The situation in the capital and the palace was finally stabilized, and Fang Yuan sent a letter of persuasion to Shi Kefa in Tongzhou, informing Emperor Chongzhen that he had returned to the palace safely, and if he resisted again, he would not be a loyal minister who kept the festival, but a rebellious minister and thief.

Shi Kefa saw that Chongzhen was safe and sound, and he was still standing on the same front with Fang Yuan, what else could he say? He could only disarm the soldiers and horses of Tongzhou and surrender to the Xuanjia Army.

The Xuanjia army escorted Shi Kefa and Huang Dao to the Huangji Palace, and let Fang Yuan fall.

Fang Yuan didn't want to deal with these two loyal ministers, so he released the two and told them that if they were willing to be officials, they could stay in the capital as officials. As two people, they can find a position in the Governor's Mansion of the Judiciary, or in the Six Books and Nine Secretaries.

But the attitude of the two was surprisingly consistent, they didn't know Fang Yuan's methods and depths, and they didn't want to be officials for the time being, so they only stayed in the capital to wait and see.

Of course, with Shi Kefa and Huang Dao Erren in the capital, there are also all the officials of the Ming Dynasty, because the cabinet, the six ministries and other bureaucrats have not yet begun to operate normally.

At present, the capital is still in a state of wartime control.

Fang Yuan pardoned the taxes in Gyeonggi for one year to buy people's hearts and restore people's livelihood. There is no need to activate the bureaucracy for the time being, and at least two major problems must be resolved before the bureaucracy can resume functioning.

First, it is to recruit Zhou Yuji and Zheng Sen, the second general. According to reliable information, the crown prince Zhu Cihong went to Jizhen to take refuge with Zhou Yuji. Zhou Yuji led his army out of Gyeonggi and returned to Shanxi, not surrendering to Fangyuan, but supporting Zhu Cihong to continue to resist in Shanxi.

For this Jin army, whether it was a battle or a surrender, or an unknown number, Fang Yuan still decided to find out Zhou Yuji's thoughts first, and then make a decision.

He ordered Chigutai to lead 20,000 Xuanjia Iron Cavalry into Juyong Pass, Changping Line, and protect the safety of Gyeonggi. He also ordered the regent and the princess to write to Zhou Yuji and Zhu Cihong respectively, clarifying that the general trend of the world has been decided, and a corner of Shanxi is just a battle of trapped beasts. As long as Zhou Yuji and Zhu Cihong surrendered Shanxi, Zhou Yuji continued to serve as the governor of Shanxi. As long as Zhu Cihong returns to Beijing to surrender, he will be spared from death and will be sealed to Minguang as a free prince.

At the same time as Fang Yuan captured the capital, Zheng Sen also ransacked Tianjin Wei, and then led the sailors to leave Tianjin Wei and sailed into the vast sea, not knowing where to go.

Fang Yuan was worried that Zheng Sen would go north to surrender to the Manchus and continue to fight Fang Yuan to the end. If the Manchu Qing Dynasty had the benefit of the sailor, it would be like a tiger with wings, and it would be a real confidant. Or go south to harass the coast, the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River, the balance is already balanced, how can Zheng Sen be allowed to harass again and again?

Fang Yuan strictly ordered Shi Lang to lead the sailors to pursue, and Zheng Sen could not be given a chance to go north and south, and he must be annihilated immediately. Shi Lang first sent a light clipper to chase out of Tianjin Wei, and after three days of pursuit, he found Zheng Sen's fleet. found that the direction of Zheng Sen's escape was not to go north or south, but to the east.

The clipper followed Zheng's fleet all the way, bypassing the Liaodong Peninsula until it crossed the waters of Korea, but still showed no sign of heading north, but continued eastward. Further east was the vast sea, and the clipper did not pursue again, so he could only return to Tianjin Wei to report the truth to Shi Lang.

Shi Lang couldn't figure out the whereabouts of Zheng Sen's fleet for a while, so he could only report to Fang Yuan, who knew as soon as he heard the route of Zheng Sen's fleet that Zheng Sen was going to take refuge in Japan, where he was born. Japan is now in a civil war, and the addition of Zheng Sen, a powerful naval force, will inevitably affect the progress of the Japanese civil war. But Fang Yuan's immediate target was not Japan, but the Manchus. As long as Zheng Sen does not surrender to the Manchus, then Zheng Sen will go.

The second is the problem of copying silver in the capital. In the past two or three years, Fang Yuan has successively extinguished the two most powerful military forces, Sun Chuanting and Li Zicheng, and then entered Gyeonggi to repel the aggressive offensive of the Manchu Qing. As soon as the cannon sounded, the gold was ten thousand taels, and the silver was spent like flowing water, and the current account deficit was one or two million taels of silver owed to the Xu family, and four million taels of silver were owed to the system Huabei. With such a big financial hole, a year's fiscal surplus cannot be filled, and it will immediately face a repayment default of the Huabei system.

Fang Yuan could only collect money from the officials, eunuchs, and wealthy merchants in the capital to supplement the fiscal deficit. Since he put down his cruel words in front of Chongzhen, he wanted to plunder 20 million taels of silver, as long as the silver was in place, all the financial problems would be solved immediately.

He summoned Jing Jie, who was in charge of the Xuanjia Army, Ma Yishan of Jinyiwei, Zhou Jian, the brother-in-law who was most familiar with the affairs of the capital, and Luo Yangxing, the commander of Jinyiwei, who was most familiar with the black materials of hundreds of officials, to discuss the matter of plundering silver in the capital.

Fang Yuan informed the four of them of the idea of robbing the silver from the corrupt officials in the capital, which was expected by Jing Jie and Ma Yishan, but he was not too surprised. According to hearsay, Fang Yuan had not liquidated the family property of officials, eunuchs, and wealthy merchants in the south on a large scale, and Zhou Jian and Luo Yangxing were so frightened that they were looking for silver as soon as they entered the city.

Zhou Jian, as a member of the bureaucracy, said hesitantly, "Regent, regent, this, the Ming Dynasty's fortune is already low, and His Majesty was very powerful before, which one, the officials dare to be corrupt!" ”

Fang Yuan saw that his ass was actually sitting on the side of the bureaucracy, threw the book of impermanence that Luo Yang had sex in front of him, and said sharply, "This is the information obtained by Jinyiwei, all corrupt officials and corrupt officials, all of them are arrested!" Pay the money and release the person, otherwise, it will be punished according to the law! ”

The Ming law is extremely strict in punishing corruption, but the law enforcement is extremely lax, except for the eunuch party and the Donglin party for the needs of political struggle, there have been few corrupt officials arrested.

Zhou Jian glared at Luo Yangxing fiercely, it turned out that this matter was all caused by Luo Yangxing.

Luo Yangxing is also complaining in his heart! He originally wanted to use this book of impermanence to invite merit and help Fang Yuan deter the ministers, so that he could sit firmly in the position of the commander of the Jinyi Guard. I thought that once the son of heaven and a courtier, Fang Yuan's new official might clean up a few officials in the book of impermanence, but after all, the government still needs people to operate, and it will not be all cleaned up, and it will not have much consequences.

Luo Yangxing didn't know that Fang Yuan was holding this book of impermanence to find the officials to torture the silver, if he had known earlier, he would rather burn it than hand it over to Fang Yuan!

Luo Yangxing hurriedly retreated and said, "Regent, the information in this book of impermanence has not been verified, or, perhaps, there may be a mistake, Jinyiwei has to verify it again, verify it, and then report it." ”

Fang Yuan saw that these two were still fooling Emperor Chongzhen, which was simply incorrigible.

Since Zhou Jian has tied himself to the bureaucracy, he can no longer be reused, and he can be given an idle position. As for Luo Yangxing, there is a grass on the wall, the Luo family is a family of brocade clothes, and Luo Yangxing still betrayed Chongzhen easily. Once disloyal, a hundred times not used, Luo Yangxing is obviously no longer qualified for the position of Jinyiwei.

But now is not the time to settle accounts with them, Fang Yuan said coldly, "Do you think that without the Book of Impermanence, I won't be able to catch corrupt officials and corrupt officials?!" Joke! ”

"Ma Yishan, immediately ordered the Jinyi Guard and the Xuanjia Army to close all the gates of the capital, and no one was allowed to enter or leave the capital. Set up four petition mailboxes outside the Chengtian Gate of the Imperial Palace, and follow the rules before Jiangnan! By the way, I will add one more, but anyone who reports corrupt officials and corrupt officials will be rewarded with ten taels of silver if it is verified to be true; Those who report corrupt officials and corrupt officials' family property, verify the truth, confiscate a hundred taels of silver, and reward one tael of silver. ”

Fang Yuan directly sacrificed the big killer of the petition mailbox, encouraging the people, officials, and even subordinates, male servants and maids in the official's house to participate in the report and expose. He even gave a reward for reporting corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and even took out 1% of the confiscated family property to encourage reporting. Under all kinds of harsh measures, where can these corrupt officials in the capital escape?!