Zhu Yuanzhang stood up slowly and paced back and forth, thinking about how to deal with the enemy.
"The three major battalions can no longer be reused, and they will be defeated sooner or later. And King Qin's division may also have a wait-and-see mood after receiving the edict. The top priority is to organize city defense."
"Fortunately, the walls of the capital city are high and thick, and Li Zicheng is just a fool with a lot of passion. As long as we can hold on to the capital city for half a month, Ningyuan Commander Wu Shangui, Huguang Commander Zuo Liangyu and others should be able to arrive."
"When the time comes, we will cooperate with them internally and externally, and we will definitely be able to defeat this group of rabble and resolve this crisis. Then we will revive the country and restore the glory of the Ming Dynasty."
When Zhu Yuanzhang thought of this, his frown eased a little.
At this time, he happened to see a pale-faced figure with sunken eye sockets in the bronze mirror, wearing a crown of good wings and wearing old bright yellow uniforms.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the person in the mirror carefully for a while, and said with some surprise: "I didn't expect that this younger generation is very similar to us. Unfortunately, he was too eager to seek treatment and used too strict methods, which led to the rampant evil and evil, and the officials pretended to be wrong, and made him become a A lonely man."
It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang had learned from Chongzhen's memory that during the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's rule, more than fifty academicians were abolished, which was almost as many as the number of prime ministers in the 130th year of the early Song Dynasty.
Although he made such drastic measures, he still failed to curb the trend of party disputes. Instead, those people defended each other, were obsessed with power, and paid half-heartedly to major affairs of the government, resulting in increasing chaos in the government's agenda.
Coupled with his suspicious nature and willfulness, he successively killed and forced to death Yuan Chonghuan, Sun Chengzong, Sun Yuanhua, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting and other generals, resulting in a country without good generals and a mob.
Starting from the second year of Chongzhen, the Jianzhou Jurchens in the north became increasingly powerful and went south to plunder several times. Especially after surrendering to the Mongols, Koreans and other tribes, they became more confident and invaded the border areas with increasing urgency.
However, due to the frequent occurrence of natural disasters in the country, coupled with the increase in Liao, Suppression and Training rates every year, riots broke out and wars raged.
Li Zicheng rose to power in such an environment. Although he was defeated many times, he gradually became stronger with the help of Chongzhen's policies.
So much so that now that the army is approaching the city, this young man who is strong on the outside and weak on the inside is so frightened that he hides in the imperial city and trembles.
"If we had come here seventeen years earlier, why would Ming Dynasty be like this?"
After Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, he was about to call Wang Chengen, but was suddenly stunned.
Because another picture appeared in his mind, which was the scene of Chongzhen looking for in-laws and relatives asking for pay.
In the picture, Chongzhen begged the patriarch Zhou Kui, but Zhou Kui was indifferent. In the end, the queen came forward to plead for mercy, and Zhou Kui reluctantly gave him 10,000 gold.
The richest eunuch, Wang Zhixin, reluctantly gave 10,000 gold after Chongzhen cried bitterly.
The other people were even more unbearable. They were all wealthy people, but they only gave Qianer 800 yuan, as if they were sending away beggars.
"How dare these bastards be so presumptuous!"
After Zhu Yuanzhang cursed angrily, he pointed at the figure in the mirror and said: "You, the emperor, act like such a coward. You really disgrace our old Zhu family."
After that, he walked around again and murmured to himself: "Although there are no generals in the city, as long as we are here, I don't think those bandits can do anything."
"It's just that there is no pay in the army, and the morale of the army must be unstable. In addition, these personal guards are not caring to us. If they mutiny because of this, it will be over."
"For the current plan, we must raise military pay as soon as possible and stabilize the morale of the military. Unfortunately, we cannot forcefully collect pay now that the enemy is facing us. It seems that this matter needs to be considered in the long term."
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and thought for a while, then a smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth.
After making a plan in his mind, he wanted to call the eunuch outside the door, but he opened his mouth but no sound came out.
Instead, he slowly walked to the bed, sat down quietly, and silently sorted out the memories in his mind.
"The guards of this capital are handed over to eunuchs. How can we keep it?"
When Zhu Yuanzhang was sorting out the information, he suddenly discovered that the people in charge of defending the city were all eunuchs. He was so surprised that he almost jumped out of bed.
"Confused, really confused! Although Zhu Di, the rebellious son, has taken away Yun Wen's grandson's kingdom, he can be regarded as a generation of heroes, but why are these descendants so miserable?"
"In order to deal with those civil servants, we actually trained these eunuchs and taught them how to read and write. How can Chao Gang not be in chaos? It really makes us angry!"
It turned out that after Zhu Yuanzhang sorted out Chongzhen's memories, he discovered that the eunuch party had been involved in politics for a long time.
When Zhu Di was still the vassal king, he had been secretly bribing eunuchs.
Later, he successfully appeased the eunuch, and he was even more favored and rewarded the eunuch.
First there were the Sanbao eunuchs who made seven voyages to the West, and then there was the governor of Dongchang who was above the law, which made the eunuchs rise rapidly in the Yongle Dynasty.
The subsequent Ren and Xuan sects not only failed to change this situation, but intensified it.
In particular, the Cricket Emperor Zhu Zhanji, in order to check and balance the ministers, actually taught the eunuchs to read and read, which further expanded the eunuchs' rights.
Therefore, the first eunuch who influenced the fate of the Ming Dynasty appeared - Wang Zhen. This man single-handedly pulled the Ming Dynasty into the abyss in Tumubao.
Fortunately, Yu Qian came out at this time, guarded the Ming Dynasty, and raised up the crumbling building.
However, the successors of the Ming Dynasty did not reflect on it and eliminate the shortcomings. Instead, they let themselves go even more.
First, there was the great general Zhu Shou who did not love the throne but preferred to be an official. Then there were the two grandsons of Jiajing and Wanli who had not been in court for decades and were known as quiet control.
Therefore, a large number of powerful eunuchs such as Liu Jin, Zhang Yong, and Feng Bao were created successively, which made the court full of chaos and made it difficult to fulfill their ambitions.
Even Zhang Juzheng, who was called a famous official of ZTE by later generations, had to unite with the eunuch Feng Bao to barely complete his reform project.
The subsequent appearance of the carpenter emperor Zhu Youjian brought the power of the eunuchs to its peak.
Wei Zhongxian, an illiterate eunuch, was able to take charge of the government. He not only claimed to be nine thousand years old, but also had temples all over the world.
So much so that everyone from the emperor's relatives to the traders and footmen all bowed to him and worshiped him, and his popularity was unprecedented.
Although after Chongzhen ascended the throne, he used thunderous means to deal with Wei Zhongxian and eliminate all kinds of eunuch abuses.
But not long after, he also followed the old path of his ancestors, which caused the eunuch party's power to revive and become more and more fierce, and the government became more and more declining...
After Zhu Yuanzhang clarified the history of eunuchs, he realized that the relationship between eunuchs and ministers was complicated. If they were suddenly removed, it would affect the defense of the city.
In desperation, he could only press this button in advance and continue to organize the memory in his mind to avoid missing important information and affecting his decision-making.
"Huh? As an emperor, how come you don't know anything about the defense and ordnance of the capital? How is this so great?"
After Zhu Yuanzhang confirmed that he had inherited all Chongzhen's memories, he was shocked again when he found that there was no information about the city's defense layout.
"No, the top priority is to inspect the city defense. If the city defense is not strong, even if there is food and salary, it will be useless."
After Zhu Yuanzhang cleared his thoughts, he was about to go out, but stopped again.
Because he had just arrived, he didn't know who to trust or who to accompany him to inspect the city defense.
"Well, judging from my memory, the people who are most familiar with city defense are Wang Chengen and Wang Dehua. Although Wang Chengen is too favored, he is loyal by nature, and he is still the queen of the general, so he can barely be considered a usable person."
"As for Wang Dehua, although he comes from a poor background, he is talented and intelligent. He has been in charge of Dongchang for many years and his loyalty is not bad. Besides, he is rectifying the city defense at the moment. It seems that we still have to rely on him for now."
After Zhu Yuanzhang conducted some analysis based on Chongzhen's memory, he screened out two potentially credible people.
Then he casually took off the sword from the wall and hung it on his waist, feeling much more at ease.
"Your Majesty, are you feeling better?"
Zhu Yuanzhang just opened the door of Qianqing Palace and saw Wang Chengen, who was wearing a round-collared scarlet robe, bowing and saluting.
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned when he saw this, and then saw a round-faced little eunuch behind Wang Chengen respectfully holding a set of python robes, and he immediately understood.
After carefully looking at Wang Chengen, he said in a deep voice: "It's okay with us, just follow us to inspect the city defense!"
After saying that, he stepped forward.
Wang Chengen behind him heard this and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's back in surprise.
Especially when he saw the sword on Zhu Yuanzhang's waist, he was even more stunned.
In his impression, Chongzhen disliked wearing a sword the least.
Although Chongzhen also practiced martial arts, it was just to maintain the royal tradition and it was just a false story, and it was never taken seriously.
At this moment, seeing Zhu Yuanzhang walking with his sword in hand, he was stunned for a while, and then hurriedly shouted: "Your Majesty, take off!"
After that, he hurriedly chased Zhu Yuanzhang and said to the little eunuch following him: "Go and tell Luo Yangxing, commander of the Jinyi Guards, to come and escort him!"
When Zhu Yuanzhang, who was walking forward, heard this, he couldn't help but glance sideways at Wang Chengen.
It turned out that he seemed to be leaving in a hurry, but he was actually deliberately testing Wang Chengen.
Because although he has sorted out the memory in his mind, some details are not clear. If a familiar eunuch is there to remind him, it will save a lot of trouble.
That's why he took the opportunity to test whether Wang Cheng'en acted thoughtfully and whether he could take on the position of personal eunuch.
At the same time, he also had another thought, which was to see how Wang Chengen would react when he discovered that he had different words and deeds from Chongzhen.
If Wang Chengen panicked because of this, he would kill him immediately.
If Wang Chengen could remain hidden and still serve respectfully, then he would subtlety and complete the identity transformation through trivial matters.
The reason why he no longer imitates Chongzhen is that he knows that no matter how similar he is to imitating, it will still be exposed in front of people who know him day and night. More importantly, he feels that imitating this younger generation is really a shame.
Therefore, he simply gave up imitating and acted according to his heart.
At this moment, when he saw that Wang Chengen was in a hurry but still maintained his etiquette, and even remembered to summon Luo Yangxing to escort him, his dislike for him could not help but diminish a bit.
"Luo Yangxing, I'm afraid this man is going to make a move!"
After Zhu Yuanzhang carefully reviewed Chongzhen's memory of Luo Yangxing, he found that Luo Yangxing was only average in terms of ability and loyalty.
And the reason why he can hold such an important position is because the son inherited the father's position.
This made Zhu Yuanzhang very insecure, and at the same time he understood why Chongzhen was in such misery.
"Hey, it seems that this start is no better than the broken bowl we had at the beginning!"
Zhu Yuanzhang thought about how he survived with difficulty by relying on a broken bowl and asking for alms everywhere.
Later, relying on his original travels, he created the Ming Dynasty's eternal foundation, and he couldn't help but sigh.
"Your Majesty, would you like to go to the arsenal first, or summon the generals to the command post to inquire?"
Wang Chengen asked cautiously after trotting all the way to catch up with Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "We're not going anywhere. You go and get the horse. We're going to the outer city to see it!"
Wang Chengen had been suspicious when he saw Zhu Yuanzhang's strange behavior before, but now that he heard him talking about holding the horse, his doubts were all gone.
Because just an hour ago, in order to raise military pay, Chongzhen had ordered the large carriages, jade carriages, large horse carriages and other transportation tools to be dismantled and sold.
Now, apart from a few weak royal horses, there is not even a decent chariot wheel to be found in the Royal Horse Prison.
When Wang Chengen thought of this, he felt sad again.
He grabbed the hem of Zhu Yuanzhang's clothes, knelt on his knees and cried: "Your Majesty, the rebels are preparing to attack the city at this moment. You are a man of ten thousand gold. How can you go into danger personally? Your Majesty, please think twice!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was very anxious at this moment. Although he knew that Wang Chengen had good intentions, he felt that he did not understand the general situation and could not distinguish the seriousness, and he couldn't help but feel angry again in his heart.
He pushed Wang Chengen away and shouted angrily: "Wang Chengen, do you know what time it is now to be such a mother-in-law! If we delay our important event because of you, can you afford it?"
Wang Chengen did not shrink from Zhu Yuanzhang's angry rebuke. He climbed up again and grabbed the hem of his clothes, crying: "I was worried about your majesty's safety and was confused for a moment. Please forgive me."
"But it's really impossible to get to the top of the city at the moment. The traitor once bombarded the seven gates. If your Majesty makes a mistake, this old slave will be blamed for his death!"
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he kicked Wang Chengen away again and said angrily: "Foolish thing, if Qimen is at fault, do you think we can survive?"
After that, he quickly walked forward without waiting for Wang Chengen's reply.
Upon seeing this, Wang Chengen glanced back. Since he didn't see Luo Yangxing, he sighed secretly in his heart, then hurriedly got up and chased after Zhu Yuanzhang.
As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang and others left the palace, several people quietly ran out of the palace.
