Although several leaders of the Donglin Party had heard the news from Li Guopu about the abolition of the ban on officials participating in the imperial examination, they also organized their protégés to oppose it, forcing the emperor to make concessions.

But soon Chongzhen led to the big move of reforming the official system on the grounds of rectifying the science and road. If it weren't for Li Guopu's blank expression, several Donglin leaders would almost think that the news that Li Guopu leaked to them was just to cover Chongzhen's big article on official reform.

Killing the enemy on the battlefield is about morale, and the so-called one blow, then decline, and three exhaustion. If several leaders of the Donglin Party had known that Chongzhen would throw out a big article on the reform of the official system at the court meeting today, then they would certainly not have focused their energies on opposing the policy of abolishing the ban on officials participating in the imperial examinations.

Compared with the reform of the bureaucratic system, the participation of officials in the imperial examination is really insignificant. In the final analysis, the former is related to the future of the officials, while the latter is just to make these officials who were born in Jinshi feel uncomfortable.

When the Donglin Party incited the courtiers and forced Chongzhen to retract the ban on abolishing the official Xu to participate in the imperial examination, the momentum of the Donglin Party undoubtedly reached its peak. But this undoubtedly also made the non-Donglin party members in the DPRK and China feel threatened.

Subsequently, when Donglin's speech officials took advantage of the topic and wanted to impeach Shoufu Huang Liji, the officials of the Donglin Party in North Korea and Central Africa had unconsciously stood on the position of sympathizing with Shoufu.

And when Chongzhen used the topic to criticize the officials of the Daoist Language, some officials still felt that what His Majesty said was actually quite reasonable.

By the time Chongzhen threw out the idea of reforming the bureaucratic system, the demoralized Donglin Party members were no longer able to organize a large-scale protest against the abolition of the ban on officials participating in the imperial examination.

When the number of officials in the court who supported the reform issue exceeded the number of officials who opposed it, Zhu Youzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief, and he remembered that the name of Sun Zhiqi he had heard just now seemed very familiar.

This doubt disappeared in Zhu Youzhen's mind in a flash, and he now has more important things to deal with, that is, to finalize the leadership of the reform of the official system.

After seeing the issue that could not prevent the passage of the official reform, the Donglin Party immediately changed their attitude and began to compete with Huang Liji and others for the dominance of the official reform.

In order to keep the Donglin Party members from being annoyed and angry, they dragged the reform of the official system behind their backs. Under the control of Zhu Youzhen, all four members of the cabinet were selected, including Xu Guangqi, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Guo Yunhou, Liu Zongzhou, Wen Zhenmeng, and Han Yi, and a total of 12 people formed the official reform committee.

There are few things to deal with in one morning, and this kind of work efficiency makes Zhu Youzhen vomit blood. If this is in the future, with the efficiency of these officials, it is estimated that the first thought of any boss is to fire all of them and recruit new employees.

But now, these officials are considered the top elite class in Daming. Without them, the entire Ming Dynasty would go from a barely functioning machine to a completely paralyzed waste.

After solving the problem of reforming the official system, the next step was to meet with several officials who had returned to Beijing from Sun Chengzong.

After Zhu Youzhen condoled Sun Chengzong, an old minister, Han Yi listed and recommended Sun Chengzong to supervise Ji and Liao, who were responsible for the defense of the eastern captives outside the Guan.

With Han Yi taking the lead, several Donglin Party officials followed up and recommended Sun Chengzong as the governor of Jiliao.

Wang Zaijin participated in the compilation and revision of the "Three Dynasties Classics" and the Donglin Party members formed a festival, and he gave up the strategic thinking of outside the Guanguan and the focus of Shanhaiguan defense, and offended the Jiangmen of Liaodong and a large number of officials who relied on Liao's salary to eat.

Therefore, although Chongzhen personally ordered the recall of Wang Zaijin as the secretary of the military department, there were basically few officials who welcomed Wang Zaijin back to the dynasty. However, there are many officials who want to change Chongzhen's mind and prevent Wang Zaijin from returning to Beijing.

In the court, there was only Wang Zaijin, a figure that neither the Donglin Party nor the so-called Eunuch Party disliked. The Ming Dynasty's military department is mainly in charge of the military affairs of the nine sides, but after Nurhachi raised the army, the military affairs of Liaodong and the defense work near Beijing have become the most important work of the military department of the military department, and the annual cost of the military affairs of Liaodong has long accounted for most of the military expenses of the nine sides.

No matter which part of the six departments is, there are only two main powers, personnel rights and financial rights. Jiliao Governor is in charge of the largest army outside the Guanguan and near the capital, and most of the annual military expenditure is filled into the bottomless pit of Liaodong.

And with Sun Chengzong's qualifications, he, the Jiliao Governor, must have the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War. Others with the title of secretary of the military department may not be able to compete with the official secretary of the military department. But Sun Chengzong is different, with his identity as the Emperor of the Apocalypse, even Chongzhen himself has to take care of him for three points.

Once Sun Chengzong served as the governor of Jiliao, basically Wang Zaijin, the secretary of the military department, was even hollowed out.

And Zhu Youzhen's idea of adjusting Liaodong's defense strategy will also come to naught. When Han Yi and other Donglin Party members proposed to recommend Jiliao Governor, Zhu Youzhen, who had always been extremely vigilant about talking about Liaodong affairs, quickly understood the thoughts of these Donglin Party members.

"Do these Donglin Party members really think of themselves as fools? Such an obvious plan to overhead the military department Shangshu was said in such a grand manner. Are they naïve? Or do you take everyone else for idiots? Zhu Youzhen supported his chin with his right hand, looked at the Donglin party members who recommended Sun Chengzong below, and thought.

Sun Chengzong himself also played to Chongzhen: "... The military and civilians of Liaodong have been confronting Dongyu for nearly 10 years, and after many years of building the defense line of Liaodong, there will be a great victory in Ningjin this year. If His Majesty summons the king to return to Beijing in Jin, the court and the central government will again abandon Liao, not only will it hurt the hearts of the military and people in Liaodong, but also fear that the Ningyuan defense line built with millions of dollars for several years will be abandoned for no reason, wouldn't this be a waste of the blood and sweat of the people in the world? ”

Chongzhen was not moved by Sun Chengzong's words, in Sun Chengzong's view, the stability of the Liaodong defense line after the construction was just a sparsely populated Houjin because it expanded too quickly and could not effectively control the vast and sparsely populated Liaodong region, and entered the cultivation period of digesting the fruits of victory.

When Houjin digests the territory of Liaodong, the seemingly peaceful situation in Liaodong will now be broken. The so-called Ningjin victory is just a robbery by the wild boar skin in order to integrate the newly built Eight Banners troops, and by the way, he came to the Ming army to fight the autumn wind.

Hou Jin didn't think about capturing Ningyuan at all, he just wanted to maintain contact with the Ming army and understand the reality of the opponent.

The victory of Ningjin looks more like a textbook battle in which the Houjin army began to learn siege warfare from a field unit. And the Ming army is the sparring partner who does not spend money, not only spending money to build the city where the Houjin army wants to practice attacking, but also staying in the city very honestly, never taking the initiative to attack, and letting the Houjin army freely experiment with the effective way of attacking the city.

Zhu Youzhen often thought that if he exchanged places with the wild boar skin, I am afraid he would also be very grateful to have such an enemy army who tempered his army for free. If you put aside all emotions and analyze them purely rationally, the relationship between the Houjin Army and the Ming Army is more like the situation between the People's Liberation Army and **.

The Ming army was not only the best sparring partner for the Later Jin Army, but also the source of materials and troops for the growth of the Later Jin Army. In one sentence, the Ming army is the transport captain of the Houjin army.

Such a ridiculous thing, how could Zhu Youzhen continue to do so. However, Sun Chengzong supervised the division outside the gate intermittently for more than ten years, and the Ningyuan defense line was built in his hands, and the Liaodong Jiangmen can be said to be bowing to Sun Chengzong.

Whether it is to shrink the Liaodong defense line or to rectify the military affairs of Liaodong, without the cooperation of the Liaodong generals, it is just empty talk.

Zhu Youzhen could not forcibly suppress the opinions of the Donglin Party and Sun Chengzong and others, refused to let Sun Chengzong supervise Ji Liao, and let Sun Chengzong and Liaodong Jiangmen stand on his opposite side. Can't really let Sun Chengzong serve as the Jiliao Governor, and put Wang Zaijin in the air, isn't this making trouble for himself?

When Zhu Youzhen was in a dilemma, he suddenly thought of an idea. He put down his right hand, sat upright and said: "Mr. Sun wants to supervise Jiliao, and although the idea of recovering the homeland of Liaodong is good, I just want to ask Mr. But how much food and manpower does it take to repair the castle from Ningyuan to Salhu? As far as I know, the Ningjin defense line has been repaired for nearly five years, and it costs nearly 400-5 million taels per year. So how much does it cost to repair to Salhu? ”

When it came to the issue of money and food, Sun Chengzong and Han Yi suddenly stopped talking. Even Liu Zongzhou stood up in support of Chongzhen's opinion, and he also believed that the most important thing for the Ming Dynasty now was to rest with the people, not to build a city to recover Liaodong.

Seeing that the people on his side suddenly quieted down, Sun Chengzong had to step forward and say: "Your Majesty, although it costs a lot of money and food to build the city, it is precisely because of the Ningjin defense line that the Liaoxi Corridor and Guannai can be protected from the threat of Houjin Bingfeng, and from the perspective of the safety of Gyeonggi, this money is still worth it." ”

"If it is only to ensure the safety of Gyeonggi, then it is enough to maintain the most basic defense expenses, so why waste so much money and food to continue to build a city in Liaodong? And I've never heard of an army that can't fight in the field can hold a city. The Ming Dynasty spent more than 6 million taels a year on the military of Liaodong, which was about the same as the military expenditure of the Nine Sides combined. I'm going to ask Mr. Sun, how much tax can Nurhachi collect in Liaodong in a year? How much silver can he take out to raise the so-called Eight Banners Army? Chongzhen's questioning had been tepid, but Sun Chengzong felt a little sweaty.

For a long time, Sun Chengzong never thought about how much military salary the Jin Army could spend in a year after this. Liaodong is vast and sparsely populated. Although Houjin is different from Mongolia, it can be regarded as a nation of agriculture mixed with fishing and hunting. But no matter how it is calculated, Houjin's annual income will not reach half of Liaodong's military expenditure.

The Eight Banners system of the Later Jin Dynasty, the soldiers who go out and the people who enter are the people, are worlds apart from the military expenses of the Ming army, but the combat effectiveness shown between the two is just the opposite.