Chongzhen: I am the king of prosperous times

After a night of heavy snowfall, the Forbidden City was covered with a layer of silver. The sun rose in the east, and the sun spread across the earth, shining golden light under the reflection of the glazed tiles.

The chill is getting worse.

Dongnuan Pavilion.

"Chen Qing returned to Beijing secretly from Tianjin, and worked hard all the way."

Emperor Chongzhen sat on the Arhat bed, looked at Chen Yansheng who had lost a lot of weight, and said with concern: "The Qing family has lost a lot of weight compared to before. The pressure in Tianjin must be very high. You must take care of yourself and don't worry about everything. Carry it on your own, and if you encounter difficulties, submit the memorial to me."

"It is the duty of a minister to be able to share worries for His Majesty and worry about the country."

Chen Yansheng stood up from Luohan's bed, cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty has supported me enough, if I can't make more achievements in Tianjin, I will live up to Your Majesty's expectations."

"Sit down."

Emperor Chongzhen stretched out his hand and said, "There are only two of us, the emperor and his ministers, in Dongnuan Pavilion, so the rules of the foreign court are unnecessary, and I will get straight to the point.

I am very satisfied with the development momentum formed in Tianjin.

Persisting in open sea trade will not only drive the development of Tianjin, but also indirectly promote the changes in Beizhili. This is what I want to see most.

In particular, the Customs established in Tianjin, the amount of tariffs levied, can have such results, which I did not expect, and this also strengthened my determination. "

"Tianjin's change today is all due to His Majesty's wise decision."

Chen Yansheng bowed slightly and said: "When I first served as the governor of Tianjin, I didn't have much confidence in the matter of opening the sea for trade, after all, Daming had never done that before.

However, with the passage of time, more and more maritime merchants from European countries gathered in Tianjin. Relying on the port of foreign countries, the prosperous maritime trade industry formed, let the minister gradually understand the positive effect of opening up the sea to Ming Dynasty.

Your Majesty, will the customs duties collected by the Tianjin Customs be escorted to the capital to supplement..."

Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand and interrupted: "No, continue to keep Tianjin's local finances and use them for various planning and construction. It is not easy for Tianjin to have the current momentum, so we must maintain it well.

In particular, the construction of roads and water conservancy projects around the territory of Beizhili still needs to rely on the support of Tianjin, which is very important.

If the customs duty money from Tianjin is escorted to Beijing from the local area and added to Taicang, it can indeed help the imperial court share part of the pressure, but in this way, the development of Tianjin and the plans of Beizhili will be affected accordingly.

This is what I don't want to see.

The financial pressure of the court is borne and shared by the ministers in the court.

After all, even now, there are still quite a few people who question and oppose Tianjin Kaihai. I know what they think. "

Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied with the discovery of such a talented person as Chen Yansheng.

I thought it would be pretty good if we could get some phased victories by letting Chen Yansheng preside over Tianjin's evacuation and establishment of a prefecture.

Unexpectedly, Chen Yansheng, the magistrate of Tianjin, brought many surprises. He not only developed Tianjin well, but also helped Emperor Chongzhen share a lot of burdens.

In fact, Daming did not lack good talents.

It's just that the chaotic order in the past, especially the disorderly party struggle in the court, made these good talents have no way out, suffered suppression and constraints, and made it impossible for them to truly display their talents.

Things are gradually changing now.

"Your Majesty, you secretly summoned ministers to Beijing to meet His Majesty, but for Liaodong?"

With a serious expression, Chen Yansheng looked at Emperor Chongzhen and asked, "Now Jinzhouwei has been captured by our Liao army in Tianjin and Denglai, and all the Jianlu stationed there, including the rebels who betrayed Ming Executed."

"Yes."

Emperor Chongzhen nodded and said: "I secretly summoned Qing's family to Beijing because of planning for Liaodong, and some things are unclear in the secret decree.

First, I will gather my relatives in Jingxun and set up the Huangming Maritime Trade Association. In the future, the resident will be arranged in Tianjin. This part of the secret is involved. The Qing family can wait until they return to Tianjin and learn more about it before making arrangements.

Second, I want the Qing family to be under the rule of Tianjin, take over the military industry previously raised by the internal factory, bring it under the jurisdiction of the Tianjin government, select a group of reliable people to control it, and gradually expand the military industry under its jurisdiction to drive the development of related industries in Tianjin .

In the future, Tianjin's military industry will provide various military supplies such as firearms and artillery to Liaoqian, and the imperial court will allocate corresponding food and payment expenses.

In addition, the Qing family will secretly open up a route to meet Li Zicheng's Liaodong Rebel Army and place various orders with the Tianjin military industry. What can be sold and what cannot be sold, I will regularly issue secret orders to the Qing family according to the changes in the situation in Liao. .

This matter must be kept strictly confidential, and the person who handles this matter must be reliable. There are some things that I cannot let the court know, and I hope the Qing family can keep them in mind. "

"The minister obeys the order."

Chen Yansheng suppressed the shock in his heart, stood up and bowed his hands.

Regarding the current situation in the Liao region, Emperor Chongzhen knew very well what was going on. It was absolutely impossible to completely restrain the development of Jianlu by relying on the power of the Ming Dynasty alone.

The Liaodong Rebel Army led by Li Zicheng, in the next few years, Emperor Chongzhen will ask them to maintain their independence, and will not recruit them from the court level.

After all, if it is really recruiting.

As far as the virtues of the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty are concerned, they will definitely try their best to limit the forces under Li Zicheng's command, and then they will fall into internal friction, which is obviously an opportunity for Jianlu.

Rather than doing that, it would be better to let Li Zicheng's troops be independent. On the one hand, it will assist Daming to relieve pressure, and on the other hand, it will stimulate the Daming army.

At the same time, through Li Zicheng's line, they can also dump arms and firearms produced by Ming Dynasty in order to reap huge profits from arms and promote changes under the rule of Ming Dynasty.

If primitive industrialization wants to take root and grow stronger, it needs a large number of dumping grounds.

Since Liaodong cannot be fully recovered, it can simply be regarded as a dumping ground. In addition, Emperor Chongzhen will try to rule North Korea and gradually become a dumping ground for Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Chongzhen continued: "In addition to these things, the Tianjin soldiers led by Li Mingzhong do not need to return to Tianjin, but are stationed under the rule of Jinzhou.

General Li Mingzhong was dismissed from Tianjin and promoted to the general officer of Jinzhou. The group of elite soldiers under his command received an additional one tael of silver every month. This part of the salary was provided by Tianjin. There is no need to send troops to recover the territory outside the state, and it is occupied by Li Zicheng's troops.

Lu Xiangjin took the vacant post of general in Tianjin.

For things like these, after the Qing family returned to Tianjin, they sent someone to the Jinzhou Guards to pass on oral orders, and told Li Mingzhong clearly that I value Jinzhou very much, and I want to guard Jinzhou Guards for me and Daming, and absolutely nothing will happen. mistake. "