The sky began to slowly change color, and a touch of red glow appeared in the west, and the entire Yanjing City was bathed in a glow.

More than a dozen porters carried two dark green sedan chairs and hurriedly came to the right gate of Chang'an on the west side of Chengtianmen and stopped, and Fan Fucui and Yang Sichang walked out of the sedan chair.

The two of them looked at each other with heavy faces, and after looking at each other, they sighed in unison and walked into the imperial city together. In the Ming Dynasty, the cabinet was in the east of the noon gate, for the sake of secrecy, non-cabinet ministers were not allowed to be inside, but Fan Fucui and Yang Sichang were the first assistants, and the other was the second assistant, so naturally there was no such concern, but it was not so easy to meet the emperor, and they had to hand over the sign to ask for a meeting, and then wait for a reply.

After handing over the sign, the two sat together in the cabinet, although the two sat opposite each other, but they were not interested in speaking, just sat silently on the stool and drank the tea brought by the attendant.

About a meal later, a eunuch came out of it, and the two of them quickly arrived at the platform to meet the driver, and the two hurriedly got up and followed the eunuch into the palace. When he walked over from the west side of the Imperial Palace, passed through the Youshun Gate, and walked to the front of the platform, Emperor Chongzhen was already sitting on the Panlong Throne waiting. Behind the throne there are eunuchs holding umbrellas and fans, and there are many eunuchs standing on both sides of the throne. Two one-person-high bronze crane incense burners are emitting fine smoke, the hall is full of strange fragrances, and there are two rows of brocade guards standing outside the hall, and the honor guard in their hands is shining golden in the sunset sun. The two of them performed the regular court salute on Danbu, holding ivory in their hands, bowing their heads and kneeling on the ground paved with white marble, waiting for questioning. Hearing the edict of the chief eunuch telling him to break into the hall, the two of them hurried up again, bowed down and climbed the steps from the left, entered the hall, and saluted again, not daring to raise their heads.

Yang Sichang's heart was very worried, this time, Chongzhen did not summon the two of them in the Nuanxiang Pavilion, but summoned them on the platform, obviously Chongzhen didn't want to treat what he was about to say as a trivial matter, and sure enough, soon Chongzhen's tired and depressed voice sounded in front of the two.

"Yang Sichang, Fan Fucui, I have recruited you to come this time, you two must already know what the so-called thing is, right?"

The two of them said in unison: "The ministers already know! ”

"The year before last, the thieves stole Shaanxi, and now they are leading hundreds of thousands of thieves to commit my Gyeonggi land, I am really ashamed of my ancestors of the Ming Dynasty." Speaking of this, Chongzhen's eyes immediately turned red.

Seeing that the emperor was about to shed tears, Yang Sichang and the others were so frightened that they quickly knelt down again, kowtowed, and said: "The ministers deserve death, and the ministers deserve death!" ”

"Alright, get up." Chongzhen shook his head gently: "The state affairs have been corrupted to this point, it is not my sin, nor is it completely the responsibility of the minister, but the will of heaven is so, the will of heaven is so!" Once upon a time, it has become common for Tartars to offend my Daming, but now even a group of desperate thieves who have been chased by me dare to invade my Gyeonggi Heavy Land, is Daming really going to die in my hands? ”

Listening to the unprecedented discouragement in Chongzhen's words and the confusion about the future of the Ming Dynasty, Fan Fucui, as the first assistant, naturally took the primary responsibility, and choked up and said: "Long live the lord, don't be so sad, the thieves are just a group of rabble, our capital city has thick walls, and there are still hundreds of thousands of Beijing camps guarded, what can the thieves do." ”

Listening to Fan Fucui's words, Yang Sichang was just silent on the side, now even the vendors who sell baked cakes in the capital know that those old soldiers in the Beijing camp may not even be able to beat the scoundrels on the street, if they can rely on the sow, they will also go up the tree, and now I believe that the only one who believes that the Beijing camp still has combat effectiveness is Chongzhen, the emperor who is kept in the dark.

But Fan Fucui said this, and Yang Sichang also listened to it as a joke on the side, but if it was serious, it would be really stupid.

After hearing Fan Fucui say this, Chongzhen's hanging heart was also a little lighter, but then he asked: "Although Fan Aiqing's words are reasonable, but Jingying has not experienced a battle formation for a long time, and now the thieves are menacing, I still can't rest assured." Speaking of this, Chongzhen said to Yang Sichang: "Yang Aiqing, you have always known about military affairs, do you think you can send soldiers and horses from Xuanda and Shanxi to the capital to Qinwang?" ”

Yang Sichang thought about it, smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Your Majesty, now the Tartars are frequently haunting Shanhaiguan, Guanning, and Xuanda, and Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of Xuanda, and others are still shouting for soldiers and salaries, and now they want to send them to King Qin, I'm afraid it will be difficult." ”

Speaking of this, Yang Sichang shook his head, and said after a while: "If you want to mobilize soldiers and horses from Xuanda and Shanxi to help, unless you have to raise a large amount of grain, grass and silver, but now the treasury has long been out of silver, this"

Chongzhen said with a calm face: "Aiqing, if I insist on mobilizing those soldiers and horses to gallop to help, how many silver taels do I need?" ”

Yang Sichang thought for a while: "If you really want to mobilize those soldiers and horses to help, I'm afraid you won't be able to mobilize less than one million taels of silver." ”

"One million taels of silver!" Chongzhen had a shocked look on his face, "How can you need so many silver taels?" ”

Yang Sichang smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, to mobilize tens of thousands of troops on the nine sides, there are so many trivial things to prepare, one million taels of silver, this is still the amount that the old minister has repeatedly cut off some expenses. ”

Chongzhen stood up, kept pacing beside the dragon chair, and finally stopped to look at the sunset outside the hall, and said softly: "One million one million." ”

After Chongzhen stopped his footsteps, he sighed lightly and shook his head: "Now that the treasury and my inner treasury have no silver, why not!" ”

"Otherwise, how about we issue an edict here, ordering the world to do the best in the world?" Fan Fucui on the side also provided an idea.

"I'm afraid it's not!" Yang Sichang frowned and said: "Over the years, the emperor has summoned the world's soldiers and horses twice to the king, but those were all edicts issued when the Tartars violated the customs. ”

"This doesn't work, that doesn't work, so what do you want me to do? Is it just relying on the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp? Chongzhen was furious, and he glared at the two cabinet ministers in front of him. His patience had been exhausted by this bad news, and now when he heard his two cabinet ministers say that this would not work or that, the pent-up anger could not help but explode immediately.

"Poof!" Yang Sichang and Fan Fucui knelt on the ground again and bowed their heads silently, looking at the pitiful appearance of the two, Chongzhen shouted angrily: "What kind of cabinet ministers do you have, you can't even think of a charter, what do I want you to do?" If you can't think of it again, you can keep kneeling! ”

After speaking, Chongzhen sat on the dragon chair angrily, a trace of abnormal flush appeared on his pale face, staring at the two kneeling on the ground, Wang Chengen, who was standing behind Chongzhen, looked at the whiteness of Chongzhen's temples with some sighs, Chongzhen's hair is now only thirty years old, and his hair has turned half white, in order to cover his white hair, Chongzhen wears a hat except for sleeping, these are only he who grew up with Chongzhen since he was a child and several ladies in the palace know how bitter the heart of the Ming Ninety-Five Zun is.

After kneeling for a long time, Yang Sichang sighed low before saying, "Your Majesty, the old minister has an idea at this time, but he still needs the emperor's consent." After speaking, Yang Sichang closed his mouth again.

Chongzhen was anxious and shouted: "Yang Sichang, when did you become a new little daughter-in-law, you said!" ”

"Then the old minister said." Yang Sichang raised his head and coughed lightly twice before saying: "Your Majesty, we can't move the soldiers and horses on the nine sides, but we still have soldiers and horses in Jiangnan, isn't Hong Chengchou also the governor of Jiangnan at the moment, he has been to Jiangnan for more than a year, and the soldiers and horses should be almost trained." The emperor can immediately issue an order for Hong Chengchou to immediately lead his troops north, and arrive in the capital by boat along the Caoyun canal, so that our reinforcements will be available soon! ”

"That's right!"

Chongzhen slapped his thigh and said in surprise: "Yes, Hong Chengchou has been in Jiangnan for more than a year, and he also took away my Shenji Battalion, and now it has been more than a year, presumably it is time to train an elite army for me, yes, transfer Hong Chengchou here!" ”

After Yang Sichang's reminder, Chongzhen remembered that he had already sent his military department to Jiangnan for military training more than a year ago, presumably with the wealth of Jiangnan, he would definitely be able to train an elite army.

Looking at Chongzhen, whose mood had become much more excited, Yang Sichang swallowed his saliva before he stiffened his head and said: "Your Majesty, the old minister still has the following, please forgive me." ”

"Well, you say!"

Chongzhen, who became excited, didn't notice Fan Fucui, who was kneeling on the ground and looking at the ground expressionlessly, nor did he notice Yang Sichang, whose face became a little weird, Yang Sichang hesitated for a moment, and secretly complained in his heart, but he had to pretend to be calm and said: "But the passage of the canal is to pass through Jinan, where it is Pang Gang's territory, if he is so cut off in the middle of the road"

Breathing seemed to stop the death-like silence in the hall, and it was only then that Chongzhen remembered that the current Shandong was no longer the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the guy named Pang Gang had already stolen it and regarded it as his own reading kingdom. If Hong Chengchou passed through the river with a mighty army, and he used a few thick iron cables on the river in a slightly narrow place, and then installed dozens of Hongyi cannons on both banks, the sweat on Chongzhen's head flowed down when he thought about it.

Chongzhen gritted his teeth loudly, "Pang Gang, it's Pang Gang again, is he born to be against me?" ”

(To be continued)