In late August, a confidential letter from the capital was delivered to the Datong Township Office.
The secret letter was delivered to Liu Heng personally by Yang Yuan.
"Lord, the emperor is dead. This is a secret letter sent by the king himself from the capital." Yang Yuan handed a secret letter in his hand to the table in front of Liu Heng.
Liu Heng picked up the secret letter, took out the letter paper from it, put it in front of his eyes and read it.
There were only eight words written on the secret letter.
The emperor passed away and King Xin took over.
"Both emperors of Lao Zhu's family were short-lived. Emperor Tianqi should be less than 30 years old!" Liu Heng's secret letter was casually placed on the table.
Yang Yuan said: "Twenty-three, but this Emperor Tianqi is just like me. Except for not serving the court, he has learned everything. I am afraid that his body has been hollowed out a long time ago. He even fell into a lake in May, and his body Before he could find his way, he began to dwell on the sensual pleasures and horses. If he doesn't die, whoever will die will die."
"Tell me about King Xin!" Liu Heng asked about King Xin.
As for Tianqi's death, he had long expected it.
Yang Yuan said: "According to my lord's instructions, the Foreign Intelligence Agency has collected information about King Xin in recent years. This person is different from Emperor Tianqi. He is extremely self-disciplined. He is obviously a prince, but he never covets enjoyment. He even did it several times. He once advised Emperor Tianqi to stay close to virtuous ministers and stay away from villains, so he hated Wei Zhongxian very much, but he also liked to be close to Donglin Party members."
"What do you think of King Xin becoming emperor?" Liu Heng asked.
Yang Yuan thought for a while and said: "If King Xin becomes emperor, he will definitely be stronger than Emperor Apocalypse. Maybe the Ming Dynasty is really possible to revive. If he becomes emperor, he will be a greater threat to our Tiger Flag than Emperor Apocalypse."
The implication behind the words is that he is more optimistic about the current King Xin and the future Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
"The Donglin Party is not all good people." Liu Heng smiled softly and said immediately, "The shortcoming of the Ming Dynasty is not who becomes the emperor, but that the imperial power has fallen to the side, and it is no longer possible for the imperial power to control the places south of the Yangtze River."
Yang Yuan agreed and said: "That's true. Wei Zhongxian killed so many people in Jiangnan and barely collected a little money. If the Donglin Party is used again, I'm afraid Jiangnan will never give money to the court again."
The Secret Service's spies have long been spread throughout the Ming Dynasty, and the Foreign Intelligence Service has already compiled a thick pile of documents on the situation in Jiangnan.
The natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty in recent years were mainly concentrated in the north. The losses in the Jiangnan area were not great, but Jiangnan became a place where wealth was hidden among the people, and all the wealth was in the hands of the local gentry families.
It was difficult for the Ming court to get much money and food from the south of the Yangtze River to nourish the north. Instead, it could only continue to scrape the land in the north and the Central Plains to feed most of the Ming Dynasty.
"The Ming Dynasty has come to an end." Liu Heng looked back at the map of the Ming Dynasty hanging on the wall.
Today's Ming Dynasty is more miserable than the Ming Dynasty during the same period in history.
In history, the Ming Dynasty only had to deal with the slave thieves in Liaodong, but today the Ming Dynasty has to deal with one more tiger-character flag. Not only that, but most of the state capitals in Shanxi and Shaanxi Province, the Ming Dynasty has been unable to collect any tax revenue. Instead, a large amount of money and food were needed to feed an army at the front line of Juyongguan.
Yang Yuan said: "It would be better if the Ming Dynasty died. Our tiger-character flag will just replace it. My lord, also go to the Forbidden City and sit on the dragon chair."
"If you want to sit on the dragon chair, you must get rid of the slave thieves in Liaodong, otherwise it will not be safe to sit on the dragon chair." Liu Heng said.
In the case of Li Zicheng, he knew clearly that slave thieves were the biggest enemies of the Tiger Flag.
Yang Yuan said: "The slave thieves are in Liaodong. Except for the troops and horses led by Commander Zheng, we cannot confront the slave thieves for the time being unless we capture the capital."
"Don't worry, it will be a matter of time before you meet the slave thief." Liu Heng said calmly, then looked at Zhao Wu in the room and said, "Zhao Wu, go and find Mr. Hong."
"Yes." Zhao Wu agreed, turned and left the room.
Yang Yuan said: "This Hong Hengjiu does have some abilities. After he came, our internal affairs were sorted out much more smoothly. It's a pity that this person is still unwilling to completely submit to us."
"Who said he didn't surrender?" Liu Heng asked with a smile.
Yang Yuan hesitated for a moment and said: "This Hong Hengjiu has always regarded himself as a staff member and is unwilling to take up actual duties. He even covers his face with a black scarf when outside to prevent others from knowing his identity. If he really regards himself as one of ours, so what? Will do it."
"Civil officials all care about face. If you think you have become a gangster, you will not be able to live with your face." Liu Heng said with a smile, "And this person has some abilities. If he is directly appointed to the actual position, the position will not be too high, and his abilities will not be able to be used to the fullest. And consultant is the right fit for him.”
After hearing this, Yang Yuan muttered in his heart.
If he really trusted Hong Hyung-koo so much as he said, why did he let people from the Foreign Intelligence Agency secretly monitor him?
However, I only thought about this in my heart and did not dare to say it out and talk back to Liu Heng.
Not long after, Hong Chengchou was brought over.
"See my lord."
When they met, Hong Chengchou took the lead in saluting Liu Heng.
Liu Heng said with a smile: "Mr. Hong, there is no need to be so polite, please take a seat!"
There was an empty seat next to him, so Hong Chengchou walked over and sat down.
"I wonder why my lord asked Guard Zhao to find his subordinates?" Hong Chengchou was the first to ask.
Liu Heng picked up the secret letter on the table and handed it to Zhao Wu. At the same time, he said: "This is the secret letter just sent from the capital. Mr. Hong, please read it too!"
Zhao Wu handed the secret letter to Hong Chengchou.
Hong Cheng rushed in and only glanced at the eight words on the secret letter before reading the contents.
Immediately, the whole person seemed to have seen something extraordinary, and he once again took the letter to his eyes and read it carefully several times.
"This, this, is this true?" Hong Chengchou stuttered, with a look of disbelief on his face.
Liu Heng nodded and said: "The news is true, and it won't be long before the news reaches Datong."
well!
Hong Chengchou let out a long sigh.
Yang Yuan, who was standing next to him, saw that he was drained of energy and sarcastically said: "How about I prepare some travel expenses for Mr. Hong, and pair them with a few fast horses, so that Mr. Hong can go back to the capital to see off the Apocalypse Emperor?" One ride.”
"Yang Yuan, don't talk nonsense." Liu Heng scolded him gently.
Hong Chengchou came back to his senses and hurriedly explained: "Please don't blame me, my lord. I have been an official in the Ming Dynasty for so many years. When I suddenly heard this bad news, I lost my mind for a moment. But my lord, you can rest assured. My subordinate has been flying under the Tiger Flag." Those who belong to the Tiger Flag will never dare to feel betrayed."
"Mr. Hong doesn't need to explain, I can trust you." Liu Heng reassured, "When I received the news, like Mr. Hong, I didn't come back to my senses for a long time. Emperor Tianqi died young at a young age. It's really It shouldn’t be.”
