When Lu Qi sent Sun Chengzong out of Xiyuan, he found that after the Ming Dynasty and the emperor talked alone, his spirit seemed to be in a trance, so he didn't dare to make a sound along the way, lest he disturb Sun Chengzong's thinking. The so-called important ministers are the characters who can become the backbone of the court.

On the same day, the Liaodong Ming army was defeated one after another, and the remaining Liaodong soldiers and civilians fled back to the pass, and the people in the capital were panicked, and it was Sun Chengzong who stood up and took over the post of Liaodong Governor.

Although after the defeat of Liuhe, Sun Chengzong's reputation was greatly damaged. However, after the defeat of Guangning that day, when the officials of Liaodong retreated all the way to Shanhaiguan, the people of the capital were panicked and the imperial court had the idea of moving the capital. It was also after Sun Chengzong took over the governor of Liaodong that the hearts of the people in Beijing were settled, and the proposal to move the capital was abandoned.

In the second year of Chongzhen, the battle of Jizhou, the imperial court was able to drive the Houjin soldiers out of the pass, although there was the merit of the emperor coming to the battlefield to stimulate morale, but if there was no Sun Chengzong in the middle of the deployment, resolutely support the emperor's move, this war may not be fought so smoothly.

Some people usually don't look like mountains and waters, and they are no different from ordinary people. But when it came to a critical juncture, everyone agreed that it would be difficult for this person to overcome the difficulties, and this was the role of the backbone.

It can be said that as long as Sun Chengzong exists in the General Staff for a long time, he will naturally be able to suppress the recklessness of military ministers and the careful thinking of civilian officials to "meddle" in military affairs. And an important minister like Sun Chengzong, Daming does not have a second one now. is that even Lu Qi, who is now in a high position, is honest in front of Sun Chengzong.

Although Sun Chengzong followed behind Lu Qi, his mind was completely focused on the conversation with the emperor just now, and he didn't pay attention to the road under his feet, and almost stepped on the air several times, thanks to the two young eunuchs around him who supported him.

In today's conversation with the emperor, what touched him the most was not Chongzhen's views on important military and political affairs, but the topics he talked about the direction of reform and his successor at the end. From today's conversation, Sun Chengzong realized that both he and his colleagues had miscalculated the emperor's determination to promote reform.

If some people continue to fail to see the situation clearly, believing that the brakes will be put on when the reform reaches a certain level, then they will inevitably pay a heavy price for their mistakes.

As for the cultivation of the heir to the throne, Sun Chengzong also had to admit that the emperor's point of view today is still very reasonable. In their opinion, one of the several princes must be the future Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but for the emperor, these princes are first and foremost his sons, and there is no difference in his mind who is more suitable to take over the throne.

However, as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he could not choose a person who could not take responsibility to be the next Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Sun Chengzong said to Chongzhen: power should be matched with responsibility, and unlimited power should bear unlimited responsibility. It would be a disaster for the emperor and his subjects to ascend to the throne if a person of immature mind was to ascend to the throne.

Therefore, Chongzhen believes that the most important thing at present is not to decide who will succeed to the throne and educate the successor in governance. Rather, it is necessary to first confirm the order of succession to the throne and establish a system to cancel the eligibility of the heir to the throne, so as to make the succession of the imperial throne an institutionalized option to ensure the stability of the country in the event of a change of throne.

Sun Chengzong kept reflecting on this passage on the road, and when he left Xiyuan, he finally figured it out. Chongzhen's purpose in doing this was still to deny the emperor's own destiny, so that the Ming Emperor would gradually step down from the altar and become a ruling official similar to the cabinet chief.

Sun Chengzong Huo stopped, he now understands a little, why Chongzhen is so disgusted, the officials are concerned about the heir to the throne. This should have been a trivial matter, as long as it was arranged according to the order of birth, and what everyone should really pay attention to is how to limit the power of the emperor so that the change of the throne does not affect the normal operation of the country.

But then he smiled bitterly, in his opinion, Chongzhen's idea was indeed very good, but the other party forgot what a powerful monarch he was. Counting from the emperors since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen has more power in his hands than most ancestors at this time, about after Taizu and Chengzu, and is similar to Emperor Shizong.

In the face of such a strong emperor, the ministers of the Chongzhen Dynasty, who already lacked famous ministers, dared to face the emperor and talk about restricting the imperial power. There is only one Haigang Peak in the world, and even Hai Gangfeng has never thought of formulating a system to limit imperial power, but only hopes to use morality to prompt the emperor to reflect on his own behavior.

Just when Sun Chengzong stood silent, the servant beside him couldn't help but ask him in a whisper: "Is the master uncomfortable, why don't we go back to the house to rest first, and this Wuying Hall won't go, right?" ”

Sun Chengzong was awakened, he shook his head and said, "No, let's go ahead as usual, go to Wuying Hall first, and then go back to the house." ”

Sun Chengzong knew that it was difficult for him to persuade the emperor to change his mind, and in fact he was unwilling to change. After all, for Da Ming, this matter still has more benefits than disadvantages.

But he was not willing to push for it, after all, his time was short, and the emperor was less than 30. If Chongzhen lived as long as his grandfather, he might not regret his decision when he was younger. Then at that time, the officials who persuaded the emperor to formulate restrictions on imperial power would become a thorn in the emperor's side.

Therefore, Sun Chengzong decided to entrust everything to time, and it was up to Chongzhen himself to reflect on this idea. If it does not change until old age, it will naturally be a blessing for the country. If he had changed his mind in the end, no one would have been implicated. However, he knew one thing, the General Staff must no longer "intervene" in the issue of the heir to the throne, otherwise it will inevitably cause the emperor's annoyance.

When he himself was there, he could still make the emperor have some scruples. Once he dies, the officers of the General Staff who are involved in the succession to the throne may not have a good end. After all, the officers trained by the Army Military Academy have far more respect for the emperor than those civil officials who talk about the fathers and sons of the monarch all day long.

The officers of the General Staff thought that they could control the army, but in fact it was nothing more than an illusion. It is the organization of the General Staff, not the officers of the General Staff, who controls the army. The organization of the General Staff is naturally subordinate to the emperor, so as long as the emperor sends an edict, the whole general staff can be replaced, and those officials will not have any power to fight back, and this does not have to go through the approval of the cabinet.

The current high-ranking officials of the General Staff are either Sun Chengzong's old subordinates or his protégés, and he naturally does not want these people to make a wrong choice and thus provoke the emperor to purge the General Staff.

And Shenyang, which was talked about by Sun Chengzong and Chongzhen at this moment, was actually worse than what the monarch and the minister talked about. At the beginning, Fan Yongdou issued banknotes, in addition to monopolizing the trade power between the Manchus and the Ming Dynasty, he also monopolized the trade between the Mongolian tribes in Liaodong and the Ming Dynasty.

What's worse is that relying on the Manchu people's military deterrence of the Mongol tribes, Fan Yongdou also adopted the method of forcibly implementing paper money in the Mongolian tribes, using paper money to extract a large number of skins and livestock from the Mongolian tribes, thus plundering a large amount of wealth.

However, unlike the Ming Dynasty's overseas implementation of paper money, the Manchus themselves were not able to produce many materials, and the only competitive armor and iron tools were restricted from being sold to the Mongol tribes. Therefore, it was difficult for these Qing Yuan, who had reached the hands of the Mongolian tribes, to exchange the materials needed by the tribes in Shenyang.

Therefore, after the collapse of the Great Qing Yuan, many Mongolian tribes cried to Huang Taiji that the Great Qing Yuan in their hands was now worthless, and they were willing to hand over all the Great Qing Yuan in their hands to the Qing court, as long as the Qing court gave them the materials that could allow their tribes to survive this winter.

Among these Mongolian tribes, the princes of the Horqin tribe suffered the most. After the alliance between the Horqin tribe and the Houjin, they have never encountered war, and after Huang Taiji ascended the throne, he received a lot of rewards. Coupled with some of the livestock breeds sent back by Hailanzhu from Daming, the Horqin Department became extremely wealthy for a while.

However, because of the marriage relationship between these Horqin princes and nobles and the Manchu relatives and nobles, the novelty of stocks has made some Horqin princes and nobles living in Shenyang follow the trend and enter the market. Although the Horqin people are the in-laws of the Manchus, when they encounter the stock market crash, the Manchu relatives and nobles do not remember that they are their in-laws.

In order to be able to run away smoothly, some people even deliberately concealed the news so that the princes and nobles of Horqin could take over. As a result, the wealth accumulated by the Horqin tribe for more than 20 years was wiped out overnight. The door of the eldest concubine Borzigit clan and the aunt and nephew of the Zhuang concubine Borzigit clan was overcrowded for a while, and it was all those victims of the Horqin princes and nobles who came to ask for justice.

It was precisely because of the resentment of these Mongol princes and the middle and lower class Manchus that Huang Taiji had to change his tune and agree to the policies of Yingordai to stabilize paper money. Dolgon's seizure of the Sihai Trading Company not only failed to obtain the large amount of materials that Huang Taiji wanted, but also caused a decisive counterattack by the Ming Dynasty, directly suspending trade between the two sides, which pushed up prices in Shenyang.

Huang Taiji had to open the treasury in the palace, but what he didn't expect was that even though the Great Qing Yuan had fallen to one-fifteenth of the previous face value, the materials in the palace treasury were also declining at an alarming rate. After discussing with Yingordai, Huang Taiji decided to implement the purchase restriction policy, and he also sent his own guards to investigate, wanting to know what was going on.

So he soon discovered that at this juncture, there were still Manchu people who didn't want to share their worries for the country, and they were still making a fortune there. The members of Aixin Jueluo, represented by Manggu Zigege, are giving priority to exchanging the Great Qing Yuan in their hands for various materials by virtue of their own identity. The people who love the Xinjueluo family are still like this, and the other Manchurian relatives will naturally follow suit.

Two-thirds of the materials released in the palace fell into the hands of these people, and only the remaining one-third went to the market. Although Huang Taiji didn't understand how these people could save such a large sum of banknotes. But he was very clear about one thing, if he didn't interrupt these hands stretched out for stable monetary materials, even if the palace treasury was emptied, it would not be able to satisfy the appetite of these people.

And without the materials stored in the palace treasury, will anyone listen to what he, the Great Khan, speaks? After locking himself in his study and thinking about it all night, Huang Taiji summoned several henchmen early the next morning and ordered several things one by one. So on the day when Sun Chengzong was talking with the emperor, Mang Guzigege's house slave Leng Seng Ji suddenly ran to the Criminal Department, and said that Mang Guertai had formed a party with Beledeg and the princess and Sonomu before his death, and swore an oath to plot against him.

When Huang Taiji heard this, he was furious and ordered the generals Leng Seng Ji and Jiala Ezhen Tunbulu and Bakshi Aibali to be imprisoned for questioning, and after only one night, the Criminal Department obtained a definite confession. So Huang Taiji immediately ordered Dolgon and Zilharang to raid the Manggu Zige Mansion and arrest Mang Guzige and Zonomu Duling.