East Factory Governor

Chapter 279

At this time, the belly of a fish was already pale, and Chen Qisheng's face was even whiter than a belly of a fish.

This night was extremely difficult for everyone.

This is likely to be the night that will determine the future of this decaying empire.

After being silent for a long time, Chen Qisheng gritted his teeth, and said to Chongzhen, "Your Majesty, Cheng Huaishan is talking nonsense! The guilty minister's family only has this money, and there is no such thing as a single ten taels of silver!"

In a nutshell, categorically!But the cold sweat kept rolling down his forehead.

Chen Qisheng wants to gamble!
Most of the money was naturally given to the superiors, but if he confessed, it would be tantamount to betraying Donglin. Not only would the superiors not save him, but they would definitely put him to death.Conversely, if he insisted that there was no such thing, maybe he could give a lighter sentence when the three divisions interrogate.

The third division, Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Minister of Dali Temple, and Yushi Zuodu are all members of the Donglin Party!
But he is very clear that everything depends on the emperor in the end.Where did my money go? I believe everyone present knew it well, but knowing it well and trusting me or not were two completely different things.

If the emperor didn't plan to go to war with Donglin, he would choose to "believe" in himself, and he might still be saved.If the emperor chooses to start a full-scale war with Dong Lin, then he will be killed to sacrifice the flag!
In the final analysis, it is the question of whether the emperor is afraid of Dong Lin!

Is the emperor afraid?Of course he is afraid!Donglin scholars are all over the world, does the emperor want to fight against the people of the world?
Chongzhen hesitated for a long time again, and at this critical juncture, his indecisive character was undoubtedly revealed again.

After a while, he said to Li Jingting, "Take him down first."

"The minister obeys the order."

Li Jingting dragged Chen Qisheng, whose legs were already weak, outside.

Chongzhen said to the others, "You all go out, Brother Qin, you stay."

Everyone else immediately went out and shut the door behind them.

Chongzhen took a deep breath, and said slowly to Qin Shuhuai, "Brother Qin, take this step... There is no turning back for us."

Qin Shuhuai said calmly, "If we don't take this step, not only will we not be able to turn back in the future, but it will also be difficult to move forward! Brother Huang, Daming can't be saved by repelling Jiannu once and killing a few Daotai! To wade through mountains of swords and seas of fire, as the Lord of Ming Dynasty, you must wade through!"

Chongzhen's eyes gradually became firm.

"Brother Qin, you will walk this road with me, right?"

"Yes! I will advance and retreat with Brother Huang!"

A few simple words made Chongzhen's blood boil!
"Okay, I will go through this with Brother Qin! I would rather be a desperado who fights everywhere than a subjugated king who is ridiculed by others! I am a god of destiny, and I have a unparalleled national warrior like Brother Qin. I don't believe that I can't beat those pedantic scholars!"

Qin Shuhuai faintly spit out four words, "Your Majesty is wise!"

After the blood was over, Chongzhen returned to calmness.He naturally knows the truth of making a decision before acting.It was like this when fighting against Wei Zhongxian, and it will be like this when fighting against Donglin Party.

"Brother Qin, in your opinion, how should we eradicate the Donglin Party?"

Qin Shuhuai said, "I think it's safe to do four things. One is to control public opinion. Don't let the Donglin Party smear Brother Huang's rectification of the court's laws and regulations into cruelty and indiscriminate killing of courtiers. Otherwise, Brother Huang will become a lonely man." The second is to take steps at every step, and we must not act too hastily. It is necessary to clean up the Donglin Party in one place and one province. Otherwise, those governors will unite and rebel, and things may happen. The third is to put the local government first. The officials of the court and other departments will not move at first, and they will even be appeased by adding officials to the ranks. Donglin's rebellious party has always followed their lead, and as long as they are safe, they can paralyze the Donglin party members to a large extent."

Hearing this, Chongzhen interjected, "Brother Qin, public opinion is Donglin's strong point, and I'm not sure. Does Brother Qin have a good strategy?"

Qin Shuhuai said lightly, "Your Majesty, don't worry, I will leave this to the minister. In terms of the strategy of attacking the heart, even the members of the Donglin Party are no match for the minister."

Chongzhen was overjoyed, and immediately nodded and said, "Brother Qin said so, I don't worry at all!" After a pause, he asked again, "However, Brother Qin said that we should start with the local area and then the central government, so where should we start first?" Woolen cloth?"

Qin Shuhuai said without hesitation, "Start from the war-torn land! If we attack Donglin in the name of suppressing corruption, it will surely arouse Donglin's vigilance. You must know that Donglin party members are corrupt in nine out of ten cases! But if we clean up the The Donglin Party, not only will they not be vigilant, but they also have nothing to say, as they also hope to quell the civil uprising."

Chongzhen was taken aback, and said, "Will this make the war against bandits more rotten?"

Qin Shuhuai shook his head with certainty and said, "No. As long as the officers and soldiers are not in chaos, the local government will not be in chaos, because the local military administration has already been taken over by the officers and soldiers, and the government has already existed in name only. And because most of the Donglin Party members are civil servants, the officials There are very few Donglin Party members in the army, as long as the governor and a few governors are purged, the officers and soldiers will completely break away from the Donglin Party."

Chongzhen nodded and said, "Brother Qin is right. At present, the places where bandits are most rampant are Shanxi, Shanxi, Gansu and other places, which are the three sides of Governor Yang He. Yang He holds a heavy army, But he has always vented out of the same nostrils as Zhou Yanru and others, and he is also a member of the Donglin Party. In this way, if he wants to clean up the Donglin Party on the three sides, he must first transfer Yang He away, and then send a reliable person to the governor. By the way, what does Brother Qin think?"

Qin Shuhuai said, "Yang He has had no major defeats or mistakes recently. It is a bit strange to transfer him at this time, and it will definitely arouse the suspicion of the Donglin Party members. In addition, if Yang He leaves, the local Donglin officials will be purged. Our purpose is too obvious. In addition, even if Yang He is transferred to quell the public opinion of the Donglin Party, the emperor still has to let him take up an important position, which will be a disaster in the future."

Hearing Qin Shuhuai's bad tone, Chongzhen seemed to understand something.

"Then Brother Qin's meaning..."

Qin Shuhuai said in a cold voice, "I suggest that it is better to let Yang He die in office!"

Chongzhen only thought for a second before nodding in agreement.As for how to make Yang He die in office, he believed that brother Qin had ten thousand ways, and he didn't need to care about it.There was only one thing he cared about.

Asked, "Then who will succeed?"

"One of Yang He's subordinates is Hong Chengchou, who participates in politics. I believe that this person should be able to take on this great responsibility."

Chongzhen recalled it carefully, and said, "Hong Chengchou? The one who led 1000 people to break the siege of Hancheng?"

At this time, Hong Chengchou was just a small political participant, and the only time Chongzhen heard of him was the Battle of Hancheng not long ago.

But Qin Shuhuai knew that this person would soon become famous and eventually replace Yang He as the governor of the three sides.

So he just made the process a little bit earlier.

This is a rare talent in the late Ming Dynasty!Without him, the Forbidden City would have been breached by the militia at least five or six years earlier!
When Yang He was on the three sides of the governor, he adopted a strategy of "suppressing and appeasing" the peasant army, which created a strange phenomenon, that is, after the peasants rebelled, if they could not defeat the officers and soldiers, they could choose to surrender, and not only would they not receive any punishment, And you can get a sum of money or rations for free.Who wouldn't want to do such a good thing?Therefore, the bandit army in the three-sided area rebelled and surrendered, and they will never be completely suppressed.Even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong repeatedly "feigned surrender" back then, and gradually became bigger and bigger in the "feigned surrender".It can be said that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong would never have become big if it weren't for Yang He, the saint of the Donglin Party.

And Hong Chengchou is very different from his boss.He is a well-known hardliner. He not only advocated vigorously suppressing bandits, but also killed surrenders. According to statistics, tens of thousands of bandits were killed by him.The effect was also immediate. During the three-sided period of his governorship, there were fewer and fewer bandits. In the 12th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng, the last bandit army in Shaanxi, was almost wiped out, and only eighteen cavalry were defeated.If Hong Chengchou hadn't become governor of Jiliao later, it is estimated that Li Zicheng would never be able to stand up in his life.

In short, Hong Chengchou can definitely be regarded as a great talent in the late Ming Dynasty, and what is even more commendable is that he is not at all with the Donglin Party.Although he later surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, anyone who knows the whole process knows that he is different from Wu Sangui.

Although Chongzhen didn't know Hong Chengchou very well, he felt relieved when he heard Qin Shuhuai say that he could take on this great job.

It was only then that Qin Shuhuai remembered that there was a fourth point that Qin Shuhuai didn't say, so he hurriedly asked, "Brother Qin, what is the fourth point you want to say?"

Qin Shuhuai said, "The fourth and most important step is to solve the problem of payment arrears for soldiers and horses in various places as soon as possible. Nowadays, arrears of payment are common in various places, and the living conditions of officers and soldiers are extremely poor. This is the biggest loophole! My lord, those who can control the soldiers and horses are the governors from all over the country. They have no foundation at the bottom. But if they use the court's arrears of salary as an issue, discredit the emperor's arrogance and lust, refuse to pay, etc., in order to encourage the bottom officers and soldiers to follow them against the emperor, then Something is wrong!"

Chongzhen nodded deeply and said, "Brother Qin is right. Before moving Donglin, it is necessary to settle the payment arrears. It's just that the imperial court has a long-standing arrears of payment, and it is not easy to pay off all of them!"

After speaking, Chongzhen looked at Qin Shuhuai with malicious eyes again.

"Brother Qin, I said that I only want 500 million taels from you this time. Don't worry, as the emperor, I will never ask you for more. For the payment owed, I just sold the treasure in the palace. If you don’t own the royal family’s land, it will be resolved by itself. Of course, if you give more, it’s loyal to the emperor and the country, so it’s okay.”

Qin Shuhuai knew that this kid was trying to make up his own mind again, so he deliberately kept quiet to see what else this kid would say.

Seeing that Qin Shuhuai was silent, Chongzhen cleared his throat again, and muttered like a chatterbox, "Brother Qin, how can he steal tens of millions of taels of silver when he comes out this time? The help is at least 280 million taels, plus this time Tianjin Road is converted to 400 million taels. If Chen Liren, the capital of salt transportation, is copied from the home of Chen Liren, it will be at least 120 taels. Brother Qin's method can at least knock him three to five million taels. So, um... it's already 50 million taels."

Qin Shuhuai: ...

"Hehe, brother Qin, you have developed this time."

Qin Shuhuai: ...

"Hehe, Brother Qin, you have already made a net profit of 400 million taels."

Qin Shuhuai: ...

"Hehe, Brother Qin, you are richer than me."

Qin Shuhuai: ...

"Hehe, Brother Qin, I envy you."

Qin Shuhuai sighed, "Your Majesty, you'd better just say it straight, how much more will you pay to be considered loyal to the emperor and the country?"

(End of this chapter)