The courtiers who had the same thoughts as Chen Shoufu scolded Yu Dong for being wrong, and for a while, the court was full of voices blaming Yu Dong. In the end, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to go into battle in person, and issued an edict saying that Yu Dong's merits were greater than his faults, so he would not be held accountable this time, and then strictly ordered the reinforcements from both sides to step up the march and quickly relieve the siege of Kaifeng with the Jiangbei Army.

After shouting long live with everyone, Chen Yan walked out of the palace with the crowd who retreated from the dynasty, and today these courtiers think that they have performed well, and they will fight for the righteousness of the imperial court, and if they do not echo the emperor's behavior, they will not be impeached by the imperial history, and they will not be used by the emperor as a shield for mishandling the issue of Yu Dong or the Jiangbei Army in the future. As for the final resolution, no one went back and opposed it with action, because everyone thought that this kind of behavior was right, but since the emperor did not share the credit to the courtiers, he should not expect the courtiers to contribute.

"Yuanfu, if Yu Shuai succeeds this time, the lower officials think that they can guarantee him as the governor of Jiangbei."

"Yuanfu, Yu Shuai has worked hard, why didn't the saint give him gold coins and brocade clothes? If you have spare time in the future, it is not too much to recruit Jingshi Lantai to give a banquet. ”

There were a lot of people who spoke, and Chen Yan couldn't remember who said what they said, but these people undoubtedly asked him to say these words before Emperor Chongzhen, so that the courtiers could support them. If Emperor Chongzhen accidentally said it first, then everyone had to oppose it to the end, although it was too ridiculous, the emperor would still see it and refuse to give the order, but some mistakes that were not ridiculous to the extreme, the emperor would carry them out.

For example, there was a great drought in Henan, and the court wanted to provide disaster relief and reduce taxes in Henan, and a magistrate in Nanjing said that there was also a disaster in Jiangnan at this time - of course, there will be no major disasters and small disasters in which dynasty and which generation? So it should be exempted from all of them.

At that time, Chen Yan was not the first assistant, just an ordinary courtier, and after hearing this nonsense, he scolded bitterly in his heart: Such a ridiculous statement actually dared to be sent to the front of the emperor in a grand manner! After a while, when Motosuke and the elders start scolding, I will scold along.

But the first to speak was Emperor Chongzhen, who felt that this truth was difficult to refute, so since there were disasters, there was no need to avoid it, and there was no need to give relief.

Chen Yan was protesting again in his heart, and secretly vowed: When Shoufu starts to oppose it in a while, I will buzz along.

Why do you have to scold together before, and then you can only buzz the next time? Because the taxation of Nanjing involves the interests of many members of the Donglin Group. Although he is also a member of Donglin Group, Chen Yan feels that sometimes he still has to put the country first. But he is not the first assistant, not the elder, since this piece was played by the Donglin officials in Nanjing, it is more secure for Zhou Shoufu to open this mouth, after all, he is the first assistant in the court, and in Donglin, he is the seat teacher of countless Donglin scholars over the years.

However, Zhou Shoufu did not object, he agreed. At that time, Chen Yan scolded Zhou Yanru again in his heart: What a coward, a big coward, you would agree to such a ridiculous decision.

One after another, the other courtiers agreed, and Chen Yan agreed. Henan will not receive relief, and the tax will continue only because, Emperor Chongzhen hopes to use this to seal the mouth of the magistrate in Nanjing. "The emperor doesn't really know how ridiculous this idea is, or really doesn't know how to distinguish between real disasters and fake disasters, major disasters and small disasters." Chen Yan thought so in his heart at that time.

Time and time again, each time Chan tried to buzz after Shousuke expressed his opposition, but each time Shousuke did not object to those ridiculous resolutions. "What a coward." Chen Yan gave such a judgment every time, and when he went to the next court, Chen Yan would often run behind Shoufu when people were not paying attention, or when the people around him were gossiping to Shousuke to give him ideas, and make one or two suggestions that he thought would be beneficial to the country, hoping that Shousuke would be able to say it the next time he went to court - anyway, so many people are talking, Shousuke will not remember who said it, and his colleagues will not know who made the suggestion.

Day after day, Chen Yan was no longer ready to follow the buzz, because Shoufu would definitely not object to any proposal that was beneficial to Donglin's interests, and it would not matter if he echoed the emperor on such an issue—there would be no imperial scolding; Other questions must not be attached to the emperor - the imperial history is still waiting for the material to scold people.

There were also chaotic voices behind him, and Chen Yan walked forward without looking back, he didn't know who said those various proposals in favor of the country, and he was not in the mood to remember them.

"Wen Tiren, who is not from our Donglin, has always sheltered the saint from the wind and rain, done things for the saint that he is related to but embarrassed to do, and resisted the scolding of the saint when the saint wanted to make a profit. Zhou Yanru gave Cao Huachun a sum of silver and asked him to tell the saint that Wen Tiren had formed a party, and the saint dismissed Wen Tiren. Very crisp and happy, he didn't remember Wen Tiren's years of service at all, but was very happy that this person took away all the infamy. And then what...... Then there is the northern captives into the Kou, Zhou Yanru insisted on saying that the fiasco in Tongxian County was an unprecedented victory since Chengzu, and the saint went to the Taimiao to offer victory, and everyone was happy, and everyone handed a splendid congratulatory message to Emperor Taizu Gao, as if it was really a great victory...... In the end, Zhou Yanru was also deposed, and there was nothing particularly unlucky, since ancient times, he who sat in the position of prime minister, he could be deposed and then happily return to his hometown, and his fortune was good. ”

After defeating Zhou Yanru and becoming the first assistant, Chen Yan's expectation for himself is to be stronger than Zhou Yanru, and the so-called strong is not to say that the fiasco is a big victory. A long time ago, Chen Yan's ideal was to follow the buzz when Shoufu objected, even if it violated the interests of the Donglin Group, he still had to follow the buzz, but now, he could object, but the atmosphere above the court was still the same as before: "With this group of cowards behind me, if I come out to oppose it, they will never dare to follow the buzz, and I will become a lonely person and be knocked to the ground." If I don't sit in this position, and there is another Zhou Yanru who lies about the military situation, then the saint will be even more deceived, at least now he can still know the truth and have the opportunity to make the right decision......"

……

"Worry about everything," this is Hou Xun's recent mantra, as the overseer in charge of command on the front line, he can feel the pressure of breaking into the camp more than the ministers of the court: "Everything is worrying about people." ”

The recent disaster is better than in the past few years, but the Ming Dynasty has not benefited a lot from it, but on the contrary, it is extremely beneficial to the righteous army, the Ming Dynasty's officials and the problems in the army have accumulated and it is difficult to return, Hou Xun still remembers that when the world was just beginning to be in flames, a piece of paper can often make a large number of rebels captured, or transfer thousands of border troops, you can kill the homeless people into a river of blood. But now the situation is completely different, the low-level soldiers in the rebel army may still fantasize about Zhao'an, but their leader already has the ambition to seize the world, and their army is no longer comparable to the Ming army, and the new army of Zhendong Hou is already the last hope of the imperial court - but is it really the savior of the Ming Dynasty? Hou Xun was also suspicious of this.

More than ten years ago, Hou Xun was ordered to Henan for the first time to suppress the rebellion, the cause of that time was very simple, first of all, a flood, local officials asked for relief and tax reduction, unfortunately at that time the fierce battle between Wen Tiren and Donglin was at a critical juncture. Wen Tiren is Donglin's sworn enemy, and he exposed Qian Qianyi's various crimes such as fraud in organizing the imperial examination in front of Chongzhen, which caused Qian Qianyi to be unable to enter the cabinet to worship the prime minister, and Donglin hated him to the bone. In order to oust this traitor, Donglin's strategy was: to report the disaster when Wen Tiren proposed the policy, so as to prove that the traitor had made the people angry; And Donglin should be smooth when promoting talents. The report of such a flood had to be postponed for a while, Hou Xun felt that it was not a big deal, anyway, when we defeated Wen Tiren, a traitor, we would still ask for the people's lives.

A year later, when it was time to report the floods, the court issued a decree for the wealthy to pledge donations, and agreed that the magistrates would collect boats to salvage the bodies of refugees and bury them, to prevent the plague, and so on...... In short, Hou Xun felt that the imperial court thought of everything that could be done for the people. Unfortunately, the weather was not beautiful, and just when Rice was preparing to deal with the flood, the magistrate reported that there was a major drought today, and it was necessary to carry out work such as preventing locust plagues.

Since the emperor had just reported the flood, it was not good to report the drought immediately, so the courtiers decided to postpone the disaster for another year before reporting it to the emperor.

Another year had passed, and it was time to report the drought and locust plagues, but it was no longer possible to report them, and the refugees had already risen up, stormed the county, burned the yamen, and drove out the magistrates—this was no small matter, and the only way to suppress it was to immediately allocate funds and send troops to suppress it.

Hou Xun rushed to the rebel area with the border army and killed all the hungry people who were making trouble, and the disaster area was already full of devastation, with continuous floods, droughts, locust plagues and military disasters. The people who kept to themselves died, the troublemakers were killed, and the rest fled from their homes. At that time, Hou Xun angrily asked a captured troublemaker leader: "Why did you starve to death at home honestly, and you want to come out to disturb this peaceful world?" ”

The things in the world are all disturbed by these people, if they die at home in peace and don't come out to make trouble, then the imperial court will come to help even if it is a year or two years late, right? The rebels are the things that Hou Xun hates the most, they are all them, so that the imperial court cannot effectively control the place, and the blood debt of these dead people must be counted on their heads.

Wen Tiren, a traitor, has been defeated, and Donglin once again controls the government, but the world still does not get better, of course, it is not Donglin's fault, it is all because of Zhou Yanru, a traitor. At the beginning, he and our Donglin were not of the same mind, Hou Xun still remembered his words when Wen Tiren exposed Qian Qianyi, he followed Wen Tiren to attack Donglin, and after Qian Gong completely lost hope of entering the cabinet, he became the object that Donglin had to rely on. He cheated in the imperial examination with the Fushe, served as the chief examiner, and became the seat teacher of all the scholars who were in the middle of the examination.

Speaking of fraud in the imperial examination, Hou Xun has nothing to be ashamed of, this is to ensure that the Ming Dynasty can "all the people are in the dynasty." "I promise that there will never be a eunuch eunuch who will come out to confuse the government.

Eunuchs are not good things, Wang An back then, for the palm seal throne of the celebrant eunuch, rushed into the internal strength with Donglin officials to hold the Son of Heaven hostage. Of course, we Donglin had to cooperate with this eunuch in order to eliminate the traitor, but you can imagine how evil the eunuch is.

As for Wang An's godson Cao Huachun, this guy is worse than Wei Zhongxian, as long as he gives money, he can push the emperor into the fire pit, in order to defeat Wen Tiren, a traitor, we Donglin gave him money, so that he could tell the emperor that Wen Tiren had formed a party, and assured the emperor that we did not cheat in the imperial examination and brought down this traitor.

Now, Chen Yan is the first assistant, Hou Xun is fortunate to think that the Ming court has finally been mastered by righteous men and gentlemen, as long as these traitors are eliminated, the rule of Zhongxing can be opened.

Hou Xun's fingers rubbed on the map, from Shaanxi to Shanxi, from Shanxi to Zhili, and then through Shandong to Nanjing, he sighed: "This time to Kaifeng to relieve the siege, but there must be no loss." ”

The Ming army in the north no longer existed, Sun Chuanting claimed that it would take another year for him to restore the Qin army's field capability, and Shanxi was too busy to take care of itself, and had already broken his courage by breaking into the camp before; Directly subordinate to Yang Wenyue, don't count on it; The Jiangbei Army, except for one Yu Dong, no one dared to step into Henan. Now the last two armies of the Ming Dynasty, the New Army and the Chu Army, have been put into the Henan battlefield.

"If Yang Shuai and Zuo Shuai are lost." Hou Xun's heart trembled every time he thought of this question, if Zuo Liangyu lost to Li Zicheng and Yang Zhiyuan lost to Xu Ping: "Then the Ming Dynasty will no longer have any available soldiers." ”

Kaifeng, the heart of the Central Plains, is Zhili, the ruling center of the Ming Dynasty to the north.

"If, if, in case the thieves win, then they will cross the Yellow River north and attack Zhili." No army can resist the rebels, and the intruding army will go straight to the Beijing division, and there are no reinforcements around. Once the Jingshi is encircled, not only will the imperial court lose control of the whole country, but the Jingshi, which has a population of more than a million, will not be able to hold on for a long time.

"That means-" Although there was no one around, Hou Xun didn't even dare to think about the word "perdition" in his heart, if the Jingshi was lost, then the prestige of the Ming court would be discredited, and the southern grain and salary that the entire northern border army relied on for a living would no longer be able to be transferred.

"Kaifeng must be saved, and there must be no loss in this siege." Hou Xun nagged: "The court is already the world of our righteous men and gentlemen, and peace is coming, as long as these thieves are swept away." ”

……

Xu Ping and Li Zicheng were about to part ways, Li Zicheng's headquarters had already advanced south towards Zhuxian Town, while Xu Ping's troops were marching towards Pheasant Gang, and Kaifeng City had been left far behind them, leaving only a small number of surveillance troops.

Xu Ping, who was on a par with Li Zicheng, suddenly asked, "King, why are you depressed?" ”

"Where?" Li Zicheng was stunned for a moment, and then laughed and said, "I'm just thinking about how to defeat Zuo Liangyu." ”

"Defeating Zuo Liangyu, will it be difficult for the king?" Xu Ping shook his head with a smile and said, "The king said this, but the last general didn't believe it. ”

"Hmm." Li Zicheng put a smile on his face and did not answer Xu Ping's question.

"King, the last general dares to guess." Xu Ping said: "There are more than 100,000 people who have escaped from the city around Kaifeng, during this time the king often goes to inspect their camp, and the last general estimates that the king will not see laughter there, and the people who escaped from the city are not only not happy, but on the contrary, they are full of sadness, and sigh all day long. ”

According to the report of the inspection officials sent by Xu Ping, these Kaifeng people almost had Bodhisattvas and incense in their homes, praying that their relatives who were still in the city would escape from the flames of the broken city: "When our brothers took care of the old people, they saw that the old people could not sleep all night, or they were frightened three times in the night, and they were so frightened by nightmares that they broke out in a cold sweat, because they missed their families in the city, and they could not even swallow food. ”

Li Zicheng sighed: "The military advisor always comforts me, saying that we are a benevolent and righteous soldier and hangs the people to fight crimes, but if we are defeated, most of these people who escaped will probably be judged as the crime of being a thief." ”

"So we can't be defeated, but that's obviously not what worries the king." Xu Ping didn't let the topic diverge, but continued: "The days I have been with the king are not very long, that is, I have been more familiar with each other recently. The king I heard about before was a man who always said that he would do the right thing for heaven and that he would suppress the army and pacify the people. But the king I saw was a person who was always hesitant and distressed. The King of Chuang I saw, I didn't believe what he said, and I always suspected that I was the Demon King of the Mixed World, because wherever King Chuang went, there were corpses all over the field. A large number of officers and soldiers fell under the swords of our camp, many of them were poor, they also had gray-haired parents, some wives waiting for him to return home, and young children to raise. These officers and soldiers are the pillars of their family, and when we kill them, we actually kill his entire family. ”

Li Zicheng reined in his horse violently and stared sideways at Xu Ping.

"King, I also hope to break the city immediately and reunite the people of Kaifeng with their families, and I will laugh with them at that time." Xu Ping didn't seem to notice Li Zicheng's gaze, and slowly pulled the reins of the horse to make the mount turn in a small circle, facing Li Zicheng's horse's head: "I guess the king only believes that he is really doing the way for heaven and not a demon when he sees the people laughing, the king, the same is true of the last general, the last general is more unbearable than the king, and the last general has killed his own division commander." The reason for the last general's betrayal of the imperial court is ridiculous - the last general is reluctant to mention it again, and it is only at this time that the last general believes that he is not very wrong. ”

Li Zicheng was silent for a moment, and let out a wry smile full of desolation: "Yes, only at that time did I feel that I was indeed doing the right thing for heaven." Brother Xu guessed my mind correctly, am I weak, am I not worthy to be the king of the entire camp? ”

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