There is a space for passenger planes in the late Ming Dynasty

The Forbidden City and Qianqing Palace in the capital.

There were several memorials spread out on the dragon desk in the imperial study. Emperor Chongzhen looked at them once, then suddenly swept the memorials to the ground, and then said angrily: "Rebellious officials and traitors are all rebellious officials and traitors!"

"Your Majesty, how should we deal with the Datong issue?" Xue Guoguan, the new chief minister of the cabinet, asked cautiously. Angry alone could not solve the problem. As the new chief minister, he had to ask for an idea no matter how difficult it was.

At the beginning of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Xue Guoguan colluded with Yang Sichang to frame and eliminate the chief assistant Liu Yuliang. In February, Xue Guoguan was appointed as the chief assistant by Emperor Chongzhen. In June, he was also granted the titles of Taibao of the Crown Prince, Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue, and Bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion. It was the right time for him to gain favor.

"What do you think can be done to mobilize the troops to quell the rebellion?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.

Chen Xinjia, the right minister of the Ministry of War and the right censor of Jindu, stepped forward and replied: "Your Majesty, the only troops that can be transferred at present are the Jiliao soldiers and horses commanded by Governor Hong Chengchou of Liaodong. But once they are transferred, the northern captives will have no soldiers to defend themselves, and To mobilize 100,000 troops, we need at least 200,000 in departure fees.”

After Yang Sichang left Beijing to command troops to encircle and suppress Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others, Chen Xinjia was actually in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of War. Historically, he would also be officially appointed as Minister of War in August.

"Without money and soldiers! How come Lin Feng has money and soldiers? What's the point of waiting for me!" Emperor Chongzhen roared.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Household Affairs really has no money at present, and the salaries of officials in the capital cannot be paid out this month. All counties in the capital are applying for government relief. It is really very difficult." Xue Guoguan, who is also the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, said very helplessly.

"Then what can you do? I don't need you to come here and cry for poverty." Chongzhen said coldly.

Xue Guoguan pondered for a while and then said: "Your Majesty, in order to solve the lack of funds in the imperial court, I suggest that we start from two aspects: externally, ask for it from the gentry; internally, ask for it from the emperor's relatives.

If the request is made to the squires, the ministers and others can work together to supervise all localities to strictly prevent tax evasion by the squires; to ask for the royal family, it requires your Majesty to make your own decision. The royal family has accumulated a lot of wealth over the years. Now that the country is in crisis, Your Majesty You can come forward and borrow money from them. "

"How much money can I borrow from the royal relatives?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.

"I estimate that within the capital city, it shouldn't be difficult to borrow a million taels in a short period of time." Xue Guoguan replied.

"One million taels can train a lot of soldiers and horses, right?" Chongzhen asked next.

"Back to the emperor, with one million taels, I can train at least 100,000 elite soldiers." Chen Xinjia replied decisively. He also wanted to be promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War. It is always easy to attract more people when you have money.

"Since borrowing money from the royal family can be effective in the short term, I will go out to borrow money from them. Academician Xue will first make a list for me, and I will circle the people who will lend the money." Emperor Chongzhen ordered.

"According to the order!" Xue Guoguan said after receiving the order. In fact, he didn't want to do this. Borrowing money would definitely offend the emperor's relatives. Later, he was ordered to commit suicide by Chongzhen because of this matter. But at this time, as the new chief minister, he could not Maybe he doesn't want to find a way to raise money, otherwise the court will not be able to survive, and how can he be the chief minister of the cabinet.

"Shilang Chen, how much time do you need to train your troops?" Chongzhen asked.

"Your Majesty, it will take at least three or four months to train a fighting force." Chen Xinjia replied. In three to four months, he would only be able to train an army with some appearance, but he knew that Chongzhen was impatient. I can only fool him first.

"Three or four months, how to deal with the Datong issue now?" Chongzhen continued to ask.

"Your Majesty, Lin Feng wrote a memorial, explaining that he entered Datong because he found out about Datong's general army colluding with prisoners, and he went there to hunt down the traitors. In order to save his face, the imperial court also has steps to go down. I suggest that we maintain it for a while. , wait until the court's new army is well trained, and then organize an encirclement and suppression campaign.

Now Grand Scholar Yang is supervising the Hubei division to encircle and suppress Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits. The progress is relatively smooth so far. If these bandits can be strangled, then the Zhenming Army from the north and the south will be more confident in attacking Lin Feng's Zhenming Army. "Xue Guoguan knew that he would definitely not be able to defeat the Zhenming Army now, so he could only advise Chongzhen to be patient for the time being. "Look at these memorials. How many courtiers wrote to Lin Feng that Lin Feng was lawless in Datong, raided Shanxi merchants, and harmed the gentry, and they just tolerated it like this? "

"Your Majesty, these Shanxi merchants are indeed suspected of being collaborators. Our Jinyi Guards have repeatedly detected that they have transported large quantities of grain, ironware and other military supplies to Liaodong. Unfortunately, the Shanxi frontier army is deeply colluded with them. We have never been able to find them. Catch us when we get the chance." At this time, Luo Yangxing, the commander of Jinyiwei, also took the opportunity to announce.

"So, these court officials who reported to the court were all accomplices of Tonglu?" Chongzhen said bitterly. He always thought that the officials had mistaken him.

"Your Majesty, this is probably not true. These Shanxi merchants have made a fortune through smuggling, but they also pay attention to culture and education, cultivate scholars, and are very generous in subsidizing talented officials. Coupled with factors such as hometown friendship, the officials who speak for them naturally That's more." Xue Guoguan explained objectively.

"Since he is a traitor to the traitors, he will be killed as soon as possible. Then according to what you said, he will not fall out with Lin Feng's Zhenming Army for the time being. The imperial court issued a decree, ordering him to quickly withdraw from Datong after dealing with the traitors. It's also good to leave a good excuse for the next encirclement and suppression." Chongzhen also wisely found a step for himself, otherwise what else could he do?

"Your Majesty, it turns out that Lu Xiangsheng is not dead. After Jiazhuang was rescued by the Zhenming Army, he took refuge in Lin Feng. How should the court deal with it?" Xue Guoguan continued to ask.

"What a shame. He neither served the country loyally nor came back to resume his duties. He was ordered to be removed from all positions and demoted to a commoner." Chongzhen said angrily.

"According to the order!" Xue Guoguan replied.

"Last time, the Northern invaders invaded the capital and Shandong and plundered the people's property. How is the investigation of officials and generals in various places responsible for their dereliction of duty and dereliction of duty?" Chongzhen also brought up the issue of accountability for the Tatar invasion.

Chongzhen has received a series of bad news recently, and his patience has been exhausted. It is difficult to kill a group of incompetent officials to relieve his hatred.

Now, whether it was against the Manchu Tatars, the bandits such as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, or Lin Feng's Zhenming Army, Chongzhen felt a deep sense of powerlessness. He was extremely crazy, but he could not do anything to them. He could only deal with them. He ordered his own officials to take action.

"Your Majesty, the responsibilities have been basically found out, but there are too many officials involved. I suggest small punishments but big warnings to prevent dampening everyone's enthusiasm." Xue Guoguan, as the chief assistant, naturally wanted to use this to win over a wave of people's hearts.

"No, if I don't kill these incompetent people, it's hard to eliminate the hatred in my heart!" Chongzhen said angrily.

"Your Majesty, the involvement should not be too wide. Especially for those generals who are still leading troops in battle, otherwise it may cause instability." Chen Xinjia also suggested this matter.

Chongzhen stood up as soon as he slapped the dragon case, and walked quickly around the house several times. The look on his face slowly turned from anger to helplessness. He couldn't kill all the officials in the world, and he had to rely on them to govern the world.

After thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth and said, "Then only punish the first culprits and let the common culprits go!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" Everyone praised.

After some bargaining, Chongzhen and several important officials of the court agreed on the list of officials who must be questioned. A few days later, the imperial court issued an imperial edict, clearly investigating the crimes of the defeated army.

Hence the record in the "History of the Ming Dynasty". Due to the disastrous defeat of the Qing army in entering the Pass, Yan Jizu, who patrolled Shandong as the censor of Youqiandu, the chief military officers Ni Chong and Zu Kuan, and the ministers Deng Xizhao, Sun Maolin, etc. All thirty-three people were killed and abandoned.

Due to the failure of the encirclement and suppression of the peasant army, Xiong Wencan, the Secretary of the Ministry of War and the right deputy censor of the capital, was arrested and killed, Luo Dai was executed, and Zuo Liangyu was demoted to three levels.

(End of this chapter)