With the other fifty-nine quasi-jinshi, they left at the request of the emperor.

Only Chongzhen and Shen Shuren remained, as well as some palace maids and eunuchs in the Wenhua Palace.

The eunuch Wang Chengen, who was the leader, was still unaware of the current situation, and was still standing there.

However, Chongzhen quickly ordered: "Wang Daban, you should also step down." ”

Wang Chengen was quite stunned.

Shen Shuren listened below, and realized that it was Wang Chengen standing next to the emperor. He originally thought that on such a formal occasion today, Cao Huachun should accompany him.

This is also to blame Shen Shuren for not reading carefully - Cao Huachun just returned to his hometown last year.

"History of the Ming Dynasty" said that four years later, Li Zicheng entered the capital and Cao Huachun offered his door, and he was a retired old man who did not have this power. It is estimated that it was offered by another eunuch who was responsible for guarding the door, but he was not famous, so he had to find a named backpot to serve as a code name for the entire eunuch group.

After the eunuchs left, Chongzhen spoke: "According to Qing's opinion, how to control the civil and military forces who encircle and suppress Zhang Rebellion, so as to motivate them to use their lives?" You dared to contradict me like this just now, you must be sure, right?

Now that there is no one left and right, I might as well say something from my heart, I hate Zhang Rebellious and too Li Chuang. This thief destroyed the ancestral tomb of Fengyang five years ago, forcing me to issue an edict of guilt and ask the ancestors for sin. ”

Shen Shuren confirmed that speaking now would not make the emperor embarrassed in public, so he dared to speak up: "Your Majesty, the minister doesn't dare to say that he is sure." However, the minister has heartfelt words, and dares to say that after Zhang rebelled, the rest of the families in the south rebelled against the thieves, and many of them were forced to be helpless.

I am afraid that Your Majesty will think that 'they and Zhang Rebellion were both appeased by Xiong Wencan, and Zhang Rebellion's rebellion will make His Majesty suspect that they will also rebel', and under mutual suspicion, they will be eroded and completely out of control, in the final analysis, it is the heart of fear that is causing trouble. ”

Chongzhen's face turned cold: "Qing, this is blaming me for being stern and forcing them to rebel?" ”

Shen Shuren: "Don't dare!" What those bandit leaders think in their hearts, no one can guess, and neither can the ministers. But at this point, the minister felt that everything should be looked forward and do everything he could to restore the trust between the court and the repentant thief, and save a few if he could. Only by making Zhang Yi unable to coerce more people can there be hope of completely eliminating the thief. ”

Chongzhen adjusted his breathing, endured the twitching of the nerves at the corners of his mouth, and patiently asked, "How to fix it?" ”

Shen Shuren responded: "In ancient times, there was a Shang Dynasty who moved to establish a letter, and for today's plan, we should first reward other generals who had rebelled with Zhang Rei, and were later appeased by Xiong Wencan together with Zhang Reverse, but now after Zhang Revolt they were unmoved and insisted on being loyal to the imperial court."

In this way, we can set an example that the court will never abandon the reformed and loyal generals, and show the prosperity of the monarch and the minister. ”

Shen Shuren's suggestion is very specific and operational.

Speaking of this, Chongzhen's expression finally warmed up slightly, and he also realized that the courtier in front of him was really helping him make ideas for the stability of the world.

"Is there an example of that? And even if they were, were they reliable in their loyalty to the imperial court? ”

Shen Shuren came prepared and knew history, so he immediately said with certainty:

"Yes! Liu Guoneng, who was appeased by Xiong Wencan with Zhang Yi and others the year before last, after Zhang Yi rebelled, he did not follow the rebellion, and insisted on fighting against him.

So far, Liu Guoneng is still fighting thieves for the country in Nanyang and working with Zuo Liangyu. Please imagine that if a former thief was suspicious of the court and chose to rebel because he was afraid of being implicated by Zhang Rebellion, then he should have rebelled last autumn at the latest.

It has been nine months since Zhang rebelled, and he still insisted on not following the rebellion, naturally he wanted to leave a good name in the history books and be sincerely loyal to the imperial court. If the civil and military forces of the imperial court are allowed to despise them and do not give them food and salary and support, it will chill people's hearts, and it will be difficult to divide and disintegrate the thieves in the future. ”

This Liu Guoneng was originally known as a bandit "breaking into the sky", and he was also very stubborn when he was a thief, and even cheated and surrendered once in the hands of Chen Qiyu in Shaanxi.

But Shen Shuren dared to cite this example because he knew that in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", Liu Guoneng finally fought with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and after being defeated, the whole family was martyred.

If he wants to clarify his point of view, he can't give a better example, so he can only use Liu Guoneng as a benchmark - he can't persuade the emperor to treat Zheng Zhilong preferentially, right? After all, Zheng Zhilong has been a traitor in history.

It is still Liu Guoneng who will be relatively easy to control in the future, and it is easier to be grateful than icing on the cake.

After Chongzhen listened, he was silent for a long time.

He didn't know much about the situation, so he had to walk to the door of the palace in person, call Wang Chengen back, and ask him to bring the resume information of the general Liu Guoneng, and he wanted to check it himself.

Wang Chengen didn't know what was being talked about in the Wenhua Palace, and he was secretly frightened when he saw this posture:

Didn't Your Majesty say that you want to count the blame for this Shen Lin? Why do you scold and scold and take the resume information of the general? Is this an insult or a trick?

Fortunately, as a senior eunuch, he knows that if he shouldn't ask, don't guess, just do his duty.

After Chongzhen got his resume, he read it repeatedly and discussed it for a long time, and finally had to admit that the idea that Shen Shuren gave him was absolutely correct, beneficial and harmless, and there were no sequelae.

"Qing is a practical person. Although I don't know the general situation, I can't stay in the pavilion and sit and talk about it. But he is a good hand at putting it on the local government to care for the people and divide the thieves. Chongzhen held back for a long time before he could hold back such a word of praise.

Shen Shuren did the specific work of seeking truth from facts, which left a deep impression on him again. It also reminded him of the previous case of the reform of the household department.

If there were many people in these words, Chongzhen would not say them so bluntly, but now that there is no one, it is rare for the emperor to say whatever he wants, and it is very tiring to pretend all the time.

After the atmosphere became harmonious, Chongzhen did not hesitate to take the opportunity to ask more questions, chatting and chatting, and focused on how to completely solve Zhang Xianzhong.

Shen Shuren saw that the fire was coming, and also gave the emperor a second piece of advice: "Your Majesty, the minister has always thought that Zhang Rebellion is rampant, and the first thing is that he is good at coercing good and good thieves. To solve Zhang Wei, it is necessary to cut off his ability to pull, climb, bite and coerce others.

Since Your Majesty has already been willing to reward and reuse Liu Guoneng, why not take one more step, give a heavy reward, announce it to the world, and encourage all available people to surround Zhang Rebellious? ”

Chongzhen thought about it, and his face was still a little ugly: "You mean, even if you are currently a thief, as long as you kill Zhang Yi and sacrifice it with your head, the court will pardon his previous sins?" Do you want me to swear to the world and promise to fulfill it? ”

Shen Shuren shook his head: "This is fine, but I'm afraid the effect is not enough." The reward and punishment come from His Majesty, and the ministers dare not discuss it. ”

Chongzhen said solemnly: "This is not enough? Do you still have to guarantee that you can't give the person who killed Zhang Rebellion what kind of official title you can't make? If it is a thief general or even a righteous son beside Zhang Rebellion, seeing that he is gone, he wants to get a vote? This kind of person also has to forgive, can it be honored?

What if Li Chuang and the thief killed Zhang Shun? Want to be a marquis? In this way, how can the face of the court exist, everyone in the world will speak lightly in the future, anyway, in the end, as long as you kill a thief, you can wash away the guilt! ”

Shen Shuren knew that Chongzhen couldn't erase his face the most, so he hurriedly struck while the iron was hot: "Your Majesty!" People in the world will not laugh at it, and I also value filial piety. Zhang Rebellious's crime is different from the thieves, five years ago, Fengyang destroyed the mausoleum, he was the culprit, and the rest were just coerced. Now that he has come back to the back, he is the first evil.

Your Majesty's benevolence and filial piety, in order to be worthy of the ancestors and ancestors, even the edict of the guilty has been issued, and the extra reward for the murderer and the oath to the sky will be fulfilled, which is also the embodiment of filial piety, and the people of the world will only think that Your Majesty is a benevolent monarch!

If you really feel that you can't get over your face...... The minister knew that His Majesty was not willing to forgive Xiong Wencan, who was still in prison, so it was better to clarify the scope of his guilt when giving Xiong Wencan a sentence:

Xiong Wencan was not at fault for appeasing the other thieves, but the fault was just that he believed in Zhang Wei. No matter how His Majesty punishes Xiong Wencan, biting the crime to death in this article can also reassure other generals and let other rebels see the hope of being right again.

In this way, in the end, whether it is Li Chuang's thief who is desperate and plotting to harm himself, or Zhang Yi's henchmen who are forced by the officials and soldiers to kill the master and surrender when they are cornered in order to get rid of their crimes, they can finally get rid of this big trouble. ”

Shen Shuren's thinking is very clear: the biggest help for Zhang Xianzhong's rise is that Chongzhen will indiscriminately kill people who can't destroy Zhang Xianzhong and destroy the Great Wall.

Therefore, to deal with Zhang Xianzhong, you have to do the opposite, so that the emperor, who has been mean and unkind all his life, can only do anything on this issue.

"No matter how big the other people have committed in the past, killing Zhang Xianzhong will be exonerating! Also the marquis! ”

Moreover, if Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo chose to kill their father to protect themselves at a moment when Zhang Xianzhong was at the end of his rope in the future, Shen Shuren would also be happy to see it. After all, Sun Ke hopes that Li Dingguo can still save it, and there is no need to bury Zhang Xianzhong.

Historically, the generals below the Great Western Army still had a certain degree of national integrity to resist the Qing Dynasty, and it was best to only punish the evil.

Hearing this step, Chongzhen finally wavered.

Indeed, Shen Shuren helped him solve the problem of face and gave him a step: Zhang Xianzhong has a reason for being more guilty than other bandit leaders, and he hates Zhang Xianzhong very much, and he will not make the emperor feel embarrassed.

The imperial tomb has been destroyed, and the face that should be lost has already been lost.

The final conclusion of Xiong Wencan's case can still be operated, and no matter how you look at it, you can save face.

The most important thing is that Shen Shuren's strategy was offered in private, and the emperor was not ashamed.

"There will be faithfulness in the ten households. I've been taught, so stand down and think about it. Chongzhen didn't want to make a decision in person, she didn't want to be embarrassed in front of her courtiers.

Shen Shuren knew that he couldn't persuade him at this time, so he took advantage of the situation and retreated.

……

Two days later, the day of the official announcement of the palace examination.

Wei Zaode really became the champion, and Gao Eryan, a guy who later became a traitor in history, was also mentioned from Tanhua to the list because of the butterfly effect.

Ge Shizhen, the original leader, was deposed to the second class because of his pragmatic rhetoric and became a rumor.

Fang Yizhi, who was originally ranked fifty-seventh, was affected by Shen Shuren, because his political attitude was more pragmatic than the original, and he was not treated well by the emperor, so he fell to fifty-nine.

Shen Shuren was gloriously at the bottom, ranking 60th in the overall list and the last in the second class.

But the government and the opposition all know the reason why he was deposed: he was straightforward and truth-seeking to the emperor, which led to the bottom of the ranking.

After a lot of hard work, Shen Shuren finally successfully obtained the Jinshi background.

And he also knew that the emperor would give him a promotion in the future, but the reason for the promotion should be covered up, so that the emperor could be ashamed. His actual future is definitely much better than that of those champions who have no name. After all, he is the one who secretly helps the emperor do dirty work, and he is not known to outsiders.

After a few more days, Chongzhen quietly made a decree, pretending that it had nothing to do with the advice of any of the previous courtiers, and that it was entirely the emperor's own thought.

The cause and effect of the will are nothing more than this:

The emperor said that he was dreamed of by his ancestors, and said that it had been five years since the destruction of the ancestral tomb in Fengyang, and the souls of the ancestors and ancestors could not be stable. He was ashamed to be a descendant, and felt that the edict he had made five years ago about the ancestral tomb was not thorough enough, so he added some oaths.

Chongzhen swore to the ancestors and ancestors in the Taimiao:

Whoever kills Zhang Xianzhong, if he is a minister from the beginning, can be named a duke.

If you have been a thief, and then you are anyway, you can also be a marquis.

This oath is valid for everyone in the world except Zhang Xianzhong's parents. (Zhang Xianzhong currently has no biological son)

In other words, even if Li Zicheng kills Zhang Xianzhong and sacrifices his head, he can be crowned a marquis.

Chongzhen has completely figured it out at this point: what is there to be afraid of pardoning Li Zicheng? If he really killed Zhang Xianzhong, he would have weakened the thief's power by half, and he would be pardoned.

It's a big deal, if Li Zicheng really has wolf ambitions again, it would be better to crusade against him next time he makes trouble. Anyway, if you can get this reward, Zhang Xianzhong has already died first, the thieves have also divided into infighting, and the court is not at a loss, so why bother with the reward.

You can't be too mean and unkind to be an emperor.

Of course, Chongzhen was still a little embarrassed, and added a sentence at the end of the Taimiao oath:

If Zhang Yi has been defeated and besieged in the future, the thieves under his command will temporarily rise up and kill the master because of their poverty. Then you can't be a marquis, you can only be exempted from the previous crime and promise not to be investigated.

This is also Chongzhen's last fig leaf, preventing the thieves from "resisting if they can, resisting, and in the end, they can't resist and then kill the lord and surrender" to deceive the marquis.

Writing in such detail also greatly increased the credibility of the Taimiao oath. I believe that after the thieves in the world see it, anyone who wants to ask the court for forgiveness will weigh it to some extent.

After the Taimiao oath was issued, Chongzhen made up another backhand to plug the leak:

He asked the squire of the Criminal Department to speed up the trial of Xiong Wencan's case. put Xiong Wencan's crime of "colluding with Zhang Xianzhong", and deleted Xiong Wencan's crime of revolting after appeasing other thieves.

In other words, the rebellion of other thieves was also condemned by the emperor as "being coerced by Zhang Xianzhong", rather than "having been planning to rebel for a long time". Therefore, Xiong Wencan's behavior can also be counted as a crime.

Xiong Wencan's history was not finally beheaded until the autumn of Chongzhen's thirteenth year. Now the emperor, in order to cover his shame, also killed him in the spring a few months in advance.

Decision-making, no waiting.

On the day of the killing, the entrance of the vegetable market in the capital was full of people, and the water could not be drained.

The emperor's will is clear: Xiong Wencan's many other acts are not guilty, but colluding with Zhang Xianzhong is an unforgivable crime.

After the beheading, the details of Xiong Wencan's crimes, the nine sides of the Ming Fa and the six provinces of the Central Plains, were announced to the world.

On the day of the execution, Shen Shuren was also watching at the entrance of the vegetable market in the capital. The conscience of heaven and earth, it was really not his intention to kill Xiong Wencan, he even wanted to save the other party a little.

When he mentioned Xiong Wencan to Chongzhen, he only mentioned the crime from beginning to end, not the sentencing, hoping that Xiong Wencan's crimes would be reduced and the emperor could reduce the sentence.

But Chongzhen insisted on going his own way for the sake of face, even if he only left this one crime, he had to be executed alone, in order to emphasize the seriousness of this crime, Shen Shuren had no choice.

Chongzhen, a person who has opened up in some aspects, has to let him be mean and unkind in other aspects and find a psychological balance.