"My lord, Wang Chengen came out of the city to ask to see you."
"Oh?" Chen Yixin heard the report from his subordinates and put down the battle report at hand: "His master must have made the decision to leave the city at this time, so let's meet him!"
When Wang Chengen returned to Beijing a few days ago, Chen Yixin briefly met him at the frontline headquarters in Balizhuang. At that time, both parties agreed to wait until Emperor Chongzhen made up his mind before sending people out of the city to discuss the implementation details of the surrender.
Later, Wang Chengen was brought in. He knew Chen Yixin's identity and did not dare to follow him in circles. He explained the measures Chongzhen had taken to Chen Yixin straight to the point.
Chen Yixin actually did not expect that Chongzhen would be so decisive and arrest everyone according to the list proposed by Haihan.
The purpose of the list drawn up by Haihan was very clear. The candidates were almost all from the main war faction in the Ming Dynasty. If Chongzhen cleaned up these people, the court would become dominated by the main war faction.
Chen Yixin originally thought that Daming would object to this, and would have to bargain for at least a few rounds before reluctantly agreeing to hand over a few scapegoats to deal with Haihan's request. But according to what Wang Chengen said, all the people have been captured, and they can all be handed over to Haihan for disposal after a suitable time is agreed upon.
"What a good emperor, you are trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife!" Chen Yixinxuan even guessed Chongzhen's plan.
For Chongzhen, the main war faction in the court had become a huge trouble at this time. Most of these people would not agree to surrender, let alone be willing to exchange for the Haihan truce at their own expense.
Even if Haihan did not make such a request, Chongzhen still had to try to deal with these people before he could discuss the specific matters of surrender and truce with Haihan.
But now that Haihan proposed to hold these people accountable, Chongzhen used this as an excuse to sort out the forces of the main war faction, which saved him a lot of trouble.
Although Chen Yixin did not expect that the situation in the capital was so serious that a palace coup might occur, he could also guess that Chongzhen's move was to relieve pressure and unify the opinions of the court.
Chen Yixin immediately proposed that Wang Chengen arrange to send these people out of the city as soon as possible and hand them over to him.
However, this handover process is obviously very sensitive. Wang Chengen said that it should not be carried out during the day. At least it must wait until nightfall before arranging the team to escort the prisoners quietly out of the city.
Chen Yixin smiled and said: "So you plan to cook the raw rice into cooked rice first, and then tell the world about the decision to deal with these officials?"
Wang Chengen said: "This matter involves senior members of the army. If it is not handled carefully, it may trigger a mutiny. I hope you will forgive me for the difficulty."
Chen Yixin said: "Whether the army rebels or not, that is your internal matter and has nothing to do with me. You hand over the people to me first, and we will talk about the rest later."
Chen Yixin didn't care much about what charges Chongzhen would eventually accuse these officials. He just wanted to urge the other party to surrender as soon as possible and end the current stage of the war. The troops under his command were eating horses and men every day, consuming huge amounts of money. The expenditure had exceeded the pre-war military budget. Since the Executive Committee had decided not to fight, procrastinating it would only make the cost of the war higher and higher.
That night, as expected, a team of several hundred people quietly left Chaoyang Gate in the east of the city, came to the Haihan Formation, and completed the handover of personnel with the Haihan troops waiting here.
In order to confirm the identities of these people, Chen Yixin also specifically asked the Military Intelligence Bureau to send people to identify them to prevent the Ming Dynasty from fishing in troubled waters.
Haihan has also sent many spies to lurk in the capital in recent years. One of the tasks is of course to identify the appearance of the Ming Dynasty's military and political dignitaries. Several spies had left the capital before the war and joined the large forces of the Haihan Army. They were needed at this time. But even so, the spies of the Military Intelligence Bureau could only confirm the identities of some of them. There are also some officials who usually live in seclusion and it is difficult to confirm their identities immediately and need to be verified through other channels.
However, as long as you can identify some of them, you can basically prove the sincerity of the other party. Chen Yixin immediately said that follow-up negotiations can be carried out.
As for the surrender document drafted earlier by Chen Yixin, which required Chongzhen to go out of the city in person to ask for surrender, he took the initiative to cancel this condition and Wang Chengen would still serve as the negotiator to attend the subsequent armistice peace talks.
In fact, Chen Yixin himself knew that this condition was unrealistic and the other party would definitely not agree to it. Seeing that Daming was so cooperative, taking the initiative to make some concessions on such insignificant details could be regarded as a release of goodwill.
The news that Chongzhen was purging officials from the main war faction in the capital did not break out immediately the next day. It was only said that these people were summoned to the palace to discuss strategies to retreat from the enemy.
But there were still some people with a keen sense of smell who noticed something was wrong from clues, because Chongzhen had temporarily appointed a group of military attachés to quietly take over the troops stationed in and around the city by several generals who had been summoned.
The handover of military power in the army can only mean one thing, and that is that the original general has lost his command. If it was just a temporary summons from the emperor, there would be no need to make such an arrangement.
There was also news from some members of the Royal Forest Army who participated in the arrest, that these officials had all been thrown into the sky prison and became prisoners of war.
As for the charges, there are rumors that they are all kinds of things, including slander and deceiving the emperor, incompetent command, collusion with foreign enemies, forming cliques for personal gains... In short, they are all serious crimes that require imprisonment and pending trial.
But the court has not officially announced it, and everything is just a rumor. Someone wanted to visit the prison, but was told that all captured officials were not allowed to visit, and this was a direct order from the palace.
After arresting so many civil and military officials from the main war faction, smart people can actually guess what happened.
This matter was not an ordinary political battle in the court, but a major purge directly operated by the emperor.
The sudden loss of power of the main war faction means that the war may have come to an end, and the next step should be to negotiate peace with Haihan.
Is the main militant faction wronged? Of course they were unjust, they just wanted to defeat foreign enemies for the Ming Dynasty and restore the empire's glory.
But now no one will cry out for them, because everyone knows that it is Emperor Chongzhen who wants to take them down. This is the emperor's will. Anyone who wants to speak out against the situation will probably end up like those officials who disappeared.
Based on this situation, a very unanimous voice emerged in the court for the first time in a long time - to cease the war and negotiate peace, and to restore peace to the world.
After a long period of silence, the Lord Harmony Sect finally got a chance to come forward. Dozens of ministers jointly submitted a petition asking Chongzhen to immediately issue an order for a truce and peace talks.
Of course, no one would mention defeat without knowledge, let alone use the word "surrender". From the perspective of Ming Dynasty, the reason for the truce was only for the common people, not because it could not defeat Haihan. It is always better for both parties to resolve disputes through negotiations than to decide the winner on the battlefield.