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

"Recall the fierce tigers under Hong Chengchou's command! Let him bring all the Mongol soldiers in his army, along with their families in various places, back to the capital! Form a separate Divine Valiant Guard!"

Before he could finish speaking, Sun Chuanting, who had followed Zhu Jian to the Shenwu Guard camp, stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty! Isn't it somewhat inappropriate for Mongol soldiers to come to the capital?"

In Sun Chuanting's view, Mongol soldiers were not well-liked and were better off fighting outside than being transferred to the capital!

"What Mongolian soldiers!"

"These soldiers are all from the Ming Dynasty! What do they have to do with the Mongols?"

Zhu Jian believed that these soldiers, along with their families, were all in the Ming Dynasty, and therefore belonged to the Ming army. They had nothing to do with the Mongol princes and nobles. These people were noble slaves who had escaped from the Great Wall border. They were short of supplies and could not survive, so they chose to come to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, they should stay by his side.

Zhu Jian also needs to win over the various Mongol tribes and implement a policy of isolating the Jurchens! The core issue now is to annihilate the Jurchens, not to attack these Mongol soldiers who are coming closer!

Currently, the Mongol tribes further away from Liaodong on the border of the Ming Dynasty are more peaceful, and the Jurchens have less control over them. Conversely, the closer they are to Liaodong, the higher their control. For example, the Kharachin and Khorchin tribes are all staunch supporters of the Jurchens!

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting cupped his hands in greeting: "As you command! I will immediately go and draft the decree to recall Meng Ruhu!"

Divine Martial, Divine Brave, and Divine Valiant – these three guards are the Imperial Guards reorganized by Zhu Jian. The Embroidered Uniform Guard is now too corrupt, its hereditary system rendering it ineffective and turning it into a mere symbol of honor. Although it hasn't been disbanded on a large scale yet, it's only a matter of time before it is. Now that the Capital Garrison has also been disbanded, these three Imperial Guards are the new core force guarding the capital!

Just then, Sun Chengzong suddenly arrived at the Shenwu Guard camp: "Your Majesty, a letter from Zu Dashou, the General of Jinzhou!"

"What did you say?" Prosecutor Zhu asked casually.

"Uh..." Sun Chengzong looked around, stammering without saying anything.

"Enough! Zhou Yuji, organize the Shenwu Guard soldiers and focus on training them in horsemanship!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Zhou Yuji clasped his hands in a salute.

Zhu Jian then turned and walked onto the carriage, beckoning to Sun Chengzong: "Get on!"

"yes!"

After Sun Chengzong was helped onto the carriage, it slowly drove towards the palace, the wooden wheels kicking up clouds of dust as they pressed down on the yellow earth...

"Speak! What is it?"

Sun Chengzong held up the letter he was clutching in his hand and presented it to Zhu Jian: "Your Majesty, this is a letter from the Eastern Barbarians requesting peace!"

"Peace talks?"

Inspector Zhu curiously took the letter, read it, and after a moment said softly, "It doesn't mention any specific plan, it only says they want to send someone to negotiate peace, and trade is a must! If this isn't included, they won't negotiate!"

Sun Chengzong nodded slightly: "I believe the Eastern Barbarians are not sincere; this is merely a delaying tactic!"

Sun Chengzong was a proponent of war and vehemently opposed to peace talks. He believed that peace negotiations were only possible if the Jurchens returned more than seventy cities in Liaodong, which was clearly impossible...

Zhu Jian nodded: "Peace negotiations are still necessary!"

"Your Majesty! I believe that negotiating peace would be a disgrace to our nation and would likely lead us down the same path as the Song Dynasty! Our great Ming Dynasty, since the time of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong, has driven these Tartars to flee in terror. How can we possibly negotiate peace with the Tartars now?" Sun Chengzong became more and more agitated as he spoke, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Grand Secretary Sun, please don't get agitated!" Zhu Jian said with a smile, "If the Jurchens want to negotiate peace, then let them come! It's simply that I've wiped out the Shanxi merchant network, and they've lost their source of supplies!"

"I can do business with them. The Ming Dynasty is desperately short of warhorses! I think exchanging some salt for warhorses would be acceptable!"

The last thing Zhu Jian has in abundance right now is salt. When he was in Shandong, he dismissed all the officials in the Shandong Salt Transport Bureau. Now, the Shandong Governor, Song Xuezhu, is directly recruiting displaced people to boil salt. Because the number of displaced people is increasing, so is the amount of salt, and now there's a backlog...

Merchants transported grain to Jinan to exchange for salt. Because grain prices fluctuated so much, merchants did not hoard salt; they only stockpiled enough to sell.

"Your Majesty! Wouldn't that be aiding the enemy?" Sun Chengzong was extremely unwilling to do any business with the Jurchens...

Zhu Jian waved his hand: "Grand Secretary Sun, do not worry! Although salt is a necessity, the Jurchens also have salt fields along the coast, but it's a structural problem! They are dispensable to the Ming Dynasty's salt! The reason they came to negotiate peace is ultimately to obtain other supplies!"

Zhu Jian felt that Sun Chengzong's suggestion of delaying the war was one aspect, but the real shortages for the Jurchens were food, ironware, gunpowder, and intelligence, which the Ming Dynasty could not provide, only salt! Take it or leave it, the Jurchens needed time to stockpile food and launch a siege of Jinzhou!

"So, His Majesty still wants to negotiate peace with the Eastern Barbarians?"

"It's not me who wants to negotiate peace with Huang Taiji, it's Huang Taiji who wants to negotiate peace with me!" Zhu Jian said.

"The Military and Political Bureau has issued an edict to Zu Dashou, the General of Jinzhou, refusing to negotiate peace. If the Eastern Barbarians start a war, I am willing to go to the front line to kill the enemy!" Sun Chengzong said firmly.

Upon hearing this, Prosecutor Zhu was taken aback, thinking to himself: This old angry young man...

"Grand Secretary Sun is a pillar of the nation; how can he be sent to the front lines?"

"Send Huang Taiji's delegation; peace talks are still necessary! But we need to prepare some things!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Chengzong said with slight disappointment, "Your Majesty, I obey! What does Your Majesty wish to prepare?"

"Alchemy furnace!"

"Alchemy furnace?" Sun Chengzong looked at Zhu Jian with a puzzled expression.

"Yes! Are there still those alchemists like those from Emperor Shizong (Jiajing)?"

"Does Your Majesty wish to learn alchemy from Emperor Shizong?" With that, Sun Chengzong rose from the carriage and knelt before Zhu Jian. He would kneel there even if Zhu Jian dared to learn alchemy from Emperor Shizong.

The Jiajing Emperor neglected court affairs, spending long hours in the palace practicing alchemy. His officials saw this as neglect of state matters. Now, they argued, Zhu Jian possessed the qualities of a wise ruler; how could he be allowed to study alchemy?

"Get up. I'm not here to refine elixirs, but to tell Huang Taiji that I enjoy refining elixirs!"

The more Zhu Jian explained, the less Sun Chengzong understood, and he stared blankly at Zhu Jian.

"Do you prefer Huang Taiji's neglect of state affairs and extravagant lifestyle, or his diligent governance?"

"Of course it's neglecting state affairs!" Sun Chengzong said without hesitation.

"That's more like it! The Jurchens like to watch it, so I'll let them watch what they like!"

At this point, Sun Chengzong suddenly realized, "Your Majesty is wise!"

Before long, the carriage arrived inside the palace, and Zhu Jian and Sun Chengzong alighted from the carriage one after the other.

Upon seeing Zhu Jian return, Wang Dehua quickly stepped forward: "Your Majesty!"

"Go and find a complete set of Emperor Shizong's alchemy equipment! If you don't have any, get some for me! Move it to the place where Emperor Shizong used to practice alchemy!"

When Wang Dehua heard Zhu Jian suddenly mention alchemy, he was taken aback. He then looked at Sun Chengzong beside him and thought to himself, "The emperor is going to learn alchemy, and you didn't even try to dissuade him. What a treacherous minister!"

After a moment, seeing that Sun Chengzong had no intention of advising against it, Wang Dehua bowed slightly and said, "Emperor Jiajing's alchemy practice is in the Western Garden, not in the palace. Would Your Majesty like to go to the Western Garden?"