On the throne of the Wenhua Palace, Chongzhen supported his chin with one hand, and his two eyes seemed to have lost focus, staring at the sunlight outside the temple gate. In fact, he wasn't looking at the sun, but wandering.

Less than 5 meters in front of him, more than a dozen ministers were foaming at the mouth and arguing about the construction of the Shanxi Railway. The controversy did not interest him simply because the ministers were not discussing technical issues or the social problems that would arise from the construction of the railway, but merely competing for the interests of their respective groups.

When Chongzhen proposed to raise money from Jin merchants to build a horse-drawn railway connecting the north and west of Shanxi, and use this project to absorb the displaced people from Shaanxi, basically no officials were optimistic about this plan.

These officials believe that if they want to extract 3.5 million taels of silver from the hands of those old Shanxi wealthy, this is just the little emperor talking to himself.

Because of this, the cabinet happily approved the plan to set up the Shanxi Bank and issue Shanxi railway bonds.

And when Chongzhen asked the Ministry of Industry to recommend a minister of railway supervision, the officials of the Ministry of Industry became very negative, because no one knew when the railway would be launched, and they did not know that the 3.5 million taels of railway construction funds would be raised until the Year of the Monkey.

Since they really couldn't find a candidate, the civil officials who had always opposed the court's interference in government affairs even suggested that it would be better to let the palace send a minister to supervise it.

The eunuchs in the palace were obviously not fools, and they also rejected the suggestion of the Ministry of Works. Basically, except for Chongzhen himself, even Wang Chengen felt that the goal set by this plan was too big.

However, only one month later, the Jin merchants, led by the Sandetang firm, raised 2.2 million taels of silver, of which the Sandetang family accounted for more than half of the capital. When the news was transmitted back to the capital, the post of Shanxi Railway Supervisor immediately became a sought-after hot potato.

For example, at today's national meeting, the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Officials quarreled for almost half a morning over the post of Minister of Railways.

For this situation, Chongzhen is also a little helpless. 3.5 million taels of silver, which is almost equivalent to the annual income of Daming Taicang Silver. Under the lure of such a large sum of money, these officials seem to have forgotten the existence of him as an emperor.

In fact, Zhu Youzhen was still a little glad in his heart, fortunately, the Great Dynasty would be replaced by the National Conference. The quarrel between these dozens of people is much more tempered than the quarrel of hundreds of people.

After a fierce quarrel, Zhang Fangjian and Wu Mingyu became the most powerful contenders for the Minister of Railway.

The support received by these two people was equal, and the ministers in the palace were at a stalemate, and Huang Liji had to ask Chongzhen for a holy judgment in order to end this chaotic situation.

If the railway is in the North Zhili area, Chongzhen will definitely select this railway superintendent according to his own ideas. After all, the Beizhili region is right under his nose, and this railway minister can directly get his support.

However, the Shanxi region separated by the Taihang Mountains is different, where the transportation with the North Zhili is inconvenient, and the local gentry are strong. In addition, the railway project is also linked to Shaanxi's famine relief efforts, so the personnel supervising the construction of the Shanxi railway must have the power or ability to suppress local officials.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time before he looked at the ministers and said, "I think everyone's recommendation opinions on Zhang Fangjian and Wu Mingyu are very reasonable.

Although the position of the Minister of Railways is not high, the responsibility is very heavy. The construction of more than 3,000 miles of railways, with a total cost of more than 3.5 million taels, even I had to consider it carefully.

However, what is now in front of the imperial court is not only the transportation problem of communicating the north and south of Shanxi, but also the problem of disaster relief in Shaanxi. In my view, the issue of disaster relief should take precedence over the issue of railway construction.

Therefore, the most priority at present is to start the construction of the Shanxi railway, so that we can start to absorb the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi and avoid large-scale civil unrest in various parts of Shaanxi.

So I thought that Zhuqing didn't have to argue anymore. It is better to let Wu Mingyu serve as the Minister of Railway Supervision and let Zhang Fangjian serve as the co-organizer. ordered the two to cooperate with each other and immediately go to Shanxi to take office. ”

Although Huang Liji was a little disappointed, the Wu Mingyu he recommended to get a co-organizer was not a complete failure, but it was enough to accept it.

Wu Chunfu, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, was greatly relieved, and was able to win the Minister of Railway Supervision, which means that the construction of this railway will be dominated by the Ministry of Industry, rather than being influenced by the Ministry of Households, which is indeed good news for the Ministry of Industry.

After solving the problem that the ministers were most concerned about, the next few topics were discussed relatively calmly.

Among them, Chongzhen was more concerned about the fact that some officials began to feel uneasy about Sun Chengzong's heavy troops in Datong and his delay in taking action.

They believed that they had stationed heavy troops on the border, but they had been delaying to fight against the Mongols, firstly, it would cost money and food, and secondly, Sun Chengzong was suspected of supporting the troops and respecting himself.

These officials all said that Chongzhen was a little troubled, but he was not worried about Sun Chengzong, but worried about whether Yuan Chonghuan would come again and play a trick that would not be granted to the monarch abroad.

However, he still remembers that he finally took advantage of the fact that when he ascended the throne, the civil government was divided and weakened its control over the army. How is it possible now, let these civilian officials interfere in military arrangements.

In the end, Chongzhen forcibly skipped the question and ended the discussion. However, the next problem, even he can't escape.

That is the report on the disaster situation in the south, Yanzhou and Huzhou floods in July, while Jiaxing, Shaoxing, and Hangzhou were hit by continuous winds and tsunamis.

According to Chongzhen's requirements, after making a detailed calculation of the property and personnel in the affected area. Today, there is finally an official damage report from Zhejiang. Tens of thousands of houses were destroyed and tens of thousands of people drowned, with Haining and Xiaoshan being the most affected, with economic losses estimated at more than 1.4 million taels.

Listening to these reports, Zhu Youzhen found that he didn't seem to be as excited about this kind of bad news as he was when he heard about it just now.

He methodically agreed, and the Cabinet proposed a disaster relief plan, in addition to reducing taxes in these areas, and also agreed to distribute 200,000 stone of relief food. Some of this food will be distributed directly to the victims, and some of it will be used to repair the disaster and clean up the affected areas.

“… In addition to disaster relief, the governments of these three places also have to actively organize the victims to help themselves, after all, the natural conditions in Jiangnan are better than those in Shaanxi, as long as some disaster relief food is planted in time, or..." Zhu Youzhen was talking about his thoughts when a violent shaking of the ground interrupted his words.

He subconsciously grabbed the heavy throne so that he didn't let himself be thrown out of his seat. "Earthquakes? Your sister, there is still an earthquake in Beijing. Zhu Youzhen grabbed the armrest of the throne and finally reacted from his confusion.

The duration of the earthquake was short, perhaps for others it was a long time, but for Zhu Youzhen, who was out of anger, the earthquake stopped in an instant.

The intensity of the earthquake was not great, and most of the monarchs and ministers in the Wenhua Hall only fell, only a few were unlucky, and when they fell, their heads hit the pillar, making them bleed, which looked more scary.

As soon as the earthquake stopped, Wang Chengen and several cabinet ministers ran to Chongzhen's side like crazy, asking him to leave the palace quickly and go to the empty square outside.

Less than a year after he ascended the throne, he was hit by droughts, floods, winds, tsunamis, wars, and now an earthquake. Even if his soul comes from the afterlife, he feels full of anger in his heart at this moment, but he can't find someone he wants to vent to.

But Chongzhen didn't want to leave at all, he cursed in his heart with a blue face, "Thief God, you have a kind of just collapse this house, stone me to death, see if Lao Tzu will bird you." ”

Seeing that Chongzhen was silent, Wang Chengen and Huang Liji glanced at each other, and they both felt that the emperor was too frightened and couldn't react for a while.

The two made a decision in an instant, they no longer urged the emperor, but directly grabbed Chongzhen's arm, and ran quickly towards the outside of the hall.

After a while, dozens of ministers, hundreds of guards, ministers and cabinet assistants stood on the square outside the Wenhua Palace, and they tightly surrounded Chongzhen in the center of the circle.

When he was pulled out of the Wenhua Hall without touching the ground, Zhu Youzhen realized that the gray-haired old ministers around him seemed to be flying like flying at this moment, and their strength was infinite, and they did not have the weakness of the past at all.

After standing in the square and taking a few deep breaths, Zhu Youzhen finally suppressed the unwarranted anger in his heart.

He cleared his throat and instructed Wang Chengen beside him: "You inform Wang Dehua and Lian Shanxiang, Wang Dehua is in charge of the palace city, and Lian Shanxiang is in charge of the imperial city."

Each of them led people to inspect each palace room, whether there were any injuries, whether there was a fire, and ordered everyone to go outdoors so that there would be no injury accidents. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly lowered his voice, leaned closer to Wang Chengen and said, "Let Zhou Hou first, Tian, Yuan Erfei, and the imperial sister-in-law run to a safe place." ”

Wang Chengen immediately agreed, then turned around and squeezed out of the crowd. Huang Liji held a handkerchief and pressed it on his forehead, looking at Chongzhen's clear instructions for the strain in the palace, and he was relieved.

He was really scared, and at this time Chongzhen was stunned by the earthquake. Xu Guangqi, who was standing beside Chongzhen, listened to the emperor's contingency measures, and also subconsciously suggested: "The minister thinks that Your Majesty's disposal measures are very appropriate, so it is better to notify Shuntian Mansion to deal with it in the same way, so as to avoid greater losses to the people of the capital." ”

Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu, Guo Yunhou, Wu Chunfu, and others all thought so, and they also added a few measures, ordering the transfer of two battalions of the new army into the capital, doing a good job in public order work in the capital, and preventing some homeless people from having bad intentions tonight.

Zhu Youzhen agreed to the cabinet's request and asked the people left behind in the General Staff in the Wuying Hall to notify the personnel of the General Staff to mobilize the new army into Beijing.

After dealing with the sudden earthquake, Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, and then said to the cabinet members who were standing in embarrassment beside him: "This natural disaster is so unexpected, if you have to wait until the imperial court receives the news every time to deal with it, it will undoubtedly delay the hope of the victims to be rescued."

I wonder if the cabinet could consider setting up a separate department to deal with such a sudden disaster, and do some basic work before the imperial court has yet to make a disaster relief plan..."