Wang Chengen ran excitedly into the West Nuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace.
"Your Majesty, I am so happy."
Chongzhen was worried about how to deal with those gangsters. He was upset and cursed: "You old dog, what are you doing in surprise? What's the joy in it?"
"Your Majesty, Wei Wei went to the school grounds to review with great fanfare this morning. It turned out that no matter how grand he was, he lost face. When he arrived at the school grounds, he saw that all the soldiers who came were old and weak soldiers, and there were more than a thousand disabled people. . Wei Yan was so angry that he vomited several mouthfuls of blood. He fainted at that time."
Hearing this, he was overjoyed. This is good. Wei Wei failed to mobilize his troops this time. Everyone in the world saw it. He had no military power. Now more than half of his power was removed. A tiger without teeth is still a tiger. .
"Quick, tell us the situation in detail." Chongzhen said excitedly.
"I have found out clearly. Yesterday, Wei Gong took His Majesty's jade seal and went straight to the Supervisor of Ceremonies to draw up the imperial edict. Then he executed the seal and forced the deputy of the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army."
Chongzhen listened intently.
Urged: "Then what?"
"After the eunuch of Wei Dynasty, he sent people to the British Duke's Mansion to convey the decree. At that time, the generals and nobles in the capital camp were discussing countermeasures in the palace. The British Duke happily accepted the decree, and then told the generals that this handwriting was not written by His Majesty. . Then he went back to the backyard. The generals felt that this was inappropriate and came to see His Majesty. Yesterday, they were in trouble again."
"This morning Wei Wei went to Deshengmen Campus with great fanfare and led a large group of troops to review. When the three drums came down, six thousand people arrived, many of them, but they were all old pawns in their fifties, sixties, and ten years old, and there were another thousand There are so many disabled people who have to lean on the barrel of a gun to walk."
Hearing this, Chongzhen laughed and said: "Let me just say that the nobles are still reliable. After all, their wealth and honor belong to the country. If they don't support me, who can they support? Everything about them is tied to the Ming Dynasty, how can they support it?" Here's Wei Wei. Well done."
Wang Chengen continued: "Wei Eunuch was furious at the time. He thought that these old men were recruited temporarily, and he wanted to use this to question some generals and kill them as a warning to others. After an investigation, it was found that these people were all regular soldiers and there was nothing wrong with them."
Chongzhen said in surprise: "There are so many old pawns in the Beijing camp, why don't they retire? Doesn't the court have a system for a long time? Anyone who is over forty-five years old can apply for retirement."
Wang Chengen explained: "At that time, Wei Eunuch also thought that these people were temporarily selected to disgust him, but as a result, Cui Chengxiu, the Minister of War, explained to Wei Eunuch in private that seven out of ten of the Beijing camps were these veterans, starting from the middle period of the temple , everyone in the Ministry of War relies on taking bribes from retired veterans to support their families. If they don’t pay bribes, they will find reasons to delay the process. If they don’t have anything to do, they will train them to death and force them to spend money to pay bribes. Those who really have no money, officials from the Ministry of War entrusted Their relatives gave them usury and asked them to borrow money to give gifts.”
"What, my Beijing camp has actually reached this point."
Chongzhen was dumbfounded. There were more than 300,000 soldiers in the capital. He thought it was understandable that the Ministry of War and the generals had some free pay. After all, there were still 100,000 or 80,000 soldiers to fight.
Unexpectedly, the entire Jingying camp was in complete turmoil, and most of them were actually old pawns.
They can't retire, and the young men can't be replenished. It's actually because the officials of the Ministry of War want to collect money, and they won't retire if they don't have money.
You don’t need to ask to understand why there are so many old men.
Those in their forties who want to retire can borrow usurious loans. Anyone in their sixties who is willing to lend us usurious loans will naturally be unable to withdraw.
These people probably won't be able to cancel their quotas even if they die of old age, because it's impossible for them to die of old age. According to regulations, they would have retired long ago.
These places can only be used as free money.
Chongzhen broke out in a cold sweat. Looking at it this way, it would be good to have 70,000 to 80,000 people out of the more than 300,000 people in the Beijing camp. It is estimated that only 30,000 to 40,000 people can actually fight.
"Wei Gong is dumbfounded now. You want to mobilize troops. Six thousand people have arrived. They are all regular soldiers and none of them are temporarily hired. As for these people who are old, weak, sick and disabled, what is the value of their service? It's the work of the gentlemen from the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War is your territory. After receiving the money, they will only honor you. We haven't seen a penny. You can't blame us for this. .”
At this time, Chongzhen no longer had the joy he had at the beginning, and was only left with sadness. The ancestral family property had actually fallen to this state. This was still the emperor's feet, the most virtuous area, and the emperor's personal army were like this. What would the guards in other places be like? , I really don’t dare to think about it.
"Then Wei was castrated into a mute and ate Coptis chinensis. He was so angry that his heart was filled with fire. He vomited blood and fainted on the general stage."
Chongzhen was happy and sad at the same time. He didn't expect that this level of difficulty could be passed like this, and he became the biggest winner. This incident had an unprecedented impact on the Wei Gong Group. There were too many problems that could be seen in this incident. too much.
These old-timers in the officialdom can at least see that he cannot control the army, and now that the Jin Yiwei has begun to defy him, the only ones he can really control are the Dongchang and the Director of Ceremonies.
There are also hundreds of eunuchs armed with internal operations.
Once the emperor changes everyone in the palace, he will be in trouble.
He was dependent on the emperor's existence. After Tianqi left and Chongzhen refused to let him depend on him, his future was extremely bleak.
"How's it going over there in Yangliuqing?" The emperor put down one thing and then immediately thought of another.
"I don't know why, but there has been no news from there. He is probably still in Yangliuqing Town and has not continued to Beijing."
"It seems that the people behind the scenes want to see Beijing's reaction. After causing the impact, they will stop for a moment. Tushan is indeed right. The matter itself is not about what he did after entering Beijing, but after it happened. Reactions from all sides.”
Chongzhen said thoughtfully. "Since we don't move, it's best to wait and see how all parties react first."
At this time, in Yangliuqing Town, in the Chen family courtyard, in the square in front of the main hall.
There are two Taishi chairs and a small mahogany table.
Yang Fan and Xiao Niangpi were sitting on chairs with their legs crossed and holding bowls of catechu. They felt very comfortable.
"Haha, I didn't expect that in this poor place, I could actually drink the top-notch West Lake Longjing. What an unexpected surprise." Tu Shanyue was delighted, sipping the tea.
"What a pity. It would be better if we had some water from Hupao Spring for cooking."
"This is already very delicious." Yang Fan has been working on the construction site day and night for these years, and he knows how to drink a lot of good tea.
Give him a glass of jasmine and he will say it tastes good.
Xiao Niangpi snorted contemptuously and said: "It's a pity that such a good Yuqian Longjing is so cheap, you stupid pig, it's really a pig entering the vegetable garden and doing nothing, it really ruins the scenery."
"There is a saying in my hometown that even good cabbage is eaten by pigs, hehe," Yang Fan said with a playful smile.
The little girl was stunned for a moment, but she quickly came to her senses, her pretty face turned red for a moment, and she spat: "Bah, a dog can't spit out ivory from its mouth."
At this time, Old Mrs. Chen and his family, who were kneeling on the ground and shaking, were crying.
"I have a small family fortune. I am willing to give five thousand taels of silver to the two Shangguan. I also ask the two Shangguan to be merciful and avenge my family. I was robbed by the thief named Qian. There are so many robbers." The old man rushed into the house, and the old and young family couldn't resist. How dare they not give them food and grass? These beasts, fortunately the soldiers descended from the sky and saved the old man and his family from the fire." The old man said and cried bitterly. A look of gratitude.
Xiao Niangpi sneered in her heart, "Five thousand taels, you're just sending it to a beggar."
Chen Guzi has caused all the ruins of your Chen family, and you are still pretending to be stupid here.
"Zhang Gada, bring up the stick."
"Ah!" Old Mrs. Chen almost fainted from the fright. "Shangguan, please forgive me. My brother is too old to be able to do this."
