On the morning of March 10th in the 14th year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen summoned several important internal and external ministers, and the matters decided at the small court meeting gradually entered the implementation stage.

First, in the afternoon of March 11, the decree was issued that Fan Fuchui, the current chief assistant, should take office. Amid the astonishment of the courtiers in the capital and the officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Fan Fuchui secretly left the capital in the afternoon of the same day before the city gates closed.

Then on the morning of March 12th, Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyiwei, personally led his people to surround the former chief minister Xue Guoguan's residence in the capital city and read to Xue Guoguan Emperor Chongzhen's edict to commit suicide.

Xue Guoguan burst into tears but could not find a way to pray, so he hanged himself at home.

Jin Yiwei was not polite either. After Xue Guoguan hanged himself, he immediately issued an edict to confiscate Xue Guoguan's entire family property.

Not only did they confiscate the former chief minister's property in Beijing, but they also immediately sent people to his hometown to confiscate all the wealth he had accumulated since he became an official.

This action of Jin Yiwei shocked everyone in the capital court, and at the same time, it immediately washed away the impact caused by Fan Fuchui's departure from the capital.

As for the edict that came to the world on the same day as Fan Fucui left Beijing, ordering Ding Qirui, the governor of Shaanxi Province to succeed Yang Sichang and governor of Huguang, Henan, Sichuan, and the armies north and south of the Yangtze River, it immediately lost popularity.

However, before the ministers in the court and the Sixth Section Gallery could wait, the ministers of the Metropolitan Procuratorate had written a bullet against the Jinyiwei and a memorial to persuade Emperor Chongzhen to withdraw his orders. Another important edict attracted people again.

attracted the attention of everyone in the court.

That is the purpose regarding the selection of the new chief minister of the cabinet.

Slightly different from the original time and space, this life may have been more or less influenced by Yang Zhen. It was very rare that Emperor Chongzhen did not bring this matter to public discussion.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen's order to summon his former chief minister Zhou Yanru to the capital was not only immediately announced and implemented, but Emperor Chongzhen also temporarily changed what he said at the small court meeting that day, that he was only to summon him to the capital to face the emperor, and then decide on the candidate for the chief minister.

idea.

Instead, Zhou Yanru, the former chief minister who had resigned from Beijing for many years, was directly reinstated as the new chief minister.

For many ministers, Fan Fucui is already a thing of the past, and Xue Guoguan has been sentenced to death.

Compared with the fate of the two former first assistants, what they are more concerned about is actually the selection of the new first assistant.

When Fan Fucui left the capital secretly, all the ministers of the six ministries and above who were qualified to participate in the court nomination, as well as the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Hanlin Academy, Dali Temple, Zhanshifu and other major government offices, had already begun to contact each other.

I am fully prepared to compete for the position of the chief minister of the cabinet and the by-election of cabinet ministers.

As a result, Emperor Chongzhen went against the norm and directly selected Zhou Yanru without consulting the ministers or ministers.

It was better now. No one cared about Ding Qirui's succession to Yang Sichang, including Fan Fucui's secret departure from the capital, and the fact that his former chief minister Xue Guoguan had his house confiscated and sentenced to death. Not many people paid attention to it. The ministers of the imperial court began to write letters to dispute the succession.

The choice of first assistant.

Because the announcement of a new chief minister of the cabinet is likely to mean a reshuffle of the court's power.

Those ministers who had offended Zhou Yanru in the past naturally rallied to oppose Zhou Yanru's comeback.

Those courtiers who had not offended Zhou Yanru but who wanted to take the opportunity to show off quickly wrote letters to express their support.

The chaos caused by Yang Sichang's death in the capital court was within a few days overwhelmed by the chaos caused by Emperor Chongzhen's re-appointment of Zhou Yanru.

Amidst all this chaos, half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

On March 27, the 14th year of Chongzhen, the edict-delivery team that was ordered to go to Shanhaiguan and then cross the sea from Shanhaiguan to Lushunkou finally set off.

This edict-delivery team whose final destination was Lushunkou actually consisted of two teams.

One was a team headed by Zhang Ruoqi, a doctor at the Ministry of War, who formally conveyed various appointments and reward edicts from the imperial court, and was escorted by a group of soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp.

The other is a team headed by the eunuch Chu Xianzhang, the imperial eunuch, who supervises the implementation of various rewards and appointments. This team is composed of soldiers from the Four Guards Battalion commanded by the imperial eunuch himself.

Of course, the reason why Emperor Chongzhen sent Chu Xianzhang, a trustworthy eunuch, was not just to follow and supervise Zhang Ruoqi.

Chu Xianzhang has two other tasks.

The first is to conduct an on-the-spot investigation into the rumors that had been circulating in the capital, especially the rumors about Yang Zhen's liaison with the Qing captives reported to the governor's office in Jiliao.

After all, these news spread a lot in western Liaoning and the capital, but there was no response or explanation from Yang Zhen himself. Emperor Chongzhen could not rest assured in any case.

Because Jinhae Town is so important.

The current Emperor Chongzhen has fully realized the extreme importance of opening up a battlefield behind Qing captives.

At the same time, he also saw clearly that in the past year, the reason why the Qing army did not invade the border or even attack Jinzhou and other places in western Liaoning was because Yang Zhen contained the main force of the Qing army behind the Qing army, causing the Qing army to

The captives had no time to look west.

Including the results achieved by the Liaoxi soldiers and horses at the end of last year, they are also closely related to this.

After realizing this, Emperor Chongzhen had a different mentality when he looked at Yang Zhen and the Jinhai Town he developed.

Jinhae Town is no longer dispensable.

Correspondingly, whether Yang Zhen was loyal or not, whether Yang Zhen would become domineering and uncontrollable like Mao Wenlong, or whether he would secretly collude with Qing captives, became a worry for Emperor Chongzhen.

Emperor Chongzhen would never be happy unless this problem was eliminated.

It was precisely for this reason that Emperor Chongzhen thought of sending the upright Chu Xianzhang to Lushun to find out the real situation.

Then the second one was to ask Chu Xianzhang to select Tian Guozhang from Wuzhong to Beijing, a famous actor who was both beautiful and talented, and sent him to Lushunkou as a reward from Emperor Chongzhen to Yang Zhen himself.

Because the reward given by Emperor Chongzhen to Yang Zhen was, after all, a famous actor in Wuzhong who was both beautiful and talented, it was inappropriate to send anyone else to escort him to Lushunkou, so the eunuchs who were trusted by the emperor could only take action.

In this way, the edict-delivery team led by Chu Xianzhang, the eunuch of the imperial court, and Zhang Ruoqi, a doctor of the Ministry of War, set off on the morning of March 27, the 14th year of Chongzhen, and arrived safely at the Shanhaiguan Military Department at noon on April 1.

At the Shanhaiguan Military Department, they conveyed the order to Fang Yizao, the Minister of War who was in charge of the affairs of the branch. Fang Yizao also packed his luggage, took his followers, and joined them in waiting for the wind to cross the sea.

In the early morning of the seventh day of April, the sea breeze in the sea area of ​​Laolongtou, Shanhaiguan was suitable for sailing. The sea-crossing team further expanded, so they took the five hundred-material ships of the Longwuying Navy of the Directly Affiliated Military Department, took the opportunity to set sail, and sailed against the wind all the way, heading straight to

Go in the direction of Lushunkou.

Chu Xianzhang has already traveled back and forth on this route once, and it is relatively stable, such as getting used to it.

But this was the first time that Fang Yizao, Zhang Ruoqi and others had been on the vast sea for several days in a row. They had been struggling all the way with all kinds of panic, fear and seasickness and vomiting, and almost lost half of their lives.

As the sun rose and set, the group of five boats sailed southeast for five days. Finally, on the afternoon of April 11, they met Hu Changhai, Gao Chengyou and Hu Dabao from the Jinhai North Road Naval Camp outside Jinhai Bay.

The returning fleet.

Not long ago, Hu Changhai and his fleet from the North Road Naval Battalion returned from Yingzhou Island with Yuan Jin's fleet, and then rested for a few days at Shuangdao Bay at Lushunkou, overhauling the ships and replenishing food.

After getting out of the water, we headed to Denglai again to load the immigrants.

However, this time the 2,400 immigrants they loaded were no longer sent to Yingzhou Island or Yuncong Island, but were assigned to Jinhai North Road.

Among them, in addition to the 600 households allocated to Lu Pinqi and the 300 households allocated to Xu Changyong, the remaining 1,500 households were allocated to Hu Changhai, Gao Chengyou and Hu Dabao respectively.

Among them, Hu Changhai and Gao Chengyou were allocated 600 households each, while Hu Dabao, who also contributed a lot in the immigration operation, was only allocated 300 households for safety reasons because he was stationed relatively close to the front.

When the small fleet of Chu Xianzhang, Fang Yizao, and Zhang Ruoqi met Hu Changhai and others, Hu Changhai and others happened to be traveling together and returned to their base through the sea outside Jinzhou Bay.

Both parties were surprised and happy when their identities were announced. Hu Changhai and the others quickly crossed the boat to meet them, and then personally escorted them to the dock in Jinzhou Bay.

Then Xiangping Bo Shen Zhixiang and Jinhai Middle Road Assistant General Xu Tianchong learned that the imperial envoys had stopped in Jinzhou. They rushed to pay a visit and immediately sent people south to Lushunkou to report the news to Yang Zhen.

Fang Yizao, Zhang Ruoqi and others, who had had enough of the rough seas, simply landed from Jinzhou. After resting for a night in Jinzhou City, they set off again on the morning of April 12th, taking the land route.

Go to Lushunkou.

At noon that day, Yang Zhen and his party, who mobilized troops to meet the imperial envoys, encountered the imperial envoys led by Chu Xianzhang, Fang Yizao and Zhang Ruoqi on the post road near Qiantun in Yingchengzi.

This is not the first time that Yang Zhen, Chu Xianzhang, Fang Yizao, and Zhang Ruoqi have met, and they are very familiar with each other.

Now that we meet again after so many years, we are both very happy.

It's just that the north-south post road near Qiantun in Yingchengzi is, after all, a place in the wilderness, and it is not a place to convey orders or discuss matters and reminisce about the past.

The two parties met each other, each received a greeting, and then the two teams formed a team and continued southbound under the personal guidance of Yang Zhen.

Entering mid-April in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula, the temperature is rising, vegetation is budding, mountain flowers are blooming, and the scenery and climate are already quite pleasant.

In addition, it rained several times in succession before and after the Qingming Festival. From time to time on both sides of the post road that meanders south, you can see farmers working in the villages.

The fields of the old guardhouse, which had been abandoned for many years, were reclaimed, and the old official villages, which were almost in ruins with broken walls and ruins, were also restored and renovated.

Once the earth becomes popular, it will no longer be a dead wilderness.

The continuous migration of Ming immigrants from the area across the sea has long restored the vitality of the mountainous forest land of the Liaodong Peninsula.

"Yes, yes, yes. Since Governor Yang opened up Jinhai Town, he has carried out a large-scale resettlement and reclamation here. In less than two years, it has achieved great results. Compared with the victory of Zhenjiang Fort, this achievement is actually no less generous.

Below it!"

"Yes, our family has been here once before, and now, after only a year, we come back to Jinhai Town, and it is already like a paradise. Governor Yang's talent is really admirable, really admirable!"

After welcoming Chu Xianzhang, Zhang Ruoqi and Fang Yizao, in addition to condolences for their tiredness on the journey, Yang Zhen accompanied the three of them as they rode south together.

The group of people walked near the front village of Sanjianbao and saw farmers busy farming in the fields and smoke and birds in the village not far from the post road. Fang Yizao and Chu Xianzhang couldn't help but praise Yang Zhenlai again.

"Haha, Fang Shibo has given me the prize, and Eunuch Chu has given me the prize. Here in the Liaodong Peninsula, there are seven mountains, two rivers and one farmland. The land is barren and the yield is not much. Although many hungry people from the pass have come here to open up wasteland, but said
Chapter completed!