Chongzhen's eyebrows furrowed, and his three sentences were watertight. He finally understood the power of the chief minister of the cabinet.
At the same time, he also had murderous intentions!
As a time traveler, how could he not know Wei Zaode's thoughts?
Chongzhen nodded and signaled everyone to return to their positions.
He looked at everyone, his eyes getting colder: "I heard everything you just said. Some people are reasonable and well-founded, while others are nonsense!"
"Guang Shiheng, you said the capital can be defended, but how? Let me tell you!"
Guang Shiheng rolled his eyes and said: "There are millions of people in the capital. If we gather a hundred thousand people, we will definitely be able to defend the city."
Chongzhen asked with a gloomy face: "How to recruit? Capture strong men or recruit soldiers? Aren't you afraid that strong men will defect when the battle comes? Where does the money for recruiting soldiers come from? Military pay can be in arrears, but what about food pay? Should we let the people defend the city with dry food?"
Under the attack of Emperor Chongzhen's series of question marks, Guang Shiheng's mind went blank for a moment. He stammered: "This... money and food are the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue. I only talk about strategy."
Chongzhen was furious: "Okay, I will promote you to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue now. If you don't have any countermeasures, I will chop off your head."
Chongzhen was not really angry. A small incident could not arouse his anger at all.
He did this to lure Wei Zaode into taking action.
Guang Shiheng is a pawn, and Wei Zaode behind him is the big boss.
Guang Shiheng was so frightened that he knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please calm down. I...I am doing this for the sake of the imperial court."
Chongzhen smiled coldly: "Guang Shiheng, are you deaf? I have made you the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Please tell me your countermeasures!"
After hearing the word please, Guang Siheng was really scared. There were few living people in the Ming Dynasty who could bear Chongzhen's request, and it was not him.
He knelt on the ground and hit his head on the ground: "Your Majesty, forgive me. I should not talk nonsense in the court. Please calm down, Your Majesty!"
Chongzhen looked at Zhongguang Shiheng who was kneeling down to beg for mercy, and the remaining pity in his heart disappeared.
If Guang Shiheng refused to plead guilty, Chongzhen would let him go because of his stubbornness.
After all, the civil servants in the late Ming Dynasty had already lost their character. It took a lot of effort for someone to come out, but they could not be wiped out.
However, his bones are also soft.
Chongzhen waved his hand and told Guang Shiheng to return to his position. The time was running out now, and it would not be too late to kill him later.
He glanced at the ministers and said leisurely: "I am not a foolish king. Since I took the throne in August of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, natural and man-made disasters have continued! I wanted to revive the Ming Dynasty, but God failed to fulfill my wish. Today, thieves are rampant, slaves are wanton, and people's hearts are unstable. , the capital is difficult to defend!"
"I am very disappointed. Not only for myself, but also for you."
"I deserve to die. I cannot share my worries with you, and I cannot relieve the sufferings of the people." Wei Zaode, the chief minister of the cabinet, knelt down and apologized.
You don’t have to do things, but you still have to do them.
"The ministers are guilty!" All the ministers fell to their knees.
"Let's all be safe. According to Li Banghua's plan, a few people including the Crown Prince, King Yong, King Ding, the family members of the Sixth Palace, and hundreds of officials will accompany me. The rest will stick to the capital with me and wait for King Qin's army. As for the officials going to Nanjing Let Li Banghua draw up the list."
Chongzhen had long understood that, regardless of history or reality, there were only three paths before him.
Defend, escape, talk!
First rule out escape.
Once they escape south, the consequences will be disastrous.
The emperor's promise to defend the country turned into empty talk; for decades in Liaodong, countless men were stained with blood on the battlefield and turned into a game.
More importantly, Wu Sangui, who is Qianli Qinwang, will be caught in a situation where he is attacked from two sides. If he surrenders to slavery as he did in history, the tragedy of history may repeat itself.
At that time, Chongzhen would not only be sorry for the ancestors of the Zhu family, but also sorry for the heroes who died in the battlefield, and even more sorry for the destitute creatures.
Secondly, peace talks are excluded.
In the Ming Dynasty, if there is no marriage, no indemnity, no land cession, no tribute, the emperor will guard the country, and the king will die in the country.
He cannot damage the bottom line.
Final answer: Keep.
Historically, it took Chongzhen seventeen years to save the Ming Dynasty, and he couldn't do anything in a week.
The only thing we can do now is to hold on to Beijing.
As long as Li Zicheng cannot attack Beijing, the Ming Dynasty's fundamentals will still be there, and history may be rewritten.
"Your Majesty is wise, I will obey the imperial edict!" Li Banghua led more than 30 officials to kneel down to accept the edict.
Upon seeing this, the officials who supported Li Mingrui knelt down to accept the order after a short period of thinking.
The emperor asked Li Banghua to draw up the list of ministers traveling with the prince. What does it mean?
This shows that Li Banghua has been reused quietly.
If you want to take refuge in Yingtian, you must side with Li Banghua.
In the blink of an eye, half of the officials in the court knelt down to receive the order.
Wei Zaode's face was solemn.
For him, the best policy was to leave all the emperor and princes to Li Zicheng.
As long as Chongzhen is forced to issue an edict to abdicate, it will be a great achievement, and Li Zicheng will also promote him.
But if the prince runs away and Chongzhen stays behind to defend Beijing, things will be complicated. At that time, not only will there be no merit, but they will be specially targeted.
He had long heard that Dashun was very cruel to Ming Dynasty officials who had no merit.
The certificate of surrender was gone, and he felt unsure.
The rule of the political game is that the minority obeys the majority. Now the emperor and most officials agree that the prince will move south.
This matter is irreversible.
It's just that he couldn't understand. In normal times, Chongzhen would have been hesitant, either summoning the cabinet to the back hall for discussion, or returning to the palace to think about it.
What's going on here today? The decision was actually made in court!
"Your Majesty!" Wei Zaode tried to wake up the hesitant Chongzhen.
"I have made up my mind!" Chongzhen rejected Wei Zaode and continued: "The officials who go to Nanjing must assist the prince seriously, and those who stay in the capital will fully assist me and fight against the bandits together!"
"Yes!" More than 40 officials responded simultaneously.
"Now let's talk about the second thing." An imperceptible smile appeared on Chongzhen's lips, "I just asked someone to calculate the salary of the Beijing camp defenders, plus the money for recruiting soldiers, there is a gap of 1.5 million taels of silver. .”
"Now the treasury is empty and there is no money to use. It all shows that the army is not satisfied with the pay, and it is invincible if it is full. In order to fight against the bandits, all the ministers are thinking of a way! As long as we collect a million silver, we can defend the capital!"
All civil and military officials lowered their heads in perfect agreement.
The topic of silver lasted from the first year of Chongzhen to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen. The money collected by the state treasury every year could not make ends meet. Without the internal funds saved by Wanli, military pay would have been insufficient.
The emperor asked them to collect money. How? Where to get together?
If money could be collected, the Ming Dynasty would not be turned upside down by a group of thieves.
Seeing that everyone was silent, Chongzhen said with a fake smile: "Since you have no choice, I have an idea!"
"Your Majesty, please make it clear!" Although the chief minister of the cabinet was a little reluctant, he still cooperated with the emperor immediately.
"Donate money!"
The civil and military officials present continued to remain silent, as they had done in the same old way. They had donated countless times since the 16th year of Chongzhen.
"Did any of you gentlemen donate money? Those who donate silver will be promoted!" Chongzhen was anxious on the surface, but he had another thought in his heart: Dear gentlemen, I have given you a chance. If you fail to seize it, don't blame me!
Li Banghua was the first to stand up. He knew that Chongzhen was about to take action.
"I, Li Banghua, became an official in the 31st year of Wanli. Every penny of my family's money comes from the imperial court. Now that the imperial court is in trouble, I am willing to donate all my family property to help suppress the thieves."
"Okay! Li Banghua's loyalty is a lesson, and I will reward him greatly!" Chongzhen stood up, clapping the case.
