With the retreat of Huang Taiji to Jinzhou, the Songjin War, which lasted for more than two years, finally came to an end, and the Ming army held Ningyuan and confronted the Qing army in Jinzhou, and the western Liaoning corridor gradually restored its former calm.

The Ming army in Xingshan was successfully picked up by the ships arranged by Li Hongyu, and went straight down the river to the port of Tianjin, where they rested at the camp of the Beijing army outside the capital.

These soldiers who survived the catastrophe had a feeling of being reincarnated, they thought that they were going to die in Xingshan City, or they were captured, but they didn't think that Li Hongyu would succeed in rescuing them, and their hearts were full of gratitude to Li Hongyu.

Emperor Chongzhen can finally breathe a sigh of relief, although Li Hongyu can't defeat Huang Taiji now, but at least he saved the Ming army that was besieged in Tashan City and Xingshan City, which is already a great merit.

Of course, the imperial court naturally did not tell the truth to the outside world, and under the instruction of Emperor Chongzhen, the cabinet quickly drafted a notice to celebrate the victory of Songjin and ordered it to be posted throughout the country, so that Li Hongyu, who had been silent for many years, once again appeared in the eyes of the people, and his prestige was pushed to a new high point.

In order to stabilize the situation outside the Guan, Li Hongyu stayed in Ningyuan, and like Huang Taiji, he abandoned the three important military towns of Songshan, Tashan and Xingshan between Jinzhou and Ningyuan, and concentrated his troops to defend.

Because he was worried that the Ming army had copied the back road of the Manchu Dynasty, Huang Taiji did not stay long in Jinzhou and led a part of the Qing army back to Liaodong, and he was not in the mood to attack Ningyuan City again.

With the dissipation of the smoke of gunpowder on the battlefield outside the Guan, the Ming army and the Qing army entered a period of recuperation, which restored the former calm of the Liaoxi Corridor, and compared with the previous one, there was more of a dead silence, many places have become no man's land, the city is deserted, and the land is barren.

In late May, Li Hongyu was recalled to the capital by Emperor Chongzhen, who prepared to hold a grand ceremony to commemorate Hong Chengchou, who died in battle.

Li Hongyu frowned when he learned of this, he had already received information that Hong Chengchou was not killed in battle, and after being captured, he was placed under house arrest by Huang Taiji and treated as a guest, but Hong Chengchou had not yet defected.

According to Li Hongyu's memory, Hong Chengchou should have taken refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but because history has changed, he doesn't know what choice Hong Chengchou will make.

Besides, the reason why Li Hongyu got the information about Hong Chengchou was provided by Liu Aita, and no one else except Li Hongyu knew Liu Aita's identity, so he couldn't leak this matter.

In addition to worrying about Liu Aita's identity being exposed, Li Hongyu was even more afraid that Emperor Chongzhen was uncomfortable, Emperor Chongzhen was originally a very suspicious person, and Li Hongyu, who had no absolute information that the imperial court had obtained, actually got it privately, which was definitely not a good thing.

Therefore, Li Hongyu decided to pretend not to know about this and participated in the memorial ceremony held by Emperor Chongzhen for Hong Chengchou.

At the ceremony, Emperor Chongzhen mentioned that the soldiers who died in the Battle of Songjin couldn't help but shed tears, and the ministers of civil and military affairs at the scene cried with a miserable appearance.

Li Hongyu didn't cry, just stood there with a serious expression, he had already experienced too much life and death, and his psychological endurance was naturally extraordinary, and as a Ming Taifu, he didn't want to behave like this, he could see that many ministers were howling there, and there was not a single tear in his eyes.

When the memorial ceremony was halfway through, the people from the Ministry of War sent an emergency military situation, and not long ago, Hong Chengchou officially took refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and participated in the ancestor worship ceremony with Huang Taiji.

Emperor Chongzhen, who was in grief, froze there immediately after hearing this, his face was full of stunned looks, he never imagined that Hong Chengchou, whom he had high hopes for, would actually surrender, which made it difficult for him to accept it for a while.

Subsequently, Emperor Chongzhen, who came back to his senses, threw the official document in his hand into the fire and burned it, and then drove back to the palace on the grounds of physical discomfort, and left the memorial scene with a gloomy face.

The civil and military officials at the scene did not feel unusual, and thought that Emperor Chongzhen was overly sad, and when those important ministers of the court learned of Hong Chengchou's treason, they were taken aback, you must know that Emperor Chongzhen is not thin on Hong Chengchou, and Hong Chengchou is the highest official in the Ming Dynasty to surrender to the Manchu Dynasty.

Hong Chengchou's own position is the imperial history of the right capital of the Imperial Procuratorate, and the crown prince Taibao, the military department Shangshu and the governor of Jiliao, belong to the Ming Dynasty from the first grade, who would have thought that there would be such a rebellion, and the impact was very bad.

Subsequently, the imperial court urgently issued a document to all state capitals across the country, wanting to withdraw the memorial document written by Emperor Chongzhen to commemorate Hong Chengchou, which had already been issued.

But the actions of the imperial court were obviously a step slower, and the state capitals of the Ming Dynasty had already posted the memorial texts, making the people of the two capitals and thirteen provinces think that Hong Chengchou was a loyal minister who died in battle.

Faced with the scene in front of him, Emperor Chongzhen could only break his teeth and swallow it in his stomach, and ordered the imperial court to continue to commend Hong Chengchou's heroic martyrdom.

Although Emperor Chongzhen was eager to cut Hong Chengchou, who surrendered and betrayed the country, with a thousand knives, considering that Hong Chengchou's defection to the enemy had too much impact, and at the same time in order to save his own face, the only way to let Hong Chengchou continue to be a loyal minister.

Li Hongyu felt very helpless about Emperor Chongzhen's move, he could understand Emperor Chongzhen's complicated feelings at this time, and he was disappointed by a person he trusted so much, which was really uncomfortable.

However, Li Hongyu is not in the mood to pay attention to Hong Chengchou's affairs now, now that the war outside the customs has come to an end, after this war, the Manchu Qing Dynasty needs to recuperate, so Huang Taiji will not invade the south in recent years, so it is time for him to leave.

Of course, since the war outside the Guanxi has just ended, Li Hongyu will definitely not take the initiative to leave, and as the Taifu of the Ming Dynasty, he has the responsibility and obligation to stay in the capital to assist Emperor Chongzhen.

But this is not **** Hongyu, a few days after Emperor Chongzhen paid tribute to Hong Chengchou, the Ministry of War received an urgent letter from the Ningbo Naval Division, and the ships of the Wa Kingdom robbed the merchant ships of overseas trade, and the losses were huge.

In fact, in recent years, the Ministry of War has often received reports from sailors about the robbery of overseas trading merchant ships by Japanese ships, and at first they thought that they were the Japanese who did it, but later found that there were local daimyo of Japanese countries inside.

However, the loss of overseas trade fleets caused by the attack of the Japanese state is the largest in recent years, and it has reached the point of affecting the quota of overseas trade goods of the Ming Dynasty this year.

Due to the great Ming and the Wa State in Korea during the Wanli period, the relationship between the two sides is very bad now, there is no official communication at all, and Emperor Chongzhen has no way to solve this matter by diplomatic means.

In addition, this kind of thing was beneficial to the Wakoku, and the Wakoku shogunate was eager to bring benefits from it, and it would certainly not stop it, and perhaps it would even benefit a lot.

Emperor Chongzhen did not want overseas trade to go wrong, which not only brought him a lot of tariffs every year, but also prospered the local economy and helped stabilize the local situation.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict to Li Hongyu, asking him to rush back to the Customs Department as soon as possible to deal with the matter, so that the Japanese must not affect the conduct of overseas trade, and if necessary, they can be taught a lesson by force, so that Li Hongyu can make a decision.

This edict of Emperor Chongzhen virtually gave Li Hongyu the right to wage war against the Wa State, which was exactly what Li Hongyu wanted, and after all these years of preparation, he was ready to crusade against the Wa State and pull out this scourge of the East.

At the same time, Li Hongyu also did this to avoid being involved in the upcoming troubled times at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Since Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, the contradictions of all strata in the Ming Dynasty have intensified, and the peasant rebellions in various places have been frequent, and the peasant army headed by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong has become more and more powerful.

Therefore, Li Hongyu chose to go to war against the Japanese state, so that he smoothly avoided those affairs that he did not want to touch.

As for the affairs outside the Guan, now that the Ming and Manchu Qing have formed a confrontation in the Western Liaoning Corridor, neither of them has the ability to launch an offensive against the other party in a short period of time, so it is useless for Li Hongyu to stay here.

Considering Wu Sangui's experience outside the customs and his military exploits, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Wu Sangui to be appointed as the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan and control Ningyuan's military affairs, so that Wu Sangui was able to command the Ming army of Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan, and took a big step forward in his career.

In view of the destruction of goods for overseas trade, Li Hongyu was not prepared to stay in the capital for too long, and decided to leave Beijing after finishing the affairs at hand.

The night before leaving, Li Hongyu went to the house of An Yuan Bo Tian Hong for a banquet, Tian Hong was Tian Guifei's biological father, and was named An Yuan Bo.

Due to the death of Tian Guifei two years ago, Tian Hong is losing power in Beijing, in order to ensure his own interests, Tian Hong is vigorously befriending the powerful people in Beijing, and the Taifu Mansion is the focus of his attention, and the relationship with the Taifu Mansion is very harmonious.

Therefore, Li Hongyu shirked but came to the banquet today, if Tian Guifei did not die, he would not come, and now that Tian Guifei has died, Li Hongyu must go to this banquet, otherwise others will think that he is a powerful person.

It is precisely because Concubine Tian Guifei has passed away that Li Hongyu can calmly come to see Tian Hong, so as not to attract the attention of the outside world and the taboo of Emperor Chongzhen.

Unlike the Emperor of the Apocalypse, Li Hongyu now deliberately keeps a distance from the civil and military officials in the court, the purpose of which is to reassure Emperor Chongzhen, so as not to misunderstand the suspicious Emperor Chongzhen.

Speaking of which, Emperor Chongzhen is a little less merciful than Emperor Tianqi, perhaps this is related to Emperor Chongzhen's character, many officials have been beheaded by Emperor Chongzhen in the past ten years, or exiled to the frontier.

Therefore, Li Hongyu must act cautiously and try not to give Emperor Chongzhen a chance to suspect him, only in this way can he be safe and sound, otherwise once he is remembered by Emperor Chongzhen, then it is really possible to lose his head.

It is precisely because Emperor Chongzhen has executed many officials that the officialdom of the capital is a lifeless scene, and the civil and military officials all follow the will of Emperor Chongzhen in order to protect themselves, reporting good news and not bad news, so that Emperor Chongzhen does not know the real world outside.

Li Hongyu is very helpless about this, the Emperor of the Apocalypse is to control the ministers and let the ministers use it, while the Chongzhen Emperor is a bit arbitrary, making Zhongxing Daming an unattainable fantasy.

If Emperor Quanxia of the Apocalypse had knowledge, he would definitely regret the decision to pass on the throne to Emperor Chongzhen back then, if King Fu ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty would not have declined so quickly.

(End of chapter)