It was already the time of the morning, but Emperor Chongzhen was still sleeping soundly in the heavy curtain of the Qianqing Palace. The palace people and eunuchs waiting in the dormitory were all calm, not daring to make the slightest noise, for fear of disturbing the emperor's rare deep sleep.

There was a sound of footsteps outside, so obvious in the quiet dormitory.

The eunuch Wang Chengen, the master of ceremonies, frowned, and secretly said that he didn't understand the rules, so he disturbed the emperor's good sleep. He walked out of the temple with a light step and came to the temple gate. But I saw that the person who came was none other than Cao Huachun, who was the eunuch in charge of the seal, the governor of Dongchang, and the governor of the Jingying soldiers.

"What about the emperor?" Cao Huachun was a little anxious.

Wang Chengen hurriedly whispered, "Gonggong Cao whispered, the emperor is still asleep." ”

Cao Huachun was very surprised, as far as he knew, the emperor had not slept well since he ascended the throne, especially since last year, when Jianyu entered the customs again and went straight to Shandong, and then saw that the bandits who were about to be pacified rose again, the emperor slept more and more badly, and even often couldn't sleep all night.

And now it's the time of the card, it's half noon, why is the emperor still sleeping? That's pretty rare.

Although Wang Chengen has been promoted to the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi, and has the power to criticize the red that the central cabinet ministers are jealous of, but in the palace, his status is still under Cao Huachun. This is not because of Cao Admiral Dongchang, nor because Wang Chengen was under Cao Huachun's name in his early years.

According to the imperial court system, the recitals from various departments and localities in Beijing must be approved by the cabinet before they are submitted to the emperor for approval. Writing down the review suggestions on a piece of paper and pasting them on the opposite side of the recital in small ticket ink script for submission, this kind of proclamatory review prompt saved the emperor a lot of energy.

However, even if there is a cabinet vote, there are many cabinet bachelors. There is only one emperor, and the cumbersome court discussions often make the emperor unable to bear, and many emperors in the Ming Dynasty have abolished the government, and finally formed a system of approval by the eunuch on behalf of the emperor. That is, after the official documents of each ministry are submitted to the celebrant for classification, they are selected to be submitted to the emperor. The emperor either personally criticized, or the emperor dictated the important points by Bingbi, and Bingbi "approved red" on behalf of Bingbi. It is returned to the Cabinet and the ministries to write an official edict for execution based on the approval of the red.

It is precisely because of this kind of red power that the eunuch is extremely powerful.

However, Wang Chengen, the eunuch who writes the pen, still has to go through a key link. That is, the approval of the red has to be reviewed and stamped by the eunuch who is the palm seal of the celebrant and the eunuch. Hence the said. Cao Huachun, whether in official position or real power, is in charge of Wang Chengen. What's more, Cao Huachun is the old man when he was the emperor or the king.

Wang Chengen said softly, "Yesterday, the emperor received an urgent report from Sichuan. After Prime Minister Mei Zhihuan led a guerrilla attack on Liu Jun into Sichuan. The banner was victorious, annihilating more than 5,000 bandits, and also beheaded the bandit leader sweeping the king and the ten anti-kings. After receiving this good news, the emperor was very happy, drank some wine rarely, and then slept so sweetly for the first time in more than half a year. ”

Cao Huachun supervised the East Factory, and was also the eunuch of the palm print of the celebrant eunuch. He was actually the first to know about this news.

"It's really rare good news since last year. The Dongyu invaded on a large scale, and the bandits in the Central Plains rose again, and even Zuo Liangyu, who was known as a famous general, was defeated and lost before, and the general army was lost. Now that the emperor has enabled Mei Zhihuan and others, the results are immediate. ”

Wang Chengen nodded, "Yes, yesterday the emperor praised Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng, Yuan Jixian and others, especially the guerrilla Liu Jun, the emperor praised dozens of times in a row, and even personally wrote Liu Jun's name on the screen. ”

"Liu Jun is already a general now." Cao Huachun reminded, "Maybe, I'm about to be promoted to deputy general again." ”

"Oh, why?"

"There was another great victory, Liu Jun led his troops to annihilate more than 5,000 bandits in eastern Sichuan, and killed the two thieves of King Shuntian and King Chaoshi. As soon as I got the news, I immediately rushed to the emperor. You say, just with these two great achievements, wouldn't this Liu Jun have to be promoted again? ”

"Won another battle, could it be mistaken?" Wang Chengen asked with surprise, "I just returned to the urgent report yesterday, saying that Liu Jun defeated the bandits, annihilated 5,000 enemies, and beheaded the first two thieves, why did he report the second enemy and the first two thieves today?" Could it be something wrong, or is it actually news? ”

"How is it possible, Liu Jun is so bold that he doesn't dare to falsely report his achievements. What's more, the previous good news was to kill the sweeping king and the ten anti-kings, and this time the victory was to kill the king of Shuntian and the king of the mixed world. Cao Huachun didn't believe that Liu Jun had the courage to lie about his military exploits like this, even if generals everywhere now have a tradition of making false reports, but at most they are exaggerating, but they never dare to make something out of nothing.

Moreover, the four thieves killed before and after were all extremely famous, such as the Shuntian King and the Ten Anti Kings, all of whom were once one of the thirteen families.

Wang Chengen felt that what Cao Huachun said made sense, although Liu Jun was Liu Qiao's nephew and a student of Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng, even if he was a son of a famous minister, he would not dare to bully the king like this.

"God, if it wasn't for the false report of military exploits, wouldn't it mean that Liu Jun had won two great victories in a row in just a few days, annihilating more than 10,000 enemies before and after, and killing four thieves and bandits?" Speaking of this, Wang Chengen didn't know what to say. This Liu Jun is shocking.

In the dormitory, Emperor Chongzhen finally woke up slowly.

It's been a long time since he's slept so peacefully, and when he wakes up, he feels a lot more relaxed. Previously, the imperial physician had been tactfully warning the emperor that the emperor must focus on the dragon body and avoid overwork for the time being. Even because his body was too tired and weak, he hadn't pampered the concubines in the palace for a long time. Even Concubine Tian, who he has always loved the most, has not been pampered once in three months.

It's not that he suddenly wants to abstain, but that his legs are as heavy as lead all day, and his body is like a stuffed cotton flower, and the whole person has a feeling of being hollowed out.

But he ate a lot of various tonics, but it was useless at all, and he still didn't know the taste of food every day, and he couldn't sleep at night.

The situation is so bad, he is really troubled. Yesterday, when he received the good news from Chuandong, he suddenly felt much more energetic, and even suddenly wanted to drink. Immediately, he sent Wang Chengen a pot of good wine and drank it all. Then he pulled Wang Chengen and said a lot of words, and then fell asleep until this time.

He looked up at the light outside. It's almost noon.

After washing under the service of the personal little eunuch, Chongzhen took off his apricot-colored nightgown, put on a bright yellow dragon robe, and tied a jade belt, and then walked out of the dormitory.

As soon as he came out, he saw Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun catching up with a happy face.

"Congratulations to the emperor, congratulations to the emperor."

Chongzhen smiled. "It's just a small victory, not enough to worry about."

"Long live the lord, what the old slave congratulates today is not yesterday's victory. It's a victory of the day! ”

"Today's victory?" Chongzhen was stunned for a moment.

Wang Chengen added on the side, "Your Majesty, the official army has won the battle again, and more than 5,000 bandits have been annihilated. and beheaded the two anti-thief leaders of the Shuntian King and the King of Chaos. Among them, the Shuntian King He Guoxian was still one of the previous thirteen thieves. ”

"Won again?" Chongzhen laughed for a while, "Come on, which of my fierce generals has won this battle this time, is it Zuo Liangyu or He Renlong, or is it as fierce as a tiger, or is it Hu Dawei, or Qin Liangyu, the general of Zhendong?" If you fight well, I will reward them heavily. ”

"Back to Your Majesty. It was Prime Minister Mei Zhihuan who commanded General Liu Jun to lead Huguang troops and horses to lure the enemy and defeat the thieves again in Wushan, and achieved the second great victory after entering Sichuan. Other than that. Mei Zhihuan ordered the front battalion to guerrilla Hu Gongguo, and also led his troops to annihilate a group of more than 1,000 bandits. ”

"It's Mei Zhihuan and Liu Jun again!" Chongzhen's laughter stopped, a little incredulous.

"I only reported Liu Jun's victory yesterday, and today's good news is coming?"

"Back to Long Live Lord, the slave was also very strange at first hearing, and then carefully inquired about the person who reported the victory, and knew that it was Mei Zhihuan who asked 100,000 people to send the good news urgently. The latter battle was only a few days apart, and it was urgent, so it was only a day late and the good news was sent to Beijing. ”

Cao Huachun added, "Like yesterday's good news, this time the report was accompanied by the head of the two thieves. ”

"Bring all the heads, even the two from yesterday, and I will see them myself." Chongzhen said suddenly.

"Your Majesty, the head of the bandit has its own military department to inspect it, why does Your Majesty need to test it in person, don't be shocked by the dragon body."

"Don't say more, send it all."

Soon, the heads of the four anti-thief leaders were presented into the palace, Cao Wei, the sweeping king, Yang Youxian, the ten anti-king, He Guoxian, the king of Shuntian, and Wu Ziqiang, the king of the mixed world.

Among the four thieves, Yang Youxian, the king of the Ten Antis, and He Guoxian, the king of Shuntian, were the leaders of the Xingyang meeting of the bandits in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and they were known as the thirteen families and seventy-two battalions at that time, with Gao Yingxiang as the leader of the alliance, and Cao Cao, Luo Rucai, Lao Hui, Ma Shouying, and other thirteen of the strongest bandits were thirteen.

These thirteen families are also the thieves that Chongzhen hates the most. By now, Gao Yingxiang had already been captured by Sun Chuantingsheng and sent to Jingshi Lingchi for execution. Later, his subordinate general Li Zicheng inherited the title of King Chuang, but he was also wiped out by the whole army last year and disappeared.

Then the sky was shot and recruited, and several others were exterminated one after another.

Today, the thorns in Chongzhen's eyes are the eight kings Zhang Xianzhong, Cao Cao, Luo Ru Nancai, Guotianxing Hui Dengxiang, Ge Li Yan He Yilong, Lao Hui Ma Shouying, Zuo Jin Wang He Jin, Reincarnated King Liu Xiyao, Shuntian King He Guoxian and others.

It turned out that Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others surrendered last year, and there were only five battalions left in the thirteen families. Zhang Xianzhong rebelled, and the Shuntian King, the Ten Anti Kings, and the Guotianxing followed all the rebellions.

Now, two of the capricious thief heads were in front of him.

Chongzhen ignored the hideous face and foul smell, looked at several heads seriously, and even asked the chamberlain to carefully compare the wanted portraits of the leaders of the anti-thieves that had been archived by the imperial court.

After watching it for a long time, Chongzhen felt that these heads should be those anti-thieves. The head has not been cut down for a long time, and it has been well controlled, and it is still well preserved.

With a long exhale, Chongzhen laughed out loud again.

"Hahahaha!"

After laughing for a while, Chongzhen walked to the basin brought by the palace people, washed his hands, and returned to the throne.

Wang Chengen hurriedly waved his hand and asked people to remove the head.

"Sure enough, it is the head of several thieves, Liu Jun did not deceive me, good, very good, very good."

After laughing, Chongzhen was in a good mood. It's been a long time since I've been so comfortable, "For such a loyal and brave minister, I must reward him heavily." Well, Liu Jun fought bravely, and he should be rewarded, well, Liu Jun was named General Dangkou and awarded the seal of General Dangkou! (To be continued......)

PS: The weather is suddenly cold, I have a cold, a headache! ~