The Seien Seisha is a building, and it was difficult to place the ondol used in the palace in the past, so the rooms above the second floor were modeled after the Western construction method, and a fireplace was installed. Pine, locust and other woods that have been dried for a whole year emit an extremely fresh fragrance when burned in the fireplace, which makes Sun Chengzong's spirit in the living room invigorate.

Chongzhen, who was sitting in the fireplace and throwing wood in the hearth, heard the footsteps and ordered without raising his head: "Bring a chair for Mr. Sun and put it on the edge of me, it is warmer here." ”

Regarding the emperor's preference for doing some slave and maid work by himself, Lu Qi and other palace eunuchs are no longer surprised. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty more or less had their own unique hobbies, some people liked to fight crickets, some people liked to cultivate the Tao, some people liked to raise fierce beasts, and some people liked to do carpentry work. Relatively speaking, Chongzhen's hobby is quite normal.

After sitting down, Sun Chengzong saw Chongzhen picking and picking at the entire pile of wood for a long time before throwing it into the fireplace, and couldn't help but ask with some curiosity: "Your Majesty is such a pick, could it be that these woods are thrown into the fire to burn the fire, what else is there to pay attention to?" ”

Seeing that the fire in the fireplace was warm enough, Zhu Youzhen straightened his back and said to Sun Chengzong: "It's not a big deal, these woods are divided into cork and hardwood, cork is easy to ignite, but it burns too fast, although hardwood is difficult to ignite, but once ignited, it can burn for a long time, so I have to match it, so that I can maintain the fire and not add firewood too often." ”

Sun Chengzong glanced at the orange-red flames jumping in the fireplace, and couldn't help but smile and said: "I can't imagine that Your Majesty has to figure out a truth even for this little thing, the old minister is really glad for the Ming Dynasty, if the first emperor can see today's Ming Dynasty, he will be able to look at it." ”

Zhu Youzhen relaxed his body and leaned back in his chair, also staring at the flames, and said out loud for a long time: "It's a pity that the imperial brother is still here, I don't have to work so hard." ”

Hearing that Chongzhen's words were quite decadent, Sun Chengzong, who couldn't help but sigh for a while, quickly changed the topic and said: "The official document sent by His Majesty yesterday has been carefully read by the minister, I don't know how Your Majesty plans to deal with this matter?" ”

After rubbing his face a few times with his roasted warm hands, Zhu Youzhen, who was reinvigorated, finally said seriously: "The truth of the matter, presumably Mr. Sun can also piece it together from the two official documents." In my opinion, although this seems to be one thing, it has to be dealt with in three parts. ”

Sun Chengzong asked with some curiosity: "What does Your Majesty mean by the so-called division into three?" ”

Zhu Youzhen pondered in his heart for a moment, and then said: "One is the governor of Fengda, who is competing for merit in the front and falsely passing on the edict in the back; One is the remnants of the Gunchuk Ke who mutinied after the death of Gunchuktaiji; The other is the Mongol soldiers who have been loyal to the imperial court during the mutiny.

If we can't reward and punish the merits, and reward them according to their report just because we quelled this mutiny, then wouldn't those Mongol soldiers who had been loyal to the imperial court be chilled? ”

Sun Chengzong was silent for a while, and then put forward his opinion, "But Your Majesty should also consider the feelings of the Mongolian tribes, and now there are these Chahar Nayan testimonies, Yuan Chonghuan killed the Manchu Ketaiji, who colluded with the Manchu people, although his methods are too rough, but at least he is still famous."

But if you want to deal with Yuan Chonghuan, you have to expose Yuan Chonghuan's actions. The minister feared that the Mongol tribes, who had already accepted the current statement, might become resentful of the imperial court. In this way, His Majesty's love for the Mongols could not be understood by these Mongols.

What's more, the rebellion of these Chahar Nayan troops was only impulsive, otherwise they would not have been easily subdued by Liu Jingting, Ezhe and others to quell the rebellion. Since Liu Jingting and Ezhe have already made an agreement with Chahar Nayan, the imperial court will use this as an excuse to settle the account, I'm afraid it will be difficult for them to be convinced, right? ”

Zhu Youzhen wanted to explain that he didn't deal with it as Sun Chengzong thought, but as soon as the thought in his heart changed, he said: "Then in Mr. Sun's opinion, how should this matter be handled better?" ”

Sun Chengzong didn't sleep at home last night, and he was thinking about one thing, that is, when Yuan Chonghuan was held accountable, what kind of changes would occur in the political situation within the General Staff and in the court.

After thinking about it repeatedly, he only came to this conclusion. Once Yuan Chonghuan is questioned, whether he is imprisoned for investigation or ordered to retire to maintain face, it may cause chaos in the General Staff and the court.

Although Chongzhen has always been unkind to Yuan Chonghuan, in the eyes of Sun Chengzong, Lu Shanji and other civilian officials in the DPRK and China, this is the best successor to the General Staff. First, he was born as a Jinshi, and compared with the white-bodied Mao Yuanyi, he was naturally willing to be approached by civil officials; The second is that Yuan Chonghuan has the reputation of knowing soldiers, especially the qualifications of the Battle of Ningjin, which makes the civilian officials think that he still has a certain talent in military affairs.

Therefore, even if the emperor didn't treat Yuan Chonghuan very well, Sun Chengzong and others focused on cultivating him, trying to change the emperor's opinion of him little by little. This also made the General Staff and the military academy have a large number of officers who support Yuan Chonghuan.

These officers who supported Yuan Chonghuan were fundamentally Sun Chengzong's own descendants. In Sun Chengzong's view, if the emperor really doesn't want to see Yuan Chonghuan, then Yuan Chonghuan can also be made a transitioner, after all, the emperor is still very young, and if Yuan Chonghuan serves as the chief minister for one or two terms, he can let the next generation come up.

Although Sun Chengzong himself is not greedy for power, he cannot afford not to make all preparations for the future of the organization of the General Staff. He did not want the General Staff to deviate from the track he had set for the organization after he was gone, thus changing the flavor of the General Staff, which he had worked so hard to build at the end of his life.

Moreover, after Sun Chengzong became the first principal of the Army Military Academy, whether he wanted it or not, a faction in the army attached to him had formed. No matter how selfless he is, at this time, he has to think about his protégés.

He originally thought that Yuan Chonghuan had enough qualifications and ability to take on the heavy responsibilities after he left, so these descendants and protégés were handed over to Yuan Chonghuan. But who would have thought that this person would make such a foolish move at a critical moment. By this time, Sun Chengzong had no time to arrange his afterlife.

And at this time, if he wanted to replace Yuan Chonghuan from the position of the leader of the faction, he could not find anyone to replace. Mao Yuanyi's background and qualifications are insufficient, and he is good at administrative affairs and lacks the ability to gather people's hearts. Sun Chuanting was promoted by the emperor, and he was originally a figure used to contain their faction, so naturally he couldn't replace Yuan Chonghuan.

At this time, Yuan Chonghuan himself was no longer important, and the key was to ensure that his descendants were not implicated by him and to maintain stability within the General Staff. But if you want to keep the others, you have to keep Yuan Chonghuan first, at least you can't let him retire home like this.

Otherwise, once the liquidation is settled, several of his subordinates who are quite optimistic about him will probably have to go down with Yuan Chonghuan this time. Without Yuan Chonghuan in front of him, after Sun Chuanting succeeds as the commander-in-chief, I am afraid that others may not be given a chance to recover. After all, Sun Chuanting has been teaching in the military academy for so long, so he naturally has his own team.

Thinking about these intrigues again, Sun Chengzong couldn't help but sigh and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it is better to deal with this matter coldly, that is, not to attract everyone's attention, and quietly deal with this matter, then the Mongolian tribes will not be resentful because of it." ”

Zhu Youzhen thought about it, couldn't help but straighten up, leaned over to Sun Chengzong's side and asked, "What does Mr. mean by cold treatment?" ”

Sun Chengzong was silent for a few seconds before replying: "Yuan Chonghuan did something wrong after all, although we can't punish him publicly due to the situation, it doesn't mean that we can't teach him some lessons."

After this incident, I am afraid that its reputation in the hearts of the Mongolian tribes is extremely low. One of the main duties of the governor of Fengda was to protect the peace of the steppe and mediate between the various Mongol tribes, and having lost the trust of the Mongols, his continued role as governor of Fengda would only unite the tribes of the steppe against the imperial court, which was obviously inappropriate.

With his qualifications, if he is transferred back to the capital, he can't be a cold bench, so he can only be transferred to a flat place. After thinking about it, I am afraid that there are only two places suitable for him to go at the moment. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly became interested, and asked casually, "Are those two places?" ”

Sun Chengzong immediately said: "One is the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Hong Chengchou has a good governance in the local area, Myanmar and Vietnam are now very respectful, let him switch with Hong Chengchou and go to Kunming to reflect for a while, it is also good." ”

Zhu Youzhen was noncommittal about this proposal, so he went on to ask: "What about the other one?" ”

Looking at the emperor's expression, it seemed that Yunnan was still too close, Sun Chengzong sighed in his heart, and couldn't help but say: "As for the other, let him redeem his merits." And let him replace the king of Tang as the governor of India and open up the viceroyalty of India, which also happened to transfer the king of Tang back to the country, and the vassal king went out of the town, which was not a good thing after all. ”

This time, Zhu Youzhen didn't say anything immediately, he tapped his fingers on the armrest and thought for a long time before he said to Sun Chengzong: "If this is the case, then what does Mr. think about those Mongolian Nayan who rebelled and surrendered?" ”

Seeing that Chongzhen seemed to agree with his suggestion, Sun Chengzong breathed a sigh of relief and said without thinking: "The minister thinks that he should take this opportunity to take back the power to lead the troops in the hands of Nayan of the various ministries and implement the separation of military and political affairs..."

Zhu Youzhen lowered his head and thought for a long time before he replied to Sun Chengzong: "I think that Mr. Nayan's handling of the various ministries is appropriate, and I will order the General Staff and the Ethnic and Religious Committee to root this matter, as for the disposal of Yuan Chonghuan..."

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