Chongzhen was short of people, but Yang Fan thought of someone.
It's a pity to say that this man is a rare talent.
"Your Majesty, I know that there is a person. This person is very capable, proficient in diplomacy, and familiar with battle formations. He is a versatile person in both civil and military affairs.
"This man's name is Liu Xingzuo. He also has a Manchu name, Liu Aita. Aita means sea in Manchu. So the Koreans also call him Liu Hai."
Chongzhen became interested immediately. This was the first time Yang Fan recommended talents to him.
Yang Fan gave him the same feeling as the toothpaste sold in his supermarket. If you don't squeeze him, he won't say anything.
"Yang Qing, it's really rare for you to recommend someone. This is the first time I've heard you recommend someone."
Yang Fan smiled sheepishly and said: "Officials are the backbone of national administration and must be chosen very carefully. I dare not recommend them casually."
Chongzhen laughed and said: "Then this person must be very special and can attract your attention. Tell me about it and see what kind of person he is."
"The man recommended by me is the grandson-in-law of Nurhaci, the leader of the slave-building thieves." Yang Fan said calmly.
Chongzhen opened his mouth in surprise. He didn't expect Yang Fan to recommend such a person.
But then, he put down the tureen, sat upright, and his face became serious.
Based on his understanding of Yang Fan, if Yang Fan actually recommended someone with such a background to the emperor, there must be something unusual about this matter.
"Liu Xingzuo, a native of Kaiyuan, Liaodong. Date of birth is unknown."
"But he comes from a good background. His family was originally a wealthy family. He received a good education since he was a child. If what happened later had not happened, he would most likely have taken the imperial examination and become one of the rare Jinshi scholars in Liaodong."
However, something happened that changed everything.
"In the twenty-fourth year of Wanli (1596), Shenzong appointed Gao Huai, the Superintendent of Shangri-La, to go to Liaodong to mine and collect taxes."
"In the twenty-eighth year of Wanli (1600), Liao Guotai, the commissioned official, committed a violent uprising by abusing the people. Gao Huai falsely accused dozens of people of being the leaders of the uprising and imprisoned them."
"The three big families of Zhang, Liu, and Tian had been in Liaodong for hundreds of years. They were uprooted by Gaohuai and their property was confiscated. Therefore, Liu Xingzuo found it difficult to survive in Liaodong. In the 33rd year of Wanli (1605), he fled to Jianzhou and took refuge.
Nurhaci."
Hearing this, Chongzhen nodded, indicating that he knew about it.
He studied in his youth and hated the history of Wanli in his later years.
Gao Huai is the biggest culprit for the current situation in Liaodong.
Liaodong is a very remote, desolate and bitterly cold land. Not to mention mines, there are not many businessmen. The society is not developed, and the economic environment is extremely fragile. Because of the cold weather, only one season of food can be grown a year, and the output is low.
There is a serious shortage of food, so we have to rely on transportation within the customs. We simply cannot afford additional raids.
However, Gao Huai ignored this and relied on the support of the emperor and Li Chengliang to exploit the people of Liaodong.
He actually said this: "There is no need for mines to mine, and there is no need to negotiate taxes. Folks, hills and mountains are all mines, and officials, farmers and workers are all tax payers."
Li Chengliang certainly knew the consequences of Gao Huai's mischief, and he had a clear understanding of the situation in Liaodong.
Without his support, Gao Huai would be nothing in this world. With the power of the Li family in Liaodong, killing him would be like killing a dog's ear.
But Li Chengliang understood that Gao Huai was here to get private money for Wanli. He represented the emperor.
Li Chengliang was so cunning and cunning, how could he lose his mind and offend the emperor for the benefit of the army and the people. Therefore, no matter who Gao Huai wanted to do, he would support him.
The officials and gentry who resisted Gaohuai in Liaodong were defeated one after another in the struggle with Gaohuai. They were beheaded, their homes were ransacked, and they were exiled.
Gao Huai knew very well that if he wanted to prosper in Liaodong, he must rely on Li Chengliang.
So he called Li Chengliang Taiye and regarded himself as his grandson. He shared the hundreds of thousands of taels of money he got with Li Chengliang privately. He only gave 45,500 taels to Emperor Wanli.
Chongzhen gritted his teeth angrily every time he mentioned this matter. If Gao Huai hadn't been an eunuch and had no descendants, he would have killed his nine clans.
Gao Huai is a native of the capital, a rogue, and earns a living by collecting debts from Chongwenmen. It is similar to the modern society where loan sharks come to collect debts or collect protection fees from local governments.
This kind of person is ruthless, has deceitful methods, and has many tricks to defraud people of money. It is not a big deal to force people to die.
When he heard that the imperial court planned to send eunuchs to local areas to supervise taxes, he actually committed suicide in the palace for the sake of profit and advancement!
It's hard to describe the extent of the harm Gao Huai caused to Liaodong at that time. The Ming Dynasty's two hundred years of hard work in Liaodong was destroyed by him and Li Chengliang in twelve years.
The fall of Liaodong led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, some historians said that the Ming Dynasty fell in Wanli, which is not wrong at all.
Li Hualong, the governor of Liaodong at the time, once said that there were originally 47 large households in Liaoyang, all with thousands of assets, but "the search for Huai has been exhausted" and all of them were ruined.
Even the big families couldn't withstand it, so ordinary people can imagine it. So the people of Liaodong at that time sang, "Liao people have no brains, they all cut them out in the Huai River; Liao people have no marrow, they all drain them in the Huai River."
Gao Huai held power in Liaodong for twelve years, causing disastrous consequences.
A large number of people fled Liaodong and went to Nurhaci's Jianzhou Jurchen.
History records that "young and brave men in Liaodong fled to Jianzhou on the 14th and 5th", and there were even "thousands of men and women traveling north together" in an attempt to escape to Jianzhou Jurchen.
Gao Huai also intervened in military command. He did not understand military affairs at all and gave random orders. Military affairs were even worse. Military households were exploited by civilian officials and military officers at all levels, and they lived on the edge of life and death.
After being exploited by Gao Huai, the Liaodong Border Guards originally numbered 130,000 people. Later, "forty to five out of ten people fled the enemy."
"Several half of the entire town's army has been lost. Although there are more than 80,000 troops in the army, there are only 15 of them with horses. The winning army has only 15 weak horses. It is surprising that the disabled men and horses are only 20,000 strong."
As an important border defense town, Liaodong was devastated by him in the end, with only 20,000 fighting soldiers left, and the entire Liaodong was in ruins.
These escaped technical talents and young men from Liaodong Town were all recruited by Nurhaci, which greatly enhanced the strength of the Jianzhou Jurchens.
Thinking of these past events, Chongzhen closed his eyes in pain and clenched his fists.
This dog slave, my Ming Dynasty was ruined in the hands of him and the old thief Li Chengliang.
Without Li Chengliang's legacy of raising tigers and Gaohuai's rebellion in Liaoning, how could Liaodong be in such a situation today?
Yang Fan just started and briefly said that Liu Xingzuo fled because of Gaohuai's rebellion in Liao Dynasty and his family was ruined. Why did His Majesty react so strongly?
His Majesty gritted his teeth and clenched his hands so hard that his fingernails turned white.
When Yang Fan was considering whether to continue speaking, Chongzhen spoke.
"Yang Qing, please continue. The Ming Dynasty was ruined by these eunuchs."
Only then did Yang Fan understand. No wonder he was so cruel to Governor Wei. He didn't leave any way to survive. It turned out that he hated the eunuch so much.
At that time, Gao Huai received the behind-the-scenes support of Li Chengliang, causing Liaodong to completely collapse.
Liu Xingzuo went to the Jurchen area in Jianzhou in the thirty-third year of Wanli (1605).
In Jianzhou, he was highly valued and appreciated by Nurhachi for his outstanding talents and "smart and considerate", and was assigned to the Zhenghong Banner of Dabeile Daishan.
He participated in the Jurchen Unification War for thirteen years. After Nurhachi rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, he also participated in the Hou Jin Dynasty's attack on the Ming Dynasty and advanced into the Battle of Liaoshen.
He was awarded the title of "Deputy General" for his skills in attacking enemies, chasing and escaping. In the days that followed, he was quickly promoted to deputy general (deputy commander-in-chief).
Liu Xingzuo was appointed to govern Jinzhou, Fuzhou, Haizhou, Gaizhou and the Southern Four Guards, that is, the Liaodong Peninsula except Lushunkou (Lushun was in the hands of the Ming Dynasty). He became a prominent Han official in the Later Jin Dynasty.
However, Hou Jin's brutal national oppression and slavery deeply shocked his lingering conscience and aroused a strong sense of national justice, which ultimately led to a complete break between him and the slave-building ruling group.