Since Chongzhen's accession to the throne, the position of the cabinet chief assistant has been extremely unstable, and in the double bad environment of internal party strife and external difficult state affairs, the cabinet assistant ministers have been rotating rapidly like a marquee. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang entered the cabinet, Mei Zhihuan entered the cabinet, the first assistant Liu Yuliang resigned as prime minister, the first assistant Xue Guoguan resigned as prime minister and was beheaded and abandoned the city, and Yang Sichang resigned.

Chongzhen's cabinet has completely broken the original cabinet scholar selection system. In the past, the cabinet ministers were basically selected from Hanlin, but Chongzhen found that these people only practiced articles and did not secretly do world affairs, and they couldn't be talented at all. So after Wen Tiren dismissed the prime minister, Zhang Zhifa, the new first assistant selected by Chongzhen, was directly selected and appointed as a cabinet minister by the local officials.

This is an extremely rare example in the history of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also a bold reform made by Chongzhen in order to change the situation in the Ming Dynasty. However, after Zhang Zhifa came to power, many Hanlin were dissatisfied with him, and he was constantly criticized, and he fell in less than a year.

Kong Zhenyun, who succeeded Zhang Zhifa, only served as the first assistant for two months, and was replaced by Liu Yuliang, and then he was unlucky to meet the Qing soldiers who entered the Kou, and was ousted by Xue Guoguan and Yang Sichang, and then Xue Guoguan replaced him. But Xue Guoguan only served for half a year, and was not only deposed but also beheaded, which can be regarded as the most tragic first assistant of the Chongzhen Dynasty.

After Chongzhen failed to appoint the local official Zhang Zhifa as the first assistant, he began to select personnel from the six ministries, and Fan Fucui, the Shaoqing of Dali, and Liu Yuliang, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Yang Sichang, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Cheng Guoxiang, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, Fang Fengnian, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, and Cai Guoyong, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, were selected to enter the cabinet together and participate in the maintenance of the machine.

Now the original five people Liu Yuliang and Yang Sichang have all returned, and there are six people in the cabinet: Fan Fucui, Yao Minggong, Mei Zhihuan, Cheng Guoxiang, Fang Fengnian, and Cai Guoyong.

In this cabinet team, only Fang Fengnian and Mei Zhihuan were born in Hanlin, and the rest were foreign officials who entered the cabinet, such as Fan Fucui, who entered the cabinet as a four-rank official at the beginning. And before entering the cabinet, he had just been promoted from the five-grade Dali Temple to the four-grade Dali Temple.

When Xue Guoguan was the first assistant, Fan Fucui was the second assistant.

If it is customary, the first assistant is vacant and the second assistant takes over. But Fan Fucui, like Zhang Zhifa, has no talent and skills, and when he was the second assistant, he was often attacked from all sides, and now it is even more impossible for him to be the first assistant.

In order to make way for Fan Fucui. Chongzhen directly gave Fan Fucui an order to return to his hometown to recuperate. The man dynasty was surprised, and then they all laughed secretly, because Fan Fucui had never been folded at all to beg for illness and return to his hometown. The emperor now directly made such an excerpt, and Fan Fucui had no choice but to beg for a book.

Everyone said that Fan Fucui was sick by order.

As soon as Fan Fucui left, there were five people left in the cabinet.

At this time, Chongzhen issued an edict to summon Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng, Zhou Yanru, Zhang Zhifa, and He Fengsheng to enter Beijing. According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, the six middle officials were still in the cabinet, so they were not included in the cabinet. And Mei Zhihuan is the current cabinet scholar, and the other three Zhou Yanru have all served as the first assistant.

Chongzhen's mind is very clear, and he wants to choose a new Shoufu from these five people.

After Zhang Zhifa received the order, he made a statement and refused to be called.

The court in the court finally elected He Fengsheng as one of the nine secretaries, Zhou Yanru as the secretary of the ministry, and Mei Zhihuan as the first assistant. Li Changgeng is the second assistant.

This result was both expected and unexpected by many. Arguably. In the eyes of many ministers in Beijing, they all know that this time the first assistant will actually fall into the hands of the Donglin people, but whether it is the former first assistant Zhou Yanru reinstated, or Mei Zhihuan, who is now carrying the power of exterminating the Central Plains bandits, is a little unclear for a while.

Zhou Tingru himself is not a Donglin Party, nor is he a eunuch party. But this person has no position at all. In order to make a comeback, he has long been involved with the Restoration Society and reached many trading agreements. In order to change the situation in which the ruling authorities in the DPRK and China have been opposed to the resumption of the society since Wen Tiren. also took the initiative to cooperate with Zhou Yanru, and even ran for him to create public opinion and raise funds for his reintegration activities.

But in the end, Xue Guoguan fell, but Zhou Yanru also had a stronger opponent. Compared with Zhou Yanru, the former first assistant, Chongzhen obviously takes a closer look at Mei Zhihuan, a cadre who pacified the Central Plains bandits in only half a year.

And between Zhou Yanru and Mei Zhihuan, the Fushe chose Mei Zhihuan, the new leader of the Donglin Party, and abandoned Zhou Yanru.

At the beginning of November, Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng, Liu Jun and other heroes of the suppression of bandits entered Beijing.

Chongzhen appointed Mei Zhihuan as the first assistant, plus the young master and the crown prince, and the scholar of the Zhongji Temple of the Ministry of Rites, and placed high hopes on this minister who pacified the bandits, hoping that he could revitalize the government and save the country. Especially when there was an increasingly strong military threat from the Houjin in the north, Chongzhen hoped to use a scholar who knew the army to lead the imperial court out of the current predicament. Once Chongzhen also pinned his hopes on Yang Sichang, but in the end he found that Yang Sichang would only talk on paper.

Mei Zhihuan really managed to be a thief for half a year.

Li Changgeng was also awarded the title of secretary of the Ministry of War, and the scholar of the Jidian University, plus the young master and the crown prince, as the second assistant and in charge of the military department.

Zhou Yanru gave the Ministry of Officials, and then a large number of Donglin Party members were used, Zheng Sanjun was appointed as the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, Liu Zongzhou was appointed as the head of the Imperial History of the Imperial Palace, Fan Jingwen was the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Ni Yuanlu was the left servant of the Ministry of War, and others such as Li Banghua, Zhang Guowei, Xu Shilin, Jin Guangchen, Zhang Wei and other Donglin Party members have re-entered the court, and held important positions such as Jiuqing, holding real power.

Since his accession to the throne, he has used the Donglin Cabinet for a short period of time, and then he has been suppressing Chongzhen of the Donglin Party, and suddenly fully activated and reused the Donglin Party, which caused a shock in the government and the opposition.

However, at this time, Liu Jun was sitting in the barracks on the outskirts of Beijing.

Liu Jun only brought a battalion of men and horses from the cavalry battalion, accompanied by Liu Qiao, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, and Yao Minggong, a member of the cabinet university, to escort Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng into Beijing together.

After arriving in Beijing, Liu Jun stayed in the barracks, waiting for the emperor's summons. He didn't even go to the capital to see its prosperity, the palace had already passed the decree, and today the emperor was going to summon him.

After eating breakfast in the barracks, Liu Jun began to dress. Zhang Guozhu took out a brand-new red python robe, which is the most noble python among the pythons. And this python is five-clawed, Zhang Guozhu looked at the five-clawed python above, and whispered a little timidly. "Master Hou, isn't it illegal for this five-clawed python to wear? Isn't it said that only the emperor can wear a five-clawed golden python? ”

"This python has five claws and four claws, and it is generally only given to one or two ministers, and it is a four-clawed python robe. However, I am a marquis, and I can serve the five-clawed python, which is not a violation. This is the glory bestowed by the emperor. Zhang Juzheng was a civil servant at the same age, and he was also given a five-clawed python robe. ”

"Master Hou, is the emperor particularly majestic?"

"The emperor is the son of heaven, and he is in the world, of course he is majestic."

Wearing a python robe and a jade belt, Liu Jun put on a beam crown, and the sky was still slightly bright. Liu Qiao and Cao Huachun came over together and said some congratulatory words to him. He also talked about the rules of the palace. These etiquettes have already been taught by officials from the Ministry of Etiquette yesterday, and at this time, everyone said a few more words, and then rode to the Forbidden City together.

Entering the capital, Liu Jun behaved very calmly, although it was the first time to come to Beijing, there was really nothing in the capital that could deter him. When he looked at it, he only felt that Jingshi was very crowded and the houses were very low. The streets are not very wide.

Especially along the way, it is not uncommon to see groups of refugees sleeping under the eaves on both sides of the street. From time to time, there were mournful weeping. Looking at this scene, Liu Jun shook his head, Jingshi is not as lively as Yunyang.

"Where did these refugees come from?"

"Shandong, outside the border." Liu Qiao also sighed, "There are very few refugees in Beijing now, and at the beginning of the year, Beijing was full of refugees. It was freezing cold, and hundreds of people were freezing to death and starving to death every day. Most of the people who are still in Beijing today are the widows, the elderly and the weak who have lost their families, and they have nowhere to go, so they can only stay in Beijing to beg for a living. ”

"Didn't the imperial court settle it?" Liu Jun asked.

Cao Huachun shook his head and said. "The imperial treasury is depleted, there are constant urgings in various places, and there are hands everywhere, and there is no money." Then he smiled a little again, "Okay now, Lord Hou sent 200,000 silver to the emperor before, and this time he sent another 100,000, and confiscated Lu Jiude's family property, plus Xue Guoguan and others' family property, he got nearly 2 million silver at once, which can be regarded as solving the emperor's urgent need." The emperor has asked for 20,000 taels of silver to give porridge to the refugees in the capital. ”

Two million taels of silver, stealing the property of a group of corrupt officials, and getting a year's normal tax from the imperial court, sounds a little ridiculous. But this is the case in the Ming Dynasty today, the normal tax revenue of the imperial court is only about two million taels, and the total annual expenses of the imperial court have reached about 20 million taels, of which a large amount of money and grain has been continuously invested into the two big pits of the Central Plains to suppress bandits and resist captives outside the Guan.

In order to make up for the shortage of more than 10 million yuan per year, the imperial court can be said to have tried its best to impose various assessments and levies, etc., but every time they get some silver, it will be evaporated immediately. Even many times, the military salaries pulled out by the imperial court were sucked dry layer by layer before they left Beijing.

Sometimes, Liu Jun really sympathizes with Chongzhen, this emperor is too tired. At that time, his brother Zhu Youxiao was only concerned about being a carpenter and ignoring the government, maybe because he saw clearly that the mess of the court could not be managed, so he simply gave up.

However, Zhu Youzhen is a person who does not give up, and has been desperately maintaining it for more than ten years, Daming is a paper paste house that leaks everywhere, and Chongzhen is the pastemaker, constantly making up for paste, but this house is still too fragile.

"Jianyu has already built the city of Yiju outside Jinzhou and began to garrison Tuntian. Jianyu is too arrogant, their cavalry galloped back and forth outside Jinzhou City, not allowing Jinzhou Tuntian to cultivate, and the next step will definitely be to besiege Jinzhou. Liu Qiao revealed the latest military situation outside the border to his nephew Liu Jun.

"Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, submitted to the imperial court, proposing to organize soldiers and horses to destroy Yizhou City."

"What is the emperor's opinion?" Liu Jun asked.

Cao Huachun said, "The emperor means to agree with Hong Chengchou's plan, and intends to mobilize a group of about 50,000 elite soldiers to fight with Jianyu, destroy Yizhou City, and protect the safety of Jinzhou." He looked at Liu Jun, "The emperor intends to transfer the Hou Ye to lead the Chu army out of the customs and cooperate with Hong Chengchou to seize Yizhou." ”

"I still don't know what the opinions of the cabinet elders and ministers of the DPRK and the central government are?"

"The cabinet and ministers also believe that the Central Plains bandits have been settled, and the imperial court can send troops and horses out of the customs."

Liu Jun had expected this kind of result, but he still felt that it was a little too fast.

"The Central Plains bandits have just been pacified, but there are still many small bandits who have not been wiped out. Moreover, in the past two years, the court has been in turmoil in the Central Plains, and the prisoners have repeatedly entered the Kou Pass, and the court is tired, so I think that this time is not the time for an immediate counterattack. The imperial court should endure for another two years, after the morale of the people and the army has recovered a little, and the reserves of grain, grass and ordnance are sufficient. Counteroffensive again. Instead of rushing into battle as we are doing now. ”

Cao Huachun was silent, and of course there were many people in the imperial court who thought that the current battle was too urgent. But the emperor was bent on going to war, and the cabinet could only support it.

"Let's talk to Your Majesty in person when you face the Holy Lord, maybe Your Majesty will seriously consider your suggestion." Cao Huachun said with a smile.

Liu Qiao came to Liu Jun's side and said softly. "When you meet with the saint, you'd better not say what you just said. Now His Majesty is only thinking about counterattacking and recovering Liao, and he can't listen to anything else. Before, Mei Li and the second assistant minister had already said what you just said in front of His Majesty, but His Majesty couldn't listen to it at all. If you mention it again, I am afraid that Your Majesty will be very unhappy. ”

"I see." Liu Jun nodded.

They dismounted outside the right gate of Chang'an, west of the Chengtian Gate, and then walked into the imperial city. In the imperial city is the cabinet and the five military governor's palace and the yamen of the six temples, and the important yamen of the Ming Dynasty are basically in the imperial city.

Among them, the cabinet is on the east side of the noon gate, and non-cabinet ministers are not allowed to enter. Therefore, in the end, Cao Huachun and Liu Qiao accompanied Liu Jun to chat in the courtroom. Waiting for the proclamation in the palace.

After waiting for about half an hour, a eunuch came over to deliver a decree and let Liu Jun enter the palace to see the saint.

This time, neither Cao Huachun nor Liu Qiao accompanied him in, and Liu Jun entered the palace alone with the eunuch. arrived at a large hall in the palace, where Chongzhen was already waiting for him.

There are many eunuchs and palace maids standing in the main hall, and the two bronze incense burners of the cranes more than one person high are emitting faint white smoke, and the hall is full of refreshing fragrance. Outside the hall stood two rows of brocade-clothed generals.

Liu Jun stepped forward and first performed the regular salute on the Danqi outside according to the newly learned etiquette. Holding an ivory wat in his hand, he knelt on the ground of the white marble shop with his head bowed.

Then he heard the eunuch send him a decree to enter the temple. Only then did he get up, and with a bow he ascended the steps from one side, entered the temple, and knelt down again to salute, without even lifting his head.

Although Liu Jun is now a marquis, it is the first time he has come to visit the emperor. After the last knighthood. Because he had to train soldiers and horses to prepare for the encirclement and suppression of the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution, Emperor Gu did not let him enter Beijing at that time.

Chongzhen stood in front of the imperial case and looked at Liu Jun seriously.

Although he had already gotten Liu Jun's portrait through the spies of Dongchang before, when he looked at the real person. He still secretly sighed at Liu Jun's youth.

For a long time, Chongzhen didn't speak, he looked at Liu Jun seriously.

This military general, who was named a marquis with military merits, gave him a very good impression, in his early twenties, fair skin, slightly cyan stubble on his chin, a handsome face, and a very tall body, but not very strong, but a little slender, completely like a scholar. It is hard to imagine that this is actually a general who has captured more than a dozen bandits and defeated more than 100,000 bandits.

The more Chongzhen looked at it, the more satisfied he became, and slowly said, "Liu Aiqing is flat." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"The bandits have been in turmoil in the Central Plains for many years, and Qing has swept and cut them out for me, trained new troops for me, cleaned up the tuntian, and even raised food and salaries, and my loyalty and diligence are commendable, and I am very happy."

These words were very sincere, and Chongzhen was grateful to Liu Jun from the bottom of his heart for quelling the bandits for him.

"Only when he is appreciated and promoted by His Majesty and trusted can he have the opportunity to serve the country and His Majesty and make some small contributions." Liu Jun lowered his head and replied.

Chongzhen nodded, "Aiqing looks up and lets me take a good look." ”

Liu Jun raised his head, and saw Chongzhen's appearance for the first time, thin, Chongzhen was very thin, his face was a little gray, and he even saw Chongzhen, who was not yet thirty years old, and his temples were already a little gray.

Chongzhen looked at Liu Jun, smiled at him, and then asked the eunuch to bring python satin to Liu Jun, and Liu Jun kowtowed to thank him. Chongzhen's eyes were blank, and he asked Liu Jun, "Hong Chengchou played, built Yizhou City near Jinzhou, and garrisoned the tuntian, so that my Jinzhou officers and soldiers would not cultivate the tuntian." Hong Chengchou said that the next step will be to start attacking Jinzhou's outlying stronghold Tunbao, cut off Jinzhou's communication with the outside, and then send troops to besiege Jinzhou for a long time. ”

"Hong Chengchou asked to send troops to destroy Yizhou City, in Yiqing's opinion, how is it?"

Hearing this question, Liu Jun knew that an important moment had come. With his understanding of Chongzhen's character, if he dares to delay at this time, then Chongzhen's trust in him will inevitably disappear. No matter what, he had to agree with Chongzhen's idea.

But Liu Jun didn't want to go to Liaodong now, firstly, because the training time of the new army was too short, and secondly, the Qing army was not a bandit. Liu Jun can use firearms to beat the bandits to the ground, but it doesn't mean that his new army can beat the fierce Qing cavalry to the ground.

I think that the Qi family army and the white pole soldiers were united, but they were all defeated in the Hunhe.

Liu Jun only thought for a moment, then raised his head and looked at Chongzhen with the same eyes.

"Your Majesty, build the city of Yizhou, this is the harbinger of his desire to besiege Jinzhou. We can't sit idly by and watch the Jianyu come around step by step, we must take the initiative. ”

Chongzhen, who had been staring at Liu Jun all the time, immediately showed a happy expression on his face when he heard this. He had been worried that Liu Jun would find a reason to oppose sending troops.

Chongzhen tried his best to suppress the joy in his heart and asked, "Then I ordered Qing to lead the army to assist Hong Chengchou in destroying Yizhou City together. ”

"Your Majesty! The minister still has something to say. Liu Jun did not directly agree.

Chongzhen glanced at Liu Jun, "If you have any other requirements, put them forward together, don't worry about the salary, I will pay for it." ”

"Your Majesty, the minister is not worried about food. Rather, I thought that in the face of Jianlu's aggressiveness, we had to fight back. But! ”

"But what?" Chongzhen was a little dissatisfied when he heard a but, and his eyes became sharper.

"The minister thinks that it is necessary to fight back, but how to fight back still needs to be discussed."

"You don't agree to send troops outside the border to attack Yiju?" Chongzhen's voice raised a few points, and the palace maids and eunuchs on the side all looked at Liu Jun secretly in shock, they knew that the emperor was already a little angry. (To be continued......)