national surname chiming

Chapter 132 The Dust Settles
(First, let me say a few words about the controversy in the previous chapter. The original text of Zhang Xianzhong's biography in "History of the Ming Dynasty" reads "In the first month of the 14th year...Xianzhong Guo went out to the east...Leading Qingqi to ride three hundred miles day and night...Traffic in Xiangyang City, Fuxiang Wang Yiming placed it in the hall, and his subordinate's wine said, "I want to use the king's head to make Yang Sichang fall into the trap, and Wang Qi will try his best to use up this wine" and kill him."

I didn't intend to write the plots of these two chapters in detail, but the events that happened in the official history are now delayed and deformed because of the protagonist's butterfly effect. I have to explain that I can finish this part of the plot today.When Zhang Xianzhong broke Xiangyang for the first time in history, there were indeed not many troops. Later, Xiangyang was also controlled by the imperial court and then controlled by Li Zicheng.

It can be inferred that Zhang Xianzhong came this time, at least he did not intend to occupy it for a long time.I just want to kill the vassal king and frame Yang Sichang, and rob a large amount of money, send money to buy people's hearts, or recruit soldiers to buy horses, and then kill some officials. It is reasonable to say which goal is more important, especially the purpose of framing Yang Sichang. The original words of the dialogue above are evidence.

In addition, according to official history, it can be judged that Zhang Xianzhong must have spy agents in Xiangyang City and Yang Sichang's side, so he dared to find weak time and place to take advantage of loopholes.

Shen Shuren appeared by accident, which was not expected by Zhang Xianzhong's intelligence network, so the people he sent to attack did not have time to retreat, they killed and robbed for a while, and did not control the time well.I think this is very reasonable, there is no such thing as lowering the wisdom of Zhang Xianzhong.These are all things he has done in history, so there is no reason to lower his intelligence. )
-

In July of the 14th year of Chongzhen's reign, the Great Tomorrow was full of many clues and drastic changes.

After Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang, in just 20 days, a series of chain reactions occurred in the world one after another, which is even more exaggerated than the explosion of ammunition depots.

Fu Wang was killed, Yang Sichang pleaded guilty, Zuo Liangyu was implicated in cutting off the general and moving to the town... It was only five days after these news came back to the capital,

From Huguang, there was another heavy news that "Xiangyang was infiltrated by thieves pretending to be ordinary people to infiltrate the city and assassinate the vassal king".The emperor and officials in the capital were completely confused by the commotion.

No one wants to see this situation, except for a group of speech officials who are not afraid of big troubles.

The news this time was urgently sent by Shen Shuren Liubaili from Huguang Bingbei. Only two days later, Yang Sichang also sent another apology.

It is said that when Yang Sichang heard that King Xiang and King Gui had been killed, he was so anxious that he vomited blood and passed out. Fortunately, his life was not in danger for the time being.

It should be that Shen Shuren sent someone to comfort Yang Sichang immediately, and communicated his rhetoric and plan to Yang Sichang, so that Yang Sichang would not die of fear of hunger strike like in the same period in history.

Because what he committed in history was the serious crime of "losing land and trapping the vassal", he felt that he would definitely be punished and executed, and it might harm his family, so he hoped to "die at work" as soon as possible in exchange for a decent face.

Now that Shen Shuren's remedy is to insist on "assassination" rather than "lost land and capture", there is still a turning point. Yang Sichang sees hope and can continue to ignite the will to survive for a while.

Of course, Yang Sichang will definitely let his confidantes in the capital keep an eye on some news, to see how Chongzhen finally characterizes this matter.If Chongzhen could accept the characterization of Shen Shuren's report, and made a decision to "infiltrate and assassinate", then Yang Sichang would not be in a hurry to die.

If Chongzhen finally refused to accept the characterization of Shen Shuren's report and insisted on "losing the land and trapping the vassal", then Yang Sichang had to commit suicide before the judicial process was completed to protect his family.

This kind of life of waiting for the news to decide whether to commit suicide is really not human.

……

"In just a few days, so many feudal lords were killed by bandits! What on earth is Yang Sichang doing! I want to destroy his clan!"

In the Wenhua Palace, Chongzhen, who had just heard the bad news, was still not calm, and smashed a lot of porcelain and jade to vent his anger. The eunuchs and maids beside him, including Wang Chengen, were all too angry.

After a while, the middle-ranking admonishers of the Six Divisions who were summoned by the emperor also came to the palace one after another to discuss the nature of the matter.

The final decision is definitely not for the small officials at the middle level, but they represent the opinions of the relevant officials. The emperor also has to refer to external opinions on this matter, whether it will embarrass the emperor.

Chongzhen loves face very much, so sometimes whether he kills or not, the decision-making factor is not whether the other party should be killed for his crime, but "whether people outside will look down on the emperor because the emperor did not kill this time, and feel that the emperor is ashamed."

So much so that the officials of various departments in the Chongzhen Dynasty also secretly grasped this rule. As for the political opponents they wanted to attack, once they got into trouble and they were summoned by the emperor, they would add fuel and jealousy and say, "This time, everyone outside Got it, it's spread like crazy, if His Majesty doesn't strictly enforce the law, I'm afraid he will be ridiculed by scholars all over the world."

In this way, the probability of framing the murdered minister can be increased by several percent.

Of course, it is impossible to try this trick a hundred times, otherwise the civil servants of the Chongzhen Dynasty would have been framed and killed by political enemies long ago, and Chongzhen also had a limit.

If the Kodao spokesperson dared to exaggerate and was found to be purely chasing rumors and fanning the flames, he would also pay a corresponding price.If the crime of false accusation is confirmed, it is not uncommon to be decapitated.

This time, to convict Yang Sichang for his negligence, Chongzhen summoned Shen Xun first.

Fortunately, Yang Sichang is not stupid, he left Beijing to supervise the division, and he stayed in the military department in the capital, of course, he placed his confidantes in the matter. He was promoted ahead of time and stayed in the eyes and ears of the Ministry of War in the capital.

When Yang Sichang was alive, the relationship between Shen Xun and Chen Xinjia was okay, and both of them were loyal to Yang Sichang who promoted them.

But after Yang Sichang's death, the conflict between Shen Xun and Chen Xinjia intensified. Finally, before Chen Xinjia was impeached and questioned, Shen Xun made trouble. As a result, after Chongzhen heard about it, he was a little disdainful, and even sprayed him, "Yang Sichang promoted you back then. Two, if you are allowed to go, you are not as good as Chen Xinjia."

Therefore, although all this has not happened yet, Shen Xun is loyal to Yang Sichang anyway, so it is not possible to reverse at this moment.

In the face of the emperor's inquiry, he also said sincerely: "Your Majesty, I think that it is reasonable for Huguang soldiers to prepare Shen Shuren for this change. Zhang Xianzhong did not capture and occupy Xiangyang for a long time, but sent some dead men to infiltrate the city to assassinate .

These people did not wear armor, and the weapons were also secretly hidden in the city.It is indeed a bit embarrassing for the imperial army to be responsible for investigating these assassins.The so-called specialization in the art industry, if this kind of thing happened, it should be the responsibility of the guards of the palace, the local historians, and the arrest of the yamen servants.

If it is discovered that the bandits have infiltrated, and they cannot defeat the dead soldiers of the bandits with a knife and a gun, leading to the fall of the city, then it is the responsibility of the defenders and the supervisors. "

In fact, Chongzhen didn't really want to severely punish Yang Sichang, because he had read Shen Shuren's memorial carefully and understood that "Zhang Xianzhong's murder of the vassal king was to frame the governor and take advantage of the loopholes in the Ming law to make the court destroy the Great Wall." .

That being the case, Chongzhen is not stupid and cannot fall into Zhang Xianzhong's tricks.

Therefore, as long as the emperor does not lose face and has a step down, he does not have to kill Yang Sichang. At most, he is only admonished for demotion, reduced salary, and fined salary, but he still cares about the original business.

Remuneration can be reduced, power cannot be changed at will, and the great cause of suppressing thieves cannot be undermined.Just like Zhuge Liang's defeat in Jieting and demoted to three ranks, even though he was given the title of General Right, he was still in charge of the original business.

Chongzhen tested Shen Xun again and again, seeing that the other party's words were sincere, and he had a step up, so the matter was temporarily exposed.

Then he summoned Chen Xinjia, who was still only the minister of the Ministry of War, and asked some questions. Chen Xinjia had the same opinion, so Chongzhen decided to wait a few days and the limelight passed before making a judgment slowly.

(Note: Historically, Chen Xinjia was already Minister of War at this time, and Yang Sichang had been dead for less than half a year. But because of the butterfly effect, it is assumed that Chen Xinjia is now still a minister, and it will take a while before he is officially promoted to minister.)
……

However, what Chongzhen did not expect was that at this juncture of the Ming Dynasty, there would never be fewer incidents of the party and the dissident attacking each other.

Before Yang Sichang left, he assigned all the officers in the military department to be his own people, but it was impossible for him to arrange the students in the sixth department and all the officials in the department to be his own people.

There were also many grievances and entanglements between Yang Sichang's faction and Donglin, so soon some officials who were not in charge of military affairs also began to criticize Yang Sichang, and they also refused to accept the characterization that "the death of King Xiang and noble king was an assassination".

It also opposes the court's clear interpretation of relevant laws and regulations and the time scale for "lost land and sequestration".I feel that "being temporarily infiltrated by assassins and disturbing a certain city for a few days, and then being driven back to suppress the thieves by the imperial army" should continue to be counted as "lost ground".

How can "lost ground" be counted as lost ground because it was a sneak attack, it was not bad at all, and the time was short?Not even a day!

Donglin's "Zhongzheng" has never allowed any moral flaws. How can there be a grace period for matters of principle?

The most severe critics in the letter were the two people involved in the incident, Fang Shiliang and Ma Jiazhi. Coincidentally, these two were impeached and killed Chen Xinjia a year later in history.

But it's normal to think about it carefully. Chen Xinjia is regarded as Yang Sichang's remnant party, and those Donglin Zhongzhengs who have never died with Chen Xinjia in history will naturally be the ones who most want to give Yang Sichang eye drops at this moment.

Fang Shiliang and Ma Jiazhi tried their best to add fuel to the flames, exaggerating that "now the scholars outside are ridiculing His Majesty's lax law enforcement, unable to control the local governors, allowing the local governments to lower the standards of defending the land at will, and insulting the majesty of my Ming Dynasty who vowed to die." and so on.

Chongzhen was so humiliated by the trouble, he couldn't help thinking of killing Yang Sichang.

In such a situation, Shen Xun, who wanted to mediate for Yang Sichang, had no other choice. After all, he was only one person, and it was impossible to confront other groups of people. That was not his responsibility. If he behaved too actively, he would be suspected— —

The value of the existence of a speech officer is to check for leaks and fill vacancies, impeachment officials, how can the main firepower of a speech officer be used to spray other speech officers?What is your intention?
Therefore, only Chen Xinjia, the servant of the Ministry of War who was indebted to Yang Sichang, could reluctantly support him there, but he couldn't support him alone.

……

After another three or four days, some turning points finally appeared, mainly because Zuo Zixiong finally escorted Ainengqi to the capital.

The letter was delivered in six hundred miles, and it was impossible for the prisoner to run so fast.Even if there are cavalry fast horses and escorts, it is normal to be more than twice as slow as the messenger.

It was already the end of July when Zuo Zixiong arrived in the capital.Of course, the affairs of prisoners of war and rogue prisoners belonged to the Ministry of War, so Zuo Zixiong sent them directly to Chen Xinjia.

Chen Xinjia solemnly interviewed Zuo Zixiong, who had just been promoted to general, in person, obviously wanting to dig out some material that would benefit Mr. Yang Ge from the front.

After reading the letter that Shen Shuren asked Zuo Zixiong to carry with him, and hearing some supplementary statements from Zuo Zixiong himself, he felt a little happy, and quickly confirmed:

"Oh? When Shen Bingbei quelled the assassins in Xiangyang, he also seized part of the Xiangwang Mansion, Guiwang Mansion, and other family properties of the murdered gentry that were robbed by the assassins? And escorted some of them to the capital?"

Zuo Zixiong replied sincerely: "Indeed, as Shangshu said, hundreds of vassal kings, wealthy families, and wealthy households were killed in the city at that time, but for those who died without closing their doors and their entire families were wiped out, Shen Bingbei found the sufferer." , Returned the robbed property to the sufferer.

Only those who were exterminated by the door and had no sufferer to return were sent to the capital, and they should be handed over to the national treasury—however, not all of them, a considerable part of the heavy property, mainly food, silk, cloth, and utensils.After Zhang Ni's righteous son and thief general broke the mansion, they chose to distribute it directly to the people in Xiangyang City in order to win people's hearts and recruit new soldiers.

Shen Bing was afraid that forcibly confiscating the property sent by the thieves to the people to buy people's hearts would cause the people's hearts to turn to the thieves, so he acquiesced to this part.How to clarify to the court is up to Chen Shilang to decide. "

Chen Xinjia nodded, knowing that the money can still be manipulated, and he can find a way to help Yang Sichang clear the capital a little.In addition, he also knew that Shen Shuren must have left a lot, and he would not send them all with such kindness.

It is impossible to send a million-level family property to the capital in a hurry, and people have already been tempted to see the money on the way, and even tempt the escorting army to turn against the water when they see the money.

Chen Xinjia continued to look down, paid attention to several points, and asked emphatically: "According to what you said, when Shen Bingbei sent you to escort Ainengqi, he had already thought that Zhang Xianzhong might send someone to intercept him halfway, or he might want to snatch it back. For these money, Shen Bingbei actually arranged two teams, one bright and one dark, one for escort and one for ambush.

In the end, did you really wait for an ambush attempt by Zhang Xianzhong's department, but you successfully delayed until the secret escort appeared and defeated Zhang Xianzhong's team of robbers again?And captured more than a hundred people and captured dozens of horses?

In addition, according to Shen Bingbei's investigation, it can also be confirmed that there are indeed Zhang Xianzhong's internal response and careful work around Old Yang Ge and in Xiangyang City. How can he predict the enemy's opportunity in such a way?As for the identities of these secret agents, you also tortured Ai Nengqi and other officers above the head of the bandit department who were captured, how many did you find out? "

Zuo Zixiong admitted very frankly: "As the servant said, the last general escorted this time and killed a wave of robbers halfway, but he really didn't dare to take credit for it. It was Shen Bingbei who thought carefully, and the last general did nothing more than do it. warrior.

Shen Bingbei also said that Zhang Xianzhong was suspicious, and if he really encountered robbery and was successfully defeated, it would further make Zhang Xianzhong suspect that his righteous sons were fighting among themselves.However, it is impossible for Shen Bingbei to predict how it will develop and how it will be used.

He said that he had long heard that Chen Shilang was the most resourceful among the military officials promoted by Mr. Yang Ge.Trust that you can adapt and make the most of these conditions. "

Chen Xinjia was also a little proud of Zuo Zixiong's flattering words.Among other things, he is at least reciprocating and pragmatic.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the captives this time could be of great use.After all, the captive's confession is very lethal, and it can especially prove that Zhang Xianzhong is really good at buying traitors and eyeliners. If it is dug out, it will be a big case.

Soon, Chen Xinjia came up with a poisonous plan - the conscience of heaven and earth. This was entirely Chen Xinjia's own desire to attack political opponents, and had absolutely nothing to do with Shen Shuren.

Shen Shuren didn't want to get involved in those dirty factional struggles in the capital, he just didn't want the court's strategy of suppressing thieves to repeat itself.

……

A few days later, Chen Xinjia's counterattack was really organized.

On the one hand, it was also Zhang Xianzhong who gave his strength. After the troops who robbed and killed the vassal in Xiangyang were severely damaged and almost wiped out, and the prisoner robbery team who went to rescue Ainengqi were also killed.

Zhang Xianzhong was furious, and in order to kill Yang Sichang as soon as possible for the crime of trapping the vassal, he spared no expense in organizing several scenes in which dead soldiers infiltrated and rebelled and assassinated the vassal king.Most of them were not successful, and a few were successful, but because they were all small groups of assassins and had no other income, they could not rob any property, and if they robbed it, they could not transfer it out.

On the other hand, after Chen Xinjia tortured the captives sent to the capital again, he obtained some new "confessions": Zhang Xianzhong repeatedly emphasized in his army that the most urgent task now is to take advantage of Yang Sichang's fear of the general because of the death of King Fu. If you want to die, you must quickly add a torch to confirm Yang Sichang's death.

Therefore, he bribed the officials of the court to make the damage of Zhang Xianzhong's department into a big deal, to embarrass the court, and to promote Chongzhen to kill more local governors.

Originally, it was just an act of "assassination", and these officials were going to make the matter so big that they "lost the land and fell into the vassal", so that the emperor could not step down.

In the end, Chen Xinjia also got a confession: Fang Shiliang, the official official, once received Zhang Xianzhong's money, and he wanted to cooperate with the inside and outside to expand the "assassination" into "lost territory and capture the vassal", as Zhang Xianzhong's internal response, to help Zhang Xianzhong assassinate Governor of the district!

After Chongzhen got this confession from "Zhang Xianzhong's righteous son", he was really furious, and he had an excuse, and immediately arrested the most beeping official, Shiliang, on the charge of "cooperating with thieves and responding internally". It is true that 10,000+ taels of property of unknown origin were copied from Fang Shiliang's mansion.

Conscience of heaven and earth, this amount of money really does not need to be planted, because it is normal for any Beijing official to confiscate 10 taels of money.At most, Chen Xinjia played a little auxiliary trick.

The stolen goods were obtained at the same time, and there was a confession from the thief side, which was completely consistent with the motives of the thief to frame the governor. The official from Donglin was given to Fang Shiliang in the matter, and the three clans were wiped out in this way——Tong thief Neiying It is absolutely appropriate to be dealt with this way.

All of a sudden, the other Donglin officials were silent.

No matter how strong the big troll was, he didn't dare to speak at this time.

It's fine to die, but to die so uselessly, to be confessed by the adopted son of the thief chieftain that he is Zhang Xianzhong's internal agent, it is simply humiliating the eighteen generations of ancestors.

Even if this is the past.

Yang Sichang should be punished or punished. As mentioned above, he will be demoted, fined, and revoked, and he still cares about the original business.

The title of Minister of the Ministry of War was also completely removed. Taking this opportunity, Chongzhen also promoted Chen Xinjia, the minister of the Ministry of War, to make Chen Xinjia officially the Minister of the Ministry of War.

After Chen Xinjia took up his new post, of course he fully recognized Shen Shuren as a friend.From then on, among the six departments in the capital, there were at least Chen Xinjia, Minister of War and Jiang Dejing, Minister of Household, both of whom were staunch allies of the Shen family.

Shen Shuren's local living environment can obviously be optimized a bit.

There is no need to worry too much about Chongzhen's emotional instability and chaos in Huguang's personnel affairs in the last year or so-there is only one year left for Chongzhen to control the local area.Even though he still had two and a half years before he died, after Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Chongzhen had already lost actual control over the place.

-

PS: There is a bit of clarification at the beginning, and there is a little historical material in this chapter, so it will be published at once with only [-] words.Excluding the explanation at the beginning, the main text should be at least [-] words.

This book is less than one-tenth of "Three Kingdoms Huyou", and it is definitely impossible to explode the update. No one will explode the update for 2000 yuan a month (the minimum wage in Hangzhou is 2600. I don’t even get the subsistence allowance).My character can guarantee the completion of the book, write it down well, that's it.

Today is actually [-] words. Although I don’t make updates, I often have big chapters, and there are many days with [-] to [-] words. Let’s be content.

(End of this chapter)