On the eighth day of the first month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Mao, the early dynasty.

Qian Shisheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, led the officials above the seventh rank in the capital to wait outside the Qianqing Palace for a long time.

According to the rules, the first early dynasty of the new year should be held in the Taiji Palace, after all, the number of officials participating in the early dynasty is relatively large, and the new atmosphere of the new year, the early dynasty in the largest palace in the Forbidden City can also show the bearing of the court, but the emperor has decided that the early dynasty is still held in the Qianqing Palace.

The situation in the capital is unclear, the Houjin Tartars led by Abatai are still wreaking havoc in Beizhili, and now they are looting in the area of Baoding Mansion, it is said that at this time, Qian Shisheng, who is the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, should be on the front line to resist the Houjin Tartars, but the emperor actually issued a holy decree to recall Qian Shisheng back to the capital, which can't help but make everyone feel strange, is there anything bigger than fighting against the Houjin Tartars and defending the safety of Beizhili.

The Qianqing Palace is a place for deliberations, and the early dynasty in which the officials of the imperial court above the fourth grade participate on weekdays is carried out here, and such an early dynasty, the focus is to discuss many things, as for the first early dynasty of the year, the focus is still on the emperor to meet with many civil and military ministers, wishing the country peace and security in the new year, and there are no other substantive things that need to be discussed.

Many officials waiting in the open space in front of the Qianqing Palace, almost all of them bowed their heads, no one spoke, the bleak situation faced by the imperial court, has made many people pessimistic, in some private top secret occasions, there have been discussions about whether to resign and go to Nanjing, that is, to defect to Zheng Xunrui, the king of Xiang, everyone does not say anything on the surface, and in their hearts have determined that Zheng Xunrui will become the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the near future.

At this time, you can always have a good future.

In the open space in front of the Qianqing Palace, no one spoke. There was no whispering either, and the atmosphere was particularly depressing.

Qian Shisheng and Hou Sui, who were standing at the forefront, also felt uncomfortable, it should be said that nearly two years have passed, and Qian Shisheng, who has become the first assistant of the cabinet, has installed a large number of Donglin Party members into the imperial court. Let the strength of the Donglin Party in the north gradually become stronger, and the readers who are attached to the Donglin Party began to warm up again, but unfortunately this situation did not last long, the battle of Songshan, Li Zicheng's invasion of Shanxi, Zhang Xianzhong's invasion of Sichuan, made the situation in the court and the capital deteriorate instantly, and then the situation was out of control, the battle of Songshan was defeated, Li Zicheng captured the city of Taiyuan, and Abatai led the Houjin Tartars to invade the North Zhili. The situation deteriorated completely and irreparably, and at the same time, the Donglin Party's forces in Henan, Shanxi, and Northern Zhili also suffered a devastating blow.

What made Qian Shisheng and others even more embarrassed was that judging from the news coming from Henan, Shanxi, and other places, some Donglin Party members directly attached themselves to Li Zicheng and became part of the Liukou, which made many people in the DPRK and China obviously not good at talking about the Donglin Party.

Although Qian Shisheng has taken some measures, it is either to block more news. Either it is said that these scholars who surrendered to the rogue are the scum who have infiltrated the Donglin Party, but this cannot stop everyone from talking. It was impossible to prevent these news from reaching the emperor, which made the emperor have a very bad association.

At such a critical moment, Qian Shisheng, who was commanding the battle on the front line, needed to return to the capital to participate in the early dynasty, which made Qian Shisheng and many Donglin party members faintly feel bad.

With the loud report of the celebrant and eunuch, the emperor arrived at the Qianqing Palace.

The cabinet ministers, the six ministers of the Shoshu and the left and right of the Imperial Court entered the palace, and the celebrant eunuchs also entered the palace. The rest of the civil and military officials could only be outside the palace.

The emperor's complexion still looks good, although his face is a little pale.

To say that in the past fifteen years of Chongzhen, the blows suffered by the emperor can be said to be innumerable, and the most direct blow is that the emperor's favored Tian Guifei died of illness, which is a very heavy blow to the emperor. Tian Guifei is skillful and versatile, and the saint for a period of time is even above the queen, and she is also the emperor's favorite concubine Niangniang, many times the emperor has encountered unpleasant things, and he is willing to talk to Tian Guifei to relieve the depression in his heart.

The second blow is the defeat of the Battle of Songshan, and the prince and the prince, the military department Shangshu, the governor of Jiliao Hong Chengchou and the Shanhaiguan chief Zu Dashou were defeated and captured after surrendering Houjin, which made the emperor and the court humiliated, the battle of Songshan almost concentrated all the strength of the imperial court, and the nearly 200,000 troops dispatched were all elites in the imperial court's opinion, and most of them were border troops.

The third blow was that Li Zicheng captured Kaifeng and Taiyuan, and the former governor of the five provinces, Sun Chuanting, was defeated and died, and Li Zicheng also wrote a document at the end of the year, asking to be crowned king and secede Henan and Shanxi.

The fourth blow was the Houjin Tartars led by Abatai, who were still ravaging all over Beizhili, and the imperial army led by Qian Shisheng could not resist at all, so they could only watch the Houjin Tartars unscrupulously loot property and rob the population.

These things that have happened are almost impossible for the emperor and the court to solve.

Of course, there is also good news, that is, the Zheng family army completely exterminated Zhang Xianzhong and his subordinates, and the leaders of Zhang Xianzhong, Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi were all killed.

But almost all the officials in the court understood that Zheng Xunrui had shown his true face, and that people would not obey the leadership of the emperor and the imperial court, and had already started in Huguang and Sichuan, installed officials he trusted, changed all the original policies, and managed Huguang and Sichuan according to all the methods implemented by Nanzhili.

Huguang Governor Fang Kongzhi was directly imprisoned by Zheng Xunrui, you must know that Fang Kongzhi is a court official of Sanpin, and he will never be able to move without a holy decree, Zheng Xunrui doesn't care about these at all, he obviously disobeys the orders of the imperial court.

Therefore, this so-called good thing is probably the biggest bad thing.

Many officials who entered the Qianqing Palace were slightly relieved when they saw the emperor's expression, and the emperor was able to have such a complexion, which was beyond their expectations.

When the chief eunuch Wang Chengen directly announced the beginning of the early dynasty, many people turned their heads to look at Qian Shisheng, the first assistant of the cabinet.

Qian Shisheng lowered his head and couldn't see the expression on his face, but if he looked closely, he could find that Qian Shisheng's hands were trembling slightly, as if he was controlling his emotions.

Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth and said a few simple words, and after greeting all the officials, Wang Chengen began to read out the holy decree.

This is the same as the original model, the emperor's holy decree is mainly to emphasize that in the previous year, many ministers of civil and military affairs have worked hard and done a lot of things, and they will work harder in the coming year.

In the process of announcing the decree, the inside of the Qianqing Palace has always been very quiet, but the outside is not particularly quiet, and some whispered discussions often appear, all of which are whispers, obviously because the first assistant of the cabinet, Lord Qian Shisheng, was not able to preside over the early dynasty.

The decree was read for more than an hour.

This year's climate is particularly cold, two days ago there was a heavy snow in the capital, the Qianqing Palace is warm, the underground fire dragon is bursting out of huge heat, but the outside climate is different, many civil and military ministers came to the palace early, has been standing outside for more than two hours, many people shivered from the cold, some people's snot is flowing out, can only be quickly wiped off with sleeves.

When the decree was read, many people breathed a sigh of relief, they thought that the early dynasty was finally over, and the next dynasty would disperse, and everyone would immediately go home to have a good fire to warm up the frozen body.

What everyone didn't expect was that Wang Chengen read out the second holy decree.

The decree caused a great shock.

Before the holy decree was read, the eunuch took Yang Sichang into the Qianqing Palace, and when Yang Sichang knelt down, the holy decree began to be read.

Yang Sichang was crowned the crown prince Taibao, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, and concurrently served as the secretary of the military department, responsible for all military matters, and could act cheaply instead of the emperor.

This part of the holy decree is equivalent to the abolition of the previous holy decree, that is to say, the first assistant of the cabinet Qian Shisheng was completely deprived of his military power, but the holy decree did not require Qian Shisheng to stop commanding the army to fight against the Houjin Tartars, which shows that in terms of future military decision-making, the first assistant of the cabinet Qian Shisheng must obey Yang Sichang's orders.

The announcement of Yang Sichang as a scholar of Wenyuange University is actually to make it clear that he is the second assistant of the cabinet.

The second assistant of the cabinet can command the first assistant of the cabinet how to command the army to fight, which is the first time in the Ming court.

Many people finally understood why the emperor recalled Lord Qian Shisheng.

Although Qian Shisheng's face was pale, he still congratulated Yang Sichang with a smile.

The rest of the cabinet ministers also congratulated Yang Sichang, you must know that Yang Sichang was forced to resign from the post of cabinet minister, and now he has become the second assistant of the cabinet, and the power seems to be above Qian Shisheng.

After the decree is read, the morning is over.

The cabinet ministers, the six shoshu, and the left and right all stayed behind, and the rest could go home.

Before these people left the palace, they had already begun to talk in a whisper, which was a harbinger of an imminent change in the situation of the court, at least Yang Sichang controlled the military department and military power, and could act cheaply on behalf of the emperor.

What changes are about to take place in the DPRK situation, many ministers of civil and military affairs are still very concerned.

There is one person who is very disappointed, that is, Zhang Pu, the governor of Henan, he originally thought that his resignation would be approved, who knew that the early dynasty did not talk about this matter at all, which made his identity very embarrassing, as the governor of Henan, he was in the capital, and most of the places in Henan were occupied by Li Zicheng, and he was completely empty as the governor of Henan.

Even more embarrassed and worried, there are also Qian Shisheng and Hou Xun and others, they have already felt that the great changes that will take place in the government and government, and how to meet and face such changes is something they need to carefully consider. (To be continued.) )