A memorial has been sent to Zhu Cihong, who was not yet five years old. It was written "carefully" by Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Jiliao.
In this memorial, Governor Yuan's handwriting is particularly correct, and he also tried his best to choose relatively simple and easy-to-recognize Chinese characters. The article is also in vernacular that is easy to understand.
Zhu Cixiang held the memorial and carefully read every word. After watching it for a while, he put together the memorial and handed it back to Xu Yingyuan, Bingbi, the Superintendent of Ceremonies.
"How do you like it?" Queen Zhou asked, "How many words do you recognize?"
"Trial, my nephew recognized seventy-two characters." Zhu Cihong said, "I can understand it a little bit...it seems to say that one hundred thousand slave soldiers are coming to attack Ningyuan!"
Empress Zhang looked at this smart and cheap son and said with a smile: "You know so many words, you are so smart!"
Empress Zhou smiled and said: "Yuan Chonghuan deliberately chose some simple and easy-to-understand words to write a memorial in vernacular."
Queen Zhang nodded, "A minister should have this kind of thinking. It's a pity that there are not many people like Yuan Chonghuan!"
Queen Zhou shook her head, "But Long Live Lord doesn't really believe in this Yuan Chonghuan. He took special care of him when he left Beijing. He should be more cautious about his memorial!"
Empress Zhang said: "It's supposed to be suspicious of people and not of use. But Long live the Lord, you should be suspicious of people who need to be used, and you should be suspicious of people who are employed."
Empress Zhou smiled and said: "Isn't that right? He is tired of using people like this to make people suspicious, and we two women who are in charge of the country are even more tired...Brother Chun, are you tired?"
"My son is not tired," Zhu Cihong replied.
Empress Zhang nodded and said with a smile: "Don't say you are not tired anymore. You are so young and have so much homework. If your father worked half as hard as you, the country would not be like this...Brother Chun, don't stand still." Come on, sit down. Erbao, sit down too."
Upon hearing this, the two little boys bowed to Queen Zhang and Queen Zhou, and then sat in their respective seats.
Empress Zhang said to Xu Yingyuan: "Go to the Xuanbu Pavilion and wait for the important ministers to come to Ziguang Pavilion!"
Xuanbu Ge Ke Dao and other important ministers came to Ziguang Pavilion to hold a small court meeting to discuss strategies to deal with Donglu's sudden movements.
The court meetings of the Ming Dynasty were used to decide on important military and political affairs that were of "great concern". They were originally a mechanism that could make decisions on behalf of the faint emperor. The solution negotiated by a group of treacherous ministers is better than the random decision-making of a foolish king.
But Zhu Youjian doesn't like court discussions, and likes to be arbitrary or approve the cabinet's suggestions without making any changes. Of course, Zhu Youjian will not take everything on his own shoulders, but only pick up the important ones. Grasp the things you can control. Matters that he cannot control, or that he considers unimportant, can be left directly to the cabinet, and there is no need to hold a court meeting.
After the Battle of Datong, he rarely summoned dozens or hundreds of people to discuss national affairs.
After he "went south to beg for food," Zhu Cixiang, who was in charge of the country, was still a child after all and could not arbitrate government affairs. Empress Zhou and Empress Zhang were also concubines, and of course they could not govern.
Therefore, the court meeting system was restored, but it was not possible to hold a large court meeting with more than a hundred people participating. Therefore, those who were summoned by Xu Yingyuan's people were the cabinet ministers plus the six ministers (Zhu Youjian's cabinet ministers were all ministers), the minister, the left and right censors, the six subjects for Shizhong, the ceremonial supervisor, and the imperial horse supervisor. Several big men, a total of more than twenty people.
...
"The Empress, the Empress Yi'an, Your Highness the Great Nephew, and others have already read the memorial from Governor Yuan of Ji Liao. I agree that the Eastern Captives are very likely to take advantage of the many disasters in our country, and the emperor went south to... ...Come out of Yanshan again during the inspection!
However, the cabinet could not determine whether Huang Taiji's four marches out of Yanshan would go through western Liaoning or march out of Qianli Pine Forest into Monan Mongolia. "
The speaker was Wang Zaijin, the chief minister of the cabinet. Wang Zaijin and several other cabinet ministers have already read Yuan Chonghuan's memorial, and they also held a small meeting to study and discuss it.
The result of their discussion was that they reached an agreement on the issue of Huang Taiji coming out of Yanshan - this is almost inevitable!
On the one hand, the Ming Dynasty suffered from disasters year after year, and the disasters became more and more severe. The emperor Zhu Youjian, who was capable of fighting, had to go south to beg for food - food is the first priority for the people! When the floods hit Shaanxi and the Central Plains, how many people were left without food? If we don't feed them, there will be a peasant uprising and the world will be in chaos!
But before fighting the outside world, you must first make peace with the inside! If Zhu Youjian doesn't take care of the internal situation, how can he have the energy to deal with the external situation?
But Huang Taiji was lucky enough to have good weather and the autumn harvest (the Ming Dynasty would also have had good weather if it weren't for the floods in Shaanxi and Henan), and he also made a fortune from North Korea. According to Yang Hao and Li Xin's "good news", the Hou Jin army plundered 300,000 to 400,000 people and retreated from North Korea's Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae Province, and also took away all the property that could be taken away.
In addition, Jinyiwei also reported a while ago that the Later Jin Kingdom has been busy reorganizing various ethnic groups and tribes since the second half of the fourth year of Chongzhen, establishing the Eight Banners of Mongolia, the Eight Banners of the Han Army, the Eight Banners of Korea, and the Thirty-two Zasak Banners of the Extra Mongolia.
By the autumn of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the Later Jin Kingdom had a total of sixty-four banners, and a total of more than 1,400 subordinate Niulu!
Although there are suspicions of filling up the numbers and bluffing, what is certain is that the Hou Jin Kingdom now rarely has soldiers and food, and there are still opportunities for the Ming Dynasty. How can Huang Taiji not make a big move?
If Huang Taiji doesn't do it now, will he be able to kill the Jin Kingdom next year when the weather is good and the grain harvest is bumper in the Ming Dynasty?
"So how is the cabinet prepared to deal with it?" Queen Zhang asked.
"There are two opinions in the cabinet now," Wang Zaijin said. "The first opinion is that because we should remain unchanged in response to all changes, we order Jiliao, Yanning, Xuanda, Xinzhou and all households in Orduo to be on guard and be ready to stand firm at any time. The city responds to the enemy.
At the same time, the Zhangqian Army, Dianqian Army, and North Zhili Eight Prefecture Regiment Training Army in Gyeonggi Province must be ready to go to the front line!
The second opinion is that the elite troops from the Zhangqian Army, Dianqian Army, and the North Zhili Eight Prefecture Regiment training troops should be mobilized to go to the front, so that when the slave bandits invade, they can be defeated immediately before their foothold is stable and the army has not gathered. ! "
"Shilang Sun, what do you think?" Queen Zhou called Sun Chuanting's name and wanted to hear his opinion.
Sun Chuanting was not the elder of the pavilion, but he was the right minister of the Ministry of War, the commander-in-chief of the army in front of the palace, and the admiral of the nine gates. He was the general left by Zhu Youjian to look after the house.
"Empress," Sun Chuanting immediately took over the question and announced to the class, "I think that if the slave thieves attack Liaoxi and Daning, the court does not need to care, and just order the Jiliao and Yanning armies to hold on. Both armies have the same strength. Not weak, each city is very strong, and has sufficient reserves. The sweet potatoes alone can last for a year, so we are not afraid of siege at all. We can wait until His Majesty... returns from disaster relief, and then gather the army to fight with him!
If the slave thieves cross the pine forest thousands of miles westward, I think they should fight the enemy decisively on the Monan grassland to prevent the people on the grassland from floating and being used by the slaves! "
Sun Chuanting's answer was still a multiple-choice question, and it was still a multiple-choice question given to Huang Taiji.
Both Queen Zhang and Queen Zhou couldn't help but frown. They only wanted a simple answer, not two nerve-wracking multiple-choice questions.
Thinking of this, the two women sighed at the same time. Their sighs were very quiet, but Zhu Cixiang heard them.
"Mother, aunt, why are you sighing?" Zhu Cihong asked.
Empress Zhang said: "I and your aunt are both women, how do you know about military and political affairs? How can this country supervise you?"
"Mother," the little kid Zhu Cixi said to Queen Zhang seriously, "it is the sons and ministers who supervise the country, and the sons and ministers are men, and they are not afraid of slaves and thieves!"
Empress Zhang laughed, "Aren't you afraid? Then how do you plan to deal with Huang Taiji? Tell me, should we send troops, or should we not send troops?"
"Sister-in-law," Queen Zhou shook her head, "my nephew is still young!"
"I'm not young anymore," Zhu Cixiang said seriously, "I'm already five years old (virtual age), and I'll be six soon!"
Queen Zhou looked at the little adult-like son she had given birth to and asked angrily: "Are you no longer young? Then how do you choose?"
"Why should my nephew choose?" Zhu Cixiang pouted, "As long as my nephew moves to the Xuan Mansion under the protection of Shilang Sun, that bad guy Huang Taiji will be afraid and will not dare to come."
