Anyang is rich in coal, iron and limestone, and is located at the intersection of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan provinces.

Yu Xiang had a smooth journey and soon arrived in Anyang, where Ah Niu led the staff to greet him.

After Yu Xiang took a short rest, he inspected the Anyang Steelmaking Plant, the Anyang Grain Protection Area and the construction of Anyang County. Yu Xiang attaches great importance to the construction of Anyang, and it is very likely that it will become the bridgehead of Yu Xiang from Henan to the north in the near future.

If the historical trajectory does not change, next year, that is, the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji will order Dolgon to conquer the Ming Dynasty in the south, and Dolgon and Yue Tuo will lead troops to enter the pass from Qiangziling and Dongjiakou, plunder Shanxi, break Jinan, and kill Lu Xiangsheng, the chief soldier of the Ming Dynasty; Then he swept Tianjin and Qian'an to the north, returned out of Qingshan Pass, swept thousands of miles back and forth, and returned to Liaodong in March of the twelfth year of Chongzhen; A total of 36 cities were captured, 6 were surrendered, and countless people and property were plundered.

Yu Xiang decided to build Anyang into a military base, transferred the steel king Li, Kong Huayang and others to Anyang, set up a firearms manufacturing branch, and left Liu Guoneng in Anyang to train and garrison.

It is necessary to further establish grain protection areas around the Wei River, the Zhanghe River, the Huan River, the Tang River, the Qi River, and other water-rich river basins, and make good preparations for a war with the Qing troops next year. In the face of the war in the coming year, full of uncertainty, the Manchu iron cavalry led by Huang Taiji is not the same level as the combat effectiveness of the rebel army led by Zhang Xianzhong.

The defeat of the Ming Dynasty army was not completely defeated in the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty army, and the Ming Dynasty's internal strife, the courtiers' disagreement, and mutual tilting were also extremely important factors of defeat.

In the history of later generations, in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, in the face of the continuous invasion of the Qing army, some ministers in the DPRK and the central government, led by Yang Sichang, the first assistant, strongly advocated that they should first settle the interior and then the outside, and negotiate peace with the Qing army. Emperor Chongzhen couldn't make up his mind and summoned Lu Xiangsheng to discuss, but Lu resolutely fought the main battle, but Chongzhen asked him to discuss with Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian, who were in charge of peace. The result can be imagined, the two sides have their own opinions, do not compromise with each other, and the DPRK discussion has not reached a conclusion.

Emperor Chongzhen asked Lu Xiangsheng to lead his army to garrison Changping, and fought many battles against the invading Qing army, all of which were victorious, but at a heavy price, the 20,000 troops he led also suffered more than 15,000 casualties. Yang Sichang not only did not report the news of Lu Xiangsheng's victory over the Qing army, but falsely accused Lu Xiangsheng of standing still, and used this to cut off his provisions. Lu Xiangsheng had to lead a force of less than 5,000 men to fight against the Qing army without food and grass.

On December 11, the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng moved to Julu Jiazhuang, and he had been out of food for seven days, relying on the people's voluntary donation of grain mixed with ice and snow for food, even so, none of the Lu soldiers rebelled.

The eunuch Gao Qiqian commanded tens of thousands of troops in Jize, less than fifty miles away from Jiazhuang, Lu Xiangsheng sent Yang Tinglin to ask for help, but Gao Qiqian ignored him. Lu Xiangsheng knew that the defeat was decided, and cried in the army, but still vowed to fight to the death with the Qing army.

Later, the cauldron was sunk, and the village was dispatched to fight the Qing army in a decisive battle at the Artemisia Water Bridge. Lu Xiangsheng's 5,000 soldiers were surrounded three times by tens of thousands of cavalry of the Qing army. Lu Xiangsheng commanded the soldiers to fight bravely, shouting and killing was earth-shattering, from morning to night, the cannonballs were exhausted, the arrows were shot out, and the enemy was hand-to-hand combat, and finally outnumbered, with four arrows and three swords on the body, and fell to death.

After the war, Yang Tinglin and his subordinates found Lu Xiangsheng's body on the battlefield, but Yang Sichang resolutely framed Xiangsheng for escaping from the formation, and sent three people, including soldier Yu Zhenlong, to check. Yu Zhenlong was not afraid of obscenity, insisted on identifying Xiangsheng's body, Yang Sichang was furious, beat him to death for three days and nights, and Yang Guodong, the general manager of Qian, was sentenced to death because he refused to obey Yang Sichang's will to modify the Tang newspaper and insisted that Xiangsheng had died in battle.

Yu Xiang knows this history well, every time he thinks of the iron-blooded general Lu Xiangsheng's tragic death because of internal strife, his heart aches, so he decided to camp troops in Anyang, Anyang is only three hundred miles away from Julu, once there is a real war, lead the troops to help, and the cavalry can arrive in a day and night.

Yu Xiang's actions in Anyang caused Chongzhen to be extremely uneasy, and his understanding was that Yu Xiang was stationed in Anyang, and he had a sword pointing at the capital, endangering the safety of the capital. He summoned Yang Sichang in the imperial study.

Yang Sichang entered the imperial study, and when he saw Chongzhen's worried face, he was attentive. After the great gift of the monarch and the minister, Chongzhen gave Yang Sichang a seat and tea, which was extremely unusual, and Yang Sichang paid attention to it everywhere and figured out the holy will.

As soon as Yang Sichang tasted it, he knew that it was Xincun green tea, and he was busy praising it: "Good tea, good tea!" ”

Chongzhen said with a calm face: "Tea is good tea, if you have a bad stomach and drink green tea, it will be harmful to your body!" ”

Yang Sichang was stunned for a moment, heard the extraneous words, and said: "Governor Yu is in Henan, pacifying bandits, fighting drought and disaster relief, and he has made a lot of contributions, but the scale of his army has developed too fast, and it is no longer a local guard station, which makes Weichen deeply worried. He is worthy of being a veteran of officialdom, he quickly understood Chongzhen's intentions, and in one sentence, he was in Chongzhen's mind.

Chongzhen said: "Yu Xiang is indeed a capable member, but the new policy of Henan is contrary to the law of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, I am worried that allowing Yu Xiang to go his own way will encourage his arrogance. This undoubtedly makes it clear that the privileges of Henan will be recovered.

Yang Sichang was taken aback when he heard this, Emperor Chongzhen's attitude changed so much, he was very surprised, he thought for a while and said: "As far as Weichen knows, the reason why Henan has achieved such achievements is because of its steel-making and gun-making skills. And Henan is the important place of grain endowment in the imperial court, and now the imperial court is short of money and food everywhere, Yu Xiang has a good governance, and this year's taxes should not be reduced. "This move will have to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle, and it will have to make steel and guns, which will have an impact on Henan's commerce and military, and pay money and grain, so that it will be in financial difficulties.

Chongzhen felt that this method was feasible, and he cared more about using it to test Yu Xiang's loyalty, but he knew that he had to deal with things in a certain way, and he couldn't force Yu Xiang to rebel, which was also what Chongzhen didn't want to see.

Chongzhen drafted a decree and ordered Zhao Jiacheng to be the herald, came to Anyang, and read the decree to Yu Xiang.

The gist of the decree is that the imperial court affirmed Yu Xiang's achievements in Henan, and paid great attention to the method of steelmaking and gun-making, hoping to contribute this method of steel-making and gun-making to the imperial court, carry it forward, enhance the armed forces of the Ming Dynasty, and make the barbarians dare not invade. In addition, the imperial court's finances are tight, and Yu Xiang will pay this year's grain as soon as possible to solve the urgent needs of the imperial court.

After Yu Xiang received the holy decree, he was very conflicted in his heart, if he handed over the method of making steel and making guns, Henan's advantage of deterring the Quartet would be lost, and what was serious was that once these technologies were stolen by the Qing people, the consequences would be unimaginable, and the fall of the Ming Dynasty would be accelerated. In addition, Emperor Chongzhen knew that there was a great drought in Henan this year, and it stands to reason that he should distribute relief grain and silver.

Although Henan has carried out the construction of grain protection areas and obtained some grain, it is still far from enough, not to mention that the victims who have come to Henan are not Henan provinces, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and even the south of the disaster have poured into Henan, Henan bears the heavy responsibility of disaster relief in the Ming Dynasty, if Chongzhen understands a little, he will not make this decision.

Yu Xiang was in a dilemma, and secretly summoned Wang Chengen and Li Yan to discuss countermeasures, and he trusted Wang Chengen very much, believing that he was a sensible person who would focus on the overall situation.

Yu Xiang expressed his worries and the current predicament.

Wang Chengen expressed his understanding, and pointed out that if the resistance is not complied with, it will bring serious consequences, first of all, Emperor Chongzhen can not pass the pass, from now on, Emperor Chongzhen will be estranged, and it will be difficult for the monarch and ministers to work together in the future, and secondly, those ministers who impeached him before will make a comeback, without the impeachment supported by Emperor Chongzhen, the consequences are unimaginable, and if it is not good, it will cause a nationwide resistance. The strangulation of Yu Xiang movement, Yuan Chonghuan is an example.

Li Yan said: "It should be the best and most mature thing to enter the long live, and it is better to dedicate the crucible steelmaking method and flint gun making technology to Long live." What he means is the dedication of technologies that have become obsolete. This approach is undoubtedly a compromise approach, and Yu Xiang agrees with Li Yan's approach. Advanced technology cannot be given in any way.

Wang Chengen continued: "Being in Henan, I know that it is not easy to fight drought and provide disaster relief in Henan. ”

Yu Xiang said: "Since the court is difficult, it is the duty of the ministers to share the worries of the emperor, but there is indeed a shortage of food, so I can only fold the grain into silver and pay it." I preliminarily converted, in previous years, Henan alone, in previous years, paid about 300,000 taels of silver, this year Henan suffered a disaster that has not encountered a hundred years, can it be converted into 20 taels. ”

Wang Chengen knows that this 200,000 taels is not a small amount, this is the deposit of the Henan Postal Savings Bank, and if there is a run on cash, there will be problems in Henan's financial system. Wang Chengen also sensed some clues about Emperor Chongzhen's sudden change of attitude, and sighed, not to say anything.

A few days later, two brocade boxes were tightly sealed, one brocade box was the crucible steel-making method, and the other brocade box was the flint spear manufacturing method, 200,000 taels of silver were pulled by more than ten carriages, and Zhuge Shanzhen carried 2,000 fires. The spearmen were escorted to the border of the capital and handed over to the officers and soldiers of the capital to escort them, and then they turned back.

Through this incident, Yu Xiang noticed the change in the emperor's attitude, and he knew Chongzhen very well because he was suspicious, it seemed that there had been a great change in Yu Xiang's trust, and he must also keep a hand, which was not only related to his personal safety, but also endangered the lives of thousands of people. The imperial system for a country, the blessing and misfortune of the people of the country, the whole body is the body of the emperor, if it is a bright monarch, it is the blessing of all the people, if it is a faint monarch, it is a disaster for all the people.

This Emperor Chongzhen, is it a monarch of the people or a faint monarch?

Yu Xiang issued an order to block the news of Henan's steelmaking, gun making, artillery manufacturing, and military training, which were listed as top secrets, and the leakage of technology was strictly prohibited. And let Jia Binjiu establish a series of confidentiality measures to strictly guard against any cutting-edge technology leakage, which is a last resort.

When Emperor Chongzhen received the silver, he became uneasy again, Yu Xiang sent so many silver taels so quickly, and he was shocked by the speed.

He invited Yang Sichang to discuss, Yang Sichang has smelled the change in Chongzhen's attitude, and his attitude towards Yu Xiang has also changed greatly, but at present, it is inconvenient for him to show this attitude, if the people in the court notice the change in his attitude, they will attack him for the crime of negligence, and he is only afraid that his position as the secretary of the military department will not be guaranteed, and if he does not do it, he will be ruined and his family will suffer.

Yang Sichang had to euphemistically persuade Chongzhen to maintain the emperor's prestige, first observe Yu Xiang's next move, and then make plans, and stabilize Yu Xiang as a top priority.

Chongzhen also meant this, and the next morning, he Yang Yang Xiang in front of hundreds of civil and military officials, saying that he took the initiative to present the method of steelmaking and gun making to the imperial court, and also paid 200,000 taels of silver, so that the people in the court thought it was a model.

The people in the court are not surprised, the drought in Shaanxi, the imperial court fills in hundreds of thousands of taels of disaster relief silver and hundreds of thousands of stones of grain every year, but in Henan, not a grain of grain has been given, not a penny has been spent, and 200,000 taels of silver have been put into the account, which is incredible.

However, these ministers are not fools, and they have some clues from them, but they are just looking for an opportunity to verify their guesses, and some ministers are ready to act in private.