Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

At the end of August, the heat of northern Zhili subsided, and the coolness of autumn arrived.

Inside the Wuying Hall, Zhu Jian was wiping his fish-scale armor, the five-clawed dragon patterns on it gleaming coldly.

After wiping for a moment, he slowly said, "By imperial grace, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs is hereby appointed to convey the imperial decree that Wen Tiren has passed away, court is suspended for one month, and all memorials are to be shelved in the Office of Transmission!"

Wen Tiren passed away in the middle of last month. At the time, Zhu Jian made no comment. Now, he wants to take advantage of Wen Tiren's death to dismiss court and personally lead the army to fight against the Qing army that has invaded the border.

"yes!"

After Wang Chengen left, Zhu Jian wiped his sword again. This sword and this armor were taken from the armory. They were for the emperor's protection when he personally led an expedition. They were emergency reserve equipment, so they began to be made after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne.

It has been stored in the armory for ten years, and today it was retrieved by Inspector Zhu, finally seeing the light of day again...

After wiping himself down, Zhu Jian changed into a set of casual clothes and ordered his men to carry armor and a sword, then went to the Beijing garrison with Li Ruolian.

The Beijing garrison has 100,000 troops listed, but the number is largely fabricated, consisting mostly of the old and weak.

Even so, the number was less than 30,000... But in the Beijing garrison, there was an army called the Brave Guard Battalion, which had 8,000 men and was commanded by Deputy Commander-in-Chief Sun Yingyuan and Vanguard Battalion Deputy General Zhou Yuji. It was trained by Cao Huachun and could be said to be an elite force no less than the border troops.

Inspector Zhu was prepared to personally visit this army, serving as both messenger and bodyguard...

Before long, Zhu Jian arrived at the Tongzhou Yongwei Camp's garrison with more than a dozen Imperial Guards.

Li Ruolian rode forward to the guards and announced, "Order Sun Yingyuan and Zhou Yuji to come out of the camp to receive the Emperor!"

The soldiers were startled upon hearing this; they had never seen the emperor before. They then scanned the crowd but couldn't identify him. They bowed and replied, "Yes, sir!"

Although they didn't realize it, they didn't dare to be negligent and quickly ran back to the main camp to inform their commander.

Before long, Sun Yingyuan and Zhou Yuji hurriedly left the camp.

They all kowtowed in unison, saying, "This humble general, Sun Yingyuan (Zhou Yuji), pays his respects to Your Majesty!"

The soldiers hadn't seen him before, but the two men had, though they didn't know why the emperor would suddenly come here...

Zhu Jian glanced at the two men and nodded slightly: "Rise... come with me into the camp!" With that, he spurred his horse and headed towards the central military tent of the camp.

After Zhu Jian entered the camp first, Li Ruolian, Sun Yingyuan, and Zhou Yuji followed closely behind.

A moment later, he arrived outside the main tent, dismounted, threw the reins to the accompanying Imperial Guards, lifted the tent flap, and stepped inside.

He took the head coach's seat with an air of authority.

"Zhou Yuji, go and prepare the troops for war!"

"As you command!" Zhou Yuji went to the camp without hesitation to beat the drum and gather the generals, ready to obey the emperor's orders.

Sun Yingyuan was taken aback upon hearing this. Now that the emperor himself had come to the camp and said there was war, what was he to do? He then asked, "Your Majesty, is it the war in Shaanxi?"

Zhu Jian: "It's not Shaanxi; just obey my decree!"

"Is that the Cabinet and the Ministry of War?..." Sun Yingyuan understood the 'system'. Now the emperor only brought a dozen or so Imperial Guards to the camp, saying there was a war, and directly mobilized troops, which was somewhat inconsistent with the ancestral system.

If I didn't know that Emperor Chongzhen had been on the throne for eleven years, I would have thought he was about to launch some kind of coup...

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jian's lips curled slightly, and his tone became stern: "Sun Yingyuan, are you implying that if I want to mobilize troops, I need to inform the Cabinet and the Ministry of War?"

Zhu Jian didn't have a problem with Sun Yingyuan himself, but rather with this unwritten system, which these generals were completely unaware of... as if these systems were inherently correct...

Upon hearing this, Sun Yingyuan's expression changed drastically. He immediately knelt down, his voice trembling, "How dare this humble general..."

Zhu Jian glanced at Sun Yingyuan with a hint of anger: "Get up! Remember this! This Ming Dynasty is ruled by me, not by the Grand Secretariat or the Ministry of War!"

In Zhu Jian's view, it was Zhang Juzheng's cabinet that ruled the Wanli Emperor for ten years, leading these civil officials to believe that the cabinet could rule the emperor indefinitely...

As for Emperor Chongzhen's father, Emperor Guangzong, who died less than a month after ascending the throne, let's not go into that. His brother, Zhu Youxiao, reigned for seven years but was never free from the influence of the Grand Secretariat. He could only rely on Wei Zhongxian's eunuch faction to suppress the Six Ministries. This led these civil officials to believe that the emperor should rule the country together with the scholar-officials, just like in the Song Dynasty...

It's like two chess players playing a game. Zhu Youjian's grandfather, Wanli, couldn't beat the civil official group, so he stopped playing and hid away.

Zhu Youjian's elder brother, Zhu Youxiao, felt that he could not compete with the civil officials, so he hired a ghostwriter (Wei Zhongxian) to play against them. Emperor Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian, constantly changed his opponents.

But Prosecutor Zhu had no intention of playing chess; he simply overturned the chessboard, thinking, "Who the hell wants to play chess with you...?"

Just then, Zhou Yuji hurriedly returned, clasping his hands in a fist salute: "Your Majesty, all the officers and soldiers of the Brave Guard are outside the tent, and the eight thousand soldiers are ready to depart at any time!"

"The entire army departs for Xianghe!"

After saying this, Zhu Jian got up and walked out of the tent, leaving no room for discussion.

After Zhu Jian left, Zhou Yuji approached Sun Yingyuan and asked in a low voice, "General Sun, just now...?"

When Zhou Yuji returned, he noticed Sun Yingyuan standing silently with his head down, and wondering what was wrong, he asked him this question...

Sun Yingyuan shook his head, forcing a smile: "It's alright, I'll obey His Majesty's decree!"

He dared not contradict or question the emperor, but he noticed that the emperor seemed different from before. Previously, he would consult others, but now his word was law, and military decisions were no longer subject to the approval of the cabinet or the Ministry of War…

Zhou Yuji nodded slightly, and he and Sun Yingyuan stepped out of the tent one after the other, mounted their horses, and set off for Xianghe...

......

at the same time.

Cao Bianjiao, Gao Jie, Hu Dawei, and Meng Ruhu, who had entered Xianghe, were discussing the attack mission with Hong Chengchou and sending letters of assistance to Sun Chuanting in Baodi, Wu Aheng in Yutian, and Lu Xiangsheng in Huairou.

The necessity of assisting these three units in combat was explained to them.

Just then, an urgent cry came from outside the tent: "Reporting to Lord Hong, His Majesty has arrived with the Brave Guard!"

Upon hearing this, Hong Chengchou, Cao Bianjiao, and the others all turned their gazes towards the outside of the tent.

The most shocked were Gao Jie, Hu Dawei, and the other two, who were as fierce as tigers. None of them had ever seen the emperor before... and now they could finally witness his magnificence.

Gao Jie was a fellow townsman of Li Zicheng and originally served as one of Li Zicheng's generals. Later, he had an affair with Li Zicheng's wife. After being discovered, he surrendered to the Ming army with Li Zicheng's wife. He came from a humble background...

Hu Dawei and Meng Ruhu were both Mongols who had defected to the Ming army. They had risen to this position through military merit and rewards, and in the eyes of the court officials, they were people of humble origin...

"Are they... here to comfort the troops?" A bad feeling flashed through Hong Chengchou's mind.

Originally, Zhu Jian proposed a personal campaign, which he disagreed with, citing the excessive danger, and requested the emperor to await news of victory in the capital. Zhu Jian neither agreed nor objected; in his view, Zhu Jian had tacitly agreed not to personally lead the campaign. Now, his sudden arrival seemed to indicate either a visit to comfort the troops or a prelude to a personal campaign. However, he still held a sliver of hope that it was the emperor coming to offer condolences, not to personally lead the army…

"I don't know..."

"Lord Hong, let's receive him..." Cao Bianjiao reminded him from the side.

"Yes, welcome them!"

After saying this, Hong Chengchou led his men quickly out of the tent.

Not far from the main tent, they saw Zhu Jian riding over with Sun Yingyuan, Zhou Yuji, and several others.

"Your subject Hong..." Hong Chengchou was about to kneel to receive the emperor when Zhu Jian said, "All of you, rise! There's no need for such formalities!"

Having said that, he dismounted and entered the main tent.

Upon entering the tent, Zhu Jian's gaze swept over the men following closely behind him: "Gao Jie, Hu Dawei, fierce as a tiger!"

"This humble general, Gao Jie (Tiger Dawei, as fierce as a tiger), greets Your Majesty!" The three men saluted and said in unison.

Zhu Jian nodded slightly: "Nothing else, I just wanted to get to know someone!"

"On behalf of the soldiers, I thank Your Majesty for coming to comfort the troops in person!" Hong Chengchou hurriedly stepped forward, bowed, and said.

Zhu Jian did not respond, but instead said, "Send an edict to Lu Xiang-sheng in Huairou: if the Qing army enters the pass, force him to advance towards Tongzhou!"

"Chengchou led the Xianghe army north to join forces with Lu Xiangshan in a battle against the Qing army in Tongzhou!"

Upon Zhu Jian's arrival, he changed Hong Chengchou's letters of cooperation sent to various ministries into imperial edicts! Now it was no longer a matter of working together to resist the Qing, but a war personally led by the emperor.

"Your Majesty, the army is in great danger. I urge Your Majesty to move to the capital to avoid harming Your Majesty's health!" Hong Chengchou said bitterly.

Hong Chengchou was in a difficult position. The emperor used to enjoy interfering in the capital, but now he was doing it from the outside... If he wasn't careful, he'd become a second Emperor Yingzong...

"Enough with the nonsense, what's with all this talk about injuries!" Prosecutor Zhu said with displeasure. If he couldn't change anything, he'd rather die in battle than mourn.

"Your Majesty..." Hong Chengchou was about to step forward to offer advice when Zhu Jian waved his hand: "Send an edict to Sun Chuanting in Baodi and Wu Aheng in Yutian, instructing them to pay attention to the direction of Qingshankou!"

"Furthermore, order Gao Qiqian to get out of the Guan Ning Army in Yutian and come to Xianghe!"

Gao Qiqian didn't play a significant role in the Guan Ning army; he was still a military supervisor and sometimes interfered, so Zhu Jian didn't let him stay in the army any longer.

As for monitoring the military, it serves no purpose whatsoever.

If the Guan Ning Army were to rebel, it wouldn't be something a single eunuch could stop. If they weren't going to rebel, there was no point in them staying there. So it would be best to transfer them back to their posts!

"General Gao has been in Liaodong all this time. Is it inappropriate to suddenly transfer him back?" Hong Chengchou asked.

He was also worried that without a military supervisor in Liaodong, a rebellion might break out...

"What General Gao? A mere dog servant, she's got wings after just a few days away?" Zhu Jian cursed.

"As for the matter in Liaodong, I trust Zu Dashou!"

Although Zhu Jian verbally claimed to trust Zu Dashou, he didn't fully believe him. He was merely transferred back from his position as military supervisor, but secretly, he had already instructed the Eastern Depot to plant over a dozen spies to monitor the Guan Ning Army and Liaodong intelligence from all angles...

After hearing this, Hong Chengchou said nothing more... After all, Zhu Jian was the emperor...