Cao Huachun cautiously mentioned to Emperor Chongzhen about appeasing the security army, but unexpectedly, it still caused a fierce reaction from the emperor. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Emperor Chongzhen's attitude towards the thieves has undergone a huge change process, from one extreme to another, at first he believed in the proposition of Yang He and others blindly appeased, and then the silver used to appease was spent, and many of the thieves who were appeased rebelled, Emperor Chongzhen was furious, and used Hong Chengchou, a ruthless man, to slash and kill the thieves, but the thieves were killing more and more. Fortunately, Cao Huachun was quite effective, and arranged for Jinyiwei to find out the situation of the thieves in Shanxi, and through remote command, Hong Chengchou, who did not contribute to the work, took action and won the victory of attacking and suppressing the thieves. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen had no interest in appeasing the thieves at this time.

"Your Majesty, this gang of thieves is different from other thieves, first of all, they are particularly strong in combat, and they did not fall behind in the battle of King Qin and the cavalry of Houjin at the beginning. Thirdly, although they were strong in battle, they seldom took the initiative to attack the officials and soldiers, nor did they plunder everywhere like other thieves, hiding in one branch and rarely moving, and they easily did not harm the officials and gentry and wealthy households. It shows that they always have a heart towards the court. And they also demanded to go to the front line to fight for His Majesty, which was not found in other thieves. Most of the other thieves asked to be arranged in a wealthy place, and then gathered strength, and when the time came, they rebelled again. In this case, we may implement the strategy of driving the tiger and devouring the wolf, and send them to Shandong to exterminate the rebels, no matter who wins or loses, it will be beneficial to the imperial court. Cao Huachun carefully explained to Emperor Chongzhen.

"Are they willing to put down the rebellion, without any conditions?" Cao Huachun's statement of driving the tiger and devouring the wolf moved Emperor Chongzhen, but the emperor was also frightened by the courtiers below, as long as the troops went out to fight, they would ask for food and salary, and the emperor was most lacking silver now. Therefore, when I heard that the thieves were willing to go on the expedition, the first thing that came to mind was whether or not to give money.

"They didn't put forward any conditions, they just didn't want to be under Hong Chengchou's hands, because they had fought with Governor Hong, and there were too many grievances between them to get along." Cao Huachun was happy in his heart, it seemed that the emperor's attitude had changed, and there was hope for success in this appeasement.

"Will this thief come to Shandong and join the thieves in Shandong to rebel together?" Chongzhen thought that if the strength of this rebel army was strengthened, the officers and soldiers would no longer be able to resist.

"Don't worry, most of the rebels in Shandong are from Liaodong, while the thieves in Shanxi are thousands of miles away from them, and they have no contact before, so it is impossible to trust each other. Moreover, we can only transfer the strength of the Shanxi thieves into Shandong to suppress the thieves, and leave their families and the old and weak in the same place, and they will not rebel again with the care of their families. Cao Huachun's strategy moved Chongzhen, he stood up and walked around the hall twice and asked, "What is the name of the leader of the thieves?" ”

"That gang of thieves calls themselves some kind of security army, and the leader is a young man named Zhang Chu." Cao Huachun replied.

"Yes, it's called Zhang Chu, I heard his name when I was King Qin. By the way, how did you know that Zhang Chu was going to accept the appeasement? Chongzhen, who was suspicious by nature, suddenly had a turn of his mind and thought of a serious question, how did Cao Huachun, who was in Beijing, stretch out his hand to Shanxi, could it be that the eunuch's activity ability has been strengthened again.

"This is also thanks to Your Majesty's Hongfu, Your Majesty sent Jinyiwei to Shanxi to investigate the situation of the thieves, Jinyiwei was quite effective, and sent a thousand households named Guo Zhiyi, not only to find out the situation of the thieves, but also to persuade the leader of the thieves to submit to the imperial court. Without His Majesty's wise decision, there would not have been today's results. Cao Huachun knew what the emperor was thinking, and quickly gave all the credit to the emperor.

"Jin Yiwei has made a lot of progress these days." The emperor praised Jinyiwei for a rare time.

Cao Huachun saw that the emperor's nerves relaxed, and he took the opportunity to say: "I have a plan that can enable Your Majesty to control this thief's team more firmly. ”

"What's your solution?" Emperor Chongzhen knew that Cao Huachun, who had been with him for many years, was still very flexible.

"My solution is to send eunuchs to this team as overseers." Cao Huachun tried to downplay the matter as much as possible.

"No, absolutely not, it will definitely not work to send eunuchs to supervise the army, and those ministers will be loud in my ears again." The Ming Dynasty originally had a tradition of sending eunuchs to supervise the army, but under the strong opposition of the ministers of the court and the central government, few eunuchs have now left the palace.

"This time the situation is different, it is a team of thieves who will not infringe on the interests of the ministers, if the courtiers are strongly opposed, you can ask them to explain why the eunuchs can't supervise the army, and tell them that whoever writes well will let whoever is in the army of this thief be the prisoner." Cao Huachun gave the emperor a bad idea to deal with the courtiers.

"It is really possible to stop the mouths of those courtiers, but the eunuchs sent must be loyal, clever and capable. Do you have the right person at your disposal? "Of course, the matter of selecting eunuchs has to ask the great eunuch Cao Huachun.

"I really have a suitable candidate for him, his name is Wang Chengen, who is only fourteen years old this year, but he is very loyal to His Majesty, and he has a flexible mind, and he is fully qualified for this position."

"Wang Chengen, this little eunuch I know, he is indeed smart and clever, you can explain it to him well, this matter can't be messed up." The emperor finally agreed to the matter of the eunuchs supervising the army. Cao Huachun couldn't help but be ecstatic in his heart, this seems to be a small change, and there have been three cases before. But it was the beginning of the expansion of the eunuchs' power.

"I'll make arrangements for this, and I will definitely live up to the grace of God." Cao Huachun hurriedly thanked the emperor and made the matter true by the way.

"Okay, you go and arrange it, reward Zhang Chu with a guerrilla official position, and let Wang Chengen set off with the army to monitor the team of this thief." Emperor Chongzhen made a decree. Cao Huachun was very happy to hear it, the matter of the eunuch leaving the palace has finally been settled, so the prestige of the eunuch will be greatly increased, and he also feels very helpless for Chongzhen Emperor Cao Huachun, why are you an emperor so mean to your courtiers. After Zhang Chu was in Queen Qin, everyone thought that he died in battle, and the court had chased it as a guerrilla, but now Zhang Chu's strength is strong again, the emperor only sealed Zhang Chu a guerrilla, and gave nothing, how can Zhang Chu be allowed to work hard. However, Cao Huachun's face was not a little unhappy, and he was always there to answer the emperor's questions carefully.

Cao Huachun said that Emperor Chongzhen recruited the security army, among which it is not important to Cao Huachun whether the security army returns to obedience or not, the important thing is that this time the emperor has the idea of letting the eunuch accompany the army as a supervisor, which is very beneficial to expanding the power of the eunuch. (To be continued.) )