Chapter 106: Admiral Xuanzhen North Road Military Affairs
The sun hung high in the sky like a big fireball, its blazing rays scorching the earth. Even the capital of the Ming Dynasty was generally unbearably hot.
In the East Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City, Emperor Chongzhen sat behind the desk with a tired face. The bowl of ice porridge on the desk had lost its coolness, but it was still full.
Emperor Chongzhen had no intention of eating it. How could a mere bowl of ice porridge dispel the irritability in his heart?
It turned out that in March of this year, Sun Chuanting was depressed because he was not summoned by Emperor Chongzhen. He also became deaf due to a cold. In early May, he asked Shangshu to resign as governor of Baoding, and at the same time recommended Yang Wenyue to replace him.
Emperor Chongzhen believed that Sun Chuanting was passing the buck, so he ordered the Ministry of War to send someone to verify. After the report was true, he dismissed him and sent Yang Yijun, the censor, to verify again.
It happened that at this time, Yin Sanpin, a scholar from Baoding Prefecture, reported Sun Chuanting, saying that Sun Chuanting was arresting people randomly. However, Yang Yijun once again verified that Sun Chuanting's condition was true, and dismissed Yin Sanpin's complaint as "venting anger".
Emperor Chongzhen had already been annoyed by Sun Chuanting and lost his trust in him. After getting Yang Yijun's reward, Chongzhen insisted that Sun Chuanting's claim of illness was "obviously deceiving" and believed that Yang Yijun was shielding him, so he sent the two of them together. He was dismissed from his post and sent Jinyi guards to arrest Sun Chuanting and imprison him.
At the same time, the rogue bandits such as Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai became more and more fierce and their momentum became overwhelming. Li Zicheng also began to travel frequently outside Shangluo Mountain and was likely to make a comeback.
After Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai rebelled again, Xiong Wencan, who held the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War, also tried his best to mobilize Zuo Liangyu, Luo Dai and other leading troops to pursue and suppress them.
Unexpectedly, due to his lack of ability, Zhang Xianzhong set up an ambush at Luohou Mountain west of Fang County. In the end, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers were defeated. Even the commander-in-chief Luo Dai was captured alive. Zuo Liangyu also abandoned his helmet and armor and fell into the saddle. He ran away and even lost the military seal letter.
Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that he immediately dismissed Xiong Wencan from his post and arrested him and sent him to Beijing to be executed. The commander-in-chief Zuo Liangyu was also demoted three levels in a row and was retained with a crime, charging him with meritorious service in the army to atone for his crime.
Throughout the whole day, nothing could make Emperor Chongzhen happy. But at this moment, the censor impeached Zhang Cheng for privately killing a criminal and asked the imperial court to punish Zhang Cheng.
Emperor Chongzhen threw those bullets on the case and killed several treasonous criminals. As for such a high-profile impeachment?
He cursed in his mind: "I'm so full."
I originally thought of staying in China and just ignore it, but for some reason, there have been more memorials to impeach Zhang Cheng in the past few days, and they are becoming more and more intense.
Not only did he kill criminals privately, he became a master of killing court military attachés, and someone even mentioned Yuan Chonghuan's execution of Mao Wenlong, which made Emperor Chongzhen extremely angry.
Today, Yang Sichang, the cabinet minister of the Ministry of War, was urgently summoned to come here in order to resolve the matter.
Although Yang Sichang has now resigned from the post of Minister of War, the new Minister of War, Fu Zonglong, is coming all the way from Sichuan, and all matters have not yet been handed over, so he still holds the concurrent post of Minister of War.
Yang Sichang's holy family was still alive, and he was given a seat as usual when he entered the East Pavilion. He was still sitting on a small corner of the chair. Although his appearance was not much different from sitting on a chair normally, he was extremely miserable.
"What do you think about the Xuanzangzhen Zhang Cheng matter?" Emperor Chongzhen asked with a weak look, trying to gather his energy.
Yang Sichang bowed slightly and replied very respectfully: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Punishment have already investigated this matter. The Xue Wu Party did collude with the mountain bandits and plotted to assassinate Zhang Cheng. They just wanted to rebel.
, but there is no clear evidence.”
Chongzhen sighed and asked again: "According to your wishes, how should the officials handle the impeachment of Zhang Cheng?"
Although Yang Sichang was well prepared before entering the palace to see His Majesty, he still did not dare to be careless. He leaned over and pondered for a while, organized his speech slightly, and then softly replied: "Report to Your Majesty, Governor Xuan has sent me a memorial."
The Beijing Special Agents reported this matter. According to their report, it was Xue Liangqing and Wu Youlu who plotted to assassinate Shangguan. They even used poisonous arrows stained with horse dung on Zhang Cheng, the general.
Now Zhang Cheng is still resting in his mansion, and it is not yet known whether he can survive. Xue and Wu acted against the will and almost destroyed a good general of our country. Even if they die, it will be difficult to atone for their sins.
Zhang Cheng himself is indeed suspected of taking personal revenge, and even committed private murder and offending officials. However, he must not go unpunished. If he does not punish him, it will be difficult to convince the public, which will make the country's laws unclear and will be detrimental to the country.
But now the rogue bandits have resurfaced and are wreaking havoc in our heartland. The country is in dire straits and we need good generals. It is a good time to use people and dispatch generals. If the punishment is too heavy, or even Zhang Cheng is removed from his post and taken to the capital to stand trial, then the military training on the North Road will definitely fail.
!”
Emperor Chongzhen looked at Yang Sichang with dull eyes. How could he not know this? It was for this reason that he summoned Yang Sichang to give him some advice.
He sighed and then asked: "According to your wishes, what is the appropriate way to deal with Zhang Cheng?"
Yang Sichang stood up from his chair, bowed to Emperor Chongzhen and said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the North Route Army Preparation stated in the memorial that although Zhang Cheng had just arrived in Dushi, he was indeed doing his job sincerely. Not only had he raised five thousand new
The army is practicing day and night,
In addition, tens of thousands of acres of farmland were cleared and more than a thousand military households were recalled. It was precisely because of this that the interests of Xue Wu and others were harmed, and they were assassinated. They wanted Xue Wu and his party to deceive the superiors and conceal the secrets, only knowing that they would line their own pockets, but they ignored them.
The law of the country is indeed worthy of death.
However, Zhang Cheng was reckless in this matter, and the imperial court must take responsibility for it. According to the wishes of his subordinates, Zhang Cheng should be removed from his post of commander and chief minister of Wandu, and demoted to the rank of commander and chief minister of Kaiping Guards as a punishment.
It can appease the court officials and make Zhang Cheng aware of the majesty of the Heavenly Family.
However, in order to continue to train the new army for His Majesty and become a powerful force early, I can order him to still take responsibility for his crimes and try to atone for his sins. I suggest that Zhang Cheng be ordered to sit in Chicheng and supervise the troops on the North Road of Xuanzhen as a separate garrison general.
Military affairs, in order to quickly become a strong force.
In this way, the removal of his title will not only serve as a punishment, but also make him realize the power of the country's laws and providence, and at the same time increase his authority to show God's grace. It will also enable him to use the resources of the entire North Road to train more elite soldiers for the country and the dynasty."
Emperor Chongzhen seemed to have a trace of confusion in his eyes. Where are my elite soldiers and generals?
Can Zhang Cheng really train an elite team?
Although he is not sure, he is willing to believe it, because keeping a seed of hope in his heart will give him a little hope.
Just like Hong Chengchou was able to defeat the bandits in Shaanxi, he will now lead his troops out of Liaodong. It seems that in the future, the Eastern bandits will not dare to invade the capital of the Ming Dynasty again.
He said calmly: "Just follow your instructions."
"Your Majesty, regarding the candidates for the defense of Chicheng, there are several people who are more suitable..."
Before Yang Sichang could continue, Emperor Chongzhen interrupted him: "These are some minor matters that your cabinet will handle. Didn't Zhang Cheng sponsor Zhang Guodong? How about this person?"
"Back to Your Majesty, Zhang Guodong was originally the Qian Commander under Lu Xiangsheng. He only followed Zhang Cheng after the Battle of Julu. His time was indeed short."