be changed overnight, and it is absolutely impossible to abolish the imperial princess." Although he was ashamed, Qian Qianyi still didn't wait or answer, "Your Majesty, Su Song's taxes account for a quarter of the world's taxes, and there must be no mistakes." At present, the top priority is to block the rebels and protect Jiangdong, so Weichen asked His Majesty to issue an order to quickly send Beijing battalion soldiers to the expedition, and order Wu Mengming, the governor of Jiangbei, to lead his troops to cross the river to quell the rebellion! ”

Chongzhen groaned slightly: "As you said last time, the rebels are likely to be behind the King of Qi, if the imperial court sends troops to quell the rebellion, will it cause the King of Qi to make trouble?" ”

Qian Qianyi said: "Your Majesty, it's just our guess that the king of Qi is behind the rebels, maybe Weichen guessed wrong." The imperial court has recalled the king of Qi to return to Beijing, if the rebels are really related to the king of Qi, how can they do such a rebellious thing again? ”

"Hehe, did you guess wrong?" Chongzhen smiled, looking at Qian Qianyi's forcible defense, he felt more and more interesting.

"Yes," Qian Qianyi could only stubbornly continue: "After all, the King of Qi has been away from Beijing for a year, and he has been fighting on the battlefield of Hemanchu, so he has no time to take care of the south. Therefore, maybe the matter of the rebels has little to do with King Qi, and it is indeed Ainengqi's own doing. ”

"Hehe" Chongzhen smiled and said: "Since this is the case, then I am not afraid of what happened to King Qi, Qian Ge Lao, then let's send troops to suppress it?" ”

Qian Qianyi nodded hurriedly: "Of course it must be suppressed." The rebels attacked the city and plundered the land and mutilated the people, which is really a great evil, how can it be tolerated? ”

Chongzhen nodded: "Jiangdong is an important place for the imperial court, and it is a stone's throw away from Nanjing, so naturally the rebels are not allowed to wreak havoc!" Qian Aiqing, tomorrow morning, the court will immediately discuss this matter and discuss how to deal with it! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Qian Qianyi respectfully agreed.

......

returned to the cabinet, Li Zhan was still waiting in Qian Qianyi's value room and never left.

"Mu Zhaigong, what does Your Majesty mean?" Seeing Qian Qianyi coming back, Li Zhan hurriedly asked.

Qian Qianyi sat on the chair and gasped heavily, "Your Majesty is wise, you have seen through everything, and your Majesty knows our plans." ”

Li Zhan said: "Then does Your Majesty agree to send troops to quell the rebellion?" ”

Qian Qianyi said: "Naturally agree, the entire country belongs to Your Majesty, the rebels have captured Fujian and Zhejiang, and now they are going to attack Jiangdong, how can Your Majesty not be in a hurry?" He has already decreed that tomorrow morning the court will discuss the matter of sending troops to quell the rebellion! ”

"Hey, you scared me."

"I'm just a little strange, in the past, when His Majesty heard this bad news, he would be furious and furious. Today's performance is very indifferent. Qian Qianyi recalled the meeting with Chongzhen and said slowly.

"Your Majesty has experienced too many such things in your life, maybe you are used to it." Li Zhan said casually, "Since Your Majesty agrees, we have to think about it." ”

......

The next morning, the ministers discussed the matter of counterinsurgency, and to Chongzhen's surprise, there was not much dispute, and a resolution to send troops to quell the rebellion was quickly formed.

After discussion, it was decided that Li Zhan, the imperial historian of the right capital, would be the superintendent and lead 100,000 soldiers from the Beijing battalion to quell the rebellion, and Wu Mengming's Jiangbei army would also obey his dispatch.

This time, the rebels brazenly attacked Suzhou, provoked almost all the officials of Donglindong, the ministers in the court hated the same enemy, the efficiency of the court discussion was extremely high, who led the troops, who was responsible for the logistics and grain and grass, and transferred the Beijing battalion, the resolutions were quickly decided, and Chongzhen wanted to delay and find that it was easy to find an excuse.

It was Chang Yanling, the governor of Beijing, who came forward and reported the current situation in Beijing, which slowed down the speed of sending troops slightly.

According to Chang Yanling's report, although the number of soldiers in the Beijing camp is large, most of them are recruits recruited in the past two years, among which the most elite army was brought to the battlefield by the King of Qi to fight the Manchus during the Northern Expedition, and the remaining troops are mostly old and weak soldiers, with poor training and lack of equipment, that is, even military salaries have been in arrears for several months.

"The soldiers of the Beijing camp have long been complaining, and they want to take them to the battlefield to quell the rebellion, but the general is really not sure." Chang Yanling finally said.

"The Beijing camp is so weak, Lord Chang, the imperial court has allocated more than two million taels of silver for military spending this year, which is almost more than the annual income of the national treasury, where did all this silver go? Didn't it go into some people's pockets? Yu Shi Qiao Kepin stood up and asked sharply.

Chang Yanling was suddenly furious: "Let go of your mother's shit!" Lao Tzu's dignified marquis, the world's guardian of the Ming Dynasty, how can he make such a shameless deed as embezzling military salaries! You bastard dare to slander Lao Tzu, see if Lao Tzu doesn't beat you! ”

Saying that, Chang Yanling raised his fists and was about to force Qiao Kepin.

In the Ming Dynasty, civil officials have always been self-respecting, and they regard military generals as dogs and horses, but they can also score against whom. A founding prince like Chang Yanling, and a governor of Beijing who has a heavy army in his hands, does not take Qiao Kepin's seven-grade imperial history seriously. And the civil officials in the court did not dare to provoke him easily.

Seeing that there was a great chaos in the court, Chongzhen on the throne watched with interest, and did not mean to stop it at all. It was Qian Qianyi who stepped forward and roared angrily, so as to avoid Qiao Kepin's beating.

Qian Qianyi is the second assistant of the cabinet, and Shi Kefa is the head of the hundred officials if he is not in him, Chang Yanling naturally did not dare not give him face, so he scolded and returned to the class.

"Qiao Yushi may have wronged Marquis Chang," Li Sheng, the squire of the military department, said out of the class, "Although the military expenditure this year is large, most of it is used for the food and salary of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and the other part is allocated to the guest soldiers from Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang who sent troops to Fujian to quell the rebellion. These accounts are archived by the Ministry of War, and if Qiao Yushi doesn't believe it, he can check it. ”

"Okay, this matter is over," Qian Qianyi hurriedly stopped and continued to argue, "The current matter is to ensure that the Beijing Battalion sends troops to quell the rebellion, Master Chang, how much military expenditure do you think will be needed if the Beijing Battalion sends troops?" ”

Chang Yanling said lightly: "If you want to send troops, you need to first pay the four months' salary owed to the brothers, and then send a sum of silver." Let's get a million taels if you calculate it! ”

One million taels! Everyone in the hall gasped.

"Master Chang, have you figured out how you need so much silver?" Qian Qianyi couldn't help but ask, one million taels is almost half of the income of the national treasury, the amount is too big, which is beyond his expectations.

Chang Yanling said: "More than a million? The 150,000 or 60,000 soldiers in the Beijing camp owe 8,900,000 yuan in military pay for four months, and the brothers will get 100,000 taels for the promotion.

The brothers joined the army in order to be paid, and if they did not have enough money, they were driven to the battlefield, and I am afraid that they would not want to die. ”

Chang Yanling's words left everyone speechless.

Qian Qianyi looked at Gao Zhuo, the head of the household department, but Gao Zhuo smiled bitterly and spread his hands, "Pavilion Lao, now the silver in the household department is less than 10,000 taels. ”

At this point, the court could no longer discuss it, so Chongzhen ordered everyone to go back and think about how to raise salaries, and discuss the matter of counterinsurgency another day.