"Your Majesty, Mr. Zhou Ge wants to see you."
A young eunuch ran into the hall from outside to report.
Hearing this, Chongzhen took a look and said, "Bring him in!"
The little eunuch retreated.
Not long after, Zhou Yanru was brought into the main hall by the young eunuch.
"Your Majesty, sir." Zhou Yanru bowed to Chongzhen and saluted.
Ministers like him don't need to kneel down and salute when they see the emperor in private, except when receiving orders or attending court meetings.
Scholar-officials and the emperor rule the world together, which is not a simple sentence. It has been deeply rooted in the hearts of scholar-officials in the Ming Dynasty.
If any minister of the court kowtows to the emperor when he sees him, he will be ridiculed by the scholars, and even be alienated by the scholars.
"Zhou Aiqing, there's no need to be polite, just stand up!" Chongzhen raised his right hand to signal Zhou Yanru to stand up.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhou Yanru slowly stood up straight.
Chongzhen picked up the tureen on the table, brought it to his mouth, blew on it, and asked: "Zhou Aiqing came to me, but what's the matter?"
Zhou Yanru came here on his own initiative. He didn't think that Zhou Yanru just came to greet him as the emperor.
"I do have something to tell your Majesty," Zhou Yanru said.
Chongzhen took the tureen away from his mouth and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Recently, the cabinet has received a lot of memorials related to slave thieves and tiger thieves, but your majesty has never approved them. I have no choice but to come to see your majesty. I hope that your majesty can approve the memorials related to slave thieves and tiger thieves as soon as possible. "Zhou Yanru mentioned the memorials about uniting slaves to fight against thieves.
Even the Director of Ceremonies knew the memorial, and the cabinet also knew it clearly.
Almost all of these memorials were written by courtiers from outside the court. Perhaps someone in the cabinet was the driving force behind this matter.
Chongzhen glanced at the memorial that was picked up from the ground and placed on the table by the young eunuch. His heart suddenly moved and he asked: "What is the cabinet's attitude towards the contents of the memorial?"
"The chief assistant feels that the threat from tiger thieves has exceeded that of slave thieves." Zhou Yanru said.
After hearing this, Chongzhen naturally understood what Zhou Yanru meant.
But he noticed that Zhou Yanru was talking about the attitude of the chief minister, and asked curiously: "Where is Zhou Aiqing? What is your attitude towards this matter?"
"I think what Chief Assistant said makes sense." Zhou Yanru said carefully and carefully.
Hearing this, Chongzhen's heart moved.
I understand that Zhou Yanru may have a different attitude from the chief minister, otherwise he wouldn't have said this.
He immediately asked: "You don't need to worry about Zhou Aiqing, the chief assistant. Now I want to know Zhou Aiqing's attitude towards this matter."
Zhou Yanru pretended to hesitate for a moment, and then said: "I and the chief minister have some different ideas. If I am wrong, please forgive me."
"I forgive you for your innocence." Chongzhen said, "Zhou Aiqing can speak now!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhou Yanru thanked him first, and then said, "I think it is very suspicious to say that the tiger thieves sent troops outside the customs to deal with the slave thieves, regardless of whether both the tiger thieves and the slave thieves would suffer."
After hearing this, Chongzhen became interested and asked quickly: "What does Aiqing think is suspicious?"
"The suspicious thing is that there is no benefit for the tiger thieves to go outside the customs to deal with the slave thieves, unless the tiger thieves have a bigger conspiracy and can get greater benefits by sending troops outside the customs to deal with the slave thieves." Zhou Yanru said.
Chongzhen frowned.
Zhou Yanru's words made sense to him. Before, he only thought that the tiger thieves would go outside the pass to deal with the slave thieves, which would be good for the Ming Dynasty, but he did not think about the benefits that the tiger thieves would gain from doing so.
"What greater benefit does Zhou Aiqing think the tiger thief has from doing this?" Chongzhen didn't understand for a moment, so he asked Zhou Yanru.
Zhou Yanru, who was well prepared, said: "Your Majesty, please allow me to bring out the map for reference. This will allow Your Majesty to more clearly understand the purpose of the tiger thieves."
"That's right." Chongzhen agreed.
He also wanted to see what the bigger conspiracy was behind Tiger Flag.
Zhou Yanru took out a map from his body and handed it to the little eunuch at the side.
The little eunuch checked the map and found that there was no danger, so he nodded lightly to Wang Chengen.
Wang Chengen said: "Come two people and spread the map."
A little eunuch came up, but the little eunuch holding the map in his hand stretched it out at the same time, still grasped one side of the map, and raised the map up so that Chongzhen could see it more clearly.
Zhou Yanru walked to the front of the map, pointed to a certain location on the map, and said: "This is the capital, and below this is Dongchang Mansion in Shandong. Above the capital is Shanhaiguan, and further ahead is the Ming Dynasty in Ningjin." Did your Majesty see anything about our defense line?"
His fingers pointed at several places.
Chongzhen, who was sitting in his seat, stretched his neck and curiously looked at the places pointed out by Zhou Yanru on the map.
"Except for Dongchang Mansion, my soldiers and horses from the Ming Dynasty are stationed in other places." Chongzhen said.
Zhou Yanru slid his finger to the southeast, pointed at a location and said, "This is Lushun. The tiger bandits' troops came ashore from Lushun, and then pushed north to fight the slave bandits."
"I know everything Zhou Aiqing said, but he said some things I don't know." Chongzhen became impatient.
Zhou Yanru was talking about things he knew, and he began to lose interest.
"Your Majesty, don't worry, I will tell you a few more places." Zhou Yanru continued, "Below the capital, there is a troop of tiger thieves in Jinan Prefecture, Shandong Province, and there is also a troop of tiger thieves hiding in Xuanfu. Horses, once the soldiers and horses of Xuanfu send troops to the east and the soldiers and horses of Jinanfu send troops to the north, they will directly form a pincer attack on the capital."
When he said this, Zhou Yanru paused and looked at Chongzhen.
After hearing Zhou Yanru's words, Chongzhen's face instantly turned pale.
He had no idea that the Tiger Character Banner actually had a troop of troops buried within the Xuanfu territory.
If Zhou Yanru really said what he said, the capital would be in danger.
Zhou Yanru saw Chongzhen's look and knew that the effect was achieved, so he said: "Your Majesty should be able to understand the intention of the tiger thief to send troops from Lushun!"
He had already made it so clear, and he believed that Chongzhen must have thought of it too.
"Zhou Aiqing said that the tiger thieves sent troops against the slave thieves in order to contain the slave thieves, and the fundamental purpose was to deal with me, the Ming Dynasty!" When Chongzhen said these words, his tone was a bit stuttering.
Zhou Yanru nodded and said: "I believe that the tiger thief's goal is most likely the capital. Otherwise, there is no reason why the tiger thief attacked the slave thief outside the customs."
"Ai Qing, is there any way to prevent this disaster?" Chongzhen asked Zhou Yanru nervously.
Once it is true as Zhou Yanru said, then the Ming Dynasty will really be unable to resist the tiger-character banner armies in these two directions.
(End of chapter)
