As Lee Mingrui said.

Shi Kefa was afraid that if he died, he would fall into a dangerous situation, which would make the Son of Heaven hate the accusations of hundreds of officials even more and kowtow and beg for mercy.

And Li Mingrui was also relieved to see this.

Although Li Mingrui does not have much affection for Shi Kefa.

But Li Mingrui, who is a close minister of the Son of Heaven, also knows the importance of Shi Kefa's person in the hearts of Jiangnan officials and people.

If the Ming court wanted to gain a firm foothold in Jiangnan, it could not make the relationship with the Jiangnan gentry too stiff.

And if you can't make it too stiff, you can't kill Shi Kefa.

That's what Lee thinks right now.

Moreover, Li Mingrui could also guess that Zhu Youzhen did not have to kill Shi Kefa.

Just on the spur of the moment.

And the resolution of this impulse requires Shi Kefa to take the initiative to kneel down and beg for mercy.

Only in this way can it be regarded as a sign that Shi Kefa, the representative of the gentry in Jiangnan, bowed to His Majesty.

As long as Shi Kefa bows his head to His Majesty.

Li Mingrui believes that Zhu Youzhen, the son of heaven, will not really want to kill Shi Kefa.

Fortunately, Shi Kefa finally understood what Li Mingrui meant.

However, Li Mingrui also knew that it was not enough to let Shi Kefa beg for mercy now, he also had to intercede for Shi Kefa.

Because, only in this way can it be regarded as giving the Ming Emperor Zhu Youzhen a step down.

"I don't know if Li Zuo can wait for a while, and wait for the lower official to ask to see His Majesty, and then kill Shi Kefa?"

At this time, Li Mingrui was busy saluting Li Ruolian, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, hoping that he could wait for a while to behead Shi Kefa, so as to give him a chance to intercede for Shi Kefa in front of Zhu Youzhen.

Li Ruolian served the oracle, and although the meaning of the oracle was to make a decision, it would be okay to delay for a quarter of an hour or two.

In addition, Li Mingrui is a celebrity next to His Majesty, and Li Ruolian also regrets that Shi Kefa died because of this, so he sold Li Mingrui a favor:

"Your Majesty is angry, Li Zhongcheng has to be careful when he speaks, and he doesn't want to kill two people in a row later!"

"Thank you!"

Li Mingrui knew that Li Ruolian was reminding himself, and immediately ran towards Zhu Youzhen after giving up his hand to Li Ruolian.

"Weichen Li Mingrui has seen Your Majesty!"

Zhu Youzhen saw that it was Li Mingrui who appeared, and just snorted: "You are here to intercede for that guy." ”

Shi Kefa's voice kowtowing and begging for mercy, Zhu Youzhen had already heard it, and because of this, his anger was also reduced by three points.

Zhu Youzhen naturally guessed that a stubborn person like Shi Kefa could suddenly kowtow to himself and beg for mercy, it must be what Li Mingrui said to him just now.

"In the end, I can't escape the eyes of Your Majesty, Weichen has the courage to ask Your Majesty to spare Shi Kefa's capital crime, this person is the hope of hundreds of officials in Jiangnan, and if you kill him rashly, I am afraid that you will lose the heart of the Jiangnan gentry."

Li Mingrui hurriedly replied.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help laughing: "Will I be afraid of them Jiangnan gentry? This world is not the world of his Jiangnan gentry, it is the world of billions of trillion Li Shu! ”

"What Your Majesty said is extremely true, Your Majesty is naturally not afraid of them, but you also need them, at least you need them to give your Majesty their lives, there is no king in this world who does not think there are enough lackeys."

Li Mingrui's comparison of the Jiangnan gentry to lackeys fits Zhu Youzhen's heart, which makes Zhu Youzhen feel happy.

"In your opinion, what should Shi Kefa do?"

Zhu Youzhen simply threw Shi Kefa's matter to Li Mingrui, if Li Mingrui can not only persuade himself to be satisfied but also handle it to his satisfaction, Zhu Youzhen does not mind cultivating him as the first assistant in the future.

Li Mingrui also knew that His Majesty Zhu Youzhen was testing himself, and he was lively, so he gritted his teeth and replied: "Let him be the kind of person he hates the most." ”

"Well, what's the person he hates the most?"

Zhu Youzhen asked.

"The Donglin Party has always been the most anti-eunuch party, especially the eunuchs", Li Mingrui knew that if he was not ruthless to Shi Kefa, he would not be able to relieve His Majesty's anger, nor could he deter the ministers who dared to challenge the monarchy, but he could not kill Shi Kefa to chill the hearts of the Jiangnan gentry, so Li Mingrui simply suggested that Zhu Youzhen punish Shi Kefa with palace punishment.

"Accurate!"

Zhu Youzhen replied without hesitation.

He did feel a little sorry for him to really kill Shi Kefa, but if he let some talented and loyal and reliable Shi Kefa become his minister.

Zhu Youzhen was very satisfied with this.

The Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party have been fighting for decades, and the country's capital has been exhausted, so it is time to merge from Shi Kefa and save the country together!

"Your Majesty's decree to exempt Shi Kefa from the death penalty, to be punished in the palace, to be sent to the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, and to lead the Jiangshui army!"

Li Mingrui read out Zhu Youzhen's dictation in front of Shi Kefa and Li Ruolian.

Li Ruolian couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and only after a long time did he take back the embroidered spring knife, and said with a smile: "This is very good, I have more loyal and good people in the inner court, and one less useless person in the outer court!" ”

Shi Kefa also stopped kowtowing, and only after a moment did he react.

He never thought that His Majesty would deal with him like this, but he could guess that this must be Li Mingrui's idea.

Therefore, although Shi Kefa knew that it was Li Mingrui who saved his life, he was not grateful to Li Mingrui, but sighed:

"Taishi Gong, today Shi Kefa will follow your example, but I don't know if the Holy Duke of Kong Yan is Li Ling's generation!"

Li Mingrui knew that he would have to bear the infamy of making Shi Kefa an eunuch from now on.

However, he didn't care, and he also knew that maybe only in this way would His Majesty use him with confidence.

……

It was now almost June, and Li Zicheng had retreated from Shanhaiguan to Beijing after the defeat.

Jiannu and Wu Sangui also arrived near the city of Beijing.

In a few days, the young master of Jiannu, Fulin, will be in Beijing to build Yuan Shunzhi, and Li Zicheng will also withdraw to Shanxi.

At this time, the thief Tian Jianxiu was still fighting with Zhu Zhaoming of the Ming Dynasty in Baoding City.

However, according to the report from Jinyiwei, Tian Jianxiu has received Li Zicheng's edict, and there are signs of retreating westward.

This also means that in the future, the southern part of Beizhili will officially enter a relatively short period of peace.

The external military threat of the Ming Dynasty was temporarily alleviated.

Zhu Youzhen's southward retreat team also sped up, began to march day and night, and successfully arrived in Yanzhou ten days later disguised as a thief.

Because Zhu Youzhen strictly ordered Jinyiwei to block the news of the southward retreat, and implemented roll call control on the southward retreat team, and strictly implemented a travel system.

Therefore, Zou Huayong, the prefect of Yanzhou, did not know the reality of the thief team that arrived in Yanzhou, and believed that it was the invasion army that attacked, so he directly opened the city and surrendered.

As a result, Zhu Youzhen directly ordered He Xin to kill Zou Huayong, the prefect of Yanzhou, and the Yanzhou gentry who surrendered with him in the name of the thief, and confiscated his family property, and obtained a total of more than 1 million taels of silver.

Because they heard that the prefect of Yanzhou was killed, none of the gentry in the city of Yanzhou were spared, so that the gentry in the Yanzhou territory really began to believe that it was the thief coming, and they all forgot about His Majesty's retreat to the south a few days ago.

Naturally, someone quickly informed the thieves about the arrival of the thieves in Yanzhou to the Kong Yan Holy Mansion.