Wow!
All the memorials on the table were scratched by Chongzhen and fell to the ground.
When several young eunuchs in the palace saw Chongzhen getting angry, they all lowered their heads and looked at their toes. They did not dare to look at Chongzhen for fear of becoming a tool for Chongzhen to vent his anger.
"Your Majesty, calm down, Zhang Fengyi is not worthy of being so angry." Wang Chengen comforted Chongzhen while picking up the memorials scattered on the ground.
Chongzhen said with a gloomy face: "The Ming Dynasty has become what it is today because ministers like him do not want to serve the country. They only care about their own little thoughts. I, the Ming Dynasty, are all ministers like this. How can we be undefeated?" .”
Ming Dynasty was repeatedly frustrated in front of the Tiger Character Banner. He did not think that the problem was with himself as the emperor, but rather with the incompetence and carelessness of the ministers below.
"How about your Majesty, please invite Mr. Han Ge here and leave the matter to the cabinet?" Wang Chengen asked tentatively.
"No, we can't let the cabinet know." Chongzhen immediately shook his head and said, "If the cabinet knows, I'm afraid it will be difficult to hide the peace talks. The peace talks with the slave thieves can only be conducted in secret and must not be made public."
Although he did not really want to make peace with the slaves and traitors, he did not want any flaws in his reputation. Even if the Tiger Character Banner occupied the three provinces of the Ming Dynasty, he was unwilling to issue an edict to calm the people.
He wanted to be the Holy Lord of Zhongxing, but he cared very much about his reputation as an emperor.
Wang Chengen put the memorial he picked up back on the table and said: "Your Majesty, you just want to hold back the slaves, not really negotiate with them. Sun Chengzong can be contacted by himself. No matter what happens in the future, it has nothing to do with you, Your Majesty." .”
"If I do this, I feel sorry for Sun Chengzong!" Chongzhen said hesitantly, "After all, he is also a veteran minister of several dynasties. He also fulfilled his duty as a loyal minister when the slaves and thieves invaded this time. .”
Wang Chengen arranged the memorials on the table in his hands and said: "Because I am a loyal minister, I should share your worries with you. Moreover, the matter of pretending peace talks with the slaves and thieves cannot be hidden from Governor Ji Liao, but also through His hand went to touch the slave thief.”
Chongzhen looked hesitant.
In his heart, he wanted to hold off the slave thieves through peace talks, but he was also unwilling to lose Sun Chengzong, a man who twice dominated Liaodong, because he knew that the peace talks with the slave thieves could not be kept secret forever. Sooner or later, people would know about it. That's when someone will have to take responsibility.
Whoever presides over the peace talks will be criticized and impeached by the DPRK and China.
As an emperor, he naturally could not make himself the target of criticism from his ministers, so he could only sacrifice Sun Chengzong.
"Your Majesty, everything is for the Ming Dynasty." Wang Chengen looked at the hesitant Chongzhen and said this.
Hearing this, Chongzhen sighed and said, "What you said, Daban, reminds me that anyone can sacrifice for the sake of the Ming Dynasty. Even I can sacrifice for the stability of the Ming Dynasty."
"The Ming Dynasty has such a wise king as the emperor, so why worry about the Ming Dynasty not being prosperous!" Wang Cheng'en said flatteringly.
These words touched Chongzhen's heart and made Chongzhen smile.
"You arrange for someone to tell Sun Chengen about the peace talks. He will preside over it fully, but it must be kept secret and must not be leaked. Sooner or later, I will destroy the slave thieves." Chongzhen clenched his fist vigorously and finally handed the errand to Wang Chengen Go and do it.
The officials in the court disappointed him too much. They were no longer as trusting as they were when he first came to the throne. They began to use people from the inner court to do some things, and even used them to monitor foreign ministers.
Wang Chengen, who can be a palm eunuch, is naturally not a lonely minister. In the past, he relied more on Cao Huachun, but now there is no shortage of people in the inner court who are fawning over him, and he even has good friends with foreign ministers.
Because Chongzhen did not want the ministers to know that he intended to negotiate peace with the slaves and traitors, Wang Chengen did not choose to use the foreign ministers and people from the inner court in the capital, but arranged for the Jin Yiwei to go to Liaodong.
After Chongzhen ascended the throne, although Jinyiwei was suppressed, there were still some available people, but they lacked the prestige of the past, and they did not dare to show off Tiqi's performance in front of the ministers of the DPRK.
The shackles on the heads of foreign ministers are gone, and the ministers in the court will naturally not completely force Jin Yiwei to death. Now Jin Yiwei only has one name left.
There are even Jinyiwei Qianshi who have taken refuge with civil servants, and there are many Jinyiwei who have done this.
This kind of thing would never have happened during the Hongwu and Yongle years, but it was already a normal thing in the Chongzhen Dynasty. Except for Chongzhen himself, many people would not find it strange.
Only middle- and high-ranking officials in Jinyiwei who are willing to take refuge with civilian officials will be retained by civilian officials, otherwise they will only end up being impeached, removed from office, and imprisoned.
Even Chongzhen himself didn't know that his royal guards had become the lackeys of civil servants.
Zhang Fengyi was very strict with her mouth.
He did not leak a word about Chongzhen's intention to negotiate peace with the slaves and thieves. Even if one day this matter spread, he did not want it to come from his mouth.
He also completely gave up the idea of joining the cabinet.
After offending Chongzhen, he knew that he had little chance of entering the cabinet, and becoming Minister of War should be the pinnacle of his life.
Several days passed, and the news of the peace talks with the slaves and thieves was kept secret, or maybe someone in the court knew about it, but no one said anything.
In a grocery store in Beijing, the shopkeeper held a duster in his hand, leaning on the counter, and lazily dusted the invisible dust on the counter.
Ding dong!
The bell hanging on the door suddenly rang.
"What does the guest want?" The shopkeeper looked up at the door. When he saw the person coming, he stood up straight and asked, "Why are you here?"
"There's no thread at home. Let's buy some thread to mend clothes." The visitor walked to the counter in a few steps and whispered, "I have a mission."
The shopkeeper's expression became serious.
The visitor said: "I just received news from Liaodong that Chongzhen agreed to Huang Taiji's request for peace talks and asked Sun Chengzong, the governor of Jiliao, to directly contact the slaves and traitors."
"Chongzhen is also a spineless person. He just robbed you and yet he still has the nerve to negotiate for peace. It's embarrassing." After hearing what the visitor said, the shopkeeper cursed Chongzhen with a look of displeasure.
As a secret agent of the Tiger Flag, there was no pressure to scold Chongzhen.
The visitor said: "Let us leak the news that Ming Dynasty is going to have peace talks with slave thieves, let the people in the capital know the news, and destroy their peace talks."
"I guarantee that within three days at most, everyone in the capital will know about the peace talks between Chongzhen and the slave thieves." The shopkeeper gestured with three fingers on the counter.
The visitor nodded, then smiled and said, "Bring this thread over here and show it to me?"
"Are you really buying it?" The shopkeeper didn't expect to buy thread, so he had to pull it from the shelf at the back and put it on the counter.
The visitor fiddled with the threads on the counter a few times and said, "You have to do a complete show so that others won't suspect it. Okay, that's it."
With that said, he picked up the thread and walked out.
"Where's the money?" When the shopkeeper saw the other party going out, he realized that the other party had taken the things away and didn't give him any money.
