Lu Xiangsheng, who was stationed in Lijiazhuang, Cangzhou, received an imperial edict from the capital, to be precise, two imperial edicts in the front and back.

The first imperial edict was that after Lu Xiangsheng defeated Du Du, he reported his victory to the capital. Faced with such a great victory, the capital was naturally happy. Chongzhen and the cabinet were rare and efficient, returning the title of Minister of War that Lu Xiangsheng deprived him of, and Yin Yizi, also gave the Jinyiwei a thousand households and other financial rewards. As for the specific reward, it will be decided separately after the war is over.

In the imperial edict, Chongzhen praised Lu Xiangsheng very well, hoping that he could continue to work hard to defeat the invading Qing army. As for the annihilation of the Qing army that entered the pass, Chongzhen also knew that it was absolutely impossible. Now he is no longer the novice who was fooled by the civil servants. He only hopes to suppress the arrogance of the Qing army and beat them up if they are afraid of being beaten, and it would be good if he dared not enter the pass easily.

Chongzhen's affirmation has indeed made the morale of Lijiazhuang obviously rise. Lu Xiangsheng's face has improved a lot in the past few days. Especially the Guanning Army, led by Gao Qiqian, was as disgusting as if he had eaten a feces after learning that Lu Xiangsheng was rewarded.

When he was divided, Gao Qiqian took away the Guanning Army, the most powerful in Lu Xiangsheng's hands. His original intention was to embarrass Lu Xiangsheng, leaving him helpless and unable to make a contribution. Unexpectedly, Huang Ji from Tianjin was determined to follow Lu Xiangsheng. Gao Qiqian got the news that Lu Xiangsheng's two great victoryes played a great role. Moreover, Lu Xiangsheng killed more than 4,000 Tartars, but the losses were minimal, which made Gao Qiqian's jealousy.

At the same time, he secretly scolded Huang Ji for not knowing the matter and would rather get on Lu Xiangsheng's broken ship than come to his side, otherwise the credit would be his own.

As Gao Qiqian's attitude became ambiguous, and the warriors all spoke with their strength and credit. In the past, everyone was willing to listen to Gao Qiqian, because they were all acquaintances and had friendships. Secondly, Gao Qiqian had money and food in his hands, and was hard in the backstage, so he was not afraid of being humiliated.

But now it seems that Lu Xiangsheng is not only living a very comfortable life, but also has more and more Tartar heads in his hands. The key is that he still has less losses, which makes the Guanning army feel a little delicious. They rushed from Liaodong all the way, and naturally hoped to make some credit. If they had known that they could make money so easily under Lu Xiangsheng, they could actually disobey Lu Xiangsheng. Anyway, as long as they were not rebelling, the court was still a little afraid of their military heads who held military power.

Gao Qiqian saw some signs and immediately rewarded the soldiers of the army with wine and meat. He also often invited generals to feast for their feelings and played the emotional card. Finally, the general's morale was stable.

However, a few days later, Lu Xiangsheng's good life came from the south that Dorgon captured Jinan, massacred more than 100,000 people, and captured the De Wang's family alive.

After receiving the news, Lu Xiangsheng was furious and fainted on the spot.

After waking up, Lu Xiangsheng burst into tears and scolded himself for being incompetent, causing trouble to the people, the prince was captured, the court was shamed, and even wanted to immediately lead troops to rescue King De.

However, this idea was quickly dissuaded by Huang Ji and Yang Guozhu. They were really not strong enough. Facing Dorgon’s 100,000 troops, defending Lijiazhuang was the best choice. If the Qing army did not come to attack the city, it would not be too late to find a way to pursue it.

At this time, Huang Ji proposed an idea and exchanged the Qing prisoners in his hand for the De Wang family.

Now Lu Xiangsheng has more than 600 Qing army prisoners, which is one of the few major achievements of the Ming army since Nurhaci's rebellion. It is precisely because of the existence of these more than 600 prisoners that the imperial edicts from the court came so quickly. After all, the head may be fake, but the prisoners cannot be fake.

The final outcome of these prisoners is likely to be sent to the capital for marching and then being sacrificed to the Taimiao and executed. If these prisoners could be used to exchange the De Wang family for their family, at least in terms of face, Chongzhen would definitely be willing.

Although Chongzhen was disgusted with the princes who were enthroned in various places from the bottom of his heart, it was their clever robbery and greedy that made the local people of the Ming Dynasty suffer. However, as the head of the Zhu clan, Chongzhen had to take into account the attitude of the lower clans. If under his rule, the noble prince would be captured by foreign tribes, which would be a major blow to his reputation.

There were no previous cases of using prisoners to exchange for princes. Whether the court agreed, whether the Qing Dynasty was willing, and how to implement it in detail were all big questions.

For the Qing Dynasty, capturing the princes of the Ming Dynasty was also a very important matter. At least it played a very important role in damaging the confidence of the Ming Dynasty and boosting the morale of the Qing Dynasty. The one who really has the right to decide this matter is Huang Taiji, but now it is inconvenient to communicate with outside the Ming Dynasty. It depends on how Dorgon makes a choice.

If he had a choice, Lu Xiangsheng would not be willing to exchange the Qing Dynasty prisoners for the Dewang family.

In the eyes of civil servants, the princes of the Ming Dynasty were simply a cancer. In addition to poisoning the people and consuming the country's money and food, it can be said that they are useless. Civil servants try their best to reduce the number of princes. Whenever the princes in the fiefdom is committed, they will be fined for salary. If the matter is serious, they will also find excuses to remove the seal. In short, the number of princes is constantly reduced within the scope of the rules, because the country can no longer afford them.

However, killing himself is two different concepts and being captured by the Qing Dynasty. The latter has a very serious blow to the country's reputation. Although the Ming Dynasty's reputation was about to bottom out after several times of the Qing Dynasty's entry into the pass, this kind of thing is still too embarrassing, especially Chongzhen, who was completely disgraceful. Chongzhen was also a very proud person. If this happens, his anger can be imagined.

Lu Xiangsheng did not dare to decide on such a thing without authorization, so he submitted a memorial to Chongzhen, first apologizing, believing that he had not fulfilled his responsibilities, which led to the fall of Jinan, the people being slaughtered, and King De was captured, and asked the court to deal with it.

Then he said that he still had hundreds of Qing prisoners in his hands, hoping to use these prisoners to negotiate with the Qing Dynasty and exchange King De’s family for the return, and asked the emperor to allow him.

When Lu Xiangsheng's apology was delivered to the capital, the capital had already learned about the news from Jinan.

Sure enough, Chongzhen exploded on the spot.

Jinan fell and the people were slaughtered. Such things are indeed very annoying. However, there have been more cities that were captured by the Qing Dynasty in recent years, and Chongzhen has become numb. Those dead people who were arrested as slaves are just a string of cold numbers in the memorials, and no matter how many there are, they can no longer arouse Chongzhen's anger.

But the captured King De's family made him unable to bear the face, and even felt a little empathetic. You ministers neglected their duties and obeyed the situation. Today, Jinan was destroyed and King De was captured. Will the capital be unable to be protected tomorrow, and I will be captured by the Tartars and humiliated?

Although the war was in a tight situation and could not be dealt with in large quantities, the furious Chongzhen scolded all the cabinet masters, the six ministers and other senior officials in the cabinet, and they did not look good for several days. The big guys who were found to be in vain by Chongzhen also wanted to distract their anger and soon scolded the combat generals one by one, and the imperial edict of the local governor had begun to be issued.

The first person to be affected is Lu Xiangsheng. Who asked you to be the title of governor of the world? Who would you look for if you don’t take the blame? As for what you say you can’t command other soldiers, it’s your ability and has nothing to do with the court.

The cabinet initially drafted the decree was to capture Lu Xiangsheng back to Beijing for punishment, and hand over the troops under his command to continue fighting with the Qing army.

In the hearts of the ministers in the court, with Lu Xiangsheng, the heavyweight scapegoat, Chongzhen's anger should be vented, at least he and others should be able to pick it up.

Chongzhen was a little hesitant, and he was not stupid either. Since the Qing army entered the pass, cities in various places have been destroyed, soldiers and civilians were killed, and captured. Only Lu Xiangsheng reported two good news, killing more than 4,000 Tatars in total, which was the only highlight. If Lu Xiangsheng was punished at this time, who else could have the ability to turn the tide and resist the Qing army?

However, the ministers in the court all said that they blamed Lu Xiangsheng. Even Chongzhen could not violate the general trend, and he could not do whatever he wanted as an emperor.

At this moment, the memorial of Lu Xiangsheng's apology arrived in the capital. Since even Lu Xiangsheng thought he was guilty, it further strengthened the idea of ​​the ministers in the court to let him take the blame.

However, the idea of ​​Lu Xiangsheng's letter to exchange the Tartar prisoners for the German king's family caused controversy in the capital.

Of course, the Censors of Kedao will not agree.

In their eyes, more than 600 Qing prisoners were the last fig leaf of the Ming Dynasty. If they were sent to the capital, it would be an opportunity to cleanse the incompetence of civil and military officials in the court. As for King De, it would be best if he died, and he would save a lot of trouble.

Of course, everyone will definitely not say this on the surface, but advocates that King De’s family should be loyal to the country and prove their loyalty and righteousness by death, so that the world can know the integrity of our Ming Dynasty's powerful and powerful people who will never surrender.

However, the well-informed princes and powerful people from all over the world have another idea.

Now that the world is in chaos, no one can guarantee that he will not follow the footsteps of King De. Especially those princes in the border areas and the powerful people who lead troops to fight, they can have a way to save their lives than anything else.

In the grief of the rabbit and the fox, they kept admonishing Chongzhen through their own ways, and there were many captives of Tartar slaves in the future. However, the princes of our Ming Dynasty were extremely noble, so how could they be compared? Moreover, letting the princes of the Ming Dynasty be captured outside the pass would really damage the face of the Ming Dynasty and the emperor. The implication was to let Chongzhen agree to exchange the captives for King De.

The cabinet masters naturally did not want to get involved in this fishy smell and directly handed over the problem to Chongzhen.

Chongzhen was also in a difficult situation. Whether he agreed or not, there were future troubles for him. Although he agreed with Lu Xiangsheng's plan from the bottom of his heart, he could not express this attitude, otherwise the censors and the clerks of the Kedao court would annoy him to death, and it was hard to say how the historian would record the evaluation.

In the end, Chongzhen decided not to bother the second masters, so he simply let Lu Xiangsheng handle it himself. As for whether Lu Xiangsheng could understand his meaning, the eunuch who sent the order would remind him.

The ministers in the court also adopted a default attitude towards this matter. Their idea was to exchange King De for the first time, so that everyone would be under much less pressure. As for Lu Xiangsheng's crimes, we will talk about it after the matter is handled.

With this episode, the imperial edict for Lu Xiangsheng to be held accountable was much lighter.

When Lu Xiangsheng received the imperial edict, the court punished Lu Xiangsheng for not being the hot Minister of War again. Moreover, the Governor Xuanda was no longer there. He was the Governor Xuanda who was temporarily appointed as the Governor Xuanda to lead the troops to fight against the Qing army. He also ordered Lu Xiangsheng to kill the enemy with his heart and make meritorious contributions, otherwise he would be punished for multiple crimes and be severely punished.

As for the matter of exchanging prisoners for King De, the imperial edict did not mention it at all.

After reading the imperial edict, the eunuch who sent the imperial edict put away his serious expression and said to Lu Xiangsheng in a kind tone: "Please be relieved. The emperor and the ministers in the court were also very angry about the Jinan incident. Not only did the supervisor be punished, but other civil and military officials were also implicated. As long as the supervisor continues to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, and then the good news will be heard, the lost things will still come back."

"The incompetence of the criminal ministers led to the Tartar slaves plundering the Ming Dynasty, the subjects were slaughtered, and the princes were captured. I feel ashamed of the trust of the emperor." Lu Xiangsheng was not dissatisfied with it, but he was guilty of his inability to resist the attack of the Qing army.

"The emperor still believes in the supervisor. The good news sent by the supervisor in the first two times made the emperor smile rarely, and we servants were also happy. The supervisor in Jinan has tried our best, so there is no need to blame himself too much." The eunuch who came here this time had a rare and pleasant look, which was much better than the last time.

You should know that the last time I came was an imperial edict for rewards, but this time I came was a crime.

"If I can gain such trust from the emperor, I will never repay the death of my life. I will definitely kill the Tartar slaves to repay the emperor's kindness, and I will never regret it even if I die." Lu Xiangsheng was indeed loyal to Chongzhen, and history has proved this.

"The emperor was very worried when King De was captured. He often couldn't think of tea and food, couldn't sleep at night, and often said that he had no face to see his ancestors. We were also very distressed by the emperor, and we only blamed ourselves for being weak and unable to share our worries for the emperor." As the eunuch passed the order, he also wiped his tears that did not exist with his handkerchief.

"The ministers are incompetent and cannot share the worries of the emperor. As for King De's affairs, I wonder how the court made a decision on the proposal of my official?" Lu Xiangsheng was waiting for the court to express his opinion. King De's affairs are very important, and he really dared not decide on himself.

"There are people in the court who agree and some disagree, which is really difficult to unify. The emperor is not able to make a decision, so he asked the servant to tell the supervisor that the supervisor would be fully responsible for this matter, and I believe that the supervisor can handle it well." This is what the eunuch who passed the order must explain, and conveying the punishment and imperial edict is just a by-pass.

"I understand. I also ask my father-in-law to take a break. When I make a decision, I also ask my father-in-law to take it back and tell the emperor." Lu Xiangsheng had been through the officialdom for a long time, so he naturally quickly understood the tricks.

"Please ask for it, the supervisor has already prepared a banquet. Please take a shower and change your clothes and attend the event." Lu Xiangguan hurriedly stepped forward and led the eunuch out of the eunuch.
Chapter completed!