stubborn thief

Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

On the imperial desk, there was a stone inscription recording Liu Chengzong's victory in the frontier.

When Chongzhen first saw the inscription on the stone tablet, he was very happy, or at least he showed it very well.

He looked as if he was also proud of Liu Chengzong's victory outside the Great Wall.

Even though I was jealous to the point of madness, I still suppressed my inner unhappiness and kept comforting myself. So many people were watching here and I couldn't act too petty.

Moreover, among a bunch of memorials about attacks on the capital, there was this piece of information about the Daiqing army being beaten hard, which did give one a sense of pleasure of revenge.

Until he asked about the origin of this inscription.

This thing was presented to him by his father-in-law Tian Hongyu through Cao Huachun, and it was not presented through the formal channels of the court.

Cao Huachun said that the servants in Tian Hongyu's household were passing it around among each other. After reading it, he thought it would make the emperor happy, so he took it out and presented it to the emperor.

The servants of Tian Hongyu's family were bought from the street.

It was only at this time that Chongzhen realized that before Qian Shisheng entered the border wall, the inscription had already been sent by the border troops and had become a viral sensation in the capital. All the bookshops were setting up movable type, carving plates, and printing frantically.

Even Tian Hongyu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had no idea how wide the impact would be in just a few days.

Chongzhen flew into a rage and almost overturned the imperial desk. Memorials were thrown all over the floor, and even the hanging plaque of "Nine Thoughts" was stained with cinnabar ink.

If this inscription was only engraved on a stone in Xing'an Mountains and Qian Shisheng sent a copy back to let him know the progress of the Lingdong Campaign, it would have meant nothing to him. In fact, his happiness for Liu Chengzong would far outweigh his jealousy.

But if this inscription had spread throughout the capital, for Chongzhen it would be no different from spreading it throughout the world.

Under normal circumstances, Chongzhen would not be so angry.

But when is this?
Ajige's 20,000 troops were still wreaking havoc in his capital, causing heavy losses.

He sent surrendered soldiers to attack and capture Changping, killing the patrol envoy Wang Zhaokun, as well as the heads of the Ministry of Revenue Wang Gui and Zhao Yue, and the garrison eunuch Wang Xizhong.

The tomb of Emperor Xizong in Tianshou Mountain was burned down, and the general Chao Pichang disappeared. There were even rumors that he had surrendered to the Eastern Tartars.

When Baodi County was captured, the magistrate Zhao Guoding died for his country; when Shunyi was captured, the magistrate Shangguan Xun committed suicide.

The rebels in Changping Town even made their way all the way to the Xizhimen Gate outside the capital.

The impact is extremely bad.

This is what it means when you are attacked by invaders. The army is scattered around for defense. If they don't defend, they will be plundered one by one. The enemy's invading borders must be mainly elite cavalry. If they win, they will capture the city and burn and loot. If they lose, they will advance like the wind. Both advance and retreat are losses for the defenders.

But in fact, the Ming army performed very well this time.

From the emperor and the Ministry of War at the core of the imperial court to the reinforcements and garrisons in various places, everyone had experience in dealing with surprise attacks, and the degree of coordination was far higher than during the Ji Si Rebellion.

Although Changping City was captured, the small city outside the city, Gonghua City, which was used for visiting the mausoleum and staying, was defended by the chief general Jiang Xuan.

The Eastern Tartars wanted to use a counter-espionage plan against Hei Yunlong, the deputy general of the Shenshu Camp who had been captured and escaped, but Chongzhen issued an edict to take advantage of the situation and set an ambush in the West Mountain, thus winning a victory.

Wang Pu of Datong won in Zhuozhou; the border soldiers fought a small-scale encounter at Lugou Bridge; Lengkou defender Cui Bingde and Yongping military supervisor Liu Jinghui also killed more than one hundred people in Qian'an.

There were also counties like Gu'an and Wuqing, which, although unable to annihilate the enemy in the face of a large army attack, were able to protect the country and the people by sheltering the civilians and defending the city.

The officials obeyed, the troops held their ground, the ministers cooperated, and the emperor was able to take advantage of the situation.

Chongzhen could really see that his empire was developing in a positive direction little by little.

But people are afraid of comparison.

After reading Liu Chengzong's inscription, Chongzhen felt that his own military achievements were not so impressive as soon as he saw the inscription about Liu Chengzong, who led his army to attack Liaodong and burn its capital, achieving the greatest victory since the Wanli period.

To be honest, seeing Liu Chengzong winning battles outside the border, Chongzhen felt even more upset than if he himself had lost the battle inside the border!
The key point is that this news was spread everywhere along with the printing and circulation of inscriptions.

Aren’t you setting order for the world for me?

Liu Chengzong is stronger than Huang Taiji, Huang Taiji is stronger than Zhang Zhi, and Zhang Zhi is stronger than me.

You, Liu Chengzong, can burn Huang Taiji's ancestral tomb, Huang Taiji can burn the tomb of my predecessor, and Zhang Zhi can burn my ancestral tomb, but I can't find where Zhang Zhi's ancestral tomb is at all.

This is the ninth year of Chongzhen, which is outrageous. This is the first year of Qing Dynasty, right? Why are people lighting fires on graves?

Chongzhen couldn't figure it out.

He even thought about equal revenge at one point, and issued an edict to Liu Chengzong, ordering him to find the ancestral tomb of the bandit Zhang Zhi in Yan'an Prefecture and set it on fire.

But I always feel that doing so seems to treat Zhang Zhi too much as a big shot.

When the rage subsided, Chongzhen felt even more sad.

He felt like he was being punished by God. His days as emperor became worse and worse. Whenever he thought things were finally getting better, God would slap him to the ground.

People are like puppets, happiness is hard to find.

The emperor did not dwell on himself for too long. He had become accustomed to this kind of ups and downs that always kept him on the verge of collapse.

After some thought, he decided to minimize the impact of the inscription as much as possible. However, he could not say this himself, otherwise his jealousy would appear too obvious, so he summoned the Prime Minister Wen Tiren.

When Wen Tiren arrived and took a look at the inscription, his eyes lit up. He raised his head excitedly, but was met with a face as cold as ice.

The chief minister of the cabinet immediately observed the situation and said decisively: "Your Majesty, this villain is acting in this way with ulterior motives. He wants to use the battle outside the Great Wall to promote his prestige and win the hearts of the people. Your Majesty must not let him go!"

Chongzhen frowned and said, "But this does greatly enhance the country's prestige..."

As soon as Wen Tiren saw that the emperor was hesitant and his words were not what he meant, he knew his attitude.

He looked disappointed and said firmly, "I think if Liu Chengzong had sent someone to deliver this book to the palace, it would be commendable for his loyalty and bravery. But now that it has been circulated everywhere in the capital, it is not the case anymore. I am afraid it will damage the reputation of the emperor."

"The most urgent thing is to first order the Jinyiwei to ban printing, set up checkpoints at the nine gates of the capital, and prevent the inscription from leaking out. As for the discussion in the capital, you can grant hereditary privileges and reward them with colored coins, and we will discuss it again when Lord Qian returns to the capital."

Chongzhen gave a thumbs up in his heart.

This court still needs someone who can speak human language.

"Your Excellency is right!" Chongzhen shook his head slowly, looking a little regretful: "Then let's follow what you said. This was originally a good thing, but Chengzong ruined it."

He meant that Liu Chengzong allowed this inscription to be passed into the border from the people, which clearly showed that he had no good intentions.

Tian Hongyu, the commander of the Imperial Guard, took the order and left. Within a day, the Imperial Guard went out and confiscated all the inscription engravings and newly-put-on-the-shelf inscriptions from various bookshops in the capital.

By the next day, in the entire capital, only the bookshop under the name of Tian Hongyu was still printing inscriptions. It was hard to get a penny and the price increased tenfold.

Chongzhen had many relatives by marriage, and Tian Hongyu was the father of concubine Tian Xiuying.

Everyone says that Chongzhen’s father-in-law Zhou Kui is corrupt, but Zhou Kui is actually an honest man.

His life experience is similar to that of a charlatan. He was very poor when he was young. He learned medicine and fortune-telling, but he was not very good at any of these skills. After he came to power, he became stingy and his sons were also very vulgar. They had no suitable way to make money, so they had to lend money and charge interest, which easily led to them being scolded.

The Ming Dynasty law did not prohibit lending, it just stipulated a maximum interest rate.

Zhou Kui had an annual salary of 1,000 dan, and Chongzhen also granted him 70,000 mu of land for maintenance, with a tax of three cents per mu, totaling 2,100 taels per year, paid by the Ministry of Revenue. The money was just sitting there anyway, so why not lend it out?
On the contrary, Tian Hongyu, the father of Chongzhen's favorite concubine Tian, ​​was the one who really liked to scheme and was greedy for benefits.

Tian Hongyu was from Shaanxi. He settled in Yangzhou in his early years and started his career as a military captain.

She was very good at scheming, and she trained her daughter to be proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, needlework, cuju, archery, horse riding and shooting. She was selected to marry into Prince Xin's palace, and soon became Chongzhen's favorite concubine. She was just named noble concubine last year.

His daughter is vying for favor in the palace and desperately needs help from her father.

Since Chongzhen ascended the throne, he basically had to ask for donations from nobles and royal family members every year.

Tian Hongyu was always there, and as long as the emperor needed help, he would provide money and people.

In the first year of Chongzhen alone, grain could not be delivered to the nine borders. Tian Hongyu organized his own people to help the court transport 1,300 dan of grain to the border towns, making him the most meritorious official.

In addition, in order to win favor for his daughter, Tian Hongyu spent a lot of money.

Concubine Tian built a moon-viewing platform on the west side of the imperial palace for the purpose of taking Chongzhen to admire the moon. She used her own money to build it. The perfume she used and the beads on her crown were all treasures hard to find outside.

Even the style of head flowers that the maids in Concubine Tian's palace all wore could cause the maids in the Central Palace to kowtow to Chongzhen and ask for rewards. Chongzhen sent the eunuchs out of the palace to buy the same ones, but they ran hundreds of miles around and returned empty-handed.

Because those were artificial flowers that Tian Hongyu specially sent someone to buy from Jiaxing.

The main reason why Tian Hongyu printed the books himself was that after he sent the Jinyiwei to seal up the bookshop, he found that someone had already taken the inscription to Tongzhou, and some might even have put it in their arms and taken it to Jiangnan by boat.

This is a great thing to enhance the country's prestige.

In particular, Liu Chengzong, contrary to his usual practice, did not leave any rebellious words in the inscription, which made the onlookers feel as if this was a victory for the Ming army outside the border.

Who doesn't like to watch?
This thing is simply unstoppable.

Since you can't help it, what's the harm in making a little money?
What's more...the people who started this war are all our fellow villagers!
When Tian Hongyu banned the engraving of the inscription, he could not help but study this inscription repeatedly.

He loved to scheme for personal gain, and this inscription made Qian Shisheng stand out, and it was also an opportunity for him to curry favor with Qian Shisheng.

However, Tian Hongyu was not only concerned about the swift and devastating battle process, but also the list of casualties that took up a large amount of space at the end, with more than 3,000 names, each with a different origin.

More than half of them were Khalkha Mongolian nobles and herdsmen. Tian Hongyu could ignore those names because he could not understand them.

Although Tian Hongyu was also a military general, he was not a frontier general. He was an officer in Yangzhou. He knew all the beauties on the Qinhuai River, but he knew nothing about the north and south of the desert.

But apart from the Mongolian soldiers, Tian Hongyu could roughly understand the origins and names of the remaining more than a thousand people. After all, he had also lived in Shaanxi when he was young. From that list, he could almost see the composition of Liu Chengzong's army by touching the surface.

After some research, Tian Hongyu discovered that Liu Chengzong was the number one loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty. Look at the list of casualties, excluding the Mongols, one third of those who died in battle were members of the Ming royal family!
Soldiers from other camps who died in battle included those from border troops, militias from Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, and students. The cause of death was almost always multiple arrow wounds. Only members of the Ming royal family and a few soldiers from Liaoyang either fought to the death or were wounded in combat.

It was obvious that the Ming royal family under Liu Chengzong were fighting the enemy with real swords and guns on the front line.

If this is not the main force, then what is the main force?

Before this, Tian Hongyu had never thought that the Ming royal family could be so brave?

He felt that Cao Huachun, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp, was taking a completely wrong approach. He transferred Zhou Yuji, Huang Degong and others to train the army, and also drew out the four guards of Tengxiang to compete with the Imperial Stables for people. The power struggle became increasingly intense.

If I had known that the royal family was so good at fighting, I would have selected poor clan members from all over the country to train the Brave Guard Battalion!
In fact, Tian Hongyu was not the only one who noticed the outstanding performance of the royal family under Liu Chengzong. As the inscription spread in the capital, the next day an official suggested in a memorial that the royal family should be transferred to build a camp in the capital to defend against the Eastern Tartars.

Chongzhen was originally in a quandary and was thinking of waiting for Qian Shisheng to come to Beijing to inquire in detail about the situation of Liu Chengzong's clan camp.

He could understand why Liu Chengzong asked members of the royal family to serve as soldiers. Being a soldier was better than being killed with a single blow like the bandit Zhang Zhi.

At least in Liu Chengzong's case, the princes and dukes were not dead... Of course, this is also why Chongzhen hated Liu Chengzong. Instead of letting Prince Han and Prince Su submit some outrageous memorials to the court at every turn, it would be better to kill them directly.

The emperor himself is now doubting whether all the people in our Zhu family are suitable for being soldiers. How come you are so powerful that you can fight against the Eight Banners of the Eastern Tartars without losing?

He was just thinking about whether he should try to form a royal camp, but at this critical moment, the King of Tang raised his army.

He was the first to raise troops, and then he submitted a memorial to the king to help.

When Chongzhen received the news that Prince of Tang Zhu Youjian was coming to the capital to defend the country, Zhu Youjian had already led more than a thousand people out of his fiefdom, and even Runan Dao Zhou Yidian could not persuade him to leave.

The whole world was shocked for a while.

In the Ming Dynasty, only princes who wanted to rebel would lead their troops away from their fiefdoms.

In fact, Chongzhen received more accurate information that Zhu Youjian was not simply loyal to the emperor.

Because just half a month before he left his fiefdom of Nanyang, Zhu Youjian first captured his two uncles and beat Fushan Prince Zhu Qishuang to death and Anyang Prince Zhu Qijun to death.

He became the second prince to be killed after Zhang Zhi killed Prince Wan'an during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty.

In Chongzhen's eyes, the King of Tang was not a wise king to begin with, and after he killed his uncle and raised an army to defend the king, he linked together a series of his actions since he became a vassal.

Since he became a vassal, he built Gaoming Tower, invited famous scholars from all over the country, and used the replacement of royal family members to interfere in the government affairs to gain fame. He emphasized the majesty of the vassal king, and imprisoned Neixiang County Magistrate Ai Yuchu and Nanyang Prefect Chen Zhenhao one after another, and took control of Nanyang.

Taking advantage of the Eastern Tartars' invasion of the capital and the time when the court had no time to take care of Nanyang, he beat the king's uncle to death. Now he led his troops northward on the pretext of defending the king.

What on earth is he going to do?
Chongzhen was so furious that he almost exploded, but he really couldn't care about King Tang at the moment, so he had to order him to return to Nanyang, thinking that he would deal with King Tang after he returned to Nanyang and wiped out the invading Eastern Tartars.

At this time, Qian Shisheng, Gao Qiqian and his party escorted the head of the Eastern Tartars to Beijing. (End of this chapter)