On November 3, the seventh year of Chongzhen, in the Forbidden City.

Emperor Chongzhen opened the window slightly, and a cold air immediately rolled in with a few snowflakes. Emperor Chongzhen reached out and grabbed a snowflake, which immediately turned into a small drop of water in his palm. Emperor Chongzhen let out a long sigh and said, "It's snowing!" ”

Wang Chengen, who was behind him, immediately stepped forward to close the window, and then bowed down to Emperor Chongzhen and said, "It's cold outside, the emperor should stay by the brazier." You see that there is only one brazier in the house, and the emperor wants to save money, and he can't freeze his body? Add two more braziers! ”

Emperor Chongzhen shook his hand, walked to his place and sat down: "I know that Wang Companion cares about me!" I also know that I can't save much refined carbon. But I want to set an example! The national crisis is at the head, the treasury is empty, and I must be diligent and thrifty for the country! ”

After finishing speaking, Emperor Chongzhen picked up the "Court Notes" in front of him and read it.

A few days ago, Emperor Chongzhen convened all the cabinets, six ministries, nine ministers and other important ministers to discuss the domestic situation. The first is to ask Chen Qiyu, who led to the change in the carriage gorge, to dismiss his post and appoint Hong Chengchou as the new governor of the five provinces.

Then, in the court discussion of the important ministers, it was decided to take advantage of the temporary lack of movement in Houjin outside the Guan, concentrate all Liliang, and completely encircle and suppress the peasant rebels in the Central Plains.

This court meeting was an important turning point in the policy of the Ming court. In the past, no matter how jubilant the peasant rebels were, the Ming court still dealt with them as local rebellions. But after this court meeting, the Ming court will elevate the peasant rebel army to the same status as the Houjin army, and treat it as a big trouble.

For this reason, in the court discussion, Emperor Chongzhen and the ministers of the military department and the household department formulated a huge plan to increase the number of troops and salaries, intending to end the seven-year-long rebellion within six months.

This plan was to draw 75,000 soldiers and 15,000 horses from all directions. 770,000 taels of silver. This is the maximum number of troops and financial resources that the Ming Dynasty can mobilize at this stage, and it can be said that it used the family background of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had already made up his mind to tighten his belt and finish his work in one battle.

This also marked the shift of the strategic focus of the Ming Dynasty from the Later Jin Dynasty to the peasant rebel army.

In this Jihua, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, will lead his troops to attack from west to east, Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, will lead Shandong troops to attack from east to west, and Xuan Mo, the governor of Henan, will respond in the middle, and the local officials in the rest of the regions will guard their own borders.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at this "Commentary on the Court" carefully, considering what he had missed. Suddenly, he raised his head and said to Wang Chengen, who was standing beside him: "Send someone to Zhang Shangshu to say something!" Another 2,000 Guan Ning Tie rode into the pass. General Qin's 3,000 white-pole soldiers went out of Sichuan, and they must complete their work in one battle! ”

Wang Chengen hurriedly ran to the front of the hall, summoned a little eunuch and ordered him carefully. But when he turned around, he saw Emperor Chongzhen falling asleep on a chair.

Wang Chengen immediately made a gesture to one of the palace maids in the house to take something, and then walked lightly to Emperor Chongzhen's side. The brazier was placed at the feet of Emperor Chongzhen. The palace maid quickly brought a brocade fur, and Wang Chengen carefully covered it for Emperor Chongzhen.

There was an instant silence in the room. Only the meditation incense in the incense burner smoked brightly. It didn't take long. Emperor Chongzhen's body moved, and when he found the brocade on his body, he immediately sat up straight, and said with some self-deprecation: "I didn't expect to fall asleep while sitting." ”

Wang Chengen immediately bowed down and asked, "The emperor is too tired, do you want to take a break on the soft couch in the back?" ”

Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said, "I took a nap." It's a lot better. There are still some pieces that have not been reviewed. ”

Then Emperor Chongzhen picked up a book on the side, but before he could open it, he suddenly asked Wang Chengen: "Do you say that I am a good emperor?" ”

Wang Chengen was so shocked that he immediately raised his head, and he saw Emperor Chongzhen in his twenties. There were already a few strands of gray hair on the sideburns. Wang Chengen immediately felt that he was unbearable, his nose was sour, tears appeared in his eyes, and his emotions suddenly lost control.

Wang Chengen immediately detoured to Emperor Chongzhen, knelt down and howled: "Why is the emperor bad! Saving money and letting Yuan Chonghuan fight the tartars, but he put the tartars in Beijing. trusted Chen Qiyu in every way, but he let go of the Shaanxi bandits who were locked in the cage. But what kind of life did the emperor live? Now that they're all wearing patched dragon robes, what do those ministers want? Dealing with state affairs all night every day, what do those foreign ministers want? The emperor did nothing wrong, but those ministers who shouted loyalty and patriotism every day were white-eyed wolves. Woo——! ”

"Alas!" Emperor Chongzhen stopped Wang Chengen's nonsense, "I can't say that, this is also an unknown person!" ”

"I don't know how to recognize people!" Wang Chengen is out today, "The old slave doesn't understand state affairs, and those Taoists really can't be understood, but who recommended Yuan Chonghuan at that time?" The emperor's edict made those civil servants pay attention to it, and they can't let the Shaanxi bandits cross the Yellow River, but did the Shaanxi bandits cross the Yellow River? The emperor's holy decree arranged a battle strategy for Chen Qiyu, but did Chen Qiyu listen to the emperor? Let him pay attention to the deception! He's good, incapable of misleading the country! Woo——! ”

Emperor Chongzhen smiled bitterly, but Wang Chengen's words did speak to Emperor Chongzhen's heart, and Emperor Chongzhen also felt a lot better in his heart, he sighed and sighed: "The country is in trouble and thinks of good ministers!" ”

Wang Chengen immediately knelt down and raised his head: "Your Majesty, you can't be depressed!" Back then, Grandpa Taizu and Chen Youliang fought indomitably and laid the foundation of the Ming Dynasty in the Battle of Poyang Lake. When Chengzu's grandfather was in trouble, he won more than Nanjing. The emperor is just a moment of bad luck now, with the emperor's eloquence and strategy, and diligent governance, he will definitely not be able to meet Tailai and become a king of Zhongxing. ”

Emperor Chongzhen smiled bitterly again and sighed: "I don't want to become the king of Weishenme Zhongxing, as long as I govern the Ming Dynasty well and hand him over to Cihong (Prince Zhu Cihong) safely, I will be satisfied!" ”

Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen still didn't mention his spirit, Wang Chengen "Wow——! He cried loudly, and his body suddenly fell to the ground.

……

Same. The governor of the Lu clan is in the camp.

Henan Governor Xuan Mo sat in his chair with a gloomy face and said nothing. After a long while, Master Wang, a staff member beside him, said: "I didn't expect all this to be done by Wu Runing!" ”

After Xuan Mo took office, he has been leading the Ming army in Henan to fight against the peasant rebel army, and he has no time to pay attention to the government affairs in the government. But gradually, Xuan Mo discovered a very strange phenomenon.

The entire central and northern parts of Henan are in chaos, but Runing and Guide in the south of Henan are strangely calm. According to the local officials, it was a place to live and work in peace and contentment, and it was a scene of prosperity. And it is very strange that the bandits who swept the whole of Henan refused to go there anyway.

Xuan Mo also knew that there were three strong armies in the local area, namely the Yexian battalion of General Li Bing, the Runing battalion of Wu Baiding, and the Guide Dewei commanded by Zhao. But these three strong armies just refused to move their nests, and when a rebel approached there, these three strong armies would immediately show their fangs and gnaw those bandits to the bone. It has successively created the brilliant results of the Ruzhou victory and the Nanyang victory.

But when the bandits stayed away, these three strong armies were like snoozing tigers, turning a blind eye to the jackals around them. It was not completely blind, at that time, Wu Baiding's Runing battalion chased after and exterminated the leopard-headed bandits.

When he heard that the Runing Battalion had changed its style to go out to fight, Xuan Mo at that time was also pleased that the Runing Battalion had changed its temperament, so he suppressed those pieces that killed the people and killed innocents indiscriminately. But it wasn't until later that I learned that the leopard-headed bandit suffered this fate because he robbed Wu Baiding's trading house.

And this time, Xuan Mo's Nanyang battalion recruited General Li's soldiers was unable to recruit repeatedly, and Xuan Mo knew that there was a problem here. To be honest, Xuan Mo didn't know anything about these three strong armies, only that they had been in arrears for a long time.

Xuan Mo also looked through the account books of the distribution of soldiers' food and salary in recent years, and found a very strange phenomenon, Li Zongbing's Yexian battalion was better, but Wu Baiding's Runing battalion had been in arrears for several years. Although the situation of arrears of food and salary among the soldiers in the world is very serious, the other soldiers are able to pay some to some extent, and it is rare for the Runing Battalion to have no money.

And the grain and silver handed over by the military households under the command of Zhao to Dewei were not reduced or reduced according to the disaster situation. What's even more strange is that in the past few years, Wu Baiding and Commander Zhao also sent official documents to the governor's yamen and the political envoy yamen to cry a few times, but they have been silent all these years.

Xuan Mo is also an old officialdom, and he knows that this must be a great conflict between these three strong armies and the governor yamen and the political envoy yamen.

But it doesn't matter if there are some contradictions on weekdays, when you want to transfer troops to fight, these three strong armies will die if they don't move. So Xuan Mo also gave Runing Ying a special allowance of 8,000 taels of silver, wanting to make up for the relationship between them.

didn't expect that the situation was still the same, and Xuan Mo was a little angry. He learned from Chen Qiyu's Chinese army account at that time that these three strong armies were an alliance, so he wanted to completely tame this tiger head.

So who is the head of the tiger? Of course, Xuan Mo thinks that it is the "famous general" Li Lu. So he took the initiative to find out from the officials who escorted the grain and grass in Nanyang Mansion, and wanted to know everything about Li Lu himself and the Yexian camp.

But the result shocked Xuan Mo, and the officials of Nanyang Mansion didn't know anything about the Ye County camp at all. just vaguely told Xuan Mo: Li Zongbing and Wu Baiding were doing private iron ore business together in Ye County.

Xuan Mo immediately understood that he was going in the wrong direction. He recalled that at that time, in Chen Qiyu's Chinese military account, Wu Shigong skipped Li Lu and Zhao Ming, two high-ranking military attachés, and took the initiative to answer Chen Qiyu.

Xuan Mo analyzed the relationship between the three again, Zhao Ming was the original general of Wu Shigong, and Li Lu also kept calling Wu Shigong "brother-in-law!" And there is nothing to do with Li Lu and Zhao Ming, so this tiger head must be Wu Shigong. (To be continued......)