Zhou Yanru entered the cabinet for the second time and became the prime minister again. He was satisfied and full of energy, and was ready to do something.

Although he was in the wild, he always cared about the government. He saw that the government was good at his time. After working as the chief minister Wen Tiren, who worked for so many years, made the government a mess and chaotic. The people were complaining. He was very heartbroken. He was thinking that one day, I would definitely do better than him.

But there is a saying: It is easy to watch others perform, but they don’t know how to dance once they wear long gowns. Wen Tiren returned to the cabinet seven years later, and then he realized that today’s cabinet is already very different from the ones before.

When he was in power, the Ming Dynasty at least had the entire south supporting them. Any materials they lacked could be obtained through tax increases and levies. However, it is not difficult for them to obtain through tax increases and levies. What's more serious is that they are now completely likely to lose all the territory south of the Yangtze River. The Ming Dynasty changed from a country above the Celestial Kingdom to the situation of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Even in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, they probably had a little difficulty in gaining a foothold as the Northern Dynasties. That is, over the years, just like God did not appreciate food, as if God was against them, basically the wind was irregular and the rain was not smooth every year, either drought or flooding, the north lost its harvest year after year, and the people had no harvest. In many places, the people had no food to eat, hungry, and forced out.

The Ming Dynasty was in such a dilemma, and it was already very difficult. At such a difficult time, a traitor like the Liu family appeared and rebelled. They rebelled and made it successful. Not only did they occupy Shandong, they also went south to Jianghuai and directly besieged Nanjing.

Before Zhou Yanru was secretly ordered by a traveler to Beijing, the Liu family was still in Shandong and fighting with the court. Who knew that during the period when he secretly entered Beijing, the situation had changed like the sky collapsed. The Liu family army suddenly took down the important town of Yangzhou and instantly conquered Zhenjiang. The situation of the Ming Dynasty in the south quickly collapsed.

As the chief minister of the Ming Empire, the first thing he has to do now is to mobilize all troops and quickly support Nanjing.

Fortunately, Duke Xu, who was guarding Nanjing, was still reliable. With his own prestige and experience, he summoned a large army to defend Nanjing City, and was withstood the continuous attacks of hundreds of thousands of rebels day and night.

So what they have to do now is to mobilize a large army to support Nanjing as quickly as possible.

But the martial arts in Jiangnan have been abandoned for a long time, so it’s not enough that his martial arts have been abandoned for a long time. What’s even more tricky is to quell the She'an Rebellion in the southwest. They mobilized a lot of troops here to quell the chaos, which has made the military sources even more empty. Most places and important towns have no soldiers to defend.

Even if there are some guard soldiers, they are all garbage soldiers. It’s okay to let him plow the fields and farm the land. If he wants him to go to war, it’s simply waste.

At that time, Emperor Taizu established the garrison soldiers. These garrison soldiers were very capable of fighting. If they could just pull out a single one, they could fight against the invincible Mongolian cavalry. However, after more than two hundred years of peace, the military preparations were abandoned and corruption became a trend in the army. This made the combat effectiveness of the garrison soldiers plummet and turned into garbage soldiers that no one looked down upon. They were not so much a group of soldiers, but rather a peasant with the reputation of a soldier and had no way to fight.

So in the past few decades, all the troops who could fight, such as the Qi family army that was famous all over the world, and Li Chengliang's Liaodong cavalry, were all servants and private recruiters. The court also knew that the situation was critical, so on the first day of Nanjing being besieged, they immediately ordered Zhu Xieyuan's troops to return north.

The She'an Rebellion lasted for 17 years from the first year of Tianqi to the tenth year of Chongzhen, which affected the four provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guizhou, with more than one million casualties and wounded. The large-scale war lasted for nine years. During the war, Sichuan Governor Xu Ke wanted to die, Guizhou Governor Wang Sanshan died, and Prime Minister Lu Qin, the top general in the southwest, committed suicide. The Guizhou General was killed at the city of Guiyang, which caused the biggest blow to the Ming Dynasty. The situation in the southwest was decayed and turned into a quagmire.

Zhu Xieyuan's original name was Maoshang, with his courtesy name Maohe, and his pseudonym Hengyue. He was from Shanyin County, Shaoxing Prefecture, Chengxuan General Secretary of Zhejiang Province. Zhu Xieyuan was a Jinshi in the 20th year of Wanli of Emperor Shenzong. He served as the judge of Dali, the prefect of Suzhou, and the deputy envoy of Guangdong. He was appointed as the rehabilitation of unjust prisons, eliminated civil corruption, and was also pacified by the Dingzhigong Incident. Later, in order to support his parents, he abandoned his official residence for ten years. He was later reinstated as the Censor of Shaanxi and the Left Government of Sichuan. In the first year of Tianqi, he was ordered to conquer the She'an Rebellion, and by the end of the tenth year of Chongzhen, he barely quelled the She'an Rebellion.

Zhu Xieyuan has always been responsible for quelling the She'an Rebellion and has done a very good job. The rebel leaders She Chongming and An Bangyan have been beaten to death in the battle. Now they are just eliminating his remnants. The court believes that sending so many more than 100,000 troops here is a waste of talent, so he asked Zhu Xieyuan, a capable man, to lead his army to quickly return to the army to support Nanjing.

Zhu Xieyuan quelled the She'an Rebellion and became famous all over the world. His official position was the Minister of War (ranking the title) and supervised the military affairs of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi. He was given Shangfang Sword and then advanced to the Shaoshi and Zuozhu Kingdom.

Zhu Xieyuan is wise in doing things, and does not need the help of his military letters when dealing with them. In order to be persistent, he always has to plan and fight before fighting, especially at using discord.

It is rumored that Zhu Xieyuan is eight feet tall and has a big belly that is ten feet wide. He has an extraordinary appetite. He can eat twenty people per person, and he is as handsome as the famous general Xue Rengui of the first hall.

The man was also quite honest as an official. Zhu Xieyuan was appointed as the prefect of Suzhou, which was a fat man in the world. Mrs. Mango lived with Suzhou. When he left office, the wife had six large boxes in the backyard, tied them tightly. Zhu Xieyuan ordered the box to be unboxed on the spot in the lobby, but the result was all cotton yarn that the wife had spun on weekdays. He had been guarding the southwest for many years, and the military expenses and ransoms he received were no less than hundreds of thousands of yuan a year. He did not keep a single penny and handed over to the government. The Ming Dynasty rebelled with the generals, but Zhu Xieyuan, who suppressed bandits in the poorest Guizhou, was seized. Other tribes were either not lacking or had enough money.

Zhu Xieyuan is good at using talents and can play their strengths. He enforces the law fairly and even if he is a close confidant, he will be punished if he breaks the law. If he makes contributions, even a slave, he will not forget to reward them.

When the Ming Dynasty was at its most critical moment, when life and death were at its peak, it was reasonable to use good generals in the country to find good generals.

However, Zhu Xieyuan's army was far away in the mountains and forests of Guizhou and it was not a short time to come back. If he came back alone, it would be useless. It would take time for the army to gather back, so it would not be the best way to transfer this general back to support him.

So at this time, many people set their sights on Xiong Wencan, who was appointed as the new Jiangnan governor. This man has been hiding in Guangzhou and refused to move.

The court also had high hopes for Xiong Wencan, hoping that he could lead his troops to wipe out Liu Jun. Who knew that this man was a procrastinator. Seeing that the situation was not good, he was unwilling to give up the peaceful life in front of him and go to Nanjing to jump into the fire pit.

Even more tragic news came, that was, the Zheng family had rebelled, and the rebels captured Quanzhou in one day.

As long as people with a little knowledge in the court understand what the Zheng family rebelled, what it means, and what they conquered Quanzhou, it means that this means the corruption in Fujian? The corruption in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

The Zheng family was originally a backup plan for the imperial court to deal with the Liu family. They had no tricks or solutions to deal with the powerful naval army of the Liu family. They could only use the Zheng family's tiger to deal with him. Who knew that this tiger would eventually rebel.

The entire court understood and knew one thing. The Zheng family had rebelled not because of their kinship with the Liu family, but because of their interests. The court had already given good treatment to the Zheng family, but who knew that Zheng Zhilong still refused to accept it.

The Zheng family's rebellion almost became the last straw that crushed the court. All the officials felt desperate. Many people wrote letters to suggest that if the capital was not moved decisively at this moment, the Ming Dynasty would be destroyed.

But Emperor Chongzhen was very angry. He said: "Since Emperor Taizong came here, our dynasty has been here for more than 200 years, with countless powerful enemies in it and never retreated. This is the gate of the Ming Dynasty and is also the lifeline of the Ming Dynasty. If you take a step back, the country will be destroyed and the family will be destroyed."

Emperor Chongzhen was also an emperor who loved face. He loved face and was very happy to be commended. If he had moved the capital during his tenure and asked him to leave with a bedding, he would have lost any face. So he would not agree to move the capital no matter what.

Although it is these ministers who proposed to move the capital, it is actually quite good that they can make such suggestions regardless of their reputation and life and death.

You should know that this is a suggestion that is easy to take the blame. When liquidation comes, people will only say that you, the officials, are responsible for the death of the Ming Dynasty, and that the capital of the Ming Dynasty is lost. Who knows that these officials dare to mention it, but the emperor is the one who decides. Only if the emperor agrees can the capital be moved.

However, Emperor Chongzhen was very distressed. Once he moved the capital and left here, the capital would probably not be able to defend it. With such a huge military force in front of him, he did not defend this area. If he retreated and a large number of troops contracted, Liu Jun or Jiannu took the opportunity to sweep over and smash them.
Chapter completed!