"It's cold and the road is far away, so it's time for my troops to make a trip."
Inside the Tongzhou Zhizhou Yamen, Liu Yan enthusiastically welcomed Chen Xinjia into the house and ordered tea to be served.
Chen Xinjia felt a lot more at ease when he saw this, and then he took out the imperial edict and said, "Let's not go through the red tape of announcing the decree. Duke Lu can just read the edict directly."
Liu Yan took the edict with a smile, but did not open it. Instead, he placed it directly on the table at hand.
Chen Xinjia was stunned when he saw this and said, "What does Duke Lu mean by this?"
Liu Yan said: "You don't need to read this edict. I know what it is. It's just that your Majesty ordered me to lead the army to pacify Li Zicheng."
"That's true."
Chen Xinjia said: "Does Duke Lu have any objections?"
"Of course I have no objections. It is the duty of the military men of the Ming Dynasty to pacify the bandits, and I naturally have no shirk. It's just..."
"But what? If you have any requests, the Duke of Lu will make them, and I will rush back to report to His Majesty. But this military situation cannot be delayed any longer. If Li Zicheng is allowed to gain a foothold in the Central Plains and the northwest provinces, it will be difficult to pacify him. "
Liu Yan said: "Why did Hong Chengchou surrender to the thieves? It's not that Hong Chengchou is incompetent, nor that the elites of the Nine Sides can't fight, but that there are traitors in the court. Those Donglin Party members in the court are drunk and dreaming every day. Every family has a lot of wealth, but they take Not paying for food to supply the army at the front resulted in more than 100,000 soldiers under Hong Chengchou going without food for a month. They were unable to fight or retreat. In the end, the defeated army surrendered. Should this account be settled?"
Chen Xinjia turned pale and said, "What does Duke Lu want to do?"
At this time, Liu Yan also sighed in his heart. In fact, at the beginning of the establishment of the Donglin Party,
That is to say, when Donglin Academy was established, it was still very positive. The original Donglin Party members criticized the current ills and dared to fight to the death against corrupt officials in the DPRK and China. They were really able to come up with practical strategies for governing the country.
But later, as Donglin Party members gradually entered the court as officials, and many civil servants were recruited into the Donglin Party, things completely changed.
Today's Donglin Party members exclude dissidents, take bribes and pervert the law, are selfish, neglect state affairs, and fight against dissenters with the same party. They have completely degenerated into a group that competes for power and profit. As for the life and death of the people in the world and the survival of the Ming Empire, those are not what the Donglin Party members care about. They only care about whether they have more money in their homes and whether they have greater authority in their hands.
Of course, there are also people with lofty ideals in the Donglin Party. Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chengzong, and Sun Chuanting are all worthy of the title of Chinese heroes. There are also those who committed suicide and martyred their country when the Ming Dynasty fell in history, or continued to fight against the Qing Dynasty, or lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests. The Donglin Party members who do not want to be slaves to foreigners are also worthy of respect.
Even the Chen Xinjia in front of him was enough for Liu Yan to respect him. No matter whether his ability was outstanding or not, and whether Chen Xinjia was greedy for money or not, at least when it came to matters of right and wrong, Chen Xinjia had no debt and could still run for the Ming Dynasty and the world.
But Liu Yan knows that Donglin Party members like Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chengzong are only rare. Now the vast majority of Donglin Party members have become the gravediggers of the Ming Dynasty and must be eliminated!
At this time, Chen Xinjia asked Liu Yan what he wanted to do. Liu Yan breathed a sigh of relief, took out a memorial from the desk in front of him, and said: "The governor wrote a memorial.
I would like to ask you to forward this impeachment memorial to Your Majesty on your behalf. "
Chen Xinjia felt bitter in his mouth. Although he had already guessed the content, he still held a glimmer of hope and asked, "Who is Duke Lu going to impeach?"
"Donglin Party!"
Liu Yan said: "This governor impeached Donglin Party officials, causing harm to the country and the people. Please ask Your Majesty to issue an edict to investigate and deal with the Donglin Party!"
"What!"
Chen Xinjia was already a little crazy at this time and said loudly: "Don't you know, Duke Lu, that I am also from Donglin, as is Lu Xiangsheng, and so is Yan Jizu? Are we going to be investigated too!"
Liu Yan stared at Chen Xinjia who was shouting, and casually took out another memorial and said: "This is a memorial from the Governor to His Majesty, who is an official from the Donglin Party who is trying to protect me, my soldiers, Governor Lu, and Governor Yan, as well as There are forty-seven people including Mr. Sun Ge and Mr. Sun Chuanting, all of whom have made great contributions to the country. Please treat them differently."
Chen Xinjia took the memorial, held the two memorials in his hands, and then asked: "Gong Lu, you have planned everything in advance, right?"
Liu Yan didn't speak, just nodded.
"good!"
Chen Xinjia sighed and said, "I'll rush back to the capital right now!"
Chen Xinjia rode the carriage and ran all the way, and rushed back to Beijing at nightfall that day. When Chen Xinjia arrived at the Meridian Gate in the carriage and staggered out of the car, his whole body seemed to be falling apart. He shrank back and almost fell to his knees. On the ground, luckily he was pulled up by the driver and his entourage.
"You guys wait here, I want to enter the palace immediately!"
Chen Xinjia hurriedly handed his badge to the Han general guarding the gate, then quickly entered the palace gate and went straight to the imperial study.
"His Majesty!"
Chen Xinjia looked at Emperor Chongzhen and saw Emperor Chongzhen’s eyes.
It was full of shock, shock, anger and other emotions, but surprisingly this time he did not vent them. Instead, he sat quietly on the dragon chair and said after a long time: "Is this Liu Yan's condition?"
"yes!"
"What a plan!"
Emperor Chongzhen closed his eyes, as if he was very tired, and said in an erratic voice: "Liu Yan will definitely lead his army to fight against Li Zicheng, but he must eradicate all the unfavorable factors in the court before going out. He wants to The government is reviving the prison!"
Chen Xinjia could not make up his mind at this moment and said: "What do you think our Majesty should do about this matter?"
Emperor Chongzhen said: "Although the Manchu Qing Dynasty was severely damaged, half of the Ming Dynasty was lost. If Liu Yan does not send troops, it may not be long before the city of Beijing under my feet will also be lost. Do I have any other choice?" "
Chen Xinjia knelt directly on the ground and said loudly: "Your Majesty, please issue an order!"
Early the next morning, a piece of news came out like a bolt from the blue. Emperor Chongzhen had twenty-three ministers including Li Rixuan, the Minister of Rites, and Liu Zongzhou, the Yushi of Zuodu, charged with "delaying state affairs," "doing nothing," and "disrespecting talents and virtues." They were dismissed and all rushed back to their places of origin.
Emperor Chongzhen also imprisoned 117 ministers including Cheng Jiming, the chief minister of the cabinet at that time, and Xiong Mingyu, the Minister of Industry , handed over to the three judicial departments for discussion.
At the same time, Emperor Chongzhen promoted Jiang Dejing, the Minister of Hubu and a scholar of Wenyuange, as the chief assistant of the cabinet to temporarily take charge of the affairs of the court and central government. He then recalled Li Daiwen, who had just resigned, to continue to serve as the Minister of Hubu.
After this operation, the entire
The city of Beijing is in chaos. All the ministers in the DPRK and the Central Government know that the officials dismissed and imprisoned by Emperor Chongzhen are all members of the Donglin Party. Is this going to repeat the deeds of suppressing the Donglin Party during the Tianqi Years?
From this day on, the Jin Yiwei of Fusi in Beizhen went out in large numbers and began arresting people and ransacking homes in the city. Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, even personally led a large number of soldiers from the Beijing camp to the streets to maintain order. At the same time, all the forty-nine gates in Beijing were closed. , the whole city was only allowed to enter and no one was allowed to leave. For a while, people in Beijing were panicked.
The imperial prison in Fusi, Beizhen, was also overcrowded in just two or three days. More than a hundred ministers and their family members filled the imperial prison to the brim. These imperial guards began to have no days. He was very busy interrogating and executing people all night long.
In various places in the city, there were a large number of soldiers and guards in uniforms who were seizing various properties and confiscating the mansions and outhouses of more than a hundred Donglin Party members.
In the blink of an eye, on the fifth day, this sudden prison was coming to an end. Most of the Donglin Party members in the DPRK were "kicked out", and the remaining Donglin Party officials were all capable of doing practical things.
On the evening of the fifth day, Chen Xinjia hurried to the Imperial Study Room, met Emperor Chongzhen who had been waiting impatiently, and then submitted a report.
In the past few days, Wang Chengen has actually reported to Emperor Chongzhen several times about the confiscation of homes outside. He knew that a large amount of money and food had been confiscated from the homes of those Donglin Party members. According to the salaries of those officials, even if they did not eat or drink, They had been officials since the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, but they could not save so much money and food!
But Emperor Chongzhen didn’t believe it. Emperor Chongzhen was trained by Confucian classics.
When he was raised as a king, he was surrounded by great scholars. Therefore, in Emperor Chongzhen's values, the Donglin Party was the loyal ministers and good generals. But now someone told Emperor Chongzhen that these loyal generals were corrupt officials. They were all traitors, so Emperor Chongzhen found it hard to accept them.
Until now, Chen Xinjia had presented the memorial of the Tribunal's conclusion. Emperor Chongzhen saw the amount of money and food confiscated recorded in the memorial. More than 9.3 million taels of silver were seized from the homes of 117 Donglin Party officials. On average, each family has 80,000 to 90,000 yuan in stolen money.
As for food, each family's mansion has several granaries, and there are dozens of farms outside Beijing, which store a large amount of food. These 117 families actually stocked more than 850,000 shi. On average, each family has more than 7,000 kilograms of grain in storage, which is equivalent to more than 800,000 kilograms of grain per family!
"Deserve to kill! Deserve to kill!"
Emperor Chongzhen blushed and roared loudly. There was no trace of imperial demeanor at this time. He looked exactly like an angry rough man on the street, cursing loudly.
Chen Xinjia could not have imagined that these Donglin Party members were so greedy for money. Moreover, there were more than 300 shops and other properties in the city, as well as large tracts of cultivated land outside the city. These were all properties in the name of these Donglin Party members. These were not accounted for and inspected. Among the money and food.
Emperor Chongzhen roared angrily: "With so much money and food, how many elite soldiers can be trained and how many people can be rescued! With so much money and food, how could Hong Chengchou's hundreds of thousands of troops defeat Xinzhou, and how could half of our Ming Dynasty be captured by bandits!"
Emperor Chongzhen was not a fool. On the contrary, he was very smart. It was just that he had not received systematic imperial education.
Intelligence has not been transformed into tactics and tactics.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen could also see through the fall of these 117 Donglin Party officials, how many of the ministers in the DPRK were honest? How much food do they have in their hands? I am afraid that the combined wealth of these ministers is greater than the wealth of the entire Ming Dynasty!
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen even had the urge to confiscate the homes of all those corrupt officials and put them in jail!
"His Majesty!"
Chen Xinjia said: "Your Majesty, now that we have the money and food, I would like to ask you to immediately allocate the money and food for the military expenses required by Liu Yan's army."
"allow!"
After Emperor Chongzhen vented his anger, he sat slumped on a chair and said, "All the remaining money and food will be put into the national treasury, and the evidence of Donglin's rebellion will be made public to the world, so that everyone in the government and the public will know. Look at these worms." How you lay down on the bodies of the people of the world and knocked the bones and sucked out the marrow!"
"According to the order!"
When Chen Xinjia heard Emperor Chongzhen call the Donglin Party the Donglin Rebel Party, he knew that Emperor Chongzhen had unknowingly begun to agree with Liu Yan's political cognition, and the Donglin Party would have no place in the court in the future. land.
"well!"
Chen Xinjia sighed, and then heard Emperor Chongzhen ask: "When will Liu Yan be able to gather his troops and go on an expedition?"
"Your Majesty, Liu Yan has reported the army's assembly strategy to the Ministry of War. Each battalion will assemble towards the Bauhinia Pass in the west of Beijing within ten days. Liu Yan will lead the new army's guard battalion, cavalry battalion and artillery battalion in three Depart from Tongzhou within the next day and go to Zijingguan via Beijing City."
"In addition, Liu Yan also requested your majesty that he would like to lead the new army's guard battalion, artillery battalion, and cavalry battalion into the city. He asked your majesty to review the army officers and soldiers, and then lead his troops directly out of the city.
Go to Zijingguan to assemble. "
Emperor Chongzhen breathed a sigh of relief. Liu Yan finally agreed to lead the army on the expedition: "It's accurate!"
