Beijing.

Hong Chengchou entered the palace in court clothes and headed towards the Qianqing Palace.

After several days of court discussions, the civil and military officials did not discuss a single result, and the position of the governor of Shandong was still vacant.

In the early days of the dynasty today, Hong Chengchou was determined that there must be a result, and this matter must not be delayed any longer, otherwise there will be trouble, and if it is not good, a Shandong Li Zicheng will be dragged out, and then the Ming Dynasty will really never have peace!

On the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, as soon as the court discussion began, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty began to quarrel, and a group of cabinet ministers fought-for-tat, all standing on the moral high ground to accuse each other, but for the Shandong war, they could not come up with any "dry goods", just to refute for the sake of refutation, and there was nothing practical in what they said.

Emperor Chongzhen listened to it for a long time, and couldn't bear it anymore, so he immediately patted the table and said loudly: "The post of governor of Shandong is temporarily held by Hong Chengchou, the first assistant of the cabinet, and the headquarters of Jingbei Botang Tong is under his command, and troops will be sent to Shandong within ten days!" ”

The ministers suddenly quieted down and looked at Hong Chengchou one after another.

For the war in Shandong, Hong Chengchou didn't want to go at all, and now Li Zicheng is killing all sides in Henan, and he, the head of the cabinet, must not leave the capital easily, and must sit in the town, so as not to be exploited by Chen Xinjia.

So Hong Chengchou said: "Your Majesty's proposal is inappropriate, the minister thinks that the immediate big trouble of the imperial court is the comeback of Li Zicheng's department, and the minister, as the head of the cabinet, should coordinate in the center and coordinate all parties to encircle and suppress." ”

"The minister has already worked with Lord Chen, the secretary of the military department, to order Sun Chuanting to succeed him as the governor of Shaanxi, rectify the soldiers and horses of Shaanxi and Gansu, and attack Li Zicheng's department as soon as possible, so the minister cannot leave the capital for the time being to go to Shandong, please think twice

。 ”

Emperor Chongzhen had a cold face and said, "In that case, who does the elder think can serve as the governor of Shandong?" Could it be that the elder still wants to nominate Liu Yan! ”

Hong Chengchou did not answer immediately, but took out Yan Jizu's letter for help, and after presenting it to Wang Chengen, he said: "Your Majesty, this is the note that Yan Jizu, the governor of Shandong, has just sent today, which mentions that the Shandong thieves are mobilizing artillery and preparing to take Jinan Mansion in one go, and the Dewang family is in danger, if the imperial court cannot determine the candidate for the governor of Shandong as soon as possible, the minister thinks that it is not necessary to let Liu Yan temporarily take the post of Dingyu Bo first, and wait until the war is over, and then let Liu Yan continue to serve as the chief soldier of Qinglai Town." ”

Everyone suddenly started talking, and Emperor Chongzhen's face became more and more ugly.

When you can use others, add officials to receive them temporarily, and when the matter is over, let the family officials be reinstated, even if Emperor Chongzhen is mean, he can't do such a thing.

"Elder Ge is forcing me!"

"I don't dare."

Hong Chengchou said without changing his face: "It's just that the minister is worried that the city of Jinan Mansion is in danger, time waits for no one, and now the court has neither time to discuss slowly, nor talent to choose from, and if it drags on like this, I can only sit back and watch King De's family die, and sit back and watch the entire territory of Jinan Mansion and Dongchang Mansion fall into the hands of thieves." ”

"And the minister also has a worry, once the imperial court can't annihilate the Shandong thieves as soon as possible and let them be full-fledged, it is difficult to guarantee that there will not be a thief like Li Zicheng in Shandong, and when the time comes, the two thieves will have one east and one west, and my Ming will have no room for maneuver!"

Although Emperor Chongzhen is stubborn, he is by no means a stupid person, even if he is angry with Hong Chengchou's proposal at this time, he also knows that Hong Chengchou

All that is said is true, and this matter should not be delayed any longer.

"Chen Aiqing, what do you mean?"

Chen Xinjia looked at Hong Chengchou and knew that Hong Chengchou was determined to help Liu Yan take the position, and it was pointless to stop him any longer, but offended Hong Chengchou and Liu Yan at the same time. On Emperor Chongzhen's side, he didn't have a suitable candidate to provide, so he had to give up his hand and say: "Your Majesty, the old words of Hongge are reasonable, and the minister seconded it!" ”

With Chen Xinjia at the beginning, most of the ministers of the DPRK and the Central Committee stood up to second, and Li Zhiwen, the secretary of the household department, even said: "It is best to transfer troops from Qinglai Town, and the imperial court can greatly save money and food consumption, which will benefit the country and the people!" ”

This remark immediately attracted the angry eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, and Li Zhiwen was stunned for a moment when he saw this, and then realized that he had said the wrong thing, and hurriedly lowered his head and stopped talking.

Emperor Chongzhen saw that the ministers had basically reached an agreement, and it was useless to be unwilling in his heart, so he had to say: "Then draw up the decree, promote Liu Yan to the governor of Shandong, and lead all the departments of the new army to immediately go north to encircle and suppress the thieves in Shandong." ”

"Another will be drafted: Qinglai Town will be abolished, and the new army in Qinglai Town will be reorganized into the Supervisory Standard Battalion, and its strength will be reduced to 30% of the existing strength!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone was in an uproar.

Hong Chengchou hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, think twice, now is an eventful time, the new army of Qinglai Town is a strong army in the world, and it must not be cut and abolished!" This move is also easy to provoke a mutiny! ”

Emperor Chongzhen asked: "There are so many governors in the world, which one of the governors has tens of thousands of horses?" ”

Hong Chengchou never imagined that Emperor Chongzhen would take this opportunity to suppress Liu Yan, so he retorted: "Your Majesty, Liu Yan is the governor of Shandong's military affairs, even if Your Majesty orders the abolition of the new army

, Liu Yan can also organize the extra troops into a garrison army and divide troops to garrison all parts of Shandong. In this way, Liu Yan's troops will not be less at all, but the court and His Majesty are hated by Liu Yan, and they also hurt the hearts of the soldiers of the new army, and the gains outweigh the losses! ”

Emperor Chongzhen's face changed gloomily, and after a long time, he said coldly: "Since the elder does not agree, then the matter of disarmament will be stopped." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"

Emperor Chongzhen stared at Hong Chengchou for a long time, since Liu Yan competed with himself outside the Desheng Gate, he always wanted to rectify Liu Yan, and he must not let such an arrogant army general be out of order.

If Liu Yan was a minister of the unified army with a civilian background like Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng, Emperor Chongzhen could do it directly with an edict, but Liu Yan was born as a martial artist, and he was promoted step by step from the chief flag officer of the guard, which was deeply rooted in Shandong.

Emperor Chongzhen knew very well that even if he issued an edict to remove Liu Yan from his official position and sent Jinyiwei to get people, this edict would not have much effect, and Jinyiwei would not even be able to enter the new army camp!

So this is what Emperor Chongzhen is most annoyed about, Emperor Ming is unable to control the chief military officer, which is unimaginable in the Ming Dynasty.

"Could it be that Da Ming is really in the sunset?"

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart, and then waved his hand and said, "Tired!" ”

Wang Chengen hurriedly stepped forward and screamed: "Retreat!" ”

Hong Chengchou walked out of the main hall, and a stone in his heart finally landed, and then hurried to the cabinet office, watched the edict be drafted and sealed, and then Hong Chengchou directly approved the red and handed it to Chen Xinjia, who was waiting here.

"Hurry up, send people Pegasus to Qingzhou City,

Let Liu Yan immediately send troops, and you must keep Jinan Mansion and Dongchang Mansion! ”

There is a distance of more than 900 miles from Beijing to Qingzhou Fucheng, and according to the normal speed of fast horses, it will take at least thirteen or four days, but Chen Xinjia is also in a hurry, and he sent the edict to Qingzhou Fucheng with 800 miles of fast horses, and even the eunuchs who announced the edict did not follow, so he sent a team of troops to Tangma to the south.

This team of pond horses traveled day and night, and when they crossed the border of Jinan Prefecture, they were almost stopped by thieves and soldiers several times, and finally it took less than nine days to kill three fast horses, and even a post soldier was exhausted to death on the way, before this edict was sent to Liu Yan's hands.

"Order the cavalry battalion, the right battalion, and the middle battalion to march north immediately, and the town will lead the guard battalion to follow up and go straight to Jinan Fucheng!"

By the afternoon of the next day, the cavalry battalion, the right battalion, and the middle battalion had received Liu Yan's order and advanced northward one after another.

Xu Ming led the cavalry battalion soldiers to rush into the territory of Dongchang Mansion, successively broke two bands of thieves and horses, beheaded more than 3,000 people, captured 852 people, and successively recovered three county seats.

More than 10,000 people were entrenched in Linqingzhou, Xu Ming immediately led his troops to the city, and asked the shogunate for siege equipment, preparing to encircle and annihilate the last thief soldiers and horses in Changfu.

At the same time, Wang Bo led the right battalion all the way north, swept Tai'an Prefecture, Feicheng, Zhangqiu, Zouping, Xincheng and other places, won four battles and four victories, beheaded more than 5,900 people, and captured 20,000 people in the court, most of whom were coerced people.

After Liu Yan received the battle report, he ordered Xu Ming to surround the thieves in Dongchang Mansion, not to let the thieves escape, and ordered Wang Boji

Continue to sweep away the thieves in Jinan Mansion and annihilate the enemy!

And Shen Tuo led the middle battalion to approach Jinan Fucheng, and the tens of thousands of thieves stationed outside Jinan Fucheng suddenly moved their hearts, coupled with the news that tens of thousands of new troops in Qinglai Town waved north, so that these tens of thousands of thieves did not dare to fight, and directly pulled out the camp and retreated to Jiyang City.

Two days later, Shen Tuo led his troops into the city of Jinan, the governor Yan Jizu and the German king Zhu Youli were ecstatic, both of them had a feeling of rebirth, and they could not be reserved at this time, and the two of them took the hundred officials in the city to welcome the new army into the city.

"General Shen worked hard and forced back the army of thieves, this is a great achievement to save the vassal king! Benfu must write to the imperial court, for Dingyubo, and for the soldiers of the new army! ”

Shen Tuo smiled faintly and said, "Lord Xie Futai, this is the last general's duty. ”

Then Shen Tuo saluted Yan Jizu and Zhu Youli, the king of De, and everyone entered the city together and came to the governor's yamen to discuss matters.

"Hehe, now that Dingyubo has been promoted to the governor of Shandong, congratulations, my Shandong people are blessed now!"

Yan Jizu said with a smile, and the German king Zhu Youli also said: "Dingyubo is the Optimus Prime of the imperial court, with Dingyubo, this king is worry-free, and the people of Shandong are worry-free!"

Shen Tuo said: "This time, my family's promotion to the governor of Shandong is also a fluke, I heard that there are a lot of discussions in the court, and many people have made this discussion. ”

King Zhu Youli immediately said angrily: "There are traitors in the court, who dare to sit back and watch the vassal king be trapped and watch the people suffer, but only boast, should really be killed!" This king will write a recital today to impeach His Majesty against those who oppose the court! ”

Yan Jizu is natural

It can be heard that what Dewang Zhu Youli said is those Donglin Party members, in fact, Yan Jizu is also a Donglin Party from his origin, so he had to smile and say at this time: "Hehe, Your Highness is angry, we still have less to get involved in the affairs of the court, as long as Dingyubo wins the position of governor, we have nothing else to ask for." ”

Seeing Yan Jizu bring over a ladder, Dewang Zhu Youli slid down directly and said, "Hmph! Now that Yan Futai has spoken, forget it this time, and those bastards in the court will dare to stir up trouble in the future, and see how this king punishes him! ”

"Your Highness understands the righteousness and admires!"

"Yan Futai is broad-minded, and this king admires him!"

The two praised each other for a while, and Yan Jizu said to Shen Tuo: "By the way, I don't know when Dingyubo will arrive in Jinan Mansion, so Benfu should prepare in advance and clean up the Governor's Mansion." ”

Shen Tuo said: "Qi Futai, the last general received an order on the way north, Ding Yubo has led the new army guard battalion to the north, and he will arrive at Jinan Mansion in four days at most." ”