Early the next morning, after thinking about it again and again, Emperor Chongzhen reluctantly accepted Zhou Yanru's suggestion and convened a court meeting with the participation of the cabinet auxiliary ministers, the six Shangshu, the squire, and the officials at the level above the imperial history and the six departments.

At this court meeting, Emperor Chongzhen did not let the courtiers speak, but directly asked the rotating eunuch Cao Huachun to announce the various difficulties of the current court situation, including all the problems in the southeast, northwest and northwest: the thieves who troubled the Central Plains, the Jianyu who looked down on the Jingshi, the heavenly army who dominated the grassland, the Tusi rebellion in the northwest and southwest, the rebellion of the Xiyi and pirates along the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian, the flooding in the south of the Yangtze River, the drought in the north, and so on.

After revealing all the questions again, ask directly if there is a way for the minister to share the worries of the king?

Of course, the result was not what Emperor Chongzhen expected. When encountering this kind of thing, none of the civil officials who can usually speak the Tao are powerful, and they all become mud bodhisattvas in the temple.

So, Emperor Chongzhen started the second step according to the plan, announcing to the courtiers: "These matters need to be solved urgently, and it has reached the point where there is no time to delay. I'm not hard for you, I'll give you another day to go back and think about it......"

As he spoke, he looked at these civil officials who were basically the highest civil officials in the court, and he didn't notice any change in their expressions, knowing that these were all old treacherous and cunning people, so he had to continue: "Early tomorrow morning, each secretary must hand in a recital to solve the problem, and it can be anonymous." When the time comes, seeing that your ministers have offered the most good policies, I will adopt that kind of good policy, and others must not criticize it! ”

Upon hearing this, all the ministers changed their faces slightly, or they looked at Emperor Chongzhen, or a few people looked thoughtfully at Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet.

Emperor Chongzhen himself stood up after finishing speaking, and announced with an expressionless face: "I am tired today, and tomorrow I am waiting for the good strategies of your ministers." ”

After saying that, flick your sleeves. He no longer paid attention to all the ministers in the palace, rarely did not deal with government affairs, and went directly back to the harem.

The emperor is gone, and it is not interesting to stay any longer, and the ministers in the palace also discuss while walking according to their own relationships. Soon it also dispersed.

Emperor Chongzhen's method is actually some correct but difficult to say policies, which are resolved by secret ballot, and Emperor Chongzhen's use of lots to determine the cabinet auxiliary ministers is similar.

But if you really want to talk about it, if the policy adopted is still very embarrassing in the end, although the final consequences are bearer, Emperor Chongzhen can't escape. It's just a fig leaf, which can be a little comforting. If it weren't for the fact that he was forced to have no way out, Emperor Chongzhen would not have agreed to Zhou Yanru's proposal after thinking about it for one night.

Not to mention how many waves Emperor Chongzhen's words caused in Jingshi. And how many civil officials quietly connected with each other, and the final result came out after the time was up.

For today's difficult situation under the big tomorrow, it can be summarized as the following solutions:

The first is to negotiate peace with Jianyu, try to meet Jianlu's requirements in exchange for Shanhaiguan, and then you can free up the elite Qinwang army, whether it is the thieves in the Central Plains, or the Tusi in the northwest and southwest, or the heavenly army and pirates on the grassland, they have the strength to deal with. If you don't do it, you can clean up the broken mountains and rivers and return to the situation in the Apocalypse year. Then slowly figure ZTE.

The second is to move the capital to Jinling, to give up the already chaotic north to the thieves, and to call the heavenly army and the Jianyu to scourge and rob, while the imperial court learns from the south and tastes the courage, according to the prosperity of the south, especially the south of the Yangtze River, to revitalize the elite division, and to sit as a fisherman to collect sandpiper mussels and compete for the benefits. It will inevitably be able to prosper the Ming Dynasty.

The third is to call the heavenly army with the strongest combat power and ambiguous attitude, and then drive the heavenly army to attack Liaodong from the grassland, and it is best to attack Shanhaiguan with the Qinwang army, if possible. Recover Liaodong in one fell swoop and solve the biggest scourge of the Ming Dynasty, and then thieves, toasts and pirates are not a problem, and they are easy to exterminate.

Of course, there are other suggestions, but they are ignored because they have been put forward by a few people.

Of the three proposals, the third received the highest number of votes. However, this is actually not difficult to guess, at least Emperor Chongzhen has come to such a conclusion after estimating it for a day.

Because in the first suggestion, anyone can predict that the cost of satisfying Jianyu's surrender of Shanhaiguan will be very large, so big that the imperial court will probably not be able to meet it. So while some people have raised it, most people have not considered it.

The second suggestion is that because of the geographical relationship, those court officials who were born in the north naturally would not agree to move south. By not voting alone, it would be impossible for such a proposal to obtain a majority.

Finally, this third suggestion, Emperor Chongzhen had this idea before, but he was persuaded by the civil officials. Now for him, at most, there is an opening, so that those rebellious thieves have an example, thinking that after making a big trouble, they can be recruited to get a high position and glory and wealth.

This kind of thing, in fact, is just talk. And that anti-thief can be as powerful as the Heavenly Army, Emperor Chongzhen will not believe it. In fact, he was still a little skeptical about how powerful the Heavenly Army was.

This third suggestion, in fact, is more scrupulous about those civil officials, for fear that after the Heavenly Army is recruited, in the communication with Emperor Chongzhen, he will say what should not be said, and it will be difficult to fool the emperor in the future, and it will be difficult to release the factory guard.

However, this matter is not unsolvable, as long as it is handled properly, even if Hu Guangzhen, the leader of the Heavenly Army, becomes one of them, then he will become the opponent of the factory guard, and naturally he will not be happy to see the factory guard used again by Emperor Chongzhen.

Therefore, with just a few plans, the heavenly army finally won with Zhao'an. After a few days of discussion, the conditions of the envoy and the bottom line were decided. An eight-hundred-mile expedited decree was sent to the Trilateral Governor's Mansion in Guyuan, Shaanxi Province, through the normal process of the cabinet and the six branches, rather than the decree of the middle order.

When Chen Qiyu received the holy decree, it was beyond his expectations. Originally, he fought such a big defeat, although he played with the pen, it didn't seem to be his responsibility to write. But in fact, as the governor of the three sides, he did lose the battle, and he was definitely punished. It's just that I don't know if this punishment is big or small, after all, he also has opponents in the court.

But I didn't expect that in this holy decree, he was only asked to make up for his mistakes with merit, as long as he could recruit an army of heaven, then he could not care about the responsibility for defeating the battle and losing the city and land.

So, whether it was for his own future or for the future of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Qiyu had to go north again in person. (To be continued.) )