Dang, Dang, Dang!
Wang Chengen rang the Jingyang Bell.
The clear and deafening sound of the bell spread for more than ten miles and resounded throughout the city.
The women in the imperial city were startled when they heard the bell. Thinking that the bandits were coming, his face suddenly filled with sadness: "God damn the bandits!"
On the streets of Beijing, people walking early carried caged birds as usual. There were three or five people sitting at the breakfast stall on the street. The bells passed by and everyone was talking.
"Long live the bell again. Are the thieves about to break in?"
"You are right. The bandits broke into Xuan Mansion yesterday. I estimate that they will reach Beijing in less than ten days."
"Can the capital be defended?"
"I don't know. Anyway, the thieves only rob the money of the rich. How can we poor people have the money to rob him? Besides, whether we can hold on is what Long live the Lord should worry about. Let's take care of ourselves."
"It's cold, see you later."
On the cold city wall, the soldiers and eunuchs of the three major battalions were shivering in the cold wind.
When the bell rang, only a few small bosses glanced in the direction of the imperial city, and then hid behind the crenellations of the city wall and breathed into their frozen hands.
Weapons were scattered all over the ground, and the steamed bun in my arms was so frozen that I couldn't bear to chew it. They were short of pay and food, let alone steamed buns, and couldn't even afford charcoal fires for heating.
cold!
The spring of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen was too cold.
...
In the Huangji Palace.
All civil and military officials had already gathered. Chongzhen took a deep breath and walked in slowly.
"Long live my emperor! Long live my emperor!" All civil and military officials kowtowed in unison.
Chongzhen stood on the steps and glanced at the officials.
Half of the six books of ministers are bad, and there are also many bad ones among the ministers.
After scanning around, his eyes fell on Wei Zaode, the chief minister of the cabinet.
This guy is going to die if he doesn't take another look at him.
"Everyone is safe!"
"Long live thanks!" All the officials kowtowed again in unison.
Wei Zaode was wearing a bright red court dress and a black gauze hat. He glanced around, stood up, and said with cupped hands: "Your Majesty, according to the Tang newspaper, the bandits broke through the Xuan Mansion yesterday and came straight to the capital."
Compared with the status of the ministers of the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it can be said that one is in the sky and the other is in a low position.
In the eyes of the emperor, ministers are ministers, not slaves, and there is no rule of kneeling at every turn.
Chongzhen nodded and asked, "Is there any strategy to defend against the enemy?"
Wei Zaode's mind was racing. He had no real skills, he was just good at talking. Seeing Chongzhen asking him, he directly gave the answer he had prepared in advance: "The army and people of the capital unite as one, and they will be able to resist the bandits."
False words! Saying it means not saying it.
Chongzhen continued to ask: "How to unite the army and the people?"
Wei Zaode raised his hand and saluted: "Of course it will be with a lot of money!"
As soon as he finished speaking, not only the emperor, but also his subordinate Zuo Shilang Shen Weibing looked down on him.
If the imperial court had money, it wouldn't have let the thieves fight all the way from Shaanxi to Xuanfu!
Isn't this pure fart?
"Is there anything you can do?" Chongzhen looked at Li Banghua.
That letter must be spoken out by Li Banghua, and he must bear the responsibility.
The king cannot raise opinions in court and can only choose to support those who raise opinions. That is to say, only multiple-choice questions are done, not fill-in-the-blank questions.
If you are wrong, you can blame the officials. The emperor was deceived by the officials.
Since ancient times, kings have never admitted their mistakes!
This is the art of the emperor!
Chongzhen in history knew nothing about imperial arts!
In fact, you can't blame him, no one could have imagined that the throne would fall on him!
After Li Banghua received Chongzhen's signal, he raised his head and squinted at Wei Zaode with cold eyes, and said: "Your Majesty, the bandits are coming fiercely. In order to protect the Ming Dynasty, it is better for the prince to go to Yingtian Mansion, King Yong, King Ding, the family members of the Sixth Palace, and hundreds of ministers. A few officials and other officials will accompany you, while the rest will stick to the capital with Your Majesty, waiting for King Qin’s army.”
"What do you think, sir?"
Although Chongzhen had already made a decision in his mind, he could not agree immediately in front of all the ministers. He had to let the courtiers participate according to the process!
Only by allowing these scholar-bureaucrats to participate in the process can they have the feeling of co-ruling the world with the emperor.
This is also an imperial technique.
Li Banghua's words were like a bomb, detonating the quiet Huangji Palace.
"Your Majesty, no!" Zuo Zhongyun and Li Mingrui immediately knelt down, "The prince is young and cannot supervise the country, so it is better for your Majesty to do it himself!"
Li Mingrui is responsible for recording the prince's daily life. Based on his understanding of Zhu Cihong, this prince is not yet a person. Not to mention Zhu Cihong, even Zhu Youjian himself might not be able to defeat the officials of the Six Ministries of Nanjing.
"Li Mingrui, you are so brave! It was Zhou Ping and Song Gao who made His Majesty move south! Aren't you afraid that the situation of being in a corner will happen again? The Ming Dynasty is not the Song Dynasty, and it cannot divide the country into two! Your Majesty and we are the ones who stick to the capital. A perfect strategy!" Li Banghua, as the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, argued vigorously.
"Your Majesty, the top priority is to unite the army and the people to defend the capital! Although the bandits are huge, the capital city is strong and powerful. As long as we hold on for three to five days, the bandits will retreat after the arrival of King Qin's troops from all over the country. Once the prince goes south, people's hearts will be in chaos and it will be unfavorable. Defend the city. It is obvious that these two people are determined to destroy our Ming Dynasty. Your Majesty should punish them." The military department said to Guang Shiheng when he came out of the mission.
Although he was a seventh-grade official, he had great power. He could supervise six ministries, impeach hundreds of officials, and even reject the emperor's approval.
Belonging to the emperor's close ministers.
Otherwise, with his seventh-grade official position, he would not be qualified to go to the palace to discuss matters.
"I second the proposal!" Shen Weibing, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, walked out.
"I second the proposal!" Zhang Jinyan, the Minister of War, stood up.
After the Minister of War took sides and expressed his attitude, the debate in the court immediately entered a heated state.
Chongzhen counted the officials and found that they were divided into three factions.
Under the leadership of Li Banghua, the censor of Zuodu, nearly 20% of the officials jointly submitted a petition hoping that the emperor's crown prince, who was guarding the capital, would go to Yingtian Mansion. If Beijing cannot hold on, the Ming Dynasty will still have half of the country.
People headed by Li Mingrui believed that the prince was too young to go to Yingtian Mansion to take on important tasks, so it was better for the emperor to go there himself and abandon Beijing.
Fifty percent of the people supported Guang Shiheng. Encouraged by the Minister of War, they all believed that the city of Beijing could be defended and that neither the emperor nor the prince could leave. Leaving would cause instability in the morale of the army and panic among the people, which would be detrimental to the defense of the city.
All three views are valid, and the three groups of people argued endlessly in the Huangji Palace.
There are also some people who do not express their opinions. They may be Buddhists, or they may be observing the situation in the court and waiting for opportunities to act.
At first, everyone was discussing court matters, but soon it turned into personal attacks.
"Your Majesty, Li Banghua's proposal to move south at this critical moment is actually deceiving the public and should be executed according to law!" Guang Shiheng said.
"Guang Shiheng was short-sighted and arrogantly acted as a courtier of the emperor. His moral integrity is not worthy of his duties and his head should be chopped off." Li Banghua counterattacked.
"Your Majesty, if you don't leave now, you won't be able to leave when the bandits surround the city!" Li Mingrui advised again.
"Quiet!" Seeing that everyone was almost noisy, Chongzhen asked Wang Chengen to stop it.
He looked at Wei Zaode, the chief minister of the cabinet, and asked: "What is the attitude of the cabinet?"
Wei Zaode looked around, walked out slowly and said with his hands in his hands: "The cabinet hasn't discussed it yet!"
"Ha," Chongzhen sneered, "You two should discuss this immediately."
Historically, Wei Zaode had long been prepared for rebellion.
He said: For a talented person like me, Li Zicheng will definitely treat me as a guest and serve me delicious food and drinks!
Therefore, Wei Zaode did not want Chongzhen to succeed.
According to his plan, Chongzhen and the three princes stayed in Beijing. If the capital is defended, he will have a huge share of the credit; if the capital is lost, Chongzhen and the three princes will be his surrender certificate.
It’s also a huge achievement!
He was a courtier in Ming Dynasty, and he was also a courtier in Dashun. There is no need to care who is the emperor!
Wei Zaode looked back at the other three people and asked for their opinions in a low voice.
The cabinet originally had seven people. The former chief assistant Chen Yan and the cabinet minister Jiang Dejing resigned. Li Jiantai rushed to help Shanxi and was captured by bandits in Baoding. Now there are only four people in the cabinet including Wei Zaode.
The other three cabinet members are Fang Yuegong, Fan Jingwen and Qiu Yu.
Among these people, Fan Jingwen was the second assistant to the cabinet and served as Minister of Industry. His position and power were higher than those of the other two.
Fang Yuegong and Qiu Yu knew that no one could offend anyone, so they said at the same time: "We all listen to the words of the first and second assistants."
Seeing this, Fan Jingwen said loudly: "I think Li Yushi's plan is feasible. Our Ming army is short of pay and food. It is a long way to Nanjing. If there is a mutiny on the way because of pay, the consequences will be disastrous."
Wei Zaode shook his head slightly, "Master Fan, what you said is wrong! There are not many defenders in the capital, and more than a thousand people will be needed to escort the prince when he moves south. It will be even more difficult to defend the city."
"The prince is young. Once he goes to Yingtian Mansion alone and encounters courtiers, eunuchs or the harem intervening in politics, it will bring undue disaster to the Ming Dynasty."
"The capital is the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. If Your Majesty abandons it, it will be like handing over half of the country to thieves. This is a bad plan."
"Now we should stick to the capital and wait for King Qin's army. Although the bandits are huge, they are just a mob. When Wu Sangui Guan Ning's army arrives, they will definitely flee." Wei Zaode, the chief assistant of the cabinet, said word by word.
Three sentences, the first sentence opposes Li Banghua's point of view, the second sentence opposes Li Mingrui's point of view, and the third sentence shows that he supports Guang Shiheng.
It is well founded and cannot be questioned.
