In the past half month, Shi Kefa's leader was eagerly awaiting reinforcements. However, Li Zicheng's rebel army was in full swing and swept through the surrounding cities of Baoding, including Hejian City, Zhending City... they fell one after another and fell into the hands of the enemy. Baoding City had reached the south gate. The lonely city is like a small boat facing the huge waves.
After Li Zicheng cleaned up the surrounding state capitals, his army came to the city. He showed an aura of conquering the world and waiting to give way, and persuaded Shi Kefa in the city to surrender.
After being scolded several times by Shi Kefa, seeing that Shi Kefa was stubborn, he began to prepare to attack the city. At this time, there were no more than ten thousand soldiers in Baoding City! The reinforcements were blocked hundreds of miles away, and the situation was precarious.
"Do you have a good strategy to defeat the enemy?" Emperor Chongzhen finished talking about the situation in Baoding in one breath. When he saw Chang Yu frowning, his heart tightened.
"Your Majesty, did you ask me to go south to defend against the enemy?" Chang Yu smiled bitterly. After leaving the capital, he had fought a battle and came back. Shi Kefa's side had just set up their posture.
Who else but you at the moment? You have fought against the intruder, how confident are you now? Chongzhen asked quickly.
Chang Yu bit his lip: "Don't be afraid of the bandit army, what I fear is the people's hearts!"
Chongzhen suddenly looked lonely and sat down slowly: "I don't know that the intruder is good at deceiving the people. At this time, he is holding hundreds of thousands of people hostage. His momentum is astonishing. It is like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger. If it continues like this, it will be a big disadvantage. ".
"Subduing the enemy's troops without fighting is the most vicious method used by thieves. Throughout his Eastern Campaign, he has conquered cities and plundered unstoppable territory, but he has hardly fought any battles. He only relied on deceiving the people and taking advantage of the trend! "Chang Yu sighed.
"The people are ignorant, ignorant, are thieves really that carefree?" Chongzhen cried out sadly!
It's not that they are ignorant or carefree, but that they have food to eat, and if they don't follow the trend, they will be killed immediately. They are just trying to survive. Chang Yu sighed secretly in his heart!
"At the moment, the top priority is to appease the people. There is nothing we can do for those who are being held hostage, but it is very necessary for the areas that have not yet fallen." Chang Yu thought for a while and said: "The requirements of the people are actually very simple. They have food to eat and can survive. Contented, at this time the emperor can issue a decree exempting Henan from taxes for three years. The people's hearts are a little more at ease. If they cooperate with a victory, I believe that no one will be willing to help the thieves, and even the refugees who have been kidnapped also have the intention to retreat."
Who doesn’t want to live and work in peace and contentment when there is food to eat, a life to live on, and a hope to look forward to? Who is willing to become a thief and rebel?
As night fell, Emperor Chongzhen gave a banquet, saying that it was to cleanse Chang Yu from the wind and dust, and to accompany him with his consort Gong Yonggu. In fact, he gathered his confidants to discuss matters. Although the Qing army outside the pass retreated, the banditry in the south was intensifying. There were intruders approaching the capital and the Yangtze River. Bai Wang broke through Jiujiang first, then forced Anqing, and moved to Nanjing with his sword, and then went to the southwest. Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan and Qin Liangyu killed them. The slogan of the Daxi regime has been shouted out. If he waits for him to enter Sichuan and take a firm position, it will be a serious problem. In addition to these military disasters, there were also natural disasters. Drought, locust plagues and plague came one after another, causing widespread resentment among the people.
Emperor Chongzhen was anxious and angry. Sadly, there was no general to extinguish the fire in the civil and military affairs of the entire dynasty. Only his family was tired of running around in the sea of fire. They had just returned from outside the customs and were about to go south to exterminate the thieves.
"The most important thing for the whole country is to love you!" Emperor Chongzhen did not dare to speak to the young eunuch when he was outside, but behind closed doors Chang Yu was a loyal minister, unrivaled in the civil and military affairs of the entire dynasty!
Chang Yu was ordered to face the danger, but he had no idea how to retreat from the enemy. He only had to improvise on the ground, and Emperor Chongzhen had expectations again. Before leaving the border, he was also frowning and had no good strategy. Unexpectedly, it was settled twenty days later, but I hope this time is also a surprise.
There was no way to fend off the enemy, so they changed the topic. Chang Yu talked about some profiteers in Zhangjiagang, and Chongzhen finally showed a rare smile. Although he didn't say exactly, Chang Yu also knew that the income was high, at least a millionaire. Ju, as for his proposal to re-levy commercial taxes and tea taxes, although they were strongly resisted by the cabinet, they were finally implemented under the joint pressure of Chongzhen, Dongchang and their Jinyiwei. The reason why the cabinet took a step back was, in addition to Chongzhen's In addition to the resolute attitude, the tax proceeds go into the national treasury to stop the civil servants from "competing with the people for profit". Furthermore, this commercial tax only targets Sanwu (Jiangnan Zhejiang region) and the capital and Nanjing and other rich places.
Since there was money in the treasury, Chang Yu said that Octopus would advance funds to prepare military rations: The war in the north has stopped, and settlement needs to be settled. After all, the amount of funds advanced is not a small amount, which puts great pressure on civilians and businesses.
Chongzhen knew that the relationship between Chang Yu and the Octopus Chamber of Commerce was unclear, and since Chang Yu had just made military exploits, he nodded in agreement and asked him to inform the Octopus people tomorrow to go directly to the Ministry of Accounts for settlement.
It was late at night, and Emperor Chongzhen knew that Chang Yu had many things to deal with just after returning to Beijing, so he asked him to leave and finish the matters before heading south as soon as possible.
Chang Yu left, and in the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen and his son and Gong Yonggu continued their tea conversation.
"How about Wei Zhongxian?" Chongzhen was suspicious by nature. If there was only one person at this time, no matter whether it was a foreign minister or an eunuch, that he absolutely trusted and confided in, it was Gong Yonggu.
"Exceeds but nothing worse" Gong Yonggu knew that Emperor Chongzhen was asking Chang Yu: "It's just that his methods are a little softer, not as ruthless as Wei Zhongxian's".
"This is his brilliance, restraining his sharp edge and overcoming strength with softness!" Chongzhen stroked his beard and smiled: "This way he won't be as infamous as Wei Zhongxian, and people will complain and God will be angry!"
As the old saying goes, there is no truth in history!
History is written by the victors. No matter whether it records a certain person or something, how many historians can avoid being influenced by those in power? Not to mention that the history of the Ming Dynasty is written in a confusing and messy way, which is the most common thing. Historians can use the Spring and Autumn style of writing based on their personal preferences, and they can also write plausibly and deliberately guide public opinion.
Just like Wei Zhongxian, there are many records of him killing loyal people, forming cliques for personal gain, extorting excessive taxes, and specializing in government affairs... But what about the facts? Didn't the civil servants form cliques? What is the Donglin Party? The reason why Wei Zhongxian formed a private party was to deal with the Donglin Party of the literati group, to consolidate the imperial power, and not to let the government be controlled by a group of civil servants.
Civil servants are the most selfish. For most of them, they are no different from the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and the Dashun Dynasty. They just change their masters. They consider their own interests. Whoever becomes the emperor has little impact on them. Wei Zhongxian is different, he is a eunuch, he only serves the emperor.
The so-called extortionate taxation means that Wei Zhongxian, who was born in poverty, never raised taxes on the people, but only levied taxes on merchants in the rich areas of Jiangnan.
As for saying that he specializes in government affairs, it seems that it is fortunate that he firmly suppressed the Donglin Party's "specialization in government affairs", otherwise the Ming Dynasty might have collapsed earlier.
At the end of the day, Ren Manqing tried his best outside the pass, but there was no big wave. Why? There is money in the court, and there is an eagle in the court! The money was earned by Wei Zhongxian, and the hawks were also led by him.
Because of this, he touched the interests of the civil servant group and became the mortal enemy of civil servants all over the world. That's why his reputation is so bad! Because it was the civil servants who controlled public opinion at that time, and it was the civil servants who wrote the history of secretaries, so what future generations see is only the evil of this great eunuch.
And Emperor Chongzhen, who didn’t know how expensive food, rice, oil and salt were, was an angry young man back then. He fucked Wei Zhongxian after he came to power. However, it took a few years to realize that people who are good to you, loyal to you, and think about you , only the group of duckweeds around us who had no choice but to rely on the emperor, that is, the group of eunuchs!
After realizing this, Emperor Chongzhen realized how important and wonderful it was to have a loyal eunuch who could protect him from wind and rain. He regretted it and ordered Wei Zhongxian to be buried generously to vindicate him.
It's a pity that it was too late to wake up. The Ming Dynasty was already seriously ill, and there was no one like Wei Zhongxian around him. The dynasty eventually fell, not because he killed Wei Zhongxian, but at least the fall of Wei Zhongxian accelerated the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
But now, the birth of Chang Yu gave him hope. He tried his best to get rid of the prince's nightmare. Hope lay in this little eunuch.
