Chapter One, Twenty-Seven Moments in the Four Years of Chongzhen (1) (First update in the Year of the Sheep, continuous updates in the New Year, please vote for encouragement!)
The first moment: Emperor Chongzhen’s melancholy
November of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Beijing, Forbidden City, late at night
November is already an extremely cold time of the year in Beijing. It is already extremely cold, but the weather has not been good in recent years. It is normal for summers to go without rain for even a month. This winter, it will naturally be even colder. It's cold, and it's not just a drop of water turning into ice. The streets of the whole city were deserted and silent - there is a night ban in Beijing, and ordinary people are not allowed to travel on the streets after the first watch, otherwise they will be punished if they are caught by the soldiers of the Five Cities Military and Horse Division.
As the core center of the Ming Empire. The rules in the Forbidden City are even stricter. The doors of all the palaces are closed tightly, and most of the candles are extinguished. The Forbidden City is completely dark. Only the Qianqing Palace area is still brightly lit - this is where the Ming Dynasty emperor's daily office and daily life were. In this place, today's Zhu Youjian is extremely diligent, and it is common for him to review memorials and work until midnight like this. Although it was bitterly cold outside in the middle of the night and the wind was biting, there were still many eunuchs and guards standing on both sides of the palace's corridors with their heads held high, waiting for a call from inside and running around for them immediately.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian was just over 22 years old, and it had been four years since he ascended the throne. Although he was a tragic figure in later history books, at that time, especially in the years after he ascended the throne, Zhu Youjian was Youjian's reputation in the court and among the people is still very high, so much so that he is touted as a "sage" - think about it, starting from his great-grandfather Jiajing... and even earlier Zhengde, there were several consecutive generations of emperors in the Ming Empire. ,according to According to the records of the literati of the Donglin Party, none of them are mentally sane: either they love to travel and make themselves generals; The ministers were against each other; or he was just a short-lived ghost who took pills and died; the emperor Tianqi of the previous generation was even more exaggerated: he actually ignored the government and left all political affairs in the hands of his trusted eunuchs, and he loved to be a carpenter!
In contrast, today's Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian is not lewd and never slacks off. He often handles state affairs until late at night. Although the specific results cannot be seen in a short period of time, this diligent attitude alone is enough to make people happy. The ministers who had had enough of the lazy emperor were excited - they, these "virtuous and loyal ministers", had endured for decades and finally had a "dedicated" emperor!
What's more, not long after he came to power, the young Emperor Chongzhen silently eliminated the powerful 9,000-year-old Wei Zhongxian. His method was clean and neat, which made the scholar-bureaucrats in the dynasty resentful. He looked like a capable person no matter how he looked at it. The courageous master of ZTE.
After clearing away the evil Eunuch Party, the young emperor formed a brand new Donglin Party cabinet, which ushered in an unprecedented scene of "all the good people in the court". The secret service agency Dongchang was also abolished to express full trust in the moral integrity of Mr. Donglin. For a time, he won the praise of scholars, calling him the reincarnation of Yao and Shun... Although the Ming Dynasty, which was "popular and prosperous", did not seem to have any prosperous times in the past two years, on the contrary, there were constant natural disasters, the collapse of border defenses, and continuous attacks by Donglu to Beijing. Below the city, the bandits in Shaanxi and Shanxi became more and more violent, which slightly affected the emperor's reputation. However, thanks to Shilin's hard praise, the emperor's aura of "British Master" has not completely faded yet.
However, even so, Emperor Chongzhen is already living a very miserable life. Although he is still a young man in his twenties, there are already a few strands of white hair on his temples. But overall, at this time, Emperor Chongzhen at least still had the motivation to continue to work diligently and had not lost confidence in the future of the Ming Dynasty. At this moment, Zhu Youjian had just finished reviewing a stack of memorials under the lamp and signaled to the young eunuch next to him. Take it and send it to the cabinet early tomorrow morning for countersigning by cabinet members. He himself stretched somewhat relaxedly and took a sip of tea.
"...Your Majesty, it's already time to be ugly. It's time to rest and take care of your dragon body!" Cao Huachun, the great eunuch who was waiting next to him, reminded him.
"...No need to say more, Mr. Cao, I will read the memorial for a while." Emperor Chongzhen replied nonchalantly.
Cao Huachun sighed, turned around and brought out a plate of sweet-scented osmanthus cake, saying that the empress knew that Long live Lord often worked late at night on state affairs, so she made these snacks with her own hands, hoping that Long live Lord would take care of the dragon's body... Chongzhen used a few pieces, but his eyes were confused. It fell on another tall pile of memorials beside the table.
For many emperors, reviewing memorials is a hard job, but Emperor Chongzhen has not been on the throne for too long, and he is not completely tired of this work yet - now Zhu Youjian is like a hard-working old farmer who cannot see the fields. There are weeds. No matter how tired you are, you must finish your daily tasks before going to bed. So after only taking a short rest, the young emperor began to devote himself to the endless work of writing documents.
——As usual, we first read "Yin Huang" and "Posting Huang", which are the introduction and outline of the contents of the memorial written by the preview officials of the General Affairs Department. The emperor will use these contents to judge which memorials are urgent matters and must be done as soon as possible. respond, and which memorials are just routine stories that can be ignored or postponed. Among them, the military-related "Tang Bao" has always been the focus of the imperial court. Whenever military affairs are related, the following reports are always reported as quickly as possible. Emperor Chongzhen always gave priority to looking for Tang Bao when reviewing memorials. . It's just that he's been a little afraid of seeing this kind of thing recently - the newspapers always report defeats, civil commotions, mutinies... Almost every Tang newspaper has a hole, which requires the court to spend a lot of money, food and materials to make up for it, and even if it is surrendered, The huge amount of money in food and supplies may not be enough to make up for it. But the royal treasury is almost empty...
Trouble is trouble, and things still have to be done - Emperor Chongzhen rubbed his forehead, took out the memorials again, and spread them out on the table one by one.
As expected, as usual, most of these memorials are pure nonsense. The rest are either crying about poverty or complaining. Others are covering up bad news while passing the blame to each other, which can really have some substance. Suggested content is almost completely invisible.
——The drought in Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Gansu continues. Not only are the starving people with no food and clothing rioting, but the border troops who are short of food and pay are also rebelling. Since King Baishui's rebellion at the end of Tianqi, hungry people and bandits have been plundering everywhere and trapping forts. They are like maggots that are difficult to eradicate: officers and soldiers move east, bandits go west; bandits move forward, and officers and soldiers pursue them. The whole of northern Shaanxi is full of bandits and soldiers, and the government cannot clear them out at all.
Fortunately, the peasant army in the early years of Chongzhen had no clear intention to overthrow the Ming Dynasty. They were mostly driven by hunger and cold, so they raised flags to resist taxes and relied on force to seize food from the government and local gentry. They lived a life of being drunk today and drunk tomorrow. The day when you raise your flag again when you are hungry The son of the Ming Dynasty placed all his hopes on the Ming army's compromise and recruitment. At this time, the heroes of the Water Margin who killed people, set fires, and waited for peace were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The peasant army was eager to be fed and not hungry. If they could have a good future, they would not mind surrendering to the imperial court and serving for the imperial court. Suppressed "Fang La" and "Liao bandits". 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 a way to export the crisis, the early civil uprising in Shaanxi would not be difficult to quell.
The officials of the Ming Dynasty were quite aware of the disadvantages of this situation, but they did not have the perseverance or ability to solve the problem. Yang He, the governor of the three sides, once explained to Emperor Chongzhen: "...the thieves in the Three Qin Dynasty are extremely poor and hungry, and there is no way to solve the problem." Living everywhere, when the soldiers arrive, they will surrender and when the soldiers leave, they will loot as before. This is an inevitable trend. The scattered thieves must be given real relief to make them have enough to live on, and then they are truly disbanded. After they are disbanded, they must be resettled, and they must be given real cattle seeds to return to farming, and then they are truly resettled. The joy of life, without the desire to die, will naturally be followed, and the situation of care will be settled, and the suppression of the situation will also end. ”
Regrettably, although the court affirmed Yang He's views, 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, leaving Yang He empty-handed to appease. How could he still persuade the hungry people? Are you going to starve to death if you just stay at home? So the officers and soldiers in the northwest wanted to suppress the bandits, but the mountains and the red land were thousands of miles away, and the hungry people were revolting all over the place, so it was impossible to suppress them.
In this way, the thieves from the northwest surrendered and rebelled again, rebelled and surrendered again, and so on, endlessly. Not to mention that there are a bunch of stupid Donglin Party who are trying their best to help: they have greatly reduced commercial taxes for the land of plenty in the south of the Yangtze River, and repeatedly increased land taxes for thousands of miles of red land in Shaanxi, Henan, and Shanxi. But the rice and wheat could not be sold for five cents, so the people abandoned their farming and fled in large numbers, and the fields in villages and counties were destroyed. The imperial court was forced into ruin, and the rogue bandits obtained inexhaustible soldiers, which eventually caused the situation in the northwest to completely deteriorate day by day. What Emperor Chongzhen didn't know yet was that there was an unemployed postman in Mizhi, northern Shaanxi, whose original name was Li Hongji, who later changed his name to Li Zicheng. , has now joined the ranks of the rebels...
——The once prosperous place of Gyeonggi is still in ruins. From the second year of Chongzhen to the third year of Chongzhen, the Liaodong slaves broke through the Great Wall twice and ravaged the pass. Although they did not conquer Beijing, they devastated the surrounding suburbs and counties. There are ruins and bones, and there are no roosters crowing for hundreds of miles. Although this year's slaves did not break into the Central Plains, the counties in the suburbs of Beijing were still dying. People everywhere were crying for tax exemptions and relief. There were also many defeated soldiers and hungry people gathering in the wilderness to cause chaos and rob homes. It was difficult to clarify for a while. It can be seen from this that the land of the capital at the foot of the emperor is still like this, how can the imperial court squeeze out money and food to relieve and resettle those bandits who are far away in Shaanxi and Shanxi? No matter what, you have to take care of the place under your nose first!
Moreover, in order to compete for the manor fields left over after the massacre of the Jiannu slaves, various royal relatives, officials and ministers took action together, causing countless disturbances. Some lawsuits over property even went all the way to the imperial court, which made Emperor Chongzhen feel uncomfortable just thinking about it. Headache - ugh, I really regret listening to the nonsense of that Guangdong barbarian Yuan Chonghuan, about the five years of Ping Liao? ! It only took one year for the defenses to collapse, and the Jurchen Tatars were all killed at the base of the imperial city! And there was a second time after it happened, and I don’t know if there will be a third time... It would definitely not be unjust to cut this sinner to death with a thousand cuts!
——The She'an Rebellion that swept through several provinces in the southwest is now finally coming to an end. The rebel chieftains have been hit hard repeatedly and have retreated to their old nest. They no longer have the majestic momentum of besieging Guiyang and rampaging across Sichuan and Yunnan during the Tianqi years. However, these rebels were entrenched in dangerous positions in their hometown, and due to the favorable geographical location, it was difficult for the government troops to invade. The court has not yet made a decision as to whether to appease softly or to continue the suppression campaign, and a party dispute even broke out because of this.
According to Emperor Chongzhen's own wishes, he naturally wanted to appease him. After all, war is a gold-eating beast. As the saying goes, with swords and soldiers, there are thousands of gold and silver! There is not much silver left in the royal treasury, and as for Taicang (the national treasury), it has never been able to make ends meet, and there is no hope. If you can save a few silver, then it is better to save. Unfortunately, out of the emperor's face, he It's not good to take the initiative to submit, otherwise you will easily lose your majesty, and you can only watch the courtiers arguing endlessly... Therefore, at least in a short period of time, the court will not be able to get rid of the military expenditures of the Southwest War...
——In addition to man-made disasters, God is also very disrespectful. In addition to the numbing droughts, floods, and locust plagues one after another, there was another major earthquake this summer: On the night of July 17, the fourth year of Chongzhen, all the prefectures in Huguang were affected by earthquakes. . There was a loud earthquake in Wuling, Changde Prefecture in the middle of the night. Black air blocked the sky, wells and springs overflowed, holes in the ground opened, and slurry gushed out. Countless government palaces, city walls, and houses collapsed, and sixty men and women were crushed to death. The earthquake in Lizhou was like thunder, the ground cracked and sand surged with water, houses fell down and trees were uprooted, killing countless people and animals. Four out of ten city walls in Jingzhou Prefecture are in ruins, and three out of ten residential buildings... In the following months, the local officials in Huguang have been crying out for tax exemptions and relief, but Emperor Chongzhen rejected them all: the imperial court has no such thing these days. Surplus food!
In short, natural disasters, Liao affairs, and refugees are three huge troubles that constantly harass Zhu Youjian. There are also various other minor scabies problems that come one after another every year and every month. It made him feel quite anxious. The only good news that pleased the emperor in the past two years was that Xuanzang in Shanxi Province was still victorious when the Tatars were on the verge of defeat last year. They beheaded 280 people in one battle, which was considered an excellent record in recent years. , especially the little village leader named Wang Dou can actually reach level 80. It would be great if the Ming Dynasty could have more loyal and brave people like this!
In fact, strictly speaking, there is another piece of good news... Zhu Youjian turned around and picked up a military newspaper marked as coming from Fujian, and read the content again with complicated eyes - this is Fujian General Soldier Huang Shi and the good news sent by Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian, claiming that the former Soon after, the Funing Army responded to the request of the Ryukyu King and was led by Huangshi. Zou Weilian supervised the division to cross the sea and march eastward, expelling the Japanese pirates who were entrenched in the vassal state. They then continued the pursuit and bombarded the Japanese pirates' hometown, forcing the Japanese chiefs to kneel down and sue for peace. , vowed not to invade Ryukyu and the coastal areas of Zhejiang and Fujian again. At the same time, there was also a copy of "Rebuilding the Domain Chronicles", a letter of gratitude said to be written by King Sho of Ryukyu himself... Logically speaking, at a time when the Ming Dynasty was on fire and smoking was coming from all directions, this victory was really It was a rare tonic that could cheer people up, but in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, it was dazzling no matter how hard he looked at it.
"...Save the vassal country from danger and promote the country's prestige overseas? Humph, what a wonderful writing! The King of Ryukyu is a foreign vassal, so he doesn't know the inside story. Could it be that Huangshi doesn't know that Japan was appointed by Emperor Hongwu? A country without conquests? It’s so cruel to use weapons.”
Emperor Chongzhen threw the memorial heavily on the table and snorted displeasedly, but the expression on his face was not angry, but rather hesitant and entangled: Zhu Youjian still recognized Huang Shi's fighting ability - this Back then, I first put down the Guangning rebellion by myself and killed the rebels. General Sun succeeded in covering the safe retreat of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians; then he followed Mao Wenlong to the Dongjiang River and set up camp on Changsheng Island to train troops. He soon raised a battalion of elite soldiers. With a set of spear formations, he was reporting frequent successes on the battlefield, and he was killing people one after another. He killed many Tatars and gradually reversed the decline of the Liaodong battlefield. In the end, Huang Shi even broke into Liaoyang single-handedly, beheaded the enemy chief Nurhachi and returned. For a time, the Liaodong slaves changed their minds when they heard about Huang Shi. It was comparable to the killing of Zhao Zilong in Changbanpo during the Three Kingdoms. He even overshadowed the limelight. He surpassed his immediate boss Mao Wenlong, so he was favored by the late emperor's brother.
At the end of the sixth year of Apocalypse, in view of the improvement in the war situation in Liaodong and the imperial court's reward for merit, Huang Shi was promoted to the Fujian Army General and was given the title of "Imperial Envoy to Pingnan to act for convenience, to bear the seal of Pingnan Pioneer General, and to be the Admiral of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi Military Affairs." , transferred from the battlefield in Liaodong, led his troops southward, and prepared to use these elite troops to quell the She'an rebellion in the southwest after preparing all the supplies in Fujian. Unexpectedly, the pirates invaded Fujian on a large scale at this time, and successively broke into prefectures and counties. It was like a recurrence of the Japanese invasion. After Huangshi arrived in Fujian, he had to immediately start to suppress the bandits to consolidate his foundation. The expedition to the southwest was thus delayed.
Then, just as the Fujian pirates were gradually wiped out by Huang Shi's army, Emperor Tianqi suddenly fell seriously ill and died.
Next, although his elder brother (Emperor Tianqi) had made his last words before his death, asking Zhu Youjian to reuse Huangshi, in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen who had just ascended the throne, Huangshi was really uneasy: According to the information collected by Jinyiwei Intelligence and civilian impeachment memorials, Huang Shi is extremely cruel He was hot-tempered and ruthless. His old boss Sun Degong clearly had a favor for him and was planning to marry his daughter to him. However, during the Guangning Rebellion, he killed his entire family without blinking an eye and even forced his fiancée to hang herself. - This is evident from his cold nature and his passion for power.
Moreover, according to the secret reports of the eunuchs of the Supervisory Army, Huang Shi was not greedy for money or lustful, and could even be said to have no desires. He never raised a family but shared the joys and sorrows with the soldiers. The former Changsheng Army and the current Funing Army both But as a whole, as his servant, it's hard to say whether he has any evil intentions.
Moreover, this person has bad moral character and is recognized as a high-ranking member of the eunuch party. He has been in collusion with the traitor Wei Zhongxian for a long time. When the late emperor was still alive, he had close personal relationships with many ministers in the court... Huang Shi might be loyal to the late emperor who single-handedly promoted him, but he was not necessarily loyal to himself as the emperor.
"...It's a pity that although he has great talents, he is not a gentleman and cannot be used by me!" Emperor Chongzhen, who was still quite obsessed with morality at that time, came to such a conclusion about Huang Shi in his heart, and at the same time acquiesced to the suppression and suppression of Huang Shi by the civil servant group. Attack and criticize, gradually reducing his power, first knocking off the common barbarian vanguard general Hat, and then demoted from Fujian General Soldier to Fujian North Road General. In the end, some people even suggested that he be imprisoned and executed... If the emperor's master Sun Chengzong and others had not vigorously protested, claiming that the country is currently in constant war, and generals must not be killed without reason, perhaps Huang Shi has fallen into the same fate as Wei Zhongxian.
Then, after a period of silence, Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan brought up the old matter again, impeaching Huangshi, who had been demoted to Fujian North Road General, for a lot of crimes, and then claimed that in order to appease the pirates and pacify the Minhai Sea, Huangshi's weapons were needed. Use your head to establish your authority and vent your anger on the "Sea Lords"...
Unfortunately, when Xiong Wencan's memorial was sent to Beijing, it was already the third year of Chongzhen's reign. Emperor Chongzhen had just experienced the tragedy of a slave siege, and it seemed that he was about to experience a second time. In the Datong area, the flames of war are already everywhere... When the Tatars went south last time, the city of Beijing almost fell due to the mutiny and rebellion of Guan Ning's army. In the end, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to cut Yuan Du into pieces with a thousand swords. The teacher vented his anger. This time the Tartars broke through the border again and went south. Emperor Chongzhen didn't know how to deal with it. At this time, he saw that Xiong Wencan violated the system and killed a general without authorization. Yuan Chonghuan was known as the "Five Years of Ping Liao" and killed without authorization. After Mao Wenlong established his power, he released the slaves under the walls of Beijing. Xiong Wencan is now saying that in order to pacify the sea area, he needs to kill the more famous Huangshi to unify the power. Will there be a group of pirates to break up Nanjing City next?
Although the situation in the south and the north are completely different, Emperor Chongzhen, who was already suffering from psychological shadow, could not bear to think like this!
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen immediately refuted Xiong Wencan's absurd suggestion. Looking back, he felt uneasy, fearing that Xiong Wencan would not stop doing anything and would imitate Yuan Chonghuan before and simply forged an imperial edict to kill people, and hurriedly sent a secret edict to Fujian. , threatening in a stern tone After telling Xiong Wencan, he told him not to forget Yuan Chonghuan's fate... This secret decree seemed to be effective. Xiong Wencan never mentioned anything about killing Huang Shi again. Tolerance is the principle of the country. Especially after the pirates invaded southern Fujian last year and were repelled by Huangshi, Xiong Wencan, who was about to be transferred to the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, asked for credit for Huangshi to resume his official position as Fujian General Soldier.
However, although Emperor Chongzhen did not intend to watch Xiong Wencan violate the system and kill military attachés of Huang Shi's level, he also had a grudge against Huang Shi, an "old minister of the former emperor", and at least he was not prepared to re-activate him to the Liaodong battlefield—— Although there have been calls for the use of Huangshi since the two raids south by slaves and the execution of the criminal governor Yuan Chonghuan, they have all been suppressed by Emperor Chongzhen.
In short, Emperor Chongzhen had a very contradictory view of Huang Shi. He recognized his talents but was also very resistant to promoting him. In the end, he left Huang Shi in the south to be refrigerated. Unless the war situation in Liaodong was extremely ruined, he would not be promoted. Pull it out and push it up... Therefore, this good news from Huangshi made Emperor Chongzhen deeply entangled: although he had long known about Ryukyu's request for help, it was natural for Ming Dynasty to protect the vassal state. But Huang Shi's expedition to Japan without the approval of the cabinet was "sending troops privately, which is tantamount to rebellion." Moreover, Japan was a "country without conquest" designated by Emperor Hongwu...
Hey, that's all, after all, we won the battle, so of course we can't give rewards. The crime of acting without authorization is no longer punishable - given the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, if it is really ruined beyond repair, we may still need to rely on Huang Shi, a famous general who has never defeated many battles, to take action! As long as you hold his money and lifeline, you won't be afraid of him flying into the sky... Therefore, after the three words "got it" were approved on this victory memorial, Emperor Chongzhen didn't think about it anymore.
The emperor was certainly wary of military commanders who did not love money and beauty, but those who were greedy for money and profit also gave the emperor a headache. For example, Dengzhou Town is a force that has only emerged in recent years. The Liaodong refugee named Chen Xin was just an official, but now he has accumulated merit and has become the commander-in-chief of the army. He is already a member of Dengzhou Town. The head of the state or town. He opened farmland in Dengzhou, developed maritime trade, trained troops and suppressed bandits. He did so with great success, and his abilities seemed not to be as good as those of Huangshi in the past. And when the Tatars invaded in the second year of Chongzhen, this Chen Xin took the initiative to lead the army and killed 600 Tatars in the countryside of Gyeonggi. We can see the shadow of Huangshi from him.
Compared with Huang Shi, who was attached to the Eunuch Party, Chen Xin had a lot of integrity. When he was still a small Qianhu, he dared to scold Cui Chengxiu, treated the Eunuch Party officials without hypocrisy, and would never argue with Guan Ning and others. It is really rare for a refugee from Liaodong to have such integrity.
Just looking at the surface, this person must be a pillar of the imperial court. However, after the initial excitement, Emperor Chongzhen ordered people to collect intelligence and scrutinize his actions. He found that Chen Xin was now a prince in a separate state. Not only did he recruit soldiers The number of horses greatly exceeds the town's troop quota, and the entire military and civilian affairs of Dengzhou Town are decided by Chen Xin. All kinds of illegal things, such as extortion, corruption and bribery, and the seizure of people's fields, happen almost every moment. The imperial decrees in Dengzhou are not as useful as his Chen Xin's words. Even spies from Jinyiwei and Dongchang have difficulty getting into it. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a country within a country!
(In the late Ming Dynasty, the intelligence capabilities of Jinyiwei became worse the further away from the capital. It was okay in Shandong, but in Guangdong and Fujian it was almost better than nothing.)
Although the soldiers and horses in Dengzhou Town can still be dispatched by the imperial court, like Liao Town headed by Zu Dashou, they are no longer able to lose their strength. It is only because of the mutual restraint between various military towns that the superficial calm is maintained. Even though Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, still has a Liao army in Dengzhou, he still can't stop the growing power of Dengzhou town... It seems that it is time to support new forces to check and balance, such as the warrior king who beheaded eighty people. It would be good to fight, maybe it can also change the situation of Xuanda being weaker than Liaodong. Hum hum, wait until the situation gets better and see how I deal with you domineering generals!
"...My Qi Shaobao, huh, he wants to be Cao Cao! I am not the Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty!"
Zhu Youjian snorted coldly while opening the memorial of Chen Xin, the commander-in-chief of Dengzhou Town, and then gradually frowned - apart from asking for money and soldiers as usual at the beginning, Chen Xin was also strangely asking for money and soldiers. The memorial mentioned that the court should beware of a group of people entrenched in the remote areas of Qiongzhou. The pirates, what are they called "Kung thieves"? They even wrote, "Kung thieves are a serious nuisance to the country, and their harm is far worse than that of the Eastern pirates!" Such exaggerated words... This made Zhu Youjian feel very puzzling, a person with no profit. The leader of the Shandong army, who couldn't afford to be early, was in trouble with a group of pirates thousands of miles away? How strange!
Speaking of which, Emperor Chongzhen had heard of the name "Kun Thief". As early as the second year of Chongzhen, there was a report of his intrusion into Lingao County, Qiongzhou. However, the Kun Thief only occupied "Bairentan", relying on The stronghold was built on a cliff, and was accessible by speedboats on the sea. There were many attempts to suppress the area near Lingao, but unfortunately they all failed. In the third year of Chongzhen, Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, launched a large army to siege the pirates. However, although the Kun bandits were defeated in the field, the Kun bandits took advantage of the dangerous terrain of Bairen Beach to form a stronghold and defend with firearms. They also sent fast boats to cut off the transportation. The grain channel led to the defeat of the army and the failure of the army. Later, the bandits sent speeders to invade Guangzhou, but fortunately they were retreated by the local brave. In the following time, the Kun thief was quiet and peaceful. Only the Zhongzuo stronghold occupied by Zheng Zhilong was attacked by pirates, which may have been done by the Kun thief - but Zheng Zhilong's left and right were just another wave of Zhao Anhai. Kou, for the imperial court, death is not a pity.
All in all, based on the detailed reports of the Kun bandits by local officials in Fujian and Guangdong, Emperor Chongzhen believed that he had a relatively clear idea of the Kun bandits: "...there are pirates in Lingao County, Qiongzhou Prefecture, and they are entrenched in Bairen. They built a stronghold on the beach called Bairen City, and were known as Kun Thieves. Kun Thieves claimed to be descendants of Miao from the Song Dynasty. After Yashan, they lived overseas in Australia and were called Australians. They had a handsome face and a very tall figure, which was different from those in China. Too many, but black Black eyes do not belong to the red-haired Flangji. Kun thieves are good at writing, but they do not practice etiquette. Women are often seen in public. They often buy women as maids and keep them in Bairen City. Happy. What a thief. There are more than a thousand people, local refugees, and more than ten thousand dependents of the pirates. They all have Kun heads and are called fake Kun. People.
Kun Thief is good at boating and is familiar with the nature of water. He can swim for three days without stopping and enjoys eating fish and shrimps. He is good at all kinds of crafts and his products are all extremely exquisite and are called Australian products. He is especially good at firearms, and the firepower of Kunthi's cannon is especially superior to that of Hongyi's cannon. Once a shot is fired, the sound will reverberate for hundreds of miles and cause damage for fifty miles. It is invincible to anyone. Or they may have heard that the Kun thieves had iron boats, large ships, and strange things, but according to the investigation, no one has seen them in person, or it may be rumors from the villagers in the mountains.
Although the Kun thieves had sharp firearms and could move their clippers freely, they were not used to foot combat and repeatedly invaded Lingao County without success. In the third year of Chongzhen's reign, they were defeated by Ru Bin in a field battle. When they invaded Guangzhou, the Kun thieves' clippers entered the Pearl River. It was as if he had entered an uninhabited land, but as soon as he landed, he was attacked by local braves and fled in confusion.
The Kun bandits occupied the land of Bairentan, backed by Bobu Port and surrounded by Bairen cliffs on three sides. They could only enter and exit by sea. The place was easy to defend and difficult to attack. The local area had been attacked many times without success, because of the dangerous terrain. However, although the Kun thieves were based here, they were rarely heard of raiding the place. Most of them were retaliatory actions after the attack, and the Kun thieves were not heard of robbing merchants. The Kun thieves attach great importance to business and trustworthiness, and their behavior is very similar to that of maritime merchants. They mostly trade privately with the local gentry in Guangzhou. I have never heard of any breach of trust by the Kun thieves... I believe that this group of Kun thieves is a pirate from Manchuria in Nanyang, and some of them are among them. There are former Song Yashan craftsmen.
As far as I know, although the bandits have occupied Bairentan for several years, they have not attempted to expand the territory. They must have followed the example of the red-haired barbarians who occupied Macau in the past and sought a port to transship overseas goods. If you only know how to attack blindly, you will waste your troops and money and lose more than you gain. Even if you win, you will only get a useless place. In this autumn when the world is in turmoil, I believe that we should not be greedy for false fame, but should give top priority to recruiting, or we can imitate Governor Xiong’s recruitment of the Zheng family in the past, and then settle the Minhai issue..."
Generally speaking, in recent years, apart from the disadvantages of suppressing this group of thieves, the grain tax in Guangdong and Guangxi has not been affected at all. Such scabies diseases, which are not harmful to the court, can trigger domineering troops like Chen Xin. He looked sideways at it, worshiping it Emperor Zhen guessed that the joint was probably related to the benefits of sea trade: after all, he had heard a little bit about what Chen Xin did at sea. A new sea master came out of the sea and killed the Zheng family. Chen Xin probably couldn't sit still. .
Hum, Donglu, the court's biggest enemy, is still looking across the sea, but he is always thinking about the little silver earned at sea. How can I easily grant his wish! Emperor Chongzhen muttered like this, and he also marked "I understand" on Chen Xin's memorial and threw it aside. Then he vaguely remembered that according to rumors in the capital, Huang Shi seemed to have some connections with the gang of thieves... Hey, these generals who don't read poetry are really selfish, and have no idea of contributing to the country. Regardless of how rampant the Liaodong slave chief Huang Taiji (Huang Taiji) was...
As soon as he remembered the war in Liaodong, Emperor Chongzhen turned to another memorial asking for help sent by his master Sun Chengzong from the Liaodong front line, and his face couldn't help but fall. As of this time, Huang Taiji, the late Jin Khan, led an army of 100,000 to the west. Several months had passed since the attack on Dalinghe Fort. The field battle of Guan Ning's army was about to collapse. They had no choice but to defend the castle. Jian Nu then used the method of digging trenches and siege to cut off the food route of Daling River in an attempt to trap Zu Dashou and the elite of Guan Ning's army in the city to death. .
After the fierce battle at Daling River broke out, memorials asking for help flew into the capital like snowflakes. The chaos of the Jiannu slaves who wreaked havoc in the capital two years ago and last year is still vivid in our minds. The court officials in the capital and the governor of Liaodong dared to despise the hundreds of thousands of Jianbu slaves, so they hurriedly sent troops from all walks of life to reinforce Dalinghe City. However, Jianlu had always been stronger in field battles. While besieging Dalinghe City, he also closely monitored the Ming court's reinforcements. The military department of the Ming court was composed of a group of writers' association-style civil servants who claimed to be proficient in military affairs, but in fact only knew the Four Books and Five Classics. , they didn't use any tactics when gathering troops to rescue Dalinghe. They only knew to order reinforcements wherever they saw soldiers. Each reinforcement might be five thousand or six thousand, and instead of gathering them into large regiments, they were sent to the Hou Jin Army one by one to encircle the reinforcements, and then of course they were defeated one by one by the superior strength of the Jianlu troops. The response of a group of civil and military ministers was almost like a traitor who broke into the capital!
According to Sun Chengzong's memorial, the latest batch of reinforcements sent to Daling River were defeated again. Moreover, after repeated defeats, the Guan Ning Army and various reinforcements on the front lines of Jinzhou and Ningyuan were panicked and their military morale was broken. Countless soldiers fled. Zu Dashou didn't know how long he could hold on in the Dalinghe Castle. If the imperial court did not want to face another Saarhu defeat, it would have to send a strong army capable of defeating the Liaodong Tatars to come to the rescue.
A strong army that can defeat the Liaodong Tatars? Where can I find this? Huangshi in Fujian? I'm just afraid that the journey is far away and slowness will not help. Alas, it seems that Chen Xin's Dengzhou Town can only be moved again... Zhu Youjian shook his head and sighed, while giving instructions urging Dengzhou to send troops to assist Liao as soon as possible.
In addition to the continuous bad news on the Daling River battlefield, Dongjiang Town on the other side of the Liaodong battlefield is also complaining. It is said that another famine has occurred, and countless soldiers and civilians have starved to death... But the thoughts and food and wages of the government and the public have been spent on the Daling River battlefield. , as for Dongjiang Town, they can only let them fend for themselves.
In addition, there was a civil uprising caused by private salt dealers in Jiaozhou, Shandong. The leader was called Li Meng. The local military preparedness had been depleted for a long time, and the government was unable to suppress it, so they had to ask the court for help, hoping that Dengzhou Town would send troops to help suppress it... Chongzhen The emperor is also sure about this matter - let the capable Chen Xin do more work!
Turning to the last memorial with a sigh, Emperor Chongzhen finally saw some good news to be happy about - the Guangdong government reported that the foreign countries "China America" and "East Coast Country" came from thousands of miles away They paid tribute and presented countless rare tributes, including a unicorn (giraffe), which was particularly auspicious and greatly excited the young emperor of Ming Dynasty: unicorns seemed to have appeared only in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. God has given me such auspiciousness, which shows that God will not abandon me! After God is merciful and the rain comes down, the Ming Dynasty may be able to return to its heyday in the Wanli Year!
After finally approving all the memorials today, Emperor Chongzhen stretched himself and looked at the kerosene lamp on the table, and said casually, "...This Guangdong lamp is really good, it is much brighter than the candles that were burned before, and It doesn’t hurt your eyes. It’s a pity that there are too few, otherwise I would give one to all the elders.”
"...The Emperor is really considerate of the pavilion elders. I will tell you now that when the next batch of lanterns is delivered, one must be given to each pavilion elder."
After listening to Emperor Chongzhen's instructions, Cao Huachun immediately responded with a flattering smile, but he couldn't help but secretly cursed in his heart: "...Which elder in Beijing now doesn't have a few such lanterns in his home? We are the only one in the emperor. I thought this Australian product was a rarity..."
Zhu Youjian, who didn't know Cao Huachun's inner thoughts, nodded and reached out to turn out the kerosene lamp on the table. However, his eyes accidentally glanced at the report of the Funing Army's victory over the Ryukyu Japanese pirates on the table. He couldn't help but recall Huangshi's crossing of the sea in the past. In the battle against Juehua Island, horses leaped over Liaoyang to kill the enemy chiefs, and the news of success shocked the British in Liaodong. posture, and thought of the repeated defeats on the current battlefield of Daling River in Liaodong... All kinds of tangled, messy, and indescribable thoughts couldn't help but come one after another. In the end, I had to sigh in deep sadness: "... How can I become a thief, a beautiful lady like you?" He turned off the kerosene lamp, turned around and went to bed with a lonely look. Marshal Huang Shihuang, who was far away in Quanzhou, Fujian, suddenly felt a chill on his back for no apparent reason and couldn't help but sneeze...