Since Chongzhen ascended the throne, the position of the chief minister of the cabinet has been extremely unstable. In the harsh environment of internal party struggles and external difficult state affairs, the auxiliary ministers of the cabinet have quickly rotated like a lantern. ▲∴▲∴, in the 12th year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang entered the cabinet, Mei Zhihuan entered the cabinet, Liu Yuliang was dismissed from the prime minister, Xue Guoguan was dismissed from the prime minister and was beheaded and abandoned from the market. Yang Sichang was dismissed from office.

Chongzhen's cabinet had completely broken the original system of selecting majors in the cabinet. In the past, the auxiliary ministers of the cabinet were basically selected from the Hanlin area, but Chongzhen found that these people were only acquainted with articles and did not secretly do things, and could not be prime ministers at all. So after Wen Tiren dismissed the prime minister, the new chief minister Zhang Zhifa selected by Chongzhen was directly selected as a cabinet minister by local officials.

This is an extremely rare example in the history of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also a bold reform made by Chongzhen to change the situation and revitalize the Ming Dynasty. However, after Zhang Zhifa came to power, many Hanlins were dissatisfied with him and were constantly criticized. They fell to power in less than a year and retired.

Kong Zhenyun, who succeeded Zhang Zhifa, only served as the prime minister for two months, and was replaced by Liu Yuliang. Then he unfortunately encountered the Qing army's invasion, and was brought down by Xue Guoguan and Yang Sichang, and then Xue Guoguan replaced him. However, Xue Guoguan only served as the prime minister for half a year, and was not only dismissed but also beheaded. He was regarded as the most miserable prime minister in the Chongzhen Dynasty.

After failing to assert the local official Zhang Zhifa as the chief minister, Chongzhen began to select personnel from six ministries. Dali Shaoqing Fan Fucui, Minister of Personnel Liu Yuliang, Minister of War Yang Sichang, Minister of Revenue Cheng Guoxiang, Minister of Revenue Fang Fengnian, Minister of Rites Cai Guoyong and other five people were selected to enter the cabinet together and participate in the memory.

Now the five people, Liu Yuliang and Yang Sichang, have returned from their homes. There are also Fan Fucui, Yao Minggong, Mei Zhihuan, and Cheng Guoxiang in the cabinet. Cai Guo has six people in the cabinet.

In this cabinet team, only Fang Fengnian and Mei Zhihuan came from Hanlin, while the rest were foreign officials. For example, Fan Fucui entered the cabinet as a fourth-rank official, and before entering the cabinet, he had just been promoted from the fifth-rank Dali Temple Prime Minister to the fourth-rank Dali Temple Minister.

When Xue Guoguan was the chief assistant, Fan Fucui was the second assistant.

If the customary assistant is absent, the second assistant will be replaced. But Fan Fucui, like Zhang Zhifa, has no talent or skills. When the second assistant is, he is often attacked from all sides, and it is even more impossible for him to be the first assistant now.

In order to make Fan Fucui give way, Chongzhen directly issued an order to Fan Fucui to return to his hometown to make the order. The decree was a little surprised. Then everyone laughed secretly because Fan Fucui had never submitted a letter to beg for illness and return home. The emperor now directly wrote such a note, so Fan Fucui had to write a letter to beg for his return.

Everyone said that Fan Fucui was sick at the order.

As soon as Fan Fucui left, only five people were left in the cabinet.

At this time, Chongzhen issued an edict to summon Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng, Zhou Yanru, Zhang Zhifa, and He Fengsheng entered the capital. Li Changgeng was once the Minister of Personnel. According to the Ming Dynasty system, the power of the Minister of Personnel among the six ministries was not included in the cabinet. Mei Zhihuan was the current Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, and the other three Zhou Yanru had served as the chief minister.

Chongzhen was very clear about his intentions and wanted to choose a new prime minister from these five people.

After receiving the order, Zhang Zhifa submitted a statement and decided to give up and refused to be summoned.

The court's court finally elected He Fengsheng as the envoy of the Tongzheng, one of the nine ministers, Zhou Yanru was the Minister of Personnel, Mei Zhihuan was the chief assistant, and Li Changgeng was the second assistant.

This result was both expected and unexpected by many people. It can be said that in the eyes of many ministers in the capital, they all know that the prime minister this time must have fallen into the hands of the people of Donglin. However, whether it was the former prime minister Zhou Yanru who was re-prime minister, or Mei Zhihuan, who is now holding the power of extermination of the Central Plains bandits, was a little unclear about this internal dispute between Donglin.

Zhou Tingru himself was not the Donglin Party, and he was not considered an eunuch party, but he was very good at everything and had no position at all. In order to make a comeback, he had already become a group with Fushe and reached many transaction agreements. In order to change the situation where the rulers in the court have always opposed Fushe since Wen Tiren, they also took the initiative to cooperate with Zhou Yanru. They even ran around to create public opinion for him and raised funds for the revival activities.

But in the end, Xue Guoguan fell, but Zhou Yanru also had a stronger opponent. Compared with Zhou Yanru, the former chief assistant, Chongzhen obviously took more attention to Mei Zhihuan, a Gan minister who had pacified the Central Plains bandits in just half a year.

Between Zhou Yanru and Mei Zhihuan, Fushe chose Mei Zhihuan, the new leader of the Donglin Party, and abandoned Zhou Yanru.

In early November, Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng, Liu Jun and other heroes who suppressed bandits and entered the capital.

Chongzhen appointed Mei Zhihuan as the chief minister, and added the junior division and the crown prince's grand tutor, and joined the Minister of Rites Zhongjidian Grand Secretary. He had high hopes for this minister who suppressed the bandits, hoping that he could revitalize the government and save the country. Especially when there was an increasingly powerful military threat to the Later Jin Dynasty in the north, Chongzhen hoped to use a chief minister who knew the army to lead the court out of the current predicament. Chongzhen once also placed his hopes on Yang Sichang, but in the end he found that Yang Sichang was only able to talk about war on paper.

Mei Zhihuan really defeated the thief for half a year.

Li Changgeng was also awarded the title of Minister of War and was appointed as the Grand Secretary of Jianjidian, and was appointed as the junior tutor and the crown prince tutor. He was the second assistant and the chief tutor in charge of the Ministry of War.

Zhou Yanru was appointed as the Minister of Personnel, and then a large number of Donglin Party members were appointed. Zheng Sanjun was appointed as the Left Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Liu Zongzhou was appointed as the Censor of the Chief Censorate, Fan Jingwen was appointed as the Minister of Works, Ni Yuanlu was appointed as the Left Minister of the Ministry of War, and others such as Li Banghua, Zhang Guowei, Xu Shilin, Jin Guangchen, and Zhang Wei, all returned to the court and held important positions such as Jiuqing and others, holding real power.

Since ascending the throne, he has been using the Donglin Cabinet for a short time and has been suppressing Chongzhen, who has suddenly fully launched and reused the Donglin Party, which has caused shock to the government and the public.

But at this time, Liu Jun was sitting in the military camp in the outskirts of Beijing.

Liu Jun only brought the first battalion of the Cavalry Battalion, accompanied by Liu Qiao, commander of the Jinyiwei, and Yao Minggong, the cabinet minister, to protect Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng into Beijing.

After arriving in the capital, Liu Jun stayed in the military camp, waiting for the emperor's summons. He had not even gone to the capital to see its prosperity. The palace had already passed the order, and the emperor was about to summon him today.

After a brief breakfast in the military camp, Liu Jun began to wear it. Zhang Guozhu brought out a brand new big red python robe, which is the most noble sitting python among the pythons. Generally, the face of the python robe is slanted, but the face of the sitting python is facing forward. Moreover, the python is five-clawed. Zhang Guozhu looked at the five-clawed python dragon above and whispered timidly, "Marty, isn't this five-clawed python in violation of the rules? Didn't it mean that only the emperor can wear the five-clawed golden python?"

"This python has five claws and four claws. Generally, only one and two rank ministers are given, and the four claws are robes. But I am a marquis. I can give pythons with five claws, which is not considered an offense. This is the glory given by the emperor. Zhang Juzheng, a civil servant, also gave pythons a five claw, and he also gave pythons a five claw."

"Marty, is the emperor particularly majestic?"

"The emperor is the son of heaven, and he is in power and is of course powerful."

Wearing a python robe and a jade belt, Liu Jun putting on a beam crown. It was just a little dawn. Liu Qiao and Cao Huachun came together, said some congratulations to him, and said some rules in the palace. The officials of the Ministry of Rites came to teach Liu Jun these etiquettes yesterday. Everyone said a few more words and rode their horses to the Forbidden City together.

When he entered the capital, Liu Jun was very calm. Although it was his first time to come to Beijing, there was nothing in the capital that could shock him. He saw that the capital was very crowded, the houses were very low, and the streets were not very wide.

Especially along the way, I often saw groups of refugees sleeping under the eaves on both sides of the street, and people cried from time to time. Looking at this scene, Liu Jun shook his head. The capital was not as lively as Yunyang.

“Where did these refugees come from?”

"Shandong, outside the pass." Liu Qiao also sighed, "There are few refugees in Beijing now. At the beginning of the year, refugees were everywhere in Beijing, and the weather was cold and the land was frozen and hundreds of them were frozen to death every day. Nowadays, most of the lonely, widowed, elderly and weak who had nowhere to go, so they could only stay in the capital to beg for life."

"Has the court not settled?" Liu Jun asked.

Cao Huachun shook his head and said, "The court treasury is exhausted. There is constant urging wages everywhere, and he is reaching out everywhere. There is no money." Then he smiled again, "Now, the Marquis gave the emperor 200,000 yuan, and this time he gave another 100,000 yuan. In addition, confiscated Lu Jiude's property, and confiscated Xue Guoguan and others' property, he got nearly 2 million yuan in silver at once, which is a solution to the emperor's urgent need. The emperor has asked him to take out 20,000 taels of silver to give porridge to the refugees in the capital."

Two million taels of silver, and the property of a group of corrupt officials was collected, and the court received the normal taxes for one year, which sounded a bit funny. But the fact of the Ming Dynasty is now. The normal taxes for the court are only about two million taels, while the total expenditures for the court in one year reached about two million taels, of which a large amount of money and grain were continuously invested into the two pits of the Central Plains suppression of bandits and the resistance to the enemy outside the pass.

In order to make up for the annual shortage of more than 10 million, the court can be said to have tried every means to allocate and tax additional taxes, etc., but every time I get some money, it will immediately evaporate. Many times, the military pay pulled out by the court is sucked out layer by layer before it leaves the capital.

Sometimes, Liu Jun really sympathized with Chongzhen. This emperor was too tired. His brother Zhu Youxiao was devoted to being a carpenter and not the government. Maybe he simply gave up because he could not control the mess of the court.

However, Zhu Youjian was a person who never gave up. He has been trying hard to maintain it for more than ten years since he ascended the throne. The Ming Dynasty was just a paper house with leaks everywhere, and Chongzhen was the paper maker who kept patching, but this house was still too fragile.

"Jianlu has built Yizhou City outside Jinzhou and has begun to station troops in military farming. Jianlu is really arrogant. Their cavalry is running back and forth outside Jinzhou City. If Jinzhou does not allow Jinzhou to farm, the next step will definitely be to siege Jinzhou." Liu Qiao revealed the latest military situation outside the pass to his nephew Liu Jun.

"Ji Liao Governor Hong Chengchou submitted a report to the court, proposing to organize troops and destroy Yizhou City."

"What is the emperor's opinion?" Liu Jun asked.

Cao Huachun said, "The emperor means to agree with Hong Chengchou's plan, intending to mobilize an elite army of about 50,000 to fight with Jianlu, destroy Yizhou City, and protect the safety of Jinzhou." He looked at Liu Jun, "The emperor intends to transfer the Marquis to lead the Chu army out of the pass and cooperate with Hong Chengchou to seize Yizhou."

"I still don't know what the opinions of the cabinet masters and ministers in the court are? "

"The cabinet and ministers also believe that the bandits in the Central Plains have been settled and the court can draw troops out of the pass."

Liu Jun had expected this result, but he still felt it was a bit too fast.

"The bandits in the Central Plains have just been pacified, but there are still many small bands in the bandits who have not been able to escape. Moreover, the bandits in the court have rebelled against the Central Plains in the past two years, and Jianlu have repeatedly invaded the pass. The court was tired. He thought that this time was not the time to counterattack immediately. The court should endure for another two years, and wait for the morale of the people to recover and the reserve of food, grass and weapons, and then counterattack. Instead of rushing to fight like now."

Cao Huachun did not make any statement, and of course many people in the court thought that the battle was too urgent at the moment. But the emperor insisted on going to fight, and the cabinet could only support it.

"When the Marquis meets the saint, you will talk to Your Majesty in person. Maybe Your Majesty will seriously consider your suggestions." Cao Huachun said with a smile.

Liu Qiao waited to Liu Jun and said softly, "When you meet the saint, you'd better not say what you said just now. Now Your Majesty is just thinking about counterattacking Fu Liao. He can't listen to other words at all. The second ministers of Meili and Li have said those words you just now before His Majesty, but His Majesty can't listen to them at all. If you mention them again, I'm afraid Your Majesty will be very unhappy."

"I understand." Liu Jun nodded.

They got off their horses outside the right gate of Chang'an to the west of Chengtian Gate, and then walked into the imperial city. Inside the imperial city were the cabinet, the governor's office of the Five Army, and the six temples. The important yamen of the capital of the Ming Dynasty were basically all within the imperial city.

The cabinet was on the east side of the Meridian Gate, and no one was allowed to enter unless the cabinet ministers. Therefore, Cao Huachun and Liu Qiao accompanied Liu Jun to chat in the court room, waiting for the imperial edict in the palace.

After waiting for about half an hour, a eunuch came to pass the imperial edict and asked Liu Jun to enter the palace to see the saint.

This time, neither Cao Huachun nor Liu Qiao accompanied him in. Liu Jun entered the palace with the eunuchs. When he arrived at a hall in the palace, Chongzhen was already waiting for him.

There were many eunuchs and palace maids standing in the hall. Two cranes, more than one person tall, were covered with faint white smoke, and the hall was filled with refreshing fragrance. Outside the hall was solemn, two rows of great men in brocade clothes stood.

Liu Jun stepped forward and followed the newly learned etiquette and often bowed to the danmu outside. He held the ivory tulle in his hand and knelt on the ground of the white marble shop with his head down.

Then he heard the eunuch's order to let him enter the hall, and then he stood up, bowed his waist and climbed up the steps from one side, entered the hall, and knelt down again to salute, unable to even raise his head.

Although Liu Jun is now a title of marquis, this is the first time he has come to visit the emperor. After the last title, because he was going to train troops to encircle and suppress the Five Left Camps, Emperor Gu did not allow him to come to the capital to meet the saint.

Chongzhen stood in front of the imperial case and looked at Liu Jun seriously.

Although he had obtained Liu Jun's portrait through a spy from the East Factory before, when he looked at the real person, he still secretly sighed at Liu Jun's youth.

After a long time, Chongzhen didn't say anything, and he looked at Liu Jun seriously.

This military general who was named a marquis for his military merits gave him a good impression. He was in his early twenties, had fair skin and slightly green stubble on his jaw. He had a handsome face and was very tall, but not very strong. Instead, he was a little slender, completely like a scholar. It is hard to imagine that this was a commander general who had captured and killed more than ten famous bandits and defeated more than 100,000 bandits.

Chongzhen became more and more satisfied as he looked at it, and he slowly spoke, "Liu Aiqing is calm."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"The bandits have been in chaos in the Central Plains for many years. I have swept and destroyed me, trained new troops for me, cleaned up military farms, and even raised food and money. I am so happy and comforted."

These words were very sincere. Chongzhen thanked Liu Jun from the bottom of his heart for destroying the bandits for him.

"I am a commoner, and I am appreciated and promoted by Your Majesty and given trust, so that I can have the opportunity to serve the country and make some minor achievements." Liu Jun lowered his head and replied.

Chongzhen nodded, "Your dear, let me take a good look."

Liu Jun raised his head and saw Chongzhen's appearance for the first time. He was thin. Chongzhen was very thin and his face was a little dark. He even saw Chongzhen, who was less than 30 years old, his temples were already a little gray.

Chongzhen looked at Liu Jun, smiled slightly at him, and then asked the eunuch to bring python satin to Liu Jun, and Liu Jun kowtowed to thank him. Chongzhen looked at him and asked Liu Jun, "Hong Chengchou reported that Jianlu built Yizhou City near Jinzhou, stationed troops to farm, and wanted to prevent our Jinzhou officers and soldiers from garrisoning farms. Hong Chengchou said that Jianlu must start to attack and capture the outer stronghold of Jinzhou, and cut off Jinzhou and contact the outside world, and then send troops to siege Jinzhou for a long time."

"Hong Chengchou requested to send troops to destroy Yizhou City. In your opinion, what do you think?"

After hearing this question, Liu Jun knew that an important moment had come. With his understanding of Chongzhen's character, if he dared to delay at this time, Chongzhen's trust in him would inevitably disappear. No matter what, he had to agree with Chongzhen's idea.

But Liu Jun didn't want to go to Liaodong now. First, the training time of the new army was too short, and second, the Qing army was not a bandit. Liu Jun could use firearms to kill the bandits and run away in a panic, but it does not mean that his new army could defeat the fierce Qing cavalry like a fierce Qing army.

Thinking about the fact that the Qi family army and the Baigan soldiers joined forces, they were both defeated in Hunhe.

Liu Jun only thought for a moment, then raised his head and looked at Chongzhen with his eyes calmly.

"Your Majesty, building the city of Yizhou is the sign of his desire to surround Jinzhou. We cannot sit idly by and watch Jianlu surround him step by step, we must take the initiative."

Chongzhen, who had been staring at Liu Jun, immediately showed a joyful expression when he heard this. He had been worried that Liu Jun would find reasons to oppose sending troops.

Chongzhen tried his best to suppress the joy in his heart and asked, "Then I ordered you to lead your army to assist Hong Chengchou in destroying Yizhou City."

"Your Majesty! I still have something to say." Liu Jun did not agree directly.

Chongzhen glanced at Liu Jun, "What else do you have to ask for? Let me ask you all. Don't worry about food and salary, I will pay it."

"Your Majesty, I am not worried about food and salary. Instead, I think that in the face of Jianlu's aggressiveness, we must fight back. But!"

"But what?" Chongzhen felt a little dissatisfied when he heard one, and his eyes became sharper.

"I think I have to fight back, but how to fight back still needs to be discussed."
Chapter completed!