"Hmph, there must be a behind-the-scenes instigator behind this group of people, and they will be strictly punished and announced to the world!"

"Your Majesty, you don't regard the minister as the son of a criminal minister, but entrust you with a heavy task to restore Liaodong and destroy the Dongyu. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThose who are behind the scenes have no grudges against the ministers, and they have done these things just to obstruct the ministers' policy of raising taxes and training troops. Now at a critical time, if this matter is dealt with, it will be widely implicated, and I am afraid that it will hinder His Majesty's Zhongxing Daming! ”

When Chongzhen heard this, he understood what Yang Sichang meant, and now there are many ministers in the DPRK who oppose Yang Sichang's policy of raising taxes and training troops, if this matter is investigated, I am afraid that there will be too many implications, and how can this case of tax increase and military training continue under the panic of the people, if it is delayed, I am afraid that it will be over. He was very moved by Yang Sichang's attitude of not caring about personal gains and losses, and only focusing on his own Zhongxing Daming, and couldn't help but sigh: "Mr. Yang is really a minister of the society, but if it happens here, it will damage the reputation of the court and Mr., and I am very unwilling!" ”

"Your Majesty, the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty is a big matter, and the honor and disgrace of the ministers are small!" Yang Sichang said with a smile: "The minister came to Bi Shangshu's Mansion yesterday and finally persuaded Bi Weng that he was also willing to plan for tax increases and military training!" ”

"Oh, Bi Shangshu also agreed?" Chongzhen was overjoyed when he heard this, he knew that although Bi Ziyan often disagreed with him and made a blunt admonition, he was one of the top financial and tax experts in the Ming Dynasty. Chongzhen also knew that the people of the world had reached the edge of their endurance at that time, and the slightest carelessness would provoke a popular uprising, without the help of skilled bureaucrats like Bi Ziyan, a casual tax increase was only afraid that it would immediately provoke a greater popular uprising, and the gains outweighed the losses.

Yang Sichang smiled: "Not bad! On the way to the palace, the minister secretly thought that Bi Shangshu was willing to help, so he had two or three more points of certainty, and this time it was a blessing in disguise! ”

Seeing a smile on Yang Sichang's somewhat bruised face, Chongzhen couldn't help but sigh: "This time I really treated Mr. Yang badly!" ”

"Your Majesty! The old slave has a saying, I don't know whether to say it or not! Wang Chengen interjected, Chongzhen looked at him in surprise, it was not in line with the practice for the eunuch to take the initiative to speak when the Son of Heaven summoned the minister. He hesitated and said, "Wang Daban, say it!" ”

"Zi said: 'The gentleman leads but does not start, and leaps like that!' At present, Mr. Yang's policy of raising taxes and training troops is at a critical juncture, and it is indeed not suitable for extraneous branches. ”

"Hmm!" Chongzhen nodded with satisfaction and asked Yang Sichang, "Mr. Yang, what do you think of what Wang Daban said?" “

"What the prince said is a perfect strategy, and the ministers are impressed!"

"Okay, let's do it according to Wang Daban's method!" Chongzhen smiled lightly: "Mr. Yang, you and Bi Shangshu should hurry up the matter of raising taxes and training tactics, and strive to start this autumn when the grain comes down!" ”

"Obey the order!" Yang Sichang kowtowed: "But the minister still has two things, please ask Your Majesty to agree!" ”

"Mr. Yang, please speak!"

"The first is peace!" Yang Sichang paused slightly, his eyes swept over the palace maids and eunuchs on both sides, Chongzhen realized his scruples, nodded slightly to Wang Chengen, Wang Chengen waved the dust in his hand, and the palace maids and eunuchs on both sides retreated one after another, closed the palace door, and only Chongzhen, Wang Chengen and Yang Sichang were left in the huge main hall, which looked particularly deserted under the light on both sides.

"Mr. Yang, please speak!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Yang Sichang became serious: "Whether it is a tax increase or military training, it will take time to see results, so it is best to temporarily negotiate with the Dongyu as seen below, and implement a restraint policy, strive for two to three years, train 200,000 elite soldiers, it is best to exterminate the Liukou first, and then concentrate on dealing with the Dongyu." ”

"Well, what Mr. said is very true, but the chief is fierce, and he may not be willing to caress him, and if everyone knows about it, it will be rumored and discussed, but I'm afraid it's not so easy!"

"Your Majesty, this is a different time!" Yang Sichang saw that Chongzhen did not refuse, his spirit was shocked, and he hurriedly explained: "Yue Tuo is a noble breed among the captives, and his father shares two red flags, and his strength is strong. With him in our hands, we are not afraid that Huang Taiji will not allow it. As for the court meeting, the minister felt that he could send a reliable person with his cronies to go with His Majesty's edict, as long as he strictly kept the secret, he was naturally not afraid of the court meeting! ”

Chongzhen thought about it for a while, he knew in his heart that Da Ming's financial situation had reached an extremely dangerous situation, and it would naturally be best if he could negotiate with Hou Jin to negotiate a few years of respite. He thought for a moment and asked, "What Mr. said also makes sense, but who are you going to hand over this matter to?" ”

"Your Majesty, the minister intends to deal with it personally!" Yang Sichang paused a little and explained: "This is the second thing of the minister, the minister implores His Majesty to set aside a courtyard in the palace, and the minister intends to select capable and reliable people from the six departments, and then work there. First, it saves redundancy and improves efficiency; Second, there are fewer people who know, and it is naturally not easy to leak out! ”

"This is what Mr. said a few days ago, right?" Chongzhen smiled and said: "It's okay, I will allow you, if the foreign minister is impeached, I will say that the streets are quiet during this time, and there is a place to run an errand in the palace temporarily." Wang Daban-" Chongzhen said to Wang Chengen on the side: "This matter will be handed over to you, you will pick a place for Mr. Yang, closer to the Qianqing Palace, and connect it with Yongdao!" ”

"The old slave obeys!"

Yang Sichang saw that Chongzhen agreed to his request, and couldn't help but be secretly happy in his heart. For those who are familiar with the history books and the high-level politics of China, it is natural for him to understand how much victory he has won: for the vast majority of ancient Chinese dynasties, the Son of Heaven was the largest and only "legitimate" source of power, and all the power of his courtiers came directly or indirectly from the authorization of the Son of Heaven, so theoretically any decision made by an official must be approved by the Son of Heaven before it can take effect. But in practice this is impossible, because this will reduce the administrative efficiency to an unacceptable level, so in actual political life the Son of Heaven has to cede part of his power to the courtiers, so that they can appear as agents of the Son of Heaven, such as the Tiger Talisman, the Scepter, and the Sword of Shang Fang, which are the corresponding proxy credentials.

In order to ensure that his power was not usurped by the proxy, the Son of Heaven had to engage in a lengthy game with the proxy, usually by transferring power to the new to counterbalance the old one. It is not difficult to see that the actual power of an official in this political structure is not determined by his rank, but by his closeness to the Son of Heaven, after all, the closer to the Son of Heaven, the greater the likelihood of obtaining the power of the Son of Heaven. For example, Shang Shuling was originally just a subordinate official of the Shaofu, a petty official who managed books and documents for the Son of Heaven, and the crown Shang Guan Ling who was in charge of the emperor's various ceremonial dresses, the Shang Yi Ling who was in charge of the emperor's clothes, the Shang Shi Ling who was in charge of the emperor's diet, the Shang Mu order who was in charge of the emperor's bathing, and the Shang Xi Ling who was in charge of the emperor's sleeping utensils were collectively called the Six Shangs. However, in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to weaken the power of the prime minister, the internal court officials were set up, and the Shangshu was used to deal with the world's chapters, which became the center of central politics. However, with the weight of Shangshu Ling, the status of Zhongshu Ling, which was closer to the Son of Heaven, gradually rose, and by the time of Emperor Cao Pi of Wei Wen, Zhongshu, which was originally in charge of books by eunuchs, became the key to the management of secrets, and actually became the new center of power. After the abolition of the prime minister in the Ming Dynasty, the cabinet ministers were regarded as prime ministers because they were closer to the Son of Heaven than other ministers, and the reason why the eunuchs who held the seal of the celebrant was called "inner minister" was also because they were closer to the Son of Heaven than the ministers. Yang Sichang was able to get his office to the edge of the Qianqing Palace, shortening the physical distance from the Son of Heaven, and he was able to exert influence on Chongzhen from morning to night, and naturally approached the peak of power.

After Yang Sichang resigned, he walked out with excitement, just walked out of the palace, but heard someone behind him calling his name, and looked back to see that it was a little eunuch who was in the hall, he hurriedly stopped, and the little eunuch bowed to Yang Sichang, and said: "Mr. Yang, the master of our family asked the little one to bring you a word!" ”

Yang Sichang thought at first that this little eunuch was passing on the decree for Chongzhen, but he couldn't help but be stunned and asked, "Dare to ask, who is your sect master?" ”

"It's the prince of the celebrant eunuch!" The little eunuch smiled: "The sect master asked me to bring you a message: Sir, for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of your own gains and losses, although our family is a eunuch, we also know some loyalty, please don't worry too much about the things around the Son of Heaven, or spend more time on state affairs!" ”

"Thank you for the advice! I did this just because of the military emergency, and it was closer to the Son of Heaven in the palace, first, it was more convenient, and secondly, there were many people in the outer court, where could I do it? I'm still a hasty here, and I'm short of manpower, so why don't the princes send two capable people? I also know that this is not a long-term solution, after the pacification of the east, everyone enjoys peace, I will return to the hidden forest spring, never love the stack, if there is a violation of the oath, God will punish it!! Yang Sichang swore to the sky, and it was not difficult to hear the other party's vigilance against him from the words brought by Wang Chengentuo's subordinates, but this was also expected by him, after all, his actions obviously violated the power boundary of the celebrant supervisor, which was an extremely serious provocation in politics. The other party did not stumble on himself in front of Chongzhen and pull his hind legs, but reminded himself behind his back that he was already very magnanimous. If you don't show your attitude, you will be too ignorant of advancing and retreating.

The little eunuch firmly remembered what Yang Sichang said, and bowed again before going back. Looking at the back of the little eunuch, Yang Sichang breathed a sigh of relief and walked outside the palace.

Shengjing, Bunkan.

"Great Khan!" Fan Wencheng respectfully handed over a bound thin booklet with both hands.

"Mr. Fan, is this the information about that Liu Cheng?" Huang Taiji took the booklet, and with a pinch of his fingertips, he found that there were only six or seven pieces of paper, and his brows couldn't help frowning slightly.

"Exactly, these are the information that the ministers have compiled from the information they have collected over the years these days, and please ask the Great Khan to take a look!"

Huang Taiji nodded, stretched out his hand and opened the book to read. After entering the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Huang Taiji observed the changes in the situation in the Guannai every day, and he mainly relied on the meticulous work of the master in Beijing to obtain information, and he did not hesitate to reward the meticulous work of finding out important information. Especially after Yue Tuo and Kong Youde, who stayed in Helinger last winter, were wiped out by the Ming army, he paid more attention to the intelligence of Liu Cheng and Yang Sichang, who presided over the siege battle, as long as it was information about these two people, whether it was Yang Sichang's measures and disputes in the Beijing court, or how Liu Cheng had risen rapidly in the northwest in the past few years, Huang Taiji did not hesitate to reward him. Almost every two or three days, information was sent from the Xizuo lurking in Beijing, directly to the Wenguan, and after being processed and selected by a group of officials headed by Fan Wencheng, it was then sent to Huang Taiji. About a month ago, Huang Taiji received information that the Ming State was about to appoint Liu as the commander-in-chief of the Xuanda Army, and it was obvious that Chongzhen was planning to use this newly rising famous general to rectify the defense of this important town, considering the close relationship between the military general and the Mongols mentioned in the previous information, the next move of the Ming State was likely to be to compete with himself for the Mongolian left wing departments. He immediately ordered Fan Wencheng to step up the collection of information about the new Xuanda General Soldier, and anyone who could provide information could be given a bounty of double, triple, or even more. However, the information collected was still pitiful, and the sum of this booklet was only two or three thousand words, and many important information were still vacant, which made his brow furrow.

"Mr. Fan!" Huang Taiji put down the book and asked, "There are too few things in this booklet, right?" For example, where is this Liu Cheng from? Who are the parents? Do you have siblings? He has horses, how many soldiers does he have, and is he impatient or not? Do you like wine? How many books did you read when you were younger? Have you ever been in school? Why don't you mention any of this? The above thing you mentioned from the beginning said that he pacified the thieves in the northwest, could it be that he jumped out of the stone? ”

Fan Wencheng heard Huang Taiji's questioning, and hurriedly knelt down: "Qi Great Khan, his subordinates are incompetent, please ask the Great Khan to punish the crime!" ”

"Mr. Fan, get up!" Huang Taiji sighed and stretched out his hand to help Fan Wencheng up: "I didn't mean to blame you for what I said, but you can see that it only took more than three years for Liu Cheng to be promoted from a mere district to a town commander. And the world does not know his origin, presumably he is not a disciple of the general, but Dzungar Khan married his beloved daughter to him, it can be seen that his talent is rare, and he will become my great enemy of Dajin in the future, and he knows nothing about such a strong enemy, you teach me how to sleep in peace? (To be continued.) )