At the end of August of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Huanggang County was at the gate of the county ya.

Tang Liu stuffed a small package containing silver into the hand of a middle-aged man dressed as a literati, and then arched his hand: "Thank you, sir." ”

The middle-aged scribe tossed the weight of the small package and replied lightly, "It's okay! But Mr. Tang didn't come to Huanggang either. ”

Tang Liu clenched his teeth, swallowed the anger in his heart hard, and replied, "The villain will take people away." ”

After finishing speaking, Tang Liu beckoned the dozens of entourages he brought, loaded the two bruised people thrown out of the county government into the cart, and then walked towards the outside of the county seat.

This time, Tang Liu went out to find a dock for the sailors of the Runing Army, and with Tang Liu's relationship in the Cao Gang, it was quite smooth in Hongze Lake. But when he came to Huanggang County, he was immediately put on a stand by the local gentry.

I won't say much about the specific process of being defrauded. To put it simply: that is, Tang Liu took a fancy to a piece of land that could build a wharf, and the gentry who owned this land immediately raised the price.

Tang Liu reluctantly bought it at a high price, but was secretly sabotaged by the gentry who mobilized the locals. Tang Liu spent silver again to settle the locals, and when he saw that Tang Liuren was stupid and had a lot of money, the gentry immediately colluded with the government and even robbed the silver.

Of course, Tang Liu, who was angry, wanted to theorize, but he was arrested by Nazhi County's two of Tang Liu's entourage, beaten and thrown into prison. If it weren't for Tang Liu's official body given by the Runing Army, maybe Tang Liu would have been arrested and put in prison.

So Tang Liu immediately sent a letter to Wu Shigong for help, but he didn't expect the reply to be: Regardless of this lawsuit, rescue people as soon as possible and rush back to Runing Mansion.

Of course, Wu Shigong would not explain to Tang Liu: The Runing Army was about to start a big battle with the peasant army in Xiangyang, so all the nearby Runing Army personnel would be evacuated.

So Tang Liu, who left Huanggang County, was quite depressed, and he thought angrily: "I must get this one back!" ”

Not to mention Tang Liu's depression, Wen Tiren, the first assistant in Beijing now, is also quite depressed.

Wen Tiren is a person. In fact, there are many similarities with Emperor Chongzhen. They are the same clean and self-conscious; The same rigidity for self-use; the same mean and cruel; Just as easy to use and smart; It's just as obsessed with power. Perhaps it is this kind of personality fit that is the real basis for their monarchy and ministers.

However, as the war situation at home and abroad became more and more erosive, the people of the government and the opposition and even ordinary people became more and more dissatisfied with the imperial court. In particular, the two Manchu Qing Dynasty ravaged the suburbs of Beijing, causing the nobles and people in the capital to lose a lot of property, which made the dissatisfaction of the officials and people in the capital with the imperial court rise sharply.

Of course, those people in the government and the opposition did not dare to point the finger at Emperor Chongzhen, so they concentrated their hatred on Shoufu Wen Tiren.

In Chongzhen's seven-year examination, Wen Tiren served as the chief examiner, and there was a person named Qiyuan who participated in the exam, and he dared to use the questions in the examination papers. Secretly Wen Tiren is disrespectful. Wen Zhenmeng, the examiner who graded the papers, was overjoyed when he saw such an article, and commented: "Stretch out your eyebrows and resist your hand, I want to see him." ”

Wen Tiren knew that he was scolding himself, but he still chose Qiyuan calmly. It was only after the exam that he complained in the cabinet: "Outsiders say that we have to take in a few protégés in the examination room." Our status today cannot be relied on by protégés. What's more, someone scolded me in the exam room. ”

When his colleagues asked him what was going on, he said, "He is all about disrespectful ministers at the end of his eight-strand article." How about the disrespectful ministers. Isn't that swearing? It's just that this room has approved 'stretching out his eyebrows and resisting his hand, wanting to see his person', where do you dare not take him? Where would you dare not take him? ”

From this point of view, at this time, Wen Tiren already knew that he had become a scapegoat who was accused of Emperor Chongzhen, and he also realized that he had betrayed his relatives.

Later, the scholars in the capital compiled a couplet according to the current politics, because Huang Shijun, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, was the champion of Ding Weike. The left and right waiters Kong Zhenyun and Chen Zizhuang respectively hit the list eye and Tanhua, and the three main officials of a department happened to be Sanding Jia, which was passed on as a beautiful talk, so Shanglian was "the Ministry of Rites reopened the heavenly list." Champions, Bangyan, Tanhua, a little panicked (Huang, Kong)", although slightly abusive, but not bad.

But the next link is very unsightly, using the consonant of several cabinet ministers, Wen Tiren Wucheng, Gui'an people, Wang Ying Xiongba County, Wu Zongda is sleek and indisputable, known as the slices, so it is said that "the cabinet is turned into a brothel, turtle (return), Wang Ba (Ba), and slices, always suffer from plague (Wen)".

Because of the relief, this pair of ministers who called the cabinet a brothel was widely circulated inside and outside the capital, and the cabinet ministers could only smile bitterly when they heard it. It should be said: The scholar who made up this kind of couplet is definitely a master of writing Weibo and short messages now. As for whether it will be retweeted 500 times? Then it depends on his luck.

If he just moved his mouth, Wen Tiren was not afraid of boiling water, but at this moment, someone did it.

The mother of Chengde, the former Ziyang Zhixian County, who was severely punished, waited for Wen Tiren's sedan chair on Chang'an Street for days to come over in the ninth year of Chongzhen.

You must know that although Chengde, the former Ziyang Zhixian County, was responsible for losing the city, his time in office was too short, and even Emperor Chongzhen thought he was a little innocent, but Wen Tiren never mentioned the word probation, and Chengde was finally executed.

But when Emperor Chongzhen knew about this, he specially sent fifty guards for Wen Tiren, but he didn't want to fight with the same old lady who was sprinkling. This made Wu Shigong simply lose face.

Of course, Wen Tiren also knew about this bad situation, and in order to keep the position of the first assistant, he brazenly decided to stand up. And this time his target was Qian Yiqian, one of the leaders of the Donglin Party. Wen Tiren is determined to really kill a big tiger and show it to his ministers.

But Wen Tiren didn't know that unconsciously, there was a minister who quietly replaced Wen Tiren's position in the mind of Emperor Chongzhen, and that was Yang Sichang.

Yang Sichang, weak in writing, was born in a scholarly family. Yang Sichang and his father Yang He were both known as military supervisors.

Yang Sichang is the son of Yang He, the former governor of Shaanxi Province, Yang He was arrested for the failure of the peasant uprising, he was serving as the Shanhaiguan military station, and successively asked for the punishment of his father, so Emperor Chongzhen exempted Yang He from the death penalty and sent the border guards to fill the army.

So from this point of view, Emperor Chongzhen has a personal favor to Yang Sichang, and Yang Sichang is also quite grateful for this, and he is loyal to Emperor Chongzhen. Yang Sichang is erudite and strong, and has many years of experience in military strategy, has his own set of opinions in military strategy, and is eloquent and eloquent, good at expression, so he was very appreciated by Emperor Chongzhen when he repeatedly discussed the strategy of pacification and summoned the right statement. The most important thing is that Emperor Chongzhen believes that Yang Sichang is a loyal and filial son.

In the summer of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang was promoted to the imperial history of the right capital and the governor of Yongping Mountains and Seas, taking on the important task of defending the Qing army; In the autumn of the seventh year, he was promoted to the right attendant of the military department and the right governor of Xuanda. However, the following year, his father died in the garrison, and soon after his stepmother died at home, he resigned and returned to his hometown as usual, and it was supposed that he could only be appointed by the imperial court at the discretion of the imperial court after the expiration of the three-year period. However, in the case of the country's urgent need for talents, Emperor Chongzhen Zuihou still decided to win the favor and Yang Sichang to replace the military department.

It should be said that Yang Sichang is a very capable person, and he also has unique views in military affairs, and he is not at all like what is described in some romances, he is a person with great ambitions and talents.

But Yang Sichang's character has two major flaws: one is jealousy and jealousy, and wants to be in power alone; The other is that they are overly entrusted to others and are unable to assume their due responsibilities. So in the chaos of the late Ming Dynasty, his performance was destined to be a tragedy.

Because the Qing army entered the interior one after another, as if entering a no-man's land, it gave Emperor Chongzhen a great stimulus, and also stimulated his thirst for capable military talents. Before this, he had personally promoted Wang Qia and Liang Tingdong to serve as the secretary of the military department, but they were not satisfied, and for the Qing army to come to the city, one was executed and the other committed suicide.

At this time, there were vacancies in the two important positions of the secretary of the military department and the governor of Xuanda, and he hoped to appoint people who were really talented and courageous, and could help him save the situation.

After careful consideration, Emperor Chongzhen Zuihou decided to transfer Lu Xiang, the prime minister of the five provinces, who was on the front line of encircling and suppressing the peasant army, to be promoted to the governor of Xuanda, and appointed Yang Sichang, the former governor of Xuanda, who was mourning at home, as the secretary of the military department.

In the nine-year reign of Emperor Chongzhen, this time the personnel arrangement was probably the most elaborate and appropriate. Lu Xiangsheng was young and resolute, and he managed the army well, and he showed extraordinary talent in his many years of dealing with the peasant army, and was recognized as one of the most talented courtiers in military affairs.

Moreover, because the situation of the peasant uprising after Gao Yingxiang was captured eased slightly, Emperor Chongzhen promoted Lu Xiang to an important town in the north, on the one hand, to strengthen the defense of the Gyeonggi region, and on the other hand, he also wanted to conduct further examination of him nearby, so as to prepare for the candidate to preside over the military department in the future.

As for the use of Yang Sichang, it was a surprise to ordinary courtiers. Because the Ming Dynasty has always advertised to rule the world with filial piety, under normal circumstances, it is always necessary to try to avoid things that take away affection, and occasionally there will be most of them that will cause criticism from the courtiers. However, Emperor Chongzhen knew that this decision might be opposed by many people under the situation where the courtiers sang science and science in a high-profile situation, but he still made up his mind.

The appointments of Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang seem to indicate that Emperor Chongzhen's reign to the present day has made him feel more keenly the importance of using practical talents with real talents and practical learning. Although Wen Tiren is easy to use and easy to communicate emotionally, it is somewhat unreliable to rely on them to get out of the crisis.

It is probably this thought that caused his favor for Wen Tiren to cool down suddenly, although emotionally he still likes this old minister who has a relationship with him, but he no longer has the enthusiasm to defend the position of the first assistant for him in the past.

But it's too early to say all this, and Yang Sichang's performance will depend on Wen Tiren's resignation.

As for the current Runing Army, all their attention was focused on Xiangyang, where the peasant army gathered. (To be continued......)