On October 15 of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the annual Xia Yuan Festival is the day when the water official relieves the emperor of Yanggu and the emperor. On this day, it has always been the Taoist dojo and the royal altar, and the folk sacrifice the undead, and pray for the Xia Yuan water official to solve problems. On this day, the imperial court will also specifically order the postponement of the execution date.

Early in the morning, Chongzhen led hundreds of officials and ministers to the Taimiao Temple to worship the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty and tell the ancestors. On the same day, Chongzhen took 365 Manchu Tartar captives brought back from Liaodong and Liaoxi to the Taimiao.

In the evening, Chongzhen led hundreds of officials to contribute three sacrifices, and paid tribute to the Ming soldiers who died in the battle of the Central Plains and the exile outside the Guan.

Just yesterday, Wu Sangui led Ning Yuan's elite cavalry to take the initiative to attack the Qing army's blue flag camp that had withdrawn from Jinzhou to Yizhou, and annihilated 500 Tartars in one fell swoop by virtue of the might of the cavalry and the sudden unpreparedness. The nearby Victory Fort Tartars came to the rescue, but they were ambushed by Wu Sangui's ambush arranged in advance, and successfully defeated more than 1,000 Tartars who came to aid and beheaded more than 100. The Tartars were defeated and retreated, abandoning the Great Victory Fort, which Wu Sangui then controlled.

This good news was rushed to Beijing by 800 miles, and Chongzhen was overjoyed when he heard the news.

In the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen glanced at Wang Zhixin who came in, then closed his eyes and leaned on the chair, was silent for a moment, and then opened his eyes again, "Play." ”

"Yes!"

Admiral Dongchang's Wang Zhixin tried his best to lower his voice and play carefully.

"The urgent letter sent back from Lushun, the two governors of Fu Fan and the two governors of Wang Lu have arrived in Lushun, and the governor of Liaodong, Chu Guogong, led the civil and military forces of Liaodong to greet them at the dock. That night, the state of Chu held a banquet for the governors and overseers. Before the banquet, Fu Duchen read the holy message to the Duke of Chu and others, and the Duke of Chu had gathered the elite of the soldiers and horses in the three towns of Liaodong, swore to go on the expedition, and went straight to Liaoyang by ship, and the first battle would attack Kong Youde and other four rebel generals stationed in Gaizhou"

Silent.

Chongzhen is used to not being in a hurry to express his position. After listening to the report, he pondered for a long time. Then he slowly raised his eyes and stared at Wang Zhixin, and asked, "What is the attitude of the Duke of Chu towards the fact that I transferred him to Liaodong and cut off the military power of one of his towns?" What is his attitude towards the two governors sent by the imperial court, Fu Zonglong and Fan Zhiwan, in the past? What is the attitude of the imperial court to let him immediately send troops to Liaoyang? ”

"It's business as usual." Wang Zhizi pondered for a moment, and finally replied. Although he had received a lot of silver from the Duke of Chu, he was telling the truth. He knew very well that he was the emperor's minions, "According to the emperor's wishes, the servants have successively installed a lot of people in Liaodong, according to the report there, Chu Ping often has many words of gratitude to the emperor, saying that without the emperor's exceptional promotion, there would be no him, the emperor has the grace of knowing him, and he was accepted by the emperor as a righteous son." also named the Duke of Jin, the Duke of Chu often said that His Majesty's kindness cannot be repaid, only loyalty to the king. ”

"Isn't he resentful of the fact that I have reduced his military power?"

"No, Chu Guogong has never had the slightest dissatisfaction in public or private."

"Okay, I know, you can go down." Chongzhen waved his hand and said.

The retribution of the king's heart made Chongzhen's heart feel a lot more steady. That night, Chongzhen went to the palace of Empress Zhou. Before going to bed, after the week, he personally washed Chongzhen's feet.

"Queen. What do you think of Chu Guogong? Chongzhen asked suddenly.

Zhou Hou, who was gently washing Chongzhen's feet, stopped when she heard this, she raised her head and looked at the emperor, "Why did Your Majesty ask about this?" ”

"Just tell me what you think of Chu Guogong."

"The concubine thinks that Jiye is His Majesty's Huo Qu's disease."

Chongzhen smiled, "The Duke of Chu is young and good at fighting, but not only that, he is also good at financial management. The genius of the sky. Does the empress know where the food and salaries that the imperial court now uses to pay the front-line soldiers come from? Let me tell you, almost all of them were obtained by the Duke of Chu. ”

Empress Zhou usually doesn't care much about state affairs, and she was a little surprised when she heard it.

"I am not exaggerating, the imperial court's annual silver income in Taicang is only more than two million taels. In the past, the annual expenditure was more than 20 million taels. Huge difference, in order to make up for this hole, the imperial court had to levy three salaries, Liao, Xuan, and Lian, more than 10 million taels a year. ”

"But I don't know that the thieves in the Central Plains have repeatedly suppressed grievances, and it has a lot to do with this. But over the years, no courtier has been able to solve this problem for me. Speaking of this, Chongzhen sighed.

Empress Zhou kneaded Chongzhen's feet and said, "Although the concubine is in the deep palace, she also knows that Your Majesty has canceled the salary before the year, and then reduced the salary by nearly half. I have heard that the people of the world praise it. ”

Chongzhen smiled bitterly, "This year, there was a major drought in several provinces, then a locust plague, and then a plague in Henan, Shaanxi and other places. The officials of the DPRK and China are all vying to say that they want to exempt the disaster areas from taxes and salaries, and the people of the world are all innocent, so how can I bear it. ”

"Fortunately, there is the Duke of Chu, if there is no money raised by the Duke of Chu issuing bonds, as well as the new customs duties and commercial taxes, I don't know how the imperial court will spend after the exemption of the three salaries and the taxes in most areas this year." Chongzhen has been in power for more than ten years, and he has long understood one thing, national affairs are based on money and food, and it is difficult to do it everywhere without money. "From last year to now, 30 million yuan of bonds have been issued, and these bonds are all issued by the Four Seas Bank, in other words, I, the lord of hundreds of millions of people, now owe the Four Seas Bank, a private private bank, 15 million taels of silver, and a large amount of interest is accumulating."

The great tomorrow still has to rely on borrowing private money.

"Where did this Four Seas Bank get so much silver?" Empress Zhou asked.

"Of course, the Four Seas Bank does not have so much silver, but these silver are actually rich people in the world, and of course there are many people's savings. Four Seas Bank borrowed from them for a fixed period of time with interest. When the money is borrowed, it is then given to the imperial court, and the imperial court gives them a handling fee. ”

"How do you pay it back when it's due?"

"I don't know much about this, but Chu Guogong told me that the Four Seas Bank can be temporarily turnover."

"Hey." Chongzhen sighed, "This thing is ridiculous, the court has no money, so it can only borrow money and borrow money, but the court has no credit, and it can't borrow it directly, so it has to borrow through the Four Seas Bank, and then lend the money to the court." As soon as I think about this, I and the imperial court don't have a private bank with credit, do you think I'm a bad emperor? ”

"Your Majesty, don't say that, Your Majesty has been eating and drinking all night since he ascended the throne, and he has been diligent in political affairs, and he has not slackened off in national affairs for a day." Empress Zhou hurriedly said.

Chongzhen kneaded his forehead, very tired.

"What about my diligent government, there is no prosperity and stability in this big tomorrow. It has only been a year since the bandits in the Central Plains were suppressed, and now all kinds of natural disasters and plagues are coming, and seeing that famine is about to break out, and hundreds of people are about to leave their homes, I can't come up with money and food to help the disaster. ”

Queen Zhou didn't know how to answer, the Confucian doctrine of heaven and man induction, the world is constantly plagued by famines, that is the son of heaven is immoral, and the punishment of God. But Empress Zhou has followed Chongzhen for so many years, and she clearly knows that the emperor is really diligent in serving the people, and she doesn't dare to slack off in the slightest, why does God still punish him?

"Jiye told me that it would take ten years for Pingdong to work, but I couldn't wait for ten years. Every year, the imperial court has to throw countless money and grain outside the gate, and send countless soldiers and horses, which is completely a bottomless pit. Now that the situation is in our favor, we have missed this good opportunity, and we must seize this opportunity to fill this hole. ”

"There are Jiye and Wu Sangui, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Qin Liangyu and other generals gathered, and this time it will definitely live up to my expectations."

"Then what is Your Majesty worried about? Why did you ask the concubines what they thought of Ji'an? Queen Zhou asked puzzled.

Chongzhen spit out a sentence that he didn't even want to say, "If Liaodong is pacified this time and the work of inheritance is achieved, what will I be rewarded?" ”

It's hard to get a lot of credit.

"Your Majesty, the concubine thinks that Your Majesty is too worried, why are you afraid that it will be difficult to reward your merits? Jiye two years ago was just a small martial artist in Huguang place, it was His Majesty who didn't care about his background, and he was promoted and reused, two years, from a small martial artist to the admiral of the three towns now, in the past three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, which courtier has this glory? ”

"What's more, Your Majesty first made a special marquis for the merit of capturing the bandits, and then then awarded the position of the prince of the country for the merit of entering the Liao and breaking the captives, what kind of glory is this? For more than 200 years in the Ming Dynasty, he had only been awarded ten princes for merit before him, and he was the second person to join the pillars. What's more, His Majesty also specially accepted him as a righteous son and entered him into his family register. Give a surname and give a name, and the grace cannot be repeated. ”

Chongzhen groaned, "With his merits, these are all he deserves." ”

"I have a big box of folds, hundreds of copies, all related to succession. Most of them were impeachments, and I didn't even leave them behind. ”

"Your Majesty, doesn't you believe in the Duke of Chu either?"

"I'm just worried that in the future, Jiye will be so young, only less than ten years older than Brother Hong. Now Jiye is loyal to the royal family and diligent in the king's affairs, but he is worried about the future."

"Your Majesty, why worry about things so far away, isn't it enough for Jiye to be loyal to Your Majesty now? As for the future, after the pacification of Liaodong, His Majesty can summon Jiye back to the dynasty again. ”

Chongzhen nodded, "The queen woke up the dreamer with a word, and the restoration of Liao and Pingyu is important, I have thought too much." He still trusts Liu Jun very much in his heart, and his previous words are just because many officials impeached Liu Jun, saying that Liu Jun led more than 100,000 troops with a military minister, and the military power was too heavy, which violated the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty to control the military with literature and so on. Because they were in a hurry to impeach, Chongzhen also had some ideas for a while, so he cut Liu Jun's military power.

But now it seems that Liu Jun is still loyal to the imperial court. He was not dissatisfied with the reduction of the military power of a town, and he was not unhappy when he sent the superintendent and others, and asked him to send troops immediately, and he did not hesitate.

It seems that he is still too careful, Chongzhen smiled. It's right to think about it instead, it was he who promoted Liu Jun from a little martial artist to the position of the current prince of the country, the respect of the Shangzhu country, and it was he who awarded Liu Jun the seal of the general to command the soldiers and horses. He also accepted Liu Jun as his righteous son, no matter what, Liu Jun should be grateful to himself and loyal. (To be continued.) )