Chapter 38 Section 1 Human nature often makes ambiguous choices

At such a time, Yang Sichang, the former Xuanda Governor, kept his filial piety at home.This thirty-eight-year-old Jinshi relied on his own strength to step up to the throne of Xuanda Governor, but the tragic death of his father made him feel that this throne was meaningless. In the past, Yang Sichang also wanted to be loyal to Emperor Chongzhen.When his father Yang He's life came to the most critical juncture, how much he hoped that the emperor would give him a chance to fight and suffer on behalf of his father.But Chongzhen refused. Chongzhen completed the process of punishing an official who made mistakes with the logic of an emperor's behavior, completely ignoring the psychological feelings of the official's son.

This is one of the main reasons why Yang Sichang went back sadly.However, his stagnant heart never imagined that at such a moment, the emperor would start to miss him, miss his former talent, and miss his former loyalty. Chongzhen really couldn't find a better talent.After all, the position of Minister of the Ministry of War is a job with high technical content. Most of the idle clouds and wild cranes hidden among the people are good at talking, but if you really want him to do it with real swords and guns, I'm afraid you'll have to pee your pants.Of course, there may be real masters, but for a while, there are really no masters with real abilities like Kong Ming and Liu Ji.

So Yang Sichang began to enter his field of vision.In the past, he left Chongzhen with the impression that he was talented and worthy of a high position. He was not only proficient in military art but also grammar, and he was a governor with a great interest in life.I don't know if Governor Yang is still so interested in life now.He decided to summon him. Chongzhen was taken aback when he saw Yang Sichang.In front of him, he looked haggard and dumbstruck.Chongzhen immediately thought of the eunuch.If the eunuch was castrated physically, then Yang Sichang was castrated psychologically. Only those who have no hope for life and no nostalgia for the world can have such an expression on their faces!What is it, what accident made a once heroic person lose all life in a blink of an eye?Chongzhen couldn't figure it out.He opened his mouth wide and looked at Yang Sichang with question marks all over his face.

But Yang Sichang thought that the emperor understood that the man in front of him was just pretending to be deaf and dumb.He suddenly hated this man called the emperor who was supreme in secular power, and he was the one who decided the life and death of his father Yang He.Now, he wanted to decide his own life and death.Because the emperor spoke up and asked Yang Sichang to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War and serve the country again. To serve the country is to serve the country, Yang Sichang knows it very well.In such a troubled world, working under such an emperor, he could not escape death in the end.In Daming, how many officials can die well?

Indeed, in this world, a person who cannot decide his own life and death is very painful, and this kind of pain far exceeds the pain of not being able to control his own destiny. Since it is impossible for any one person to control his own destiny, in the sense of starting point fairness, this is indiscriminate pain. But most people can decide their own life and death, unless this person is unfortunately targeted by the emperor, and the emperor decides his life and death for him. Now Yang Sichang feels like this. This moody emperor wants to decide the life and death of his father and son, which makes him feel like he wants to live.

Yang Sichang tactfully rejected the emperor's appointment.The emperor asked three times, but he refused three times.The explanation given by Yang Sichang was that his father died and his stepmother died, so he had to keep his filial piety at home, otherwise the world would regard him as an unfilial person. Chongzhen thought of a reason: What if I get back from love? Yang Sichang was speechless. Indeed, the emperor has this power.Between national loyalty and personal filial piety, the secular world will always make way for imperial power.Generally speaking, it is a sign of being reused for a Ding You conservative official who is taken back by the emperor, and it is also a great opportunity to be loyal to the country.Few will pass up this opportunity.

Human nature often makes ambiguous choices between the dead relatives and one's future. But Yang Sichang is different.In his eyes, the so-called Qian Qian is really an extremely dangerous monster, and at some point it will open its bloody mouth to swallow him. He has no intention of future. My heart is dead.He told Chongzhen so lightly that when my father died, my heart died with him. Chongzhen finally understood the real reason why Yang Sichang refused to serve the country. It turns out that Yang Sichang has always had a grudge against him, and it turns out that he is taking revenge on me for my father's death.But he, Yang Hefu, failed to rebel, and the crime of wronging the country and the king is unforgivable!Why, blame me for exiling him?It is still light for me to exile him, according to the "Law of the Ming Dynasty", he must be executed according to the law!

People in the world always like to consider issues from their own perspective, but the emperor has to consider issues from the perspective of the country, so whenever there is a conflict of interest, the emperor becomes the public enemy of the world.That's why it's hard to be an emperor, that's why the emperor is a loner, and that's why the emperor's heights are extremely cold... Chongzhen kept complaining about himself, unknowingly indulged in deep resentment and couldn't extricate himself.On the other hand, Yang Sichang knelt in front of him with ashamed heart, his mind went blank.

Although the two men are very close physically, they are far apart psychologically. I don't know what to say to you... Chongzhen finally spoke.His voice was very hoarse, with vicissitudes and helplessness: I know you have a knot in your heart, and you are taking revenge on me.But to be honest, I can't do anything with you, really can't.Your heart is ashamed, and you just want to follow your father.In other words, you are not afraid of death, and I am most afraid of people who are not afraid of death.You go... go home and keep your filial piety... Yang Sichang hesitated: Are you really going to let me go?

Chongzhen waved his hands feebly: Let's go, let's go, let's all go... Go home and observe your filial piety... Yang Sichang stood up.The emperor in front of him shrank into a ball, looking very pitiful.If he had been kinder to his father at that time... Forget it, let him pass the past, everyone has their own fate, and they have to face their own fate.The emperor is no exception. Yang Sichang turned around and walked slowly outside the hall.He felt a bunch of cold eyes on his back following him all the time, and he couldn't help but walk faster and faster, trying to get rid of the trail of these eyes.However, just as Yang Sichang walked through the long hall and stepped on the threshold, a thunderous voice suddenly sounded in his ears:

You can't keep it for long!This country is about to end!That's right, Gao Yingxiang is dead, but Li Zicheng is still alive, he is making a comeback, and he is ready to move!In Liaodong, Huang Taiji's troops will cross the Great Wall at any time, and rush to the capital again, to the Forbidden City, and to your home where Yang Sichang's mourning hall is hung with white cloth!Are you filial?Will they make you filial?Your father, Yang He, is Li Zicheng's sworn enemy. They will dig open your father's grave, dig him out and whip his corpse!Like, like treating my ancestral grave!Don't take chances, they can do it, they can do it!They will only go above and beyond! ! Chongzhen's words were like a bolt from the blue, which made Yang Sichang stunned.He had one foot inside the threshold and the other outside, a real dilemma. Life is often a dilemma. Especially when being slapped in the face. Yang Sichang has now been given a slap in the face.Chongzhen was shocked by the scene of his father being flogged to his body. It's not impossible, it's very likely.As long as Li Zicheng is stationed in Beijing. But can this be a reason for me to serve my country?Good birds choose trees to live in, and I, Yang Sichang, choose Mingjun to follow.How to defend the country and the safety of the people is up to you, the emperor, but I, Yang Sichang, have the freedom to choose my own advances and retreats. The so-called dilemma is because there is a demon following him, and it is because there is unbearable and reluctance in the heart. If the clear state of mind is determined, it is not difficult to advance, and it is not difficult to retreat.Yang Sichang slowly raised his other leg, he wanted to cross the threshold completely, say goodbye to the person inside the door, and say goodbye to the dynasty behind him. don't go...don't go... Chongzhen's voice suddenly became very weak, and Yang Sichang heard a trace of grievance, sadness, and helplessness from it. From now on, your father Yang He is allowed to restore the original official, and all the unfair judgments imposed on him before will be revoked... Chongzhen wept.He knew exactly what he was doing, he was trading the royal authority with Yang Sichang.The emperor can't play games. Once he said this today, all the previous judgments against Yang He became child's play.Chongzhen himself slapped himself, a resounding mouth.The reason why Chongzhen did this was to keep Yang Sichang and recruit talents for the country. Chongzhen did not hesitate to sacrifice his emperor's dignity! Yang Sichang was shocked.Unexpectedly, the emperor would be so humble in order to keep him.Perhaps, this is the emperor's expedient measure, but even if it is an expedient measure, if the emperor did this, it would be a huge sacrifice to the royal authority.Why does the emperor do this?Is he really thirsty for talents?Yang Sichang was at a loss for a moment. Chongzhen got off the dragon chair, walked through the long hall, walked up to Yang Sichang, and stopped. With a distance of tens of meters, Chongzhen walked for a long time, as if he had walked through the long years of the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years. stay.For Daming, for your dead father.If I have ever been wrong, I am willing to admit it today.Remember, Daming belongs to me, Chongzhen, and it also belongs to each of you.To defend Daming is to defend your ancestors and your descendants. Yang Sichang suddenly felt that there was a sound when the ice melted, just like the sound of flowers blooming.His heart suddenly softened. Maybe, maybe I'm really worthless, and I just fall into a kind of carefully designed warmth so easily; maybe from this moment, I will embark on the fateful journey my father once experienced... But, what can I do? ?If this is inevitable, then let me bear it. Men are responsible.In this chaotic era, everyone actually has no way out.Just tie your own destiny tightly to this era. You have no choice!Any time, you have no choice!Yang Sichang took back the steps he had already taken, and knelt heavily in front of the emperor.He began to cry aloud, crying so hard that he couldn't make a sound.With tears in his eyes, Yang Sichang vaguely saw the God of Destiny dancing in this hall.The God of Destiny passed over Chongzhen and his head successively, and made a shrill sound.He wanted to remind the emperor, but the emperor sat back on the dragon chair with a blank face, looked at him with unpredictable eyes, and looked at this man named Yang Sichang. Yang Sichang is indeed a talent, and an all-rounder. He always looks at problems from the perspective of the overall situation and strategy. As soon as he took office, he proposed to Chongzhen a plan of encirclement and suppression with four corners, six corners and ten sides, intending to kill the peasant army at once. Speaking of which, this plan is also quite remarkable, it is like a net that goes with you like a shadow, wherever the peasant army appears, the net will cover it. Chongzhen saw it, and it was called a meeting and hate, and it was called a feeling of ups and downs. But in the world, the reason why many beautiful plans are shelved is often because the conditions for implementation are not met. So if this encirclement and suppression plan is implemented, what conditions need to be met? Yang Sichang made it very clear to Chongzhen that at least an additional 120,000 soldiers and 2.8 million taels of silver are needed. Where the soldiers come from is not a problem.Daming is so big and has such a large population, it is not a problem to pull out hundreds of thousands of strong and strong men carefully.The problem is silver.The money to feed the officers and soldiers.In the past few years, the war was mainly due to the increase of Liao's salary. For example, Chongzhen sent an additional 6.8 million taels of Liao's salary in three years. The common people were already crying and scolding their mothers. That extra pie has a lot to do with it.Now it is necessary to send additional "suppression wages", can the common people agree? The more "suppression of wages" is added, more and more ordinary people who can't afford the wages will be forced to become new "traitors"-this is a vicious circle for his grandma! What is "drinking poison to quench thirst"?This is called "drinking poison to quench thirst"! But what if you don't drink poison to quench your thirst?In fact, Chongzhen didn’t want to exploit the common people so ruthlessly—it’s not easy for the common people. They have to support huge state organs and pay for all kinds of inexplicable state expenses. Chongzhen also wanted to cherish the power of the people.The national treasury was empty, and he once summoned senior officials from the five cabinet ministries and six ministries to take the lead in donating money, trying to digest the 2.8 million taels of silver internally.However, the senior officials were only willing to donate one or two months' wages, and the most one was willing to donate half a year's wages, but he put forward an additional condition to Chongzhen: to do a good job in his wife's ideological and political work, so as to avoid a fire in the backyard.Chongzhen sneered in his heart: These bird people, are you playing this trick with me? !Who doesn't know that each of my high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty has millions or even tens of millions of net worth, even if each of them spends a hundred thousand, the country's difficulties will be easily solved, but they don't!Everyone will not die until the Yellow River, and will not shed tears when they see the coffin. They all count on me, Chongzhen, to carry this country alone. The country is so big, can I carry it? !If you donate one or two months' wages, will you be a beggar?Are you people who rely on wages to eat? I rely on it! Of course, Chongzhen understands the hidden psychology of these high-level officials very well. They are not fools. They all know that the more money donated, the more suspicious. If it is not for corruption and bribery, how can they get so much money? One month's salary has become their best choice. As a result, Chongzhen was very embarrassed. Everyone knew that the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was only enough to eat soup. Alas, life is like this, no one will come out to help you when it is most critical. Because not all helping is good deeds. When a certain kind of help poses a huge risk to the helper, everyone has the instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. Life is often like this. Chongzhen finally no longer had illusions about the princes of Gungun. He asked Yang Sichang to think about whether it was possible to use the finances of various provinces to solve the problem of military pay.Even if you borrow it for a year first.But Yang Sichang shook his head.Yang Sichang used to be an official in the Ministry of Household Affairs, and he knows that the finances of all provinces are for food.Although finance is like milk, you can squeeze it out a little bit if you squeeze it hard, but the local finances have been squeezed out for a long time with the increase of Liao pay in the past two years. There is no other way. Chongzhen finally understood what the general trend was.The wool comes from the sheep. Fortunately, Daming's sheep is relatively big and has a lot of hair on its body. After plucking, close your eyes first and then pluck it out.One day I will unplug it and think of another way.Sheep don’t bite people, right? They hum aggrieved at most—Chongzhen thinks so optimistically—what can you do? Who told you to be born in the end of the Ming Dynasty instead of the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty?In April of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen drafted an imperial edict with complicated emotions, announcing the nationwide levy and suppression of wages.In order to reflect the meaning of caring for the power of the people, Chongzhen specially stipulated in the edict that if there are many people who need to be recruited, they will be spanked if they are caught.