Chapter 420: Reject, Fear, Dodge

After hearing this, there is no need to understand that it must have been either bribed or threatened by the other party. Anyway, the effect of the eyeliner was completely gone. With this result, the ministers were tactful and did not ask the leader, eunuch Wang Chengen again. The situation in the East Factory would not be better than that of the Jinyiwei.

The Minister of War Zhang Guowei thought about it there and spoke:

"There were 230,000 soldiers and horses stationed around the capital this time. Including the more than 70,000 soldiers and horses of Wu Sangui, the general of Ningyuan regiment training, if the troops led by Lord Marquis of the Yellow River in Bei, 400,000 soldiers and horses can always be gathered..."

Speaking of this, Zhang Guowei had a confused look on his face, rubbed his hands and said slowly:

"The court has not sent a penny of money to Shandong in recent years. I really don't know how many soldiers he has. According to the news sent by Hejian Mansion in the past few days, it is said that Shandong sent a total of 50,000 troops in this battle in Hejian Mansion. I guess that Shandong will have up to 60,000 or 70,000 troops!"

After passing his confused expression, Zhang Guowei said with confidence:

"Forty-hundred thousand to him, seventy-thousand, let alone the court's orders are justified, and the justice of the world is always on the side of the court, which will inevitably be destroyed."

After saying this, the Minister of Revenue said coldly:

"Mr. Zhang, except for Wu Sangui's army, how to raise the remaining military supplies and silver food? What are you going to do to give me the rules!"

The 400,000 army consumes a huge amount of food and consumption. Now, except for Jiangnan, taxes in various places cannot be collected due to the corruption of the situation. Moreover, the self-use of Jiangnan will take up a large part of the Nanzhili self-use. Thinking about this a little deeper, it makes people even more depressed.

The taxes, grain and fodder in the south were sent to the capital, and what was it relying on? It was the Grand Canal that ran across the north and south. During the day, Yang Guang built the canal and was scolded by the people all over the world. He believed that the transitional use of people's power was one of the important reasons for the demise of the Sui Dynasty. However, since the Sui Dynasty, the north and south were maintained in unity, and they had to rely on the Grand Canal.

Northern Zhili and Shanxi are largely unable to support themselves. But these two places, especially Northern Zhili and the capital, are the centers of the world and cannot be ignored. What they rely on is grain, which is transported from the south to the north through the canal to supplement the needs.

Then the canal passed through Shandong, which happened to be the middle section. Whose Shandong was in the hands of this, was the Li thief who was in a turbulent manner.

The big guys who can be in the study are all amazing figures, and their families are also spread all over the north and south. As long as they pass by the canal, no one has ever paid the canal and the other has not scolded them privately, but in the end, everyone has paid the money and bought the way in a regular manner.

Now it seems that this Li thief still gave everyone a face. If he really fights, he pinched the road to transport the canal and cut off the grain and fodder, and everyone would go hungry. At that time, it would be great if the soldiers below did not rebel and mutiny. What else would he fight?

Zeng Chuqing, the Minister of Rites, stroked his beard and said in a deep thought:

"This Li thief is just a general general from Shandong. The other gangs, guerrillas and other places in Shandong may not be as close as him..."

After saying this, no one touched each other and looked at each other. On weekdays, these big men in the court were busy making money by the party. Things like Shandong, which are considered to be common affairs, are too lazy to pay attention to. The confidentiality work there is done, and they can't settle the situation in Shandong at all.

After a long quiet time, Liu Yuanbin, the eunuch of the Beijing camp, coughed and said in a low voice:

"My dear sirs, we have been in Shandong for a while. Some things may not be able to be done accurately. However, the military generals in Shandong were all confidants when Li Zhe started his family. I am afraid that the entire Shandong army will be his private army."

An official next to him interrupted in surprise and asked:

"Eunuch Liu, I remember that Caozhou General Liu Zeqing and Shandong General Qiu Lei had many troops, but they were stumped and they were all annexed by Li thieves. Even so, there should be some remaining ones left. These people can always be dispatched calmly, restrained by the size, and encircled Li Meng's hands and feet!"

Liu Yuanbin was a military eunuch in Shandong back then. At this time, he felt quite embarrassed when talking about this. This can be somewhat related to his inability to deal with it. He felt a little ashamed, but he still explained:

"General Liu and General Qiu's soldiers were completely dismissed, and they were not left at all. Dear lords, you all have never been in Shandong. You can't imagine the cruelty and cruelty of Li Zhe. Looking back now, Caozhou was suddenly penetrated by bandits during the day, General Liu died for the country, and Dengzhou Laizhou was in chaos. General Qiu's soldiers were completely defeated and dispersed. In the end, General Qiu committed suicide. Things might not be so simple!"

In the hearts of these magistrates in the inner study, the martial artists were all vulgar. When they thought that Li Meng was also a little mentally, they felt that things became more and more difficult.

When the six central government departments of the court were discussing such major events, the Minister of Works and the Minister of Works often couldn't interfere with anything. Hearing this, the Minister of Works hesitated and said:

"I am a member of the hometown and the governor of Henan Li Xianfeng, and there are many letters. He mentioned one thing, saying that after defeating the bandits on the same day, Li Meng nailed more than 5,000 soldiers from the Zuoping bandits to the wooden frames on both sides of the road from Lanyang County to the Yellow River to death. The Zuoping bandits did not even dare to look at them, so they led their troops to avoid them."

Zuo Liangyu is famous in the court. Whenever he mentioned military generals, he would inevitably mention Zuo Liangyu, saying that he was brave and strong, and could be called the pillar of the court. He was also considered a general who was available today. Although this person was defeated again and again under Li Zicheng, he was in a mess.

When he heard that the general Zuo Liangyu, who was fighting the thief, suffered such a great loss, and he retreated silently, this made all the adults in the court more afraid of Li Meng.

There is no need to even give a special reminder, everyone can think of what will happen next. Li Chuang and Cao Cao's coalition forces are invincible in Henan, and it seems that they have suffered a great loss at the hands of Li Meng. The beheadings of only a thousand times were reported on the day, but the army of refugees could be nearly one million. If they were only beheaded a few hundred times, how could they retreat so easily?

The ministers in the inner study room became more and more uneasy. Li Meng from Shandong was actually a tiger. Although he didn't know how he raised such great strength, one thing was clear, that is, Li Meng was not easy to mess with and could not afford to offend him. If the court wanted to use sanctions, he might really shoot himself in the foot.

Some people who are more daring to think are already thinking about it. The reason why Emperor Chongzhen asked his subordinates to come up with countermeasures was that he was unwilling to take responsibility. He regretted it or was scolded afterwards.

But these ministers were not stupid. With the personality and temperament of Emperor Chongzhen, if they really made up their minds for him and took the blame, and then settled the accounts in the future, Emperor Chongzhen might not have come forward to help. Maybe he would be like Chen Xinjia and beheaded and punished. There were too many precedents, and later people were unwilling to make mistakes.

Chen Yan, the chief minister of the cabinet, also knows everyone's thoughts and the emperor's thoughts, but he took office and was the leader of civil officials. It's not good to be a dull gourd.

Chen Yan's eyes swept across the people in the study room. No matter who he looked at, the other party lowered his head. Zhang Guowei, Minister of War, Minister of Rites, Minister of Personnel, and others were not afraid. They looked at him. Anyway, everyone's position was similar, and they could not order anyone. Look left and right, Chen Yan coughed and said seriously:

"Eunuch Liu, the 20,000 Chu troops in your hands are the elite among the soldiers and horses of the Northern Zhili. The general of the Ningyuan regiment training team, Wu Sangui, is also able to fight Liao soldiers. In addition, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers around the capital, let alone, you have worked with the Li thief, and know yourself and the enemy. Do you have no chance of winning?"

When the admiral Liu Yuanbin, the eunuch of the Beijing camp, heard this, his face turned very bitter. He knew that Chen Yan meant to let him lead the army, but he was the one who knew the terrible Shandong the most. Looking at the ministers around him with relief, Liu Yuanbin cursed in his heart, have you finally found someone to shirk responsibility?

But even the scolding is cursing. Liu Yuanbin knew that it was the most dangerous at this time. If he didn't refuse properly, he might be put on fire. He sighed, smiled bitterly and bowed deeply to the ministers in the inner study room, and said:

"My dear sirs, our family has indeed worked with Li Meng for a while, but the longer we spend together, the less we feel! I didn't dare to tell you that after the small victory in Qihe County in the day, we were already encircled. If the court had not ordered our family to go to Huguang, I would probably still live in the prisoner's life now!"

Liu Yuanbin has always regarded this as a taboo and never dared to talk about it, but he was forced to this point at this time. The ministers in the inner study were also moved, thinking that Li Meng was so bold a few years ago, Liu Yuanbin continued:

"The current Chu army is indeed a bit like the soldiers and horses around the capital. But if it is far inferior to the hundreds of personal soldiers who saw General Qiu back then, it would be far inferior. But these hundreds of personal soldiers faced Li Meng's soldiers and horses, like pigs and sheep, and were completely slaughtered by people."

Speaking of this, Liu Yuanbin closed his eyes, and every time he thought about it, he felt lingering fear, and said slowly:

"Hundreds of people are so easy to cut melons and vegetables by Li Meng's subordinates. Until now, our family still has nightmares when they think about it at night. Don't believe it. We have inquired about it and said that Li Meng's subordinates should be rotated frequently, not static. Our family has an estimate that his subordinates must have at least 8,000!"

Eight thousand servants, the big men in the inner study were generally gasping for breath. Eight thousand servants, then there were eight thousand powerful soldiers who could fight. From the Wanli period, no, we have to talk about it for decades. Only the general of Liao Town, Li Chengliang, was the general of Liao Town. Such a large number of elite soldiers were enough to make the court feel like a thorn in his back and panic. Fortunately, Li Chengliang had no ambitions, and he was satisfied to be a Taiping Jiedu outside the pass.

This force was then consumed and completely disappeared in the battle to fight against the Japanese and the Mongolian Tumen. This made people feel relieved.

God, Shandong has such strength at any time. If the eight thousand servants cooperated with ordinary soldiers, a army of 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands could be pulled up. This is terrible. After saying this, Liu Yuanbin exhaled a long sigh and bowed deeply, with an extremely respectful expression.

After the eunuchs in the inner court held high power, they were often arrogant and proud. Liu Yuanbin was also a nostril to the world on weekdays. Today, he was completely shameless and humble.

But this behavior made the big men in the inner study even more embarrassed. Liu Yuanbin was always proud of the 20,000 Chu troops in his hands among the governors and governors who led the troops in the capital, but today this shows indirectly what kind of strength does Shandong Li Meng have in his hands.

But after finally finding such a role that can be taken responsibility, everyone was unwilling to let it go so simply. Everyone was silent. Chen Yan even found a chair to sit there. He stroked his beard and pondered there. Liu Yuanbin stood up straight and felt even more anxious when he saw this scene.

The leader and eunuch Wang Chengen were standing aside, and ignored Liu Yuanbin's look of help. Liu Yuanbin was so angry that he gritted his teeth. He thought to himself how much we helped you when we were punishing Cao Huachun, we would suffer today, but you didn't care. If there was a future, we would not finish it!

Since Liu Yuanbin gained power in the inner palace and was placed in the local area as a military eunuch, he has always been proud and domineering. It can be said that he has been walking smoothly along the way, but the experience in Shandong was a scene that he did not want to look back on. It was extremely terrible to think about it. Although he had 20,000 yuan in his hand, he was considered a battle-capable Chu army, no matter what, he did not dare to face Li Meng's troops. That was a nightmare.

With a "puzzle", Liu Yuanbin on the other side actually knelt down in the inner study room. The eunuch who led the army bowed with a sad face and begged:

"My lords, our family really dare not go. This army is stalemate, it is reliable. At present, these soldiers and horses are stationed around the capital. Maybe the thief Li has some concerns. If he gets involved in the battle, as long as the troops in the capital are defeated, he will collapse completely. Then it will be an uncontrollable situation. Dear lords, please go around our family!"

The people in the inner study were already stunned. The reason why everyone dared to restrain Liu Yuanbin to lead the troops was that some of them were in high positions and could not get along with the situation. But Liu Yuanbin was completely shameless. He said so much. In the officialdom, it was important to leave some room for him to meet him in the future. It would be inappropriate to force him like this.

Moreover, Liu Yuanbin's mercy shows that Shandong Li Meng's strength is indeed extremely strong. If hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the capital are not going well, these days, the prefectures and counties around the capital have been sent up like snowflakes, but there are also some ridiculous things. For example, a certain village built a village to protect itself, and hundreds of Zhuang Dings with weapons fought to the death, and as a result, they defeated thousands of imperial officers and soldiers. How could this combat power make people feel confident?

I am afraid that the front team will be defeated and the entire army will collapse completely. These hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers who are not even as good as bandits will cause great harm to the Northern Zhili and the capital. At that time, there will be no more power to rely on.

It's really like what Liu Yuanbin said. Leaving these soldiers in the capital and northern Zhili without any effort is somewhat a deterrent. When a paper tiger can scare people, it still doesn't move. At least this is enough to be fooled. If it moves, everyone knows that this is a paper tiger. If it is broken with one poke, then what kind of deterrence is there?

Liu Yuanbin knelt there and cried, but he was unwilling to lead the troops to conquer Lu. Wang Chengen, who was beside him, saw that everyone's attitude was no longer as firm as he was just now, so he quickly changed into a compassionate expression, walked to Liu Yuanbin, reached out to help him up, and said with a smile:

"Old Liu, our room is full of top figures in the Ming Dynasty, and they are all reasonable. Why do you make yourself so embarrassed? Get up quickly!"

Wang Chengen's actions finally made Liu Yuanbin relax. The other cabinet bachelors and ministers from the six ministries and three departments said:

"Why should Eunuch Liu do this? This method is not good. Let's think about other methods. It's so expensive, won't everyone be unable to hold on?"

All the words were said perfectly, Liu Yuanbin stood up with tears in his eyes, but he cursed in his heart, thinking that he had no grudges or grudges on his usual days, but he actually said that he would just push our family out. This matter is not over.

After standing up, Liu Yuanbin hesitated for a while and said:

"My dear sirs, some of our Chu army who were staying in Li Chuang back then. These soldiers said that Li Meng led his army to behead tens of thousands of people in the battle between Woshui and the bandits, which is not a few hundred people reported. Now that Henan is in such a chaotic situation, it is impossible to find out how it is!"

Although everyone was surprised when they heard this, they were a little numb. There were too many unexpected things in Shandong's troops.

"With such troops, why did Nanzhili become like this? Why is the situation in Henan and Huguang still so deteriorated?"

An official asked in his mouth. Everyone was shocked. Everyone was all top smart people. Of course, they thought it clearly. Four words can summarize "raising thieves and self-respect". Think about Li Meng, Shandong Province, is so scheming, so powerful, and so far-scheming.

The ministers in the inner study felt powerlessness and despair, and things were already like this. The Ming Dynasty now seems to be an old man who is about to die. No matter how much he does, he is just a stagnant.

"What's the point? He wants a King of Qi, so he will give it to him..."

A minister of the Ministry of Works muttered this sentence. Chen Yan was stunned, then he slapped the table and shouted loudly:

"Speak nonsense!! Speak nonsense!! We are ministers of the Ming Dynasty and ministers of the saints. But we are not his ministers of Li Meng. How can we accept such a rebellious and inaction request?!"

The minister didn't speak out when he saw Chen Yan getting angry, but he was not nervous. Because things were like this, the more he did it, the more he was awkward, so what if he agreed, so what if he didn't agree. Li Meng had already made real profits, and now he was just asking for a name. It was meaningless to discuss whether he was discussing or not in the inner study room.

The Minister of War Zhang Guowei had not spoken out yet, but he thought of a problem and spoke there:

"Everyone, Li Meng sent a note with a wooden box, but this note was not submitted through Tongzhengsi, but was passed on to Mr. Luo in private. It seemed that there was also a meaning of leaving no evidence. Mr. Luo, did Li Zhe’s subordinates and what you said during the day, as did you repost it?"

He kept huddling beside him and nodded. Zhang Guowei had a little more confidence on his face and said again:

"Li Zhe's subordinates have different opinions. In the end, this note says this, there are two possibilities. One is that Shandong has different opinions. The other is that the price is raised all over the sky and pays off the money. According to my husband's judgment, the price is raised all over the sky and the price is higher. Shandong may not want to do anything in such a thing. It may be that it will bid first and test the court."

Zhang Guowei, Minister of War, said while looking at the expressions of the people around him, and found that these people were all listening intently. He continued to speak:

"At present, it is too early to say anything, so we don't need to panic. I think that sending envoys to negotiate and bargain, the title of King Qi is too shocking and cannot be accepted by the people of the world. But now he is dominating Shandong, so it is not impossible to give more prefectures. At the same time, he is rectifying the troops and horses in the Jingying and Northern Zhili to make plans, what do you think?"

Zhang Guowei talked about several strategies to deal with it, but it was very flexible. With the position of the Minister of War in the court, the position of the cabinet chief Chen Yan was higher than that of him. Everyone's eyes were focused on Chen Yan's side. Chen Yan thought about it and Zhang Guowei did not make any eye-catching suggestions, but it was just a matter of course. There were several situations to choose from on the emperor, which was also considered an explanation.

In today's discussion, everyone was not only frightened, but also the eunuch Liu Yuanbin, the eunuch of the Beijing camp, was tantrums. If this continues, it will not be a matter of scheming. It would be good to have a decent answer. He nodded in his mind and said:

"What Mr. Zhang said is reasonable, so I will write it down and submit it to Your Majesty tomorrow. What do you think?"

Finally, the result came out. Everyone wanted the collegial in the inner study room to end soon. The ministers would say anything else, and they nodded and praised repeatedly.

Since there was a collegial conclusion, a civil official came over and quickly wrote down today's affairs with paper and pen, and handed them over to Wang Chengen to submit them to Emperor Chongzhen.

All the ministers in the inner study were relieved. Although the matter came to an ordinary result today, the content was not settled after these regular treatments. How should you react next, and how you represent or subordinate forces treat Shandong, you have to make new decisions and judgments. However, everyone has a common understanding in their hearts that the world is about to change.

The cabinet chief minister Chen Yan was a little relaxed when he watched Wang Chengen walk out of the inner study with a note. The local ministers gradually dissipated in the inner study, and he also softened his waist slightly. The cabinet chief minister was different from before, and even his identity and style had to show the style of a chief minister, which was very uncomfortable.

What we are talking about today is very special. None of the court officials have a clear countermeasure, nor have the interest in talking about it in the past. They all walked out of the house silently.

Just now, the Minister of War Zhang Guowei deliberately fell behind a few steps. Seeing Chen Yan getting up and leaving, he quickly gave him a wink. Although the cabinet chief Chen Yan was puzzled, he still slowed down and fell behind.
To be continued...