In November of the sixth year of Chongzhen, it was really not a good time for Zhu Youzhen, and after inspecting to Jinan, he planned to take the train to Jiaozhou Bay to see, and suddenly received news from the capital that Xu Guangqi and Yuan Keli were already seriously ill, which made Chongzhen cancel the next trip and return to the capital.

However, Chongzhen decided to return to the capital by himself, and ordered Xia Yunyi, Niu Jinxing and others to continue to go to various parts of Shandong to investigate and collect data for the preparation of the five-year planned economy.

When sending the emperor back, Xia Yunyi couldn't help but ask the emperor: "Your Majesty, you said before that the reform must let the people at the bottom share the benefits, but the minister has accompanied His Majesty to tour around these days, and what he has seen and heard along the way has found that the things that these people need are not consistent, so what kind of policy can make all the people share the benefits?" ”

Zhu Youzhen, who was about to get into the carriage, stopped his movements, turned to look at Xia Yunyi and Niu Jinxing behind him, and then smiled and said, "Isn't this supposed to be told by you?" ”

Xia Yunyi looked stunned and didn't know how to answer, Zhu Youzhen continued: "Although I don't know what kind of policy can make all the people share the benefits, I know one thing, sitting in the official residence in the capital, you can't formulate the policy that the people want.

The other is to try to be as pure as possible when formulating policies, and not to set too high goals. I don't want to be a saint of the ages, and you don't want to be a famous minister in history to save the fortune of the times, as long as we can make today's Ming better than yesterday's Ming, it's already very good..."

When Chongzhen said this to Xia Yunyi and others, he probably forgot that the reforms he promoted were not a gentle process. Niu Jinxing and the others could only convince themselves in their hearts, maybe it was because the scale in the emperor's eyes was not the same.

On November 5, Chongzhen, who had just arrived in the capital, received the news of the death of Yang Hao, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. In January, three ministers were about to pass away one after another, which was no less than a small earthquake for the Ming court. Although Xu Guangqi and Yuan Keli have already stepped down from their current positions, the two are still the most important pillars of Chongzhen in the State Council, Xu Guangqi is the leader of Xinxue and the New Party, and Yuan Keli is also the last banner of the old Donglin Party.

If Xu Guangqi passes away, then Xinxue and the New Party will not be able to find a leader who can convince everyone for the time being. As for the old Donglin Party, the loss of Yuan Keli has become a plate of scattered sand. The previous Donglin bigwigs were either idle or self-reliant, and it was only because of Yuan Keli that he could still hold the last bit of people's hearts.

Now that Yuan Keli is going, the old Donglin Party no longer exists. These people either defected to Qian Qianyi's new Donglin Party, or tried to re-establish a new force. Among them, Shi Kefa, Lu Zhenfei, Wen Anzhi, Gao Hongtu, Zhang Shenyan, He Tengjiao, and Du Yinxi are the most famous, and there is a faint momentum of establishing a third party in addition to the Scientific Progressive Party and the New Donglin Party.

As for Yang Hao, the late governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, he is the pillar of stability in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty. Fujian, Zhejiang, the upper control of the south and the south of the two Guangzhou, the terrain can be described as the southeast of the key point, Yang Hao served as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang for several years, but also the southeast coast calm years. Even Zheng Zhilong, who controls the Taiwan Strait, is honest in front of this senior governor.

Yang Hao is gone, and it is not so simple to find another governor of Fujian and Zhejiang who suppresses the southeast. Of course, for some people, Yang Ho's death has made room for them to be in a good position. Let them start gearing up to seize this good position that is so rich.

However, when Chongzhen returned to the palace after seeing Xu Guangqi and Yuan Keli's illness, Sun Chengzong finally sent him a good news, the news of the victory in Yizhou. In fact, the news had been sent to the capital two or three weeks ago, but Sun Chengzong couldn't believe it, so he personally sent two staff officers to review the results, and the news of the victory came to this day.

After reading the report sent by Sun Chengzong, Zhu Youzhen was not overjoyed, but he felt that his heart was finally more steady, and he no longer had the sense of urgency when he just crossed over, the first thing he woke up every day was to estimate how much time he still had.

"Sun Chuanting and the officials of the former enemy command, as well as those troops who participated in the battle, did a good job. The General Staff must give them a good count of their merits and not omit them. Since they had already forced down the leaders of Karaqin such as Subudi, and besieged the rest of the Zhenglan Banner in the city of Yizhou, they must not let the tiger return to the mountain.

It is better to cut off one of its fingers than to hurt its ten fingers. When the garrisons in Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan are mobilized, they must cut off the connection between the blue banner of Yizhou City and the outside world. Grant Sun Chuanting's request and ask him to send someone to recruit the Zhenglan Banner in Yiju City, but don't let them stall. If you can't eat the meat in your mouth, it will be too heartbreaking. ”

Sun Chengzong's eyes sparkled, and he agreed to the emperor's suggestion, but said: "Your Majesty's opinion is the same as that of the General Staff, and we have already conveyed a similar order to the former enemy command before this. Today, the minister came to see His Majesty, not only to report the good news, but also to ask His Majesty. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Sun Chengzong in some surprise and asked, "What request?" ”

Sun Chengzong looked at the emperor and said: "Jinyi Wei has planted a lot of people in Shenyang, and the minister hopes to use their power to spread some rumors about the Zhenglan Banner in Shenyang, if they can force Houjin to deal with Mang Gurtai, then the Zhenglan Banner of Yizhou may be easier to surrender." ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, then called Lu Qi and said: "Send a message to Shenyang, let them persuade Mang Gurtai to defect, then surrender to our country's Zhenglan Banner, and still hand it over to him as the commander." Also, if possible, kidnap Amin out of Shenyang..."

Sun Chengzong, who received Chongzhen's support, immediately bid farewell to the emperor and left the Xiyuan Jingshe with brisk steps. For him, there is nothing like the attraction of the blue flag in the city of Uiju. He hoped that his old friend Yuan Keli would be able to see the surrender of Zhenglan Banner before he died.

For officials of their generation, Nurhachi's rebellion and the seizure of Liaodong were unbearable pains. Being able to see the hope of recovering Liaodong, Sun Chengzong felt that this news was enough to comfort his friends who were going to go.

Zhang Chonghui, secretary general of the former secretariat of the emperor, passed by Sun Chengzong with a stack of documents and walked into the emperor's office. Zhu Youzhen looked at the documents sent by Zhang Chonghui and couldn't help asking, "Is there any urgent or worthwhile news here?" ”

Zhang Chonghui thought for a moment and then replied: "Chen Qiyu, the deputy envoy of Henan's military garrison, has written a letter, saying that the thieves in Yinghuo Mountain have been fighting in the mountains recently, and there have been heavy casualties inside. ”

Zhu Youzhen found Chen Qiyu's book and read it carefully. The thieves in the Yinghuo Mountains, to be honest, were driven in by Chongzhen at the behest of the local army. In order to dispute the Henan gentry that day, he relied on the power of the local people's uprising. Afterwards, in addition to a part of the mutant army was disbanded, some of the mutant army turned to the Yinghuo Mountains, that is, the Dabie Mountain area, wanting to rely on the complex terrain of the Dabie Mountains and the officers and troops to maneuver.

The prestige of the 800-mile Dabie Mountain, Zhu Youzhen naturally knows. At that time, he was keeping an eye on the gentry and wealthy families, and he was not interested in spending money to exterminate a group of mountain kings. Therefore, the mutant captives were contacted with the mutant army who had fled into the Dabie Mountains, in exchange for a promise that they would not go out of the mountain to plunder the people.

However, Dabie Mountain is a primeval forest that has not been developed much at this time, and it is not difficult to feed a few mountain people. However, the mutant army, thieves and displaced people from Henan, Anhui and other places, and the huge foreign population quickly crushed the pitiful productive forces inside the Dabie Mountains.

The contradictions between the foreign population and the local mountain people, the contradictions between the mutant army and the thieves, the displaced people who were oppressed by several parties, and the isolation from the outside world, finally caused a large-scale internal strife broke out among the various forces in the Dabie Mountain. Even if they unify the 800-mile Dabie Mountain, it will be difficult to feed everyone.

As for the areas outside the Dabie Mountains, the lives of the people have been improving in the past two years, but with the protection of the local militia groups and the army, it is also difficult for the Dabie Mountain Mutinous People's Army, which lacks weapons and armor, to go out of the mountains and plunder. In addition, most of the people who fled to Dabie Mountain came from nearby areas, and no matter what area they wanted to rob, they would attract a lot of opposition.

So these leaders simply tried to surrender to the government, hoping to solve the food problem for this year's winter. Chen Qiyu, who received the letter from the bandit leader, felt that he could recruit these desperate mountain bandits, so that the Dabie Mountain area could be brought back under the control of the imperial court, so he wrote to the imperial court to state his opinion.

After Qian Qianyi and the cabinet ministers discussed, most of them finally agreed with Chen Qiyu's strategy of recruiting peace, thinking that these bandits should no longer be allowed to occupy the Dabie Mountain area, and they could save a lot of money to enter the Dabie Mountain to suppress bandits, so why not.

Zhu Youzhen wrote a word behind the cabinet's opinion, and then raised his head and said to Zhang Chonghui: "It's okay to recruit An, but you can't follow the cabinet's opinion, you can help me write an opinion and paste it behind the document and send it back to the cabinet."

I thought that the bandits of Dabie Mountain were originally good citizens, but because of frequent natural disasters in the past, these people fell into the grass. Since they are willing to change their ways and return to the right, the court should naturally give them a way out.

However, in order to survive, I can tolerate the destruction of social order. However, by taking advantage of the destruction of social order, it will disregard morality and law, and kill good people and traitors, which is intolerable to the imperial court.

Therefore, in order to show the punishment of the imperial court, all the villages in Dabie Mountain need to be screened, and those who have no lives on their hands and have not committed adultery with women will not be blamed by the court in the past, and they will still be allowed to live in place.

As for the others, those who have committed the most heinous crimes shall be punished with capital punishment, and the rest shall be relocated to Cambodia and the South Seas..."