The strong wind howled in the Forbidden City in winter, and the Han general standing outside the imperial study involuntarily shrank his neck. Compared to the cold wind outside, the roar of Emperor Chongzhen in the imperial study was even more chilling.
"Is Liu Yan going to raise his troops to force the palace?"
Emperor Chongzhen angrily threw the fine celadon tea cup to the ground. There was a crisp cracking sound, which scared Wang Chengen and quickly knelt down and kowtowed.
"What else do I want? All his generals have been granted the title of commander-in-chief, deputy general, and so many counts. Who else can get this grace? Why is Liu Yan forcing me!"
"His Majesty!"
Wang Chengen kowtowed and begged: "Your Majesty, please calm down. It's better to find ways to ease the situation first. Mr. Hongge is still waiting for reinforcements to relieve the siege. The court has not received news from Mr. Hongge for more than ten days, and it cannot be delayed any longer." Got it!"
Emperor Chongzhen panted violently and said angrily: "What should I do? Do I still want to invite Liu Yan's army to the city to rest!"
"Your Majesty, why not just let the wounded soldiers in Liu Yan's army enter the city, so Liu Yan has no excuse..."
Emperor Chongzhen gritted his teeth and said, "How can I change my order in the morning and evening? Not a single soldier can enter the city!"
Wang Chengen kowtowed again: "Your Majesty, please don't act on your own initiative at this time. Liu Yan is still loyal to the court, so don't force yourself on him."
"Is this considered loyalty?"
Emperor Chongzhen laughed angrily and said: "Immediately convene the cabinet, the six ministries, and the thirteen yamen of Yushitai to discuss matters in Qianqing Palace. I will convene the ministers to discuss countermeasures!"
Wang Chengen suddenly wailed in his heart and said: "At this time, Your Majesty must not magnify this matter. Those clear-minded people in the court will do bad things!"
"Can't I even dispatch you?
? "
"I don't dare!"
An hour later, Qianqing Palace.
All civil and military officials gathered together, and Emperor Chongzhen immediately informed the officials that Liu Yan refused to accept the imperial edict and requested to lead an army into the city for rest, which immediately aroused denunciation from the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty.
At this time, the affairs of the cabinet were managed by Chen Yan, the Minister of Household Affairs and a bachelor of Wuyingdian, who was regarded as the acting chief assistant of the cabinet.
Chen Yan has a very bad reputation in history. Chen Yan was a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi. He first served as editor of the Hanlin Academy. After Emperor Chongzhen came to the throne, he was promoted to the head of the Hanlin Academy. In the thirteenth year of Emperor Chongzhen, he was promoted to the right of the Ministry of Rites. Assistant Minister, Assistant Manager of Zhan Shifu.
Chen Yan was good at colluding with his ministers. In April of the thirteenth year of Emperor Chongzhen's reign, he secretly learned from his ministers the questions that Emperor Chongzhen wanted to ask the next day. The cabinet prospered from then on. In the 15th year of Emperor Chongzhen's reign, he served as Minister of Household Affairs and Bachelor of Wuyingdian for his meritorious service in quelling the rebellion in Shandong.
Chen Yan was mediocre in talent and mean-spirited. During his official career, he excluded dissidents, avenged personal vendettas, and deceived Emperor Chongzhen. As Emperor Chongzhen's number one favorite after Zhou Yanru's death, Chen Yan had no plan and made many mistakes.
In history, when Li Zicheng invaded Shanxi, Emperor Chongzhen and his ministers wanted to mobilize Wu Sangui from Ningyuan to withdraw from Shanhaiguan and resist Li Zicheng. However, Chen Yanli opposed all opinions and Wu Sangui failed to make the trip. Later, Emperor Chongzhen regretted it and quickly transferred Wu Sangui to Shanxi. Pass, by this time Datong and Xuancheng had fallen, and the opportunity to fight had been lost.
Chen Yan also resigned in February of the 17th year because of this incident. The officials wanted to accuse Chen Yan. Chen Yan said to Emperor Chongzhen that I made an improper judgment and deserved death. Emperor Chongzhen said angrily: You deserve to die! Blast out of the hall.
The first assistant was succeeded by Wei Zaode.
The next month, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing and the Ming Dynasty fell. Chen Yan was imprisoned by Liu Zongmin. Chen Yan took the initiative to hand over 40,000 taels of silver as "salary aid" and was released by Liu Zongmin. Four days later, Li Zicheng went out of Beijing to attack Wu Sangui. The old ministers of the Ming Dynasty took the opportunity to cause trouble in Beijing and decided to kill a group of old ministers of the Ming Dynasty. Chen Yan spent all his family property and was captured and beheaded after only four days of freedom.
At this time, although Chen Yan was not driven away by Emperor Chongzhen, he did not do anything in the court. Instead, he led a group of Donglin Party members in the main hall and began to denounce Liu Yan. Among them were the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Wei Zaode, a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion, worked the hardest.
Wei Zaode was elected in the autumn of the 18th year of Wanli, and then began to enter the court. Although he made some achievements, he was pedantic and greedy for money, and he often acted wisely and protected himself in matters of right and wrong.
Historically, when Li Zicheng was approaching Beijing step by step, Chongzhen was eager to raise military pay and ordered officials to donate money to "help pay." In order to save his family's wealth, Wei Zaode took the lead in saying that his family had no money left and opposed Chongzhen's pay collection. However, the pay collection did not bear fruit. So he settled the matter hastily.
In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign, when the city of Beijing was beset with internal and external difficulties, Wei Zaode was appointed as the chief minister of the cabinet. When Li Zicheng's troops came to the city, Chongzhen asked him what countermeasures he had. He, who was always eloquent, chose to remain silent. If Chongzhen asked again, you only need to speak. I immediately ordered the order to be followed, but Wei Zaode lowered his head and did not answer.
Three days later, Beijing fell, Chongzhen hanged himself, and the Ming Dynasty fell. Wei Zaode, on the other hand, is hiding at home and quietly waiting for the days to come. This young chief minister who has not yet reached his forties believes that he still has a long way to go. With his talents and eloquence,
He, Li Zicheng's Dashun Dynasty will definitely cherish his extraordinary talents, make a comeback, and become a general and prime minister.
It's a pity that Li Zicheng didn't give him a chance to speak. After Dashun's army entered the city, General Liu Zongmin immediately arrested Wei Zaode and other important ministers and imprisoned them. He had only one request, which was the same as Chongzhen's request at that time, which was to donate money to support him.
Wei Zaode was forced to hand over tens of thousands of taels of silver when his fingers were cut off with a stick. However, Liu Zongmin never believed that a cabinet minister only had hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, so he continued to torture him. Wei Zaode once shouted in prison that he had never been the master before. You have been loyal and repaid your service. Today, it is too late to regret it!
After five days and five nights of torture, Wei Zaode died in prison of a split brain, and his son was immediately executed.
At this time in the main hall, Wei Zaode said impassionedly and loudly: "Although Liu Yan has military merits, he is still a human minister. If you ask me to die, I have to die. How can Liu Yan intimidate your father? This is a crime of great disrespect." , the Northern Town Fusi Jinyi Guards should be sent out of the city immediately to arrest Liu Yan and hand him over to the Three Laws Division for discussion!"
Subsequently, several imperial censors also agreed. In their mouths, Liu Yan seemed to have become a more terrifying threat than Li Zicheng and the Qing army. It seemed that if Liu Yan was not suppressed this time, the Ming Dynasty would force the country's generals to die. country.
Chen Xinjia stood aside and couldn't listen anymore, and retorted: "I see that when you entered the palace, you all rode in thick woolen sedans with stoves and wore gorgeous winter clothes. But who of you has to walk through the cold winter clothes?" Iron armor? Who has fought in formations in the ice and snow? Thousands of wounded soldiers in Liu Yan's army are now waiting for treatment and recuperation in the cold winter wilderness. Liu Yan proposed to let the army soldiers enter the city. Although
The attitude is wrong, but it is not unreasonable. How can you talk so harshly to each other! "
Chen Yan said with a smile: "We are all important ministers of the court and the emperor of the country. Isn't it a little inappropriate for me to compare us with the vulgar warriors in Liu Yan's army?"
Chen Xinjia said angrily: "Mr. Chen Ge, please don't forget that it was those vulgar warriors who defeated hundreds of thousands of Qing troops so that you adults can talk here!"
"Hmph! Serving as soldiers and eating food is what they are supposed to do. It is not an achievement. Besides, Your Majesty already has a favor. It is Liu Yan who refuses to obey the order. Who can blame him?"
Chen Xinjia looked at Chen Yan, Wei Zaode and others, and his face turned red with anger. Even Li Rixuan, the Minister of Rites, and Liu Zongzhou, the censor of Zuodu, frowned slightly after listening to their words. Apparently, they felt that Chen Yan and Wei Zaode's words were a bit extreme. .
However, the two of them were also members of the Donglin Party. Even if they had some thoughts at this time, they could not lose the battle, so they joined in and started to attack Chen Xinjia.
As the Minister of the Ministry of War, Chen Xinjia, no matter how bad his relationship with Liu Yan was, in the perception of those Donglin Party members, he and Liu Yan were of the same party. So at this time, Chen Xinjia could only speak for Liu Yan. Helping Liu Yan was helping himself.
At this moment, Chen Xinjia had the style of quarreling with other scholars. He had loud arguments with Chen Yan, Wei Zaode, Li Rixuan, Liu Zongzhou and others, and the hall became a mess.
Wei Zaode shouted loudly: "A military leader actually threatens the Holy Majesty. Do you really think that there is no one in my court? If your Majesty agrees to Liu Yan's request and everyone follows suit in the future, will this still be the court of the Ming Dynasty? This is not bad!"
Chen Xinjia asked angrily: "
What His Majesty wants now is a strategy, a strategy on how to solve the current predicament. It is not for you to vent your dissatisfaction here and catch whoever you want to scold! Where is the solution? Can any of you think of a way to let Liu Yan take the order and withdraw the troops? If you can't think of a practical solution and just want to rant, stop talking! "
Immediately, Li Rixuan and Chen Yan led several imperial censors to besiege Chen Xinjia, denouncing him for "vulgar language, filthy sage hearing", "protecting warriors, and insulting gentlemen". Anyway, everyone stood on the high ground of morality and criticized Chen Xinjia. Chen Xinjia made various accusations, but no one stood up to solve the problem.
Wei Zaode even said loudly: "Your Majesty, I believe that the money and food supply of Liu Yan's tribe should be cut off immediately, and I will order generals from the court to take over the battalions of Liu Yan's new army, and then take Liu Yan into custody on the spot!"
Chen Xinjia was "besieged" by everyone. At this time, he was already busy dealing with it and could not care about Wei Zaode's nonsense. Emperor Chongzhen was also silent.
Wang Chengen was so anxious that his heart felt like it was being eaten by thousands of ants. Looking at Wei Zaode's righteous look, he wanted to rush forward and strangle Wei Zaode to death with the whisk in his hand.
"Hey, my Lord Wei, what time has it been? Don't say angry words, let's say something more real!"
Wang Chengen ignored the taboos of internal officials and loudly "warned" Wei Zaode.
However, Wei Zaode seemed to be possessed by a sage at this time. He ignored Wang Chengen's words and continued to say loudly: "Even if Your Majesty is kind and unwilling to take down Liu Yan, the post of Governor of Shandong can no longer be held by Liu Yan. He should be replaced by Liu Yan." The DPRK sent another capable official to take over the military affairs of Shandong, and transferred Liu Yan to another place.
place, separate him from his subordinates and reduce his power! "
As soon as these words came out, they immediately received the support of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty. Those Donglin Party members seemed to have been given a shot of blood, and they all agreed one after another.
Chen Yan even smiled and asked Chen Xinjia: "What do you think, my soldier? Isn't this a feasible suggestion? This can not only eliminate the hidden dangers of a dynasty, but also allow Liu Yan to continue to serve the country, killing two birds with one stone." ,Ha ha."
Chen Xinjia was so angry that he almost vomited blood. The top priority now was to mobilize troops, money and food to rescue Hong Chengchou's tribe as soon as possible. It was the last mobile force loyal to the court, and there must be no mistakes.
As for Liu Yan, they should try to appease him as much as possible, and then let Liu Yan lead his troops to fight Li Zicheng's army. This is the best choice for the court.
But what did these Donglin Party members do? He doesn't do business, but he always wants to deal with Liu Yan, for fear that Liu Yan will become an official in the court by virtue of his military exploits and use the power of the Donglin Party members!
Chen Xinjia knew that he couldn't make sense to these people, so he looked at Emperor Chongzhen and wanted to start from Emperor Chongzhen's side and persuade Emperor Chongzhen to appease Liu Yan as soon as possible.
But when Chen Xinjia saw Emperor Chongzhen's expression, he just felt that the sky was falling and the earth was falling: At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had a happy smile on his face and was "exchanging eyebrows" with Wei Zaode.
Immediately afterwards, Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "We will retreat from the court for now. Wei Aiqing and Chen Aiqing go to the imperial study to wait for the summons."
