In the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Chongzhen changed into a bright yellow civilian clothes and sat in the palace.

The new head assistant of the cabinet is Zheng Sanjun, the secretary of the ministry, who is in his seventies this year, his hair has long been gray, and his eyes are slightly narrow.

Zheng Sanjun is old in the world, and he has gone through four dynasties without falling, and he has won the golden mean of harmony but not flow, and he is not greedy, not corrupt, not party, and not selfish.

As one of the most important yamen in the Ming Dynasty, the officials in charge of the promotion and transfer of officials across the country are simply effortless if they want to be greedy, so that many colleagues in the sea have disappeared for decades, and he is still standing like a pillar stone.

Oh, I can't say that, I heard that Wei Zhongxian was quite miserable when he was in power, but people can bear it, they can't fight you, so they will live you!

As soon as Chongzhen sat down, Jiang Dejing, a scholar of Dongge University, couldn't sit still.

"Your Majesty, Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, has a bad plot, and An Guobo has no opinion on killing Wei Chen, but Wu Sangui, as the emperor's Ping Xibo, should be handed over to the Three Law Division for handling according to etiquette, Shanhaiguan is an important border pass, Wei Chen feels that An Guobo has no court and acts recklessly, Wei Chen thinks that An Guobo should be recalled as soon as possible, and another stable general should be stationed in Shanhaiguan."

Jiang Dejing is the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and he is clear about these rules and regulations, although he has no old grudges against An Guobo, he just talks about things.

But in his position, he must seek his own government, and An Guobo has repeatedly regarded our court's etiquette law as nothing, which is simply unbearable.

"Well, I know!" Chongzhen's face was cold.

What are you kidding, don't you know what virtues An Guobo has? This guy is simply a bastard, pulling and not leaving, fighting backwards, you talk to him about etiquette?

Besides, get people back, and you go to help me fight Jiannu? I really don't have a backache when I stand and talk.

There are many rituals and ancestral systems in the Ming Dynasty, more than two hundred years have passed, and many of them have not met the needs of today's country, so they have to be changed, Chongzhen recalled what Liu Hong said when he was getting drunk one day.

Since Liu Hong gradually entered the court, the court has finally seen some light in the smoky and miasmatic court, punishing the evil and eliminating evil, investigating and punishing corruption.

Chongzhen's reliance on An Guobo, which of these ministers here is not like a mirror in his heart, and this old Jiang is too, why is he so brainless!

"What does Li Aiqing think?" Chongzhen glanced at Li Banghua, the second assistant of the cabinet.

"The minister feels that the change of Shanhaiguan, An Guobo acted decisively, and it is not inappropriate to handle it properly, An Guobo said to give the soldiers faith, the old minister has been an official for many years, and he deeply thinks that the border army has lived within the city wall for too long, and the soldier's sharpness has been polished off by blindly defending......"

Li Banghua and Liu Hongjian are very close to each other, not to mention that his official position is still recommended by Liu Hongchuan, in fact, Li Banghua has never taken this matter seriously, but from Liu Hongchuan's style of doing things, Li Banghua has valued it.

What kind of benevolence, righteousness, etiquette and religion are you talking to me, whether it is a mule or a horse, pull it out and slip away, you will only say, there is a hairy use?

"Lord Li, soldiers, treacherous ways, An Guobo has repeatedly supported the society in the decline, so that my Ming Dynasty has been reborn, and the old man is also full of admiration for An Guobo, but Shanhaiguan is an important border pass.

An Guo Bo Nian and a weak crown, in case of loss, the Ming Dynasty is in danger! ”

Fang Yuegong, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion University, couldn't help but interrupt Li Banghua's maintenance of Liu Hongji.

"Hmph, it will take two or three days to get here from Shanhaiguan at the earliest, not to mention whether the order can be conveyed in time now, Lord Fang has no confidence in my Ming army?"

"The two Aiqing don't have to argue about this matter, the general will not accept the order of the foreign monarch, it is my decision to appoint An Guobo as the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, since I have decided to delegate power, I will not drag him back, I trust An Guobo, do you understand?"

Chongzhen saw that the two of them had their own opinions and argued, so he hurriedly waved his hand to interrupt the two, in Chongzhen's opinion, the two quarreled meaninglessly, not to mention whether the battle had started at this time.

Take a step back and say that even if the border army loses, it can still retreat to the fortified city, and take a step back, now the Beijing camp has been rectified is not bad, there are brocade guards staring at no one dares to do anything on the military salary, and the morale of the soldiers in the Beijing camp is high.

100,000 Jingying infantry troops stationed in the capital, and if there are 60,000 iron cavalry in Jiannu, it will inevitably be in vain, but the people in the Gyeonggi area will suffer again.

He came to the cabinet mainly to discuss how to deal with this worst-case situation, and seeing that Zheng Sanjun, an evergreen tree of the Ming Dynasty, was still squinting slightly and did not speak, Chongzhen motioned for him to express his opinion.

"Your Majesty, the old minister is foolish, although An Guobo is old and weak, but he has repeatedly performed miraculous feats, he is the minister of my Ming humerus, so what Lord Li said is not wrong, but his character is perverse, and it still needs time to temper, Shanhaiguan is a border pass, if there is a danger of losing the Ming Dynasty, it is also reasonable for Lord Li Fang to say."

After speaking, he did not forget to bow his hand to Fang Yuegong and Jiang Dejing.

If Shanhaiguan is really lost, the emperor does not need to worry, and the soldiers of the Beijing camp will definitely be able to block the Manchu Qing Dynasty from outside the city wall.

According to the old minister's knowledge, in the four towns of Jiangbei in the south, Huang Degong has always had the ambition to serve the country, and now Huang Degong's department has crusaded against the rebel Liu Chao, and the emperor can give him a reward and make him quickly lead the army to the king. ”

Lord Shoufu raised his hands falsely, talked eloquently, first affirmed the emperor's goodness, and then sold his colleagues to save face, and finally put forward a treatment plan, which was a good hand and played to Chongzhen's heart.

Old fox! Fang Yuegong and Jiang Dejing had the same secret path in their hearts.

Only Li Banghua was fine, and seeing that Chongzhen's complexion had changed, he hurriedly beckoned Chongzhen to open a new topic.

"Your Majesty, just now Lord Zheng didn't talk about the four towns in Jiangbei, and the ministers haven't remembered that the court has raised them for many years, and why don't they come when it's time to use them.

It's understandable that Huang Degong didn't come, how can the other three towns explain? Thanks to Liu Zeqing and the others, they still have the face to ask for food and silver every month, as well as Zuo Liangyu who is entrenched in Wuchang, the emperor must be on guard, and the treasury will not be able to bear it if he continues like this! ”

The three towns of Jiangbei and Zuo Liangyu have always been a pain in Chongzhen's heart, so much so that the courtiers have hardly dared to mention it in the past two months.

The four towns of Jiangbei are Liu Zeqing of Sizhou, Gao Jie of Luzhou, Liu Liangzuo of Yangzhou, and Huang Degong of Huai'an, each of which has more than 30,000 soldiers and horses, of which Huang Degong is the farthest away from the capital, and is indeed busy quelling the rebellion.

The other three Gao Jie are from Li Zicheng's peasant army, and it is said that he gave Li Zicheng a green hat, and he couldn't run away with his subordinates to surrender to Ming.

Gaojie was used to staying in the peasant army, and the imperial court couldn't afford to pay military salaries, so he went to the territory of the old Liu family on both sides to fight the autumn breeze.

Erliu is not a vegetarian, for his own territory, the three sides almost ten days a small battle, more than a month of a big battle, the fight is very happy, received the edict of King Qin in the capital, no one sent troops to respond to the edict.

just replied to Chongzhen that the soldiers couldn't get their salaries, and they couldn't move, and the ministers remembered that Chongzhen angrily smashed the ancestral inkstone on the table.

It is said that the three of them are not stupid, they originally thought that Daming was going to finish playing, and the three of them were ready to welcome the new master, but the battle of the capital guards surprised the three of them.

What's even more shameless is not only that, after the thieves retreated, Chongzhen summoned three people to the court to report on their work, and all three of them were sick and could not come, after learning that the court investigated and punished a group of corrupt officials, the three also wrote a petition for the crime, of course, the crime is false, and it is true to ask for food and silver.

The number of soldiers in the three towns is about 100,000, and the annual demand is 900,000 stones, and 1 million taels of silver.

The reason why the three of them are so shameless and bold is, of course, because they value the court's reliance on them, in a word, the Ming Dynasty has no soldiers, only we have, oh no, there is a big guy behind him.

This big man's name is Zuo Liangyu, who has been entrenched in Wuhan and Wuchang for two years, with 200,000 heavy soldiers, and also refuses to go north to Qinwang on the grounds that there is no military salary and soldiers are not allowed to be dispatched.

Chongzhen, a dumb man, almost fainted on the spot, so that every time the courtiers mentioned this matter later, Chongzhen's face immediately burst into flames.

But what can I do, now you can't clean up people, if you don't feel good and make trouble for you again, can you still stand it?

Seeing that Chongzhen's face sank again, Ni Yuanlu, the scholar of Jianji Hall University, secretly pulled down Li Banghua's clothes and feet with his right hand, but the former did not react.

You say you're a courtier, what are you doing with this stubble? The silver came from the old man's household, and the emperor didn't say anything, aren't you pleasing to both parties?

Ni Yuanlu also felt sorry for this Li Banghua in his heart, this secretary of the military department has only been in office for less than two months, how can he offend people like this? It seems that the last time I was a waiter for less than two months, alas!

"I don't need Li Aiqing to remind me, I naturally understand the truth of raising tigers, and let a few people run rampant for a while, and then discuss it after I finish dealing with the border pass."

Chongzhen has one head and two big, as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, how could he not understand how bad the mess of the Ming Dynasty is, and they all say that the side of the couch will not allow others to sleep soundly.

Now it's good, on the side of their couch, not only are there several tigers sleeping peacefully, there are two wolves in the north, and there is also an embarrassment in Sichuan, they not only sleep soundly, but they roar when they are fine, worried that others will not know that they are there.

Do you owe or not?

According to Zheng Aiqing's words, I named Huang Degong as Jingnanbo, Liu Zeqing as Dongpingbo, Liu Liangzuo as Guangchangbo, Gao Jie as Pingxingbo, and Zuo Liangyu as Ningnanbo.

ordered Huang Degong's troops to come to Beijing as soon as possible, and said to the outside world that he would come to Beijing to supervise the new recruits in the Beijing camp, and that's it, all of them should retreat! ”

Chongzhen did not get angry for the first time, which made several people feel surprised, seeing that Chongzhen had made up his mind, several people did not speak, and after saluting, they retreated to Wenyuan Pavilion to deal with the matter.

In order to level the bowl of water and not make other feudal towns suspicious, Chongzhen simply endured the anger in his heart, gave everyone an earl, and even urgently transferred Huang Degong to find a ridiculous reason.

He didn't dare to recruit all these feudal towns that couldn't figure out the loyalty and treachery into Beijing, in case these wall grasses saw the Manchu soldiers pressing the border and turned against them, wouldn't they dig their own graves.

The north is already chaotic enough, and the south can't be chaotic anymore, otherwise there will be no way for the gods to come.

July 15, the Midyear Festival, this day is called the Ghost Festival.

In the imperial city of the capital, Chongzhen took the crown prince Zhu Cihong, and the king Zhu Cijiong, the Yongwang Zhu Cizhao, and the unknighted Zhu Cihuan came to worship the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty, Kunxing Princess Zhu Shuxuan, and Zhaoren Princess Zhu Shuxuan also followed behind.

Since An Guobo left, Chongzhen would bring his heirs to Taimiao every morning, and several people didn't know anything at first, but then they vaguely knew something.

"Salute the ancestors and the ancestors!" Chongzhen's face was expressionless, and he said in a deep voice.

Six children of different ages knelt in front of the tablets of the fifteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty in turn, this is their ancestors and ancestors, even the most noisy Yongwang Zhu Cizhao, in this temple also seems extraordinarily quiet.

The eldest of the six, the crown prince, who was already fifteen years old, knew what it would mean if Shanhaiguan was lost, so he folded his hands and closed his eyes in prayer.

Several young princes also knelt down in the same way, not knowing what was in their hearts.

"Sister Huang, do you say that Liu Hongjian can win the battle?" Princess Zhaoren, who was only six years old, looked up at Princess Kunxing with a pious face.

Princess Kunxing glared at Zhaoren and signaled her not to babble, and then closed her eyes.

He's sure he'll win, and he'll promise to bring me a nice lollipop! Princess Kunxing immediately closed her eyes.

An Guobo, I have bet on you, whether you win or lose, I hope you can come back alive, my Ming needs you!

However, what Chongzhen didn't know was that when he had just received Liu Hongji's recital, the Battle of Shanhaiguan had already lasted all morning......