The news of Li Zicheng's request for peace and the title of king was like a bombshell thrown into the court, breaking the tranquility for more than a month and injecting enough chicken blood into the officials to make them temporarily forget about Yunnan's civil war and the humiliation of Emperor Chongzhen. Matter, fight over this matter without any bottom line.
The court was divided into three factions, one was the leader, the other was the opponent, and the other was watching the fun.
The Lord and the Lord had their own reasons. They believed that surrendering would save lives from suffering and save the court a lot of money. Now that food is a problem for the court, should they continue to engage in military warfare?
The opposing party also has enough reasons. They should not be ambitious and thief. They have learned from past mistakes and must not accept surrender. They should take advantage of the current advantage to eradicate them in one fell swoop...
There was a huge commotion in the court, and the man on the throne just held his chin expressionlessly without making any statement.
Soon, the quarrel expanded from the court to the ruling and opposition parties. Not only the officials were discussing and arguing, but when the news spread, the entire capital's literati, common people, and even hawkers also joined the debate.
The debate was endless and endless. Several big shots in the cabinet could not sit still. Their duty was to share the emperor's worries. However, at this time, they were not sure about the emperor's pulse and did not know his thoughts and did not dare to express their opinions rashly. However, despite this, There is no way to continue arguing in vain. Wouldn't it become another Yunnan counter-insurgency incident?
That incident was extremely humiliating and humiliating for cabinet ministers like them, and they couldn't let it happen again if they wanted to save face, so they decided to go to the emperor for a showdown. They had to pay attention as soon as possible, and at the worst, they had to get a bed first. The thief should reply and stabilize him.
So at the Qianqing Gate, Li Banghua, Wu Xuan and others had a showdown: "What do you think your Majesty wants?"
Emperor Chongzhen asked: "What do you think?"
Several people looked at each other, and finally Wu Xuan spoke first: "I think it would be negotiable if the intruder sincerely surrenders."
Emperor Chongzhen glanced at him and said: "Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, have you ever seen a living king with a foreign surname?"
Indeed, many people in the Ming Dynasty were granted the title of king. Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Mu Ying, etc. and many relatives of the emperor were all granted the title of king, but they were all posthumous gifts!
"He can make an offer, and we can return the offer." Li Banghua interrupted, and Emperor Chongzhen turned his head and looked at him: "Does the chief minister also agree with the reduction?"
Li Banghua shook his head lightly: "I haven't settled down yet. This time I am discussing it with the emperor."
"But what if he doesn't agree to the return price and insists on a fixed price?" Emperor Chongzhen sneered, Wu Xuan hurriedly said: "You can just rely on him first, and then find an excuse to cancel it."
"The imperial court can be established or deposed, then he can surrender or rebel again. There are many lessons learned from this kind of experience. Offering a thief has been repeated several times. They are the same as each other. It is nothing new to surrender and rebel again. Why bother? All this trouble was just delaying time and opportunity." It must be said that Emperor Chongzhen was still awake.
"Depose him as king and make him a marquis. He should not rebel for the sake of being demoted..." Wu Xuan was interrupted by Emperor Chongzhen before he could finish his words: "Why not? If you demote him by one level, he will think that you are still good enough." He will be demoted again and again and finally be deposed as a people. What's the difficulty if he has any rebellious intentions? Not to mention how can he easily believe that the imperial court will let him go? Didn't he look at him and say that he would kill thieves and Tatars for me? , that is to retain the soldiers and horses, and still support the soldiers and self-respect to be the king in Xi'an, then why do I need to make him a grass-head king?"
Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen was a little excited, Li Banghua quickly comforted him: "Your Majesty, the ministers and others are just discussing this matter, not agreeing to accept the surrender of this traitor. But as Mr. Wu said, if the traitor sincerely surrenders, the common people can avoid the war, which is always in the interest of the court. It outweighs the disadvantages. As for the price he offers, let's return our price. It would be best if we can reach a consensus. If we can't reach an agreement, it won't be too late to fight. Anyway, we can't start a war for a while, so we can take advantage of this opportunity to talk to him. yes".
"After all, you really want to have peace talks with him." Emperor Chongzhen snorted, and Li Banghua and others hurriedly said: "Actually, the benefits of peace outweigh the disadvantages!"
"I don't know that the advantages of peace outweigh the disadvantages, but how can we be sure that the intruder is sincerely surrendering?"
"Now we need to send someone to contact the intruder to make him show some sincerity, such as withdrawing from the Yellow River defense line," Wu Xuan said quickly.
"Who are you sending, Li Yan?" Chongzhen raised his eyebrows.
Wu Xuan shook his head: "Yan Zeng is a thief, which is inappropriate and not worthy enough."
"Is there anyone who can be chosen as the second assistant? Or should you go ahead?"
Wu Xuan glanced at Li Banghua, then licked his lower lips and said: "It is said that Eunuch Chang once pretended to surrender to meet the intruder before the Taiyuan War, and the intruder has suffered a lot under his hands in the past year... Eunuch Chang has both wisdom and wisdom. There is no one more suitable than him.”
snort! Emperor Chongzhen snorted coldly: "When I have free time, I often castrate, and when I use it, my father-in-law, Chang Yu is also a man of flesh and blood, not a man made of iron. In the past year, when I have been fighting in the south and north and fighting fires everywhere, have I ever had half a day to spare? It's just like you were arguing in the court a few years ago." , but he has already traveled thousands of miles to Kunming, and even spent the New Year’s Eve in a barren mountain and wilderness. Now he has not even touched home, and you are thinking about him again!"
"Emperor" Li Banghua and Wu Xuan saw that Emperor Chongzhen was getting more and more excited as he talked, so they wanted to explain. However, Emperor Chongzhen was no longer the same person as before, and they couldn't hold back the anger at all: "If there is no Chang Yu in the imperial court, there will be no one available." Now, the entire Ming Dynasty has to be supported by him alone. If so, why should I support you? Why don’t I raise him alone and leave you to eat the corpses and disgust yourself?"
After saying that, he walked away.
Li Banghua and others were so ashamed that they dismissed the case with a flick of their sleeves. It was a shame, a shame...
Emperor Chongzhen, who returned to the Qianqing Palace, had been furious for a long time and cursed the incompetence of his ministers. Wang Chengen was always comforting him. He actually understood that Emperor Chongzhen was so angry not because his ministers were incompetent and treated Chang Yu like a donkey. The purpose of this was actually to anger the cabinet ministers' attitude toward Li Zicheng's request for peace.
Although Li Banghua and others kept saying that they did not agree with the peace talks, they were clearly leaning toward peace talks or that they agreed but did not formally express their stance.
This was what made Emperor Chongzhen most angry.
Family thieves are particularly hateful. The current ruin of the Ming Dynasty is entirely due to family thieves. If it hadn’t been for years of hard work that dragged the court into the quagmire, why would it have been so humiliated by foreign enemies again...
What's more, Li Zicheng burned his ancestral graves when he conquered Fengyang Mansion!
This was something that Emperor Chongzhen could not forgive until his death.
He has always dreamed of killing these thieves. He can't wait to drink the blood of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Now that Chang Yu has finally turned the tide, he has the ability to stand upright and has the strength to kill him. You guys who want to eat the king can't afford it. Do you agree to the peace talks to share your worries?
Absolutely impossible!
However, anger returned and hatred returned, but Emperor Chongzhen still maintained his last rationality. He also knew in his heart that peace talks had the greatest benefits! But he really wanted to fight and kill Li Zicheng, so he wanted to listen to Chang Yu's opinion. At this time, only Chang Yu's opinion could he listen to.
Just because he knew that Chang Yu also hated the thieves. Even if he agreed to the peace talks, he might still have hidden tricks. He would not let the thieves live freely.
