On the second day after the emperor summoned, Yuan Chonghuan received the imperial court's holy decree to reissue the arrears of the border towns under the jurisdiction of the trilateral governors, and first went to Tongzhou to go through the procedures for understanding the silver, and then went to Zunhua Baiye City to meet Li Banghua, the minister of military aircraft, and received a large number of weapons, armor and other items from Baiye City. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Finally, under the escort of 2,000 men and horses of the Beijing guerrilla Zhou Yuji's department, Yuan Chonghuan and his entourage, with a group of people recruited from Tongzhou, escorted more than 40 oxen and horses carts, and set off to Guyuan, the residence of the governor of the three sides, to take office.

This was Yuan Chonghuan's first trip to the northwest, and of course it was also Zhou Yuji's first mission out of Beijing after he went to Beijing to fight guerrillas.

Zhou Yuji's name is naturally thunderous for the current Chongzhen Emperor, and the last fierce resistance against the peasant army before the death of the Ming Dynasty was the Battle of Ningwuguan commanded by Zhou Yuji.

After the fall of Ningwuguan, the Ming court in Beijing had no power to return to heaven. Zhou Yuji, the general of Shanxi Province, as the general of Ningwu Pass, faced the hundreds of thousands of peasant troops under the personal command of Li Zicheng, and held Ningwu Pass for several months, and finally ran out of food, and the peasant army finally learned to blow up the city wall with gunpowder under the guidance of the Ming generals, and Ningwu Pass finally fell.

More than 8,000 people under Zhou Yuji's command were all killed in battle, and the residents in Ningwu Pass were all slaughtered by the thieves under Li Zicheng because of their participation in the defense of the city.

Zhou Yuji was seriously injured and captured, Li Zicheng personally persuaded him to surrender, and Zhou Yuji scolded unyieldingly, and finally was not only beheaded, but also his body was decomposed, and his head hung high in Ningwu Pass for several months, deterring those cities who dared to resist.

Of course, this time let the Beijing battalion send a general, with 2,000 cavalry, out of Beijing to escort Yuan Chonghuan to the post, of course, the order is from the military aircraft department, but who to send specifically, Emperor Chongzhen is high, naturally he does not know, if he knows that such a fierce general is serving in the Beijing camp under his nose, he will be ecstatic.

Zhang Weixian, the governor of the Beijing battalion, dispatched elites from the three major battalions of the entire Beijing Division, and only then did he gather enough of such 2,000 cavalrymen who could still get on horses and drive bows, and there were many generals who fought for power and profit in ordinary times, but they couldn't find a suitable candidate from the homes of the noble and military ministers, either they didn't like it and didn't want to go, or they didn't dare to go because they were worried about the dangers on the road, or they couldn't get on the horse and couldn't open the bow and were incompetent.

So in the end, under the recommendation of Wen Zhenmeng, he entrusted this errand to Zhou Yuji, who had nothing to do with it, but was appreciated by Wen Zhenmeng.

To say that Zhou Yuji can be regarded as having been helped by nobles many times.

Zhou Yuji was originally a hereditary military family of Jinzhou Wei in Liaodong, joined the army since he was a child, fought with Jianyu, and was promoted to garrison all the way because of his merit during Sun Chengzong's supervision of Jiliao.

In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, Sun Chengzong left Liaodong, and after Gao Di, the secretary of the Ministry of War, took a fancy to this honest Liaodong man and chose him to be his own guerrilla in the Chinese army.

However, later Gao Di was influenced by Wang Zaijin and others, and thought that the outside of the pass could not be defended, so he abandoned the cities of Dalinghe, Guangning, Jinzhou, etc., and the whole army retreated, intending to shrink the Ningjin defense line in front of Shanhaiguan. Later, the Jin army took the initiative to attack when he heard the news, and Gao Di abandoned the city and left, and fled all the way back to Guannai under the escort of Zhou Yuji. Fortunately, Yuan Chonghuan and others stuck to Ningyuan, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

Gao Di, who withdrew from the Guan, naturally lost his official position and resigned and returned to his hometown to live idle, while Zhou Yuji, who kept him from escaping back to the Guan, was not very responsible for his crimes, so Gao Di used his connections in the court and China to arrange an idle post for him in the Beijing camp.

Historically, it was not until Chongzhen led his army to invade Gyeonggi in the winter of the second year that Zhou Yuji could meet the opportunity to fight and emerge.

Now that the new emperor has reorganized the Beijing camp after ascending the throne, Wen Zhenmeng, the superintendent of the army, recruited 15,000 young men in Gyeonggi to enrich the three major battalions of the Beijing Division, and ordered the recruitment of 3,000 young men to build a standard battalion for the supervision of the army.

After the end of the training, Wen Zhenmeng, who was born in the champion, and Zhou Yuji, who was simple and less literate but upright and conscientious by nature, were more satisfied, and directly appointed Zhou Yuji as the general of the Chinese army in charge of the standard battalion.

This time, Wen Zhenmeng even recommended him to take on the task of escorting Yuan Chonghuan to his post, so that after returning to Beijing in the future, it can be regarded as a merit and can be boldly promoted and appointed.

Yuan Chonghuan and his entourage, escorted by Zhou Yuji's troops, had just left the Beijing Division, and the original ministers of the Jiliao Governor Wang, as well as the Liaodong Governor Bi Zisu, arrived in the Beijing Division.

Ning Yuan is not close to the Jingshi, but it is not far away, and the group rode a high-headed horse, and arrived in Tongzhou on six or seven days, rested in Tongzhou for a while, and entered the city to meet the emperor the next day.

It has now become a common practice for the officials of the feudal frontier to enter Beijing to meet and resign, and if there are no exceptions, the cabinet ministers must accompany them, and if they are related to the military, then the military ministers must also participate.

The new governor of Liangguang and the envoy of Lianghuai salt naturally belong to the ranks of the feudal officials. As a result, the study room of the East Warm Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace is now full of court ministers.

Wang Zhichen is exactly the appearance of a traditional civil official in Emperor Chongzhen's impression, not tall, white and fat, with three wisps of beard, and a calm demeanor. Bi Zisu was tall and thin, with a clear face and a little nervous.

After everyone saluted together, Emperor Chongzhen said to the two: "Although Wang Aiqing and Bi Aiqing have been in office in Liaodong for less than a year, their performance is remarkable, and there are frequent personnel changes in the imperial court, and the two Aiqing are far away in Liaodong, but they have also been immovable like a mountain, ensuring the stability of the Ningjin defense line. This is the credit of the two Aiqing. ”

Wang Zhichen and Bi Zisu glanced at each other, and finally Wang Zhichen bowed down and replied, "Your Majesty has a good reputation. When the ministers went to Liaodong, it was the Ningjin victory that had just settled, and the Jianyu had not been defeated for a long time under my Ming Jiancheng, and he was temporarily unable to initiate another attack, and the ministers served in Liaodong, but they were just Xiao Gui Cao Sui, and they had not expanded the land. Your Majesty, please be aware of it. ”

Since Wang Zhichen said so, of course Emperor Chongzhen didn't care very much, so he said: "The court has its own law for employing people. Now that the secretary and others have been transferred to other positions, they must still fulfill their duties and work diligently to make new contributions to the imperial court. ”

After speaking, without waiting for the two to react, Emperor Chongzhen continued: "Wang Aiqing went to serve as the governor of Liangguang this time, the first priority was to assist in the rear food and salary of the southwest rebellion army, and the second priority was to rectify the Liangguang Guard Station and coastal defense, especially to build sea ships, train sailors, and find opportunities to exterminate pirates in the coastal waters. In addition, displaced people can be recruited from Huguang and other places to go to Liangguang Tun Reclamation. After Aiqing took office, the states and counties to which she belonged should also take the reclamation of wasteland as the primary consideration.

At the same time, after Aiqing arrives in office, he can inspect Guangdong and Guangxi to see where it is suitable to set up a city shipping department, and I plan to set up a city shipping department in Guangdong and Guangxi to allow overseas merchant ships to dock and encourage maritime trade. Wang Aiqing must pay attention to handling these things well, and report them as soon as possible after taking office. ”

It seems that the emperor did not remove himself because he was dissatisfied with himself, or because he wanted to leave himself idle, so after listening to the emperor's words, he hurriedly bowed down and replied: "The minister's decree, thank you for your majesty's grace." ”

Seeing the decree of Wang Zhichen, Emperor Chongzhen nodded at him, turned his head to Bi Zisu and said: "After Bi Aiqing arrives in Yangzhou, he will restore the prosperity of Yangzhou's salt industry as soon as possible, and encourage Yangzhou salt merchants to transport grain to the towns on the three sides of Shaanxi as soon as possible in exchange for salt. I rectified the salt business, not to worry about the wealth of salt merchants, but to restart the opening of China and France.

"Bi Aiqing, you can discuss with the elder brother of the Ru family the method of introducing foreign salt merchants in Yangzhou, and the commercial houses, shops and salt merchants' houses that have been confiscated before should also be arranged for rental or sale as soon as possible, in short, they cannot be idle. The imperial court's finance and taxation depend on the salt administration, and in the future, the salt tax revenue of the salt transportation department will not be withheld by the provinces without the permission of the household department. The Lianghuai Salt Transportation Division has always been an important source of finance for the imperial court, and Bi Aiqing shoulders a heavy responsibility, so he must not slack off and repeat the mistakes of his predecessor. ”

The honest man Bi Zisu naturally nodded his head quickly. Emperor Chongzhen explained various precautions to Wang Zhichen and Bi Zisu in front of several ministers, and then gave the two of them the right to perform secretly, and let the two of them resign.