Huai'an City was full of patrolling soldiers. Thousands of soldiers and horses brought by Zhou Shixian, the model battalion under Lu Zhenfei's command, and thousands of temporarily recruited civilians formed heavily guarded checkpoints inside and outside the city.

Zhang Hong, dressed in shiny silver-white armor, stood solemnly at the south gate of Huai'an City. Officials coming from Nanjing needed to be verified by him before entering the city.

This made Zhang Hong feel like he was guarding the country for the emperor, and he felt once again that he had indeed followed the right person.

In order to prevent himself from making mistakes on such an important matter, Zhang Hong has been holding back for the past few days and has not drank any alcohol. He is afraid that he will accidentally mess up the matter. If he offends Tianyan, he will lose his money.

Life or official position are even less worth it.

Seeing the usually arrogant nobles and civil servants groveling in front of him and trying their best to please him just to know a little bit of the inside story, Zhang Hong looked at them with a cold face and said nothing, but in fact he was extremely happy in his heart.

.

He, a military general who does practical things and has no profound background, is most disgusted with these civil servants and nobles. Apart from embezzling military pay, occupying high positions, and giving random orders, these people have never done anything good.

However, Zhang Hong was no longer afraid of them, so he didn't give them a good look.

The first people to enter the city were the nobles in Nanjing. Their ancestors were all the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty, and their meritorious deeds were passed down from generation to generation. Nowadays, all of them still hold vacant positions in the Nanjing camp, occupying almost all important positions.

However, since the Tumubao Incident, the power of Ming Dynasty's noble group has plummeted. In the eyes of the civil servants and scholars, they are just better than the grassroots Qiu Ba.

Therefore, these nobles had a natural affection for Zhou Shixian, especially when they saw him wearing a military uniform and guarding the Yamen Courtyard of Huai'an Prefecture.

After all, everyone now knows that the Ming Dynasty has produced a consort who is comparable to the God of War. The reason why the emperor can have a safe journey depends on the consort's wisdom and martial arts.

In this way, the prince-in-law must be inclined to the martial arts faction, especially now that the three princes of the Holy Emperor, Prince Yong and King Ding, including the prince, have all fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the Holy Emperor must not trust those vassal kings, and the world is unified.

, it is very likely that it will fall on the Prince Consort’s lineage in the future.

This is why Zhou Shixian left the princes to Li Zicheng, so that those officials had no choice but to support him.

Zhou Shixian naturally accepted the enthusiasm shown by these nobles. He still needed these people to check and balance the civil servants. Moreover, when the time came to empty the Nanjing camp, he also needed someone to cooperate with him.

Moreover, these nobles were all shameless guys. In the original history, the Longping Marquis Zhang Gongri in front of Zhou Shixian surrendered without hesitation. It was easy to bribe them.

It is even said that as long as Zhou Shixian did not leave the Nanjing Camp on the surface and only transferred some troops from it, the empty shell of the Nanjing Camp would still be there, which would not affect their ability to earn money or threaten their official positions and status.

Don't care at all.

Of course, don't let them go to the battlefield, otherwise these people may not even run away and just surrender to the Tatars.

They wouldn't care about the rest, no matter what Zhou Shixian wanted to do, let alone use the power of the royal relatives to suppress the civil servants.

The first batch of people who came to see them were all nobles from Nanjing City. They were led by Zhao Zhilong, the Bo of Xincheng, and Zhang Gongri, the Marquis of Longping. They were followed by the royal guards in flying fish uniforms and embroidered spring knives on their waists. Soon they entered.

I saw Emperor Chongzhen sitting in a high position, wearing a dragon robe and looking calm at this time.

Although it was claimed that Chongzhen was hunting in the wild at Hongze Lake and summoning the ministers was just incidental, in fact the fact was just the opposite - summoning the ministers was Chongzhen's primary purpose.

Zhou Shixian looked at the nobles filing in, including Zhao Zhilong, the admiral of the Nanjing garrison, Xu Wenjue, the Duke of Wei, Tang Guozuo, the Marquis of Lingbi, Zhu Guobi, the Marquis of Funing, Li Zushu, the Marquis of Linhuai, Liu Zuochang, the Marquis of Anyuan... all of them, good guys.

The weaklings who took the lead in leaving the city to surrender to the Qing Dynasty in history are now a hodgepodge of traitors!

If they were not needed to check and balance the civil officials, change the humble status of military generals, and maintain the balance of the court, Zhou Shixian would have wished to get rid of all these traitors and scum right now.

The nobles knelt on the ground, all with tears streaming down their faces, as if whoever cried loudest was the most loyal.

Zhou Shixian looked at them and thought it was funny. Were these people also pretending to be so ugly when they met the executioner Duduo?

Chongzhen was rarely confused and knew the nature of these honorable nobles. He only gave a few symbolic words of comfort and asked some questions. Especially after understanding the basic situation of the civil servants, ministries, offices and roads in Nanjing, he asked them to retreat.

Got off.

As the first batch of ministers summoned, although these nobles showed great loyalty, they all said that if they knew that the Holy Emperor was here, they would have taken the lead and came to greet him.

But the ridiculous attitude of submissiveness when they retreated still revealed their true nature without reservation.

However, as ridiculous as it is ridiculous, Chongzhen and Zhou Shixian's goals have been achieved. Just looking at the tears on these people's faces, their nervous expressions, their frightened faces, and their constant sweating, they knew that the monarch's power had been

Stand, the emperor's grace is mighty.

This is the so-called "treating a minister to the emperor, and the kindness and power will be shown." Otherwise, these people will inevitably have a contempt for the emperor and think that the emperor is nothing more than that. I am afraid that there will be many cases of people who do not listen to the instructions or the propaganda.

, it is even more difficult to reorganize the court.

And this is one of the reasons why Zhou Shixian did not kill Emperor Chongzhen.

If the ready-made emperor is gone and he holds great power and his reputation is not justified, he must have something to ask for from them.

As supporting ministers, it is difficult to say whether these people will treat King Fu the same way as they did in history, with military commanders supporting their troops and respecting themselves, while civil servants despise the monarch's authority.
Chapter completed!