Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Brotherhood

Several small-scale wars took place in eastern Liaodong. In May, Mao Wenlong, who was the official seal of the General Liao Army in the Ming Dynasty, sent troops up the Yalu River, crossed Changbai Mountain, and attacked Houjin, but was defeated by the defenders. Half of them were wiped out, and half of them retreated; And these half of the survivors may not be the lucky ones, they will only live for less than two months. Because this incident angered Nurhachi, even before he planned to launch a large-scale war, he still sent a team to attack Mao Wenlong, killed five hundred, burned the grain and grass stored by Mao Wenlong, and returned it as a warning .

The matter passed quickly, and the anger in his heart dissipated; but it was the death of He Heli that really plunged his heart into an indelible sadness and grief that could not be dismissed, resolved or forgotten. This is the blow he had to endure every year for three consecutive years—Amphangu died of illness in July last year, and Hu Erhan passed away in October last year—each time, he was so sad that he couldn’t even sleep for a few days. into the diet. He kept murmuring everyone's name: "You are all my true brothers and sisters, connected by flesh and blood, why did you leave me one after another?"

None of the "five ministers" who started the business together when he was a boy is gone. When he was mourning, he felt lonely, and even felt that he was old. For many days, he silently recalled the past, recalling the past and The scene of these partners fighting side by side, recalling the deep and united friendship in the past, and then recalling the process of everyone working together to create the post-Jin Kingdom, so they turned to work hard: "Back then, our common ideals and aspirations, Now, I'm the only one left to complete—” At the beginning of the founding of the Later Jin Dynasty, the scale had just taken shape, and all aspects of construction had just begun; There is still work to be done—a few days later, he ordered again that the progress in all aspects must be accelerated, and he himself regained his energy and devoted himself to planning a new battle against Ming.

He had received news that the Ming Dynasty was building Ningyuan City and it was about to be completed; Sun Chengzong was a very capable man, and he was also paying close attention to it, and he had already made up his mind: "Let's send troops when Sun Chengzong resigns! " Knowing the situation of the Ming Dynasty, he predicted that Sun Chengzong's fate would be the same as that of Xiong Tingbi——Xiong Tingbi went to prison after resigning from Liaodong for the third time. Liaodong had disagreements with Wang Xiangqian and others. Now, although Wang Xiangqian, Wang Zaijin, Zhang Fengyi and others have left their posts one after another and replaced them with a few people who have no fixed opinions and opinions, they are mediocre and cowardly, and they can't accomplish anything. Will it pull Sun Chengzong's hind legs again?

"As long as Sun Chengzong leaves, even if there are a hundred newly built Ningyuan City, they will not be able to stop the offensive of my Eight Banners force!" He thought very firmly, and at the same time ordered Huang Taiji: "Send more people to find out the reality of Ningyuan, and draw pictures inside and outside the city to report!" Then, he carefully studied the situation in Ningyuan New Town... During the construction of Ningyuan City, many difficulties were encountered, such as shortage of materials, shortage of manpower, and shortage of funds—all kinds of difficulties were all due to the superhuman willpower of Yuan Chonghuan, Man Gui, and Zu Dashou, leading all the soldiers to grit their teeth and endure. , Overcame all the difficulties with redoubled diligence, and miraculously completed the fortification work on schedule.

In September, Yuan Chonghuan personally led the general soldiers Ma Shilong and Wang Shiqin to lead a total of 12,000 soldiers to Ningyuan to inspect the new city, and then went to Guangning, Shisanshan, Youtun, and then returned by the water channel Pan Sancha River - Ningyuan's The line of defense was officially determined. After returning, he made a detailed report to Sun Chengzong, and at the same time made another suggestion: "Jinzhou City should be built, and troops should be set up on the right, just like the Ningyuan defense line, to form the Jin and You defense lines; With Austrian aid, the rules are stronger, and the offense is reliable; the defense line is established, but it can be moved forward year after year, and the recovery of Liao is hopeful!"

However, Sun Chengzong encouraged him while maintaining a conservative approach: "At present, the supplies in Liaodong are all in short supply, and the construction of Ningyuan City is already stretched. If Jinzhou is built again, it will be difficult to support it. The time has not come yet, so let's talk about it later!" But he didn't give up completely-he told Yuan Chonghuan: "I will go to the court first, please pay the salary-if approved, I will have more energy to make progress!" Therefore, he immediately went to the Shu and explained the current situation of Liaodong in detail. He also repeatedly stated that the major event of revitalizing Liaodong has shown hope, and please allocate 240,000 yuan for further efforts.

Unexpectedly, the memorial sent to the capital with "eight hundred miles of fast transmission" lost its effect as soon as it arrived in the palace, as if it didn't exist at all, without causing any reaction. Sun Chengzong, who had waited for two months without any answer, also realized in his heart: "Wei Zhongxian controlled everything, and the memorial must not have been read by the Holy Eye, so there was no response!" And of course he was not willing to be controlled by Wei Zhongxian, so he discussed with Yuan Chonghuan and said: "Wei Zhongxian has everything under control, and the only way to break through his blockade is to face the saint in person--I use the name of congratulating Shengshou to enter the court, and I will play the opportunity face-to-face." , you can directly ask for orders!"

After all, he is the "Emperor Teacher", and it is much easier to speak in front of the emperor in person than other people, but the pace has to be quickened... And Wei Zhongxian also began to step up his deployment to launch his counterattack against Donglin... He already has enough strength and manpower, even, because the people who came to join him were originally "villains" who were excluded by Donglin and hated Donglin even more than him. Lin, not only clapped his hands and applauded him, but also devoted himself fully together, and also tried his best to invite helpers, thus forming a greater force, "dividing labor", and the efficiency was astonishingly high.

A group of people headed by the second assistant Gu Bingqian worked together to make a list of all Donglin people and people who had friendship with Donglin, and then investigated all the information on the people on the list. From parents, mentors, down to friends and nephews, scientific examination records, previous official positions, previous reputation, specialties and advantages and disadvantages, and even deficiencies that can be used to make a big fuss... The team of Xu Xianchun and Cui Chengxiu is responsible for how to incriminate people, Huo Weihua and others are responsible for instigating the officials and impeachment procedures. He hastily mobilized his confidant eunuchs to practice the court staff, and they must train until they can beat people to death on the spot.

It won't be long before everything is ready. It just so happened that at this time, Wan Jing, a doctor from the Ministry of Industry, had the belief of "loyal to the emperor and serve the country" and impeached Wei Zhongxian. Wang Tiqian personally read the memorial to Wei Zhongxian, only halfway through, Wei Zhongxian became furious, and immediately ordered: "Take him first—" The next day, Wanjing was sentenced to a court rod and beaten to death in court. As a result, of course there was an uproar in the court, and there was a lot of discussion. However, Wei Zhongxian didn't take the discussion in the court seriously at all. Instead, he clearly instructed his party members: "The matter of Wanjing is just to 'kill the chicken to scare the monkey'. Will submissive—the reason why Donglin dared to yell, Ye Xianggao was the first to fight—drive Ye Xianggao out of the court!" Therefore, the party feathers quickly arranged that the censor Lin Ruzhu would humiliate Ye Xianggao and let Ye Xianggao resign voluntarily. Then, Zhao Nanxing, Gao Panlong, Chen Yuting, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong were dismissed one by one... And at this time, the news of Sun Chengzong's return to Beijing arrived. The first person to hear the news was Wei Guangwei. He immediately thought that Sun Chengzong came back to support Donglin because he was deposed as a "guilty thief" - so he said to Wei Zhongxian: "Sun Chengzong Armed with heavy troops, this time, they are going to come to the side of the 'Qing Emperor'—the people in Donglin's military department in the court and Li Banghua, the servant, and a few others, all of them are going to die if they join forces inside and out!" Wei Zhongxian, who was actually timid at the bottom of his basic personality, became nervous. He immediately bared his two rows of teeth, and said in fear: "There are only 10,000 people in 'Internal Operations'. How can we stop his 100,000-strong army from Liaodong?" He cried in anxiety, hiding in the room and trembling all over; on the contrary, Rong Qingfeng could hold her breath and make up her mind - she gritted her teeth and said to him firmly: "What's the use of crying now?" How about it? Hurry up and gather your men and horses to discuss countermeasures!" As he spoke, he swallowed a bit, and said a harsh word to him, which boosted his confidence: "What are you afraid of? Anyway, the emperor is in our hands. If Sun Chengzong really dares to enter the palace, he will be killed." The emperor just go out and block it!" Although the words seemed to come from the mouth of a rascal, it was like a "reassurance pill" to Wei Zhongxian; he nodded unconsciously: "Yes, you are right!" So, he barely trembled when he walked out of the room. And after the party members arrived, they put forward opinions one after another, which made him feel more at ease-of course, many officials have a deeper understanding of political operations than him; Wei Guangwei, Gu Bingqian and others have joined the cabinet and are more familiar with it. Therefore, he suggested to him: "It is the ancestral system of this dynasty that ministers in Xinjiang are not allowed to enter Beijing unless they are ordered; since Sun Chengzong is the supervisor of Liaodong, he cannot leave his post and go to Beijing at will-now, he has committed a big taboo first, so he might as well be nine thousand years old An imperial decree was issued, accusing him of violating the ancestral system and ordering him to return; secondly, to prevent him from entering the capital in violation of the order, he could order the Ministry of War to dispatch a large army to strictly guard the capital, close the nine gates, and not allow entry and exit; nine thousand years old and then send "internal operations" troops to help defend Nine gates, if Sun Chengzong arrives at the capital in violation of orders, he will only be allowed to enter the city alone—” After hearing this, Wei Zhongxian shouted repeatedly: "That's great!" So Gu Bingqian wrote the pen, and quickly issued an order for Emperor Tianqi to accuse Sun Chengzong, and then ordered the Ministry of War to use three flying cavalry to prevent Sun Chengzong from entering the capital overnight... When Sun Chengzong arrived in Tongzhou, he received an imperial decree that Emperor Tianqi didn't know about, but he had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​going to Beijing to see His Majesty, and returned sadly. In fact, he didn't lead any troops into Beijing - not even guards, only an old servant and Ren Zanhua's Lu Shanji followed him into Beijing! However, since Wei Zhongxian has already started to fight against him, of course he will not stop because of the clarification of the misunderstanding of "the army suppressing the border". What's more, his trip to Beijing is indeed an excuse that can be used to great effect. Partisans Li Fan, Cui Chengxiu, Xu Dahua and others began to take turns attacking him like a "wheel battle", and even compared him with Li Huaiguang, a traitor in the Tang Dynasty, so that as soon as he returned to Liaodong, he went to the "begging" for the second time. Hugh Shu".