Chapter 1, Twenty-seven Moments of Chongzhen's Four Years (1) (The first change in the Year of the Goat, the New Year's continuous change, asking for votes to encourage)

The first moment: Emperor Chongzhen's melancholy

November of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Beijing, Forbidden City, late at night

In November, the city of Beijing has reached the extremely cold season of the year, it is already extremely cold, the weather is not good in recent years, it is common for the summer to not rain even the moon, this winter is naturally even colder, and the dripping water into ice is not to say. The streets of the whole city were deserted and silent -- there was a night ban in Beijing, and ordinary people were not allowed to travel on the streets after the first shift, otherwise they would be punished if they were caught by the soldiers of the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses.

And as the core center of the Ming Empire. The rules in the Forbidden City are even stricter, the doors of the palaces everywhere are all closed, not to mention, even the candles are mostly extinguished, the Forbidden City is black and pressed, only the Qianqing Palace is still brightly lit - this is the daily office and living place of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, when today's Zizhu Youzhen is extremely diligent, it is common to work until late at night like this. Although it was bitterly cold and bitterly cold outside, there were still many eunuch guards standing on both sides of the veranda outside the palace, waiting for a call from inside at any time, and they could immediately run around for it.

At this time, the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen was just over twenty-two years old, and he had been on the throne for four years, although he was a tragic figure in the history books of later generations, but at that time, especially in the years when he had just ascended the throne as emperor, Zhu Youzhen's reputation in the court and among the people was still very high, so much so that he was touted as a "saint out" - think about it, from his great-grandfather Jiajing...... Even earlier, starting from Zhengde, the Ming Empire continued to be emperors, according to the records of the Donglin Party and the literati, none of them were mentally normal: either they loved to travel in the mountains and rivers and took themselves out to be a general; Either devote themselves to cultivating the Tao and seeking eternal life; Either they haven't been in court for decades, and they are still specifically facing the minister; Or maybe it's a short-lived ghost who eats pills and dies; The Emperor of the Apocalypse in the previous generation was even more exaggerated: he didn't care about the government, entrusted a political affairs to the hands of a cronie eunuch, and loved to be a carpenter

In contrast, today's Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen is not lustful, unremittingly slack, and always deals with state affairs until late at night, although the specific results seem to be indiscernible in a short period of time, but this diligent gesture alone is enough to ⊥ the ministers who are fed up with the lazy emperor are excited-they, the "virtuous and loyal ministers" have endured for decades, and finally have a "dedicated" emperor

What's more, soon after the young Emperor Chongzhen came to power, he silently eliminated the powerful nine-thousand-year-old Wei Zhongxian, and his means were clean and neat, giving the Manchu Dynasty scholars a bad breath, no matter how you look at it, he looks like a capable and courageous lord of Zhongxing.

After clearing away the evil eunuchs, the young son of heaven set up a new cabinet of the Donglin Party, which ushered in an unprecedented scene of "all the people are in the court". The secret service agency of Dongchang was also revoked to show all-round trust in the ethics of Donglin gentlemen. For a time, it won praise from Shilin, calling it the reincarnation of Yao Shun...... Although the Ming Dynasty of the "Zhongzheng Ying Dynasty" did not seem to have any prosperous scenes in the past two years, on the contrary, natural disasters continued, the border defense collapsed, and it was continuously beaten to the city of Beijing by the Eastern Captives, and the rogues in Shaanxi and Shanxi were also becoming more and more fierce, which had a slight impact on the emperor's prestige. But relying on Shilin's best efforts to tout, the emperor's "heroic" aura has not completely faded for the time being.

However, even so, the current Emperor Chongzhen is already very sad, although he is still a young man in his twenties, there are already a few traces of white on his sideburns. But on the whole, at this time, Emperor Chongzhen at least had the motivation to continue to be diligent in government, and he had not lost confidence in the future of the Ming Dynasty - at this moment, Zhu Youzhen had just finished reading a stack of folds under the lamp, and motioned to the little eunuch next to him to hug him, and he would go to the cabinet early tomorrow morning to ask the cabinet members to countersign. He himself stretched out with some relief and took a sip of tea.

“…… Your Majesty, it's already ugly, it's time to rest, take care of the dragon's body," Cao Huachun, the great eunuch who was waiting next to him, reminded.

“…… Needless to say, Cao Daban, I'll look at the music for a while. Emperor Chongzhen replied indifferently.

Cao Huachun sighed, turned around and brought a plate of osmanthus cakes, saying that the queen mother knew that the long-lived lord was always working on state affairs until late at night, and made these small snacks by herself, hoping that the long-lived lord would take care of the dragon's body... Chongzhen used a few pieces, but his eyes fell on another stack of high pieces on the table.

For many emperors, reviewing the recitals is hard work, but Emperor Chongzhen has not been on the throne for too long, and he is not completely tired of this work -- the current Zhu Youzhen is still like a hard-working old peasant, who can't see weeds in the field. No matter how tired you are, you must finish your daily recitals before you go to bed. So after only a short break, the young emperor began to devote himself to endless work on the case.

-- As usual, I first looked at the "Yinhuang" and "Tiehuang", which were the introductions and outlines of the contents of the concerts written by the officials of the General Administration Department, and the emperor judged which of the canatas were urgent matters and had to be responded to as much as possible, and which were just routine stories that could be ignored or delayed. Among them, the "Tang Bao" related to the military aspect has always been the focus of the imperial court, and when it comes to military affairs, the following is always reported to the fastest degree, and Emperor Chongzhen used to always give priority to looking for Tang Bao when reviewing the chapters. It's just that lately he's a little afraid of seeing this kind of thing -- the reports are always about defeat, a popular mutiny, a mutiny, and ...... Almost every Tang newspaper is a hole, which requires the imperial court to come up with a large amount of money, food and materials to make up for it, and even if a huge amount of money, food and materials are invested, it may not be able to make up for it. And the royal Neku is almost empty......

Trouble is trouble, things always have to be done-Emperor Chongzhen rubbed his forehead, took out the folds again, and spread them out on the table one by one.

As expected, as in the past, most of these twists and turns are pure nonsense, and the rest are either crying about poverty or complaining, and there is also a covert report of bad news while passing the buck to each other, and the content that can really make some substantive suggestions is almost completely invisible.

-- The drought situation in Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Gansu continued, and not only did the hungry people who had no food and clothing revolt in all directions, but the border troops who lacked food and wages also defected one after another. Since the second king of Baishui began in the last year of the Apocalypse, the hungry people and thieves have plundered everywhere, trapping forts and cities, like maggots on tarsal bones that are difficult to eradicate: the officers and soldiers go east, and the thieves go west; The thieves walked forward, and the officers and soldiers chased after them. The whole of northern Shaanxi is full of thieves and soldiers all over the mountains, and the government can't clear them at all.

Fortunately, the peasant army in the early years of Chongzhen did not have a clear will to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, they were probably just angry by hunger and cold, and raised the flag to resist taxes, relying on force to seize the government and the local gentry and large households, living a day when there is wine today, drunk today, and raising the flag again when hungry tomorrow, the hope is completely pinned on the Ming army to compromise and recruit an - at this time, the water margin heroes who kill people and set fire to Zhao'an are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the peasant army is eager to eat and not be hungry, if they can have a good future, they will never mind surrendering to the imperial court and serving the imperial court to suppress the "Fang La" and "Liao thieves". If the Ming court could effectively organize disaster relief, if the Ming court could bring enough food, and if the Zhu Ming court could find the direction of the export crisis, it would not be difficult to quell the early civil uprising in Shaanxi.

The officials of the Ming court were quite aware of this situation, but they did not have the perseverance or ability to solve the problem, and Yang He, the governor of the three sides, once explained to Emperor Chongzhen: "...... The thieves of the Three Qin Dynasty were extremely poor and hungry, and had nowhere to live, and when the soldiers arrived, they surrendered, and the soldiers went to loot as before, which was inevitable. If you want to disperse the thief, you must give money to make a living, and then it will be dissolved. After the dissolution, it is still necessary to be placed, and the cattle must be given to the cattle breed to return to the agriculture and resume the industry, and then it is called the real placement. If so, the thief has the joy of life, has no heart to die, and will be caress as soon as he is, and the situation will be established, and the situation will be suppressed. ”

Unfortunately, although the imperial court affirmed Yang He's opinion, even Emperor Chongzhen was unable to solve the above problems, the most important thing was that he could not allocate money and food for resettlement, so he could only let Yang He go to appease him empty-handed, could he still persuade the hungry people to stay at home honestly and starve to death? Therefore, the officials and troops in the northwest wanted to suppress the bandits, but the mountains and Shaanxi were thousands of miles away, and the hungry people were everywhere, and they could not be suppressed at all; If you want to be appeased, you have no money to settle it.

In this way, the northwest thieves descended and rebelled, rebelled and surrendered, and so on and so forth, forever and endlessly. Not to mention that there is also a brainless Donglin Party who is desperately trying to help: the commercial tax for the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River has been greatly reduced, and the land has been repeatedly increased for thousands of miles of red land in Shaanxi, Henan, and Shanxi, and the tax on one acre of land has accumulated to two taels, but the rice and wheat grown cannot be sold for five yuan of silver, so the people abandoned farming and fled day by day, and the fields in the townships and counties were forced to be abandoned by the imperial court, and the Liukou obtained an inexhaustible supply of soldiers, and finally let the situation in the northwest completely rot day by day -- what Emperor Chongzhen did not know was that the rice fat in northern Shaanxi had a former name Li Hongji, The unemployed postman, who later changed his name to Li Zicheng, has now joined the ranks of the rebels......

From the second year of Chongzhen to the third year of Chongzhen, Liaodong Jiannu broke through the Great Wall twice and ravaged the Guannei, although they did not break through Beijing, but the surrounding suburbs and counties were destroyed all over the ruins, full of white bones, and there was no rooster crow in a radius of hundreds of miles. Although this year's Jiannu did not break into the Central Plains, the counties on the outskirts of Beijing were still dying, crying everywhere for tax exemption and relief, and there were still many defeated soldiers and hungry people gathering in the wilderness to make trouble, beating homes and robbing houses, and it was difficult to clarify for a while. It can be seen from this that the land of Gyeonggi at the foot of the Son of Heaven is still like this, where can the imperial court squeeze out money and grain to help and settle those thieves who are far away in Shaanxi and Shanxi? You have to take care of the ground under your nose first

Moreover, in order to compete for the manor land left over after the slaughter of Jiannu, all the imperial relatives and eunuchs and ministers took action together, causing countless turmoil, and some lawsuits for property even went all the way to the front of the emperor, which made Emperor Chongzhen feel a headache when he thought about it - hey, I really regret that I shouldn't have listened to the nonsense of that Guangdong barbarian Yuan Chonghuan in the first place, and said that he had been in Liaoliao for five years? It's only been a year since the blockade collapsed, and the Jurchen Tartars have all been killed under the root of the imperial city, and there is a second time, and I don't know if there will be a third time...... It is absolutely not unjust to cut this sinner with a thousand cuts

-- The rebellion that swept through the southwestern provinces of Lu'an has finally come to an end, and the rebellious Tusi has been repeatedly hit hard, and has retracted into its old nest, and it is no longer the great momentum of besieging Guiyang and rampaging through Sichuan and Yunnan during the Apocalypse. However, these rebels were entrenched in their hometowns, and they were desperately defending by virtue of their geographical advantages, and it was difficult for the officers and troops to attack for a while. Regarding whether Huairou will appease or continue to suppress next, the court has not yet reached a conclusion, and even broke out party disputes because of this.

According to the meaning of Emperor Chongzhen himself, he naturally wants to appease, after all, the war is a gold-swallowing beast, as the saying goes, swords and soldiers together, gold and silver are ten thousand taels and the royal treasury has not much silver taels, as for Taicang (treasury) is never able to make ends meet, can not be counted on, if you can save a few silver, then it is better to save it, but unfortunately out of the emperor's face, he is not good to take the initiative to submit to softness, otherwise it is easy to lose his majesty, and he can only watch the courtiers clamoring endlessly...... Therefore, at least for a short period of time, the imperial court has not been able to get rid of the military expenses of the war in the southwest......

In addition to the numbing droughts, floods, and locust plagues one after another, there was a major earthquake this summer: on the night of July 17 in the fourth year of Chongzhen, all the provinces of Huguang were earthquaked. There was a sound of earthquake in Wuling, Changde Mansion in the middle of the night, the black air blocked the sky, the well spring flooded, the ground fissures holes, and the slurry gushed out, collapsing countless palaces and walled houses of the government office, crushing 60 men and women to death. The earthquake in Lizhou was like thunder, the ground cracked and the sand gushed with the water, the houses fell and the trees were uprooted, and countless people and animals were crushed. Four-tenths of the bad walls of Jingzhou Mansion and three-tenths of the houses of the people...... In the months that followed, the local government in Huguang cried and demanded tax exemptions and relief, but Emperor Chongzhen rejected them all: the imperial court had no surplus food this year

In short, the three great troubles of natural disasters, Liao affairs, and homeless people are constantly harassing Zhu Youzhen, as well as various other slightly inferior scabies problems, which are coming one after another every month every year, making him feel quite anxious. The only good news that made the emperor feel gratified in the past two years was that Xuanzhen in Shanxi was able to report victory when the Tartars knocked on the border last year, and he was able to kill 280 levels in a battle, which is an excellent record in recent years, especially the little tun chief named Wang Dou was able to win 80 levels, and it would be great if the Ming Dynasty could have a few more such loyal and brave people

In fact, strictly speaking, there is more good news...... Zhu Youzhen turned around and picked up a copy of the military affairs newspaper marked as from Fujian, and read the contents again with complicated eyes -- this was a good news from Huang Shi, the chief soldier of Fujian, and Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian, claiming that not long ago, at the request of the king of the Ryukyus, the Funing army was led by Huang Shi, and Zou Weilian supervised the division to cross the sea to the east, expelling the Japanese Japanese invaders entrenched in the vassal state, and then continued the pursuit, shelling the hometown of the Japanese invaders, forcing the Japanese chieftains to kneel on the ground and sue for peace, vowing not to invade the Ryukyu and the coastal areas of Zhejiang and Fujian again. At the same time, a copy of the Thanksgiving Seal "Rebuilding the Domain" is said to have been written by the Ryukyu King Shoji...... It stands to reason that at the moment when the Ming Dynasty was on fire on all sides and smoking in all directions, this victory was really a rare booster that could inspire people, but in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, it was dazzling.

“…… Save the vassal country from danger and raise the country's prestige overseas? Hmph, it's really wonderful, the king of the Ryukyus, as a foreign vassal, doesn't know the inside story, isn't it clear that Huangshi is not clear, Japan is a country that is not conquered by Emperor Hongwu? Such a good use of swords, his heart can be punished."

Emperor Chongzhen threw the fold on the table heavily, and snorted coldly in displeasure, but the expression on his face was not angry, but a little hesitant and entangled: Huang Shi's ability to fight, Zhu Youzhen still recognized it very much-this generation first single-handedly put down the Guangning rebellion, killed the rebel general Sun Degong, and covered the safe retreat of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians; After that, he followed Mao Wenlong to the Dongjiang River, set up a camp on Changsheng Island to train soldiers, and soon pulled up a battalion of elite soldiers, with a set of spear formations, the good news on the battlefield was frequent, and 6 continued to cut off the heads of many Tartars, gradually reversing the decline of the Liaodong battlefield. In the end, Huangshi even single-handedly broke into Liaoyang, killed the enemy chief Nurhachi and returned, once made Liaodong Jiannu smell Huangshi and change color, comparable to the Three Kingdoms in Changbanpo killed a seven-in, seven-out Zhao Zilong, the limelight even overshadowed his top boss Mao Wenlong, so he was very favored by the first emperor's brother.

At the end of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, in view of the improvement of the war situation in Liaodong and the reward of meritorious deeds by the imperial court, Huangshi was promoted to the general army of Fujian, and was given the title of "Qincha Pingnan acted cheaply, hung the seal of the vanguard general of Pingman, and supervised the general officer of military affairs in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi", transferred out of the battlefield in Liaodong, led his troops to the south, and prepared to use this elite army to quell the rebellion in the southwest after preparing all the baggage in Fujian. After Huangshi arrived in Fujian, he had to immediately begin to suppress the bandits to consolidate the foundation, and the expedition to the southwest was delayed.

Then, just when the Fujian pirates were gradually wiped out by Huangshi's army, the Emperor of the Apocalypse suddenly fell seriously ill and died.

Next, although the elder brother (Emperor of the Apocalypse) had a last word before his death, asking Zhu Youzhen to reuse Huangshi, but in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, who had just ascended the throne, Huangshi's generation was really uneasy: according to the intelligence collected by Jinyiwei and the impeachment of civil officials, Huangshi was extremely ruthless and ruthless, and his former boss Sun Degong clearly had the grace to support him, and he was ready to marry his daughter to him, but in the Guangning Rebellion, he killed the whole family without blinking, and even forced his fiancée to hang herself - his nature is cold, and a passion for power.

Moreover, according to the secret performance of the eunuchs of the prison army, Huang Shi is not greedy for money and lustful, and can even be said to have no desires, he has never kept his family and shared the joys and hardships with the soldiers.

Moreover, this person has a loss of morality, he is recognized as a member of the eunuch party, and he has been hooking up with Wei Zhongxian's traitor for a long time. When the first emperor was still alive, he had a very close relationship with many ministers in the court...... Huang Shi may be loyal to the first emperor who single-handedly promoted him, but not necessarily to himself, the emperor.

“…… It's a pity, although he has great talents, he is not a righteous man and a gentleman, and it is difficult for me to use it" Emperor Chongzhen, who was still quite morally clean at that time, made such a conclusion about Huangshi in his heart, and at the same time acquiesced in the suppression and attack of Huangshi by the civilian clique, and gradually reduced his authority, first took off the hat of the vanguard general of the barbarians, and then demoted from the general army of Fujian to the general of the North Road of Fujian, and finally someone even put him in prison and executed...... If it weren't for the emperor's master Sun Chengzong and others to defend themselves, claiming that the current country is in constant war and chaos, and the general must not be beheaded for no reason, perhaps Huangshi would have fallen into the same fate as Wei Zhongxian.

Then, after a period of pause, Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian, brought up the old matter again, impeached Huangshi, who had been demoted to a general of Fujian North Road at that time, and then claimed that in order to appease the pirates and pacify the Minhai, it was necessary to use Huangshi's head to establish authority and vent anger to the "sea lords......

It's a pity that when Xiong Wencan's recital was sent to Beijing, it was already three years since Chongzhen, and Emperor Chongzhen had just experienced the tragedy of a siege of Jiannu, and it seemed that he was about to experience a second time...... The last time the Tartars went south, due to the mutiny and rebellion of the Guanning army, the city of Beijing almost fell, and in the end, Emperor Chongzhen could only cut Yuan Inspector with a thousand knives. This time, the Tartars broke through the pass again and went south, and Emperor Chongzhen didn't know how to deal with it, and at this time he saw that Xiong Wencan was going to violate the system and kill the generals without permission, and he was immediately startled - Yuan Chonghuan, known as the "Five Years of Pingliao", killed Mao Wenlong Liwei without authorization, and then put Jiannu under the city of Beijing. Xiong Wencan now said that in order to pacify the sea frontier, it is necessary to kill the more famous Huangshi to unify the power, and then which group of pirates will break Nanjing City?

Although the situation in the south and the north is completely different, it can't stand the fact that Emperor Chongzhen, who already has a psychological shadow, is so associated

So, Emperor Chongzhen immediately dismissed Xiong Wencan's absurd construction, looking back and thinking about it, he was not at ease, lest Xiong Wencan would not do anything, and learn from the previous Yuan Chonghuan to simply forge a holy decree to kill people, and hurriedly went to Fujian to make a secret decree, and intimidated Xiong Wencan with a loud voice, so that he would not forget Yuan Chonghuan's fate...... This secret decree seems to be effective, Xiong Wencan has never mentioned anything about killing Huangshi since then, and it seems that since then, he has turned war into jade silk, and knows the truth of forbearance with each other for the country. Especially after the Haikou invaded southern Fujian last year and was repelled by Huangshi, Xiong Wencan, who was about to be transferred to the governor of Liangguang, also asked for merit for him, allowing Huangshi to regain his official position as the general army of Fujian.

However, although Emperor Chongzhen did not intend to watch Xiong Wencan violate the system and kill a military attache of Huangshi's rank, he also had no trouble with Huangshi, the "former minister of the first emperor", at least he was not ready to reactivate him to the battlefield in Liaodong - although since Jiannu went south twice to plunder and the criminal governor Yuan Chonghuan subdued the law, the calls for using Huangshi have been suppressed by Emperor Chongzhen.

In short, Emperor Chongzhen's view of Huangshi was very contradictory, not only acknowledging his talent, but also very resistant to promoting him, and finally left Huangshi in the south to be refrigerated, unless the situation in Liaodong was really collapsed to the extreme, he would be pulled out and put on top...... Therefore, Huangshi's good news made Emperor Chongzhen deeply entangled: although he had long known about Ryukyu's request for help, it was natural for the Ming Dynasty to protect the vassal state. However, Huangshi went to Japan without the approval of the cabinet, that is, "sending troops without permission is tantamount to rebellion." What's more, Japan is still a "country not to be conquered" by Emperor Hongwu......

Hey, that's it, after all, it's a victory, and the reward can't be given. The crime of acting without permission will be cured - with the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, if it is really corrupt to the point that it cannot be cleaned up, perhaps it is still necessary to rely on Huangshi, a famous general who has won a hundred battles, to go out, as long as he chokes his money and food lifeline, he is not afraid of flying into the sky...... Therefore, after the word "know" was approved on this report, Emperor Chongzhen did not continue to think about it.

Military generals who don't love money and beauty certainly make the emperor feel vigilant, but those generals who are greedy for money and profit also make the emperor feel a headache. For example, this Dengzhou town is a force that has only emerged in recent years, the Liaodong fugitive named Chen Xin is just a donor official, and now he has actually accumulated merit to become the general army, as if he is already the brain of Dengzhou Town. He opened Tuntian in Dengzhou, prospered sea trade, trained soldiers and suppressed bandits, and he was impressive, and his ability did not seem to be under the Huangshi in the past. And when Chongzhen entered the Tartars in the second year, this Chen Xin took the initiative to lead the army to the king of Qin, and beheaded 600 Tartars in the suburbs of Gyeonggi, making great contributions.

Compared with Huangshi, who is attached to the eunuch party, Chen Xin's integrity is very full, when he was still a small thousand households, he dared to scold Cui Chengxiu, and he did not pretend to be a member of the eunuch party, and he would never be in the same stream with the generals of Guanning, it is really rare for a fugitive from Liaodong to have such integrity.

Just looking at the surface, this person must be the pillar of the imperial court, but after the initial joy, Emperor Chongzhen ordered someone to collect information to carefully observe his actions, but now Chen Xin is now a prince of one side, not only the recruited soldiers and horses greatly exceed the number of soldiers in the town, but also the military and civilian affairs of the entire Dengzhou Town are decided by Chen Xin in one word, all kinds of extortion, corruption and bribery, forcible occupation of land and other illegal things, almost every moment. The imperial court decree is not as good as his Chen Xin's words in Dengzhou, and even the spies of Jinyiwei and Dongchang are difficult to mix in, and it is not too much to say that it is a country within a country

The farther away from the capital, the worse the intelligence ability of the Jinyi Guard, which is okay in Shandong, and it is almost better than nothing in Guangdong and Fujian. ）

Although the soldiers and horses in Dengzhou Town can still be dispatched by the imperial court, like Liao Town with Zu Dashou as the leader, it is already a big tail, and it is only because of the mutual containment between various military towns that the apparent calm is maintained. Even if Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, still had a Liao army in Dengzhou, he still couldn't stop Dengzhou Town's growing ...... It seems that it is time to support new forces to check and balance, such as the warrior Wang Dou who cut eighty is not bad, and maybe he can also use this to change the shape of Xuanda weaker than Liaodong. Hmph, wait until the situation improves, and see how I clean up you generals

“…… My Qi Shaobao, hum, this is to be Cao Cao, I am not Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty."

Zhu Youzhen snorted so coldly, and at the same time opened the recital of Chen Xin, the chief soldier of Dengzhou Town, and then gradually frowned-In addition to the cliché of asking for money and soldiers at the beginning, Chen Xin actually mentioned very strangely in the recital that he wanted the imperial court to beware of a group of pirates entrenched in the remote places of Qiongzhou, what are they called "thieves", and even wrote "Thieves are a great disaster for the country, and their harm is far worse than that of the eastern captives!" Such an exaggeration...... This made Zhu Youzhen feel very incomprehensible, a leader of the Shandong army who was unprofitable and could not afford to be early, but he was embarrassed by a group of pirates thousands of miles away? It's weird

Speaking of which, the name of this "thief", Emperor Chongzhen has also heard of it, as early as the second year of Chongzhen, there is a report of its invasion of Lingao County, Qiongzhou, but the thief only occupies a place of "Bairentan", relying on the cliff to build a village, relying on the sea clipper to enter and exit, Lingao has been in and out many times, but unfortunately all failed. In the third year of Chongzhen, Wang Zunde, the governor of Liangguang, besieged the army in order to exterminate the sea bandits, but although the thieves were defeated in the field, the thieves took advantage of the dangerous terrain of Bairentan, formed a village to defend with firearms, and cut off the grain shipping channel by fast boats, resulting in a great defeat of the army and a fall short. Subsequently, the thieves sent a fast boat to invade Guangzhou, but fortunately the local villagers retreated. In the following time, this thief was also peaceful, only the fact that Zheng Zhilong's entrenched center left was attacked by the pirates, perhaps it was the thieves - but Zheng Zhilong's left and right were just another Zhao'an pirates, and it was not a pity for the imperial court to die.

All in all, with the detailed reports of the local officials in Fujian and Guangdong, Emperor Chongzhen thought that he still had a relatively clear concept of this group of thieves: "...... There are Haikou in Lingao County, Qiongzhou Prefecture, entrenched in Bairentan, built a village called Bairen City, and is called a thief. The thief claimed to be descendant of the Song Dynasty and Miao, and after Yashan, he went to overseas Australia and was called Australian. His face is very great, and he is very different from the Chinese, but he is black and black-eyed, and he is not a red-haired Franc. The thief knows the written word, but does not practice etiquette, and the women often show their heads. Thieves have sexual immorality, and buy more women as maids, and store them in the city for their sexual pleasure. There are only more than 1,000 real thieves, and there are more than 10,000 local refugees and pirates who are dependents. The leader of the thief is called the palm, or named after the helm, and the thief chief has four Wen De, Ma Qianzhu and so on

The thief is good at boating, familiar with water, can dive for three days, and is good at eating fish and shrimp. Good at 100 work, the production is all exquisite, called Australian goods. He is especially good at firearms, and the firepower of the thief's cannon is especially better than that of the Hongyi cannon, and the cannon is out, the sound booms for hundreds of miles, and the erosion is fifty miles, which is invincible to manpower. Or I heard that the thief had iron fast ships, building ships and giant ships, but no one saw them in person, or it was rumored by the village husband in the mountains.

Although the thief has sharp firearms, the clipper comes and goes freely, but does not practice foot combat, and repeatedly invades Lingao County to no avail, Chongzhen three years also in the field battle why is the bin defeated, when the thief invades Guangzhou, the thief clipper enters the Pearl River estuary as if into no man's land, but as soon as he lands, he was created by the local villagers, and the wolf bèi left.

The thief is based on the land of Bairentan, backed by Bopu Port, three sides are Bairen cliffs, can only enter and exit from the sea route, its place is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the place has been attacked many times without results, covering the terrain of this place is dangerous. However, although the thieves were based here, they rarely heard of their raids and disturbed the places, and most of them were revenge after the attack, and they did not hear that the thieves had robbed the merchants. The thieves are business-oriented and trustworthy, and they act like maritime merchants, and most of them trade privately with the local gentry in Guangzhou, and they have not heard of the thieves betraying their trust...... The minister thought that the thief was a Haikou from the Nanyang Manchurian, and there may be a former Song Yashan craftsman in it.

As far as the minister knows, although the thieves have occupied Bairentan for several years, they have not made any trip to expand the territory, and they should follow the old story of the occupation of Macao by Hongmaoyi in the past and ask for a port to transfer overseas goods. If you only know how to blindly attack, you will work hard and pay more than you lose, and even if you win, you will only get a useless place. On the occasion of the autumn of the world's turmoil, the ministers think that they should not covet their fame, and should take appeasement as the top, or they can imitate Xiong Du in the past to appease the Zheng family, and then settle the affairs of Minhai......"

In general, in recent years, in addition to the unfavorable suppression of this group of thieves, the grain tax has not been affected, this kind of scabies disease that is not very harmful to the imperial court, can lead Chen Xin and other military leaders to look sideways, Emperor Chongzhen guessed that most of the joints are still in the benefits of sea trade: after all, Chen Xin's things at sea, he has also heard a little, a new sea lord on the sea, and the Zheng family, Chen Xin most of the time can not sit still.

Hmph, the court's henchmen are still looking at each other across the sea, but they always think about the little silver taels they earned on the sea, how can I easily fulfill his wish Emperor Chongzhen muttered so much, and also approved a "I know" on Chen Xin's recital, and threw it aside. Then I vaguely remembered that after listening to the rumors in Beijing, Huang Shi seemed to be vaguely hooking up with those thieves...... Hey, these generals who don't read poetry and books are really selfish, and they don't know how to contribute to the country wholeheartedly, and they don't care how rampant the thief of the slave chief Huang Taiji (Huang Taiji) in Liaodong is......

As soon as he remembered the war in Liaodong, Emperor Chongzhen turned over another request for help from the front line of Liaodong by Emperor Sun Chengzong, and his face couldn't help but collapse - up to this time, Houjin Khan Huang Taiji led an army of 100,000 troops to attack Dalinghe Fort in the west for several months, and the Guanning army was about to collapse at the touch of a button, so he had to defend the castle to the death.

After the fierce battle of the Daling River, the request for help flew into the capital like snowflakes. The chaos of the Jiannu disaster in the previous year and the previous year is still vivid, how dare the courtiers of the Beijing division and the governor of Liaodong despise the 100,000 Jianjiao, and hurriedly sent troops and horses from all walks of life to reinforce Dalinghe City. However, Jianyu has always been stronger than field warfare, and while besieging Dalinghe City, Fu also closely reconnoitred the reinforcements of the Ming court, and the soldiers of the Ming court were a group of civilian officials who claimed to be proficient in military affairs, but in fact only knew how to reinforce the four books and five classics. Each reinforcement was 5,000 or 6,000, and they were not assembled into a large corps, but they were sent to the Houjin army little by little to encircle the reinforcements, and then as a matter of course, they were defeated one by one by Jianlu's superior forces

In Sun Chengzong's twists and turns, the latest batch of reinforcements sent to Dalinghe was defeated again, and under repeated defeats, the Guanning army and reinforcements from all walks of life on the front line of Jinzhou and Ningyuan were already panicked and disintegrated, and countless soldiers fled. Zu Dashou didn't know how long he could hold out in the Dalinghe Castle, and if the imperial court didn't want to usher in another Sarhu defeat, it would have to send a strong army that could win the battle with the Liaodong Tartars to save the emergency.

A strong army that can fight and win against the Liaodong Tartars? Where does this leave me to find? Yellowstone in Fujian? I'm afraid that the road is far away, and it can't be rushed. Hey, it seems that Chen Xin's Dengzhou Town can only move again...... Zhu Youzhen shook his head and sighed, and at the same time instructed and urged Dengzhou to send troops to aid Liao.

In addition to the successive bad news on the battlefield of Dalinghe, Dongjiang Town on the other side of the battlefield in Liaodong is also bitter, it is said that there was another famine, and countless soldiers and civilians died of starvation...... It's just that the thoughts and food of the government and the opposition are used on the battlefield of Daling River, and Dongjiang Town can only let them fend for themselves.

In addition, there is a civil uprising set off by smugglers in Jiaozhou, Shandong, called Li Meng, the local military equipment has been slackened for a long time, and the government is not effective, so he has to ask the court for help, hoping that the soldiers of Dengzhou Town will help suppress it...... Emperor Chongzhen is also accurate on this matter-just let that Chen Xinneng work harder

Alas, sighing and turning to the last note, Emperor Chongzhen finally saw a little good news worth being happy about - the Guangdong government reported that there were Fanbang "Huamei" and "East Coast Country" came from thousands of miles to pay tribute, offering countless rare tributes, among which there was actually a unicorn (giraffe), which was particularly auspicious, and made the young emperor greatly excited: the thing of the unicorn, the Ming Dynasty seemed to have only appeared in the Yongle period. Heaven actually bestowed such auspiciousness on me, which shows that God will not abandon me and wait until God is gracious and rains are rained, and the Ming Dynasty may be able to restore the heyday of the Wanli year

Finally finished approving today's recital, Emperor Chongzhen stretched his waist while looking at the kerosene lamp on the table, and said casually, "...... This wide lamp is good, much brighter than the candles burned before, and it doesn't hurt the eyes. It's a pity that there are less, otherwise I will send one to several elders. ”

“…… The emperor is really sympathetic to the elders, and the servants will explain that when the next batch of lanterns is sent, they will definitely send one to each elder. ”

After listening to Emperor Chongzhen's instructions, Cao Huachun immediately responded with a sneer, but he couldn't help but secretly slander in his heart: "...... Now in the home of an old man in Beijing, there will be few such wide lights? It's just our emperor who still thinks this Australian product is a rarity......"

Zhu Youzhen, who didn't know Cao Huachun's inner thoughts, nodded, stretched out his hand to extinguish the kerosene lamp on the table, but his eyes accidentally swept over the good news on the table that the Funing army defeated the Ryukyu Japanese invaders, and couldn't help but recall that Huangshi crossed the sea in the past to fight Juehua Island, the prancing horse Liaoyang beheaded the enemy, and the heroic appearance of the good news that shook Liaodong frequently, and remembered the repeated defeats on the battlefield of the Daling River in Liaodong...... All kinds of tangled, messy, and indescribable thoughts couldn't help but come one after another, and finally I had to sigh faintly: "...... A beautiful woman, how can she be a thief? Then he turned out the kerosene lamp and turned around to go to bed with a lonely expression.

And Huang Shi Huang Dashuai, who was far away in Quanzhou, Fujian, suddenly felt a chill behind his back for some reason, and couldn't help sneezing......

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